It's standin' cauld and lanely and steikit, and it aince the cheeriest dwallin' in a' Carrick." Mrs.Morran's tone grew tragic.

"It's a queer warld wi'out the auld gentry.

My faither and my guidsire and his faither afore him served the Kennedys, and my man Dauvit Morran was gemkeeper to them, and afore I mairried I was ane o' the table-maids.

They were kind folk, the Kennedys, and, like a' the rale gentry, maist mindfu' o' them that served them.

Sic merry nichts I've seen in the auld Hoose, at Hallowe'en and Hogmanay, and at the servants' balls and the waddin's o' the young leddies! But the laird bode to waste his siller in stane and lime, and hadna that much to leave to his bairns.