There was no particular bias, but that one which is indigenous and universal, to flatter himself and to please and interest the present friend.

And by thus milling air out of his mouth, he had presently built up a presentation of Archie which was known and talked of in all corners of the county.

Wherever there was a residential house and a walled garden, wherever there was a dwarfish castle and a park, wherever a quadruple cottage by the ruins of a peel-tower showed an old family going down, and wherever a handsome villa with a carriage approach and a shrubbery marked the coming up of a new one--probably on the wheels of machinery--Archie began to be regarded in the light of a dark, perhaps a vicious mystery, and the future developments of his career to be looked for with uneasiness and confidential whispering.

He had done something disgraceful, my dear.

What, was not precisely known, and that good kind young man, Mr.Innes, did his best to make light of it.