After a minute or two, Cosmo glanced up in his face, but his father did not return the glance, and the boy saw that he was talking to another.

By and by he heard him murmur to himself, "The gifts of God are without repentance." Not a word passed between them as they went home, though all the time it seemed to both father and son that they were holding closest converse.

The moment they reached the castle, the laird went to his room--to the closet where his few books lay, and got out a volume of an old cyclopaedia, where he read all he could find about gold.

Thence descending to the kitchen, he rummaged out a rusty old pair of scales, and with their help arrived at the conclusion that the horse weighed about three pounds avoirdupois: it might be worth about a hundred and fifty pounds.

Ready money, this was a treasure in the eyes of one whose hand had seldom indeed closed upon more than ten pounds at once.