And to all questions, whether respectfully anxious or merely inquisitive, he never gave but one answer--that the earl was "doing pretty well," and would be back at Cairn forth "some o' these days".
However, that period was so long deferred that the neighbors at last ceased to expect it, or to speculate concerning it.

They went about their own affairs, and soon the whole story about the sad death of the late earl and countess, and the birth of the present nobleman, began to be told simply as a story by the elder folk, and slipped out of the younger ones' memories--as, if one only allows it time, every tale, however sad, wicked, or strange, will very soon do.

Had it not been for the silent, shut-up castle, standing summer and winter on the loch-side, with its flower-gardens blossoming for none to gather, and its woods-- the pride of the whole country--budding and withering, with scarcely a foot to cross, or an eye to notice their wonderful beauty, people would ere long have forgotten the very existence of the last Earl of Cairnforth..