Alas! nothing could he do.

But it was one of the secrets which made these three lives so peaceful, that each could throw itself out of itself into that of another, and take thence, secondarily, the sunshine that was denied to its own.
Beyond the family at the Manse the earl had no acquaintance whatsoever, and seemed to desire none.

His rank lifted him above the small proprietors who lived within visitable distance of the Castle: they never attempted to associate with him.

Sometimes a stray caller appeared, prompted by curiosity, which Mrs.Campbell generally found ingenious reasons for leaving ungratified, and Lord Cairnforth's excessive shyness and dislike to appear before strangers did the rest.
It is astonishing how little the world cares to cultivate those out of whom it can get nothing; and the small establishment at Cairnforth Castle, with its almost invisible head, soon ceased to be an object of interest to any body--at least to any body in that sphere of life where the earl would otherwise have moved.
Among his own tenantry, the small farmers along the shores of the two lochs which bounded the peninsula, his long minority and mysterious affliction made him personally almost unknown.

They used to come twice a year, at WhitSunday and Martinmas, to pay their rents to Mr.Menteith; to inquire for my lord's health, and to drink in abundance of whisky; but the earl himself they never saw, and their feelings toward him were a mixture of reverence and awe.
It was different with the earl's immediate neighbors, the humble inhabitants of the clachan.