People canna thole blue skies for ever; he'll be wanting the moors and the misty corries and the gray clouds erelong." So Colin had another year granted him, and his father added thousand to thousand, and said to his heart wearily many and many a time, "It is all vexation of spirit." At the end of the second year Crawford wrote a most important letter to his son.

There was an opening for the family that might never come again.

All arrangements had been made for Colin to enter the coming contest for a seat in Parliament.

The Marquis of B---- had been spoken to, and Crawford and he had come to an understanding Crawford did not give the particulars of the "understanding," but he told Colin that his "political career was assured." He himself would take care of the works.

Political life was open to his son, and if money and influence could put him in the House of Peers, money should not be spared.
The offer was so stupendous, the future it looked forward to so great, Crawford never doubted Colin's proud, acquiescence.