CHAPTER XVIII.
A CLASH.
All this time, Donal had never again seen the earl, neither had the latter shown any interest in Davie's progress.

But lady Arctura was full of serious anxiety concerning him.

Heavily prejudiced against the tutor, she dreaded his influence on the mind of her little cousin.
There was a small recess in the schoolroom--it had been a bay window, but from an architectural necessity arising from decay, it had, all except a narrow eastern light, been built up--and in this recess Donal was one day sitting with a book, while Davie was busy writing at the table in the middle of the room: it was past school-hours, but the weather did not invite them out of doors, and Donal had given Davie a poem to copy.

Lady Arctura came into the room--she had never entered it before since Donal came--and thinking he was alone, began to talk to the boy.

She spoke in so gentle a tone that Donal, busy with his book, did not for some time distinguish a word she said.