"I wonder how I should set about managing my property. The duty will
not be as easy for me as for most people, you know," added he, sadly;
"still, if I had a secretary--a thorough man of business, to teach me
all about business, and to be constantly at my side, perhaps I might be
able to accomplish it. And I might drive about the country--driving
is less painful to me now--and get acquainted with my people; see
what they wanted, and how I could best help them. They would get used
to me, too. I might turn out to be a very respectable laird, and become
interested in the improvement of my estates."

"There is great opportunity for that, I know," replied Helen. And then
she told him of a conversation she had heard between her father and Mr.
Menteith, when the latter had spoken of great changes impending over
quiet Cairnforth: how a steamer was to begin plying up and down the loch
--how there were continual applications for land to be feued--and
how all these improvements would of necessity require the owner of the
soil to take many a step unknown to and undreamed of by his forefathers
--to make roads, reclaim hill and moorland, build new farms, churches,
and school-houses.

"In short, as Mr. Menteith said, the world is changing so fast that the
present Earl of Cairnforth will have any thing but the easy life of his
father and grandfather.

"Did Mr. Menteith say that?" cried the earl, eagerly.

"He did, indeed; I heard him."

"And did he seem to think that I should be able for it?"