CHAPTER VI.
"THE OLD LADY HAD A WOMAN'S HEART AFTER ALL."
"Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered).
So said Cæsar of old, by way of describing the ease with which he gained a victory against his enemies.
"Veni, vidi, vici," Johnnie Greybreeks might have said, after his first interview with that stately and aristocratic dame his grandmother.
But wait a minute, reader. I fear I must call our little hero Johnnie Greybreeks no longer—at least not while he is under the lordly roof-tree of Drumglen. He must be Jack.
Well, it was Dawson himself who brought Johnnie—no, I mean Jack—to the mansion-house, and led him into the presence of his grandma.
Johnnie—that is Jack; you see I can't get into the swing of it all at once—was very neatly dressed in Highland tweeds, and brave he looked. The old lady sat erect in her high-backed chair. She could not but notice the striking resemblance between the boy and her Donald of the olden days; yet she had meant to receive him most soberly and stately.
"This is Jack," said Dawson, leading the boy, who was looking shy, forward.
The grandam drew herself up. She looked at Jack once. She looked at him twice. Then she opened wide her arms; and as Jack flew like a bird to her embrace, she pressed him to her heart and fairly burst into tears.
Even Dawson was affected, and wisely withdrew.