'Foolish child! nothing could make your father unhappy. He does his duty by us all, and his faith is fixed.'
One day they came and told me that the doctor had ordered me away to the seaside. Mother and Flora were to come, and one servant; the rest of our family were to follow. 45
It was far away south to Rothesay we went, and here, my cheeks fanned by the delicious sea-breezes, I soon began to grow well and strong again. But the sorrow in my mother's face was more marked than ever, though I had ceased to refer to it.
The rooms we had hired were very pleasant, but looked very small in comparison with the great halls I had been used to.
Well, on a beautiful afternoon father and my brothers arrived, and we all had tea out on the shady lawn, up to the very edge of which the waves were lapping and lisping.
I was reclining in a hammock chair, listening to the sea's soft, soothing murmur, when father brought his camp-stool and sat near me.
'Murdoch, boy,' he said, taking my hand gently, almost tenderly, in his, 'are you strong enough to bear bad news?'
My heart throbbed uneasily, but I replied, bravely enough, 'Yes, dear father; yes.'
'Then,' he said, speaking very slowly, as if to mark the effect of every word, 'we are—never—to return—to Castle Coila!'
I was calm now, for, strange to say, the news appeared to be no news at all.