"I think ye see your duty to your cousin," Mackellar resumed.
"Yes," said Andrew simply. "I wish I saw how it ought to be carried out. I'm at a loss there."
Mackellar's nod indicated sympathetic understanding.
"Ye're young and want to see the whole road ahead. It's enough that ye walk cannily, doing what seems needful as ye find it. For a' that, I'm glad to hear ye feel that ye are responsible. It's some help to me."
"Then you take a personal interest in him?" Andrew hesitated and added: "I mean, if you understand, apart from your being a trustee."
Mackellar smiled.
"I understand. We're dour folk and not given to sentiment, but I think we can be trusted to pay our debts, and Dick's father was a good friend o' mine. It was the Appleyard business first put me on my feet. Then your cousin is a likable lad; though he's given me trouble. But we'll not dwell on that—there are other things to talk about."
"Have you paid off his debts?"
"Some. There are one or two for which the holders would not give up his notes."
"Why?"