'Ah, he was in the service, then,' said the captain, smiling. 'So am I—in the Scots Guards.'
'The Scots Guards! Then perhaps you know our cousin, Captain Wellwood.'
'Of course I know him intimately,' he replied, with some hesitation, while colouring deeply.
Mary thought there was something strange in his manner, as he spoke in a low and indistinct voice, heard by herself alone, so she pursued the, to her, rather distasteful subject no further, but the captain added,
'A lucky dog—he has succeeded lately to a pot of money—quite a fortune, in fact.'
'Lucky indeed,' assented Sir Redmond. 'By Jove, there is nothing like money for enabling one to enjoy life. Don't you think so, doctor?'
'No,' replied the minister, shaking his white head, 'I agree with my worthy ancestor, who remarks, in the third volume of his Analecta, that "wealth is apt to abate the godly habits of a people." Of course, Sir Redmond, you have read Wodrow's Analecta.'
'Sorry to say, my dear sir, that I never heard of it.'
'Indeed. It was the labour of twenty-seven years. Thus, you may see that he was unlike Hué, the learned Bishop of Avranches, who used to say that all human learning could be comprised in one volume folio.'
Sir Redmond felt himself somewhat at a loss here, and ignoring the minister, whom he deemed 'an old parish pump,' he turned again to Ellinor Wellwood, some of whose framed landscapes drew attention to her merits as an amateur artist, and led to the production of a portfolio of her sketches, over which the baronet hung, as well as over herself, in real or well-simulated admiration.