'Quite correct—as given here,' said Mr. Kippilaw; 'but you look old for the date of this certificate.'
'I always looked older than my years,' replied Shafto.
Florian, who might have claimed the date as that of his own birth, was—luckily for Shafto—away at a window, gazing intently on a party of soldiers marching past, with a piper playing before them.
'Another certificate can be got if necessary,' said Mr. Kippilaw, as he glanced at the Registrar's signature, a suggestion which made Shafto's heart quake. 'It must have come from the Major in this mutilated state,' he added, re-examining with legal care and suspicion the address on the envelope and the seal, which, as we have said, he had cut round; 'but it is strange that he has made no mention of it being so in his letter to me. Poor fellow! he was more of a soldier than a man of business, however. Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. Melfort, on your new prospects. Rank and a very fine estate are before you.'
He warmly shook the hand of Shafto, who began to be more reassured; and saying, 'I must carefully preserve the documents for the inspection of Lord Fettercairn,' he locked them fast in a drawer of his writing-table, and spreading out his coat-tails before the fire, while warming his person in the fashion peculiar to the genuine 'Britisher,' he eyed Shafto benignantly, and made a few pleasant remarks on the Fettercairn family, the fertility and beauty of Craigengowan, the stables, kennels, the shootings, and so forth, and the many fine qualities of 'Leonard'—as he called him—and about whom he asked innumerable questions, all of which Shafto could answer truly and with a clear conscience enough, as he was master of all that.
The latter was asked 'what he thought of Edinburgh—if he had ever been there before,' and so forth. Shafto remembered a little 'Guide Book' into which he had certainly dipped, so as to be ready for anything, and spoke so warmly of the picturesque beauties and historical associations of the Modern Athens that the worthy lawyer's heart began to warm to so intelligent a young man, while of the silent Florian, staring out into the sun-lit square and its beautiful garden and statues, he took little notice, beyond wondering where he had seen his eyes and features before!
CHAPTER X.
ALONE IN THE WORLD.
'And you were bred to the law, you say, Mr. Melfort?' remarked the old Writer to the Signet after a pause.
'Yes, in Lawyer Carlyon's office.'