Charlie now told Donald of his fortune, and the turn affairs had taken; on hearing which Brown attempted to follow his master, but Donald was too quick for him, and held him firmly by the collar, threatening to give him up to justice for perjury at the trial.
It was amusing to see the terror-stricken valet; his knees shook under him, and his looks were fearful, seeming almost as if it would be his death; Charlie here told Donald to let him escape a little longer, as his conscience would be a source of punishment to him.
Another person now appeared on the scene, Mary Munro, leading her two children; hearing that her husband had been accused, and brought before Lord Lundy, had entered to plead his cause, but she was delighted on seeing him not as the accused, but the accuser. The guilty conscience of the valet quailed under the gaze of the faithful mother on recollecting his own diabolical charges against the father.
Donald agreed to his master's lenient mode of dealing with him, and allowed him to follow his disgraced master.
On the departure of the revellers, and order being restored, Charlie's friends flocked around him, congratulating him on his fortune in becoming the possessor of the Lochlinn estate, and his happy wife teazed him a little for his closeness in keeping the secret, when he reminded her that he promised her a surprise some day when they were in London. It then occurred to her that the article which he cut out of the paper had a reference to the estate, which was the case, for, on running his eyes over the list of estates for sale, he saw the following:—"For sale, by order of the trustees, the Lochlinn Estate, the seat of Lord Lundy, in the Highlands, apply," &c, &c. Charlie cut the advertisement out, applied to the agents, and a bargain was immediately made.
It appeared that through Lord Lundy's extravagance and his being disinherited by his father, he had been obliged to mortgage his estate heavily. As the trustees could see no prospect of reform in the young spendthrift's habits, or hopes of the estate being released, its sale became necessary.
