The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

324 The HigJdand Monthly.die. By my blood and the grave, I swear to haveRevenge "!Christopher Walsh."" That is terrible, father. Who was this Walsh, andwhat was the cause of the quarrel ?"" Ah, that is the story, the story of my first and onlyduel."" A duel!"" It surprises you, sonny ; and I don't wonder, for Ireally think nobody vvould believe that the quiet goinglaird of Stuart was such a hot-headed scapegrace in hisyoung days."" I think I can guess the cause—this Walsh was a rivalswill I say, for my mother's affections."" Well guessed—and the most inveterate and disagreeablewooer that was ever invented, to use a colloquialism.But I had better tell you the story from the beginning."" Pray do, though I feel as if I had read the conclusionand the moral of it already."" As you may see from that picture above your head,,your mother was a beautiful woman."" And even more beautiful in character," added David^rising and contemplating the picture with some display offeeling." Poor, dear mother."" There was not a lass to approach her in all Moraywhen first I knew Miss Jessie Macleod—second eldest in afamily of four; all daughters. She had many admirers andy/ould-be husbands, foremost among them this ChristopherWalsh, who had been sent over from Ireland to learn,farming, for which he was ill-fitted and less disposed. In aworldly way, there was not much to choose between us.He came of an Irish family, old and impecunious. Iwas then the second son, with little expectation of beingcalled as my father's successor. But Richard, poor fellowmet a sudden death in an English hunting field. I wasthen in Moray on the same business as Walsh—farming,for which I have what may be termed an hereditary fancy^His death was a terrible shock—but never mind that.