"You would not guess what I was thinking," says he.
"I was thinkuig I would be a happier man if I could ride
and run the danger of my life with these lawless compan-
ions."

I told him I had observed he did not enjoy good spirits;
and that it was a common fancy to envy others and think



Xl^e /I\aster of Ballaijtrae 33

we shoiild be the better of some change ; quoting Horace to
the point, like a young man fresh from college.
"Why, just so," said he. "And with that we may get
back to our accounts."

It was not long before I began to get wind of the causes
that so much depressed him. Indeed a blind man must
have soon discovered there was a shadow on that house, the
shadow of the Master of BaUantrae. Dead or alive (and he
was then supposed to be dead) that man was his brother's
rival: his rival abroad, where there never was a good word
for Mr. Henry and nothing but regret and praise for the
master; and his rival at home, not only with his father and
his wife, but with the very servants.
They were two old serving-men, that were the leaders.
