"
"It may be so, Uncle; but as I have never thought of marriage, I am
able to look at the matter dispassionately."
"Ah! Well, the time will come, Oswald, and you will then speedily come
to consider that there are other things than the reasonableness of
waiting to be considered.
"By the way, I trust that, should England invade Scotland again by the
valley of the Esk, you will not forget our debt to the Bairds. Though I
lamented the disaster at Homildon, where many of my friends and
acquaintances fell; I could not but feel that the death of William
Baird, and so many of his kin, was a relief, indeed, to me. I have
strengthened my hold, as you see, but I should have been ever obliged
to remain on guard. The Bairds never forgive nor forget, and the manner
in which they were tricked out of their captives must have discomposed
them sorely, and rankled in their minds; and, sooner or later, they
would have tried to wipe out the memory in blood. I wonder that they
had not done it before Homildon, but doubtless they had other matters
in hand.
"Now I can live in peace; but I, too, have not forgotten the injuries I
have suffered at their hands, and should rejoice, greatly, did I hear
that their stronghold had been levelled to the ground.
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