238 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE.

 

ivy that covers the walls are as thick as trees.
There are many trees crowding all round, and
there are hills round it too; and far below you
hear the Tweed whispering all day. The house
is called Fairnilee, which means ‘‘the Fairies’
Field;’’ for people believed in fairies, as you
shall hear, when Randal was a boy, and even
when my father was a boy.

Randal was all alone in the house when he
was a little fellow—alone with his mother, and
Nancy the old nurse, and Simon Grieve the
butler, who wore a black velvet coat and a big
silver chain. Then there were the maids, and
the grooms, and the farm folk, who were all
friends of Randal’s. He was not lonely, and
he did not feel unhappy, even before Jean
came, as you shall be told. But the grown-up
people were sad and silent at Fairnilee. Randal
had no father; his mother, Lady Ker, was a
widow. She was still quite young, and Randal
thought her the most beautiful person in the
world. Children think these things about
their mothers, and Randal had seen no ladies
but his mother only. She had brown hair and
brown eyes and red lips, and a grave kind face,
which looked serious under her great white
widow’s cap with the black hood over it.
Randal never saw his mother cry; but when
he was a very little child indeed, he had heard
her crying in the night: this was after his
father went away.