It may be asked whence it arose that Duncan should now be willing
to quit his claim to any paternal property in Malcolm, confessing
that he was none of his blood.
One source of the change was doubtless the desire of confidences
between himself and Lady Florimel, another, the growing conviction,
generated it may be by the admiration which is born of love, that
the youth had gentle blood in his veins; and a third, that Duncan
had now so thoroughly proved the heart of Malcolm as to have no
fear of any change of fortune ever alienating his affections, or
causing him to behave otherwise than as his dutiful grandson.
It is not surprising that such a tale should have a considerable
influence on Lady Florimel's imagination: out of the scanty facts
which formed but a second volume, she began at once to construct
both a first and a third. She dreamed of the young fisherman
that night, and reflecting in the morning on her intercourse with
him, recalled sufficient indications in him of superiority to
his circumstances, noted by her now, however, for the first time,
to justify her dream: he might indeed well be the last scion of a
noble family.
I do not intend the least hint that she began to fall in love with
him. To balance his good looks, and the nobility, to keener eyes
yet more evident than to hers, in both his moral and physical
carriage, the equally undeniable clownishness of his dialect and
tone had huge weight, while the peculiar straightforwardness of
his behaviour and address not unfrequently savoured in her eyes
of rudeness; besides which objectionable things, there was the
persistent odour of fish about his garments--in itself sufficient
to prevent such a catastrophe.
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