THE CAMPBELL-JACKSONS 19 



baronetcy ; he claimed neither, which casts a doubt 

 upon the fact ; but he had pride enough himself, 

 and taught enough pride to his family, for any 

 station or descent in Christendom. He had four 

 daughters. One married an Edinburgh writer, as 

 I have it on a first account — a minister, according 

 to another — a man at least of reasonable station, 

 but not good enough for the Campbells of Auchen- 

 breck ; and the erring one was instantly discarded. 

 Another married an actor of the name of Adcock, 

 whom (as I receive the tale) she had seen acting 

 in a barn ; but the phrase should perhaps be re- 

 garded rather as a measure of the family annoyance 

 than a mirror of the facts. The marriage was not 

 in itself unhappy ; Adcock was a gentleman by 

 birth and made a good husband ; the family 

 reasonably prospered, and one of the daughters 

 married no less a man than Clarkson Stanfield. 

 But by the father, and the two remaining Miss 

 Campbells, people of fierce passions and a truly 

 Highland pride, the derogation was bitterly resented. 

 For long the sisters lived estranged ; then, Mrs. 

 Jackson and Mrs. Adcock were reconciled for a 

 moment, only to quarrel the more fiercely ; the 

 name of Mrs. Adcock was proscribed, nor did it 

 again pass her sister's lips, until the morning when 

 she announced : ' Mary Adcock is dead ; I saw 

 her in her shroud last night.' Second sight was 

 hereditary in the house ; and sure enough, as I 



