150 SOME NOTES CONCERNING ASHIESTEEL 



He also was able to give him a certain amount of employ- 

 ment, and this had the further effect of facilitating the 

 repayment of the obligation. 



After a time he began sending in his annual account 

 receipted, and had grit enough to go on doing so until it 

 was all paid back. 



He and liis suc<;essors continued to be emploj'ed after Sir 

 James's death, till comparatively of late years, when a 

 complete change of persons in the business, and of other 

 things, made it no longer necessary or desirable to continue 

 "thirled" to the concern. 



It was his brother Daniel to whom Sir Walter said he 

 had intended the character of Conachar, in the Fair Maid 

 of Perth — a study of constitutional want of nerve — as a kind 

 of act of atonement, thinking he had been too hard on 

 him in his lifetime. 



