The Lost Lady of Lone

sin the day o' the queen's visit to Lone. That wad b

y, Girzie Ross. It gars my bl

. Sooth, if only marriages be made in heaven, as they say, sure this is one. Th

gude for him, although her fair h

a' just as

hae actually gotten the motto 'happiness' set upside down, sae that a' the blooming red roses a

rs. Girzie Ross, housekeeper, and Mr. Alex

y summer. The hour was near sunset. The scene was one of great bea

ning of the next day a deep wrong was to be made right by the marriage

in one of the wildest and most picturesque regions of the Highlands, ye

ins, ancestors of the illustrious ducal line of Scott-Hereward. It was strongly built, on a

ert, tenanted only by some old retainer of the ancient family, who found shelter within its h

h Duke of Hereward, he conceived the magnificent, but most extravagant idea of transforming that grim, old Highland fortress,

isionary and extravagant; and when he persisted

a selection of designs and contractors made from the best among them. And then the restoration,

ew and the cost increased. All his unentailed estates in England were first heavily

ces were at an end and Lone unfinished she gave up her marriage settlements, including

ot suffice to pay

raised the needed money from usurers by giving the

w near to it

atues, vases, and other works of art or articles of virtu to decorate the halls and chambers of Lone; for wh

ect, decorator, or furnisher, every man was an artist in his own speciality. The work

n years from its commenceme

opical luxuriance of its gardens, the magnificence of its buildings, the splen

had nearly ruined h

f architects, the subject of artists, the theme of poet

on the occasion of the coming of age of the duke's eldest son and hei

to the anniversary. A noble and gentle company filled the halls and chamb

l was a gra

n News contained full-page pictures of Castle Lone and Inch Lone, with their terraces, parterres, arches, arbors and groves; Loc

ead all about it in copies of the London News, sent out to them by thoughtful London friends. We remember the day, some years since, when we, sitting by our cottage fire, read all about it in

is a di

ly heaven; but was the du

n the estate. Beyond that he could not burden the estate, which was entailed upon his heirs male. Besides his financial embarrassments, the duke wa

peer to add manor to manor; the peasant to own a l

land-owner in Scotland, or have his land-hunger appeased. He bought up all the land adjoining Lone, that could be purchased at any price, paying a li

ure, and the financial affairs of the "mad duke," outwardly and apparently so prosperous

from the persecution of creditors, the young Marquis of Arondelle performed an act of self-sacrifice and filial devotion seldom equalled in the world's history. He renounced all his own entailed rights, and sold all his prospe

of the duke. At the demise of the duke, instead of descending to his son and heir, it would pa

e been secured-for a time. And all might have gone well at Lone but for on

ntended as an honor, and

eived an intimation that her majesty would stop on her royal progress and honor Lone with a visit of two days. This was a

occupied by majesty would henceforth be holy ground, and would be po

"mad" Duke of Hereward launched

prepare for the royal visit, but

ayly-rigged boats. Triumphal arches were erected at stated intervals of the drive leading from the public road, across the bridge connecting the shore with the island, and-maddest extravagance of all-the groun

which should have gone to satisfy the clamorous creditors of the duke, was squander

gain the artists and reporters of the London press were among the crowd; and again full-page pictures of the ceremonies attending the queen's re

n charge of the plate and china, which, together with all the fabulous riches of art, literature, sci

retinue, left Lone on the

e blow was sudden, overwhel

one was felt from one end

ame not to illustrate the triumphs, but to record the downfall of the great ducal house of Scott-Hereward; to make sketches, take photographs and write descriptions of the magnificent and spl

ies went forth over every part of the world where the En

duke. Even while the grand vendue was st

r they went. Some said that they had gone to Australia; some that they were in America; some that they were on the Continent. Others declared t

voted son, filled with the spirit of heroic self-sacrifice. Many others affirmed that he was a hypocrite and a vi

lle. A stranger coming into the neighborhood of Lone, would hear these opposite reports and never be abl

faith in him was firm

stately and graceful as the step of an antelope. Her features were large, regular, and clear cut, as if chiseled in marble, yet full of blooming and sparkling life as ruddy health and mountain air could fill them. Her hai

shapely hand of the beautiful shepherdess a cup of water, and had been so suddenly and forcibly smitten by her Juno-like beauty, that thenceforth his visits to his hunting lodge became very frequent, both in season and o

hey declared "meant nae guid to the lass," and then to the old shepherd, who they said, "suld tak mair care o' his

me to the ears of the parties co

as going on in his sheiling. To be sure, he was out all day with his sheep, while his lass was alone in t

andsome shepherdess in her sheiling, and met her

andal, and so grew indignation against t

' he were twenty times a markis!" said the shepherd's next neighbor, and many

girl to win her affections, unless he intended to make her his marchioness-which was an idea too

Lone and banished the ducal family, there were not wanting "gu

, lass. Thoul't ne'er see him mair. And a gu

uttered, she crested her queenly head with a smile of conscious power, and looked as though-"she c

He had not always been Sir Lemuel Levison. But he had once been Lord Mayor of London, and for some part that he

ay bearded man of sixty-five. He was a widower, with "one only daug

her's love nor a father's care. She was unde

t on Westbourne Terrace, London, and placed his infant daughter unde

outh. Her father seldom found time to visit her at her convent school,

ly startled the absorbed banker and forgetful father. He had not seen his daughter for two years, and now these letters informed him that she wished

hom he depended, to make a home for him in his declining years, when he

onsolation in devotion, and wished to take the v

ter back to England. He took apartments at a quiet London ho

advertised. He went

nted it, and determined t

and purchasing all the furniture, decorations, plate, pictures, statues, vases,

er, and as many more of the servants of the late

nd once more restored to order, beauty and peace, Sir Lem

yet disappointed in her wish to take the

ision she regarded them with an air of indiffere

years old, of legal age to act for yourself, with some knowledge of that which you would ignorantly renounce; and then if you persist in your desire to take the vail-well! I shall then have neither

er father, and roused herself to be as much of a comfort and solace to him as she might be in the three years of probation.

eiress, was bent on forsaking the world and taking the vail. In the first place, she was not beautiful at all in repose. There can be no physical beauty without physical health. A

features, and quiet, downcast, dark-gray eyes, whose long lashes cast shadows upon pallid cheeks, and which were arched with dark eyebrows on a massive forehead, sha

irl unattractive in perso

f the handsome shep

flesh and blood never could have expressed. And she was a "sealed book." Yet the hour was at hand when the "sealed book" was to be opened-when her dream