ar, and pushing it open, she
entered, and stood before Salmon, Jacob, and Rebecca (the old woman
before mentioned as having come with Mr. Salmon to the Tower;) these
three were all deep in consultation, Mr. Salmon being still seated where
the Laird had left him.

As Tamar burst upon them in all the light of youth; of beauty, and of
conscious rectitude in the cause for which she came, the three remained
fixed as statues, Jacob and Rebecca in shrinking attitudes, their eyes
set fearfully upon her, their faces gathering paleness as they gazed;
whilst Salmon flushed to the brow, his eyes distended and his mouth
half open.

The young girl advanced near to the centre of the room and casting a
glance around her, in which might be read an expression of contempt
quite free from fear, she said, "I am come by authority to receive the
just dues of the late possessor of this place, and I require the sum to
be told into my hand, and this I require in the name of Him who rules on
high, and who will assuredly take cognizance of any act of fraud used
towards a good and honourable man."

"And who? and who?" said Salmon, his teeth actually chattering "who are
you? and whence come you?"

"I come from the Laird of Dymock," she answered, "and in his name I
demand his rights!"

"You, you," said Salmon, "you are his daughter?"

"That remains to be told," replied Tamar, "what or who I am, is nothing
to you, nor to you, nor you," she added, looking at Jacob and Rebecca,
her eye being arrested for a minute on each, by the singular expression
which passed over their countenances. "Give me the Laird's dues and you
shall hear no more from me," she said, "never again will I come to
trouble your dulness; but, if you deny it to me, you shall never rest
from me;--no, no, I will haunt you day and night," and getting hotter as
she continued to speak, "you shall have no rest from me, neither moat
nor stone walls shall keep me out." She was thinking at that moment of
the secret passage by which she fancied she might get into the Tower, if
at this time she did not succeed; it was a wild and girlish scheme, and
whether practicable or not, she had no time to think. As she uttered
these last words, Salmon rose slowly from his seat, pushed his chair
from behind him and stepped back, a livid paleness covering his
features whilst he exclaimed: "Are you in life? or are you a terrible
vision of my fancy? Jacob,--Rebecca,--do you see it too--Ah! you look
pale