eadily at Dr. Balloch. "It
seems to me, that Lord Lynne's yacht was at Lerwick, on that night;
thou knowest."

"When Skager and Jan quarreled?"

She bowed her head, and continued to gaze inquisitively at him.

"No, thou art mistaken. On that night he was far off on the Norway
coast. It must have been two weeks afterward, when he was in
Lerwick."

"When will Lord Lynne be here again?"

"I know not; perhaps in a few weeks, perhaps not until the end of
summer. He may not come again this year. He is more uncertain than the
weather."

Margaret sighed, and gathering her treasures together she went away.
As she had been desired, she called at Snorro's house. The key was on
the outside of the door, she turned it, and went in. The fire had been
carefully extinguished, and the books and simple treasures he valued
locked up in his wooden chest. It had evidently been quite filled with
these, for his clothes hung against the wall of an inner apartment.
Before these clothes Margaret stood in a kind of amazement. She was
very slow of thought, but gradually certain facts in relation to them
fixed themselves in her mind with a conviction which no reasoning
could change.

Snorro had gone away in his best clothes; his fishing suit and his
working suit he had left behind. It was clear, then, that he had not
gone to the Wick fisheries; equally clear that he had not gone away
with any purpose of following his occupation in loading and unloading
vessels. Why had he gone then? Margaret was sure that he had no
friends beyond the Shetlands. Who was there in all the world that
could tempt Snorro from the little home he had made and loved; and
who, or what could induce him to leave little Jan?

_Only Jan's father!_

She came to this conclusion at last with a clearness and rapidity that
almost frightened her. Her cheeks burned, her heart beat wildly, and
then a kind of anger took possession of her. If Snorro knew any thing,
Dr. Balloch did also. Why was she kept in anxiety and uncertainty? "I
will be very quiet and watch," she thought, "and when Lord Lynne comes
again, I will follow him into the manse, and ask him where my husband
is."

As she took a final look at Snorro's belongings, she thought
pitifully, "How little he has! And yet who was so good and helpful to
every one? I might have taken more interest in his housekeeping! How
many little things I could easily have added to his comforts! What a
selfish woman I must be! Little w