r asked after Margaret. The
woman shrugged her shoulders. No one knew anything about her. She never
came out of the park gates, but sometimes you could see her wandering
about inside by herself. She saw no one. Haddo had long since quarrelled
with the surrounding gentry; and though one old lady, the mother of a
neighbouring landowner, had called when Margaret first came, she had not
been admitted, and the visit was never returned.

'She'll come to no good, poor lady,' said the hostess of the inn. 'And
they do say she's a perfect picture to look at.'

Arthur went to his room. He longed for the day to come. There was no
certain means of seeing Margaret. It was useless to go to the park gates,
since even the tradesmen were obliged to leave their goods at the lodge;
but it appeared that she walked alone, morning and afternoon, and it
might be possible to see her then. He decided to climb into the park and
wait till he came upon her in some spot where they were not likely to
be observed.

Next day the great heat of the last week was gone, and the melancholy sky
was dark with lowering clouds. Arthur inquired for the road which led to
Skene, and set out to walk the three miles which separated him from it.
The country was grey and barren. There was a broad waste of heath, with
gigantic boulders strewn as though in pre-historic times Titans had waged
there a mighty battle. Here and there were trees, but they seemed hardly
to withstand the fierce winds of winter; they were old and bowed before
the storm. One of them attracted his attention. It had been struck by
lightning and was riven asunder, leafless; but the maimed branches were
curiously set on the trunk so that they gave it the appearance of a human
being writhing in the torture of infernal agony. The wind whistled
strangely. Arthur's heart sank as he walked on. He had never seen a
country so desolate.

He came to the park gates at last and stood for some time in front of
them. At the end of a long avenue, among the trees, he could see part of
a splendid house. He walked along the wooden palisade that surrounded the
park. Suddenly he came to a spot where a board had been broken down. He
looked up and down the road. No one was in sight. He climbed up the low,
steep bank, wrenched down a piece more of the fence, and slipped in.

He found himself in a dense wood. There was no sign of a path, and he
advanced cautiously. The bracken was so thick and high that it easily
conc