f persuasion known to him to get the girl to give up his brother
and plight herself to him. But though alternately distressed and
terrified, Barbara had stood her ground, and, gentle and yielding though
she appeared to be, neither threats nor vows had had the slightest
effect upon her constancy. And then, of a sudden, the reckless brother
had "seen red." If he could not have this girl to wife, then neither
should another, and a moment later her white form lay stretched upon the
dark rocks at his feet.

The sight brought him to himself. There was no room for doubt that life
was extinct; and if he was to escape suspicion, he must act at once, for
the summer night was short and the dread interview had lasted long. He
accordingly placed the body in the boat, and, having collected several
heavy stones, proceeded to make use of his seacraft by binding them
closely and firmly about the poor girl's body by means of her clothing.
Then he rowed out to sea, some mile or more, and there quietly dropped
the body overboard. Such, in essentials, was the story told by the dying
fisherman, and so it had come about that the bride of that fatal morning
was never seen or heard of more. Though possibly intended to be regarded
as confidential, certain it is that the confession had leaked out, and
very soon became public property. For a few days it attracted great
attention; and then, like other more important things which had preceded
it, it ceased, save very occasionally, to be alluded to at all. But the
Colonel never forgot it, any more than he ever forgot the lovely and
inexplicable vision which had appeared to him for so brief an interval,
in the moonlight, on the shore below Clyffe House. It is true that he
seldom referred to it. Nor did that stately dame, who had once been Miss
Alix and who was now believed to command the regiment, encourage him to
do so. For she had observed that he was always most ready to tell the
story after an exceptionally good dinner. And, with her high sense of
what was due to his rank, she fancied that it made him mildly
ridiculous. Neither, it might be, had her earliest doubts been ever
wholly laid to rest. But members of the fair sex, when they are
practical, are apt to be very practical indeed.

XVII

WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE

By SIR WALTER SCOTT

Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in
these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and
our fat