nd her young beauty seemed to be clouded
over by the shadow of inward trouble. Even as I watched her, she burst
suddenly into wild weeping, and throwing down her bundle of flowers ran
swiftly into the house.

Distrait as I was and weary of the ways of the world, I was conscious of
a sudden pang of sympathy and grief as I looked upon the spasm of despair
which, seemed to convulse this strange and beautiful woman. I bent to my
books, and yet my thoughts would ever turn to her proud clear-cut face,
her weather-stained dress, her drooping head, and the sorrow which lay in
each line and feature of her pensive face.

Mrs. Adams, my landlady, was wont to carry up my frugal breakfast; yet it
was very rarely that I allowed her to break the current of my thoughts,
or to draw my mind by her idle chatter from weightier things. This
morning, however, for once, she found me in a listening mood, and with
little prompting, proceeded to pour into my ears all that she knew of our
beautiful visitor.

"Miss Eva Cameron be her name, sir," she said: "but who she be, or where
she came fra, I know little more than yoursel'. Maybe it was the same
reason that brought her to Kirkby-Malhouse as fetched you there yoursel',
sir."

"Possibly," said I, ignoring the covert question; "but I should hardly
have thought that Kirkby-Malhouse was a place which offered any great
attractions to a young lady."

"Heh, sir!" she cried, "there's the wonder of it. The leddy has just
come fra France; and how her folk come to learn of me is just a wonder. A
week ago, up comes a man to my door--a fine man, sir, and a gentleman, as
one could see with half an eye. 'You are Mrs. Adams,' says he. 'I
engage your rooms for Miss Cameron,' says he. 'She will be here in a
week,' says he; and then off without a word of terms. Last night there
comes the young leddy hersel'--soft-spoken and downcast, with a touch of
the French in her speech. But my sakes, sir! I must away and mak' her
some tea, for she'll feel lonesome-like, poor lamb, when she wakes under
a strange roof."

II--HOW I WENT FORTH TO GASTER FELL

I was still engaged upon my breakfast when I heard the clatter of dishes
and the landlady's footfall as she passed toward her new lodger's room.
An instant afterward she had rushed down the passage and burst in upon me
with uplifted hand and startled eyes. "Lord 'a mercy, sir!" she cried,
"and asking your pardon for troubling you, but I'm feared o