le

XXIX. The stranger in the chapel

XXX. The haunter

XXXI. The abbess' story

XXXII. The duke's double

XXXIII. After the earthquake

XXXIV. Risen from the grave

XXXV. Face to face

XXXVI. A gathering storm

XXXVII. A sentence of banishment

XXXVIII. The storm bursts

XXXIX. The rivals

XL. After the storm

XLI. Father and son

XLII. Her son

XLIII. The duke's ward

XLIV. Retribution

XLV. After the revelation

XLVI. Retribution

XLVII. The end of a lost life

XLVIII. Husband and wife

THE LOST LADY OF LONE.

CHAPTER I.

THE BRIDE OF LONE.

"Eh, Meester McRath? Sae grand doings I hae na seen sin the day o' the
queen's visit to Lone. That wad be in the auld duke's time. And a waefu'
day it wa'."

"Dinna ye gae back to that day, Girzie Ross. It gars my blood boil only
to think o' it!"

"Na, Sandy, mon, sure the ill that was dune that day is weel compensate
on this. Sooth, if only marriages be made in heaven, as they say, sure
this is one. The laird will get his ain again, and the bonnyest leddy in
a' the land to boot."

"She _is_ a bonny lass, but na too gude for him, although her fair
hand does gie him back his lands."

"It's only a' just as it sud be."

"Na, it's no all as it sud be. Look at they fules trying to pit
up yon triumphal arch! The loons hae actually gotten the motto
'HAPPINESS' set upside down, sae that a' the blooming red roses
are falling out o' it. An ill omen that if onything be an ill omen. I
maun rin and set it right."

The speakers in this short colloquy were Mrs. Girzie Ross, housekeeper,
and Mr. Alexander McRath, house-steward of Castle Lone.

The locality was in the Highlands of Scotland. The season was early
summer. The hour was near sunset. The scene was one of great beauty and
sublimity. The occasion one of high festivity and rejoicing.

The preparations were being completed for a grand event. For on the
morning of the next day a deep wrong was to be made right by the marriage
of the young and beautiful Lady of Lone to the chosen lord of her heart.

Lone Castle was a home of almost ideal grandeur and loveliness, situated
in one of the wildest and most picturesque regions of the Highlands, yet
brought to the utmost perfection of fertility by skillful cultivation.

The castle was originally the stronghold of a race of powerful and
warlike Scottish chieftains, an