uture might bring
forth. On what account her son was carried off, she could form no
conjecture, but she always cherished the hope of seeing him again. This
hope occupied her thoughts by day and her dreams by night, and appeared
to be the chief means of her restoration to comparative health. At
first she could not bear the sight of her child's playmate, Ronald
Morton; but one day she suddenly desired Bertha to bring him to her, and
after gazing at him for some moments, she covered him with kisses, and
from that moment could scarcely bear him out of her sight. At first the
child cried, and evidently regarded her with dread; but Bertha soothed
him, and persuaded him to go back to her; and Hilda, by gentle caresses,
which seemed totally foreign to her nature, soon won him over
completely, so that he quickly learned to look on her as really his
mother. His father had sailed, at the commencement of the year, for
Greenland, and there was no probability of his returning till the
autumn.

In spite of the exciting incidents which had occurred, matters at
Lunnasting returned very much to their usual condition. Even poor
Lawrence Brindister, who had behaved with courage and a considerable
amount of judgment when the castle was attacked, very speedily again
became the half-witted creature he generally appeared, and once more
resumed his eccentric habits and behaviour.

Sir Marcus had before this again put off the time for his return home;
but at length a large cutter--a Leith smack--was seen standing towards
the castle. She dropped her anchor at the entrance of Lunnasting Voe,
and a boat containing a lady and gentleman immediately put off from her,
and pulled for the landing-place. Hilda soon recognised her father and
sister. As she saw them, she felt every nerve in her system trembling
with agitation. Bertha entreated her to be calm, and at last, by a
violent effort, she gained sufficient command over herself to hurry down
to the landing-place to meet them. Her father met her with his usual
polite, but cold and indifferent manner; but Edda herself, blooming with
life and health, looked deeply concerned when she saw her altered
appearance, for physical suffering and mental anxiety had made sad havoc
with those features. Sir Marcus had now to learn, for the first time,
of the piratical attack which had been made on his castle, and of the
severe loss he had suffered. Every one was anxious to screen Hilda; and
probably,