of the honourable family of
Ravenswood."

"Their earliest possession," answered the Master, "and probably their
latest."

"I--I--I should hope not, sir," answered the stranger, clearing his
voice with more than one cough, and making an effort to overcome a
certain degree of hesitation; "Scotland knows what she owes to
this ancient family, and remembers their frequent and honourable
achievements. I have little doubt that, were it properly represented
to her Majesty that so ancient and noble a family were subjected to
dilapidation--I mean to decay--means might be found, ad re-aedificandum
antiquam domum----"

"I will save you the trouble, sir, of discussing this point farther,"
interrupted the Master, haughtily. "I am the heir of that unfortunate
house--I am the Master of Ravenswood. And you, sir, who seem to be
a gentleman of fashion and education, must be sensible that the next
mortification after being unhappy is the being loaded with undesired
commiseration."

"I beg your pardon, sir," said the elder horseman; "I did not know--I am
sensible I ought not to have mentioned--nothing could be farther from my
thoughts than to suppose----"

"There are no apologies necessary, sir," answered Ravenswood, "for here,
I suppose, our roads separate, and I assure you that we part in perfect
equanimity on my side."

As speaking these words, he directed his horse's head towards a narrow
causeway, the ancient approach to Wolf's Crag, of which it might be
truly said, in the words of the Bard of Hope, that

Frequented by few was the grass-cover'd road,
Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode,
To his hills that encircle the sea.

But, ere he could disengage himself from his companion, the young lady
we have already mentioned came up to join the stranger, followed by her
servants.

"Daughter," said the stranger to the unmasked damsel, "this is the
Master of Ravenswood."

It would have been natural that the gentleman should have replied to
this introduction; but there was something in the graceful form and
retiring modesty of the female to whom he was thus presented, which not
only prevented him from inquiring to whom, and by whom, the annunciation
had been made, but which even for the time struck him absolutely mute.
At this moment the cloud which had long lowered above the height on
which Wolf's Crag is situated, and which now, as it advanced, spread
itself in darker and denser folds both over land an