arl came to
his ancestral door.

But on Sunday morning all things were changed, with one of those sudden
changes which make this part of the country so wonderfully beautiful,
and so fascinating through its endless variety.

A perfect June day, with the loch glittering in the sun, and the hills
beyond it softly outlined with the indistinctness that mountains usually
wear in summer, but with the soft summer coloring too, greenish-blue,
lilac, and silver-gray varying continually. In the woods behind, where
the leaves were already gloriously green, the wood-pigeons were cooing,
and the blackbirds and mavises singing, just as if it had not been
Sunday morning, or rather as if they knew it was Sunday, and were
straining their tiny throats to bless the Giver of sweet, peaceful,
cheerful Sabbath-days, and of all other good things, meant for man's
usage and delight.

At the portico of Cairnforth Castle, for the first time since the hearse
had stood there, stood a carriage--one of those large, roomy,
splendid family carriages which were in use many years ago. Looking at
it, no passerby could have the slightest doubt that it was my lord's
coach, and that my lord sat therein in solemn state, exacting and
receiving an amount of respect little short of veneration, such as, for
generations, the whole country-side had always paid to the Earls of
Cairnforth. This coach, though it was the identical family coach, had
been newly furnished; its crimson satin glowed, and its silver harness
and ornaments flashed in the sun; the coachman sat in his place, and two
footmen stood up in their place behind. It was altogether a very
splendid affair, as became the equipage of a young nobleman who was
known to possess twenty thousand a year, and who, from his castle tower
--it had a tower, though nobody ever climbed there--might, if he
chose, look around upon miles and miles of moorland, loch, hill-side,
and cultivated land, and say to himself--or be said to by his nurse,
as in the old song--

"These hills and these vales, from this tower that ye see,
They all shall belong, my young chieftain, to thee."

The horse pawed the ground for several minutes of delay, and then there
appeared Mr. Menteith, followed by Mrs. Campbell, who was quite a grand
lady now, in silks and satins, but with the same sweet, sad, gentle
face. The lawyer and she stood aside, and made way for a big, stalwart
young Highlander of about one-and-twenty or thereabouts,