hether the ring
which she had seen on the third finger of the lady's left hand had been
placed there with the sanction of the law.

There was but one chance left of discovering--or rather of attempting to
discover--her friends. Mr. Camp drew out an advertisement to be inserted
in the Glasgow newspapers. If those newspapers happened to be seen by
any member of her family, she would, in all probability, be claimed.
In the contrary event there would be nothing for it but to wait for her
recovery or her death--with the money belonging to her sealed up, and
deposited in the landlord's strongbox.

The advertisement appeared. They waited for three days afterward, and
nothing came of it. No change of importance occurred, during the same
period, in the condition of the suffering woman. Mr. Camp looked in,
toward evening, and said, "We have done our best. There is no help for
it but to wait."

Far away in Perthshire that third evening was marked as a joyful
occasion at Windygates House. Blanche had consented at last to listen
to Arnold's entreaties, and had sanctioned the writing of a letter to
London to order her wedding-dress.

SIXTH SCENE.--SWANHAVEN LODGE.

CHAPTER THE THIRTY-FIRST

SEEDS OF THE FUTURE (FIRST SOWING).

"NOT SO large as Windygates. But--shall we say snug, Jones?"

"And comfortable, Smith. I quite agree with you."

Such was the judgment pronounced by the two choral gentlemen on Julius
Delamayn's house in Scotland. It was, as usual with Smith and Jones, a
sound judgment--as far as it went. Swanhaven Lodge was not half the
size of Windygates; but it had been inhabited for two centuries when
the foundations of Windygates were first laid--and it possessed the
advantages, without inheriting the drawbacks, of its age. There is in an
old house a friendly adaptation to the human character, as there is in
an old hat a friendly adaptation to the human head. The visitor who left
Swanhaven quitted it with something like a sense of leaving home. Among
the few houses not our own which take a strong hold on our sympathies
this was one. The ornamental grounds were far inferior in size and
splendor to the grounds at Windygates. But the park was beautiful--less
carefully laid out, but also less monotonous than an English park. The
lake on the northern boundary of the estate, famous for its breed of
swans, was one of the curiosities of the neighborhood; and the house had
a history, associating it with mor