w no better. Look, away
over yonder, as far as your eyes can see, is the sea. If it was a little
clearer you would see the ships in Ayr Harbour; and down there lies
Tarbolton; away over there, the way we have come, Kilmarnock. And do you
see that little wooded hill about two miles ahead to the left? Among
these trees lies Bourhill.'

'It is a long drive to it, Uncle Abel. I hope it has not tired you very
much?'

'No, no; I'm all right. We'll drive up the avenue to the house and back.
I want you to see it.'

'Does nobody live in it?'

'Not just now.'

Another fifteen minutes brought them to an unpretending iron gateway,
which gave entrance to an avenue of fine old trees. The gate stood open,
and though a woman ran out from the lodge when the trap passed, she made
no demur.

The avenue was nearly half a mile in length, and ended in a sharp curve,
which brought them quite suddenly before the house--a plain, square,
substantial family dwelling, with a pillared doorway and long wide
windows, about which crept ivy of a century's growth. It was all shut
up, and the gravel sweep before the door was overgrown with moss and
weeds, the grass on the lawns, which stretched away through the
shrubberies, long and rank; yet there was a homely look about it too, as
if a slight touch could convert it into a happy home.

'This is Bourhill, my girl; and whatever ambitions your father may have
had in later years, it was once his one desire to buy it back to the
Grahams. Do you like the place?'

'Yes, uncle; but it is very desolate--it makes me sad.'

'It will not be long so,' he said; and, drawing himself together with a
quick shiver, he bade the driver turn the horses' heads. But before the
house vanished quite from view he cast his gaze back upon it, and in his
eye there was a strange, even a yearning glance. 'It will not be long
so,' he repeated under his breath,--'not long; and it will be a great
atonement.'

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XI.

DARKENING DAYS.

In the night Gladys was awakened by her uncle's voice sharply calling
her name, and when she hastened to him she found him in great pain, and
breathing with the utmost difficulty. Her presence of mind did not
desert her. She had often seen her father in a similar state, and knew
exactly what to do. In a few minutes she had a blazing fire, and the
kettle on; then she ran to awaken Walter, so that he might go for the
doctor. The simple remedies experience had ta