ear that this
lady had come from some place above or below, for she was drowned last
week. Mr Ruthven half smiled.

"I will know," cried the lady, "what that fellow said. I will hear what
my enemies tell you against me. My only hope is in you. I am stolen
from Edinburgh; they pretended to bury me there--Eh? what?" she cried,
as another man whispered something into the pastor's other ear. "Mad!
There! I heard it. I heard him say I was mad. Did he not tell you I
was mad?"

"He did; and one cannot--really I cannot--"

As he looked round again in his perplexity, the widow rose from her
seat, and said, "I know this lady; my son and I know her better than
anyone else in the island does; and we should say that she is not mad."

"_Not_ mad!" Mr Ruthven said, with a mingling of surprise in his tone
which did not escape the jealous ear of Lady Carse.

"Not mad, sir; but grievously oppressed. If you could quietly hear the
story, sir, at a fitting time--"

"Ay, ay; that will be best," declared Mr Ruthven.

"Let me go home with you," said Lady Carse. "I will go home with you;
and--"

Mrs Ruthven exchanged a glance with her husband, and then said, in an
embarrassed way, while giving a hand to each of the two children who
were clinging to her, that their house was very small, extremely small
indeed, with too little room for the children, and none whatever left
over.

"It is my house," exclaimed Lady Carse, impatiently. "It was built with
a view to you; but it was done under my orders, and I have a claim upon
it. And what ails the children?" she cried, in a tone which made the
younger cry aloud. "What are they afraid of?"

"I don't know, I am sure," said their mother, helping them, however, to
hide their faces in her gown. "But--"

Again Annie rose and said, "There could be no difficulty about a place
for the lady if she would be pleased to do as she did before--live in
her cottage. The two dwellings might almost be called one, and if the
lady would go home with her--"

Gratitude was showered on Annie from all the parties. As the lady moved
slowly towards the widow's house, holding Annie's arm, and weeping as
she went, and followed by the Ruthvens, the eyes of all the Macdonalds
gazed after her, in a sort of doubt whether she were a witch, or a
ghost, or really and truly a woman.

As soon as Macdonald's sloop could be discerned on its approach the next
day, Mr Ruthven went down, and paced the shore whi