dows, and the like. The day may come when
I shall sit at a window to see your heads fall."

"Time will show," said Lord Lovat, with a smile, and an elegant bow.
And they left her alone.

They no longer feared to leave her alone. Her temper was well-known to
them; and her purposes of ultimate revenge, once clearly announced, were
a guarantee that she would, if possible, live to execute them. She
would make no attempts upon her life henceforward. Weeks and months
passed on. The snow came, and lay long, and melted away. Beyond the
garden wall she saw sprinklings of young grass among the dark heather;
and now the bleat of a lamb, and now the scudding brood of the
moor-fowl, told her that spring was come. Long lines of wild geese in
the upper air, winging steadily northwards, indicated the advancing
season. The whins within view burst into blossom; and the morning
breeze which dried the dews wafted their fragrance. Then the brooding
mists drew off under the increasing warmth of the sun; and the lady
discovered that there was a lake within view--a wide expanse, winding
away among mountains till it was lost behind their promontories. She
strained her eyes to see vessels on this lake, and now and then she did
perceive a little sail hoisted, or a black speck, which must be a
rowboat traversing the waters when they were sheeny in the declining
sun. These things, and the lengthening and warmth of the days,
quickened her impatience to be removed. She often asked the people of
the house whether no news and no messengers had come; but they did not
improve in their knowledge of the English tongue any more than she did
in that of the Gaelic, and she could obtain no satisfaction. In the
sunny mornings she lay on the little turf plat in the garden, or walked
restlessly among the cabbage-beds (being allowed to go no further), or
shook the locked gate desperately, till someone came out to warn her to
let it alone. In the June nights she stood at her window, only one
small pane of which would open, watching the mists shifting and curling
in the moonlight, or the sheet lightning which now and then revealed the
lake in the bosom of the mountains, or appeared to lay open the whole
sky. But June passed away, and there was no change. July came and
went--the sun was visibly shortening his daily journey, and leaving an
hour of actual darkness in the middle of the night: and still there was
no prospect of a further journey. She be