ady who proved to be their hostess.

"Dear me, Sir Keith," said she at length, "is it you indeed! And you
will not be going back to Dare to-night?"

In fact, when Mr. White arrived, it was soon made evident that going
back to Dare that night was out of the question; for somehow the old
gentleman, despite his waterproofs, had managed to get soaked through;
and he was determined to go to bed at once, so as to have his clothes
dried. And so the hospitalities of the little inn were requisitioned to
the utmost; and as there was no whiskey to be had, they had to content
themselves with hot tea; and then they all retired to rest for the
night, convinced that the moonlight visitation of the ruins had to be
postponed.

But next day--such are the rapid changes in the Highlands--broke blue
and fair and shining; and Miss Gertrude White was amazed to find that
the awful Sound she had come along on the previous night was now
brilliant in the most beautiful colors--for the tide was low, and the
yellow sandbanks were shining through the blue waters of the sea. And
would she not, seeing that the boat was lying down at the quay now, sail
round the island, and see the splendid sight of the Atlantic breaking
on the wild coast on the western side? She hesitated; and then, when it
was suggested that she might walk across the island, she eagerly
accepted that alternative. They set out, on this hot, bright, beautiful
day.

But where he, eager to please her and show the beauties of the
Highlands, saw lovely white sands, and smiling plains of verdure, and
far views of the sunny sea, she only saw loneliness, and desolation, and
a constant threatening of death from the fierce Atlantic. Could anything
have been more beautiful, he said to himself, than this magnificent
scene that lay all around her when they reached a far point on the
western shore?--in face of them the wildly rushing seas, coming
thundering on to the rocks, and springing so high into the air that the
snow-white foam showed black against the glare of the sky; the nearer
islands gleaming with a touch of brown on their sunward side; the
Dutchman's Cap, with its long brim and conical centre, and Lunga, also
like a cap, but with a shorter brim and a high peak in front, becoming a
trifle blue; then Coll and Tiree lying like a pale stripe on the
horizon; while far away in the north the mountains of Rum and Skye were
faint and spectral in the haze of the sunlight. Then the wild coast