e sounded strange in this hollow building.

For they had now entered by the open doorway; and all around them were
the tall and crumbling pillars, and the arched windows, and ruined
walls, here and there catching the sharp light of the moonlight, here
and there showing soft and gray with a reflected light, with spaces of
black shadow which led to unknown recesses. And always overhead the
clear sky with its pale stars; and always, far away, the melancholy
sound of the sea.

"Do you know where you are standing now?" said he, almost sadly. "You
are standing on the grave of Macleod of Macleod."

She started aside with a slight exclamation.

"I do not think they bury any one in here now," said he, gently. And
then he added, "Do you know that I have chosen the place for my grave?
It is away out at one of the Treshnish islands; it is a bay looking to
the west; there is no one living on that island. It is only a fancy of
mine--to rest for ever and ever with no sound around you but the sea and
the winds--no step coming near you, and no voice but the waves."

"Oh Keith, you should not say such things: you frighten me!" she said,
in a trembling voice.

Another voice broke in upon them, harsh and pragmatical.

"Do you know, Sir Keith," said Mr. White, briskly, "that the moonlight
is clear enough to let you make out this plan? But I can't get the
building to correspond. This is the chancel, I believe; but where are
the cloisters?"

"I will show you," Macleod said; and he led his companion through the
silent and solemn place, her father following. In the darkness they
passed through an archway, and were about to step out on to a piece of
grass, when suddenly Miss White uttered a wild scream of terror and sank
helplessly to the ground. She had slipped from his arm, but in an
instant he had caught her again and had raised her on his bended knee,
and was calling to her with kindly words.

"Gertrude, Gertrude!" he said. "What is the matter? Won't you speak to
me?"

And just as she was pulling herself together the innocent cause of this
commotion was discovered. It was a black lamb that had come up in the
most friendly manner and had rubbed its head against her hand to attract
her notice.

"Gertrude, see! it is only a lamb! It comes up to me every time I visit
the ruins; look!"

And, indeed, she was mightily ashamed of herself; and pretended to be
vastly interested in the ruins; and was quite charmed with the view of
the S