Nothing artistic could be more beautifully executed than the upturned and polished arms, from which the lace that foreign looms must have woven, hung in loops upheld by diamonds. A necklace of precious stones encircled her neck, and a large band of the same formed a coronet round her head, and gave an imperial grace to her lofty beauty of feature and of form.
The captain gazed on it till the figure appeared to come forward and the canvas to recede, till the eyes seemed to fill with light and the proud lips to curl with a scornful smile; and then he turned away, for the strange picture bad a mysterious effect upon him, and hastily he sought the hall, where a hot and savoury supper smoked on the centre table, and where the bailie or castellan of the absent proprietor impatiently awaited him.
"Come awa, sir—come awa; I thought you meant to bide up-stairs a' night. Here are hot collops, devilled turkey, stewed kidneys, mulled claret, port, sherry, and whisky toddy—draw in a chair, sir, and make yourself at hame."
"I have a hawk's appetite, bailie," said my kinsman, applying himself assiduously to the devil and the sherry.
"And I ditto, double—for I have ridden in from Stirling market to-day; try the cold gibelotte pie."
"Thank you; I'll rather stick to my old friend—a devilled bone smacks of the bivouac. Pass the sherry, bailie. Thank you."
"Try the kidneys; they would serve a king."
"Thanks. By the bye, who is that noble lady now residing here?"
"Noble lady?" reiterated the bailie, looking up with his mouth full, and surprise in his flushed face.
"Yes; she whom I passed, or rather who passed me, on the staircase to-night." The bailie pushed back his chair and plate.