This Edition enjoys copyright in all
countries signatory to the Berne
Treaty, and is not to be imported
into the United States of America

TO
AN UNDYING MEMORY

AUTHOR’S NOTE

BEFORE proceeding with this story I must apologize for a striking inaccuracy which it contains. I have represented the educated characters as speaking, but for certain turns of phrase, the ordinary English which is now universal. But, in Scotland, in the very early nineteenth century, gentle and simple alike kept a national distinction of language, and remnants of it lingered in the conversation, as I remember it, of the two venerable and unique old ladies from whom the characters of Miss Hersey Robertson and her sister are taken. They called it ‘Court Scots.’

For the assistance of that tender person, the General Reader, I have ignored it.

V. J.

1903.

CONTENTS

BOOK I
CHAPTER PAGE
I. [THE HEIR]1
II. [AT GARVIEKIRK]14
III. [FRIENDSHIP]24
IV. [JIMMY]36
V. [THE STRIFE OF TONGUES]49
VI. [THE DOVECOTE OF MORPHIE]59
VII. [THE LOOKING-GLASS]73
VIII. [THE HOUSE IN THE CLOSE]81
IX. [ON FOOT AND ON WHEELS]91
X. [KING COPHETUA’S CORRESPONDENCE]101
XI. [THE MOUSE AND THE LION]111
XII. [GRANNIE TAKES A STRONG ATTITUDE]117
XIII. [PLAIN SPEAKING]127
XIV. [STORM AND BROWN SILK]140
XV. [THE THIRD VOICE]150
XVI. [BETWEEN LADY ELIZA AND CECILIA]160
XVII. [CECILIA PAYS HER DEBTS]168
XVIII. [THE BOX WITH THE LAUREL-WREATH]177
BOOK II
XIX. [SIX MONTHS]186
XX. [ROCKET]194
XXI. [THE BROKEN LINK]205
XXII. [CECILIA SEES THE WILD GEESE]215
XXIII. [AN EMPTY HOUSE]225
XXIV. [A ROYAL VISIT]234
XXV. [MRS. SOMERVILLE HAS SCRUPLES]241
XXVI. [ALEXANDER BARCLAY DOES HIS BEST]251
XXVII. [THE SKY FALLS ON GILBERT]257
XXVIII. [AGNETA ON THE UNEXPECTED]269
XXIX. [THE QUEEN OF THE CADGERS TAKES THE ROAD]275
XXX. [MORPHIE KIRK]286
[EPILOGUE]298

BOOK I