the first head-gear of the kind which I had
seen, its singularity struck me; but her
ladyship carried this curious erection of
buckram, fur, and tinsel, with a grace
which forbade a thought of ridicule. Her
beautiful figure was set off by a spenser of
scarlet cloth, and a tight-fitting skirt of
some white material which appeared to
have been damped, it clung so close to her
person. It was evident that her ladyship
was not neglectful of her appearance, nor
unmindful of the impression she made upon
even a humble individual like myself. She
came forward and greeted me with infinite
suavity, saying:

"It is amiable of you, Mr. Carthews, to
come and take pity on our solitude. We
see no one from one week's end to another
in this castle of Otranto (you have read
Mr. Walpole's romance?), where all is so
gloomy and mysterious that, as I tell my
lord, I am really alarmed sometimes at the
sound of my own voice!"

"I wish that occurred rather oftener,"
muttered his lordship. She continued,
laughing, "Our only society are the ghosts.
You don't mind them, I hope? They are
all of the oldest families, for we are mighty
select here, you must know. If they visit
you, you must esteem it a great honour,
Mr. Carthews."

I replied in the same strain, that I felt
myself to be wholly unworthy of that
honour; but that, if they came, I would
try and receive them with becoming
courtesy.

"Like my parrot," cried her ladyship,
laughing. "He and my spaniel sleep in my
room; and sometimes, in the dead of night,
he calls out, 'Pray, come in, and take a
chair!' which startles me from my sleep,
and frightens me out of my senses!"

His lordship said something about her
having no senses to be frightened out of,
I believe, and something about "brutes."
She caught up the word, with a laugh.

"Brutes? Oh, yes; one gets
accustomed to the society of brutes of any
sort, when one has nothing else all day."

Such amenities passed between the two
were of constant occurrence, I suppose, for
they produced little effect beyond deepening
the scowl on his lordship's face. As to
me, I felt very uncomfortable, and the
charm of Lady Dunblane's beauty had
already melted away. Though not a stupid
woman, I saw she was a very foolish one.
How she dared to aggravate a man of such
a temperament as her husband's amazed
me. It was just like a child handling fire.
She rattled away and laughed all that evening
with little intermission. Lord
Dunblane scarcely opened his lips. Over the
wine Pilson and I talked; but his lordship
stared moodily at the fire, and said nothing.
I began to think I had made a mistake in
coming all the way from Aberdeen for this.
To play the part of chorus to a matrimonial
duet of the most discordant character was
not pleasant; and if my former friend was
so self-absorbed as to be unable to speak to
me, the sooner I left him the better. I
suppose something of this sort struck
him, for he said, as he wished me good
night, "You must not mind my silence
and absence of mind, Carthews. I am very
glad to see you here; but my present
position gives me many anxieties. I am
irritated and worried until, by Heaven! I feel
at times as if I should go mad."

Well, I went to bed, and slept soundly.
I never was an imaginative man, you see,
or the room I was in might have conjured
up some of those spiritual visitants her
ladyship had joked about, evidently to her
lord's annoyance. Not that it was any
worse than the other rooms in the castle.
I take it they were all oak-panelled, with
hideous family portraits grinning from
the wall upon the occupants of the vast
draperied beds, in one of which I slept
without waking, until the servant brought
in my hot water for shaving. It was a
bright morning, and at breakfast I found
my host in better spirits than he had
seemed the previous evening. I could not
help speculating whether this could be in
consequence of Lady Dunblane's absence.
She never came down to breakfast, I found.
Her maid, a most formidable-looking
female, with red hair, and the muscles of a
gillie, came in, I remember, with a tray,
and took her ladyship's chocolate up to
her. This person, I was afterwards told,
had been born on the estate, and was
devoted to Dunblane. She had been ill
spoken of as a girl; but Dunblane's mother
had befriended and made this Elspie her
body servant, and Dunblane had insisted,
when he married, on her filling the same
office to his wife, much to that lady's
annoyance, who wished for a modish waiting-
woman from Edinburgh or London. So
much for this ill-favoured specimen of her
sex, to whom I never spoke in my life,
but who impressed me very unfavourably
whenever I saw her. After breakfast his
lordship took me over the castle, and gave
me all the historical associations connected
with it, showing me, with great pride, the
in which Queen Mary had slept, a yew
tree, said to have been planted by Robert