“Two of the sweet’st companions in the world.” Cymbeline...

The mansion-house of Dalrulzian stands on the lower slope of a hill, which is crowned with a plantation of Scotch firs. The rugged outline of this wood, and the close-tufted mass of the treetops, stan...

Old Rolls had been butler at Dalrulzian since John Erskine was a child. He had “stayed on” after Mrs. Erskine’s second marriage with reluctance, objecting seriously to a step-master at all, and still ...

That night dispersed illusions from the mind of John Erskine which it had taken all his life to set up. He discovered in some degree what his real position was, and that it was not a great one. He got...

The explanation which was given to John Erskine on the highroad between Dalrulzian and Lindores, as it is still more important to us than to him, must be here set forth at more length. There are some ...

Mr. Torrance of Tinto was the representative of an old county family, but he would not have been the richest commoner in Scotland if he had been no more than this. A variety of other circumstances, ho...

Alas! it was not very long before everybody knew. The demeanour of Pat Torrance at the dinner, to which Lady Lindores had been so reluctant to ask him, gave much occasion for thought to the other gues...

There are few things in human affairs more curious than the structure of what is called society, wherever it is met with, whether in the most primitive of its developments or on the higher levels. The...

In the midst of all the attentions paid him by his neighbours and the visitors who followed each other day by day, there was one duty which John Erskine had to fulfil, and which made a break in the ti...

Lady Caroline Torrance was in her morning-room with her children when her husband came to tell her of his visit to Dalrulzian. He had kept it for twenty-four hours, in order to have an opportunity of ...

After the strange scene in which she had been made a party to her sister’s wretchedness, it was inevitable that Edith should return to Lindores so completely occupied with this subject that she could ...

“Do you like him, Nora?” This is a question that means nothing in most cases, nor would it have meant anything now save for Nora’s special sense of having been presented to John Erskine in something l...

It was a rainy morning when the Lindores went away. They were not rich enough to command all the delights of the London season, and had no house in town, nor any position to keep up which demanded the...

Lord Rintoul made his appearance in the house which his parents had hired in Eaton Place on the day before their arrival, with a mixture of satisfaction and anxiety. He was pleased, for he was a good ...

The present writer has already confessed to a certain disinclination to venture upon any exposition of the manners and customs of the great; and should an attempt be made to thread the mazes of the se...

Lord Millefleurs had given his family a great deal of trouble⁠—not in the old-fashioned way of youthful folly or dissipation, which is too well known in every age, the beaten road upon which young men...

The party at Tinto was increased by Dr. Stirling and his wife, which made six, instead of four as the master of the house had intended. His meaning, so far as it was a meaning at all and not a mere im...

“Oh yes, that’s true⁠—I’m an old Tory. I’m proud of the name,” said Sir James, with his genial countenance. “If you’ll believe me, my young friend, most changes are for the worse. When I remember, bef...

It happened after this that John Erskine, by no will of his own, was drawn repeatedly into the society of the somewhat lonely pair at Tinto. Torrance had never been popular, though the county extended...

John Erskine woke with the singing of the birds on the morning of Midsummer-day. It was early⁠—far before any civilised hour of waking. When he suddenly opened his eyes in the sweet strangeness of tha...

They were very glad to see him⁠—very kind to him⁠—impossible to be kinder; ready to enter into all their experiences of town, and to find out who were the people he knew among their friends, and to di...

When the news of the approaching festivities at Dalrulzian were known in Dunearn, Miss Barbara Erskine and her household were flung into a whirlpool of excitement such as had not disturbed their calm ...

The ball was in full career; everybody had come to it from all the houses within reach, and the radius was wide⁠—extending over the whole county. It was universally acknowledged that nobody could have...

The summer went over without any special incident. August and the grouse approached, or rather the Twelfth approached, August having already come. Every bit of country not arable or clothed with pastu...

“The thing is, that he must be brought to the point. I said so in town. He dangled after her all the season, and he’s dangled after her down here. The little beggar knows better than that. He knows th...

John Erskine was on the steps leading to the great central entrance when the carriage from Lindores drove up at the door. It was not by chance that he found himself there, for he was aware of the inte...

Old Rolls went up the road which led by the Scaur. It was shorter than the formal avenue, and less in the way of more important visitors. He was much distressed and “exercised in his mind” about the a...

The drive home would have been very embarrassing to the ladies had not Millefleurs been the perfect little gentleman he was. Rintoul, though he ought to have been aware that his presence was specially...

This extraordinary interruption put a stop at once to the struggle between the father and daughter. They both came to a sudden pause, not only in their conversation, but in their thoughts, which were ...

Lady Lindores and Edith were carried along through the darkness of the night with that curious sense of rapid unseen movement which has in it a kind of soothing influence upon suspense and mental dist...

It was late when John Erskine got home on the afternoon of this eventful day. John Tamson’s wife mended his coat for him, and he got himself brushed and put in order; then his excitement calming down,...

Next day the countryside far and near thought and talked of nothing but the fatal accident at Tinto, which was such a public event as moved everybody. There was no figure in the district more widely k...

Left to themselves, Millefleurs and Beaufort stood opposite to each other for a moment with some embarrassment. To have anything to do with a quarrel is always painful for the third person; and it was...

Rolls went upstairs and dressed himself in his best⁠—his “blacks,” which he kept for going to funerals and other solemnities⁠—not the dress in which he waited at table and did his ordinary business. T...

Beaufort drove home on that eventful afternoon by himself. He had left his friend in the county jail, in a state in which surprise was still perhaps the predominant feeling. John had said little on th...

“Your master is just a young fool. Why, in the name of a’ that’s reasonable,” cried Mr. Monypenny, “did he not send for me?” “Sir,” said Rolls, “you’re too sensible a man not to know that the last thi...

The day after John’s incarceration was the funeral day at Tinto. The whole country was moved by this great ceremonial. The funeral was to be more magnificent than ever funeral had been before for hund...

It is a strange experience for a man whose personal freedom has never been restrained to find himself in prison. The excitement and amazement of the first day made it something so exceptional and extr...

Rintoul had bad nights, and could not sleep. He had been in such constant movement that day that he was fatigued, and had hoped for rest; but after tossing on his uneasy bed, he got up again, as for s...

Rolls disappeared on the evening of the day on which he had that long consultation with Mr. Monypenny. He did not return to Dalrulzian that night. Marget, with many blushes and no small excitement, se...

“Dear Mr. Erskine⁠—I do not know what words to use to tell you how pained and distressed we are⁠—I speak for my mother as well as myself⁠—to find that nothing has been done to relieve you from the con...

Carry drove away from Lindores in the afternoon sunshine, leaning back in her corner languidly watching the slanting light upon the autumnal trees, and the haze in which the distance was hid, soft, bl...

No morning ever broke which brought more exciting expectations than the morning of the 25th September in the various houses in which our history lies. Of the dozen people whose interests were concerne...

John Erskine had received Edith’s letter that morning in his prison. His spirits were at a very low ebb when it was put into his hand. Four days’ confinement had taken the courage out of him more effe...

John Erskine returned to Dalrulzian alone after this wonderful morning’s work. He could scarcely believe that he was free to walk where he pleased⁠—to do what he liked. Four days is not a long period ...

Rolls in the county jail, sent hither on his own confession, was in a very different position from John Erskine, waiting examination there. He was locked up without ceremony in a cell, his respectabil...

After this there ensued a brief pause in the history of the family in all its branches: it was a pause ominous, significant⁠—like the momentary hush before a storm, or the torrent’s smoothness ere it ...

The profoundest of the many wounds inflicted upon Lord Lindores, at this terrible period of his life, was that which he thus received at the hands of Rintoul: it was so altogether unexpected, so unlik...

Thus between threats and promises, and patience and obstinacy, it came gradually to pass that Lord Lindores had to yield. He made that winter a very unhappy one to his family⁠—and it was not more agre...

When a pair of lovers are finally delivered from all those terrible obstacles that fret the current of true love, and are at last married and settled, what more is there to be said about them? One pha...

Scotticè, accused. ↩...