top of the watch-tower.

They came out upon a magnificent view.

The bright, long twilight of these Northern latitudes still hung
luminously over island, lake and mountain.

While Salome gazed upon it Dame Girzie said:

"All this frae the tower to the horizon, far as our eyes can reach, and
far'er, was for eight centuries the land of the Lairds of Lone. And noo!
a' hae gane frae them, and they hae gane frae us, and na mon kens where
they bide or how they fare. Wae's me!"

"It was indeed a household wreck," said Salome, with sigh of sincere
sympathy.

"Ye may say that, leddy, and mak' na mistake."

"What is that lofty mountain-top that I see on the edge of the horizon
away to the north, just fading in the twilight?" inquired Salome, partly
to divert the dame from her gloomy thoughts.

"Yon? Ay. Yon will be, Ben Lone. It will be twenty miles awa', gin it be
a furlong. Our young laird had a braw hunting lodge there, where in the
season he was wont to spend weeks thegither wi' his kinsman, Johnnie
Scott, for the young laird was unco' fond of deer stalking, and sic like
sport. I dinna ken wha owns the lodge now, or whether it went wi' the
lave of the estate," said Dame Girzie, with a deep sigh.