"’Give them time, Mr. Purdie,’ says he. ’If I buy a dog, or a horse, or a house, I can call it by what name I please; and so I can with a piece of water and an old ruin. But not too much time, Mr. Purdie—not too much time. If they have a will of their own, so have I. If there’s to be neither Loch Stanley nor Castle Stanley, I’ll make pretty well sure there will be neither Loch Heimra nor Castle Heimra. I’ll put an end to those Rosses calling themself after any part of my property. I’ll soon wipe out the last trace of them from the mainland, anyway; and they’re welcome to the island out there, for anything I mind. The seven centuries of history can follow them across the water; I’ve no room for such things on my estate.’ And that’s just how it came about, Miss Stanley. Not one creature in the whole of the district but would stick to the old name; crofter, cottar, shepherd, fisher-laddie, they were all alike. There was no help for it; Your uncle was a determined man. Anyone that contended with him was bound to get the worst of it; and here he was dealing with his own. ’Very well,’ said he, ’if there’s to be no Castle Stanley, I’ll take care there shall be no Castle Heimra. Mr. Purdie, get the loch drained of its last drop of water, and have every stone of the useless old ruin hauled to the ground!’ And that’s precisely what ye saw this afternoon, Miss Stanley!" Her reply somewhat astonished the vain-glorious factor, who had perhaps been expecting approval. "It was shamelessly done!" said she—but as if she were not addressing him at all. And then she rose, and Kate Glendinning rose also; so that Mr. Purdie practically found himself dismissed—or rather he dismissed himself, pleading that it was late. He made some appointment for the next morning, and presently left: no doubt glad enough to get a chance of lighting his pipe and having a comfortable smoke on his way home to the inn. When the two girls went into the drawing-room—which was a large hexagonal room in the tower, with windows looking north, west, and south—they found that the lamps had not yet been brought in, and also perceived, to their surprise, that the night outside had cleared and was now brilliant with its thousands of throbbing stars. They went to one of the windows. The heavily-moaning sea was hardly visible, but the heavens were extraordinarily lustrous; they were even aware of a shimmer of light on the grey stone terrace without: perhaps it was from the gleaming belt of Orion that hung above a dark headland jutting out towards the west; while there, also, was the still more fiery Sirius, that burned and palpitated behind the black birch-woods in the south. And then they turned to seek the island of Heimra—out there on the mystic and sombre plain—under that far-trembling and shining canopy.