[Frontispiece: As he opened the door...] _As he opened the door, he started back in surprise. "Fore God" he said "did I not know, I should think it Lord Carthew in life again"_ HEARTS AND THE HIGHWAY A ROMANCE OF THE ROAD _First set forth by Lady Katharine Clanranald and Sir Hugh Richmond and now transcribed by Cyrus Townsend Brady_ Author of "The Island of Regeneration," "The Better Man," etc. WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS By F. C. YOHN A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY _Published, March_ 1911 Dedicated to MRS. HARRIETTE ROSCOE ELLARD AND HER DEVOTED ASSOCIATES IN THE LIVELIEST AND MOST ENTHUSIASTIC WOMAN'S AUXILIARY SOCIETY THAT I KNOW PREFACE This story is exactly what it purports to be, a romance, as the reader who cares to follow the Highway with the Hero and Heroine whose adventures thereon are hereafter set forth will see. It makes no pretence at being an historical novel, and yet, perhaps, it is only fair to the Manes of Lady Grizel Ogilby to point out that she herself once played a dashing rôle, somewhat like that attributed to Lady Katharine Clanranald, in a similar emergency in Scottish history and at a similar crisis in the family fortunes. I am just a little tired, for the nonce, of the problem story, and I have turned to this with a keen relish in which I humbly trust the reader will share. Variety is the life of literature: if I confined myself to one kind of books, or to one kind of sermons, I should be a dead author and a dead preacher as well. The relaxations of life are not to be found in idleness, but in doing things that are different. It is a far cry from _The Island of Regeneration_ to _The Better Man_ and from _The Better Man_ to _Hearts and the Highway_. And it will be a farther cry, perhaps, to the next story! Here's hoping that each may find a place and welcome in some gracious reader's heart. CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY. ST. GEORGE'S RECTORY, KANSAS CITY, Mo., New Year's Day, 1911. CONTENTS BOOK I THE WINNING OF A HUSBAND _As Set Forth by the Lady of the Quest, with a Necessary Interlude by the Gentleman in Person_ CHAPTER I _In Which I, Lady Katharine Clanranald, Come to a Desperate but Manly Resolution_ CHAPTER II _Wherein Worthy Master Dunner Finds My Lord Carthew's Clothes Vastly Becoming to Me as I Ride Away_ CHAPTER III _How I Ate, Drank, and Gamed with Sir Hugh Richmond, Under Whom I Would Fain See Service_ CHAPTER IV _Wherein I Played the Highwayman and What Befell Me on the Road_ CHAPTER V _In Which I Ride Away with My Captor, Who Threatens Me with Death for High Treason_ CHAPTER VI _In Which, by the Favour of the King's Messenger, I am Permitted to Ride South Again on My Quest_ CHAPTER VII