"Come awa, sir--come awa; I thought you meant to bide up-stairs a' night. Here are hot collops, devilled turkey, stewed kidneys, mulled claret, port, sherry, and whisky toddy--draw in a chair, sir, and make yourself at hame." "I have a hawk's appetite, bailie," said my kinsman, applying himself assiduously to the devil and the sherry. "And I ditto, double--for I have ridden in from Stirling market to-day; try the cold gibelotte pie." "Thank you; I'll rather stick to my old friend--a devilled bone smacks of the bivouac. Pass the sherry, bailie. Thank you." "Try the kidneys; they would serve a king." "Thanks. By the bye, who is that noble lady now residing here?" "Noble lady?" reiterated the bailie, looking up with his mouth full, and surprise in his flushed face. "Yes; she whom I passed, or rather who passed me, on the staircase to-night." The bailie pushed back his chair and plate. "A lady, sir!" he stammered, while his eyes opened wider. "She in the black dress brocaded with white stars." "Gude hae mercy on us!--and a dwarf holding up her tail?" "The same." "The Lord take us a' into his holy keeping! Ye have seen _her_?" "Seen who? What the devil do you mean?" "_The wife of the Red Comyn!_" "Come, that is good; but I am too old a soldier, bailie, to believe all this." "Keep us frae harm!" continued the old man, as his rubicund visage grew pale, and he glanced stealthily over his shoulder while lowering his voice; "she hasna' been seen for these ten years past; heaven send it portends nae evil to our family!" "Our family," meant the house; so completely were the old Scottish domestics identified with those they served. "Lord help you, sir," he continued, draining a hot jug of toddy almost at a draught; "you have seen a wandering spirit." "It may have been fancy, bailie; but I certainly saw her picture, and that is tangible enough." "That picture was painted two hundred years and mair after her death; and there is a devilish story connected with it too." "'Pon my honour, bailie, you quite interest me," said the captain, brewing a jug of smoking toddy, and drawing a chair nearer to the fire; "the atmosphere of this place becomes full of diablerie. Painted two hundred years _after_ her death! I hope the likeness is good; but tell me all about it."