"She would never say before that there was onything between her sister and young Redheugh--now she never tried to deny it, her heart was ower full. "Weel, Miss Ross, the miserable young man had gotten away in a foreign ship, and they hadna been at sea aboon a week when she foundered, and a' hands were lost; and there was an end of his crime and his punishment--they were baith buried in the sea. "But no the misery of them--the puir lassie was taen away somegate about Glasgow, but the news came to her ears there. What could ye think, Miss Ross? It wasna like a common death--there was nae hope in it, either for this world or the next. It crushed her, as the hail crushes flowers. Within a fortnight after that, bonnie Marion Lillie was in her grave. "Patrick was taen ill of a fever--they say the angry words he had spoken about Mr. Aytoun to young Redheugh lay heavy on his mind. Kirstin had to nurse him night and day--she couldna even leave him to see Marion buried. She died, and was laid in her grave among strangers. When Patrick was able to leave his bed, the two went west to see the grave--that was all that remained of their bonnie sister Marion. "Since that time they have lived sorrowful and solitary, keeping company with naebody; the sore stroke has crushed them baith. Patrick never sought his doctor's licence, nor tried to get a single patient. He has been ever since a broken-down, weak, invalid man." "He had a frail constitution like my ain," said Mrs. Yammer, "and Johann maun aye have some great misfortune to account for it, when it's naething but weakness. Eh, Miss Ross, if ye only kent the trouble it is to a puir frail creature like me to make any exertion." Miss Crankie twisted her strange little figure impatiently: "When auld Schole died, Christian and Patrick flitted into the house, and let their ain; they couldna bide it after that. It's a bit bonnie wee place, maybe twa miles on the ither side of Aberford; and Redheugh is maybe a quarter o' a mile nearer. They say the King gets the lands when ony man does a crime like that; it's what they ca' confiscate. Redheugh has been confiscate before now. The auld Rutherfords were Covenanters langsyne, and lost their inheritance some time in the eight-and-twenty years--but that was in a guid cause. Ony way, this Mr. Rutherford was the last of his name: if there had been ony heir, I kenna whether he could have gotten Redheugh or no, but it's a mercy the race is clean gane, and there is none living to bear the reproach." Anne's heart beat loudly against her breast; she remained to represent the fallen house of Rutherford--she was the heir--the reproach: and the suffering must be her's as well as Norman's. "And was there no doubt?" she asked, "was no one else suspected?"