And to conclude with a romance in brief, some forty or fifty years ago, in the far north of England a girl was on the eve of being married. Her wedding dress was ordered, the guests were bidden. But, it is said that at the eleventh hour, in a fit of passion and paltry jealousy, she resented some fancied want of devotion in her lover. He was single-minded, loyal, and altogether of finer stuff than herself; but she was a wretched slave to such old stock phrases as delicacy, family pride, and the like, and so he was allowed to go, for she came of people who looked upon unforgiveness as a virtue. Accordingly the discarded lover exchanged into a regiment under orders for Afghanistan. At the time, our troops were engaged there in hot fighting. The lad fell, and hidden on his breast was found a locket which his sweetheart had once given him. It came back to her through a brother officer, who had known something of his sad story, with a stain on it--a stain of his blood. When that painful relic silently told her of the devotion which she had so unjustly and basely wronged, there came, in the familiar lines: A mist and a weeping rain, And life was never the same again. That stain marked every day of a lonely life throughout forty years or more. FOOTNOTES: [56] "Vicissitudes of Families," 1863, III. Ser., 202-203. INDEX. "Abbey Vows," The, 56-58. Abingdon, John, Secret Room built by, at Hendlip Hall, 91-93. Abrams, Disappearance of a Jew named, 251, 252. Accidents, Lucky, 279-288. Adolphus, Gustavus, Burial of, 262. Ainsworth and Cuckfield Place, 180, 181. Alexander III., Banquet of, 73-75. Alfred, Prince, Death of, 79, 80. Allan David, the Painter, 279, 280. Anne of Austria, Heart of, 262. Anne of Burton Agnes Hall, Skull of, 40-43. Antoinette, M., and the Chevalier D'Eon, 220. Armscott Manor, Secret Room at, 95, 96. Arrowsmith, Father, Hand of, 158-160. Arundell, Sir John, 12, 13. Aubrey's "Miscellanies," 132, 133. "Awd Nance" of Burton Agnes Hall, 40-43. Baillie, James, 290-292. Baker, Sir Richard, 110-112. Baker, Sir Richard, and the Murder of Edward II., 89. Baliol, John, The Heart of, 256. Ballafletcher, Estate of, 201, 202. Ballyshannon, Waterfall at, 272. Bandini, The Sisters, 137-140. Bank of England, Discovery in the Vaults of the, 264. Banquets, Strange, 69-87. Banshee, The, 193. Barcroft Hall; the Idiot's Curse, 9, 10. Baring-Gould, Rev. S., Story by, 156, 157. Barn Hall, Tradition of, 165, 166. Barritt, Thomas, and the Wardley Hall Skull, 39, 40. Baydoyle Bank's Tragedy, The, 115. "Bearded Watt," The, 68. Beauchamp, Lord, Ghost of, 275, 276. Belgrade, Bombardment of, Vow made by the Servians at, 68. Benedick, Vow of, 51. Berkeley Castle, Walpole and, 88, 89. Bernard, Samuel, "Address to the Deil," 173. Bernshaw Tower, Lady Sybil of, 168-170. Berry Pomeroy Castle, Spectre at, 197. Betsy, the Doctress (Russell), 222-224. Bettiscombe, Screaming Skull at, 29-32.