"And so much the better for her!" said Elsie. "And so my dawties—I beg your pardon—young leddies I should say—things got worse and worse between the young lord and his mother. At last the auld leddy began to have her suspicions, and she watched; and by and by she found sure enough, that her son was secretly married to a young lass, the only child of a poor old man who lived on the estate." "Aweel it's a sad story, and hardly fit for young ears, only to show what pride may lead weak and sinful mortals to do. The leddy went to see the poor thing, who was no' weel at the time, and persuaded her to take a medicine she brought her, which should make her well and strong. She took it, fell into fits and in an hour was dead. Her father was like one wild, and when the lord came that very evening to visit his wife, the auld man up and tauld him the whole story, and showed him the draught that was left—for she had na taken it all. The young lord gave it to a dog that followed him, and the poor creature died directly." "You may guess that the young lord and his mother did not meet on friendly terms. He charged her with murder to her face, and she owned it and gloried in it, and dared him to revenge it on her—the wicked creature—and he swore an awful oath, that now he would never marry at all, unless he married a she wolf—for that alone would be fit to mate with his mother. And then he flung away, and rode like one possessed through the mirk winter's night, and it was weeks before he returned. They say, that as he spoke his rash words, the long mournful howl of a wolf was heard in the woods so near the house that they both started—for though there were wolves in plenty in the Cheviot hills in those days, they did not often come near any dwelling." "I hope there are none about here now?" said I, for I had heard stories enough about these creatures in France, to make me dreadfully afraid of them. "Na, na! there's no wolf been seen in these parts for more than fifty years—not since I was a young maid like you. I heard tell that auld Lochiel killed one in Scotland not so long ago, but the Cameron's country is far away from here in the Highlands.