"Hoot, toot, bairn! You are just ready to stay!" said the old lady. "Would you go and leave your good man so soon, after you have had all this fash to get him? Go down now all of you, and leave this child to Alice and me for awhile. She will be the better of rest and quiet, and you will be muckle the better of your dinners." "But I fear I must return to Edinburgh, to-night, aunt!" said Sir Julius, hesitating. "You will do nothing of the kind!" said Lady Thornyhaugh, positively. "Would you leave the bairn before she is able to talk five minutes with you? Na, na! Your place is here just now. Yon lad at Edinbro' can want you well enough, and maybe you will think better of it and go home." I do not think the prospect of going home was very enticing to Sir Julius, after all that had happened, but he readily agreed to stay a few days till it should be seen what turn Amabel would take. Now that the thing was done, I believe he was glad to have her made happy in her own way. He was not altogether a bad man. He might even have been a good one if he had always lived with good people. The trouble was that he had absolutely no mind of his own. The next day, Amabel was decidedly better, and on the third she was able to sit up. Sir Julius began to talk of returning to Edinburgh, though, as I thought, not with any particular enthusiasm, when news arrived which changed all his plans. Old Robert came riding posthaste with letters from Mrs. Deborah, and startling letter's they were. The Hall had taken fire a few days after we left it and was almost entirely destroyed. No one had been hurt, but my lady had disappeared, and it was believed that she had perished in the flames. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXVI. THE END. MRS. DEBORAH'S letters contained a detailed account of the catastrophe. "Wilson, who has been here since the fire, says that her lady was like a distracted woman when she missed her step-daughter and discovered that she was nowhere concealed in the house. No one could imagine how she had escaped, as there was no door left unfastened to Amabel's room. Even when they discovered the door of communication with the haunted room, they had no thought of her escaping in that way, as both it and that leading to the secret stairs were fastened on the other side and could hardly be broken open.