"Lucy covered her face with her hands, and the tears, in spite of her, forced their way between her fingers. 'Forgive me,' said Ravenswood, taking her right hand, which, after slight resistance, she yielded to him, still continuing to shade her face with the left. 'I am too rude--too rough--too intractable to deal with any being so soft and gentle as you are. Forget that so stern a vision has crossed your path of life--and let me pursue mine, sure that I can meet no worse misfortune after the moment it divides me from your side.' "Lucy wept on, but her tears were less bitter. Each attempt which the Master made to explain his purpose of departure only proved a new evidence of his desire to stay; until, at length, instead of bidding her farewell, he gave his faith to her for ever, and received her troth in return. The whole passed so suddenly, and arose so much out of the immediate impulse of the moment, that ere the Master of Ravenswood could reflect upon the consequences of the step which he had taken, their lips, as well as their hands, had pledged the sincerity of their affection." But Lucy's mother, the ambitious Lady Ashton, endeavored to force her daughter to marry another. Lady Ashton was proud and vindictive, and she hated the Ravenswood family with such intensity that she did not scruple at any means to deceive Lucy into believing her love unfaithful. Lucy, on the other hand, was gentle and timid. Her mother called her, in derision, the "Lammermoor Shepherdess," to show that she considered Lucy plebeian in her tastes. In the struggle, Lucy went mad. Ravenswood, thinking himself rejected, came to an untimely end. "The Bride of Lammermoor" is in that group of the Waverley novels called "Tales of My Landlord." The plot was suggested by an incident in the family of the Earls of Stair. The scene is laid on the east coast of Scotland, in the year 1700. Though somber and depressing, "The Bride of Lammermoor" was very popular. The plot was used by Donizetti, the Italian composer, for his opera Lucia di Lammermoor. WALTER SCOTT By HAMILTON W. MABIE _Author and Editor_ _MENTOR GRAVURES_ LUCY AND THE MASTER "_The Bride of Lammermoor_" THE BLACK KNIGHT AT THE HERMITAGE "_Ivanhoe_" VARNEY, LEICESTER AND AMY ROBSART "_Kenilworth_" FLORA MacIVOR "_Waverley_" MEG MERRILIES DIRECTS BERTRAM TO THE CAVE "_Guy Mannering_" EFFIE DEANS AND GEORDIE "_Heart of Midlothian_" Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1916, by The Mentor Association, Inc. [Illustration: Bust of Sir Walter Scott By Sir Francis Chantrey] THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE SEPTEMBER 15, 1916