Merkland; or, Self Sacrifice

Mrs. Ross was inspired--how or by what means we are not sufficiently good metaphysicians to be able to specify--but inspired she was! It might be that all the court that had bee...

The next day, after a long interview with Christian Lillie, and granting the further delay of a week to Anne for Christian's sake, Mrs. Catherine returned to Edinburgh. At the w...

The summer had reached its height--the fervent month of July was waning, and Anne Ross's cheek growing paler every day.--Very hard to bear this time of waiting was, harder than...

The next morning rose, dim, hot, and oppressive, suiting well, in its unnatural stillness and sultry brooding, with the terror of bewilderment and darkness which had fallen upon...

Wearily, mocking sick hearts with their floods of brightness, the summer days stole on. The house of Schole gaunt and melancholy, stood shrined in the full glory of that sunshin...

The months travelled on peacefully; Jeanie Coulter and Walter Foreman were married with all due mirth and rejoicing. Ada Mina was reigning now, in the absence of all rival power...

Mr. Lumsden, of Portoran, was seated in his study. The March wind was blustering boisterous and rude without, driving its precious dust, so valuable, as the proverb says, to far...

Giles Sympelton ran from the glen. The lad was light of foot, and inspired with a worthy errand. Headlong, over burn, and ditch, and hedgerow he plunged on--past the long woods...

The bright weeks of May stole on rapidly, and Anne had made no advance in her search. Little Alice Aytoun, when she came to visit her, clung round her neck anxiously, lifting up...

Lewis Ross and his sister walked home together in silence and alienation. Lewis was sullenly indignant, while Anne, still overpowered by that whirl of agitation, pain and fear,...

Several days before Alice left the Tower, Lewis had written to Robert Ferguson, the youthful Edinburgh advocate, of whose very early call to the bar his father was so justly and...

"Na, I'm no saying that," said the cautious Duncan; "but I just thought within mysel that maybe ye were wanting to see the Laird; and he's in the parlor, and so's the mistress....

"It is so good of you to think of troubling yourself with me at the Tower, and must have put you so much out of the way, coming to Edinburgh, that I hasten to thank you. Poor de...

Upon the next day, Anne, accompanied by Jacky, left Edinburgh finally for her Aberford lodgings. She felt the isolation strangely at first: being alone in her own room, and bein...

Anne had fairly started upon her voyage of discovery. The beginning of it cost her many thoughts. She had half advanced to various peasant wives, whom she saw at cottage doors,...

These days passed on in suspense and anxiety to Mrs. Catherine. Uncertain what to believe or disbelieve, concerning the young man in whose fortunes she was so deeply interested,...

Esther Fleming, Norman Rutherford's nurse, lived in a cottage by herself, not far from Merkland. When the first Mrs. Ross's first son was born, Esther had entered her service as...

Lewis Ross found but a cold welcome at the Tower from its aged mistress. Why she addressed him with so much reserve, and without even the familiar harshness of her usual manner,...

Lewis Ross was undergoing a process of amelioration. From his earliest days he had been taught to consider himself the person of greatest importance in Merkland; and the pernici...

Other two weary slow-paced weeks wore through, before Mrs. Catherine heard any further tidings of her prodigal. At last Mr. Ferguson's hurried intimation of his arrival in Paris...

"You will permit me to correct you, Miss Ross. The name is by no means a common one; and there was some very distant connexion, I remember, between the Aytouns and Mrs. Catherin...

Upon the Friday Lewis returned home. Anne had walked out upon the Portoran road, looking for him, and met him a short distance from the gate of Merkland. He looked sulky and out...

Anne Ross was seated near Mrs. Catherine's piano when Alice Aytoun took her place at it timidly, and placing a sheet of manuscript music before her, began her song. Anne started...

By the beginning of April, the Macalpines were finally settled; the majority of them being employed as laborers on Mr. Ferguson's farms of Loelyin and Lochend. Roderick and his...

Within a week after these agitating events, Archibald Sutherland, in company with the anxious and attentive factor, rode into Portoran, to meet the third individual of their cou...

During the following week there were great preparations and much bustle in Merkland, for Lewis's birthday was to be celebrated with unwonted festivities, and all Mrs. Ross's ene...

Tiresome as the manifold preparations for a feast may be, there is something especially dreary and full of discomfort in the bustle of setting to rights, which comes after: dism...

The October sun rose brilliantly upon ancient Edinburgh, throwing the strong radiance of its russet gold upon the noble outline and antique grandeur of the historic city, and sh...

Mr. George Lumsden, the manager of Messrs. Sutor and Sinclair's Glasgow house, was desirous that Mr. Sutherland should enter immediately on his probation. So said the letter whi...

Sleepy, weary, and uncomfortable, the household of Merkland reluctantly bestirred itself next morning. Mrs. Ross rose ill-humored from very weariness. Duncan, and May, and Barba...

"Eh!" exclaimed Bell, "what has possessed me! There's no clove in a' the house and they need to be in--I kenna how mony things. You maun off to Portoran, Duncan, gallopping; the...

Another day, as bright, as weary, and as long, and still there were no tidings of Christian. Anne became alarmed. She sent out Jacky to make inquiries; Jacky ascertained that Mi...