horse, it seemed, had stumbled in a hole that had been made by a fallen tree, and he had been pitched over the precipice, where the yew-tree is—your favorite seatvand his body was swept away by the river. It was picked up a month afterward at the Broomielaw, in Glasgow. That cup was a cup of poison; but though all the force of law was brought to bear upon the investigation; though there existed no doubt as to the parties who had paid, or had promised to pay, the murderous surgeon, still they avoided a conviction. Whether it was wealth, the vast wealth, at stake, and that could only go to them, that prevented detection, or staid the avenging arm of Justice, I do not know; but her death was called a death produced by the malady under which it was known she had been for some days suffering. I never saw her father afterward, for he left the country, and it was said that he removed to America. I think it very likely. I heard that he never spoke to any one of his plans, but kept all his sorrow, and his agony, and his intentions, locked in his own breast. I heard, also, that he married again in the New World. He was never liked in the neighborhood, although no one knew why he was unpopular. I always thought him a very intense man where his daughter's interest was concerned; but otherwise he was cold and secluded, almost forbidding. Whether it was that none of the succeeders to her property liked to live here or not, I can not say, but so it was. This estate was offered for sale, and my mother bought it. It was beautiful then, and you know how much we have improved it. But, my dear H———, while we have made the roses bloom all around the house, and built additions to it, and have made the fields green, and got the trees in the park to be finer than any in Scotland, we have never been able to wash away the poison-mark of murder from our favorite room. Good night! I will try and sleep."
I took her hand and kissed her saintly forehead. She gave me the bunch of keys, to put away in her desk, and having rung the bell for her maid, I left her.
