for any sums which I required as an extra advance; and thus may
be said to have insinuated himself into the absolute management

and control of my property. Or, if all this seeming friendship
was employed by Sir Edward for the purpose of obtaining a

complete command of my affairs, and acquiring the power of
ruining me at his pleasure, I feel myself, I must repeat, still

less bound by the alleged obligation.
"About the autumn of last year, as I understand, either his own

crazed imagination, or the accomplishment of some such scheme as
I have hinted, brought him down to this country. His alleged

motive, it seems, was a desire of seeing a monument which he had
directed to be raised in the chapel over the tomb of your mother.

Mr. Ratcliffe, who at this time had done me the honour to make my
house his own, had the complaisance to introduce him secretly

into the chapel. The consequence, as he informs me, was a frenzy
of several hours, during which he fled into the neighbouring

moors, in one of the wildest spots of which he chose, when he was
somewhat recovered, to fix his mansion, and set up for a sort of

country empiric, a character which, even in his best days, he was
fond of assuming. It is remarkable, that, instead of informing

me of these circumstances, that I might have had the relative of
my late wife taken such care of as his calamitous condition

required, Mr. Ratcliffe seems to have had such culpable
indulgence for his irregular plans as to promise and even swear

secrecyconcerning them. He visited Sir Edward often, and
assisted in the fantastic task he had taken upon him of

constructing a hermitage. Nothing they appear to have dreaded
more than a discovery of their intercourse.

"The ground was open in every direction around, and a small
subterranean cave, probably sepulchral, which their researches

had detected near the great granitepillar, served to conceal
Ratcliffe, when any one approached his master. I think you will

be of opinion, my love, that this secrecy must have had some
strong motive. It is also remarkable, that while I thought my

unhappy friend was residing among the Monks of La Trappe, he
should have been actually living, for many months, in this

bizarre disguise, within five miles of my house, and obtaining
regular information of my most private movements, either by

Ratcliffe, or through Westburnflat or others, whom he had the
means to bribe to any extent. He makes it a crime against me

that I endeavoured to establish your marriage with Sir Frederick.
I acted for the best; but if Sir Edward Mauley thought otherwise,

why did he not step manfully forward, express his own purpose of
becoming a party to the settlements, and take that interest which

he is entitled to claim in you as heir to his great property?
"Even now, though your rash and eccentric relation is somewhat

tardy in announcing his purpose, I am far from opposing my
authority against his wishes, although the person he desires you

to regard as your future husband be young Earnscliff; the very
last whom I should have thought likely to be acceptable to him,

considering a certain fatal event. But I give my free and hearty
consent, providing the settlements are drawn in such an

irrevocable form as may secure my child from suffering by that
state of dependence, and that sudden and causeless revocation of

allowances, of which I have so much reason to complain. Of Sir
Frederick Langley, I augur, you will hear no more. He is not

likely to claim the hand of a dowerless maiden. I therefore
commit you, my dear Isabella, to the wisdom of Providence and to

your own prudence, begging you to lose no time in securing those
advantages, which the fickleness of your kinsman has withdrawn

from me to shower upon you.
"Mr. Ratcliffe mentioned Sir Edward's intention to settle a

considerable sum upon me yearly, for my maintenance in foreign
parts; but this my heart is too proud to accept from him. I told

him I had a dear child, who, while in affluence herself, would
never suffer me to be in poverty. I thought it right to intimate

this to him pretty roundly, that whatever increase be settled
upon you, it may be calculated so as to cover this necessary and

natural encumbrance. I shall willingly settle upon you the
castle and manor of Ellieslaw, to show my parental affection and

disinterested zeal for promoting your settlement in life. The
annual interest of debts charged on the estate somewhat exceeds

the income, even after a reasonable rent has been put upon the
mansion and mains. But as all the debts are in the person of Mr.

Ratcliffe, as your kinsman's trustee, he will not be a
troublesome creditor. And here I must make you aware, that

though I have to complain of Mr. Ratcliffe's conduct to me
personally, I, nevertheless, believe him a just and upright man,

with whom you may safelyconsult on your affairs, not to mention
that to cherish his good opinion will be the best way to retain

that of your kinsman. Remember me to Marchie--I hope he will not
be troubled on account of late matters. I will write more fully

from the Continent. Meanwhile, I rest your loving father,
RICHARD VERE."

The above letter throws the only additional light which we have
been able to procure upon the earlier part of our story. It was

Hobbie's opinion, and may be that of most of our readers,that the
Recluse of Mucklestane-Moor had but a kind of a gleaming, or

twilight understanding; and that he had neither very clear views
as to what he himself wanted, nor was apt to pursue his ends by

the clearest and most direct means; so that to seek the clew of
his conduct, was likened, by Hobbie, to looking for a straight

path through a common, over which are a hundred devious tracks,
but not one distinct line of road.

When Isabella had perused the letter, her first enquiry was after
her father. He had left the castle, she was informed, early in

the morning, after a long interview with Mr. Ratcliffe, and was
already far on his way to the next port, where he might expect to

find shipping for the Continent.
"Where was Sir Edward Mauley?"

No one had seen the Dwarf since the eventful scene of the
preceding evening.

"Odd, if onything has befa'en puir Elshie," said Hobbie Elliot,
"I wad rather I were harried ower again."

He immediately rode to his dwelling, and the remaining she-goat
came bleating to meet him, for her milking time was long past.

The Solitary was nowhere to be seen; his door, contrary to wont,
was open, his fire extinguished, and the whole hut was left in

the state which it exhibited on Isabella's visit to him. It was
pretty clear that the means of conveyance which had brought the

Dwarf to Ellieslaw on the preceding evening, had removed him from
it to some other place of abode. Hobbie returned disconsolate to

the castle.
"I am doubting we hae lost Canny Elshie for gude an' a'."

"You have indeed," said Ratcliffe, producing a paper, which he
put into Hobbie's hands; "but read that, and you will perceive

you have been no loser by having known him."
It was a short deed of gift, by which "Sir Edward Mauley,

otherwise called Elshender the Recluse, endowed Halbert or Hobbie
Elliot, and Grace Armstrong, in full property, with a

considerable sum borrowed by Elliot from him."
Hobbie's joy was mingled with feelings which brought tears down

his rough cheeks.
"It's a queer thing," he said; "but I canna joy in the gear,

unless I kend the puir body was happy that gave it me."
"Next to enjoying happiness ourselves," said Ratcliffe, "is the

consciousness of having bestowed it on others. Had all my
master's benefits been conferred like the present, what a

different return would they have produced! But the
indiscriminate profusion that would glut avarice, or supply

prodigality, neither does good, nor is rewarded by gratitude. It
is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind."

"And that wad be a light har'st," said Hobbie; "but, wi' my young
leddie's leave, I wad fain take down Eishie's skeps o' bees, and

set them in Grace's bit flower yard at the Heugh-foot--they shall
ne'er be smeekit by ony o' huz. And the puir goat, she would be