THE LADY’S WALK
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
| Sir Robert’s Fortune |
| The Two Marys |
| The Prodigals |
| THE LADY’S WALK CHAPTER: I, II, III, IV, V, VI. THE SHIP’S DOCTOR. |
THE
LADY’S WALK
BY
Mrs. OLIPHANT
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
LONDON
1897
THE LADY’S WALK
CHAPTER I
I WAS on a visit to some people in Scotland when the events I am aboutto relate took place. They were not friends in the sense of long orhabitual intercourse; in short, I had met them only in Switzerland inthe previous year; but we saw a great deal of each other while we weretogether, and got into that easy intimacy which travelling brings aboutmore readily than anything else. We had seen each other in very greatdéshabillé both of mind and array in the chilly mornings after anight’s travelling, which perhaps is the severest test that can beapplied in respect{6} to looks, and amid all the annoyances of journeysshort and long, with the usual episodes of lost luggage, indifferenthotels, fusses of every description, which is an equally severe test forthe temper; and our friendship and liking (I am at liberty to suppose itwas mutual, or they would never have invited me to Ellermore) remainedunimpaired. I have always thought, and still think, that CharlotteCampbell was one of the most charming young women I ever met with; andher brothers, if not so entirely delightful, were nice fellows, capitalto travel with, full of fun and spirit. I understood immediately fromtheir conversation that they were members of a large family. Theirallusions to Tom and Jack and little Harry, and to Mab and Mary, mightperhaps have been tedious to a harsher critic; but I like to hear ofother people’s relations, having scarcely any of my own. I found out bydegrees that Miss Campbell had been taken{7} abroad by her brothers torecover from a long and severe task of nursing, which had exhausted herstrength. The little ones had all been down with scarlet fever, and shehad not left them night or day. “She gave up seeing the rest of us andregularly shut herself in,” Charley informed me, who was the younger ofthe two. “She would only go out for her walk when all of us were out ofthe way. That was the worst of it,” the young fellow said, with greatsimplicity. That his sister should give herself up to the nursing wasnothing remarkable; bu