The Lost Lady of Lone

?The Lost Lady of Lone

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Title: The Lost Lady of Lone
Author: E.D.E.N. Southworth
Release Date: June 11, 2005 [EBook #16039]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LOST LADY OF LONE
By MRS. E.D.E.N. SOUTHWORTH
Author of "Nearest and Dearest," "The Hidden Hand," "Unknown," "Only a Girl's Heart," "For Woman's Love," etc.
1876

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.
"THE LOST LADY OF LONE" is different from any of Mrs. Southworth's other novels. The plot, which is unusually provocative of conjecture and interest, is founded on thrilling and tragic events which occurred in the domestic history of one of the most distinguished families in the Highlands of Scotland. The materials which these interesting and tragic annals place at the disposal of Mrs. Southworth give full scope to her unrivalled skill in depicting character and developing a plot, and she has made the most of her opportunity and her subject.

CONTENTS.
I. The bride of Lone
II. An ideal love
III. The ruined heir
IV. Salome's choice
V. Arondelle's consolation
VI. A horrible mystery on the wedding-day
VII. The morning's discovery
VIII. A horrible discovery
IX. After the discovery
X. The letter and its effect
XI. The vailed passenger
XII. The house on Westminster Road
XIII. A surprise for Mrs. Scott
XIV. The second bridal morn
XV. The cloud falls
XVI. Vanished
XVII. The lost Lady of Lone
XVIII. The flight of the duchess
XIX. Salome's refuge
XX. Salome's protectress
XXI. The bridegroom
XXII. At Lone
XXIII. A startling charge
XXIV. The vindication
XXV. Who was found?
XXVI. Off the track
XXVII. In the convent
XXVIII. The soul's struggle
XXIX. The stranger in the chapel
XXX. The haunter
XXXI. The abbess' story
XXXII. The duke's double
XXXIII. After the earthquake
XXXIV. Risen from the grave
XXXV. Face to face
XXXVI. A gathering storm
XXXVII. A sentence of banishment
XXXVIII. The storm bursts
XXXIX. The rivals
XL. After the storm
XLI. Father and son
XLII. Her son
XLIII. The duke's ward
XLIV. Retribution
XLV. After the revelation
XLVI. Retribution
XLVII. The end of a lost life
XLVIII. Husband and wife

THE LOST LADY OF LONE.

CHAPTER I.
THE BRIDE OF LONE.
"Eh, Meester McRath? Sae grand doings I hae na seen sin the day o' the queen's visit to Lone. That wad be in the auld duke's time. And a waefu' day it wa'."
"Dinna ye gae back to that day, Girzie Ross. It gars my blood boil only to think o' it!"
"Na, Sandy, mon, sure the ill that was dune that day is weel compensate on this. Sooth, if only marriages be made in heaven, as they say, sure this is one. The laird will get his ain again, and the bonnyest leddy in a' the land to boot."
"She is a bonny lass, but na too gude for him, although her fair hand does gie him back his lands."
"It's only a' just as it sud be."
"Na, it's no all as it sud be. Look at they fules trying to pit up yon triumphal arch! The loons hae actually gotten the motto 'HAPPINESS' set upside down, sae that a' the blooming red roses are falling out o' it. An ill omen that if onything be an ill omen. I maun rin and set it right."
The speakers in this short colloquy were Mrs. Girzie Ross, housekeeper, and Mr. Alexander McRath, house-steward of Castle Lone.
The locality was in the Highlands of Scotland. The season was early summer. The hour was near sunset. The scene was one of great beauty and sublimity. The occasion one of high festivity and rejoicing.
The preparations were being completed for a grand event. For on the morning of the next day a deep wrong was to be made right by the marriage of the young and beautiful Lady of Lone to the chosen lord of her heart.
Lone Castle was a home of almost ideal grandeur and loveliness, situated in one of the wildest and most picturesque regions of the Highlands, yet brought to the utmost perfection of fertility by skillful cultivation.
The castle was originally the stronghold of a race of powerful and warlike Scottish chieftains, ancestors of the illustrious ducal line of Scott-Hereward. It was strongly built, on a rocky island, that arose from The midst of a deep clear lake, surrounded by lofty mountains.
For generations past, the castle had been but a picturesque ruin, and the island a barren desert, tenanted only by some old retainer of the ancient family, who found shelter within its huge walls, and picked up a scanty living by showing the famous ruins to artists and tourists.
But some years previous to the commencement of our story, when Archibald-Alexander-John Scott succeeded his father, as seventh Duke of Hereward, he conceived the magnificent,