man
had headed a conspiracy in which his inhuman master was put to death, and had
then fled to the next tribe of wild Indians. He was never more heard of; and it
may therefore be presumed that he lived and died after the manner of that savage
people, with whom his previous habits had well fitted him to associate.
    All hopes of the young man's reformation being now ended, Mr. and Mrs.
Butler thought it could serve no purpose to explain to Lady Staunton a history
so full of horror. She remained their guest more than a year, during the greater
part of which period her grief was excessive. In the latter months, it assumed
the appearance of listlessness and low spirits, which the monotony of her
sister's quiet establishment afforded no means of dissipating. Effie, from her
earliest youth, was never formed for a quiet low content. Far different from her
sister, she required the dissipation of society to divert her sorrow, or enhance
her joy. She left the seclusion of Knocktarlitie with tears of sincere
affection, and after heaping its inmates with all she could think of that might
be valuable in their eyes. But she did leave it; and, when the anguish of the
parting was over, her departure was a relief to both sisters.
    The family at the Manse of Knocktarlitie, in their own quiet happiness,
heard of the well-dowered and beautiful Lady Staunton resuming her place in the
fashionable world. They learned it by more substantial proofs, for David
received a commission; and as the military spirit of Bible Butler seemed to have
revived in him, his good behaviour qualified the envy of five hundred young
Highland cadets, »come of good houses,« who were astonished at the rapidity of
his promotion. Reuben followed the law, and rose more slowly, yet surely.
Euphemia Butler, whose fortune, augmented by her aunt's generosity, and added to
her own beauty, rendered her no small prize, married a Highland laird, who never
asked the name of her grandfather, and was loaded on the occasion with presents
from Lady Staunton, which made her the envy of all the beauties in Dumbarton and
Argyle shires.
    After blazing nearly ten years in the fashionable world, and hiding, like
many of her compeers, an aching heart with a gay demeanour - after declining
repeated offers of the most respectable kind for a second matrimonial
engagement, Lady Staunton betrayed the inward wound by retiring to the
Continent, and taking up her abode in the convent where she had received her
education. She never took the veil, but lived and died