THE WIDOW NAIRN.
By the Author of "Natalia's Ordeal,"
"A Vain Sacrifice,” Etc.
CHAPTER I.
An Incomer to Cantiehowe.
All the way down from Bo'uess to
the East Neuk Fof ife the north bank
of the Fourth, with stretches of a few
green miles between, is studded with
little towns that lie dozing along the
shore; towns whose physiognomy has
changed little if any in the last 200
years.
Should the ghost of someone who
in mortal form had been familiar with
these shores some two centuries ago
revisit them now, floating up in one
of the fogs or easterly haars which,
rising in the North sea, come trailing
up the coast, veiling the sun and dull
ing the day, he would still be able io
itcognize the well-known and well-re
membered places.
The chief features remain unchang
ed, cave for an occasional tall chimney
here and there or a fashionable villa,
standing out eonspicously on some lo
cal promotory; warts, more new warts
grown upon the face of the dear old
landscape. To the east, indeed, some
new harbors have been built, but even
there nature’s original outlines have
been so closely followed as to alter the
appearance but little.
The ancient steeples pointing heav
enward still lend picturesqueness to
the view, as also do the grim and
hoary castle ruins, in sullen silence
mouldering to decay, relics of an age
and a spirit that die hard.
The little low-eaved, carthen-floored,
stone hovels built as homes for the
humble toilers also linger, inhabited
still; but these too are fast disappear
ing with the barbarous selfishness of
the age they belonged to.
