Alec Forbes of Howglen

Excerpt: ... the far-off beehive dungeon-it was no wonder, I say, that she should shrink and draw back. A few rays came through the decayed planks of the door which Alec had pushed to behind them, and fell upon the rubbish of centuries sloping in the brown light and damp air down into the abyss. One larger ray from the keyhole fell upon Kate's face, and showed it blanched with fear, and her eyes distended with the effort to see through the gloom. At that moment, a sweet, low voice came from somewhere, out of the darkness, saying: "Dinna be feared, mem, to gang whaur Alec wants ye to gang. Ye can lippen (trust) to him." Staring in the direction of the sound, Kate saw the pale face of a slender-half child, half maiden, glimmering across the gulf that led to the dungeon. She stood in the midst of a sepulchral light, whose faintness differed from mere obscuration, inasmuch as it told how bright it was out of doors in the sun. Annie, I say, stood in this dimness-a dusky and yet radiant creature, seeming to throw off from her a faint brown light-a lovely, earth-stained ghost. "Oh! Annie, is that you?" said Alec. "Ay is't, Alec," Annie answered. "This is an old schoolfellow of mine," he said, turning to Kate, who was looking haughtily at the girl. "Oh! is it?" said Kate, condescending. Between the two, each looking ghostly to the other, lay a dark cavern-mouth that seemed to go down to Hades. "Wonna ye gang doon, mem?" said Annie. "No, thank you," answered Kate, decisively. "Alec'll tak' guid care o' ye, mem." "Oh! yes, I daresay; but I had rather not." Alec said nothing. Kate would not trust him then! He would not have thought much of it, however, but for what had passed before. Would she have gone with Beauchamp if he had asked her? Ah! if he had asked Annie, she too would have turned pale, but she would have laid her hand in his, and gone with him. "Gin ye want to gang up, than," she said, "I'll lat ye see the easiest road. It's roun' this way." And she...