Front matter

BY

WILLIAM BLACK

"If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?"

NEW AND REVISED EDITION

NEW YORK: HARPER AND BROTHERS 1892

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED; STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFATORY NOTE.

I have long wished to place before the public an edition of these novels of mine which should have at least the mechanical merit of uniformity. Also I had in contemplation, especially with regard to the earlier volumes, a large measure of re-shaping and re-writing; so that books composed amid stress and turmoil might gain something from the comparative leisure of later years. But this wider project I found impracticable. For one thing, it would have taken a few lifetimes to accomplish; then again, it was just possible that a certain freshness and rudeness of touch might have been ill replaced by a nicer precision. Nevertheless in many minor ways these pages have now been thoroughly revised; verbal and other inaccuracies have been corrected; crooked places have been made straight; conversations condensed; while a considerable number of those little playfulnesses which the printer somehow mysteriously manages, when one is not watching, to introduce into the text, have been removed. It only remains for me, in submitting this new series to the reading public, to express my deep sense of gratitude for the constant favour and kindness I have already and for so long a time experienced at their hands.

W. B.

London, January, 1892.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

I.—Coquette's Arrival II.—Coquette's Religion III.—A Penitent IV.—An unexpected Visitor V.—Coquette's Music VI.—Earlshope VII.—The Crucifix VIII.—Saltcoats IX.—Coquette's Promise X.—The Schoolmaster XI.—A Meeting on the Moor XII.—Coquette's Conquests XIII.—A Horoscope XIV.—Sir Peter and Lady Drum XV.—A dangerous Adventure XVI.—Coquette leaves Airlie XVII.—Lochfyne XVIII.—Coquette sails to the North XIX.—Coquette discourses XX.—Letters from Airlie XXI.—Coquette is troubled XXII.—On the Seashore XXIII.—Coquette begins to fear XXIV.—Touching certain Problems XXV.—Coquette's Presentiments XXVI.—Confession at last XXVII.—Loin de France XXVIII.—After many Days XXIV.—Coquette's Dreams XXX.—On the Way XXXI.—An awful Visitor XXXII.—In the Springtime XXXIII.—Over the Moor XXXIV.—Lord Earlshope's Cave XXXV.—The Nemesis of Love XXXVI.—The Last Day At Airlie XXXVII.—Coquette in Town XXXVIII.—All about Kelvin-side XXXIX.—Lady Drum's Dinner-party XL.—The Rosebud XLI.—The Whaup becomes anxious XLII.—At the Theatre XLIII.—Coquette is told XLIV.—Coquette's Forebodings XLV.—A Legend of Earlshope XLVI.—The Minister's Publisher XLVII.—An Apparition XLVIII.—Earlshope is Invaded XLIX.—Coquette's Song L.—Coquette forsakes her Friends LI.—A Secret of the Sea LII.—Consent LIII.—The Pale Bride LIV.—Husband and Wife LV.—The Churchyard on the Moor

A DAUGHTER OF HETH