But there are folk living in the neighbourhood who remember Mary Smeaton.

The facts are these: she was a very handsome young woman, not a native of the district, who came in service to one of the farms on the Cheviots, and who, by a comparison of dates, left her place somewhat suddenly very soon after that marriage." Smeaton turned to Mr.Lindsey in the same quiet fashion.
"What do you make of all this ?" he asked.
"Plain as a pikestaff," answered Mr.Lindsey in his most confident manner.

"Michael Carstairs fell in love with this girl and married her, quietly--as Mr.Ridley says, seeing that the marriage was by licence, it's probable, nay, certain, that nobody but the parson and the witnesses ever knew anything about it.

I take it that immediately after the marriage Michael Carstairs and his wife went off to America, and that he, for reasons of his own, dropped his own proper patronymic and adopted hers.

And," he ended, slapping his knee, "I've no doubt that you're the child of that marriage, that your real name is Gavin Carstairs, and that you're the successor to the baronetcy, and--the real owner of Hathercleugh,--as I shall have pleasure in proving." "We shall see," said Smeaton, quietly as ever.