SAMPSON LOW & Co., ST. DUNSTAN'S HOUSE, FETTER LANE, London. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON. Illustrated. A PRINCESS OF THULE. THE MAID OF KILLEENA; and other Tales. MADCAP VIOLET. GREEN PASTURES AND PICCADILLY. MACLEOD OF DARE. With Illustrations. WHITE WINGS: a Yachting Romance. THE BEAUTIFUL WRETCH: The Four Macnicols: A Pupil of Aurelius. SHANDON BELLS. JUDITH SHAKESPEARE. YOLANDE: The Story of a Daughter. THE WISE WOMEN OF INVERNESS, a Tale; and other Miscellanies. WHITE HEATHER. SABINA ZEMBRA, MACMILLAN & Co., LONDON. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A HOUSE-BOAT. BY WILLIAM BLACK, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, LIMITED, St. Dunstan's House, FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C. 1888. [All rights reserved.] THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A HOUSE-BOAT. CHAPTER I. "Quoth I, 'My bird, my bonnie, bonnie bird, 666 Or is't some words ye've learnt by rote, Oh, no, no, no,' the wee bird sang, I've flown since mornin' early; But sic a day o' wind and rain— O! wae's me for Prince Charlie!'" On this still morning, while as yet the unknown world around us seems but half awake, there is a tall young lady, of slim and elegant figure, standing all alone in the stern of the boat. It is the Person without a Character. She has perched herself on the steersman's plank; her arms are placed on the transverse VOL. II. B 201791 |