“Oh, papa, do him credit!” she cried; “it’s like a story come true!  What a romantic thing to happen!”

“What a spirit!” her mother reflected proudly.  “She is just the girl for a chieftain’s bride!”

That very night was chosen for the ceremony, and eleven o’clock found them all assembled breathless in the drawing-room:  all, save Lord Tulliwuddle and his host.

“Will they have to wait for a whole hour?” asked Mrs. Gallosh in a low voice.

Indeed they all spoke in subdued accents.

“I am told,” replied the Count, “that the apparition never appears till after midnight has struck.  Any time between twelve and one he may be expected.”

“Think of the terrible suspense after twelve has passed!” whispered Eva.

The Count had thought of this.

“I advised Duncan to take his flask,” said Mr. Rentoul, with a solemn wink.  “So he’ll not be so badly off.”

“Papa would never do such a thing to-night!” cried Eva.

“It’s always a kind of precaution,” said the sage.

Presently Count Bunker, who had been imparting the most terrific particulars of former interviews with the Wraith to the younger Galloshes, remarked that he must pass the time by overtaking some pressing correspondence.

“You will forgive me, I hope, for shutting myself up for an hour or so,” he said to his hostess.  “I shall come back in time to learn the results of the meeting.”

And with the loss of his encouraging company a greater uneasiness fell upon the party.

Meanwhile, in a vast cavern of darkness, lit only by the solitary candle, the Baron and his host endeavored to maintain the sceptical buoyancy with which they had set forth upon their adventure.  But the chilliness of the room (they had no fire, and it was a misty night with a moaning wind), the inordinate quantity of odd-looking shadows, and the profound silence, were immediately destructive to buoyancy and ultimately trying to scepticism.

“I wish ze piper vould play,” whispered the Baron.

“Mebbe he’ll begin nearer the time,” his companion suggested.

The Baron shivered.  For the first time he had been persuaded to wear the full panoply of a Highland chief, and though he had exhibited himself to the ladies with much pride, and even in the course of dinner had promised Eva Gallosh that he would never again don anything less romantic, he now began to think that a travelling-rug of the Tulliwuddle tartan would prove a useful addition to the outfit on the occasion of a midnight vigil.  Also the stern prohibition against talking aloud (corroborated by the piper with many guttural warnings) grew more and more irksome as the night advanced.

“It’s an awesome place,” whispered Mr. Gallosh.

“I hardly thought it would have been as lonesome-like.”

There was a tremor in his voice that irritated the Baron.

“Pooh!” he answered, “it is jost vun old piece of hombog!  I do not believe in soch things myself.”