{1} {1} {2} {2} THE LADY’S WALK BY THE SAME AUTHOR Sir Robert’s Fortune The Two Marys The Prodigals {3} {3} THE LADY’S WALK BY Mrs. OLIPHANT METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON 1897 Mrs. {4} {4} {5} {5} THE LADY’S WALK CHAPTER I I WAS on a visit to some people in Scotland when the events I am about to relate took place. They were not friends in the sense of long or habitual intercourse; in short, I had met them only in Switzerland in the previous year; but we saw a great deal of each other while we were together, and got into that easy intimacy which travelling brings about more readily than anything else. We had seen each other in very great déshabillé both of mind and array in the chilly