Page:Jeanie Deans and the lily of St. Leonard's.pdf/19

 19 if she was the sister of Effie Deans. "I am, ex- claimed Jeanie ; and I beseech you to tell me what can be done to save her." "She can only be saved, said the stranger, by your acting accord- ing to my directions. Effie is innocent of the crime laid to her charge; and, when called on as a witness on her trial, you have but to say that she made you aware of her condition, and the law loses its power."_" Alas! said Jeanie, she never spoke to me on the subject. I wad ware the best blood in my body for her, but I canna swear to an untruth.” “You shall swear! thundered the ruffian, presenting a pistol as he spoke; when suddenly seizing her arm, and mut- tering, Your sister's life is in your hands," he darted off into the surrounding gloom, and was soon lost to her sight. Almost at the same in- stant four men rushed passed her in the direction which the fugitive had taken; and Jeanie terri- fied beyond expression, hastened from the fatal spot, and took the nearest road homeward, never once slackening her pace until she was safe beneath her father's roof. The person whom Jeanie met at the cairn, and who appeared so interested in the fate of her sister, was George Staunton, the son of a wealthy English gentleman, who had bestowed on him a liberal education. Instead of profit- ing, however, by these advantages, he gave him, self up to a course of ruinous dissipation; and having quarrelled with his father, he left his home, and retired to Scotland under the name of Robertson. While at Edinburgh he met with Effie Deans, who in a short time fell a sacrifice to his seduction : and a though his love for the Lily of St. Leonard's was sincere, the ill-fated ed enterprise in which he had engaged rendered it