Lucy felt proud of her brother, as well from the bold and manly turn of his sentiments as from the dangers he had encountered, and the spirit with which he had surmounted them.

And Julia, while she pondered on her father's words, could not help entertaining hopes that the independent spirit which had seemed to her father presumption in the humble and plebeian Brown would have the grace of courage, noble bearing, and high blood in the far-descended heir of Ellangowan.
They reached at length the little eminence or knoll upon the highest part of the common, called Gibbie's Knowe--a spot repeatedly mentioned in this history as being on the skirts of the Ellangowan estate.

It commanded a fair variety of hill and dale, bordered with natural woods, whose naked boughs at this season relieved the general colour of the landscape with a dark purple hue; while in other places the prospect was more formally intersected by lines of plantation, where the Scotch firs displayed their variety of dusky green.

At the distance of two or three miles lay the bay of Ellangowan, its waves rippling under the influence of the western breeze.

The towers of the ruined castle, seen high over every object in the neighbourhood, received a brighter colouring from the wintry sun.
'There,' said Lucy Bertram, pointing them out in the distance, 'there is the seat of our ancestors.