THE heiress of McGregor walked slowly up the valley, absorbed in sorrowful thoughts, till a turn of the path brought to her view the baronial mansion of her forefathers. In other words, Marion McGregor, going home from school, came in sight of her father's house. The first expression was the way in which Marion would have liked to describe her progress; the latter was more in accordance with the stern, prosaic facts of the case. Strictly speaking, it was not exactly true, either, for neither house nor farm belonged to the McGregor family, though they had lived there so many years that the house was always known as the McGregor place. It was part of a large estate which covered at least half of Holford county. A great Scotch nobleman had bought an immense tract of wild land in those parts very soon after the Revolution, and most of it remained in the hands of his grandson. It was partly improved and let on long leases as farming and grazing land, though there were still large tracts of mountain and forest which had never been touched by man.