Ysobel might have had the most isolated and lonely of childhoods, there in the feudal castle in Muircarrie moor. Yet the parentless child has the company of Jean and Angus, who look after her -- and now she has found a playmate, who is brought to her one misty day by a tall, gaunt chieftain with a star-shaped scar upon his forehead, and who rides a black horse.
For a brief time the moor comes alive with the sounds of the two girls at play -- until the new girl whirls around a bush, and utterly vanishes.
"Where did she go?" Ysobel says to Jean and Angus, when she finds them again.
"It was Dark Malcolm of the Glen," says Angus, after hearing her out. "And the girl -- Wee Brown Elspeth!"
"But she is white -- quite white!" said Ysobel.
Jean sweeps the shivering Ysobel into her warm arms, hugging her close to her breast, and says, "She's one of the fair ones. She'll come often, I dare say!"
English-born American author Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) enjoyed international success with novels for children, including Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Secret Garden, and the magical The White People.
