A fashionable mineral-water spa has sprung up beside a decaying Scottish village, and its idle visitors fill their days with dinners, gossip and amateur theatricals. Meg Dods, the fierce landlady of the old inn, receives a mysterious guest whose arrival stirs up an old secret involving the laird’s family and his fragile sister Clara.
Scott’s one novel of contemporary manners, with a satirical eye on watering-place society and a dark undertow. Download the free EPUB.