law language-hooly and fairly, as one may say ill treating of business with an empty stomach-and here comes your tea, and I hope Hannah has made it to your taste." Meg sipped her tea-confessed Hannah's skill in the mysteries of the Chinese herb-sipped again, then tried to eat a bit of bread and butter, with very indifferent success; and notwithstanding the lawyer's compliments to her good looks, seemed, in reality, on the point of becoming ill. "In the deil's name, what is the matter!" said the lawyer, too well read in a profession where sharp observation is peculiarly necessary, to suffer these symptoms of agitation to escape him. Ay, dame? ye are taking this business of yours deeper to heart than ever I kend you take ony thing. Ony o' your banded debtors failed, or like to fail? What then! cheer ye up-you can afford a little loss, and it canna be ony great matter, or I would doubtless have heard of it.' "In troth, but it is a loss, Mr. Bindloose; and what say ye to the loss of a friend?" This was a possibility which had never entered the lawyer's long list of calamities, and he was at some loss to conceive what the old lady could possibly mean by so sentimental a prolusion. But just as he began to come out with his "Ay, ay, we are all mortal, Vita incerta, mors certissima!" and two or three more pithy reflections, which he was in the habit of uttering after funerals, when the will of the deceased was about to be opened,-just then Mrs. Dods was pleased to become the expounder of her own oracle. "I see how it is, Mr. Bindloose," she said; "I maun tell my ain ailment, for you are no likely to guess it; and so, if ye will shut the door, and see that nane of your giggling callants are listening in the passage, I will e'en tell you how things stand with me. Mr. Blindloose hastily arose to obey her commands, gave a cautionary glance into the Bank-Office, and saw that his idle apprentices were fast at their desks -turned the key upon them, as if it were in a fit of absence, and then returned, not a little curious to know what could be the matter with his old friend: and leaving off all further attempts to put cases, quietly drew his chair near hers, and awaited her own time to make her communication. "Mr. Bindloose," said she, "I am no sure that you may mind, about six or seven years ago, that there were twa daft English callants, lodgers of mine, that had some trouble from auld St. Ronan's about shooting on the Springwell-head muirs." "I mind it as weel as yesterday, Mistress," said the Clerk; "by the same token you gave me a note for my trouble, (which wasna worth speaking about,) and bade me no bring in a bill against the puir bairns -ye had aye a kind heart, Mrs. Dods." แ Maybe, and maybe no, Mr. Bindloose-that is just as I find folk.-But concerning these lads, they baith left the country, and, as I think, in some ill blude wi' ane another, and now the auldest and the doucest of the twa came back again about a fortnight sin' syne, and has been my guest ever since." "Aweel, and I trust he is not at his auld tricks again, good wife?" answered the Clerk. "I havena sae muckle to say either wi' the new Sheriff or the Bench of Justices as I used to hae, Mrs. Dods-and the Procurator-fiscal is very severe on poaching, being borne out by the new Association-few of our auld friends of the Killnakelty are able to come to the sessions now, Mrs. Dods." "The waur for the country, Mr. Bindloose," replied the old lady-"they were decent, considerate men, that didna plague a puir herd callant muckle about a moorfowl or a mawkin, unless he turned common fowler-Sir Robert Ringhorse used to say the herd lads shot as mony gleds and pyots as they did game, -But new lords new laws-naething but fine and imprisonment, and the game no a feather the plentier. If I wad hae a brace or twa of birds in the house, as every body looks for them after the twelfth-I ken what they are like to cost me-And what for no?risk maun be paid for.-There is John Pirner himsell, that has keepit the muir-side thirty year in spite of a' the lairds in the country, shoots, he tells me, now-a days, as if he felt a rape about his neck." 'It wasna about ony game business, then, that you wanted advice?" said Bindloose, who, though somewhat of a digresser himself, made little allowance for the excursions of others from the subject in hand. "Indeed is it no, Mr. Bindloose," said Meg; "but it is e'en about this unhappy callant that I spoke to you about. Ye maun ken I have cleiket a particular fancy to this lad, Francis Tirl-a fancy that whiles surprises my very sell, Mr. Bindloose, only that there is nae sin in it." "None-none in the world, Mrs. Dods," said the lawyer, thinking at the same time within his mind, "Oho! the mist begins to clear up-the young poacher has hit the mark, I see-winged the old barren gray hen!-ay, ay, a marriage-contract, no doubt-but maun gie her line. Ye are a wise woman, Mrs. Dods," he continued aloud, "and can doubtless consider the chances and the changes of human affairs." "But I could never have considered what has befallen this puir lad, Mr. Bindloose," said Mrs. Dods, "through the malice of wicked men.-He lived, then, at the Cleikum, as I tell you, for mair than a fortnight, as quiet as a lamb on a lea-rig-a decenter lad never came within my door-ate and drank enough for the gude of the house, and nae mair than was for his ain gude, whether of body or soul-cleared his bills ilka Saturday at e'en, as regularly as Saturday came round." "An admirable customer, no doubt, Mrs. Dods," said the lawyer. "Never was the like of him for that matter," answered the honest dame. "But to see the malice of men!--Some of thae landloupers and gill-flirts down at the filthy puddle yonder, that they ca' the Waal, had heard of this puir lad, and the bits of pictures that he made fashion of drawing, and they maun cuitle him awa doun to the hottle, where mony a bonny story they had clecked, Mr. Bindloose, baith of Mr. Tirl and of mysell." "A Commissary Court business," said the writer, going off again upon a false scent. 'I shall trim their jackets for them, Mrs. Dods, if you can but bring tight evidence of the facts-I will soon bring them to fine and palinode-I will make them repent meddling with your good name." My gude name! What the sorrow is the matter wi' my name, Mr. Bindloose?" said the irritable client. "I think ye hae been at the wee cappie this morning, for as early as it is-My gude name!-if ony body touched my gude name, I would neither fash counsel nor commissary-I wad be down amang them, like a jer-falcon amang a wheen wild-geese, and the best amang them that dared to say ony thing of Meg Dods by what was honest and civil, I wad sune see if her cockernonnie was made of her ain hair or other folk's. My gude name, indeed!" Weel, weel, Mrs. Dods, I was mista'en; that's a'," said the writer, "I was mista'cn; and I dare to say you would haud your ain wi' your neighbours as weel as ony woman in the land-But let us hear now what the grief is, in one word." "In one word, then, Clerk Bindloose, it is little short of murder," said Meg in a low tone, as if the very utterance of the word startled her. "Murder! murder, Mrs. Dods?-it cannot be there is not a word of it in the Sheriff-office-the Procurator-fiscal kens nothing of it-there could not be murder in the country, and me not hear of it-for God's sake, take heed what you say, woman and dinna get yourself into trouble." "Mr. Bindloose, I can but speak according to my lights," said Mrs. Dods; you are in a sense a judge in Israel, at least you are one of the scribes having authority-and I tell you, with a wae and a bitter heart, that this puir callant of mine that was lodging in my house has been murdered or kidnapped awa amang thae banditti folk down at the New Waal; and I'll have the law put in force against them, if it should cost me a hundred pounds." The Clerk stood much astonished at the nature of was angry!-I dared hardly face him mysell, and there are no mony folk that I am feared for-Meeting! there was nae meeting, I trow-they never dared to meet him fairly-but I am sure waur came of it than ever would have come of a meeting; for Anthony heard twa shots gang off as he was watering the auld naig down at the burn, and that is not far frae the at him for no making on to see what the matter was, but he thought it was auld Pirner out with the double barrel, and he wasna keen of making himself a witness, in case he suld have been caa'd on in the Poaching Court." Meg's accusation, and the pertinacity with which she] "Have less zeal!" said Meg, determined to be pleased seemed disposed to insist upon it. with no supposition of her lawyer, "Mr. Bindloose, "I have this comfort," she continued, "that what-ye little ken him-I wish ye had seen him when he ever has happened, it has been by no fault of mine, Mr. Bindloose; for weel I wot, before that bloodthirsty auld half-pay Philistine, MacTurk, got to speech of him, I clawed his cantle to some purpose with my hearth-besom.-But the poor simple bairn himsell, that had nae mair knowledge of the wickedness of human nature than a calf has of a flesher's gully, he threepit to see the auld hardened blood-footpatch that leads to the Buck-stane. I was angry shedder, and trysted wi' him to meet wi' some of the gang at an hour certain that same day, and awa he gaed to keep tryst, but since that hour nacbody ever his set een on him.-And the mansworn villains now want to put a disgrace on him, and say that he fled the country rather than face them!-a likely storyfled the country for them!-and leave his bill unsettled-him that was sae regular-and his portmantle and his fishing-rod, and the pencils and pictures he held sic a wark about!-It's my faithful belief, Mr. Bindloose-and ye may trust me or no as ye like that he had some foul play between the Cleikum and the Buck-stane. I have thought it, and I have dreamed it, and I will be at the bottom of it, or my name is not Meg Dods, and that I wad have them a' to reckon on.--Ay, ay, that's right Mr. Bindloose, tak out your pen and inkhorn, and let us set about it to purpose. With considerable difficulty, and at the expense of much cross-examination, Mr. Bindloose extracted from his client a detailed account of the proceedings of the company at the Well towards Tyrrel, so far as they were known to, or suspected by Meg, making notes, as the examination proceeded, of what appeared to be matter of consequence. After a moment's consideration, he asked the dame the very natural question, how she came to be acquainted with the material fact, that a hostile appointment was made between Captain MacTurk and her lodger, when, according to her own account, it was made intra parietes, and remotis testibus? "Ay, but we victuallers ken weel enough what goes on in our ain houses," said Meg-" And what for no? -If ye maun ken a' about it, I e'en listened through the keyhole of the door." "And do you say you heard them settle an appointment for a duel?" said the Clerk; "and did you no take ony measures to hinder mischief, Mrs. Dods, having such a respect for this lad as you say you have, Mrs. Dods?-I really wadna have looked for the like o' this at your hands." "In truth, Mr. Bindloose," said Meg, putting her apron to her eyes, "and that's what vexes me mair than a' the rest, and ye needna say muckle to ane whose heart is e'en the sairer that she has been a thought to blame. But there has been mony a challenge, as they ca' it, passed in my house when thae daft lads of the Wildfire Club and the Helterskelter were upon their rambles; and they had aye sense eneugh to make it up without fighting, sae that I really did not apprehend ony thing like mischief. And ye maun think, moreover, Mr. Bindloose, that it would have been an unco thing if a guest, in a decent and creditable public like mine, was to have cried coward before ony of thae land-louping blackguards that live down at the hottle yonder.' "That is to say, Mrs. Dods, you were desirous your guest should fight for the honour of your house," said Bindloose. "What for no, Mr. Bindloose?-Isna that kind of fray aye about honour? and what for should the honour of a substantial, four-nooked, sclated house of three stories, no be foughten for, as weel as the credit of ony of these feckless callants that make such a fray about their reputation ?-I promise you my house, the Cleikum, stood in the Auld Town of St. Ronan's before they were born, and it will stand there after they are hanged, as I trust some of them are like to be," "Well, but perhaps your lodger had less zeal for the honour of the house, and has quietly taken himself out of harm's way," said Mr. Bindloose; "for if I understand your story, this meeting never took place." "Well," said the Sheriff-clerk, "and I dare say he did hear a poacher fire a couple of shots-nothing more likely. Believe me, Mrs. Dods, your guest had no fancy for the party Captain MacTurk invited him to—and being a quiet sort of man, he has just walked away to his own home, if he has one-I am really sorry you have given yourself the trouble of this long journey about so simple a matter." Mrs. Dods remained with her eyes fixed on the ground in a very sullen and discontented posture, and when she spoke, it was in a tone of corresponding displeasure. Aweel-aweel-live and learn, they say-I thought I had a friend in you, Mr. Bindloose-I am sure I aye took your part when folk miscaa'd ye, and said ye were this, that, and the other thing, and little better than an auld sneck-drawing loon, Mr. Bindloose.And ye have aye keepit my penny of money, though, nae doubt, Tam Turnpenny lives nearer me, and they say he allows half a per cent mair than ye do if the siller lies, and mine is but seldom steered." "But ye have not the Bank's security, madam," said Mr. Bindloose, reddening. "I say harm of nae man's credit-ill would it beseem me--but there is a difference between Tam Turnpenny and the Bank, I trow. 66 Weel, weel, Bank here Bank there, I thought I had a friend in you, Mr. Bindloose; and here am I, come from my ain house all the way to yours for sma' comfort, I think." "My stars, madam," said the perplexed scribe, "what would you have me to do in such a blind story as yours, Mrs. Dods?-Be a thought reasonable consider that there is no Corpus delicti." Corpus delicti? and what's that?" said Meg; "something to be paid for, nae doubt, for your hard words a' end in that.--And what for suld Í no have a Corpus delicti, or a Habeas Corpus, or ony other Corpus that I like, sae lang as I am willing to lick and lay down the ready siller?" "Lord help and pardon us, Mrs. Dods," said the distressed agent, "ye mistake the matter a'thegether! When I say there is no Corpus delicti, I mean to say there is no proof that a crime has been committed."* "And does the man say that murder is not a crime, then?" answered Meg, who had taken her own view of the subject far too strongly to be converted to any other-"Weel I wot it's a crime, baith by the law of God and man, and mony a pretty man has been strapped for "Iken all that very weel," answered the writer; "but, my stars, Mrs. Dods, there is nae evidence of murder in this case-nae proof that a man has been slain-nae production of his dead body-and that is what we call the Corpus delicti." "Weel, than, the deil lick it out of ye," said Meg, rising in wrath, "for I will awa hame again; and as for the puir lad's body, I'll hae it fund, if it cost me turning the earth for three miles round wi' pick and shool-if it were but to give the puir bairn Christian burial, and to bring punishment on MacTurk and the murdering crew at the Waal, and to shame an auld doited fule like yoursell, John Bindloose." She rose in wrath to call her vehicle; but it was neither the interest nor the intention of the writer that case of the non-appearance of an individual; there must be **For example, a man cannot be tried for murder merely in the proof that the party has been murdered. his customer and he should part on such indifferent terms. He implored her patience, and reminded her that the horses, poor things, had just come off their stage an argument which sounded irresistible in the ears of the old she-publican, in whose early education due care of the post-cattle mingled with the most sacred duties. She therefore resumed her seat again in a sullen mood, and Mr. Bindloose was cudgeling his brains for some argument which might bring the old lady to reason, when his attention was drawn by a noise in the passage. CHAPTER XV. A PRAISER OF PAST TIMES. aware that his pocket was replenished with English and Scottish paper currency, returned the compliment with her best curtsey. Mr. Touchwood, when surveyed more at leisure, was a short, stout, active man, who, though sixty years of age and upwards, retained in his sinews and frame the elasticity of an earlier period. His countenance expressed self-confidence, and something like a contempt for those who had neither seen nor endured so much as he had himself. His short black hair was mingled with gray, but not entirely whitened by it. His eyes were jet-black, deep-set, small, and sparkling, and contributed, with a short turned-up nose, to express an irritable and choleric habit. His complexion was burnt to a brick-colour by the vicissitudes of climate, to which it had been subjected; and his face, which at the distance of a yard or two seemed hale and smooth, appeared, when closely examined, to be seamed with a million of wrinkles, crossing each other in every direction possible, but as fine as if drawn by the point of a very small needle. His dress was a blue coat and buff waistcoat, halfboots remarkably well blacked, and a silk handkerchief tied with military precision. The only antiquated part of his dress was a cocked hat of equilate He and his toothpick at my worship s mess. King John. THE noise stated at the conclusion of last chapter to have disturbed Mr. Bindloose, was the rapping of one, as in haste and impatience, at the Bank-office door, which office was an apartment of the Banker's house, on the left hand of his passage, as the parlour in which he had received Mrs. Dods was upon the right. In general, this office was patent to all having busi-ral dimensions, in the button-hole of which he wore ness there; but at present, whatever might be the hurry of the party who knocked, the clerks within the office could not admit him, being themselves made prisoners by the prudent jealousy of Mr. Bindloose, to prevent them from listening to his consultation with Mrs. Dods. They therefore answered the angry and impatient knocking of the stranger only with stifled giggling from within, finding it no doubt an excellent Joke, that their master's precaution was thus interfering with their own discharge of duty. With one or two hearty curses upon them, as the regular plagues of his life, Mr. Bindloose darted into the passage, and admitted the stranger into his official apartment. The doors both of the parlour and office remaining open, the cars of Luckie Dods (experienced, as the reader knows, in collecting intelligence) could partly overhear what passed. The conversation seemed to regard a cash transaction of some importance, as Meg became aware when the stranger raised a voice which was naturally sharp and high, as he did when uttering the following words, towards the close of a conversation which had lasted about five minutes-"Premium ?-Not a pice, sir-not a courie-not a farthing-premium for a Bank of England bill?-d'ye take me for a fool, sir?-do not I know that you call forty days par when you give remittances to London ?" Mr. Bindloose was here heard to mutter something indistinctly about the custom of the trade. a very small cockade. Mrs. Dods, accustomed to judge of persons by their first appearance, said, that in three steps which he made from the door to the tea-table, she recognised, without the possibility of mistake, the gait of a person who was well to pass in the world; "and that," she added with a wink, "is what we victuallers are seldom deceived in. If a goldlaced waistcoat has an empty pouch, the plain swan's down will be the brawer of the twa." "A drizzling morning, good madam," said Mr. Touchwood, as with a view of sounding what sort of company he had got into. "A fine saft morning for the crap, sir," answered Mrs. Dods, with equal solemnity. "Right, my good madam; soft is the very word, though it has been sometime since I heard it. I have cast a double hank about the round world since I last heard of a soft* morning." "You will be from these parts, then?" said the writer, ingeniously putting a case, which, he hoped, would induce the stranger to explain himself. And yet, sir," he added, after a pause, "I was thinking that Touchwood is not a Scottish name, at least that I ken of." "Scottish name?-no," replied the traveller; "but a man may have been in these parts before, without being a native-or, being a native, he may have had some reason to change his name-there are many reasons why men change their names." "Certainly, and some of them very good ones," said the lawyer; "as in the common case of an her of entail, where deed of provision and tailzie is maist ordinarily implemented by taking up name and arms.' 66 Ay, or in the case of a man having made the country too hot for him under his own proper appellative," said Mr. Touchwood. "Custom" retorted the stranger, "no such thingdamn'd bad custom, if it is one-don't tell me of customs Sbodikins, man, I know the rate of exchange all over the world, and have drawn bills from Timbuctoo-My friends in the Strand filed it along with Bruce's from Gondar-talk to me of premium on a Bank of England post-bill!-What d'ye look at the bill for ?-D'ye think it doubtful?-I can change it." "By no means necessary," answered Bindloose, "That is a supposition, sir," replied the lawyer, "the bill is quite right; but it is usual to indorse, sir." which it would ill become me to put.--But at any "Certainly-reach me a pen-d'ye think I can write rate, if you knew this country formerly, ye cannot but with my rattan ?-What sort of ink is this ?-yellow be marvellously pleased with the change we have as curry sauce-never mind-there is my name-been making since the American war-hill-sides bearPeregrine Touchwood-I got it from the Willoughbies, my Christian name-Have I my full change here?" Your full change, sir," answered Bindloose. "Why, you should give me a premium, friend, instead of me giving you one.' "It is out of our way, I assure you, sir," said the Banker, "quite out of our way-but if you would step into the parlour and take a cup of tea". "Why, ay," said the stranger, his voice sounding more distinctly as (talking all the while, and ushered along by Mr. Bindloose) he left the office and moved towards the parlour, a cup of tea were no such bad thing, if one could come by it genuine-but as for your premium"- So saying, he entered the parlour, and made his bow to Mrs. Dods, who, seeing what she called a decent, purpose-like body, and ing clover instead of heather-rents doubled, trebled, quadrupled-the auld reckie dungeons pulled down, and gentlemen living in as good houses as you will see any where in England." "Much good may it do them, for a pack of fools!" replied Mr. Touchwood, hastily. "You do not seem much delighted with our improvements, sir?" said the banker, astonished to hear a dissentient voice where he conceived all men were unanimous. "Pleased!" answered the stranger-"Yes, as much pleased as I am with the devil, who I believe set many Cossack leader, Platoff. ter calls rainy. of them agoing. Ye have got an idea that every thing must be changed-Unstable as water, ye shall not excel-I tell ye, there have been more changes in this poor nook of yours within the last forty years, than in the great empires of the East for the space of four thousand, for what I know." And why not," replied Bindloose, "if they be changes for the better?" | and drive-froth, foam, and flippancy-no steadiness ity-fair for nonsense-no well in your swamps tenanted by such a conceited colony of clamorous frogs." Spaw do you call it, madam ?-If you mean the new establishment that has been spawned down yonder at St. Ronan's, it is the very fountain-head of "But they are not for the better," replied Mr. Touch-folly and coxcombry-a Babel for noise, and a Vanwood, eagerly. "I left your peasantry as poor as rats indeed, but honest and industrious, enduring their lot in this world with firmness, and looking forward to the next with hope-Now they are mere eye-servants -looking at their watches, forsooth, every ten minutes, lest they should work for their master half an instant after losing-time-And then, instead of studying the Bible on the work days, to kittle the clergymen with doubtful points of controversy on the Sabbath, they glean all their theology from Tom Paine and Voltaire." "Weel I wot the gentleman speaks truth," said Mrs. Dods. "I fand a bundle of their bawbee blasphemies in my ain kitchen-But I trow I made a clean house of the packman loon that brought them! -No content wi' turning the tawpies' heads wi' ballants, and driving them daft wi' ribands, to cheat them out of their precious souls, and gie them the deevil's 's ware, that I suld say sae, in exchange for the siller that suld support their puir father that's aff wark and bedridden!" "Father! madam," said the stranger; "they think no more of their father than Regan or Goneril." "In good troth, ye have skeel of our sect, sir," replied the dame; "they are gomerils, every one of them-I tell them sae every hour of the day, but catch them profiting by the doctrine." "Sir, sir!" exclaimed Dame Dods, delighted with the unqualified sentence passed upon her fashionable rivals, and eager to testify her respect for the judicious stranger who had pronounced it,-" will you let me have the pleasure of pouring you out a dish of tea?" And so saying, she took bustling possession of the administration which had hitherto remained in the hands of Mr. Bindloose himself. "I hope it is to your taste, sir," she continued, when the traveller had accepted her courtesy with the grateful acknowledgment, which men addicted to speak a great deal usually show to a willing auditor. "It is as good as we have any right to expect, ma'am," answered Mr. Touchwood; not quite like what I have drunk at Canton with old Fong Quabut the Celestial empire does not send its best tea to Leadenhall Street, nor does Leadenhall Street send its best to Marchthorn." "That may be very true, sir," replied the dame; "but I will venture to say that Mr. Bindloose's tea is muckle better than you had at the Spaw-waal yonder." "Tea, madam!-I saw none-Ash leaves and black-thorn leaves were brought in in painted canis"And then the brutes are turned mercenary, ters, and handed about by powder-monkeys in livery, madam," said Mr. Touchwood. "I remember when and consumed by those who liked it, amidst the a Scottishman would have scorned to touch a shil-chattering of parrots and the squalling of kittens. I ling that he had not earned, and yet was as ready to help a stranger as an Arab of the desert. And now, I did but drop my cane the other day as I was riding -a fellow who was working at the hedge made three steps to lift it-I thanked him, and my friend threw his hat on his head, and 'damned my thanks, if that were all'-Saint Giles could not have excelled him." Weel, weel," said the banker, "that may be a' as you say, sir, and nae doubt wealth makes wit waver; but the country's wealthy, that cannot be denied, and wealth, sir, ve ken" "I know wealth makes itself wings," answered the cynical stranger; "but I am not quite sure we have it even now. You make a great show, indeed, with building and cultivation; but stock is not capital, any more than the fat of a corpulent man is health or strength." 66 "Surely, Mr. Touchwood," said Bindloose, who felt his own account in the modern improvements, a set of landlords, living like lairds in good earnest, and tenants with better housekeeping than the lairds used to have, and facing Whitsunday and Martinmas as I would face my breakfast-if these are not signs of wealth, I do not know where to seek for them." longed for the days of the Spectator, when I might have laid my penny on the bar, and retired without ceremony--But no-this blessed decoction was circulated under the auspices of some half-crazed bluestocking or other, and we were saddled with all the formality of an entertainment, for this miserable allowance of a cockle-shell full of cat-lap per head." "Weel, sir" answered Dame Dods, "all I can say is, that if it had been my luck to have served you at the Cleikum Inn, which our folk have kept for these twa generations, I canna pretend to say ye should have had such tea as ye have been used to in foreign parts where it grows, but the best I had I wad have gi'en it to a gentleman of your appearance, and I never charged mair than sixpence in all my time, and my father's before me.' "I wish I had known the Old Inn was still standing, madam," said the traveller; "I should certainly have been your guest, and sent down for the water every morning-the doctors insist I must use Cheltenham, or some substitute, for the bile-though, d-n them, I believe it's only to hide their own ignorance. And I thought this Spaw would have been the least evil of the two; but I have been fairly overreached-one might as well live in the inside of a bell. I think young St. Ronan's must be mad, to have established such a Vanity-fair upon his father's old property. "Do you ken this St. Ronan's that now is?" in They are signs of folly, sir," replied Touch wood; "folly that is poor, and renders itself poorer, by desiring to be thought rich; and how they come by the means they are so ostentatious of, you, who are a banker, perhaps can tell me better than I can guess." "There is maybe an accommodation bill dis-quired the dame. counted now and then, Mr. Touchwood; but men must have accommodation, or the world would stand still-accommodation is the grease that makes the wheels go." "Ay, makes them go down hill to the devil," answered Touchwood. "I left you bothered about one Ayr bank, but the whole country is an Air bank now, I think-And who is to pay the piper ?-But it's all one-I will see little more of it-it is a perfect Babel, and would turn the head of a man who has spent his life with people who love sitting better than running, silence better than speaking, who never eat but when they are hungry, never drink but when thirsty, never laugh without a jest, and never speak but when they have something to say. But here, it is all run, ride, "By report only," said Mr. Touchwood; "but I have heard of the family, and I think I have read of them, too, in Scottish history. I am sorry to understand they are lower in the world than they have been. This young man does not seem to take the best way to mend matters, spending his time among gamblers and black-legs." "I should be sorry if it were so," said honest Meg Dods, whose hereditary respect for the family always kept her from joining in any scandal affecting the character of the young Laird “My forbears, sir have had kindness frae his; and although maybe he may have forgotten all about it, it wad ill become me to say ony thing of him that should not be said of his father's son.' Mr. Bindloose had not the same motive for for- from his pocket, "I heard of little else the whole bearance; he declaimed against Mowbray as a place rang of him, till I was almost as sick of Tyre! thoughtless dissipater of his own fortune, and that of as William Rufus was. Some idiotical quarrel which others. "I have some reason to speak," he said, he had engaged in, and which he had not fought out, "having two of his notes for L.100 each, which I as their wisdom thought he should have done, was discounted out of mere kindness and respect for his the principle cause of censure. That is another folly ancient family, and which he thinks nae mair of now, which has gained ground among you. Formerly retiring, than he does of paying the national debt- two old proud lairds, or cadets of good family, And here has he been raking every shop in March-perhaps, quarrelled, and had a rencontre, or fought thorn, to fit out an entertainment for all the fine folk a duel after the fashion of their old Gothic ancestors; at the Well yonder; and tradesfolk are obliged to but men who had no grandfathers never dreamt of take his acceptances for their furnishings. But they such folly-And here the folk denounce a trumpery may cash his bills that will; I ken ane that will never dauber of canvass, for such I understand to be this advance a bawbee on ony paper that has John Mow-hero's occupation, as if he were a field-officer, who bray either on the back or front of it. He had mair made valour his profession; and who, if you deprived need to be paying the debts which he has made him of his honour, was like to be deprived of his bread already, than making new anes, that he may feed at the same time. Ha, ha, ha! it reminds one of Don fules and flatterers." Quixote, who took his neighbour, Samson Carrasco, for a knight-errant." "I believe he is likely to lose his preparations, too," said Mr. Touchwood, "for the entertainment has been put off, as I heard, in consequence of Miss Mowbray's illness." 66 Ay, ay, puir thing!" said Dame Margaret Dods; "her health has been unsettled for this mony a day. Something wrong here, they tell me," said the traveller, pointing to his own forehead significantly. "God only kens," replied Mrs. Dods; "but I rather suspect the heart than the head-the puir thing is hurried here and there, and down to the Waal, and up again, and nae society or quiet at hame; and a' thing ganging this unthrifty gait-nae wonder she is no that weel settled." "Well," replied Touchwood, "she is worse they say than she has been, and that has occasioned the party at Shaws-Castle having been put off. Besides, now this fine young lord has come down to the Well, undoubtedly they will wait her recovery.' A lord!" ejaculated the astonished Mrs. Dods; "a lord come down to the Waal-they will be neither to haud nor to bind now-ance wud and aye waura lord!-set them up and shute them forward-a lord! -the Lord have a care o'us!-a lord at the hottle!Maister Touchwood, it's my mind he will only prove to be a Lord o' Session." "Nay, not so, my good lady," replied the traveller, "he is an English lord, and, as they say, a lord of Parliament-but some folks pretend to say there is a flaw in the title." "I'll warrant is there-a dozen of them!" said Meg, with alacrity-for she could by no means endure to think on the accumulation of dignity likely to accrue to the rival establishment, from its becoming the residence of an actual nobleman. "I'll warrant he'll prove a landlouping lord on their hand, and they will be e'en cheap o' the loss-And he has come down out of order it's like, and nae doubt he'll no be lang there before he will recover his health, for the credit of the Spaw." The perusal of this paper, which contained the notes formerly laid before the reader, containing the statement of Sir Bingo, and the censure which the company at the Well had thought fit to pass upon his affair with Mr. Tyrrel, induced Mr. Bindloose to say to Mrs. Dods, with as little exultation on the superiority of his own judgment as human nature would permit, "Ye see now that I was right, Mrs. Dods, and that there was nae earthly use in your fashing yoursell wi' this lang journey-The lad had just ta en the bent rather than face Sir Bingo, and troth, I think him the wiser of the twa for sae doing-There ye hae print for it.' 33 Meg answered somewhat sullenly, "Ye may be mista'en, for a' that, your ainsell, for as wise as ye are, Mr. Bindloose; I shall hae that matter mair strictly inquired into." This led to a renewal of the altercation concerning the probable fate of Tyrrel, in the course of which the stranger was induced to take some interest in the subject. At length Mrs. Dods, receiving no countenance from the experienced lawyer for the hypothesis she had formed, rose, in something like displeasure, to order her whiskey to be prepared. But hostess as she was herself, when in her own dominions, she reckoned without her host in the present instance; for the humpbacked postilion, as absolute in his department as Mrs. Dods herself, declared that the cattle would not be fit for the road these two hours yet. The good lady was therefore obliged to wait his pleasure, bitterly lamenting all the while the loss which a house of public entertainment was sure to sustain by the absence of the landlord or landlady, and anticipating a long list of broken dishes, miscalculated reckonings unarranged chambers, and other disasters, which she was to expect at her return. Mr. Bindloose, zealous to recover the regard of his good friend and client, which he had in some degree forfeited by contradicting her on a favourite subject, did not choose to offer the unpleasing, though obvious topic of consolation, that an unfrequented inn is little exposed to the acci "Faith, madam, his present disorder is one which the Spaw will hardly cure-he is shot in the shoulder with a pistol-bullet--a robbery attempted, it seems dents she apprehended. On the contrary, he condoled that is one of your new accomplishments-no such thing happened in Scotland in my time-men would have sooner expected to meet with the phoenix than with a highwayman." "And where did this happen, if you please, sir?" asked the man of bills. 66 Somewhere near the old village," replied the stranger; "and if I am rightly informed, on Wednesday last." This explains your twa shots, I am thinking, Mrs. Dods," said Mr. Bindloose; "your groom heard them on the Wednesday-it must have been this attack on the stranger nobleman." 'Maybe it was, and maybe it was not," said Mrs. Dods;" but I'll see gude reason before I give up my ain judgment in that case.-I would like to ken if this gentleman," she added, returning to the subject from which Mr. Touchwood's interesting conversation had for a few minutes diverted her thoughts, "has heard aught of Mr. Tirl?" "If you mean the person to whom this paper relates, said the stranger, taking a printed handbill with her very cordially, and went so far as to hint, that if Mr. Touchwood had come to Marchthorn with post-horses, as he supposed from his dress, she could have the advantage of them to return with more despatch to St. Ronan's. "I am not sure," said Mr. Touchwood, suddenly, "but I may return there myself. In that case I will be glad to set this good lady down, and to stay a few days at her house if she will receive me.-I respect a woman like you, ma'am, who pursue the occupation of your father-I have been in countries, ma'am, where people have followed the same trade, from father to son, for thousands of years-And I like the fashion-it shows a steadiness and sobriety of character." Mrs. Dods put on a joyous countenance at this proposal, protesting that all should be done in her power to make things agreeable; and while her good friend, Mr. Bindloose, expatiated upon the comfort her new guest would experience at the Cleikum, she silently contemplated with delight the prospect of a speedy and dazzling triumph, by carrying eff a creditable |