charity. That fellow will scarce think of going to law.'

'O, you are quite wrong; the only difference is, I have lost my client and my fee. He'll never rest till he finds somebody to encourage him to commit the folly he has predetermined. No! no! I have only shown you another weakness of my character; I always speak truth of a Saturday night.'

'And sometimes through the week I should think,' said Mannering, continuing the same tone. 'Why, yes! as far as my vocation will permit. I am, as Hamlet says, indifferently honest, when my clients and their solicitors do not make me the medium of conveying their double-distilled lies to the bench. But oportet vivere ! it is a sad thing. And now to our business. I am glad my old friend Mac-Morlan has sent you to me; he is an active, honest, and intelligent man, long sheriff-substitute of the county of under me, and still holds the office. He knows I have a regard for that unfortu nate family of Ellangowan, and for poor Lucy. I have not seen her since she was twelve years old, and she was then a sweet pretty girl under the management of a very silly father. But my interest in her is of an early date. I was called upon, Mr. Mannering, being then sheriff of that county, to investigate the particulars of a murder which had been committed near Ellangowan, the day before this poor child was born; and which by a strange combination, which I was unhappily not able to trace, involved the death or abstraction of her only brother, a boy of about five years old. No, Colonel, I shall never forget the misery of the house of Ellan

gowan that morning!-the father half-distractedthe mother dead in premature travail-the helpless infant with scarce any one to attend it, coming wawling and crying into this miserable world, at such a moment of unutterable misery. We law. yers are not of iron, sir, or of brass, any more than you soldiers are of steel. We are conversant with the crimes and distresses of civil society, as you are with those that occur in a state of war, and to do our duty in either case a little apathy is perhaps necessary. But the devil take a soldier whose heart can be as hard as his sword, and his dam take the lawyer who bronzes his bosom instead of his forehead! But come, I am losing my Saturday at e'en-will you have the kindness to trust me with these papers which relate to Miss Bertram's business?-and stay-to-morrow you'll take a bachelor's dinner with an old lawyer-I insist upon it, at three precisely-and come half an hour sooner. The old lady is to be buried on Monday; it is the orphan's cause, and we'll borrow an hour from the Sunday to talk over this businessalthough I fear nothing can be done if she has altered her settlement-unless perhaps it occurs within the sixty days, and then if Miss Bertram can show that she possesses the character of heir-atlaw, why

'But, hark! my lieges are impatient of their interregnum-I do not invite you to rejoin us, Colonel, it would be a trespass on your complaisance, unless you had begun the day with us, and gradually glided on from wisdom to mirth and from mirth to-to-to-extravagance. Good night-Harry, go

home with Mr. Mannering to his lodging-Colonel, I expect you at a little past two to-morrow.'

The Colonel returned home, equally surprised at the childish frolicks in which he found his learned counsellor engaged, at the candour and sound sense which he had in a moment summoned up to meet the exigencies of his profession, and at the tone of feeling which he displayed when he spoke of the friendless orphan.

In the morning, while the Colonel and his most quiet and silent of all retainers, Dominie Sampson, were finishing the breakfast which Barnes had made and poured out, after the Dominie had scalded himself in the attempt, Mr. Pleydell was suddenly ushered in. A nicely-dressed bob-wig, upon every hair of which a zealous and careful barber had bestowed its proper allowance of powder; a well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes, and gold buckels, and stock-buckel; a manner rather reserved and formal than intrusive, but with all that, showing only the formality of manner, by no means that of awkwardness; a countenance, the expressive and somewhat comic features of which were in complete repose-all showed a being perfectly different from the choice spirit of the evening before. A glance of shrewd and piercing fire in his eye was the only marked expression which recalled the man of 'Saturday at e'en.'

'I am come,' said he, with a very polite address, to use my regal authority in your behalf in spirituals as well as temporals-can I accompany you to the Presbyterian kirk, or Episcopal meetinghouse?-Tros Tyriusve, a lawyer, you know, is of both religions, or rather, I should say, of both

forms-or can I assist in passing the forenoon otherwise? You'll excuse my old-fashioned importunity-I was born in a time when a Scotchman was thought inhospitable if he left a guest alone a moment, except when he slept-but I trust you will tell me at once if I intrude.'

'Not at all, my dear sir-I am delighted to put myself under your pilotage. I should wish much to hear some of your Scotish preachers, whose talents have done such honour to your countryyour Blair, your Robertson, or your Henry; and I embrace your kind offer with all my heart-Only,' drawing the lawyer a little aside, and turning his eye towards Sampson, 'iny worthy friend there in the reverie is a little helpless and abstracted, and Barnes, who is his pilot in ordinary, cannot well assist him here, especially as he has expressed his determination of going to some of your darker and more remote places of worship,'

The lawyer's eye glanced at him. 'A curiosity worth preserving-And I'll find you a fit custodier. Here you, sir, (to the waiter,) go to Luckie Finlayson's in the Cowgate for Miles Macfin the cadie, he'll be there about this time, and tell him I wish to speak to him.'

The person wanted soon arrived. I will commit your friend to this man's charge,' said Pleydell;' he'll attend him, or conduct him wherever he chooses to go, with a happy indifference as to kirk or market, meeting or court of justice, or any other place whatever-and bring him safe home at whatever hour you appoint; so that Mr. Barnes there may be left to the freedom of his own will.'

This was easily arranged, and the Colonel çom

mitted the Dominie to the charge of this man while they should remain in Edinburgh.

'And now, sir, if you please, we shall go to the Greyfriars' church to hear our historian of Scotland, of the Continent, and of America.'

They were disappointed-he did not preach that morning. 'Never mind,' said the counsellor,' have a moment's patience, and we shall do very well.'

The colleague of Dr. R.—ascended the pulpit. His external appearance was not prepossessing. A remarkably fair complexion was strangely contrasted with a black wig without a grain of powder; a narrow chest and a stooping posture, hands which placed like props on either side of the pulpit, seemed necessary rather to support the person than to assist the gesticulation of the preacher-no gown, not even that of Geneva, a tumbled band, and a gesture which seemed scarce voluntary, were the first circumstances which struck a stranger. 'The preacher seems a very ungainly person,' whispered Mannering to his new friend.

'Never fear, he's the son of an excellent Scotish lawyer-he'll show blood, I'se warrant him.'

The learned counsellor predicted truly. A lecture fraught with new, striking, and entertaining views of scripture history-a sermon in which the Calvinism of the Kirk of Scotland was ably supported, yet made the basis of a sound system of practical morals, which should neither shelter the sinner under the cloak of speculative faith or of peculiarity of opinion, nor leave him loose to the waves of unbelief and schism. Something there was of an antiquated turn of argument and metaphor, but it only served to give zest and peculiarity to the