'And what does little Jenny Gibson get?' 'A hundred, and the auld repeater.'

'That's but sma' geer, puir thing; she had a sair time o't with the auld leddy. But it's ill waiting for dead folk's shoon.'

'I am afraid,' said the politician, who was by Mannering, we have not done with your old friend Tippo Saib yet-I doubt he'll give the company more plague; and I am told, but you'll know for certain, that East India stock is not rising.'

'I trust it will, sir, soon.'

'Mrs. Margaret,' said another person, mingling in the conversation, had some India bonds. I know that, for I drew the interest for her -it would be desirable now for the trustees and legatees to have the Colonel's advice about the time and mode of converting them into money. For my part I think-But there's Mr. Mortcloke to tell us they are gaun to lift.' Mr. Mortcloke, the undertaker, did accordingly, with a visage of professional length and most grievous solemnity, distribute among the pall bearers little cards, assigning their respective situations in attendance upon the coffin. As this precedence is supposed to be regulated by propinquity to the defunct, the undertaker, however skilful a master of these lugubrious ceremonies, did not escape giving some offence. To be related to Mrs. Bertram was to be of kin to the lands of Singleside, and was a propinquity of which each relative present at that moment was particularly jealous. Some murmurs there were upon the occasion, and our friend Dinmont gave more open offence, being unable either to repress

his discontent, or to utter it in the key properly modulated to the solemnity. I think ye might hae at least given me a leg o' her to carry,' he exclaimed, in a voice considerably louder than propriety admitted; God! an it had nae been for the rigs o' land, I would hae got her a' to carry mysell, for as mony gentles as are here.' A score of frowning and reproving brows were bent upon the unappalled yeoman, who, having given vent to his displeasure, stalked sturdily down stairs with the rest of the company, totally disregarding the censures of those whom his remark had scandalized.

And then the funeral pomp set forth; sawlies with their batons, and gumphions of tarnished white crape, in honour of the well preserved maiden fame of Mrs. Margaret Bertram. Six starved horses, themselves the very emblems of mortality, well cloaked and plumed, lugging along the hearse with its dismal emblazonry, creeped in slow state towards the place of interment, preceded by Jamie Duff, an idiot, who, with weepers and cravat made of white paper, attended upon every funeral, and followed by six mourning coaches, filled with the company. Many of these now gave more free loose to their tongues, and discussed with unrestrained earnestness the amount of the succession, and the probability of its destination. The principal expectants, however, kept a prudent silence, indeed ashamed to express hopes which might prove fallacious: and the agent, or man of business, who alone knew exactly how matters stood, maintained a countenance of mysterious importance, as if determined to preserve the full interest of anxiety and suspense.

At length they arrived at the church-yard gates, and from thence, amid the gaping of some dozen of idle women with infants in their arms, and accompanied by some twenty children who ran gambolling and screaming alongside of the sable procession, they finally arrived at the burial place of the Singleside family. This was a square enclosure, guarded on one side by a veteran angel, without a nose, and having only one wing, who had the merit of having maintained his post for a century, while his comrade cherub, who had stood sentinel on the corresponding pedestal, lay a broken trunk among the hemlock, burdock, and nettles, which grew in gigantic luxuriance around the walls of the mausoleum. A moss-grown and broken inscription informed the reader, that in the year 1650, Captain Andrew Bertram, first of Singleside, descended of the very ancient and honourable house of Ellangowan, had caused this monument to be erected for himself and his descendants. A reasonable number of sithes and hour-glasses, and death's heads, and cross bones garnished the following sprig of sepulchral poetry to the memory of the founder of the mausoleum:

Nathaniel's heart, Bezaleel's hand,
If ever any had,

These boldly do I say had he,
Who lieth in this bed.

Here then, amid the deep black fat loam into which her ancestors were now resolved, they deposited the body of Mrs. Margaret Bertram; and like soldiers returning from a military funeral, the nearest relations who might be interested in the settle

ments of the lady, urged the dog-cattle of the hackney coaches to all the speed of which they were capable, in order to put an end to farther suspense on that interesting topic.

CHAPTER VI.

'Die and endow a college or a cat.'-Pope.

THERE is a fable told by Lucian, that while a troop of monkeys well drilled by an intelligent manager, were performing a tragedy with great applause, the decorum of the whole scene was at once destroyed, and the natural passions of the actors called forth into very indecent and active emulation, by a wag who threw a handfull of nuts upon the stage. In like manner, the approaching crisis stirred up among the expectants feelings of a nature very different from those, of which, under the superintendance of Mr. Mortcloke, they had lately been endeavouring to imitate the expression. Those eyes which were lately devoutly cast up to heaven, or with greater humility bent solemnly upon earth, were now sharply and alertly darting their glances through shuttles, and trunks, and drawers, and cabinets, and all the odd corners of an old maiden lady's repositories. Nor was their search without interests, though they did not find the will of which they were in quest.

'Here was a promissory note for 201. by the minister of the non-juring chapel, interest marked

as paid to Martinmas last, carefully folded up in a new set of words to the old tune of ' over the Water to Charlie,' there was a curious love correspondence between the deceased and a certain Lieutenant O'Kean of a marching regiment of foot; and tied up with the letter was a document, which at once explained to the relatives why a connexion which boded them little good had been suddenly broken off, being the Lieutenant's bond for two hundred pounds, upon which no interest whatever appeared to have been paid. Other bills and bonds to larger amount, and signed by better names (I mean commercially,) than those of the worthy divine and gallant soldier, also occurred in the course of their researches, besides a hoard of coins of every size and denomination, and scraps of broken gold and silver, old ear-rings, hinges of cracked snuff-boxes, mountings of spectacles, &c. &c. &c. Still no will made its appearance, and Colonel Mannering began full well to hope that the settlement which he had obtained from Glossin contained the ultimate arrangement of the old lady's affairs. But his friend Pleydell, who now came into the room, cautioned him against entertaining this belief. 'I know the gentleman,' he said, 'who is conducting the search, and I guess from his manner that he knows something more of the matter than any of us.'

'Meantime, while the search proceeds, let us take a brief glance at one or two of the company who seem most interested. Of Dinmont, who, with his large hunting whip under his arm, stood pokeing his large round face over the shoulder of the homme d'affaires, it is unnecessary to say any thing. That thin-looking oldish man, in a most correct