t bade me stay. I stood
between them like a fish out of water, turning from one to the other;
neither seemed to observe me, she gazing on the floor, he buttoning his
coat: which vastly swelled my embarrassment. This appearance of
indifference argued, upon her side, a good deal of anger very near to
burst out. Upon his, I thought it horribly alarming; I made sure there
was a tempest brewing there; and considering that to be the chief peril,
turned towards him and put myself (so to speak) in the man's hands.

"Can I do anything for _you_, Mr. Drummond?" says I.

He stifled a yawn, which again I thought to be duplicity. "Why, Mr.
David," said he, "since you are so obliging as to propose it, you might
show me the way to a certain tavern" (of which he gave the name) "where
I hope to fall in with some old companions in arms."

There was no more to say, and I got my hat and cloak to bear him
company.

"And as for you," says he to his daughter, "you had best go to your bed.
I shall be late home, and _Early to bed and early to rise, gars bonny
lasses have bright eyes_."

Whereupon he kissed her with a good deal of tenderness, and ushered me
before him from the door. This was so done (I thought on purpose) that
it was scarce possible there should be any parting salutation; but I
observed she did not look at me, and set it down to terror of James
More.

It was some distance to that tavern. He talked all the way of matters
which did not interest me the smallest, and at the door dismissed me
with empty manners. Thence I walked to my new lodging, where I had not
so much as a chimney to hold me warm, and no society but my own
thoughts. These were still bright enough; I did not so much as dream
that Catriona was turned against me; I thought we were like folk
pledged; I thought we had been too near and spoke too warmly to be
severed, least of all by what were only steps in a most needful policy.
And the chief of my concern was only the kind of father-in-law that I
was getting, which was not at all the kind I would have chosen; and the
matter of how soon I ought to speak to him, which was a delicate point
on several sides. In the first place, when I thought how young I was, I
blushed all over, and could almost have found it in my heart to have
desisted; only that if once I let them go from Leyden without
explanation, I might lose her altogether. And in the second place, there
was our very irregular situation to be kept in view, an