ill together. Mother was always very furious at him
for his being such a fool, and even on his death-bed she never forgave
him for bringing her down so low. She was very greedy of money, was
mother, and never forgot any ill she had had done her. We was living in
the country very poor, for I could not bear to go to service among folk
that knew about us, when I fell in with a young man as I liked better
than most; but as he was as poor as a rat, and only a working joiner,
mother would have nothing to say to him, and she made up her mind to
take me to Edinburgh, where she lived with a cousin, and I was to go to
service. I had wanted to go before, but it was all mother's pride as
kept me at home; I wanted to be well dressed, as all girls do, and I
liked to be seen and to be talked to. I had grown up handsome enough.
You have seen Mrs. Phillips--she is the very moral of what I was, and I
didn't like to be always wearing old things. And mother, she wanted
Jamie Stevenson driven out of my head, so she made no objections to my
going to a house where they took lodgers, mostly young men, in for the
college. The work was hard, and the wages no great matter; but the
chance was worth twice as much as the wages, for the lads was
free--handed, particular if you would stand any daffing, as we called
it then. Harry Hogarth was there the second winter I was in Edinburgh,
and, though he was not like to have Cross Hall then, for he had two
brothers older than him, he was just as free of his money as if he was
a young laird. He had been in Paris before that, but his father had
grumbled at his spending so much there, and said he must hold with
Edinburgh for the future; and Harry was maybe trying to show the old
man that as much might go in Auld Reekie as in France. He was said to
be the cleverest of the family, and the old man was fond of him, and
proud of him too, but he was very hard to part with the gear. Harry was
my favourite of all the lads in the house, for he had most fun about
him, and was the softest-hearted too. The old laird changed his mind in
the middle of the winter. I mind well his coming to our place one day,
and he gave me a very sour look when I opened the door, as if my cap
and my clothes was too good for my station, and my looks, too, maybe;
but he said that Harry had better go to Paris, as his heart was set on
it; and he gave Harry a sum of money that made him think his father was
not long for this world, though he looked