he might try again, though he dared not yet encounter such
effort and agony.

All this time he had never doubted that there was God; nor had he
ventured to say within himself that perhaps God was not good; he had
simply come to the conclusion that for him there was no approach to the
fountain of his being.

In the course of a fortnight or so, when his system had covered over its
craving after whisky, the irritability of the shoemaker almost vanished.
It might have been feared that his conscience would then likewise relax
its activity; but it was not so: it grew yet more tender. He now began
to give Robert some praise, and make allowances for his faults, and
Robert dared more in consequence, and played with more spirit. I do not
say that his style could have grown fine under such a master, but at
least he learned the difference between slovenliness and accuracy, and
between accuracy and expression, which last is all of original that the
best mere performer can claim.

One evening he was scraping away at Tullochgorum when Mr. Maccleary
walked in. Robert ceased. The minister gave him one searching glance,
and sat down by the bedside. Robert would have left the room.

'Dinna gang, Robert,' said Sandy, and Robert remained.

The clergyman talked very faithfully as far as the shoemaker was
concerned; though whether he was equally faithful towards God might be
questioned. He was one of those prudent men, who are afraid of dealing
out the truth freely lest it should fall on thorns or stony places.
Hence of course the good ground came in for a scanty share too.
Believing that a certain precise condition of mind was necessary for
its proper reception, he would endeavour to bring about that condition
first. He did not know that the truth makes its own nest in the ready
heart, and that the heart may be ready for it before the priest
can perceive the fact, seeing that the imposition of hands confers,
now-a-days at least, neither love nor common-sense. He therefore dwelt
upon the sins of the soutar, magnifying them and making them hideous, in
the idea that thus he magnified the law, and made it honourable, while
of the special tenderness of God to the sinner he said not a word.
Robert was offended, he scarcely knew why, with the minister's mode
of treating his friend; and after Mr. Maccleary had taken a far
kinder leave of them than God could approve, if he resembled his
representation, Robert sat still, oppressed with darkness.