wished to follow Mrs Jean, to consult her in private. To this again
the deacon could not give his consent; but continued to pour into the
ears of the irresolute boxmaster all the arguments he could muster, to
satisfy him that the construction he had put upon Mrs Jean Todd's
speech was favourable to the exercise of his liberty, at least in this
case. The position was scarcely denied by Andrew; but he could not get
out of his mind the expression of his wife's eye. He had read in it a
denial and a reproof. At the same time, he could not reconcile it with
her speech, which was entirely different from anything of the kind he
had ever witnessed. Her opinions were always ready and decided; and he
never saw her shrink from declaring a difference of sentiment, when
she entertained an opinion different from his. Why, then, did she in
this instance depart from her ordinary course? The question was
difficult to answer. It seemed that she _did actually_ in a manner
leave it to himself. The deacon seemed to be right in his
construction; and his arguments were almost unanswerable.

"If," said he, "Mrs Jean Todd had been hostile to this measure, would
she not have declared it _manfully_, as is her uniform practice in
similar cases?"

The boxmaster could not answer the question satisfactorily; and the
deacon, continuing his arguments, persuasions, promises, and
flatteries, at last got the victim to put his name to the bill. Upon
the instant the door opened, and Mrs Jean Todd appeared before them.
She went forward to the table, and laid her hand upon the document.

"Is that your signature, sir?" said she, looking calmly at her
husband.

"Ou ay--I believe, yes--I did put my name to that paper," replied
Andrew, in great agitation; "but I thocht ye left me to do as I chose
when ye gaed oot. If ye didna want me to sign it, ye shouldna hae left
the room."

"A bill is no a bindin document," continued she, without seeming to
attend to what the boxmaster said, "until it be delivered. It's no
delivered sae lang as it is in my hands; and never will be delivered
by me sae lang as I recollect the words o' the wise man o' the east,
wha said--'If thou be surety for thy friend, thou art snared with the
words o' thy mouth.' Yet this paper is no my property. The stamp is
yours, though my husband's name is still his." Turning to the
boxmaster, who was shaking and retaining his breath with pure
fear--"Do you stand by this, sir," said she, in a comman