unconnected with
business?'

'No, no, no letters! I never was wasteful in postage stamps. But as I
was in London, to see the doctor, for the Edinburgh ones can make nothing
of the case--a kind of dwawming--I looked in at auld Nicky Maxwell's. She
gave me a good character of you, and she is one to lippen to. And you
make no charge for a first interview.'

Merton vaguely conjectured that to 'lippen' implied some sort of caress;
however, he only said that he was obliged to Miss Maxwell for her kind
estimate of his firm.

'Gray and Graham, good Scots names. You'll not be one of the Grahams of
Netherby, though?'

'The name of the firm is merely conventional, a trading title,' said
Merton; 'if you want to know my name, there it is,' and he handed his
card to the marquis, who stared at it, and (apparently from motiveless
acquisitiveness) put it into his pocket.

'I don't like an alias,' he said. 'But it seems you are to lippen to.'

From the context Merton now understood that the marquis probably wished
to signify that he was to be trusted. So he bowed, and expressed a hope
that he was 'all that could be desired in the lippening way.'

'You're laughing at my Doric?' asked the nobleman. 'Well, in the only
important way, it's not at my _expense_. Ha! Ha!' He shook a lumbering
laugh out of himself.

Merton smiled--and was bored.

'I'm come about stopping a marriage,' said the marquis, at last arriving
at business.

'My experience is at your service,' said Merton.

'Well,' went on the marquis, 'ours is an old name.'

Merton remarked that, in the course of historical study, he had made
himself acquainted with the achievements of the house.

'Auld warld tales! But I wish I could tell where the treasure is that
wily auld Logan quarrelled over with the wizard Laird of Merchistoun.
Logan would not implement the contract--half profits. But my wits are
wool gathering.'

He began to wander round the room, looking at the mezzotints. He stopped
in front of one portrait, and said 'My Aunt!' Merton took this for an
exclamation of astonishment, but later found that the lady (after
Lawrence) really had been the great aunt of the marquis.

Merton conceived that the wits of his visitor were worse than 'wool
gathering,' that he had 'softening of the brain.' But circumstances
presently indicated that Lord Restalrig was actually suffering from a
much less common disorder--softening of the heart.

He returned to h