; and this
afternoon, if you will be so good as to take me, I shall accompany
_you_."

But she was not to be pacified at the moment, and departed to her own
quarters murmuring.

"Well, Rowley," said I; "and have you been to church?"

"If you please, sir," he said.

"Well, you have not been any less unlucky than I have," I returned. "And
how did you get on with the Scottish form?"

"Well, sir, it was pretty 'ard, the form was, and reether narrow," he
replied. "I don't know w'y it is, but it seems to me like as if things
were a good bit changed since William Wallace! That was a main queer
church she took me to, Mr. Anne! I don't know as I could have sat it
out, if she 'adn't 'a' give me peppermints. She ain't a bad one at
bottom, the old girl; she do pounce a bit, and she do worry, but, law
bless you, Mr. Anne, it ain't nothink really--she don't _mean_ it. W'y,
she was down on me like a 'undredweight of bricks this morning. You see,
last night she 'ad me in to supper, and, I beg your pardon, sir, but I
took the freedom of playing her a chune or two. She didn't mind a bit;
so this morning I began to play to myself, and she flounced in, and
flew up, and carried on no end about Sunday!"

"You see, Rowley," said I, "they're all mad up here, and you have to
humour them. See and don't quarrel with Mrs. McRankine; and, above all,
don't argue with her, or you'll get the worst of it. Whatever she says,
touch your forelock and say, 'If you please!' or 'I beg pardon, ma'am.'
And let me tell you one thing: I am sorry, but you have to go to church
with her again this afternoon. That's duty, my boy!"

As I had foreseen, the bells had scarce begun before Mrs. McRankine
presented herself to be our escort, upon which I sprang up with
readiness and offered her my arm. Rowley followed behind. I was
beginning to grow accustomed to the risks of my stay in Edinburgh, and
it even amused me to confront a new churchful. I confess the amusement
did not last until the end; for if Dr. Gray were long, Mr. McCraw was
not only longer but more incoherent, and the matter of his sermon (which
was a direct attack, apparently, on all the Churches of the world, my
own among the number), where it had not the tonic quality of personal
insult, rather inclined me to slumber. But I braced myself for my life,
kept up Rowley with the end of a pin, and came through it awake, but no
more.

Bethiah was quite conquered by this "mark of grace," though, I am
a