ear madam! I only----" I began.

"You shouldna jest in sairious maitters," she interrupted.

On the whole, she entered into what I chose to tell her of our idyll
with avidity, like a cat licking her whiskers over a dish of cream; and,
strange to say--and so expansive a passion is that of love!--that I
derived a perhaps equal satisfaction from confiding in that breast of
iron. It made an immediate bond: from that hour we seemed to be welded
into a family party; and I had little difficulty in persuading her to
join us and to preside over our tea-table. Surely there was never so
ill-matched a trio as Rowley, Mrs. McRankine, and the Viscount Anne! But
I am of the Apostle's way, with a difference: all things to all women!
When I cannot please a woman, hang me in my cravat!

CHAPTER XXVIII

EVENTS OF MONDAY: THE LAWYER'S PARTY

By half-past eight o'clock on the next morning, I was ringing the bell
of the lawyer's office in Castle Street, where I found him ensconced at
a business table, in a room surrounded by several tiers of green tin
cases. He greeted me like an old friend.

"Come away, sir, come away!" said he. "Here is the dentist ready for
you, and I think I can promise you that the operation will be
practically painless."

"I am not so sure of that, Mr. Robbie," I replied, as I shook hands with
him. "But at least there shall be no time lost with me."

I had to confess to having gone a-roving with a pair of drovers and
their cattle, to having used a false name, to having murdered or
half-murdered a fellow-creature in a scuffle on the moors, and to having
suffered a couple of quite innocent men to lie some time in prison on a
charge from which I could have immediately freed them. All this I gave
him first of all, to be done with the worst of it; and all this he took
with gravity, but without the least appearance of surprise.

"Now, sir," I continued, "I expect to have to pay for my unhappy frolic,
but I would like very well if it could be managed without my personal
appearance or even the mention of my real name. I had so much wisdom as
to sail under false colours in this foolish jaunt of mine; my family
would be extremely concerned if they had wind of it; but at the same
time, if the case of this Faa has terminated fatally, and there are
proceedings against Sim and Candlish, I am not going to stand by and
see them vexed, far less punished; and I authorise you to give me up for
trial if you think that be