. As a gude Calvinist, my saul's clear o' the smallest
figment o' belief in Warks. When I look at my ain celeebrity I joost
ask, as the Psawmist asked before me, 'Why do the heathen rage, and the
people imagine a vain thing?' It seems ye've something to say to me," he
added, suddenly reverting to the object of Anne's visit. "Is it humanly
possible that ye can ha' come a' the way to Pairth for naething but
that?"

The expression of suspicion began to show itself again in his face.
Concealing as she best might the disgust that he inspired in her, Anne
stated her errand in the most direct manner, and in the fewest possible
words.

"I have come here to ask you for something," she said.

"Ay? ay? What may it be ye're wanting of me?"

"I want the letter I lost at Craig Fernie."

Even the solidly-founded self-possession of Bishopriggs himself was
shaken by the startling directness of that attack on it. His glib tongue
was paralyzed for the moment. "I dinna ken what ye're drivin' at," he
said, after an interval, with a sullen consciousness that he had been
all but tricked into betraying himself.

The change in his manner convinced Anne that she had found in
Bishopriggs the person of whom she was in search.

"You have got my letter," she said, sternly insisting on the truth. "And
you are trying to turn it to a disgraceful use. I won't allow you to
make a market of my private affairs. You have offered a letter of mine
for sale to a stranger. I insist on your restoring it to me before I
leave this room!"

Bishopriggs hesitated again. His first suspicion that Anne had been
privately instructed by Mrs. Glenarm's lawyers returned to his mind as
a suspicion confirmed. He felt the vast importance of making a cautious
reply.

"I'll no' waste precious time," he said, after a moment's consideration
with himself, "in brushing awa' the fawse breath o' scandal, when it
passes my way. It blaws to nae purpose, my young leddy, when it blaws on
an honest man like me. Fie for shame on ye for saying what ye've joost
said--to me that was a fether to ye at Craig Fernie! Wha' set ye on to
it? Will it be man or woman that's misca'ed me behind my back?"

Anne took the Glasgow newspaper from the pocket of her traveling cloak,
and placed it before him, open at the paragraph which described the act
of extortion attempted on Mrs. Glenarm.

"I have found there," she said, "all that I want to know."

"May a' the tribe o' editors, preenters, pa