he scheme, for this cause and through other difficulties,
had been given up. He appeared to be a good-tempered man, and made us a
most reasonable charge for mending the car. His wife told me that they
must give up the house in a short time to the other blacksmith; she did
not know whither they should go, but her husband, being a good workman,
could find employment anywhere. She hurried me out to introduce me to
Mrs. Rose, who was at work in the hay-field; she was exceedingly glad to
see one of her country-women, and entreated that I would go up to her
house. It was a substantial plain house, that would have held
half-a-dozen of the common huts. She conducted me into a sitting-room
up-stairs, and set before me red and white wine, with the remnant of a
loaf of wheaten bread, which she took out of a cupboard in the
sitting-room, and some delicious butter. She was a healthy and
cheerful-looking woman, dressed like one of our country lasses, and had
certainly had no better education than Aggy Ashburner, but she was as a
chief in this secluded place, a Madam of the village, and seemed to be
treated with the utmost respect.

In our way to and from the house we met several people who interchanged
friendly greetings with her, but always as with one greatly superior.
She attended me back to the blacksmith's, and would not leave me till she
had seen us set forward again on our journey. Mrs. Duncan and Mrs.
Stuart shook me cordially, nay, affectionately, by the hand. I tried to
prevail upon the former, who had been my hostess, to accept of some
money, but in vain; she would not take a farthing, and though I told her
it was only to buy something for her little daughter, even seemed grieved
that I should think it possible. I forgot to mention that while the
blacksmith was repairing the car, we walked to the slate-quarry, where we
saw again some of the kind creatures who had helped us in our
difficulties the night before. The hovel under which they split their
slates stood upon an out-jutting rock, a part of the quarry rising
immediately out of the water, and commanded a fine prospect down the loch
below Ballachulish, and upwards towards the grand mountains, and the
other horn of the vale where the lake was concealed. The blacksmith
drove our car about a mile of the road; we then hired a man and horse to
take me and the car to the top of Glen Coe, being afraid that if the
horse backed or took fright we might be thrown down s