s and
actions with habitual and sordid parsimony, and at the odd contrast
between her love of saving and indifference to self-acquisition. "You
must know," he continued, "that I am in this country only for a few days
on some special business of importance to the Government, and therefore,
Ailie, not a word of having seen me. At some other time I will acquaint
you fully with my motives and intentions."

"E'en be it sae, my jo," replied Ailie, "I can keep a secret like my
neighbours; and weel auld Milnwood kend it, honest man, for he tauld me
where he keepit his gear, and that's what maist folk like to hae as
private as possibly may be.--But come awa wi' me, hinny, till I show ye
the oak-parlour how grandly it's keepit, just as if ye had been expected
haine every day,--I loot naebody sort it but my ain hands. It was a kind
o' divertisement to me, though whiles the tear wan into my ee, and I said
to mysell, What needs I fash wi' grates and carpets and cushions and the
muckle brass candlesticks ony mair? for they'll ne'er come hame that
aught it rightfully."

With these words she hauled him away to this sanctum sanctorum, the
scrubbing and cleaning whereof was her daily employment, as its high
state of good order constituted the very pride of her heart. Morton, as
he followed her into the room, underwent a rebuke for not "dighting his
shune," which showed that Ailie had not relinquished her habits of
authority. On entering the oak-parlour he could not but recollect the
feelings of solemn awe with which, when a boy, he had been affected at
his occasional and rare admission to an apartment which he then supposed
had not its equal save in the halls of princes. It may be readily
supposed that the worked-worsted chairs, with their short ebony legs and
long upright backs, had lost much of their influence over his mind; that
the large brass andirons seemed diminished in splendour; that the green
worsted tapestry appeared no masterpiece of the Arras loom; and that the
room looked, on the whole, dark, gloomy, and disconsolate. Yet there were
two objects, "The counterfeit presentment of two brothers," which,
dissimilar as those described by Hamlet, affected his mind with a variety
of sensations. One full-length portrait represented his father in
complete armour, with a countenance indicating his masculine and
determined character; and the other set forth his uncle, in velvet and
brocade, looking as if he were ashamed of his own fine