not
spare time even to drink tea. I could not help saying, I considered his
departure as a relief from incivility. 'What business has he to upbraid
us,' I said, 'with the change of our dwelling from a more inconvenient
to a better quarter of the town? What was it to him if we chose
to imitate some of the conveniences or luxuries of an English
dwelling-house, instead of living piled up above each other in flats?
Have his patrician birth and aristocratic fortunes given him any right
to censure those who dispose of the fruits of their own industry,
according to their own pleasure?'

My father took a long pinch of snuff, and replied, 'Very well, Alan;
very well indeed. I wish Mr. Crossbite or Counsellor Pest had heard
you; they must have acknowledged that you have a talent for forensic
elocution; and it may not be amiss to try a little declamation at
home now and then, to gather audacity and keep yourself in breath. But
touching the subject of this paraffle of words, it's not worth a pinch
of tobacco. D'ye think that I care for Mr. Herries of Birrenswork more
than any other gentleman who comes here about business, although I do
not care to go tilting at his throat, because he speaks like a grey
goose, as he is? But to say no more about him, I want to have Darsie
Latimer's present direction; for it is possible I may have to write the
lad a line with my own hand--and yet I do not well know--but give me the
direction at all events.'

I did so, and if you have heard from my father accordingly, you know
more, probably, about the subject of this letter than I who write it.
But if you have not, then shall I have discharged a friend's duty, in
letting you know that there certainly is something afloat between
this disagreeable laird and my father, in which you are considerably
interested.

Adieu! and although I have given thee a subject for waking dreams,
beware of building a castle too heavy for the foundation; which, in the
present instance, is barely the word Latimer occurring in a conversation
betwixt a gentleman of Dumfriesshire and a W.S. of Edinburgh--CAETERA
PRORSUS IGNORO.

LETTER VI

DARSIE LATIMER TO ALAN FAIRFORD

(In continuation of Letters III and IV.)

I told thee I walked out into the open air with my grave and stern
landlord. I could now see more perfectly than on the preceding night the
secluded glen in which stood the two or three cottages which appeared to
be the abode of him and his family.

I