--walked along the pavement, turned
down the close, and put the sun, I believe, into her pocket when she
disappeared, so suddenly did dullness and darkness sink down on the
square, when she was no longer visible. I stood for a moment as if I
had been senseless, not recollecting what a fund of entertainment I must
have supplied to our watchful friends on the other side of the green.
Then it darted on my mind that I might dog her, and ascertain at least
who or what she was. Off I set--ran down the close, where she was no
longer to be seen, and demanded of one of the dyer's lads whether he had
seen a lady go down the close, or had observed which way she turned.

'A leddy!'--said the dyer, staring at me with his rainbow countenance.
'Mr. Alan, what takes you out, rinning like daft, without your hat?'

'The devil take my hat!' answered I, running back, however, in quest of
it; snatched it up, and again sallied forth. But as I reached the head
of the close once more, I had sense enough to recollect that all pursuit
would be now in vain. Besides, I saw my friend, the journeyman dyer, in
close confabulation with a pea-green personage of his own profession,
and was conscious, like Scrub, that they talked of me, because they
laughed consumedly. I had no mind, by a second sudden appearance, to
confirm the report that Advocate Fairford was 'gaen daft,' which had
probably spread from Campbell's Close-foot to the Meal-market Stairs;
and so slunk back within my own hole again.

My first employment was to remove all traces of that elegant and
fanciful disposition of my effects, from which I had hoped for so much
credit; for I was now ashamed and angry at having thought an instant
upon the mode of receiving a visit which had commenced so agreeably,
but terminated in a manner so unsatisfactory. I put my folios in their
places--threw the foils into the dressing-closet--tormenting myself all
the while with the fruitless doubt, whether I had missed an opportunity
or escaped a stratagem, or whether the young person had been really
startled, as she seemed to intimate, by the extreme youth of her
intended legal adviser. The mirror was not unnaturally called in to aid;
and that cabinet-counsellor pronounced me rather short, thick-set,
with a cast of features fitter, I trust, for the bar than the ball--not
handsome enough for blushing virgins to pine for my sake, or even to
invent sham cases to bring them to my chambers--yet not ugly enough
ei