the good man, the decline of the powerful, or the decay of
the prosperous.--Miss Wardour sighed deeply--"Well, Edie, we have enough
to pay our debts, let folks say what they will, and requiting you is one
of the foremost--let me press this sum upon you."

"That I might be robbed and murdered some night between town and town?
or, what's as bad, that I might live in constant apprehension o't?--I am
no"--(lowering his voice to a whisper, and looking keenly around him)--"I
am no that clean unprovided for neither; and though I should die at the
back of a dyke, they'll find as muckle quilted in this auld blue gown
as will bury me like a Christian, and gie the lads and lasses a blythe
lykewake too; sae there's the gaberlunzie's burial provided for, and I
need nae mair. Were the like o' me ever to change a note, wha the deil
d'ye think wad be sic fules as to gie me charity after that?--it wad flee
through the country like wildfire, that auld Edie suld hae done siccan
a like thing, and then, I'se warrant, I might grane my heart out or
onybody wad gie me either a bane or a bodle."

"Is there nothing, then, that I can do for you?"

"Ou ay--I'll aye come for my awmous as usual,--and whiles I wad be fain o'
a pickle sneeshin, and ye maun speak to the constable and ground-officer
just to owerlook me; and maybe ye'll gie a gude word for me to Sandie
Netherstanes, the miller, that he may chain up his muckle dog--I wadna
hae him to hurt the puir beast, for it just does its office in barking
at a gaberlunzie like me. And there's ae thing maybe mair,--but ye'll
think it's very bald o' the like o' me to speak o't."

"What is it, Edie?--if it respects you it shall be done if it is in my
power."

"It respects yoursell, and it is in your power, and I maun come
out wi't. Ye are a bonny young leddy, and a gude ane, and maybe a
weel-tochered ane--but dinna ye sneer awa the lad Lovel, as ye did a
while sinsyne on the walk beneath the Briery-bank, when I saw ye baith,
and heard ye too, though ye saw nae me. Be canny wi' the lad, for he
loes ye weel, and it's to him, and no to anything I could have done for
you, that Sir Arthur and you wan ower yestreen."

He uttered these words in a low but distinct tone of voice; and without
waiting for an answer, walked towards a low door which led to the
apartments of the servants, and so entered the house.

Miss Wardour remained for a moment or two in the situation in which
she had heard the old man's