k, going on, without noticing the
rebuff, "and the council, wad be agreeable that you should hae the auld
stones at Donagild's chapel, that ye was wussing to hae."

"Eh!--what?--Oho! that's another story--Well, well, I'll call upon the
provost, and we'll talk about it."

"But ye maun speak your mind on't forthwith, Monkbarns, if ye want the
stones; for Deacon Harlewalls thinks the carved through-stanes might be
put with advantage on the front of the new council-house--that is, the
twa cross-legged figures that the callants used to ca' Robin and Bobbin,
ane on ilka door-cheek; and the other stane, that they ca'd Ailie
Dailie, abune the door. It will be very tastefu', the Deacon says, and
just in the style of modern Gothic."

"Lord deliver me from this Gothic generation!" exclaimed the
Antiquary,--"A monument of a knight-templar on each side of a Grecian
porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!--O crimini!--Well, tell the provost
I wish to have the stones, and we'll not differ about the water-course.
It's lucky I happened to come this way to-day."

They parted mutually satisfied; but the wily clerk had most reason to
exult in the dexterity he had displayed, since the whole proposal of
an exchange between the monuments (which the council had determined to
remove as a nuisance, because they encroached three feet upon the public
road), and the privilege of conveying the water to the burgh through the
estate of Monkbarns, was an idea which had originated with himself upon
the pressure of the moment.

Through these various entanglements, Monkbarns (to use the phrase by
which he was distinguished in the country) made his way at length to
Mrs. Hadoway's. This good woman was the widow of a late clergyman at
Fairport, who had been reduced by her husband's untimely death, to that
state of straitened and embarrassed circumstances in which the widows of
the Scotch clergy are too often found. The tenement which she occupied,
and the furniture of which she was possessed, gave her the means of
letting a part of her house; and as Lovel had been a quiet, regular,
and profitable lodger, and had qualified the necessary intercourse which
they had together with a great deal of gentleness and courtesy, Mrs.
Hadoway, not, perhaps, much used to such kindly treatment, had become
greatly attached to her lodger, and was profuse in every sort of
personal attention which circumstances permitted her to render him.
To cook a dish somewhat better tha