he leddy was
driven to the desperate act, and the yerl has never since held his head
up like a man."

"Weel away!" replied Ochiltree:--"it's e'en queer I neer heard this tale
afore."

"It's e'en queer that ye heard it now, for deil ane o' the servants
durst hae spoken o't had the auld Countess been living. Eh, man, Edie!
but she was a trimmer--it wad hae taen a skeely man to hae squared wi'
her!--But she's in her grave, and we may loose our tongues a bit fan
we meet a friend.--But fare ye weel, Edie--I maun be back to the
evening-service. An' ye come to Inverurie maybe sax months awa, dinna
forget to ask after Francie Macraw."

What one kindly pressed, the other as firmly promised; and the friends
having thus parted, with every testimony of mutual regard, the domestic
of Lord Glenallan took his road back to the seat of his master, leaving
Ochiltree to trace onward his habitual pilgrimage.

It was a fine summer evening, and the world--that is, the little circle
which was all in all to the individual by whom it was trodden, lay
before Edie Ochiltree, for the choosing of his night's quarters. When
he had passed the less hospitable domains of Glenallan, he had in his
option so many places of refuge for the evening, that he was nice, and
even fastidious in the choice. Ailie Sim's public was on the road-side
about a mile before him, but there would be a parcel of young fellows
there on the Saturday night, and that was a bar to civil conversation.
Other "gudemen and gudewives," as the farmers and their dames are termed
in Scotland, successively presented themselves to his imagination. But
one was deaf, and could not hear him; another toothless, and could not
make him hear; a third had a cross temper; and a fourth an ill-natured
house-dog. At Monkbarns or Knockwinnock he was sure of a favourable
and hospitable reception; but they lay too distant to be conveniently
reached that night.

"I dinna ken how it is," said the old man, "but I am nicer about my
quarters this night than ever I mind having been in my life. I think,
having seen a' the braws yonder, and finding out ane may be happier
without them, has made me proud o' my ain lot--But I wuss it bode me
gude, for pride goeth before destruction. At ony rate, the warst barn
e'er man lay in wad be a pleasanter abode than Glenallan House, wi' a'
the pictures and black velvet, and silver bonny-wawlies belonging to it--
Sae I'll e'en settle at ance, and put in for Ailie Sims."