er own thoughts, and he knew it.

The first turn to the right past the High School brought them out on the
road before Holyrood, which lay grim and black under the sun-bathed
steeps of Arthur's Seat. On by the Grange and all round the
south-eastern portion of the city this odd couple took their way. It was
a long round, but safety made it necessary. At last, between
Corstorphine's wooded slopes and the steeper rise of the Pentlands, they
struck into the Glasgow road. In the same order as before they pursued
their journey, Baubie leading as of old, now and again vouchsafing a
word over her shoulder to her obedient follower, until the dim haze of
the horizon received into itself the two quaint figures, and Baubie
Wishart and the Rob Roy tartan faded together out of sight.

_The Author of "Flitters, Tatters and the Counsellor_."

GAS-BURNING, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

"It is remarkable what attention has been attracted all over the country
by the recent experiments with Edison's inventions," observed my friend
the traveller as our host turned a fuller flow of gas in the chandelier.
"Even in the little villages out West, of only one bank and _not_ one
good hotel, the topics which last spring generally excited most interest
in all circles were Edison's electric light and Bell's telephone."

"Very likely," replied our host, an elderly gentleman of fortune. "If we
had such impure gas as is found in many of the villages and small cities
not so very far West, I'd never light a burner in my library again. As
it is, I do so very rarely. The products of gas combustion act on the
bindings until firm calf drops in pieces, and even law-sheep loses its
coherency, as the argument of the opposing counsel does when your own
lawyer begins to talk."

"The effect on the upholstery and metallic ornaments is as bad as upon
the books," added our hostess. "This room will have to be refurnished in
the spring--all on account of the changes in color both of the paper and
the silk and cotton fabrics; and the bronze dressing on those statuettes
is softening, so that there are lines and spots of rust all over them."

"Perhaps, my dear, they would have suffered equally from the atmosphere
without gas," replied the old gentleman, looking at his wife over his
glasses.

"Our friend here has a hundred thousand more in gas stock than he had a
year ago, and I suspect that he is still a bear in the market," said his
neighbor a chemist, who had ju