never man, as my auld
gudemother used to say, since the days of the Patriarch Jacob, served sae
lang and sae sair for a wife as gude Lord Evandale has dune."

"And why," said the stranger, with a voice that quivered with emotion,
"why was he not sooner rewarded by the object of his attachment?"

"There was the lawsuit to be ended," said Jenny readily, "forby many
other family arrangements."

"Na, but," said Cuddie, "there was another reason forby; for the young
leddy--"

"Whisht, hand your tongue, and sup your sowens," said his wife; "I see
the gentleman's far frae weel, and downa eat our coarse supper. I wad
kill him a chicken in an instant."

"There is no occasion," said the stranger; "I shall want only a glass of
water, and to be left alone."

"You'll gie yoursell the trouble then to follow me," said Jenny, lighting
a small lantern, "and I'll show you the way."

Cuddie also proffered his assistance; but his wife reminded him, "That
the bairns would be left to fight thegither, and coup ane anither into
the fire," so that he remained to take charge of the menage.
His wife led the way up a little winding path, which, after threading
some thickets of sweetbrier and honeysuckle, conducted to the back-door
of a small garden. Jenny undid the latch, and they passed through an
old-fashioned flower-garden, with its clipped yew hedges and formal
parterres, to a glass-sashed door, which she opened with a master-key,
and lighting a candle, which she placed upon a small work-table, asked
pardon for leaving him there for a few minutes, until she prepared his
apartment. She did not exceed five minutes in these preparations; but
when she returned, was startled to find that the stranger had sunk
forward with his head upon the table, in what she at first apprehended to
be a swoon. As she advanced to him, however, she could discover by his
short-drawn sobs that it was a paroxysm of mental agony. She prudently
drew back until he raised his head, and then showing herself, without
seeming to have observed his agitation, informed him that his bed was
prepared. The stranger gazed at her a moment, as if to collect the sense
of her words. She repeated them; and only bending his head, as an
indication that he understood her, he entered the apartment, the door of
which she pointed out to him. It was a small bedchamber, used, as she
informed him, by Lord Evandale when a guest at Fairy Knowe, connecting,
on one side, with a little china-ca