as he did, and
handle edge-tools without cutting my fingers, and getting my ears pulled
for a meddlesome minx! He used to give me his mallet to keep and his
nails to hold; and didn't I fly when he called for them! and wasn't I
proud to be ordered about with them! And then, you know, there is the
tall cabinet yonder; that it was that proved him the first of Edinburgh
joiners, and worthy to be their Deacon and their head. And the father's
chair, and the sister's work-box, and the dear dead mother's
footstool--what are they all but proofs of the Deacon's skill, and
tokens of the Deacon's care for those about him?

LESLIE. I am all penitence. Forgive me this last time, and I promise you
I never will again.

MARY. Candidly, now, do you think you deserve forgiveness?

LESLIE. Candidly, I do not.

MARY. Then I suppose you must have it. What have you done with Willie
and my uncle?

LESLIE. I left them talking deeply. The dear old Procurator has not much
thought just now for anything but those mysterious burglaries----

MARY. I know!----

LESLIE. Still, all of him that is not magistrate and official is
politician and citizen; and he has been striving his hardest to
undermine the Deacon's principles, and win the Deacon's vote and
interest.

MARY. They are worth having, are they not?

LESLIE. The Procurator seems to think that having them makes the
difference between winning and losing.

MARY. Did he say so? You may rely upon it that he knows. There are not
many in Edinburgh who can match with our Will.

LESLIE. There shall be as many as you please, and not one more.

MARY. How I should like to have heard you! What did uncle say? Did he
speak of the Town Council again? Did he tell Will what a wonderful
Bailie he would make? O, why did you come away?

LESLIE. I could not pretend to listen any longer. The election is months
off yet; and if it were not--if it were tramping upstairs this
moment--drums, flags, cockades, guineas, candidates, and all!--how
should I care for it? What are Whig and Tory to me?

MARY. O, fie on you! It is for every man to concern himself in the
common weal. Mr. Leslie--Leslie of the Craig!--should know that much at
least.

LESLIE. And be a politician like the Deacon! All in good time, but not
now. I hearkened while I could, and when I could no more I slipped out
and followed my heart. I hoped I should be welcome.

MARY. I suppose you mean to be unkind.

LESLIE. Tit for tat. Did you no