ddy brought her ain cook, an' she had my twa best rooms jest aff
the passage, whar' Captain Macpherson bides the noo."

"And how do you manage to cook for him?" asked Flora, very sullenly.

"He keeps a man. An auld soger, whar' does the cooking himsel."

However, the dinner went off better than could have been expected,
though little praise could be conscientiously given to the cooking. The
fish was done _too much_, the ham _too little_, and the baked fowls
looked hard and dry. The pastry was the only thing at table about which
no fault could be found.

After the cloth was removed, Flora gave the poet and his friend the
history of the dinner, which so amused Mr. M., that he declared it was
worth twenty dinners hearing her relate the misadventures of the
morning. Flora forgot the disasters of the day while enjoying the
conversation of Mr. M. and his friend,--men who had won by their genius
no common literary reputation in the world; and the short hour "ayont
the twal" had been tolled some time from all the steeples in Edinburgh
before the little party separated, mutually pleased with each other,
never to meet in this world of change again.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FEARS OF THE CHOLERA--DEPARTURE FROM SCOTLAND.

The cholera, which had hitherto only claimed a few victims in the city,
now began to make fearful progress; and every day enlarged the catalogue
of the dead, and those who were labouring under this awful disease.
People seemed unwilling to name the ravages of the plague to each other;
or spoke of it in low, mysterious tones, as a subject too dreadful for
ordinary conversation.

Just at this time Flora fell ill, and was forced to keep her bed for
several days. During the time she was confined to her chamber, Mrs.
Waddel kept up a constant lamentation, declaring that the reputation of
her lodgings would be lost for ever, if Mrs. Lyndsay should die of the
cholera. Yet, to do the good creature justice, she waited upon her, and
nursed her with most unselfish kindness; making gallons of gruel, which
the invalid scarcely tasted, and recommending remedies which, if
adopted, would have been certain to kill the patient, for whose life she
most earnestly and devoutly prayed.

The very morning that Mrs. Lyndsay was able to leave her bed, her
husband got a note from Mr. Gregg, informing him that the _Anne_ was to
sail at four o'clock the next day.

"My dear Flora," said Lyndsay, tenderly, "I fear you are not able to