auld body, sleeking
down his hair and his chin, had the assurance to make love to me!

'There is the door, sir!' cried I. And when he didna seem willing to
understand me, I gripped him by the shouthers, and showed him what I
meant.

Yet quite composedly he turned round to me and said, 'I dinna see what
is the use o' the like o' this--it is true I am aulder than you, but you
are at a time o' life now that ye canna expect ony young man to look at
ye. Therefore, ye had better think twice before ye turn me to the door.
Ye will find it just as easy a life being the wife o' a hedger as
keeping a school--rather mair sae I apprehend, and mair profitable too.'
I had nae patience wi' the man. I thought my sisters had insulted me;
but this offer o' the hedger's wounded me mair than a' that they had
done.

'O James Laidlaw!' cried I, when I was left to mysel, 'what hae ye
brought me to! My sisters dinna look after me. My parting wi' them has
gien them an excuse to forget that I exist. My brother is far frae me,
and he is ruled by a wife; and I hae been robbed by another o' the
little that I had. I am like a withered tree in a wilderness, standing
its lane--I will fa' and naebody will miss me. I am sick, and there are
none to haud my head. My throat is parched and my lips dry, and there
are none to bring me a cup o' water. There is nae _living thing_ that I
can ca' mine. And some day I shall be found a stiffened corpse in my
bed, with no one near me to close my eyes in death or perform the last
office of humanity! For I am alone--I am by myself--I am forgotten in
the world; and my latter years, if I have a long life, will be a burden
to strangers.'"

But Diana Darling did not so die. Her gentleness, her kindness, caused
her to be beloved by many who knew not her history; and, when the last
stern messenger came to call her hence, many watched with tears around
her bed of death, and many more in sorrow followed her to the grave. So
ran the few leaves in the diary of a spinster--and the reader will
forgive our interpolations.

GEORDIE WILLISON,
AND THE HEIRESS OF CASTLE GOWER.

Antiquaries know very well that one of the oldest of the Nova Scotia
knights, belonging to Scotland, was Sir Marmaduke Maitland of Castle
Gower, situated in one of the southern counties of the kingdom; but they
may not know so well that Sir Marmaduke held his property under a strict
entail to heirs male, whom failing, to heirs female, under the c