her. He locked them
up in his chest, and, in the morning, when his mother asked him if he
had seen them, he said he knew nothing about them. Annoyed by this
conduct on the part of her son, his mother threatened to throw the child
upon the parish as a foundling; and yet, when she reflected on the
extreme sagacity which was mixed up with her son's peculiarities, and
read in his looks, which she well understood, a more than ordinary
confidence of power to do what he had said, as to bringing up the child,
she hesitated in her purpose, and at last resolved to go in with the
humour and inclinations of her son, and do the duty of a mother to the
babe.

We now change the scene.

"It's a braw day this, my Leddy Maitland," said Geordie, bowing to the
very ground, and holding in his hand a clean sheet of paper, which he
had folded up like a letter, as a passport to her ladyship's presence.

Lady Maitland, who was sitting at her work-table, stared at the person
thus saluting her, and seeing it was Geordie Willison, who had offended
her at the time of his carrying down Sir Marmaduke's luggage, by asking,
jocularly, if "ony o' the bairns were gaun wi' their father," she asked
him sternly what he wanted, and, thinking he had the letter in his hand
to deliver to her, snatched it in a petted manner and opened it. On
finding it a clean sheet of paper, with her address on the back of it,
she got into a great rage, and ran to the bell to call up a lackey to
kick Geordie down stairs.

"Canny, my braw leddy--canny," said Geordie, seizing her hand; "ye are
hasty--maybe no quite recovered yet--the wet dews o' Warriston are no
for the tender health o' the bonny Leddy Maitland; for even Geordie
Willison, wha can ban a' bield i' the cauldest nicht o' winter, felt
them chill and gruesome as he passed through them yestreen."

On hearing this speech, Lady Maitland changed, in an instant, from a
state of violent passion to the rigidity and appearance of a marble
statue.

Eyeing her with one of his peculiar looks, as much as to say, "I know
all," Geordie proceeded.

"I dinna want to put your leddyship to ony trouble by this veesit; but,
being in want o' some siller in thir hard times, I thocht I would tak
the liberty o' ca'in upon yer leddyship, as weel for the sake o' being
better acquainted wi' a leddy o' yer station and presence, as for the
sake o' gettin' the little I require on my first introduction to high
life."

"How much money dost