d paid a visit to Lady Maitland, got
from her the same sum of money, and nothing passed to indicate what it
was paid for. The lady clearly remained under the impression that the
child was not in existence.

It happened that, some time after the last payment, Geordie was on the
pier of Leith, with a view to fall in with some chance message or
carriage to Edinburgh. A vessel had newly arrived from the Continent,
and one of the passengers was Sir Marmaduke Maitland. Geordie was
employed to assist in getting his luggage removed to Edinburgh. On
arriving at the house, Lady Maitland, with Louise behind her, was
standing on the landing-place to receive her husband. They saw Geordie
walking alongside of him, and talking to him in the familiar manner
which his alleged silliness in many cases entitled him to do; but
whatever they may have felt or expressed, by looks or otherwise, Geordie
seemed not to be any way out of his ordinary manner, and they soon
observed, from the conduct of Sir Marmaduke, that Geordie had said
nothing to him. Geordie bustled about, assisting to take out the
luggage, while Sir Marmaduke was standing in the lobby with his lady
alongside of him.

"Is there any news stirring in these parts, Geordie, worth telling to
one who has been from his own country so long as I have been."

"Naething worth mentioning, Sir Marmaduke," answered Geordie; "a'thing
quiet, decent, and orderly i' the toun and i' the country--no excepting
your ain house here, whar I hae missed mony a gude luck-penny sin' your
honour departed."

"Has Lady Maitland not been in the habit of employing you, then,
Geordie?" asked Sir Marmaduke.

"No exactly, Sir Marmaduke," answered Geordie; "the last time I ca'ed
on her leddyship, she asked me what I wanted. I didna think it quite
ceevil, and I haena gane back; but I canna deny that she paid me
handsomely for the last thing I carried for her. She's a fine leddy, Sir
Marmaduke, and meikle credit to ye."

At any subsequent period, when Geordie's yearly pension was due, he
generally contrived to call for Lady Maitland when Sir Marmaduke was out
of the way. He took always the same amount of money. The only departure
he made from this custom was in the year of his sister's marriage, when
he asked and got a sum of forty pounds, twenty of which he gave to her.
Her husband, George Dempster, had at one time been a butler in Lady
Maitland's family; but her ladyship did not know either that he was
acqu