rmined to get his object gratified. He meditated various
schemes for this purpose. He turned off Dempster, who might have been a
spy upon his conduct; and it was remarked, by the people living near
to Widow Willison's, that a woman, rolled up in a cloak, had been seen
watching about the door. Geordie, though apparently not listening to any
of these transactions, was all alive to the interests of his foundling.
He kept a constant eye upon the neighbourhood, and did not fail to
observe, that a woman, of the description stated, came always, at a
certain hour, near his mother's door, about the time that Jessie
generally went out.

Now, Geordie was determined to know, by some means, who this woman was;
and, as the day was drawing in, he thought he might disguise himself in
such a way as to get into conversation with her.

Having equipped himself in the garb of a cadie, of more respectable
appearance than he himself exhibited, and put a black patch over his
eye, and a broad slouched hat over his head, Geordie took his station to
watch the woman in the cloak.

"Wha may ye be waitin' for?" said Geordie, in a feigned voice, to the
woman, whom he at last found.

"Are you von of de cadies?" asked the woman.

"Yes," answered Geordie.

"Do you live in de neighbourhood?" asked again the woman.

"I wadna live in ony ither place war ye to pay me for't," answered
Geordie.

"Very good--dat is a very good answer," said the woman; "dere is a
little money for you."

"I dinna tak siller for tellin' folk whar I live," said Geordie; "but,
if there's onything else I can, in my capacity o' cadie, do for ye,
maybe I may then condescend to tak yer siller."

"_Mon Dieu!_ vat a trange fellow!" ejaculated the woman. "Vell, can you
tell me if a young woman, carrying the name of Jessie Varriston, lives
up dat stair?" pointing with her hand.

"I ken the lassie as weel as I ken mysel," answered Geordie; "she lives
just whar ye hae said."

"Very goot--very goot--dat is just vat I vant--_un sage homme_
dis--excellent goot chap. Now, tell me if de girl lives vit an imbecile
that is von idiot, called George Villison, and how long she has lived
vit him, vere she comes from, and vat is her history."

"Ye hae asked four questions a' in ae breath," said Geordie, who wanted
a prologue, to give him time to consider how much he could say, so as to
serve the two purposes of safety and drawing out the woman at the same
time. "It's no quite fair, to a