till scratching his head, "this is a queer sort o'
business, an' a turn o' matters I didna look for ava; but I hae seen waur
things come o' better beginnins. To tell ye a truth, sir," continued the
perplexed yeoman, "I'm no oot o' the need o' the siller. But, if ye'll just
stop a minute, if ye please, till I speak to the guidwife on the subject."

And, with this, Adair hurried out of the room; and, having done this, he
hurried his wife into another, and told her of what had just taken place,
concluding with a--"An', noo, guidwife, what do ye think we should do?"

"Tak the siller, to be sure," replied the latter. "He seems to me to be a
decent, canny lad; and, at ony rate, we canna be far wrang wi' ae six
months o' him, ony way, seein that he's payin the siller afore haun. That's
the grand point, Rab."

"Feth, it's that, guidwife--nae doot o't," replied her husband. "Juist the
pint o' pints. But whar'll ye put the lad?"

"Ou, tak ye nae fash about that, guidman. I'll manage that. Isna there the
wee room up the stair, wi' a bed in't that micht sair the king
himself--sheets as white as the driven snaw, and guid stripped druggit
curtains just oot o' the mangle?"

"Weel, weel, guidwife, ony way ye like as to thae matters," replied Adair;
"and I'll awa, in the meantime, and get haud o' the siller. There's gowd
yonner for the liftin. Deil o' the like o't ever I saw." Saying this, he
flung out of the apartment, and in the next minute was again in the
presence of the mysterious stranger.

On his entering--"Well, Mr Adair," said the latter, "what does your good
lady say to my becoming a boarder with her?"

"Feth, sir, she's very willin, and says ye may depend on her and her
dochter doin everything in their power to make ye comfortable."

"Of that I have no doubt," said the stranger; "and now, then, that this
matter is so far settled, take up your money, Mr Adair, and reckon on
punctual payments for the future."

"No misdoubtin that, sir, at a'," said the latter, picking up the guineas,
one after another, and chucking them into a small leathern purse which he
had brought for the purpose. "No misdoubtin' at a', sir," he said. "I tak
this to be guid earnest o' that."

The stranger, then, whoever he was, was now fairly domiciled in the house
of Mr Adair. The name he gave himself was Mowbray; and by this name he was
henceforth known.

For two years succeeding the period of which we have just been speaking,
did Mr Mowbray c