ful girl, to whom the comfort of
every one who came near her was an instinctive anxiety.

"Ow, ay. I hae a bed at the hoose o' a sma', jabberin', bitter-barkit
crater they ca' King Robert the Bruce."

Annie knew that he must be occupying her room; and was on the point of
expressing a hope that he "wadna be disturbit wi' the rottans," when
she saw that it would lead to new explanations and delays.

"Good night, Mr Cupples," she said, holding out her hand.

Mr Cupples took it kindly, saying:

"Are ye a niece, or a gran'-dochter o' the hoose, or a hired servan',
or what are ye?--for ye're a wice-spoken lass and a bonnie."

"I'm a servan' o' the hoose," said Annie. Then after a moment's
hesitation, she added, "but no a hired ane."

"Ye're worth hirin' onyhoo, hinnie (honey); and they're weel aff that
has ye i' the hoose in ony capawcity. An auld man like me may say that
to yer face. Sae I'll awa' to my bed, and sing the lave o' my psalm as
I gang."

Mr Cupples had a proclivity to garrets. He could not be comfortable if
any person was over his head. He could breathe, he said, when he got
next to the stars. For the rats he cared nothing, and slept as if the
garret were a cellar in heaven.

It had been a sore trial of his manhood to keep his vow after he knew
that Alec was safe in the haven of a sick-bed. He knew that for him, if
he were once happy again, there was little danger of a relapse; for his
physical nature had not been greatly corrupted: there had not been time
for that. He would rise from his sickness newborn. Hence it was the
harder for Mr Cupples, in his loneliness, to do battle with his
deep-rooted desires. He would never drink as he had done, but might he
not have just one tumbler?--That one tumbler he did not take. And--rich
reward!--after two months the well of song within him began to gurgle
and heave as if its waters would break forth once more in the desert;
the roseate hue returned to the sunsets; and the spring came in with a
very childhood of greenness.--The obfuscations of self-indulgence will
soon vanish where they have not been sealed by crime and systematic
selfishness.

Another though inferior reward was, that he had money in his pocket:
with this money he would go and see Alec Forbes. The amount being
small, however, he would save it by walking. Hence it came that he
arrived late and weary. Entering the first shop he came to, he inquired
after a cheap lodging. For he said to himself tha