' his poor wizzened houghs as blue as a
blawort?--weel I wot he is a humbling spectacle. Or can it gie ony body
health or pleasure either to see your ainsell, Doctor, ganging about wi'
a claise screen tied to your back, covered wi' paper, and painted like a
stane and lime wa'?--I'll gang to see nane o' their vanities, Dr.
Kittlehen; and if there is nae other decent body to take care o' me, as
I dinna like to sit a haill afternoon by mysell, I'll e'en gae doun to
Mr. Sowerbrowst the maltster's--he is a pleasant, sensible man, and a
sponsible man in the world, and his sister's a very decent woman."

"Confound Sowerbrowst," thought the Doctor; "if I had guessed he was to
come across me thus, he should not have got the better of his dyspepsy
so early.--My dear Mrs. Blower," he continued, but aloud, "it is a
foolish affair enough, I must confess; but every person of style and
fashion at the Well has settled to attend this exhibition; there has
been nothing else talked of for this month through the whole country,
and it will be a year before it is forgotten. And I would have you
consider how ill it will look, my dear Mrs. Blower, to stay away--nobody
will believe you had a card--no, not though you were to hang it round
your neck like a label round a vial of tincture, Mrs. Blower."

"If ye thought _that_, Doctor Kickherben," said the widow, alarmed at
the idea of losing caste, "I wad e'en gang to the show, like other folk;
sinful and shameful if it be, let them that make the sin bear the shame.
But then I will put on nane of their Popish disguises--me that has lived
in North Leith, baith wife and lass, for I shanna say how mony years,
and has a character to keep up baith with saint and sinner.--And then,
wha's to take care of me, since you are gaun to make a lime-and-stane
wa' of yoursell, Dr. Kickinben?"

"My dear Mrs. Blower, if such is your determination, I will not make a
wall of myself. Her ladyship must consider my profession--she must
understand it is my function to look after my patients, in preference to
all the stage-plays in this world--and to attend on a case like yours,
Mrs. Blower, it is my duty to sacrifice, were it called for, the whole
drama from Shakspeare to O'Keefe."

On hearing this magnanimous resolution, the widow's heart was greatly
cheered; for, in fact, she might probably have considered the Doctor's
perseverance in the plan, of which she had expressed such high
disapprobation, as little less than