me that, as the matter was of the suddenest, Amelia Craven
might help us to find a small house of our own where we might set up our
household gods--that is, when we got any.

An unexpected encounter preceded the one expected. I was marching along
to our rendezvous with Freddy and Amelia at the crossing from Archers'
Hall to the Sciennes, when all of a sudden whom should we meet right in
the face but my rosy-cheeked, bunchy little employer--my Lord Advocate
in person, all shining as if he had been polished, his face smiling and
smirking like a newly-oiled picture, and on his arm, but towering above
him, a thin, dusky-skinned woman, plainly dressed, and with an enormous
bonnet on her head, obviously of her own manufacture--a sort of tangle
of black, brown and green which really had to be seen to be believed.

"Aha!" cried my Lord Advocate; "whither away, young sir? Shirking the
proofs, eh, my lad? And may I have the honour to be presented to your
sister from the country--for so, by her fresh looks, I divine the young
lady to be."

"If you will wait a few minutes till we can find a minister, I will say,
'This, sir, is my wedded wife,'" I declared manfully.

"And is the young lady of the same mind?" quoth my Lord, with a quick,
gleg slyness.

"I am, sir--if the business concerns you!" said Irma, looking straight
at him.

"What, and dare you say that you will take a man like this for your
wedded husband?" he demanded, with the swift up-and-down play of his
bushy brows which was habitual to him.

"I see not what business it is of yours," Irma answered, as sharply,
"but I do take him for my husband."

"There!" cried the lawyer, pulling out his snuffbox and tapping it
vehemently, "it is done. I have performed my first marriage, and all the
General Assembly, or the Gretna Green Welder himself, could not have
done it neater or made a better job. Declaration before witnesses being
sufficient in the eye of the law of Scotland, I declare you two man and
wife!"

Irma looked distressed.

"But I do not feel in the least married," she said; "I must have a
minister!"

"You can have all the ministers in Edinburgh, my lass, but you have been
duly wedded already in the presence of the first legal authority of your
kingdom, not to mention that of the Lady Frances Kirkpatrick----"

"My aunt Frances, after all!" cried Irma, suddenly flushing.

"Who may you be?" said the tall lady, with the face like sculptured
gingerbread.