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while there's Neil, puir fallow! the best and doucest lad"

"Ay, and the canniest, and the saftest spoken, and the dourest, and maist hard-fisted-there noo, mammy, let a-be; yer ain fists is waur than cannon balls, and my lugs is made o' flesh an' bluid!"

His mother here made a fresh onslaught, and by dint of wonderful exertions of lungs and arms contrived to force him towards the dusky opening to those subterranean regions whence she had emerged, and into which he plunged with a shrill whoop of defiance like a demoniacal goblin.

Dame Christie, as she was always called, would fain have persuaded Alice to remain and share their evening meal, but without success, and the young girl, after thanking her for the offered hospitality, left the tavern to try and reach Lady Libberton's house before dusk. She was rather annoyed and ruffled at having been made a witness of the noisy contention between mother and son, which had disturbed the current of her meditations, just as the image of some coarse though amusing scene by Teniers or Ostade might efface from the retina the sweet vision of a woodland landscape from the magic hand of Ruysdael. The whole thing, ridiculous as it was, jarred on her nerves, and she could not readily gather up into their former pleasing though chequered web the broken threads of her bitter-sweet fancies.

"Ye are late o' coming, Alice," said Eppie Fleming, the dowager of Libberton's maid, meeting Alice as she entered the stone-floored corridor of the house

where that distinguished lady resided, in one of the closes which divided the irregular-shaped block of ancient buildings comprised within the Grass Market, the West Bow, and the western extremity of the Cowgate; for, not possessing an independent city establishment and mansion, she was forced, like innumerable others of far higher rank, to content herself with a small portion of one of those vast constructions which in our days excite the wonder of strangers who behold them for the first time.

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Ay, Eppie, but I would not disappoint my lady," replied Alice.

"Ye'll no see her yet awhile," said Eppie, who filled the troublesome office of tirewoman and waiting maid to the old coquette. She was a blithe, rosycheeked, blue-eyed damsel-which charms, re-inforced by a saucy tongue and a good temper, had so overcome the susceptible soul of young Neil Maclean as to have induced the matrimonial overtures already referred to.

"Why should I not?" asked Alice.

"Because Madam Brand, the Provost's wife, and the auld leddy o' Inverleith are up yonder wi' her, and when ance they get to their cracks, pykin' holes in ilka man's coat, there's nae end till't. A sair time a' the puir lassies has then that's sae misfortunate as to be young and bonnie, I trow! But wait ye there, Alice dearie, and I'll try what can be dune."

Alice waited accordingly, and presently down came Eppie, laughing.

"She canna speak wi' ye this minute, and she winna

wait ower the Sabbath-sae it'll just behove ye to take patience. Dinna stand there, Alice—na, nor sit neither on that cauld stane bench, ye'll be the death o' yersel'. Come in hither."

The pretty soubrette, so saying, opened the door of a room on the ground floor and beckoned Alice in. "Whose chamber is this? not yours, Eppie," said our heroine, pausing on the threshold.

"Mine! na, na! my lady needs to hae me nearer than that to cry upon me by day or night. Thanks be to Praise, I'll get quieter sleep sune," she added, laughing merrily.

"But, Eppie, how comes it that you can enter a stranger's apartments?" said Alice doubtfully.

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Tuts, woman!" replied Eppie smartly, giving her a little push in the side, "the door's never on the lock, because there's naething to lift. Ye'll find thae muckle chairs mair to yer mind than the flag stanes without, and ye winna need to wait lang-ye'll hear my lady jow the muckle siller bell whenever she's gotten a' the beams out o' her fellow Christians' e'en, and then ye can gang up the stair. I'd keep ye company myself, and be glad to do't, but I'm trysted wi' Neil the night to sup posset at his mither's, and ye ken what a tryst is, maybe Alice."

"Or maybe no," said Alice, smiling at the insinuation. "But, Eppie, what if the master or mistress of this place should come back and find me here?"

"It's a master-but he's aye late o' nights, and never comes hame till the ten o'clock drum hath sounded, and whiles not for whole days thegither. He's a

mighty grim auld chiel, a Whig preacher, I guess; there's walth o' them in the toun now that the sodger bodies is far awa'-mair's the pity! He aye glowers at me when I pass him wi' my passmented hood and blue kirtle, as if they had been his ain and I had lifted them. Nae need to fear for him. Gude even to ye, Alice dear, and try to get a bit mair red in yer bonnie face, ye're ower pale."

Therewith Eppie kissed her on both checks, and danced away in great spirits, being, as she said, on leave that evening, and anxious to make the most of her short liberty-such occasions were rare in the régime under which she lived.

Alice was not long in becoming a convert to the superior merit of the chair in which Eppie had installed her over the rough stone bench in the hall, and of the thick matting which was under her feet over the damp pavement without. Having nothing better to do, and finding that Lady Libberton's gossips were somewhat long in taking their leave, she began to look about her, and investigate the aspect of the apartment into which she had been unceremoniously introduced. It was decidedly funereal on the whole; very high in proportion to its size, and very dark, having only two small windows, as deeply set as those of a prison, and placed so high that Alice, when she tried to look out of them, could only just see that they opened into a square courtyard, of which other buildings formed the three other sides-edifices so massive and tall, piled tier upon tier, that it seemed astonishing how any blessed rays of sunshine could ever condescend to plunge into such a

dismal well, from which man had taken elaborate pleasure in excluding them. One little patch of clear pale blue was however within ken, and its reflection from the surrounding walls enabled Alice to perceive that the room was panelled with very dark wood, and that the gaunt, weird-looking chairs were covered with a material which, if not absolutely black, appeared so in that semi-obscurity. The immense chimneymantel projected a great distance into the room; the recess which it formed on the farthest side from the window was shut in by doors, probably enclosing an alcove or closet-bed, while the other was occupied by a highly-carved wardrobe or cabinet, which towered up until its slender pinnacles were quite lost in the gloom of the ceiling. Except this and the seats there was no furniture, and indeed no traces of occupation, unless it were a slight disarrangement of the said chairs, of which three stood grouped in the window-bay, as if continuing on their own account the conversation in which the sitters had been engaged.

Nothing very enlivening. By a little twinge of feminine curiosity Alice bethought her of peeping into another apartment, the door leading into which opened opposite to the windows of the first. It looked out into the street, and was rather lighter than its neighbour, but in other respects quite as cheerful and elegant, possessing however in addition a table and some chimney-ornaments in the shape of a pair of horsepistols and a sword.

Her inquiries ended, Alice began to grow rather impatient, and determined only to wait a short time

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