s of Mr.
Gregory; and in the meanwhile carried us to a late ordinary for the meal
we stood in need of. He seemed extremely friendly, as I say, but, what
surprised me a good deal, rather boisterous in the bargain; and the
cause of this was soon to appear. For at the ordinary, calling for
Rhenish wine and drinking of it deep, he soon became unutterably tipsy.
In this case, as too common with all men, but especially with those of
his rough trade, what little sense or manners he possessed deserted him;
and he behaved himself so scandalous to the young lady, jesting most
ill-favouredly at the figure she had made on the ship's rail, that I had
no resource but carry her suddenly away.

She came out of that ordinary clinging to me close. "Take me away,
David," she said. "_You_ keep me. I am not afraid with you."

"And have no cause, my little friend!" cried I, and could have found it
in my heart to weep.

"Where will you be taking me?" she said again. "Don't leave me, at all
events--never leave me."

"Where am I taking you indeed?" says I, stopping, for I had been staving
on ahead in mere blindness. "I must stop and think. But I'll not leave
you, Catriona; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if I should fail or
fash you."

She crept closer in to me by way of a reply.

"Here," I said, "is the stillest place that we have hit on yet in this
busy byke of a city. Let us sit down here under yon tree and consider of
our course."

That tree (which I am little like to forget) stood hard by the
harbour-side. It was a black night, but lights were in the houses, and
nearer hand in the quiet ships; there was a shining of the city on the
one hand, and a buzz hung over it of many thousands walking and talking;
on the other, it was dark, and the water bubbled on the sides. I spread
my cloak upon a builder's stone, and made her sit there; she would have
kept her hold upon me, for she still shook with the late affronts; but I
wanted to think clear, disengaged myself, and paced to and fro before
her, in the manner of what we call a smuggler's walk, belabouring my
brains for any remedy. By the course of these scattering thoughts I was
brought suddenly face to face with a remembrance that, in the heat and
haste of our departure, I had left Captain Sang to pay the ordinary. At
this I began to laugh out loud, for I thought the man well served; and
at the same time, by an instinctive movement, carried my hand to the
pocket where my money was