rovided
I could get one of these noble mates to accompany me. She abused Lucky
Sudds, as she called her, at the inn where the party was, envying her
huge profits, no doubt, and giving me afterwards something to drink for
which I really felt exceedingly grateful in my need. I stepped
downstairs in order to be on the alert. The moment that I reached the
ground, the door of Lucky Sudds' house opened and shut, and down came
the Honourable Thomas Drummond, with hasty and impassioned strides, his
sword rattling at his heel. I accosted him in a soft and soothing tone.
He was taken with my address; for he instantly stood still and gazed
intently at me, then at the place, and then at me again. I beckoned him
to follow me, which he did without further ceremony, and we soon found
ourselves together in the best room of a house where everything was
wretched. He still looked about him, and at me; but all this while he
had never spoken a word. At length, I asked if he would take any
refreshment? 'If you please,' said he. I asked what he would have, but
he only answered, 'Whatever you choose, madam.' If he was taken with my
address, I was much more taken with his; for he was a complete
gentleman, and a gentleman will ever act as one. At length, he began as
follows:

"'I am utterly at a loss to account for this adventure, madam. It seems
to me like enchantment, and I can hardly believe my senses. An English
lady, I judge, and one, who from her manner and address should belong
to the first class of society, in such a place as this, is indeed
matter of wonder to me. At the foot of a close in Edinburgh! and at
this time of the night! Surely it must have been no common reverse of
fortune that reduced you to this?' I wept, or pretended to do so; on
which he added, 'Pray, madam, take heart. Tell me what has befallen
you; and if I can do anything for you, in restoring you to your country
or your friends, you shall command my interest.'

"I had great need of a friend then, and I thought now was the time to
secure one. So I began and told him the moving tale I have told you.
But I soon perceived that I had kept by the naked truth too
unvarnishedly, and thereby quite overshot my mark. When he learned that
he was sitting in a wretched corner of an irregular house, with a
felon, who had so lately been scourged and banished as a swindler and
impostor, his modest nature took the alarm, and he was shocked, instead
of being moved with pity. His eye