ood deal alarmed. "Is it possible you are already
pledged?"

"No."

"Then what objection--"

"I made naue. I see ye dinna ken us here. The pear's no ripe yet."

"What pear?" asked I, astonished at this horticultural allusion.

"Hark ye," said M'Auslan, looking stealthily around him, and for the first
time exhibiting some marks of intelligence in his features--"Hark ye,--hae
ye seen Toddy Tam yet?"

"Mr Gills? Not yet. I am just going to wait upon him; but Provost Binkie
has promised me his support."

"Wha cares for Provost Binkie! Gang to Toddy Tam."

Not one other word could I extract from the oracular M'Auslan; so, like a
pilgrim, I turned my face towards Mecca, and sallied forth in quest of
this all-important personage. On my way, however, I entered the house of
another voter, one Shanks, a member of the Town Council, from whom I
received equally unsatisfactory replies. He, like M'Auslan, pointed
steadily towards Toddy Tam. Now, who and what was the individual who, by
the common consent of his townsmen, had earned so honourable an epithet?

Mr Thomas Gills had at one time been a clerk in the office of the departed
Linklater. His function was not strictly legal, nor confined to the
copying of processes: it had a broader and wider scope, and was exercised
in a more congenial manner. In short, Mr Gills was a kind of provider for
the establishment. His duties were to hunt out business; which he achieved
to a miracle by frequenting every possible public-house, and wringing from
them, amidst their cups, the stories of the wrongs of his compotators. Wo
to the wight who sate down for an afternoon's conviviality with Toddy Tam!
Before the mixing of the fourth tumbler, the ingenious Gills was sure to
elicit some hardship or grievance, for which benignant Themis could give
redress; and rare, indeed, was the occurrence of the evening on which he
did not capture some additional clients. He would even go the length of
treating his victim, when inordinately shy, until the fatal mandate was
given, and retraction utterly impossible.

Such decided business talents, of course, were not overlooked by the
sagacious Laurence Linklater. Gills enjoyed a large salary, the greater
moiety of which he consumed in alcoholic experiments; and shortly before
the decease of his patron, he was promoted to the lucrative and easy
office of some county registrarship. He now began to cultivate
conviviality for its own especial sake. It was no