"Nae fears--nae fears!" said Toddy Tam, looking, however, the reverse of
comfortable. "It will hae been some callant trying to fley us, that's a'.
But, mind ye--no a word o' this to ony living human being, and aboon a' to
Provost Binkie. I've keepit him for four years in the dark, and it never
wad do to show the cat the road to the kirn!"

I acquiesced in the precautionary arrangement, and we parted; Toddy Tam
and his friends having, by this time, disposed of all the surplus fluid.
It was very late before I reached the Provost's dwelling.

I suppose that next morning I had overslept myself; for, when I awoke, I
heard Miss Binkie in full operation at the piano. This time, however, she
was not singing alone, for a male voice was audible in conjunction with
hers.

"It would be in amazing consolation to me if somebody would carry off that
girl!" thought I, as I proceeded with my toilet. "I made a deuced fool of
myself to her yesterday; and, to say the truth, I don't very well know how
to look her in the face!"

However, there was no help for it, so I proceeded down stairs. The first
individual I recognised in the breakfast parlour was M'Corkindale. He was
engaged in singing, along with Miss Binkie, some idiotical catch about a
couple of albino mice.

"Bob!" cried I. "my dear Bob, I am delighted to see you;--what on earth
has brought you here?"

"A gig and a foundered mare," replied the matter-of-fact M'Corkindale.
"The fact is, that I was anxious to hear about your canvass; and, as there
was nothing to do in Glasgow--by the way, Dunshunner, the banks have put
on the screw again--I resolved to satisfy my own curiosity in person. I
arrived this morning, and Miss Binkie has been kind enough to ask me to
stay breakfast."

"I am sure both papa and I are always happy to see Mr M'Corkindale," said
Margaret, impressively.

"I am afraid," said I, "that I have interrupted your music: I did not
know, M'Corkindale, that you were so eminent a performer."

"I hold with Aristotle," replied Bob modestly, "that music and political
economy are at the head of all the sciences. But it is very seldom that
one can meet with so accomplished a partner as Miss Binkie."

"Oh, ho!" thought I. But here the entrance of the Provost diverted the
conversation, and we all sat down to breakfast. Old Binkie was evidently
dying to know the result of my interview on the previous evening, but I
was determined to keep him in the dark. Bob fed like