ing her hand firmly in his, to detain
her, and now considerably relieved by the consciousness that he was in
the presence of one who had hands and arms, and a body of flesh and
blood like his own; "dinna leave me," he continued, "and I'll tell ye
a' about it. It's no five minutes yet since I saw a ghaist--oh dear,
oh dear! it gars my very blood rin cauld o' thinkin on't--and it said,
if I dinna marry you in less than a fortnicht, I maun gang to
hell-fire to be burned, for the promises I made i' the glen. O Nelly,
Nelly, tak pity on me, and let the marriage be on Monanday, or Tysday
at farrest."

"You're surely wrang, Jock," was the reply; "if the ghaist kenned
onything ava, it would ken brawly that ye had nae wark wi' me. It had
been Lizzie Gimmerton it bade ye tak, and ye had just taen up the tale
wrang."

"Na, na," rejoined the other; "it was you--it was Nelly Kilgour. Oh,
I'll never forget its words!--and if ye winna tak pity on me, what am
I to do?"

"Ye needna speer what ye're to do at me," said Nelly; "but it seems
the ghaist and you maun think that ye can get me to _marry_ ony time
ye like, just as ye would get a pickle strae to gather up ahint your
horse on a mornin. But I daresay, after a', the ghaist would ken
brawly that it needna sent you to Lizzie upon sic an errand, for the
first lad that would gang awa wi' her, she would gang awa wi' him, and
leave you to whistle on your thumb or your forefinger, if it answered
you better; and yet ye micht gang owre _the morn's nicht_, and gie her
a trial."

The awful words, "hell-fire," and "pick your banes at the back o' the
aisle," were still ringing in Jock's ears. Nelly's observation seemed
to preclude all hope of escape from the terrible doom which they
plainly denounced, and he groaned deeply, but did not speak: this was
what the other could not endure, and she now tried to comfort him in
the best manner she could.

"I'm no sayin," she resumed, "but I would tak ye, rather than see ony
ill come owre ye, if ye would only promise to gie up your glaikit
gates, and to do your best to keep yoursel and me comfortable." Here
she was interrupted by the guidman, who, like herself, had been
awakened by the first alarm; but, in coming into the kitchen, and
hearing only Jock and her conversing together, he had thought it best
to dress himself before he entered upon an investigation of the
matter. He was now at the bedside, however, and anxious to learn what
had occasion