.

"Which end o't?"

"I couldna say."

"Ca' it a penny," said the conductor.

Robert, with the air of a man who has beaten down his opponent to the
lowest possible figure, produced the coin from his pocket. (It was just
as well that the man had not demanded a larger sum, for Robert's more
precious currency was concealed in a place only accessible to partial
disrobement.) The gorgeous man carelessly snapped a ticket out of one of
the bundles, and having first punched a hole in it with an ingenious
instrument that gave forth sounds of music, handed it to Robert in
exchange for the penny. He was a saturnine man, but he smiled a little
later when Robert, mindful of the fate of his railway-ticket at the last
station but one, airily attempted to give up his car-ticket in similar
fashion on alighting at the end of the journey.

The greater part of the next four days was spent by our friend in an
examination-room, into which we, more fortunate, need not attempt to
follow him. Robert diligently answered every question, writing at the
foot of each sheet of his neat manuscript, "More on the next page," in
case the examiner should be a careless fellow and imagine that Robert
had finished when he had not. Robert was not the man to leave anything
to chance, or to such unsafe abbreviations as P.T.O.

Outside the examination-room he devoted most of the time that he could
spare from preparation for the next paper to a systematic exploration of
Edinburgh. He did the thing as thoroughly as possible, for he knew well
that he might never spend four days in a large town again.

He began by climbing the Calton Hill. He remained at the summit quite a
long time, constructing a rough bird's-eye plan of the streets and
buildings below him; and having descended to earth, proceeded on a
series of voyages of discovery.

He regarded the exterior of Parliament House with intense interest, for
he was a debater by instinct and upbringing. St Giles' he passed by
without enthusiasm--he was a member of the Free Kirk--and St Mary's
Cathedral struck him as being unduly magnificent to be the property of
such a small and pernicious sect as the Episcopalians. The Post Office
and other great buildings struck him dumb; and he hastened past the
theatres with averted eyes, for he had it upon unimpeachable authority
that the devil resided there.

He knew no one in Edinburgh save Elspeth M'Kerrow. However, he made
another friend--to wit, one Hector MacPher