the face o' day, and of a' people, I'm
constrained to enter Crail--first, to confess my guilt at the door of
the honest man and his bairns that I hae sae disgraced; and syne to beg
my mother to take in the limmer that was scofft frae door to door, till
the blessed time when ye were sent to stop me laying desperate hands on
mysel'."

Elspa remonstrated with her for some time, but she was not to be
entreated: "My guilt and my shamelessness were public," said she, "and
it is meet that the world should behold what hae been the wages I hae
earnt, and the depth of the humiliation to which my vain and proud heart
has been brought; so, go ye on wi' your gudeman and Agnes, and let me
come by mysel'."

"No, Marion," replied her sister, "that sha'na be; I'll no let you do
that. If you will make sic a pilgrimage, I'll bear you company, for I
can ne'er be ashamed nor mortified in being wi' you, when ye are seeking
again the path of righteousness that ye were sae beguil't to quit."

"Say nae I was beguil't; say naething to gar me think less o' my fault
than I should: there was nae beguiler but my ain vain and sinful
nature."

Her daughter, who had all this time stood silent with the tear in her
e'e, then said, "I'll gang wi' you, mother, too."

"Mother!--O Agnes Kilspinnie, dinna sae wrang yoursel', and your honest
father, as to ca' the like o' me mother. But did ye say ye would come
wi' me?" and she dropped vehemently on her knees, and, spreading her
arms to the skies, cried out with a loud and wild voice,--

"God, God! is thy goodness so great, that thou canst already vouchsafe
to me a mercy like this?"

Seeing her so bent on going into the town in her miserable estate, and
his wife and her daughter so mindit to go with her, my grandfather said
it would be as well for him to run forward and prepare her mother for
her coming; so he left them, and hastened into the town, thinking they
would come in the cart; but when he was gone, Marion, still in the hope
she might get her sister and daughter dissuaded from accompanying her,
told them that she was resolved to go on her bare feet, which, however,
made them in pity still adhere the more closely to their determination;
and, having paid the Kinghorn man for his cart, the three set forward
together, Elspa on the right hand and Agnes on the left hand of the
lowly penitent.

In the meantime my grandfather hastened to the dwelling of Widow Ruet,
his gude-mother, to tell her who wa