e which had prompted the abandonment of her claim on the
man who had ruined her. It had never been brought home to her until now,
that if she left him contemptuously to go his own way, and sell himself
to the first woman who had money enough to buy him, her conduct would
sanction the false conclusion that she was powerless to interfere,
because she was married already to another man. The color that had risen
in her face vanished, and left it deadly pale again. She began to see
that the purpose of her journey to the north was not completed yet.

"I will give you your receipt," she said. "Tell me what to write, and it
shall be written."

Bishopriggs dictated the receipt. She wrote and signed it. He put it in
his pocket-book with the five-pound note, and handed her the letter in
exchange.

"Tear it if ye will," he said. "It matters naething to _me._"

For a moment she hesitated. A sudden shuddering shook her from head to
foot--the forewarning, it might be, of the influence which that letter,
saved from destruction by a hair's-breadth, was destined to exercise on
her life to come. She recovered herself, and folded her cloak closer to
her, as if she had felt a passing chill.

"No," she said; "I will keep the letter."

She folded it and put it in the pocket of her dress. Then turned to
go--and stopped at the door.

"One thing more," she added. "Do you know Mrs. Glenarm's present
address?"

"Ye're no' reely going to Mistress Glenarm?"

"That is no concern of yours. You can answer my question or not, as you
please."

"Eh, my leddy! yer temper's no' what it used to be in the auld times at
the hottle. Aweel! aweel! ye ha' gi'en me yer money, and I'll een gi'
ye back gude measure for it, on my side. Mistress Glenarm's awa' in
private--incog, as they say--to Jaffray Delamayn's brither at Swanhaven
Lodge. Ye may rely on the information, and it's no' that easy to come
at either. They've keepit it a secret as they think from a' the warld.
Hech! hech! Tammy Pennyquick's youngest but twa is page-boy at the hoose
where the leddy's been veesitin', on the outskirts o' Pairth. Keep a
secret if ye can frae the pawky ears o' yer domestics in the servants'
hall!--Eh! she's aff, without a word at parting!" he exclaimed, as Anne
left him without ceremony in the middle of his dissertation on secrets
and servants' halls. "I trow I ha' gaen out for wool, and come back
shorn," he added, reflecting grimly on the disastrous overthrow of th