d years to the subject, having the body of Susanna Crum
before my eyes every minute of the time for inspiration, Susanna Crum
is what I should have named that maid. Not a vowel could be added, not a
consonant omitted. I said so when first I saw her, and weeks of intimate
acquaintance only deepened my reverence for the parental genius that had
so described her to the world.

Chapter III. A vision in Princes Street.

When we awoke next morning the sun had forgotten itself and was shining
in at Mrs. M'Collop's back windows.

We should have arisen at once to burn sacrifices and offer oblations,
but we had seen the sun frequently in America, and had no idea (poor
fools!) that it was anything to be grateful for, so we accepted it,
almost without comment, as one of the perennial providences of life.

When I speak of Edinburgh sunshine I do not mean, of course, any such
burning, whole-souled, ardent warmth of beam as one finds in countries
where they make a specialty of climate. It is, generally speaking, a
half-hearted, uncertain ray, as pale and transitory as a martyr's smile;
but its faintest gleam, or its most puerile attempt to gleam, is admired
and recorded by its well-disciplined constituency. Not only that, but at
the first timid blink of the sun the true Scotsman remarks smilingly,
'I think now we shall be having settled weather!' It is a pathetic
optimism, beautiful but quite groundless, and leads one to believe in
the story that when Father Noah refused to take Sandy into the ark, he
sat down philosophically outside, saying, with a glance at the clouds,
'Aweel! the day's just aboot the ord'nar', an' I wouldna won'er if we
saw the sun afore nicht!'

But what loyal son of Edina cares for these transatlantic gibes, and
where is the dweller within her royal gates who fails to succumb to the
sombre beauty of that old grey town of the North? 'Grey! why, it is grey
or grey and gold, or grey and gold and blue, or grey and gold and blue
and green, or grey and gold and blue and green and purple, according as
the heaven pleases and you choose your ground! But take it when it is
most sombrely grey, where is another such grey city?'

So says one of her lovers, and so the great army of lovers would say,
had they the same gift of language; for

'Even thus, methinks, a city reared should be,...
Yea, an imperial city that might hold
Five time a hundred noble towns in fee....
Thus should her towers be raised