spot he selected was Westminster Abbey.

And away he went, leaving golden opinions behind him.

The next day Christie was so affected with his conduct, coming as it
did after an apparent coolness, that she conquered her bashfulness
and called on the "vile count," and with some blushes and hesitation
inquired, "Whether a painter lad was a fit subject of charity."

"Why not?" said his lordship.

She told him Gatty's case, and he instantly promised to see that
artist's pictures, particularly an "awfu' bonny ane;" the hero of which
she described as an English minister blessing the bairns with one hand,
and giving orders to kill the puir Scoetch with the other.

"C'est e'gal," said Christie in Scotch, "it's awfu' bonny."

Gatty reached home late; his mother had retired to rest.

But the next morning she drew from him what had happened, and then
ensued another of those dialogues which I am ashamed again to give the
reader.

Suffice it to say, that she once more prevailed, though with far greater
difficulty; time was to be given him to unsew a connection which he
could not cut asunder, and he, with tearful eyes and a heavy heart,
agreed to take some step the very first opportunity.

This concession was hardly out of his mouth, ere his mother made him
kneel down and bestowed her blessing upon him.

He received it coldly and dully, and expressed a languid hope it might
prove a charm to save him from despair; and sad, bitter, and dejected,
forced himself to sit down and work on the picture that was to meet his
unrelenting creditor's demand.

He was working on his picture, and his mother, with her needle, at the
table, when a knock was heard, and gay as a lark, and fresh as the dew
on the shamrock, Christie Johnstone stood in person in the apartment.

She was evidently the bearer of good tidings; but, before she could
express them, Mrs. Gatty beckoned her son aside, and announcing, "she
should be within hearing," bade him take the occasion that so happily
presented itself, and make the first step.

At another time, Christie, who had learned from Jean the arrival of Mrs.
Gatty, would have been struck with the old lady's silence; but she came
to tell the depressed painter that the charitable viscount was about
to visit him and his picture; and she was so full of the good fortune
likely to ensue, that she was neglectful of minor considerations.

It so happened, however, that certain interruptions prevented her from
e