ut,
"Starboard!"

Starboard it was, and they ascended a filthy "close," or alley they
mounted a staircase which was out of doors, and, without knocking,
Flucker introduced himself into Jess Rutherford's house.

"Here a gentleman to speak till ye, wife."

CHAPTER III.

THE widow was weather-beaten and rough. She sat mending an old net.

"The gentleman's welcome," said she; but there was no gratification in
her tone, and but little surprise.

His lordship then explained that, understanding there were worthy people
in distress, he was in hopes he might be permitted to assist them, and
that she must blame a neighbor of hers if he had broken in upon her
too abruptly with this object. He then, with a blush, hinted at ten
shillings, which he begged she would consider as merely an installment,
until he could learn the precise nature of her embarrassments, and the
best way of placing means at her disposal.

The widow heard all this with a lackluster mind.

For many years her life had been unsuccessful labor; if anything had
ever come to her, it had always been a misfortune; her incidents had
been thorns--her events, daggers.

She could not realize a human angel coming to her relief, and she did
not realize it, and she worked away at her net.

At this, Flucker, to whom his lordship's speech appeared monstrously
weak and pointless, drew nigh, and gave the widow, in her ear, his
version, namely, his sister's embellished. It was briefly this: That the
gentleman was a daft lord from England, who had come with the bank in
his breeks, to remove poverty from Scotland, beginning with her. "Sae
speak loud aneuch, and ye'll no want siller," was his polite corollary.

His lordship rose, laid a card on a chair, begged her to make use of
him, et cetera; he then, recalling the oracular prescription, said, "Do
me the favor to apply to me for any little sum you have a use for, and,
in return, I will beg of you (if it does not bore you too much) to make
me acquainted with any little troubles you may have encountered in the
course of your life."

His lordship, receiving no answer, was about to go, after bowing to her,
and smiling gracefully upon her.

His hand was on the latch, when Jess Rutherford burst into a passion of
tears.

He turned with surprise.

"My _troubles,_ laddie," cried she, trembling all over. "The sun wad
set, and rise, and set again, ere I could tell ye a' the trouble I hae
come through.

"Oh, ye need n