inding some
attorney, and taking him to Mr. Kennedy; but he knew that Mr. Kennedy
would be deterred by no attorney. Then he thought of Mr. Low. He
would see Mr. Kennedy first, and then go to Mr. Low's house.

Judd Street runs into the New Road near the great stations of the
Midland and Northern Railways, and is a highly respectable street.
But it can hardly be called fashionable, as is Piccadilly; or
central, as is Charing Cross; or commercial, as is the neighbourhood
of St. Paul's. Men seeking the shelter of an hotel in Judd Street
most probably prefer decent and respectable obscurity to other
advantages. It was some such feeling, no doubt, joined to the fact
that the landlord had originally come from the neighbourhood of
Loughlinter, which had taken Mr. Kennedy to Macpherson's Hotel.
Phineas, when he called at about three o'clock on Sunday afternoon,
was at once informed by Mrs. Macpherson that Mr. Kennedy was "nae
doubt at hame, but was nae willing to see folk on the Saaboth."
Phineas pleaded the extreme necessity of his business, alleging
that Mr. Kennedy himself would regard its nature as a sufficient
justification for such Sabbath-breaking,--and sent up his card.
Then there came down a message to him. Could not Mr. Finn postpone
his visit to the following morning? But Phineas declared that it
could not be postponed. Circumstances, which he would explain to
Mr. Kennedy, made it impossible. At last he was desired to walk up
stairs, though Mrs. Macpherson, as she showed him the way, evidently
thought that her house was profaned by such wickedness.

Macpherson in preparing his house had not run into that extravagance
of architecture which has lately become so common in our hotels. It
was simply an ordinary house, with the words "Macpherson's Hotel"
painted on a semi-circular board over the doorway. The front
parlour had been converted into a bar, and in the back parlour the
Macphersons lived. The staircase was narrow and dirty, and in the
front drawing-room,--with the chamber behind for his bedroom,--Mr.
Kennedy was installed. Mr. Macpherson probably did not expect any
customers beyond those friendly Scots who came up to London from his
own side of the Highlands. Mrs. Macpherson, as she opened the door,
was silent and almost mysterious. Such a breach of the law might
perhaps be justified by circumstances of which she knew nothing, but
should receive no sanction from her which she could avoid. So she did
not even wh