r up at the house! An I had kend, I wad hae gien him my ain bed, and
sleepit in the byre or he had gane up by; but it canna be helpit now. The
neist thing's to get him cannily awa the morn, and I judge he'll be in
nae hurry to come back again."

"My puir maister!" said Cuddie; "and maun I no speak to him, then?"

"For your life, no," said Jenny. "Ye're no obliged to ken him; and I
wadna hae tauld ye, only I feared ye wad ken him in the morning."

"Aweel," said Cuddie, sighing heavily, "I 'se awa to pleugh the outfield
then; for if I am no to speak to him, I wad rather be out o' the gate."

"Very right, my dear hinny," replied Jenny. Naebody has better sense than
you when ye crack a bit wi' me ower your affairs; but ye suld ne'er do
onything aff hand out o' your ain head."

"Ane wad think it's true," quoth Cuddie; "for I hae aye had some carline
or quean or another to gar me gang their gate instead o' my ain. There
was first my mither," he continued, as he undressed and tumbled himself
into bed; "then there was Leddy Margaret didna let me ca' my soul my ain;
then my mither and her quarrelled, and pu'ed me twa ways at anes, as if
ilk ane had an end o' me, like Punch and the Deevil rugging about the
Baker at the fair; and now I hae gotten a wife," he murmured in
continuation, as he stowed the blankets around his person, "and she's
like to tak the guiding o' me a' thegither."

"And amna I the best guide ye ever had in a' your life?" said Jenny, as
she closed the conversation by assuming her place beside her husband and
extinguishing the candle.

Leaving this couple to their repose, we have next to inform the reader
that, early on the next morning, two ladies on horseback, attended by
their servants, arrived at the house of Fairy Knowe, whom, to Jenny's
utter confusion, she instantly recognised as Miss Bellenden and Lady
Emily Hamilton, a sister of Lord Evandale.

"Had I no better gang to the house to put things to rights?" said Jenny,
confounded with this unexpected apparition.

"We want nothing but the pass-key," said Miss Bellenden; "Gudyill will
open the windows of the little parlour."

"The little parlour's locked, and the lock's, spoiled," answered Jenny,
who recollected the local spmpathy between that apartment and the
bedchamber of her guest.

"In the red parlour, then," said Miss Bellenden, and rode up to the front
of the house, but by an approach different from that through which Morton
had been conduct