ng that the white collar Jess had
put on him would throttle him; but her feikieness ended in his
surrender, and he was looking unusually perjink. Had not his daughter
been present he would have been the most at ease of the company, but
her manners were too fine not to make an impression upon one who knew
her on her every-day behaviour, and she had also ways of bringing
Hendry to himself by a touch beneath the table. It was in church that
Leeby brought to perfection her manner of looking after her father.
When he had confidence in the preacher's soundness, he would sometimes
have slept in his pew if Leeby had not had a watchful foot. She
wakened him in an instant, while still looking modestly at the pulpit;
however reverently he might try to fall over, Leeby's foot went out.
She was such an artist that I never caught her in the act. All I knew
for certain was that, now and then, Hendry suddenly sat up.

The ordeal was over when Leeby went upstairs to put on her things.
After tea Hendry had become bolder in talk, his subject being
ministerial. He had an extraordinary knowledge, got no one knew where,
of the matrimonial affairs of all the ministers in these parts, and his
stories about them ended frequently with a chuckle. He always took it
for granted that a minister's marriage was womanhood's great triumph,
and that the particular woman who got him must be very clever. Some of
his tales were even more curious than he thought them, such as the one
Leeby tried to interrupt by saying we must be going.

"There's Mr. Pennycuick, noo," said Hendry, shaking his head in wonder
at what he had to tell; "him 'at's minister at Tilliedrum. Weel, when
he was a probationer he was michty poor, an' one day he was walkin'
into Thrums frae Glen Quharity, an' he tak's a rest at a little housey
on the road. The fowk didna ken him ava, but they saw he was a
minister, an' the lassie was sorry to see him wi' sic an auld hat.
What think ye she did?"

"Come away, father," said Leeby, re-entering the parlour; but Hendry
was now in full pursuit of his story.

"I'll tell ye what she did," he continued. "She juist took his hat
awa, an' put her father's new ane in its place, an' Mr. Pennycuick
never kent the differ till he landed in Thrums. It was terrible kind
o' her. Ay, but the old man would be in a michty rage when he found
she had swappit the hats."

"Come away," said Leeby, still politely, though she was burning to tell
her mot