scar of which deepened the sneer on
his upper lip, and was long his evil counsellor from the confessional
of the mirror.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The encounter fortunately took place upon a Friday, so that the
combatants had both Saturday and Sunday, with the deodand of a slight
fine for being absent from chapel, to recover appearances. Alec kept to
the house both days, and read hard at his medical and anatomical books.
His landlady took charge of his eye, and ministered to it with
assiduity and discretion, asking no questions, and courting no
confidences, only looking at him comically now and then out of gray
motherly eyes, that might have been trusted with the universe. She knew
the ways of students. In the course of one of the dressings, she said:

"Ye'll be thinkin' lang (ennuye), Mr Forbes, at haein' to bide i' the
hoose wi' that blackamoor ee o' yours. Hoo dinna ye gang up the stair
to Mr Cupples, and hae a lauch wi' him?"

"I didna ken ye had onybody up the stair. Wha's Mr Cupples?"

"Weel, he kens that best himsel! But he's a gey queer ane. He's a
terrible scholar though, fowk says--gran' at the Greek, and rael bonny
on the mathewmawtics. Only ye maunna be fleyt (frightened) at him."

"I'm easy fleyt," said Alec, with a laugh. "But I wad like to see him."

"Gang up, than, and chap at the garret door upo' yer left han'."

"But what reason am I to gie him for disturbin' him?" asked Alec.

"Ow nane ava. Jist tak' a moufu' o' Greek wi' ye to speir the richt
meanin' o', gin ye maun hae a rizzon."

"That will do just first-rate," said Alec; "for here I have been
puzzling over a sentence for the last half hour with nobody but this
dim-sighted ghost of a Schrevelius to help me out with it. I'll go
directly. But I look such a blackguard with this game eye!"

The landlady laughed.

"You'll sune forget that whan ye see Mr Cupples."

To the dismay of his nurse, Alec pulled the bandage off his eye, and
amidst her expostulations caught up his book, and rushing away, bounded
up the garret stairs, which ascended outside the door of the _flat_. At
the top, he found himself under the bare roof, with only boards and
slates between him and the clouds. The landing was lighted by a
skylight, across which diligent and undisturbed spiders had woven their
webs for years. He stood for a moment or two, puzzled as to which door
he ought to assail, for all the doors about looked like closet-doors,
leading into dingy rec