dressed, she began to feel and look more like the
lady-child she really was. No doubt the contrast was very painful when
she returned from Mrs Forbes's warm parlour to sleep in her own garret,
with the snow on the roof, scanty clothing on the bed, and the rats in
the floor. But there are two sides to a contrast; and it is wonderful
also how one gets through what one cannot get out of.

A certain change in the Bruce-habits, leading to important results for
Annie, must now be recorded.

Robert Bruce was making money, but not so fast as he wished. For his
returns came only in small sums, although the profits were great. His
customers were chiefly of the poorer classes of the town and the
neighbourhood, who preferred his unpretending shop to the more showy
establishments of some of his rivals. A sort of _couthy_, _pauky_,
confidentially flattering way that he had with them, pleased them, and
contributed greatly to keep them true to his counter. And as he knew
how to buy as well as how to sell, the poor people, if they had not the
worth of their money, had at least what was good of its sort. But, as I
have said, although he was making haste to be rich, he was not
succeeding fast enough. So he bethought him that the Missionar Kirk was
getting "verra throng."

A month or two before this time, the Missionars had made choice of a
very able man for their pastor--a man of genuine and strong religious
feeling, who did not allow his theology to interfere with the teaching
given him by God's Spirit more than he could help, and who, if he had
been capable of making a party at all, would have made it with the poor
against the rich. This man had gathered about him a large congregation
of the lower classes of Glamerton; and Bruce had learned with some
uneasiness that a considerable portion of his customers was to be found
in the Missionar Kirk on Sundays, especially in the evenings. For there
was a grocer amongst the Missionars, who, he feared, might draw some of
his subjects away from their allegiance, seeing he must have a certain
religious influence of which Robert was void, to bring to bear upon
them. What therefore remained but that he too should join the
congregation? For then he would not only retain the old, but have a
chance of gaining new customers as well. So he took a week to think
about it, a Sunday to hear Mr Turnbull in order that the change might
not seem too abrupt, and a pew under the gallery before the next Sunday
a