n doin' necessar' but foul
wark, and I'm defiled in consequence. I'm no in a richt speerit to pray
in public. I maun awa' hame to my prayers. I houp I mayna do something
mysel' afore lang that'll mak' it necessar' for ye to dismiss me neist.
But gin that time sud come, spare not, I beseech ye."

So, after a short prayer from Mr Turnbull, the meeting separated in a
state of considerable excitement. Thomas half expected to hear of an
action for libel, but Robert knew better than venture upon that.
Besides, no damages could be got out of Thomas.

When Bruce was once outside the chapel, he assumed the erect posture to
which his claim was entirely one of species, and went home by
circuitous ways. He found the shop still open, attended by his wife.

"Preserve's, Robert! what's come ower ye?" she exclaimed.

"I had sic a sair heid (headache), I was forced to come oot afore a'
was dune," he answered. "I dinna think I'll gang ony mair, for they
dinna conduc' things a'thegither to my likin'. I winna fash mair wi'
them."

His wife looked at him anxiously, perhaps with some vague suspicion of
the truth; but she said nothing, and I do not believe the matter was
ever alluded to between them. The only indications remaining the next
day of what he had gone through that evening, consisted in an increase
of suavity towards his grown customers, and of acerbity towards the
children who were unfortunate enough to enter his shop.

Of the two, however, perhaps Thomas Crann was the more unhappy as he
went home that night. He felt nothing of the elation which commonly
springs from success in a cherished project. He had been the promoter
and agent in the downfall of another man, and although the fall was a
just one, and it was better too for the man to be down than standing on
a false pedestal, Thomas could not help feeling the reaction of a
fellow-creature's humiliation. Now that the thing was done, and the end
gained, the eternal brotherhood asserted itself, and Thomas pitied
Bruce and mourned over him. He must be to him henceforth as a heathen
man and a publican, and he was sorry for him. "Ye see," he said to
himself, "it's no like a slip or a sin; but an evil disease cleaveth
fast unto him, and there's sma' chance o' him ever repentin' noo.
A'thing has been dune for him that can be dune."

Yet Thomas worshipped a God, who, if the theories Thomas held were
correct, could at once, by the free gift of a Holy Spirit, generate
repentance