bless God I have not seen you
look better this half score of years. But maybe you will be thinking of
setting your house in order, which is the act of a carefu' and of a
Christian woman--O! it's an awfu' thing to die intestate, if we had
grace to consider it."

"Aweel, I daur say I'll consider that some day soon, Mr. Bindloose; but
that's no my present errand."

"Be it what it like, Mrs. Dods, ye are right heartily welcome here, and
we have a' the day to speak of the business in hand--_festina lente_,
that is the true law language--hooly and fairly, as one may say--ill
treating of business with an empty stomach--and here comes your tea, and
I hope Hannah has made it to your taste."

Meg sipped her tea--confessed Hannah's skill in the mysteries of the
Chinese herb--sipped again, then tried to eat a bit of bread and butter,
with very indifferent success; and notwithstanding the lawyer's
compliments to her good looks, seemed in reality, on the point of
becoming ill.

"In the deil's name, what is the matter!" said the lawyer, too well
read in a profession where sharp observation is peculiarly necessary, to
suffer these symptoms of agitation to escape him. "Ay, dame? ye are
taking this business of yours deeper to heart than ever I kend you take
ony thing. Ony o' your banded debtors failed, or like to fail? What
then! cheer ye up--you can afford a little loss, and it canna be ony
great matter, or I would doubtless have heard of it."

"In troth, but it _is_ a loss, Mr. Bindloose; and what say ye to the
loss of a friend?"

This was a possibility which had never entered the lawyer's long list of
calamities, and he was at some loss to conceive what the old lady could
possibly mean by so sentimental a prolusion. But just as he began to
come out with his "Ay, ay, we are all mortal, _Vita incerta, mors
certissima!_" and two or three more pithy reflections, which he was in
the habit of uttering after funerals, when the will of the deceased was
about to be opened,--just then Mrs. Dods was pleased to become the
expounder of her own oracle.

"I see how it is, Mr. Bindloose," she said; "I maun tell my ain ailment,
for you are no likely to guess it; and so, if ye will shut the door, and
see that nane of your giggling callants are listening in the passage, I
will e'en tell you how things stand with me."

Mr. Bindloose hastily arose to obey her commands, gave a cautionary
glance into the Bank-office, and saw that his idle apprent