nd speedily appeared at the door of Mr.
Bindloose's mansion. It was not without a private feeling of reluctance,
that honest Meg mounted the step of a vehicle, on the door of which was
painted, "FOX INN AND HOTEL, ST. RONAN'S WELL;" but it was too late to
start such scruples.

"I never thought to have entered ane o' their hurley-hackets," she said,
as she seated herself; "and sic a like thing as it is--scarce room for
twa folk!--Weel I wot, Mr. Touchwood, when I was in the hiring line, our
twa chaises wad hae carried, ilk ane o' them, four grown folk and as
mony bairns. I trust that doited creature Anthony will come awa back wi'
my whiskey and the cattle, as soon as they have had their feed.--Are ye
sure ye hae room eneugh, sir?--I wad fain hotch mysell farther yont."

"O, ma'am," answered the Oriental, "I am accustomed to all sorts of
conveyances--a dooly, a litter, a cart, a palanquin, or a post-chaise,
are all alike to me--I think I could be an inside with Queen Mab in a
nutshell, rather than not get forward.--Begging you many pardons, if you
have no particular objections, I will light my sheroot," &c. &c. &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[I-20] This was a peculiarity in the countenance of the celebrated Cossack
leader, Platoff.

[I-21] An epithet which expresses, in Scotland, what the barometer calls
rainy.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CLERGYMAN.

A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a-year.

GOLDSMITH'S _Deserted Village_.

Mrs. Dods's conviction, that her friend Tyrrel had been murdered by the
sanguinary Captain MacTurk remained firm and unshaken; but some
researches for the supposed body having been found fruitless, as well as
expensive, she began to give up the matter in despair. "She had done her
duty"--"she left the matter to them that had a charge anent such
things"--and "Providence would bring the mystery to light in his own
fitting time"--such were the moralities with which the good dame
consoled herself; and, with less obstinacy than Mr. Bindloose had
expected, she retained her opinion without changing her banker and man
of business.

Perhaps Meg's acquiescent inactivity in a matter which she had
threatened to probe so deeply, was partly owing to the place of poor
Tyrrel being supplied in her blue chamber, and in her daily thoughts and
cares, by her new guest, Mr. Touchwood; in possessing whom, a deserter
as he was from the Well, she obtained, according to her view