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 parlour, and he frequently heard mention made of the machinations of Miss Sourkrout. As the state of her finances did not happen to be brought on the carpet, her name excited little attention. But as the season advanced the evenings grew long and fine, the laird, tiring of domestic society, found out a neighbouring public house, wherein he was introduced to an amicable company, consisting of the parish clerk, the barber, the exciseman, the lawyer, and some others, who, though the chief subject of their conversation was the state of public affairs, would sometimes descend to more private considerations. In one of these conferences the attorney, who had that day returned from Doncaster, informed the company that he had the honour of spending the evening in the house of an alderman, that there he had met with a young lady of a capital fortune, who had treated him