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 fore she undid the bolts and bars, and cautiously opened the door.

"This is a fine time o' night, Mr Henry," said the old dame, with the tyrannic insolence of a spoilt and favourite domestic;—"a braw time o' night and a bonnie, to disturb a peaceful house in, and to keep quiet folks out o' their beds waiting for you. Your uncle's been in his amaist three hours syne, and Robin's ill o' the rheumatize, and he's to his bed too, and sae I had to sit up for ye mysel, for as sair a hoast as I hae."

Here she coughed once or twice, in further evidence of the inconvenience which she had sustained.

"Much obliged to you, Alison, and many kind thanks."

"Hegh, sirs, sae fair-fashioned as we are! Mony folk ca' me Mistress Wilson, and Milnwood himsel is the only ane about the town thinks o' ca'ing me Alison, and indeed he as aften says Mistress Alison as ony other thing."