Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 4).djvu/192

 "I had better hae said at ance there was a stranger there," was her next natural reflection. "But then they wad hae been for asking him to breakfast. O, Lord! what will I do?—And there's Gudyill walking in the garden, too!" she exclaimed internally on approaching the wicket—"and I daurna gang in the back way till he's aff the coast. O, Lord! what will become of us?"

In this state of perplexity she approached the ci devant butler, with the purpose of decoying him out of the garden. But John Gudyill's temper was not improved by his decline in rank and increase in years. Like many peevish people, too, he seemed to have an intuitive perception as to what was most likely to teaze those whom he conversed with; and, upon the present occasion, all Jenny's efforts to remove him from the garden served only to root him in it as fast as if he trad been one of the shrubs. Unluckily, also, he had commenced florist during his residence at