"Adieu, Thomas, adieu! Say what you will for me to the noble and generous Beerie. Would to heaven that I could send him some token in return for all his kindness, but a good and gallant heart is its own most adequate reward. "They are putting to the horses--I can hear the rumble of the chariot! Oh, once more, dear friend--alas, too inexpressibly dear!--take my last farewell. Adieu--my heart is breaking as I write the bitter word!--forget me. DOROTHEA." "Do you wonder at my sorrow now?" said Strachan, as I laid down the passionate epistle. "Why, no. It is well got up upon the whole, and does credit to the lady's erudition. But I don't see why she should insist so strongly upon eternal separation. Have you no idea whereabouts that aunt of hers may happen to reside?" "Not the slightest." "Because, judging from her letter, it must be somewhere about Benbecula or Tiree. I shouldn't even wonder if she had a summer box on St Kilda." "Right! I did not think of that--you observe she speaks of the remoter isles." "To be sure, and for half a century there has not been a mermaid seen to the east of the Lewis. Now, take my advice, Tom--don't make a fool of yourself in the meantime, but wait until the Court of Session rises in July. That will allow plenty of time for matters to settle; and if the old Viscount and that abominable Abiram don't find her out before then, you may depend upon it they will abandon the search. In the interim, the lady will have cooled. Walks upon the sea-shore are uncommonly dull without something like reciprocal sentimentality. The odds are, that the old aunt is addicted to snuff, tracts, and the distribution of flannel, and before August, the fair Dorothea will be yearning for a sight of her adorer. You can easily gammon Anthony Whaup into a loan of that yacht of his which he makes such a boast of; and if you go prudently about it, and flatter him on the score of his steering, I haven't the least doubt that he will victual his hooker and give you a cruise in it for nothing." "Admirable, my dear Fred! We shall touch at all the isles from Iona to Uist; and if Miss Percy be indeed there--" "You can carry her off on five minutes' notice, and our long friend will be abundantly delighted. Only, mind this! If you want my candid opinion on the wisdom of such an alliance, I should strongly recommend you to meddle no farther in the matter, for I have my doubts about the Honourable Dorothea, and--" "Bah, Fred! Doubts after such a letter as that? Impossible! No, my dear friend--your scheme is admirable--unexceptionable, and I shall certainly act upon it. But oh--it is a weary time till July!" "Merely a short interval of green pease and strawberries. I advise you, however, to fix down Whaup as early as you can for the cruise."