stranger, even though an ordained minister. On Ebenezer it naturally devolved to speak. He straightened himself in his seat, opened his mouth even and drew in the needful breath; but while he considered how the 'winged words' ought to arrange themselves, the vital wind escaped unmodulated from the doubting chest. A henpecked person, his verbal ventures had so often come to grief, that he had learned so to think and think, before he hazarded an utterance, that the opportunity, the breath, and even the idea were generally gone before he had strung himself to the utterance. The duty, therefore, fell to Peter Malloch, on whom no suspicion of henpecking could rest, as witness the mild apologetic sister who sometimes waited in the shop, and the meek old mother who was always stitching shirts for him, and spoke of him as the Convener;--and then there was no wife. Peter cleared his voice and leant forward. Nothing could have pleased him more than thus to hold forth before a minister and the Laird; a success might lead to his being admitted to the eldership, and would certainly add to his weight in the church, so he resolved to do himself justice. CHAPTER XXVIII. _MORE FAITHFULNESS BUT LESS LOVE_. 'We have been compelled, sir,' said Peter Malloch, and he fixed his eyes sternly on the tie of Roderick's cravat (he would have liked to frown into the face of the culprit, and to wither him up with the sternness of his regard, but the amused astonishment in his eyes was discomposing). 'Me, that's to say an' Mester Prittie there, or may be I suld say the Deacons' Court an' the Eldership, though they arena a' Israel that are _of_ Israel. An' there was a Tummas even amang the Apostles,' (and here he glanced reproachfully at the Laird). 'Aweel, sir, to come to the tail o' 't at ance, we hae just been haudin' a bit meetin' wi' the Presbytery, as ane micht say, or wi' twa o' the ministers ony gate, to consider yer terrible on-gaein's, Mester Brown! An' I'm just fairly dumfoundered to see the brazen effrontery o' ye, man! To be sittin' there an' glowerin' frae ye, as though ye had dune nae wrang, when the hale glen's ringin' wi' the din o' yer iniquities, an' the enemies o' the truth's lachin' i' their sleeve, an' cryin' aha! as they pass on the ither side. An' we hae been app'inted, hiz four that is, though I'm feared we hae gotten an enemy amang us 'at's no takin' kindly t'ey wark' (another glance at the Laird), 'a Gallio 'at cares for non _of_ thase things, to ca' on ye an' to dale faithfully wi' ye anent yer transgressions. We're wullin' to dale wi' ye in luve, my brither, my little brither, I micht say; for I can mind ye a bit hafflin callant no lang syne; an' we'll allow 'at youth's ill to haud e'y strecht gate, an' 'at flesh is waik; we'll allow a' that, an' dale wi' ye in a' kindness for yer saul's sake, but ye maun e'en mak a clean breast o' 't, an' speak out afore waur comes o' 't. It's