Thomas Kerr was treasurer of the incorporation, and hoped at this election to succeed his present companion, whose influence in the incorporation was great, and to secure which he was, for the time, his humble servant, and assiduous in his attentions to him--so much so, that, although his own domicile was in St Mary's Wynd, at the other extremity of the High Street, his ambition had overcome his fears of his better half, and, still ascending the long street, he resolved to accompany the Deacon home; not, however, without some strong misgivings as to what he might encounter on his return. Both were in that happy state of excitement when cares and fears press lightly on the human mind; but the Deacon, who had presided at the meeting, and spoken a good deal, was much more overcome than his Treasurer; and the liquor had made him loquacious. "Tom, man," again said the Deacon, "you walk by my side as douce as if you were afraid to meet Major Weir in his coach, on your way down the wynd to Kate. Be cheerful, man, as I am. Tell her she will be Deaconess in a fortnight, and that will quiet her clatter, or I know not what will please her; they are all fond of honours. We have done good work this night--secured two votes against Drummond; other three would graze him. Pluck up your spirit, Tom, and be active; if we fail, the whole town will be turned upside down--confound him, and his wild projects, of what he calls improvements! The deil be in me if I can help thinking--and it sticks in my gizzard yet--that he was at the bottom of the pulling down of my outside stair, by these drunken fellows of masons; the more by token that, when, after much trouble, I discovered them, and had them all safe in the guardhouse, he took a small bail, and only fined them two shillings a-piece, when it caused me an expense of ten good pounds to repair the mischief they had done; and, more than that, I was forced to erect it inside the walls; for they would not allow me to put it as it was, or grant me a Dean of Guild warrant on any other terms. They said it cumbered the foot-pavement, although, as you know, it had stood for fifty years. From that day to this, I have been his firm opponent, in and out of the Council. Tom, are you asleep? Where are your eyes? What high new wall is this? See, see, man!" "This beats all he has done yet!" said the Treasurer; "a high white wall across the High Street, and neither slap nor style that I can see! Wonderful, wonderful! A strange man that Provost!" "He has done it to vex me, since I came down to Luckie Bell's," replied the Deacon. "It was not there in the early part of the evening. He must have had a hundred masons at it. But I'll make him repent this frolic to-morrow in the Council, or my name is not Deacon Dickson!" "What can he mean by it, Deacon?" rejoined the other. "I see no purpose it can serve, for my part."