"Some folks are safest that way. though," replied the old woman, with something like an attempt at a laugh. "Bars o' airn are amang the best freens we hae sometimes. But as ye seem a civil sort o' a chiel, after a', I'll let ye in, although I dinna see what ye'll be the better o' that." So saying, she took a large iron key from her girdle, inserted it in the lock, and in the next moment the gate grated on its hinges; yielding partly to the pressure of Willie from without, and partly to the co-operative efforts of the old woman from within. "Noo," said Willie, on gaining the interior of the courtyard--"Noo," he said, affecting his most coaxing manner, "you and me'll hae a bit crack thegither, guidwife." And, sitting down on a stone bench that ran along the front of the house, he motioned to the old lady to take a seat beside him, which she did. "I understand, guidwife," began Willie, who meant to be very cunning in his mode of procedure, "that she's just an uncommon bonny leddy your mistress; just wonderfu'." "Whaever tell't ye that, didna misinform ye," replied the old woman drily. "And has mints o' siller?" rejoined Mr Buchanan. "No ill aff in that way either," said the old woman. "But it's her beauty--it's her extraordinar beauty--that's the wonder, and that I hear everybody speakin' aboot," said Willie. "I wad gie the price o' sax fat hens to see her. Could ye no get me a glisk o' her ony way, just for ae minute?" "Didna I tell ye before that she's no at hame?" said the old dame, threatening again to get restive on Willie's hands. "Od, so ye did; I forgot," said Mr Buchanan, affecting obliviousness of the fact. "Whaur may she be noo?" he added in his simplest and _couthiest_ manner. "Wad ye like token?" replied the old, lady with a satirical sneer. "'Deed wad I; and there's mae than me wad like to ken," replied Willie; "and them that wad pay handsomely for the information." "Really," said the old dame, with a continuation of the same sneer, and long ere this guessing what Willie was driving at. "And wha may they be noo, if I may speer?" "They're gey kenspeckled," replied Mr Buchanan; "but that doesna matter. If ye canna, or winna tell me whaur Mistress Craig is, could ye no gie's a bit inklin' o' whan ye expect her hame?" "No; but I'll gie ye a bit inklin' o' whan ye'll walk out o' this," said the old woman, rising angrily from her seat; "and that's this minute, or I'll set the dug on ye. Hisk, hisk--Teeger, Teeger!" And a huge black dog came bouncing out of the house, and took up a position right in front of Willie; wagging his tail, as if in anticipation of a handsome treat in the way of worrying that worthy. "Gude sake, woman," said Willie, rising in great alarm from his seat, and edging towards the outer gate--"What's a' this for? Ye wadna set that brute on a Christian cratur, wad ye?"