’A most respectable person, and excellent parti!’ exclaimed Herries, now in his most provoking mood. ’Why, a warm man is old Cheape, with as cosy a bit of property in the east neuk of Fife as there is in broad Scotland. And you have cheated Miss Graham out of this fine setting-down! What better could she have hoped for, in her situation? Upon my soul, but you have done the poor girl a bad turn. And how do you mean to make up for it?’ It was no soft glance with which Nancy now eyed her exasperating relative; her eyes flashed, and her little fingers literally tingled to box his ears. ’Archie,’ she said, with a little toss, ’I think ’tis time you were back among your law books and your papers, for you can’t breathe, I think, in a kindlier atmosphere.’ Herries laughed, not ill-humouredly, however, for there was real mirth in the twinkle of his eyes. ’I’ll be gone, dear cousin,’ he said. ’I’d present my condolences to Miss Graham, but she’s vanished. Poor young lady, I protest I grieve for her. Well, good-night, Nancy. We will converse on business another time—your packet is on yonder table, by the fire.’ He took his departure, still smiling—that provoking smile of his, with the eyebrows raised. ’I’m d——d if it’s altogether a laughing matter, though’—he said to himself as he went down the stair. ’For is Nancy—or am I, rather, for it comes to that—to feed, clothe and fend for that prodigious miss up yonder? ’Tis a mighty practical question, and no joke.’ It was a question—a rather delicate one, perhaps,—which only time could answer, which it did, in all due course, and with the greatest plainness. In the room which the young lawyer had left, and to which Alison had returned, the candles flared down in their sockets, and the fire burned low, but still its two occupants remained there, deep in talk. Or rather, one talked, and the other listened; for it was Nancy who poured forth all the pent-up raptures of her first interview with the poet, while Alison sympathised—struggling, it must be confessed, with a certain feeling of sleepiness the while. For it was no doubt because Nancy tried to describe precisely that which is indescribable—the nameless fascination of genius—the overpowering magnetism of an unique personality—that she failed, on this occasion, completely to convince her usually pliant listener. ’I am afraid,’ said Alison, presently, with a pensive air, ’that your cousin, Mr. Herries, does not think that Mr. Burns is quite a—quite a good man.’