He could not, however, go “out” before the usual time, and in the interval he could not rest. Finally, he took his hat and left his office with a better inspiration. If he could find his friend at one of the establishments in which he had an interest, the talk might be had at once, without any need, at least for to-night, of disturbing the peaceful echoes of Yalton. Mr. Wedderburn went out for this purpose with very tender thoughts of his friend mingled with his anger. “Why couldn’t the fellow tell me in time? But the Lord grant it may still be in time! There’s things I might have done. I’m not without funds nor resources, nor ideas, either, for that matter.” And as Mr. Wedderburn went along the orderly Edinburgh street, he burst out into a kind of laugh, such as is among many elderly Scotchmen the last evidence of emotion, and said within himself: “To the half of my kingdom!” The humour of the contrast between that romantic phrase and the very prosaic, rapid calculation he had gone through as to the money he--not a romantic person at all, an Edinburgh W.S., of fifty-five, and of the most humdrum appearance--could command: and the true feeling with which he had realised his friend’s misfortune, burst forth in that anomalous sound. A woman who was passing turned round and looked at him with puzzled alarm; and a boy, one of those rude commentators who spare nobody’s feelings, called out, “That’s a daft man; he’s laughing to himsel’.” “Laughing,” said Mr. Wedderburn with something like a groan: “there is little laughing in my head.” And so he went on to the Railway Office, and the Insurance Office, to ask for Mr. Dalyell. At the railway he had not been seen that day, at the other office he had appeared for about half an hour only. “He will have returned home, I suppose,” Wedderburn said indifferently. “Well, no, sir; not at once,” said the clerk who answered his questions. “I heard him saying he was feeling fagged, and that he was going out to Portobello for a dip in the sea and a good swim.” “It’s a little cold for that,” said Wedderburn. “Well, it may be a little cold,” admitted the clerk cautiously, “but Mr. D’yell is a great man for the sea.”