Weel, sir, our names were ca'ed on the Sunday following; and between the first day o' their being published, and the day on which the marriage was to take place, I was three or four times back and forward at her faither's--but I got nae mair out o' her. I almost thought that I ought to stop the banns; but I thought, again, that that would be very unco like, and very contrary to what I wished; so I allowed them to go on, Sunday after Sunday. I never imagined but that she was just in the pet at me having broken my tryst, and that, like everybody that was in the pet, she would come out o't when she found it necessary, and the sooner frae being left to hersel. But, on the very day we had fixed for the wedding, and when the best-man and I went to her faither's house, expecting to find her and the best-maid, and the whole o' them, in readiness to go before the minister--to my unutterable astonishment and dismay, there was she, sitting in her morning gown, as unconcerned as a judge, just as if naething had been to happen. "Mercy me! Isabella!" says I, "are ye no ready?--where's the women?" "Ready!" returned she--"what for?--what do ye mean?--what women?" Oh! guid gracious! I'll never forget the sensation that I felt at that moment. I'm surprised that I didna drop dead on the floor. "Isabella," said I, "are ye no perfectly aware that this is our wedding-day, and that we were to be at the manse at twelve o'clock precisely?" "Ay!" said she, "had ye keepit your tryst at such a time, and at such a place, nae doubt this would have been the day; but ye couldna be fashed to keep it then--and I canna be fashed now." "Oh, confound it!" cried I; "Isabella, do ye want to drive me mad?" "I dinna think there's ony danger o' that," replied she. Vexation and surprise put me fairly beyont mysel--I was taken in a moment. "Weel!" exclaimed I, "ye'll rue it, Isabella! ye'll rue it--there shall nae woman mak a fool o' me!" "Nor man o' me," said she. "Be it sae," said I; "yet, guidness me! you're no in earnest?" "Earnest!" said she; "I tell you I canna be fashed." At the sound o' the terrible words, I banged out o' the house. I never stopped till I came to Dunbar, and there, at the very moment I arrived, I took the coach for Edinburgh; and there I stopped but two days till I set off for London, for my heart was in such a terrible state o' perturbation, that I could have gone to the world's end, ay, and round it, and round it again, if I had had the means, in order that I might have found rest. It seems that poor Isabella thought that I would come back--and the best-man persuaded her that I would--and she went to dress hersel, and sent for the best-maid. But little did she understand the character she had to deal wi'. I was either a' laziness, or a' desperation. I knew no medium; and I have no doubt that, before she got her hair dressed, and her gown fairly on, I was half-way to Edinburgh--for I flew to Dunbar as though furies had pursued me.