recollection--strugglin through the inspissated gloom o' the oblivion I experienced after being knocked doon in the Warlocks' Glen--o' the figure o' an Orson-like individual, wi' a great rung in his hand, mixed with the evanescent sounds o' "My love!--my love!--knock doun the spoiler!" which produced, thegither, the conviction that Mr Hugh Kennedy was the very man on whom May Walker was waitin on that eventfu Sabbath, and who felled me sae unmercifully to the earth. CHAPTER V. MY TALENTS BROUGHT STILL MORE IN REQUISITION. Mrs Kennedy and I persevered, with the asperity o' hedgehogs, _echini asperitate_, (Pliny,) in our watch. Ae day, as I was sitting ben the house, where the parish register lies, the puir woman cam rinnin into the room, in a state of dreadful agitation, crying-- "There he's--there he's passing the very window--comin in, nae doubt, to gie in the names. Ah, traitor!" "Be quiet, foolish woman," said I. "Awa again to the kitchen. There he is!" (there was now a loud knocking at the door;) "awa wi' ye to the kitchen!" And I hurried her, _obtorto collo_, by the neck and shoulders, (for the exigency of the case obliterated every trace of my usual gallantry,) to the kitchen, whereinto I locked her, as firmly as guid smith's wark would permit. The prudence o' this preliminary step needs nae elucidation to them wha ken the nature o' a deserted wife. I then walked calmly to the door, which I opened slowly and decently, as became a session clerk. "How do you do, Mr Willison?" said a man, with large, black, routhy whiskers, and a prominent nose, o' the aquiline, or romantic cut. It was the very apparition o' the fever I caught in the Warlocks' Glen. He pretended never to have seen me before; but a blue mark on my forehead tingled the moment it caught his eye; and, as I unconsciously raised my hand to gie it the relief it asked, he smiled--a fair detection; but I said naething to shew that I recognised him. "As weel as can be expected," answered I, without mair significancy or intelligence than a babe or suckling would have exhibited. "That is the answer of a lying-in wife in Scotland," said he, still smiling. "Unfortunately, nane o' us hae ony experience o' that yet," said I, "if I can guess your errand to a parish clerk." "You do guess rightly," said he. "I came here to request you, sir, to publish these banns, on the next three successive Sabbaths." I received the paper he held out. It contained the names and designation o' the twa parties--George Webster, residing at Burnfoot; and May Walker, dochter o' Gilbert Walker, residing at Langacres. "Where are your certificates o' residence?" said I. He handed me a certificate, signed and attested wi' apparent regularity, but which I was predetermined to doubt, wi' a' the obstinacy o' a guid dogmatic sceptic. "I fancy you'll be the George Webster mentioned here yersel, Mr Hugh Kennedy," said I.