Thus at once doomed to silence, George sat and listened to the mixed buzz of this misery become ludibund. Nor was his unhappiness thus limited: a fearful conviction seized him, that long before he was hanged he would take on the likeness of the wretches he had passed through;--he would become sleazy; his eyes would be red, fiery, or bleared with tears, dried up in the heat of his fevered blood; his cheeks would be pale-yellow or blue, his voice husky, and his nose red; he would sing, swear, dance--ay, douce Geordie would sing even as they. Better be hanged at once than sent hence thus deteriorated,--an unpleasant customer in the other world. Nay, one half of them had greasy, furzy, red nightcaps; and the chance was therefore a half that he would be thrown off in one of these, to the eternal disgrace of the Gourlays of Gersholm, from whom he was descended. A full hour passed, bringing no comfort on its heavy wings. At length another red-necked official entered, and introduced guidwife Christian herself, and--Patrick Guthrie. When these parties entered, Geordie's eyes and mouth had relapsed into that condition they presented on that occasion when he saw the wraith by the bed with the green curtains. "Mrs. Gourlay," said Mr. B----, "you are the wife of George Gourlay, blacksmith?" "Ay, and have been for nine years, come the time, the day, and the hour." "Please throw your mind back twenty years." "It ower aften gaes back to that time o' its ain accord, sir." "Well, tell us where you lived, and what you did about that time." "I was servant to Mr. Patrick Guthrie,--this gentleman sitting at my right hand." "Was Mr. Guthrie a married man?" "Ay, sir, he was married to a young lady, whose maiden name was Henrietta Douglas, ane o' the Brigstons, as I hae heard." "What kind of woman was she?" "Bonny, sir, as ony that ever walked the High Street or the Canongate; and the mair wae, sir. Cheerfu', too, and light-hearted and merry as the lavrock when it rises in the morning; ay, and the mair wae!" "Why do you add these words?" continued Mr. B----. "What do you mean?" "Because thae things brought gay gallants about the house when master was awa' in Angus, whaur he had a property near Gaigie; but he was nane, I think, o' the four Guthries." "Then you knew that they came without the knowledge and against the wishes of your master?" "Ower weel, sir, for my peace these twenty years bygane." "Then you think there was more than indiscretion in Mrs. Guthrie?" "Muckle mair, I doubt." "Do you recollect the names of any of these gay gallants?" "There was Lord Spynie, a wild dare-the-deil; but sae merry, and jovial, and pleasant, that his very een were nets to catch women's hearts." "Do you remember anything happening when Lord Spynie was in the house in Bell's Wynd?"