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"Oh, Mr Shortridge," cried the lady, "it's no possible that you, the gett of a Lord Provost, can be a reformer; but Glasgow, I will allow, would be none the worse of a reformation; 'deed, Mr Shortridge, we would all be the better of a reformation, and ye should'na laugh in your sleeve at my moralizing."

Shortridge, who had a salutary dread of the old woman's tongue, replied, to change the conversation, that he was only thinking of their sufferings in the voyage.

"Aye," said she, "that's to be held in remembrance; oh, that dismal night, when the wind was roaring like a cotton-mill, and the captain was swearing as if he had been the Prince of the Powers of the Air! I'll never forget it. You and me were like the two innocent babes in the wood, and obligated to sleep on the floor, with only a rag of a sail fastened with a gimlet and a fork, for a partition between us; but, Mr Shortridge, ye're a discreet young man-nay, ye needna turn your head away and think shame, for no young gentleman could behave to a lady in a more satisfactory manner."

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"A tiff!" cried Mrs Clatterpenny ; "do ye no mind what Robin Burns says?

Oh that some power the gift would gie To see ourselves as others see us.'

us,

But I'll tell ye what ye were like, if ye'll show me a man vomiting a devil, and his name Legion; however, we have all our infirmities, and Í want at this present time to confabulate with Mr Threeper on a matter of instant business, so ye must leave us."

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Nay, nay," exclaimed Shortridge, my dear madam, I was not at all ill, only a tiff off the Bass."

"Mr Threeper," continued she, after the Glasgow beau had disappeared," Mr Threeper, that Mr Shortridge is no an overly sensible lad, so I hope ye have not let him into the catastrophies of our business; for I will be as plain as I am pleasant with you; in short, Mr Threeper, since we came together in the same vessel, I think ye're a wee leaky, and given to make causeway talk of sealed secrets; and surely ye'll never tell me that this is a fit house to bring a woman of character to."

"I acknowledge," said he, "that it is not quite what I expected; it's more like women than wine-it has not improved with age."

"Mr Threeper," said the old lady, "do you mean that as a fling at me? ye have a stock of impudence to do so, but it's all the stock in trade that many lawyers are possessed of; however, it may do for a night's lodging, but I give you fair warning, that though it's a good house enough for you, as you said before you saw it, it will never do for the likes o' me. But what I wanted to consult you about in a professional way, is a matter that calls for all your talent; I told a blackamoor man, do ye hear me? and telling a blackamoor man to seek for my cousin, Peabody, ye see"

"Well, I do see," replied Mr Threeper.

"You do see! is that all the law you have to give me? but I have not told you the particulars; he's never come back yet, think of that and weep; he's like the raven, Mr Threeper, that Noah sent out of the ark; vagabond bird, it was black too, ye know."

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"Well, I do see," replied Mr Threeper.

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a have to give me? but I have not told you the particulars; he's never come back yet, think of that and weep; he's like the raven, Mr Threeper, that Noah sent out of the ark; vagabond bird, it was black too, ye know."

What then?"

"What then, Mr Threeper, is that all the opinion of counsel that ye have to offer to a lanerly widow in London town, sorrowing like a pelican in the wilderness ?"

Poor Mr Threeper knew not what to say; experience had taught him that his client was driving towards some other object, while pretending that she was consulting him. Fortunately, however, at this moment a bustle was heard, and on looking towards the occasion, they beheld an odd figure entering the house; an elderly person, who wore a broadbrimmed straw-hat, turned up behind, somewhat ecclesiastical, with a crape tied round it in a very disheveled manner. He had no neckcloth, but the collar of his shirt was

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The stranger then turned round to Mr Threeper and said, "I, squire, expect you have brought a right rare cargo of novelties."

Mr Threeper replied in the best style of the Parliament House in the Modern Athens; perhaps we ought to call it, for the same reason that the inhabitants have changed the name of the town,-the Areopagus.

"No, sir, none, whatever; every thing is going right, the reformers have all their own way."

"Well, I reckon," continued the odd apparition," that be pretty particular, for I can tell you that we have here in London a considerable some; we hear that the Emperator of Rushy has had an audience of the Great Mogul, and therefore I guess we shall have a Dutch war."

fastened by a black ribband, wore a bottle-green great-coar large buttons, one of which, haunches, was missing; his coat was home-made swansdo large broad stripes, and he h corduroy trowsers, with his down in the heel, and a cigar mouth, while his hands were employed with a knife and which he was indefatigably n nothing of.

"Who is this ?" cried Mrs C penny; "what'na curiosity is Yankee Doodle himself is, com to this man, a perfect compoh, sirs, but he must be tro with sore eyes, for he wears specks, and they're of the nos ping kind."

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"Oh, Mr Threeper," exclaimed Mrs Clatterpenny, "sic a constipation that will be !"

"And pray, Mister," said strange-looking man, "what b called, that 'ere ship what br you to this 'ere place?"

"The United Kingdom," re Mr Threeper.

But the foreigner, none dau continued, "She'll be a spaciou ver floater, I guess; and I say, old did'nt you hear naught in that voyage of one Mrs Clatterp one of my relations in Sco Street."

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"The gude preserve us!" crie lady; "is na that delightful? am Mrs Clatterpenny mysel', and i this Mr Threeper, my man of ness, a most judicial man?"

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Well, I reckon as how I d Jedediah Peabody of Mount Pi State of Vermont; folks call Squire, but I an't myself so cious."

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Mr Threeper, who overheard her, whispered, Softly, ma'am, softly, cast not your line too fast." But she disregarded the admonition, and continued, "Had it been wi' our Johnny, her ain cousin, it would hae been a more comely thing."

Mr Threeper prudently twitched her gown at this "I beseech you, be on your guard."

"I wish, Mr Threeper," said she tartly, "that ye would behave yourself, and no be pouking at my tail."

Mrs Clatterpenny at the same time observing that Peabody was looking round the court of the inn, in not the most satisfied manner, added, "'Deed it's not a perfect paradise, but it's some place that Mr Threeper read of in a story-book, only they forgot to mention that midden; however, I'll no be long here; indeed I have a great mind to quit it on the instant, and I will; and how are we to get our trunks carried to a Christian place?"

"Christian place," said the porter, "Christian place! I don't know any such place, I was never there."

While she went bustling about the inn-yard, Mr Threeper politely informed Mr Peabody, that they had come to the Talbot, entirely owing to a misconception which they had made in the reading of Chaucer." "Chaucer!" said Peabody, "did he keep tavern here?"

Mr Threeper looked at the American, and snuffing, as it were a fetid smell, turned upon his heel, and went towards Mrs Clatterpenny, who by this time was frying with vexation at not being able to make herself understood by the servants; however, in the end, a hackney coach was procured, their luggage

reloaded, and with glee and comfort seated beside her cousin, off the vehicle drove for the west end of the town.

In going along, the old gentleman mentioned that he had committed a similar mistake, in thinking the stagecoach inn, in which he had come with his daughter to London, was a proper place to stay at; but on the representation of Mr Tomkins, they had removed soon after to a lodginghouse in Spring Gardens; and as Mr Threeper spoke of going to Fludyer Street, he proposed that they should take Spring Gardens in their way, that he might shew his kinswoman the house. This was deemed a happy thought, and accordingly they went round that way, and he pointed out to his lodging, and looking up, saw his daughter with Tompkins at a window.

"Hey," cried he, "what do I see? our Tavy in a secresy with that ere Virginy chap, Tompkins."

Mrs Clatterpenny also looked up, and exclaimed, "Megsty me!" To which Peabody, taking the cigar from his lips and spitting deliberately, said, "Now, for our daughter Tavy to contract herself with a young man, snapping her fingers at her father-" Mrs Clatterpenny finished the sentence, and cried, "Oh, the cutty, has she done the like of that ?" But Peabody exclaimed, "I'll spoil their rigg, or my baptismal name is written in an oyster shell." With that he alighted from the coach, and hastened into the house; and as fast as his down-the-heeled shoes enabled him, he went to the room where he saw the lovers standing. Mrs Clatterpenny, turning towards Mr Threeper, sagaciously observed, as the carriage drove off,-

"He's in the afflictions, Mr Threeper; but this is just what Mrs Widow Carlin warned me of, from a letter she had from her grandson in New York; he wrote, that when young folks there make a purpose of marriage, instead of publishing the banns in a godly manner in the kirk, they make a show of themselves, arm-inarm cleeket, up and down Broadway Street. Talk of irregular marriages! a hey cock-a-lorum to Gretna Green, is holy wedlock, compared to sic chambering and wantoning.

"

Mr Threeper looked very grave at this, and said, " Chambering it cannot strictly be called, for the window was open, and we all saw what took place.'

"That's very true," said Mrs Clatterpenny, "the observe shews that ye're a man distinct in the law; but for a young lady of good connexions to lay hold of her lover, is highway robbery. It was bad enough amang our ain well-disposed folk at home, to see a lad and a lass slipping and slinking afar off from one another, the lassie biting a straw, going to a corner in the evening. But that, Mr Threeper, was only among the lower orders; the genteeler sort divert themselves in flower gardens, with making love among the roses, as that sweet, sweet wee man, Mr Moore, in a ballad rehearses, as no doubt ye well know. But what will this world come to at last! for I weel mind, when my dear deceased Doctor made love to me, that he never got a word of sense out of my mouth, till I saw that he was in earnest."

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archly, if she had ever given Clatterpenny more encouragement than his merits deserved.

"Merits! what merits ?" cried Tompkins, turning fiercely round, and coming up to her.

"Why," said she, "the merit of being heir to a great estate in Scotland; is not that a charm, to win favour for him in any young lady's eye?"

At this moment the old gentleman shuffled into the room, holding his cigar in one hand, and his staff uplifted in the other, crying, "Sheer off, Squire Tompkins; and come hither, daughter Tavy;" upon which the young lady, as an obedient child, obeyed the summons, and the Virginian lingeringly walked towards the door.

"I'm sure, father," said Miss Octavia, "you need not be afraid of Tompkins; have you not seen the partiality of my heart for my dear kinsman Clatterpenny ?"

Tompkins smote his forehead at this speech, and cried, "Oh! the devil."

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"and it ben't below the fact; but I say, squire, we have business; so you clear out. This way, Tavy;" and the old gentleman preceded his daughter into another room, leaving Tompkins alone; and astonished at what he had heard, soon after he broke out into the following soliloquy :—

"In my mother's tales of her ancestors," said he," she has often told me, that when Hector Dhu of Ardenlochie died, his estate ought to be mine; for that she was the child of an elder daughter than the mo

thers of the Clatterpennys, or the Peabodys. If there be any truth in the traditions of my mother, these news deserve investigation, and luckily I took her papers to Scotland to examine into the affair; but I was told then that Hector Dhu was a stout old bachelor, and might live so many years, that I never thought even of opening the bundles at Edinburgh."

It was certainly a very extraordinary thing that all those who were interested in the Ardenlochie inheritance should meet together in the way we have described, in the Talbot inn in Southwark. Had a novelist or a dramatic writer been guilty of so improbable an incident, he would have been scouted in the most nefarious manner; but there is no miracle more wonderful than truth, and this surprising incident is related by us with as much brevity as is consistent with perspicuity.

It is true, that before the day was done, Mr Archibald Shortridge, junior, shifted his quarters to the London Coffee-House, in Ludgate Hill, much renowned for its hospitable reception of Glasgow citizens, and other denizens from the west of Scotland.

CHAPTER IV.

Mr Threeper, before the sun was set, and it set early, induced the old lady, as we have related, to pitch her tent in Fludyer Street, Westminster; while he deemed it becoming his professional eminence, to take up his abode in an excellent hotel, which we at this moment forget the name of, but it is a house greatly frequented by those who are called in vulgar parlance, the claws of Edinburgh-to say nothing of those myriads of bailies, deputies, and other clanjamphry, who fancy that they have business before Parliament, when it happens that some schemer tells them a road, bridge, or railway, merits the attention of the collective wisdom of such a nest of sapients as a town council. The party being thus broken up, there was something attractive in the influence of each, and in consequence

At this juncture, he alertly left the room.

they were, though living apart, frequently together.

In the meantime, Mrs Clatterpenny had scarcely removed into her new lodgings, when she chanced to recollect that her son Johnny, who was walking the hospitals, had not yet paid his duty to her. It is true, that her faculties were so much occupied with strange matters, that she had never thought of him at all; but when she did call to mind that he was in the same town with her, and had never come to see her, she was truly an afflicted woman. She rung for the servant-maid of the house, and, with accents that would have pierced a heart of stone, erranded the damsel to bring to her immediately her precious darling.

The maid being fresh from the country, repeated the commands that had been given to her as well as she could to her mistress, but her mistress averred, that she knew not such a person as Mr Johnny residing in all the street. At last the old lady recollected that he lived in Tooly Street, in the Borough, and she contrived at a late hour to make that known. But no Johnny was forthcoming that night, and his anxious mother never closed her eyes, thinking that he perhaps had caught a mortal malady in Guy's Hospital, and greatly lay in need of her blandishments. When this thought had got possession of her brain, which it was not allowed to do till the night was far advanced, and she had pressed her pillow, she was not long till she ascertained even the name of his distemper.

"Goodness me!" said she, "what if it's the cholera, and that I have just

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