"Contest!" cried the dean of guild, with great eagerness; "wha told
you that we are to be contested?"

Nobody had told me, nor at the moment was I sensible of the force of
what I said; but, seeing the effect it had on Mr M'Lucre, I replied,
-

"It does not, perhaps, just now do for me to be more particular, and
I hope what I have said to you will gang no further; but it's a
great pity that ye're no even a bailie this year, far less the
provost, otherwise I would have great confidence."

"Then," said the dean of guild, "you have reason to believe that
there is to be a dissolution, and that we are to be contested?"

"Mr M'Lucre, dinna speer any questions," was my answer, "but look at
that and say nothing;" so I pulled out of my pocket a letter that
had been franked to me by the earl. The letter was from James
Portoport, his lordship's butler, who had been a waiter with Mrs
Pawkie's mother, and he was inclosing to me a five-pound note to be
given to an auld aunty that was in need. But the dean of guild knew
nothing of our correspondence, nor was it required that he should.
However, when he saw my lord's franking, he said, "Are the boroughs,
then, really and truly to be contested?"

"Come into the shop, Mr M'Lucre," said I sedately; "come in, and
hear what I have to say."

And he came in, and I shut and barred the half-door, in order that