brought right into the lobby, and its top raised. And there, in its
darkness and dingy old cloth, sat Maidie in white, her eyes gleaming,
and Scott bending over her in ecstasy,--"hung over her enamored." "Sit
ye there, my dautie, till they all see you"; and forthwith he brought
them all. You can fancy the scene. And he lifted her up and marched to
his seat with her on his stout shoulder, and set her down beside him;
and then began the night, and such a night! Those who knew Scott best
said, that night was never equalled; Maidie and he were the stars; and
she gave them _Constance's_ speeches and "Helvellyn," the ballad then
much in vogue, and all her _repertoire_,--Scott showing her off, and
being ofttimes rebuked by her for his intentional blunders.

We are indebted for the following to her sister: "Her birth was 15th
January, 1803; her death, 19th December, 1811. I take this from her
Bibles.[3] I believe she was a child of robust health, of much vigor of
body, and beautifully formed arms, and, until her last illness, never
was an hour in bed.

[Footnote 3: "Her Bible is before me; _a pair_, as then called; the
faded marks are just as she placed them. There is one at David's lament
over Jonathan."]

"I have to ask you to forgive my anxiety in gathering up the fragments
of Marjorie's last days, but I have an almost sacred feeling to all that
pertains to her. You are quite correct in stating that measles were the
cause of her death. My mother was struck by the patient quietness
manifested by Marjorie during this illness, unlike her ardent, impulsive
nature; but love and poetic feeling were unquenched. When Dr. Johnstone
rewarded her submissiveness with a sixpence, the request speedily
followed that she might get out ere New Year's day came. When asked why