thinking you would stop at mine too if I had a brass handle on't."

So passed the first four weeks, and then came the fateful night of
the seventeenth of October, and with it the strange woman. Family
worship at the manse was over and Gavin was talking to his mother,
who never crossed the threshold save to go to church (though her
activity at home was among the marvels Jean sometimes slipped down
to the Tenements to announce). when Wearyworld the policeman came
to the door "with Rob Dow's compliments, and if you're no wi' me
by ten o'clock I'm to break out again." Gavin knew what this
meant, and at once set off for Rob's.

"You'll let me gang a bit wi' you," the policeman entreated, "for
till Rob sent me on this errand not a soul has spoken to me the
day; ay, mony a ane hae I spoken to, but not a man, woman, nor
bairn would fling me a word."

"I often meant to ask you," Gavin said as they went along the
Tenements, which smelled at that hour of roasted potatoes, "why
you are so unpopular."

"It's because I'm police. I'm the first ane that has ever been in
Thrums, and the very folk that appointed me at a crown a week
looks upon me as a disgraced man for accepting. It's Gospel that
my ain wife is short wi' me when I've on my uniform, though weel
she kens that I would rather hae stuck to the loom if I hadna
ha'en sic a queer richt leg. Nobody feels the shame o' my position
as I do mysel', but this is a town without pity."

"It should be a consolation to you that you are discharging useful