'Stay a moment, Mrs. Mac-Candlish; why, you are in a prodigious
hurry, my good friend! I have been thinking a club dining here
once a month would be a very pleasant thing.'

'Certainly, sir; a club of RESPECTABLE gentlemen.'

'True, true,' said Glossin, 'I mean landed proprietors and
gentlemen of weight in the county; and I should like to set such a
thing a-going.'

The short dry cough with which Mrs. Mac-Candlish received this
proposal by no means indicated any dislike to the overture
abstractedly considered, but inferred much doubt how far it would
succeed under the auspices of the gentleman by whom it was
proposed. It was not a cough negative, but a cough dubious, and as
such Glossin felt it; but it was not his cue to take offence.

'Have there been brisk doings on the road, Mrs. Mac-Candlish?
Plenty of company, I suppose?'

'Pretty weel, sir,--but I believe I am wanted at the bar.'

'No, no; stop one moment, cannot you, to oblige an old customer?
Pray, do you remember a remarkably tall young man who lodged one
night in your house last week?'

'Troth, sir, I canna weel say; I never take heed whether my
company be lang or short, if they make a lang bill.'