on wi' me, I'm doubting?'

'Me! not I. Go home, go home, take a pint and agree.' Dandie
looked but half contented, and still remained stationary.
'Anything more, my friend?'

'Only, sir, about the succession of this leddy that's dead, auld
Miss Margaret Bertram o' Singleside.'

'Ay, what about her?' said the counsellor, rather surprised.

'Ou, we have nae connexion at a' wi' the Bertrams,' said Dandie;
'they were grand folk by the like o' us; but Jean Liltup, that was
auld Singleside's housekeeper, and the mother of these twa young
ladies that are gane--the last o' them's dead at a ripe age, I
trow--Jean Liltup came out o' Liddel water, and she was as near
our connexion as second cousin to my mother's half-sister. She
drew up wi' Singleside, nae doubt, when she was his housekeeper,
and it was a sair vex and grief to a' her kith and kin. But he
acknowledged a marriage, and satisfied the kirk; and now I wad ken
frae you if we hae not some claim by law?'

'Not the shadow of a claim.'

'Aweel, we're nae puirer,' said Dandie; 'but she may hae thought
on us if she was minded to make a testament. Weel, sir, I've said
my say; I'se e'en wish you good-night, and--' putting his hand in
his pocket.

'No, no, my friend; I never take fees on Saturday nights, or