for she was aye fond o' him, addressed him frae the head o' the table:--

"'Cambogie,' quoth she, 'I'd like to hae your opinion about that wine. It's
some the duke has just received, and we should like to hear what you think
of it.'

"'It's nae sae bad, my leddy,' said my uncle; for ye see he was a man of
few words, and never flattered onybody.

"'Then you don't approve much of it?' said the duchess.

"'I've drank better, and I've drank waur,' quo' he.

"'I'm sorry you don't like it, Caimbogie,' said the duchess, 'for it can
never be popular now,--we have such a dependence upon your taste.'

"'I cauna say ower muckle for my _taste_, my leddy, but ae thing I _will_
say,--I've a most damnable _smell!_'

"I hear that never since the auld walls stood was there ever the like o'
the laughing that followed; the puir duke himsel' was carried away, and
nearly had a fit, and a' the grand lords and leddies a'most died of it. But
see here, the earle has nae left a drap o' whiskey in the flask."

"The last glass I drained to your respectable uncle's health," said Quill,
with a most professional gravity. "Now, Charlie, make a little room for me
in the straw."

The doctor soon mounted beside me, and giving me a share of his ample
cloak, considerably ameliorated my situation.