remarked. 

“Aye, aye, but it's well to have a bit margin. He filled it up and threw it over to me as if it had been an auld postage stamp. That's the way business should be done between honest men--though it wouldna do if one was inclined to take an advantage. Will ye not come in, Mr. West, and have a taste of my whisky?” 

“No, thank you,” said I, “I have business to do.” 

“Well, well, business is the chief thing. It's well not to drink in the morning, too. For my own part, except a drop before breakfast to give me an appetite, and maybe a glass, or even twa, afterwards to promote digestion, I never touch spirits before noon. What d'ye think o' the general, Mr. West?”"Why, I have hardly had an opportunity of judging,” I answered. Mr. McNeil tapped his forehead with his forefinger. “That's what I think of him,” he said in a confidential whisper, shaking his head at me. “He's gone, sir, gone, in my estimation. Now what would you take to be a proof of madness, Mr. West?” “Why, offering a blank cheque to a Wigtown house-agent,” said I. “Ah, you're aye at your jokes. But between oorsel's now, if a man asked ye how many miles it was frae a seaport, and whether ships come there from the East, and whether there were tramps on the road, and whether it was against the lease for him to build a high wall round the grounds, what would ye make of it, eh?” “I should certainly think him eccentric,” said I. “If every man had his due, our friend would find himsel' in a house with a high wall round the grounds, and that without costing him a farthing,” said the agent. “Where then?” I asked, humouring his joke. “Why, in the Wigtown County Lunatic Asylum,” cried the little man, with a bubble of laughter, in the midst of which I rode on my way, leaving him still chuckling over his own facetiousness. 

The arrival of the new family at Cloomber Hall had no perceptible effect in relieving the monotony of our secluded district, for instead of entering into such simple pleasures as the country had to offer, or interesting themselves, as we had hoped, in our attempts to improve the lot of our poor crofters and fisherfolk, they seemed to shun all observation, and hardly ever to venture beyond the avenue gates. We soon found, too, that the factor's words as to the inclosing of the grounds were founded upon fact, for gangs of workmen were kept hard at work from early in the morning until late at night in erecting a high, wooden fence round the whole estate. When this was finished and topped with spikes, Cloomber Park became impregnable to any one but an exceptionally daring climber. It 

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