I cannot conceive how
you should come up here without asking my permission. Will it
please you to be gone, sir?' I was within an ace of prevailing. He
took out his purse--I need not say more--I was bribed to let him
remain. Ah, had I kept my frail resolution of dismissing him at
that moment, what a world of shame and misery had been evited!
But that, though uppermost still in my mind, has nothing ado
here.
"When I peeped over again, the two men were disputing in a
whisper, the one of them in violent agitation and terror, and the
other upbraiding him, and urging him on to some desperate act.
At length I heard the young man in the Highland garb say
indignantly, 'Hush, recreant! It is God's work which you are
commissioned to execute, and it must be done. But, if you
positively decline it, I will do it myself, and do you beware of the
consequences.'
"'Oh, I will, I will!' cried the other in black clothes, in a wretched
beseeching tone. 'You shall instruct me in this, as in all things
else.'
"I thought all this while I was closely concealed from them, and
wondered not a little when be in tartans gave me a sly nod, as
much as to say, 'What do you think of this?' or, 'Take note of
what you see,' or something to that effect; from which I perceived
that, whatever he was about, he did not wish it to be kept a secret.
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