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proper errand; and when it came four o'clock, Torrance
had been taking a glass and did not know his master,
and I, who had forgot my spectacles, was so blind with-
out them, that I give you my word I did not know my
own clerk."And thereupon he laughed heartily.
I said it was an odd chance, and smiled out of polite-
ness; but what held me all the afternoon in wonder, he
kept returning and dwelling on this story, and telling it
again with fresh details and laughter; so that I began
at last to be quite put of countenance and feel ashamed
for my friend's folly.
Towards the time I had appointed with Alan, we
set out from the house, Mr. Rankeillor and I arm in
arm, and Torrance following behind with the deed in
his pocket and a covered basket in his hand. All
through the town, the lawyer was bowing right and
left, and continually being button-holed by gentlemen
on matters of burgh or private business; and I could
see he was one greatly looked up to in the county. At
last we were clear of the houses, and began to go along
the side of the haven and towards the Hawes Inn and
the ferry pier, the scene of my misfortune. I could not
look upon the place without emotion, recalling how
many that had been there with me that day were now
no more: Ransome taken, I could hope, from the evil
to come; Shuan passed where I dared not follow him;
and the poor souls that had gone down with the brig in
her last plunge. All these, and the brig herself, I had
outlived; and come through these hardships and fearful