The one extreme looked like impudence, and might annoy, the other was a practical confession of guilt.

Altogether, it was a good hour for me when the dusk began to fall in earnest on the streets of Edinburgh, and the voice of an early watchman bade me set forth.
I reached the neighbourhood of the cottage before seven; and as I breasted the steep ascent which leads to the garden wall, I was struck with surprise to hear a dog.

Dogs I had heard before, but only from the hamlet on the hillside above.

Now, this dog was in the garden itself, where it roared aloud in paroxysms of fury, and I could hear it leaping and straining on the chain.

I waited some while, until the brute's fit of passion had roared itself out.