Her wicked, laughing eyes roamed about the apartment with little regard for my flushed face.
"Then the Crown assoilzies the panel and deserts the diet," said the little gentleman.

"Speak, sir, and thank His Majesty for his clemency and this lady for her intercession." I had no words, for if I had been sore at my imprisonment, I was black angry at this manner of release.

I did not reflect that Miss Elspeth Blair must have risen early and ridden far to be in the Canongate at this hour.

'Twas justice only that moved her, I thought, and no gratitude or kindness.

To her I was something so lowly that she need not take the pains to be civil, but must speak of me in my presence as if it were a question of a stray hound.