I can't say that I ever admired the general mechanism set up for gulling the public, but I had to learn how it was done, and I set myself to master the whole business.
I had rather a happy time of it in Glasgow, for though it's the dirtiest, dingiest and most depressing city in the world, with its innumerable drunkards and low Scoto-Irish ne'er-do-weels loafing about the streets on Saturday nights, it has one great charm--you can get away from it into some of the loveliest scenery in the world.

All my spare time was spent in taking the steamer up the Clyde, and sometimes going as far as Crinan and beyond it--or what I loved best of all, taking a trip to Arran, and there roaming about the hills to my heart's content.
Glorious Arran! It was there I first began to feel my wings growing!" "Was it a pleasant feeling ?" enquired Helmsley, jocosely.
"Yes--it _was_!" replied Angus, clenching his right hand and bringing it down on his knee with emphasis; "whether they were goose wings or eagle wings didn't matter--the pricking of the budding quills was an _alive_ sensation! The mountains, the burns, the glens, all had something to say to me--or I thought they had--something new, vital and urgent.

God Himself seemed to have some great command to impose upon me--and I was ready to hear and obey.

I began to write--first verse--then prose--and by and by I got one or two things accepted here and there--not very much, but still enough to fire me to further endeavours.

Then one summer, when I was taking a holiday at a little village near Loch Lomond, I got the final dig of the spur of fate--I fell in love." Mary raised her eyes again and looked at him.