But as I reached the head of the close once more, I had sense enough to recollect that all pursuit would be now in vain.

Besides, I saw my friend, the journeyman dyer, in close confabulation with a pea-green personage of his own profession, and was conscious, like Scrub, that they talked of me, because they laughed consumedly.

I had no mind, by a second sudden appearance, to confirm the report that Advocate Fairford was 'gaen daft,' which had probably spread from Campbell's Close-foot to the Meal-market Stairs; and so slunk back within my own hole again.
My first employment was to remove all traces of that elegant and fanciful disposition of my effects, from which I had hoped for so much credit; for I was now ashamed and angry at having thought an instant upon the mode of receiving a visit which had commenced so agreeably, but terminated in a manner so unsatisfactory.

I put my folios in their places--threw the foils into the dressing-closet--tormenting myself all the while with the fruitless doubt, whether I had missed an opportunity or escaped a stratagem, or whether the young person had been really startled, as she seemed to intimate, by the extreme youth of her intended legal adviser.

The mirror was not unnaturally called in to aid; and that cabinet-counsellor pronounced me rather short, thick-set, with a cast of features fitter, I trust, for the bar than the ball--not handsome enough for blushing virgins to pine for my sake, or even to invent sham cases to bring them to my chambers--yet not ugly enough either to scare those away who came on real business--dark, to be sure, but--NIGRI SUNT HYACINTHI--there are pretty things to be said in favour of that complexion.
At length--as common sense will get the better in all cases when a man will but give it fair play--I began to stand convicted in my own mind, as an ass before the interview, for having expected too much--an ass during the interview, for having failed to extract the lady's real purpose--and an especial ass, now that it was over, for thinking so much about it.