He was a hard-featured, sententious, snuffy individual, of some learning, and great respectability.
I omit the political talk with which their intercommunications began; for however interesting at the time is the scaffolding by which existing institutions arise, the poles and beams when gathered again in the builder's yard are scarcely a subject for the artist.
The first to lead the way towards matters of nearer personality was William MacGregor, the linen manufacturer, a man who possessed a score of hand-looms or so--half of which, from the advance of cotton and the decline of linen-wear, now stood idle--but who had already a sufficient deposit in the hands of Mr.Thomson the banker--agent, that is, for the county-bank--to secure him against any necessity for taking to cotton shirts himself, which were an abomination and offence unpardonable in his eyes.
'Can ye tell me, Mr.Cocker,' he said, 'what mak's Sandy, Lord Rothie, or Wrathy, or what suld he be ca'd ?--tak' to The Bothie at a time like this, whan there's neither huntin', nor fishin', nor shutin', nor onything o' the kin' aboot han' to be playacks till him, the bonnie bairn--'cep' it be otters an' sic like ?' William was a shrunken old man, with white whiskers and a black wig, a keen black eye, always in search of the ludicrous in other people, and a mouth ever on the move, as if masticating something comical.
'You know just as well as I do,' answered Mr.Cocker, the Marquis of Boarshead's factor for the surrounding estate.

'He never was in the way of giving a reason for anything, least of all for his own movements.' 'Somebody was sayin' to me,' resumed MacGregor, who, in all probability, invented the story at the moment, 'that the prince took him kissin' ane o' his servan' lasses, and kickit him oot o' Carlton Hoose into the street, and he canna win' ower the disgrace o' 't.' ''Deed for the kissin',' said Mr.Thomson, a portly, comfortable-looking man, 'that's neither here nor there, though it micht hae been a duchess or twa; but for the kickin', my word! but Lord Sandy was mair likly to kick oot the prince.

Do ye min' hoo he did whan the Markis taxed him wi'-- ?' 'Haud a quaiet sough,' interposed Mr.Cruickshank, the solicitor; 'there's a drap i' the hoose.' This was a phrase well understood by the company, indicating the presence of some one unknown, or unfit to be trusted.
As he spoke he looked towards the farther end of the room, which lay in obscurity; for it was a large room, lighted only by the four candles on the table at which the company sat.
'Whaur, Mr.Cruickshank ?' asked the dominie in a whisper.
'There,' answered Sampson Peddie, the bookseller, who seized the opportunity of saying something, and pointed furtively where the solicitor had only looked.
A dim figure was descried at a table in the farthest corner of the room, and they proceeded to carry out the plan they generally adopted to get rid of a stranger.
'Ye made use o' a curious auld Scots phrase this moment, Mr.Curshank: can ye explain hoo it comes to beir the meanin' that it's weel kent to beir ?' said the manufacturer.
'Not I, Mr.MacGregor,' answered the solicitor.

'I'm no philologist or antiquarian.

Ask the chairman.' 'Gentlemen,' responded Mr.Innes, taking a huge pinch of snuff after the word, and then, passing the box to Mr.Cocker, a sip from his glass before he went on: 'the phrase, gentlemen, "a drap i' the hoose," no doobt refers to an undesirable presence, for ye're weel awaur that it's a most unpleasin' discovery, in winter especially, to find a drop o' water hangin' from yer ceiling; a something, in short, whaur it has no business to be, and is not accordingly looked for, or prepared against.' 'It seems to me, Mr.Innes,' said MacGregor, 'that ye hae hit the nail, but no upo' the heid.