Agreeable to appointment, I went next to Bailie Nicol Jarvie's, where a comfortable morning's repast was arranged in the parlour, which served as an apartment of all hours, and almost all work, to that honest gentleman. The bustling and benevolent magistrate had been as good as his word. I found my friend Owen at liberty, and, conscious of the refreshments and purification of brush and basin, was of course a very different person from Owen a prisoner, squalid, heart-broken, and hopeless. Yet the sense of pecuniary difficulties arising behind, before, and around him, had depressed his spirit, and the almost paternal embrace which the good man gave me, was embittered by a sigh of the deepest anxiety. And when he sate down, the heaviness in his eye and manner, so different from the quiet composed satisfaction which they usually exhibited, indicated that he was employing his arithmetic in mentally numbering up the days, the hours, the minutes, which yet remained as an interval between the dishonour of bills and the downfall of the great commercial establishment of Osbaldistone and Tresham. It was left to me, therefore, to do honour to our landlord's hospitable cheer---to his tea, right from China, which he got in a present from some eminent ship's-husband at Wapping---to his coffee, from a snug plantation of his own, as he informed us with a wink, called Saltmarket Grove, in the island of Jamaica---to his English toast and ale, his Scotch dried salmon, his Lochfine herrings, and even to the double-damask table-cloth, ``wrought by no hand, as you may guess,'' save that of his deceased father the worthy Deacon Jarvie.

Having conciliated our good-humoured host by those little attentions which are great to most men, I endeavoured in my turn to gain from him some information which might be useful for my guidance, as well as for the satisfaction of my curiosity. We had not hitherto made the least allusion to the transactions of the preceding night, a circumstance which made my question sound somewhat abrupt, when, without any previous introduction of the subject, I took advantage of a pause when the history of the table-cloth ended, and that of the napkins was about to commence, to inquire, ``Pray, by the by, Mr. Jarvie, who may this Mr. Robert Campbell be, whom we met with last night?''

The interrogatory seemed to strike the honest magistrate, to use the vulgar phrase, ``all of a heap,'' and instead of answering, he returned the question---``Whae's Mr. Robert Campbell? ---ahem! ahay! Whae's Mr. Robert Campbell, quo' he?''

``Yes,'' said I, ``I mean who and what is he?''

``Why, he's---ahay!---he's---ahem!---Where did ye meet with Mr. Robert Campbell, as ye ca' him?''

``I met him by chance,'' I replied, ``some months ago in the north of England.''

``Ou then, Mr. Osbaldistone,'' said the Bailie, doggedly, ``ye'll ken as muckle about him as I do.''

``I should suppose not, Mr. Jarvie,'' I replied;---``you are his relation, it seems, and his friend.''

``There is some cousin-red between us, doubtless,'' said the Bailie reluctantly; ``but we hae seen little o' ilk other since Rob gae tip the cattle-line o' dealing, poor fallow! he was hardly guided by them might hae used him better---and they haena made their plack a bawbee o't neither. There's mony ane this day wad rather they had never chased puir Robin frae the Cross o' Glasgow---there's mony ane wad rather see him again at the tale o' three hundred kyloes, than at the head o' thirty waur cattle.''

``All this explains nothing to me, Mr. Jarvie, of Mr. Campbell's rank, habits of life, and means of subsistence,'' I replied.

``Rank?'' said Mr. Jarvie; ``he's a Hieland gentleman, nae doubt---better rank need nane to be;---and for habit, I judge he wears the Hieland habit amang the hills, though he has breeks on when he comes to Glasgow;---and as for his subsistence, what needs we care about his subsistence, sae lang as he asks naething frae us, ye ken? But I hae nae time for clavering about him e'en now, because we maun look into your father's concerns wi' all speed.''

So saying, he put on his spectacles, and sate down to examine Mr. Owen's states, which the other thought it most prudent to communicate to him without reserve. I knew enough of business to be aware that nothing could be more acute and sagacious than the views which Mr. Jarvie entertained of the matters submitted to his examination; and, to do him justice, it was marked by much fairness, and even liberality. He scratched his ear indeed repeatedly on observing the balance which stood at the debit of Osbaldistone and Tresham in account with himself personally.

``It may be a dead loss,'' he observed; ``and, conscience! whate'er ane o' your Lombard Street goldsmiths may say to it, it's a snell ane in the Saut-Market* o' Glasgow. It will be a

* [The Saltmarket. This ancient street, situate in the heart of Glasgow, * has of late been almost entirely renovated.]

heavy deficit---a staff out o' my bicker, I trow. But what then?---I trust the house wunna coup the crane for a' that's come and gane yet; and if it does, I'll never bear sae base a mind as thae corbies in the Gallowgate---an I am to lose by ye, I'se ne'er deny I hae won by ye mony a fair pund sterling---Sae, an it come to the warst, I'se een lay the head o' the sow to the tail o' the grice.''*

* Anglice, the head of the sow to the tail of the pig.

I did not altogether understand the proverbial arrangement with which Mr. Jarvie consoled himself, but I could easily see that he took a kind and friendly interest in the arrangement of my father's affairs, suggested several expedients, approved several plans proposed by Owen, and by his countenance and counsel greatly abated the gloom upon the brow of that afflicted delegate of my father's establishment.

As I was an idle spectator on this occasion, and, perhaps, as I showed some inclination more than once to return to the prohibited, and apparently the puzzling subject of Mr. Campbell, Mr. Jarvie dismissed me with little formality, with an advice to ``gang up the gate to the college, where I wad find some chields could speak Greek and Latin weel---at least they got plenty o' siller for doing deil haet else, if they didna do that; and where I might read a spell o' the worthy Mr. Zachary Boyd's translation o' the Scriptures---better poetry need nane to be, as he had been tell'd by them that ken'd or suld hae ken'd about sic things.'' But he seasoned this dismission with a kind and hospitable invitation ``to come back and take part o' his family-chack at ane preceesely---there wad be a leg o' mutton, and, it might be, a tup's head, for they were in season;'' but above all, I was to return at ``ane o'clock preceesely---it was the hour he and the deacon his father aye dined at---they pat it off for naething nor for naebody.''

So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear; And hears him in the rustling wood, and sees His course at distance by the bending trees, And thinks---Here comes my mortal enemy, And either he must fall in fight, or I. Palamon and Arcite.

I took the route towards the college, as recommended by Mr. Jarvie, less with the intention of seeking for any object of interest or amusement, than to arrange my own ideas, and meditate on my future conduct. I wandered from one quadrangle of old-fashioned buildings to another, and from thence to the College-yards, or walking ground, where, pleased with the solitude of the place, most of the students being engaged in their classes, I took several turns, pondering on the waywardness of my own destiny.

I could not doubt, from the circumstances attending my first meeting with this person Campbell, that he was engaged in some strangely desperate courses; and the reluctance with which Mr. Jarvie alluded to his person or pursuits, as well as all the scene of the preceding night, tended to confirm these suspicions. Yet to this man Diana Vernon had not, it would seem, hesitated to address herself in my behalf; and the conduct of the magistrate himself towards him showed an odd mixture of kindness, and even respect, with pity and censure. Something there must be uncommon in Campbell's situation and character; and what was still more extraordinary, it seemed that his fate was doomed to have influence over, and connection with, my own. I resolved to bring Mr. Jarvie to close quarters on the first proper opportunity, and learn as much as was possible on the subject of this mysterious person, in order that I might judge whether it was possible for me, without prejudice to my reputation, to hold that degree of farther correspondence with him to which he seemed to invite.