‘I believe--I fancy sae, sir--as usual’ (about to leave the room).
‘Stay a moment, Mrs. Mac-Candlish; why, you are in a prodigious hurry, my good friend! I have been thinking a club dining here once a month would be a very pleasant thing.’
‘Certainly, sir; a club of RESPECTABLE gentlemen.’
‘True, true,’ said Glossin, ‘I mean landed proprietors and gentlemen of weight in the county; and I should like to set such a thing a-going.’
The short dry cough with which Mrs. Mac-Candlish received this proposal by no means indicated any dislike to the overture abstractedly considered, but inferred much doubt how far it would succeed under the auspices of the gentleman by whom it was proposed. It was not a cough negative, but a cough dubious, and as such Glossin felt it; but it was not his cue to take offence.
‘Have there been brisk doings on the road, Mrs. Mac-Candlish? Plenty of company, I suppose?’
‘Pretty weel, sir,--but I believe I am wanted at the bar.’
‘No, no; stop one moment, cannot you, to oblige an old customer? Pray, do you remember a remarkably tall young man who lodged one night in your house last week?’
‘Troth, sir, I canna weel say; I never take heed whether my company be lang or short, if they make a lang bill.’
‘And if they do not, you can do that for them, eh, Mrs. Mac-Candlish? ha, ha, ha! But this young man that I inquire after was upwards of six feet high, had a dark frock, with metal buttons, light-brown hair unpowdered, blue eyes, and a straight nose, travelled on foot, had no servant or baggage; you surely can remember having seen such a traveller?’