When the man of office returned to the Heart of Mid-Lothian, he resumed his conference with Ratcliffe, of whose experience and assistance he now held himself secure. “You must speak with this wench, Rat—this Effie Deans—you must sift her a wee bit; for as sure as a tether she will ken Robertson’s haunts—till her, Rat—till her without delay.”
“Craving your pardon, Mr. Sharpitlaw,” said the turnkey elect, “that’s what I am not free to do.”
“Free to do, man? what the deil ails ye now?—I thought we had settled a’ that?”
“I dinna ken, sir,” said Ratcliffe; “I hae spoken to this Effie—she’s strange to this place and to its ways, and to a’ our ways, Mr. Sharpitlaw; and she greets, the silly tawpie, and she’s breaking her heart already about this wild chield; and were she the mean’s o’ taking him, she wad break it outright.”
“She wunna hae time, lad,” said Sharpitlaw; “the woodie will hae it’s ain o’ her before that—a woman’s heart takes a lang time o’ breaking.”
“That’s according to the stuff they are made o’ sir,” replied Ratcliffe—“But to make a lang tale short, I canna undertake the job. It gangs against my conscience.”
“Your conscience, Rat?” said Sharpitlaw, with a sneer, which the reader will probably think very natural upon the occasion.
“Ou ay, sir,” answered Ratcliffe, calmly, “just my conscience; a’body has a conscience, though it may be ill wunnin at it. I think mine’s as weel out o’ the gate as maist folk’s are; and yet it’s just like the noop of my elbow, it whiles gets a bit dirl on a corner.”
“Weel, Rat,” replied Sharpitlaw, “since ye are nice, I’ll speak to the hussy mysell.”
Sharpitlaw, accordingly, caused himself to be introduced into the little dark apartment tenanted by the unfortunate Effie Deans. The poor girl was seated on her little flock-bed, plunged in a deep reverie. Some food stood on the table, of a quality better than is usually supplied to prisoners, but it was untouched. The person under whose care she was more particularly placed, said, “that sometimes she tasted naething from the tae end of the four-and-twenty hours to the t’other, except a drink of water.”