and she largely shared in their fears. This, however, was not the
gravest part of the business; for, instead of going to St. Paul's

and the Tower, as we had intended, my mother declared, that not one
farthing would they spend more till they were satisfied that the

expenses already incurred were likely to be reimbursed; and a
Chancery suit, with all the horrors of wig and gown, floated in

spectral haziness before their imagination.
We sat down to a frugal meal, and although the remainder of a bottle

of wine, saved from the preceding day, hardly afforded a glass
apiece, the Doctor absolutely prohibited me from opening another.

This morning, faithful to the hour, we were again in Broad Street,
with hearts knit up into the most peremptory courage; and, on being

announced, were immediately admitted to Mr. Argent. He received us
with the same ease as in the first interview, and, after requesting

us to be seated (which, by the way, he did not do yesterday, a
circumstance that was ominously remarked), he began to talk on

indifferent matters. I could see that a question, big with law and
fortune, was gathering in the breasts both of the Doctor and my

mother, and that they were in a state far from that of the blessed.
But one of the clerks, before they had time to express their

indignant suspicions, entered with a paper, and Mr. Argent, having
glanced it over, said to the Doctor--"I congratulate you, sir, on

the amount of the colonel's fortune. I was not indeed aware before
that he had died so rich. He has left about 120,000 pounds;

seventy-five thousand of which is in the five per cents; the
remainder in India bonds and other securities. The legacies appear

to be inconsiderable, so that the residue to you, after paying them
and the expenses of Doctors' Commons, will exceed a hundred thousand

pounds."
My father turned his eyes upwards in thankfulness. "But," continued

Mr. Argent, "before the property can be transferred, it will be
necessary for you to provide about four thousand pounds to pay the

duty and other requisite expenses." This was a thunderclap. "Where
can I get such a sum?" exclaimed my father, in a tone of pathetic

simplicity. Mr. Argent smiled and said, "We shall manage that for
you"; and having in the same moment pulled a bell, a fine young man

entered, whom he introduced to us as his son, and desired him to
explain what steps it was necessary for the Doctor to take. We

accordingly followed Mr. Charles Argent to his own room.
Thus, in less time than I have been in writing it, were we put in

possession of all the information we required, and found those whom
we feared might be interested to withhold the settlement, alert and

prompt to assist us.
Mr. Charles Argent is naturally more familiar than his father. He

has a little dash of pleasantry in his manner, with a shrewd good-
humoured fashionable air, that renders him soon an agreeable

acquaintance. He entered with singularfelicity at once into the
character of the Doctor and my mother, and waggishly drolled, as if

he did not understand them, in order, I could perceive, to draw out
the simplicity of their apprehensions. He quite won the old lady's

economical heart, by offering to frank her letters, for he is in
Parliament. "You have probably," said he slyly, "friends in the

country, to whom you may be desirous of communicating the result of
your journey to London; send your letters to me, and I will forward

them, and any that you expect may also come under cover to my
address, for postage is very expensive."

As we were taking our leave, after being fully instructed in all the
preliminary steps to be taken before the transfers of the funded

property can be made, he asked me, in a friendly manner, to dine
with him this evening, and I never accepted an invitation with more

pleasure. I consider his acquaintance a most agreeable acquisition,
and not one of the least of those advantages which this new opulence

has put it in my power to attain. The incidents, indeed, of this
day, have been all highly gratifying, and the new and brighter phase

in which I have seen the mercantile character, as it is connected
with the greatness and glory of my country--is in itself equivalent

to an accession of useful knowledge. I can no longer wonder at the
vast power which the British Government wielded during the late war,

when I reflect that the method and promptitude of the house of
Messrs. Argent and Company is common to all the great commercial

concerns from which the statesmen derived, as from so many
reservoirs, those immense pecuniary supplies, which enabled them to

beggar all the resources of a political despotism, the most
unbounded, both in power and principle, of any tyranny that ever

existed so long.--Yours, etc., ANDREW PRINGLE.
CHAPTER IV--THE TOWN

There was a great tea-drinking held in the Kirkgate of Irvine, at
the house of Miss Mally Glencairn; and at that assemblage of rank,

beauty, and fashion, among other delicacies of the season, several
new-come-home Clyde skippers, roaring from Greenock and Port-

Glasgow, were served up--but nothing contributed more to the
entertainment of the evening than a proposal, on the part of Miss

Mally, that those present who had received letters from the Pringles
should read them for the benefit of the company. This was, no

doubt, a preconcerted scheme between her and Miss Isabella Tod, to
hear what Mr. Andrew Pringle had said to his friend Mr. Snodgrass,

and likewise what the Doctor himself had indited to Mr. Micklewham;
some rumour having spread of the wonderful escapes and adventures of

the family in their journey and voyage to London. Had there not
been some prethought of this kind, it was not indeed probable, that

both the helper and session-clerk of Garnock could have been there
together, in a party, where it was an understood thing, that not

only Whist and Catch Honours were to be played, but even
obstreperous Birky itself, for the diversion of such of the company

as were not used to gambling games. It was in consequence of what
took place at this Irvine route, that we were originally led to

think of collecting the letters.
LETTER VIII

Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod--LONDON.
My Dear Bell--It was my heartfelt intention to keep a regular

journal of all our proceedings, from the sad day on which I bade a
long adieu to my native shades--and I persevered with a constancy

becoming our dear and youthful friendship, in writing down
everything that I saw, either rare or beautiful, till the hour of

our departure from Leith. In that faithfulregister of my feelings
and reflections as a traveller, I described our embarkation at

Greenock, on board the steam-boat,--our sailing past Port-Glasgow,
an insignificant town, with a steeple;--the stupendous rock of

Dumbarton Castle, that Gibraltar of antiquity;--our landing at
Glasgow;--my astonishment at the magnificence of that opulent

metropolis of the muslin manufacturers; my brother's remark, that
the punch-bowls on the roofs of the Infirmary, the Museum, and the

Trades Hall, were emblematic of the universalestimation in which
that celebratedmixture is held by all ranks and degrees--learned,

commercial, and even medical, of the inhabitants;--our arrival at
Edinburgh--my emotion on beholding the Castle, and the visionary

lake which may be nightly seen from the windows of Princes Street,
between the Old and New Town, reflecting the lights of the lofty

city beyond--with a thousand other delightful and romantic
circumstances, which render it no longer surprising that the

Edinburgh folk should be, as they think themselves, the most
accomplished people in the world. But, alas! from the moment I

placed my foot on board that cruel vessel, of which the very idea is
anguish, all thoughts were swallowed up in suffering-swallowed, did

I say? Ah, my dear Bell, it was the odious reverse--but imagination
alone can do justice to the subject. Not, however, to dwell on what

is past, during the whole time of our passage from Leith, I was
unable to think, far less to write; and, although there was a

handsome young Hussar officer also a passenger, I could not even
listen to the elegant compliments which he seemed disposed to offer

by way of consolation, when he had got the better of his own
sickness. Neither love nor valour can withstand the influence of

that sea-demon. The interruption thus occasioned to my observations
made me destroy my journal, and I have now to write to you only

about London--only about London! What an expression for this human