I am thinking he petitions mair for her than for
your-sell, hinny; for what can he plead for you but just to wish you the
blessing ye deserve? And when I sleepit ayont the hallan, when we came first
here, he was often earnest a' night, and I could hear him come ower and ower
again wi', Effie - puir blinded misguided thing! it was aye Effie! Effie! - If
that puir wandering lamb comena into the sheepfauld in the Shepherd's ain time,
it will be an unco wonder, for I wot she has been a child of prayers. Oh, if the
puir prodigal wad return, sae blithely as the goodman wad kill the fatted calf!
- though Brockie's calf will no be fit for killing this three weeks yet.«
    And then, with the discursive talent of persons of her description, she got
once more afloat in her account of domestic affairs, and left this delicate and
affecting topic.
    Having looked at every thing in the offices and the dairy, and expressed her
satisfaction with the manner in which matters had been managed in her absence,
Jeanie rejoined the rest of the party, who were surveying the interior of the
house, all excepting David Deans and Butler, who had gone down to the church to
meet the kirk-session and the clergymen of the Presbytery, and arrange matters
for the duty of the day.
    In the interior of the cottage all was clean, neat, and suitable to the
exterior. It had been originally built and furnished by the Duke, as a retreat
for a favourite domestic of the higher class, who did not long enjoy it, and had
been dead only a few months, so that every thing was in excellent taste and good
order. But in Jeanie's bedroom was a neat trunk, which had greatly excited Mrs.
Dutton's curiosity, for she was sure that the direction, »For Mrs. Jean Deans,
at Auchingower, parish of Knocktarlitie,« was the writing of Mrs. Semple, the
Duchess's own woman. May Hettly produced the key in a sealed parcel, which bore
the same address, and attached to the key was a label, intimating that the trunk
and its contents were »a token of remembrance to Jeanie Deans, from her friends
the Duchess of Argyle and the young ladies.« The trunk, hastily opened, as the
reader will not doubt, was found to be full of wearing apparel of the best
quality, suited to Jeanie's rank in life; and to most of the articles the names
of