THERE is always some little awkwardness perceptible in the demeanour of people, when, after partaking in, or even perhaps witnessing, a scene of great excitement, they meet each other for the first time, under circumstances of perfect security and repose. This sort of embarrassment was sufficiently observable even in the good dowager of Semplehaugh and her other guests; but it was very strikingly so in Mr Blair and Mrs Campbell, when they found themselves together that day in the dining-room.

Perhaps their appearance was much more noticed by the rest of the company, in consequence of their being clad, both of them, in other people's clothes; and, as it happened, in a style of dress very different from what either of them were accustomed to wear. Mr Blair had put on a suit of Mr Semple’s, made in the ordinary fashion of the time; but, of course, in colour and in every other particular, unlike his own clerical garb. It was a plain suit of brown kerseymere, with but a very slight edging of silver, and it fitted his shape very well; but this, together with the substitution of a rich lace cravat for a linen stock, was enough to alter him so much, that, I believe, had none of them actually known who he was, he might have passed any one of the party in the streets of Edinburgh or Glasgow without any great risk of being recognized for the minister of Cross-Meikle. Mrs Campbell, on the other hand, after bursting one or two pairs of silk sleeves for Miss Muir, had been compelled to content herself with what the wardrobe of the dowager afforded, and you may believe that she began to rummage among the drawers that were laid open for her inspection, with very slender hopes of finding anything quite worthy of her wearing.