milliner's bill. And in the household of the Smiths and Stevensons
the women were not only extremely pious, but the men were in
reality a trifle worldly. Religious they both were; conscious,
like all Scots, of the fragility and unreality of that scene in
which we play our uncomprehended parts; like all Scots, realising
daily and hourly the sense of another will than ours and a
perpetual direction in the affairs of life. But the current of
their endeavours flowed in a more obvious channel. They had got on
so far; to get on further was their next ambition--to gather
wealth, to rise in society, to leave their descendants higher than
themselves, to be (in some sense) among the founders of families.
Scott was in the same town nourishing similar dreams. But in the
eyes of the women these dreams would be foolish and idolatrous.

I have before me some volumes of old letters addressed to Mrs.
Smith and the two girls, her favourites, which depict in a strong
light their characters and the society in which they moved.

'My very dear and much esteemed Friend,' writes one correspondent,
'this day being the anniversary of our acquaintance, I feel
inclined to address you; but where shall I find words to express
the fealings of a graitful Heart, first to the Lord who graiciously
inclined you on this day last year to notice an afflicted Strainger
providentially cast in your way far from any Earthly friend? . . .
Methinks I shall hear him say unto you, "Inasmuch as ye shewed
kindness to my afflicted handmaiden, ye did it unto me."'

This is to Jean; but the same afflicted lady wrote indifferently to
Jean, to Janet, and to Ms. Smith, whom she calls 'my Edinburgh
mother.' It is plain the three were as one person, moving to acts