The upshot was that I fell in a deep muse, looking forth of the window on the road, and scarce marking what I saw.

Presently had any been looking they might have seen me to start.
"We pit a fomentation to his feet," the goodwife was saying, "and a het stane to his wame, and we gied him hyssop and water of pennyroyal, and fine, clean balsam of sulphur for the hoast...." "Sir," says I, cutting very quietly in, "there's a friend of mine gone by the house." "Is that e'en sae ?" replies Alan, as though it were a thing of small-account.

And then, "Ye were saying, mem ?" says he; and the wearyful wife went on.
Presently, however, he paid her with a half-crown piece, and she must go forth after the change.
"Was it him with the red head ?" asked Alan.
"Ye have it," said I.
"What did I tell you in the wood ?" he cried.

"And yet it's strange he should be here too! Was he his lane ?" "His lee-lane for what I could see," said I.
"Did he gang by ?" he asked.
"Straight by," said I, "and looked neither to the right nor left." "And that's queerer yet," said Alan.

"It sticks in my mind, Davie, that we should be stirring.