4 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



friend of Miller's, and has asked him to his house on 

 this occasion to have some talk on a matter of business. 

 Mr Ross mentions that he will want an accountant, that 

 the young man who had been thought of for the situa- 

 tion cannot find security, and that his guest may have 

 the place if he will. Hugh is taken by surprise, and, 

 with his usual diffidence, commences to make excuse. c I 

 know nothing,' he says, c of business, and very little 

 of figures ; there is not a person in the country worse 

 qualified for the office/ Mr Ross understands his 

 man, and persists. ' Say, however, that you accept, 

 and I shall become responsible for the rest.' Hugh re- 

 flects for a few moments. ' I thought of the matter ; 

 I remembered that no man was ever born an accountant ; 

 and that the practice and perseverance, which do so much 

 for others, might do a little for me. The appointment, 

 too, came to me so unthought of, so unsolicited, and 

 there seemed to be so much of the providential in it, 

 that I deemed it duty not to decline. 3 This last was no 

 mere conventional phrase on the lips of Miller. His reli- 

 gion, quiet and unobtrusive as it was, had impressed 

 itself upon all his habits of thought and life. It had 

 become the one thing essential to his happiness, that he 

 should feel a Divine hand leading him. As usual in 

 the changes of his life, he regarded the alteration in his 

 circumstances with calmness and equanimity, deliberately 

 glad to behold the prospect of life in Scotland with the 

 woman he loved opening before him ; but not forgetful 

 of the tranquil hours, so rich in delicate enjoyment of 

 heart and mind, which he had passed, mallet in hand, on 

 the chapel brae of Cromarty, or in sequestered country 

 churchyards, his thoughts busy with some problem of 

 science, or thesis of philosophy, or newly-discovered 

 jewel of poetry, while nature prepared for him, in every 



