I70 ANGLING & ART IN SCOTLAND 



— and I was left with the necessity of making a 

 difficult explanation. 



For a second or two dead silence prevailed, while 

 the stranger and I gazed at each other. He was 

 fierce and determined-looking, with grizzled beard. 

 In such crises the trivial and irrelevant impress 

 one's mind. It struck me that he had lost two 

 front teeth, and that he greatly resembled a wild 

 boar at bay. What struck him I know not ; pos- 

 sibly the imbecility depicted upon the countenance 

 of the person opposite to him. 



"Well!" he inquired at length, "is the house 

 on fire?" And immediately the same question 

 was reiterated by a quavering female treble from 

 the depths of the room — "Is the house on fire? 

 Oh! Is the house on fire?" 



" Oh dear, no," I answered. " It was only a 

 joke." 



An incredulous and long-drawn-out "Oh!" 

 was the sole reply. After that nothing remained 

 but to start in on an explanation, which, I fear, 

 was pretty poorly done, and which, under the 

 tragic circumstances of the case, to say the least 

 of it, sounded distinctly lame : — for the unhappy 

 pair had travelled all the way from Manchester 



