416 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. X. 



The poor unfortunate for whom I beg, has in vain solicited the 

 assistance of the kind ladies of this quarter. Here the parties 

 willing to give gowns are either too tall, or too short, or too 

 broad, or too thin ; or the gowns are either too good or too bad, 

 or not all silk, or too fine silk ; and the end is likely to be, that 

 the poor thing will not be able to attend the meeting in spite of 

 all my efforts. 



"Will you, then, my dear Mrs. Gladstone, give a look over 

 your dresses, and if you can spare a reasonably good black silk 

 gown, not excessively much the worse of wear, send it by post 

 to me, and I will be much, very much, your debtor. For, to tell 

 the truth, I am not without a selfish interest in the matter; the 

 party for whom I beg being one for whom, as I will honestly 

 confess, I have a regard, I will not say greater, deeper, more 

 romantic, more self-denying than I have for any one else, but 

 still, as my heart acknowledges, a regard of a totally different 

 kind from that experienced for all other persons in the world. 

 Yet this peculiarly beloved person, whom some day I hope to 

 commend to your indulgent kindness, is not good-looking, nor 

 handsome, nor graceful, nor stately (a foot shorter than John), 

 nor attractive in any way ; but, nevertheless, and in spite of the 

 poverty which would make most gownless persons an object of 

 dislike, I have for years, more than I care to mention, clung to 

 the unfortunate, and now take courage to beg a gown for my 

 companion since childhood. 



" To prevent mistakes, please address ' Gown for Dr. George 

 Wilson, Professor of Technology, University of Edinburgh.' I 

 have been begging for myself ; the Queen, excellent Sovereign, 

 has sent me her commission, and I am now Professor George." 



A few months later he writes to a friend in London, who had 

 attained a similar dignity, " I longed to ask you how you liked 

 your gown. I seldom wear mine. Since I left my native hills 

 and my kilts behind me, I find pantaloons come more natural. 

 Do you wear caps ? I do not. Do you favour curls or ban- 

 deaux? I allow a few curls au naturel. An apron, I feel, 

 would not come amiss when acids are splashing about, but I 

 have not ventured on one in public. Is it the case that you 

 wear a coral necklace and bracelets of students' hair ? I confess 



