I cannot deny but I was sometimes tempted to knock my
uncle Adam down; and indeed I believe it must have come
to a rupture at last, if they had not given a dinner-
party at which I was the lion. On this occasion I
learned (to my surprise and relief) that the incivility
to which I had been subjected was a matter for the
family circle, and might be regarded almost in the
light of an endearment. To strangers I was presented
with consideration; and the account given of "my
American brother-in-law, poor Janie's man, James K.
Dodd, the well-known millionaire of Muskegon," was
calculated to enlarge the heart of a proud son.
An aged assistant of my grandfather's, a pleasant,
humble creature with a taste for whisky, was at first
deputed to be my guide about the city. With this
harmless but hardly aristocratic companion I went to
Arthur's Seat and the Calton Hill, heard the band play
in Princes Street Gardens, inspected the regalia and
the blood of Rizzio, and fell in love with the great
castle on its cliff, the innumerable spires of
churches, the stately buildings, the broad prospects,
and those narrow and crowded lanes of the old town
where my ancestors had lived and died in the days
before Columbus.
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