Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

346 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
applied in payment of another bill, — an involved
negotiation, of which it is as difficult as wholly un-
necessary to follow through the weary evolution,—and
who advised Hogg that Mr Blackwood was " making
a great deal of unnecessary fuss," an intimation which
Mr Blackwood naturally resented. Hogg's utter confusion
of mind, as he endeavours to thread his way
through the convolutions of a series of transactions
quite beyond his capacity, is half pathetic and half
laughable :
—
James Hogg to W. Blackwood.
I said I knew nothing about the routine of such business as
how far an agent was entitled to give up any security he had
received ; but I begged that at all events he would satisfy you
in the meantime until I could see you. Mr Craig, though a
most honourable and disinterested man, is noted for a sort of
stubborn perverseness when in the least crossed ; and what may
make him more cautious, perhaps, he has advanced me money
for the other two-thirds of the bill on his own acceptances. I
had lifted all my money and paid it away for stock (so we term
live stock), so that I could not relieve your bill, else I should
have done it this day ; for after you had given me your name
so frankly to let me get the immediate use of that which was
my own, you may guess how grieved I was at all this anger and
jealousy, which was perfectly preposterous, for what effect has a
letter on a bill ?
Poor Shepherd ! what, indeed, had any of his ex-
planations or complaints to do with that remorseless
course of affairs which ordains that a man who has
promised to pay should do so, whatever arguments,
even of the most convincing character, he should be
able to produce against it. This piteous letter, how-
ever, did have the effect on the bill which was so