In her first letter to Miss Keith, Mrs. Fleming says of her dead Maidie:—­“Never did I behold so beautiful an object.  It resembled the finest wax-work.  There was in the countenance an expression of sweetness and serenity which seemed to indicate that the pure spirit had anticipated the joys of heaven ere it quitted the mortal frame.  To tell you what your Maidie said of you would fill volumes; for you were the constant theme of her discourse, the subject of her thoughts, and ruler of her actions.  The last time she mentioned you was a few hours before all sense save that of suffering was suspended, when she said to Dr. Johnstone, ’If you will let me out at the New Year, I will be quite contented.’  I asked what made her so anxious to get out then.  ’I want to purchase a New Year’s gift for Isa Keith with the sixpence you gave me for being patient in the measles; and I would like to choose it myself.’  I do not remember her speaking afterwards, except to complain of her head, till just before she expired, when she articulated, ’O mother! mother!’”

Do we make too much of this little child, who has been in her grave in Abbotshall.  Kirkyard these fifty and more years?  We may of her cleverness,—­not of her affectionateness, her nature.  What a picture the animosa infans gives us of herself, her vivacity, her passionateness, her precocious love-making, her passion for nature, for swine, for all living things, her reading, her turn for expression, her satire, her frankness, her little sins and rages, her great repentances.  We don’t wonder Walter Scott carried her off in the neuk of his plaid, and played himself with her for hours....

We are indebted for the following—­and our readers will be not unwilling to share our obligations—­to her sister:—­“Her birth was 15th January, 1803; her death 19th December, 1811.  I take this from her Bibles.  I believe she was a child of robust health, of much vigor of body, and beautifully formed arms, and until her last illness, never was an hour in bed.  She was niece to Mrs. Keith, residing in No. 1 North Charlotte Street, who was not Mrs. Murray Keith, although very intimately acquainted with that old lady....

“As to my aunt and Scott, they were on a very intimate footing.  He asked my aunt to be godmother to his eldest daughter Sophia Charlotte.  I had a copy of Miss Edgeworth’s ‘Rosamond’ and ‘Harry and Lucy’ for long, which was ‘a gift to Marjorie from Walter Scott,’ probably the first edition of that attractive series, for it wanted ‘Frank,’ which is always now published as part of the series under the title of ‘Early Lessons.’  I regret to say these little volumes have disappeared.”

Sir Walter was no relation of Marjorie’s, but of the Keiths, through the Swintons; and like Marjorie, he stayed much at Ravelstone in his early days, with his grand-aunt Mrs. Keith....