Mrs. Pitillo took the minister into her hands, and compelled him to accompany her to Muirtown, where she had him at her will for some time, so that she equipped the kitchen (fully), a dining-room (fairly), a spare bedroom (amply), Mr. Saunderson’s own bedroom (miserably), and secured a table and two chairs for the study.  This success turned her head.  Full of motherly forethought, and having a keen remembrance that probationers always retired in the afternoon at Mains to think over the evening’s address, and left an impress of the human form on the bed when they came down to tea, Mrs. Pitillo suggested that a sofa would be an admirable addition to the study.  As soon as this piece of furniture, of a size suitable for his six feet, was pointed out to the minister, he took fright, and became quite unmanageable.  He would not have such an article in his study on any account, partly because it would only feed a tendency to sloth—­which, he explained, was one of his besetting sins—­and partly because it would curtail the space available for books, which, he indicated, were the proper furniture of any room, but chiefly of a study.  So great was his alarm, that he repented of too early concessions about the other rooms, and explained to Mrs. Pitillo that every inch of space must be rigidly kept for the overflow from the study, which he expected—­if he were spared—­would reach the garrets.  Several times on their way back to Kilbogie, Saunderson looked wistfully at Mrs. Pitillo, and once opened his mouth as if to speak, from which she gathered that he was grateful for her kindness, but dared not yield any further to the luxuries of the flesh.

What this worthy woman endured in securing a succession of reliable house-keepers for Mr. Saunderson and over-seeing the interior of that remarkable home she was never able to explain to her own satisfaction, though she made many honest efforts, and one of her last intelligible utterances was a lamentable prophecy of the final estate of the Free Church manse of Kilbogie.  Mr. Saunderson himself seemed at times to have some vague idea of her painful services, and once mentioned her name to Carmichael of Drumtochty in feeling terms.  There had been some delay in providing for the bodily wants of the visitor after his eight miles’ walk from the glen, and it seemed likely that he would be obliged to take his meal standing for want of a chair.

“While Mrs. Pitillo lived, I have a strong impression, almost amounting to certainty, that the domestic arrangements of the manse were better ordered; she had the episcopal faculty in quite a conspicuous degree, and was, I have often thought, a woman of sound judgment.

“We were not able at all times to see eye to eye, as she had an unfortunate tendency to meddle with my books and papers, and to arrange them after an artificial fashion.  This she called tidying, and, in its most extreme form, cleaning.