"And why are you so much immersed in the affairs of this young
lady?"
"I heard she was in prison," said I.
"Well, and now you hear that she is out of it," she replied, "and
what more would you have? She has no need of any further
champion."
"I may have the greater need of her, ma'am," said I.
"Come, this is better!" says Miss Grant. "But look me fairly in
the face; am I not bonnier than she?"
"I would be the last to be denying it," said I. "There is not your
marrow in all Scotland."
"Well, here you have the pick of the two at your hand, and must
needs speak of the other," said she. "This is never the way to
please the ladies, Mr. Balfour."
"But, mistress," said I, "there are surely other things besides
mere beauty."
"By which I am to understand that I am no better than I should be,
perhaps?" she asked.
"By which you will please understand that I am like the cock in the
midden in the fable book," said I. "I see the braw jewel--and I
like fine to see it too--but I have more need of the pickle corn."
"Bravissimo!" she cried. "There is a word well said at last, and I
will reward you for it with my story. That same night of your
desertion I came late from a friend's house--where I was
excessively admired, whatever you may think of it--and what should
I hear but that a lass in a tartan screen desired to speak with me?
She had been there an hour or better, said the servant-lass, and
she grat in to herself as she sat waiting. I went to her direct;
she rose as I came in, and I knew her at a look. 'Grey Eyes!' says
I to myself, but was more wise than to let on. YOU WILL BE MISS
GRANT AT LAST? she says, rising and looking at me hard and pitiful.
AY, IT WAS TRUE HE SAID, YOU ARE BONNY AT ALL EVENTS.--THE WAY GOD
MADE ME, MY DEAR, I said, BUT I WOULD BE GEY AND OBLIGED IF YOU
COULD TELL ME WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE AT SUCH A TIME OF THE NIGHT.--
LADY, she said, WE ARE KINSFOLK, WE ARE BOTH COME OF THE BLOOD OF
THE SONS OF ALPIN.--MY DEAR, I replied, I THINK NO MORE OF ALPIN OR
HIS SONS THAN WHAT I DO OF A KALESTOCK. YOU HAVE A BETTER ARGUMENT
IN THESE TEARS UPON YOUR BONNY FACE. And at that I was so weak-
minded as to kiss her, which is what you would like to do dearly,
and I wager will never find the courage of. I say it was weak-
minded of me, for I knew no more of her than the outside; but it
was the wisest stroke I could have hit upon. She is a very
staunch, brave nature, but I think she has been little used with
tenderness; and at that caress (though to say the truth, it was but
lightly given) her heart went out to me. I will never betray the
secrets of my sex, Mr. Davie; I will never tell you the way she
turned me round her thumb, because it is the same she will use to
twist yourself. Ay, it is a fine lass! She is as clean as hill
well water."
"She is e'en't!" I cried.
"Well, then, she told me her concerns," pursued Miss Grant, "and in
what a swither she was in about her papa, and what a taking about
yourself, with very little cause, and in what a perplexity she had
found herself after you was gone away. AND THEN I MINDED AT LONG
LAST, says she, THAT WE WERE KINSWOMEN, AND THAT MR. DAVID SHOULD
HAVE GIVEN YOU THE NAME OF THE BONNIEST OF THE BONNY, AND I WAS
THINKING TO MYSELF 'IF SHE IS SO BONNY SHE WILL BE GOOD AT ALL
EVENTS'; AND I TOOK UP MY FOOT SOLES OUT OF THAT. That was when I
forgave yourself, Mr. Davie. When you was in my society, you
seemed upon hot iron: by all marks, if ever I saw a young man that
wanted to be gone, it was yourself, and I and my two sisters were
the ladies you were so desirous to be gone from; and now it
appeared you had given me some notice in the by-going, and was so
kind as to comment on my attractions! From that hour you may date
our friendship, and I began to think with tenderness upon the Latin
grammar."
"You will have many hours to rally me in," said I; "and I think
besides you do yourself injustice.