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And of a' the beings ever I beheld in breeks, to think it should be to
you! Ye timmer scoun'rel, if I had a male left to my name I would have

your jaicket dustit till ye raired."
I thought it not good to delay longer in that place, because I remarked

her passion to be rising. As I turned to the horse-post she even
followed me; and I make no shame to confess that I rode away with the

one stirrup on and scrambling for the other.
As I knew no other quarter where I could push my inquiries, there was

nothing left me but to return to the Advocate's. I was well received
by the four ladies, who were now in company together, and must give the

news of Prestongrange and what word went in the west country, at the
most inordinate length and with great weariness to myself; while all

the time that young lady, with whom I so much desired to be alone
again, observed me quizzically and seemed to find pleasure in the sight

of my impatience. At last, after I had endured a meal with them, and
was come very near the point of appealing for an interview before her

aunt, she went and stood by the music-case, and picking out a tune,
sang to it on a high key - "He that will not when he may, When he will

he shall have nay." But this was the end of her rigours, and
presently, after making some excuse of which I have no mind, she

carried me away in private to her father's library. I should not fail
to say she was dressed to the nines, and appeared extraordinary

handsome.
"Now, Mr. David, sit ye down here and let us have a two-handed crack,"

said she. "For I have much to tell you, and it appears besides that I
have been grossly unjust to your good taste."

"In what manner, Mistress Grant?" I asked. "I trust I have never
seemed to fail in due respect."

"I will be your surety, Mr, David," said she. "Your respect, whether
to yourself or your poor neighbours, has been always and most

fortunately beyond imitation. But that is by the question. You got a
note from me?" she asked.

"I was so bold as to suppose so upon inference," said I, "and it was
kindly thought upon."

"It must have prodigiously surprised you," said she. "But let us begin
with the beginning. You have not perhaps forgot a day when you were so

kind as to escort three very tedious misses to Hope Park? I have the
less cause to forget it myself, because you was so particular obliging

as to introduce me to some of the principles of the Latin grammar, a
thing which wrote itself profoundly on my gratitude."

"I fear I was sadly pedantical," said I, overcome with confusion at the
memory. "You are only to consider I am quite unused with the society

of ladies."
"I will say the less about the grammar then," she replied. "But how

came you to desert your charge? 'He has thrown her out, overboard, his
ain dear Annie!'" she hummed; "and his ain dear Annie and her two

sisters had to taigle home by theirselves like a string of green geese!
It seems you returned to my papa's, where you showed yourself

excessively martial, and then on to realms unknown, with an eye (it
appears) to the Bass Rock; solan geese being perhaps more to your mind

than bonny lasses."
Through all this raillery there was something indulgent in the lady's

eye which made me suppose there might be better coming.
"You take a pleasure to torment me," said I, "and I make a very

feckless plaything; but let me ask you to be more merciful. At this
time there is but the one thing that I care to hear of, and that will

be news of Catriona."
"Do you call her by that name to her face, Mr. Balfour?" she asked.

"In troth, and I am not very sure," I stammered.
"I would not do so in any case to strangers," said Miss Grant. "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. I think it was Catriona turned your heart
in my direction. She is too simple to perceive as you do the stiffness

of her friend."
"I would not like to wager upon that, Mr. David," said she. "The

lasses have clear eyes. But at least she is your friend entirely, as I
was to see. I carried her in to his lordship my papa; and his Advocacy

being in a favourable stage of claret, was so good as to receive the
pair of us. HERE IS GREY EYES THAT YOU HAVE BEEN DEAVED WITH THESE

DAYS PAST, said I, SHE IS COME TO PROVE THAT WE SPOKE TRUE, AND I LAY
THE PRETTIEST LASS IN THE THREE LOTHIANS AT YOUR FEET - making a

papistical reservation of myself. She suited her action to my words:
down she went upon her knees to him - I would not like to swear but he

saw two of her, which doubtless made her appeal the more irresistible,
for you are all a pack of Mahomedans - told him what had passed that

night, and how she had withheld her father's man from following of you,
and what a case she was in about her father, and what a flutter for

yourself; and begged with weeping for the lives of both of you (neither
of which was in the slightest danger), till I vow I was proud of my sex

because it was done so pretty, and ashamed for it because of the
smallness of the occasion. She had not gone far, I assure you, before

the Advocate was wholly sober, to see his inmost politics ravelled out
by a young lass and discovered to the most unruly of his daughters.

But we took him in hand, the pair of us, and brought that matter
straight. Properly managed - and that means managed by me - there is

no one to compare with my papa."
"He has been a good man to me," said I.

"Well, he was a good man to Katrine, and I was there to see to it,"
said she.

"And she pled for me?" say I.
"She did that, and very movingly," said Miss Grant. "I would not like

to tell you what she said - I find you vain enough already."
"God reward her for it!" cried I.

"With Mr. David Balfour, I suppose?" says she.
"You do me too much injustice at the last!" I cried. "I would tremble

to think of her in such hard hands. Do you think I would presume,
because she begged my life? She would do that for a new whelped puppy!

I have had more than that to set me up, if you but ken'd. She kissed
that hand of mine. Ay, but she did. And why? because she thought I

was playing a brave part and might be going to my death. It was not
for my sake - but I need not be telling that to you, that cannot look

at me without laughter. It was for the love of what she thought was
bravery. I believe there is none but me and poor Prince Charlie had

that honour done them. Was this not to make a god of me? and do you
not think my heart would quake when I remember it?"

"I do laugh at you a good deal, and a good deal more than is quite
civil," said she; "but I will tell you one thing: if you speak to her

like that, you have some glimmerings of a chance."
"Me?" I cried, "I would never dare. I can speak to you, Miss Grant,

because it's a matter of indifference what ye think of me. But her? no
fear!" said I.

"I think you have the largest feet in all broad Scotland," says she.
"Troth they are no very small," said I, looking down.

"Ah, poor Catriona!" cries Miss Grant.
And I could but stare upon her; for though I now see very well what she

was driving at (and perhaps some justification for the same), I was
never swift at the uptake in such flimsy talk.

"Ah well, Mr. David," she said, "it goes sore against my conscience,
but I see I shall have to be your speaking board. She shall know you

came to her straight upon the news of her imprisonment; she shall know
you would not pause to eat; and of our conversation she shall hear just

so much as I think convenient for a maid of her age and inexperience.
Believe me, you will be in that way much better served than you could

serve yourself, for I will keep the big feet out of the platter."
"You know where she is, then?" I exclaimed.

"That I do, Mr. David, and will never tell," said she.
"Why that?" I asked.

"Well," she said, "I am a good friend, as you will soon discover; and
the chief of those that I am friend to is my papa. I assure you, you

will never heat nor melt me out of that, so you may spare me your
sheep's eyes; and adieu to your David-Balfourship for the now."

"But there is yet one thing more," I cried. "There is one thing that
must be stopped, being mere ruin to herself, and to me too."

"Well," she said, "be brief; I have spent half the day on you already."
"My Lady Allardyce believes," I began - "she supposes - she thinks that

I abducted her."
The colour came into Miss Grant's face, so that at first I was quite

abashed to find her ear so delicate, till I bethought me she was
struggling rather with mirth, a notion in which I was altogether

confirmed by the shaking of her voice as she replied -


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