But I doot
ye maun bide till ye gang to Edinburgh, or Aberdeen, whaur ye'll easy
fa' in wi' some lang-leggit bejan that'll be prood to instruc' ye, and
coont himsel' ower weel paid wi' the sicht o' yer bonny face.'
"She turned some reid at that, and I was feared that I had angert her.
But she gied a sma' lauch, and oot at the door she gaed, wi' her 'rosy
fleece o' fire' lowin' and glimmerin' aboot her, jist like ane o' the
seraphims that auld Crashaw sings aboot. Only she was gey sma' for a
seraph, though they're nae ower big. Weel, ye see, that was the first
time I saw her. And I thochtna ower muckle mair aboot her. But in a day
or twa there she was again. And she had a hantle to speir at me aboot;
and it took a' the knowledge I had o' buiks in general to answer her
questions. In fac I was whiles compelled to confess my ignorance, which
is no pleesant whan a man wants to stan' weel wi' a bonny crater that
spiers questons. Whan she gaed, I gaed efter her, followin' aboot at
her--i' my thochts, I mean--like a hen efter her ae chucken. She was
bonnier this time than the last. She had tired o' the rosy clood, and
she had on a bonny goon o' black silk, sae modest and sae rich, wi'
diamond buttons up the front o' the briest o' 't.
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