"You suppose! And pray what will your supposing be worth, Mr. Jepson?" Mrs. McNab asked this question scornfully from the foot of the table. "Attractive, indeed! She's charming, she's captivating, she's enchanting, she's bewitching; and if she was only Highland Scotch, she would soon be teaching thae sour old women the meaning o' them powerful words. She would that! But she's o'er good, and o'er good-tempered for the like o' them." "You are talking of the mistress, McNab." "I am weel acquaint wi' that fact, and I'll just remind you that my name is Mistress McNab, when you find sense enough to give me my right. And if it isna lawfu' to talk o' Mistress Traquair Campbell, there's no law forbidding me to talk o' them Lairds and Crawfords. If they ever come here again, the smoke will get through their porridge, and they'll wonder what the de'il is the matter wi' Mistress McNab's cookery." "The guests of the house, McNab, ought to have a kind of consideration." "Consider them yoursel', then." "The Crawfords and Lairds both are the most respect----" "Ill-bred, and forwardsome o' mortals. I could say much worse----" "Better not." "Bouncing, swaggering, nasty, beggarly creatures! They turn up their lang noses, and the palms o' their greedy hands at the like o' you and me, but there isna a lady or a gentleman at this table, that wouldna scorn the dirty things they did here." "They gave none o' us a sixpence when they went awa," said Thomas, the second man. "Sixpence! They couldna imagine a bawbee or a kind word to anybody but themsel's. They wouldna gie the smoke aff their porridge--but I'll tell you the differ o' them. The young mistress, God bless her, sends her maid to me last night, and the girl--a civil spoken creature--says: 'Mrs. McNab, my mistress would like her coffee and rolls in her own parlor, and there will be due you half-a-crown a week for your trouble, and thank you.' That's the way a lady puts things. And mind you, if there's the like o' a fresh kidney, or a few mushrooms coming Mrs. McNab's way, they will go to my lovely lady in her own parlor--and Jepson, you can just tell the auld woman I made that remark." "What is said at this table goes no further, Mrs. McNab, and that you know." "Then the auld woman has the far-hearing, that's a'----" and being by this time at the end of her temper and her English speech, she plunged into Gaelic. It was her sure and unconquered resort, for no one could answer unpronounceable and untranslatable words. All her companions knew was, that she rose from the table with an air of victory. The next week was very wet. Day after day it was rain only interrupted by more rain, and Robert seemed to take a kind of pride in its abundance. "Few countries are so well watered as Scotland," he said complacently: "_The West wind always brings wet weather, The East wind wet and cold together, The South wind surely brings us rain, The North wind blows it back again._"