"Maria Semple! You don't mean to tell me you were at a field preaching!" "It was a good preaching and----" "The man is a saddle-maker! I hae seen him working, day in and day out, in his leather apron." "St. Paul was a tent-maker; he made a boast of it, and as he was a sensible man, I have no doubt he wore an apron. He would not want to spoil his toga." _"Hush! Hush!_ You must not speak o' Saint Paul in that tempered and common way. The Apostles belong to the Kirk. Your father was brought up a good Presbyterian." "Dear grandmother, I am the strictest kind of Presbyterian. I really went to hear Agnes. If you had seen her standing by her father's side on that green hill and heard her sing: 'Israel, what hast thou to dread? Safe from all impending harms, Round thee, and beneath thee, spread, Are the everlasting arms.' you would have caught up the song as hundreds did do, till it spread to the horizon, and rose to the sky, and was singing and praying both. People were crying with joy, and they did not know it." "I would call her a dangerous kind o' girl. Has she any brothers or sisters?" "Her brother went to an English school at the beginning of the war. He was to finish his education at Oxford. Annie Gardiner--one of the schoolgirls--told me so. He was her sweetheart. She has no sisters." "Sweetheart?" "Just boy and girl sweethearting. Agnes seldom spoke of him; sometimes she got letters from him." "Has Agnes a sweetheart?" "There was a young gentleman dressed like a sailor that called on her now and then. We thought he might be an American privateer." "Then Agnes Bradley is for the Americans! Well, a good girl, like her, would be sure to take the right side. Nae doubt the hymn she sung referred to the American army." "I am sure people thought so; indeed, I fear Agnes is a little bit of a rebel, but she has to keep her thoughts and feelings to herself." "Plenty o' folks hae to do the same; thought may be free here, but speech is bond slave to His Majesty George o' Hanover, or England, or Brunswick, or what you like." "Or America!" "Nae, nae! You may make that last statement wi' great reservation, Maria. But we must make no statements that will vex your grandfather, for he is an auld man, and set in his ways, and he does not believe in being contradicted."