“I’m ower sune, I doubt, Mr. Sutherlan’. I’m disturbin’ ye.” “Not at all,” answered Hugh. “Besides, I am not much in a reading mood this evening: Mrs. Glasford has been annoying me again.” “Poor body! What’s she been sayin’ noo?” Thinking to amuse David, Hugh recounted the short passage between them recorded above. David, however, listened with a very different expression of countenance from what Hugh had anticipated; and, when he had finished, took up the conversation in a kind of apologetic tone. “Weel, but ye see,” said he, folding his palms together, “she hasna’ jist had a’thegither fair play. She does na come o’ a guid breed. Man, it’s a fine thing to come o’ a guid breed. They hae a hantle to answer for ‘at come o’ decent forbears.” “I thought she brought the laird a good property,” said Hugh, not quite understanding David. “Ow, ay, she brocht him gowpenfu’s o’ siller; but hoo was’t gotten? An’ ye ken it’s no riches ‘at ‘ill mak’ a guid breed—‘cep’ it be o’ maggots. The richer cheese the mair maggots, ye ken. Ye maunna speyk o’ this; but the mistress’s father was weel kent to hae made his siller by fardins and bawbees, in creepin’, crafty ways. He was a bit merchan’ in Aberdeen, an’ aye keepit his thoom weel ahint the peint o’ the ellwan’, sae ‘at he made an inch or twa upo’ ilka yard he sauld. Sae he took frae his soul, and pat intill his siller-bag, an’ had little to gie his dochter but a guid tocher. Mr. Sutherlan’, it’s a fine thing to come o’ dacent fowk. Noo, to luik at yersel’: I ken naething aboot yer family; but ye seem at eesicht to come o’ a guid breed for the bodily part o’ ye. That’s a sma’ matter; but frae what I ha’e seen—an’ I trust in God I’m no’ mista’en—ye come o’ the richt breed for the min’ as weel. I’m no flatterin’ ye, Mr. Sutherlan’; but jist layin’ it upo’ ye, ‘at gin ye had an honest father and gran’father, an’ especially a guid mither, ye hae a heap to answer for; an’ ye ought never to be hard upo’ them ‘at’s sma’ creepin’ creatures, for they canna help it sae weel as the like o’ you and me can.”