"Don't be so angry," said Lewis, with a smile. "After all, you know, if I am so ignorant, it is my misfortune, not my fault. If I had been asked where I wanted to be born, no doubt I should have said the banks of Tay." "That's true," said Janet, mollified. "But you would do nothing o' the sort," she added. "You're just making your jest of me, as you did of the misses." "I--jest at the--misses," said Lewis, with every demonstration of indignant innocence. "Now, Mrs. Janet, look at me. Do you think I am capable of laughing at--anyone--especially ladies for whom I would have a still higher respect--if I knew them. I--jest! Do you think it is in me?" he said. Janet looked at him, and shook her head. "Sir," she said, but with a softened tone, "you're just a whillie whaw." "Now, what is a whillie whaw? I don't mind being called names," said Lewis, "but you must not call me a ruffian, you know. If one has no politeness, one had better die." "Losh me! it's no just so bad as that. I said sae to Adam. A young gentleman may have his joke, and no just be a scoundrel." "Did Adam think I was a scoundrel? I am sorry I made such a bad impression upon him. I thought we had become friends on the river-side." "Oh, sir, you're takin' me ower close to my word. I wasna meaning so bad as that; but, according to Adam, when you set eyes upon the misses, ye just burst out into a muckle guffaw: and that's no mainners--besides, it's not kind, not like what a gentleman's expected to do--in this country," Janet added, deprecating a little. "For onything I ken," she added, presently, "it may be mainners abroad." "It is not manners anywhere," said Lewis, angrily. "But Adam is a great deal too hard upon me, Mrs. Janet. I did not break into a loud--anything when I saw the ladies--why should I? I did not know who they were. But afterwards when I discovered their names---- You must sympathize with me. I had been looking for young ladies, pretty young ladies," he said, with a laugh at the recollection. "There is something more even that I could tell you. There had been some idea of an arrangement--of making a marriage, you understand--between a Miss Murray and a--gentleman I know;--if the friends found everything suitable." "Making up a marriage," Janet echoed, with bewilderment, "if the friends found it suitable!" "Just so--nothing had been said about it," said the young man, "but there had been an idea. And when, knowing he was young, I beheld--two old ladies----" "I dinna know what you call old," said Janet, with a little resentment. "If Miss Margaret's forty, that's the most she is. She's twa-three years younger than me. Ay, and so there was a marriage thought upon, though your friend had never seen the leddy? and maybe the leddy was no in the secret neither." "Oh, certainly not," Lewis cried.