"Now we will put you upon your trial," she said, playfully tapping her with her fan; "and you, my lord duke, and the Earl of Nithsdale himself, and Sir Hector M'Gregor, and Mr. M'Kenzie, and my fair cousin Crawford of Kilbirny, and young Mistress Rose Scott of Murdiston, shall sit in judgment, and pronounce whether I have not passed a more profitable morning than our demure hostess there! Now stand forth, Countess of Nithsdale, and answer the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!" The Lady Nithsdale smiled, while the slight colour mounted to her cheek, at being called into notice; but she professed her willingness to submit to the verdict of so goodly a tribunal. "After our morning meal," resumed the duchess, "which I grant you was somewhat to the credit of the housewife--there was no fault to be found with the bannocks, nor with the saffron-cakes, nor the honey, nor the marmalade, nor the Finnan haddocks, nor any of the other delicacies for which our good land of Scotland is renowned,--after this meal, what were my lady countess's avocations!" "Even such household duties as your grace must needs attend to when you reach your own castle of Kincarn. I visited the 'still-room, and gave the housekeeper directions for making of some mint-water, and some julap, and other simple medicines, which the neighbouring poor are used to procure at the castle. And, moreover, this is the season when the distilled waters for the year must be made; the elder-flowers and the roses are all in bloom." "Oh, stop, my dear countess! This last employment was most vain and useless! for who could endure such homely scents? It is impossible now to use anything but orange-flower water; so you have indeed mis-spent your time most shamefully! Now you, by your own confession, did only one thing at a time, while I cultivated my mind and improved my beauty at one and the same moment. I studied Locke on the Human Understanding, while my woman curled my hair; after which I read two chapters on the properties of the loadstone, and--I would fain have studied the mathematics, only my wicked lord"--and she shook her fan at the duke--"would not give me the lesson he promised." She put on the prettiest pout of her ruby lips, while her gay eyes laughed through their fringe of eye-lashes, as she looked down her cheeks with a mock air of pettish anger; then raising them suddenly on the duke, she continued in a reproachful tone, "You know, my lord, you would not wish your wife to be quite out of the fashion; and every lady now talks of the mathematics, and speaks but in words with a Latin derivation; and I will learn these things too, in spite of you!" The duke looked upon her with delight and love, while he replied, "Learn of our fair hostess how to make a sack-posset, Christian!" "Not unless your grace will teach me the mathematics! Now promise, and it shall be a bargain, and I will let you kiss my hand upon it."