’Frae Sutherland, say ye, Mistress?’ the big skipper said, as he reached over for the lemons. ’Ye should ca’ him your kissin frae the Hielans then. Do ye ken that story, Laidlaw? D’ye ken that yin about the Hielan kissins, Jaap? Man, that’s a gude yin! have ye no heard it? Have ye no heard it, Mistress?’ ’Tell us what it is first, and we’ll tell you afterwards,’ said she saucily. ’Weel, then,’ said he—and he desisted from his preparations for the punch-making, for he was famous along the Broomielaw as a story-teller, and liked to keep up his reputation, ’it was twa young lasses, twa cousins they were, frae the west side o’ Skye—and if there’s ony place mair Hielan than that, it’s no me that ever heard o’t—and they were ta’en into service in an inn up about the Gairloch or Loch Inver, or one o’ they lochs. Both o’ them were good-looking lasses, mind ye; but one o’ them just unusual handsome. Well, then, there happened to come to the inn an English tourist—a most respectable old gentleman he was; and it was one o’ they two lasses—and no the brawest o’ them either—that had to wait on him: but he was a freendly auld man; and on the mornin’ o’ his gaun awa he had to ring for something or other, and when she brought it to him, he said to her, jist by way o’ compliment, ye ken, "You are a very good-looking girl, do you know, Flora?" And of course the lass was very well pleased; but she was a modest lassie too; and she said, "Oh no, sir; but I hef heard them say my kissin was peautiful!" "Your what?" said he. "My kissin, sir—" "Get away, you bold hussy! Off with you at once, or I’ll ring for your master—you brazen baggage!"—and to this very day, they tell me, the poor lass do’esna ken what on earth it was that made the auld man into a madman; for what harm had she done in telling him that her cousin was better-looking than herself?’ This recondite joke was received with much laughter by the company; and even Ronald had to admit that the Clyde skipper’s imitation of the Highland accent was very fairly well done. But joke-making is dull work with empty glasses; and so Captain M’Taggart set himself seriously to the business of brewing that bowl of punch, while Kate Menzies polished the silver ladle to an even higher extreme of brilliancy.