Now these three old cronies of the widow’s had betrayed a little surprise on finding a stranger installed in their favourite howf; and perhaps they might have been inclined to resent the intrusion had not Kate Menzies very speedily intimated her views upon the subject in unmistakable language. Her ’cousin Ronald’ was all her cry; it was Ronald this and Ronald that; and whatever Ronald said, that was enough, and decisive. For, of course, after a glass or so of punch, the newcomers had got to talking politics—or what they took to be politics; and Ronald, when he was invited to express his opinion, proved to be on the unpopular side; nor did he improve his position by talking with open scorn of a great public agitation then going on—indeed, he so far forgot himself as to define stump-oratory as only another form of foot-and-mouth disease. But at least he had one strenuous backer, and neither Mr. Laidlaw nor Mr. Jaap nor the big skipper was anxious to quarrel with a controversialist who had such abundant stores of hospitality at her command. Moreover, Kate Menzies was in the habit of speaking her mind; was it not better, for the sake of peace and quietness, to yield a little? This cousin of hers from the Highlands could parade some book-learning it is true; and he had plenty of cut-and-dried theories that sounded plausible enough; and his apparent knowledge of the working of American institutions was sufficiently good for an argument—so long as one could not get at the real facts; but they knew, of course, that, with time to get at these facts and to furnish forth replies to his specious reasonings, they could easily prove their own case. In the meantime they would be magnanimous. For the sake of good fellowship—and to oblige a lady—they shifted the subject. Or rather she did. ’I suppose you’ll be going to the Harmony Club to-night?’ she said. ’For a while, at least,’ replied the captain. ’Mr. Jaap’s new song is to be sung the nicht; and we maun get him an encore for’t. Not that it needs us; "Caledonia’s hills and dales" will be a’ ower Glasgow before a fortnight’s out; and it’s young Tam Dalswinton that’s to sing it. Tam’ll do his best, no fear.’ ’It’s little ye think,’ observed Mrs. Menzies, with a kind of superior air, ’that there’s somebody not a hundred miles frae here that can sing better than a’ your members and a’ your professionals put thegither. The Harmony Club! If the Harmony Club heard _him_, they might tak tent and learn a lesson.’ ’Ay, and wha’s he when he’s at hame, Mistress?’ Captain M’Taggart said. ’He’s not fifty miles away frae here anyway,’ she said. ’And if I was to tell ye that he’s sitting not three yards away frae ye at this meenit?’ ’Katie, woman, are ye daft?’ Ronald said, and he laughed, but his forehead grew red all the same.