Next morning, after encountering the lugubrious face of Esther Maclean, who saw in the hired servants and the broken dishes and glasses all the worst symptoms of approaching ruin, Nashon went out to enjoy the refreshing breezes that swept along the Well Burn; and, at her beloved spot, the Monks’ Well, he found Dione Græme sitting, wrapped in meditation. “Do I see,” said Dione, as he approached her, “the same individual I met on this spot on a former occasion, when I thought his unpolished prudence and good sense would have enabled him to profit by a disclosure I made without intention.” “The very same—Nashon Heatherton,” replied he, “wi’ nae change in him, except it be that he is, if possible, still mair prudent and far wiser than he was on that eventfu day.” “I know you are a riddle, sir,” said Dione—“a charade I cannot solve. Do not the neighbours say, what I have partially witnessed, that you are inebriated with the spirit of the fox-hunter, and fast riding to ruin, at the nod and by the example of my father, who, however, is making his folly subservient to his purpose of ruining you?” “A’ true, my bonny Dione,” replied Nashon. “Naebody can be blamed for sayin what I wish him to think. They say, and you suppose, that I am ridin to the deevil; but will ye believe me when I tell you that I am only ridin to _you_? If you’ll tak me as I stand, and marry me in spite o’ your faither an’ mither, I’ll gie up my mad pranks, and sit quietly down, as a douce, sensible man, whase greatest ambition and highest pleasure would be to minister to the comfort and happiness o’ Dione Græme.” “My father and mother will never consent to that,” replied Dione. “It was only this morning that my mother urged me to receive more kindly, or rather less unkindly, the addresses of Benjamin Rice; but how can it be that your behaving as a fool can ever come in place of the consent of my parents, or procure me for your wife, even if I were favourably affected towards you?” “If you will tell me that you love me and will become my wife, provided I get your faither and mither’s consent to our union,” replied Nashon, “I will tell you the wisdom o’ my folly, an’ explain my riddle—that, in place o’ ridin to the deevil, I am ridin to Dione.” “I must believe the evidence of my senses,” replied Dione. “I have already given you reason to suppose that I was well affected towards you; but, if Benjamin Rice has disgusted me, Nashon Heatherton has terrified me; and I must first see an amendment of your conduct before I pledge myself to what may be my ruin.” “Time tries whinstanes, Dione,” replied Nashon; “an’ my folly is no quite sae hardened an’ perverse. If ye gang sae muckle by the evidence o’ yer senses, I hae nae objection to mak them the test o’ my conduct, when a’ its pairts are seen thegither, an’ my motives for actin as I now do can be properly understood. Will ye be kind to me, Dione, till I prove myself the same prudent Nashon Heatherton you first thought me?”