could lift them three at a time as if they were little monkeys. It was
a pity. Ah! my friend, you will do me the honours with madame and with
mademoiselle."

It was my mother and Edie who had come into the kitchen. He had not
seen them the night before, but now it was all I could do to keep my
face as I watched him; for instead of our homely Scottish nod, he bent
up his back like a louping trout, and slid his foot, and clapped his
hand over his heart in the queerest way. My mother stared, for she
thought he was making fun of her; but Cousin Edie fell into it in an
instant, as though it had been a game, and away she went in a great
curtsy until I thought she would have had to give it up, and sit down
right there in the middle of the kitchen floor. But no, she up again as
light as a piece of fluff, and we all drew up our stools and started on
the scones and milk and porridge.

He had a wonderful way with women, that man. Now if I were to do it,
or Jim Horscroft, it would look as if we were playing the fool, and the
girls would have laughed at us; but with him it seemed to go with his
style of face and fashion of speech, so that one came at last to look
for it: for when he spoke to my mother or Cousin Edie--and he was never
backward in speaking--it would always be with a bow and a look as if it
would hardly be worth their while to listen to what he had to say, and
when they answered he would put on a face as though every word they said
was to be treasured up and remembered for ever. And yet, even while he
humbled himself to a woman, there was always a proud sort of look at the
back of his eye as if he meant to say that it was only to them that he
was so meek, and that he could be stiff enough upon occasion. As to my
mother, it was wonderful the way she softened to him, and in
half-an-hour she had told him all about her uncle, who was a surgeon in