relaxes, as the lines about the mouth soften, and the brown eyes grow
kindly, one begins to think that Bell must have been once quite
handsome. She is always scrupulously clean whenever I chance to visit
her, and is usually arrayed in a white "mutch" cap, spotless apron, and
small tartan shawl over her shoulders. Willy and she have reared up a
large family, all of them now settled in the world and most of them
married. They are most proud of their youngest, Margaret, who is a lay
sister in a town convent. Though her husband is reckoned a traveler,
Bell can lay no claim to the title; she probably never moved farther
than ten miles away from the family hearthstone until the day she left
her father's house by the Burn of Breakachy to marry Willy Paterson,
and certainly has never traveled much since that time.

Most of the houses of Ardmuirland are constructed on exactly the same
plan. There are two principal rooms--"but" and "ben," as they are
commonly designated. (It is unnecessary here to dive into etymology;
but it may be noticed in passing that _but_ signifies "without" and
_ben_ "within.") To "gae ben" is to pass into the inner room, which at
one time opened out of the ordinary living apartment or kitchen, but is
now usually separated from it by a little entrance lobby. Besides
these two chief rooms, the initiated will be able to point out sundry
little hidden closets and cupboards, fitted up as sleeping apartments,
and reminding one of the contrivances on board ship. The two rooms
each contain a more demonstrative bed, as a rule: but in some cases the
bed is shut up with panelled doors like a cupboard.

All that I learned from Bell about the Ardmuirland of bygone days was
gathered from her lips at intervals, and in the course of many repeated
visits; for it would have been fatal to my purpose had I allowed her to
imagine that I intended to make public use of her communications.