seldom may it visit your ladyship--and when the hour of death that
comes to high and low--lang and late may it be yours--oh, my lady,
then it is na' what we hae dune for oursels but what we hae dune for
ithers that we think on maist pleasantly. And the thought that ye
hae intervened to spare the puir thing's life will be sweeter in that
hour, come when it may, than if a word of your mouth could hang the
haill Porteous mob at the tail of ae tow." Jeanie Deans is the
strongest woman in the gallery of Scott, and an embodiment of all
that is sober, and strong, and conscientious, and passionate in
Scotch nature.

The bookman has indeed no trouble arranging his gossips in his mind,
where they hold good fellowship, but he is careful to keep them apart
upon his bookshelves, and when he comes home after an absence and
finds his study has been tidied, which in the feminine mind means
putting things in order, and to the bookman general anarchy (it was
the real reason Eve was put out of Eden), when he comes home, I say,
and finds that happy but indecorous rascal Boccaccio, holding his
very sides for laughter, between Lecky's History of European Morals
and Law's Serious Call, both admirable books, then the bookman is
much exhilarated. Because of the mischief that is in him he will not
relieve those two excellent men of that disgraceful Italian's company
for a little space, but if he finds that the domestic sprite has
thrust a Puritan between two Anglican theologians he effects a
separation without delay, for a religious controversy with its din
and clatter is more than he can bear.

The bookman is indeed perpetually engaged in his form of spring
cleaning, which is rearranging his books, and is always hoping to
square the circle, in both collecting the books of one department