"Nature, my lad," said Miss Carnie, making her ivory teeth meet in their
first nectarine, "I didna ken whaur ye stoep, but ye beat the other
confectioners, that div ye."

The fair lass, who had watched the viscount all this time as demurely as
a cat cream, now approached him.

This young woman was the thinker; her voice was also rich, full, and
melodious, and her manner very engaging; it was half advancing, half
retiring, not easy to resist or to describe.

"Noo," said she, with a very slight blush stealing across her face, "ye
maun let me catecheeze ye, wull ye?"

The last two words were said in a way that would have induced a bear to
reveal his winter residence.

He smiled assent. Saunders retired to the door, and, excluding every
shade of curiosity from his face, took an attitude, half majesty, half
obsequiousness.

Christie stood by Lord Ipsden, with one hand on her hip (the knuckles
downward), but graceful as Antinous, and began.

"Hoo muckle is the queen greater than y' are?"

His lordship was obliged to reflect.

"Let me see--as is the moon to a wax taper, so is her majesty the queen