to me fast eneuch, when ye hae gotten a jo. I'm tellin' ye and it's
true; when you have a jo, Miss Kirstie, it'll be for guid and ill. I
ken: I was made that way mysel', but the deil was in my luck! Here,
gang awa wi' ye to your muirs, and let me be; I'm in an hour of
inspiraution, ye upsetting tawpie!"

But she clung to her brother's neighbourhood, she knew not why.

"Will ye no gie's a kiss, Dand?" she said. "I aye likit ye fine."

He kissed her and considered her a moment; he found something strange in
her. But he was a libertine through and through, nourished equal
contempt and suspicion of all womankind, and paid his way among them
habitually with idle compliments.

"Gae wa' wi' ye!" said he. "Ye're a dentie baby, and be content wi'
that!"

That was Dandie's way; a kiss and a comfit to Jenny - a bawbee and my
blessing to Jill - and goodnight to the whole clan of ye, my dears!
When anything approached the serious, it became a matter for men, he
both thought and said. Women, when they did not absorb, were only
children to be shoo'd away. Merely in his character of connoisseur,
however, Dandie glanced carelessly after his sister as she crossed the
meadow. "The brat's no that bad!" he thought with surprise, for though
he had just been paying her compliments, he had not really looked at
her. "Hey! what's yon?" For the grey dress was cut with short sleeves
and skirts, and displayed her trim strong legs clad in pink stockings of
the same shade as the kerchief she wore round her shoulders, and that
shimmered as she went. This was not her way in undress; he knew her