moved from town, it was to steal two days with this anonymous
fair one. The exact importance to Burns of this affair may
be gathered from the song in which he commemorated its
occurrence. "I love the dear lassie," he sings, "because she
loves me;" or, in the tongue of prose: "Finding an
opportunity, I did not hesitate to profit by it, and even
now, if it returned, I should not hesitate to profit by it
again." A love thus founded has no interest for mortal man.
Meantime, early in the winter, and only once, we find him
regretting Jean in his correspondence. "Because" - such is
his reason - "because he does not think he will ever meet so
delicious an armful again;" and then, after a brief excursion
into verse, he goes straight on to describe a new episode in
the voyage of discovery with the daughter of a Lothian farmer
for a heroine. I must ask the reader to follow all these
references to his future wife; they are essential to the
comprehension of Burns's character and fate. In June, we
find him back at Mauchline, a famous man. There, the Armour
family greeted him with a "mean, servile compliance," which
increased his former disgust. Jean was not less compliant; a
second time the poor girl submitted to the fascination of the
man whom she did not love, and whom she had so cruelly
insulted little more than a year ago; and, though Burns took
advantage of her weakness, it was in the ugliest and most
cynical spirit, and with a heart absolutely indifferent judge
of this by a letter written some twenty days after his return
- a letter to my mind among the most degrading in the whole
collection - a letter which seems to have been inspired by a
boastful, libertine bagman. "I am afraid," it goes, "I have
almost ruined one source, the principal one, indeed, of my