two as closely united together as ever needle stitched buckskin.
And with all this on thy side--fortune, father, and all--thou
lookest like a distracted lover in a ballad, more like to pitch
thyself into the Tay than to woo a lass that may be had for the
asking, if you can but choose the lucky minute."

"Ay, but that lucky minute, father? I question much if Catharine
ever has such a moment to glance on earth and its inhabitants as
might lead her to listen to a coarse ignorant borrel man like me.
I cannot tell how it is, father; elsewhere I can hold up my head
like another man, but with your saintly daughter I lose heart and
courage, and I cannot help thinking that it would be well nigh robbing
a holy shrine if I could succeed in surprising her affections. Her
thoughts are too much fitted for Heaven to be wasted on such a one
as I am."

"E'en as you like, Henry," answered the glover. "My daughter is
not courting you any more than I am--a fair offer is no cause
offend; only if you think that I will give in to her foolish notions
of a convent, take it with you that I will never listen to them.
I love and honour the church," he said, crossing himself, "I pay
her rights duly and cheerfully--tithes and alms, wine and wax,
I pay them as justly, I say, as any man in Perth of my means doth
--but I cannot afford the church my only and single ewe lamb that
I have in the world. Her mother was dear to me on earth, and is now
an angel in Heaven. Catharine is all I have to remind me of her I
have lost; and if she goes to the cloister, it shall be when these
old eyes are closed for ever, and not sooner. But as for you, friend
Gow, I pray you will act according to your own best liking, I want
to force no wife on you, I promise you."