that tongue comes friendly; but for your private affairs, if you

had spoken Greek, I might have had more guess at them."

She made me a little, distant curtsey. "There is no harm done,"

said she, with a pretty accent, most like the English (but more

agreeable). "A cat may look at a king."

"I do not mean to offend," said I. "I have no skill of city

manners; I never before this day set foot inside the doors of

Edinburgh. Take me for a country lad--it's what I am; and I would

rather I told you than you found it out."

"Indeed, it will be a very unusual thing for strangers to be

speaking to each other on the causeway," she replied. "But if you

are landward {2} bred it will be different. I am as landward as

yourself; I am Highland, as you see, and think myself the farther

from my home."

"It is not yet a week since I passed the line," said I. "Less than

a week ago I was on the braes of Balwhidder."

"Balwhither?" she cries. "Come ye from Balwhither! The name of it

makes all there is of me rejoice. You will not have been long

there, and not known some of our friends or family?"

"I lived with a very honest, kind man called Duncan Dhu Maclaren,"

I replied.

"Well, I know Duncan, and you give him the true name!" she said;

"and if he is an honest man, his wife is honest indeed."

"Ay," said I, "they are fine people, and the place is a bonny

place."

"Where in the great world is such another!" she cries; "I am loving

the smell of that place and the roots that grow there."

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