us to shake him by the hand; but what with the burning
his right hand had sustained, and the worse than burning his left had
suffered wi' the sliding down a rope frae a third storey, wi' a man
under his arm, I may say that my venturesome and gallant auld scholar
hadna a hand to shake.

Ye canna be surprised to hear--and, at the time o' life ye've arrived
at, ye'll be no longer jealous; besides, during dinner, I think ye
spoke o' having a wife and family--I say, therefore, doctor, that
ye'll neither be jealous nor surprised to hear, that from that day
Katie's dryness to Jamie melted down. Moreover, as ye had gane out to
India, where ye would be mair likely to look after siller than think
o' a wife, and as I understand ye had dropped correspondence for some
length o' time, ye couldna think yoursel in ony way slighted. Now,
folk say that "nineteen _nay-says_ are half a _yes_." For my part (and
my age is approaching the heels o' the patriarchs), I never put it in
the power o' woman born to say _No_ to me. But, as I have heard and
believe, Katie had said _No_ to Jamie before the fire, not only
nineteen times, but thirty-eight times twice told, and he found
seventy-six (which is about my age) nae nearer a _yea_ than the first
_nay_. And folk said it was a' on account o' a foolish passion for the
doctor laddie that had gane abroad. But Katie was a kind, gratefu
lassie. She couldna look wi' cauldness upon the man that had not only
saved her life, but her father's also; and I ought to have informed
you that, within two minutes from the time of her father's being
snatched from the room where he lay, the floor fell in, and the flames
burst from the window where Katie had been standing a few minutes
before.

Her father recovered from the fever, but he died within six months
after the fire, and left her a portionless orphan, or what was next
door to it. Jamie urged her to make him happy, and at last she
consented, and they were married. But ye remember that his parents
were in affluent circumstances; they thought he had demeaned himself
by his marriage, and they shut their door upon him, and disowned him
athegither. As he was his father's heir, he was brought up to no
calling or business whatsoever; and, when the auld man not only vowed
to cut him off wi' a shilling, on account of his marriage, but
absolutely got his will altered accordingly, what did the silly lad
do, but, in desperation, list into a regiment that was gaun abroad