no great change upon my sorrow; and we two (by which I mean Alan and
myself, and not at all the cousin) had discussed a good deal the nature
of my relations with James More and his daughter. I was naturally
diffident to give particulars; and this disposition was not anyway
lessened by the nature of Alan's commentary upon those I gave.

"I cannae make head nor tail of it," he would say, "but it sticks in my
mind ye've made a gowk of yourself. There's few people that has had more
experience than Alan Breck; and I can never call to mind to have heard
tell of a lassie like this one of yours. The way that you tell it, the
thing's fair impossible. Ye must have made a terrible hash of the
business, David."

"There are whiles that I am of the same mind," said I.

"The strange thing is that ye seem to have a kind of a fancy for her
too!" said Alan.

"The biggest kind, Alan," said I, "and I think I'll take it to my grave
with me."

"Well, ye beat me, whatever!" he would conclude.

I showed him the letter with Catriona's postcript. "And here again!" he
cried. "Impossible to deny a kind of decency to this Catriona, and sense
forby! As for James More, the man's as boss as a drum; he's just a wame
and a wheen words; though I'll can never deny that he fought reasonably
well at Gladsmuir, and it's true what he says here about the five
wounds. But the loss of him is that the man's boss."

"Ye see, Alan," said I, "it goes against the grain with me to leave the
maid in such poor hands."

"Ye couldnae weel find poorer," he admitted. "But what are ye to do with
it? It's this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie: The weemenfolk
have got no kind of reason to them. Either they like the man, and then
a' goes fine; or else they just detest him, and ye may spare your
breath--ye can do naething. There's just the two sets of them--them that
would sell their coats for ye, and them that never look the road ye're
on. That's a' that there is to women; and you seem to be such a gomeral
that ye cannae tell the tane frae the tither."

"Well, and I'm afraid that's true for me," said I.

"And yet there's naething easier!" cried Alan. "I could easy learn ye
the science of the thing; but ye seem to me to be born blind, and
there's where the diffeeculty comes in!"

"And can _you_ no help me?" I asked, "you that's so clever at the
trade?"

"Ye see, David, I wasnae here," said he. "I'm like a field officer that
has naebody but blind men fo