n Thrums whom this marriage enraged.
Stories had long been alive of Jeames's fortune, which his cousins'
children were some day to divide among themselves, and as a consequence
these young men and women looked on Mrs. Geogehan as a thief.

"Dinna bring the wife to our hoose, Jeames," one of them told him, "for
we would be fair ashamed to hae her. We used to hae a respect for yer
name, so we couldna look her i' the face."

"She's mair like yer dochter than yer wife," said another.

"Na," said a third, "naebody could mistak her for yer dochter. She's
ower young-like for that."

"Wi' the siller you'll leave her, Jeames," Tammas Haggart told him,
"she'll get a younger man for her second venture."

All this was very trying to the newly-married man, who was thirsting
for sympathy. Hendry was the person whom he took into his confidence.

"It may hae been foolish at my time o' life," Hendry reported him to
have said, "but I couldna help it. If they juist kent her better they
couldna but see 'at she's a terrible takkin' crittur."

Jeames was generous; indeed he had come home with the intention of
scattering largess. A beggar met him one day on the brae, and got a
shilling from him. She was waving her arms triumphantly as she passed
Hendry's house, and Leeby got the story from her.

"Eh, he's a fine man that, an' a saft ane," the woman said. "I juist
speired at 'im hoo his bonny wife was, an' he oot wi' a shillin'!"

Leeby did not keep this news to herself, and soon it was through the
town. Jeames's face began to brighten.

"They're comin' round to a mair sensible wy o' lookin' at things," he
told Hendry. "I was walkin' wi' the wife i' the buryin' ground
yesterday, an' we met Kitty McQueen. She was ane o' the warst agin me
at first, but she telt me i' the buryin' ground 'at when a man mairit
he should please 'imsel. Oh, they're comin' round."

What Kitty told Jess was--

"I minded o' the tinkler wuman 'at he gae a shillin' to, so I thocht I
would butter up at the auld fule too. Weel, I assure ye, I had nae
suner said 'at he was rale wise to marry wha he likit than he slips a
pound note into my hand. Ou, Jess, we've ta'en the wrang wy wi'
Jeames. I've telt a' my bairns 'at if they meet him they're to praise
the wife terrible, an' I'm far mista'en if that doesna mean five
shillin's to ilka ane o' them."

Jean Whamond got a pound note for saying that Jeames's wife had an
uncommon pretty voice, and Davit