Lunan had ten shillings for a
judicious word about her attractive manners. Tibbie Birse invited the
newly-married couple to tea (one pound).

"They're takkin' to her, they're takkin' to her," Jeames said,
gleefully. "I kent they would come round in time. Ay, even my mother,
'at was sae mad at first, sits for hours noo aside her, haudin' her
hand. They're juist inseparable."

The time came when we had Mr. and Mrs. Geogehan and Eppie to tea.

"It's true enough," Leeby ran ben to tell Jess, "'at Eppie an' the
wife's fond o' ane another. I wouldna hae believed it o' Eppie if I
hadna seen it, but I assure ye they sat even at the tea-table haudin'
ane another's hands. I waurant they're doin't this meenute."

"I wasna born on a Sabbath," retorted Jess. "Na, na, dinna tell me
Eppie's fond o' her. Tell Eppie to come but to the kitchen when the
tea's ower."

Jess and Eppie had half an hour's conversation alone, and then our
guests left.

"It's a richt guid thing," said Hendry, "'at Eppie has ta'en sic a
notion o' the wife."

"Ou, ay," said Jess.

Then Hendry hobbled out of the house.

"What said Eppie to ye?" Leeby asked her mother.

"Juist what I expeckit," Jess answered. "Ye see she's dependent on
Jeames, so she has to butter up at 'im."

"Did she say onything aboot haudin' the wife's hand sae fond-like?"

"Ay, she said it was an awfu' trial to her, an' 'at it sickened her to
see Jeames an' the wife baith believin' 'at she likit to do't."

CHAPTER XIV

VISITORS AT THE MANSE.

On bringing home his bride, the minister showed her to us, and we
thought she would do when she realized that she was not the minister.
She was a grand lady from Edinburgh, though very frank, and we simple
folk amused her a good deal, especially when we were sitting cowed in
the manse parlour drinking a dish of tea with her, as happened to
Leeby, her father, and me, three days before Jamie came home.

Leeby had refused to be drawn into conversation, like one who knew her
place, yet all her actions were genteel and her monosyllabic replies in
the Englishy tongue, as of one who was, after all, a little above the
common. When the minister's wife asked her whether she took sugar and
cream, she said politely, "If you please" (though she did not take
sugar), a reply that contrasted with Hendry's equally well-intended
answer to the same question. "I'm no partikler," was what Hendry said.

Hendry had left home glumly, declari