ves it a stir." Did
you know that was the right way to make porridge, Deryck? I always
thought it was made in five minutes, as wanted. Margery says that must
be the English stuff which profanely goes by the name. (N.B. Please
mark the self-control with which I repeat Scotch remarks, without
rushing into weird spelling; a senseless performance, it seems to me.
For if you know already how old Margery pronounces "porridge," you can
read her pronunciation into the sentence; and if you do not know it, no
grotesque spelling on my part could convey to your mind any but a
caricatured version of the pretty Scotch accent with which Margery
says: "Stir the porridge, Nurse Gray." In fact, I am agreeably
surprised at the ease with which I understand the natives, and the
pleasure I derive from their conversation; for, after wrestling with
one or two modern novels dealing with the Highlands, I had expected to
find the language an unknown tongue. Instead of which, lo! and behold,
old Margery, Maggie the housemaid, Macdonald the gardener, and
Macalister the game-keeper, all speak a rather purer English than I do;
far more carefully pronounced, and with every R sounded and rolled.
Their idioms are more characteristic than their accent. They say
"whenever" for "when," and use in their verbs several quaint variations
of tense.)

But what a syntactical digression! Oh, Boy, the wound at my heart is so
deep and so sore that I dread the dressings, even by your delicate
touch. Where was I? Ah, the porridge gave me my loophole of escape.
Well, as I was saying, Jane grows worn and thin, old Margery's porridge
notwithstanding; but Nurse Rosemary Gray is flourishing, and remains a
pretty, dainty little thing, with the additional charm of fluffy,
fly-away floss-silk, for hair,--Dr. Rob's own unaided contribution to
the fascinating picture. By the way, I was quite unprepared to find him
such a character. I learn much from Dr. Mackenzie, and I love Dr. Rob,
excepting on those occasions when I long to pick him up by the scruff
of his fawn overcoat and drop him out of the window.

On the point of Nurse Rosemary's personal appearance, I found it best
to be perfectly frank with the household. You can have no conception
how often awkward moments arose; as, for instance, in the library, the
first time Garth came downstairs; when he ordered Simpson to bring the
steps for Miss Gray, and Simpson opened his lips to remark that Nurse
Gray could reach to the to