could get no answer out
of him.

Jim Horscroft was at home all that summer, but late in the autumn he
went back to Edinburgh again for the winter session, and as he intended
to work very hard and get his degree next spring if he could, he said
that he would bide up there for the Christmas. So there was a great
leave-taking between him and Cousin Edie; and he was to put up his plate
and to marry her as soon as he had the right to practise. I never knew
a man love a woman more fondly than he did her, and she liked him well
enough in a way--for, indeed, in the whole of Scotland she would not
find a finer looking man--but when it came to marriage, I think she
winced a little at the thought that all her wonderful dreams should end
in nothing more than in being the wife of a country surgeon. Still
there was only me and Jim to choose out of, and she took the best of us.

Of course there was de Lapp also; but we always felt that he was of an
altogether different class to us, and so he didn't count. I was never
very sure at that time whether Edie cared for him or not. When Jim was
at home they took little notice of each other. After he was gone they
were thrown more together, which was natural enough, as he had taken up
so much of her time before. Once or twice she spoke to me about de Lapp
as though she did not like him, and yet she was uneasy if he were not in
in the evening; and there was no one so fond of his talk, or with so
many questions to ask him, as she. She made him describe what queens
wore, and what sort of carpets they walked on, and whether they had
hairpins in their hair, and how many feathers they had in their hats,
until it was a wonder to me how he could find an answer to it all.
And yet an answer he always had; and was so ready and quick with his
tongue, and so anxious to amuse her, that I wondered how it was that she
did not like him better.

Well, the summer and the autumn and the best part of the winter passed
away, and we were still all very happy together. We got well into the
year 1815, and the great Emperor was still eating his heart out at Elba;
and all the ambassadors were wrangling together at Vienna as to what
they should do with the lion's skin, now that they had so fairly hunted
him down. And we in our little corner of Europe went on with our petty
peaceful business, looking after the sheep, attending the Berwick cattle
fairs, and chatting at night round the blazing peat fire. We ne