z. And when Gourlay yelled his loud welcome to that grimy object,
what he wanted to convey to the two girls was: "Ho, ho, my pretty
misses, I'm on bowing terms with you, and yet when I might go up and
speak to ye, I prefer to go off and drink with a sweep, d'ye see? That
shows what I think o' ye!" All that summer John took an oblique revenge
on those who had disconsidered the Gourlays, but would have liked to
make up to him now when they thought he was going to do well--he took a
paltry revenge by patently rejecting their advances and consorting
instead, and in their presence, with the lowest of low company. Thus he
vented a spite which he had long cherished against them for their former
neglect of Janet and him. For though the Gourlay children had been
welcome at well-to-do houses in the country, their father's unpopularity
had cut them off from the social life of the town. When the Provost gave
his grand spree on Hogmanay there was never an invitation for the
Gourlay youngsters. The slight had rankled in the boy's mind. Now,
however, some of the local bigwigs had an opinion (with very little to
support it) that he was going to be a successful man, and they showed a
disposition to be friendly. John, with a rankling memory of their former
coldness, flouted every overture, by letting them see plainly that he
preferred to their company that of Swipey Broon, Jock M'Craw, and every
ragamuffin of the town. It was a kind of back-handed stroke at them.
That was the paltry form which his father's pride took in him. He did
not see that he was harming himself rather than his father's enemies.
Harm himself he did, for you could not associate with Jock M'Craw and
the like without drinking in every howff you came across.

When the bodies assembled next day for their "morning," the Deacon was
able to inform them that young Gourlay was back from the College, dafter
than ever, and that he had pulled his leg as far as he wanted it. "Oh,"
he said, "I played him like a kitten wi' a cork, and found out ainything
and everything I wished. I dithcovered that he's in wi' Jock Allan and
that crowd--I edged the conversation round on purpoth! Unless he wath
blowing his trump--which I greatly doubt--they're as thick as thieveth.
Ye ken what that meanth. He'll turn hith wee finger to the ceiling
oftener than he puts hith forefinger to the pen, I'm thinking. It
theemth he drinkth enormuth! He took a gey nip last thummer, and this
thummer I wager he t