To which the General quietly answered, "Oh, it's to turn the muckle D in Dauvid." The ladies of this class had certainly no affectation in speaking of those who came under their displeasure, even when life and death were concerned.

I had an anecdote illustrative of this characteristic in a well-known old lady of the last century, Miss Johnstone of Westerhall.
She had been extremely indignant that, on the death of her brother, his widow had proposed to sell off the old furniture of Westerhall.

She was attached to it from old associations, and considered the parting with it little short of sacrilege.

The event was, however, arrested by death, or, as she describes the result, "The furniture was a' to be roupit, and we couldna persuade her.

But before the sale cam on, in God's gude providence she just clinkit aff hersell." Of this same Miss Johnstone another characteristic anecdote has been preserved in the family.