I could see my Dutchman was extremely suspicious; and viewing me over the rims of a great pair of spectacles--he was a poor, frail body, and reminded me of an infirm rabbit--he began to question me close.
Here I fell in a panic.

Suppose he accept my tale (thinks I), suppose he invite my sister to his house, and that I bring her.

I shall have a fine ravelled pirn to unwind, and may end by disgracing both the lassie and myself.

Thereupon I began hastily to expound to him my sister's character.

She was of a bashful disposition, it appeared, and so extremely fearful of meeting strangers that I had left her at that moment sitting in a public place alone.