Ye must have made a terrible hash of the business, David." "There are whiles that I am of the same mind," said I.
"The strange thing is that ye seem to have a kind of a fancy for her too!" said Alan.
"The biggest kind, Alan," said I, "and I think I'll take it to my grave with me." "Well, ye beat me, whatever!" he would conclude.
I showed him the letter with Catriona's postcript.

"And here again!" he cried.

"Impossible to deny a kind of decency to this Catriona, and sense forby! As for James More, the man's as boss as a drum; he's just a wame and a wheen words; though I'll can never deny that he fought reasonably well at Gladsmuir, and it's true what he says here about the five wounds.

But the loss of him is that the man's boss." "Ye see, Alan," said I, "it goes against the grain with me to leave the maid in such poor hands." "Ye couldnae weel find poorer," he admitted.

"But what are ye to do with it?
It's this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie: The weemenfolk have got no kind of reason to them.