He was accustomed to, and often rather amused by his cousin's honest worldliness and outspoken skepticisms--that candid confession of badness which always inclines a kindly heart to believe the very best of the penitent.
"Nevertheless, though Miss Cardross may be 'no bonnie,' and too good to please your taste, I hope you will go often to the Manse in my absence, and write me word how they are, otherwise I shall hear little--the minister's letters are too voluminous to be frequent--and Miss Cardross is not given to much correspondence." Captain Bruce promised, and again the two young men sat silent, listening to the eerie howling of the wind.

It inclined both of them to graver talk than was their habit when together.
"I wonder," said the earl, "whether this blast, according to popular superstition, is come to carry many souls away with it 'on the wings of the wind!' Where will they fly to the instant they leave the body?
How free and happy they must feel!" "What an odd fancy! And not a particularly pleasant one," replied the captain, with a shiver.
"Not unpleasant, to my mind.

I like to think of these things.

If I were out of the body, I should, if I could fly back to Cairnforth." "Pray don't imagine such dreadful things.

May you live a hundred years!" "Not quite, I hope.