He said it was far ower muckle, but I just laughed, and said wealthy gentlemen like Mr.Sandys couldna be bothered to take back change, so Malcolm could keep what was ower.

Malcolm was the man Esther Auld had just married, and I counted on this maddening her and on Malcolm's spreading the story through the town.

Laddie, I've kent since syne what it is to be without bite or sup, but I've never grudged that siller." The poor woman had halted many times in her tale, and she was glad to make an end.

"You've forgotten what a life he led me in London," she said, "and it could do you no good to hear it, though it might be a lesson to thae lassies at the dancing-school wha think so much o' masterful men.

It was by betting at horseraces that your father made a living, and whiles he was large o' siller, but that didna last, and I question whether he would have stuck to me if I hadna got work.