"She will not be here, McNab. She will not be asked."
McNab snapped her fingers. "'Asked,' is it? She will walk into this house as if it was her ain. 'It is my son's house,' she will say, and then she'll proceed to use her son's house as if the de'il had sent her to destroy everything that belongs to other folk; and day and night she'll make quarrelling and misery. That's Mrs. Traquair Campbell's way, and the hale o' her brood is like her."
"Now, McNab, you know Mr. Robert Campbell is very different. You must not speak ill of my husband."
"No, ma'am. There's two Robert Campbells. Ane o' them is weel worth the love you're giving him; the other is like the auld man that tormented the Saints themsel's. He'll get kicked out some day, nae doubt o' it."
"Mr. Campbell told me he had given you a holiday until the first of September. He spoke very well of you."
"I have had mair holiday than I want now."
"Where were you?"
"I was in Edinburgh, seeing the world and the ways o' it."
"What did you think of the world and its ways?"
"I dinna think them fit to talk about. I'll go now, and give things a bit sort up. I'll warrant them requiring the same."