"Win! She was won long ago."
"Won—and lost. You will not find this second winning an easy one."
"How do you know so much about her?"
"I knew all about her miserable life, before I knew her; but I finally met her at my friend Oliphant's."
"And it was the Oliphants who told you all her complainings. Mother never trusted them. It seems she was right—as usual."
"The Oliphants told me nothing. I heard all her life with you from my foster-mother, McNab."
"McNab, your foster-mother, David?"
"McNab nursed, and mothered me. She was the only mother I ever had."
"McNab! McNab! Now I begin to understand—and the Oliphants are your friends? And you stayed with them when in Glasgow?"
"Always. John Oliphant and I have been acquainted since we were lads together."