She took a piece, instantly spat it out into her hand, and with more energy than delicacy flung it into the fire.
“Augh!” cried she, “just a sugar and saut butter thegither; buy nae mair at yon shoep, vile count.”
“Try this, out of Nature's shop,” laughed their entertainer; and he offered them, himself, some peaches and things.
“Hech! a medi—cine!” said Christie.
“Nature, my lad,” said Miss Carnie, making her ivory teeth meet in their first nectarine, “I didna ken whaur ye stoep, but ye beat the other confectioners, that div ye.”
The fair lass, who had watched the viscount all this time as demurely as a cat cream, now approached him.
This young woman was the thinker; her voice was also rich, full, and melodious, and her manner very engaging; it was half advancing, half retiring, not easy to resist or to describe.
“Noo,” said she, with a very slight blush stealing across her face, “ye maun let me catecheeze ye, wull ye?”
The last two words were said in a way that would have induced a bear to reveal his winter residence.
He smiled assent. Saunders retired to the door, and, excluding every shade of curiosity from his face, took an attitude, half majesty, half obsequiousness.