What airs in dress and gait wad leave us, and e’en devotion.”
And none knew whether the shaft was pointed at them or at the object of their mirth, who stood before him with clasped hands and a smile meant to be winning on her weak face, listening with all her senses.
“How true that is,” murmured Lady Glencairn.
“Yes, indeed,” sighed Eppy soulfully. “What fools some people make of themselves, and they never know it, which is the funny part of it.” She darted a quick glance at Lady Glencairn, who returned the look calmly and evenly, although she was saying to herself, “Is she the fool she appears, or is she giving me a dig, I wonder?”
She turned to Robert. “Mr. Burns, will you find me a chair, please; I am rather fatigued, standing so long.”
He offered her his arm. “It will be rather a difficult matter,” he observed, looking about him vainly. “Still, I can try.” And he moved through the swaying crowd and out upon the balcony, with her little gloved hand resting lightly on his coat sleeve.
“I saw you this morning, Mr. Burns, on Calton Hill,” she observed lightly, “but at a distance. Upon driving nearer I lost sight of you; you must have vanished into the air.”
“Not at all,” replied Robert, sitting beside her on the low balustrade. “I found a beautiful solitude amongst a luxuriant growth of willows, which no doubt you overlooked.”
“To be sure,” she returned. “Now I remember. A sad scene occurred there a few years ago; a lady from Loch Carron drowned herself in the little pond they hang over, because the man she loved despised her.” Her voice was soft and low. She drooped her eyes and sighed.