David meekly withdrew.
"We were in seeing the Browns," said Rachel complacently. "They were wanting us to stay to tea."
"Ay! I've no' seen them this mony a day."
"How is he getting on, do you know, in the way of business?" asked Mr Hogg.
Auntie Bell brought the palm of her hand emphatically down on the table.
"A' thing i' that shop is guid," she said. "I'm perfectly convinced o' that; but ye can get things a deal cheaper i' the toon nor ye can wi' Maister Brown, an' folks think o' naething but that. I aye deal wi' him mysel'. He haena just a gift for the shop-keepin', but he's been mair wise-like lately, less taen up wi' his butterflies an' things."
Before her visitors had finished tea, Auntie Bell was hard at work, in spite of a mild remonstrance from Rachel, packing a fat duck and some new-laid eggs for them to take home with them. Something of the kind was the invariable termination of Rachel's visits, but she would not have thought it "manners" to accept the basket without a good deal of pressing.
Mr Hogg was beginning to get impatient before the "ladies" rose to go.
"I'll see ye intae the cairt," said Auntie Bell to Mona, when the first farewells had been said, "Rachel'll come whan she gits on her bannet."
As soon as they were in the garden, the old woman laid her hand impressively on Mona's arm.