"If ye had eleven an' a bit to fling awa," he said, "ye dinna mean to tell me 'at ye would buy a cloak instead o' cloth for a gown, or flannel for petticoats, or some useful thing?"
"As sure as death," said Jess, with unwonted vehemence, "if a cloak I could get, a cloak I would buy."
Hendry came up to tell me what Jess had said.
"It's a michty infatooation," he said, "but it shows hoo her heart's set on thae cloaks."
"Aince ye had it," he argued with her, "ye would juist hae to lock it awa in the drawers. Ye would never even be seein' 't."
"Ay, would I," said Jess. "I would often tak it oot an' look at it. Ay, an' I would aye ken it was there."
"But naebody would ken ye had it but yersel," said Hendry, who had a vague notion that this was a telling objection.
"Would they no?" answered Jess. "It would be a' through the toon afore nicht."
"Weel, all I can say," said Hendry, "is 'at ye're terrible foolish to tak the want o' sic a useless thing to heart."
"Am no takkin' 't to heart," retorted Jess, as usual.