Miss Taylor: A very dangerous young man, and with those eyes too.
The Duchess: Nonsense, Martha. You needn’t alarm yourself.
Miss Taylor: Well, I shouldn’t like to be alone with him.
The Duchess: I am sure he would be discreet. I think you’re a very lucky woman, Mrs. Stewart. I wish Mr. Burns would write poems to me. My husband says there’s never been such a natural genius in Scotland before.
Mrs. Montgomery: Oh, come now. For an uncultivated talent it is pretty well, we may allow. But we must not turn his head.
Miss Taylor: I entirely agree with you, Mrs. Montgomery. Most unsafe.
Mrs. Stewart: I wonder he hasn’t married.
Mrs. Montgomery: Oh, my dear, haven’t you heard of the scandal in his own village? It would have been jail I’m told if it hadn’t been for some Mr. Gavin Hamilton who took a fancy to him. But I believe he has several families.
Miss Taylor: I really don’t think we ought to encourage him. And one of his poems, I hear, is quite friendly to the Devil.
The Duchess: