The Leddy made no reply, but her eyes looked unutterable things; and after sitting for some time in that energetic posture of displeasure, she turned round to Robina, and said, with an accent of the most touching sympathy,—
‘Hegh, Beenie! poor lassie! but thou hast ta’en thy sheep to a silly market. A skelp-the-dub creature to upbraid me wi’ his justly dues! But crocodile or croakin-deil, as I should ca’ him, he’ll get his ain justly dues.—Mr. Milrookit o’ Kittlestonheugh, as it’s no the fashion when folk hae recourse to the civil war o’ a law-plea, to stand on a ceremony, maybe ye’ll find some mair pleasant place than this room, an ye were to tak the pains to gang to the outside o’ my door; and I’ll send, through the instrumentality o’ a man o’ business, twa lines anent that bit sma’ matter for bed, board, and washing due to me for and frae that time, when, ye ken, Mr. Milrookit, ye had na ae stiver to keep yourself and your wife frae starvation.—So out o’ my house, and daur no longer to pollute my presence, ye partan-handit, grip-and-haud smiddy-vice Mammon o’ unrighteousness.’
After this gentle hint, as the Leddy afterwards called it, Milrookit and Robina hastily obeyed her commands, and returned to their carriage; but before driving home, he thought it necessary, under the menace he had received, to take the advice of his lawyer, Mr. Pitwinnoch. Some trifling affairs, however, prevented him from driving immediately to his office, and the consequence was, that the Leddy, who never allowed the grass to grow in her path, was there before him.
CHAPTER XCII
‘Mr. Pitwinnoch,’ said the Leddy, on being shown into what she called ‘the bottomless pit o’ his consulting-room,’ where he wrote alone,—‘ye’ll be surprised to see me, and troth ye may think it’s no sma’ instancy that has brought me sae far afield the day; for I hae been sic a lamiter with the rheumateese, that, for a’ the last week, I was little better than a nymph o’ anguish; my banes were as sair as if I had been brayed in a mortar, and shot into Spain. But ye maun know and understand, that I hae a notion to try my luck and fortune in the rowley-powley o’ a law-plea.’
‘Indeed!’ said the lawyer. ‘What has happened?’
‘Aye! Mr. Pitwinnoch, ye may weel speer; but my twa ungrateful grandchildren, that I did sae muckle for at their marriage, hae used me waur than I were a Papistical Jew o’ Jericho. I just, in my civil and discreet manner, was gi’en them a delicate memento mori concerning their unsettled count for bed, board, and washing; when up got Milrookit, as if he would hae flown out at the broad side o’ the house, and threepit that he didna owe me the tenth part o’ half a farthing; and threatened to tak me afore the Lords for a Canaanitish woman, and an extortioner.—Noo, don’t you think that’s a nice point, as my worthy father used to say, and music to the ears of a’ the Fifteen at Embrough?’
‘Mr. Milrookit, surely,’ said the lawyer, ‘can never resist so just a demand. How much is it?’
‘But, first and forwards,’ replied the Leddy, ‘before we come to the condescendence, I should state the case; and, Mr. Pitwinnoch, ye maun understand that I hae some knowledge o’ what pertains to law, for my father was most extraordinare at it; and so I need not tell you, that it’s weel for me the day to know what I know. For Milrookit, as I was saying, having refused, point-blank, Mr. Pitwinnoch, to implement the ’nuity of fifty pounds per annus, that your client—(that’s a legal word, Mr. Pitwinnoch)—that your client settled on my gude-dochter, I told him he would—then and there refusing—be bound over to pay me for the bed, board, and washing. And what would ye think, Mr. Pitwinnoch? he responded, with a justly due,—but I’ll due him; and though, had he been calm and well-bred, I might have put up with ten pounds; yet, seeing what a ramping lion he made himsel, I’ll no faik a farthing o’ a thousand, which, at merchants’ interest, will enable me to pay the ’nuity. So, when we get it, ye’ll hae to find me somebody willing to borrow on an heritable bond.’
‘I think you can hardly expect so much as a thousand pounds. If I recollect rightly, Mr. and Mrs. Milrookit stayed but six weeks with you,’ said the lawyer.