Nan laughed, colouring a little.
"Perhaps I should work harder if Uncle David didn't spoil me so. You know he's increased my allowance lately?"
Eliza snorted indignantly.
"I always kent he was mair fulish than maist o' his sex."
"It's rather an endearing kind of foolishness," remarked Sandy.
His mother eyed him sharply.
"We're not put into the world to be endearing," she retorted, "but to do our duty."
"It might be possible to combine both," suggested Sandy.
"Well, you're not the one to do it," she answered grimly. "And what's Penelope doing?" she continued, turning to Nan. "She's more sense than the rest of ye put together, for all she's so daft about music."
"Penelope," said Sandy solemnly, "is preparing to enter upon the duties and privileges of matrimony."