"Quite so," replied Donald, unmoved.
"And you answered—'All right. Come on.'"
"That is true."
"Well then?"
"Well, my dear sir, it is all right: you have come—now, you may go."
Like the crow in La Fontaine's fable, Jonathan registered a vow ... but a little late.
"Ah!" cried the Aberdonian who told me the story, "Jonathan will not go back to America to tell his compatriots that he took in a Scotchman." And his eyes gleamed with national pride as he added: "It was no harm to try."
He considered the conduct of the American quite natural, it was clear.
As for me, I thought that "All right—come on," a magnificent example of Scotch diplomacy and humour.