“They worry you, these folk; they come to you with all their clashes. What was it this time? I saw they were stopped by me. It was not that old business,” said Susie, with a blush, “about Johnny Maitland? I thought that was all past and gone.”
“It was not that—it was rather this lady, this English person that stopped all their mouths before you came in. She is a very wyss-like woman, though her manners are strange to me. As I said to your father, she’s well put-on and well looking. Do you like her, Susie?”
“Me! I’ve no occasion not to like her, Mrs Ogilvy.”
“I was not asking that. Do you like her, Susie?”
Upon which Susie began to laugh. “What can I say?—
‘I dinna like ye, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I canna tell.’
I’ve no occasion not to like her. She is always very kind, a little too kind, to me—I am not fond of all that kissing—but it is perhaps just her way. I am not very fond of her, to tell the truth.”
“Nor am I, Susie; but she is maybe well enough if we were not prejudiced.”
“Oh yes, she is well enough,—she is more than that; and papa thinks there is nobody like her,” she added, with a laugh.
“Ah! your papa has an opinion on the subject?”