Our dances at the inn are not like city routs: Petronella, La Tempête, and the reel have still an honored place in them; we think the joy of life is not meant wholly for the young and silly, and so the elderly attend them. We sip claret-cup and tea in the alcove or “adjacent,” and gossip together if our dancing days are done, or sit below the flags and heather, humming “Merrily danced the quaker's wife,” with an approving eye on our bonny daughters. Custom gives the Provost and his lady a place of honor in the alcove behind the music; here is a petty court where the civic spirit pays its devoirs, where the lockets are large and strong, and hair-chains much abound, and mouths before the mellowing midnight hour are apt to be a little mim.
Towards the alcove Ailie—Dan discreetly moving elsewhere—boldly The Macintosh, whose ballooning silk brocade put even the haughtiest of the other dames in shadow. She swam across the floor as if her hoops and not her buckled shoon sustained her, as if she moved on air.
“Dod! here's a character!” said Dr. Brash, pulling down his waistcoat. “Where have the Dyces gotten her?”
“The Ark is landed,” said the Provost's lady. “What a peculiar creature!”
Ailie gravely gave the necessary introductions, and soon the notable Miss Macintosh of Kaims was the lion of the assembly. She flirted most outrageously with the older beaux, sharing roguish smiles and taps of the fan between them, and, compelling unaccustomed gallantries, set their wives all laughing. They drank wine with her in the old style; she met them glass for glass in water.
“And I'll gie ye a toast now,” she said, when her turn came—“Scotland's Rights,” raising her glass of water with a dramatic gesture.
“Dod! the auld body's got an arm on her,” whispered Dr. Brash to Colin Cleland, seeing revealed the pink, plump flesh between the short sleeves and the top of the mittens.
They drank the sentiment—the excuse for the glass was good enough, though in these prosaic days a bit mysterious.
“What are they?” asked the Provost.
“What are what?” said The Macintosh.