“So’s the polecat till the fox meets him. Tuts, man, you have a singular jealousy of the creature.”
“Since the first day I saw him.”
John laughed.
“That was in the Provost’s,” quo’ he, and he hummed a song I caught the meaning of but slightly.
“Wrong, wrong!” said I, striding under the trees as we slanted to the right for Tombreck. “His manner is provoking.”
“I’ve seen him polish it pretty well for the ladies.”
“His temper’s always on the boil.”
“Spirit, man; spirit! I like a fellow of warmth now and then.”
“He took it most ungraciously when we put him out of the Provost’s house on the night of the squabble in the town.”
“It was an awkward position he was in. I’d have been a bit black-browed about it myself,” said John. “Man! it’s easy to pick holes in the character of an unfriend, and you and MacLachlan are not friendly, for one thing that’s not his fault any more than yours.”