“And what has come over you now?” inquired the minister, in a tone of surprise.
“Oh,” said he, “I ha’e just ta’en a scunner at her.”
And so away they went a second time without being married.
They came back a third time, however, in about a fortnight after, now both thoroughly resolved; but when the minister saw them coming, he hurried downstairs and shut the door, and, returning to his study, cried over the window to them—
“For gudesake, gae awa’ hame, you twa, for I’ve ta’en a scunner at you baith!”
“Eh, minister, I maist think shame to come to ye,” said an old dame, who had sought the clergyman’s offices in this way on four previous occasions.
“What’s the matter, Margaret, that you should think shame to come to me?”
“’Deed, sir, it’s just this, I’m gaun to be married again.”
“Well, Margaret, I do not see that you have any cause for shame in coming to me for such a purpose. Marriage, you know, is honourable in all.”