Mary, glad of a pretence to in indulge the mirth the old lady's manner and appearance had excited, joined most heartily in the laugh.
"Tak. aff ye're bannet, bairn, an' let me see ye're face. Wha can tell what like ye are wi' that snule o' a thing on ye're head?" Then after taking an accurate survey of her face, she pushed aside her pelisse." Weel, it's ae mercy, I see ye hae neither the red heed nor the muckle cuits o' the Douglases. I ken nae whuther ye're faither had them or no. I ne'er set een on him; neither him nor his braw leddie thought it worth their while to speer after me; but I was at nae loss, by aw accounts."
"You have not asked after any of your Glenfern friends," said Mr.
Douglas, hoping to touch a more sympathetic chord.
"Time eneugh. Wull ye let me draw my breath, man? Fowk canna say awthing at ance. An' ye bute to hae an Inglish wife tu; a Scotch lass wad nae serr ye. An' ye're wean, I'se warran', it's ane o' the warld's wonders; it's been unco lang o' cummin—he, he!"
"He has begun life under very melancholy auspices, poor fellow!" said
Mr. Douglas, in allusion to his father's death.
"An' wha's faut was that? I ne'er heard tell the like o't; to hae the bairn kirsened an' its grandfather deein! But fowk are naither born, nor kirsened, nor do they wad or dee as they used to du—-awthing's changed."
"You must, indeed, have witnessed many changes," observed Mr. Douglas, rather at a loss how to utter anything of a conciliatory nature.
"Changes!—weel a wat, I sometimes wonder if it's the same warld, an' if it's my ain heed that's upon my shoothers."
"But with these changes you must also have seen many improvements?" said Mary, in a tone of diffidence.
"Impruvements!" turning sharply round upon her; "what ken ye about impruvements, bairn? A bony impruvement or ens no, to see tyleyors and sclaters leavin whar I mind jewks an yerls. An' that great glowrin' new toon there"—pointing out of her windows—"whar I used to sit an' luck oot at bonny green parks, and see the coos milket, and the bits o' bairnies rowin' an' tummlin,' an' the lasses trampin i' their tubs—what see I noo, but stane an' lime, an' stoor' an' dirt, an' idle cheels, an' dinket-oot madams prancin'. Impruvements, indeed!"