She has
refused even to see him; and you know yourself he has not been near
our house for these three weeks."
"Ah, madam, you'll excuse me: but that's the way with that sort
of people, just to draw back and draw back, to make a poor young
gentleman follow them all the keener, as a trout does a minnow, the
faster you spin it."
"I assure you no. I can't let you into ladies' secrets; but there is
no more chance of her listening to him than of me. And as for me, I
have been trying all the spring to marry him to a young lady with
eighty thousand pounds; so you can't complain of me."
"Eh? No. That's more like and fitting."
"Well, now. Tell his lordship that we are coming; and trust us, Mr.
Bowie: we do not look very villainous, do we?"
"Faith, 'deed then, and I suppose not," said Bowie, using the verb
which, in his cautious, Scottish tongue, expresses complete certainty.
The truth is, that Bowie adores both Sabina and her husband, who are,
he says, "just fit to be put under a glass case on the sideboard, like
twa wee china angels."
In half an hour they were in Scoutbush's rooms. They found the little
man lying on his sofa, in his dressing-gown, looking pale and pitiable
enough. He had been trying to read; for the table by him was covered
with books; but either gunnery and mathematics had injured his eyes,
or he had been crying; Sabina inclined to the latter opinion.
"This is very kind of you both; but I don't want you, Claude.
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