I loved her just the same."
"But noo that she is hame they tell me that her heid 'tis held perkit and
her speech is high and the polished shell is o'er all."
Stewart looked away from his mother's frank eyes. He was too honest to
argue or dispute. "I love her just the same!"
"She ca'd wi' her father at the mill this day, eh? The guidwife said as
much."
"Aye, in the way o' politeness!" He remembered that the politeness seemed
too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity. "To
see her again is to love her the more," he insisted. "I have never been to
Washington. Probably I'd be able to understand better the manners one is
obliged to put on there, if I had been to Washington. I ought to have gone
there on my vacation, instead of into the woods. I'm afraid I have been
keeping in the woods too much!"
"But did she talk high and flighty to you, bairnie?"
"It meant nowt except it's the way one must talk when great folks stand
near to hear. The Governor was there!" he said, lamely.
"That was unco trouble to mak' for hersel' in the hearing o' that auld
tyke whose tongue is as rough as his gruntle!"
"Still, he's the Governor in spite of his phiz, and that shows her tact in
getting on well with the dignitaries, Jeanie Mac Dougal, and you're a
woman and must praise the wit of the sex.
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