"Is this all the welcome I am to get?" said I, holding out my hand. "And have you no more memory of old friends?"
"Keep me! wha's this of it?" she cried, and then, "God's truth, it's the tautit [19] laddie!"
"The very same," says I.
"Mony's the time I've thocht upon you and your [pg 256] freen, and blythe am I to see in your braws," [20] she cried. "Though I kent ye were come to your ain folk by the grand present that ye sent me and that I thank ye for with a' my heart."
"There," said Miss Grant to me, "run out by with ye, like a good bairn. I didnae come here to stand and hand a candle; it's her and me that are to crack."
I suppose she stayed ten minutes in the house, but when she came forth I observed two things--that her eyes were reddened, and a silver brooch was gone out
