The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

name?—D’ye think his honour has naething else to do
than to speak wi’ ilka idle tramper that comes about
the town, and him in his bed yet, honest man?”
“Dear Mrs. Balchristie,” replied Jeanie, in a submissive
tone, “d’ye no mind me?—d’ye no mind Jeanie
Deans?”
“Jeanie Deans!” said the termagant, in accents affecting
the utmost astonishment; then, taking two strides
nearer to her, she peered into her face with a stare of
curiosity, equally scornful and malignant— “I say Jeanie
Deans indeed—Jeanie Deevil, they had better hae ca’ed
ye!—A bonny spot o’ wark your tittie and you hae made
out, murdering ae puir wean, and your light limmer of
a sister’s to be hanged for’t, as weel she deserves!—And
the like o’ you to come to ony honest man’s house, and
want to be into a decent bachelor gentleman’s room at
this time in the morning, and him in his bed!—Gae wa’,
gae wa’!”
Jeanie was struck mute with shame at the unfeeling
brutality of this accusation, and could not even find
words to justify herself from the vile construction put
The Heart of Mid-Lothian
320
upon her visit. When Mrs. Balchristie, seeing her advantage,
continued in the same tone, “Come, come,
bundle up your pipes and tramp awa wi’ ye!—ye may
be seeking a father to another wean for ony thing I ken.
If it warna that your father, auld David Deans, had
been a tenant on our land, I would cry up the men-folk,
and hae ye dookit in the burn for your impudence.”
Jeanie had already turned her back, and was walking
towards the door of the court-yard, so that Mrs.
Balchristie, to make her last threat impressively audible
to her, had raised her stentorian voice to its utmost pitch.
But, like many a general, she lost the engagement by
pressing her advantage too far.
The Laird had been disturbed in his morning slumbers
by the tones of Mrs. Balchristie’s objurgation,
sounds in themselves by no means uncommon, but very
remarkable, in respect to the early hour at which they
were now heard. He turned himself on the other side,
however, in hopes the squall would blow by, when, in
the course of Mrs. Balchristie’s second explosion of
wrath, the name of Deans distinctly struck the tympa-