The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

tive; or must she turn back, and solicit her father for
money? and by doing so lose time, which was precious,
besides the risk of encountering his positive prohibition
respecting the journey! Yet she saw no medium between
these alternatives; and, while she walked slowly on, was
still meditating whether it were not better to return.
While she was thus in an uncertainty, she heard the
clatter of a horse’s hoofs, and a well-known voice calling
her name. She looked round, and saw advancing towards
her on a pony, whose bare back and halter assorted ill
with the nightgown, slippers, and laced cocked-hat of the
rider, a cavalier of no less importance than Dumbiedikes
himself. In the energy of his pursuit, he had overcome
even the Highland obstinacy of Rory Bean, and compelled
that self-willed palfrey to canter the way his rider
chose; which Rory, however, performed with all the symptoms
of reluctance, turning his head, and accompanying
every bound he made in advance with a sidelong motion,
which indicated his extreme wish to turn round,—a manoeuvre
which nothing but the constant exercise of the
Laird’s heels and cudgel could possibly have counteracted.
The Heart of Mid-Lothian
326
When the Laird came up with Jeanie, the first words
he uttered were,— “Jeanie, they say ane shouldna aye
take a woman at her first word?”
“Ay, but ye maun take me at mine, Laird,” said Jeanie,
looking on the ground, and walking on without a
pause.— “I hae but ae word to bestow on ony body, and
that’s aye a true ane.”
“Then,” said Dumbiedikes, “at least ye suldna aye take
a man at his first word. Ye maunna gang this wilfu’ gate
sillerless, come o’t what like.”—He put a purse into her
hand. “I wad gie you Rory too, but he’s as wilfu’ as
yoursell, and he’s ower weel used to a gate that maybe
he and I hae gaen ower aften, and he’ll gang nae road
else.”
“But, Laird,” said Jeanie, “though I ken my father
will satisfy every penny of this siller, whatever there’s
o’t, yet I wadna like to borrow it frae ane that maybe
thinks of something mair than the paying o’t back
again.”
“There’s just twenty-five guineas o’t,” said
Dumbiedikes, with a gentle sigh, “and whether your