The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

“And from me.” “And from me.” “And from me,
Jeanie,” added the young ladies one after the other, “for
you are a credit to the land we love so well.”
Jeanie, overpowered by these unexpected compliments,
and not aware that the Duke’s investigation had
made him acquainted with her behaviour on her sister’s
trial, could only answer by blushing, and courtesying
round and round, and uttering at intervals, “Mony
thanks! mony thanks!”
“Jeanie,” said the Duke, “you must have doch an’
dorroch, or you will be unable to travel.”
There was a salver with cake and wine on the table.
He took up a glass, drank “to all true hearts that lo’ed
Scotland,” and offered a glass to his guest.
Jeanie, however, declined it, saying, “that she had
never tasted wine in her life.”
“How comes that, Jeanie?” said the Duke,— “wine
maketh glad the heart, you know.”
“Ay, sir, but my father is like Jonadab the son of
Rechab, who charged his children that they should drink
no wine.”
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“I thought your father would have had more sense,”
said the Duke, “unless indeed he prefers brandy. But,
however, Jeanie, if you will not drink, you must eat, to
save the character of my house.”
He thrust upon her a large piece of cake, nor would he
permit her to break off a fragment, and lay the rest on
a salver.
“Put it in your pouch, Jeanie,” said he; “you will be
glad of it before you see St. Giles’s steeple. I wish to
Heaven I were to see it as soon as you! and so my best
service to all my friends at and about Auld Reekie, and
a blithe journey to you.”
And, mixing the frankness of a soldier with his natural
affability, he shook hands with his prote’ge’e, and
committed her to the charge of Archibald, satisfied that
he had provided sufficiently for her being attended to
by his domestics, from the unusual attention with which
he had himself treated her.
Accordingly, in the course of her journey, she found
both her companions disposed to pay her every possible
civility, so that her return, in point of comfort and safety,