"I'll make thee speak, with a murrain to thee," muttered Heriot to
himself; and suddenly changing his tone, he said aloud,--"I pray you,
neighbour David, when are you and I to have a settlement for the
bullion wherewith I supplied you to mount yonder hall-clock at
Theobald's, and that other whirligig that you made for the Duke of
Buckingham? I have had the Spanish house to satisfy for the ingots,
and I must needs put you in mind that you have been eight months
behind-hand."
There is something so sharp and _aigre_ in the demand of a peremptory
dun, that no human tympanum, however inaccessible to other tones, can
resist the application. David Ramsay started at once from his reverie,
and answered in a pettish tone, "Wow, George, man, what needs aw this
din about sax score o' pounds? Aw the world kens I can answer aw
claims on me, and you proffered yourself fair time, till his maist
gracious Majesty and the noble Duke suld make settled accompts wi' me;
and ye may ken, by your ain experience, that I canna gang rowting like
an unmannered Highland stot to their doors, as ye come to mine."
Heriot laughed, and replied, "Well, David, I see a demand of money is
like a bucket of water about your ears, and makes you a man of the
world at once. And now, friend, will you tell me, like a Christian
man, if you will dine with me to-morrow at noon, and bring pretty
Mistress Margaret, my god-daughter, with you, to meet with our noble
young countryman, the Lord
of Glenvarloch?"
"The young Lord of Glenvarloch!" said the old mechanist; "wi' aw my
heart, and blithe I will be to see him again.
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