Part 3 (1/2)
”Tell me what you mean by not thanking me,” she insisted.
”They wad be dull thanks, mem, that war thankit afore I kenned what for.”
”For allowing you to carry me ash.o.r.e, of course.”
”Be thankit, mem, wi' a' my hert. Will I gang doon o' my knees?”
”No. Why should you go on your knees?”
”'Cause ye're 'maist ower bonny to luik at stan'in', mem, an' I'm feared for angerin' ye.”
”Don't say ma'am to me.”
”What am I to say, than, mem?--I ask yer pardon, mem.”
”Say my lady. That's how people speak to me.”
”I thocht ye bude (behoved) to be somebody by ordinar', my leddy!
That'll be hoo ye're so terrible bonny,” he returned, with some tremulousness in his tone. ”But ye maun put on yer hose, my leddy, or ye'll get yer feet cauld, and that's no guid for the likes o'
you.”
The form of address she prescribed, conveyed to him no definite idea of rank. It but added intensity to the notion of her being a lady, as distinguished from one of the women of his own condition in life.
”And pray what is to become of you,” she returned, ”with your clothes as wet as water can make them?”
”The saut water kens me ower weel to do me ony ill,” returned the lad. ”I gang weet to the skin mony a day frae mornin' till nicht, and mony a nicht frae nicht till mornin'--at the heerin' fis.h.i.+n', ye ken, my leddy.”
One might well be inclined to ask what could have tempted her to talk in such a familiar way to a creature like him--human indeed, but separated from her by a gulf more impa.s.sable far than that which divided her from the thrones, princ.i.p.alities, and powers of the upper regions? And how is the fact to be accounted for, that here she put out a dainty foot, and reaching for one of her stockings, began to draw it gently over the said foot? Either her sense of his inferiority was such that she regarded his presence no more than that of a dog, or, possibly, she was tempted to put his behaviour to the test. He, on his part, stood quietly regarding the operation, either that, with the instinct of an inborn refinement, he was aware he ought not to manifest more shamefacedness than the lady herself, or that he was hardly more accustomed to the sight of gleaming fish than the bare feet of maidens.
”I'm thinkin', my leddy,” he went on, in absolute simplicity, ”that sma' fut o' yer ain has danced mony a braw dance on mony a braw flure.”
”How old do you take me for then?” she rejoined, and went on drawing the garment over her foot by the shortest possible stages.
”Ye'll no be muckle ower twenty,” he said.
”I'm only sixteen,” she returned, laughing merrily.
”What will ye be or ye behaud!” he exclaimed, after a brief pause of astonishment.
”Do you ever dance in this part of the country?” she asked, heedless of his surprise.
”No that muckle, at least amo' the fisherfowks, excep' it be at a weddin'. I was at ane last nicht.”
”And did you dance?”
”'Deed did I, my leddy. I danced the maist o' the la.s.ses clean aff o' their legs.”
”What made you so cruel?”
”Weel, ye see, mem,--I mean my leddy,--fowk said I was ill aboot the bride; an' sae I bude to dance 't oot o' their heids.”