"The Erinnys?" Strickland laid down the pen and turned in his chair.
"I'll have to think a moment, to get it straight for you, Jamie....
The Erinnys are the Fates as avengers. They are the vengeance-demanding
part of ourselves objectified, supernaturalized, and named. Of old,
where injury was done, the Erinnys were at hand to pull the roof down
upon the head of the injurer. Their office was to provide unerringly
sword for sword, bitter cup for bitter cup. They never forgot, they
always avenged, though sometimes they took years to do it. They
esteemed themselves, and were esteemed, essential to the moral order.
They are the dark and bitter extreme of justice, given power by the
imagination.... Do you think that you know the chapter now?"

Jamie achieved his recitation, and then was set to mathematics. The
tutor's quill drove on across the page. He looked up.

"Mr. Touris has come to Black Hill?"

Jamie and Alice worshiped interruptions.

"He has twenty carriers bringing fine things all the time--"

"Mother is going to take me when she goes to see Mrs. Alison, his
sister--"

"He is going to spend money and make friends--"

"Mother says Mrs. Alison was most bonny when she was young, but
England may have spoiled her--"