many a year.'

'Still, there is no denying that Jess had the same ambition.'

'She had, but to her two-roomed house she had to stick all her born
days. Was that like me?'

'No, but she wanted - '

'She wanted, and I wanted, but I got and she didna. That's the
difference betwixt her and me.'

'If that is all the difference, it is little credit I can claim for
having created her.'

My mother sees that I need soothing. 'That is far from being all
the difference,' she would say eagerly. 'There's my silk, for
instance. Though I say it mysel, there's not a better silk in the
valley of Strathmore. Had Jess a silk of any kind - not to speak
of a silk like that?'

'Well, she had no silk, but you remember how she got that cloak
with beads.'

'An eleven and a bit! Hoots, what was that to boast of! I tell
you, every single yard of my silk cost - '

'Mother, that is the very way Jess spoke about her cloak!'

She lets this pass, perhaps without hearing it, for solicitude