'Ou, he just stared at the young leddies very keen-like, and asked
if it was for certain that the marriage was to be between Miss
Mannering and young Hazlewood; and I answered him that it was for
positive and absolute certain, as I had an undoubted right to say
sae; for my third cousin Jean Clavers (she's a relation o' your
ain, Mr. Glossin, ye wad ken Jean lang syne?), she's sib to the
housekeeper at Woodbourne, and she's tell'd me mair than ance that
there was naething could be mair likely.'

'And what did the stranger say when you told him all this?' said
Glossin.

'Say?' echoed the postilion, 'he said naething at a'; he just
stared at them as they walked round the loch upon the ice, as if
he could have eaten them, and he never took his ee aff them, or
said another word, or gave another glance at the bonspiel, though
there was the finest fun amang the curlers ever was seen; and he
turned round and gaed aff the loch by the kirkstile through
Woodbourne fir-plantings, and we saw nae mair o' him.'

'Only think,' said Mrs. Mac-Candlish, 'what a hard heart he maun
hae had, to think o' hurting the poor young gentleman in the very
presence of the leddy he was to be married to!'

'O, Mrs. Mac-Candlish,' said Glossin, 'there's been many cases
such as that on the record; doubtless he was seeking revenge where
it would be deepest and sweetest.'

'God pity us!' said Deacon Bearcliff, 'we're puir frail creatures