Eliza Margaret Jane Humphreys

“ She's too much taken up with hersel' altogether, and has a pert masterful way with her that is not respectful to an elder relative. And she would not hold with the alterations I've made, nor see that the old man is all the better for having his whisky neither so strong, nor so often. His brain is too excitable now, and had it not been for my own thought o' keeping the half of every bottle to myself, and just helping out his share with the water-bottle, I'm not sure but that his mind would have gone altogether. ”

“ The autumn of life is aye the sensible time for settling down .... when the brae grows steep to climb, and the evenings are long and lonely. We could aye pass our days very comfortably, I'm thinking. But it would not be wise to let Margaret come here — not yet. ”

“ All the same, I hae a strong mistrust o' ye, Mistress Macpherson, though I'll keep my ain counsel aboot it."
She went down-stairs again. Perhaps it was as well she could not see behind that locked door.
Catherine Macpherson was sitting on the floor of her room, surveying her slippered feet with a foolish smile.
"Maybe it's corns," she said to herself. "They seem sadly out of control. They will not go the way I want them. It's not my head . . . that is as clear and as steady as . . . the little man's own. It is a very singular occurrence. ”