or'-west, they began to shake out the sails and heave in upon the
anchor.

There were six passengers besides our two selves, which made of it a
full cabin. Three were solid merchants out of Leith, Kirkcaldy, and
Dundee, all engaged in the same adventure into High Germany. One was a
Hollander returning; the rest worthy merchants' wives, to the charge of
one of whom Catriona was recommended. Mrs. Gebbie (for that was her
name) was by great good fortune heavily incommoded by the sea, and lay
day and night on the broad of her back. We were besides the only
creatures at all young on board the _Rose_, except a white-faced boy
that did my old duty to attend upon the table; and it came about that
Catriona and I were left almost entirely to ourselves. We had the next
seats together at the table, where I waited on her with extraordinary
pleasure. On deck, I made her a soft place with my cloak; and the
weather being singularly fine for that season, with bright frosty days
and nights, a steady, gentle wind, and scarce a sheet started all the
way through the North Sea, we sat there (only now and again walking to
and fro for warmth) from the first blink of the sun till eight or nine
at night under the clear stars. The merchants or Captain Sang would
sometimes glance and smile upon us, or pass a merry word or two and give
us the go-by again; but the most part of the time they were deep in
herring and chintzes and linen, or in computations of the slowness of
the passage, and left us to our own concerns, which were very little
important to any but ourselves.

At the first we had a great deal to say, and thought ourselves pretty
witty; and I was at a little pains to be the _beau_, and she (I believe)
to play the young lady of experience. But soon we grew plainer with each
other. I laid aside my high, clipped English (what little there was of
it) and forgot to make my Edinburgh bows and scrapes; she, upon her
side, fell into a sort of kind familiarity; and we dwelt together like
those of the same household, only (upon my side) with a more deep
emotion. About the same time, the bottom seemed to fall out of our
conversation, and neither one of us the less pleased. Whiles she would
tell me old wives' tales, of which she had a wonderful variety, many of
them from my friend red-headed Neil. She told them very pretty, and they
were pretty enough childish tales; but the pleasure to myself was in the
sound of her voice, and the thought that she