som,
and endeavouring to appear as unconcerned as before--"Hoot, Jock," was
her reply, "what need I promise?--though I were to mak twenty
promises, ye ken brawly that ye would just rin awa and leave me, to
follow the first bonny lass ye saw, at the next market or the next
tent-preachin; and then, _guid-day to ye, Nelly_."

These words, though apparently intended to discourage Jock in his
suit, were spoken in such a manner as to produce a quite contrary
effect. We need not, however, repeat his vows and promises, and the
solemn oaths with which he confirmed them: they were such as have been
a thousand times made, and, sad to say, nearly as often broken, upon
similar occasions. But when they were concluded, though Nelly did not
speak, she _looked_ a promise which, to Jock, was satisfactory! She
also allowed him to have a kiss without the customary battle, or, at
least, without a battle of the customary length; and for what remained
of that and the two following days, though she was three-and-thirty,
she looked almost as young as if she had been only two-and-twenty.

But "pleasures," which everybody now likens to "poppies spread," are,
in most instances, short-lived. On the third day from Abernethy
Market, Betsy Braikens, in returning from Auchtermuchty, whither she
had been on some errand, called at Howdycraigs, "to speer for her
cousin, Sandy Crawford, who was the herd laddie, and to tell Nelly
Kilgour, of whom she had also some acquaintance, that Grizzy Glaiket
had haen a bairn to Geordy Gowkshanks. No ane kenned a single thing
about it afore it cam hame," continued the girl; "and, as he has
naething to enable him to pay for it, and her father is determined no
to let him gang, the folk say that he'll just hae to marry her."

Geordy Gowkshanks was no other than the beau who had been seen
gallanting Lizzie Gimmerton through the market; and Nelly felt a
strange misgiving when she heard his name mentioned in the present
affair, for she doubted not, when matters stood thus, that some
attempt would be forthwith made to recall Jock to his former
allegiance. Nor was she long left in suspense; for Jock himself soon
came in for his dinner, and the girl exclaimed--"Losh, Jock, I'm glad
I've seen ye, for, if ye hadna come in, I would forgotten to tell ye
that I saw Lizzie last nicht, and when I telled her that I was comin
owre here on the morn, and that I would maybe see you, she bade me be
sure to speer if ye had gotten ony fric