nd
had the same dispatched, and her breakfast ready, ere I waked her. I was
a little abashed when she came forth in her one habit, and the mud of
the way upon her stockings. By what inquiries I had made, it seemed a
good few days must pass before her mails could come to hand in Leyden,
and it was plainly needful she must have a shift of things. She was
unwilling at first that I should go to that expense; but I reminded her
she was now a rich man's sister and must appear suitably in the part,
and we had not got to the second merchant's before she was entirely
charmed into the spirit of the thing, and her eyes shining. It pleased
me to see her so innocent and thorough in this pleasure. What was more
extraordinary was the passion into which I fell on it myself; being
never satisfied that I had bought her enough or fine enough, and never
weary of beholding her in different attires. Indeed, I began to
understand some little of Miss Grant's immersion in that interest of
clothes; for the truth is, when you have the ground of a beautiful
person to adorn, the whole business becomes beautiful. The Dutch
chintzes I should say were extraordinary cheap and fine; but I would be
ashamed to set down what I paid for stockings to her. Altogether I spent
so great a sum upon this pleasuring (as I may call it) that I was
ashamed for a great while to spend more; and by way of a set off, I left
our chambers pretty bare. If we had beds, if Catriona was a little braw,
and I had light to see her by, we were richly enough lodged for me.

By the end of this merchandising I was glad to leave her at the door
with all our purchases, and go for a long walk alone in which to read
myself a lecture. Here had I taken under my roof, and as good as to my
bosom, a young lass extremely beautiful, and whose innocence was her
peril. My talk with the old Dutchman, and the lies to which I was
constrained, had already given me a sense of how my conduct must appear
to others; and now, after the strong admiration I had just experienced
and the immoderacy with which I had continued my vain purchases, I began
to think of it myself as very hasarded. I bethought me, if I had a
sister indeed, whether I would so expose her; then, judging the case too
problematical, I varied my question into this, whether I would so trust
Catriona in the hands of any other Christian being: the answer to which
made my face to burn. The more cause, since I had been entrapped and had
entrappe