 music-house, or dancing-house - nae Sabbath-breaker
- nae imposer of aiths, or bonds, or denier of liberty to the flock. - He clave
to the warld, and the warld's gear, a wee ower muckle, but then there was some
breathing of a gale upon his spirit,« etc. etc. All this honest Davie said and
believed.
    It is not to be supposed, that, by a father and a man of sense and
observation, the constant direction of the Laird's eyes towards Jeanie was
altogether unnoticed. This circumstance, however, made a much greater impression
upon another member of his family, a second helpmate, to wit, whom he had chosen
to take to his bosom ten years after the death of his first. Some people were of
opinion, that Douce Davie had been rather surprised into this step, for, in
general, he was no friend to marriages or giving in marriage, and seemed rather
to regard that state of society as a necessary evil, - a thing lawful, and to be
tolerated in the imperfect state of our nature, but which clipped the wings with
which we ought to soar upwards, and tethered the soul to its mansion of clay,
and the creature-comforts of wife and bairns. His own practice, however, had in
this material point varied from his principles, since, as we have seen, he twice
knitted for himself this dangerous and ensnaring entanglement.
    Rebecca, his spouse, had by no means the same horror of matrimony, and as
she made marriages in imagination for every neighbour round, she failed not to
indicate a match betwixt Dumbiedikes and her step-daughter Jeanie. The goodman
used regularly to frown and pshaw whenever this topic was touched upon, but
usually ended by taking his bonnet and walking out of the house, to conceal a
certain gleam of satisfaction, which, at such a suggestion, involuntarily
diffused itself over his austere features.
    The more youthful part of my readers may naturally ask, whether Jeanie Deans
was deserving of this mute attention of the Laird of Dumbiedikes; and the
historian, with due regard to veracity, is compelled to answer, that her
personal attractions were of no uncommon description. She was short, and rather
too stoutly made for her size, had grey eyes, light coloured hair, a round
good-humoured face, much tanned with the sun, and her only peculiar charm was an
air of inexpressible serenity, which a good conscience, kind feelings, contented
temper, and the regular discharge of all her duties, spread over her features.
