at Beersheba and
Woodend became strict and intimate, at a very early period, betwixt Reuben
Butler, with whom the reader is already in some degree acquainted, and Jeanie
Deans, the only child of Douce Davie Deans by his first wife, »that singular
Christian woman,« as he was wont to express himself, »whose name was savoury to
all that knew her for a desirable professor, Christian Menzies in Hochmagirdle.«
The manner of which intimacy, and the consequences thereof, we now proceed to
relate.
 

                                 Chapter Eighth

 Reuben and Rachel, though as fond as doves,
 Were yet discreet and cautious in their loves,
 Nor would attend to Cupid's wild commands,
 Till cool reflection bade them join their hands;
 When both were poor, they thought it argued ill
 Of hasty love to make them poorer still.
                                                       Crabbe's Parish Register.
 
While widow Butler and widower Deans struggled with poverty, and the hard and
sterile soil of »those parts and portions« of the lands of Dumbiedikes which it
was their lot to occupy, it became gradually apparent that Deans was to gain the
strife, and his ally in the conflict was to lose it. The former was a man, and
not much past the prime of life - Mrs. Butler a woman, and declined into the
vale of years. This, indeed, ought in time to have been balanced by the
circumstance, that Reuben was growing up to assist his grandmother's labours,
and that Jeanie Deans, as a girl, could be only supposed to add to her father's
burdens. But Douce Davie Deans knew better things, and so schooled and trained
the young minion, as he called her, that from the time she could walk, upwards,
she was daily employed in some task or other, suitable to her age and capacity;
a circumstance which, added to her father's daily instructions and lectures,
tended to give her mind, even when a child, a grave, serious, firm, and
reflecting cast. An uncommonly strong and healthy temperament, free from all
nervous affection and every other irregularity, which, attacking the body in its
more noble functions, so often influences the mind, tended greatly to establish
this fortitude, simplicity, and decision of character.
    On the other hand, Reuben was weak in constitution, and, though not timid in
temper might be safely pronounced anxious, doubtful, and apprehensive. He
partook of the temperament of his mother, who had died of a consumption in early
age. He was a pale, thin, feeble, sickly boy, and somewhat lame,