us!« which, by those who knew him, was considered as a very unusual mark
of emotion. From that moment forward Dumbiedikes became an altered man, and the
regularity of his movements, hitherto so exemplary, was as totally disconcerted
as those of a boy's watch when he has broken the main-spring. Like the index of
the said watch did Dumbiedikes spin round the whole bounds of his little
property, which may be likened unto the dial of the timepiece, with unwonted
velocity. There was not a cottage into which he did not enter, nor scarce a
maiden on whom he did not stare. But so it was, that although there were better
farm-houses on the land than Woodend, and certainly much prettier girls than
Jeanie Deans, yet it did somehow befall that the blank in the Laird's time was
not so pleasantly filled up as it had been. There was no seat accommodated him
so well as the »bunker« at Woodend and no face he loved so much to gaze on as
Jeanie Deans's. So, after spinning round and round his little orbit, and then
remaining stationary for a week, it seems to have occurred to him that he was
not pinned down to circulate on a pivot, like the hands of the watch, but
possessed the power of shifting his central point, and extending his circle if
he thought proper. To realise which privilege of change of place, he bought a
pony from a Highland drover, and with its assistance and company stepped, or
rather stumbled, as far as Saint Leonard's Crags.
    Jeanie Deans, though so much accustomed to the Laird's staring that she was
sometimes scarce conscious of his presence, had nevertheless some occasional
fears lest he should call in the organ of speech to back those expressions of
admiration which he bestowed on her through his eyes. Should this happen,
farewell, she thought, to all chance of a union with Butler. For her father,
however stout-hearted and independent in civil and religious principles, was not
without that respect for the laird of the land, so deeply imprinted on the
Scottish tenantry of the period. Moreover, if he did not positively dislike
Butler, yet his fund of carnal learning was often the object of sarcasms on
David's part, which were perhaps founded in jealousy, and which certainly
indicated no partiality for the party against whom they were launched. And
lastly, the match with Dumbiedikes would have presented irresistible charms to
one who used to complain that he felt himself apt to take »ower grit an armfu'
o' the