inevitable, if she had not already gone to the bottom.
"It is near our dinner-time, my dear," said Mrs Bertram to her husband, "will it be long before Mr Kennedy comes back?"
"I expect him every moment, my dear," said the Laird; "perhaps he is bringing some of the officers of the sloop with him."
"My stars, Mr Bertram! why did not ye tell me this before, that we might have had the large round table?—and then, they're a' tired o' salt-meat, and, to tell you the plain truth, a rump of beef is the best part of your dinner—and then I wad have put on another gown, and ye wad na have been the waur o' a clean neck-cloth yoursell—But ye delight in surprising and hurrying one—I am sure I am no to haud out for ever against this sort of going on—But when folk's missed, then they are moaned."
"Pshaw, pshaw, deuce take the beef, and the gown, and the table, and the neck-cloth!—we shall do all very well.—Where's
