She recommended, and even pressed, what she thought best,
and was herself easily entreated to take a moderate share of the good
cheer, in order to encourage her guests by her own example. Often she
interrupted herself, to express her regret that "my lord did not eat;
that the Master was pyking a bare bane; that, to be sure, there was
naething there fit to set before their honours; that Lord Allan, rest
his saul, used to like a pouthered guse, and said it was Latin for a
tass o' brandy; that the brandy came frae France direct; for, for a' the
English laws and gaugers, the Wolf's Hope brigs hadna forgotten the gate
to Dunkirk."
Here the cooper admonished his mother-in-law with his elbow, which
procured him the following special notice in the progress of her speech:
"Ye needna be dunshin that gate, John [Gibbie]," continued the old lady;
"naebody says that YE ken whar the brandy comes frae; and it wadna be
fitting ye should, and you the Queen's cooper; and what signifies't,"
continued she, addressing Lord Ravenswood, "to king, queen, or kaiser
whar an auld wife like me buys her pickle sneeshin, or her drap
brandy-wine, to haud her heart up?"
Having thus extricated herself from her supposed false step, Dame
Loup-the-Dyke proceeded, during the rest of the evening, to supply, with
great animation, and very little assistance from her guests, the funds
necessary for the support of the conversation, until, declining any
further circulation of their glass, her guests requested her permission
to retire to their apartments.
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