496 Ifcfnas of tbe 1Rofc, IRffle, anfc 6un 



her that he was not madder than reason ; and when his 

 stay came to an end, her shyness was so far overcome 

 that her father promised he should marry her after a 

 year, if his parents gave their consent." 



As I read of those shy Highland girls 1 recall that 

 exquisite passage in " Eothen " in which Kinglake 

 describes the beautiful wild maidens of Bethlehem, and 

 the one picture is almost as charming as the other. 



The Admiral and his wife were considerably as- 

 tonished when their son returned and calmly informed 

 them that he was engaged to be married to the daughter 

 of a Highland crofter a girl who could not even speak 

 her lover's tongue. But by this time the Admiral had 

 come to regard Tom as a poor, shiftless creature, who 

 would never settle down to any decent, profitable 

 occupation, but must just e'en be allowed to gang 

 his ain gait. So no serious opposition was made to the 

 engagement. Bessie Macgregor was sent to a school 

 at Inverness for eight months to learn English and the 

 simple rules of etiquette, and after that brief probation 

 she became Mrs. Thomas Tod Stoddart. It was a 

 happy marriage, and the handsome Highland lassie was 

 a wife of whom any man might well have been proud. 



They began their married life humbly in furnished 

 lodgings, and then a visit to Kelso decided them to 

 make that their permanent home. Needless to say, the 

 Tweed and the silvery Teviot hard by were the magnets 

 that drew Thomas Tod Stoddart to Kelso and kept him 

 there. Of all its many lovers Tweed has never had 

 one more devoted nor one who has sung its glories in 

 sweeter verse. 



