Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 4).djvu/173

 dale?—Div I no? Is not my young leddy up by yonder at the house, that's as good as married to him?"

"And are they not married, then?" said the rider, hastily.

"No; only what they ca' betrothed—my wife and I were witnesses—it's no mony months by past—it was a lang courtship—few folk kenn'd the reason by Jenny and mysel.—But will ye no light down? I douna bide to see ye sitting up there, and the clouds are casting up thick in the west ower Glasgow-ward, and maist skeily folk think that bodes rain."

In fact, a deep black cloud had already surmounted the setting sun; a few large drops of rain fell, and the murmurs of distant thunder were heard.

"The de'il's in this man," said Cuddie to himself; "I wish he would either light aff or ride on, that he may quarter himsel in Hamilton or the shower begin."

But the rider sate motionless on his horse for two or three moments after his last