I always feel so safe with her near; she's equal to anything from a burst pipe to a broken arm....

I do hope that landlord of ours in London will never take it into his head to come back and live in Priorsford.

If we had to leave The Rigs and Bella Bathgate I simply don't know what we'd do." "We could easy get a hoose wi' mair conveniences" Mrs.M'Cosh reminded her.

She had laid down the tray again and stood with her hands on her hips and her head on one side, deeply interested "Thae wee new villas in the Langhope Road are a fair treat, wi' a pantry aff the dining-room an' hot and cold everywhere." "_Villas_," said Jean--"hateful new villas! What are conveniences compared to old thick walls and queer windows and little funny stairs?
Besides, The Rigs has a soul." "Oh, mercy!" said Mrs.M'Cosh, picking up the tray and moving at last to the door, "that's fair heathenish!" Jean laughed as the door shut on their retainer, and perched herself on the end of the big old-fashioned sofa drawn up at one side of the fire.
She wore a loose stockinette brown dress and looked rather like a wood elf of sorts with her golden-brown hair and eyes.
"If I were rich," she said, "I would buy an annuity for Mrs.M'Cosh of at least L200 a year.

When you think that she once had a house and a husband, and a best room with an overmantel and a Brussels carpet, and lost them all, and is contented to be a servant to us, with no prospect of anything for her old age but the workhouse or the charity of relations, and keeps cheery and never makes a moan and never loses her interest in things ..." "But you're _not_ rich," said Jock.
"No," said Jean ruefully.