There are so many pretty little houses in Priorsford, and so many kind and forthcoming landladies, it was bad luck that she should choose Hillview and Bella Bathgate.

Bella is almost like a stage-caricature of a Scotswoman, so dour she is and uncompromising and she positively glories in the drab ugliness of her rooms.

Ugliness means to Bella respectability; any attempt at adornment is 'daft-like.' "Pamela (she has asked me to call her that) trembles before her, and that makes Bella worse.

She wants someone to stand up to her, to laugh at her grimness; she simply thinks when Pamela is charming to her that she is a poor creature.
"She is charming to everyone, this lodger of Bella's.

Jock and Mhor and Mrs.M'Cosh are all at her feet.