You know that perfectly well." "What shall I do about it, then ?" "Consult me." "What shall WE do about it ?" "Let Nature have her own way." "I don't believe in Nature." "Don't be profane, Salemina, and don't be unromantic, which is worse; but if you insist, trust in Providence." "I would rather trust Francesca's hard heart." "The hardest hearts melt if sufficient heat be applied.

Did I take you to Newhaven and read you Christie Johnstone on the beach for nought?
Don't you remember Charles Reade said that the Scotch are icebergs, with volcanoes underneath; thaw the Scotch ice, which is very cold, and you shall get to the Scotch fire, warmer than any sun of Italy or Spain.

I think Mr.Macdonald is a volcano." "I wish he were extinct," said Salemina petulantly; "and I wish you wouldn't make me nervous." "If you had any faculty of premonition, you wouldn't have waited for me to make you nervous." "Some people are singularly omniscient." "Others are singularly deficient--" And at this moment Susanna Crum came in to announce Miss Jean Dalziel, who had come to see sights with us.
It was our almost daily practice to walk through the Old Town, and we were now familiar with every street and close in that densely-crowded quarter.

Our quest for the sites of ancient landmarks never grew monotonous, and we were always reconstructing, in imagination, the Cowgate, the Canongate, the Lawnmarket, and the High Street, until we could see Auld Reekie as it was in bygone centuries.

In those days of continual war with England, people crowded their dwellings as near the Castle as possible, so floor was piled upon floor, and flat upon flat, families ensconcing themselves above other families, the tendency being ever skyward.