The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy
'I'm blithe to hear't,' was the worthy woman's answer, 'for he's an even down Nabal--a perfect penure pig, that I ne'er could abide since he would na lend poor old Mrs. Gorbals, the provost's widow, that, they say, set him up in the world, the sma' soom o' five pounds, to help her wi' the outfit o' her oe, when he was gaun to Virginia, a clerk to Bailie Cross.'     CHAPTER V   When Claud was duly equipped by Cornelius Luke, in the best fashion of that period, for a bien cloth-merchant of the discreet age of forty-seven, a message was sent by his shop lad, Jock Gleg, to Rob Wallace, the horse-couper in the Gallowgate, to have his beast in readiness next morning by seven o'clock, the intending lover having, several days before, bespoke it for the occasion.