Martha Spreull: being chapters in the life of a single wumman

34
MARTHA SPREULL.
CHAPTER VI.
“WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK.”
A YIN G let my rooms in
George Street to a decent
tyler body wi’ a guid gaun
business, I flitted to a
boose o’ four rooms an’
kitchen i’ the West-en’. I
took this step pairtly under
the advice o’ Maister
Fleming, wha said I could
afford to leeve in a genteel
locality, an’ pairtly because
I wud be better able to owertake the work o’ the bursary
minted in a former chapter, from being within easy reach o’
the College. But let me tell ye first and foremost, when it got
to the public ear that I meant to found a bursary, the thing
raised an uncommon soogh, insomuch that it caused some
tongues to wag at the rate o’ nae allooance. I found this oot
in a gey simple and natural wye. A few days efter the bur¬
sary business wis settled atween Maister Fleming an’ mysel’,
I inveeted my auld freen’ an’ neebor Mrs. Warnock—wife o’
the pastry baker o’ that name in George Street—to come west
and tak’ a cup o’ tea wi’ me, an’ gie me the news.
Bein’ the first time Mrs. Warnock had been in my new
hoose, and as she wis sairly troubled wi’ cauld feet, I gied her a