" Some time after, as the girl was bleaching clothes on
Mauchline green, Robert chanced to go by, still accompanied
by his dog; and the dog, "scouring in long excursion,"
scampered with four black paws across the linen. This
brought the two into conversation; when Jean, with a somewhat
hoydenish advance, inquired if "he had yet got any of the
lasses to like him as well as his dog?"
It is one of the misfortunes of the professional Don Juan
that his honour forbids him to refuse battle; he is in life
like the Roman soldier upon duty, or like the sworn physician
who must attend on all diseases. Burns accepted the
provocation; hungry hope reawakened in his heart; here was a
girl - pretty, simple at least, if not honestly stupid, and
plainly not averse to his attentions: it seemed to him once
more as if love might here be waiting him. Had he but known
the truth! for this facile and empty-headed girl had nothing
more in view than a flirtation; and her heart, from the first
and on to the end of her story, was engaged by another man.
Burns once more commenced the celebrated process of
"battering himself into a warm affection;" and the proofs of
his success are to be found in many verses of the period.
Nor did he succeed with himself only; Jean, with her heart
still elsewhere, succumbed to his fascination, and early in
the next year the natural consequence became manifest.
Pages:
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84