The Interloper by Violet Jacob

IF an Englishman's house is his castle, a Scotchman's cottage is his / fortress. The custom prevailing in England by which the upper and / middle classes will walk, uninvited and unabashed, into a poor man's / abode has never been tolerated by the prouder dwellers north of the / Tweed. Here, proximity does not imply familiarity. It is true that the / Englishman, or more probably the Englishwoman, who thus invades the / labouring man's family will often do so on a charitable errand; but, / unless the Scot is already on friendly terms with his superior / neighbour, he neither desires his charity nor his company. Once invited / into the house, his visit will at all times be welcomed; but the / visitor will do well to remember, as he sits in the best chair at the / hearth, that he does so by privilege alone. The ethics of this / difference in custom are not understood by parochial England, though / its results, one would think, are plain enough. Among the working / classes of European nations the Scot is the man who stands most / pre-eminently upon his own feet, and it is likely that the Millennium, / when it dawns, will find him still doing the same thing.

When Granny Stirk, months before, had stood at her door, and cried, / ‘Haste ye back, then,' to Gilbert Speid, she meant what she said, and / was taken at her word, for he returned some days after the roup, and / his visit was the first of many. Her racy talk, her shrewd sense, and / the masterly way in which she dominated her small world pleased him, / and he guessed that her friendship, once given, would be a solid thing. / He had accepted it, and he returned it. She made surprising confidences / and asked very direct questions, in the spring evenings when the light / was growing daily, and he would stroll out to her cottage for half an / hour's talk. She advised him lavishly on every subject, from / underclothing to the choice of a wife and her subsequent treatment, and / from these conversations he learned much of the temper and customs of / those surrounding him.