noon
I could march four miles for his one , and learn him the A B _ ab _ of every manly art . '' `` I like you fine , man , '' I cried ; `` I would sooner go tramping the glens with you any day than Master Gordon ; but that 's a weakness of the imperfect and carnal man , that cares not to have a conscience at his coat-tail every hour of the day : you have your own parts and he his , and his parts are those that are not very common on our side of the country -- more 's the pity . '' M'Iver was too busy for a time upon the sudden rupture with Argile to pay very much heed to my defence of Master Gordon . The quarrel -- to call that a quarrel in which one man had all the bad temper and the other nothing but self-reproach -- had soured him of a sudden as thunder turns the morning 's cream to curd before noon . And his whole demeanour revealed a totally new man . In his ordinary John was very pernicketty about his clothing , always with the most shining of buckles and buttons , always trim in plaiding , snod and spruce about his hair and his hosen , a real dandy who never overdid the part , but just contrived to be pleasant to the eye of women , who , in my observation , have , the most sensible of them , as great a contempt for the mere fop as they have for the sloven . It took , indeed , trimness of apparel to make up for the plainness of his face .