It will appear in full plain in this narrative that Mr. Wedderburn, the writer from Edinburgh, is as guileful as he's douce - and that he has need of all the guile that Eve passed on from the Serpent may be supposed, him with his living to make among the lawyers. Gleg he is.
...is the beginning of Michael Innes' Lament For A Maker.
Lament For A Maker is a Detective Appleby novel from 1936, fairly early in the series.
I pulled this one off a pile of unread mysteries earlier in the week, because I needed a book that fit in my pocket for a subway ride. It wasn't too beat up yet, and it was the right size. I didn't realize the first seventy pages were written in Scots dialect and I'd need a dictionary handy. Douce and gleg! Innes has constructed this like The Woman In White or The Moonstone--it's made up of parts by different narrators and our first narrator is a provincial Scottish shoemaker. I'm nearly on to the next section, which looks easier.
I am sometimes a sucker for an unknown word or two, but I wasn't expecting it this time. Would this put you off or interest you?
Whoa, douce and gleg indeed! I also enjoy a new word here and there, but having to learn a whole new language would probably make me stop reading.
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