"Sophy is well enough," answered Janet with a touch of pride. "She suits Andrew, and it is Andrew that has to live with her."
"And you too, Janet?"
"Not I! Andrew is to build his own bigging. I have the life rent of mine. But I shall be a deal in Glasgow myself. Jamie has his heart fairly set on that."
She made this statement with an air of prideful satisfaction that was irritating to Mistress Roy; and she was not inclined to let Janet enter anew into a description of all the fine sights she was to see[…][.] So Marget showed such a hurry about her household affairs as made Janet uncomfortable, and she rose with a little offence and said abruptly:—
"I must be going. I have the kirkyard to pass; and between the day and the dark it is but a mournful spot."
"It is that," answered Marget.[…]
"Then good night, and good befall you;" but in spite of the benediction, Janet felt nettled at her friend's sudden lack of interest.
"It was a spat of envy no doubt," she thought; "but Lord's sake! envy is the most insinuating vice of the lot of them. It cannot behave itself for an hour at a time. But I'm not caring! it is better to be envied than pitied."
1998 February, mass market edition of, 1997 March, Poul Anderson, The Fleet of Stars, Tor, →ISBN, page 189 [2]:
So who cares if there's a spat of fighting somewhere else? How can it touch us? By the time we're ready to commence on the moon, everything will be long since settled and half forgotten.
2001, paperback edition of, 2000, Bill Belleville, River of Lakes, Georgia, →ISBN, pages 90–91 [3]:
As the channel winds beyond [Drigger Island], it passes the bluff named "Happy Hill" and then gets serious again, coursing down through a nearly straight leg that bites into the earth, at depths of fifteen to thirty feet. The St. Johns is no longer a river one can walk across, in any fashion.
Fish camps and marinas appear and then disappear along the middle St. Johns[…]. After a spat of such diversions, the river braids itself through the forested landscape[…].
2003, Jack Stevenson, Land of a Thousand Balconies, →ISBN, page 133 [4]:
Many TV stations refused to broadcast it, but many of those who got to see it on air or later at a spat of festival screenings or on the European film club circuit proclaim it Moritsugu's masterpiece.
2006 May, paperback edition of, 2005 May, James Rollins, Map of Bones, Avon, →ISBN, pages 139–140 [5]:
Shots continued to pound their position, coming from all sides, gouging out chunks of wood from the flanking pews.[…]
A robed man down the end of the same pew fell backward, punched by the impacts. Another down the center aisle cried out and grabbed his neck as a spat of red arced out.
2010 January, second trade paperback edition of, 2004, Kevin O'Hara, Last Of The Donkey Pilgrims, Forge, →ISBN, chapter 46, page 300 [6]:
We walked on through a spat of sunshowers, and on the bridge over the River Roe a double rainbow looped over our heads[…].
