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The road which Lord Lick-my-loof had broken up, went nearly straight from Castle Warlock to the cottage of the Gracies, where it joined the road that passed his lodge. And now came Grizzie's call to action!
By the time the meal was over, Aggie had arrived to take Grizzie's place. It was a sultry afternoon; and what with the heat and the annoyance of the morning from Grizzie's tongue and her talk concerning Agnes, the scythe hung heavy in Cosmo's hands, nor had Aggie to work her hardest to keep up with him.
"Weel, Grizzie!" he said, in a gentle, rather sad voice, as if the days of his mourning were not yet ended, "I'm ower sune the day!" He never passed Grizzie without greeting her, and Grizzie's devotion to him was like that of slave and sister mingled. "Na, laird," she answered, "ye can never be ower sune for yer ain fowk, though ye may be for yer ain stamack.
"But I maun awa' to my bairn up the stair; an' may it please the Lord to lift her or lang, for they maun be luikin for her yont the burn by this time. Whan she wauks i' the mornin', the' 'ill be nae mair scornin'!" This was Grizzie's last against her mistress.
The main issue Grizzie's new command of money found was in a torrent of cleaning. If she could have had her way, I think she would have put up scaffolds all over the outside of the house, and scrubbed it down from chimneys to foundations.
The laird took no notice of it: he knew Grizzie's devotion, and, well as he loved his mother, could not but know also that there was some ground for her undevised couplet. Scarcely a minute had passed when the voice of the old woman came from the top of the stair, calling aloud and in perturbation, "Laird! laird! come up direc'ly. Come up, lairds baith! She's comin' til hersel'!"
Our Grizzie's scons are good, with plenty of butter." His lordship had in the meantime taken another pull at the brandy-flask, and was growing more and more polite. "The man would be hard to please," he said, "who would not be enticed to eat by such a display of good victuals. Tea for me, before everything! How am I to pretend to swallow the stuff?" he murmured, rather than muttered, to himself.
I must confess, however let it tell against the laird's honesty as it may that, his design being neither to glorify his family, nor to teach records, but to impress all he could find of ancestral nobility upon his boy, he made a choice, and both communicated and withheld. So absorbed were they, that Grizzie's knock startled them both a good deal.
The morning came golden and brave, and his father was well enough to admit of his leaving him. So he set out, and in the strength of his relief walked all the way without spending a half-penny of Grizzie's eighteen pence: two days before, he would consult his friend how to avoid the bitterest dregs of poverty; now he must find from him how to make his riches best available! He did not tell Mr.
Better let them decant the bottle, and then he would have the drug to fall back upon! Just as he heard the loud bang of Grizzie's closure of the great door, the wind rushed all at once against the house, with a tremendous bellow, that threatened to drive the windows into the room. An immediate lull followed, through which as instantly came strange sounds, as of a distant staccato thunder.
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