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A man like the laird of Glenwarlock, capable of a large outlook, one that reaches beyond the wide-spread skirts of his poverty, sees in it an arc of the mighty rainbow that circles the world, a well in the desert he is crossing to the pastures of red kine and woolly sheep. It is to him a foretaste of the final deliverance.
But there was another thing in which she was not quite so regular, but which yet she never missed when she could help it; so that, as often as three and occasionally four times in the week, Cosmo would find her waiting for him somewhere on his way home, now just outside the village, now nearer Glenwarlock, according to the hour when she had got through her work.
I doubt if his lordship would have just then approached Cosmo, had he noted who the woman was that went stooping along behind the late heir of the land, now a labourer upon it for the bread of his household. "Weel, Glenwarlock!" said the old man, giving a lick to the palm of his right hand as he stopped in front of the nearing mower, "ye're a famous han' at the scythe!
Ah, what it would be to have such a garden at Glenwarlock! He turned to the door, with difficulty opened it, and the vision vanished. Not a few visions vanish when one takes them for fact, and not for the vision of fact that has to be wrought out with the energy of a God-born life.
But my father's sure to gie him fair play! he gies a' body fair play." Agnes set out, and Cosmo fell asleep. He slept a long time, and woke better. She hurried to Glenwarlock, and in the yard found the laird. "Weel, lassie!" he said, "what brings ye here this time o' day? What for are ye no at the school? Ye'll hae little eneuch o' 't by an' by, whan the hairst 's come."
The two girls were hardly acquainted, nor would Elsie have dreamed of familiarity with the daughter of a poor cotter. Aggie seemed much farther below her, than she below the young laird of Glenwarlock. Yet here was the rude girl addressing him as Cosmo with the boldness of a sister, in fact! and he taking it as matter of course, and answering in similar style! It was unnatural!
Div ye think there's ane o' them 'at gied to Grizzie,'at wad hae gi'en less though what less nor the han'fu' o' meal, which was a' she ever got, it wad be hard to imaigine had they kent it was for the life o' auld Glenwarlock a name respeckit, an' mair nor respeckit, whaurever it's h'ard? or for the life o' the yoong laird, vroucht to deith wi' labourers' wark, an' syne 'maist smoored i' storm? or for auld Jeames Gracie,'at's led a God-fearin' life till he's 'maist ower auld to live ony langer?
"It's the name the lairds o' Glenwarlock hae borne for generations," answered Aggie; "though doobtless it's no a name, as the maister wad say, indigenous to the country. Ane o' them broucht it frae Italy, the place whaur the Pop' o' Rom' bides." "And who is this Cosmo whose advice you would have me ask?"
"Good morning, Glenwarlock," he said. "You will live to repent this morning." "I hope not, my lord. I have lived nearly long enough. Good morning!" His lordship went softly down the stair, hurried through the kitchen, and walked slowly home, thinking whether it might not be worth his while to buy up Glenwarlock's few remaining debts.
Lurking in Grizzie was the suspicion, less than latent in the minds of the few who had any memory of the old captain, that he had been robbed as well as murdered though nothing had ever been missed that was known to belong to him, except indeed an odd walking-stick he used to carry; and if so, then the property, whatever it was, had been taken to the loss of his rightful heir, Warlock o' Glenwarlock.
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