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'Deed there's maist naething ither h'ard tell o' bit quittin'; for the full half o' Scaurnose is un'er like nottice for Michaelmas, an' the Lord kens what it 'll a' en' in!" "But what's it for? Blue Peter's no the man to misbehave himsel'." "Weel, ye ken mair yersel' nor ony ither as to the warst fau't there is to lay till's chairge; for they say that is, some say, it's a' yer ain wyte, Ma'colm."
"Ye see, Ma'colm," she said, as if pursuing instead of commencing a conversation, "he's some sore about the little fraicass between him 'an you. Jest make your apoalogies till 'im and tell 'im you had a drop too much, and your soary for misbehavin' yerself to wann sae much your shuperrior. Tell him that, Ma'colm, an' there's a half croon to ye."
"An' tell him gien onything befa' him, to sen' to Miss Horn, for Ma'colm MacPhail may be oot wi' the boats. Ye winna forget that?" "I'm no lickly to forget it," answered Phemy, apparently absorbed in boring a hole in a haddock's eye with a pin so bent as to act like a brace and bit.
But say at ye like, I s' uphaud Ma'colm again' the haill poustie o' ye. Gien he was but here! I say't again, honest laad!" But she could not rouse Peter to utterance, and losing what little temper she had, she rated him soundly, and sent him home saying with the prophet Jonah, "Do I not well to be angry?" for that also he placed to Malcolm's account.
"'Deed, my leddy," said Lizzy, "Ma'colm's been ower guid to me, no to gar me du onything he wad ha'e o' me, I can haud my tongue whan I like, my leddy. An' dinna doobt my thouchts, my leddy, for I ken Ma'colm as weel's ye du yersel', my leddy." While she was speaking, Clementina rose, and they went straight to the door in the bank.
He rose and would have taken her hand to draw it from her face; but she turned her back quickly, saying in a hard forced voice: "A man canna help a wuman 'cep it be till her grave." Then turning suddenly, she laid her hands on his shoulders, and cried: "For the love o' God, Ma'colm, lea' me this moment. Gien I cud tell ony man what ailed me, I wad tell you; but I canna, I canna!
So at that he held his peace stung in his pride at least perhaps in his conscience too, only he was not prepared to be rebuked by a girl like her, who had Well, he must let it pass: how much better was he himself? But Lizzy was loyal: she could not hear him speak so of Malcolm and hold her peace as if she agreed in his condemnation. "Ye'll ken Ma'colm better some day, sir," she said.
Wondering and anxious, but not very hopeful as to what might come of it, he waited close by; and when now he saw Lizzy dart from the house in wild perturbation, he ran from the cover of the surrounding trees into the open drive to meet her. "Ma'colm!" groaned the poor girl, holding out her baby, "he winna own till 't! He winna alloo 'at he kens aucht aboot me or the bairn aither!"
Malcolm replaced the infant in his mother's arm, and strode towards the house. Imagining he went to avenge her wrongs, Lizzy ran after him. "Ma'colm Ma'colm!" she cried; " for my sake! He's the father o' my bairn!" Malcolm turned. "Lizzy," he said solemnly, "I winna lay han' upon 'im." Lizzy pressed her child closer with a throb of relief. "Come in yersel' an' see," he added. "I daurna!
"What for speak na ye, Ma'colm?" said Miss Horn, at length. "I was jist tryin'," he answered, "to min' upon a twa lines 'at I cam' upo' the ither day in a buik 'at Maister Graham gied me afore he gaed awa 'cause I reckon he kent them a' by hert. They say jist sic like's ye been sayin', mem gien I cud but min' upo' them.
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