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A strange shadow crossed it when she saw David, but she answered affectionately: "Well, then, David, here we meet again!" Then she hastened the morning meal, and as she did so asked question after question about his welfare and adventures, until David said a little impatiently: "There is enough of this talk, mother. Speak to me now of Nanna Sinclair. Is she well?" "Your aunt Sabiston is dead.
Almost inadvertently the name of Karen passed his lips, and then he talked long of her goodness, her love, and her beauty; and David listened with an interest that tempted more confidence than Liot had ever thought to give. "If you had such a wife as Karen Sabiston was to me," he said, "then, David, you would be happy even in this place. But you will not stay here.
When Matilda Sabiston drove Karen down to the sea-shore on the day before her bridal she really gave her the death-blow. For Karen needed more than the bread and love of mortal life to sustain her. She belonged to that high order of human beings who require a sure approval of conscience even for their physical health, and whose house of life, wanting this fine cement, easily falls to dissolution.
And Karen answered: "Life is full of waesomeness. I have always heard that when the heart learns to love it learns to sorrow; yet for all this, and more too, I will be your wife, Liot, on the day you wish, for then if sorrow comes we two together can well bear it." After this event all Lerwick knew that Karen Sabiston was to be married to Liot Borson in less than three weeks.
That was all she could learn, and she was very unhappy, for she could imagine no good reason for his departure. In some way or other he was preparing the blow he meant to deal her; and though it was the Sabbath, there would be no difficulty in finding men whom he could influence. And there was also his cousin Matilda Sabiston, that wicked old woman who had outlived all human passions but hatred.
Sometimes Karen questioned him concerning his obvious depression; sometimes she herself caught the infection of his sadness; and there were little shadows upon their love that she could not understand. On the day before her marriage she went to visit her aunt Matilda Sabiston. Matilda did not deny herself, but afterward Karen wished she had done so.
"He is a straight-faced, bright-faced man, tall and strong, who can tell a story so that you will be carried off your feet and away wherever he chooses to take you." "I have done always as Karen Sabiston was minded to do; and now I will not be moved this way or that way as some one else minds." "As to that we shall see." And as Thora Glumm spoke Liot came into the room.
Never had he felt the brooding gloom of this wretched heirship so vividly as on the night when he first met Karen Sabiston. Karen lived with her aunt Matilda Sabiston, the richest woman in Lerwick and the chief pillar of the kirk and its societies.
He took home with him the unhappy hesitation or misgiving, and watched to see if it would touch the consciousness of Karen. The loving wife, just approaching the perilous happiness of maternity, kept asking herself, "What is it? What is it?" And the answer was ever the same the accusing words that Matilda Sabiston had said, and the quick, sick terror of heart they had awakened.
She was trying to control her temper; but the little room was already impregnated with Matilda's personality, and Nanna could not escape from those indirect but powerful influences that distil from an actively evil life. "I wish, Matilda Sabiston, that you would leave my house," she said. "I think that you have brought the devil in with you." Then Matilda turned in her chair and looked at Nanna.
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