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With the adjournment of the Assembly at Jacksonborough, the army of Greene moved down from Skirving's plantation to Bacon's bridge, at the head of Ashley river.
"The lad has guid bluid in him. She was a Gilchrist o' Linwood on Nithsdale. What she saw in your faither to tak' him I dinna ken ony mair than I ken hoo it cam' to pass that I am the mistress o' Walter Skirving's hoose the day. Come oot ahint my chair, lassie; dinna be lauchin' ahint folks's backs.
But Walter Skirving was keenly awake when Ralph Peden entered. It was in fact he, and not his partner, who spoke first for Walter Skirving's wife had among other things learned when to be silent which was, when she must. "You honour my hoose," he said; "though it grieves me indeed that I canna rise to receive yin o' your family an' name!
It was the face of a fair girl, with the same dark-blue eyes of the girl now before him, and the same golden hair the face of an earlier but not a fairer Winifred. Allan Welsh set his teeth, and caught at the table to stay his dizzying head. The letters were his own. It was Walter Skirving's stern message to him. From the very tomb his own better self rose in judgment against him.
And then, for the first time since her babyhood, Winsome Charteris, whose name was Welsh, kissed her father. There were tears on her mother's miniature, but through them the face of the dead Winifred seemed to smile well pleased. "For my mother's sake!" said Winsome again, and kissed him of her own accord on the brow. Thus Walter Skirving's message was delivered.
"And I ask you to thank Walter Skirving for his remembrance of me. It is many years since we were driven apart, but I have not forgotten the kindness of the long ago!" He opened the parcel. It was sealed with Walter Skirving's great seal ring which he wore on his watch-chain, lying on the table before him as he kept his never-ending vigil. There was a miniature and a parcel of letters within.
To make it so, Greene moved his troops across the Edisto, and took post at Skirving's plantation, six miles in advance of Jacksonborough, and on the road which leads to Charleston. There was yet another step necessary to this object.
Minister and elder were buried side by side one glorious August day, which was a marvel to many. So the Dullarg kirk was vacant, and there was only Manse Bell to take care of the property. Jonas Shillinglaw came from Cairn Edward and communicated the contents of both Walter Skirving's will and of that of Allan Welsh to those whom it concerned.
There was silence between them, as they looked with eyes of deathless love at the picture which spoke to them of long ago. Walter Skirving's message, which Winsome had brought to the manse of Dullarg, had united the hearts estranged for twenty years. Winsome had builded better than she knew.
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