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"Tallisker!" she whispered, and he rose softly and called him. The two men stood together by her side. "Is it well, my daughter?" said the dominie, with a tone of tender triumph in his voice. "You fear not, Helen, the bonds of death?" "I trust in those pierced hands which have broken the bonds of death. Oh! the unspeakable riches!" These were her last words.
It is a big sum to gie away, but maybe, in the face o' that stupendous Sacrifice it willna seem so big. I'll walk up in the evening, laird; perhaps you will then hae decided what to do." Crawford was partly disappointed. He had hoped that Tallisker would in some way take the burden from him he had instead sent him to the foot of the cross.
Tallisker said, "Give him his way a little longer, laird. To bring him hame now is no use. People canna thole blue skies for ever; he'll be wanting the moors and the misty corries and the gray clouds erelong." So Colin had another year granted him, and his father added thousand to thousand, and said to his heart wearily many and many a time, "It is all vexation of spirit."
But destiny loves surprises. One night Tallisker laid a letter on the table. "It is for you, laird; read it." It was a singular letter to come after so long a silence, and the laird's anger was almost excusable. "Listen, Tallisker; did e'er you hear the like? "'DEAR FATHER: I want, for a very laudable purpose, £4,000. It is not for myself in any way.
It was thirty years after Helen's death when Tallisker one night sent this word to his life-long friend, "I hae been called, Crawford; come and see me once more." They all went together to the manse. The dominie was in his ninety-first year, and he was going home. No one could call it dying. He had no pain. He was going to his last sleep
Both would, in the unreasonableness of youthful sympathy, have willingly shared land and gold with their poor kinsmen; but in this respect Tallisker was with the laird. "It was better," he said, "that the old feudal tie should be severed even by a thousand leagues of ocean.
He foresaw that he would have to work the men half time, and there had never been so many large and peremptory orders on hand. It was all very unfortunate to him. Tallisker's self-reproaches were his own; he resented them, even while he acknowledged their truth. He wished he had built as Selwyn advised; he wished Tallisker had urged him more.
Some of the new men had gone there, and Crawford was sure he was in some way defrauded by it. He thought it impossible to work in the day and study an hour at night. In some way he suffered by it. "If they werna in the schoolroom they would be in the Change House," Tallisker had argued. But the laird thought in his heart that the whiskey would be more to his advantage than the books.
He took in the position with the eye of a general. He watched the two classes passing down the same streets as far apart as if separated by a continent, and he said, with a very positive look on his face, "These men are brethren and they ought to dwell in unity; and, God helping Dugald Tallisker, they will do it, yes, indeed, they will."
You'll no lay the blame o' it to my office, but to Dugald Tallisker his ain sel'. There's a deal o' Dugald Tallisker in me yet, laird; and whiles he is o'er much for Dominie Tallisker." They were at the gate by this time, and Crawford held out his hand and said, "Come in, dominie." "No; I'll go hame, laird, and gie mysel' a talking to. Tell Mr. Selwyn I want to see him."
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