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Updated: June 1, 2025
You have aye done your duty." "I thought sae once, Crawford. I taught the bairns their catechism; I looked weel to the spiritual life o' young and old; I had aye a word in season for all. But maybe this I ought to hae done, and not left the other undone." "You are talking foolishness, Tallisker, and that's a thing no usual wi' you." "No oftener wi' me nor other folk.
Crawford sat thinking until his heart burned and softened, and great tears rolled slowly down his cheeks and dropped upon the paper in his hands. Then he thought of the richness of his own life Colin and Hope, and the already beloved child Alexander of his happy home, of the prosperity of his enterprises, of his loyal and loving friend Tallisker.
He went over all the arguments with which he had hitherto quieted his conscience, and he anxiously watched their effect upon Tallisker. He had a hope even yet that the dominie might think them reasonable. But the table at which they sat was not less demonstrative than Tallisker's face; for once he absolutely controlled himself till the story was told. Then he said to Crawford,
Nothing after it could have induced Colin to come home. He wrote and declined to receive even the allowance due to him as heir of Crawford. The letter was perfectly respectful, but cruelly cold and polite, and every word cut the old man like a sword. For some weeks he really seemed to lose all interest in life. Then the result Tallisker feared was arrived at.
He greeted Tallisker with a peculiar kindness, and held his hand almost lovingly. His friendship for the dominie if he had known it was a grain of salt in his fast deteriorating life. He did not notice the dominie's stern preoccupation, he was so full of his own new plans. He began at once to lay them before his old friend; he had that very day got the estimates from the Edinburgh architect.
But, laird, I feel there must be a change. I hae gotten my orders, and I am going to obey them. You may be certain o' that." "I didna think I would ever see Dominie Tallisker taking orders from a disciple o' Arminius and an Englishman forbye!" "I'll tak my orders, Crawford, from any messenger the Lord chooses to send them by.
The day will come when the Crawfords will think with more pride of it than of any parchment they possess." Then there was an appeal to Tallisker about its disposal. "Laird," he answered, "such a sum must be handled wi' great care. It is not enough to gie money, it must be gien wisely."
Yet he did not like to say so; there was something in the dominie's face which restrained him. He had opened the subject in that blustering way which always hides the white feather somewhere beneath it, and Tallisker had answered with a solemn severity, "Crawford, it seems to be your wark to mak money; it is mine to save souls.
Perhaps that also was the best. The men were silent and respectful, and for the first time lifted their caps with a hearty courtesy to Tallisker when he left them. "Weel! Wonders never cease!" said Jim Armstrong scornfully. "To see Tony Musgrave hobnobbing wi' a black-coat! The deil must 'a' had a spasm o' laughing." "Let the deil laugh," said Tony, with a snap of his grimy fingers.
Colin ought to have taken his father's ready response to his request as an overture of reconciliation. For a moment he was provoked with both of them. "You are a dour lot, you Crawfords; ane o' you is prouder than the ither." "The Crawfords are as God made them, dominie." "And some o' them a little warse." Yet, after all, it was Colin Tallisker was really angry at.
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