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Miss Horn was sufficiently enigmatical; but her meaning had at length, more through his own reflection than her exposition, dawned upon Duncan. He leaped up with a Gaelic explosion of concentrated force, and cried, "Ta woman is not pe no mothers to Tuncan's poy!" "Huly, huly, Mr MacPhail!" interposed Miss Horn, with good natured revenge; "it may be naething but fowk's lees, ye ken."
"Then my laty will pe right welcome to Tuncan's heart," he replied, and taking her hand again led her to a chair. When they left she expressed herself charmed with the piper, but when she learned the cause of his peculiar behavior at first she looked grave, and found his feeling difficult to understand. They next visited the Partaness, with whom she was far more amused than puzzled.
Lady Florimel smiled also, but with amusement. "Will my laty take Tuncan's message to my lord, ta marquis?" asked the old man. Now Lady Florimel had inherited her father's joy in teasing; and the thought of carrying him such an overture was irresistibly delightful. "I will take it," she said. "But what if he should be angry?" "If her lord pe angry, Tuncan is angry too," answered the piper.
As if tey couldn't know ta silfer from ta prass! If tey wass so stupid, her nose would pe telling tem so. Efen old Tuncan's knife 'll pe knowing petter than to scratch ta silfer or ta prass either; old Tuncan's knife would pe scratching nothing petter tan ta skin of a Cawmill."
"Ah, my poy! where ta light kets in, ta tarkness will pe ketting in too. Tis now, your whole pody will pe full of tarkness, as ta piple will say, and Tuncan's pody tat will pe full of ta light." Then with suddenly changed tone he said "Listen, Malcolm, my son! She 'll pe fery uneasy till you 'll wass pe come home." "What's the maitter noo, daddy?" returned Malcolm.
"Ah, my poy! where ta light kets in, ta tarkness will pe ketting in too. This now, your whole pody will pe full of tarkness, as ta Piple will say, and Tuncan's pody tat will pe full of ta light." Then with suddenly changed tone he said, "Listen, Malcolm, my son! Shell pe ferry uneasy till you'll wass pe come home." "What's the maitter noo, daddy?" returned Malcolm.
"Then my laty will pe right welcome to Tuncan's heart," he replied, and taking her hand again led her to a chair. When they left, she expressed herself charmed with the piper, but when she learned the cause of his peculiar behaviour at first, she looked grave, and found his feeling difficult to understand. They next visited the Partaness, with whom she was far more amused than puzzled.
"Eh! that's a siller can'lestick, Maister MacPhail," she cried, "an' ye maunna tak a knife till 't, or ye'll scrat it a' dreidfu'." An angry flush glowed in the withered cheeks of the piper, as, without the least start at the suddenness of her interference, he turned his face in the direction of the speaker. "You take old Tuncan's finkers for persons of no etchucation, mem!
At last he opened his mouth solemnly, and said, with the air of one who had found a way out of a hitherto impassable jungle of difficulty: "If her lord marquis will come to Tuncan's house, and say to Tuncan it was put a choke and he is sorry for it, then Tuncan will shake hands with ta marquis, and take ta pipes." A smile of pleasure lighted up Malcolm's face at the proud proposal.
"Aigh! aigh!" he sighed at length, yielding the contest between his legs and the lungs of the lad "aigh! aigh! she'll die happy! she'll die happy! Hear till her poy, how he makes ta pipes speak ta true Gaelic! Ta pest o' Gaelic, tat! Old Tuncan's pipes 'll not know how to be talking Sassenach. See to it! see to it! He had put to blow in at ta one end, and out came ta reel at the other.
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