Part 32 (1/2)
”No wonder,” interrupted the old lady. ”To think of my being violently knocked down _twice--almost_ three times--by a big young man like that, and the first time with a horrid bicycle on the top of us--I might almost say mixed up with us.”
”But, mother, he _never_ meant it, you know--”
”I should _think_ not!” interjected Mrs Moss with a short sarcastic laugh.
”No, indeed,” continued Milly, with some warmth; ”and if you only knew what he has suffered on your account--”
”Milly,” cried Mrs Moss quickly, ”is all that _I_ have suffered on _his_ account to count for nothing?”
”Of course not, _dear_ mother. I don't mean that; you don't understand me. I mean the reproaches that his own conscience has heaped upon his head for what he has inadvertently done.”
”Recklessly, child, not inadvertently. Besides, you know, his conscience is not _himself_. People cannot avoid what conscience says to them. Its remarks are no sign of humility or self-condemnation, one proof of which is that wicked people would gladly get away from conscience if they could, instead of agreeing with it, as they should, and shaking hands with it, and saying, `we are all that you call us, and more.'”
”Well, that is exactly what John has done,” said Milly, with increasing, warmth. ”He has said all that, and more to me--”
”To _you_?” interrupted Mrs Moss; ”yes, but you are not his conscience, child!”
”Yes, I am, mother; at least, if I'm not, I am next thing to it, for he says _everything_ to me!” returned Milly, with a laugh and a blush.
”And you have no idea how sorry, how ashamed, how self-condemned, how overwhelmed he has been by all that has happened.”
”Humph! I have been a good deal more overwhelmed than he has been,”
returned Mrs Moss. ”However, make your mind easy, child, for during the last week or two, in learning to love and esteem John Barret, I have unwittingly been preparing the way to forgive and forget the cowardly youth who ran me down in London. Now go and send Mr Jackman to me; I have a great opinion of that young man's knowledge of medicine and surgery, though he _is_ only an amateur. He will soon tell me whether I have received any hurt that has rendered me incapable of feeling. And at the same time you may convey to that coward, John, my entire forgiveness.”
Milly kissed her mother, of course, and hastened away to deliver her double message.
After careful examination and much questioning, ”Dr” Jackman p.r.o.nounced the little old lady to be entirely free from injury of any kind, save the smas.h.i.+ng of a comb in her back-hair, and gave it as his opinion that she was as sound in wind and limb as before the accident, though there had unquestionably been a considerable shock to the feelings, which, however, seemed to have had the effect of improving rather than deranging her intellectual powers. The jury which afterwards sat upon her returned their verdict in accordance with that opinion.
It was impossible, of course, to prevent some of all this leaking into the kitchen, the nursery, and the stable. In the first-mentioned spot, Quin remarked to the housemaid,--”Sure, it's a quare evint entirely,”
with which sentiment the housemaid agreed.
”Aunt Moss is a buster,” was Junkie's ambiguous opinion, in which Flo and the black doll coincided.
”Tonal',” said Roderick, as he groomed the bay horse, ”the old wumman iss a fery tough person.”
To which ”Tonal'” a.s.sented, ”she iss, what-e-ver.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
ELEPHANTS AGAIN--FOLLOWED BY SOMETHING MORE AWFUL.
There came a rainy day at last at Kinlossie House. Such days will come at times in human experience, both in metaphor and fact. At present we state a fact.
”It will bring up the fush,” was Roderick's remark, as he paused in the operation of cleaning harness to look through the stable door on the landscape; ”an' that wull please Maister MacRummle.”
”It will pe good for the gress too, an' that will please Muss Mully,”
said Donald, now permanently appointed to the stables.
”H'm! she wull pe carin' less for the gress, poy, than she wa.s.s used to do,” returned the groom. ”It iss my opeenion that they wull pe all wantin' to co away sooth pefore long.”
We refer to the above opinions because they were shared by the party a.s.sembled in Barret's room, which was still retained as a snuggery, although its occupant was fully restored to normal health and vigour.