Part 34 (1/2)
”Well, he was that,” said I
She gave a dreadful kind of laugh ”At all events, it is co on me ”My father and I are a fine pair,” said she, ”but I aood God there will be soood God that he has let irl ood deal pretty patiently, but this was over the ht to speak to ood to you, or try to be? And here isat me with a hateful smile ”Coward!” said she
”The word in your throat and in your father's!” I cried ”I have dared hiain, the nasty pole-cat; little I care which of us should fall! Come,” said I, ”back to the house with us; let us be done with it, let me be done with the whole Hieland crew of you! You will see what you think when I am dead”
She shook her head at me with that same smile I could have struck her for
”O, smile away!” I cried ”I have seen your bonny father s side this day Not that I mean he was afraid, of course,” I added hastily, ”but he preferred the other way of it”
”What is this?” she asked
”When I offered to draith him,” said I
”You offered to draw upon James More!” she cried
”And I did so,” said I, ”and found hih, or hoould we be here?”
”There is a ?”
”He was to make you take me,” I replied, ”and I would not have it I said you should be free, and I must speak with you alone; little I supposed it would be such a speaking! 'And what if I refuse?' said he-'Then it ,' says I, 'for I will nolady, than what I would have a wife forced upon myself' These were my words, they were a friend's words; bonnily have I paid for them! Now you have refused me of your own clear free will, and there lives no father in the Highlands, or out of thee I will see that your wishes are respected; I will h But I think you ratitude 'Deed, and I thought you knew me better! I have not behaved quite well to you, but that eakness And to think me a coward, and such a coward as that-O, my lass, there was a stab for the last of it!”
”Davie, hoould I guess?” she cried ”O, this is a dreadful business! Me and ave a kind of a wretched cry at the word-”me anddown to you in the street, I could be kissing your hands for forgiveness!”
”I will keep the kisses I have got from you already,” cried I ”I will keep the ones I wanted and that were so worth; I will not be kissed in penitence”
”What can you be thinking of thisto tell you all this while!” said I, ”that you had best leave me alone, whom you can make no more unhappy if you tried, and turn your attention to James More, your father, hom you are like to have a queer pirn to wind”
”O, that Iout into the world alone with such a reat effort ”But trouble yourself no more for that,” said she ”He does not knohat kind of nature is in my heart He will pay me dear for this day of it; dear, dear, will he pay”
She turned, and began to go home and I to acco alone,” she said ”It is alone I ed about the streets, and told er choked me; it was all very well for h about Leyden to supply ht I would have burst like a hed atout loud, so that a passenger looked at ht, ”I have been a gull and a ninny and a soft Toood lesson to have nothing to do with that accursed sex, that was the ruin of theand will be so to the end God knoas happy enough before ever I saw her; God knows I can be happy enough again when I have seen the last of her”
That seeo I dwelled upon the idea fiercely; and presently slipped on, in a kind of malevolence, to consider how very poorly they were likely to fare when Davie Balfour was no longer by to be their reat surprise, the disposition of ry; I still hated her; and yet I thought I owed it to
This carried ain at once, where I found the mails drawn out and ready fastened by the door, and the father and daughter with every reement Catriona was like a wooden doll; James More breathed hard, his face was dotted hite spots, and his nose upon one side As soon as I cairl looked at hiht have been followed by a blow It was a hint that was more contemptuous than a command, and I was surprised to see Ja-to; and I could see there uessed, and iven hi ot not very far, for at the first pompous swell of his voice, Catriona cut in