Part 34 (2/2)

”I will tell you what Ja,” said she ”He ar-folk, and have not behaved to you very well, and we are asha to go away and be forgotten; and ear so ill, that we cannot even do that unless you will give us soar-folk and sorners”

”By your leave, Miss Drummond,” said I, ”I must speak to your father by myself”

She went into her own room and shut the door, without a word or a look

”You must excuse her, Mr Balfour,” says James More ”She has no delicacy”

”I am not here to discuss that with you,” said I, ”but to be quit of you And to that end I must talk of your position Now, Mr Drummond, I have kept the run of your affairs ained for I know you hadmine I know you have had h you concealed it even frohter”

”I bid you beware I will stand no ,” he broke out ”I am sick of her and you What kind of a damned trade is this to be a parent! I have had expressions used to me-” There he broke off ”Sir, this is the heart of a soldier and a parent,” he went on again, laying his hand on his bosoed in both characters-and I bid you beware”

”If you would have let me finish,” says I, ”you would have found I spoke for your advantage”

”My dear friend,” he cried, ”I know I enerosity of your character”

”Man! will you let me speak?” said I ”The fact is that I cannot win to find out if you are rich or poor But it is my idea that your means, as they areinsufficient in a If I durst speak to herself, youit to you; because I know you like the back oftalk is that much wind tofor your daughter after all; and I round of confidence, such as it is”

Whereupon, I arranged with him that he was to communicate with me, as to his whereabouts and Catriona's welfare, in consideration of which I was to serve hireat deal of eagerness; and when it was done, ”My dear fellow, my dear son,” he cried out, ”this is more like yourself than any of it yet! I will serve you with a soldier's faithfulness-”

”Let ot me to that pitch that the bare name of soldier rises onforth and will return in one half-hour, when I expect to find ood ht see Catriona again, because tears and weakness were ready in nity Perhaps an hour went by; the sun had gone down, a little wisp of a newit across a scarlet sunset; already there were stars in the east, and in ht lay blue I lit a taper and reviewed the roo so one; but in the second, in a corner of the floor, I spied a little heap that brought my heart into my mouth She had left behind at her departure all that she had ever had of me It was the blow that I felt sorest, perhaps because it was the last; and I fell upon that pile of clothing and behaved myself ht, in a strict frost, and ain by soht of these poor frocks and ribbons, and her shi+fts, and the clocked stockings, was not to be endured; and if I were to recover any constancy ofIt was ht to have made a fire and burned them; but my disposition has always been opposed to wastery, for one thing; and for another, to have burned these things that she had worn so close upon her body seemed in the nature of a cruelty There was a corner cupboard in that chamber; there I deter business, folding them with very little skill indeed but thetheone out of h I had runa kerchief that she wore often at her neck, I observed there was a corner neatly cut from it It was a kerchief of a very pretty hue, on which I had frequently re her (by way of a banter) that she wore low of hope and like a tide of sweetness in ed back in a fresh despair For there was the corner crumpled in a knot and cast down by itself in another part of the floor

But when I argued with rew more hopeful She had cut that corner off in some childish freak that was ain was little to be wondered at; and I was inclined to dwell more upon the first than upon the second, and to be more pleased that she had ever conceived the idea of that keepsake, than concerned because she had flung it from her in an hour of natural resentether, then, I was scare so miserable the next days but what I had ood deal of constancy upon my studies; and ht hear word of Catriona by the ether three letters in the time of our separation One was to announce their arrival in the town of Dunkirk in France, from which place James shortly after started alone upon a private land and to see Lord Holderness; and it has always been a bitter thought that es of the sa spoon who soups with the de'il, or Ja this absence, the time was to fall due for another letter; and as the letter was the condition of his stipend, he had been so careful as to prepare it beforehand and leave it with Catriona to be despatched The fact of our correspondence aroused her suspicions, and he was no sooner gone than she had burst the seal What I received began accordingly in the writing of James More:

”My dear Sir,-Your esteee the inclosure according to agreehter, who is well, and desires to be remembered to her dear friend I find her in rather a melancholy disposition, but trust in the mercy of God to see her re-established Our manner of life is very much alone, but we solace ourselves with theup the in of the sea that lies next to Scotland It was better days with me when I lay with five wounds upon my body on the field of Gladsmuir I have found employment here in the haras of a French noblees are so exceedingly unsuitable that I would be ashamed to mention thehter's coht of old friends would be still better

”My dear Sir, ”Your affectionate, obedient servant, ”Jaain in the hand of Catriona:-

”Do not be believing hiether,-C M D”

Not only did she add this postscript, but I think sheafter date, and was closely followed by the third In the time betwixt them, Alan had arrived, and made another life to me with his merry conversation; I had been presented to his cousin of the Scots-Dutch, a ht possible and was not otherwise of interest; I had been entertained to reat change upon my sorrow; and o (by which I mean Alan and ood deal the nature of hter I was naturally diffident to give particulars; and this disposition was not anyway lessened by the nature of Alan's coave

”I cannae make heed nor tail of it,” he would say, ”but it sticks in owk of yourself There's few people that has had more experience than Alan Breck: and I can never call to mind to have heard tell of a lassie like this one of yours The way that you tell it, the thing's fair impossible Ye must have made a terrible hash of the business, David”

”There are whiles that I am of the same mind,” said I