Part 4 (1/2)
”Not in this one-horse place Just a wheen auld wives that packed thegether they haven't roorand weather, and it's not above seven miles to Auchenlochan Say the word and I'll yoke the horse and drive ye there”
”Thank you We prefer to walk,” said Mr Heritage dickson would have tarried to inquire after the illness in the house, but his companion hurried him off Once he looked back, and saw the landlord still on the doorstep gazing after thee sourly ”I wouldn't trustto leave this place We'll find a corner in the village somehow Besides, I'm determined on tea”
The little street slept in the clear pure light of an early April evening Blue shadows lay on the white road, and a delicate arory nostrils The near ainst the dark lift of the un to blow froe at that hour was pure Paradise, and dickson was of the Poet's opinion At all costs they e whiter and neater than the others, which stood at a corner, where a narrow lane turned southward Its thatched roof had been lately repaired, and starched curtains of a dazzling whiteness decorated the sreen door and a polished brass knocker
Tacitly the duty of envoy was entrusted to Mr McCunn Leaving the other at the gate, he advanced up the little path lined with quartz stones, and politely but firmly dropped the brass knocker He must have been observed, for ere the noise had ceased the door opened, and an elderly woman stood before hi spectacles on her nose, and an old-fashi+oned lace cap on her sht, because of her thin lips and Roman nose, but her ave the envoy confidence
”Good afternoon,ow speech ”Me andour first visit here, and we're terrible taken up with the place
We would like to bide the night, but the inn is no' taking folk Is there any chance, think you, of a bed here?”
”I'll no tell ye a lee,” said the wouid beds in the loft But I dinna tak' lodgers and I dinna want to be bothered wi' ye
I'm an auld wumman and no' as stoot as I was Ye'd better try doun the street Eppie Ho smile ”But, mistress, Eppie Home's house is no' yours We've taken a tree to put with us for the one night? We're quiet auld-fashi+oned folk and we'll no' trouble youto it, and a bowl of porridge in the ”
The woman see over her spectacles towards the garden gate The waiting Mr Heritage, seeing her eyes esture and advanced ”Glorious weather, Madalish,” whispered dickson to the woman, in explanation
She exaar ”Come in,” she said shortly ”I see ye're wilfu' folk and I'll hae to dae my best for ye”
A quarter of an hour later the two travellers, having been introduced to two spotless beds in the loft, and having washed luxuriously at the pump in the back yard, were seated in Mrs Morran's kitchen before athat , so there hite scones and barley scones, and oaten farles, and russet pancakes There were three boiled eggs for each of theuid brither last Hogmanay”); there was skim-milk cheese; there were several kinds of jaold heather honey ”Try hinny and aitcake,” said their hostess ”My uid in a' his days”
Presently they heard her story Her name was Morran, and she had been athese ten years Of her fahter a lady's maid in London, and the other married to a school, and had coh He had spent a month or tith her before his return, and, she feared, had found it dull ”There's no' abut auld wives”
That hat the innkeeper had told the the inn
”There's new folk just come What's this they ca'
them?--Robson--Dobson--aye, Dobson What for wad they no' tak' ye in?
Does the ait?”
”He said he had illness in the house”
Mrs Morran meditated ”Whae in the world can be lyin' there? The ot a lassie frae Auchenlochan to cook, but she and her box gaed off in the post-cairt yestreen I doot he tell't ye a lee, though it's no for e him I've never spoken a word to ane o'
thae new folk”
dickson inquired about the ”new folk”
”They're a' new come in the last three weeks, and there's no' a man o'
the auld stock left John Blackstocks at the Wast Lodge dee'd o'
pneumony last back-end, and auld Simon Tappie at the Gairdens flitted to Maybole a year come Mairtinmas There's naebody at the Gairdens noo, but there's a e, a blackavised body wi' a face like bend-leather Taot killed about Mesopotauidsire up at the Garpleheid I seen the aun up the street when I was finishi+n' my denner--a shi+lpit body and a lameter, but he hirples as fast as ither folk run He's no' bonny to look at I canna think what the factor's ettlin' at to let sic' ill-faured chiels co in dickson's estee with the careful gentility of a bird, and pri her thin lips after everyHouse?” he asked ”Huntingtower is the name, isn't it?”