Warlock o' Glenwarlock Part 66

"I dinna freely un'erstan' ye," he said.

"Na, I reckon no! Hoo sud ye! Ye're jist ower semple for this warl', Cosmo! But I'll put it plainer:--what wad ye du gien a la.s.s was to fa' a greitin', an' a wailin', an' fling hersel' i' yer airms, an' mak as gien she wad dee?--what wad ye du wi' her, Cosmo?"

"'Deed I dinna ken," replied Cosmo with some embarra.s.sment. "What wad ye hae me du, Aggie?"

"I wad hae ye set her doon whaur ye stude, gien upo' the ro'd, than upo' the d.y.k.e, gien i' the hoose, than upo' the nearest chair, and tak to yer legs an' rin. Bide na to tak yer bonnet, but rin an' rin till ye're better nor sure she can never win up wi' ye. An'

specially gien the name o' the la.s.s sud begin wi' an' E an' gang on till an L, I wad hae ye rin as gien the auld captain was efter ye."

"I hae had sma' occasion," said Cosmo, "to rin fra HIM."

And therewith, partly to change the subject, for he now understood Aggie, and did not feel it right to talk about any girl as if she could behave in the manner supposed, partly because he had long desired an opportunity of telling her, he began, and gave her the whole history of the discovery of the diamonds, omitting nothing, even where the tale concerned Lady Joan. Before he got to the end of it, they were at the place where the man was waiting with his horse, and as that was the place where Aggie had to turn off to go to Muir o' Warlock, there they parted.

CHAPTER LXII.

A DUET, TRIO, AND QUARTET.

The next day things went much the same, only that Elsie was not in the field. Cosmo, who had been thinking much over what Aggie had said, and was not flattered that she should take him for the goose he did not know himself to be, could hardly wait for the evening to have another talk with her.

"Aggie," he said, as he overtook her in a hollow not many yards from the verge of the farm, "I dinna like ye to think me sic a gowk! What gars ye suppose a la.s.s could hae her wull o' me in sic a w'y 's you? No 'at I believe ony la.s.s wad behave like that! It's no like yersel' to fancy sae ill o' yer ain kin'! I'm sure ye didna discover thae things i' yerain hert! There's nae sic a la.s.s."

"What maitter whether there be sic a la.s.s or no, sae lang as gien there was ane, she wad be ower muckle for ye?"

"That's ower again what I'm compleenin' o'! an' gien it war onybody but yersel' 'at has a richt, I wad be angry, Aggie."

"Cosmo," said Agnes solemnly, "ye're ower saft-hert.i.t to the women-fowk. I do believe--an' I tell ye't again in as mony words--ye wad merry onyla.s.s raither nor see her in trible on your acc.o.o.nt."

"Ance mair, Aggie, what gies ye a richt to think sae ill o' me?"

demanded Cosmo.

"Jist the w'y ye behaved to mysel'."

"YE never tellt me ye couldna du wantin' me!"

"I houp no, for it wadna hae been true. I can du wantin' ye weel eneuch. But ye allooed ye wasna richt!"

"Ay--it was a presumption."

"Ay! but what made it a presumption?"

Cosmo could not bear to say plainly to the girl he loved so much, that he had not loved her so as to have a right to ask her to marry him. He hesitated.

"Ye didna loe me eneuch," said Aggie, looking up in his face.

"Aggie," returned Cosmo, "I'm ready to merry ye the morn gien ye'll hae me!"

"There noo!" exclaimed Aggie, in a sort of provoked triumph, "didna I tell ye! There ye are, duin' 't a' ower again! Wasna I richt?

Ye're fit to tak care o' onybody but yersel'--an' the la.s.s 'at wad fain hae ye! Eh, but sair ye need a sensible mitherly body like mysel' to luik efter ye!"

"Tak me, than, an' luik efter me at yer wull, Aggie; I mean what I say!" persisted Cosmo, bewildered with embarra.s.sment and a momentary stupidity.

"Ance mair, Cosmo, dinna be a gowk," said Agnes with severity. "Ye loe ME ower little, an' I loe YOU ower muckle for that."

"Ye're no angry at me, Aggie?" said Cosmo, almost timidly.

"Angry at ye, my bonny lad!" cried Aggie, and looking up with a world of tenderness in her eyes, and a divine glow of affection, for hers was the love so sure of itself that it maketh not ashamed, she threw her two strong, shapely honest arms round his neck; he bent his head, she kissed him heartily on the mouth, and burst into tears. Surely but for that other love that lay patient and hopeless in the depth of Cosmo's heart, he would now have loved Aggie in a way to satisfy her, and to justify him in saying he loved her! And to that it might have come in time, but where is the use of saying what might have been, when all things are ever moving towards the highest and best for the individual as well as for the universe!

--not the less that h.e.l.l may be the only path to it for some--the h.e.l.l of an absolute self-loathing.

Just at that moment, who should appear on the top of a broken mound of the moorland, where she stood in the light of the setting sun, but Elsie, neatly dressed, glowing and handsome! A moment she stood, then descended, a dark scorn shadowing in her eyes, and a smile on her mouth showing the whitest of teeth.

"Mr. Warlock," she said, and took no notice of his humble companion, "my father sent me after you in a hurry as you may see,"

--and she heaved a deep breath--"to say he doesn't think the bear o' the Gowan Brae,'ill be fit for cutting this two days, an'

they'll gang to the corn upo' the heuch instead. He was going to tell you himself, but ye was in such a hurry!"

"I'm muckle obleeged to ye, Miss Elsie," replied Cosmo. "It'll save me a half-mile i' the mornin'."

"An' my father says," resumed Elsie, addressing Agnes, "yer wark's no worth yer wages."

Aggie turned upon her with flas.h.i.+ng eyes and glowing face.

"I dinna believe ye, Miss Elsie," she said. "I dinna believe yer father said ever sic a word. He kens my wark's worth my wages whatever he likes to set me til. Mair by token he wad hae tellt me himsel'! I s' jist gang straucht back an' speir."

She turned, evidently in thorough earnest, and set off at a rapid pace back towards the house. Cosmo glanced at Elsie. She had turned white--with the whiteness of fear, not of wrath. She had not expected such action on the part of Aggie. She would be at once found out! Her father was a man terrible in his anger, and her conscience told her he would be angry indeed, angrier than she had ever seen him! She stood like a statue, her eyes fixed on the retreating form of the indignant Agnes, who reached the top of the rising ground, and was beginning to disappear, before the spell of her terror gave way. She turned with clasped hands to Cosmo, and murmured, her white lips hardly able to fas.h.i.+on the words,

"Mr. Warlock, for G.o.d's sake, cry her back. Dinna lat her gang to my father."

"Was the thing ye said no true?" asked Cosmo.

"Weel," faltered Elsie, searching inside for some escape from admission, "maybe he didna jist say the verra words,--"

"Aggie maun gang," interrupted Cosmo. "She maunna lat it pa.s.s."

"It was a lee! It was a lee!" gasped Elsie.

Cosmo ran, and from the top of the rise called aloud,

"Aggie! Aggie! come back."

Beyond her he saw another country girl approaching, but took little heed of her. Aggie turned at his call, and came to him quickly.

"She confesses it's a lee, Aggie," he said.

"She wadna, gien she hadna seen I was gaein' straucht til her father!" returned Agnes.

"I daursay; but G.o.d only kens hoo to mak the true differ 'atween what we du o' oorsel's, an' what we're gart. We maun hae mercy, an'

i' the meantime she's ashamed eneuch. At least she has the luik o'