"You are hame soon, sir. Is a' well wi' you?"
"No, Maggie, all is not well. If all had been well, I had never been in
Pittenloch." She stopped her wheel and stood looking at him. Then he
plunged at once into the story, which he had determined to tell her. "I
had a quarrel with my father and I left home. He does not know where I
am."
"You hae done very wrang I'm fearing, sir. He'll hae been a gude fayther
to you?"
"Yes, very good. He has given me love, education, travel, leisure, wealth,
my own way, in all things but one."
"Then, you be to call yoursel' a bad son. I didna think it o' you, sir."
"But, Maggie, that one thing includes all my future life. If I obey him, I
must always be miserable."
"It will be aboot some leddy?" asked Maggie, and she spoke in a low
restrained voice.
"Yes, about my cousin. She is very rich, and if I marry her, Maggie, I
shall unite the two branches of our family, and take it back to its
ancient home."
"Your fayther has the right to ask that much o' you. He's been lang gude
to you."
"I did not ask him to be good. I did not ask for my life, but life having
been given me, I think I have the right to do as I desire with it."
"There is nane o' us, sir, hae the right to live for, or to, oursel's. A
tree doesna ask to be planted, but when it is planted, it bears fruit, and
gies shadow, cheerfully. It tholes storms, and is glad in the sunshine,
and if it didna bear fruit, when it was weel cared for, it wad deserve to
be cut doon and burnt. My bonnie rose bush didna ask me to plant it, yet
it is bending wi' flowers for my pleasure. Your fayther will hae the right
to say what you shall do to pay back his love and care."
"But when I do not love the lady I am desired to marry?"
"Tuts!" She flung her head back a little scornfully with the word.
"There's few folks ken what love is."
"Do you, Maggie?"
"What for wad I ken? Is the leddy bonnie?"
"Very sweet and gentle and kind."
"Does she like you?"
"We have been long together. She likes me, as you like David."
"Will she want to be your wife? That's what I mean, sir."
"I think not. A man cannot know such a thing as that, until he asks."
She looked sharply at him, and blushed crimson. "Then you hae never asked
her?"
"I have never asked her. My father wants me to do so, and I refused."