"Can you see aught?"
"Naething. There's a heavy mist and a thick smur--but I hear steps on the
shingle. I'm thinking it will be Johnson wi' the stranger I spoke o'."
"Ay, weel, I hae gotten my feet dressed," and she looked down with
approval at her ribbed gray stockings, and low shoes, the brass clasps of
which she had just latched.
David did not answer her, for he was bidding his visitors welcome. Then
Maggie turned round with the freshly lit "cruisie" in her hand, and her
eyes were caught by two other eyes, and held as if by a spell. She was
conscious, as she stood blushing, that the stranger had been astonished at
her appearance, but she certainly did not dream that it was her great
beauty which had for one moment made him incapable of controlling his
sense of it. It was only one moment, in the next he turned to David, and
offered to pay him two shillings a day for the use of his vacant room, and
a share of his simple fare.
The interview lasted but a very short time. Maggie said, she could have
the room ready for him by noon of the following day, and as soon as the
matter was settled, he went.
He had not sat down, and so every one else had remained standing; but at
the open door he caught Maggie's eyes once more, and with a slight
movement of adieu to her, he disappeared. She trembled, and turned hot and
cold, and felt as if she must cry. It was with difficulty she hid her
emotion from her brother, who looked queerly at her as he said, "I ne'er
saw any man look like that man."
"He had a bonnie braidcloth cloak on."
"Sae handsome and sae stately; and if kings hae any grander way, there's
nae wonder folks bow down to them. I aye thocht that Dr. Balmuto had the
maist compelling look wi' him; but I think yonder man wouldna fear him,
e'en though the doctor had on his Geneva bands and his silk gown."
"What's his name, Davie?"
"I dinna ken. I never thocht to ask him."
Then a singular sadness, one quite distinct from the shadow of their known
sorrow, settled upon both brother and sister. Was it a sorrow of
apprehension? one of those divinations which we call presentiments.
Neither David nor Maggie questioned it; they were not given to analyzing
Their feelings, indeed they were totally unacquainted with this most
useless of mental processes.