"But we want them now! We want as many as you can possibly spare, but
we must have them to take back with us now!"
"And who's to pick them for ye, I would ask?" demanded Mrs Forsyth with
scathing directness. "I've the shop to mind, and the dinner to cook;
it's not likely I can be out picking fruit at the same time, and there's
not anither soul in the house forbye mysel! I'm thinking you'll have to
wait, or do without!"
"We could pick them ourselves!" pleaded the Editor eagerly. "You would
have no trouble except to measure the fruit after it is gathered, and
tell us what we owe! I don't care how much I pay. I want some fruit
this morning, and if I can't get it from you I shall have to drive over
to Rew. That would cost five or six shillings for the trap alone, so
you see I shall get off well, even if you charge me twice the usual
price."
But here again the benighted Southerner found himself brought up sharply
against an unexpected phase of Scottish character, for Mrs Forsyth was
distinctly on her high horse at the thought of being offered more than
her due. She had her price; a fair-like price, she informed him
loftily, and she stuck to it. She wasna the woman to make differences
between one person and anither. Justice was justice, and she would like
to meet the man who could say she had ever stooped to accept a bribe.
So on and so on, while once again George Elgood hung his head abashed,
and glanced in distress at his companion. In the delight afforded by
that appeal Margot felt equal to dealing with ten Mrs Forsyths, each
equally unreasonable and "kamstary."
"We will leave the price to you; we will leave everything to you!" she
cried gaily. "I know it's asking a great deal to be allowed to come
into your garden and pick for ourselves, but we are rather in a
difficulty, for this gentleman is giving a picnic this afternoon, and
Mrs McNab has no fruit to give us. It would be a favour not only to
us, but to the whole party if you would say Yes. Please!"
The way in which Margot said "Please!" with head on one side, and
upraised, beseeching eyes, was one of the most fatal of her
blandishments. Even the redoubtable Mrs McNab had succumbed at the
sight, and in her turn Mrs Forsyth also was overcome. She made no
further objections, but led the way through the house into a long
stretch of vegetable garden, the end portion of which was thickly
planted with raspberry bushes.
"Help yourself!" she said briefly. "You're welcome to all that's fit to
eat."
So the two who had been strangers, and had suddenly developed into a
kind of partnership of aim, set to work to fill the basket, which for
better convenience was slung over a branch of one of the bushes.