It was not till after several days had passed that Mysie was able, as she still lay in bed, to whisper, amidst the recurring sobs, in the ear of her mother, as the latter bent over her, the real circumstances of her condition; and still, amidst the trembling words, came the vindication that she considered herself to be as much the wife of George Balgarnie as if they had been joined by “Holy Kirk;” a statement which the mother could not understand, if it was not to her a mystery, rendered even more mysterious by a reference which Mysie made to the law of the country, as she had heard the same from her cousin George Davidson, a writer’s clerk in the Lawnmarket. Much of which, as it came in broken syllables from the lips of the disconsolate daughter, the mother put to the account of the fond dreams of a mind put out of joint by the worst form of misery incident to young women. But what availed explanations, mysteries or no mysteries, where the fact was patent that Mysie Craig lay there, the poor heart-broken victim of man’s perfidy—her powers of industry broken and useless—the fine weaving genius of her fancy, whereby she wrought her embroidered devices to deck and adorn beauty, only engaged now on portraying all the evils of her future life; and, above all, was she not soon to become a mother?
Meanwhile, and in the midst of all this misery, the laid-up earnings of Mysie’s industry wore away, where there was no work by those cunning fingers—now thin and emaciated; and before the days passed, and the critical day came whereon another burden would be imposed on the household, there was need for the sympathy of neighbours in that form which soon wears out—pecuniary help. That critical day at length came. Mysie Craig gave birth to a boy, and their necessities from that hour grew in quicker and greater proportion than the generosity of friends. There behoved something to be done, and that without delay. So when Mysie lay asleep, with the innocent evidence of her misfortune by her side, Mrs Craig put on her red plaid and went forth on a mother’s duty, and was soon in the presence of George Balgarnie and his young wife. She was under an impulse which made light of delicate conventionalities, and did not think it necessary to give the lady an opportunity of being absent; nay, she rather would have her to be present—for was she, who had been so far privy to the intercourse between her husband and Mysie, to be exempt from the consequences which she, in a sense, might have been said to have brought about?
“Ye have ruined Mysie Craig, sir!” cried at once the roused mother. “Ye have ta’en awa her honour. Ye have ta’en awa her health. Ye have ta’en awa her bread. Ay, and ye have reduced three human creatures to want, it may be starvation; and I have come here in sair sorrow and necessity to ask when and whaur is to be the remeid?”
“When and where you may find it, woman!” said the lady, as she cast a side-glance to her husband, probably by way of appeal for the truth of what she thought it right to say. “Mr Balgarnie never injured your daughter. Let him who did the deed yield the remeid!”
“And do you stand by this?” said Mrs Craig.
But the husband had been already claimed as free from blame by his wife, who kept her eye fixed upon him; and the obligation to conscience, said by sceptics to be an offspring of society, is sometimes weaker than what is due to a wife, in the estimation of whom a man may wish to stand in a certain degree of elevation.
“You must seek another father to the child of your daughter,” said he, lightly. And, not content with the denial, he supplemented it by a laugh, as he added, “When birds go to the greenwood, they must take the chance of meeting the goshawk.”
“And that is your answer?” said she.
“It is; and you need never trouble either my wife or me more on this subject,” was the reply.
“Then may the vengeance o’ the God of justice light on the heads o’ baith o’ ye!” added Mrs Craig, as she went hurriedly away.