“Why?”
“Because she has to live with old Vedder who is nothing but a bookworm.”
“Vedder is a very clever man. The Bishop was saying that.”
“Yes, in a way he was saying it, but–––”
“The Bishop was not liking the books he was studying. He said they did men and women no good. Thy father was telling me many things. Yes, so it is! The Vedders are counted queer––they are different from thee and me, and––the Bishop.”
“And the Dominie?”
“That may well be. Thy father has a will for Boris to marry Andrina Thorkel.”
“Boris will never marry Andrina. It would be great bad luck if he did. Many speak ill of her. She has a temper to please the devil. I was hearing she would marry Scot Keppoch. That would do; for then they would not spoil two houses.”
“Tell thy father thy thought, and he will give thee thy answer;––but why talk of the Future and the Maybe? The Now is the hour of the wise, so 16 I will go upstairs and lay out some proper clothing and do thou get thy father to dress himself, as Conall Ragnor ought to do.”
“That may not be easy to manage.”