“I know, dear. Folks hae thought it was the kinder thing to stop away, and let you get the house in order.”
“Maybe it was. Come in, and see it, now that everything is in its place.”
So Norman went through all the large, pleasant rooms with her, and he could not help a sigh, as he contrasted them with his own untidy and not over-cleanly house. Then they returned to the ordinary living-room, and when they were seated, Norman lit his pipe, and they talked lovingly of the mother who had gone away, and left her earthly home full of sweet memories. They spoke in soft, tender voices. Christine wept a little, and smiled a little, as she told of her mother’s last days, and Norman’s mouth twitched, and his big brown eyes were heavy with unshed tears.
After this delay, Norman put away his pipe, and bending forward with his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands, he said, “Christine, I hae brought you a message. I hated to bring it, but thought it would come more kindly from my lips, than in any ither way.”
“Weel, Norman, what is it? Who sent you wi’ it?”
“My wife sent me. She says she will be obligated to you, if you’ll move out o’ the Ruleson cottage, as soon as possible. She is wanting to get moved and settled ere the spring fishing begins. These words are hers, not mine, Christine. I think however it is right you should know exactly what you hae to meet. What answer do you send her?”
“You may tell her, Norman, that I will ne’er move out o’ the Ruleson cottage. It is mine as 296 long as I live, and I intend to hold, and to live in it.”
“Jessy has persuaded hersel’ and a good many o’ the women in the village, that you ought to marry Cluny as soon as he comes back to Glasgow, and go and live in that city, so as to make a kind o’ a home there, for the lad. There was a crowd o’ them talking that way, when I came up frae the boat this afternoon, and old Judith was just scattering them wi’ her fearsome words.”
“Norman, I shall not marry until a year is full o’er from Mither’s death. Mither had the same fear in her heart, and I promised her on the Sacred Word, which was lying between us at the time, that I wouldna curtail her full year o’ remembrance, no, not one minute! That is a promise made to the dead. I would not break it, for a’ the living men in Scotland.”