"No, very far from it."
"And is she to have nothing? Nothing whatever?"
"Her personal effects, clothes and jewellery—that is all that she can claim, by the letter of the law."
"How inhuman the law is! I really think Madame has behaved in the most shameful, selfish way. What a cruel old woman!"
"Only a superstitious old woman," amended Mr. Middlemass, "who believed that a will was a reminder to the Angel of Death. She would be more heart-broken than anyone, at the present state of affairs, and she could not bear the name of the Gowdys. You may be satisfied that I will do my utmost to secure some provision for Miss Chandos." And with this friendly assurance Mr. Middlemass took his grey suède gloves, his glossy hat, and his departure.
CHAPTER VII
Mistress Jean Gowdy was the tenant of a sheep farm on a moor, north of Perth, where by rigorous economy and unwearied industry she and her two sons and daughter contrived to make the rent, to live frugally, and to put by a bit.
Jean was a hale, active woman of sixty, with a fine handsome face, but no figure to speak of—a hard-headed, hard-working, God-fearing Scotch woman.
She had not married over young, but was five-and-thirty years of age, a sensible and settled person, when she bestowed herself and her savings on Andy Gowdy, a small farmer body, with a little money, and a keen desire to better his position.
The couple had taken a long lease of Ardnashiel sheep farm, because being twenty miles from a railway it was cheap; there was plenty of water, fair grazing, and a comfortable stone house on the moor. Here for several years they struggled on bravely, through terrible winters and wet springs, and were at last beginning "to see their way." Unhappily, one dark morning, when the river was coming down in spate, Andy, in endeavouring to ford it, with his horse and cart, was drowned. The fierce mountain torrent turned over the cart, amidst the boulder stones, as if it were a child's toy, and despite of the desperate struggles of the fine young horse to effect a landing, he and his master were swept away to their death.