“Oh, Murdock! as he threatened—what did he say?”
“Well, I don’t know. I could only get it that somebody was sayin’ somethin’, an’ that it would be well to have things so that no wan could say anythin’ that we couldn’t prove. It was a frind tould me—and that’s all he would tell! Mayhap he didn’t know any more himself; but I knew him to be a frind!”
“And it was a friendly act, Mr. Joyce. I have no doubt that Murdock has been sending round wicked lies about us all! But thank God! in a few days we will be all moving, and it doesn’t matter much what he can do.”
“No! it won’t matter much in wan way, but he’s not goin’, all the same, to throw dirt on me child. If he goes on I’ll folly him up!”
“He won’t go on, Mr. Joyce. Before long, he’ll be out of the neighbourhood altogether. To tell you the truth, I have bought the whole of his land, and I get possession of it to-morrow; and then I’ll never let him set foot here again. When once he is out of this, he will have too much other wickedness on hand to have time to meddle with us!”
“That’s thrue enough! Well! we’ll wait an’ see what happens—but we’ll be mighty careful all the same.”
“Quite right,” I said, “we cannot be too careful in such a matter!” Then we went back to the house, and met Norah coming into the room in her red petticoat, which she knew I liked. She whispered to me! oh so sweetly:—
“I thought, dear, you would like me to be the old Norah, to-day. It is our last day together in the old way.” Then hand-in-hand we went down to the Cliff Fields, and sat on the table-rock for the last time, and feasted our eyes on the glorious prospect, whilst we told each other our bright dreams of the future.
In the autumn twilight we came back to the house; Dick had, in the meantime, come in, and we both stayed for tea. I saw that Dick had something to tell me, but he waited until we were going home before he spoke.
It was a sad parting with Norah that night; for it was the last day together before she went off to school. For myself, I felt that whatever might be in the future—and I hoped for much—it was the last time that I might sit by the firelight with the old Norah. She, too, was sad, and when she told me the cause of her sadness, I found that it was the same as my own.