“Janet’s husband! Oh, Jock, it is very dreadful! My poor child!”
She had been a little lioness in face of the enemy, but she was trembling so hopelessly that Jock put her on a couch and knelt with his arm round her while she laid her head on his strong young shoulder.
“Let me fetch you some wine, mother darling,” he said.
“No, no—to feel you is better than anything,” putting his arm closer—
“What was it all about, mother?”
“Ah! you don’t know, yet you went straight to the point, my dear champion.”
“He was bullying you, that was enough. I thought for a moment the brute was going to strike you.”
“That was only gesticulation. I’m glad you didn’t knock him down when you made in to the rescue.”
She could laugh a little now.
“I should like to have done it. What did he want? Money, of course?”