“No, no, I will pack the whole peck into a pint cup, and make an end of it.
“Oh, such an old tale. Oh, such a common tale. It is heard in every hamlet, on every hillside. Oh, but it comes home to one when it’s one’s ain child. Ah me! ah me!
“Late in the autumn the pictures were finished and the sittings were over, and the painter lad went his way back to London. And my lass stayed hame with me and only went out sometimes in the gloaming. I never thought ill. I used to go to look after the poultry yard by the castle stables every day, and sometimes, with the gathering and sorting of eggs, and other matters, I would be kept at work all day long.
“One day I got on wi’ my work so weel that I cam’ hame airlier than common. And there, i’ the hut, was my lord, wi’ Phebe on his knee and his arm around her waist. Before I could weel tak’ in the whole, my lord had risen, and, with a ‘Good-e’en, dame,’ he passed me, and went out. And I sat down on the floor and covered my head wi’ my apun. I could speak no word of blame to my lass; my heart, it was broken.
“Presently she came to me and put her sweet arms around my neck, and said to me, in her ain sweet voice, ‘Minnie, minnie, I canna see you grieve and not tell you the truth, though I must break my word to do it. Minnie, yon great earl is my husband and your son, and I love him as I love my life!
“Bairnie, ye may think I were surprised at what I heard, but, indeed, I were not. I were very pleased, and that’s the truth, but not surprised. I thought my lass the beauty of the whole world. And the angel of the whole world, and our folk-lore were full of tales of how noble lords, and even royal princes, did love and marry peasant girls for their beauty and for their goodness. And who so beautiful and who so good as my ain lass?
“No. I was not surprised, but I was proud and pleased. I only asked her the how and the when, and the where, and when she had told me I believed in her, as I had a right to believe in her, but I also believed in him, as I had no right to believe in any man.
“And then she begged me to keep the secret, because she had broken her promise to keep it from everybody, and had told me, from love of me.
“I swore that I would keep her secret, and I kissed her, and petted her, and loved her. And she said, ‘Now I am completely happy, dear minnie, as I never was when I kept a secret from mine ain minnie.’ Ah me! ah me! But, there. She is still happy. I only am miserable. She is alive! I only am dead! But some time or other I shall come to life and be happy with her. Where was I, bairnie? What was I telling you last?”
“Of your dear daughter’s secret marriage with the earl, and of your promise to keep the secret,” said Wynnette.