‘Ow ay! Whatfor no! But what can the bonny man himsel du, a’ bein sattlet?’
‘Dinna leemit the Almichty, wuman—and that i’ the verra moment whan he’s been to hiz—I wunna say mair gracious nor ord’nar, for that cudna be—but whan he’s latten us see a bit plainer nor common that he is gracious! The Lord o’ mercy ’ill manage to luik efter the lammie he made, ae w’y or ither, there as here. Ye daurna say he didna du his best for her here, and wull he no du his best for her there as weel?’
‘Doobtless, Dauvid! But ye fricht me! It souns jist rank papistry—naither mair nor less! What can he du? He canna dee again for ane ’at wudna turn til ’im i’ this life! The thing’s no to be thoucht!’
‘Hoo ken ye that, wuman? Ye hae jist thoucht it yersel! Gien I was you, I wudna daur to say what he cudna du! I’ the meantime, what he maks me able to houp, I’m no gaein to fling frae me!’
David was a true man: he could not believe a thing with one half of his mind, and care nothing about it with the other. He, like his Steenie, believed in the bonny man about in the world, not in the mere image of him standing in the precious shrine of the New Testament.
After a brief silence—
‘Whaur’s Kirsty and Steenie?’ he said.
‘The Lord kens; I dinna.’
‘They’ll be safe eneuch.’
‘It’s no likly.’