“Whatfor didna she haud frae ye till ye had merried her than? Dinna tell me she didna lay hersel oot to mak a prey o’ ye!”
“Mother, i’ that sayin ye hae sclandert yersel!—I’ll no say a word mair!”
“I’m sure neither yer father nor mysel wud hae stede i’ yer gait!” said Marion, retreating from the false position she had taken.
She did not know herself, or how bitter would have been her opposition; for she had set her mind on a distinguished match for her Jamie!
“God knows how I wish I had keepit a haud o’ mysel! Syne I micht hae steppit oot o’ the dirt o’ my hypocrisy, i’stead o’ gaein ower the heid intil’t! I was aye a hypocrite, but she would maybe hae fun’ me oot, and garred me luik at mysel!”
He did not know the probability that, if he had not fallen, he would have but sunk the deeper in the worst bog of all, self-satisfaction, and none the less have played her false, and left her to break her heart.
If any reader of this tale should argue it better then to do wrong and repent, than to resist the devil, I warn him, that in such case he will not repent until the sorrows of death and the pains of hell itself lay hold upon him. An overtaking fault may be beaten with few stripes, but a wilful wrong shall be beaten with many stripes. The door of the latter must share, not with Judas, for he did repent, although too late, but with such as have taken from themselves the power of repentance.
“Was there no mark left o’ her disgrace?” asked his mother. “Wasna there a bairn to mak it manifest?”
“Nane I ever heard tell o’.”
“In that case she’s no muckle the waur, and ye needna gang lamentin: she ’ll no be the ane to tell! and ye maunna, for her sake! Sae tak ye comfort ower what’s gane and dune wi’, and canna come back, and maunna happen again.—Eh, but it’s a’ God’s mercy there was nae bairn!”