“’Deed there’s no anither word for ’t—nor was there ae thing ither to be dune!” Aggie drew herself up, and went on with solemnity. “Div ye think, Cosmo, whaur heid or hert or fit or han’ cud du onything to waur aff want or tribble frae you or the laird, ’at Grizzie or mysel’ wad be wantin’ that day? I beg o’ yer grace ye winna lay to oor chairge what we war driven til. As Grizzie says, we war jist at ane mair wi’ desperation.”
Cosmo’s heart was full. He dared not speak. He came to Aggie, and taking her hand, looked her in the face with eyes full of tears. She had been pale as sun-browned could be, but now she grew red as a misty dawn. Her eyes fell, and she began to pull at the hem of her apron. Grizzie’s step was on the stair, and Cosmo, not quite prepared to meet her, walked out.
The morning was neither so black nor so cold as he had imagined it. He went into the garden, to the nook between the two blocks, there sat down, and tried to think. The sun was not far above the horizon, and he was in the cold shade of the kitchen-tower , but he felt nothing, and sat there motionless. The sun came southward, looked round the corner, and found him there. He brought with him a lovely fresh day. The leaves were struggling out, and the birds had begun to sing. Ah! what a day was here, had the hope of the boy been still swelling in his bosom! But the decree had gone forth! no doubt remained! no refuge of uncertainty was left! The house must follow the land! Castle Warlock and the last foothold of soil must go, that wrong should not follow ruin! Were those divine women to spend money, time, and labour, that he and his father should hold what they had no longer any right to hold? Or in beggary, were they to hide themselves in the yet lower depth of begging by proxy, in their grim stronghold, living upon unacknowledged charity, as their ancestors on plunder! He dared not tell his father what he had discovered until he had taken at least the first step towards putting an end to the whole falsehood. To delay due action was of all things what Cosmo dreaded; and as the loss mainly affected himself, the yielding of the castle must primarily be his deed and not his father’s. He rose at once to do it.
The same moment the incubus of Grizzie’s meal-pock was lifted from his bosom. The shame was, if shame was any, that they should have been living in such a house while the thing was done. When the house was sold, let people say what they would! In proportion as a man cares to do what he ought, he ceases to care how it may be judged. Of all things why should a true man heed the unjust judgment?
“If there be any stain upon us,” he said to himself, “God will see that we have the chance of wiping it out!”
With that he got over gate and wall, and took his way along Grizzie’s path, once more, for the time at least, an undisputed possession of the people.
But while he was thinking in the garden, Grizzie, who knew from Aggie that her secret was such no more, was in dire distress in the kitchen, fearing she had offended the young laird beyond remedy. In great anxiety she kept going every minute to the door, to see if he were not coming in to have his breakfast. But the first she saw of him was his back, as he leaped from the top of the wall. She ran after him to the gate.
“Sir! sir!” she cried, “come back; come back, an’ I’ll gang doon upo’ my auld knees to beg yer pardon.”
Cosmo turned the moment he heard her, and went back.
When he reached the wall, over the top of the gate he saw Grizzie on her knees upon the round paving stones of the yard, stretching up her old hands to him, as if he were some heavenly messenger just descended, whose wrath she deprecated. He jumped over wall and gate, ran to her, and lifted her to her feet, saying,