“It canna be helpit; I maun gang,” she said.
Cosmo was dumb for many moments; he had never thought of such a possibility; and Aggie stood silent before him.
“What hae ye i’ yer heid, Aggie? What thoucht ye o’ duin’ wi’ yersel’?” he asked at length, his heart swelling so that he could scarcely bring out the words.
“I’m gaein’ to luik for a place.”
“But, Aggie, gien it canna be helpit; and gang ye maun, ye ken I’m rich, an’ I ken there’s naebody i’ the warl’ wi’ a better richt to share in what I hae: wadna ye like to gang til a ladies’ school, an’ learn a heap o’ things?”
“Na, I wadna. It’s hard wark I need, to haud me i’ the richt ro’d. I can aye learn what I hunger for, an’ what ye dinna desire ye’ll never learn. Thanks to yersel’ an’ Maister Simon, ye hae putten me i’ the w’y o’ that! It’s no kennin’ things—it’s kennin’ things upo’ the ro’d ye gang, ’at’s o’ consequence to ye. The lave I mak naething o’.”
“But a time micht come whan ye wad want mony a thing ye micht hae learnt afore.”
“Whan that time comes, I’ll learn them than, wi’ half the trouble, an’ in half the time,—no to mention the pleesur o’ learnin’ them. Noo, they wad but tak me frae the things I can an’ maun mak use o’. Na, Cosmo, I’m b’un’ to du something wi’ what I hae, an’ no bide till I get mair. I’ll be aye gettin’.”
“Weel, Aggie, I daurna temp’ ye to bide gien ye oucht to gang; an’ ye wad but despise me gien I was fule eneuch to try ’t. But ye canna refuse to share wi’ me. That wadna be like ane ’at had the same father an’ the same maister. Tak a thoosan’ poun’ to begin wi’, an’ gang an’—an’ du onything ye like, only dinna work yersel’ to deith wi’ rouch wark. I canna bide to think o’ ’t.”
“A thoosan’ poun’! No ae baubee! Cosmo, I wad hae thoucht ye had mair sense! What wad baudrins (pussy-cat) there du wi’ a silk goon? Ye can gie me the twa poun’ ten I gae to Grizzie to help haud the life in ’s a’. A body maun hae something i’ their pooch gien they can, an’ gien they canna, they maun du wi’ naething. It’s won’erfu’ hoo little’s railly wantit!”