The evening was Mr. Simon’s best time, and they therefore let the sun go down before they left the castle to visit him. On their way they had a right pleasant talk about old things, now the one now the other bringing some half faded event from the store-closet of memory.
“I doobt ye winna min’ me takin’ ye oot o’ the Warlock ae day there was a gey bit o’ a spait on?” said Agnes at length, looking up in Cosmo’s face.
“Eh, I never h’ard o’ that, Aggie!” replied Cosmo.
“I canna think to this day hoo it was ye fell in,” she went on: “I had the chairge o’ ye at the time. Ye maun hae run oot o’ the hoose, an’ me efter ye. I was verra near taen awa’ wi’ ye. Hoo we wan oot o’ the watter I canna un’erstan’. A’ ’at I ken is ’at whan I cam to mysel’, we war lyin’ grippit til ane anither upon a laich bit o’ the bank.”
“But hoo was ’t ’at naebody ever said a word aboot it efterhin’?” asked Cosmo.
“I never tellt onybody, an’ ye wasna auld eneuch no to forget a’ aboot it.”
“What for didna ye tell?”
“I was feart they wad think it my wite, an’ no lat me tak chairge o’ ye ony mair, whauras I kent ye was safer wi’ me nor wi’ ony ither aboot the place. Gien it had been my wite, I cudna hae hauden my tongue; but as it was, I didna see I was b’un’ to tell.”
“Hoo did ye hide it?”
“I ran wi’ ye hame to oor ain hoose. There was naebody there. I tuik aff yer weet claes, an’ pat ye intil my bed till I got them dry.”