“I am a year older, I believe,” she answered, “but I cannot help it. Nor would I if I could, for three years ago I was still less worthy of him than I am now; and after all it is but a trifle.”
“Na, my leddy, it’s no a trifle, only some fowk carry their years better nor ithers.”
Here Cosmo set Joan up again, and a full explanation followed between them, neither thinking of suppression because of Aggie’s presence. She would indeed have fallen behind again, but Joan would not let her, so she walked side by side with them, and amongst the rest of the story heard Cosmo tell how he had yielded Joan because poor Jermyn loved her. Agnes both laughed and cried as she listened, and when Cosmo ceased, threw her arms once more around him, saying, “Cosmo, ye’re worth it a’!” then releasing him, turned to Joan and said,
“My lady, I dinna grudge him to ye a bit. Noo ’at he’s yours, an’ a’ ’s come roon’ as it sud, I’ll be mysel’ again—an’ that ye’ll see! But ye’ll mak allooance, my lady; for ye hae a true hert, an’ maun ken ’at whan a wuman sees a man beirin’ a’ thing as gien it was naething, ’maist like a God, no kennin’ he’s duin’ onything by or’nar’, she can no more help loein’ him nor the mither ’at bore her, or the God ’at made her. An’ mair, my lady, I mean to loe him yet; but, as them ’at God has j’ined man nor wuman maunna sun’er, I winna pairt ye even in my min’; whan I think o’ the tane, it’ll be to think o’ the tither, an’ the love ’at gangs to him ’ill aye rin ower upo’ you—forby what I beir ye on yer ain accoont. Noo ye’ll gang on thegither again, an’ I’ll come ahin’.”
It was now to Aggie as if they were all dead and in the blessed world together, only she had brought with her an ache which it would need time to tune. All pain is discord.
“Ye see, my lady,” she said, as she turned aside and sat down on the bordering turf, “I hae been a mither til ’im!”
Who will care to hear further explanation!—how Joan went to visit distant relatives who had all at once begun to take notice of her; how she had come with them, more gladly than they knew, on a visit to Cairntod; and how such a longing seized her there that, careless of consequences, she donned a peasant’s dress and set out for Castle Warlock; how she had lost her way, and was growing very uneasy when suddenly she saw Cosmo before her!
“But what am I to do now, Cosmo?” she said. “What account of myself can I give my people?”
“You can tell them you met an old lover, and finding him now a rich man, like a prudent woman, consented at once to marry him.”
“I must not tell a story.”