The lattice was not quite fastened, and she saw it open, and a face appear within it which produced the same effect upon her as the voice had done.
“O, are ye Cuddie, or are ye not?” cried she, shading her eyes from the candlelight, and gazing intently.
“Yes, I am Cuddie,” said he mournfully, as he entered by the lattice. “But it is hard to believe you are Effie, so unwilling to let your own brother into your own house.”
This was said,—not like the Cuddie of old, but so like her mother, that Effie no longer doubted.
She poured out a multitude of questions,—Whence did he come? When did he arrive? Was he here for good, to follow his own business again? And had her father returned also?
He put aside all her questions, desiring only, for the present, that she would help him to enter the house when uncle Christopher was gone to bed. Uncle Christopher would be back in five minutes, and there was no time to lose in settling how——
“But you are not going away before you have spoken to me, or given one look that I dare to rest upon. Why, Cuddie——”
“Well, Effie, I am not going to meet uncle Christopher; I can tell you that. There he lay, muttering his cant, the night I was carried off, and did not so much as put a foot out of bed to help me. He may talk of how many souls he has saved. He has lost one, I can tell him; and if I ever meet him,—and it will be only by chance,—I shall tell him——”
“There he is!” cried Effie, hearing the rattle of the chain by which the boat was fastened. Cuddie instantly let himself out by the back door, intimating that he should return to be admitted, as soon as his uncle could be supposed asleep. This event was not long in happening, as Effie was not, this evening, very lavish of remarks which might tempt him to linger over his pipe and glass.
When Cuddie re-entered from the garden, his first act was to desire his sister to fasten the door at the foot of the stairs, and hang up blinds against both windows, he standing in the shadow till this was done. Effie timidly objected to blinding the front window which looked down upon the ferry; it was not yet too late for the possibility of passengers. This seemed to serve as a new reason; and she was obliged to hang up her shawl.