'Is it because of the girdle?'
The girl shook her head; the tears falling upon the knitting which she was holding with trembling hands.
'Is it because we are taking the things out of the larder?'
'Not that, Miss Marjorie.'
'Then whatever is the matter?'
By this time all the others had crowded in, looking very much astonished.
'Elspeth, are you ill?' asked Tricksy, her large dark eyes growing very round in her little face.
'No, Miss Tricksy; no, Miss Marjorie; it will be none of that; it will be Neil.'
'Neil!' exclaimed Marjorie, while the others looked more and more amazed. 'What's the matter with him? Neil is Elspeth's cousin, you know,' she explained.
'Neil, poor lad; he will hev been arrested, Miss Marjorie. They will hev taken him up for robbing the post-office! Eh, Miss Marjorie, your mother said you weren't to know, and it iss me that will hev been telling you. Och! the disgrace to an honest family!' and the girl threw her apron over her head and moaned and lamented to herself in Gaelic, while they all stood around her, speechless.