Bell was astonished at Dan’s sudden excitement, and could see no reason for it; so, recollecting about Mr. Kirkwood, she said, “Sit doon a minute, an’ I’ll tell ye a farce that happen’t the day.”
She then told about the potato-soup, and said, “You that ken’s a’ the folk in the country-side, can ye tell me onything about that Mr. Kirkwood? He’s been lang abroad, about India or some o’ thae places.”
Dan, who was now a little quieter, sat down and said, “That’ll be him that’s bocht ‘Strathgowan.’ I’ve seen him. He has some braw dougs: he has a mastiff that I think could fecht ma Burke, an’ he’s no’ easy bate.”
“By the bye,” said Bell, “he was speirin’ about Mrs. Barrie’s father.” Bell said this without thinking, and Dan again started to his feet.
GENERALSHIP.
“I beg your pardon, Dan, but what makes ye sae wild when I speak o’ auld Mr. Gordon? There’s naebody here that ye need care for, an’ there’s something on yer mind, but I canna contrive what it is. Whatever is’t, Dan?” said Bell, and she tried all the kitchen doors, to show him that they were closely shut; then she added, “Sit doon, Dan, an’ gather yersel a wee, for I promised to the mistress to speak to you about Mr. Kirkwood.”
Dan swithered and writhed about a little, fixed his single eye on the kitchen door, twirled his bonnet in his hands, but at last he sat down, and looked thoughtfully in the fire.
“That’s wiselike, Dan; that’s like yersel’, Dan,” said Bell encouragingly; “they say that ye were the best watcher o’ a kirkyard in the county, and ye’re no’ gaun to start at naething. Weel, as I was saying, this Mr. Kirkwood was here the day, for to obleege some Cornel Gordon that’s come hame frae India, and that wants to ken about the Gordons o’ the Grainaries, an’ if Mrs. Barrie was ane o’ them.”
Dan, still looking at the fire, said, “Div you ken a’ thing about Mr. Gordon? I never kent till this moment he was Mrs. Barrie’s father.”
I stated in my first chapter that Mrs. Barrie never referred to her father’s changed circumstances, and had asked Bell never to speak of them in Blinkbonny, so that Dan’s question was a poser. She took a very red face, and said, “A’thing, Dan? a’thing?” then going nearer him she whispered, “I ken about the brandy, an’ tobacco, an’ salt, an’ as I see you ken tae, we can speak freely about it; but mind never breathe the thing to ony ither mortal whatsomever about Blinkbonny.”