“It was a queer story that she told altogether, and I hae been in a swither as to what I was to do with it, or if I was to do anything with it. I cam’ the day to speak to your son aboot it, but taking a’ the possibeelities into consideration, I’m no’ sure but what I hae to say should be said to a prudent woman like yoursel’. I would be loth to harm the lass.”
“I will never believe an ill word of Allison Bain till she shall say it to me with her own lips,” said Mrs Beaton, speaking low.
“Weel, I have no ill to say o’ her. There was no ill spoken o’ her to me. That is, the woman thought no ill, but quite the contrary—though mair micht be said. Ye’re her friend, it seems, and should ken her better than I do. I’se tell ye all I ken mysel’, though it was to ye’re son I meant to tell it.”
“And why to my son?” asked Mrs Beaton gravely.
It is possible that Crombie might have given a different answer if the door had not opened to admit John himself. The two men had met before in the course of the day, and all had been said which was necessary to be said about the death and burial of Crombie’s wife, and in a minute Crombie turned to Mrs Beaton again.
“As to the reason that I had for thinkin’ to speak to your son, there was naebody else that I could weel speak to about it. No’ the minister, nor his wife. It would be a pity to unsettle them, or to give them anxious thoughts, and that maybe without sufficient reason. And John’s a sensible lad, and twa heads are better than ane.”
John laughed and mended the fire, and asked “whether it was Robin or Jack this time, and what was ado now?”
“It’s aboot neither the one nor the other,” said Saunners, with a touch of offence in his voice. “It’s aboot the lass at the manse—Allison Bain.”
It had been a part of Crombie’s plan “to take the lad by surprise” when he mentioned Allison’s name, and he peered eagerly into his face “to see what he could see.” But the peats, which John had put on with a liberal hand, had darkened the fire for the time, and he had taken his place beside his mother’s chair and was leaning on it, as he had a way of doing when anything special was to be said between them, and Saunners saw nothing. “Begin at the beginning,” said Mrs Beaton. So Saunners began again, and getting into the spirit of the affair, told it well. They listened in silence till he came to a pause.
“It is a curious story,” said John, by way of saying something.