“John,” said Mrs Beaton, after a time, “I think you might tell your mother!”
John raised his head and laughed, but there were tears in his eyes as he came over to her, and stooping, he softly kissed her. “Do you need to be told, mother?” said he.
These were the very first words which had passed between them concerning the sorrow which had come to them both through Allison Bain, and they were nearly all that were ever spoken.
“I grieved for you, John, and I feared for you; but I trusted Allison Bain. If she does not love him, he is in no danger, I said. If she loves him, she will withstand him for his own sake.”
“Be content, mother. She withstood me, whether she loved me or not.”
“I thank God for you both. May He ever lead you in His own way!”
Of course a voyage was to be taken. There was some hesitation as to whether John should avail himself of the opportunity offered by a ship which was to sail at once to bring home timber from Norway, or wait a little longer for the Griffin, an emigrant vessel, bound for Quebec. There were already great steam vessels crossing the ocean—not many of them, however, at this time, but the long voyage would be rather an advantage in John’s case, and he made up his mind to go by the Griffin. But he said nothing to make any one suppose that he did not intend to return with her. There would be time enough to decide as to the length of his stay, when he had seen the country.
So the mother and son bade one another farewell for a while, and Mrs Beaton was the more courageous of the two when it came to the last words between them. But they did not linger over last words. Robert Hume had come to say good-bye to his friend, and to take care of Mrs Beaton on her homeward journey to Nethermuir, and he was amazed at John’s “down-heartedness.”
“Oh! man! if I only had your chance! Or if I were going with you!” said he, and John echoed his wish.
He had been a good many days out of sight of land, before he began to take himself to task for his utter inability to feel, or to profess an interest in that which was going on about him. He was, indeed, very down-hearted, as Robert had said. He said in his foolishness: