“And who bade you come to Allison Bain with all this?” asked Mrs Beaton, gravely. “And are you quite sure it is true?”
“Oh! ay, it’s true. I didna come to her with hearsays. I gaed mysel’ to the infirmary and I saw him with my ain een. And who bade me come here to her, say ye? It was the Lord himself, I’m thinking. The man’s name wasna named to me, nor by me. I kenned him because I had seen him before. And it was borne in upon me that I should tell Allison Bain o’ his condition. Or wherefore should the knowledge of it have come to me who am the only one here beside yoursel’ who kens how these twa stand to ane anither?”
But Mrs Beaton’s heart sickened at the thought of what might be before Allison.
“What could she do for him if she were to go there? He is in good hands doubtless, and is well cared for. Has he been asking for her?”
“That I canna say. But ye may ken without my telling you, that there is no saying ‘wherefore?’ to a message from the Lord. And it is between the Lord and this woman that the matter is to be settled now.”
But Mrs Beaton shook her head.
“I canna see it so. If he really needed her—if it were a matter of life and death—”
“A matter of life and death! Do ye no’ see, woman, that it is for more than that? It is the matter of the saving of a soul! Do ye not understand, that a’ the evil deeds o’ a’ his evil life will be coming back now on this man, and setting themselves in array against him, and no’ among the least o’ them the evil he brought on her and hers? And what kens he o’ the Lord and His mercy? And what has he ever heard of salvation from death through faith in the Son of God?”
Mrs Beaton had no words with which to answer him, and they all were silent for a while. Then Crombie began again, more gently:
“And if he were to come out of his fever, with all the dreads and doubts upon him that hae been filling his nights and days, and if he were to see her face with a look of forgiveness on it, and the peace of God, it might encourage him to hope in God’s mercy, and to lippen himsel’—sinner as he kens himsel’ to be—in the hands of Him who is gracious, and full of compassion and tender mercy. Think of the honour of being the means, in the Lord’s hand, of saving a sinner like that!”