“Oh, ay, sir, I could do that,” said Sandy, “but it’s no you he’s wanting, it’s the leddy,—he’s terrible keen to see the leddy. We wad be nae satisfaction to him, neither you nor me.”
“Tell him I’ll come and see him,” said Evelyn hurriedly. “You know he is a very uncommon person, James. I will just walk with you as far as the house, and then I will come back.”
“You had better go now,” he said loosing his arm. “You are getting like all the other Rosmore people, taking every crow for a dove. I can go home very well by myself.”
“But James!—”
He waved his hand to her, walking quickly away. Her company was a consolation; and then to be without her company was a relief. He had got to that restless stage.
“It’s just the gospel truth,” said Sandy, “the maister would have been nae comfort to the auld man. It’s just the leddy, the leddy, he’s been deaving us a’ with the haill day.”
“Is he ill, Sandy?”
“Na, nae waur than usual. He’s very frail, but nae waur nor usual. Hey, Janet, here’s the leddy. She’s just coming, and I had nae trouble with her ava.”
The cold drops on the trees came in a little deluge over Evelyn as she crossed the little glen under the ash tree: she was half amused in the midst of her trouble by the summons, thinking it might be a demand for some comfort, or a complaint of some inconvenience which was about to be made to her, things to which she had been accustomed in the country life of old. Rankin lay as usual with his picturesque head and beard rising from the mass of covering. He held out the large hand with which he fished in the nest beside him for puppies, and gave it to Evelyn to shake.