“Did I throw it at him? That was a curious thing to do; but I don’t suppose it was intentional on my part.”
“What was it, Jims? Answer me that.”
“And may I ask what it matters to you, whatever it was?”
“It matters a great deal to me. I have been like a mother to him, and I’ll no have the laddie to be led away. I know very well what it was. It was an English note, and I’ve got it here. Eh, Jims Rowland, knowing the world as ye must know it, how daur ye put the means of evil in that boy’s innocent hands!”
“This is very strange,” said Rowland, “to be brought to book because I give my son a little money.”
“Do ye ca’ twenty pounds a little money! My patience! a sma’ fortune,” said Mrs. Brown.
“My dear Jane, this is one of the things, unfortunately, that we have made a great mistake about. My boy should have been accustomed to a little freedom, a little money of his own. It is all very unfortunate. He will be plunged into spending money when he is quite unacquainted with the use of it. It is the very worst thing.”
“And that’s a’ my faut ye’ll be thinking,” said Jane, grimly.
“I don’t say it is your fault. It is my fault as much as yours. I thought of securing them kindness and motherly care. I should have remembered there was something more necessary. You have been very kind to them, Jane.”
“Kind!” the good woman flushed with a high angry colour; “Kind! that’s a bonny word to use to me. A stranger’s kind that says a pleasant word. The first person in the street that’s taken with their winnin’ ways is kind, if you please. But me! that has given them a’ the love of my heart, that has been a mother to them and mair——!”