“Oh, dinna say that; how can we tell what may be wanted of you, and needing a’ your strength?”
Mrs Ogilvy roused herself at these words. “And that’s quite true,” she said. “You have more sense than anybody would expect; you are a lesson to me, that have had plenty reason to know better. But, nevertheless, I will not go to my bed yet—not just yet. I can get a good sleep in this chair.”
“With the window open, mem, in the dead of the night, after all Mr Robert said!”
“Do you call that the dead of the night?” said the mistress. And the two women looked out silenced in the great hush and awe of that pause of nature between the night and the day. It was like no light that ever was on sea or land, though it is daily, nightly, for watchers and sleepless souls. It was lovely and awful—a light in which everything hidden in the dark came to life again, like the light alone of the watchful eyes of Him who slumbereth not nor sleeps. They felt Him contemplating them and their troubles, knowing what was to come of them, which they did not, from the skies—and their hearts were hushed within them: there was silence for a moment, the profound silence that reigned out and in, in which they were as the trees.
Then Mrs Ogilvy started and cried, “What is that?” Was it anything at all? There are sounds that enhance the silence, just as there are discords that increase the harmony of music—sounds of insects stirring in their sleep, of leaves falling, of a grain of sand losing its balance and rolling over on the way. Janet heard nothing. She shook her head in her big white cap. And then suddenly her mistress gripped her with a force that no one could have suspected to be in those soft old hands. “Now, listen! There’s somebody on the road, there’s somebody at the gate!”
I will not describe the heats and chills of the moment that elapsed before the big loose figure appeared on the walk, coming on leisurely, with a perceptible air of fatigue. “Ah, you’re up still,” he said, as he came within hearing. Janet had flown to open the door for him, undoing all the useless bars, making a wonderful noise in the night. “I could have stepped in through the window,” he said. “You’ve walked from Edinburgh,” cried Janet; “you must be wanting some supper.” “I would not object to a little cold meat,” he said, with a laugh. His tone was always pleasant to Janet. His mother stood and listened to this colloquy within the parlour door. She must have been angry, you would say, jealous that her maid should be more kindly used by her son than she, exasperated by his heedless selfishness. She was none of all those things. Her heart was like a well, a fountain of thankfulness welling up before God: her whole being over-flooded with sudden relief and sweet content.
“How imprudent with that window open—in the middle of the night; how can you tell who may be about?” were the first words he said, going up himself to the window and closing it and the shutters over it hastily. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said afterwards. “I missed the last train, and then I think I missed the road. I’ve been a long time getting here. These confounded light nights; you’ve no shelter at all, however late you walk.”
“You will be tired, my dear.” He had brought in an atmosphere with him that filled in a moment this little dainty old woman’s room. It was greatly made up of tobacco, but there was also whisky in it and other odours indiscriminate, the smell of a man who had been smoking all day and drinking all day, though the latter process had not affected his seasoned senses. Of all things horrible to her this was the most horrible: it made her faint and sick. But he was, of course, quite unconscious of any such effect, nor did he notice the paleness that had come over her face.
“Yes, I am tired,” he said; “Janet’s suggestion was not a bad idea. I have not walked so far for years. A horse between my legs, and I would not mind a dozen times the distance; but I’ve got out of the use of my own feet.” He spoke more naturally, with a lighter heart than he had shown yet. “I have not had a bad day. I looked up some of the old howffs. Nobody there that remembered me, but still it was a little like old times.”
“Wouldn’t you be better, Robbie, oh my dear, to keep away from the old howffs?” she said, trembling a little.