“Never, mother,” he said. “You’ve been as good as gold.” He had risen from his seat, and begun to walk about with an alert light step. The news had roused him; it had stirred his blood, as he said. “We must see about this exit of yours—subterraneous is it?—out of the Castle of Giant Despair—no, no, out of the good fairy’s castle, down into the wilds. You must show me this at once, Bob. If there’s a Yank on the trail there’s no time to be lost.”
“There is perhaps no time to be lost—but not for him, only for you. My words are not kind, but my meaning is,” cried Mrs Ogilvy. “It is safest for you not to be with him, and for him not to be with you. Oh, do not wait here till you’re traced to the house, till ye have to run and break your neck down that terrible road, but go while everything is peaceable! Mr Lew, you shall have whatever money you want, and what clothes we can furnish, and—and my blessing—God’s blessing.”
“Don’t you think,” he said, turning upon her, “you are undertaking a little too much? God’s blessing upon a fellow like me—that has committed every sin and repented of none, that have sent other sinners to their account, and wronged the orphan, and all that. God’s blessing——!”
He was standing in the middle of the room, in which he was so inappropriate a figure, with his back to the end window, which was towards the west. It was now late in the afternoon, and the level rays pouring in made a broad bar across the carpet, and fell upon one side of his form, which partially intercepted its light and cut it with his tall outline. Mrs Ogilvy put her hands together with a cry.
“What is that? What is it? Is it not just the blessed sun that He sends upon the just and the unjust—never stopping, whatever you have done—His sign held out to you that He has all His blessings in His hand, ready to give, more ready than me, that am a poor creature, no fit to judge? Oh, laddie—for you’re little more—see to Him holding out His hand!”
He had turned round, with a vague disturbed motion, not knowing what he did, and stood for a moment looking at the sunshine on the carpet, and his own figure which intercepted it and received the glory instead. For a moment his lip quivered; the lines of his face moved as if a wind had blown over them; his eyes fixed on the light, as if he expected to see some miraculous sight. And then he gave a harsh laugh, and turned round with a shrug of his shoulders. “It’s pretty,” he said, “mother, as you put it: but there’s no time to enter into all that. I’ve perhaps got too much to clear up with God, don’t you know, to do it at a sitting; but I’ll remember, for your sake, when I’ve time. Eh? where were we before this little picturesque incident? You were saying I should have money—to pay my fare, &c. Well, that’s fair enough. Make it enough for two, and we’ll be off, eh, Bob? and trouble her no more.”
But Robbie did not say a word. It was not any wise resolution taken; it was rather a fit of temper, which the other, used to his moods, knew would pass away. Lew gave another shrug of his shoulders, and even a glance of confidential criticism to the mother, as if she were in the secret too. “One of his moods,” he said, nodding at her. “But, bless you! when one knows how to take him, they don’t last.” He touched her shoulder with a half caress. “You go and lie down a bit and rest. You’re too tired for any more. We’ll have it all out to-night, or at another time.”
“I am quite ready now—I am quite ready,” she cried, terrified to let the opportunity slip. He nodded at her again, and waved his hand with a smile. “Come along, Bob, come along; let us leave her in quiet. To-night will be soon enough to settle all that—to-night or—another time.” He took Rob by the arm, and pushed his reluctant and half-resisting figure out of the room. Robert was sullen and indisposed to his usual submission.
“Let me go,” he said, shaking off the hand on his arm; “do you think I’m going to be pushed about like a go-cart?”
“If you’re a go-cart, I wish you’d let me slip into you,” said the other. It was not a very great joke, but Robert at another moment would have hailed it with a shout of laughter. He received it only with a shrug of his shoulders now.