"No, but her sister, Mrs. Paterson," replied the other. "And is it possible ye can hae forgotten the only woman who was present at your first marriage?"
"Ay, ay," replied Tammas, as he began to come to a proper condition of perceiving and thinking; "and it was you, then, wha was here this morning?"
"No, no," replied she; "I have not been here for seven long years, even since that terrible night when you pushed Janet into the North Loch."
"And may Heaven and its angels hae mercy upon me!" ejaculated he.
"Aiblins they may," said she, "for your purpose was defeated; yea, even by that Heaven and thae angels."
"What mean you, woman?" cried the astonished man. "What, in the name o' a' that's gude on earth and holy in heaven, do ye mean?"
"Just that Janet Dodds is at this hour a leevin' woman," was the reply.
"The Lord be thanked!" cried Tammas again, "for 'He preserveth all them that love Him.'"
"'But all the wicked He will destroy,'" returned she; "and surely it was wicked to try to drown sae faithful a wife and sae gude a Christian."
"Wicked!" rejoined he, in rising agony. "'Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let them reprove me, it shall,' as Solomon says, 'be an excellent oil.'"