"Can I not?" said he; and therewith he repeated the lines, never faltering once for a phrase—
"I left ye, Jeanie, blooming fair
'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny;
I've found ye on the banks o' Ayr,
But sair ye're altered, Jeanie.
I left ye like the wanton lamb
That plays 'mang Hadyed's heather;
I've found ye noo a sober dame—
A wife and eke a mither.
I left ye 'mang the leaves sae green
In rustic weed befittin';
I've found ye buskit like a queen,
In painted chaumer sittin'.
Ye're fairer, statelier, I can see,
Ye're wiser, nae doubt, Jeanie;
But oh! I'd rather met wi' thee
'Mang the bourocks of Bargeny!"
"It's very sad, grandfather," she said, wistfully.
"The way of the world—the way of the world," said he; and observing that she had finished and was waiting for him, he forthwith rose and went to the mantelpiece for his pipe. "There's many a true story of that kind. Well, Maisrie, you'll just get your violin, and we'll have the 'Broom o' the Cowdenknowes?'" And while she went to fetch the violin, and as he cut his tobacco, he sang in a quavering voice—
"O the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom,
The broom o' the Cowdenknowes,
I wish I were at hame again
Where the broom sae sweetly grows!"
And then he went to the window, to smoke his pipe in peace and quiet, while Maisrie, seated further back in the shadow of the room, played for him the well-known air. Did she guess—and fear—that she might have an audience of more than one? At all events her doubts were soon resolved: when she had ceased, and after a second or so of silence, there came another sound into the prevailing hush—it was one of the Songs without Words, and it was being played with considerable delicacy and charm.
"Hallo," said Mr. Bethune, when he heard the first low-rippling notes, "have we a musical neighbour now?"
"Yes, grandfather," Maisrie replied, rather timidly. "Last night, when you were out, some one played."
"Ah, a music-mistress, I dare say. Poor thing—perhaps all alone—and wishing to be friendly in this sort of fashion."
They listened without further speech until the last notes had gradually died away.