And so you are
to be our new priest, are you?"
"I am going to offer myself for a time," said Alick.
"For a time? That's a thing as has two sides to it. If you are not to
our minds, that's its good side: if you are, and we are not to yours,
that's its bad. I doubt if our folk will care to be played Jumping Joan
with in that fashion."
"I will be guided by the will of the Lord," said Alick reverently.
"Humph! I like the words better nor the chances in them," returned
Keziah, taking a pinch of snuff. "But maybe things'll work round as one
would have them; and whether you stay or you do not, the Lord's will be
done, amen! and His grace follow you, young man!"
"Thank you," said Alick with emotion, getting up and shaking the
pickle-stained and snuff-discolored hand.
"I have a message for Miss Leonora Darley," he then said after a pause.
"Mr. Gryce told me I was to be sure and tell him how she was looking."
"Eh, poor bairn! she is not very first-rate," the old woman answered
tenderly. At least it was tenderness in her: in another person her voice
and manner might have been taken for crabbedness and impatience. "She's
up by there, on the fell somewhere. She a'most lives on the fell-side,
but it don't make her look as brisk as I should like. Have you seen the
view from our brow-top? It is a real bonny one; and you'll maybe find
Leonora not far off. I don't think she wanders far."
"I should like to see it," said Alick.
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