"What makes you ask that?"
"Oh, I dinna ken, Rob, but jist thought you micht hae kent something,"
she answered evasively.
"No, I dinna ken onything at all aboot her, mither," he said. "If I had
kent onything, dae you think I'd hae kept quiet?"
"Oh, I dinna mean that, Rob," she replied with relief in her voice, "but
I thought that you might hae heard something. That Leezie Johnstone was
in here the day, an' you ken hoo she talks. She was makin' oot that
Mysie had gane wrang, and had ran awa' tae hide it."
"Leezie Johnstone had little to do sayin' onything o' the kind," he said
with some heat in his voice. "There never was a dirty coo in the byre
but it liket a neighbor. I suppose she'll be thinkin' that a' lasses
were like her. These kind of folk hae dam'd strange ideas aboot things.
They get it into their heads it is wrang to do certain things when folk
are no married, but the cloak of marriage flung aboot them mak's the
same things richt. They hinna the brains o' a sewer rat in their
noddles, the dam'd hypocrites that they are!"
"Dinna swear, Rob!" said Mrs. Sinclair, interrupting him. "Do you ken,"
she went on, her astonishment plainly evident in her face and voice,
"that is the first time I ever heard you swear in a' my life!"
"Well, mither, I am sorry; but I couldna' help it.
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