"
"But you said jist the noo, that you sometimes thocht you wadna marry
onybody else?"
"Yes, I ken I said that," she replied. Then with pain in her voice as it
grew more pitiful, "Dinna ask me, Rob, to do that. I ken it wadna be
richt, an' you munna ask me ony mair; for though I said that I sometimes
thocht I wadna marry onybody else, I canna marry you noo. Oh! if only my
mither kent, it would break her heart, an' my faither wad dee o' the
disgrace! What do they think o' me, Rob? Tell me a'--hoo are they, an'
if they miss me very much."
"Your faither and mither nearly broke their hearts," he said simply,
"an' at nicht your mother lies an' thinks an' wonders what has come owre
you. You ken hoo a mither grieves an' worries aboot her bairns. She
never thocht o' sic a thing happening in her family. She was aye sae
prood o' them a'. I heard her say ane day to my mither that she dootit
you maun be deid, or you wad hae sent her word; and that you wadna hae
gane wrang. She never, she said, kent o' you takin' up wi' men, an' was
sure that naething o' that kind had happened."
"Did she really think that, Rob?" asked Mysie, glad to know that her
mother had believed in her virtue, yet pained.
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