Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 131.djvu/481

Rh then you may bid good-bye to Portlossie, for there's not a house, as you very well know, in all the Seaton that belongs to another than her ladyship."

"'Deed, Mr. Crathie," returned Meg Partan, a little sobered by the threat, "ye wad hae mair sense nor rin the risk o' an uprisin' o' the fisher-fowk. They wad ill stan' to see my auld man an' me misused, no to say 'at her leddyship hersel' wad see ony o' her ain fowk turned oot o' hoose an' haudin' for naething ava."

"Her leddyship wad gie hersel' sma' concern gien the haill bilin' o' ye war whaur ye cam frae," returned the factor.

"An' for the toon here, the fowk ken the guid o' a quiet caus'ay ower weel to lament the loss o' ye."

"The deil's i' the man!" cried the Partaness in high scorn. "He wad threip upo' me 'at I'm ane o' thae lang-tongued limmers 'at make themsel's hard frae ae toon's en' to the tither! But I s' gar him priv's words yet."

"Ye see, sir," interposed the mild Partan, anxious to shove extremities aside, "we didna ken 'at there was onything intill't by ord'nar. Gien we had but kent 'at he was oot o' your guid graces ——"

"Haud yer tongue afore ye lee, man," interrupted his wife. "Ye ken weel eneuch ye wad du what Ma'colm MacPhail wad hae ye du, for ony factor in braid Scotlan'."

"You must have known," said the factor to the Partan, apparently heedless of this last outbreak of the generous evil temper, and laying a cunning trap for the information he sorely wanted, but had as yet failed in procuring, "else why was it that not a soul went with him? He could ill manage the boat alone."

"What put sic buff an' styte i' yer heid, sir," rejoined Meg, defiant of the hints her husband sought to convey to her. "There's mony ane wad hae been ready to gang, only wha sud gang but him 'at gaed wi' him an' 's lordship frae the first?"

"And who was that?" asked Mr. Crathie.

"Ow, wha but Blue Peter?" answered Meg.

"Hm!" said the factor in a tone that, for almost the first time in her life, made the woman regret that she had spoken, and therewith he rose and left the cottage.

"Eh, mither!" cried Lizzy, in her turn appearing from the ben-end with her child in her arms, "ye hae wroucht ruin i' the earth! He'll hae Peter an' Annie an' a' oot o' hoose an' ha', come midsummer."

"I daur him till't!" cried her mother in the impotence and self-despite of a mortifying blunder: "I'll raise the toon upon 'im."

"What wad that du, mither?" returned Lizzy in distress about her friends: "it wad but mak ill waur."

"An' wha are ye to oppen yer mou' sae to yer mither?" burst forth Meg Partan, glad of an object upon which the chagrin that consumed her might issue in flame. "Ye haena luikit to yer ain gait sae weel 'at ye can threip to set richt them 'at broucht ye furth. Wha are ye, I say?" she repeated in rage.

"Ane 'at folly's made wiser maybe, mither," answered Lizzy sadly, and proceeded to take her shawl from behind the door. She would go to her friends at Scaurnose and communicate her fears for their warning. But her words smote the mother within the mother, and she turned and looked at her daughter with more of the woman and less of the Partan in her rugged countenance than had been visible there since the first week of her married life. She had been greatly injured by the gaining of too easy a conquest and resultant supremacy over her husband, and had ever after revelled in a rule too absolute for good to any concerned. As she was turning away her daughter caught a glimpse of her softened eyes, and went out of the house with more comfort in her heart than she had felt ever since first she had given her conscience cause to speak daggers to her.

The factor in his wrath ran half the way home, flung himself trembling on his horse, vouchsafing his anxious wife scarce any answer to her inquires, and galloped to Duff Harbor to Mr. Soutar. I will not occupy my tale with their interview. Suffice it to say that the lawyer succeeded at last in convincing the demented factor that it would be but prudent to delay measures for the recovery of the yacht and the arrest and punishment of its abductors until he knew what Lady Lossie would say to the affair. She had always had a-liking for the lad, Mr. Soutar said, and he would not be in the least surprised to hear that Malcolm had gone straight to her ladyship and put himself under her protection. No doubt by this time the boat was at its owner's disposal: it would be just like the fellow. He always went the nearest road anywhere; and to prosecute him for a thief would in any case but bring down the ridicule of the whole coast upon the factor, and breed him endless annoyance in the getting in of his rents, especially amongst the fishermen.