"Oh, my cheeny, my cheeny! Oh, my bonnie cups that I hae used for forty
years, and no' a piece broken afore!"
"Ah, weel, Janet," said the elder, "you shouldna badger an angry man
when he's drinking from your best cups."
"I canna mend nor match it in the whole Province, Elder. Oh, my bonnie
cup."
"I was thinking, Janet, o' Katherine's good name. If it is gane, it is
neither to mend nor to match in the whole wide world. I'll awa' and see
Joris and Lysbet. And put every cross thought where you'll never find
them again, Janet; an tak' your good-will in your hands, and come wi'
me. Lysbet will want to see you."
"Not her, indeed! I can tell you, Elder, that Lysbet was vera cool and
queer wi' me yesterday."
"Come, Janet, dinna keep your good-nature in remnants. Let's hae enough
to make a cloak big enough to cover a' bygone faults."
"I think, then, I ought to stay wi' Neil."
"Neil doesna want anybody near him. Leave him alane. Neil's a' right.
Forty years syne I would hae broke my mother's cheeny, and drawn steel
as quick as Neil did, if I heard a word against bonnie Janet Gordon."
And the old man made his wife a bow; and madam blushed with pleasure,
and went upstairs to put on her bonnet and India shawl.
"Woman, woman," meditated the smiling elder; "she is never too angry to
be won wi' a mouthful o' sweet words, special if you add a bow or a kiss
to them. My certie! when a husband can get his ain way at sic a sma'
price, it's just wonderfu' he doesna buy it in perpetuity."
Joris was somewhat comforted by his old friend's sympathy; for the
elder, in the hour of trial, knew how to be magnanimous. But the
father's wound lay deeper than human love could reach. He was suffering
from what all suffer who are wounded in their affections; for alas,
alas, how poorly do we love even those whom we love most! We are not
only bruised by the limitations of their love for us, but also by the
limitations of our own love for them. And those who know what it is to
be strong enough to wrestle, and yet not strong enough to overcome, will
understand how the grief, the anger, the jealousy, the resentment, from
which he suffered, amazed Joris; he had not realized before the depth
and strength of his feelings.