"It looks good, Maggie, and I am hungry. Is your brother back?"
"David is hame, sir. It was a hard walk he had. He's tired, I'm thinking."
The last words were said more to herself than to her lodger. She was
somewhat troubled by Davie's face and manner. He had scarcely spoken to
her since his return, but had sat thinking with his head in his hands.
She longed to know what Dr. Balmuto had said to him, but she knew David
Would resent questioning, and likely punish her curiosity by restraining
confidence with her for a day or two. So she spoke only of the storm, and
of the things which had come into her life or knowledge during his
absence.
"Kirsty Wilson has got a sweetheart, David, and her no sixteen yet."
"Kirsty aye thocht a lad was parfect salvation. You shallna be mair than
civil to her. She has heard tell o' the man staying wi' us. It wad be that
brought her here nae doot."
"She was not here at a'. Maggie Johnson telled me. Maggie cam' to borrow a
cup o' sugar. She said Cupar's boat tried to win out o' harbor after the
storm. It could not manage though."
"It was wrang to try it. Folks shouldna tempt Providence."
"The cakes baked weel to-day."
"Ay, they are gude eating."
Then she could think of nothing more to say, and she washed the cups, and
watched the dark, sad man bending over the fire. A vulgar woman, a selfish
woman, would have interrupted that solemn session at her hearth. She would
have turned Inquisitor, and tortured him with questions. "What's the
matter?" "Is there anything wrong?" "Are you sick?" etc., etc. But when
Maggie saw that her brother was not inclined to talk to her, she left him
alone to follow out the drift of his own thoughts. He seemed unconscious
of her presence, and when her active house duties were over, she quietly
pulled her big wheel forward, and began to spin.
The turfs burned red, the cruisie burned low, the wheel "hummed"
monotonously, and Maggie stepped lightly to-and-fro before it. In an hour
the silence became oppressive, she was sleepy, she wished Davie would
speak to her. She laid her fingers on the broad wooden band and was just
going to move, when the inner door was opened, and the stranger stood at
it. His pause was but a momentary one, but the room was all picture to
him, especially the tall fair woman with her hand upon the big wheel, and
her face, sensitive and questioning, turned toward her brother.
"David Promoter."
"Ay, sir." He moved slowly like a man awakening from a sleep, but very
quickly shook off the intense personality of his mood, and turned to the
stranger with a shy and yet keen alertness.