She told him everything--where she had spent the time since they parted
--how good Miss Campbell had been to her--how impossible it would have
been to desert her in an hour of such need and peril--how much she had
suffered in her broken tryst, and how longingly and lovingly she would
wait for him at Drumloch, though she waited there until the end of her
life. "And every year," she added, "I'll be, if God let me, in Pittenloch
on the 29th of August, dear Allan;" for she thought it likely he might
come again at that time next year.
Into Mysie's hand this letter was given with many injunctions of secrecy
and care. And then Maggie sat down to eat, and to talk over the minor
details of David's and Allan's visits; and the changes which had occurred
in her native village since she left it. "I dinna want you to say I hae
been here, Mysie. I'll get awa' at the dinner hour, and nane will be the
wiser. I can do nae gude to any one, and I'll maybe set folks wondering
and talking to ill purpose."
"I can hold my whist, Maggie; if it's your will, I'll no speak your name.
And I hope I hae keepit a' things to your liking in the cottage. If sae,
you might gie me a screed o' writing to your brither, sae that when he
comes again, he'll be contented, and willing to let me bide on here."
"I'll do that gladly, Mysie. Hoo is a' wi' you anent wark and siller?"
"I get on, Maggie; and there's a few folk do mair than that; forbye,
Maister Campbell's five pounds will get me many a bit o' comfort this
winter."
"Hoo much weekly does Davie allow you for the caretaking?"
"He didna speak to me himsel'. He left Elder Mackelvine to find some
decent body wha wad be glad o' the comfortable shelter, and the elder gied
me the favor."
"Dinna you hae some bit o' siller beside frae Davie?"
"Na, na; I dinna expect it. The hame pays for the care o' it."
"But I'll hae to pay you for the care o' my letter, Mysie, for I can weel
afford it. I'll gie you two pounds for the next three months; and at the
beginning o' every quarter you'll find the two pounds at the minister's
for you. He'll gie it, or he'll send it to you by the elder."
"I dinna like to be paid for a kindness, Maggie. The young man was gude to
me, and I'd do the kind turn to him gladly."
"Weel, Mysie, David ought to hae minded the bit siller to you, and he wad
dootless hae done it, if he hadna been bothered oot o' his wits wi' Aunt
Janet. Sae, I'm only doing the duty for him. Davie isna mean, he is just
thochtless anent a' things outside o' his college, or his books."