"Now I would speak the last Farewell, but cannot;
It would be still Farewell a thousand times;
So let us part in the dumb pomp of grief."
* * * * *
"Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And if so easy and so plain a stop
The still discordant, wavering multitude
Can play upon't."
At that time, Mary saw no more of her Cousin Allan. He had gone when she
rose next morning, gone away in a slow, even downpour of rain, that was
devoid of every hope of blue sky or sunshine. On the river they were in a
cloud of fog impenetrable to sight, and inexpressibly dreary. Everything
also in the little boat was clammy and uncomfortable. There was a long day
before Allan; for his business scarcely occupied him an hour, and then he
went out into the black, chill street, and felt thoroughly miserable. His
father's face had been so white, his hands had trembled so, he had made
such a brave effort to say a cheerful 'good-by.' Allan's conscience
troubled him; he felt supremely selfish, he could not satisfy himself that
he had any right to put so good a parent to so much sorrow.
If he could have written to Maggie, it would have been some consolation.
But he had not been able to make any arrangements for that solace. A post
office did not exist in Pittenloch; if a letter were addressed there, it
lay in Dysart until the Dysart postmistress happened to see some one from
Pittenloch. Under such circumstances, there was no telling into whose
hands his letters might fall. And a letter to Maggie Promoter from strange
parts, would be a circumstance to rouse unbounded curiosity. Either
curiosity would be illegitimately satisfied, or Maggie would be the object
of endless suspicions.
He thought of David, but there would be little comfort in seeing David,
for he could not talk to him of Maggie. Allan would have liked well to
confide in David, and explain, as he thought he ought to, his honorable
intentions toward his sister; but Maggie had earnestly entreated that
nothing should be said to her brother. "He'll be aye questioning me. He'll
be aye watching me. He'll maybe tell folks, and I'll feel everybody's eye
is on me. Forbye, he willna be as happy in what you hae done for him. He
thinks now, it was just for your admiration o' his abilities, and your
liking for his sel', that you sent him to Glasga' College. If he kent you
thocht o' me, he wad be sure it was for my sake, and that wad jist tak'
the good out o' everything for Davie." Thus, Maggie had reasoned, and
Allan thought her reasoning both generous and prudent.