A Daughter of Fife

Allan gratefully ate supper with the elder, but he preferred to occupy his

old room in the Promoter cottage. "I have a kind of right there," he said,

with a sorrowful smile, "I hired it for two years, and my term is not

quite out yet."

"And David told me also, that whenever you came, this year, or any year,

to gie you the key o' it. You will find a' your books and pictures

untouched; for when Dr. Balmuto heard tell what trouble Maggie had had to

keep Janet Caird oot o' it, he daured her to put her foot inside; and

Davie cam' himsel' not long after, and took her back to Dron Point in a

whiff and a hurry, wi' nae words aboot it."

"I am afraid David is much to blame about his sister. He should have let

Maggie stay with him."

"I'll no hear David Promoter blamed. He explained the hale circumstances

o' the case to me, and I dinna think the charge o' a grown, handsome girl

like Maggie was comformable, or to be thocht o'. A man that is climbing

the pu'pit stairs, canna hae any woman hanging on to him. It's no decent,

it's no to be expectit. You ken yoursel' what women are, they canna be

trusted wi' out bit and bridle, and David Promoter, when he had heard a'

that Maggie had to complain o', thocht still that she needed over-sight,

and that it was best for her to be among her ain people. He sent her back

wi' a letter to Dr. Balmuto, and he told her to bide under the doctor's

speech and ken, and the girl ought to hae done what she was bid to do; and

so far I dinna excuse her; and I dinna think her brother is to hae a word

o' blame. A divinity student has limitations, sir; and womenfolk are clean

outside o' them."

The elder was not a man who readily admitted petty faults in his own sex.

He thought women had a monopoly of them. He was quite ready to confess

that their tongues had been "tongues o' fire;" but then, he said, "Maggie

had the 'Ordinances' and the 'Promises,' and she should hae waited wi'

mair patience. Davie was doing weel to himsel' and going to be an honor to

her, and to the village, and the country, and the hale Kirk o' Scotland,

and it was the heighth o' unreason to mak' him accountable for trouble

that cam' o' women's tongues."

That night Allan slept again in his old room; but we cannot bring back the

old feelings by simply going back to the old places. Besides, nothing was

just the same. His room wanted, he knew not what; he could not hear the

low murmur of Maggie's voice as she talked to her brother; or the solemn

sound of David's, as he read the Exercise. Footfalls, little laughs,

slight movements, the rustle of garments, so many inexpressible keys to

emotion were silent. He was too tired also to lay any sensible plans for

finding Maggie; before he knew it, he had succumbed to his physical and

mental weariness, and fallen fast asleep.