Whats Mines Mine, vol 3 | Page 8

way, Alister!
What would you answer him?"
"I would say, 'My dear sir,'--I may say 'My dear sir,' may I not? there is

something about the man I like!--'I do not want your money. I will not
have your money. Give me your daughter, and my soul will bless you.'"
"Suppose he should reply,' Do you think I am going to send my
daughter from my house like a beggar? No, no, my boy! she must carry
something with her! If beggars married beggars, the world would be
full of beggars!'--what would you say then?"
"I would tell him I had conscientious scruples about taking his money."
"He would tell you you were a fool, and not to be trusted with a wife.
'Who ever heard such rubbish!' he would say. 'Scruples, indeed! You
must get over them! What are they?'--What would you say then?"
"If it came to that, I should have no choice but tell him I had
insuperable objections to the way his fortune was made, and could not
consent to share it."
"He would protest himself insulted, and swear, if his money was not
good enough for you, neither was his daughter. What then?"
"I would appeal to Mercy."
"She is too young. It would be sad to set one of her years at variance
with her family. I almost think I would rather you ran away with her. It
is a terrible thing to go into a house and destroy the peace of those
relations which are at the root of all that is good in the world."
"I know it! I know it! That is my trouble! I am not afraid of Mercy's
courage, and I am sure she would hold out. I am certain nothing would
make her marry the man she did not love. But to turn the house into a
hell about her--I shrink from that!--Do you count it necessary to
provide against every contingency before taking the first step?"
"Indeed I do not! The first step is enough. When that step has landed us,
we start afresh. But of all things you must not lose your temper with the
man. However despicable his money, you are his suitor for his daughter!
And he may possibly not think you half good enough for her."
"That would be a grand way out of the difficulty!"
"How?"
"It would leave me far freer to deal with her."
"Perhaps. And in any case, the more we can honestly avoid reference to
his money, the better. We are not called on to rebuke."
"Small is my inclination to allude to it--so long as not a stiver of it
seeks to cross to the Macruadh!"
"That is fast as fate. But there is another thing, Alister: I fear lest you

should ever forget that her birth and her connections are no more a part
of the woman's self than her poverty or her wealth."
"I know it, Ian. I will not forget it."
"There must never be a word concerning them!"
"Nor a thought, Ian! In God's name I will be true to her."
They found Annie of the shop in a sad way. She had just had a letter
from Lachlan, stating that he had not been well for some time, and that
there was little prospect of his being able to fetch her. He prayed her
therefore to go out to him; and had sent money to pay her passage and
her mother's.
"When do you go?" asked the chief.
"My mother fears the voyage, and is very unwilling to turn her back on
her own country. But oh, if Lachlan die, and me not with him!"
She could say no more.
"He shall not die for want of you!" said the laird. "I will talk to your
mother."
He went into the room behind. Ian remained in the shop.
"Of course you must go, Annie!" he said.
"Indeed, sir, I must! But how to persuade my mother I do not know!
And I cannot leave her even for Lachlan. No one would nurse him
more tenderly than she; but she has a horror of the salt water, and what
she most dreads is being buried in it. She imagines herself drowning to
all eternity!"
"My brother will persuade her."
"I hope so, sir. I was just coming to him! I should never hold up my
head again--in this world or the next--either if I did not go, or if I went
without my mother! Aunt Conal told me, about a month since, that I
was going a long journey, and would never come back. I asked her if I
was to die on the way, but she would not answer me. Anyhow I'm not
fit to be his wife, if I'm not ready to die