Second Journey to Thrums 878

‘Doubtless while my fa—, while Adam Dishart
lived, she could only think of you with pain;
but after his death —”

“‘ After his death,” I said, quietly, “I was still
so horrible to her that she left Harvie without
letting a soul know whither she was bound. She
dreaded my following her.”

“ Stranger to me,” he said, after a pause, “ than
even your story is her being able to keep it from
me. I believed no thought ever crossed her
mind that she did not let me share.”

“ And none, I am sure, ever did,” I answered,
“save that, and such thoughts as a woman has
with God only. It was my lot to bring disgrace
on her. She thought it nothing less, and she has
hidden it all these years for your sake, until now
it is not burdensome. I suppose she feels that
God has taken the weight off her. Now you are
to put a heavier burden in its place.”

He faced me boldly, and I admire him for
it now.

“ T cannot admit,” he said, “ that I did wrong in
forgetting my mother for that fateful quarter of an
hour. Babbie and I loved each other, and | was
given the opportunity of making her mine or
losing her for ever. Have you forgotten that all
this tragedy you have told me of only grew out
of your own indecision? I took the chance that
you let slip by.”

“T had not forgotten,” I replied. “ What else
made me tell you last night that Babbie was in
Nanny’s house?”

“But now you are afraid,—now when the
deed is done, when for me there can be no turn-