Margaret and the Precentor 421

“T thocht to mysel’, ‘Tammas Whamond, the
Lord has opened a door to you, and you'll be
disgraced for ever if you dinna walk straucht in.’
So I rose again, and I says, boldly, this time,
‘Whaur’s that young leddy? I hae something
to say to her that canna be kept waiting.’

“«<She’s up the stair,’ she says, surprised, ‘ but
you canna ken her, Mr. Whamond, for she just
came last nicht.’

“¢] ken mair o’ her than you think,’ says I;
‘T ken what brocht her here, and ken wha she
thinks she is to be married to, and I’ve come to
tell her that she’ll never get him.’

“¢ Flow no?’ she said, amazed-like.

“« Because,’ said I, wi’ my teeth thegither, ‘he
is already married.’

“ads, I stood waiting to see her fall, and
when she didna fall I just waited langer, thinking
she was slow in taking it a’ in.

“¢T see you ken wha she is,’ she said, looking
at me, *aftd yet I canna credit your news.’

sl héy-re truce, -lcries.

«“<¢Eyven if they are,’ says she, considering, ‘it
may be the best thing that could happen to baith
o’ them.’

“ T sank back in the chair in fair bewilderment,
for I didna ken at that time, as we a’ ken now,
that she was thinking o’ the earl when I was
thinking o’ her son. Dominie, it looked to me
as if the Lord had opened a door to me, and syne
shut it in my face.

“ Syne wi’ me sitting there in a kind 0’ awe 0’
the woman’s simpleness, she began to tell me
what the minister was like when he was a bairn,