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049 - A Daring Visit · Whats Mines Mine

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  Speaker 1: Volume three, chapter fifteen of What's Mine's Mind by George
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  Speaker 1: mac Donald. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: A daring visit, Mercy soon learned that some sort of
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  Speaker 1: encounter had taken place between her father's shooting party and
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  Speaker 1: some of the clan. Also that the chief was hurt,
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  Speaker 1: but not in what manner, for by silent agreement that
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  Speaker 1: was not mentioned, it might seem to put them in
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  Speaker 1: the wrong. She had heard enough, however, to fill her
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  Speaker 1: with anxiety. Her window commanding the ridge by the castle,
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  Speaker 1: she seated herself to watch that point with her opera glass.
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  Speaker 1: When the hill party came from behind the ruin, she
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  Speaker 1: missed his tall figure amongst his people, and presently discovered
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  Speaker 1: him lying very white on one of the carts. Her
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  Speaker 1: heart became as water within her, but instant contriving how
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  Speaker 1: she could reach him, kept her up by and bye.
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  Speaker 1: Christina came to tell her she had just heard from
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  Speaker 1: one of the servants that the Macrude was shot. Mercy,
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  Speaker 1: having seen him alive, heard the frightful news with tolerable calmness.
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  Speaker 1: Christina said she would do her best to discover before
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  Speaker 1: the morning how much he was hurt. No one in
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  Speaker 1: the house seemed able to tell her. Mercy, to avoid
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  Speaker 1: implicating her, sister, held her peace as to her own intention.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as it was dark, she prepared to steal
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  Speaker 1: from the house, dreading nothing but prevention. When her dinner
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  Speaker 1: was brought her and she knew they were all safe
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  Speaker 1: in the dining room, she drew her plaid over her head, and,
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  Speaker 1: leaving her food untasted, stole half down the stair. Whence,
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  Speaker 1: watching her opportunity between the comings and goings of the
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  Speaker 1: waiting servants, she presently got away unseen, crept softly past
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  Speaker 1: the windows, and when out of the shrubbery, darted off
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  Speaker 1: at her full speed. Her breath was all but gone
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  Speaker 1: when she knocked at the drawing room door of the cottage.
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  Speaker 1: It opened, and there stood the mother of her chief.
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  Speaker 1: The moment Missus mcgrud saw her, leaving her no time
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  Speaker 1: to say a word, she boored down upon her life
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  Speaker 1: one vessel that would sink another, pushing her from the
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  Speaker 1: door and pulling it to behind her stern. As righteous fate,
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  Speaker 1: Mercy was not going to be put down. However, she
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  Speaker 1: was doing nothing wrong. How is them crude? Please? She
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  Speaker 1: managed to say. Alive but terribly hurt, answered his mother,
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  Speaker 1: and would have borne her out of the open door
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  Speaker 1: of the cottage towards the latch of which she reached
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  Speaker 1: her hand while yet a yard from it. Her action said,
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  Speaker 1: why will Nancy leave the door open? Please? Please? What
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  Speaker 1: is it? Panted Mercy, standing her ground. How is he hurt?
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  Speaker 1: She turned upon her, almost fiercely. This is what you
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  Speaker 1: have done for him, she said, with right, ungenerous reproach.
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  Speaker 1: Your father fired at him on my son's own land
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  Speaker 1: and shot him in the chest. Is he in danger?
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  Speaker 1: Gasped Mercy, leaning against the wall and trembling so she
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  Speaker 1: could scarcely stand. I fear he is in great danger.
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  Speaker 1: If if only the doctor would come, you wouldn't mind
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  Speaker 1: my sitting in the kitchen till he does, whispered Mercy,
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  Speaker 1: her voice all but gone. I could not allow it.
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  Speaker 1: I will not connive at your coming here without the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of your parents. It is not at all a
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  Speaker 1: proper thing for a young lady to do. Then I
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  Speaker 1: will wait outside, said Mercy, her quick temper waking in
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  Speaker 1: spite of her anxiety. She had anticipated coldness, but not
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  Speaker 1: treatment like this. There is one, I think, missus mc crud,
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  Speaker 1: She added, who will not find fault with me for it?
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  Speaker 1: At least he will not tell you so. For some
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  Speaker 1: time the door had not been quite closed, and it
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  Speaker 1: opened noiselessly. She does not mean me, mother, said Alister.
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  Speaker 1: She means Jesus Christ. He would say to you let
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  Speaker 1: her alone. He does not care for society. Its ways
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  Speaker 1: are not his ways, nor its laws. His laws. Come in, Mercy.
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  Speaker 1: I am sorry. My mother's trouble about me should have
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  Speaker 1: made her inhospitable to you. I cannot come in, Alister,
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  Speaker 1: if she will not let me, answered Mercy. Pray walk in,
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  Speaker 1: said missus mc crud. She would have passed Mercy going
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  Speaker 1: toward the kitchen, but the trance was narrow and Mercy
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  Speaker 1: did not move. You see, Alister, I cannot, she insisted.
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  Speaker 1: That would not please, would it? She added? Reverently? Tell
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  Speaker 1: me how you are, and I will go and come
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  Speaker 1: again to morrow. Alister told her what had befallen, making
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  Speaker 1: little of the affair, and saying he suspected it was
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  Speaker 1: an accident. Oh thank you, she said, with a sigh
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  Speaker 1: of relief. I meant to sit by the castle wall
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  Speaker 1: till the doctor came, But now I shall get back
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  Speaker 1: before the discover I am gone. Without a word more,
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  Speaker 1: she turned and ran from the house and reached her room,
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  Speaker 1: unmissed and unseen. The next was a dreary hour, the
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  Speaker 1: most painful that mother and son had ever passed together.
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  Speaker 1: The mother was all time buttressing her pride with her grief,
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  Speaker 1: and the sun was cut to the heart that he
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  Speaker 1: should have had to take part against his mother. But
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  Speaker 1: when the doctor came at length and the mother saw
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  Speaker 1: him take out his instruments, the pride that parted her
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  Speaker 1: from her boy melted away. Forgive me, Allister, she whispered,
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  Speaker 1: and his happy kiss comforted her repentant soul. When the
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  Speaker 1: small operations were over and Allister was in bed, she
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  Speaker 1: would have gone to let Mercy know all she could
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  Speaker 1: tell her, but she must not. It would work mischief
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  Speaker 1: in the house. She sat down by Allister's bedside and
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  Speaker 1: watched him all night. He slept well, being in such
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  Speaker 1: a healthful condition of body that his loss of blood
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  Speaker 1: and the presence of the few shots that could not
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  Speaker 1: be found, did him little harm. He yielded to his
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  Speaker 1: mother's entreaties to spend the morning in bed, but was
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  Speaker 1: up long before the evening in the hope of Mercy's coming.
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  Speaker 1: Confident that his mother would now be like herself to her,
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  Speaker 1: she came. My mother, took her in her arms, and
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  Speaker 1: begged her forgiveness. Nor having thus embraced her, could she
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  Speaker 1: any more treat her relation to her son with coldness.
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  Speaker 1: If the girl was ready, as her conduct showed, to
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  Speaker 1: leave all for Allister, she had saved her soul alive.
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  Speaker 1: She was no more one of the enemy. Thus was
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  Speaker 1: the mother repaid for her righteous education of her son.
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  Speaker 1: Through him, her pride received almost a mortal blow, her
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  Speaker 1: justice grew more discriminating, and her righteousness more generous. In
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  Speaker 1: a few days, the chief was out and looking quite himself.
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  Speaker 1: End of Volume three, chapter fifteen, recording by Hannah Mary