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Malcolm Chapter 1 - Miss Horn · The George McDonald Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER I. MISS HORNE. Nah, nah. I had no feelings,
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  Speaker 1: I'm thankful to say. I never can't any good come
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  Speaker 1: o' them. They're a terrible sight in the gate.' Nobody
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  Speaker 1: ever thought I layin' it to your charge, ma'am.' Deed,
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  Speaker 1: I had nuff ado to do the thing I had
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  Speaker 1: to do,' not to say the thing that nobody would
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  Speaker 1: do but myself.' I had no leisure for feelin's in that,'
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  Speaker 1: insisted Miss Horne.' But here a heavy step descending the
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  Speaker 1: stair just outside the room' attracted her attention,' and checking
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  Speaker 1: the flow of her speech perforce,' with three ungainly strides
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  Speaker 1: she reached the landing.' Watty Witherspail! Watty!' 'she called after
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  Speaker 1: the footsteps down the stair.' Yes, ma'am.'' answered a gruff
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  Speaker 1: voice from below.' Watty, when you fest the bit boxy,'
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  Speaker 1: just pit a hammer and a puckle nails in your
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  Speaker 1: poach' to mend the hen-house door.' The tain maun be
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  Speaker 1: a tenant till as well as the tither.'' The bit
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  Speaker 1: boxy was the coffin of her third cousin Griselda Campbell,'
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  Speaker 1: whose body lay in the room on her left hand'
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  Speaker 1: as she called down the stair.' Into that on her
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  Speaker 1: right Miss Horne now re-entered' to rejoin Mrs. Mellis,' the
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  Speaker 1: wife of the principal draper in the town,' who had
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  Speaker 1: called ostensibly to condole with her, but really to see
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  Speaker 1: the corpse.' Aye, she was ta'en young,' sighed the visitor,
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  Speaker 1: with long-drawn tones and a shake of the head, implying
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  Speaker 1: that therein lay ground of complaint, at which poor mortals
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  Speaker 1: dared but hint.' Not that young,' returned Miss Horne.' She
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  Speaker 1: was upon the edge o' aught and thirty.'' Well, she
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  Speaker 1: had a sair time o't.'' Not that sair, so far
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  Speaker 1: as I can see.' And who should ken better?' She' s
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  Speaker 1: had a bin dawn sittin',' and should ha' had as
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  Speaker 1: long as I was to the fore.'' Nah, nah, it
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  Speaker 1: was nother so young, nor yet so sair.'' Aye, but
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  Speaker 1: she was a patient creature with all flesh,' persisted Mrs. Mellis,
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  Speaker 1: as if she would not willingly be foiled in the
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  Speaker 1: attempt to extort for the dead some syllable of acknowledgment
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  Speaker 1: from the lips of her late companion.' Deed she was that,
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  Speaker 1: a wean o'erpatient with some. But that came o'hadn't mair
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  Speaker 1: heart nor brains. She had feelings gin you like, and
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  Speaker 1: to spare, but I never took o'er any of the stock.
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  Speaker 1: It's a pity she had not the judgment to match.''
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  Speaker 1: for she never misdoubted anybody enough.' But I want it
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  Speaker 1: is not matter now,' for she's gone where it's less wanted.'
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  Speaker 1: For when it has the harmlessness of the dove' in
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  Speaker 1: this ill-willed world,' there' s a feck of ten that has
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  Speaker 1: the wisdom of the serpent,' and the serpent makes her
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  Speaker 1: work with the doves,' let alone them it flees into
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  Speaker 1: the very mouths of them.'' Well, you're just right there,'
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  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Mellis,' and as you say, she was aye
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  Speaker 1: some easy to persuade.' I ha no doubt she believed
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  Speaker 1: to the very last' he would come back and marry her,'
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  Speaker 1: Come back and marry her.' Who or what do you mean?'
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  Speaker 1: I just tell you, Mistress Mellis,' and it's well you're named.'
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  Speaker 1: Can you dare to hint at one word of such, clavvers?'
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  Speaker 1: It' s this side of this door of mine used to
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  Speaker 1: be less acquainted with.'' As she spoke, the hawk-eyes of
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  Speaker 1: Miss Horne' glowed on each side of her hawk-nose,' which
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  Speaker 1: grew more and more hooked as she glared,' while her
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  Speaker 1: neck went craning forward' as if she were on the
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  Speaker 1: point of making a swoop on the offender.' Mrs. Mellis's
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  Speaker 1: voice trembled with something very like fear' as she replied,'
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  Speaker 1: Good guidance, Miss Horne.' What have I said to gar
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  Speaker 1: you look at me 'so by ordinary as that?'' Said,'
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  Speaker 1: repeated Miss Horne,' in a tone that revealed both annoyance
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  Speaker 1: with herself' and contempt for her visitor.' There' s no a
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  Speaker 1: clever in all the countryside' that ye maun fess at
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  Speaker 1: home aneath your oxter,' as gin it were the prodigal
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  Speaker 1: afore he repented.' You sae get small thanks for such
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  Speaker 1: like here,' and her lying there as she lied till
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  Speaker 1: the judgment day,' poor thing.'' I' m sure I meant no offence,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Horne,' said her visitor.' I thought all but he
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  Speaker 1: can't that she was ill about him.' About who in
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  Speaker 1: the name of the father lies? Oh, about that long-legged
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  Speaker 1: doctor that set out for the Ingies and died afore
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  Speaker 1: he won across the equator. Only folks said he was
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  Speaker 1: no more dead nor a halvert worm, and would be
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  Speaker 1: home when she was married. It's all lies frae head
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  Speaker 1: to foot and frae heart to skin. Well, it was
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  Speaker 1: plain to see she dwind away after he go'd, and
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  Speaker 1: never was herself again. You dinna deny that? It's all havers,
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  Speaker 1: persisted Miss Horne, but in accents considerably softened. She cared
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  Speaker 1: no more about the child, nor I did myself. She dwined,
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  Speaker 1: I grant ye, and he go'd away, I grant ye.
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  Speaker 1: But the wind blows and the water runs, and the
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  Speaker 1: tain has little to do with it hither. Well, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry I said anything to offend ye, and I
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  Speaker 1: cannot say mair. With your leave, Miss Horne, I'll just
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  Speaker 1: gang and take a last look at her poor thing. Deed,
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  Speaker 1: ye should do nothing of the kind. I shall let
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  Speaker 1: nobody glower at her, it would gang and spare just
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  Speaker 1: a cavers about her, Mistress Millis. To say it, such
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  Speaker 1: a dove as my Grisel, poor, soft-hearted, winsome thing,' Would
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  Speaker 1: he look twice at any sicker serpent as him?' Nah, nah, ma'am.'
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  Speaker 1: Gang your ways home,' and come back straight for your
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  Speaker 1: prayers the morn's mornin'.' By that time she'll be quiet
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  Speaker 1: in her coffin,' and I'll be quiet in my temper.'
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  Speaker 1: Sign I'll let you see her.' Maybe.' I wish I
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  Speaker 1: was weel rid of the sight of her,' for I
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  Speaker 1: can abide it.' Lord, I can abide it.' These last
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  Speaker 1: words were uttered in a murmured aside, inaudible to Mrs. Mellis,
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  Speaker 1: to whom, however, they did not apply, but to the
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  Speaker 1: dead body. She rose notwithstanding in considerable displeasure, and with
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  Speaker 1: a formal farewell walked from the room, casting a curious
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  Speaker 1: glance as she left it in the direction of that
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  Speaker 1: where the body lay, and ascended the stairs as slowly
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  Speaker 1: as if on every step she deliberated whether the next
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  Speaker 1: would bear her weight. Miss Horne, who had followed her
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  Speaker 1: to the head of the stair, watched her out of
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  Speaker 1: sight below the landing, when she turned and walked back
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  Speaker 1: once more into the parlour, but with a lingering look
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  Speaker 1: towards the opposite room. as if she saw through the
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  Speaker 1: closed door what lay white on the white bed. It's
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  Speaker 1: a God's mercy I had no feelings, she said to herself,
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  Speaker 1: to even my Bonnie Griselle to sick a long kite-clung
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  Speaker 1: child as yon. Ay, poor Griselle, she's gone frae me
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  Speaker 1: like a knotless thread. End of chapter 1