After this delay, Norman put away his pipe, and bending forward with his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands, he said, "Christine, I hae brought you a message. I hated to bring it, but thought it would come more kindly from my lips, than in any ither way."
"Weel, Norman, what is it? Who sent you wi' it?"
"My wife sent me. She says she will be obligated to you, if you'll move out o' the Ruleson cottage, as soon as possible. She is wanting to get moved and settled ere the spring fishing begins. These words are hers, not mine, Christine. I think however it is right you should know exactly what you hae to meet. What answer do you send her?"
"You may tell her, Norman, that I will ne'er move out o' the Ruleson cottage. It is mine as long as I live, and I intend to hold, and to live in it."
"Jessy has persuaded hersel' and a good many o' the women in the village, that you ought to marry Cluny as soon as he comes back to Glasgow, and go and live in that city, so as to make a kind o' a home there, for the lad. There was a crowd o' them talking that way, when I came up frae the boat this afternoon, and old Judith was just scattering them wi' her fearsome words."
"Norman, I shall not marry until a year is full o'er from Mither's death. Mither had the same fear in her heart, and I promised her on the Sacred Word, which was lying between us at the time, that I wouldna curtail her full year o' remembrance, no, not one minute! That is a promise made to the dead. I would not break it, for a' the living men in Scotland."
"They were talking of Cluny's rights, and----"
"Cluny hes no rights but those my love gives him. I will not marry for a year, at least. I will not live in Glasgow. I will bide in my ain hame. It suits me fine. I can do a' the writing I want to do in its white, still rooms. I can see wee Jamie here every day. I am out o' clash and claver o' the village folk. I can watch the sea and the ships, and feel the winds, and the sunshine, and do my wark, and eat my morsel in parfect peace. Na, na, the auld hame suits me fine! Tell your wife Christine Ruleson will live and die in it."
Norman did not move or speak, and Christine asked anxiously, "Do you wish me to leave Culraine, and go to Glasgow, Norman?"