“I always feel as if I was copying out the same letter every time I write,” whined out a weak, sickly voice.
“The safest thing ye could do,” replied he, gravely. “She never tires o' reading that everybody on the estate is a fule or a scoundrel, and ye canna be far wrang when ye say the worst o' them all. Hae ye told her aboot the burnin' at Kyle-a-Noe?”
“Yes, I have said that you have little doubt it was malicious.”
“And hae ye said that there's not a sixpence to be had out of the whole townland of Kiltimmon?”
“I have. I have told her that, except Miss Mary herself, nobody would venture into the barony.”
“The greater fule yerself, then,” said he, angrily. “Couldna ye see that she'll score this as a praise o' the young leddy's courage? Ye maun just strike it out, ma'am, and say that the place is in open rebellion--”
“I thought you bade me say that Miss Mary had gone down there and spoken to the people--”
“I bade ye say,” broke he angrily in, “that Miss Mary declared no rent should be demanded o' them in their present distress; that she threw the warrants into the fire, and vowed that if we called a sale o' their chattels, she 'd do the same at the castle, and give the people the proceeds.”
“You only said that she was in such a passion that she declared she 'd be right in doing so.”
“I hae nae time for hair-splitting, ma'am. I suppose if she had a right she 'd exercise it! Put down the words as I gie them to ye! Ye hae no forgotten the conspeeracy?”
“I gave it exactly as you told me, and I copied out the two paragraphs in the papers about it, beginning, 'Great scandal,' and 'If our landed gentry expect--'”
“That's right; and ye hae added the private history of Joan? They 'll make a fine thing o' that on the trial, showing the chosen associate o' a young leddy to hae been naething better than--Ech! what are ye blubberin' aboot,--is it yer feelin's agen? Ech! ma'am, ye are too sentimental for a plain man like me!”
This rude speech was called up by a smothering effort to conceal emotion, which would not be repressed, but burst forth in a violent fit of sobbing.
“I know you didn't mean it. I know you were not thinking--”
“If ye canna keep your ain counsel, ye must just pay the cost o' it,” said he, savagely. “Finish the letter there, and let me send it to the post. I wanted ye to say a' about the Nelligans comin' up to visit Miss Mary, and she goin' ower the grounds wi' them, and sendin' them pineapples and grapes, and how that the doctor's girls are a'ways wi' her, and that she takes old Catty out to drive along wi' herself in the pony phaeton, which is condescendin' in a way her Leddyship will no approve o'. There was mony a thing beside I had in my head, but ye hae driven them a' clean awa' wi' your feelin's!” And he gave the last word with an almost savage severity.