"Ye can at least gang whaur ye ha'e a chance o' learnin'," returned
his friend.--"Come an' tak yer supper wi' me the nicht--a
rizzart haddie an' an egg, an' I'll tell ye mair aboot yer mither."
But Malcolm avoided a promise, lest it should interfere with what
he might find best to do.
CHAPTER IV: KELPIE'S AIRING
When Miss Horn left him--with a farewell kindlier than her
greeting--rendered yet more restless by her talk, he went back
to the stable, saddled Kelpie, and took her out for an airing.
As he passed the factor's house, Mrs Crathie saw him from the
window. Her colour rose. She arose herself also, and looked after
him from the door--a proud and peevish woman, jealous of her
husband's dignity, still more jealous of her own.
"The verra image o' the auld markis!" she said to herself; for in
the recesses of her bosom she spoke the Scotch she scorned to utter
aloud; "and sits jist like himsel', wi' a wee stoop i' the saiddle,
and ilka noo an' than a swing o' his haill boady back, as gien some
thoucht had set him straught.--Gien the fractious brute wad but
brak a bane or twa o' him!" she went on in growing anger. "The
impidence o' the fallow! He has his leave: what for disna he tak'
it an' gang? But oot o' this gang he sail. To ca' a man like mine a
heepocreet 'cause he wadna procleem till a haul market ilka secret
fau't o' the horse he had to sell! Haith, he cam' upo' the wrang
side o' the sheet to play the lord and maister here! and that I
can tell him!"
The mare was fresh, and the roads through the policy hard both
by nature and by frost, so that he could not let her go, and had
enough to do with her.
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