But the time was not long to
wait. I heard her step pass overhead, and saw her on the stair.
This she descended very quietly, and greeted me with a pale face
and a certain seeming of earnestness, or uneasiness, in her manner
that extremely dashed me.
"My father, James More, will be here soon. He will be very pleased
to see you," she said. And then of a sudden her face flamed, her
eyes lightened, the speech stopped upon her lips; and I made sure
she had observed the kerchief. It was only for a breath that she
was discomposed; but methought it was with a new animation that she
turned to welcome Alan. "And you will be his friend, Alan Breck?"
she cried. "Many is the dozen times I will have heard him tell of
you; and I love you already for all your bravery and goodness."
"Well, well," says Alan, holding her hand in his and viewing her,
"and so this is the young lady at the last of it! David, ye're an
awful poor hand of a description."
I do not know that ever I heard him speak so straight to people's
hearts; the sound of his voice was like song.
"What? will he have been describing me?" she cried.
"Little else of it since I ever came out of France!" says he,
"forby a bit of a speciment one night in Scotland in a shaw of wood
by Silvermills. But cheer up, my dear! ye're bonnier than what he
said. And now there's one thing sure; you and me are to be a pair
of friends. I'm a kind of a henchman to Davie here; I'm like a
tyke at his heels; and whatever he cares for, I've got to care for
too--and by the holy airn! they've got to care for me! So now you
can see what way you stand with Alan Breck, and ye'll find ye'll
hardly lose on the transaction. He's no very bonnie, my dear, but
he's leal to them he loves."
"I thank you from my heart for your good words," said she. "I have
that honour for a brave, honest man that I cannot find any to be
answering with."
Using travellers' freedom, we spared to wait for James More, and
sat down to meat, we threesome. Alan had Catriona sit by him and
wait upon his wants: he made her drink first out of his glass, he
surrounded her with continual kind gallantries, and yet never gave
me the most small occasion to be jealous; and he kept the talk so
much in his own hand, and that in so merry a note, that neither she
nor I remembered to be embarrassed. If any had seen us there, it
must have been supposed that Alan was the old friend and I the
stranger. Indeed, I had often cause to love and to admire the man,
but I never loved or admired him better than that night; and I
could not help remarking to myself (what I was sometimes rather in
danger of forgetting) that he had not only much experience of life,
but in his own way a great deal of natural ability besides. As for
Catriona, she seemed quite carried away; her laugh was like a peal
of bells, her face gay as a May morning; and I own, although I was
well pleased, yet I was a little sad also, and thought myself a
dull, stockish character in comparison of my friend, and very unfit
to come into a young maid's life, and perhaps ding down her gaiety.
But if that was like to be my part, I found that at least I was not
alone in it; for, James More returning suddenly, the girl was
changed into a piece of stone. Through the rest of that evening,
until she made an excuse and slipped to bed, I kept an eye upon her
without cease; and I can bear testimony that she never smiled,
scarce spoke, and looked mostly on the board in front of her. So
that I really marvelled to see so much devotion (as it used to be)
changed into the very sickness of hate.
Of James More it is unnecessary to say much; you know the man
already, what there was to know of him; and I am weary of writing
out his lies. Enough that he drank a great deal, and told us very
little that was to any possible purpose. As for the business with
Alan, that was to be reserved for the morrow and his private
hearing.