“Ay,” replied the old man, bitterly, “you’re dull in the uptak’ when you like!  I dinna ken, I suppose, and you dinna ken, that if you had the least dread o’ her taking him you would be into that room full bend to stop it; but you’re so sure o’ her, you’re so michty sure, that you can sit here and lauch instead.”

“Am I laughing, Aaron?  If you but knew, Elspeth’s marriage would be a far more joyful thing to me than it could ever be to you.”

The old warper laughed unpleasantly at that.  “And I’se uphaud,” he said, “you’re none sure but what shell tak’ him!  You’re no as sure she’ll refuse him as that there’s a sun in the heavens, and I’m a broken man.”

For a moment sympathy nigh compelled Tommy to say a hopeful thing, but he mastered himself.  “It would be weakness,” was what he did say, “to pretend that there is any hope.”

Aaron gave him an ugly look, and was about to leave the house; but Tommy would not have it.  “If one of us must go, Aaron,” he said, with much gentleness, “let it be me”; and he went out, passing the parlour door softly, so that he might not disturb poor David.  The warper sat on by the fire, his head sunk miserably in his shoulders.  The vehemence had passed out of him; you would have hesitated to believe that such a listless, shrunken man could have been vehement that same year.  It is a hardy proof of his faith in Tommy that he did not even think it worth while to look up when, by and by, the parlour door opened and the doctor came in for his hat.  Elspeth was with him.

[Illustration:  They told Aaron something.]

They told Aaron something.

It lifted him off his feet and bore him out at the door.  When he made up on himself he knew he was searching everywhere for Tommy.  A terror seized him, lest he should not be the first to convey the news.

Had he been left a fortune? neighbours asked, amazed at this unwonted sight; and he replied, as he ran, “I have, and I want to share it wi’ him!”

It was his only joke.  People came to their doors to see Aaron Latta laughing.

CHAPTER XXII

GRIZEL’S GLORIOUS HOUR

Elspeth was to be his wife!  David had carried the wondrous promise straight to Grizel, and now he was gone and she was alone again.

Oh, foolish Grizel, are you crying, and I thought it was so hard to you to cry!

“Me crying!  Oh, no!”

Put your hand to your cheeks, Grizel.  Are they not wet?

“They are wet, and I did not know it!  It is hard to me to cry in sorrow, but I can cry for joy.  I am crying because it has all come right, and I was so much afraid that it never would.”

Ah, Grizel, I think you said you wanted nothing else so long as you had his love!

“But God has let it all come right, just the same, and I am thanking Him.  That is why I did not know that I was crying.”