"Is there anything you think I could do?" asked Donal. "I confess
I'm afraid of meddling."
"I wudna hae you appear, sir," said Andrew, "in onything, concernin'
her. Ye're a yoong man yersel', an' fowk's herts as well as fowk's
tongues are no to be lippent til. I hae seen fowk, 'cause they
couldna believe a body duin' a thing frae a sma' modicum o' gude
wull, set themsel's to invent what they ca'd a motive til accoont
for't--something, that is, that wud hae prevailt wi' themsel's to
gar them du't. Sic fowk canna un'erstan' a body duin' onything jist
'cause it was worth duin' in itsel'!"
"But maybe," said the old woman, returning to the practical, "as ye
hae been pleased to say ye're on freen'ly terms wi' mistress
Brookes, ye micht jist see gien she 's observed ony ten'ency to
resumption o' the auld affair!"
Donal promised, and as soon as he reached the castle sought an
interview with the house keeper. She told him she had been
particularly pleased of late with Eppy's attention to her work, and
readiness to make herself useful. If she did look sometimes a little
out of heart, they must remember, she said, that they had been young
themselves once, and that it was not so easy to forget as to give
up. But she would keep her eyes open!
CHAPTER XXX.
LORD MORVEN.
The winter came at last in good earnest--first black frost, then
white snow, then sleet and wind and rain; then snow again, which
fell steady and calm, and lay thick.
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