24
on his knee, while Mrs Gomartin and Agnes Sampson moved among them, offering
plates of slim scones and boiled ham on bread. The murmur of voices dropped
as the girl entered the kitchen, and a few of the darkclad men, mostly
strangers to her, smiled and Jerked their heads while the others looked at her
furtively, as one who had been in danger of death. Stewartie Purdy, Eehlin's
oldest neighbour and friend, rose and took her hand. ‘We’re thankful to see
that you're able to be about, lass, he said, and as he retreated to his
chair the others looked up, cleared their throats, and nodded. Then their
heads clustered together in twos and threes and again the murmurous
talk of crops and cattle arose.
When the old man released her hand Sarah walked to the half-door, where
she stood with her back to the room looking out over tie close. Her hands
grasped the top of the low door in a fit of anger. She hated the people in
the kitchen for their interrupted talk, their sly curious stare, and for the
use of the word 'lass" by old Purdy. Then most humiliating of all, her
mother's smile of gratitude, almost fawning, which had rested on Purdy as
he took her hand. Her eyes filled with tears of self-pity as she thought of
the old man who now lay silent in the parlour. She would show them all that
she was more than a servant in this house! hut as she stood there, disregarding
her mother's voice at her shoulder, caution, like a tardy sentinel, took up
its position again in her mind. Her eyes hardened, her full lips lifted again
at the corners and she would have turned unconcernedly and cheerfully to her
mother, had not the sound of a step in the close drawn her attention.
Two men were approaching the house. One of them, a clergyman, paused
at the top of the loanen to wait on the other who was coming in by the gate
over the lough. A thrill of pleasure ran through the girl as she recognised
the figure and long abrupt stride of Pentland. She thought she saw him raise
his hand to her but she fled back into the kitchen. "The minister!" she said
