47
forgotten before the sod's healed over him.”
"Let us be, Martha" said Hamilton uneasily, turning a cup in
his hands. Frank stirred in the doorway but stood with his back to
them, listening.
"It's your own affair" said the old woman, rising. "But I’ll see
to it that Sarah doesn’t go that road."
“Quit it!” shouted Sarah. "Ye keep op talking o' me'as if I was
a helpless wean! Ye can go to your church if ye will, but your no
taking me!”
"Very well, then" said her mother. “We’re leaving this house as
soon as we can gather our wheen o' things thegither."
The girl turned and clutched Hamilton’s arm. "Hami, will ye give
me a job here?" She cried. Her eyes searched his face, and the man winced
in her grasp.
He released his arm from her fingers and crossed to the fireplace.
“It’s not for me toe interfere between you and your daughter, Martha.
You’re welcome tae bide here as long as ye wish, and I can't hinder ye if
ye want to go, for you’re neither blood nor kin tae us. You’ve done your
work well, and if ye go we maun get another. But go or stay, singly or
together, you’re as .free as the birds o* the air. That's my word."
For a long time mother and daughter looked at each other. The girl's
pale lips scarcely moved. "I'm staying” she said.The old woman turned
away to the door of the lower room, leaning faintly for a moment on the
handle.
She set about collecting her belongings with silent diligence. She
accepted Frank’s shamefaced offer of a wooden case for her linens. Of
