114
"But good, heavens, man, that’s impossible; How long can this
unatural arrangement last?"
The other man shrugged his shoulders. "D’you know, Mr Sorleyson?
No? Well, no more do I." >
"But I know that you can either make or break it. Cant you put it
to her that she either marries you, or leaves the child and goes?"
"No! There’s to be no more talk of her going, what sort of a
creature would I be to turn the girl out now?"
"And what will the countryside think?"
"I’m not feard of what the countryside thinks. Thank God, there’s
little chance o’ us falling into their hands," added Echlin, turning to
look across the fields that lay on each side of the loanen.
Sorleyson followed his gaze. "There’s no happiness that way,
Hamilton."
"May be, maybe not. But I’ll no force her to marry me, all the
same."
Mr sorleyson paid no more visits that day. He walked home very
slowly thinking of the people of Rathard. He was ashamed to find that
he no longer felt any indignation against them. This is impossible!
he exclaimed angrily. These people have deliberately sinned! But he
could not recapture his mood of righteous disapproval. He recalled
Hamilton with his dour loyalty, not to be budged by fear of censure.
And Sarah with the child in her arms. She had seemed so natural, so
essentialy right. How futile it was to appeal to a woman like that
for convention’s sake! He had felt a strange langour as he spoke to
her. And now, in a moment, he realised that he did not want to blame
them. He envied them. These people had grasped what he had always
