I. A. R. Wylie

“ Mary Eliot winced.
“And now she's dying.” Her grasp on his big hand tightened. “Sandy, we're so happy—we can spare a little of our happiness, can't We? My dear, I'll go back to Edinburgh, and you'll go back to Kirkhumphries. And you'll be nice to her—you'll try to make her happy, too.”
“Mary!” .
“Why not? She's dying, poor child. Every condemned man has his last wish granted. Let her have hers. Let her think you came back for her. It can do no harm—and—and afterward we shall be glad. And if you were really to blame, you will be gladdest of all.”
“I canna do it—it wouldna be true.” ”

“ Sandy's denial that he is an actor leads her to think that he is the “laird,” while he takes her for a famous actress who is expected in the neighborhood. When the truth finally comes out, it serves only to deepen their growing love. Sandy sells his shop to enable her to get to London to keep an engagement upon which her future depends, promising to meet her there to play Romeo to her Juliet. ”

“ The Reverend John Andrews slipped into his host's vacant chair, and leaned forward eagerly.
“Sandy McGrab,” he said, in a hurried undertone, “are ye here as a wolf in sheep's clothing?”
“I dinna ken what ye mean,” McGrab retorted sullenly.
“Ye ken weel eno'. These puir, honest folk—do they ken what ye are—a play actor—a mon on thebroad road that leadeth——”
“They'll ken in guid time,” McGrab interrupted.
“A mon who is to marry a play actress——”
“It's no true—I mean——” He broke off, aghast at the horrible significance of his own words. “I mean I'm no engaged to any woman——” he stammered. ”

“ The wife of John Andrews stayed an hour, and when she went away it was with a peculiar little twinkle in her bright eye. Sandy McGrab, standing on the little bridge that crosses the river, saw her coming, and fled away up into the mountains. He had not recognized her, but she was a human being, and he felt that he could face no one, For the last hour he had been trying to enter Donald Saunders' house to pay his dutiful respects to the woman he was to marry, but his heart had failed him. ”

“ McGrab is to marry Jeannie Saunders?”
“How dare you——”
The visitor waved the interruption aside.
“I'm not afraid of anything or anybody—not even of John Andrews,” she declared; “and I'm not afraid of doing the right thing. I want to know why Mr. McGrab is to marry a woman he doesn't care twopence for?”
“He—he does.”
“He doesn't!” was the unperturbed answer.
“How do you know?”
“Because he loves you,” returned the one-time inmate of Holloway. Mary Eliot caught her breath. “And I want to know why Jeannie Saunders' marrying a man she cares less than twopence for?” her visitor continued. ”

“ What do I care for any one in the wide world but ye? I went awa' because ye had hurt me sore with your high ways, but I hae had your face in my eyes the livelong day. I haena slept for nights for thinking of ye.”
“It's too late,” she sobbed. “Ye hae come too late, Jamie. I canna break Sandy McGrab's heart.”
“Ye canna love him, Jeannie?”
“Love him? That puir gowk? But he's waited these three years for me. It would be wrong and cruel. And then there's father. He's sae pleased! Sandy McGrab hae bought the laird's castle, and we shall be rich, grand folk. ”

“ We're not safe unmarried. Fate knew how badly we wanted each other and—and——”
“Don't!” she interrupted painfully. “Nothing can help us. Whatever else we do, we cannot break the girl's heart a second time. We've got to go through with it honorably. Please go—Sandy McGrab!” ”

“ Pass the whisky, meenister,”
The “meenister” passed the whisky, and there was a moment's silence, broken only by lugubrious sniffs from an invisible corner of the apartment. Then the minister sat up with a jerk, as if suddenly conscious that some special effort was expected of him.
“I think, gentlemen,” he began, in beautiful university English, “I think, gentlemen, it is time that we considered earnestly our reason for coming together. ”

“ Mary Eliot looked at him in silence. Then she sat down on the rock and drew him down beside her.
“It's very cold,” she said, “but I think all this wants explaining, Sandy, and I'd like you to explain now.” ”

“ Sandy McGrab, a young tailor, one day reciting his beloved Shakespeare, in the hills above his native Kirkhumphries, is overheard by a young actress, one of a company of obscure traveling players, She recognizes his genius, and announces herself as a fellow professional. ”

“ Maybe ye hae forgotten many things in these three years, Sandy McGrab. Such is the way o' young men. But lassies are no sae quick at forgetting, and my Jeannie canna forget.” He passed a hand over his shaggy brows. “Aweel, it's of no guid to greet over the Lord's will. Maybe ye'll be kind to the lassie in her last hours, laddie.”
McGrab stood there in the same attitude of paralyzed horror.
“Ye canna mean it, mon!' he stammered. “Ye canna mean that I—that she——”
“I dinna blame ye, laddie,” Saunders. interrupted resignedly. ”

“ The laird is dead. To-morrow the old castle is to be put up for auction by his creditors. As far as we can see, Sir John Hodge is the only likely purchaser, and——”
“We hae eno' of Sir John,” Saunders interrupted fiercely. “There's no been a furriner up on the crag sin' me fathers came to Kirkhumphries. We'll hae no Sir John, thank ye, with his puffed-up English ways. If there's to be a laird, he maun be a Scotchman—and a Highlander, as well,” he added hurriedly. ”

“ Saunders' face was wry with disgust.
“Ye maun be very new to Kirkhumphries if ye dinna ken Sandy McGrab,” he said crushingly. “Sandy McGrab had the finest homespun in a' Scotland, and he could throw the caber like no other man alive. He's been awa' these three years, and I'd almost begun to think that nae guid had come o' him. But he says he's come home with a wee bit of a fortune, so I ken he maun hae walked in the ways o' the Lord weel eno'.” He paused, and stared reminiscently into the fire. “I'm the only man who's ever got the better of Sandy McGrab,” he added. ”

“ Saunders gave him another shake, and, apparently finding no satisfactory retort to this statement, pushed the scion of the House of Saunders resolutely in front of her into the sitting room behind the shop. There he vanished into a cloud of tobacco smoke which emanated from the three men seated round the table. Mrs. Saunders coughed, and the three looked up at her with a kind of sullen truculence.
“Ye canna complain, woman,” said her husband. “When a man's heart is oot o' him, he maun take his comfort where he finds it. ”

“ Saunders answered, with the same dreamy satisfaction. “And it was worth two hundred. I ken it was the week the play actors were here. It was an awfu' time. The de'il ran rampant in Kirkhumphries. An' 'twas after that he gang awa'.”
“Who—the de'il or Sandy McGrab?”
“Both,” Saunders answered sepulchrally.
The Reverend John Andrews got up and drew his slight young frame to its full height.
“We will hope they did not go together,” he said. “And who knows? Mr. McGrab may come in time to save the castle.”
“Aye,” said Mr. Firth.
“Aye,” Saunders agreed thoughtfully. ”