Some wad hae 't he cheenged a' thegither o' a suddent.
An' they wad hae 't it cam o' bluid-guiltiness--for they said he
had liftit the reid han' agen his neebor. An' they warnt me, lang
as it was sin' I left it, no to lat 'im ken I cam frae yon pairt o'
the country, or he wad be rid o' me in a jiffey, ae w'y or anither.
--Ay, it was a gran' name that o' Warlock i' thae pairts! though
they tell me it gangs na for sae muckle noo. I hae h'ard said,'at
ever sin' the auld lord here made awa' wi' the laird o'
Glen--warlock, the faimily there never had ony luck. I wad like to
ken what you, as a man o' sense, think o' that same. It appears to
me a' some queer kin' o' justice! No' 'at I'm daurin' or wad daur
to say a word agen the w'y 'at the warl's goverrnt, but there's
some things 'at naebody can un'erstan'--I defy them!--an' yon's ane
o' them--what for, cause oor graceless auld lord--he was yoong
than--tuik the life o' the laird o' Glenwarlock, the faimily o'
Warlock sud never thrive frae that day to this!--Read me that
riddle, yoong man, gien ye can."
"Maybe it was to haud them 'at cam efter frae ony mair keepin' o'
sic ill company," Cosmo ventured to suggest; for, knowing what his
father was, and something also of what most of those who preceded
him were, he could see no such inscrutable dispensation in the fact
mentioned.
"That wad be hard lines, though," insisted the gardener, unwilling
to yield the unintelligibility of the ways of providence.
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