'Na, na,' returned Robert, retreating towards the outer door. 'Ye
maun sweir upo' her that, whan I want her, I sall hae her ohn demur,
or I sanna lat ye lay roset upo' her.'
'I swear 't, Robert; I sweir 't upo' her,' said the soutar
hurriedly, stretching out both his hands as if to receive some human
being into his embrace.
Robert placed the violin in those grimy hands. A look of heavenly
delight dawned over the hirsute and dirt-besmeared countenance,
which drooped into tenderness as he drew the bow across the
instrument, and wiled from her a thin wail as of sorrow at their
long separation. He then retreated into his den, and was soon sunk
in a trance, deaf to everything but the violin, from which no
entreaties of Robert, who longed for a lesson, could rouse him; so
that he had to go home grievously disappointed, and unrewarded for
the risk he had run in venturing the stolen visit.
Next time, however, he fared better; and he contrived so well that,
from the middle of June to the end of August, he had two lessons a
week, mostly upon the afternoons of holidays. For these his master
thought himself well paid by the use of the instrument between. And
Robert made great progress.
Occasionally he saw Miss St. John in the garden, and once or twice
met her in the town; but her desire to find in him a pupil had been
greatly quenched by her unfortunate conjecture as to the cause of
his accident. She had, however, gone so far as to mention the
subject to her aunt, who assured her that old Mrs.
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