Falconer,
yet reassured a little by Robert's presence.
Some glimmering seemed now to have dawned upon the soutar, for he
began to prepare a retreat. Meantime Mrs. Falconer sat silent,
allowing no word that passed to escape her. She wanted to be at the
bottom of the mysterious affair, and therefore held her peace.
'Weel, I'm sure, Robert, ye never tellt me aboot the shune,' said
Alexander. 'I s' jist tak them back wi' me, and du what's wantit to
them. And I'm sorry that I hae gien ye this tribble, Mistress
Faukner; but it was a' that fule's wite there. I didna even ken it
was him, till we war near-han' the hoose.'
'Lat me see the shune,' said Mrs. Falconer, speaking almost for the
first time. 'What's the maitter wi' them?'
Examining the shoes, she saw they were in a perfectly sound state,
and this confirmed her suspicion that there was more in the affair
than had yet come out. Had she taken the straightforward measure of
examining Robert, she would soon have arrived at the truth. But she
had such a dread of causing a lie to be told, that she would adopt
any roundabout way rather than ask a plain question of a suspected
culprit. So she laid the shoes down beside her, saying to the
soutar,
'There's naething amiss wi' the shune. Ye can lea' them.'
Thereupon Alexander went away, and Robert and Shargar would have
given more than their dinner to follow him. Grannie neither asked
any questions, however, nor made a single remark on what had passed.
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