They thought I was daffing when I said that; but when they came to
understand that it was the real truth, they were as proud and as pleased
as if I had told them that she had married the laird. Indeed, poor Jim,
with his hard drinking and his fighting, had not a very bright name on
the country-side, and my mother had often said that no good could come
of such a match. Now, de Lapp was, for all we knew, steady and quiet
and well-to-do. And as to the secrecy of it, secret marriages were very
common in Scotland at that time, when only a few words were needed to
make man and wife, so nobody thought much of that. The old folk were as
pleased, then, as if their rent had been lowered; but I was still sore
at heart, for it seemed to me that my friend had been cruelly dealt
with, and I knew well that he was not a man who would easily put up with
it.



CHAPTER X.


THE RETURN OF THE SHADOW.

I woke with a heavy heart the next morning, for I knew that Jim would be
home before long, and that it would be a day of trouble. But how much
trouble that day was to bring, or how far it would alter the lives of
us, was more than I had ever thought in my darkest moments. But let me
tell you it all, just in the order that it happened.

I had to get up early that morning; for it was just the first flush of
the lambing, and my father and I were out on the moors as soon as it was
fairly light. As I came out into the passage a wind struck upon my