"Whin I kim to the knowledge o' it, I wa' sair vexed, for though he seemed an honorable young mon, an' asked her in marriage, an' though I kenned she wa' fair an' good as the varry angels were, an' would be no discredit to ony mon, still I kenned his family wa' rich, an' proud, an' high-born—an' they might feel she wa' na' his equal; an' I wad na' hae my precious child looked doon on by ony o' his English bluid—an' sae I refused to hear till it; an' whin I heard his father wanted him to wed a girl whose father's lands joined his ain, I wa' glad to hear it, for I thought that wad stop it. But I reaped as I haed sowed—my bonnie Alice fled fra' my hame, as I haed fled fra' my father's. Ah! then I kenned what my ain sin haed been; then I kenned what my father and mither haed suffered for me, an' I felt I haed na' a word to say.
"In a day or two mair I got letters, beg-*gin' me to forgi'e them (ah! hoo could I refuse—I that haed dune the varry same thing mysel'?); they wrote me that they were privately married directly Allie left hame; that as the auld laird wa' varry sick, an' it
