strong arms, and was quietly making bread. I got a bannock from the dresser and sat down to eat it in silence.
"Are ye wearied, lad?" she asked after a while.
"I am not so much wearied, Mary," I replied, getting on my feet, "as I am weary of delay, and perhaps of Aros too. You know me well enough to judge me fairly, say what I like. Well, Mary, you may be sure of this: you had better be anywhere but here."
"I'll be sure of one thing," she returned: "I'll be where my duty is."
"You forget, you have a duty to yourself," I said.
"Ay, man?" she replied, pounding at the dough; "will you have found that in the Bible, now?"
"Mary," I said solemnly, "you must not laugh at me just now. God knows I am in no heart for laughing. If we could get your father with us, it would be best; but with him or without him, I want you far away from here, my girl; for your own sake, and for mine, ay, and for your father's too, I want you far—far away from here. I came with other thoughts; I came here as a man comes home; now it is all changed, and I have no desire nor hope but to flee—for that's the word—flee, like a bird out of the fowler's snare, from this accursed island."
She had stopped her work by this time.
"And do you think, now," said she, "do you think, now, I have neither eyes nor ears? Do ye think I havenae broken my heart to have these braws (as he calls them, God forgive him!) thrown into the sea? Do ye think I have lived with him, day in, day out, and not seen what you saw in an hour or two? No,"
