Then would come my rich and rare
reward--the light in her deep, blue eyes and the tremulous thanks on her
ripe, red lips.
And then a thought smote me like a blow between the eyes, so that I
dizzied a moment, and the day grew grey and the outlook blank. The finding
of the Colonel meant the losing of Margaret. Father and daughter reunited,
my work would be done; the day of the hireling would be accomplished. Need
for me there would be none. The old life would again claim me, justly
claim me too, for was I not, though all unworthily and unprofitably, the
only son of my sweet mother, and she a widow. I could see her in the
house-place at the Hanyards, her calm eyes fixed in sorrow on my empty
chair. _A man shall leave father and mother_, yes, for one particular
cause, but the only son of a widowed mother for no cause whatsoever.
Christ, I said to myself, would not have raised the young man of Nain
merely to get married.
Still there was the work, and I spurned my gloomy thoughts and turned to
think of it. And first I took stock of my means of offence. There were
loaded pistols in the holsters, fine long weapons with polished walnut
stocks inlaid with silver lacery and the initials 'C.
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