With this secret purpose, she evaded the proposal
which Hamish repeatedly made, that they
should set out together to take possession of her
new abode; and she resisted it upon grounds apparently
so natural to her character, that her son
was neither alarmed nor displeased. ``Let me
not,'' she said, ``in the same short week, bid farewell
to my only son, and to the glen in which I
have so long dwelt. Let my eye, when dimmed
with weeping for thee, still look around, for
a while at least, upon Loch Awe and on Ben Cruachan.''
Hamish yielded the more willingly to his mother's
humour in this particular, that one or two
persons who resided in a neighbouring glen, and
had given their sons to Barcaldine's levy, were
also to be provided for on the estate of the chieftain,
and it was apparently settled that Elspat was
to take her journey along with them when they
should remove to their new residence. Thus, Hamish
believed that he had at once indulged his
mother's humour, and insured her safety and accommodation.
But she nourished in her mind
very different thoughts and projects!
The period of Hamish's leave of absence was
fast approaching, and more than once he proposed
to depart, in such time as to insure his gaining
easily and early Dunbarton, the town where were
the head-quarters of his regiment.
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