I have long seen that your
views were extended far beyond so humble a station
as this place affords promise of. It is natural
they should do so, considering that the circumstances
of your birth seem connected with riches and with
rank. Go, then, seek that riches and rank. It is
possible your mind may be changed in the pursuit,
and if so think no more about Menie Gray. But
if it should be otherwise, we may meet again,
and do not believe for a moment that there can be
a change in Menie Gray's feelings towards you.''
At this interview, much more was said than it is
necessary to repeat, much more thought than was
actually said. Nurse Jamieson, in whose chamber
it took place, folded her _bairns_, as she called them,
in her arms, and declared that Heaven had made
them for each other, and that she would not ask of
Heaven to live beyond the day when she should
see them bridegroom and bride.
At length, it became necessary that the parting
scene should end; and Richard Middlemas, mounting
a horse which he had hired for the journey,
set off for Edinburgh, to which metropolis he had
already forwarded his heavy baggage. Upon the
road the idea more than once occurred to him, that
even yet he had better return to Middlemas, and
secure his happiness by uniting himself at once to
Menie Gray, and to humble competence.
Pages:
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536