He sat down again by his bedside and threw his arms over him.
"Lie town, lie town, my poy. If you ket up, tat will pe you are a
Cawmill. No, no, my son! You are ferry cruel to your own old daddy.
She would pe too much sorry for her poy to hate him. It will pe
so treadful to pe a Cawmill! No, no, my poy! She would take you to
her poosom, and tat would trive ta Cawmill out of you. Put ton't
speak of it any more, my son, for it cannot pe.--She must co now,
for her pipes will pe waiting for her."
Malcolm feared he had ventured too far, for never before had his
grandfather left him except for work. But the possibility he had
started might do something to soften the dire endurance of his
hatred.
His thoughts turned to the new darkness let in upon his history and
prospects. All at once the cry of the mad laird rang in his mind's
ear: "I dinna ken whaur I cam frae!"
Duncan's revelation brought with it nothing to be done--hardly
anything to be thought--merely room for most shadowy, most unfounded
conjecture--nay, not conjecture--nothing but the vaguest of
castle building! In merry mood, he would henceforth be the son of
some mighty man, with a boundless future of sunshine opening before
him; in sad mood, the son of some strolling gipsy or worse--his
very origin better forgotten--a disgrace to the existence for
his share in which he had hitherto been peacefully thankful.
Like a lurking phantom shroud, the sad mood leaped from the field
of his speculation, and wrapped him in its folds: sure enough he was
but a beggar's brat--How henceforth was he to look Lady Florimel
in the face? Humble as he had believed his origin, he had hitherto
been proud of it: with such a high minded sire as he deemed his
own, how could he be other? But now! Nevermore could he look one
of his old companions in the face! They were all honourable men;
he a base born foundling!
He would tell Mr Graham of course; but what could Mr Graham say to
it? The fact remained.
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