"Was a great delight, even to you. We were silent about it, out of kindness. I will not discuss that subject." "Where would you advise us to go?" "I do not advise you to go at all." "I could not live with your wife if she is going to faint every time she quarrels with me." "Mother, I know all about your quarrel with Theodora. I have heard it from Jepson and Ducie, and I know what the doctor thinks of it. Allow me to say your conduct was inexcusable. I would not blame you before the girls, but that is my opinion." "Her silence was so provoking, you don't know, Robert----" "I know that no provocation ought to have caused you to make the Bible the missile of your temper. It was an impious act. I shudder at it." "I did not know it was the Bible." "Mother, a Bible is known on sight. No other book looks like it. No form, no shape no color, can hide the Bible. There is a kind of divinity in this personality of the Book. I have often thought so." "I shall sorrow for that act as long as I live, Robert. She made me do it. Yes, she did!" "No, she did not." "Why was she reading the Bible at that hour of the day? If it had been morning or night, I might have thought of it." "Theodora reads the Bible at all hours." "She does nothing like any one else." "Theodora is my wife. I love her. She suits me exactly." "And I and your sisters no longer suit you." "You are, as I said before, my mother and my sisters. You are Campbells. That is enough." "And, blessed be our ancestors, we are a' pure Campbells! Your father was o' the Argyle clan, and I was o' the Cawdor clan, but whether Argyle, Cawdor, Breadalbane, or Laudon, we are a' Campbells. We a' wear the wild myrtle and we hae a' the same battle-cry, '_Wild Cruachan!_' and we a' hae hated and loved the same folk and the same things, and even if I had nae ither claim on yen, I would only require to say, 'Robert Campbell, Margaret Campbell is needing ye.'" "You are my mother. That claim includes all claims." "Doubly dear for being a Campbell mother." "Yes. I am glad and proud of that fact." Then she stretched out her hand, and he clasped and held it firmly, as he walked with her to the door. "Good-night, mother!" he said. "I must go to Dora now. We will drop this day out of our memories." Stepping proudly to the lilt of her Campbell eulogy, she went to her daughters with flashing eyes and a kindling face, and after a few moments of thrilling silence said: "I hae got my way, girls, by the name o' the Campbells. _Dod!_ but it's the great name! It unlocked his heart like a pass-key--yet I had to stoop a wee. I had to stoop in order to conquer." "Mother, you always manage Robert."