“Maybe ay, and maybe no,” said I. “That is the way it is to be, whatever.” “And if I refuse?” cries he. “Then, Mr. Drummond, it will have to come to the throat-cutting,” said I. What with the size of the man, his great length of arm in which he came near rivalling his father, and his reputed skill at weapons, I did not use this word without trepidation, to say nothing at all of the circumstance that he was Catriona’s father. But I might have spared myself alarms. From the poorness of my lodging—he does not seem to have remarked his daughter’s dresses, which were indeed all equally new to him—and from the fact that I had shown myself averse to lend, he had embraced a strong idea of my poverty. The sudden news of my estate convinced him of his error, and he had made but the one bound of it on this fresh venture, to which he was now so wedded, that I believe he would have suffered anything rather than fall to the alternative of fighting. A little while longer he continued to dispute with me, until I hit upon a word that silenced him. “If I find you so averse to let me see the lady by herself,” said I, “I must suppose you have very good grounds to think me in the right about her unwillingness.” He gabbled some kind of an excuse. “But all this is very exhausting to both of our tempers,” I added, “and I think we would do better to preserve a judicious silence.” The which we did until the girl returned, and I must suppose would have cut a very ridiculous figure had there been any there to view us. CHAPTER XXVIII. IN WHICH I AM LEFT ALONE I opened the door to Catriona and stopped her on the threshold. “Your father wishes us to take our walk,” said I. She looked to James More, who nodded, and at that, like a trained soldier, she turned to go with me. We took one of our old ways, where we had gone often together, and been more happy than I can tell of in the past. I came a half a step behind, so that I could watch her unobserved. The knocking of her little shoes upon the way sounded extraordinary pretty and sad; and I thought it a strange moment that I should be so near both ends of it at once, and walk in the midst between two destinies, and could not tell whether I was hearing these steps for the last time, or whether the sound of them was to go in and out with me till death should part us. She avoided even to look at me, only walked before her, like one who had a guess of what was coming. I saw I must speak soon before my courage was run out, but where to begin I knew not. In this painful situation, when the girl was as good as forced into my arms and had already besought my forbearance, any excess of pressure must have seemed indecent; yet to avoid it wholly would have a very cold-like appearance. Between these extremes I stood helpless, and could have bit my fingers; so that, when at last I managed to speak at all, it may be said I spoke at random.