Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 21
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 21
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
And Isobel continued to speak; but the movement of the lovers as they
walked prevented Marjory from hearing more. Still she followed them with
her weeping eyes, as their figures, clearly revealed to her by the moon,
glided among the wide-standing trees of the lawn, and at length
disappeared. The moon had now less solace for her. Her wound had been
retouched by a hand of all others calculated to irritate, even by that
of Ogilvy himself, who, she now knew, felt compunction for the cruelty
of his desertion. His regret was too late to save her sorrow, but it was
not too late to increase that sorrow; for the words by which he had
uttered it reminded her, in their tone, of that unctuous luxury he had
so often poured into her heart, and which, in their sincerity, were so
unlike the dissimulation of her wicked sister. With a deep-drawn sigh
she entered the bartisan casement, shut it after her, and having spoken
some kindly words to her aunt, whom she kissed, she sought her way down
the bastle stair to her own room below. There she threw herself upon a
couch, not to seek assuagement, but only to give rest to limbs that
would scarcely support her. Nor did the closed door keep from her ear
those notes of preparation, coming in so many shapes; for there was, in
addition to the customary rites of the great sacrifice, to be a
sumptuous feast, at which, too, she would be expected to attend. Yet all
these noisy tokens did not keep from her mind the tones of that remorse
she had heard from the lips of Ogilvy, and she fondled them, in her
misery, as one would the dead body of a dear friend on whose face still
sat the look of love in which he died. By-and-by she heard once more the
voice of Isobel, who had returned; and she trembled as she expected the
visit in execution of her commission. The door opened, and there entered
her sister, with a face, as it appeared in the light of the lamp she
carried, beaming with the old exultation, mingled with the smile of a
soft deceit.
"Look here, Sweet Marjory," she said, as she held out the golden
trinket. "Saw you ever so lovely a piece of workmanship? But you cannot
discern its value till you know it contains a lock of the hair of _my_
mother-in-law-to-be--Mrs. Ogilvy. That locket was given to me even now
by my Hector, the bridegroom----"
"To give to me," sighed Marjory faintly.
"You lie for a false fiend," cried Devil Isobel. "He gave it to me, and
to me it belongs."
"You may keep it," said Marjory; "but I heard Hector Ogilvy say to you
that it was a gift from his mother to me, and you promised to him to
deliver it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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