With a delicious smile Christina handed him his change, and with a graceful salute he fled without counting it. Immediately the door had closed Christina realized that she had given him one and ninepence. A small matter at such a time, yet it may have been the last straw. She had no word for Macgregor as he came to the counter, his uncertainty increased by that delicious smile given to another.
"Weel, ye"ve got back," was all he could utter, and her att.i.tude stopped him in the first movement of offering his hand.
"Yesterday afternoon," she returned coldly.
"Ay, I ken. I wish ye had sent me word," he managed to say after a slight pause.
"It did not seem necessary. I suppose your mother told you."
"I heard it first frae Aunt Purdie. I missed ye by less nor an "oor. It was gey hard lines."
Christina stared.
"I got leave yesterday mornin" an" catched the first train to Aberdeen----"
"Oh! . . . What on earth took you to Aberdeen?"
"Christina," he exclaimed, "dinna speak like that! I gaed to Aberdeen because I couldna thole it ony mair."
"Thole what?"
"Oh, ye ken! . . . Maybe I had nae business to be vexed at ye for gaun wi" Aunt Purdie, but oh, Christina dear, I wisht ye hadna gaed."
He dropped his gaze and continued: "I"m tellin" ye I gaed to Aberdeen because something seemed to ha"e come betwixt us, because I----" He stuck. Confession in the face of stern virtue is not so easy, after all.
"Pity you had the long journey," she said airily, "but you ought to have stopped for a day or two when you were there. Aberdeen is a delightful city." She turned and surveyed the shelves above her.
His look then would have melted the heart of any girl, except this one who loved him.
"Christina," he said piteously, "it wasna a" ma fau"t."
Leisurely she faced him.
"May I ask what you are referring to?"
"Ye never said ye was sorry to leave me; yer letters wasna like ye, an" I didna ken what to think. An" then the cocoa-nut fairly put the lid on. I tell ye, a chap has to dae _something_ when a girl treats him like that."
"Has he?"
He winced. "But I forgive ye----"
"Thanks!"
"--because I"m gaun to tell ye a" aboot it, Christina, an" ask ye kindly to forgive me. Ay, I"m gaun to tell ye everything--everything! But I canna think," he blundered on, "I"m sayin", I canna think hoo I happened to get yer monkey up to begin wi"----"
"Excuse me!" she cried, indignant. "My monkey up, indeed!"
"Weel, maybe it wasna exac"ly yer monkey up; but I want to ken what way ye didna write a nicer letter afore ye gaed awa". Nae doobt ye was in a hurry, but it jist seemed as if ye didna care a b.u.t.ton for me. Maybe ma letter to you wasna the thing, either, but I was that hurt when I wrote it, an" ye might ha"e understood hoo I was feelin". Christina, tell me what was wrang that ye gaed awa" like yon. Was ye--was ye fed up wi" me?"
Christina took up a pencil and began to spoil it with a patent sharpener. "Really, it is not worth while discussing," she said.
"What? No worth while? Oh, hoo can ye say a thing like that! . . . But maybe I best tell ye ma ain story first."
"Many thanks. But I"m afraid I"m not deeply interested in any story of yours." She was almost sorry the next moment. It was just as if she had struck him.
Presently he recovered a little. "Christina," he said quietly, "that"s no true."
"Hoo daur ye!" she cried, forgetting her "fine English" as well as her haughty pose.
"If it was true, it wud mean that ye"ve been judgin" me unfair, kennin" it was unfair, an" I"ll never believe ye wud dae that. . . . So, Christina dear, listen to me an" gi"e me a chance."
"Oh, what"s the use," she sighed with sudden weariness, "what"s the use o" pretendin", Macgreegor?"
"Wha"s pretendin"?"
"You! What"s the use o" pretendin" ye"re hurt? Fine ye ken I"m no the--the only girl in the world."
"There"s no anither like ye!"
"Weel," she said drily, "that means variety, does it no?" She drew a long breath and moved back from the counter. "I want to be as fair as I can, so perhaps I"d best ask ye a straight question."
"Ask it!" he said eagerly.
"Wha"s Maggie?"
He was taken aback, but less so than she had expected, and possibly that increased her bitterness.
"She"s a girl," he began.
"I could ha"e guessed that much. What sort o" girl?" she demanded, and wished she had held her tongue.
"She--she"s kin" o" fat----"
"Fat!" Christina uttered the word with as much disgust as she would have evinced had she been handed a pound of streaky bacon without the paper. "How delightful! Anything else in the way of charms?"
"Christina, gi"e me a chance, an" I"ll tell ye a" aboot it."
"Not another word! How long have you enjoyed the young lady"s acquaintance?"
"Only a couple o" evenin"s, but----"
"Case of love at first sight, I suppose!"
He flared up. "If ye hadna left me I wud never ha"e met her. If ye had wrote me a dacent letter----"
"Whisht, man!" she said in momentary pity. "Ye"re talkin" like a wean."
"I canna help it. I"m that fond o" ye. An" it"s no as if I had done a black crime. It was a pure accident----"