Chapter 10 - Page 2

"He's a strong feeling bairn--strong!"

"He'll be stronger when he is a young man, Nanny!" desperately.
"That is why I must act now. There is no half way. I don't want
to be hard. Oh, am I hard--am I hard?" she cried out low as if she
were pleading.

"No, ma'am. You are not. He's your own flesh and blood." Nanny had
never before seen her mistress as she saw her in the next curious
almost exaggerated moment.

Her hand flew to her side.

"He's my heart and my soul--" she said, "--he is the very entrails
of me! And it will hurt him so and I cannot explain to him because
he is too young to understand. He is only a little boy who must
go where he is taken. And he cannot help himself. It's--unfair!"

Nanny was prone to become more Scotch as she became moved. But
she still managed to look grim.

"He canna help himsel," she said, "an waur still, YOU canna."

There was a moment of stillness and then she said:

"I must go and pack up." And walked out of the room.

* * * * *

Donal always slept like a young roe in the bracken, and in deep
and rapturous ease he slept this night. Another perfectly joyful
day had passed and his Mother had liked Robin and kissed her. All
was well with the world. As long as he had remained awake--and it
had not been long--he had thought of delightful things unfeverishly.
Of Robin, somehow at Braemarnie, growing bigger very quickly--big
enough for all sorts of games--learning to ride Chieftain, even
to gallop. His mother would buy another pony and they could ride
side by side. Robin would laugh and her hair would fly behind her
if they went fast. She would see how fast he could go--she would
see him make Chieftain jump. They would have picnics--catch sight
of deer and fawns delicately lifting their feet as they stepped.
She would always look at him with that nice look in her eyes and
the little smile which came and went in a second. She was quite
different from the minister's little girls at the Manse. He liked
her--he liked her!

* * * * *

He was wakened by a light in his room and by the sound of moving
about. He sat up quickly and found his Mother standing by his bed
and Nanny putting things into a travelling bag. He felt as if his
Mother looked taller than she had looked yesterday--and almost
thin--and her face was anxious and--shy.

"We let you sleep as late as we could, Donal," she said. "You must
get up quickly now and have breakfast. Something has happened. We
are obliged to go back to Scotland by very early train. There is
not a minute to waste."

At first he only said: