"MacDONALD, George - The Wow O' Riven aka The Bell" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacDonald George)

was the reply. "Fat dis the wow say, cornel?" "Come hame, come hame! " answered
the colonel, with both accent and quantity heaped on the word hame. What the wow
could be, she had no idea; only, as the years passed on, the strange word became
in her mind indescribably associated with the strange shape in yellow cloth on
his sleeves. Had she been a native of the town, she could not have failed to
know its import, so familiar was every one with it, although it did not belong
to the local vocabulary; but, as it was, years passed away before she discovered
its meaning. And when, again and again, the fool, attempting to convey his
gratitude for some kindness she had shown him mumbled over the words-"The wow o'
Rivven-the wow o' Rivven," the wonder would return as to what could be the idea
associated with them in his mind, but she made no advance towards their
explanation.
That, however, which most attracted her to the old man, was his persecution by
the children. They were to him what the bull-dog was to her-the constant source
of irritation and annoyance. They could hardly hurt him, nor did he appear to
dread other injury from them than insult, to which, fool though he was, he was
keenly alive. Human gadflies that they were! they sometimes stung him beyond
endurance, and he would curse them in the impotence of his anger. Once or twice
Elsie had been so far carried beyond her constitutional timidity, by sympathy
for the distress of her friend, that she had gone out and talked to the
boys-even scolded them, so that they slunk away ashamed, and began to stand as
much in dread of her as of the clutches of their prey. So she, gentle and timid
to excess, acquired among them the reputation of a termagant. Popular opinion
among children, as among men, is often just, but as often very unjust; for the
same manifestations may proceed from opposite principles; and, therefore, as
indices to character, may mislead as often as enlighten.
Next door to the house in which Elsie resided, dwelt a tradesman and his wife,
who kept an indefinite sort of shop, in which various kinds of goods were
exposed for sale. Their youngest son was about the same age as Elsie; and while
they were rather more than children, and less than young people, he spent many
of his evenings with her, somewhat to the loss of position in his classes at the
parish school. They were, indeed, much attached to each other; and, peculiarly
constituted as Elsie was, one may imagine what kind of heavenly messenger a
companion stronger than herself must have been to her. In fact, if she could
have framed the undefinable need of her childlike nature into an articulate
prayer, it would have been-"Give me some one to love me stronger than I." Any
love was helpful, yes, in its degree, saving to her poor troubled soul; but the
hope, as they grew older together, that the powerful, yet tender-hearted youth,
really loved her, and would one day make her his wife, was like the opening of
heavenly eyes of life and love in the hitherto blank and deathlike face of her
existence. But nothing had been said of love, although they met and parted like
lovers.
Doubtless, if the circles of their thought and feeling had continued as now to
intersect each other, there would have been no interruption to their affection;
but the time at length arrived when the old couple, seeing the rest of their
family comfortably settled in life, resolved to make a gentleman of the
youngest; and so sent him from school to college. The facilities existing in
Scotland for providing a professional training enabled them to educate him as a
surgeon. He parted from Elsie with some regret; but, far less dependent on her
than she was on him, and full of the prospects of the future, he felt none of