"
"That's some cauld doctrine, Mr Cupples," Alec would say.
"Weel," he would return with a smile, "gang to yer frien' Thamas Crann,
and he'll gie ye something a hantle better. That's ane o' the maist
extrornar men I ever made acquantance wi'. He'll gie ye divine
philosophy???-a dooms sicht better nor mine. But, eh! he's saft for a'
that."
Annie would have got more good from these readings than either of them.
Mr Cupples was puzzled to account for her absence, but came to see into
the mother's defensive strategy, who had not yet learned to leave such
things to themselves; though she might have known by this time that the
bubbles of scheming mothers, positive or negative, however well-blown,
are in danger of collapsing into a drop of burning poison. He missed
Annie very much, and went often to see her, taking her what books he
could. With one or other of these she would wander along the banks of
the clear brown Glamour, now watching it as it subdued its rocks or lay
asleep in its shadowy pools, now reading a page or two, or now seating
herself on the grass, and letting the dove of peace fold its wings upon
her bosom. Even her new love did not more than occasionally ruffle the
flow of her inward river.
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