indeed a heart in which the whole unhappy world might have sought and
found shelter. She had the notion, notwithstanding, that she was
harder-hearted than most, and therefore better able to do things that
were right but not pleasant.




CHAPTER VII

CORBYKNOWE


'Ye'll come in and say a word to mother, Steenie?' said Kirsty, as they
came near the door of the house.

It was a long, low building, with a narrow paving in front from end to
end, of stones cast up by the plough. Its walls, but one story high,
rough-cast and white-washed, shone dim in the twilight. Under a thick
projecting thatch the door stood wide open, and from the kitchen, whose
door was also open, came the light of a peat-fire and a fish-oil-lamp.
Throughout the summer Steenie was seldom in the house an hour of the
twenty-four, and now he hesitated to enter. In the winter he would keep
about it a good part of the day, and was generally indoors the greater
part of the night, but by no means always.

While he hesitated, his mother appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.
She was a tall, fine-looking woman, with soft gray eyes, and an
expression of form and features which left Kirsty accounted for.