thing that drawin' o' hert to hert, an' syne a great snap, an' a stert back, an' there's miles atween them! The Lord alane kens the boddom o' 't; but I'm thinkin' there's mair intill't, an' a heap mair to come oot o' 't ere a' be dune, than we hae ony guiss at."Gibbie told her that Glashruach was his.Then first the extent of his wealth seemed to strike his old mother.
"Eh! ye'll be the laird, wull ye, than? Eh, sirs! To think o' this hoose an' a' bein' wee Gibbie's! Weel, it dings a'.The w'ys o'
the Lord are to be thoucht upon! He made Dawvid a king, an' Gibbie he's made the laird! Blest be his name.""They tell me the mountain is mine," Gibbie wrote: "your husband shall be laird of Glashgar if he likes.""Na, na," said Janet, with a loving look."He's ower auld for that.
He micht na dee sae easy for't.--Eh! please the Lord, I wad fain gang wi' him.--An' what better wad Robert be to be laird? We pey nae rent as 'tis, an' he has as mony sheep to lo'e as he can weel ken ane frae the ither, noo 'at he's growin' auld, I ken naething 'at he lacks, but Gibbie to gang wi' 'im aboot the hill.Aneebour's laddie comes an' gangs, to help him, but, eh, says Robert, he's no Gibbie!--But gien Glashruach be yer ain, my bonnie man, ye maun gang doon there this verra nicht, and gie a luik to the burn;for the last time I was there, I thoucht it was creepin' in aneth the bank some fearsome like for what's left o' the auld hoose, an'
the suner it's luikit efter maybe the better.Eh, Sir Gibbie, but ye sud merry the bonnie leddy, an' tak her back till her ain hoose."Gibbie gave a great sigh to think of the girl that loved the hill and the heather and the burns, shut up in the city, and every Sunday going to the great church--with which in Gibbie's mind was associated no sound of glad tidings.To him Glashgar was full of God; the North church or Mr.Sclater's church--well, he had tried hard, but had not succeeded in discovering temple-signs about either.
The next day he sent to the city for an architect; and within a week masons and quarrymen were at work, some on the hill blasting blue boulders and red granite, others roughly shaping the stones, and others laying the foundation of a huge facing and buttressing wall, which was to slope up from the bed of the Glashburn fifty feet to the foot of the castle, there to culminate in a narrow terrace with a parapet.Others again were clearing away what of the ruins stuck to the old house, in order to leave it, as much as might be, in its original form.There was no space left for rebuilding, neither was there any between the two burns for adding afresh.The channel of the second remained dry, the landslip continuing to choke it, and the stream to fall into the Glashburn.But Gibbie would not consent that the burn Ginevra had loved should sing no more as she had heard it sing.Her chamber was gone, and could not be restored, but another chamber should be built for her, beneath whose window it should again run: when she was married to Fergus, and her father could not touch it, the place should be hers.More masons were gathered, and foundations blasted in the steep rock that formed the other bank of the burn.The main point in the building was to be a room for Ginevra.He planned it himself--with a windowed turret projecting from the wall, making a recess in the room, and overhanging the stream.The turret he carried a story higher than the wall, and in the wall placed a stair leading to its top, whence, over the roof of the ancient part of the house, might be seen the great Glashgar, and its streams coming down from heaven, and singing as they came.Then from the middle of the first stair in the old house, the wall, a yard and a half thick, having been cut through, a solid stone bridge, with a pointed arch, was to lead across the burn to a like landing in the new house--a close passage, with an oriel window on each side, looking up and down the stream, and a steep roof.And while these works were going on below, two masons, high on the mountain, were adding to the cottage a warm bedroom for Janet and Robert.
The architect was an honest man, and kept Gibbie's secret, so that, although he was constantly about the place, nothing disturbed the general belief that Glashruach had been bought, and was being made habitable, by a certain magnate of the county adjoining.