I did not think it necessary to tell him anything about my agreement
with Dr. Campbell. He, on his part, had quietly possessed himself of
John Ewart's bill for the funeral expenses. We had a long talk, and I
stayed so late that Nance had begun to get anxious about me before I
arrived home. But not one word, either in justification of himself or
of accusation against his uncle, did he utter, though he must have known
well enough what his uncle had said of him.
Nor was it till a couple of months afterwards that Roger Campbell
adverted again to the subject. I had been to the churchyard to look at
the headstone which had been erected, as I knew, at his expense. He had
asked me to write the inscription for it, and I had done so.
Coming home, he had to stop several times on the hill to take breath.
When we got to the door he said: "I have but one thing to pray for now,
Dr. McQuhirr, and that is that I may outlive my mother. Give me your
best skill and help me to do that."
His prayer was answered. He lived just two days after his mother. And
I was with him most of the time, while Nance stayed with my people at
Drumquhat. It was a beautiful Sabbath evening, and the kirk folk were
just coming home. Most who suffer from his particular form of phthisis
imagine themselves to be getting better to the very last, but he knew
too much to have any illusions. I had put the pillows behind him, and
he was sitting up making kindly comment on the people as they passed by,
Bible in hand. He stopped suddenly and looked at me.
"Doctor," he said, "what my uncle told you about me never made any
difference to you?"
"No," I said, rather shamefacedly, "no difference at all!"
"No," he went on, meditatively, "no difference. Well, I want you to burn
two documents for me, lest they fall into the wrong hands--as they might
before these good folk go back kirkward again."
He directed me with his finger, at the same time handing me a key he
wore upon his watch-chain.
"Even my poor mother up there," he said, pointing to the room above,
"has never set eyes on what I am going to show you. It is weak of me; I
ought not to do it, doctor, but I will not deny that it is some comfort
to set myselt right with one human soul before I go."
I took out of a little drawer in a bureau a miniature, a bundle of
letters, and a broadly folded legal-looking document.