CHAPTER XXXVI.
AGAIN THE GOBLET.
The next day Alexa set Dawtie to search the house yet again for the
missing goblet.
"It must be somewhere!" she said. "We are beset with an absolute
contradiction: the thing can't be in the house! and it must be in the
house!"
"If we do find it," returned Dawtie, "folk'll say them 'at could hide
could weel seek! I s' luik naegait wantin' you, mem!"
The study was bare of books, and the empty shelves gave no hint of
concealment They stood in its dreariness looking vaguely round them.
"Did it ever come to ye, mem," said Dawtie, "that a minute or twa passed
between Mr. Crawford comin' doon the stair wi' you, and me gaein' up to
the maister? When I gaed intil the room, he lay pantin' i' the bed; but
as I broodit upo' ilka thing alane i' the prison, he cam afore me, there
i' the bed, as gien he had gotten oot o' 't, and hidden awa' the cup,
and was jist gotten intil't again, the same moment I cam in."
"Dying people will do strange things!" rejoined her mistress. "But it
brings us no nearer the cup!"
"The surer we are, the better we'll seek!" said Dawtie.
They began, and went over the room thoroughly--looking everywhere they
could think of. They had all but given it up to go on elsewhere, when
Dawtie, standing again in the middle and looking about in a sort of
unconscious hopelessness, found her eyes on the mantel-shelf, and went
and laid her hand upon it. It was of wood, and she fancied it a little
loose, but she could not move it.
"When Andrew comes we'll get him to examine it!" said Alexa.
He came in the evening, and Alexa told him what they had been doing. She
begged him to get tools, and see whether there was not a space under the
mantel-shelf. But Andrew, accustomed to ponder contrivances with Sandy,
would have a good look at it first He came presently upon a clever
little spring, pressing which he could lift the shelf: there under it,
sure enough, in rich response to the candle he held, flashed the gems of
the curiously wrought chalice of gold! Alexa gave a cry, Andrew drew a
deep breath, Dawtie laughed like a child. How they gazed on it, passed
it from one to the other, pored over the gems, and over the raised work
that inclosed them, I need not tell. They began to talk about what was
to be done with it.
"We will send it to the earl!" said Alexa.
"No," said Andrew; "that would be to make ourselves judges in the case!
Your father must have paid money for it; he gave it to Mr. Crawford, and
Mr. Crawford must not be robbed!"
"Stop, Andrew!" said Alexa. "Everything in the next room was left to my
cousin, with the library in this; whatever else was left him was
individually described. The cup was not in the next room, and was not
mentioned. Providence has left us to do with it as we may judge right. I
think it ought to be taken to Borland Hall--and by Dawtie."
"Well! She will mention that your father bought it?"
"I will not take a shilling for it!"
"Is not that because you are not quite sure you have the right to
dispose of it?"
"I would not take the price of it if my father had left the cup
expressly to me!"
"Had he done so, you would have a right to what he paid for it. To give
the earl the choice of securing it, would be a service rendered him. If
he were too poor to buy it, the thing would have to be considered."
"Nothing could make me touch money for it. George would never doubt we
had concealed it in order to trick him out of it!"
"He will think so all the same. It will satisfy him, and not a few
beside, that Dawtie ought to have been convicted. The thing is certainly
Mr. Crawford's--that is, his as not yours. Your father undoubtedly meant
him to have the cup; and God would not have you, even to serve the
right, take advantage of an accident. Whatever ought to be done with the
cup, Mr. Crawford ought to do it; it is his business to do right in
regard to it; and whatever advantage may be gained by doing right, Mr.
Crawford ought to have the chance of gaining it. Would you deprive him
of the opportunity, to which at least he has a right, of doing justice,
and delivering his soul?"
"You would have us tell the earl that his cup is found, but Mr. Crawford
claims it?" said Alexa.
"Andrew would have us take it to Mr. Crawford," said Dawtie, "and tell
him that the earl has a claim to it."
"Tell him also," said Andrew, "where it was found, showing he has no
_legal_ right to it; and tell him he has no more moral right to it than
the laird could give him. Tell him, ma'am," continued Andrew, "that you
expect him to take it to the earl, that he may buy it if he will; and
say that if, after a fortnight, you find it is not in the earl's
possession, you will yourself ascertain from him whether the offer has
been made him."
"That is just right," said Alexa.
And so the thing was done. The cup is now in the earl's collection, and
without any further interference on her part.
A few days after she and Dawtie carried the cup to Crawford, a parcel
arrived at Potlurg, containing a beautiful silver case, and inside the
case the jeweled watch--with a letter from George, begging Alexa to
accept his present, and assuring her of his conviction that the moment
he annoyed her with any further petition, she would return it. He
expressed his regret that he had brought such suffering upon Dawtie, and
said he was ready to make whatever amends her husband might think fit.
Alexa accepted the watch, and wore it. She thought her father would like
her to do so.
