her own sorrow and shame, and at the bottom of her heart
inclined to blame her father for much of the trouble between her and
Jan. If he had dealt fairly with Jan after the first summer's fishing,
Jan would never have been with Skager. And how eager he had been to
break up her home! After all, Jan had been the injured man; he ought
to have had some of her tocher down. A little ready money would have
made him satisfied and happy; her life and happiness had been
sacrificed to her father's avarice. She was sure now that if the years
could be called back, she would be on Jan's side with all her heart.

Two souls living under the same roof and nursing such thoughts against
each other were not likely to be happy. If they had ever come to open
recrimination, things uncertain might have been explained; but, for
the most part, there was only silence in Peter's house. Hour after
hour, he sat at the fireside, and never spoke to Margaret. She grew
almost hysterical under the spell of this irresponsive trouble.
Perhaps she understood then why Jan had fled to Torr's kitchen to
escape her own similar exhibitions of dissatisfaction.

As the months wore on, things in the store gradually resumed their
normal condition. Jan was dead, Peter was living, the tide of popular
feeling turned again. Undoubtedly, however, it was directed by the
minister's positive, almost angry, refusal to ask Peter before the
kirk session to explain his connection with Jan's disappearance. He
had never gone much to Peter's store, but for a time he showed his
conviction of Peter's innocence by going every day to sit with him. It
was supposed, of course, that he had talked the affair thoroughly over
with Peter, and Peter did try at various times to introduce the
subject. But every such attempt was met by a refusal in some sort on
the minister's part. Once only he listened to his complaint of the
public injustice.

"Thou can not control the wind, Peter," he said in reply; "stoop and
let it pass over thee. I believe and am sure thy hands are clear of
Jan's blood. As to how far thou art otherwise guilty concerning him,
that is between God and thy conscience. But let me say, if I were
asked to call thee before the kirk session on the count of unkindness
and injustice, I would not feel it to be my duty to refuse to do so."
Having said this much, he put the matter out of their conversation;
but still such a visible human support in his dark hour was a great
comfort t