Read "The Interloper" by Violet Jacob online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
GILBERT was wrong in supposing he would arrive in Scotland on the very / heels of his letter, for it reached Granny Stirk's hands three days / before the night which ended, for him, on Monrummon Moor. Jimmy, who / had brought it from Kaims in the evening, spelt it out successfully by / the firelight.
The old woman sat, drowned in thought, her fiery eyes on the flame; she / could not understand why Cecilia had made no response to what Captain / Somerville had written, for she had seen him on the previous day and / was aware that no word had come from Edinburgh. Though she knew that / Barclay had carried the letter to Fullarton she had no suspicion that / he had tampered with it, imagining her action and that of the sailor / unknown to anyone. How should Barclay guess its contents? Also, she had / no notion to what extent he was in Fordyce's confidence, or what a / leading part he had played in the arrangement of the marriage. Instinct / and the remembrance of his visit to her were the only grounds for the / distrust with which she looked upon him.