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diff --git a/28366.txt b/28366.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a682a13 --- /dev/null +++ b/28366.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9112 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nancy Stair, by Elinor Macartney Lane + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nancy Stair + A Novel + +Author: Elinor Macartney Lane + +Release Date: March 20, 2009 [EBook #28366] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY STAIR *** + + + + +Produced by Steve Schulze and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +_Nancy Stair_ + + +_A NOVEL_ + + + +_By ELINOR MACARTNEY LANE_ + +_Author of "Mills of God"_ + + + +_A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers +NEW YORK_ + + +COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + +_Published May, 1904_ + + + +_To_ Frank Brett Noyes +_Who accepted, with a kind letter, +The first story I ever wrote, +This tale of_ Nancy Stair _is dedicated, +As a tribute of affection, +From one old friend to another._ + + + + "For woman is not undeveloped man, + But diverse; could we make her as the man, + Sweet Love were slain: his dearest bond is this, + Not like to like, but like in difference." + + TENNYSON. + + "Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears, + Her noblest work she classes, O, + Her 'prentice hand she tried on man, + And then she made the lasses, O." + + ROBERT BURNS. + + +"Ye can't educate women as you can men. They're +elemental creatures; and ye can no more change their +natures than ye can stop fire from burning." + + HUGH PITCAIRN. + + + + +PREFACE BY LORD STAIR + + +Two excellent accounts of the beautiful Nancy Stair have already been +published; the first by Mrs. George Opie, in the Scots News, giving a +detailed account of the work on the burnside, and a more recent one by +Professor Erskine, of our own University, which is little more than a +critical dissertation upon Nancy as a poet; the heart of the matter +with him being to commend her English verses, as well as those in "gude +braid Scot." + +With these accounts to be secured so easily it may seem presumptuous, +as well as superfluous, for me to undertake a third. I state at the +outset, therefore, that it is beyond my ambition and my abilities to +add a word to stories told so well. Nor do I purpose to mention either +the work on the burn or Nancy's song-making, save when necessary for +clearness. + +For me, however, the life of Nancy Stair has a far deeper significance +than that set forth by either of these gifted authors. My knowledge of +her was naturally of the most intimate; I watched her grow from a +wonderful child into a wonderful woman; and saw her, with a man's +education, none but men for friends, and no counselings save from her +own heart, solve most wisely for the race the problem put to every +woman of gift; and with sweetest reasoning and no bitter renouncings +enter the kingdom of great womanhood. + +To tell this intimate side of her life with what skill I have is the +chief purpose of my writing, but there are two other motives almost as +strong. The first of these is to clear away the mystery of the murder +which for so long clouded our lives at Stair. To do this there is no +man in Scotland to-day so able as myself. It was I who bid the Duke to +Stair; the quarrel which brought on the meeting fell directly beneath +my eyes; I heard the shots and found the dead upon that fearful night, +and afterward went blindfolded through the bitter business of the +trial. I was the first, as well, to scent the truth at the bottom of +the defense, and have in my possession, as I write, the confession +which removed all doubt as to the manner in which the deed was +committed. + +The second reason is to set clear Nancy's relation to Robert Burns, of +which too much has been made, and whose influence upon her and her +writings has been grossly exaggerated. Her observation of natural +genius in him changed her greatly, and I have tried to set this forth +with clearness; but it affected her in a very different manner from +that which her two famous biographers have told, and I have it from her +own lips that it was because of the Burns episode that she stopped +writing altogether. + +If it be complained against me that the tale has my own life's story in +it, I would answer to the charge that only a great and passionate first +love could have produced a child like Nancy, and I believe that the +world is ever a bit interested in the line of people whose loves and +hates have produced a recognized genius. Then, too, the circumstances +attending her birth had more influence on her after life than may at +first be seen, giving me as they did such a tenderness for her that I +have never been able to cross her in any matter whatever. + +Much of the story, of which I was not directly a witness, comes from +Nancy herself. I have sent the tale to Alexander Carmichael as well, +and in all important matters his recollections accord with mine. + +There came to me but yesterday, in this queer old city, a letter from +him urging me back to Stair, closed with a stanza that was not born to +die: + + "Should auld acquaintance be forgot, + And never brought to min', + Should auld acquaintance be forgot, + And the days of Auld Lang Syne?" + +They should not, Sandy, and none know it better than we; and I long for +a grip of your hand, lad, and to feel the winds blow through the rowans +at Stair and the copper birches of Arran; to hear the blackbirds +whistle across the gowan-tops; to see the busy burn-folk through the +break in the old south wall; and with the ending of these writings my +steps are turned toward home. + +ROME, 1801. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I.--AT STAIR HOUSE, NEAR EDINBURGH, IN 1768 1 + + II.--I GO ON A CRUISE AND FIND A HIDDEN TREASURE 15 + + III.--THE TREASURE BECOMES MINE, BUT IS CLAIMED BY ITS OWNER 29 + + IV.--ENTER NANCY STAIR 41 + + V.--I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A STRANGE CHILD 53 + + VI.--NANCY BEGINS HER STUDY OF THE LAW 61 + + VII.--I TAKE NANCY'S EDUCATION IN HAND 74 + + VIII.--THE DAFT DAYS 86 + + IX.--DANVERS BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH NANCY 105 + + X.--NANCY VISITS HIS GRACE OF BORTHWICKE 124 + + XI.--DANVERS CARMICHAEL MAKES A PROPOSAL 142 + + XII.--I MEET A GREAT MAN 159 + + XIII.--THE DUKE VISITS STAIR FOR THE FIRST TIME 166 + + XIV.--NANCY MEETS HER RIVAL 174 + + XV.--CONCERNING DANVERS CARMICHAEL AND HIS GRACE OF BORTHWICKE 185 + + XVI.--NANCY STAIR ARRANGES MATTERS 204 + + XVII.--"THE SWAP O' RHYMING WARE" 213 + +XVIII.--I GO DOWN TO MAUCHLINE 232 + + XIX.--THE QUARREL BETWEEN DANVERS AND NANCY 241 + + XX.--DANVERS GIVES US A GREAT SURPRISE 259 + + XXI.--THE ALLISONS' BALL AND THAT WHICH FOLLOWED IT 268 + + XXII.--A STRANGE MEETING 286 + +XXIII.--A FALSE RUMOR CAUSES TROUBLE 298 + + XXIV.--THE MURDER 307 + + XXV.--THE TRIAL 324 + + XXVI.--THE DEFENSE 351 + +XXVII.--THE MISTS ALL CLEARED AWAY 361 + + + + +NANCY STAIR + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AT STAIR HOUSE, NEAR EDINBURGH, IN 1768 + + +By reason of a breakneck ride through the Pentlands, I entered the +dining-room at Stair very late one morning to find Huey MacGrath in a +state of deepest gloom waiting to serve my breakfast. + +"Good morning, Huey," I said, opening The Glasgow Sentinel which had +come by the post. + +"Good morning, my lord," he returned, in a grudging tone. + +"It's a fine morning," said I. + +"Ye think sae!" with a show of great surprise. + +"Why, man!" I cried, "can not ye see for yourself?" + +"We've the spring rains to come yet." + +"They're by these ten days," I answered. + +"Nae, nae," he said quietly. "That was jest the equinoctial, I'm +thinking." + +"The equinoctial comes in March, man!" I observed with some surprise. + +"Tammas was telling me yesterday that the roads to London were fair +impassable." + +"Nonsense," said I. "The summer's here, Huey." + +"There's a chill at the gloamin', yet. Nae, nae," he went on earnestly, +"simmer's far awa',--I've seen snaw's late's this!" + +"Ye've had wonderful eyesight," I laughed, seeing the point toward +which this talk was aimed. "And did ye hear nothing of tidal waves, +Huey?" I asked; "with impassable roads to London, and snow in June, +you've surely heard of some disasters by sea." + +"Ah!" he cried, "ye can tell of what I'm thinking, for I've seen the +signs of it in ye for a fortnight back. You're like your father before +you, and your grandfather, as weel, for the curse of wandering seems to +follow the name of Stair. With the first warm day ye have your windows +wide open; and next your beds are into a draught fit to blaw ye from +between the sheets; and then ye're up in the morning, aff on a hoorse +scouring the hills as tho' ye were gyte; and at the end your valise's +packed, the coach stopped, and ye aff amang the heathen, Gude alane +kens wheer! + +"Ah, laddie!" he continued, his voice changed to an affectionate wail, +"dinna be gane awa'! Ye've niver seen Stair in the simmer time; but +when the elderberries and lilacs flower on the burn; and the gilly +flowers and hollyhocks are bloomin' by the north tower; when the wind +blows soft through the rowans, and the pineys' pink and white faces, as +big as cabbages, nod against the old south wall, there's no bonnier +place in Scotland than your own place of Stair." + +He was so moved at the thought of my leaving him, that I answered in +some haste, + +"In truth, Huey, I've no thought of going away." + +"Ah," he answered, "ye don't know it, but ye have. It's been in ye for +a week back,"--and casting his eye out of the window, "there's Mr. +Carmichael now, riding in by the Holm gate. I'll jest open the door +till him." + +This was an entirely unnecessary attention on Huey's part, as Sandy +Carmichael, whose estate of Arran Towers joins my own on the west, +generally opened the door of Stair for himself, or the windows either, +for the matter of that, if the latter were more convenient entrance +from the place he happened to be. + +My recollections of Sandy begin with my recollections of myself. As +lads together, indeed before we were long out of skirts, we guddled for +fish in the burn-water; went birds' nesting, raced our ponies, fought +each other behind the stables and made a common stock of our money for +the purchase of dimpies, peoys and jelly-tarts. We attended the High +School together and upon leaving it chose the same college, where Sandy +ran a merry pace, throwing his money out of the windows, as it were, +and gaining for himself the reputation of wearing more waistcoats, +drinking more whisky, making love to more women, and writing better +verses, than any other man in the University. + +He was a big, athletic, clean-limbed fellow, with brown hair, a bright +face, warm eyes, and friendly genial ways which came from the kindest +heart in the world. Five years before the time of which I write, which +would be in 1763, he had married the Honorable Miss Llewellyn from the +north, a pitiable pale-colored lady, who, half crazed by jealousy and +ill health, was sending him back to unmarried ways again. Being only +sister to Lord Glenmore, who had no heirs and was subject to seizures +of a very malignant type, it was yearly expected that the title would +come to Sandy's bit of a boy, a handsome-faced little fellow of four, +who paid me long visits at self-selected times, demanding my watch, a +pipe to smoke, and horses to ride. + +Before Huey had time to reach the door, Sandy, in his riding clothes, +with his cap on the back of his head, stood looking in at me. There was +a scowl between his brows, and by this as well as other certain signs, +I knew that all was not well with him. + +"Will ye go on a cruise with me?" says he from the doorway with no +introduction whatever. + +"Would it be an unseemly prying into your affairs to ask where to?" I +inquired with a smile. + +"North or south," said he, still keeping his place by the door. "It's +immaterial to me, so I escape accompanying my womenfolk to London." + +"And if I go with ye," says I, "your wife will like me less than she +does now." + +"That would be impossible, so ye needn't worry over it," he returned +dryly. "The only good word ye ever had from her was that if ye'd been a +less handsome man ye might have been a better one." + +"And even that could scarce be termed fulsome flattery," I observed. + +"Will ye go!" he repeated, his mind set on the one point. + +A sudden thought, bred of some news in the paper which I had just +received, came to me upon the instant. + +"Let us take the boat from Leith, and go north by the Orkney and +Hebrides Islands, through the Minch to the west coast. There are all +kinds of stories afloat concerning the gipsies and free traders who +live in those deep coves; we might fall in with a pirate ship----" + +"Or find a hidden treasure!" he said scoffingly, as he seated himself +on the other side of the table and took some coffee, the frown gone, +and the Sandy I knew with the bright face and laughing eye back again. + +"Aye," he went on in his humorous way, "I am convinced 'twill be hidden +treasure we'll find, Jock. We'll go ashore at midnight, and under a +stunted pine will be a sailor's chest. Hidden treasures are always +found in sailors' chests, ye know. And taking a three-foot bar of iron, +which every gentleman in tales carries concealed upon his person, we, +you and I,--none of the others, of course,--will pry this chest +open--to find ducats and doubloons, and piastres, and sous-marquees--and +a map of the Spanish Main and the Dry Tortugas--with crosses in blood. +I'll tell you, ye can have my share of it now," he cried, laughing at +me. + +"Ye're over generous," says I, for jesting of this kind was a thing to +which I was accustomed in him. + +He dropped the raillery on the moment, however, to take a note-book +from his pocket. + +"Whom shall we ask?" he inquired in his natural voice. + +Now I had one other friend, almost as dear to me as Sandy, named Hugh +Pitcairn. But while there could be no doubt of the affection each had +for me, there could be equally no doubt of the dislike they bore each +other, this feeling having grown from the first day they met in the +hockey grounds of the High School, where almost at sight of each other +they fell to fighting, until finally pulled apart by some of the older +lads. + +"In this connection," said I, getting back at him a bit, for his +jeering at my plans, "what do you think of Hugh Pitcairn?" + +"In this connection," he returned dryly, "I do not think of Hugh +Pitcairn at all." + +"It's strange," I went on, in the same remote tone, as though it were a +subject mentioned for the first time, "that ye should dislike him so." + +"It can not match the strangeness of any one's enduring his society," +he replied with heat. + +"Well, well," said I, putting Pitcairn out of the talk. "What do you +say to Geordie MacAllister?" + +"The very man," he cried, writing the name in the book. + +"And Graham Annesley," I went on. + +"Good again." + +"And Donald McDonald." + +"He won't do at all!" Sandy broke out in a determined way. "He's gone +the way of all trouble, which is the way of women. He's crazed about +the Lady Mary Llewellyn and we'll have no one along who is sighing for +a woman, be she his own or another man's wife. That's what I like in +you, Jock Stair," he said, gazing at me with approval. "Ye've your +faults----" + +"No?" I said, with pretended amazement. + +"Ye'd gamble on the flight of angels----" + +"Ye're speaking of some one else, maybe," I suggested. + +"And ye drink more than ye should,--but you're my own man where the +women are concerned; for never since I knew ye,--and that's ever since +ye were born,--have I seen ye look with wanting at maid, wife, or +widow, and ye're wise in that," he added in a tone whose bitterness +came from the unhappiness of his own wedded life. + +To put the talk into a brighter channel, I hastened to suggest a fourth +and fifth companion for the cruise, upon which we fell to passing +judgment on the companionable men of our acquaintance, weighing their +congeniality to us and to each other until one o'clock was past before +we set about the business of delivering our invitations. + +Offering to accompany Sandy on these errands, I thought I heard a +groan, and on leaving the dining-room I made sure of another, and on +the instant knew that they came from Huey MacGrath. + +This expedition falling so quickly on the heels of his warning was an +odd occurrence and for some reason, perhaps in remembrance of my recent +assertion that I had no heart to leave Stair, there fell a funny +performance between us. He handed me my cap and coat, determined to +catch my eye, and I, having no desire to see the reproach which his +glance contained, was equally set to avoid it; so that I received my +cap with my eyes on my boots, my gloves with an averted head, and my +riding-stick looking out of the doorway, and mounted my horse with no +small resentment in my breast at this surveillance from a servant which +would never be borne in any spot outside of Scotland. + +"I'm thinking," said I to Sandy as we rode toward the town gate, "I'm +thinking of discharging Huey when I come back." + +"That will make the fifty-third time," said Sandy, with a grin, as he +started his horse off at a gallop. + +After the visits with Sandy, I kept an engagement with Hugh Pitcairn at +the Star and Garter, just around the corner from the Tron Church, at +four o'clock of the same day. It was a few minutes past the hour as I +neared the place, to find him standing by the doorway, his back to the +passers by, a French cap pulled low over his eyes, reading from a +ponderous book which he was balancing with some difficulty against the +door-rail. + +"I hope I've not kept ye waiting!" said I. + +"Ye have kept me waiting," he answered, but with no resentment. + +"I've been seeing some men about a cruise, and it took more time than I +thought," I explained by way of apology. + +"You're off on a cruise?" he asked, as we seated ourselves at one of +the tables. + +I nodded. + +"With the Carmichael fellow, I suppose?" he asked. + +"I am going with Mr. Carmichael," said I. + +"Well, it's just _no_ thing for you to be doing at all," he +returned; "you should stay at home and look after your affairs. The +Carlyles have broken the entail, and you may be able to buy the land on +the other side of Burnwater that you've been wanting so long." + +"And why can't you attend to the matter?" I cried. "Ye handle all my +business, and do it far better than I ever could, beside, I can leave +procuration----" + +He smiled at this in an exasperatingly superior way as though I had +used the word loosely, and went on: "The estate itself is to be looked +to," and here he seemed to have learned his lesson out of Huey +MacGrath's book. + +"As for the house," I broke in, "it's taken better care of in my +absence than when I am in it; and it's money in my pocket to leave +matters with MacGrath to manage. I can not see," I said with some heat, +perhaps helped by the brandy I was drinking, "why in heaven's name I +shouldn't go on a cruise if I desire to! If I'd ties of any kind, a +wife or children----" + +This was Pitcairn's chance, and he broke my talk to take it. + +"Your friend Carmichael has both, and to them his first duty lies." And +any one with his wits about him can imagine the rest of the talk, for +he fell into an attitude of strong disapproval of the whole plan; +stating in a cold legal way that Sandy had already let me in for more +than one trouble; had caused me to spend large sums of money, foolishly +doing the like himself; that we were both incapable of good husbandry; +given to drinking more than was wise, and over fond of the society of +persons whom we were pleased to call men of talent, but who were, by +his judgment, doggerel-making people, of loose morals, with no respect +for fact, the conduct which became the general, or the laws of Christ. + +He went over for the twentieth time Sandy's arrest for pulling off most +of the door-knockers in Edinburgh; this event having occurred when the +lad was but sixteen and home for the vacation; as well as the scandal +of his having bid the Lord President in a high and excited voice to +stick his head out of the window, and upon that venerable gentleman +complying, shouting: "Now stick it in again!" + +At the end of this discourse he invited me to remain at home with him +and spend the evenings over a new treatise on the Laws of Evidence +which he had just brought from the University, at which I laughed in +his face and told him that I had neither the wit nor the inclination +for such an enterprise. His last words were to the effect that there +would be trouble bred of the expedition, and he closed his harangue in +the following manner, as we stood on the South Bridge, where our ways +parted: + +"The Carmichael man has no judgment either for your affairs or his own. +His heart may be all right, but he's got no common sense, and a man +like that is little better than a fool." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +I GO ON A CRUISE AND FIND A HIDDEN TREASURE + + +In spite of Hugh Pitcairn we were off the following Monday, going out +of Leith, with a clear sky, a stiff breeze, and six men of our own +feather, caring little where our destination lay, if the cards turned +well, the drink held plenty, and the ocean rolled beneath us. North we +went; north till the sea itself seemed quieter and lonelier; north +where the twilight held far into the night, to be back by two of the +morning; north by John o' Groats and the Pentland Skerries; till one +June day found us turned far down the wild west coast; a colorless +cruise behind us, with never a storm, a pirate ship, nor a sight of the +jolly roger. + +At the end of the day of which I speak we were lying in toward shore, +and I was aft with a pipe for company, when Sandy came from behind the +pile of sail-cloth against which I sat to say that the brig would have +to lay by for repairs and to inquire what I thought of going ashore for +an adventure. + +"Where are we?" I asked. + +"Somewhere above Landgore. 'Tis the very place for treasure," he added, +with a laugh. + +"There's nothing would suit me better than a night ashore," said I with +truth, for I had had enough of the drink, the slack language, and the +rough sea life, and looked forward to the land with a pleasant hurry of +thoughts. + +The moon shone bright in a sky of plain dark blue, making a path of +swaying gold toward the beach, where we could see the water curl upon +the sands like suds. A little back was a steep rise of granite rocks, +with gorse and heather growing on the sides, at the bottom of which +some gipsies, or free-traders, had built a great fire, and we heard +them singing a drunken catch in chorus, and saw them whirling round and +round the fire in a circle, as we stepped ashore from the boat. + +An ugly silence fell as we approached them, and their women drew off, +thinking that we were government men, no doubt; but finding that we had +no weightier business than to get some information as to our +whereabouts, one of them gave us word that the path up the cliff led to +the Cuckoo Tavern, kept by Mother Dickenson, where we could obtain what +refreshment we needed as well as lodgment for the night. We had gone +some fifty feet when one of the men cried after us: + +"An' if luck's wi' ye, ye may have a glyff of the handsomest lass in +Scotland," at which a woman cuffed him with a ringing sound. There +followed a muttered curse and a roar of laughter, which was the last we +had of them. + +The path up the cliff twisted and roved in such a manner to avoid the +many boulders that the inn-light proved little better than a +will-o'-the-wisp to guide us, and it was in a breathless condition that +we reached the quaint low house, which was both neat and comfortable, +seeming peculiarly so perhaps after our long voyage. + +A queer old woman, with a humorous wry face, yellow and deeply lined, +sharp black eyes, and a ready manner, stood behind a small bar and took +note of us upon our entrance, with the air of one well able to judge +our rank and bearing. + +The rest went off with her to inspect the chambers which she was able +to offer, laughing and chaffing each other as was their way, leaving me +alone in the main room with my back to the fire. As I stood thus I +heard a sudden noise, saw the curtain of a door at the side raised, and +a girl in a black robe with a lighted candle in her hand looked in at +me. + +For twenty-seven years I had waited for a sight of that girl! + +She was tall and slight, and carried herself with the careless grace of +a child; her hair was of a bronze color, parted over the brows and +rippling back into a great knot low on the head; her skin was cream, +with a faint, steady pink burning in the cheeks, but as is the way of +men, it was the eyes and lips I noted most; eyes of gray, filled with +poetry and passion; eyes which looked out under brows black and heavy +and between lashes, curled and long, giving a peculiar significance to +the glance. The lips were scarlet, the upper one being noticeably short +and full; lips mutable and inviting, lips that were made for mine--and +all this I knew in the first minute that our eyes met, when, as it +seemed to me, our two souls rushed together. + +At gaze with each other we stood, no word spoken between us, for a full +minute of time, when the noise of the men coming back disturbed her; +she dropped the curtain and the light of her candle disappeared, a +little at a time, as though she were walking from me down some long +passage-way. + +I do not know how love comes to other natures than my own, and men of +notable integrity have told me how leisurely they strolled into the +condition of loving; but for me, by one questioning glance from a pair +of eyes, half gray, half blue, I was sunk fathoms deep in love, in love +that knows nothing, cares for nothing but the one beloved. Soul and +body I was signed, sealed, and delivered, "hers," in that first sight I +had of her in the doorway with the candle in her hand and the crimson +curtain framing her as if she were a picture. + +We had supper, of which I ate nothing; liquor, of which I drank +nothing; and merry talk, in which I took no part, Sandy jeering at me +for a dull ass, I remember, and pretending regret at not having asked +the Reverend Slowboy in my place; but his talk was of no moment to me, +for my pulse was going like a trip-hammer, my brain reeled with that +headiest wine of Nature's brewing, and I wanted to get out under the +stars and be alone. + +Having some skill at singing, Geordie MacAllister urged that I recall +the catch we had heard on the beach; but finding me adamant against +such an exhibition, Dame Dickenson offered a suggestion for our +entertainment. + +"There's a ward of mine here, a young lady, who has the music, and, +seeing ye're all gentlemen, might be urged to a song." + +Five minutes from the time that she was seated with us, I had heard her +voice, our eyes had held each other again, and I saw a carnation flush +bloom suddenly in her cheek as our hands touched. She brought with her +a curious old instrument, like a lute with many strings, and upon this +she struck chords to the song she sang, "The Wronged Love of Great +Laird Gregory," the melody of which seems ever to be with me; and +yesterday, when I heard Nancy crooning it to herself, I cried aloud as +a woman might, for the unfulfilled in all our lives, and my dead youth, +and Marian Ingarrach. + +And at her singing, the four of us--or five it may be, for I can not +now rightly recall whether Sawney MacAllister came ashore that night or +not--sat before her beauty as though it were a part of witchery, for +there was a bookish strangeness to it that on this wild coast, in a +nest of smugglers and free-traders, after a cruise of rough living and +deep drinking, we should be listening to the voice of a girl whose +beauty was upsetting to the senses of man and whose bearing denoted +breeding of the highest order. + +She left us after a second singing, bidding us good-night in a +laughing, friendly fashion, and looking at every one, save me, full in +the eyes, as a child might have done; but when her hand touched mine, +her eyes fell before me, and I, who knew something of woman's ways, +felt with a leaping heart that she knew. + +The rest were gone from the room when Sandy Carmichael, who had made +the pretense of another pipe, came back to me as I stood looking into +the fire. + +"You saw her first!" he said. + +"Aye," I answered, "and it's all over with me!" + +"Is it to the church door?" he asked. + +"It's to the foot of the Throne itself," I answered. "It's wherever she +leads," for I was young and phrase-making was in the blood. + +"Well," he says, "ye're Lord Stair, and if ye choose to marry a +gips----" + +"Choose!" I cried. "I have no choice. The men who stand balancing as to +whether they will or they won't, with 'Would it be wise?' or +'Acceptable to the world?' I have no knowledge of, and want none, as I +have told you often." + +"Well," said he, "I've always called you crazy, Jock Stair," and here +he put his hand lovingly on my shoulder, "but I never discovered until +to-night how crazy you are. I'm not denying there's something fine +about it; but is it sensible? Think o' Pitcairn," he said, with a +laughing devil in his eye. + +"Pitcairn may go to perdition," I answered with some heat. + +"It's not Pitcairn that's on his way there, I'm thinking," he returned, +with a droll look; "but we must all learn by experience, so gang your +own gate. We're off at five in the morning. Do you go?" + +He saw by my manner that nothing save an earthquake could get me from +the house, and whistling, with some significance, "The Deil Has Nae Got +all the Fools," he left me without a good-by word. After he had gone I +went forth into the open to be alone. The stars were shining brightly +through white clouds, which the sea winds drove across the sky, and far +down the cliff I could see the great beach fire and catch the laughter +and song of the gipsy folk and free-traders. + +Tales were not wanting of the men of Stair who had lost their wits when +crossed in love; who had run away with other men's wives and had abided +with some jauntiness the world's dispraise, cleaving until death did +them part to the one woman who seemed God-made for them. I had thought +before this, in a slighting manner, of the strange doings of my +forebears; but the thing was upon me, and, come life, come death, I +knew that there was henceforward for me but one woman in the world, +Marian Ingarrach, an Irish gipsy-girl, with a beauty beyond the +natural, and a voice of music like the sounding of an old harp. + +I stood under the great tree, the blood of a man and a lover pulsing +sweet and feverishly through my veins, when I saw her come out on the +balcony, over the sea door, where some posies grew, which she had come +to move back from the wind. I was not one to lose an opportunity like +this, for nature in me was strong and impulse-driven. I crossed the +space which divided us and spoke up to her. + +"Will you come down?" I called to her; "I have that which I would say +to you to-night." + +She started at the sound of my voice, hesitated for a moment, and with +no answer in words disappeared from the porch, coming out of the door +near which I stood. + +Her hair, in two long plaits, hung almost to her knees, and by the +moonlight I could see the flush of her cheek and the silver sheen of +her eyes as she looked up at me with questioning in her glance, and I +remember now the clutch at my throat which seemed to hold back all I +would say, as I took off my cap and stood before her. + +"I love you," I said headily, "I love you, and I want you for my wife," +and, seeing the highness of the absurdity that my first words to her +should be a proposal of marriage, I cried, + +"Oh, my dear! my dear! ye'll think me daft to talk thus; but we men of +Stair go gyte in these affairs. 'Tis love at first sight with us, or +none at all; but if ye'll have me, I'll make ye Lady Stair; and what's +far more, I'll try to make you a happy woman the rest of your days. + +"It seems wild enough for me to be talking so," I went on, "to you, who +do not even know my name," and here she interrupted me with a shy +smile. + +"Jock!" she said, reaching forth her hand, and the door of heaven +opened, as it seemed. + +"How did you know?" I asked. + +"Sure," she said, "I listened for it. The other big man called you +that." + +"You cared to know?" I whispered, for my arm was around her by this +time, and the world had slipped away. + +"Very much." + +"And you think you could learn to love me, Marian?" + +I felt the little body quiver in my arms, and when she spoke there was +fear in her voice. + +"Do you think it is right?" she asked. "Do you think it can be right? +It seems as though for years, for all my life, I had waited for your +coming, and I loved you the minute I saw you--you whom a few hours +agone I did not know to be a living man. Tell me," she went on +excitedly, "you who are a man and of the world, can this be all good?" + +"It is as God meant such things to fall," I answered her, "and He deal +so with me as I shall deal with thee." + +"But," she persisted, "are you sure you understand? You tell me you are +Lord of Stair, and I've no doubt of it, for truth shines from your +eyes; but what do you ken of me? I who have no name, who was left by +some gipsy folk at the inn door, and whose breeding--what I've of +it--came from a Jacobite priest who teaches by the Cairn Mills." + +There was never another voice so full of music, so caressing or so +feminine, as Marian Ingarrach's, none, not even Nancy Stair's; and as +she uttered these depreciations of herself, I exclaimed: + +"You are as I would have you." + +"Entirely?" + +"Entirely." + +"And you'll not be ashamed of me?" + +It was in this question that I had her first teasing of me, for she was +woman, and knew as well as I of the beauty, which gave her a queen's +right to the hearts of men. + +"Ashamed of you," I cried. "Ah, girl, dinna ye see I canna get my +breath for wantin' ye?" + +She stood looking at me, her chin well up and an amused and a glad look +in her eyes. + +"Ah," she said at length, "you are the one who is worth all that a +woman has to give, and the blood of all the lawless folk of which I +come speaks for you, Jock Stair! For ye woo as a man should woo; and +I'm won as a woman should be won, because she has no will left to +choose." + +And she turned her face toward mine. + +"I'm just yours for the asking, Jock." + +I drew her to me, and we kissed each other beneath the starlit blue, +with the sea wind blowing our hair and the gipsy singing coming, in +broken bits of melody, up through the gorse and heather. + +I made a song of it after, in my limping verse, which Nancy found one +day, and laughed at, I remember: + + The gipsies are out, I can see their lights moving, + Race answers to race, 'neath the stars and the blue; + They are living and laughing and mating and loving, + As I stand in the midnight with you, love, with you! + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE TREASURE BECOMES MINE, BUT IS CLAIMED BY ITS OWNER + + +There was no sleep for me that night, and I lay awake till the clear +day, watching the gulls fly across the window and waiting the time when +I might see her once again. Early as it was when I arose, the wee bit +lassie who brought me the hot water said in answer to my inquiry that +the other gentlemen had been gone since the daybreak, and declining her +offer of breakfasting in my room, I went down to the spence, hoping +that Marian might be there before me. I found the room empty, however, +save for Dame Dickenson, who had spread a table for me between the fire +and the window, through which I could see the waves curl on the lower +beach and the sunshine break into flying sparks over the fine blue sea. +I was never one to mince words when there was aught to be said, nor to +put off settling until another time a thing which could be fixed upon +the moment. + +"Sit ye down," I said to the little body, who was plainly of a rank and +comprehension above the vulgar. "Sit ye down! There are a few words +that I would like to have with ye." + +She remained standing, but paused in her employ to give me a wordless +attention as I went on: + +"I am John Stair, Lord of Stair and Alton in the Mearns, and I want to +marry your ward, Marian Ingarrach." + +She set the rest of the dishes before me as though not hearing my +speech, but I saw the corners of her mouth twitch a bit and, after +removing the cover of the haddie, she cast a glance over the top of my +head rather than directly at me, as she said: + +"Ye're a cautious body, Lord Stair." + +"I know what I intend to do," I answered, and there was a silence +between us for a space. + +"Ye're a quare man," she broke forth presently, looking at me +humorously over her glasses. "Aye, a quare man! Ye come here with a +pack of riotous livers from Edinburgh, clap your eyes on my young lady +for the first time last night, and are for marryin' her off hand this +morning with no more to do over it than if marryin' was a daily +performance of yours." + +I said no words, but regarded her with a smile. + +"Sure," she went on, looking at me with great equanimity, "ye canna +soften my heart by your smilin'. Ye're a handsome man, my lord, and +ye've the strong way with ye that black men often have; but I've met in +with handsome men afore now, and the handsomer the more to be feared. +Dickenson was a dark man himself," she added, with a twinkle in her +eye. Another silence fell between us, as I watched her needles click in +and out and catch the firelight. + +"Perhaps," she said presently, "ye'd like to have a little knowledge of +the girl you're wantin' for a wife." + +"It's the matter which lies nearest my heart at the moment," I answered +her; and at this her voice and face became more serious, and she +stopped her knitting, looking directly at me as she spoke. + +"There's little to tell," she began, "little that I could take +book-oath to, I mean, for one bad night in March, eighteen years back, +I heard a wail at the door, and opening it found a gipsy-hamper with +the baby inside. She was finely dressed and there was a note pinned on +her little shirt, which--wait a bit," she said, "I can show it ye." At +this she crossed the room to a wooden cupboard, unlocked the door, and +took from it a small box, the key of which she had in her bosom. +Opening this she handed me a slip of paper, upon which was written, in +a coarse male hand: + + "HARRIET DICKENSON: + + "If you will keep the child money will be sent for you and her. I + want her brought up a lady." + +"There was a roll of gold in the basket with her, forty pounds, my +lord. And the writer has kept his word. Money has been sent ever since, +sometimes from Italy, once from Russia, and then from the Far East. +That is all that I know." + +"But you have beliefs concerning the matter?" I asked. + +"Yes," she said, "though the truth of them could not be proved. Twenty +years ago, when I was maid at Squire Eglinton's, on the Irish coast, +near Carrickfergus, he had one daughter, a flower of a girl, who ran +away with a gipsy man she met in her father's park. The young lady +loved me and knew where my home in Scotland was. I have thought, my +lord, that mayhap she died, and 'twas the father-man who brought the +baby to my door. I have told you all but this: if Miss Eileen ever had +a daughter, it could not be more like her than Marian is." + +A hundred questions came to me at once, but before one of them was +asked I had a sight of the girl herself, coming from the country side +of the house, the wind blowing her hair about her face and carrying +away swarms of white petals from the hawthorn-blooms she held in her +arms. As she was hid from my sight by the corner of the house, Sandy +Carmichael entered the room, his hands thrust far into his pockets, and +his pipe held at a curious angle between his teeth. + +"What!" I cried in amazement. "You here! I thought you were gone at +daylight." + +"Did ye now?" he asked, with raillery in his voice. "Did ye think," and +he put his hand on my shoulder after his own fashion, "did you think +I'd leave you, Jock, in this, your last extremity? Ye're not married +yet?" he went on jokingly, "I'm not too late for the wedding? Oh," he +broke out with a laugh, "how have the mighty fallen!" + +"Not yet," I answered him; "but it will be no fault of mine if I'm not +a married man by night." + +He changed color at this, and getting the dame on his side the two of +them urged a waiting--I know not for what; and more thought, which +would have brought me to the same conclusion; but their talk and their +arguments went high over my head, for I was fixed as fate that nothing +but Marian's mind against it could move me from the wish I had. As the +three of us stood thus, the talk going back and forth, the girl came +into the room, and at sight of me went white, changing on the instant +to a glorious pink, which flushed her face all over like a rose. + +"Good morning, Lord Stair," she said. + +I crossed the room, and took her hand and kissed it. + +"Marian," I said, "will you marry me to-day?" + +She sent a hurried look around the three of us, and as a woman +discovers things, knew that they were against me in the matter. It took +her not one second to decide for me, and my being leaped toward her as +she spoke. + +"When you will, my lord," she said. "I have no wishes that are not your +own." + +It was a little past noon of the same day, with none to see save Sandy +Carmichael, Dame Dickenson, and Uncle Ben, that Father Pierre, from the +Cairn Mills, made Marian and myself one in a marriage such as the gods +intended when the world was young and the age of gold. + +About three o'clock Sandy left us, going on horse to join his party, +which was to lay by for him at Landgore. Marian and I walked with him +far beyond the sea light, he leading his horse and telling us that it +was but the strong remembrance that he had a wife at home which +prevented his carrying her away with him. He had great joy in my +happiness, and his strong laugh rolled round and round in echoes among +the rocks as we went along together. Before we parted his mood changed +a bit, and he turned suddenly and laid his arm across my shoulder. + +"You'll not forget me, laddie?" he said earnestly, with his head turned +a bit from me so that his eyes could not be seen. + +Our hands gripped each other at the end, as though we could not speak +the word of good-by, and my dear, who knew the thought--that my +marriage might in some way make the friendship between us less +close--took our locked hands between her little ones and held them to +her breast. + +"Believe me," she said, as though making a vow, "that all I can ever do +to make this friendship stronger I shall do; oh, believe me in that!" + +Sandy kissed her on the cheek, she stuck a piece of pink heather in his +coat, and he mounted his horse and was off at a bolt. Twice we saw him +turn and wave his cap toward us; we called to him, and he shouted back +something in return, the meaning of which we were unable to discover, +and so went down a sudden turn of the rocks and was lost to sight. + + * * * * * + +There are some parts of every life that can not be set forth. The first +sacred months of my marriage are of these. The little inn, which was no +longer in Dame Dickenson's possession, I purchased, and we made it into +a home. And the time is all of Marian! Marian standing in white in the +going down of the braeside to welcome me; Marian on my knee in the +twilight looking out seaward and starward; Marian with her brown head +and face, such as the angels have, resting on my breast in the gold of +the dawning; Marian--Marian--Marian--I, an old man, who was once that +bonny Jock Stair, all your own, call to you. Can you come? Will it ever +be again! See! I stretch my hands, wrinkled, old, to that far off blue, +and ask you, as I have a thousand times, to send me peace. + + * * * * * + +All that summer we lived in the little house, and toward autumn there +were reasons why my wife should not be troubled with new cares. Sandy +came to see us frequently; whiles I ran up to Edinburgh to tend to +needful matters. One day in March, because of some wish my dear had +half expressed, I went to town to get some of the jewels with which the +Ladies Stair had adorned themselves in days gone by. I had promised a +short absence, but there was a matter of some fastenings to be mended +at the goldsmith's, and my stay was three days. Riding backward as fast +as a postboy, I came on the porch suddenly to find a weeper, as if one +were dead, hanging upon the knocker. Dropping the box and riding-whip I +pushed the door ajar with a great shove and entered, upon Dame +Dickenson, who was coming out of her room, from which place I heard a +faint cry. Her eyes were red with weeping; she looked scared and went +white at the sight of me, and with a horrid presentiment of trouble, I +cried on the instant, in a voice which I heard myself as coming from +some other: + +"Where is she?" + +"Oh, my lord," she said, and her voice broke and went off into a +shriek, "did ye no meet wi' Mr. Carmichael? He's gone for ye." + +"I met nobody," I cried, and again there was a tiny wail as of a +new-born babe from the next room. + +"Oh, my lord!" she cried again, springing forward and putting herself +between me and the doorway which I made to enter. "Ask God for strength +to bear what's been sent ye. Say a prayer, my lord. Ask Him to let ye +remember the baby that's come to you. Pray, O my lord," she cried; +"prepare yourself." + +I pushed her from me and threw the door wide open. + +There was a body in the room laid out for burial, with candles burning +at the head and foot--a slim, young, girlish body; and as Father +Pierre, who was kneeling by it, turned his face toward mine I knew that +Marian, because of me, had gone forever. Something seemed to strike me +at the back of the head and a black vapor fell before my eyes and +stopped my breath--I knew that Father Pierre caught me in his arms, a +merciful unconsciousness seized me, and everything faded away. + + * * * * * + +When I came to myself I was in my own sleeping-room at Stair, a +night-light burning on the table, and some one on the other side of the +screen sat reading by the fire. I saw the top of the head over the +chair-rail, and knew it was Sandy Carmichael's. Five weeks longer I lay +there, and on toward midsummer, my fever having lasted four months, +Sandy proposed I should start as soon as I was able and tour the world. +It had been an old dream of mine, but with little taste for life, I set +sail from Glasgow for Gibraltar some time in August, 1769, to visit +other lands and see new lives with old sorrows like my own. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ENTER NANCY STAIR + + +I had been from Scotland near five years, when two letters were handed +to me as I sat in The British Sailors' Tavern, in Calcutta; one of +which was from Hugh Pitcairn and the other from Sandy Carmichael. I +thought as I read them what characteristic epistles they were, for +Hugh's read as though I had parted from him but the day before, and +urged my return to look after some land interest which he as my +solicitor felt should have my immediate supervision. + +"There is another thing," he added, "which should bring you home. Huey +MacGrath is ailing and I fear is sickening to die." + +Sandy spoke, as was his way, of our old affection and his wish to see +me once again, and he ended by a tender reference to the baby of mine +who was growing a big girl and needed me, he said. + +God knows how lonely I was when these two letters came to me, and the +thoughts of home and a child dependent upon me brought, for the first +time since my dread trouble, a sense of comfort. Huey sick unto death +was another call to my heart, and in four days' time I was homeward +bound. + +Before I stepped ashore at Leith it was Sandy who waved to me from the +quay; Sandy whose hand gripped mine so hard the fingers ached for days; +Sandy whose eyes beamed with joy as he looked at me and took me back to +Stair. + +"I've been living on the docks awaiting your return until the town +doubtless thinks I'm going for a sailor," he cried. "Well, it's good to +have you back, Jock Stair--and I believe that Huey MacGrath's illness +is little more than a longing for the sight of you." + +On our ride homeward his whole talk turned about his boy Danvers, of +whom he spoke with unfettered approval and satisfaction, which came +from a strange source. + +"He looks like you, Jock Stair! It's heaven's truth that he's the image +of you! It seems odd that I, who am a brown man, should have a son with +an olive skin and hair like ink, but it's a fact. And he's like ye in +other ways, for he rides like a monkey and can thrash any one of his +weight in the county. Aye," he concluded, "ye'll be proud of Danvers!" + +"And what of my girl?" I asked. + +"Nancy," he said, a curious look coming into his face as he smiled; +"she's one you must see to judge of for yourself. I've raised her up as +well as I could. I've spent time with her!" + +His determined reticence, which had some humor in it, put me on my +metal concerning the child, and the day after my arrival I sent Tam +MacColl with a written request to Dame Dickenson to fetch the little +one immediately to Stair. + +Six days later Tam returned bringing a large sheet of paper, which I +have before me as I write. It was folded after a curious fashion, with +no address, and opening it I found the following: + +[Illustration: I am not comming. + + Nancy Stair.] + +For the first time in five years I laughed aloud. This was something +worth. Here was an atom, not yet five, who took her pen in hand and +misspelled her firm intention to do as she chose. I folded the paper +and laid it aside, wondering what kind of offspring I had begotten, and +the following morning took horse to Landgore to see this very +determined little body for myself. + +As I came in sight of the place after my long ride, strange voices +called to me from the sea, from the heather, from the great copper +birch over the house. Eyes long dead seemed looking into mine, hands +were on my hair, and there came to me, with the feeling of mortal +sickness, the terrible, sweet remembrances of an early passion and of +things to be known to none save Marian and me and the One who does most +wisely for the Great End, but bitterly to us who see but a little of +the way. + +Reaching the porch, my strength left me utterly, and I leaned against +one of the wooden pillars for support. Standing thus, I saw a child +running down the braeside at the top of her speed, with no knowledge of +my presence, but coming at her fastest to reach the house. She wore a +short-waisted black frock, with a very long skirt, which almost touched +the ground. On her feet were red shoes, which twinkled in and out of +the black, as with great dexterity and lightness, she clambered up the +steps of the porch and stood before me, one of the miracles of God +before which we human folk stand abashed. For here was Marian again. +Marian to the turn of an eyelash; to the finger tips; in the bronze +chestnut curls which stood like a halo round the face; in the supple +little woman-body; in all the dear, quaint, beautiful baby who stood +before me devouring me with gray eyes, and looking at me with a +radiant, shy smile as she held a kitten tail up against her breast. + +After a few seconds' regard of me, during which I could see by her face +that she was piecing some bits of knowledge together, she clapped her +hands. + +"Jock!" she cried, with a rapturous smile. + +I can never tell the joy and horror of the moment, for my name was the +first word my beloved had ever spoken to me, and at the sound of it +from this, her child, my heart leaped into my throat; there came a +whirring in the top of my head and a singing in my ears, and as I sank +upon the old stone settle something like a moan escaped me. + +In the next minute I knew Nancy Stair for all time. The sight of +suffering seemed to put her past herself, and, dashing toward me, she +climbed up on the seat. I could feel the warmth of her body and the +clinging of her dimpled arm as she drew my head against her naked, +palpitating little breast as though to defend me from suffering against +the whole world. + +"Oh, you poor fing!" she cried. "You poor fing! Does you hurt?" + +When I had in some degree recovered my self-control, the child sat down +beside me, so close that she pushed her small body against mine, with +one rose-leaf of a hand laid upon my knee in a protective fashion, +every little while giving me a pat, as a mother soothes a child. + +Sitting thus, my arm around her, my soul stirred to its depths, my eyes +brooded over all her baby charms. + +She was of a slender, round figure, with dimpled neck and arms. Her +head was broad, her forehead low, with noticeably black brows, and she +had a way, when perplexed, I very soon discovered, of drawing these +together, the right one falling a bit lower than the left. It was the +eyes which struck one first, however; brooding, passionate, observant, +quick to look within or without, and fearless in their glance. Mrs. +Opie states that they were black, and Reynolds painted them bright +blue; but the truth is, that they were like her mother's, clear gray, +with pupils of unusual size, and heavy lashed, especially on the under +lid. + +She was still under five, but I had not been with her a quarter of an +hour before I recognized a potent and wonderful personality and knew +that there was something which this small soul had in her keeping to +give the world which others have not. + +"Sandy was here," I heard her sweet voice saying when I had recovered +myself. "Sandy was here one day. He fetched the drey hen you sent me." +Here she patted my knee, looking up as though to assure me of her +protection. + +"He said the rabbits were from you," she went on; "and the owl got +broke that was in the box. It was too little for him." + +"Sandy brought me," she said finally, "the child that stares so," and +she pointed, her eyebrows puckered together, at a rag-doll, with +painted cheeks and round, offensive eyes, sitting head down in a corner +of the porch. + +Beyond money, I had not sent even a message to the child in all these +years of absence, and my heart filled with gratitude to that friend who +had made me a fairy-grandfather and won a child's love for me, who was +so unthoughtful and so far away. + +As we sat thus, Dame Dickenson heard the sound of voices, and came from +the house to welcome me with a smile, though the tears were in her eyes +as she spoke her words of welcome. + +Her life of ease and freedom from money-care had changed her greatly, +and with her black silk frock, her lace kerchief and cap, she seemed +quite like some old gentlewoman. I tried, knowing the inadequacy of +words, even while speaking, to thank her for my wonderful child, when +she interrupted me. + +"I should have died but for her--after"--she broke off here, not +wishing to name the sorrow between us. "But you've not seen the wonder +of her yet; she has the whole Cairn Mills bewitched, and if she were a +queen on her throne could not have her way more than she does now." + +It was of a piece with the Dame's thoughtfulness to have prepared for +me a room which I had never known, and where no memories dwelt; a +low-raftered apartment on the land-side of the house, with a window +looking over the garden and a fire burning cheerily in the corner +chimney. Dropping off to sleep, happier than I thought it possible for +me to be again, I became aware that there was some one in the room with +me. Opening my eyes, I found Nancy, with her long white gown gathered +on her breast to keep it from the floor, standing looking at me, her +head about level with my own as it lay on the pillow. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"_GetinwifJock_," she answered. + +"What?" I inquired again, for she had slipped her words all together. + +"Get--in--wif--Jock," she repeated, with an unmistakable movement of +her small hand to turn back the bed covers. + +"You darling!" I cried, and drew her in beside me. + +The tenderness I felt for her as she lay on my breast was akin to +agony. I trembled at the touch of her, and what she meant to me, and +all that I had missed. And long after she fell asleep, I lay, seeing +the past with new eyes, understanding new truths, and making myself, +please God, a better man. + +I woke the next morning about eight, to find her gone, but as I was +dressing by the window I saw her below me in the garden, busy with some +hens that were clucking all about her. + +"Hello, Little Flower," I called to her.[1] + + [1] The name came to me with no thought, but for years it was the + one she fancied most, and many of her early poems were signed + L.F.S., or sometimes by nothing save a queer little drawing, half + rose and half daisy. + + (The manuscript of the "Maid with the Wistfu' Eye" in the + Edinburgh collection has only this mark as signature.) + +She smiled up at me, blinking in the strong sunshine, and I hastened +down to join her. + +"Are you willing to come back with me to Stair?" I asked. + +"We're getting ready, Jock," she answered, putting her hand in mine. + +"We?" I inquired. "Whom do you mean?" + +"Nancy Stair," she said, touching herself on the breast with her small +forefinger, "Dame Dickenson, Father Michel, Uncle Ben, the two or three +dogs, the kittens, the one without a name, the drey hen, and the broken +owl----" + +"Nancy Stair," I broke in, with some firmness in my voice, "it will be +utterly impossible to take all these folk up to Stair Castle." + +She looked at me and went white, as grown people do when news which +chills the blood is suddenly brought to them, and struck her little +hands together as though in pain. Turning suddenly she left me and +trotted off through a cleft in the stone wall of the kitchen garden, to +which place I followed her, with remorse in my heart for the rough way +in which I had spoken. + +I found her lying flat in the grass, her face hidden in her arms, her +body trembling, but she made no sound. + +"What is it, dear?" I asked. + +"I can't go," she said, without looking up, "I can't go, Jock." + +"Why?" I inquired. + +She arose at this and leaned against me, her head but little above my +knee and her eyes looking straight up into mine. + +"Oh, don't you see?" she cried. "I can't go!--I can't go and leave my +people, Jock!" + +I can see now that then was the time I should have been firm with her, +and have escaped the tyranny of latter years. Firm with her! Firm! +while Nancy stood leaning against me with her baby curls under my hand. +Firm! with eyes that held tears in them, tears which I had caused. + +"Take them," I cried, "take the free-traders, the old wreck, the Cairn +Mills, and the new light-house, for all of me; but never let me see +that look in your face again, my little one!" and I had her in my arms, +as weak a father as I had been as lover and as husband, with the +resulting that I, John Stair, Lord of Stair and Alton in the Mearns, in +company with Dame Dickenson, Father Michel, Uncle Ben, the two or three +dogs, the kittens, the Nameless One, the "drey hen," and a small child +holding a dissipated-looking owl with but one whole feather in its +tail, drove up to the gateway of Stair Castle in a gipsy wagon of an +abandoned character, on the afternoon of a day in late February, in the +year 1773. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A STRANGE CHILD + + +Several days after this strange home-coming some business called me to +the far woods, where I was detained until the afternoon sun was well on +its way behind the hills. Nearing the house I discovered Nancy huddled +in a little bunch, sitting by her lee-lane in a spot of sunshine on the +west steps--such a lovable, touchable little bundle as she sat there, +with her chin in her hand. I looked for the exuberant welcome which I +had always received, but it was wanting; and as I stood waiting some +greeting from her, she made a quaint gesture of dismissal to me: + +"Jock mustn't disturb Nancy now," she said; "Nancy's making verses." +There was in the atom's voice nothing but a statement of her wishes. +That I was her father and one to be obeyed never entered her curly +head, and her tone implied the belief that I would respect her lights +as she would mine. I can honestly state that I never was more dismayed +in my life. I entered the library, wondering what had happened in my +absence, and considering whether to send for Dickenson and make some +inquiries. + +It was gone a half hour perhaps before Nancy came in through the low +window, and crossing the room to the place I sat, leaned herself +against my knee. + +"Listen," she said: + + Jock Stair's gone away, + Where I cannot fancy. + Jock Stair's gone away, + Gone and left his Nancy. + + O, Jock, I cannot say + How much I miss you, + If you were here to-day + Nancy would kiss you. + +Her cheeks were roses, her eyes shone with a misty light, and the verse +so rapturous to herself that she struck her little hands together when +she had finished. + +"Do you like it, Jock? Is it pretty?" she asked. + +"You blessed baby," I answered, "who taught you?" + +"They _come_," she said, "and afterward Nancy's head-iks," and she +put her morsel of a hand to her forehead, as a grown person with +headache does. + +"_Head-iks!_" she said again with emphasis. + +The second day after this remarkable event, Sandy, who was riding by, +called over the wall to me, as I stood with Nancy by my side. + +"Well," he cried, "what do you think of my girl, Nancy Stair?" + +"The same that you do yourself," I retorted. "Come in and lunch with +us, won't you?" + +He made no answer in words, but turning his horse toward the south +gate, entered the policy, and I sent Nancy off to tell Kirstie that Mr. +Carmichael would dine with us, for I thought it no right part of a +child's rearing that she should hear herself discussed. + +As she took her small body around the boxwood, lifting it up on the +toes at every step--a way she had when pleased--"You've raised up a +wonderful child for me, Sandy," I said, and I told him of the verses +she writ the day before. + +"Aye," he answered, "I didn't tell ye of them, for I wanted that ye +should find out about her verses yourself. I've a book full of them, +and she but five. But after all's said and done," he went on, "'tis the +heart of her that's more wonderful than the head. Christmas a year back +I was walking out with her, and some shiftless beggars got in the path +and asked for money. 'In truth,' I answered, knowing what frauds they +were, 'I haven't a penny in the world!' I thought the child had let the +incident pass unnoticed, but that evening the door to my bedroom opened +and Nancy, in her white nightgown, walked in. She came to the +writing-table shyly, and after putting a large copper penny on the edge +of the table, pushed it toward me with her forefinger. + +"'You tan have it,' she said; 'I tan dit anover.' + +"There it is, the copper penny," he cried, with a laugh, though there +were tears in his eyes, showing me the end of his watch-fob from which +the bit of money hung. + +"The dear little thing had thought I really had not a penny in the +world and had brought her only one to sacrifice upon the altar of our +friendship. Oh, Jock Stair," and the union between us spoke in the +words, "how are you and I to raise up a soul like this and keep it +unspotted from the world?" + +As I stated at the beginning of my story, I have no intention of saying +a word of Nancy's charities or of her verse-making save when necessary +for the clearness of my tale, but I find the time has now come when +some mention of the first must be made. It could be judged from the +anecdote already told, of her bringing "her people" to Stair, that she +formed strong attachments; but as time went by I found that this +affection extended to almost everything that lived. She was a lawless +little body, going around the grounds at her own pleasure, and bringing +back some living thing at every expedition to be cared for at the +house. These findings included lame dogs, rabbits, cats, and finally +she came into the library, breathless: + +"I got a boy to-day, Jock," she said, exactly as I might have stated I +had caught a fish. "A boy," she repeated, every feature in her face +alight; "Father Michel's got him." + +"For Heaven's sake, Nancy," I inquired, "what do you intend to do with +him?" + +"Keep him," she answered. + +Going down with her to inspect this new treasure, I found a lad eight +or ten years of age, very sickly, with a hump upon his back, and of a +notably unprepossessing appearance, carrying a fiddle, and evidently +forsaken by some strolling player. She had set her mind upon his +staying, and he stayed; but finding the trouble her accumulated +possessions were giving at Stair, she showed me within the week a bit +of her power to get her own way; a thought which afterward bore such +large results for the whole of Scotland. + +The former lord, my honored father, had erected under some trees far +off by the burn water several small stone houses for the servants which +my beautiful Irish mother brought with her from her own country. +Because my bachelor ways had needed little service these dwellings had +gradually fallen into disuse and disrepair, the few serving people I +required finding abundant lodgment in the attic chambers. These tiny +houses, built of gray stone, with ivy growing around the windows, had +taken Nancy's fancy from the instant her eyes first lighted on them. + +The evening before her sixth birthday, as we stood together watching +the sun go down, a thought for the following day came to me. + +"And what do you want for your birthday, Little Flower!" I asked. + +"The little houses," she said, leaning her head against me. + +"What for?" I inquired, thinking perhaps that she believed them play +houses. + +"Dame Dickenson, Father Michel, Uncle Ben----" she stopped. + +"To live in?" I inquired. + +"To keep," she answered quietly. + +The more I thought it over the more pleased I became with the idea that +these devoted people, who gave their lives to Nancy, should be +rewarded. I was perhaps especially pleased at the thought of doing +something for Father Michel, of whom I would now be speaking. + +He was at this time a young man, still under twenty-five, who had come, +none knew from what place, to live at the Cairn Mills with the dear old +priest who married Marian and me. What tragedy had been behind him none +knew, but Dickenson told me that from the time he first saw the child +his heart went out to her, and that after the meeting there was no +keeping him from the old inn, where he finally took up his residence as +one of the family. + +Old Uncle Ben, whose sea tales were one of Nancy's chiefest joys, and +whose wooden leg was her greatest perplexity, I felt deserved some +recognition of his service, and, to shorten the telling, in less than a +month these houses were occupied as Nancy had desired they should +be--Father Michel being given the large one, with Nancy's dwarfed boy, +Dame Dickenson the next, and Uncle Ben becoming the proud occupant of a +third. It seemed a sort of child's play to me at first, and Mrs. Opie's +statement that I built these houses at this period for the work on the +Burnside, is entirely without foundation. + +Some credit has been bestowed upon me as well for the working out of a +labor problem here, but it is honor undeserved, for the thing began in +the entirely unintentional manner which I have set down, and the +working out of it came at a later date through Nancy's thinking and the +zeal and goodness of Father Michel.[2] + + [2] It was about this period that the "Lace School" was regularly + begun, which occurred by no plan of mine, but in the following + way: Sandy had had two young women from the north for house + service at Arran, and finding them unused to labor, proposed that + Dame Dickenson should teach them the Irish lace making which she + had learned in her own country. And in a short time there were + nine or ten young girls of the neighborhood under regular + instruction in this industry. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NANCY BEGINS HER STUDY OF THE LAW + + +There has been some delay in bringing Hugh Pitcairn into my story, and, +as I read that which I have written, I seem to have set him down in a +scant and dry manner little calculated to do justice to his many +virtues. These virtues, however, were of the kind which made him a fine +citizen rather than a jolly companion over a bowl of brose. He was a +tall man, heavily built, with a large face, thick bristly hair, and +blue eyes set extraordinarily far apart. The bridge of his nose being +noticeably low, this peculiarity gave the upper part of his face the +appearance of being very sparsely settled. It was Robert Burns, I +remember, who made this descriptive observe concerning him. A lowland +body, but kin to the Pitcairns of the north, he had come to the High +School dependent for his education upon the generosity of a rich uncle, +and from the time he entered was easily first in all of his classes. Of +an unbending rectitude, unmerciful in his judgments, analytical, +penetrating, and accumulative, he was at an early age destined for two +things--success and unpopularity. He left the High School with us, to +enter upon the study of the law with Maxwell, of Dalgleish, and rising +rapidly in his profession was at the age of thirty-three recognized as +the soundest, most learned, and bitterest tongued lawyer in Auld +Reekie. + +Justice to his mind was a simple thing; a man had either broken the law +or he had not; if he had, he should be punished. "Extenuating +circumstances" was a phrase used only by the sentimental and the +guilty. I recall, as I write, his telling me with some pride and an +amused smile of a certain occasion, when he had wrung a verdict from a +jury against their sympathies, that the spectators had hissed him on +his way out of court. + +"He's not a man at all. He's only a Head," Sandy Carmichael said of him +once, and I find enough truth in the statement to make it worth setting +down. + +His conceit of himself was high, as is the case with many self-made +men, but he had a fine code of conduct for the direction of his private +affairs, was aggressively honest and fearless, and an earnest believer +in God, himself, and the Scots law. + +Like other great men he had his failings, however, and he set up to be +a judge of music and poetry, for which he had as vile an ear as could +be conceived; and to hear him read from Ramsay or Fergusson was an +infliction not unnecessarily to be borne. One night, I remember, in +'86, Burns and I stopped at Pitcairn's on our way home from Creech's +and got him to read Leith Races and Caller Oysters, and Rab afterward +went out and rolled over and over in a snow-drift, roaring with +laughter, till some of the town-guard, who chanced to be going by, were +for arresting him on the charge of drunkenness. + +It may be easily judged from this description that my friend Sandy and +he were at opposite poles from each other, as I have said, and as time +passed this dislike increased until it became the chiefest vexation of +my life. If I mentioned Hugh's name to Sandy, he would maintain a +disdainful silence or turn the talk with abruptness; while if Sandy's +name was spoken before Pitcairn, the great lawyer would raise his +eyebrows, shrug his shoulders, or make some biting criticism which +rendered me resentful and highly uncomfortable as well. + +As soon as I was firmly fixed in my old home again, Pitcairn began to +drop in on me, as his practise had been before my marriage, and his +attitude to Nancy was a thing humorous to see. Hers to him was not +without its droll side as well, for when he was present, especially if +he talked of his cases, the child would sit on a stool, with some live +thing held in her lap, literally devouring him with her eyes as he +narrated the story of some criminal whom he had hanged or transported. +I have seen her imitate his gesture as he talked, and sigh with relief +when the jury handed in its verdict and the culprit's doom was finally +settled. It was not long, however, before she evinced a strong dislike +to being left alone with him, and if I had occasion to leave the room +where the three of us were together she would invariably follow me. + +In an unfortunate moment, driving by the old court in a pony chaise, I +stopped, knowing that Pitcairn had a case on, and took Nancy in "to see +him at his work." Every little while after that I would find her +disappeared from the house, and on going to the court would see her +midget pony fastened outside, and the little chestnut head and big gray +eyes looking over the back of the high bench in front; for the +officers, who knew she was my daughter, soon grew to understand her +ways and let her in without parley. I can solemnly affirm that I +thought this a most unwise way for a child to spend her time, but there +was something about Nancy herself which prevented my giving orders. I +can not say that she ever disobeyed me, and yet, I knew then, as I know +now, that had I tried to stop her she would have evaded me, and as it +turned out in the end, it was all for the best. + +I who was with her day by day could feel her growing dislike of Hugh +Pitcairn, and once she came to me after a visit to the court, her +cheeks flaming, her eyes dilated, and her body literally shaking with +emotion. + +"He cursed at Pitcairn as they dragged him out," she said, and then +bringing her little fists down on my knee, she cried with apparent +irrelevancy: + +"It's not the way, Jock! It's not the way!" + +Less than a fortnight after I was sitting over some accounts in the +east room, when Hugh Pitcairn entered unannounced. + +"Well, Jock Stair," he said, "that daughter of yours lost me as pretty +a case to-day as I ever had." + +"Indeed, Hugh," I returned, "I'm in no way answerable for that." + +"I don't know about that!" he broke in. "This case was one of a young +woman who had taken a purse. She established the fact that she was a +widow with two small children, one of whom was dying and needed +medicine. I thought at first that she borrowed one of the children, +they frequently do, but it was established hers. I drew attention to +the anarchy which would inevitably follow if each individual were +allowed to help himself to his neighbor's belongings, and the jury was +with me. As I was concluding, that child of yours slipped from her +place, climbed the steps on the side, and heeding judges and jury less +than Daft Jamie, went straight toward the prisoner, pulled herself up +on a chair beside the woman, and putting her arms around the culprit's +neck, as though to defend her against the devil himself, turned her +eyes in my direction and fairly glowered at me. + +"The spectators cheered, and a woman in the front cried, 'God bless the +baby,' while the judge--Carew it was, a sentimentalist and a menace to +the bar--dried the tears from his eyes openly, _and the jury decided +against me without leaving the box_," he thundered, as though I were +in some way responsible. + +I groaned. Taking this for sympathy, he went on: + +"I'm glad ye feel about it as I do." + +"To be frank with you, Pitcairn," I answered, "I don't; and it's not +for your lost case I groan, but for what is likely to come to me +because of it." + +Nor was I mistaken. Just at the gloaming time, while there was still a +little of the yellow hanging in the west, I saw the figure of a woman +with a baby in her arms outlined clear against the sky on the top of +the hill, and by her side trotted the little creature who had all my +heart, leading her home. + +"There," said I to Pitcairn, pointing to them, "that's what your +inadequacy at the law has cost me. There are three more people whom +Nancy has fetched home for me to support." + +"I wonder at ye sometimes, Jock Stair," he cried at this, "I wonder at +ye!--for in many ways ye seem an intelligent man--that ye can let a +small girl-child have her way with you as ye do." + +The outer door closed as he spoke, and I heard the patter of little +feet. + +"She's not being raised right. She'll be a creature of no breeding. Ye +should take her----" + +At this the door opened and Nancy came in. At the sight of Pitcairn she +stopped on her way toward me, and her black brows came together in an +ecstasy of rage. Putting her little body directly in front of him she +looked him full in the eye. + +"Devil!" she said, and walked out of the room, leaving us standing +staring at each other, speechless, and I noted with glee that, on one +occasion at least, I saw Hugh Pitcairn abashed. + +This occurrence in the court did not pass in the town unnoticed, for +Bishop Ames, of St. Margaret's, on the following Sunday preached from +the text: "And a little child shall lead them," telling the story from +the pulpit; while the Sentinel of the next week spoke of Nancy with +flattery and tenderness. The publicity given to the affair alarmed me +in no small degree, and I reasoned with myself that a child who had +such fearlessness and such disrespect for established ways was a +problem which somebody wiser than myself should have the handling of. + +There were three other occurrences which fell about this time which +brought this thought still more vividly to my mind, the first of these +bringing the knowledge that she had no religion. Entering the hall one +morning I met the little creature coming from the stairway, dragging an +enormous book behind her as though it were a go-cart. She had put a +stout string through the middle of the volume, and with this passed +round her waist was making her way with it toward the library. + +"Jock," she said, backing at sight of me and sitting down upon the +great volume as though it were a footstool, "did you ever read a book +called Old Testament?" + +"Not so much as I should," I answered, realizing with a strange jolt of +mind that it was the Bible she was dragging after her. + +"I got it in the attic," she said, as she climbed upon my knee, "and I +thought at first it was a joke-book. And after I thought it was a +fairy-book; but as I go on, _there seems more to it_." + +And the second of these episodes was as disconcerting: + +The dwarfed boy was Nancy's peculiar care among the Burnside people, +and the question as to why he was made "crookit," as she called it, was +one which I had never been able to answer to her satisfaction. + +Coming in one day with a little bunch of violets for me, she stopped +before leaving the room, and said, as though telling me a funny secret: + +"Jamie Henderlin took Nancy's money." + +"What?" I cried. + +"Yes," she said, "took it out of the little bag when he thought I was +not looking." + +"What did you do?" I inquired. + +"I?" she turned away shyly, "I made out that I didn't see him." + +"But, Nancy," I said, "that was not really kind. As he grows older he +will steal." + +"Take," she interrupted firmly. + +"He will take from other people." + +"He is a dwarf, Jock," she said, with a sweet irrelevance, which had +its logic, however, in her kind heart. + +"That doesn't make it right." + +"He wanted it more than I did," she went on; "I don't need it----" + +"That doesn't excuse him, either." + +"Perhaps," she said, "if you and I, mine Jock, were made as he is we +might do something worse than he has done. _People laugh at him!_ He +mayn't be right. I'm not saying that he is right; but I _am_ saying +that _I_ am not going to hurt his feelings. The Lord has done that +enough already." + +And the third one, never told by Mrs. Opie, and a fortunate thing it +was for us, had to do with her skill in the use of a pen. She was still +a very little child, lying on a rug by the fire, reading out of the +Bible, as I sat at the desk looking over some accounts which would not +come right. There was the matter of a draft for five pounds, with my +own name to it, which I had certainly no remembrance of ever having +signed. + +"What's the matter, Jock?" said Nancy, seeing my knit brow. + +"They won't come right, Little Flower," I answered. + +She came over to me and looked at the accounts. + +"Nancy made one just like Jock's," she said. + +"What?" I cried, with consternation. + +"Nancy--made--one--just--like--Jock's," she repeated. "A poor lady who +was very sick," she explained, "was by here one day you had gone. I +made one for her." + +"Nancy," I said, taking her on my knee, "do you know that it is a crime +to sign another person's name without his leave?" + +"How crime?" + +"Well, it's the thing people get locked in jails for----" + +She laughed out loud and lay back on my arm at this. + +"It's all mine, isn't it?" she asked. + +I had told this so often that I couldn't gainsay it. + +"_Wrong to write Sandy's name, not wrong to write Jock's_," she +crooned in a sort of song; and this was as far as I got with her +concerning it. + +I told Sandy these three tales, and he roared with glee. + +"Her morals are all tail first," he said, "though very sound! But +she'll have us in the poor farm and herself in jail if she keeps this +up." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +I TAKE NANCY'S EDUCATION IN HAND + + +Father Michel, Sandy, and Hugh Pitcairn were the only ones who knew +enough of the child to make their advices on the subject of an +education for her of any value, and it was the priest whom I consulted +first. + +"My lord," he said, after listening to my tale, "it's a peculiar case, +and one which, I openly state, is beyond me. In every bout with her I +am routed by a certain lawless sincerity of utterance, or by her +fastening her eyes upon me and asking, 'Why?' or 'Who says that?' She +is gentleness and sweetness itself; but any attempt which I have ever +made to instruct her in religion has been utterly without results. +Sometimes she goes to sleep, other whiles she laughs and questions me +in a way that makes the flesh crawl. When I told her of the crucifixion +of our blessed Lord, she fell into such a frenzy that it brought on the +aching head and fever, which you will remember caused your lordship +such alarm. We have the raising of a genius upon us, and by that I mean +one who knows more, sees deeper, feels more keenly than is given to +most or to any except the few. Miss Nancy is a fearless soul, a +passionate, loving, powerful nature, and my belief is that the only way +to control her is to let her develop her own powers in her own way. It +is a hard question, a subtle question, my lord; but I believe it is the +only way." + +Sandy was in London at the time, but the same day on which I had the +talk with Father Michel I sent for Hugh Pitcairn, asking him to dine +with me and talk over the Problem of Nancy. + +"It's like this, Hugh," said I, as we sat over some wine of his +particular fancy, "God has been kind enough to send me a wonderful +child, and I want to do what's right by her. I want her to have the +reasonable education of a man and to keep her as far as possible from +the influence of the usual unthinking female. I neither want her +instructed in false modesty, lying, nor the deception of the male sex. +It is on the male virtues that I want the accent placed; bravery, +honesty, self-knowledge, and responsibility for her words and conduct; +good manly virtues that most women know only as words of the +dictionary." + +Hugh stared across at me, and there was a look in his eyes of being +tolerant toward crass ignorance as he answered: + +"There are whiles when you are more humorous than others, Jock Stair. +This is your most fanciful time yet. There's no such thing possible, +and ye can just rest by that! Ye can't make a woman into a man by any +method of rearing, for there are six thousand years of ancestry to +overcome. That's somewhat, and with the female physiology and the Lord +himself against you, I'm thinking it wise for you to have your daughter +reared like other women and to fulfil woman's great end." + +"And what's that?" I asked. + +"To marry and bring children into the world," he returned, as certainly +as he would have stated the time of day. + +"When all's said and done and theorized over concerning the female +sex," he went on, "ye just find yourself back at that. Ye can't educate +a woman as ye can a man; she's not got the same faculties to take in +the information that ye offer her. Why," he cried, "ye can't give her +any sense of abstract right or wrong. In order to protect her young she +has inherited certain keen faculties and instincts which we poor male +creatures are without; but from the minute she becomes a wife or mother +she ceases in some degree to have a conscience. No," he finished, "when +a woman's emotions are stirred you can't believe a word she says." + +"Ye've seen for yourself that Nancy's different from the girl children +ye've known," I said, with some remonstrance in my voice. + +"She has power, true. And magnetism, true. And great beauty," he +answered, counting these on his fingers as though they were points in +law; "but give her a man's education, and what have ye done? Simply +made a dangerous contrivance of her to get her own way. I tell ye, +Jock," he said in conclusion, "ye can't civilize women. They are not +intended to be civilized." + +The longer I thought this talk over, the more firmly I became fixed in +the belief that Hugh knew nothing concerning the matter, and that my +own ideas on the subject were the best, and in less than a week I had +my own old school-books down, and was casting around for a tutor for +Nancy, firm in my intention of "bringing her up a perfect gentleman," +as Hugh derisively stated. I fixed on Latin for her, and sound +mathematics, and later Greek and Logic, and when I showed this list of +studies to Pitcairn, I recall that he looked at me, with the usual pity +in his glance, and asked dryly: + +"Why not tiger shooting and the high-jump?" + +Sandy was from home at this time, having been called to a dying wife, +poor fellow, or I should have taken advice with him concerning a +certain old teacher of his boy Danvers, for whom I had a great liking. +While awaiting his return I took the Little Flower into my confidence, +and found her delighted that she was to be "teached." There was one +point upon which she was firm, however, which was that none but Father +Michel should be her instructor, and the good man, with many a dubious +shake of his head, entered upon his work the following week. + +Often after this time I would come upon them in the small writing-room +where the studies were conducted, to find the little one standing by +the father's knee, as he held the book for her, or sitting in his lap +looking up at him with a funny earnestness, as though they were playing +together, going over + +----rego +----regere +----rexi +----rectus + +or some such work, and amazing us both by her capacities. + +On her ninth birthday Hugh gave her the ponderous tome from which so +much of Mrs. Opie's facts have been obtained, and into this volume she +put her verses and her thoughts just as they came into her curly head, +standing upon a stool to make her high enough to reach the +writing-table with comfort. There was an unspoken understanding between +us that I was at liberty to read this book, but never in her presence. +One night after she had spent the afternoon at work upon it, I drew it +toward me, to find a new set of verses beginning: + + The heifer by the milking pail, + Whose neck-cloth is so white, etc. + +and underneath the following, in which the influence of the Good Book +was surely visible: + + "MY COMANDMENCE! + + 1. I must love Jock Stair first of all created things, for he was + my mother's friend and mine. + + 2. Since the Lord has cast the poor from him I must do what I can + for them. + + 3. I must not be afraid of any livving thing, for no gentleman can + show forth fear. + + 4. I must not wish Huey Macrath from Stair, tho' he snuffles and + his ears are large, for he was here before I was and is very + ritechus. + + 5. I must not swear, tho' Sandy does, and to say dam is not godly, + for a girl. + + More to morrow, + + L. F. S." + +I was prouder of these than I have words to tell, seeing that already +she was beginning to consider conduct. And an event which followed soon +after made me plume myself still further. I had taught her to play +chess, and Danvers Carmichael being home from his English school, Sandy +and I made a merry wager of a game for a guinea a side, each of us +backing the talent of our own offspring. Nancy, who was about half +Danvers' height, drew the whites, and led off by the good conservative +opening of the king's knight, the boy replying well and putting the +pieces out after the usual fashion. Nancy unexpectedly played her +queen. "Check," she said. Dand interposed a pawn. Nancy moved a knight. +"Check," she said again. Dand was forced to move his king, and in three +moves I could see the game was hers. Suddenly she retreated and began a +process which never in my whole experience with her had I seen +duplicated. She trifled ineffectually with her men, moving them hither +and thither with no purpose or aim; and, to crown all, after one of +these fruitless moves, the boy cried, "Mate," placing his queen +triumphantly from one side of the board to the other. Nancy's eyes +shone with pleasure. + +"You beat me," she cried. "Sandy won the guinea, Jock." + +I can not recall when a small thing annoyed me as much as this one did, +and the next morning, finding the Little Flower making verses on the +west wall, I sat down to get some explanation from her. + +"Nancy," I began, "why did you play so badly at chess last night?" + +The shy look with which I was familiar came into her face. + +"He can't play chess, Jock," she said. + +"I know it," I cried; "I saw that; but why did you disgrace your +father, young woman, answer me that?" + +"Oh," she answered, with great earnestness, "do you no see? He's a +man-child, and his father was looking on; and it would have been a fair +disgrace for him to be beaten at the game by me, who am only a girl, +and younger. I couldn't do it, Jock," she cried, and her cheeks flushed +with a glorious pink color. "I couldn't do it. No gentleman could!" + +I glowed with pride at the sight of her, my hopes rose high, and I told +the story, together with her "Comandmence," to Hugh Pitcairn for his +admiration and approval. + +He was as unmoved, however, at the end of my narration as at the +beginning of it. + +"She's no a woman yet; she's just a wee bit bairn; but as soon as she +begins to sigh for joes and bawbees she'll be just like the rest. +They're all of them elemental things," he said with conviction, "and ye +can't change their natures any more than ye can stop fire from +burning." + +Later he began to alter his opinion of her, however, and it fell, I +think, largely through his own vanity. I have told of the scene in the +court which resulted in Jeanie Henderlin and her two children coming to +be Burn-folk, and from that time Nancy would turn back every little +while to her interest in the law. There were some compilations of +celebrated cases among my books, and for a while her talk ran of the +trials for murder and poisoning and the scuttling of ships, until I +wondered where the thing would lead. Part of these accounts were +briefed; others contained the evidence entire, indictments, questions +and answers, the judges' instructions, and the verdict rendered, all +with much legal verbiage and twisting. + +One night, in her twelfth year, she asked Hugh Pitcairn some questions +concerning a poison case, which happened to be one he had studied with +interest himself, and he denounced the verdict as one unlawful and +obtained by sentiment rather than from the evidence itself, promising +to send another book to her containing his own view of the matter. Here +was a ground in which a friendship with Hugh could take firm root, and +from that time on there were heavy volumes coming to Nancy from the +great barrister constantly, and to hear her quizzed by him concerning +the law on certain points was one of the most humorous bits of my life. +I never rightly understood this trend of Nancy's mind. In her talks +with me I found it was never to discover the naked law on a point, but +how punishment might be evaded, that interested her. "If he'd said +this," or "had he left that unsaid," or "if the defense had proven," +was the burden of her remarks, and I thought at times that if Hugh saw +the thing as I did he would find at bottom of all her lawing only a +woman's desire to discover how people could be got out of trouble, +whether deserving punishment or not. + +In her fifteenth year, when I was obliged to go to London concerning +the Forfeited Estates, I had her with me; but even then the lawing +between Pitcairn and herself did not cease, for packets passed between +them constantly, and soon after our return, Nancy's being eighteen at +the time, I found that she had wrought a change in him, as well as in +the rest of us. + +"Jock Stair," he said to me one night, as though addressing a jury, "I +told you once that it was impossible to civilize a woman, that all +education just went over their heads and affected their natures none at +all; that it was beyond them to conceive an abstract right or wrong; +that I had never seen one who had a jot of public spirit. I feel a +sense of duty in telling you I've changed. I have seen one. It's your +daughter, Nancy Stair!" + + + + +Chapter VIII + +THE DAFT DAYS + + +We came back to Scotland in July, 1786, and one day, late in the month, +Nancy came in to tell me that she intended having a birthday party that +same evening. + +"Whose?" said I. + +"Mine," she answered. + +"It's all very well, but your birthday is not in July----" + +"I never fancied March to be born in," she replied imperturbably, "and +I've changed it." + +"And who are you going to bid to the feast of your adopted birthday?" + +"You," she said, "and Sandy, and Jamie Henderlin, for he's back from +Germany, and I want to hear him play."[3] + + [3] After Jamie Henderlin became famous for his violin playing it + was noised abroad that I alone was his patron. But the truth of + the matter is that Sandy shared with me the expense of his German + studies. + +It is altogether hopeless to set in cold words the charm of her as she +stood before me that morning in her white frock, her hair in a bunch of +curls on top of her head and some posies in her hand. I have seen many +pretty women in my time, some few handsome ones, but Nancy Stair is the +only one I ever saw who deserved to be described as beautiful. The +fashion-prints of the day were full of her, and I have one account +before me, printed at the very time of which I write, 1786: + +"Miss Stair," it reads, "is just back from London, where for two years +she has studied her voice with Trebillini. + +"Her beauty is bewildering; her gowns the acme of elegance and feminine +grace; her wit, her eyes, her lips, the toast of the town. Her songs, a +second printing of which is being clamored for, are being read over the +Three Kingdoms, with a letter from his Royal Majesty, George III, on +the fly-leaf commending them. When it is known that she is to attend +service at St. Giles the clubs are emptied and half the beaux of the +town may be found on their knees where they can have a view of her. The +greatest statesmen and lawyers of the day are her intimate friends, and +the crowds follow her in admiration when she drives through the +streets." + +A good picture, but scant, for there is not a word in it of her heart, +the kindest and bravest that ever beat in woman's breast, nor her great +love and tenderness to all created things. + +On the afternoon of this dinner I fixed my mind definitely upon a +matter upon which I had been pondering for some time. Coming in from +the bank about five, I called Nancy to me, and handed her the box I +carried. + +"Is it a present for me?" she asked, her face aglow. + +"A present for you, Little Flower, from the proudest father in the +world." + +As I spoke she opened the casket and her eyes fell on the gems of which +I have already written--the ornaments of the ladies of Stair for +hundreds of years gone by--but for none, save one, so fair as she. I +would have sold Stair itself, if need be, to give her such joy. The +emerald necklace, which had been a year in the making, a brooch of the +same stones, with diamonds glittering in flower clusters, I found, were +the ones she liked the best, and she brought a mirror to sit beside me +as she tried them all, one by one, upon her hair, her neck, and arms, +demanding that Dame Dickenson and Huey be brought to look at her. + +And a curious thing fell, that, as she was engaged with the jewels, a +note was brought from Mr. Pitcairn, which she read without interest, +saying after; + +"Does he think I care anything about 'Lorimer _vs._ The Crown' with a +necklace like this?" and I fell to wondering, with some dismay, what +Hugh would think concerning her masculine mind if he had heard the +speech. + +We were awaiting a summons to the meal that evening when Nancy entered; +a new Nancy, and one so wondrous to behold that Sandy and I started at +the sight of her. She wore a gown of yellow crepe embroidered in gold, +low and sleeveless, with a fold in the back, after the fashion of the +ladies of Watteau, and a long train falling far behind. Her hair was +gathered high and dressed with jewels which sparkled as well upon her +throat and hands. The thing that marked her most, an alluring +touchableness, was doubly present as she came toward us, laughing, with +a profound courtesy. + +"My Lord Stair and Mr. Carmichael, you who have had the raising of me, +how do you like the work of your hands?" + +"Ye can not throw us off our guard by braw clothes, Lady," Sandy +responded, with a laugh, "for we know you only too well, and to our +distress of mind and pocket. Ye're a spoiled bit, in spite of the +severe discipline your father and I have reared ye by. Here's a thing I +got from a peddler-body for ye," he ended. + +She opened the morocco case which he handed her, to find a necklet of +pearls with diamonds clasping them, and the tears came into her eyes as +she kissed him for the gift. + +"I can not thank ye enough!--never, in all my life--for all ye've done +for me, Sandy. I love you," she says, "and well you know it; and with +that we'll go to dinner. I go with Jamie," she added, slipping her arm +through his, "for ye must learn that genius ever goes before wealth and +titles," and with a laugh she and Jamie Henderlin went out before us. + +After dinner we sat outside for a while, Sandy and I smoking, as Nancy +and Jamie talked of the outer world and the celebrities of London and +Paris. The lamps from the little settlement on the burn twinkled +through the trees, while farther off the lights from the town of +Edinburgh shone soft and silvery beneath the glimmering moon. We could +hear the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the cows in the long +lane down by the Holm and the bells of the old Tron deaving our ears by +striking the hour of eight. + +There is little use, with Jamie playing to the greatest people of the +world at the moment of my writing, for me to tell the surprise and +delight we had in his music; or the new joy that Sandy felt in Nancy's +singing, it being the first time he had heard her voice for over two +years. + +"Do you want to hear some of my own verses?" she asked him at length. +"Mr. Thomson has been kind enough to set some of them to music." And +then she sang, for the first time to my hearing, those two songs of +hers which were afterward whistled, sung, hummed, or shouted by every +one in Scotland, from the judge on the bench to the caddie on the +streets: + + Soutar Sandy, + Wed wi' Mandy + On a Monday morning, + +and the set of three double verses, since published in the Glasgow +Sentinel, "The Maid wi' the Wistfu' Eye,"[4] which, as I hope for +Heaven, Rab Burns told me one night at Creech's he envied her for +having written. + + [4] Poems by Nancy Stair, Pailey Edition, pages 44, 67. + +Suddenly, as she was looking over the music, she began to hum, and Dame +Dickenson and I exchanged a look of strange remembrance, as, with no +accompaniment whatever, and as though the thought had just seized her, +she poured forth her soul and her voice together in that old gipsy +tune--Marian's song, as I have always called it: + + "Love that is life + Love that is death, + Love that is mine--" + +changed at the last into: + + "Love that is wrong, + Love that is strong, + Love that is death--" + +and as we listened, taken out of ourselves by her beauty and the +tragedy of her voice, a figure came from the gloom into the light of +the doorway, and a gay voice cried: + +"Shall I be arrested for trespass, Lord Stair?" and to our amazement +Danvers Carmichael stood before us. + +I had never seen the lad since the day it was determined to make an +Oxford man of him, instead of following out his father's wishes and +fetching him home to our own University, and the surprise I felt at +sight of him, a grown man and a monstrous fine one, gave me something +of a jolt in my mind at the rapid passing of the years. + +He was tall and handsome, with bright, brave ways, a distinguished +carriage, and a delightful speaking voice. His face was clean shaven, +showing a chin heavy but with fine lines, and lips which curved back +complacently over teeth of singular whiteness. His mouth denoted pride +as well as obstinacy, which, taken with the brooding look in the eye, +gave me the impression of a nature both jealous and passionate. One of +his greatest charms, and I felt it on the instant of our meeting, was a +gay but unassertive manner, possible only to those who have had a +secured position from birth. I noted as well a fine sense in his +relation to others, and believe that if he had come a-begging we would +have known him to be gently born. He wore high boots, a broad hat, and +a handsome riding suit of light cloth, with a cloak hanging from one +shoulder. He carried himself with jauntiness and surety; gave one's +hand a hearty grip, and, to sum it all up, was one of the finest men I +have ever seen, and a son of whom even Sandy Carmichael had a right to +be proud, in spite of the fact that he was a man of fashion and +something of a dandy. He had as well a certain romantic appearance and +a glance which made young girls drop their eyes before him and set old +ladies to talking of their first loves. + +"When Dand Carmichael goes up High Street I never saw a woman looking +down it," Bob Blake said of him once, which sums it all up very well. + +Upon being asked by his father as to the suddenness of his appearance +among us, he said with a laugh: + +"I came with some men to Leith, and the Leith fly set me down at the +door of The Star and Garter by the Tron church about an hour ago. I +asked mine host of the inn if I could get a horse from him to ride to +Arran House; upon which he told me that there would be no use in my +going to Arran as Mr. Carmichael was from home, being bid to dinner at +Lord Stair's; that it was the eighteenth birthday of Mistress Nancy +Stair, and that Jamie Henderlin had come from Germany with his violin +the week before and was to play at Stair House after the dinner; that +the Lord Stair, who was a fond father, had but this afternoon given the +family jewels to Mistress Nancy, and that one ruby alone would buy the +inn; that Mr. Carmichael had brought a present for her of a pearl +necklace with diamonds in it of great value; that Mistress Nancy Stair, +who was the handsomest girl in three kingdoms, had a yellow gown, a +great deal of which lay on the floor, the stuff of which he understood +had come from France; that Dame Dickenson had made a birthday cake, and +there was a salmon for the dinner with egg sauce, and that eggs were +uncommon high and the tax on whisky a thing not to be borne. There were +some other trifling details he mentioned," he said with a wave of his +hand and a laugh, "which have unfortunately escaped my memory." + +There was much real humor in his relation of the inn gossip, and the +brightness of his presence caused a gayer air to our small festivity. +Our talk brought Nancy to the door, where she stood in a shaft of light +looking down at us. + +"What are you laughing about?" she cried. + +At the sound of her voice Danvers sprang to his feet and went toward +her with outstretched hand, but at the sight of her beauty or her +jewels, I know not which, he changed his mind and made a sweeping bow +instead. + +"And this," he said, "is the Miss Nancy of whom I have heard so +much----" + +"Sandy's apt to mention me," she answered demurely. + +"He never did you justice," he responded, with a smile toward his +father. "In all but this he's the best parent in the world, but he's +fallen short in the matter of letting me know about you." + +"If ye'd stayed in ye're own country ye'd have known," retorted Sandy, +from behind his pipe. + +"I have been away too long," Dand answered him, but the look was at +Nancy. + +"Do you stay now?" she asked. + +"I had intended to go back at the end of the week, but I have changed +my mind. With my father's leave, I'll spend the summer----" + +"It does not take you long to change your mind," Nancy returned with a +smile. + +"No," he said, and here he leaned forward, took her hand and kissed it. +"No! It took me just one second." + +I knew that she was not to be moved by any admiration which happened to +come by. She paid a gracious attention to Danvers Carmichael, it is +true, insisting, though he stoutly affirmed to the contrary, that she +knew him to be hungry, that one could not _dine_ at The Star and +Garter, ordering a small table with some cold fowl and a bottle of wine +for him, all as though it were the thing nearest her heart. I, who knew +her, understood that if it had been a tramp body from the lowlands who +had come upon us she would have given the same thought to him and +forgotten him by morning; but to a man, London bred and unaware as yet +with whom his dealings lay, her solicitude for him might readily be +interpreted as having something more purely personal in its nature. + +And this day was to be marked by another event than the home-coming of +Danvers; an event which, if it had occurred six weeks later, might have +changed the destiny of many lives, and given England another Premier +than William Pitt. Before we parted for the night, Danvers took from +his pocket a book, which he handed to Nancy with a bow. + +"It's not family jewels; nor yet a trifling necklace of pearls; nor can +I honestly affirm it was intended as a gift, but if you will accept it +from me as a birthday token it will make me very glad," and he handed +the volume to her. + +"Poetry," she said with a pleased smile, "and in the Scot. Robert +Burns! Is he a new man?" + +"He's a plowman in Ayr, somewhere, and I have it that his verses are +something fine. I've not read them myself, and the thought comes to me +a little late that they may not be the fittest reading for a young +lady, but your father will judge of it for you." + +Sandy and I laughed aloud at this. + +"The reason these ill-natured gentlemen laughed at you as they did was +because of the lax way they have brought me up," Nancy explained. +"They've let me 'gang my ain gate' since I was five. I've had no right +raising," she said, and the very sweetness of her as she said it would +have made any man keen for the rearing which produced her. "So, +considering my superior knowledge of evil, I'll look the book over +myself and see if it is the kind of reading I should like to put in the +hands of Sandy and Jock." + +Danvers Carmichael's eyes glowed with humor as he joined in the laugh +with us. + +"Under your careful bringing up they should be fine fellows, these +fathers of ours," he laughed. + +"I've done the best I could by them," Nancy answered demurely; "but on +the whole, Mr. Carmichael, I think I have succeeded better with Jamie +Henderlin." + +When Nancy withdrew, Danvers went with her to the foot of the stairs, +holding her in talk for a few minutes, with looks of passionate +approval in his eyes. + +Before we went to our rooms, for I insisted that they should remain all +night at Stair, the talk turned upon marriage in some way, and Sandy +rallied his son upon his bachelorhood. + +"Twenty-four years old," he said, "and a bachelor still! Why, I was a +father at that time. Never mind," he continued, "never mind, my lad. +Your time is coming!" + +"In truth, I think it has come," Danvers returned, simply, and the +glance that went with the words was not toward his father, but toward +me. + +I was lying in my bed with eyes staring wide at the ceiling, recalling +Nancy's real birthday more than eighteen years gone by; thinking of +Marian; wondering if she knew the beauty of the child we had; demanding +from the Great Father of all that she should know--should remember +Nancy and me; that she, the mother and wife, might, in some way unknown +to us, still be a part of our earthly living; recalling Danvers with +approval, dreaming perhaps that Nancy and he, at no far date, might +marry and so cement a friendship between two middle-aged gentlemen who +had foregathered with each other many years before, when I heard a +light tap at my door. + +"Who is it?" I cried. + +"It's Nancy," answered the voice. "May I come in?" + +She pushed the door ajar and entered in a long white dressing-gown, +carrying in one hand a branch of candles and in the other a book, with +her finger marking the place. + +It is exceedingly hard for me to describe the beauty of her, the +uplifted look on her face and the shine of her eye, for this beauty +seemed kindled by a fire from within, and she had with it an excitement +as of one who had heard pleasant news or to whom great treasures have +just been given. + +"Jock," she asked, "have you been sleeping?" + +"No," said I. + +"Oh, listen then," she cried, "for indeed it was not possible that I +should sleep without telling you what's come to me. It's this Burns +man," she went on; "no one, not even Shakespeare, has spoken so. It's +as though he taught a new religion. It's kindness all through, and +charity and love; with rhymes upon rhymes, as if it were child's play +for him to make verses. It's raised me out of myself. It's what I've +always known was true. It's the liberty, equality, and fraternity of +France. It's the 'all men were born free and equal' of the colonies. +It's all, and more, that I've tried to work out on the burn-side. It's +like a great voice calling. Oh," she cried, "Ramsay's nothing to him, +and Fergusson but a gusty child." + +"Nancy, darling," I said, "have ye risen in the middle of the night to +tear down the idols of your childhood? Let me see the book," I cried, +for a bit of rhyme was a choicer draught to me than a glass of an old +vintage. + +"Let me read ye this," she said--I can remember now the slant white +light of a late moon coming in through the casement, the honeysuckle's +breath, and her face, half in light, half in shadow, as she read the +Epistle to Davie. As I listened I sat upright, more engrossed, wider +eyed; and when she came to those two stanzas, the greatest of their +kind ever penned, I was off my feet with her, and on my oath we sat +till the purpling flush came in the east, in an ecstasy of appreciation +of him "who walked in glory and in joy behind his plow upon the +mountain-side": + + "What tho', like commoners of air, + We wander out, we know not where, + _But_ either house or hall _without_ + Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, + The sweeping vales, an' foaming floods + Are free alike to all + In days when daisies deck the ground, + And blackbirds whistle clear, + With honest joy our hearts will bound, + To see the coming year: + On _braes_ when we please then, _heights_. + We'll sit an' _sowth_ a tune; _whistle softly_ + _Syne_ rhyme till't, we'll + time _till't_, _afterwards. to it._ + An' sing't when we hae done." + +"Oh, Jock," she says, "I've done it often; haven't you?" + + "It's no in titles nor in rank; + It's no in wealth like Lon'non bank. + To purchase peace and rest; + It's no in makin' muckle mair + It's no in books, it's no in _lear_ _learning_ + To make us truly blest: + If happiness hae not her seat + An' centre in the breast, + We may be wise, or rich, or great, + But never can be blest; + Nae treasures nor pleasures + Could make us happy lang; + The heart ay's the part ay + That makes us right or wrang." + --BURNS, 1785. + +"It's just grand," I said, "Nancy; and there're no two ways of it." + +"There's about all there is of life in this little book, and it's made +my rhyming-ware cheap. Do you think," she says, coming over to kiss me +before I sent her off to bed, "do you think I can ever meet wi' Mr. +Burns?" + +"If you want it, you shall," I said; "unless the man himself objects. +We'll have him up to Stair; and now forget him and get some rest, +Little Flower." + +She went away and left me, and I turned to sleep with that great +couplet going over and over in my head like the clatter of horses' +hoofs: + + "The heart ay's the part ay + That makes us right or wrong." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +DANVERS BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH NANCY + + +There were two reasons why Danvers was able to see Nancy almost +uninterruptedly the next two or three weeks, the first being that we +were but late returned from London, with old ties to be formed anew; +and the second, a law affair among the Burn-folk, the trouble of which +took much of Nancy's time, and eventually brought into our lives the +great Duke of Borthwicke, of whom I shall have more to say. These left +Danvers a fair field where Nancy was concerned, and no man living ever +covered his ground better or made a braver wooing. From the minute his +eye lighted upon her in the doorway it seemed as though it were "all by +with him," as the country folk say, for he seemed to have no thoughts +but for her, with the world welcome to a knowledge of the fact. + +Every day the conservatories of Arran were stripped for her, hampers of +fruit, and books, and notes which sent the blood rioting to her cheeks, +were over every morning; and before they could be forgotten, Danvers +was there in person, a handsome, passionate, dominating lover, whose +nature was one I could understand and whose love-making was as headlong +and impetuous as my own had been. + +I remember watching him bending over her one night as they stood +together before going in to dinner, and Marian's words came back to me +at sight of him: + +"For ye woo as a man should woo; and I'm won as a woman should be +won--because she has no will to choose." + +Talk of Danvers fell between Sandy and me quite naturally at this time, +and one night, when I was praising his boy to him with much enthusiasm, +he answered with a laugh: + +"Of course you like him! Why shouldn't you? You're of a piece, the two +of you. You are both primeval creatures, not far removed in your +love-making from the time when men lived in caves, and if they wanted a +woman they knocked her down with a club and carried her home, and the +wooing was over." + +"Barring the knocking down," I answered, "it's not so bad a way." + +"That's well enough," he retorted, "where women are but gentle female +animals. But take a woman with a mind or gift--such as Nancy Stair +has--and ye'll find a complication in the affair not to be solved with +a club." + +The two of us had no small sport with Danvers over his condition, for +he had fallen in love to such an extent that he would start sentences +which he forgot to finish, make the most irrelevant remarks, or drop +into a-dreaming in the midst of talk, so that his father fell to +recalling him by shouting: + +"View Halloo!" in a very loud voice, as they do on the hunting field, +following it up by talk full of a jeering seriousness, as it were: + +"Do you think, Danvers, in--er--your present state, you would be able +to get this letter to the post?" + +Or, + +"Would ye be like to fall into a sound slumber if ye started to ring +for a stable-boy, Dand?" + +Or, + +"Do you think you could charge your mind, without danger to it, with +passing me the brandy?" all of which the lad bore with an amused smile +and open shamelessness. + +One night, after dinner, during this time, I recall that there was a +discussion over the cutting of a roadway between our houses, and after +Sandy had thrown in the fatherly suggestion that if Danvers remained at +Arran much longer the road would be worn by his footsteps with no +expense to us, Danvers, who was awaiting Nancy to walk on the porch +with him, began: + +"I think----" + +"Ye need go no further," Sandy broke in, with a laugh. "You flatter +yourself! You _think_," he continued; "you've been incapable of +thought for nearly two weeks. Neither of us would give a boddle for +your opinion on any subject save one. I'll wager," he said, coming over +to his son and putting a hand on each of his shoulders, "that ye could +not count twenty straight ahead, if your salvation depended on it. And +to think that I have been raising a great fellow like you to be ordered +about by a slip of a girl. Ye're crazy," he said, going on, "stark, +Bedlam crazy!" + +On the moment of his speaking Nancy came to the door with mutinous +eyes, a riot of color in her cheeks, and some filmy white stuff drawn +round her head and shoulders, and as she stood Danvers turned to us. + +"Look at her!" he cried. "How else would ye have me be?" + +We were out of doors one afternoon, perhaps a week later, sitting in +the shadow of the great tower. Nancy, in a frock of green, cut out at +the neck, and a bewildering big hat with pink flowers upon it, was +pouring tea for us, with Danvers Carmichael lying at full length on the +grass beside her, smoking and inventing excuses at intervals to touch +her hand. + +The talk drifted round to Robert Burns, and when I stated the manner in +which Nancy and I had spent the first night we had had his book, +Danvers regarded us with no small degree of amazement. + +"Did you," he inquired, after a pause, "sit up all night reading rhyme, +the two of you?" + +"We did," said I; "and it's not the first night we have passed so, +Nancy Stair and I." + +"But why," he went on, "couldn't you wait till the morning?" + +"We're no made that way," I answered, with a laugh. + +"Well," he returned, "the thing is as incomprehensible to me as if +you'd tattooed yourself; but," he added philosophically, clasping his +hands behind his head and staring up into the sky, "every man knows his +own fun. There's a friend of mine who knows this Burns," he added. + +"What does he say of him?" I inquired with interest. + +"Billy's hardly one to appreciate poetry," he answered, "but he fell in +with Burns somewhere at a masons' meeting. He said he was a handsome +pirate, who had sent the clergy of his native place into despair; that +he made love to every woman he saw, and that his name was the scandal +of the county; but that personally he considered the man a wonder and +liked him fine." + +"Jock's going to have him here," Nancy said, with a pleased smile and +shining eyes. + +"No, no," cried Danvers Carmichael, vehemently, sitting upright. "I +wouldn't do that, my lord." + +"Why not?" Nancy inquired. + +"It's a matter," he said, "that I could explain better to Lord Stair +than to you, Miss Nancy," and there was a consideration for her in his +tone which warmed my heart toward him. + +"You mean," Nancy said, with a smile, "that he's not a good man and +will make love to me, mayhap, or that it might harm me in some way. You +don't appreciate the rearing I've had, I'm afraid," she said, handing +down another cup of tea to him. "Lawing with Pitcairn and dealing with +all manner of roguery and villainy on the burn-side have taught me many +things. These two gentlemen have reared me up in a strange way. Once I +heard Sandy say: + +"'She's a filly that's got to be given her head, and she'll soon learn +the fences that it is wise to take and the ones that it is wise to let +alone.'" + +"And were we not wise?" Sandy interrupted, "were we not wise? Ye know, +Mistress Stair, ye were no easy matter to bring up. Always like a +flower, gentle as a ewe lamb, seeing into everybody's heart, +verse-making till your poor little head ached, joining gipsy folk, +foregathering with tramps and criminals, wheedling the heart out of +every one of us, but under it all, fixed in a determination to have +your own way in spite of the deil himself. Ye were a pretty problem for +two lone men to handle." + +"Don't be believing them, Dandy," she said, turning the light of those +wonderful gray eyes down on him. "Ye will not, will ye? They are not +always truthful," she said, with a side-glance toward us both. + +"In spite of your training?" Dandy laughed. + +"In spite of my training," Nancy answered demurely. + +As we sat thus, the bright warm day passing lazily toward the twilight, +I saw a figure come from one of the houses on the burn, and start at +the top of speed along the ford-rift, which led through the harrowed +field. As it neared the south gate I saw that it was Jamie Henderlin, +who broke into our group, his pallor and anxiety forming abundant +excuse for the interruption to our talk. + +"Miss Nancy," he cried, "they've convicted him!" + +"Convicted Lapraik?" Nancy asked, as though it were impossible. + +"Yes, in an hour or less. Pitcairn had another witness--and Tod's +sentenced to transportation!" + +No happening which I can think of would have set Nancy Stair more +plainly before Danvers than this one, which fell directly beneath his +eye. + +"But," she said, and her eyes blackened as she spoke, "the man is +innocent." + +"Every one knows it," Jamie cried; "but Meenie's like to go to the +grave because of the trouble, which means naught to Pitcairn or to him +called the Duke of Borthwicke." + +"Ah, well, Jamie," said Nancy soothingly, "you must not worry over it. +There is more than one way to circumvent Mr. Pitcairn; and a few +jurymen, more or less, are nothing to fash one's soul about one way or +another. Who was the new witness?" + +"His name was McGuirk." + +"A Hieland body?" Nancy inquired. + +"In the service of the duke himself." + +"What did he swear to?" + +"He swore to Tod's having threated the duke's life, and that Tod had +said to him there was a way to even the matter of the raised rent." + +"Ah," said Nancy, and there was a bit of admiration in her tone, "the +duke's a clever man. In all his law-suiting he finds out just what bit +of testimony is needed and gets it." + +"If you'll excuse me," she said, rising, "I'll go down and see Meenie, +who probably thinks everything in life is over." + +As she went over the grass with Jamie, Danvers Carmichael turned an +astonished face toward us. + +"What is it all about?" he asked. + +"It's a long tale," I answered, "which, stripped of its trappings, runs +like this: Meenie is Jamie's adopted sister, and the Lapraik man is a +sweetheart of hers who owns a bit farm in the Highlands next to +Borthwicke Castle----" + +"For Heaven's sake," Sandy exclaimed, blowing a cloud of smoke toward +the sky, "don't tell that tale again, Jock Stair." + +"--And the Duke of Borthwicke wants the farm to add to his land," I +went on, unperturbed, "and Lapraik will not sell. So one fine day he is +accused of theft by the duke's factor, some of the Montrose silver is +found under his roof, and he is arrested and convicted, as you have +just heard. Common rumor has it that the duke wants him out of the +country--the fact that he was brought to Edinburgh to be tried shows +that there is a powerful influence pushing the thing along. Pitcairn is +the duke's man of business, which makes the handling of it easier here +where he is counsel for the crown." + +"It will make it an odd affair if Nancy takes the matter in hand, +considering she's Pitcairn's own pupil," Sandy suggested. + +"Is it true she's studied the law under Pitcairn?" Danvers inquired. + +"Scots and English," I answered. + +"In the name of smitten Caesar," he cried, for that was a word of the +time, "what for?" + +"We've never come to any settlement of it between us, but your father +holds that she studied it to circumvent it," I answered, with a laugh. +"She told us once that the more law one knew the safer one could break +it." + +"I think," Danvers returned, rising and looking away from us to the +burn--"I think she needs some one to look after her." + +"It has dawned upon us that that was your opinion," Sandy rejoined +drolly. + +"Lawing with Pitcairn, managing an army of poor folk on the burn, +attending to charities, settling disputes--it's not right. The poor +child has a headache all the time, for it's a man's work she's doing. +Women are for better things. A woman should save her vitality." + +"For what?" asked his father. + +"For wifehood and motherhood," Danvers responded. + +It sounded like a leaf from Pitcairn's book, but while his whole talk +was disrespectful to us as older men, it had a rare manly quality fine +to see. In the very midst of it Nancy was with us again, and, minding +Danvers Carmichael no more than she did the wooden benches, came over +to me. + +"I'm going to see the Duke of Borthwicke," said she. + +"Is it your intention," I inquired, "to send out scouts for his grace +that ye may interview him? I understand him to be a peripatetic body, +who travels a great deal in furtherance of his nefarious schemes. He +may not even be in Scotland." + +"He is in Edinburgh at the moment," she answered, "at the 'Sign of the +Blue Thistle.' He has with him his secretary, Donovan; his valet, and +two serving-men. They have their lodgment in four rooms on the second +floor; he is bid to the ball at the Duchess of Gordon's to-night and at +eleven to-morrow leaves in his private coach for the Highlands." + +"The Government should employ you, Nancy Stair," Sandy broke in with a +laugh. "The country is just now needing people who can pick up such +accurate information." + +"It was no great matter to do," she explained. "When people whose lives +are hanging on the duke's acts have been watching him for days they are +like to know his movements. I will go to-night, before the ball; and if +you'll excuse me now, I'll try to get some rest," and with no further +word she left us. + +She had scarce turned the box-hedge when Danvers Carmichael gave us a +taste of his nature and had his say with us in language free and +skirting the profane. + +"Suppose," he began, "suppose she goes to see the duke, and suppose, +which is far from likely, that she is able to obtain an audience with +him, what is there for her to say? She can not very well just call the +man a scoundrel! And as for the Lapraik affair, if he has the rascality +to do the act, it's not likely that he will flinch at the naming of +it." + +Getting no answer to this from either of us he went on at white heat, +stating in violent and unshaded English the wrong of allowing a girl, +little more than a child, to visit a man of the duke's repute, and +giving it as his opinion that his father and I were the ones to take +the affair upon our shoulders. He even volunteered to visit the duke +himself in Tod's behalf. + +"And in your own tongue," asked Sandy, "what would ye say when ye got +there?" + +"Ye might just call him a scoundrel, as ye suggested Nancy's doing. His +grace might receive it better coming from a man," I said cheerfully. + +"Sit ye down, lad," Sandy said at length; "sit ye down. And stop making +a windmill of your arms as ye stand on that rise, or we may think we +are all Dutch folk together; and just give over thinking ye know all +women, because ye've made love to some senseless London fillies with no +brains in their heads whatever. It's a wise man that understands that +no two women are alike. John Stair and I have seen something of life in +our time, aye, and something of women; but Nancy's a different creature +from anything in our ken. Ye might just trust a little to our judgment +of her." + +If Danvers were abashed by this speech he showed it never a whit, but +stood very erect, his brows drawn into a scowl not unlike Nancy's own, +glowering first at his father and then at me. Sandy, who was, in his +mind's eye, re-rigging a schooner, went on with his paper-and-pencil +work, unconscious of his son's scrutiny. I dropped my eyes to the Allan +Ramsay, which I had opened at random, but lost nothing of Danvers's +conduct, and liked him for it. He had known but the women who needed +protection, and his attitude to my mind bespoke the chivalrous +gentleman. + +"Will she go alone?" he inquired abruptly. + +"She will probably take Father Michel." + +"And might I inquire without discourtesy who Father Michel is?" + +"He is a priest who came up with us from Landgore, and the best man I +ever knew," said I. "'Tis he who attends to the burn people." + +"And will he tell her what to say to his Grace of Borthwicke?" + +"She will not need to be told," I answered. "Indeed, Dandy Carmichael, +this is not the first time she has gone on such errands." + +"And does she get her way?" + +"She has never failed yet." + +"It's true," Danvers went on, "that I've met none of her kind, but if +she go to the Duke of Borthwicke, as man to man----" + +"She will not go as man to man," Sandy broke in with a smile. "She will +go as woman to man. There's a mighty differ." + +"You see, Dandy," said I, trying to smooth the talk a bit, "although +she's my own, there's sure no harm in my saying that she is an +extraordinary creature. That she has great beauty a blind man could +see; but that's the least of her, for she has the heart and the +principles of the purest and the best. But, oh, laddie, in her dealings +with men she has the knowledge of the deil himself. Mayhap she'll cry a +bit, or flout the duke, or laugh at his ways. She'll do the thing which +she finds his mood and the hour suit, and she'll come away with the +pardon in her hand, and say ever after that the duke is maligned and +that at heart he is a very good man. And she'll believe it, too." + +Dinner without Nancy was a tasteless affair, and we spent little time +at table, having the pipes and wine brought into the library. As we sat +there the sound of Jamie's violin came sobbing up from the Burnside as +he played for his stricken sister in the old low house where three +hearts were praying for Nancy Stair. Sitting there with a silence, save +for the music, between us, we heard a door open on the floor above and +the sound of light footsteps on the stair. She came to the doorway, +looked in to see if we were alone, and then, with neither shyness nor +self-consciousness, came in to "show us how she looked." + +"I've put on my best frock--the one the girls made for me on the +burn--in the lace work," she said. + +It was cobwebby stuff over white satin, the neck, cut in the free +fashion of the time, showing her dimpled shoulders and the turn of the +breast. She had dressed her hair in a bunch of curls, high on the head, +and over her forehead she wore the circlet of diamonds which my +great-grandfather had given to that French ancestress of ours with the +uncommendable but frank conduct. Around her neck was the famous +necklace of diamonds and emeralds, and at the bosom a cluster of +diamonds winked and twinkled at every breath. She stood for one minute +near me, her eyes like misty gray stars shining over the bloom of +roses, her slender arms bared, and one slight hand, shining with rings, +laid on the table. + +"Do I look pretty, Jock?" she said, as I raised the little hand to my +lips and kissed it, with what a passion of love only he can know whose +nature is a tempestuous loving one like mine, and whose only daughter +is his sweetheart and his wife. + +"Well," she said, satisfied with my expressions, "the coach is at the +door," and then, holding out her hand to Danvers, "Will ye not wish me +luck, Mr. Carmichael?" + +Danvers Carmichael had spoken no word and made no sign since her +entrance until he was thus directly addressed, and the three of us +turned suddenly toward him as he stood by the chimney-piece. A look of +unfettered admiration of her was in his eyes as he answered: + +"There's no one wishing you that more than I, Miss Nancy." + +Father Michel's grave face looked at us serenely from the coach window +for a minute, and we stood on the steps watching them drive away and +listening to the horses' hoofs growing fainter and fainter along the +outer road. + +Before they had died away entirely Danvers turned toward me. + +"Lord Stair," he said, "may I call myself so much at home as to ring +for a groom? I want my horse. I'm going to ride after her." + +"What for?" Sandy inquired. + +"To protect her," he answered. + +"Well," observed Sandy, dryly, "ye may as well go and be on hand in +case there's need of help. Nancy," he added with a laugh, "won't need +it. But you may be called in to protect the duke." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NANCY VISITS HIS GRACE OF BORTHWICKE + + +At the time of which I write John Montrose, Duke of Borthwicke, +Ardvilarchan, and Drumblaine, was the most noticed man in the Three +Kingdoms, and held by many to be the greatest scoundrel in the politics +of Europe. He was a picturesque and stately devil, tall, clean shaven, +with fine features and damnable light blue eyes with a baffling gleam +in them. He had a singular grace in the use of his body, especially in +the movement of his hands, which were markedly expressive and +attractive; and whether drawn to him or not, one could deny neither his +potency nor his distinction of bearing, which was one of race as well +as breeding. The first view I ever had of him was in Parliament House, +where I noted on the instant the magnificent carriage of his head and +chest, his extraordinary pallor, and the strange eyes, reflecting the +light from without rather than revealing anything within. + +In London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, the tide of gossip overflowed with +his name and carried in its current tales of his greatness, his +cruelty, his lawless loves and his quick forgettings. It was libeled +against him that he had magnetic power over all with whom he came in +contact, bending them to his will by the sheer dominance of his +presence. There was, I recall, a story rife that upon my Lord Thurlow's +opposition to the bill for the restoration of the forfeited estates +becoming known, it was the Duke of Borthwicke who was sent to treat +with him concerning it, and immediately after this visit the bill +passed the House of Lords with small opposition. + +It was whispered as well that Pitt himself was afraid of his Grace of +Borthwicke, and was no match for the man, who had a peculiar power by +reason of being unhampered either by truth or precedent. Blake, who was +the duke's secretary in '84, told me at the club one night, that on one +occasion his grace had needed some statistics to clinch an argument. +After investigation the statistics were found to disprove his point. +Upon this being presented to him, he remarked dryly, "Alter the +statistics." + +Ugly tales were abroad in all classes of society concerning his life in +India, his conduct in the Highlands, and his moral idiocy, but he held +them under with a strong hand, and more than one hinted that he had +eyes for the premiership. + +Dressed for the evening, the duke was alone in his sitting-room, +attending to his private correspondence, when he heard a rap at the +door. + +"Enter," he called, in a careless voice, thinking it one of his men. + +Nancy lifted the latch and came forward into the room. + +"The Duke of Borthwicke will pardon my intrusion, will he not?" she +asked, "as well as my lack of courtesy? I was afraid his grace might +refuse to see me if I were announced to him in the ordinary manner." + +Montrose had been writing at an oaken table, on either side of which +was a bracket of lights. At the sound of the voice he turned, and, at +the sight of Nancy, he rose and stood looking at her as though she were +an apparition. + +Many times since, in her description of this interview, she told me +that she received from him an impression as though he stretched forth +his hand and touched her. She said, as well, that the erectness of his +body and the fulness of his chest gave him the air of a conqueror who +was invincible, while the pallor of his face and the glitter of his eye +set him still further apart from anything usual. + +It seemed a full minute that they stood thus taking notes openly of +each other before she spoke again. + +"I am Nancy Stair," she said quietly. + +"Ah," the duke returned, coming forward with a smile, "the +verse-maker?" + +"I make verses," Nancy answered. + +"Which have given me more pleasure than I have the power to tell," the +duke responded with a bow. + +"It is praise indeed, coming from John Montrose, who is no mean poet +himself," Nancy said with a smile. + +"I," the duke returned, "am no poet, Mistress Stair; but I have a +'spunk enough of glee' to enjoy the gift of others." + +"One might think who overheard us, my lord duke," Nancy broke in with a +laugh and the light of humor in her eyes by which she could make +another smile at any time, "that we were collegians having a critical +discussion. It was not concerning poetry that I came to you to-night, +your grace. It was to ask a favor." + +"Pitcairn said you would come," the duke answered her blandly, taking +out his watch and looking at it with a smile. "He said you would come +before you went to the Duchess of Gordon's rout. He even named the +exact time within a quarter of an hour." + +"Mr. Pitcairn is a very wonderful man," Nancy returned. + +"He's a poor hand at description," responded the duke, with a heat of +admiration for her in his tone. + +"It depends somewhat," said Nancy, "upon what he has the describing +of." And in this speech the way women know how to belittle an enemy is +clearly to be seen. "He can describe a barn to a farmer, a road to a +surveyor, or a church to an architect, so that they fall into an +ecstasy of admiration of his parts. When it comes to a woman it's a +different matter. Mr. Pitcairn doesn't know a woman. He's not, rightly +speaking, a man. As Mr. Carmichael says, 'He's just a head.'" + +"It's a curious head," the duke answers, "a curious head and a very +clear one." + +"A clear head to prosecute; never to defend," Nancy responded; "which +leads me to the cause of my visit. I have come to ask for the pardon of +Timothy Lapraik." + +The duke dropped his eyelids, and a strange light shone from under +them. + +"You compliment me, Mistress Stair, in thinking I have the power to +undo that which was settled by the law of your country and a jury tried +and true. I took no part in the affair; the prosecution was not mine; +in a word, the thing is perhaps beyond my power, had I the desire to +get him a pardon, which, however, I have not." + +All this time neither had made any motion toward sitting down, but +stood regarding each other, alert and watchful. It was Nancy Stair who +took the first move. Coming over to the duke she put one of her hands +on his breast and stood looking up at him out of those gray eyes of +whose power she was not unconscious. + +"My lord," she said, "I, who have had the handling of people much of my +life, have learned to recognize power when I see it, and I see it in +you. There's just naught you can't do that you set your mind to." + +None ever claimed that in his relation with women the duke was +afflicted with Pitcairn's trouble, and a blue heat came in his eye at +her touch of him. + +"You're not afraid of me, Nancy Stair?" + +She looked up at him from under her eyelids and laughed. + +"Not the least bit in the world, your grace." + +"And ye think, mayhap, that just because ye're a beautiful woman--aye, +the most beautiful woman I have ever seen--that ye can come to me and +ask favors, thinking that I shall expect nothing in return?" + +"What I have heard of you would lead me far from such conclusion," +Nancy answered, with a smile. + +He looked at her in silence, with an amused expression in his face. + +"I like you," he said at length, and a dare-devil look came into his +eyes, a look which showed at once his strength and his weakness. "I +like your fearlessness as well as your honesty. I can mate your +frankness by my own. I have long desired to know what is said of me, +and have a mind to make a compact with you, if you will. I hear lies on +every side. They are the stuff of which my daily bread is baked. Come," +he cried, "a bargain between us. The naked truth which ye have heard +concerning me in return for the pardon of Timothy Lapraik." + +"It's a bargain between us, your grace." + +"There will be no slurring over, no soft adjustments?" + +"You need have no fear. If you knew me better you would not ask that," +Nancy answered with a smile. "You shall have the unsoftened truth, so +far as it is mine to speak." + +The duke motioned her to a seat by the fire and stood opposite to her, +changing the candles on the shelf above to throw the light full upon +her face as she sat before the fire. + +"'Tis an awkward position you put me in," Nancy laughed. + +"'Tis grace itself compared to the awkwardness of mine," the duke +returned with a dry smile. + +"The first thing I ever heard of you," she began, "was that you were +known by common repute as the 'Lying Duke of the Highlands.'" + +The duke bowed. + +"I have heard from high and low that you have neither the code of a +gentleman nor the common honesty of business affairs. It is even argued +that you have not the moral perception to see your own lack in such +matters." + +The duke looked at her steadily for a moment again and his lips curled +back into a smile. + +"You are openly accused of thefts in India--of defrauding the ignorant +natives of their lands." + +The duke made a little outward motion with his hand, as though to +intimate that these charges were already known to him. + +"It is said--and this seems to me one of the worst charges--that you +assail the names of those whose places you desire for yourself or your +friends, under cover, and in ways impossible for them to circumvent." + +The duke shrugged his shoulders as if this charge were one of small +moment. + +"But 'tis of your treatment of women that the worst stories of you are +abroad, and 'tis said that your conduct toward them is that of a brute +rather than of a man. There is a tale of one woman, the wife of a +baronet, who left her husband for you, and whom ye after deserted to +poverty and disgrace." + +She paused a moment and turned to recapitulate. + +"Liar," she said. + +The duke bowed slightly. + +"Thief." + +The duke bent his head a bit lower. + +"Defrauder, blackmailer, and betrayer of women." + +The duke rose and made a profound salutation, and Nancy regarded him +with a smile. + +"I do not think of any other thing," she concluded; and then, as though +there was still hope for him, "I have never heard your grace accused of +open murder." + +"'Tis strange," the duke answered her with a queer look. "I have enough +of the artist in me to see that the open murder would have been finely +climactic. There is but one of these charges that I desire to deny to +you," looking at the fire through his eyeglass as he spoke; "I don't +lie," he said, adding, with the shadow of a smile, "I don't have to. +And may I ask, Mistress Stair, do you believe these things of me?" + +Nancy rose and looked into the fire. + +"I like you," she answered. + +"In spite of my crimes?" + +"Because of your power," she responded. + +They stood for a moment regarding each other steadily before another +word was spoken. + +"Ah, my lord," she said, "I must be going," and there was a shade of +regret in her voice, which Borthwicke was not the man to let pass +unnoticed, "I have kept my word." + +"True," the duke answered, "you have kept your word." + +"You will keep yours to me?" she asked, extending her hand. + +"By this time to-morrow Lapraik shall be a free man," the duke +answered, holding the extended hand in his. + +"Thank you," she said, and another silence fell between them as they +stood thus, nearer together, dominated by magnetic attraction so strong +that a full minute passed unnoted by either. + +"It is my turn to ask favors," the duke said headily. "The rose in your +breast." + +"Shall I fasten it on your coat?" she asked. + +So for a moment more they stood almost touching each other, his breath +moving the curls of her hair as she reached toward him. + +"Good night," he said, extending his hand again. + +"Good night," she said, putting hers into it. + +"You have your people with you?" + +"Yes." + +"It is better then I should not come down?" + +"Much better," she answered, after a second; and then, turning to him: +"You are coming to the Duchess of Gordon's?" + +"I had intended to remain away till I saw you. What do you think I +shall do now?" his grace asked. + +"How should I know, my lord duke?" Nancy inquired, with a smile. + +"What do you think I am going to do now?" he repeated with insistence. + +"I think you will come to the Gordons'," Nancy answered in a low voice. + +"I may kiss your hand?" the duke asked; and, as he did so, the act +having in it more of a caress than a salutation, "Believe me," he said, +"I could not stay away." + + * * * * * + +After Nancy and Dandy had left us, Carmichael and I sat smoking, and by +reason of the talk falling along some interesting lines we arrived at +the Gordons' long past the time set for our party to meet. Nearing the +house we heard the music of the fiddles filling the air with glee and +sadness, and saw the caddies darting hither and thither, the link-boys +with their torches, and the flare of lights on the dazzling toilets of +the ladies descending from their chairs and coaches. My own position in +Edinburgh society was stated to me quite by accident, as I entered, by +a group of young dandies at the ballroom door, who made way for me with +a pronounced salute and whispered: + +"'Tis her father." + +Jane Gordon welcomed me with a gay and genuine friendship, and as Sandy +and I made our salutations to her I saw Nancy at some little distance +from us, literally surrounded by fatuous cipher-faced youths, who stood +in some awe before her misty beauty and reputed power. There was pride +in me that the girl was mine, a pride which Sandy Carmichael shared +with me, and as Hugh Pitcairn crossed the long room to salute her +gravely but with marked respect, I saw that there was at least one +emotion which they held in common. + +Standing by the great window soon after my arrival, a bit removed from +a group of talking persons to whom I was giving but scant attention, I +became conscious that some one was addressing me, and turned to find +the Duke of Borthwicke, his hand laid lightly on my shoulder, his +countenance of baffling serenity, and his voice mellow and of a +conciliating quality. He wore gray satin of an elegant finish, but +neither embroidery nor jewels, and, notwithstanding his position and +power, conveyed the impression in some adroit way, subtler than I can +set forth, that he deprecated his temerity in addressing so austere a +person as myself. I had seen women use this essence of flattery, but it +was the first time I ever found it employed by a man. + +"Will my Lord Stair allow me to introduce myself to him?" he inquired, +with a smile, extending his hand. "I am John Montrose, and there are +many reasons why we should determine to be good friends." + +"We are both Highland folk," I answered. + +"Which is one excellent reason," he interrupted; "yet there are several +more moving than that. Your father, Lord Stair, and mine were out +together in the forty-fives, on which side I need scarcely mention; and +again, your grandfather and mine both loved and fought for the +beautiful Nancy Hamilton, and, but for the preference of the lady +herself, she might have been my own grandmother. These things call for +a friendly feeling between us, Lord Stair, but that which drives me +forward most to your acquaintancy is the admiration I have for the +writings of your daughter, Mistress Nancy, whose lines ring through my +head more often than I care to tell, and whose poems have been upon my +writing-table ever since they were published." + +In this pleasant way we fell to talk of Nancy, of her gifts, her +beauty, her loving tenderness for all things, her strange up-bringing, +her people on the Burnside; and to a doting father such as I was the +time flew quickly by. + +I noted at length that there was some stir in the circle around her, +and watched her cross the room with her Grace of Gordon and Danvers +Carmichael in attendance, to the musicians' place in the great window. + +I have wondered at times if folk who dwell on the temptations male +creatures have think ever of those which come to women of great +attractiveness to men. The thought came to me as Nancy took her place +beside the harp and violins, which were to accompany her singing, and I +sent a prayer to Heaven to keep my child unspotted from the world, +uttering it none the less fervently because his Grace of Borthwicke, +with lids veiling the fire of his eyes, was looking at her. + +Twice she sang, her songs being of her own land, one of the highlands, +with the perfume of the gorse and the heather in the lilt of it, and +the second, by demand of Sandy, the gipsy song which had been handed +down from woodland mother to woodland child for hundreds of years; a +song which sent Nancy's lawless blood to her cheeks and set her heart +beating with an inherited remembrance of raids and sea-fights, and +lawless loves; which made her eyes misty with tears and unawakened +passion; the song which I had learned to dread, Marian's song: + + "Love that is Life, + Love that is Death, + Love that is mine"---- + +And as she finished, carried off her feet by her own feelings, she +looked toward us for a moment; but it was neither upon me nor Danvers +Carmichael that the look fell; for, as one who knows she will be +understood, her glance turned to his Grace of Borthwicke, whose eyes +told a tale so openly that he who ran might read. I was more disturbed +by this occurrence than I cared to admit, and after the supper, when +Nancy, attended still by Danvers Carmichael, came back to us, I was +glad to hear her say that she wished to go home. His Grace of +Borthwicke being still near us, it fell upon me to present Danvers +Carmichael to him, an introduction which Dandy acknowledged by a +perfunctory bow and scant courtesy, and the duke by turning his eyes +for one second in Dandy's direction and repeating his name as +"McMichael" in the exasperating manner of one who neither knows nor +cares who the person is who has been presented to him; and although at +the time of the murder the lawyers tried to have it that the +acquaintance between these two men was of London breeding, I can vouch +for it, from my own knowledge and the testimony of Danvers Carmichael +to me on our way home, that this was the first time he and the duke +ever set eyes on each other. + +In just the manner in which I have set it forth, in the compass of a +few days, the three most important factors in Nancy's life came to the +working out of it, Robert Burns, though but by book; Danvers +Carmichael, a gentleman; and that splendid devil, John Montrose, Duke +of Borthwicke, Ardvilarchan and Drumblaine in the Muirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DANVERS CARMICHAEL MAKES A PROPOSAL + + +Whether the conduct of the Duke of Borthwicke brought a climax to the +affairs between Danvers and Nancy I can not state for a surety, but the +next morning as I sat alone on the south porch the boy came upon me +with some suddenness. + +"Lord Stair," he said, "it is with my father's knowledge and +pleasurable consent that I come to ask your permission to have Nancy +for my wife, if she can fancy me as a husband." + +He turned very white as he spoke, but his bearing was manly and brave +as that of his father's son should be, and my heart went out to him. + +"Sit ye down, laddie," I said, "sit ye down. We'll have a smoke +together and talk it over. I'm not denying that I like you for the two +best reasons in the world. The first, for yourself; and the second, +that ye're your father's son. And to pretend that a wedding between you +two children would not give me the greatest pleasure in life would be +idiot foolishness. I feel it my duty to you, however, as well as to my +girl, to talk the thing over plainly. Have you any notion now," I +asked, "as to Nancy's feeling toward you?" + +"None whatever," he answers, gloomily enough. + +"You've not questioned her in any way----" + +"I'm a man of honor, Lord Stair," he responded, a bit in the air. + +"Well, then," said I, "it will do no harm to set some of the obstacles +before you that you may be allowed to deal with the situation +bare-handed. + +"Ye must see, Dandy, that Nancy Stair is different from other women and +has been raised in a strange way. I'm no saying it's either a good way +or a bad. I am saying that it's far from the accepted way women are +bred up generally. It's no mere talent she has--for in a woman that's +not harmful and frequently helps to entertain the children, as they +come along; but with a girl, raised by men, whose name is ringing +throughout the kingdom, who baffles every one by unfailing love and +kindness, who has only the religion of making things better for others; +a bit of a coquette, with such magnetism that one wants to touch her as +one does a flower--I tell ye frankly, Danvers, as Pitcairn says, she's +a dangerous contrivance of the Almighty's, and a man had best think +many times before he takes her to his bosom as a wife." + +"It's a singular state of affairs," Danvers answers, with a short +laugh, "and one for which, I venture, even Nancy could find no bookish +parallel. You tell me that you'd like me for a son-in-law, but warn me +against your own daughter as a wife; while my father takes the other +view of it: that he would like Nancy for his daughter, but thinks I'm +far from being the one suited to her as a husband. Parents are not +usually so dispassionate," he added, somewhat bitterly. I felt for the +lad, and took a step along a side path. + +"Ye're both over young as yet," I said, "and it's been less than a +month since ye've known each other." And it was here that I had a taste +of his fine temper, for he turned upon me in a sudden heat that made +him splendid and natural to the eye. + +"I have not heard that my Lord Stair was over-deliberate in his own +wooing," he said. + +I laughed aloud as he glowered at me, and put my hand on his shoulder, +for I liked his impetuous ways and his deil's temper. + +"There, there," I said, "gang your own gate. I but wanted ye to know +what ye might expect in a wife. She'll contradict ye----" + +"I don't want a wife who is an echo of myself," he retorted. + +"She's jealous----" + +"I wouldn't give a groat for a woman who wasn't," he responded. + +"She is so extravagant," I went on, "that I never let even Sandy know +her bills." + +He made no answer to this whatever, as though it were a matter beneath +discussion. + +"She will forget you for days at a time while she's rhyme-making," I +went on. "She will be interested in other men until the day she dies--" +his eye darkened at this--"and to sum it up, I don't know any woman +more unsuited to you; but if she will have you, you've my consent," and +I reached out my hand to him. "God bless you," I cried, and before our +hands had parted Sandy came around the turn of the path. + +"You've done just what I knew you'd do, Jock Stair," he said, glowering +first at his son and then at me, "and ye know as well as I the +foolishness of it. Take a man like this lad, who has been spoiled by an +overfond mother, and a woman like Nancy, who has had her own way since +birth, marry them to each other, and you've a magnificent basis for +trouble. Why don't you marry your cousin Isabel? You'd thoughts of it +before you left London!" he ended, in a futile way. + +"I'm going to marry Nancy Stair, if she'll have me," Danvers replied, +doggedly. + +"Well, well, she may not have you," Sandy replied, soothingly. "And as +she's under the lilacs you may care to join her." + +Nothing passed between Danvers and Nancy on the subject of marriage +that morning, and I found at luncheon a probable explanation of the +fact by reason of her absorption in the labor training idea and the +building of an extension on the Burnside. + +Between this scheme, her talk of Robert Burns, her interest in his +Grace of Borthwicke, and an absolute and unnatural silence concerning +Danvers, I was in some anxiety, and could come to no conclusion +whatever concerning the state of her feelings. I mentioned Danvers' +good looks, and she quoted me back "The Cotter's Saturday Night." I +praised his conduct, and she answered with "The Epistle to Davie." It +was the name of Burns that was constantly upon her lips; she set his +verses to the music of old songs, singing them softly to herself in the +gloaming, and I could see had made a god of him by her own imaginings. + +"That Burns book was a bad investment for you," I said to Danvers one +evening. + +"Why," says he, "it's naught but a book!" + +"True," I answered, "but the maker of it is a man--and she's idealized +him into a god. Ye just brought trouble for yourself when you brought +that volume among us," I cried. + +To the best of my recollection it was about a week after my talk with +Danvers concerning a marriage between them that the three of us sat at +the dinner together, and there never was a more bewitching or dangerous +Nancy than we had with us that night. A tender, brilliant, saucy, +flattering Nancy, who moved us male creatures about as though we were +chessmen. + +"Jock, tell about the old minister and the goose," she said. "There's +no one can tell that story like you." + +Or, + +"Danvers, do you recall the anecdote of Billy Deuceace and the +opera-singer? It's one of the best jokes I ever heard." And it was +after the laugh that followed this narration that Danvers said, with +some abruptness, I thought: + +"We had bad news to-day. The Honorable Mrs. Erskine and her daughter +are coming to Arran. My father invited them over a year ago, and had +forgotten all about it when their letter of acceptance came." + +"Is it Isabel Erskine whom your father advises you to marry?" Nancy +asked. + +"It is the very same," Dandy answered with a careless laugh; "and I'm +warning you you are to have a rival in the same house with me!" + +"Is she pretty?" + +"She's well enough," he replied indifferently. + +"I believe," said Nancy, looking through her wine-glass far off +somewhere, "that she'll suit you better than I." + +"She treats me better." + +"She doesn't write verses?" this with a glance from under her eyelids. + +"She does not." + +"Nor think her own way always the best?" + +"She's very sweet and yielding, as becomes a woman," Danvers answered +teasingly. + +"She's just without sin at all," Nancy continued with apparent +dejection. + +"Entirely," Danvers returned solemnly, but with a laugh shining through +his long black lashes. + +"Then I'd better not meet with her--I, who have so many failings." + +"Have you failings?" Dandy asked, and the teasing tone left him. "I've +yet to find them." + +And at this Nancy broke into a laugh so funny and contagious that the +two of us joined with her. + +"Have I failings?" she repeated. "That I have! And so many 'twould be a +day's work to name them. + +"Sometimes," she began, "I make light of other folks' religion when I +disagree with it--and that's little short of scandalous. And I belittle +the people whom I don't like--and there's no breeding in that; and +where a friend is concerned I'm like the Stewarts, 'Back to back, and a +claymore in each hand,' and----" + +"Ye're right in that," Danvers and I broke in like a chorus. + +"And sometimes," she went on, and the humor she found in these +revelations concerning herself was a droll thing to see, "sometimes I +use bad language----" + +We men broke into a roar of laughter at this. + +"Once, I remember," she said, with the gleam in her eye, "I danced till +three in the morning at Peggy MacBride's wedding, and getting out of +the coach twisted my arm till I thought I'd broken it. About four of +the same morning I rose with a raging tooth, and crossing the room for +laudanum, I struck the elbow of the injured arm against a chest of +drawers, and before I thought I said----" + +"What?" Danvers cried, his face lit up with merriment. + +"Nothing will ever make me tell," she said firmly, "nothing!" + +"Whatever it was, it was moderate. You haven't a vocabulary sufficient +for that situation, Nancy Stair," I laughed. + +"Then, too, I'm no respecter of family," she went on, as though set for +complete absolution. "It's mayhap because my own mother was an Irish +gipsy----" + +"Nancy!" Dandy cried with amazement. + +"She was so," Nancy insisted, "and the present lord's grandfather was a +strange old cummer who ran away with another man's wife----" + +"Nancy!" I expostulated, "Nancy, you mustn't talk in that way of your +forbears----" + +"Why not?" she inquired. + +"It's a thing ye can't explain, my dear; but it just isn't done," Dandy +said. + +"Is it not?" she asked, and there was a look in her eyes of amused +amazement. "Is it not? You see, I, in my poor blind way, can not +understand why the naming of a thing is worse than the being of it--but +if ye say it is, I'm amiable. I'll give out that my forbears were all +kings and queens of the Egyptians, and that I ate my haggis when I was +a child from the seat of the throne. It makes no difference to me, for +I'm something more than the Laird of Stair's daughter." + +"Meaning the future Countess of Glenmore, mayhap?" I suggested. + +"I'm not meaning any such thing, and it's perhaps not becoming for me +to explain what I do mean; but whether I say it of myself or 'tis said +of me in the Glasgow Sentinel, it makes little differ, for I have the +verse-making, and 'tis more to me than lands or titles. + +"Aye," she said, after a pause, with a laugh as though making fun of +her conceit of herself, "I have the genius----" + +At the end of the meal, before she left us, bewildered by her vivacity +and charm, she stopped at the door. + +"Am I nice?" she asked. + +"Very," said Danvers and I. + +"And will ye give me," she asked, as a child might have done, "the +thousand pounds for Father Michel?" + +"I will not," I answered, the yielding in me showing through the words. + +Danvers saw his chance and took it with the spur. + +"I will," he said, going toward her to open the door, but it looked +more as though he meant to take her in his arms, "I will, Nancy." + +She looked at him with a softness in her eyes. + +"Thank you, Danvers," she said, and the glance made me think that, even +did I allow such a manifest impossibility, he could never have invested +money in any way to bring him a richer return. + +It was a task beyond me to get sensible talk from him with Nancy +waiting in the moonlight, a moonlight fragrant with honeysuckle and +climbing roses; and I bade him to be off to her; and I opened the +papers which had come by a late post. + +I heard a merry talk between them as Huey came in to say that the white +night-flowers were in bloom by the fountain, and I went off with him to +have a look at them. As I came back I turned into the path which led to +the porch, intending to tell them of these wonderful blooms, when I saw +the two of them on the steps, standing near together, and Danvers's +arms were around the girl he loved, and he was looking down into her +eyes with rapture in his fond, handsome face, and I heard him say: + +"When, when, _when_?" + +"When do you want it?" she asked. + +"When do I want it! Now, to-night," and he drew her lips to his. + +"Wife!" he said. + + * * * * * + +When I reentered the library I found it occupied by Sandy, who had +walked across country from his own place with some news concerning the +whisky tax. As we sat in dispute over it, upward of an hour later, I +heard Nancy go to her room without coming in to wish us a good night, +and a second later Danvers Carmichael stood in the doorway. It was good +for us older men to see the lad, and at the sight of him I was out +under the stars of Landgore; the sound of gipsy singing, the salt from +the sea, and the odor of blown hawthorn were in the room, and I was +young again with Marian Ingarrach folded in my arms. The brooding look +was gone from his eyes and his face bore a strange illumination. He had +added something to, rather than lost any of the cocksureness of his +manner; but the happiness of him, combined with the love and passion of +his ardent nature, made him a singularly handsome creature as he came +toward us. + +"Will you not congratulate me?" he said, looking from one to the other +of us. + +"Is she willing to marry you?" his father asked, with exaggerated +amazement. + +"If she finds none whom she fancies more, she said she would marry me +within the year----" + +"Well, well, there's some hope for you," Sandy went on. "She may meet +in with some one else." + +"You've my pity," I laughed, but I took his hand in mine with the +words. + +His joy radiated itself to us, and his talk was just as it should be +for his years. He patronized us a bit for being older and out of the +way of it all, spoke of Nancy as though she were the only woman since +Eve, and discussed a betrothal ring as though it were a thing for +empires to rise and fall by. + +"She fancies rubies; she cares for gems, you know," he said, as though +the information was new to us instead of having been anciently and +expensively bought. + +He must have the best ruby in Scotland, he went on. He wished he could +attend to the matter himself. "But," he stood with his thumbs in the +arms of his waistcoat as he spoke, with a conscious smile--"but no +fellow would be such a bally ass as to dash to London for a ring under +present conditions." There were the four thousand pounds his +grandmother had given him. They might all be spent for this. There was +a fellow named Billy Deuceace, an Oxford man, with taste in such +matters. He would write him concerning it to-night, he said. + +"Faith," said Sandy, drolly, "you talk as if married life were all a +ring. Ye'll find it different when your wife has the genius and is +taken up wi' other men." + +And Danvers faced the two of us here by a statement which has never +left me from the night he uttered it till the minute of my setting it +down. + +"I am far from believing," he said, "that genius is a thing which +rightly belongs to women. 'Tis to me but an issue on one side. And the +woman who has enough of her husband's kisses and his babies at her +breast has little time to write verses or think of other men." + +With these words still ringing in my ears I rapped at Nancy's door on +my way to bed, to find her sitting by a glaring light with the +everlasting Burns book in her hand. I was a bit dashed in spirit by her +occupation, for it seemed unnatural that a girl should be spending the +time immediately after her betrothal in such an employ, and I affected +a gaiety I was far from feeling. + +"Is it to Nancy Stair or the possible Countess of Glenmore that I +speak?" + +She stood by the table, her finger still marking her place in the book. + +"Dandy told you, then?" she asked. + +"Told us!" I echoed. "It's my opinion he'll tell the town-crier +to-night and have it in all the prints of the realm within the week." + +"He told you just what the understanding was?" + +I repeated what he had said, and she nodded at the end in acquiescence. + +"You see," she said, coming toward me and putting her head on my +shoulder, "I'm not sure of myself. My mind's ill redd up for marriage +with any one. I've had too much freedom, perhaps; and while one side of +my nature, probably the strongest one, loves Danvers Carmichael, I am +drawn to the writer of these lines, this Burns man, in a way I can not +tell; and at the very foot of the matter I am mightily taken up with +the power of John Montrose. It's no highly moral, is it?" she asked, +with an amused smile, "to feel ye could be in love with two--three men +at once? But my nature's many sided, and on one of these sides I find a +most 'treacherous inclination' toward his Grace of Borthwicke." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +I MEET A GREAT MAN + + "With knowledge so vast and with judgment so strong + No man with the half of them e'er could go wrong; + With passion so potent, and fancies so bright, + No man with the half of them e'er could go right." + + +I passed as miserable a night as my worst enemy could have wished and +was up at the dawning for a jaunt in the open. The gowans so white and +bonny were swinging their dewy heads in the morning wind; the sea-fog +was lifting skyward, and whether the message came from them I can not +say, but a mystical white word floated between me and my troubled +thoughts of Nancy--a word which means the changing of baser metal into +pure gold, the returning of the balance to nature, the fine adjustment +of spirit to mind and body--the great word Motherhood. Nancy as a +mother. My Little Flower with a floweret of her own might be the +solution of a happy marriage for her more than compensating for the +independence and adulation which she had always had. + +As I tramped along I came to a definite thought concerning the Burns +poems as well, which was that I would set fire to them, as if by +accident, that very day, and have them by and done with. And as for the +man himself, it would, I thought, be no hard matter to keep him out of +our lives; in which conclusions I left out just two things--the throw +of Fate, which none of us can reckon upon, and my own rhyme-loving +nature and fondness for being entertained. + +It was Fate's throw with which I had to reckon first. I had come in my +musings to a side-path which led from the old Abbey to the foot-bridge, +when I heard the sound of a man's singing: + + "As I cam in by Glenap, + I met wi' an ancient woman, + Who told me to cheer my heart up + For the best of my days were comin'." + +The singer was sitting upon a fallen tree, beside a smoking fire, with +the women, children, aye, and the very dogs, gathered about him as +though he carried a charm. He was a thick-set man, dark and swarthy, +with a pair of eyes literally glowing. His hat was cocked upon the back +of his head, and he had his plaid thrown around him in a certain manner +known to himself alone. He was eating and drinking with these +gipsy-folk, for he'd a bannock in one hand and a mug of hot drink in +the other, but at sight of me he set them down and came forward to +greet me; and my amazed eyes rested on Robert Burns himself, as though +raised up by some of his own witches to fit into my thoughts--Robert +Burns whom I had met at Mauchline before he was famous, the year +before. + +He inquired if I were stepping townward, and on the instant I asked him +to breakfast with me at the Star and Garter, and this, you will +remember, within five short minutes of my resolve to burn his book and +keep him out of our lives. + +It was charged against me later that I was lax in this Burns affair +and, because of my own infatuation for men of parts, took too little +thought for the temptation to which I exposed my daughter. I answer the +accusation by telling the circumstances exactly as they fell, and he +who reads may judge the truth of these charges for himself. As we came +to the door of the inn, I asked Creech and Dundas, who happened to be +passing, to join us at the breakfast, and a merry feast it was, and one +for the three of us to hold as a lifelong memory, for only those who +had the honor to know Burns could understand that the "best of him was +in his talk." In the year of which I write all the eyes of Edinburgh +were fixed upon him, and his toasts, his epigrams, his love affairs +were the scandal of the town and his own countryside. There was some +flouting of him at this very meal, I recall, by Creech, who was deep in +his affairs, concerning a Mauchline lassie who had thrown his love back +at him with some violence and scandal; but he was not in the least +dashed either by the event or the naming of it, and, seizing a glass, +he called out, with the jolliest laugh in the world: + + "Their tricks and crafts hae put me daft, + They've ta'en me in--and a' that, + But clear your decks! and here's 'The Sex,' + I like the jades for a' that,"---- + +the applause which greeted this sally bringing the servants to the +window, though, in fact, when it was known that Burns was in the house +there was no keeping them out of the room. + +I do not feel, even at this late day, that I need an excuse for the +admiration I have of Burns, the greatest poet, in my judgment, who ever +lived. I knew his faults, if faults they were, but, before God, I knew +his temptations as well, and can speak with greatest thankfulness of +one he put behind him. + +Pastor Muirkirk, of the New Light, in one of his more relaxed moments, +said to me: + +"The Lord cast seven devils out of the man in the scriptures because +his nature was big enough to hold seven devils. Most of us, laddie," he +went on, "are not big enough to hold half a devil," which explains the +thought I have of Burns to a nicety, for it was surely the very bigness +of his nature, the instant sympathy with all who lived, which brought +many of the troubles to him for which he has been greatly blamed. But +this can be said of him: that no man I ever knew, from the highest lord +in the land down, presented himself to the world in a saner or more +balanced manner. I have known him to breakfast with tramps at an +ale-house in the morning, walk arm in arm with a duke down High Street +in the afternoon, and leave him perchance to dine with some poor +country acquaintance up from Ayr for a day's buying. + +It was after Creech and his friend had left us that Burns turned toward +me. + +"There is a matter upon which I am undecided whether it is good taste +for me to speak to you, Lord Stair," he said, "but there is such +sincerity of admiration at the root of it that ye'll can just be +forgiving me if I trespass on your sense of the proprieties. 'Tis of +your daughter, Mistress Stair. I was carried off my feet by her singing +at the charity ball, and the verses she writes are as unstudied as the +song of a lark. But she will never write a poem that is so great as +herself. All her accomplishments seem to me but a set of warbles or +trills to the true song of her great womanhood. 'Where she is,'" he +quoted prettily, "'man will be more than his wont, because of her +belief.'" + +And at these words my resolutions were clean forgotten in my pride in +his praises of her. + +"She wants to know you, Mr. Burns. Your book is by her day and night," +I cried, at which he looked flattered, but said he was for Ayr that +afternoon, and the pleasure of an acquaintance with her must be put by +until some later date. + +I told him at this that a friend had invited us down to his part of the +country for the fair, where we might meet again, on which he took a +slip from his pocket, putting his Edinburgh address on one side of it, +like this: + + "It is in the house of Mrs. Carfrae, Baxter Close, Town market: + first scale-stair on the left hand going down; first door on the + stair," + +and on the other: + + "To Mistress Nancy, Mistress Stair, + At Mauchline race or Mauchline fair, + I shall be glad to meet you there. + We'll give one night's discharge to care, + If we forgither, + And have 'a-swap-of-rhyming-ware,' + With ane anither." + +And it was this "swap o' rhyming ware" which brought about the tragedy +toward which I draw. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE DUKE VISITS STAIR FOR THE FIRST TIME + + +On my return to Stair I found Nancy on the south steps with a letter in +her hand. In her white frock, with her hair bobbing in a bunch of curls +on the top of her head, she looked scarce older than the day I had +found her there "making verses" years agone. + +"You went away," she said, with reproach in her tone. + +"Guess whom I fell in with," I answered. + +She hesitated a minute. + +"Robin," said I. + +"Robin who?" she inquired. + +"Who but Robin Burns?" + +"Oh, did ye?" she cried, her face aglow on the instant; "did ye, Jock? +Why didn't ye bring him back with ye?" + +"He's for Ayr this afternoon," I answered; "but he sent a word to ye," +and I gave her the card in Burns' own hand. + +"That's funny," she said, putting it in the bosom of her gown, and she +went on after a bit of musing, "if he swap his rhyming ware for mine it +will be a losing bargain for him." + +Before I had time to answer, Dandy Carmichael came in view with a troop +of dogs at his heels, and at sight of him I recalled an arrangement +made the evening before to have a tea drinking on the lawn, and that he +was bidden to luncheon to help with the cards of invitation. + +The rest of the day was spent with pen and ink and address books, and +this jostle of circumstance put the Burns meeting out of my mind +entirely, nor did I mention it to Danvers one way or another, which +turned out to be a more unfortunate occurrence than I can tell. + +On the day set for the festivity Danvers came early, with the Arran +grooms behind him carrying flowers from the conservatories for the +decoration of the great hall, and all of the morning the house was +filled with gay young voices and merry preparations for the +entertainment of friends. Stands of scarlet droopers were set on the +porch, the hot-house flowers being placed against the tapestry and the +old armor; bowls of drink were brewed and set to cool, and two o'clock +found Dame Dickenson in sober black silk, with a canny eye for the +refreshments, and myself in black as well, and a state of what might be +described as pleasurable anxiety. + +Dandy's last words to Nancy before leaving to bring the Erskines back +with him were these: "You are to look your very best; I desire the Hon. +Mrs. Erskine struck mute with admiration," and when she came down the +stairs I could but think that she had taken his counsel to heart, +whether because she was to meet "her rival," as she laughingly called +Isabel Erskine, or by reason of the expected presence of his Grace of +Borthwicke, I was far from deciding. + +She wore a huge black hat and a black lace gown, with a kerchief tied +in front and falling near to the ground. Her gloves were black as well, +coming almost to the shoulder, her only touch of color being a cluster +of roses in the knot of lace upon her bosom. + +"How handsome you are, Jock Stair," she said, coming toward me. "How +handsome you are! I did well when I selected you for a father," she +finished with a laugh. + +The Arran party were among the first to arrive, and in spite of the +restless character of the entertainment I found time for a short talk +with Isabel Erskine, a modishly attired, fair girl, with round blue +eyes and many meaningless phrases, for which I saw no necessity. She +had one sincere emotion in her life, however; one which she took small +pains to conceal, and this was an infatuation for Danvers Carmichael. + +It was he who presented the two young women to each other, and I noted +with pride the bearing of my daughter at this meeting, for she was +genuinely glad to meet Miss Erskine, and with much gentleness and +gravity explained the reasons which had prevented her from coming over +the day before to pay her respects. Isabel, who was not at her ease, +responded that Danvers had told them how busy every one was at Stair, +and that the omission of a visit on Nancy's part was, under the +circumstances, but natural. + +That Isabel Erskine did not like Nancy I knew on the instant I saw them +together, and that Nancy was unaware of it, and would have cared +nothing about her dislike had she known of it, was a thing of which I +was equally certain. + +The pretty picture of the gaily gowned ladies with their furbelows and +parasols in shifting groups under the beeches, the sunlight falling +through the leaves in broken golden shapes upon the shining silks and +satins of the dresses, the merry chatter of the younger folk and the +more demure coquetry of the older ones, are still a pleasant picture in +my memory of that far-by day. + +Upon a demand from some of the guests to see the "lace school," and the +labor teaching as well, Danvers took it on himself to act as conductor +of these merry inquisitive parties, and the wonder and interest of the +ladies in the school was remarkable to see; and I recall now that Mrs. +Opie made her first visit to the burn that afternoon, and within a +month had planned her written work concerning it. + +It was nearly four before the Duke of Borthwicke arrived, Hugh Pitcairn +and Sir Patrick Sullivan coming with him, unannounced, through the west +entrance. + +His grace looked younger than he did at the time of our last meeting: +but his eyes were the same; misty, unholy, and bland. He wore gray +cloth of the same accented plainness, and from the time of his entrance +stood with his head uncovered in an attitude of great deference to the +women-folk; a bearing which accorded poorly with the tales afloat +concerning the manner of his private life. + +To us, who for the most part knew London but by name, the bearing of +this celebrated personage was a matter for interest and study, and if +it were in my power to set him forth as he showed himself to us that +day there would be none of fair judgment who could blame Nancy for her +conduct toward him afterward I can affirm that never from the moment +that his eyes fell on her did he remove them from her face. He was +accosted by several gentlemen in his progress toward us, but it was +with a fixed glance of absorbed admiration of her that he answered +them, curtly, as I thought, and as one who brooks no interruption. + +Crossing the space toward us he came alone, the forward poise of the +body, and more than all the power of his head and chest, fixing the +idea I already had of a splendid kind of devil who would make +ill-fortune for any who crossed him. + +"It is a great pleasure to see you again," he said, bowing low before +Nancy. + +"You have been away a long time," she answered. + +"The longest month that I have ever spent," he returned. + +"The Highlands were not merry?" she asked. + +"I had no heart for them." + +"No?" she said. "I am sorry." + +"I should rather, were it mine to choose, that you were glad to have me +find them dull," he answered. + +"Would that be quite friendly?" she inquired, with a smile of +intentional misunderstanding. + +"I am scarce asking for friendship," he returned, and there was no +mistaking the intent of either word or eye. + +"By the way," he continued, "I have ridden half over Scotland and laid +by four horses to be here this afternoon; for which," he added, with +the little outward wave of his hand which became him so well, "I am +claiming no merit; for is there a man who knows you who would have done +otherwise?" + +A look passed between them, a look which I was at a complete loss to +understand, as she answered, with a laugh: + +"I think Mr. Pitcairn might successfully have struggled with the +temptation of laming horses to see me." + +"But," the duke retorted, "as you told me yourself on that memorable +night we first met, 'Pitcairn's not rightly a man; he's just a head.'" + +"In many ways," responded Nancy, and her eyelids drooped at her own +audacity, "in many ways he reminds me of you, your grace!" + +The duke smiled back at her with a little drawing together of the +eyelids, which I had learned to know so well. + +"I have," he said, "nearly a fortnight to spend in Edinburgh, in which +I shall make it the effort of my life to show you the difference +between us." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NANCY MEETS HER RIVAL + + +It was the morning after the outdoor party that Danvers came into the +breakfast-room with a pleasant excitement showing in his face. + +"I've a present for you," he said, going over to Nancy, who had not +left the table. + +"For me?" she asked. + +"For you--though I'm far from sure that you deserve it, for if there's +a man in Edinburgh this morning whom ye haven't in love with ye, he's +blind. However," he laughed, "we'll waive that," and he took a box from +his pocket and held it above his head. + +"Will ye kiss me for it?" he cried. + +"I will not," said she decisively. + +"Then you sha'n't have it," he said with great determination, moving as +though to put it in his pocket. + +"I'll go and write some letters, then," she remarked calmly, starting +toward the door. + +Afraid of losing her society for the morning, mayhap, he put the box on +the table and pushed it toward her. + +It was a small silver case, strong and firm, with a smaller box of +white velvet inside, in which lay a ruby ring--a gem for which men +commit crimes and women sin; a gorgeous, sparkling, rosy stone, sending +rainbow spots upon the wall, and rendering Nancy radiant and speechless +as she slipped it on her finger. + +"Is it for me, Dand?" she asked, almost in a whisper. + +"For whom else would it be, Little Girl?" he answered, and the delight +he had in her pleasure was a beautiful and husband-like thing to see. + +"But why!" she asked. "Can I take it from him, Jock Stair?" she said, +turning to me suddenly. + +"A woman can surely take a gift from her future husband with no +impropriety," I answered. + +"That's true," she said; "but you see there is no betrothal between us, +and at the year's end I might have to send it back for some other woman +to wear, which would go far toward bringing me to my grave. I am afraid +I can't take it yet, Danvers." + +"Wear it," he answers. "If ye can't wear it as my betrothed wife, wear +it in sign that I love you. Lord Stair hears that I hold it as token of +nothing save my own love for you. If it gives you pleasure, Nancy, it's +all I ask." At which she did the thing least expected of her by putting +her head suddenly down on her hands and bursting into a flood of tears. + +"Oh," she cried, "these things are just putting me out of my mind. I +wish I was in Heaven, where there is no marrying or giving in +marriage!" + +There was one point gained, however, for she wore the ring; and with it +upon her finger Danvers could never be kept long from her thoughts. + +At luncheon of this same day, old Janet McGillavorich, from Mauchline, +whom Nancy ranked the chiefest of all her female friends, surprised us +by a visit. She was a far-removed cousin of Sandy's, who was constantly +back and forth between her own home and Edinburgh by reason of her +everlasting lawing. + +It seems that her father had left her some property, and by the advices +of Hugh Pitcairn she had turned this to great advantage, owning bits of +land all over Scotland, from Solway side to John o' Groats. + +She was a masculine-looking female, with hair of no particular shade +parted over a face very red in color, and with high cheekbones and +small gray eyes set at an angle like the Chinese folks. She was above +sixty years of age at this time, with a terrible honesty of conduct, +great violence of language, and carried things with a high hand +wherever she went. + +Having heard of Nancy from Hugh Pitcairn four or five years before +this, she had demanded to make her acquaintance, upon which Hugh +fetched her over to tea one afternoon, and from that time forth she +bore an unending grudge against me, that Nancy was not her own. + +"And so ye write," she had asked at this first interview; "I never read +anything ye wrote, but I'm glad to meet in with any woman who has an +aim 'beyond suckling fools and chronicling small-beer.' But ye must be +careful what ye write, my dear," she went on, "or ye'll have the whole +female population of Scotland clattering after ye. Be orthodox, and +never trifle with tales concerning the seventh command. Stick to rhymes +like 'fountain and mountain' and 'airy and fairy,' and such like +things; for ye'll find that the women who tell tales that would make ye +blush, who lead dissolute, unthinking lives, who deceive their +husbands, and smell themselves up with Lily-of-the-Valley-water when +they go to the kirk, will be the hardest upon ye if ye stray from any +accepted thought. They require the correctest thinking in print ye +know!" + +I never saw Nancy more pleased with any human being than with this +fire-eating old lady; and when Janet finished her discourse by the +statement, "God be praised! I never read poetry. Shakespeare sickened +me of that. This thing of not saying right out what you mean turns my +stomach. Padding out some lines to make them a bit longer, and chopping +off ends of words to make others shorter, ought to be beneath any +reasoning creature." Nancy put her head on the table and laughed until +I was afraid she would make herself ill. + +It was after the luncheon, while Janet was still with us, that the Hon. +Mrs. Erskine and her daughter came to pay us a visit of congratulation +on the success of our entertainment. Danvers had gone off to walk, and +so it fell upon the three of us to receive these visitors in the +music-room, where we were having tea. + +The elder lady, whom Sandy insisted had come to Edinburgh to marry me, +was an intentional female, with much hair, much rouge, and a pallor +heightened by rice-powder, which gave her a very floury and unclean +appearance. Her eyes were an indescribable color, resembling the pulp +of a grape, and near-set, a thing which I have never been able to abide +in man, woman, or child. Her nose was long and peaked, and her mouth +dropped at the corners. But it was the strange set of her whole figure +which struck my notice again and again. For she was, to use a lumbering +expression, all in front of her spine, with neither backward curve to +her head, nor her shoulders nor hips, which gave her a peculiarly +unpliable appearance. Her voice was high and of a singular penetrating +quality, and she had an over-civil manner to us, as of one who has +something to gain. Her gown, of blue, had many strange kinds of +trimming which seemed both needless and inexpressive, and what with the +rouge and the chains and hangings around her neck, she reminded me of +nothing so much as a grotesque figure for a Christmas-tree decoration. + +When it be added to all of this that she had a fearful habit of +emphasizing certain words in a senseless and flippant style, and of +waving a lace kerchief constantly, after the manner of a flag, it may +be imagined with what joy I relished her society. + +"Ah!" she said, "you are alone after the party. What a success it was! +A positive triumph, positive! Isabel and I had been told how delightful +Edinburgh society was, but we were not prepared for the gaiety we +found. It was charming! Positively charming! And how beautiful you +looked, my dear," she went on, turning to Nancy. "Of course we'd heard +of you--every one in any society at all has heard of you, you know; but +you've such style, my dear--positively the belle-air, positively! + +"I know you're pleased to hear how your daughter is adored, aren't you, +Lord Stair? It's what I say to the dear duchess (the Duchess of Mont +Flathers, you know--we're just like sisters!). 'Maria,' I say to her, +'of course I am pleased to have Isabel the rage, as she is--it's only +natural, she being my daughter, that I should feel so.' I am enchanted +at all the attention she receives, and at the way men rave over her. +It's a mother's feeling. One night, I recall, when Danvers Carmichael +had positively compromised Isabel by his attentions, for he's always +after her, the dear duchess said to me: + +"'Anne, this is going too far!' And I said: + +"'Dearest, it may be; but I have no heart to stop them. They both look +so happy.' And the duchess replied: + +"'Anne, your feelings do you credit; and I think it's so sweet and +womanly to be so honest about it.' + +"'We naturally like to have our children beloved,' I answered, stiffly. + +"That's just what I say all of the time!" she went on, as though some +one might stop her by a speech of his own. "Just what I say, Lord +Stair; both to Alexander Carmichael and his son. How beautiful, how +very beautiful the friendship between you is. And between your children +as well! Danvers is quite like a brother to your daughter, isn't he? + +"I really believe--now don't contradict me," she said, waving her +handkerchief at her daughter, "I really believe that Isabel was +inclined to be jealous yesterday. Danvers has always been so devoted to +her--always, since she was quite a little, little girl; and I am +afraid--just a tiny morsel afraid--that it was hard for her to share +him. + +"Not that you were to blame, dearest," she said, turning to Nancy, "not +the very least bit in the world. It was quite plain who claimed your +time! Quite plain! His Grace of Borthwicke is positively the most +fascinating creature I ever saw--positively. We never can get him in +London at all; so I never took my eyes from him; and all the town +bowing before him--and he absolutely on his knees before you, my dear! +Absolutely! + +"Pardon me for mentioning it--forgive me, won't you?--but what a +beautiful, exquisite ring! Look, Isabel! Quite like an engagement ring. +Now could it--I wonder--could it," peering at it and then at Nancy +through her glasses--Nancy, whose eyes had the significant darkness in +them which I have mentioned so often. + +"It is not an engagement ring," she answered quietly. + +And here Janet, who had watched the Hon. Mrs. Erskine in much the same +manner as she would have regarded a foolish old cat, came into the +talk. + +"Since you think so highly of Danvers, Mrs. Erskine, ye must say a good +word for him to Nancy Stair. He's my choice for her to marry," she +said, looking around with a bland smile. + +"And does he want to marry her?" Mrs. Erskine asked, abashed by this +directness. + +"He told me that he had asked her three times a day ever since they +met, and I, for one, hope that she'll think twenty times of him to once +she thinks of that devilish John Montrose." + +I cared nothing for the silly old Mrs. Erskine, but my heart bled for +her daughter, who became a piteous white at the turn the talk had +taken, and put her handkerchief to her face, affecting a cough. Nancy +saw this and her heart spoke. + +"Dandy Carmichael," she says, "talks to you, Mrs. MacGillavorich, to +please ye--you lay too much stress by what he says." + +But the italicizing lady was routed, and as Janet watched her departure +from the window she said: + +"Mark my words, John Stair! she's fetched that girl here to marry her +to Danvers Carmichael. I've not known Anne Erskine all these years for +nothing. The old cat!" she cried. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CONCERNING DANVERS CARMICHAEL AND HIS GRACE OF BORTHWICKE + + +It was from the time of the garden party on that Danvers Carmichael and +his Grace of Borthwicke were, to speak rudely, walking into each other +at every turn of Stair, and it is a task beyond me to tell the strain +which came into our affairs with the entrance of Montrose. + +Subtle, subtle, subtle! It was the word which followed him everywhere, +and it was as difficult to manage him as to handle quicksilver. He +flattered with a contradiction; saw nothing unmeant for him to see; +bent to the judgment of him with whom he talked; was supple in speech; +modest, even to the point of regarding himself as a somewhat humorous +failure; told long stories with something of a stagelike jauntiness, of +fights in his boyhood, in India, in the House of Lords--and by his own +telling was ever the one worsted, the one upon whom the laugh had +turned. + +For myself, I confessed openly then, as I do now, that I found him the +most diverting person I have ever met, and took such pleasure in his +company that upon me should rest much of the dirdum of having him at +Stair. + +There were two things, however, which annoyed me no little concerning +his frequent visits to my home. The first of these was the attitude +toward him of Father Michel. I was coming out of the new chapel with +his grace one morning when we encountered the good father, and I was +struck with amazement to see the duke grow suddenly white and give a +start backward, with a quick indrawing of the breath which made a +choking sound in his throat, and that Father Michel on the instant +seemed as a stone man, save for the eyes, which, if I were anything of +an interpreter, showed a live hate and an old-time grudge. During this +meeting, which was brief to abruptness, Father Michel spoke no word, +but bowed low at the first silence which fell between us, taking his +way down the braeside upon such business as he had in hand, and no +questions were asked after his departure concerning either his origin +or his labors, for the duke was ever one who knew the protective power +of silence. + +After this encounter between them I played a clumsy detective in +proving that the two avoided each other and that there had been some +interwovenness of interests in the past. Several times when I asked +Father Michel to join us at table he gave me flimsy excuses, and once +the duke pleaded indisposition when I proposed that he should accompany +Father Michel on an inspection of some stained glass which Nancy was +having put in the altar windows of the new chapel. + +In many ways, therefore, I became fixed in a belief that there was +hatred in Father Michel for John Montrose, and a distaste for the good +father in the Duke of Borthwicke, such as a man might cherish against +one whom he has greatly wronged. + +The second trouble, however, was more acute, for it involved the duke's +treatment of Dandy Carmichael. While we were of a party Montrose was +civil enough, but when the two of them were thrown together the duke +would relapse into an insulting silence, such as one carries in the +presence of servants; would require to be spoken to twice before +answering a question, as though his thoughts were far away; would even +hum to himself as though entirely alone; or put the cap to his +insolence by taking a book from his pocket and reading, sometimes even +marking the rhythm of a verse aloud. So from day to day there was +growing a hatred for the duke in Danvers by reason of his jealousy and +the accumulative discourtesy which he was obliged to endure. + +As for Nancy's conduct to the two of them, if it seemed strange to me, +who was her father, it was but natural that it should require some +explanation to those less partial to her, and she had the whole town +talking over which was the favored suitor. She rode with his grace in +the morning, played at billiards with Danvers in the afternoon, perhaps +to be off in the evening with McMurtree of Ainswere, who was maudlin in +his infatuation for her and whom she pronounced the best dancer out of +France. + +There were seasons when I could have sworn that she had no thought save +for Danvers. I have known her to watch for his coming, to grow restless +if his visits were a bit later than expected, to regard him with happy +and glowing eyes, and to rest in his presence in a way that flattered +him and drew him to her with such a passion of love showing in his fine +face that I had joy in the mere sight of him. But these times would +pass, and mayhap in a week or less she would be at the Latinity with +the duke, heated in her enthusiasm for him, encouraging him in his +tale-telling, with gleaming eyes and audacious rejoinders. At these +times Dandy fell back for company upon his cousin Isabel, and I have +met them frequently riding or driving together, she with a happy, +radiant face, and he with the brooding devil in his eye and a sullen +look in the smile with which he greeted me. + +In his frequent absences from Edinburgh the duke never allowed Nancy's +thoughts to wander from him long. A book by special post, an exquisite +volume of Fergusson, hand-printed, some foreign posies in a pot, an +invitation to come with a party of his English friends to the +Highlands, and he added: + +"I am sending the list of the guests to your Royal Highness, and if +there be some who are not to your liking, I pray you cross them off. +Following here," he went on, "the custom usual when one invites Royalty +to one's home," playing all the moves which a man knows who has wooed +and won many times, but, as it seemed to me, with a real feeling in the +game. + +At this sort of thing Dandy was a poor rival by reason of his pride, +and matters were at something like a gloomy standstill between him and +Nancy when I called Sandy into consultation. + +"Tragedy will come of it," I tried at length; "but by my hope of Heaven +I know no way to handle the affair. Deny the duke the house, and what +have ye done to a girl of spirit? Urged her into his arms, and nothing +else----" + +Sandy's talk was all on Nancy's side, however, which made the situation +a bit easier for me. + +"You see, it's thiswise with most women," said he. "Give them a husband +to dandle them, and some children for them to dandle themselves, and a +house to potter round, with some baubles to wear when they're young, +and some money in the bank when they're old, and they go along with +small agitation of mind until the grave. Not that I'm discounting their +value. They're a good conservative element to society, and God intended +them for the reproduction of the race, and perhaps they're kept stupid +in their minds so that they will not rebel against their manifest +destiny. + +"It's not like this with Mistress Stair! For she has a grasp of things, +and the fearlessness of an unbroken colt, and a mind for the big +thoughts of life, and you and I have led her forward in her conduct. + +"In the matter of Danvers she is following out the strongest law that +we know. 'Tis the natural attraction of the sexes--of the young for the +young; but her mind calls for something besides. And 'tis here the duke +appeals to her more. Aye! it's all a difficult business," he concluded, +"and fate will have to settle it after all, as I've said many a time." + +One day when the Little Flower was by me with her sewing I put the +matter to her with what deftness I could. Her answers were brief, but +directly aimed at the text. She said in effect that marriage was a +serious affair, and that she had been bred up with so much liberty that +it made the embarking on such an expedition more perilous to her than +to most women. She also set forth that in nearly every other enterprise +in life one might take a preliminary jaunt, and finding the business +little to one's liking, might give it over and start without prejudice +in some other. + +"In this one affair alone," she ended, "the one of most moment in all +of our existence, there is no retracing one's steps with honor if it be +found that one has taken the wrong road." + +For these reasons she averred it her privilege to look around her with +all the intelligence she had in order to make no mistake, both for +herself and her future husband. + +"For I'm thinking," she said, "there would be trouble afoot if I found, +after marriage, the love of which I am capable given over to a man who +was not my husband. + +"Besides which," she laughed, "I'm not certain whom I am going to +marry. There's Robert Burns, now," she cried. "How would you like to +have a plowman for a son-in-law, Jock Stair, my daddy O?" and she +started off to the Burnside, singing as she went; which was all I could +get from her on the subject, one way or another. + +It was near the end of September that there began the serious trouble +between the duke and Danvers. I was come around from Zachary Twombly's +mill, where I had been to pay the hop-pickers, riding alone through the +Dead Man's Holm, intending to enter the garden by the break in the +south wall. Doubts of the wisdom of the way this child of mine had been +reared were going over and over in my mind. I had indeed aimed to make +her the finely elemental thing which I conceived a real woman to be; +but I found with some perturbation of spirit that the plan would have +served better for the general happiness if the men with whom she had to +deal had been less accustomed to the conventional woman. They were +forever drawing conclusions from her actions which would have held with +sound logic had they been applied to any other woman, but with Nancy +they were frequently as little to the point as if they had been drawn +from the conduct of a Chinese lady. + +Thinking these things over, I came by the group of pear-trees, at which +point I heard voices on the other side of the wall, and raising myself +in the stirrups looked over into the garden. + +It was a sunny, warm corner, and a low table, with some chairs, had +been placed there, together with a basket of lace-work which Nancy had +evidently been overlooking. She was not to be seen, however, although +her flowered hat hung on the back of a chair near by. + +Sitting before the table was Danvers Carmichael, the cards spread +before him, making a solitaire, and at a little distance, holding the +bridle of his gray horse, stood the Duke of Borthwicke, who, I judge, +had interrupted by his entrance a morning talk between Danvers and +Nancy. There was a peculiar gleam in the eyes of Montrose, and a jaunty +self-possession which became him well, as he stood and looked down at +the man whose temper he had surely tried to the breaking point. + +"'Tis a lonesome game you play, Mr. Carmichael," he said, with a +significance in his tone which the printed words can not convey. + +"There are times when I prefer lonesomeness to the only company +available," Danvers returned, and he raised his eyes from the cards and +looked Montrose full in the eye as he said it. + +"Ah," the duke murmured, and there was a shadow of a smile around his +lips, "'tis fortunate to be so pliable. For myself I prefer to play a +game with a partner. In fact, the solitariness of my life has been such +that I have thought to change it. To be frank with you, I am thinking +of marriage." + +"The Three Kingdoms will be interested," Danvers returned suavely. + +Again the duke smiled. "You compliment me," he said, with a bow. "It +all depends on the lady now. There is for me no longer any power of +choice; for I think none could see her but to love her," and here he +raised his hat with something of a theater's gallantry. "It is Mistress +Stair, of course, of whom I speak." + +Dandy Carmichael was on his feet in a minute. + +"It is but fair to you, your Grace of Borthwicke, to tell you that +Mistress Nancy Stair is already bespoken." + +"Indeed?" said the duke. "And whom shall I believe? The lady herself +denies it." + +"She has promised that if she sees none within the year whom she likes +better she will be my wife." + +"Ah," returned the duke, and again there was a smile. "Am I to gather, +then, that Mr. Carmichael considers himself so attractive that he +believes it impossible the lady should find, in a whole year, one whom +she could prefer?" + +There was in the tone that which no man of spirit could have borne, +least of all Danvers Carmichael, who knew that for two months the path +of the duke had been leading up to this, and there was no hesitation in +him. He held several of the unplayed cards in his hand and he struck +the duke across the mouth with them. + +"Since you are wanting a quarrel, I'll give you cause for one," he +said, and I joyed to hear him say it. + +Borthwicke took his kerchief from his pocket and drew it across his +lips. + +"My friends will wait upon you," he said. + +"They will be welcomed," Danvers answered, and as the words were spoken +I saw Nancy come from the porch door holding a book in her hand, and I +rode hastily to the main entrance rather than to place further present +embarrassment upon them by having them fear that I had overheard the +quarrel between them. + +If the duke showed any change whatever in his manner of greeting me it +was to appear a bit more frank and careless than ordinary, his voice a +trifle smoother, and his countenance more open than I had ever noted it +before. He asked me to ride to town with him to look at some old prints +which he was for purchasing, and, as we rode off together, turned +toward me as a schoolboy might have done, inquiring: + +"Did you ever have an old song go over and over in your head, without +rhyme or reason, Lord Stair?" + +"Many's the time," I answered. + +"This morning," he continued, "I woke with one of these attacks, which +are o'er frequent with me, and a bit of a rhyme of one of my father's +serving-men has been ranting through my brain all the day," and here he +broke forth and sang: + + "I hae been a devil the most of life, + O, but the rue grows bonny wi' thyme, + But I ne'er was in hell till I met wi' my wife, + And the thyme it is withered and rue is in prime." + +"'Tis an up-country tune," I answered in words, but my thought was one +of wonderment that a man who had just planned and set on foot the +taking of another's life should be so gay and could talk so +interestedly on trivial affairs. + +Whatever other faults may be mine, indirectness of speech nor a +slothful gait when something has to be done were never accredited to +me, and I determined to let the duke know exactly what I had heard, as +well as my opinion of him in the business which he had stirred up. +Turning toward him, with no introduction to the matter whatever, I +said: + +"Your grace, I am a man old enough to be your father; something of a +philosopher and a dreamer, who has let the current of this world's +affairs swim by him unnoted for many years--another, more dependent on +present issues, might hesitate to speak to a man of such power as +yourself in the manner which I have planned to do; but I would forever +lose my own self-respect, which I state honestly is of far greater +value to me than any opinion which you or another may have of me, if at +this time I failed to be open with you. I was an unintentional observer +of the scene which just occurred between you and Mr. Carmichael--one in +which, to my thinking, you showed to monstrous poor advantage." + +If he had denied, or stormed, or affected a hurt honor at the words, +they would have but fallen in with the idea I had of him. He did none +of these; but, turning, said to me openly and as one in no wise +affronted: + +"I hate the man for the best reason on earth, Lord Stair." + +"And is it your way to try to kill all you hate?" + +"Oh, no," he answered, "it is not often necessary." + +I can not set down the ease with which he spoke, for it seemed to me +that I was listening to some theatric person behind the foot-lights +making a speech to the pit rather than to a man who was as earnest as a +man could well be. + +"The truth at the root of the whole trouble is that Mr. Carmichael and +I have the misfortune to love the same woman. + +"I have wanted for some time to have a private talk with you, Lord +Stair," he continued. "If your time is at your command, will you do me +the honor to have a bottle of wine with me at the Red Cock, where we +can talk with something more of ease?" + +Ten minutes from that we were seated by a window of the inn, the duke +on one side of a table with a bottle of his own, I on the other with a +bottle of mine, while he, with a frankness impossible to a less gifted +person, was dazzling me by his wisdom and his wickedness. + +I wish it were possible for me to put down the gesture, the grace of +language, the lightness of touch, the deliberate choice of one word +over another, with which this talk was flowered; but I can, at least, +state that it had to me a living kind of deviltry in it that raised me +out of my surroundings, as a play or great music might have done, or +the clash of some great event. + +"I was a poor boy," the duke began, "at fourteen, a poor Highland body +with estates in a begging condition, and a sickly frame--a stoop and +haggled lungs, but something, _something_ within me that would not +down, that would accept no defeat. I made this body of mine over. I +trained myself until I could endure hardship like the Indians and bear +pain like a stoic. It took four years of my life for this, and it was +upon its completion that I began to mend the fortunes of the family. I +looked out into the world with more cynical eyes than generally do the +observing boys of my age, and found self-interest to be the lever which +moves the human thing we call man. _Man!_" he cried, with a laugh. +"Lord! there aren't ten men in England to-day, or do you think I would +be where I am? There was shamelessness, even a touch of villainy in my +creed; but it was, after all, admirably adapted to the folk with whom I +had to deal. But with my fortune and my increase of power my ambition +rose higher and higher. I could handle men at my will; but I began to +ask myself questions as to the use of doing it at all. I was honest +with myself, and I saw, I think, clearly that I got my power by using +the _worst_ in men. + +"Well, my lord, I met your daughter, and it seemed to me I found she +had a better power than my own. As I have said, my ambition is +boundless. I desire always the best. I believe she is a fine +philosopher, she can win at my own game. Oh," he interrupted himself, +"I would not be setting it out to you that it's my head alone she's +touched, for I am as daft in my love for her as any schoolboy could be, +but I'm just telling you that, both from my ambition and my love, I +want her for my wife. + +"The first thing," he went on, "which I have to face beside yourself is +this Carmichael man. If I had met him in any other relation in life I +should have forgotten him within a fortnight; but he has been forced +upon my notice--there are things about him I can not understand." + +"They are his principles, perhaps," I suggested dryly. + +The duke laughed aloud. + +"That was worthy of Mistress Stair herself," he said, his eyes filled +with laughter. + +"It all comes to this in the end, John Montrose--if you know anything +of women. If ye kill Dandy Carmichael you need never expect to see +Nancy's face again. The boy is one of her first remembrances, and his +father is almost as dear to her as I am myself. What kind of place are +you making with her to kill one who, by all old ties, has become dear?" + +"I've no intention of killing him," he said. "I intend to let him have +a thrust at me with his sword, and then get him sent from the country +for it." + +I saw his plan in a minute. + +"And suppose I tell Nancy what ye've just told me?" I cried. + +He leaned across the table and touched me lightly on the shoulder. + +"That is my power," he said, "my knowledge of people. I know your code, +Lord Stair, and though I were the greatest scoundrel on earth, 'tis not +in you to betray the confidence which I have reposed in you, even to +help a friend." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +NANCY STAIR ARRANGES MATTERS + + +I rode back to Stair, having accomplished nothing whatever with the +duke, sick at heart and baffled completely by the shameless honesty of +the man. Whiles I made up my mind to ride on to Arran and tell Sandy of +the whole matter, and next to find Dand and see what common sense might +do with him, though his deil's temper argued against any satisfaction +being obtained by this move. + +As I turned into the policy I was met by one of the grooms, who rode in +some haste with a letter in the band of his hat. Instinct told me that +his errand was relative to the trouble brewing, and I immediately +jumped at a conclusion, which was that Nancy had heard of the quarrel +and had sent for one or other of her fire-eating friends to come to +her. + +With no small interest, therefore, I watched the man close the Holm +gate and set off at a breakneck speed toward Edinburgh, where the duke +lay. + +At the dinner I asked Nancy what she had been doing in my absence. + +"I read some Fergusson and some of the rhymes of that idiot King James +VI, and then I went over Mr. Pitcairn's indictment of Mungo Armstrong. +Jock, it is written with the fairness of the judge himself. It is great +work! He's a wonderful man, Pitcairn!" which occupations surely showed +no great perturbation of mind. + +After the meal she told me that she had sent for the duke "concerning +some matters," and I lay on the leather couch in the hall, the very +same bit of furniture, by the way, which we called Pitcairn's sofa, +which made a bitter time for us all later, and fell asleep. + +I was recalled to consciousness by singing in the grounds, and although +the whole town knew the song, it was the first time I had ever heard +it--"The Duke's Tune," it was called far and wide: + +[Illustration (music)] + +at the last note of which, Borthwicke himself, jaunty, bareheaded, and +smiling, stood before Nancy in the window-way. + +"How is your Royal Highness to-night?" he cried gaily. + +"My Royal Highness," she replied, with a little laugh, "is not in a +happy frame of mind. Things have gone very wrong with me to-day." + +"Indeed?" returned his grace. "Things may be changed by human endeavor. +I myself," very lightly, "have been able to change a few. It is perhaps +superfluous for me to mention that my time and abilities are at your +service always." + +"If that be true, my troubles have disappeared entirely," Nancy +returned. "They were all of your breeding. I have been thinking of your +grace the day long." + +"I am honored," he said. + +"Perhaps you should know my thoughts before you say that. They were not +complimentary in the extreme," she said, looking directly at him with +very honest eyes. + +"You might," and there was the caressing tone in his voice of which I +have already spoken, "tell me wherein I displease you. It would be the +effort of my life to change." + +He came directly toward her at this, o'er close, it seemed to me, and +stood looking down into her eyes, which were fixed upon his. + +"You mean it?" she asked. + +"By the love I bear you, the best thing my life has ever known--I mean +it to the last letter. In fact, I spoke of it this afternoon to your +father, Lord Stair. You've made a change in me. I'm not promising too +much, but I am intending a reform of myself. Let me put it to you, not +too earnestly, lest nothing come of it, but so you can get the drift of +my thoughts. + +"I have come to believe that your creed of love and helpfulness to +every one is a stronger one than mine. It is not a proven thing to me +yet, but I think one gets more in a subtler way than I can name from +living by it. My head has got me so far in the working out of it. My +heart----" + +"Your heart will help you the most," said Nancy. "And it is there I am +hoping for help from you." And here, perhaps to avoid the avowal which +she felt might be coming, she took a tangent: + +"Will your new wisdom carry you so far as to write a letter for me, one +with your signature at the bottom?" + +"It will," his grace answered, without a second's hesitation seating +himself at the writing-table. + +"It is for you to dictate it," he went on, with the paper spread before +him, pen in hand. + +"My dear Mr. Carmichael," Nancy began. + +His grace started to his feet--this was far from anything for which he +was prepared. So for a space they regarded each other steadily, and +then I saw Nancy put her soft little hand over the one of the duke's +which rested on the table; and his smile and movement of the shoulders, +as though he surrendered everything at her touch, was one of the +bravest bits of love-making I have ever seen. + +He seated himself again, and Nancy, standing at his side, went on: + +"I am writing to you to-night to ask your pardon for the entirely +unworthy course which I have pursued toward you during the past six +weeks." + +Again the duke paused, and I could see his jaw set as he regarded the +words, which were bitter enough to his palate. + +"The matters which led to the quarrel between us were of my own +breeding, and I wish to apologize to you for them. Sign it," said +Nancy. + +"I am willing," the duke answered, with an odd smile; "but, little +girl, a man doesn't insult another man and then crawl out of the +consequences of his act by letter. Have I your permission to effect +this thing in a bit more masculine way? I promise a retraction of my +conduct, and that I shall be humble enough----" + +"And there will be no duel?" + +"There will be no duel," Borthwicke answered, and, subtle creature that +he was, he saw by the look in Nancy's face how much his yielding had +gained for him with her, and seized the occasion. + +"I have done this for you, as I might do any other thing for you which +you might ask me, for there's one thing I want more than my life +itself. Oh," he cried, and he reached out his arms toward her, "can you +love me, Nancy Stair? Do you think you can love me?" + +There was a pause, during which I could hear the duke's deep breathing, +before she answered him. + +"And that's just the thing I can't tell," she said, "for I don't know +myself. You know the understanding that I have with Danvers Carmichael. +I am fond of him, perhaps fonder of him than any other; but there is no +disguising the fact from myself that at times you attract me more." + +The duke laughed aloud in spite of the strain of the moment. + +"You are an honest little soul," he cried, with genuine appreciation. + +"I try to be," she answered. + +"Well, well," he went on, temporizing, "a year is a year. We shall see. +But in the meantime, my sins are forgiven me?" + +"Entirely," she answered. + +"There is usually some token of forgiveness, is there not?" he went on, +as he stood, erect, hypnotic, and compelling, looking down at her. + +She did the thing for which he was least prepared, by putting her hand +lightly on his forehead for an instant. + +"Te absolvo," she said, after the manner of the church. + +And although one could see that he was disappointed, he smiled at her, +and the smile had something in it of pleasure, too, for he of all men +was surely the one to believe that "the fruit which could fall without +shaking was ever too mellow" for him, and enjoyed, to mix a metaphor, +the pleasures of the chase. + +Although the trouble seemed to pass by in this happy fashion, I had so +little faith in his Grace of Borthwicke that, the morning for which I +knew the duel had been set, I rose early and rode by the Old Bridge +Road to see if anything concerning it were on foot. + +Finding nothing but the silence of the morning and a few country folk +on the way to market, I rode on to the town, where to my astonishment I +came into the midst of a party just leaving the Star and Garter with +evidences of conviviality plain upon them. The first I saw were Billy +Deuceace and Sir Patrick Sullivan, and behind them Danvers, Dr. +McMurtrie, Stewart of MacBrides, and his Grace of Borthwicke, all of +them seemingly upon the best of terms with each other and themselves, +leaving me to ride back to breakfast at Stair with the first appetite I +had had for hard upon a week. + +In the afternoon of that same day I met Billy Deuceace, and after some +questioning, which showed the knowledge I had of the matter, he said: + +"It was a compact between us that the affair should die in silence, but +I think I can say to you, Lord Stair, in honor, that his grace behaved +most handsomely in the matter--most handsomely," he repeated. + +[Illustration: Handwriting: + +When the silver moon of harvest lights up All Halloween And lovers meet +together For a roamin' time; Young Jock met in wi' bonny Jean Where +naebody aboot was seen, Aff among the heather In the gloamin' time. + +FACSIMILE. Poems by Nancy Stair, Pailey Collection.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"THE SWAP O' RHYMING WARE" + + +The day following this event I was called into the Mearns to look after +some property which by reason of an entail had been thrust into my +hands. Nancy had planned to accompany me, but the post brought her news +that a German cousin of royalty, who was making a tour of the country, +was intending a visit to the lace-making place on the Burnside, and +Father Michel's word being for her presence at Stair, she gave over the +trip, and watched me set off with Hugh Pitcairn, a bit saddened, I +thought, at the pleasure of the jaunt being taken from her. + +"A fine lassie!" Hugh said, looking back at her from the coach window, +"who will do what's right, as she sees it, whether she gains or loses +by it herself. A woman whose word can be believed as another's oath; +who has a thought for the general good, apart from her own emotions; +with something of the old Roman in her sense of justice. Ah," he went +on in his egotism, "she shows training. All women should be taught the +law--something might be made of them then." + +I was employed in looking over some unread mail which I had with me +while Hugh was laying these flattering unctions to his soul, and came +at this point upon a letter from one Hastings, an American from the +village of Boston in North America, offering in a kind sure way to +marry my daughter Nancy if he could have my consent. He was a +flat-faced, bigoted Anglo-Saxon, and a creature seemingly designed to +drive a woman of any wideness of judgment into a frenzy, and I grinned +with delight as I handed the letter to Hugh for his perusal. + +He read it stolidly and returned it to me, uncommented upon, but +further down the road I could see he was turning Nancy's affairs over +in his mind, for he broke out, with some disjointedness: + +"I have always held it a wise arrangement of nature to make women of +notable mentality of a dry and unseductive nature, and pretty women +fools; for if one person held beauty and charm as well as power and +grasp, there is no telling but she could overthrow governments and work +a wide and general mischief. We've much to thank God for," he +continued, "that Nancy Stair is as she is." + +The third day of my stay at Alton I received a special post which put +me into some fret of mind. The letter was from Nancy, and is set below +entire: + + "MY VERY DEAREST: + + "I miss you and am lonesome; for the lady is not coming about the + lace-making, although she sent a command for many pounds' worth of + work, and Father Michel is much pleasured by that. + + "I have just had a letter from Janet McGillavorich. 'Seeing that ye + write,' she says, 'ye may be interested in a plowman-poet that we + have down here, whose name has made some noise in this part of the + country. His name is Burns, an Ayr man, and the gentry are a' + makin' much of him. Well, any time ye've the fancy, ye can look out + of the spence window and see heedless Rab Burns, his eyes a-shine + like twa stars, coming over the braeside, drunk as a laird, roaring + out, 'How are thy servants, blessed, O Lord,' having spent the + night Gude alane kens wheer. God kens and most of the neighbors, + too, when you come to think about it, for the lad has a Biblical + shamelessness for his misdeeds, and what he forgets to tell himself + (and that's little enough) he goes home and writes out for all the + parish to read. So if ye'd like a crack wi' him, just come right + down, now your father's left ye, and I'll have him till dinner with + you, and you can bob at each ither to your heart's content.' + + "Isn't it strange, Jock, that a thing I have wanted so long should + just happen by, as it were? And so I'm off for Mauchline to-morrow, + with Dickenson, whose silence bespeaks a shrewish disapproval, and + will write how Mr. Burns and I get on at some soon date. + + "Give my love to Mr. Pitcairn, and tell him the prints are full of + his new book. + + "Danvers Carmichael has not been here since the time you know of, + and the Duke of Borthwicke is on some sudden business to the + Highlands. + + "With my heart held in my hands toward you, + + "Your own child, + + [Signed: Nancy Stair] + +In a green tabby velvet, laced with silver, and a huge feathered hat, +Nancy set out from Stair about eight in the morning with Dame Dickenson +in the Stair coach, driven by Patsy MacColl. By a change of horse at +Balregal, she arrived at Mauchline just as the lamp-lighter was going +his rounds, and the coach was turning by the manse when a serving-man, +evidently heavy with the business, came toward the vehicle, signalling. + +"Are ye for Mrs. McGillavorich?" cries he. + +"Ay," Patsy answered. + +"Well, I'm put here to tell ye that her house fell into the cellar of +itself the morn, and she's at the 'King's Arms,' where 'tis her wish +your young lady should be fetched at once." + +Amazed at this sudden announcement, Patsy drove a short distance +farther, where, as directed by the stranger, he stopped before a small +two-story dwelling, unpretentious, but exceedingly clean and +respectable in appearance, where Mrs. Todd, the landlady, showed Nancy +into the living room. + +It was a quaint old chamber, with wooden walls, beamed ceiling and a +great stone fireplace, the lugs coming out on each side to form a seat, +with candles lighted in a row upon the mantel-shelf. There was a spinet +in one corner; a set of shelves filled with shining cups and saucers +between the low white-curtained windows; while a fire from huge logs +filled the chimney place and threw a dancing light over the polished +floor, half hidden by a thick home-spun carpet, and as was the custom +of the time, lighted candles had been set between the drawn white +curtains to guide any uncertain traveller to his destination. + +When Nancy entered, blinded by the sudden light, it was her thought +that the apartment was empty, but here the devil had taken his throw in +the game, for sitting in the far corner at a small table, with a jug +and writing materials between them, were two men, the darker of whom +would every little while scribble something off, handing that which he +had written to the other, who would roar aloud and clap him on the +shoulder, and both would drink again. + +Nancy stood irresolute before the fire, not knowing what to do, when +the darker man came forward from his place, as though to offer +assistance, but at sight of her he drew back in amazement, and as Mrs. +Todd bustled into the room at the moment, with many courtesies, to +escort her up to Mrs. McGillavorich, no word passed between the two; +but the man stood watching after her as she ascended the winding +stairs. + +"We're in a frightful state, my dear," Mrs. McGillavorich cried to her +from the landing. "A frightful state. But the house went down too late +to let ye know that for your own comfort ye'd best stay at home. We'll +make ourselves comfortable here; and I've ordered a chicken pie for +you, which is browned to a turn, and a jelly stir-about; and this +evening we'll have a merry time, for they say Burns is in the house +this instant." + +"Ah," she went on, peering from the window, "ye got here just in the +nick of time; for the wind's roaring from the west, and when a storm +comes from that direction it's like to set by us for a long time." + +After the supper, served in her own apartment, was by with, the strange +old lady went on: + +"And now we'll go down to the spence, where ye can meet Mr. Burns. And +because your father's a kent man in these parts and your own name +sounding through the country as well, I'll give out that ye're my +niece, and it's in that way ye can be known." + +So, attended by Dickenson, carrying her many wraps and comforters, with +Nancy following, Mrs. McGillavorich entered upon Burns and his +companion, whom they found drinking and writing exactly as Nancy had +left them. + +"I'd like to make you known to my niece, Miss McGillavorich," said Mrs. +Janet, advancing toward him. "From Edinburgh," she added. + +He threw a hasty unconvinced glance at Nancy, but bowed low as one used +to gentle ways. + +"I am new come from Edinburgh myself," he said, after presenting his +friend, whom he named Mr. Hamilton. "It's a braw town. Have ye lived +there long?" he asked. + +"Some years," Nancy answered; "although I was not born there." + +"There are fine country places all about it, too," he continued, "out +the Pentland way." + +"Yes," she answered; "I've seen them." + +"And do you know many people in the city? I've met in with some notable +folk on my sojourn there. The Monboddos, the Glencairns, and the +Gordons are grand people." + +"I've heard their names," Nancy returned, in a non-committal way. + +"They've been kind to me," he went on, with a bit of conceit in his +manner, "most kind. The ladies especially," he added. + +"So?" said Nancy. "That must be very comforting to you," she added, +with a twinkle in her eye. + +"It is," was the unexpected answer, given with a droll look. "And I +like to hear them sing my songs. Have ye heard Bonnie Dundee? It's not +printed yet." + +"No," she answered, "but I could catch it. I sing a little. Could ye +sooth it to me, Mr. Burns?" + +"Nay, nay," said Janet, "no music or singing yet; not till Mr. Burns +has given us something of his own. We'll have Dickenson brew us a bowl +of lemon punch, and we'll draw the curtains and gather the fire, and +Mr. Burns will line us the Cotter's Saturday Night, the sensiblest +thing writ for a long time, before ye sing us a song, my dear." + +And the old lady being set, there was nothing to do but to abide her +way of it; and thus by the fire, with the elements raising a din +outside, the five of them listened to the great man, who was not too +great, however, to turn the whole battery of his compelling personality +upon Nancy Stair, nor to look at her from the uplifted region in which +he dwelt during the recital to see what effect he had upon her, for he +had already learned "his power over ladies of quality." + +God knows if any of those, even Burns himself, who were gathered about +the fire that night dreamed that, as I believe now, those lines would +echo down the ages, nor that the time was coming when that evening +might be a thing to boast upon and hand the memory of to children and +to children's children as a precious heirloom: + + "November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh: + The shortening winter-day is at its close; + The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh, + The black'ning trains o'craws to their repose:----" + +And at the end, fed perhaps by the adulation of their faces, as well as +their spoken words, he laid some open flattery to himself upon the way +he'd been received in town and at the noise his name was making there +at the time, and stirred Nancy's sense of humor, which, Heaven is a +witness, needed little to move it at any time. + +"A'weel, a'weel," she said at length, "I make verses myself, Mr. +Burns." + +"Say you so!" he cried; "and that's a surprise to me! Would you word us +one of your poems?" he asked, laughingly. + +"I sing mine," she says, going over to the spinet. + +"And that's finer still!" he cried. + +"They're not like yours," an apology in her voice; "just off-hand +rhymes like, that come to my head on the moment. If you could sooth me +Bonnie Dundee now, I might rhyme something to it," and the minute he +began, she said: + +"Oh! I know that--'tis an old tune, like this"--and striking a chord or +two, she was off before the rest had any guess of her intention, with a +merry devil in her eye and her face glowing like a flower in the +firelight: + + "At 'The King's Arms' in Mauchline, Rab Burns said to me, + 'I'm just back from Edinbro' as you may see, + Where all the gay world has been bowin' to me, + For I am the lad who wrote _Bonnie Dundee_! + And just for a smile or a glance of my eye + The lassies are ready to lie down and die; + So don't give yourself airs, but just bow before me, + For I am the lad who wrote _Bonnie Dundee_!' + + "Now a'weel, Mr. Burns, I have somewhat to say + I've sweethearts as many as you any day; + And I've eyes of my own, as you've noticed, maybe, + If you've glanced from the author of _Bonnie Dundee_! + And Duncan of Monteith my suitor has been, + And Stewart of MacBride's, who has served to the Queen. + And if any one bows, it will sure not be me, + For I don't give a groat who wrote _Bonnie Dundee_!" + +The laugh which followed this found Burns at her side, every passion in +his inflammable nature alight. + +"Aye," he cried, "ye have the verse makin'. But the e's are easy. Why +didn't ye try the Doon. 'Tis as celebrate." + +"Sure," she answered, "there are rhymes begging for that. Tune, soon, +rune, June----" + +"And loon," Burns threw in, daffing with her. "Ye wouldn't be +forgetting that." + +"It was not my intention to be leaving the author of the piece out of +it," she threw back at him, laughing, at which Burns gave her a look. + +"You'd better mend your manners," he cried, gaily, "or some day I'll +take my pen in hand to you, and _then_, may the Lord have mercy on +your soul!" adding low, "_Mistress Nancy Stair!_" + +Some consternation followed upon this, for it was unknown by any of +them that he had seen Nancy in Edinbro', and after the talk was +readjusted a bit to the news, the five of them, with Mrs. Todd +listening on the other side of the door, sat till hard upon one +o'clock, with uplifted minds, insensible to time or weather. + +The extreme disorder caused by the wind, for the storm had risen, at +length recalled them to themselves, and Mrs. Todd, who worshiped the +great poet, came in. + +"You must lie here to-night, Mr. Burns," she said hospitably; and as +the poet lighted Nancy up the stair: + +"Good night," he cried, "good night!" and then, because there was a +devil in the man whenever he looked at a pretty woman, "I'll have no +sleep to-night. I'm in some far-up region where poems are made and +where all the women are like you!" + +For three days the horrid weather kept them housebound; three days in +which Nancy and Robert Burns lived in dangerous nearness to each other, +considering her youth, her temperament, and the passion of admiration +which she held for him; three days of poetry and folk-tales and +ballad-singing, with the man's dangerous magnetism at work between +them. + +It was on the afternoon of this third day that a girl passed the window +near which Burns sat, and beckoning to him, he slammed out into the +storm, with no prefacing word to his act whatever, leaving Nancy +staring after him in amazement, as she said to Mr. Hamilton: + +"Do you not think his manners are strange?" + +"The Edinburgh people say that he had them straight from his Maker," +Mr. Hamilton answered, evading an opinion of his own. + +"It's no saying much for the breeding of the Almighty," she answered, +off-hand, with a smile, and she held silence concerning the matter, +although it was near upon four days before Burns entered the inn door +again, his face pale and haggard, his eyes sunken, and lines of +dissipation upon his handsome face, which every one by courtesy passed +over uncommented. He brought a volume of Shenstone with him, which he +laid before Nancy as a gift. + +"I am bringing you one of the great of the earth," he said, gloomily +regarding the book, and Nancy, who read his thoughts and wanted from +the heart to cheer him, said: + +"I whiles wonder at you, Mr. Burns, and the way you go about admiring +every tinker-peddler who tosses a rhyme together. Ye've no sense of +your own value at times. Do you know," she went on, fair glorious to +see in her enthusiasm glowering down at him--"Do you know that when +this man Shenstone's grave is as flat to the earth as my hand, and his +name forgot, people will be building monuments to you and raising +schools for your memory. Why," she cried, in an ecstasy, "'tis you that +have made our old mother Scotland able to hold up her head and look the +whole world in the face when the word 'Poetry' is called." + +"Ye think so?" he asked, the tears big in his eyes, his gloom put +behind him. "It's music to hear ye praise me so," and he rose and +leaned against the mantel-shelf, his face irradiated by its usual +expression. + +"Perhaps," he began with some hope, "when I say farewell to rakery once +and for all, I may make something fine yet. Most men, Mistress Stair, +shake hands with that irresponsible wench called Pleasure, but I have +dallied too long, I fear, in her intoxicating society. Aye!" he +finished, "Wisdom's late upon the road!"[5] + + [5] It is strange to note that there is scarce a word spoken by + Burns in all of Lord Stair's manuscript which can not be found + directly or indirectly in the poet's prose or + verse--EDITOR. + +"Let's make a poem of it! It sounds like one!" she cried, moving toward +the spinet. + +"Take your own gate," says Burns, laughing; "I'll follow!" + +"I'll take the first lines," she said gayly. "'Twill throw the brunt of +the rhyming on you." + +"You're o'er thoughtful," Burns laughed back at her, and Nancy began +rhyming to an old tune the thought they had passed between them, with +Burns ready with his rhymes before her lines were entirely spoken: + + _Nancy_ + + "At break o' day, one morn o' May, + While dew lay silverin' all the lea"; + + _Burns_ + + "A lassie fair, wi' gowden hair + Came laughing up the glen to me." + + _Nancy_ + + "Her face was like the hawthorn bloom, + Her eyes twa violets in a mist," + + _Burns_ + + "Her lips were roses of the June, + The sweetest lip's that e'er were kissed." + + _Nancy_ + + "'O, what's your name and where's your hame? + My sweetest lassie, tell me true.'" + + _Burns_ + + "'My name is Pleasure,' sir, she said, + 'And I hae come to live with you.'" + + _Nancy_ + + "She took my face between her hands, + And sat her down upon my knee." + + _Burns_ + + "She put her glowing lips to mine, + And oh, but life was sweet to me." + + _Nancy_ + + "Wi' mony a song we roved along + My arm all warm about her waist." + + _Burns_ + + "The hours drunk wi' love's golden wine + Unheeded ane anither chased." + +"Ah!" Nancy cried here, "That's the Burns touch! I could never have +done that!" + + _Nancy_ + + "Her hair's gay gold, in many a fold, + Unheeded on my shoulder lay." + + _Burns_ + + "Her heart beat on my very own, + And life and love were one that day." + + _Nancy_ + + "When noon was highest up in air, + An ancient man came on the road." + + _Burns_ + + "And when he saw my loving fair, + His eyes wi' fiercest anger glowed." + + _Nancy_ + + "'And who is this,' he cried to me, + 'That you have ta'en wi' you to dwell?'" + + _Burns_ + + "'Her name is Pleasure,' sir, said I, + 'And oh, I'm sure she loves me well.'" + + _Nancy_ + + "'Rise up,' he cried, 'no more defer + To leave a wench not over nice.'" + + _Burns_ + + "'She's Pleasure till ye wed wi' her, + Her name she changes then to Vice.'" + + _Nancy_ + + "I got me up from where I lay, + And turned me toward the darkened land." + + _Burns_ + + "'Adieu,' she said, wi' no dismay, + And waved toward me her lily hand." + + * * * * * + + _Nancy_ + + "The time was set, and then we met, + Old Wisdom came, and now we part." + + _Burns_ + + "'Ye gang your gate, ye'll soon forget, + Nor think,' said she, 'twill break my heart.'" + + _Nancy_ + + "'There's something strong within ye both, + That's makes ye tire of such as me." + + _Burns_ + + "'But I'm as I was made,' she quoth, + 'And how much better, sirs, are ye?'" + +"There's a deal of philosophy in that," cried Hamilton. "I must have a +copy." + +And it was from his paper that I got the lines as I set them above. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +I GO DOWN TO MAUCHLINE + + +Of all this rhyming gaiety, it will be remembered, I had no knowledge +at the time, being still at Alton, chafing under the business in hand, +and awaiting each post, as the days went by, with a beating heart and +the expectancy of some unworded trouble. + +The twelfth day passing without news, I cut the end of my business off +altogether, and started for Stair, it being my thought that Nancy's +visiting would be ended and that I should find her there awaiting my +return. The home-coming was a dreary one, the house darkened and +unsociably redd up, and I sat alone to a dinner, served me by Huey, in +a depth of gloom and melancholy which he had never reached before, +debating whether to write to Mauchline or to go down myself the +following morning. + +While turning the matter over in my mind, Mr. Francis Hastings's name +was brought in to me, and the humor of the situation struck me with +some force, for here was a girl partially engaged to two men, off +visiting a third, with a fourth clamoring at the door to be her +husband. + +"Come in," I cried heartily to the large-faced young man when he +appeared at the doorway. "I'm glad to see ye, Mr. Hastings. Will ye +have a glass with me?" and I pushed the decanter toward him. + +"You doubtless know my errand, Lord Stair," he said, refusing the +brandy by a shake of the head. "You had my letter?" + +"Some time since, but I put off answering it, thinking--" I hesitated; +the truth being that the matter had passed clean from my mind after +reading the epistle--"thinking a talk would be better." + +"Have you any objections to me?" he asked, coming straight to the +point. + +I had a great many, but it was scarce possible to name them under the +circumstances, and I shuffled a bit. + +"To be frank," said I, "there are obstacles." + +"What are they?" he asked, and the conceit in his tone conveyed the +thought that for the honor of an alliance with him obstacles should be +overcome. + +"Well," said I, "there's Mr. Danvers Carmichael, who is perhaps the +chief one; and his Grace of Borthwicke, another; and Duncan of +Monteith, and McMurtree of Ainswere--and others whose names I could set +before you." + +"And does she love any of these?" he asked. + +"She has not taken me into her confidence," I answered; "but my honest +advice to you is to forget all about her." + +"I think," he said, testily, "with your permission, I shall ask her +myself." + +"Yes, yes! Do!" And as I thought of all that would probably come to him +for his audacity I urged it still further: "Do, by all means!" I cried. + +He had scarce gone from the house, and I was still laughing a bit over +the affair, when Huey, with a changed face and an excited voice, came +back to me from the kitchen. + +"There's a man, hard ridden, in the doorway with a letter which he will +give to none but your lordship," said he, adding the thing which told +the reason for his pale face and hurried voice: "He's from Mauchline." + +A premonition of evil came over me, and as the fellow handed me the +billet a sudden chill and shaking seized my body, so that I was forced +to put the letter upon the table to keep the writing steady enough for +me to see. It was from Janet McGillavorich, short to exasperation, and, +with no set beginning, read as follows: + + "Nancy is taken ill and lies delirious at the King's Arms in + Mauchline. We have a doctor here, but I have become alarmed, for it + is now the fourth day that she has been unconscious. I think it + better to let you know just how matters stand, and to ask that ye + come down yourself immediately upon receipt of this and bring Dr. + McMurtrie with you. + + "In haste, + + "JANET MCGILLAVORICH." + +If it be recalled that I had at this time no knowledge of the accident +to Janet's old house, could surmise no reason for Nancy's lying at a +public inn, and was in an agony of fear for her life, the wretched +state of my mind can well be understood; but I was still capable of +quick action, and within an hour Dr. McMurtrie, the end of his dinner +carried in a bag, and myself were upon the Mauchline road. + +The crawling of the coach through the darkness, the insane waits for +horses, the many necessary but time-consuming details told upon my +distraught mind to such an extent that when I descended at the door of +the inn I felt an old and broken man. The memory of another ride which +I had taken was heavy upon me, my teeth chattered, the horror showing +in my face so plainly that Dame Dickenson read my thought on the +instant, and coming forward, plucked me by the sleeve. + +"She's better," she said, and at the sound of the words I put my head +on the table and wept like a child. + +Our presence being made known to Mrs. McGillavorich, she came down +immediately, with a white face and tired, sleepless eyes. + +"She's having the first sleep in three days," she said, "and the old +doctor thinks the worst is by. But ye'd best not disturb her. Let her +bide quiet now." + +Dr. McMurtrie and I took turns by the bedside that day and night, but +she knew neither of us, lying, in her waking moments, with scarlet +cheeks and wide, delirious eyes, singing snatches of songs, weaving +meaningless words together, and crying over and over again, "It's of no +use--no use--no use," in a kind of eldritch sing-song which wrung my +heart. + +"She's had some kind of a shock," Dr. McMurtrie said, "one that she'll +be some time getting over, I fear." + +As to the cause of the trouble the whole house was as mystified as +myself. + +"I know as little of the reason of her illness as you do yourselves." +Janet said, after she had narrated the doings at the inn. "On Tuesday, +a little after noon, she came to me saying that she'd been in such an +excited state, she was off alone to collect herself by a walk, and +while she was out she passed a girl who was putting some linen on the +bleach-green; Nancy spoke to her concerning some lace with which the +garments were trimmed, and as they talked Rab Burns passed them, with +four or five of his cronies, and the girl broke into a passion at sight +of him, shaking her fist after him and calling him foul names as he +went down the lane. + +"At this, another girl, who was soon to be a mother, came weeping from +the house, and Nancy emptied her purse to them before they parted. + +"When she came in," Janet went on, "her face was white and set, her +eyes seeing nothing, and when Rab Burns sent up his name to her that +night she said to the maid, 'Tell Mr. Burns that Miss Stair will not +see him!' and sat by the window, staring into the starlight, where I +found her at five the next morning with the fever upon her and her wits +gone gyte." + +I have had much sorrow in my time, but the agony of suspense and +suspicion with which the next few days were filled pales every grief of +my life that went before this time. Was it possible, I asked God, that +my wee bit, wonderful lassie, my Little Flower, had bloomed to be +trodden under foot by a plowman of Ayr? + +McMurtrie drove me from the house at times for rest of mind as well as +exercise, and one night, at the week's end, having walked farther than +usual, I entered an ale-house in the Cowgate for something to quench my +thirst. There was a man standing by the window, and at sight of him, +for it was Robert Burns, and the time was not yet come for me to say to +him what might have to be said, I drew back, thinking myself unseen, +and closed the door. I had gone but a few steps in the darkness when I +felt a hand clapped on my shoulder, and turning, found Burns himself +beside me. + +"Come back," he cried, "come back; I want a word with ye, Lord Stair. +You've come down," he cried, "to take your daughter from the company of +those unfit for her to know. And you're right in it. But the thought +that ye showed toward me when you went out to avoid my company is +wrong; wrong, as I must face my Maker in the great last day! I've had +my way with women; but in this one case I've taken such care of her as +ye might hae done yourself! + +"She's found the truth of me, and our friendship is by with forever! I +know that well. + +"But tell her from me, will ye not, that such righting of a wrong as +can be done I am determined to do, and that the lassie she kens of is +to be my wife as soon as she chooses. Tell her," and here the tears +stood big in his eyes, "that I am sorrier than I can ever say that her +mind has been assoiled by my wicked affairs--" and here he broke forth +into a sudden heat--"God Almighty!" he cried, "if a woman like that had +loved me, Shakespeare would have had to look to his laurels. Aye! and +Fergusson, too. The Lord himself made me a poet, but she might have +made me a man!"[6] + + [6] Lord Stair mentions here that he afterward had from this same + girl (Mrs. Nellie Brown), the following description of the poet's + first meeting with the sister, Jean Armour: + + "D'ye see Sam McClellan's spout over the gate there? Weel, it was + just whaur Rab and Jean first foregathered. Her and me had gaen + there for a gang o' water, an' I had fill't my cans first an' + come ower here juist whaur you an' me's stan'in. When Jean was + fillin' her stoups, Rab Burns cam' up an' began some nonsense or + ither wi' her, an' they talked an' leuch sae lang that it juist + made me mad; to think, tae, that she should ha'e a word to say + wi' sic a lowse character as Rab Burns. When she at last cam' + ower, I gied her a guid hecklin. 'Trowth,' said I, 'Jean, ye ocht + to think black-burnin' shame o' yersel. Before bein' seen daffin' + wi' Rab Burns, woman, I would far raither been seen speakin'--to + a sodger.' That was the beginnin' o' the unfortunate + acquaintance." + + The marriage between the two was acknowledged to the world in + 1787.--EDITOR. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE QUARREL BETWEEN DANVERS AND NANCY + + +We were back at Stair for nearly a fortnight, with Nancy quite herself +again, before she took me into her confidence regarding the Burns +experience. Leaning against the wall by the stair-foot with her hands +behind her, a way she'd had ever since she was a wee bit, the talk +began, with no leading up to it on either side. + +"Jock," she said, suddenly, and a quaint look came over her face, "I've +never told you what made me ill at Mauchline." + +"I've been waiting," I answered. + +"It was a bad time for me," she continued. + +"I know that, Lady-bird," said I. + +"Part of me died," she said, and on this a thought flashed by me which, +I have often held, that in some way her language expressed more than +she knew. + +"I've been filled up with conceit of myself," she went on, "and I got +punished for it." + +"There was never a woman living with less!" I cried, so sodden in my +affection for her that I could not stand to hear her blamed, even by +herself. + +"Maybe I didn't show it," she said with a smile, "but I've always held, +'in to mysel',' that the gifted folk were God's aristocrats, and the +day I told Danvers Carmichael and you my esteem of lords and titles and +forbears I said just what I thought, though both of you laughed at me, +for I reasoned that any one whom the Almighty took such special pains +with must have the grand character as well. And so I made of all the +people who write and paint and sing a great assembly, like Arthur's +knights, who were over the earth righting wrongs and helping the weak. +Then came the Burns book; and there are no words to tell the glory of +it to me. All the great thoughts I had dreamed were written there, and +before the power of this man, who took the commonest things of life and +wrote them out in letters of gold, I felt as one might before the gods. +It was of Burns I thought in my waking hours, and 'twas of him I +dreamed by night; and I thanked God to be born in his country and his +time, so that I might see one, from the people, who had, in its highest +essence, the thing we call genius. + +"But always, always," she interrupted, smiling, "with the conceit of +myself which I mentioned before. Because God had given me a little +gift, I believed that I was in some degree a chosen creature, a bit +like the Burns man himself. + +"The first time I talked with him at the inn I felt his power, his +charm; but there was something in his ways to which I had never been +accustomed in men--a certain freedom, which I put by, however, as one +of the peculiarities of his gift. + +"Well," she said, coming over and burying her face in my breast, "it +took me but two weeks to discover that the thing we call genius has no +more to do with a person's character than the chair he sits in; that a +man can write like a god and live like the beasts in the fields. Can +speak of Christian charity like the disciples of old, and hold the next +person who offends him up to the ridicule of the whole parish! That he +can write lines surpassing--aye!" she cried, "_surpassing_ Polonius's +advice to his son, and leave them uncopied on an ale-house table to go +off with the first loose woman who comes by, and be carried home, too +drunk to walk, the next morning, roaring out hymns about eternal +salvation. + +"And after I met the Armour girl, and found the harm that Burns had +brought to her, my idol fell from its clay feet, and I was alone in a +strange country, with my gods gone, and my beliefs in shreds around me. + +"But I have made my readjustments. I am humbled. I see how little value +verse-making holds to the real task of living, and I am a better woman +for what I have been through. I have learned--almost losing my mind +over the lesson," she interjected, with her own bright smile--"the +value of the solid virtues of life; and I've come to the conclusion +that it is harder to be a gentleman than a genius. God makes one, but a +man has the handling of the other upon himself. Danvers Carmichael," +she continued, looking up at me, "is a gentleman. His word is his bond. +He considers others, respects woman and honors her; controls his +nature, and has a code of conduct which he would rather die than break. +Ah!" she said, "I have had a bitter time; but it's taught me to +appreciate that in the real things of life--the things for which we are +here, love, home, and the rearing of children--genius has about as much +part as the royal Bengal tiger. It's beautiful to look at, but +dangerous to trifle with, and,"--here she smiled at her own earnestness +for a second as she started up the stairs--"and here endeth the first +lesson, my Lord of Stair!" + +I was in no way sorry as to her conclusions about the value of +verse-making, for I had seen that her continual mental excitement was +sapping her vitality; and I closed my eyes to sleep that night with a +feeling of gratitude to my Heavenly Father that the Burns business was +by with forever. + + * * * * * + +Toward noon of the next day I discovered my mistake. Smoking by the +fire in the chimney corner of the hall, I heard a clattering of horses' +hoofs on the gravel outside, and from the window saw Danvers Carmichael +throw the reins to his groom, run up the steps of the main entrance, +and ask for Miss Stair in a voice strangely unlike his usual one. I +knew that Nancy was sitting with some lace-work in her own +writing-room, and hoped much from their meeting, and that her recent +experience, which made her set a new value on Danvers, would bring +about a more complete understanding between them. + +"Ah, Dandy!" said Nancy, her voice having a ring of pleasure in it. +"When did you return from Glasgow?" + +"Late yesterday," he answered. "I dined at the club in town and rode +home about ten. I'm thinking of leaving Arran for a time," he said, +coldly. + +"Why didn't you stop?" she asked, with some surprise. + +"I was in no mood for visiting last night." + +"You were ill, or worried?" Nancy inquired anxiously. + +"Worried, ill," he answered. "Ill, and ashamed, and miserable, in a +way, please God, most men may never know." + +"What is it, Dandy?" and I saw that at his vehemence she put her work +on the table and moved toward him. + +"Oh!" he cried out, "it's you! It's you! In the month before I went +away I had to endure God only knows what bitterness because of you! And +on my return last night I hear at the club that ye've been off in +Ayrshire visiting Robert Burns! Did ye have a pleasant time?" he asked, +glowering down at her from his great height, handsome and angrier than +I had ever seen him before. + +The tone rather than the words struck fire immediately, and Nancy's +eyes took a peculiar significance, boding little good to the one with +whom she was having dealings. + +"Very pleasant," she answered, in a voice of ice, picking up her work +and reseating herself. + +"Before I went away," Danvers continued, "there was little in the way +of humiliation which I had not endured at your hands! I've seen ye play +fast and loose with half the men in Edinbro'--aye, in the whole of +Scotland, it seems to me! I have heard your name coupled more often +than I can tell with that of the greatest scoundrel in Scotland, and +have held silence concerning it; and when things came to that pass that +none could endure it and I struck him; how was the affair settled. By +your sending for him!--for him!" he fairly screamed, "while I, your +betrothed husband almost, was left in ignorance that ye knew of the +matter at all. + +"And at the time of the meeting in the Holm, what does the damned +scoundrel do but come forth with his friends and apologize for his +conduct with seeming generosity, naming the whole business the result +of a crusty temper of his own, apologizing handsomely, and in a +devilish open way, ending by saying: + +"'One who is dear to me has shown me my faults, and I am doing her +bidding, as well as fulfilling my own sense of justice, in asking your +pardon!' And at the mention of you he took off his hat and spoke as one +who performs an obligation to another who has a right to demand it. + +"You can perhaps see the light in which I was placed! Even my own +friends went over to the duke's side, and I was forced to shake his +damned hand and join him at the Red Cock for breakfast or show a surly +front by my refusal. I was made a laughing stock for the whole party. +Put in the wrong in every way; and even Billy Deuceace, a man of +penetration, was so deceived by this, that afterward he bade me, with a +laugh, 'fight about women who were in love with me and not with other +men.'" + +During this rehearsal of his wrongs Nancy sat quietly embroidering, not +looking at the speaker nor seeming to note the voice at all. + +"I said nothing of the affair to you," he continued; "I thought to let +the thing go by, and went off to Glasgow, hoping to forget it before we +met again. And what do I come back to? To learn that half the town has +it that you've visited an inn in another county and spent your days, +aye, and I suppose they say your nights, too, with Rab Burns, whom +decent folk will not let their daughters know. At tales like this the +affair takes on another complexion. I do not want a wife for myself, +nor a mother for my children, whose name has been bandied about like +that!" + +He was so beside himself with rage and jealousy and the further present +annoyance of Nancy's inattention, that he raised his voice at the end +to a tone of harshness, such as none had ever used to Nancy Stair, and +which she was the last woman to stand patient under. She did the thing +by instinct which would enrage him most, putting a thread to her +needle, squinting up one eye as she did so, in a composed and usual +manner, and letting a silence fall before she said, in a level and +unemotional voice: + +"Sit down, Dandy, and stop shouting. There's no use getting the +town-guard out because you chance not to want me any longer for a wife. +You don't have to have me, you know!" + +He seemed somewhat dashed by this, and there was a pause, during which +he took a paper from his pocket and cast it on the table before her. + +"No," he says, "and that's very true; but for your own sake as the Lord +of Stair's daughter, I'd write no more verses like these. God!" he +cried, "to think of that white-faced American having a thing like that +from you!" + +"What's the matter with the writing?" she said, looking down at it as +though its literary merit were the thing he questioned. "Mr. Hastings," +she explained, "had an old song called the Trail of the Gipsies, and he +rather flouted me because I set such store by it, but had it lined and +sent me with some flowers. On the minute of their coming, and with the +thought of how little the Anglo-Saxon comprehends any race save his +own, I wrote these lines. I see no harm in them!" + +As Nancy read the poem[7] over she looked up with the same curious look. + + [7] A thousand thanks for the verses, + And the thoughts that they bring from you, + But it's only a gipsy-woman + Who can feel how the trail holds true. + + You of the Pilgrim fathers, + With your face so proud and pale, + And the birth born pain of a fettered brain, + What can ye know of the trail? + + By the lawless folk who bore me, + By their passion and pain, and loss, + By their swords which strove and their Lights o' Love, + I've a right to the gipsy cross. + + * * * * * + + Poems by Nancy Stair. Edinburgh Edition, 1796. + +"What's the matter with it?" she asked again. + +"The matter with it?" he repeated after her. "It's a thing no lady +should ever have thought, and no woman should ever have written." + +"Ye think so?" she said, and there was an amused tolerance in her voice +as of discussing a mature subject with a child, adding in a tone as +remote as if speaking of the Tenant Act, "Your opinions are always +interesting, Dand." + +"Interesting to you they may or may not be, but it's just come to this: +A young woman who continues the relations you do with the greatest +scoundrel on earth; who writes verses immoral in tone to one man and +visits another for weeks in an ale-house--but," and here he broke off +suddenly, "you may know no better with your rearing." + +"Miss Erskine will perhaps have been telling you what it is customary +for young ladies to do," Nancy suggested, in a dangerous, level voice. + +"I do not need telling. It's a thing about which right-thinking people +will agree without words," he answered; and it was here that Nancy +spoke in her own voice, though heated by anger, and with the words +coming faster than ordinary. + +"And that's maybe true," she said; "but there are other things to be +considered. It has always been in my mind that most marriages are very +badly made up," she said. "That in this greatest of all affairs between +a man and a woman people lose their wits and trust to a blind kind of +attraction for each other. I have thought to use my head a bit more in +the matter. The very fact that you are misunderstanding me now as you +do goes far to prove how foolish a marriage between us would have +been." + +"Heavens!" he cried, "you talk of marriage as though it were a contract +between two shop-keepers to be argle-bargled over. It's an affair of +the heart, not of the head. Ye've never loved me," he said bitterly, +"or ye'd know that." + +"That may be true," Nancy answered, mutinously. "I have tried to be +fair to you, however, and not to let you have a wife who didn't know +her own mind. I am, as you reminded me, different from other women in +many ways. I like many----" + +"I've noted that," he interrupted with scant courtesy. + +"And I'm afraid I shall continue to like them for one thing or another +till the end; and you're of a jealous turn, Danvers," she said, coldly. + +"I have been," he said. "Where you were concerned I haven't a generous +thought. I take shares in my wife with no man. I have been jealous of +the sound of your voice, the glance of your eye. What I have had to +endure because of this ye must surely have seen! When a woman loves a +man she has no thought for another----" + +"It's may be so," Nancy broke in, "but it's as entirely beyond me as +flying. If I loved you with all there is of me, and another came by +with a bit of a rhyme, or a new tale, or a plan quite of his own +thinking, the chances are many that you'd be clear out of my mind while +he stayed." + +"'Tis fortunate, as you say," he interrupted, "that we discover this +before 'tis too late. I think it's a peculiarity that will go far to +making the husband you take for yourself a very unhappy man." + +"He will perhaps understand me better than you do," Nancy answered +gently. + +"Oh," he cried at this, "can't you see that a woman surrenders herself +when she loves? She gives as gladly as a man takes, and is happy to +have him for her lord and master. Not that he wishes to rule her, for +'twould be the thought of his life that her every desire should be +filled, but she must be willing to yield." + +"Ye'd have made a grand Turk," Nancy broke in, and there was a glint of +humor in her tone as she spoke the words. + +"I think," Danvers answered, "you'll find me asking only what most men +expect to get." + +"If that be true, the chances are heavy that I shall live and die +unwed," she said with a laugh. + +"Oh, no!" he cried, in a cutting voice. "I dare say your mind's made up +as to what you intend to do! Perhaps when you're the Duchess of +Borthwicke his grace will enjoy your visiting other men and writing +lines like these," and he dashed his fist on the paper again. + +Nancy had by this time come to the far end of her patience, and she was +on her feet in a minute. + +"Listen to me," she said. "I went to Ayrshire at the written asking of +Janet McGillavorich to come to her own home. The morning I started for +Mauchline the rear of her house fell into the cellar, making it +extremely dangerous to remain in any part of the dwelling. I went to +the inn only because she was there, and she stayed with me until my +father came and took me away. I saw Robert Burns alone but once, +entirely by accident, in the broad light of day. + +"As for the rhyme," and she looked down at the paper for a moment, +regarding it as a thing of no importance whatever, "it was not I who +spoke in the lines, but a gipsy girl of my imaginings. Ye've had little +personal experience with the thing called gift----" + +He must have thought there was some flouting of him in this, for he +broke in heatedly: + +"And I thank God for it," he cried, "for it seems to be a thing which +makes people betray trusts, lose all thought for others, raise hopes +which they never intend to fulfil, unbridle their passions, forget +their sex, and ride away to the deil at their own gate." + +None could have foreseen the effect this speech had upon Nancy; the +thought it contained falling so parallel to her own talk of the night +before; but it's one matter to say a thing of one's self and an +entirely different affair to have it said concerning one, and in a +minute her anger fairly matched his own. + +"Ye've insulted me, Danvers," she said, "many times in this talk, both +in word and look; insulted me in my father's house, where you've been +welcome, boy and man, ever since ye were born; insulted me, too, in a +way I'm not like to forget." + +She stood very tall and straight, her cheeks aflame, the lace on her +bosom trembling with the quickness of her breathing, and her work +dropped on the table before her as she slipped from her finger the ruby +ring and pushed it toward him. + +"Go away or stay at Arran, as you please! Ride or tie as best suits +your mind, for in the way of love everything is gone between us for all +time. And where ye go," she went on, "ye who pride yereself so on your +birth and breeding, just recall the fact that of all the men of gift +whom I have known, and they have been many, not one has ever forgotten +himself before me as you have done to-day, nor insulted the daughter of +a friend in her own house!" + +He made no move to take the ring, and it lay twinkling on the table +between them as Nancy turned to leave the room. + +"Good-by," he said, turning white, and then (and I thought a heart of +stone might be touched by the compliment under such circumstances) +"Oh," he cried, as though the words were forced from him, "you are so +beautiful!" + +"The country's full of pretty women, any one of whom will be likely to +marry you, when you order her to!" Nancy returned with an exasperating +smile. + +"I'll try it and see. I think I will not go away from Arran. I may do +something that will surprise you," he added. + +"There's nothing ye could do that would surprise me, unless it were +something sensible, and ye're not like to do that," she retorted, and +without another word she left him standing alone, and he flung himself +out of the house, disappearing across the lawn, in the direction of +Arran, with a white face and a brooding devil in his eyes that showed +his mind obstinate and unrelenting, and in a mood to do any foolish +thing that came by. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +DANVERS GIVES US A GREAT SURPRISE + + +A fortnight passed with no news of the Arran folks whatever, when one +morning Sandy appeared at the door of the small dining-room where we +were breakfasting, his sudden appearance recalling that memorable day +when he asked me on the cruise which brought my girl to me. In the +first glance I had of him I saw trouble; twice before he had worn such +a look, once at his mother's death, and again when his wife had left +him, taking the boy to London, and he knew the separation to be final. +His face was very pale, the pallor showing strangely through his tanned +skin, and his mouth was set, and twitching at the corners as beyond his +control. + +"Are ye ill, Sandy?" I cried, going toward him hurriedly. + +"No," he answered, sitting down at the table and hiding his face in his +hands; "but I've had a blow! I've had a blow!" he repeated. "It's +Danvers," he went on, when he could speak. "He went off to Lanure +yesterday and married Isabel Erskine!" + +"Married Isabel Erskine!" I cried, like a parrot. + +"Married Isabel Erskine!" repeated Nancy, who stood staring at him as +if she doubted his saneness. + +"Married Isa----" I was beginning again, in a highly intelligent +manner, when Huey MacGrath suddenly dropped the tray of dishes he was +bringing in and carried his hands to his face, beginning to moan and +cry like a woman, for it had been the wish of his heart to have these +two children, who in some way he believed to be his own, married to +each other. + +The disturbance was a good thing for all, for it broke the unnatural +tension between us, and after MacColl had assisted Huey into the +pantry, where I could see him standing, listening at the doorway, Sandy +continued: + +"It was all that talking, grape-eyed woman! It was for that she fetched +her daughter to Arran. It's been going on right under my eye, and I too +blind and taken up with my own affairs to see it The poor laddie," he +cried. "The poor fool laddie!" + +Understanding that a discussion of the marriage in her presence was an +impossibility, Nancy left us, with a white face, on some pretense of +business at the Burnside, and Sandy and I talked it out between us. +Midnight found us going back and forth over the matter and arriving at +the same point, that the chances of happiness for a man wedded to one +woman and in love with another are just nothing at all. I could feel +that there was one question in Sandy's mind which he could scarce bring +himself to ask, and I took the suggestion of it upon myself. + +"It will bring many changes to us," I said, "and to none more than +Nancy." + +"Do you think she cares for him?" Sandy asked, putting his thought +plainly. + +"To be frank with ye, Sandy," said I, "it's a matter I've been far from +deciding. I believe that the visit to Mauchline changed her more than +any other event in her life. Before it she'd idealized gift and the +possession of it. When she came back she was changed in a way. 'It's a +great thing to be a gentleman; I think it's more in the end than being +a genius, Jock,' she said, and by this, as well as other speeches of +hers, I am convinced that her mind had turned toward Danvers, and if he +had come to her with any kindness at all, things would have been +settled between them; but he burst in storming, poor fellow, like a +crazy loon, and a fine quarrel they had of it, with this marriage as a +resulting." + +"There's one small good comes out of it all, which is that the +paste-covered woman gets out of Arran to-day," Sandy ended. "It's a +thing she had not counted upon, but Danvers wrote that they were off to +the Continent, and it's not respectable for her to stay alone with me, +and she packs for Carlisle to-morrow." + +Of the next five months there is little to tell which bears directly +upon my tale, except to make some mention of the "intellectual reform" +of the Duke of Borthwicke, a name he put himself upon his altered +conduct. News we had of him in plenty, and if rumor could be relied +upon, he was a changed man. The first note of his new behavior was +struck by his relieving the poor tenant-bodies on his Killanarchie +estates from their rentals for three years because of the losses from a +cattle blight. And before the sound of this had died away another bit +was added to the tune of his reformation by his coming out strong +against the crown for the repeal of the tax on Scotch whisky. And the +full song of his praises began to be sung in public when he, being one +of the Scotch Sixteen in the English House of Peers, declared for the +inadequacy of representation which Scotland had in the House of +Commons, and moved for an election of fifty-four, after the English +manner[8]. + + [8] Scotland had but 16 Peers and 48 Representatives in + Parliament at this time. + +His letters to Nancy and myself at this time were of a piece with him, +for he spoke with quaint sarcasm of that which he termed his "change of +heart," and of the curious pleasure he obtained from marking his life +out along another line. He wrote with detail as well of a new Paisley +industry which he had started on one of his estates, asking Nancy's +advice concerning a teacher for the lace-work, it being his purpose to +have the young women round Borthwicke Castle turned toward making a +livelihood after this manner. During all of this time his letters came +frequently, and Nancy read them with much pleasure and many comments, +but her private feelings toward the writer of them she confided to +none. + +There was a talk which set Nancy's state of mind with some clearness, +however, which fell between us directly after the offer of marriage +made to her by McMurtrie of Ainswere. + +"Dearest," she said, "I am beginning to see with my mind that every +woman flies in the face of the Almighty not to take into her life's +reckoning the instinct of her sex for love and motherhood. It seems to +me that a great love must be the best thing of all; but I'm just here, +I don't dare to marry because I'm afraid of myself; and I don't dare to +stay unmarried for fear of that great and unrelenting thing called +Nature." + +"Nancy," said I, with an earnestness that came straight from the heart, +"if ye feel like that, your hour has not yet struck. For when the great +love comes, it's not a question of what you want, but what ye can't +help; and I wouldn't think anything more about it, for ye'll know when +it comes, my dear," I cried; "ye'll know when it comes!" + +There was an odd scrap of business, trifling in itself, and yet leading +to great trouble, which fell about this time, and I set it down as of +interest to those who note the way fate uses all as instruments. + +Nancy, Sandy, and I had planned a jaunt to Ireland. There had been no +intention whatever of taking Huey with us, for he was the last person +on earth to take upon a pleasure outing, as he regarded all strangers +as rogues and villains, and the Irish people as heathen papists, +worshiping idols in the few moments unoccupied in breaking each other's +heads with shillalahs. He had for me and mine a devotion at once +touching and uncomfortable; but as he grew older he interfered in all +manner of matters beyond his province, offered advices absurd and +impertinent, and never once in the whole sixty years of our +acquaintance can I recall his agreeing entirely with a statement made +by any body except Nancy. If he couldn't contradict one flatly, and the +uncongenial part of acquiescence was forced upon him by his love of +truth, he held a grudging silence or affected an absent mind, or no +interest in the matter whatever. + +As the years went by and his health became feebler he followed me about +until he was like to drive me to Bedlam, and I used to discharge him +from my service about once a fortnight. I had never realized how highly +absurd our relations were until Nancy drew them to my attention. + +"Ye can't go to Alton on Thursday, Jock," she said. + +"Why?" I inquired. + +"'Tis your day for discharging Huey," she answered with a laugh, making +up a funny face at me. + +I would not set any one to thinking that I had a lack of affection for +my old serving-man, for I had seen his old age provided against in a +manner to prove my care; but I knew that he loved me in spite of my +conduct rather than because of it, and with no hope whatever of my +eternal salvation. + +The plans for our Irish trip were being discussed one day when Nancy +found him weeping bitterly over the silver he was counting, when he +told her that his grief came from fear lest we should get murdered or +kidnapped in that strange country without him to look after us, and +that the whole matter was taking the very life out of him. + +The little one's heart was so touched by his sorrow and his age that +she came back to Sandy and me with tears in her eyes, saying that if +Huey couldn't go she would stay at home herself. + +As he was too old and broken to travel with safety to himself, and as +Nancy remained fixed as death, the Irish trip was not taken; by which, +but for the whim of this old serving-man, we might have been from +Scotland and avoided the bitter trouble which began at the Allisons' +rout given in honor of the home-coming of Danvers and his bride. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE ALLISONS' BALL AND THAT WHICH FOLLOWED IT + + +As I have written, save for Huey MacGrath, we should have been away +from Scotland at the time of the Allisons' ball, and by this absence +should have missed the visit of the Duke of Borthwicke concerning the +Light-House Commission, which fell at the same time. + +His grace's letter to Nancy just previous to this return was filled +with a droll cataloguing of all the good deeds which he was doing, in +the manner of an exact invoice. + +"I hope you will not be forgetting any of these, not even the +smallest," he concluded this epistle, "for it is because of these I am +going to ask you a favor, a great favor--the greatest favor on earth." + +For the two or three days before this merrymaking Nancy was in a +strange mood, of which I could make nothing, her gaiety being more +pronouncedly gay, and her silences continuing longer than I had ever +noted them. She spent much of her time in her own room, trying on and +having refitted a wonderful gown which Lunardi had sent up from London +by special carrier the week before. I knew women well enough to +understand that she wished to outshine even herself in this first +meeting with Danvers since his marriage, perhaps to show him that she +wore no willows on his account, or perchance to make him a bit +regretful of what he had missed. + +On the evening of the rout the duke dined at Stair, purposing to go +with us to the ball and to be set down at his tavern on our way home. +Nancy, in a short-waisted black frock, sat with us at the meal, merry +as a child, chattering of the coming party and her "braw new claes," as +she called them, as if there were no trouble in the world, or as if she +were exempted from it, if it existed. She spent an hour or more upon +her dressing, returning to us a lovelier, fairer, more radiant Nancy +than she had ever seemed before, even to my infatuated fatherly eyes. +Nor was this thought mine alone, for I saw the start of surprise which +Montrose gave at sight of her, and heard the sudden breath he drew as +she came toward us from the hall. + +Her skin, always noticeably white and transparent, seemed this night to +have a certain luminous quality. Her cheeks were flushed, her gray eyes +shone mistily under the black lashes and blacker brows, and the scarlet +outline of her lips was marked as in a drawing. She wore a gown of +palest rose, covered with yellow cob-webby lace, which was her +grandmother's, the satin of the gown showing through the film which +covered it like "morning light through mist," as I told her, to be +poetical. The frock was low and sleeveless, the bodice of it ablaze +with gems, and there was another thing I noticed with surprise and +admiration. She wore her hair high, though loose and soft about the +brows, and in the coil of it a large comb set with many precious +stones. This jewel, originally designed to wear at the back of the +head, she had turned forward, making a coronet over her brows, +beautiful in itself, becoming in the extreme, and I noted that his +Grace of Borthwicke let his eyes rest upon it with a peculiar pleasure. + +He rose at her entrance and bowed very low, with pretended servility, +resuming his usual manner before he said, with significance: + +"The coronet becomes you, Nancy Stair." + +And she looked back at him, with a low laugh, with no +self-consciousness in it, however, as she answered: + +"There is none more competent to judge of that than yourself, your +grace." + +We arrived late at the ball, to find the rooms already crowded, and the +Arran party, with Sir Patrick Sullivan, gathered in a group by the +large window of the music-room. + +Jane Gordon held me in talk a minute as I passed her, and for this +reason his grace offered his arm to Nancy, and as the two of them +passed together a hush fell on the people at the sight of them, and I +could see by significant glances and the jogging of elbows that +Edinburgh folks would take the news of a betrothal between them with +small surprise. Gordon told me later that some one suggested this in a +veiled fashion to his Grace of Borthwicke, who might easily have turned +the matter aside or noted it not at all, but that he laughed openly, +saying: + +"If it had lain with me, my engagement to Mistress Stair would have +been announced the evening I saw her first. 'Tis the lady herself who +refuses me," an attitude which, from one of his rank, was surely +gentlemanly in the extreme. + +As soon as I was disengaged from the Gordons I made my way toward the +Carmichael family with joy in my heart to see my lad once more. He +greeted me with affection, folding my hand in his as a loving son might +do, rallying me on my good looks, patting me on the shoulder, and +showing by every sign an honest fondness for me which touched me +deeply. I could have wished that he looked better himself. He had lost +no flesh; he carried himself with a jauntiness and elasticity which +comes from strength, but the expression of his mouth was changed and +his eyes had a restless, uninterested expression which showed him +unsettled and unhappy. + +Isabel looked ill at ease. She had lost her color, had taken on much +flesh, and it seemed, as I observed her more, that it was from the +father rather than the son that she obtained what comfort she had, for +it was to Sandy she turned in all of the talk, and it was his arm upon +which she leaned. Her manner to me was constrained, but not lacking in +cordiality, and when I proposed that they should join our party she +assented willingly enough. Because of this suggestion it fell that we +met Nancy walking toward us on the duke's arm, and at the sudden sight +of her Danvers Carmichael turned white and set his jaw as one who +endures a physical hurt in silence. + +And the rest of the evening was of a piece with life, wherein none can +tell what latent qualities of our neighbor may be brought suddenly to +the fore, upsetting every plan which we have made for years. + +Whether Danvers lost every thought of behavior through his present +unhappiness, or for the first time recognized what he had missed; +whether the presence of his Grace of Borthwicke in such devoted +attendance upon Nancy roused his jealousy, none could know, but he +seemed to throw obligations to the wind, and bore himself as one who +has a mind to drink his fill of present pleasure, no matter how +extortionate the reckoning may be. + +So it fell that from the first word spoken between Nancy and Danvers it +was he who, by sheer recklessness, took the upper hand with her, the +duke being pushed back, as it were, upon Sir Patrick or myself for +company. + +"I did not think to forget any of your loveliness, Miss Stair," Danvers +said as Nancy's hand met his, "but I find I had; or mayhap you've added +to it during my absence. A thing which I had held to be impossible." + +"'Tis in France we learn such speeches," Nancy answered, lifting her +brows. + +"Wherever you are such speeches would be the natural talk," Danvers +replied, and though he used a jesting tone in the words, his passion +for her was so inflamed that the impression of the words was of great +earnestness, and we--at least I speak for myself--were given a feeling +of looking at love-making not intended for our eyes. + +The entire evening was a most uncomfortable time, filled for me with +fear of coming trouble as I noted Sandy's knit brows and his efforts to +keep Isabel from the dancing-room where Nancy and Danvers were walking +together through one quadrille after another, until the gossip of the +town was like to take hold of the matter. It was a curious thing that +in my anxiety I should turn for help against Danvers to the duke +himself. + +"Your grace," I said, trying to keep the tone a merry one, "you are +neglecting the lady you escorted here to-night, are you not?" and he +laughed in a dry way before he answered: + +"In faith I think that it is the lady who is neglecting me. I'll stop +it," he added. There was no "perhaps" or "if possible" in his tone. + +"It would be best, I think, for all concerned," I answered at a sight +of Isabel's pale face and Sandy's anxious eyes. + +Upon the instant Montrose started toward the place where Nancy stood, a +little apart from a group of gay people, so that her talk with Danvers +could be in the nature of a private one, if desired. As the duke made +his way toward her I followed a little in the rear. He was, as always, +smiling, calm, master of himself and of others, and as he came toward +her he asked, in a low tone of penetrating quality, which by intention +conveyed both affection and the rights of ownership: + +"You are not tiring yourself?" and turning to Danvers, he added, "You +must help Lord Stair and myself to take care of her, Mr. Carmichael. +She has not been well of late." + +I can set the words out, but the solicitation, such as a lover, nay, a +husband might have shown, are impossible to convey with any nicety; and +at his coming, Nancy, who had had one experience of the clash of +tempers between these two men, temporized the affair by saying: + +"My father and his grace are surely right. I have not been well of +late, and find it indeed time for me to say 'Good night.'" + + * * * * * + +Toward morning I was awakened by the noise of a loosened blind, and +slipping into a dressing-gown went through the passage to fasten the +latch. Passing Nancy's room I heard a moan, and, startled out of +myself, listened to hear another, and still another, as though a heart +were breaking. There was a light in the room, and through a small +window in the door, the curtain of which was drawn a bit aside, I saw +the little one whom I would gladly die to save from any pain, lying +face down upon the floor, her arms stretched out, the hands clutched +tightly together, and her whole body shaking as in mortal illness. + +"Nancy, Nancy, let me in! Open the door to me," I cried. + +She started to a sitting position, tried to arrange her disordered hair +and gown, and I saw her cast a look in the mirror as she came toward +the door, to see how far she could make me believe that nothing unusual +was the matter with her. + +"What is it?" I asked, my heart bursting with love and sympathy as I +drew her to my breast. + +She turned her eyes toward me, eyes which held the despair in them +which only women know. + +"Oh," she cried, clutching me to keep from falling, "didn't you see?" + +"I saw nothing," I answered. + +"I can't speak it," she says; "but another of life's lessons has come +to me to-night. Do you remember the time I told you that I had learned +something with my head? I learned it with my heart to-night, and it's +like to kill me. Oh, what have I done?" she cried, "what have I ever +done to deserve such punishment as this?" + +"Tell me, Nancy," I said. "There is nothing in God's world that can't +be helped by sympathy." + +"I can't tell you. I can't put words to it. See!" she said, standing a +bit apart from me. "Look at me! Do you know a girl more to be envied? +Handsomer? Richer? More gifted? Think, too, of the advantages that I've +had with Father Michel and Hugh Pitcairn to teach me! Think of the stir +my songs have made! And at the end what am I? + +"Ah!" she went on, "take any woman, _any_ woman, educate her in the +highest knowledges known, keep her with men, and far from her own sex, +and at the end of it, what is she? A creature who wants the man she +loves and babies of her own," and at these last words she broke into +another storm of weeping which drove me wild with dread. + +"Nancy," I cried, "think of your recent illness. For my sake try to +control yourself more. There is the poor head to be thought of always." + +"It's been this head of mine that's been my undoing, Jock," she +answered, between her sobs. "All the trouble has come from that." + +MacColl was off for Dr. McMurtrie before daybreak, and I sat holding +Nancy's hand waiting for his coming, with Pitcairn's ancient statement +going round and round clatter-mill in my brain: + +"Ye can't educate a woman as ye can a man. With six thousand years of +heredity, the physiology of the female sex, and the Lord himself +against you, I'm thinking it wise for you to have your daughter reared +like other women, to fulfil woman's great end," and pondering over the +fact that the great lawyer and Nancy herself seemed to have come to +exactly the same conclusion. + +I was alarmed by her pallor and exhaustion, but McMurtrie assured me +that a sleeping potion would set her far along the road to recovery; +and at breakfast, after Nancy had fallen into an induced sleep, unknown +to himself he gave me what I felt to be the key to the whole bitter +suffering she was enduring, suffering, I feared, which came from a love +learned too late. + +"Your friend Sandy will be a grandfather soon, I see," said the old +doctor, beaming at me over his glasses as he drank his tea. + +This was the beginning of a troubled time for all of us, and one which +a partial biographer of Danvers Carmichael would like to slur over or +leave untold entirely, for it seemed that neither reason nor +self-respect could do anything with him in his thirst for Nancy's +society. As soon as she was about again he was over at Stair, the +excuse being some presents which he had brought us from the strange +lands he had been visiting; his constant thought of her, even upon his +bridal tour, being plainly shown by these: a ring from Venice, of +wrought gold with aquamarines, some Spanish embroideries, quaint +carvings; and finally he put the cap upon his extravagance by producing +from an inner pocket a girdle of Egyptian workmanship, too valuable by +far for her to accept from him. + +"Surely, Dandy," I broke in at this, "ye must see that Nancy, no matter +what the old-time affection between us may be, can not take such gifts +from you?" + +"Why not?" he answered, looking straight at me. + +"It might be misinterpreted," I began, lamely. + +"By whom?" he inquired. + +"Not by us," I replied, "but by others." + +"And what others are to know?" he demanded. "I am not going to make the +matter of a gift public business." + +There was something in me which made it impossible to mention his wife +to him, but Nancy said, with gentleness and great wisdom, as it seemed +to me: + +"They are beautiful, and I would love to have them from you, Danvers; +and some time, when Isabel and I become great friends, I'll ask them of +you, maybe; but I can not take them now." + +The next morning brought him back, with some strange translations and +stranger foreign prints, where he knew my weakness; and I sat with the +two of them, laughing and criticising the pictures or the writings +until the luncheon time came, when it was impossible to turn a friend +out of one's house, and I urged him myself to stay with us, by which it +was near three when he set back to Arran Towers. + +On the following morning he came again, with a flimsy excuse concerning +a mare he was thinking of purchasing; and so, by this and by that, he +managed to spend most of his time at Stair, and in Nancy's society, +seemingly unconscious of a wife he left at Arran for Sandy to console. + +I grew so anxious that I lost sleep, my appetite went from me; I would +waken in the morning with a load on my breast as of guilt, and the +thought before me of having a situation to handle which by a mistake of +mine might be turned to a tragedy. + +Walking from the burn with Father Michel one day we saw Danvers +Carmichael striding through the Holm gate toward Stair House, and the +glance that passed between us told me without words that the holy +father's thought was mine, which was that two people near Edinbro' Town +were playing very close to the fire. + +"I've had some thought to speak to him of his conduct," Father Michel +said, "but it would have more effect coming from you, my lord." + +As I entered the house, with a purpose half formed, I found Danvers in +the hall talking to Dickenson, by whom Nancy had sent word that one of +her headaches was upon her, and that she was, by reason of it, unable +to see any one. + +The concern in Danvers's manner, the unconscious exhibition of +tenderness in his voice, stiffened my half-formed resolution, and I did +just what the impulse bade me. + +"Step into the library here, Danvers," said I. "I want a word with ye." + +He gave me a questioning look, following me with no words and stood +waiting for me to speak after I had cautiously closed the door. + +"It's just come to this, Dandie," I said, "you must stop coming to this +house as ye do! Until ye had a wife there was never one who entered the +door more welcome, but as long as I have Nancy Stair to think about, +ye'll just have to end these visits entirely. With the matter of an old +love between you, an affair known to the whole town as well, your +conduct is fair impossible, and, what is more, misunderstood!" + +And here again a difficult thing in him to handle appeared; never in +his life had he known fear and a lie was a stranger to his lips, for +his birth, gear, and rearing had given him a secured position in which +he did as he chose, with excuses to none, and a be-damned-to-you +attitude to all who found fault with him, and it was with the candor +and shamelessness resulting from these that my dealings lay. + +"Misunderstood--how?" he repeated after me like an echo. + +"Well," said I, "the gossips will be having it that ye're in love with +my daughter still." + +"Lord Stair," says he, "whether the gossips speak it or not is of +little moment to me, but it's the truth before God! There was never +another woman in the world like her, and from the moment I set eyes +upon her I've loved her and wanted her for my wife. I love her more now +since I have known what I missed; what I missed!" he repeated, his face +working in a kind of agony and his eyes swimming with tears. "Oh," he +continued, "what a wreck I have made of my life!" + +"There's no need, by the same token," I cried, "to make a wreck of +another's as well. Ye've a wife at home, a wife who loves you and whom +you swore to love and honor. I have my daughter's reputation to think +of, and the end of the whole matter is you'll just have to make your +visits less frequent." + +He had never come to me for sympathy before when he had not found it, +and the sorrow in his face melted me more than was wise. + +"Say once a fortnight, or such like," I said weakly. "Considering the +relations between your father and me, visits so spaced might pass +unnoticed. But I tell you honestly, Danvers Carmichael, when a man +loves a woman whom he can't have, there is nothing for it but a good +run and a far one. You'd better stay away altogether, laddie. It's the +wisest course." + +He left me with no further word, and I hoped that he had come to my way +of thinking, when Satan himself took a hand in the affairs between +Nancy and himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A STRANGE MEETING + + +Upon the day following that on which I denied Danvers the house, a +letter came to us from a hamlet on the west coast, near Allan-lough, +saying that Janet McGillavorich was sick unto death and desired that +Nancy should come to her immediately. + +It was a tedious journey, and while I sorrowed for the cause of it, I +was glad to have her away from Stair for a while, and hastened her +departure with Dickenson on the afternoon coach of the same day upon +which the letter arrived. Even with this speed it was far into the +second day before she came to the house in which Janet was lying; a +house which seemed to have straggled back from the sea and stood +lonesomely by itself in a small fenced garden having a gate-and-chain +opening to the graveled path. It was a double-storied dwelling of pink +brick, with small-paned windows and ivy creeping over it everywhere, +even upon the wooden cap of the doorway, which hung over the two broad +stone steps of the entrance. + +There was no time to knock before the door was opened to Nancy by the +old woman who had been for many years Janet's maid, companion, and +housekeeper, whose eyes were red with weeping and whose whole bearing +denoted the greatest anxiety. + +"She's took worse," she said. "It's thought she will not last the +night." + +"Will she know me?" Nancy asked. + +"Oh, aye! She's her wits about her still. She knew Mr. Danvers," the +old wife replied. + +"Mr. Danvers," Nancy repeated after her. "Is Mr. Danvers here?" And at +the words Danvers himself came forward to greet her. + +"Are you cold?" he inquired, in the whispering tone used when sickness +is near. "This has been a dreadful trip for you to take. You must have +some hot tea at once." And, as the old woman bustled away to prepare +it: + +"Were you sent for, Danvers?" asked Nancy. + +He nodded acquiescence, answering: + +"The two of us are named in the will," the tears coming to his eyes as +he spoke of Janet's kindness. + +Tea had scarce been brewed when the old doctor came from above to say +that Mrs. McGillavorich had heard of Nancy's arrival and wanted to see +her immediately, adding, with some philosophy: + +"It excites her so not to get her own way, that it couldn't excite her +more to have it; so just go up, my dear, go right up!" + +In this way, at the time of their lives when each was least prepared +for trial and bitterly unhappy, it fell that Danvers and Nancy were +thrown together in an intimacy impossible under other circumstances; +relieving each other in the watching, sitting together by the bedside +through the long hours of the night, or walking back and forth in each +other's company to the little village on needful errands for the small +household. In the tiny dining-room Nancy served at one side of the +table while Danvers carved at the other, the suggestiveness of such an +arrangement sending disordered longings to the hearts of both. + +One dreadful night when Janet, who was barely conscious, clung to +Nancy's hand, although the girl's head ached miserably and she had had +no sleep for forty-eight hours, she showed by a sign to Danvers her +intention to remain by the bedside in the great arm-chair. Her +weariness and suffering made his heart yearn over her, and he leaned +forward from the place he sat to put his hand upon her aching brow. His +soothing touch, or perhaps a cause more subtle still, comforted her, +and she fell asleep, to find the gray light of morn and Danvers, +motionless beside her, having sat all those weary hours with his arm in +a position which it must have tortured him to maintain. On the instant +of her awakening she said, in a whisper: + +"Your poor arm, Danvers! Your poor arm!" + +And the strain of his mind showed in the answer: + +"I would lose an arm altogether for what I have had to-night." + +At the end of the fifth day Janet was so far recovered that she was +able to sit up for a while against the pillows, and from this on her +convalescence was a rapid one, although the tenth day had gone by when +she told Danvers, with her customary frankness, to be off about his +business. The evening before his departure, Nancy and he sat in Janet's +room, fearful of being alone together for even a minute, and past +eleven they parted for the night, in the old lady's presence, speaking +their farewells in gay voices, with many assurances of meeting again in +Edinburgh at some near time. + +"I went to my room, Jock," Nancy said, when she told me this tale, +"locked and bolted the door, and built a great fire in the chimney, for +I was shivering from head to foot. And I thought of you! Only of you! +Your love for me! The touch of your kind hands! Your dear gray +head!--and before every other thing in life was the thought to do +nothing to shame you, nor to cause a pain to that true heart of yours. +And then I got down on my knees at the bedside like a little child and +prayed to God. + +"'O God,' I cried, 'take this pain from my heart, for I can no longer +endure it. It's killing me. It's killing me, here, all alone! away from +Jock Stair! And if You will do this thing I will never ask another of +You in all my days!' Trying to make a compact with my Maker," she +finished, "like a foolish child----" + +She heard the clock strike four, and knowing the hour near when he must +leave, crept to the window to see if enough light had come for her to +have a sight of him as he went down the path. While she stood peering +out into the darkness, she heard a rap at the bedroom door. + +"Who is it?" she cried. + +"It's I--Danvers Carmichael!" came a voice, low but very distinct; at +sound of which she unbarred the door and slipped into the hallway. + +He had made himself ready for his departure; his great coat, with the +cape drawn up, already on, his cap upon his head, and a lighted lantern +beside him, casting an eerie gleam along the black passage. He was +white to the lips, his eyes sunken and reckless, and at sight of him +Nancy cried in alarm: + +"What is it, Danvers? What is it?" + +"Oh, my girl!" said he. "It's just this! I can't go away and leave you +here! I can never go and leave you any more! The thought of it chokes +me! I love you, love you, love you!" he went on, "with all there is of +me. Last year I offered you love and honor. This year it's love and +dishonor, maybe, but love still, love that is greater than shame or +death. Will ye come away with me? There are other lands than ours and +other laws. Bigbie's lugger is lying at the foot of the hill with sail +up for Glasgow, and from there the world lies open for us. + +"Oh, best beloved," he went on, "think of it! Does it mean anything to +you?--to be alone together, forever more? Do you know what it is to +waken with outstretched arms, longing for another, to----" + +"I have suffered, Danvers," Nancy interrupted him. "I made mistakes, +bitter mistakes, my head being so engaged with other matters that I +lost the chart of woman's nature. And when I saw----" she paused at +this, for it was something she could not bring herself to speak out; +but words were unneeded between them, for his eyes sought hers +hungrily, and they stood at gaze with each other for a space before +Danvers cried: + +"And to think it's not you--to think it's not you!" he repeated, with a +moan like an animal in pain. "God!" he went on in his raving, "I can +not and will not stand it longer! Why is a love like this given to a +man? Do we choose? Have I had any choice in the matter? Whoever it was +who designed the peculiar hell of my own nature can take the +consequences of it. Speak to me, Nancy!" he cried; "speak to me! Do not +stand there looking at me like a statue! For God's sake, speak--for it +seems as though I should kill you and myself, and so make an end." + +His grief had so worked upon him by this time that Nancy was beside +herself with fear for him, although she spoke quietly and in as natural +a voice as she could summon. + +"I'll go with you, Dandie," she said; "I'll go with you. Wait for me," +reentering her room; "just wait for me!" + +It took her but a moment to get some stout walking-boots, a dark skirt, +and the scarlet Connemara cloak which she had worn on many of their +walks together, and pulling the hood of it over her head, she stepped +softly back into the hallway. + +"I am ready," she said, slipping her hand into his; "I am ready. Let us +go." + +There was no further word spoken between them. In silence they walked, +hand in hand, along the frozen passage and down the twisting stairs, +closing the house door noiselessly behind them. Outside it was very +dark, save in the far east, where there was a rim of white showing in +the sky like a line on a slate. The cold was biting, and a wind which +had not reached the ground blew through the tree-tops with a rushing +sound and sent a scurry of leaves before them on their path. Danvers +had prepared himself by a lantern, and there seemed something +significant of the business in hand in his determination to leave it +behind; it was in the blackness of midnight, with a silent country +stretching away from them in every direction and the stillness of the +dead, that the two walked the narrow path and turned into the lane +which led by a cut over the rise toward the Dumfries road. At the +coming out of the close-way a chill wind struck them, and Nancy, taken +suddenly from the warmth of bed, drew back and shivered, at which +Danvers put his arm around her, throwing part of his cape over her. +Still in silence, they walked until they came to the brow of the hill, +at which place the path divides, one part of it winding across the +bridge to the stage road, and the other dropping down by a clump of +sailors' homes, west, to the sea. Enough light had come by this time to +see the boats lying at anchor in the cove and to distinguish Bigbie's +lugger from the rest, as she bobbed up and down, her sails spread and +ready to be off. At the sight of this boat Danvers turned suddenly, as +if recalled to his senses, and faced Nancy, as they stood at the +parting of the ways. + +"God forgive me!" he cried. "Oh, God forgive me, but I can't do it! I +can't take ye. Not though you begged me on your knees; not though I +knew you'd die without me. Oh, can you ever forgive the words I've said +to you this morning? Will ye think rather that I'd choose to see ye +dead than gone with me in the way I've asked? That I'd rather die +myself than take ye; and that I love you, love you enough to give you +up! And it's I," he went on in a bitter self-scorn, "who have prated of +honor, and the conduct of gentlemen, who have made a beast of myself +before the best woman who ever lived! Who through selfishness have +tried to make her life a blacker ruin than I've made my own! Can you +forget it, Nancy? Can you ever forgive me for it?" + +"Dandie," she said softly, "ye needn't worry about that. I knew you +wouldn't take me! I knew 'twas just that you were carried beyond +yourself by your sorrows that made you talk as you did at the bedroom +door. Look!" she said, opening the throat of the Connemara cloak and +showing him the neck of her thin white dressing blouse, "one doesn't +start to the Americas in clothes like that. I knew what you were and +understood; knew that, given your way, you would choose the best, as +you have done!" she cried, with the tears in her eyes. "Ye've stood +before temptation! You've done the thing that's right when it was hard +to do! and I'm proud to have seen you as I have this morning." + +They were both crying by this time as they stood with hands clasped, on +one side the calls of the sailors coming up the slope, on the other the +echoes of a horn rolling along the frozen ground from the coach which +came to carry Danvers away. + +"I may kiss you before I go?" he asked, with a longing in his tone +pitiable to hear. + +"If ye think it's right," she answered. "If ye think that when ye look +back to this time in the years to come you will be happier to remember +that ye kissed me, than to think you kept the vows you swore before +God, ye may kiss me if ye choose!" + +The choice was made in silence, and he dropped her hands, picked up the +valise which had fallen by his feet, and turned to go. At sight of this +resolution Nancy burst into tears. + +"Oh," she cried, "God bless you! God bless you, dear! And give you +peace!" as, without touching even her hand, Danvers Carmichael fared +forth alone, along the stage road which lay lonesome and frozen in the +shadow of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A FALSE RUMOR CAUSES TROUBLE + + +While these events were going forward at Allan-lough I sat in an +ignorant complacency at Stair, pleased with the advices of Janet's +convalescence, and with no knowledge whatever of Danvers Carmichael's +whereabouts save that he was from Arran Towers. My lack of knowledge +concerning his movements occurred by reason of a new trouble which +broke out at this time between his father and Hugh Pitcairn concerning +a watercourse which crossed the adjoining lands of both, somewhere back +in the country. The water was of no use to Sandy, and equally valueless +to Hugh; but the fact that one of them wanted it heightened its value +to the other, and talk went back and forth, with Sandy deaving my ears +concerning his rights on Monday, and Hugh going over the same ground, +looking the other way, on Tuesday, until I was driven from Stair and +avoided both, spending my time at the clubs, the coffee-houses, or with +Creech and his queer old books. + +Coming down the steps of his shop on the morning of the twelfth of +February--I recall the date because it was the beginning of all the +troublous times at Stair--I encountered James Gordon, looking both +worried and perplexed. + +"John," said he, "you are the very man to help me from an embarrassing +position. My wife and daughter have been taken with a fever; our +town-house is small, and I have invited Borthwicke to stay with us +during the meeting of the Lighthouse Commission----" + +"Let me have him at Stair," I cried. "Nancy is from home, I am leading +a bachelor life, and you will be showing a kindness to send me such +good company as John Montrose." + +In this entirely unplanned manner the duke became my visitor, and I +found him a merry companion, easy, accessible, agreeable; praising my +wines, naming my house the most attractive place in Scotland, and my +daughter the most wonderful woman in the world; and I wandered abroad +no more, but stayed at home, like a cream-fed cat by the fireside, his +grace making the time gay with his tales, his wit, and his worldly +wisdom. He urged me to accompany the commission to the northern coasts, +and one day, when I was debating whether to join in this expedition or +to go down to the West and visit Nancy, the girl settled the question +for me herself by appearing at Stair, and at the first sight of her my +heart sank within me. She had become much thinner, there was the pallor +of sickness in her face, and a weakness both in voice and body as she +clung to me, telling me her joy at seeing me again and that she would +never leave me more. The news of Borthwicke's presence in the house she +received with some surprise, which showed neither pleasure nor regret, +going immediately to her rooms, however, making her long journey an +excuse for dining alone. + +It was after luncheon on the following day that old Dr. McMurtrie came +into the library and addressed me, with some heat and scant apology. + +"John," said he, looking at me over his glasses, "I am going to make +myself disagreeable. I am going to be that damned nuisance, a candid +friend; but somebody's got to speak to you, for you're just letting +that girl of yours kill herself." + +I stared at him in speechless wonderment. + +"She's killing herself," he went on, relentlessly. "And when it's too +late you'll see the truth of it. No girl's body is equal to the +excitement she's had for years, ever since she was a baby, in fact, +with her charities and her Burn-folking and her verse-writing. It's all +damned nonsense," he summed up, succinctly, "and it's for you to stop +it. + +"Instead of helping her get out a second edition of poems," he went on, +"ye'd show more sense if you put your mind to considering the problem +of how much work a woman can do in justice to the race. Every female +creature is in all probability the repository of unborn generations, +and should be trained to think of that solemn fact as a man is taught +to think of his country." + +"Some women," I answered, testily, "are forced to work daily at +laborious tasks to support families----" + +"And others," he interrupted, "squeeze their feet and give each other +poison; but they are not my patients, and Nancy Stair is. And I think +you'll find that the women who work, as ye say, do most of it with +their bodies, not with their heads or their nerves, and it's in work of +this kind the trouble of female labor lies. Nancy should save her +vitality. She should store it up for wifehood and motherhood. She'll be +a spent woman before she has a husband, and your grandchildren puny +youngsters as a resulting. Think it over, John," he concluded; "think +it over." + +He was scarce out of the house when Nancy appeared from the garden, +coming over to the place I sat to put her hand on my shoulder. + +"I'm thinking of marrying John Montrose, Jock," she said, with no +introduction whatever. + +"Ye have my own gentle way of breaking news to people, Little Flower," +I said; and then: "Do you love him, Nancy? Or, what is more to the +point, are you in love with him?" + +"Neither," she responded; "but I have grown to believe in him, in spite +of his past, and love may come," and here she clasped her hands +together and her eyes widened with pain as she said: "I have had a +great temptation, Daddy. A great temptation, and I want to put away any +chance of it ever coming to me again. I could be true to another always +when I might not----" + +"Nancy," I interrupted, drawing her down on my knee, "there is no +greater mistake a woman can make than to think that marrying one man +will help her to forget another; for there is just one thing worse than +not having the man you want, and that is having the man you don't want. +And if you're not in love with Montrose, you'll never get my consent to +the wedding, not if he were the Prince himself." + +On the morning following these talks the duke, who was still with us, +sent excuses to the breakfast-room that he had passed an uneasy night +and would rest until noon; and his valet, who brought this message, +ended by saying: + +"His grace is not well. His grace should have a doctor, for he had the +bleeding from the lungs again last night, although it would be worth my +place if he knew I mentioned it to your lordship." + +In our foggy country a little throat trouble is no great matter, but I +ordered my horse for town, meaning to get McMurtrie out, as if by +accident, to see what attentions the duke might require; and riding in +some haste by the Bridge end, found a group of men, with papers in +their hands, discussing some bit of news with much interest. As I drew +near them, Dundas waved the journal at me and called out: + +"Our congratulations, John." + +I reined in my horse, asking the very natural question, upon what I was +to be congratulated, when Blake handed me a copy of The Lounger, +indicating a certain paragraph for me to read. The notice began: + +"We understand that the long-expected betrothal between his Grace of +Borthwicke and Mistress Nancy Stair, only daughter of Lord Stair, is +announced," the penny-a-liner going on with much wordiness to state the +time and place fixed for the coming marriage, and even the shops in +London from which the trousseau was to come. + +"Gentlemen," I cried, "upon my honor there is not a word of truth in +all of this," and, securing a copy of the miserable sheet, turned back +to Stair to discover from Nancy whether to deny the announcement by +direct statement or let the rumor die in silence. + +I entered the house by the side door which leads to the music-room, +outside of which I paused, astonished at the sound of angry and excited +voices within the apartment. As I listened, wondering if some new +trouble was upon us, I recognized Danvers Carmichael's tone, and almost +upon the instant of this recognition, heard him cry out: + +"I will save you the promising, for I swear he shall never live to +marry you!" + +His Grace of Borthwicke being within possible earshot of this +altercation, I decided to leave Danvers to Nancy's management, and +hurried up the winding stairs to hold the duke's attention until +Danvers had left the house. + +Looking down into the main hall as I ascended the stair I saw Hugh +Pitcairn rise from a couch upon which he had been lying and cross to +the far window with some suddenness of manner, and knew by instinct +that he had realized the talk was not intended for his ears, and had +hastily changed his position, like the man of honor that he was. + +Finding that the duke had not left his apartment in my absence I +crossed to my own room, where I was not alone above five minutes before +Nancy joined me. + +"Mr. Pitcairn is below, waiting for the duke to affix some signatures," +she said; and then: + +"Danvers Carmichael has been here, too. He saw an announcement in The +Lounger that I was betrothed to his Grace of Borthwicke, and came by to +tell me--as you did yourself," she ended, with a smile, "that the +wedding would have to take place without his approval." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE MURDER + + +Up to this point there are many events which I have drawn with blurred +edges by reason of the distance of time; but from this to the end of my +story I have the pettiest details of it in mind, many of them with a +horrid distinctness. + +On the evening of the twenty-third the Armstrongs held a dance in honor +of the marriage of their daughter Jean with one of John Graham's lads, +and a number of young folks were bid to dinner before this festivity +should begin, Nancy being one of the number. His Grace of Borthwicke +and I were asked for the dancing, a courtesy which he declined by +reason of his indisposition, as well as from the fact that he was to +start for the Highlands in the morning. Almost immediately after our +dinner he excused himself to me, saying that an important letter must +be got off on the early post. And his breeding was shown in the fact +that he allowed no doubt to remain with me that this was any invented +excuse to avoid my society, for he stated to whom the epistle was +destined, and the need for its immediate sending, a point of conduct +which seemed to me gentlemanly in the extreme. + +"It's a letter to Pitt," he said. + +"Ye are great friends now, are ye not?" I asked. + +"He is the nearest friend I have in all the world," he answered. "We +are both rhymesters," he added with a smile. "But this letter is a +business one, for I have advices from France for which he is waiting, +and they must be sent in cipher because of the trouble brewing in that +country. If I do not get the letter off to-night he may not receive it +for a fortnight, as he accompanies his Majesty to the country on +Friday." + +"Why not send it by special carrier?" I asked. + +"It's not important enough for that," he answered lightly, as he +crossed to Nancy's writing-room, which had been given to his use as an +office during her absence at Allan-lough. + +Left with the evening on my hands, I set out for Creech's with no +weightier purpose than to divert myself and have some merry talk over a +bowl of punch; but, as I entered, Blake, who was throwing dice with +Dundas at the other end of the room, called to me to ask if I had heard +whether Mr. Pitcairn was better. + +"Is he ill?" I asked in surprise, as it was but the morning before he +was at Stair. + +"He was carried from the court this afternoon," he answered, and at the +words I took up my coat and started for Pitcairn's house to see if +there was some help that I could offer. I found him wrapped in flannels +in front of a great fire in his own chamber, in as vile a frame of mind +as I have ever seen any human being, bearing his indisposition as +unphilosophically as I might have done myself, and I spent a highly +uncomfortable, dry, and sober evening with him, escaping from his +society somewhere at the back of the midnight with a feeling of relief +and the intention of getting something to drink. Going down, +unattended, I pulled the house-door hard after me to close it for the +night, when Pitcairn called me from the window above to ask that I stop +by the chemist's and hurry along a draught for which he was waiting. + +A light and tricksey snow had begun to fall while I was in the house; +snow which blew in gusts, now from one side, now from another; snow +which came crosswise, to be caught by the high wind and carried up to +the tops of the houses; and over all and around all the fog of the sea +and beaten bells sounding far away, as of ships in trouble or as +warnings from the shore. + +I pulled my hat over my eyes, turned the collar of my great-coat around +my ears, and took to the middle of the road, looking round warily from +side to side to make sure that I was followed by none, for the town had +been greatly excited during this winter by statements in the public +prints of mysterious disappearances. Folks had been suddenly missed +from their own doorways, of whom no subsequent traces could be found; +visitors entering the city were lost sight of; Irish haymakers on their +road to the agricultural districts of the lowlands had disappeared from +their companions as if by magic, and suspicions of a dreadful nature +were abroad.[9] + + [9] Benson's Noted Trials. + +It was a uncanny night, black as chaos; and with my mind excited by +these horrid tales, I hurried along to the chemist's, whose man was +outside putting up the shutters. I stated my errand to the doctor, who +said he would carry the medicine himself, as Mr. Pitcairn's house lay +on the road to another patient with whom he had promised to pass the +night. This occurrence seems of small moment, and I but set it down to +show how slight a thing may turn many lives, for it was this very dose +of rhubarb and jalap which brought about much of the trouble toward +which we were drawing. + +Starting again toward Stair I came directly upon some of the +town-guard, who, with flaming torches held aloft, were carrying a +couple of drunken wretches to the gaol. Turning to look after them I +became aware that a man had stepped from the shadow and was walking +beside me, going in the same direction, but at a much quicker gait than +my own. By the uncertain flare of the torches I saw that he was tall, +carried himself with distinction, and, what seemed markedly strange on +such a night, wore no covering whatever upon his head. I felt that he +noted me not at all, and as the gloom swallowed him up, saw him throw +out his hand with a significant gesture, as of one who has neither hope +nor courage. + +It was this motion which made my heart give a sudden leap and set it +throbbing light and quick in my throat, for the belief came to me that +the stranger was none other than Danvers Carmichael, though any +reasonable explanation for his being abroad alone at such an hour and +going toward Stair was far from clear to me. My first thought was to +call out to him, but a bit of caution held me back, and upon thinking +it over I made sure that my eyes and the fog had combined to deceive +me, and I put the thing out of my mind altogether and hurried on toward +home. Nearing the house I kept close to the high stone wall for +protection against the wind, thinking to enter the grounds from the +lower carriage-way, but the gates were closed, and I was forced to the +main gate, the irons of which were swung far back. + +As I turned into the path my eye was caught by a wide cone of light +which came from the window of the room in which I had left his Grace of +Borthwicke. Looking more attentively, I saw to my amazement that the +window nearest the writing-table was wide open, and I thought to go +directly to this place, for there was a low porch outside from which an +entrance to the house could be effected. I had started across the lawn +when I heard a pistol shot, followed by a pause, and then another, +quick upon the heels of the first, which had seemed to come from the +house. But the second, whether because of my confusion of mind or the +blowing of the wind, appeared to have been somewhere behind me, and +with a thought for my own safety I stepped under some frozen vines +which hung above the gateway. As I did so, a small figure, coming from +I know not what direction, passed through the cone of light. It ran low +to the ground and light, and with incredible swiftness disappeared +somewhere in the rose-garden by the south wall. Then a silence fell, +and for a few seconds I stood waiting to hear a disturbance in the +house, but finding naught happening I ran up the path in a +preternatural hurry of spirits, and set the knocker of the main door +clanging so that it might disturb the dead. + +Even with all this racketing it was full five minutes before Huey +MacGrath stuck his head, with a white nightcap upon it, from the attic +window, holding a lighted candle high in his hand as he peered into the +dark. + +"I'll have ye arrestit!" he called down. + +"Whist, Huey!" I cried. "It's I, the laird himself. There're burglars +in the house!" + +"Ye've no been drinkin'?" he shouted back, questioningly. + +"Didn't ye hear the shots?" I asked. + +"I heard nothing," he answered in an unconvinced manner. + +"Do you want to be murdered in your bed?" I called up to him, "rather +than come down to see what's going about?" + +"There's just naething the matter at all," he returned. "Ye've been +drinkin'. Is Rab Burns with ye?" he asked, resting his elbows +imperturbably on the window-ledge. + +His conduct, in my excited state, enraged me to the extent of using +language which acquainted him with my wishes if not with my sobriety, +and I noted him withdraw his head hastily, and the light grow bright +and dim, and bright again, in his turning of the stairs, before the +bars were let down and the door opened to me. + +"There's just naething the matter at all," was his greeting. "Aye, ye +will have been drinkin'!" + +Although he carried such a brave front I saw that he had taken the +precaution to bring an old blunderbuss with him, and two of the +serving-men, who appeared from a rear stairway in a sleep-befuddled +condition. + +As we stood in the silence of the great dark hall a fear came over me +that I had up-turned the house to no purpose, but underneath it lay the +premonition of a great trouble, a feeling so strong that I was unable +to put it by. The doors on both sides of the hall were closed, and +there was no light save one small gleam which trickled from the keyhole +of Nancy's writing-room. Advancing to the door I rapped boldly upon it, +and waited for the duke to bid me enter; no voice answered, nor was any +sound to be heard save the tick, tick, tick of a great clock that stood +near. Again I beat upon the door, and called Montrose loudly by name, +and with baited breath listened to the tick-ticking of the clock, and +nothing else. + +"He's fell asleep," Huey suggested, and upon this, thinking the door +locked, I threw my weight against it, precipitating myself into the +room with unnecessary violence, to find the duke sitting at the desk, +his head thrown back upon the cushions, and one hand on the arm of the +great chair in an attitude of peaceful slumber. But there came to me a +dread of the sleep which could keep a man of his temperament +unconscious while the house was being pulled about his ears. As I drew +nearer to him the wind from the opened casement blew the curtains far +into the room and rustled the papers on the table, the light of which +was pushed back and the papers redd up, as if the business of the +evening were by with. + +I stepped softly to the sitting man and touched him on the shoulder, +and, as I did so, fell back with a loud cry, while a voice with which I +seemed to have nothing to do cried out: + +"He's been murdered! He's shot! He's dead!" + +I can not recall what other words this personless voice cried out, but +I know that I stood staring at this man who but a few hours before had +been so hated, feared, aye, and admired; staring at his dreadful +pallor, his inhuman repose, and his inscrutable smile, as he sat before +me with the blood trickling down the side of his face from a +bullet-hole just over the temple. + +In the first sight I had of him I knew that he was dead; the feeling of +death was around him; there was death in the air, in the awful serenity +of the pale face, in the hands which lay motionless and relaxed, as if +surrendering all; in the faint smile, as though Death himself had come +before the great man's vision and had been regarded calmly before his +work was done; and while the four of us were standing, drunk with fear +at this awful sight, there came to us the sound of carriage-wheels and +gay voices, and before the power of action was with any of us, Nancy +stood in the doorway, her eyes filled with laughter, her scarlet lips +curved backward in a smile as she came forward to the place where I +stood. + +"Are ye giving a ball while the mistress of the house is from home?" +she inquired, gayly; and, as the queerness of our actions struck her: +"What is it?" she cried; and again, "What is it?" + +To save her, some power of thought came back to my disordered mind. + +"Come away, Nancy! Come away with me!" I cried; but before I could +reach her she had moved forward toward the dead, her head lowered, her +eyes widened with terror, and at sight of the blood clapped her hands +over her eyes to shut out the horrid sight, and went white, and but for +me would have fallen. + +The telling of this takes longer than the acting of it, for it was less +than a minute before she called, with some authority in her tone: + +"Send them away, Jock. Send them all away! Leave me alone with him." + +I motioned the men from the room. It was the common belief that his +grace was Nancy's accepted lover, and there seemed nothing strange in +her request to be alone with him. As I came back she held me by the +sleeve. + +"Have you found anything----" she began. "Do you know of anybody?" + +"Nothing has been found," I answered, and a look passed between us +which told me that my dread was her own. + +"Jock, darling," she went on, "stay here! but don't _see_ anything you +may have to tell of afterward," and a vision of the hatless man in the +snow came back to me at her words. + +"Fetch me some water," she went on, "and let none come in but you." + +I stood holding the door ajar while the water for which she asked was +being brought; but though my back was toward her I knew she made a +hasty move between the open window and the desk, and as I drew near +again she pointed out a pistol lying directly under the duke's left +hand, at sight of which I fell back with a cry of dismay, for it was +one of a brace which I had given Danvers Carmichael on his birthday two +years before. + +How this could have escaped my sight at the first look I had of the +dead was a thing I could not understand, for it lay well in the light, +and by its reflections would naturally be an object to hold the eye, +and even in my confusion of mind I felt certain that it had been placed +there since my first entrance to the room. + +Turning to Nancy for some explanation, I found her conduct of a piece +with the rest of her life, for every power of her mind was focused on +present action, and there was something unnatural, beyond belief, and +not like a feminine creature, in the manner with which she stood +regarding each object in the room, and at sight of this self-control +McMurtrie's talk came back to me. + +"I will not have you here," I cried, putting my arm around her to lead +her away. "It's horrible--horrible to think of such a trial for you," +to which she paid no heed whatever, drawing herself from me in silence, +to cross to the open window and peer out into the night. + +"Thank God!" she cried, "it's snowing in clouds. It will be a foot deep +by morning! But we must make an effort to search the grounds. We must +seem to leave nothing undone," and the thought being conceived, it was +executed on the instant. + +"Why do you stand doing nothing?" she cried, throwing the door back and +confronting the huddled servants. "Get your lanterns out, and the +coach-lamps as well; the murderer may not be far gone. Search the +carriage-way toward the town," she called twice, and even in the +confusion I knew she was sending them as far from the road to Arran as +she could. + +Father Michel, Jamie Henderlin, and some other of the burn people had +arrived by this time, but it was Nancy who thought for all of us, +refusing to go to her rooms, and insisting upon taking a part in the +search with us. Aside from the strain upon her, I was grateful in my +soul for this determination, for laws and courts and country +notwithstanding, my mind was fixed to do everything possible to prevent +suspicion falling on the son of Alexander Carmichael, who, I began to +fear, would be accused of a hand in the affair. + +During the rest of the night, through all the talk and the searching of +the grounds, there were two lines of thought in my mind, the one +planning, explaining, and excusing Danvers, the other seeming to assist +in present conduct and to suggest immediate courses of action. + +It was Nancy herself who was first upon the little balcony of the +window by which the dead man was still sitting. Father Michel, Huey +MacGrath, and I followed, and going down the steps I struck my foot +against some light object, kicking it far ahead of me, and on the +instant Nancy sprang forward, leaned over and picked up something in +the snow. + +"What is it?" I cried. + +She held out to me the piece of lace she had worn as a head covering to +the dance--held it far out, so that all could see what it was, but made +no response in words--and after the fruitless search was finished +consented to go to her room. As I stood by her door, undecided whether +or not to tell her of the hatless man I had met in the snow, she +suddenly threw her arms wide apart and dropped unconscious at my feet. +I lifted her up, wild with this new anxiety, and as I did so the lace +unrolled, and from it fell a cap, with snow upon it, a man's cap with a +strangely embroidered band which Nancy had worked for Danvers +Carmichael the summer before. At sight of it I could have cried out as +a woman does, for I knew it to be the object I had struck with my foot +under the window, and the last hope for Danvers Carmichael seemed to +vanish from my mind at sight of it. + +Her consciousness was not long in returning, and before it came back I +had wrapped the cap in the lace again, trusting her woman's wit to do +the wise thing concerning it. + +"Leave me alone, Jock," she said suddenly, as to my amazement she went +to the wash-hand-stand, filled the basin with cold water, and dipped +the whole top of her curly head into it. + +"There must be no trifling with headaches to-night!" she explained. +"I've others to think of than myself. Pray for me, dearest!" she cried, +putting her hands on my breast and looking up pleadingly in my eyes. +"Pray for your little girl, as she sits here all alone. Pray that I may +have presence of mind!" and God knows the awe I felt as I saw the +courage and spirit in that slim girlish body. + +"Nancy," said I, for I felt that without words, we were banded together +for the protection of a life dear to both of us, "with your knowledge +of the law----" but before I could finish she interrupted me: + +"Yesterday in my presence Danvers Carmichael threatened the duke's life +not once but many times, with Pitcairn lying just outside the door. The +law!" she cried. "It's not the law I'm afraid of--it's Hugh Pitcairn!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE TRIAL + + +The great duke lay in state in St. Giles, and the Highlands emptied +themselves into Edinburgh demanding justice. The lady-mother of the +dead was there, broken-hearted, and Percival Montrose, to whom the +title fell; and I had a fine taste of the fealty of Gaelic-folk, for +kinsfolk and clansfolk took the duke's undoing as a personal affront, +and put their own matters by to get some one hanged for it. + +The streets, especially those around the courts, were thronged with the +late duke's following; unkempt, hot-eyed, bare-legged gillies were +grouped at every corner, glowering under their tartan bonnets; I found +a huddle of them squatted behind some alders on the Burnside, and came +upon another set by the carriage-way, who glared at me as I passed them +as if I had had some part in the undoing of their clansman. + +During this time Nancy lay ill, for which, strange as it seems, I +praised God, for the sickness saved her from the horrors of the +coroner's inquest, McMurtrie coming to my aid in the matter by +declaring it worth her life to be dragged into the affair. There was +nothing more definite elicited from this tribunal, constituted largely +of men under heavy obligations either to Sandy or myself, than "Death +at the hands of a person or persons unknown," but the relief which came +with the verdict was of short duration. + +How rumor is bred none can tell, but on the day following the coroner's +findings there was a waif-word wandering about that Danvers Carmichael +knew more than he had told of the duke's taking off; and whether bred +by servants' gossip or the talk of the fool chemist-doctor who had +taken the medicine to Pitcairn on the night of the murder and +encountered Danvers hatless in the snow, I can not say; but by the +evening there rose a strong demand for his arrest, and two officers +appeared at Arran and took the lad into custody. + +Nancy, who had not left her room from that dreadful night, but who had +recovered herself enough to sit up a little at a time, received the +news in silence, asking if it were possible for me to get the exact +testimony given before the coroner for her to see; and going through +it, sitting in the bed, with flushed face and feverish eyes. + +"It's not so bad," she said, as she put it aside; "not so bad. Will ye +ride out and ask Mr. Pitcairn to come to me?" she asked. + +"Pitcairn? Ye'll not be wanting Pitcairn," I answered. "It's Magendie +we are having up from London for the defense." + +"I--want--to--see--Mr.--Pitcairn," she said slowly. + +"I don't understand at all," I answered. "When you refuse to see Sandy, +who, in his own great distress, has never forgot you for a moment, I +don't see why you should be sending for Pitcairn." + +"I want to see neither Sandy nor any of the Arran people," she +answered. + +"And you've no word of comfort for Danvers?" I asked. + +"None," she returned. "I have not one word of comfort or anything else +to send to Danvers Carmichael, and I'd like to have it generally +known." + +Although I saw him not, I knew that Pitcairn came to Stair that +afternoon; but, before God, by no message carried by me; and the +following morning I visited him in his offices, finding him at a desk +in the inner room looking frozenly out under his dome-like forehead in +a way to suggest that his natural greeting would be: "What are you +prepared to swear to?" + +"Hugh," said I, "ye've doubtless heard of the trouble young Mr. +Carmichael is in----" here I waited. + +He nodded, as one might who had but a certain number of words given him +at birth and was fearful that the supply might run out. + +"It has occurred to me," I went on, "that your old friendship for me +and my old friendship for Sandy being common knowledge, ye might show a +fine courtesy by standing aside in the case and letting Mr. Inge take +it altogether. Such a thing can be done, I know, for when the +Lord-President himself had Ferrars to try, who was a known man to him, +he asked to be relieved from presiding." + +"I attended to the duke's affairs when he was living. I shall attend to +them now that he is dead," he replied stolidly. "There is an ethical +side to the matter as well, for I believe him to have been killed by +the young----" he caught himself at this, with a correction. "I have my +beliefs in the case," he amended. "But ye can rest by this, if a man is +innocent of a crime in this country he can prove it. It is a +prosecution, not a persecution, that will be conducted by the +government." + +And here a lighter vein seemed to take him, for he added: + +"And so, Jock Stair, you would come to me to use an old friendship to +buy the laddie off! Ye're a nice citizen; a fine, public-spirited +body!" + +"Hugh Pitcairn," I answered, "if you were in trouble, and it needed the +last shilling I had in the world to help ye, you'd find me beside ye, +with it held out in my hand; and it seems a little thing I am asking of +you, and not for myself either----" + +"Your daughter's a better man than you," he broke in on me. "It was a +fine thing she did--a fine, public-spirited thing!" + +"Ye've trained her well in the lawing," I said, leading him on a bit, +for Nancy had held the silence of the dead concerning the murder since +the day of his visit, and I had no knowledge of what he meant. + +"Mark you," he said, and there was almost a glow upon his face, "the +first day that she was able to sit up after her illness Nancy Stair +sent for me. 'Mr. Pitcairn,' said she, 'a most unwelcome task has come +to me, and I am needing your advice.' And on this she went over the +talk, part of which I had overheard, between herself and the young +Carmichael, with neither heat nor fallacy of emphasis, as accurately as +I might have done myself," he ended, as though higher praise were +inconceivable. + +"There's a girl for ye!" he cried. "I've set but little store by her +verse-making; or her charity work, which is sentiment; but by the +lawing the very female quality of her mind has been changed, for she is +able to put a duty to her country before her own feelings. Ye might +take a lesson from your daughter in that, Jock Stair!" he finished. + +I rode back to Stair on a gallop and went straight to Nancy's room. + +"What is this ye've done?" I cried. "What is this thing that ye've done +against the man who has loved ye ever since his eyes lighted upon you, +and whom your own indecision has helped to the place he now stands?" + +There was a look of reproach in her eyes as she sat looking up at me, +but her words were quiet enough. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +"I've been having a talk with Pitcairn----" I began. + +"For Heaven's sake!" she cried, springing to her feet. "It was the +thing I wanted least. What did you tell him? Oh, what did ye tell him?" +she asked excitedly. + +"I told him nothing," I answered. + +"You think you didn't, dearest," she answered; "but it's not in your +nature to keep a secret. 'Tis because you're a fine gentleman, with +never a thought in your life that needs hiding; but it's bad in law! +Stay away from Hugh Pitcairn, dearest. Stay away from him!" + +"Nancy," said I, and my flattered vanity softened my tone, "I don't +understand your conduct at all; for, as far as I can see, you seem to +have done all ye could to get Danvers Carmichael hanged----" + +"Seemed, Jock," she said, "only seemed! Ye might trust me a bit +more----" + +"And you're called for the prosecution----" + +"Naturally," she returned, unmoved. + +And here I just stared at her for a minute, and turned with a bit of +temper showing in my conduct and left the room. + +The same evening I was further blindfolded by a visit from Mr. +Magendie, the London lawyer, who by Nancy's thought (although I did not +recognize her suggestion in the matter at the time, so deftly was it +made) had been brought up to Edinburgh for Danvers's defense. I found +this renowned gentleman of a slight, wiry build, below the medium +height, with a distinguished head, covered with thick silver hair, hawk +eyes, and a nose which turned downward like a beak. There was a Sabbath +calm in his manner; his voice was gentle and suave, and his most +pertinent statements came as mere suggestions. He had, I noticed, the +very rare quality of fixing his whole attention on the one to whom he +listened, and of putting his own personality somewhere aside as he held +up the speaker to the strong light of a mind trained for inspection. I +found after the interview that I had told him almost everything that I +had said, done, or imagined since my birth, and at remembrance of it, +recalled Nancy's inquiries concerning my talk with Hugh, and prayed +Heaven I had not been equally indiscreet before that block of steel. + +It was as the London man was leaving the house that the blindfolding of +me was begun anew by Huey MacGrath entering with a note, saying that +Nancy would like to have Mr. Magendie come to her sitting-room on the +second floor. I paced up and down the lower hall, perplexed in mind and +sick with dread of the horror hanging over us, yet with something in my +heart which told me that, in spite of Hugh's statements, Nancy Stair +was with us--with Sandy, and Danvers, and myself. + +Near one o'clock of the morning I heard Nancy's voice, at the turn of +the stair, saying good night to the London man. + +"People think he's ice," she cried, and I knew it was Pitcairn of whom +she spoke; "but try a bit of flattery with him. Not on his looks, for +he cares less for them than for the wind that blows, but on his +abilities. Tell him that all knowledge of the Scots law will end at his +death, and that you're flattered to be on the same case with him; tell +him that Moses but anticipated him in the Ten Commandments, and that, +before the time of Leviticus, he was. He will rest calm under it. He +will show naught; but in his soul he will agree with you, and think +that a man who has such penetration concerning himself must have a +judgment worth consideration about others." + +I heard Magendie laugh aloud, and when I joined him saw that his eyes +had brightened during the interview, as though he had been drinking, +and that he carried himself with some excitement. + +"It will be a great case, my lord! a great case!" he said, with +enthusiasm. "And it's a fine daughter ye have! A great woman! God!" he +cried, seizing my hand, "if she'd go on the case with me, I'd undertake +the defense of Judas!--and I'd get a verdict, too!" he added, with a +laugh, as he went out into the night. + +On the morning set for the trial, to add to our distressed state of +mind, a tempest arose. There was rain driven into the town from the +hills, and rain driven into the town from the sea, and banks of leaden +clouds were blown back and forth over the trees, which were bent double +by the Bedlamite wind. The grounds of Stair lay like a pond, the road +ran like a river, and the broken bits of trees hurled everywhere made +going abroad a dangerous business. As I entered the breakfast-room Huey +threw a look at my attire. + +"You'll not be thinking of going out?" he demanded, rather than asked. + +"I'm thinking of nothing else," said I. + +"Ye'll get killt," he cried, and at the words my eyes lighted with some +amazement upon his own odd costume, for he was prepared to serve my +breakfast in corduroys and thigh-boots. + +"Why are you dressed like that?" I inquired. + +"You wouldn't be wanting me to stay at home when there's trouble to Mr. +Danvers, would you?" he demanded fiercely. "I, who have known him since +he was a week old, and have had favors from him thousands of times! And +now," he went on as though I had done him some personal injury, "when +there's sorrow by him, ye'd have me keeping the chimney-lug, wi' a +glass and a story-book, mayhap, and him needing friends as he sits wi' +that deevil Pitcairn glowerin' at him. Nay! Nay!" he continued, "Huey +MacGrath's not like that! I'll be there!" he cried, his conceit and +loyalty carrying a singular comfort to me. "I'll be there, early and +late, and they'll see they have me to contend wi'!" + +"Ye can't stay in the court. You'll be sequestered until after you've +testified. Ye know the law for that, Huey." + +"They'll sequester me none"; he returned, grimly; "and if Dunsappie the +macer tries it I'll have him read out of the church, for I know of him +that which makes me able to do it!" + +"There's Mr. Pitcairn, who knows ye well," said I. + +"I'm not counting to see him," he returned with a squinting of his eye. +"I'll stay where he is nae looking; but I'll get a glyff of the laddie +himsel', and he'll know I'm there, and will feel better for it, though +I'm only an old serving man!" + +"I'm sure he will, Huey," I said, touched to the heart; "I'm sure he +will; and I'll tell him of your coming if he misses a sight of you," I +added, as I saw the poor fellow's face working with sorrow and anxiety; +but his spirit and loyalty undaunted by all the courts of judiciary +that ever sat. + +We were preparing to be off together when Nancy came down to us, pale +and heavy-eyed. + +"Jock," said she, "if Mr. Magendie had the word he hoped for from +Father Michel, it would be wise for him to have as many Romanists in +the jury as he can get. They have reason to know the priest's +goodness." And then: "Jock, darling!" she cried, throwing her arms +around my neck and weeping as though her heart would break, "there's a +trial coming between us; and ye'll see me misjudged by the world, and +by Sandy as well, who has been like an own father to me! And by +him!--him, too! You'll all be ashamed of me; but when I'm called, +mayhap to-morrow or the next day," and the little hands fastened +themselves around my bare throat, "don't distrust me. Beloved, don't +distrust me! Don't believe I'm bad, or wanting in loyalty to the dear +ones of my life. Don't believe it, though ye hear me say it myself. I +can abide all that's come to me, but to have something between us!" and +she buried her face in my bosom, moaning like a hurt child. + +"Nancy," said I, for the sight of any suffering of hers made me like a +crazy man, "you've held yourself aloof from me, and have given out by +your conduct that your sympathies are all for the prosecution; but in +spite of it, if an angel from Heaven were to call you guilty of +disloyalty to a friend I'd give him the lie, though I were damned for +it!" I cried. + +"Mine Jock," she said, "mine Jock!" and, comforted by the very violence +of my language, she stood quietly by the window watching Huey as he +waded through the river of water underneath which the road toward +Edinburgh lay. + +Sandy had remained in town over night to be with his boy at the +earliest possible moment, and we sought him at the coffee-house where +he had slept. He had his friends with him, but there were none to whom +he paid attention save to me, holding my hand in his, and breathing +deep in a kind of relief as I stood by him. + +I asked him how Danvers bore himself, and he answered, with a courage +and fortitude beyond belief, and that Magendie gave him comforting +assurances. Of Nancy no word was spoken between us, for the hurt he had +received from her conduct put an edge upon his suffering keener than he +could bring himself to name, and there came upon me, at the sight of +this pain, the impulse to tell him my own suspicions in the matter, but +caution for the cause held me back. + +Fierce as the morning was, the court-room was packed when we entered. I +had asked and received permission to sit beside Sandy until such time +as the empaneling should begin; and as we took our seats in that dread +place I had a taste of the terror of the law which daunts my spirit to +this day. It's one thing to read of murders by one's fireside, +speculating over the evidence like a tale, and another to sit face to +face with the charges and the life of one most dear dependent on the +issue. And such was the awe inspired by the dreadful surroundings that +when Carew, the Lord-President, in the wig and scarlet robes of +criminal jurisdiction, preceded by the macers, took the bench, my body +shook as though in mortal illness, from fear of the august power he +represented, and this despite the fact that I'd drunken deeper than was +wise with him many times in my early days and knew him to be sodden in +his affection for Nancy from the time she had taken the case out of his +hands for Jeanie Henderlin. When Danvers, who was by far the most +composed of any of us, was brought in, I arose, laying my hand on his +shoulder as we talked, determined that the whole town should know where +my beliefs and sympathies lay. + +There was little difficulty in getting the fifteen jurymen, and, as I +was taken away to be sequestered, a thing happened which I tell for the +love I have of human nature. There was a commotion at the door of the +court-room, and I heard the macer's tones threatening some one, and +then a clear voice crying: + +"If you don't let me in I'll break every bone in your body," and Billy +Deuceace, hard-ridden and disheveled, elbowed his way to the railing +itself and held out both hands to Danvers. + +"Couldn't get here any sooner, old man," he cried. "Have ridden all +night! Just came up to say it's all damned nonsense, you know!" he +finished, and I felt that a happier beginning could scarce have +occurred for us. + +I was not in the court-room when the case opened, and by this reason am +forced for information to the papers recording the case, which forms +one of the _causes celebres_ of Scottish legal history. Even at this +distance of time, at sight of these old files I feel again the +helplessness and miserable sinking of heart which I felt the first time +I read the indictment of Pitcairn against the boy whom I loved, no +matter what he had done; and I write it again, no matter what he had +done. + +"The trial of Danvers Carmichael for the murder of John Stewart +Aglionby Montrose, Duke of Borthwicke, Ardvilarchan, and Drumblaine in +the Muirs, Lord of, etc., before the Lord-President Carew, beginning +Tuesday, March tenth, 1788. + + _Counsel for the Crown_ + + Mr. Pitcairn + Mr. Inge + + _Solicitor_ + + Mr. Caldicott + + + _For the Prisoner_ + + Mr. Magendie + Mr. Elliott + + _Solicitor_ + + Mr. Witmer + +taken in shorthand by John Gurney of London. + +"After addressing the bench, the case was opened for the prosecution by +Mr. Pitcairn, as follows: + + "GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY: + + "The crime imputed to the prisoner at the bar is that of wilful + murder, effected by means and in a manner most abhorred. Such an + accusation naturally excites the indignation of honest minds + against the criminal. I will not endeavor to increase it, and it is + your duty to resist it and to investigate and determine the case + wholly upon the evidence which will be placed before you. + + "On the night of the twenty-third of February, 1788, John Stewart + Aglionby Montrose, Duke of Borthwicke, was found, between the hours + of midnight and one of the morning, dead in a desk-chair, in a + chamber on the ground floor of Stair House, near Edinburgh, by Lord + Stair and his serving-men, Huey MacGrath, John Elliott, and James + MacColl. The window by the late duke it will be proven was wide + open, forming an easy entrance from outside; a pistol, the property + of the accused, was found lying by the chair upon which the duke + sat, and a wound above the temple of the deceased was discovered, + made by a bullet similar to those used in the pistol before + mentioned. + + "It will be proven by testimony of such a character and from such a + source as to render it singularly forcible, that on the morning of + the day previous to the night of the murder the accused had + threatened the duke's life, applying vile and scurrilous names to + the deceased; repeating these threats several times and in various + forms. + + "It will be proven that there had existed for the accused one of + the most powerful incentives to murder known, in the fact that the + late duke and he loved, and had loved for some time past, the same + lady, Nancy, daughter to Lord Stair; that both had addressed her in + marriage, and that in September last the quarrel between them rode + so high that a meeting was arranged between the late duke and the + accused; and there will be testimony to show that the duel was + averted by the late duke's apologizing to Mr. Carmichael, a course + urged upon him by the lady herself. + + "It will be proven that in October past, after a bitter quarrel + with Miss Stair, the accused espoused in a hasty (and in a person + of his rank and station), unseemly manner, his mother's cousin, + Miss Isabel Erskine; that since that time he has been little in her + presence, leaving her alone at the time when a woman most needs the + comfort and support of a husband's presence, and paying marked + attentions, both in public and private, to the first lady of his + choice. + + "It will be proven that on the day preceding the murder there was + published in an Edinburgh paper called The Lounger the news that an + engagement of marriage had been contracted between the late John + Stewart Aglionby Montrose, Duke of Borthwicke, Muir, etc., and + Mistress Nancy Stair, only daughter of John Stair, Lord of Stair + and Alton in the Mearns. + + "It will be proven that immediately upon reading this the accused + came directly to Stair, and after entering unannounced into the + room where the lady was sitting, asked her if the tale were true, + calling the late duke a thiever from the poor, a seducer of women, + a man drenched in all manner of villainy, and one whom he would + rather see her dead than married to. That he had declared that he + still loved and had always loved her, that his marriage was but the + result of a crazy jealousy, and besought her to promise him that + she would never marry the duke. It will be proven by two competent + witnesses that upon her refusing to do this, the accused had cried + out, 'I will save you the promising, for I swear he shall never + live to marry you.' + + "It will be proven by a physician of repute that within ten minutes + of the time of the murder the accused was seen, hatless, walking + very fast or running away from Stair House toward his own home of + Arran, and this along a very secluded and unusual path. + + "In conclusion, testimony will be brought to show that the day + before the murder the accused made an agreement with a boatman of + Leith to keep a boat ready for him at an hour's notice, either for + Ireland or France. + + "It may be urged that this testimony, even if fully established, is + purely circumstantial, for that none saw the accused commit the + fatal deed. To this I would answer: + + "The true question is, not what is the _kind_ of evidence in this + cause, but what is the result of it in your minds. + + "If it fail to satisfy you of the guilt of the prisoner, if your + minds are not convinced, if you remain in doubt, you must acquit + him, be the evidence positive or presumptive, because the law + regards a man as innocent so long as any reasonable doubt of his + guilt exists. But if, on the contrary, you are convinced of the + fact, if there is no chance for a reasonable doubt to exist, it is + imperatively your duty to yourselves, to your country, and to your + God to convict, even if the evidence be wholly presumptive." + +I set this extremely dry document down exactly as it is recorded in the +files for two reasons: first, that it contains all of the charges +against Danvers, and to show how black the case stood against him when +I say that all Pitcairn said he would prove he proved to the last +letter. + +After my own testimony was taken, the nature of which is already known, +I was granted the privilege of sitting beside Sandy and his boy, the +three of us being joined daily by Billy Deuceace, whom I love to the +minute of this writing for his devotion to my lad. + +Nancy's appearance in court was naturally looked upon as the most +exciting point of the trial, and the morning she was to be called the +crowd was dense to suffocation, the court-officers busy, dashing to and +fro, trying to keep some orderliness among the women, who jostled each +other and gave vent to loud exclamations of annoyance in their efforts +to get places from which the best view might be obtained. It is curious +to note the way some trivial vexation will linger in the mind, for in +recalling this scene it is the annoyance I had from Mrs. MacLeod, mine +landlady of the Star and Garter, that stands out clearest in my memory +of that dreadful waiting time. + +She sat well to the front, giving herself important airs, and I could +hear her going back and forth in whispers over the story of Nancy's +visiting the duke at her house to obtain the pardon of Timothy Lapraik. +Wagging her head to and fro, applying her smelling-salts vigorously, +and assuming the manner of an intimate sufferer in the cause, she +exasperated us to such an extent that Billy Deuceace was for throwing +her out of a window. + +When Nancy entered every eye in that immense throng was fixed upon her, +and as she stood, so fair to see, in her black hat and gown, waiting to +take the oath, Mrs. MacLeod's feelings overcame her entirely, and she +cried out, in a loud voice: "Ah, the beauty! 'Tis her that should hae +been a duchess!" immediately falling into strong hysterics, upon which +the macers summarily ejected her, to our great satisfaction, and Billy +Deuceace all but cheered. + +Danvers's bearing changed at the mere sound of Nancy's name, and the +look of adoration that he cast upon her as she came near him was as +unwise a piece of conduct as could well be imagined, and one which +would have gone far toward convincing an onlooker of his willingness to +die or to murder for her protection, if necessary. The look had no +weight with the one for whom it was intended, however, for she let her +eyes pass over rather than encounter his, turning from him, with what +might easily seem a bit of disdain, to the business in hand. + +As I gazed at her I noted with astonishment that the little creature's +face seemed to have taken on something of Pitcairn's expression, and +from the first moment to the clear end it was toward Pitcairn she +gazed, her eyes tutored by his, her passionless, unheated manner his +own, her adjustments and discrimination in words showing her legal +training, while he sat as a maiden schoolmistress might who listened to +the reciting of a favorite pupil. As she went on with her tale; +omitting nothing of the duel; dragging in details of the quarrel which +seemed unnecessary; stating that for some time past Mr. Carmichael's +attentions to her had been pronounced to such an extent that she had +shunned all company for fear of meeting him; damaging him in every way, +as it appeared, while the poor fellow turned a piteous color, putting +his hand over his eyes, and, for the first time in his great trouble, I +saw his lips tremble and his body quiver with emotion. I could scarce +endure the sight of this, and to show my feelings threw my arm across +his shoulder, at which movement a murmur went through the crowd, no +doubt at the oddity of the situation, that I should be so strongly +marked on the one side and Nancy as strongly set on the other. + +Danvers's conduct changed, however, before her testimony was finished, +a thing which I was glad to see, for he brought himself together with +fine bravery and courage, but with a bitterness showing in his face as +of one who has been betrayed. + +There were two things in Nancy's testimony to which I looked forward +with dread. The first was the story of the cap, and the second the +finding of the pistol which I was morally certain she had moved. The +first of these was not mentioned at all, by which I knew that Pitcairn +had had that incident concealed from him, and the pistol episode, about +which I had been questioned at length, swearing that the first sight I +had of the weapon was when it lay within a foot of the duke's hand, was +answered like this: + + _Question_.--"In what position was the pistol when you first saw + it?" + + _Answer_.--"I can not swear to that. My impression is that it lay + with the barrel toward the window. As I pointed it out to my + father, Lord Stair, I made a movement to go toward it, but he held + me back, going himself to inspect it. From the distance at which I + then stood it seemed to be directly under the duke's right hand, + with the barrel toward the window." + +It was after a full morning's hearing, during which it seemed there was +nothing more she could have said for Danvers's undoing, that she was +excused, to be followed by the villainous boatman, whose testimony +showed all too clearly that Danvers had made ready a means of escape. + +The prosecution rested with the testimony of this man, without one ray +of hope for Danvers Carmichael that I could see, unless some of the +jurymen were enlightened enough to refuse a conviction in a capital +case on any evidence which was circumstantial or conjectural. Motive, +abundant motive, had been proven; nearness to the crime at the time of +the murder; the ownership of the weapon, a black spot for the defense +to wipe out; and last, the means planned for an escape in case of +discovery, as testified to by the boatman of Leith. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE DEFENSE + + +On the day that Magendie took the case I had a taste of another kind of +lawing than Pitcairn's, for the London man, to speak in a common +phrase, oiled everybody. He poured oil over Carew; he drenched Hugh +Pitcairn in it; smoothed the jury with it, and I learned to the full +the legal value of the unantagonistic mind. After this he turned a +light on the case from the other side, giving it an entirely different +appearance, holding up the slateful of charges against Danvers, and +sponging them carefully off one by one, until I was amazed at his +abilities. + +There were three important gentlemen, conversant with the duke's +habits, to prove that the duke's lung trouble had accustomed him to +fresh air, that he slept with all of his windows raised, and that it +was his custom to have the window open near him, no matter what the +weather. And following came Huey, with the statements that both of the +pistols had been at Stair House since before Mr. Danvers's marriage, +and that he had put one of them, with a new hagged flint, in the desk +at which his grace was writing, within a few days of the murder. Father +Michel followed, saying that Danvers had spent the evening of the +murder with him, trying to persuade him to go on a sail for a few days, +leaving his house about midnight in a composed and quiet frame of mind, +with his cap in his hand, it being his custom to go about in all kinds +of weather in that manner, a habit contracted at the English school +where he was educated. And before any one could stop him, Father +Michel, who I knew was tutored to the illegal conduct by Magendie, said +earnestly: + +"I consider it my duty to state, with no betrayal of my sacred offices, +that I know, by the confessional Mr. Carmichael to be innocent of this +foul deed." + +Pitcairn was roaring objections in a minute, with Carew sustaining him, +as was but legally decent; but it mattered little, for the jurors had +heard, and I knew that the holy man's words would stick in their minds +at verdict time. + +Following Father Michel came two respectable serving-men from Arran, +declaring that early the morning after the murder Mr. Danvers had sent +them to Leith to say that he no longer wanted the boat, and that they +had found its owner, the one who had testified for the prosecution, in +such a state of intoxication that they could not make their errand +clear, and left the message with his errand-boy, who was produced to +verify the truth of their statements. And after him came Nancy Stair +again, recalled for the defense, to swear to a letter sent to the duke +by her the morning of the day of his demise, which read as follows: + + "MY DEAR, DEAR FRIEND: + + "That I love you, you know; but that I can love you with that + fondness which a wife should have for a husband is forever an + impossibility to me. Perhaps after a time we may be friends again. + I have always admired your power. Of late I have admired your + goodness as well. + + "You say you will have no courage to go on without me, and I wish + with all my heart I could love you as you desire, but my heart's + all gone from me, and to one who never will know. + + "'Courage to go on!' If I have it, can not you who are so much + stronger have it as well? + + "Affectionately your Friend, + + "Nancy Stair." + +And after, Jamie Henderlin swore that it was he who ran across the +grounds, on his way home from a wedding, and that he had heard the +shots and mentioned them to his mother on his arrival at the Burnside, +thus identifying the small figure I had seen running through the shaft +of light, and wiping away the last black mark on the slate against +Danvers. + +Mr. Magendie asked permission at this point to address the court, +saying that the defense had been reserved by Mr. Carmichael's wish, and +that the manner of the duke's taking off had been a known thing to both +of them for more than a week, but that Mr. Carmichael had stood his +trial in order that every charge against him might be cleared away. And +after raising public expectation to its highest, and ridiculing the +idea that a man of intelligence should murder another and leave a +weapon heavily marked with his own name by the side of the dead; or +that because a man had uttered some threats of again challenging one +whom he had already met upon the field of honor, he should be accused +of being a midnight assassin, there was called the last witness for the +defense: + +"Lord Rothermel!" + +The entrance of this distinguished statesman, whose friendship for the +great Pitt kept him constantly in the public eye, caused little less +than a sensation. As he took the oath, I had a near view of him; his +dignified bearing, his age, and his notable integrity showing at every +turn, the tones of his voice filling the court with a peculiar +resonance while he deponed as follows: + +"I come," he said, "as a messenger from Mr. Pitt, who regrets that his +Majesty's affairs, connected with the troublous times in France, +prevent his leaving London. I have his deposition, however, and the +case has been fully set before me by him, so that I feel I am in a +position to tell the whole truth of this disastrous affair and to set +Mr. Carmichael before the world as a free man. + +"There existed between Mr. Pitt and the late Duke of Borthwicke, as the +world knows, a peculiar friendship. On the third morning after the +duke's death there came to Mr. Pitt a packet, taken from Stair House +and mailed about five of the morning upon which the duke died, directed +in the duke's hand, containing three things: + +"First--The findings of the Lighthouse Commission. + +"Second.--Some information from the French, a document of twenty-two +pages, writ in a cipher known to but five persons in the United +Kingdom, which paper alone convinced Mr. Pitt of the authenticity of +the document; and last, a personal letter, the original of which Lord +Rothermel begged to read before it be given to the jury: + + "MY EVER DEAR PITT: + + "When you receive these papers--the last intelligences I shall ever + send you--I, the writer of them, shall be no more. + + "A great disappointment, one which I have not the heart to endure, + together with a return of my old trouble, for I have had three + bleedings from the lungs within a month, have cured me of the taste + of living, and, by a mere movement of the trigger, I end the game + to-night. + + "It is a fancy of mine to take my leave of this earthly stay + surrounded by the little dear belongings of the one I love. + + "There will be much talk back and forth concerning me. I pray you + bespeak me, if you will, a brave, insolent, selfish, and + unscrupulous man of many villainies, some wit and foresight, a + disrespecter of humanity, athirst for power, and a hater of fools; + but one who, at the end, was capable of a great love for a great + woman. + + "I send some verses, which are of my own making to-day. As + Shakespeare says, 'Ill favored, but mine own,' and so good night--a + long good night. + + "TO NANCY STAIR + + "I stand upon the threshold going out + Into the night. + The mists of old misdeeds crowd all about + And blind my sight. + + "But thro' the many worlds to come, my feet + No more shall roam. + The light from thy dear face at last my sweet + Will bring me home. + + "To you always, my dear Pitt, + + "Borthwicke" + +I was dimly conscious of the uproar which arose in the court-room, for +I was away in a by-gone time, a vision before me, clear as a picture, +of a sunny room, myself at a writing-desk overlooking accounts, and a +small curly haired child poring over a book on the rug at my feet + + "_Nancy made it just like Jock's!_" + "_Nancy made it just like Jock's!_" + +I can recall the fear that seized me as the duke's letter was being +examined by those familiar with his writings; the chill I felt as +Blake, who knew his hand the best, was summoned to inspect it; my +terror as he hesitated, with all the time that sing-song refrain going +over and over in my head, so loud that I was afraid that everyone in +the court would hear it; and then, far away and little, like a +wood-call, "Nancy made it----" And when Blake and Dundas identified the +writing, and O'Sullivan, the duke's own secretary, declared that not +only would he be willing to swear to his belief of the duke's hand, but +to the spirit of the document as well, I put my head on the back of +Danvers's chair to hide the tears which rolled down my cheeks, tears of +relief, but springing from a very different cause than the one +attributed for them. + +There was more summing up and going back and forth, but the tension of +the trial was over for all except me and one other--one wide-eyed +little creature, sitting in her black gown, with Dickenson beside her, +on the other side of the court-room; a slender girlish figure before +whom my soul was on its knees. + +I imagined her work, after she asked me to pray for her, upon that +awful night. I thought of fifty things on the second, as it seemed. +Visions came to me of Nancy dipping her head in the basin of water, +Nancy by the mail-bag in the early dawning before the officers had +come, and to that "Nancy made it just like Jock's," there came, with +terror to my soul, another jumble of words--"Accessory after the fact." + +I knew that the jury consulted but a few minutes before the whole of +Edinburgh was shaking hands with Danvers, assuring him of their +never-shaken trust in his innocence, saw Pitcairn putting his papers +into the black-leather case, was conscious that Billy Deuceace was +laughing as he talked to some women, with his hand on Danvers's +shoulder. I say that I was aware of these things, but so remotely that +they seemed part of a dream, for my real thought was to get to Nancy, +to take her away, to shield her from I know not what; and leaving the +Carmichael party, I made my way to the place where she was awaiting the +carriage. + +As we stood together near the doorway, Sandy and Danvers, with their +friends, passed us on their way from the court-room, and my heart bled +as I saw the look Nancy gave them, the look of pleading and affection, +which Sandy avoided by talking to the one beside him; but Danvers, and +none could blame him, considering his belief that she had done her +utmost to get him hanged, looked full at her, his eyes showing scorn of +her. I felt the slight body quiver, saw her sway back and forth for a +little, and then, with a sob like a wounded child, she lost +consciousness entirely. Hugh Pitcairn stayed by her until she was +enough recovered for me to put her in the coach, and rode back to Stair +with us, watching her all the time with an expression of alarm and +tenderness, which drew him very near to me. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MISTS ALL CLEARED AWAY + + +On toward midnight I was awakened by Dickenson clamoring at my door, +telling me that Nancy lay delirious, with a high fever, calling for me. +Making what haste I could, I reached the poor child, to find her +tossing from one side of the bed to the other, uttering hoarse cries, +with neither intelligence in her glance nor recognition of either my +presence or my voice. McMurtrie's attitude, after his examination, +drove me wild with fear. "It's like to be a long case," he said. "I +want ye to get Dr. Cameron from Glasgow. I'll stay by ye," he added; +"I'll just move into the house, for, under God, it's not my intention +to let Nancy Stair leave us yet." + +Weeks and weeks went by, during which it seemed as though I neither +slept nor ate, listening to the moaning, or, what was far worse, broken +talk of her work, of her cares, scraps of forgotten rhymes, bits of +Latin verse, law references cited letter for letter, until I needed the +doctor myself, who threatened to put me from the house unless I showed +a more reasonable behavior. + +On in the third week of Nancy's fever I heard that Danvers's wife was +ill, but this was nature, and I gave no more thought to the matter. On +the afternoon of the day on which the news was brought me the Arran +folks sent again to know if Dr. McMurtrie could be spared them, and we +sent him over immediately. On his return I asked him, in a perfunctory +way, how he had found things, and he returned an evasive answer; but +upon my insisting for the truth, he told me that Isabel had given birth +to a child the night before, but that it had died before morning, and +that she herself was in a most desperate state. + +My heart went out to all this suffering, but death so near increased my +anxiety for my own child, and when the news was brought me on the +following morning that Isabel had passed away during the night, the +fear for Nancy rose high in me, and I became like a crazed creature, +wandering from one room to another, with half-begun prayers to God upon +my lips and a feeling of utter helplessness heavy on my soul. + +Nine weeks of this I endured, nine weeks of such dread that I should +choose death in preference to living the time again, when one morning +in early spring Dr. Cameron, who had been watching by the bedside all +night, came to me. "I think, my lord," he said, "that the worst is by +with. Ye need worry no more," and at the words I buried my face in my +hands, as I sat at the table, and wept like a child. + +On the day following this announcement, Sandy, who had refused to leave +me in my great anxiety, took his boy off to visit the New Republic +founded across seas, and Dr. McMurtrie, who kept his residence at +Stair, for I would listen to no word of his leaving us yet, watched the +dear one on her journey back from the valley of the shadow. It was late +summer before she was able to be about at all, and Hallowe'en was +celebrated by her first riding out. + +As she grew stronger there were two changes I noted in her conduct, the +first of these being her unwillingness to see Hugh Pitcairn, whose +solicitude for her during her illness had knit us together by cords +never to be broken. If she knew he was in the house she would retire to +her own room, or if advised of his coming would go abroad to visit or +drive, in every way showing a clear avoidance of his society. And the +second matter was in connection with the Burn School. This work had +been the chief thought of her life before her illness, but upon her +recovery she refused to visit the place, would walk or ride far around +by the Dead Man's Holm to avoid meeting in with either teachers or +pupils; and when Father Michel brought work to her to have it examined +she would overlook it listlessly, and put it by immediately on his +departure, to be referred to no more. I knew more of the reasons for +this conduct than she suspected, her talk in the fever being all of one +thing, and the intuition of my love helping me far in discovering the +truth. I believed that McMurtrie had learned some matters as well as +myself, for twice, when he was telling me something concerning her, he +broke off with entire irrelevancy to say: "The little deevil; the +plucky little deevil!" with tears in his eyes, and ending with, "God! +I'd like to tell Pitcairn," and a roar of laughter. + +More than a year had gone by before her color and brightness came back +to her, and one gay spring morning, when the "Nanciness" of her had +shown itself by some audacious rejoinder, I ventured on a remark, which +I hoped would lead to an open talk with me, concerning the affair of +the trial. + +"Nancy," said I, with nothing but the impulse of the moment to guide +me, "would a child of mine commit a forgery?" + +She looked up at me quickly, as though to judge my intention, before +she answered, "A child of yours did." + +"But you were too little to know the force of your conduct then," I +continued. "Would a child of mine do such a thing now?" + +A curious gleam passed over her face before she answered, looking +straight into my eyes as she did so, "Don't worry about that, Jock," +she said; "she didn't have to!" + +"We will suppose," she went on, with an exact imitation of Pitcairn, +"only suppose, you understand, that a bit of evidence was needed in a +certain trial to clear one who was very dear; and we will suppose, only +suppose, you remember, that there was a girl who had skill enough to +seem to obtain it. We will suppose, still, that the girl said to +herself, 'If I am on the other side from the great Pitcairn, I shall +have no chance against his cross-examination, but if I seem to be on +his own side he may be thrown from his guard, and I may suggest the +questioning I want followed.' Take the testimony!" she cried, in her +natural voice, rising and standing by the chimney-place. "Take the +testimony which I gave and go through it word by word, and you can find +neither forgery nor perjury. I had been well taught in the letter of +the law. I was Pitcairn's own pupil, Jock!" + +It was less than a week from this time that I came in from a ride, +happier than I had thought to be again in this life, when a sight met +my eyes which threw me clear from my reckoning. Going past the door of +Nancy's sitting-room, I looked in, and at first sight thought my eyes +had deceived me, for standing in the middle of the room was Hugh +Pitcairn, and Nancy's head was on his shoulder. I saw that she was +crying, and that the great lawyer himself, who was far from unmoved, +patted her shoulder every once in a while, saying, "There, there!" +staring out of the window and blinking hard to keep the tears back. + +I went on to my own chamber and sat down in a heap on the side of the +bed, as I used to do at college, repeating, "Good Heavens!" over and +over to myself, until interrupted in the performance by Huey, who came +in to gather the fire. "Where is Mr. Pitcairn, Huey?" said I. "He's +went," he replied, and on the words a fear seized me lest Nancy should +retire into one of her silences, and I should be left in a state of +raging curiosity through the night. Upon inquiry I found that she was +sleeping, and went down to the library, where I had but just settled +myself when Hugh Pitcairn appeared before me, a legal document in his +hand, having been for a walk to recover himself, I supposed. He looked +more wooden than I had ever seen him, and, in the language of the +country, I knew he would make me pay for the emotion he had shown +before Nancy. + +"I've news for you," he said. + +"Hugh," I answered, "if they're pleasant, ye're welcome; but if they +are not, I tell ye frankly, I've been stretched to breaking in the past +year, and can not stand much more." + +"It's not ill," he answered. "It concerns the death of the Duke of +Borthwicke." + +Here was dangerous walking for me, and I waited. + +"Do you recall," he inquired, "the French woman at the Burnside who +taught the Marseilles work?" + +"A poor distraught body who ran from her own shadow?" said I. + +He nodded. + +"Although she spoke the French tongue, it seems she was Irish by birth. +Her name"--he coughed a little behind his hand as though to give me +time--"her name was Barnet." + +I had heard the name before, but where? I saw that Hugh was waiting for +me to place it, but any significant connection it might have I found +myself unable to recall. + +"It was heard of, ten or twelve years past, in connection with that of +the late Duke of Borthwicke," he threw in for my assistance, and the +tale of an old-time scandal came back to me at his words. + +"She left her husband for him. They went to France together, did they +not?" I asked. + +"It was so stated at the time," Pitcairn answered. + +"And she knows something of the duke's death?" + +"Knew," Pitcairn corrected. "She died at noon to-day. It is her +confession that I have in this paper, John. It was she herself who shot +the duke, and the interwovenness of affairs is marked in this. She was +an early love of Father Michel's, before he entered the priesthood, and +came to him for work after her children died." + +"Poor woman," said I, "she was half crazed, and, God forgive me for +saying so, had many excuses for her act." + +"Father Michel sent for me at ten. McMurtrie was there, and she told us +the tale, after signing the paper, which I bring to you to use as you +think best. You will be glad to have Carmichael see it, perhaps." + +"Hugh," said I, for a shadow had lain between us ever since the trial, +despite his devotion to Nancy, "I didn't think ye acted well by me at +the time of the trial." + +I got no further in this speech, for upon the instant he flew into a +sudden heat, which made any temper, Sandy's or mine, or both of them +put together, seem but a child's displeasure beside it. + +"Acted well to ye!" he cried. "Acted well to ye! Do you know what I +did for you at that time, Jock Stair, or rather for that bit lassie +of yours, who has so wound herself about my heart that her illness +has made me a broken man? I didn't give over the case when ye asked +me, for I believed Danvers Carmichael a guilty man; but I meant to be +as lenient to him as consistent with exact duty. Ye'll learn perhaps +that in law, a friend prosecuting is better than a friend defending! +Do you think I did not know what was done at that trial? Oh! not at +the first, for she tricked and befooled me to the clear end of the +prosecution; but when the letter was read I knew it had been changed, +and did for that bit of a girl what the rest of the world might have +tried to get me to do in vain. I was afraid for her--for her! do you +understand?--for, on my soul, I thought him guilty in the way she +did, a sudden duel perhaps, for the young man has a look of honesty +not compatible with murder. But when I thought of what might come to +her as _accessory after the fact--accessory--after--the--fact_--do +you understand?--I shivered before a Scotch justice for the first +time in my life. + +"But the thing that galls me," he went on, and his pride spoke, "is +that yon London-man, Magendie, may never know I had the truth +concerning the affair. With Ferrars vs. Lorrimer, Annesly vs. Ingraham, +and Cobham, Greenly, and Spencer vs. the Crown[10] at my tongue's end, +did he think I'd let a case of resting on letter-evidence like his pass +as I did without some weighty reason for my silence? + + [10] "Famous Forgeries," Benson. + +"But the queer thing of it is that I feel a better man somehow for +having done my duty loosely; for, John, I had at home, when that letter +was produced in court, one sent by messenger, dated a half-hour later +by the duke himself, asking me to meet him the following morning to +overlook some papers before he signed them, which, had I produced, +would have ended the whole defense. + +"She's just upset all my creeds and conduct. I could no more have hurt +her as she sat looking at me with those big soft eyes of hers than I +could have murdered a baby. What did I tell you years agone?" he cried, +turning upon me with some fierceness--"That ye can't do anything with +women folks. Inherited mother instincts make them protect anything, and +when it comes to one they love, they'll falsify, not knowing that +they're doing it, and justify the lies by Scripture, if need be. + +"But when a man comes to die it's his mother he calls for; 'tis the +touch of her hand he wants, and her breast to lean against as when he +was a wee bit bairn, for he knows the worth of a heart that is all for +him, right or wrong, through sickness, disgrace, and death. And in the +long nights I watched by the child's bedside I learned more, Jock +Stair, than any intellectual work could ever bring me, for the love I +had for her, and the thought of woman's love as mother, wife, and +daughter, raised me more, made me a finer man, a more uplifted one than +I have ever been, even when it made me soft about my duty. It seems a +bit muddled, but it's a solemn truth." + +"I knew you'd find it out, Hugh Pitcairn, and you'd have known what +ye've been trying to tell me years ago if you'd had a wife and children +of your own. You're such a splendid fellow," I cried, "it's a pity you +haven't." + +"I've been wishing I had," he said simply. + +"And why not?" I cried; "you're a young man yet." + +He shook his head at this, but made no answer in words, and left me +with some abruptness and no further speech. + +Now that the confession was in my hands I knew not what course to +pursue, and fell to wondering how much reviewing it might cause of the +testimony which had cleared Danvers Carmichael, and what possible +trouble from that might come home to Nancy's door. It was but nine +o'clock; a thought seized me before I reached the house, and I sent +MacColl to Arran Towers with a request that Mr. Danvers come to me +immediately. It had been over a year since he had crossed my threshold, +and although he was back in the country above three months, with +Nancy's conduct still unexplained, friendly intercourse between the +houses was impossible. + +"There's a welcome been waiting for you o'er long," I said to him as he +entered the room, and here the fine directness of him answered me: + +"I've never had for you a thought not of the kindest; but your +daughter's conduct to me; Lord Stair, has rendered----" and before he +finished I put out my hand to stay him. + +"I wouldn't go on if I were you, Danvers! I wouldn't say that which I +might come to regret. Ye haven't known all, and ye may have misjudged," +and here I began at the other end. + +"The one who killed the Duke of Borthwicke has confessed the deed. I +have the confession here!" I said, touching the paper I had from Hugh +Pitcairn as it lay on the table. + +"The one who killed the duke!" Danvers cried, in amazement. "The man +confessed himself a suicide." + +"Danvers," I went on, "I am afraid that letter was not written by the +duke, not _all_ written by the duke. It was on separate sheets, if you +remember, the first one naturally without signature. It is this part +which I believe to have been partly written by another." + +If ever there was a mystified face it was Danvers's as he stood trying +to make something of my words. + +"Let me tell you the whole story," I went on, "a bit at a time, and +when I bungle it in the telling stop me till ye get it clear, for the +future between us is just hanging on the tale I tell. + +"The night of the murder I saw ye, Danvers, going back to Stair, +bareheaded, in the snow, upon what errand I knew not; and when Nancy +and I went down the steps of the little porch, she picked up something +and hid it in the lace of her cloak; but in her room that night, when +she fainted, I saw it was your cap, all of which she held silence +concerning. And the next morning I was sent off to Pitcairn to worm it +from him if he had heard you threatening the duke the day before, and +discovered that not only did he hear that, but knew as well, from the +fool chemist, that you were seen running away from Stair on the very +heels of the murder, and if a blacker case was ever set for a woman to +clear away I have yet to hear of it." + +"I came up from Father Michel's through your grounds, hoping to catch a +sight of her by the light in the writing-room. When I was far toward +home I discovered that I had lost the cap she gave me, and turned back +for it, but the snow was so deep I thought it useless," Danvers +explained. + +Upon this I told the story, a piece at a time, going backward and +forward over all that has been set down, and the effect of it upon the +lad is impossible to describe. When I told of Nancy's finding his cap +he put his hands over his eyes, and sat with his face covered until the +clear end of the telling, when he looked up at me with a great sadness, +which had joy in it as well. + +"Where is she, Lord Stair; may I see her?" he asked. + +"I'll go up with you and see," I answered, as I held him by the arm for +a minute. "Will you be good to her?" I asked. + +"Good to her!" he cried. "If she'll have me!--if the rest of my life's +service can atone in any way for all the misery I've caused her--it's +hers for the taking." + +"God bless you," I said; "God bless and keep you both." + +The door of the sitting-room stood a bit open, and I entered to find +Nancy in a loose white wrapper in a great-chair by the fire. + +"I've some company for you, Little Flower!" I began, and my voice +choked me so that she looked at me in surprise. + +"Who is it?" she asked. + +"It's one who has been too long gone," I answered her, but by this time +reason and convention were blown to the four winds of heaven, for at +sound of that beloved voice the door was thrown open and Danvers was on +his knees before her, his face buried in her hands. + +"My girl!" he cried, "my girl! Can ye forgive me for all the +misjudgments I made of you? Can you forget all the sorrow and misery I +have brought into your life? Can you just let the past be by with and +take me to your heart, for 'tis the only place I've ever known +happiness or peace in all my life? I'm not worthy of you," he went on, +"no man ever born was that; but say you care enough--that you think +you----" + +And here the woman spoke: + +"Good or bad--and I think you the finest man I ever knew--worthy of me +or not, I'd rather be your wife than anything this world could bring. +Oh, ye've been so long away, Danvers," she said, with a sob, "so long +away----" + +"God!" he cried, the word sounding like a prayer, as he gathered her in +his arms, kissing her lips, her eyes, her hair; and, the time being +made for them, I went quietly from the room. + +An hour passed, two; and when midnight was tolled, I knew that Nancy's +health must be thought of, and crossed the hall to pack Danvers off +home. I found him, glorified, at one side of the chimney-shelf, and +Nancy, like a beautiful crumpled rose, at the other; Nancy, with eyes +showing the memory of Danvers's kisses; conscious to the finger-tips, +all woman, who had been learning for the past two hours from her +lover's passionate caresses the Meaning of Life. + +"Be off home with you, Danvers Carmichael," I cried. "Ye'll have this +child of mine ill again!" + +"I am not going home," he said determinedly. "She is not well, and she +needs some one to sit up with her." + +I laughed in his face. "With Dickenson in the next room, Joan Landy +sleeping at the foot of the bed, and McMurtrie and myself across the +hall, she scarce suffers from lack of attention," I answered, and here +he took another course. + +"Oh," he cried, "think of what I have been through--think of all the +bitter days and nights of separation from her! Think how near I came to +losing her altogether. Think of the hell of the last two years, and let +me stay," he cried, pleadingly; and here the young rascal put his hand +on my shoulder. + +"Father," he cried. + +The word made me wax in his hand, and I compromised. "Ye can have the +rooms next to mine and stay with us to-night," I gave in. + +"I shall stay till the wedding. I'm going to live here," he returned +with a laugh, at which I carried him off to my own rooms, though he +went back twice to Nancy's door to say something he'd forgotten. + +I knew that "forgotten thing." I had gone back often to say it myself. +What lover has not? But at the third announcement of his forgettings I +lost patience with him. + +"Danvers Carmichael! Many's the time in our college days that I have +thrown your father down and sat on him to keep him from some piece of +deviltry, and despite my years, I fear I'll have to treat ye the same +way," I cried, upon which we ordered the pipes and some brandy, and sat +till the clear day was come, talking the past over, going back and +forth over our many mistakes, and making happy plans for the future, +with Nancy the centre of every plan. + +A month later the marriage took place in the little chapel on the +Burnside, on a morning so fair and bright and joyous that it seemed +made for such a happening. All the old friends were there--Janet and +Hugh, Dame Dickenson and Uncle Ben, the girls from the lace-school, +Jeanie Henderlin with the Lapraiks, and Huey MacGrath, who cried +without intermission from the time he arose in the morning until late +in the day, when, overcome by the punch, he was found asleep with his +head on the Hall Bible. + +Jamie played the violin, and as Nancy and I entered the church, Danvers +and Billy Deuceace were waiting for us at the railing. It was such a +misty, glorified, radiant Nancy I had upon my arm, that Danvers waited +no longer after the first look, his impatience being such that he left +Billy Deuceace, and, coming down the aisle, took her from me before we +were half-way to the altar. Somewhat set back by the suddenness of +this, I turned to Sandy, who was near--Sandy, with a face as glad, as +overjoyed as my own--who, seeing the position I was left in, joined me, +and we walked together to the altar-rail and stood shoulder to shoulder +as our two children were united until God do them part. + +Looking down the years to come we saw other Sandy Carmichaels and other +Jock Stairs together in the bare old playground we had known; saw +splendid men and women, born of our son and daughter, making the world +better and stronger for our having lived, and the joy within me was so +strong that the tears stood in my eyes and trembled down my face. +Turning suddenly, I found Sandy as moist-eyed as myself, and while the +service was being read I reached toward him, and we stood, hands +gripped, until the end, in memory of our dead youth and of our +friendship that could never die. + + * * * * * + +And like an old man who tells a tale limpingly, and covers the ground +again to make its points clear to the listener, I set down a scene some +five years later in the grounds of Stair. We were all there, Nancy and +Danvers, Sandy, Pitcairn, and myself--and two Newcomers, the most +spoiled and petted children, it is my belief, upon the entire earth. + +"I had a letter from Pailey to-day, Nancy," said I, "proposing a third +edition of your poems."[11] + + [11] The last published poems written by Nancy Stair Carmichael + (afterward Countess of Glenmore) were: + + "And will ye go Love's Way with me"--written directly after the + visit to Allan-Lough--and + + "Here awa! There awa! Daffy-Down-Dilly O!" one of the quaintest + bits of loving child rhyme in all the Scots tongue, composed soon + after the birth of her first child, Danvers Carmichael, Jr. + +She shook her head. + +"That's by with forever, Jock; I shall never write again," she +answered. + +"No more verse-making?" I inquired. + +"Never any more--unless it be to say to women this." + +She stood, with her hands folded before her, a beautiful fulfilled +Nancy, looking down at us with sweetest earnestness, her children +leaning against her as she spoke. + +"I should write: I, Nancy Stair-Carmichael, have learned that +verse-making and verse-singing and the publicity that goes with them do +not make me a finer woman; I have learned that my woman's body is not +strong enough for the mental excitement of that existence, and to be a +daughter, a wife and a mother, as well, and that God in his goodness +sent a certain great poet into my life to show me that gift is nothing +beside womanhood. + +"And I would reason with all these dear other women like this: + +"Suppose I write certain verses! Where will my lines be two hundred +years from now? Forgotten words of unimmediate things. But suppose my +heart spoke to me, and knowing I could do but one work well, I put all +childish ambition aside to become the mother of men, that centuries +from now thousands of my children may be fighting for the right of +present issues and hastening that Divine Outcome for which God made us +all. + +"And I would say to them: the night I knew another woman was to be the +mother----" she paused abruptly, for she had been so carried away by +her own thought as to forget where this might lead. She was a great +woman, but to the end of her life could never bring herself to name the +fact that Danvers had had another wife. + +"That night," she continued, slurring the statement over, "I learned +more about life than the classics ever taught me. + +"And I would write, as well, something about the trial, to say to them +that when Danvers's life was at stake I had no thought but to save him. +Right or wrong, innocent or guilty, the only thing I wanted was that he +might be free. + +"And by this thing I found the unfitness of women to handle public +affairs, for the tender hearts, which make good wives and mothers and +daughters, unfit us for the judicial conduct needed in public +matters--and I'm glad they do," she finished, with a smile. + +"It's not," Danvers amended, as he stood with his arm about her, "that +women have not the ability to do anything they want," for he was ever +chivalrous, "but that God in his wisdom gave them a great and special +work, and they should be kept strong and safe and holy for its +fulfilment." + +"But it is not given to all women to choose what they shall do," said +Sandy. + +"And few of them are gifted creatures, anyhow," said Hugh. + +"And one life can never be as another," said I; but the older baby, who +looked up just then, said, "Mother." + +"And that one word tells the whole story," cried Nancy, with a passion +of tenderness in her voice, laying the child's head against her bosom. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nancy Stair, by Elinor Macartney Lane + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NANCY STAIR *** + +***** This file should be named 28366.txt or 28366.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/6/28366/ + +Produced by Steve Schulze and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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