initial commit of ebook 29752HEADmain

1 files changed, 7861 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/29752.txt b/29752.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8472edb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29752.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7861 @@
+Project Gutenberg's An Orkney Maid, by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
+
+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: An Orkney Maid
+
+Author: Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
+
+Release Date: August 22, 2009 [EBook #29752]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ORKNEY MAID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Katherine Ward and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+AN ORKNEY MAID
+
+
+
+
+  By AMELIA E. BARR
+
+  An Orkney Maid
+  Christine
+  Joan
+  Profit and Loss
+  Three Score and Ten
+  The Measure of a Man
+  The Winning of Lucia
+  Playing with Fire
+  All the Days of My Life
+
+  D. APPLETON & COMPANY
+  Publishers
+  New York
+
+
+[Illustration: "Ian was utterly charmed with the picture she made----"
+[PAGE 60]]
+
+
+
+
+  AN ORKNEY MAID
+
+  BY
+  AMELIA E. BARR
+
+  AUTHOR OF "CHRISTINE," "JOAN," "PROFIT AND LOSS," ETC.
+
+
+  _"The pleasant habit of existence, the sweet fable of life."_
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+  NEW YORK
+  LONDON
+  1918
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY
+  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+  Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+                     TO
+               MY DEAR FRIEND
+               DR. MARTIN BARR
+                     OF
+            ELWYNN, PENNSYLVANIA,
+            I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK.
+                          AMELIA E. BARR.
+
+  "_Honor and truth formed your will,
+  Your heart, fidelity._"
+
+
+
+
+_MOTTO_
+
+  _"You can glad your child, or grieve it,
+  You can help it, or deceive it,
+      When all is done,
+      Beneath God's sun,
+  You can only love, and leave it."_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  CHAPTER                                                         PAGE
+          Introduction                                               1
+       I. The House of Ragnor                                        7
+      II. Adam Vedder's Trouble                                     30
+     III. Aries the Ram                                             47
+      IV. Sunna and Her Grandfather                                 72
+       V. Sunna and Thora                                           98
+      VI. The Old, Old Trouble                                     129
+     VII. The Call of War                                          164
+    VIII. Thora's Problem                                          193
+      IX. The Bread of Bitterness                                  230
+       X. The One Remains, the Many Change and Pass                271
+      XI. Sequences                                                304
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Yesterday morning this thing happened to me: I was reading the _New
+York Times_ and my eyes suddenly fell upon one word, and that word
+rang a little bell in my memory, "Kirkwall!" The next moment I had
+closed my eyes in order to see backward more clearly, and slowly, but
+surely, the old, old town--standing boldly upon the very beach of the
+stormy North Sea--became clear in my mental vision. There was a whole
+fleet of fishing boats, and a few smart smuggling craft rocking gently
+in its wonderful harbour--a harbour so deep and safe, and so capacious
+that it appeared capable of sheltering the navies of the world.
+
+I was then eighteen years old, I am now over eighty-six; and the
+straits of Time have widened and widened with every year, so that many
+things appear to have been carried away into forgetfulness by the
+stress and flow of full waters. But not so! They are only lying in
+out-of-the-way corners of consciousness, and can easily be recalled by
+some word that has the potency of a spell over them.
+
+"Kirkwall!" I said softly, and then I began to read what the _Times_
+had to say about Kirkwall. The great point appeared to be that as a
+rendezvous for ships it had been placed fifty miles within the "made
+in Germany" danger zone, and was therefore useless to the British
+men-of-war. And I laughed inwardly a little, and began to consider if
+Kirkwall had ever been long outside of some danger zone or other.
+
+All its myths and traditions are of the fighting Picts and Scots, and
+when history began to notice the existence of the Orkneys it was to
+chronicle the struggle between Harold, King of Norway, and his
+rebellious subjects who had fled to the Orkneys to escape his
+tyrannical control. And of the danger zones of every kind which
+followed--of storm and battle and bloody death--does not the Saga of
+Eglis give us a full account?
+
+This fight for popular freedom was a failure. King Harold conquered
+his rebellious subjects, and incidentally took possession of the
+islands and the people who had sheltered them. Then their rulers
+became Norwegian jarls--or earls--and there is no question about
+the danger zones into which the Norwegian vikings carried the
+Orcadeans--quite in accord with their own desire and liking, no doubt.
+And the stirring story of these years--full of delightful dangers
+to the men who adventured them--may all be read today in the
+blood-stirring, blood-curdling Norwegian Sagas.
+
+In the middle of the fifteenth century, James the Third, King of
+Scotland, married Margaret of Denmark, and the Orcades were given to
+Scotland as a security for her dowry. The dowry was never paid, and
+after a lapse of a century and a half Denmark resigned all her
+Orcadean rights to Scotland. The later union of England and Scotland
+finally settled their destiny.
+
+But until the last century England cared very little about the
+Orcades. Indeed Colonel Balfour, writing of these islands in A. D.
+1861, says: "Orkney is a part of a British County, but probably
+there is no part of Europe which so few Englishmen visit." Colonel
+Balfour, of Balfour and Trenabie, possessed a noble estate on the
+little isle of Shapinsay. He enthused the Orcadeans with the modern
+spirit of improvement and progress; he introduced a proper system
+of agriculture, built mills of all kinds, got laws passed for
+reclaiming waste lands, and was in every respect a wise, generous,
+faithful father of his country. To Americans Shapinsay has a
+peculiar interest. In a little cottage there, called _Quholme_, the
+father and mother of Washington Irving lived, and their son
+Washington was born on board an American ship on its passage from
+Kirkwall to New York.
+
+However, it is only since A. D. 1830, one year before I was born, that
+the old Norse life has been changed in Orkney. Up to that date
+agriculture could hardly be said to exist. The sheep and cattle of all
+towns, or communities, grazed together; but this plan, though it saved
+the labour of herding, was at the cost of abandoning the lambs to the
+eagles who circled over the flocks and selected their victims at will.
+In the late autumn all stock was brought to the "infield," which was
+then crowded with horses, cattle and sheep. In A. D. 1830, the
+Norwegian system of weights was changed to the standard weights and
+measures, and money, instead of barter, began to be used generally.
+
+Then a great Scotch emigration set in, and brought careful methods of
+farming with it; and the Orcadean could not but notice results. The
+Scotch trader came also, and the slipshod Norse way of barter and
+bargaining had no chance with the Scotch steady prices and ready
+money. But even through all these domestic and civic changes Orkney
+was constantly in zones of danger. In the first half of the nineteenth
+century England was at war with France and Spain and Russia, and the
+Orcadeans have a fine inherited taste for a sea fight. The Vikings did
+not rule them through centuries for nothing: the Orcadean and his
+brother, the Shetlander, salt the British Navy, and they rather enjoy
+danger zones.
+
+A single generation, with the help of steam communications, changed
+Orkney entirely and in the course of the second generation the
+Orcadean became eager for improvements of all kinds, and ready to
+forward them generously with the careful hoardings of perhaps many
+generations. And as it is in this transient period of the last century
+that my hero and heroine lived, I have thought it well to say
+something of antecedents that Americans may well be excused for
+knowing nothing about. Also--
+
+  ... the past will always win
+      A glory from its being far;
+      And orb into the perfect star,
+  We saw not, when we walked therein.
+
+However, Orkney was far from being out of danger zones in the
+nineteenth century. In its first quarter French and Dutch privateers
+made frequent raids on the islands; and the second quarter gave her
+men their chance of danger in the Crimea. They were not strangers in
+the Russian Chersoneus; their fathers had been in southern seas
+centuries before them. During the last fifty years they have made
+danger zones of their own free will, quarreling with coast guards,
+tampering with smugglers, wandering off with would-be discoverers of
+the North Pole, or with any other doubtful and dangerous enterprise.
+
+And these reflections made me quite comfortable about the
+"made-in-Germany" danger zone. I think the Orcadeans will rather enjoy
+it; and I am quite sure if any Germans take to trafficking, or buying
+or selling, in Kirkwall, they will get the worst of it. In this
+direction it is rather pleasant to remember that even Scotchmen,
+disputing about money, will find the Orcadeans "too far north for
+them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HOUSE OF RAGNOR
+
+  Kind were the voices I used to hear
+    Round such a fireside,
+  Speaking the mother tongue old and dear;
+    Making the heart beat,
+  With endless tales of wonder and fear,
+    Or plaintive singing.
+
+  Great were the marvellous stories told
+    Of Ossian heroes,
+  Giants, and witches and young men bold
+    Seeking adventures,
+  Winning Kings' daughters, and guarded gold
+    Only with valor.
+
+
+The House of Ragnor was a large and very picturesque edifice. It was
+built of red and white sandstone which Time had covered with a
+heathery lichen, softening the whole into a shade of greenish grey.
+Many minds and many hands had fashioned it, for above its central door
+was the date, 1688, which would presuppose that it had been built
+from revenues coming as a reward for opposition to the Stuarts. It had
+been altered and enlarged by nearly every occupant, was many-roomed,
+and surrounded by a large garden, full of such small fruits as could
+ripen in the short summers, and of such flowers and shrubs as could
+live through the long winters. In sheltered situations, there were
+even hardy roses, and a royal plenty of England's spring flowers
+sweetened many months of the year. A homely garden, where berries and
+roses grew together and privet hedges sheltered peas and lettuce, and
+tulips and wall-flowers did not disdain the proximity of household
+vegetables.
+
+Doubtless the Ragnors had been jarls in old Norwegian times, but in
+1853 such memories had been forgotten, and Conall Ragnor was quite
+content with his reputation of being the largest trader in Orkney, and
+a very wealthy man. Physically he was of towering stature. His hair
+was light brown, and rather curly; his eyes large and bright blue, his
+face broad and rosy. He had great bodily and mental vigor, he was
+blunt in speech, careless about his dress, and simple in all his ways.
+His Protestantism was of the most decided character, but he was not a
+Presbyterian. Presbyterianism was a new thing on the face of the
+earth; he had been "authoritatively told, the Apostles were
+Episcopalians."
+
+"My soul has received no orders to go to thy Presbyterian Church," he
+said to the young Calvinist minister who asked him to do so. "When the
+order comes, then that may happen which has never happened before."
+
+Yet in spite of his pronounced nationality, and his Episcopal faith,
+he married Rahal Gordon from the braes of Moray; a Highland Scotch
+woman and a strict Calvinist. What compact had been made between them
+no one knew, but it had been sufficient to prevent all religious
+disputes during a period of twenty-six years. If Rahal Ragnor had any
+respectable excuse, she did not go to the ritual service in the
+Cathedral. If she had no such excuse, she went there with her husband
+and family. Then doubtless her prayer was the prayer of Naaman, that
+when "she bowed herself in the House of Rimmon, the Lord would pardon
+her for it."
+
+No one could deny her beauty, though it was of the Highland Scotch
+type, and therefore a great contrast to the Orcadean blonde. She was
+slender and dark, with plentiful, glossy, black hair, and soft brown
+eyes. Her face was oval and richly coloured. Her temperament was frank
+and domestic; yet she had a romantic side, and a full appreciation of
+what she called "a proper man."
+
+They had had many children, but four were dead, and three daughters
+were married and living in Edinburgh and Lerwick, and two sons had
+emigrated to Canada; while the youngest of all, a boy of fifteen, was
+a midshipman on Her Majesty's man-of-war, _Vixen_, so that only one
+boy and one girl were with their parents. These were Boris, the eldest
+son, who was sailing his own ship on business ventures to French and
+Dutch ports, and Thora, the only unmarried daughter. And in 1853 these
+five persons lived happily enough together in the Ragnor House,
+Kirkwall.
+
+One day in the spring of 1853 Conall Ragnor was at the rear door of
+his warehouse. The sea was lippering against its foundation, and he
+stood with his hand on his left hip, as with a raised head and keen
+eyes, he searched the far horizon.
+
+In a few minutes he turned with a look of satisfaction. "Well and
+good!" he thought. "Now I will go home. I have the news I was watching
+for." Anon he looked at his watch and reflecting a moment assured
+himself that Boris and the _Sea Gull_ would be safely at anchor by
+five o'clock.
+
+So with an air of satisfaction he walked through the warehouse,
+looking critically at the men cleaning and packing feathers, or dried
+fish, or fresh eggs. There was no sign of slacking in this department,
+and he turned into the shop where men were weighing groceries and
+measuring cloth. All seemed well, and after a short delay in his own
+particular office he went comfortably home.
+
+Meanwhile his daughter Thora was talking of him, and wondering what
+news he would bring them, and Mistress Ragnor, in a very smart cap and
+a gown of dark violet silk, was knitting by the large window in the
+living room--a very comfortable room carpeted with a good Kilmarnock
+"three-ply" and curtained with red moreen. There were a few sea
+pictures on the walls, and there was a good fire of drift-wood and
+peat upon the snow-white hearth.
+
+Thora had just entered the room with a clean table-cloth in her hands.
+Her mother gave her a quick glance of admiration and then said:
+
+"I thought thou wert looking for Boris home tonight."
+
+"Well, then, Mother, that is so. He said we must give him a little
+dance tonight, and I have asked the girls he likes best to come here.
+I thought this was known to thee. To call my words back now, will give
+great disappointment."
+
+"No need is there to call any word back. Because of thy dress I feared
+there had been some word of delay. If likelihood rule, Maren and Helga
+Torrie will wear the best they have."
+
+"That is most certain, but I am not minded to outdress the Torrie
+girls. Very hard it is for them to get a pretty frock, and it will
+make them happy to see themselves smarter than Thora Ragnor."
+
+"Thou should think of thyself."
+
+"Well, I am generally uppermost in my own mind. Also, in Edinburgh I
+was told that the hostess must not outdress her guests."
+
+"Edinburgh and Kirkwall are not in the same latitude. Keep mind of
+that. Step forward and let me look at thee."
+
+So Thora stood up before her mother, and the light from the window
+fell all over her, and she was beautiful from head to feet. Tall and
+slender, with a great quantity of soft brown hair very loosely
+arranged on the crown of her head; a forehead broad and white;
+eyebrows, plentiful and well arched; starlike blue eyes, with a large,
+earnest gaze and an oval face tinted like a rose. Oh! why try to
+describe a girl so lovely? It is like pulling a rose to pieces. It is
+easier to say that she was fleshly perfect and that, being yet in her
+eighteenth year, she had all the bloom of opening flowers, and all
+their softness and sweetness.
+
+Apparently she owed little to her dress, and yet it would have
+been difficult to choose anything more befitting her, for though it
+was only of wine-coloured cashmere, it was made with a plain
+picturesqueness that rendered it most effective. The short sleeves
+then worn gave to her white arms the dark background that made them
+a fascination; the high waist, cut open in front to a point, was
+filled in with white satin, over which it was laced together with a
+thin silk cord of the same colour as the dress. A small lace collar
+completed the toilet, and for the occasion, it was perfect;
+anything added to it would have made it imperfect.
+
+This was the girl who, standing before her mother, asked for her
+approval. And Rahal Ragnor's eyes were filled with her beauty, and she
+could only say:
+
+"Dear thing! There is no need to change! Just as thou art pleases
+me!"
+
+Then with a face full of love Thora stooped and kissed her mother and
+anon began to set the table for the expected guests. With sandalled
+feet and smiling face, she walked about the room with the composure of
+a goddess. There was no hesitation concerning what she had to do; all
+had been arranged and settled in her mind previously, though now and
+then, the discussion of a point appeared to be pleasant and
+satisfying. Thus she thoughtfully said:
+
+"Mother, there will be thyself and father and Boris, that is three,
+and Sunna Vedder, and Helga and Maren Torrie, that makes six, and Gath
+Peterson, and Wolf Baikie and his sisters Sheila and Maren make ten,
+and myself, eleven--that is all and it is enough."
+
+"Why not make it twelve?"
+
+"There is luck in odd numbers. I am the eleventh. I like it."
+
+"Thou might have made it ten. There is one girl on thy list it would
+be better without."
+
+"Art thou thinking of Sunna Vedder, Mother?"
+
+"Yes, I am thinking of Sunna Vedder."
+
+"Well and good. But if Sunna is not here, Boris would feel as if
+there was no one present. It is Sunna he wants to see. It is Sunna he
+wants to please. He says he is so sorry for her."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because she has to live with old Vedder who is nothing but a
+bookworm."
+
+"Vedder is a very clever man. The Bishop was saying that."
+
+"Yes, in a way he was saying it, but----"
+
+"The Bishop was not liking the books he was studying. He said they did
+men and women no good. Thy father was telling me many things. Yes, so
+it is! The Vedders are counted queer--they are different from thee and
+me, and--the Bishop."
+
+"And the Dominie?"
+
+"That may well be. Thy father has a will for Boris to marry Andrina
+Thorkel."
+
+"Boris will never marry Andrina. It would be great bad luck if he did.
+Many speak ill of her. She has a temper to please the devil. I was
+hearing she would marry Scot Keppoch. That would do; for then they
+would not spoil two houses."
+
+"Tell thy father thy thought, and he will give thee thy answer;--but
+why talk of the Future and the Maybe? The Now is the hour of the wise,
+so I will go upstairs and lay out some proper clothing and do thou
+get thy father to dress himself, as Conall Ragnor ought to do."
+
+"That may not be easy to manage."
+
+"Few things are beyond thy say-so." Then she lifted her work-bag and
+left the room.
+
+During this conversation Conall Ragnor had been slowly making his way
+home, after leaving his warehouse when the work of the day was done.
+Generally he liked his walk through the town to his homestead, which
+was just outside the town limits. It was often pleasant and
+flattering. The women came to their doors to watch him, or to speak to
+him, and their admiration and friendliness was welcome. For many years
+he had been used to it, but he had not in the least outgrown the
+thrill of satisfaction it gave him. And often he wondered if his wife
+noticed the good opinion that the ladies of Kirkwall had for her
+husband.
+
+"Of course she does," he commented, "but a great wonder it would be if
+my Rahal should speak of it. In that hour she would be out of the
+commodity of pride, or she would have forgotten herself entirely."
+
+This day he had received many good-natured greetings--Jenny Torrie had
+told him that the _Sea Gull_ was just coming into harbour, and so
+heavy with cargo that the sea was worrying at her gunwale; then Mary
+Inkster--from the other side of the street--added, "Both hands--seen
+and unseen--are full, Captain, I'll warrant that!"
+
+"Don't thee warrant beyond thy knowledge, Mary," answered Ragnor, with
+a laugh. "The _Sea Gull_ may have hands; she has no tongue."
+
+"All that touches the _Sea Gull_ is a thing by itself," cried pretty
+Astar Graff, whose husband was one of the _Sea Gull's_ crew.
+
+"So, then, Astar, she takes her own at point and edge. That is her
+way, and her right," replied Ragnor.
+
+Thus up the narrow street, from one side or the other, Conall Ragnor
+was greeted. Good wishes and good advice, with now and then a careful
+innuendo, were freely given and cheerfully taken; and certainly the
+recipient of so much friendly notice was well pleased with its freedom
+and good will. He came into his own house with the smiling amiability
+of a man who has had all the wrinkles of the day's business smoothed
+and soothed out of him.
+
+Looking round the room, he was rather glad his wife was not there. She
+was generally cool about such attentions, and secretly offended by
+their familiarity. For she was not only a reader and a thinker, she
+was also a great observer, and she had seen and considered the slow
+but sure coming of that spirit of progress, which would break up their
+isolation and, with it, the social privileges of her class. However,
+she kept all her fears on this subject in her heart. Not even to Thora
+would she talk of them lest she might be an inciter of thoughts that
+would raise up a class who would degrade her own: "Few people can be
+trusted with a dangerous thought, and who can tell where spoken words
+go to." And this idea, she knit, or stitched, into every garment her
+fingers fashioned.
+
+So, then, it was quite in keeping with her character to pass by
+Conall's little social enthusiasms with a chilling indifference, and
+if any wonder or complaint was made of this attitude, to reply:
+
+"When men and women of thine own worth and station bow down to thee,
+Conall, then thou will find Rahal Ragnor among them; but I do not
+mingle my words with those of the men and women who sort goose
+feathers, and pack eggs and gut fish for the salting. Thy wife,
+Conall, looks up, and not down."
+
+Well, then, as Rahal knew that the safe return of Boris with the _Sea
+Gull_ would possibly be an occasion for these friendly familiarities,
+she wisely took herself out of the way of hearing anything about it.
+And it is a great achievement when we learn the limit of our power to
+please. Conall Ragnor had not quite mastered the lesson in twenty-six
+years. Very often, yet, he had a half-alive hope that these small
+triumphs of his daily life might at length awaken in his wife's breast
+a sympathetic pleasure. Today it was allied with the return of Boris
+and his ship, and he thought this event might atone for whatever was
+repugnant.
+
+And yet, after all, when he saw no one but Thora present, he had a
+sense of relief. He told her all that had been said and done, and
+added such incidents of Boris and the ship as he thought would please
+her. She laughed and chatted with him, and listened with unabated
+pleasure to the very end, indeed, until he said: "Now, then, I must
+stop talking. I dare say there are many things to look after, for
+Boris told me he would be home for dinner at six o'clock. Till that
+hour I will take a little nap on the sofa."
+
+"But first, my Father, thou wilt go and dress. Everything is ready for
+thee, and mother is dressed, and as for Thora, is she not pretty
+tonight?"
+
+"Thou art the fairest of all women here, if I know anything about
+beauty. Wolf Baikie will be asking the first dance with thee."
+
+"That dance is thine. Mother has given thee to me for that dance."
+
+"To me? That is very agreeable. I am proud to be thy father."
+
+"Then go and dress thyself. I am particular about my partners."
+
+"Dress! What is wrong with my dress?"
+
+"Everything! Not an article in it is worthy of thee and the
+occasion."
+
+"I tell thee, all is as it should be. I am not minded to change it in
+any way."
+
+"Yes; to please Thora, thou wilt make some changes. Do, my Father. I
+love thee so! I am so proud of thy figure, and thou can show even Wolf
+Baikie how he ought to dance."
+
+"Well, then, just for thee--I will wash and put on fresh linen."
+
+"And comb thy beautiful hair. If thou but wet it, then it curls so
+that any girl would envy thee. And all the women would say that it was
+from thee, Thora got her bright, brown, curly hair."
+
+"To comb my hair? That is but a trifle. I will do it to please thee."
+
+"And thou wilt wet it, to make it curl?"
+
+"That I will do also--to please thee."
+
+"Then, as we are to dance together, thou wilt put on thy fine white
+socks, and thy Spanish leather shoes--the pair that have the bright
+buckles on the instep. Yes, thou wilt do me that great favour."
+
+"Thou art going too far; I will not do that."
+
+"Not for thy daughter Thora?" and she laid her cheek against his
+cheek, and whispered with a kiss, "Yes, thou wilt wear the buckled
+shoes for Thora. They will look so pretty in the dance: and Wolf
+Baikie cannot toss his head at thy boots, as he did at Aunt Brodie's
+Christmas dinner."
+
+"Did he do that thing?"
+
+"I saw him, and I would not dance with him because of it."
+
+"Thou did right. Thy Aunt Barbara----"
+
+"Is my aunt, and thy eldest sister. All she does is square and
+upright; what she says, it were well for the rest of the town to take
+heed to. It would please Aunt if thou showed Wolf Baikie thou had
+dancing shoes and also knew right well how to step in them."
+
+"Well, then, thou shalt have thy way. I will wash, I will comb my
+hair, I will put on clean linen and white socks and my buckled shoes.
+That is all I will do! I will not change my suit--no, I will not!"
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Well, then, what call for 'Father' now?"
+
+"I want thee to wear thy kirk suit."
+
+"I will not! No, I will not! The flannel suit is good enough for any
+man."
+
+"Yes, if it were clean and sweet, and had no fish scales on it, and no
+fish smell in it. And even here--at the very end of the world--thy
+friend, the good Bishop, wears black broadcloth and all gentlemen copy
+him. If Thora was thy sweetheart, instead of thy own dear daughter,
+she would not dance with thee in anything but thy best suit."
+
+"It seems to me, my own dear daughter, that very common people wear
+kirk toggery. When I go to the hotels in Edinburgh, or Aberdeen, or
+Inverness, I find all the men who wait on other men are in kirk
+clothes; and if I go to a theatre, the men who wait on the crowd there
+wear kirk clothes, and----"
+
+"Thy Bishop also wears black broadcloth."
+
+"That will be because of his piety and humility. I am not as pious
+and humble as I might be. No, indeed! Not in everything can I humour
+thee, and trouble myself; but this thing is what I will do--I have a
+new suit of fine blue flannel; last night I brought it home. At
+McVittie's it was made, and well it fits me. For thy sake I will wear
+it. This is the end of our talk. No more will I do."
+
+"Thou dear father! It is enough! With a thousand kisses I thank
+thee."
+
+"Too many kisses! Too many kisses! Thou shalt give me five when we
+finish our dance; one for my curled hair, and one for my white, fresh
+linen, and one for my socks, and one for my buckled shoes, and the
+last for my new blue suit. And in that bargain thou wilt get the best
+of me, so one favour in return from thee I must have."
+
+"Dear Father, thy will is my will. What is thy wish?"
+
+"I want thy promise not to dance with Wolf Baikie. Because of his
+sneer I am coaxed to dress as I do not want to dress. Well, then, I
+will take his place with thee, and every dance he asks from thee is to
+be given to me."
+
+Without a moment's hesitation Thora replied: "That agreement does not
+trouble me. It will be to my great satisfaction. So, then, thou art
+no nearer to getting the best of the bargain."
+
+"Thou art a clever, handsome little baggage. But my promises I will
+keep, and it is well for me to be about them. Time flies talking to
+thee," and he looked at his watch and said, "It is now five minutes
+past five."
+
+"Then thou must make some haste. Dinner is set for six o'clock."
+
+"Dost thou think I will fiddle-faddle about myself like a woman?"
+
+"But thou must wash----"
+
+"In the North Sea I wash me every morning. Before thou hast opened thy
+eyes I have had my bath and my swim in the salt water."
+
+"There is rain water in thy room; try it for a change." And he
+answered her with a roar of laughter far beyond Thora's power to
+imitate. But with it ringing in her heart and ears she saw him go to a
+spare room to keep his promises. Then she hastened to her mother.
+
+"Whatever is the matter with thy father, Thora?"
+
+"He has promised to wash and dress. I got all I asked for."
+
+"Will he change his suit?"
+
+"He has a fine new suit. It was hid away in Aunt's room."
+
+"What made him do such a childish thing?"
+
+"To please thee, it was done. It was to be a surprise, I think."
+
+"I will go to him."
+
+"No, no, Mother! Let father have the pleasure he planned. To thee he
+will come, as soon as he is dressed."
+
+"Am I right? From top to toe?"
+
+"From top to toe just as thou should be. The white roses in thy cap
+look lovely with the violet silk gown. Very pretty art thou, dear
+Mother."
+
+"I can still wear roses, but they are white roses now. I used to wear
+pink, Thora."
+
+"Pink and crimson and yellow roses thou may wear yet. Because white
+roses go best with violet I put that colour in thy cap for tonight.
+Think of what my aunt said when thou complained to her of growing old,
+'Rahal, the mother of twelve sons and daughters is always young.' Now
+I will run away, for my father does everything quickly."
+
+In about ten or fifteen minutes, Rahal Ragnor heard him coming. Then
+she stood up and watched the swift throwing open of the door, and the
+entrance of her husband. With a cry of pleasure she clapped her hands
+and said joyfully:
+
+"Oh, Coll! Oh, my dear Coll!" and the next moment Coll kissed her.
+
+"Thou hast made thyself so handsome--just to please me!"
+
+"Yes, for thee! Who else is there? Do I please thee now?"
+
+"Always thou pleases me! But tonight, I have fallen in love with thee
+over again!"
+
+"And yet Thora wanted me to wear my kirk suit," and he walked to the
+glass and looked with great satisfaction at himself. "I think this
+suit is more becoming."
+
+"My dear Coll, thou art right. A good blue flannel suit is a man's
+natural garment. To everyone, rich and poor, it is becoming. If thou
+always dressed as thou art now dressed, I should never have the heart
+or spirit to contradict thee. Thou could have thy own way, year in and
+year out."
+
+"Is that the truth, my dear Rahal? Or is it a compliment?"
+
+"It is the very truth, dear one!"
+
+"From this hour, then, I will dress to thy wish and pleasure."
+
+She stepped quickly to his side and whispered: "In that case, there
+will not be in all Scotland a more distinguished and proper man than
+Conall Ragnor!"
+
+And in a large degree Conall Ragnor was worthy of all the fine things
+his wife said to him. The new clothes fell gracefully over his grand
+figure; he stepped out freely in the light easy shoes he was wearing;
+there was not a single thing stiff or tight or uncomfortable about
+him. Even his shirt collar fell softly round his throat, and the
+bright crimson necktie passed under it was unrestrained by anything
+but a handsome pin, which left his throat bare and gave the scarf
+permission to hang as loosely as a sailor's.
+
+At length Rahal said, "I see that Boris and the ship are safely home
+again."
+
+"Ship and cargo safe in port, and every man on board well and hearty.
+On the stroke of six he will be here. He said so, and Boris keeps his
+word. I hear the sound of talking and laughing. Let us go to meet
+them."
+
+They came in a merry company, Boris, with Sunna Vedder on his arm
+leading them. They came joyously; singing, laughing, chattering,
+making all the noise that youth seems to think is essential to
+pleasure. However, I shall not describe this evening. A dinner-dance
+is pretty much alike in all civilized and semi-civilized communities.
+It will really be more descriptive to indicate a few aspects in which
+this function of amusement differed from one of the same kind given
+last night in a fashionable home or hotel in New York.
+
+First, the guests came all together from some agreed-upon rendezvous.
+They walked, for private carriages were very rare and there were none
+for hire. However, this walking party was generally a very pleasant
+introduction to a more pleasant and intimate evening. The women were
+wrapped up in their red or blue cloaks, and the men carried their
+dancing slippers, fans, bouquets, and other small necessities of the
+ballroom.
+
+Second, the old and the young had an equal share in any entertainment,
+and if there was a difference, it was in favour of the old. On this
+very night Conall Ragnor danced in every figure called, except a
+saraband, which he said was too slow and formal to be worth calling a
+dance. Even old Adam Vedder who had come on his own invitation--but
+welcome all the same--went through the Orkney Quickstep with the two
+prettiest girls present, Thora Ragnor and Maren Torrie. For honourable
+age was much respected and every young person wished to share his
+happiness with it.
+
+A very marked characteristic was the evident pleasure old and young
+had in the gratification of their sense of taste, in the purely animal
+pleasure of eating good things. No one had a bad appetite, and if
+anyone wished for more of a dish they liked, they asked for it. Indeed
+they had an easy consciousness of paying their hostess a compliment,
+and of giving themselves a little more pleasure.
+
+Finally, they made the day, day; and the night, night. Such gatherings
+broke up about eleven o'clock; then the girls went home unwearied, to
+sleep, and morning found them rosy and happy, already wondering who
+would give them the next dance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ADAM VEDDER'S TROUBLE
+
+  ... they do not trust their tongues alone
+  But speak a language of their own;
+  Convey a libel in a frown,
+  And wink a reputation down;
+  Or by the tossing of a fan,
+  Describe the lady and the man.--SWIFT
+
+  It is good to be merry and wise,
+    It is good to be honest and true,
+  It is well to be off with the old love
+    Before you are on with the new.
+
+
+Boris did not remain long in the home port. It was drawing near to
+Lent, and this was a sacred term very highly regarded by the citizens
+of this ancient cathedral town. Of course in the Great Disruption the
+National Episcopal Church had suffered heavy loss, but Lent was a
+circumstance of the Soul, so near and dear to its memory, that even
+those disloyal to their Mother Church could not forget or ignore it.
+In some cases it was secretly more faithfully observed than ever
+before; then its penitential prayers became intensely pathetic in
+their loneliness. For these self-bereft souls could not help
+remembering the days when they went up with the multitude to keep the
+Holy Fast in the House of their God.
+
+Rahal Ragnor had never kept it. It had been only a remnant of popery
+to her. Long before the Free Kirk had been born, she and all her
+family had been Dissenters of some kind or other. And yet her life and
+her home were affected by this Episcopal "In Memoriam" in a great
+number of small, dominating ways, so that in the course of years she
+had learned to respect a ceremonial that she did not endorse. For she
+knew that no one kept Lent with a truer heart than Conall Ragnor, and
+that the Lenten services in the cathedral interfered with his business
+to an extent nothing purely temporal would have been permitted to do.
+
+So, after the little dance given to Boris, there was a period of
+marked quietness in Kirkwall. It was as if some mighty Hand had been
+laid across the strings of Life and softened and subdued all their
+reverberations. There was no special human influence exerted for this
+purpose, yet no one could deny the presence of some unseen, unusual
+element.
+
+"Every day seems like Sabbath Day," said Thora.
+
+"It is Lent," answered Rahal.
+
+"And after Lent comes Easter, dear Mother."
+
+"That is the truth."
+
+In the meantime Boris had gone to Edinburgh on the bark _Sea Gull_ to
+complete his cargo of Scotch ginghams and sewed muslins, native
+jewelry and table delicacies. Perhaps, indeed, the minimum notice
+accorded Lent in the metropolitan city had something to do with this
+journey, which was not a usual one; but after the departure of the
+_Sea Gull_ the Ragnor household had settled down to a period of
+domestic quiet. The Master had to make up the hours spent in the
+cathedral by a longer stay in the store, and the women at this time
+generally avoided visiting; they felt--though they did not speak of
+it--the old prohibition of unkind speech, and the theological quarrel
+was yet so new and raw that to touch it was to provoke controversy,
+instead of conversation.
+
+It was at such vacant times that old Adam Vedder's visits were doubly
+welcome. One day in mid-Lent he came to the Ragnor house, when it was
+raining with that steady deliberation that gives no hope of anything
+better. Throwing off his waterproof outer garments, he left them to
+drip dry in the kitchen. An old woman, watching him, observed:
+
+"Thou art wetting the clean floor, Master Vedder," and he briskly
+answered: "That is thy business, Helga, not mine. Is thy mistress in
+the house?"
+
+"Would she be out, if she had any good sense left?"
+
+"How can a man tell what a woman will do? Where is thy mistress?" and
+he spoke in a tone so imperative, that she answered with shrinking
+humility:
+
+"I ask thy favour. Mistress Ragnor is in the right-hand parlour. I
+will look after thy cloak."
+
+"It will be well for thee to do that."
+
+Then Adam went to the right-hand parlour and found Rahal sitting by
+the fire sewing.
+
+"I am glad to see thee, Rahal," he said.
+
+"I am glad to see thee always--more at this time than at any other."
+
+"Well, that is good, but why at this time more than at any other?"
+
+"The town is depressed; business goes on, but in a silent fashion.
+There is no social pleasure--surely the reason is known to thee!"
+
+"So it is, and the reason is good. When people are confessing their
+sins, and asking pardon for the same, they cannot feel it to be a
+cheerful entertainment; and, as thou observed, it affects even their
+business, which I myself notice is done without the usual joking or
+quarrelling or drinking of good healths. Well, then, that also is
+right. Where is Thora?"
+
+"She is going to a lecture this afternoon to be given by the
+Archdeacon Spens to the young girls, and she is preparing for it." And
+as these words were uttered, Thora entered the room. She was dressed
+for the storm outside, and wore the hood of her cloak drawn well over
+her hair; in her hands were a pair of her father's slippers.
+
+"For thee I brought them," she said, as she held them out to Vedder.
+"I heard thy voice, and I was sure thy feet would be wet. See, then, I
+have brought thee my father's slippers. He would like thee to wear
+them--so would I."
+
+"I will not wear them, Thora. I will not stand in any man's shoes but
+my own. It is an unchancy, unlucky thing to do. Thanks be to thee, but
+I will keep my own standing, wet or dry. Look to that rule for
+thyself, and remember what I say. Let me see if thou art well shod."
+
+Thora laughed, stood straight up, and drew her dress taut, and put
+forward two small feet, trigly protected by high-laced boots. Then,
+looking at her mother, she asked: "Are the boots sufficient, or shall
+I wear over them my French clogs?"
+
+Vedder answered her question. "The clogs are not necessary," he said.
+"The rain runs off as fast as it falls. Thy boots are all such
+trifling feet can carry. What can women do on this hard world-road
+with such impediments as French clogs over English boots?"
+
+"Mr. Vedder, they will do whatever they want to do; and they will go
+wherever they want to go; and they will walk in their own shoes, and
+work in their own shoes, and be well satisfied with them."
+
+"Thora, I am sorry I was born in the last century. If I had waited for
+about fifty years I would have been in proper time to marry thee."
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"Yes; for I would not have let a woman so fair and good as thou art go
+out of my family. We should have been man and wife. That would
+certainly have happened."
+
+"If two had been willing, it might have been. Now our talk must end;
+the Archdeacon likes not a late comer;" and with this remark, and a
+beaming smile, she went away.
+
+Then there was a silence, full of words longing to be spoken; but
+Rahal Ragnor was a prudent woman, and she sighed and sewed and left
+Vedder to open the conversation. He looked at her a little impatiently
+for a few moments, then he asked:
+
+"To what port has thy son Boris sailed?"
+
+"Boris intends to go to Leith, if wind and water let him do so."
+
+"Boris is not asking wind and water about his affairs. There is a
+question I know not how to answer. I am wanting thy help."
+
+"If that be so, speak thy mind to me."
+
+"I want a few words of advice about a woman."
+
+"Is that woman thy granddaughter, Sunna?"
+
+"A right guess thou hast made."
+
+"Then I would rather not speak of her."
+
+"Thy reason? What is it?"
+
+"She is too clever for a simple woman like me. I have not two faces. I
+cannot make the same words mean two distinct and separate things.
+Sunna has all thy self-wisdom, but she has not thy true heart and thy
+wise tongue."
+
+"Listen to me! Things have come to this--Boris has made love to Sunna
+in the face of all Kirkwall. He has done this for more than a year.
+Then for two weeks before he left for Leith he came not near my house,
+and if he met Sunna in any friend's house he was no longer her lover.
+What is the meaning of this? My girl is unhappy and angry, and I
+myself am far from being satisfied; thou tell, what is wrong between
+them?"
+
+"I would prefer neither to help nor hinder thee in this matter. There
+is a broad way between these two ways, that I am minded to take. It
+will be better for me to do so, and perhaps better for thee also."
+
+"I thought I could count on thee for my friend. Bare is a man's back
+without friends behind it! In thee I trusted. While I feared and
+doubted, I thought, 'If worse comes I will go at once to Rahal
+Ragnor'--_Thou hast failed me_."
+
+"Say not that--my old, dear friend! It is beyond truth. What I know I
+told to my husband; and I asked him if it would be kind and well to
+tell thee, and he said to me: 'Be not a bearer of ill news to Vedder.
+Little can thou trust any evil report; few people are spoken of better
+than they deserve.' Then I gave counsel to myself, thus: Conall has
+four dear daughters, _he knows_. Conall loves his old friend Vedder;
+if he thought to interfere was right, he would advise Vedder to
+interfere or he would interfere for him, and my wish was to spare thee
+the sorrow that comes from women's tongues. I was also sure that if
+the news was true, it would find thee out--if not true, why should
+Rahal Ragnor sow seeds of suspicion and ill-will? Is Sunna disobedient
+to thee?"
+
+"She is something worse--she deceives me. Her name is mixed up with
+some report--I know not what. No one loves me well enough to tell me
+what is wrong."
+
+"Well, then, thou art more feared than loved. Few know thee well
+enough to risk thy anger and all know that Norsemen are bitter
+cruel to those who dare to say that one hair of their women is out
+of its place. Who, then, would dare to say this or that about thy
+granddaughter?"
+
+"Rahal Ragnor could speak safely to me."
+
+Then there was silence for a few moments and Rahal sat with her
+doubled-up left hand against her lips, gazing out of the window.
+Vedder did not disturb her. He waited patiently until she said:
+
+"If I tell thee what was told me, wilt thou visit the story upon my
+husband, or myself, or any of my children?"
+
+Vedder took a signet ring from his finger and kissed it. "Rahal," he
+said, "I have kissed this ring of my fathers to seal the promise I
+shall make thee. If thou wilt give me thy confidence in this matter of
+Sunna Vedder, it shall be for thy good, and for the good of thy
+husband, and for the good of all thy children, as far as Adam Vedder
+can make it so."
+
+"I ask a special promise for my son Boris, for he is concerned in this
+matter."
+
+"Boris can take good care of Boris: nevertheless, I promise thee that
+I will not say or look or do, with hands or tongue, anything that will
+injure, or even annoy, Boris Ragnor. Unto the end of my life, I
+promise this. What may come after, I know not. If there should be a
+wrong done, we will fight it out elsewhere."
+
+"Thy words are sufficient. Listen, then! There is a family, in the
+newest and best part of the town, called McLeod. They are yet strange
+here. They are Highland Scotch. Many say they are Roman Catholics.
+They sing Jacobite songs, and they go not to any church. They have
+opened a great trading route; and they have brought many new customs
+and new ideas with them. A certain class of our people make much of
+them; others are barely civil to them; the best of our citizens do not
+notice them at all. But they have plenty of money, and live
+extravagantly, and the garrison's officers are constantly seen there.
+Do you know them?"
+
+"I have heard of them."
+
+"McLeod has a large trading fleet, and he has interfered with the
+business of Boris in many ways."
+
+"Hast thou ever seen him? Tell me what he is like."
+
+"I have seen him many times. He is a complete Highlander; tall,
+broad-shouldered and apparently very strong, also very graceful. He
+has high cheekbones, and a red beard, but all talk about him, and many
+think him altogether handsome."
+
+"And thou? What dost thou think?"
+
+"When I saw him, he was in earnest discussion with one of his men, and
+he was not using English but sputtering a torrent of shrill Gaelic,
+shrugging his shoulders, throwing his arms about, thrilling with
+excitement--but for all that, he was the picture of a man that most
+women would find irresistible."
+
+"I have heard that he wears the Highland dress."
+
+"Not on the street. They have many entertainments; he may wear it in
+some of them; but I think he is too wise to wear it in public. The
+Norseman is much indebted to the Scot--but it would not do to flaunt
+the feathered cap and philabeg too much--on Kirkwall streets."
+
+"You ought to know."
+
+"Yes, I am Highland Scotch, thank God! I understand this man, though I
+have never spoken to him. I know little about the Lowland Scot. He is
+a different race, and is quite a different man. You would not like
+him, Adam."
+
+"I know him. He is a fine fellow; quiet, cool-blooded, has little to
+say, and wastes no strength in emotion. There's wisdom for you--but go
+on with thy talk, woman; it hurts me, but I must hear it to the end."
+
+"Well, then, Kenneth McLeod has the appearance of a gentleman, though
+he is only a trader."
+
+"Say _smuggler_, Rahal, and you might call him by a truer name."
+
+"Many whisper the same word. Of a smuggler, a large proportion of our
+people think no wrong. That you know. He is a kind of hero to some
+girls. Many grand parties these McLeods give--music and dancing, and
+eating and drinking, and the young officers of the garrison are there,
+as well as our own gay young men; and where these temptations are,
+young women are sure to go. His aunt is mistress of his house.
+
+"Now, then, this thing happened when Boris was last here. One night he
+heard two men talking as they went down the street before him. The
+rain was pattering on the flagged walk and he did not well understand
+their conversation, but it was altogether of the McLeods and their
+entertainments. Suddenly he heard the name of Sunna Vedder. Thrice he
+heard it, and he followed the men to the public house, called for
+whiskey, sat down at a table near them and pretended to be writing.
+But he grew more and more angry as he heard the free and easy talk of
+the men; and when again they named Sunna, he put himself into their
+conversation and so learned they were going to McLeod's as soon as the
+hour was struck for the dance. Boris permitted them to go, laughing
+and boastful; an hour afterwards he followed."
+
+"With whom did he go?"
+
+"Alone he went. The dance was then in progress, and men and women were
+constantly going in and out. He followed a party of four, and went in
+with them. There was a crowd on the waxed floor. They were dancing a
+new measure called the polka; and conspicuous, both for her beauty and
+her dress, he saw Sunna among them. Her partner was Kenneth McLeod,
+and he was in full McLeod tartans. No doubt have I that Sunna and her
+handsome partner made a romantic and lovely picture."
+
+"What must be the end of all this? What the devil am I to think?"
+
+"Think no worse than needs be."
+
+"What did Boris do--or say?"
+
+"He walked rapidly to Sunna, and he said, 'Miss Vedder, thou art
+wanted at thy home--at once thou art wanted. Get thy cloak, and I will
+walk with thee.'"
+
+"Then?"
+
+"She was angry, and yet terrified; but she left the room. Boris feared
+she would try and escape him, so he went to the door to meet her.
+Judge for thyself what passed between them as Boris took her home. At
+first she was angry, afterwards, she cried and begged Boris not to
+tell thee. I am sure Boris was kind to her, though he told her frankly
+she was on a dangerous road. All this I had from Boris, and it is the
+truth; as for what reports have grown from it, I give them no heed.
+Sunna was deceitful and imprudent. I would not think worse of her than
+she deserves."
+
+"Rahal, I am much thy debtor. This affair I will now take into my own
+hands. To thee, my promise stands good for all my life days--and thou
+may tell Boris, it may be worth his while to forgive Sunna. There is
+some fault with him also; he has made love to Sunna for a long time,
+but never yet has he said to me--'I wish to make Sunna my wife!' What
+is the reason of that?"
+
+"Well, then, Adam, a young man wishes to make sure of himself. Boris
+is much from home----"
+
+"There it is! For that very cause, he should have made a straight
+clear road between us. I do not excuse Sunna, but I say that wherever
+there is a cross purpose, there has likely never been a straight one.
+Thou hast treated me well, and I am thy debtor; but it shall be ill
+with all those who have led my child wrong--the more so, because the
+time chosen for their sinful deed makes it immeasurably more sinful."
+
+"The time? What is thy meaning? The time was the usual hour of all
+entertainments. Even two hours after the midnight is quite respectable
+if all else is correct."
+
+"Art thou so forgetful of the God-Man, who at this time carried the
+burden of all our sins?"
+
+"Oh! You mean it is Lent, Adam?"
+
+"Yes! It is Lent!"
+
+"I was never taught to regard it."
+
+"Yet none keep Lent more strictly than Conall Ragnor."
+
+"A wife does not always adopt her husband's ideas. I had a father,
+Adam, uncles and cousins and friends. None of them kept Lent. Dost
+thou expect me to be wiser than all my kindred?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Let us cease this talk. It will come to nothing."
+
+"Then good-bye."
+
+"Be not hard on Sunna. One side only, has been heard."
+
+"As kindly as may be, I will do right."
+
+Then Adam went away, but he left Rahal very unhappy. She had disobeyed
+her husband's advice and she could not help asking herself if she
+would have been as easily persuaded to tell a similar story about her
+own child. "Thora is a school girl yet," she thought, "but she is just
+entering the zone of temptation."
+
+In the midst of this reflection Thora came into the room. Her mother
+looked into her lovely face with a swift pang of fear. It was radiant
+with a joy not of this world. A light from an interior source
+illumined it; a light that wreathed with smiles the pure, childlike
+lips. "Oh, if she could always remain so young, and so innocent! Oh,
+if she never had to learn the sorrowful lessons that love always
+teaches!"
+
+Thus Rahal thought and wished. She forgot, as she did so, that women
+come into this world to learn the very lessons love teaches, and that
+unless these lessons are learned, the soul can make no progress, but
+must remain undeveloped and uninstructed, even until the very end of
+this session of its existence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ARIES THE RAM
+
+  O Christ whose Cross began to bloom
+    With peaceful lilies long ago;
+  Each year above Thy empty tomb
+    More thick the Easter garlands grow.
+  O'er all the wounds of this sad strife
+    Bright wreathes the new immortal life.
+
+  Thus came the word: Proclaim the year of the Lord!
+    And so he sang in peace;
+  Under the yoke he sang, in the shadow of the sword,
+  Sang of glory and release.
+  The heart may sigh with pain for the people pressed and slain,
+  The soul may faint and fall:
+  The flesh may melt and die--but the Voice saith, Cry!
+  And the Voice is more than all.--CARL SPENCER.
+
+
+It was Saturday morning and the next day was Easter Sunday. The little
+town of Kirkwall was in a state of happy, busy excitement, for though
+the particular house cleaning of the great occasion was finished,
+every housewife was full laden with the heavy responsibility of
+feeding the guests sure to arrive for the Easter service. Even Rahal
+Ragnor had both hands full. She was expecting her sister-in-law,
+Madame Barbara Brodie by that day's boat, and nobody ever knew how
+many guests Aunt Barbara would bring with her. Then if her own home
+was not fully prepared to afford them every comfort, she would be sure
+to leave them at the Ragnor house until all was in order. Certainly
+she had said in her last letter that she was not "going to be imposed
+upon, by anyone this spring"--and Thora reminded her mother of this
+fact.
+
+"Dost thou indeed believe thy aunt's assurances?" asked Rahal. "Hast
+thou not seen her break them year after year? She will either ask some
+Edinburgh friend to come back to Kirkwall with her, or she will pick
+up someone on the way home. Is it not so?"
+
+"Aunt generally leaves Edinburgh alone. It is the people she picks up
+on her way home that are so uncertain. Dear Mother, can I go now to
+the cathedral? The flowers are calling me."
+
+"Are there many flowers this year?"
+
+"More than we expected. The Balfour greenhouse has been stripped and
+they have such a lovely company of violets and primroses and white
+hyacinths with plenty of green moss and ivy. The Baikies have a
+hothouse and have such roses and plumes of curled parsley to put
+behind them, and lilies-of-the-valley; and I have robbed thy
+greenhouse, Mother, and taken all thy fairest auriculas and
+cyclamens."
+
+"They are for God's altar. All I have is His. Take what vases thou
+wants, but Helga must carry them for thee."
+
+"And, Mother, can I have the beautiful white Wedgewood basket for the
+altar? It looked so exquisite last Easter."
+
+"It now belongs to the altar. I gave it freely last Easter. I promised
+then that it should never hold flowers again for any meaner festival.
+Take whatever thou wants for thy purpose, and delay me no longer. I
+have this day to put two days' work into one day." Then she lifted her
+eyes from the pastry she was making and looking at Thora, asked: "Art
+thou not too lightly clothed?"
+
+"I have warm underclothing on. Thou would not like me to dress God's
+altar in anything but pure white linen? All that I wear has been made
+spotless for this day's work."
+
+"That is right, but now thou must make some haste. There is no
+certainty about Aunt Barbie. She may be at her home this very
+minute."
+
+"The boat is not due until ten o'clock."
+
+"Not unless Barbara Brodie wanted to land at seven. Then, if she
+wished, winds and waves would have her here at seven. Her wishes
+follow her like a shadow. Go thy way now. Thou art troubling me. I
+believe I have put too much sugar in the custard."
+
+"But that would be a thing incredible." Then Thora took a hasty kiss,
+and went her way. A large scarlet cloak covered her white linen dress,
+and its hood was drawn partially over her head. In her hands she
+carried the precious Wedgewood basket, and Helga and her daughter had
+charge of the flowers and of several glass vases for their reception.
+In an hour all Thora required had been brought safely to the vestry of
+Saint Magnus, and then she found herself quite alone in this grand,
+dim, silent House of God.
+
+In the meantime Aunt Barbara Brodie had done exactly as Rahal Ragnor
+anticipated. The boat had made the journey in an abnormally short
+time. A full sea, and strong, favourable winds, had carried her
+through the stormiest Firth in Scotland, at a racer's speed; and she
+was at her dock, and had delivered all her passengers when Conall
+Ragnor arrived at his warehouse. Then he had sent word to Rahal, and
+consequently she ventured on the prediction that "Aunt Barbara might
+already be at her home."
+
+However, it had not been told the Mistress of Ragnor, that her
+sister-in-law had actually "picked up someone on the way"; and that
+for this reason she had gone directly to her own residence. For on
+this occasion, her hospitality had been stimulated by a remarkably
+handsome young man, who had proved to be the son of Dr. John Macrae, a
+somewhat celebrated preacher of the most extreme Calvinist type. She
+heartily disapproved of the minister, but she instantly acknowledged
+the charm of his son; but without her brother's permission she thought
+it best not to hazard his influence over the inexperienced Thora.
+
+"I am fifty-two years old," she thought, "and I know the measure of a
+man's deceitfulness, so I can take care of myself, but Thora is a
+childlike lassie. It would not be fair to put her in danger without
+word or warning. The lad has a wonderful winning way with women."
+
+So she took her fascinating guest to her own residence, and when he
+had been refreshed by a good breakfast, he frankly said to her:
+
+"I came here on special business. I have a large sum of money to
+deliver, and I think I will attend to that matter at once."
+
+"I will not hinder thee," said Mrs. Brodie, "I'm no way troubled to
+take care of my own money, but it is just an aggravation to take care
+of other folks' siller. And who may thou be going to give a 'large sum
+of money' to, in Kirkwall town? I wouldn't wonder if the party isn't
+my own brother, Captain Conall Ragnor?"
+
+"No, Mistress," the young man replied. "It belongs to a young
+gentleman called McLeod."
+
+"Humph! A trading man is whiles very little of a gentleman. What do
+you think of McLeod?"
+
+"I am the manager of his Edinburgh business, so I cannot discuss his
+personality."
+
+"That's right, laddie! Folks seldom see any good thing in their
+employer; and it is quite fair for them to be just as blind to any bad
+thing in him--but I'll tell you frankly that your employer has not a
+first rate reputation here."
+
+"All right, Mistress Brodie! His reputation is not in my charge--only
+his money. I do not think the quality of his reputation can hurt
+mine."
+
+"Your father's reputation will stand bail for yours. Well now, run
+away and get business off your mind, and be back here for one o'clock
+dinner. I will not wait a minute after the clock chaps one. This
+afternoon I am going to my brother's house, and I sent him a message
+which asks for permission to bring you with me."
+
+"Thanks!" but he said the word in an unthankful tone, and then he
+looked into Mistress Brodie's face, and she laughed and imitated his
+expression, as she assured him "she had no girl with matrimonial
+intentions in view."
+
+"You see, Mistress," he said, "I do not intend to remain longer than a
+week. Why should I run into danger? I am ready to take heartaches. Can
+you tell me how best to find McLeod's warehouse?"
+
+"Speir at any man you meet, and any man will show you the place. I,
+myself, am not carin' to send folk an ill road."
+
+So Ian Macrae went into the town and easily found his friend and
+employer. Then their business was easily settled and it appeared to be
+every way gratifying to both men.
+
+"You have taken a business I hate off my hands, Ian," said McLeod,
+"and I am grateful to you. Where shall we go today? What would you
+like to do with yourself?"
+
+"Why, Kenneth, I would like first of all to see the inside of your
+grand cathedral. I would say, it must be very ancient."
+
+"Began in A. D., 1138. Is that old?"
+
+"Seven hundred years! That will do for age. They were good builders
+then. I have a strange love for these old shrines where multitudes
+have prayed for centuries. They are full of _Presence_ to me."
+
+"_Presence._ What do you mean?"
+
+"Souls."
+
+"You are a creepy kind of mortal. I think, Ian, if you were not such a
+godless man, you might have been a saint."
+
+Macrae drew his lips tight, and then said in detached words--"My
+father is--sure--I--was--born--at--the--other--end--of--the--measure."
+
+Then they were in the interior of the cathedral. The light was dim,
+the silence intense, and both men were profoundly affected by
+influences unknown and unseen. As they moved slowly forward into the
+nave, the altar became visible, and in this sacred place of Communion
+Thora was moving slowly about, leaving beauty and sweetness wherever
+she lingered.
+
+Her appearance gave both men a shock and both expressed it by a
+spasmodic breath. They spoke not; they watched her slim, white figure
+pass to-and-fro with soft and reverent steps, arranging violets and
+white hyacinths with green moss in the exquisite white Wedgewood. Then
+with a face full of innocent joy she placed it upon the altar, and for
+a few moments stood with clasped hands, looking at it.
+
+As she did so, the organist began to practice his Easter music, and
+she turned her face towards the organ. Then they saw fully a
+beautiful, almost childlike face transfigured with celestial
+emotions.
+
+"Let us get out of this," whispered McLeod. "What business have we
+here? It is a kind of sacrilege." And Ian bowed his head and followed
+him. But it was some minutes ere the every-day world became present to
+their senses. McLeod was the first to speak:--
+
+"What an experience!" he sighed. "I should not dare to try it often.
+It would send me into a monastery."
+
+"Are you a Roman Catholic?"
+
+"What else would I be? When I was a lad, I used to dream of being a
+monk. It was power I wanted. I thought then, that priests had more
+power than any other men; as I grew older I found out that it was
+money that owned the earth."
+
+"Not so!" said Ian sharply, "'the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
+thereof.' I promised to be at Mistress Brodie's for dinner at one
+o'clock. What is the time?"
+
+McLeod took out his watch:--"You have twenty minutes," he said. "I was
+just going to tell you that the girl we saw in the cathedral is her
+niece."
+
+Ian had taken a step or two in the direction of the Brodie house, but
+he turned his head, and with a bright smile said, "Thank you, Ken!"
+and McLeod watched him a moment and then with a sigh softly
+ejaculated: "What a courteous chap he is--when he is in the mood to be
+courteous--and what a ---- when he is not in the mood."
+
+Ian was at the Brodie house five minutes before one, and he found
+Mistress Brodie waiting for him. "I am glad that you have kept your
+tryst," she said. "We will just have a modest bite now, and we can
+make up all that is wanting here, at my brother Coll's, a little
+later. I have a pleasant invite for yourself. My good sister-in-law
+has read some of your father's sermons in the Sunday papers and
+magazines, and for their sake she will be glad to see you. I just
+promised for you."
+
+"Thank you, I shall be glad to go with you," and it was difficult for
+him to disguise how more than glad he was to have this opportunity.
+
+"So then, you will put on the best you have with you--the best is none
+too good to meet Thora in."
+
+"Thora?"
+
+"Thora Ragnor, my own niece. She is the bonniest and the best girl in
+Scotland, if you will take me as a judge of girls. 'Good beyond the
+lave of girls,' and so Bishop Hadley asked her special to dress the
+altar for Easter. He knew there would be no laughing and daffing about
+the work, if Thora Ragnor had the doing of it."
+
+"Is there any reason to refrain from laughing and daffing while at
+that work?"
+
+"At God's altar there should be nothing but prayer and praise. You
+know what girls talk and laugh about. If they have not some poor lad
+to bring to worship, or to scorn, they have no heart to help their
+hands; and the work is done silent and snappy. They are wishing they
+were at home, and could get their straight, yellow hair on to
+crimping pins, because Laurie or Johnny would be coming to see them,
+it being Saturday night."
+
+"Then the Bishop thought your niece would be more reverent?"
+
+"He knew she would. He knew also, that she would not be afraid to be
+in the cathedral by herself, she would do the work with her own hands,
+and that there would be no giggling and gossiping and no young lads
+needed to hold vases and scissors and little balls of twine."
+
+Their "moderate bite" was a pleasant lingering one. They talked of
+people in Edinburgh with whom they had some kind of a mutual
+acquaintance, and Mistress Brodie did the most of the talking. She was
+a charming story-teller, and she knew all the good stories about the
+University and its great professors. This day she spent the time
+illustrating John Stuart Blackie taking his ease in a dressing gown
+and an old straw hat. She made you see the man, and Ian felt refreshed
+and cheered by the mental vision. As for Lord Roseberry, he really sat
+at their "modest bite" with them. "You know, laddie," she said,
+"Scotsmen take their politics as if they were the Highland fling; and
+Roseberry was Scotland's idol. He was an orator who carried every soul
+with him, whether they wanted to go or not; and I was told by J. M.
+Barrie, that once when he had fired an audience to the delirium point,
+an old man in the hall shouted out:--'I dinna hear a word; but it's
+grand; it's grand!'"
+
+They barely touched on Scottish religion. Mistress Brodie easily saw
+it was a subject her guest did not wish to discuss, and she shut it
+off from conversation, with the finality of her remark that "some
+people never understood Scotch religion, except as outsiders
+misunderstood it. Well, Ian, I will be ready for our visit in about
+two hours; one hour to rest after eating and a whole hour to dress
+myself and lecture the lasses anent behaving themselves when they are
+left to their own idle wishes and wasteful work."
+
+"Then in two hours I will be ready to accompany you; and in the
+meantime I will walk over the moor and smoke a cigar."
+
+"No, no, better go down to the beach and watch the puffins flying over
+the sea, and the terns fishing about the low lying land. Or you might
+get a sight of an Arctic skua going north, or a black guillemot with a
+fish in its mouth flying fast to feed its young. The seaside is the
+place, laddie! There is something going on there constantly."
+
+So Ian went to the seaside and found plenty of amusement there in
+watching a family quarrel among the eider ducks, who were feeding on
+the young mussels attached to the rocks which a low tide had
+uncovered.
+
+It was a pleasant walk to the Ragnor home, and Rahal and Thora were
+expecting them. The sitting room was cheery with sunshine and fire
+glow, Rahal was in afternoon dress and Thora was sitting near the
+window spinning on the little wheel the marvellously fine threads of
+wool made from the dwarfish breed of Shetland sheep, and used
+generally for the knitting of those delicate shawls which rivalled the
+finest linen laces. On the entrance of her aunt and Ian Macrae she
+rose and stood by her wheel, until the effusive greetings of the two
+elder ladies were complete; and Ian was utterly charmed with the
+picture she made--it was completely different from anything he had
+ever seen or dreamed about.
+
+The wheel was a pretty one, and was inlaid with some bright metal, and
+when Thora rose from her chair she was still holding a handful of fine
+snowy wool. Her blue-robed and blue-eyed loveliness appeared to fill
+the room as she stood erect and smiling, watching her mother and
+aunt. But when her aunt stepped forward to introduce Ian to her, she
+turned the full light of her lovely countenance upon him. Then both
+wondered where they had met before. Was it in dreams only?
+
+Mother and aunt were soon deep in the fascinating gossip of an
+Edinburgh winter season, and Thora and Ian went into the greenhouse
+and the garden and found plenty to talk about until Conall Ragnor
+came home from business and supper was served. And the wonder was,
+that Conall bent to the young man's charm as readily as Thora had
+done. He was amazed at his shrewd knowledge of business methods
+and opportunities; and listened to him with grave attention, though
+laughing heartily at some of his plans and propositions.
+
+"Mr. Macrae," he said, "thou art too far north for me. I do know a few
+Shetlanders that could pare the skin off thy teeth, but we Orcadeans
+are simple honest folk that just live, and let live." At which remark
+Ian laughed, and reminded Conall Ragnor of certain transactions in
+railway stock which had nonplussed the Perth directors at the time.
+Then Ragnor asked how he happened to know what was generally
+considered "private information," and Ian answered, "Private
+information is the most valuable, sir. It is what I look for." Then
+Ragnor rose from the table and said, "Let us have a smoke and a little
+music."
+
+"Take thy smoke, Coll," said Mrs. Ragnor, "and Mr. Macrae will give us
+the music. Barbara says he sings better than Harrison. Come, Mr.
+Macrae, we are waiting to hear thee."
+
+Ian made no excuses. He sat down and sang with delightful charm and
+spirit "A Life on the Ocean Wave" and "The Bay of Biscay." Then these
+were followed by the fresh and then popular songs, "We May Be Happy
+Yet," "Then You'll Remember Me" and "The Land of Our Birth." No one
+spoke or interrupted him, even to praise; but he was well repaid by
+the look on every face and the kindness that flowed out to him. He
+could see it in the eyes, and hear it in the voices, and feel it in
+the manner of all present.
+
+The silence was broken by the sound of quick, firm footsteps. Ragnor
+listened a moment and then went with alacrity to open the door. "I
+knew it was thee!" he cried. "O sir, I am glad to see thee! Come in,
+come in! None can be more welcome!" And it was good to hear the
+strong, sweet modulations of the voice that answered him.
+
+"It is Bishop Hedley!" said Rahal.
+
+"Then I am going," said Aunt Barbara.
+
+"No, no, Aunt!" cried Thora, and the next moment she was at her aunt's
+side coaxing her to resume her chair. Then the Bishop and Ragnor
+entered the room, and the moment the Bishop's face shone upon them,
+all talk about leaving the room ceased. For Bishop Hedley carried his
+Great Commission in his face and his life was a living sermon. His
+soul loved all mankind; and he had with it an heroic mind and a
+strong-sinewed body, which refused to recognise the fact that it died
+daily. For the Bishop's business was with the souls of men, and he
+lived and moved and did his daily work in a spiritual and eternal
+element.
+
+And if constant commerce with the physical world weakens and ages the
+man who lives and works in it, surely the life passed amid spiritual
+thoughts and desires is thereby fortified and strengthened to resist
+the cares and worries which fret the physical body to decay. Then
+vainly the flesh fades, the soul makes all things new. This is a great
+truth--"it is only by the supernatural we are strong."
+
+The Bishop came in bringing with him, not only the moral tonic of his
+presence, but also the very breath of the sea; its refreshing "tang,"
+and good salt flavour. His smile and blessing was a spiritual sunshine
+that warmed and cheered and brightened the room. He was affectionate
+to all, but to Mistress Brodie and Ian Macrae, he was even more kindly
+than to the Ragnors. They were not of his flock but he longed to take
+care of them.
+
+"I heard singing as I came through the garden," he said, "and it was
+not your voice, Conall."
+
+"It was Ian Macrae singing," Conall answered, "and he will gladly sing
+for thee, sir." This promise Macrae ratified at once, and that with
+such power and sweetness that every one was amazed and the Bishop
+requested him to sing, during the next day's service, a fine "Gloria"
+he had just given them in the cathedral choir. And Ian said he would
+see the organist, and if it could be done, he would be delighted to
+obey his request.
+
+"See the organist!" exclaimed Mistress Brodie. "What are you talking
+about? The organist is Sandy Odd, the barber's son! How can the like
+of him hinder the Bishop's wish?" Then the Bishop wrote a few words in
+his pocket book, tore out the leaf, and gave it to Macrae, saying:
+"Mr. Odd will manage all I wish, no doubt. Now, sir, for my great
+pleasure, play us 'Home, Sweet Home.' I have not been here for four
+months, and it is good to be with friends again." And they all sang it
+together, and were perfectly at home with each other after it. So much
+so, that the Bishop asked Rahal to give him a cup of tea and a little
+bread; "I have come from Fair Island today," he said, "and have not
+eaten since noon."
+
+Then all the women went out together to prepare and serve the
+requested meal, so that it came with wonderful swiftness, and beaming
+smiles, and charming words of laughing pleasure. And when he saw a
+little table drawn to the hearth for him and quickly spread with the
+food he needed and smelled the refreshing odour of the young Hyson,
+and heard the pleasant tinkle of china and glass and silver as Thora
+placed them before the large chair he was to occupy, he sat down
+happily to eat and drink, while Thora served him, and Conall smoked
+and watched them with a now-and-then smile or word or two, while Rahal
+and Barbara talked, and Ian played charmingly--with soft pedal
+down--quotations from Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony" and "Hark, 'Tis
+the Linnet!" from the oratorio, "Joshua."
+
+It was a delightful interlude in which every one was happy in their
+own way, and so healed by it of all the day's disappointments and
+weariness. But the wise never prolong such perfect moments. Even while
+yielding their first satisfactions, they permit them to depart. It is
+a great deal to _have been happy_. Every such memory sweetens after
+life.
+
+The Bishop did not linger over his meal, and while servants were
+clearing away cups and plates, he said, "Come, all of you, outside,
+for a few minutes. Come and look at the Moon of Moons! The Easter
+Moon! She has begun to fill her horns; and she is throwing over the
+mystery and majesty of earth and sea a soft silvery veil as she
+watches for the dawn. The Easter dawn! that in a few hours will come
+streaming up, full of light and warmth for all."
+
+But there was not much warmth in an Orcadean April evening and the
+party soon returned to the cheerful, comfortable hearth blaze. "It is
+not so beautiful as the moonlight," said Rahal, "but it is very
+good."
+
+"True," said the Bishop, "and we must not belittle the good we have,
+because we look for something better. Let us be thankful for our feet,
+though they are not wings."
+
+Then one of those sudden, inexplicable "arrests" which seem to seal
+up speech fell over every one, and for a minute or more no one could
+speak. Rahal broke the spell. "Some angel has passed through the room.
+Please God he left a blessing! Or perhaps the moonlight has thrown a
+spell over us. What were you thinking of, Bishop?"
+
+"I will tell you. I was thinking of the first Good Friday in Old
+Jerusalem. I was thinking of the sun hiding his face at noonday.
+Thora, have you an almanac?"
+
+Thora took one from a nail on which it was hanging and gave it to
+him.
+
+"I was thinking that the sun, which hid his face at noonday, must at
+that time have been in Aries, the Ram. Find me the signs of the
+Zodiac." Thora did so. "Now look well at Aries the Ram. What month of
+our year is signed thus?"
+
+"The month of March, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I do not know. Tell me, sir."
+
+"I believe that in a long forgotten age, some priest or good man
+received a promise or prophecy revealing the Great Sacrifice that
+would be offered up for man's salvation once and for all time. And I
+think they knew that this plenary sacrament would occur in the vernal
+season, in the month of March, whose sign or symbol was Aries, the
+Ram."
+
+"But why under that sign, sir?"
+
+"The ram, to the ancient world, was the sacrificial animal. We have
+only to open our Bibles and be amazed at the prominence given to the
+ram and his congeners. From the time of Abraham until the time of
+Christ the ram is constantly present in sacrificial and religious
+ceremonies. Do you remember, Thora, any incident depending upon a
+ram?"
+
+"When Isaac was to be sacrificed, a ram caught in a thicket was
+accepted by God in Isaac's place, as a burnt offering."
+
+"More than once Abraham offered a ram in sacrifice. In Exodus, Chapter
+Twenty-ninth, special directions are given for the offering of a ram
+as a burnt offering to the Lord. In Leviticus, the Eighth Chapter, a
+bullock is sacrificed for a sin offering but a ram for a burnt
+offering. In Numbers we are told of _the ram of atonement_ which a man
+is to offer, when he has done his neighbour an injury. In Ezra, the
+Tenth, the ram is offered for a trespass because of an unlawful
+marriage. On the accession of Solomon to the throne one thousand rams
+with bullocks and lambs were 'offered up with great gladness.' In the
+Old Testament there are few books in which the sacrificial ram is not
+mentioned. Even the horn of the ram was constantly in evidence, for it
+called together all religious and solemn services.
+
+"A little circumstance," continued the Bishop, "that pleases me to
+remember occurred in Glasgow five weeks ago. I saw a crowd entering a
+large church, and I asked a workingman, who was eating his lunch
+outside the building, the name of the church; and he answered,--'It's
+just the auld Ram's Horn Kirk. They are putting a new minister in the
+pulpit today and they seem weel pleased wi' their choice.'
+
+"Now I am going to leave this subject with you. I have only indicated
+it. Those who wish to do so, can finish the list, for the half has not
+been told, and indeed I have left the most significant ceremony until
+the last. It is that wonderful service in the Sixteenth Chapter of
+Leviticus, where the priest, after making a sin offering of young
+bullocks and a burnt offering of a ram, casts lots upon two goats for
+a sin offering, and the goat upon which the lot falls is 'presented
+alive before the Lord to make an atonement; and to let him go for a
+scapegoat into the wilderness.'"
+
+Then he took from his pocket a little book and said, "Listen to the
+end of this service, 'And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head
+of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the
+Children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins,
+putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away, by
+the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
+
+"'And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land
+not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.'
+
+"My friends, this night let all read the Fifty-third of Isaiah, and
+they will understand how fitting it was that Christ should be 'offered
+up' in Aries the Ram, the sacrificial month representing the shadows
+and types of which He was the glorious arch-type."
+
+Then there was silence, too deeply charged with feeling, for words.
+The Bishop himself felt that he could speak on no lesser subject, and
+his small audience were lost in wonder at the vast panorama of
+centuries, day by day, century after century, through all of which God
+had remembered that He had promised He would provide the Great and
+Final Sacrifice for mankind's justification. Then Aries the Ram would
+no longer be a promise. It would be a voucher forever that the Promise
+had been redeemed, and a memorial that His Truth and His mercy
+endureth forever!
+
+At the door the Bishop said to Ragnor, "In a few hours, Friend Conall,
+it will be Easter Morning. Then we can tell each other '_Christ has
+risen_!'" And Conall's eyes were full of tears, he could not find his
+voice, he looked upward and bowed his head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SUNNA AND HER GRANDFATHER
+
+  Love is rich in his own right,
+    He is heir of all the spheres,
+  In his service day and night,
+    Swing the tides and roll the years.
+  What has he to ask of fate?
+    Crown him; glad or desolate.
+
+  Time puts out all other flames,
+    But the glory of his eyes;
+  His are all the sacred names,
+    His are all the mysteries.
+  Crown him! In his darkest day
+    He has Heaven to give away!
+                            --CARL SPENCER.
+
+                Arms are fair,
+  When the intent for bearing them is just.
+
+
+In the meantime Sunna was spending the evening with her grandfather.
+The old gentleman was reading, but she did not ask him to read aloud,
+she knew by the look and size of the book that it would not be
+interesting; and she was well pleased when one of her maids desired
+to speak with her.
+
+"Well then, Vera, what is thy wish?"
+
+"My sister was here and she was bringing me some strange news. About
+Mistress Brodie she was talking."
+
+"Yes, I heard she had come home. Did she bring Thora Ragnor a new
+Easter gown?"
+
+"Of a gown I heard nothing. It was a young man she brought! O so
+beautiful is he! And like an angel he sings! The Bishop was very
+friendly with him, and the Ragnors, also; but they, indeed! they are
+friendly with all kinds of people."
+
+"This beautiful young man, is he staying with the Ragnors?"
+
+"With Mistress Brodie he is staying, and with her he went to dinner at
+the Ragnors'. And the Bishop was there and the young man was singing,
+and a great deal was made of his singing, also they were speaking of
+his father who is a famous preacher in some Edinburgh kirk, and----"
+
+"These things may be so, but how came thy sister to know them?"
+
+"This morning my sister took work with Mistress Ragnor and she was
+waiting on them as they eat; and in and out of the room until nine
+o'clock. Then, as she went to her own home, she called on me and we
+talked of the matter, and it seemed to my thought that more might come
+of it."
+
+"Yes, no doubt. I shall see that more does come of it. I am well
+pleased with thee for telling me."
+
+Then she went back to her grandfather and resumed her knitting. Anon,
+she began to sing. Her face was flushed and her nixie eyes were
+dancing to the mischief she contemplated. In a few minutes the old
+gentleman lifted his head, and looked at her. "Sunna," he said, "thy
+song and thy singing are charming, but they fit not the book I am
+reading."
+
+"Then I will stop singing and thou must talk to me. There has come
+news, and I want thy opinion on it. The Ragnors had a dinner party
+today, and we were not asked."
+
+"A great lie is that! Conall Ragnor would not give Queen Victoria a
+party in Lent. Who told thee such foolishness?"
+
+Then Sunna retailed the information given her and asked, "What hast
+thou done to Conall Ragnor? Always before he bid thee to dinner when
+the Bishop was at his house? Or perhaps the offence is with Rahal
+Ragnor? Not long ago thou spent an afternoon with her and black and
+dangerous as a thunder storm thou came home."
+
+"This day the dinner was an accidental gathering. Rahal knows well
+that I have no will to dine with Mistress Brodie. Dost thou want her
+here, as thy stepmother?"
+
+"If Mistress Brodie is not tired of an easy life, she will turn her
+feet away from this house. If Sunna cannot please thee, thou art in
+danger of worse happening. Yes, many are guessing who it is thou wilt
+marry."
+
+"And which way runs the guessing?"
+
+"Not all one way. For thee, that is not a respectable thing. Thou
+should not be named with so many old women."
+
+"I am of thy opinion. An old woman is little to my mind. If I trust
+marriage again, I will choose a young girl for my wife--such an one as
+Treddie Fae, or Thora Ragnor."
+
+"Thora Ragnor! Dreaming thou art! I am sure Barbara Brodie has brought
+this young man here for Thora's approval. Can thou stand against a
+young man?"
+
+"Yes. Adam Vedder and fifty thousand pounds can hand any young man his
+hat and gloves. Thy father's father is not for thee to make a jest
+about. So here our talk shall come to an end on this subject. Go to
+thy bed! Sleep, and the Good Being bless thee!"
+
+Sunna was not yet inclined to sleep. She sat down before her mirror,
+uncoiled her plentiful hair, and carefully brushed and braided it for
+the night, as she considered the news that had come to her.
+
+"This beautiful young man, this singing man, is one of Barbara
+Brodie's 'finds.' Not much do I think of any of them! That handsome
+scholar she brought here turned out an unbearable encumbrance. I
+believe she paid him to go back to Edinburgh. That Aberdeen man, who
+wanted to invest money in Kirkwall had to borrow two pounds from
+grandfather to take him back to where he came from. That witty,
+good-looking Irishman left a big bill at the Castle Hotel for some one
+to pay; and the woman who wanted to begin a dressmaking business, on
+the good will of people like Barbara Brodie, knew nothing about
+dressmaking. This beautiful young man, I'll warrant, is a fish out of
+the same net. As for the Bishop being taken with his beauty, that is
+nothing! The poorer a man is, the better Bishop Hedley will like him.
+So it goes! I wish I knew where Boris Ragnor is--I wish----
+
+"Pshaw! I wonder what kind of a dress Mistress Barbara Brodie brought
+Thora. Not much taste in either men or clothes has she! Too large
+will the pattern be, or too strong the colours, and too heavy, or
+too light, will be the material. I know! And it will not fit her.
+Too big, or too little it is sure to be! With my own dress I am
+satisfied. And if grandfather asks no questions about it, I shall
+count it a lucky dress and save it till Boris comes home. I am
+going to forgive him when he comes home--perhaps----Now I will put
+the hopes and worries of this world under my pillow and be off to
+the Land of Dreams----Tomorrow is Sunday, Easter Sunday--I shall
+sing the solo in my new dress--that is good, I like a religious
+feeling in a new dress--I think I am rather a religious girl."
+
+Alas for the hopes of all who wanted to dress for Easter. It was an
+uncompromising, wet day. It was oil skin and rubber for the men; it
+was cloaks and pattens and umbrellas for the women. Yet, aside from
+the rain, it was a day full of good things. The cathedral was crowded,
+there was full cathedral service, and the Bishop preached a
+transfiguring sermon. The music was good, the home choir did well, and
+Sunna's solo was effectively sung; but after she had heard Ian
+Macrae's "Gloria," she was sorry she had sung at all.
+
+"Grandfather!" she commented, "No private person has a right to sing
+as that man sings! After him, non-professionals make a show of
+themselves."
+
+"Thou sang well--better than usual, I thought."
+
+"I was told he was such a handsome young man! And he has black hair
+and black eyes! Even his skin is dark. He looks like a Celt. I don't
+like Celts. None of our people like them. When they come to the
+fishing they are not respected."
+
+"Thou art much mistaken. Our men like them."
+
+"Boris Ragnor says they are poor traders."
+
+"Well then, it is to fish they come."
+
+"What they come for is no care of mine. Boris is ten times more of a
+man than the best of them. No notice shall I take of this Celt."
+
+"Through thy scorn he may live, and even enjoy his life. The English
+officers do that."
+
+"This chicken is better than might be. Wilt thou have a little more of
+it?"
+
+"Enough is plenty. I have had enough. At Conall Ragnor's there is
+always good eating and I am going there for my supper. Wilt thou go
+with me? Then with Thora thou can talk. This beautiful young man is
+likely at Ragnor's. It was too stormy for Mistress Brodie to go to her
+own house at the noonday. Dost thou see then, how it will be?"
+
+"I will go with thee, I want to see Thora's new dress. I need not
+notice the young man."
+
+"His name? Already I have forgotten it."
+
+"Odd was calling him 'Macrae.'"
+
+"Macrae! That is Highland Scotch. The Macraes are a good family. There
+is a famous minister in Edinburgh of that name. The Calvinists all
+swear by him."
+
+"This man sang in a full cathedral service. Dost thou believe a
+Calvinist would do that? He would be sure it was a disguised mass, and
+nothing better."
+
+Adam laughed as he said, "Well, then, go with me this night to
+Ragnor's and between us we will find something out. A mystery is not
+pleasant to thee."
+
+"There is something wrong in a mystery, that is what I feel."
+
+"Thou can ask Thora all about him."
+
+"I shall not ask her. She will tell me."
+
+Adam laughed again. "That is the best way," he said. "It was thy
+father's way. Well then, five minutes ago, the wind changed. By four
+o'clock it will be fair."
+
+"Then I will be ready to go with thee. If I am left alone, I am sad;
+and that is not good for my health."
+
+"But thou must behave well, even to the Celt."
+
+"Unless it is worth my while, I do not quarrel with any one."
+
+"Was it worth thy while to quarrel with Boris Ragnor?"
+
+"Yes--or I had not quarrelled with him."
+
+"Here comes the sunshine! Gleam upon gloom! Cheery and good it is!"
+
+"They say an Easter dress should be christened with a few drops of
+rain. That is not my opinion. I like the Easter sunshine on it. Now I
+shall leave thee and go and rest and dress myself. Very good is thy
+talk and thy company to me, but to thee, I am foolishness. As I shut
+the door, the big book thou art reading, thou wilt say to it: 'Now,
+friend of my soul, some sensible talk we will have together, for that
+foolish girl has gone to her foolishness at her looking glass.'"
+
+"Run away! I am in a hurry for my big book."
+
+Sunna shut the door with a kiss--and as she took the stairs with
+hurrying steps, the sunshine came dancing through the long window, and
+her feet trod on it and it fell all over her.
+
+At four o'clock she was ready for her evening's inquest and she found
+her grandfather waiting for her. He had put on a light vest and a
+white tie, and he had that clean, healthy, good-tempered look that
+pleases all women. He smiled and bowed to Sunna and she deserved the
+compliment; for she was beautiful and had dressed her beauty most
+becomingly. Her gown was of Saxony cloth, the exact colour of her
+hair, with a collar, stomacher and high cuffs of pale green velvet.
+The collar was tied with cord and small tassels of gold braid; the
+stomacher laced with gold braid over small gilt buttons, and the high
+cuffs were trimmed to match. Very handsome gilt combs held up her
+rippled hair, and a large red-riding-hood cloak covered her from the
+crowning bow of her hair to the little French pattens that protected
+her black satin slippers. She expected to make a conquest, and her
+thoughts were usually the factors of success.
+
+A little disappointment awaited her. She was usually shown into the
+right-hand parlour at once, and she relied on the bit of colour
+afforded by her scarlet cloak to give life to the modest shades of her
+spring colours of pale fawn and tender green. But servants were
+setting the dinner table in the right-hand parlour; and Conall and
+Rahal and Aunt Barbara had taken themselves to Conall's little
+business room where there was a bright fire burning. There, in his big
+chair, Conall was next door to sleeping; and Barbara and Rahal were
+talking in a sleepy, mysterious way about something that did not
+appear to interest them.
+
+At the sound of Adam Vedder's voice, Conall became wide awake; and
+Barbara's face lighted up with a fresh interest. If there was nothing
+else, there was a chronic quarrel between them, which Barbara was
+ready to lift at a moment's notice. But Sunna was not dissatisfied.
+Conall's quick look of admiration, and Rahal's and Barbara's glances
+of surprise, were excellent in their way. She knew she had given them
+a subject of interest sufficient to make even the hour before dinner
+appear short.
+
+"Where is Thora?" she asked, as she turned every way, apparently to
+look for Thora, but really to allow her admirers to convince
+themselves that her dress was trimmed as handsomely at the back as the
+front--that if the stomacher was perfect in front, the sash of green
+velvet at the back was quite as stylish and elaborate.
+
+"Where _is_ Thora?" she asked again.
+
+"In the drawing room thou wilt find Thora with Ian Macrae," said
+Rahal. "Go to them. They will be glad of thy company."
+
+"Doubtful is their gladness. Two are company, three are a crowd. Yet
+so it is! I must run into danger, like the rest of women."
+
+"Is that thy Easter gown, Sunna?" asked Mistress Brodie.
+
+"It is. Dost thou like it?"
+
+"Who would not like it? The rumour goes abroad that thy grandfather
+sent to Inverness for it. Others say it came to thee from Edinburgh."
+
+"Wrong are both stories. I am happy to say that Sunna Vedder gave
+herself a dress so pretty and so suitable."
+
+With these smiling words she left the room and the elder women
+shrugged their shoulders and looked expressively at each other. "What
+can a sensible man like Boris Ragnor see in such a harum-scarum girl!"
+was Rahal Ragnor's question, and Barbara Brodie thought it was all
+Adam Vedder's fault. "He ought to have married some sensible woman who
+would have brought up the girl as girls ought to be brought up," she
+answered; adding, "We may as well remember that the management of
+women, at any age, is a business clean beyond Adam Vedder's
+capabilities."
+
+"Adam is a clever man, Barbie."
+
+"Book clever! What is the use of book wisdom when you have a live
+girl, full of her own way, to deal with?"
+
+"Conall chose the husbands for his daughters. They were quite suitable
+to the girls and they have been very happy with them."
+
+"Thora will choose for herself."
+
+"Perhaps, that may be so. Thora has been spoiled. Her marriage need
+not yet be thought of. In two or three years, we will consider it. The
+little one has not yet any dreams of that kind."
+
+"Such dreams come in a moment--when you are not thinking of them."
+
+In fact, at that very moment Thora was learning the mystery of
+"falling in love"; and there is hardly a more vital thing in life than
+this act. For it is something taking place in the subconscious self;
+it is a revolution, and a growth. It happened that after dinner,
+Conall wished to hear Ian sing again that loveliest of all metrical
+Collects, "Lord of All Power and Might," and Thora went with Ian to do
+her part as accompanist on the piano. As they sang Conall appeared to
+fall asleep, and no more music was asked for.
+
+Then Ian lifted a book full of illustrations of the English lake
+district, and they sat down on the sofa to examine it. Ian had once
+been at Keswick and Ambleside, and he began to tell her about Lake
+Windemere and these lovely villages. He was holding Thora's hand and
+glancing constantly into her face, and before he recognised what he
+was saying, Ambleside and Windemere were quite forgotten, and he was
+telling Thora that he loved her with an everlasting love. He vowed
+that he had loved her in his past lives, and would love her, and only
+her, forever. And he looked so handsome and spoke in words of the
+sweetest tenderness, and indeed was amazed at his own passionate
+eloquence, but knew in his soul that every word he said was true.
+
+And Thora, the innocent little one, was equally sure of his truth. She
+blushed and listened, while he drew her closer to his side calling her
+"his own, his very own!" and begging her to promise that she would
+"marry him, and no other man, in the whole earth."
+
+And Thora promised him what he wished and for one-half hour they were
+in Paradise.
+
+Now, how could this love affair have come to perfection so rapidly?
+Because it was the natural and the proper way. True love dates its
+birth from the first glance. It is the coming together of two souls,
+and in their first contact love flashes forth like flame. And then
+their influence over each other is like that gravitation which one
+star exerts over another star.
+
+But much that passes for love is not love. It is only a prepossession,
+pleasant and profitable, promising many every-day advantages. True
+love is a deep and elemental thing, a secret incredible glory, in a
+way, it is even a spiritual triumph. And we should have another name
+for love like this. For it is the long, long love, that has followed
+us through ages, the healing love, the Comforter! In the soul of a
+young, innocent girl like Thora, it is a kind of piety, and ought to
+be taken with a wondering thankfulness.
+
+An emotion so spiritual and profound was beyond Sunna's understanding.
+She divined that there had been some sort of love-making, but she was
+unfamiliar with its present indications. Her opinion, however, was
+that Ian had offered himself to Thora, and been rejected; in no other
+way could she account for the far-offness of both parties. Thora
+indeed was inexplicable. She not only refused to show Sunna her Easter
+dress, she would not enter into any description of it.
+
+"That is a very remarkable thing," she said to her grandfather, as
+they walked home together. "I think the young man made love to Thora
+and even asked her to marry him, and Thora was frightened and said
+'No!' and she is likely sorry now that she did not say 'Yes.'"
+
+"To say 'No!' would not have frightened thee, I suppose?"
+
+"That is one of the disagreeable things women have to get used to."
+
+"How often must a woman say 'No!' in order to get used to it?"
+
+"That depends on several small things; for instance I am very
+sympathetic. I have a tender heart! Yes, and so I suffer."
+
+"I am glad to know of thy sympathy. If I asked thee to marry a young
+man whom I wished thee to marry, would thou do it--just to please
+me?"
+
+"It would depend--on my mood that day."
+
+"Say, it was thy sympathetic mood?"
+
+"That would be unfavourable. Of the others I should think, and I
+should feel that I was cruel; if I took all hope from them."
+
+"Thou wilt not be reasonable. I am not joking. Would thou marry Boris
+to please me?"
+
+"Boris has offended me. He must come to me, and say, 'I am sorry.' He
+must take what punishment I choose for his rudeness to me. Then, I may
+forgive him."
+
+"And marry him?"
+
+"Only my angel knows, if it is so written. Men do not like to do as
+their women say they must do. Is there any man in the Orcades who
+dares to say 'No,' to his wife's 'Yes?'"
+
+"What of Sandy Stark?"
+
+"Sandy is a Scot! I do not use a Scotch measure for a Norseman. Thou
+art not a perfect Norseman, but yet, even in Edinburgh, there is no
+Scot that could be thy measure. I should have to say--'thou art five
+inches taller than the Scot at thy side, and forty pounds heavier, and
+nearly twice as strong.' That would not be correct to an ounce, but it
+is as near as it is possible to come between Norse and Scot."
+
+"Thou art romancing!"
+
+"As for the Norse women----"
+
+"About Norse women there is no need for thee to teach thy grandfather.
+I know what Norse women are like. If I did not know, I should have
+married again."
+
+"Well then, Barbara Brodie is a good specimen of a capable Norse woman
+and I have noticed one thing about them, that I feel ought to be
+better understood."
+
+"Chut! What hast thou understood? Talk about it, and let thy wisdom be
+known."
+
+"Well then, it is this thing--Norse women always outlive their
+husbands. Thou may count by tens and hundreds the widows in this town.
+The 'maidens of blushing fifteen' have no opportunities; the widow of
+fifty asks a young man into her beautiful home and makes him
+acquainted with the burden of her rents and dividends and her share
+in half a dozen trading boats, and he takes to the golden lure and
+marries himself like the rest of the world. Thou would have been
+re-married long ago but for my protection. I have had a very
+disagreeable day and----"
+
+"Then go to thy bed and put an end to it."
+
+"My new dress is crushed and some way or other I have got a spot on
+the front breadth. Is it that Darwin book thou art looking for?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Would thou like to read a chapter to me?"
+
+"No, I would not."
+
+"Grandfather, I can understand it. I like clever men. Can thou
+introduce me to him--to Darwin?"
+
+"He would not care to see thee. Clever men do not want clever wives;
+so if thou art thinking of a clever husband keep thy 'blue stockings'
+well under thy petticoats."
+
+"And grandfather, do thou keep out of the way of the widows of Orkney
+or thou wilt find thyself inside of a marriage ring."
+
+"Not while thou remains unmarried. Few women would care to look after
+thy welfare. I am used to it, long before thou had been short-coated,
+I had to walk thee to sleep in my arms."
+
+"Yes," laughed Sunna, "I remember that. I felt myself safest with
+thee."
+
+"Thou remembers nothing of the kind. At six months old, thou could
+neither compare nor remember."
+
+"But thou art mistaken. I was born with perfect senses. Ere I was
+twenty-four hours old, I had selected thee as the most suitable person
+to walk me to sleep. I think that was a proof of my perfect
+intelligence. One thing more, and then I will let thee read. I am
+going to marry Boris Ragnor, and then the widow Brodie would--take
+charge of thee." She shut the door to these words and Adam heard her
+laughing all the way to her own room. Then he rubbed his hand slowly
+over and over his mouth and said to himself--"She shall have her
+say-so; Boris is the only man on the Islands who can manage her."
+
+After the departure of the Vedders, Rahal and her sister Brodie went
+upstairs, taking Thora with them. She went cheerfully though a little
+reluctantly. She liked to hear Ian talk. She had thought of asking him
+to sing; but she was satisfied with the one straight, long look which
+flashed between them, as Ian bid her "good night"; for--
+
+  He looked at her as a lover can;
+  She looked at him as one who awakes,
+  The past was a sleep and her life began.
+
+Then she went to her room, and thought of Ian until she fell asleep
+and dreamed of him.
+
+For nearly two hours Ian remained with Conall Ragnor. The Railway
+Mania was then at its height in England, and the older man was
+delighted with Ian's daring stories of its mad excitement. Ian had
+seen and talked with Hudson, the draper's clerk, who had just
+purchased a fine ducal residence and estate from the results of his
+reckless speculations. Ian knew all the Scotch lines, he had even full
+faith in the _Caledonian_ when it was first proposed and could hardly
+win any attention. "Every one said a railway between England and
+Scotland would not pay, Mr. Ragnor," said Ian.
+
+"I would have said very different," replied Conall. "It would be
+certain to pay. Why not?"
+
+"Because there would be _no returns_," laughed Ian, and then Conall
+laughed also, and wished that Boris had been there to learn whatever
+Ian might teach him.
+
+"Hast thou speculated in railway stock yet," he asked.
+
+"No, sir. I have not had the money to do so."
+
+"How would thou buy if thou had?"
+
+"I would buy when no one else was buying, and when everyone else was
+buying, I would keep cool, and sell. A very old and clever speculator
+gave me that advice as a steady rule, saying it was 'his only
+guide.'"
+
+This was the tenor of the men's conversation until near midnight, and
+then Ragnor went with Ian to the door of his room and bid him a frank
+and friendly good night. And as he stood a moment handfast with the
+youth, his conscience troubled him a little and he said: "Ian, Ian,
+thou art a wise lad about this world's business, but thou must not be
+forgetting that there is another world after this."
+
+"I do not forget that, sir."
+
+"Bishop Hedley is a greater and wiser man than all the railway nabobs
+thou hast spoken of."
+
+"I think so, sir! I do indeed!" and the mutual smile and nod that
+followed required no further "good night."
+
+It was a lovely, silent night. The very houses looked as if they were
+asleep; and there was not a sound either in the town on the brown pier
+or the moonlit sea. It was a night full of the tranquillity of God.
+Men and women looked into its peace, and carried its charm into their
+dreams. For most fine spirits that dwell by the sea have an elemental
+sympathy with strange oracles and dreams and old Night. In the
+morning, Conall Ragnor was the first to awaken. He went at once to
+fling open his window. Then he cried out in amazement and wonder, and
+awakened his wife:--
+
+"Rahal! Rahal!" he shouted. "Come here! Come quick! Look at the town!
+It is hung with flags. The ships in the harbour--flying are their
+flags also! And there is a ship just entering the harbour and her
+colours are flying! And there are the guns! They are saluting her from
+the garrison! It must be a man-of-war! I wonder if the Queen is coming
+to see us at last! If thou art ready, call Thora and Barbara.
+Something is up! Thou may hear the town now, all tip-on-top with
+excitement!"
+
+"Why did not thou call us sooner, Coll?"
+
+"I slept late and long."
+
+"But thou must have heard the town noises?"
+
+"A confused noise passed through my ears, a noise full of hurry like a
+morning dream, that was all. Now, I am going for my swim and I will
+bring the news home with me."
+
+But long before it was within expectation of Ragnor's return, the
+three women standing at the open door saw Ian coming rapidly to the
+house from the town. His walk was swift and full of excitement. His
+head was thrown upward, and he kept striking himself on the right
+side, just over the place where his ancestors had worn their dirks or
+broadswords. As soon as he saw the three women he flung his Glengarry
+skyward and shouted a ringing "Hurrah!"
+
+As he approached them, all were struck with his remarkable beauty, his
+manly figure, his swift graceful movements and his handsome face
+suffused with the brightness of fiery youth. Through their long black
+lashes his eyes were shining and glowing and full of spirit, and
+indeed his whole personality was instinct with verve and fire. Anyone
+watching his approach would have said--"Here comes a youth made to
+lead a rattling charge of cavalry."
+
+"Whatever is the matter with you, Ian?" cried Mistress Brodie. "You
+are surely gone daft."
+
+"No indeed!" he answered. "I seem at this very hour to have just found
+myself and my senses."
+
+"What is all the fuss about, Ian?" asked Rahal.
+
+"England has gone to war at the long last with the cruel, crafty black
+Bear of the North."
+
+"Well then, it is full time she did so, there are none will say
+different."
+
+"And," continued Ian, "there is a ship now in harbour carrying
+enlisting officers--you may see her; she is to call at the Orkney and
+Shetland Islands for recruits for the navy, and Great Scot! she will
+get them! All she wants! She could take every man out of Kirkwall!"
+
+"The Mayor and Captain Ragnor will not permit her to do so. She will
+have to leave men to manage the fishing," said Rahal.
+
+"I thought the women could do that," said Ian.
+
+"You do not know what you are talking about. It takes two or three men
+to lift a net full of fish out of the water, and they are about done
+up if they manage it. Come in and get your breakfast. If your news be
+true, there is no saying when Ragnor will get home. He will have some
+reasoning with his men to do, he cannot spare many of them."
+
+"I have a good idea," said Mistress Brodie. "I will give a dance on
+Friday night for the enlisting officers, and we will invite all the
+presentable young men, and all the prettiest girls, to meet them."
+
+"But you will be too late on Friday. The cutter and her crew will
+leave Thursday morning early," said Ian.
+
+"Then say Wednesday night."
+
+"That might do. I could tell the men freshly enlisted to wear a white
+ribbon in their coats----"
+
+"No, no, no!" cried Rahal. "What are you saying, Ian? A white favour
+is a Stuart favour. You would set the men fighting in the very dance
+room. There is no excuse in the Orkneys for a Stuart memory."
+
+"I was not thinking of the Stuarts. Have they not done bothering
+yet?"
+
+"In the Scotch heart the Stuart lives forever," said Rahal, with a
+sigh.
+
+But the dance was decided on and some preparations made for it as soon
+as breakfast was over. Ian was enthusiastic on the matter and Thora
+caught his enthusiasm very readily, and before night, all Kirkwall was
+preparing to feast and rejoice because England was going to make the
+great Northern Bear--"the Bear that walks like a man"--stay in the
+North where he belonged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SUNNA AND THORA
+
+  Love, the old, old troubler of the world.
+
+  Love has reasons, of which reason knows nothing.
+
+  Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+  A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+  And there follows a mist and a weeping rain
+  And life is never the same again.
+
+
+No sooner was Mrs. Brodie's intention known, than all her friends were
+eager to help her. There was truly but little time between Monday
+morning and Wednesday night; but many hands make light work, and old
+and young offered their services in arranging for what it pleased all
+to consider as a kind of national thanksgiving.
+
+The unanimity of this kindness gave Rahal a slight attack of a certain
+form of jealousy, to which she had been subject for many years, and
+she asked her husband, as she had done often before, "Why is it, Coll,
+that every woman in the town is eager to help and encourage Barbara
+if she only speaks of having a dance or dinner; but if I, thy wife, am
+the giver of pleasure, I am left to do all without help or any show of
+interest. It troubles me, Coll."
+
+And Coll answered as he always did answer--"It is thy superiority,
+Rahal. Is there any woman we know, who would presume to give thee
+advice or counsel? And it is well understood by all of them that thou
+cannot thole an obligation. Thou, and thy daughter, and thy servants
+are sufficient for all thy social plans; and why should thou be
+bothered with a lot of old and young women? Thy sister Brodie loves a
+crowd about her, and she says 'thank thee' to all and sundry, as
+easily as she takes a drink of water. It chokes thee to say 'thanks'
+to any one."
+
+So Rahal was satisfied, and went with the rest to help Mistress Brodie
+prepare for her dance. There were women in the kitchen making pies and
+custards and jellies, and women in her parlours cleaning and
+decorating them, and women in the great hall taking up carpets because
+it was a favourite place for reels, and women washing China and
+trimming lamps. Thora was doing the shopping, Ian was carrying the
+invitations; and every one who had been favoured with one had not
+only said "Yes," but had also asked if there was anything they could
+loan, or do, to help the impromptu festival. Thus, Mrs. Harold Baikie
+sent her best service of China, and the Faes sent several extra large
+lamps, and the bride of Luke Serge loaned her whole supply of
+glassware, and Rahal took over her stock of table silver; and Mistress
+Brodie received every loan--useful or not--with the utmost delight and
+satisfaction.
+
+On Wednesday afternoon, however, she was faced by a condition she did
+not know how to manage. Ian came to her in a hurry, saying, "My
+friend, McLeod, is longing for an invitation from you, and he has
+asked me to request one. Surely you will send him the favour! Yes, I
+know you will."
+
+"You are knowing too much, Ian. What can I do? You know well, laddie,
+he is not popular with the best set here."
+
+"I would not mind the 'best set' if I were you. What makes them 'the
+best'? Just their own opinion of themselves. McLeod is of gentle
+birth, he is handsome and good-hearted, you will like him as soon as
+you speak to him. There is another 'best set' beside the one Adam
+Vedder leads; I would like some one to take down that old man's
+conceit of himself--there is nothing wrong with McLeod! Yes, he is
+Highland Scotch----"
+
+"There! that is enough, Ian! Go your ways and bid the young man. Ask
+him in your own name."
+
+"No, Mistress, I will not do that. The invitation carries neither
+honour nor good will without your name."
+
+"Well then, my name be it. My name has been so much used lately, I
+think I will change it."
+
+"Take my name then. I will be proud indeed if you will."
+
+"You are aye daffing, Ian; I am o'er busy for nonsense the now. Give
+the Mac a hint that tartans are not necessary."
+
+"But I cannot do that. I am going to wear the Macrae tartan."
+
+"You can let that intent go by."
+
+"No, I can not! A certain 'yes' may depend on my wearing the Macrae
+tartan."
+
+"Well, checked cloth is bonnier than black broadcloth to some people.
+I don't think Thora Ragnor is among that silly crowd. There is not a
+more quarrelsome dress than a tartan kilt--and I'm thinking the
+Brodies were ill friends with the Macraes in the old days."
+
+"The Brodies are not Highlanders."
+
+"You are a shamefully ignorant man, Ian Macrae. The Brodies came from
+Moray, and are the only true lineal descendants of Malcolm Thane of
+Brodie in the reign of Alexander the Third, lawful King of Scotland.
+What do you think of the Brodies now?"
+
+"The Macrae doffs his bonnet to them; but----"
+
+"If you say another word, the McLeod will be out of it--sure and
+final."
+
+So Ian laughingly left the room, and Mistress Brodie walked to the
+window and watched him speeding towards the town. "He is a wonderful
+lad!" she said to herself. "And I wish he was my lad! Oh why were all
+my bairns lasses? They just married common bodies and left me! Oh for
+a lad like Ian Macrae!" Then with a great sigh, she added: "It is all
+right. I would doubtless have spoiled and mismanaged him!"
+
+It is not to be supposed that Sunna Vedder kept away from all this
+social stir and preparation. She was first and foremost in everything
+during Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday she reserved herself
+altogether for the evening. No one saw her until the noon hour; then
+she came to the dinner table, for she had an entirely fresh request to
+make, one which she was sure would require all her personal influence
+to compass.
+
+She prefaced it with the intelligence that Boris had arrived during
+the night, and that Elga had met him in the street--"looking more
+handsome than any man ought to look, except upon his wedding day."
+
+"And on that day," said Adam, gloomily, "a man has generally good
+cause to look ugly."
+
+"But if he was going to marry me, Grandfather, how then?"
+
+"He would doubtless look handsome. Men usually do when they are on the
+road of destruction."
+
+"Grandfather! I have made up my mind to marry Boris, and lead him the
+way I want him to go. That will always be the way thou chooseth."
+
+"How comes that?"
+
+"I loved thee first of all. I shall always love thee first. Boris
+played me false, I must pay him back. I must make him suffer. Those
+Ragnors--all of them--put on such airs! They make me sick."
+
+"What art thou after? What favour art thou seeking?"
+
+"Thou knows how the girls will try to outdress each other at this
+Brodie affair----"
+
+"It is too late for a new dress--what is it thou wants now?"
+
+"I want thee to go to the bank and get me my mother's necklace to wear
+just this one night."
+
+"I will not. I gave thy dead mother a promise."
+
+"Break it, for a few hours. My Easter dress is not a dancing dress. I
+have no dancing dress but the pretty white silk thou gave me last
+Christmas--and I have no ornaments at all--none whatever, fit to wear
+with it."
+
+"There are always flowers----"
+
+"Flowers! There is not a flower in Kirkwall. Easter and old Mistress
+Brodie have used up every daisy--besides, white silk ought to have
+jewels."
+
+Adam shook his head positively.
+
+"My mother wishes me to have what I want. Thou ought not to keep it
+from me."
+
+"She told me to give thee her necklace on thy twenty-first birthday--not
+before."
+
+"That is so silly! What better is my twenty-first birthday than any
+other day? Grandfather, I cannot love thee more, because my love for
+thee is already a perfect love; but I will be such a good girl if thou
+wilt give me what I want, O so much I want it! I will be so obedient!
+I will do everything thou desires! I will even marry Boris Ragnor."
+And this urgent request was punctuated with kisses and little fondling
+strokes of her hand, and Adam finally asked--
+
+"How shall I answer thy mother when she accuses me of breaking my
+promise to her?"
+
+"I will answer for thee. O dear! It is growing late! If thou dost not
+hurry, the bank will be closed, and then I shall be sick with
+disappointment, and it will be thy fault."
+
+Then Adam rose and left the house and Sunna, having seen that he took
+the proper turn in the road, called for a cup of tea and having
+refreshed herself with it, went upstairs to lay out and prepare
+everything for her toilet. And as she went about this business she
+continually justified herself:--
+
+"It is only natural I should have my necklace," she thought. "Norse
+women have always adored gold and silver and gems, and in the old days
+their husbands sailed long journeys and fought battles for what their
+women wanted. My great Aunt Christabelle often told me that many of
+the old Shetland and Orkney families had gold ornaments and uncut
+gems, hundreds of years old, hid away. I would not wonder if
+Grandfather has some! I dare say the bank's safe is full of them! I do
+not care for them but I do want my mother's wedding necklace--and I am
+going to have it. Right and proper it is, I should have it now. Mother
+would say so if she were here. Girls are women earlier than they were
+in her day. Twenty-one, indeed! I expect to be married long before I
+am twenty-one."
+
+In less than an hour she began to watch the road for her grandfather's
+return. Very soon she saw him coming and he had a small parcel in his
+hand. Her heart gave a throb of satisfaction and she began to unplait
+her manifold small braids: "I shall not require to go to bed," she
+murmured. "Grandfather has my necklace. He will want to take it back
+to the bank tomorrow--I shall see about that--I promised--yes, I know!
+But there are ways--out of a promise."
+
+She was, of course, delightfully grateful to receive the necklace, and
+Vedder could not help noticing how beautiful her loosened hair
+looked. Its length and thickness and waves of light colour gave to
+her stately, blonde beauty a magical grace, and Vedder was one of
+those men who admire the charms of his own family as something
+naturally greater than the same charms in any other family. "The
+Vedders carry their beauty with an air," he said, and he was right.
+The Vedders during the course of a few centuries of social prominence
+had acquired that air of superiority which impresses, and also
+frequently offends.
+
+Certainly, Sunna Vedder in white silk and a handsome necklace of
+rubies and diamonds was an imposing picture; and Adam Vedder, in spite
+of his sixty-two years, was an imposing escort. It would be difficult
+to say why, for he was a small man in comparison with the towering
+Norsemen by whom he was surrounded. Yet he dominated and directed any
+company he chose to favour with his presence; and every man in
+Kirkwall either feared or honoured him. Sunna had much of his natural
+temperament, but she had not the driving power of his cultivated
+intellect. She relied on her personal beauty and the many natural arts
+with which Nature has made women a match for any antagonist. Had she
+not heard her grandfather frequently say "a beautiful woman is the
+best armed creature that God has made! She is as invincible as a
+rhinoceros!"
+
+This night he had paid great attention to his own toilet. He was
+fashionably attired, neat as a new pin, and if not amiable, at least
+exceedingly polite. He had leaning on his arm what he considered the
+most beautiful creature in Scotland, and he assumed the manners of her
+guardian with punctilious courtesy.
+
+There was a large company present when the Vedders reached Mrs.
+Brodie's--military men, a couple of naval officers, gentlemen of
+influence, and traders of wealth and enterprise; with a full
+complement of women "divinely tall and fair." Sunna made the sensation
+among them she expected to make. There was a sudden pause in
+conversation and every eye filled itself with her beauty. For just a
+moment, it seemed as if there was no other person present.
+
+Then Mrs. Brodie and Colonel Belton came to meet them, and Sunna was
+left in the latter's charge. "Will you now dance, Miss Vedder?" he
+asked.
+
+"Let us first walk about a little, Colonel. I want to find my friend,
+Thora Ragnor."
+
+"I have long desired an introduction to Miss Ragnor. Is she not
+lovely?"
+
+"Yes, but now only for one man. A stranger came here last week, and
+she was captured at once."
+
+"How remarkable! I thought that kind of irresponsible love had gone
+quite out of favour and fashion."
+
+"Not so! This youth came, saw, and conquered."
+
+"Is it the youth I see with Ken McLeod?"
+
+"The same. Look! There they are, together as usual."
+
+"She is very sweet and attractive."
+
+Sunna answered this remark by asking Thora to honour Colonel Belton
+with her company for a short time, saying: "In the interval I will
+take care of Ian Macrae." Then Thora stood up in her innocence and
+loveliness and she was like some creature of more ethereal nature than
+goes with flesh and blood. For the eye took her in as a whole, and at
+first noticed neither her face nor her dress in particular. Her dress
+was only of white tarlatan, a thin, gauze-like material long out of
+fashion. It is doubtful if any woman yet remembers its airy, fairy
+sway, and graceful folds. The filmy robe, however, was plentifully
+trimmed with white satin ribbon, and the waist was entirely of satin
+trimmed with tarlatan. The whole effect was girlish and simple, and
+Thora needed no other ornament but the pink and white daisies at her
+belt.
+
+However, if Sunna expected Thora's manner and conversation to match
+the simplicity of her dress, she was disappointed. In Love's school
+women learn with marvellous rapidity, and Thora astonished her by
+falling readily into a conversation of the most up-to-date social
+character. She had caught the trick from Ian, a little playful fencing
+round the most alluring of subjects, yet it brought out the simplicity
+of her character, while it also revealed its purity and intelligence.
+
+Dancing had commenced when Mrs. Ragnor entered the room on the arm of
+her son Boris. Boris instantly looked around for Sunna and she was
+dancing with McLeod. All the evening afterwards Boris danced, but
+never once with Sunna, and Adam Vedder watched the young man with
+scorn. He was the most desirable party in the room for any girl and he
+quite neglected the handsome Sunna Vedder. That was not his only
+annoyance. McLeod was dancing far too often with Sunna, and even the
+beautiful youth Ian Macrae had only asked her hand once; and Adam was
+sure that Thora Ragnor had been the suggester of that act of
+politeness. Girls far inferior to Sunna in every respect had received
+more attention than his granddaughter. He was greatly offended, but he
+appeared to turn his back on the whole affair and to be entirely
+occupied in conversation with Conall Ragnor and Colonel Belton
+concerning the war with Russia.
+
+Every way the evening was to Sunna a great disappointment, in many
+respects she felt it to be a great humiliation; and the latter feeling
+troubled her more for her grandfather than for herself. She knew he
+was mortified, for he did not speak to her as they walked through the
+chill, damp midnight to their home. Mrs. Brodie had urged Adam and
+Sunna to put the night past at her house, but Adam had been proof
+against all her suggestions, and even against his own desires. So he
+satisfied his temper by walking home and insisting on Sunna doing
+likewise.
+
+It was a silent, unhappy walk. Adam said not a word to Sunna and she
+would not open the way for his anger to relieve itself. When they
+reached home they found a good fire in the room full of books which
+Adam called his own, and there they went. Then Sunna let her long
+dress fall down, and put out her sandalled feet to the warmth of the
+fire. Adam glanced into her face and saw that it was full of trouble.
+
+"Go to thy bed, Sunna," he said. "Of this night thou must have had
+enough."
+
+"I have had too much, by far. If only thou loved me!"
+
+"Who else do I love? There is none but thee."
+
+"Then with some one thou ought to be angry."
+
+"Is it with Boris Ragnor I should be angry?"
+
+"Yes! It is with Boris Ragnor. Not once did he ask me to dance.
+Watching him and me were all the girls. They saw how he slighted me,
+and made little nods and laughs about it."
+
+"It was thy own fault. When Boris came into the room, he looked for
+thee. With McLeod thou wert dancing. With that Scot thou wert dancing!
+The black look on his face, I saw it, thou should have seen it and
+have given him a smile--Pshaw! Women know so much--and do so little.
+By storm thou ought to have taken the whole affair for thy own. I am
+disappointed in thee--yes, I am disappointed."
+
+"Why, Grandfather?"
+
+"An emergency thou had to face, and thou shirked it. When Boris
+entered the room, straight up to him thou should have gone; with an
+outstretched hand and a glad smile thou should have said: 'I am
+waiting for thee, Boris!' Then thou had put all straight that was
+crooked, and carried the evening in thy own hands."
+
+"I will pay Boris for this insult. Yes, I will, and thou must help
+me."
+
+"To quarrel with Boris? To injure him in any way? No! that I will not
+do. It would be to quarrel also with my old friend Conall. Not thee!
+Not man or woman living, could make me do that! Sit down and I will
+tell thee a better way."
+
+"No, I will not sit down till thou say 'yes' to what I ask"; for some
+womanly instinct told her that while Adam was cowering over the hearth
+blaze and she stood in all her beauty and splendour above him, she
+controlled the situation. "Thou must help me!"
+
+"To what or whom?"
+
+"I want to marry Boris."
+
+"Dost thou love him?"
+
+"Better than might be. When mine he is all mine, then I will love
+him."
+
+"That is little to trust to."
+
+"Thou art wrong. It is of reasons one of the best and surest. Not
+three months ago, a little dog followed thee home, an ugly,
+half-starved little mongrel, not worth a shilling; but it was
+determined to have thee for its master, and thou called it thy dog,
+and now it is petted and pampered and lies at thy feet, and barks at
+every other dog, and thou says it is the best dog on the Island. It is
+the same way with husbands. Thou hast seen how Mary Minorie goes on
+about her bald, scrimpy husband; yet she burst out crying when he put
+the ring on her finger. Now she tells all the girls that marriage is
+'Paradise Regained.' When Boris is my husband it will be well with me,
+and not bad for him. He will be mine, and we love what is our own."
+
+"Why wilt thou marry any man? Thou wilt be rich."
+
+"One must do as the rest of the world does--and the world has the
+fashion of marrying."
+
+"Money rules love."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes! Bolon Flett had only scorn for his poor little wife until her
+uncle left her two thousand pounds. Since then, no word is long enough
+or good enough for her excellencies. Money opens the eyes as well as
+the heart. What then, if I make Boris rich?"
+
+"Boris is too proud to take money from thee and I will not be sold to
+any man!"
+
+"Wilt thou wait until my meaning is given thee--flying off in a temper
+like a foolish woman!"
+
+"I am sorry--speak thy meaning."
+
+"Sit down. Thou art not begging anything."
+
+"Not from thee. I have thy love."
+
+"And thine is mine. This is my plan. Above all things Boris loves a
+stirring, money-making business. I am going to ask him to take me as
+his partner. Tired am I of living on my past. How many boats has
+Boris?"
+
+"Thou knowest he has but one, but she is large and swift, and does as
+much business as McLeod's three little sloops."
+
+"Schooners."
+
+"Schooners, then--little ones!"
+
+"Well then, there is a new kind of boat which thou hast never seen.
+She is driven by steam, not wind, she goes swiftly, all winds are fair
+to her, and she cares little for storms."
+
+"I saw a ship like that when I was in Edinburgh. She lay in Leith
+harbour, and the whole school went to Leith to see her come in."
+
+"If Boris will be my partner, I will lay my luck to his, and I will
+buy a steam ship, a large coaster--dost thou see?"
+
+Then with a laugh she cried: "I see, I see! Then thou can easily beat
+the sloops or schooners, that have nothing but sails. Good is that,
+very good!"
+
+"Just so. We can make two trips for their one. No one can trade
+against us."
+
+"McLeod may buy steam ships."
+
+"I have learned all about him. His fortune is in real estate, mostly
+in Edinburgh. It takes a lifetime to sell property in Edinburgh. We
+shall have got all there is to get before McLeod could compete with
+Vedder and Ragnor."
+
+"That scheme would please Boris, I know."
+
+"A boat could be built on the Clyde in about four months, I think.
+Shall I speak to Boris?"
+
+"Yes, Boris will not fly in the face of good fortune; but mind
+this--it is easier to begin that reel than it will be to end it. One
+thing I do not like--thou wert angry with Boris, now thou wilt take
+him for a partner."
+
+"At any time I can put my anger under my purse--but my anger was
+mostly against thee. Now shall I do as I am minded?"
+
+"That way is more likely than not! I think this affair will grow with
+thee--but thou may change thy mind----"
+
+"I do not call my words back. Go now to thy bed and forget everything.
+This is the time when sleep will be better than either words or deeds.
+Of my intent speak to _no one_. In thy thoughts let it be still until
+its hour arrives."
+
+"In the morning, very early, I am going to see Thora. When the
+enlisting ship sails northward, there will be a crowd to see her off.
+Boris and Thora and Macrae will be among it. I also intend to be
+there. Dost thou know at what hour she will leave?"
+
+"At ten o'clock the tide is full."
+
+"Then at ten, she will sail."
+
+"Likely enough, is that. Our talk is now ended. Let it be, as if it
+had not been."
+
+"I have forgotten it."
+
+Vedder laughed, and added: "Go then to thy bed, I am tired."
+
+"Not tired of Sunna?"
+
+"Well then, yes, of thee I have had enough at present."
+
+She went away as he spoke, and then he was worried. "Now I am
+unhappy!" he ejaculated. "What provokers to the wrong way are women!
+Her mother was like her--my beloved Adriana!" And his old eyes filled
+with sorrowful tears as he recalled the daughter he had lost in the
+first days of her motherhood. Very soon Sunna and Adriana became one
+and he was fast asleep in his chair.
+
+In the morning Sunna kept her intention. She poured out her
+grandfather's coffee, and talked of everything but the thing in her
+heart and purpose. After breakfast she said: "I shall put the day past
+with Thora Ragnor. Thy dinner will be served for thee by Elga."
+
+"Talking thou wilt be----"
+
+"Of nothing that ought to be kept quiet. Do not come for me if I am
+late; I intend that Boris shall bring me home."
+
+Sunna dressed herself in a pretty lilac lawn frock, trimmed with the
+then new and fashionable Scotch open work, and fresh lilac ribbons.
+Her hair was arranged as Boris liked it best, and it was shielded by
+one of those fine, large Tuscan hats that have never, even yet, gone
+out of fashion.
+
+"Why, Sunna!" cried Thora, as she hastened to meet her friend, "how
+glad am I to see thee!"
+
+"Thou wert in my heart this morning, and I said to it 'Be content, in
+an hour I will take thee to thy desire.'" And they clasped hands, and
+walked thus into the house. "Art thou not tired after the dance?"
+
+"No," replied Thora, "I was very happy. Do happy people get tired?"
+
+"Yes--one can only bear so much happiness, then it is weariness--sometimes
+crossness. Too much of any good thing is a bad thing."
+
+"How wise thou art, Sunna."
+
+"I live with wisdom."
+
+"With Adam Vedder?"
+
+"Yes, and thou hast been living with Love, with Mr. Macrae. Very
+handsome and good-natured he is. I am sure that thou art in love with
+him! Is that not the case?"
+
+"Very much in love with me he is, Sunna. It is a great happiness. I do
+not weary of it, no, indeed! To believe in love, to feel it all around
+you! It is wonderful! You know, Sunna--surely you know?"
+
+"Yes, I, too, have been in love."
+
+"With Boris--I know. And also Boris is in love with thee."
+
+"That is wrong. No longer does Boris love me."
+
+"But that is impossible. Love for one hour is love forever. He did
+love thee, then he could not forget. Never could he forget."
+
+"He did not notice me last night. Thou must have seen?"
+
+"I did not notice--but I heard some talk about it. The first time thou
+art alone with him, he will tell thee his trouble. It is only a little
+cloud--it will pass."
+
+"I suppose the enlisting ship sails northaway first?"
+
+"Yes, to Lerwick, though they may stop at Fair Island on the way.
+Boris says they could get many men there--and Boris knows."
+
+"Art thou going to the pier to see them leave? I suppose every one
+goes. Shall we go together?"
+
+"Why, Sunna! They left this morning about four o'clock. Father went
+down to the pier with Boris. Boris sailed with them."
+
+"Thora! Thora! I thought Boris was to remain here until the naval
+party returned from Shetland?"
+
+"The lieutenant in command thought Boris could help the enlisting, for
+in Lerwick Boris has many friends. Thou knows my sisters Anna and
+Nenie live in Lerwick. Boris was fain to go and see them."
+
+"But they will return here when their business is finished in
+Lerwick?"
+
+"They spoke of doing so, but mother is not believing they will return.
+They took with them all the men enlisted here and the men are wanted
+very much. Boris did not bid us a short 'good-bye.' Mother was crying,
+and when he kissed me his tears wet my cheeks."
+
+Sunna did not answer. For a few minutes she felt as if her heart had
+suddenly died. At last she blundered out:
+
+"I suppose the officer was afraid that--Boris might slip off while he
+was away."
+
+"Well, then, thou supposes what is wrong. When a fight is the
+question, Boris needs no one either to watch him or to egg him on."
+
+"Is that youngster, Macrae, going to join? Or has he already taken the
+Queen's shilling? I think I heard such a report."
+
+"No one could have told that story. Macrae is bound by a contract to
+McLeod for this year and indeed, just yet, he does not wish to go."
+
+"He does not wish to leave thee."
+
+"That is not out of likelihood."
+
+"Many are saying that England is in great stress, and my grandfather
+thinks that so she is."
+
+"My father says 'not so.' If indeed it were so, my father would have
+gone with Boris. Mother is cross about it."
+
+"About what then is she cross?" asked Sunna.
+
+"People are saying that England is in stress. Mother says such words
+are nothing but men's 'fear talk.' England's sons are many, and if few
+they were, she has millions of daughters who would gladly fight for
+her!" said Thora.
+
+"Well, then, for heroics there is no present need! I surely thought
+Boris loved his business and would not leave his money-making."
+
+"Could thou tell me what incalculable sum of money a man would take
+for his honour and patriotism?" asked Thora.
+
+"What has honour to do with it?"
+
+"Everything; a man without honour is not a man--he is just 'a body';
+he has no soul. Robert Burns told Andrew Horner how such men were
+made!" replied Thora.
+
+"How was that? Tell me! A Burns' anecdote will put grandfather in his
+finest temper, and I want him in that condition for I have a great
+favour to ask from him."
+
+"The tale tells that when Burns was beginning to write, he had a rival
+in a man called Andrew Horner. One day they met at the same club
+dinner, and they were challenged to each write a verse within five
+minutes. The gentlemen guests took out their watches, the poets were
+furnished with pencils and paper. When time was up Andrew Horner had
+not written the first line but Burns handed to the chairman his verse
+complete."
+
+"Tell me. If you know it, tell me, Thora!"
+
+"Yes, I know it. If you hear it once you do not forget it."
+
+"Well then?"
+
+"It runs thus:
+
+  "'Once on a time
+  The Deil gat stuff to mak' a swine
+  And put it in a corner;
+  But afterward he changed his plan
+  And made it summat like a man,
+  And ca'ed it Andrew Horner.'"
+
+"That is good! It will delight grandfather."
+
+"No doubt he already knows it."
+
+"No, I should have heard it a thousand times, if he knew it."
+
+"Well, then, I believe it has been suppressed. Many think it too
+ill-natured for Burns to have written; but my father says it has the
+true Burns ring and is Robert Burns' writing without doubt."
+
+"It will give grandfather a nice long job of investigation. That is
+one of his favourite amusements, and all Sunna has to do is to be sure
+he is right and everybody else wrong. Now I will go home."
+
+"Stay with me today."
+
+"No. Macrae will be here soon."
+
+"Uncertain is that."
+
+"Every hair on thy head, Thora, every article of thy dress, from the
+lace at thy throat to the sandals on thy feet, say to me that this is
+a time when my absence will be better than my company."
+
+"Well, then, do as thou art minded."
+
+"It is best I do so. A happy morning to thee! What more is in my heart
+shall lie quiet at this time."
+
+Sunna went away with the air of a happy, careless girl, but she said
+many angry words to herself as she hasted on the homeward road. "Most
+of the tales tell how women are made to suffer by the men they
+love--but no tale shall be made about Sunna Vedder! _No!_ _No!_ It is
+Boris Ragnor I shall turn into laughter--he has mocked my very
+heart--I will never forgive him--that is the foolish way all women
+take--all but Sunna Vedder--she will neither forgive nor forget--she
+will follow up this affair--yes!"
+
+By such promises to herself she gradually regained her usual
+reasonable poise, and with a smiling face sought her grandfather. She
+found him in his own little room sitting at a table covered with
+papers. He looked up as she entered and, in spite of his intention,
+answered her smile and greeting with an equal plentitude of good will
+and good temper.
+
+"But I thought then, that thou would stay with thy friend all day, and
+for that reason I took out work not to be chattered over."
+
+"I will go away now. I came to thee because things have not gone as I
+wanted them. Thy counsel at such ill times is the best that can
+happen."
+
+Then Vedder threw down his pencil and turned to her. "Who has given
+thee wrong or despite or put thee out of the way thou wanted to
+take?"
+
+"It is Boris Ragnor. He has sailed north with the recruiting
+company--without a word to me he has gone. He has thrown my love back
+in my face. Should thy grandchild forgive him? I am both Vedder and
+Fae. How can I forgive?"
+
+Vedder took out his watch and looked at the time. "We have an hour
+before dinner. Sit down and I will talk to thee. First thou shalt tell
+me the very truth anent thy quarrel with Boris. What did thou do, or
+say, that has so far grieved him? Now, then, all of it. Then I can
+judge if it be Boris or Sunna, that is wrong in this matter."
+
+"Listen then. Boris heard some men talking about me--that made his
+temper rise--then he heard from these men that I was dancing at
+McLeod's and he went there to see, and as it happened I was dancing
+with McLeod when he entered the room, and he walked up to me in the
+dance and said thou wanted me, and he made me come home with him and
+scolded me all the time we were together. I asked him not to tell
+thee, and he promised he would not--if I went there no more. I have
+not danced with McLeod since, except at Mrs. Brodie's. Thou saw me
+then."
+
+"Thou should not have entered McLeod's house--what excuse hast thou
+for that fault?"
+
+"Many have talked of the fault, none but thou have asked me why or how
+it came that I was so foolish. I will tell thee the very truth. I
+went to spend the day with Nana Bork--with thy consent I went--and
+towards afternoon there came an invitation from McLeod to Nana to join
+an informal dance that night at eight o'clock. And Nana told me so
+many pleasant things about these little dances I could not resist her
+talk and I thought if I stayed with Nana all night thou would never
+know. I have heard that I stole away out of thy house to go to
+McLeod's. I did not! I went with Nana Bork whose guest I was."
+
+"Why did thou not tell me this before?"
+
+"I knew no one in Kirkwall would dare to say to thee this or that
+about thy grandchild, and I hoped thou would never know. I am sorry
+for my disobedience; it has always hurt me--if thou forgive it now, so
+much happier I will be."
+
+Then Adam drew her to his side and kissed her, and words would have
+been of all things the most unnecessary. But he moved a chair close to
+him, and she sat down in it and laid her hand upon his knee and he
+clasped and covered it with his own.
+
+"Very unkindly Boris has treated thee."
+
+"He has mocked at my love before all Kirkwall. Well, then, it is Thora
+Ragnor's complacency that affronts me most. If she would put her
+boasting into words, I could answer her; but who can answer looks?"
+
+"She is in the heaven of her first love. Thou should understand that
+condition."
+
+"It is beyond my understanding; nor would I try to understand such a
+lover as Ian Macrae. I believe that he is a hypocrite--Thora is so
+easily deceived----"
+
+"And thou?"
+
+"I am not deceived. I see Boris just as he is, rude and jealous and
+hateful, but I think him a far finer man than Ian Macrae ever has
+been, or ever will be."
+
+"Yes! Thou art right. Now then, let this affair lie still in thy
+heart. I think that he will come to see thee when the boats return
+from Shetland--if not, then I shall have something to say in the
+matter. I shall want my dinner very soon, and some other thing we will
+talk about. Let it go until there is a word to say or a movement to
+make."
+
+"I will be ready for thee at twelve o'clock." With a feeling of
+content in her heart, Sunna went away. Had she not the Burns story to
+tell? Yet she felt quite capable of restraining the incident until she
+got to a point where its relation would serve her purpose or her
+desire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE OLD, OLD TROUBLE
+
+  From reef and rock and skerry, over headland, ness and roe,
+  The coastwise lights of England watch the ships of England go.
+
+  ... a girl with sudden ebullitions,
+    Flashes of fun, and little bursts of song;
+  Petulant, pains, and fleeting pale contritions,
+    Mute little moods of misery and wrong.
+  Only a girl of Nature's rarest making,
+  Wistful and sweet--and with a heart for breaking.
+
+
+The following two weeks were a time of anxiety concerning Boris. The
+recruiting party with whom he had gone away had said positively they
+must return with whatever luck they had in two weeks; and this
+interval appeared to Sunna to be of interminable length. She spent a
+good deal of the time with Thora affecting to console her for the loss
+of Ian Macrae, who had left Kirkwall for Edinburgh a few days after
+the departure of Boris.
+
+"We are 'a couple of maidens all forlorn,'" she sang, and though Thora
+disclaimed the situation, she could not prevent her companion
+insisting on the fact.
+
+Thora, however, did not feel that she had any reason for being
+forlorn. Ian's love for her had been confessed, not only to herself,
+but also to her father and mother, and the marriage agreed to with a
+few reservations, whose wisdom the lovers fully acknowledged. She was
+receiving the most ardent love letters by every mail and she had not
+one doubt of her lover in any respect. Indeed, her happiness so
+pervaded her whole person and conduct that Sunna felt it sometimes to
+be both depressing and irritating.
+
+Thora, however, was the sister of Boris, she could not quarrel with
+her. She had great influence over Boris, and Sunna loved Boris--loved
+him in spite of her anger and of his neglect. Very slowly went the two
+weeks the enlisting ships had fixed as the length of their absence,
+but the news of their great success made their earlier return most
+likely, and after the tenth day every one was watching for them and
+planning a great patriotic reception.
+
+Still the two weeks went slowly away and it was a full day past this
+fixed time, and the ships were not in port nor even in sight, nor had
+any late news come from them. In the one letter which Rahal had
+received from her son he said: "The enlistment has been very
+satisfactory; our return may be even a day earlier than we expected."
+So Sunna had begun to watch for the party three days before the set
+time, and when it was two days after it she was very unhappy.
+
+"Why do they not come, Thora?" she asked in a voice trembling with
+fear. "Do you think they have been wrecked?"
+
+"Oh, no! Nothing of the kind! They may have sailed westward to Harris.
+My father thinks so." But she appeared so little interested that Sunna
+turned to Mistress Ragnor and asked her opinion.
+
+"Well, then," answered Rahal, "they _are_ staying longer than was
+expected, but who can tell what men in a ship will do?"
+
+"They will surely keep their word and promise."
+
+"Perhaps--if it seem a good thing to them. Can thou not see? They are
+masters on board ship. Once out of Lerwick Bay, the whole world is
+before them. Know this, they might go East or West, and say to no man
+'I ask thy leave.' As changeable as the sea is a sailor's promise."
+
+"But Boris is thy son--he promised thee to be home in two weeks. Men
+do not break a promise made on their mother's lips. How soon dost thou
+expect him?"
+
+"At the harbour mouth he might be, even this very minute. I want to
+see my boy. I love him. May the good God send those together who would
+fain be loved!"
+
+"Boris is in command of his own ship. He was under no man's orders. He
+ought not to break his promise."
+
+"With my will, he would never do that."
+
+"Dost thou think he will go to the war with the other men?"
+
+"That he might do. What woman is there who can read a man's heart?"
+
+"His mother!"
+
+"She might, a little way--no further--just as well 'no further.' Only
+God is wise enough, and patient enough, to read a human heart. This is
+a great mercy." And Rahal lifted her face from her sewing a moment and
+then dropped it again.
+
+Almost in a whisper Sunna said "Good-bye!" and then went her way home.
+She walked rapidly; she was in a passion of grief and mortification,
+but she sang some lilting song along the highway. As soon, however, as
+she passed inside the Vedder garden gates, the singing was changed
+into a scornful, angry monologue:
+
+"These Ragnor women! Oh, their intolerable good sense! So easy it is
+to talk sweetly and properly when you have no great trouble and all
+your little troubles are well arranged! Women cannot comfort women.
+No, they can not! They don't want to, if they could. Like women, I do
+not! Trust them, I do not! I wish that God had made me a man! I will
+go to my dear old grandad!--He will do something--so sorry I am that I
+let Thora see I loved her brother--when I go there again, I shall
+consider his name as the bringer-on of yawns and boredom!"
+
+An angry woman carries her heart in her mouth; but Sunna had been
+trained by a wise old man, and no one knew better than Sunna Vedder
+did, when to speak and when to be silent. She went first to her room
+in order to repair those disturbances to her appearance which had been
+induced by her inward heat and by her hurried walk home so near the
+noontide; and half an hour later she came down to dinner fresh and
+cool as a rose washed in the dew of the morning. Her frock of muslin
+was white as snow, there was a bow of blue ribbon at her throat, her
+whole appearance was delightfully satisfying. She opened her
+grandfather's parlour and found him sitting at a table covered with
+papers and little piles of gold and silver coin.
+
+"Suppose I was a thief, Grandfather?" she said.
+
+"Well then, what would thou take first?"
+
+"I would take a kiss!" and she laid her face against his face, and
+gave him one.
+
+"Now, thou could take all there is. What dost thou want?"
+
+"I want thee! Dinner is ready."
+
+"I will come. In ten minutes, I will come----" and in less than ten
+minutes he was at the dinner table, and apparently a quite different
+man from the one Sunna had invited there. He had changed his coat, his
+face was happy and careless, and he had quite forgotten the papers and
+the little piles of silver and gold.
+
+Sunna had said some things to Thora she was sorry for saying; she did
+not intend to repeat this fault with her grandfather. Even the subject
+of Boris could lie still until a convenient hour. She appeared,
+indeed, to have thrown off her anger and her disappointment with the
+unlucky clothing she had worn in her visit to Thora. She had even
+assured herself of this change, for when it fell to her feet she
+lifted it reluctantly between her finger and thumb and threw it aside,
+remarking as she did so, "I will have them all washed over again! Soda
+and soap may make them more agreeable and more fortunate."
+
+And perhaps if we take the trouble to notice the fact, clothing does
+seem to have some sort of sympathy or antagonism with its wearers.
+Also, it appears to take on the mood or feeling predominant, looking
+at one time crisp and perfectly proper, at another time limp and
+careless, as if the wearer informed the garment or the garment
+explained the wearer. It is well known that "Fashions are the external
+expression of the mental states of a country, and that if its men and
+women degenerate in their character, their fashions become absurd."
+Surely then, a sympathy which can affect a nation has some influence
+upon the individual. Sunna had noticed even in her childhood that her
+dresses were lucky and unlucky, but the why or the wherefore of the
+circumstance had never troubled her. She had also noticed that her
+grandfather liked and disliked certain colours and modes, but she
+laid all their differences to difference in age.
+
+This day, however, they were in perfect accord. He looked at her and
+nodded his head, and then smilingly asked: "How did thou find thy
+friend this morning?"
+
+"So much in love that she had not one regret for Boris."
+
+"Well, then, there is no reason for regret. Boris has taken the path
+of honour."
+
+"That may be so, but for the time to come I shall put little trust in
+him. Going such a dubious way, he might well have stopped for a God
+Bless Thee!"
+
+"Would thou have said that?"
+
+"Why should we ask about things impossible? Dost thou know,
+Grandfather, at what time the recruiting party passed Kirkwall?"
+
+"Nobody knows. I heard music out at sea three nights ago, just after
+midnight. There are no Shetland boats carrying music. It is more
+likely than not to have been the recruiting party saluting us with
+music as they went by."
+
+"Yes! I think thou art right. Grandfather, I want thee to tell me what
+we are fighting about."
+
+"Many times thou hast said 'it made no matter to thee.'"
+
+"Now then, it is different. Since Boris and so many of our men went
+away, Mistress Ragnor and Thora talk of the war and of nothing but the
+war. They know all about it. They wanted to tell me all about it. I
+said thou had told me all that was proper for me to know, and now
+then, thou must make my words true. What is England quarrelling about?
+It seems to me, that somebody is always looking at her in a way she
+does not think respectful enough."
+
+"This war is not England's fault. She has done all she could to avoid
+it. It is the Great Bear of Russia who wants Turkey put out of
+Europe."
+
+"Well, then, I heard the Bishop say the Turks were a disgrace to
+Europe, and that the Book of Common Prayer had once contained a
+petition for delivery from the Devil, the Turks, and the comet, then
+flaming in the sky and believed to be threatening destruction to the
+earth."
+
+"Listen, and I will tell thee the truth. The Greek population of
+Turkey, its Syrians and Armenians, are the oldest Christians in the
+world. They are also the most numerous and important class of the
+Sultan's subjects. Russia also has a large number of Russian
+Christians in Turkey over whom she wants a protectorate, but these two
+influences would be thorns in the side of Turkey. England has bought
+favour for the Christians she protects, by immense loans of money and
+other political advantages, but neither the Turk nor the English want
+Russia's power inside of Turkey."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Turkey is in a bad way. A few weeks ago the Czar said to England, 'We
+have on our hands a sick man, a very sick man. I tell you frankly, it
+will be a great misfortune if one of these days he should slip away
+from us, especially if it were before all necessary arrangements were
+made. The Czar wants Turkey out of his way. He wants Constantinople
+for his own southern capital, he wants the Black Sea for a Russian
+lake, and the Danube for a Russian river. He wants many other
+unreasonable things, which England cannot listen to."
+
+"Well then, I think the Russian would be better than the Turk in
+Europe."
+
+"One thing is sure; in the hour that England joins Russia, Turkey will
+slay every Christian in her territories. Dost thou think England will
+inaugurate a huge massacre of Christians?"
+
+"That is not thinkable. Is there nothing more?"
+
+"Well then, there is India. The safety of our Indian Empire would be
+endangered over the whole line between East and West if Russia was in
+Constantinople. Turkey lies across Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor and
+Armenia, and above all at Constantinople and the Straits. Dost thou
+think England would ask Russia's permission every time she wished to
+go to India?"
+
+"No indeed! That, itself, is a good reason for fighting."
+
+"Yes, but the Englishman always wants a moral backbone for his
+quarrel."
+
+"That is as it should be. The Armenian Christians supply that."
+
+"But, Sunna, try and imagine to thyself a great military despotic
+Power seating itself at Constantinople, throwing its right hand over
+Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt; and its left holding in an iron grip the
+whole north of two continents; keeping the Dardanelles and the
+Bosphorus closed whenever it was pleased to do so, and building fleets
+in Egypt; and in Armenia, commanding the desirable road to India by
+the Euphrates."
+
+"Oh, that could not be suffered! Impossible! All the women in Kirkwall
+would fight against such a condition."
+
+"Well, so matters stand, and we had been at sword points a year ago
+but for Lord Aberdeen's cowardly, pernicious love of peace. But he is
+always whining about 'war destroying wealth and commerce'--as if
+wealth and commerce were of greater worth than national honour and
+justice and mercy."
+
+"Yet, one thing is sure, Grandad; war is wasteful and destructive----"
+
+"And one thing is truer still--it is this--_that national wealth is
+created by peace for the very purpose of defending the nation in war_.
+Bear this in mind. Now, it seems to me we have had enough of war. I
+see Elga coming with a dish of good Scotch collops, and I give thee my
+word that I will not spoil their savour by any unpleasant talk." Then
+he poured a little fine Glenlivet into a good deal of water and said:
+"Here's first to the glory of God! and then to the honour of England!"
+And Sunna touched his glass with her glass and the little ceremony put
+both in a very happy mood.
+
+Then Sunna saw that the moment she had waited for had arrived and she
+said: "I will tell thee a good story of Robert Burns to flavour thy
+collops. Will that be to thy wish?"
+
+"It is beyond my wish. Thou can not tell me one I do not know."
+
+"I heard one today from Thora Ragnor that I never heard thee tell."
+
+"Then it cannot be fit for thee and Thora Ragnor to repeat."
+
+"Wilt thou hear it?"
+
+"Is it about some girl he loved?"
+
+"No, it is about a man he scorned. Thou must have heard of Andrew
+Horner?"
+
+"Never heard the creature's name before."
+
+"Then the story will be fresh to thee. Will thou hear it now?"
+
+"As well now, as later." For Adam really had no expectation of hearing
+anything he had not already heard and judged; and he certainly
+expected nothing unusual from the proper and commonplace Thora Ragnor.
+But Sunna exerted all her facial skill and eloquence, and told the
+clever incident with wonderful spirit and delightful mimicry. Adam was
+enchanted; he threw down his knife and fork and made the room ring
+with laughter and triumph so genuine that Sunna--much against her
+will--was compelled to laugh with him. They heard the happy thunder in
+the kitchen, and wondered whatever was the matter with the Master.
+
+"It is Robert Burns, his own self, and no other man. It is the best
+thing I have heard from 'the lad that was born in Kyle!'" Vedder
+cried. "Ill-natured! Not a bit of it! Just what the Horner man
+deserved!" Then he took some more collops and a fresh taste of
+Glenlivet, and anon broke into laughter again.
+
+"Oh! but I wish I was in Edinburgh tonight! There's men there I would
+go to see and have my laugh out with them."
+
+"Grandfather, why should we not go to Edinburgh next winter? You could
+board me with Mistress Brodie, and come every day to sort our quarrels
+and see that I was properly treated. Then you could have your crow
+over the ignoramuses who did not know such a patent Burns story; and I
+could take lessons in music and singing, and be learning something or
+seeing something, every hour of my life."
+
+"And what about Boris?"
+
+"The very name of Boris tires my tongue! I can do without Boris."
+
+"Well, then, that is good! Thou art learning 'the grand habit of doing
+without.'"
+
+"Wilt thou take me to Edinburgh? My mother would like thee to do that.
+I think I deserve it, Grandfather; yes, and so I ask thee."
+
+"If I was going, I should have no mind to go without thee. One thing I
+wish to know--in what way hast thou deserved it?"
+
+"I did not expect thee to ask me a question like that. Have I fretted
+and pined, and forgot to eat and sleep, and gone dowdy and slovenly,
+because my lover has been fool enough to desert me? Well, then, that
+is what any other girl would have done. But because I am of thy blood
+and stock, I take what comes to me as part of my day's work, and make
+no more grumble on the matter than one does about bad weather. Is that
+not the truth?"
+
+"One thing is sure--thou art the finest all round girl in the
+Orcades."
+
+"Then it seems to me thou should take me to Edinburgh. I want that
+something, that polish, only great cities can give me."
+
+"Blessings on thee! All Edinburgh can give, thou shalt have! But it is
+my advice to thee to remain here until Mrs. Brodie goes back, then go
+thou with her."
+
+"That will be what it should be. Mrs. Brodie, I feel, will be my
+stepmother; and----"
+
+"She will never step past thee. Fear not!"
+
+"Nor will any one--man or woman--step between thee and me! Doubt me
+not!"
+
+"Well, then, have thy way. I give thee my word to take thee to
+Edinburgh in the autumn. Thou shalt either stay with Mrs. Brodie or at
+the Queen's Hotel on Prince's Street, with old Adam Vedder."
+
+"Best of all is thy last offer. I will stay with thee. I am used to
+men's society. Women bore me."
+
+"Women bore me also."
+
+"Know this, there are three women who do not bore thee. Shall I speak
+their names?"
+
+"I will not hinder thee."
+
+"Sunna Vedder?"
+
+"I love her. She cannot bore me."
+
+"Rahal Ragnor?"
+
+"I respect her. She does not bore me--often."
+
+"Yes, that is so; it is but seldom thou sees her. Well, then, Barbara
+Brodie?"
+
+"I once loved her. She can never be indifferent to me."
+
+"Thou hast told me the truth and I will not follow up this catechism."
+
+"For that favour, I am thy debtor. I might not always have been so
+truthful. Now, then, be honest with me. What wilt thou do all the
+summer, with no lover to wait on thy whims and fancies?"
+
+"On thee I shall rely. Where thou goes, I will go, and if thou stay at
+home, with thee I will stay. Thou can read to me. I have never heard
+any of our great Sagas and that is a shame. I complain of that neglect
+in my education! I heard Maximus Grant recite from 'The Banded Men and
+Haakon the Good,' when I was in Edinburgh, and I said to myself, 'how
+much finer is this, than opera songs, sung with a Scotch burr, in the
+Italian; or than English songs, sung by Scotch people who pronounce
+English after the Scotch fashion!' Then I made up my mind that this
+coming winter I would let Edinburgh drawing-rooms hear the songs of
+Norse warriors; the songs in which the armour rattles and the swords
+shine!"
+
+"That, indeed, will befit thee! Now, then, for the summer, keep
+thyself well in hand. Say nothing of thy plans, for if but once the
+wind catches them, they will soon be for every one to talk to death."
+
+Adam was finishing his plate of rice pudding and cream when he gave
+this advice; and with it, he moved his chair from the table and said:
+"Come into the garden. I want to smoke. Thou knows a good dinner
+deserves a pipe, and a bad one demands it."
+
+Then they went into the garden and talked of the flowers and the young
+vegetables, and said not a word of Edinburgh and the Sagas that the
+winds could catch and carry round to human folk for clash and gossip.
+And when the pipe was out, Adam said: "Now I am going into the town.
+That Burns story is on my lips, my teeth cannot keep my tongue behind
+them much longer."
+
+"A good time will be thine. I wish that I could go with thee."
+
+"What wilt thou do?"
+
+"Braid my hair and dress myself. Then I shall take out thy Saga of
+'The Banded Men' and study the men who were banded, and find them
+out, in all their clever ways. Then I can show them to others. If I
+get tired of them--and I do get tired of men very quickly--I will
+put on my bonnet and tippet, and go and carry Mrs. Brodie thy
+respectful----"
+
+"Take care, Sunna!"
+
+"Good wishes! I can surely go so far."
+
+"Know this--every step on that road may lead to danger--and thou
+cannot turn back and tread them the other way. There now, be off! I
+will talk with thee no longer."
+
+Sunna said something about Burns in reply, but Vedder heard her not.
+He was satisfying his vocal impatience by whistling softly and very
+musically "The Garb of Old Gaul," and Sunna watched and listened a
+moment, and then in something of a hurry went to her room. A new
+thought had come to her--one which pleased her very much; and she
+proceeded to dress herself accordingly.
+
+"None too good is my Easter gown," she said pleasantly to herself;
+"and I can take Eric a basket of the oranges grandfather brought home
+today. A treat to the dear little lad they will be. Before me is a
+long afternoon, and I shall find the proper moment to ask the advice
+of Maximus about 'The Banded Men.'" So with inward smiles she dressed
+herself, and then took the highway in a direction not very often taken
+by her.
+
+It led her to a handsome mansion overlooking the Venice of the
+Orcades, the village and the wonderful Bay of Kirkwall, into which
+
+                      ... by night and day,
+  The great sea water finds its way
+  Through long, long windings of the hills.
+
+The house had a silent look, and its enclosure was strangely quiet,
+though kept in exquisite order and beauty. As she approached, a lady
+about fifty years old came to the top of the long, white steps to meet
+her, appearing to be greatly pleased with her visit.
+
+"Only at dinner time Max was speaking of thee! And Eric said his
+sweetheart had forgotten him, and wondering we all were, what had kept
+thee so long away."
+
+"Well, then, thou knowest about the war and the enlisting--everyone,
+in some way, has been touched by the changes made."
+
+"True is that! Quickly thou must come in, for Eric has both
+second-sight and hearing, and no doubt he knows already that here thou
+art----" and talking thus as she went, Mrs. Beaton led the way up a
+wide, light stairway. Even as Mrs. Beaton was speaking a thin, eager
+voice called Sunna's name, a door flew open, and a man, beautiful as
+a dream-man, stood in the entrance to welcome them. And here the word
+"beautiful" need not to be erased; it was the very word that sprang
+naturally from the heart to the lips of every one when they met
+Maximus Grant. No Greek sculptor ever dreamed of a more perfect form
+and face; the latter illumined by noticeable grey eyes, contemplative
+and mystical, a face, thoughtful and winning, and constantly breaking
+into kind smiles.
+
+He took Sunna's hand, and they went quickly forward to a boy of about
+eleven years old, whom Sunna kissed and petted. The little lad was in
+a passion of delight. He called her "his sweetheart! his wife! his
+Queen!" and made her take off her bonnet and cloak and sit down beside
+him. He was half lying in a softly cushioned chair; there was a large
+globe at his side, and an equally large atlas, with other books on a
+small table near by, and Max's chair was close to the whole
+arrangement. He was a fair, lovely boy, with the seraphic eyes that
+sufferers from spinal diseases so frequently possess--eyes with the
+look in them of a Conqueror of Pain. But also, on his young face there
+was the solemn Trophonean pallor which signs those who daily dare "to
+look at death in the cave."
+
+"Max and I have been to the Greek islands," he said, "and Sunna, as
+soon as I am grown up, and am quite well, I shall ask thee to marry
+me, and then we will go to one of the loveliest of them and live
+there. Max thinks that would be just right."
+
+"Thou little darling," answered Sunna, "when thou art a man, if thou
+ask me to marry thee, I shall say 'yes!'"
+
+"Of course thou wilt. Sunna loves Eric?"
+
+"I do, indeed, Eric! I think we should be very happy. We should never
+quarrel or be cross with each other."
+
+"Oh! I would not like that! If we did not quarrel, there would be no
+making-up. I remember papa and mamma making-up their little tiffs, and
+they seemed to be very happy about it--and to love each other ever so
+much better for the tiff and the make-up. I think we must have little
+quarrels, Sunna; and then, long, long, happy makings-up."
+
+"Very well, Eric; only, thou must make the quarrel. With thee I could
+not quarrel."
+
+"I should begin it in this way: 'Sunna, I do not approve of thy
+dancing with--say--Ken McLeod.' Then thou wilt say: 'I shall dance
+with whom I like, Eric'; and I will reply: 'thou art my wife and I
+will not allow thee to dance with McLeod'; and then thou wilt be
+naughty and saucy and proud, and I shall have to be angry and
+masterful; and as thou art going out of the room in a terrible temper,
+I shall say, 'Sunna!' in a sweet voice, and look at thee, and thou
+wilt look at me, with those heavenly eyes, and then I shall open my
+arms and thou wilt fly to my embrace, and the making-up will begin."
+
+"Well, then, that will be delightful, Eric, but thou must not accuse
+me of anything so bad as dancing with Mr. McLeod."
+
+"Would that be bad to thee?"
+
+"Very bad, indeed! I fear I would never try to have a 'make-up' with
+any one who thought I would dance with him."
+
+"Dost thou dislike him?"
+
+"That is neither here nor there. He is a Scot. I may marry like the
+rest of the world, but while my life days last, Sunna Vedder will not
+marry a Scot."
+
+"Yes--but there was some talk that way. My aunt heard it. My aunt
+hears everything."
+
+"I will tell thee, talk that way was all lies. No one will Sunna
+Vedder marry, that is not of her race." Then she put her arms round
+Eric, and kissed his wan face, calling him "her own little Norseman!"
+
+"Tell me, Sunna, what is happening in the town?" said he.
+
+"Well, then, not much now. Men are talking of the war, and going to
+the war, and empty is the town. About the war, art thou sorry?"
+
+"No, I am glad----
+
+  "How glorious the valiant, sword in hand,
+  In front of battle for their native land!"
+
+And he raised his small, thin hands, and his face glowed, and he
+looked like a young St. Michael.
+
+Then Max lifted the globe and books aside and put his chair close to
+his brother's. "Eric has the soul of a soldier," he said, "and the
+sound of drums and trumpets stirs him like the cry of fire."
+
+"And so it happens, Mr. Grant, that we have much noise lately from the
+trumpets and the fife and drums."
+
+"Yes, man is a military animal, he loves parade," answered Max.
+
+"But in this war, there is much more than parade."
+
+"You are right, Miss Vedder. It was prompted by that gigantic
+heart-throb with which, even across oceans, we feel each other's
+rights and wrongs. And in this way we learn best that we are men and
+brothers. Can a man do more for a wrong than give his life to right
+it?"
+
+Then Eric cried out with hysterical passion: "I wish only that I might
+have my way with Aberdeen! Oh, the skulking cowards who follow him!
+Max! Max! If you would mount our father's big war horse and hold me in
+front of you and ride into the thick of the battle, and let me look on
+the cold light of the lifted swords! Oh, the shining swords! They
+shake! They cry out! The lives of men are in them! Max! Max! I want to
+die--on a--battlefield!"
+
+And Max held the weeping boy in his arms, and bowed his head over him
+and whispered words too tender and sacred to be written down.
+
+For a while Eric was exhausted; he lay still watching his brother and
+Sunna, and listening to their conversation. They were talking of the
+excitement in London, and of the pressure of the clergy putting down
+the reluctancies and falterings of the peace men.
+
+"Have you heard, Miss Vedder," said Grant, "that one of the bishops
+decided England's call to war by a wonderful sermon in St. Paul's?"
+
+"I am sorry to be ignorant. Tell me."
+
+"He preached from Jeremiah, Fourth Chapter and Sixth Verse; and his
+closing cry was from Nahum, Second Chapter and First Verse, 'Set up
+the standard toward Zion. Stay not, for I will bring evil from the
+north and a great destruction,' and he closed with Nahum's advice, 'He
+that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face, keep the munition,
+watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.'"
+
+"Well, then, how went the advice?"
+
+"I know not exactly. It is hard to convince commerce and cowardice
+that at certain times war is the highest of all duties. Neither of
+them understand patriotism; and yet every trembling pacifist in time
+of war is a misfortune to his country."
+
+"And the country will give them--what?" asked Sunna.
+
+"The cold, dead damnation of a disgrace they will never outlive,"
+answered Max.
+
+There was a sharp cry from Eric at these words, and then a passionate
+childish exclamation--"Not bad enough! Not bad enough!" he screamed.
+"Oh, if I had a sword and a strong hand! I would cut them up in
+slices!" Then with an hysterical cry the boy fell backward.
+
+In an instant Max had him in his arms and was whispering words of
+promise and consolation, and just then, fortunately, Mrs. Beaton
+entered with a servant who was carrying a service of tea and muffins.
+It was a welcome diversion and both Max and Sunna were glad of it. Max
+gently unloosed Eric's hand from Sunna's clasp and then they both
+looked at the child. He had fallen into a sleep of exhaustion and Max
+said, "It is well. When he is worn out with feeling, such sleeps alone
+save his life. I am weary, also. Let us have a cup of tea." So they
+sat down and talked of everything but the war--"He would hear us in
+his sleep," said Max, "and he has borne all he is able to bear today."
+Then Sunna said:
+
+"Right glad am I to put a stop to such a trouble-raising subject. War
+is a thing by itself, and all that touches it makes people bereft of
+their senses or some other good thing. Here has come news of Thora
+Ragnor's hurried marriage, but no one knows or cares about the
+strange things happening at our doorstep. Such haste is not good I
+fear."
+
+"Does Ragnor approve of it?" asked Mrs. Beaton.
+
+"Thora's marriage is all right. They fell in love with each other the
+moment they met. No other marriage is possible for either. It is this,
+or none at all," answered Sunna.
+
+"I heard the man was the son of a great Edinburgh preacher."
+
+"Yes, the Rev. Dr. Macrae, of St. Mark's."
+
+"That is what I heard. He is a good man, but a very hard one."
+
+"If he is hard, he is not good."
+
+"Thou must not say that, little Miss; it may be the Episcopalian
+belief, but we Calvinists have a stronger faith--a faith fit for men
+and soldiers of the Lord."
+
+"There! Mrs. Beaton, you are naming soldiers. That is against our
+agreement to drop war talk. About Macrae I know nothing. He is not
+aware that anyone but Thora Ragnor lives; and I was not in the least
+attracted by him--his black hair and black eyes repelled me--I dislike
+such men."
+
+"Will they live in Edinburgh?"
+
+"I believe they will live in Kirkwall. Mrs. Ragnor owns a pretty
+house, which she will give them. She is going to put it in order and
+furnish it from the roof to the foundation. Thora is busy about her
+napery--the finest of Irish linen and damask. Now then, I must hurry
+home. My grandfather will be waiting his tea."
+
+Max rose with her. He looked at his little brother and said: "Aunt, he
+will sleep now for a few hours, will you watch him till I return?"
+
+"Will I not? You know he is as safe with me as yourself, Max."
+
+So with an acknowledging smile of content, he took Sunna's hand and
+led her slowly down the stairway. There was a box running all across
+the sill of the long window, lighting the stairs, and it was full and
+running over with the delicious muck plant. Sunna laid her face upon
+its leaves for a moment, and the whole place was thrilled with its
+heavenly perfume. Then she smiled at Max and his heart trembled with
+joy; yet he said a little abruptly--"Let us make haste. The night
+grows cloudy."
+
+Their way took them through the village, and Sunna knew that she
+would, in all likelihood, be the first woman ever seen in Maximus
+Grant's company. The circumstance was pleasant to her, and she carried
+herself with an air and manner that she readily caught and copied from
+him. She knew that there was a face at every window, but she did not
+turn her head one way or the other. Max was talking to her about the
+Sagas and she had a personal interest in the Sagas, and any ambition
+she had to be socially popular was as yet quite undeveloped.
+
+At the point where the Vedder and Ragnor roads crossed each other, two
+men were standing, talking. They were Ragnor and Vedder, and Ragnor
+was at once aware of the identity of the couple approaching; but
+Vedder appeared so unaware, that Ragnor remarked: "I see Sunna,
+Vedder, coming up the road, and with her is Colonel Max Grant."
+
+"But why 'Colonel,' Ragnor?"
+
+"When General Grant died his son was a colonel in the Life Guards. He
+left the army to care for his brother. I heard that the Queen praised
+him for doing so."
+
+Then the couple were so close, that it was impossible to affect
+ignorance of their presence any longer; and the old men turned and
+saluted the young couple. "I thank thee, Colonel," said Vedder, as he
+"changed hats" with the Colonel, "but now I can relieve thee of the
+charge thou hast taken. I am going home and Sunna will go with me; but
+if thou could call on an old man about some business, there is a
+matter I would like to arrange with thee."
+
+"I could go home with you now, Vedder, if that would be suitable."
+
+"Nay, it would be too much for me tonight. It is concerning that waste
+land on the Stromness road, near the little bridge. I would like to
+build a factory there."
+
+"That would be to my pleasure and advantage. I will call on you and
+talk over the matter, at any time you desire."
+
+"Well and good! Say tomorrow at two o'clock."
+
+"Three o'clock would be better for me."
+
+"So, let it be." Then he took Sunna's hand and she understood that her
+walk with Grant was over. She thanked Max for his courtesy, sent a
+message to Eric, and then said her good night with a look into his
+eyes which dirled in his heart for hours afterwards. Some compliments
+passed between the men and then she found herself walking home with
+her grandfather.
+
+"Thou ought not to have seen me, Grandfather," she said a little
+crossly, "I was having such a lovely walk."
+
+"I did not want to see thee, and have I not arranged for thee
+something a great deal better on tomorrow's afternoon?"
+
+"One never knows----"
+
+"Listen; he is to come at three o'clock, it will be thy fault if he
+leaves at four. Thou can make tea for him--thou can walk in the
+greenhouse and the garden with him, thou can sing for him--no,
+let him sing for thee--thou can ask him to help thee with 'The
+Banded Men'--and if he goes away before eight o'clock I will say
+to thee--'take the first man that asks thee for thou hast no
+woman-witchery with which to pick and choose!' Grant is a fine man.
+If thou can win him, thou wins something worth while. He has always
+held himself apart. His father was much like him. All of them
+soldiers and proud as men are made, these confounded, democratic
+days."
+
+"And what of Boris?" asked Sunna.
+
+"May Boris rest wherever he is! Thou could not compare Boris with
+Maximus Grant."
+
+"That is the truth. In many ways they are not comparable. Boris is a
+rough, passionate man. Grant is a gentleman. Always I thought there
+was something common in me; that must be the reason why I prefer
+Boris."
+
+"To vex me, thou art saying such untruthful words. I know thy
+contradictions! Go now and inquire after my tea. I am in want of it."
+
+During tea, nothing further was said of Maximus Grant; but Sunna was
+in a very merry mood, and Adam watched her, and listened to her in a
+philosophical way;--that is, he tried to make out amid all her
+persiflage and bantering talk what was her ruling motive and intent--a
+thing no one could have been sure of, unless they had heard her
+talking to herself--that mysterious confidence in which we all
+indulge, and in which we all tell ourselves the truth. Sunna was
+undressing her hair and folding away her clothing as she visited this
+confessional, but her revelations were certainly honest, even if
+fragmentary, and full of doubt and uncertainty.
+
+"Grant, indeed!" she exclaimed, "I am not ready for Grant--I believe I
+am afraid of the man--he would make me over--make me like himself--in
+a month he would do it--I like Boris best! I should quarrel with
+Boris, of course, and we should say words neither polite nor kind to
+each other; but then Boris would do as that blessed child said, 'Look
+at me'; and I should look at him, and the making-up would begin.
+Heigh-ho! I wish it could begin tonight!" She was silent then for a
+few minutes, and in a sadder voice added--"with Max I should become an
+angel--and I should have a life without a ripple--I would hate it,
+just as I hate the sea when it lies like a mirror under the
+sunshine--then I always want to scream out for a great north wind and
+the sea in a passion, shattering everything in its way. If I got into
+that mood with Max, we should have a most unpleasant time----" and she
+laughed and tossed her pillows about, and then having found a
+comfortable niche in one of them, she tucked her handsome head into it
+and in a few moments the sleep of youth and perfect health lulled her
+into a secret garden in the Land of Dreams.
+
+The next day Sunna appeared to be quite oblivious regarding Grant's
+visit and Vedder was too well acquainted with his granddaughter to
+speak of it. He only noticed that she was dressed with a peculiar
+simplicity and neatness. At three o'clock Grant was promptly at the
+Vedder House, and at half-past four the land in question had been
+visited and subsequently bought and sold. Then the cup of tea came in,
+and the walk in the garden followed, and at six there was an ample
+meal, and during the singing that followed it, Vedder fell fast
+asleep, as was his custom, and when he awoke Grant was just going and
+the clock was striking ten. Vedder looked at Sunna and there was no
+need for him to speak.
+
+"It was 'The Banded Men,'" said Sunna with a straight look at her
+grandfather.
+
+"Well, then, I know a woman who is a match for any number of 'banded
+men.'"
+
+"And in all likelihood that woman will be a Vedder. Good night,
+Grandfather."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CALL OF WAR
+
+  I came not to send peace but a sword.
+                                --_Matt. x, 34._
+
+  For when I note how noble Nature's form
+    Under the war's red pain, I deem it true
+  That He who made the earthquake and the storm,
+    Perchance made battles too.
+
+
+The summer passed rapidly away for it was full of new interests.
+Thora's wedding was to take place about Christmas or New Year, and
+there were no ready-made garments in those days; so all of her girl
+friends were eager to help her needle. Sunna spent half the day with
+her and all their small frets and jealousies were forgotten. Early in
+the morning the work was lifted, and all day long it went happily on,
+to their light-hearted hopes and dreams. Then in June and September
+Ian came to Kirkwall to settle his account with McLeod, and at the
+same time, he remained a week as the Ragnors' guest. There was also
+Sunna's intended visit to Edinburgh to talk about, and there was
+never a day in which the war and its preparations did not make itself
+prominent.
+
+One of the pleasantest episodes of this period occurred early and
+related to Sunna. One morning she received a small box from London,
+and she was so amazed at the circumstance, that she kept examining the
+address and wondering "who could have sent it," instead of opening the
+box. However, when this necessity had been observed, it revealed to
+her a square leather case, almost like those used for jewelry, and her
+heart leaped high with expectation. It was something, however, that
+pleased her much more than jewelry; it was a likeness of Boris, a
+daguerreotype--the first that had ever reached Kirkwall. A narrow
+scrap of paper was within the clasp, on which Boris had written, "I am
+all thine! Forget me not!"
+
+Sunna usually made a pretense of despising anything sentimental but
+this example filled her heart with joy and satisfaction. And after it,
+she took far greater pleasure in all the circumstances relating to
+Thora's marriage; for she had gained a personal interest in them. Even
+the details of the ceremony were now discussed and arranged in accord
+with Sunna's taste and suggestions.
+
+"The altar and nave must be decorated with flags and evergreens and
+all the late flowers we can secure," she said.
+
+"There will not be many flowers, I fear," answered Mistress Ragnor.
+
+"The Grants have a large greenhouse. I shall ask them to save all they
+possibly can. Maximus Grant delights in doing a kindness."
+
+"Then thou must ask him, Sunna. He is thy friend--perhaps thy lover.
+So the talk goes."
+
+"Let them talk! My lover is far away. God save him!"
+
+"Where then?"
+
+"Where all good and fit men are gone--to the trenches. For my lover is
+much of a man, strong and brave-hearted. He adores his country, his
+home, and his kindred. He counts honour far above money; and liberty,
+more than life. My lover will earn the right to marry the girl he
+loves, and become the father of free men and women!" And Rahal
+answered proudly and tenderly:
+
+"Thou art surely meaning my son Boris."
+
+"Indeed, thou art near to the truth."
+
+Then Rahal put her arm round Sunna and kissed her. "Thou hast made me
+happy," she said, and Sunna made her still more happy, when she took
+out of the little bag fastened to her belt the daguerreotype and
+showed her the strong, handsome face of her soldier-sailor boy.
+
+During all this summer Sunna was busy and regular. She was at the
+Ragnors' every day until the noon hour. Then she ate dinner with her
+grandfather, who was as eager to discuss the news and gossip Sunna had
+heard, as any old woman in Kirkwall. He said: "Pooh! Pooh!" and
+"Nonsense!" but he listened to it, and it often served his purpose
+better than words of weight and wisdom.
+
+In the afternoons Mistress Brodie was to visit, and the winter in
+Edinburgh to talk over. Coming home in time to take tea with her
+grandfather, she devoted the first hour after the meal to practising
+her best songs, and these lullabyed the old man to a sleep which often
+lasted until "The Banded Men" were attended to. It might then be ten
+o'clock and she was ready to sleep.
+
+All through these long summer days, Thora was the natural source of
+interest and the inciting element of all the work and chatter that
+turned the Ragnor house upside down and inside out; but Thora was
+naturally shy and quiet, and Sunna naturally expressive and
+presuming; and it was difficult for their companions to keep Thora and
+Sunna in their proper places. Every one found it difficult. Only when
+Ian was present, did Sunna take her proper secondary place and Ian,
+though the most faithful and attentive of lovers by mail, had only
+been able to pay Thora one personal visit. This visit had occurred at
+the end of June and he was expected again at the end of September. The
+year was now approaching that time and the Ragnor household was in a
+state of happy expectation.
+
+It was an unusual condition and Sunna said irritably: "They go on
+about this stranger as if he were the son of Jupiter--and poor Boris!
+They never mention him, though there has been a big battle and Boris
+may have been in it. If Boris were killed, it is easy to see that this
+Ian Macrae would step into his place!"
+
+"Nothing of that kind could happen! In thy own heart keep such foolish
+thoughts," replied Vedder.
+
+So the last days of September were restless and not very happy, for
+there was a great storm prevailing, and the winds roared and the rain
+fell in torrents and the sea looked as if it had gone mad. Before the
+storm there was a report of a big battle, but no details of it had
+reached them. For the Pentland Firth had been in its worst equinoctial
+temper and the proviso added to all Orkney sailing notices, "weather
+permitting," had been in full force for nearly a week.
+
+But at length the storm was over and everyone was on the lookout for
+the delayed shipping. Thora was pale with intense excitement but all
+things were in beautiful readiness for the expected guest. And Ian did
+not disappoint the happy hopes which called him. He was on the first
+ship that arrived and it was Conall Ragnor's hand he clasped as his
+feet touched the dry land.
+
+Such a home-coming as awaited him--the cheerful room, the bountifully
+spread table, the warm welcome, the beauty and love, mingling with
+that sense of peace and rest and warm affection which completely
+satisfies the heart. Would such a blissful hour ever come again to him
+in this life?
+
+His pockets were full of newspapers, and they were all shouting over
+the glorious opening of the war. The battle of Alma had been fought
+and won; and the troops were ready and waiting for Inkerman. England's
+usual calm placidity had vanished in exultant rejoicing. "An English
+gentleman told me," said Ian, "that you could not escape the chimes of
+joyful bells in any part of the ringing island.'"
+
+Vedder had just entered the room and he stood still to listen to these
+words. Then he said: "Men differ. For the first victory let all the
+bells of England ring if they want to. We Norsemen like to keep our
+bell-ringing until the fight is over and they can chime _Peace_. And
+how do you suppose, Ian Macrae, that the English and French will like
+to fight together?"
+
+"Well enough, sir, no doubt. Why not?"
+
+"Of Waterloo I was thinking. Have the French forgotten it? Ian, it is
+the very first time in all the history we have, that Frenchmen ever
+fought with Englishmen in a common cause. Natural enemies they have
+been for centuries, fighting each other with a very good will whenever
+they got a chance. Have they suddenly become friends? Have they forgot
+Waterloo?" and he shook his wise old head doubtfully.
+
+"Who can tell, sir, but when the English conquer any nation, they feel
+kindly to them and usually give them many favours?"
+
+"Well, then, every one knows that the same is both her pleasure and
+her folly; and dearly she pays for it."
+
+"Ian," said Mistress Ragnor, "are the English ships now in the Black
+Sea? And if so, do you think Boris is with them?"
+
+"About Boris, I do not know. He told me he was carrying 'material of
+war.' The gentleman of whom I spoke went down to Spithead to see them
+off. Her Majesty, in the royal yacht, _Fairy_, suddenly appeared. Then
+the flagship hauled home every rope by the silent 'all-at-once' action
+of one hundred men. Immediately the rigging of the ships was black
+with sailors, but there was not a sound heard except an occasional
+command--sharp, short and imperative--or the shrill order of the
+boatswain's whistle. The next moment, the Queen's yacht shot past the
+fleet and literally led it out to sea. Near the Nab, the royal yacht
+hove to and the whole fleet sailed past her, carried swiftly out by a
+fine westerly breeze. Her Majesty waved her handkerchief as they
+passed and it is said she wept. If she had not wept she would have
+been less than a woman and a queen."
+
+While Vedder and Ragnor were discussing this incident, and comparing
+it with Cleopatra at the head of her fleet and Boadicea at the head
+of her British army and Queen Elizabeth at Tewksbury reviewing her
+army, Mrs. Ragnor and Thora left the room. Ian quickly followed. There
+was a bright fire in the parlour, and the piano was open. Ian
+naturally drifted there and then Thora's voice was wanted in the song.
+When it was finished, Mrs. Ragnor had been called out and they were
+alone. And though Mrs. Ragnor came back at intervals, they were
+practically alone during the rest of the evening.
+
+What do lovers talk about when they are alone? Ah! their conversation
+is not to be written down. How unwritable it is! How wise it is! How
+foolish when written down! How supremely satisfying to the lovers
+themselves! Surely it is only the "baby-talk" of the wisdom not yet
+comprehensible to human hearts! We often say of certain events; "I
+have no words to describe what I felt"--and who will find out or
+invent the heavenly syllables that can adequately describe the divine
+passion of two souls, that suddenly find their real mate--find the
+soul that halves their soul, created for them, created with them,
+often lost or missed through diverse reincarnations; but sooner or
+later found again and known as soon as found to both. No wooing is
+necessary in such a case--they meet, they look, they love, and
+naturally and immediately take up their old, but unforgotten love
+patois. They do not need to learn its sweet, broken syllables, its
+hand clasps and sighs, its glances and kisses; they are more natural
+to them than was the grammared language they learned through years of
+painful study.
+
+Ian and Thora hardly knew how the week went. Every one respected their
+position and left them very much to their own inclinations. It led
+them to long, solitary walks, and to the little green skiff on the
+moonlit bay, and to short visits to Sunna, in order, mainly, that they
+might afterwards tell each other how far sweeter and happier they were
+alone.
+
+They never tired of each other, and every day they recounted the
+number of days that had to pass ere Ian could call himself free from
+the McLeod contract. They were to marry immediately and Ian would go
+into Ragnor's business as bookkeeper. Their future home was growing
+more beautiful every day. It was going to be the prettiest little home
+on the island. There was a good garden attached to it and a small
+greenhouse to save the potted plants in the winter. Ragnor had
+ordered its furniture from a famous maker in Aberdeen, and Rahal was
+attending with love and skill to all those incidentals of modern
+housekeeping, usually included in such words as silver, china, napery,
+ornaments, and kitchen-utensils. They were much interested in it and
+went every fine day to observe its progress. Yet their interest in the
+house was far inferior to their interest in each other, and Sunna may
+well be excused for saying to her grandfather:
+
+"They are the most conceited couple in the world! In fact, the world
+belongs to them and all the men and women in it--the sun and the moon
+are made new for them, and they have the only bit of wisdom going. I
+hope I may be able to say 'yes' to all they claim until Saturday
+comes."
+
+"These are the ways of love, Sunna."
+
+"Then I shall not walk in them."
+
+"Thou wilt walk in the way appointed thee."
+
+"Pure Calvinism is that, Grandfather."
+
+"So be it. I am a Calvinist about birth, death and marriage. They are
+the events in life about which God interferes. His will and design is
+generally evident."
+
+"And quite as evident, Grandfather, is the fact that a great many
+people interfere with His will and design."
+
+"Yes, Sunna, because our will is free. Yet if our will crosses God's
+will, crucifixion of some kind is sure to follow."
+
+"Well, then, today is Friday. The week has got itself over nearly; and
+tomorrow will be partly free, for Ian goes to Edinburgh at ten
+o'clock. Very proper is that! Such an admirable young man ought only
+to live in a capitol city."
+
+"If these are thy opinions, keep them to thyself. Very popular is the
+young man."
+
+"Grandfather, dost thou think that I am walking in ankle-tights yet? I
+can talk as the crowd talks, and I can talk to a sensible man like
+thee. Tomorrow brings release. I am glad, for Thora has forgotten me.
+I feel that very much."
+
+"Thou art jealous."
+
+Vedder's assertion was near the truth, for undeniably Ian and Thora
+had been careless of any one but themselves. Yet their love was so
+vital and primitive, so unaffected and sincere, that it touched the
+sympathies of all. In this cold, far-northern island, it had all the
+glow and warmth of some rose-crowned garden of a tropical paradise.
+But such special days are like days set apart; they do not fit into
+ordinary life and cannot be continued long under any circumstances. So
+the last day came and Thora said:
+
+"Mother, dear, it is a day in a thousand for beauty, and we are going
+to get Aunt Brodie's carriage to ride over to Stromness and see the
+queer, old town, and the Stones of Stenness."
+
+"Go not near them. If you go into the cathedral you go expecting some
+good to come to you; for angels may be resting in its holy aisles,
+ready and glad to bless you. What will you ask of the ghosts among the
+Stones of Stenness? Is there any favour you would take from the Baal
+and Moloch worshipped with fire and blood among them?"
+
+"Why, Mother," said Thora, "I have known many girls who went with
+their lovers to Stenness purposely to join their hands through the
+hole in Woden's Stone and thus take oath to love each other forever."
+
+"Thou and Ian will take that oath in the holy church of St. Magnus."
+
+"That is what we wish, Mother," said Ian. "We wish nothing less than
+that."
+
+"Well, then, go and see the queer, old, old town, and go to the
+Mason's Arms, and you will get there a good dinner. After it ride
+slowly back. Father will be home before six and must have his meal at
+once."
+
+"That is the thing we shall do, Mother. Ian thought it would be so
+romantic to take a lunch with us and eat it among the Stones of
+Stenness. But the Mason's Arms will be better. The Masons are good
+men, Mother?"
+
+"In all their generations, good men. Thy father is a Mason in high
+standing."
+
+"Yes, that is so! Then the Mason's Arms may be lucky to us?"
+
+"We make things lucky or unlucky by our willing and doing; but even
+so, it is not lucky to defy or deny what the dead have once held to be
+good or bad."
+
+"Well, then, why, Mother?"
+
+"Not now, will we talk of whys and wherefores. It is easier to believe
+than to think. Take, in this last day of Love's seven days, the full
+joy of your lives and ask not why of anyone."
+
+So the lovers went off gaily to see the land-locked bay and the
+strange old town of Stromness; and the house was silent and lonely
+without them and Rahal wished that her husband would come home and
+talk with her, for her soul was under a cloud of presentiments and
+she said to herself after a morning of fretful, inefficient work: "Oh,
+how much easier it is to love God than it is to trust Him. Are not my
+dear ones in His care? Yet about them I am constantly worrying; though
+perfectly well I know that in any deluge that may come, God will find
+an ark for those who love and trust Him. Boris knows--Boris knows--I
+have told him."
+
+About three o'clock she went to the window and looked towards the
+town. Much to her astonishment she saw her husband coming home at a
+speed far beyond his ordinary walk. He appeared also to be disturbed,
+even angry, and she watched him anxiously until he reached the house.
+Then she was at the open door and his face frightened her.
+
+"Conall! My dear one! Art thou ill?" she asked.
+
+"I am ill with anger and pity and shame!"
+
+"What is thy meaning? Speak to me plainly."
+
+"Oh, Rahal! the shame and the cruelty of it! I am beside myself!"
+
+"Come to my room, then thou shalt tell thy sorrow and I will halve it
+with thee."
+
+"No! I want to cry out! I want to shout the shameful wrong from the
+house-tops! Indeed, it is flying all over England and Scotland--over
+all the civilized world! And yet--my God! the guilty ones are still
+living!"
+
+"Coll, my dear one, what is it thou most needs--cold water?"
+
+"No! No! Get me a pot of hot tea.[*] My brain burns. My heart is like
+to break! Our poor brave soldiers! They are dying of hunger and of
+every form of shameful neglect. The barest necessities of life are
+denied them."
+
+  [*] The Norsemen of Shetland and Orkney drank tea in every kind of
+      need or crisis. No meal without it, no pleasure without it; and
+      it was equally indispensable in every kind of trouble or
+      fatigue.
+
+"By whom? By whom, Coll?"
+
+"Pacifists in power and office everywhere! Give me a drink! Give me a
+drink! I am ill--get me tea--and I will tell thee."
+
+There was boiling water on the kitchen hob, and the tea was ready in
+five minutes. "Drink, dear Coll," said Rahal, "and then share thy
+trouble and anger with me. The mail packet brought the bad news, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Yes, about an hour ago. The town is in a tumult. Men are cursing
+and women are doing nothing less. Some whose sons are at the front
+are in a distraction. If Aberdeen were within our reach we would
+give him five minutes to say his prayers and then send him to the
+judgment of God. Englishmen and Norsemen will not lie down and rot
+under Russian tyranny. To die fighting against it sends them joyfully
+to the battlefield! But oh, Rahal! to be left alone to die on the
+battlefield, without help, without care, without even a drink of
+cold water! It is damnable cruelty! What I say is this: let England
+stop her bell-ringing and shouts of victory until she has comforted
+and helped her wounded and dying soldiers!"
+
+"And Aberdeen? He is a Scotch nobleman--the Scotch are not cowards--what
+has he done, Coll?"
+
+"Because he hates fighting for our rights, he persuades all whom his
+power and patronage can reach to lie down or he says they will be
+knocked down. So it may be, but every man that has a particle of the
+Divine in him would rather be knocked down than lie down--if down it
+had to be--but there is no question of down in it! Aberdeen! He is
+'England's worst enemy'--and he holds the power given him by England
+to rule and ruin England! I wish he would die and go to judgment this
+night! I do! I do! and my soul says to me, 'Thou art right.'"
+
+"Coll, no man knoweth the will of the Almighty."
+
+"Then they ought to! The question has now been up to England for a
+two-years' discussion, and they have only to open His Word and find it
+out"; then he straightened himself and in a mighty burst of joyful
+pride and enthusiasm cried out:
+
+"'Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and
+my fingers to fight.
+
+"'My goodness, and my fortress, my high tower, and my deliverer, my
+shield, and He in whom I trust, who subdueth the people under me.'"
+
+Anon he began to pace the floor as he continued: "'Rid us and deliver
+us, from the hands of strange children--whose mouth speaketh vanity,
+and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.' Rahal, could there
+be a better description of Russia--'her right hand of falsehood, her
+mouth speaking vanity?' David put the very words needed in our mouths
+when he taught us to say, 'rid us of such an enemy, and of all who
+strike hands with him!' Yes, rid us. We want to be rid of all such
+dead souls! Rid us."
+
+Then Rahal reminded her husband that only recently his physician had
+warned him against all excitement, especially of anger, and so finally
+induced him to take a sedative and go to sleep. But sleep was far from
+her. She sat down in her own room and closed her eyes against all
+worldly sights and sounds. Her soul was trying to reach her son's soul
+and impress upon it her own trust in the love and mercy of the "God of
+battles." She had hoped that some word or thought of Boris would come
+back to her in such a personal manner that she would feel that he was
+thinking of her and of the many sweet spiritual confidences they had
+had together.
+
+But nothing came, no sign, no word, no sudden, flashing memory of some
+special promise. All was void and still until she heard the voices of
+Thora and Ian. Then she went down to them and found that the evil news
+had met them on their way home. She asked Ian if he had any knowledge
+of the whereabouts of Boris. Ian thought he might be at sea, as his
+ship was at Spithead among the carrying ships of the navy. "If he had
+been in Alma's fight, you might have heard from him," he added. "It
+would be his first battle and he would want to write to you about it.
+That would be only natural."
+
+"Well, then, I will look for good news. If bad news is coming, I will
+not pay it the compliment of going to meet it. Have you had a pleasant
+day? Where first did you go?"
+
+"To the land-locked Bay of Stromness which was full of ships of all
+sizes, of schooners, and of little skiffs painted a light green colour
+like the pleasure skiffs of Kirkwall."
+
+"And the town?"
+
+"Was very busy while we were there. It has but one long street, with
+steep branches running directly up the big granite hill which shelters
+it from the Atlantic. What I noticed particularly was, that the houses
+on the main street all had their gables seaward; and are so built that
+the people can step from their doors into their boats. I liked that
+arrangement. Stromness is really an Orcadean Venice. The town is a
+queer old place, with a non-English and non-Scotch look. The houses
+have an old-world appearance and the names over the doorways carry you
+back to Norseland. Only one street is flagged and little bays run up
+into the street through its whole length. But the place appeared to be
+very busy and happy. I noticed few Scotch there, the people seemed to
+be purely Norse. All were busy--men, women and children."
+
+"It used to be the last port for the Hudson Bay Company," said Rahal,
+"and the big whaling fleets, and in days of war and convoys there were
+hundreds of big ships in its wonderful harbour. I suppose that you had
+no time to visit any of the ancient monuments there?" Rahal asked.
+
+"No; Thora told me her grandmother Ragnor was buried in its cemetery
+and that her grave was near the church door and had a white pillar at
+the head of it. So we walked there."
+
+"Well, then?"
+
+"I cannot describe to you the savage, lonely grandeur of its
+situation. It frightened me."
+
+"The men and women who chose it were not afraid of it."
+
+"Thora says its memory frightened her for years."
+
+"Thora was only eight years old when her father placed the pillar at
+the head of his mother's grave. It was then she saw it--but at eight
+years many people are often more sensitive than at eighty. Yes,
+indeed! They may see, then, what eyes dimmed by earthly vision cannot
+see, and feel what hearts hardened by earth's experiences cannot
+feel. Thora's spiritual sight was very keen in childhood and is not
+dimmed yet."
+
+At these words Thora entered the room, wearing the little frock of
+white barege she had saved for this last day of Ian's visit. Her face
+had been bathed, her hair brushed and loosened but yet dressed with
+the easiest simplicity. She was in trouble but she knew when to speak
+of trouble, and when to be silent. Her mother was talking of
+Stromness; when her father came, he would know all, and say all. So
+she went softly about the room, putting on the dinner table those last
+final accessories that it was her duty to supply.
+
+Yet the conversation was careless and indifferent. Rahal talked of
+Stromness but her heart was far away from Stromness, and Thora would
+have liked to tell her mother how beautifully their future home had
+been papered, and all three were eager to discuss the news that had
+come. But all knew well that it would be better not to open the
+discussion till Ragnor was present to inform and direct their
+ignorance of events.
+
+On the stroke of six, Ragnor entered. He had slept and washed and was
+apparently calm, but in some way his face had altered, for his heart
+had mastered his brain and its usual expression of intellectual
+strength was exchanged for one of intense feeling. His eyes shone and
+he had the look of a man who had just come from the presence of God.
+
+"We are waiting for you, dear Coll," said Rahal; and he answered
+softly: "Well, then, I am here." For a moment his eyes rested on
+the table which Rahal had set with extra care and with the delicacies
+Ian liked best. Was it not the last dinner he would eat with them
+for three months? She thought it only kind to give it a little
+distinction. But this elaboration of the usual home blessings did not
+produce the expected results. Every one was anxious, the atmosphere
+of the room was tense and was not relieved until Ragnor had said a
+grace full of meaning and had sat down and asked Ian if he "had heard
+the news brought by that day's packet?"
+
+"Very brokenly, Father," was the answer. "Two men, whom we met on the
+Stromness road, told us that it was 'bad with the army,' but they were
+excited and in a great hurry and would not stand to answer our
+questions."
+
+"No wonder! No wonder!"
+
+"Whatever is the matter, Father?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. The words stumble in my throat, and my heart
+burns and bleeds. Here is the _London Times_! Read aloud from it what
+William Howard Russell has witnessed--I cannot read the words--I would
+be using my own words--listen, Rahal! Listen, Thora! and oh, may God
+enter into judgment at once with the men responsible for the misery
+that Russell tells us of."
+
+At this point, Adam Vedder entered the room. He was in a passion that
+was relieving itself by a torrent of low voiced curses--curses only
+just audible but intensely thrilling in their half-whispered tones of
+passion. In the hall he had taken off his hat but on entering the room
+he found it too warm for his top-coat, and he began to remove it,
+muttering to himself while so doing. There was an effort to hear what
+he was saying but very quickly Ragnor stopped the monologue by
+calling:
+
+"Adam! Thee! Thou art the one wanted. Ian is just going to read what
+the _London Times_ says of this dreadful mismanagement."
+
+"'Mismanagement!' Is that what thou calls the crime? Go on, Ian! More
+light on this subject is wanted here."
+
+So Ian stood up and read from the _Times'_ correspondent's letter the
+following sentences:
+
+  "The skies are black as ink, the wind is howling over the
+  staggering tents, the water is sometimes a foot deep, our men have
+  neither warm nor waterproof clothing and we are twelve hours at a
+  time in the trenches--and not a soul seems to care for their
+  comfort or even their lives; the most wretched beggar who wanders
+  about the streets of London in the rain leads the life of a prince
+  compared with the British soldiers now fighting out here for their
+  country.
+
+  ... "The commonest accessories of a hospital are wanting; there
+  is not the least attention paid to decency or cleanliness, the
+  stench is appalling, the fetid air can barely struggle out through
+  chinks in the walls and roofs, and for all I can observe the men
+  die without the least effort being made to save them. They lie
+  just as they were let down on the ground by the poor fellows,
+  their comrades, who brought them on their backs from the camp with
+  the greatest tenderness but who are not allowed to remain with
+  them. The sick appear to be tended by the sick, and the dying by
+  the dying. There are no nurses--and men are literally dying
+  hourly, because the medical staff of the British army has
+  forgotten that old rags of linen are necessary for the dressing of
+  wounds."
+
+"My God!" cried Ian, as he let the paper fall from the hands he
+clasped passionately together, "My God! How can Thou permit this?"
+
+"Well, then, young man," said Adam, "thou must remember that God
+permits what He does not will. And Conall," he continued, "millions
+have been voted and spent for war and hospital materials, where are
+the goods?"
+
+"The captain of the packet told me no one could get their hands on
+them. Some are in the holds of vessels and other things so piled on
+the top of them that they cannot be got at till the hold is regularly
+emptied. Some are stored in warehouses which no one has authority to
+open--some are actually rotting on the open wharves, because the
+precise order to remove them to the hospital cannot be found. The
+surgeons have no bandages, the doctors no medicine, and as I said
+there are no nurses but a few rough military orderlies. The situation
+paralyses those who see it!"
+
+"Paralyses! Pure nonsense!" cried Vedder, whose face was wet with
+passionate tears, though he did not know it. "Paralyses! No, no! It
+must make them work miracles. I am going to Edinburgh tomorrow. I am
+going to buy all the luxuries and medicines I can afford for the lads
+fighting and suffering. Sunna is going to spend a week in gathering
+old linen in Kirkwall and then Mistress Brodie and she will bring it
+with them. Rahal, Thora, you must do your best. And thou, Conall?"
+
+"Adam, thou can open my purse and take all thou thinks is right. My
+Boris may be among those dear lads; his mother will have something to
+send him. Wilt thou see it is set on a fair way to reach his hand?"
+
+"I will take it to him. If he be in London with his vessel, I will
+find him; if he be at the front, I will find him. If he be in Scutari
+hospital, I will find him!"
+
+"Oh, Adam, Adam!" cried Rahal, "thou art the good man that God loves,
+the man after His own heart." Her face was set and stern and white as
+snow, and Thora's was a duplicate of it; but Ragnor, during his short
+interval of rest, had arrived at that heighth and depth of confidence
+in God's wisdom which made him sure that in the end the folly and
+wickedness of men would "praise Him"; so he was ready to help, and
+calm and strong in his sorrow.
+
+At this point, Rahal rose and a servant came in and began to clear the
+table and carry away the remains of the meal. Then Rahal rose and took
+Thora's hand and Ian went with them to the parlour. She spoke kindly
+to Ian who at her first words burst into bitter weeping, into an
+almost womanly burst of uncontrollable distress. So she kissed and
+left him with the only woman who had the power to soothe, in any
+degree, the sense of utter helplessness which oppressed him.
+
+"I want to go to the Crimea!" he said, "I would gladly go there. It
+would give me a chance to die happily. It would repay me for all my
+miserable life. I want to go, Thora. You want me to go, Thora! Yes,
+you do, dear one!"
+
+"No, I do not want you to go. I want you here. Oh, what a selfish
+coward I am. Go, Ian, if you wish--if you feel it right to go, then
+go."
+
+This subject was sufficient to induce a long and strange conversation
+during which Thora was led to understand that some great and cruel
+circumstances had ruined and in some measure yet controlled her
+lover's life. She was begging him to go and talk to her father and
+tell him all that troubled him so cruelly when Rahal entered the room
+again.
+
+"Dear ones," she said, "the house is cold and the lamps nearly out.
+Say good night, now. Ian must be up early--and tomorrow we shall have
+a busy day collecting all the old linen we can." She was yet as white
+as the long dressing gown she wore but there was a smile on her face
+that made it lovely as she recited slowly:
+
+  "Watching, wondering, yearning, knowing
+  Whence the stream, and where 'tis going
+  Seems all mystery--by and by
+  He will speak, and tell us why."
+
+And the simple words had a charm in them, and though they said "Good
+night," in a mist of tears, the sunshine of hope turned them into that
+wonderful bow which God 'bended with his hands' and placed in the
+heavens as a token of His covenant with man, that He would always
+remember man's weakness and give him help in time of trouble. Now let
+every good man and woman say "I'll warrant it! I never yet found a
+deluge of any kind but I found also that God had provided an ark for
+my refuge and my comfort."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THORA'S PROBLEM
+
+  There is a tear for all who die,
+    A mourner o'er the humblest grave;
+  But nations swell the funeral cry,
+    And triumph weeps above the brave.
+  For them is Sorrow's purest sigh,
+    O'er Ocean's heaving bosom sent
+  In vain their bones unburied lie,
+    All earth becomes their monument.
+
+  Born to the War of 1854 on October 21, 1854,
+      a Daughter, called Red Cross.
+
+
+The next night Vedder went away. His purposes were necessarily rather
+vague, but it was certain he would go to the front if he thought he
+could do any good there. He talked earnestly and long with Ragnor but
+when it came to parting, both men were strangely silent. They clasped
+hands and looked long and steadily into each other's eyes. No words
+could interpret that look. It was a conversation for eternity.
+
+In the meantime, the whole town was eager to do something but what
+could they do that would give the immediate relief that was needed?
+There were no sewing machines then, women's fingers and needles could
+not cope with the difficulty, even regarding the Orkney men who were
+suffering. To gather from every one the very necessary old linen
+seemed to be the very extent of their usefulness.
+
+In these first days of the trouble, Rahal and Thora were serious and
+quiet. A dull, inexplicable melancholy shrouded the girl like a
+garment. The pretty home preparing for Ian and herself lost its
+interest. She refused to look forward and lived only in the unhappy
+present. The few words Ian has said about some wrong or trouble in the
+past years of his life overshadowed her. She was naturally very
+prescient and her higher self dwelt much in
+
+    ... that finer atmosphere,
+  Where footfalls of appointed things,
+  Reverberent of days to be,
+  Are heard in forecast echoings,
+  Like wave beats from a viewless sea.
+
+However, if trouble lasts through the night, joy, or at least hope and
+expectation, comes in the morning; and certainly the first shock of
+grief settled down into patient hoping and waiting. Vedder and Ian
+were both good correspondents and the silence and loneliness were
+constantly broken by their interesting letters. And joyful or
+sorrowful, Time goes by.
+
+Sunna wrote occasionally but she said she found Edinburgh dull, and
+that she would gladly return to Kirkwall if it was not for the
+Pentland Firth and its winter tempers and tantrums.
+
+  The war [she added] has stopped all balls and even house parties.
+  There is no dancing and no sports of any kind, and I believe
+  skating and golf have been forbidden. Love-making is the only
+  recreation allowed and I am not tempted to sin in this direction.
+  The churches are always open and their bells clatter all day long.
+  I have no lovers. Every man will talk of the war, and then they
+  get offended if you ask them why they are not gone. I have had the
+  pleasure of saying a few painful truths to these feather-bed
+  patriots, and they tell each other, no doubt, that I am impossible
+  and impertinent. One of them said to me, myself: "Wait a wee, Miss
+  Vedder, I wouldna wonder but some crippled war lad will fa' to
+  your lot, when the puir fellows come marching home again." The
+  Edinburgh men are just city flunkeys, they would do fine to wait
+  on our Norse men. I would like well to see a little dandy advocate
+  I know here, trotting after Boris.
+
+So days came and went, and the passion of shame and sorrow died down
+and people did not talk of the war. But the doors of St. Magnus stood
+open all day long and there were always women praying there. They had
+begun to carry their anxieties and griefs to God; and that was well
+for God did not weary of their complaining. Women have the very heart
+of sympathy for a man's griefs. God is the only refuge for a sorrowful
+woman.
+
+Steadily the preparations for Thora's marriage went on, but the spirit
+that animated their first beginnings had cooled down into that calm
+necessity, which always has to attend to all "finishings off." Early
+in December, Thora's future home was quite finished, and this last
+word expresses its beauty and completeness. Then Ragnor kissed his
+daughter, and put into her hand the key of the house and the deed of
+gift which made it her own forever. And in this same hour they decided
+that the first day of the New Year should be the wedding day; for
+Bishop Hedley would then be in Kirkwall and who else could marry the
+little Thora whom he had baptised and confirmed and welcomed into the
+fold of the church.
+
+Nothing is more remarkable than the variety of moods in which women
+take the solemn initiatory rite ushering them into their real life
+and their great and honourable duties. Thora was joyful as a bird in
+spring and never weary of examining the lovely home, the perfect
+wardrobe, and the great variety of beautiful presents that had been
+given her.
+
+Very soon it was the twentieth of December, and Ian was expected on
+the twenty-third. Christmas preparations had now taken the place of
+marriage preparations for every item was ready for the latter event.
+There had been a little anxiety about the dress and veil, but they
+arrived on the morning of the twentieth and were beautiful and fitting
+in every respect. The dress was of the orthodox white satin and the
+veil fell from a wreath of orange flowers and myrtle leaves. And oh,
+how proud and happy Thora was in their possession. Several times that
+wonderful day she had run secretly to her room to examine and admire
+them.
+
+On the morning of the twenty-first she reminded herself that in two
+days Ian would be with her and that in nine days she would be his
+wife. She was genuine and happy about the event. She made no pretences
+or reluctances. She loved Ian with all her heart, she was glad she was
+going to be always with him. Life would then be full and she would be
+the happiest woman in the world. She asked her father at the breakfast
+table to send her, at once, any letters that might come for her in his
+mail. "I am sure there will be one from Ian," she said, "and, dear
+Father, it hurts me to keep it waiting."
+
+About ten o'clock, Mrs. Beaton called and brought Thora a very
+handsome ring from Maximus Grant and a bracelet from herself. She
+stayed to lunch with the Ragnors and after the meal was over, they
+went upstairs to look at the wedding dress. "I want to see it on you,
+Thora," said Mrs. Beaton, "I shall have a wedding dress to buy for my
+niece soon and I would like to know what kind of a fit Mrs. Scott
+achieves." So Thora put on the dress, and Mrs. Beaton admitted that it
+"fit like a glove" and that she should insist on her niece Helen going
+to Mrs. Scott.
+
+With many scattering, delaying remarks and good wishes, the lady
+finally bid Thora good-bye and Mrs. Ragnor went downstairs with her.
+Then Thora eagerly lifted two letters that had come in her father's
+mail and been sent home to her. One was from Ian. "The last he will
+write to Thora Ragnor," she said with a smile. "I will put it with
+his first letter and keep them all my life long. So loving is he, so
+good, so handsome! There is no one like my Ian." Twice over she read
+his loving letter and then laid it down and lifted the one which had
+come with it.
+
+"Jean Hay," she repeated, "who is Jean Hay?" Then she remembered the
+writer--an orphan girl living with a married brother who did not
+always treat her as kindly as he should have done. Hearing and
+believing this story, Rahal Ragnor hired the girl, taught her how to
+sew, how to mend and darn and in many ways use her needle. Then
+discovering that she had a genius for dressmaking, she placed her with
+a first-class modiste in Edinburgh to be properly instructed and
+liberally attended to all financial requisites; for Rahal Ragnor could
+not do anything unless it was wholly and perfectly done. Then Thora
+had dressed Jean from her own wardrobe and asked her father to send
+their protegee to Edinburgh on one of the vessels he controlled. And
+Jean had been heartily grateful, had done well, and risen to a place
+of trust in her employer's business; and a few times every year she
+wrote to Mrs. Ragnor or Thora. All these circumstances were remembered
+by Thora in a moment. "Jean Hay!" she exclaimed. "Well, Jean, you
+must wait a few minutes, until I have taken off my wedding dress. I am
+sorry I had to put it on--it was not very kind or thoughtful of Mrs.
+Beaton to ask me--I don't believe mother liked her doing so--mother
+has a superstition or fret about everything. Well, then, it is no way
+spoiled----" and she lifted it and the white silk petticoat belonging
+to the dress and carefully put them in the place Rahal had selected as
+the safest for their keeping. It was a large closet in the spare room
+and she went there with them. As she returned to her own room she
+heard her mother welcoming a favourite visitor and it pleased her.
+"Now I need not hurry," she thought. "Mistress Vorn will stay an hour
+at least, and I can take my own time."
+
+"Taking her own time" evidently meant to Thora the reading of Ian's
+letter over again. And also a little musing on what Ian had said.
+There was, however, no hurry about Jean Hay's letter and it was so
+pleasant to drift among the happy thoughts that crowded into her
+consideration. So for half an hour Jean's letter lay at her side
+untouched--Jean was so far outside her dreams and hopes that
+afternoon--but at length she lifted it and these were the words she
+read:
+
+  DEAR MISS THORA:
+
+  I was hearing since last spring that thou wert going to be married
+  on the son of the Rev. Dr. Macrae--on the young man called John
+  Calvin Macrae. Very often I was hearing this, and always I was
+  answering, "There will be no word of truth in that story. Miss
+  Ragnor will not be noticing such a young man as that. No,
+  indeed!"
+
+Here Thora threw down the letter and sat looking at it upon the floor
+as if she would any moment tear it to pieces. But she did not, she
+finally lifted it and forced herself to continue reading:
+
+  I was hating to tell thee some things I knew, and I was often
+  writing and then tearing up my letter, for it made me sick to be
+  thy true friend in such a cruel way. But often I have heard the
+  wise tell "when the knife is needed, the salve pot will be of no
+  use." Now then, this day, I tell myself with a sad heart, "Jean,
+  thou must take the knife. The full time has come."
+
+"Why won't the woman tell what she has got to tell," said Thora in a
+voice of impatient anguish, and in a few minutes she whispered, "I am
+cold." Then she threw a knitted cape over her shoulders and lifted the
+letter again, oh, so reluctantly, and read:
+
+  The young man will have told your father, that he is McLeod's
+  agent and a sort of steward of his large properties. This does
+  not sound like anything wrong, but often I have been told
+  different. Old McLeod left to his son many houses. Three of them
+  are not good houses, they are really fashionable gambling houses.
+  Macrae has the management of them as well as of many others in
+  various parts of the city. Of these others I have heard no wrong.
+  I suppose they may be quite respectable.
+
+  This story has more to it. Whenever there is a great horse race
+  there Macrae will be, and I saw myself in the daily newspapers
+  that his name was among the winners on the horse Sergius. It was
+  only a small sum he won, but sin is not counted in pounds and
+  shillings. No, indeed! So there is no wonder his good father is
+  feeling the shame of it.
+
+  Moreover, though he calls himself Ian, that is not his name. His
+  name is John Calvin and his denial of his baptismal name, given to
+  him at the Sabbath service, in the house of God, at the very altar
+  of the same, is thought by some to be a denial of God's grace and
+  mercy. And he has been reasoned with on this matter by the ruling
+  elder in his father's kirk, but no reason would he listen to, and
+  saying many things about Calvin I do not care to write.
+
+  Many stories go about young men and young women, and there is this
+  and that said about Macrae. I have myself met him on Prince's
+  Street in the afternoon very often, parading there with various
+  gayly dressed women. I do not blame him much for that. The
+  Edinburgh girls are very forward, not like the Norse girls, who
+  are modest and retiring in their ways. I am forced to say that
+  Macrae is a very gay young man, and of course you know all that
+  means without more words about it. He dresses in the highest
+  fashion, goes constantly to theatres with some lady or other, and
+  I do not wonder that people ask, "Where does he get the money?
+  Does he gamble for it?" For he does not go to any kirk on the
+  Sabbath unless he is paid to go there and sing, which he does very
+  well, people say. In his own rooms he is often heard playing the
+  piano and singing music that is not sacred or fit for the holy
+  day. And his father is the most religious man in Edinburgh. It is
+  just awful! I fear you will never forgive me, Miss Thora, but I
+  have still more and worse to tell you, because it is, as I may
+  say, personally heard and not this or that body's clash-ma-claver.
+  Nor did I seek the same, it came to me through my daily work and
+  in a way special and unlooked-for, so that after hearing it, my
+  conscience would no longer be satisfied and I was forced, as it
+  were, to the writing of this letter to you.
+
+  I dare say Macrae may have spoken to you anent his friendship with
+  Agnes and Willie Henderson, indeed Willie Henderson and John
+  Macrae have been finger and thumb ever since they played together.
+  Now Willie's father is an elder in Dr. Macrae's kirk and if all
+  you hear anent him be true--which I cannot vouch for--he is a man
+  well regarded both in kirk and market place--that is, he was so
+  regarded until he married again about two years ago. For who,
+  think you, should he marry but a proud upsetting Englishwoman, who
+  was bound to be master and mistress both o'er the hale household?
+
+  Then Miss Henderson showed fight and her brother Willie stood by
+  her. And Miss Henderson is a spunky girl and thought bonnie by
+  some people, and has a tongue so well furnished with words to
+  defend what she thinks her rights, that it leaves nobody uncertain
+  as to what thae rights may be. Weel, there has been nothing but
+  quarreling in the elder's house ever since the unlucky wedding;
+  and in the first year of the trial Willie Henderson borrowed
+  money--I suppose of John Macrae--and took himself off to America,
+  and some said the elder was glad of it and others said he was sair
+  down-hearted and disappointed.
+
+  After that, Miss Agnes was never friends with her stepmother. It
+  seems the woman wanted her to marry a nephew of her ain kith and
+  kin, and in this matter her father was of the same mind. The old
+  man doubtless wanted a sough of peace in his own home. That was
+  how things stood a couple of weeks syne, but yestreen I heard what
+  may make the change wanted. This is how it happened.
+
+  Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Baird came to Madame David's to have a
+  black velvet gown fitted. Madame called on Jean Hay to attend her
+  in the fitting and to hang the long skirt properly--for it is a
+  difficult job to hang a velvet skirt, and Jean Hay is thought to
+  be very expert anent the set and swing of silk velvet, which has a
+  certain contrariness of its own. Let that pass. I was kneeling on
+  the floor, setting the train, when Mrs. Baird said: "I suppose you
+  have heard, Madame, the last escapade of that wild son of the
+  great Dr. Macrae?" Then I was all ears, the more so when I heard
+  Madam say: "I heard a whisper of something, but I was not heeding
+  it. Folks never seem to weary of finding fault with the handsome
+  lad."
+
+  "Well, Madame," said Mrs. Baird, "I happen to know about this
+  story. Seeing with your own eyes is believing, surely!"
+
+  "What did you see?" Madame asked.
+
+  "I saw enough to satisfy me. You know my house is opposite to the
+  West End Hotel, and last Friday I saw Macrae go there and he was
+  dressed up to the nines. He went in and I felt sure he had gone to
+  call on some lady staying there. So I watched, and better watched,
+  for he did not come out for two hours, and I concluded they had
+  lunched together! For when Macrae came out of the hotel, he spoke
+  to a cabman, and then waited until a young lady and her maid
+  appeared. He put the young lady into the cab, had a few minutes'
+  earnest conversation with her, then the maid joined her mistress
+  and they two drove away."
+
+  "Well, now, Mrs. Baird," said Madame, "there was nothing in that
+  but just a courteous luncheon together."
+
+  "Wait, Madame! I felt there was more, so I took a book and sat
+  down by my window. And just on the edge of the dark I saw the two
+  women return, and a little later a waiter put lights in an upper
+  parlour and he spread a table for dinner there and Macrae and the
+  young lady ate it together. Afterwards they went away in a cab
+  together." Then Madame asked if the maid was with them, and Mrs.
+  Baird said she thought she was but had not paid particular
+  attention.
+
+  Madame said something to me about the length of the train and then
+  Mrs. Baird seemed annoyed at her inattention, and she added:
+  "Macrae was advertised to sing in the City Hall the next night at
+  a mass meeting of citizens about abrogating slavery in the United
+  States, and he was not there--broke his engagement! What do you
+  think of that? The next night, Sabbath, he did the same to Dr.
+  Fraser's kirk, where he had promised to sing a pro-Christmas
+  canticle. And this morning I heard that he is going to the Orkneys
+  to marry a rich and beautiful girl who lives there. Now what do
+  you think of your handsome Macrae? I can tell you he is on every
+  one's tongue." And Madame said, "I have no doubt of it and I'll
+  warrant nobody knows what they are talking about."
+
+  After this the fitting on was not pleasant and I finished my part
+  of it as quickly as possible. Indeed, Miss Thora, I was miserable
+  about you and so pressed in spirit to tell you these things that I
+  could hardly finish my day's work. For my conscience kept urging
+  me to do my duty to you, for it is many favours you have done me
+  in the past. Kindly pardon me now, and believe me,
+
+    Your humble but sincere friend,
+                              JEAN HAY.
+
+This letter Thora read to the last word but she was nearly blind when
+she reached it. All her senses rang inward. "I am dying!" she thought,
+and she tried to reach the bed but only succeeded in stumbling against
+a small table full of books, knocking it down and falling with it.
+
+Mistress Ragnor and her visitor heard the fall and they were suddenly
+silent. Immediately, however, they went to the foot of the stairway
+and called, "Thora." There was no answer, and the mother's heart sank
+like lead, as she hastened to her daughter's room and threw open the
+door. Then she saw her stricken child, lying as if dead upon the
+floor. Cries and calls and hurrying feet followed, and the unconscious
+girl was quickly freed from all physical restraints and laid at the
+open window. But all the ordinary household methods of restoring
+consciousness were tried without avail and the case began to assume a
+dangerous aspect.
+
+At this moment Ragnor arrived. He knelt at his child's side and drew
+her closer and closer, whispering her name with the name of the Divine
+One; and surely it was in response to his heart-breaking entreaties
+the passing soul listened and returned. "Father," was the first
+whisper she uttered; and with a glowing, grateful heart, the father
+lifted her in his arms and laid her on her bed.
+
+Then Rahal gave him the two letters and sent him away. Thora was still
+"far off," or she would have remembered her letters but it was near
+the noon of the next day when she asked her mother where they were.
+
+"Thy father has them."
+
+"I am sorry, so sorry!"
+
+That was all she said but the subject appeared to distress her for she
+closed her eyes, and Rahal kissed away the tears that slowly found
+their way down the white, stricken face. However, from this hour she
+rallied and towards night fell into a deep sleep which lasted for
+fourteen hours; and it was during this anxious period of waiting that
+Ragnor talked to his wife about the letters which were, presumably,
+the cause of the trouble.
+
+"Those letters I gave thee, Coll, did thou read both of them?"
+
+"Both of them I read. Ian's was the happy letter of an expectant
+bridegroom. Only joy and hope was in it. It was the other one that was
+a death blow. Yes, indeed, it was a bad, cruel letter!"
+
+"And the name? Who wrote it?"
+
+"Jean Hay."
+
+"Jean Hay! What could Jean have to do with Thora's affairs?"
+
+"Well, then, her conscience made her interfere. She had heard some
+evil reports about Ian's life and she thought it her duty, after yours
+and Thora's kindness to her, to report these stories."
+
+"A miserable return for our kindness! This is what I notice--when
+people want to say cruel things, they always blame their conscience or
+their duty for making them do it."
+
+"Here is Jean's letter. Thou, thyself, must read it."
+
+Rahal read it with constantly increasing anger and finally threw it on
+the table with passionate scorn. "Not one word of this stuff do I
+believe, Coll! Envy and jealousy sent that news, not gratitude and
+good will! No, indeed! But I will tell thee, Coll, one thing I have
+always found sure, it is this; that often, much evil comes to the good
+from taking people out of their poverty and misfortunes. They are
+paying a debt they owe from the past and if we assume that debt we
+have it to pay in some wise. That is the wisdom of the old, the wisdom
+learned by sad experience. I wish, then, that I had let the girl pay
+her own debt and carry her own burden. She is envious of Thora. Yet
+was Thora very good to her. Do I believe in her gratitude? Not I! Had
+she done this cruel thing out of a kind heart, she would have sent
+this letter to me and left the telling or the not telling to my love
+and best judgment. I will not believe anything against Ian Macrae!
+Nothing at all!"
+
+"Much truth is in thy words, Rahal, and it is not on Jean Hay's letter
+I will do anything. I will take only Ian's 'yes,' or 'no' on any
+accusation."
+
+"You may do that safely, Coll, I know it."
+
+"And I will go back to Edinburgh with him and see his father. Perhaps
+we have all taken the youth too far on his handsome person and his
+sweet amiability."
+
+"Thou wrote to his father when Thora was engaged to him, with thy
+permission."
+
+"Well, then, I did."
+
+"What said his father?"
+
+"Too little! He was cursed short about all I named. I told him Thora
+was good and fair and well educated; and that she would have her full
+share in my estate. I told him all that I intended to do for them
+about their home and the place which I intended for Ian in my
+business, and referred him to Bishop Hedley as to my religious,
+financial, social and domestic standing."
+
+"Why did thou name Bishop Hedley to him? They are as far apart as
+Leviticus and St. John. And what did he say to thee in reply?"
+
+"That my kindness was more than his son deserved, etc. In response to
+our invitation to be present at the marriage ceremony, he said it was
+quite impossible, the journey was too long and doubtful, especially in
+the winter; that he was subject to sea-sickness and did not like to
+leave his congregation over Sunday. Rahal, I felt the paper on which
+his letter was written crinkling and crackling in my hand, it was that
+stiff with ecclesiastic pomp and spiritual pride. I would not show
+thee the letter, I put it in the fire."
+
+"Poor Ian! I think then, that he has had many things to suffer."
+
+"Rahal, this is what I will do. I will meet the packet on Saturday and
+we will go first to my office and talk the Hay letter over together.
+If I bring Ian home with me, then something is possible, but if I come
+home alone, then Thora must understand that all is over--that the
+young man is not to be thought of."
+
+"That would kill her."
+
+"So it might be. But better is death than a living misery. If Ian is
+what Jean Hay says he is, could we think of our child living with him?
+Impossible! Rahal, dear wife, whatever can be done I will do, and that
+with wisdom and loving kindness. Thy part is harder, it must be with
+our dear Thora."
+
+"That is so. And if there has to be parting, it will be almost
+impossible to spread the plaster as far as the sore."
+
+"There is the Great Physician----"
+
+"I know."
+
+"Tell her what I have said."
+
+"I will do that; but just yet, she is not minding much what any one
+says."
+
+However, on Saturday afternoon Thora left her bed and dressed herself
+in the gown she had prepared for her bridegroom's arrival. The nervous
+shock had been severe and she looked woefully like, and yet unlike,
+herself. Her eyes were full of tears, she trembled, she could hardly
+support herself. If one should take a fresh green leaf and pass over
+it a hot iron, the change it made might represent the change in Thora.
+Jean Hay's letter had been the hot iron passed over her. She had been
+told of her father's decision, but she clung passionately to her faith
+in Ian and her claim on her father's love and mercy.
+
+"Father will do right," she said, "and if he does, Ian will come home
+with him."
+
+The position was a cruel one to Conall Ragnor and he went to meet the
+packet with a heavy heart. Then Ian's joyful face and his impatience
+to land made it more so, and Ragnor found it impossible to connect
+wrong-doing with the open, handsome countenance of the youth. On the
+contrary, he found himself without intention declaring:
+
+"Well, then, I never found anything the least zig-zaggery about what
+he said or did. His words and ways were all straight. That is the
+truth."
+
+Yet Ian's happy mood was instantly dashed by Ragnor's manner. He did
+not take his offered hand and he said in a formal tone: "Ian, we will
+go to my office before we go to the house. I must ask thee some
+questions."
+
+"Very well, sir. Thora, I hope, is all right?"
+
+"No. She has been very ill."
+
+"Then let me go to her, sir, at once."
+
+"Later, I will see about that."
+
+"Later is too late, let us go at once. If Thora is sick----"
+
+"Be patient. It is not well to talk of women on the street. No wise
+man, who loves his womenkin, does that."
+
+Then Ian was silent; and the walk through the busy streets was like a
+walk in a bad dream. The place and circumstances felt unreal and he
+was conscious of the sure presence of a force closing about him, even
+to his finger tips. Vainly he tried to think. He felt the trouble
+coming nearer and nearer, but what was it? What had he done? What had
+he failed to do? What was he to be questioned about?
+
+Young as he was his experiences had taught him to expect only injury
+and wrong. The Ragnor home and its love and truth had been the miracle
+that had for nine months turned his brackish water of life into wine.
+Was it going to fail him, as everything else had done? He laughed
+inwardly at the cruel thought and whispered to himself: "This, too,
+can be borne, but oh, Thora, Thora!" and the two words shattered his
+pride and made him ready to weep when he sat down in Ragnor's office
+and saw the kind, pitiful face of the elder man looking at him. It
+gave him the power he needed and he asked bluntly what questions he
+was required to answer.
+
+Ragnor gave him the unhappy letter and he read it with a look of anger
+and astonishment. "Father," he said, "all this woman writes is true
+and not true; and of all accusations, these are the worst to defend. I
+must go back to my very earliest remembrances in order to fairly state
+my case, and if you will permit me to do this, in the presence of
+your wife and Thora, I will then accept whatever decision you make."
+
+For at least three minutes Ragnor made no answer. He sat with closed
+eyes and his face held in the clasp of his left hand. Ian was bending
+forward, eagerly watching him. There was not a movement, not a sound;
+it seemed as if both men hardly breathed. But when Ragnor moved, he
+stood up. "Let us be going," he said, "they are anxious. They are
+watching. You shall do as you say, Ian."
+
+Rahal saw them first. Thora was lying back in her mother's chair with
+closed eyes. She could not bear to look into the empty road watching
+for one who might be gone forever. Then in a blessed moment, Rahal
+whispered, "They are coming!"
+
+"Both? Both, Mother?"
+
+"Both!"
+
+"Thank God!" And she would have cried out her thanks and bathed them
+in joyful tears if she had been alone. But Ian must not see her
+weeping. Now, especially, he must be met with smiles. And then, when
+she felt herself in Ian's embrace, they were both weeping. But oh, how
+great, how blessed, how sacramental are those joys that we baptise
+with tears!
+
+During the serving of dinner there was no conversation but such
+as referred to the war and other public events. Many great ones
+had transpired since they parted, and there was plenty to talk
+about: the battles of Balaklava and Inkerman had been fought; the
+never-to-be-forgotten splendour of Scarlett's Charge with the
+Heavy Brigade, and the still more tragically splendid one of the
+Light Brigade, had both passed into history.
+
+More splendid and permanent than these had been the trumpet "call" of
+Russell in the _Times_, asking the women of England who among them
+were ready to go to Scutari Hospital and comfort and help the men
+dying for England? "Now," he cried,
+
+  "The Son of God goes forth to war!
+  Who follows in His train?"
+
+Florence Nightingale and her band of trained nurses, mainly from the
+Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, and St. John's Protestant House, was
+the instant answer. In six days they were ready and without any
+flourish of trumpets, at the dark, quiet midnight, they left England
+for Scutari and in that hour the Red Cross Society was born.
+
+"How long is it since they sailed?" asked Rahal.
+
+"A month," answered Ian, "but the controversy about it is still raging
+in the English papers."
+
+"What has anyone to say against it?" asked Rahal. "The need was
+desperate, the answer quick. What, then, do they say?"
+
+"The prudery of the English middle class was shocked at the idea of
+young women nursing in military hospitals. They considered it 'highly
+improper.' Others were sure women would be more trouble than help.
+Many expect their health to fail, and think they will be sent back to
+English hospitals in a month."
+
+"I thought," said Ragnor, "that the objections were chiefly
+religious."
+
+"You are right," replied Ian. "The Calvinists are afraid Miss
+Nightingale's intention is to make the men Catholics in their dying
+hour. Others feel sure Miss Nightingale is an Universalist, or an
+Unitarian, or a Wesleyan Methodist. The fact is, Florence Nightingale
+is a devout Episcopalian."
+
+A pleasant little smile parted Ragnor's lips, and he said with an
+Episcopalian suavity: "The Wesleyans and the Episcopalians, in
+doctrine, are much alike. We regard them as brethren;" and just while
+he spoke, Ragnor looked like some ecclesiastical prelate.
+
+"There is little to wonder at in the churches disagreeing about Miss
+Nightingale," said Rahal, "it is not to be expected that they would
+believe in her, when they do not believe in each other." As she spoke
+she stepped to the fireside and touched the bell rope, and a servant
+entered and began to clear the table and put more wood on the fire,
+and to turn out one of the lamps at Rahal's order. Ragnor had gone out
+to have a quiet smoke in the fresh air while Rahal was sending off all
+the servants to a dance at the Fisherman's Hall. Ian and Thora were
+not interested in these things; they sat close together, talking
+softly of their own affairs.
+
+Without special request, they drew closer to the hearth and to each
+other. Then Ragnor took out a letter and handed it to Ian. He was
+sitting at Thora's side and her hand was in his hand. He let it fall
+and took the letter offered him.
+
+"I cannot explain this letter," he said, "unless I preface it with
+some facts regarding my unhappy childhood and youth. I am, as you
+know, the son of Dr. Macrae, but I have been a disinherited son ever
+since I can remember. I suppose that in my earliest years I was loved
+and kindly treated, but I have no remembrance of that time. I know
+only that before I was five years old, my father had accepted the
+solemn conviction that I was without election to God's grace.
+Personally I was a beautiful child, but I was received and considered,
+body and soul, as unredeemable. Father then regarded me as a Divine
+decree which it was his duty to receive with a pious acquiescence. My
+mother pitied and, in her way, loved me, and suffered much with me. I
+have a little sister also, who would like to love me, but there is in
+all her efforts just that touch of Phariseeism which destroys love."
+
+"But, Ian, there must have been some reason for your father's
+remarkable conviction?"
+
+"That is most likely. If so, he never explained the fact to me or even
+to my mother. She told me once that he did not suspect that I had
+missed God's election until I was between five and six years old. I
+suppose that about that age I began to strengthen his cruel fear by my
+antipathy to the kirk services and my real and unfortunate inability
+to learn the Shorter Catechism. This was a natural short-coming. I
+could neither spell or pronounce the words I was told to learn and to
+memorise them was an impossible thing."
+
+"Could not your mother help you?"
+
+"She tried. She wept over me as she tried, and I made an almost
+superhuman effort to comprehend and remember. I could not. I was
+flogged, I was denied food and even water. I was put in dark rooms. I
+was forbid all play and recreation. I went through this martyrdom year
+after year and I finally became stubborn and would try no longer. In
+the years that followed, until I was sixteen, my daily sufferings were
+great, but I remember them mainly for my mother's sake, who suffered
+with me in all I suffered. Nor am I without pity for my father. He
+honestly believed that in punishing me he was doing all he could to
+save me from everlasting punishment. Yes, sir! Do not shake your head!
+I have heard him praying, pleading with God, for some token of my
+election to His mercy. You see it was John Calvin."
+
+"John Calvin!" ejaculated Ragnor, "how is that?"
+
+"It was his awful tenets I had to learn; and when I was young I could
+not learn them, and when I grew older I would not learn them. My
+father had called me John Calvin and I detested the name. On my
+eighteenth birthday I asked him to have it changed. He was very angry
+at my request. I begged him passionately to do so. I said it ruined my
+life, that I could do nothing under that name. 'Give me your own name,
+Father,' I entreated, 'and I will try and be a good man!'
+
+"He said something to me, I never knew exactly what, but the last word
+was more than I could bear and my reply was an oath. Then he lifted
+the whip at his side and struck me."
+
+Rahal and Thora were sobbing. Ragnor looked in the youth's face with
+shining eyes and asked, almost in a whisper, "What did thou do?"
+
+"I had been struck often enough before to have made me indifferent,
+but at this moment some new strength and feeling sprang up in my
+heart. I seized his arms and the whip fell to the floor. I lifted it
+and said, 'Sir, if you ever again use a whip in place of decent words
+to me, I will see you no more until we meet for the judgment of God.
+Then I will pity you for the life-long mistake you have made.' My
+father looked at me with eyes I shall never forget, no, not in all
+eternity! He burst into agonizing prayer and weeping and I went and
+told mother to go to him. I left the house there and then. I had not
+a halfpenny, and I was hungry and cold and sick with an intolerable
+sense of wrong."
+
+"Father!" said Thora, in a voice broken with weeping. "Is not this
+enough?" And Ragnor leaned forward and took Thora's hand but he did
+not speak. Neither did he answer Rahal's look of entreaty. On the
+contrary he asked:
+
+"Then, Ian? Then, what did thou do?"
+
+"I felt so ill I went to see Dr. Finlay, our family physician. He knew
+the family trouble, because he had often attended mother when she was
+ill in consequence of it. I did not need to make a complaint. He saw
+my condition and took me to his wife and told her to feed and comfort
+me. I remained in her care four days, and then he offered to take me
+into his office and set me to reading medical text books, while I did
+the office work."
+
+"What was this work?"
+
+"I was taught how to prepare ordinary medicines, to see callers when
+the doctor was out, and make notes of, and on, their cases. I helped
+the doctor in operations, I took the prescriptions to patients and
+explained their use, etc. In three years I became very useful and
+helpful and I was quite happy. Then Dr. Finlay was appointed to some
+exceptionally fine post in India, private physician to some great
+Rajah, and the Finlay family hastily prepared for their journey to
+Delhi. I longed to go with them but I had not the money requisite.
+With Dr. Finlay I had had a home but only money enough to clothe me
+decently. I had not a pound left and mother could not help me, and
+Uncle Ian was in the Madeira Isles with his sick wife. So the Finlays
+went without me; and I can feel yet the sense of loneliness and
+poverty that assailed me, when I shut their door behind me and walked
+into the cold street and knew not what to do or where to go."
+
+"How old were you then, Ian?" asked Ragnor.
+
+"I was twenty years old within a few days, and I had one pound,
+sixteen shillings in my pocket. Five pounds from an Episcopal church
+would be due in two weeks for my solo and part singing in their
+services; but they were never very prompt in their payment and that
+was nothing to rely on in my present need. I took to answering
+advertisements, and did some of the weariest tramping looking for work
+that poor humanity can do. When I met Kenneth McLeod, I had broken my
+last shilling. I was like a hungry, lost child, and the thought of my
+mother came to me and I felt as if my heart would break.
+
+"The next moment I saw Kenneth McLeod coming up Prince's Street. It
+was nearly four years since we had seen each other, but he knew me at
+once and called me in his old kind way. Then he looked keenly at me,
+and asked: 'What is the matter, Ian? The old trouble?'
+
+"I was so heartless and hungry I could hardly keep back tears as I
+answered: 'It is that and everything else! Ken, help me, if you can.'
+'Come with me!' he answered, and I went with him into the Queen's
+Hotel and he ordered dinner, and while we were eating I told him my
+situation. Then he said, 'I can help you, Ian, if you will help me.
+You know that all my happiness is on the sea and father kept me on one
+or another of his trading boats as much as possible from my boyhood,
+so that I am now a clever enough navigator. Two years ago my father
+died and I am in a lot of trouble about managing the property he left
+me. Now, if you will take the oversight of my Edinburgh property, I
+can take my favourite boat and look after the coast trade of the
+Northern Islands.'
+
+"What could I say? I was dumb with surprise and gratitude. I never
+thought there was anything wrong in our contract. I believed the work
+had come in answer to my prayer for help and I thanked God and Kenneth
+McLeod for it."
+
+Here Mrs. Ragnor rose, saying, "Coll, my dear one, Thora and I will
+now leave thee. I am sure Ian has done as well as he could do and we
+hope thou wilt judge him kindly." Then the women went upstairs and
+Ragnor remained silent until Ian said:
+
+"I am very anxious, sir."
+
+Then Ragnor stood up and slowly answered, "Ian, now is the time to
+take council of my pillow. What I have to say I will say later. This
+is not a thing to be settled by a yes or no. I must think over what
+thou hast told me. I must have some words with my wife and daughter.
+Sleep one night at least over thy trouble, there are many things to
+consider; especially this question of the young lady who is made
+the last count of Jean Hay's letter. What hast thou to say about her?
+She seems to have had some strong claim upon thy--shall we say
+friendship?"
+
+"You might say much more than friendship, sir, and yet wrong neither
+man nor woman by it. Why, the young lady was Agnes Henderson, the
+sister of Willie Henderson, who is my soul's brother and my second
+self. Thora must have heard all about Agnes!"
+
+"Is she Deacon Scot Henderson's daughter?"
+
+"Of course she is! Who else would I have left two engagements to
+serve? But Agnes is dear to me, perhaps dearer than my own sister.
+Since she was nine years old, we have studied and played together.
+Willie and Agnes were the only loves and only friends of my desolate
+boyhood. You have doubtless heard how unhappy the deacon's second
+marriage has been. Both Willie and Agnes refused the stepmother he
+gave them, and last year Willie went to New York, where he is doing
+very well. But Agnes has been more and more wretched, and a recent
+proposal of marriage between herself and the stepmother's nephew has
+made her life intolerable. Two weeks ago I had a letter from Willie,
+telling me he had just written her, advising an immediate 'give-up' of
+the whole situation. He told her to take the first good steamer and
+come to him. He also urged her to send for me and take my help and
+advice about the voyage. Two weeks ago last Friday she did so and I
+went at once to the West End Hotel to see her. She had disguised
+herself so cleverly that it was difficult to recognise her. I went
+with her to her sitting room and there I found the woman who had
+waited on her all her life long. I knew her well for she had often
+scolded me for leading Agnes into danger.
+
+"I ate lunch with Agnes and during it I told her to transfer all her
+money not required for travelling expenses to the Bank of New York;
+and I promised to go at once and secure a passage for herself and
+maid--for seeing that the _Atlantic_ would leave her dock for New York
+about the noon hour of the next day, haste was necessary. I did not
+wish to go to Liverpool because of my two engagements, but Agnes was
+so insistent on my presence I could not refuse her. Well, perhaps I
+was wrong to yield to her entreaties."
+
+"No, hardly," said Ragnor. "Going on board a big steamer at Liverpool
+must be a muddling business--not fit for two simple women like Agnes
+Henderson and her maid."
+
+"I don't remember thinking of that but I could hear my friend Willie
+telling me, 'See her safe on board, Ian. Don't leave her till she is
+in the captain's care. Do this for me, Ian!' And I did it for both
+Agnes' and Willie's sake but mainly for Willie's, for I love him. He
+is my right-hand friend, always. Perhaps I did wrong."
+
+"It is a pity there was any mystification about it. Was it necessary
+for Agnes Henderson to disguise herself?"
+
+"Perhaps not, but it prevented trouble and disappointment. Her father
+supposed her to be at her uncle's home. On Saturday afternoon he went
+to see her and found she had not been there at all. He returned to
+Edinburgh and could get no trace of her, nor was she located until I
+returned and informed him that she was on the _Atlantic_."
+
+There was a few moments of silence and then Ian said, "Have I done
+anything unpardonable? Surely you will not let that jealous, envious
+letter stand between Thora and myself?"
+
+Then Ragnor answered, "Tonight I will say neither this nor that on the
+matter. I will sleep over the subject and take counsel of One wiser
+than myself. Thou had better do likewise. Many things are to
+consider."
+
+And Ian went away without a word. There was anger in his heart, and as
+he sat gloomily in his dimly lit room and felt the damp chill of the
+midnight, he told himself that he had been hardly judged. "I have done
+nothing wrong," he whispered passionately. "Old McLeod collected his
+own rents and looked after his own property and no one thought he did
+wrong. He was an elder in one of the largest Edinburgh kirks and the
+favourite chairman in missionary meetings, but because I did not go to
+kirk, what was business in him was sin in me.
+
+"As to the gambling houses, I had nothing to do with them but to
+collect lawful money, due the McLeod estate; and as far as I can see,
+men who gamble for money are quite respectable if they get what they
+gamble for. There was that old reprobate Lord Sinclair. He redeemed
+the Sinclair estates by gambling and he married the beautiful daughter
+of the noble Seaforths. Nobody blamed him. Pshaw! It is all a matter
+of money--or it is my ill luck." And to such irritating reflections he
+finally fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BREAD OF BITTERNESS
+
+
+Sorrow develops the mind. It seems as if a soul was given us to suffer
+with--
+
+  Dust to dust, but the pure spirit shall flow
+  Back to the burning fountain whence it came
+  A portion of the Eternal which must glow
+  Through time and change unalterably the same.
+
+  Our endless need is met by God's endless help.
+
+At her room door Thora bid her mother good night. Rahal desired to
+talk with her, but the girl shook her head and said wearily, "I want
+to think, Mother. I have no heart to speak yet." And Rahal turned
+sadly away. She knew that hour, that her child had come to a door for
+which she had no key and she left her alone with the situation she had
+to face. Nor did Thora just then realize that within the past hour her
+girlhood had vanished, and that she had suddenly become a woman with a
+woman's fate upon her and a woman's heart-rending problem to solve.
+
+How it came she did not enquire, yet she did recognise some change in
+herself. Hitherto, all her troubles had been borne by her father or
+mother. This trouble was her very own. No one could carry it for her
+but without any hesitation she accepted it. "I must find out the very
+root of this matter," she said to herself, "and I will not go to bed
+until I do. Nor is it half-asleep I will be over the question. I will
+sit up and be wide awake."
+
+So she put more peat and coal on her fire and lit a fresh candle;
+removed her day clothing and wrapped herself in a large down cloak.
+And the night was not cold for there was a southerly wind, and the
+gulf stream embraces the Orkneys, giving them an abnormally warm
+climate for their far-north latitude. And she had a passing wonder at
+herself for these precautions. A year ago, a week ago, she would have
+thrown herself upon her bed in passionate weeping or clung to her
+mother and talked her sorrow away in her loving sympathy and advice.
+
+But at this supreme hour of her life, she wanted to be alone. She
+did not wish to talk about Ian with any one. She was wide awake,
+quite sensible of the pain and grief at her heart, yet tearless
+and calm. Never before had she felt that dignity of soul, which
+looks straight into the face of its sorrow and feels itself equal
+to the bearing of it. She had as yet no idea that during that
+evening she had passed through that wonderful heart-experience,
+which suddenly ripens girlhood into womanhood. Indeed, they will
+be thoughtless girls--whatever their age--who can read this
+sentence and not pause and recall that marvellous transition in their
+own lives. To some it comes with a great joy, to others with a great
+sorrow but it is always a fateful event, and girls should be ready
+to meet and salute it.
+
+As soon as Thora had made herself and her room comfortable, she sat
+down and closed her eyes. All her life she had noticed that her mother
+shut her eyes when she wanted to think. Now she did the same, and then
+softly called Ian Macrae to the judgment of her heart and her inner
+senses, but she did it as naturally as women equally ignorant have
+done it in all ages, taking or refusing their advice or verdict as
+directed by their dominant desire, or their reason or unreason.
+
+With almost supernatural clearness she recalled his beautiful, yet
+troubled face, his hesitating manner, his restlessness in his chair,
+his nervous trifling with his watch chain or his finger ring. She
+recalled the fact that his voice had in it a strange tone and that his
+eyes reflected a soul fearful and angry. It was an unfamiliar Ian she
+called up, but oh! if it could ever become a familiar one.
+
+The first subject that pressed her for consideration was the suspicion
+of gambling. Certainly Ian had promptly denied the charge. He had even
+said that he never was in the gambling parlours but once, when he went
+into them very early with the porter, to assure himself that some new
+carpets asked for were really wanted. "Then," he added, "I found out
+that the demand was made by one of the club members, who had a friend
+who was a carpet manufacturer and expected to supply what was
+considered necessary."
+
+It must be recalled here that Norsemen, though sharp and keen in
+business matters, have no gambling fever in their blood. To get money
+and give nothing for it! That goes too far beyond their idea of fair
+business, and as for pleasure, they have never connected it with the
+paper kings and queens. They find in the sea and their ships, in
+adventure, in music and song, in dancing and story telling, all of
+pleasure they require. A common name for a pack of cards is "the
+devil's books," and in Orkney they have but few readers.
+
+Thora had partially exonerated Ian from the charge of gambling
+when she remembered Jean Hay's assertion that "wherever horses were
+racing, there Ian was sure to be and that he had been named in the
+newspapers as a winner on the horse Sergius." Ian had passed by
+this circumstance, and her father had either intentionally or
+unintentionally done the same. Once she had heard Vedder say that
+"horse racing produced finer and faster horses"; and she remembered
+well, that her father asked in reply, "If it was well to produce
+finer and faster horses, at the cost of making horsier men?" And he
+had further said that he did not know of any uglier type of man than a
+"betting book in breeches." She thought a little on this subject
+and then decided Ian ought to be talked to about it.
+
+Her lover's neglect of the Sabbath was the next question, for Thora
+was a true and loving daughter of the Church of England. Episcopacy
+was the kernel of her faith. She believed all bishops were just like
+Bishop Hedley and that the most perfect happiness was found in the
+Episcopal Communion. And she said positively to her heart--"It is
+through the church door we will reach the Home door, and I am sure Ian
+will go with me to keep the Sabbath in the cathedral. Every one goes
+to church in Kirkwall. He could not resist such a powerful public
+example, and then he would begin to like to go of his own inclination.
+I could trust him on this point, I feel sure."
+
+When she took up the next doubt her brow clouded and a shadow of
+annoyance blended itself with her anxious, questioning expression.
+"His name!" she muttered. "His name! Why did he woo me under a false
+name? Mother says my marriage to him under the name of Ian Macrae
+would not be lawful. Of course he intended to marry me with his proper
+name. He would have been sure to tell us all before the marriage
+day--but I saw father was angry and troubled at the circumstance. He
+ought to have told us long ago. Why didn't he do so? I should have
+loved him under any name. I should have loved him better under John
+than Ian. John is a strong, straight name. Great and good men in all
+ages have made John honourable. It has no diminutive. It can't be made
+less than John. Englishmen and lowland Scotch all say the four
+sensible letters with a firm, strong voice; only the Celt turns John
+into Ian. I will not call him Ian again. Not once will I do it."
+
+Then she covered her eyes with her hand and a sharp, chagrined catch
+of her breath broke the hush of the still room. And her voice, though
+little stronger than a whisper, was full of painful wonder. "What will
+people say? What shall we say? Oh, the shame! Oh, the mortification!
+Who will now live in my pretty home? Who will eat my wedding cake?
+What will become of my wedding dress? Oh, Thora! Thora! Love has led
+thee a shameful, cruel road! What wilt thou do? What can thou do?"
+
+Then a singular thing happened. A powerful thought from some forgotten
+life came with irresistible strength into her mind, and though she did
+not speak the words suggested, she prayed them--if prayer be that
+hidden, never-dying imploration that goes with the soul from one
+incarnation to another--for the words that sprang to her memory must
+have been learned centuries before, "Oh, Mary! Mary! Mother of Jesus
+Christ! Thou that drank the cup of all a woman's griefs and wrongs,
+pray for me!"
+
+And she was still and silent as the words passed through her
+consciousness. She thought every one of them, they seemed at the
+moment so real and satisfying. Then she began to wonder and ask
+herself, "Where did those words come from? When did I hear them? Where
+did I say them before? How do they come to be in my memory? From what
+strange depth of Life did they come? Did I ever have a Roman Catholic
+nurse? Did she whisper them to my soul, when I was sick and suffering?
+I must ask mother--oh, how tired and sleepy I feel--I will go to
+bed--I have done no good, come to no decision. I will sleep--I will
+tell mother in the morning--I wish I had let her stop with me--mother
+always knows--what is the best way----" And thus the heart-breaking
+session ended in that blessed hostel, The Inn of Dreamless Sleep.
+
+There was, however, little sleep in the House of Ragnor that night,
+and very early in the morning Ragnor, fully dressed, spoke to his
+wife. "Art thou waking yet, Rahal?" he asked, and Rahal answered, "I
+have slept little. I have been long awake."
+
+"Well then, what dost thou think now of Ian Macrae, so-called?"
+
+"I think little amiss of him--some youthful follies--nothing to make a
+fuss about."
+
+"Hast thou considered that the follies of youth may become the follies
+of manhood, and of age? What then?"
+
+"We are not told to worry about what may be."
+
+"Ian has evidently been living and spending with people far above his
+means and his class."
+
+"The Lowland Scotch regard a minister as socially equal to any peer.
+Are not the servants of God equal, and more than equal, to the
+servants of the queen? No society is above either they or their
+children. That I have seen always. And young men of fine appearance
+and charming manners, like Ian, are welcome in every home, high or
+low. Yes, indeed!"
+
+"Yet girls, as a rule, should not marry handsome men with charming
+manners, unless there is something better behind to rely on."
+
+"If thou had not been a handsome man with a charming manner, Rahal
+would not have married thee. What then?"
+
+"I would have been a ruined man. I cared for nothing but thee."
+
+"I believe that a girl of moral strength and good intelligence should
+be trusted with the choice of her destiny. It is not always that
+parents have a right to thrust a destiny they choose upon their
+daughter. If a man is not as good and as rich as they think she ought
+to marry they can point this out, and if they convince their child,
+very well; and if they do not convince her, also very well. Perhaps
+the girl's character requires just the treatment it will evolve from a
+life of struggle."
+
+"Thou art talking nonsense, Rahal. Thy liking for the young man has
+got the better of thy good sense. I cannot trust thee in this
+matter."
+
+"Well then, Coll, the road to better counsel than mine, is well known
+to thee."
+
+"I think Bishop Hedley arrived about an hour ago. There were moving
+lights on the pier, and as soon as the morning breaks I am going to
+see him."
+
+"Have thy own way. When a man's wife has not the wisdom wanted, it is
+well that he go to his Bishop, for Bishops are full of good counsel,
+even for the ruling of seven churches, so I have heard."
+
+"It is not hearsay between thee and Bishop Hedley. Thou art well
+acquainted with him."
+
+"Well then, in the end thou wilt take thy own way."
+
+"Dost thou want me to say 'yes' today, and rue it tomorrow? I have no
+mind for any such foolishness."
+
+"Coll, this is a time when deeds will be better than words."
+
+"I see that. Well then, the day breaks, and I will go"--he lingered a
+minute or two fumbling about his knitted gloves but Rahal was dressing
+her hair and took no further notice. So he went away in an affected
+hurry and both dissatisfied and uncertain. "What a woman she is!" he
+sighed. "She has said only good words, but I feel as if I had broken
+every commandment at once."
+
+He went away full of trouble and anxiety, and Rahal watched him down
+the garden path and along the first stretch of the road. She knew by
+his hurried steps and the nervous play of his walking stick that he
+was both angry and troubled and she was not very sorry.
+
+"If it was his business standing and his good name, instead of Thora's
+happiness and good repute that was the question, oh, how careful and
+conciliatory he would be! How anxious to keep his affairs from public
+discussion! It would be anything rather than that! I have the same
+feeling about Thora's good name. The marriage ought to go on for
+Thora's sake. I do not want the women of Kirkwall wondering who was
+to blame. I do not want them coming to see me with solemn looks and
+tearful voices. I could not endure their pitying of 'poor Miss Thora!'
+They would not dare go to Coll with their sympathetic curiosity, but
+there are such women as Astar Gager, and Lala Snackoll, and Thyra
+Peterson, and Jorunna Flett. No one can keep them away from a house in
+trouble. Thora must marry. I see no endurable way to prevent it."
+
+Then being dressed she went to Thora's room, and gently opened the
+door. Thora was standing at her mirror and she turned to her mother
+with a smiling face. Rahal was astonished and she said almost with a
+tone of disapproval, "I am glad to see thee able to smile. I expected
+to find thee weeping, and ill with weeping."
+
+"For a long time, for many hours, I was broken-hearted but there came
+to me, Mother, a strange consolation." Then she told her mother about
+the prayer she heard her soul say for her. "Not one word did I speak,
+Mother. But someone prayed for me. I heard them. And I was made strong
+and satisfied, and fell into a sweet sleep, though I had yet not
+solved the problem I had proposed to solve before I slept."
+
+"What was that problem?"
+
+"First, whether I should marry John just as he was, and trust the
+consequences to my influence over him; or whether I should refuse him
+altogether and forever; or whether I should wait and see what he can
+do with my father and the good Bishop, to help and strengthen him."
+And as Thora talked, Rahal's face grew light and sweet as she
+listened, and she answered--"Yes, my dear one, that is the wonderful
+way! Some soul that loved thee long, long ago, knew that thou wert in
+great trouble. Some woman's soul, perhaps, that had lived and died for
+love. The kinship of our souls far exceeds that of our bodies, and
+their help is swift and sure. Be patient with Ian. That is what I
+say."
+
+"But why that prayer? I never heard it before."
+
+"How little thou knowest of what thou hast heard before! Two hundred
+years ago, all sorrowful, unhappy women went to Mary with their
+troubles."
+
+"They should not have done so. They could have gone to Christ."
+
+"They thought Mary had suffered just what they were suffering, and
+they thought that Christ had never known any of the griefs that break
+a woman's heart. Mary knew them, had felt them, had wept and prayed
+over them. When my little lad Eric died, I thought of Mary. My family
+have only been one hundred years Protestants. All of them must have
+loved thee well enough to come and pray for thee. Thou had a great
+honour, as well as a great comfort."
+
+"At any rate I did no wrong! I am glad, Mother."
+
+"Wrong! Thou wilt see the Bishop today. Ask him. He will tell thee
+that the English Church and the English women gave up very reluctantly
+their homage to Mary. Are not their grand churches called after Peter
+and Paul and other male saints? Dost thou think that Christ loved
+Peter and Paul more than his mother? I know better. Please God thou
+wilt know better some day."
+
+"Churches are often called after Mary, as well as the saints."
+
+"Not in Scotland."
+
+"There is one in Glasgow. Vedder told me he used to hear Bishop Hedley
+preach there."
+
+"It is an Episcopal Church. Ask him about thy dream. No, I mean thy
+soul's experience."
+
+"Thou said _dream_, Mother. It was not a dream. I saw no one. I only
+heard a voice. It is what we see in dreams that is important."
+
+"Now wilt thou come to thy breakfast?"
+
+"Is _he_ downstairs yet?"
+
+"I will go and call him."
+
+Rahal, however, came to the table alone. She said, "Ian asked that he
+might lie still and sleep an hour or two. He has not slept all night
+long, I think," she added. "His voice sounded full of trouble."
+
+So the two women ate their breakfast alone for Ragnor did not return
+in time to join them. And Rahal's hopefulness left her, and she was
+silent and her face had a grey, fearful expression that Thora could
+not help noticing. "You look ill, Mother!" she said, "and you were
+looking so well when we came downstairs. What is it?"
+
+"I know not. I feel as if I was going into a black cloud. I wish that
+thy father would come home. He is in trouble. I wonder then what is
+the matter!"
+
+In about an hour they saw Ragnor and the Bishop coming towards the
+house together.
+
+"They are in trouble, Thora, both of them are in trouble."
+
+"About Thora they need not to be in trouble. She will do what they
+advise her to do."
+
+"It is not thee."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I will not name my fear, lest I call it to me."
+
+Then she rose and went to the door and Thora followed her, and by this
+time, Ragnor and the Bishop were at the garden gate. Very soon the
+Bishop was holding their hands, and Rahal found when he released her
+hand that he had left a letter in it. Yet for a moment she hardly
+noticed the fact, so shocked was she at the expression of her
+husband's face. He looked so much older, his eyes were two wells of
+sorrow, his distress had passed beyond words, and when she asked,
+"What is thy trouble, Coll?" he looked at her pitifully and pointed to
+the letter. Then she took Thora's hand and they went to her room
+together.
+
+Sitting on the side of her bed, she broke the seal and looked at the
+superscription. "It is from Adam Vedder," she said, as she began to
+read it. No other word escaped her lips until she came to the end of
+the long epistle. Then she laid it down on the bed beside her and
+shivered out the words, "Boris is dying. Perhaps dead. Oh, Boris! My
+son Boris! Read for thyself."
+
+So Thora read the letter. It contained a vivid description of the
+taking of a certain small battery, which was pouring death and
+destruction on the little British company, who had gone as a forlorn
+hope to silence its fire. They were picked volunteers and they were
+led by Boris Ragnor. He had made a breach in its defences and carried
+his men over the cannon to victory. At the last moment he was shot in
+the throat and received a deadly wound in the side, as he tore from
+the hands of the Ensign the flag of his regiment, wrote Vedder.
+
+  I saw the fight between the men. I was carrying water to the
+  wounded on the hillside. I, and several others, rushed to the side
+  of Boris. He held the flag so tightly that no hand could remove
+  it, and we carried it with him to the hospital. For two days he
+  remained there, then he was carefully removed to my house, not
+  very far away, and now he has not only one of Miss Nightingale's
+  nurses always with him but also myself. As for Sunna, she hardly
+  ever leaves him. He talks constantly of thee and his father and
+  sister. He sends all his undying love, and if indeed these wounds
+  mean his death, he is dying gloriously and happily, trusting God
+  implicitly, and loving even his enemies--a thing Adam Vedder
+  cannot understand. He found out before he was twenty years old
+  that loving his enemies was beyond his power and that nothing
+  could make him forgive them. Our dear Boris! Oh, Rahal! Rahal!
+  Poor stricken mother! God comfort thee, and tell thyself every
+  minute "My boy has won a glorious death and he is going the way of
+  all flesh, honoured and loved by all who ever knew him."
+
+  Thy true friend,
+              ADAM VEDDER.
+
+[Illustration: He made a breach in its defences and carried his men over
+cannon to victory.]
+
+This letter upset all other considerations, and when Ian came
+downstairs at the dinner hour, he found no one interested enough in
+his case to take it up with the proper sense of its importance. Ragnor
+was steeped in silent grief. Rahal had shut up her sorrow behind dry
+eyes and a closed mouth. The Bishop had taken the seat next to Thora.
+He felt as if no one had missed or even thought of him. And such
+conversation as there was related entirely to the war. Thora smiled at
+him across the table, but he was not pleased at Thora being able to
+smile; and he only returned the courtesy with a doleful shake of the
+head.
+
+After dinner Ian said something about going to see McLeod, and then
+the Bishop interfered--"No, Ian," he replied, "I want you to walk as
+far as the cathedral with me. Will you do that?"
+
+"With pleasure, sir."
+
+"Then let us be going, while there is yet a little sunshine."
+
+The cathedral doors stood open, but there was no one present except a
+very old woman, who at their approach rose from her knees and
+painfully walked away. The Bishop altered his course, so as to greet
+her--"Good afternoon, Sister Odd! Art thou suffering yet?"
+
+"Only the pain that comes with many years, sir. God makes it easy for
+me. Wilt thou bless me?"
+
+"Thou hast God's blessing. Who can add to it? God be with thee to the
+very end!"
+
+"Enough is that. Thy hand a moment, sir."
+
+For a moment they, stood silently hand clasped, then parted, and the
+Bishop walked straight to the vestry and taking a key from his pocket,
+opened the door. There was a fire laid ready for the match and he
+stooped and lit it, and Ian placed his chair near by.
+
+"That is good!" he said. "Bring your own chair near to me, Ian, I have
+something to say to you."
+
+"I am glad of that, Bishop. No one seemed to care for my sorrow. I was
+made to feel this day the difference between a son and a son-in-law."
+
+"There is a difference, a natural one, but you have been treated as a
+son always. Ragnor has told me all about those charges. You may speak
+freely to me. It is better that you should do so."
+
+"I explained the charges to the whole family. Do they not believe
+me?"
+
+"The explanation was only partial and one-sided. I think the charge of
+gambling may be put aside, with your promise to abstain from the
+appearance of evil for the future. I understand your position about
+the Sabbath. You should have gone on singing in some church. Supposing
+you got no spiritual help from it, you were at least lifting the souls
+of others on the wings of holy song, and you need not have mocked at
+the devout feelings of others by music unfit for the day."
+
+"It was a bit of boyish folly."
+
+"It was something far more than that. I had a letter from Jean Hay
+more than two months ago and I investigated every charge she made
+against you."
+
+"Well, Bishop?"
+
+"I find that, examined separately, they do not indicate any settled
+sinfulness; but taken together they indicate a variable temper, a
+perfectly untrained nature, and a weak, unresisting will. Now, Ian, a
+weak, good man is a dangerous type of a bad man. They readily become
+the tools of wicked men of powerful intellect and determined
+character. I have met with many such cases. Your change of name----"
+
+"Oh, sir, I could not endure Calvin tacked on to me! If you knew what
+I have suffered!"
+
+"I know it all. Why did you not tell the Ragnors on your first
+acquaintance with them?"
+
+"Mrs. Ragnor liked Ian because it is the Highland form for John, and
+Thora loved the name and I did not like, while they knew so little of
+me, to tell them I had only assumed it. I watched for a good
+opportunity to speak concerning it and none came. Then I thought I
+would consult you at this time, before the wedding day."
+
+"I could not have married you under the name of Ian. Discard it at
+once. Take it as a pet name between Thora and yourself, if you choose.
+No doubt you thought Ian was prettier and more romantic and suitable
+for your really handsome person."
+
+"Oh, Bishop, do not humiliate me! I----"
+
+"I have no doubt I am correct. I have known young men wreck their
+lives for some equally foolish idea."
+
+"I will cast it off today. I will tell Thora the truth tonight. Before
+we are married, I will advertise it in next week's _News_."
+
+"Before you are married, I trust you will have made the name of John
+Macrae so famous that you will need no such advertising."
+
+"What do you mean, Bishop?"
+
+"I want you to go to the trenches at Redan or to fight your way into
+Sebastopol. You have been left too much to your own direction and your
+own way. Obedience is the first round of the ladder of Success. You
+must learn it. You can only be a subordinate till you manage this
+lesson. Your ideas of life are crude and provincial. You need to see
+men making their way upward, in some other places than in shops and
+offices. Above all, you must learn to conquer yourself and your
+indiscreet will. You are not a man, until you are master in your own
+house and fear no mutiny against your Will to act nobly. You have had
+no opportunities for such education. Now take one year to begin it."
+
+"You mean that I must put off my marriage for a year."
+
+"Exactly. Under present circumstances----"
+
+"Oh, sir, that is not thinkable! It would be too mortifying! I could
+not go back to Edinburgh. I could not put off my marriage!"
+
+"You will be obliged to do so. Do you imagine the Ragnors will hold
+wedding festivities, while their eldest son is dying, or his broken
+body on its way home for burial?"
+
+"I thought the ceremony would be entirely religious and the
+festivities could be abandoned."
+
+"Is that what you wish?"
+
+"Yes, Bishop."
+
+"Then you will not get it. A year's strict mourning is due the dead,
+and the Ragnors will give every hour of it. Boris is their eldest
+son."
+
+"They should remember also their living daughter Thora will suffer as
+well as myself."
+
+"You are not putting yourself in a good light, John Macrae. Thora
+loves her brother with a great affection. Do you think she can comfort
+her grief for his loss, by giving you any loving honour that belongs
+to him? You do not know Thora Ragnor. She has her mother's just,
+strong character below all her gentle ways, and what her father and
+mother say she will endorse, without question or reluctance. Now I
+know that Ragnor had resolved on a year's separation and discipline,
+before he heard of his son's dangerous condition."
+
+"Boris was not dead when that Vedder letter was written. He may not be
+dead now. He may not be going to die."
+
+"It is only his wonderful physical strength that has kept him alive so
+long. Vedder said to me, they looked for his death at any hour. He
+cannot recover. His wound is a fatal one. It is beyond hope. Vedder
+wrote while he was yet alive, so that he might perhaps break the blow
+to his family."
+
+"What then do you advise me to do?"
+
+"Ragnor intends to go back with you and myself to Edinburgh. He will
+see your father and offer to buy you a commission as ensign in a good
+infantry regiment. We will ask your father if he will join in the
+plan."
+
+"My father will not join in anything to help me. How much will an
+ensign's commission cost?"
+
+"I think four or five hundred pounds. Ragnor would pay half, if your
+father would pay half."
+
+Then Ian rose to his feet, and his eyes blazed with a fire no one had
+ever seen there before. "Bishop," he said, "I thank you for all you
+propose, but if I go to the trenches at Redan or the camp at
+Sebastopol, I will go on John Macrae's authority and personality. I
+have one hundred pounds, that is sufficient. I can learn all the great
+things you expect me to learn there better among the rankers than the
+officers. I have known the officers at Edinburgh Castle. They were not
+fit candidates for a bishopric."
+
+The good man looked sadly at the angry youth and answered, "Go and
+talk the matter over with Thora."
+
+"I will. Surely she will be less cruel."
+
+"What do you wish, considering present circumstances?"
+
+"I want the marriage carried out, devoid of all but its religious
+ceremony. I want to spend one month in the home prepared for us, and
+then I will submit to the punishment and schooling proposed."
+
+"No, you will not. Do not throw away this opportunity to retrieve your
+so far neglected, misguided life. There is a great man in you, if you
+will give him space and opportunity to develop, John. This is the wide
+open door of Opportunity; go through, and go up to where it will lead
+you. At any rate do whatever Thora advises. I can trust you as far as
+Thora can." Then he held out his hand, and Ian, too deeply moved to
+speak, took it and left the cathedral without a word.
+
+He found Thora alone in the parlour. She had evidently been weeping
+but that fact did not much soothe his sense of wrong and injustice. He
+felt that he had been put aside in some measure. He was not sure that
+even now Thora had been weeping for his loss. He told himself, she was
+just as likely to have been mourning for Boris. He felt that he was
+unjustly angry but, oh, he was so hopeless! Every one was ready to
+give him advice, no one had said to him those little words of loving
+sympathy for which his heart was hungry. He had felt it to be his duty
+to try and console Thora, and Thora had wept in his arms and he had
+kissed her tears away. She was now weary with weeping and suffering
+with headache. She knew also that talking against any decision of her
+father's was useless. When he had said the word, the man or woman that
+could move him did not live. Acceptance of the will of others was a
+duty she had learned to observe all her life, it was just the duty
+that Ian had thought it right to resist. So amid all his love and
+disappointment, there was a cruel sense of being of secondary
+interest and importance, just at the very time he had expected to be
+first in everyone's love and consideration.
+
+Finally he said, "Dear Thora, I can feel no longer. My heart has
+become hopeless. I suffer too much. I will go to my room and try and
+submit to this last cruel wrong."
+
+Then Thora was offended. "There is no one to blame for this last cruel
+wrong but thyself," she answered. "The death of Boris was a nearer
+thing to my father and mother than my marriage. Thy marriage can take
+place at some other time, but for my dear brother there is no future
+in this life."
+
+"Are you even sure of his death?"
+
+"My mother has seen him."
+
+"That is nonsense."
+
+"To you, I dare say it is. Mother sees more than any one else can see.
+She has spiritual vision. We are not yet able for it, nor worthy of
+it."
+
+"Then why did she not see our wedding catastrophe? She might have
+averted it by changing the date."
+
+"Ask her;" and as Thora said these words and wearily closed her eyes,
+Rahal entered the room. She went straight to Ian, put her arms round
+him and kissed him tenderly. Then Ian could bear no more. He sobbed
+like a boy of seven years old and she wept with him.
+
+"Thou poor unloved laddie!" she said. "If thou had gone wrong, it
+would have been little wonder and little blame to thyself. I think
+thou did all that could be done, with neither love nor wisdom to help
+thee. Rahal does not blame thee. Rahal pities and loves thee. Thou
+hast been cowed and frightened and punished for nothing, all the days
+of thy sad life. Poor lad! Poor, disappointed laddie! With all my
+heart and soul I pity thee!"
+
+For a few moments there was not a word spoken and the sound of Ian's
+bitter weeping filled the room. Ian had been flogged many a time when
+but a youth, and had then disdained to utter a cry, but no child in
+its first great sorrow, ever wept so heart-brokenly as Ian now wept in
+Rahal's arms. And a man weeping is a fearsome, pitiful sound. It goes
+to a woman's heart like a sword, and Thora rose and went to her lover
+and drew him to the sofa and sat down at his side and, with promises
+wet with tears, tried to comfort him. A strange silence that the
+weeping did not disturb was in the house and room, and in the kitchen
+the servants paused in their work and looked at each other with faces
+full of pity.
+
+"The Wise One has put trouble on their heads," said a woman who was
+dressing a goose to roast for dinner and her helper answered, "And
+there is no use striving against it. What must be, is sure to happen.
+That is Right."
+
+"All that we have done, is no good. Fate rules in this thing. I see
+that."
+
+"The trouble came on them unawares. And if Death is at the beginning,
+no course that can be taken is any good."
+
+"What is the Master's will? For in the end, that will orders all
+things."
+
+"The mistress said the marriage would be put off for a year. The young
+man goes to the war."
+
+"No wonder then he cries out. It is surely a great disappointment."
+
+"Tom Snackoll had the same ill luck. He made no crying about it. He
+hoisted sail at midnight and stole his wife Vestein out of her window,
+and when her father caught them, they were man and wife. And Snackoll
+went out to speak to his father-in-law and he said to him, 'My wife
+can not see thee today, for she is weary and I think it best for her
+to be still and quiet'; and home the father went and no good of his
+journey. Snackoll got praise for his daring."
+
+"Well then," said a young man who had just entered, "it is well known
+that Vestein and her father and mother were all fully willing. The
+girl could as easily have gone out of the door as the window. Snackoll
+is a boaster. He is as great in his talk as a fox in his tail."
+
+Thus the household of Ragnor talked in the kitchen, and in the parlour
+Rahal comforted the lovers, and cheered and encouraged Ian so greatly
+that she was finally able to say to them:
+
+"The wedding day was not lucky. Let it pass. There is another, only a
+year away, that will bring lasting joy. Now we have wept over our
+mischance, we will bury it and look to the future. We will go and wash
+away sorrow and put on fresh clothes, and look forward to the far
+better marriage a year hence."
+
+And her voice and manner were so persuasive, that they willingly
+obeyed her advice and, as they passed her, she kissed them both and
+told Ian to put his head in cold water and get rid of its aching
+fever, for she said, "The Bishop will want thee to sing some of thy
+Collects and Hymns and thou wilt like to please him. He is thy good
+friend."
+
+"I do not think so."
+
+"He is. Thou may take that, on my word."
+
+The evening brought a braver spirit. They talked of Boris and of his
+open-hearted, open-air life, and the Bishop read aloud several letters
+from young men then at the front. They were full of enthusiasm. They
+might have been read to an accompaniment of fife and drums. Ian was
+visibly affected and made no further demur about joining them. One of
+them spoke of Boris "leading his volunteers up the hill like a lion";
+and another letter described his tenderness to the wounded and
+convalescents, saying "he spent his money freely, to procure them
+little comforts they could not get for themselves."
+
+They talked plainly and from their hearts, hesitating not to call his
+name, and so they brought comfort to their heavy sorrow. For it is a
+selfish thing to shut up a sorrow in the heart, far better to look at
+it full in the face, speak of it, discuss its why and wherefore and
+break up that false sanctity which is very often inspired by purely
+selfish sentiments. And when this point was reached, the Bishop took
+from his pocket a small copy of the Apocrypha and said, "Now I will
+tell you what the wisest of men said of such an early death as that
+of our dear Boris:
+
+  "'He pleased God, and he was beloved of him, so that living among
+  sinners, he was translated.
+
+  "'Yea speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should
+  alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.
+
+  "'He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time.
+
+  "'For his soul pleased the Lord, therefore hasted he to take him
+  away from among the wicked.'"
+
+And these words fell like heavenly dew on every heart. There was no
+comfort and honour greater than this to offer even a mother's heart. A
+happy sigh greeted the blessed verses, and there was no occasion to
+speak. There was no word that could be added to it.
+
+Then Ian had a happy thought for before a spell-breaking word could be
+said, he stepped softly to the piano and the next moment the room was
+ringing with some noble lines from the "Men of Harlech" set to notes
+equally stirring:
+
+  "Men of Harlech, young or hoary,
+  Would you win a name in story,
+  Strike for home, for life, for glory,
+  Freedom, God and Right!
+
+  "Onward! 'Tis our country needs us,
+  He is bravest, he who leads us,
+  Honour's self now proudly leads us,
+  Freedom! God and Right!
+      Loose the folds asunder!
+      Flag we conquer under!
+      Death is glory now."
+
+The words were splendidly sung and the room was filled with patriotic
+fervour. Then the Bishop gave Ragnor and Thora a comforting look, as
+he asked, "Who wrote that song, Ian?"
+
+"Ah, sir, it was never written! It sprang from the heart of some old
+Druid priest as he was urging on the Welsh to drive the Romans from
+their country. It is two verses from 'The Song of the Men of
+Harlech.'"
+
+"In olden times, Ian, the bards went to the battlefield with the
+soldiers. We ought to send our singers to the trenches. Ian, go and
+sing to the men of England and of France 'The Song of the Men of
+Harlech.' Your song will be stronger than your sword."
+
+"I will sing it to my sword, sir. It will make it sharper." Then Rahal
+said, "You are a brave boy, Ian," and Thora lifted her lovely face and
+kissed him.
+
+Every heart was uplifted, and the atmosphere of the room was sensitive
+with that exalted feeling which finds no relief in speech. Humanity
+soon reacts against such tension. There was a slight movement, every
+one breathed heavily, like people awakening from sleep, and the Bishop
+said in a slow, soft voice:
+
+"I was thinking of Boris. After all, the dear lad may return to us.
+Surgeons are very clever now, they can almost work miracles."
+
+"Boris will not return," said Rahal.
+
+"How can you know that, Rahal?"
+
+"He told me so."
+
+"Have you seen him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When?"
+
+"On the afternoon of the eleventh of this month."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Well, Bishop, I was making the cap I am wearing and I was selecting
+from some white roses on my lap the ones I thought best. Suddenly
+Boris stood at my side."
+
+"You saw him?"
+
+"Yes, Bishop. I saw him plainly, though I do not remember lifting my
+head."
+
+"How did he look?"
+
+"Like one who had just won a victory. He was much taller and grander
+in appearance. Oh, he looked like one who had realized God's promise
+that we should be satisfied. A kind of radiance was around him and the
+air of a conquering soldier. And he was my boy still! He called me
+'Mother,' he sent such a wonderful message to his father." And at the
+last word, Ragnor uttered just such a sharp, short gasp as might have
+come from the rift of a broken heart.
+
+"Did you ask him any question, Rahal?"
+
+"I could not speak, but my soul longed to know what he was doing and
+the longing was immediately answered. 'I am doing the will of the Lord
+of Hosts,' he said. 'I was needed here.' Then I felt his kiss on my
+cheek, and I lifted my head and looked at the clock. It had struck
+three just as I was conscious of the presence of Boris. It was only
+two minutes past three, but I seemed to have lived hours in that two
+minutes."
+
+"Do you think, Bishop, that God loves a soldier? He may employ them
+and yet not love them?"
+
+Then the Bishop straightened himself and lifted his head, and his face
+glowed and his eyes shone as he answered, "I will give you one
+example, it could be multiplied indefinitely. Paul of Tarsus, a pale,
+beardless young man, dressed as a Roman soldier, is bringing prisoners
+to Damascus. Christ meets him on the road and Paul knows instantly
+that he has met the Captain of his soul. Hence forward, he is beloved
+and honoured and employed for Christ, and at the end of life he is
+joyful because he has fought a good fight and knows that his reward is
+waiting for him.
+
+"God has given us the names of many soldiers beloved of Him--Abraham,
+Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, etc. What care he took of them! What a
+friend in all extremities he was to them! All men who fight for their
+Faith, Home and Country, for Freedom, Justice and Liberty, are God's
+armed servants. They do His will on the battlefield, as priests do it
+at the altar. So then,
+
+  "In the world's broad field of battle,
+    In the bivouac of life,
+  Be not like dumb driven cattle,
+    Be a hero in the strife!"
+
+"We were speaking of the bards going to the battlefield with the
+soldiers, and as I was quoting that verse of Longfellow's a few lines
+from the old bard we call Ossian came into my mind."
+
+"Tell us, then," said Thora, "wilt thou not say the words to us, our
+dear Bishop?"
+
+"I will do that gladly:
+
+  "Father of Heroes, high dweller of eddying winds,
+  Where the dark, red thunder marks the troubled cloud,
+  Open Thou thy stormy hall!
+  Let the bards of old be near.
+  Father of heroes! the people bend before thee.
+  Thou turnest the battle in the field of the brave,
+  Thy terrors pour the blasts of death,
+  Thy tempests are before thy face,
+  But thy dwelling is calm above the clouds,
+  The fields of thy rest are pleasant."
+
+"When I was a young man," he continued, "I used to read Ossian a good
+deal. I liked its vast, shadowy images, its visionary incompleteness,
+just because we have not yet invented the precise words to describe
+the indescribable."
+
+So they talked, until the frugal Orcadian supper of oatmeal and milk,
+and bread and cheese, appeared. Then the night closed and sealed what
+the day had done, and there was no more speculation about Ian's
+future. The idea of a military life as a school for the youth had
+sprung up strong and rapidly, and he was now waiting, almost
+impatiently, for it to be translated into action.
+
+A few restful, pleasant days followed. Ragnor was preparing to leave
+his business for a week, the Bishop was settling some parish
+difficulties, and Ian and Thora were permitted to spend their time as
+they desired. They paid one farewell visit to their future home and
+found an old woman who had nursed Thora in charge of the place.
+
+"Thou wilt find everything just so, when you two come home together,
+my baby," she said. "Not a pin will be out of its place, not a speck
+of dust on anything. Eva will always be ready, and please God you may
+call her far sooner than you think for."
+
+The Sabbath, the last Sabbath of the old year, was to be their last
+day together, and the Bishop desired Ian to make it memorable with
+song. Ian was delighted to do so and together they chose for his two
+solos, "O for the Wings of a Dove," and the heavenly octaves of "He
+Hath Ascended Up on High and Led Captivity Captive." The old
+cathedral's great spaces were crowded, the Bishop was grandly in the
+spirit, and he easily led his people to that solemn line where life
+verges on death and death touches Immortality. It was Christ the
+beginning, and the end; Christ the victim on the cross, and Christ the
+God of the Ascension! And he sent every one home with the promise of
+Immortality in their souls and the light of it on their faces. His
+theme had touched largely on the Christ of the Resurrection, and the
+mystery and beauty of this Christ was made familiar to them in a way
+they had not before considered.
+
+Ragnor was afraid it had perhaps been brought too close to their own
+conception of a soul, who was seen on earth after the death of the
+body. "You told the events of Christ's forty days on earth after His
+crucifixion so simply, Bishop," he said, "and yet with much of the air
+that our people tell a ghost story."
+
+"Well then, dear Conall, I was telling them the most sacred ghost
+story of the world, and yet it is the most literal reality in history.
+If it were only a dream, it would be the most dynamic event in human
+destiny."
+
+"You see, Bishop, there is so much in your way of preaching. It has
+that kind of good comradeship which I think was so remarkable in
+Christ. His style was not the ten commandments' style--thou shalt and
+thou shalt not--but that reasoning, brotherly way of 'What man is
+there among you that would not do the kind and right thing?' You used
+it this very morning when you cried out, 'If our dear England needed
+your help to save her Liberty and Life, what man is there among you
+that would not rise up like lions to save her?' And the men could
+hardly sit still. It was so real, so brotherly, so unlike preaching."
+
+"Conall, nothing is so wonderful and beautiful in Christ's life as its
+almost incredible approachableness."
+
+This sermon had been preached on the Sabbath morning and it
+spiritualized the whole day. Ian's singing also had proved a wonderful
+service, for when the young men of that day became old men, they could
+be heard leading their crews in the melodious, longing strains of 'O
+for the Wings of a Dove,' as they sat casting their lines into the
+restless water.
+
+In the evening a cold, northwesterly wind sprang up and Thora and Ian
+retreated to the parlour, where a good fire had been built; but the
+Bishop and Ragnor and Rahal drew closer round the hearth in the living
+room and talked, and were silent, as their hearts moved them. Rahal
+had little to say. She was thinking of Ian and of the new life he was
+going to, and of the long, lonely days that might be the fate of
+Thora. "The woeful laddie!" she whispered, "he has had but small
+chances of any kind. What can a lad do for himself and no mother able
+to help him!"
+
+The Bishop heard or divined her last words and he said, "Be content,
+Rahal. Not one, but many lives we hold, and our hail to every new work
+we begin is our farewell to the old work. Ian is going to give a
+Future to his Past."
+
+"I fear, Bishop----"
+
+"Fear is from the earthward side, Rahal. Above the clouds of Fear,
+there is the certain knowledge of Heaven. Fear is nothing, Faith is
+everything!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE ONE REMAINS, THE MANY CHANGE AND PASS
+
+  You Scotsmen are a pertinacious brood;
+  Fitly you wear the thistle in your cap,
+  As in your grim theology.
+  O we're not all so fierce! God knows you'll find,
+  Well-combed and smooth-licked gentlemen enough,
+  Who will rejoice with you
+  To sneer at Calvin's close-wedged creed.
+                                         --BLACKIE.
+
+  Sow not in Sorrow,
+    Fling your seed abroad, and know
+  God sends tomorrow,
+    The rain to make it grow.
+                              --BLACKIE.
+
+
+There are epochs in every life that cut it sharply asunder, its
+continuity is broken and things can never be the same again. This was
+the dominant feeling that came to Thora Ragnor, as she sat with her
+mother one afternoon in early January. It was a day of Orkney's most
+uncomfortable and depressing kind, the whole island being swept by
+drifting clouds of vapour, which not only filled the atmosphere but
+also the houses, so that everything was to the touch damp and
+uncomfortable. Nothing could escape its miserable contact, even
+sitting on the hearthstone its power was felt; and until a good
+northwester came to dissipate the damp moisture, nobody expected much
+from any one's temper.
+
+Thora was restless and unhappy. Her life appeared to have been
+suddenly deprived of all joy and sunshine. She felt as if everything
+was at an end, or might as well be, and her mother's placid, peaceful
+face irritated her. How could she sit knitting mufflers for the
+soldiers in the trenches, and not think of Boris and also of Ian, whom
+they had all conspired to send to the same danger and perhaps death?
+She could not understand her mother's serenity. It occurred to her
+this afternoon, that she might have run away with Ian to Shetland and
+there her sisters would have seen her married; and she did not do
+this, she obeyed her parents, and what did she get for it? Loneliness
+and misery and her lover sent far away from her. Oh, those moments
+when Virtue has failed to reward us and we regret having served her!
+To the young, they are sometimes very bitter.
+
+And her mother's calmness! It not only astonished, it angered her. How
+could she sit still and not talk of Boris and Ian? It was a necessary
+relief to Thora, their names were at her lips all day long. But Thora
+had yet to learn that it is the middle-aged and the old who have the
+power of hoping through everything, because they have the knowledge
+that the soul survives all its adventures. This is the great
+inspiration, it is the good wine which God keeps to the last. The old,
+the way-worn, the faint and weary, they know this as the young can
+never know it.
+
+However, we may say to bad weather, as to all other bad things, "this,
+too, will pass," and in a couple of days the sky was blue, the sun
+shining, and the atmosphere fresh and clear and full of life-giving
+energy. Ships of all kinds were hastening into the harbour and the
+mail boat, broad-bottomed and strongly built, was in sight. Then there
+was a little real anxiety. There was sure to be letters, what news
+would they bring? Some people say there is no romance in these days.
+Very far wrong are they. These sealed bits of white paper hold very
+often more wonderful romances than any in the Thousand Nights of story
+telling.
+
+Rahal's and Thora's anxiety was soon relieved. A messenger from the
+warehouse came quickly to the house, with a letter from Ragnor to
+Rahal and a letter from Ian to Thora. Ragnor's letter said they had
+had a rough voyage southward, the storm being in their faces all the
+way to Leith. There they left the boat and took a train for London,
+from which place they went as quickly as possible to Spithead, fearing
+to miss the ship sailing for the Crimea on the eleventh. Ragnor said
+he had seen Ian safely away to Sebastopol and observed that he was
+remarkably cheerful and satisfied. He spoke then of his own delight
+with London and regretted that he had not made arrangements which
+would permit him to stay a week or two longer there.
+
+Thora's letter was a genuine love letter, for Ian was deeply in love
+and everything he said was in the superlative mood. Lovers like such
+letters. They are to them the sacred writings. It did not seem
+ridiculous to Thora to be called "an angel of beauty and goodness, the
+rose of womanhood, the lily on his heart, his star of hope, the
+sunshine of his life," and many other extravagant impossibilities. She
+would have been disappointed if Ian had been more matter-of-fact and
+reasonable.
+
+So there was now comparative happiness in the house of Ragnor, for
+though the master's letters were never much more than plain statements
+of doings or circumstances, they satisfied Rahal. It is not every man
+that knows how to write to a woman, even if he loves her; but women
+have a special divinity in reading love letters, and they know beyond
+all doubting the worth of words as affected by those who use them.
+
+Ragnor gave himself a whole week in London and before leaving that
+city for Edinburgh he wrote a few lines home, saying he intended to
+stay in London over the following Sabbath and hear Canon Liddon
+preach. On Monday he would reach Edinburgh and on Tuesday have an
+interview with Dr. Macrae and then take the first boat for home. They
+could now wait easily, the silence had been broken, the weather was
+good, they had "The History of Pendennis" and "David Copperfield" to
+read, their little duties and little cares to attend to, and they were
+not at all unhappy.
+
+At length, the master was to be home _that_ day. If the wind was
+favourable, he might arrive about two o'clock, but Rahal thought the
+boat would hardly manage it before three with the wind in her teeth,
+or it might be nearer four. The house was all ready for him, spick and
+span from roof to cellar and a dinner of the good things he
+particularly liked in careful preparation. And, after all, he came a
+little earlier than was expected.
+
+"Dear Conall," said Rahal, "I have been watching for thee, but I
+thought it would be four o'clock, ere thou made Kirkwall."
+
+"Not with Donald Farquar sailing the boat. The way he manages a boat
+is beyond reason."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"He talks to her, as if she was human. He scolds and coaxes her and
+this morning he promised to paint and gild her figurehead, if she got
+into Kirkwall before three. Then every sailor on board helped her and
+the wind changed a point or two and that helped her, and now and then
+Farquar pushed her on, with a good or bad word, and she saved herself
+by just eleven minutes."
+
+"And how well thou art looking! Never have I seen thee so handsome
+before, never! What hast thou been doing to Conall Ragnor?"
+
+"I will tell thee. When I had bid Ian good-bye, I resolved to take a
+week's holiday in London and as I walked down the Strand, I noticed
+that every one looked at me, not unkindly but curiously, and when I
+looked at the men who looked at me, I saw we were different. I went
+into a barber's first, and had my hair cut like Londoners wear it,
+short and smart, and not thick and bushy, like mine was."
+
+"Well then, thy hair was far too long but they have cut off all thy
+curls."
+
+"I like the wanting of them. They looked very womanish. I'm a deal
+more purpose-like without them. Then I went to a first-class
+tailor-man and he fit me out with the suit I'm wearing. He said it was
+'the correct thing for land or water.' What dost thou think of it?"
+
+"Nothing could be more becoming to thee."
+
+"Nay then, I got a Sabbath Day suit that shames this one. And I bought
+a church hat and a soft hat that beats all, and kid gloves, and a good
+walking stick with a fancy knob."
+
+"Thou art not needing a walking stick for twenty years yet."
+
+"Well then, the English gentlemen always carries a walking stick. I
+think they wouldn't know the way they were going without one. At last,
+I went to the shoemakers, and he made me take off my 'Wellingtons.' He
+said no one wore them now, and he shod me, as thou sees, very
+comfortably. I like the change."
+
+Then they heard Thora calling them, and Ragnor taking Rahal's hand
+hastened to answer the call. She was standing at the foot of the
+stairway, and her father kissed her and as he did so whispered--"All
+is well, dear one. After dinner, I will tell thee." Then he took her
+hand, and the three in one went together to the round table, set so
+pleasantly near to the comfortable fireside. Standing there,
+hand-clasped, the master said those few words of adoration and
+gratitude that turned the white-spread board into a household altar.
+Dinner was on the table and its delicious odours filled the room and
+quickly set Ragnor talking.
+
+"I will tell you now, what I saw in London," he said. "Ian is a story
+good enough to keep until after dinner. I saw him sail away from
+Spithead, and he went full of hope and pluck and sure of success. Then
+I took the first train back to London. I got lodgings in a nice little
+hotel in Norfolk Street, just off the Strand, and London was calling
+me all night long."
+
+"Thou could not see much, Father, in one week," said Thora.
+
+"I saw the Queen and the Houses of Parliament, and I saw the Tower of
+London and Westminster Abbey and the Crystal Palace. And I have heard
+an oratorio, with a chorus of five hundred voices and Sims Reeves as
+soloist. I have been to Drury Lane, and the Strand Theatres, to a big
+picture gallery, and a hippodrome. My dear ones, the end of one
+pleasure was just the beginning of another; in one week, I have lived
+fifty years."
+
+Any one can understand how a new flavour was added to the food they
+were eating by such conversation. Not all the sauces in Christendom
+could have made it so piquant and appetizing. Ragnor carved and ate
+and talked, and Rahal and Thora listened and laughed and asked endless
+questions, and when the mind enters into a meal, it not only prolongs,
+it also sweetens and brightens it. I suppose there may be in every
+life two or three festivals, that stand out from all others--small,
+unlooked-for meetings, perhaps--where love, hope, wonder and happy
+looking-forward, made the food taste as if it had been cooked in
+Paradise. Where, at least for a few hours, a mortal might feel that
+man had been made only a little lower than the angels.
+
+Now, if any of my readers have such a memory, let them close the
+book, shut their eyes and live it over again. It was probably a
+foretaste of a future existence, where we shall have faculties capable
+of fuller and higher pleasures; faculties that without doubt "will be
+satisfied." For in all hearts that have suffered, there must abide the
+conviction that the Future holds Compensation, not Punishment.
+
+But without forecast or remembrance, the Ragnors that night enjoyed
+their highly mentalised meal, and after it was over and the table set
+backward, and the white hearth brushed free of ashes, they drew around
+the fire, and Ragnor laid down his pipe, and said:
+
+"I left London last Monday, and I was in Edinburgh until Wednesday
+morning. On Tuesday I called on Dr. Macrae. I had a letter to give him
+from Ian."
+
+"Why should Ian have written to him?" asked Rahal, in a tone of
+disapproval.
+
+"Because Ian has a good heart, he wrote to his father. I read the
+letter. It was all right."
+
+"What then did he say to him?"
+
+"Well, Rahal, he told his father that he was leaving for the
+front, and he wished to leave with his forgiveness and blessing, if he
+would give it to him. He said that he was sure that in their
+life-long dispute he must often have been in the wrong, and he
+asked forgiveness for all such lapses of his duty. He told his father
+that he had a clear plan of success before him, but said that in
+all cases--fortunate or unfortunate--he would always remember the
+name he bore and do nothing to bring it shame or dishonour. A very
+good, brave letter, dear ones. I give Ian credit for it."
+
+"Did thou advise him to write it?" asked Rahal.
+
+"No, it sprang from his own heart."
+
+"Thou should not have sanctioned it."
+
+"Ian did right, Rahal. I did right to sanction it."
+
+"Father, if Ian has a clear plan of success before him, what is it? He
+ought to have told us."
+
+"He thought it out while we were at sea, he asked me to explain the
+matter to you. It is, indeed, a plan so simple and manifest, that I
+wonder we did not propose it at the very first. You must recollect
+that Ian was in the employ of Dr. Finlay of Edinburgh for three years
+and a half, and that during that period he acquired both a large
+amount of medical knowledge and also of medical experience. Now we all
+know that Ian has a special gift for this science, especially for its
+surgical side, and he is not going to the trenches or the cavalry, he
+is going to offer himself to the Surgical and Medical Corps. He will
+go to the battlefield, carry off the wounded, give them first help, or
+see them to the hospital. In this way he will be doing constant good
+to others and yet be forwarding the career which is to make his future
+happy and honourable."
+
+"Then Ian has decided to be a surgeon, Father?"
+
+"Yes, and I can tell thee, Thora, he has not set himself a task beyond
+his power. I think very highly of Ian, no one could help doing so; and
+see here, Thora! I have a letter in my pocket for thee! He gave it to
+me as I bid him good-bye at Spithead."
+
+"I am so happy, Father! So happy!"
+
+"Thou hast good reason to be happy. We shall all be proud of Ian in
+good time."
+
+"Did thou give Ian's letter to his father's hands, or did thou mail
+it, Coll?"
+
+"I gave it to him, personally."
+
+"What was thy first impression of him?"
+
+"He gave me first of all an ecclesiastical impression. I just
+naturally looked for a gown or surplice. He wanted something without
+one. He met me coldly but courteously, and taking Ian's letter from
+me, placed it deliberately upon a pile of letters lying on his desk. I
+said, 'It is from thy son, Doctor, perhaps thou had better read it at
+once. It is a good letter, sir, read it.'
+
+"He bowed, and asked if Ian was with me. I said, 'No, sir, he is
+on his way to Scutari.' Then he was silent. After a few moments he
+asked me if I had been in Edinburgh during the past Sabbath. 'You
+should have been here,' he added, 'then you could have heard the
+great Dr. Chalmers preach.' I told him that I had spent that
+never-to-be-forgotten Sabbath under the blessed dome of St. Paul's in
+London. I said something about the transcending beauty of the
+wonderful music of the cathedral service, and spoke with delight of
+the majestic nave, filled with mediaeval rush-bottomed chairs for the
+worshippers, and I told him how much more fitting they were in the
+House of God than pews." And Ragnor uttered the last word with a
+new-found emphasis. "He asked, quite scornfully, in what sense I
+found them more fitting, and I answered rather warmly--'Why, sir,
+sitting together in chairs, we felt so much more at home. We were
+like one great family in our Father's house.'"
+
+"Are the chairs rented?" asked Rahal.
+
+"Rented!" cried Ragnor scornfully. "No, indeed! There are no dear
+chairs and no cheap chairs, all are equal and all are free. I never
+felt so like worshipping in a church before. The religious spirit had
+free way in our midst."
+
+"What did Macrae say?"
+
+"He said, he supposed the rush chairs were an 'Armenian innovation';
+and I answered, 'The pews, sir, they are the innovation.'"
+
+"Did thou have any argument with him? I have often heard Ian say he
+plunged into religious argument with every one he met."
+
+"Well, Rahal, I don't know how it happened, but I quickly found myself
+in a good atmosphere of contradictions. I do not remember either what
+I had been saying, but I heard him distinctly assert, that 'it was the
+Armenians who had described the Calvinists, and they had not wasted
+their opportunities.' Then I found myself telling him that Armenianism
+had ruled the religious world ever since the birth of Christianity;
+but that Calvinism was a thing of yesterday, a mere Geneva opinion.
+Rahal, the man has a dogma for a soul, and yet through this hard
+veil, I could see that he was full of a longing for love; but he has
+not found out the way to love, his heart is ice-bound. He made me say
+things I did not want to say, he stirred my soul round and round until
+it boiled over, and then the words would come. Really, Rahal, I did
+not know the words were in my mind, till his aggravating questions
+made me say them."
+
+"What words? Art thou troubled about them?"
+
+"A little. He was talking of faith and doubt, especially as it
+referred to the Bible, and I listened until I could bear it no longer.
+He was asking what proof there was for this, and that, and the other,
+and as I said, he got me stirred up beyond myself and I told him I
+cared nothing about proofs. I said proofs were for sceptics and not
+for good men who _knew_ in whom they had believed."
+
+"Well then, Coll, that was enough, was it not?"
+
+"Not for Macrae. He said immediately, 'Suppose there was no divine
+authority for the scheme of morals and divinity laid down in this
+Book,' and he laid his hand reverently on the Bible, 'where should we
+be?' And I told him, we should be just where we were, because God's
+commands were written on every conscience and that these commands
+would stand firm even if creeds became dust, and Matthew, Mark, Luke,
+John and Paul, all failed and passed away. 'Power of God!' I cried, as
+I struck the table with my fist, 'it takes God's tireless, patient,
+eternal love to put up with puny men, always doubting Him. I believe
+in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth!' I said,
+'and I want no proofs about Him in whom I believe.' By this time,
+Rahal, he had me on fire. I was ready to deny anything he asserted,
+especially about hell, for thou knows, Rahal, that there are hells in
+this world and no worse needed. So when he asked if I believed in the
+Calvinistic idea of hell, I answered, 'I deny it! My soul denies
+it--utterly!' I reminded him that God spoke to Dives in hell and
+called him son and that Dives, even there, clung to the fatherhood of
+God. And I told him this world was a hell to those who deserved hell,
+and a place of much trial to most men and women, and I thought it was
+poor comfort to preach to such, that the next world was worse. There
+now! I have told you enough. He asked me to lunch with him, and I did;
+and I told him as we ate, what a fine fellow Ian was, and he listened
+and was silent."
+
+"Then you saw Ian's mother and sister?" asked Thora.
+
+"No, I did not. They had gone for the winter to the Bridge of Allan.
+Mrs. Macrae is sick, her husband seemed unhappy about her."
+
+Rahal hoped now that her home would settle itself into its usual calm,
+methodical order. She strove to give to every hour its long accustomed
+duty, and to infuse an atmosphere of rest and of "use and wont" into
+every day's affairs. It was impossible. The master of the house had
+suffered a world change. He had tasted of strange pleasures and
+enthusiasms, and was secretly planning a life totally at variance with
+his long accustomed routine and responsibilities. He did not speak of
+the things in his heart but nevertheless they escaped him.
+
+Very soon he began to have much more regular communication with his
+sons in Shetland, and finally he told Rahal that he intended taking
+his son Robert into partnership. Such changes grew slowly in Ragnor's
+mind, and much more slowly in practice, but Rahal knew that they were
+steadily working to some ultimate, and already definite and determined
+end in her husband's will.
+
+The absent also exerted a far greater power upon the home than any
+one believed. Ian's letters came with persistent regularity, and the
+influence of one was hardly spent, when another arrived of quite a
+different character. Ian was rapidly realizing his hopes. He had been
+gladly taken into a surgical corps, under the charge of a Doctor
+Frazer, and his life was a continual drama of stirring events.
+Generally he wrote between actions, and then he described the gallant
+young men resting on the slopes of the beleaguered hill, with their
+weapons at their finger tips, but always cheerful. Sometimes he spoke
+of them under terrible fire in their life-or-death push forward,
+followed by the surgeons and stretcher-bearers. Sometimes, he had been
+to the trenches to dress a wound that would not stop bleeding, but
+always he wondered at seeing the resolute grit and calmness of these
+young men, who had been the dandies in London drawing-rooms a year ago
+and who were now smoking placidly in the trenches at Redan.
+
+"What is it?" he asked an old surgeon, on whom he was waiting. "Is it
+recklessness?"
+
+"No, sir!" was the answer. "It is straight courage. Courage in the
+blood. Courage nourished on their mother's milk. Courage educated into
+them at Eton or Rugby, in many a fight and scuffle. Courage that
+lived with them night and day at Oxford or Cambridge, and that made
+them choose danger and death rather than be known for one moment as a
+cad or a coward. It was dancing last year. It is fighting in a proper
+quarrel this year. Different duties, that is all."
+
+Every now and then Sunna dropped them letters about which there was
+much pleasant speculating, for as the summer came forward, she began
+to accept the disappointments made by the death of Boris, and to
+consider what possibilities of life were still within her power. She
+said in May that "she was sick and weary of everything about
+Sebastopol, and that she wanted to go back to Scotland, far more
+frantically than she ever wanted to leave it." In June, she said, she
+had got her grandfather to listen to reason, but had been forced to
+cry for what she wanted, a humiliation beyond all apologies.
+
+Her next letter was written in Edinburgh, where she declared she
+intended to stay for some time. Maximus Grant was in Edinburgh with
+his little brother, who was under the care and treatment of an eminent
+surgeon living there. "The poor little laddie is dying," she said,
+"but I am able to help him over many bad hours, and Max is not
+half-bad, that is, he might be worse if left to himself. Heigh-ho!
+What varieties of men, and varieties of their trials, poor women have
+to put up with!"
+
+As the year advanced Sunna's letters grew bright and more and more
+like her, and she described with admirable imitative piquancy the
+literary atmosphere and conversation which is Edinburgh's native air.
+In the month of November, little Eric went away suddenly, in a
+paroxysm of military enthusiasm, dying literally the death of a
+soldier "with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the
+trumpets," in his soul's hearing.
+
+"We adored him," wrote Sunna, in her most fervent religious mood,
+which was just as sincere as any other mood. "He was such a loving,
+clever little soul, and he lay so long within the hollow of Death's
+sickle. There he heard and saw wonderful things, that I would not dare
+to speak of. Max has wept very sincerely. It is my lot apparently, to
+administer drops of comfort to him. In this world, I find that women
+can neither hide nor run away from men and their troubles, the moment
+anything goes wrong with them, they fly to some woman and throw their
+calamity on her."
+
+"It is easy to see which way Sunna is drifting," said Rahal, after
+this letter had been read. "She will marry Maximus Grant, of course."
+
+"Mother, her grandfather wishes that marriage. It is very suitable.
+His silent, masterful way will cure Sunna's faults."
+
+"It will do nothing of the kind. What the cradle rocks, the spade
+buries. If Sunna lives to be one hundred years old--a thing not
+unlikely--she will be Sunna. Just Sunna."
+
+During all this summer, Ragnor was deeply engrossed in his business,
+and the Vedders remained in Edinburgh, as did also Mistress Brodie,
+though she had had all the best rooms in her Kirkwall house
+redecorated. "It is her hesitation about grandfather. She will, and
+she won't," wrote Sunna, "and she keeps grandfather hanging by a
+hair." Then she made a few scornful remarks about "the hesitating
+_liaisons_ of old women" and concluded that it all depended upon the
+marriage ceremony.
+
+  Grandfather [she wrote] wants to sneak into some out of the way
+  little church, and get the business over as quickly and quietly as
+  possible; and Mistress Brodie has dreams of a peach-bloom satin
+  gown, and a white lace bonnet. She thought "that was enough for a
+  second affair"; and when I gently hoped that it was at least an
+  affair of the heart, she said with a distinct snap, "Don't be
+  impertinent, Miss!" However, all this is but the overture to the
+  great matrimonial drama, and it is rather interesting.
+
+  I saw by a late London paper that Thora's lover has gone and got
+  himself decorated, or crossed, for doing some dare-devil sort of
+  thing about wounded men. I wonder how Thora will like to walk on
+  Pall Mall with a man who wears a star or a medal on his breast.
+  Such things make women feel small. For, of course, we could win
+  stars and medals if we had the chance. Max considers Ian "highly
+  praise-worthy." Max lately has a way of talking in two or three
+  syllables. I am trying to remember where I left my last spelling
+  book; I fear I shall have to get up my orthography.
+
+The whole of this year A. D. 1855 was one of commonplaces stirred by
+tragic events. It is this conjunction that makes the most prosaic of
+lives always a story. It only taught Thora and Rahal to make the most
+of such pleasures as were within their reach. In the evening Ragnor
+was always ready to share what they had to offer, but in the daytime
+he was getting his business into such perfect condition that he could
+leave it safely in charge of his son Robert for a year, or more, if
+that was his wish.
+
+On the second of March, the Czar Nicholas died, and there was good
+hope in that removal. In June, General Raglan died of cholera, and on
+the following fifth of September, the Russians, finding they could no
+longer defend Sebastopol, blew up its defences and also its two
+immense magazines of munitions. This explosion was terrific, the very
+earth appeared to reel. The town they deliberately set on fire. Then
+on Sunday morning, September the ninth, the English and French took
+possession of the great fortress, though it was not until the last day
+of February, A. D. 1856, that the treaty of peace was signed.
+
+After the occupation of Sebastopol, however, there was a cessation of
+hostilities, and the hospitals rapidly began to empty and the
+physicians and surgeons to return home. Dr. Frazer remained at his
+post till near Christmas, and was then able to leave the few cases
+remaining in the charge of competent nurses. Ian remained at his side
+and they returned to England together. It was then within a few days
+of Christmas, and Ian hastened northward without delay.
+
+There was no hesitating welcome for him now; he was met by the truest
+and warmest affection, he was cheerfully given the honour which he had
+faithfully won. And the wedding day was no longer delayed, it was
+joyfully hastened forward. Bishop Hedley, the Vedders and Maximus
+Grant had already arrived and the little town was all agog and eager
+for the delayed ceremony. Sunna had brought with her Thora's new
+wedding dress and the day had been finally set for the first of
+January.
+
+"Thou will begin a fresh life with a fresh year," said Rahal to her
+daughter. "A year on which, as yet, no tears have fallen; and which
+has not known care or crossed purpose. On its first page thou will
+write thy marriage joy and thy new hopes, and the light of a perfect
+love will be over it."
+
+In the meantime life was full of new delights to Thora. Wonderful
+things were happening to her every day. The wedding dress was here.
+Adam Vedder had brought her a pretty silver tea service, Aunt
+Barbie--now Madame Vedder--had remembered her in many of those
+womanwise ways, that delight the heart of youth. Even Dominie Macrae
+had sent her a gold watch, and the little sister-in-law had chosen for
+her gift some very pretty laces. Rich and poor alike brought her their
+good-will offerings, and many old Norse awmries were ransacked in the
+search for jewels or ornaments of the jade stone, which all held as
+"luck beyond breaking."
+
+The present which pleased Thora most of all was a new wedding-dress,
+the gift of her mother. The rich ivory satin was perfect and peerless
+in its exquisite fit and simplicity; jewels, nor yet lace, could have
+added nothing to it. Sunna had brought it with her own toilet. In
+fact, she was ready to make a special sensation with it on the first
+of January, for her wedding garment as Thora's bridesmaid was nothing
+less than a robe of gold and white shot silk, worn over a hoop. She
+had been wearing a hoop all winter in Edinburgh, but she was quite
+sure she would be the first "hooped lady" to appear in Kirkwall town.
+Thora might wear the bride veil, with its wreath of myrtle and
+rosemary, but she had a pleasant little laugh, as she mentally saw
+herself in the balloon of white and gold shot silk, walking
+majestically up the nave of St. Magnus. It was so long since hoops had
+been worn. None of the present generation of Kirkwall women could ever
+have seen a lady in a hoop, and behind the present generation there
+was no likelihood of any hooped ladies in Kirkwall.
+
+Thora had no hoop. Her orders had been positively against it and
+unless Madame Vedder had slipped inside "the bell" she could not
+imagine any rival. As she made this reflection, she smiled, and then
+translated the smile into the thought, "If she has, she will look like
+a haystack."
+
+Now Ian's military suit in his department had been of white duff or
+linen, plentifully adorned with gilt buttons and bands representing
+some distinctive service. It was the secret desire of Ian to wear this
+suit, and he rather felt that Thora or his mother-in-law should ask
+him to do so. For he knew that its whiteness and gilt, and tiny knots
+of ribbon, gave to the wearer that military air, which all men yearn a
+little after. He wished to wear it on his wedding day but Thora had
+not thought of it, neither had Sunna. However, on the 29th, Rahal,
+that kind, wise woman, asked him as a special favour, to wear his
+medical uniform. She said, "the townsfolk would be so disappointed
+with black broadcloth and a pearl-grey waistcoat. They longed to see
+him as he went onto the battlefield, to save or succour the wounded."
+
+"But, Mother," he answered, "I went in the plainest linen suit to
+bring in the wounded and dying."
+
+"I know, dear one, but they do not know, and it is not worth while
+destroying an innocent illusion, we have so few of them as we grow
+old."
+
+"Very well, Mother, it shall be as you wish."
+
+"Of course Ian wished to wear it," said Sunna.
+
+"Oh, Sunna, you must not judge all men from Max."
+
+"I am far from that folly. Your father has been watching the winds and
+the clouds all day. So have I. Conall Ragnor is always picturesque,
+even poetical. I feel safe if I follow him. He says it will be fine
+tomorrow. I hope so!"
+
+This hope was more than justified. It was a day of sunshine and little
+wandering south winds, and the procession was a fact. Now Ragnor knew
+that this marriage procession, as a national custom, was passing away,
+but it had added its friendliness to his own and all his sons' and
+daughters' weddings and he wanted Thora's marriage ceremonial to
+include it. "When thou art an old woman, Thora," he said to her, "then
+thou wilt be glad to have remembered it."
+
+At length the New Year dawned and the day arrived. All was ready for
+it. There was no hurry, no fret, no uncertainty. Thora rode to the
+cathedral in the Vedder's closed carriage with her father and mother.
+Ian was with Maximus and Sunna in the Galt landeau. Adam Vedder and
+his bride rode together in their open Victoria and all were ready as
+the clock struck ten. Then a little band of stringed instruments and
+young men took their place as leaders of the procession, and when they
+started joyfully "Room for the Bride!" the carriages took the places
+assigned them and about two hundred men and women, who had gathered at
+the Ragnor House, followed in procession, many joining in the
+singing.
+
+The cathedral was crowded when they reached it, and Dr. Hedley in
+white robes came forward to meet the bride and, with smiles and loving
+good will, to unite her forever to the choice of her soul.
+
+It was almost a musical marriage. Melody began and followed and closed
+the whole ceremonial. About twenty returned with the bridal party to
+the Ragnor House to eat the bridal dinner, but the general townsfolk
+were to have their feast and dance in the Town Hall about seven in the
+evening. The Bishop stayed only to bless the meal, for the boat was
+waiting that was to carry him to a Convocation of the Church then
+sitting in Edinburgh. But he wore his sprig of rosemary on his vest,
+and he stood at Ragnor's right hand and watched him mix the Bride
+Cup, watched him mingle in one large silver bowl of pre-Christian age
+the pale, delicious sherry and fine sugar and spices and stir the
+whole with a strip of rosemary. Then every guest stood up and was
+served with a cup, most of them having in their hand a strip of
+rosemary to stir it with. And after the Bishop had blessed the bride
+and blessed the bridegroom, he said, "I will quote for you a passage
+from an old sermon and after it, you will stir your cup again with
+rosemary and grow it still more plentifully in your gardens.
+
+"The rosemary is for married men and man challengeth it, as belonging
+properly to himself. It helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory,
+and affects kindly the heart. Let this flower of man ensign your
+wisdom, love and loyalty, and carry it, not only in your hands, but in
+your heads and hearts." Then he lifted his glass and stirred the wine
+with his strip of rosemary, and as he did so all followed his example,
+while he repeated from an old romance the following lines:
+
+  ... "Before we divide,
+  Let us dip our rosemaries
+  In one rich bowl of wine, to this brave girl
+  And to the gentleman."
+
+With these words he departed, and the utmost and happiest interchange
+of all kinds of good fellowship followed. Every man and woman was at
+perfect ease and ready to give of the best they had. Even Adam Vedder
+delighted all, and especially his happy-looking bride, by his clever
+condensation of Sunna's favourite story of "The Banded Men." No
+finished actor could have made it, in its own way, a finer model of
+dramatic narrative, especially in its quaint reversal of the parts
+usually played by father and son, into those of the prodigal father
+and the money-loving, prudent son. Then a little whisper went round
+the table and it sprang from Sunna, and people smiled and remembered
+that Adam had won his wife from three younger men than himself and, as
+if by a single, solid impulse, they stirred their wine cups once more
+and called for a cheer for the old bridegroom, who had been faithful
+for forty years to his first love and had then walked off with her,
+from Provost, Lawyer and Minister; all of them twenty years younger
+than himself.
+
+Getting near to three o'clock, they began to sing and Rahal was
+pleased to hear that sound of peace, for several guests were just from
+the battlefield and quite as ready for a quarrel as a song. Also
+during the little confusion of removing fruit and cake and glasses,
+and the substitution of the cups and saucers and the strong, hot,
+sweet tea that every Norseman loves, Ian and Thora slipped away
+without notice. Max Grant's carriage put them in half-an-hour on the
+threshold of their own home. They crossed it hand and hand and Ian
+kissed the hand he held and Thora raised her face in answer; but words
+have not yet been invented that can speak for such perfect happiness.
+
+  Love is rich in his own right,
+    He is heir of all the spheres,
+  In his service day and night
+    Swing the tides and roll the years.
+  What has he to ask of fate?
+    Crown him, glad or desolate.
+
+  Time puts out all other flames
+    But the glory of his eyes;
+  His are all the sacred names,
+    His the solemn mysteries.
+  Crown him! In his darkest day
+    He has Heaven to give away!
+
+Ian's business arrangements curtailed the length of any festivity in
+relation to the marriage. He had already signed an agreement with Dr.
+Frazer to return to him as soon as possible after the twelfth day and
+remain as his assistant until he was fully authenticated a surgeon by
+the proper schools. In the meantime he would enter the London School
+of Medicine and Surgery and give to Dr. Frazer all the time not
+demanded by its hours and exercises. For this attention Ian was to
+receive from Dr. Frazer one hundred pounds a year. Furthermore, when
+Ian had received the proper authority to call himself Dr. John Macrae,
+he was to have the offer of a partnership with Dr. Frazer, on what
+were considered very favourable terms.
+
+So their little romance was at last happily over. Ian was an
+infinitely finer and nobler man. He had dwelt amid great acts and
+great suffering for a year and had not visited the House of Mourning
+in vain. All that was light and trifling had fallen away from him. He
+regarded his life and talents now as a great and solemn charge and was
+resolved to make them of use to his fellows. And Thora was lovelier
+than she had ever been. She had learned self-restraint and she had
+hoped through evil days, till good days came; so then, she knew how to
+look for good when all appeared wrong and by faith and will, bring
+good out of evil.
+
+After Thora and her husband left for London a great change took place
+in the Ragnor home. Ragnor had been preparing for it ever since his
+visit to London and, within a month, Robert Ragnor and his wife and
+family came from Shetland and took possession. It gave Rahal a little
+pain to see any woman in her place but that was nothing, she was going
+to give her dear Coll the dream of his life. She was going to travel
+with him, and see all the civilized countries in the world! She was
+going to London first, and last, of all!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SEQUENCES
+
+
+Not long ago I found in a list of Orkney and Shetland literature
+several volumes by a Conall Ragnor, two of them poetry. But that just
+tended to certify a suspicion. Sixty years ago I had heard him repeat
+some Gallic poems and had known instinctively, though only a girl of
+eighteen, that the man was a poet.
+
+It roused in me a curiosity I felt it would be pleasant to gratify,
+and so a little while after I began this story, I wrote to a London
+newspaper man and asked him to send me some of his Orkney exchanges. I
+have a habit of trusting newspaper editors and I found this one as I
+expected, willing and obliging. He sent me two Orkney papers and the
+first thing I noticed was the prevalence of the old names. Among them
+I saw Mrs. Max Grant, and I thought I would write to her and take my
+chance of the lady turning out to be the old Sunna Vedder. It was
+quite a possibility, as we were apparently about the same age when I
+saw her. It was only for an hour or two in the evening we met, at the
+Ragnor house, but girls see a deal in an hour or two and if I
+remembered her, she had doubtless chronicled an opinion of me.
+
+In about five weeks Mrs. Grant's letter in answer to mine arrived. She
+began it by saying she remembered me, because I wore a hat, a sailor's
+hat, and she said it was the first hat she ever saw on a woman's head.
+She said also, that I told her women were beginning to wear them for
+shopping and walking and driving, or out at sea, but never for church
+or visiting. All of which I doubtless said, for it was my first hat.
+And I do not remember women wearing hats at all until about this
+time.
+
+  I suppose [she continued] thou wants to know first of all about
+  the Vedders. They were _the_ people then, and they have not grown
+  a bit smaller, nor do they think any less of themselves yet. My
+  grandfather married again and was not sorry for it. I don't know
+  whether his wife was sorry or not. I took Maximus Grant for a
+  husband for, after Boris Ragnor died, I did not care who I took,
+  provided he had plenty of good qualities and plenty of gold. We
+  lived together thirty years very respectably. I took my way and I
+  usually expected him to do the same. We had four sons, and they
+  have nine sons among them, and all of the nine are now fighting
+  the vipers they have been coddling for forty or fifty years. Some
+  are in the regular army, some in the navy, and some in the plucky,
+  fighting little navy, patrolling England and her brood of
+  coastwise islands. They are a tough, rough, hard lot, but I love
+  them all better than anything else in this world. There are a good
+  many Vedder houses in Orkney, and they are all full of little
+  squabbling, fighting, never clean, and never properly dressed
+  little brats, from four to eleven years old. So I don't worry
+  about there being Vedders enough to run things the way they want
+  them run.
+
+  The Ragnors are here in plenty. All the men are at the war, all
+  the women running fishing boats or keeping general shops, to which
+  I like to see the Germans going. They are told what kind of people
+  they are as they walk up to the shops; and they get what they want
+  at an impoverishing price. Serve them right! Men, however, will
+  pay any money for a thing they want.
+
+  There has not been such good times in Orkney since I was born, as
+  there is now. We have an enemy to beat in trade and an enemy to
+  beat in fight at our very doors, and our men are neither to hold
+  nor to bind, they are that top-lofty. War is a man's native air.
+  My sons and grandsons are all two inches taller than they were and
+  they defy Nature to contradict them. I never attempt it. Well,
+  then, they are proper men in all things, a little hard to deal
+  with and masterful, but just as I wish them. My grandfather died
+  fifty years ago, he might have lived longer if he had not
+  married. His widow wept in the deepest black and people thought
+  she was sorry.
+
+  The Ragnors are mostly here and in Shetland. Conall Ragnor never
+  really settled down again. Rahal and he lived in Edinburgh or
+  London, when not travelling. I heard that Conall wrote books and
+  really got money for them. I cannot believe that. Rahal died
+  first. Conall lived a month after her. They were laid in earth in
+  Stromness Church-yard. My grandfather wanted to bring the body of
+  Boris home and bury it in Stromness, and I would not let him. He
+  is all mine where he sleeps in the Crimea. I don't want him among
+  a congregation of his brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  I suppose thou must have heard of Thora's husband. He really
+  did become famous, and I was told his father forgave him all his
+  youthful follies. It was said Thora managed that in some clever
+  way; but I'm sure I don't know what to say. Thora never seemed
+  at all clever to me. She had many children, but she died long
+  ago, though she did live long enough to see her husband
+  knighted and her eldest boy marry the daughter of a lord. I have
+  no doubt she was happy in her own way, only she never did dress
+  herself as a person in the best society ought to have done. I
+  once told her so. "Well, then," she said, "I dress to please my
+  husband." Imagine such simplicity! As to myself I am getting
+  near to ninety, but I live a good life and God helps me. I have
+  kept my fine hair and complexion and I run around on my little
+  errands quite comfortably. Indeed I am sunwise able for
+  everything I want. I shall be glad to hear from thee again, and if
+  thou wilt send me occasionally some of those delightful American
+  papers, thou wilt make me much thy debtor. Also, I want thee
+  to tell all the brave young Americans thou knows that if they
+  would like a real life on the ocean wave, they ought to join
+  our wonderful patrol round the English coast. They will learn
+  more and see more and feel more in a month, in this little
+  interfering navy, than they'd learn in a lifetime in a first-class
+  man-of-war.
+
+  Write to me again and then we shall have tied our friendship with
+  a three-fold letter. Thine, with all good will and wishes,
+
+  SUNNA VEDDER GRANT.
+
+This is a woman's letter and it must have a postscript. It is only two
+lines of John Stuart Blackie's, and it should have been at the
+beginning, but it will touch your heart at the end as well as at the
+beginning.
+
+  "Oh, for a breath of the great North Sea,
+  Girdling the mountains!"
+                                   S. V. G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber Notes
+
+Fixed probable typos.
+
+Hyphenation standardized.
+
+Archaic and variable spelling is preserved.
+
+Author's punctuation style is preserved, except quote marks, which
+have been standardized.
+
+Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An Orkney Maid, by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ORKNEY MAID ***
+
+***** This file should be named 29752.txt or 29752.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/5/29752/
+
+Produced by Katherine Ward and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+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.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.