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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Betty Grier, by Joseph Waugh
+
+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: Betty Grier
+
+Author: Joseph Waugh
+
+Illustrator: Henry W. Kerr
+
+Release Date: February 22, 2011 [EBook #35356]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY GRIER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dave Morgan, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             BETTY GRIER
+
+                        BY JOSEPH LAING WAUGH
+
+         Author of 'Robbie Doo,' 'Cracks wi' Robbie Doo,' &c.
+
+
+    WITH FRONTISPIECE BY
+    Henry W. Kerr, R.S.A.
+
+    LONDON: 38 Soho Square, W.
+    W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED
+    EDINBURGH: 339 High Street
+
+    Edinburgh:
+    Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited.
+
+    First printed, Nov. 1915.
+    Reprinted, Dec. 1915.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+BETTY GRIER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+When I look round my little bedroom and note the various familiar items
+that make up its furnishings, when my eye lights on much that I
+associate with the days o' Auld Langsyne, I am conscious of a feeling of
+homeliness, a sense of chumship with my surroundings, and I can scarcely
+realise that fourteen years have come and gone since last I laid my head
+on the pillow of this small truckle-bed.
+
+So far as I can recall the arrangement of its old-fashioned,
+ordinary-looking plenishings, everything remains exactly as I left it.
+My trout and salmon rods, all tied together--each cased in its own
+particular-coloured canvas--stand there in the corner beside an old
+out-of-date gaff and a capacious landing-net which that king of fishers,
+Clogger Eskdale, gifted to me when the 'rheumatics' prevented his ever
+again participating in his favourite sport. My worn leather school-bag,
+filled with the last batch of books I used, is still suspended from a
+four-inch nail driven into a 'dook' at the cheek of the mantelpiece. It
+is a long time ago, but it seems only yesterday since I stood in the
+middle of this room, unstrapping that bag from my shoulders for the last
+time. My schooldays were over; with eager, anxious feet I was standing
+on the threshold of a new life, and to satchel and lesson-book I was
+bidding farewell.
+
+I well remember Deacon Webster, at my mother's request, inserting that
+dook and driving home that nail; and he laughed unfeelingly when she
+explained to him the purpose it was to serve. The deacon could not
+understand the sentiment which prompted her to assign the bag a place
+upon the wall; and when, after the nail was secure, he made to hang my
+'boy's burden' upon it in much the same callous spirit in which he would
+screw the last nail in a coffin-lid, my mother stepped forward.
+
+'One moment, Webster,' she said. 'Allow me.' With her own hands she
+placed the bag where it hangs now. My old nurse, Betty Grier,
+straightened it and wiped it with her duster; and the deacon took a
+pinch of snuff, blew his nose in a big spotted handkerchief, and
+muttered _sotto voce_, as his nostrils quivered, 'Well, I'm d----!'
+
+Against the back wall, in the centre, between the door and the corner,
+stands the old black oak chest of drawers which for sixteen years held
+the whole outfit of my boyhood's days; while the mahogany looking-glass,
+with the grooved square standards and the swivel mirror, monopolises
+still, as it always has done, the whole top shelf thereof.
+
+To the left is a framed photograph of my father and mother, and to the
+right a rosewood-framed sampler, worked long ago by my grandmother, on
+which, in faded green, against a dull drab background, are still
+decipherable the words of Our Lord's Prayer. And there, between the
+fireplace and the window, is my book-rack, and from its shelves old
+friends look down upon me. The gilt titles are tarnished and worn, but I
+know each book by the place it occupies, and I feel that, even after the
+long, long years that have separated us, _Tom Brown_, _Robinson Crusoe_,
+and _David Copperfield_ will speak to me again, laugh with me, cry with
+me, as they did in days of yore.
+
+Often has Betty, I know, swept and tidied this little room. Every
+article has been lifted, dusted, and carefully returned to its place. I
+know with what feelings of reverence the dear old soul has fingered
+every ornament. I am conscious of the loving care she has exercised on
+all my old belongings, and somehow I feel consoled and comforted, my
+physical weakness depresses me less, my mother's presence seems nearer
+me, and unbidden tears of thankfulness come to my eyes and trickle from
+my cheek to my pillow.
+
+This has been to me a day of great events. I have travelled by rail from
+Edinburgh to Elvanfoot, thence by horse-carriage to Thornhill--during
+the last stage driven by Charlie Walker, the 'bus Jehu I envied in my
+schoolboy years, and tended by my fail-me-never Betty. To her also this
+has been a memorable day, for when we were driving down the Dalveen Pass
+she told me that never before had she seen a Caledonian train, and that
+her last memory of Traloss dated back to a Sabbath-school trip about the
+year 1868. Such a long ride in a well-sprung, well-upholstered carriage
+was also a novelty to her, a new experience which only with great
+difficulty I could persuade her to enjoy to the full. She insisted on
+sitting forward on the extreme edge of the seat, and it was only after I
+had told her that her uncomfortable-looking position made me uneasy and
+unhappy that she sat well back, till her shoulders rested on the
+cushion behind.
+
+Contrary to my expectations, I am suffering neither pain nor
+inconvenience from my long journey; and as I lie here in my little bed,
+looking through the curtained window to the long, low range of the
+Lowther Hills, and listening to the familiar sounds in the village
+street below, a blissful peace which I cannot express in words possesses
+me, my physical and my mental organisation seem to have undergone a
+change, my experience of city life is blotted out and forgotten, and,
+strangely enough, I feel myself, as of old, a unit of the village
+community. Queerer still, this placid acceptance of altered
+circumstances, this dovetailing into a different condition of life and
+living, seems to me so natural as to be hardly worth noting; and without
+a pang of regret I leave behind me urban pleasures and duties, and
+contemplate with equanimity retirement to this rural retreat, a
+twelvemonth's sojourn midst scenes to me for ever dear.
+
+Nor does the fact that this rustication is compulsory distress or annoy
+me. My physical weakness has reduced me to a state of indifference
+towards former pursuits. A long illness, following a deplorable
+accident, has impaired my appetite for social joys; so much so, indeed,
+that when my doctors--rather apologetically, I thought--informed me that
+if ever I wished to be well again I must give up my profession and town
+residence for twelve months at least, and live quietly somewhere in the
+country, I hailed their verdict with delight, and my yearning heart at
+once went out to my native village and the home of my old nurse, Betty
+Grier.
+
+Dear old Betty! To whom else could I turn? She is all--of the human
+element at least--I have left to me of my home life of long ago. My
+memories of my father are vague and hazy. I was only five when he died;
+and, through the misty veil of long-gone years, two pictures only of him
+are impressed upon my mind. In one I see him standing in the narrow
+whitewashed pantry, his head 'screeving' the ceiling, and his broad
+shoulders almost excluding the waning western light that glimmered
+through the small four-paned window. Betty, white-capped and
+white-aproned, is there also, with a large ashet in her hands, on which
+lies a long, thick silver fish--a salmon, as I afterwards learned--one
+of the many he lured from the depths of Mattha's Pool. My mother's arm
+is lovingly linked in his, and there is a pleased and happy expression
+on her face, which somehow is transmitted to me, because, with her, I
+feel proud of the great big man I call my daddy, who has battled so
+successfully with the strong-looking monster now lying so quiet, with
+gaping mouth, on Betty's ashet.
+
+Then there is a long, dark blank before the next picture appears, and I
+see him sitting in a big arm-chair at the dining-room fire. His back is
+cushioned, and a shepherd-tartan plaid is round his shoulders, the ends
+folded across his knees. My mother is writing letters to his dictation
+on a small bureau, which has been placed near his chair. I am playing
+with a Noah's Ark, marshalling the animals in pairs on the rug; and when
+my mother goes out of the room to the little office adjoining, I leave
+my toys and stand at his knee, looking up to a face which to me seems
+very white and pinched. A long, thin hand is placed on my curly head,
+and with difficulty he bends down and kisses me. I wonder who has been
+unkind to him, for I see a tear trickling down his cheek, and it falls
+unheeded on his plaid.
+
+I cannot focus him in my mind's eye in any subsequent event, though I
+remember perfectly the old doctor with the foxskin cap and the
+clattering clogs, and the smell of 'Kendal brown' he always left behind.
+Then a day came when the window-blinds were pulled down and all the
+rooms were darkened; when Betty's voice was, even to my childish ears,
+low and husky; when my mother cuddled me in a tight embrace, and a wet,
+wet cheek was laid against mine. Oh, how she trembled and sobbed! I felt
+bewildered and unhappy, and I remember putting my wee, helpless arms
+round her neck and asking her why she was crying. She told me that daddy
+had gone away--away to heaven; and when I asked if he wouldn't come back
+to us again, she said, 'No, no,' and her embrace tightened, and she wept
+afresh. In a short time the door was hesitatingly opened, and Betty came
+noiselessly in with a book in her hand which I had often seen her read.
+She stood behind my mother's chair with her tear-stained face turned
+away, and her red hand on my mother's shoulder; but she didn't speak.
+Then she came round, and, 'hunkering' down beside us, opened her book
+and in a low voice began to read.
+
+I often think it is strange how indelibly imprinted on some childish
+minds are little incidents of long ago--little glimpses of landscape,
+snatches of songs, details here and there of passing events. Not that I
+consider the foregoing a little incident. To me it was at the time of
+outstanding moment, and even yet in my retrospect of life it looms
+large and prominent; but, though I have often endeavoured to recall
+Betty's ministrations on this occasion, all I can remember is that when
+she came to the verse, 'I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to
+you,' she spoke the words without referring to her Bible, and she
+repeated them, the while looking with big, hopeful eyes up to my
+mother's face. And my mother smiled through her tears; and, stroking
+Betty's strong brown hair, she called her 'Betty the Comforter.'
+
+A time came in the short after years when she was, by the same dear
+lips, again called 'Betty the Comforter.' It was when my saintly mother
+was passing into the spiritland, and, without fear or trepidation, lay
+calmly awaiting her call. But of this I cannot speak; it is a subject
+sacred to Betty and to me.
+
+To-night, when I had undressed and was settling myself down for the
+night, Betty came upstairs, carrying that self-same Bible in her hand.
+She stood on the threshold for a minute, wiping its covers with the
+corners of her apron, though well she knew that from frequent use the
+Book required no dusting.
+
+'Maister Weelum,' she began, 'eh!--I'----
+
+'"William," Betty, please, without the "Mister,"' I said smilingly.
+
+'Yes! yes! so be it--imphm! Eh, this type is clear and big; and I was
+thinking that maybe ye micht want to read a verse or twae. I'll lay it
+doon here;' and she reverently placed the precious volume on the top of
+the chest of drawers.
+
+'Are ye a' richt noo? Ye said ye wanted to speak to me when ye got
+settled doon. Is there ocht else I can do for ye?'
+
+'I'm feeling fine, Betty,' I said cheerily, 'and not a bit the worse for
+my long journey, not too tired to have a quiet chat with you. So sit
+down, please, in the basket chair there, and give me ten minutes of your
+valuable time.'
+
+'Ten meenits! Certie, hear him noo! Ten meenits, an' the soo's no
+suppered yet, an' I've the morn's broth to prepare, an' wi' me bein' oot
+o' the hoose a' day there's a hunner an' ten things starin' me in the
+face to be dune. But what want ye to speak aboot? I daur say the soo,
+puir thing, will ha'e to wait, noo that you're here. Daylight, too, is
+haudin' lang, an' I'll sune mak' up the ten meenits. What want ye noo?'
+And she sat down, with a query in her eye, into the basket chair.
+
+'Well, Betty,' I began, 'you and I have gone over all the old times
+pretty thoroughly since we met to-day, and we've taken a peep into the
+future as well; but there's one subject We haven't touched upon, and
+before I go to sleep to-night I wish to come to some understanding with
+you regarding my board and lodgings.'
+
+'Board an' lodgings?' Betty queried. 'Board an'----What d'ye mean,
+Maister Weelum?' and her lip trembled.
+
+'Well, Betty, by board and lodgings I mean the price of my food and the
+rent of my room here, and whatever sum you'----
+
+'Weelum, stop at once noo; I'll no' ha'e that mentioned;' and she rose
+excitedly to her feet. 'I'll no' hear o't! The very idea o' speakin' to
+me--to me, abune a' fouk--o' board an' lodgings! A bonny-like subject
+that to discuss atween us! Dod, man, yin wad think that ye were a
+Moniaive mason workin' journeyman in Thornhill. Megstie me! Lovanenty!
+heard ye ever the like?--imphm! Mair than that, whae's the owner o' this
+hoose? Whae has refused rent for it a' these years, eh?'
+
+'Betty, Betty,' I feebly protested, 'that's not fair, and you know it.
+Did you and I not settle that matter long, long ago, and agree that it
+would never be referred to again?'
+
+Betty had suddenly assumed both the defensive and the aggressive. She
+had pulled her black-beaded muffettees up over her wrists, and flung
+her mutch-strings over her shoulders. I knew of old what these actions
+meant. She came up to my bedside, and in the fading light I saw a tear
+coursing down her cheek. 'Maister Weelum,' she said earnestly, 'I'm safe
+in sayin' that ye canna look back on a single phase o' your early life
+in which I didna tak' a pairt. Lang before this world was ony reality to
+ye, I nursed ye, fed ye, an' dressed ye. In thae early days the greatest
+pleasure to me on earth was to cuddle an' care for ye. But I needna tell
+ye o' that, ye ken yoursel'. Ye mind hoo much my presence meant to you;
+that I'm sure o'. As for your mother--weel, I never had ony ither
+mistress. She took me, a young lass, oot o' a most unhappy hame. It was
+a pleasure--ay, a privilege--to serve her. Weel, on that day that she
+was ta'en frae you an' me, she said in your hearin' an' mine, "Betty,
+this has been the only home you ever knew--never leave it. Promise me
+you'll accept it.--Willie, my son, you agree?" An' we baith knelt doon
+at her bedside, an' she went hame happy, kennin' I was provided for. I
+didna forget that on the nicht o' the funeral day you an' me talked it
+ower, that I promised to stay here, that it was arranged between us that
+rent wad never be spoken o', an' that my occupancy wad never be referred
+to. An', Maister Weelum, it wadna ha'e been noo, had you yoursel' no'
+talked to me aboot board an' lodgings. My he'rt will break, that will
+it, if ye persist'----
+
+For a time we were both silent, both busy with many sacred thoughts and
+memories. Then Betty, without looking into my face, 'stapped' the sheets
+round my shoulders and well round my sides. 'There noo,' she said at
+length, 'you're weel happit an' comfortable-lookin', an' sairly, I'm
+thinkin', in need o' the sleep an' rest which I trust this nicht will be
+yours. Guid-nicht noo;' and she patted me on the shoulder, as she used
+to do in the old days when she had put me to bed and was taking my
+candle away.
+
+'One moment, Betty,' I said promptly. 'Sit down here on the bed beside
+me, like the good soul you are, and listen to me.--Yes, you may raise my
+pillow a little. There now, that's better. Are you listening now?'
+
+She nodded and reseated herself, as I had requested.
+
+'I admit all you say, Betty, about your tenancy of the house, and I am
+sorry if what I have said has reopened a question which was settled so
+long ago to our mutual satisfaction. When this rest-cure was
+prescribed--when I was told that it was absolutely necessary I should
+take up my abode in the country--it was to you and to this room that my
+thoughts were at once directed. I wrote you I was coming--didn't even
+say by your leave--and planted myself, as it were, down on you, without
+inquiring whether or not it was agreeable and convenient to you. Now,
+believe me, Betty, I acted thus without a thought of your free tenancy
+of this my old home.'
+
+'I ken that fine, Weelum,' she quickly said, and she looked thoughtfully
+towards me.
+
+'Well, you see, Betty, if you won't allow me to contribute to my living
+here, you give me reason to assume that you consider you are in your own
+way working off an obligation; else why should I live on your--forgive
+the word, Betty--on your charity?'
+
+'But then, Maister Weelum, you forget that I'm sittin' here rent free.'
+
+'Now, Betty, there you go again. Was not that my mother's request?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Well, she imposed no obligation on you?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Then, Betty, none exists between us; and, in that case, if I remain
+here I must be allowed to contribute to the family expenses. Besides,
+Betty, it is not as if I were a poor man. Thank goodness! I can well
+afford it; for, between you and me and that bedpost against which you
+are leaning, I've made over a thousand pounds a year for these last four
+years.'
+
+'Lovanenty, Weelum, a--a thoosan' pounds!' and she held up her hands in
+astonishment. 'Bless my life, is that possible? I hope ye made it
+honestly, my boy?'
+
+'I certainly did,' I said glibly. 'I assure you, Betty, I made it
+honestly.'
+
+'Imphm, an' you a lawyer!' said she dryly. She smiled, and after some
+reflection began to laugh heartily.
+
+'Oh, come now, Betty, don't round on an old friend like that.' But Betty
+heard me not, for she was holding her sides and hotching with convulsive
+laughter.
+
+'Oh, Weelum! oh, my boy!' she said, between her kinks, 'it's no'
+you--it's no' you I'm lauchin' at. It's something that happened at the
+weekly prayer-meetin' in Mrs Shankland's last Wednesday nicht. D' ye
+mind o' Dauvid Tamson the draper?'
+
+I nodded in the affirmative.
+
+'Weel, as ye dootless ken, Dauvid has been a' his days a conceited,
+fussy, arguin' man, aye desperate honest and well-meanin', but terr'ble
+unreasonable and heidstrong, and he's never dune takin' to the law or
+consultin' his agent, as he ca's it. Weel, he was at the prayer-meetin'
+last Wednesday nicht, and, as it happened, it was his turn to officiate.
+After we had sung a psalm and engaged in a word o' prayer, he began to
+read the last pairt o' the fifth chapter o' Mattha, and when he cam' to
+the fortieth verse: "And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take
+away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also," Dauvid hovered a blink.
+Then he re-read it very slowly, and says he, "Freens, I've aye prided
+mysel' in my knowledge o' the Bible; but I'm forced to admit that this
+is the first time I ever noticed that there was evidence in Scripture o'
+oor Saviour havin' been ployin' wi' litigations and in the lawyers'
+hauns. I dinna ken hoo far He carrit His case, but if my experience was
+His, He need not have said _let_ him have thy cloak, for the hungry
+deevils wad ha'e ta'en it whether or no'."'
+
+I wonder, did Betty imagine that the recital of that story would divert
+my mind from the subject of our conversation and the purpose I had in
+view? Somehow I think, as an inspiration, the means to this end had
+suddenly occurred to her; but, if such was her aim, the hastily
+conceived plot failed.
+
+By a good deal of argument and a modicum of cajolery, I gained my point.
+What the terms are which we have arranged is Betty's concern and mine
+only. All I may say here is that the weekly amount has to be paid to
+Nathan, of whom more anon, and that the subject of pounds, shillings,
+and pence has never to be broached in her hearing again.
+
+She said 'Good-night' to me an hour ago. The impatient sounds of
+remonstrance from the soo-cruive at the head of the garden subsided
+shortly after she left me, from which I argued that the inner wants of
+the occupant had been attended to. The chop-chopping of vegetables on
+the kitchen table below ceased half-an-hour ago, and I know that a
+little at least of to-morrow's dinner has ceased to trouble Betty's
+anxious mind.
+
+The shades of night are gathering round me. A soft breeze stirs the
+branches of the lime-trees, and through my open window it fans my face
+where I lie. Somewhere away Rashbrigward, I hear the quivering yammer of
+a startled whaup, and the crooning lullaby of the whispering Nith falls
+like music on my ear. In the ryegrass field at the top of the
+Gallowsflat a wandering landrail, elusive and challenging, craiks his
+homeward way; while from Cample Strath or Closeburn Heights is fitfully
+wafted to me the warning bark of a farmer's dog. The clamp-clamp of a
+cadger's tired-out horse and the rattle of an empty cart sound loud and
+long in the deserted street. Hurrying footsteps echo and re-echo, and
+gradually die away into silence. Then evening's wings are folded o'er
+me, a blissful peace and a quiet contentment fill my heart, and under
+the glamour and spell of nature's benediction I turn my head on my
+grateful pillow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Nathan Hebron is Betty Grier's husband; or, rather, I should say, Betty
+Grier is Nathan Hebron's wife. This may possibly be considered a
+distinction without a difference; but when you have been introduced into
+the inner courts of these two worthies' acquaintance, you will somehow
+feel that the latter assertion is the more correct and appropriate.
+
+Nathan is a tall, loosely built man, with a fresh, healthy complexion,
+mild blue eyes, and a slightly hanging under-lip. For some considerable
+time he has been employed on what is locally known as 'the Duke's wark,'
+but in what particular capacity I cannot very well say. When first I
+knew him he was one of Archie Maxwell's employes in the nursery, and
+when our garden required professional attention it was always Nathan who
+was sent to do the necessary digging and titivating.
+
+Three or maybe four times a year he spent a few days at a stretch among
+our vegetables and fruit-trees; and I remember with what eager interest
+I used to anticipate his visits, for, though he was a man of few words,
+and from a story-telling standpoint had little to commend him to a boy,
+he carried a quiet, companionable atmosphere with him, and, as a more
+dominating recommendation, he was the possessor of one of the sharpest
+and most formidable-looking 'gullies' I had ever seen.
+
+How I envied him at pruning-time, when, with his easy, indifferent gait,
+he moved about among our rose-bushes with his keen hooked blade, and
+with one deft cut lopped off twigs and branches as if they were
+potato-suckers. Sometimes at my request he would lay his long gleaming
+weapon in the palm of my little hand, but he usually retained possession
+of it by a slight finger-and-thumb grip; and I always heaved a sigh of
+satisfaction, not unmixed with relief, when he lifted it, closed the
+blade with a click, and returned it to his sleeved-vest pocket.
+
+When Nathan was thus employed in our garden he always had dinner with
+Betty in the kitchen. Betty's forte in the culinary department was
+broth-making, and my mother used to say, with a smile, that when Nathan
+was her guest Betty always put her best foot foremost. Betty, with a
+blushing cheek, mildly repudiated the charge; and once, when in my
+presence my mother told Nathan of this, he blushed too, and to hide his
+confusion bent his head and tightened the trousers-straps under his
+knees.
+
+Broth, with boiled beef and potatoes to follow, as a rule constituted
+Betty's menu on these occasions, and there was always a 'word' between
+them when the beef was served, as Nathan insisted on retaining his
+soup-plate from which to eat it, and to this Betty strenuously objected.
+She declared 'it wasna the thing;' but he retorted that 'that was
+possible, but it was aye ae plate less to wash, and he liked the broth
+brae wi' the barley piles in it, as it moistened the tatties.'
+
+Immediately after his repast he retired to the stick-house; and there,
+seated on the chopping-log, he smoked his pipe in silence and meditation
+till the Auld Kirk clock chimed the hour of one.
+
+Betty was no vocalist; but on those days when Nathan worked in our
+garden she indulged much in what, out of gallantry towards her, I may
+call sweet sounds. She had only one song--it is her sole musical
+possession still--and during the years I spent far from the friends and
+scenes of my boyhood, as often as I heard the familiar strains of 'The
+Farmer's Boy,' Betty's timmer rendering came homely-like to my ear, and
+I saw a print-gowned, pensive-faced young woman subjecting newly washed
+delf to a vigorous rubbing, and watching through the kitchen window a
+big eident gardener turning over with gleaming spade the rich loamy
+garden soil.
+
+My mind harks back on these little scraps of memory as I sit here in my
+bedroom listening to Betty's ceaseless prattle and Nathan's monosyllabic
+responses. He is the same gaunt, silent Nathan, only much grayer, and
+his short beard, fringe-like, now covers a chin which once was
+clean-shaven and ruddy. He still wears leather straps on his workaday
+trousers; and, though I haven't seen it, I am confident the keen-bladed
+gully is somewhere about the recesses of his ample pockets. And he is
+Betty's 'man,' and Betty is his busy, careful wife, and as such they sit
+together in that kitchen taking their meals off that self-same table,
+and looking out on that same garden which long ago was the scene of his
+periodical labours.
+
+Sometimes of a morning I waken about five o'clock, and even thus early I
+hear Betty downstairs making preparations for Nathan's breakfast. I know
+full well from the different sounds how she is employed; and, in
+rotation, I note the 'ripein' oot' of the previous evening's fire, the
+filling of the kettle from the kitchen tap, the opening and closing of
+the corner cupboard door, and the clatter of cups, plates, and cutlery.
+Then the merry song of the boiling kettle, the clink of the frying-pan
+on the crooks, the sizzling of frying ham, the splutter of gravy-steeped
+eggs, and the drawing forward of white, well-scrubbed kitchen chairs.
+
+I know, too, when Nathan has finished his meal, as he always puts his
+empty cup and saucer with a 'clank' into his bread-plate, gives a hard
+throat 'hoast,' backs his chair away from the table, and says 'Imphm!
+juist so!' very contentedly and cheerily. Soon the appetising aroma of
+fried ham and eggs, which has been all the time in my nostrils, gives
+place to the more pungent smell of strong brown twist smoked through a
+clean clay pipe. This, however, is merely a whiff in passing, because
+Nathan 'stands not upon the order of his going,' and in clean-smelling
+corduroys and a cloud of fragrant pipe-reek he goes out into the early
+morning sunshine, closing the door with a lingering, hesitating turn of
+the handle, which, though gentle, seems loud and grating in the hush of
+the dawning day.
+
+How I wish I could walk with him these beautiful fresh sunny mornings
+along the Carronbrig road! I follow him, alas! in imagination only; and
+as he leaves the empty echoing street and passes under the leafy canopy
+of the Cundy Wood I feel the pure caller air on my brow, I listen to the
+hum of the bees in the limes, the sportive chatter of the sparrows in
+the bushes, the rich, full-throated melody of the blackbird and mavis
+from the wooded recesses of the Gillfoot--each feathered minstrel piping
+his own song in his own way, and all in unison singing their paeans of
+praise in their leafy, sun-kissed bowers. Gossamer-webs, silvered with
+countless pearls of dew, stretch their glistening threads from leaf to
+leaf, and cover the shady side of the hawthorn hedgerows as with a
+gray-meshed silken veil. From rank, dewy grass humble blue-bells raise
+their heads, and nod good-morning to white and blue-red stately
+foxgloves standing sentinel o'er scarred red-earth banks and tangled
+bramble thickets. Lowing cows, knee-deep in meadow grass and buttercups,
+with swishing tails and pawing forelegs, impatiently await the opening
+gate. And over all, on field and wood and hill and dale, lie the
+glorious rays of God's own sunshine, diffusing warmth and gladness, and
+filling nature anew with pulsing life.
+
+The road lies broad and white before me, and I see Nathan's tall, gaunt
+figure passing Longmire Mains, and I know the smell of the sweet
+American gean is in his nostrils, and his gardener's eye is on the
+fronded hart's-tongue ferns which here and there peep from the crevices
+of the lichen-covered dike; by Meadow Bank, where the purple bloom still
+crowns the spiked leaf branch of the rhododendron; on between the
+hollies and silver birches at Dabton; through the sleepy village of
+Carronbrig, where he is joined by moleskin-clad fellow-workers.
+
+Staff in hand and pipe in mouth, at that regulation pace which is well
+known as 'the Duke's step,' each wends his way through the green turf
+holm, across the Nith by the stepping-stones, under the shadow of the
+ruin-crowned Tibbers mound. As they near the scene of their daily darg,
+tobacco 'dottles' are paper-padded and made secure, pipes are deposited
+in sleeved-vest pockets, and where the white iron wicket clicks and
+admits them to the low-lying stretch of fairy garden plots and
+multi-coloured perfumed bowers I take my leave of them. God grant I may
+soon be able to see with the living eye, and feel with the nature-loving
+heart, the beauties and joys which now in imagination only are mine!
+
+By degrees, and at rare intervals, Betty has relieved her mind to me
+regarding Nathan. When I say 'relieved her mind,' I do not imply that
+there is anything in Nathan's conduct or any remissness in his mode of
+living which burdens Betty's thoughts. Far from it. Nathan is the best
+of husbands--appreciative, kind, steady, and considerate. His wages--to
+the uttermost farthing--are regularly given up to Betty's safe keeping.
+All his spare hours are devoted to the large garden, whose produce from
+January till December makes Betty's daily dinner of the bienest. Her
+slightest wish is a command which he obeys with cheerfulness and
+alacrity, and the quiet and composure of his presence is, I know, her
+secret pride and mainstay. Yet she seems to be ever apologising for his
+being about, and in speaking of him to me she invariably refers to him
+as 'Nathan, puir falla,' with just the slightest suggestion of
+commiseration in her tone.
+
+I wonder why this should be, and it is beginning to dawn upon me that
+Betty somehow imagines--wrongly, needless to say--that I look upon him
+as an intruder, something foreign to the element of our home-life of
+long ago; and, stranger still, I am conscious of that feeling in Nathan
+also. Though I have been resident here for over two weeks, and though he
+has cried upstairs to me every evening, he has only been twice in my
+room; and on both occasions he stood awkwardly at the door, holding on
+by the handle, and answering my questions with his head turned toward
+the landing. During the past week I have managed to limp my way
+downstairs, and on passing through the kitchen have stayed my steps to
+ca' the crack with him. But 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir,' 'Ay, ay; imphm!' have
+so far been the sum-total of his contribution to the conversation. Some
+day, however, I know Nathan will thaw; some day soon they will both know
+the high esteem in which I hold him. In due season he will rid himself
+of his backwardness and shyness, and I shall be glad, for his honest
+blue eye and his pleasing serenity appeal to me, and I feel I want a
+friend like Nathan Hebron.
+
+To-night, after she had cleared away the remains of my homely supper,
+Betty sat down with her knitting at my little attic window. I have two
+pots of flowering musk and a lovely pelargonium in full bloom on my
+sill, and under pretence of procuring Nathan's advice as to their
+culture and well-being I inquired of Betty if she would ask him to come
+upstairs.
+
+'Most certainly, Maister Weelum,' said she, with a pleasant nod; and she
+went out, returning a minute later with Nathan in her wake. I know he
+had been sitting in his easy-chair smoking in silence, with his
+stem-bonnet on and his shirt-sleeves rolled up, inactive, yet alert and
+ready to fulfil any of Betty's little behests; but at Betty's summons he
+had hastily donned a coat, and his head was bare.
+
+After leisurely examining my plants and drawling out a few disjointed
+directions, he turned to go downstairs; but I motioned him to a seat,
+and, rather reluctantly, I thought, he sat down. I urged him to join me
+in a smoke, and offered him a fill of my Edinburgh mixture; but he
+declined my pouch; and, taking out a deerskin spleuchan, he nipped a
+full inch of brown twist, teased it, rolled it in the palm of his rough,
+horny hand, and meditatively filled the bowl of his clay cutty.
+
+Betty noticed my little act of civility; but she plied her needles in
+silence till Nathan had struck a light and begun smoking.
+
+'Ay, Maister Weelum,' she said, as Nathan fitted the glowing bowl of his
+pipe with a perforated metal cover, 'thae fancy ready-cut tobaccos are
+no' much in the line o' oor Nathan, puir falla.'
+
+'Is that so? Well, every man to his own taste; but, Betty, excuse my
+asking so personal a question, why do you always refer to your goodman
+here as "Nathan, puir falla"?'
+
+Nathan looked surprisedly from me to Betty, and, after fumbling with his
+match-box, struck another light when there was no necessity to do so;
+while Betty laid her knitting on the table and thoughtfully pressed it
+out lengthwise with the palm of her open hand.
+
+'When ye mention it, noo, I daur say I div say "puir falla,"' she
+answered; 'but, though I say that, I dinna mean it in ony temporal
+sense, Maister Weelum. So far as this world is concerned, I've got the
+very best man that ever lived; but'----and she looked at Nathan as if in
+doubt how to proceed.
+
+Nathan blew pipe-reek most vigorously; then he turned round to me with a
+faint smile on his sober face, and he actually winked. 'She's--she's
+sterted again, Maister Weelum,' he said with a side-nod toward Betty.
+
+'Started what, Nathan?'
+
+'Oh, the auld subject--imphm!'
+
+'Ay,'--chimed in Betty, now sure of her opening, 'it's an auld subject,
+but it's ever a new yin, a' the same. "'Tis old, yet ever new," as the
+hymn-book has it. Ay, an' that _is_ true. As I said before, Maister
+Weelum, I've nae concern regairdin' Nathan's welfare in this world.
+We're promised only bread an' water, an' look hoo often he gets tea an'
+chops, an' on what we ha'e saved there's every chance o' that diet bein'
+continued as lang as he has teeth to chew wi'. But what o' the next
+world? As Tammas Fraser aince said when he was takin' the Book, "Ah,
+that's where the rub comes in!"' and she shook her head dolefully, as
+much as to say, 'Nathan, you're a gone corbie!'
+
+I looked from husband to wife in blank astonishment, not knowing what to
+say. I had always looked upon Betty as a deeply religious woman, a true
+disciple of the Great Master, but partaking more of the loving John than
+the assertive Peter; and, often as I had heard her say a word in season,
+I could not remember having listened to her expressing so pointedly her
+fears and convictions.
+
+She interpreted my thoughts aright; and after Nathan had, without
+necessity, sparked another match, and almost succeeded in turning toward
+us the full length and breadth of his long tankard back, she resumed.
+
+'Your mother was a guid woman, Maister Weelum, an' I ken that often,
+often, you were the burden o' her prayers. I never talked much on this
+subject to you, kennin' that you were her ain particular chairge, an'
+that her prayers, withoot my interference, wad be answered. But it's
+different in the case o' Nathan here. He belangs to me, an' me to him.
+My calling an' election 's sure, an' I juist canna bide the thocht o' us
+bein' separated at the lang hinner-en'. It's no' that he 's a bad
+man--far from it. Or it 's no' that he 's careless. I gi'e him credit
+for bein' concerned in his ain wey; but he juist saunters on through
+life, trustin' that things will somewey work oot a' richt, an' lettin'
+the want, if there 's ony, come in at the wab's end. Ay, an' for a man
+like him, that 's sae fond o' flo'ers an' dogs an' ither folks' weans,
+it simply passes my comprehension hoo it is that he 's sae indifferent
+to the greatest o' a' love an' the things that so closely concern his
+immortal soul's salvation. Nae wonder I say, "Nathan, puir falla."'
+
+Notwithstanding the gravity of the charge she had laid at Nathan's door,
+I felt relieved to know that my surmises regarding the cause of his
+attitude toward me were unfounded; and, with a note of encouragement in
+my voice, I hinted to Betty that, after all, it was possible she was
+unnecessarily worrying herself, as with two advocates like her and my
+mother it would surely be well with both Nathan and me.
+
+'Ah, Maister Weelum,' she said impressively, 'I ken fine that the
+prayers o' the just availeth much; but aye bear in mind--Nathan, are ye
+listenin'?--Ay--weel, bear in mind that every herrin' maun hing by its
+ain heid. Mind that, the twae o' ye noo.'
+
+This direct personal appeal rather discomposed me, and I didn't know
+what to say. As for Nathan, he rose slowly from his chair, and, turning
+round, he solemnly winked to me again. That wink somehow sealed a
+compact between us. It placed us on a common platform, and established a
+feeling of camaraderie which it would be hard for me to define.
+
+'Ay, Betty,' he said, as he raised himself to his full height, 'you're a
+wonderfu' woman--a wonderfu' woman!' and he yawned audibly; 'an' when it
+comes to gab wark on sic a subject as ye 've ta'en in haun', John Clerk
+the colporteur canna haud a cannel to ye. When ye stert on me like this
+I aye gi'e ye plenty o' rope, an' I never gi'e it a tug; but ye 've
+gi'en me a gey tatterin' afore Maister Weelum here, an' I wad just like
+to put in my yelp noo.'
+
+Betty gave him a surprised look, and I nodded and smiled encouragingly
+toward him.
+
+'I don't misdoot,' he continued, after he had loosened his cravat at his
+throat, 'that there 's some truth in a few o' your remarks; but, dod,
+lass, dinna forget that I'm tryin' my best.'
+
+'In what wey, Nathan?' she promptly asked.
+
+'Weel, let me consider noo. Ay, I don't think I ha'e missed a day at the
+kirk since we were mairret. That's ae thing, onywey. Then we tak' the
+Beuk regularly; an' forby that, Betty,' he said impressively, 'I was
+five times at the prayer-meetin's wi' ye last year, and'----
+
+'Prayer-meetin's!' said Betty; 'prayer-meetin's!' and she raised her
+voice. 'Nathan Hebron, I'm astonished ye ha'e the audacity to mention
+prayer-meetin's to me!'
+
+'Hoo that, Betty?' he gravely asked.
+
+'Hoo that? As if ye didna ken! My word, but that 's yin an' a half!--Do
+you know this Maister Weelum; I had to stop takin' him to to the
+prayer-meetin's, for he aye fell asleep. The last yin I took him to was
+at Mrs Kennedy's. Not only did he sleep, but he snored wi' his heid
+lyin' back an' his face to the ceilin'; an' when he waukened, it was in
+the middle o' a silent prayer, an' he glimmered an' blinked at the
+gaslicht, an' said he, wi' his een half-shut, "Betty, that 's rank
+wastery burnin' the gas when we 're in oor sleepin' bed." Ashamed? I was
+black affronted, Maister Weelum, an' among sae mony earnest folk, too.'
+
+Goodness knows, I hold no brief for Nathan, but I ventured to say on his
+behalf that, as he had been working in the open all day, and the room
+was quiet and warm, he was, in a way, to be excused if he unconsciously
+dovered.
+
+'Ay, that's a' very weel; but I notice he never dovers, as ye ca' it, at
+an Oddfellows' soiree.'
+
+Nathan had quietly slipped downstairs before she reached the end of her
+story, and in his absence she became confidential and communicative.
+
+'I somewey think he means weel, but the road to hell is paved wi' guid
+intentions. He's maybe the best specimen of the natural man that I ken
+o'; but wae's me, that's no' sufficient. The seeds o' carelessness were
+sown lang before I kenned him; an' tho' I maun alloo he has improved in
+my haun', I see wee bit touches noo an' than o' the he'rt at enmity
+which sometimes mak' me despair. For instance, the ither Sabbath-day nae
+faurer gane, he sat doon efter his denner wi' a book, an' he looked
+neither to left nor richt, but read on and on. "Nathan," says I, "what's
+the book you're sae intent on?" "Oh, Betty," says he glibly, weel
+kennin' that I didna gi'e in wi' orra readin' on the Lord's Day, "I've
+faun in wi' a splendid book the day. It's ca'ed Baxter's--eh--_Saunts'
+Everlastin' Rest_, an' it's the kind o' readin' I like." "Ay," says I,
+weel pleased wi' the soond o' the title, "read on at that, Nathan.
+Baxter's fu' o' rich refreshin' truths. Read slow noo, Nathan, an' tak'
+it a' in." Weel, he never put it oot o' his haun till bedtime, except
+when he was at his tea, an' then he slipped it into his coat-pocket; an'
+the next day, when he was away at his wark, I cam' on it stappit doon
+behin' the cushion o' his easy-chair; an' what think ye it was, Maister
+Weelum? Guess noo what it was.'
+
+'Baxter's _Saints' Everlasting Rest_, of course,' I said.
+
+'Weel,' said Betty, 'that was printed on the loose covers that had aince
+been the boards o' the holy volume o' that name; but the paper-covered
+book that was inside was _The Experiences o' an Edinburgh Detective_, by
+James MacGovan; an' d'ye ken this, Maister Weelum, I juist sat doon in
+the middle o' my wark an' grat my he'rt-fill.'
+
+Poor, dear Betty, she wept anew at the remembrance of Nathan's lapse,
+then rolled her knitting into her apron, and went downstairs into the
+kitchen. Ten minutes later, when I was having my last pipe for the
+night, I heard her voice raised in the Beuk, and she was reading, with a
+point and emphasis which I am sure Nathan could not misunderstand, the
+story from the Acts of Ananias and his wife Sapphira.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+I am as yet only on the threshold of my stay in Thornhill, and I am
+beginning my long vacation as I intend to end it. Dr Balfour's orders
+were short and to the point; and, in bidding a temporary farewell to
+professional work and preparing for a long holiday, I know I am
+following his instructions and furthering my own interests and future
+well-being. Time was when this enforced inaction would have been irksome
+indeed. I have always been alert mentally and physically; but since my
+accident I have been incapable of any prolonged mental effort, and I
+have welcomed the languor of this quiet retreat, which has possessed me
+and claimed me as its own. Betty's ministrations I feel I stand in need
+of; and Nathan's company, unresponsive and grudging though it be, is all
+I desire. Betty has no patience with useless, idling folks, for she is
+herself a bustler, and she talks contemptuously of the hangers-on who
+daily and nightly support our village corners. Once she told me they
+were troubled with a complaint called the 'guyfaul.' I had never heard
+the queer word before, and asked its meaning. 'An inclination for meat,
+but nane for wark,' she promptly replied; and as I lie abed these
+beautiful sunny forenoons I wonder if Betty considers that I also am
+afflicted with the 'guyfaul.'
+
+Correspondence of an official character is tabooed; but a day or two ago
+I received a long newsy letter from my partner, Murray Monteith, not one
+line of which had any reference to business. This morning I had a
+further communication, almost equally free from 'shop;' but in a
+footnote he remarks as follows: 'We had a call yesterday from our client
+the Hon. Mrs Stuart, and in course of conversation she informed me that
+she had leased a house in the vicinity of Thornhill, and that her niece,
+the late General Stuart's daughter, was staying with her over the
+autumn. I was strongly tempted to tell her you were at present resident
+in that village, but refrained, knowing it would be unwise of you in the
+present circumstances to occupy yourself with her affairs. Our inability
+to find a will or to trace the record of the General's marriage troubles
+her very much.'
+
+This postscript set me a-thinking, and I lay long pondering obscure
+points in a case which had worried and perplexed every one concerned.
+Not only was the good name of the Stuart family involved; but, in the
+absence of proof, the General's daughter must be--well, nameless, and
+the estate must pass to another branch of the family.
+
+So absorbed was I in my train of reflection that I failed to note
+Betty's entrance with my breakfast-tray. A short cough and the clatter
+of china recalled my wandering thoughts, and I began a rather disjointed
+apology. Holding up my firm's letter with the familiar light-blue
+envelope, I laughingly said, 'Blame this, Betty, and forgive my
+inattention.'
+
+'Hoots, ay,' said Betty, 'it's a' richt; but ye maunna pucker your broo
+an' worry your brain. Deil tak' thae lang blue letters, onywey! Nane o'
+them that ever I got spelt weel to me; an' when Milligan the postman
+handed this yin in this mornin', an' when I thocht o' taxes an' sic
+fash, I was sairly tempted to back the fire wi' it. Imphm! that's so,
+noo. Eh! by the by, the doctor's Mary looked in on the bygaun, an' she
+tells me Dr Grierson will likely be doon to see ye the day. He has had a
+letter frae a Dr Balfour o' Edinbro, tellin' him a' aboot ye, an' askin'
+him to keep his eye on ye. Imphm! Ay, an', Maister Weelum, ye didna tell
+me that ye lay a week in the infirmary insensible.'
+
+'No, Betty,' I said, 'I dare say I didn't; but--well, the fact is I
+didn't wish to worry you with details or'----
+
+'Ay, an' naether did ye tell me it was to save your wee dog's life ye
+gaed back into the burnin' hoose,' she said in the same inquisitive
+tone. I stirred my coffee vigorously, but said nothing. 'An' is it the
+case that the stair fell in when ye were on the middle o't, an' that the
+wee dog was foun' deid in your airms?'
+
+'That is so, Betty,' I said sadly.
+
+Betty was silent for a minute, and she fumbled aimlessly with the corner
+of her apron. 'Lovan,' she said at length, 'it has been a mair terrible
+affair than I had ony thocht o'. The heid an' the spine are kittle to
+get hurt, but it's a guid's blessin' ye werena burnt beyond recognition.
+Efter siccan an experience it's a wonder ye didna relieve your mind to
+me regairdin' it lang ere noo. Naebody in this world wad ha'e been mair
+interested or sympathetic. What wey did ye no'?'
+
+Her concern and loving interest were unmistakable; but from the tone of
+her questionings I opined she was smarting under the sense of a slight,
+real or imagined, and I hastened to reassure her. 'My dear Betty,' I
+said, 'believe me I had no motive in withholding such news other than
+that of saving your feelings. At one time I was minded to tell you all
+about it; but when you met me at Elvanfoot I noted at a glance the
+pained, surprised look on your face, and I at once decided not to say
+more than was absolutely necessary. Besides, Betty, everything happened
+so quickly that I can scarcely remember the details.' In a few words I
+described what had taken place. 'And now, Betty,' I concluded, 'let us
+change the subject. Even now the recollection of my experience is like a
+nightmare, and I would rather not speak of it.'
+
+'Imphm!' said Betty abstractedly; 'that I daur say is no' to be wondered
+at. I'm sorry if my curiosity has been the means o' bringin' it a' back
+again; but, oh man, Maister Weelum, it gaed sair against the grain to
+hear o' a' this frae fremit lips. The doctor's Mary has a' the
+particulars at her tongue-tap, an' she gaed through it this mornin' like
+A B C. I could see she was under the impression that I kenned a' aboot
+it, an' I didna seek to disabuse her mind on that, but juist said,
+"Imphm! that is so, Mary--what ye say is true;" and she left my doorstep
+thinkin' I was farer ben in your confidences than I am. But that's a'
+richt, Maister Weelum. I respect your motives, an' I understaun exactly
+hoo ye were placed. But, oh, my boy! in ocht that may in the future
+distress ye dinna leave Betty oot, an' dinna forget that her he'rt is
+big eneuch to haud your sorrows as weel as her ain. Wheesht! Is that the
+ooter door openin'? It is; an', dod, that's Dr Grierson's cheepin' buits
+on the lobby flaer, an' me no' snodit yet. He's an awfu' dingle-doozie
+in the mornin', is the doctor.'
+
+Moistening the tips of her fingers on her lip and keeking into my little
+oval looking-glass, she deftly arranged a stray lock of gray-black hair
+under the neatly goffered border of her white morning-mutch.' Juist a
+word wi' ye, Maister Weelum, before I gang doon. Are ye quite agreeable
+that Dr Grierson should veesit ye? He's an auld freen o' your Edinbro
+doctor, an' that's hoo he cam' to be written to, so the doctor's Mary
+tells me.'
+
+'Oh, I'm quite agreeable, Betty--delighted, indeed,' I replied.
+
+'Eh--ay--imphm! An' ye've nae feelin' on that point?'
+
+'Most assuredly not,' I said. 'But why do you ask?'
+
+She tiptoed across the floor and half-closed the door.
+
+'That's him rappin' wi' his stick on the kitchen flaer,' she said in a
+whisper. 'An' tell me this; did the mistress--your mother, I mean--ever
+say ocht to ye aboot the doctor an'--an' ony o' her ain folks?'
+
+'Not that I remember of'
+
+'Ay, aweel, that's a' richt. When he comes up, dinna refer to my
+speirin' ye this;' and she hurriedly left me and went downstairs.
+
+Thornhill has never been without its Gideon Gray. Had Dr John Brown been
+acquainted with its record in this particular respect he could have
+added to that remarkable chapter of his _Horoe Subsecivoe_ the names
+of not a few medical benefactors, the memory of whose services is yet
+fragrant in our midst. Scattered here and there in many a quiet country
+kirkyard are the graves of heroes of science who in their day
+ungrudgingly gave of their very best, faithfully ministering to the
+wants of the poor and needy without thought of fee or reward; men of
+ability, intellect, tact, and courage of heart, whose life-work lay in
+the sequestered bypaths, and whose names were unknown outside the glen
+they called their home. Of such was Dr Grierson; and as he stood by my
+bedside the thought momentarily flashed through my mind, would that he
+had been limned by Scott or by the creator of Rab and Ailie!
+
+A little over medium height; wiry, spare, and alert; broad shoulders
+slightly stooped; long dark hair streaked with gray, without a parting,
+brushed straight back from his forehead and hanging in clustering locks
+above his stock; his face serious almost, yet not void of humour, and
+lit up by kindly, blue, thoughtful eyes; a presence cheering and
+reassuring, and a bearing which bespoke the scholar and the gentleman.
+His clothes were of rough gray homespun, badly fitted and carelessly
+worn. A thin shepherd-tartan plaid, arranged herdwise, hung from his
+shoulder, and he held in his hand a round soft hat, gray-green from
+exposure to summer sun and winter rains. Such was the man who stood by
+my bedside--a Gideon Gray indeed--strong of purpose, keenly observant;
+shy, yet not suspicious; revelling in his power of doing good; inured to
+cold and privation; buoyant and hopeful in the face of difficulties;
+daily in close and loving communion with all nature around him; and girt
+about with truthfulness and integrity as with a cloak. Though I had
+never before been in his presence, I hailed him within my heart as a
+true and honoured friend.
+
+He shook hands without saying good-morning, and seated himself on a
+chair at the foot of my bed. Betty, who had preceded him upstairs, and
+announced him, walked across the room, took up a position at the gable
+window, and feigned an interest in our grocer neighbour's back-yard. He
+looked at me pointedly and earnestly, the while stroking his long
+straggling beard, and then, half-turning his head toward Betty, he said
+with a low, little laugh, and with a pronounced yet euphonious 'burr,'
+'Our young friend, Betty, is more of a Kennedy than a Russell.'
+
+'Ay, doctor, that he is,' said Betty, without taking her eyes from the
+window. 'He aye took efter his mither's folk. When he was a bairn o'
+three he was the very spit o' his aunt Marget. Not that I ha'e ony
+recollection o' her, but that's what I mind the mistress used to say.'
+
+'He's like her yet,' the doctor promptly added.--'And in saying so I can
+pay no higher compliment to you, my young man.'
+
+'I've heard it said, doctor, that ye kenned the Kennedys aince on a
+time,' said Betty, and she changed the position of a pot of musk on the
+window-sill.
+
+He looked quickly and questioningly at Betty; but she was busying
+herself with the flowers, the while humming, timmer-tuned as usual, the
+opening lines of 'The Farmer's Boy.'
+
+Then he looked from her to me, slowly and deliberately crossed his legs,
+and, putting his long, thin hands lengthwise on his knee, he said, more
+to himself than to Betty, 'Yes, yes, I, as you say, once knew them
+well.'
+
+'Ye wad ken Miss Marget, then?' asked Betty after a pause.
+
+To me Betty's questioning was an enigma; but I wasn't slow to notice it
+was distinctly disconcerting to the doctor, who quickly changed his
+position and sat with his back to the light.
+
+'Miss Marget and I were very, very dear friends,' he said, 'very dear
+friends, a long, long time ago;' and he abstractedly traced with the tip
+of his finger an irregular circle round the brim of his old soft hat.
+
+Betty with a flick of her apron removed imaginary dust from the
+window-sill, and then, coming up to the doctor, she laid her hand on the
+back of his chair. 'In that case, then, doctor,' she earnestly said,
+'for her sake, for Miss Marget's sake, ye'll do your best for her
+nephew, for it breaks my he'rt to see him lyin' there amaist as helpless
+as a bairn.' And she hurriedly left the room, and I don't know for
+certain, but I think she was crying.
+
+The doctor rose, quietly closed the door, and resumed his seat.
+
+'Betty has undoubtedly your welfare at heart, Mr Russell,' he said.
+'Unconsciously, or maybe consciously, she has awakened many memories of
+the long ago--memories of times and people that are with me now only in
+dreams. Ay, ay;' and he passed his hand slowly adown his face. 'But this
+is not getting on with my work,' he said, after a pause.
+
+Putting his hand in his coat pocket, he brought out, not a handkerchief,
+as he had intended or as I expected, but a rather sickly-looking
+hart's-tongue fern, the root of which was carefully wrapped in a piece
+of newspaper and tied with a bootlace.
+
+'Well, well!' he said reproachfully, turning it over in his hand, 'that
+is indeed stupid of me. I ought to have planted this immediately on my
+arrival this morning; but fortunately I was careful to take sufficient
+soil with it, and maybe it is not yet too late.'
+
+'Have you been from home, doctor?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, only for twelve hours,' he said, returning the plant to his pocket.
+'I was on the point of going to bed last night, when the Benthead
+shepherd called me out to attend his wife. He was driving an old nag I
+knew well, a Mitchelslacks pensioner--willing enough, you may be sure,
+or he wouldn't have been owned by a Harkness, but long past his best;
+so, in order to be as soon as possible beside my patient, I quickly
+saddled my own mare, and was trotting down the Gashouse Brae when the
+kirk clock was striking eleven. I passed the old nag near Laught; but
+unfortunately at Camplemill Daisy cast a shoe; so, rather than trouble
+the smith at such an untimely hour, I put her into his stable, the door
+of which was unlocked, waited the upcoming of the shepherd, and drove
+the rest of the journey with him in his spring-cart. After sitting for
+an hour or two at a smoky peat fire, reading by the aid of a guttering
+tallow-candle a back-number of the _Agricultural Gazette_, I was called
+to work, and very soon added another arrow--the tenth--to the shepherd's
+quiver. When everything was "a' bye," as we say locally, Benthead kindly
+offered to drive me down to the mill; but, as the early morning was so
+delightfully fine, and nature outside so pleading and inviting, I took
+to the moor on "Shanks' naigie." Ah, the delight of that moorland walk!
+the exhilarating air of the uplands! Why, man, it was like quaffing
+wine, and the cobwebs--warp and woof of the sleepless hours--were
+charmed away as if by magic. The sun was just peeping over the crest of
+Bellybucht, and his rays were lying lovingly athwart the budding
+heather and the silver mist-wreathed bents. Bracken and juniper,
+blaeberry and crowberry; dewdrops here, dewdrops there, sparkling and
+shimmering; tiny springs of crystal water oozing out from whinstone
+chinks, gurgling and trickling down pebbled ruts, seen awhile, then
+unseen, lost in spongy moss and tangled seggs. Overhead the morning song
+of the gladsome lark; to my right the _wheep_ of the snipe and the quack
+of a startled duck; to my left the _yittering_ of the curlew and the
+_chirrup_ of the flitting, restless cheeper; and over all the spirit of
+the wild which isolates and draws within her mantle-folds all those who
+cuddle close to Nature's breast. Ah, what a morning! what a scene! Hat
+in hand I walked, with my head bared to the throbbing air and the
+glorious sunshine. "Surely, surely," I said to myself, "it is good for
+me to be here;" and with a sense of thankfulness in my heart, and
+turning my face to the shadowy Lowthers, I sang with the Psalmist, "I to
+the hills will lift mine eyes."
+
+'I struck the Crichope about six o'clock; wandered leisurely down the
+linn; pulled this hart's-tongue fern, and a few more which I must have
+lost; picked up this fossil--part of a frog, I think--which will make a
+welcome addition to my collection.' He hesitated for a moment, with
+half-closed eyes and his chin resting on his folded stock. Then he
+suddenly looked toward me and asked, 'Have you ever walked down Crichope
+alone?'
+
+'No, not alone,' I replied.
+
+'Then Crichope has never spoken to you. You have never heard its
+message. To me, this morning, it was the mouthpiece of the Creator--the
+great Architect; _for I was alone_. With those who love and admire His
+handiwork He is ever in communion, and He speaks in the rustle of the
+leaf, the tinkle of the stream, the whisper of the grass, and the echo
+of the linn. But you must be alone, humble, reverent, stripped to the
+pelt, as it were, of everything sordid, boastful, and vainglorious; and
+then that old ravine will be a sanctuary where in its solitude you will
+find solace, comfort in its caverns, food for reflection in its story
+and traditions.'
+
+Again he paused, and I lay with eager eyes fixed on his animated face.
+Betty's cat, with arched back and long tail, brushed slowly past his
+knee. With an ingratiating 'Pussy, puss,' he stroked her fur.
+
+'About half-past seven,' he continued, 'I reached the smithy, had a cup
+of tea with Smith Martin and his wife, got Daisy's shoe made siccar,
+and was mounting for home, when news was brought from Dresserland that a
+farm-worker had fallen from his cart and broken his leg. Off Daisy and I
+trotted up the brae. But, tut! tut! why should I waste my precious time,
+and weary and fatigue you to boot, by detailing all my morning round?'
+
+'Oh, doctor, don't stop!' I pleaded. 'I know and love that whole
+countryside, and a talk with you is like a walk in the open. Indeed, my
+limbs twitched as you strode along, and I felt as if I were keeping step
+with you.'
+
+'Ay, your limbs twitched, did they? That's a good sign.'
+
+'A sign of my appreciation of your love of nature and poetry of
+language, doctor?' I asked.
+
+'No, no; something far more important than appreciation. But this is not
+business. I know you will be anxious to learn in how far Dr Balfour and
+I agree, so let me have a look at that damaged spine of yours.'
+
+Betty tells me that she's 'feart the doctor's a careless, godless man,
+for he never enters a kirk door.' I could have told her that he had
+attended church that morning, and that he had had communion with God and
+a glimpse of heaven which would have been an unknown experience and an
+unfamiliar sight to many who occupy a church pew every Sunday; but Betty
+wouldn't have understood--nay, wouldn't have believed me--and I was
+silent.
+
+His visit has cheered and encouraged me, and his conversation has made
+me proud of his acquaintance. He is to call on me again in a few days;
+and meanwhile I have to take more exercise; so with the aid of a
+friendly hazel I shall have a daily 'daunder' and an opportunity of
+renewing my acquaintance with Douglas the barber in his wee back-room,
+John Sterling the shoemaker at his souter's stool, and Deacon Webster at
+his tool-laden bench.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Tom Jardine the grocer--Betty's next-door neighbour--will be thirty-four
+years old on the 23rd of January next. He is to a day exactly four years
+my senior. I remember it was when his mother and Betty were putting out
+clothes together in the back-green that I, a boy of five, heard for the
+first time that we had a birthday in common.
+
+To me the fact vested Tom with a special interest. I looked upon him in
+more than a mere neighbourly spirit. Though we were rarely associated in
+our boys' games, we often casually met about the doors or had disjointed
+conversations through the garden hedge; and on these occasions the
+desire was always strong within me to talk of our birthday, and to ask
+if he wasn't wearying for the 23rd to come round. And when that
+auspicious date was ushered in, and my birthday-cake, in all its
+white-iced glory, was ceremoniously placed before me at table, I used to
+wonder if Tom had one also, and if he, like me, had the honour of
+cutting and distributing it.
+
+On looking back, I cannot remember when the Jardines were not our
+neighbours. Long ago Robert Jardine, Tom's father, was a tenant of ours,
+and twice a year, at the Martinmas and Whitsunday terms, he called upon
+us; and when the rent had been paid and sundry repairs and alterations
+agreed upon, he and my father drank a glass of wine together. It had,
+however, long been the height of Robert's ambition to be the owner of
+his own roof-tree. Times then being good, he soon saved the amount
+necessary to effect a purchase; and after many calls and conferences,
+terms were ultimately arranged to the satisfaction of both vender and
+buyer.
+
+Tom was the youngest of a large family, the other members of which had
+all emigrated; and when Robert Jardine died--his wife had predeceased
+him by a few years--there was no one else to look after affairs. Tom at
+once gave up a responsible position in a wholesale grocery establishment
+in Glasgow, came south with a wife and three young children, and took
+over what I now understand every Thornhill villager believed to be a
+dying, if not an altogether dead, concern.
+
+All these changes had taken place in my absence during these past
+fourteen years; but it was nevertheless pleasing to me to know from
+Betty, shortly after my return, that as neighbours the family was still
+represented, the more so as the representative in question was none
+other than my old friend Tom.
+
+In describing my attic room I omitted to say that it has a little,
+round, gable window through which, from my fireside chair, I can look
+down upon the Jardines' back-yard. Long ago I used to sit here and watch
+old Robert grooming his horse, cleaning his harness, and packing his
+long-bodied spring-cart with bags of flour or meal, and grocery parcels
+of tea and sugar, for distribution on his long cadger rounds.
+
+During the past few weeks my interest has often been centred on his son
+similarly employed. Tom sings and whistles cheery tunes as he works, and
+his iron-shod clogs make a merry clatter on the stone-paved court. His
+wife and the two eldest children--blue-eyed, curly-haired bairns they
+are--give him willing help, and, standing in his cart or on a chair
+placed beside the wheel, he cheerily receives and checks off in a
+weather-beaten note-book the various articles for his country clients.
+
+Like Nathan, Tom is no lie-abed in the morning. Of necessity he must be
+up betimes, for his journeys are often long and his days are always too
+short. When Betty is preparing the early breakfast I hear Tom's ringing
+footstep outside, the taming of the key in the stable-door lock, and the
+anticipating whinny of the gray mare. Then a horse-pail is filled from
+the tap at the stable-door; a minute later it is returned empty and
+deposited outside; the lid of the corn-bin, which has been poised on its
+creaky hinges, descends with a bang, and I know that his faithful
+dappled friend has her nose buried in countless piles of sweet-smelling
+corn.
+
+Betty is not an inquisitive woman, nor does she interest herself in a
+meddling way in her neighbours' concerns; yet her big, kindly heart and
+her never-failing sympathetic nature invite many confidences, and she is
+therefore more fully versed in what I might call the inward life of
+those around her than many of a more zealously prying and newsvending
+disposition.
+
+We were talking one day about the Jardines of a past generation, and our
+conversation naturally turned to Tom. I commended him for his industry,
+for his sobriety, and for the undivided attention he gave to his
+business, and finished up by asking if he was a successful man. Betty
+made no reply; but she shook her head doubtfully, from which I argued
+that it was not all sunshine and whistling and singing with our young
+grocer neighbour; and as she showed no desire to continue the
+conversation, I allowed the matter to drop.
+
+After tea, however, she reverted to the subject, and reopened our chat
+by asking if it was usual in business for a son to take over his dead
+father's debts.
+
+In my short professional career I remembered one such case, in which I
+was interested, but only one, and I told her of it. I didn't go into
+details, but gave her the bald outstanding points; and after I had
+finished she said, 'Ay, and that's the only case ye ever heard o'?'
+
+'Yes, that is so, Betty,' I replied.
+
+She was standing at the round gable window, vacantly looking down into
+our neighbour's back-yard. Then I saw her eyebrows begin to pucker, and
+I knew there was something on her mind.
+
+'Maister Weelum,' she said at length, 'I've nae concern in the ongauns
+o' the folks aboot me, an' I never talk aboot them. But ye asked me
+regairdin' Tom Jardine, an' I'm no' betrayin' ony confidences when I
+tell ye that young Tom took ower his dead faither's debts, so that will
+be twae cases ye ken o'.'
+
+'Tom Jardine!' I said with surprise. 'Surely Robert Jardine wasn't in
+debt when he died?'
+
+'That he was, Maister Weelum--the mair's the pity. Ye see, for a lang
+time--I micht say for at least five years afore he died--he wasna able
+to gang his roons; in fact, he was barely able to stand ahint the
+coonter. Younger an' mair active competitors took up the same gr'und;
+an' what wi' failin' trade, increasin' competition, an' cuttin' prices,
+there wasna a livin' in it. Then his wife had a lang, lingerin' illness,
+an' when she slippit away he kind o' lost he'rt. I was often wae for
+him, puir man, an' I did a' I could for him in my ain sma' wey. Except
+to yin or twae he keepit a smilin' face, though, aye wrote cheerily to
+Tom, an' gaed to kirk an' market as lang as he was able wi' his heid in
+the air; but, losh me! when his time cam' it was nae surprise to me an'
+yin or twae mair that the whole affair--shop, hoose, an' business--didna
+show much mair than ten shillin's in the pound. Tom--him that's doon
+there noo--was in a guid wey o' doin' in Glesca, an' nothing wad ser'
+him but he bood come hame an' tak' things in haun. He was strongly
+advised to have nothing to do wi' it, an' to let the creditors handle
+what was left as best it was likely to pay them. But Tom said, "No." All
+he asked frae the creditors was time an' secrecy as far as was possible
+as to how things stood, an' frae the Almighty health an' strength, an',
+given these, he promised to clear his dead faither's name an' see every
+yin get his ain. That's three years ago past the May term, an', honour
+an' praise to the puir laddie, he's nearly succeeded. But it has been a
+terrible struggle for him; an' had it no' been for his determination,
+his sobriety, his pride in his faither's guid name, an' abune a' the
+help o' a lovin' wife wha's a perfect mother in Israel, he wad ha'e
+gi'en it up lang or noo as an impossible, thankless job. Nathan and me
+lent his faither sixty pounds. We had nae writin' to speak o', only his
+signed name. I showed the paper to Tom shortly efter he had settled doon
+here, an' instead o' questionin' it he thanked us for our kindness an
+promised to pay it back in the same proportion as the ithers. Up to noo
+we've got back thirty pounds. I was in his shop the ither day, an' he
+said he thocht he wad be able to gi'e's anither ten pounds at the
+November term. What think ye o' that noo, Maister Weelum?'
+
+'I think your neighbour is a splendid fellow, Betty, and I would like to
+shake hands with him. Have you the paper beside you on which his
+father's name appears for sixty pounds?'
+
+'Ay, that I have,' said Betty. She went downstairs, and returned a
+minute later with a sheet of notepaper.
+
+I glanced at the unstamped promise, and smiled. 'Betty,' I said
+seriously, 'are you aware this is not worth the paper it is written on?'
+
+'Ay, perfectly,' she said with unconcern.
+
+'How did you find that out?' I inquired.
+
+'Oh, when I showed it to Tom Jardine he used exactly the same words as
+you did; but, said he, "My faither signed that. I have every confidence
+in you an' Nathan. My faither an' mither thought the world o' ye, an'
+wi' my assurance that ye'll be paid back, I tender you my best thanks
+for your kindness in time o' need."'
+
+Betty folded up her worthless document and put it in the breast of her
+gown. 'An honest man like Tom Jardine makes up for a lot o' worthless
+yins, Maister Weelum,' she said as she lifted her tea-tray; and I looked
+through the wee round window to Tom's back-yard with an increased
+appreciation of the coatless and hatless grocer, who was sitting down on
+an empty soap-box with a long needle and a roset-end, mending his old
+gray mare's collar.
+
+It has rained continuously for three days, and according to Nathan
+something has gone very far wrong, as St Swithin's Day from early morn
+to dewy eve was cloudless and fair, and accordingly we had every right
+to anticipate forty days of dry, fine weather.
+
+Harvest is early with us this year. The corn, which was waving green
+when Betty and I drove south from Elvanfoot, is already studding the
+fields in regular rows of yellow stooks, and but for this break in the
+weather it would even now be on its way to the stackyard in groaning,
+creaking carts. The Newton pippins on the apple-tree at the foot of the
+garden are showing a bright red cheek, and the phloxes and gladioli in
+the plot at the kitchen window are crowned with a mass of bloom so rich
+and luxuriant that every one of Betty's cooking utensils reflects their
+colourings and appears to be blushing rosy-red. During these past three
+days I have missed Tom's cheery song, and I am beginning to wonder if
+the gloomy weather has chilled his lightsome heart and silenced the
+chords of his tuneful throat.
+
+Time was when I loved to be abroad on a rainy day, whether as an
+unprotected boy fishing away up Capel Linn and Cample Cleugh, with the
+rain dribbling down the neckband of my shirt and oozing through the
+lace-holes of my boots, or as a man with waterproof and hazel staff,
+breasting the scarred side of Caerketton or the grassy slopes of
+Allermuir, with the pelting, pitiless raindrops blinding my eyes and
+stinging my cheek, and the vivid fire of heaven lighting up Halkerside
+and momentarily showing the short zigzag course of that 'nameless
+trickle' whose rippling music the Wizard of Swanston loved.
+
+How I enjoyed these Pentland rambles, alone in the rain and the soughing
+winds! Underfoot, the dank, sodden grass and the broken fern; overhead,
+the sombre sky, the scurrying clouds, and the drifting mist; on every
+side the grassy mounds of the Dunty Knowes, with their shivering birks
+tossing to windward, and a rain-soaked hogg beneath every sheltering
+crag. Alone, yet not alone; for a Presence was with me, guiding me on,
+showing me through the gathering gloom the sun-bathed crown of
+Allermuir, bringing to my ear from out the rage of the storm the wail of
+the curlew, and summoning to my side the plaided shepherd 'Honest John'
+and his gray, rough-coated collie Swag.
+
+Ah, these are memories only! memories only! for Cample Cleugh and Capel
+Linn are lost to me with my boyhood. No more am I the strong,
+able-bodied lover of the open, moving with firm, sure step among scenes
+which a master's touch has made immortal; but a poor, crippled,
+pain-racked invalid, as parochial in feeling as in outlook, sitting in
+an easy-chair by an attic fire, watching through a rain-washed
+window-pane a scene which fills me with forebodings and touches my heart
+to the very quick.
+
+Down there in the courtyard, where the water in the imperfect pavement
+is lying in muddy pools, Tom Jardine, hatless, coatless, and regardless
+of the splashing rain, is walking to and fro like a lion in his cage.
+His face is set and white, his finger-tips clenched in the palm of his
+hand, and there is an anxious, troubled expression in his eye which
+recalls memories of unfortunate, harassed clients. For a moment he
+stands with feet apart and eyes dolefully fixed on the wet, sloppy
+flagstones. A door quietly opens, a tiny, smiling-faced figure darts
+through the rain, and in an instant two round, bare, chubby arms are
+encircling his knee, and a fair, curly head is nestling against his
+thigh. But there is no fatherly response to the loving embrace, no reply
+to the childish prattle. With a jerky wrench Tom frees himself from the
+wee, cuddling arms, and two wide-opened, surprised blue eyes follow him
+as again, in thoughtful measured tread, he walks up and down and up and
+down. Then red dimpled knuckles are pressed into these blue eyes, a sob
+breaks from a wounded little heart, and Tom comes to a sudden halt. In
+an instant his clouded face is wreathed in smiles and beams with loving
+solicitude. Bending down, he lifts the sobbing morsel; and as he
+disappears through the kitchen doorway with the precious burden in his
+strong arms and his hungry lips pressed against a soft red cheek, I say
+to myself, with a heavy, welling heart, 'Tom, you surely have your
+troubles, but as surely you have the antidote.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Of late I have noticed that Betty, in the course of our frequent cracks,
+has with considerable tact and adroitness turned the topic of our
+conversation into channels matrimonial and domestic. I know full well
+that my state of celibacy is to her a subject of wonderment and
+speculation; but, though other cases similar to my own have been
+commented upon--threshed to chaff, I may say--she has never, until
+to-day, come to close quarters, and vested the matter with any direct
+personal application. How she manoeuvred and worked her way round was
+distinctly characteristic, but not worth detailing; and I shall not
+readily forget the surprise, and, I might say, incredulity, with which
+she received my assertion that I had never married for the very simple
+reason that I had never been in love.
+
+With her head thoughtfully to one side, she plied her needles
+assiduously. 'Ye're--let me see noo, ye'll be'----
+
+'Thirty next birthday, Betty,' I promptly answered.
+
+'Ay, imphm! Ye're quite richt; ye're juist exactly that, an' nae mair.
+Lovan me, imphm!' and she laughed and looked toward me. 'And, eh! d'ye
+mean to tell me--seriously noo--that ye're here at this time o' day
+withoot havin' met ony young leddy ye could mak' your wife?'
+
+She was probing very near the quick, and I puffed vigorously at my pipe.
+'Seriously and truthfully, Betty, I haven't yet met the woman I could
+marry.'
+
+'Gosh me! that _is_ maist extraordinar', Maister Weelum, an' you within
+a cat's jump o' thirty. It's almost inconceivable! It strikes me ye
+havena been lookin' aboot ye very eidently, for it's no' as if there was
+a scarcity o' womenfolk. There's aye routh to pick an' choose frae; at
+least, if there's no' in Edinbro, there's plenty in Thornhill. It may
+happen, though, that ye're ower parteecular, or it may be ye're lookin'
+oot for yin wi' a towsy tocher. Ministers an' lawyers, they tell me,
+ha'e a wonderfu' penetration in sniffin' oot siller, an' the faculty o'
+placin' their he'rt where the handy lies.'
+
+'That may be, Betty; but I must be an exception to this rule among
+lawyers, for I can assure you monetary considerations would never
+influence me. More than that, Betty, I don't consider my case
+altogether hopeless, although I am nearly thirty. There's luck in
+leisure, and you mustn't forget that you can't command love. It has to
+come of its own free-will--unasked, as it were; and when it comes, rest
+assured it won't be a case of pounds, shillings, and pence with me. The
+fact is, Betty, I'm waiting.'
+
+'Faith, ye're richt there; an' let me tell ye this, Maister Weelum, if
+ye wait much langer ye'll be gray-heided.'
+
+'Yes, yes, Betty; but I mean I'm waiting for a particular young lady.'
+
+'Oh, I see! Then ye ken o' yin?'
+
+'Well, yes'----
+
+'An' ye're waitin' on her growin' up, watchin' her as ye wad watch a
+Newton pippin ripenin'?'
+
+'No, no! Betty, you misunderstand me. I know of a young lady; but--well,
+the truth is, I haven't met her yet--at least not in the flesh. Now,
+now, Betty, don't laugh at me till I explain.'
+
+'Oh, Maister Weelum! I'll no' laugh. It strikes me it's mair a matter o'
+greetin'. But never mind; ca' your gird.'
+
+'Well, Betty, to make a long story short, a few years ago I had a dream,
+and in that dream I saw a face and heard a voice--a woman's face and a
+woman's voice. I was very much impressed at the time, and that face has
+haunted me ever since. Among my friends I am not considered, in the
+generally accepted sense of the term, a woman's man. Strenuous work,
+facing hard matter-of-fact events, glimpses into the matrimonial
+tragedies of not a few lives, and the toll in time and thought which a
+growing business exacts have to an extent blighted the growth of the
+sentimentality which usually creeps into a man's heart between twenty
+and thirty. Somehow I have allowed matters to drift--to shape their own
+ends, or, as you would say, to work out their own salvation--in the full
+assurance, however, and with the hope strong within me, that some day
+the lady of my dream will come into my life, that I will again see that
+face and hear that voice. So far I have waited in vain; but I am not
+discouraged, for I feel my fate lies in my dream, and, as I say, I am
+waiting still.'
+
+Betty resumed her knitting, for her needles had been idle while I was
+speaking.
+
+'Imphm!' she said at length; 'an' that's hoo the land lies! Fancy that
+noo, a great, big, wiselike man like you hankerin' after the face o' a
+woman ye had seen when ye were sleepin', an' a' the time withoot a doot
+lettin' chances slip by ye o' catchin' what ye micht ha'e gruppit.
+Hoots! hoots! Maister Weelum, that's surely a senseless ploy. Mair than
+that, I've nae brew o' dreams, although I confess that there's much in
+Scripture hinges on them. They were the makin' o' Joseph, a
+loupin'-on-stane to Daniel, an' a godsend to the prophets on mair than
+ae occasion. There's nae gettin' away frae it; but for a' that, as I
+say, I've nae brew o' them. I mind aince o' dreamin' that I was sittin'
+doon to my tea, an' that I was eatin' the best bit o' boiled ham that
+ever I tasted in a' my life; an' the next mornin'--the very next
+mornin', Maister Weelum--my soo dee'd. Anither time--it was on a
+Setterday nicht, I mind--I dreamed that the kitchen lum was on fire; an'
+on the Sunday mornin', when I keekit up to see that it was a' richt, a
+young doo tummelt doon an' nearly frichtened the life oot o' me. An'
+there was Peggy Rae--Mrs Wallace, ye ken--a real nice, God-fearin' woman
+she is, an' a regular attender o' the prayer meetin's--weel, three times
+in ae nicht she dreamed that an auld auntie o' hers had come hame frae
+Ameriky an' gi'en her the present o' three hunner pounds; an' what think
+ye, Maister Weelum, she wasna weel through wi' her breakfast when her
+mither-in-law--an auld, Godless, totterin' heathen she was--was brocht
+to her door in a cairt, took to her bed in Peggy's wee back-room, an'
+was the plague o' her life for weel on for a dizzen years. Na, na,
+Maister Weelum; dreams are queer, contrary, unchancy things to sweer by.
+Tak' my advice, forget a' aboot your dream-leddy, as ye ca' her; cast
+your e'e aboot on what ye can see an' grup, an', losh me! a
+faceable-lookin' man like you needna grapple lang. But I'm daft, sittin'
+clatterin' here an' the tatties at the sypein'. Tak' tent o' what I say,
+though, Maister Weelum, for ye're nearin' that time o' life when an
+unmarried man stammers into a rut that he's no' easy got oot o'.'
+
+Betty's warning gave me food for reflection for long after she left
+me--so much so, indeed, that as I quietly strolled along the Cundy road
+an hour or two afterwards, in the early afternoon, every chaffinch sang
+not _to_ me but _at_ me, and the burden of his song seemed to be, 'Tak'
+tent, tak' tent, and mind, do mind, the rut, rut, rut.'
+
+In the sunshine too, amid nature in all its reality and activity, dreams
+and visions seemed strangely far away and unimportant. In my little
+room, with all its haunting associations, the story of my dream-lady had
+a becoming setting and an uncommonly substantial foundation. But here,
+with the breeze playing among the shimmering leaves of the gnarled
+poplars, the merry song of the birds in the plantation, and the sunshine
+lying on the white parallel-tracked road, it seemed more of an illusion,
+something very unreal and fanciful, and I actually blushed that I, a
+solid, stolid man of thirty, should have narrated such a story with so
+much gravity, and pinned to it a significance so personal and material.
+
+Absorbed in thought, I ambled along, heedless alike of time or distance,
+until at length, with surprise at my strength and staying-power, I noted
+that I had walked almost to the Nithbank Wood. I felt neither tired nor
+inconvenienced; and when I considered that I had been only a month or
+two under Dr Grierson's care, I felt I had accomplished a very wonderful
+feat indeed. True, I had rested all the forenoon, and even now I was
+heavily supporting myself on two stout hazel staffs; yet never since my
+accident had I walked so far without fatigue, and I felt relieved and
+elated beyond words.
+
+I halted for a little in the grateful shade of a spreading lime,
+feasting my eyes on scenery dear and familiar to me since boyhood--the
+little round wood at the Cundy foot, every tree in which I had climbed
+in quest of young squirrels; the clump of geans at Holmhill, whose wild
+purple-brown fruit was sweeter far than any coddled garden cherries; the
+sweep of the Nith at the Ellers, where I had so often 'dooked' and
+fished; and the mossy, wild-thyme carpeted 'howmes'--our playground of
+long ago. The murmuring Nith recalled to me the Auld Gillfit, with its
+gray-blue pebbled beach and its banks of upstanding raspberry-bushes and
+twisting, prickly brambles, and with extraordinary intensity the desire
+sprang up within me to view its charms once more.
+
+Buoyed up by pleasurable anticipations, forgetful of my weakness and the
+uneven, rutted slope, I opened the little wicket, and, without
+misgiving, entered the wood.
+
+Through the green, quivering foliage I caught glimpses here and there of
+rippling, dancing wavelets, nodding brown-headed segg grasses, and
+patches of shimmering, sunlit sands. With eyes strained to catch each
+well-known feature, I stumblingly descended the rugged bank, and very
+soon, more by luck than careful guidance, I reached my goal. A hedge of
+waving willows screened from me the Cundy stream; but its joyous
+rhythmic ripple, as it washed its sandy, pebbled bed, sounded in my ear
+like the crooning song my mother used to sing when I lay on her knee as
+a child.
+
+This was the dear old spot, the bank where we lay after our 'dook,'
+baking our naked bodies in the sun's warm rays; here the little sandy
+isle where we played at pirates and castaways, cooking a guddled yellow
+trout over a 'smeeky' green-wood fire, and washing it down with lukewarm
+water from the stream; there, through the arches' span, the Doctor's
+Tarn, where the grayling used to lie; and, away beyond, the quiet grassy
+uplands of the Keir and the gray-green hills of Glencairn fading into
+the horizon.
+
+Seating myself on the sun-browned turf, I lit my pipe. How long I sat I
+cannot say, for I was lost in reverie, and, truth to tell, just a little
+fatigued by my unusual exertions. Suddenly, however, it came to me that
+I wasn't alone. This fact was first proclaimed by a curling wreath of
+smoke on the other side of the willows. Then the aroma of a
+well-seasoned havana greeted my nostrils, and I rose to my feet to
+reconnoitre.
+
+Walking a little upstream, I came to an opening in the willow-hedge, and
+there, on a sand-knoll at the foot of the bank, sat a man--a clergyman,
+judging by his dress; while a little in front of him, and almost on the
+water's edge, was a tall young lady standing before an easel. I saw the
+man in profile--elderly and gray-bearded he was; but the lady's back
+was turned to me, and she was much engrossed with her canvas.
+
+I must have walked very noiselessly, as neither of them seemed aware of
+my presence; and this I counted strange, since I had made no attempt at
+stealthiness, and they were so near me that I could almost have touched
+them. I stood for a minute silent and undecided whether or not to make
+my presence known.
+
+Before I could make up my mind, the artist ceased work, and, stepping a
+few feet to her right, studied the effect from the altered standpoint.
+This gave me the much-desired opportunity of seeing the picture, and I
+noted with peculiar pleasure that it was part of the view in which I had
+just been revelling. And the subject, difficult and ideal though it was,
+had been touched by no unworthy, amateurish hand. The old red-sandstone
+bridge, mellowed in a soft western light, was a centre round which much
+broad, skilful, loving work was evidenced. Oil was her medium--rather an
+unusual one, I thought, for a lady; and in the brief glance I got I
+noticed she had imparted to her canvas the true atmosphere, and that it
+contained in colour, drawing, and composition the essentials of really
+good work.
+
+Her clergyman companion closed his book, relit his cigar, and consulted
+his watch. 'Much as I expect of this picture as a big draw at my bazaar,
+and anxious as I am to take it back with me to-morrow to Laurieston, I'm
+afraid I must call you to a halt. It's almost five o'clock.'
+
+'Just one wee, wee minute,' the artist pleaded in a singularly sweet
+voice, which seemed to me far away, yet strangely familiar.
+
+A few deft, bold touches, the while her small head critically swayed
+from one side to the other.
+
+'Finis! finis!' she called at length; 'and I'm sorry to part with it, as
+I love this subject.'
+
+With a face flushed with success, she turned to her companion. Then her
+eyes met mine, and I stood breathless and transfixed, for I had heard
+the voice, and was looking into the face, of my dream-lady!
+
+The fact that I was in the presence of one who had mysteriously
+influenced me for the last ten years, one whom I had seen in my dreams
+but never met, thrilled me through and through, and I felt bewildered
+and benumbed. Had I been in normal health, doubtless I should have
+boldly faced a situation so psychologically strange and alluring; but in
+my present enfeebled condition I had no craving for the occult and
+romantic, and when I was freed from the spell of my dream-lady's eyes my
+first impulse was to retrace my steps and immediately regain the
+highroad.
+
+I turned at once, in my haste struck my heel against one of my staffs,
+and fell heavily on the sloping pathway. My tweed hat fell from my head
+and rolled away down the bank, but I made no effort to recover it. With
+extreme difficulty I rose to my feet, and, gripping my two staffs in a
+strong grasp, started again to reach the crest of the wooded brow.
+
+One of the peculiar effects of my accident is that I cannot raise my
+body on my toes. When going upstairs I have to turn sideways, and in an
+awkward, laboured fashion lift one foot over the other; and in
+negotiating this ascent, in which the same muscles were called into
+action, I had to take a zigzag course which demanded great caution and
+care, as there was no pathway, and the surface was treacherous and
+uneven.
+
+I stood for a moment before I entered on my arduous undertaking,
+irresolute and hesitating, swayed by two conflicting impulses. Here was
+the fulfilment of my dream. Down there, a little beyond the hedge of
+willows, stood one the memory of whose sweet, pensive face had haunted
+me for years; whose living presence I had prayed for, yearned for; and
+whose influence, unconsciously exerted, had dominated my being and kept
+me unscathed in the midst of many temptations. It was the culmination of
+ten years' expectancy and waiting. A series of remarkable coincidences
+and strange providential workings had matured, and here was I spurning a
+friendly interposition of the Fates, and fleeing away as if I were a
+cowardly, shamefaced culprit. Why should I act so? Why should I not face
+the situation and await this flow in the tide of my affairs?
+
+Then in thought I traversed the long, dreary road which during the past
+years I had walked alone. Hastily I reviewed the picture I had often
+conjured up of what our meeting would be, the contemplation of which had
+yielded me so much sacred, secret pleasure. Strange, I had always
+painted her as I had seen her a minute ago, even to the detail of pose
+and attitude. She--well, she was just my dream-lady, faithful in every
+respect to my imaginings; and in this picture, in response to her
+inviting smile of recognition, I was by her side, strong in body,
+resolute of will, sure of having at last met my affinity.
+
+Strong in body! Resolute of will! Was I? Ah, the humiliation of the
+truth! Why, as I stood there, I was tottering on my feet like an
+octogenarian, convulsively clutching two hazel staffs for support, and
+so irresolute that I could scarce form an idea of what my next move
+would be. What a metamorphosis! what a pitiful spectacle!--an object
+surely for sympathy, but not likely to inspire love or admiration. No,
+no, she must not see me thus; and, quickly disposing of all other
+considerations, I turned my back upon fate and commenced the ascent.
+
+Painfully I dragged myself along. Never once did I look backward, for I
+soon found that I had essayed a task requiring all my concentrated
+attention. Urged on by a consuming desire to get away, I at first made
+wonderful progress. But as the minutes passed, and the ascent became
+steeper, I felt my will-power diminishing, my strength gradually growing
+less, and my knack of happily negotiating ruts and obstacles deserting
+me at every step. Once I lost my balance and slipped down the slope; but
+I clutched the dried tufted grass with a frenzied hand, and crawled up
+on my knees to where my hazel had dropped. Again I started, and again I
+fell, this time losing grip of both my staffs and also any confidence in
+myself that was left. Flushed and breathless, I rose to my knees, and
+with feverish energy began to crawl uphill.
+
+But my haste was my undoing, for with it my caution disappeared. Twice
+the wisps of grass by which I hauled myself broke in my hand, and I
+slipped down, each time losing any little headway I had made. Again I
+slipped. Then despair took hold of me, and, with limbs exhausted and
+relaxed, and eyes moistened by thoughts of weakness and acknowledged
+defeat, I sank to the ground.
+
+For a few minutes I lay oblivious to everything around me. Then the
+sound of approaching footsteps and snatches of faintly audible
+conversation recalled me; and wearily and painfully I raised myself to a
+half-reclining, half-sitting position, with my back turned to the
+direction whence the sounds proceeded.
+
+'Yes, it's a very decent hat,' said a voice which I recognised as that
+of the clergyman; 'a very decent, serviceable hat indeed; and I dare say
+it may as well be restored to its owner, though the drunken scamp
+deserves little consideration.'
+
+'Oh, surely he's not drunk, Mr Edmondstone?'
+
+'Most assuredly he is,' replied the cleric. 'While you were busy on your
+canvas he was doubtless lying somewhere hereabouts, sleeping off the
+effects. Believe me, no man would stagger about a braeface as he did
+unless he were under the influence of drink.'
+
+'Dearie me, Mr Edmondstone! dearie me! are you not forgetting? Faith,
+Hope, Charity; and the greatest of these is Charity. Charity of judgment
+is beautiful, Mr Edmondstone. You are--or at least you should
+be--preaching that every Sunday. But in this case, whatever _you_
+presume, I, at all events, will maintain it was no drunken look he gave
+me. I admit his movements were suspicious; but--well, we'll soon find
+out. Please hand me his hat.'
+
+'What! You surely don't mean to tell me you are going to speak to him?'
+
+'Certainly. Why shouldn't I? Either you or I shall have to give him his
+hat; and----Sh! sh! I'm afraid he's hearing all we are saying.'
+
+My dream-lady was quite right. I hadn't missed a single word that had
+passed; and--passive, but with the hot blood mounting my neck and
+cheek--I had without protest allowed the charge of drunkenness to be
+made against me. I felt too weak and humiliated to make any defence.
+What mattered it to me, after all, what they thought, so long as they
+kept at a distance from me and left me to my own resources? They might
+have passed me, and I would have made no sign that I was aware of their
+presence; but when I heard my dream-lady's decision to be the bearer of
+my old tweed hat I started violently and looked keenly toward her. With
+my chin resting on my tired, lacerated hands, I watched her carefully
+picking her steps along the tangled incline. The fact that there was no
+escaping an interview was borne home to me so forcibly that it led to
+speedy resignation, which not only relieved my pent-up feelings, but
+also enabled me to observe her dispassionately, and study, without bias,
+her face and form. What my estimate was I cannot tell, or, rather, I
+will not tell; but when she reached me, with a flushed face, a
+half-frightened, half-defiant look in her eye, and my old tweed hat in
+her hand, I felt she had been aware of my critical scrutiny and resented
+it, although my opinion, favourable or otherwise, was to her of no
+consequence whatever.
+
+'Thank you very much for bringing my hat to me,' I said awkwardly; 'and
+thank you still more for your belief in my sobriety.'
+
+She looked at me for a minute, the while all evidence of fear or
+distrust vanished from her face. Then she smiled--smiled a true smile,
+with parted lips that disclosed two rows of pearly teeth, and soft
+fringed eyes that showed in their depths trust in humanity and joy of
+life.
+
+'Oh, please don't thank me for either,' she said, in a low, sweet-toned
+voice. 'Your hat is too good to lose. It is no trouble to return it; and
+as for the other--eh--matter--well'--and she looked round about her on
+the russet woods, the peaceful fields, and away to the west where the
+faint sunset glow was suffused along the Glencairn hills--'I could not
+bring my mind to associate such glories as these with any state so mean
+and degrading; and I'm glad--yes, I'm glad--that I was right.'
+
+I bowed in silent gratitude.
+
+'I don't want to appear inquisitive,' she continued; 'but would you mind
+telling me why you acted so peculiarly in zigzagging up this incline
+instead of taking the path by the boundary beech-hedge? And, oh dear,
+dear! your hands are bleeding! Have you no handkerchief? See, here is
+one;' and she pleadingly held out a dainty piece of lace cambric which I
+could easily have put inside my watch-case.
+
+Refusing her kind offer with thanks, I produced a sonsy specimen of
+Betty's laundry-work, which I rolled round my right-hand thumb. 'It is
+more than kind of you to interest yourself in a stranger,' I said
+without looking up. 'The fact is, I haven't been feeling very fit
+lately. The effects of a nasty accident have kept me too much indoors;
+but to-day, feeling a little stronger than usual, I extended my walk,
+and very foolishly determined to visit a particular spot here which,
+through boyish associations, is very dear to me. As it happened, I found
+you occupying it; and not wishing to disturb you in your work, and eager
+to regain the highway, I over-exerted myself, lost my footing, my
+patience, courage, and my two sticks, and--and here I am! But I've got
+my second wind now. I'll rest here just a little longer, and everything
+will be all right.'
+
+'Dearie me,' she said, and she caught a straying tress of dark hair and
+tucked it securely underneath her tam-o'-shanter, 'how very easily one
+may be deceived by appearances! Mr Edmondstone thought you were--well,
+you know; and I thought you had seen a ghost. I'm very sorry to know of
+your illness, and it is lucky, after all, that we were about. If you
+feel sufficiently rested, my friend and I will assist you up to the
+wicket.'
+
+She offered her good services with such an ingratiating, confident air,
+anticipating neither denial nor protest, that I was downright sorry to
+say her nay.
+
+'No, no,' I said nervously, and I am afraid ungraciously; 'I shall
+manage all right by myself. Thank you all the same. But there is one
+kind action you might do on my behalf. Down there, below that little
+knoll, and somewhere in the long grass, are my two hazels. I--I lost
+grip of them somehow. They rolled down, and I couldn't very well reach
+them again. Once I have them in my hands I'll feel myself again. Would
+you mind getting them for me?'
+
+'Certainly,' she said with alacrity; and, slip-sliding down the few
+yards of irregular turf, she soon returned with my hazels. 'Are you
+quite sure now that I can be of no further service to you?' she asked,
+as she handed them to me.
+
+God knows there was much she could do for me, and I yearned to tell her
+so; but I felt her presence beginning to dominate me; and as I was
+strangely out of humour with myself, and utterly incapable of acting the
+part I had in my day-dreams anticipated, I made haste to call up what
+remnant of will-power I had left.
+
+'You have been exceedingly kind to me, a stranger,' I stammered.
+'Believe me, I appreciate what you have done, and--good-afternoon.' And
+in confusion I raised my hat.
+
+She looked inquiringly at me for a moment, and I saw speech trembling on
+her lip; but with a little effort she checked it. Then, with a smile and
+a slight inclination of her head, she walked slowly, and I imagined
+thoughtfully, toward her companion. I heard the wicket opening on its
+creaking hinges, and clicking as it closed in its iron fastening. Voices
+in animated conversation became fainter and fainter, rhythmic sounds of
+footsteps died away into silence, and I lay back on the bank among the
+brown wispy grass and the red autumn leaves with a joy and thankfulness
+in my heart I had never experienced before. And my joy was not born of
+the knowledge that my dream lady was a reality. Somehow, I had never
+doubted that. Rather was it that I had convinced myself that she
+possessed all the virtues and qualities with which I had vested her; and
+that, short as our interview had been, and commonplace as our
+conversation had proved, there was pervading it all the feeling,
+peculiar and indefinable, that what had taken place was merely a prelude
+to something more satisfying, a foretaste of greater happiness in store.
+What mattered it that I didn't know her name or where she had gone?
+Sufficient to me to know I was being guided aright, that the Fates were
+with me, and that by degrees the curtain would be drawn aside and my
+way made clear.
+
+The birds trilled sweetly the last lingering notes of their lullaby, the
+Cundy stream crooned lovingly a song I had never heard before, and the
+glamour of the gloaming took possession of my soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+For the past three days I have been confined to my bedroom, indeed I may
+say to my bed; for, with the exception of a short half-hour to-day--when
+Betty exchanged blankets for sheets--I have been reluctantly compelled
+to restrict my range of vision to the interior of my room, with my head
+on my pillow. The doctor has been to see me morning and night, and Betty
+has been in and out and out and in, and her anxiety regarding me has
+been too evident to be ignored.
+
+This morning, when she had accompanied the doctor downstairs, I heard
+her ask what he thought of me. I didn't hear what he said in reply,
+because his voice is very low-pitched and his articulation not distinct;
+but Betty's rejoinder was, 'Imphm! I juist expected something o' the
+kind. Dod, doctor, was it no' a stupid ploy--sic thochtless
+stravaigin'--five oors oot o' the hoose in snell weather like this, an'
+him as shaky on his legs as a footrule? A wean o' ten years auld wad
+ha'e haen mair sense.'
+
+No reproaches have been made to my face, however, and of this I am
+glad, as I am sure I should be sorely exercised in mind to find a
+suitable excuse for my truancy.
+
+I am not very clear about the details of my journey homeward from the
+Nithbank Wood. Betty and Nathan were both out when I returned, doubtless
+making search for me; and as I was too fatigued to walk upstairs, I sat
+down in Nathan's easy-chair in the kitchen and fell asleep. I have no
+recollection of what followed; and, considering the state of Betty's
+pent-up feelings, it would, I feel, be rather imprudent of me to ask.
+
+I have been feeling rather low in spirits these last two days. I cannot
+blame the weather, for the October sun, though waning in strength, is
+showing his face for long-continued spells, the air is brisk and
+invigorating, and the sparrows are chirping and sporting in the eaves
+above my little window as if it were the merry month of May. I am loath
+to attribute this depression to physical weakness; yet were I to make
+such acknowledgment to Dr Grierson, I know he would frankly and at once
+confirm it. That I have received a set-back is evident, and when I call
+to mind my exertions in the plantation I need not be surprised. Still,
+everything considered, if I had that afternoon to live over again I
+should do just exactly as I did then. I am truly sorry if what Betty
+calls my 'thochtless stravaigin'' has undone the doctor's work, sorry if
+Betty's loving care has been lavished in vain. But Time, with healing in
+his wings, will surely make everything right again. And then I must not
+forget that but for this 'thochtless stravaigin'' I should not have met
+my dream-lady face to face. Ah! this is the one consoling fact, a rich
+reward, though the penalty I pay may be great. It is the only bright
+spot in a drab, dreary outlook, and I shall nurse this secret joy in my
+heart, and count myself favoured indeed.
+
+Betty, who has a jealous eye where I am concerned, has noticed my
+depression. Yesterday and to-day she has given me much of her company,
+and in our cracks she has done her utmost to divert my mind into
+agreeable channels. She talked much of a younger brother of
+Nathan's--Joe, a member of the Hebron family I had not heard of before.
+Joe, it turns out, is an old soldier, and on a slender pension, eked out
+by the proceeds of odd jobbing, he keeps up a modest one-roomed
+establishment somewhere in the purlieus of the Cuddy Lane. On the expiry
+of his army service he came to Thornhill--accompanied by a Cockney wife
+of whom Betty and Nathan had no previous knowledge--with a view to
+settling down among the scenes of his boyhood, which had haunted his
+dreams in far-away lands. But the quiet village life had no charms for
+Mrs Joseph, and after a month of protesting in which rural life was
+damned, and pleading in which London's charms were extravagantly
+extolled, she went away south on a holiday, from which she never
+returned. Thanks to his army training, which had perfected him in the
+art of looking after number one, Joe took to housekeeping on his own as
+a duck takes to water, and settled down to a state of grass-widowerhood
+with astonishing equanimity. Regularly, however, during July, August,
+September, and part of October, he disappears from the village; and
+Betty thinks, but is not quite sure--as Joe, like Nathan, is very
+reticent--that Mrs Joe runs a small boarding-house down south somewhere,
+and that Joe goes to give her a hand during the busy months. Betty is
+expecting his return any day now, and I shall be glad to meet him, as
+his history has interested me. With such gossipy news, interspersed with
+naive by-remarks, Betty has done her level best to drive dull care away.
+
+This afternoon, when she left me to make ready Nathan's supper, she
+promised to come back again with her knitting after the meal was over;
+but, finding her duties didn't permit of her immediately fulfilling her
+promise, she deputed Nathan to act the cheery host.
+
+By very slow degrees Nathan is ridding himself of his reticence. When we
+meet he has more to say than formerly, and his long-drawn sighs instead
+of words are less frequent; but he has not yet ventured upstairs of his
+own free-will or without a message or excuse.
+
+'There noo, Nathan,' I heard Betty say, after he had 'hoasted'
+satisfaction with his meal and scrieved his chair away from the
+table--'there noo, Nathan, gang away up like a man. Juist walk strecht
+into the room as if the hoose was your ain, an' for ony sake dinna gant
+an' sit quiet. The laddie's dull an' wearyin', so keep the crack
+cheery.'
+
+Nathan's appearance is not calculated to inspire gaiety. He is too long
+and 'boss-looking,' his whiskers are too straight and wispy, and his
+blue eyes too vacant and far-away. But, as I have admitted, there is a
+'composure' about him which is satisfying; and as he pushed my door ajar
+and came in, as it were bit by bit, I gladly laid aside my book and
+turned down my lamp.
+
+I presumed he would be dying for his after-supper smoke, so I persuaded
+him to sit down in the basket chair at the foot of my bed, and 'fire
+his pipe,' as he terms it.
+
+For a time he smoked in silence; then, suddenly remembering Betty's
+injunction, and looking through the uncurtained window and taking a long
+survey of the scudding clouds, he said, 'Imphm! the wind's changin',
+Maister Weelum, to the nor'-east. That means a bla' doon your lum, I'm
+thinkin', an' it's a maist by-ordinar' dirty, choky thing, is back
+reek.' Then breaking away at a tangent, and fixing his blue eyes on me,
+he said, 'Ay, man, an' ye're no' lookin' sae weel the nicht as I've seen
+ye.'
+
+'Maybe not, Nathan,' I said. 'I haven't been up to the mark yesterday
+and to-day.'
+
+'So Betty was tellin' me; but--eh--ye're lookin' waur than I expectit.'
+
+'I'm sorry, Nathan,' and I laughed uneasily; 'but, you know, I cannot
+help my appearance.'
+
+'No, Maister Weelum, that's true--that _is_ true;' and he deliberately,
+and with unerring aim, spat in the fire. 'Nae man can--phew!--eh, losh,
+d'ye see that?' he hastily ejaculated, as a cloud of smoke spued from
+the fireplace, swirled up the wall, and spread along the ceiling. 'I
+telt ye the wind was shiftin' its airt, an' that ye wad ha'e a bla'
+doon. If there's onything in this world I hate, it's back smoke. Man,
+it seeps doon through your thrapple into your lungs, an' there's nae
+hoastin' o' it up. Phew!--dash it! I wonder when that lum was last
+soopit. Talkin' o' lums, did ye ken that auld Brushie the sweep was
+buried the day?'
+
+Not having had the pleasure of Brushie's acquaintance, I replied in the
+negative with unconcern.
+
+'Ay,' continued Nathan, determined to obey Betty and keep the crack
+going--'ay, there's a lot o' folk slippin' away the noo; changeable
+weather gethers them in. It's a kittle time o' the year for them that
+are no' very strong--imphm!'
+
+I was, unfortunately, in a more than usually susceptible state of mind,
+and the morbid strain of Nathan's conversation was affecting me in spite
+of myself. 'Yes, Nathan,' I said, expecting to bring a smile to his
+long, serious face, 'people are dying just now who never died before.'
+
+'True, Maister Weelum; ye're richt there. Imphm! ye're perfectly richt,'
+he solemnly said without relaxing a muscle. He crossed his long legs
+very deliberately and stroked his beard as he looked round my little
+room. 'Man, Maister Weelum, dootless ye think ye're as snug up here as a
+flea in a blanket, but wad ye no' be better doon the stairs in the big
+bedroom to the sooth, an'--an'----
+
+'And what, Nathan?'
+
+'Oh, weel, it's no' for the likes o' me to dictate to you. Ye ken your
+ain ken best, but wad ye no' be mair comfortable-like sleepin' in the
+sooth room an' sittin' your odd time in the dinin'-room? Betty or me
+never put a foot in it except to air or fire it, an' it wad save ye the
+trouble an' inconvenience o' comin' up an' doon the stairs.'
+
+I thought for a moment before replying to this unexpected and most
+sensible suggestion.
+
+'Is this idea off your own bat, Nathan?' I asked.
+
+'Off my ain what, Maister Weelum?'
+
+'I mean, did you think out this arrangement yourself, or is it Betty's
+idea and yours?'
+
+'Oh, I see. Weel--imphm-m!--we were talkin' it ower atween us last
+nicht, an' Betty thinks ye wad be better doon the stairs; but she doesna
+like to say that to ye for fear ye micht think that ye were a bother to
+her, or that she considered hersel' ill hauden takin' your meat up to
+ye, an'--an' things like that--ye see.'
+
+'I understand,' I said thoughtfully; 'and do you know, Nathan, the idea
+is worth considering, and'----
+
+'No' to interrupt ye, Maister Weelum,' he interposed, 'ye ken as weel as
+I do ye're far frae bein' strong--at least, as strong as ye should be.
+Ye're nocht the better o' that lang walk ye had the ither day, an' the
+doctor's no' sae pleased wi' ye as he was.'
+
+'Oh, indeed, Nathan! I'm sorry to know that; but, with care and a few
+days' rest, I trust to be all right very soon.'
+
+'Oh, dod, sir, we a' hope that--imphm!--but, a' the same, if I were you
+I wad shift my quarters. Ye'll ha'e mair convenience, a sooth exposure,
+langer sunshine, nae back smoke, an' then, man, ye'll be nearer Betty
+should ye need her service. I've aye considered this a wee, poky place
+onyway; an' as for the stair up to 't, it's the warst-planned yin I ever
+saw. It's far ower narra, the turn's ower sherp, an' it wad be a perfect
+deevil o' a job to get a kist doon there.'
+
+'A what, Nathan?' I asked.
+
+'A kist--a coffin, I mean.'
+
+'But, goodness me, my good man, who wants to take a coffin down there?'
+
+'Oh Lord! naebody that I ken o', Maister Weelum--no, no, naebody I ken
+o'. But yin's never sure. As Betty often says, "oor days are as
+gress"--imphm! We drap awa' like the leaves in the back-end, Maister
+Weelum--ay, juist like leaves nippit wi' the frost. An', speakin' o'
+leaves, I was workin' amang leaf-mould the day; an', dod, sir, it's a
+queer thing, but, d'ye ken, whenever I handle that stuff I begin to
+think aboot kirkyairds. Isn't that a queer thing noo, Maister Weelum?'
+and he puffed at his pipe without drawing smoke.
+
+My lamp was burning low. Rain was pattering on the darkened
+window-panes, and the soughing wind at irregular intervals drove clouds
+of smoke down my chimney. Shadows from the lime-tree danced on the
+whitewashed walls, taking to themselves grotesque fantastic shapes; and
+Nathan--gaunt, wispy-bearded, spectral Nathan--puffed, and sighed, and
+spat in the semi-darkness. From the kitchen downstairs came to me at
+times sounds of a conversation carried on in a dull monotone, and
+interspersed with half-suppressed distressing sobs. A queer, creepy
+sensation began to take hold of me. I drew my blankets tighter round me
+and settled my pillow a little higher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Nathan noted my movements. 'Can I help ye, Maister Weelum, or is there
+ocht I can do to mak' ye comfortable? Betty'll no' be lang till she's
+wi' ye. She's busy the noo, an' she sent me up to keep ye cheery till
+her wark was dune.'
+
+I looked at him and saw he was quite serious, so I concluded that,
+decent, well-meaning man though he was, he was no humorist.
+
+'Ay, Nathan,' I said, after I had thought over the situation, 'I have no
+doubt your intentions are all right. Invalids ought to be kept cheery,
+as you call it; but'----
+
+'Ye admit, then, that ye _are_ an invalid, Maister Weelum?'
+
+'Well, Nathan, I'm afraid I must admit that.'
+
+'Ay, man--imphm! so far, so guid. Ye ken, sir, there _are_ some fouk
+that'll no' gi'e in when ocht ails them. There was Cairneyheid, for
+instance. Did ye ken him? No--imphm! it doesna maitter. Weel, Cairnie,
+as we ca'd him for short, had farmed on the Alton rig a' his days. The
+rig lies high, an there's aye plenty o' guid fresh air up yonder, and
+Cairnie never in his life had had even a sair heid. But, dod, sir, ae
+day, after his denner, he quately slippit to the flaer, an' couldna get
+up again. Weel, he sat there till aboot hauf six withoot sayin' a single
+damn, an' if ye kenned Cairnie an' his weys ye could understaun that
+that gied his women-fouk a glauff. Weel, suddenly he lookit up an' asked
+for a gless o' whisky, an' they thocht frae that that he was better. He
+did kind o' revive after his dram, an' wi' nae sma' trauchle they got
+him to his bed. Next mornin' he was dreich o' risin', an' when he got to
+his breakfast he couldna eat, an' still he didna sweer, so they sent
+awa' doon for the doctor. Weel, whenever the doctor cam' an' saw him he
+ordered him at aince to be put in his bed. "Bed!" said Cairnie. "Bed in
+the guid daylicht! I think I see mysel'! I never in a' my life gaed to
+my bed except at nicht an' to sleep, an' I'm no' gaun the noo;" an' he
+got up oot o' his chair in spite o' them. "I'm awa' up to the high field
+to see hoo they're gettin' on wi' the turnip-shawin'," he said; an'
+withoot dug or stick he oot o' the hoose. Hooever he got the length o'
+the field guidness only kens, but there he got. "Hurry on, men," he
+said; "dinna be feart to bend your backs in guid shawin' weather like
+this. The pits'll a' be ready afore ye're ready for them;" an' he
+lifted a knife to gi'e them a haun. He pu'd a turnip, an' was juist gaun
+to whang off the shaw, when doon he drappit in the middle o' the drill
+as deid as Abel.'
+
+Nathan relit his pipe, which had gone out during the narrative. 'Ay,' he
+continued, as he puffed audibly, 'it was a very big funeral, was
+Cairnie's. He was buried in Dalgarnock--a damp, douth place to lie in,
+in my estimation. No' that it maitters muckle, I daur say; but
+still'----
+
+'Whae's this ye're on, Nathan?' said Betty, who had entered the room
+unobserved.
+
+'Oh, naebody parteeklar, Betty. I'm juist ca'in' the crack as ye telt
+me, an' keepin' Maister Weelum here cheery till ye come up;' and he
+rose, with a sigh of relief, from his chair, sidled toward the door, and
+went cautiously downstairs.
+
+When I heard him safely round the 'sherp' turn on the staircase I looked
+at the sonsie, kindly face of my old nurse. 'Oh my dear Betty, I am glad
+to see you!' I said with fervour.
+
+'Hoo's that, noo, Maister Weelum?' and she gave a wee bit pleased laugh.
+'Ha'e ye been missin' me? Has Nathan no' been ca'in' the crack?'
+
+'Yes, Betty, I have been missing you, and Nathan _has_ been ca'in' the
+crack; but, Betty'--and I lowered my voice--'he's been in kirk-yards all
+the time.'
+
+'Ah, is that so?' she sympathetically asked. 'I'm sorry, noo, to ken
+that. He must ha'e been workin' among leaf-mould the day.'
+
+'He was, Betty; he told me so.'
+
+'That accoonts for it, Maister Weelum. Nathan's awfu' queer that wey;
+but, puir falla, he canna help it; an' then ye ken he means sae terribly
+weel. I'm awfu' sorry, though, if his crack has depressed ye. Ye're
+juist a wee bittie doon i' the mooth the noo, an' ye'll be easily putten
+aboot; but keep your pecker up, like a guid laddie, an' ye'll soon be
+better in health an' better in spirits. Efter a', an' when a''s
+considered, ye've a lot to be thankfu' for. Mony a yin wad gladly change
+places wi' ye. It's a gey hard, step-motherly kind o' world this for
+some folk; but you--weel, I wad say ye've your fu' share o' blessin's.'
+
+I looked keenly toward her while she was speaking. 'You are perfectly
+right, my dear Betty,' I said. 'I have my full share of blessings, and
+every reason to be thankful and grateful. Why, Betty, when I think of
+it, it is a downright sin in me to allow myself to become depressed. It
+would be much more to the purpose were I to bestir myself and do all I
+can to help others, whose share of the good things is less, and whose
+burdens are greater. By the way, Betty, were you crying downstairs about
+half-an-hour ago?'
+
+'No, Maister Weelum, I was not cryin'.'
+
+'Strange,' I said; 'I was sure I heard some one sobbing.'
+
+Betty stooped down and poked the smoking coals into glowing flame. Then
+she pulled down my window-blind and drew the curtains together. 'Oh,
+you're quite richt; you dootless did hear greetin', but it wasna me;'
+and she sat down again and unrolled her knitting, but she didn't ply her
+needles.
+
+'D'ye mind,' she continued after a long pause,' you an' me speakin'
+aboot Tom Jardine the grocer, oor next-door neebor, ye ken?'
+
+'Perfectly, Betty,' I replied; and at mention of his name I saw in my
+mind's eye a rain-swept courtyard, a haggard, worried face, and a
+golden-haired bairn. Intuitively I saw more--troubles, big mental
+troubles which crush the heart and soul out of a man. Oh! I hadn't
+forgotten.
+
+'Weel,' she continued, a tremor in her voice, 'it was Tom Jardine's wife
+that was greetin' in the kitchen, an' I'm juist dyin' to speak to you,
+for what she has telt me is lyin' at my he'rt like a stane. Are ye weel
+enough, think ye, to be bothered listenin'?'
+
+'My dear Betty, where two old friends like you and Tom Jardine are
+concerned, nothing is, or can be, a bother; so proceed, if you please.'
+
+She began to knit, then stopped and counted her stitches, while I filled
+and lit my pipe.
+
+'Little mair than a week bygane,' she began, 'I was in Tom's shop for
+some odds and ends, and when he was servin' me, says he, "Mrs Hebron, I
+fully expected to be able to clear off ten pounds of that auld balance
+this back-end term; but I'm beginning to be feart that'll no' be
+possible." The balance he referred to, Maister Weelum, was thirty
+pounds--half o' the sixty Nathan an' me loaned his faither. Ye mind I
+telt ye aboot that?'
+
+I nodded.
+
+'"Weel, Tom," says I,' she continued, '"that's a' richt. Don't fash your
+mind aboot that." "But, Mrs Hebron," says he, "I canna help worryin'
+aboot it. I'm very sorry indeed, an' I trust my no' payin' ye the noo
+will no' put ye aboot?" "Not in the slichtest, Tom," says I; "mak' your
+time my time. I ken what ye've set your face to do, an' I couldna wish
+ye better luck in your endeavour if ye were my ain bairn." His he'rt
+filled, puir laddie, an' he thanked me, an' he began to tell me what a
+bother he had in gettin' in his money. He showed me twae accoonts, yin
+for fifty pounds an' anither for sixty-five, that have been lyin' oot
+for mair than a year. It seems that when he was in that big warehoose in
+Glesca he had some experience in the seed line, an', havin' a guid
+connection wi' groceries among the farmers roond aboot here, it struck
+him he could, wi' little mair expense, work the twae very profitably
+thegither. Weel, he started to do this, an' in the last twal'months he
+has selled an awfu' lot. But it appears that seed rins to money quickly,
+an' the twae accoonts ootlyin', an' aboot which he was so anxious, are,
+as it were, in this department. The want o' this money has keepit him
+very ticht, an' he's been aff baith his meat an' his sleep ower the heid
+o't. Weel, to mak' a lang story short, the farmers ha'e baith failed.
+Tom got word yesterday, an', as it's thocht they're gey bad failures,
+an' very little ootcome expected, he's nearly demented. He has gane ower
+his books, an' he sees he can pey twenty shillin's in the pound; but, to
+do that, it means handin' ower his stock, furniture, an' hoose, an'
+he'll come oot o't wi' nocht but the claes on his back. His wife, puir
+lassie, was in the nicht tellin' me a' aboot it. It was her ye heard
+greetin'. She has keepit a stoot he'rt an' a smilin' face to Tom; but
+whenever I put my haun kindly an' mitherly-like on her shooder she broke
+doon an' grat as if her he'rt was breakin', so I juist took the wee
+bundle o' spunk an' dejection in my airms, an' she had it a' oot there.
+Tom's gaun up to the lawyer the morn to hand everything ower to him, an'
+Mrs Jardine and the bairns are leavin' Thornhill on Friday to stay wi'
+her mither till Tom gets wark somewhere. Noo, Maister Weelum, I want
+your advice, an' if ye chairge me sax an' eightpence for it I'll--I'll
+juist no' pey't;' and a tear-drop broke from her eye as she smiled. She
+rose from her chair, laid aside her knitting, and coming over to my
+bedside, she put her hand on my arm. 'I've still got the hunder pounds
+in the bank which your mother left to me, Maister Weelum,' she said.
+'Nathan an' me ha'e saved fifty mair. I never had a bairn o' my ain, an'
+thae three wee curly-heided angels o' Tom's ha'e worked their wey into
+my he'rt, an' I juist canna let them away. D'ye think the mistress--your
+mother, I mean--wad ha'e me gi'in' the money in this way?'
+
+I thought for a moment, and Betty watched me keenly. 'Am I to
+understand, Betty, that you are willing to step into the breach and
+give Tom Jardine one hundred and fifty pounds--your all?'
+
+'Yes--if ye think it wad be your mother's will.'
+
+'Betty, if Nathan won't object, will you please put your arms round my
+neck and give me a kiss?' I said, and I raised my head from my pillow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The wind has died down, and through the lown midnight air I heard the
+Auld Kirk clock strike the hour of twelve. Tom Jardine has just left my
+room. He has been with me for almost three hours, and we have had a long
+smoke together and a grand talk over the times and folks of auld
+langsyne. Betty, as an interested party, favoured us with her company
+part of the time, for Nathan was sleeping the sleep of the just and the
+tired, and the kitchen fire had long gone out. She was surprised to know
+that Tom's difficulties could be overcome and his affairs straightened
+out without her little legacy and her hard-earned savings being
+requisitioned. Only Tom and I know how this was arranged, and as it is a
+little matter of personal interest to us, and us alone, the details of
+the transaction will remain untold.
+
+I am having a run of strange coincidences just now. When Betty was
+locking the door after Tom's departure I lifted my book to mark the page
+where I had left off on Nathan's coming into my room, and the paragraph
+opposite my thumb is as follows: 'I will pass through this world but
+once. If, therefore, there be any good thing I can do, or any kindness I
+can show, let me do it now. Let me not neglect it or defer it, for I
+shall never pass this way again.'
+
+I shall read this to Betty to-morrow morning, and tell her that, though
+she may not have the faculty of thus beautifully and poetically
+expressing a sentiment, she lives it to the letter every day of her
+life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+To-day, when Betty was tidying my room, I took the opportunity of
+referring to Nathan's conversation of the previous evening, particularly
+that portion of it in which he advised me to take up my quarters
+downstairs. From the insinuating way in which he had introduced the
+subject, and the allusions he had made to my 'no weel' look, I naturally
+concluded that his advice might be interpreted as a hint to me that I
+was not so well as I fondly imagined; and that, for my own good, and for
+the convenience of my faithful old nurse--not to speak of obviating the
+necessity of taking a six-foot coffin down a narrow staircase with a
+sharp turn--I ought to agree to his proposal at once and without demur.
+
+Betty now assures me, however, that if I am contented and comfortable in
+my own little room, she is quite satisfied. I am not for a moment to
+imagine that she advocates the change for the sake of saving her any
+trouble in attending on me. 'There's nae trouble where ye are concerned,
+Maister Weelum,' she said. 'I look on ye amaist as my very ain bairn,
+an' I coont it a privilege to get waitin' hand an' foot on ye. It's a
+nice, easy stair to climb, it's handy for the kitchen, an' mair an'
+forby, it's no' as if ye'll aye be lyin' here. In a day or twae, or a
+week at maist, ye'll be up an' aboot again. A' the same, Maister Weelum,
+believe me when I say that ever sin' ye cam' to bide here I've thocht it
+a pity that ye didna use the dinin'-room. I understaun your likin' for
+this wee room. It was aye your very ain, an' mebbe a' richt to sleep in,
+though the sooth bedroom is bigger an' airier; but it's juist no'--it's
+juist no' like a room that ye should ha'e your meat in, ye ken. When
+you're up an' aboot again ye'll mebbe think it ower.'
+
+'Is the dining-room in good order, Betty?' I asked.
+
+'It's juist as the mistress left it, Maister Weelum,' she said, with a
+catch in her voice. 'I've things covered to keep oot the dust, an' I've
+lifted an' cleaned, but juist aye replaced again. Nathan an' me are
+never in it, except to lift the winda on guid days to air it, or to pit
+a fire on noo an' again when the weather's damp. The kitchen an' oor
+back-room are guid enough for us, and we've juist, as it were, keepit
+the rest o' the hoose on trust. The picters in your mother's wee
+drawin'-room are a' juist as they were, the piano-lid has never been
+lifted since she shut it, an' her auld china and other knick-knacks are
+as clean an' weel cared for as they were when she handled them hersel'.
+I've often gane up the stairs, ta'en a bit look in, an' come doon again
+a prood, prood woman that she considered me worthy to live amang it a',
+an' to tak' care o't.'
+
+Betty and I have a community of interests in the long ago, a joint
+possession of memories which will ever be our dearest treasure. The
+links which bind us together were forged away back in the misty past;
+but time corrodes them not, and they are stronger to-day than ever they
+were before. To do her will was my sure pleasure, and so I began
+gracefully to waive, one by one, objections I had entertained, and to
+acquiesce with her and back up her arguments by referring to the coming
+wintry months, the comforts of the dining-room, its large, roomy
+fireplace, and the cheery, heartsome outlook the window commanded of the
+Cross and the Dry Gill.
+
+'But, Betty,' I said, 'we'll have to do something to give it a more
+modern look. If I remember aright, the ceiling and cornice are very
+dark, and the wall-paper is a dismal green, patched with a gold
+fleur-de-lis, and it has been on too long to be healthy.'
+
+'Ay, weel, mebbe ye're richt; an' ye mentionin' wall-paper reminds me
+that the damp frae the gable has discoloured the end wa'. But the
+whitewashin' and paperin' o' ae room will no' be a big job, an' aince we
+gi'e the painter the order we'll no' ha'e lang to wait for him. His
+back-en' slackness is on noo. I saw him paintin' his ain doors and
+windas; an', as there's little chance o' him gettin' fat on that wark,
+he'll no' swither aboot gi'in' it up for what is likely to pey better.
+Imphm! Mebbe I should ha'e seen to this afore noo. The fact is, Maister
+Weelum, except for a few shillin's for paintin' the outside woodwark,
+I've spent no' a penny on paint or paper for the hoose since Nathan an'
+me were marrit. I should ha' had things in better order for ye; but,
+believe me, it was juist want o' thocht.'
+
+'Nonsense, Betty; the whole house is in apple-pie order. There was no
+call for you to spend money on painting and papering, and I won't allow
+you to do that now. This is my little affair, Betty, and all I ask you
+to do is to see the painter and arrange for the work to be done as soon
+as possible.'
+
+'Do you mean, Maister Weelum, that ye're to pey the whole thing?'
+
+'Most certainly. So, my dear Betty, please say no more on that point, as
+my mind is made up and unalterable.'
+
+'Weel, weel, sae be it. "Them that will to Cupar maun to Cupar." What
+kind o' a paper wad ye think o' puttin' on?'
+
+Within my own mind I had decided on a nice warm buff canvas, but I
+refrained from giving my opinion. 'What do you think would be nice,
+Betty?'
+
+Of old I remembered the garish colouring of the paper on her bedroom
+walls. Her taste in this was always a law unto the paper-hanger, and my
+mother used to shiver when she peeped in, and wondered how Betty could
+sleep peacefully in such a profusion of colour.
+
+Betty pondered over my question for a moment. 'Mrs Black, the clogger's
+wife, got her parlour done up last spring, an' it looks juist beautifu'.
+The paper has a kind o' mauve gr'und wi' a gold stripe runnin' up, an'
+roon the stripe there's a winkle-wankle o' nice big blue roses, an' a
+wee bit o' forget-me-not tied wi' a pink ribbon keeks oot here and
+there, juist as if it was hangin' in the air.'
+
+'Blue roses are not natural, Betty.'
+
+'No, so Nathan says; but they're most by-ordinar' bonny, an' they're
+hangin' roon this gold stripe for a' the world as if they were newly
+blawn; an'--an' the leaves are a brisk green, an' the buds standin' oot
+abune the bloom as like as life, an' a' this beautifu' colourin' for a
+shillin' a piece! It was John Boyes the painter that put it on, an' he
+telt Mrs Black that there was only anither room like hers, an' it was in
+the Crystal Palace at London.'
+
+'A shilling a piece, Betty!' I said, in astonishment, just for something
+to say. 'Oh, but I would give more than that!'
+
+'Oh, then, ye'll juist get a' the mair gold an' roses for the extra
+money, Maister Weelum.'
+
+'I am just wondering, Betty,' I said meditatively, 'if a wall-paper with
+roses--blue or otherwise--is the correct decoration for a dining-room.'
+
+'Oh, there's nae rule, Maister Weelum--at least, no' in Thornhill. No,
+no; as lang as ye pey for the job, ye can put ony kind ye like on.' And
+she added, 'Wad ye no' leave the paper to the womenfolk, Maister Weelum?
+If ye do ye'll no' gang far wrang.'
+
+'Yes, Betty, that's all right; but I don't know that I could eat my
+meals comfortably in a room among blue roses. How would a nice,
+warm-coloured imitation of canvas look, without any pattern at all?'
+
+'A warm-coloured imitation o' canvas? Imphm! I--I juist canna tak' that
+in; but if it's what I think it is, wad that no' look awfu' mealie-bag
+lookin'?'
+
+'I'm sure it won't, Betty, and--and--well, I know it is the correct
+thing. Besides'----
+
+'Ye will hark on "the correct thing," Maister Weelum. I've telt ye that
+whatever ye want, and pey for, is the correct thing in Thornhill. I've
+great faith in Mrs Black's taste. I aye tak' my cue, as it were, frae
+her, though I dinna tell her that; an', where colour is concerned,
+whether in papers or bonnets, I never think she's far wrang. She comes
+honestly by it. She aince telt me that it was bred in the bane, for her
+faither was a colourin'-man in a waxcloth factory aboot Kirkcaldy.'
+
+Mrs Black's hereditary claim did not appeal to me, and in a most
+agreeable and ingratiating way I was advocating my own scheme, when the
+outer door opened.
+
+'That'll be the doctor, I'm thinkin',' said Betty, and she hurried off
+downstairs to receive him.
+
+As my acquaintance with Dr Grierson ripens my admiration for him
+increases, and my regret becomes all the keener that I had no knowledge
+of him in my boyhood. An early impression of any one, the outcome of
+youthful intimacy, is ever a sure basis on which to found true
+friendship, and I somehow imagine that, to a thoughtful, observant boy,
+such as Betty assures me I was, he would have been not only a willing,
+sympathetic preceptor, but also a great power for good in many ways. I
+have known him now for only a few months; but during these quiet,
+uneventful days of convalescence I have had opportunities of studying
+him well, and have noted with peculiar pleasure his love of nature in
+all its phases, his reverence for everything uplifting and elevating,
+and his sympathy, deep and profound, for all in suffering and distress.
+
+Yesterday, when I was in the dumps, seeing everything as through a glass
+darkly, and feeling isolated and bereft of sympathetic, intelligent
+companionship, those lovable traits of his stood out vividly, and the
+thought came to me that I should tell him of the lady of my dream, and
+of our strange meeting in the Nithbank Wood. Betty, I know, ought to be
+my confidante; but I have the feeling that her experience is too limited
+and her outlook on life generally too parochial to admit of a
+well-reasoned, dispassionate view of my case; and, though yesterday and
+to-day I have had ample opportunities of opening my heart to her, I
+have felt restrained and dissuaded. Some day I shall tell her
+everything, and I know she will rejoice with me. But the time is not
+yet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+When Dr Grierson sat down at my bedside this morning and took my wrist
+between his sensitive finger and thumb, I felt magnetically drawn to
+him, and the desire to confide in him became irresistible. I had been
+wondering in my mind for hours how best I could introduce the subject;
+and, not hitting readily on a fitting opening, I had left it to chance
+and circumstance. Strangely enough, it was he who paved the way for me.
+After we had talked briefly on general subjects, he referred to my
+'temporary breakdown,' as he termed it, and told me he was quite sure I
+had undergone a sudden mental strain which had adversely affected me
+physically; but that, once my mind and body were sufficiently rested, I
+should be quite all right again.
+
+'You're quite right, doctor, in your diagnosis of my case,' I said. 'I
+have had rather a queer experience lately, and, if you care to hear
+about it I shall gladly tell you. Would you share a little secret with
+me, doctor?'
+
+'Most gladly,' he said.
+
+'Well, will you please light your pipe? Take that easy-chair by the
+fire, and you may sit with your back to me, and I sha'n't feel
+slighted.'
+
+He laughed softly, and, extracting a short clay pipe from his waistcoat
+pocket, took the chair I indicated. Seated thus, and smoking steadily,
+he listened in silence till my story was finished. I gave him the whole
+history, kept nothing back; and in telling all the details I never
+hesitated, for the incidents were fresh in my mind, and I had everything
+well thought out.
+
+'Ay, Mr Russell,' he said, after a long pause, 'you tell a story very
+well, and what you have told is most interesting and wonderful. I have
+read of such occurrences, but I haven't till now come across one at
+first hand, as it were. Shakespeare says there are more things in heaven
+and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, and your experience
+certainly goes to prove it. It is usual, especially during a man's
+romantic years, to dream of a fair lady's face--very usual indeed; but I
+consider it most remarkable that everything came to a head so shortly
+after you had told Betty of your dream, and also when, for the first
+time, you had entertained doubts as to your vision being realised. I
+suppose you are very much in love with this lady?' and he looked over
+his shoulder at me.
+
+'Well, yes, doctor, I am.'
+
+'What is your age, again, Mr Russell?'
+
+'Thirty in January.'
+
+'And--and, you've never been in love before?'
+
+'I think I've been in love ever since I dreamed my dream, now nearly ten
+years ago; but since that interview in Nithbank Wood I'm more hopelessly
+in love than ever;' and, somehow, I began to blush, and I was glad his
+back was turned toward me.
+
+'Imphm! Ay, the old story is ever new,' he said, more to himself than to
+me; and he rose slowly from his chair, knocked the ashes out of his pipe
+on the top rib of the grate, and came over to my bedside. 'Have you told
+Betty of this strange meeting?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Well, doctor, I can hardly explain why I haven't told her, as the dear
+old soul is "nearer" to me than any one else in the world; but I felt,
+somehow, that I wanted to confide in you first.'
+
+'Thank you, Mr Russell; and it will be a joyful day when you and I and
+Betty can talk it all over among us. Meanwhile we'll keep it to
+ourselves, you and I, and I don't think you should allow this--this
+_affaire de coeur_ to monopolise your mind too much. To worry and
+distract your thoughts over it would be as harmful as it would be
+futile. So far, the stars have fought in their courses for you, and,
+without much exertion on your part, your fondest dreams seem in a fair
+way to be fulfilled. William--no "Mr Russell" after a crack like
+this!--I am more than double your age, and for many years I have lived a
+queer, prosaic, loveless life--a full life if hard work and gain and
+recognition be reckoned everything, but empty--oh God, how empty!--if
+love counts for all. I am old, but not so old that I cannot understand
+you and sympathise with you, for I well remember days which were
+brightened to me by the sunshine of a woman's loving smile; times when
+all this earth was heaven to me, the singing of the birds an angel song,
+all its people upright and just; sermons I read in stones, and good I
+saw in everything. But that was long ago. When love was taken away from
+me the whole world seemed changed. My life since then has been selfish
+and self-centred. I have long ceased to take any interest in the social
+doings of others; and were it not for my work, my books, and my daily
+communings with nature, I should be a lonely, miserable old man. I don't
+mind telling you, however, that you have touched a chord in my heart
+and awakened memories which have slumbered long. I am very much
+interested in you, partly on account of your own personality, but mainly
+because it was a very near relative of yours who brought to me the only
+true joy and gladness that my heart has ever known.'
+
+He sat down on the basket chair at the foot of my bed, facing me, and
+with his back to the light.
+
+'You will doubtless remember,' he continued, 'that, during my first
+visit to you here, Betty in course of conversation, casually or
+otherwise, mentioned the name of your aunt Margaret.'
+
+'Yes, doctor, I remember that distinctly, and also that you were visibly
+affected; but'----
+
+'I must confess I was, William,' he quickly interposed. 'Well,
+confidence for confidence. You have told me your love experience, so far
+as it has gone, and it may be that, by doing so, you have relieved your
+mind and hastened your recovery; and perhaps, if I recount mine to one
+who can understand, it will bring a balm and a solace to my old heart,
+of which, in these my years of sear and yellow leaves, I often stand
+sorely in need. You--you don't mind my smoking?'
+
+'Certainly not, doctor; and, to be sociable, I'll join you in a pipe.'
+
+'That's right--that's right! Nothing like tobacco for promoting
+good-fellowship.'
+
+We filled our pipes in silence. Though it was only late noon, the light
+seemed to be darkening in my little room. I looked toward the window,
+and down from a dull leaden sky the first of winter's snowflakes were
+quietly falling--falling, as it appeared to me, into the eager
+upstretched arms of the leafless lime. The doctor's gaze followed mine;
+and slowly, with his pipe filled but not lit, he rose from his chair and
+looked long and thoughtfully toward the quiet, obscured Dry Gill.
+
+'I have always loved to see snow falling,' he said, after a pause. 'It
+has a strange fascination for me; and to see it in its fleecy flakes,
+whirling and dancing and drifting and playing, is a sight which always
+soothes and inspires me. I pray God that my eyesight may long be spared
+to me, because it is an avenue through which many of His richly stored
+treasures are conveyed. I have no ear for music--instrumental music I
+mean particularly; but, strangely enough, a wimplin' burn can speak to
+me in its flow, a mavis can call me from my study into my garden, and
+the eerie yammer of the whaup in the moorland solitude is always to me,
+as it is to Robert Wanlock, "a wanderin' word frae hame." The human
+voice raised in song conveys nothing to me, but the crooning lullaby of
+a loving mother over her suffering child tirls the strings of my heart
+and makes me humble. To be unable to _feel_ the pleading of the violin,
+the rich soprano, and the resonant bass is something I deplore. But
+Providence has ordained that if one sense is minus one, another sense
+will be plus one. Well, my sense of sight is plus one, both in strength
+and appreciation; and in the midst of these beautiful surroundings in
+which, for the last forty years, my lines have been cast, I have
+revelled, William--positively revelled. The opportunity has always been
+mine of noting the changing of the seasons--the virgin green and promise
+of spring, the glory and fullness of summer, the russet and gold of
+autumn, the sleep and decay of winter--and each, to him who can see
+aright, has a beauty and significance of its own. Ay, and this is
+winter--winter heralded by a shimmering veil of pirling snowflakes,
+through whose dancing meshes I can trace phantom forms I saw in youth,
+and whose madcap antics still, thank God! bring me solace as of yore.
+Oh, how grateful and thankful I ought to be!'
+
+He lit his pipe with a paper spill, and stood for a minute blowing
+clouds of smoke round the old china dog on my mantelpiece. Then he
+resumed his seat at the foot of my bed; and, inclining his head sideways
+toward the window, he said, 'The last good-bye I said to your aunt
+Margaret was spoken amidst falling snow, and it is strange that I should
+be speaking of her to you for the first time with these flimsy flakes
+dimming your window-pane. There's not much to tell you, William; and, to
+be candid with you, when I was standing smoking at your fireplace there
+the thought came to me that, as your mother had never deemed it
+expedient or necessary to mention my name to you, it would be more in
+agreement with her will that I should be silent. However, as I have
+started, I may as well proceed; but I shall be brief, as I haven't the
+heart to go into what must ever be sacred details. I first met your aunt
+Margaret in Edinburgh, when I was at the University. Her father--your
+grandfather, Colonel Kennedy--had returned from India, where he had
+served with distinction, and had, with his wife and two daughters, taken
+up residence in the suburb of Murrayfield. Being of a Dumfriesshire
+family, and well known to my father, who was a merchant in Dumfries and
+Provost of that town, Colonel Kennedy, on the strength of my father's
+letter of introduction, gave me a hearty welcome to his domestic circle,
+a welcome of which I may say I took ample advantage. Your father and
+mother got married shortly after I became acquainted with the family;
+and as your aunt Margaret was thus deprived of a sister and companion to
+whom she was ardently attached, I gladly embraced every opportunity of
+showing her little kindly attentions, acting the part of a thoughtful
+brother, and generally doing my utmost to minimise the loss which I was
+sure she had sustained. Well, William, this ended in the usual way.
+Sympathy begets love, and I fell hopelessly in love with Margaret
+Kennedy. How I found out that my love was returned is a secret which is
+a joy to me, too holy to share even with you, William. Ah me! the
+happiness of those halcyon days--the quiet afternoons in that old
+drawing-room facing southward to the distant Pentlands, the evening
+walks on Corstorphine Hill when the sunset rays still lingered above Ben
+Lomond, the talks we had of the future we had planned! Tennyson says
+that "sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things." That may
+be poetic, but I don't think it is true, for it is a crown of joy to me
+to call these times to mind, and I feel that to have had this
+experience, and to have garnered such memories, I have surely not lived
+in vain. Our love, as is the case with all young people, was
+unreasoning. We gave no thought to ways and means, and position or
+status we never for a moment considered. But your grandfather brought us
+to earth and faced us with realities. In response to a written request,
+I waited on him one evening, and in a very few words he gave me to
+understand that I must on no account pay further attention to his
+daughter, and that my visits to his house must cease. He reproached me
+with lack of honour in taking advantage of his hospitality to further my
+own interests and clandestinely win the affection of your aunt Margaret.
+I repudiated this charge, perhaps somewhat warmly, informed him that if
+I had broken any of the accepted social laws in the matter, I had done
+so in ignorance, and assured him I loved his daughter, and that nothing
+short of her renunciation would deter me from some day making her my
+wife. He lost his temper, and bluntly asked me if, for a moment, I, a
+prospectless student and son of a provincial merchant, considered myself
+worthy of a Kennedy of Knockshaw; whereupon I told him that there were
+Griersons in Lag, as wardens of the Border Marches, when the Kennedys
+were sitting in farmyard barns making spoons out of ram-horns. The old
+reiver blood coursed warmly through my veins, and I faced him without
+fear. This was the last straw. He raised his cane to strike me; but,
+noting my air of defiance, he immediately lowered it, and pointed to the
+door. I bowed in silence, then walked slowly out, and I never entered
+the house again.
+
+'The days which followed that interview were perhaps the most miserable
+I ever spent. I had had no opportunity of seeing your aunt; and though I
+knew she loved me, and that no mercenary considerations would sway her,
+still there was the uncertainty of it all, under altered circumstances,
+and the possibility of her being dominated by her father's masterful
+will. At last, after weary weeks of waiting, of alternate spells of hope
+and despair, I received a letter from her, written from a lonely island
+in the Pentland Firth, and letting me know that she had been sent
+thither by her father on a visit to her uncle, who at that time was
+proprietor of the island of Stroma. She assured me of her unfaltering
+love, told me that nothing on earth would shake her resolve, and that,
+notwithstanding her father's threats, she would join me sooner or later
+in a haven of rest. She would take my love for granted, and asked me not
+to write, as my letters would be intercepted. With this ray of hope I
+had to be content. She wrote to me at intervals; but, as letter followed
+letter, each became more despondent and despairing, and at last she
+informed me that it was evident she would not be allowed to return until
+she promised not to see or correspond with me again. Then came a little,
+short note pleading for an interview. "It is a long journey, I know,"
+she wrote; "but I dearly--oh, so dearly!--wish to see you again. Your
+presence will cheer me and strengthen me to bear whatever the future may
+hold. On Wednesday next my uncle goes to Kirkwall, and on that afternoon
+I will walk down to a little sheltered creek called Corravoe. It is the
+nearest point to the mainland, and only a mile or two from Huna. Matthew
+Howat has a good boat. When you reach Huna ask for Matthew. He knows
+everything, and will help us...." Never a day passes but that weird,
+solitary scene comes before my eyes--no trees, no hills, no signs of
+human habitation; only a short, gray-green stretch of low-lying, patchy
+landscape, bordered by a narrow strip of rocky beach, lapped by the
+crested tide of the Pentland Flow. One short hour we spent together, for
+the tide was turning, but the smile of hope shone in her wan face ere we
+said good-bye. I was the bearer of joyful news, comforting words, and
+assurance of release. I told her I was specialising in Edinburgh; that
+an unexpected legacy of three thousand pounds had paved the way to our
+happiness; and that, when I had arranged with my mother for her
+reception, she would sail across to Huna, and find me waiting her
+there.... The roar of the far-off skerries is in my ear, the echoing
+homeward cry of the seabird, the humming and hissing of the waves among
+the shells on the shingle! The shortening day is drawing to a close,
+mist is clinging to the scarred face of Dunnet Head, from the darkening
+sky the snow is falling, and through the whirling flakes she fades from
+my sight.
+
+'A day came when again I was in Huna, looking across the angry,
+wind-tossed Pentland Firth, waiting for a boat which, alas! never
+reached its haven. What happened no one ever knew. The sullen waters
+guard their secrets well; but a broken oar bearing Matthew Howat's
+initials, picked up in Scrabster Bay, told a story which robbed my life
+of the only light which ever shone in my soul.'
+
+The doctor sat for a minute, after he had finished his story, with his
+eyes closed and his chin resting on the knot of his stock. Then he
+wearily rose from his chair and went quietly downstairs without saying
+good-bye. He has a keen sense of the fitness of things, and I feel he
+knew that no word of mine, no pressure of my hand, was needed to prove
+to him that my heart was with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+The painters have come and gone, and on the dining-room walls and
+woodwork they have left evidence of tasty, careful workmanship. John
+Boyes, to whom the question of wall-paper was referred, was of the
+opinion that the decorative scheme adopted by Mrs Black for her parlour
+was not exactly applicable or advisable in our case; so Betty at once
+deferred to his better judgment, but warned us, all the same, that if
+the work didn't turn out a success we were not to blame her. There was,
+however, no occasion for what she calls 'castin' up,' as the room looks
+exceedingly well, and we--that is, Betty and I--have complimented John
+Boyes, who likewise looks exceedingly well, not so much perhaps by
+reason of our commendation, but because his account was asked for and
+paid the day after the work was completed. I understand the general rule
+in the locality is to pay tradesmen's accounts once a year, and when I
+offered such prompt payment John was both surprised and perplexed.
+
+'I thocht, Mr Russell,' he said, 'that you were satisfied wi' the job;'
+and he placed his hat on Betty's kitchen dresser, fastened a button in
+his coat, and stood on the defensive.
+
+'And I _am_ pleased with the job, Boyes,' I replied. 'You and your men
+have worked well, and--and whistled well,' I added, with a laugh; 'and
+in attending to this work just now you have suited my convenience.'
+
+'Well--but--does it no' look as if ye werena pleased when ye're payin'
+me so soon?'
+
+'No, no, Boyes, you mustn't think that. I happen just now to have the
+money beside me, and now that the work is completed it is yours, not
+mine.'
+
+'Oh, that puts a different complexion on the face o't, as the monkey
+said when he pented the cat green;' and he gave a cough of relief, and
+surreptitiously bit off a chew of brown twist. 'It's no' often that
+money's put doon on my pastin'-table, as it were, an' it's braw an'
+welcome, I assure you. I'll no' forget ye wi' leebral discoont, let me
+tell ye.' When he came back to receipt the account he borrowed a penny
+stamp from Betty, and with great deliberation and no little ceremony
+drew his pen several times through the pence column, completely
+obliterating the 8-1/2d. 'Ye see, sir, when a gentleman treats me weel,
+I'm no' feart. We'll let the eichtpence ha'penny go to the deevil, an'
+that'll be five pounds six shillin's--nate, as it were.' He stowed the
+notes away down in his trousers-pocket, unbuttoned and rebuttoned his
+coat, and jocosely informed me that the price of liquid drier was on the
+rise, and he would now lay in a stock before the market was too high. An
+hour afterwards I saw him emerge from the side-door of the inn, wiping
+his mouth with the back of his hand, and the term 'liquid drier' was to
+me stripped of any technical vagueness it had previously possessed.
+
+I have rearranged all the old dining-room pictures so that, without
+discarding any of them, I shall have sufficient space for the painting
+of Nith Bridge which the Laurieston minister looked upon as a valuable
+asset to his bazaar. One day, when I was confined to bed upstairs, I
+pencilled a note to my confidential clerk in Edinburgh, asking him to
+find out in which of the five Lauriestons, noted in the Post-Office
+Directory, a bazaar was to be held, and to make sure of purchasing
+thereat a certain oil-painting of which I gave full particulars.
+Ormskirk is a cute, long-headed chap; and, knowing the man well, I was
+really not surprised when, yesterday morning, I received a letter from
+him advising me that, without any difficulty, he had 'struck' the right
+Laurieston, and that through our corresponding agent in Falkirk the
+picture in question had been secured. Following out my instructions, he
+is getting it suitably framed; so I trust shortly to see the space
+filled which I am reserving for it.
+
+Poor Betty has put herself to no end of trouble over the modernising of
+this room. She has planned and worked unceasingly; and as she couldn't
+be in two places or do two things at once, Nathan and I these last few
+days have been in a manner neglected. I was sorry to know of her toiling
+on late and early, and I told her to get a woman in to help her; but all
+she said, and that with a sniff, too, was, 'It may happen;' and for the
+first time I saw Betty's nose in the air. And now that everything is
+done that she recommended, she is regretting all the expense I have been
+put to, and bewailing the fact that 'efter a' it was hardly worth
+while.' 'It's a braw, braw room, Maister Weelum,' she said, as she
+surveyed it for the twentieth time from the doorway--'a braw room
+indeed, and I trust ye'll lang be spared to enjoy it. Ay, I do that;'
+and she sighed.
+
+I looked keenly and quickly at her.
+
+'No, no, Maister Weelum, I dinna mean that. I'm no' a dabbler amang
+leaf-mould;' and she laughed cheerily. 'A' the same, an' jokin' apairt,
+I trust ye'll live to get the guid o' a' your ootlay. At ony rate, ye'll
+be gey bien here ower the winter. An' when ye're weel again, an' away
+back to yer wark in Embro', ye'll no' forget that ye have sic a place
+here. Somewey, I think ye'll get marrit sune--hoo I think sae I canna
+tell, but the look's comin' to your e'e--an' whaever the lucky leddy may
+be, ye needna be feart to bring her here, for it's a room fit for a
+duchess.'
+
+The early fall of snow, which I shall ever associate with the doctor's
+love-story, was, after all, very slight, and except in the uplands,
+where it lies in the crevices gleaming white in the wintry sun, it has
+almost entirely disappeared. I have been allowed outside again, and, but
+for a little stiffness, due, the doctor says, to inaction, I am feeling
+wonderfully strong and even vigorous.
+
+John Kellock the butcher is the nominal owner of an old bobtailed collie
+which rejoices in the name of Bang. Bang carries with him into old age
+many mementos of his pugilistic days, not the least obvious of which are
+a tattered and limp ear and a short, deformed foreleg. He is long past
+active service, and only barks now from the shop-door when sheep pass
+along the village street; but he dearly loves a quiet saunter down the
+pavement and along the country road with any one who has a mind to chum
+with him and can keep step with his. John Sterling the shoemaker is also
+the nominal owner of a dog, a Dandie Dinmont named Jip, which was long a
+doughty antagonist of Bang, but he is now on the pension list too, and
+glad of congenial company of limited locomotive capabilities. So the
+three of us--all more or less 'crocks,' and mutually sympathetic--take a
+constitutional together almost every day. I have mentioned Jip last, but
+really it was he who made friends with me first. His master made no
+demur to Jip's frequent strolls with me, as the shoemaker himself leads
+a sedentary life, and no man knows better than he that a dog should get
+exercise; but since Jip has on more than one occasion taken French leave
+and remained overnight with me, I am afraid jealousy is springing up in
+the shoemaker's breast. Bang noted the ripening acquaintanceship, and
+girned disapproval as we passed the butcher's shop; but I never
+neglected an opportunity of scratching his shaggy underjaw and talking
+coaxingly in a 'doggie' way to him, and so it came to pass that after
+following us bit by bit, day by day, he agreed with Jip to bury the
+hatchet, and we are now a happy trio and the very best of friends.
+
+As companions in a country walk I prefer Bang and Jip to any man I know.
+I can be silent and meditative, and they don't feel neglected or out of
+it; and when I am minded to talk, they, in the wag of the tail and the
+intelligent look of the eye, respond and approve. But they never
+trespass upon my attention or disturb my vein of thought.
+
+At first, after our walk, when I reached Betty's door, I asked them to
+come inside, but they stood with a dubious look in their eyes and with
+heads turned sideways. Then Jip evidently remembered that John Sterling
+had paid his license, and that he was in duty bound to make some show of
+recognition, so he walked sedately and with fixed purpose across the
+street; while Bang, with recurrent memories of truant acts associated
+with ash-plants, limped his way to Kellock's door. Now, however, they
+have both flung discretion and fears to the winds, and accompany me to
+my fireside with an 'at home' sort of air, and just as if Betty's abode
+were their own.
+
+Betty has a cat, a very nice, comfortable-looking cat, with a glossy,
+well-cared-for fur, and a strong masculine face; and she often wonders
+why I take no notice of Jessie, as she, in her simplicity, misnames
+him. The truth is, God's creatures, great and small, interest and appeal
+to me, but I cannot love cats. I admire their graceful movements, their
+agility, their cleanliness so far as their fur is concerned; but their
+eyes cannot draw me lovingly to them as a dog's can, and I have the
+feeling that they are capable of loving only those who minister to their
+wants, and that they are putting up with domesticity because it assures
+them of food and shelter without putting them to the trouble and
+inconvenience of seeking it for themselves. I am sorry I cannot love
+Jessie, but it can't be helped. Jessie, I know, never loved me; and
+since Bang and Jip have got entry to the house I know 'she' positively
+hates me.
+
+This afternoon Bang and Jip accompanied me as usual in my stroll, and
+after I had leisurely surveyed all the countryside around, and the two
+dogs had to their hearts' content explored every rat-run in the roots of
+the bordering hedgerows, we turned for home. For a little while I halted
+at Hastie's gate, and watched with interest the northward rush of the
+afternoon express. I remembered how, when a boy, I used to stand at this
+coign of vantage, with my eyes riveted on the speeding trains, following
+them in imagination and desire through distant fields and woods, past
+towns I knew of only through my geography, on and away to the busy,
+bustling terminus on the Clyde, with its big houses, its long streets,
+and attractive shops. How I envied the driver on the footplate, and how
+I longed to be a passenger with him _en route_ to the city which was
+then to me unknown and unexplored! _Experientia docet_; the express in
+its flight was as interesting to me as it was then, but the desire and
+longing to be in it were lacking. 'No, no,' I said to myself; 'no
+bustling city for me at present. Here around me is life without veneer;
+here is the peace I crave; here, I feel, is the goal.' The sound of
+approaching footsteps cut short my reverie. I turned my head, and for
+the second time I looked into the eyes of my dream-lady.
+
+Had I had time to gather my wits and consider the situation, I should
+probably have recognised her presence by merely raising my hat, but this
+was denied me; and, acting on a sudden impulse, I went forward to meet
+her with my hand outstretched. With a look of surprise and, I imagined,
+annoyance, she stopped and regarded me earnestly for a moment. In a
+flash it came to me that we had never been introduced, and I blushed
+awkwardly and retreated a step, muttering an incoherent apology. Then
+ensued a long pause, an awkward silence. It was Bang who came to the
+rescue, and saved the situation. Wagging his scraggy apology for a tail,
+he sidled up to her, and in an ingratiating, wheedling way which only a
+dog possesses, he claimed her attention. She spoke to him, and stroked
+his shaggy head. Then Jip ventured forward, demanding his share of her
+favours, and she bent down and asked him his name. I remained
+tongue-tied and ill at ease, and was wishing myself a hundred miles
+away, when she suddenly looked toward me and smiled.
+
+'I consider a collie and a Dandie Dinmont ideal companions,' she said.
+'They are evidently very much attached to you, and old friends are the
+best friends.'
+
+'Friends, yes; but they don't belong to me,' I replied. 'Bang here is an
+old pensioner of the village butcher, and wee Jip is the apple of our
+local shoemaker's eye. We've been good chums since I came down here, and
+I seldom go for a walk without them.'
+
+'They weren't with you that day in Nithbank Wood?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'By the way,' she hastily interposed, as if glad of an opening, 'I am
+pleased to have met you again, and to see you are none the worse of
+your indiscretion in venturing so far when you weren't feeling fit. You
+have only one walking-stick now, instead of two; so I argue you are
+making good progress. Do you know,' she continued, and she gave me a
+look which set my heart thumping, 'I have, time and again, reproached
+myself for leaving you as I did. You acknowledged you had attempted too
+much, and you looked so helpless, so--so'----and she hesitated. 'What
+_is_ that very expressive Scots word, now? So'----
+
+'Forfaughten,' I hazarded.
+
+'That's it--forfaughten; and you must have felt forfaughten, otherwise
+the word wouldn't have appealed to you as suitable.'
+
+'Well, I admit now, I was, but at the time I didn't wish you, a lady and
+a stranger, to know it. Besides, you had already done a good deal for
+me, which, allow me to repeat, I shall not readily forget.'
+
+I was gradually regaining the confidence I had lost, and felt inclined
+to say more, and to tell her of my dream and what her presence meant to
+me; but I restrained myself; and, pointing to the paint-box she carried,
+I changed the subject by asking her if she was finding much inspiration
+in our beautiful surroundings.
+
+'Yes--oh yes!' she replied; 'it is a beautiful countryside, and the
+longer I live in it the more I see in it to admire. A wooded locality,
+such as this, looks at its best--at least from an artist's
+standpoint--in the late autumn, when sufficient foliage is shed to allow
+the gray-purple of the branches to mingle with the yellow and russet of
+the leaves. I am fortunate in being here at this particular time, and I
+have made quite a number of sketches, which I may work up later. But I
+am not really an artist. I am only a humble amateur, though I may to an
+extent have the eye of an artist--to appreciate all the beautiful
+sights, you know, and that, after all, is something. But I must be
+going. Good-afternoon; and I'm glad that you are getting on so
+nicely.--Good-bye, Bang.--Good-bye, Jip;' and she gave them a parting
+pat, and with a smile on her face which I long remembered, she walked
+slowly away.
+
+It is a very slender hair to make a tether with, but somehow the fact of
+her remembering the dogs by name is a consoling thought, and a source of
+peculiar satisfaction to me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+When I got home, and was comfortably seated in my arm-chair by the fire,
+Betty came in to set my tea, and I wasn't long in noticing that, from
+her abstracted air and the listless way she was moving about, she had
+something on her mind. She looked for a moment or two at Bang and Jip
+lying comfortably curled up on the hearthrug. 'Thae dugs are braw an'
+snug lyin' there,' she said; 'an' my puir Jessie's sittin' in the cauld
+stick-hoose in the huff. No' that I grudge them their warm bed, for I'm
+gled--he'rt gled--to see them peaceable at last wi' yin anither. It's
+nae time since they were girnin' an' fechtin' an' tumblin' ower each
+ither frae the Cross to the Gill, an' noo, haith, they canna get ower
+cheek-for-chowie. Ye maun ha'e a wonderfu' wey wi' dugs, Maister Weelum.
+It's a peety ye couldna exert it in ither weys.'
+
+I know Betty too well to venture assistance, and I had the feeling that
+she would soon work her way round to her subject without my aiding and
+abetting.
+
+'The kettle will soon be through the boil, an' ye'll get your tea in a
+jiffy,' she said. 'Imphm! it's a gey comfortable-lookin' chair, that yin
+opposite ye, Maister Weelum; an', d'ye ken, I met a leddy the day that I
+wad like to see sittin' in it.'
+
+'Indeed, Betty!'
+
+'Ay. I dinna ken when I was sae much impressed wi' onybody at first
+sicht as I was this day; an' when I was sittin' lookin' at her, an'
+listenin' to her voice, something whispered in my ear, "That's the wife
+for my boy."'
+
+'My goodness, Betty, you're forcing the pace!' I laughingly said. 'First
+you wish to see this lady sitting in my chair, and in your next breath
+you say you wish to see her my wife! Where did you meet this paragon?'
+
+'Weel, this efternoon, when you an' the dugs were away yer walk, I
+slippit in next door juist for a meenit to see hoo they were a' gettin'
+on, an', as I usually do, I opened the door withoot knockin' an' walked
+strecht ben to the kitchen, an' there, Maister Weelum, sittin' on the
+wee laich nursin'-chair at the fireside, was the leddy I speak o'. I
+gaed to gang back into the lobby; but Mrs Jardine wadna hear o't, an'
+she made me step in, an' she introduced me, quite the thing, mind you.
+Ye see, Tom's wife was toon bred, an' she kens a' the weys o't, an' she
+mentioned me by name an' the leddy by name; an' if she had been
+staunin' in a drawin'-room on a Turkey carpet, an' cled in brocade, she
+couldna ha'e dune it better. I juist didna catch the leddy's name, for,
+what wi' the suddenness, her bonny face, an' ae thing an' anither, I was
+sairly flabbergasted an' putten aboot. It seems, hooever, that she's in
+the picter-pentin' line, an' she's ta'en a great fancy to wee Isobel,
+an' she's makin' a portrait o' her. A week or twae bygane she saw the
+wee lass staunin' at the door as she was passin', an' she was so struck
+wi' her bonny wee face an' her lang fair hair that she spoke to her an'
+asked to see her mither. Weel, the upshot o' this was that, as I've
+said, she is pentin' her, an' a capital picter she's makin'. It's hardly
+finished yet. I ken fules an' bairns should never see hauf-dune wark,
+an' I'm no' a judge, into the bargain; but I'll say this, photographin'
+micht be quicker an' mair o' a deid likeness, but it's no' in it wi' yon
+for naturalness and bonny life-like colour. But that's by the wey, as it
+were. Her work is guid, withoot a doot, but she hersel's a perfect
+picter.'
+
+I felt my heart beginning to thump and throb, and my breath getting
+catchy. 'Pity you missed her name, Betty,' I said with forced unconcern.
+
+'Ay, as I telt ye, I was putten aboot, an' missed it; but I'll speir at
+Mrs Jardine again, 'at will I.'
+
+'And--and what is the lady like?' I asked, with as much indifference as
+I could command.
+
+'Weel, Maister Weelum, I juist canna exactly tell ye. She's yin o' the
+few folks ye meet in a lifetime that ye canna judge o' or scrutinise bit
+by bit. It's impossible to do that wi' her; you've to tak' her in a' at
+aince, as it were; ye ken what I mean--eh?'
+
+I did, and I didn't; but I nodded as if I understood.
+
+'What struck me mair than ocht else,' she continued, 'was her couthie,
+affable mainner. To look at her ye wad think that she's a' drawn
+thegether--prood-like, ye ken, wi' an almichty set apairt kind o' an
+air; but whenever she speaks an' looks at ye, ye've the feelin' that
+she's a' roon aboot ye, an' that there's only her an' you in the whole
+world. An' she was so composed an' calm, so weel-bred withoot bein'
+uppish! Oh, I tell ye she juist talked away to Mrs Jardine an' me as if
+we were o' her ain kind. An' when she rose up to gang away, an' was
+staunin' her full heicht lookin' doon on us, do you know, Maister
+Weelum, she seemed to me to be kind o' glorified, an' the kitchen an' a'
+its plenishin's faded frae my sicht, an' a' I was conscious o' was the
+kindly glent o' twae big dark een an' the feelin' that I was in the
+presence o' some yin by-ordinar'--imphm! An' efter she had gane I
+couldna carry on a wiselike conversation wi' Mrs Jardine for listenin'
+to the whispered words in my ear, "That's the yin! That's the wife for
+Maister Weelum."'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Since the forenights began to lengthen the doctor has got into the way
+of dropping in and smoking a quiet, meditative pipe with me over the
+chess-board. When he called to-night I drew out the little table with
+the squared top, and we settled down to our game. But my mind was not
+concerned with bishops, pawns, and knights, and my thoughts kept
+careering between Hastie's gate and Mrs Jardine's kitchen. I made an
+effort to centre my interest, and to look the part of the keen, zealous
+player; but, unfortunately, I cannot dissemble. I lost two pawns very
+stupidly, and the doctor looked keenly at me, but said nothing. I
+blundered on, and at last I made a move which caused the doctor to
+smile. He got up, relit his pipe, and sank into an easy-chair. 'Ah,
+William,' he said, 'Love is a tyrant! Heart claimed, thoughts claimed,
+all dancing attendance on the enslaver.'
+
+I blushed, and made a show of riping my pipe into the coal-scuttle to
+hide my confusion. Then I told him of the meeting on the Carronbrig
+road, and of Betty's experience in Mrs Jardine's kitchen.
+
+'The plot thickens, William,' he said as he rose to go; 'and if I were
+you I would tell her of your dream next time you meet her. It will
+interest her in you; and, you know, once interest is aroused--well, love
+will follow. Good-night.'
+
+My picture has arrived, and I have got it hung in a favourable light, in
+a place of honour above the mantelpiece. I became quite excited when it
+was delivered, and, like a child with a new toy, was impatient to see
+it, and to gloat over it. But the lid of the wooden case was tightly
+screwed down; and, as a hammer and a saw were the only joinery tools
+which Betty possessed, I had to call in Deacon Webster's aid, and Betty,
+poor body, got no peace till he arrived with his screwdriver. When at
+length the picture was taken out of its packing I noticed there was no
+signature in the corner, and this at the time was a keen disappointment
+to me; but it has ceased to trouble me now, because I have the feeling
+that it will shortly bear the artist's name, and till that time comes,
+when I am not admiring her handiwork, I shall just entertain myself
+filling the corner space with names which appeal to my mind as fitting
+and appropriate.
+
+When I asked Nathan's opinion of my purchase, he looked several times
+very deliberately from me to the picture; then, after a pause, informed
+me he had 'never till noo seen purple gress.' I explained to him that
+this was the purple sunset glow; but he shook his head sceptically, spat
+in my fire, and walked slowly ben into the kitchen. Betty, who spent her
+early girlhood in the Keir, is delighted that a picture in which her
+native parish hills are depicted should be hanging on her walls, and she
+was very anxious to know who the painter was, and how it came into my
+possession. I just said I was very much interested in the artist, and
+that the picture had been sent from Edinburgh. She pointed out to me,
+what I hadn't noticed before, that the bright richness of the gold frame
+made the others shabby and tarnished-looking, and she warmly advocated
+the application of a liquid gold paint which John Boyes retails at
+sixpence a bottle, and which, she assures me, 'is liker pure gold than a
+sovereign.' Betty dearly loves to dabble in paint. It was Nathan who
+acquainted me with this predilection, and he instanced a case of her
+blue-enamelling the long hazel crook, the representative staff of the
+Ancient Order of Shepherds, which on gala-days he carries in the
+procession; and another, when she varnished, with a strange concoction,
+a workbox which she has never been able to open since. Knowing this, I
+purposely belittled Boyes's liquid, and assured her that in a week or
+two our eyes would become so accustomed to the conditions that we
+shouldn't distinguish any difference between the frames. It grieves me
+very much to thwart Betty; though, truth to tell, I seldom have occasion
+to do so, as our opinions on the big things of life, the essentials, are
+rarely in conflict, and the smaller we think not worth wrangling over;
+so I talked her into a gracious, amenable humour, and ultimately took
+leave of the subject in what I considered mutual agreement.
+
+This morning, however, when she brought up my ante-breakfast cup of tea,
+she reverted to the subject without any preliminaries. 'Man, Maister
+Weelum,' she began, 'I've juist been takin' anither look roon' the
+dinin'-room. Noo, since we've got it done up it's the first thing I do
+in the mornin' an' the last at nicht; an', do ye know, I feel quite
+prood an' important when I'm puttin' a nice white cover on the big
+table, an' the silver candelabra in the centre o't. But, oh man, since
+yesterday I'm positively he'rt-sorry for thae auld frames. In a mainner
+it's my pleesure spoiled; to me it's a case o' deid flies in the
+ointment, ye understaun? Imphm! an' I'm gettin' fair angry at the new
+yin hangin' oot so prominently an' skinklin' as if to chaw the ithers.
+Dod, I imagine it's laughin' an' jeerin' at them. Noo, Maister Weelum,
+twae sixpenny bottles o' John Boyes's gold spread oot thin would amaist
+do the whole lot, an'--an' I'll put it on mysel'. I'm rale knacky wi' a
+brush. It'll no' come to much--imphm! the cost'll be very little. What
+think ye?'
+
+'I don't know, Betty, I'm sure. I'm sorry to know the old frames annoy
+your eye. Personally I like the old ones better than the new one; but
+I'll tell you what, Betty,' I said gleefully, as a happy thought struck
+me; 'we'll get the new frame coated over with some sort of stuff to dull
+it down a bit. They'll be all alike then. How would that do?'
+
+'It'll no' do at a', Maister Weelum,' she said emphatically. 'That
+picter maunna be touched. No! no! It has some history, or I'm cheated.
+Time will prove'----
+
+A sudden loud knocking echoed through the house and cut short her
+sentence. 'Mercy me, what a bang!' she said. 'That's Milligan the
+postman, an' as sure as my name's Betty Grier he'll bash through that
+door some day;' and, to my relief--for she was stumbling into 'kittle'
+ground--she hurried downstairs.
+
+Since I came here my correspondence has become almost a negligible
+quantity. I rarely write to any one, and the few letters I receive are
+of a more or less private business character. I had two this
+morning--one from the treasurer of my club reminding me my subscription
+is due at the end of this month, and the other from my partner, Murray
+Monteith, who, after alluding to minor matters, writes as follows:
+
+'Now for the real reason of my troubling you at this time. The Hon. Mrs
+Stuart wrote to me yesterday from Nithbank House, near Thornhill, saying
+she was desirous of consulting me on a very important subject; but owing
+to indisposition she couldn't travel to Edinburgh, and she would be much
+obliged if I could make it convenient to call on her at that address any
+day next week. I wrote to her by return saying I would travel south on
+Wednesday first, and would be with her during the early afternoon of
+that day. As you know, I am a stranger to your native county; but I
+presume Nithbank House is within driving distance of Thornhill, and as I
+am due at the station of that name at 11.30 A.M., I shall thus have
+ample time to call on you prior to my visit, and talk over matters with
+you.
+
+'The important subject she refers to is, without doubt, in connection
+with the affairs of her brother-in-law, the late General Stuart, which,
+I regret to say, are still in a most unsatisfactory state, owing to our
+inability to unearth a will or to procure any information regarding his
+marriage. We have made exhaustive inquiry in every conceivable
+direction, but without result; and his daughter, Miss Stuart, must now
+be acquainted with the facts as they at present stand. She called here
+on the 17th ult., and asked to see you. Ormskirk informed her that you
+were at present invalided in the country, and showed her into my room.
+We talked over matters in a general way, and I think I managed to
+satisfy her on the main points, without giving her any reason to suspect
+we were faced with such serious difficulties. But, as I have said, she
+must be told now, and I approach this part of the business with
+misgivings, as it is a very delicate matter indeed; and, from the little
+I have seen of her, I argue she will take it very keenly to heart. For
+us to inform her, in our cold, unfeeling legal phraseology, that she is,
+in the eyes of the law, illegitimate would be nothing short of brutal,
+and I trust we may prevail on her aunt to discharge this unenviable
+obligation. I assure you I have no desire to trouble you unnecessarily
+at this time with business concerns; but, as you are in the immediate
+locality, and are not only acquainted with the parties, but conversant
+with all the details of this case, I hope you will see your way to
+accompany me to Nithbank. Miss Stuart informed me that she had
+transacted business by correspondence only, and that she had not yet met
+you. Would this not be a good opportunity for us all to meet and decide
+what ought to be done?'
+
+Needless to say, I shall be delighted to receive Murray Monteith here.
+We must arrange to have him remain overnight with us, and I shall take
+peculiar pleasure in introducing him to Betty and Nathan and Dr
+Grierson, types, I feel sure, which he has never met before, but which I
+am equally sure he will appreciate. I shall certainly accompany him to
+Nithbank House; and I must be prepared to have the vials of the Hon. Mrs
+Stuart's wrath poured out upon me when she learns that for almost six
+months I have resided within two miles of her, and have not considered
+it my duty and privilege to call on her. I am very, very sorry to learn
+from Monteith that things have turned out so unfortunately; but somehow
+I have dreaded such an outcome all along. And my heart goes out to that
+poor girl who is likely to lose her patrimony under the inexorable law
+of succession. But, wait now, let me think. Yes, these four thousand
+Banku oil shares which her father transferred to her, on her coming of
+age, are hers, and cannot be contested; so that, after all, if our worst
+fears regarding the property are realised, she will not be penniless. I
+wonder if she is a level-headed business girl, and if she knows to what
+extent she will benefit from this. Banku oils are worth looking after.
+This will be one cheering subject, at least, which we may broach to her.
+But, after all, the stigma of illegitimacy remains, and money cannot
+make up for that. Poor girl!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Pondering these thoughts, I slowly dressed and went downstairs to
+breakfast; but so wrapped up was I in reflection, and engrossed in legal
+procedure and probable eventualities, that when Betty appeared with my
+bacon and egg I could scarcely reconcile myself to my surroundings or at
+once realise my whereabouts. Fortunately she didn't notice my
+preoccupied air, otherwise my firm's long, blue, tax-looking letter
+would again have been blamed and execrated; nor did she make any attempt
+to pick up the thread-ends of our conversation regarding the regilding
+of the old frames. I wondered at this, as the conditions were
+propitious; and Betty, as a rule, follows up the trail of a crack as
+surely and consistently as a weasel follows a hare.
+
+'Joe's in the back-kitchen brushin' your boots,' she said, as she handed
+me the morning papers; and I sighed with relief in the knowledge that
+Boyes's liquid was likely, for the time being at least, to remain on his
+shop shelf. 'Puir sowl, he's quite pleased when I ask him to do ocht for
+you,' she continued. 'Yesterday, withoot bein' bid, he got oot yin o'
+your suits o' claes an' pressed it wi' my big smoothin' ern on the
+kitchen table, an' he's made sic a job o't as wud be a credit to ony
+whip-the-cat. He has learned mair than drillin' in the airmy, I tell
+ye.'
+
+'I believe that, Betty,' I said. 'The service is often a capital
+schoolmaster. But it was very good of him to look to my clothes. I'll
+not forget him for that.'
+
+'Oh, mercy me, Maister Weelum, dinna you gi'e him ocht! He wad be black
+affronted an' terribly displeased if ye offered him money. No, no, it's
+neither wisdom nor charity to gi'e to Joe, for he's made mair siller
+lately than he kens hoo to tak' care o'. I can tell ye he cam' hame this
+time wi' a weel-filled pouch, an' for the first week o' six workin' days
+he did mak' it spin!'
+
+'Spin, Betty? How in the world did he contrive to make money spin in
+Thornhill?' I asked.
+
+'Haith, if ye had only seen him ye wadna need to ask. Ahem, spin! Ay,
+Joe can not only mak' the money spin, but he spins himsel', an' he mak's
+every yin spin that'll sit wi' him. But mebbe I'm gaun ower quick. Did
+ye no' ken that Joe tak's a dram?'
+
+'No, Betty, I did not; and, as he's a brother of Nathan's, I'm
+surprised to know it.'
+
+'Oh, weel, but it's juist possible that I'm wrangin' Joe noo. He's what
+I wad ca' a regular drammer--tak's his gless o' beer every day--ye ken;
+but aince a year, an' for a while efter he comes back, he gangs fairly
+ower the soore baith wi' drinkin' himsel' an' treatin' ithers. Ye ken he
+then has siller galore among his fingers, an' wi' Joe, as wi' the rest
+o' folk, "the fu' cup's no' easy carried." Last year he had a gey time
+o't; spent a lot, an' grudged it terribly when it was a' gane. Nathan
+canna be bothered wi' 'im in his thochtlessness. A' he says is "Benjy's
+a fule." He ca's him Benjy because he's the youngest o' the family. Ay,
+that's a' he says. But somewey I'm sorry for Joe, an' I'm aye ceevil an'
+nice to him. An', what think ye, Maister Weelum? He has signed the
+pledge to please me, 'at has he, an' he hasna touched a drap for nearly
+three weeks. It's wonderfu' what a bit word will do, if it's spoken in
+season.'
+
+'Yes, Betty, that is so,' I said meditatively; 'that is so. It is very
+good of you to interest yourself in Joe. I'm sure he'll bless your name
+every day.'
+
+'Imphm! I've nae doot he does; in fact, I'm sure he does;' and a queer
+smile broke over Betty's face. 'Ay, he blesses my name, sure enough;
+he's a Hebron, ye ken. The Hebrons never say much, but they look a
+tremendous lot, an' Joe's been lookin' at me lately as if he was
+blessin' me. The fact is, he's sairly off his usual. He has a queer
+cowed look I never saw before. Oh, the man's no' weel, an' I'm sure he
+blames me for it. This mornin', when he cam' doon, he was lookin' fair
+meeserable, an' I asked him, in a kindly, sympathetic wey, how he was
+feelin', an' said he, "Middlin', Betty; very middlin'. It's a very stiff
+job this I've tackled. I've been teetotal for twenty days, an' I've
+saved as much as'll buy me an oak coffin; an', Betty, if I'm teetotal
+for other twenty days, by the Lord Harry I'll need it!" An', d'ye ken,
+Maister Weelum, he was sae fa'en-away-lookin' that, though I kenned it
+was plantin' wi' ae haun an' pu'in up wi' the ither, I gaed away an'
+poured him oot a wee drap, juist a jimp gless, an' then I gi'ed him your
+buits to brush, an' he started to whussle like a mavis.'
+
+Betty's face was quite serious when she was telling me this, and when I
+looked into her kindly, concerned eyes, and thought of Joe's patient
+misery, I began to laugh, and I laughed till the breakfast crockery
+rattled. She looked at me in wonderment, and, lifting the teapot, she
+made for the door.
+
+'Excuse me, Betty, and pardon my levity,' I said; 'but just one
+moment'----
+
+'Oh, I'll excuse ye,' she said, as she halted. 'There's nocht I like
+better mysel' than a guid laugh, but it maun be at something funny; an'
+if it's Joe you're laughin' at, he was far frae funny this mornin', I
+tell ye.'
+
+'I can well understand that, Betty; but I was going to say'----
+
+'Maister Weelum, excuse me interruptin' ye, but do ye believe in
+ghosts?'
+
+'Do I believe in ghosts? Certainly not. Why do ye ask?'
+
+'Weel, I'm gled to hear ye dinna believe in them. I say wi' you; but
+Joe's juist been tellin' me that he met a leddy this mornin' on the
+public street that he could sweer died twenty-fower years bygane. So
+what mak' ye o' that?'
+
+'Oh Betty, Joe's most surely talking nonsense. Where did you say he met
+the lady?'
+
+'Haith, Joe'll no' alloo it's nonsense. He's very positive aboot it. His
+story to me was that he cam' suddenly on her gaun roon Harper's corner,
+an' he was so frichtened an' surprised that a' gumption left him, an' he
+couldna look efter her either to mak' sure o' her or to see where she
+was gaun. He was as white as a sheet when he cam' in to me, an' between
+the fricht an' the lang want o' his dram, he was in sic a state that I'm
+sure the Lord will coont me justified in gi'en him a mouthfu'. What I
+telt ye before was only half the truth, an' noo ye ken a'.'
+
+I don't know Joe very well. Since he came home I have had few
+opportunities of meeting him and analysing him; but when Betty was
+talking he was very vividly flung on the screen, so to speak, and a
+possible trait in his character occurred to me.
+
+'Betty,' I said, 'don't you think that Joe has just worked up his ghost
+story and feigned excitement and agitation, knowing you had spirits in
+the house, and that in the peculiar circumstances you would produce the
+bottle?'
+
+'No, no, I dinna think that. Joe's a Hebron, as I've said, an' the
+Hebrons ha'e neither the cleverness to think a thing like that oot nor
+the guile to carry it through. No, no, Maister Weelum; Joe met the
+leddy, whaever she may be, richt enough. I'm quite sure aboot that pairt
+o't; but of coorse he's wrang aboot the burial. It's been some yin very
+like her, an' Joe's juist mistaken. Had this happened when he was as I
+ha'e seen him I wad never ha'e gi'en it a thocht; but this
+mornin'--weel, the man was--was ower sober to be healthy.'
+
+'As you say, he's just made a mistake, Betty. At best, Joe's a
+mysterious individual; these annual disappearances are remarkable. Have
+you yet learned exactly where he goes?'
+
+Her alert ear detected a cessation of brushing and whistling, and she
+walked quietly to the door, keeked past it, and then gently turned the
+handle. 'He has finished your buits,' she said, 'an' he's gettin'
+Nathan's Sabbath-day yins doon frae the shelf to gi'e them a rub. Do I
+ken where he gangs? Ay, I do. For a lang time I jaloused; but last nicht
+he telt me a' aboot it, an', as it turns oot, I havena been very far
+frae the mark. His wife has a wee temperance hotel--a temperance
+yin--she kens Joe!--in a toon ca'd Brighton. She can manage a' richt
+hersel' in the dull pairt o' the year, but she's forced to get Joe in
+the busy time to gi'e her a haun wi' the fires an' the luggage an'
+siclike. She was only aince here, an' we didna see much o' her; but frae
+the little I did see I wad tak' her to be a fell purposefu' woman, mair
+cut oot for fechtin' in a toon than settlin' doon to the quiet, humdrum
+life o' Thornhill. Joe in the airmy wad dootless be a' richt, but oot
+o't an' hangin' aboot here wi' a decent pension he wad juist be an
+impossibility. I was kind o' sorry for her when she was here. She had
+never been in this pairt before, an' she didna tak' very kindly to it.
+She couldna understaun what we said, an' we were in the same fix when
+she spoke. The first nicht she was in this hoose Nathan, for Joe's sake,
+tried to ca' the crack wi' her; but it gied him a sair heid, so he juist
+smiled an' noddit to her efter that. She put twae months in here, an'
+then she went away on her ain. First she kept lodgers; then she took
+this wee hotel, an' by a' accoonts she's doin' weel. But it's a queer,
+queer life for baith o' them. Never a letter passes between them, an'
+Joe seldom mentions her name. When he cam' back this time I asked him if
+his wife wasna vexed to pairt wi' him when the time cam' for him to
+leave, an' he said he didna ken, for he didna see her. "Ye didna see
+her!" said I. "Hoo was that?" "Oh," said he, "she was busy at her wark
+up the stairs, so I cried to her that I was away, an' she cried back,
+'Right you are, Joe; so long till next July,' and that was a'." Imphm!
+isn't that a queer state o' maitters, Maister Weelum? Mind you, I dinna
+a'thegither blame her. I ken the Hebrons. They're a queer, quate family.
+Ye never can tell what they're thinkin'. I've the best o' them--ay, the
+best--an' I often shut my een an' thank God for Nathan; but if he had
+marrit ony ither woman--I mean a woman wha didna ken him as I do, or
+mak' allowances as I can, an' though she had been an angel frae
+heaven--she wad ha'e been as meeserable as I am happy. Ay, it was lang,
+lang before I understood Nathan, an' the kennin' o' him was a dreich
+job, but it was worth it a'. Ye see, the Hebrons havena got the faculty
+o' expressin' their feelin's. They may be pleased or angry--it's a'
+yin--they never let on in their speech, but they show it in their
+actions; at least my Nathan does, an' my impression is that Joe's
+wife--Sally her name is--doesna ken Joe yet. He'll no' ha'e met her
+half-road, as it were, an' gi'en her a chance o' gettin' to the bedrock,
+an' she tak's his quateness for indifference; an' the upshot is, as ye
+see, that for the best pairt o' a year she's as happy in Brighton as he
+is in Thornhill, an' for the rest they put up wi' yin anither for the
+sake o' the siller their united efforts bring in. Ay, it's a queer world
+for some folk. But I'm deavin' ye. Joe'll be oot o' a job, too, an' to
+keep him richt I maun keep him workin' the day;' and she bustled off to
+encourage Joe in well-doing.
+
+Later I consulted with Betty about Murray Monteith's visit, and we
+arranged to get the south bedroom prepared for his reception. So I
+wrote him to-day at some length, extending Betty's invitation, and
+expressing my willingness to accompany him to Nithbank House. After I
+had finished my letter I perambulated the dining-room round and round,
+for the day was wet and boisterous, and I could not go out of doors.
+Bang and Jip, evidently conscious of the fact that a walk was out of the
+question, were making themselves at home on the hearthrug, and I was
+just finishing half a mile of carpet-walking when the street door
+opened, and Nathan's step sounded in the lobby. Betty had gone out on an
+errand, so I went in to the kitchen.
+
+'Hallo, Nathan!' I said; 'have you got a holiday to-day?'
+
+Nathan looked up at me as he sat down in his arm-chair near the fire.
+'I've ta'en yin, Maister Weelum,' he said. 'I've ta'en yin--very much
+against the grain, though. I'm--I'm no' feelin' very weel, so I thocht I
+wad juist come hame.'
+
+'You did well to come home, Nathan, and I'm sorry to know you are not up
+to the mark. You're cold-looking. Do you feel cold?'
+
+'Weel, shivery weys, Maister Weelum; shivery weys. Imphm!--Where's
+Betty?'
+
+I told him she had gone out on an errand, but would be back presently;
+and, going into the dining-room, I poured out a glass of brandy and
+brought it to him. 'Here, Nathan. I know your mind on the liquor
+question; but put aside your objections and drink this. It will do you
+good.'
+
+He smiled feebly. 'What would Betty say? Will ye tak' the blame?' he
+asked.
+
+'Certainly I'll take the blame, or, rather, I should say the credit.
+Drink it up now, Nathan.'
+
+Joe, who had been splitting firewood in the stick-house, had recognised
+his brother's voice, and came into the kitchen. 'It is you, Nathan!' he
+said, in surprise. 'It's no' often we see you wi' a dram-gless in your
+hand, an' at this time o' day, too. My word, but you're lucky!'
+
+'Ay, Benjy, it is me, an' I am lucky. I daur say ye wad like to chum wi'
+me the noo. Are--are ye still keepin' the teetotal?'
+
+For a moment Joe looked shamefacedly at Nathan; then truth and
+honour--outstanding traits of the Hebrons--shone in his eye. 'No,' he
+said; 'I broke it this mornin'.'
+
+'Ay--imphm! And hoo did you come to do that?' asked Nathan, without
+looking round.
+
+'Betty tempted me, and I fell.'
+
+'Oh, imphm! Betty gied ye a dram, did she? Weel, Benjy, whatever Betty
+did was richt. She didna tempt ye, man; she treated ye, that's what she
+did. Ye'll no' gang far wrang if ye're guided by Betty.--Eh, Maister
+Weelum?'
+
+He was sitting very near the fire, with his long gnarled fingers spread
+out for warmth, and he looked up sideways to me when he said this with a
+look in his blue eyes which told me, more pointedly than words, of his
+absolute confidence in her good judgment, and the pride he had in the
+possession of her love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+One of my city friends who is interested in the study of phrenology once
+told me that my bump of adaptability is very strongly developed. He told
+me more, of which I was sceptical; but the natural ease with which I
+have taken to and conformed with my present surroundings is proof to me
+that his interpretation of this particular bump was fairly correct.
+Words fail me to express adequately the pleasure I have derived from my
+reintroduction to Nature's home and mine. Everything seems fresh from
+the hand of the Creator; there is no veneer, no make-believe, and over
+all there is solace and repose. Happy hours in the domestic atmosphere
+of the old house, mellowed and sweetened by the presence of Betty and
+Nathan; the quiet interval spent in the barber's back sanctum, with its
+window facing the gray-blue Lowthers; the afternoon visit to John
+Sterling's shop, with its homely smell of roset and bend-leather, and
+our usual discussion on the Dandie breed and the beauties of Scott's
+_Marmion_, Aird's _Devil's Dream_, and Hogg's _Kilmeny_; a stroll with
+Bang and Jip round the Gillfoot or down the 'Coo Road;' and solitary
+meditation on the doctor's 'mound,' surrounded by a medley of
+vegetation, planted indiscriminately and flourishing under what the dear
+old man calls his natural style of gardening--such is my daily
+programme. A homely life this amidst homely folks: the barber in his
+reminiscent moods; John Sterling with his love of dogs, his
+charitableness and honesty, and his enthusiasm for what I may call the
+true poetry of life; Dr Grierson, walking alone, hugging to his heart a
+sweet secret memory, dreein' his weird, doing good in his own quiet way,
+and keeping from his left hand what his right hand is doing; Nathan,
+silent, serious, and preoccupied, deferring ever to Betty, and proud and
+content to shelter in her shadow; and Betty, my dear, kind, thoughtful
+Betty, who always carves with the blunt knife and the big heart, whose
+Bible is her bolster, and whose solicitude extends to all God's
+creatures great and small--homely folks of a surety; yes, commonplace,
+if you will, but dear to my heart. It may be--in fact, I may take it for
+granted--that characters like these would make no appeal to my city
+acquaintances; to them association with such would be boredom, and my
+mode of living the essence of dreariness; and yet to me, and I say it
+with all reverence, it comes as near as anything on earth can come to
+that peace which passeth all understanding.
+
+Mention of Betty and her Bible in the same breath reminds me that lately
+she has talked to me almost solely on secular matters. This is not as it
+used to be. When first I came to her, by a process of manoeuvring and
+meandering peculiar to herself she always managed to steer her
+conversation into religious channels, and the direct way she had of
+pointing the moral was always original and characteristic. It is not
+because I have discouraged her or shown any indifference that she has
+lapsed in this matter; and it would appear that, as our intimacy has
+ripened, and as our topics of conversation have become more personal,
+she has meantime allowed the mundane to prevail, with a view to taking
+up the more serious and essential at a more convenient season.
+
+I wasn't surprised, therefore, when, to-day, after Dr Grierson had
+visited Nathan in the back-room, she asked him in an off-hand,
+matter-of-fact way what he thought of yesterday's sermon.
+
+The doctor was fumbling in his pocket for his old clay, and in an
+absent, abstracted tone of voice he informed her that, as he hadn't
+been to church, he wasn't in a position to pass any judgment.
+
+'Ay, ye werena at the kirk? I micht ha'e kenned that,' she said. 'Imphm!
+I'm no' a deid auld woman, doctor,' she continued; 'but I mind o' your
+faither efter he left Dumfries an' cam' to bide wi' ye here, an' he was
+a regular attender at the kirk. It's a great pity when folks break off
+kin'. Ay, that it is! Imphm! An', doctor, you'll excuse me, it's mebbe
+nae business o' mine; but I canna help tellin' ye that I often think
+aboot ye, an' that ye lie heavy on my mind. We've seen a great deal o'
+ye lately, mair than we ever saw before, and I've proved to mysel' what
+ithers said o' ye, an' what I had aye ta'en for granted. It's a' in your
+favour, an' what ye've dune for the puir God will no' forget when ye're
+bein' weighed in the balance.'
+
+'Thank you, Betty,' the doctor said, as he struck a light.
+
+'Ay, but haud on; I havena dune wi' ye. I havena come to the point. As
+I've said, ye've come a great deal in an' oot among us lately, an' in a
+temporal sense ye've been a great comfort and help to Maister Weelum
+here. Oh that ye had been able to influence him spiritually, for since
+he cam' he's never darkened a kirk door. I've held my tongue, as sae
+far there's been an excuse for him; but noo that he's gettin' better an'
+able to gang aboot, I juist think that oot o' respect for you, if ye had
+been kirk-minded, he could easily ha'e been guided Zionward.'
+
+I had the feeling that Betty was rushing in where angels fear to tread;
+and, not knowing how the doctor was likely to take this, I became very
+uncomfortable. He puffed spasmodically at his pipe and moved uneasily in
+his chair. 'It is very kind of you, Betty, to think of me,' he
+said--'very kind indeed; and you must not count it none of your business
+to bring such matters before me. In a way we are all each other's
+keepers, and it would be churlish of me to resent such interest as you
+show. For my own part, I live my life according to my light, such as it
+is. It may be a poor, flickering light to other eyes, but it is
+sufficient to show me the road. As for William here, he has long ago
+reached man's estate, and he can judge of these matters for himself. If
+I mistake not, he has a standard of his own, and I feel sure my
+influence, even though I were kirk-minded, as you call it, would not
+direct his steps in the direction you indicate.'
+
+'Oh doctor, dinna say that! We can a' be made humble instruments.
+Example is a great thing, though ye dinna follow your faither's, an' I
+ken what a power for guid ye wad be if the grace o' God was in ye. Oh
+doctor, I've been he'rt sorry for ye mony a time, for I ken the grief
+ye've carried, an' I've wondered hoo ye could thole it sae lang a' by
+yoursel', an' that ye never accepted the consolation which He alone can
+gi'e ye. But ye've spurned it, doctor. I don't think that ye're a joined
+member o' the kirk or that ye gang to the Communion--you that's sic a
+man i' the toon--everybody's body as you are, an' born wi' a sma'er dose
+o' original sin than ony yin I ken o'. I juist canna understan' it.'
+
+The doctor laughed good-humouredly. 'I've my work to attend to, you
+know, Betty. My patients cannot be neglected for the sake of'----
+
+'If your work permitted, wad ye gang to the kirk, doctor?'
+
+'I--I question if I would.'
+
+'That's an honest admission, an' it wadna come frae Dr Grierson if it
+wasna. An' what's your objection, doctor?'
+
+'Oh, well, Betty, your question opens up a big, debatable subject on
+which I have great reluctance to enter. I have neither the time nor the
+inclination, Betty; but this much I will say, we are all heirs to a
+heritage of different distresses in this life, and as we are not all
+constituted alike we require different treatment. Now there is one great
+panacea, one great balm, for all our wounds. Some find that panacea in
+their church, though many go to church who are not aware they require a
+panacea. Others, of whom I am one, find a balm for their afflictions in
+communing with the nature of God's creation we see around us. With such
+it isn't necessary to go to church in order to feel God's presence or to
+experience His beneficent power. If it were, we could only commune with
+Him once a week, when the churches are open. As it is, I can praise Him
+at all times, and glorify His name under the canopy of His heavens, and
+among the trees and flowers and fields and woods, which evidence His
+fostering care and proclaim His loving-kindness.'
+
+'Then, doctor, ye do believe in God?'
+
+A pained look crept into the doctor's eyes. 'Betty,' he said, 'you
+surely have never doubted that?'
+
+'Weel, wi' you no' gaun to the kirk, an''----
+
+'Ah, Betty, it is possible for a man to go to church and remain in
+doubt; but no one can stand, as I often do, under the starry firmament,
+alone in the midst of slumbering nature, or facing the glowing east
+when the shafts of the sun's morning beams are piercing the shadowy sky,
+and not feel within himself that God reigneth, and the earth in
+consequence rejoices.'
+
+'Grand! Man, doctor, I'm glad to hear ye say that! I'm--I'm rale glad.'
+
+There was a wee bit catch in Betty's voice, and a tear trickled down her
+cheek, which she tried to wipe away unnoticed with a corner of her
+apron. But the doctor saw, and his face twitched and softened.
+
+'Then, doctor,' she continued, 'of course ye'll believe in the Bible?'
+
+'Yes--with reservations.'
+
+'Which means, doctor?'
+
+'Well, Betty, it means that----Wait now, I want to make it easy for you
+to understand; but unfortunately, by doing so, it makes it all the more
+difficult for me to explain. Well, in a word, Betty, it means there are
+parts of it I believe, and there are others I cannot.'
+
+'Ay, pairts ye believe an' pairts ye canna believe. I notice ye say ye
+_canna_ believe; ye don't say ye _will not_ believe. There's a
+difference, doctor, ye ken. Why do ye say ye canna?'
+
+'Because I have thought out things very carefully, very anxiously, and I
+cannot entertain what does not appeal to my reason. I must discard what
+I think is wrong.'
+
+'But, doctor, man, ye maunna exercise your ain judgment. It's human;
+consequently it's weak. What ye want is faith--the faith which can
+remove mountains, the faith which sustains. Doctor, ye must put aside
+your ain vain imaginin's an' thochts, an' become as a little child. Ay,
+juist as a little child.'
+
+'Yes, Betty, I thought you would say that. But you know I am not a
+little child. I am a man, a responsible, thinking being, endowed by God
+with a reasoning faculty which is calculated to guide me, and which,
+Betty, I am expected to exercise. I cannot accept anything temporal
+which is diametrically opposed or contrary to my judgment, nor would I
+in the discharge of my professional duties follow a course or accept a
+condition which my intellect and discernment told me was wrong. Why,
+then, should I, in this the greatest of all questions, be expected to
+lay reason aside and acquiesce in blind belief? No, Betty, I cannot do
+that. If I did I shouldn't be true to myself.'
+
+'But, doctor, wi' due respect, let me tell ye that cleverer men than you
+have thocht these things oot for themselves an' have been satisfied wi'
+the Word as it is delivered. Think o' the Reformers an' a' oor
+professors, men who have studied theology a' their days, an''----
+
+'And after all their study, what do they know, what have they gleaned
+from all their books? I cannot be guided even by professors. They know
+as much or as little of God's workings as the man who sweeps our village
+street. Now, Betty, further than this I cannot and will not go with you.
+As I have said, it is a big, debatable subject, and we might talk till
+doomsday and not agree even then. Besides, it is a very dangerous thing
+to tamper with any one's belief, especially if that belief affords a
+solace in trials and constitutes an anchor in the storm. You have got
+something within you which calms your fears, and gives you a peace which
+nothing else can. Stick to it, Betty, and guard it against assault. And
+I--well, Betty, I also have something within me which gives me peace,
+such peace as would remain with me even if to-night I was called upon to
+turn my face to the wall. Ah, Betty, each and every one has a faith. The
+world has never been without one, and it will have one to the end. But
+my conviction is we haven't often enough taken stock of our faith, and
+the consequence is it has become detached from and out of sympathy with
+our workaday lives. What a different world it would be if we were living
+our religion instead of professing it! Some say this is impossible.
+Well, it ought to be made possible, and the best way of going about it
+would be to strip religion of all that binds it to impossible,
+out-of-date dogmas, clear it of all that confounds and mystifies, and
+nail as a motto to its mast-head these glorious words of the great
+Master, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Betty, the time is
+at hand when the Church will be forced to consider this text--ay, and to
+act upon it; and when that day dawns it will herald the Millennium.'
+
+A strange hush had fallen upon the room while the doctor was speaking,
+and when he ceased it lingered with us like a benediction. Then Betty
+walked quietly over to the window. 'Doctor,' she said, after a pause,
+'d'ye think, at the last, everybody will be--eh--a' richt?'
+
+'Well, Betty, the question often occurs to me. When the boundlessness of
+God's love comes home to me I think it is possible. There is a verse,
+the thirteenth of the twenty-first chapter of the Revelation, which'----
+
+At that moment a knock came to the door, and Betty slipped out. In her
+absence the doctor smoked in silence, and I watched the fire glowing in
+the grate.
+
+'Doctor,' she said, as she re-entered, 'that's the grocer's boy.
+Somebody telt him ye were here, and he wants to ken if the bottle o'
+port wine ye ordered is for Mrs Lawson o' Gillhead or auld Widow
+Lawson?'
+
+'Oh, it is for Widow Lawson,' he replied, and the semblance of a blush
+spread over his face. He rose hurriedly, adjusted his plaid, and picked
+up his hat.
+
+I put my hand on his arm as he passed me. 'Doctor,' I said, 'your good
+deeds are finding you out;' and he shook his head, and smiled as if he
+didn't understand me, but he made no reply.
+
+Betty came into my room later with her Bible in her hand. 'I've been
+lookin' up that verse in the Revelation,' she said, 'an' it reads: "On
+the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three
+gates, and on the west three gates." Ay--imphm! I never saw the maitter
+in that licht before.--Weel, I trust there may be a gate for me, Maister
+Weelum; an'--an' somewey I'm sure noo there's yin for the doctor.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+In accordance with the doctor's orders, Nathan has not been to work
+these past few days; and though, beyond admitting a 'wakeness aboot the
+knees' and a proneness to 'shiverin',' he makes no specific complaint, I
+have noticed that daily he becomes more beholden to Betty, and that he
+very willingly goes off to bed a good two hours earlier than his usual
+retiring-time.
+
+There are some who, by their very backwardness and reticence, attract
+attention and excite curiosity. I have met many such, both
+professionally and socially, and the breaking down of their reserve has
+always been interesting; but, than the case of Nathan Hebron, none has
+more substantially repaid the time and trouble which the process of
+thawing involved. To outsiders I presume Nathan is an enigma. Not so to
+us who live with him. I needn't attempt to explain the feeling of
+confidence which he inspires, or the peculiar power which he
+unconsciously exerts in our little household circle. Words cannot convey
+it--it must be experienced to be understood; and though Betty is always
+to the fore, always taking the initiative, I know she feels that
+somewhere in the background, almost without her immediate knowledge, but
+ever in her reckoning, is the force, the power, the quiet, unobtrusive,
+dependable Nathan. And yet, strange to say, could I probe to the quick
+of his feelings, I know I should find that, in his 'stablished
+estimation, Betty, and Betty alone, stands for everything that the term
+'bulwark and tower of strength' conveys.
+
+Of late I have been wondering how best I can advance Nathan's worldly
+interests and lighten his burden without taking him away altogether from
+the calling of his choice. Somehow I don't think he would be happy
+without a spade in his hand and denied access to leaf-mould. He is too
+old to fit into a new groove, and I must remember that were I, even with
+the best intentions, carefully to uproot an old tree from amongst the
+shadows and replant it in the sunshine it would surely die. Still, I
+should like to do something to make his gloaming life easier. I have
+often felt sorry for him, leaving his comfortable house on inclement
+mornings, working his day's darg, and returning when darkness had long
+settled down. Outdoor work under favourable weather conditions is
+agreeable enough; but when it is carried on under a cold, leaden sky,
+amidst frost and snow, and in biting winds, it is stripped of much of
+its pleasure and poetry. Thinking in this strain, the idea came to me
+that I might erect glass-houses in our garden here, and encourage Nathan
+to devote the whole of his time to the cultivation of tomatoes. I have
+already mentioned my scheme to the doctor, and he approves of it; but I
+have said nothing to Betty or Nathan. I must see to it one of these
+days.
+
+I had a long, pleasant ramble this afternoon. The air was clear and
+invigorating; I was feeling braced up and buoyant; and as for Jip and
+Bang, I never saw them in a more sportive, energetic mood. We walked
+through Rashbrigs Moss, past Dabton Loch, and round by Longmire, where I
+called and spent an hour with Farmer Russell. Bang killed a rat in the
+steading just before we left, and he wagged his stumpy tail and tried to
+raise his tattered ear all the way home. The dogs preceded me into the
+house, and I stumbled after them through the darkened lobby and into the
+darker dining-room.
+
+'Hallo, Betty,' I said as I entered; 'not lit up yet?'
+
+Betty was over at the window in the act of pulling down the blind,
+which, strangely enough, she always does before she lights the gas.
+
+'Oh, it's you, Maister Weelum,' she said. 'It's that dark I can scarcely
+see ye;' but she continued standing inactive, looking round at me with
+the window-blind cord hanging loose in her hand. The firelight was low,
+and the light which came through the window from the village lamp across
+the street made the darkness only more visible. I could make Betty out,
+silhouetted as she was against the window; but, though all around was in
+black shadow which my eyes could not penetrate, I had the feeling that
+some one else was present. As I peered around, a tall visionary figure
+moved to my right, and Betty came toward me from the window.
+
+'This is Miss Stuart,' she said, 'the lady that's pentin' wee Isobel
+Jardine's picter. She's been workin' at it a' efternoon. I was tellin'
+her aboot your new yin, an' I asked her in to see it.--An', Miss Stuart,
+this is my boy--my wean I used to ca' him--Maister Weelum, or raither,
+as I should say, Maister Russell. Mrs Jardine an' me were tellin' ye
+aboot him. Imphm!' And as Betty breathlessly finished her introduction,
+and, without further ado, turned to break the fire into a glow, Miss
+Stuart and I gravely bowed.
+
+I couldn't see our visitor's face, but her figure was strangely familiar
+to me, and my pulse quickened.
+
+'Miss Stuart,' said Betty, 'will ye please sit here till I licht the
+gas?' and she wheeled the easy-chair, which usually stands opposite
+mine, within the radius of the glow from the fire.
+
+'Oh, thank you very much, Mrs Hebron,' said a voice I knew well; 'but
+I'm afraid I must be going. I'll--I'll not sit down, thank you. Mr
+Russell will be'----
+
+'Delighted to see you seated, Miss Stuart,' I interposed. 'I have very
+few lady visitors these days, and I do assure you you are welcome.'
+
+'Eh! that's weel said, Maister Weelum,' Betty chimed in; 'and it's true
+too.--Ye canna but sit doon, if it's only to please him, no' to speak o'
+me;' and, as Miss Stuart graciously complied, she bustled out to the
+kitchen for a match.
+
+In her absence I struck a light and lit the gas, and as Miss Stuart's
+eyes met mine we both smiled. Nathan on one occasion winked to me, and
+in doing so he established a paction between us. In the same way, but
+more emphatically, this smile awakened a feeling of camaraderie, a
+consciousness that the Fates were playing with us, and that we
+recognised the success of their manipulations.
+
+'Betty has been talking to me a good deal about you lately, Miss
+Stuart,' I said as I drew in my chair. 'Somehow, from the first I
+associated you, the subject of her talk and the painter of Isobel's
+portrait, with my good Samaritan of Nithbank Wood; and I am not
+surprised to find that I was right.'
+
+'Indeed, Mr Russell!' she said, and again she smiled. 'Well, I have been
+hearing about you also of late from both Mrs Hebron and Mrs Jardine;
+and, like you, I am'----But before she could finish her sentence Betty
+re-entered with a lighted taper, and in its warm yellow glow her face
+shone like a radiant moon.
+
+'Ah, Maister Weelum,' she said, 'for aince ye've managed that
+"perverted" licht. Thae newfangled things are fashious, an' it's a
+cauld-lookin' licht; but there's economy in it, Miss Stuart--imphm! An',
+my me! excuse me, miss, but it does my he'rt guid to see ye sittin' in
+that chair.' And in a flash my mind went back to our crack, and I
+remembered her words, 'It's a gey comfortable-lookin' chair, that yin
+opposite ye, Maister Weelum; an', d'ye ken, I met a leddy the day that I
+wad like to see sittin' in it.'
+
+'Betty,' I said, 'Miss Stuart and I are not altogether strangers; we
+have met once or twice in an informal way; but, now that we have been
+brought together to-night, under your auspices, don't you think--just to
+signalise the event--you might offer her a cup of tea?'
+
+'Eh, Maister Weelum! you read me like a book. I was juist gaun to
+suggest that. The kettle's at the boil, an' it'll no' tak' me a meenit.
+Will--will I bring doon the tea-set frae the drawin'-room--your
+mother's, ye ken?'
+
+'Yes, yes, Betty, if you please; and Miss Stuart will honour us in
+handseling it. It hasn't been used since I came here;' and before my
+guest could say 'Yea' or 'Nay,' Betty had disappeared.
+
+I drew the chair nearer the fire, and, pipe in hand, was about to ask my
+_vis-a-vis_ if I might smoke, when I saw her gaze wander round the walls
+of my room and ultimately rest on my picture.
+
+'Oh, Mr Russell,' she exclaimed, as she rose to her feet--'why, that is
+surely the picture I painted?'
+
+'It is, Miss Stuart,' I quietly said. 'It's the picture you had just
+finished the first time I saw you in the flesh, and I assure you I am
+very proud to be the possessor of it.'
+
+She stood looking up at it, beating a tattoo with her fingers on the
+table, and I saw the warm blood mounting her neck and cheek.
+
+'I hope you don't mind my having it?' I asked.
+
+'Oh no; but--well, you must have put yourself to some trouble to get
+it--more than it's worth, I'm afraid, for it was presented to a bazaar
+many miles away; and, you'll pardon me, but I cannot understand your
+putting so much value on it. It is really not a good bit of work, though
+the subject appealed to me so much.'
+
+'Now, Miss Stuart, please do not belittle my purchase--your labour of
+love, I may call it. I know a little about art; in fact, though I don't
+paint now, it has always been, and still is, my hobby, and in my
+judgment you have no reason to be ashamed of this example of your
+handiwork. As to my motive in buying it--well, I am a native of this
+village, as Betty has perhaps already told you, and to me it and its
+environs will ever be my earthly paradise. I know every step of the
+countryside around. As a boy I hunted in its fields, explored its woods,
+and fished its streams. During the years I have been settled in
+Edinburgh, never a day has passed but my thoughts have strayed homeward,
+and the identical spot on which you sketched this picture is the one,
+above all others, around which my most hallowed memories are centred.
+Whenever I thought of my quiet village home my mind meandered down the
+Gillfoot road, and the view which inspired you to this effort has always
+been with me, for it is, as it were, photographed on my brain.'
+
+'Oh, I quite understand you,' she said slowly--'quite. But how did you
+find out where it was for sale?'
+
+'Well, I had very little difficulty in that,' I laughingly replied.
+'Talking of sales, though--pardon my introducing the commercial element
+into our conversation, Miss Stuart--but I would like very much to have a
+companion picture to this one, something local of course. I'll leave the
+price to yourself. There's no hurry, you know; only I should be sorry to
+miss the opportunity of procuring another, treated with the same loving
+skill.'
+
+'How much did you pay for this one?' she asked, with a twinkle in her
+eye.
+
+'Well--I--I really cannot tell you exactly. You see, I didn't buy it
+myself. I happened to hear your clerical friend say something about the
+Laurieston bazaar; so I wrote to Ormskirk, my confidential clerk, giving
+him the few particulars I possessed, and he managed everything to my
+satisfaction. The price he paid for it will be noted down: he stated it
+in his letter, but as it was of minor importance I don't remember the
+exact figure.'
+
+I had risen from my chair when she stood up to examine the picture; and,
+thinking she might be tired standing, I asked her to sit down. She made
+no response, however; and, lost in thought, looked long into the glowing
+fire.
+
+'Ormskirk! Mr Ormskirk, your confidential clerk!' she repeated slowly.
+'The name seems familiar to me. Oh yes, now I remember;' and she laughed
+cheerily, and gave me a blithe look. 'It is a coincidence, Mr Russell;
+but I was received once by a Mr Ormskirk of an Edinburgh legal firm. The
+name struck me as being unusual.'
+
+'Well, Miss Stuart, so far as I know there is only one Ormskirk in our
+profession in Edinburgh, and he is with us--my firm, I mean--Monteith &
+Russell.'
+
+'Monteith & Russell!' she repeated. 'And you are'----
+
+'Well, I'm Mr Monteith's partner.'
+
+She looked at me with surprise in her big dark eyes, and then slowly
+every vestige of colour left her face. 'You--you are Mr Russell! Oh, I
+am so glad to meet you! I have corresponded with you, and my father very
+often spoke of you. I am Desiree Stuart. My affairs are in your firm's
+hands. I am the daughter of General Stuart of Abereran. This is very
+bewildering!' and she smiled feebly through moist, lustrous eyes.
+
+I was too astonished to speak. No suitable words could I utter in
+acknowledgment of this unexpected information. Never for a moment had I
+associated Miss Stuart the artist with Miss Stuart of Abereran. Somehow,
+I cannot say exactly what followed; but I have a dim recollection of
+hearing her apologising for sobbing, on the plea that I was the first
+person she had met since her father's death of whom, in his last
+illness, he had spoken with kindliness and affectionate regard. And I
+welcomed this with avidity as another link which bound me to her.
+
+'Your father and I didn't meet often, Miss Stuart,' I said, after a
+pause, during which we had both been busy in thought; 'but we
+corresponded very frequently. I am glad to know he spoke of me with
+appreciation. Unfortunately I was confined to bed at the time of his
+death, otherwise I should have been with you; but my partner, Mr Murray
+Monteith, attended to everything, and has been giving your affairs every
+consideration.'
+
+'Yes, Mr Monteith has been very attentive. I called at your office and
+asked to see you. It was on this occasion I met your Mr Ormskirk. Well,
+Mr Monteith received me, and reassured me on one or two points about
+which I was anxious. After all, I didn't tell him the real reason of my
+visit.'
+
+'Indeed! And--and why didn't you?'
+
+'Well, I somehow didn't like. I know it was very silly; but I just
+couldn't speak of it--at least to him.'
+
+'Oh, I'm sorry to know that!' I said. 'Mr Monteith would have been only
+too pleased to help you with his advice. Is the matter you wished to
+bring before me still of consequence?'
+
+'Yes. But it can wait. You know this is neither the time nor the place
+to talk business. Besides, I oughtn't to bother you about my affairs
+just now. You are still on the sick list, though I must say you look
+less the invalid to-day than you did the first time I saw you.'
+
+'Thank you, Miss Stuart. I am glad to know I look better; certainly I
+feel much stronger, and I trust to be back to business soon. But do tell
+me now what you wanted to consult me about in Edinburgh.'
+
+For a time she remained silent, and I watched with interest the run and
+play of her thoughts, as expressed in her mobile face.
+
+'Don't you think,' she said at length, 'that all this is very queer--I
+mean our previous accidental meetings, the personal and business
+connection between us, and the fact of our sitting together in this room
+in this quiet little village? I feel we are known to each other, yet we
+are not acquainted. Oh, it does seem so strange and unusual!'
+
+'Yes. The whole circumstances are rather remarkable, and I could tell
+you something--a little story in which you and I figure, which is even
+more mystifying; but we are wandering from the subject we had on hand.
+You haven't yet told me what I wish to know.'
+
+'I cannot mention it to-night, Mr Russell,' she said. 'More than ever I
+feel I ought not to have broached it. Later I trust we shall have an
+opportunity of discussing everything. You don't mind my deferring it?'
+
+'Just as you wish; but before we dismiss business, may I ask you a
+question?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'Well, I had a letter from Mr Monteith the other day in which he
+referred to your affairs. By the same token, he is coming down to see
+your aunt, so we'll all meet and go into everything thoroughly. Well,
+what he mentioned in his letter with reference to you set me a-thinking,
+and I have been wondering since if you are aware of the fact that you
+hold four thousand Banku oil shares. Have you received any dividends
+lately?'
+
+'I know,' she answered thoughtfully, 'that father, some time ago--when I
+came of age it was--transferred some shares to me, and from time to time
+he gave me what must have been dividends. I didn't trouble him for
+particulars; he always hated business chats, but more so after his last
+visit to India. I am sure he got a touch of sun, although the doctor
+would never admit it, and I purposely refrained from referring to
+business affairs, as it only annoyed and irritated him. Since he died I
+have received no money at all. As a matter of fact'--and she blushed
+painfully--'that's what I wanted to see you about. Aunt is awfully
+decent, and grudges me nothing; but surely I ought to have received
+something. It isn't very nice to be depending on her for every shilling,
+and--you understand, Mr Russell?--I'm perhaps too independent, and'----
+
+'Oh, Miss Stuart, I am so sorry! This is a most unfortunate oversight. I
+must rectify it at once, and see that money is sent to you to-morrow.
+You have quite a large sum to your credit with us.'
+
+'I am glad to know that;' and she smiled. 'But please don't put yourself
+to any immediate trouble on my account. I--I am all right for money at
+present. Unknown to my aunt, I sent two of my pictures to Glasgow last
+week. Yesterday I received--what do you think?--four guineas each for
+them;' and again the blood mounted to her cheek.
+
+'Miss Stuart,' I said, in consternation, 'have you through our
+thoughtlessness been obliged to'----I didn't finish my sentence, for at
+that moment the door opened, and Betty entered with the tea-tray. Maybe
+it was a fortunate, certain I am it was a timely, interruption, as I was
+strongly tempted to act unprofessionally, and take a client to my arms.
+
+We had tea brewed in my mother's old Worcester teapot and served in
+dainty cups of the same ware. The modern gas was extinguished, and the
+candles in the candelabra were lit. Nobody in Thornhill, or out of it,
+can bake soda-scones to compare with Betty's; no one can approach her in
+the lightness and pan-flavour of her toothsome pancakes, the 'gou' of
+her butter, and the aroma of her home-blended tea. As for her homely,
+kindly presence--well, only one other possessed its match, and she was
+sitting at Betty's right hand, admiring my mother's old china, praising
+Betty's scones, filling my heart with a gladness it had never known
+before. Ah, Betty Grier--my dear old Betty--I owe much to you! Before
+life was a reality to me, you cared for me and ministered to my wants.
+When I was cast adrift from moorings of my own making you took me in,
+nursed me, and tended me. For all this I thank you; but for bringing
+this little tea-party about I'll bless your name for ever and ever.
+Amen.
+
+So far I have not been out of doors after nightfall. The village streets
+are not too well lit; the pavements are too uneven for my uncertain
+steps; but Miss Stuart couldn't go home unattended. Betty was very
+emphatic on this point, and of course I heartily concurred. Bang and Jip
+certainly came into the house with me after our walk; but they must have
+recognised in Miss Stuart a counter-attraction, and slipped away to
+their respective homes unobserved. Standing in the lobby with my coat
+and hat on, and thinking they might be keeping Nathan company in his
+back-room, I called to them several times, but all in vain; so Miss
+Stuart and I went out alone.
+
+It was a clear, quiet, moonlight night, with that sharp touch of frost
+in the air which makes walking a pleasure. No winter night winds sighed
+in the bare, leafless limes as we passed down the street; no discordant
+sounds broke the stillness of the Gillfoot as we wended our way by its
+shadowy wood.
+
+I had, of course, perforce to walk slowly, and in some unaccountable way
+my thoughts and speech seemed to keep in rhythm with my steps. This at
+first disturbed and annoyed me, as I was anxious to be vivacious and
+animated; but I soon found out that in certain circumstances
+conversation is not essential to good-fellowship.
+
+When we reached the top of the Gillfoot Brae, and were almost opposite
+the little wicket to Nithbank Wood, we halted for a minute, and in
+silence looked down upon the scene, the natural features of which my
+companion had with such loving skill transferred to her canvas.
+
+There are times when Nature asserts herself--thrusts herself, as it
+were, upon us, and emphatically proclaims her glory and power. It is
+good for us to come under her dominance then, for if we have within us a
+soul worthy of the name we cannot but feel our true position and
+standing in the great Creator's plan.
+
+As I stood, with the woman I loved beside me, on that glamour-haunted
+spot, amidst scenes grand in their solemnity and hallowed by
+associations, myriads of twinkling worlds above us, at our feet peaceful
+howmes all bathed in moonlight, a fuller realisation of the true import
+of life was borne in upon me. And there, in a consciously chastened
+spirit, with Nature's sermon in my heart and her inspirations all around
+me, I turned to my companion, and falteringly told the story of my
+dream.
+
+In silence and with wonderment in her eyes, she listened to all my heart
+bade me say, and when I had finished she slightly turned away from me,
+and her head was bowed. Then in a flash my mind reverted to her recent
+bereavement; and when I thought of her loneliness and isolation, the
+uncertainty of her prospects, and the shame and mental trials she would
+in all probability be called upon to bear, reproach came to me, and I
+felt selfish and mean in adding to her burden of mind.
+
+'Miss Stuart,' I said, 'please pardon me if I have said anything amiss,
+or if what I have spoken is unwelcome or ill-timed, and a cause of
+unhappiness to you. If it is so, I am deeply sorry, but I cannot take
+back anything I have told you. God knows it is true, and my whole life
+will be devoted to prove to you that it is so. But for the
+present--well, doubtless you have plenty to think about, so please
+dismiss from your mind what I have said. If I may, I shall some day
+speak to you again. Meanwhile let me be your friend. Somehow, I think
+you need one.'
+
+She looked gratefully at me with moistened eyes. 'Thank you very much.
+What you have told me is all so strange, so unexpected, and--and I feel
+it is all true. You are very kind. I do need a friend, and I can trust
+you.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am lying in my old truckle-bed. It is far into the morning, and sleep
+has not yet closed my eyes. Nathan has not been so well to-night, and
+his restlessness has kept Betty astir, but it hasn't disturbed me. And,
+somehow, I am not lonely. 'I do need a friend, and I can trust you;'
+these words, during the quiet hours, are often being whispered in my
+ear, and I would rather remain awake and hear them than slip into
+slumberland and lose them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+For the first time since I was a boy, Betty had to waken me this
+morning. As a rule I lie for half-an-hour before getting up, allowing my
+mind to simmer over the events of the previous day, and planning how
+best I may spend the coming forenoon and afternoon. I had no need to
+make out any programme for to-day, however, as I had that all arranged
+last night.
+
+I dressed hurriedly, and after spending a few minutes with Nathan, who,
+poor man, is abed, I sent off a telegram to Murray Monteith, requesting
+him to wire on receipt one hundred pounds on Miss Stuart's account to
+the local bank. When I had breakfasted I wrote him a long letter, and
+asked him to send me particulars regarding her interests in the Banku
+Oil Company. Then I went up and arranged with Mr Crichton the banker as
+to her account.
+
+Walking along to the bank, I met Joe on his way down to Betty's. Joe's
+jacket is always closely buttoned, and he wears his tweed cap tilted on
+his head at the same angle as he would his glengarry when on parade.
+His hair is cropped short, the forelock brushed firmly and obliquely
+across his left temple, and showing prominently under the stem of his
+civilian cap. His trousers are always carefully pressed; consequently
+they never show a bagginess at the knees. He is not so tall as Nathan,
+nor has he the 'boss' appearance; but I fancied that to-day he had more
+than usual of the same serious Hebron expression; and when he gave me
+the salute, as he always does in true soldierly style, it wasn't
+accompanied by the customary cheery smile. He passed me at the
+regulation step, and from the fact that he was carrying a brown-paper
+bag bearing the name of John Nelson, Fruiterer, I surmised that Betty
+was contemplating an apple-dumpling for dinner.
+
+My business with Mr Crichton was soon disposed of; but it took me some
+considerable time to dispose of Mr Crichton. He has a jocose, affable
+way with him, a pawky knack of leaving one subject and starting another;
+and when he is in a reminiscent mood, as he was this morning, he can be
+very dreich and very entertaining at one and the same time. Long ago, of
+an evening, he used to play chess with my father. He took snuff in those
+days--he takes snuff still, and treats others unstintingly, as Betty
+will know when my handkerchief goes to the wash--and when my father had
+lured him into an awkward position on the board his little silver box
+was seldom out of his hand. My recollection of him at that period is
+very hazy, and it is so closely associated with this box that it may be
+if he hadn't snuffed I shouldn't have remembered him at all. I notice he
+applies the stimulant always to his right nostril, never to the left,
+and he has a dainty and a stealthy way of conveying the pinch which
+contrasts strongly with that of Deacon Webster, whose recklessness where
+snuff is concerned is such that more is distributed on his shirt-front
+and waistcoat than is sniffed into the nasal receptacle. On the other
+hand, so cleanly and dapper is Mr Crichton that, were it not for the
+aroma of Kendal brown which ever lingers about him, you wouldn't know he
+used snuff at all.
+
+After a couthie crack, which, in spite of my preoccupation, I enjoyed, I
+said good-bye and walked out of the bank, only to fall a ready prey to
+the blandishments of Douglas the barber, who inveigled me into his
+back-yard to see a cavie of Wyandotte chickens of which, as
+prize-winners, he had great expectations. Then, in his draughty lobby, I
+had to listen to an account of his first and only interview with Thomas
+Carlyle at Holmhill, of his photographing the Chelsea seer and
+'snoddin'' his hair; also to a resume of a lecture on the Ruthwell Cross
+he had heard delivered by our fellow-villager, Dr Hewison, which pleased
+him, as he said, 'doon to the nines.' On reaching home I found, to my
+great disappointment, that Dr Grierson had called and had gone away. I
+wanted particularly to see the doctor, as I felt he should know that I
+had taken his advice and unburdened my mind to the lady of my dream.
+
+When Betty came in to lay the table for my homely midday meal I noticed
+she was not quite herself, and that there was something unusual
+disquieting her mind. As I have said, I always allow her to unburden
+herself to me in her own way and at her own sweet will; but somehow I
+intuitively felt that in the present circumstances my rule should not
+apply.
+
+As she moved silently out and in I watched her closely, and when she had
+finished and drawn out my chair from the table I put my hand on her
+shoulder. 'Betty,' I said, 'there is a sadness in your eyes to-day I
+have never noticed before. Is there anything worrying you?'
+
+She looked up at me for a moment; then, putting her arms round my neck,
+she began to cry, quietly but emotionally. 'Oh, it's Nathan, puir falla,
+an' I'm sairly putten aboot,' she said between her sobs. 'It strikes me
+he's no' in a very guid wey; an', oh Weelum! if--if ocht tak's Nathan I
+dinna want to live.'
+
+It was the first time for years she had, unasked, called me 'Weelum'
+without the prefix, and the old familiar way she pronounced it touched a
+chord in my heart.
+
+I let her have her cry out, and then I did my best to allay her fears.
+She sat down on my chair, and I drew in another and sat down beside her.
+'Nathan's not very well, Betty,' I said; 'but he's always been a healthy
+enough man, not given to complaining and lying about, and you know
+you're so accustomed to see him strong and robust that you are apt to
+exaggerate anything which prostrates him and keeps him in bed. The
+doctor's not concerned about him to-day, is he?'
+
+'I--I dinna ken for certain. He didna say so to me, but I imagined he
+looked that wey,' she said. 'Mebbe I read his face wrang. I'm trustin' I
+did, but--but I see for mysel' that Nathan's far frae weel.'
+
+'Yes, Betty, we all know that; but I'm sure there's nothing serious.
+He's got a bad cold, a very bad chill, the doctor tells me; but with a
+good rest in bed and careful nursing he'll soon be up and about again.'
+
+'I'm dootin' it's mair than a chill, Maister Weelum,' and she shook her
+head; 'an' it strikes me that Nathan kens it's something mair serious.
+He's tryin' no' to let on to me; but the mair he tries the clearer I see
+it. Ay, him an' me have come to that time o' life when we depend a guid
+deal on yin anither, an' lately I've noticed that he's been anxious to
+do mair for me than he's able. We lippen on yin anither in a quiet kind
+o' a wey, ye ken--never askin' or demandin', but aye expectin', an' aye
+gettin'. Ay, Maister Weelum, aye gettin' an' aye gi'in', an' it's
+through this wee peep-hole that Nathan an' me, an' ithers happily
+married like us, get a wee bit glisk o' a heaven on earth.'
+
+I pondered over these words for a moment. 'Betty,' I said, 'that's a
+beautiful way of putting it.'
+
+'Ay, it may be beautiful--it may be, I say, Maister Weelum. I'm no' a
+judge o' that; but it's true--_an' I feel it's true_; an' the best wish
+I can wish ye is that some day my experience in this will be yours.' And
+she wiped her cheek with her apron, and smoothed imaginary creases out
+of the tablecover with the back of her hand.
+
+'And--and, Betty, you must love Nathan very much?'
+
+'Yes,' she said promptly, 'I love Nathan; but no' so much as I have
+reason to, an' no' mair than he deserves.'
+
+'And was Nathan the only sweetheart you ever had, Betty?' I suddenly
+asked.
+
+She rose from her chair and turned her face to the window. 'Dear me,
+Maister Weelum, that's a queer question to ask! What put that into your
+heid?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know, Betty. I've often wondered.'
+
+'Ye've often wondered that, have ye? Imphm!' And she sat down again.
+'Weel, as the wean I nursed an' the man I'm prood o', ye'll no' be
+denied an answer. No, Nathan's no' the only sweethe'rt I ever had. I
+loved anither man before I loved Nathan. I was aboot nineteen year auld
+at the time, an' if onybody had telt me then that Robert Frizzel wad
+never be mine I wad ha'e gane demented. Nineteen's a careless, haveral
+kind o' an age; but the he'rt can be awfu' glad an' joyous then, an' I
+must confess I had spurts o' happiness which carried me aff my feet in a
+wey I couldna understand later. The sun was aye shinin'; the birds were
+aye whusslin'. I gaed to my bed singin', an' I wakened singin'. Oh, I
+mind it a' weel. The mistress--your mother--somewey was against it; but
+I thocht I kenned best, an' mony a sweet bit stolen oor I had up at that
+same gate at the heid o' the gairden there. He was a nice-lookin' man,
+was Robert, a bonny singer, an' a great toss amang the lassies, an' to
+be singled oot frae amang them a' was in my estimation something to be
+prood o'. Weel, I heard something aboot him no' to his credit--something
+mean an' dishonourable. Nathan was comin' aboot the gairden even then;
+an', though he had never said ocht to me, I could see, an'--an' I
+jaloused, an' it struck me that he wadna ha'e dune the same. Weel, the
+first chance I got I asked Robert aboot it, an' he juist laughed an'
+made licht o't. I telt him I never wanted to speak to him again,
+an'--an' I gaed to my bed that nicht an' grat the sairest greet I ever
+had in my life. Ay, I juist put him oot o' my he'rt an' steekit the
+door. An' then Nathan somewey opened it again, an'----Michty me, Maister
+Weelum, your broth's stane-cauld!' And, without another word, she lifted
+the soup-tureen and went ben to the kitchen.
+
+I never for a moment suspected Betty of having had a calf-love affair,
+and her characteristic recital of the episode was as unexpected as it
+was interesting. I asked the question which led up to it almost without
+premeditation, and not so much out of curiosity as from a desire to wean
+her pessimistic mind away from Nathan's indisposition. Poor body, she
+was always prone to meet her troubles halfway, and I feel so sure that
+her fears regarding Nathan are groundless that I do not reproach myself
+for interrupting her brooding thoughts.
+
+After dinner I went through to Nathan's bedroom and had a short chat
+with him. He was assiduously reading _The Christian Herald_ when I
+looked past the curtain of his bed, but on recognising me he at once
+stopped and took off his spectacles. 'Oh, it's you, Maister Weelum,' he
+said, as he laid aside his paper. 'I--I thocht it micht be Betty.'
+
+At the back of the bed, and only partly hidden, was a copy of _The
+Gardening World_. I looked first at one paper, then at the other, and
+remembering his predilection for secular literature, I smiled. Nathan
+smiled also. I made no remark; neither did Nathan; but somehow I am
+surer now than ever that Betty is wrong in thinking that he considers
+his condition serious.
+
+With Nathan in normal health and at his own fireside it is a difficult
+matter to keep the crack going; but with Nathan indisposed and abed it
+is well-nigh impossible. True, he answers any questions I put to him,
+but he never introduces a subject of conversation, and at his bedside,
+talking to him, I have always the strange feeling that he wants to put
+his head underneath the bedclothes.
+
+When I had exhausted my news, and was wondering what next to say, Joe
+came in, and he had still the serious expression in his eyes I had
+noticed on meeting him on my way to the bank.
+
+Joe is of great assistance to Betty at present, and his knowledge of
+housework, combined with his readiness to help, places him on a pedestal
+and makes him indispensable. I took the opportunity of thanking him for
+what he had done, and commended him strongly for his kindly services;
+and when I was going out, as an inducement to further exertions, I
+quietly slipped something into his hand that brought him to the salute
+with a most pronounced jerk.
+
+Nathan was eyeing the stiff-as-starch Joe in surprise, as I gave him a
+good-afternoon nod. 'What's wrang wi' ye, Benjy?' I heard him say.
+'Maister Weelum's no' an offisher; he's a gentleman.'
+
+'That's exactly why I saluted him, Nathan,' said Joe very patly; and I
+was laughing quietly to myself as I re-entered my room.
+
+Betty was what she calls 'bankin'' my fire; and, on looking round and
+catching the smile on my face, she wiped her fingers on her dust-cloth
+and smiled too.
+
+'Nathan's a wee bit cheerier noo than he was in the foreday,' she said;
+and, after a pause, as a second thought, she added, 'at least he's as
+cheery as a Hebron could be in the circumstances.'
+
+'Oh yes, Betty,' I said, 'he seems to be in a happy enough mood; but I
+think I have heard you say the Hebrons are not what one would call a
+hilarious family.'
+
+'No, 'aith no, except Joe, an' him only sometimes--when he shouldna be.
+Imphm! Ye never met ony o' Nathan's sisters, Maister Weelum, did ye?'
+
+'No, Betty. I didn't know he had any sisters.'
+
+'Oh, weel, in a wey neither he has, for yin o' them lives in Auchensell
+an' the ither twae away in the back o' beyond, somewhere in Glencairn.
+They come to Thornhill only aince a year, at the Martinmas fair, an' of
+coorse Nathan stays at hame frae his wark, an' we've them doon here for
+their denner. Peasoup's a weakness o' the Hebrons, an' they're awfu'
+keen on pork ribs, so I mak' my bill o' fare to suit them. An' then, the
+time I'm cleanin' up, they a' sit roon the fire, an' Nathan smokes an'
+spits, an' his sisters sit strecht up in their chairs, lookin' frae the
+fire to the window, an' whisperin' to each ither. Ye see, Nathan brocht
+them up. They look on him in a wey as their faither, an' they defer to
+him even yet, an' aye wait on him speakin' first, so ye can understaun
+their tongues dinna gang juist like hand-bells; no, 'aith no, they do
+not. Nathan's fair, but they are dark an' swarthy, an' they a' wear
+black dolmans, 'lastic-sided boots, an' white stockin's, an' they aye
+come wi' umbrellas in their haun even though the weather's as dry as
+tinder. Thomasina frae Auchensell is the auldest, an' she's the only yin
+that has a family; an' when Nathan does say ocht it's aye her he speaks
+to, an' the ither twae juist sit an' mutter to yin anither, lookin'
+quite pleased an' satisfied. I'm used wi' them noo; but the first time I
+had them here I was at my wits' end. No' a word could I get oot o' them,
+an' Nathan--weel, I didna ken him very weel then either--_he_ could
+hardly be seen for pipe-reek, an' it was only because I couldna do the
+deaf an' dumb alphabet that I didna try it on them. An' mair than that,
+Maister Weelum, here's anither very queer thing. Do you know that their
+men--their marrit men, I mean--have never been inside this door. I've
+never met them, no' even seen them; an' Nathan--weel, I dare say he wad
+be at their waddin's, but I question if he wad stop an' speak to them if
+he met them on the king's highway. Oh, I tell ye, they're queer! Ye
+micht marry a Hebron, but ye never get into the family.'
+
+'And what about Joe?' I asked. 'Does he join these annual reunions?'
+
+'Catch Joe sittin' in the hoose on a Thornhill fair-day. No, no, Joe's
+ower keen on the pea-guns, an' the Aunt Sally booth, an' siclike to ha'e
+ony time to help Nathan to entertain his sisters. He's a queer, queer
+mixture is Joe; but his he'rt's in the richt place for a' that. Ha'e ye
+seen him the day?'
+
+'Yes; I met him on the street, looking rather melancholy, I thought.
+You--you haven't put him under the pledge again, Betty?'
+
+'Ye thocht he looked melancholy, did ye? Weel, he's under nae pledge to
+me. It's no' that that's putten him aboot. Puir Joe! puir Joe!'
+
+'What is it, then, Betty?'
+
+She hesitated for a minute, and I at once apologised, thinking I was
+unconsciously prying into family affairs.
+
+'Oh, it's no' that I'm hankerin' for, Maister Weelum. The fact is, it's
+in a wey concerned wi' a friend o' yours, an' I don't know very weel hoo
+to begin; but ye mind me tellin' ye aboot Joe gettin' the awfu' fricht
+meetin' a lady he thocht was deid an' buried? You an' me made licht o't;
+but Joe wadna be convinced, an' last nicht he saw the lady again,
+an'--noo, Maister Weelum, this is the queer bit o' the story--the lady
+was Miss Stuart.'
+
+'How did he know that, Betty?'
+
+'Weel, he was in the kitchen last nicht when I brocht her through frae
+Mrs Jardine's to see your picter, an' he was so putten aboot that he
+gaed strecht away hame to the Cuddy Lane withoot sayin' a word to
+onybody. This mornin' he spoke to me aboot it, an' asked her name, an'
+when I said it was Miss Stuart he nearly fainted. "Same name," he said,
+"and the same locket," an' that's a' I could get oot o' him; an' he was
+so dazed an' bamboozled that he couldna mind my messages, an' I had to
+write them doon on a bit paper. Noo, Maister Weelum, what mak' ye o'
+that?'
+
+'Same name and the same locket!' I repeated slowly. 'Whatever could he
+mean by that?'
+
+'I dinna ken. I asked him, but his lips shut wi' a snap like a handbag.
+If I hadna asked he wad ha'e telt me; the Hebron cam' oot there again,
+Maister Weelum.'
+
+'Oh, Betty, it must be a foolish fancy. The chance of Joe having met
+Miss Stuart before has, of course, to be considered; but the lady he
+knew died twenty-four years ago. Miss Stuart must have been a baby
+then.'
+
+'Mebbe it was her mother, Maister Weelum.'
+
+In a flash the possibility occurred to me. I looked quickly and keenly
+at Betty, but her eye challenged my gaze clearly and without flinching.
+
+'Ye're thinkin' I'm speakin' in riddles, an' keepin' something back; if
+ye do, ye're wrang, Maister Weelum. It was the locket that made me think
+o' her mother; it wad be a very likely keepsake for her to ha'e.'
+
+'Betty, my dear, I don't doubt you. I am sure you are telling me all you
+know; you have no motive for keeping anything back. I--I am very much
+interested in Miss Stuart, more so than in any woman I know. There is
+some uncertainty connected with her affairs which, unless it is cleared
+up, will be to her disadvantage. I may be thinking too quickly, and the
+wish may be father to the thought; but it strikes me that a chat with
+Joe would clear the air. He is in Nathan's bedroom. Do you think he
+would come in and have a talk with me alone?'
+
+'Oh, I'm sure he'll do that wi' pleesure. But, Maister Weelum, if it's
+ocht ye want to ken, ye maunna ask him questions. I ken Joe; he's a
+Hebron, an'--weel, ye understaun?'
+
+I quite understood; and when, later, Joe came into my room I was busy
+examining a pair of old holster pistols which had belonged to my
+grandfather. 'Oh, it's you, Joe! I said. 'You're the very man I want. I
+know you understand more about these things than I do, and I should be
+obliged to you if you would kindly help me to clean them up a bit.'
+
+'Certainly, sir,' he said with alacrity. 'I'll soon polish them up. But
+it's a dirty job; don't you bother with them. I'll see to them in the
+back-kitchen.'
+
+In conversation with Betty or Nathan, Joe employs the Doric as they do;
+but, thanks to his service in the south and abroad, he is equally
+familiar with English as it is read, and in speaking to me he doesn't
+even betray the semblance of the Scots accent.
+
+I hadn't bargained for his taking the pistols off to the back-kitchen,
+however. This wouldn't suit my plan. Joint operations were necessary for
+a crack such as I wanted. Accordingly I suggested we should cover the
+better-lit end of the table with a newspaper, and exercise care; and so
+it came to pass that in a few minutes Joe and I were up to the wrists in
+emery and oil, and our tongues going like Betty's hand-bells.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+At length, by finesse and a good deal of circumlocution, I got the
+conversation worked round from accidental shooting to accidental
+meetings, related one or two coincidences which made him pause in his
+work, and then casually mentioned that Betty had told me of his meeting
+Miss Stuart, and the shock he had received.
+
+'Yes, Mr Russell,' he said, 'I don't know what to say about that. I
+couldn't get to sleep last night for thinking of it.'
+
+'Well, Joe, it seems plain enough to me. The lady you knew died
+twenty-four years ago. Miss Stuart is not more than twenty-five, so it
+couldn't possibly be she whom you knew.'
+
+'That is so, sir; I admit that,' and he stopped polishing; 'and it's a
+far cry from Thornhill to Toledo; but the Miss Stuart I saw last night
+was wearing a locket which I am sure belonged to a Mrs Stuart who died
+in Toledo twenty-four years ago. If I'm wrong, then, sir, my name is not
+Joseph Hebron.'
+
+I was positively tingling with excitement, and strangely conscious I
+was on the eve of a great discovery. A thousand thoughts flashed through
+my mind; I felt quite overcome and bewildered. Here, 'far from the
+madding crowd,' in this sleepy little village with its easy-going,
+unpretentious ways, I had met the woman God made for me; and there,
+polishing the barrel of my grandsire's old pistol, stood one of the
+least important of its villagers, who of a surety held the key to all
+the mysteries that had baffled our unveiling. It seemed unreal,
+incredible, impossible, yet it was absolutely true, for clutched to my
+heart I held the sacred memory of our moonlight talk, I felt the touch
+of her hand, and her parting words were ever ringing in my ears; and
+Joe's earnestness and assurance were as a presage to me that the mists
+would soon be rolled away. Betty's words came to me, 'If it's ocht ye
+want to ken, ye maunna ask him questions;' but I felt I must put her
+advice aside. Questions must be asked, and answers must be given
+willingly, not dragged out; and if I was to obtain these answers Joe
+must be to some extent taken into my confidence.
+
+'Joe,' I said, 'you speak with a positiveness which carries conviction
+with it, and encourages me to great expectations. Now I'll be honest and
+candid with you, and you must be frank with me and answer fully and
+truly one or two questions I wish to put to you. You admit that the
+remarkable likeness you see in Miss Stuart to a Mrs Stuart you knew long
+ago has disturbed your mind, and you are quite convinced that the locket
+Miss Stuart wears belonged to that lady. There is a probable connection
+here which, if it can be established, will mean much to Miss Stuart. Her
+affairs are in my hands, and naturally I am very much interested in
+this. Now, Joe, you don't know me. Betty does. Will you take her word as
+surety for my honourableness, and tell me frankly all I may ask?'
+
+Joe looked very intently at me while I was speaking. Then he laid down
+the pistol and emery-cloth with a suddenness and determination which
+plainly told me that his yea would be yea, and his nay, nay. 'Mr
+Russell,' he said earnestly, 'I have always sworn by Nathan's Betty; she
+swears by you in everything. If any information I can give will be of
+service to Miss Stuart you're welcome to it, and I'll answer truthfully
+whatever you ask.'
+
+'Thank you, Joe. I know you will. Well, first of all, who was Mrs
+Stuart?'
+
+'She was the wife of Major Stuart of my old regiment, the 25th.'
+
+'Do you remember his full name?'
+
+'Yes, sir. It was Major Sommerville Stuart of Abereran, Perthshire.'
+
+'Where did they live together as husband and wife?'
+
+'Well, sir, it was like this. You see--eh--well, perhaps I had better
+tell you what I know in my own way--some pointed questions are not
+easily answered.'
+
+I nodded. 'All right, Joe; just as you wish,' I replied.
+
+'Well, we were stationed at Gibraltar when the Major was married. I was
+his orderly at the time, and he took me with him to a town called
+Toledo, where the marriage took place. I saw the lady--a French lady she
+was--only once before she was Mrs Stuart; she and the Major were on
+horseback, and a fine-looking pair they were; and I saw her twice after
+they came back to Toledo from their honeymoon. She was then wearing the
+locket I saw last night. It was one of the marriage presents he gave
+her, and I remember seeing it on his dressing-room table in the hotel,
+and thinking he was lucky to be able to buy such a nice gift. I was
+courting at that time--not Sally; another girl who died--and I--well, I
+would have given a whole year's pay to be able to buy my girl one like
+it. That's how I remember it so well. The Major stayed in Toledo for
+about a week after his honeymoon trip, and then he went to
+headquarters, taking me with him of course; but Mrs Stuart remained at
+Toledo. She never came down to Gib. that I know of, but the Major went
+back once or twice. Then about a year after their marriage she died. The
+Major got the sad news at mess, and left that night, and I followed next
+day with his luggage. We returned the day after the funeral, and--and
+that's all I know, I think.' Then he picked up his emery-cloth and
+resumed his polishing, as if the story he had told was of ordinary
+import.
+
+'Joe,' I said after a pause, 'what you have told me is most valuable
+information, and I thank you very much indeed. Were you present at the
+marriage ceremony?'
+
+'Yes, sir, as a spectator, of course. I had nothing particular to do,
+and was in a strange town, and I was anxious to see what a foreign
+marriage was like.'
+
+'Naturally! Then the marriage was in a church in Toledo?'
+
+'Yes, sir; but I don't remember the name of the church.'
+
+'Ah, Joe, that's a pity, now. Could you describe it to me? I know
+Toledo, and might be able to refresh your memory.'
+
+'Well, sir, it was a very old-looking place, built of brick, and one
+part was newer-looking than the other. There's a big bridge at the
+entrance to the town----'
+
+'Yes, Joe, the Bridge of Alcantara.'
+
+'That's the name, sir. Well, I think I could go from the bridge right up
+to the church even yet. If I had a piece of paper and a pencil I could
+show you.'
+
+I readily supplied him with pencil and paper, and after a little
+cogitation and a good deal of muttering, 'Forward, right turn, left
+wheel, steady now, forward,' he handed me the diagram of what he judged
+was the route. As it wasn't drawn to a scale, and no streets were noted,
+it was quite unintelligible to me; but it proved Joe had it in his
+mind's eye, and so far this was quite satisfactory. 'Thank you, Joe,' I
+said. 'May I keep this?'
+
+He nodded, and I put it in my pocket. 'Now, just two questions more. Was
+Mrs Stuart buried in Toledo?'
+
+'No, sir. She lies in a cemetery a few miles out of Toledo.'
+
+'You don't remember the name of the place?'
+
+'Well, sir, I do--sometimes. It reminded me, when I heard it first, of
+the old home-name of Dalgonnar, but it wasn't that--very near it,
+though.'
+
+'Dalgonnar--Dal----Ah, Joe, was it not Algodor?'
+
+'That's the name, sir--Algodor. I see you've been there. Well, sir, Mrs
+Stuart's buried at Algodor.'
+
+Unknown to Joe, I had taken shorthand notes of the gist of his
+information, and when he was again busy with his emery I went over them
+carefully. 'By the way, Joe,' I asked, 'did you ever hear anything about
+the birth of a child?'
+
+'Yes, sir. Mrs Stuart died in childbed, but the child lived. I don't
+remember hearing whether it was a boy or a girl. Mr Trent, our chaplain,
+could tell you about that. He went up with the Major and baptised it.'
+
+'And where and how can Mr Trent be found now?'
+
+'Well, sir--strange--last time I came up from Brighton I had an hour to
+wait at Carlisle, and I met him in the street when I was taking a stroll
+between trains. He's not changed much, and I knew him at once and
+saluted. He stopped me, and asked me my name and regiment, said he was
+in a hurry, but that he lived at Stanwix, and if at any time I was in
+the locality to be sure and call on him.'
+
+'Joe,' I said, 'you're a brick, a most invaluable friend to me just now,
+and I cannot tell you how much all this means to Miss Stuart and to me.
+There is much yet of which we shall require proof; but it is a fact,
+Joe, that Major Sommerville Stuart of Abereran, your Major, was her
+father. It may be necessary, in fact it will be imperative, that we
+should send some one out to Toledo. I know it is asking a good deal, but
+would you accompany any one we may depute to go? Your presence is very
+essential, and your good service will be amply remunerated.'
+
+'Well, Mr Russell, I'm not of much use here, and I'll not be wanted
+elsewhere till July. If I can be any good to you, I--I don't mind going.
+In a way, I'll be in the Major's service again.'
+
+I never drink whisky during the day; but somehow I felt that a compact
+such as Joe and I had made was sufficient excuse for breaking any rule.
+We drank success to our undertaking, and when Joe had left me I sat
+down, and, after thinking things over, I came to the conclusion that
+Providence, in a most wonderful way, was making the crooked path
+straight; and that, with the exception of Nathan, Joe had the most
+extraordinary by-nature of any man I ever knew.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I stayed Betty's hand when she came in to light up for the night. I knew
+she was just dying to know how I had got on with Joe; and, as his story
+would be meaningless without the prologue, I told her everything. The
+flickering firelight fell on her dear old face, and the glint in her eye
+quickened as I unfolded my love-story. And when I had finished she came
+over, and, bending down, kissed me.
+
+'The Lord's your shepherd. He's leadin' ye by the still waters,' she
+whispered. 'An', oh, Maister Weelum, Joseph Hebron's a prood, prood man
+this nicht.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Of late it has truly been a time of startling events with me. One
+surprise has followed hard on the heels of another, and possibilities
+new to my horizon are looming before me, bidding fair to alter--and may
+I trust perfect?--my whole line of life. And yet I am not unduly excited
+or exercised in mind. I wonder is this because my drama is being acted
+on staging of God's own making, and amidst scenery painted by His own
+hand? I know how strongly we are all influenced by environment. A
+thunderstorm over the busy city, raging around crowded haunts and
+lighting up with its pointed fire all of man's handiwork, is to me
+appalling and menacing; in the country, among the echoing hills and
+sombre woods, it is grand and inspiring. When I think of it, it is not
+unlikely that a closer acquaintance with Nature and an insight into the
+marvellous laws which govern her have brought to me a keener sense of
+the true proportion of things. The pulsing sap in a February sprig of
+hawthorn is wonderful and mysterious, more wonderful far than Joe's
+acquaintance with Toledo or my meeting Desiree Stuart in Nithbank Wood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Accompanied by Bang and Jip, I walked out to the station yesterday to
+meet Murray Monteith, and when I saw him step from the train to the
+platform I felt what Betty calls a 'ruggin'' at my heart, for very
+emphatically he appeared as a link binding me to a life which I know I
+must soon re-enter, and which I have lately ignored and well-nigh
+forgotten.
+
+Monteith is one of the aristocrats of our profession, a gentleman by
+breeding and nature from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot.
+Quiet, reserved, well knit and well groomed, he fills the eye and takes
+the heart wherever he goes, and as I shook hands with him I felt a
+secret pride in the knowledge that he is my partner.
+
+I welcomed him warmly to the strath of his forefathers, and assured him
+that if his knife and fork happened to be reversed at dinner, or if any
+one offered a left-hand shake, he must just count it an accident, as we
+had long ago ceased to remember the disreputable part his namesake
+played in pre-Bannockburn days.
+
+We had a twelve o'clock dinner: broth--not the kind everybody or anybody
+makes, but Betty's broth--boiled beef, with potatoes in their skins,
+followed by a jam-roll, of which Monteith had two liberal helpings. I
+told him that long ago it was usual to finish up a dinner with another
+plateful of broth, and he assured me that had he not partaken of the
+jam-roll he would gladly have revived the custom. I didn't forget to
+tell Betty of the appreciation, and I know it pleased her, for when we
+drew in our chairs for a smoke I heard her voice from the back-kitchen
+raised, as timmer as of old, in the lilting strains of 'The Farmer's
+Boy.'
+
+Then through tobacco-reek we talked business--at least Monteith did, and
+I listened. He had much to tell me, and he talks well. After disposing
+of some private matters, we broached the all-important object of our
+visit to Mrs Stuart, and it was only when we came to the unpleasant part
+of Miss Stuart's affairs that I told him of my wonderful discovery and
+the astonishing part that Joe had played in it.
+
+Dressed in his Sunday best, Joe was awaiting his call in the kitchen,
+and on being brought in he was closely questioned by Monteith. Not only
+did Joe confirm all he had told me before, but he added to our knowledge
+by giving us the exact date of the baptism of the Major's baby. It
+synchronised with the date of a black day in Joe's life, when a girl
+died of whom he was very fond. When I was thinking sentimentally of his
+tragedy, and making allowances for much remissness that Betty deplores,
+Monteith, with arched eyebrow, was staring at him through a monocle,
+thanking Providence for having so opportunely sent him our way, and
+counting him a means to a successful end.
+
+Long after Joe had left the room, Murray Monteith sat lost in thought.
+Monteith cannot leave a fire alone when he is thinking anything out. His
+room in our premises in Charlotte Square adjoins mine, and if I hear
+through the wall a vigorous poking and smashing going on I know he is
+tackling a ticklish problem. Yesterday, in five minutes, he 'bashed'
+Betty's fire out of recognition; and when for the tenth time he had
+lifted and dropped the poker he turned to me suddenly and said, 'By
+Jove, Russell, this will be a bitter pill for our friends Smart &
+Scobie!' I told him I didn't care a rap for that; what gratified me
+beyond measure was the fact that a sweet, sensitive girl had been spared
+humiliation, and that, instead of being a nameless lassie, she was Miss
+Stuart of Abereran.
+
+I spoke very feelingly, and Monteith wasn't slow to notice it. He
+focussed me slowly through his monocle. 'I share that sentiment with
+you, Russell,' he said. 'I am not unmindful of her, though I give voice
+to my feeling of exultation in scoring a point. I trust Miss Stuart has
+no inkling of what has been standing in our way to prevent a settlement
+in her affairs. You--you haven't met her yet?'
+
+'Oh yes; we are a small community here, and I have spoken to her once or
+twice.'
+
+'Then you've been visiting at Nithbank House?'
+
+'Not since I went under my mother's care twenty years ago, when the
+Ewarts lived there.'
+
+'Oh!' and again he fixed me through his monocle. But he saw I was
+disinclined to go into details, and his good breeding made further
+questioning impossible. 'Well,' he said, after a pause, 'Mrs Stuart will
+be delighted to know all this. Her stepson, Maurice Stuart, has been at
+the root of all this trouble. I understand he wanted to marry Miss
+Stuart; but she would have nothing to do with him, and in retaliation he
+has done his level best to turn the mystery of his uncle's marriage to
+his own account. He it was who instructed Smart and Scobie. He's an
+awful waster, I believe, and his stepmother long ago cut him adrift.'
+
+This was news to me, but I feigned indifference, and as adroitly as I
+possibly could turned the subject of our conversation to Joe and the
+part he had yet to play. 'I think, Monteith,' I said, 'we ought to take
+him with us to-day to Nithbank House. Mrs Stuart will be interested in
+him, and wishful, no doubt, to see and talk with him.'
+
+'Oh, certainly,' said Monteith, as he snipped the end off another cigar;
+'and, if he's still about, you had better call him at once. The carriage
+is at the door, I see.'
+
+Mrs Stuart had very kindly sent her brougham for us; and so it came to
+pass that when we left the door Joe was sitting on the dicky beside the
+coachman, arms folded and eyes front--conscious, however, I felt sure,
+that Nathan's Betty was approvingly watching him from behind the
+dining-room curtains.
+
+We were received very graciously by Mrs Stuart in the library. I
+introduced Monteith to her, and she at once apologised for having put
+him to the trouble and inconvenience of travelling so far. Then she
+inquired in a very kindly way after my health, and told me that when
+first her niece had informed her of my residence in the village she felt
+annoyed that the firm had not advised her; but that, after all, it was
+perhaps wisely kept from her, as she would only have worried me about
+business and made herself a nuisance.
+
+I laughingly said something in reply about doctors being autocrats, and
+thanked her for her inquiries and consideration, and, to my great
+relief, the subject was gradually and agreeably changed to something
+else.
+
+The Hon. Mrs Stuart is tall and angular, and she dresses in stern black,
+as becometh a sorrowing widow. She has, for a woman, a very square,
+assertive chin and a somewhat determined mouth; but the effect of the
+hard, firm chiselling of the lower part of the face is discounted by the
+kindly expression of her mellow, blue-gray eyes. Her hair is streaked
+with gray, and she has arrived at that time of life when, for
+preference, she sits and talks to visitors with her back to the light.
+
+As Monteith had surmised, the important business she had referred to in
+her letter had to do with Miss Stuart's affairs, and as this was causing
+her great anxiety we went into the matter at once.
+
+She explained to us, as she had done privately to me before, that she
+really didn't know, or, rather, that she had never had opportunities of
+knowing, her late brother-in-law, General Stuart. 'He was queer,' she
+said, 'very queer; lived in a bleak part of Cornwall most of his time,
+preferring it to Abereran in Perthshire; for years kept his marriage a
+secret, and made no mention of a daughter; and then, when we were
+looking forward with reasonable certainty to some day seeing Maurice
+laird of Abereran, a handsome girl of eighteen, an undoubted Stuart, was
+brought home from a Continental school, and, as his daughter, Desiree
+Stuart, installed mistress of his house. Personally, I had not a doubt
+of Miss Stuart's status or right of birth; but Maurice--well'----and she
+shrugged her shoulders and looked thoughtfully away down the avenue.
+
+I asked my partner to tell her what we had learned from Joe, and he did
+so in that easy, off-hand, taken-for-granted style which we men of law
+sometimes affect, and which is intended to impress our clients with our
+astuteness and perspicacity. At first Mrs Stuart looked indifferent; but
+as the story was unfolded, and Joe's part established, she sat forward
+in her chair in utter amazement. 'Remarkable! remarkable!' she
+exclaimed. 'I never heard of such a wonderful coincidence.'
+
+After we had discussed it in all its bearings, and settled on a definite
+plan of action, Joe was brought in. As my presence and advice were no
+longer necessary, I asked that I might be permitted to see Miss Stuart
+with reference to her Banku shares, and to this Mrs Stuart readily
+agreed. When we were passing through the hall to the drawing-room she
+asked if it was my intention to acquaint her niece with the news we had
+learned. I replied that as Miss Stuart had not been made aware of the
+nature of the difficulty which had so long confronted us, it wouldn't be
+advisable to tell her all we knew; but, with her permission, I would
+take the opportunity of informing her that certain knowledge we had
+acquired lately was likely to hasten a settlement. She agreed with me in
+this, and it was with a beating heart I entered the drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+Miss Stuart was sitting before an easel in the large oriel, and as her
+aunt briefly announced me and withdrew in her eagerness to talk to the
+wonderful Joe, she rose and greeted me warmly. 'Oh, Mr Russell,' she
+said, 'I _am_ glad to see you. Somehow I can't paint to-day; the
+inspiration is wanting;' and she put her brushes in the jar and laid
+aside her palette.
+
+It was a large room lit by two windows, one facing the south, the other
+to the west over-looking the wooded banks of the winding Nith. The flush
+of the sunset was tingeing the sky and flooding the room with a subdued
+light which mellowed and softened the deep black of the Indian furniture
+against the pale-gray walls and the deeper-gray carpet. A large fire,
+crowned with a halo of short blue flame, glowed in the grate, and a
+'megilpy' odour, mingling with the faint, indescribable perfume which
+ladies carry with them, lingered around, and reminded me of a reception
+afternoon in a Queen Street studio of long ago.
+
+I was conscious of these details in my surroundings, although my eyes
+had never wandered for a moment from the sweet face of my dream-lady,
+and followed her greedily as she walked forward to the firelight.
+
+I explained to her that my partner, Mr Monteith, was engaged with Mrs
+Stuart on business, and that I had taken the opportunity of having a
+word with her on a similar subject.
+
+She smiled, wearily I thought, and seated herself. 'I don't like
+business talks, Mr Russell,' she said. 'Neither did father. It must be a
+family trait. Still, I dare say they are incumbent on us sometimes. I
+trust it is pleasant business you wish to talk over.'
+
+'Oh yes, it is pleasant enough,' I said, and her face brightened.
+'Sitting here,' I continued, after a pause, 'and seeing you in such a
+perfect setting, I am strongly tempted to talk to you on a subject
+nearer my heart; but--well, I have already promised you to put my
+feelings into the background for the time being, and, hard though it may
+be, I will be true to my word. You remember I talked to you about your
+interest in the Banku Oil Company? Well, the last dividend was paid to
+us, one hundred pounds of which has been lodged in the local bank, and I
+have here a cheque-book which you can use from time to time as you may
+require.'
+
+'You are very thoughtful for me, Mr Russell,' she said softly, 'and I
+thank you very, very much. One hundred pounds is surely a lot of money.
+I could do with less, you know, if'----
+
+'Not at all, Miss Stuart. The money is yours; use it as you like, and
+just let me know when you need more. You--you don't mind asking me?'
+
+'No,' she said promptly, and as she trustfully looked me in the eyes her
+mouth retained the form of that little word long after it had passed her
+lips. She was sitting in profile against the firelit background, leaning
+slightly forward in her chair, her elbow on her knee and her chin
+resting lightly on the tips of her fingers. Her pose was so easy and
+graceful, and her dear face, in its beauty of feature and earnestness of
+expression, so bewitching, that I could not conceal my longing and
+admiration. I would have given the world to be allowed to kneel down
+beside her, and there, in the mystic glamour of the firelight, worship
+silently and reverently at her shrine. My steady gaze disconcerted her,
+and I cursed my temerity when I saw a blush spreading over her
+half-averted face.
+
+'Socrates has many disciples still, Mr Russell,' she said, without any
+sign of displeasure in her tone; and her eyes again sought mine.
+
+'Yes. How so, Miss Stuart?'
+
+'He sought the truth in doing good; so do you. Since father's death, and
+until--well, very lately, I haven't known what it is to have a joyous
+mind. I seem to have been walking among shadows, and a dread has always
+been knocking at my heart. You, by your kindly attention and your
+sympathy, have lightened my burden and brought a ray of hope to me; and,
+do you know, Mrs Jardine's little children every evening of their sweet
+young lives ask God to bless you for being kind to their dear daddy.'
+
+Our line of business conversation had got a twist somehow, and I didn't
+very well know what to say in reply, or how best, without breaking away
+at a tangent, I could get back to the subject I had in my mind. 'I am
+sorry to hear you have had your troubles, Miss Stuart,' I said after
+reflection; 'but I am glad to know that even to a small degree I have
+made your burdens lighter. I have promised to be your friend; you'll not
+find me wanting, I assure you. Doubtless your affairs have worried you,
+but daylight is showing through now, and in a few weeks I trust
+everything will be settled to your satisfaction. Do you know, we have
+with us to-day some one who knew your father, and who was present at his
+marriage ceremony.'
+
+'Some one who knew my father, and who was present at his marriage
+ceremony!' she repeated slowly, as if she couldn't at once realise what
+it meant.
+
+'Yes!' and, as I noted the colour gradually leaving her cheek, it came
+to me in a flash that I had erred in mentioning the fact in conjunction
+with a satisfactory settlement of her affairs. Even to an obtuse mind
+the inference was obvious, and I felt I had blundered grievously. Her
+agitation was unmistakable, and to relieve the situation I was about to
+make a remark, when she interrupted me.
+
+'One moment, please;' and she turned her face away from me. 'This man,
+you say, was present when my father and mother were married, and you
+mention it as if it had a special significance. Does this affect me--I
+mean, would it make any difference to my name or prospects--my name
+particularly?'
+
+'Oh yes, it would, Miss Stuart,' I said feelingly.
+
+'Can you rely on what this man says?'
+
+'Most emphatically, and we shall at once take steps to prove it.'
+
+'When did you hear about this?'
+
+'Quite lately.'
+
+'Was it before you spoke to me, and--and promised to be my friend?'
+
+'I didn't know about it then. It was only the day before yesterday it
+came to my knowledge.'
+
+There was silence between us for a time, and the ormolu clock on the
+marble mantelpiece ticked loudly.
+
+Then she rose to her feet and looked toward me, smiling through
+tear-dimmed eyes. 'You have made me very happy, Mr Russell. I don't want
+to know anything further. I leave myself confidently in your hands.
+You'll find cigarettes on the table behind you; you may smoke here;' and
+she crossed the room and sat down at the piano. She struck a few chords,
+deep as her own feelings; then she rose and came toward me. 'Mr Russell,
+do you know I have never known the joy of a mother's caress or the
+blessing of a mother's good-night kiss. Such memories of childhood are
+not mine, and my past is empty--empty. My father, for reasons of which I
+know nothing, never mentioned my mother's name to me. I was brought up
+among strangers, kindly enough, but still strangers. I never came in
+contact with other children. In a way, I was isolated from everything
+heartfelt and human; it is only since I got to know your neighbours
+that I have had a glimpse of what is surely the truest, sweetest, and
+happiest side of life. I like your nurse, your Betty. She once put her
+hand on my arm, and it had such a motherly touch that I wanted to kiss
+her. Perhaps you are thinking that this has no connection with anything
+that has passed between us. Well, you may be right in thinking so; but
+it is on my mind and in my heart, and I just wanted to tell you now, as
+I feel my future is hanging by a thread--a very slender thread--and I
+may not have another opportunity of saying it.'
+
+I understood her mood, and made no reply; but I took her hand, raised it
+to my lips, and kissed it.
+
+We were standing together in the oriel, watching the sunset splendour
+through the leafless trees, when Mrs Stuart and Murray Monteith joined
+us. Once or twice I caught my partner admiringly following Miss Stuart's
+movements, and he looked several times at me with a mark of
+interrogation in his eye. I had a feeling that he 'jaloused,' as Betty
+would put it, and it set me a-thinking; only for a moment, however, and
+I soon dismissed him and his monocle from my mind.
+
+We had afternoon tea and a pleasant chat on current topics, and then our
+carriage was called. Just before we started, when we were standing in
+the hall, Miss Stuart asked me, in an undertone, if she could see, just
+for a minute, the man who had known her father. I called Joe inside, and
+Miss Stuart took him into the drawing-room. When he joined us again
+there was a glad look in his eye, and I knew his heart was proud within
+him, for he had shaken hands with his old Major's daughter.
+
+I sat quiet and preoccupied in the corner of the brougham when driving
+home.
+
+Just as the first twinkling light shone out ahead from the Gillfoot
+turn, Monteith turned to me. 'Russell,' he said, 'pardon my interrupting
+the flow of your pleasant meditations. You're a queer fellow in many
+ways; you--you don't say much till it suits you; but I can see as far
+through a brick wall as any one, and it may be--I say it _may_
+be--agreeable to you to know that Blackford Hall in Morningside will
+shortly be in the market. I've heard you say that if you ever settled
+down to married life you would like to live there.'
+
+'Thank you, Monteith, for your information,' I said. 'It _is_ agreeable
+to me to know this.'
+
+Nothing further was said on the subject till we were seated at my cosy
+fireside. Then Murray Monteith, blowing clouds of fragrant smoke above
+him, and glancing round my clean, well-furnished walls, said, 'By Jove,
+Russell! you're a lucky fellow; an old doting nurse there,' inclining
+his head toward the kitchen, 'who loves you almost with a mother's
+affection, and who wouldn't allow the wind to blow on you if she could
+prevent it, and the love of a girl like--like'----and he hesitated and
+looked at me.
+
+'Go on, Monteith; you're doing all right.'
+
+'Go on! Hang it, man, _you_ go on! Can't you speak, you--you dungeon,
+and give me a tag on which to hang my congratulations?'
+
+'You don't require a tag, Monteith. A gag would be more suitable in the
+circumstances.'
+
+'Now, look here, Russell,' he said, as he flung his cigar-stump into the
+fire and fixed me through his monocle, 'you're not honest with me when
+you say that, and you know you are not. You and I are not strangers to
+each other, and there's no occasion for secrecy. If you have no
+matrimonial news, I have. I thought, perhaps, if you had taken me into
+your confidence, it would have been a good opportunity for me to
+acquaint you, in a gradual, chatty way, with my plans. As you
+haven't--well, all I shall say now is that I am engaged.'
+
+'My dear Monteith, I'm delighted to hear you say so, and I heartily
+congratulate you. You're the very best fellow I know, and you're
+marrying a lady in every way worthy of you. Miss Playfair is a'----
+
+'Miss Playfair!' he exclaimed, in astonishment. 'How do you know?'
+
+'Oh, well, the last time I visited you, before leaving Edinburgh, I,
+like you, was confronted with a brick wall, and I saw a little way
+through it. But that's neither here nor there. What we have to do now is
+to signalise the event;' and for the second time within two days I
+tasted a liquid element at an unusual hour.
+
+'And when does the great event come off, Monteith?' I asked.
+
+'Well, Russell,' he said, 'that is a matter which in a way depends on
+you. You see, I shall need to wait till you are quite recovered and back
+to business again. A honeymoon would naturally follow the ceremony,' he
+laughingly said, 'and it wouldn't do for both the principals of Monteith
+& Russell to be away at the same time.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dr Grierson and Mr Crichton joined us later at supper. Monteith is a
+keen devotee of the chess-board; and while he was trying conclusions
+with the banker, Dr Grierson and I went upstairs into my own little
+room. I told him all that had taken place--of my meetings with Miss
+Stuart, and the turn in the tide of her affairs--and he congratulated me
+and gave me much encouragement. Then I asked him when he thought I
+should be sufficiently well to resume business.
+
+'Well, William,' he said, 'you have to see Dr Balfour and get his
+permission before you can go back to town. Personally, I cannot give you
+even an approximate date. You are making splendid progress, and unless
+there are very urgent reasons for your return, I should advise you to
+keep free from worry on that score. Leave yourself in my hands, and
+before long, with Dr Balfour's concurrence, I shall be able to say when
+you may with safety receive marching orders.'
+
+Murray Monteith had to leave me without being able to arrange a
+particular date for his marriage. I am very sorry; but, after all, his
+great day may dawn sooner than he expects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+March came in like a lion, and, true to its proverbial reputation, it is
+going out like a lamb. Nature is waking from her long winter sleep, and
+is beginning to clothe herself anew. The hawthorn hedgerows, which only
+three weeks ago were hidden in piled-up wreaths of drifted snow, are
+covered now with a blush of green, and already in their bielded clefts
+the sparrows and yellow-yoits are preparing to build for themselves 'an
+house wherein to dwell.' There is a kindly warmth in the sun's rays as
+they lie on the upturned brown fields, and a soft genial breath is
+stealing through the woods and lingering lovingly round the ash and the
+chestnut, those early risers in the first dawn of spring. What a
+boldness and assertiveness there is in the big black bud of the ash, and
+how promising is the bulging pink-brown bud of the chestnut! To those
+who have eyes to see and ears to hear, how wonderful is the story they
+tell! If I were a preacher of God's gospel, I question if I could
+confine the selection of my texts to the literal words from His holy
+book. Of late I have been lying much in Nature's lap; I have listened
+with greedy, receptive ears to her song and story; I have felt the
+throbbing of her great mother heart, and learned in her workings many of
+the wonderful ways of her great Controller. And I am leaving her knee,
+creeping out of God's own sanctuary, humbled and chastened, yet
+gladdened and relieved withal, to think that into the city life, which I
+must soon re-enter, I am carrying with me that heaven-sent faculty of
+finding 'tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in
+stones, and good in everything.'
+
+And these lanes and solitary bypaths which have been my schoolroom are
+becoming daily more interesting, more insistent in their appeal. They
+are now providing something fresh and pleasing every day. I must walk
+slowly and quietly, so that I may see and hear every titbit of their
+store. A country walk at the rate of four miles an hour is very
+invigorating, to those in good health very pleasurable; but such is not
+possible on my byway at this season of the year, except to the
+Philistines. Even Bang and Jip do not exceed the half-mile limit; and as
+for myself--well, Dr Grierson has oftener than once accompanied me down
+the Gillfoot road, and I know he doesn't gauge the progress of my
+recovery by my rate of locomotion. No; if I must see and hear aright I
+have to walk slowly, and when the mavis is singing at close o' day I
+must halt altogether if I would listen as I ought.
+
+For many mornings past a blackbird from the top of the apple-tree in our
+garden has been challenging Tom Jardine to a trial of song; and, much as
+I love to lie and listen to my neighbour's pure tenor voice in 'The Lea
+Rig' or 'Flow gently, sweet Afton,' I have not been sorry when, as if
+acknowledging defeat, he has stopped to hearken to his feathered rival
+in the old apple-tree.
+
+Now that Tom has got over all his worries, and the sun is rising
+earlier, his heart is becoming attuned, and the familiar old Scots airs
+are accompanying the different items of his morning duties just as they
+used to do when first I came to stay with Betty. I hear the gray mare's
+whinny, the turning of the key in the stable door, the lid of the
+corn-bin creaking on its rusty hinges--these are all as they used to be.
+But, alas! all is quiet in Betty's kitchen now, and I miss the cheery
+sounds of the early breakfast preparations, for Nathan is lying
+prostrate in the back-room, and poor Betty's rest is too much disturbed
+to permit of her rising with the dawn.
+
+Every Friday evening since I came here I have given Nathan an envelope
+enclosing my weekly contribution toward the household expenses--that is,
+of course, in accordance with the arrangement I made with Betty; and at
+first I often used to wonder if she had fully explained the matter to
+him, because he always took the packet from me in a hesitating, doubtful
+way, very much as a debtor would accept a summons. Later he just smiled,
+and without a word put it in his trousers-pocket, looking sideways at me
+and inclining his head toward Betty wherever she happened to be at the
+time.
+
+Last Friday night, when I was at his bedside, I handed him the envelope
+as usual. He didn't hold out his hand for it; so I laid it down on the
+coverlet, and nothing was said for a time. Then, nodding toward a wooden
+box in the corner of the room, he said, 'Maister Weelum, will ye open
+the lid o' that kist, if ye please, an' bring me the wee tin box that's
+lyin' at the left-haun side?'
+
+I did as he requested. It was an old, battered, black japanned
+receptacle without a lock, and only secured against accidental opening
+by a wooden peg inserted through the catch. Withdrawing the peg and
+placing it between his teeth, he took off the lid, and there--some
+clean, others crumpled and dirty--was every envelope I had given him,
+and all of them unopened, as I had put them into his hand.
+
+'Maister Weelum,' he said, after a pause, 'I mak' nae great shape at
+speakin' or explainin'; but I've been thinkin', as ye've been idle an'
+aff yer wark sae lang, ye'll mebbe no' ha'e muckle comin' in the noo,
+an'--an'----Auch! I was gaun to say something mair, an' I've forgot it;
+but ye can tak' it a' back if it's ony use to ye.'
+
+'Nathan,' I said, in astonishment, 'I--I don't quite understand. Why
+should you offer me these?'
+
+He gave a wee bit quiet laugh. 'I dinna ken what kind o' a job ye ha'e,
+Maister Weelum. Betty never telt me, an' I never asked; but wi' us yins
+doon here it's nae wark, nae pey. Ye've been idle a lang time, as I've
+said, an' I thocht mebbe it micht come in handy. Of coorse, if ye dinna
+need it--weel, there's nae hairm dune.'
+
+I didn't know very well what to say, but I thanked him, and assured him
+that I didn't require money, explaining that it came to me whether I was
+working or not. This last bit of information roused Nathan's interest.
+
+'Comes in to ye whether ye're workin' or no'! Imphm! Ye maun be
+connec'it wi' meenisters somewey, then,' he said.
+
+'No, Nathan; I'm connected with law.'
+
+'Oh, imphm!'
+
+'I'm astonished that Betty never told you I was a lawyer, Nathan.'
+
+'Mebbe she wadna like, man. Betty's very discreet.' Then he added by way
+of sympathetic encouragement, 'Dinna think ocht aboot it; there maun be
+fouk for a' kinds o' jobs, ye ken, Maister Weelum.'
+
+Nathan is capable of unconsciously starting many different emotions. I
+was touched by his kindness and unselfishness, and amused at his
+reflection on my profession. But I couldn't find words to thank him for
+the former, and I dared not laugh at his serious remarks on the latter.
+Then I bethought me of my plan to relieve him of his long, weary walks,
+and to find something to take up his attention nearer home. I asked him
+if he wouldn't give up his present work and take to the cultivation of
+tomatoes, and I outlined my little scheme as clearly as I could.
+Somehow, I didn't succeed in making it plain to him, for after I had
+finished, and when I asked him what he thought of it, all he said was,
+'It has nae attraction for me, Maister Weelum, for I never could eat a
+tomato a' my life.'
+
+'But, Nathan,' I said, 'you needn't eat them unless you like. You've to
+grow them, and then you sell them. There might be money in it for you,
+and for your goodness of heart in offering me all these envelopes I want
+to pay for the putting up of the glass-houses and stoves and piping;
+that will be a small return for all your kindness to me. You know all
+about the growing of tomatoes?'
+
+'Ay, brawly.'
+
+'And what do you think about it, then, Nathan?'
+
+'What would Betty say, think ye?'
+
+'I don't know,' I said, 'but we'll soon hear.'
+
+Betty was baking soda-scones, and when she was free to leave her girdle
+she came in, and I told her all I had told Nathan. She looked from me to
+Nathan, and then, answering a sign, she went up and leaned over his
+bedside. I heard a throttled sob and a whispered word or two. Thinking
+they wished to talk it over by themselves, I slipped into the kitchen.
+
+In a minute Betty was with me. 'Maister Weelum,' she said, and her lip
+trembled, 'Nathan, puir falla, broke doon there. He didna want you to
+see. He says he's obleeged to ye, but--but--but--it's no' worth while.'
+
+I laid my hand on her shoulder in silent sympathy. Without a word she
+turned to her bakeboard, and I went into my room and quietly closed the
+door.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Last night, just after I had lit the gas and settled myself down for an
+hour's perusal of M'Crie's _Vindication_, Betty opened my door and came
+quietly in. 'Maister Weelum,' she said with a trembling lip, 'Nathan's a
+wee mair relieved. Him an' me ha'e had a closer he'rt-to-he'rt crack
+than ever we had in a' oor lives. I'm gled, in a wey; but--but I canna
+help thinkin' it'll be oor last.' She wiped her cheek with her apron.
+'Hoots! hoots!' she said as the tears continued to flow; 'it's--it's no'
+like me to be a' begrutten like this; I'm gettin' awfu' soft-he'rted;
+but, oh, Maister Weelum, I'm awfu', awfu' sair-he'rted!'
+
+I was at her side in a moment. 'There noo,' she said, 'I've dune;' and
+she choked down a sob. 'What I wanted to tell ye was that Nathan's very
+anxious to see ye; he wants to speak to ye aboot something. It's the
+first time he's speirt for onybody, an' I'm gled it's you. I ha'ena to
+gang in wi' ye, for he wants to see ye your lane.'
+
+I pulled in my big chair nearer to the fire, put my mother's kirk
+hassock in front of it, and after I had seated Betty comfortably I went
+ben to Nathan's back-room.
+
+A week or two ago, at his request, we had turned the bed round so that
+from where he lay he could see into the garden. I was present when Joe
+and Deacon Webster made the alteration; and when Nathan and I were alone
+and he had looked his 'e'efill' on the scene of his lifelong labour of
+love, he said, 'I'll no' weary noo, Maister Weelum. The flo'ers and the
+yirth ha'e aye a hamely look to me.'
+
+And to-night, when I approached his bed, his eyes were fixed on the
+darkened shadowy plots outside. I didn't speak for a minute, and neither
+did he. Then, thinking he was unaware of my presence, I said, 'Nathan, I
+am here, beside you.'
+
+'Ay, I ken.'
+
+'Shall I bring in your lamp? It's getting dark now.'
+
+'No, no, if ye please, dinna licht the lamp. I want to see--to see oot
+as lang as I can.'
+
+I sat down beside him, and together we watched in silence the shadow of
+the night's wing creeping around bush and tree. And when everything was
+shrouded, and nothing was visible through the blue-black window-panes,
+Nathan's head turned on the pillow toward me. 'Man, Maister Weelum,' he
+said, 'it's quiet, quiet wark that. I'll never see it again--no, never
+again. Ye dinna mind sittin' in the dark?'
+
+'No, Nathan.'
+
+'Ay, the licht hurts my een; an'--an' I've never said muckle a' my life,
+but I've often thocht oot lang screeds in the darkness, an' mebbe it'll
+help me oot wi' what I've to say to ye the noo. Ay, the Hebrons dinna
+speak muckle, Maister Weelum; but this is a forby time wi' me, an' I've
+something to ask o' ye. I hardly expec'it the ca' at this time o' the
+year. The back-en's the time o' liftin'. I aye thocht, somewey, that
+when my time cam' it wad be when the growth was a' by, the aipples pu'd,
+and the tatties pitted; and it seems awfu' queer that I should ha'e to
+gang when the buds are burstin', an'--an' the gairden delvin'
+on--imphm!--but it's His wull. "The young may, the auld
+must."--Imphm!--Ay, are ye listenin', Maister Weelum?'
+
+I rose from my chair, and I stroked the gray hair back from his
+forehead. 'Yes, Nathan, I'm listening; but you must not give up hope;
+you're really not an old man, and'----
+
+'No' an auld man! Imphm! I've--I've been an auld man a' my days. I canna
+mind o' ever bein' young. I was ten--only ten--when my faither was ta'en
+awa', an' I had to mak' the handle o' his spade fit my wee bit haun.
+Ay, I had to, for the weans had to be brocht up, an'--an', thank God, I
+managed it! But it killed the youth that was in me. Ay, an', as I was
+gaun to say, I'm seein' things differently lyin' here. Coontin' the
+times ye've been at the kirk'll no' quieten your fears. Thinkin' o' the
+guid ye've dune or tried to do micht, an' my crap o' that's a very sma'
+yin. Still, I maun ha'e pleased the Almichty in some wey, or He wadna
+ha'e been sae kind to me; He wadna ha'e gi'en me Betty. Oh, man, Maister
+Weelum, I wish I could tell ye a' that Betty's been to me! I'm vexed I
+canna. I'm a Hebron, an' I needna try; but ye ken yoursel' in a sma'
+wey. She nursed ye--ay, an'--an' noo this is what I want to ask ye--when
+I'm away, Maister Weelum, will ye see that my--that Betty's a'
+richt--eh? Is that askin' an awfu' lot?'
+
+'Oh, Nathan,' I said, and I knelt down at his bedside and took his
+softened hand in mine, 'Betty is to me a sacred trust, and if it be
+God's will that you must leave her, I will be with her till she goes out
+to meet you again.'
+
+He pressed my hand. 'Thank ye, Maister Weelum. I--I thocht ye would; but
+I juist wanted to mak' sure. That's a', I think--a' at least as far as
+this world's concerned. There's a lot--an awfu' lot I should do, but I
+canna. I doot I've been careless. I've left the want to come at the
+wab's en', an' I ha'e nae time to mak' it guid noo. I maun juist leave
+it to Him. Guid-nicht, Maister Weelum, an' ye'll tell her--ye ken whae I
+mean--that I was gled a Hebron was o' service to her. Guid-nicht. God
+bless ye, man! Guid-bye.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+'Guid-nicht--God bless ye!--Guid-bye.' These words kept ringing in my
+ears as I sat by my fire, and during the quiet hours my sorrowing
+thoughts strayed again and again into that wee back-room where Betty sat
+watching, and where Nathan lay dying.
+
+Long after the village folks had gone to bed I heard the street door
+open quietly, and the doctor's shuffling footsteps in the lobby. He went
+through the kitchen into Nathan's room; then he came in and sat down in
+the big chair opposite me. 'I told Betty I would be here if I were
+needed, William,' he said, and he took out his old clay pipe and smoked
+in silence.
+
+Just when the night was on the turn he opened the door and went quietly
+across to his patient. I followed him into the kitchen, and there, by a
+cheerless fire, sat Mrs Jardine in Betty's chair, and, poor,
+hard-working soul, she was asleep, with her head resting on Tom's
+encircling arm. I put my hand on his shoulder and thanked him for his
+presence. Then I went back into my room, and, sitting down in my chair,
+closed my eyes, for their lids felt heavy and weary.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+'William, Betty wants you.' The voice seemed far away. I rose hurriedly
+and rubbed my eyes. The sparrows were twittering in the lime-tree, and
+the gray light of a March morning was lying cold in the room. The doctor
+was standing with his hand on the handle of the half-open door. 'Betty
+wants you, William,' he said in a whisper; and I passed him without a
+word, and with a heavy, apprehensive heart.
+
+On the little round table was an open Bible which I knew well, and a
+pair of spectacles lay across the flattened-out leaves. Betty was
+standing at the bedside, her dimmed eyes fixed on Nathan's long, wan
+face. She didn't turn her head when I came in, but she held out her hand
+to me, and together we watched. Suddenly he raised his head from the
+pillow and his sunken, sightless eyes turned toward the window. 'Ay,
+imphm!--weel, Betty lass, it's aboot time I was daunerin'. It--it's a
+nice mornin' for the road; the birds'll be whusslin' bonny in the
+Gillfit wood, an'--an' the sunshine will be on the hawthorn. No, I'll
+no' mak' a noise. I'll open the door canny, and I'll no' wauken Maister
+Weelum. I'll--I'll juist slip oot quietly. Ay'----
+
+And Betty and I watched Nathan slipping out quietly--oh, how
+quietly!--into the sunshine of God's own everlasting morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Harvest-time in Midlothian. Golden corn in golden stooks dotting the
+stubble-fields, yellow leaves on the ash and russet nuts on the beech, a
+beautiful panorama of multi-coloured landscape stretching hazily away
+southward and cuddling tranquilly between the Moorfoots and the
+Pentlands; bird song in the woods and laughter in the fields, mingling
+with the jolting of iron wheels and the cheery rhythmic _craik_ of the
+levelling reaper. Little wonder Old Sol lingers long this afternoon
+above Castlelaw. Gladly, I ween, would he stay; but his times of rising
+and going down are set, and slowly but surely the shadows deepen at the
+base of Caerketton, and steal upward to its sheltered crown behind
+Allermuir.
+
+My wife and I drove round by Roslin to-day, called at The Moat, and
+after having tea with my old friend Mrs Pendriegh, whose soda-scones are
+almost as good as Betty's, we returned 'in the hush of the corn' to
+Blackford Hall, _via_ Woodfield and Fairmilehead.
+
+This is all strange, unfamiliar country to Desiree. To-day she saw it
+for the first time and under the most favourable auspices, and already
+I know, from her looks and words of appreciation, that it has made its
+appeal. She thinks, with me, that it very much resembles my own homeland
+scenery, from its undulating fields and bosky woods to its velvety
+grass-grown hills, so sleek and rounded, she said, that she wanted to
+clap them. As we drove homeward, quiet thoughts of Thornhill came to us,
+and we wondered what Betty would be doing, and how she was getting on.
+For a month she had been with us, our first guest, and the most honoured
+and most welcome we shall ever have under our roof. Two days ago she
+returned to what she calls her 'ain auld hoose,' and when Desiree and I
+saw her off at the station she told us in a shaky voice that 'mebbe she
+wad be back in the spring, when she had the hoose seen to an' the
+gairden delved.'
+
+We miss her cheery, motherly presence in the house; and, though it was
+looking far ahead, we planned a future for Betty as we drove along.
+
+When we reached Blackford Hall I found more than a kenspeckle
+countryside to remind me of homeland. In the hall was a carpet-bag which
+I recognised as a Hebron heirloom I had often seen in Nathan's
+back-room. Two large pictures, indifferently packed and tied round with
+rope-line, were placed against the hat-rack. One, from the corner of the
+frame which was uncovered, I knew to be the oil-painting of my father
+and mother; and the other, from the new brilliancy of the gold, I
+recognised as Desiree's painting of Nith Bridge. Nathan's old hazel
+walking-stick, which daily he carried to his work, was lying along the
+top of the carpet-bag, tied securely to the leather handles.
+
+'Desiree, my dear,' I said, with a happy flutter in my heart, 'I do
+believe Betty's come back.'
+
+She looked at me with a wondering smile on her face, as much as to say,
+'Too good to be true;' and, acting on a common impulse, we rushed
+upstairs like expectant bairns.
+
+There, in the little room facing southward, which we already called
+Betty's room, on a low chair before an empty fireplace, sat the dear old
+soul with her chin on her breast and fast asleep. Her bonnet-strings
+were loosened and lay over her shoulder, and her hands were tucked
+underneath a Paisley shawl, which was folded across her knees.
+
+We tiptoed in and stood quietly beside her, Desiree on her right and I
+on her left. Slowly she opened two wondering eyes, and with a
+bewildered gaze she looked around her. It was Desiree's hand she
+grasped. 'Oh, weans,' she said, 'I'm awfu' sorry to bother ye; but I'm
+back! I juist couldna stey away, an' ye maunna be angry wi' me for'----
+
+My wife had knelt down beside her. Betty's face nestled into her cheek,
+and the rest of the sentence was lost to me in smothered sobbing. And I
+waited beside them in silence till the solace from one kindly heart had
+crept into the other. Then I left them, and quietly closed the door.
+
+Betty, my own Betty Grier, as long, long ago you prepared a place for me
+within your big, warm, loving heart, so have you sanctified to yourself
+a place in mine; as you sheltered and cared for me in my spring of life,
+so will I shelter and care for you when your winter comes, when the cold
+wind tirls the leaf and it falls.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Betty Grier, by Joseph Waugh
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