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diff --git a/40141-8.txt b/40141-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6d8008 --- /dev/null +++ b/40141-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14071 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Red Rowans, by Flora Annie Steel + +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: Red Rowans + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: July 4, 2012 [EBook #40141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED ROWANS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (New York Public Library) + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=N48nAAAAMAAJ + (New York Public Library) + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + + RED ROWANS + + + + + + + RED ROWANS + + + + + BY + + MRS. F. A. STEEL + + AUTHOR OF "MISS STUART'S LEGACY," ETC. + + + + + + New York + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND LONDON + 1895 + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + Copyright, 1894, + By MACMILLAN AND CO. + + + + + + + RED ROWANS: A LOVE STORY. + + + + + PROLOGUE. + + "Love took up the Harp of Life and + .... smote the Chord of Self." + + +"Am I really like yon?" + +A small brown hand pointed peremptorily to a finished drawing on a +sketcher's easel hard by, and a pair of blue eyes frowned somewhat +imperiously at a young man, who, with one knee on the ground, was +busily searching in the long grass for a missing brush, while palette +and colours lay beside him ready to be packed up. The frown, however, +was lost on the back of his head, for he gave a decisive denial, +without turning round to look at the questioner. + +The girl's eyes shifted once more to the drawing, and an odd, wistful +curiosity came to her face as she took a step nearer to the easel. +What she saw there was really rather a clever study of herself as she +had been standing a few moments before, erect, yet with a kind of +caress towards the branch full of scarlet rowan berries, which one +round firm arm bent down from the tree above, against her glowing +face. There was a certain strength in the treatment; the artist had +caught something of the glorious richness of colouring in the figure +and its background, but the subject had been too much for him, and he +admitted it frankly. In truth, it would have needed a great painter to +have done Jeanie Duncan justice as she stood under the rowan tree that +autumn evening, and Paul Macleod was at best but a dabbler in art. +Still, it was a truthful likeness, though the nameless charm which +belongs to one face and not to another of equal beauty of form--in +other words, the mysterious power of attraction--had escaped pencil +and brush. There was nothing spiritual in this charm; it was +simply the power which physical beauty has sometimes to move the +imagination--almost the spiritual nature of men; and, such as it was, +it breathed from every curve of Jeanie Duncan's face and form. She was +very young, not more than seventeen at the most, and, as yet, in that +remote Highland glen, where every girl, regardless of her appearance, +had a jo, the pre-eminence of her own good looks had never dawned upon +her. So there was no mock humility in the words which followed on +rather a long pause. + +"I'll no be sae bonnie, I'm thinking." + +Something in her tone struck through even her companion's absorption; +for Paul Macleod was given to forgetting his world over trivialities. +He looked up sharply, rose hastily, stepped across to where she stood, +and laid his hand on her shoulder in easy familiarity. + +"Why, Jeanie, what's the matter now?" + +She moved away impatiently from his touch, and, as if from habit, her +arm, showing white under the russet bedgown she wore, went up to the +branch above her head. And there she stood once more with the ripe red +berries against her ripe red lips. + +"I'm sayin' I'll no be sae bonnie as yon." + +"Your eyes are not quite so blue, certainly; your cheeks not quite so +pink, your hair not quite so golden, nor your----" + +"That's enough, sir; ye needn't fash yourself more. I'm no for sale by +public roup. I was sayin' myself that I'll no be near sae bonnie as +yon." + +The rowan berries were being viciously stripped from their stems, and +allowed to fall in a defiant patter on the ground; yet there were +audible tears in the young voice. + +"You little goose! I didn't know you were so vain, Jeanie," he began. + +"I'm no vain," she interrupted, sharply. "It's no that, Mr. Paul. I +dinna care--at least no much--but if a lassie's bonnie----" she paused +suddenly and let the branch go. It swung back, sending a red shower of +overripe berries pattering round the girl and the man. + +"Well, Jeanie! If a lassie's bonnie?" repeated Paul Macleod, watching +the rapid changes in her vivid face with amused admiration; "if a +lassie's bonnie, what happens?" + +She confronted him with a certain dignity new to his experience of +her. + +"Ye ken fine, Mr. Paul, the difference it makes to a lassie if she is +real bonnie. Wasn't it yourself was lilting the 'Beggar-Maid' at me +the morn?" + +"Gracious Heavens, Jeanie! Ambitious as well! On which of the crowned +heads of Europe have you set your young affections? Tell me, that I +may kill him!" + +His arm slipped easily to her waist, and he bent to look in the face +which fell as it were before his touch. Yet it was paler than it had +been; for Jeanie Duncan neither giggled nor blushed. + +"It's no matter where I set my heart," she said, curtly, "when I'm no +bonnie." + +"Who said so? Not I," he remarked, coolly. + +"You said my eyes were no sae blue, my lips no sae red, my hair----" + +"Thank heaven they're not! Why, Jeanie! You must surely know that you +are a thousand times more beautiful than that--that chromo-lithograph +over there, which is only fit for a second-class Christmas number or +an undergraduate's room!" + +She withdrew herself from his arm, looking at him doubtfully, ready to +flare up in an instant. + +"You're no pokin' fun at me?" + +"Poking fun! Why"--his voice deepened suddenly, he stretched his hand +towards her again--"you are simply the most beautiful woman I have +ever seen." + +There was no mistaking the ring of reality in his tone, and yet there +was nothing emotional about it. He seemed to be asserting the fact as +much for his own benefit as for hers; and she also was lost in +herself, in her own eagerness, as she looked again at the portrait. + +"But it's real bonnie, Mr. Paul! Will it be as bonnie as the +Beggar-Maid?" + +"Still harping upon kings!" he said, coming back to her lightly. "Take +my advice, Jeanie, and be content with commoners." + +"But if I'm no content?" + +"Uneasy lies the head! Don't you remember my reading that to you the +other day?" + +She flashed round on him in an instant, superb in her quick response, +her quick resentment. + +"I mind mony a thing ye've read, mony a thing ye've said, mony a thing +ye've done. I've a deal to mind; too much, may be." + +It came as a shock to Paul Macleod. For his heart had, as yet, an +uncomfortable knack of acknowledging the truth. His head, however, +came to the rescue as usual, by swift denial that those long days +spent in painting Jeanie's portrait under the rowan tree were hardly +wise. + +"One can't have too much of a good thing, and it has been pleasant, +hasn't it?" + +"Mither says it's bin a sair waste o' time," replied the girl, +evasively. + +"I haven't wasted mine," retorted the young man airily. "Just look at +that masterpiece! And I've been as good as a quarter's schooling to +you, little one; think of the information I've imparted to my model, +the books I've lent, the--the things I've taught----" + +"Aye. You've taught me a deal. I ken that fine." + +He gave an impatient toss of his head as he turned away to pack up his +belongings; the girl helping him silently as if accustomed to the +task. + +Not a soul was in sight, though a wreath of blue peat smoke behind a +neighbouring clump of firs showed the near presence of a cottage. Save +for this one sign there was no trace of humanity in the scene except +those two in the foreground; both in their way types of youth, health, +and beauty--of physical nature at its best. But the solitude was not +silent. A breeze coming up with sunsetting rustled the rowan leaves, +and surged among the silver firs, in echo, as it were, to the long +hush of distant breakers on a rocky shore which came rhythmically to +mingle with the nearer rush of the burns streaking the hillside; while +far and near the air was filled with the wailing cry of lambs newly +separated from the ewes; most melancholy and depressing of all sounds, +especially when the sadness of coming night settles over earth and +sky, sending the shadows to creep up the hillsides and drive the +sunshine before their purple battalions. A veritable battle, this, of +assault and defence; each point of vantage, each knoll held by the +besieged until, surrounded by the enemy, the sunlight dies by inches, +gallantly, hopelessly, and the struggle begins again higher up. + +The girl and boy--for Paul Macleod was still in the early +twenties--felt oppressed by their surroundings, and after the manner +of youthful humanity they resented a feeling which had no foundation +in themselves. Were they not happy, alive to the uttermost, ready to +face the unknown, eager for the experience which the world seemed to +find so dreary? Why should they be saddened by things which were not +as _they_ were; which had had their day, or did not care to have it? + +"Come with me as far as the gate, Jeanie," he said, impatiently. "Ah! +I know you don't generally, but you might to-day. Then you can lock +it. If any of old Mackenzie's lambs were to get through to their +mothers he would lay the blame on you." + +"Why not to you, Mr. Paul?" + +He laughed rather contemptuously. "Because the road leads to your +croft, not mine; besides, no one ever lays blame to me. I never get +into trouble, somehow. I have all the luck that way, it seems, while +my brother--who is really no worse, I suppose--is always in hot water. +I never saw such a fellow." + +"They're saying," began Jeanie--half to cover the fact that she had +taken the first step down the sheep track--"that the laird----" she +stopped abruptly and looked furtively at her companion. + +"You may as well tell me what they are saying, Jeanie," he remarked, +coolly. "You always have to in the end, you know, and so there is no +use in making a fuss." + +She was not a girl to be at every one's command, but sooner or later +most women find it pleasant to be under orders, for a time, at any +rate; doubtless as the result of that past slavery of which we hear so +much nowadays. The feeling will be eradicated in the next generation +or so, but it must be allowed for in this. + +"They're sayin' Gleneira will have to sell the place, and"--she looked +at the face beside her critically, as if to judge how far she might +go--"they're sayin' it's a pity you were no the laird, Mr. Paul, for +you love every stick and stone about, and he is never coming near it +at all, at all." + +The young man walked on in silence. + +"Did ye know that I've never seen the laird, Mr. Paul, though me an' +mither has lived at the croft since I can mind anything; but, then, +she is no going down the strath, and he is no carin' for the fishin', +as you are; you're knowin' every stone in the river, I'm thinkin'." + +He turned to her with a quick laugh as if to dismiss the subject. "And +every face beside it; for I like pretty things, and some of them are +pretty. I'll tell you what it is, Jeanie, Gleneira's the most +beautiful place I ever saw; and you are the most beautiful girl in it. +Beggar-Maids haven't a chance, so I shall expect to be invited to your +nuptials with King Cophetua; a poor laird's Jock like myself can't +compete with a crowned head." The bitterness of his tone had more to +do with the prospect of having to let Gleneira go, than to the +manifest difficulty of appropriating Jeanie Duncan without offending +his head or her heart. + +"There's better worth having than crowns, maybe," said the girl, +doggedly. + +"Right! crowned heads may be penniless; let us say an old monarch wi' +siller." + +"There's better worth having than siller, maybe." + +Paul looked at her curiously. Apparently it was not for nothing that +he had amused his sitter by reciting the almost endless repertoire of +old ballads and songs in which he had taken delight since his earliest +boyhood. For it was part of his rather complex nature that he should +admire the romance and sentiment in which, with the easily adopted +cynicism of a clever lad, he professed to disbelieve. It suited him as +a refuge from himself; and yet the fact that Jeanie Duncan had +accepted this admiration as a proof of eternal truth did not displease +him. + +"Better worth than siller!" he echoed, wilfully provoking the answer +which he knew would come. "Why! there is nothing better worth than +siller--in the end." + +"Aye, there is," she put in confidently, "there's love. You've tell't +me the sang, many a time;--It's love that gar's the world gang round." + +Was it? They stood at the gate together, she holding it open for him +to pass, and the question came upon him suddenly. The old question +which comes to most men. Was it worth it? Should he, or should he not, +go the commonplace way of the world, and take what he could get? Yes, +if he could take it without bringing something into his life for ever, +which in all human probability he would not care to keep--_for ever_. +Even memory was a tie; and yet--his heart beat quicker, and the +knowledge that passion was beginning to disturb the balance of his +reason came home to him, bringing with it the same quick denial with +which he had met his own doubt as to the wisdom of the past. It was +his way of defending the emotional side of his nature. + +"Take care, Jeanie!" he said, seizing on the first commonplace detail +which met his eye, "that gate is newly tarred; you'll dirty your +hands." + +For the first time the girl challenged him deliberately. + +"I'm no carin'," she said defiantly, "my hands is used to dirt. I'm +not like you. It'll no hurt me." + +She closed the gate behind him sturdily, fastening the padlock, and +then without another word turned to go. In so doing she roused in an +instant all his obstinacy, all the imperious contrariety which would +not tolerate the decision of another, even though it tallied with his +own. + +"Are you going without saying good-bye, Jeanie? That's rude," he +began, stretching his hand over the gate, and once more wilfully +provoking a situation. "Nonsense! The least you can do is to shake +hands, and say thank you for all the benefits----" + +He paused, and the next instant had vaulted over the gate and was +kissing away her tears and calling everything to witness that he had +not meant to be unkind, that she was the dearest little girl in +creation. Both of which assertions were absolutely true to him at the +time; she had looked too bewilderingly sweet in her sudden burst of +grief for prudence. + +For the next half-hour, if there be another motive power besides Love +behind the veiled mystery of Life bidding the world go round, these +two young people did not trouble themselves about it. The descending +mists crept down to meet the shadows, the shadows crept up to meet the +mists, but sea and sky and land were full of light for the boy and +girl absorbed in the vast selfishness of passion. So lost in the +glamour with which the great snare for youth and freedom is gilded, +that neither of them thought at all of the probable ending to such a +fair beginning. Jeanie, because to her this new emotion was something +divine; Paul, because her estimate of it aided a certain +fastidiousness which, in the absence of better motives, had served +hitherto to keep him fairly straight. So, in a measure, the idyllic +beauty of the position as they sate, side by side on a lichen-covered +stone looking into each other's eyes, and supremely satisfied with +each other's appearance, served to make Paul Macleod's professions +more passionate than they would have been had she been less innocent. + +It was not until with a wrench he had acknowledged that it really was +time for her to be going home, and he was striding down the road +alone, that a chill came over him with the question-- + +"_Que diable allait il faire dans cette galere?_" + +It was one which, like a floating log after the rapids are past, +always came to the surface of Paul Macleod's life when the turmoil of +emotion was over. This time it brought an unpleasant surprise with it, +for to tell truth he had imagined himself secure against assault. He +had considered the situation calmly; had, so to speak, played with it, +asserting his power of evading its natural consequences if he chose, +of accepting them if he considered it worth while. And now, with his +heart still beating, his face still flushed, and with Jeanie's kisses +still tingling on his lips, it was no use denying that he had been +taken by storm. And it annoyed him. Suddenly the thought that it was +just the sort of scrape his brother would have fallen into came to +enhance the odd contempt which Paul Macleod's head always had for his +heart. The certainty, however, that he shared that brother's extremely +emotional nature was so unwelcome that it served for a time to +strengthen him in denial of his own weakness of will. After all, +impulse was the essence of passion. Had he not, recognising this, +voluntarily bade reason and prudence step aside. Would not any man +have been a fool to think twice of the future with Jeanie Duncan's +face ready to be kissed? It was worth something; in a way it was worth +all the rest of the world put together. So the serio-comedy might have +ended as such serio-comedies usually do but for the merest triviality; +nothing more nor less than the perception that he had tarred his hands +in vaulting over the gate! The offending stains sobered him, as no +advice, no reasoning, no reproof, could have done. To begin with, +there was no possibility of denying to himself that, be Love what it +may, he, Paul Macleod, would never in a calm moment of volition have +dirtied his hands in that fashion. He hated to be touched or soiled by +common things, without, as it were, a "by your leave." Then there was +a prophetic tinge in the consequences of his setting barriers at +defiance which appealed to his imagination. After all, would it be +worth while to carry about for the rest of your life an indelible mark +of a past pleasure, which could scarcely fail to become a disagreeable +reminiscence, no matter what was the _denouement_ of the present +situation? Marriage? Hardly that. Not only was he too poor to marry +for love, but was it by any means certain that such love as this was +worth the sacrifice of freedom. On the other hand, the only possible +alternative was, to begin with, such shocking bad form. The Macleods +of Gleneira had always kept straight in Gleneira itself. Besides, if +he harmed the girl in any way, he knew perfectly well that the regret +would be a tie to him all his life. That was the worst of having an +imagination. Other men might do it; he could not, if only for his own +sake. Then there was Jeanie, to think of poor little Jeanie, who +didn't even grasp the fact that she was in danger--who would---- + +Ah! Was it worth while? The question came back insistently, as, with a +plentiful supply of the salt butter recommended by the housekeeper at +Gleneira, he tried to get rid of the tar. He was no milksop, though he +liked delicate surroundings, and found a certain refinement necessary +to his comfort, but, if he had no objections to soiling his hands in +obedience to his own sovereign will and pleasure, he was always eager +to have them clean again. And so it was with his life. + +Poor little Jeanie Duncan! She in her innocent self-abandonment would +have welcomed anything which would have marked her as his indelibly. +And yet a real regard for her prompted his calculations. If he had +held her cheaper he would not have dreaded the remorse which would be +a tie to him all his life. It never occurred to him that this +squeamishness had come too late, or that the fine-weather flirtation +had in itself done the mischief; that the injury to an innocent girl +lies in the mind only. + +"Tell Donald that I shall want the light cart at five to-morrow +morning. I have to catch the Oban steamer," he said to the astonished +housekeeper as he sate down to his solitary dinner; for he had come to +Gleneira with the intention of spending long-leave in pottering about +the old place with gun and rod. + +So while Jeanie Duncan slept the sleep of perfect content, her lover +drove past the cottage in the grey mist of a rainy autumn morning +feeling intensely virtuous; and all the more so because his heart +really ached, even at the sight of the tarred gate. And no doubt +nine-tenths of the men he knew would have applauded his resolution in +running away, patted him on the back, told him he was a very fine +fellow, and said that but for his self-control the affair might have +ended miserably. Perhaps they would have been right; though, as a +matter of fact, Paul Macleod was running away from the natural +consequence of his own actions. + +Jeanie Duncan read his note of farewell with a scared white face. It +was gentle, regretful, kindly, and it killed her belief in Love for +ever. And unfortunately Love had not come to her in its sensual guise. +It had represented to her all the Truth, and Goodness, and Beauty in +the world. So she lost a good deal; and naturally enough a great +restlessness and desire for something to fill the empty space took +possession of her. Finally, when Spring drew on, and the first broods +were trying their wings, she--to use the phrase adopted by those who +tired of life in the remote glens--"thought of service in Glasgow." +Vague euphemism for much seeing of that unseen world beyond the hills. + +But while Paul Macleod in his travels carried with him the +consciousness of virtue, she had for memory the knowledge that she had +been weighed in the balance and found wanting. + +Two very different legacies from the same past. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + +Within the long, low cottage the black smoke-polished rafters rose in +inky darkness above the rough whitewashed walls, and the mud floor +showed the traces of past leaks in many a hill and hollow. The two +tiny windows were set breathlessly agape, and through the open door a +flood of hot bright sunshine threw a bar of mote-speckled light across +the room, gilding the heads of the scholars who sat swinging their +legs on the benches and sending a sort of reflected glint from the +white wall up into the sombre shadow of the roof. Such was the +Episcopal Grant-in-Aid School of Gleneira one July day, some ten years +after Paul Macleod had driven down in the mist to catch the Oban +steamer. + +Without, was a pale, heat-blanched sky set in tall spectral-looking +hills which had lost contour and individuality in a haze, blending +rock and heather, grass and fern, hollows and heights, into one +uniform tint of transparent blue. Between the mountains there was a +little level growth of green corn flecked by yellow marigolds, white +ox-eyes, and scarlet poppies; then a stretch of dusty road, ending in +cool shadows of sycamore and pine, beside the school-house garden. + +A wonderful garden this. Of Liliputian size, yet holding in its tiny +clasp a specimen of almost every plant that grows and blows. Three +potato haulms, four cabbages, a dozen onions, half a yard of peas; a +tuft of parsley, two bronze-leaved beet-roots, a head of celery. This, +flanked by a raspberry cane, a gooseberry bush, and supported by an +edge of strawberry plants, constituted the kitchen garden. Beyond, in +the trim box-edged border leading to the school-house door, were +pansies, roses, geraniums, lilies, and peonies; every conceivable +flower, each family represented by one solitary scion. Last, not +least, the quaint drops of the Dielytra; which the children with +awestruck voices call "The Bishop." For when you strip away the pink, +sheathing petals, is there not inside a man in full white lawn +sleeves? And is not a man in lawn sleeves a disturbing element in a +remote Highland glen, where half the people are rigid Presbyterians? +Here in this little garden the bees hum lazily and the butterflies +come and go; sometimes one, misled by the stream of sunshine pouring +through the open door, floats in among the yawning scholars, rousing +them to momentary alertness and a faint wonder as to the ultimate fate +of the wanderer; whether he will philosophically give up the +enterprise or, foolishly persistent, lose himself amid the +smoke-blackened rafters. + +The passing interest, however, dies down again into the sleepy stolid +indifference which is the outward and visible sign of that inward +desire for freedom felt by each child in the school. No keen longing, +but simply a dull wish to be out on the hillside, down by the burn, +under the trees; anywhere away from catechisms, collects, or shoes and +stockings. The last being the worst infliction of all to these wild +little Highland colts accustomed for six days of the week to bare +feet, since the coarse knitted hose and hobnailed boots belonging to +the seventh are a direful aggravation of the tortures of Sunday +school; while even the glorious gentility bestowed by a pair of side +springs is but poor compensation for the discomfort to the wearer. + +Perhaps that was the reason why each pair of legs on the benches +swayed helplessly to the rhythm of a singularly unmelodious hymn which +the scholars were singing, led by the master in a muffled nasal chant. +The tune itself was old and quaint, having in its recurring semitones +a barbaric monotony which a lighter phrase here and there showed was +not so much due to the composition in itself as to its present +interpreter. The words were still more quaint, forming a sort of +Litany of the Prophets, with innumerable verses and many vain +repetitions. + +Nevertheless, it was an evident favourite with the children; partly, +it may be hoped, from its own intrinsic merits, mostly, it is to be +feared, from the startling novelties in Scripture history which it was +capable of promulgating when, as in the present case, the schoolmaster +was engaged in his secondary profession of postmaster. + +As the tune rose and fell, there came every now and again a pause, so +sudden, so absolute that a passer-by on the dusty road might well have +asked himself if some direful catastrophe had not occurred. Nothing of +the sort. A glance within would have shown him everything at its +usual; the scholars in rows, from the kilted urchin of four--guiltless +of English--to whom school is the art of sitting still, to the girl of +fourteen, blissfully conscious of a new silk handkerchief and the +admiration it excites in the bashful herd-boy on the opposite bench. +In the corner, at a table with a slanting desk, the master was busy +sorting the letters which Donald Post, as he is called, has just +brought in; the latter meanwhile mopping his hot face and disburdening +his bag of minor matters in the shape of tea, sugar, and bread, and +himself of the budget of news he has accumulated during his +fourteen-mile walk; in an undertone, however, for the hymn goes on. + +"_Whair is noo' the pro-phet Dan'l?_" droned the master, followed by a +wavering choir of childish trebles and gruff hobbledehoy voices, +"_Whair is noo' the pro-phet Dan'l?_" + +The exigencies of the tune necessitated a repetition of the momentous +question again and yet again, the tune dying away into a pause, during +which the master's attention wandered to a novel superscription on a +letter. The children held their breath, the hum of the bees outside +became audible, all nature seemed in suspense awaiting the answer. + +"I'm thinking it will be from Ameriky," hazarded the master +thoughtfully to Donald Post, and, the solution seeming satisfactory, +he returned with increased energy to the triumphant refrain + +"_Safe intil the Pro-mised Land_." + +The children caught it up _con amore_ with a vague feeling of relief. +A terrible thing indeed, to Presbyterians or Episcopalians alike, if +the Prophet Daniel had been left hanging between heaven and another +place! So great a relief, that the gay progress of the tune and the +saint was barely marred by the master's renewed interest in a +postcard; which distraction led him into making an unwarrantable +statement that-- + +"_He went up in a fiery char-yot_." + +True, the elder pupils tittered a little over the assertion, but the +young ones piped away contentedly, vociferously. The Promised Land +once attained, the means were necessarily quite a secondary +consideration; and mayhap to their simple imaginings a fiery chariot +was preferable to the den of lions. + +"_Where is noo' the twal A-postles?_" led off the master again, after +a whispered remark to Donald Post, which provoked so interesting a +reply that the fate of the twelve remained trembling in the balance +long enough for the old refrain to startle the scholars from growing +inattention. + +"_Safe intil the Promised Land_." + +The sound echoed up into the rafters. Truly a blessed relief to reach +the haven after delays and difficulties. + +"_They went through_"--began the master. But whether in orthodox +fashion it would have been "_great tri-bu-la-tion_," or whether, on +the principle of compensation, the den of lions would have been +allowed twelve saints, will never be known. The mote-speckled beam of +sunshine through the door was darkened by a slight girlish figure, the +children hustled to their feet with much clatter of the unaccustomed +boots and shoes, and the schoolmaster, drowning his last nasal note +under a guilty cough, busied himself over a registered letter. For +Miss Marjory Carmichael objected on principle to the Litany of the +Prophets. + +The rather imperious frown, struggling with an equally obstinate smile +which showed on the newcomer's face, vanished at the sight of Donald +Post. + +"Any for me?" she asked eagerly. It was a charming voice, full of +interest and totally devoid of anxiety. An acute ear would have told +at once that life had as yet brought nothing to the speaker which +would make post-time a delight or a dread. She had for instance no +right to expect a love-letter or a dun; and her eagerness was but the +desire of youth for something new, her expectancy only the girlish +belief in something which must surely come with the coming years. For +the rest, a winsome young lady with a pair of honest hazel eyes and +honest walking boots. + +"'Deed no, Miss Marjory," replied the schoolmaster, selecting a thin +envelope and holding it up shamelessly to the light--a bold stroke to +divert attention from the greater offence of the hymn, "Forbye ain wi' +the Glasky post-mark that will just be ain o' they weary circulars, +for as ye may see for yoursel', Miss Marjory, the inside o't's +leethographed." + +"Thank you, Mr. McColl," said the girl, severely, as she took the +letter, "but if you have no objection I should prefer finding out its +contents in a more straightforward fashion." + +"Surely! Surely!" Mr. McColl, having got a little more than he +expected, gave another exculpatory cough, and looked round to Donald +Post for moral support. Perhaps from a sense that he often needed a +like kindness, this was an appeal which the latter never refused, and +if he could not draw upon real reminiscence for a remark or anecdote +bearing on the point, he never had any hesitation in giving an +I. O. U. on fancy and so confounding his creditors. On the present +occasion, however, he was taken at a disadvantage, being engaged in +trying to conceal from Marjory's uncompromising eyes a bottle of +whiskey which formed a contraband item in his bag; consequently he had +only got as far as a preliminary murmur that "there wass a good mony +wass liking to be reading their ain letters but that it was James +Macniven"--when the schoolmaster plucked up courage for further +defence. + +"Aye! Aye! 'tis but natur'l to sinfu' man to be liking his ain. Not +that they circulars interestin' readin', even if a body is just set on +learnin' like Miss Marjory. And I'm thinkin' it will only be from a +wine mairchant likely. It's extraordinair' the number of circulars +they'll be sending out; but the whiskey is a' the same. Bad, filthy +stuff, what will give parral--y--ses to them that drinks it." + +This second bid for favour, accompanied as it was by an unfortunate +glance for support at Donald--who was struggling unsuccessfully with +the neck of the black bottle--proved too much for Marjory's dignity, +and the consequent smile encouraged Mr. McColl to go on, oblivious +apparently of his last remark. + +"And it's whiskey we shall all be wanting, and plenty of it, to drink +the young laird's health. But I was forgetting you could scarcely have +heard the news, Miss Marjory, since it is only coming in the post just +now. It is the laird, Miss Marjory, that is to be home to-morrow by +the boat!" + +The girl forgot an incipient frown in sheer surprise. "Here! Captain +Macleod?" + +"Aye! it's the machine is to meet him at the ferry, the light cart for +his traps, and the house to be ready." In his desire for importance +Mr. McColl in the last words had given himself away completely, for +Marjory lived at Gleneira Lodge with her cousin, the factor. + +"The house to be got ready! Impossible! Mrs. Cameron had heard nothing +when I came out. Where did the news come from?" Marjory's voice, +especially to those who knew and loved her, as these good folks did, +never admitted of refusal, so the postmaster coughed again between the +thumps of the office stamp, which he had begun to use in a hurry. + +"It will be Mistress Macniven that was telling Donald Post, and Donald +Post he will be telling it to me." The words came in a sort of +sing-song, echoed by Donald himself in a croon of conviction. + +"Hou-ay! it was Mistress Macniven wass tellin' it to me, and it iss me +that iss tellin' it to Mr. McColl, and it is fine news--tamn me, but +it is fine news whatever." + +A twinkle came to Marjory's eyes, for in her character of Grand +Inquisitress to the Glen, such startling language was too evidently a +drag across the trail. + +"But where did Mrs. Macniven hear it?" + +"Aye! aye!" assented Donald, rising to go abruptly, "that is what it +will be, but she was tellin' it to me, whatever." + +"I don't believe a word of it," continued the girl; "Captain Macleod +would have written to my cousin, I know. It is just idle gossip." + +This was too much for the postmaster, who posed, as well as he might, +for being an authority on such questions. In the present instance he +preferred the truth to incredulity. + +'"Deed, Miss Marjory," he said, with unblushing effrontery, "it'll +just be one o' they postcards." + +"Hou-ay!" echoed Donald, softly. "She'll be yon o' they postcards, +whatever." + +"A postcard! What postcard?" + +Mr. McColl handed her one with the air of a man who has done his duty. +"Will you be taking it with you, or shall I be giving it to Donald, +here?" + +Marjory looked at him with speechless indignation; at least, she +trusted that was her expression, though the keen sense of humour, +which is the natural heritage of the Celt, struggled with her dignity +at first. + +"I am really ashamed of you, Mr. McColl," she said at last, with +becoming severity. "Of you and Mrs. Macniven; you ought to know better +than pry into other folks' secrets." + +But now that the cat was out of the bag, the postmaster showed fight. +"'Deed, and I'm no for seeing it was a secret at all! It is a penny +people will be paying if they're needin' secrets. And the laird is not +so poor, but he would put a penny to it if he was caring; though yon +crabbed writin' they teach the gentlefolk nowadays, is as most as gude +as an envelope. Lorsh me! Miss Marjory, but my laddies would be +gettin' tawse for a postcard like yon. It was just awful ill to read." + +"To read! Mr. McColl, I really am surprised at you! It is most +dishonourable to read other people's letters," protested the girl, +with great heat. + +"Surely! Surely! but yon's a postcard." + +From this position he refused to budge an inch, being backed up in it +by Donald, who, being unable to read, was busy in stowing away various +letters in different hiding-places in his person, with a view to their +future safe delivery at the proper destination. "It was a ferry useful +thing," he said, "was postcards, and if Miss Marjory would mind it +wass, when old Mistress Macgregor died her sons wass sending to Oban +for the whiskey to come by the ferry. But it wass the day before the +buryin' that a postcard wass coming to say the whiskey was to be at +the pier. But young Peter's cart wass going to the ferry to fetch the +whiskey and he was meeting Peter and telling him of the postcard. So +if it had not been for the postcaird it wass no whiskey they would be +having to Mistress Macgregor's funeral, whatever." A judicious +mingling of fact and fiction which outlasted Marjory's wrath. She put +the cause of offence in her pocket, remarking pointedly that as Donald +had such a budget of important news to retail, that would most likely +be the quickest mode of delivery, and then turned to her task of +giving the children their usual Sunday lesson, which she began with +such a detailed homily on the duty towards your neighbour, that Mr. +McColl took the excuse of Donald's departure to accompany him into the +garden, and remain there until she passed on to another subject. + +For Marjory Carmichael ruled the Glen absolutely; perhaps because she +was the only young lady in it. Girls there were and plenty, but none +in her own class of life, and the result on her character had been to +make her at once confident and unconscious of her own powers. She was +not, for instance, at all aware what a very learned young person she +was, and the fact that she had been taught the differential calculus +and the theory of Greek accents affected her no more than it affects +the average young man of one-and-twenty. The consequence being a +restfulness which, as a rule, is sadly wanting in the clever girls of +the period, who never can forget their own superiority to the mass of +their female relations. Having been brought up entirely among men, her +strongest characteristic was not unnaturally an emotional reserve, and +up to the present her life had been pre-eminently favourable to the +preservation of that bloom which is as great a charm to a girl as it +is to a flower, and which morbid self-introspection utterly destroys. +To tell the truth, however, she was apt to be over contemptuous of +gush, while her hatred of scenes was quite masculine. In fact, at +one-and-twenty, Marjory knew more about her head than her heart, +chiefly because, as yet, the call on her affections had been very +small. Her father, a shiftless delicate dreamer, brought up by a +brother years his senior, had married against that brother's wish, the +offence being aggravated by the fact that the bride with whom he ran +away was his brother's ward. One of those calm but absolutely hopeless +quarrels ensued which come sometimes to divide one portion of a family +from the other, without apparently much regret on either side. The +young couple had the butterfly instinct, and lived for the present. +They also had the faculty for making friends in a light airy fashion, +and after various vicissitudes, borne with the gayest good temper, +some one managed to find him a post as consul in some odd little +seaport in the south, where sunshine kept them alive and contented +until Marjory chose to put in an appearance and cost her mother's +life. The blow seemed to make the husband still more dreamy and +unpractical than ever, and, when cholera carried him off suddenly four +years afterwards, he made no provision whatever for the child's +future, save a scrawl, written with difficulty at the last moment, +begging his brother to look after Marjory for the sake of old times. + +Perhaps it was the best thing he could have done, since nothing short +of despair would have affected Dr. Carmichael, who had by this time +become so absorbed in the effort to understand life that he had almost +forgotten how to feel it. People wondered why a man, who had gained a +European reputation for his researches, should have cared to linger on +in a remote country district like Gleneira, and some went so far as to +hint that something more than mere displeasure at his brother's +disobedience lay at the bottom of his dislike to the marriage and his +subsequent misanthropy. + +Be that as it may, his first look at little Marjory's curly head was +absolutely unemotional, and he remarked to his housekeeper that it was +a good thing she seemed to take more after her mother than her father, +who had always been a cause of anxiety. For the rest, it was a pity +she was not a boy. Orphans should always be boys; it simplified +matters so much for the relations. However, Mrs. Campbell, the +housekeeper, must make the best of it, and bring her up as a girl. He +could not. + +But Marjory took a different view of the situation, and before six +months had passed it dawned upon the Doctor that, as often as not, she +was trotting round with her doll in his shadow as he paced the garden, +or sitting in a corner of his study intent on some game of her own. + +She was a singularly silent unobjectionable child at such times; at +others, if he might judge from the sounds that reached him, quite the +reverse. He laid down his pen to watch her as she sate in the sunshine +by the window one day, and heard her instantly tell her doll, that if +she was naughty and disturbed Dr. Carmichael she must be sent into the +garden. Another day he came upon her in his chair poring over a Greek +treatise in an attitude which even he recognised as a faithful copy of +his own. Finally, he discovered that she had taught her doll to draw +geometrical figures such as she often saw on the papers littered about +the room. This palpable preference for him and his occupations being +distinctly flattering, he began to take more notice of her, and try +experiments with her memory. So, by degrees, becoming interested in +her quick intelligence, he deliberately began to educate her, as he +would have educated a boy, with a view to her making her own living in +the future. As indeed she would have to do, in the event of his death; +since years before her advent he had sunk all his private means in an +annuity, and the expenses of his scientific work did not allow of his +saving much. The prospect neither pleased nor displeased the girl. It +came simply, naturally, to her, as it does to a boy. On the other +hand, she certainly worked harder than any boy would have done, partly +because she took it for granted that the tasks set her by Dr. +Carmichael were very ordinary ones, and partly because of that +feminine tolerance of mere drudgery which makes it so difficult to +compare the intellectual work of a man and a woman. For while you can +safely assume that an undergraduate has not worked more than so many +hours or minutes a day, it is quite possible that a girl student may +have sate up half the night over a trivial exercise. The primal curse +on labour, it must be remembered, was not extended to the woman, who +had a peculiar ban of her own. + +So, by the time she was seventeen, Marjory Carmichael was learned +beyond her years in Greek and Latin, and displayed a genius for +mathematics which fairly surprised her uncle. Then he died suddenly, +leaving her to the guardianship of a distant relation and ardent +disciple in Edinburgh, who was instructed to spend what small sum +might remain, after paying just debts, on completing the girl's +education, and starting her, not before the age of twenty-one, in a +career; preferably teaching, which he considered the most suitable +opening for her. She was strong, he said, in the letter in which he +informed Dr. Kennedy of his wishes, and singularly sensible for a +girl, despite a distressing want of proportion in her estimate of +things. Being neither sentimental nor sensitive, she was not likely to +give trouble. So far good, but at the very end of the letter came a +remark showing that the old man was not quite the fossil he pretended +to be. It ran thus: "All this concerns her head only; of her heart I +know nothing. Let us hope she has none; for it is a terrible drawback +to a woman who has brains. Anyhow, it has had no education from me." + +The description somehow did not prepare Dr. Tom Kennedy for either the +face or manner which greeted him on his arrival at the house of +mourning, but then he himself had the softest heart in the world, and +the mere sight of a lonely slip of a thing in a black dress gave him a +pang. But that was only for a moment; five minutes afterwards he +wondered how that suggestion of kissing and comforting her in +semi-fatherly fashion could have arisen. Yet the same evening after +she had bidden him good-night with a little stilted hope that he would +be comfortable, the temptation returned with redoubled force, when, on +going into the study for another volume of the book he had taken up to +his bedroom to read, he found her fast asleep in the dead man's chair, +her arms flung out over the table, her cheek resting on one of the +ponderous volumes which had been the dead man's real companions. Her +fresh young face looked happy enough in its sleep, though the marks of +tears were still visible, and yet Dr. Kennedy felt another pang. Had +the child no better confidante than that musty, fusty old book? Yet he +did not dare to rouse her, even though the room struck cold and +dreary, for he felt that the knowledge that he had so far been witness +of her weakness would be an offence, a barrier between them, and that +was the last thing he desired. So he crept out of the room again +discreetly, and smoked another cigar over the not uninteresting +novelty of his guardianship. For Tom Kennedy was sentimental, and +gloried in the fact. + +"You are very kind," said Marjory to him, a day or two afterwards, +with a half-puzzled and critical appreciation of his tact and +consideration. "But I don't see why you should take such trouble about +me. I shall get on all right, I expect. I think it is a mistake that +uncle has forbidden my beginning work till I am twenty-one, but, as it +can't be helped, I must go on as I've been doing, I suppose. I would +rather not go to school if that can be arranged. You see I don't know +any girls, and I am not sure if I should get on with them. If I could +stop here, Mr. Wilson at the Manse would look over my work, and I +could come up to Edinburgh for my examinations, you know." + +Evidently his guardianship was not going to be a burden to him. This +clear-eyed young damsel, despite a very dainty feminine appearance, +was evidently quite capable of looking ahead. + +"I will do my best to arrange everything as you wish," he replied, +feeling somehow a little hurt in his feelings. "My great object, of +course, will be that you shall be as happy as possible." + +"Happy?" she echoed, quaintly. "Uncle never said anything about that. +I'm not sure if I want that sort of thing." + +"What sort of thing?" he put in, rather aghast. + +"Oh! nonsense, and all that; and yet----" She looked at him with +almost tragic earnestness. "I am not sure if I don't like it after +all. It is funny, but it is nice." + +"What is nice?" + +"You're being so kind. Only I think it would make me lazy, and that +wouldn't do at all. Uncle used to say I must never forget that I had +to earn my own living." + +"And I--well! I'm afraid I should like to make you forget it," he +answered; "but we needn't quarrel about it, I suppose. At any rate, +not for the next four years." + +"But I don't mean to quarrel with you at all," she said, very +sedately. "I mean to be friends; it is so much more convenient." +Perhaps it was on the whole; even though as the years went on Dr. +Thomas Kennedy, aged forty, began to wish that her twenty-first +birthday would find her willing to continue the tie on another +footing. And yet he recognised, not without a certain admiration, that +she was not likely to be happy, even if married to one whom she +trusted and liked as she trusted and liked him, unless she had first +faced the world by herself. Of course, if she were to fall in love it +would be different; then, like other women, she might take a certain +pride in giving up her future. But she was scarcely likely to fall in +love with him, unless he made love to her, and that was exactly what +he could not do. In a sort of whimsical way he told himself it would +not be fair, since in his heart of hearts he did not believe in the +master passion! not, at least, in the romantic form in which alone it +would appeal to a girl like Marjory. To affect her it must be +something very intense indeed; something, in short, which his infinite +tenderness for the girl prevented him from giving. Perhaps if there +had been any symptoms of another lover appearing on the scene all this +philosophic consideration might have disappeared under the pressure of +rudimentary jealousy; but there were none. Indeed, barring the +Episcopalian clergyman, who was quite out of the question, there was +no young man of Marjory's own rank, or near it, at Gleneira, where he +had arranged for her to stay on with a distant cousin of his own. And +neither Will Cameron, the factor, nor old Mr. Wilson, at the Manse, +nor any of the occasional visitors were more likely to stir the +romantic side of the girl's nature than he was himself. Less likely, +indeed, since he had the manifest charm of being a person of more +importance. In appearance he was a small, dark man with a vivacious +face and something of a foreign manner, the latter being due to his +having wandered about on the Continent for years seeking surgical +experience at the cannon's mouth. So, on his last visit to Gleneira, +where he spent all his rare holidays, he had told himself point-blank +that he of all men in the world was bound in honour not to take +advantage of his ward's innocence and undisguised affection. She was +exceptionally fitted for the future she had mapped out for herself, so +in a way he was bound to let her try it. + +Consequently, as she sate that July afternoon teaching the children +their duty to their neighbour, there was no _arrière pensée_ of any +kind in her affectionate reliance on Cousin Tom's unfailing interest. +That would last until she grew tired of teaching, and he grew old. +Then, always supposing that it was agreeable to both parties, they +might settle down somewhere and be the best of friends till death did +them part. + +Weary of teaching! That did not seem likely, to judge by the way she +taught; and yet through all her work she was conscious of that +postcard in her pocket; conscious of the fact that there was no +denying Donald's proposition, and that it brought great news whatever. +But as she followed the trooping children out of doors to the +horse-chestnut shade, she took no notice whatever of Mr. McColl's +evident desire to re-open the question, and, with a curt remark that +the children knew their duty to their neighbour admirably, she set off +with a light, rapid step down the white road. + +Mr. McColl looked after her admiringly, unresentfully. Miss Marjory +was Miss Marjory, and without her help his grant in aid would be but a +poor thing, what with the Bishop's lawn sleeves and the new standards; +both of which are stumbling-blocks in a remote Highland parish even +when there is no other school within ten miles. Well, well, it was +grand news for the Glen that the laird was to be home, and there were +others besides Miss Marjory who would be glad to hear it. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +Mr. McColl was right, as Marjory herself had ere long to acknowledge; +for she had not gone far ere quick steps echoed behind her, and, +looking round, she saw the Reverend James Gillespie trying to overtake +her. She paused in resigned vexation, experience having taught her the +wisdom of waiting for him; the fact being that the fusion point of +mind and body was with him extremely low, and heat had a disastrous +effect on both; so she waited--that honest walking boot of hers +beating a very girlish tattoo of impatience the while against a rock. + +"This is great news, Miss Marjory," he began, breathlessly. "Great +news--I may say, good news--is--is it not?" + +The latter rather alarmed inquiry being the result of a glance at her +face; for she was in a contradictory mood, and the Reverend James +never had any fixed opinions in minor matters. He took them from his +friends and was, in consequence, often in the position of a child who, +having filled both hands with biscuits, is suddenly offered a sweetie. +Even then he was quite ready to swallow the new contribution if it was +firmly put into his mouth. There was no little excuse for him, +however, since his present environment in a measure forced him to a +poor opinion of himself in the past. The fact being that until the age +of fifteen he had been nothing more than the son of a poor crofter on +the estate of Gleneira. A clever lad, no doubt, who might perchance +rise to something above his father's fate. And then the Bishop, on the +lookout for recruits to the Gaelic-speaking clergy necessary to carry +on the work in the remoter glens, where the Episcopal faith still +lingers, had chosen him out like Samuel for the service of the Lord. +It had been a veritable translation, for the Bishop, being High +Church, had exalted views of the priesthood. The result being that +James Gillespie, fulfilled with a virtuous desire to justify the +Bishop's choice, soon lost the small amount of individuality he had +originally possessed. Educated by the Bishop, ordained by the Bishop, +made the Bishop's chaplain in order that the Bishop might coach him +through the rocks of social etiquette, he became, not unnaturally, a +sort of automaton, safe so far as his knowledge of the Bishop's views +went, but no further. On these points he was logic proof; on others +the veriest weathercock at the mercy of every breeze that blew. For +the rest, a good-looking, florid, fair young man, dressed rigorously +in clerical costume. This again being in deference to the Bishop who, +honest man, having his fair share of the serpent's wisdom, saw the +necessity of hedging this prophet in his own country about with every +dignity which might serve to emphasise the difference between his past +and present. The more so because the sparse congregations amid the +fastnesses of the hills were in the charge of different pastors. Once +a month or so the Reverend Mr. Wilson, from the Manse miles away down +the Strath, would drive up in a machine, put up with the Camerons at +the Lodge, and deliver a very cut-and-dried little sermon in the +school-house. On these occasions the Reverend Mr. Gillespie used to +trudge over the hills with his surplice in a brown paper parcel, so +leaving the Geneva gown and bands a fair field while he delivered an +equally cut-and-dried little homily to the still more outlying +faithful in a barn. About this arrangement, necessitated by ancient +custom, even the Bishop constrained his tongue, seeing that Mr. Wilson +belonged to the Church of Scotland, as by law established, and, what +is more, to the very highest and driest portion of it. He was a +courtly old gentleman, with a white tie, yards long, wound round his +neck numberless times, and finished off by an odd little bow made out +of the extreme ends; a learned old man with a turn of the leg, +suggesting a youth when calves were visible, and a vast store of +classical quotations remaining over from the days when he lectured on +the humanities at St. Andrews. Neither did the Bishop consider the +Reverend Father Macdonald, who came once in three months or so, and +generally on a week day, an intruder. On the contrary, the Reverend +James had instructions to ask him to dinner, and, if it was a Friday, +to have cockle soup and stewed lentils for him; that is to say, if the +invitation was accepted, which it was not as a rule, the Father +preferring to eat potatoes and butter at the Camerons, and endure the +old lady's good-natured scorn, for the sake of hearing Marjory sing +Scotch songs and play Scarlatti. For Dr. Carmichael's one relaxation +had been, music, in which, as in other things, the girl had proved +herself to be an apt pupil. As often as not, too, on these occasions, +old Mrs. Cameron would send a man with the dogcart down the Strath to +fetch up Mr. Wilson, and then the two old enemies could fence at each +other courteously over the single glass of port, for which the Jesuit +had a dispensation. And, if the buttons seemed inclined to come off +the foils, Marjory, in the next room, would strike up, "Come, bring to +me a stoup o' wine, and bring it in a silver tassie." Then their old +heads would wag, and they would give over the endless battle for the +sake of hearing a "bonnie lassie" sing their favourite song. But it +was very different when the Free Church missioner came round, for he +was an earnest, red-haired person, who any day of the week would +gladly have testified against Black Prelacy to the bitter end of the +stake. He was a stumbling-block, even to Marjory, who professed calm +tolerance; but then those courtly old admirers of hers, to say nothing +of Cousin Tom's rather foreign manners, had spoilt her. So that amid +all her theories--the theories of clever youth instinct with the love +of justice and liberty--she could not help being repelled by the +roughness of life when, as it were, she touched and handled it. The +people themselves, however, thought it a sign of strength to bang the +pulpit and bellow, as, indeed, it was, undoubtedly. So the consensus +of opinion in all sects was that the Free Church had the finest +preacher. Not that it mattered much in a place where church-going on a +Sunday was a recognised dissipation, which had to last for a week. +Thus, no matter who was in the pulpit, the little school-house on a +fine day overflowed; and even the Reverend Father Macdonald had not a +few applicants for a blessing against witchcraft if the cows did not +milk properly. This, however, was done on the sly, by accident as it +were, when the petitioners chanced to meet priestly authority in the +post-office. + +In order, therefore, to hold his own amid the hosts of Midian, the +Reverend James spent quite a large slice of his modest income on +all-round collars and silk cassocks; and even when the old Adam arose +at the sight of a red-brown river, and he _had_ to creep away with a +hazel rod and a bag of worms to some seething pool where the sea-trout +lay, he still kept to his professional garments and sate on a rock +with his long coat-tails pinned behind his back, looking like a +gigantic crow about to fly. + +Despite this and other ridiculous habits, Marjory, with her clear, +honest eyes saw the real desire to do his duty to Church and State +underlying the young man's indecision; but, fortunately for him, she +had no notion that of late this had taken the form of wishing to marry +her. The fact being that in a recent visit the Bishop had not only +remarked that the parish clergy should be the husbands of one wife, +but had rather pointedly referred to the immense improvement in the +school standard, since Miss Carmichael had begun to practise teaching +there. The direct consequence of which had been to make the Reverend +James believe himself in love, and at the same time to make him regard +all Marjory's opinions as episcopally blessed. An effort needing +mental gymnastics of the highest class, especially when, as now, she +was bent on mischief. + +"Good news," she echoed. "Well, I hardly know; that must surely depend +entirely on what sort of person Captain Macleod turns out to be." This +she knew must, to begin with, savour of blasphemy to one born and bred +on the estate. + +"Naturally, I may say, of course, but----" he looked at her +pathetically, like a dog when asked to perform a difficult trick; +"you--you--you surely have not heard anything against him, have you?" + +Marjory's eyes twinkled, but only for a moment; after all it was poor +fun depolarising his mental compass. + +"Anything against him? No; except that he is too good-looking, I am +told." + +"Handsome is that handsome does," remarked the Reverend James, +cheerfully; it was a favourite proverb at the palace, and he felt sure +of his ground. Unfortunately, since it roused Marjory to +contradiction. + +"Nonsense! As if all the goodness in the world could change a snub +nose into a Grecian." + +"But surely, my dear Miss Marjory," protested the young man feebly, +"the proverb does not assert--em--that sort of thing. I have always +understood it--em--I mean the latter half--perhaps I should say the +simile--alludes to moral worth." + +"Now, Mr. Gillespie! does that mean you consider beauty and goodness +to be the same, or simply that you deny the value of physical beauty +altogether?" asked Marjory in aggrieved tones. + +"I--I don't think I mean either," he replied, so naively that she was +obliged to laugh; "but indeed," he went on, "it seems to me, as I +remember the Bishop said in his sermon on All Souls, that beauty and +goodness are in a measure synonymous, that----" + +"Do you mean," she interrupted hastily, but with a sort of quick +hesitation which came often to her speech when she was really +interested, "that not only are good things necessarily beautiful in a +way, but that beautiful things must be good? Look at Tito! All his +vileness did not mar the perfection of his beauty. It was a tower of +strength to him till the day of his death. It must be so--you can't +help it. The thing is good in itself." + +Never having read "Romola," the Reverend James fell back discreetly on +a more unimpeachable proverb, by remarking, with the air of a man +making a valuable contribution to the argument:-- + +"Beauty is but skin deep." + +"Who wants it to be more?" she asked, hotly. "That is all you see. No +one asks whether the muscles follow the proper curves beneath the +skin, or the bones are strong. And, after all, it seems to me that +goodness and beauty appeal to the same chord--the love of everything +that is clear, defined, orderly. Ugliness is so incoherent, so +indistinct, Mr. Gillespie! Did it ever strike you how unnecessarily +ugly we all are? Now, don't deny the fact. Remember the Bishop's hymn +says, 'only man is vile.'" + +"But that really does apply to his moral." + +"I don't agree with you. Some of us, perhaps, are wicked, but most of +us are hideous." + +"Do you really think so?" And the self-conscious look on his smug, +comely face was too much for her gravity. She laughed merrily. + +"There are exceptions to every rule, Mr. Gillespie; I only meant to +say that since the strongest and best, and therefore, according to +you, the most beautiful, had survived in the struggle for +existence----" + +"By the bye," he put in, for him quite eagerly, "the Bishop has just +sent me an excellent reply to the Darwinian----" + +Marjory went on remorselessly, "That we were singularly plain-looking, +as a rule. For my part I would gladly have eliminated the Carmichael +nose if I had had any choice in the matter." + +The remark left a grand opening for a compliment if he could at the +moment have thought of anything save the crude assertion that he +considered it the most beautiful nose in the world. So he remained +silent, casting about in his mind for a less absolute form, with such +concentrated admiration in his face, that even Marjory could not avoid +noticing it, and with a sudden curl of her lip, changed the subject by +asking him, in her best categorical manner, when he had last been to +see old Peggy, who was bad with her rheumatism. Now old Peggy's +cottage was not an inviting-looking abode--a boulder-built hut with a +peat roof and a rudimentary chimney--and it lay close by in a hollow +between the road and a bog full of waving cotton grass. So the +Reverend James regretfully gave up his opportunity as lost for the +time; but a gleam of manly resolution came to him as he looked first +at the hut, then down the road, the pleasant sunshiny road stretching +away to where a thin blue smoke from the chimneys of Gleneira Lodge +rose above the silver firs and copper beeches to the right of the big +house. All that distance to traverse with Marjory, as against Peggy +Duncan the pauper, who was bad enough at the best, but, with the +rheumatism, simply appalling. + +"I'm afraid I haven't time to-day," he began, with admirable regret, +which, however, changed to consternation as his companion paused and +held out her hand. + +"Then good-bye! I promised to look in on my way home. And on the whole +it is better as it is, for it is positively unsafe to visit old Peggy +in couples when she is ill. So long as she has but one visitor, you +know, the fear of losing a gossip bridles her tongue; but when there +are two, one is always a scapegoat." Now, Marjory looked at her +companion gravely, and spoke deliberately, "You wouldn't, I'm sure, +care to hear me abused; so it is wiser for me to go alone. Good-bye." + +She was off as she spoke down the brae, leaving him disappointed, yet +still vaguely content, the very thought of in the future having a wife +who would go and visit old Peggy filling him with peace, for that old +woman was a sore trial to his dignity, since she invariably made a +point of remembering his youth as a barefoot cotter's boy. But then at +heart she was a Presbyterian who did not believe in the sanctity of +orders. So he went on his way down the loch fairly satisfied with +himself, while Marjory took his place beside the sick bed of the +rheumatic old woman. + +The girl gave one regretful glance at the sunshine before she dived +into the darkness of the cottage. It was mean and squalid in the +extreme, yet to those accustomed to the dirt and warmth, the +discomfort and the cosiness of a Highland hut, its air of tidiness was +unusual. The mud floor was even and clean swept, the single pane of +glass doing duty as a window was neither broken nor patched with rags, +while the crazy, smoke-blackened dresser was ranged with common +earthenware. A gathering peat, just edged with fire, lay on the huge +stone hearth, above which a tiny black pot hung in the thin column of +pale blue smoke which, as it rose to the dim rafters, was illumined by +the only ray of sunlight in the house--that which streamed through the +round hole in the roof which did duty as a chimney. Beside the hearth +a fair-haired boy of about six lay fast asleep, while from a settle in +the darkness a pair of gleaming green eyes revealed the presence of a +cat. + +Nothing more to be seen by Marjory's sun-blinded sight. Not a sound to +be heard, until suddenly a grey hen roosting in the rafters began to +cluck uproariously with much sidelong prancings of a pair of yellow +legs, and downward dips of a quaint, irascible, tufted head. Instantly +from a recess bed arose a patient moan and a pious aspiration that the +Lord's will might be done at all costs. + +"Good afternoon, Peggy! I hope your sleep has done you good," said +Marjory blithely, as she sate down on the edge of the bed, and looked +steadily at the occupant's face. Old Peggy Duncan, with the assertion +that she had not slept for days trembling on her tongue, wavered +before the girl's decision, and murmured something about closing an +eye. + +"That is better than nothing, isn't it?" continued the uncompromising +visitor. "And as for wee Paulie! he's been having a fine snooze. +Haven't you, Paulie?" + +The child by the fire, rubbing his eyes drowsily, smiled back at her +rather sheepishly. + +"'Deed it's so," broke in the querulous voice, satisfied at finding a +legitimate object for complaint. "He's just the laziest, weariest +wean, and no caring a tinker's damn for his nanny. Just lyin' +sleepin', and me in an agony. Could ye not watch?--Ay!--Ay! But what +can one expect o' a child o' the devil----" + +"Peggy! You're a wicked old woman to speak like that. Paul does more +than most boys twice his age. I'll be bound he has been stuffing +indoors with you all day long without a grumble. Run away now, dear +laddie, and get the fresh air." + +The order, spoken in Gaelic, produced a sudden flash of life all over +the little fellow, and he was out of the door in a second. Marjory +looked after him with a pleasant smile. + +"He is a pretty boy, isn't he, Peggy?--quite the prettiest in the +glen." + +"Aye! he has the curse o' beauty. Sae had his mither. Ay! an' her +father before her. Thank the Lord, Miss Marjory, you're no bonnie." + +"I shall do nothing of the sort, Peggy. And how is the pain? Better +for that liniment I rubbed in yesterday?" + +"Better!" There was a world of satisfied scorn in the old voice. +"Better frae ae teaspoonful o' stuff. Lord be gude to us, Miss +Marjory! Naethin' short o' a meeracle'll better me, an' ye talk o' a +carnal rubbin' doing it." + +"It would be a miracle if it did, wouldn't it, Peggy?" retorted the +girl, calmly; "but if it did no good at all there is no use in +repeating it, so I'll be off and leave you to your sleep again." + +"Hoot awa! an' you tired wi' your walk. Just sit ye down and rest a +bit and dinna mind me. I'm used to being no minded, ye ken. Wha minds +a bit pauper body but the pairish? Two an' saxpence a week, an' a boll +o' meal term-day that's no meal at a', but just grits; grits and +dirt. I'm no wondering that they puts soddy (soda) until't at the +poor's-house to gar't swall. Ay! Aye! and me lyin' a week without +spiritual food, an' I cravin' for it from anyone." + +"Now, Peggy, you know quite well you told Mr. Gillespie you wanted +none of his priestcraft, the last time he was here. You are just a +bad, ungrateful old woman, and I've a great mind to go away without +making you a cup of tea or telling you the news." + +The old face set close in its white cap frills brightened visibly at +the last words. "Weel! Weel! I must na be hard on the puir lad. There +be divers gifts, an' may be he's gotten one somewhere. And but for the +pain makin' me clean wud, I'd have had the tea for you. Just cry on +Paulie--the kettle's on the fire, and he'll no be long, puir lammie." + +But Marjory preferred to leave the boy to his play, and set about the +task herself quickly, dexterously, while old Peggy watched her with +sagacious eyes; for she herself had been a notable worker, and had +still a regretful admiration for the capability in others. Rather a +despicable object, perhaps, this fretful rheumatic old woman, +grumbling and growling at everything; and yet, could the secrets of +all hearts be revealed, she might have seemed more of a heroine and +martyr than many a canonised saint. A youth of ceaseless plodding toil +had been given in stolid honesty to her master's interests; then late +in life, when the hopes of womanhood were almost over, had come a +brief St. Martin's summer, where a wandering Englishman engaged on +some mining venture close by had married the sober lass as a means of +being comfortable for the time, and after a year had deserted her +shamefully, leaving her to work harder than ever for the sake of the +little daughter who remained to show that Peggy's short spell of love +had not been a dream. Some, indeed, there were who maintained that it +had never had any solid foundation, and that the marriage had been but +a pretence. This coming to the mother's ears had roused in her a +fierce anger, which in its turn gave rise to a passionate desire to +prove this child of hers to be above their petty spite, superior to +their plodding lives. And in a measure she succeeded. Jeanie Duncan +grew up in what, to a girl of her class, was luxury, while her mother +sold brown sugar, herrings, tarred rope, and tobacco--in fact, kept a +general store. Until the girl, like many another, fretted at home, +sought service, and disappeared beyond the circle of blue hills; to be +followed after a time by her mother. + +But though pretty Jeanie Duncan never returned, old Peggy did, +bringing with her a baby. Not an unusual sequel to the story; and so, +though the neighbours shook their heads, there was no need to question +the woman. What else could have been expected from flighty Jeanie +Duncan, whose head had been turned by Mr. Paul's painting her picture. +And Peggy said nothing, even while she concealed nothing. Silent from +her youth, she was more silent than ever as she reverted again to the +hard toil of those early days, until one January the cold settled into +her ill-clad old bones when she was gathering sticks in the woods and +left her a cripple. And then the loss of her independence broke her +spirit and turned her into a fretful scold. A dreary, toil-worn, +barren youth, desertion, degradation, outrage of love and pride--all +this gamut of grief had she sounded without an answering groan. The +straw which broke her patience was not the hardness but the charity of +her fellow-creatures. A most irrational old lady, no doubt, yet not +altogether blameworthy in her self-satisfied appreciation of the tea +"that was no from the pairish, praise be to the Lord," and very human, +certainly, in her eager desire to hear the news of that parish. Yet +her face when Marjory told her of the laird's return seemed to settle +into a strange indifference. "The laird! It will be Mr. Paul you're +meaning." + +"Yes, Mr. Paul; he is the laird now, you know, and he hasn't been here +for nine years. He has been away in India with his regiment." + +"Lord sakes! as if I did na' know that; he has been the laird these +sax years gone. I mind it weel. And I mind him, too; ower weel, maybe. +A winsome laddie, fond of painting; but 'Thou shalt not make to +thyself the likeness,' ye ken. So he is coming home at last--bonnie +nae doot; and she, my Jeanie, is dust and ashes." + +It was seldom that Peggy alluded to her dead daughter, and there was a +wistful look in the crabbed old face. Marjory, quickly responsive, +stroked the crabbed old hand which lay on the coverlet gently; but old +Peggy would none of her sympathy and drew it away, while her voice +took almost a triumphant tone. + +"Ay! Dust and ashes! That's what we a' come to. Young and auld, Miss +Marjory, my dear, rich and poor. Ay! and pairish officers, forbye; +it's no to be escapit, thank the Lord! And if you're going ye might +just open yon drawer in the aumry an' tak' oot my deid claes. There's +a bonnie blaze in the fire that maun-na be wasted, and in life we are +in death, ye ken, so it's as weel to hae them aired. There's a deal o' +sickness comin' frae damp linen, and I'm sae subjec' to the +rheumatism." + +"That would be one of the ills you would leave behind you, Peggy," +suggested Marjory, with a tender smile at the oddity of the old +woman's thought. + +"I'm sure I hope sae, for it wad be maist terrible in the wings," +replied Peggy, gravely. Her eyes, following the girl as she complied +with the grim request, lit up with satisfaction, her mouth trembled in +the effort for calm indifference. + +"Ay! sure enough it's the best of cloth, yon, and there is twa rows +back stitchin' as fine as fine, and a frill down the front. Some has a +lace edgin', but I'm no sure o' furbelows. It wad no be decent for me +to come before my Maker prinked oot like a young lass; though Mary +McAndrews, who was a gude four year aulder nor me, had real +Valenciennes. But, there! she was ae' flighty, puir thing; her mind +set on bows and gum flowers, no on things above. Fine cloth an' a +cambric frill's gude eneuch for my funeral; an' the coffin no from the +pairish, thank the Lord!" + +As old Peggy lay there in the bay bed gossiping over her shroud she +was a grim sight; yet a pathetic one, since there is nothing in the +wide world which appeals to the humanity within us so much as the +tired, toil-wasted hands of old age folded on a coverlet waiting for +death. Marjory, with her strong young ones straightening the dead +clothes, felt a strange thrill at her heart, even as she thought of +the long years of welcome struggle before she, too, would be glad of +rest. + +"So Mr. Paul is to come hame again?" quavered the old voice, softened +inexplicably by that chill thought of death. "Aye, aye! he will be +bonnie still, for he was aye of the kind to mak' a bonnie corp. And no +that bad for a man--not by ordinair. Weel! when ye see him tell him +that ould Peggy's gone on the pairish, but that it'll no be a pairish +funeral. For there's twa bottles gude whiskey in the draw wi' the deid +claes, my dear, and that's eneuch to carry me to my grave as I sou'd +be carried." + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +Will Cameron the grieve, or, in plain English, the land steward of the +Gleneira property, was leaning lazily over the shrubbery gate, +watching two men mowing a narrow strip of grass on either side of the +grand approach leading up to the Big House; a proceeding which gave +the whole place a most ridiculous half-shaven air. It had its merits, +however, in Mr. Cameron's eyes, seeing that it was supposed to make +the roadway look kempt while it preserved the rest of the lawn for +hay; an economy sorely needed at the Big House, after the late laird's +riotous living. Even now, when matters had mended somewhat, honest +Will did not care to think of those times when all he saw of the laird +of Gleneira was a signature on I O U's; for, when all was said and +done, his own honesty seemed bound up in that of the old place. A +gardener was nailing up the creepers covering the porch; the windows +of the house were set wide open, and through them a noise of hammering +and brushing floated out into the crisp morning air as Marjory came +up the road from the lodge; her footsteps crunching in the loose +sea-gravel, which not even the coming and going of years had worn into +compactness, and leant over the gate likewise. Will shifted a little, +almost unconsciously, to make room for her, with loose-limbed easy +good-nature, and in so doing revealed the whole attitude of his +individuality towards Marjory Carmichael. Briefly she was the dearest +girl in the world, but rather apt to make a fellow move on, when he +would much rather have stopped where he was. Yet they were the best of +friends, almost playmates, although he was double her age and +distinctly bald. For the rest a very straightforward simple person, +with nothing complex about him. One of those men whom Nature has made +firstly a sportsman, secondly a farmer; in other words, a descendant +of both Cain and Abel. Marjory herself was very fond of him, and no +wonder, since during the years she had spent with his mother he had +set himself to make things pleasant for her as a man about a house can +do when he has absolutely no ulterior object in view. The mere +suggestion of such an object would have filled him with terror, for +Marjory's energy was appalling. + +"What a pretty place it is after all," she said suddenly, and in so +saying spoke the truth. Framed in by an amphitheatre of purple +heather-clad hills and dark green fir-clad spurs, Gleneira House with +its swelling lawns stretching away to the rocky beach of the loch, its +tall silver pines and clumps of rhododendrons looked bright and +cheerful despite the nameless want which hangs always round an empty +house; the dead look, as if, the soul having passed from it, naught +remained save for it to hasten back to the dust whence it came. There +was something, however, which struck one as homelike in its low +irregular outline, its bow windows set in rose, jasmine, and magnolia; +above all in its clustered stacks of chimneys rising without respect +to symmetry and suggesting comfortable firesides within. Cosy +firesides in corners, not set back to back in pairs after the modern +fashion. A conglomerate building altogether, not unlike a two-storied +summer-house full of French windows. An airy feminine sort of house, +unlike the usual aggressively stony Scotch mansions, yet fitting in +strangely with its fairylike background of hills, and woods, and +lochs. + +"Very pretty, but awfully out of repair," replied Will, +disconsolately. "The roof won't last much longer." + +"Why doesn't he--Captain Macleod I mean--put on a new one?" + +"My dear Marjory! He can't afford it. A man has to spend a lot in an +expensive regiment like his, and----" + +"Nine years since he was in the Glen," interrupted the girl, bent on +her own thoughts. "I don't remember him a bit. What is he like, Will?" + +"Awfully handsome; about the handsomest boy I ever saw, and I don't +suppose he has changed much." + +"I know that--anything more?" + +"Spends a heap of money." + +"I know--anything more?" + +"Yes; you will like him." + +"Why?" + +"Women always do." + +Marjory turned down the corners of her mouth; a trick which with her +meant disapproval, disgust, dislike, disappointment,--such a variety +of small d's that Will was wont to say it was quite as reprehensible +as the collective big one of his sex. + +"He really is an awfully nice fellow," continued Will; "but the place +is going to rack and ruin. The farm houses are so poor that the south +country men won't take them, and a slack style of tenant only means +going from bad to worse. He ought to marry money. It is the only way +out of the difficulty, since he won't skin the woods or let the +place." + +"Why doesn't he come and live here as his fathers did," put in the +girl, quickly; "why shouldn't he be satisfied to do his duty to the +people as his fathers did?" + +"Because his income isn't what theirs was to begin with. The place is +heavily mortgaged; everyone knows it, so there is no reason why I +shouldn't say so. Then Alick Macleod ran through a heap of money +somehow, and left a lot of debts which had to be paid off. I don't say +that the Captain mightn't have been more economical, but it isn't all +his fault. And then he won't touch the estate. That is right enough in +a way, and yet Smith, the hook-and-eye man, offered twice its value +for that bit of moor that marches with his forest." + +"And Captain Macleod refused?" + +"Declined with thanks; and wrote me privately not to bother him again +with any proposals of that sort from a bloated mechanic." + +Marjory's mouth turned down again. "Indeed! that was very noble of +him." + +"So it was in a way," replied her companion, sticking to his own +ill-concealed satisfaction, "for the man is offensive to the last +degree. He has invented a tartan, and has a piper to play him to bed." + +"If he likes it, why not? Every man must have invented his own tartan, +once upon a time, you know; the Macleods into the bargain." + +Will Cameron smiled languidly. "You are a beggar to argue, Marjory. +But as I said before, the laird must marry money." + +"Sell himself instead of his property?" + +"Why not? he is worth buying, and she needn't be ugly." + +"Ugly! as if that were the only question! I believe it is all you men +think of. Why, Will, you haven't told me anything about Captain +Macleod except that he is good-looking; and I knew that before. I +wanted to hear what he was like--he himself, I mean." + +He looked at her with comical amusement. "You have come to the wrong +man, my dear. I never could tell my own character, much less anybody +else's. But here is old John, beaming with satisfaction at the thought +of coming slaughter among the birds. Ask him!" + +"Is it what the laird is like?" echoed the bent but active old man, +pausing with a troop of wiry-haired terriers at his heels. "Then he is +real bonnie, Miss Marjory; that's what he is." + +"So I told her; but she wants to know more." John Macpherson scratched +his ear dubiously, then brightened up. "Then it's a terrible good shot +he will be. Aye! ever since he was a laddie no higher than my heart. +Just a terrible good shot, that's what he is." + +"After all," remarked Will, as the old man passed on, "that gives you +as good a clue to the laird as anything else would do. Old John meant +that as the highest praise. The coachman in all probability would say +he was a first-rate rider. I have heard mother call him a good young +man, but that was when _I_ had lost five pounds at the Skye gathering, +and he had won. The fact being that he had a knack of warping people's +judgment; it was he, by the way, who advised me to bet on a man who +couldn't putt a bit. He used always to twist me round his little +finger when we were boys together--and by Jove! he had a temper. +Sulky, too, and obstinate as a mule." + +"Thank you," interrupted Marjory, drily; "that's quite enough. Well, I +hope nobody nice will buy him." + +Will Cameron flushed up quite hotly. "Now, I call that really nasty, +Marjory, when it can't matter to you. And you know as well as I do +that we want money awfully; you, who are always railing at the black +huts, and the lack of chimneys, and----" + +But Marjory, after a habit of hers when she was not quite sure of her +ground, had shifted it, and passed on to the house, whence the sounds +of sweeping and hammering continued. Will shook his head at her +retreating figure, smiled, and called out cheerfully:-- + +"Tell mother not to hurry, he can't come till the evening boat." + +Vain message, since you might just as well have made such an appeal to +old Time himself as to Mrs. Cameron, who, despite her seventy years +and portly figure, was bustling about, the very personification of +order, even in her haste. You felt instinctively that every symptom of +hurry was the result of a conscientious conception of the importance +of her part in the day's proceedings, and that to be calm would have +been considered culpable. Yet, as she trotted about, her voluminous +black skirts tucked through their placket-hole, not a hair of her flat +iron-grey curls was astray, not a fold of her white muslin kerchief, +or frill of her starched lace cap was awry, though her aides-de-camp, +a couple of sonsy Highland maids, were generally dishevelled, cross, +and hot. + +"Eh! Marjory, my dear," she cried, catching sight of the latter, as +she entered the large low hall, set round with antlers; "ye're just in +the nick to help count the napery while I see to the laird's chamber. +He will be for having his old wee roomie, I misdoubt me; he was always +for having his own way, too. But he will just no have it, that's all. +Folks must accept their position, aye! and maintain their privileges +in these days, when every bit servant lassie claims a looking-glass to +prink at." The last words were delivered full in the face of a pert +South country maid, who, with an armful of towels, passed by in rather +an elaborate pink dress. It was merely a snap shot, however, for the +old lady hurried on her appointed way, leaving Marjory and the +offender, who was quite accustomed to being a target, in charge of the +dark lavender-scented linen closet. Pleasant work at all times this, +of handling the cool, smooth piles; the only household possessions +which never seem to suffer from being laid away, which come out of +their scented tomb with their smoothness emphasised by long pressure, +their folds sharply accurate, their very gloss seeming to have grown +in the dark. No fear of moth here; no hint of decay. Marjory, singling +out a fine tablecloth and napkins for the laird's first meal at home, +and choosing the whitest of sheets and pillow-cases for his bed, found +herself unable to believe that long years had passed since some +woman's hand had carefully put them away. It seemed impossible that it +should be so, and that they should be ready to begin their work as if +not a day had passed. Unchanged in a world of change! But the guest +himself would be more changed than his surroundings; for he could only +have been a boy--not much older than she herself--when he was last at +Gleneira. The thought lingered, and after her task was over she +wandered from room to room trying to put herself in his place, and +guess how it would strike him. For it was pleasant sometimes, when one +had an hour to spare, to spend it in that fanciful world of feeling, +with which her practical life had so little to do. + +His mother's sitting-room! That could not fail to be sad, even though +the fair-haired original of the faded portrait in pastels over the +mantelpiece had passed from life when he was still a child. Yet, if +_she_ by any chance could see even the smallest thing that had once +belonged to that mother whose memory was a mere abstraction, who had +never really existed for her at all, she would feel sad, and so he +must also who had known his. Well, Captain Macleod's mother must have +been dreadfully fond of fancy work, to judge by the room! And yet, not +so long ago, she herself had been full of childish admiration for that +terrible screen in the corner, which now only excited a wild wonder +how any responsible human being could have wasted hours--nay! days, +months--in producing such a fearful result. It represented a +Highlander in full national costume, done in cross-stitch; the flesh +was worked in small pink beads, giving a horrible pimply appearance to +the face and a stony glare to the eyes; in the distance rose purple +silk hills, and the foreground consisted of an over-grown velvet pile +mongrel with a tail in feather stitch. In those childish days of +admiration, however, it had had a fearful charm of its own, born of +its inaccessibility. For, once within a certain radius, the whole +picture disappeared into a senseless medley of silk, worsted, and +beads. Only distance lent design, making four white beads and a black +one a recognisable equivalent for the human eye. As she stood looking +at it now, an amused smile curved her lips, with the remembrance that +in still more childish days she had mixed up this magnificent +Highlander with her conceptions of the absent laird. Probably it was +quite as like him now as the crayon drawing, labelled "Paul," of a +pallid boy holding a toy ship, which hung on the wall beside the +pastel. On the other side was another pallid boy holding another ship, +and labelled "Alick." As far as she could judge Alick might have grown +up to be Paul, and Paul to be Alick. Only Paul held his ship in his +right hand, and Alick in his left; but that was, of course, only +because their portraits had to look at each other across the picture +of their mother; because, as it were, of the exigencies of Art. She +smiled to herself as she drifted on lazily to what Mrs. Cameron had +considered the keystone of the laird's position. It was a dim, +dignified room, with a dreadful bed. So large, so square, so evenly +surrounded with Macleod tartan hangings that a sleeper immured therein +might well on waking lose his airs, and which way he was lying. A bed +which might have a dozen ghostly occupants, and the flesh and blood +one be none the wiser of those dead and gone lairds of Gleneira. +Marjory, oppressed by the very look of it, threw the windows, wide as +they would set, to the air and sunshine. Even so, it was a dreary, +depressing room, especially to one coming alone, unwelcomed by +kindred, to his old home. With a sudden impulse of pity she drew from +her belt a bunch of white heather and stag-horn moss which she had +gathered that morning, and arranged it neatly in a little empty vase +which stood on the wide dressing-table. A poor effort, yet it gave a +certain air of expectancy to the room; more appropriate also to the +occasion than more elaborate garden flowers would have been, since +white heather stood for luck, and the stag-horn moss was the badge of +the Macleod clan. A charming little welcome, truly, if the laird had +eyes to see! Her face, reflected in the looking-glass as she stood +smiling over her task, would, however, have been a more charming +welcome still could the laird have seen it. And then the sound of +wheels on the loose gravel outside sent her to the window in sudden +alarm; but it was only the Manse machine, drawn by the old grey horse, +with Father Macdonald on the front seat beside Mr. Wilson, who, as he +caught sight of her, stood up with profound bows, disclosing a curly +brown Brutus wig. And there was Will lounging at the horse's head, and +his mother on the steps with dignified gesticulations. Beyond towards +the Strath was the wide panorama of hill and moor and sea, flooded in +light. The sudden feeling that it is good to be here, which comes even +to untransfigured humanity at times, filled the girl's heart with +content as she nodded back to her two devoted old friends who were now +both standing up in the dogcart, waving their hats. How good everyone +was to her! How happy they all were together in the Glen! And she had +never before seemed to realise it so completely. + +"Heard I ever the like?" rose in Mrs. Cameron's most imperious tones. +"To pass by the house wi' an empty stomach, and it not even a fast! A +fast, say I? A feast for Gleneira, and twa glasses o' port wine for +Father Macdonald whether he will or no. Marjory, my lass, away with +them like good boys to the parlour and cry on Kirsty for the glasses. +Will, ye gawk, are there no grooms in Gleneira House that you must be +standing there doing their wark. Now, Mr. Wilson, just come you down +to _terry-firmy_, as you would say yourself. You're no golden calf, +man, to be put up on a pedestal." + +"My dear Madam!" cried he, gaily, clambering down with no small regard +to the Graces. "If it is a question of worship, 'tis I who should be +at your feet. _Facilius crescit quam_." + +"_A cader va chi troppo in alto sale_," interrupted Father Macdonald, +clambering down on his side. He was a small man with round childish +face, possessed of that marvellously delicate yet healthy complexion +which one sees in Sisters of Charity; in those, briefly, who take no +care for beauty and lead a life of austerity and self-denial. A +complexion which a society woman would have given her eyes to possess. + +"Hoot away wi' your gifts o' tongues," retorted the old lady, in mock +indignation at the perennial jest of strange quotations. "Marjory, +just take them ben and stop their mouths wi' cake and wine. And make +them drink luck to the auld house that is to be graced wi' its +master." + +"Ah, my dear Madam," said the incorrigible offender, ambling up the +steps, and giving a sly glance at Marjory, "you agree with our friend +Cicero, '_Nec, domo dominus sed domino domus honestanda est_.'" + +Mrs. Cameron treated the remark with silent contempt, and Marjory, +leading the way into the morning room where Paul Macleod's portrait +hung on the wall, looked back with a kind smile at the two old men +who, never having owned chick or child of their own, treated her as a +daughter. A sort of dream-daughter, dear yet far removed from the hard +realities of every-day familiarity. + +"I'm so glad you were passing to-day, father," she said eagerly; "I +found a little Neapolitan song among some old music here, and I want +you to see if I sing it right." + +Mr. Wilson, seated in the armchair, his legs disposed elegantly, +straightened his necktie, and made a remark to the effect that the +Neapolitans were the most debased Christian population in Europe. And +that despite the fact that they lived, as it were, under the very nose +of the Pope. An attack which was the result of an ever-green jealousy +in regard to the little Jesuit's superior knowledge. + +"Neapolitan! Ah! my dear young lady, the patois is almost beyond me. +If it had been Roman!" The smooth childlike face grew almost wistful +thinking of the days so long ago spent in the still seclusion of the +Scotch college, or out in the noisy colour of the Roman streets; a +quaint memory for the old man who for fifty years had never seen a +town, whose very occupation was passing away from his life, as, one by +one, the old adherents to the old faith still lingering among the +mountain fastnesses, died and were buried by him. + +"Ah! you will manage," said Marjory, cheerfully. "It isn't as if you +didn't know the subject, for it is sure to be all about love. Songs +always are." + +So, while the cake and wine were coming in, she sate down to the piano +and sang, guided by the two old men, of love; for Mr. Wilson, great on +philology, had his views on the mutations of vowels and consonants, +and stood beside the little priest beating time to the phrases with +his gold eyeglasses. + +Mrs. Cameron found them so, and rallied them on their taste when there +was good port-wine on the table. + +"My dear Madam," retorted Mr. Wilson, positively shining with delight +at his own opportunity of showing that his acquaintance was not +confined to dead languages. "We have only put the 'Weib und Gesang' +before the 'Wein'; and I am sure anyone who had the privilege of +hearing Miss Marjory sing would do the same." + +She made him a little mock curtsey, but Mrs. Cameron would none of it, +and cut a huge slice of cake. "No! no! minister; from the very +beginning o' things men-folks cared more for their stomachs than their +hearts. If Eve, poor body, had only given Adam a better dinner he +wouldna have been wantin' to eat apples betwixt whiles, and a deal o' +trouble might have been saved. But a woman's different. She takes it +ill if a man doesn't fall in love with her; she's aye wantin'----" + +"I'm sure I don't want anything," put in Marjory, with her head in the +air. + +"Don't be talkin' havers, child. I tell ye a woman's aye wantin' it. +Auld as I am----" + +"My dear Madam," expostulated Mr. Wilson. + +"Haud your whist, minister," interrupted Mrs. Cameron, tartly; "what +will you be knowing o' a woman's heart? I tell you she may be auld and +grey, she may hae left half the pleasures o' this world behind her, +she may hae been a wife for two score years, and spent her heart's +bluid in rearing weans, but what's left o' the heart will be turnin' +wi' regret to the time when the auld body who sits on the tither side +o' the fire--girding at his food, maybe--was courtin' her. Or, maybe, +when some ither auld body that's no at the tither side of the fire was +courtin'. There's no sayin'." + +There was a silence: and then the old priest said under his breath: +"_Amor a nullo amato amor perdona_." + +Mr. Wilson nodded his brown Brutus wig in assent. He did not mind that +sort of Italian. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the humanities +could understand so much. So they were merry over the cake and wine; +merry even over the parting with it in obedience to the minister's +Horatian order: "_Lusisti satis, editsi satis, alque bibisti, Tempus +abire ibe est_"--which Mrs. Cameron insisted on having explained to +her word by word. It was a complete exposition, she asserted, of the +whole duty of man as viewed by men. To eat, to drink, to amuse +themselves, and then to run away. + +That same evening, in the mirk end of the gloaming, Marjory, walking +in the garden between the great borders of clove pinks which were +sending out their fragrance to meet the coming night, heard the _feu +de joie_, arranged by old John Macpherson to greet the laird's +arrival, go off like the beginning of a battle. Half an hour +afterwards Will Cameron returned, calling loudly for his supper, and +full of enthusiasm. + +"Upon my word, Marjory, I think he is handsomer and more charming than +ever." + +"Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain," said the young lady, taking +a leaf out of Mr. Gillespie's book. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +People who only know the West Highlands in the rainy months of August +and September, when a chill damp, almost suggestive of winter, comes +to the air, will scarcely credit the intense heat which June and July +often bring to the narrow glens, shut in on all sides by sun-baked +mountains. Then the springs fail, and the cattle break through the +fences, seeking the nearest point of the river; or stand knee-deep in +the estuary water, flicking away the plague of flies with their tails, +and lowing seaward to the returning tides. Then the burns, fine as a +silver thread down the mountain sides, run with a clear bell-like +tinkle through the boulders over which they will dash with a roar and +a rush in the coming Lammas floods. Then the cotton grass hangs +motionless on its hair-like stem, and the bog myrtle gives out a hot, +dry, aromatic scent, to mingle with that of the drying grass. On such +days as these, everything having life instinctively seeks the shade. +So Marjory Carmichael, on the morning after the laird's return, left +the dusty high-road, crossed the fast hardening bogs by the tussocks +of gay mosses tufted with bell-heather, and so continued her walk +along the alder-fringed bank of the river. Even at that early hour not +a leaf was stirring; the very bees hung lazily on the pale lilac +scabious flowers, and the faint hush of the river had a metallic +sound. Marjory, clambering down a fern-clad bank, sat down beneath a +clump of hazels, set with green nuts. Below her the river, between the +alder stems, showed olive and gold in sunlight or shade, with every +now and again a foam fleck sailing by; for, some fifty yards above her +resting-place, the Eira, fresh from a boisterous half-mile scramble +among the rocks, rushed through a narrow chasm at racing speed, and +fell recklessly, dashing itself into a white heat of hurry in a +seething whirling pool set in sheer walls of rock, and thence finding +outlet for its passion in a wider basin, and so, with ever clearing +face, sliding into peace in the dark oily pool beneath the bank where +Marjory sate. Her favourite nook, however, in all the river side, lay +higher up, close to the leap, where she could watch the gleaming +sea-trout and an occasional salmon patiently trying at the fall, see +the flash of the rapids beyond the fringing ferns, or mark the +drifting shadows on the opposite hillside. But the single rowan tree, +clinging with distorted roots to the heather-tufted cliff, flung its +branches over the fall, and gave no shade elsewhere; hence on this +hottest of hot July mornings Marjory chose the hazel hollow instead, +and leaning back among the flowering grasses, which sent a pinkish +bloom of tiny fallen blossom on her curly hair, drew a long, closely +written letter from her pocket, turned to its last sheet, and began to +read it. Not for the first time, but then Cousin Tom's letters were +worth a dozen of most people's, especially when they had something to +say, as this one had:-- + +"What a hurry you seem to be in to begin work; and I am always in such +a hurry to begin play. But then you have arrived, or are about to +arrive, at the years of discretion, and I am a mere child of +forty-one. Twenty years between us, dear! It is a lifetime; and what +right have I, or any other old foozle, to dictate to you, Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux, who, clever as she is, hardly knows, I think, when her +most affectionate and unworthy guardian is attempting a jest. It is an +evil habit in the old. Expect to hear from the School Committee in +Hounslow before many days are over. I think all is settled fairly, but +I hear there is no chance of your being needed before the beginning of +November. And this is still July. Three whole months, therefore, ere +Mademoiselle need take up the burden of teaching vulgar little boys +the elements of Euclid. And yet the momentous coming of age, when +Wisdom, let us hope, is to be justified of one of her children, is +this week. Marjory, my dear! Fate has given you a real holiday at +last! Of course, I am an incorrigible idler compared to you, but, +believe me, my heart has ached at times over your sense of duty! Life +is not all work, even if it is not all beer and skittles. So take the +goods the gods provide (as dear old Wilson would say in the proper +tongue--my Latin is merely a catalogue of dry bones)--put away all the +books--let two and two be five or five hundred for the time, while you +cross the Asses' Bridge with the rest of humanity. Wake up, my dear +little girl! or rather begin to dream! Of what? you ask. Of anything, +my dear, except Woman's Suffrage. By the way, I have six new reasons +against the latter, which I will detail to Mademoiselle Grands-serieux +when a detestable bacillus, who will neither be born nor die, permits +of my joining her in the earthly paradise. Meanwhile have a good +time--a real good time." + +Marjory leant back again on a great basket of spreading lastrea which +gave out scent like honey as she crushed it. Cousin Tom was +delightful, and perhaps he was right. The sudden content with Life as +it was which had come to her the day before when she realised its +peace, its beauty, its kindliness, returned now. Through the arching +hazel boughs the sunlight filtered down in a tempered brilliance +restful to the eyes; a grasshopper shrilled in the bents; a yellow +butterfly, settling on a leaf beside her, folded its wings and, +apparently, went to sleep. An earthly paradise, indeed! Surely if one +could dream anywhere it would be here. + +Suddenly a faint _shwish-shwish_ broke the silence. _Shwish-shwish_, +at regularly recurring intervals. Marjory, recognising the sound, +wondered listlessly who could be fishing the lower pool at this early +hour. One of the keepers, perhaps, hopeful of a trout for his master's +breakfast; rather a forlorn chance even in the pot above, with that +cloudless sky. A jarring whizz, accompanied by a convulsion in the +alder branches, broke in on her drowsiness, making her sit up with +intelligent appreciation of the cause. The somebody, whoever he might +be, was "in" to the tree. Another convulsion, gentler, but more +prolonged; another short and sharp, as if somebody were losing his +temper. Then a persuasive wiggle to all points of the compass in turn, +and finally the whirr of a check reel. + +Somebody being evidently about to try conclusions with Nature, Marjory +leant forward in deep interest, knowing by bitter experience that it +was two to one against humanity. At last, as she expected, there came +a series of short, sharp jerks; then something she had not expected. +On the morning air one comprehensive monosyllable--"Damn." That was +all. No affix, no suffix; without nominative or accusative; soft, but +trenchant. + +"A gentleman," said Marjory to herself, without a moment's hesitation, +as she rose to peer through the thick tangle of alders. If so, the +laird, of course. Yes! It must be he, on the opposite bank, standing +irresolute; weighing the pros and cons of breaking in, no doubt. +Marjory's experienced eyes following the taut line, rested finally on +the cast looped round a branch just above her, and apparently within +reach. The mere possibility was sufficient to make her forget all save +the instinct to help. + +"Don't break, please, I can get it." + +Her eager voice, unmistakably girlish and refined, echoed across to +Paul Macleod, who, after a moment's astonished search, traced it to a +face half-seen among the parting leaves. He took off his hat +mechanically, for though it might have been a pixie's there was no +mistaking its gender, and the sex found a large measure of outward +respect in Paul Macleod. For the rest, help offered was with him +invariably help accepted; a fact which accounted for a large portion +of his popularity, since people like those around whom the memory of +their own benevolence can throw a halo. So he stood watching Marjory +settle methodically to her task, wondering the while who the girl +could possibly be. For that she had white hands and trim ankles was +abundantly evident, and neither of these charms was to be expected in +the rustic beauties of the Glen. + +"I am afraid I am giving you a lot of trouble," he said +sympathetically, as for the third time the branch flew back from +Marjory's hold with a sudden spring. + +"Not at all," she gasped jerkily; one cannot speak otherwise on tiptoe +with both hands above one's head. + +"Perhaps I had better help." + +"Perhaps you had," she answered resentfully, desisting for a moment +after a fourth rebuff. "There is no positive necessity for you to +remain idle. You might for instance reel in as I pull." + +His faint smile was tempered by respect. The young lady on the +opposite bank knew what she was about, and, perhaps, might even be +good looking, if she were not quite so red in the face. So he obeyed +meekly, and was rewarded by a gasp of triumph. + +"There! I've got it. I knew you could help if you tried." + +"I'm immensely obliged," he began; then the girl's foot slipped, the +branch sprang from her hand, she made an ineffectual jump after it, +and the next instant the all but disentangled cast, flung into the air +by the rebound, was hard and fast in a higher twig. + +Marjory could have stamped with despite; thought it wiser to laugh, +but found the opposite bank full of silent, grieved sympathy. + +"I'll get it yet," she called across the water, with renewed +determination. + +"I think, if you'll allow me, I will break in," came the deferential +voice after a time. "It really must be very tiring to jump like that." + +"Not at all; thank you," she retorted, without a pause. "I never--give +in." + +"So it appears. Will you allow me to come over and help?" + +Come over and help, indeed! Marjory's growing anger slackened to +contempt. As if he could come over without a detour of half a mile +down or quarter of a mile up the river; and he must know it, unless he +had no memory. "You can't," she jerked between her efforts. "You +had--better slack line--and sit down--I'll get it somehow." + +Very much "somehow." Her hat fell off first. Then, after a desperate +spring, in which she succeeded in clutching a lower branch, a hairpin +struck work. Hot, dishevelled, exasperated, yet still determined, she +persevered without deigning another reference to the silence over the +way, until an arm clothed in grey tweed reached over hers and bent the +branch down within her reach. She looked round, and, even in her +surprise, the great personal charm and beauty of the face looking into +hers struck her almost painfully; for it seemed to soothe her quick +vexation, and so to claim something from her. + +"I jumped," he said, answering the look on hers. "It is quite easy by +the fall." + +Something new to her, something which sent a lump to her throat, made +her turn away and say stiffly: "I am sorry I gave you the trouble of +coming. It would have been better if you had broken in. Good morning." + +He stood grave as a judge, courteous, deferential, yet evidently +amused, still bending down the bough. + +"Will you not finish the task you began? You said you never gave in; +besides, I can hardly do it for myself." The fact was palpable; it +required two hands to disentangle a singularly awkward knot. To deny +this would be to confess her own annoyance, so she turned back again. +Rather an awkward task with a face so close to your own, watching your +ineptitude. And yet she forgot her impatience in a sudden thought. If +he had fallen! If that face had had the life crushed out of it! + +"You ought not to have jumped," she said, impulsively. "It was very +dangerous." + +"Pardon me; I have done it hundreds of times when I was a boy." + +"Boys may do foolish things." + +He smiled. "And men should not; but are dangerous things necessarily +foolish?" + +"Needlessly dangerous things are so, surely?" + +"In that case, what becomes of courage?" + +She paused, frankly surprised both at herself and him. How came it +that he understood so quickly, that she followed him so clearly? Yet +it was pleasant. + +"Courage has nothing to do with the question." + +His smile broadened. "Thanks. I began by saying so. The fact being +that the jump is not dangerous." + +"No one else jumps it," she persisted. + +"Pardon me for mentioning that I am an unusually good jumper. +Besides-- + + + "The game is never yet worth a rap + For a rational man to play, + Into which some misfortune, some mishap + Cannot possibly find its way." + + +Again something new to her, something which this time sent a thrill of +answering recklessness through her veins, something of the mere joy +and pride of life made her ask in quick interest--"Who wrote that?" + +"A man who gave in at last; he shot himself." + +Marjory's face paled. Yes; men did that sort of thing, she knew. She +had read of it, and accepted the truth of it calmly. Now for the first +time she felt that she understood it, that she too stood on the brink +of the Great Unknown Sea, which might bring her to the haven where she +would be, or to shipwreck. Then in quick relief came a new cause for +resentment in the perception, as she began to wind up the now +disentangled cast, that a large portion of line remained attached to +it. In other words, her companion had deliberately cut it, and brought +his rod with him; had risked his life not for the sake of his flies, +but simply to amuse himself at her expense. + +"I think that is all I can do for you," she said, in a white heat of +annoyance. "Good morning, Captain Macleod." + +The name slipped from her unawares, and she recognised her own mistake +immediately. Her knowledge of his identity being a sort of +introduction, from which she could scarcely escape. For his position +as laird of Gleneira, owner of the very ground on which she was +trespassing, could not be ignored. She could not dismiss him like a +tramp. He took the advantage she had given him, coolly. + +"Thanks, so many," he said, holding back a branch to allow of her +passing before him, "but I am going also. It is too bright for sport. +In truth, I never expected any, and only came out to renew my +acquaintance with the river, and discover, what I expected, that I +have almost forgotten how to throw a fly." + +"Indeed, you have not forgotten how to break in, at any rate," she +replied viciously; then ashamed of her unnecessary heat, since surely +it was none of her business if he broke every cast he possessed, she +added, in superior tones, "there is no reason, however, why you should +not get a fish in the Long Pool. The sun won't touch it for half an +hour." + +"The Long Pool," he echoed, "which is that? I'm afraid I have almost +forgotten it, too." + +It was a palpable excuse for continuing the conversation, and as such +Marjory resented it; at the same time, no one ever appealed to her for +information without meeting with prompt attention, the teaching +element being strong in her. So was impatience at crass stupidity; or, +as Captain Macleod preferred to call it, a deficient bump of locality. + +"I'll see you as far as the Alder Island," she said at last, with some +irritation, "then you can't possibly make a mistake." That, at any +rate, would be better than trailing the whole two miles back to +Gleneira beside him. Not that he was forward or objectionable; on the +contrary, he treated her with a deference which would have been +pleasant had it not covered a quiet coercion which was perfectly +intolerable. So the glint of the Long Pool behind the Alder Island +came as a relief, and she pointed to it in a sort of triumph. + +"I'm afraid it is no use," he said despondently. "Too fine; besides, I +haven't had my breakfast, and it is growing late. I'll get Cameron to +come down afterwards and show me the casts. A river changes in ten +years." + +"You can't possibly judge from here; and I can show you the cast +perfectly," she retorted. It had come to a stand-up fight with the +gloves on between his will and hers, and accustomed as she was to +instant submission from everybody of the opposite sex, she would not +confess her own defeat by getting rid of him with a crude dismissal. +To begin with he scarcely merited the insult, and, in addition, it +might be awkward afterwards. So she pointed out the probable lie of +the fish, and, her sporting instincts overcoming her contempt, +exclaimed against the gaudy cast he selected--a cast no decent fish +would have looked at except in flood time. + +"No! no!" she cried, in real eagerness. "Something less like a +firework, if you have one--a brown body and turkey wing. Ah! here's +the very thing. I don't believe in the steel loops, though, do you--? +Will doesn't. And you have bridge rings I see; I never saw them +before. They look good. Now then! Just below the break, down the slidy +bit, and across to the ripple--Oh-h!" + +The exclamation was caused by a fall as of a coiled hawser on the +water, and a separate "blob" of each fly on the surface. + +"You had better try again," she said gravely, "and don't thrash so; +use your wrist." + +"If there was more wind," he suggested. + +"Nonsense! you ought to be able to throw that distance anyhow. It's +all knack; it will come back after a cast or two. I'm sure it will." + +Apparently she was wrong. The line ceased, it is true, to fall in a +heap like an umbrella, yet failed by many feet to reach the break +above the slidy bit. + +"Give me the rod a moment," she cried, "and I'll show you the turn of +the wrist. You'll recognise it then." + +There was an instant's pause as she stood, one foot planted against a +stone, her lithe figure thrown backwards, her chin following the +little toss of her head, tilted sideways; so that her eager young face +was in full view of her companion; and then the long line flew out in +the spey cast and seemed to nestle down just where the water broke. + +"Bravo!" cried Captain Macleod, as much to the picture as to the +skill. And then before he could say another word came an eddy, a noise +like the cloop of a cork, a glint of a silvery side, and the whirr of +the reel. Things to drive all else from a fisherman's brain. + +"In to him!" shouted the Captain, excitedly; "and a beauty, too. No! +no; keep it. I'd rather you kept it! I'd like to see you land him--if +you can." + +The implied doubt, joined to the vicious shooting of something like a +huge silver whiting with its tail in its mouth into the air, warning +the girl of the danger of a slack line, had the desired effect. She +set her teeth and gave herself up to repairing the error of +indecision. The fish, having got his head, was now further down the +pool than he should have been, and close to an ugly snag, towards +which he bored with the strange cunning which seems born in fish. +Marjory gave him the butt bravely, but he fought like a demon, and for +one instant the reel gave out an ominous clicking. + +"Perhaps I had better," came an eager voice beside her. "It is heavier +than I thought." + +"Please not! Please let me keep it now! I'd rather lose him--there!" A +rapid wind-up emphasised her excitement. "I can manage him, you +see--if you will go down--there by the white stones--I'll get him +into the shallow--the tackle is so light I can scarcely bring him +up--and--and--don't be in a hurry--I'll bring him in right over the +click." + +The old imperiousness was back in full swing, and once again she had a +willing slave, eager as she was for the sight of something long and +brown curving, snakelike, into the shallow as if of its own free will, +or coming in despairingly "this side up." It was a sharp, swift +struggle, all the sharper and swifter because of that ominous snag +over the way; and then an eight-pound grilse with the sea-lice still +on him lay on the bank. + +"Oh! What a beautiful creature! One of the prettiest I have ever +seen," cried Marjory, ecstatically, on her knees beside the prize. + +"Very much so, indeed." Captain Macleod's voice was absent, and his +eyes were not on the fish. "You killed him splendidly." + +The light went out of the girl's face; she rose to her feet slowly. + +"I wish I had given you the rod," she said, still looking down on the +palpitating, quivering bar of silver. + +"That is most forgiving of you!" + +She turned upon him almost indignantly. "Oh! I wasn't thinking of all +that--that stuff! I was thinking--it seems so cruel." + +"Many things seem so afterwards. One might spend a lifetime in +regretting, if it was worth it; but it isn't." + +"Isn't it? I wish anyhow that I hadn't killed that fish." + +"Why not go further back, and wish you hadn't interfered to safe my +cast? for, as it happens, the one you chose out was the very one Fate +had ordained should remain in an alder bush----" + +"Perhaps I do," she replied stiffly, realising how he had played upon +her for the first time. The knowledge, rather to her own surprise, +brought tears to her eyes. + +"I don't wonder that you regret having helped me," he said with a +sudden change of manner. "If you will tell me where to leave the fish +I will no longer trouble you. I am sorry for having given you so much +already." + +There was no mistaking the hidden depth of his apology. As he stood +there in the sunlight, looking at her gravely, Marjory felt to the +full the charm of his gracious presence. Who could really be angry +with him for such a trifle? For it was a trifle after all. + +"My name is Marjory Carmichael," she said briefly, "and I live at the +Lodge with the Camerons. But I don't want the fish. I don't indeed." + +"Then you shall not have it. I owe you some obedience, do I not?--and +thanks beyond measure." + +He stood there with his cap off smiling at her, and she, feeling +apologetic in her turn, hesitated. After all, if he was going her way +it would be foolishness itself to tramp that mile and a half with an +interval of fifty yards or so between them. + +"And now I must emulate your skill," he said cheerfully, "though I +can't expect your luck." And as she moved away she saw his flies +settle softly as thistledown in the right place. Well! that was better +than keeping up the pretence. + +As for him, though he continued to fish conscientiously, his thoughts +were with the figure of the retreating girl. She had amused him and +interested him greatly. A relation, he supposed, of Dr. Carmichael's; +in fact, he had a dim recollection of a curly-haired child scampering +about on a Sheltie ten years before; though he had never known the +doctor, who had lived as a recluse. But how came she here still, and +with the Camerons? A cut above them surely! By Jove! how she had hung +on to that grilse, and how nearly she had cried over it afterwards. +Maudlin sentimentality, of course, and yet he had felt the same a +hundred times over a wounded deer. The look in her eyes had been like +that, somehow; uncommonly pretty eyes they were, too, into the +bargain! + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +Paul Macleod sate in the business-room, where so many lairds of +Gleneira had received rents and signed cheques, playing his part with +great propriety, much to Will Cameron's delight and astonishment. +Captain Macleod was, undoubtedly, the laird, and as such bound to a +semi-parental interest in every living thing, to say nothing of every +stick and stone about the old place. On the other hand, he had been +away in a perfectly different environment for nearly ten years, and it +seemed nothing short of marvellous to the factor that he should +remember every farmer and cottier, nay, more, their wives, and sons, +and daughters, by name. And so, perhaps it was; though, to tell truth, +the mental qualities it represented were small, being no more nor less +than a quick responsiveness to the renewal of past sensation; that +very responsiveness which ten years before had made Paul shrink from +giving an unpleasant memory a place in his life. Moralists are apt to +sneer at the popularity which the possessor of this faculty enjoys; +and, of course, it is easy to cheapen the sympathy of the man, who +when he sees you, is instantly reminded of all the past connected with +you in detail, and proceeds to inquire eagerly about your ox and ass, +your manservant and your maidservant, and everything that is within +your gate. Yet, when all is said and done, and though he certainly +gives the false impression that these things have never been out of +his mind, the gift is not only an enviable one, but in itself argues a +quicker sensibility than that possessed by his more stolid, if more +honest, neighbours. + +So there was no effort to Paul Macleod in taking up the thread of his +past life at Gleneira; at the same time, he felt no more regret at +hearing, as he did through Will's answers to his inquiries, of Jeanie +Duncan's death, somewhere in the vague South country, than he did for +many another item of news. Partly because that old life had really +passed out of existence for him altogether, and partly because Will, +being a good-natured kindly soul, said nothing about the child which +poor old Peggy had brought with her. There are many men of this +sort--more men for the matter of that than there are women--who hate +to face the sad aspect of life, and slur over a painful story whenever +they can. + +Thus Captain Macleod was able to quit the past and plunge into the +future without even the slight regret which the news must have brought +him; for in his way he had really loved Jeanie, and the thought that +his admirable self-sacrifice had not availed to keep her memory +pleasant, would have been a distinct annoyance. As it was, he began at +once on plans and arrangements, which convinced Will Cameron that the +laird must be going, unconsciously, to follow his advice, and marry a +rich wife. Nothing else could explain the fact that Gleneira House had +to be generally smartened up for the present, pending more solid +repairs during winter, that carriages and horses had to be bought at +once, and preparations of all sorts made for the houseful of guests +which would come with the shooting season. In the matter of slates, +glass, stables, and garden, Will Cameron felt himself equal to the +occasion, but when chintzes and furniture came under discussion he +meekly suggested a reference to Maples', or Morris, or his mother. + +"I should prefer Mrs. Cameron," replied the laird, with a laugh. "If I +wanted the other sort of thing my sister Blanche would do it for me +fast enough. Take a brougham by the day--to save her own horse, you +know--and re-create poor old Gleneira. First day, paper, painting, +draping; second day, furnishing; third day, creeping things +innumerable--you know them. Chenille things climbing up the lamp, a +Japanese toad on the writing-table, and a spider on the edge of a +teacup." He rose and went to the window. "But that sort of thing is +desecration of this," he went on, looking out on the opalescent +shimmer of sea and sky and hills; "though it does well enough in South +Kensington. I never could fit myself out, even in clothes, with a view +to both hemispheres, and though some folk profess to prepare for +heaven and enjoy earth at the same time, I'm not made that way." + +He pulled himself up with an airy smile, and turned round again. + +"So let us be off to Mrs. Cameron, and perhaps that young lady who is +staying with you--I met her by the river this morning----" + +"Marjory," put in Will, eagerly; "why, yes, of course, she is the very +person we want--has awfully good taste." + +"Indeed," said the other, smiling again. He was thinking that in that +case he could not claim distinction since she had not favoured him +with much of her approval. Not that it mattered, since he had quite +made up his mind that during the next few weeks, before his married +sister came to do hostess, Marjory would be a decided acquisition to +the limited society at his command; for Paul was distinctly gregarious +in his tastes. It did not take much to amuse him; but he needed some +gentle interest to start the wheels of his pleasure, and that interest +was, preferably, a woman. So, being able thus to combine duty and +amusement by a visit to the Lodge, he calmly suggested an adjournment +on the spot, to which Will agreed, blissfully oblivious of the fact +that not half-an-hour before he had left his mother in the agonies of +redding up the best parlour, with a view to the laird's expected visit +in the afternoon. + +No doubt when the women of the future have won large interests for +themselves, such a spectacle as Mrs. Cameron presented when she saw +two tweed-clad figures lounging up the path together will be +impossible. Even nowadays the attempt to describe her feelings must +fall far short of the reality, since few of this generation can grasp +the mental position of the last, and Mrs. Cameron belonged to the +generation before that. Of far better birth than many a farmer's wife +who would be ashamed at being discovered engaged in household work, +Mrs. Cameron would as a rule have gloried in what was to her the sole +aim and object of woman's creation; but this was no ordinary occasion; +how could that be one which necessitated clean muslin curtains at a +time when clean muslin curtains should not be, a cake made after her +mother's original recipe baking in the oven, and a bottle of her dead +husband's very best Madeira waiting to be decanted on the sideboard? + +She stood transfixed on the steps, in the very act of running a tape +through the stiffened hem of the curtain, an operation which in itself +had reduced her patience to the lowest ebb; and then, after an +instant's pause, her resentment found an outlet in one expressive +epithet. + +"The Gowk!" For it was Will's fault, of course; had not the lad been a +perfect dispensation ever since he was born? (this being her favourite +word for describing all the inevitable trials of her life). Besides, +after the manner of most housewifely women, she always visited any +failure in domestic arrangements on the head of the nearest male +belonging to the family. No one but a man, no one but a man, sent to +make _her_ life a burden, could have been guilty of such a disgraceful +blunder, when a word, a hint, could have kept the laird from coming +until the afternoon. The conviction brought a sort of martyred +resignation with it, as she continued in a lower key, "and the parlour +as bare as the loof o' my hand, save for the tea leaves on the +drugget." + +A more forlorn picture of discomfort could not have been suggested, +and Marjory, standing by with needle and thread, promptly suggested +that the laird should be shown into her study, since she was on the +point of going out; an assertion which mollified the old lady by its +suggestion that the visit must be to her alone. And wherefore not, +since she had seen three generations of Macleods come and go? So, with +vague remarks about sparing the rod and spoiling the child, which it +is to be supposed bore reference to poor Will's education, she hurried +off to meet her guest in the old-fashioned style, and take it out of +the offender--who in the meantime had, for hospitality's sake, to go +scot free--by a display of almost subservient humility to their +employer. + +"Come ben! Come ben, Gleneira, to your ain house. And tho' it is no so +tidy as I might have wished" (here a savage glance at her son +emphasised the stab) "it is not for me to say you nay, for even if we +have been here father and son, a' these years, it is no for us to be +forgettin' oor position and dependence." + +"Don't keep the laird standing on the steps all day," put in Will, +hurriedly; "he wants to have a crack with you, mother; let us go into +the parlour." + +"The parlour, William, as you should ken fine, is being redd up, so I +must fain ask the laird's pardon for takin' him to our boarder's wee +sitting-room." + +As a rule Mrs. Cameron would sooner have died than call Marjory a +boarder, and so level herself to the bit farmer-bodies who let +lodgings in the summer time; but at present any weapon against her +son's dignity was welcome, and she rejoiced to see him growing more +and more impatient. Letting lodgings, indeed! Aye, that was what the +poor shiftless creature would come to if he hadn't her to make both +ends meet! + +"My dear Mrs. Cameron," replied Paul, still holding her old hand and +looking sentimentally into her old face, "the pleasure of seeing you +is all I care for now. To begin with, it makes me feel years younger. +And how young I was when you caught me stealing your jam! I have +never forgotten the lecture you gave me, never! And then, do you +remember----?" He was fairly afloat on the sea of reminiscence now, +much to the old lady's gratification. But since this was distinctly an +irregular method of getting through a state visit, she led the way +defiantly to Marjory's little snuggery upstairs, with another sniff at +poor Will, which sent him off muttering something about letting its +owner know; a remark which increased his mother's wrath, and made her +more than ever set on a strict observance of the ceremony due to the +occasion. So she sat exactly opposite Paul on a high chair, and began +_seriatim_ on all domestic events in the Gleneira family during the +past nine years, until his head whirled, and the life which had seemed +to him so varied and gay, reduced itself to a mere excerpt from the +first column of the Times. Yet his deferential courtesy never failed, +and, as usual, brought him its own reward; for after a time, the old +lady, finding it impossible to resist his charm, thawed completely, +and finally getting quite jolly, frankly confessed her annoyance, and +hurried off to see if the cake were not sufficiently baked to admit of +Gleneira's breaking bread in the house, just for luck's sake. + +Paul, left alone, began to frown. This was Miss Carmichael's room; +but, apparently, she meant to steer clear of it while he was there. +Girls did that sort of thing; it made them feel independent. +Meanwhile, what sort of a girl was she, judged by her room; that sort +of knowledge often came in very useful when the dear creatures were +shy. Fond of flowers, certainly, and in a rational way; these were not +arranged in bouquets, but set one or two in a vase wherever a vase +could stand, so that you could see them. Books? A closed bookcase full +of the dreariest backs; they must have belonged to her uncle, or +perhaps to old Cameron, who had been a bit of a student; but scarcely +to a girl who could throw a salmon line like Miss Carmichael. Yes! She +had certainly looked as well as she was ever likely to look, when +swaying her lithe body to the sway of the rod. Pictures? A good +photograph that, over the mantelpiece, of Andrea del Sarto's +Maddelena; from the original, of course, and full size. That was the +best of photographs, you could have them exact, and sometimes half an +inch made such a difference. How well he remembered his first sight of +the picture in that dark corner of the Borghese gallery, and the +effect its dreamy eyes had had on him; the wonder, too, whether the +casket really held a very precious ointment, or a still more precious +_acquatofana_. Either was possible with that dim, mysterious smile; +and the woman herself--for it was Del Sarto's wife, of course--had +been a lying devil who made her husband's life a perfect hell. Now, +had Miss Carmichael chosen that photograph for herself; and, if so, +why? Since it did not fit the salmon fishing any better than the +books. Ah! there in the bow window, cut off from the rest of the room +by muslin drapery, was a low wicker chair, placed close to a revolving +bookstand. + +"Now for the last new novel," he said to himself cynically. "What is +the odds on anything in these latter times. I have seen nice girls +since I came home reading things in public which I would not leave +about in the smoking-room for fear the housemaid might be shocked. +Eheu!" + +It was a sort of prolonged low whistle of surprise and disappointment, +mingled with a distinct personal aversion to the treatise on Conic +Sections, which he took up inadvertently. The fact being that Paul +Macleod had at one period of his life thought of Woolwich, and that +particular book had, as it were, stood in the way of his ambition. +Perhaps it was that which made him fling it down contemptuously, +with a sort of vague indictment against the owner. She had not looked +like it certainly, yet for all he knew she might be one of those +clear-headed, hard-hearted nondescripts--the opposite extreme from +that angel-faced, sensual-minded demon over the mantelpiece--who +despised the emotions they were born to create, and would scorn to +have a foolish, illogical, unreasoning, lovable sentimentality. There +he paused abruptly, and whistled again; for on the stand among the +books was a little vase holding some white heather and stag-horn moss. +A curious coincidence truly, even if it were nothing more. He stood +looking at it for a minute or two, and then quite coolly exchanged it +for a similar bouquet which he was wearing in his buttonhole; a +bouquet which he had found in a vase on his dressing-table. + +Just then the door opened, at first gently, then hurriedly, while +Marjory's voice exclaimed in joyous relief, "Gone at last! What a +relief!" + +Paul emerged from his concealment with outstretched hand. +"Good-morning, Miss Carmichael," he said in that charming voice of +his, "delighted to find you at home." She looked at him with level, +puzzled eyes. + +"I think you must have heard what I said just now, didn't you?" Her +directness went straight through the veneer of conventional +politeness, and startled him into corresponding frankness. + +"Yes; every word," he said, turning to take up his cap. + +"Oh, please don't," she broke in eagerly. "It will make me feel so +ashamed. And it was only because I wanted to finish some papers and +send them off. You see to-morrow is my birthday, and I promised Tom to +take a holiday. But I forgot," she added with a quick apologetic +smile, "you don't know who Tom is, and it can't interest you----" + +"I beg your pardon," he interrupted, returning somewhat to his more +elaborate manner; "it interests me exceedingly to know who Tom is." + +Again her perfect unconsciousness drove him back to simplicity. + +"Tom is my guardian--Dr. Thomas Kennedy. I don't suppose _you_ have +heard of him, but most people have; I mean of that sort. He is in +Paris now busy over a bacillus." + +"Indeed!" said Paul, beginning to weary; "and so to-morrow is your +birthday, and you are to have a holiday; a whole holiday. That sounds +very virtuous, Miss Carmichael, to a man who has perpetual holidays." + +"But I am going to have six weeks! A real vacation. The first I've +ever had; because you see I've never been to school or college, and +work has always been more or less of an amusement to me. One must have +something to do, you know." + +"Pardon me, but I seldom find the necessity. Life in itself occupies +all my spare time; I mean all the time I can spare from things that +are necessary to keep in life." + +She looked at him again with frankly puzzled, half-amused eyes. "How +funny that sounds. I don't understand it a bit, but I daresay I shall +when I have really been idle for two or three weeks. Tom says it will +do me good before I start regular work. I am going to teach in a Board +school in November." + +"That seems a pity." + +"Why? I have to earn my own living, remember!" + +"Pardon me for saying that that seems to me a greater pity still." + +The puzzled, amused look grew more pronounced. "And that sounds still +funnier. Can't you see that some of us must work; there are so many of +us nowadays. Besides, I like work; uncle used to say that was lucky, +because I had to. You see I am absolutely alone in the world." + +"And that is the greatest pity of all." His voice, soft, kind, +courteous, carried them beyond the lightness of ordinary conversation +in a moment, and Marjory, recognising the fact, felt none of her +usually quick resentment at the intrusion of a stranger into her inner +life; for she was not of those who parade their possession of a soul, +perhaps because she took it as a matter of course. + +"I suppose it is, in a way," she assented; "but I have been accustomed +to the position all my life, and somehow I never regret it." + +"That seems to me rather unnatural in a girl." + +"It is very lucky," she retorted. "What would become of me if I were +afraid?" + +"You would probably lead a far happier life." + +"Why?" + +They were standing opposite each other, looking into each other's +faces, and the beauty of his, the unconsciousness of hers, held them +both captive. + +"Because in all probability you would marry." + +There was a silence for a moment, but Paul Macleod, no mean judge of +character, partly because of the complexity of his own, had rightly +gauged the measure of what he had to deal with. What many girls might +have deemed an impertinence Marjory passed by as a mere truism. + +"I have often thought of that myself," she replied quietly; "but I +think you are mistaken." + +It was his turn now to put that terse, unconditional "Why?" + +"I am not likely to marry; as uncle used to say, I have not purchasing +power equal to my requirements." + +"Meaning, of course, that your ideal is too high. I should have +fancied so. You are very young, Miss Carmichael. And I am old; +besides, ten years knocking about in Indian cantonments disposes +effectually of the theory of twin souls. It is very beautiful, no +doubt; but I fancy mine must have died in the measles, or some other +infantile ailment. It did not survive to riper years, at any rate. But +here comes Mrs. Cameron, so I shall escape scathing this time. I +generally do." + +Marjory felt she could well believe it, palpably unjust though such +immunity might be, as she watched the laird give back the fervid +greeting of the Reverend James Gillespie, who followed close on the +tray of cake and wine. + +"My dear sir; welcome to the Glen," cried the young clergyman. "I have +been up at the Big House, and, hearing you were at the Lodge, ventured +to follow you. As parish clergyman----" + +"'Deed no! Gillespie," put in Mrs. Cameron, sharply. + +"I did not say minister, my dear Madam," retorted the Reverend James +with uncommon spirit; "I said clergyman; and considering that the +lairds of Gleneira have ever clung loyally to the Church." Here +something in the old lady's face made him, as it were, climb down +again. "Well, let us say parish priest." + +"'Deed no, again," interrupted the good lady, with a grim smile. "What +would Father Macdonald be saying?" + +The Reverend Mr. Gillespie climbed down still further for the sake of +peace, though the vexed question of effectual orders was a favourite +hunting-ground of the Bishop's. "As a native of Gleneira, deeply +interested in the spiritual and moral welfare of its inhabitants, +allow me to express my sincere pleasure in your return. Believe me, +Gleneira, the people welcome you to their midst." + +"It is really awfully kind of you all, when I have been such a +shocking ne'er-do-weel absentee. I assure you, Miss Carmichael, that +the number of times I've had to drink my own health in raw whiskey +this morning is incredible; enough to ruin it for the next year." + +The Reverend James put on his most professional air. "Too true. As the +Bishop says, whiskey is indeed the bane----" + +"Hoot, no!" interrupted Mrs. Cameron from the cake and wine; "good +whiskey ne'er harmed a good man. It is just the idle, feckless bodies +getting drunken that gives it a bad name." + +"But that is just the point, my dear lady," expostulated the young +man, feeling sure of his ground. "It is for the sake of the weaker +brother." + +"Havers!" began Mrs. Cameron; but the Reverend James was firm, and +quoted the text. + +"Aye, aye!" continued the old lady, "I ken where it comes from fine, +more's the pity, for I don't hold wi' it. It's just a premium on being +a poor body, and is the clear ruination o' this world whatever it may +be of the next. Gie me a useless, through--other man or woman, and +hey! it's a weaker brother an' maun' be cockered up." + +She showed so much animation that her opponent retired from the +contest discreetly by turning to the laird and beginning on a stock +subject. + +"I am sorry to say, Gleneira, that despite my own efforts, and the +Bishop's earnest desire for the erection of a church, matters remain +much as they were, when you were here last. That is to say, service +has still to be conducted in the school-house, which, er--in addition +to other illegitimate uses"--he glanced casually at his old enemy at +this point--"also serves as a post-office; a plan which has great and +undeniable inconvenience." + +"And convenience, too," put in Mrs. Cameron, remorselessly. "You see, +laird, the post is no delivered on the Sabbath-day, this bein' a +Christian land, and so when folk go to kirk they can kill twa birds +wi' one stane." + +This was too much. "In my opinion," retorted the Reverend James, +pompously, "it would be far less objectionable if Donald _did_ deliver +the letters than that the last words of the blessing should be the +signal for handing them round the congregation. But as is so often the +case in Scotland, the veneration for the day--which, by the way, is +not the Sabbath----" + +"No, no!" interrupted the old lady, "I'm no going that gate. I've told +ye oft, Mr. Gillespie, it is naught to me if it's the Sabbath or +Sunday, or Lord's-day or the first day o' the week we are keeping. But +I ken fine that in my learnin' days I was taught to keep it holy, so +if there is ony mistake it was none o' my makin'. It's the fault of +the minister." + +Mr. Gillespie coughed. "The hours of service are eleven o'clock for +matins, and four o'clock for evensong. Miss Marjory kindly helps us +with the harmonium. Indeed, one of my reasons for coming on here was +to ask her to settle the hymns for Sunday first, unless, indeed, you +yourself would select one suitable--er--to the occasion." + +Paul took the proffered hymn-book with visible embarrassment, and +looked appealingly towards Marjory, but it was impossible to laugh, +for the Reverend James's proposition was saved from absurdity by its +absolute simplicity. + +"Really! my dear sir," he began, when Mrs. Cameron came to his rescue. + +"Gie the laird a harvest hymn, Mr. Gillespie. I'll warrant he has sown +his wild oats, though maybe after all, you would no care to be reapin' +them, Gleneira." + +He laughed very boyishly. "My dear old friend, if they were fifty +shillings a quarter, I should be the richest man in Lorneshire, +instead of the poorest." + +"Poor," she echoed grimly; "you couldna' be poor if you tried. It is +no in some men. And now, Gleneira, there's some o' the farm folk +waiting to drink your health outside, so come awa'. And you, too, +Marjory, my dear, for you're a Gleneira lass when all's said and done. +And the parson can tak' a glass for his oft infirmities if he'll no do +it for anything less important." + +They followed her out into the sunshine, where, in a solemn +semi-circle, they found half-a-dozen or more of men and halflings, +headed, of course, by old John Macpherson as spokesman. He held a wine +glass in one hand, a black bottle in the other, and the liltiness of +his attitude, joined to a watery benevolence in his eye, told a tale +of previous exertions towards the laird's good health. It was evident +that, for the time being, he was an optimist, viewing the world as the +best of all possible worlds. A glass more, and he would be ready to +defend the proposition with his fists; another, and he would have wept +over its denial, for Aladdin's genii of the bottle was not more +powerful in metamorphosis than Scotch whiskey was on John Macpherson. + +"An' here's to you, Gleneira," he said, when Paul returned the glass. +"An' it's wissing you as rich as the Duke o' Wellington--Pech! +Mistress Cameron, but yon's gude whiskey--water never touched it." + +Even the refilled glass, as it passed from hand to hand, seemed to +have a vicarious effect on old John, who waxed more and more lilty, +and finally, when the others moved off, lingered for an audible +whisper, accompanied by an admiring glance at the laird. + +"Gorsh! Miss Marjory, wass I no tellin' you he was bonnie, and iss he +not bonnie, whatever?" + +"A leading question, John," said Paul, readily; "witness can't be +expected to answer it." + +But the argumentative mood was beginning. "An' what for no. Miss +Marjory will be a Highland lass, an' a Highland lass will no be so +shamefast, but they will be knowing a bonnie lad when they see one." + +"I quite agree with you, John," said the girl, quickly, with a +suspicion of both a frown and a smile on her face. + +Paul Macleod, as he walked home, found himself fully occupied in +trying, as it were, to piece the girl's character together to his +satisfaction. She was a novel experience, a pleasant one into the +bargain. + +So when she came to breakfast next morning, a bouquet of hot-house +flowers lay on her plate with Captain Macleod's best wishes for her +birthday. + +"I think it is very kind of him," she said judicially, in reply to +Mrs. Cameron's rapture over the laird's condescension; "but Peter +Morrison will be furious at having his show spoilt. And he has +amputated the poor things at the knee. Men ought never to pick +flowers, they don't understand them, except gardeners, and they never +want to pick them at all." + +When she went up that afternoon to the Big House in order to aid Mrs. +Cameron's taste in the matter of new curtains, there was a little +bunch of white heather and stag-horn moss tucked into her belt. In +finding room amongst the vases for the newcomers this had seemed too +pretty to throw away, that was all. But Paul Macleod's keen eyes fell +on it at once with a certain satisfaction; nevertheless, he made no +allusion to the subject, a reticence which he would not have observed +towards most women of his acquaintance. It was sufficient for him to +be aware of its complicated history. That sort of thing gave an +infinite zest to life. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +Even in the dusty glare of a dusty July sun, one of the largest houses +in Queen's Gardens looked cool and pleasant with its delicate shades +of grey on wall and portico, its striped jalousies and tiled window +gardens gay with scarlet geraniums, yellow calceolarias, and blue +lobelias; flowers, all of them, which seem somehow to have lost their +flowerfulness by being so constantly associated in one's mind with +area railings, barrel organs, and the eternal rat-tat of the postman's +knock--to be brief, with London. For all the passer-by knew or cared, +those lines of brilliant red, yellow, and blue blossoms might have +been cunningly composed of paper, and would have served their purpose +to the full as well had they been so, since no one, even inside the +house, ever looked on them in the light of living, breathing plants +going through a process of asphyxiation. It is difficult no doubt to +resist the temptation to have pot-plants in London, but how often when +brought face to face with the hideous ravages which a day or two of +its poisonous atmosphere makes on our favourites has not the true +flower-lover felt nothing short of murder. The inhabitants of the +house in Queen's Gardens, however, had not even this chance for +remorse, since the boxes were kept bright by contract, and if any poor +plant was ill-advised enough to droop and complain, it was promptly +rooted up and replaced by the man who came in the early mornings to +"walk the hospitals" before the family appeared on the scene. + +Within the house, the same spick and span, utterly impersonal +attention to beauty prevailed. From basement to attic it was simply +perfect in its appointments. As it might well be, since an artist in +copper utensils had been let loose in the kitchen, the greatest +authority in the world on wall papers had been allowed his will in +friezes and dados; and so on from cellar to roof. There is, of course, +a good deal to be said in favour of this modern specialism. It is +distinctly comforting to know, that if you have not reached +perfection, you have at any rate paid for it; but to some barbarians +the loss of individuality in such houses is very grievous. To begin +with, you lose a most delightful study of character. And after all, if +Mrs. Jones has a sneaking admiration for a pea-green carpet with pink +cabbage roses sprinkled over it, why, in heaven's name, should she +conceal the fact? No green that ever was dyed is greener than grass, +no flower that ever was woven is half as brilliant as the +blossom-mosaic which Nature spreads for you to tread upon when the +snow melts from the upland Alps. Yet the house was charming enough in +detail if a little confusing _en masse_ to those sensitive to their +surroundings; since the drawing-room was Queen Anne, the dining-room +Tudor, and various other corridors and apartments Japanesque, +Renaissance, Early English, or Pompeian. + +This again did not affect the inmates, who, indeed, would have scorned +to feel as if time and space had been annihilated in the course of +half-a-dozen steps; such fanciful imaginations being almost wicked, +when time and space were distinctly necessary to the due performance +of your duty in that state of life to which it had pleased Providence +to call you. + +On this particular morning in July, Mr. and Mrs. Woodward and their +daughter Alice were seated at the breakfast table in the usual +comfortable indifferent silence of people who keep a diary of outside +engagements in a conspicuous place on the writing-table, and whose +inner lives move in decorous procession from morn till eve. A canary +was singing joyfully, but at the same time keeping a watchful eye on +the grey Persian cat which walked up and down rubbing itself, as it +passed and repassed, against Mrs. Woodward's gown, with an anxious +look on the bread and milk she was crumbling for it. Mr. Woodward, at +the other side of a central palm tree, studied the share list. Miss +Alice Woodward, who had evidently come down later than the others, was +still engaged listlessly on toast and butter; finally making a remark +in an undertone to her mother that as Jack had settled to ride with +her in the Park at eleven, she supposed it was about time to get +ready; a remark which resulted in her pushing away her plate +languidly. + +"You have eaten no breakfast, my dear, and you are looking pale," said +her mother, comfortably; "I will get you some more Blaud's from the +Stores." + +"Oh! I'm all right," replied the girl. "It's hot, and--and things are +tiresome. They generally are at the end of the season, aren't they?" + +She drifted easily, rather aimlessly, out of the room. Like everything +else in the house she was costly and refined; pretty in herself but +without any individuality. For the rest, blonde and graceful, with a +faintly discontented droop of the mouth, and large, full, china-blue +eyes. + +Mr. Woodward watched her retreat furtively till the door closed behind +her, then laid down his paper and addressed his wife with the air of a +man who attends strictly to business. That was, in fact, his attitude +towards his daughter at all times. He did not, he said, understand +girls, but he did his duty by them. + +"I heard from Macleod this morning, my dear." + +Mrs. Woodward went on crumbling bread gently, and there was a pause. +"Well, what does he say?" + +"That the house will be ready for visitors by the 8th of next month, +and that it will give him great pleasure to welcome us as soon after +that date as we can manage." + +"Nothing more?" + +"Only the old story; that he is most anxious for our consent in order +that he may speak definitely. There, read it yourself, a sensible, +gentlemanly letter. I really don't think she could do better." + +His tone was precisely what it would have been had he been +recommending the purchase of debenture stock in a safe concern. + +"Then I suppose we may consider it settled; I mean, if Alice likes the +place." + +"Just so; but I'm told it is charming; there is a man--in +hooks-and-eyes, by the way--who has the moor next it. I met him at the +Kitcheners' dinner. He said it only wanted money, and she will bring +that. Besides, the man himself is all that can be desired, even by a +girl." + +Mrs. Woodward nodded her head. "Yes, that is such a comfort, and Lady +George is so nice. Alice is quite fond of her, which is a great point +with a sister-in-law. In fact, everything seems most satisfactory." +She paused a moment, and a faint shade of doubt showed on her face. +"Only, of course, there is Jack." + +"Jack! heaven and earth, Sophia! what has Jack to do with it?" + +"Nothing, of course, only you know, or at any rate you might have seen +that he--well, that he may object." + +Mr. Woodward's face passed from sheer amazement to that peculiar +expression of virtuous indignation which so many English fathers +reserve for those who, without a nomination, have the temerity to +admire their daughters. + +"Jack! that boy Jack?" + +"He is older than Alice, my dear," put in his wife, with meek +obstinacy. She, on the contrary, was smiling, for, no matter how +ineligible the victim, a scalp is always a scalp to a mother; and +Jack was not ineligible. On the contrary, he was the head of the +soap-boiling business, now that her husband had received a +consideration for his interest, and retired into the more genteel +trade of blowing soap bubbles on 'Change. + +"Pooh!" retorted Mr. Woodward, angrily, "if he is troublesome send him +to me, I'll settle him. The lad must marry position, like Alice." He +paused, and his manner changed. "You don't, of course, mamma, +insinuate that--that Alice--that your daughter has been foolish +enough----" + +Mrs. Woodward rose with dignity, and gave the cat its bread and milk. +"_My_ daughter is a dear, good, sensible girl, Mr. Woodward; but that +doesn't alter the fact that your _nephew_ may be foolish. I consider +it extremely likely that he may be; it runs in the family." + +Mr. Woodward took up the share list again, using it--after the manner +of his kind when in domestic difficulties--as a shield, and his wife +put a fresh lump of sugar in the canary's cage, saw to its seed and +water, and left the room placidly. The bird was her bird, the cat her +cat, and therefore she did her duty by them. In the same conscientious +spirit she interviewed the housekeeper and ordered a very good dinner +for her husband because he was her husband. Some people have the knack +of getting a vast deal of purely selfish satisfaction out of their own +virtues. Finally, she went into the morning-room, and began to think +over the best way of doing her duty by her daughter also; for there +was this difficulty in the way, here, that she and Alice were too much +alike for sympathy. They found each other out continually, and, what +is more, placidly disapproved of the various little weaknesses they +shared in common. It is this inevitable likeness which is really at +the bottom of that state of affairs, which is expressed in the +feminine phrase, "they don't get on at home, somehow." But Alice was +not a revolting daughter. Apart from other considerations, she would +have thought it vulgar not to behave nicely to her parents, while Mrs. +Woodward herself would have felt her complacent self-respect +endangered if she had not had a high estimate of her own child; and +Alice was, in this aspect, a far easier subject than her brother Sam, +who, to tell truth, gave even his mother a few qualms in regard to his +personal appearance. + +But Alice was perfect in that respect, simply perfect. Not too +pronouncedly pretty; not the sort of girl whose photograph would be +put up surreptitiously in the shop windows, but really quite +unexceptionable as she came in to her mother's room and stood at the +window in her trim habit waiting for the horses to come round. Then +she turned to her mother composedly. + +"Father had a letter from Captain Macleod this morning, hadn't he? +When does he expect us?" + +Mrs. Woodward gave a sigh of relief. It was an advantage sometimes to +be seen through, especially when you were anxious to give a word of +warning before that long ride with Jack in the Park, and you did not +quite know how to set about it. + +"On the 8th; that will suit your father nicely; he will have done his +meetings by then. And you will like the change, won't you, darling?" + +"Immensely, of course. Then we had better go round to Redfern's to-day +and order tailor-made things; something that looks rough, you know, +but isn't. I hate rough things, they make me feel creepy. Ah! there is +Jack coming round the gardens. Good-bye, dearest." + +She stooped to kiss her mother dutifully ere leaving, and Mrs. +Woodward seized the opportunity. + +"Good-bye, darling, and before you go, Alice, about Jack." + +"What about Jack, mamma?" + +"You might tell him--perhaps." + +"What shall I tell him?" asked the girl, a trifle petulantly. "That we +are going down to stay at Gleneira with the Macleods. That is really +all there is to tell--as yet." + +"I know that, my dear; still--still it would be better if Jack did not +follow you about so much." + +"Of course, it would be better, and I have told him so often; I will +tell him again, if you like, so don't be anxious, you good, pretty +little mamma. I am very fond of Jack--he is a dear fellow--but I don't +intend to marry him. I see quite well how foolish it would be for us +both." + +Mrs. Woodward, as she watched the riders pass down the road, told +herself that Alice was one in a thousand, and deserved to be happy, as +no doubt she would be if she married Paul Macleod, who was so very +nice-looking. This point of good looks was one upon which Mrs. +Woodward laid great insistence, and it enabled her to spend the next +hour or two in finishing a sentimental novel in which the lovers, +after sternly rejecting the counsels of parents and guardians, were +rewarded in the third volume with £50,000 a year and a baronetcy. For, +like most mothers, poor Mrs. Woodward was sadly at sea on the +matrimonial question. Its romantic side appealed to her fancy, its +business side to her experience, since no woman can have done her duty +in the married state for a quarter of a century without seeing that +where personal pleasure has been the motive power in one point, sheer +personal self-abnegation has been the motive in ten. + +Meanwhile the cousins, after cantering round the Row, had reined in +their horses for a walk. Alice rode well, and the exercise had brought +an unwonted animation to her appearance. Jack, on the other hand, was +a tall, burly young fellow, a trifle over-dressed, but otherwise +unobjectionable, looked his best, with a heartwhole admiration for his +companion on his honest face. What a pretty couple they would make, +thought an old spinster, taking her constitutional in Kensington +Gardens, and began straightway to dream of a certain hunt ball where +someone had danced with her five times before supper. How many times +afterwards she had never had to confess, even to her twin sister; +thanks to the extras, which, of course, need not count. And yet +nothing had come of it! And just as she got so far in her +reminiscences Alice was saying to Jack pleasantly, "I shall miss these +rides of ours, Jack, shan't you?" + +"Why should you miss them?" he asked anxiously, for there was a +superior wisdom in her tone which he knew and dreaded. "I'm going down +to Heddingford when you go. We can ride there." + +"But we are going to Scotland first; didn't mamma tell you? We are to +stay with Captain Macleod." + +Poor Jack's heart gave a great throb of pain. + +"Macleod?" he echoed, "that is the tall, handsome fellow, isn't it, +who used to hang round you before I came up from the works?" + +This allusion to Paul's good looks was unfortunate, since Jack's were +not improved by the sudden flush which crimsoned even his ears. + +"I don't know what you mean by hanging round," retorted the girl, +quickly. "It is a very vulgar expression." + +This again was unwise, for Jack, knowing his strong point was not +refinement, felt instantly superior to such trivialities, and took the +upper hand. + +"Call it what you like, Ally. You know perfectly well what I mean, and +what he meant, too." + +There was no denying it, and, after all, why should it be denied? Had +she not a right to have other lovers besides Jack? + +"Let us come for another canter," she said, in the tone of voice which +an elder sister might have used to a troublesome little brother, who +required to be coaxed out of ill humour. "There is no use being cross +about it, you know." + +She went a little too far, and roused him into laying his hand on her +rein, abruptly. And the action startled her, for she hated any display +of emotion, being, in truth, totally unaccustomed to it. + +"Not yet, Ally! I want to have this out first. It is time I did. And +yet I don't know how to begin; perhaps because it never had a +beginning. I've always cared for you--you know that. Ever since----" +the young man's eyes grew moist suddenly over some childish +recollection, and then an almost savage look came to his face. "And +you--you cared. I'm sure you cared----" + +Some people have the knack of saying the wrong thing, and in this case +poor Jack Woodward gave his mistress a handle both to her pride and +her prudence. + +"Care," she echoed, in a patronising tone. "Of course, Jack, I cared. +I cared for you very much, and I care for you now. So much so that I +am not going to let you be foolish any more. We didn't understand what +things really meant in those old days----" + +"You don't understand now," he broke in hotly. + +"Don't I," she continued; "perhaps I don't, for I don't really see +what there is to make such a fuss about. And it is very selfish----" + +"Do you mean to say that it is selfish of me to love you?" he cried. +"Selfish to----" + +She interrupted him again with the same facile wisdom. + +"Very selfish, if we stand in each other's way. And, after all, Jack, +what we both need to make life really successful is something we +have neither of us got. We are only soap-boilers, you know, and +society----" + +"Society!" he echoed sternly. "What has society to do with it? I +didn't think you were so worldly." + +"I am not worldly," she retorted, in quite an aggrieved tone; "unless, +indeed, it is worldly to be sensible, to think of you as well as of +myself--to be unselfish and straightforward." + +"Straightforward! What, do you call it straightforward to let me hang +round you as I have done?" + +"Really, Jack, you are _impayable_ with your hangings round! Can you +not find a less objectionable phrase?" + +She was fencing with him, and he saw it, saw it and resented it with +the almost coarse resentment of a nature stronger and yet less +obstinate than hers. + +"Yes, if you like. I'll say you have played fast and loose with me--as +you have. You have known for years that I cared for you, and that I +intended to marry you. And when a girl allows that sort of thing to go +on without a word, and doesn't mean it, I say she is a flirt--a +heartless flirt, and I have nothing more to do with her." + +He turned his horse as he spoke, and without another word rode off, +leaving her to go home with the groom. Inexcusable violence, no doubt. +Alice told herself so again and again in the vain effort to get rid of +a certain surprised remorse, for the girl was emphatically a moral +coward, and any display of high-handed resentment, so far from rousing +her opposition, invariably made her doubtful of her own wisdom. She +hated scenes most cordially, hated, above all things, to have +opprobrious epithets hurled at her; for she clung with almost piteous +tenacity to her own virtue. It was too hard, too unkind of Jack to +blame her, and yet despite this, his condemnation seemed to dim that +lodestar of her firmament--common sense. After all, if he liked her, +why should they not marry? Why should such devotion be sacrificed to +the Moloch of position? In truth, as she thought over the incident, an +odd mixture of anger and regret came to upset her usual placidity, so +that, much to her own surprise, she broke down helplessly into tears +over her mother's conventional inquiry as to how she had enjoyed her +ride. Nor could she find any reason for this unwonted emotion, beyond +the fact that Jack had been brutal and called her a flirt, and had +ridden away, declaring that he would have nothing more to say to her. +That such would be the case Mrs. Woodward, as she administered sal +volatile and talked about the trying heat, felt was most devoutly to +be wished; but a long course of three volume novels warned her of the +danger of trusting to the permanence of lovers' quarrels. So after her +daughter had been provided with darkness and eau-de-cologne, and a +variety of other feminine remedies against the evil effects of +emotion, she went off to her own sitting-room to consider the position +by the light of her five-and-forty years of human experience. To begin +with, the girl's feelings were clearly more deeply implicated than +she, or for the matter of that Alice herself, had imagined. The +question, therefore, came uppermost whether this fact ought to be +admitted or deprecated; whether in short this evident dislike to +giving her cousin pain was the result of a romantic attachment or +simply the natural kindliness of a girl for a young fellow she had +known from infancy. Now the cogitations of mothers over their +daughters' matrimonial prospects are always fair game for both +moralist and novelist. For some mysterious reason the least display of +prudence is considered worldly; yet, on the face of it, a woman who +has had, say, five-and-twenty years of married life cannot possibly +fail to see how much of her own life has been made or marred by +influences which she never considered in accepting Dick, Tom, or +Harry. In nine cases out of ten it is the remembrance of her own +ignorance which makes her espouse the cause of the lover who can bring +the greatest number of chances for content. And it is idle to deny, +for instance, that a girl marrying into a family which will welcome +her is far less likely to quarrel with her husband than one who is +looked on askance by her mother-in-law. There is, in sober truth, an +immense deal to be said in favour of the French theory which holds +that given a favourable nidus, and kindly atmosphere, the germ of +happiness is more likely to grow into a goodly tree, and bear fruit a +thousandfold, than when it is planted in a hurry by two inexperienced +gardeners in the first pot which they fancy in the great Mart. Owing, +however, to our somewhat startling views as to the sanctity of the +romantic passion over the claims of duty towards oneself and others, +these minor considerations are considered mercenary to the last +degree, and the mother who is courageous enough to confess them openly +is held up to obloquy. Why, it is difficult to say, since none of us +really believe in the popular theory. It will not hold water for an +instant when put to the practical test of experience; even if we leave +out of consideration the fact that fully one-half of the people one +meets have never felt, and have never felt the desire to feel, an +absorbing passion. + +Mrs. Woodward, for instance, had not; moreover she had brought Alice +up from the cradle to share her views of life, and had never once +found her way barred by any bias towards a more passionate outlook. In +fact, she was, in her mother's estimate, the very last girl in the +world to find sentiment soothing. On the contrary, it distressed her, +made her cry, necessitated her lying down with smelling-salts and a +hot-bottle. Then above all things she loved a certain refined +distinction and exclusiveness. Even as a child she had held her head +high in the soap-boiling connection, and though she would no doubt be +very fairly happy with Jack, the Macleod family was distinctly more +suitable. The question, therefore, soon resolved itself, not into +whether the outworks of the girl's placidity should be defended, but +how this could best be effected. How in short Jack could be prevented +from posing as a martyr; for Mrs. Woodward was sharp enough to see +that, at present at any rate, the danger lay entirely in her +daughter's remorse. + +"It was very unkind of Jack I must say," she commented skilfully on +the story which Alice unfolded to her after a time; "but you mustn't +be hard on him, my dear. Men never have so much self-control as we +have, and no doubt the knowledge that you were right vexed him. They +get over these little rebuffs very quickly." + +"It--it seemed to hurt him though--and I hate--all that sort of +thing," murmured the girl doubtfully, looking as if she were going to +cry again. + +"And it hurts you apparently, though you know quite well that you only +did your duty." + +"I suppose so," remarked Alice, still more doubtfully; "only I wish he +hadn't been so unreasonable." + +"So do I; but in these cases the girl always has to have sense for +both. Besides Jack has a vile temper. But it is soon over. You will +see that he will come to dinner as usual--it is the opera night, and +he wouldn't miss that for anything--not even for you, my dear." + +Alice smiled a watery smile, and said she did not think it meant so +little to him as all that; but Mrs. Woodward maintained her position, +having, in fact, some grounds for her belief, owing to the despatch of +a certain little note which she had sent off before coming in to +console Alice, and which ran thus:-- + + +"Dear Jack,--Alice tells me you were very much put about to-day +regarding our visit to Scotland; why, I can scarcely understand. Dear +boy, if only for your own sake--since you can scarcely wish to quarrel +with her, or us--do try and keep that temper of yours a little more +under control. The poor girl came home crying, and I really cannot +allow you to go out with her again if you are so inconsiderate. You +ought to know quite well how sensitive she is, so for goodness' sake +don't let this stupid misunderstanding disturb us all.--Your +affectionate Aunt, + + "Sophia Woodward." + +P.S.--"We dine earlier to-day, as Alice wants to be in time for the +overture, 'Tannhauser.'" + + +A note which meant all or nothing according to the wishes of the +reader. In this case it meant all, for Jack, returning to his rooms +after a disastrous attempt to begin his future rôle in life by playing +whist with the old fogies at his club, was feeling that life, even as +a misogynist, was unendurable, when the sight of his aunt's +handwriting made his heart beat. The note was not in the least what he +had expected to receive, and made him somehow feel as if he had +grossly exaggerated the necessity for grief. + +"Aunt Soph is on my side, anyhow," said the young man, with a certain +elation, "and I was a brute, I'm afraid." + +The result being, that before Alice, who had been spending the +afternoon with Paul Macleod's sister, Lady George Temple, had returned +from her drive, Jack, with a big gardenia in his coat, was ushered +into the drawing-room, where his aunt, in satin and diamonds, was +skimming through the last few pages of another novel which had to be +returned to the library that evening. + +"Good boy!" she said, smiling. "Now, I hope you won't spoil Alice's +pleasure to-night by even alluding to your rudeness." + +Jack looked a little aghast. "But, Aunt Sophia, I must beg her +pardon." + +"Then you had better do it at once," replied Mrs. Woodward, "and get +it over. For there she is at the door. You can run downstairs and meet +her, for she will have to go up to dress at once. She is late as it +is." + +Begging your mistress's pardon on the way upstairs, before the eyes of +a butler and a footman, was not quite what Jack had pictured to +himself; but it was better than nothing, and Alice's unfeigned look of +relief at seeing him could not be mistaken. + +Mrs. Woodward slept soundly that night, feeling that she had done a +good day's work, and steered the bark of her daughter's happiness out +of a great danger. And happiness to her philosophy meant much, since +virtue was so very much easier of attainment when life went smoothly. +This was partly the reason why she did not detail the past danger to +her husband after the manner of some wives, who love to chase sleep +from their good man's eyes by breaking in upon the delicious +drowsiness of the first ten minutes in bed by perfectly needless +revelations of past woe. + +The tie, in fact, between these two whose night-capped heads reposed +side by side, was a curious one if absolutely commonplace. It +consisted of a vast amount of mutual respect for each other's position +as husband or wife, a solid foundation of placid affection, and no +confidence. For instance, Mrs. Woodward knew considerably more about +her son Sam Woodward's debts than his father did, to say nothing of +minor points in the matter of household management; but then at least +two-thirds of Mr. Woodward's life was absolutely unknown to the wife +of his bosom. He breakfasted and dined at home on week days, and on +Sundays he added lunch to the other meals; what is more, he never +deserted her for the club on the occasion of "At Homes." But of his +life between 10 A.M. and 7 P.M. she knew nothing, except that he +lunched at a bar in the City. So far as this went, he was to her +exactly what he was to the outside world; that is to say, Mr. +Woodward, the lucky financier, whose name meant money. Even the +success or failure of the companies which she saw advertised with his +name as director did not interest her, for she knew by experience that +money and to spare was always forthcoming. And to tell the truth, Mr. +Woodward was a singularly lucky man. When the smash came to the +company "For Preserving the North American Indian from Total +Extinction by Supplying him with a Sparkling Beverage, Exhilarating +but non-Alcoholic, to take the Place of the Deleterious Fire Water," +he had happened to sell his last remaining share the day before; and +even when the scheme for supplying hard-boiled eggs to the settlers in +Africa failed, it did not affect the home supply at all. And yet Mr. +Woodward's character as a business man stood above suspicion, and the +worst that had ever been said of him was that he could sail a point or +two nearer to the wind with safety than most men. + +So that night he also slept the sleep of the just, undisturbed by the +thoughts of Jack's temerity. Even if he had known of it, it is to be +feared that he would have set the question aside with the mental +verdict that it was clearly the business of the girl's mother to see +to such things. Poor mothers! who as they look at the bald head on the +pillow beside their own cannot but feel, even while they would not now +part with it for all the world, that life would have been less +disappointing if circumstances had been more kind. + +As for Alice herself, she slept peacefully also, the doubt which poor +Jack's pain had raised in her gentle mind having been allayed by his +prompt submission. And Jack snored--positively snored; for he was +rather fatigued with his own excitement, being of the sort which takes +most things not so much keenly as heavily. To tell the truth, also, +his determination to marry his cousin was so fixed that the greater +part of his pain had been sheer inability to grasp the idea of denial; +so that he reverted gladly to the old position without asking +questions as a less tenacious man might have done. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +Lord George Temple sate moodily in the armchair of his study in his +little house in Mayfair chewing the end of a cigar and looking +disconsolately at a tray of whiskey and water and a plate of oval thin +Captain's biscuits on the table. He was a red-haired smooth-faced man +with rather a long upper lip, and a good-natured, somewhat whimsical +expression. + +"It is a confounded shame!" he said to his wife, who, with an opera +cloak slipping from her pretty bare shoulders, was resting for a +moment before going upstairs to bed. "Graham gives his cook +twenty-five pounds a year--I heard her telling you so one day when she +was wanting a new one--and yet there wasn't a thing fit to eat on the +table----" + +"Well, I don't know," put in Lady George, absently; "I think those +stuffed larks came from Mirobolants. I saw that style of decoration in +his place the other day, and I'm quite sure the iced soufflé was +Bombardi's; I know the shape." + +"Exactly what I said!" continued the husband, "not a thing fit for a +gouty man to eat at the table, and yet a woman on twenty-five pounds +ought to be up to roast chicken and a rice pudding." + +Blanche Temple looked at her spouse with the compassionate air of +tolerance which she invariably extended to his views. + +"But you can't give your friends roast chicken and rice pudding; you +can't, indeed, nowadays. People wouldn't come." + +"My dear girl," interrupted Lord George, obstinately, "there were four +men at the table who, like myself, partook of soup, fish, and cheese +straws. And one poor beggar didn't even have the soup." The thought +was apparently comforting, for he began more contentedly on a biscuit. +But his wife was now interested in the subject. Most things interested +her, either to affirmation or denial, for Paul Macleod's sister was a +very clever woman, if at the same time curiously conventional. + +"Well! I don't know who eats the things, then," she said, aggrievedly. +"Why, the last time we had a dinner-party--I mean when the Woodwards +were here--I'm sure Paul ought to be infinitely obliged to me for the +trouble I take--the cook who came in used pounds on pounds of stock +meat, and quarts on quarts of cream; to say nothing of a whole bottle +of whiskey. 'You had better give it her, my lady,' said Jane, 'for +fear as the dinner might 'ave no appearance.'" + +Among other unknown and despised talents which did not suit Lady +George's theory of her own rôle in life was a distinct turn for +mimicry. Her admirable impersonation of Jane, therefore, made her +husband burst out laughing; since by a whimsical perversion of affairs +he loved his wife dearly for the very qualities which she feigned not +to possess. For Blanche was essentially a theatrical woman, loving to +pose in all the relations of life, her present one being that of a +dutiful sister. On Paul's return from India she had not only hastened +to impress on him the absolute necessity for his marrying an heiress +if he wished to keep Gleneira in the family, but had also introduced +him to Alice Woodward, as a girl who would suit the part admirably. +For Lady George knew her brother's foibles thoroughly, and understood +that if he married for money, the bride must be a person who would +neither offend his refinement, nor require much display of affection; +since Paul would certainly never give himself away by pretending a +depth of sentiment he did not feel, and yet would not marry without +something of the sort. That she felt was the worst of him. _Au fond_ +he was absolutely truthful to himself. + +"Of course you could sell if you liked," she had said to him +skilfully, well knowing that the very thought was utterly repugnant; +"trade is always ready to buy a Highland property. The only +alternative is to marry a girl with money. I know one, pretty, +lady-like, refined; a girl of whom you would be very fond if she were +your wife. Her father is a speculator. Not quite so safe, of course, +as a solid business--buttons or tallow--though, by the way, he has +something to do with soap. Still, these Woodwards are quite +presentable, and _Monsieur le père_ has his wits about him. And then +you know there are always settlements, and deeds of gift, and those +sort of things which creditors make such a fuss about." + +Her brother winced visibly. "I should prefer not to have a row with +anybody else's creditors," he said shortly. "_I_ shall have enough +apparently to do in keeping my own quiet. England is a terribly +expensive place to live in." + +"London, you mean," retorted his sister, gaily. "You can always go +down to Gleneira and vegetate." + +That had been at the beginning of the season, and now Paul had gone +down, not to vegetate, but to prepare the old place for the visit of +inspection; not without a certain resentful irritation at the +necessity for it. Though at the same time it put the affair on an +easier footing for the present. + +Afterwards, however, Paul had every intention of imparting sentiment +into the transaction, if it could be done; and he knew himself to have +a vast capacity for falling in love, after the approved romantic +fashion, with any pretty girl who was willing to let him make love to +her. So his sister, bewailing the pounds of stock meat and quarts of +cream expended on his behalf, yet felt that she had been successful; +but, then, she would hardly have recognised herself if she had not +been so, since in her own little world, which she carefully avoided +extending unwisely either upwards or downwards, Lady George Temple was +always cited as a success in all the rôles which she felt called upon +to play. + +"I heard from Paul to-day, by the way," she said, as she gathered up +her gloves and fan. "He wants me to go and call on that Mrs. Vane. You +remember who I mean, of course?" + +"No, I don't," replied Lord George, relapsing into moodiness over the +biscuits. + +"You never do remember what I mean, dear! But she is the Colonel's +wife, who nursed Paul when he nearly died in India. Of course they do +it very often, I know, and it is more confusing than sending for a +woman whom you can pay and get rid of afterwards. Still, she really +did save his life--under Providence, of course--at least, Paul always +said so. Well, her husband, who, I believe, drank, or did something, +died two years ago, leaving her dreadfully off, so she went to live +with somebody--an uncle or an aunt, who, I fancy, must have left her +some money, for she has just taken a house somewhere in Chelsea. And +Paul, who hasn't seen her since those old days, has asked her to +Gleneira, and wants me to make her acquaintance first. Rather a bore, +for I wish to have a particularly pleasant party, and she will most +likely be an old frump." + +"Scarcely, my dear, if she nursed your brother, and he survived," +remarked Lord George, gravely. + +His wife frowned. "How can you be so absurd, dear; she must be quite +old, for Paul wrote she was a perfect mother to him, and that is quite +six years ago." + +Lord George's eyes twinkled again. "My dear Blanche, you and Paul have +exaggerated notions on the subject of a mother's----" He paused, at a +rattle on the door-handle, and looked apprehensively at his wife. The +next instant two charming little figures in frilled white nightgowns +burst into the room, and flinging themselves into their mother's arms +began to cover her with kisses. The daintiest little creatures, a boy +and a girl, with angelic faces and shrill, excited, happy, little +voices. + +"Oh, you bad children!" cried Blanche, without a trace of vexation. +"So you wanted to see mother, did you? And now you have seen her, off +to bed with you before Nannie comes after you, there's dear ones! +Quick! or she will be coming." + +"Quick, Adam! Quick, Evie!" echoed the happy voices excitedly, in a +rush to the open door, which ended in a sudden pull up, and a still +more excited cry. "Oh, mammy! Oh, daddy! here's Blazes comin' down the +stairs." + +Lord George's face lost its apprehensiveness in resignation. Yet, as +he settled himself back in his chair, his long upper lip betrayed a +disposition to smile, for Blasius, his youngest son, was apt to amuse +him. A very different child this, short, squat, and red-haired, who, +after sundry thumpings and bumpings outside, suggestive of falls, +appeared, rubbing his eyes sleepily, at the door; then the broad, +good-natured face expanded into a grin. "_Bickys'!_" he said, +laconically, as he toddled across to the tray. + +"Oh! what a welly greedy little boy, ain't he, Evie?" said Adam. "We +come to see our darlin' mummie, didn't we, duckums?" He was at her +side for a swift caress, and back again to stand expectantly beside +his sister, whose little dancing feet were keeping time to her nodding +golden head. As pretty a picture of light-hearted innocent enjoyment +as heart could desire, even at eleven o'clock at night! + +"Give him a biscuit, do, and let him go," said Lady George, hurriedly. +"It won't hurt him, they are quite plain. Dada will give you a +biscuit, Blasius, and then you can go back to bed, like a dear, can't +you?" + +Blasius' large, round, blue eyes assumed a look of vacuity as the +sentence proceeded; but as he stood sturdily on his little bare feet +beside his father both little chubby hands went out at once, and a +singularly full voice for so young a child gave out conglomerately:-- + +"Blathe's--'ll--take two, ta." + +Lord George shot a glance at his wife and complied; while from the +door came a little whisper, intended to be one of horror. "Oh, Addie! +ain't he a welly greedy little boy?" + +"And now Blasius will go to bed like a good boy, with his good little +brother and sister," remarked Lady George, with forced optimism. "Adam +and----" Her voice failed before a soft thud as Blasius sat down +solidly, and stuck his little bare feet beyond his little white +nightgown. + +"Mummie can go, Blazeth'll stay with dada--ta." + +Those two at the door stood bolt upright, with sidelong looks of pious +horror at each other-- + +"Oh, Evie! \ + > Ain't he a weally naughty little boy?" +"Oh, Addle! / + +"Blasius _must_ go to bed," began his mother, quite firmly, +"or--or--mummie will be very much grieved. Her little boy wouldn't +like to grieve his mummie, would he?" + +Lord George, who had looked hopeful at the decision of tone, sank back +in his chair and twiddled his thumbs. + +"You had better ring for nurse at once, Blanche. It always comes to +that in the end, and the child will get cold." + +His wife frowned. Her theories had been so successful with Adam and +Eve that the necessity for reverting to the _vi et armis_ with this +baby was grievous. She sate down beside him on the floor, and began in +mellifluous tones. + +"Listen, Blasius. Mummie wants her little Blasius to do something to +please her; she wants him to do something very much----" She got no +further, being gagged by a little soft hand and a very hard biscuit +together. + +"Blazeth's not a deedy 'ickle boy. Blazeth'll give poor 'ickle mummie +hith bicky, and be a dood 'ickle boy. Then daddy'll gif him anofer." + +Little chortles of intense enjoyment came from those angelic faces at +the door. + +"Go to bed, children; off with you at once," said their father, +quickly, whereupon an obedient patter of bare feet fled up the stairs +with an accompanying cackle of high, eager voices, busy over the pros +and cons of Blasius versus authority. + +"Do you think she'll assuade him, Evie? I don't." "I think he ought to +be smacked, I do." "I'd let him cry, it don't hurt a child to cry. +Nanna's mother says it's good for the lungs." "And Blazes likes to +cry, he does." "I say, Addie! how long will it be afore Duckum's +mummie has to ring the bell?" + +The last wonder being faintly audible from the landing above, settled +the business downstairs. Lord George rose and took the law into his +own hands. + +"Oh, George!" cried his wife, reproachfully, "how can you expect to +train up children in the way they should go if you are so impatient? +If once I could have got Blasius to understand what was really +required of him----" + +Here the advent of a big, stalwart figure in a wrapper, bearing a +white shawl, brought such sudden comprehension to the stalwart little +one, that the room for one brief moment resounded with yells. The next +found the door closed upon them, and Lady George looked disconsolately +at her husband, as she listened to the retreating struggles of her +youngest born. + +"I cannot think what makes him so different from the others," she +said, gloomily. + +"My dear," replied her husband, consolingly, "Cain came after Adam and +Eve; perhaps the next will be Abel. Besides, Blasius was a risky name. +I told you so at the time." + +"Saint Blasius was a very worthy man," retorted his spouse, hotly, +"and, considering that you and the boy were both born on his day, I +must say I think it quite natural that I should call my child George +Blasius--or, let me see, was it Blasius George?" + +"It is a matter of no importance, my dear," replied her husband, +drily. He did not remind his wife, nor did she choose to remember that +at the time she had been playing the ultra ritualistic rôle. To tell +the truth, she did not care to be brought face to face with her past +impersonations, unless the fancy seized her to revert to them; when, +at a moment's notice, she could resume the character as if she had +never ceased to play it. + +So, the next day, with a view to making a suitable impression on +Paul's widow, as she chose to call Mrs. Vane, she put on her most +dowdy garments, and actually went in an omnibus down the King's-road. +Thus far her environment suited her foregone conclusions, but, as she +stood in the wide stretch down by the river, the brilliant sunshine +streaming upon a very bright knocker and a very white door, a certain +feeling of distrust crept over her. Nor was the darkened room into +which she was ushered reassuring. The parquet floors were almost bare, +the windows beneath the striped Venetian awnings were set wide open to +a balcony wreathed with blossoming creepers, and hung with cages of +singing birds. A scent of flowers was in the air, a coolness, an +emptiness, and yet the first impression was one of ease and comfort. +Not the room, this, of an old frump. And this was not an old frump +rising from a cushioned lounge and coming forward like a white shadow +in the half light. + +"How good of you to come!" + +Lady George, dazzled as she was by the change from the sunlight +outside to the darkness within, yet saw enough to make her gasp. Lo! +this little bit of a woman with syren written all over her from the +tip of her dainty Parisian shoe to the crown of her fair, curly head, +was Paul's widow. His mother, forsooth! A pretty mother, indeed! + +Having got so far as this, Blanche, being, amongst other things, +somewhat of an artist, felt bound to admit that Violet Vane was very +pretty indeed; so pretty that it was a pleasure to watch the piquant +face, full of a quaint sort of humour and freshness, grow clear of the +shadows. In this half light she looked younger, no doubt, than she +really was; still, even in the garish day, Lady George felt +instinctively that her charm would remain. In fact, she was not at +all, no! not in the least, a suitable companion for Paul, when so much +depended on his being reasonable. + +"I haven't seen your brother for years," came the sweet but rather +thin voice. "It is so good of him to remember me. So more than good of +him to ask me down to Gleneira that I mean to go, if only to ensure +the kindness being credited to him. I wonder if he is much changed?" + +There was a certain challenge in the speech which Lady George was +quick enough to recognise, and, as she recognised it, wondered if her +own astonishment had been too palpable, as that in itself would be a +mistake, so she replied deftly: + +"He is not changed in one thing--his gratitude to you. And I am +grateful also, for Paul is very dear to me. The dearest fellow in the +world, is he not?" + +It was a statement to which, in the language of poker, Mrs. Vane could +hardly go one better, and therefore it left her, as it were, to an +under-study of devotion. + +"He used to be very nice when I knew him; but, then, sick people are +always nice; they are so much at one's mercy," said the little lady, +airily. They were, in their way, admirable types of their kind, these +two women; both artificial, yet with an artificiality which sprang +from the head in the one case, from the heart in the other; for Mrs. +Vane saw through herself, and Lady George did not. + +"So that is Paul's sister," said the former to herself as, on the way +back to her lounge, after escorting her visitor in friendliest fashion +to the stairs, she paused to take up a photograph case lying on the +table. It contained Paul's portrait as he had been before the time +when she had watched his fair head tossing restlessly on the pillow in +that hot Indian room which nothing would cool. The memory of those +dreary days and nights came back to her in a rush, making her, +paradoxically, look years older, worn, haggard, and anxious. She +seemed to be back in them; to hear the gathering cry of the jackals +prowling past the open door, to see the flicker of the oil night-light +gleam on the splintered ice, turning it for a brief second to +diamonds, as she prepared it for the burning forehead above those +bright, yet glazed eyes; and, more than all, she seemed to feel the +old passionate protest against the possibility of his passing for ever +out of her life joined to the fierce determination to save him to the +uttermost. From what? from herself, perhaps. For Mrs. Vane had +performed the most unselfish act of her life when she had laughed and +scoffed at the devotion and gratitude of her patient. She had had +many, she said, and they had always felt like that during some period +of their convalescence. There was nothing for these sequelæ of jungle +fever like three months' leave to the bears in Kashmir; and, if he +liked, he might bring her home one of those little silk carpets for +her sitting-room as a fee; she would prefer a carpet to anything else. +And so Paul had come back with his unromantic offering, cured, as she +had prophesied, of his feverishness, but not of his friendliness. That +had lasted, despite a separation of years. And something else had +lasted also, to judge by the look on Mrs. Vane's face as she stood +with Paul's photograph in her hand. + +Lady George Temple took a cab home, and tried to regain a sense of +lost importance by having the children down to tea. Paul had kept this +thing secret from her; he had allowed her for years to speak kindly, +effusively of the woman who had saved his life as if she were an old +frump, when she was really--Blanche, being a person of sense, felt +forced to acknowledge the truth--one of the most charming little +creatures imaginable, with just that half-sympathetic, half-bantering +manner which was so taking. And Paul, having done this, her own rôle +of devoted sisterhood suffered thereby; so she fell back upon her +motherhood. + +Thus, when her husband returned, he found the room littered with +Kindergarten toys, while Adam was threading beads by the +multiplication table, and Eve was busily engaged in marking the course +of the River Congo in red back-stitching on a remarkably black +continent of Africa, which was afterwards to do duty as a +kettleholder. Blasius, meanwhile, having been so far beguiled into the +Zeit-Geist as to consent to build a puff-puff out of some real +terra-cotta bricks and columns which were intended for an +architectural object lesson. + +"Oh, George!" began his wife, pausing with a lump of sugar in the +tongs over his cup, "Paul's widow is dreadful; I don't know what I +shall do with her." + +"Hand her over to me--I can generally manage to get on with people," +he said, watching the tongs greedily; for the question of sugar in his +tea was the cause of much dispute between him and his wife. A slow +smile came to her face as she replaced the lump. + +"No! my dear; it wouldn't be good for you," she said, coming back to +the present, and then she frowned. "I cannot think what induced Paul +to ask her just when so much depends on the Woodwards feeling +themselves to be _the_ guests _par excellence_," she continued, after +a brief but picturesque description of the offender. "And this woman +is sure to sing, and play, and dance, and act. I saw it in her face." + +"Jolly sort of person to have in a country house, I should say," +remarked her husband, secretly impressed. + +"I knew _you_ would say that, George," put in his wife, resignedly. +"Yes! she is just the sort of woman men love to dangle round." + +"Then ask someone to dangle. That will leave the coast clear for Paul +and Miss Woodward." + +Lady George raised her eyebrows scornfully. "As if that would do any +good! That sort of woman always insists on having the best men, and +Paul looks that in most society; besides I don't feel called upon to +pave the way to an heiress for anyone else but my brother. That is +what it would come to. No! I cannot conceive why Paul should make +things so--so much more difficult for himself." + +"Natural depravity, my dear," suggested her husband, helping himself +on the sly to sugar. "There is such a thing--Hullo! what's that?" + +That was the sudden discovery on Blazes' part that an Ionic column, +when used as an engine funnel, would, if hit violently with a good, +squat Norman one, break off in the middle; a discovery which was +followed by an outburst of that craze for destruction which healthy +children display on the least provocation. + +"He--he is not a 'Kindergarten' child," remarked his mother, +plaintively, when after a time the upstairs bell had once more been +rung and the offender carried off shrieking amid awed whispers of +intense enjoyment, about "welly welly naughty little boys" from Adam +and Eve. + +"No, my dear, he isn't," assented Lord George, cheerfully. "Some of us +are made that way; his uncle, for instance; but he isn't a fool, and +he knows which side his bread is buttered; a fact which has a +marvellous effect in keeping a man straight." + +"My dear George! what a terrible thing to say. It is a reversion to +that fear of punishment----" + +"My dear! I should like a second cup of tea, and this time I think you +might let me have a small lump of sugar--quite a small one." + +That evening Blanche wrote a long letter to her brother, which gave +her some trouble to compose. In it she lavished endless praises on +dear Mrs. Vane, who, to judge from her _looks_, must have had great +_trouble_, and fully deserved dear, kind Paul's grateful remembrance +of past services; which, by the way, she seemed to have extended to +many other fortunate invalids. Altogether a most delightful woman, of +_varied experiences_ if a trifle _manierée_; "though this," she added, +"my dear Paul, is, I fear, a common fault with women who have been +made much of _by many men_." + +As it so happened he read this remark at a small picnic party where +Marjory, the only lady present, was dispensing tea to Will Cameron, +himself, the Reverend James Gillespie, Father Macdonald, Mr. Wilson, +and Donald Post, who had been waylaid on the road just above the +little creek on the loch, where they had lit their fire, to say +nothing of the minister's man holding the Manse dogcart until its +occupants should choose to tear themselves away from temptation and +proceed on their journey. + +"_Quid datur a Divis felice optatius hora?_" quoted the minister +gallantly, as he set aside the girl's offer of another cup and rose to +go, while little Father Macdonald, following his example, quoted a +verse from Tasso to show that the memory of a pleasant hour might give +even greater pleasure than the hour itself. Paul Macleod, watching +them, and fully alive to the adoring look on the Reverend James's +face, continuing, as it were the kindly affection of Will's, gave a +short laugh as he tore up his letter and threw it into the embers of +the dying fire. + +Marjory looked at him inquiringly. + +"Only something that seems singularly out of place with my present +surroundings," he said in quick response; "but the world has a knack +of seeming very far away when one is in Gleneira." + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + +It was true. The more so because the heat-haze lingered, turning the +hills which lay between the Glen and the world beyond it, into a pale +blue, formless wall, which seemed somehow more of an arbitrary +division than it would have done had the contours of each successive +rise been clearly visible. The fierce sun beat down on the limestone +rocks, giving a russet tinge even to their mosses, and Paul Macleod's +useless rod lay in its case, since the river was reduced to a mere +tinkle of clear water in a moraine of boulders. So he took to +haymaking instead, partly because it suited his mood to play the rôle +of country proprietor--for to a certain extent he shared his sister's +dramatic temperament--and partly because Marjory always brought Will +Cameron's tea into the fields. It was quite idyllic to watch her from +afar, making it ready on the outskirts of a nut coppice or belt of +firs, and then to see her stand out into the rolling, undulating waves +of new cut grass which were creeping up the hillsides before the +scythes, and call to them in her clear, young voice, for, of course, +the laird could not be left out in the heat when his factor was +enjoying the cool. So he used to lounge about as Will did in the +scented hay, and talk nonsense, with infinite grace and skill, until, +with the extinction of his pipe, the latter's tardy sense of duty +would take fire, and he would insist on a return to work. + +On the whole, it was scarcely what Paul would have expected to amuse +him, and yet, after ten years of a land where hay-fields are not, and +it is unsafe to sit about for fear of snakes, it was strangely +pleasant. And so delightfully innocent! This came home to him +one night when, on going to his room, he saw his purse on the +dressing-table, and remembered that for a whole week he had not opened +it. The world had gone on as if there were no such thing in it as +money. He mentioned the fact next day among the hay-cocks, declaring +that if someone would only be responsible for his bills, he himself +would never care to see a shilling again. + +"Not I," said Will, rather dolefully; "for I'm afraid, Gleneira, these +masons and carpenters will cost a lot more than we fancied. It is +always the way when one touches a place. I remember when Inveresta +began he told me I wasn't to exceed a thousand, and before he was half +way through his list of absolute necessaries, the figures had passed +fifteen hundred. And yet I don't think it can be helped." + +He blew disconsolately at his pipe as if it were in fault, for he +prided himself on managing the estates in his charge with strict +economy, but Paul smiled indifferently. + +"My owner will be able to pay, I expect, when I get one. For when the +worst comes to the worst, Miss Carmichael, I can always put myself up +to auction. Do you think I should fetch a fair price? Item, one +Highland estate, seriously damaged by the Crofter Commission, and an +ancestral tree, ditto, by Darwinism. N.B.--Property encumbered by +several mortgages and one extravagant proprietor." He lay back against +a hay-cock with his hands behind his head, looking the personification +of lazy content as he watched her face shift and change. "You don't +seem to approve of my plan," he went on, in the same light tones, "but +the idea has infinite charm for me; it would save so much trouble, and +do so little harm. People sell themselves to the devil, we are told, +and that may be reprehensible--at any rate, it would be uncomfortable. +But what inconvenience or immorality can there be in making yourself +over, soul and body, to some virtuous Christian man or woman who, in +all probability, is far more capable of running the coach respectably +than you are?" + +"The same immorality as there is in any other form of suicide, I +suppose," she replied coldly; but he was not to be put off. + +"And what immorality is there in suicide, Miss Carmichael? I hold that +my life is my own, unless I make over the responsibility of it to +someone else, which you say is wrong. Therefore, I have a perfect +right to do what I please with it." + +"Once you have overcome the initial difficulty of discovering what you +do please," she retorted sharply. And he smiled. + +"You use a detective camera apparently, but I admit it. I am only +certain of one thing, it pleases me to please myself. It pleases me +now to forget that there is such a thing as money, and to go to bed at +ten o'clock." + +"Which shows that you are virtuously inclined, and that, +therefore----" + +"I refuse to be whitewashed by your charity," he interrupted. "I am of +the earth, earthy; though sometimes I can lie on my back in the hay +and see heaven opening----" His voice, with a sudden cadence in it, +ceased as he sprang lightly to his feet. + +"Come along, Cameron--you are intolerably long over that pipe--my +energy, Miss Carmichael, does not arise from Goodness, but from Greed. +If the hay is not in tonight, it may rain; if it rains, the hay will +be spoilt. If it is spoilt I shall have to buy more, and if I buy more +I shall not have that shilling to spend on myself. It comes to that in +the end, even in Arcadia." + +There were similar endings to many conversations in which Marjory +tilted bravely at various objects, which, in her heart of hearts, she +feared might be windmills. For she was never quite sure if he was in +earnest or not, and even when he had palpably played the fool with her +pet theories, or scouted a serious thought, a word, even a look, would +come to redeem the past, and give a curious zest to the future. Yet in +a way it distressed her also by confusing her clear-cut, unswerving +outlook on life. A man even professing such atrocious sentiments ought +to be unendurable, and this man was not. Far from it. And what was +almost more disconcerting, he evidently understood her better than +honest Will did; while, as for the Reverend James! the very thought +made her laugh. Yet, on the whole, she welcomed a reasonable cause +which, despite the holiday she had imposed on herself in obedience to +Cousin Tom's wishes, came to make an absence from the hay-fields less +marked, and a reversion to the young clergyman's company quite +natural. This being nothing more or less than a visit from the Bishop, +which, coming as it did in this holiday time, gave to the person who +was ostensibly responsible for the pupils' duties towards their +neighbours fearful anticipations of failure. For James Gillespie +was one of those persons who cannot teach; well meaning, fairly +well-educated, people who know the information they wish to impart and +cannot impart it, people who, in a repetition, invariably prompt the +wrong word, and send the hesitating memory hopelessly astray. And this +was a question of repetition, since the Bishop never interfered with +the secular teaching, which he left, with a Levite shake of the head, +to the Government inspector. So Marjory, relieved she scarcely knew +why, spent these afternoons in hammering the necessary precision into +the children's heads while the Reverend James sate watching her +rapturously and feeling that the whole parish, including himself, +would have no excuse for not knowing its duty towards its neighbour if +she were the clergyman's wife. + +And on the third day someone else seemed bitten with a desire to +learn, for Captain Macleod strolled in lazily and sate down on the +furthest bench, saying he had come to fetch the letters, and with her +permission would await their arrival in the cool. Why his presence +should have immediately aroused her to a resentful consciousness of +the adoring expression on the face beside her, she did not understand, +but the certainty and the uncertainty of it combined made her turn to +her companion with an audible asperity of tone: + +"I really think, Mr. Gillespie, that you might try and get the little +ones perfect in their hymn. You must remember that the last time the +Bishop inspected he told the children that the youngest Christian +should know one hymn, and the infants are not even perfect in the +'Happy Land.'" + +To hear being to obey, Mr. Gillespie retired towards the post-office +portion of the room where, with a semicircle of tiny bare-legged +lassies and laddies before him, he sate beside Paul Macleod and began +his task. It was rather a Herculean one, owing to the fact that his +pupils having no English, as the phrase runs, the simple stanzas were +to them mere gibberish. + +"It is three months they will be learnin' it, whatever," said Mr. +McColl, cheerfully, when the last of the semicircle had failed +hopelessly. + +"It is impossible, quite impossible," retorted Mr. Gillespie, in a +white heat of anxiety. "Some of them must have picked up something in +that case----" + +"'Deed, no, sir. Naethin's impossible with bairnies. And wee Paulie +there has it fine, for he is at me to learn it on him many a time, +because Miss Marjory was saying he would be a fool if he didn't. Speak +up, Paulie," he added, in the Gaelic, "you have it fine." + +Wee Paulie hung his close-cropped fair head with its odd little fringe +left over the forehead, so that nothing was to be seen but a rising +flush, and murmured some half-inaudible words, whereat the biggest boy +in Marjory's class said triumphantly: + +"He is saying that he will no be saying it to him, but to her." + +"Hush! Donald," came the quick, clear, dictatorial young voice; "that +is not the way to speak. Stand down two places. Paul, come here." + +The big Paul, seated on the back bench, looked up and smiled, feeling +it would be rather pleasant than otherwise to obey; and little Paul +pattered shamefacedly across to the girl's side, yet with a confident +air which raised the sleek head a little, and showed a pair of very +long lashes on the flushed cheeks. As he edged close Marjory passed +her arm round him, and with the other hand raised his chin square and +straight. + +"Now, Paul, if you please," she said, in the Gaelic; "clasp your +hands, and say it right out--to the whole school, remember. You know +it quite well, and you should never, never pretend that you don't know +when you do. It is mean." + +Big Paul, thinking that even reproof sounded pleasant in that voice, +and, at any rate, must be bearable in that position, smiled again, and +continued smiling unavoidably, as little Paul reeled off the whole +hymn from beginning to end in confused, unintelligible fluency, broken +only by hurried gasps for breath. + +"A pretty little fellow," said Captain Macleod, in an undertone to his +neighbour. "Who is he?" + +"Old Peggy Duncan's grandson--Jeanie Duncan's child--you must remember +her." + +The words seemed to jar the very foundations of happy, idle, careless +content, and Paul, even in his surprise, felt aggrieved. + +"Of course I remember her; but they told me she was dead. Who did she +marry?" + +The Reverend James Gillespie put on his most professional manner. "I'm +afraid it is a very sad story, but no one really knows the facts of +the case. She left home, as you may have heard----" + +"Yes! I have heard," put in Paul, suddenly, resentfully. "And I--I can +understand the rest. It's a common enough story, in all conscience." + +"Too true, too true," began his companion, but the laird had risen, +and, with a remark that he would wait outside for the tardy letters, +left the schoolhouse. Apparently he tired even of that, for when +Marjory, after lingering longer than was necessary over the +arrangements for the morrow's inspection with Mr. Gillespie, came out +with a half-annoyed expectation of finding the tall figure still +lounging under the horse-chestnut tree, it had gone, rather to her +surprise. + +Still, it would ensure her the solitary walk home which she loved; +since really it was too much to expect her to devote a whole afternoon +to the Reverend James who, curtly dismissed to a neglected parishioner +up the Glen, watched her pass down the loch with wistful yet still +admiring eyes until she disappeared behind a knoll of ash trees, +hiding the bridge which carried the road to the other side of the +river, and so down the seashore to Gleneira House and Lodge. A road +which, beautiful at all times, was never so beautiful as in the +sunsetting. There was one point, however, where its beauty seemed to +culminate, where, after climbing a rocky knoll cushioned with bosses +of bell-heather and the close oak scrub which springs from the roots +of past cuttings, it dipped down to the very edge of the water. Here, +on spring tides, the waves crept up to smooth away the wheel marks, +and leave a scalloped fringe of seaweed on the turf beyond. And hence +you could see straight through the cleft of the Narrowest, where the +hills embosoming the upper portion of the loch sloped down into the +gentler contours of the lower, right away to the Linnhe Loch, and so +beyond the purple bluff of Mull to the wide Atlantic. On that evening +the sun was setting into it in a golden glory, guiltless of a cloud. +And Marjory, cresting the knoll, thought instantly that here, indeed, +was a chance of the Green Ray. For ever since she had read Jules +Verne's book the idea of this, the last legacy of a dying day, had +remained with her fancifully. Many and many a time, half in jest, half +in earnest, she had watched for it, wondering if she would feel +different after she had seen it. If, in fairy-tale fashion, the world +would seem the better for it. Even if the legend was no legend, and +the phenomenon simply a natural one, due to refraction, there must be +something exhilarating in seeing that which other people had not seen; +in seeing the world transfigured, even for a second, for you, and you +only. Unless, indeed, others were watching with you. And, then, what a +strange tie that would be! To have seen something together that the +rest of the world had not seen; something at which it would laugh, but +which you knew to be true. The quaintness of the idea attracted her as +she walked over the crisp shingle to sit on a rock close to the +incoming tide. Out yonder on the far sea horizon it was a blaze of +light, but closer in the loch showed like a golden network of ripples +with ever-widening meshes enclosing the purple water till it ended, at +her very feet, in a faint foam-edge. There was no sound save the +blab-blabbing of the tiny wavelets on the rocks as they whispered to +each other of the havoc they had done far out at sea, or met every now +and again with a little tinkle of laughter to drown a stone. + +To Marjory, looking and listening so intently that consciousness +seemed to leave eyes and ears, came a sudden dread, not for herself, +but for others different from what she was. + +"Drowned--dead, drowned--drowned and cold--dead, dead, drowned!" Those +whispering voices seemed to repeat it over and over again, as for the +first time in her life she realised that others might not steer +straight for the sun across the ocean of life, as she did, +unswervingly. Of course, in a scholastic, unreal way she knew well +that there were swift currents to betray, big loadstone rocks to make +the compass waver, but till she had met Paul Macleod the possibility +of anyone deliberately and wilfully weighting his log and depolarising +his compass had not occurred to her. It is so, often, with those who, +as she was, are almost overburdened with that mysterious outcome of +past sacrifices, a sense of duty. But Paul, she recognised clearly, +might steer straight for the rocks, though his knowledge of seamanship +was equal to her own. On that point she would take no denial. It was +her one solace against her own interest in him. But for it what scorn +would be too great for the weakness of her tolerance for a handsome +face, a soft voice, and the most engaging of manners. No! The +charm--for there was undoubtedly a charm--lay elsewhere; in his +considerateness, his quick sympathy. This did not come, as he averred, +from a mere selfish desire to be liked, a mere selfish consideration +for his own comfort. It might suit him to say so, to declare his +disbelief in anything higher, to scoff, for instance, at the Green +Ray. The girl's thoughts rebounded swiftly to their starting-point, +and brought back sight to her dream-blinded eyes. + +Too late! Too late! The last outermost edge of the sun had dipped +beneath the sea; the fateful moment was past, and with the little +chill shudder of a breeze which had crept like a sigh over the water +at the Death of Day, the little wavelets at her feet were whispering-- + +"Drowned--dead--drowned! Who cares? Drowned! drowned! drowned!" + +She rose suddenly and stretched her hands out to the fast fading glow, +as if in entreaty. But only for a second; the next the voice of +someone coming up the opposite side of the knoll carolling a Gaelic +song made her turn quickly to see Paul Macleod outlined against the +blue of the hills as he paused on the summit to take breath and look +up into the child's face above him with a smile; for little Paul was +perched on his shoulder. + +The western glow, already leaving the earth, fell full on those two +faces, and on the firm delicate hands, holding the child secure. It +was like a St. Christopher, thought Marjory, with a pulse, almost of +pain, at her heart. For it left her bereft of something; of something +that had gone out irrevocably to be Paul's henceforth, even though the +first glimpse of her standing below made him loosen his clasp almost +roughly. + +"Is that you, Miss Carmichael?" he called, walking on to meet her; +"I'm doing good Samaritan against the grain; but I found the little +imp on the road. He had fallen from a rowan tree and sprained his +ankle." + +She found it easier for some reason to speak to the child in reproof. +"I've told you so often not to climb so recklessly," she said in +Gaelic. + +"He was getting berries for you; there was a bunch half ripe at the +very top; at least so he says," replied Captain Macleod in the same +language, then at her look of surprise added a trifle bitterly--"you +see I remember--we lairds don't often speak it--more's the pity--but I +have an uncomfortable memory for the days of my youth." + +"It was very good of you," she began, when he cut her short. + +"It was least trouble to carry him. He was whimpering like a little +cur at the river pool, so I elected to bring him along instead of +going back half a mile to ask someone else to do it for me. His +grandmother's cottage is just below the point there, isn't it? He can +walk as far as that." As he spoke he swung the child to the ground +lightly. "And you needn't look so fierce, Miss Carmichael; it won't +hurt him." + +She took no notice of his remark, except to ask the child if he could +manage. + +"If you speak in that tone of voice he will say 'no,' of course; but I +assure you it is all right. I've tied it up tight, and it wasn't very +bad to begin with." + +It had indeed been very neatly bandaged with a handkerchief torn into +strips, and the sight softened her rising indignation. "Possibly, but +it will be none the worse for being put in hot water. Come, Paulie, +lean on me, and if it's bad I'll carry you----" + +Before she could finish, the child was back on his namesake's +shoulder. + +"If you will show me the way down, I'll save you the trouble." + +The accent he laid deliberately on the pronoun took half the virtue +from his action, and yet the certainty that he had purposely put it +there showed her that he was alive to something else, and made her +lead the way silently to the cottage; and, even when there, the +remembrance of the St. Christopher picture joined to the unconscious +Highland hospitality, which forbids an unsought parting on the +threshold, made her ask if he would not come in and let old Peggy +thank him for his kindness. + +"I doubt if she would," he replied curtly; "anyhow I won't risk it." + +Perhaps he exercised a wise discretion. Marjory herself was inclined +to think so, in view of the old woman's general attitude towards the +world. + +"Pickin' rowan berries, was he," she echoed wrathfully, turning as she +so often did when angry to the broader Scotch of her youth; "they're +the deil's ain beads for young folk--aye! I mind it was so in the +beginning!" Her restless claw-like fingers busied themselves over the +coverlid, and her restless eyes followed Marjory, who was attending to +the sprained foot, which to say sooth was not a very serious matter. +"And Mr. Paul hefted the wean, and wouldna' come in bye to say a word +to the auld wife. That was real kind, or maybe it wasn't; but there! +he never brocht luck to my hoose, an' he wouldn't raise a finger to +do't. It's the way o' the warld, the way o' the warld." + +"That is not fair, Peggy," retorted the girl, roused as she always was +by injustice. "The laird was speaking of you only the other day. He is +much annoyed at your having been allowed to go on the roll, and +said----" + +The old pauper's hands stopped their uncanny fingerings, and every +line of the old face hardened. + +"If I choose to be on the pairish, I'll be on the pairish. It's better +than Mr. Paul's charity, an' ye may just tell him sae frae old Peggy +Duncan. I may be wrang, I may be richt, an' Him above only kens hoo it +is, but I was no born on his land, and I'm no his poor." + +"All the kinder of him to offer help," persisted Marjory. "And you +have no right, just because you are in an evil temper, to speak as if +he had done you some wrong." + +"Wha says he did?--not I! D'ye think I soud be lyin' here wi' him oot +ben if he had. Na! Na! Half deid as they are, my auld fingers wad be +at his bonnie fause face." The very vigour of her own voice seemed to +choke her, and she fell into a fit of coughing, then lay back +exhausted into a more Christian frame of mind. "God guid us, Miss +Marjory," she gasped, "but I'm jest an awfu' limmer whiles. If I was +to be nippit awa' this nicht I ken fine whaur I'd wauken." + +"And quite right, too," replied her visitor, severely, recognising the +half-apologetic tenor of the last remark, and, seizing the opportunity +for a bit of her mind before old Peggy, with some sidelong sally, +should escape deftly from the difficulty, after her wont. + +"Aye, aye! The tongue is an unruly member, and yet I bridle it whiles +for fear o' findin' myself in the same mansion wi' the pairish +officer. Eh! yon's an awfu' man, Miss Marjory, for sweerin', and I +just couldna' thole him. So, if ye like, ye may give old Peggy +Duncan's thanks to the laird, when you see him, for bringing the +laddie hame. Maybe it was kind o' him." + +"It was kind of him, very kind," said the girl, stoutly, feeling dimly +pleased to hear herself say so, and know that there could be no +mistake about that. And yet she felt vexed when she found him waiting +for her on the road when she came out into the darkening dusk. + +"I thought it was the proper thing to do," he replied, to her little +stiff expression of regret that he should have troubled himself so +far. + +"What was the proper thing?" she asked captiously. "I am quite +accustomed to walking home in the dark." + +"Proper to act up to your opinion of me, and be self-sacrificing, +perhaps." He paused, then said, suddenly, "Don't let us quarrel, Miss +Carmichael; it is such a lovely evening." + +True a thousand-fold! True beyond measure! The light had left +everything, save the sky and the sea as they walked on side by side +silently. + +"How's the patient?" he said, at last, reverting somewhat to the old, +airy, half-bantering tone. + +"Well; thanks to you. If he had walked home he might have been laid up +for days." + +"I did as little as I could, I assure you." + +"On the contrary, you did more than was necessary. Paul told me how +you comforted him, and sang songs all the way to cheer him up." + +She would not allow him this denial of his own virtues, or accept his +estimate of himself. + +"That was to cheer myself up, and forget my dislike to carrying a +dirty little boy, I expect. The study of one's own motives, Miss +Carmichael----" + +He got no further, for she turned to him with a quick gesture of +pained denial. "Don't--please don't. Why should you slander yourself?" + +Something in her tone roused a response in him for a moment, but the +next he had smothered it in a sort of reckless desire to shock this +girl with the intelligent, trustful eyes--to force her from her belief +in him. + +"Slander," he echoed; "there is no slander, I assure you. What do you +know about my life? Would it help you to understand my complicated +state of mind about that boy, for instance, if I told you that I was +once madly in love with his mother, and that I still think her the +most beautiful woman I ever saw?" + +He had not intended this confidence; yet now he had given it, he did +not regret the impulse, nor did he wonder at it, since the thought of +that past idyll had been interfering so much with the present one +during the afternoon, that he felt inclined to get rid of both once +and for all. + +"I have always heard she was very beautiful," replied Marjory, slowly; +"but, of course, I did not know----" + +He burst into a hard laugh. "That I fell in love with her! Really, +Miss Carmichael, you are most disconcertingly cool!" + +"I was going to say," she put in, unmoved, "that I did not know she +was the sort of person----" + +"I would fall in love with? Indeed! Perhaps, as you appear to have +formed some sort of estimate as to the qualities likely to attract me, +you might give me a hint or two. It might help me in the selection of +a wife." He hardly knew what he was saying, for his temper had got the +better of him; indeed, he did not care for the moment what he said, +save that it should be something that would put an end to this +confidence of hers. But he had reckoned without her absolute +unconsciousness; what is more, without her fearlessness and high +spirit. + +"I said nothing about a wife," she replied quietly. "Why should I? You +were talking of love, and I knew that you had made up your mind to +marry for money." + +"So I have; what then?" + +"Nothing, except this--that since you can set love aside so easily, I +fail to see what effect the memory of a past one could have on your +present life--that is all." + +He looked at her in the growing darkness, wishing that he could see +her face more clearly; wishing still more keenly that he could see +straight into her mind and satisfy himself that this calm indifference +was simply cold-bloodedness. But what if it was something more? If +here, at last, he had found that of which most men dream at times; the +refuge from themselves. And when he spoke again his voice had changed +its tone, though the bitterness remained in the words. + +"You make no allowance, then, for the power of a sentiment, especially +when it is morbid and unhealthy. And yet such things mean more to most +of us than right or wrong; because they are more human." + +There was a pause; then she turned to him with a smile, which he felt, +more than saw. + +"I am afraid I don't understand what you mean." + +"Perhaps it is as well you do not," he replied; and changed the +subject. + +But from that day their mutual attitude towards each other altered, +perhaps unconsciously. To tell the truth, the remembrance of the St. +Christopher rose up between her and Paul in his less admirable +impersonations. All the more so, perhaps, because of his strange, +impulsive confidence regarding his love for the boy's mother. He must +have been quite a boy himself at the time, she thought; no older than +she was now, and boys were so much younger than girls for their age. +She felt vaguely sorry for that young Paul and his fruitless love; for +Marjory, like most girls who have been much in contact with the poor, +accepted the facts of life calmly, looking at them straight in the +face, and calling them by their names fairly, ere she passed them by. +And so no doubt of that past to which Paul had alluded so frankly ever +crossed her mind. She felt, almost unconsciously, that he would not +have spoken about it to her had there been any cause for such +suspicion. So the only effect of his attempt to shock her was to bring +into stronger relief her confidence in his gentlemanly instincts. And +Paul, seeing this, metaphorically took off his shoes before the holy +ground which she prepared for him, even while he fretted against the +necessity imposed upon him by that better part of his nature, which, +in environments like these, would have its say. And then, even as he +discussed the matter with himself cynically, telling himself at one +and the same time that she was not human enough to see, and that it +would be cowardly to open her eyes, there would come with a rush a +fierce resentment at all reason. This was holiday time, and it would +soon be over for him. A week or two more and Gleneira would be full of +London ways and London talk; it would be time enough then to remember +the world, the flesh, and the devil. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +There was some excuse for his refusal to face a struggle, for in the +sunshiny days which followed, Nature herself held high holiday, and +the most prosaic might well have found it impossible to avoid falling +in with her gracious mood. The heather-flush was beginning to creep +over the curves of moor, the rowan berries ripened under the sun's +kiss, the juicy _guienne_ cherries purpled the children's mouths, and +the oat fields hid their poverty in a cloak of golden marigold. Down +in the shady nooks the stately foxgloves still lingered, while on the +sunniest spots the bracken was gathering the sun-gold into its +delicate tracery against the coming gloom of winter. Such times come +rarely; times when it is possible to forget the world of toil and +trouble, of sin, sorrow, and shame, which lies beyond the circle of +the everlasting hills; times when one is content to let life slip +past, without counting its pulse-beat; times when one seems to enter +in spirit with that divine rest, because the whole world seems good in +our eyes. + +Paul, dulled as he was by world-tarnish, felt the charm; Marjory, +fresh from her sober youth, yielded to it gladly. Will Cameron, with +the hay safe housed and harvest secure in the future, said the weather +was too good for farming, and gave himself a holiday, and even Mr. +Gillespie, free from inspection anxieties, and rejoicing in the +Bishop's praise, fell back for a while on college sermons, and studied +future ones in stones and running brooks. Only Mrs. Cameron, despising +the heat, bustled from kitchen to store-room, from store-room to +dairy, indignant over the irregular meals, and the still more +irregular milk. It was enough, she said, to turn that of human +kindness sour to have charge of five Ayrshires and two Jerseys in such +weather, with an English cook coming, or a Frenchman maybe--the laird +was equal to that iniquity--who would use crocks on crocks of powdered +butter. She knew them! graceless, godless creatures, and Will, instead +of wandering like a tinkler about the place, should be at the markets +buying pigs, to eat up the sinful waste of good victuals which would +begin ere long at the Big House. It was very well of William to smile, +and for the laird to say he didn't mind; but what would Lady George +say to the cook? And how did William expect to supply the Big House as +it should be supplied, when every crofter body was asking one and +eightpence a pound for butter she wouldn't look at? And it all +trysted, every pound of it, to the English folk over at the Forest, +who were coming down like a flight of locusts, devouring the land with +pipers and bad whiskey, and a set of idle, pasty-faced, meat-eating +English maids, ruining the country side with bad examples! There would +have to be a judgment, nothing less, when Sheenach--barefooted +Sheenach from the blackest hut on the property--Marjory would +mind it, seeing that she held it to be a disgrace to a Christian +landholder--set her up for new-fangled notions indeed!--had actually +spoken to her, Mrs. Cameron, about beer-money! The kitchen girl over +at the Forest, forsooth, got it, and three shillings a week for +washings. Heard one ever the like! a barefoot lass that had not spent +three shillings on washings since she was born, and would have to look +to it for white robes in the future. And Mistress Mackenzie at the +ferry house saying calmly that her prices would be doubled from the +10th August. + +"It is too true, mother," Will would say consolingly. "I'd like to see +the Commission have its way, and destroy the Forests altogether, if +only to teach the people what it would mean. But there! parcel post is +only twopence a pound, and we can get butter from Devonshire. They pay +high rents there, you know, so they can afford to sell produce +cheaper." But even this paradox would not soothe the old lady's ire, +and the three idlers would escape from the butter-problem into the +wilderness of beauty beyond the fat pastures which fed the dairy; in +so doing, no doubt, following the example of the offending English +folk, who do not care to trouble their holiday with thoughts of the +dishonesty and greed they foster and encourage. + +Many a tramp had these three over hill and dale. Sometimes climbing +the boulder-strewn heights whence sea and land showed like a map; more +often lingering by the river lazily, as it made its way through the +grassy uplands in a series of foamy leaps and oily pauses. For here +the sea-trout were to be beguiled by patience; if not by that, then by +the red-tailed fly which Will used with the consummate skill of the +real pot-fisher. Paul, on the other hand, beset by lingering +prejudice, would lounge on the bank intermittently, offering the rod +to Marjory in order to bring him luck; while she, engaged in +collecting a perfect herbarium, would deprecate her own past skill in +the Long Pool. + +"And the admirable underhand cast was a chance also?" he retorted +drily. "Really, Miss Carmichael, my modesty is catching." + +Marjory laughed. "Oh, no! I learnt that from Will. I never could make +out whither he went on Sundays, till one day I came upon him in that +little strip of pasture in the middle of the larch plantation, +flicking at dandelions with his ten-foot rod. Then he confessed that +it was his usual occupation of a Sabbath afternoon, because it was so +deadly dull with nothing to do at home. So after that I flicked, too. +We used to do it against each other for hours, didn't we, Will?" + +"Ten for a dandie, twenty for a daisy, fifty for a bumble-bee," +murmured Will from under his tilted hat, as he lay on the grass. + +"An instance of the deceit which the irrational worship of the Sabbath +is apt to produce," remarked the Reverend James Gillespie, whose +conscience invariably assailed him when he had not made a professional +remark for some time. + +"It is so refreshing to hear you accuse Miss Carmichael," said Paul, +gravely. "Deceit is a mortal sin, isn't it, Mr. Gillespie?" + +The Reverend James hesitated. He looked sorely out of place amid the +wilderness in his black garments, with Paul in his loose Indian suits, +and Will guiltless of coat and waistcoat. + +"Deceit, cheating--whoever doth wickedly, etc.--generally comes under +common theft--non-bailable," murmured the tilted hat softly; for Will, +in his youth, had studied law. + +"I congratulate you, Miss Carmichael," said Paul, still gravely, "on +having attained the position of a real criminal. I have a sneaking +admiration for them." + +"Why?" + +"Because they have done--what I have been afraid to do!" + +So the day would slip by in idle talk and idler work, until the +lengthening shadows warned them they were far from home, and Will +would grow restless over the prospect of dinner _versus_ the tea, with +which he had more than once been put off on occasions of gross +irregularity. While Paul would boast of his freedom from all control, +or offer to stand in the breach by begging a meal at the Lodge; since +even Mrs. Cameron's tongue softened when it spoke to the laird, and a +vein of humour ran through her blame. + +"It's clean reediklous, Gleneira," she would say. "Here it is gone +ten, and supper was bidden at eight. An' if you expec' me, a Christian +woman, to tell Kursty that _my_ son is even as them who mocked Elijah, +or that it was I that made a mistake, you're just wrong. An' a' for a +wheen trouties, that's no good for kipper or for anything but to +cocker yourselves up wi' at breakfast, instead of being contented with +good porridge, as your fathers were. But there! we ken find that Esau +sold his birthright for a mess o' pottage." + +"And I don't wonder at it," Paul would reply gravely; "if he was half +so hungry as I am. How much was it, Cameron, that the hook-and-eye man +offered me for Gleneira? A man must eat, you know." + +Whereupon the old lady would remark that, as she at least knew her +duty, his father's son should never lack bread in her house, and so +bustle away good-humouredly to hurry on supper. The unpunctuality was +not, however, always their fault; and on one occasion followed on an +incident which had a curious effect in still further softening +Marjory's judgment on handsome, idle, kindly Paul, and introducing +that vein of pity, which, in women of her type, seems an almost +necessary ingredient of affection. It may be only a triviality, the +half-humorous despair of a buttonless shirt, the possibility of dirty +tablecloths, or it may go further into uncared-for sickness and +loneliness, but the thought of personal discomfort to a man whom she +likes is always grievous to women who have not been educated out of +their housewifely instincts. + +It came about in this wise. There was a certain Loch of the Fairies +which, despite its great beauty, Marjory had seldom seen, for this +reason. It lay hidden in the highest corries of the deer forest, +accessible only by the burn watering the sheltered glen which, from +time immemorial, had been the sanctuary; and not even for Marjory +would old John Macpherson disturb his deer, or allow them to be +disturbed. But Paul thought differently when he found that the girl's +face brightened at the idea of an excursion thither; for, to him, the +nearest pleasure was invariably the best. + +"As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb," he said, with a laugh. "We +will start early and make a day of it. And I'll ask Gillespie to come. +He is always telling cock-and-bull stories about the big fish there, +so we will set him to catch one. I never did." + +And Will Cameron agreed also, saying he would take the opportunity to +meet the forest keeper on the march, and settle the position of a new +fence to keep the hinds from straying. Only old John shook his head, +with mutterings regarding future sport and old traditions. + +"As if _that_ were not worth all the sport in the world," said Paul, +almost exultantly, as, climbing the last bracken-set knoll, and +leaving the last Scotch fir hanging over a wild leap of the burn, they +filed past a sheer bluff, and saw in front of them a long, narrow, +almost level glen, through which the stream slid in alternate reaches +and foaming falls. On either side almost inaccessible cliffs; in front +of them, cutting the blue sky clearly, a serrated wall of rock closing +up the valley. Great sharp-edged fragments from the heights above lay +strewn among the sweeping stretches of heather, whence a brood of +grouse rose, blundering to the anxious cackle of the hen. + +"There they are," said Will, from force of habit in a whisper, "up on +the higher pasture. I thought they would be; so we shan't disturb them +a bit if we keep to the burn." + +Marjory, shading her eyes from the sun, stood looking on one of the +prettiest sights in the world; a herd of red deer dotted over a hill +slope, or seen outlined against the horizon line. Paul, from sheer +habit also, had slipped to the ground, and had his glass on them. +"Splendid royal to the left, Cameron--wonder if we shall get him this +year--and, by George, there's the old crooked horn! I remember, Miss +Carmichael, trying to put a bullet into him--well, we won't say how +many years ago." + +"What a slaughterhouse a man's memory must be," remarked Marjory, with +her head in the air. + +"Not in this case, at any rate," retorted Paul. "Sometimes I am +merciful--or miss; which answers the purpose quite as well." As he +spoke the memory of Jeanie Duncan rose quite causelessly to his mind, +and he started to his feet impatiently; for somehow little Paul's +existence had taken the bloom off his self-complacency in regard to +that episode. + +"Now for the Pixie's loch," he cried gaily. "The ladies have it all +their own way there in destruction, if tales be true. I wonder which +of us three unfortunate males she will choose as her victim to-day?" + +Marjory, looking down as they crested the last boulder-strewn rise on +the almost black and oily sheet of water in the crater-like cup of the +corrie, felt that she did not wonder at the legends which had gathered +round the spot. The very perfection of its loneliness, its beauty, +marked it as a thing apart from the more familiar charm of the world +around it. There seemed scarce foothold for a goat on those pillared +cliffs which sank sheer into the dark water, and the streak or two of +snow lingering still in a northern recess marked, she felt sure, some +deep crevasse hidden from sight by the innocent-looking mantle of +white. Nor could one judge of the depth of the lake by the jagged +points of rocks which rose here and there from the surface of the +water, for, as she stood, she leant against a fragment of some earlier +world, which looked as if it must have fallen from the sky, since the +vacant place left by such a huge avalanche must have remained visible +for ever in the rocks above. So those out yonder might go down and +down, forming vast caves where the Pixie might hold her court of +drowned, dead men. She turned to look at Paul suddenly, +apprehensively; perhaps because, even in her innocence, she recognised +instinctively that there, with all its gifts, with all its charm, lay +the nature to which the syren's song is irresistible. But he, stopping +on the brink to dip his hand into the water, was looking back at her +with a laugh. + +"By Jove!" he said, "isn't it cold? Enough to give anyone the +shivers." + +As he spoke, far out on the glassy glint of water came a speck of +stronger light, widening to a circle, widening, widening ever, in +softening ripples. + +"There! I told you so!" cried the Reverend James, excitedly; "a +five-pounder at least!" After which, naturally, there was no time for +sentiment, no time for anything but an unconfessed race as to which of +the three should have his fly on the water first. Marjory, left to her +own devices, wandered as far as she could round the level edge, which +to the south lay between the lake and the cliff, until she came to the +moss-clad moraine, through which the water found its way to new life +in the first long leap of the burn below; for the loch itself was fed +by unseen springs. She could hear the stream beneath her feet tinkling +musically, and gurgling softly, as if laughing at something it had +left behind, or something it was going to meet; and the sound +oppressed her vaguely. Here, in an angle of sand, stood a half-ruined +boat-house, and within it a boat painted gaily, yet with an air of +disuse about it which made Marjory go inside and look at it more +closely. It seemed sound enough, and yet, as she wandered on, she +hoped that the fishers might not be tempted to use it out on those +unknown depths. Then, coming on a great bank of dewberries, she sank +down into the yielding heather and gave herself up to enjoyment, +finally stretching herself at long length on the springy softness, and +watching the lake through her half-closed eyelids. Suddenly, with a +smile, she began to sing, and then as suddenly ceased. Cliffs could +give back an echo, certainly, but not so clear an one as the tenor +tone which followed close on that first phrase of the "Lorelei." An +instant after Paul's figure showed round a rock below, busily engaged +with a swishing trout rod. + + + "Die schönste Mädchen sitzet + Dort oben wunderbar." + + +An echo, indeed! and Marjory sat up among the dewberries, feeling +indignant. + +"Captain Macleod," she called aggressively, "have you caught +anything?" + +He turned, as if he had been unaware of her presence, and raised his +cap. "It is not a question of my catching anything, Miss Carmichael, +but of my being caught. There is a syren about somewhere; I heard her +just now; did you?" + +"I generally hear myself when I am singing," she replied coldly. +"Where is Will?" + +"Will," replied Paul, cheerfully, "is swearing round the corner. He +has just had a splendid rise, and his hook drew. No further +description necessary." + +She laughed, and Captain Macleod went on in the easy familiar tone +which had taken the sting out of so many other remarks which, to +Marjory's unsophisticated ears, had savoured of impertinence. + +"If we neither of us get another this round, we are going to start +over the hills for the fence. I want to see it myself. You will find a +splendid place for tea about a quarter of a mile down below the fall. +Heaps of sticks--bits of the primeval forest washed out of the +moss--so you will manage nicely; besides Gillespie will be here." + +It was just such a careless, brotherly speech as Will might have made, +and Marjory appreciated it. Besides the thought of an hour or two, +absolutely to herself, in those solitudes had an indescribable charm; +indescribable because, to those who know it not of themselves, words +are useless, and those who do need them not. For her, with a stainless +past and a hopeful future, it was bliss unalloyed to wander down the +burn-side, resting here and there, watching the ring-ouzel skim from +shelter, or an oak-eggar moth settle lazily on a moss-cushion. And +yet, as she sate perched on a rock far down the valley above a deeper +pool than usual, she amused herself by singing the "Lorelei" from +beginning to end, secure from unwelcome echoes. So back on her traces +to the baskets which had been hidden in the fern, and the preparations +for tea. The relics of the primeval forest burnt bravely aided by some +juniper branches, the kettle was filled, boiled, and set securely on a +stony hob; and then, free from cares, Marjory chose out a springy nest +among the short heather and curled herself round lazily to watch the +sky line where before long two figures should come striding into +sight, dark against the growing gold of the westering sun. Blissful +indeed; extremely comfortable also. + +When she woke Paul Macleod was calling her by name, and she started up +in a hurry. "I came on as fast as I could lest you should be +wearying," he said, and his face showed he spoke the truth. "It was +further than we thought for. Where's Gillespie? He can't be fishing +still, surely. I didn't see him on the shore as I came past." + +Marjory, confused as she was by sudden awakening, remembered one +thing, and one thing only--the boat--the old rotten-looking boat. + +"You didn't see him--and he hasn't been here! Oh! Captain Macleod, I +do hope nothing has happened--the boat----" + +"Nonsense!" replied Paul, decisively, "nothing can have happened. +Still, it's late--you have been asleep some time, I expect. Perhaps he +has missed you, and gone home." + +"He could not miss the fire," she said quickly, "and he cannot swim. +If he has taken the boat, and if----" + +"There is no use imagining evil," put in Paul, drily; "as you are +anxious I will go----" + +"I will come with you," she said eagerly; "if I put some more wood on +the fire----" + +"It will be ready for us when we return," remarked Paul, cheerfully, +"and Gillespie will want his tea. I expect he is in to the big trout +or----" he paused before her anxious face and told her again that +nothing could have happened. She surely did not believe in pixies? +Still, he grew graver when a look at the boat-house proved it to be +empty, and his first shout brought no answer, except a confused, +resounding echo. + +"If he had gone beyond that bluff into the inaccessible part, which he +is likely to have done with the boat--he might not hear. Come on--and +don't imagine the worst. If, when we can see all the water----" + +He paused, and said no more, as, with her following fast at his heels, +he hurried up the brae which hid the further reach of the lake. So, +being a step or two ahead, and several inches taller than she was, a +view halloo, followed by a laugh, was her first intimation that the +search had come to an end. The next instant she had joined the laugh, +for a more ridiculous sight than the Reverend James Gillespie +presented as he stood up, in full clerical costume, on an uneven rock +some two feet square, in the very middle of the loch, could scarcely +be imagined. The cause, however, was clear in the half-sunk, +water-logged boat, jammed on a jagged rock, which was just visible +above the water close by. + +"Have you been there long?" called Paul, recovering himself. + +"All the afternoon," came back in hoarse and distinctly cross tones. +"I shouted till I could shout no more. I thought you had all gone +home!" + +"Gone to sleep," remarked Paul, aside, as he sate down and began +deliberately to unlace his boots. "Now, Miss Carmichael, if you will +look after the tea, I'll rescue the shipwrecked mariner, and bring him +to be comforted." + +Marjory, eyeing the stretch of black water nervously, suggested he had +better wait for Will to turn up; but Paul laughed. "I'm relieved to +find you have some anxiety left for me--yet it is really absurd. I +could swim ten times the distance ten times over; besides, I'll bring +him back with the oars if that will satisfy you?" + +She felt that it ought, yet as she turned to leave him, the keen pang +at her heart surprised her, and not even his gay call of reassurance, +"Two teas, please, hot, in ten minutes," given, she knew, from such +kindly motives, availed to drive away a sudden thought of that +gracious face--drowned--dead--drowned. Such irrational fears, when +they come at all, come overwhelmingly; since the mind, imaginative +enough even to admit them, is their natural prey. Yet this very +imagination of her own was in itself startling to the girl, who caught +herself wishing she had not sung the "Lorelei," with a sort of +surprised pain at her own fancifulness. It was absurd, ridiculous, and +yet the sight of Will's loose-limbed figure coming to meet her, +brought distinct relief as she bade him go on and help Captain +Macleod. Even so, as she blew at the fire and made the tea, the +thought would come that a man who could not swim would be of no +possible use if--if--if---- So, in the midst of her imaginings, came +at last the sight of three figures striding down the brae, talking and +laughing; at least, two of them were so engaged, the Reverend James +having scarcely recovered his temper, and being, in addition, almost +quite inaudible from his previous efforts to make himself heard. + +"The pixie wouldn't have him, said he wouldn't suit the place," said +Paul, gravely, when, with the aid of several cups of tea, the victim +had finished his tale of the big trout, which had deliberately dragged +him on to a jag, knocked a hole in the bottom of the rotten old boat, +and left him helpless, taking advantage--and this seemed the greatest +offence--of the confusion consequent on the man[oe]uvre, to swim away +with ten yards of good trout line and an excellent cast. At least, +this was Will's view of the situation, the Reverend James attempting +hoarsely to give greater prominence to the saving of his own life, +while Paul gave a graphic description of their procession down the +loch to the landing-place, with the clerical costume packed out of +harm's way in the fishing-basket which was swung to the butt end of +the rod, and Marjory indignantly disclaimed the slumber of the Seven +Sleepers, declaring that the shouting must have gone on when she had +been down the burn. So, chattering and laughing, the tea things were +packed up, and they started homewards. + +"Let us have a race down the level," said Paul, suddenly; "that water +was cold as ice." + +Five minutes after, when Marjory caught him up, as he lingered a +little behind the two others, who were just disappearing behind the +bluff at the entrance to the sanctuary, she was startled at his face. + +"Ague," he said, in answer to her look. "That is the worst of India. I +told you the water was cold enough to give anyone the shivers." He +tried to laugh it off, but he was blue and pinched, his teeth were +chattering, and with every step the effort to stand steady became more +apparent. The sight of his helplessness made the girl forget +everything but her womanly instinct to give comfort. + +"You had far better sit down for a while," she said, eagerly. "I can +easily light a fire, and we have the kettle. Some hot whiskey and +water----" But Paul was actually beyond refusal; he sate down weakly, +utterly knocked over for the time, and unable to do anything but +mutter, between the chatterings of his teeth, that it would not last +long--that it would be all right when the hot fit began--that she had +better go on and leave him. To all of which Marjory replied, in +businesslike fashion, by bringing him a great bundle of bracken as a +pillow, spreading her waterproof over him, and piling it over with +more fern, till he smiled faintly, and chattered something about there +being no necessity for covering him up with leaves--he was not dead +yet. Then the fire had to be lit, the kettle boiled, a jorum of hot +toddy brewed, a stone warmed and set to hands and feet. + +"Now, if you lie still for half an hour," she said magisterially, "I +expect you will be much better when I come back." And he was hot--as +fire, of course, and shaky still, but minus the cramps, and very +apologetic for the delay. + +"You couldn't possibly help it," she interrupted quickly. "You +looked--you looked----" and then something seemed to rise up in her +throat and keep her silent. But it was just this look of utter +helplessness which remained in her mind, bringing with it always a +tender compassion; and as the remembrance of him with little Paul on +his shoulder served to soften her towards his atrocious sentiments, so +that of his sudden physical collapse served to lessen the sort of +resentment she had hitherto felt to the charm of his great good looks. +She could not have explained how either of these facts came about; she +was not even aware that it was so, and yet it did make a difference in +her attitude towards him. A pity for his weakness, for his faults and +failings, came to take the place of condemnation. + +So the days passed, until one evening as they trudged home from an +unsuccessful raid on the river, Mr. Gillespie remarked that the +herring were in at Craignish, and the mackerel often came at the back +of the herring, so, maybe, it would be worth while to have a try at +them. + +"Better than the river, anyhow," grumbled Will, who, even with the +red-tailed fly, felt the horrid weight of an empty creel on his +shoulders. + +Paul looked at Marjory. It had come to that in most things by this +time, and as often as not, as now, no words were necessary. "Then I +will tell John Macpherson to have the boat ready to-morrow, for it is +my last day--of leisure, I mean. My sister comes on Saturday, my +guests follow on Monday, and after that--the deluge, I suppose." + +"I should not wonder," remarked Will, gravely; "the midges were awful +to-day." + +Both Paul and Marjory laughed; they could not help it, despite their +vague regret that holiday time was over. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +Paul's last day was one of those never-to-be-forgotten days, when the +mist lies in light wreaths below the mountain tops, which rise clear +and sharp against an intense blue sky; when masses of white cloud hang +in mid-air, bringing with each new moment some fresh beauty, born of +shadow, to sea and shore; when a cool breeze blows unevenly, every now +and again darkening the water to a purple, and cresting the waves with +foam-streaks edged with turquoise. + +"None too soon," said Paul, briefly, as the "Tubhaneer" (so called +from her washing-tub-like build) cast off her moorings, and stood out +for the middle of the loch. "I told you it would be the deluge after +to-day, Miss Carmichael. We shall have rain to-morrow." + +Will nodded his head. + +"Oh, don't talk of to-morrow!" said Marjory, quickly; "to-day is +enough, surely." + +Paul, from amid-ships, applauded softly, and she attempted a frown, +which ended feebly in a smile. And wherefore not? Sufficient, indeed, +unto that day was the pleasure thereof. The red-brown sail drew +bravely, the long line lay curled up forward, the oyster dredger +rested athwart, the rifles were with Paul amid-ships, the lithe rods +swept out astern behind Marjory as she leant lightly over the tiller, +her eyes upon the quivering sail; for it needed every inch she could +gain to avoid a tack, even though the current of the outgoing tide was +aiding them to slip through the Narrowest to the open sea beyond. + +"Where will the white rock be?" she asked of Donald Post, who, being +learned in banks and baits, would often set his wife to carry the bag +while he was off and away after the sea fishing. He was now opening +mussels with a crunching sound, regular as a machine. + +'"Deed an' she will be right ahead of us whatever," he replied, +without a pause. + +"There will be plenty of water, I suppose?" + +'"Deed she will no be havin' much on her, anyhow." + +"Then how shall I steer?" + +"Just as she is, Miss Marjory, just as she is; she will be doing fine, +I'm thinking." + +"A miss is as good as a mile," murmured Paul, engaged in stretching +his long length comfortably over some ballast kegs. "Can you swim?" + +Marjory nodded. "Then save me, please; I really am not inclined to +exert myself." + +"So it appears," remarked Will Cameron, in an injured tone. He and the +Reverend James were forward, busy over the tangled lengths of the long +line, and the necessity for restraining his tongue before the cloth +was telling even on the former's easy temper; for a long line in a +tangle is quite indescribable in Parliamentary language. + +"Keep her in a bit, Marjory. We must anchor over the fishing-house +bank for a while, and get bait for this--this _thing_." + +"Then I shall have to tack." + +"Tack, indeed! If you don't like it, I'll steer and you can tackle +this--this _thing_. Look out, Donald!--two trees and the white stone." + +Round went the tiller. "Now, John!" said the girl; the sail came down +with a clatter, the way slackened, the anchor, poised in Donald's +watchful hands, splashed overboard, and the "Tubhaneer" drew up to it +with her mast, and the two trees, and the white stone in a line. + +"Well done, Miss Marjory; that was well done, whatever," rose Donald's +voice softly, between renewed crunching; and two minor splashes +following close on each other told that the Parson and Will had their +hand-lines down. Then came a silence, broken only by the fitful gurgle +of the water against the "Tubhaneer" as she swung round to the tide, +and that monotonous crunch, crunch of the mussel-knife. + +"John Roy, he wass takin' five whitin's from the bank last week," rose +Donald's voice once more, quite causelessly. "It wass a bit of himself +he was catching them with. It iss nothin' the whitin's iss liking so +much as a bit of himself." + +Then silence again, his hearers being too much accustomed to the +intricacies of Donald's style to be startled by this novel fact in +natural history. So, amid the stillness, a sudden jerk of the Reverend +James's right hand, a pause of intense expectation--to judge by the +rapt look on his comely face--then disappointment from bow to stern, +and a general slackness. + +"It will just be ain o' they pickers," mused Donald, recovering from +his momentary idleness; "or maybe a sooker. It iss the pickers and +sookers in this place that just beats all. Oo-aye! If it wass not a +picker, it will be a sooker." + +"What is the difference between a picker and a sucker, Donald?" asked +Marjory, severely practical. + +"'Deed, then, Miss Marjory, and it iss not any difference there will +be between them at all. It is a sooker that will not be caring a tamn +for the hook, and it is the picker that will not be caring a tamn +either." + +"Ahem!" interrupted Mr. Gillespie, with reproachful glance at Donald's +unconscious back; "I believe, Miss Marjory, that pickers or suckers is +really only the local name for young codlings, lythe, or cuddies. In +fact, for all young fish." + +"She is not them at all," retorted Donald, scornfully. "It iss sookers +and pickers, and not young fish they will be, and it iss not a local +name, whatever." The last came with such a glance of sovereign +contempt for the offender, that Paul, from his ballast kegs, smiled up +at Marjory, who smiled back at him. + +"Got him at last! and a good one too!" sang out Will, ending the +discussion by a new topic of all-absorbing interest, which held the +boat's crew in suspense till the rasping rub of the line over the side +and the drip of water falling back on water ceased in a disgusted +exclamation from the captor of a small flounder, hooked foul. + +"Little deevil," murmured John Macpherson, in such a self-communing +tone, that the Reverend James felt the observation must pass. + +"It iss pulling like that they are," commented Donald, affably. "John +Roy he was fishin' at the ferry-house, and thinkin' it wass a +_skatach_ he got, and cryin' on me for the gaff he wass, but it was +two flukies he was hookin' by their tails." + +Marjory looked as if she were inclined to dispute the fact, then +joined in the dreamful silence, which, with spasmodic awakenings as +fish after fish came over the side, lasted until there was enough +bait, and Will gave the word to move on. Then the anchor came up laden +with a root of oarweed, in which strange shells and starfish lay +entangled; so it was handed aft for Marjory to see. + +"It is squeakin' like a mice yon beast will be," said Donald, pointing +to a sea-urchin. "Aye! an' bitin' most tarrible he is." + +"That is quite impossible," interrupted the girl, cutting short +various other facts which trembled on Donald's lips. "They couldn't +bite if they tried." + +"Then it is squeakin' like a mice they are, whatever," he retorted +doggedly; "for John Roy wass tellin' it to me." John Roy being +Donald's Mrs. Harris, the subject admitted of no further discussion, +and the ensuing pause was broken by a sudden question from Paul. + +"Do you ever find niggerheads about here now? I remember when I was a +boy in petticoats----" + +He took the tiny cowrie of dazzling whiteness she handed him by way of +answer, and said no more. How many years, he wondered, was it since he +had last thought of niggerheads? Truly the world was a strange place, +and a man's brain stranger still. + +And now the long line, duly baited for skate and haddock, was being +paid out and left drifting, moored to floats which seemed to dance +away on the waves, as the "Tubhaneer" with sail full spread made for +the last, low, sunlit point, and so, entering the Linnhe Loch, headed +straight for the blue Kingairloch Hills. To the left lay Lismore, a +glimmering strip of green and gold amid the shining sea; behind was +Port Appin, with its heather-crested bluff, and spidery-black pier; +before them the serrated line of Ardnamurchan, and beyond, faint in +the distance, the headland of Mull jutting into a glint of the +Atlantic. To the right rose Shuna with its swelling grassy slopes and +cross-signed pebble shores, like a fairy island in the summer sea. So +further afield Appin House, set in fir knolls, Ardgour lighthouse +glimmering to the left, and beyond, all the hills rising clear and +cloudless to the peak of Ben Nevis. + +On Ami's bay a cluster of boats in shore told that the herring were +in. + +"They never come to Loch Eira now," remarked Will, idly. "It is funny, +but they don't." + +"It will not be funny at all, sir," expostulated Donald. "It wass +comin' they were every year, sure's I sit here, but it wass old John +Mackenzie he wass going after them on the Sabbath, and it wass not +coming any more after that they were." + +"And that is a fact, of course?" asked Will, gravely. + +"It will not be a fact at all, sir," echoed Donald, "but it was old +John himself wass tellin' it to me." + +"I believe it to be quite true, Mr. Cameron," put in the Reverend +James; "indeed I remember the Bishop commenting upon the circumstance +in a sermon. He brought it in most beautifully, and so conclusively." + +"It wass a burnin' shame of the old _bodach_, whatever," grumbled John +Macpherson. "Ay! Ay! a dirty trick, whatever." + +Marjory, watching the sea-pyots wheel and veer against the blue of the +distant hills, smiled to herself. The mere thought of the Bishop in +his lawn sleeves seemed unreal out there in the sunshine. Everything +was unreal save the boat skimming with a little hiss through the +water. + +"There's a steamer rounding the point below Lismore," said Will. "What +will she be, I wonder?" + +"She will be the salt ship from Glasgow for the harrin'," replied +Donald, after prolonged deliberation. "That iss what she will be, an' +ferry welcome. I mind when the harrin' were in Glen Etive, and the +salt ship she wass not comin' at all, the people wass diggin' holes in +the peat, and fillin' them with the harrin'. It wass not keepin' ferry +well, but it was eating them were. A terrible year for sickness it +wass, though the harrin' was that plenty, they wass takin' them in +buckets." + +"'Deed an' it was a dirty trick of that old _bodachs_ to be driving +them away," grumbled Macpherson, "a dirty trick--Gorsh me!--yon's a +seal--quick, Mr. Paul!" + +There was a sudden, still stir in the crew, and all eyes turned to +where a smooth brown head slipped oilily through the water. Marjory +held her breath half-shrinkingly, yet said no word. Not even when Paul +whispered "Ready, Cameron?" and, heralded by a little flash and puff, +the simultaneous report of the rifles frightened the sea-pyots into +screaming flight. The head disappeared as the bullets went ricocheting +over the water in soft _ping-pings_. + +"Too high," said one voice, mournfully. + +"Yes! but the direction was good." + +These remarks, which in constant substance but varying form follow +most unsuccessful shots, appeared satisfactory to the speakers; for +Paul retired to the thwarts again, and Will resumed his pipe, while +Macpherson looked pensively through one of the rifles to see if it had +leaded, and the general excitement died down. + +"It is curious," remarked Marjory, disdainfully relieved, and +speaking, as it were, to the circumambient air, "how even a remote +prospect of killing something will rouse a man's love of destruction." + +Paul, leaning one arm on the thwart, looked up at her solemnly. + +"True--too true. We are destructive, or rather, accurately speaking, +we should like to be destructive--only we aren't. That was a bad miss +of mine. But if we like to destroy, you women love to annex. Witness +that pile of seaweed and shells beside you. You don't really want it, +and ten to one when it comes to the bother of carrying it home, you +will leave it behind you." + +"Pardon me," remarked the girl, "you shall carry it for me." + +"A foregone conclusion, if you wish it, of course; but in that case +you will simply add my services to your possessions. And in like +manner you will dispense with them when I cease to be amusing. Woman +all over!" + +"Thanks, Gleneira!" laughed Will. "It does me good to hear Marjory +kept in order. She bullies me awfully about shooting seals, and I +fully expected her to sneeze or cough. She generally does." + +"I knew you wouldn't hit," retorted Marjory, scornfully, "and it +pleased you." + +"'Pleased 'er and didn't 'urt me,' as the navvy said when his wife +beat him," put in Paul. "By Jove! Miss Carmichael, if I had known what +you thought, I would have put a bullet----" + +"Hist!" cried Marjory, holding up her hand. There, within a stone's +throw, was the smooth brown head, with large, liquid, confiding eyes +turned towards the boat. Not a ripple, not a sound, showed that it was +in motion, and yet it slipped past rapidly. + +"Gorsh me! but the beast's tame," whispered John, unable to contain +himself in the inaction; but the whisper might as well have been a +clap of thunder, for the round head sank noiselessly into the water, +leaving scarcely a ripple behind it. + +"Why didn't you shoot, Captain Macleod?" asked Marjory, with an odd +little tremor in her voice, at which she herself was dimly surprised; +"you might have hit that time, for it couldn't have been more than +fifteen yards off." + +"I never thought of it," he replied quietly; "the beast looked so +jolly." + +"It looked quite as jolly when it was far away, no doubt." + +"But I couldn't see it. And if we discuss that point I shall find it +as much out of my range as the seal was. So give me a good mark for +refraining when I did see its jolliness." + +"Besides, it would have been no good trying. It would have been down +like a shot if we had stirred a finger," said Will, philosophically. + +Paul Macleod sighed. "There goes my last claim to saintship. You are a +perfect devil's advocate, Cameron." + +"But, really, Miss Marjory," put in the Reverend James, who had, as +usual, been left far behind in the quick interchange of thought, "I do +not see why you should object to shooting a seal. Man is permitted by +a merciful Creator to destroy animal life----" + +"In order to preserve his own, and even then it seems a pity," +interrupted the girl, eagerly. "Oh, I daresay, Captain Macleod, the +feeling isn't strong enough to make me turn vegetarian, but it _is_ +wanton cruelty to kill a poor seal which is of no use to anyone!" + +"There you go!" grumbled Will. "Why! I wanted its paws awfully for +tobacco pouches--mine is quite worn out." + +"Your remark, Cameron, is childish and unreasonable," replied Paul, +from his lounge. "You cannot expect Miss Carmichael's tolerance of +humanity to extend to tobacco pouches. Let us be thankful it concedes +mutton chops." + +"A seal is a ferry clever beast, whatever," put in Donald. "It wass +John Roy wass walking on the rocks at Craignish, and he wass seeing a +big seal, and heavin' stones at it, and--gorsh me!--but it wass takin' +the stones and fro'ing them back at John. And, tamn me! but the +creature wass a better shot than John--oo--aye! a far better shot +whatever." + +"And that is a fact, Donald?" asked Will, solemnly. + +"Not a fack at all, sir; but John Roy he wass tellin' it to me." + +"Not so clever as the Kashmir bear, Donald?" put in Paul. "When it has +to cross a stream in flood it carries a big boulder on its head to +keep itself steady." + +"An' is that a fack, sir," asked Donald, readily. + +"The people were telling it to me, anyhow!" + +"Then they were big liars whatever," said Donald, with such an +inimitable air of shocked conviction that a general shout of laughter +rose on the sunny air. + +Oh, bright, glad day! Oh, careless, foolish talk! Oh, deep abiding +sense of peace and good-will in all that sea-girt mountain world which +rose around them, havening their little boat! Could it be that there +was trouble, or toil, or tears, yonder where the mist floated so +tenderly, or there, where cottage and castle, meadow and moor, wheat +and tares were blended into one purple glory? There were not many such +days in life, so let us cherish the mere memory of them! + +The mackerel, it is true, were not to be beguiled, but what matter? +The boat skimmed over the blue water; two red-brown sails stood out to +the West or East. + +"No use trying any more," said Will at last, with a shake of the head +over Paul's placid repose; for lunch had come to fill up the measure +of content, and the laird was back among the ballast with a large +basket of strawberries. "I think, Donald, we might try the big lythe +off Shuna." + +"The tide will no be answerable awhile, sir, but there will be no +excuse for the _bedach ruachs_ at the rocks; no excuse at all." + +"Let us hope the fish will have a sense of duty," murmured Paul from +the strawberries; "cold-blooded creatures generally have." + +They anchored out of the tide race in a backwater of the current, and +Marjory, looking over the side, could see far down into the green +depth where pale, pulsating Medusas came floating by, and every now +and again a flash of light told of a passing fish. + +"Too much tide," began Paul, eyeing the set of the lines from his +retreat, when four mighty and coincident strikes silenced his wisdom +for a while. But only for a while, since amid the rasp and rub of wet +lines against the side came Will's voice despondently. + +"I'm in to some of you others." + +"So am I--and I----" echoed Marjory and the Reverend James. Only Donald +Post whispered softly, "It is the deevil is on mine whatever," and +Paul, without stirring hand and foot, suggested the mainland of +Scotland. But it was neither. The lines passed to the stern produced +conjointly a codling, which after swallowing two baits had tried at a +third, and so hooked itself foul in the fourth. + +"There's an object lesson for you, Miss Carmichael," said Paul, +teasingly. "How about your theory of the cruel hook and the poor +fish?" + +"It is not feeling a tamn, fish is," commented Donald, calmly +disgorging the baits. "It was fishin' for _bodachs_ old John Boy was, +and he was catchin' her foul by the eye, and the eye she come out. But +John Roy wass leavin' it on the hook and the _bodach_ was comin' again +an' takin' his own eye." + +"And there is a fact for you," continued Paul. + +"No! No! sir," protested Donald, with a twinkle in his eye; "it will +no be a fack whatever, but John Roy he wass tellin' it to me." Whereat +there was laughter again. + +So, as the day drew down, they landed on Shuna to boil the kettle for +tea with driftwood gathered from the shore, and wonder idly as the +flames leapt up to shrivel the lowermost leaves of the rowan tree by +the spring, whence the wreckage which burnt so bravely had come; for +storm and stress seemed far from their world. + +Then, while the boatmen took their turn at the scones and cake, the +jam and toast, they climbed the grassy slopes, and, sitting down by +the old tower, watched the sunset idly; for all things, even pleasure, +seem idle on such days as these. The clouds had pricked westwards, as +if to aid the Atlantic in a coming storm, but below their heavy purple +masses lay a strip of greeny gold sky, into which the sun was just +sinking from a higher belt of crimson-tinted bars. + +"No Green Ray for us to-night," said Marjory, with a smile. + +Paul raised his eyebrows. "No Green Ray on this or any other night, in +my candid opinion." + +The Reverend James looked puzzled. "I have often heard you mention +this Green Ray, Miss Marjory, but I am not quite sure to what you +allude." + +"To a fiction of Jules Verne's, that is all," put in Paul, quickly. + +"Nothing of the sort; people have seen it," corrected the girl, +eagerly. + +"Say they have seen it," murmured Paul, obstinately, and Marjory +frowned. + +"I will explain it to you, Mr. Gillespie," she went on, with assertion +in her voice. "It is a green ray of light which shoots through the +sea, just as the topmost curve of the sun touches the water. I watch +for it often. I intend to watch for it till I see it, as others have +done." + +"And what good will it do to you when you have seen it?" asked Paul. +They were speaking to each other, despite the pretence of general +conversation; but it was so often. + +"I haven't the least idea," she answered airily; "for all that, I look +forward to seeing it as a great event in my life." + +"Great events are dangerous; like some very valuable medicines, +uncertain in their effects. Birth, for instance--you may be born a +fool or a wise man. Marriage--a chance of the die--so I'm told. +Death." He pointed dramatically upwards and downwards with a whimsical +look on his anxious, gracious face. + +"I deny it, I deny it altogether," cried the girl, forgetting herself +and him in her eagerness. "You are either in existence before birth, +or you are not. In the one case you must remain yourself, in the other +you, being nonexistent, cannot suffer chance or change. It is the same +with death. If there is no _you_ to survive, death itself ceases to be +since you are non-existent. If there is, you must remain yourself." + +"Surely, my dear Miss Marjory," said the Reverend James, breaking in +on the girl's half-questioning appeal, "we are to be changed in the +twinkling of an eye?" + +"And marriage, Miss Carmichael?" put in Paul, quietly, passing by the +last remark as if it, too, had been non-existent. "You left out +marriage in your philosophy." + +Her face fell, yet softened. + +"I do not know; it is like the Green Ray, something to dream about." + +"To dream about! Ah! that sort of marriage is, I own, beyond the +vision of ordinary humanity." + +"But indeed there is nothing scientifically impossible in the Green +Ray. You have only to get the angle of refraction equal to the----" + +"Spare me, please. If I have to swallow romance I prefer it +undisguised. Even as a boy I refused powders in jam." + +"Wish I had," grumbled Will, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "I +have never been able to eat black-currant jelly in consequence. And it +is awfully nice in itself. Come, Marjory, we ought to be going." + +"It is very hard to get rid of acquired tastes," muttered Paul, in an +undertone, as he rose, and quite familiarly held out his hand to help +Marjory to her feet also. "For instance, it will be difficult to +forget the flavour of the past fortnight." + +"Why should you forget it?" They were standing apart from the others, +who were looking eastward to see if the boatmen were ready. + +"Because the pleasure of it has been demoralising." + +"I don't believe in the demoralising effect of pleasure." + +"Perhaps not. You are one of the virtuously constituted whose pleasure +consists in behaving nicely. Mine doesn't." + +Her hand went out in an impulsive gesture of denial. + +"Why should you say that? You are not----" + +"How can you know what I am?" he began bitterly, yet indifferently; +his eyes, not upon her, but fixed far on the distant horizon, as if +arraigning some unseen power which had made him what he was. Then he +paused abruptly, and infinite surprise drove everything else from his +face. + +"Look!" he cried. + +"Look?--what?--where?" + +"Look!" His hand was on hers now, and its trembling touch seemed to +give her sight. + +It was a new heaven and a new earth! For, on the outermost edge of the +world, the last beam of light from the sunken sun shot through the +waves, flooding sky, and sea, and shore, with a green light, soft and +pellucid as the heart of an emerald. But only for an instant. The next +he had loosed her hand and the light was gone. + +"What are you staring at so, Miss Carmichael?" His mocking tone jarred +her through and through. She looked at him in sheer bewilderment. + +"The--the Green Ray!" + +"The Green Ray!" he echoed, in the same tones. "I say, Cameron! Here +is your cousin declaring she has seen the Green Ray. Did you see +anything?" + +"Only the seal you were watching out on the rocks yonder," called +Will. "Splendid shot, wasn't it?" + +"The Green Ray!" echoed the Reverend James, bustling up. "Dear me, how +interesting, and I missed it, somehow. What was it like, Miss +Marjory?" + +The girl stood with her clear, cold eyes fixed on Paul's face. "I +scarcely know. You had better ask Captain Macleod. If I saw anything, +he saw it also; and saw it first!" + +"But you have such a much more vivid imagination than I," he replied +easily, "that what would be to me merely an unusually beautiful +effect, might be to you a miracle. It is simply a question of +temperament, and mine is severely practical. In fact, Cameron, if we +are to get home to-night, it's time we were going." + +"By George!" said Will, when, with a general scramble, they had stowed +everything on board, "it's later than I thought, the tide has turned, +and the wind is almost down. We must take the sweeps, I am afraid." + +"All right," said Paul. "Hand us over an oar." + +He was a different man; the lazy content was gone, and he gave a +stroke from a straight back which made Donald gasp between his +efforts--"Gorsh me! but he is a fine rower, is the laird!" + +But there was silence--the silence of hard work--for the most part, as +they toiled home with wind and tide against them. Yet the scene was +beautiful as ever in the growing moonlight. + +"We are not more than a mile from the house here, Marjory," said Will, +as they rounded a point below the Narrowest; "but it will take us a +good hour to get her to the boat-house, and I can't leave her here; +it's spring tides, and the painter's not long enough. But I'll land +you on that rock, and the laird will see you home. Mother will be +getting anxious." + +"I would rather stay," she was beginning, when Paul cut her short. + +"Back water, bow; pull, Donald. Luff her a bit. Miss Carmichael, +please. That will do." They were alongside the little jetty of rock, +and he was out. "Your hand, please, the seaweed is awfully slippery. +Donald, pass up those shells, will you, they are in my handkerchief. +All right, Cameron. Give way." + +It had all passed so quickly, and this masterful activity of Paul's +was so surprising, that Marjory, rather to her own surprise, found +herself following close on his heels as he forced a way for her +through the dense thickets of bracken, or held back a briar from the +path in silence. Yet the silence did not seem oppressive; it suited +her own confusion, her own vague pleasure and pain. She had seen the +Green Ray, but she had seen it through Paul Macleod's eyes. Yes; +whether he would or not, they had seen it hand in hand. He might deny +it, but the fact remained. He was one of those who could see it! + +And Paul, as he walked on, felt that the silence intensified his clear +pleasure and clearer pain. For there was no vagueness in _his_ +emotions. It was not the first time that the touch of a woman's hand +had thrilled him through and through, as Marjory's had done as they +looked out over the sunset sea; but it was the first time that such a +thrill had not moved him to look upon the woman's face! And they had +stood still, hand in hand, like a couple of children, staring at the +Green Ray! What a fool he had been! What did it mean save something at +which he had always scoffed, at which he meant always to scoff! And +then the Green Ray? Was his brain softening that he should see visions +and dream dreams? He, Paul Macleod, who loved and forgot all, save his +own physical comfort. As everyone did in the end. And yet it was a +familiar pleasure to be in love again honestly, a pleasure to feel his +heart beating, to know that the girl he fancied was there beside him +in the moonlight, that he could tell her of his heart-beats if he +chose. But he did not choose. Love of that sort came and went! Did he +not know it? Did he not know his own nature, and was not that enough? +And yet, when they reached the high road a sudden desire to make her +also understand it, made him say, abruptly: + +"When do you begin work? In London, isn't it?" + +"Yes; in November." + +"And you are really going to waste life in a dull, dirty school, +teaching vulgar little boys and girls." + +"I shall teach them not to be vulgar." + +He shrugged his shoulders. "You cannot fight against Nature, Miss +Carmichael; as we are born, we remain. You will only kill yourself in +your efforts at regeneration." + +"I think not. I am very strong to begin with, and then I hate rusting +in idleness." + +"Rust may be better than tarnish. When I think of you here in this +paradise--a fool's paradise, perhaps--and of what you must encounter +there, it seems preposterous for you to mix yourself up. But you do +not understand; you never will." He had forgotten his new outlook in +the old resentment at her unconsciousness. + +"Understand what? I can understand most things if I try." + +"Can you? I doubt it. You cannot understand me, for instance, but that +is beside the question. The only comfort is that real life will +disgust you. Then you will return to the home you should never have +left." + +"I have no home--you know that." + +"You can make one by marrying, as other girls do." + +"I am not like other girls, thank you----" + +"Do you think I can't see that?" he broke out quite passionately. +"Should I be talking to you as I am if you were--why, I can't even +speak to you of what some of them are. It is because you are not as +other girls----" + +"Then you wish me to behave as they do. You are scarcely logical." Her +tone was as ice, and, chilling his passion, sent him back to his +cynicism. + +"Logic and love do not generally run in double harness, Miss +Carmichael; but if you prefer the former, I am quite prepared to stick +to it. Someone wants a wife, someone wants a home. It is a mere case +of barter. What can be more natural, sensible----" + +"And degrading." + +"Pardon me, not always. I will take my own case if you will allow me. +We have touched on it often before. Let us speak frankly now. I need +money, not for myself alone; for the property. You have hinted a +thousand times that I am a bad landlord; so I am. How can I help it +without money?" + +"You could be a better landlord than you are." + +"If I chose to live on porridge and milk; but I don't choose, and I +don't choose to sell. I prefer to stick to champagne and devilled +bones, and give up another personal pleasure instead. And you say it +is degrading." + +"I said nothing of the sort. I spoke of myself. It would degrade me. I +do not presume to speak of you." + +"But you think it all the same." + +"And if I do, what is that to you?" she cried suddenly, in hot anger. +"I do condemn you, if you will have the truth. I think you will +deliberately turn your back on the best part of life if you marry for +mere comfort--and, what is more, that you will regret it." + +"Possibly. I regret most things after a time. Let us wait and see +whether you or I find the greatest happiness in life. Only we are not +likely to agree even there, for we shall not see the world in the same +light." + +"Unless High Heaven vouchsafes us another Green Ray," she said coldly. + +The allusion aroused all his own vexation with himself, all his +impatience at her influence over him. They were passing the short cut +leading to the Lodge, and he paused. + +"I don't think I need intrude on Mrs. Cameron tonight," he said. +"Good-bye, Miss Carmichael." Then suddenly he turned with a smile of +infinite grace. "Let us shake hands over it to show there is no +ill-feeling. It is my last holiday, remember; and, according to +you, I am going into penal servitude for life. But I'll chance my +ticket-of-leave. I am generally fairly virtuous when I have enough to +eat and drink. And we have had a good time, haven't we?" + +"Very," said Marjory. And though he tried hard to get up another +thrill as their hands met, he failed utterly. He might have been +saying good-bye to his grandmother for all the emotion it roused in +him; and as he strode home he scarcely knew if the fact were +disconcerting or satisfactory. The latter, in so far that it proved +his feeling for Marjory must be of a placid, sentimental form, to +which he was unaccustomed. What else could it be in such surroundings, +and with a girl who hadn't a notion what love meant? + +And Marjory, as she crossed the few yards between her and Mrs. +Cameron's comments, felt vexed that she was not more angry with the +culprit. But once again the thought of the St. Christopher, and of +Paul's blue, chattering lips, when he had the chills at the Pixie's +Lake, came to soften her and make her forget all but admiration and +pity. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +Rain! Rain! Rain! One drop chasing the other down the window-pane like +boys upon a slide. Beyond them a swaying network of branches rising +out of the grey mist-curtain veiling the landscape, and every now and +again a wild whirl of wind from the southwest, bringing with it a +fiercer patter on the pane. Those who know the West coast of Scotland +in the mood with which in nine cases out of ten it welcomes the +Sassenach, will need no further description of the general depression +and discomfort in Gleneira House a week after Paul had said good-bye +to Marjory at the short cut. For he had been right, the deluge had +come; and even Mrs. Cameron, going her rounds through byre and barn in +pattens, with petticoats high kilted to her knees, shook her head, +declaring that if it were not for the promise she would misdoubt that +the long-prophesied judgment had overtaken this evil generation. And +she had lived in the Glen for fifty years. + +Poor Lady George, who had arrived at Gleneira wet, chilled, +uncomfortable, yet still prepared to play her rôle of hostess to +perfection, fell a victim to a cold, which, as she complained, put it +out of her power to give a good rendering to the part. Since it was +manifestly impossible to receive her visitors, arriving in their +turn wet, chilled, uncomfortable, with anything like the optimism +required, for protestations that Highland rain did no harm, and hot +whiskey-and-water did good, were valueless, when you sneezed three +times during your remark. If she could only have gone to bed for one +day, there would have been some chance for her; but that was +impossible, since nowadays one couldn't have a good old-fashioned cold +in one's head without the risk of breaking up one's party from fear of +influenza! So she went about in a very smart, short, tweed costume, +with gaiters, and affected a sort of forced indifference even when the +cook, imported at fabulous wages, gave up her place on the third day, +saying she could not live in a shower bath, and was not accustomed to +a Zoölogical Gardens in the larder; when the upper housemaid gave +warning because hot water was not laid on to the top of the house, and +the kitchenmaid refused to make the porridge for the half-dozen +Highland lassies, who did all the work, on the ground that no +self-respecting girl would encourage others in such barbarous habits. +But all this, thank heaven! was on the other side of the swing door; +still, though the guests could scarcely give warning, matters were not +much brighter in, what servants call, collectively, the dining-room. +Breakfast was a godsend, for a judicious admixture of scones and jams, +and a little dexterous manipulation of the time at which people were +expected to come down, made it last till eleven at the earliest. And +then the hall was a providence. Large, and low, and comfortable, with +a blazing fire, and two doors, where the ladies could linger and talk +bravely of going out. Looking like it, also, in tweeds even shorter +and nattier than Lady George's, yet for all that succumbing after a +time to the impossibility of holding up an umbrella in such a gale of +wind, joined to gentle doubts as to whether a waterproof was +waterproof. Then there was lunch. But it was after lunch, when people +had manifestly over-eaten themselves, that the real strain of the day +began. So that the Reverend James Gillespie, coming to call, despite +the pouring rain, as in duty bound, was delighted with the warmth of +his reception, and Lady George, making the most of the pleasing +novelty, reverted unconsciously to a part suitable to the occasion. + +"Dear me!" she said plaintively; "this is very distressing! Imagine, +my dear Mrs. Woodward! Mr. Gillespie assures me that there is no +church in the Glen, only a schoolhouse. Paul, dear, how came you never +to mention this, you bad boy?" + +Paul, who, after sending the most enthusiastic men forth on what he +knew must be a fruitless quest after grouse, was devoting himself to +the ladies, and in consequence felt unutterably bored, as he always +did when on duty, turned on his sister captiously: + +"I thought you would have remembered the fact. I did, and you are +older than I am. Why, you used always to cry--just like Blazes +does--if my mother wouldn't let you open the picture papers during +service." + +Lady George bridled up. It was so thoughtless of Paul, bringing all +the disagreeables in life into one sentence; and reminiscences of that +sort were so unnecessary, for everyone knew that even the best +childhood could not stand the light of adult memory. + +"But surely there was a talk, even then, of a more suitable building. +I suppose it fell through. High time, is it not, dear Mrs. Woodward, +for our absentee landlord to repair his neglect?" + +"The farm-steadings have first claim to repair, I'm afraid, Blanche," +returned Paul, refusing his part. "The church will have to stand over +as a luxury." + +Lady George, even in her indignation, hastened to cover the +imprudence, for the Woodwards were distinctly high. + +"Not a bit of it, Paul! We will all set to work at once, Mr. +Gillespie, and see what can be done--won't we, dear Mrs. Woodward?" + +"I would suggest writing to the Bishop as the first step," said the +Reverend James, modestly. + +"And then a fancy fair," continued Lady George. + +"Delightful! a fancy fair, by all means," echoed an elderly +schoolfellow of Blanche's, who had been invited on the express +understanding that she was to do the flowers and second all +suggestions. + +"I trust you will have nothing of the kind, Blanche," put in Paul, +with unusual irritation. "I hate charitable pocket-picking. I beg your +pardon for the crude expression, Miss Woodward, but I have some +excuse. On one occasion in India I was set on by every lady in the +station, with the result that I found twenty-five penwipers of sorts +in my pocket when I got home." + +"Twenty-five, that was a large number," said Alice, stifling a yawn. +"What did you do with them?" + +"Put them away in lavender as keepsakes, of course." + +"My dear Paul," put in his sister, hurriedly, recognising his unsafe +mood. "We do things differently in England. We do not set on young +men; we do not have----" + +"A superfluity of penwipers," interrupted her brother, becoming +utterly exasperated; but as he looked out of the window he saw +something which made him sit down again beside Alice Woodward, and +devote himself to her amusement. Yet it was a sight which with most +men would have had exactly the opposite effect, for it was a glimpse +of a well-known figure battling with the wind and the rain along the +ferry road. But Paul Macleod had made up his mind; besides, rather to +his own surprise, the past few days had brought him very little of the +restless desire to be with Marjory, which he had expected from his +previous experiences in love. It was evidently a sentimental attack, +unreal, fanciful, Arcadian, like the episode in which it had arisen. +And yet a remark of his sister's at afternoon tea set him suddenly in +arms. + +"Mr. Gillespie told me there was a girl staying at the Camerons', +Paul, who was a sort of governess, or going to be one. And I +thought--if she hadn't a dreadful accent, or anything of that sort, +you know, of having her in the mornings for the children." + +"Miss Carmichael, Blanche," he broke in, at a white heat, "is a very +charming girl, and I was going to ask you to call upon her, as soon as +the weather allowed of it. I have seen a good deal of her during the +last few weeks, and should like you to know her." + +Really, in his present mood, Paul was almost as bad as a dynamite +bomb, or a high-pressure boiler in the back kitchen! Still, mindful of +her sisterly devotion, Lady George covered his indiscretion +gracefully. + +"Oh, she is that sort of person, is she? I must have misunderstood Mr. +Gillespie, and I will call at once, for it is so pleasant, isn't it, +Alice dear, for girls to have companions." + +And yet, as she spoke, she told herself that this was an explanation +of her brother's patience in solitude, and that it would be far safer, +considering what Paul was, to keep an eye on this possible flirtation. +Meanwhile, the offender felt a kind of shock at the possibilities her +easy acquiescence opened up. He had been telling himself, with a +certain satisfaction, that the idyll was over, leaving both him and +her little the worse for it; and now, apparently, he was to have an +opportunity of comparing the girl he fancied, and the girl he meant to +marry, side by side. It was scarcely a pleasing prospect, and the +knowledge of this made him once more return to his set purpose of +fostering some kind of sentiment towards Alice Woodward. But the fates +were against him. Lord George, coming in wet, but lively, from a +constitutional, began enthusiastically, between his drainings of the +teapot, in search of something to drink, on the charms of a girl he +had met on the road. "A real Highland girl," continued the amiable +idiot, regardless of his wife's storm signals, "with a lot of jolly +curly hair: not exactly pretty, you know, but fresh as a daisy, bright +as a bee. I couldn't help thinking, you know, how much better you +would all feel, Blanche, if you went out for a blow instead of +sticking at home." + +"We should not come into the drawing-room with dirty boots if we did, +should we, Alice dear? Just look at him, Mrs. Woodward! He isn't fit +for ladies' society, is he?" + +Lord George gave a hasty glance at his boots, swallowed his tepid +washings of the teapot with a muttered apology, and retired, leaving +his wife to breathe freely. + +"That must be Miss Carmichael, I suppose," she remarked easily. "I am +beginning to be quite anxious to see this paragon, Paul." + +"Nothing easier," replied her brother, shortly; "if you will be ready +at three to-morrow afternoon, I'll take you over and introduce you." + +Positively she felt relieved when, with some excuse about seeing +whether the sportsmen had returned, he left the drawing-room. It was +like being on the brink of a volcano when he was there, and yet, poor, +dear old fellow, he behaved very sweetly. + +She said as much to him, being clever enough to take his real +affection for her into consideration, during a brief quarter of an +hour's respite from duty which she managed in his business-room before +dinner. + +"I wish _I_ had a snuggery like this, Paul," she said, plaintively +shaking her head over his long length spread out on one side of the +fire, and Lord George's on the other, "but women always bear the brunt +of everything. If the barometer would go up I could manage; but it +_will_ go down, and though I've taken away the one from the hall, +Major Tombs has an aneroid in his room, and _will_ speak about it. And +Ricketts--I have had her for five years, George, you remember--gave me +warning to-day. It seems Jessie took advantage of the fire in +Ricketts's room to dry one of Paul's wet suits, and Ricketts thought +it was a burglar. She went into hysterics first, and now says she +never was so insulted in her life." + +Paul laughed. "Would it do any good if I apologised?" + +"Wish it had been mine," grumbled Lord George. "This is my last coat +but one, and the sleeves of it are damp. I can't think why the dickens +the women can't turn 'em inside out." + +"Oh! of course, it's the women again, George, but the footman wants to +know if he is expected to grease boots, and I don't know what to say. +Someone used to grease them, I remember----" + +"Oh! if it comes to that," said Paul, hotly, "I'll grease 'em myself. +Why should you bother, Blanche?" + +"Now that is _so_ like a man! Someone must bother; and really servants +are so troublesome about boots, though I must own one would think you +men were centipedes; there are fifty pairs in the laundry at present. +And Mrs. Woodward says her husband has smoked too many cigars and +drunk too much whiskey and soda. As if it were my fault." Poor Lady +George spoke quite tearfully. + +"Well, I offered to take him out, but he said his waterproof wasn't +waterproof. What the dickens does a man mean by coming to the West +Highlands without a waterproof? One doesn't expect anything else in a +woman, of course, but a man!" + +Lady George dried her eyes disconsolately. "Oh! it is no use, George, +importing the antagonism of sex into the matter. It is bad enough +without that. If we only had a billiard-room I could manage. Do you +know I think it quite criminal to build a house in the country without +one." + +"There are the Kindergarten toys, my dear," suggested her husband; +"the children seem to have tired of them." + +"Oh, don't try to be funny, please!" retorted his wife; "that would be +the last straw. And nurse says it is because they cannot get out that +they are so cross. Just when I was counting on them, too, as a +distraction." + +"Well, Blazes was that effectually this morning," replied her husband, +with an air of conviction; "he howled straight on end for two hours, +and when I went into the nursery to see what was up, I found the poor +little beggar sobbing over some grievance or another." + +Lady George flushed up. "It was only because he couldn't come down +with the others--I really can't have him; he is so unreasonable, and +Mrs. Woodward doesn't believe in my system." + +"Never mind, my dear Blanche," said her brother, consolingly. "It +seems to answer nicely with good children, and children ought to be +good, you know. And the barometer is going up, it really is." + +"For wind, I suppose," replied his sister, tragically. Apparently it +was for wind; at any rate, Will Cameron coming up to see the laird on +business next day observed casually that this must be about the end of +it; an optimistic remark which has a certain definite significance in +a land of gales. Even the sportsmen were driven to the cold comfort of +examining the action of each other's weapons with veiled contempt, +discussing the respective merits of each other's accoutrements, from +cartridge cases to leggings, and trying to forget that the wild +weather was making the birds still wilder than they had been already. +It appeared to have the same effect upon humanity. Sam Woodward, who +had been a thorn in poor Lady George's side from the beginning, fell +out with the only man who could tolerate him, and thereafter told his +sister it was a beastly hole, and that he meant to make the _mater_ +give him some oof, when he would cut and run to some place where +they weren't so beastly stuck up. Mr. Woodward, senior, after +roaming about disconsolately waiting for the post, was only +appeased by Lady George's suggestion that he would be doing yeoman's +service to the cause of civilisation if he composed a letter to the +Postmaster-General, calling attention to the disgraceful irregularity +in her Majesty's mails to Gleneira; whereupon he retired into the +library and wasted several sheets of foolscap. + +It was on the children, however, that the weather had the most +disastrous effect; so much so that Lord George, returning in the +afternoon from a blow with Paul--whose patience had given way over a +point-blank refusal on the under footman's part to stop another hour +if he was not allowed a fire in his room before dinner--found his wife +in the nursery standing helplessly before Blazes, who, in his flannel +nightgown, was seated stolidly on the floor. Adam and Eve, meanwhile, +were eyeing the scene from their beds, where, however, they had a +liberal supply of toys. + +"Oh, George!" she cried appealingly, "he has such a hard, hard heart; +and I am sure he must get it from your side of the family, so _do_ you +think you could do anything with him?" + +"Put him to bed like the others," suggested his father, weakly, +showing signs, at the same time, of beating a retreat, but pausing at +the sight of his wife's face, which, to tell the truth, was not far +from tears. + +"So I have, but he gets out again, and nurse can't hold him in all the +time. Besides, it was Mrs. Woodward's fault for being so disagreeable +about my system; but the children were naughty, poor dears; only, of +course, Adam and Eve went to bed when they were told--you see, they +are _reasonable_, and knew that if they _did_ they would be allowed to +come down again to dessert--and then they didn't really mind going to +bed to please me, the little dears. But Blasius actually slapped Mrs. +Woodward's face, and then she said he ought to be whipped. So we had +quite a discussion about it, and, in the heat of the moment, I told +Blasius he must stop in bed till he said he was sorry. And now I can't +make him stop in bed or say a word. He just sits and smiles." + +Here their mother's tone became so unlike smiles that Adam and Eve, +from their little beds, begged their ducksom mummie not to cry, even +though Blazes was the baddest little boy _they_ had ever seen. + +"If he won't say it, you can't make him," remarked Lord George aside, +with conviction. "If I were you I'd chance it." + +"But I can't. You see, I told Mrs. Woodward I could manage my own +children, and so I've made quite a point of it with Blasius. I can't +give in." + +Lord George, who was in the Foreign Office, and great on diplomatic +relations, whistled softly. "Always a mistake to claim when you can't +coerce--or retaliate." Then he added, as if a thought had struck him, +"Look here! has he had his tea? No! then hand him over to me; I'll put +him in the little room by the business room. Nobody will hear him +there even if he does howl, and as he gets hungry he will cave in, I +expect. At any rate, he can't get out of bed there, and I don't think +he can like it." + +But for some unexplained reason, possibly original sin, Blasius +elected to be quite cheerful over the transfer. He informed the nurse, +as she put on his dressing-gown, that he was going to "'moke with +daddy," and when he reached the little bare room, which was almost a +closet, he tucked the same dressing-gown round his little legs very +carefully as he plumped down on the floor. + +"Blazeth's goin' to stay here a long, long time," he said, +confidently. "Dood-night, daddy dear." + +In fact, he was so quiet that more than once his father, smoking in +the next room, got up to open the door softly and peer in to see if by +chance any evil could have befallen the small rebel; only to retire +finally, quite discomforted by the superior remark that "when +Blazeth's horry Blazeth's 'll let daddy know." To retire and meditate +upon the mysterious problem of fatherhood, and that duty to the soul +which, somehow or another, you have beckoned out of the unknown. In +nine times out of ten, thoughtlessly, to suit your own pleasure; in +ninety-nine times out of a hundred to bring it up to suit your own +convenience, to minister to your amusement, to justify your theories. + +Lady George, coming in with the falling twilight, when the duties of +afternoon tea were over in the drawing-room, found her husband, minus +a cigar, brooding over the fire. + +"I've done it, Blanche," he said defiantly. + +"Done what?" + +"Beaten him. I knew I should some day." + +His wife gave quite a sharp little cry. "Oh, George! and I trusted +you. I trusted you so entirely, because you knew it was wrong. And now +it can never be undone--never! You have ruined everything--all the +confidence, and the love--Oh! George, how could you?" + +The man's face was a study, but it was one which few women could +understand, for there is something in a righteous disregard of +weakness which seems brutal to most of them; for to them justice, like +everything else, is an emotion. + +"The little beggar bit me," he began, rather sheepishly, and then +suddenly he laughed. "He was awfully quiet, you know, and I thought he +was really getting hungry; so I went in, and by Jove! Blanche, he had +eaten nearly a whole dog biscuit! Paul keeps them there, you know, for +the puppy. Well, I felt he had me on the hip as it were, and if it +hadn't been for your face, I'd have given in--like a fool. So I sate +down and talked to him--like--like a father. And then he suddenly +slipped off my knee like an eel, and bit me on the calf. Got tired, I +suppose, and upon my soul, I don't wonder--we had been at it for +hours, remember. And then--I don't think I lost my temper, Blanche--I +don't, indeed; but it seemed to come home to me that it was he or I--a +sort of good fight, you know. So I told him that I wasn't going to be +bothered by him any more. He had had his fun, and must pay for it, as +he would have to do till the day of his death. And then I gave him a +regular spanking--yes! I did--and he deserved it." + +There was the oddest mixture of remorse, defiance, pain, and pride in +her husband's honest face, but Lady George could see nothing, think of +nothing, save the overthrow of her system, her belief. + +"I wonder you aren't ashamed of yourself!" she cried, quite +passionately. "It isn't as if he could reason about it as you can--it +isn't as if he understood--it is brute force to him, nothing more----" + +"That's just it, you see," protested the culprit, feebly, "if he +_could_ reason." + +"And now the memory must be between you two always, and it isn't as it +used to be in the old barbarous days. Parents nowadays care for +something more than the old tyranny. We have a respect for our +children as for human beings like ourselves. And now you will never +be--or at least you _ought_ never to be able to look him in the face +again! Just think what it means, George!" Blanche, as she stood there +with disclaiming hands and eloquent voice, felt herself no mean +exponent of the new order of things, and rose to the occasion. "If he +had been a man, you dared not have beaten him, so it was mean, brutal, +unworthy. How can you expect the child to forget it? Would you, if you +were in his place? No! He will never forget it, and the memory must +come between you----" + +"Blazeth's horry." + +A round, full, almost manly voice, and a round, broad face, seamed +with tears, yet strangely cheerful withal, as if, the bolt having +fallen, the sky was clear once more. + +Blanche dropped to her knees, and, secure in her own conscience, held +out her arms to the little advancing figure, but the child steered +past them. It was fact, and fact alone, which impressed the sturdy +brain, which day by day was gathering up its store of experience +against the hand-to-hand fight with life, which, please God, would +come by and bye--the life which was no Kindergarten game, the life of +strange, unknown dangers, against which the only weapon is the sheer +steel of self-control. And this was a little foretaste of the fight in +which daddy had won; daddy, who could do nothing but clasp the little +figure close to his heart as it climbed to his knee, and then walk +away with it to the window to hide his own tears. + +His wife, standing where Blasius had passed her by, could see those +two round, red heads, so strangely like each other, though the one had +a shock of rough hair and the other was beginning to grow bald. And +she could hear that round full voice with a ring of concern in it. + +"Blazeth's horry he hurt daddy such a lot. And daddy hurt Blazeths +awful; but he's a dood boy now. And oh, daddy! I don't fink them +bickeys is half as nice as daddy's--and Blazeths would like one, +becauth he's a dood boy." + +The storm was over. The sky was clear, and Lord George, as he carried +his youngest born pick-a-back upstairs to the nursery, felt that there +was a stronger tie between them than there had ever been before; a +strange new tie between him and the little soul he had beckoned out of +the unknown--the little soul to whom in future "Daddy says not" would +represent that whole concentrated force of law and order from which it +was at present sheltered, but which by and bye would be its only +teacher. And yet, when brought face to face with his wife's arguments, +he, being of the dumb kind, could only say: + +"You see, my dear, Blazes is _not_ a Kindergarten child, now is he?" + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +And still it rained! + +"Paul, this is awful," mourned poor Lady George, on the eighth +morning. "The post hasn't come at all for two days, and it is +positively heartrending to see poor Mr. Woodward trying to read +Monday's share-list for the third time. Then the beef hasn't come +either, and their maid won't eat any other meat. Hot roast twice a +day, and cold for lunch. All the servants have given warning, and I +don't believe the Woodwards will stand it." + +"Let them give warning, too," broke in her brother, hotly; then seeing +his sister's face, went on after his wont, consolingly. "Don't bother, +please, I'm not worth it. Besides, if Miss Woodward is going to do me +the honour of marrying Gleneira, it is as well that she should learn +to stand a little damp." + +"A little damp! Besides, she will have time to learn afterwards--women +always do after they are married--till then, they really have a right +to be amused. Can't you suggest something to cheer us up? I'm at my +wits' end. Even the book-box has gone astray, and it is so hard to +make conversation when you don't see the society papers." + +"Shall I black my face or stand on my head and sing a comic song? I've +done both in my salad days." + +"Oh, don't be unkind, Paul, when I have taken so much trouble!" + +"You have, indeed," he echoed, walking to the window moodily, feeling +at once irritated and annoyed. Personally he would have found no +difficulty in amusing himself with Marjory, whom he had not seen for a +week, so close at hand. And suddenly the thought of someone else who +had had the knack of making time pass pleasantly occurred to him. +"I'll tell you what I'll do, Blanche, I'll wire to Mrs. Vane to come +at once. I expected to hear two days ago if she was to be with us this +week or next; but she would come anywhere to do a kindness, and she +would keep us alive--rain or no rain." + +"It would be too late," returned his sister, dejectedly. "To do any +good she should be here to-day. I will not be responsible for another +hour--another minute of this detestable climate." She spoke quite +tragically, but her brother was staring out of the window with all his +eyes. + +"By all that's impossible! Yes, it is. Hooray, Blanche! There she is." + +"Who! What!" + +"Violet! Violet Vane in Macniven's machine. How on earth----" He was +out of the door full of excitement, followed by his sister, who was +heard giving tragic orders for hot baths and blankets. + +"She must be half drowned," said Mrs. Woodward, hastening from her +room at the sound of wheels to join the little circle crowding round +the window to watch the arrival. "She will go to bed at once, of +course." + +"And have something warm," said one voice. + +"More likely inflammation of the lungs. I remember----" suggested +another. + +"Bronchitis, at least--poor thing--poor thing----" put in a third. + +To which Cassandra chorus came the sound of a musical laugh and a +perfect ripple of chatter, as Paul, with a new cheerfulness in his +face, ushered in the daintiest little figure, which, as he held the +door open, looked back at him to finish the recital of her adventures +with words, "It was such fun." + +"My dear Mrs. Vane," cried Lady George, "you must be dead!" + +"Only with laughing, I assure you. I am not a bit wet, thanks. I got +them to lend me a tarpaulin jacket and a sou'-wester. But Captain +Macleod tells me I was not expected--I am so sorry, but really I did +write." + +"The post is shamefully irregular," put in Mr. Woodward, majestically; +"it did not come yesterday, and I have no doubt it will not come +to-day." + +"But it has! I brought it. Peter Macniven--that was my +driver--proposed I should give it a lift, and Donald Post said it +would save time if I took out the Gleneira letters myself. So I did. +They are in my bag downstairs, Paul--quite a large bundle for Mr. +Woodward; and all the picture papers, and a packet of chocolates from +Fuller's. And, oh! by the way, Lady George, there was a basket of beef +and a box of books lying for you at the Oban pier, so I took the +liberty of bringing them along." + +"My dear--my dear Mrs. Vane!" + +Lady George positively could say no more. Here was a guest, indeed. It +was as if a glint of sunshine had come into the house; so that after a +time the young man with a big head, whom Lady George had invited +because he could recite poetry to the young ladies, and who had for +the last few days been elaborating a sonnet on suicide, went hurriedly +out of the room to commit to paper the opening lines of a lyric, "To a +sea breeze sweeping away a storm." It was the same with everyone in +the house, and even the maids bustled to get her room in order, and +the butler, after laying an extra place at the dinner-table, remarked +in the housekeeper's room that now, perhaps, the dining-room would +have conversation that was worth listening to. + +Only Paul, remembering her ways of old, and that, spirits or no +spirits, the long journey must have fatigued one who was past the +first untiringness of youth, urged her to rest; but with a little +familiar nod of comprehension she set the very idea aside with scorn. +Thereby, to say sooth, starting fair with him by arousing once more +that tender admiration for pluck which, despite asseverations to the +contrary, most men have for courage and fire in a woman. Paul Macleod, +at any rate, felt it keenly when she came, plumaged like some delicate +butterfly, into the drawing-room before dinner, causing Mr. Woodward +to put down the share-list without a sigh, and Sam, who had been +laying down the law loudly, to become bashfully silent. And then when, +in consequence of her being the Honourable Mrs. Vane by virtue of a +most dishonourable husband, Paul took her down to dinner, how +different that dinner was! He recognised it gratefully; recognised the +readiness of her smile, the art which her bright eyes had of making +people believe in themselves and feel that they, too, had something to +say worth the saying. The art, in short, of the hostess, which Lady +George, with all her cleverness, had not; for the simple reason that +she thought too much about the effect she was producing. And Violet +Vane's worst enemies might call her artificial, but they could never +have called her self-conscious or selfish. While, as for the +artificiality, a woman must needs be that who is deadly weary, and who +has given herself bright eyes and a ready tongue by means of chloric +ether. Violet had to slip away for another dose ere she could face +what to her was the dreariest, deadliest hour of the day--the time +when the ladies wait patiently for the men to come up from the wine +and the cigars; for she was frankly, unblushingly, a man's woman, and +would confess as much to anyone with a smile. And wherefore not? She +had lived among them all her life. She had no babies to discuss, had +no experience of English housekeeping, and felt no sympathy with +woman's rights or wrongs; for the simple reason that she herself had +never felt the least disqualification of sex. She was _bonne camarade_ +in every fibre of her mind and body; yet withal a thorough little +lady. + +"Paul, my friend," she said, as he made his way straight to her sofa, +where, with wide, bright eyes, she had been taking sights for future +steering, "you can have five minutes by the clock, and then monsieur +will be on duty again. Will he not? Yes! no doubt five minutes is +short; it will not suffice to tell me all you have to tell, will it? +But I would rather leave it for to-morrow. For I am tired, Paul, so +tired, and I don't want to be cross." + +Something in her voice touched him. "Of course, you are tired. I know +that. But when was our dear lady ever cross?" + +The old familiar title, given in the remote Indian station to the +dainty little woman who had made life so pleasant to so many, came to +his lips naturally, and the scent of the jasmine she wore carried him +back to the days when it had seemed an integral part of consciousness; +since life was divided into delirium-haunted forgetfulness and +confused awakenings to the familiar perfume. And those are things a +man never forgets. She laughed, though the words sent a throb to her +heart. + +"Cross?" she echoed; "I am always cross when people are dull. And you +are dull to-night, Paul. Why?" + +Those bright eyes were full of meaning, and he hesitated over the +remark that he had been waiting for the sunshine of her presence. She +laughed again, this time with an odd little ring in it. "My dear Paul, +you should not need sunshine nowadays." There was no mistaking her +intent, and he winced visibly. + +"I always said you had antennae, Violet," he replied, with a flush; +"but how on earth have you found that out already?" + +She paused for a moment, and a mad desire to quote a proverb about +thieves came over her. So it was true, then! True, and she--she was +too late! She set her teeth firmly over her own pain. "Does it +generally need such great acumen to discover when Paul Macleod is in +love, _mon ami?_" + +The sarcasm struck home, and he rose, feeling the position untenable. +"Come and sing," he said; "it is years since I heard you." + +She shook her head. "It will not do, Paul; not even though it is five +years six months seventeen days and a few hours or so since we sang +'La ci darem' together. The five minutes is not up yet, so sit down, +please, and tell me who these people are whom you want to amuse. Or, +stay! I will catalogue them, and then you can correct my mistakes. +Your sister? How handsome she is, yet not in the least like you. Lord +George? A perfect angel, with a twinkle in his eye. He is to be my +best friend. Your Miss Woodward? Alice is a pretty name, Paul; and her +hair shall be of what colour it shall please God. Am I right, +Benedict? Papa Woodward? Have a care, Paul! he studies the share-list +too much; so have it in Government securities. Mamma Woodward? What +her daughter will be at that age; it is such an advantage to a man, +Paul, to see exactly what his future will be. Master Woodward? No! I +will leave you to describe him." + +Paul winced again. "You are very clever, Violet--suppose you pass on +to the others----" + +"I told you I was evil-tempered. Then there is the young man who +wrote a sonnet to somebody's eyebrow--probably mine--between the soup +and fish. Two young ladies colourless--your sister is clever, too, +Paul--and a couple of men to match. Finally the Moth." + +"Who?" + +"Miss Jones, or is she Miss Smith? I met her in Devonshire with +another school friend. She was Watteau then--cream and roses. I met +her, too, on a yacht--anchors and lanyards. And here, like Lady +George, she is _moyen-âge_." + +"But why the Moth?" + +"Because she takes her colour from what she preys upon; and she frets +my garment! That is all, except the lady who bicycles and thinks +Gleneira too hilly, and the man who takes photographs." + +"My dear Violet!" laughed Paul; "you are a witch." + +"Pardon me! I am an ass--all ears. And Bertie, Palmer, and Gordon come +next week. I'm glad of that; one can't make bricks without mud. Straw +requires the baser clay." + +"Straw! that is hardly complimentary to your sex!" + +"Pardon me again! the highest duty of a woman is to please man, and he +is proverbially tickled by a straw. So now for the neighbours." + +"None." + +Violet Vane's eyebrows went up in derision. "There is no Sahara in +Lorneshire, and you have been here for three weeks--or is it a month?" + +"To be accurate, a month and four days." + +"Dear me! what a long time it takes to put up curtains." + +"Very. I am sure those five minutes are over, Violet. Won't you come +and sing for us?" + +"How--how dreadfully dull you must have been, Paul!" + +"Dreadfully. Blanche! will you try and persuade Mrs. Vane to sing to +us--she is obdurate with me." + +Lady George, delighted at her brother's virtue in seeking to break up +a _tête-a-tête_, was urgent in her appeals, and Mrs. Vane passed to +the piano, airily. + +"There is music here," cried Lord George, officiously producing a book +from the canterbury. Mrs. Vane took it with a gracious smile. + +"Bach! Corelli! This is yours, I suppose, Miss Woodward?" + +"No! I don't play," replied Alice, and Mrs. Vane turned instantly to +the flyleaf. + +"There are no songs in that book," remarked Paul, black as thunder, +laying his hands on the volume. "Not that it matters--for Mrs. Vane +used not to need music----" + +"Nor does she now," retorted the little lady, laughing, as she sate +down, saying as she did so, in an undertone, "Does Marjory Carmichael +play Bach well, Paul? I hope so; he is dreadful when murdered." + +The reply, if reply there came, was lost in her sudden burst into one +of those French _chansons_ in which laughter and tears are so closely +interwoven that the mixture is apt to confuse the insular +understanding. Her singing was, like herself, bright, gracious, +fluent, with the rare perfection of training which conceals art. + +"She reminds me of Piccolomini," said Mr. Woodward, in pompous +delight, feeling himself the better for the remark, after the fashion +of men who are no longer afraid of being considered old. "A most +charming little person altogether. Who is she?" + +"The widow of an Honourable--a Colonel--one of the Wentworths, I +suppose," replied Lady George, yielding to the reflected glory of a +successful guest. "She was very kind to Paul when he was ill in India, +and we are all very fond of her. A most desirable friend for him to +have." + +"Most desirable!" echoed Mr. Woodward; and Blanche felt that she had +been wise, since no one could tell how Paul would behave with a woman +of that sort. She might have felt still more doubtful if she had seen +the desirable friend after she reached the seclusion of her own room, +sitting dry-eyed and haggard before the looking-glass, as if to read +the ravages of time in each faintly-growing wrinkle. + +"I have been a fool!" she said, half aloud, as she rose; "but it may +not be too late. I thought at first he was in love with that girl; but +it is not she. Oh, why! Why didn't I tell him I was rich now, instead +of waiting like a romantic idiot to see if he could still care for me? +Care for me! As if any man wouldn't care for a woman such as I, if she +chose to let him care. Well! I must sleep now; I can't afford to look +older than I am." So she opened her dressing-case, took out a bottle +of chloral, measured herself out a full dose, and half an hour +afterwards was sleeping peacefully, like a child. + +When she woke the sun was streaming in at the open window--for she was +one of those to whom the close atmosphere of English houses is +unendurable--and she curled herself round comfortably in her bed to +consider the new aspect of affairs before rising to face them. In a +way she was to be pitied, for in sending Paul Macleod to Kashmir, in +order to buy a silk carpet, she had really touched the highest point +of self-abnegation of which she was capable. She had done it to save +him; for what? For this colourless girl who would never understand his +odd mixture of sentimentality and worldliness? No! not for that. Even +as a friend she could not stand by and see him ruin his prospects of +happiness in that fashion. Had she not hesitated herself in those old +days, when, by simply leaving a man who disgraced her every hour and +moment of his life, she could, after a brief period, no doubt of +horrible humiliation, have married Paul herself? She had hesitated +because of his future, for nothing else; and was she to stand by and +see him ruin it for no just cause, since she was wealthy enough now +for all his wants? There was a sufficiency of high moral tone in this +view of the question to serve her purpose, which she strengthened by +telling herself that if she had found Paul properly devoted to his +heiress, she would once more have sacrificed herself. All is fair, +says the proverb, in love and war; but Mrs. Vane felt much was fair +because it was not love, and came down to breakfast determined to see +what could be done. For Paul's sake first, of course, and then?--for +the present Mrs. Vane decided to leave that alone. + +Despite the sunshine, the menkind came down slackly, grumbling at a +real shooting day being just "nippet awa by the Sawbath." Obedient, +nevertheless, to the order for church parade at the schoolhouse, +which, being of modest dimensions, overflowed after a time into the +road, where the latest comers contented themselves with sitting on the +turf-capped dyke beneath the chestnut tree, where they could just hear +the swell of the responses, and join in the hymns if they chose. Mrs. +Vane, standing during the _Venite_ beside Paul, could see these +outdoor worshippers, and rather envied them, being at heart a thorough +little Bohemian. Yet the interior interested her quick brain also, and +she watched Lady George with furtive amusement, as the course of +service brought to that lady a dim suspicion that she had lost her +place. For, despite Mr. Gillespie's suggestion of a second and English +"diet" for the visitors, Blanche had preferred to bring them to the +Gaelic; moved thereto by a vague feeling that it gave, as it were, a +_cachet_ to the laird of Gleneira, with whose importance she was +anxious to impress the Woodwards. The effect, however, was somewhat +disastrous, since Alice looked shocked and surprised, Sam laughed, and +Mrs. Woodward, after a frantic effort to follow the Psalms, gave up +the struggle. Mr. Woodward had--Blanche felt fortunately--remained at +home, for he was of the stern, uncompromising section of British +laymen who only attend service on high days, and have, in consequence, +strong opinions as to the necessity of the Athanasian Creed to the +stability of the English Church. Paul, tall and listless, looked so +persistently towards one dark corner, that at last Mrs. Vane's +watchful eyes, following his, discovered an attraction in the girl +playing the harmonium. And then it struck her that the voluntary had +been a bit of Corelli! Yet that was not the sort of face to make Paul +stare, as he undoubtedly was staring. She looked up at him quickly, +and with a real shock recognised something in his expression which she +had not expected, something which roused her to a sudden flame. It was +almost a relief when Donald Post, stealing in on tiptoe noisily, +caused a general stir, followed by an all-pervading smell of +sealing-wax from the other dark corner, which showed that Mr. McColl +was sealing up the bag; Lady George's face the while being an +unsuccessful attempt to combine horror and unconsciousness, while her +husband's, much to her annoyance, openly reflected the children's +unabashed interest. It was a greater relief still, when the sermon +came to an end, the letters were handed round, and, with joyful barks, +the collies rushed out, followed by the quality. All but Mrs. Vane, +who stood listening to a fugue of Bach's with a little fine smile on +her face. Inaction was over, and she must survey this new difficulty +without delay. + +"Don't wait," she said to Paul, lightly; "I love Bach, and Miss +Carmichael plays charmingly." + +He said a bad word under his breath as he passed out, and yet for the +life of him he could not be angry with her. She saw through him, of +course; right through to the very worst part of him, and yet she was +his friend. When he joined the gathering outside Lady George was +already shaking hands benignly with all and sundry, whispering between +whiles to Mrs. Woodward that it was a Highland custom, and so much +more conducive to proper relations between landlord and tenant than +the English standoffishness. In fact, she was in her element, in a new +part of great capabilities. Paul, on the other hand, merely nodded and +smiled; but his great personal beauty, his reputation as a soldier and +a sportsman, went further towards popularity among both the men and +the women than all his sister's condescension. And still the Bach +fugue went on, being, in truth, susceptible of many repeats and _da +capos_, while Marjory, over the music desk, gave annoyed glances at +the dainty little figure at the door. During the past week of Paul's +absence, the charm of his personality had faded, leaving behind it the +memory that he was hardly of her world; that even if he had been, he +was hardly the sort of man with whom she could have sympathy. And yet, +with the sight of him, had come back the old excuses, the old +conviction that he slandered himself. It did not make her feel any the +more kindly towards the world which held him back from his better +self; towards women, for instance, like this one at the door. + +"Are you not coming, Violet? The others have gone on." + +Paul's voice had a note of warning in it, but she never heeded his +thunderings like others did, and in that lay the secret of her power +over him. + +"I am waiting for you to introduce me to Miss Carmichael," she said +calmly; "then we can walk home together. I want to ask her where she +learned to play Bach." + +A transparent prevarication, but one it was impossible to set aside; +nor, to tell truth, did Paul wish to set it aside. The temptation +presented to him by this little Eve in a Paris costume, was far too +welcome for that; so welcome that the very excess of his own fierce +desire to yield to it made him silent, while Mrs. Vane set herself +deliberately to pierce through the girl's shield of stiff politeness. +Not a difficult task with one so quick to respond to the least touch +of sympathy; besides, Mrs. Vane in her girlhood had lived in the great +world of music, among people who were to Marjory as prophets and +kings. So she was soon deep in eager inquiry, and positively felt +impatient as, when they were passing old Peggy's cottage, little Paul +started up from the brackens with a quick message that his grannie +would like to see Miss Marjory, if she could spare time. + +"What a pretty little fellow," remarked Mrs. Vane. "Is Paul a common +name about here? or is it a compliment to the laird?" She asked the +question carelessly, and was genuinely surprised at the look it +brought to the elder Paul's face. + +"It is certainly not out of compliment to me, so I presume it is a +common name--since you gave no other alternative." This was a manifest +loss of temper on his part, not to be justified so far as she could +see; therefore, in her opinion, a thing to be decently covered at the +time, however much it might mean when considered. So she remarked +that, common or not, it was a name she liked. And then she said +good-bye charmingly, warning Miss Carmichael that she must expect to +be disturbed for more Bach; and so drifted on daintily. + +"She is quite delightful, your Miss Carmichael," she began, +negligently, after a pause. + +Paul, who, after a handshake with Marjory, had rejoined her, looking +better pleased with himself, decided on adopting her mood. + +"Very; though I fail to see why you should use the possessive pronoun. +She would not thank you, believe me." + +"Because you discovered her, that is all. She is charming. Like +Brynhild, brave and bold." + +"Cruel and cold." + +"Nonsense. Men like you, my friend, of the earth earthy, are alarmed +by the glistening circle of fire. Few have the courage to leap it and +wake the heart within. Gudrun, duly decked in diamonds and given away +by her father in St. George's, Hanover-square, is more in your line. +Better so, for Sigurd is a double-faced scoundrel, and Brynhild's +heart is too good to break." Her voice grew serious, a little bitter +smile came to her face; for Violet had a heart of her own. + +"I quite agree with you." + +The jest was gone both from his mind and hers, and she changed the +subject adroitly, certain of one thing, that here was a weapon ready +to her hand. Love _versus_ Greed-of-Gold! Really, that method of +putting it sounded quite pretty. And then suddenly a fierce pang of +jealousy shot through her as she thought of the look she had caught +unawares on Paul's face. Alice Woodward would never rouse such a look +as that--never! Would it not be better to leave things as they were? +But, then, why should they not be turned to something better? If, +somehow, they could be manipulated so as to disgust him both with mere +money and mere affection, it would be better for all concerned. For +him, above all, since he could neither live without love or money; and +she could give him both. + +As they talked commonplaces during the remainder of the walk, Paul +felt more contented than he had done for a week, even while he was +asking himself captiously why this should be so. To see the girl you +like, and say not a single word to her ear alone, to shake hands with +her and feel no desire to prolong the touch, to look in her face and +see nothing that was not clear and cold in her eyes, was not, could +not, be comforting. Clearly his feeling for her was not to be classed +as a passion. And yet how glad he had been to see her. How contented +he had been to walk beside her, and what a sense of _bien-être_ her +presence gave him. And it was distinctly satisfactory to find it so +little disturbing. Then, recognising the fact that he was becoming +absent in the effort to remember the exact look on her face as she +shook hands with him, he set the thought of her from him angrily. He +would not be the sport of a mere sentimental fancy, unworthy of a man +who had the courage to face his own manhood. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +The next morning Paul, smoking his usual cigar of proprietorship about +the stables and dog kennels, saw Mrs. Vane coming with a pretty little +air of hesitation along one of the shrubbery paths. + +"_Ben trovato!_ Who would have thought of finding you here?" she cried +gaily, just as if she had not been watching to catch him from her +window for the last ten minutes. "I have missed my way to the Lodge; +show it to me, please." + +He looked into her clever, charming face, understanding perfectly what +she was at, and yet the _finesse_ did not irritate him as it would +have done in another woman. Besides, in this instance, she was just a +little too clever, as he meant to prove to her. + +"By all means," he replied coolly; "I was just going there myself to +apologise to Mrs. Cameron for my sister's negligence, but really the +weather has been so bad." + +Mrs. Vane shot an amused glance at her tall companion. So Paul meant +to ride the high horse, that poorest of all defences against a quick +wit; like that of lance against bayonet, dignified and circumambient, +but quite ineffectual. + +"But I am not going to see Mrs. Cameron," she retorted frankly; "I am +going to see if Miss Carmichael will be kind and play Bach to me; it +is a long time since I heard him played so well. You used to be fond +of him, too, in the old days, Paul. Don't you remember how you used to +lie on the sofa after that fever and declare that a wife's first duty +was to be able to play to her husband? But girls--at least, most +girls--don't care to play nowadays unless they are professionals. And +if they are professionals they don't care to be wives--not even to a +Highland laird." + +"In regard to the present musician," replied Paul, beginning to +dismount, "I am sure no such scheme of self-sacrifice ever entered her +head. Miss Carmichael is charming, I admit; but she has a mission in +life, and it is not to regulate me. That, I think, is a fair and full +statement of the truth, except that before I came here she used to +practise occasionally on the piano at the Big House, and, I presume, +left her music there by mistake." + +Mrs. Vane stopped in an attitude of tragic despair. "There! I have +gone and forgotten it after all, and that was my excuse for going so +soon. You see, your sister said it had better be taken back at once, +as none of the girls in the house played, and so it wouldn't be +wanted." + +Paul bit his lip at the double thrust. "Perhaps it is as well you +_have_ forgotten it," he said angrily; "Miss Carmichael will, no +doubt, be able to use it herself some day soon." + +"That will be delightful," replied Mrs. Vane, with a sudden cessation +of attack. + +Five minutes after, rather to his own surprise, Paul Macleod found +himself talking to Marjory as he might have talked to any other girl +of his acquaintance, and wondering how he could have been such a fool +as to imagine himself to be in love with her. After all, he told +himself, his first theory had been right, and the ridiculously +unconventional familiarity of the past idyll was mainly responsible +for the mawkish sentimentality which had attacked him of late, but +which, thank heaven! was now over. How could it be otherwise with a +girl like Marjory--a perfect iceberg of primness and propriety? + +His sense of security, joined to a certain unconfessed resentment at +her apparent indifference as to whether he came or not, drove him into +more effusive apologies on his sister's behalf than he would otherwise +have made, and brought down on him a remark from Mrs. Cameron that +"Indeed and in truth Marjory would no be going to make strangers of +the laird and his sister, and he so kind, in and out o' the house for +weeks, just like a bairn of her own." Whereat Mrs. Vane, stifling a +desire to laugh at Paul's evident confusion, came to the rescue with a +well-timed diversion about some of the household troubles which had +been occupying Lady George. + +'"Deed!" said Mrs. Cameron, after listening sympathetically, "I can +well believe it! But the warld will come to an end soon, that's one +comfort. You see, it'll just no be possible' for Providence to put up +wi' it much longer, for it's a' I can do to have patience wi' my small +corner of the vineyard, an' that, praise be, is no sae bad as it might +be, seeing that I can hand my ain wi' most folk." + +"But Providence can do that also, surely, Mrs. Cameron?" laughed Paul. + +"Maybe, an' maybe not. I grant ye it comes quits at the hinder end, +what wi' worms that die not, an' fires that be not quenched. But it's +a weary long time to blow at the flames o' wrath, and wadna suit me +that's aye for havin' it out and done wi'. Lord sakes! life wad no be +worth havin' if I had to write down a' the servant lassies cantrip's +in a big bookie against term day, an' keep my tongue on them +meanwhiles. And it is little the hussies would care if I did, for they +wad ken find I'd just forgive them when the day of reckoning came, an' +forgiveness just beats all for spoiling folk." + +"It's lucky for some of us," put in Mrs. Vane, with a laugh, "that +Providence isn't of your way of thinking." + +"'Deed, I am not as sure of that neither. Folk would think twice o' +breaking the law if it waant for the grips they have on mercy. It is +just, you see, in the nature o' man to stand by his luck if the odds +are even; but if he knows he'll get paicks he will just keep the body +in subjection. It is the same in all things. Just look at the +difference in the manners o' folks nowadays! Not half so good as in +the old times when they had to stand sponsor for each word with a +pistol shot. Why, I mind, Gleneira, your grandfather calling out +Glenrannooh for passing him on the kirk steps without a reverence!" + +"I didn't know you were so bloodthirsty," remarked Paul; "and though I +quite agree with you, theoretically, I must be careful, since you +evidently don't believe in apologies." + +"Apologies," echoed Mrs. Cameron, scornfully. "No! no! Gleneira. +They're fine healin' balm to the sinner, but I'll have none coming +between me and my rights. There was James Gillespie telling little +Sandy McColl to go an' apologise to wee Peter Rankin for pulling his +hair, instead o' just giving the laddie a good skelping, and daring +him to do it again. So the bairns just bided their time and had it out +in a natural way, and you never saw such sichts they were. I'm no +saying folk should not be repentant o' their sins, but they should +just take the consequences along wi' the forgiveness." + +"Or follow my example and take neither," suggested the laird. + +Mrs. Cameron looked at him sharply, then shook her head. "Havers! that +is what no mortal man can do, least of all, you, Gleneira, with your +soft heart." + +"Soft heart!" echoed Paul, derisively. "It is only that towards you, +Mrs. Cameron; to the world in general it is hard as adamant. Don't you +agree with me, Miss Carmichael?" + +"Hard enough to ensure your peace of mind, I hope," she replied +quietly. + +Violet Vane's bright eyes were on them both, and she gave an odd +little laugh. "I wonder if it is! I should like to vivisect you and +find out, Captain Macleod; only the process of seeing the 'wheels go +wound,' as Toddie says in 'Helen's Babies,' might end in stopping them +altogether. Perhaps it would be as well--for other people's hearts." + +"The heart is no easily damaged, anyway," put in Mrs. Cameron, with +the air of one who knows. "Folks like to think it is, but it is +maistly the stomach that goes wrang. I've seen a heap o' broken hearts +in my time cured wi' camomile tea; it's just grand for the digestion." + +"I shall order Peter Macpherson to lay down a large bed at once," +began Paul, gravely. + +"For the sake of your victims, I suppose," interrupted Mrs. Vane. +"Commend me to Captain Macleod, Mrs. Cameron, for shameless conceit." + +"Pardon me," put in Paul, "for my own." He gave a glance at Marjory, +who was standing apart with a little fine smile of contempt on her +face, but she took no notice of him. To tell truth she scarcely knew +why she felt scornful, and, when they had gone, she sate down in +defiance of her promise to her books again, telling herself that Paul +by himself, willing to fall in with her life, was quite a different +being from Paul expecting her to be friends with his friends--people +whose dresses fitted them like a glove, and who looked charming. Yes, +that was the right word!--charming from the sole of their feet to the +crown of their heads. As if she had anything in common with such +people!--or, for the matter of that, with Paul, himself--she, whose +fate it was to work, and who liked that fate? Yet almost before +Captain Macleod and his companion had reached home after the _détour_ +he begged for round the garden, Marjory had thrown down her book in a +temper at her own stupidity, run upstairs for her hat, and was off for +a wild, solitary scramble over the hills. + +Paul and his companion, meanwhile, strolling idly through the vineries +and hothouses, she with dainty dress, draped gingerly from fear of +stain, and vivid, whimsical face, diving like a honey-sucker at the +perfumed flowers, were enjoying themselves thoroughly in their own +way; so that the former, coming out at last from an atmosphere of +stephanotis and tropical heat to face the bright, sharp air of a +Highland glen, gave a little shiver, and told himself inconsequently +that Violet was the most charming companion in the world. And so she +was, being blessed with the infallible range-finder called tact; for +half the misunderstandings of life come from people either blazing +away at a bird that is out of shot, or blowing one to pieces,--that is +to say, from a failure to appreciate distance and the fact that, +though our best friend may be, so to speak, well within range over +night, that is no reason why we should reach him with the same sight +the next morning. In most of us feeling, tastes, dislikes, fluctuate +with every hour; nay, more, the individual, as a whole, hovers like +the needle of a barometer on either side of change, so that the more +sensitive of us are conscious of the difference in ourselves at +different times in the day, and it becomes possible for us to be +certain that we might do that at ten o'clock at night which we could +not do at ten o'clock in the day. Yet, despite this undoubted fact, +most of us resent the change of position in regard to our outlook in +life which it entails, the change of key which strict harmony +requires. Mrs. Vane, however, was not one of the many, and, as a rule, +when she played a dissonant note she did it out of malice +aforethought; as she did now when, looking back at the garden with its +low espaliers and broad walks bordered by old-fashioned flowers, she +paused to say sweetly, "It is a charming place, Paul; you ought to be +very happy here with her." + +He frowned as he held the door open for his companion to pass through; +but he was beginning to remember that she used the bayonet deftly, and +came to close quarters at once. + +"The personal pronoun, third person singular, feminine gender, +accusative case, is rather too vague to interest me, I'm afraid. Can't +you suggest something more concrete?" + +She laughed as she pointed gaily to an upper path which, after a time, +would merge into theirs. "See! yonder are the young ladies, going +home, as we should be also, since you will be wanted. Don't let me +keep you, please. They will walk faster than I do, and I am used to +being left behind to fend for myself." + +"Not by me," he replied, with a certain self-complacency, "and you +never will be, I trust. I should be a brute indeed were I to forget +all your kindness." + +"_Dieu mercie_," she flashed out, in sudden, uncontrollable +resentment, "how I hate gratitude! It takes half the flavour out of +life. I often think I should have been happier if I had not been so +kind to people." + +"I have no doubt you made _them_ much happier, if that is any +consolation to you." + +"Not in the slightest." Then as suddenly her irritation passed, and +she looked up at him with a whimsical smile. "Paul," she said, "I +believe Miss Carmichael used to set you copies--or is it Miss +Woodward? anyhow, you are detestably didactic to-day; so it is just as +well the others are joining us, or you would be telling me that 'Evil +communications corrupt good manners.'" + +"The process is pleasant, anyhow," he replied, in one of those moments +of recognition which come to us, even with familiar friends, as some +quality or charm strikes us afresh; "and you couldn't corrupt my good +temper, for you always put me into one, somehow. I believe you use +arts and spells." + +She shrugged her shoulders gaily. "Burn me as a witch, by all means! +You can afford it since the next fairly good-looking woman you meet +will have exactly the same consolatory power. As you said, the +personal pronoun, feminine gender, third person singular, has a wide +application for Paul Macleod. Ah! Miss Woodward, what lovely ferns! We +have just been going round the houses, and there is a hibiscus out +which you ought to see. It put me in mind of India; you sent the seed +home from our garden, I think, didn't you, Captain Macleod? We might +go back and look at it now, and return by the beach, mightn't we? It +is no longer, and far prettier." + +The result of which easy, deft manipulation of a chance meeting being +that, ere the memory of his pleasant stroll with her had passed from +Paul's somewhat vagrant mind, he was performing the same pilgrimage +again under different guidance. Now, Alice Woodward was always counted +a most agreeable girl in her world, and Paul, as in duty bound, laid +himself out to please; yet all the time they were chatting amicably +about Shakespeare and the musical glasses he was conscious of an +effort, and of a desire to know what the other girls who were lagging +behind with Violet could be laughing at so gaily. + +"That is the hibiscus," he said, stopping abruptly before the flower +which, with its creamy petals and crimson heart, had ten minutes +before carried him back to another hemisphere, another life--a +pleasant, younger life, with more possibilities of passion in it than +the present one. + +"It is very pretty," replied Alice, blandly, rather absently. "The +colours are lovely. I really think colours improve every year. Do you +remember at Constantinople, Captain Macleod, everyone agreed that +there was a decided advance on Venice? In that ballet before the +procession, you know, they really were exquisite." + +Paul assented cheerfully, even though he felt such memories were as +water after wine to Mrs. Vane's appeal to the past. "It used to grow +by the well. Ah, Paul! how young you were on those days, and how you +used to enjoy life." + +That was true; and yet a well-cooked dinner and roomy stalls at a +first-class _spectacle_ brought solid comfort more suitable to the +coming years; besides, Violet had always had the knack of taking the +colour out of other women, and while adapting herself more readily to +her surroundings than most, never lost a peculiar piquant charm of her +own which did not clash with her environment. Yet, as they strolled +home by the beach, it occurred to him that they were all, himself +included, out of touch with the glorious world of sea and sky and +mountain in which they stood. And Mrs. Vane agreed, or, at any rate, +was quick enough to read his thought, for as the girls trooped up the +stairs finishing a discussion on the relative merits of two balls, she +lingered in the hall to say quizzically: + +"Is her name Virginia, Paul? and do you fancy a desert island? That +comes of having so much of the natural Adam left in you." + +"Oh, dear me! what has Blasius been doing now?" asked Lady George, +plaintively, overhearing the last words as she came out of the morning +room. At the same moment, as if in answer, the sturdy stump +intermingled with bumps which usually marked Blazes' rapid descent +from the nursery regions, was heard as a sort of running accompaniment +to a steady stream of violent objurgations delivered with immense +zest, in his round, full voice: "_Haud up! Ger' out, ye brute! Stiddy, +yer deevil! Stiddy yer!_" + +"Nurse!" cried poor Blanche, aghast, to the stately figure, descending +behind the stumbling, bumping, yet swift offender, "what does this +mean? Where has Master Blasius picked up----" + +"Oh! if it comes to picking up, milady, that's easy sayin'. Master +Blazes told me last night 'is bath was 'devilish 'ot,' and when I +spoke to him serious told me it was the Capting." + +"Really, Paul, I think you might be more careful," began his sister, +aggrievedly, when he interrupted her. + +"I'm not responsible for _that_, anyhow! What on earth is he up to +now?" For Blasius, having reached the bottom of the stairs, had, so to +speak, fallen tooth and nail on the sheepskin rug, which he was +bestriding with vehement kicks and upbraidings, as he clutched on to +the wool wildly-- + +"_Ger' up, ye deevil! Haud still, ye dommed brute!_" + +"It is through Mary's young man as she's took up with bein' a +shepherd, milady," said nurse, swooping down on the child. "An' +through her never 'aving seen sheep shore, that's what it is." + +Paul burst into a guffaw of laughter. "Old Angus! I swear to you, +Violet, it's the living image of old Angus. What a mimic the child +is!" + +"Do be quiet, Paul!" said his sister, hastily. "How can I---- Nurse, +tell Mary that I am much displeased, and that if I hear of her +watching the shepherd again----" + +"I 'ave told her, milady," retorted the nurse, with as much dignity as +kicks and strugglings left to her, "and there an't no fear. Master +Blazes'll forget it sharp enough when he don't 'ear it. It is the +things 'as he do 'ear, constant"--a backward glance at Paul from the +turn of the stair emphasised the reproach. + +"It is really very distressing," mourned Lady George, turning in grave +regret to Mrs. Vane, and then, seeing unqualified amusement in that +lady's face, yielding a little to her own sense of humour. "But he +really did it splendidly, though where the child gets the talent from, +I don't know. But fancy, Paul, if Mrs. Woodward had been here! I +should have died of shame, for she spent half an hour yesterday in +lecturing me. 'Dear Lady George,' she said, 'you mean well, and of +course the younger generation are always right.' Now, what are you all +laughing at?" + +"At you and your son, my dear," replied Paul. "That was Mrs. Woodward +to the life! So cheer up, Blanche. He will make his fortune on the +stage--or as a sheep farmer." And so full of smiles over the +recollection of the small sturdy figure struggling with the woolly +mat, he went off, feeling that in one way or another the morning had +passed pleasantly enough. Rationally also, without any attempt at +Arcadia. That danger was over, and incidentally he owed Mrs. Vane +another debt of gratitude for having driven him into calling at the +Lodge, and so discovering that Marjory, seen in ordinary society, was +not nearly so distracting a person as she had been when earth, and +air, and water had seemed to conspire in suggesting a new world of +dreams, where love was something very different to what it was in real +life. + +But Paul Macleod was not the only one of the party who felt satisfied +with the morning's work. Mrs. Vane, as she idled away an hour or two +in her room--one of her country-house maxims being that the less +people saw of you between meals the better--told herself that there +was time yet to stave off the immediate danger with Alice Woodward. +That was the one thing to be attained somehow--how, she did not care. +Paul had been flirting with Marjory, of course. Deny what he would, +the look she had surprised on his face on the Sunday did not come +there for nothing; besides, the girl herself had been too cold, too +distant, for absolute indifference. That farce of everything being +over for ever was easily played in absence, but was apt to break down +at a renewal of intimacy. It would be well to try if it would, at any +rate; and under any circumstances Paul was not likely to settle +matters with Alice until the party was on the eve of breaking up; +since it was always more convenient in these matters to have a way of +escape if you were refused. + +Mrs. Woodward was of the same opinion, and said so to her husband +when, on laying his night-capped head on the conjugal pillow that +evening, he began to sound her as to the prospects of escape from the +dilatory posts, which, to tell truth, afforded him daily occupation. +For on the stroke of eleven he could fuss round, watch in hand, +counting the minutes of delay, and, after Donald had come and gone, +there was always that letter to the _Times_, exposing the iniquity of +whiskey bottles and pounds of tea in Her Majesty's mail bag, to be +composed against Lord George's return from the hill to the +smoking-room, when it had to be read aloud, amended, discussed, and +finally set aside till the next day. Then Donald would be later than +ever, and Mr. Woodward, tempted by the thought of detailing still more +horrible delinquencies, would withhold his letter for further +amendment. + +"I suppose it is all right, mamma," he began cautiously. "At least, I +noticed that the young people seemed to be--er--getting on to-day." + +"Quite right," yawned the partner of his joys and sorrows. "How lucky +it was that Jack had to go to Riga about that tallow business." + +Even in the dark, with his head in night-cap, Mr. Woodward's paternal +dignity bristled. + +"Lucky! You speak, my dear, as if he had had claims, and I deny----" + +"You can deny what you please, Mr. Woodward. I think it was lucky, for +now he need know nothing of the engagement till he returns." + +"Perhaps. My dear, by the way, have you any idea when the engagement +is likely to--ahem--er--come off?" + +Mrs. Woodward yawned once, twice. This was a detail scarcely +sufficient to warrant her being kept awake. "I can't say--not till we +are going to leave, I should think. That sort of thing breaks up a +party dreadfully. Why?" + +Mr. Woodward sighed. "Only the posts really are so irregular. As I +said in my letter of to-day----" + +But this was too much for anyone's patience. "You can tell me +to-morrow, my dear," said the wife of his bosom, firmly. "I shouldn't +wonder if it were later than ever, for Lady George told me it was fair +day, or fast day, or something of that sort in Oban." + +Mr. Woodward gave a groan, and turned over to compose a still more +scathing report of the Gleneira mail. + +About the same time Blanche Temple, who, on her husband's late arrival +from the smoking-room, was found by him in dressing-gown and slippers +over the fire, reading a novel, and enjoying the only free time, she +said, a Highland hostess could hope for, was telling her lord and +master much the same tale. The young people were getting on, Paul was +really behaving charmingly, and little Mrs. Vane, contrary to her +expectations, seemed quite inclined to throw them together, so that +the future seemed clear. And Alice Woodward, had she been awake, would +doubtless have added her voice to the general satisfaction, for it was +distinctly pleasant to see the other girls' evident admiration of +Paul's good looks, and to hear their raptures over the beauty of +Gleneira. For a few months in autumn it would certainly be pleasant to +play the part Lady George was playing now, and for the rest of the +year there would be Constantinople, and civilisation generally. + +But the very next day at dinner something occurred to disturb one +person's peace, for Paul, as Mrs. Vane used to say, was a bad landlord +even to himself. His mind was not well fenced, and the gates, which +should have barred vagrant thoughts from intrusion, were as often as +not wide open or sadly out of repair. And this interruption was +trivial, being only a remark in his sister's clear, high-pitched +voice: + +"Mr. Gillespie was here again about that bazaar, and I believe, Paul, +he is in love with that Miss Carmichael of yours. At least, he talked +of her in a way--it would be most suitable, of course, and I really +think we ought to encourage it. It would give us old fogies something +to amuse us, wouldn't it, Mrs. Woodward?" + +"I disapprove of matchmaking on principle, Lady George," replied that +lady, severely; "but this, as you say, appears very suitable indeed. +She is a governess, or something of that sort of thing, I believe, and +they generally make admirable wives for poor clergymen. Understand +Sunday-schools, and don't expect to be taken about everywhere." + +"What an admirable wife for any poor man," put in a subaltern from +Paul's regiment, who had been asked down to make the sexes even; a +nice, fair-haired lad, given as yet to blushing over his own successes +in society. "If you will introduce me, Lady George, I might cut out +the curate." + +"He isn't the curate," said his hostess, smiling. "By the way, Paul, +what are they in Scotland?" + +"Dissenting ministers!" retorted her brother, sullenly, angry with +her, and with himself; the one for inflicting, the other for feeling, +this sudden pain. Blanche's face was a study in outraged dignity. + +"My dear Paul!" she began, and then paused, speechless. + +"He is very good-looking, I think," said the echo diligently, "and I +hear----" + +"What is that?" put in Lord George from afar. "Miss Carmichael and the +parson! Pooh! she is far too good for that blatant young----" + +"George!" exclaimed his better half, this time with authority, "pray +remember that he is our clergyman--our parish clergyman." + +"We are not likely to forget his pretensions to that position, +Blanche, considering how often he comes here," put in Paul, at a white +heat over what he told himself was an unwarrantable liberty with a +young lady's name, and feeling as if he could rend the whole company; +especially the unsuspecting subaltern. + +"What a refreshing thing it is," came Mrs. Vane's half-jesting voice, +"to find the sexes have so high an opinion of each other! Go where you +will, Lady George, the news of an engagement makes nine-tenths of the +men swear she is too good for him, and all the women say he is too +good for her. Touching tributes; but what gender is truth?" + +"Masculine, of course!" put in her next-door neighbour, who prided +himself on being smart. "That dissentient tenth proves discrimination +the unanimity prejudice." + +"Pardon me, it may only mean that men mix their prejudices as they do +their wines, while we women are consistent and prefer simplicity." + +"I can hardly be expected at the present moment to say that I do," +retorted her companion. + +"I shall remember that against you," laughed the little lady. +"Meanwhile I agree with the men. The young lady is too good for any of +you; she is charming." + +"Give me first introduction, please," pleaded the subaltern. "I always +like people who are too good for me." + +"That explains the universality of your affections, I suppose, Mr. +Palmer," remarked Mrs. Vane, demurely. + +"But really, Paul," said his sister, returning to the subject with +injured persistency when the laugh had subsided. "I cannot see why Mr. +Gillespie should not pay his pastoral visits if he chooses; besides we +had to discuss the church." + +"Then I trust the service won't be a repetition of the last one," +replied her brother, still woefully out of temper; "I, for one, will +refuse to go if it is. You agree with me, don't you, Miss Woodward?" + +She smiled at him placidly. "Well! it was rather funny, wasn't it?" + +"Funny!" echoed Sam Woodward. "I'll tell you what, it was the rummiest +go!" and he was proceeding to detail the whole to the new arrival whom +he had taken down to dinner, when Lady George, with a withering glance +in his direction, proceeded in a higher key. + +"The new church, I mean, Paul. We have arranged it all delightfully +while you horrid men have been killing birds. Alice is making a +subscription book with a Gothic window on the outside--illuminated, +you know--and a little appeal on the first page. It is to have an +initial letter, is it not, dear? Then by and bye, next year, perhaps, +when London isn't quite empty, Mrs. Woodward has promised her house +for a Highland fair--tartan things, and snoods--and--and----" + +"Queighs," suggested her husband, demurely, but she scorned the +interruption. "And spinning chairs." + +"Spinning chairs?" echoed Mr. Woodward, who, hearing for the first +time that his house was to be made use of, felt bound to show some +interest in the matter. + +"Yes! those things with very little seat, no back, and a lot of +carving. All the stall-keepers are to be dressed out of Scott's novels +and Mr. St. Clare is going to write--what was it, Mr. St. Clare?" + +"A rondelet," muttered the poet, gloomily, looking up from the +chocolate creams with which he was trying to make life worth living. + +"Of course! a rondelet--that is the thing with very few words and a +great many rhymes, isn't it? And of course you, Paul, will wear the +kilt--local colour is everything." + +"My dear girl," cried Paul, too aghast for ill-humour. "I haven't worn +the kilt for years--pray consider----" + +"The local colour of your knees," put in Lord George, brutally. "Never +mind, old man, a bottle of patent bronzine, like Blanche uses for her +slippers----" + +"George!" cried his wife, rising with an awful dignity. "Shall we go +into the drawing-room, Mrs. Woodward?" + +"It was only his knees, my dear," protested the discomforted nobleman +in a whisper as she swept past him. "Hang it all! if a man mayn't +mention his brother-in-law's knees or his wife's slippers." + +But she was out of hearing, so he sate down in his chair again and +poured himself out a bumper of port viciously. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +While the Big House was going on its way from cellar to attic, as if +it had been within the sound of Bow Bells instead of in a remote +Highland glen, Marjory for the first time in her life felt time heavy +on her hands; a thing not to be tolerated for an instant by a young +person of her views and prospects. She told herself that if this was +the result of her holiday, the sooner she set to work and forgot that +pleasant, idle time the better. For it had been pleasant, and Paul +Macleod had been kind. But what of that? His ways were not her +ways--his thoughts were not her thoughts; and then suddenly would come +the memory of that short instant on Isle Shuna when they had stood +hand in hand watching the Green Ray. Or was that only another result +of idleness?--that she should be growing fanciful. Paul himself had +denied seeing it, and after all, despite his kindness, he was the last +person to have sympathy with her ideals; yet such sympathy was the +only thing which could make her care for him or his society. She told +herself all this, over and over again, until she believed it; for +Marjory had not yet learnt to differentiate her head from her heart. +Many women never learn the art, and though some, no doubt, find the +difficulty lies in discovering their heads, a far greater number stop +short at a calm affection in the catalogue of their emotions. + +Still, for some reason or another, as yet inexplicable to the girl +herself, the melodious carol of a blackbird singing his heart out in a +cherry tree sent a pain to her own. It seemed to fill the world with +unrest, even though the house lay still as the grave; for Mrs. Cameron +and the lassies were away at the milking. She covered her ears to shut +out the sound and bent closer to her book, until suddenly she found +herself blindfolded by a pair of strong, slender, supple hands--hands +that could not be mistaken for an instant. + +"Tom!" she cried. "Oh, Tom! is it you?" + +"Tom it is," said a voice with a pleasant intonation scarcely foreign, +and yet assuredly not wholly English. "_E' bene!_ Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux! So this is the way you hold high holiday?" + +He pointed to the open book, then, as she clung delighted to his arm, +put on an air of simulated disgust, perhaps to conceal the keen joy +which her welcome afforded him. + +"Conic sections again, and I wandering round 'permiskus' calling for +some of my relations to kill the fatted calf!" + +"The prodigal didn't come 'permiskus.' He wired ahead and they saw him +from afar." + +"Then he didn't get an unexpected holiday, come express from Paris to +Oban, and then walk thirty miles over the hills because he had missed +the mail cart and was a fool----" + +"But why a fool?" + +"Why? Because the bosom of my family was absorbed in conic sections! +And if that reason won't do, you really must wait until I have had +some veal--for to tell truth I'm ravenous--mostly for drinks!" + +He watched her as she flew off, singing as she went like any blackbird +out of sheer lightness of heart, and asked himself if this were not +enough? If he were bound to wait for something more? For Dr. Tom +Kennedy was not a man to require much time for such thoughts, +especially when he had been thinking of Marjory and his welcome all +that trudge of thirty miles over bog and heather. But the answer came +slowly, for he was quite as much in the dark on the vexed question of +Love and Marriage as most people, and the little Blind Boy with the +bow and arrows was as yet a part of his Pantheon. And yet there was +temptation enough to set mere romance aside, when, after anticipating +his every want, and fussing over him after the manner of a hen with a +solitary chicken, Marjory drew a low stool beside his chair, and, with +her elbows resting on her knees and her radiant face supported on her +hands, looked over him, as it were, in sheer content. + +"You don't know how nice it is to have you back," she said, suddenly +stretching out one hand to him--a favourite gesture of hers when +eager. He took it in both of his, bent over it, and kissed it. + +"'Tis worth the parting, child, to come back--to this." + +She laughed merrily. "You have such pretty manners, Tom! I expect you +learnt them from grandpapa the Marquis and the _haute noblesse_. And +then in Paris, I suppose----" + +His heart contracted, but he interrupted her gaily. "I decline to be +scheduled in that fashion. My manners are my own, thank Heaven! in +spite of Galton on heredity. Oh! Marjory, my dear! what a relief it is +to get away from it all--from the eternal hunt for something that +escapes you--from the first chapter of Genesis to the Book of +Revelation; and now that I come to think of it, there is something new +about you--what is it?" + +She shook her head hastily. "Nothing. You said that last time, I +believe--people always look different. You have got greyer." + +He rubbed his close-cropped head disconsolately. "Have I?--well, I +can't help it. I'm getting old." + +"Nonsense! And I won't have you say you are glad to get away from +work--from the best work in the world! How can you tire of the only +thing worth anything, and of the search for truth?" + +"Because I'm forty-three--more than double your age. By the way, there +was a man I know who married a girl of sixteen when he was thirty-two. +And when he saw it down on the register it struck him all of a heap +that when she was forty he would be eighty. Matrimony, apparently, +isn't good for arithmetic--nor for the matter of that, arithmetic for +matrimony!" + +"What silly stories you have, Tom," laughed the girl, "and in other +ways you really are so sensible." + +He rose suddenly and went to the window--a small, slight man, with a +keen brown face--and then, as if in excuse for the move, he picked a +spray or two of white jasmine and stuck them in his buttonhole. Then +he turned to her with a smile. "I should have been a deal more +sensible if people hadn't taught me things when I was young. Original +sin isn't in it with education. Come, Marjory! let us go and find my +cousin--or there will be a row in the house." + +"I like that!" retorted the girl, taking possession of his arm; "as if +anyone in the place dare say a word against you. Why, she told Dr. +Macrea the other day that she didn't intend to die till she could have +you to attend her!" Whereat they both laughed. + +But, in truth, there was much laughter and general good-will at the +Lodge that evening, when Dr. Kennedy insisted on Mrs. Cameron bringing +her knitting to the garden bench, while he and Marjory and Will +strolled about among the flowers, or stood talking here and there as +the fancy took them. + +"Why do you always wear jasmine, Tom?" asked the girl, idly bending to +catch a closer whiff of the buttonhole. "I suppose _she_ used to give +it to you." + +"What she?" + +"The one _she_ of a man's life, of course." + +"Fabulous creature! If they come at all, they come in crowds. Yes! now +I think of it, I fancy you are right. I was twelve, and she a +distracting young flirt of six. Her name was Pauline. I remember it, +because she was the last!----" + +"Oh, Tom! how can you!" + +"Fact; for twenty years after that the responsibilities of searching +for truth prevented my thinking of fictions." + +"And after that?" + +"My dear Marjory, no history is ever written up to date. Even in your +beloved school-primers the last years of Her Gracious Majesty's reign +are glozed over by generalities. You see it is never safe to hazard an +opinion till events have proved it to be right. And then decent +reserve over the immediate past saves a lot of worry. I should hate to +confess that I had told a lie yesterday, though I might own up +placidly to one seven years ago. Yes! seven years should be close time +for confession. A man renews his vile body in that period, and can +take credit for having changed his morals also." + +"But it is more than seven years since you were thirty-two." + +"You have a head for arithmetic, my dear, not for--the other thing; +and it is possible that I am still only in the second volume of my +fiction." + +"You mean in love. What a delightfully funny idea!" + +"Mrs. Cameron!" cried the doctor, "do you see anything comic in the +spectacle of Methuselah wishing to get married; for I don't. I think +it is melancholy in the extreme." + +In truth he did think so, for though, when he was away, his own +sentimentality seemed sufficient for them both, the first look at +Marjory's face always told him that, if the received theories were +true, there was something yet to come before he had any right--in a +way any desire--to ask Marjory to be his wife. If they were true! +There lay the problem which he found so much difficulty in solving. +Like most men of his profession, he was almost over familiar with the +material side of the question, and, being naturally of delicate fibre, +an instinctive revolt made him exaggerate the part which romance was +to play in the purification of passion. To marry when you loved each +other was one thing; for one to love, and both to remain friends, was +another! And between these two ideals he hesitated; for Dr. Kennedy's +power lay not so much in strength as in a certain fineness of +perception and delicacy of touch. And yet at times a doubt +lingered--the doubt which had made him fall foul of the things he had +been taught in his youth. But even through this there ran a vein of +protest against the lack of colour which a more prosaic, more +material, and yet less animal view of the relations which ought to +exist between a man and woman would involve. For he was sentimental to +a degree, and told himself that the very fact of his age made it more +than ever necessary that his wife should be inspired to do her duty by +something more than mere affection. That is to say, once more, if +current theories were true! He came back to this point again and +again, unable to settle it to his own satisfaction, and finding his +chief comfort in the fact that Marjory had, hitherto, never shown the +least sign of loving anyone. If that were to continue in the future, +he could imagine the doubts and difficulties disappearing altogether; +but for this time was required, time for her to understand her own +nature. His knowledge, his experience of life, the position in which +he stood towards her, all combined to make him hyper-sensitive lest in +any way he should wrong her innocence and ignorance. Besides, he +himself would have been bitterly dissatisfied with the position. That +was the solid truth, which went further than anything else in making +him stand aloof; though, no doubt, he would have denied the fact +strenuously, since to men of his stamp a sentimental grief is better +than no sentiment at all. Yet the grief sate on him lightly because of +its very sentimentality, and because--though this again he would +strenuously have denied--in his heart of hearts he felt that it was +largely of his own making, and that one part of his nature was +satisfied and to spare. In these days, when the happiness of the +individual is both aim and end, it is curious to see how persistently +one form of happiness is ignored; the happiness which indubitably +comes from doing what you would _not_ wish to do, unless you conceived +it to be your duty. And yet the very people who deny the possibility +of this content are the first to point out that, when all is said and +done, a man can only do what he wishes to do. + +So that when, on the next morning, Dr. Kennedy, who had listened to +the tale of what had been going on and what was going on in the Big +House with a certain foreboding, came to Marjory and urged her to +accompany him on a visit there in the afternoon, he did so with the +distinct intention of feeling the self-complacency of duty performed. +And Marjory, in her turn, thus brought face to face with the very +reasonable proposition, found it hard to make an excuse that did not +rouse her own indignation by being over serious. After all, why should +she not comply with Captain Macleod's urgent invitations? There was +nothing to be afraid of. Nevertheless, when she appeared, clothed in +white raiment with her best gloves on, she had so solemn and sedate an +air that the doctor felt aghast at his own act. + +"Don't look so like Iphigenia, my dear," he said; "or let us give it +up." + +"Certainly not. If it's the right thing to do, it has got to be done; +but I do feel like a sacrificial lamb. You don't, of course; but then +you are accustomed to society, a great deal of society, and I'm not. +Do you know, Tom, I have scarcely ever seen more than three or four +people of my own rank together in my life, and I positively don't know +any girls." + +"Time you did," he replied stoutly. + +"But I doubt if I have any manners," she protested. + +He had, at any rate; and new as the experience of the large party +gathered in the big drawing-room was to her, she found immediate +confidence in the perception that her companion would stand the test +of any society; indeed, as she sate talking to Alice Woodward, she +could not help noticing with a certain amused pride Lady George's +frigid politeness give way to interested endeavours to find out who +this most unusually well-bred specimen of a country doctor could be; +for Paul was not there to aid his sister's ignorance. + +But by and bye Mrs. Vane came in and made her way straight to Marjory +with pretty little words of welcome, yet with the Anglo-Indian lady's +reminiscent interest at the sight of a real live man at afternoon tea. + +"Who is he?" she asked; "did he come with you?" + +"He is my guardian--Dr. Kennedy." + +"Kennedy! not the famous Dr. Kennedy--Tom Kennedy of Paris?" And +before Marjory could get beyond the first syllable of acquiescence, +Mrs. Vane had crossed the room and was standing opposite Lady George. + +"I would ask you to introduce me to Dr. Kennedy," she said, "but it +would be of no use, for while he has made a name for himself since I +knew him, I have lost mine. So I will only ask him if he remembers the +jasmine bush at the Château Saumarez?" + +There was an instant's bewilderment, and then Tommy Kennedy, who had +risen at her first word, took a step forward and both his hands went +out gladly. + +"Pauline!" + +"Just so--and you are Alphonse! What a small place the world is after +all! To think of finding you at Gleneira. Lady George, you were +talking of theatricals this morning, and the idea fell through because +no one--not even your brother--would do the _jeune premier_ with me. +He is found! Dr. Kennedy is one of the best amateur actors in Paris." + +"The past tense, if you please, my dear lady," protested the doctor. +"Consider my grey hairs." + +"That is a remark which should not have been made, for we are +contemporaries. He was my first--no! one of my first loves, Lady +George. We used to give each other sweeties over the garden wall when +his grandmother, the Marquise de Brisson, was not looking; but the +jasmine bush, Alphonse, was at your uncle's, Prince Rosignacs's. Why! +you have a bit in your buttonhole now, and I----" She pointed to the +spray fastened into the laces of her tea-gown. + +"_Ce soir ma robe en est tout embaumée_." + +"_Respires-en moi l'adorant souvenir_," quoted Dr. Kennedy, looking at +the lapel of his coat tenderly; and Marjory, standing a little apart, +a mute spectator of the scene, felt a sudden sense of loneliness. He, +too, was at home in this idle, careless life, and she was the only one +who was out of it. It came upon her by surprise, for though she had +known and been proud of the fact that her guardian belonged by virtue +of his mother's birth to the best of French society, she had had no +actual experience of him in the part of a man of the world. But he was +that, and of a good world, too, she recognised frankly as she sate +listening to the now animated conversation about people she had never +heard of, things she had never seen, and at the same time trying to be +agreeable to the girls who, dutiously, had taken her in hand. She felt +that it was a duty, and a sort of indifferent resentment possessed +her, even when Lady George hoped she would accompany Dr. Kennedy, who +had kindly promised to dine with them next day and talk over the now +possible theatricals. Yet, rather to his surprise, she accepted +without even a look at his face, and made quite a polite little speech +about hoping to see more of the girls; and so, with a certain +independent grace, passed out into the hall, leaving him detained for +a moment by some last remark. She could hear Mrs. Vane's light laugh, +his voice, and then another laugh, as she stood waiting beside the +deferential butler, and all involuntarily her lip curled. + +"Miss Carmichael! How glad I am!" It was Paul, newly in from +the moor, looking his best, as a handsome man does, in his rough +shooting-clothes. He had a tuft of white heather and stag-horn moss in +one hand, and with a sudden impulse he held it out gaily to her. +"Tit-for-tat! you welcomed me here--though I never thanked you for so +doing, did I? It is my turn now." + +He had meant the offering for Violet Vane or Alice Woodward, whichever +he met first, but now it seemed as if fate had sent it for Marjory and +for no one else. He felt as if it were so, he looked as if it were so, +and for the first time in her life Marjory felt an odd little thrill +run through her veins. + +"Thank you," she said soberly. "Yes! I did give it to you; so now we +are quits--I mean," she corrected hastily, "that--that we are on the +same footing." + +There was quite a tremor in her voice, too, as, seeing Dr. Kennedy +beside her, she turned to him quickly. "This is Captain Macleod, +Tom;--he has been very kind to me." + +In nine cases out of ten Paul Macleod on being introduced to a man +belonging to a girl in Marjory's position, and, as it were, having a +claim on her, would have been studiously, frigidly courteous, and no +more; and so might have once and for all chilled Marjory's sudden +confidence and relief in finding an old friend in her new environment; +but it is difficult for an emotional man to be cold, when a sudden +glow of content makes him feel absurdly happy. Consequently he went +out of his way to be frank and kindly in expressing his pleasure at +making the acquaintance of one of whom Miss Carmichael had so often +spoken. + +"In terms of reprobation, no doubt," replied Dr. Kennedy, lightly; "a +guardian is a disagreeable appendage, though I try to be as little of +a nuisance as I can." + +"So do I," retorted Paul, with a smile; "but Miss Carmichael is so +dreadfully hard to please." + +As Dr. Kennedy's keen brown eyes took in the figure before him, he +told himself that the girl must be hard indeed to please if she could +find fault with it. + +"That is the handsomest man I've seen for a long time," he said as +they walked home. "What is he like inside?" + +Marjory paused with her head on one side, considering. "Oh! nice in a +way--the way of the world, I suppose, and I thought him nicer than +ever to-day; being in his own house agrees with him. Oh, Tom! how I +wish you hadn't accepted that invitation to dinner!" + +Yet when she returned from the Big House, she had a little flush on +her cheek, and when Dr. Kennedy challenged her to tell truth in answer +to Mrs. Cameron's inquiry as to how she got on, she answered with a +laugh and a nod: "Why not--it was rather interesting; quite an +evolutionary process. Before I went I was protoplasmic--all in a +jelly. Then at dinner we were all amoebic--digestive apparatus and +nothing else. Afterwards, with the ladies, I felt like a worm, or a +fish out of water. Then I wanted to have wings like a bird and fly +away, but I couldn't, for the quadrumana appeared from the +dining-room, and we all became apes!" + +"What is the lassie talking about?" put in Mrs. Cameron, with a toss +of her head. "Can you no answer a straight question wi' a straight +answer? What then, I say, what then?" + +"Yes! what then, Marjory?" asked Tom Kennedy, quickly; he knew the +answer, and yet he wanted to hear it from her lips, because it would +satisfy him that so far he had been right. + +"And then--why then I suppose I became a girl--at any rate I enjoyed +it. They were all so kind, and Mrs. Vane--I suppose in your world, +Tom, there are heaps of women like that?" + +"Not many so charming," he answered heartily. In truth it had been +very pleasant meeting her again after so many years; for a man, even +when he is in love, or supposes himself to be in love, with one woman, +is never proof against the pleasure of being made much of by another. +And Dr. Kennedy, with a quaint simplicity and wisdom, was perfectly +aware of his own reputation as one of the boldest adventurers in new +fields of discovery, and told himself that people made much of him for +their own sake, and because he carried his restless energy with him +into society as well as into his work. For energy is, as a rule, a +godsend to _fin-de-siècle_ men and women. So the conceit of it slipped +off him like water from a duck's back, leaving him free to take his +world as he found it. + +But Marjory felt once more the little chill of regret for the things +she had not known in his life. + +"There is one thing I forget to ask you," she said quickly. "Your name +is not Alphonse, is it?" + +"No! But she thought Tom unromantic, and so I promised to change my +name if she changed hers." + +"Men don't generally do as much as that," grumbled Will. "So they are +going to have theatricals, are they? That means that all the horses +will be dead lame, and the laird will be wanting more." + +"How on earth do you make that out?" asked Dr. Kennedy. + +"Women," said Will, laconically. "Something will always be wanted in a +hurry, the telegraph station is ten miles off, and women seem to think +a horse can change its legs when it comes home." + +There was some truth in his remark during the next ten days. Gleneira +House lived in a continual bustle which gave no time for thought, +save, perhaps, to Mrs. Vane, who, busy as she was, found time to +congratulate herself so far on the success of her plans; for Marjory +and Paul had perforce to meet constantly, and more than once something +occurred to encourage her belief that there was material for mischief +ready to her hand if it was needed. + +But other material came to light also, or so it seemed to her cynical +experience; and the clue to it came one day when she and Marjory, who +had grown keen, as was only natural, over the novelty of amusement, +were searching through an old portfolio of Paul's sketches for hints +likely to be of use for a drop scene. + +It was nothing more than the portrait of a girl with a bunch of red +rowans held up to her cheek. + +"That is very well done, Paul," said Mrs. Vane, holding it up for him +to see, as he stood a little way off. "Who was the beautiful model?" + +He came over to her hastily. "Oh! no one you know; and it isn't really +worth looking at. A wretched caricature--I did not know it was there." + +Something in his voice roused the amused malice which always lurked +behind Mrs. Vane's treatment of Paul's foibles. + +"I disagree with you; look, Miss Carmichael! Don't you think that +quite the best thing we have seen of Captain Macleod's doing?" + +"It is a lovely face," said the girl, "and it reminds me of someone----" +Then she looked up in sudden interest. "Surely it is Paul--little +Paul, I mean, Peggy Duncan's grandson; perhaps----" She stopped +abruptly, remembering the big Paul's confession, and blushed, she +scarcely knew why. Then, feeling vexed with herself for doing so, put +down the sketch, and taking up another, made some trivial remark about +its being very pretty. But Mrs. Vane had not done with the sketch. +"That Highland type of face----" she began. + +"There is no need to theorise over the likeness in this case," +interrupted Paul, seeing through her, as he nearly always did. "It was +little Paul's mother; and as I think I told you once, Miss Carmichael, +the most beautiful woman I ever saw. That is why I call it a +caricature, Mrs. Vane." + +The anger in his voice was not to be mistaken, and Marjory, as he +moved away to resume his _tête-a-tête_ with Alice Woodward, was left +with an uncomfortable feeling that she had somehow betrayed a secret, +though her common, sense resented the imputation. But Mrs. Vane looked +after his retreating figure with one of her fine smiles. So the memory +of this particular most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world--there must have +been a good many of them in Paul Macleod's life--was not pleasant to +him. Wherefore? The question came quite idly, and passed from her mind +without an answer. Marjory, on the other hand, took hers--as to +whether she was to blame or not--seriously to heart. So much so, that +when she had speech with Paul alone, which occurred naturally enough +when he brought her a cup of tea, as she sate stitching away for dear +life at some ridiculous theatrical property near the window, so as to +get the full advantage of the waning light, she reverted to the +subject at once. + +"Don't," he interrupted hurriedly, almost before she had begun. +"Please don't; I would so much rather you said nothing more about it." + +"But I don't understand." + +"Thank heaven you don't," he replied. + +"Why should you say that?" she cried reproachfully. "I cannot see why +I should not, if I can. I am not a fool----" + +"Marjory!" interrupted Dr. Kennedy, coming forward, "little Paul +Duncan has just come round from the Lodge with a message that his +grannie wants to see you. We might go round that way; it is getting +late as it is." + +"There's no hurry," put in Paul. "I will tell them to give the boy a +piece, and he can wait till Miss Carmichael has finished giving me +absolution." + +"That is the wrong way about, surely?" she said. + +"It is the usual way between a man and a woman," replied Paul, "and +will be to the end of the chapter, I'm afraid." + +Half an hour afterwards Mrs. Vane, who had come out into the hall with +some parting instructions to Marjory, stood looking down with the +others at little Paul Duncan, who, weary of waiting, had cuddled +himself round on the doorstep and fallen into the heavy sleep of +childhood. "He looks very delicate," said Violet, kindly stooping over +him as he lay with one hand tucked into the back of his neck in rather +an unusual posture; and then suddenly she looked up at the big Paul, +for the trick had taken her back to the old days when she had watched +his sleep with jealous care, lest her patient should be disturbed; and +how often had she not wondered why he chose so uncomfortable a +position? + +Impossible! and yet there was a likeness. The name, too, and his +evident dislike to the mention of the boy's mother! It must mean +something--what? The thought left her pale, so that Paul, turning back +with her when those two had gone, noticed it, telling her that she was +overworking herself. + +"Of course I am overworking," she retorted, with a strange mixture of +self-pity, blame, and fierce resentment. "I always do. Is it my fault +if I do things quicker than other people? Is it my fault if I see +things more clearly? You think I am always managing, managing; and so +I am. How can I help it when, everything keeps coming into my mind, +and no one thinks or cares?" + +"My dear Violet! You have been overworking, indeed. You must take it +easier, or we shall be having you laid up----" + +"And then what would Paul Macleod do?" she went on, with a reckless +laugh. "No! I won't make myself so disagreeable as all that--if I can +help it, Paul; but how can one help being disagreeable at times when +one is wise--wise and old? Oh, Paul, how old I am!" + +"I don't see it," he answered, with an amused smile. + +"You! you never see anything," she began; then suddenly returned to +her own light, half-jesting manner. "No! that is not true; you see +most things, but you are too young to understand me. Dreadfully young +for your age, Paul, so it is lucky there are so many of us to look +after you." + +When she went upstairs to dress for dinner she sate down before the +looking-glass and stared at herself with a sort of repugnance. Yes! +she was old, hatefully old, in mind, in knowledge of the world, in +experience. That thought which had flashed through her brain at the +sight of little Paul lying asleep on the doorstep was not a nice +thought. Yet could she help its flashing? and, if there was anything +in the thought, might not the knowledge strengthen her hand in the +coming fight? For a fortnight's daily experience of Alice Woodward's +calm attractions had raised Mrs. Vane's opposition to her marriage +with Paul to virtuous horror. No true friend, she told herself, would +hesitate to throw every difficulty in the way of so disastrous a +connection. At the same time she felt almost afraid to reach out after +this new weapon, lest it might prove too heavy for those delicate +hands of hers, accustomed for the most part to leading reins. It was +one thing to goad and guide people into the right path, another to +split open their heads with a sledgehammer. Though how this could be +such a lethal weapon she could not see, since she knew enough of Paul +Macleod to doubt if he would have had the hardihood to mention Jeanie +Duncan to Marjory if there had been anything between them in the past. +And yet? So she stood before possibilities, shivering on the brink, +and finally telling herself there would be time enough to think of +such things if less heroic measures failed. It was a mistake to touch +pitch needlessly; at the same time it was as well to make sure there +was pitch in the pot. So the next day saw her, on some airy pretence +of getting old Peggy to knit stockings, sitting beside the old pauper +and bringing to bear on her ailments and wrongs all the gay +cheerfulness and sympathy which Paul declared always put him in a good +humour. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +Apparently it had the same effect on Peggy Duncan, for the next +Saturday when, as usual, her ancient schoolfellow and crony, Janet, +came to give the hovel that weekly redding up which was beyond little +Paul's ability, the old lady lay in her bed discoursing at length on +the "bit thing just made up o' fal-lals that sits in the auld chair as +if 't belonged to her, and chirrups awa like the lady's o' heaven's +hen. A sicht guid for sair e'en, no like what the house was maistly +acquaint wi'--just puir, ill-fa'ured warlocks." + +Whereupon Janet Faa tossed her head, and muttered in an undertone that +Peggy might speak for herself; she was no warlock whatever. But she +went on with her work, patiently, being accustomed to such sly hits +and finding the description of Mrs. Vane's dresses and the puckles o' +tea that appeared from her pocket far more interesting than the old +lady's usual snappishness. But then, under any circumstances, Peggy's +tongue would have been softened by the knowledge that help was more +than ever necessary that day, since visitors were expected to tea. So +the old woman watched the preparations with wrathful eyes, and did not +even quarrel with the polish of the two silver spoons, which, usually +secreted with her other treasures in the bottom drawer of the bureau, +now graced the clean tablecloth. To tell truth, however, fault-finding +would have had no practical effect, since Janet never took the +slightest notice of it, beyond remarking every now and again: "Whist, +woman! whist! It is no breath you will be having to crack with the +doctor." + +On the other hand, wee Paulie, who contributed his share by timidly +presenting a mug full of early rowan-berries and heather for the +middle of the table, was sternly bidden to take away the ugly trash, +and solemnly warned against the sin of mistaking weeds for flowers, +and thus setting himself up to be a judge instead of abiding by the +will of Providence. The rebuke, however, did not seem to touch the +child, who, with many previous memories of Miss Marjory's liking for +the said "ugly trash," set the posy aside on a shelf at the back of +the bed, and so beyond the reach of his grandmother's eyes. + +"If Towpie wad lay anither egg," said the old lady at last, surveying +the _tout ensemble_ with a smile struggling with the frown which was +necessary to keep Janet Faa in subjection, "it wad nae be sae bad; but +I misdoot the silly thing is for clucking." + +"But it is two eggs there are, Peggy, woman, and the shentlemans is +never for eatin' but one egg," protested Janet, who occasionally +helped at the Big House, and was great, in consequence, on the ways +and customs of the quality. + +Peggy sniffed. "That may be your way o' thinkin', it's no mine. Ye +soudna press on a guest what ye're no able to tak' yoursel'. And I'd +no cook it, ye ken--I'd just offer it up to show there was ane--Lord +sakes! wha's yon at the door, an' me wi' my bald head. Quick, Janet, +woman, my mutch, and pit it straight, woman! I'll no have it cockit +over an ear as if I were tipsy." + +"It will only be the master," said little Paul, coming from the door. +"He will be having a letter for you he says with a penny to pay." + +"Then bid him tak' it back and pay himsel' if he's carin' for it. I'm +no. There's no letters for me that I'm carin' to have, and I'll just +no be fashed wi' them when there is company comin'--Hoot awa' wi' the +man comin' pryin', pryin', and me puttin' on my mutch for him." + +"But, Mistress Duncan," came in remonstrant tones from the door. + +"Oh! you're there are ye. Weel! I'm obleeged to ye, sir, for comin' +sae far oot o' ye're road. An' I must pit ye to the trouble o' takin' +it back again, and tellin' them as sent it that Peggy Duncan is on the +pairish an' hasna a penny to spare for their trash." + +Mr. McColl, standing outside, looked longingly at the blue envelope, +with the seal of a well-known firm of Writers-to-the-Signet upon it, +and hesitated. Was it worth paying a penny on the chance of being the +first to spread news? A momentous question, which left a tremble in +his voice as he called again. "But there will be naethin' to pay, +Mistress Duncan. Here! Paulie, my man, rin with it to your grannie. +And it will be Scriven an' Plead's name on the anvelope, and they will +be the foremost Writers-to-the-Signet in Glasgow, whatever." + +"They may be Writers to onybody else," retorted Peggy, taking the +bulky letter, however, and nodding to Mr. McColl, who had seized the +opportunity of slipping in so far. "But I dinna ken what right they +have to be Writers to me." + +The master put in a deft suggestion. "Then ye can see inside, Mistress +Duncan. If you are carin' for't I could be readin' it to you before I +was goin' on. I'm no in a hurry." + +Peggy's black eyes glittered with sheer malice as she tucked the +envelope away under her pillow, and lay back on it defiantly. + +"An' I'm no in a hurry, either, Mr. McColl, an' I would be asking you +to have a sup tea, but that I'm expectin' the quality; sae gude day to +ye, and mony thanks for your kindness." + +And yet when poor Mr. McColl had retired discomfited, bemoaning the +loss of his penny, and Janet Faa, having done her part of the +business, had left the kettle in charge of little Paul, who sate +outside watching for the first glimpse of Miss Marjory, the old woman +brought out the envelope again and looked at it wistfully. Perhaps the +thoughts of the long years, during which she had waited in vain for +some word of the husband who had deserted her, came back to her; yet +as she muttered to herself--as she did often when alone--it was not +that thought which came uppermost. + +"Aye! aye! it's a fine thing the readin' o' writin'. If it were aboot +the lassie now; and me promising never to speir, never to let ony +other body know! I canna break my word, an' me sae near the Judgment. +It is no as if I were a Papist, like Janet, puir body, that can just +awa' an' get absolution, ye ken. I maun carry my sins wi' me, and it +will be ill eneuch flyin' wi' what I've got." + +"May I come in, Mrs. Duncan?" said a clear voice, breaking in on the +old woman's preoccupation. As a matter of fact, however, the +permission was scarcely needed, for Violet Vane was already in the +room, close to the bed, her eyes on the letter; yet her first words +made it appear as if her attention had been given to something else. + +"Ah! you are expecting visitors, and I shall be in the way." + +"Naethin' o' the sort, ma'am," replied Peggy, hastily, as usual on the +lookout for a grievance. "I'm no sae sair put to it yet but that I can +spare a cup o' tea for them that takes the trouble to come and see the +auld wife." + +"And a very good cup of tea, too," put in Mrs. Vane. "What you gave me +the other day was delicious. I only meant that strangers may not be +welcome when friends are talking secrets." + +"I've nae friends and nae secrets," retorted the old woman, looking up +quickly. + +"Then you are lucky," continued her visitor, lightly. "Friends are +often troublesome, especially over secrets; nine times out of ten you +daren't ask their advice for fear of their knowing too much." + +"Ye'll no be askin' mony folks' advice, I'm thinking," said Peggy, +shrewdly. "Ye've plenty brains; eneuch for yoursel' and ithers to the +bargain." + +Mrs. Vane laughed. "Perhaps; but other folks' brains are better than +one's own sometimes. When I am in a difficulty I go to someone who is +as near a perfect stranger to me as possible and ask for advice. I +needn't take it, you know--Gracious! what is that?" That was a +clamorous cackling at the foot of the bed, and the stately march +therefrom of Towpie, the hen, triumphant over the laying of an egg in +her favourite nest. + +"Oh ye o' little faith!" cried Peggy; "and me misca'ing the puir +beastie! It's a special Providence, aye, aye. He neither slumbers nor +sleeps, ye ken. And you will no be goin' to stop at Gleneira long, I'm +thinking." The question followed fast on the quotation as if there was +some connection in the old woman's mind between them. + +"I leave it very soon, I'm sorry to say, as I think it the loveliest +place in the world; and it is sad to know that I shall not see it +again." + +The envelope had come put of its hiding-place again during this +speech, and Peggy was turning it over and over as if to attract +attention to it; but she failed, and had to resort to more direct +methods. + +"I canna think why they pit sic'can a big seal to a letter. Will there +be something on it that shoudna be broken?" + +"Not that I can see," replied Mrs. Vane, taking it up carelessly. +"Only the name, 'Scriven and Plead'--lawyers, Peggy--for there below +is W. S. Glasgow. It is what people call a lawyer's letter, I expect." + +"An' what will that be about?" + +"Heaps of things. I couldn't say without reading it; shall I?" But +Peggy's claw-like hand shot forth in quick negation. + +"I'll no be troubling you. I thocht, maybe, ye micht hae had +experience o' such things." + +"So I have, Peggy. Sometimes they are wills, and sometimes they are +money." + +"Aye!" interrupted the old woman, with a sinister chuckle, "but when +they're written to bit pauper bodies like me?" + +"Then they are generally questions," replied Mrs. Vane, and though she +spoke easily she was conscious of a certain agitation of mind. +"Agreeable or disagreeable. Something to help a lawyer in tracing +somebody, or finding out some secret." + +Peggy lay back on her pillows with a sort of groan. "'Tis only the +pain, ma'am," she explained, then paused awhile; "I was thinkin' maybe +'twas that. An' if you coudna answer them, what then?" + +"Nothing; they can't make you; only it is impossible to tell if you +can or cannot till you know the questions." + +"But if I canna know them without breaking a covenant? I might just +let the letter bide, maybe?" + +Mrs. Vane hesitated an instant to run over the pros and cons hastily. +There was some secret, that was evident, and though the letter might +not be concerned with it, on the other hand it might. Peggy was +disinclined to trust it to her on the instant, but might think better +of it by and bye; anyhow, the first thing to ensure was that no one +else should have the chance. + +"In that case, of course, you should, as you say, let it be. If it is +really important they will write again, and then it would be worth +while considering the matter. In the meanwhile, as a perfect stranger, +I should advise your setting it aside." + +Peggy looked at her admiringly. "It's a fine thing to hae deceesion o' +character, and me just fashing myself about it." + +"Shall I put it away for you in a safe place?" asked her visitor, as +the old lady proceeded to put the letter back under the pillow. + +"It's safe eneuch there," she retorted sardonically. "I'll no move +till they lift me to my coffin, an' that will no be far, for it's to +stand on the table whaur the tea is setten oot. I've planned it a' ye +see wi' Janet, and there's twa bottles o' gude whiskey wi' the deid +claes in the bottom drawer. Ye canna expec' sinfu' man tae sit wi' a +corp without spirits." + +Despite the humour of the thought, which at another time would have +outweighed the grimness, Mrs. Vane shivered. It seemed to her as if +old Peggy were a corp already in that dim box bed, where she lay so +still, only her angry eyes and twitching fingers showing sign of life. +It was a relief to hear the grumbling voice again. + +"Weel, yon's settled, thanks to you, an' I'll no be kep' lingerin' in +the deid thraw about papers that, for a' I ken, wad be as weel in the +fire. O, ma'am! ye dinna ken what it feels like to think o' bein' +called to the Throne, an' no bein' able to stir for the weight o' yer +sins. For a broken word is as heavy as lead ye ken." + +"Why should you talk of being called, Peggy," protested Mrs. Vane, +uneasily. "You are no worse than you were." But here in her +nervousness she forgot her tact, and the old woman was in arms at +once. "Maybe ye ken better nor me, ma'am, that's only tholing the pain +alone in the night watches." + +"Then you should get some of the neighbours to sit up." + +"Neebors!" interrupted Peggy, with an eldritch laugh. "They'll have +eneuch to do in settin' up wi' my corp; sae let them sleep on now an' +take _their_ rest." + +Mrs. Vane shivered again, and, a sudden distaste to the whole business +coming over her, made an excuse to escape; yet when, almost at the +threshold, she met Marjory and Dr. Kennedy on their way to Peggy's +entertainment, she paused with the lightest of laughs to tell them +that the old woman was in one of her worst moods, and would make their +hair stand on end. For her part she had had her fill of horrors, and +intended to shock Mrs. Woodward by asking for a spoonful of brandy in +her tea! It was a relief to joke over it for the time, even though in +her heart she knew that she would have a _mauvais quart d'heure_ +sooner or later; most likely later, when the time came for sleep and +she would have to seek the aid of that bottle of chloral--for Mrs. +Vane's mind was fragile as her body, and could not stand any great +strain. She could handle the reins deftly, and drive her team gaily +along the turnpike road, but she had never driven across country. So +it was a further relief to meet the butler in the hall carrying a +fresh teapot of tea into the drawing-room, while the footman followed +decorously bearing eight cups on a tray. Lady Hooker, the former +functionary replied, in answer to her inquiries, had driven over from +the Forest to see her ladyship in a _châr-a-banc_, with seven other +ladies, some children, and a piper playing on the box. He added the +last item in tones of tolerant contempt, born of a dispute downstairs +as to whether the musician should have his tea in the housekeeper's +room or the servants' hall; the womenkind, dazzled by his gorgeous +array, favouring the former, the menkind the latter, on the ground +that fine feathers did not make fine birds, and that without them he +was only Roderick the gillie's brother and a "hignorant 'ighland +beast" to boot. + +Lady George's face relaxed even at the sight of another woman, seeing +that that other was Mrs. Vane; for as she said afterwards, "It is +nearly twenty miles, you know, and a bad road, so the horses were +bound to have an hour's rest, and it requires a dreadful expenditure +of tissue to make tea last an hour; yet, if you don't, you have to put +on your boots in a hurry and begin the conservatories and the garden, +which no one wants to see in the least. Really, in the country, it +would be a charity to have a room where people could wait until the +horses came round, or rather, till the coachman got tired of flirting +with the maids, for in the end it comes to that, you know." + +To tell truth, there was cause for Lady George's welcome of +reinforcements, for, despite the fact that the hall positively reeked +of mackintoshes, the drawing-room was redolent of the shower-proof +mantles worn by a bevy of ladies of the type so common on Mr. +McBrayne's steamers; ladies whose conception of the Highlands and +islands might be likened to a volume of Scott bound in waterproof! + +"We brought our sandwiches for lunch with us," explained one in reply +to Mrs. Vane's commonplace about the long drive; "and dear Lady Hooker +said we might rely on Highland hospitality for tea; and really it was +exquisite, a dream of beauty, and so interesting, too! Dear Lady +Hooker says that a portion of Waverley was really written in this +neighbourhood." + +"I hope they were not the opening ones, then," remarked Mrs. Vane, +carelessly. "They always make me inclined to agree for the time with +the man who said it was a pity Sir Walter wrote in such small print." + +A perfectly bovine silence fell on her group, broken, however, by a +determined voice from over the way: + +"I agree with you absolutely, at least, as absolutely as the +limitations of human life allow. There is a lack of spiritual insight +in Sir Walter, a want of emotional instinct, an almost brutal content +with things as they are. His style is doubtless good, but personally I +confess to being unable to appreciate it fully. Even on a second +reading I find the story distracts my mind." + +The speaker was a slim, rather elegant-looking girl, with an odd +mixture of eagerness and stolidity on her face. + +"She writes a great deal," said Mrs. Vane's next-door neighbour in an +undertone of gratification, as if she gained a certain distinction by +being of the same party. + +"Only a hundred brace!" came Lady Hooker's voice, compassionately. +"That's very poor, scarcely worth writing for--but then, you don't +rent the place, of course; that makes the difference. Sir Joseph +doesn't go in for grouse, of course; he is a deer man. But we couldn't +get on under five hundred brace for the table, we really couldn't. +Cooks are so extravagant. You will hardly believe it, Lady Temple, but +my Glasgow beef bill last week was over nine pounds, and we had three +sheep besides, and--how many deer was it, Miss Jones? Six? Yes, six +deer." + +"That seems enough even for Noah's Ark or a menagerie," said Mrs. +Vane, sympathetically, and Lady George gave her a grateful smile. + +"But then, of course, the servants won't touch venison," went +on Lady Hooker, contentedly; "though really it makes very fair +clear soup--it does, indeed. Even Sir Joseph does not object; and +he is so particular. When we had the Marquis of Steyne's place in +Ross-shire----" + +"Ah! there are the children," said Lady George, with a sigh of relief. +"I thought, Lady Hooker, that my little boy and girl--oh, nurse! I did +not intend Master Blasius----" + +But nurse apparently had other views--possibly that of hearing the +pipes downstairs--for she feigned not to hear, and set Blazes down on +his feet with that final "jug" behind to his smock frock which is the +usual parting admonition to behave nicely. + +"Eve, my darling! Adam, my love! go and shake hands' with your little +visitors," said Lady George, keeping an apprehensive eye on Blazes, +who, with his legs very far apart, was clacking the whip he had +brought down with him, and making extraordinary cluckings in the roof +of his mouth, like a whole bevy of broody hens, in which occupation, +what with his close-cropped hair and white smock, he looked a carter +to the life. "Really, nurse!" she continued nervously; "I think, +perhaps, it would be better. He is so much younger than the others, +you see, Lady Hooker." + +But nurse was not to be put off with this subterfuge, and as she +happened to be keeping company with the carrier, she felt outraged by +the palpable suspicion. "Indeed, your ladyship," she said, in an +indignant whisper, "it is only the man as drives the ferry cart, and +'e is most respectable!" + +So it appeared, for beyond the usual "_ger'up_" Blasius' vocabulary +was, if anything, too endearing. So much so, that Lady George +suggested that since the children had had their tea, she thought it +would be nice for them to play on the lawn. She would ring for the +nursemaid to keep an eye on them, not that it would be necessary, +since she could trust darling Adam and Eve not to get into mischief +anywhere--out of Paradise. But here a difficulty presented itself. One +little girl, a very pretty child dressed in white serge and fur, +refused to go, and stood burying her face in the window curtain, and +digging the toe of one shoe into the carpet after the manner of +children who have made up their minds to give trouble. + +"She isn't my girl," came Lady Hooker's loud voice. "Sir Joseph +wouldn't tolerate that sort of thing, he is so particular. When we had +the Duke's place in Sutherland----" + +"Cressida, my sweet!" said the authoress, plaintively; "if you can +possibly wish to go, do wish; it would be so much more convenient for +dear little mother. I never coerce her, on principle, Lady George--she +is the only tie I have to life." + +"Separated from her husband," put in Mrs. Vane's next-door neighbour, +in the same self-complacent whisper. "It is quite the proper thing +when you write, you know." + +"That is what Lady George says also," broke in Mrs. Woodward, a little +spitefully. "And I tell her that children were made to obey their +parents----" + +"Should be made to obey them, you mean, dear Mrs. Woodward," +interrupted her hostess, rising to the bait; "but, as I say, it +depends upon experience. You may have found it necessary with--with +yours, but mine----" + +"And mine also!" broke in the lady who wrote, enthusiastically. +"Cressida's mind is so beautiful in its intense naturalness, so +delicate in texture. It is the instinctive shyness of a sensitive +organism which----" She started, and turned round, for a loud, full, +yet childish voice rose confidently above her words. + +"Blazeth' goin' to kiss the little gurl, then she won't be flighted, +but come along o' Blazeths." + +And she did, hand in hand, admiringly, while he cracked his whip and +cried, "_Ger'rup!_" to amuse her. + +"And he can do old Angus awful well, too," whispered Eve to her +companion, as they passed out of the door. "We'll get him to do it by +the burn when Mary isn't looking. Mary doesn't like it, you know, +because her young man is a shepherd, too; but he really is quite a +genteel young fellar, and kept company with the under 'rouse last year +at the Forest--that's your place, isn't it?" + +"It's a deal bigger than this," remarked the other. "And we have deers +and grouses." + +So the game of brag--which children play more naïvely than their +elders--began, while the authoress was explaining at length how it +came about that Cressida had consented to Blasius's methods of +persuasion. + +"I don't think you need distress yourself," remarked Mrs. Vane, with +an odd little smile; "Blazes is really a remarkable boy; he invariably +goes down straight to first principles, and that is a deadly method of +argument--especially with our sex." + +"Sex!" echoed the authoress, scenting the foe. "I deny the right of +man----" + +"Lady George!" said Mrs. Vane, hastily, "perhaps some of these ladies +might like to see the conservatories. I have on my boots." + +Blanche gave her another glance of heartfelt gratitude, and as she saw +her bear off a large contingent, told herself that she was worth three +of Alice Woodward, who was only equal to the bread and butter! And +Paul was anything but bread and butter! The thought, as such vagrant +ones have a trick of doing, begged for more consideration as she sate +turning a polite ear and tongue to the task of amusing the authoress, +who had remained behind; Mrs. Woodward meanwhile appearing deeply +interested in a certain place the Hookers had had in Perthshire, where +the gillies expected champagne and _pâti de foie gras_ for their ball +supper. And she was fast approaching that condition of mind in which +the only thing which prevents our owning up that we are out of our +depth is the conviction that we know quite as much of what we are +talking about as the other party to the conversation, when the sudden +reappearance of the garden contingent bearing two bundles wrapped in +waterproofs supplied an all too efficient distraction. + +For the waterproofs being set on the ground disclosed the coy Cressida +and Blasius, both dripping, and inconceivably smeared with tar; but +both to all appearance in the highest of spirits. + +Poor Lady George stood up tragically. + +"Yes!" replied Mrs. Vane, striving to be grave. "They are bad +children--all bad children," she added, turning to the group of elder +ones behind. + +"Oh, but we wasn't there!" came in a chorus, led by Adam and Eve, "we +wasn't, really. It's all his fault." + +"Don't! Don't come near me, child!" cried the devoted mother, hastily +retreating from the embrace of her only tie to life. "Cressida! +What--what have you been doing?" + +"Oh mummie! it was bewful. First he washted me, and then I washted +him, an' then we washted each other, didn't we, Blazes? and we said, +Haud up--ye----" + +"The child is dripping!" interrupted Lady George, hastily. "I will +ring for nurse. Oh! Blasius, how could you think of such a thing?" + +Mrs. Vane pointed slily to the furred white pelisse. "It is rather +tempting," she said, aside; but Blanche was not to be mollified. + +"And Mary? Where was Mary?" + +"Mary's dancing the Highland fling with James in the boot hole," +blabbed Eve, readily. "An' we wanted to dance too, but nursie was +there, an' so we comed away." + +"But where did you go? What were you doing? How came you not to see? +you two whom I can generally trust," persisted Lady George, growing +tearful from vexation, yet feeling vaguely that it all arose from +people bringing a piper with them when they came to call--a piper who +disorganised the household and introduced Highland flings into the +boot hole! "I insist, children, on hearing what you were all doing." + +There was a dead silence, until for the first time Blazes lifted up +his loud, mellow voice, as he stood disregarded by a chair smearing +his tarry hands stolidly over its cover in a vain effort to amend +matters before nurse appeared. + +"They was flicking piggy wif a pin, and piggy was 'quealin' louder nor +Blazeths." + +And even Lady George--when the _châr-a-banc_ had driven off, piper and +mackintoshes and all, with Cressida kissing her still tarry hands to a +struggling figure in Mary's arms at the nursery window--was forced to +admit that Blazes generally went straight to the point; and that after +all it had helped to pass the time. And as for Mary, she declared that +her ladyship might say what she liked about 'orseplay, an' lendin' +'erself to savage an' indignified dances in a boot 'ole, but 'ighland +flings wasn't in it--for a stetch in yer side an' no 'airpins to speak +of--with Master Blazes when you 'ad to 'old 'im and 'e didn't meant to +be 'eld. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +For the next few days after the visit to old Peggy, which convinced +her that some secret lay in the old woman's keeping, Mrs. Vane +refrained from any attempt to interfere with Providence. To begin +with, she felt vaguely that the Scotch marriage laws were dangerous, +and the very fact that she knew enough of Paul to be sure that this +was not likely to be a mere vulgar entanglement, made her hesitate +before her own suspicions. On the other hand, this possibility of a +new string to her bow inclined her to slack off the other; the more so +because here again she was beginning to be afraid of her own weapon. +She had always recognised that, but for her interference, Paul would +have held to that discretion which is the better part of valour, have +seen no more of Marjory, and forgotten her; also, that the girl +herself had been quite as ready to dismiss this strange, if alluring, +figure from her thoughts, as belonging to a society--nay! to a +world--in which she had no part. But now? Mrs. Vane, as she watched +the easy familiarity which had of necessity recommenced between them, +as she noted the girl's quick, healthy response to the thousand and +one new thoughts and ways of this new life, could not help wondering +if the awakening to new pleasures might not rouse into action a new +set of emotions and instincts. For Marjory, as for Paul, there was +also danger; to her from the unfamiliarity, to him from the very +familiarity of the environment, which threw him back on past +experience, and rendered it well-nigh impossible for him to forget his +own nature, and dream himself in Arcadia. And then Dr. Kennedy's +appearance had complicated matters for Mrs. Vane, who, kindly to all, +had a weak spot in her heart for the friend of her earliest youth. It +did not take long for her sharp eyes to pierce through his pretence of +mere guardianship, and it gave her quite a pang to think of giving him +one. Yet here she comforted herself by the palpable jealousy which +Marjory showed towards those youthful days; a jealousy she did not +scruple to stimulate, for Mrs. Vane, with all her _finesse_, +occasionally made a mistake, and in the present instance did not +realise that in thus, as it were, emphasising a hitherto unknown side +of Dr. Kennedy's life she was adding to the strangeness of the +environment in which Marjory found herself; and at the same time +suggesting that it was no new thing to the one person to whose opinion +she was inclined to defer. So that, instead of helping her old friend +by the time-honoured device of exciting jealousy as a prelude to love, +Mrs. Vane, in reality, made it easier for the girl to drift from her +moorings. + +"You are very kind to your ward," said the little lady one day, +feeling impelled to give comfort as she noticed Dr. Kennedy's eyes +following Marjory rather wistfully. "But virtue has its own reward. Do +not pretend you don't understand, _Monsieur le Docteur!_ for you do. +And I will give you my opinion--when she has seen a little more of the +world she will see what _it_ has seen already--that there are not many +men in it like Dr. Tom Kennedy." + +"She will see exactly what she chooses to see, _Madame!_" he replied, +with one of his little foreign bows, which, to Marjory, seemed to +reveal him in a new and worldly light. + +"Exactly," retorted the little lady; "and being of the Truth will +choose the Truth." And then suddenly her mood changed, and she laid +her hand close to his on the table as if to attract his attention to +her quick emotion. "Ah, _mon ami_, I envy you! you can afford to wait +for Paradise, and I have had mine. At least, I feel as if I had eaten +my apple and been turned out into the cold, for there hasn't been much +happiness in my life." + +He looked at her with 'grave pity, noting with the eye of one +accustomed to the work the thousand and one little signs of wear and +tear in the clever, mobile face. + +"You have put plenty into other people's lives, anyhow," he said, in +kindly, if cold, comfort; and his words were true. With all her faults +Mrs. Vane had given more to the world than she had ever taken from it. + +Marjory, watching the little scene from afar, felt something of this, +as she told herself it was quite natural that Tom should enjoy the +companionship of his old friend. Who, in fact, would not enjoy talking +to so brilliant and charming a woman? at least, in this new world, +which could not somehow be cleft in two by a straight line dividing +right from wrong, darkness from light. + +Yet, though she acknowledged this, she was as far as ever from +understanding it, and as ready as ever to disdain anything which +bordered on sentiment; on that unknown ground of Love or Passion. + +Dr. Kennedy, repeating to her his part of _jeune premier_ in the +little play which was to precede some tableaux, realised her lack of +change in this respect with mingled gratification and regret. + +"I must keep my own counsel," he recited, in the even yet jerky tone +sacred to the learning of parts, "em--and not let her suspect the deep +attachment she has inspired--inspired--inspired. Now, don't tell me, +please; I know what comes next. Yes! I do, Mademoiselle! In nine cases +out of ten a proposal! So there! Well, where were we? Ah! 'But, soft' +(depends greatly on the stage floor, my dear sir). 'But, soft! she +comes!' Go on, Marjory. 'Enter Blanche--she comes,' is your cue." + +"'Tis he! Henri!' Oh! Tom, do let us skip all that bosh!" + +Dr. Kennedy put down the hazel root he was whittling into a shepherd's +crook and looked at her in feigned surprise. "Bosh! Why, I intend to +work this up until I draw tears from every eye." + +"Not from mine, Tom," smiled Marjory; "that sort of thing always makes +me laugh." + +They were lounging under the beech tree which grew close to the burn +at the bottom of the garden, and the dappled sunshine and shade from +the green canopy overhead made the green draperies outlining the fine +curves of Marjory's slender figure seem like a dress of leaves. +Leaning forward on the grass, her chin resting on her hands, her curly +head thrown back half-defiantly to look him in the face, she reminded +Dr. Kennedy of Rosalind; yet it was of another heroine that he spoke. + +"Poor Juliet! I suppose she ought not to have survived to the +nineteenth century!" + +Marjory's eyebrows puckered themselves in doubt. "I don't mean that; +perhaps I don't know what I mean; but Juliet loved Romeo, and +these"--she nodded at the little book between her elbows in careless +contempt--"they--they--Tom! you must allow there is too much of--of +that sort of thing." + +He went on whittling for a moment; it was the first time he had ever +touched on the subject with Marjory, and he felt at once curious and +constrained. + +"I am afraid that sort of thing--as you call it--will not reduce +itself to please you; it is part, and perhaps a necessary part, of +life," he said shortly. + +"A part!" returned the girl, eagerly. "Not all? Now, in the novels and +these plays one hears of little else. It is all hero and heroine; +work, ambition, failure, success, are nowhere. It is very +uninteresting--don't you think so?" + +Dr. Kennedy's face was a study in humour and gravity. + +"Upon my word, I don't know, my child! But most people think otherwise +at some time of life. And you are a little hard, surely; you should +remember that after all the love-season is generally the crisis of +life's fever. Put it another way; the touchstone by which we can test +the lovers' ideal;" he paused till his innate doubt made him add: "At +least it should be so, though I'm afraid it isn't--not always." + +She looked at him, and a troubled expression came to her eyes. "I +suppose not," she said absently; "that has always been a puzzle to me. +To love, and yet not to approve, seems to me a contradiction in +terms." The chips flew faster from the knot Dr. Kennedy was smoothing. + +"You talk as if love were reducible to logic, but it isn't." Then +the impossibility of a mutual understanding made him add more gently: +"It isn't a thing you can reason about. It comes and goes as it +chooses--not as you choose. That is the difficulty." + +"Difficulty," echoed Marjory, raising herself with a belligerent +air to clasp her hands about her knees and subside again into a +half-dreamy defiance as she sate looking out over the burn to the +sunlit point stretching into the blue loch. "It is manifestly unfair +if it is so; only I don't think it is. Else how is it possible to hold +love sacred? How is it possible to believe in it?" + +"I am afraid it will be believed in to the end of the chapter all the +same," replied her hearer, with a smile. "And it isn't so unfair when +all is said and done, since 'a love that is tender and true and strong +crowneth the life of the giver.'" + +She turned on him sharply. "Where does that come from? Some extremely +sentimental---- Why, Tom! I believe you wrote that--now did you? Come! +own up!" + +"I might have guessed it wouldn't pass muster with a young person who +has taken honours in English literature and knows the Elizabethan +poets by heart," he replied gravely. "Yes! Marjory, I am responsible +for that particular version of a time-honoured, crusted old sentiment. +I wrote it in delirium, or something like it--if that is any excuse." + +She edged closer to him in girlish eagerness. "This is quite +delightful. I never knew you wrote rhymes. I do, and burn them; but +_you!_ Come, tell me the rest at once." + +"Perhaps I burn them, too." + +"Oh! but that is only pretence, you know, just to keep oneself in +subjection. One remembers them all the same. I do. So now, once, +twice, thrice!" + +He gave an odd little grimace. "It was last year when I had fever," he +began apologetically. + +"In Paris?" + +"No! They had sent me to the country, and there was a stream and some +reeds. I could see them as I lay in bed, and so---- Now, mind, if once +I begin to swear I won't leave off under half-a-crown!" + +"I wouldn't mind giving three shillings if it were worth it; so go on, +Tom, why should you be bashful?" + +"Because I was delirious when I wrote it, of course," he replied; yet +there was a real tremor in his voice, as he began:-- + + + "Where the river's golden sheen floats by + The plumes of the tall reeds touch the sky, + Like arrows from out a quiver. + But one bends over to reach the stream, + Dreaming of naught but the golden gleam, + Weary for love of the river. + + "'Oh, river! river! thou flowest fast; + Yet leave me one kiss as thou goest past-- + One kiss, to be mine for ever!' + She bent her head to the shining flood; + On swept the river in careless mood, + Mocking her poor endeavour. + + "'Oh, river! river! give back to me + Some token of all I have given to thee, + To show thou art my lover!' + But the only answer to her prayer + Was the shade of her own love mirrored there, + With the reeds that grew above her. + + "The proud reeds chid her, yet still she sighed, + Wondering such love could be so denied; + While ever towards the ocean, + Dreaming deep dreams of that future free, + The river swept on to the unknown sea, + Careless of her devotion. + + "A bird flew down when the sun set red, + To sing his hymn from the reed's bowed head + To God, the All-good Giver. + Bowed by the weight of the singing bird, + At long, long last the waters stirred, + As the reed's plume touched the river. + + "'Oh! glad and sweet,' sang the bird, 'is Life, + And Death is sweet, bringing Peace to Strife, + But Love is God's best treasure. + It cometh best when it comes unsought, + It giveth all, and it asketh naught, + For true love hath no measure,' + + "The bird flew home when its song had ceased. + The reed, from its one dear kiss released, + Shall give another never; + But a silver crown of dewdrops shone, + Telling of true love given, not won, + In the reed's bright plume for ever. + + "Go forth, my song! so that all may learn + Love, like the reed's, needeth no return, + Save the baptism of the river. + Though the heart be sad, and the way be long, + A love that is tender, and true, and strong, + Crowneth the life of the giver." + + +Dr. Kennedy recited well; the tremor of his voice had soon passed, and +with it, apparently, all sense of the personal application of the +verses; for as he sate, still whittling away at the hazel root, his +keen brown face wore a half-humorous and half-puzzled look, and after +a decent pause he gave an odd sort of laugh. + +"It sounds pretty," he said; "but upon my word I don't know quite what +I meant, and I am almost certain it was not love, not what is +generally understood by love." + +Marjory looked at him judgmatically. "Nonsense! Of course it was love, +and what is more, Tom, I think you must have been in love when you +wrote it. Now confess, were you not?" + +Once again the temptation to say "Yes! with you," rose uppermost; only +to meet with the old revulsion of feeling, born of the knowledge of +things hidden from her, and please God! always to be so hidden. In +love! Great heavens, no! if that were love. And yet, how could he +answer for her nature as well as his own? For a nature which his +practised eye told him was full of vitality, full of possibilities; +and young, ah! so young as yet in its knowledge of itself. If he told +her that he loved her and asked her to marry him, the chances were ten +to one that she would say "Yes." And yet the conviction that it was so +brought him no content, but only something of tender reluctance for +her, of vague contempt for himself. + +"In love!" he echoed. "I was in a delirium if you meant that, or near +it. Temperature a hundred and five point two, and Abbeville--he was +nursing me--good luck to him!--had just confessed there was not much +chance; as if I hadn't known that for days!" + +"And you never told me," she said, after a pause. + +"No; I didn't want to bother you, and----" He looked up to see her +face white, and his manner changed. "Don't, child! it's past and +over--besides I have a knack of pulling through--I am sorry I +mentioned it, now." + +"What is it?" she asked, in a constrained voice. "I should like to +know, if I may?" + +"My dear! of course you may. Pyæmia; the knife slipped, that was all. +The veriest scratch. What a fool I was to mention it!" + +"Don't say that," she flashed out suddenly. "Don't you know that I +like to hear everything--everything----" She paused, and her quick +resentment seemed to die down before a keener thought, and she sate +silent for a while. "I can scarcely think what it would have meant to +me," she went on, half to herself, before she turned her face to him +again. "I should have been quite alone in the world then, you know, +Tom." + +"Until you made a home of your own, perhaps," he replied quietly, +being, like most men of his temperament, somewhat given to +self-torture. + +"Perhaps; but it would never be the same," she said, as quietly. "It +would never seem to be the haven of rest that the thought of your +goodness is to me now. Do you know, Tom, that I always hearten myself +up by saying that if I am tired I can always ask you to let me rest, +and you would, wouldn't you?" As she spoke she stretched out her hand +towards him in her favourite gesture of appeal, and both of his, +leaving their work, had reached to it eagerly and clasped it close. + +"Marjory!" he said, a surge of sheer happiness flooding heart and +brain with unalloyed content. "Promise me that always--and--and I am +satisfied." + +"Promise what?" she asked, smiling through the sudden tears which +brightened her eyes. "That I will come home to rest if I am tired? Of +course I shall. What is the use of having you, Tom, the best, the +kindest, if I don't make use of you? And I will. I'll come home fast +enough, you'll see, if----" She paused to give a wise shake of her +head, and then, clasping the hand he had released over the other which +lay upon her knee, she looked out absently over the running water at +her feet. + +"I wonder how I shall like it?" she continued. "I wonder if it will be +what I have fancied it?" + +"Probably not," replied her companion, with a quick dread at his +heart. For how could it be so? What could this girl's imagining have +to do with that world which he knew so well: so well that the finer +tissue in him rebelled against the teaching which his very profession +forced him to accept as true, at any rate for the majority of men and +women. "Probably not," he repeated more quietly, "though that is just +the sort of thing it is impossible to predict of a girl who has been +brought up as you have. So it must be settled by experience." + +Half an hour afterwards Paul Macleod, coming over to the Lodge on the +pretence of giving notice of an afternoon rehearsal, found them still +busy over the loves and woes of Henri and Blanche. In fact, Dr. +Kennedy was on his knees disclaiming his part passionately; whereat +the newcomer frowned. First at the sight, secondly at his own dislike +to it. + +"I have been trying to teach Miss Carmichael how to refuse an aspirant +firmly, yet sympathetically," said the doctor, coolly, rising to his +feet and putting the handkerchief he had spread on the ground into his +pocket; "but she finds a difficulty, apparently, in keeping her +countenance. It is a mistake, Marjory. Half the unhappy marriages in +the world come from the difficulty which the untutored mind has in +saying 'No' with decent courtesy. It is so much easier to say 'Yes,' +since that requires no diplomacy. If I had daughters I should always +impress on them that the eleventh commandment does not consist in +'Thou shalt not refuse.'" + +"I shouldn't have thought it necessary to impress that on the girls of +the present day," remarked Paul, rather hastily, and Marjory flushed +up at once. + +"It is never safe to generalise from a single experience, Captain +Macleod," she retorted, "and yours may have been exceptionally +fortunate--hitherto." + +"Perhaps it has--hitherto," he replied, and, after delivering his +message, went off in a huff. Yet he felt himself more on a plane with +Marjory than he had ever done before, slightly to his discomfiture; +for this atmosphere of quick give and take, this suspicion of jealous +anger, was familiar to him, and he could not mistake its +possibilities. So he devoted himself more than usual to his duty, and +though, of course, he made up his tiff a trifle sentimentally with +Marjory, he chose to be rather lordly over her relations with Dr. +Kennedy, and even went so far as to mention to his sister that he +suspected her _protégé_, Mr. Gillespie, was forestalled. + +"My dear Paul!" said Lady George, distractedly, "I really don't care +at the present moment who marries who. I might be in a better world +for that matter, if I weren't in Purgatory." + +"Wherefore?" asked Paul, kindly. + +"Oh! the supper, and the servants, and the general civility," replied +Blanche, who was in reality enjoying the bustle, but, at the same +time, liked to pose as a victim. "Really, in these out-of-the-way +places one has to be a virtuous woman, and bring one's food from afar; +and then there is always Blasius. I suppose it is the name, as you +say, George, but, really, I don't believe that child _can_ do what is +right." + +"Nonsense, my dear," retorted her spouse, who ever since he undertook +to interpret the laws of nature to his youngest born had been a trifle +jealous of his pupil's reputation. "Blasius won the Derby in '73. What +has the child been doing now?" + +"Oh! nothing much; only he wouldn't eat his dinner just now because it +was only an egg, and the others had mutton. He really is too young to +have meat every day; so, as I was busy, I told nurse to put him to +bed, and he is sitting up in it making the most unearthly noises, as +if the whole farmyard were in the top landing. Listen! you can hear +him down here." + +There could be no doubt of it, and as they stood in the hall, looking +up involuntarily, a perfect babel of cluckings and cacklings, crowings +and quackings, seemed to come down the stairs with Mary, the +nursemaid, who was bearing the dirty dishes from the nursery dinner; +among them Blazes' despised egg. + +"The worst of it is," went on Lady George, in her high, plaintive +voice, "you never really know what the child means. Why, for instance, +should he cackle, as if he had laid an egg himself?" + +'"Um!" grumbled her husband. "More to the purpose why he refused his +dinner? Here, let me look at that tray, will you? By Jove, Blanche!" +he went on, holding out the egg-cup excitedly, "it's bad--no child +could be expected to eat that--what a fool!" + +He was half-way up the stairs impetuously when his wife begged him to +be discreet, and wait for her. + +"It is just what I said," she confided to Paul, who followed full of +laughter. "You never can tell what he means till afterwards; now, of +course, I can guess that--that----" She paused, feeling that words +were unnecessary before the spectacle of Blasius, standing beside the +round, white pillow of his cot, and cackling vehemently. But Lord +George was too angry for amusement, and after an elaborate apology to +Blazes for the mistake, handed him over to the nurse with a sharp +order to re-dress him and take more care in future, which enabled that +functionary to veil her real regret under a show of indignation until +Blasius, who was sitting on her knee, and could presumably see more of +the truths than others, said consolingly: + +"Never mind, nursie! Cocky eat his own egg next time." Whereupon, she +burst into tears and hugged him for a darling, and a treasure, and the +one comfort of her life. + +"I don't think his meaning was obscure that time, Blanche," said her +husband, as they went downstairs. "If Cocky had committed the +indiscretion of laying a bad egg, why then--God bless the boy, he is a +little trump!" + +"And has a wisdom beyond his years," added Paul, rather cynically; +"for he lays the blame where it should be given--on the Creator." + +"My dear Paul! what a dreadful thing to say; please remember he is +your god-son." + +"Well, if he doesn't hear it from me he will from others, my dear +girl," replied her brother, with a shrug of the shoulders. "It is the +teaching of to-day. We are none of us responsible beings." + +"And upon my soul," growled Lord George, "I'm inclined to agree with +it in one sense--think of that fool of a nurse!--you should dismiss +her, Blanche." + +"But, my dear Paul," persisted Lady George, disregarding her husband's +suggestion, "the question of heredity does not exclude the forces of +education. We can be altered----" + +"I've heard you say a dozen times, Blanche, that an altered body is +never satisfactory, even with the best of dressmakers," interrupted +Paul, as he turned off to the smoking-room. "So why should you think +it would answer with a soul?" + +"There is something the matter with Paul," remarked his sister, who +disliked above all things to have the logical sequence of her own +theories flung in her face; "but that is only to be expected. When one +is busy troubles come crowding in on every side. However, I have +written to Lady Hooker, and begged her as a personal favour not to +bring the piper to-morrow night; for, though I have warned the +servants about Highland flings, you cannot expect people to overcome +their natural instincts nowadays, and of course we shall be enjoying +ourselves, in a way, upstairs." + +"I hope so," assented her husband, gloomily; "and I suppose, my dear, +I shall get my towel-horse back when it is all over." + +"Now, George! isn't that like a man?" cried his wife, triumphantly, +as if appealing to him for verification of a new and interesting +fact about himself. "As if you didn't know that tableaux in the +drawing-room and towel-horses in the bedrooms were quite incompatible +when scenery is required--especially rustic scenery. And Mrs. Vane +requires so many rocks! You may be thankful it wasn't _boulders_, for +then the pillows would have gone, and what would you have said to +that?" + +Lord George said nothing, but as he followed his brother-in-law's +example and turned off to the smoking-room, some connection of ideas +made him hum to himself:-- + + + "Out of my stony grief Bethels I'll raise." + + +"Really, George!" called his wife, indignantly; "you and Paul are +_impayable_. It is a wonder Adam and Eve are so good." + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +Private theatricals as a rule need no description, but these in the +barn at Gleneira House merit at least so much attention, in that, +for the major part of the audience, they were the first attempt at +play-acting it had ever seen; since even in the British Isles culture +and civilisation have not harried the glens which are hidden away in +the hearts of the hills. To tell truth, not a few of the audience came +doubtfully with a fear lest they might be backsliders; but, as luck +would have it, the Free Church section, being in process of choosing a +new minister, felt it could afford, for once, to test the iniquity of +the stage by actual experience. Besides, if the laird led the way, +there were still sufficient of the clan to follow him even to the jaws +of hell. So they came and waited for the curtain to rise, with a +quaint trepidation lest they should really enjoy themselves, and so +give place to the devil. + +But there was someone else besides the "_unco guid_" who felt vaguely +as if it would have been better she had not been there, as if she +wished that both the immediate past and the present had never come to +pass. And that was Marjory, as she stood at the far corner by the +door, whence she could escape easily when she was wanted behind the +scenes. Perhaps her face showed something of this, for Paul Macleod, +pausing beside her for a moment, said in a low tone: + +"I've seen Mrs. Vane act in 'Her Bitterest Foe' before, and she alone +would carry it off. Then Bertie is splendid at the heavy parts, and +Dr. Kennedy, by all accounts, is almost professional. There is no +fear, I'm sure." + +She turned to him quickly. "Do I look nervous? I think I am, chiefly +from the novelty. It is the first play I've ever seen, remember." + +He knew that, and yet the idea struck him again with a certain regret +for her and for himself. For her that she should see one at all, for +himself that he should have seen so many. "After all," he parodied +lightly, "it is better sometimes never to have lived than to have +lived it all! There goes the prompter's bell, so keep your eyes open, +Miss Carmichael." + +There was no need for the advice, since the first look filled the girl +with astonishment at the almost ridiculous reality which the glare of +the footlights gave to the shreds and patches of scenery she had +helped to put together. No wonder, therefore, if Mrs. Vane, in her +simple black dress, looked the _ingenue_ to perfection, and Major +Bertie's honest English face had quite a German cut about it. And how +well they acted! The ring of rough tenderness in the General's voice +was all that could be desired, while Mrs. Vane was faultlessly simple +and girlish. It could scarcely, Marjory told herself, be better; and +oh, how dreadful--how unbearable it would be if Tom fell below that +high standard! Another minute and his cue would come; so much she +knew, and a really hot regret rose up in her that she had not insisted +on invading the privacy of the rehearsals; then she would have known +what to expect. Yet what could he do with such a part? A part which +had always sounded to her so unreal, so unlike the man himself, so +unlike---- Then who was this hasty, hot-headed, imperious, impetuous +boy who burst upon the stage? She gave quite a little gasp of dismay, +and then forgot everything save that figure kneeling at its mistress's +feet, and pouring out its love, its grief, its remorse. + +"Bravo!" said Paul, under his breath, then added, in a different tone, +"You see there is no need to be nervous--he does it _con amore_." + +A sudden jealousy had leapt up in him at the thought that Marjory +might listen to such wooing, and as he moved away to the vacant place +left for him by Alice Woodward, he told himself, with resentful +cynicism, that it was not the first time Dr. Kennedy had played the +lover's part, and that even Marjory should be satisfied by the +plaudits which were sure to follow. + +But she was not thinking of applause. She was too startled, too dazed +to think at all, for something new and hitherto undreamt of in her was +responding passionately to the passionate appeal to which she +listened, and her clasp on the chair behind which she stood slackened +in relief as the kiss of forgiveness was given. Oh, that was right! +Who, loving the man, would not forgive? Who could help it in such +case? And this--yes! this was love! + +It seemed to her as if the play passed in a moment, and yet that it +had stolen the reality from all the rest of her life; nor did she +realise who the actors were until, amid the applause with which the +curtain came down, she heard two familiar voices from the row of +chairs in front of her. + +"Bravo! Bravissimo!" said one. "That was well done. He has my +compliments." + +"And mine," quoth the other, solemnly jocose. "But to think of it? Oh, +Thomas, my lad, _quod medicorum est promettant medice_, but this is no +healing o' hearts, man! Eh! Father Macdonald, but we will have at the +learned impostor; we will!" + +"_Amor al cor gentil ralto s'apprende_," put in the gentler voice, in +the same jocose strain; and then they both laughed. + +Marjory stepped back involuntarily as if to avoid hearing more; but +she had heard enough, for there, as she raised her eyes, stood Dr. +Kennedy and Mrs. Vane, bowing their acknowledgments of the recall. The +old life had come back again, but with a strange new thrill in it +which made her heart beat, yet left her dazed and weary. + +"If I could always act with Tom Kennedy," said Mrs. Vane, jubilant +over the success, when Marjory went behind the scenes to aid in the +coming tableaux, "I should make my fortune. He is the only amateur I +ever saw who knows how to make love!" + +"He did it very well," assented Marjory, coldly. She felt glad that he +was too busy with the scenery for her to have speech with him; she +would not have known what to say--for she had liked it--she had +understood--and yet!---- It was bad enough to listen for a moment to +Paul's approval when he came round, escorting Alice Woodward, who was +wanted for the statue in "Winter's Tale." + +"You should be satisfied," he said with intent. "Personally I never +saw it better done, on--or off the stage." + +But then a look at the girl's face drove him back quick as thought to +the old Arcadian days when they had been so friendly. + +"I wish the whole business were over," he said sharply. "It's an awful +nuisance, and you will all be dead tired to-morrow." + +"But Lord George will have his towel-horse again!" she answered, +lightly turning to a current jest as a shelter from the sense of his +thoughtfulness for her. "And there are but three more tableaux." + +"Three," he echoed; "there are only two on the programme." + +"But the other is Mrs. Vane's _bon-bouche_ to the house party. She +said they deserved a surprise; but I believe she would just as soon +let it slide--for she is very tired, Captain Macleod. Only it would be +hard on Mr. Gillespie, who is full of his part; besides it really +should be the prettiest of all--Mrs. Vane took so much trouble over +it." + +"Are you in it--and Dr. Kennedy?" he asked quickly. + +"No, only I--and Mr. Gillespie, of course. You see it was for the +house party." + +And Paul, as he went off to do host, wondered angrily what Violet +could mean; she always meant something--at least that was his +experience of her. The wonder lingered as he sate decorously between +Mrs. Woodward and Lady Hooker in the front row, listening between the +scenes to the account the latter gave of some tableaux she had got up +when they rented the Marquis of Tweedie's place in Peebleshire, and +whispering to the former, when the curtain rose finally on Alice as +Joan of Arc at the stake, that he hoped it was the last time her +daughter would suffer martyrdom in his house. For Paul invariably said +the right thing, if it paid him to do so, no matter what his real +feelings were at the moment; at the present time they were somewhat +mixed; the preponderant one being irritation at the whole round world. + +And now, that being the last tableau on the programme, the guests were +manifestly becoming filled with uneasy wonder as to whether they were +expected to make the move or not, when the tinkle of the bell warned +them of something more, and after a minute's pause the lights went out +suddenly. Then from the darkness came Wagner's "March of the Gods to +Walhalla," and the curtain, rising slowly, showed a scene which well +deserved the murmur of recognition which ran round the more critical +part of the audience. + +"Shouldn't have thought towel-horses could have done it--but she is a +deuced clever little soul," murmured Lord George to his neighbour, and +in truth, considering the resources at Mrs. Vane's command, the effect +was well-nigh marvellous. In the distance lay a stretch of sea and sky +lit by the light of a dying sunset which gained an almost real +radiance from the darkness of the foreground, where, with its back to +the audience, its foot upon the brink, a mailed figure, sword in hand, +bent, as if meditating a leap over the shadowy gulf which lay between +it and a low platform of rock overhanging the misty blue depths of the +distant sea. And on the rock, her silver helmet laid aside, her head +pillowed on her white arm, slept a warrior-maiden with her face turned +to the sunsetting. She was clad in soft, filmy, white draperies, but +the corselet of silver she wore above them rose and fell evenly with +her calm breathing; while round about her--so close that it seemed to +touch her wavy hair and silver, wing-shod feet--flickered and flamed a +mystic circle of fire. + +"What is it? What is it meant to be?" came eagerly from many of the +audience. And Paul knew--knew all too well--but he sate silent, +crushing down his anger at the skill of the thrust. + +"What is it?" echoed Alice Woodward, who, with an opera cloak thrown +over her last costume, had returned to her rôle of spectator. "Why, +Brynhild, of course, mamma! The Nibelungen, you know--we heard that +German tenor in it, if you remember. Mrs. Vane has staged it +beautifully, hasn't she, Captain Macleod; and how well the dress suits +Miss Carmichael's style. That is Mr. Gillespie, of course; he looks +taller in armour. You know, mamma, it is a sort of allegory. Sigurd +has to leap----" She paused abruptly to look at her companion. He had +started to his feet, and a quick cry of "Take care! Take care!" rose +from various parts of the house, for a breath of wind, coming from +some opening door, had bent the flames perilously near to those filmy +draperies. + +"Look out, Gillespie! for God's sake look out!" he shouted; but the +mailed figure, failing to understand, turned to the audience, and the +next instant Paul, tearing off his coat the while, had leapt over the +footlights, and scattering the circle in his hurry was on his knees +beside Marjory crushing out the fire which had caught her dress. The +heated spirit spilt on the floor blazed up fiercely, almost hiding +those two, and rousing a shriek of dismay from the ladies. + +"Down with the curtain and keep the draught out!" shouted Paul; "and +run back the carpet some of you. Lie still a moment, please--it is +beyond you." + +As a matter of fact the sudden burst of flame was nearer to the mailed +figure, who, being penned in between it and the falling curtain, chose +the footlights and landed in Mrs. Woodward's arms a second before Dr. +Kennedy's voice rang out reassuringly to say it was all right. + +"You might bring a blanket, Kennedy," said Paul, still with his arms +round Marjory. "If you will excuse me a moment longer, Miss +Carmichael, it will be wiser--muslin is so apt to flare. Tell me if I +am hurting you." + +Perhaps he did not mean--being a gentleman in most ways--to lower his +voice in the least, and yet he did lower it. He could scarcely help +himself with that touch thrilling through him, and at the sound of the +tenderness in his own tones something in him seemed to cast itself +loose from all anchorage and, spreading white wings over the tempest +of emotion that arose in him, to bear him swiftly to a haven of +perfect content. + +"I'm not hurt at all," she said; yet she looked at his face so close +to hers with startled eyes, and gave a little shiver; then went on +hastily. "But you--your shirt sleeve is all burnt--it is smouldering +still. Tom! come quick! No! No!--not for me. There was a spark still, +Captain Macleod--I saw it----" + +"It is out now at any rate--be still for one more second, please. +Thanks, Kennedy--just slip it under while I lift. So--a perfect +roly-poly! That is well over!" + +He spoke lightly again, but he had grown very pale, and much to his +annoyance found himself in the doctor's hands for a scorch on his arm. +However, as his sister said plaintively, that and the unfortunate +break-up of Lord George's lamented towel-horse in the hurry was the +only mischief done. It might have been much worse, and though of +course it was really quite a lovely tableau--for which Mrs. Vane +deserved the highest praise--still it was a dangerous experiment. It +generally was dangerous to play with fire, remarked Paul, impatiently, +and had not his sister better make some diversion among the guests, or +they would be leaving with a sense of judgment on their souls. A reel +or two would hearten them up, while a glass of whiskey, and some weak +negus for the ladies before they went away, would finish the business. +Of course there was no piper, but Miss Carmichael could play "The +de'il amang them" to perfection, and would do that much to help +Gleneira, he felt sure. + +There is no greater test of the quality of a man's fibre than the way +in which he stands the goad of mental pain. Paul Macleod, smarting +under the sting which the certain knowledge that he loved Marjory +Carmichael as he had never loved any woman before and yet that she was +beyond his reach brought to him, showed this indubitably. All his +reckless self-will, all his wild resentment against controlling +circumstance, rose up in him, and only the fact that he had no +possible opportunity of so doing, prevented him from then and there +making his proposal to Alice Woodward. This may seem a strange +sequence to the discovery that you love another woman, but it was just +this discovery which set him in arms against himself. For this love +was a new emotion--a love which suited the girl with her clear eyes--a +love such as he had hitherto scouted as a dream fit only for +passionless, sexless idealists. + +And the result of this deliberate choice of lower levels was in its +way stranger still. For Alice Woodward, whose emotion under any +circumstances could never have risen to a higher point than calm +affection, felt more content than she had ever done over the future, +and actually lingered in her mother's room--a most unusual event in +that reserved family--to remark that Gleneira was really delightful in +the fine weather when the house was full of people. + +"Captain Macleod showed immense presence of mind, too," assented Mrs. +Woodward, contributing her quota to the general satisfaction. + +"Very!" admitted Alice, colouring a little, "and he behaved so nicely +afterwards. In such good spirits, you know, though of course he must +have been in pain." + +So they retired to bed, well content with the state of affairs. Not so +Mrs. Vane, who, long after the others were asleep, sate waiting for a +well-known footstep to pass her door, on its way to the laird's own +room, which lay, quaintly apart from the others, with a little further +flight of stairs all to itself. And none came, though from below she +heard the voices of the menkind dispersing when their smoke was over, +and from above Lord George's stealthy tread as he passed the nursery. +And yet she had made up her mind that she must say a word to +Paul--must make certain of the truth--before she slept. She had not +been deceived; he was angry with her. Nay, worse! he was unhappy, yet +in a mood to make that unhappiness permanent. That must be prevented +somehow; so after a time she stole out into the passages, dark save +for the master's light--that light which has brought home the pang of +widowhood to so many a woman's heart, as she pauses on her way +upstairs to put it out. If she knew anything of Paul's nature, he +would not be in the smoking-room; once the necessity for restraint was +over, he would have taken the earliest opportunity of escaping from +the eyes of others. The business-room most likely, where he was secure +from most interruptions; but not from hers, though as he started to +his feet as she came in, he looked as though he had expected +otherwise. + +"I waited for you upstairs," she said boldly, "for I must speak to you +to-night"--then she paused, startled; for she had expected anger, and +Paul had sunk wearily into his chair again, resting his head on his +hand. + +"Can't you let me be--surely you have done mischief enough already?" +he said; and then he turned to look at her, and think, even in his +resentment, that she had always liked him, always been good to him. "I +don't understand why you brought this about--not the accident, of +course; that no one could have foreseen, but all the other part. For +you did bring it about. Why? Do you want me to marry----_her?_ You +know you don't. Then why should you have schemed to give me pain?" + +He spoke with a concentrated bitterness which told her that his +patience was far spent. When she had left her room to seek him she had +been prepared to speak the truth, if need be, to a certain extent, but +now her quick wit showed her that she must risk all. + +"No!" she answered quietly. "I do not wish you to marry Marjory +Carmichael; but neither do I wish you to marry that iceberg of a +girl, and be miserable. Let me have my say, Paul, for the sake of old +times. She does not love you, my poor Paul--I doubt if she can love +anything--and you do not love her, you do not even admire her. But you +did love the other, and when I saw you pretending that you did not, I +said to myself, 'He shall know the difference.'" + +"That is a kind of knowledge a man can generally find out for +himself," broke in Paul, cynically. "But, still, I don't see--what +possible use?----" He paused, and turned from her again to his old +attitude. + +"What use!" she echoed, laying her hand on his shoulder. "Listen! and +I will tell you the truth--tell it you utterly. You are very dear to +me, Paul, and come what may I am your friend. Do you think, then, that +I could stand by and see you bring misery into your life needlessly; +quite needlessly, for you could do better for yourself than that. Long +ago, Paul, so long ago that the folly of it is over for you, and so I +can speak of it--you loved me; and I----" she paused, but went on +steadily. "I loved you--don't start, my friend, it is true; see! to +your face I say it is true. I loved you. But I kept the secret then, +Paul, for the sake of your future, as I tell it now for the sake of +your future, so that you may believe that I am a friend indeed; for a +woman will not stand by and see another woman sacrifice the happiness +of a man for whom she once sacrificed her own. That is why I say you +must not marry Alice Woodward--you must not, Paul! Give her up!" + +"And, then?" + +Her eyes met his unflinchingly. + +"Yes, Paul! think what you like; I do not care. As for that, I should +make you a better wife than Alice Woodward, for there would be the +memory of a past love between us, at any rate--a fair, honest love." +He had risen from his chair, and stood looking down on the brave, +spirited little figure before him with irrepressible admiration. What +pluck, what address she had! How skilfully she had steered her way +through dangers that would have wrecked another woman's self-esteem! +And with the memory of the past surging up in him he could not deny +her right to speak. + +"I am no fool, Paul," she went on, holding up her hand to check some +half-hesitating words upon his lips. "I know what I say. I know, too, +what most men would say if a woman spoke to them as I have spoken to +you to-night. Well! I risk all that. I never lacked courage in your +cause, Paul, and if I gave up my love in those old passionate days for +your sake, do you think I would let its shadow come between you and +happiness? You are marrying the girl for her money. Well, others have +money also. I have it now, if it comes to that. I do not ask you to +marry me, Paul," she added, with a sudden, hard little laugh. "I have +not needed Leap Year in my calendar of life, but I do ask you to +think. There are rich girls whom you might love." + +"That is so like a woman! Have you forgotten your own handiwork +already? You would have me forget now that I am in love, but I shall +never forget." + +"Never is a long word," she answered, resuming her ordinary manner, +"and you forget so easily, my poor Paul!" + +"You have no right to say that, Violet," he broke in, hotly. "Have I +forgotten you? Have I forgotten your kindness? Do you think I would +let any other soul alive speak to me as you have done to-night?" + +She swept him a swift, gracious little curtsey. "_Dieu mercie, +Monsieur!_" she laughed, "the temptation would be too great, I +suppose? But I will tell you, if you like, why you have not forgotten. +Because I have kept myself _en evidence_; that is why. You say that I +see clearly, my friend. It is true. I see so clearly that the glamour +goes even from my own actions. You are the captive of my bow and +spear, Paul, but you would have escaped if you could. And Alice +Woodward cannot spin webs as I do; she will never be able to keep you, +and then----? Good-night." She held out her hand suddenly, but Paul +stood irresolute. + +"You are clear sighted, indeed. God knows you read me like a book +sometimes." He hesitated, then went on hurriedly, "I wonder if--if +Miss Carmichael----" + +Violet Vane shook her head with a smile. "That is the kind of +knowledge a man can generally find out for himself, my friend! +Personally, I think she will marry Tom Kennedy if she is left alone." + +"Thank you. You certainly have courage, Violet." + +"The courage of a surgeon who sees the knife is kindest in the end. I +have told you that you would be miserable with the woman you do not +love. I now tell you that you would not be happy with the woman you do +love." + +"And why?" + +"Because you have not the making of an archangel in you; that is why. +Do you think you have, Paul?" She stood for a moment at the door to +look up at him, as if she were making quite an ordinary remark. "But +there is the earth in the middle between the heavens above and the +waters beneath. Don't forget that, _my friend_." + +When she had left him he lit another cigar out of sheer inability to +think of doing anything more decided, anything which in any way +affected his future, even to the extent of taking a night's repose; +that feeling of uncertainty being largely a result of sheer surprise +that he should have allowed Violet Vane's man[oe]uvring to pass +unreproved. And this, in its turn, convinced him, as nothing else +would have done, that she understood him as no one else could do. + +And she? When he, coming up to his room, turned out the lamp on the +stair, he left the house in darkness, save for the candle he carried. +Yet Mrs. Vane was not even undressed. She was face down on her bed +trying to forget everything; above all, that old Peggy Duncan +possessed a secret which might--which might---- + +For her own reference to the past had brought that other past back +upon her, and, as she buried her hot face in the pillow, she told +herself that she had not, after all, spoken the truth. She had said +that his happiness was her motive, when it was her own. And wherefore +not? + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Marjory sate at the window pretending to be busy over laces and +ribbons, but in reality watching Dr. Kennedy's deft hands lit up by +the shaft of light from his microscope lamp, as, with the aid of a +tiny pair of tweezers, and a watchmaker's glass fixed in one eye, he +laid out the almost invisible film of some sea plant on a slide. For +they, that is to say, Marjory, Will, and the doctor, had spent the day +after the theatricals in dredging for oysters, as a relief to what the +latter called fishing for men; and something interesting had come up +in the dredger, which had to be set up despite the waning light. He +looked more natural when so employed, and yet, despite the grizzling +hair and the thin brown face, she seemed to trace in him as she had +never done before a hint of that figure on last night's stage, which +had opened her eyes to love in its passion, its unreason. And with +this fancy came the remembrance of Paul Macleod's swift resource, his +kindness, his courage. And both memories confused her, making her feel +as if the old landmarks had been removed, and she could not be certain +even of those she knew intimately; as if a man's ideals might yield no +clue to his actions. For Tom must surely have felt that storm and +stress before he could portray it so vividly? And then, even if this +were not so, his vast experience of things which she had been +accustomed to despise remained inexplicable. + +"I had no idea that you were so frivolous, Tom," she said suddenly, +laying down even her pretence of work. + +He wheeled round in his chair instantly, and let the glass fall from +his eye. "Are you aware that that is a very odd remark to make to a +man who believes he has found a new infusorian which may revolutionise +all our theories, especially when it is made by a young lady who is +busy, or ought to be busy, over her first ball-dress." + +"Ought I?" She smiled back a little wearily. "I'm afraid I'm a bad +pupil, Tom. I was just wishing Lady George could have postponed it +till you had gone." + +He gave a little grimace. "Thank you, my dear, I daresay it would be +pleasanter,----" + +"Don't tease, Tom. You know what I mean, perfectly; it interrupts the +holiday." + +"Which is perilously near its close, by the way. I have to go back +next Thursday." + +"Yes, I know. But don't talk of it; let us enjoy it while it lasts!" + +He turned back to his work again hurriedly. "Now, that is what I +should call truly frivolous. So be it. However, _Vogue la galère!_ It +is a very easy philosophy, at any rate." + +They were silent again for a space, and then she began again. "What I +meant was, that you must have seen so much of the world; and then you +are so interested in it. Last night," she hesitated a little, "it +struck me, Tom, that for all I knew, you might have--have seen +something like it when you were through the Franco-Prussian war, for +instance. You--you were quite a boy then, weren't you?" + +"A baby, so to speak. I remember nearly fainting over the first wound +I saw. Yes, Marjory, I've seen such romantic young fools many a time. +I see a good deal of that sort of thing necessarily in my profession. +It is human nature." + +"I suppose so," she said curtly. "Well, I suppose I ought to go and +dress. Oh, Tom! why couldn't Lady George have put it off, and why +won't you let me stay at home?" + +"Because, when, after infinite toil, you have caught a netful of +mankind for theatricals, you naturally choose the next day for a +dance. And because a girl ought to go to a ball. How can she tell her +_metier_ if she only keeps to one? Besides, it is your holiday." + +"I shan't like it a bit, and I shall feel dowdy in this thing." +She held up a white stuff gown, with the oddest mixture of +self-complacency and disdain. "Of course, it will do quite well, and +it would have been recklessly extravagant of me to get another, seeing +that I shan't want evening dresses at a Board School; but I shall be a +dowdy all the same." + +"I doubt it," remarked her guardian, busy adjusting his screws. "Now, +you really ought to go and dress, my dear. In my time girls----" + +"In your time!" she flashed out. "Why? Why, you are quite up to date, +Tom, and I--I am hopelessly _arriérée_, especially in my dress! Oh, +dear f I suppose I must----" + +A minute afterwards she came flying down the stairs, followed by Mrs. +Cameron, who had evidently been on the watch for the occasion in +Marjory's room, and was determined not to lose the scene downstairs. +It was rather a pretty one, though the first words were distinctly +sordid. + +"Oh, Tom! what did it cost?" + +"Now, that really is the rudest question! I'm surprised at you," +returned Dr. Kennedy, trying to jest, though something in the girl's +face told him she was not far from tears. + +"But it is dreadful," she began. + +"Naethin' o' the sort," broke in Mrs. Cameron, breathlessly. "Just +don't belie the nature God gave to you. It's just beautiful, and the +doctor and me has been agog these three days lest it should not come +in time, for it is ill getting things to Gleneira from Paris." + +"Paris!" echoed Marjory. "Yes, I thought it looked like Paris! How +foolish of you, Tom!" + +"And so that is all the thanks you're giving him. Wait, my lass, till +you're as auld as I am, with no a soul in the wide world caring a +bawbee if you're clad in sackcloth and ashes, and then see if ye +woudna like to be made a lily o' the field. Just arrayed in glory +wi'out a toil or a spin." + +"Quite right, Mrs. Cameron," put in Dr. Kennedy, with a laugh. "She +will have plenty of toiling and spinning by and bye; why shouldn't she +be a flower and do credit to us all for one evening?" + +She looked at him from head to foot. "A flower for you to wear in your +buttonhole, apparently. Tom, are all men alike?" + +"I am human, at any rate," he said quietly. + +"Oh, come away, come away!" cried Mrs. Cameron, impatiently. "Come and +put it on, like a good lassie, and don't be chopping logic. It's time +enough to be an angel when you've done being a girl, and you'll have +more chance o' bein' one if ye make the best o' your gifts in this +world, I can tell you. So come away, my dear, there may be a stitch or +two a-wantin', and the time is none too long." + +But Marjory stood her ground even after the old lady had bustled +upstairs again, and she looked so serious that Dr. Kennedy was driven +into suggesting that if she preferred it, she might wear her old gown. + +"It is not that," she said slowly. "It is beautiful. I could see that, +at a glance; but--Tom, did Mrs. Vane choose it?" + +His laugh had a certain content in it. "My dear child, I prefer people +to be dressed as I like, and I am generally supposed to have good +taste." + +"Very, I should say," she remarked, with a curious accent of regret in +her voice. + +But the fact was indubitable. When she came down again in a shimmer of +silver and white, set cunningly with frosted rowan berries showing a +glint of scarlet here and there, she knew so well that her dress was +perfect, that from a new bashfulness she turned the tables on him +swiftly. + +"Tom," she cried, "I declare you have waxed the ends of your +moustache!" + +"And if I had been in Italy, I should have curled my hair, too," he +replied imperturbably. "It is not a crime." + +"And that coat! It is not your ordinary one." + +"It is not. The one I use here--since you are so particular--is a +dress jacket; the correct thing, I assure you, for a shooting lodge. +But I have the misfortune to be honorary surgeon to a potentate +somewhere, who insists on brass buttons on state occasions, so I don't +happen to have the intermediate affair. Besides, there are to be +lord-lieutenants and generals hanging round this evening from the Oban +gathering. If that is satisfactory to your highness, we should be +going." + +"And that red thing in your buttonhole?" she persisted, going close up +to him and touching the bit of ribbon with dainty curious finger. "It +is the Legion of Honour, I suppose." + +"It is called so; you look as if that were a crime also." + +"I did not know you had it, that was all," she said. And then, Will, +coming in full of fuss because his very occasional white tie had not +been folded properly in the wash, changed the _venue_ by declaring +that fine feathers make fine birds, and that he was half ashamed to +belong to them. + +"Naethin' o' the sort, Will," snapped Mrs. Cameron. "It's the fine +birds that grows the fine feathers, as ye'd see ony day o' the week if +ye went to my hen yard." + +"And it is always the male bird which attends most to personal +appearance," remarked Marjory, sedately. Yet, despite her pretended +disdain, as they passed down the drawing-room corridor at Gleneira +House, she paused involuntarily to look for a second at what she saw +reflected in a pier glass at the end. + +"We do look nice, Tom," she said, with a faint laugh; "but I feel like +the old woman. I'm sure it isn't I. Now, you look as if you were born +to it." + +He had not the heart to tell her that she looked it also, so took +refuge in claiming his right of the first waltz. + +"But I can't dance. You seem to forget, Tom, that I have never even +seen a waltz danced." + +His face fell. "What an ass I am, when I could have taught you in half +an hour. But you would pick it up in the first turn; let us try, at +any rate." + +"Please don't ask me," she began. "I don't want to dance. In fact, I +didn't tell you--on purpose." + +"That was unkind," he replied, and this plain statement of his +unvarnished opinion making the girl see her silence in the same light, +she added, hastily, "I will dance later on, if it will please you." + +He laid his hand on hers as it rested on his arm and looked at her +with a kindly smile. "That is right! It always gives me pleasure when +Mademoiselle Grauds-serieux unbends a little. I want you to enjoy +yourself to-night. Why not? You are young, happy, and will probably +be--pardon my incurable frivolity--the best-dressed girl in the room. +But there is our hostess, and after that I had better go and find a +partner. It is a duty at the beginning of a ball. Shall we say number +four or six for ours?" + +"Oh, six, please; something may have happened by that time." + +She felt, to tell the truth, as if something must be going to happen, +as she sate watching the scene from the quiet corner where Dr. Kennedy +left her. The lights, the music, the buzz of conversation seemed to go +to her head, and the sight of him skimming past like a swallow made +her suddenly regret her refusal. It seemed easy and pleasant. Yes; it +must be pleasant, and there were four more dances to sit out before +her chance came. + +"Is it one of the mortal sins, Miss Carmichael?" came Paul's voice +behind her. He had seen her enter with Dr. Kennedy, and, aided by Mrs. +Vane's one-syllabled verdict "Worth," had guessed the history of the +dress. And there he was looking very handsome, his arm still in a +sling so as to give him a pretext for laziness if he chose, and +meaning mischief out of sheer contrariety. + +"I can't dance," she answered, flushing a little, "but I am going to +try number six with Tom. I am almost sorry now I didn't say four; I +think I should like it." + +"Try four with me," he answered, seating himself beside her. + +"But it will hurt your arm," she began. + +"If it does we can sit down again; but I don't think it will. I find I +can generally do what I want to do without serious injury either to my +mind or my body." And then he added in a lower tone, "I should not ask +you if I was incapable; but if you would rather not trust me I must +submit." + +"But Tom--Dr. Kennedy----" she began, doubtfully. + +"Is dancing number four with Mrs. Vane. I heard them settle it just +now." + +Why this information should have influenced her decision is not clear, +since she was perfectly prepared to see them dance not once but many +times together; yet it did, as Paul had guessed it would. Still, when +he had gone to play the part of host elsewhere, she began to regret +her promise, and the sight of him returning with the first bars of +number four to claim her made her attempt escape by pleading the risk +to his scorched arm. "It was surely," she said, "rash to have removed +the sling." + +"I am always rash," he replied. "Come! you owe me some reward, and I +am quite capable of taking care of you." + +His words brought back the remembrance of the night before, and sent a +thrill through her; the next instant it seemed to her that she was +alone with him again, despite the whirl of dancers around them. Alone +with him, and a bunch of red rowans which, for the first time, she +noticed he wore in his buttonhole, and to which he began drawing her +attention at once. + +"We wear the same badge once more, you see, Miss Carmichael," he said +fluently. "It must be your welcome to a new world, as the white +heather was to me. Only, as usual, I am natural, and you are +artificially iced. Which is best? Well, if you will defend your +position, I will defend mine; for we must agree to differ since I +cannot freeze, and I sometimes wonder if you can thaw. Perhaps if I +had let you burn a little longer last night I might have found out and +been happy. I almost wish I had, only then--only then," he repeated in +a louder tone of triumph, "I shouldn't have had the pleasure of taking +you a whole turn round the room without your remembering that it _was_ +your first turn--No! don't stop just because you do remember; another +turn will finish your lesson." + +"That was very clever of you!" laughed Marjory, as they went on, she +gaining confidence at every step. + +"I think it was," he replied; but he did not add that his art had +extended to exchanging the bouquet he had originally worn for some +rowan berries filched from the decorations. + +But Mrs. Vane, who had been more or less responsible for the discarded +jasmine, noticed it at once, and her voice was hard as she remarked to +her partner, "Your pupil has preferred another professor, Dr. Kennedy; +the patient instead of the physician. It is really very foolish of +Paul, with his arm." + +Tom Kennedy felt glad of the possibility of ignoring the first part of +her remark, for he was conscious of bitter disappointment, not to say +vexation. "He is not likely to hurt; it was the merest scorch." And +then his obstinacy made him add, as much for his own edification as +for hers, "She is lucky to begin so well; a tall man can steer better +as a rule." + +Mrs. Vane smiled. "That is overdone, my friend; there is not a better +steerer in the room than you are." + +"How can you tell; you need no guidance?" he began, when she stopped +him peremptorily. + +"Don't, please; if you knew how sick of it I am. It comes, I know, as +part of the business with the lights, and the music, and the coffee, +and the ices; but you and I are such old friends." There was rather a +crush at the moment, and her partner being too busy to speak, she had +the conversation to herself for the time, and went on evenly, "How +well they dance! and her dress is simply perfection. I must get you to +choose mine. Yes! they look a charming couple; for he is wonderfully +handsome--handsomer than when he was younger--don't you think so?" + +"I never met him before this summer," replied her victim; and, to +change the subject, added, "but I knew his brother Alick in Paris. +Very like him, but not so fine a fellow--rather--well! he got into a +very fast set, and that accounts for a great deal." + +Mrs. Vane looked up in sudden interest. "Ah! I had almost forgotten. +Of course, he had a brother who died." + +"Yes! quite suddenly. By all accounts none too soon for the estates. +He had half ruined them." + +"And so the present laird has to marry money, if he will. But you +never can count on Paul Macleod doing the wise thing. A pretty face, a +dress from Worth's, a---- Is that the end? Then I should like a cup of +coffee, if you please." + +And as they passed down the corridor she passed to other subjects, +leaving that barb to rankle. She was not often so cruel, but, to tell +truth, she was really angry with Paul, and told herself there was no +use in trying to keep him out of mischief. Doubtless, she had so far +startled him by her plain speaking as to prevent him from bringing +matters to a crisis with Alice; but here, at the slightest +provocation, he was flirting outrageously with Marjory, and +looking---- + +"A message for you, sir," said the butler, coming up to Dr. Kennedy, +as they were about to return to the ball-room. "A little boy, sir, to +say a Mrs. Duncan is ill, and wants to see you." + +"Little Paul!" cried Mrs. Vane; "poor old woman! I am sorry. Where is +he, Grierson? In the housekeeper's room? Then don't let us disturb +you; I'll show Dr. Kennedy the way." + +"Why should you trouble?" he began. + +"'Tis no trouble, my friend, and you may need something to take with +you." + +"I may need nothing," he answered. "I was round seeing her, as you +know, a few days ago; and she might die at any moment; her heart is +almost worn out." + +Mrs. Vane's gave a sudden throb. What if she died, and carried the +secret with her, just when it was most needed? The thought became +insistent as she listened to the boy's frightened tale of how his +grandmother had looked so strange, and bidden him seek Dr. Kennedy, +and then seemed to fall asleep. + +"You had better keep the lad here awhile," said the latter, in an +undertone. "He has been delayed by not knowing where to find me, and, +without stimulants at hand, a fainting fit might pass into death." He +turned to ask for some brandy, and was off into the still moonlit +night hastily. + +She stood looking after him for a moment, and then made her way back +to the ball-room mechanically. Another waltz had begun, and she +hastily scanned the dancers for Paul's figure, but neither he nor +Marjory were to be seen. Without an instant's hesitation she went to +the conservatory, and found--what she knew she would find. + +"Excuse my interrupting you," she said, "but I have a message from Dr. +Kennedy for Miss Carmichael. He has been called away for half an hour, +but will be back then; and he hopes, my dear," she laid her hand on +Marjory's arm affectionately, "that you will be ready for number ten. +Meanwhile, Paul, you ought either to continue the lesson, or find Miss +Carmichael another tutor. Ah! Major Bertie, have you found me! and I +have turned the heel of my slipper and must go and put on another +pair, but perhaps Miss Carmichael will console you." + +She waited till they had moved out of sight, and then turned to Paul, +almost passionately: + +"And you--you are engaged for this dance, I presume?" + +"You presume a little too far, my dear Violet," he replied +dangerously. "I am a helpless cripple, and I cannot run in harness, +no matter how skilful the whip may be. If you are going back to the +ball-room may I give you my one arm?" + +"No, thanks. I shall stay here." + +Never in their lives before had they come so near a quarrel, and, even +though Mrs. Vane was wise enough to see the provocation which her own +loss of temper had given him, the fact decided her. The change of +slippers included other alterations in her toilette, and five minutes +afterwards she was following Dr. Kennedy to Peggy Duncan's cottage. +The walk was nothing on that warm September night, and the excuse of a +desire to help sufficiently reasonable, her kindness in such ways +being proverbial. Many a deathbed had been cheered by her cheerful +aid, and yet, nerved as she was by experience, she shrank back at the +sight which met her eyes as she lifted the latch of the cottage and +entered. For the deep box bed, whereon old Peggy had passed so many +years, had been inconvenient, and Dr. Kennedy had lifted her to the +table, where she lay unconscious, looking like death itself, in the +limp, powerless sinking into the pillow of her grey head. The old +woman's dreary prophecy came back to Mrs. Vane, though this was not +certain death, as yet; since, with his back towards her, his warm +hands clasping those cold ones, his face bent on the watch for some +sign of life, stood Dr. Kennedy, trying the last resource of +artificial respiration. There is nothing in the whole range of +experience more absorbing, more pathetic than this struggle of the +living for the dying, whether it be for the new-born babe doubtful of +existence, or, as here, for an old worn-out heart. And if it is so, +even among a crowd of eager helpers, what was it here in the little +circle of dim light hedged in by darkness? Those two alone, so +strangely contrasted. It had been a sharp, fierce transition, even to +his experience, from, the ball-room full of lights and laughter; for +Tom Kennedy was not of those whom use hardens. He was one of those to +whom ever-widening vision discloses no clear horizon of dogmatic +belief or unbelief, but a further distance fading away into the great, +inconceivable, infinite mystery between which and him lay Life--Life, +whose champion he was, whose colours he wore unflinchingly, counting +neither its evil or its good. Life--nothing else. It is a queer +mistress, taken so, but an absorbing one, and he scarcely slackened +the rhythmic sweep of his arms even in his surprise at the figure +which, after a moment's pause, stepped forward. + +"You ought not to have come--it's no place for you; you had better go +back and send me help; though I fear it is no use," he said +authoritatively. For answer she slid her hands under the blanket he +had thrown over the old woman's limbs, and began to rub them with a +regularity matching his own. + +"They would not help so well as I." + +"You have done it before then?" + +"Often--once all night long in cholera--a great friend--he died at +dawn." Yet the memory which had brought tears many a time failed to +touch her now, for her mind was intent on something else. + +"Was she unconscious when you came?" she asked. + +"Not quite. There were some letters on her mind, and after she had +given them to me she went off--one often finds it so." + +Then they were given! and she was too late! Yet stay! where could they +be--in his coat, of course, which he had taken off and thrown aside on +a chair for the sake of greater ease. Doubtless in the coat, for he +must have had it on at first, when the old woman was still conscious. + +"Perhaps hot water," she suggested, looking towards the kettle +swinging over the dying embers, but he shook his head, and she stayed +where she was. Ah! that was surely a change--a greyer tinge on the +worn, wrinkled old face, the faintest suspicion of a greater rest in +the slack limbs. + +Dr. Kennedy paused, still holding the hands in his, and bent closer. + +In the great silence, Mrs. Vane seemed to hear her heart beating at +the thought--not of rest, but unrest; for something would have to be +done soon, if done at all. Nay! done now, for with a half-impatient +sigh the doctor gave up the struggle, folded the old hands upon the +old breast, and walked away to stand for a moment or two looking +moodily into the dull fire. + +"It is always a disappointment," he said, turning to her again, and +mechanically going over to the dresser, where in the interval, +calculating on habit, she had set a bowl of water and a towel. And she +calculated rightly. As with his back towards her he washed his hands, +hers were in the pocket of his coat, and two packets of letters lay on +the floor behind the chair, as if they had slipped out, before she +went forward, coat in hand. + +"Thanks!" he said, still in the meshes of habit; but then he paused, +and for an instant her heart was in her mouth, even though she had her +excuse ready should he discover the absence of the letters. It was +only, however, a remembrance of her which came to him. + +"I must call someone," he said; "and you should go home at once. It +was good of you to come." + +"Yes! you had better call someone. I will stay till you return--I +would rather." + +"You are not afraid?--Ah! I forgot you had lived your life in India. I +shall not be more than ten minutes if I go up the hill to the +shepherd's; that will be the quickest." + +"Do not hurry on my account," she replied, quietly beginning to pile +some fresh peats on the fire. The doctor, as he turned for a last +look, his hand on the latch, told himself she was a plucky little soul +indeed; and yet, had he known it, her heart was melting within her at +the deed she was about to do, and her only strength lay in the thought +that it was for Paul's sake; for herself she would scorn such +meanness. + +The candle flickering to an end gave her little time, however, for +consideration, and almost as the door closed the letters were in her +hands. One long, blue, red-sealed, intact, as she remembered it, the +other an open envelope yellow with age, tied round with thread, and +containing several papers. Her wits were quick, and even as she +looked, the certainty came to her that if the blue letter asked +questions the other might answer them; besides there was no necessity +for breaking a seal; she shrank from that as yet. Even now her hand +shook, so that as she drew out the contents of the smaller envelope, +something fell from it to the ground. She stooped to pick it up just +as the candle flared up in the socket, and by the sudden blaze of +light she saw on the fallen paper a signature, and a line or two of +print. + +Great heavens! a marriage certificate--Ronald Alister Macleod! Who was +he?--Paul's brother, of course. + +These thoughts flashing through her brain did not prevent her +starting, as the flickering light seemed to give a semblance of +movement to Peggy's folded hands. The next instant she was in +darkness, still holding the letters, and she knelt hastily to coax a +flame from the peats, for time was passing, and she must know--must +read. Then, in swift suggestion, came the thought of substituting +another packet; Dr. Kennedy would be none the wiser, and that would +give her time. There must be other letters or papers at hand if she +could find them. Oh for a light!--and yet people deemed such deeds to +be deeds of darkness!---- + +As if in answer to her thought, a tongue of bluish flame leapt through +the warmed peats, and by its light she found herself fumbling at the +old bureau. For it was, as it always is at such times, as if fate were +driving her against her will. Even as she acted, she felt that she had +not meant to act thus--to search and pry! The old woman's cherished +shroud, folded and frilled, made her shut one drawer hastily. And that +was a step--a step surely, and yet not an atom of paper was to be seen +anywhere! Ah! there was an old Bible on the shelf with blank pages. +She had torn some out, and slipped them into the envelope none too +soon, for Dr. Kennedy was at the door, breathless with running. + +"I hurried all I could," he said; "for I felt I ought not to have left +you--it was not fair. But they are coming, and then I will take you +home." The words seemed to bring a remembrance, for he paused and +began to feel in his pocket. + +"What is it?" she asked, with a catch in her voice. + +"The letters. I had them, certainly----" + +"Perhaps they dropped--ah! here they are on the floor." + +"Thanks." Then he paused, looking curiously at them. "I wonder why I +fancied this one was tied with thread?" + +Even in her anxiety she could not resist a smile at the keenness of +the man; and how dull _she_ had been, for there on the dresser stood +two candles in brass candlesticks. If she had only noticed them she +would have had time--would not, perhaps, have had this terror at her +heart. + +"It may have been tied," she said coolly; "and something may have +dropped out when it fell. I'll light the candles and see." Then as she +came forward with them in her hand, the deadly anxiety in her would +brook no delay, and she asked, "Do you miss anything?" + +"I do not know--I have not the least notion what it was supposed +to contain; but this seems only to be an entry of births, +marriages----Great heavens! are you ill?" For Mrs. Vane, who had +stooped down on pretence of searching the floor, but in reality to +hide her intense relief, was standing as if petrified, her face white +as death. + +"Nothing," she gasped, with an attempt at composure--"the strain, I +suppose--it is foolish." + +More than foolish, she told herself. It was perfectly insensate of her +not to have remembered the custom of entering such items in the family +Bible; and now she might unwittingly have given away the information +she was attempting to conceal. If so, it would be better for her to +know at once. + +"Such registers contain many secrets," she began, when a look of +curiosity in Dr. Kennedy's eyes made her pause. + +"Secrets," he echoed; "why should there be any? though there is one in +a way," he added, holding out the paper to her. It was the last entry +to which he pointed, and it ran thus: "Jeanie Duncan, born 17th April, +18--; married----; died 20th August, 18--." "A sad blank that," he +continued, adding, after a pause: "Perhaps the other letter may be +more important." + +Perhaps it might be, and Mrs. Vane, as she waited, felt her breath +coming fast and short. It seemed an eternity of time until once more +he held something out for her to read, and turning silently to where +the dead woman lay, drew the sheet tenderly over the worn face. "The +irony of fate, indeed," he murmured as she read:-- + + +"Dear Madam,--We have to advise you of the death of our esteemed +client, Mr. John Duncan, of Melbourne, Australia, and to inform you +that under his will you, as his widow, come into property amounting to +close on £100,000." + + +Mrs. Vane's hand holding the letter fell to her side, and Dr. +Kennedy's voice said gravely: + +"Strange, isn't it, that the letter was never opened? All that money, +and a pauper's death----" + +The voice was his, but it might have been the accusing angel's for the +effect it had on Violet Vane. She gave one step forward, her arms +outstretched as if for pity, and with a little cry sank to her knees. +Her head was pillowed on the old woman's breast when Dr. Kennedy, +catching her as she fell, found that she had fainted, and +anathematised himself as a consummate ass for taking her at her own +estimation. Plucky as she was, the contrast had been too sharp. Life +and Death--Poverty and Riches. The whole gamut of harmonies and +discords lay in these words. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +Mrs. Vane being one of those heaven-sent pivots or jewels, without +which the wheels of society are apt to come to a standstill, it was +only natural that her sudden collapse, joined to the general +depression which invariably follows on a country house entertainment, +should have reduced the inmates of Gleneira to a condition of blank +discontent. To tell truth, a large proportion of them had reasonable +cause for a vague uneasiness, if not for actual discomfort, though +Lady George wrinkled her high, white forehead in tragic perplexity +over some of the resulting phenomena. + +"Of course," she said at lunch, "I was quite prepared that the cook +should give warning. They always do when they have worked hard, and, +really, the supper left nothing to be desired; besides, it is an empty +form when we are all going away next week. But why the housemaid +should want a new set of brushes _to-day_, when she knows I have to +send to Glasgow for them; and why Ean, the boy--such a good-looking +boy, too--who cleans the boots, should demand an immediate rise in +wages, I cannot think." + +"What's enough for one ain't enough for two," broke in Eve from her +sago pudding, with an indescribable twang and a semi-sentimental air. +"Mary's going to marry him; he asked her in the boot hole when the +piper was playing the 'Blue Bells of Scotland' in the kitching. The +thought of her 'ighland laddie bein' gone was too much for her +feelinks, so she accepted him, and he gave her a kiss." + +"Eve!" cried her mother, in horrified accents, "don't say such +things." + +"But it's true, ducksie mummie," retorted the young lady, unabashed. +"Mary said so. We heard her telling nurse, didn't we, Adam?" + +"Yes, we did, Evie; and nursie said----" + +"Paul!" cried Lady George, in desperation, "you might give the +children some of that trifle before you; it won't hurt them once in a +way. And I really think it was too bad of the Hookers to bring the +piper to the ball, after my making such a point of his not coming to +the play. I call it most unneighbourly." + +"My dear Blanche," protested Paul, "what is the use of being a rich +Highland proprietor if you don't have a piper, and what is the use of +having a piper if he mayn't play at functions? You agree with me, +don't you, Miss Woodward?" + +Alice, looking dainty in the elaborate simplicity of a Paris +_batiste_, agreed with a smile, as she had learnt to do as a matter of +course whenever he chose to make these little appeals for sympathy, +with their underlying suggestion of a common future. He was really +very handsome and charming; everything a girl could desire in a +husband. + +"It is all very well for you to talk of functions," continued his +sister, in aggrieved tones, "but the question is, what is a function? +Marriages, of course, and, I suppose, funerals; but that reminds me. +We really must have that projected picnic to the old burying-ground +this week. I want Mr. Woodward to see it, and he was talking of London +this morning." + +The end of the sentence was prompted by that desire of the hostess to +see her team of guests working fairly together for their own good, +which Lady George felt to be a part of her duty, and the guest thus +challenged had not opened his mouth since he sate down, except to fill +it with cold beef and pickles, which he swallowed gloomily, like a man +who, having missed his connection, is trying to while away the time +before the next train in the refreshment room. + +"You are very kind," he said, in sepulchral tones, "but the +method in which Her Majesty's mails are delivered--or rather not +delivered, in this place, renders it necessary that I should +return at once. Just before lunch I received a letter which, I give +you my honour, had been mislaid in the post-bag--a most important +letter--a--a most---- However, as I was to have told you after lunch, +I--I feel it my duty--but, of course, this--er--will not make any +change in--in plans." + +He glanced comprehensively at his daughter, and Paul Macleod, seated +at the bottom of the table, felt as if the guard had come into the +refreshment room and said, "Time up, gentleman!" The closing scene of +the comedy was close at hand, and though he was quite prepared for it, +he still objected to the _force majeure_ which compelled him to go +through with it; just as he objected to that other restraint which the +knowledge of his absurd feeling for Marjory brought with it. The whole +position irritated him to the last degree, and in one and the same +breath he told himself that he wished the business were over, and that +it had never begun. And yet, when he and Alice, in strolling round the +garden together, found themselves among the orange blossoms, he grew +quite sentimental. The heavy perfume and, artificial atmosphere seemed +to suit the growth of his physical content. Then, courteous by nature +to all women, he had already felt that this girl had a stronger claim +on his consideration than others, and this feeling produced just that +calm, continual attention which suited her lack of sentiment. There +was nothing in it to disturb her placidity or shake the quiet +conviction that in deciding on Gleneira and its owner she was +distinctly doing her duty by everybody, herself included. For Jack had +apparently acquiesced in her decision; at least, he wrote quite +cheerfully from Riga. So she listened contentedly to the covert +lovemaking which long experience had made so easy to Paul Macleod, +provided his companion had a decent share of good looks. In fact, one +of his chief causes of irritation in regard to Marjory was that he +never had the slightest desire to flirt with her. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Vane remained in her room by Dr. Kennedy's orders, who, +to tell truth, was rather surprised to find how severe a shock her +nervous system had sustained. When, in consequence of a little note +saying that if he would so far forego his holiday as to take her for a +patient, she would far rather see an old friend than a strange doctor, +he had gone over to see her, he had found her far worse than he had +expected. The truth being that she was in a fever of excitement to +know whether he suspected anything, and to hear all the particulars of +this strange bequest to poor old Peggy. If she had only known what the +long blue envelope had contained, she would not have advised the delay +in opening it, which had led to the poor old soul dying a pauper's +death, dying with bitter thoughts in her heart of the world she was +leaving. Mrs. Vane would have liked to tell so much to the doctor as a +sort of salve to her conscience, but she did not dare to do this. +There was a certain packet of letters locked away in her dressing-case +which forbade her risking the least inquiry. Yet she could not refrain +from asking if any other papers had been found which--which threw any +light---- + +Dr. Kennedy, noting the nervous intertwining of her fingers, made a +mental note of bromide for the prescription he intended writing, and +then set himself quietly to tell her all he knew, just as if he were +exhibiting another sedative. The somewhat romantic aspects of the case +had evidently excited her imagination, and it would do her good to +talk over it soberly. + +"Then there were no other papers, after all," she said, with a sigh of +relief. "You seemed surprised at the time, I remember, but now you are +satisfied." + +"I must be--no one could have taken them, and I certainly did not drop +anything from my pocket when I went to fetch help, for I have been +over the ground this morning. Besides, she only gave me two +things--the envelope and something else. I certainly thought it was a +bundle of letters, but I must have been mistaken." + +"But there was no entry in the register, was there, which would +account for old Peggy's anxiety that you should have it?" persisted +Mrs. Vane, with a little hurry in her breath. + +"None. Except that she had something on her mind always, I feel sure, +regarding that unfortunate daughter of hers. She never behaved +naturally to little Paul; and now, of course, it is doubtful if he +will get the money. I must see the lawyers about it as I go through +Edinburgh. If old Peggy had only lived to make a will----" + +Mrs. Vane rose from her pillow and looked him full in the face, with a +startled expression. + +"You mean she would have had the power to leave it to him." + +"Yes, apparently she would have, to judge by the will. You had better +lie down again, Mrs. Vane! So--quite flat, please." + +He chose out the smelling salts unerringly, as if he knew all +about such things, from the bevy of silver-topped bottles on the +dressing-table, and when he saw her colour returning, went back with +the same certainty, apparently, of finding sal volatile or red +lavender. + +"Chloral!" he said, turning to her quickly as he smelt at a bottle. +"You mustn't take that, Mrs. Vane. I forbid it, and I expect you to +obey orders." + +A touch of her own airy, charming wilfulness showed on her face as she +looked at him while he stood dropping something into a glass for her +to take. "I won't--not while you are here." + +"Nor when I am gone, I hope. It isn't worth it--Pauline." + +She gave him an odd look, then buried her face in the pillow and began +to sob. Inarticulate, hysterical sobbing about Pauline--or was it +Paul? Dr. Kennedy could not be sure. + +"She is utterly upset; a case of complete nervous prostration," he +said, as he was leaving, in answer to Captain Macleod's eager +inquiries. "I don't wonder, for she works herself to death to make +things pleasant for everybody. Don't let them worry her by going to +sit with her, and that sort of thing. She is best alone. Or, if you +could spare ten minutes or so this afternoon--I've told her to get up +for a little change--she would like it, I know. She is very fond of +you." + +"We are such old friends," put in Paul, quickly. "And she has sate up +with _me_ often enough, God knows. I shouldn't be alive but for her. +Of course, I will go." + +"Talk of old times, then. It will make her forget the present, and +that will be good for her." + +So Paul went up with the afternoon tea tray and a bunch of jasmine, +which he had been down to the garden to gather, and talked about old +times in his softest voice, while Mrs. Vane sate and listened in the +big chair by the window. And she cheered up so much under the +treatment, that he sent the maid down for another plate of bread and +butter. + +It was very pleasant, but whether, as the unconscious suggester of the +entertainment had said, it was good for her, was another matter, +though, in a way, it relieved her nervous strain by making her more +certain of what she was going to do. Of one thing there could be no +doubt--the man who sate and talked to her, who forestalled her every +want, must not suffer. Paul must be saved, somehow, and so, for the +present, no one must know of that marriage certificate hidden in her +dressing-case, which would, if it were genuine, give Gleneira to Peggy +Duncan's grandson. Perhaps, after all, he would get his father's +money, and if so, a hundred thousand pounds would be enough for +anyone. Why should he rob Paul--her handsome, kindly Paul--of his +birthright? Of course, in one way that would make matters smooth for +her, since his engagement would certainly come to an end if he ceased +to be a Highland proprietor. The Woodwards would, in that case, never +hear of its being fulfilled. But it would give him such pain, and she +was not selfish enough to gain her own pleasure at such a price, if it +could be avoided. She was Paul's friend, his true friend, and she +would take the responsibility of concealing this thing for the +present; for ever, if need be. And then she gave up thinking, and took +to dreaming of what life would be if they two lived at Gleneira. They +would not be dull; men were never dull with her. He had not been dull +that afternoon when they had sate and talked. Ah! how pleasant it had +been, and surely to gain such content, both for him and for her, it +was allowable to conceal those letters for a time--only for a time? + +And while they were talking upstairs, Lady George had been +entertaining a solitary visitor in the drawing-room, the rest of the +party having gone out to take luncheon to the shooters on the hill. +This was the Reverend James Gillespie--who had come with a strict +attention to those trivialities of etiquette, which the Bishop had +often assured him should be a distinguishing mark of those set up to +teach the people--to inquire for the ladies after their fatigues. Now, +Lady George _was_ fatigued, hence, indeed, the fact that she had +remained at home; and there is no doubt that she said, "Bother the +man!" when first informed that the Reverend James was in the +drawing-room. Then the love of posing came to her rescue. Here she +was, alone, wearied out, unable to go forth and enjoy herself. What an +opportunity for patient unselfishness! Besides, it was tea-time; she +could have the children down and provoke that ardent admiration of her +system which the Reverend James extended to everything at Gleneira. + +"Tell nurse to let Miss Eve and Master Adam have tea with me," she +said, as she swept downstairs. "I expect Master Blasius has not been a +good boy; in fact, I am sure he hasn't, but he can have jam in the +nursery. He will like that just as well." + +Unfortunately, it is never safe for a grown-up to predicate the +thoughts of a child. Perhaps, because something may strike the opening +mind as novel, or desirable, which the mature one has tried and found +wanting. Be that as it may, ten minutes after Adam and Eve had left +the nursery spick and span, hand-in-hand, Blazes was captured for the +fifth time on his way down the stairs in that curious succession of +bumps and slides, which was his favourite method of progression. And +the look of determination on his round, broad, good-natured face was +not in the least shaken by nurse's vehement upbraidings. + +"There ain't no use talkin' to 'im when he's like that," she said, +aside to Mary; "and he ain't a bit cross or naughty--look at 'im +smilin' be'ind my back--but my tea I must 'ave in peace an' quiet. So +into bed 'e goes, tucked up without 'is nighty, an' a bit of sugar to +suck. The joke of it'll keep 'im quiet a bit." + +Apparently, it did, for he lay in the night nursery chuckling to +himself, that "Blazeths wath a pore 'ickle beggar boy wif no thoes or +'tockings, an' no thirt to hith back," until nurse, sympathising with +the sentimental Mary, forgot to be vigilant. + +Meanwhile, Adam, in his green plush Vandyck suit, and Eve in a smock +to match, were seated, with decorously still tan legs, at the +tea-table, eating thin bread-and-butter daintily. + +"It is most gratifying," the Reverend James was remarking, in his most +professional manner, "to--to see such good children as yours, Lady +George. It is a lesson in the art of education." + +"It is most gratifying to hear one's parish priest say so, Mr. +Gillespie," she replied, with meek dignity; "but, as you know, I make +it a study. I devote myself to them. I feel that one cannot too soon +recognise the sanctity, the individuality of the soul, the human +rights which these little ones share equally with us. Equally, did I +say? Nay, in fuller measure, since they are nearer Heaven than we +are--since they are pure and innocent, with better rights than ours to +happiness." + +The Reverend James cleared his throat. There was a flavour of +unorthodoxy about the latter part of these remarks which, in the +present position of spiritual authority to which Lady George had +exalted him, he could scarcely pass over. + +"It is a fallen humanity we must not forget, my dear lady," he began; +"these children----" + +Lady George's maternal pride flashed up; besides she was beginning to +get a little tired of the Reverend James. + +"I see very few signs of fallen humanity about mine," she interrupted. + +"But, my dear lady, you must remember also that your children have +privileges--they are baptized and regenerate--they are not in a state +of nature--Good Heavens, my dear lady! what is the matter?" + +The Gorgon's stony stare was genial in comparison with poor Blanche's +look of petrification. + +"Blasius!" she cried, starting to her feet, "go away! go away at +once." + +But Blasius had no such intention. He advanced with a confidential nod +to his mother, a perfect picture of sturdy, healthy, naked babyhood; +beautiful in its curves and dimples. + +"Blazeth's a pore 'ickle beggar boy wif no thoes or 'tockings +or---- Oh, mummie! that tickles awful!" + +The mellow chant ended abruptly, for Lady George had dashed at him +with an Algerian antimacassar, and now held him in her arms, trying +hard to be grave. She might have succeeded but for the Reverend +James's face of bland concern. That finished her, and she gave up the +struggle in a peal of laughter, in which her companion tried to join +feebly. + +"Bring Master Blasius' flannel dressing-gown, please," she said, when +nurse, full of explanations and excuses, flew in in a flurry; "that +and the antimacassar will keep him warm, and he can have his tea with +me." + +This incident, however, made it quite impossible for her to continue +the rôle she had been playing before. How could she? with Blasius +huddled up on her lap, eating bread and jam between his attempts to +count his bare toes; an arithmetical problem which he insisted on +solving, despite her efforts with the antimacassar. Not that the +necessity for change mattered, since she had a variety of other parts +to fall back upon, and so, being slightly bored by the Reverend +James's failure to respond, and evident disposition to remain +the spiritual director, she assumed that of Great Lady and +Helper-in-General to her world. In which character, she gave it as her +opinion that all parish clergymen should be married--if only in order +to make them understand children, and grasp the true bearings of the +education question. + +Whereat he blushed violently, and five minutes afterwards had confided +his hopes regarding Marjory to his hostess's sympathising ears. +Nothing could be more suitable, she told him; in fact, the idea had +occurred to her before, and she had no doubt that he would bring his +suit to a successful issue. Only, as a woman of the world who had seen +more of life than he had, she would advise a little boldness, a trifle +more self-assertion. His position, she said, was really an excellent +one on the whole, and she need hardly say that both she and her +brother would welcome Mrs. Gillespie as one of themselves. + +So, with a complete reversal of their mutual positions, they parted, +and the Reverend James as he walked home, full of blushes and budding +hopes, told himself that since Lady George agreed with the Bishop it +was time he bestirred himself. The picnic at the old burying-ground +would afford him an excellent opportunity of proposing, and if he made +up his mind definitely on that point, it would make him less nervous. + +So when he reached home he went to the calendar of the daily lesson, +which hung by his bed, and ticked off the five days remaining to him, +just as schoolboys tick off their holidays. Five days--and then--yes! +then he would ask Marjory to marry him. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + +A morning in late September on a Highland loch. How good it is to be +there! The centre just rippled with crisp waves, while shorewards the +rocks show mirrored clearly in the smooth water, each bunch of russet +bracken or tuft of yellow bent almost more brilliant in the reflection +than the reality. The hills free from haze, standing like sentinels, +solid and firm; the wild cherry leaves aping the scarlet of the rowan +berries, the birch trees beginning to drop their golden bribe into the +still, emerald laps of the mossy hollows, as if seeking to buy the +secret of perpetual summer. + +A scene where it is meet to put off the travel-stained shoes which +have borne our feet along the trivial round, the common tasks of life, +and go back to the bare feet of simple pleasure. The pleasure of +children on the seashore, of young lambs in a blossoming meadow. + +Yet there was an air of conscious effort, a virtuous look of duty on +many of the faces which assembled at the boat-house in order to be +ferried over to the other side of the loch, whence the ascent to the +old burying-ground was to be made. + +The shadow of coming separation lay upon most of the party; on none +more than Tom Kennedy, who had filched a few extra hours of Marjory's +companionship from the Great Enemy by scorning the mail cart in favour +of a solitary walk over the crest of Ben Morven to the nearest coach, +the place settled on for the picnic being so far on his way. And she, +though all unconscious of the keen pain at his heart, felt vaguely +that she would miss the touch of his kind hand, the sound of his kind +voice more than ever now, now that it seemed the only thing remaining +of the old calm confidence. Lady George was a prey to a thousand +cares, beginning with the lunch and culminating in the certainty that +some one of the three children--whom her husband had insisted on +bringing--would be drowned; just at the last, too, when she had +brought them safely through all the dangers of Gleneira, for they and +their nurse were to start by the early boat next morning. But the day +was indeed to be a fateful one, for was not this Paul's last chance of +speaking to Alice? and did not Mrs. Woodward, for all her conspicuous +calm, show to the watchful eye that she also was aware of the fact? +Paul himself showed nothing; but, then, he was always exasperatingly +cool when a little touch of excitement would, on the whole, be +pleasing. + +But of all the faces that of the Reverend James Gillespie displayed +the sense of duty most clearly, and what Paul lacked in animation he +made up for in sheer restlessness, since the time had come when he +must carry out his intention and ask Marjory Carmichael to marry him. +If only because it would be advisable to set up house at the November +term, when they would have a chance of furnishing cheaply and of +getting a good servant. So he wandered about in a fuss, alternately +trying to make an opportunity, and then flying from it, until Paul, +always observant, began to wonder what was up, and then, chancing upon +one of the bashful lover's bolder attempts, swore under his breath at +the fellow's impudence. Tom Kennedy was a gentleman, and Marjory, with +her iceberg of a heart would be happy enough in his keeping by and +bye; but this rampant, red-faced fool! And then he laughed, thinking +suddenly, causelessly, of a certain little face, looking very winsome +despite its weariness, which would have laughed too; for Mrs. Vane had +somehow failed to rally from the shock of old Peggy's death with her +usual elasticity, and was still in her room visible only to a favoured +few, Paul amongst the number. Only that morning she had looked at him +with her pretty, quizzical eyes and met his offer to escort her so far +on her southward journey with the remark that by that time he would no +longer be his own master. + +And it was true. Before he rowed across the loch again his future +would be settled, he would be Alice Woodward's Highland proprietor. + +"Your left, please, Miss Carmichael," he said, giving stroke with a +longer swing; "there is a nice, comfortable landing-place just beyond +the white stone, and I hate getting my feet wet, even in helping +ladies to keep theirs dry." + +"But we shall miss----" began Marjory. + +"Do as you're bid, my dear," put in Will Cameron, resignedly, from the +bow; "haven't you learnt by this time that the laird knows where he +wants to steer and sticks to it? After all, it saves a lot of trouble +to others." + +"Right you are!" assented Paul, gaily; "your left, please; not so much +as that; thank you! I've no desire to find the sunken rocks." + +The words were light, and a boat-load of people were listening to +them; yet Marjory, guiding the tiller ropes, felt that they were +spoken for her ear alone; that she and Paul were face to face, as they +so often were before his future, and the fact annoyed her. Yet, as +they stepped out on the little causeway of rock jutting forward like a +peer, the waves blab, blabbing upon its sides, reminded her of the +evening when she had sate listening to them and Paul had come along +the shore behind her, like another St. Christopher, bearing the burden +of the world's immortality--its childhood. + +"Tom," she said, in a low voice, turning to him in swift appeal, why +she knew not, "let us get away from all this; we might go along the +point and look for clams, as we used to do. Remember, it is the last I +shall see of you; so don't talk about manners and being wanted; don't +think of what other people think." + +She spoke petulantly, but there were sudden tears in her eyes. Yet as +they moved off together neither of then realised that a fateful moment +had come and gone; that the trivial words covered an unconscious +revolt of one side of her woman's nature against the other, and that +if, instead of hunting clams like a couple of children, he had taken +her hand and told her the truth of love and marriage, as he had seen +it in life, she would have turned instinctively from the world's +apotheosis of passion, and so have found a compass to guide her out of +danger; but Tom Kennedy, being conscious that he himself was once more +under the glamour which had come and gone many times already even in +his sober life, could not find it in his heart to decry it utterly. So +they stalked clams instead, advancing on tiptoe over the wet sand with +eyes alert for every sign of an air-hole, and then pouncing like a cat +on a mouse to seize the collapsing tube before it sank down, down, +into the depths of gravel where even finger nails could not follow it. +And to them, as they laughed and hunted, came the Reverend James, +restless as ever, yet showing to advantage in a sport which he had +practised from his barefoot childhood. + +It was good to see his fair, florid face come up red with smug triumph +from each dive as he added another clam to the heap, until Marjory +forgot everything else in emulation, and Tom Kennedy, smiling at her +eagerness, sate down to a cigarette beside Lord George, who, engaged +in the same business, was watching the children paddle in the +shallows. + +A silent, yet sympathetic audience were these two men of middle age, +smiling to themselves over the gay voices and childish sallies. Over +Eve's eleventh ineffectual attempt to swallow an oyster which would +have been successful if Adam hadn't made her laugh; over Marjory's +indignant claim to a clam, which, during the dispute, disappeared for +ever. Smiling, too, over Blasius' solemn face as he informed daddy +that there was a "big crawly wild beast down there wif wobbly legs, +and Blazeths wanted daddy's hand. Blazeths wathn't afwaid, but he +wanted daddy's hand." + +The incoming tide was drowning the round brown heads of the boulders +out on the far point, as those two red ones, so curiously alike, bent +over the "wild beast wif wobbly legs," which Adam and Eve, with +wide-eyed superiority, said was nothing but a crab, a tiny crab! A +heron, driven from its last inch of seaweed, flapped slowly across the +bay, its trailing feet almost touching the water, and the sea-pyots +circled screaming round the invaders of their happy hunting-ground. In +the bend of the bay beneath a clump of alders showed a cluster of gay +dresses busy about a tablecloth, and above them, in wooded curves +merging into sheer slopes of rock and bent, rose Ben Morven. Half-way +up, right in the open, a single holly tree, like a black shadow, +marking the turn to the old burying-ground. Lord George came back from +the wild beast with a sober face, and eyes still watching that little +red head, bent now over a stick with which the wobbly legs were being +boldly prodded to a walk. + +"Queer start, children--aren't they?" he remarked confidentially, as +he lit another cigarette. "I never thought of it before I married, +give you my word. I suppose men don't--more's the pity." He gave a +glance at his companion's face, and went on with more assurance: "You +see no one ever talks of the paternal instinct; the women are supposed +to have it all their own way, in the maternal business, and it's a +shame, for a man needs that sort of thing more than they do. A woman +can't be done out of her motherhood, but a man loses everything except +a passing pleasure if he doesn't keep straight. Look at that boy, +Kennedy! He is the very moral of me, and I had to whack him the other +day. Well, I assure you, that I felt for the first time in my life +that I was immortal--that I had a stake in time and eternity. Why +don't they teach us this when we are young? Why don't they say +something about it in the marriage service, instead of letting a +couple of young fools undertake responsibilities for which they are +not fit?" + +Tom Kennedy shook his head. "Because we are not brave enough to face +our own instincts and call a spade a spade. I served a few years in +India once, and Hindooism is, I think, the only religion which sets +personal feelings aside utterly; and there the idea has been overlaid +with a horrible sensuality. Though on the whole it is not more +sickening than our artificial sentiment. But it's a weary subject. +Everyone talks of it, and yet no one cares to go back to the +beginning; to give up the romance----" + +His eyes wandered to Marjory, and he was silent. It was true. When all +was said and done he craved for it. + +"Well," remarked Lord George, judgmatically, after a pause, "there is +something wrong, somewhere. Take my own case. I married, as most +fellows do, to please myself, without a thought of the consequences. +And though, of course, some romance is necessary to make a man give up +his club and undertake the responsibility of a boy like Blazes--Good +Lord! and I promised his mother to keep him out of mischief!" + +The last words being evoked by the sight of his youngest born prone on +his back kicking madly in six inches of water, with the crab attached +to his big toe. + +"I wanted it to come a walk wif Blazeths," he wailed pathetically; +"and it bited Blazeths instead, with a wobbly leg." + +"I knew how it would be, George," said his wife, with patient dignity, +when the culprits appeared before her. "But you are so self-confident. +You are always undertaking responsibilities for which Nature has not +fitted you. Give him to nurse, and cut the cucumber, do--there's a +good boy." + +Lord George shot a queer glance at Dr. Kennedy, and did as he was bid; +as most people did when Blanche put on her superior manner. + +"And, Dr. Kennedy," she continued, "I want you to do something for me. +The Hookers have brought--no! I don't mean the piper, George, though +they have brought him--not that it matters so much, for I have told +John Macpherson to keep him in the 'Tubhaneer,' which is anchored in +the stream, so he can do no harm, and the pipes will sound nice over +the water--No, Dr. Kennedy, it is a German professor, very +distinguished, but none of the Hooker party speak German. George will, +of course, take him in tow by and bye, being in the Foreign Office; +but just now, I thought--if you would not mind. Thanks, so much! it +always looks well to have more than one linguist. At present, I have +sent him to admire the view with Major Bertie, who says 'wunderschön' +at intervals; but that can't last long, you know." + +"My dear Blanche, you are as good as a play!" protested her husband, +convulsed with laughter, at her unconscious mimicry, and even Dr. +Kennedy found it hard to keep his countenance over her innocent +surprise. Yet he was in no mood for amusement, and his face showed it +when, lunch being over, he drew out his watch, and looked meaningly to +Marjory. + +"Is it time?" she asked, with a sudden sinking of the heart. + +"Quite time," echoed Paul, coolly, from his place by Alice Woodward; +"that is to say, if we are to be back to tea. It is a longer pull than +it looks. Now, good people! who is for the burying-ground? You are +coming, of course, Miss Woodward; I want you to see all the beauties +of Gleneira, and the view is splendid." + +The Reverend James, who had made up his mind that the descent, when +Marjory should have lost her natural escort, would be the very time +for his purpose, stood up manfully, and Major Bertie, under orders for +the time being to the athletic daughter of a neighbouring laird, +followed suit; but the rest, for the most part, declined what they +stigmatised as a gruesome invitation. The pull was not only long but +stiff, especially after lunch, and the view from below, enhanced by +idleness and a quiet cigar, good enough for them. + +So it was a small single file which, led by Paul, and brought up by +John Macpherson with the whiskey flask in case of accidents, toiled up +through the fern brakes, till half-way up the hill they struck the +path, and paused for breath beside a spring roughly set in masonry. +Beside it lay a pile of broken broomsticks, one of which Alice +Woodward took up, intending to use it as a staff. + +"It will be the staves they are using to carry the coffins," remarked +old John, cheerfully, as he wiped his forehead with his coat sleeve; +"it is breaking them they are when they come down, at the wishing +well; and the lassies will come with them to wish for a jo---- Ay! ay! +it will be what they were using for old Peggy that the leddy will be +choosing, for it's new whatever." + +Alice dropped the stick with a little shiver of disgust, and Paul +moved on impatiently, while John, in reply to a query from the Major, +went on from behind in garrulous tones, "Ou, ay! it is a job, +whatever, but it's most the auld bodies like Peggy that's wantin' to +come to the auld place, and they're fine and light; all but the old +_bodach_, Angus MacKinnon, and by 'sunder he will be a job when his +turn comes, for he's as big as a stirk. Ay! ay! as big as a stirk, +whatever." + +"There! is not that worth the climb?" cried Paul, with a ring of real +pleasure in his voice which Marjory remembered so well on many a +similar occasion, as they reached the twin holly trees--sacred to an +older cult than that which had prompted the selection of a burial site +whence Iona might sometimes be seen--and sank down upon the short +thyme-set turf to admire the view. + +"We are in luck!" cried Marjory, breathlessly. "Look! yonder is Iona." + +Out on the verge, between the golden sea and the golden sky, lay a +faint purple cloud no bigger than a man's hand. + +"But why Iona?" asked Alice Woodward. "I mean why did they want to be +buried in sight of it?" + +"As a perpetual witness to their faith when they could no longer +profess it, I suppose," said Tom Kennedy. "I like the idea." + +"Would be rather difficult to carry out in Kensal Green, I should +say," put in Paul, lightly. "It wouldn't do to bury by belief +nowadays." + +"But, surely," protested the Reverend James, "the Church custom of +burying towards the east is strictly enforced in all English +cemeteries." He might as well have kept silence as far as those +three--who by chance were sitting together--were concerned, for their +thoughts were far ahead of him. + +"I don't know," replied Dr. Kennedy, absently, "I think a broad +division would suffice. Those who hope--not necessarily for themselves +personally--and those who don't. And most of us, who care to think at +all, look 'sunward,' as Myers says, 'through the mist, and speak to +each other softly of a hope.'" + +"A mistake," broke in Paul's clearer voice. "It is better to thank +with brief thanksgiving 'Whatever gods there be, that no life lives +for ever----'" + +"Finish the quotation, please," put in Marjory, quickly. "'That e'en +the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.' What more can anyone +want?" She stretched her hand, as she spoke, to the glitter and gleam +on the far horizon, and then turned with a smile to her companions. +"And this is the sunniest spot in the whole glen--the first to +get the light, and the last to lose it. I couldn't wish for a better +resting-place." + +"I should prefer the society of a cemetery," remarked Paul; "one's +tombstone would not be so detestably conspicuous as it would be up +here. Imagine it--Macleod of Gleneira, etc., etc.!" + +"Why should you have a tombstone at all?" asked the girl, lightly. "I +hate them; horrid, unsatisfactory things, full of texts that have +nothing to do with you, yourself." + +"Well," put in Major Bertie, who had just returned from a tour of +inspection, "there's an epitaph up there, which, as the Americans say, +wraps round everything, and makes discontent impossible--'To John +Stewart, his ancestors and descendants.' That ought to satisfy you, +Miss Carmichael; or you might compose your own curious derangement, +like a fellow I knew in the regiment--classical sort of chap. He used +to write the most touching things, and weep over them profusely. Got +blown up in the Arsenal one day, and didn't need any of them. It's a +fact, Macleod. Before your time. So, if you have a fancy that way, +Miss Carmichael----" + +"I'll note it in my will," she replied evasively; then, hearing a low +voice beside her quoting the lines beginning, "He is beyond the shadow +of night," she turned to Paul in quick surprise. + +"I have the knack of reading your thoughts, you see, though I don't +share them," he said quietly, adding in a lower tone: "And now, +Kennedy, I hurry no man's cattle, but if you are to catch that coach +you should be going, especially if Miss Carmichael is to see you to +the top of the ridge." + +The inexpressible charm, which was his by nature, born of a gracious +remembrance of other folk's interest, was on him as he spoke, and +contrasted sharply with the lack of it in the Reverend James +Gillespie, who jumped to his feet in a moment in a desperate resolve. + +"If you like, Miss Marjory, I will go so far, and escort you back." + +Paul looked at him distastefully from head to foot, and Dr. Kennedy +frowned, and set the suggestion aside decisively. "Thanks, Gillespie, +but I have some business to talk over with my ward. Good-bye, Macleod, +and thanks--for many kindnesses." + +"Good-bye, and--and good luck! Miss Woodward, if you don't mind, I +think we ought to be starting tea-wards. The downward path is easy, +but there are plenty of beauties to admire on the way. I am always too +much out of breath to do so on the upward path. Excelsior is not my +motto." + +Yet as they paused at the first turn he looked back towards the two +figures cresting the rise, and remarked easily to his companion that +Miss Carmichael was quite a picture on the hillside, and walked like a +shepherd. And then, as easily, he proposed taking a _détour_ through a +nut wood, and so by a path he knew back to the beach. + +"Alice would like a cup of tea, please; she is rather tired," he said +to his sister, when they arrived there, and Lady George gave a little +gasp of relief. "Oh, Paul! I'm so glad! What a dear boy you are!" + +And about the same time Tom Kennedy and Marjory Carmichael stood side +by side on a neck of land connecting one range of hills with another. +The bog myrtle, crushed under their feet, sent an aromatic, +invigorating scent into the air. The fresh cool sea breeze, which had +gathered a heather perfume in its passage over the windswept moor, +blew in their faces, and a golden mist cloud, growing above the rising +shadow of the little valley on either side of them, shut out the world +below. The only sign of life, save those two standing hand in hand, +being a stone-chat twittering on a boulder, and a group of scared +sheep, waiting with backward turned heads for the next movement to +send them with a headlong rush and a clatter of stones into the mists +below. + +But none came. For those two stood silent for a time. + +"Oh, Tom!" she said at last; "was there ever anyone so good, so kind +as you are?" + +He paused a moment, looking into her tearful eyes, and something of +the earth earthy, seemed to slip from him, leaving him a clearer +vision. + +"You shall answer that question for yourself, some day, my friend," he +said. "A year hence--two years--three years. What does it matter? +_Auf-wieder-sehn!_" + +"_Auf-wieder-sehn!_" + +The echo of her own reply came back to her from the mist as she stood, +after he had gone, looking into the valley. + +_Auf-wieder-sehn!_ Yes!--to such a tie as that there could be no other +parting. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + +The Reverend James Gillespie had a certain coarse fibre in him, which +made it only natural that the snub direct he had received from Dr. +Kennedy should make him more determined than he had been before +on a _tête-a-tête_ with Marjory. Consequently, much to her disgust, +she found him solemnly waiting for her on a tombstone in the old +burying-ground. The spectacle was an irritating one. + +"Why didn't you go down with the others?" she asked crossly. "You know +quite well I didn't need--anyone." A certain politeness prevented her +employing the personal pronoun. Not that her lover would have cared, +since he came of a class in which a certain amount of shrewishness in +the wooed is not only considered correct, but, to a certain extent, +propitious. And, although he had a veneer of polish on those points +which had come into friction with his new world, love-making was not +one of them. There he was, simply the cottier's son, full of inherited +tradition in regard to rural coquetry. A fact which, at the outset, +put Marjory at a disadvantage, since he refused to take the +uncompromising hint, which she gave as soon as it dawned upon her what +his purpose really was. And yet she could hardly refuse the man before +he had asked her the momentous question. So it was with concentrated +mixture of sheer wrath and intense amusement that she suddenly found +him, as they paused by the wishing-well, on his knees before her +declaiming his passion in set terms. The disposition to box his ears +vanished in almost hysterical laughter, until the blank surprise on +his face recalled her to the fact that the man was, at any rate, +paying her the highest tribute in his power, and had a right to be +heard. But not in that ridiculous position! + +"You had better get up, Mr. Gillespie," she said peremptorily; "the +ground is quite damp, and I can hear what you have to say much better +when you are standing." + +The facts were undeniable but the prosaic interruption had checked the +flow of Mr. Gillespie's eloquence, and he stood red and stuttering +until Marjory's slender stock of patience was exhausted, and she +interrupted him, loftily: + +"I suppose you meant just now to ask me to be your wife? If that was +so----" + +Her tone roused his temper. "Such was my intention," he interrupted +sulkily. "I thought I spoke pretty plainly, and I fancy you must have +been prepared for it." + +Prepared! prepared for this!--this outrage on her girlish dreams. For +it was her first proposal. What right had this man to thrust himself +into her holy of holies and smirch the romance--the beauty of it all? +It is the feeling with which many a girl listens for the first time to +a lover. + +"Prepared!" she echoed. "Are you mad? The very idea is preposterous!" + +His face was a study. "The Bishop," he began, "and Lady George didn't +seem to--to think----" + +"Then I am to understand that you have consulted them?" she asked, in +supreme anger; but his sense of duty came to his aid and made him +bold. + +"The Bishop, of course. Apart from his spiritual authority, he has +claims upon me which I should be indeed ungrateful to ignore, and--and +it meant much to be sure of your welcome." + +The real good feeling underlying the stilted words went straight to +Marjory's sense of justice, and made her, metaphorically, pass the +Bishop. Besides, this little discussion had, as it were, taken the +personal flavour from the point at issue and left her contemptuously +tolerant, as she had been many and many a time over the Reverend +James's views of life. + +"And Lady George," she asked, categorically, magisterially; "has she +also claims to be consulted?" + +He coughed. "I rather think she broached the subject. She--she saw I +loved you." And here the man himself broke through the clerical +coating. "For I do love you. It isn't preposterous. I would do my best +to make you a good husband, and--and you could teach the school +children anything you liked." + +"The Bishop wouldn't approve of that," she replied impatiently, yet in +kinder tones. "Oh! Mr. Gillespie, it only shows how little you +understand--how little you know. You would never have dreamed of such +a thing, you and the Bishop, if you had had the least conception of +what I really am. Perhaps I had no right to call it preposterous, but +it is impossible, utterly impossible, and he ought to have seen it." + +This slur on his patron's acumen roused the young man's doggedness. "I +do not see why it should be either preposterous or impossible, unless +you love someone else." + +Then she turned and rent him, a whole torrent of indignant regret and +dislike seeming to loosen her tongue. "Love! Oh! don't dare to mention +the word. You don't understand it--it is profanation--I don't know +anything about it myself, but _this_ must be wrong. Ah! Mr. Gillespie, +for goodness sake let us talk about something else!" + +"Then I am to understand that you refuse," he began. + +"Refuse! of course I refuse." She felt she would have liked to go down +among the whole posse of people--Paul Macleod among the number, for +all she knew--who had deemed such a thing possible, and cry: "Listen! +I have refused him, do you hear? I hate him, and you, too." But the +next moment the very thought of coming amongst them, with him, as if +of her own free will, seemed to her unbearable, and she stopped short +in the headlong course downwards, which she had begun. + +"I suppose you couldn't help it," she said, with a catch in her +breath, "and it is very kind of you, of course, and I am obliged and +all that; but if you wouldn't mind leaving me I should prefer it. I +don't want any tea, thanks; all I want is to get home." + +"I--I am sorry," he stammered, utterly taken aback. + +"Oh, don't be sorry!" she interrupted; "it has nothing to do with you, +I assure you. Only it is so strange at first. Good-bye." + +She was off at a dignified walk, with her head in the air, in an +opposite direction before he had recovered from his mingled surprise +and consternation at the effect his proposal had had on her. At any +rate, she had not been indifferent, and this thought bringing a +certain consolation with it, he made his way down to the picnic party, +and was soon recovering his equanimity over scones and jam. + +Marjory, on the other hand, felt her indignation grow as she hurried +along, regardless of briars and brakes, to the shore beyond the +Narrowest, where, out of sight of the others, she might hope to find a +boat which would ferry her across the loch. + +She found one, but hardly what she desired, since, as she made her way +through the alder brakes to a projecting rock, she saw the "Tubhaneer" +lying close in, with Paul Macleod and Alice Woodward in the stern, +while her brother and two of the children were lolling about in the +bows. They had been amusing themselves by tacking lazily about in the +slack water. + +She would have beaten a quick retreat had not Paul's eye been quicker +and a swift turn of the rudder shown her that she was observed. + +"Oh, don't trouble," she called, "I only want to get across, and I'll +find one of the rowing boats about, I expect." + +"They are above," he called back; "the tide is running out fast now, +so I sent them to the upper bay. Just step on the further rock, if you +can, and I'll run her up to it for a second." + +There was something in the easy familiarity and decision of his manner +which always soothed her into reasonable compliance, and the next +minute she found herself apologising to Alice Woodward as the bellying +sail slanted them across the loch. + +"Oh, Alice won't mind," said Paul, cheerfully; "she likes sailing, +don't you, Alice?" + +Marjory looked at them, as they looked at each other, and was silent. + +So that was settled. And that again was Love. Love and Marriage! What +a ghastly farce it was when you came close to it! + +"I'm sorry Kennedy has gone," remarked Paul, with his eyes on her +face; "he is one of the best fellows I ever met. We shall have to +tack, Sam; the tide is too strong." + +Even so; the uncertain breeze failing ere they reached the slack +water, they missed the landing-stage by a few yards and drifted into +the shallow, seaweedy bay below. But Paul was over the side, knee-deep +among the boulders, ere Marjory could expostulate. "Steady her a bit, +Sam, you can get a grip on that oarweed. Now then, Miss Carmichael, if +you please; I'm a duffer at steering, but I can lift you across +easily, if you'll allow me--thanks." + +She would have preferred to wade but for the opposition it would have +provoked, and when, after a few slippery strides, he set her down on +the shingle, turned to go with the briefest of acknowledgments. + +"Wait a bit, please," he said, quietly. "Alice, I must see Miss +Carmichael past the gate. MacInnes' bull is loose, and he isn't always +quite canny. I'll be back in a minute. Keep the helm in, Sam, and +don't let her drift; the current runs like a mill race round the +point." + +They were already well over the soft, sea-pink set turf; Marjory +walking fast, with heightened colour. + +"There is really no need for you to keep Miss Woodward waiting," she +said impatiently. "I am quite accustomed to take care of myself." + +"Alice will not mind." + +Alice! Was he so eager for her to realise the new position that he +must needs enforce the knowledge of it upon her in this fashion? + +"I am glad Miss Woodward does not mind. I should." + +"I am perfectly aware of that--you have not her philosophic +acquiescence in the inevitable. It is a pity, for you fret yourself +needlessly over people--who are not worth it." + +Was he not worth it? The thought made her walk faster, until a sudden +cry from behind made her companion pause and look back hastily. + +"Good God! they'll be on the rocks," he cried, as, without an +instant's delay, he dashed across the sward down to the shore, +followed closely by Marjory, whose heart throbbed with sudden fear as +she realised what had occurred. The boat which they had left safely in +the backwater a minute before, was now racing down the stream with +sails full set. How this had occurred was another question, which +could not then be answered. Possibly Sam, proud of his new seamanship, +had proposed a sail. Anyhow, there they were in the stream, and even +without knowledge of that sunken shelf of rock half a mile further +down the curve, over which the water rushed in a fall at this time of +the tide, the young man sufficiently grasped the danger of the +situation to be doing his best to lower the sail again. But the rope +had kinked in the pulley, and the sudden discovery that he had +forgotten to re-ship the rudder--which Paul had removed in order to +bring the boat closer into shore--completed his consternation, +rendering him absolutely helpless. All this Captain Macleod took in as +he ran, and ere Marjory had reached him he had kicked off his boots +and flung coat and waistcoat aside to free himself for the sharp, +short struggle with the racing tide, in which lay his only chance of +reaching the boat. Then he waded breast high in the slack water, and +bided his time. It needed quick thought and quicker decision to seize +the exact moment when, by one supreme effort, he could hope to +succeed; and yet Marjory, watching with held breath, felt a wild rush +of exultation, not of fear, as with one splendid stroke he shot far +into the current. Swimming has always an effortless look, and the +sweeping stream, carrying him down, remorselessly aided the illusion, +so that not even Marjory, with her knowledge of the tide, guessed how +nearly Paul Macleod's strength was spent as his hand touched the +gunwale. But touch it he did, and the next moment, with Sam's help, he +was aboard and busy at the sail, while Alice Woodward, deeming the +danger over, began to cry helplessly, and even Marjory breathed again. +Only for a moment, however; the next, though the sail was down, she +realised that the boat was still in the current, and that Paul was +vainly trying to tear up a thwart. The rudder! the rudder must have +gone adrift in Sam's clumsy efforts to ship it! + +Then they were no better off than before--nay, worse! since they were +nearer those unseen rocks, and he--_he_ was in danger now. + +What was to be done? The thought was agonising as, scarcely knowing +why, she kept abreast of the drifting boat, stumbling over the +boulders, slipping on the seaweed, unable to see, to think, to do +anything save listen to the ominously rising roar of the water which +just beyond the turn fell in a regular cascade over that black jagged +shelf of rock. + +Ah, those helpless children! and Paul! She must do something--try to +do something. And then on a sudden it came to her, as such things do +come, as if they had all been settled beforehand clear and connected. +At the last spit of land, not fifty yards above the fall, a streak of +sand bank, capped by a pile of boulders, jutted out. If she could +cross the dip and reach them! The herons used to sit there till well +on to half-tide, and once she and Will had found oysters. The trivial +thoughts came, as they will come in times of stress, flashing through +the brain without obscuring it. Even as she thought them, her mind was +busy over the one certainty, that somehow she must give help! By +cutting across the next grassy curve she would be there in time. They +might think she was deserting them. What then? If she could succeed +even so far, _he_ would know that it was not so--_he_ would understand +that she meant to be nearer--nearer. + +He did; and a great glow of pride in her pluck came to him, when, as +the boat swept round the curve, he saw her floundering, half swimming +towards the boulders, and at the sight bent quickly for a coil of +rope. But she had not thought of that--her one impulse having been to +get nearer. + +And now she is as far as she can go. Sheer at her feet, sliding among +the stones, is the stream--below her is the roar and rush of the fall, +save to her left, where it shelves to an eddy--above her is the boat +drifting, drifting, more slowly now, for the shelf of rock backs the +water a little. Then for the first time she realises what is to be +done, for there is Paul at the bows with the coil poised in his hand. + +Of course! that was it! that was it! + +She dug her heels into the crevices of the boulders as she stood +knee-deep among them, and kept her eyes upon his face. + +"Now!" + +As the cry left her lips, something like a black snake shot out +through the air and flung itself across her breast, stinging and +almost blinding her with pain; but there was no time for pain--no +time! To seize it, bend it round the nearest boulder, and so twice +round her waist with a loop through across her arm, took all her +thoughts, all her strength, till, with a slow rasping noise of the wet +rope slipping on stone, the strain began and the knot grew tight. +Tight.--tighter--then a slip--then tighter again. + +Pain--yes, it was pain. My God! what pain. Ah! another slip. But +Paul--was that a knife he had in his hand? No! No! that should never +be; there should be no more slipping even if she drowned for it. With +more of sheer obstinacy than courage she flung herself sideways in the +water among the rocks. So, with her whole body wedged in behind the +two boulders, there could be no more slipping. There could be nothing +more but life or death for both of them. + +And it was life. Paul Macleod, standing knife in hand, ready to cut +the rope, felt the claim of her pluck to fair play, and paused. She +should do this thing if she could! And even as the decision came to +him, came also the knowledge that she had done it, as, with a sidelong +sway the boat brought up and drifted into slacker water. + +Five minutes after he was untying the knot and binding his wet +handkerchief round her bruised arm. + +"Salt water," he said, a trifle unsteadily, "is the best thing in the +world for bruises, and you are more bruised than hurt, I fancy. No! +Blanche," for Alice Woodward's shrieks had by that time attracted +plenty of help, and the boats had come over in hot haste from the +other side; "don't fuss over Miss Carmichael with sal volatile and +salts. She doesn't need it. But we are both wet through, and if she is +wise she will walk home with me at once. It is better than waiting for +the carriage." + +"Yes, please," she replied, catching eagerly at the chance of escape +from the general excitement and gratitude. "Indeed, I would rather, +Lady George; I am not a bit hurt, only, as your brother says, wet +through, so I had better get home at once." + +They started off together at a brisk pace, but silently, until as they +topped the nearest rise, the chill evening wind striking through her +wet garments, made her shiver. Then he held out his hand to her +suddenly, with a smile. + +"Come! let us run. It will take off the stiffness and keep us both +warm." So hand in hand, like a couple of children, they ran through +the autumn woods, startling the roe deer from the oak coverts, and the +sea-gulls from the little sheltered bays. Hand in hand, while the +shadows darkened and the gold in the west faded to grey. Warm, human +hand in hand, confident, content in their companionship, and seeking +nothing more than that confidence, that content. + +"I don't think you'll take cold," said Paul, with the blood tingling +in his veins, and his breath coming fast. + +"I don't think I shall," she laughed. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + +But the remembrance of that thoughtless run through the darkening +woods seemed incredible--to the girl, at least--when next morning her +companion in it came down, as in duty bound, to inquire after the +result of her wetting, for he was palpably conventional and +commonplace. Partly because Lady George accompanied him, eager to +renew her protestations of gratitude, and partly because it was his +way whenever he had made any special departure from the ordinary line +of conduct, which he laid down for himself. This evident artificiality +had the effect of producing the same sort of unreality in Marjory, so +that the only straightforward part of the interview came from Lord +George, who, with an odd little quake in his voice, thanked her for +the fact that Blazes was at the present moment rehearsing the scene in +the nursery. + +"You should see the little beggar," he said. "'Pon my word he doesn't +seem to have missed a single detail. Has Sam to the life, and we have +been obliged to forbid Alice's screams; they were heard all over the +house." + +"And what does he say was his own part in the business?" asked +Marjory. "All I remember is a face--very like yours, Lord George--with +great wide eyes, while Eve and Adam were hiding theirs." + +Lord George gave another odd little sound between a laugh and a sob. +"He says he sate still and swore, like Uncle Paul!" + +"I'm afraid I did, Miss Carmichael," confessed the culprit, with a +flash of the old manner; "but really, the tangle that young idiot had +got things into, and stramash----" He turned to the window with a +frown, and looked out. "You are the heroine of the hour, I see," he +added cynically. "There is the Manse machine, with your two devoted +admirers in it, come to congratulate you. Blanche, if you have induced +Miss Carmichael to dine with us to-night--our last night--we had +better quit the court. By the way, Mrs. Vane desired me to say, Miss +Carmichael, that she did not intend to leave Gleneira without seeing +you again; so, as she is not well enough to come to the Lodge, you may +be induced to take pity on her." + +The covert implication that some such inducement was necessary to +overcome her reluctance, stung the girl's pride, without her +recognising the cause of it, and she accepted the invitation +hurriedly, telling herself she was glad it was the last, and that +after to-morrow she could return to the old peaceful days. The thought +made her turn with a quick expansion of face and manner to the two old +men who advanced to meet them, as she accompanied Lady George to the +garden-gate. Two old men almost tremulous with pride and delight. + +"_Tanto fortior tanto felicior!_" cried the little Father, his fresh, +round face beaming with sheer content. + +"So, so, young lady! we have heard the story," put in the minister, +full of courtly bows, in which those suggestions of a shapely calf had +a fair field. "True is it that _Fortis cadere, cedere non potest_. Ah, +Lady George! I have to express my great thankfulness that a dreadful +bereavement has been spared you, under Providence, by our dear young +friend's courage; or, rather, by her wisdom, since, without the quick +thought, the former would have been useless. In this case, to +paraphrase the saying, _tam Minerva quam Marte_, as even a soldier +must allow." + +"You will not find me backward, sir, in acknowledging either Miss +Carmichael's wisdom or her courage," replied Paul, thus challenged; +but his tone had that suggestion of a hidden meaning in it, to which +Lady George objected, and rightly, as bad form; so she covered it by a +remark upon the beauty of a boy, who stood holding open the gate. + +"He is a little like that crayon portrait of you when you were a boy, +Paul," she added cheerfully. + +"He is old Peggy's grandson," replied Marjory, "and as he has been +left to Dr. Kennedy's care, I am to look after him. He will be my +first pupil." + +"Then the likeness will soon disappear," said Paul, in a low voice, as +he passed out. + +"Perhaps he will be not the worse of that," retorted Marjory, in the +same tone. + +"I don't know. Men who are brought up by women are generally prigs." + +"And women who have been brought up by men?" she asked sharply, not +thinking of herself or her past. + +"Are brave," he said quietly. + +Brave! So he thought that of her. The one word was worth all the rest. +And as she went up the path again with Father Macdonald on her right +hand and Mr. Wilson on her left, all their fine phrases seemed +forgotten in that simple acknowledgment. She would remember that +always, even when the old peaceful days came back, as they would on +the morrow. There was only the dinner at the Big House between her and +that desirable consummation; but that was an ordeal without Tom, who +was at home anywhere. + +To tell truth, it would have been an ordeal to one less reluctant than +Marjory; for a general air of uncertainty, like that of amateur +theatricals when the prompter is best man, pervaded the party. Mrs. +Woodward called her host by his Christian name with a manifest effort +of memory, and when Sam ventured on a like familiarity with Blanche, +her face betrayed her real feelings. Indeed, she took a private +opportunity of confiding to Lord George her relief that it was only a +one-night part, as she could not stand it much longer. + +"Yet you condemn poor Paul to a life-long connection with that young +bounder. Upon my soul! you women are queer creatures;" and the +perversity of the feminine nature appeared to absorb him for the rest +of the evening. Even Mrs. Vane, who ventured down to dinner for the +first time, could make nothing of the ghastly function, so she retired +immediately afterwards on plea of being tired, chiefly because she +wished to have an opportunity of seeing Marjory alone, which she +secured by bidding her in a whisper be sure and come to her room after +she had said good-bye to everyone else. + +Her departure reduced the drawing-room to flat despair. + +"It is the sadness of farewell," remarked Miss Smith, part of whose +contract was that she was to remain to the last and see nothing was +forgotten; not even a decent show of sentiment. + +"Parting is such sweet sorrow," murmured the Major under his +moustache. He was the most cheerful of the party, since his flirtation +had resulted in another week's grouse shooting with his charmer's +father. + +"Mr. St. Clare has written such a sweet thing called 'Good-bye,'" +continued the Moth, appealing to the Poet. "He might recite it to +cheer us up." + +"I wonder how many poets there are who haven't written a piece on that +subject," put in Paul, hastily, as Mr. St. Clare gave a preliminary +cough, "and yet it will supply tons of agony to generations still +unborn." + +"There are forty songs of that name," remarked Alice, practically. "I +wanted one for a friend, and the music man told me so." + +Then the remembrance of that friend, a certain young fellow with a +pleasant baritone voice, busy over tallow at Riga, gave her quite a +pang of regret. + +"Mostly trash, too," assented the Major; "Tosti's is the best, but +even there one is all battered to pieces before the end." + +"That is true," put in Marjory, eagerly. "You see, the poet begins by +fine-drawing the agony, the composer follows suit, and the singer +carries out the distortion. So in the third verse there is nothing for +it but to 'kill the coo.'" + +"I haven't heard 'Auld Robin Gray' for twenty years," murmured Lord +George. "No one sings anything but German nowadays. German or comic +operas." + +"Miss Carmichael sings Scotch songs; I've heard her," said Paul from +the skein of silk he was holding for Alice Woodward. + +"Oh, do!" cried the Moth. "Something touching." + +"Somethin' to cheer us up, you mean," put in Sam; "somethin' with a +chorus, you know." + +"Something old-fashioned," protested Lord George. + +"Something appropriate to the occasion," suggested his wife. + +"Something Miss Carmichael approves of," came from the skein of silk. + +The girl stood by the piano for an instant, looking at them all with a +touch of fine scorn in her face. + +"I will do my best," she said at last, with a laugh. The next instant, +with a crash of chords, her clear, fresh, young voice rang through the +room in that gayest and saddest of songs:-- + + + "A weary lot is thine, fair maid, + A weary lot is thine; + To pull the thorn thy brow to braid, + And press the rue for wine. + A lightsome eye, a soldier's mien, + A feather of the blue, + A doublet of the Lincoln green, + No more of me you knew, + My love, + No more of me you knew." + + +Paul's hands turning the skeins paused, his eyes were on the girl's +face as, with a mixture of recklessness and regret, she went on-- + + + "The morn is merry June, I trow, + The rose is budding fain, + But she shall bloom in winter snow + Ere we two meet again! + He turned his charger as he spake + Upon the river shore, + Said 'Adieu for evermore, + My love, + And adieu for evermore.'" + + +"What a heartless, unromantic, roving wretch!" remarked Lady George, +in the pause which followed the refrain. "I hope he was jilted after +all by the heiress; there generally is an heiress in these cases." +Then, becoming aware of the possible indiscretion of her words, she +looked at her brother hurriedly. + +"In that case he married and lived happily ever afterwards; at least, +that is what I should have done in his case. And I don't think he was +so heartless, after all. He told the truth. It isn't as if he had +sneaked away without saying good-bye." + +Marjory rose from the piano with a little shrug of her shoulders. + +"I must say good-night, at any rate, Lady George, and sneak up to see +Mrs. Vane; for it is getting late, and you have all to be up so +early." + +Paul, standing at the door holding it open for her to pass through, +was the last of the group to whom she had to give the conventional +farewell. + +"Good-bye," she said, feeling above her real regret a relief that this +was the end. + +"_Auf-wieder-sehn_," he replied. That was what Tom had said. As she +ran upstairs to Mrs. Vane's room she was telling herself passionately +that she did not want to see Captain Macleod again--that she would +rather he went out of her life altogether, and cease to make her +wonder at his changeful moods. + +"_Entrez_," said the soft voice to her knock, and the next moment she +felt herself in an atmosphere in which she had never been before. The +semi-darkness of the pink-shaded light, the littered dressing-table, +the soft perfume, the thousand and one evidences of an almost sensuous +ease were to her absolutely novel. And the small figure, nestling in +the armchair, so dainty in its laces and little velvet-shod feet. All +that meant something she had never grasped before, something which +attracted and yet repelled her. + +"How pretty it is," she said, in sudden impulse, as her fingers +stroked one of the soft folds almost caressingly. Mrs. Vane's hand +went out swiftly, and drew hers closer. + +"Don't, child! That does for me, not for you. So this is good-bye. You +are not sorry?" Her eyes scanned the girl's closely, and then she +smiled. "If you are, you will get over it soon. That is the best of +work. I often wish I had some--to make me forget myself." + +"But you do work--you work harder than anyone I know, in a way. Why, +to-night we were quite dull; so dull without you! Everyone missed you; +and yet----" + +"And yet? out with it, little one!" + +"I was wondering if it was worth it?" + +"Yes! if you have a craze to be admired, as I have. But I didn't ask +you to come here in order to talk about myself. You would not +understand me if I did. Pray Heaven you never may. So you have said +good-bye to them all, and you are not sorry! That is well. Now, let me +wish you good luck, and give you a word of advice." + +"Twenty, if you like." + +"Make the most of that luck--and _Alphonse_." + +"You mean Dr. Kennedy?" asked the girl, stiffly. + +"Dr. Kennedy. There are not many like him in this world." + +"I doubt if there are any. At least, I have not met them," she +replied, with a quick flush of impatience. + +"I am glad to hear you say that. Good-bye, my dear, and forget us all +as soon as you can." + +"I shall remember your kindness--for you have been kind--all of you. +Good-bye." + +When the door had closed, Mrs. Vane leant back in her chair with a +sigh of relief. That was over then, and, so far as she could judge, +without harm to the girl. And now--now she could face the other +problem. Perhaps there need be no harm there, either, but she must +think--she must think. So in the softness, and the dimness, and the +luxury, her face grew more anxious, more weary, until the memory of +Marjory's words came back to her. + +Was it worth it all? Whether it was worth it or not did not matter; +the plotting and planning had become a second nature to her--she must +think--she must think! + +And Marjory, passing out into the calm cool of the night, gave a sigh +of relief also. It was over; that strange life, so different from the +future one which lay before her. Was she sorry? Yes! a little. No one +could know Paul Macleod and not feel a regret at the thought of his +future. Yet she was glad it was over despite that queer sort of numb +pain at her heart at the thought of his unfailing kindness to her. And +now she would never see him again, never---- A red star showed low +down behind a turn in the rhododendrons, and a moment after Paul's +voice said easily, as he threw away his cigar: + +"You have not been long." + +So it was not over! That was her first thought, and then came a quick +flutter at her heart. Over! was not it rather just beginning for +this--_this_ was new. Her pride rose in arms against it instantly. + +"I did not expect--" she began almost haughtily. + +"Did you not? That was rather foolish of you. You expected me to let +you walk home alone; but I think I know my duties; as a host, at any +rate." + +It was true. He did know them. There could not be two opinions as to +his considerate courtesy to all. She admitted the fact to herself +gladly, telling herself that it was quite natural he should see her +home, though the possibility of his doing so had not occurred to her. +Hitherto, of course, Tom had been with her; to-night she was alone. It +was the usual thing; yet not usual, surely, that they should be +walking fast through the darkness without a word, just as if they had +quarrelled. What was there to quarrel about? Nothing. Not his +engagement certainly, though he might think so if she kept silent on a +fact which no one had attempted to conceal. Hitherto she had had no +opportunity of alluding to it, but now there was no excuse. The merest +acquaintance would be expected to take such an opportunity of wishing +him good luck, unless--unless some personal motive prevented it. And +there was none. How could there be? since Paul was surely welcome to +do as he liked. + +Yet, for a time, the crunch of the gravel beneath their feet as they +walked on in silence was the only sound upon the cool night air. But +the glimmering white of the Lodge gate nerved her to the effort. + +"I want to congratulate you, Captain Macleod," she began, when he +interrupted her quickly. + +"Hush! If there cannot be truth, don't let there be falsehood between +us." + +It was as if a thunderbolt had fallen, piercing her ignorance. She +stopped short, her pulses bounding to that strange new thrill in his +voice which seemed to make her forget her surprise, her indignation. +She had to steady her own tones ere she could reply. + +"There has been no falsehood on my part." + +"Has there not? Then there shall be none on mine. Marjory! I love you! +Nay! you shall listen----" His outstretched arm barred her quick +movement of disdain. "I shall not keep you long, but you must hear the +truth. I've loved you from the beginning--I love you now--I feel as if +I should love you always----" + +She stood there as if she had been turned to stone, listening, +listening, like a child to some fairy tale; and in the darkness a look +that had never been there before crept to her clear eyes, and a quiver +to her mouth. + +"Yes! I love you; not only as most men count love, so that the +touch of your hand thrills me, and the thought of your kisses is as +heaven---- Don't shrink from the truth--you must face it sometime--why +not now? It is so, and God knows it is no new thing to me. But this is +new--that you are my soul--if I have one--Marjory! Marjory! Why have +you made me feel like this?--why would you never see me as I really +am?--why would you always believe me better than I was?" + +His passionate questioning seemed to pass her by. She stood silent +till, in the darkness, he seized her hands and drew her closer to him, +peering into her face as if to read the answer there. + +"For pity's sake don't look so kind, so sweet," he burst out +vehemently, for even in the faint starlight he could see something of +her eyes. "Tell me how vile I am--then I could go--then I could leave +you! Listen to me, Marjory--" his voice grew calmer, and a sort of +bitter entreaty came to its passionate anger--"I know quite well--I am +certain that my only chance of living what you hold to be a worthy +life lies with you, and yet I have renounced it--I do renounce it +without a shadow of remorse. Is not that enough? You are my better +self, my one hope of redemption, yet still I say, Adieu, my love, +adieu, for evermore!" + +And then the half-seen softness of her face seemed to madden him. +"Before God you _shall_ see me as I am. You _shall_ understand." + +His arms clasped her close, his reckless, passionate kiss was on her +lips, and then---- + +Then he stood as it were before the tribunal which he had +invoked--that tribunal of perfect knowledge, of blinding truth, in +which alone lies the terror of judgment. + +"Marjory!" The whisper could scarcely be heard. "Marjory! is it true? +My God! is it true that you love me?" He still held her, but with a +touch which had changed utterly, and his tone was almost pitiful in +its appeal. "Marjory! why--why did I not know? Why did you hide +yourself from me?" + +"I did not know myself," she answered, and her voice had a +ring of pain in it; "how could I know? But it would have made no +difference--no difference to you." + +The keenest reproach could not have hit him so hard as this +instinctive defence of her own ignorance, her own innocence; it +pierced the armour of his worldliness and went straight to that part +of his nature which, even at his worst, held fast to life in a sort of +veiled self-contempt. + +"You are right; it would have made no difference, no difference to +such as I am." Then in the darkness he was at her feet kissing the hem +of her garment. + +"Adieu, my love; adieu for evermore!" + +The next instant the sound of his retreating footsteps broke the +stillness, and she was alone. + +Alone, with a smile upon her face--a smile of infinite tenderness for +his manhood and for her own new-found womanhood, which tingled in each +vein and seemed to fill the whole world with the cry, "He loves me! he +loves me!" + +So this was Love. This unreasoning joy, this absorbing desire to hap +and to hold, to let all else slip by and be forgotten as nothing +worth; to live for oneself alone--oneself, since he and she were +one--one only! + +Yes; she loved him like that. And he? The memory of his voice, the +clasp of his hand, the touch of his lips came back to her in a rush, +dazing and bewildering her utterly, so that she stretched her arms +into the night and whispered into the darkness: "Paul, come back! you +must come back and tell me what it means. Paul! Paul!" + +But he was gone; and then the pity of it, the shame that he had left +her came home to her, not for herself, but for him, and with a little +short, sharp cry, such as will come with sudden physical pain, she +turned on her way tearless, composed, half stunned by her own emotion. + +When she had undressed she blew out the candle, and, kneeling by the +window, pressed her forehead against the cool glass while she gazed +unseeingly into the night. + +So this was Love!--the Love which the poets called divine--the Love to +which she had looked forward all her life. What did it mean? What was +it, this feeling which had come to her unbidden, unrecognised? For now +with opened eyes she understood that it had been there almost from the +beginning; that it had been the cause of all her moods and his. The +curious attraction and repulsion, the unrest, the desire to influence +him. Ought she to have known this sooner? Perhaps; and yet, how could +she when neither her own nature or her education had given her a hint +of this thing? The Love she had dreamed of had been a thing of the +mind, of conscious choice, and this was not. No! best to tell the +truth--it was not! + +As she knelt there, alone in her ignorance, not so much of evil as of +the realities of life, she could yet see that this unreasoning +attraction--though with her it could not but be indissolubly mixed up +with something higher, something nobler than itself; something which +craved a like nobility in its object--was yet in its very essence of +the earth earthy. + +Without that something what was it? + +She was clear sighted was this girl, whose reasoning powers had been +trained to be truthful; so she did not attempt to deny that Paul +Macleod was not her ideal of what a man should be. That her whole soul +went out in one desire that he should be so, and in a tender longing +to help him, to comfort and console him, did not alter the fact. That +desire, that longing, was apart from this bewildering emotion which +filled the world with the cry, "He loves me! He loves me!" She loved +him as he was; not as he ought to be. + +As he was! And then her eyes seemed to come back from the darkness and +find a light as she remembered those words of his: "It is not only as +if I loved you as men count love." + +Then he, too, understood--he, too, was torn in twain. A sense of +companionship seemed to come to her; she rose from her knees and crept +to bed. And as she lay awake the slow tears fell on her pillow. So +this was Love! this bitter pain, this keener joy; but underneath his +stress of passion, and her fainter reflection of it, lay something +which might bring peace if he would let it, and the thought of this +made her whisper softly:-- + +"Paul, I love you. Come back to me, Paul, and we will forget our +love." + +But up at the Big House he was cursing his own folly in yielding to +the temptation of seeing Marjory home. Yet what had come over him? He, +who for the most part behaved with some regard to gentlemanly +instincts. What had he done? The memory of it, seen by the light of +his knowledge of evil, filled him with shame. Well! that finished it. +When she had time to think she would never forgive him. She would +understand, and that look would fade from her face--that look +which---- But she was right! Even if he had seen it before, it would +have made no difference; he would have gone on his way all the same. +Why had he ever seen it to give him needless pain, and be a miserable +memory? The only thing was to forget it--to forget, not the love which +thrilled him--that, Heaven knows, could be easily forgotten--but that +other! Yes! he must forget it. That was the only thing to be done now. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Luckily, perhaps, for his determination to forget, a variety of causes +combined to give Paul Macleod breathing space before he had, as it +were, to take up the burden of his engagement with Alice Woodward. To +begin with, he had to pay a visit on the way south, and the delights +of really good partridge shooting are of a distinctly soothing nature. +There is something fat and calm and comfortable about the stubbles +and turnip fields which makes one think kindly of county magistrates +and quarter sessions, of growing stout, and laying down bins of port +wine. A very different affair this from cresting the brow of a +heather-covered hill, with a wild wind from the west scattering the +coveys like bunches of brown feathers, while the next brae rises +purple before you, and another--and another--and another! Up and up, +with a strain and an effort, yet with the pulse of life beating its +strongest. + +Then, when the North mail finally set him down at Euston, the +Woodwards had gone to Brighton; and there was that going on in the +artistic little house in Brutonstreet, which would have made it unkind +for him to leave town and follow them, even if his own inclination had +not been to stay and see what the days brought forth. For Blasius was +ill, dangerously ill, and Lord George was a piteous sight as he +wandered aimlessly down to the Foreign Office, and, after a vain +effort to remain at work, wandered home again with the eager question +on his lips, "Is there any change?" + +But there was none. The child, after the manner of his sturdy kind, +took the disease as hardly as it could be taken, and then fought +against it as gamely. So the little life hung in the balance, till +there came a day when the pretence of the Foreign Office was set +aside, and Lord George sate in the nursery with his little son in his +arms, an unconscious burden in the red flannel dressing-gown, which +somehow seemed connected with so much of Blazes' short life. Blanche, +almost worn out, stood by the open window holding Paul's hand--Paul, +who was always so sympathetic, so kindly when one was in trouble. So +they waited to see whether the child would choose life or death; while +outside the people were picking their way gingerly through the mingled +sunshine and shade of a thunder shower. It was so silent that you +could hear the clock on the stairs ticking above the faint patter on +the window-pane, almost hear the splash of the slow tear-drop which +trickled down Lord George's cheek, and fell on Blazes' closed hand. +And then, suddenly, a pair of languid eyes opened, and the little +voice, mellow still, despite its weakness, said quietly: + +"Ith's waining. Blazeth wants a wumberwella." + +In the days following, if Blazes had wanted the moon, Lord George +would have entered into diplomatic relations with the man in it, +regarding a cession of territory; but the child, according to the +doctors, wanted sea air more than anything else. So, naturally enough, +they all migrated to Brighton, and, though he did not realise it, the +general sense of relief and contentment pervading the whole party did +much to make Paul Macleod feel the shackles bearable. Then Mrs. +Woodward and Alice were at one of the big hotels, the Temples were in +lodgings, while he, himself, had rooms at a golfing club, to which he +belonged; an arrangement which gave everyone a certain freedom. +Finally, as Paul discovered on the very first day, Alice showed much +more to advantage on the parade, or riding over the downs, or putting +on the green, than she had ever done at Gleneira. + +"Oh, yes!" she said gaily, "I am a regular cockney at heart. I love +the pavements, and I hate uncivilised ways. I know when Blanche told +me she had to see the sheep cut up at Gleneira, I made a mental note +that I wouldn't. I couldn't, for I hate the sight of raw meat." + +"You bear the butchers' shops with tolerable equanimity," returned her +lover, who hardly liked her constant allusions to Highland barbarism; +"as a matter of fact, raw meat intrudes itself more on your notice in +town than it ever does in the country." + +"Perhaps; but then the sheep with the flowery pattern down their backs +don't look like sheep, and as for the beef, why, you can't connect the +joints with any part of the animal. At least, I can't, and I don't +believe you can, either. Now what part of the beast is an aitchbone?" + +Paul set the question aside by proposing a canter, and by the time +that was over he was quite ready to be sentimental; for Alice looked +well on horseback in a sort of willowy, graceful fashion, which made +the pastime seem superabundantly feminine. + +Still, the subject had a knack of cropping up again and again; and +once, when she had excused herself for some aspersion by saying, +good-naturedly, that it was a mere matter of association, and that she +was of the cat kind, liking those things to which she was accustomed, +he had taken her up short by saying she would have to get accustomed +to Gleneira. + +"Shall I?" she asked. "Somehow, I don't think we shall live there very +much. It is nice enough for six weeks' shooting; but, even then, the +damp spotted some of my dresses." + +"You are getting plenty of new ones at any rate," retorted Paul, for +the room was littered with _chiffons_. + +She raised her pretty eyebrows. "Oh, these are only patterns. I always +send for them when I'm away from town. It is almost as good as +shopping. But I don't mean to buy much now. I shall wait for the +winter sales. They are such fun, and I like getting my money's +worth--though, of course, father gives me as much as I want. Still, a +bargain is a bargain, isn't it?" + +Paul acquiesced, but the conversation rankled in his mind. To begin +with, it gave him an insight into a certain _bourgeoise_ strain in the +young lady's nature, and though he told himself that nothing else was +to be expected from Mr. Woodward's daughter--who derived her chief +charm from the fact that her father _had_ made bargains and got his +money's worth--that did not make its presence any more desirable. And +then he could not escape the reflection that _he_ was a bargain, and +that the whole family into which he was marrying would make a point of +having their money's worth. + +He would have realised this still more clearly if he could have seen +one of the daily letters which Mrs. Woodward, with praiseworthy +regularity, wrote to her lord and master in London, for it is a sort +of shibboleth of the married state that those in it should write to +each other every day whether they have anything to say or not. + +"Alice," she wrote, "is so sensible and seems quite content. At one +time I feared a slight entanglement with Jack, but Lady George has +been most kind and taken her to all the best places, which is, of +course, what we have a right to expect. By the way, there is an Irish +member here--O'Flanagin, or something like that--and he declares the +Land League will spread to the West Highlands. So you must be sure and +tie up the money securely, as it does not seem quite a safe +investment." + +Mr. Woodward, on receiving this missive, swore audibly, asserting that +the devil might take him if he knew of any investment which could be +called safe in the present unsettled state of the markets! For his +visit to Gleneira, where, as he angrily put it, telegrams came +occasionally and the post never--had somehow been the beginning of one +of those streaks of real ill-luck which defy the speculator. The +result being that Mr. Woodward generally left his office in the city +poorer by some thousands than he had entered it in the morning, and +though he knew his own fortune to be beyond the risk of actual +poverty, it altered his outlook upon life, and threatened his credit +as a successful financier. + +Nor did it threaten his alone; there were uncomfortable rumours of +disaster in the air, which, in course of time, came to Lady George's +ears. + +"I do hope Mr. Woodward is not mixed up in it," she said to Paul, as +she sate working bilious-looking sunflowers on a faded bit of stuff +for the Highland bazaar; "but he was a little _distrait_ when he came +down last Sunday, and he didn't eat any dinner to speak of--we dined +with them, you remember." + +"Perhaps I gave him too good a lunch at the club," replied her +brother, jocosely; "besides, he wouldn't let a few losses spoil his +appetite. He is well secured, and then he could always fall back on +his share in the soap-boiling business." + +"I was not thinking of him, Paul, I was thinking of you. You could not +boil soap." + +The fact was indubitable, and though her brother laughed, he felt +vaguely that there were two sides to a bargain, and when his sister +began on the subject again, he met her hints with a frown. + +"I am perfectly aware," he said, "that Patagonians are dangerous, and +Mr. Woodward knows it as well as I do." + +"But he was nicked--that is how that city man I met at dinner last +night put it--he was nicked in Atalantas also." + +"If you had asked me, Blanche, instead of inquiring from strangers, as +you seem to have done," interrupted her brother, with great heat, "I +could have told you he was nicked, as you choose to call it, +heavily--very heavily. He has been unlucky of late. He admits it." + +"Good heavens, Paul! what are you going to do?" + +"Nothing. He is quite capable of managing his own affairs." + +"Don't pretend to be stupid, Paul! I mean your engagement." + +"What has business to do with that?" he asked, quickly taking the high +hand; but Lady George was his match there. + +"Everything, unless you have fallen in love with her." + +Home thrusts of this sort are, however, unwise, since they rouse the +meanest antagonist to resistance. + +"Have it so if you will. I am quite ready to admit that love has +nothing to do with business. Honour has. I am engaged to Miss +Woodward, and that is enough for me." + +Lady George shrugged her shoulders. There was a manly dogmatism about +his manner which was simply unbearable. + +"My dear boy," she said, "if a man begins to talk about honour it is +time for a woman to beat a retreat. Since you have such strict notions +on the subject, I presume you have explained to Mr. Woodward the exact +state of affairs at Gleneira? The estate overburdened, and not a penny +of ready money to be had except by sale." + +"I really can't discuss the subject with you, Blanche. Women never +understand a man's code of honour on these points; and they never +understand business." + +She crushed down an obvious retort in favour of peace, for she was +genuinely alarmed. So much so, that the moment she returned to town +she went to see Mrs. Vane, thinking it more than likely that Paul +might have confided something to her. She was just the sort of little +woman in whom men did confide, and Paul was perfectly silly about her, +though, of course, she was a very charming little woman. + +Now, Mrs. Vane had heard the rumours of Mr. Woodward's losses before, +and heard them with a glad heart, since the possibility of having to +use those letters which were locked up in her dressing-case weighed +upon her. But she had not heard them from Paul; had not seen him, in +fact, as she had only returned from the country two days before, and +had since been ill with fever. + +Nevertheless, the very next afternoon, in obedience to a little note +left at his club, Paul walked into her flower-decked drawing-room and +gave an exclamation of surprise and concern at the white face and +figure on the sofa. + +"You have been ill," he said quickly; "why didn't you let me know +before?" + +"Only a go of fever; and I've danced all night long--some of the +dances with you, Paul--when I had a worse bout, and no one found me +out. Let me make you a cup of tea." + +"Please not. I'll take one. Yes! I remember; that was our regimental +ball, and there were so few ladies; you never spared yourself, Violet, +never knew how to take care of yourself." + +"Perhaps not. I must pay someone to do it, I suppose, like other old +women; for all my friends are deserting me. Two married last month, +and I hear from Mrs. Woodward that your wedding-day is fixed." + +"I was not aware of it," he replied, with a frown; "but if it were, I +fail to see why I should desert--my friends." + +Mrs. Vane laughed. "My dear Paul! you are something of a man of the +world; did you ever know of anyone like you keeping up a friendship +with anybody like me after his marriage? I mean out of the pages of a +French novel. Certainly not; and I am quite resigned to the prospect. +I suffered the blow in a minor degree when you left India. Besides, I +should not anyhow see much of you if you lived at Gleneira; and you +will have to do so, won't you, till Mr. Woodward recovers himself?" + +Paul stirred his tea moodily. "So you have heard, too," he said +distastefully. + +"Everybody has heard, of course. Such things are a godsend at this +time of the year. Lady Dorset was quite pathetic over your bad luck +yesterday, but I told her no one would think the _worse_ of you or +Miss Woodward if you were to think _better_ of it, since poverty--even +comparative poverty--would suit neither of you." + +The spirited pose of her head, as she spoke, the bold challenge of her +tone, were admirable. + +"You said that! Would you have me break my word because my promised +wife had a few pounds less than I expected?" + +She laughed again. "How lofty you are, Paul! You caught that trick +from Marjory Carmichael. By the way, I heard from her to-day--she +comes up to town soon." + +"So I believe." His heart gave a throb at the sound of her name, but +he would not confess it, even to himself. "Excuse me if I hark back to +the other subject. I should like to hear what you have to say on it. +Women have such curious notions of honour, at least, Blanche----" + +"So Lady George has been taking you to task, has she? That was very +unwise of her. For my part I have no opinion. I never liked the +engagement, as you know; I like it still less now, when, if tales be +true, Mr. Woodward will not be able to make his daughter so handsome +an allowance as--as you expected. But they may not be true." + +"There is no reason why I should not tell you that they are true. The +allowance will be about a quarter of what was intended. Mr. Woodward +spoke to me to-day about it, hinting that it might make a difference; +but, of course, I cut him short." + +"Of course." There was a fine smile for an instant on her face ere she +went on. "Still, he was right, it does make a difference." + +"Undoubtedly it makes a difference," echoed Paul, testily. "No one +knows that better than I do. But that is no reason why I should back +out of my word. We shall have to vegetate at Gleneira, I suppose, or +live in a villa somewhere----" + +"My poor Paul, how funny you are!" she interrupted, taking up a letter +which had been lying beside her, and giving it a little flourish. +"That is just what you could have done--with someone else! So you will +do for a girl you do not love, what you would not do for one--but it +is really too funny! One half of you being unable to exist without +love, the other without money, you cut the Gordian knot by +experimenting on life without either! Now, I should have tried to +secure both--you might have managed that, I think." She paused a +moment, and then went on. "As it is, my friend is not unwilling to +play the hero, to a limited extent, because it soothes him and makes +him feel less mercenary. Ah! my dear Paul, I understand. Only, might +it not be more heroic and less mercenary to give Miss Woodward a +chance of something more to her taste than a villa somewhere?--plus, +of course, the heroic husband! She may not like heroics; some of us +don't. You must be prepared for that." + +The gentle raillery of her tone had a touch of seriousness in it which +seemed to throw a new light on his view of the subject. + +"You mean that it is likely----" + +"Yes. I think it extremely likely that the Woodwards would rather +break it off." + +"But why?" he asked, angrily rising to pace the room; "my prospects +have not changed." + +"'They twain shall be one flesh,'" quoted Mrs. Vane, lightly. "And do +you really think so much of your heroism, that--unaided by love, +remember--you will fancy it will compensate Alice Woodward, who +loves the pavement, for the damp and dulness of Gleneira? I remember, +Paul"--her voice grew a trifle unsteady--"having to decide a similar +question, once. To decide whether I could compensate the man I loved +for something--well, for something which was not more dear to him than +civilisation is to this young lady, and, though I loved him, I knew I +could not." + +"And--and were you right?" he asked with a sudden interest. + +"Of course I was right. He recovered the loss of me rapidly, and yet I +am not unattractive--what is more, I am generally considered good +company, which I defy anyone to be if he careers up and down the room +like a Polar bear. Please sit down and let me make you a nice cup of +tea. The last, I am sure, must have been horrid. You don't know how to +take care of yourself a bit, Paul, but _you_ are lucky. _You_ will get +plenty of people to pay for the privilege of doing so." + +He told himself that she talked a great deal of nonsense at times, but +that she did it, as she did everything else, with infinite verve and +grace. Blanche, who had not said half as much, had made him angry; and +here he was seated beside Violet's sofa, enjoying his tea, and feeling +that sense of _bien être_ which he always felt in her company. + +Yet even she might have failed in producing this for once, if he could +have overheard a conversation which was going on over another cup of +tea in Queen's Gardens, where Mrs. Woodward, with a real frown on her +usually placid face, was listening to her husband's account of his +interview with Paul that morning. + +"Very honourable, no doubt, but exceedingly unsatisfactory," she +remarked, with asperity. "I must say that I think you failed." + +"Did you wish me to give the man his _congé_, my dear?" interrupted +her spouse, irritably. "If so, you should have told me so distinctly, +but if it comes to that I can write and dismiss him." + +"You have such a crude way of putting things, James, and though I +don't presume to understand business affairs I must own it seems +inexplicable how these difficulties have come about. And Alice is so +accustomed to civilisation, and Jack is coming back from Riga next +week, so it does seem to me a flying in the face of Providence." + +Mr. Woodward looked at her in impatient amaze. "Good heavens! Maria, +what do you mean? Who or what is flying in the face of Providence?" + +"Everyone! Everything! It seems as if he had been away on purpose, so +that there should be no fuss. And they have always been so fond of +each other. Alice would be miserable if she had to think about money; +so why should she be sacrificed to Captain Macleod's notions of +honour----" + +"My dear!----" + +"Yes, James! Sacrificed! You say you told him plainly the state of the +case, and he----" + +"Behaved as a gentleman would. Expressed sorrow at my losses, but gave +me to understand that it would make no difference to him." + +"And to Alice? He never gave a thought to her, I suppose; but you men +are all alike--selfish to the core." + +"Really, my dear," protested Mr. Woodward, roused by this general +attack. + +"Well, _you_ are selfish. Are you not sitting there calmly proposing +to sacrifice Alice to an adventurer--a principled adventurer if you +like, though that is a miserable attempt to--what was it you used to +call guaranteed stock?" + +"A disastrous attempt to combine safety and speculation," suggested +her husband, meekly. + +"Just so! and this is a disastrous attempt to combine common sense and +romance. But I will not have Alice sacrificed. I will speak to the man +myself." + +"You shall do nothing of the sort, my dear. If necessary, I can do it; +but there is no hurry." + +"It must be settled before next week, unless you want a fuss; I tell +you that." + +"It shall be settled; but I must talk to Alice first. It is surely +possible she may be in love with the man?" + +Mrs. Woodward shook her head wisely. + +"But why, in heaven's name, Maria? He is handsome--gentlemanly--well +born. Why should she not love him?" + +"Because she is in love with Jack." + +"God bless my soul!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + +When Paul Macleod left Mrs. Vane's drawing-room that afternoon she +told herself that she could, for once, afford to sit with folded hands +and let the world go its own way for a time. Everything seemed working +for her, so there was no need for her to work for herself. The +question of those letters could very well wait for a time. For all she +knew to the contrary, the lawyers might have similar proof of little +Paul's legitimacy; if they had not, why they ought to have. Unless, +indeed, that marriage certificate had nothing to do with the boy at +all. That in itself was conceivable with such a woman as Jeanie Duncan +must have been. Anyhow, for the present, the child was in comfortable +circumstances, since Dr. Kennedy had taken him in charge, and, as +Marjory mentioned in her letter, he was to come to London and become a +scholar at her school. The first thing was to see this foolish, +ridiculous engagement broken off, and then if the big Paul were wise, +and realised that both love and money were at his command, it might be +possible to tell him the truth. But under no other circumstances, +since none could console him as she could for the loss of Gleneira. +Therefore, for the sake of everybody concerned, the best thing that +could happen was that she should be Paul's wife. A great tenderness +showed in her face at the very thought. "Poor Paul," she said half +aloud; "he would be quite happy with me, quite content, and I, oh! +surely I deserve something after all these years? I am getting tired +of doing everything for people I do not care about, as I have done all +my life long." + +And it was true. In all the trivial details of life she was as +thoroughly unselfish a woman as ever stepped, ready at a moment's +notice to weary herself out for the sake of making the world more +pleasant to others. + +So those letters should remain locked up, perhaps for ever. In sober +truth she could scarcely imagine herself using them. Their +melodramatic force was so unlike the gentle spiriting by which she +usually effected her object; and though she could never recall the +night of poor old Peggy's death without a shudder, her sound common +sense told her that after all in advising the old woman not to open +the lawyer's letter, she had done so in ignorance. She had acted, as +she thought, for the best, and everybody was liable to make mistakes. + +So much for the one party to the interview; the other, once the spell +of Mrs. Vane's personality was removed, felt vaguely that matters were +becoming uncomfortable. It had never occurred to him before that _he_ +ran the chance of being jilted, and the bare idea filled him with +indignation; and yet he saw the justice of Mrs. Vane's remarks. He was +not a good match for a girl who wished for nothing better than to +remain in that state of social comfort to which it had pleased +Providence to call her. But, if this were so, it would be better to +save his dignity by broaching the possibility himself. Anything was +better than being dismissed like a footman. He was never long in +deciding a question of this sort, yet, quick as he was, he found +himself not a moment too soon, for when he walked round to see Mr. +Woodward next morning, before that gentleman went down to office, he +found him in the act of writing a note asking him to call. + +"The fact is, Macleod," said the elder man, a little nervously, "I +wanted to continue our talk about your engagement to my daughter." + +Paul flushed up, but took the bull by the horns without a moment's +hesitation. + +"I came for that purpose, sir. It has occurred to me that I have +somewhat overlooked Miss Woodward's side of the question, and I shall +be infinitely obliged if you would treat me with perfect frankness in +regard to what you, no doubt, know better than I." + +The dignity of this speech soothed him, and he awaited the reply with +tolerable equanimity. + +"Very straightforward--very straightforward on your part, Macleod," +said the man of business, approvingly. "One can scarcely be too +careful in regard--er--in regard to such contracts; and your remark +makes me regret more than ever--my--my duty. For you really have been +all that is--all our fancy painted you, I may say. But that does not +alter the fact that I am now a comparatively poor man. Of course, I +may, I very probably shall, recoup. At the same time it is not the +sort of security for--for--marriage settlements and trustees; you +understand me, of course. Now, what we have to face is this: Do you +think my daughter is suited to be the wife of a poor man--even a +possibly poor man? I don't. And, then, would she be content if she had +to live most of the year at Gleneira, away from society and--and +telegraph posts--I mean posts and telegraphs? It's a pretty +place, Macleod, and an interesting place--with--with a sort +of--er--_respectability_ about it, but it is a devilish bit out of the +way." + +"Perhaps; but I would do my best to make your daughter forget that," +said Paul, gloomily; the sense of being weighed in the balance and +found wanting--he, Paul Macleod, whom so many women had fancied--was +exquisitely painful. + +Mr. Woodward blew his nose elaborately. "Just so; of course, of +course! Very right and proper; very much so, indeed; only, my dear +Macleod, marriage, after all, is a speculation, and I don't like to +see my girl putting her capital into a concern which hasn't even a +good prospectus. How many shareholders would even my name produce, if +all we could say of a new railway was that, though the chances +were dead against traffic, we would do our best to ensure it? Of +course--er--if you were violently attached to each other one might +allow something for the--er--the good-will of the business. Under +those circumstances, I am led to believe--though I know nothing about +it myself--that young people are content to live--er--on a +ridiculously small income. My own impression is, however, that Alice +is not that sort of girl; but, of course, I may be mistaken." + +"In that case," put in Paul, loftily, "it would be best to refer to +Alice herself." + +"Exactly what we--I mean--er--decidedly. You two can settle it for +yourselves. Her mother and I have no wish to interfere unnecessarily. +That, I think you will own, is fair dealing, though, of course, as a +business man I have felt it my duty to warn her against risking what +is virtually her all in a concern which, to put it briefly, has an +unpromising prospectus. And, if you will allow me, I will give you the +same advice." + +There was a pompous warmth in his shake of the hand, but as he +accompanied his visitor to the door his tone changed to a confidential +whisper: + +"You see it isn't as if it were a limited liability, but the Lord only +knows how many children you might have." + +Paul, as he made his way to the little boudoir where Alice frittered +away so much of her time over _chiffons_ and picture papers, felt that +he was being pursued by a Nemesis of his own creating. He had entered +into this engagement by the light of reason, in obedience to the +dictates of sound common sense, and it seemed likely that he would be +driven from it by the same means. He found her, for a wonder, busy +with needle and thread, and though the subject of it was only the +stitching of tinsel round some remarkably large velvet leaves pasted +on satin, it gave her a more solid air than she usually had. That, and +a brighter flush upon her cheek, told him that he was expected, and +forewarned him of her decision. Indeed, he felt that words were really +unnecessary, and that he might just as well have turned round and gone +downstairs again, leaving her white fingers busy with the gold thread. +But there was a certain strain of savagery in Paul Macleod, as there +is in most men when their dignity is touched, and he resolved to go +through with it. + +"I have just seen your father," he began, "and now I have come to +you." + +She might have been excused for turning a little pale and letting her +work drop, for his tone was not reassuring. He saw her dread of a +scene, and gave a faint laugh. + +"There is no need to be afraid, Alice. I have never made myself +disagreeable to you yet, and I am not likely to begin now, when I have +come to ask you plainly whether you could be happy with me? Could +you?" + +She clasped and unclasped her hands quite nervously. "I am ready to +try--if you like--if you think I ought to." + +"That has nothing to do with it. Put me out of the question, please. +Of course, it is always painful for a man to know that a woman does +not care for him sufficiently----" + +"It is not that," she broke in hurriedly. "I would not have promised +if I had not liked you--it is the dulness, and the poverty. I have +never been accustomed to it, and I might not be contented, and then +how could I be a good wife if I were not happy? It is not as if there +would be distractions, but there would be none, and I don't like the +country as some girls do--Marjory Carmichael, for instance." + +He looked at her sharply, but her eyes met his without any hidden +meaning in them. + +"She would not be dull, but I should, and then how could I cheer you +up? For you need cheering at Gleneira--you know you do." + +The truth irritated him. "From which I infer that you would rather be +free. Well! you have only to take me or leave me," he said curtly. + +She caught in her breath, and, as usual, the display of temper made +her piteous. "Don't be angry, Paul! There is nothing to be angry +about. If you wish it, I will try; but we can always be friends, and +if it is wiser to part, then it is wiser." + +"That is for you to decide. I am at your orders." He stood there +looking very handsome, and she gave a sigh of indecision, though a +certain resentment at being, as it were, thrust into the breach, came +to her aid. + +"Do you think it wiser?" he repeated. + +"How can I tell? All I want to do is my duty, and I am afraid----" + +"If you are afraid, that is enough," he said, losing patience. +"Good-bye, Alice; if you had decided otherwise I would have tried to +be a good husband to you." + +A faint flush came to her cheek. "And I would have tried to be a good +wife; but----" + +"Well?" + +"Don't you think that with you trying to be a good husband +and I trying to be a good wife, life would have been a little +dreary--sometimes?" + +The curse of home truths seemed in the air, and Paul felt he had no +answer ready, and yet he liked her the better for the first touch of +sarcasm he had ever heard from her lips. It reminded him of Mrs. Vane. + +As he shook hands with her, the servant entering announced Mr. John +Woodward, and Paul, going downstairs, met a big, florid young man +coming up with a gardenia in his buttonhole, and a parcel tied with +gold thread in his hands. It was a box of Paris chocolates which Jack +had purchased on his way from Riga. The two scowled at each other as +they passed, after the manner of Englishmen who have never been +introduced, and Paul, as he put on his hat, felt a sudden insane +desire to go up again, and tell Alice that he had changed his mind. +And yet, as he walked aimlessly through the Park, and so northward +into the streets beyond, the certainty that life had been changed in +the twinkling of an eye came slowly to him, and as it did he scarcely +knew whither to turn for a little solid self-esteem. Of late he had +been nurturing his own magnanimity, and, as Mrs. Vane had told him to +his face, the fact that Alice Woodward's fortune was for the time +diminished, and in the future uncertain, had not been without its +consolation. It prevented him from feeling that people knew, to a +fraction, what price he had put upon himself. And now, though he was, +as it were, a "genuine reduction," he had been rejected! Rejected! the +thought was intolerable. Even the memory of Marjory, and the look in +her eyes which he had seen that last night, brought him cold comfort, +for he told himself that, even if he had wished to do so, he could +never go to her and say he had been jilted; yet he would not tell her +a lie. + +But he did not want to seek consolation from Marjory; after all, it +had only been the old story of a passing fancy fostered by romantic +surroundings. Since he had left Gleneira he had scarcely thought of +her, and for himself would have been quite content to fulfil his +engagement. Therein, to tell truth, lay the whole sting of the +position. + +So he wandered on until he found himself in Regent's Park, and then, +with that idle distaste to some decisive action which a return +clubwards would necessitate, in the Zoölogical Gardens. It was years +since he had been there of a morning without a band and a crowd. Years +since he had brought papers of nuts and biscuits, and given them to +the bears. But now he was free--yes! that was one comfort! he was free +to do as he liked, so he watched the Polar bear--which made him smile +at the recollection of Mrs. Vane's sally--and found a certain dreamy +pleasure in strolling round by the antelopes and recognising beasts +the like of which he had shot in strange climes. There is always some +satisfaction to be got from bygone prowess in sport, and, as he +finally found himself leaning over the railings of a tank where a pair +of dippers were bobbing about, he had in a measure forgotten the +present in the past. + +So, as he watched the birds indifferently, a sleek round head slid +suddenly, oilily from the water, and a pair of wistful brown eyes +looked into his. + +The card affixed to the railings only bore the legend: + + + "_Phoca vitulina_; + or, Common Seal." + + +Yet no magician's wand could have been more powerful in +transformation--say, rather translation--than the sight of the +creature so designated was to Paul Macleod. In the twinkling of an eye +the London haze--that condensed essence of millions of men, women, and +children, struggling confusedly for breath--had passed from him, and +he was in a new heaven and a new earth. A boat was rocking idly on the +summer sea, the blue clouds were sailing overhead, the world, its ways +and works, were beyond the rampart of encircling hills, while a girl, +with clear bright eyes, leant against the rudder. + +"Why didn't you shoot, Captain Macleod?" He could hear the odd little +tremor in her voice, as she gave the challenge, and feel the dim +surprise of his own answer: "I never thought of it!" + +Then, with a rush, the one side of his nature challenged the other. +Why--why had he done these things? Why had he given up paradise? Had +he not been happy? In very truth, had he even thought of the world and +its ways, of himself and his instincts, when he was beside her? Yet, +what a return had he not made to this girl who had taught him to +forget these things. Had he not in a way taught her to know them? Had +he not roused in her something, blameless enough, God knows! in its +way, beautiful enough, though of the earth earthy, compared to that +other strange comradeship, in which there seemed no possibility of +passion, no sense of sex. In truth, he had taught her to love him as +women and men will love to the end of all things. Taught her, and left +her to face it alone--as he had left Jeanie Duncan long years ago. + +The unbidden remembrance brought a new shame with it for that old +offence, even while it intensified the sudden remorse he felt for the +present one; since Jeanie, in all her sweet maidenhood, had never +seemed so hedged about from evil as this Brynhild, whose very +womanhood had been hidden beneath her glittering armour of mail. That +he should have thought these things showed the strain of romance, the +touch of mysticism, which was in him by right of his race, and though, +as ever, he chafed against these things, he could not escape from +them, or from the self-contempt which took possession of him. Ever +since the night when he had said good-bye, as he had boasted, to the +best part of him, there had been something to prevent his realising +the extent of his degradation. First, the relief of certainty, +bringing with it a very real content; then, the anxiety for the child, +bringing out all the kindliness of his nature--finally, the knowledge +that he was not, after all, so mercenary. But now he was defenceless +against his own worldliness, against the memory of his wanton insult +to Marjory--for it was an insult, nothing less. + +As he wandered moodily back into the town, back to face his world and +its comments, it seemed to him as if there were not a rag anywhere +wherewith to cover his wounded self-esteem. One thing he could do: he +could go down and ask Marjory to marry him. He owed her so much. She +would refuse him, of course, since she was not the sort to care for +other folks' rejections; and he knew, by long experience, how keenly +such love as he had seen in her eyes resented neglect, how quick it +was in changing to repulsion if the pride were outraged. + +Yes! he would go down to Gleneira and regain some of his belief in +himself by giving Marjory her revenge. Then he would go abroad and +shoot lions, or do something of that sort. Everyone would know he had +been jilted, so he might as well play the part to the bitter end, and +behave as a man ought to behave who has had a disappointment. + +Meanwhile he might as well go and see Violet, and congratulate her on +her acumen. He might even go so far as to tell her that, taking her +words to heart, he was about to propose poverty to the girl he loved, +as he had proposed it to the girl he had not loved. She, of course, +not knowing of that wanton insult, would not understand how idle a +proposition it would be; but she liked to be thought clever--liked to +be at the bottom of everything. + +So he was not exactly in an amiable or easily managed mood as he +followed the servant upstairs at Mrs. Vane's house. And, as luck would +have it, he came at a time when she herself was too disturbed to have +the cool head and steady nerve necessary to steer him into the haven +where she would have him. Yet it was a trifling thing which had upset +her: merely the certainty that little Paul Duncan would not get a +penny of his grandmother's money. There it was in black and white, set +down in the wills and bequests column of the _Illustrated London +News_. Now, the difference between keeping a boy with a hundred +thousand pounds from possibly inheriting some acres of heavily +mortgaged bog and heather, and keeping a nameless, penniless waif from +a name and some hundreds a year was palpable. She was no hardened +criminal, and for the first time she found herself really facing the +question: "Am I to do this thing, or am I not to do it?" + +Should she put those letters in the fire and say no more about them, +or should she tell the truth? + +Though she knew its contents almost by heart, she took the slender +packet out once more and looked doubtfully at the marriage +certificate. + +"Captain Macleod," said the servant at the door, for Paul was a +privileged visitor, with the _entrée_ at all times to Mrs. Vane's +little sitting-room. She had barely time to thrust the paper under a +book ere he was beside her. + +"How you startled me!" she said, with a nervous laugh, as she took his +hand. "I did not expect you to-day; you were here yesterday." + +"I came to inquire for your fever," he replied a trifle coldly. "You +have it again, I see--and feel. You should be in bed as it is." + +He wheeled the armchair to the fire, brought a cushion from the sofa, +and waited, holding it in his hand to settle it comfortably for her as +she sate down. + +She gave an odd little sort of choke. + +"What a coddle you are, Paul! There is nothing really the matter with +me. I grow old, that is all; I grow old." It was not a good beginning +for an interview in which she would need all her self-control, all her +common sense; and had the letter been within reach at that moment it +would have received scant justice at her hands, for nothing in the +wide world seemed worth consideration save this man with his kind ways +and soft voice. He, at any rate, must not suffer. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + +The room was growing dusk. That pleasant duskiness which obliterates +corners and seems to concentrate comfort on the flame-lit circle by +the fire. + +"What a good nurse you are, Paul," she said, with an effort after her +usual airiness. "The woman you marry will be lucky." + +"I'm glad someone thinks so," he remarked briefly, "for there does not +seem to be much competition----" + +"Paul!" she interrupted, with a sudden flutter at her heart. "Do you +mean----" + +"Yes! you were right, as usual, if that is any comfort to you. I have +got my dismissal. Does that satisfy you?" + +She looked at him frankly. "It does. You do not like it, of course, +but I cannot be sorry. She was never good enough for you, even when +she was rich, and when she was poor----" + +"Don't let us discuss it, please. The thing is over; and what with +those who are too good and those who are not good enough I seem to +have made a muddle of it. By the way, I suppose Miss Carmichael is +still at Gleneira?" + +"Certainly--but--but why? I fail to see the connection." It was not +true; she saw it clearly enough, and her voice showed it. + +"Only because I am going down there to-morrow." + +"To burn your wings again?--that is foolish!" + +"I have no wings to burn; but I am going to ask her to marry me--to +face the villa with me, as you put it." + +Mrs. Vane started from her pillow with fear, surprise, dislike in +every feature. + +"Are you mad, Paul? The girl does not care for you; I'm certain of +that. Then she is half engaged, I believe, to Alphonse--Dr. Kennedy, I +mean. Her letter is full of him; you can see it if you like." + +"I have no doubt of it; he is a far more admirable person than I am. I +fully expect she will refuse me, but I mean to ask her all the same." + +"But why? Since you have told me so much you may as well tell me all. +Why?" + +"Because I choose, and because I like following your good advice." + +"My advice?" she echoed; "my advice? That is too much." Then +recognising the fact that no good would follow on direct opposition, +she tacked skilfully. "If you choose, I suppose you will do it, though +I cannot for the life of me see why you should put yourself to +needless pain, for it must be pain, since you were certainly in love +with her at Gleneira----" + +"I believe I was," he interrupted, "but I'll risk the pain." + +"No doubt," she answered bitterly; "self-inflicted pain is always +bearable. But for the girl--why not consider her comfort? It is always +a disagreeable thing to refuse, and a man who forces a girl into that +position without due cause is----" + +"Is what?" + +"A presumptuous cad, my dear Paul." + +"Thank you! You are clever, Violet, and your conclusions are generally +right; but in this case you argue without knowledge of the premises." + +"I know that Paul Macleod never did and never will come under that +category," she replied readily, "and that is enough for me." + +"If it were true, but it is not." He had not meant to tell her the +truth, but a certain contrariety led him on. "I used not to be one, +perhaps; but I was one to her. That last night, after I was engaged to +Alice, I told her that I loved her." + +A little fine smile showed on Mrs. Vane's face. "Well, it was not fair +on Alice, but it was very like Paul. Only why repeat the mistake?" + +"You do not understand. I was half mad, I think, at leaving her--and +at her unconsciousness. And then--and then, I kissed her." + +"Really? That was very naughty, of course; but still more like Paul." + +He winced, as if she had struck him. "Don't laugh, Violet, as if it +were the old story; it isn't." + +His tone struck a chill of fear to her heart, yet she still kept up +her amused serenity. "Is it not? Yet she is surely not the first girl +you have kissed without a 'by your leave.'" + +He was silent, and then to her infinite surprise, as he sate leaning +forward looking into the fire, covered his face with his hands as if +to shut out an unwelcome sight. + +"You don't understand," he said, in a low voice. "She hadn't a +reproach--she--I can see the look in her eyes still." + +There was another silence, and then Mrs. Vane's voice came with an +indescribable chill in it: + +"You mean that she loved you, or you think she did." + +"I am sure of it. She did not deny it. Violet! she is the first woman, +I verily believe, who has loved me truly, and I repaid her by insult." + +A dangerous rush of sheer anger came to send tact and prudence to the +wind for the time. "You say that! The only woman! Then I say, Paul, +that you insult others by your doubts--others who have loved you +longer. Paul!" She was very close upon the verge, when she pulled +herself up short, and gave a little laugh. "You cannot think her love +very deep if you say she will refuse you. But what reason have you to +think she will? Because you kissed her? That is absurd, and you know +it. I believe you wish her to accept you." + +"Do I?" he asked wearily; "for the life of me I scarcely know; but I +mean to ask her. I must. Surely you can see that; you generally +understand me." + +"I do understand you, Paul; better perhaps than you understand +yourself. That is why I tell you not to go down to Gleneira. You are +_tête montée_ now. You are not yourself. Look the matter in the face! +Supposing she were to accept you; what then?" + +He paused a moment. "I should marry her, I suppose--but she won't. I +am not the sort of fellow she could marry." His voice had the +tenderest ring in it, but his head was turned away. To see it she +leant forward closer to him, almost on her knees, and the firelight +lit up her eager, appealing face. + +"Paul, don't deceive yourself with doubts. You love her more than +ever, and if, as you say, she loves you, the result is a foregone +conclusion, if you meet. It is a future of poverty, and, oh, how you +will regret it! Don't go, Paul, I beg of you; I beseech you--I am an +old friend, my dear." + +As she laid her flashing jewelled hands on his shoulder, his went up +mechanically and drew them down. So holding them in his, he looked +into her face kindly. "You are, indeed--but I must go--I have no +choice." + +His soft, caressing touch made her risk all, and her breath came fast +in swift denial. "No choice! That is not true! You said but now, no +one had loved you truly but this girl. Think, Paul, did not I? You +know I did. Was it for my own sake that I gave you up--that I sent you +away? You know it was not. I am not of the sort on whom the world +turns its back. I would have faced it gladly. It was for you. Because +you loved your profession--because--but you know it all! Even when I +was free, but poor, I would not claim you. Will Marjory do as much for +you? Will she say, 'I love you, but I will not injure you by marrying +you'? I think not. But I should not injure you now--I am rich, I am +rich, and I love you." + +Once before she had told him so plainly, but it had then been with an +easy self-control, suggesting the idea but withholding its inception. +Now she was pleading as if for life. + +"You are very good," he muttered, feeling the truth of what she said. + +"Yes!" she echoed, with a tinge of bitterness at her lack of power to +move him more. "How good you will never know. I have stood between you +and more evil than you dream of; and now I ask you to stay with me, +Paul, not because I love you, but because you are always happy with +me, because you will be safe with me--with me--only with me." + +That was true also; he was always happy with her. But safe? + +"I do not understand," he said. "Why should I be safer with you? I +know of no danger." Then he clasped her hands tighter, looking into +her face curiously. "What is it, Violet? Is there danger? You +speak---- By Heaven! there is something, Violet! What is it?" + +She drew from him quickly, realising her own imprudence, for she was +not prepared for any decisive step. "Nothing, Paul--nothing to speak +of," she said, rising to her feet with a hasty laugh, but her voice +shook, her hands were trembling. "Since you will not listen, go to +Marjory; she can protect you as well as I can." + +"I don't care to hide behind any woman," he said sternly. "Not even +behind you. What is it? You are not the kind of woman to say that sort +of thing unless you meant it. What danger do you know that I do not?" + +Even to hear his questioning roused her to a sense of what the +knowledge would mean to him, and the instinct of defence overcame even +her pride. "Am I not the sort of woman? All women are alike when they +are jealous. Can't you see it, Paul--can't you understand? or will you +force me to say it all over again? I know nothing, positively nothing, +to prevent your marrying Marjory. Go down to Gleneira if you will." + +He shook his head. "Don't prevaricate, Violet. I had rather you lied +to me, but for pity's sake do neither. Be my friend and tell me the +truth." + +For an instant his gentleness overcame her fence. "I cannot, Paul--I +cannot," she almost wailed; then remembering herself, she went on, +"How can I, when there is nothing to tell?" + +"I will not leave the room till I know," was his reply. "There _is_ +something, and you shall tell me. You will not; then I must find out +for myself--there was a letter in your hand. Let me go, Violet! I +don't want to hurt you, but I must and will have that letter, +unless---- No! I cannot trust you for the truth. I must see that +letter for myself." + +She knew enough of him to recognise that now his imperious temper was +roused, her only chance lay in an appeal to his affection. + +"Listen, Paul! I have done so much for you. Pay me back now--only this +little thing. I don't want you to see that letter--you have no right +to see it." + +He shook his head, and she flung the hands she had been detaining from +her with a cry. + +"You do not trust me! You do not trust me! That is hard after all +these years." + +"No! I cannot trust you, dear; you are too good to me," he said +gently, as he walked over to the table. + +The dusk had grown into dark, and he passed on to the window, in hopes +of sufficient light to decipher the letter he held; failing that he +came back to the fire. + +"Don't strain your eyes over it," she said bitterly, as she leant--as +if tired out--against the mantelpiece, watching him sombrely. "I +strained mine over it once--needlessly. I will ring for lights, and +you can surely wait for so much, now you have got your own way." + +So they waited in silence, standing side by side before the fire, till +the servant had set the shaded lamp on the table, and drawn the window +curtains carefully, methodically. Then he glanced at the +superscription, and pointing to it, said, "Why did you read it?" for +across the first blank page was scrawled legibly, "Not to be read by +anyone till Paul Macleod of Gleneira is dead." + +"Because I chose--the reason why _you_ read it, I suppose." + +The old admiration for her spirit which, even now, did not hesitate to +meet him boldly on his own ground, rose in him as, instinctively, he +turned to the signature for some further light to guide him in reading +the closely written sheets. Then his eye caught a name at the bottom +of a page where the writing merged from ink to a faint pencil. + +"Jeanie Duncan!" he exclaimed, half aloud; "what can she have to do +with me?" The instant after he turned to Mrs. Vane, as those who are +puzzled turn to those who are better informed. "Janet Macleod! did she +marry a Macleod after all?" + +"She married your brother Alick, and the boy is their son. Now you +know the worst--and _I_ have told you it--_I_, who would not hurt you +for the world." + +"She married---- Then little Paul?" He stood as if unable to grasp the +meaning of his own words. + +"Sit down, dear, and read it, since you have chosen to read. There is +no hurry. You know the worst," she said gently. + +So with a sort of dazed incredulity he read on in silence: + + +"Paul Macleod! yes! Paul! you shall read this some day; some day soon. +I am revenged. You were ashamed of me, and now I am the laird of +Gleneira's wife. Yet I did not mean to be revenged till he came, like +a fool, and put it into my head. I was getting tired of the life, +too--of the hard, thankless life. It was by chance I fell in with him +in Paris. I went there with someone and stayed on; so he could not +guess that I was Jeanie Duncan, whom he had never seen. And I hated +him because he was your brother; so he grew mad after me, and promised +marriage. Then the thought came--I, whom the laird's Jock did not +think good enough to love or marry, will take the laird himself, and +flaunt it over them all. So we were married, and then, before I had +time to settle anything, he died--died of drink, Paul! + +"Well! I hated him, so I did not care. I hated him for being so like +you, and caring for me when you did not---- + +"And now, if it is a boy, I will have my revenge--my just revenge--and +turn you out of the old place. But I wait, because, if it is a girl, +you will not care, and I will not have you jeer because my revenge has +failed. I pray day and night that it may be a boy, and lest I should +die, I write all about it, and put my marriage lines with the letter. +Then my son can come, and turn you out. I did not seek revenge, +remember. It came into my hand, and it is just. You know that it is +just! + + "Jeanie Duncan. + +"P.S.--Look in the photograph shops in Paris for 'La Belle Écossaise,' +if you wish to know what I was like when _he_ married me." + + +Paul, reading methodically, paused for a second, passed his hand +across his forehead as if to clear his mind, and then went on to a +fainter pencil scrawl: + + +"Well! I have waited, Paul! It is a boy--so like you, Paul! I lie and +think--for they say I am dying, and so it cannot hurt now--that he +_is_ your son, and that we were married in the old days. But it is all +a lie! He is _his_ son, and I will have my revenge! If only I could +remember anything but the old days, Paul! Ah! surely when people love +as we did---- No! I do not understand. Only, the boy is so like you. I +lie and think, and I feel he must never turn you out. Never! never! +Only, if you die, then the boy must have his rights, for he is your +son. + + "Janet Macleod. + +"P.S.--Mother will keep this; she has come to see me die, so it will +be quite safe. She does not know I am married, and I have written +outside that no one is to read it till you are dead. Ah, Paul! I wish +you could have seen it. Forgive me, Paul--forgive me that he is not +your son!" + + +A greyness had come to the handsome face, and, as he folded up the +letter methodically, his hands trembled. + +"How long?" he asked; and it seemed almost as if he could not finish +the sentence. + +"Since the night of old Peggy's death. I suspected something, so I +stole it." + +"You suspected!" he interrupted quickly. "What could you suspect?" +Then he laughed bitterly. "I suppose you suspected I was the boy's +father, and thought the knowledge would be useful. If I had been it +would have been better." His hand holding the letter came down heavily +on the mantelpiece as he rose in sudden passion. "My God! what a +devilish revenge!" + +She gave a quick catch in her breath. She had been silent till now, +but now it was time to begin--time to make him think. + +"You forget that she repented--that she gave up her revenge. That is +why I said nothing, Paul. I am a woman, too, and I know how she +repented. I did not dare to speak--to disobey her dying wish; who has +a right to do that, Paul?--no one." + +"But the boy," he murmured, "the boy." + +"The boy will not suffer. If you die he will have his rights, as his +mother wished. If he were really your son he would not have Gleneira +till then, and you can look after him. It is not as if he were in +want, dear." + +He sate listening, listening to that soft, persuasive voice, which had +such a knack of following his every thought, and yet of leading them. + +"I had no right to steal the letters, of course," it went on a little +louder, "but I am not sorry; for others might not have understood, and +so the poor thing's repentance would have come to naught. Now, no one +knows but you and I. You who loved her, I who pity her; because I love +you, Paul, as she loved you." + +She came a step closer with wide-open, serious eyes, and touched him +on the breast with her slender white hand. The faint perfume of +jasmine which always lingered round her stole in on his senses +familiarly, taking him back to many a past pleasure and kindness +associated with it, and, half unconsciously, his empty hand clasped +hers; and so they stood looking, not at each other, but into the fire. + +"So it is easy to fulfil her wish--her dying wish. You did her a +wrong, Paul, in the old days, and you owe her reparation. She did not +wish you to read the letter, remember; but that can be as if it had +not been. Give it to me, dear! I would have burnt it before, as she +would have wished it burnt, but I wanted you to know for certain what +she had wished." + +Her small, white hand was on his, the paper rustled and seemed to slip +from his hold while he stood, as if mesmerised, looking into the fire. +It was all true--every word of it true. + +"Give it to me, Paul. You are thinking of the boy; but we could bring +him up, you and I, if you would have it so. Paul! This is my reward at +last! I can do this for you, now that I am rich." + +But still his fingers resisted faintly, and there was a pause, a long +pause. Then the hand which lay in his seemed to slacken, to lie in his +like a dead hand, and her voice came with a sob in its softness: + +"Paul! do this for me, and I will ask no more. Paul! let me save +you--save you and Marjory!" + +It was her last plea. She had kept it back till now, hoping against +hope, and, as she made it, she touched the highest point of +self-forgetfulness it is possible for a woman to reach. But in +touching it she struck a false note in the syren's song, and Paul +Macleod's hand closed like a vice over his one tie to an honest +life--the letter. + +The name had roused him. "Marjory!" he echoed absently. Then he turned +and looked at his companion compassionately, yet decisively. "You mean +to be kind, Violet, but you don't understand," he said quietly; then +raised her little slack hand, stooped to kiss it, and left her so, +standing by the fire alone. She had played for her love boldly, +skilfully, and she had lost. She had tried to save Paul for his own +sake, and she had failed. Yet even so, the innate courage of the woman +faced the facts without a tear, without a complaint. + +"It is my own fault," she said, half aloud. "I ought to have burnt the +letter long ago, but I was not meant for that sort of thing. My heart +is too soft." Then she smiled a little bitterly. It was at the +remembrance of Paul Macleod's assertion, "You do not understand!" If +she did not understand him, who could? + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Nearly a month had gone by since Marjory Carmichael had whispered to +the darkness, "Come back to me, Paul, and we will forget our love." +The sudden awakening to the realities, not only of life but of her own +nature, caused by his reckless avowal of love, had passed, as all +awakenings must, into calm acquiescence in the commonplace facts of +consciousness. There was no denying of the truth possible to her clear +sight, and as she sate on the last day of October, on the last day of +holiday before she and little Paul set off together to make +acquaintance with a new world, she laid down her pen in the middle of +a sentence in the letter she was writing to Tom Kennedy, and looked +out over the stormy whitecrested waves of the loch set in its rampart +of grey, snow-powdered, mist-shrouded hills, and wondered how she +could have been so blind for so long. Blind to half the great problems +of life! And then, with a smile, infinitely sweeter than it used to be +because infinitely stronger, she took up a letter which lay beside +her, and leaning back in her chair began to read it over again, just +as she had re-read a letter down by the river side three months +before, on the day when her holiday began--on the day when she had +first seen Paul Macleod. + +But it was a very different letter from the one Dr. Kennedy had sent +her then; for all unconsciously the girl, in the first bewilderment of +her awakening, had stretched out her hands to him, as it were, for +help, and he had given her what he could, smiling a trifle bitterly as +he wrote to think how little that was. "You ask me to tell you the +truth," she read, "but how can I when I do not know it myself? If I +had, the world might have been different--for us both. Only this +seems clear, that friendship is a bigger thing than love, unless +they both grow from the same root, and then--I fancy, Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux, that the botanists ought to characterise the product +as a sport! It is rare enough--God knows! I have sate for hours over +the puzzle, trying to get at the bottom of myself, only to come back +to the old paradox that Love is not worth calling Love unless it is +something which is not Love. And that is no solution. Pure and simple, +unveiled of mist and sentiment, it is all too easy of explanation. It +is ever-present, and must be so--it seems--till the end of all things. +Then there is--shall we call it the transcendental form conceivable +only to those who recognise some innate, or almost innate, sense of +order or beauty in mankind. That too, given this premise, is easy. I +believe I understand it. I am sure you do. It is the hybrid of these +two held up to our admiration, and believed in by the majority of +cultivated people, which beats me altogether. Look round you, dear, +and think for yourself. A man and a woman have mental sympathy with +each other. What has that to do with marriage? A man and a woman are +married. What has that to do with mental sympathy? The two things are +not incompatibles. Heaven forbid! But have friendship and what the +world calls love any real connection, and what part have they to play +in marriage? That sounds like a conundrum, and perhaps it is as well, +since we were getting too serious, and that is a fatal mistake when +there is no answer to the riddle. But there is a sacrilegious little +story, my dear, regarding the reasons for not enforcing celibacy on +the clergy, which is not altogether irrelevant to our subject. Luther, +I believe, is responsible for declaring that marriage is a +'discipline' not to be surpassed in spiritual efficacy; a discipline +before which hair shirts and flagellations are sensual indulgence. +N.B.--Was Luther any relation of the Cornish man who said, 'Women was +like pilchards; when 'ums bad 'ms bad, and when 'ms good they is but +middlin'?' I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle G.S., but one must +laugh--if one is not to cry. What if love were the mutual attraction +of certain elements, which combined and neutralised in the children, +would go to form a more useful compound of humanity? Would not this go +further towards raising our instincts out of the mire than all the +romance in the world? And then it would account, of course--since +chemicals are apt to evolve heat in combining--for a good deal of +friction in the married state, which in its turn must polish the +sufferers! But as this theory canonises Mrs. Caudle, and makes +wife-beating a virtue, perhaps we had better change the subject by +saying, as we said at the beginning--friendship is a bigger thing than +love, and so pass on to the lives we have to lead, love or no love." + +So with kindly thought, and a plentiful humour irradiating every page, +he went on to tell her of his work, of stirring scenes in that +hand-to-hand fight with Death, the great enemy of Love, in which he +lived. A tender, charming letter, such as his were always. Letters +which none know how to write save those who, despising the control of +time and space, have learnt to lean over the edge of the world, and +claim a part in some far-off life. Letters which, without one word of +sentiment from beginning to end, leave both the writer's and reader's +hearts full of a great kindliness and peace. + +They set Marjory a thinking, as they were meant to do, and the result +was good, since her clear common sense never failed her. Yet side by +side with that common sense existed a certain fanciful idealism, which +took the place of the former in matters beyond the limits of plain +reason. And this, as she read, made her pause to wonder if Tom could +be right, and the calm content which came to her from him, so +different from the unrest which the mere thought of Paul produced, +meant that they were too nearly akin to need neutralisation. Then she +laid down the letter and took up the pen again, striving unconsciously +to imitate his playful touch. + +"No, Tom!" she wrote; "I am not growing morbid. I am not, as you call +it, trying to measure my world with home-made imitations of the +imperial quart; still, I do wish I knew what the cubit was! Then I +would add it to my stature and rise superior--perhaps. If I had known +what I know now when my holiday began would it have made any +difference? If I had had a mother, if I had been brought up with other +girls, should I have gone on as I did, using a wrong terminology? I +will tell you something, Tom. What I thought was love in those old +days is just what I feel for you, dear. Perhaps I might have thought +so all my life if I had not met him. And now, if I meet him again, +Tom, what will happen? I sit down before the proposition; but it is +not to be solved like a problem in Euclid, because I have discovered +that my heart and my brain are quite separate, and I used to think +they were both a part of me. Don't tell me, please, that I am wrong. +Perhaps I am physiologically. I know all about that horrid little +V-shaped spot in the _medulla oblongata_, isn't it, where a pin-point +will stop Tears and Laughter, Love and Friendship for ever. What then? +Does it make it easier to understand why the heart beats, to know that +we can stop its beating? I wish I knew! I wish I knew! I don't want it +to beat, but it will. Oh! what a mercy it is that we two do not love +each other!" + +She laid down the pen as a knock came to the door. + +"A strange shentlemen to see Miss Carmichael," said the new servant +who had replaced the peccant Kirsty discovered--direful offence--in +putting a dirty skimmer into the milk. + +Now, in the country a "strange gentleman" generally resolves itself +into the piano-tuner, so Marjory bade him be shown up with a certain +calm impatience at the necessity for explaining that his services +would not be wanted; then, the thread of her thoughts broken rudely, +she sate waiting, her eyes fixed absently on the words, "that we two +do not love each other!" + +She looked up from them to see Paul Macleod standing at the door. He +had come back to her! + +Five minutes before she had asked, almost passionately, of her friend +what she would do in such case. Now there was but one answer. + +"Paul!" Her outstretched hand sought his, as he stood tall and +straight trying to master his emotion, to preserve the calm to which +he had schooled himself through the long journey which had ended +here--here, where he might once have found rest; here, where all, save +such self-respect as apology might leave him, was lost for ever. + +"Paul--Oh! how tired you look--how cold your hands are! Come, +dear--come and warm yourself; you must be perished!" + +He did not speak, perhaps because the hoar frost of pride which had +chilled his eyes melted before the radiance of hers; and hoar frost is +but water after all. So she drew him to the fire, and then, still +holding one hand as if loth to lose touch of it, knelt on one knee to +stir the peats to a brighter blaze. + +"I'm so glad you have come back," she said, with a little tremble in +her voice; "so glad!" And then she looked up suddenly into the face +above her, surprised at the almost painful strength of his grip. For +Paul Macleod's composure was almost gone, and he was struggling hard +for self-control. What she saw kept her silent; but she bent towards +him till her soft, warm cheek touched his hand caressingly. The +action, with its tale of tender solicitude, its boundless sympathy, +was too much for him. He drew in his breath hard, and resting his arm +on the mantelpiece turned from her to hide his face upon it, and so +escape the pity in her eyes. + +And he had dreamed of something so different! Of something coldly +just, reasonably reproachful! Without a word she had guessed, had +_known_, that he must be free to come, because he _had_ come back. + +"What is it, dear?" she asked softly, as she stood beside him. "Are +you afraid that I am angry? Are you afraid that I care--about _that?_ +Paul! I do not choose to care--I will not. Look at me, and you will +see if that is not the truth!" + +What he saw was a face soft with the passion he knew so well--the +passion which lies so perilously close to self--which claims so much, +and resents so easily. But it was radiant also, as with a white flame +of cleansing fire, pitiless in its purity. + +"What is it to me?" she went on, her voice ringing clearer. "What is +it to any woman unless she stoops to care? Oh! I understand now, +Paul--I understand things of which I never even dreamed before; things +which have been in your life--things which might have been in mine, +perhaps--God knows!--if I had been in your place. But they are no more +to me than this--a grief, a regret, because they are a stain upon your +past, as all wrong must be. They are no more to me than that, because +I do not choose to count them more!" + +So, with a smile in her eyes, and a quiver of pain on her lips, she +raised her face to his and kissed him. + +Thus neither humiliation nor forgiveness was allowed a part in this +woman's reading of the Divine Comedy. Perhaps she was wrong, and yet +no scorn, no righteous indignation, could have made Paul Macleod feel +more acutely the gulf which lay between his past and hers. Between +their futures also. They might be friends, but from that pure Love of +hers he was for ever outcast, though she might not know it--though he +might spend his life in trying to conceal the fact that he lived on a +lower plane than she did. Why! the past was with him _now_, even at +the touch of her lips. He loved her, as he had loved so often before. + +"Marjory!" he cried passionately, "I don't deserve it, but I can't +miss it--if you will put up with me?" + +She drew herself away, and looked at him with a half-tender, +half-mocking expression. + +"Put up with you? What else is there to be done now that you have come +back to me?" + +What else, indeed! She was right; it was he who had taken the +responsibility, he who defied natural consequences in this dreaming of +something beyond and above his past. He was not hardened enough to be +blind to this, and the thought showed on his face. + +"Come," she said consolingly, "sit down and tell me all about it--why +you came back, I mean; I know why you went away." + +If she did, he felt that she was wiser than he, since, sitting so +beside her, sure of her sympathy, her confidence, it seemed incredible +that he should have fled from this sure haven of his own free will. He +told her all, it seemed to him without a pang; told her of his +dismissal, of the change in his prospects. Yet, when he put Jeanie +Duncan's letter into her hands, and walked away to the window while +she read it, he felt more of a cur than he had ever done in all his +life before. What would the girl say? What could she say but that it +served him right? If she dismissed him also, and told him that she did +not care to exchange her love for his, would not that serve him right +also! + +And so, as he stood frowning moodily at the growing glint of sunshine +far out in the West driving the mists in dense masses up the Glen, her +voice came to him as she laid down the letter with a sigh: + +"I am glad she called him Paul." + +He turned quickly to her in a sort of incredulous amaze! Was that all +she had to say? A sort of chill crept over him, even though he found +himself at her feet, with her hands in his, kissing them softly as he +told her, with a break in his voice, that she was too good--too good +for any man. The thought brought him a certain consolation, as she +went on, evidently with the desire of taking all sting from his +memories--to speak of the strange coincidence of little Paul's +devotion to her, and of her liking for the lovable little lad. Surely, +if Gleneira had to go, he would far rather it went to him than to some +stranger, who would care nothing for her and her ways. + +"Why?" she said, a trifle tearfully; "he has been so much with me +lately, since old Peggy died, that I felt quite lost without him when +he went yesterday for a farewell visit up the Glen to the Macintoshes. +The boys were his great playmates. So you see, Paul, it will not +matter so much, for he will live with us, of course, and it is a long, +long time before he comes of age. And even then I don't believe he +will turn you out of house and home altogether. We will teach him +better things than that! Won't we?" + +In truth, spoken of in her calm, clear voice, and with her wise eyes +on his, and that sweet convincing "we" in her phrases, the prospect +did not seem so hopeless. Yet he caught himself wishing that she had +not taken his renunciation quite so much as a matter of course; +wishing that she appreciated his victory over temptation more keenly. +Yet, how could she, when he had not told her that part of the +business, or how near he had been to purchasing peace with dishonour +by destroying Jeanie Duncan's letter and the marriage certificate it +contained. But there were many things in his past, he told himself, +with a sigh, of which it was better she should continue to know +nothing; for her own sake, not for his. He could scarcely fear her +blame, and it would have been a certain comfort to, as it were, bring +her closer to him by confession. But Paul Macleod was too much of a +gentleman for that kind of self-indulgence, and he was realising for +the first time in his life the supreme impotence of repentance either +in the past or the future. Had he not, even at the time, repented him +of the evil in regard to Jeanie Duncan; yet had not a Nemesis grown +out of his very repentance? + +"Come with me part of the way back, dear," he said, when the necessity +for writing business letters broke through even his desire to linger +within touch of her kind hand. "I can't bear somehow to lose sight of +you for an instant, but I must go--there are the lawyers--and Dr. +Kennedy." + +"I can tell Tom if you like," replied Marjory. "I write to him most +days." + +Something rose up in her hearer and cursed Tom, though the next moment +he was reviling himself. That sort of thing would have to be put away +for ever when he was Marjory's husband. + +"You will have to marry me as soon as you can," he said, with what to +her seemed great irrelevance. + +"I will marry you as soon as you like, Paul; you know that," she +replied cheerfully. + +Yes! so far was easy; but afterwards? How would she ever put up with +him? Yet the question was once more forgotten in the charm of the +present. + +It was the end of a soft day, and the summitless mountains looked +purple and green under the mist wreaths which every now and again +seemed to descend to fill the valley and leave sparkling drops of dew +on the little curls below Marjory's cap, while the river ran roaring +beside them, making a kind of droning accompaniment to the shriller +drip from the trees upon the stones. Then the fine rain would cease, +the birds begin to twitter, rustling the damp leaves, and sending a +faster shower on the path; while from the West a gleaming blade of +light would sever the mists, and give a glimpse of a new heaven and a +new earth, where the sun was setting peacefully. + +As she walked along beside him, her face seemed to hold the sunshine, +his the mist, and once, in the middle of some talk over the future, he +paused to hark back to the past. + +"If we could begin it all over again from the day I first met you on +the river, I think I might have a better chance--at least, I would not +play the fool so utterly--at least, my memories of _you_ would be free +from pain--and I should have left undone the things that I have done." + +"Why should you say that?" she asked. "Is it not enough that what you +did made me love you?" + +"Your godfathers and godmothers should have christened you +Barnabasina," he replied, with an effort after his old, light manner, +"for you are verily a daughter of consolation, Marjory; but even you +cannot take the sting out of some things. If I could have the past +over again! Nothing short of that will satisfy me." + +Her quick, bright face grew brighter. + +"Then you shall have it, dear, as far as I'm concerned. Yes! you +shall! It will be pleasant for me, too. Don't laugh at my fancy, for I +like fancies sometimes; they help one along the dead level bits of the +road. I'll say 'good-bye' here, Paul, here in the very spot where you +said good-bye before--do you think I could forget it? And then +to-morrow----" she hesitated in her very eagerness. + +"Yes, to-morrow, Marjory?" he echoed. + +"To-morrow you shall meet me at the old place on the river--you +remember it, of course, and we shall begin all over again--all over +again from the very beginning, to the very end. I remember them all, +Paul; everything, I believe, that you ever said--everything, at any +rate, that you ever said which I disliked. Is that unkind? And so when +the time comes for those bits you shall not say them--we will cut them +out of the past." + +"It will be Hamlet with the Prince left out," he said, falling in with +her playful mood. + +"Not a bit of it! Besides if it were I should not mind. It was never +the prince I liked, but Paul--the real Paul." + +"I wonder which one that is," he replied quickly, yet with a smile; +for her radiant face would not be cheated of its due. + +"We shall see to-morrow--good-bye, Paul." + +He shook his head. + +"No! No! Marjory. Neither that, nor adieu, any more. Till +to-morrow--_Auf-wieder-sehn_, my love! _Auf-wieder-sehn_." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + +The beginning of a new day, a new life! + +That, perhaps, should have been Marjory's first thought when, drawing +up the blind, she stood in the early dawn at the window looking out on +a world white with hoar frost. But it was not; for her eyes fell upon +a bunch of late rowans still adorning the tree, which stood so close +that, on windy nights, the berries would tap against the panes like +some ghostly visitant claiming admittance. They also were veiled +in a silvery tracery, and so the trivial remembrance of a certain +ball-dress came uppermost, instead of any sober reflection. As a +matter of fact, the larger half of existence can be excellently +executed on a penny whistle. + +What a very good imitation those berries had been which Tom had sent +from Paris; and how unlikely it was, since she and Paul were both +poor, that she would have so magnificent a garment again. It would not +be wanted, that was one comfort, if they lived quietly at Gleneira, +which, of course, they must do, unless Paul were to try and get back +to active service again. She must talk that over with him--that and +many another thing--when they began life again down by the river side. + +"It's ill singing the mavis' song but in the mavis' time," quoted Mrs. +Cameron, with a wise shake of the head, when Marjory came whistling +down the stairs to breakfast. "And half-past eight o' the clock on a +chill November morn in a white world is no the time for anything save +a sup o' hot porridge." + +"I wasn't singing the mavis' song," she laughed; "it was the lark's, +and they always begin early." And her clear voice broke gaily into the +phrase, "And Ph[oe]bus 'gins to rise." + +"Then it's ill singing on an empty stomach," persisted the old lady; +"and ill manners, too, to be sae blithe when ye are leaving us. What's +up wi' you, lassie?" + +Marjory gave her a queer look. "Everything! it's going to be a fine +day for one thing." + +"Wha kens? That's no a thing ye can say at half-past eight o' the +clock. Sing you the 'Flowers of the Forest,' my bairn; that's more o' +the truth in this world." + +Her old, faded voice quavered over the first line, "I've seen the +morning, wi' gold the hills adorning," and Marjory's clear, young one +took up the song cheerfully, "And loud tempest storming before the mid +o' day." Then she paused mischievously. "That's a foolish version, +though; the old one is better: 'I've heard the lilting at our yowe +milking, Lassies a' lilting before the dawn o' day.' And dawn is +before half-past eight o' the clock, even in November." + +Mrs. Cameron looked at her somewhat mollified, beating time with her +mittened fingers to the familiar rhythm. + +"Weel! weel! One way or the t'ither it's the bonniest song ever sung +in this world, and I mind, when I was a lassie, thinkin' that my +jo--he wasna John, my dear,--sang it like the angels out o' heaven. +But there! commend me to a lassie that's in love wi' the most +ordinair' o' men for a blaspheemous sacrileegous creature, if he's +weel favoured, and that's the truth. There isn't one o' the cardinal +virtues, but she'll dig up--maybe from some ither decent man's kale +yard and plant it amang his weeds wi' a light heart. Aye! and watter +it wi' tears too when she finds it no thrivin'. It's the way o' women, +and she's happier when she gives up the gairdening and sets to rear +bairns instead." + +"I wish Will could hear you admit that children are a comfort," +laughed Marjory, from her porridge. + +"And what's hindering him but sloth?" asked the old lady, rushing +eagerly to an old battle ground. "But there! was it not predicted as +the end o' a' things. Just a great Darkness as o' Night, and that is +what folks is coming to nowadays. It just beats me to roust the +hussies from their beds before six. And it's no from them bein' +hirelings a'together, for it's the same with the cottages. Where the +peat smoke used to go up wi' the mist wreaths at the earliest blink, +there's naething but an empty lum. Aye! and a cauld hearth! Not even a +gathering peat to keep the warmth o' home aboot the place. But there! +what could ye expec' wi' such names as they give the matches--Lucifers +and Damnstickers." + +"My dear mother!" exclaimed Will, in horrified accents, as he lounged +in lazily. + +"I'm no swearing, William," she retorted, with great dignity. "Tho' +maybe I hae a claim to be angry an' sin not, wi' a farmer son that +comes down to his breaking o' bread when the beasts have begun to chew +the cud." + +"My dear mother!" quoth Will, good-naturedly. "You look after the +beasts, and my corn is all carried." + +"Weel! weel! When I'm carried to me grave ye'll find the difference, +even if ye get a wife. Aye, aye! I ken fine what she'll be like--just +one o' the sort wi' a hump somewhere. I kenna whaur the fashion'll put +it then, since 'of that hour knoweth no man,' but it will be +somewheres, an' her hair will be as if a clucking hen had bin scrapin' +in't." + +"I deny it; I deny it," laughed Will; "when I marry, I shall marry a +girl just like Marjory. Only she shall not be quite so tall, or so +clever, and shall be thinner, and less opinionated--more of my sort, +and----" + +"And her hair shall be of a different colour," laughed Marjory, in her +turn; "I'm glad I don't leave you heartbroken--or anyone else, +either," she added, half to herself. + +And as she passed through her little sitting-room, before starting on +her rendezvous with Paul, she paused for an instant before her letter +to Tom Kennedy, which still lay unfinished, as she had left it, and +looked down again on those last words. They were true still, and with +a sudden impulse she took up the pen to say so. + +"Tom!" she wrote, "the problem is solved! Paul has come back to me, +and we are going to begin a new life together. Yet, I stretch out my +hands to you, dear, as I did before, and say 'Friendship is a bigger +thing than love!'" + +Then she went gaily through the garden to pick a late carnation for +Paul's buttonhole, and as she picked it she sang the "Flowers o' the +Forest." + + + "I've seen Tweed's silver streams, + Glittering in the sunny beams, + Grow drumly and dark as he row'd on his way." + + +The tune, with its haunting cadences, lingered in her mind, and more +than once fell from her lips, when with a light heart she faced the +ups and downs of the white road as it crept round the loch to where +the bridge, spanning the river, would enable her to strike across the +moss-hags to the alder-fringed bank above. And Paul would be on the +other side as he had been before. But he should not jump this time, +for that was one of the things she did not like; those things which +she was going to take out of his life and hers. The very thought, +indeed, of the risk of a slip made her shiver as she paused for a +moment on the bridge, and saw the yellow-brown flood, swollen with the +night's rain, rushing against the piers. + +"Drumly and dark!" Drumly it was, yet scarcely dark. It ran too fast +for that, and up yonder, where she was to meet Paul, it would be a +mass of foam with yellow lights in it. A sort of syllabub of a river +pouring over the curved edge of the rock heavily. Not like water at +all, but like some drugged draught; falling not with a roar or a rush, +but with slow, deafening boom. The waters of Lethe might fall so, she +fancied. Well! Paul should run no risk of them to-day, for she was +before her time, and would be there to warn him. So thinking, she +clambered down to the water's edge, and seating herself on the only +level slab of rock, which projected slightly over the boiling pool +below, she faced the downward course of the river, certain thus of +seeing the first glimpse of her lover's tall figure above the bracken +which crested the almost perpendicular rocks on the other side. + +"I've seen this morning." It was a most distracting tune! All the more +so because the words would follow Mrs. Cameron's sentimental lead, +instead of keeping to the old lament with the lilt of battle and +sudden death in it. + + + "The flowers o' the forest that fought aye the foremost, + The prime o' our land are cauld in the clay." + + +That was why they played it as a Dead March in the Highland regiments. +If Paul decided not to retire, it might be played at his funeral some +day. At Paul's funeral! The very thought seemed impossible; and yet +the girl's heart throbbed more with pride than fear. "That fought aye +the foremost." Yes! if she were a soldier's wife that was what a +soldier should do, even if she had to sit "drearie, lamenting her +dearie." + +It was too bad, she told herself, for the tune to haunt her so, since +Paul would be coming soon now, and when they had first met her head +had not been full of the "Flowers of the Forest" and such things; she +had been reading one of Tom's letters. How foolish of her not to have +brought one to complete the illusion! unless, indeed, there were, by +chance, one in her pocket. Yes! a scrap of one, old enough to rouse +her curiosity and engross her attention as she smoothed it out and +began to read. + +"To be disappointed in love! The phrase is arbitrarily bound up with +the state of celibacy. Wherefore, my dear Marjory? wherefore? If love, +as we once agreed, I think, is the touchstone of life, then marriage +appears to me to be the continual essay of love, where, alas! the gold +does not often reach the standard for hall marking; therefore it is +conceivably better to be continually in love and not to marry. I don't +know how it is, Mademoiselle Grands-serieux, but my philosophy +invariably ends in paradoxes of doubtful propriety--now, doesn't it?" + +She looked up smiling, then rose to her feet quickly, for there was a +rustle behind her. Paul might have been there ahead of her after all, +and have gone up to look at the river. Yes! there was someone at the +head of the fall, where the solitary rowan tree leant above the +alder-bushes, for the branches swayed. + +"Paul!" she cried across the boom of the river, "is that you? Come +down a bit; I'm here!" + +"I'm coming, Miss Marjory, I'm coming," answered a childish voice; +"but it is the berries I'm getting for you first. It is the last I +will be getting you in Gleneira, I'm thinking, and they're real +beauties, whatever." + +Great heavens! how reckless of the boy! yet, was not recklessness in +the blood? There he was, clinging to an overhanging branch; any +instant he might fall, and---- "Paul!" she cried quickly, +peremptorily; "come down at once. I don't want them." + +She saw his bright, flushed face through the sparse yellowing leaves, +close to the bunch of red berries, clutched by the little brown hand. +So like that picture of his mother--so like--so like Paul, too!--her +Paul. Ah, God in heaven! + +The child had slipped. "Hold tight, Paul! Hold tight!" + +Vain cry! Almost before it was uttered the seething foam with the +sunny glints in it had stifled his swift scream. + +Marjory made no sound. White, desperate, she leant over the slippery +edge of the shelf, clutched at something that seethed upwards for a +second, lost her balance, and was gone--in silence. The heavy foam +closed over her like a snow-drift with the sun on it, and all the help +the bravest heart could have given was the hope that unconsciousness +might come quickly through some kindly rock, and not in the slow agony +of suffocation. + +It was all over in a minute, for Nature knows her own mind when she is +in the tragic mood. She allows no time for unavailing tears. When, not +a minute afterwards, Paul Macleod's cry of "Marjory! Marjory!" with +its ring of glad certainty, echoed over the pool, there was not a sign +to show that she would ever give answer to his call again. + +"Marjory! Marjory! Marjory!" + +Pitiful appeal, though he knew it not, not even when a vague wonder at +her tardiness clouded the careless joy which had come to him with this +dawn of a new day, a new life. For the night seemed to have stolen his +fears as fit companions for its shadows, and left him nothing but his +hopes. + +"Marjory! Marjory! Marjory!" + +Is there anything in the wide world so terrible as the slow dread +which comes as the minutes pass unavailingly by?--as the certainty +that something has gone amiss seems to grow from the very passion of +protestation against the possibility?--and then, when fear has gone, +and unknown grief is the companion of the fruitless search, in which a +wild hope will spring up sometimes to intensify the pain? Of such +things all men may surely pray that fancy, and not memory, may speak. + +It was Tom Kennedy's letter--lighter than the love which had penned +it--that gave the first clue, and the hope went out from Paul +Macleod's face for ever when his quick eye found it like a foam bubble +in a backwater near the ford. + +"It will be in the Long Pool we must be looking," whispered the rough, +tender voices to each other, but Paul heard. Paul knew, Paul +understood what would come--if not that night, then the next day--or +the next. + +But Fate was merciful, and did not prolong the agony. + +"Don't look, laird! Oh, my dear! you that I carried in my arms as a +laddie--don't look," sobbed old Macpherson, as, with the first streak +of the following dawn, the men who had been working all the night long +bent over the oil-strewn, torch-lit depth through which the grapnel +came up, slowly, heavily. + +But Paul was no coward. He had looked death steadily in the face many +and many a time. + +"Stand back, John!" he said quietly. "I'll lift her in." + +And as he held her there in his arms while they drifted down stream a +space to a shelving grassy bank, he bent over her calm face, and +thanked "whatever gods there be," passionately, for the gift of that +sharp cut just showing beneath the damp curls through which some +friendly rock had brought a quick end to life. As he looked up again, +the dawn was out-paling the stars, and the birds in the alder-bushes +were stirring into song. + +"What day is it?" he asked, drearily, of old John; and that sudden +forgetfulness was the only sign he showed at the time of the terrible +shock he had sustained. Yet none who noticed it could ever forget the +look which came to his face, when, guided by the clue given by the +child's cap still clenched in the girl's hand, a further search ended +in the discovery of little Paul's body, and Marjory's lover realised +that she must have lost her life in the effort to save his namesake. +Indeed, in after years, old John, telling the tale, would often say +that he never went in such fear of seeing murder done as when Mr. +Gillespie had suggested the touching propriety of burying the brave +girl and her little friend side by side. He had even taken the bunch +of rowan berries found in the boy's fingers from the girl's breast, +where they had laid them, as no doubt they had been intended to lie, +saying, in a sort of fury, that nothing of the child's should come +near her. But beyond that he made no sign. + +And old John said true. Paul Macleod came back courteous and calm +among the many mourners who climbed one sunny afternoon to that sunny +spot on the southern slope of the hill, where Marjory had said the +light lingered longest. James Gillespie, his fair, florid face gaining +a dignity from his office, leading the way bareheaded, in his white +surplice, through the dead bracken and over the heathery slopes, while +his voice steadied itself over the words of consolation and hope. Tom +Kennedy, and Will, the laird, and Mr. Wilson--who, old as he was, +would not be gainsaid--carrying their dear dead, resting at times upon +some lichen-covered rock, or aided by other hands, tenderly, +sorrowfully, willing as theirs, falling for a time a step behind. All, +save Paul, who, setting even old John's offer of help aside, kept his +clasp tight upon the tough ash staff until, as they passed the +wishing-well on their downward way, he broke it across his knee +fiercely and flung the pieces on the dismal little pile. And then it +was that Father Macdonald, who, with sad, serene eyes, and softly +moving lips, had followed at a little distance, pleaded with the Great +Judge for another soul needing mercy. + +And Paul came back courteous and calm also from that smaller, drearier +procession, which laid the new-found heir among his forbears in the +stone vault belonging to the Macleods, far over by Ardmore point, in +the old kirk-yard. Dr. Kennedy, knowing all the circumstances, would +fain have spared the empty honour to the dead boy, but all his +arguments in favour of silence were unavailing. So old Peggy's little +grandson rested under a broad, silver plate, proclaiming him to be the +only son of Ronald Alister Macleod, of Gleneira, and Janet Duncan, his +wife. The sleet showers were slanting bitterly; and the outgoing tide, +buffeting with the westerly wind, almost swamped the little white +coffin as it lay in the bottom of the "Tubhaneer," while Paul sate +steering for the point steadily, as if he were not chilled through to +the marrow of both body and soul. + +It was the drenching he got, no doubt, as he stood alone, as chief +mourner, on the bare, wind-swept point, that made him look so ghastly. +He said so, at any rate, when Dr. Kennedy, noting his appearance with +professional eyes, recommended him to go to bed. It was Indian ague, +he said, nothing more; he was subject to it; had, in fact, had several +similar attacks at Gleneira. + +So he retired, courteously, calmly as ever, to the Big House, where he +set aside all offers of companionship. And there, Dr. Kennedy, with +that look on Paul Macleod's handsome face haunting his professional +soul, sought him next morning on pretence of saying goodbye. But by +that time Paul was past anything save that odd, rhythmical tossing +from side to side of the restless head, which comes when the brain is +conscious of nothing but the fever raging in it. + +Lord George came down at once, gentle as any woman, and surprised to +hear the long tale Dr. Kennedy had to tell, for Paul had only written +of the sad accident. And Lady George followed, with two plain, black +dresses and a little assortment of highly starched linen collars and +cuffs in her portmanteaux, ready at all points to take up the rôle of +nurse; though why a woman should nurse better in handcuffs, which +prevent all natural play of the wrist, and why a patient should be +supposed to like the dangling of starched cap-strings in his face, is +another matter. + +And still the head tossed restlessly, and the parched lips went on +muttering, muttering. At the first, of many things faintly articulate; +many things, and of many places; then, by degrees, centring round one +time, one scene; finally emerging into a monotonous whisper-- + +"Violet! Violet! Violet!" + +"I think we had better telegraph for Mrs. Vane," said Dr. Kennedy, +looking grave; "his mind has gone back to that time when she nursed +him through something similar. It is often so in brain cases, and we +cannot afford to lose a chance of saving him--sane. That previous +attack lessens the chance terribly." + +She came, of course, without an instant's delay, as she would have +come to anyone who needed her extraordinary tact and care; and Dr. +Kennedy gave a sigh of relief when, stealing in for a look about dawn +on the next day, he found her seated on a stool beside the low camp +bed, one hand laid lightly on the sick man's breast, the other as +lightly keeping the ice bag on his forehead, while he lay still, quite +still. + +"I used to do it before," she whispered, "and it seems to soothe +him--do you think it foolish?" + +For Dr. Kennedy, with a smile, had looked round the room, wondering at +the woman's quick touch which had transformed it. A night-light +flickered from the floor in one corner, the curtains had gone and the +bed was shifted to the centre, so that the mingled light of waning +night and dawning day fell sideways on the patient, and he could have +seen--if he could have seen at all--the door set wide open to the long +corridor to which some of Peter Macpherson's orange trees, the scarlet +hibiscus, and a few hot-house plants gave the look of a verandah. A +faint scent from them filled the air, and the large, empty room, +almost devoid of furniture, had lost its snug English comfort +altogether. + +"Foolish?" he echoed, going to the window, and looking out, absently. +"Who can say? The brain knows its own secrets. He seems to have +responded to the suggestion, and, for all we can tell, is ten years +younger to-day than he was yesterday." + +"I wish he were! I wish he were." The whisper came so passionately, +that Dr. Kennedy turned and looked at her curiously, sadly. + +"He is no worse, surely," she asked, rising softly, her hands seeming +to melt away, as it were, leaving the sick man unconscious of their +going. "Surely he is not worse?" + +"No! I was only thinking it might be better for us all if his memory +stopped where it is now--if he could forget." + +She clasped her hands together tightly. "If he could!--if only he +could forget--I would not care how much I remembered." + + + + + EPILOGUE. + + +It was once more autumn. The rowans were as red, the heather as +purple, as it had been in the year when Jeanie Duncan had sate for her +portrait and Marjory Carmichael had taken her holiday; as red, as +purple, as both will be until-- + + + "The slow sea rise and the sheer cliff crumble, + Till terrace and meadow the deep gulfs drink, + Till the strength of the waves of the high tides humble + The fields that lessen, the rocks that shrink." + + +For Nature is supremely indifferent whether she gives birth to fools +or knaves, or whether the Great Reaper fills his sheaf with wheat or +tares. + +The evening shadows were lengthening in the Glen, and from the little +school-house by the horse-chestnut tree the cadence of children's +voices rose and fell over the stirring measure of a processional hymn. + +"Not so fast! not so fast! who told you to gallop it like that?" cried +a smartly dressed young woman at the harmonium; a young lady with that +curious resemblance to a commonplace book, which the profession of +teaching brings to all but clever faces. + +"Miss Marjory was saying it should be gay-like," murmured a rebellious +voice among the elder scholars; the younger pausing with awed glances +at the only authority they had known. + +"Then she was wrong," retorted the Reverend James Gillespie's owner. +"It should be stately and solemn as befits a--a hymn. Don't you agree +with me, James?" + +"Perfectly, perfectly. The Bishop agrees also." His face beamed +unalloyed content; for he had read "dust to dust, ashes to ashes," +over many a coffin since his voice broke down one November morning +some years ago, and the memory of one funeral scarcely troubles him +more than another; each and all have a place in that growing sense of +his sacerdotal position, which makes him greatly regret that in those +earlier days he did not wear a biretta when exercising his priestly +function in committing his flock to their graves. + +And the evening shadows were lengthening also along the white road +that curves and crests the points and bays of the loch. A glint of +light where Paul had stood like St. Christopher, a deeper shadow where +Marjory had sate listening to the blabbing of the waves. Light and +shadow mingled in the woods, through which they had run hand in hand, +though with every moment the sunset glow left some golden birch or +scarlet cherry; and down among the tall, silver firs by the house a +faint white mist was beginning to rise over the trim lawns. + +"It is growing chill, Paul!" said an anxious voice. + +"To be continued in our next, Blazes; your aunt is inexorable!" The +tone was gracious as ever, but thinner, as Paul Macleod rose from his +lounge chair. + +"But, Uncle Paul! How many runs did you make?" cried Blasius, eagerly. +It had been his first term at Harrow, and this tale he had been +hearing of past prowess in cricket was too interesting to be thus left +pointless. + +"How many? I forget. Perhaps your aunt will remember----" + +A little spasm of pain passed over Violet's face. "How lazy you are, +Paul! You will end by remembering nothing." + +"Why should I remember when you do it so much better than I? It was a +good lot, Blasius, and I recollect being awfully proud at the time. +But these things slip by, somehow. When you are as old as I am----" + +"You really ought to go in, Paul!" came that warning voice, with a +studied patience in it. "This is not the Riviera, remember." + +"No, worse luck! I suppose it is the proper thing to come down here, +but it is an awful bore in some ways. Ah! there's George, back from +the hill--well, he likes it, that is one comfort." + +Blanche stood at the jasmine-covered porch to welcome her husband, for +the advancing years had, as is so often the case, decided her final +selection of a part in favour of the devoted wife--the fact being that +she was becoming a trifle too matronly for most of the others, while +the growing independence of the children stood in the way of a +satisfactory rendering of the maternal one. + +"Taking him in? That is right," she said approvingly, to her +sister-in-law, as Paul, on his wife's arm, paused to look at the birds +old John's son was laying out on the step. Old John himself, sturdy on +his legs as ever, but mindful of the dignity due to head keeperdom, +standing by. And then, not to be outdone, she turned to her husband. +"George! you ought not to dawdle about in wet feet. Please go in, too, +and change." + +"Wet? My dear, the moors are as dry as a bone. Aren't they, John?" + +"As dry as they will have been these fifty years, whatever," replied +the old man. "As dry as they would be that summer, Gleneira, when you +and----" + +"Do come in, Paul!" came the anxious voice, again. "Look, how the mist +is rising----" + +"By Jove! that's a fine young bird!" interrupted Paul, inconsequently, +with a flash of his old interest. "By the way, Violet, you might tell +the cook not to roast them to cinders as she did last night, and, +while I remember it, I wish you'd speak to Cunningham about that +horse----" + +"Really, Paul!" said his sister; "I think you might give the grooms +their orders yourself." + +He smiled kindly, and laid his other hand upon his wife's, as together +they went slowly to the smoking-room. + +"I am afraid I give you a lot of trouble," he said apologetically, as +he held the door open for her to pass through--"but I have such a +wretched memory, and you are so kind." + +"Don't say that, Paul! don't say that; what does it matter? I am quite +happy if you are." + +She watched his face curiously, eagerly, almost passionately; but she +saw nothing save that easy, kindly smile. + +Had her wish been fulfilled? and had he left memory behind in the +Valley of the Shadow, where he had left so much of the old Paul? She +could scarcely tell, for he never spoke of that one summer, but lived +his life as if it had not been. + + + * * * * * + + +But the light was lingering still on that steep slope, whence the +purple cloud of Iona could be seen lying like an amethyst on the +golden shield of the sea--for the sky was hung with blood-red pennants +as if the hosts of heaven were going forth to war. + +And Tom Kennedy looked out over sea and sky from the gravestone which +told that Marjory Carmichael died in attempting to save the life of +Paul Macleod. There was a bunch of red rowans on the green grass. He +brings one every year when, his brief holiday over, he climbs over the +hill--as he did on the last day he saw her--on his way back to the +work-a-day world, and that hand-to-hand fight with Death in others +which will cease with his own. + +His eyes are troubled, for it comes back to him every year as he sits +there that he might have saved her--if he had known. + +Known what? A smile comes to his face as he takes out an old letter +and reads the last words she ever wrote to him, "Yet I stretch out my +hands to you and say, again and again, Friendship is a bigger thing +than Love!" + +The mists are rising even there as he turns to breast the hill, the +cloud wreaths sweep solemnly in from the sea in stately curves, and as +he pauses on the summit for a last look downwards, lo! there is +nothing at all in earth, or sea, or sky, save himself and a grey, +encircling mist. Love and Friendship, Life and Death, Sunshine and +Shade! Where are they? + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Red Rowans, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED ROWANS *** + +***** This file should be named 40141-8.txt or 40141-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/1/4/40141/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (New York Public Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Red Rowans + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: July 4, 2012 [EBook #40141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED ROWANS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (New York Public Library) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://books.google.com/books?id=N48nAAAAMAAJ<br> +(New York Public Library)</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>RED ROWANS</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>RED ROWANS</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>MRS. F. A. STEEL</h2> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF "MISS STUART'S LEGACY," ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>New York</h4> +<h3>MACMILLAN AND CO.</h3> +<h5>AND LONDON</h5> +<h4>1895</h4> +<h5><i>All rights reserved</i></h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1894</span>,<br> +<span class="sc">By</span> MACMILLAN AND CO.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_00" href="#div1_00">PROLOGUE</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01">CHAPTER I</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02">CHAPTER II</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03">CHAPTER III</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04">CHAPTER IV</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05">CHAPTER V</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06">CHAPTER VI</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07">CHAPTER VII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08">CHAPTER VIII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09">CHAPTER IX</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10">CHAPTER X</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11">CHAPTER XI</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12">CHAPTER XII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_13" href="#div1_13">CHAPTER XIII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_14" href="#div1_14">CHAPTER XIV</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_15" href="#div1_15">CHAPTER XV</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_16" href="#div1_16">CHAPTER XVI</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_17" href="#div1_17">CHAPTER XVII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_18" href="#div1_18">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_19" href="#div1_19">CHAPTER XIX</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_20" href="#div1_20">CHAPTER XX</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_21" href="#div1_21">CHAPTER XXI</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_22" href="#div1_22">CHAPTER XXII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_23" href="#div1_23">CHAPTER XXIII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_24" href="#div1_24">CHAPTER XXIV</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_25" href="#div1_25">CHAPTER XXV</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_26" href="#div1_26">CHAPTER XXVI</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_27" href="#div1_27">CHAPTER XXVII</a></h4> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_epilogue" href="#div1_epilogue">EPILOGUE</a></h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>RED ROWANS: A LOVE STORY.</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_00" href="#div1Ref_00">PROLOGUE.</a></h2> +<br> +<p style="margin-left:25%; font-size:90%; text-indent:-6pt">"Love took up the Harp of Life and +.... smote the Chord of Self."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Am I really like yon?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A small brown hand pointed peremptorily to a finished drawing on a +sketcher's easel hard by, and a pair of blue eyes frowned somewhat +imperiously at a young man, who, with one knee on the ground, was +busily searching in the long grass for a missing brush, while palette +and colours lay beside him ready to be packed up. The frown, however, +was lost on the back of his head, for he gave a decisive denial, +without turning round to look at the questioner.</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl's eyes shifted once more to the drawing, and an odd, wistful +curiosity came to her face as she took a step nearer to the easel. +What she saw there was really rather a clever study of herself as she +had been standing a few moments before, erect, yet with a kind of +caress towards the branch full of scarlet rowan berries, which one +round firm arm bent down from the tree above, against her glowing +face. There was a certain strength in the treatment; the artist had +caught something of the glorious richness of colouring in the figure +and its background, but the subject had been too much for him, and he +admitted it frankly. In truth, it would have needed a great painter to +have done Jeanie Duncan justice as she stood under the rowan tree that +autumn evening, and Paul Macleod was at best but a dabbler in art. +Still, it was a truthful likeness, though the nameless charm which +belongs to one face and not to another of equal beauty of form--in +other words, the mysterious power of attraction--had escaped pencil +and brush. There was nothing spiritual in this charm; it was +simply the power which physical beauty has sometimes to move the +imagination--almost the spiritual nature of men; and, such as it was, +it breathed from every curve of Jeanie Duncan's face and form. She was +very young, not more than seventeen at the most, and, as yet, in that +remote Highland glen, where every girl, regardless of her appearance, +had a jo, the pre-eminence of her own good looks had never dawned upon +her. So there was no mock humility in the words which followed on +rather a long pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll no be sae bonnie, I'm thinking."</p> + +<p class="normal">Something in her tone struck through even her companion's absorption; +for Paul Macleod was given to forgetting his world over trivialities. +He looked up sharply, rose hastily, stepped across to where she stood, +and laid his hand on her shoulder in easy familiarity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why, Jeanie, what's the matter now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She moved away impatiently from his touch, and, as if from habit, her +arm, showing white under the russet bedgown she wore, went up to the +branch above her head. And there she stood once more with the ripe red +berries against her ripe red lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm sayin' I'll no be sae bonnie as yon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your eyes are not quite so blue, certainly; your cheeks not quite so +pink, your hair not quite so golden, nor your----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's enough, sir; ye needn't fash yourself more. I'm no for sale by +public roup. I was sayin' myself that I'll no be near sae bonnie as +yon."</p> + +<p class="normal">The rowan berries were being viciously stripped from their stems, and +allowed to fall in a defiant patter on the ground; yet there were +audible tears in the young voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You little goose! I didn't know you were so vain, Jeanie," he began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm no vain," she interrupted, sharply. "It's no that, Mr. Paul. I +dinna care--at least no much--but if a lassie's bonnie----" she paused +suddenly and let the branch go. It swung back, sending a red shower of +overripe berries pattering round the girl and the man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, Jeanie! If a lassie's bonnie?" repeated Paul Macleod, watching +the rapid changes in her vivid face with amused admiration; "if a +lassie's bonnie, what happens?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She confronted him with a certain dignity new to his experience of +her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ye ken fine, Mr. Paul, the difference it makes to a lassie if she is +real bonnie. Wasn't it yourself was lilting the 'Beggar-Maid' at me +the morn?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gracious Heavens, Jeanie! Ambitious as well! On which of the crowned +heads of Europe have you set your young affections? Tell me, that I +may kill him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">His arm slipped easily to her waist, and he bent to look in the face +which fell as it were before his touch. Yet it was paler than it had +been; for Jeanie Duncan neither giggled nor blushed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's no matter where I set my heart," she said, curtly, "when I'm no +bonnie."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who said so? Not I," he remarked, coolly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You said my eyes were no sae blue, my lips no sae red, my hair----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank heaven they're not! Why, Jeanie! You must surely know that you +are a thousand times more beautiful than that--that chromo-lithograph +over there, which is only fit for a second-class Christmas number or +an undergraduate's room!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She withdrew herself from his arm, looking at him doubtfully, ready to +flare up in an instant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're no pokin' fun at me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Poking fun! Why"--his voice deepened suddenly, he stretched his hand +towards her again--"you are simply the most beautiful woman I have +ever seen."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no mistaking the ring of reality in his tone, and yet there +was nothing emotional about it. He seemed to be asserting the fact as +much for his own benefit as for hers; and she also was lost in +herself, in her own eagerness, as she looked again at the portrait.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it's real bonnie, Mr. Paul! Will it be as bonnie as the +Beggar-Maid?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Still harping upon kings!" he said, coming back to her lightly. "Take +my advice, Jeanie, and be content with commoners."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if I'm no content?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Uneasy lies the head! Don't you remember my reading that to you the +other day?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She flashed round on him in an instant, superb in her quick response, +her quick resentment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I mind mony a thing ye've read, mony a thing ye've said, mony a thing +ye've done. I've a deal to mind; too much, may be."</p> + +<p class="normal">It came as a shock to Paul Macleod. For his heart had, as yet, an +uncomfortable knack of acknowledging the truth. His head, however, +came to the rescue as usual, by swift denial that those long days +spent in painting Jeanie's portrait under the rowan tree were hardly +wise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One can't have too much of a good thing, and it has been pleasant, +hasn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mither says it's bin a sair waste o' time," replied the girl, +evasively.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't wasted mine," retorted the young man airily. "Just look at +that masterpiece! And I've been as good as a quarter's schooling to +you, little one; think of the information I've imparted to my model, +the books I've lent, the--the things I've taught----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye. You've taught me a deal. I ken that fine."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave an impatient toss of his head as he turned away to pack up his +belongings; the girl helping him silently as if accustomed to the +task.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not a soul was in sight, though a wreath of blue peat smoke behind a +neighbouring clump of firs showed the near presence of a cottage. Save +for this one sign there was no trace of humanity in the scene except +those two in the foreground; both in their way types of youth, health, +and beauty--of physical nature at its best. But the solitude was not +silent. A breeze coming up with sunsetting rustled the rowan leaves, +and surged among the silver firs, in echo, as it were, to the long +hush of distant breakers on a rocky shore which came rhythmically to +mingle with the nearer rush of the burns streaking the hillside; while +far and near the air was filled with the wailing cry of lambs newly +separated from the ewes; most melancholy and depressing of all sounds, +especially when the sadness of coming night settles over earth and +sky, sending the shadows to creep up the hillsides and drive the +sunshine before their purple battalions. A veritable battle, this, of +assault and defence; each point of vantage, each knoll held by the +besieged until, surrounded by the enemy, the sunlight dies by inches, +gallantly, hopelessly, and the struggle begins again higher up.</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl and boy--for Paul Macleod was still in the early +twenties--felt oppressed by their surroundings, and after the manner +of youthful humanity they resented a feeling which had no foundation +in themselves. Were they not happy, alive to the uttermost, ready to +face the unknown, eager for the experience which the world seemed to +find so dreary? Why should they be saddened by things which were not +as <i>they</i> were; which had had their day, or did not care to have it?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come with me as far as the gate, Jeanie," he said, impatiently. "Ah! +I know you don't generally, but you might to-day. Then you can lock +it. If any of old Mackenzie's lambs were to get through to their +mothers he would lay the blame on you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not to you, Mr. Paul?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed rather contemptuously. "Because the road leads to your +croft, not mine; besides, no one ever lays blame to me. I never get +into trouble, somehow. I have all the luck that way, it seems, while +my brother--who is really no worse, I suppose--is always in hot water. +I never saw such a fellow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They're saying," began Jeanie--half to cover the fact that she had +taken the first step down the sheep track--"that the laird----" she +stopped abruptly and looked furtively at her companion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may as well tell me what they are saying, Jeanie," he remarked, +coolly. "You always have to in the end, you know, and so there is no +use in making a fuss."</p> + +<p class="normal">She was not a girl to be at every one's command, but sooner or later +most women find it pleasant to be under orders, for a time, at any +rate; doubtless as the result of that past slavery of which we hear so +much nowadays. The feeling will be eradicated in the next generation +or so, but it must be allowed for in this.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They're sayin' Gleneira will have to sell the place, and"--she looked +at the face beside her critically, as if to judge how far she might +go--"they're sayin' it's a pity you were no the laird, Mr. Paul, for +you love every stick and stone about, and he is never coming near it +at all, at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man walked on in silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did ye know that I've never seen the laird, Mr. Paul, though me an' +mither has lived at the croft since I can mind anything; but, then, +she is no going down the strath, and he is no carin' for the fishin', +as you are; you're knowin' every stone in the river, I'm thinkin'."</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned to her with a quick laugh as if to dismiss the subject. "And +every face beside it; for I like pretty things, and some of them are +pretty. I'll tell you what it is, Jeanie, Gleneira's the most +beautiful place I ever saw; and you are the most beautiful girl in it. +Beggar-Maids haven't a chance, so I shall expect to be invited to your +nuptials with King Cophetua; a poor laird's Jock like myself can't +compete with a crowned head." The bitterness of his tone had more to +do with the prospect of having to let Gleneira go, than to the +manifest difficulty of appropriating Jeanie Duncan without offending +his head or her heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's better worth having than crowns, maybe," said the girl, +doggedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Right! crowned heads may be penniless; let us say an old monarch wi' +siller."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's better worth having than siller, maybe."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul looked at her curiously. Apparently it was not for nothing that +he had amused his sitter by reciting the almost endless repertoire of +old ballads and songs in which he had taken delight since his earliest +boyhood. For it was part of his rather complex nature that he should +admire the romance and sentiment in which, with the easily adopted +cynicism of a clever lad, he professed to disbelieve. It suited him as +a refuge from himself; and yet the fact that Jeanie Duncan had +accepted this admiration as a proof of eternal truth did not displease +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Better worth than siller!" he echoed, wilfully provoking the answer +which he knew would come. "Why! there is nothing better worth than +siller--in the end."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye, there is," she put in confidently, "there's love. You've tell't +me the sang, many a time;--It's love that gar's the world gang round."</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it? They stood at the gate together, she holding it open for him +to pass, and the question came upon him suddenly. The old question +which comes to most men. Was it worth it? Should he, or should he not, +go the commonplace way of the world, and take what he could get? Yes, +if he could take it without bringing something into his life for ever, +which in all human probability he would not care to keep--<i>for ever</i>. +Even memory was a tie; and yet--his heart beat quicker, and the +knowledge that passion was beginning to disturb the balance of his +reason came home to him, bringing with it the same quick denial with +which he had met his own doubt as to the wisdom of the past. It was +his way of defending the emotional side of his nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take care, Jeanie!" he said, seizing on the first commonplace detail +which met his eye, "that gate is newly tarred; you'll dirty your +hands."</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first time the girl challenged him deliberately.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm no carin'," she said defiantly, "my hands is used to dirt. I'm +not like you. It'll no hurt me."</p> + +<p class="normal">She closed the gate behind him sturdily, fastening the padlock, and +then without another word turned to go. In so doing she roused in an +instant all his obstinacy, all the imperious contrariety which would +not tolerate the decision of another, even though it tallied with his +own.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you going without saying good-bye, Jeanie? That's rude," he +began, stretching his hand over the gate, and once more wilfully +provoking a situation. "Nonsense! The least you can do is to shake +hands, and say thank you for all the benefits----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused, and the next instant had vaulted over the gate and was +kissing away her tears and calling everything to witness that he had +not meant to be unkind, that she was the dearest little girl in +creation. Both of which assertions were absolutely true to him at the +time; she had looked too bewilderingly sweet in her sudden burst of +grief for prudence.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the next half-hour, if there be another motive power besides Love +behind the veiled mystery of Life bidding the world go round, these +two young people did not trouble themselves about it. The descending +mists crept down to meet the shadows, the shadows crept up to meet the +mists, but sea and sky and land were full of light for the boy and +girl absorbed in the vast selfishness of passion. So lost in the +glamour with which the great snare for youth and freedom is gilded, +that neither of them thought at all of the probable ending to such a +fair beginning. Jeanie, because to her this new emotion was something +divine; Paul, because her estimate of it aided a certain +fastidiousness which, in the absence of better motives, had served +hitherto to keep him fairly straight. So, in a measure, the idyllic +beauty of the position as they sate, side by side on a lichen-covered +stone looking into each other's eyes, and supremely satisfied with +each other's appearance, served to make Paul Macleod's professions +more passionate than they would have been had she been less innocent.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not until with a wrench he had acknowledged that it really was +time for her to be going home, and he was striding down the road +alone, that a chill came over him with the question--</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Que diable allait il faire dans cette galere?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was one which, like a floating log after the rapids are past, +always came to the surface of Paul Macleod's life when the turmoil of +emotion was over. This time it brought an unpleasant surprise with it, +for to tell truth he had imagined himself secure against assault. He +had considered the situation calmly; had, so to speak, played with it, +asserting his power of evading its natural consequences if he chose, +of accepting them if he considered it worth while. And now, with his +heart still beating, his face still flushed, and with Jeanie's kisses +still tingling on his lips, it was no use denying that he had been +taken by storm. And it annoyed him. Suddenly the thought that it was +just the sort of scrape his brother would have fallen into came to +enhance the odd contempt which Paul Macleod's head always had for his +heart. The certainty, however, that he shared that brother's extremely +emotional nature was so unwelcome that it served for a time to +strengthen him in denial of his own weakness of will. After all, +impulse was the essence of passion. Had he not, recognising this, +voluntarily bade reason and prudence step aside. Would not any man +have been a fool to think twice of the future with Jeanie Duncan's +face ready to be kissed? It was worth something; in a way it was worth +all the rest of the world put together. So the serio-comedy might have +ended as such serio-comedies usually do but for the merest triviality; +nothing more nor less than the perception that he had tarred his hands +in vaulting over the gate! The offending stains sobered him, as no +advice, no reasoning, no reproof, could have done. To begin with, +there was no possibility of denying to himself that, be Love what it +may, he, Paul Macleod, would never in a calm moment of volition have +dirtied his hands in that fashion. He hated to be touched or soiled by +common things, without, as it were, a "by your leave." Then there was +a prophetic tinge in the consequences of his setting barriers at +defiance which appealed to his imagination. After all, would it be +worth while to carry about for the rest of your life an indelible mark +of a past pleasure, which could scarcely fail to become a disagreeable +reminiscence, no matter what was the <i>denouement</i> of the present +situation? Marriage? Hardly that. Not only was he too poor to marry +for love, but was it by any means certain that such love as this was +worth the sacrifice of freedom. On the other hand, the only possible +alternative was, to begin with, such shocking bad form. The Macleods +of Gleneira had always kept straight in Gleneira itself. Besides, if +he harmed the girl in any way, he knew perfectly well that the regret +would be a tie to him all his life. That was the worst of having an +imagination. Other men might do it; he could not, if only for his own +sake. Then there was Jeanie, to think of poor little Jeanie, who +didn't even grasp the fact that she was in danger--who would----</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah! Was it worth while? The question came back insistently, as, with a +plentiful supply of the salt butter recommended by the housekeeper at +Gleneira, he tried to get rid of the tar. He was no milksop, though he +liked delicate surroundings, and found a certain refinement necessary +to his comfort, but, if he had no objections to soiling his hands in +obedience to his own sovereign will and pleasure, he was always eager +to have them clean again. And so it was with his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor little Jeanie Duncan! She in her innocent self-abandonment would +have welcomed anything which would have marked her as his indelibly. +And yet a real regard for her prompted his calculations. If he had +held her cheaper he would not have dreaded the remorse which would be +a tie to him all his life. It never occurred to him that this +squeamishness had come too late, or that the fine-weather flirtation +had in itself done the mischief; that the injury to an innocent girl +lies in the mind only.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell Donald that I shall want the light cart at five to-morrow +morning. I have to catch the Oban steamer," he said to the astonished +housekeeper as he sate down to his solitary dinner; for he had come to +Gleneira with the intention of spending long-leave in pottering about +the old place with gun and rod.</p> + +<p class="normal">So while Jeanie Duncan slept the sleep of perfect content, her lover +drove past the cottage in the grey mist of a rainy autumn morning +feeling intensely virtuous; and all the more so because his heart +really ached, even at the sight of the tarred gate. And no doubt +nine-tenths of the men he knew would have applauded his resolution in +running away, patted him on the back, told him he was a very fine +fellow, and said that but for his self-control the affair might have +ended miserably. Perhaps they would have been right; though, as a +matter of fact, Paul Macleod was running away from the natural +consequence of his own actions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jeanie Duncan read his note of farewell with a scared white face. It +was gentle, regretful, kindly, and it killed her belief in Love for +ever. And unfortunately Love had not come to her in its sensual guise. +It had represented to her all the Truth, and Goodness, and Beauty in +the world. So she lost a good deal; and naturally enough a great +restlessness and desire for something to fill the empty space took +possession of her. Finally, when Spring drew on, and the first broods +were trying their wings, she--to use the phrase adopted by those who +tired of life in the remote glens--"thought of service in Glasgow." +Vague euphemism for much seeing of that unseen world beyond the hills.</p> + +<p class="normal">But while Paul Macleod in his travels carried with him the +consciousness of virtue, she had for memory the knowledge that she had +been weighed in the balance and found wanting.</p> + +<p class="normal">Two very different legacies from the same past.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Within the long, low cottage the black smoke-polished rafters rose in +inky darkness above the rough whitewashed walls, and the mud floor +showed the traces of past leaks in many a hill and hollow. The two +tiny windows were set breathlessly agape, and through the open door a +flood of hot bright sunshine threw a bar of mote-speckled light across +the room, gilding the heads of the scholars who sat swinging their +legs on the benches and sending a sort of reflected glint from the +white wall up into the sombre shadow of the roof. Such was the +Episcopal Grant-in-Aid School of Gleneira one July day, some ten years +after Paul Macleod had driven down in the mist to catch the Oban +steamer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without, was a pale, heat-blanched sky set in tall spectral-looking +hills which had lost contour and individuality in a haze, blending +rock and heather, grass and fern, hollows and heights, into one +uniform tint of transparent blue. Between the mountains there was a +little level growth of green corn flecked by yellow marigolds, white +ox-eyes, and scarlet poppies; then a stretch of dusty road, ending in +cool shadows of sycamore and pine, beside the school-house garden.</p> + +<p class="normal">A wonderful garden this. Of Liliputian size, yet holding in its tiny +clasp a specimen of almost every plant that grows and blows. Three +potato haulms, four cabbages, a dozen onions, half a yard of peas; a +tuft of parsley, two bronze-leaved beet-roots, a head of celery. This, +flanked by a raspberry cane, a gooseberry bush, and supported by an +edge of strawberry plants, constituted the kitchen garden. Beyond, in +the trim box-edged border leading to the school-house door, were +pansies, roses, geraniums, lilies, and peonies; every conceivable +flower, each family represented by one solitary scion. Last, not +least, the quaint drops of the Dielytra; which the children with +awestruck voices call "The Bishop." For when you strip away the pink, +sheathing petals, is there not inside a man in full white lawn +sleeves? And is not a man in lawn sleeves a disturbing element in a +remote Highland glen, where half the people are rigid Presbyterians? +Here in this little garden the bees hum lazily and the butterflies +come and go; sometimes one, misled by the stream of sunshine pouring +through the open door, floats in among the yawning scholars, rousing +them to momentary alertness and a faint wonder as to the ultimate fate +of the wanderer; whether he will philosophically give up the +enterprise or, foolishly persistent, lose himself amid the +smoke-blackened rafters.</p> + +<p class="normal">The passing interest, however, dies down again into the sleepy stolid +indifference which is the outward and visible sign of that inward +desire for freedom felt by each child in the school. No keen longing, +but simply a dull wish to be out on the hillside, down by the burn, +under the trees; anywhere away from catechisms, collects, or shoes and +stockings. The last being the worst infliction of all to these wild +little Highland colts accustomed for six days of the week to bare +feet, since the coarse knitted hose and hobnailed boots belonging to +the seventh are a direful aggravation of the tortures of Sunday +school; while even the glorious gentility bestowed by a pair of side +springs is but poor compensation for the discomfort to the wearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps that was the reason why each pair of legs on the benches +swayed helplessly to the rhythm of a singularly unmelodious hymn which +the scholars were singing, led by the master in a muffled nasal chant. +The tune itself was old and quaint, having in its recurring semitones +a barbaric monotony which a lighter phrase here and there showed was +not so much due to the composition in itself as to its present +interpreter. The words were still more quaint, forming a sort of +Litany of the Prophets, with innumerable verses and many vain +repetitions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless, it was an evident favourite with the children; partly, +it may be hoped, from its own intrinsic merits, mostly, it is to be +feared, from the startling novelties in Scripture history which it was +capable of promulgating when, as in the present case, the schoolmaster +was engaged in his secondary profession of postmaster.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the tune rose and fell, there came every now and again a pause, so +sudden, so absolute that a passer-by on the dusty road might well have +asked himself if some direful catastrophe had not occurred. Nothing of +the sort. A glance within would have shown him everything at its +usual; the scholars in rows, from the kilted urchin of four--guiltless +of English--to whom school is the art of sitting still, to the girl of +fourteen, blissfully conscious of a new silk handkerchief and the +admiration it excites in the bashful herd-boy on the opposite bench. +In the corner, at a table with a slanting desk, the master was busy +sorting the letters which Donald Post, as he is called, has just +brought in; the latter meanwhile mopping his hot face and disburdening +his bag of minor matters in the shape of tea, sugar, and bread, and +himself of the budget of news he has accumulated during his +fourteen-mile walk; in an undertone, however, for the hymn goes on.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Whair is noo' the pro-phet Dan'l?</i>" droned the master, followed by a +wavering choir of childish trebles and gruff hobbledehoy voices, +"<i>Whair is noo' the pro-phet Dan'l?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The exigencies of the tune necessitated a repetition of the momentous +question again and yet again, the tune dying away into a pause, during +which the master's attention wandered to a novel superscription on a +letter. The children held their breath, the hum of the bees outside +became audible, all nature seemed in suspense awaiting the answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm thinking it will be from Ameriky," hazarded the master +thoughtfully to Donald Post, and, the solution seeming satisfactory, +he returned with increased energy to the triumphant refrain</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Safe intil the Pro-mised Land</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The children caught it up <i>con amore</i> with a vague feeling of relief. +A terrible thing indeed, to Presbyterians or Episcopalians alike, if +the Prophet Daniel had been left hanging between heaven and another +place! So great a relief, that the gay progress of the tune and the +saint was barely marred by the master's renewed interest in a +postcard; which distraction led him into making an unwarrantable +statement that--</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>He went up in a fiery char-yot</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">True, the elder pupils tittered a little over the assertion, but the +young ones piped away contentedly, vociferously. The Promised Land +once attained, the means were necessarily quite a secondary +consideration; and mayhap to their simple imaginings a fiery chariot +was preferable to the den of lions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Where is noo' the twal A-postles?</i>" led off the master again, after +a whispered remark to Donald Post, which provoked so interesting a +reply that the fate of the twelve remained trembling in the balance +long enough for the old refrain to startle the scholars from growing +inattention.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Safe intil the Promised Land</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The sound echoed up into the rafters. Truly a blessed relief to reach +the haven after delays and difficulties.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>They went through</i>"--began the master. But whether in orthodox +fashion it would have been "<i>great tri-bu-la-tion</i>," or whether, on +the principle of compensation, the den of lions would have been +allowed twelve saints, will never be known. The mote-speckled beam of +sunshine through the door was darkened by a slight girlish figure, the +children hustled to their feet with much clatter of the unaccustomed +boots and shoes, and the schoolmaster, drowning his last nasal note +under a guilty cough, busied himself over a registered letter. For +Miss Marjory Carmichael objected on principle to the Litany of the +Prophets.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rather imperious frown, struggling with an equally obstinate smile +which showed on the newcomer's face, vanished at the sight of Donald +Post.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Any for me?" she asked eagerly. It was a charming voice, full of +interest and totally devoid of anxiety. An acute ear would have told +at once that life had as yet brought nothing to the speaker which +would make post-time a delight or a dread. She had for instance no +right to expect a love-letter or a dun; and her eagerness was but the +desire of youth for something new, her expectancy only the girlish +belief in something which must surely come with the coming years. For +the rest, a winsome young lady with a pair of honest hazel eyes and +honest walking boots.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed no, Miss Marjory," replied the schoolmaster, selecting a thin +envelope and holding it up shamelessly to the light--a bold stroke to +divert attention from the greater offence of the hymn, "Forbye ain wi' +the Glasky post-mark that will just be ain o' they weary circulars, +for as ye may see for yoursel', Miss Marjory, the inside o't's +leethographed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you, Mr. McColl," said the girl, severely, as she took the +letter, "but if you have no objection I should prefer finding out its +contents in a more straightforward fashion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Surely! Surely!" Mr. McColl, having got a little more than he +expected, gave another exculpatory cough, and looked round to Donald +Post for moral support. Perhaps from a sense that he often needed a +like kindness, this was an appeal which the latter never refused, and +if he could not draw upon real reminiscence for a remark or anecdote +bearing on the point, he never had any hesitation in giving an +I. O. U. on fancy and so confounding his creditors. On the present +occasion, however, he was taken at a disadvantage, being engaged in +trying to conceal from Marjory's uncompromising eyes a bottle of +whiskey which formed a contraband item in his bag; consequently he had +only got as far as a preliminary murmur that "there wass a good mony +wass liking to be reading their ain letters but that it was James +Macniven"--when the schoolmaster plucked up courage for further +defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye! Aye! 'tis but natur'l to sinfu' man to be liking his ain. Not +that they circulars interestin' readin', even if a body is just set on +learnin' like Miss Marjory. And I'm thinkin' it will only be from a +wine mairchant likely. It's extraordinair' the number of circulars +they'll be sending out; but the whiskey is a' the same. Bad, filthy +stuff, what will give parral--y--ses to them that drinks it."</p> + +<p class="normal">This second bid for favour, accompanied as it was by an unfortunate +glance for support at Donald--who was struggling unsuccessfully with +the neck of the black bottle--proved too much for Marjory's dignity, +and the consequent smile encouraged Mr. McColl to go on, oblivious +apparently of his last remark.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it's whiskey we shall all be wanting, and plenty of it, to drink +the young laird's health. But I was forgetting you could scarcely have +heard the news, Miss Marjory, since it is only coming in the post just +now. It is the laird, Miss Marjory, that is to be home to-morrow by +the boat!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl forgot an incipient frown in sheer surprise. "Here! Captain +Macleod?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye! it's the machine is to meet him at the ferry, the light cart for +his traps, and the house to be ready." In his desire for importance +Mr. McColl in the last words had given himself away completely, for +Marjory lived at Gleneira Lodge with her cousin, the factor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The house to be got ready! Impossible! Mrs. Cameron had heard nothing +when I came out. Where did the news come from?" Marjory's voice, +especially to those who knew and loved her, as these good folks did, +never admitted of refusal, so the postmaster coughed again between the +thumps of the office stamp, which he had begun to use in a hurry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will be Mistress Macniven that was telling Donald Post, and Donald +Post he will be telling it to me." The words came in a sort of +sing-song, echoed by Donald himself in a croon of conviction.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hou-ay! it was Mistress Macniven wass tellin' it to me, and it iss me +that iss tellin' it to Mr. McColl, and it is fine news--tamn me, but +it is fine news whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">A twinkle came to Marjory's eyes, for in her character of Grand +Inquisitress to the Glen, such startling language was too evidently a +drag across the trail.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But where did Mrs. Macniven hear it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye! aye!" assented Donald, rising to go abruptly, "that is what it +will be, but she was tellin' it to me, whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't believe a word of it," continued the girl; "Captain Macleod +would have written to my cousin, I know. It is just idle gossip."</p> + +<p class="normal">This was too much for the postmaster, who posed, as well as he might, +for being an authority on such questions. In the present instance he +preferred the truth to incredulity.</p> + +<p class="normal">'"Deed, Miss Marjory," he said, with unblushing effrontery, "it'll +just be one o' they postcards."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hou-ay!" echoed Donald, softly. "She'll be yon o' they postcards, +whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A postcard! What postcard?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. McColl handed her one with the air of a man who has done his duty. +"Will you be taking it with you, or shall I be giving it to Donald, +here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory looked at him with speechless indignation; at least, she +trusted that was her expression, though the keen sense of humour, +which is the natural heritage of the Celt, struggled with her dignity +at first.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am really ashamed of you, Mr. McColl," she said at last, with +becoming severity. "Of you and Mrs. Macniven; you ought to know better +than pry into other folks' secrets."</p> + +<p class="normal">But now that the cat was out of the bag, the postmaster showed fight. +"'Deed, and I'm no for seeing it was a secret at all! It is a penny +people will be paying if they're needin' secrets. And the laird is not +so poor, but he would put a penny to it if he was caring; though yon +crabbed writin' they teach the gentlefolk nowadays, is as most as gude +as an envelope. Lorsh me! Miss Marjory, but my laddies would be +gettin' tawse for a postcard like yon. It was just awful ill to read."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To read! Mr. McColl, I really am surprised at you! It is most +dishonourable to read other people's letters," protested the girl, +with great heat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Surely! Surely! but yon's a postcard."</p> + +<p class="normal">From this position he refused to budge an inch, being backed up in it +by Donald, who, being unable to read, was busy in stowing away various +letters in different hiding-places in his person, with a view to their +future safe delivery at the proper destination. "It was a ferry useful +thing," he said, "was postcards, and if Miss Marjory would mind it +wass, when old Mistress Macgregor died her sons wass sending to Oban +for the whiskey to come by the ferry. But it wass the day before the +buryin' that a postcard wass coming to say the whiskey was to be at +the pier. But young Peter's cart wass going to the ferry to fetch the +whiskey and he was meeting Peter and telling him of the postcard. So +if it had not been for the postcaird it wass no whiskey they would be +having to Mistress Macgregor's funeral, whatever." A judicious +mingling of fact and fiction which outlasted Marjory's wrath. She put +the cause of offence in her pocket, remarking pointedly that as Donald +had such a budget of important news to retail, that would most likely +be the quickest mode of delivery, and then turned to her task of +giving the children their usual Sunday lesson, which she began with +such a detailed homily on the duty towards your neighbour, that Mr. +McColl took the excuse of Donald's departure to accompany him into the +garden, and remain there until she passed on to another subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Marjory Carmichael ruled the Glen absolutely; perhaps because she +was the only young lady in it. Girls there were and plenty, but none +in her own class of life, and the result on her character had been to +make her at once confident and unconscious of her own powers. She was +not, for instance, at all aware what a very learned young person she +was, and the fact that she had been taught the differential calculus +and the theory of Greek accents affected her no more than it affects +the average young man of one-and-twenty. The consequence being a +restfulness which, as a rule, is sadly wanting in the clever girls of +the period, who never can forget their own superiority to the mass of +their female relations. Having been brought up entirely among men, her +strongest characteristic was not unnaturally an emotional reserve, and +up to the present her life had been pre-eminently favourable to the +preservation of that bloom which is as great a charm to a girl as it +is to a flower, and which morbid self-introspection utterly destroys. +To tell the truth, however, she was apt to be over contemptuous of +gush, while her hatred of scenes was quite masculine. In fact, at +one-and-twenty, Marjory knew more about her head than her heart, +chiefly because, as yet, the call on her affections had been very +small. Her father, a shiftless delicate dreamer, brought up by a +brother years his senior, had married against that brother's wish, the +offence being aggravated by the fact that the bride with whom he ran +away was his brother's ward. One of those calm but absolutely hopeless +quarrels ensued which come sometimes to divide one portion of a family +from the other, without apparently much regret on either side. The +young couple had the butterfly instinct, and lived for the present. +They also had the faculty for making friends in a light airy fashion, +and after various vicissitudes, borne with the gayest good temper, +some one managed to find him a post as consul in some odd little +seaport in the south, where sunshine kept them alive and contented +until Marjory chose to put in an appearance and cost her mother's +life. The blow seemed to make the husband still more dreamy and +unpractical than ever, and, when cholera carried him off suddenly four +years afterwards, he made no provision whatever for the child's +future, save a scrawl, written with difficulty at the last moment, +begging his brother to look after Marjory for the sake of old times.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps it was the best thing he could have done, since nothing short +of despair would have affected Dr. Carmichael, who had by this time +become so absorbed in the effort to understand life that he had almost +forgotten how to feel it. People wondered why a man, who had gained a +European reputation for his researches, should have cared to linger on +in a remote country district like Gleneira, and some went so far as to +hint that something more than mere displeasure at his brother's +disobedience lay at the bottom of his dislike to the marriage and his +subsequent misanthropy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, his first look at little Marjory's curly head was +absolutely unemotional, and he remarked to his housekeeper that it was +a good thing she seemed to take more after her mother than her father, +who had always been a cause of anxiety. For the rest, it was a pity +she was not a boy. Orphans should always be boys; it simplified +matters so much for the relations. However, Mrs. Campbell, the +housekeeper, must make the best of it, and bring her up as a girl. He +could not.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marjory took a different view of the situation, and before six +months had passed it dawned upon the Doctor that, as often as not, she +was trotting round with her doll in his shadow as he paced the garden, +or sitting in a corner of his study intent on some game of her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">She was a singularly silent unobjectionable child at such times; at +others, if he might judge from the sounds that reached him, quite the +reverse. He laid down his pen to watch her as she sate in the sunshine +by the window one day, and heard her instantly tell her doll, that if +she was naughty and disturbed Dr. Carmichael she must be sent into the +garden. Another day he came upon her in his chair poring over a Greek +treatise in an attitude which even he recognised as a faithful copy of +his own. Finally, he discovered that she had taught her doll to draw +geometrical figures such as she often saw on the papers littered about +the room. This palpable preference for him and his occupations being +distinctly flattering, he began to take more notice of her, and try +experiments with her memory. So, by degrees, becoming interested in +her quick intelligence, he deliberately began to educate her, as he +would have educated a boy, with a view to her making her own living in +the future. As indeed she would have to do, in the event of his death; +since years before her advent he had sunk all his private means in an +annuity, and the expenses of his scientific work did not allow of his +saving much. The prospect neither pleased nor displeased the girl. It +came simply, naturally, to her, as it does to a boy. On the other +hand, she certainly worked harder than any boy would have done, partly +because she took it for granted that the tasks set her by Dr. +Carmichael were very ordinary ones, and partly because of that +feminine tolerance of mere drudgery which makes it so difficult to +compare the intellectual work of a man and a woman. For while you can +safely assume that an undergraduate has not worked more than so many +hours or minutes a day, it is quite possible that a girl student may +have sate up half the night over a trivial exercise. The primal curse +on labour, it must be remembered, was not extended to the woman, who +had a peculiar ban of her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, by the time she was seventeen, Marjory Carmichael was learned +beyond her years in Greek and Latin, and displayed a genius for +mathematics which fairly surprised her uncle. Then he died suddenly, +leaving her to the guardianship of a distant relation and ardent +disciple in Edinburgh, who was instructed to spend what small sum +might remain, after paying just debts, on completing the girl's +education, and starting her, not before the age of twenty-one, in a +career; preferably teaching, which he considered the most suitable +opening for her. She was strong, he said, in the letter in which he +informed Dr. Kennedy of his wishes, and singularly sensible for a +girl, despite a distressing want of proportion in her estimate of +things. Being neither sentimental nor sensitive, she was not likely to +give trouble. So far good, but at the very end of the letter came a +remark showing that the old man was not quite the fossil he pretended +to be. It ran thus: "All this concerns her head only; of her heart I +know nothing. Let us hope she has none; for it is a terrible drawback +to a woman who has brains. Anyhow, it has had no education from me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The description somehow did not prepare Dr. Tom Kennedy for either the +face or manner which greeted him on his arrival at the house of +mourning, but then he himself had the softest heart in the world, and +the mere sight of a lonely slip of a thing in a black dress gave him a +pang. But that was only for a moment; five minutes afterwards he +wondered how that suggestion of kissing and comforting her in +semi-fatherly fashion could have arisen. Yet the same evening after +she had bidden him good-night with a little stilted hope that he would +be comfortable, the temptation returned with redoubled force, when, on +going into the study for another volume of the book he had taken up to +his bedroom to read, he found her fast asleep in the dead man's chair, +her arms flung out over the table, her cheek resting on one of the +ponderous volumes which had been the dead man's real companions. Her +fresh young face looked happy enough in its sleep, though the marks of +tears were still visible, and yet Dr. Kennedy felt another pang. Had +the child no better confidante than that musty, fusty old book? Yet he +did not dare to rouse her, even though the room struck cold and +dreary, for he felt that the knowledge that he had so far been witness +of her weakness would be an offence, a barrier between them, and that +was the last thing he desired. So he crept out of the room again +discreetly, and smoked another cigar over the not uninteresting +novelty of his guardianship. For Tom Kennedy was sentimental, and +gloried in the fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very kind," said Marjory to him, a day or two afterwards, +with a half-puzzled and critical appreciation of his tact and +consideration. "But I don't see why you should take such trouble about +me. I shall get on all right, I expect. I think it is a mistake that +uncle has forbidden my beginning work till I am twenty-one, but, as it +can't be helped, I must go on as I've been doing, I suppose. I would +rather not go to school if that can be arranged. You see I don't know +any girls, and I am not sure if I should get on with them. If I could +stop here, Mr. Wilson at the Manse would look over my work, and I +could come up to Edinburgh for my examinations, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">Evidently his guardianship was not going to be a burden to him. This +clear-eyed young damsel, despite a very dainty feminine appearance, +was evidently quite capable of looking ahead.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will do my best to arrange everything as you wish," he replied, +feeling somehow a little hurt in his feelings. "My great object, of +course, will be that you shall be as happy as possible."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Happy?" she echoed, quaintly. "Uncle never said anything about that. +I'm not sure if I want that sort of thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What sort of thing?" he put in, rather aghast.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! nonsense, and all that; and yet----" She looked at him with +almost tragic earnestness. "I am not sure if I don't like it after +all. It is funny, but it is nice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is nice?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're being so kind. Only I think it would make me lazy, and that +wouldn't do at all. Uncle used to say I must never forget that I had +to earn my own living."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I--well! I'm afraid I should like to make you forget it," he +answered; "but we needn't quarrel about it, I suppose. At any rate, +not for the next four years."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I don't mean to quarrel with you at all," she said, very +sedately. "I mean to be friends; it is so much more convenient." +Perhaps it was on the whole; even though as the years went on Dr. +Thomas Kennedy, aged forty, began to wish that her twenty-first +birthday would find her willing to continue the tie on another +footing. And yet he recognised, not without a certain admiration, that +she was not likely to be happy, even if married to one whom she +trusted and liked as she trusted and liked him, unless she had first +faced the world by herself. Of course, if she were to fall in love it +would be different; then, like other women, she might take a certain +pride in giving up her future. But she was scarcely likely to fall in +love with him, unless he made love to her, and that was exactly what +he could not do. In a sort of whimsical way he told himself it would +not be fair, since in his heart of hearts he did not believe in the +master passion! not, at least, in the romantic form in which alone it +would appeal to a girl like Marjory. To affect her it must be +something very intense indeed; something, in short, which his infinite +tenderness for the girl prevented him from giving. Perhaps if there +had been any symptoms of another lover appearing on the scene all this +philosophic consideration might have disappeared under the pressure of +rudimentary jealousy; but there were none. Indeed, barring the +Episcopalian clergyman, who was quite out of the question, there was +no young man of Marjory's own rank, or near it, at Gleneira, where he +had arranged for her to stay on with a distant cousin of his own. And +neither Will Cameron, the factor, nor old Mr. Wilson, at the Manse, +nor any of the occasional visitors were more likely to stir the +romantic side of the girl's nature than he was himself. Less likely, +indeed, since he had the manifest charm of being a person of more +importance. In appearance he was a small, dark man with a vivacious +face and something of a foreign manner, the latter being due to his +having wandered about on the Continent for years seeking surgical +experience at the cannon's mouth. So, on his last visit to Gleneira, +where he spent all his rare holidays, he had told himself point-blank +that he of all men in the world was bound in honour not to take +advantage of his ward's innocence and undisguised affection. She was +exceptionally fitted for the future she had mapped out for herself, so +in a way he was bound to let her try it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Consequently, as she sate that July afternoon teaching the children +their duty to their neighbour, there was no <i>arrière pensée</i> of any +kind in her affectionate reliance on Cousin Tom's unfailing interest. +That would last until she grew tired of teaching, and he grew old. +Then, always supposing that it was agreeable to both parties, they +might settle down somewhere and be the best of friends till death did +them part.</p> + +<p class="normal">Weary of teaching! That did not seem likely, to judge by the way she +taught; and yet through all her work she was conscious of that +postcard in her pocket; conscious of the fact that there was no +denying Donald's proposition, and that it brought great news whatever. +But as she followed the trooping children out of doors to the +horse-chestnut shade, she took no notice whatever of Mr. McColl's +evident desire to re-open the question, and, with a curt remark that +the children knew their duty to their neighbour admirably, she set off +with a light, rapid step down the white road.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. McColl looked after her admiringly, unresentfully. Miss Marjory +was Miss Marjory, and without her help his grant in aid would be but a +poor thing, what with the Bishop's lawn sleeves and the new standards; +both of which are stumbling-blocks in a remote Highland parish even +when there is no other school within ten miles. Well, well, it was +grand news for the Glen that the laird was to be home, and there were +others besides Miss Marjory who would be glad to hear it.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Mr. McColl was right, as Marjory herself had ere long to acknowledge; +for she had not gone far ere quick steps echoed behind her, and, +looking round, she saw the Reverend James Gillespie trying to overtake +her. She paused in resigned vexation, experience having taught her the +wisdom of waiting for him; the fact being that the fusion point of +mind and body was with him extremely low, and heat had a disastrous +effect on both; so she waited--that honest walking boot of hers +beating a very girlish tattoo of impatience the while against a rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is great news, Miss Marjory," he began, breathlessly. "Great +news--I may say, good news--is--is it not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter rather alarmed inquiry being the result of a glance at her +face; for she was in a contradictory mood, and the Reverend James +never had any fixed opinions in minor matters. He took them from his +friends and was, in consequence, often in the position of a child who, +having filled both hands with biscuits, is suddenly offered a sweetie. +Even then he was quite ready to swallow the new contribution if it was +firmly put into his mouth. There was no little excuse for him, +however, since his present environment in a measure forced him to a +poor opinion of himself in the past. The fact being that until the age +of fifteen he had been nothing more than the son of a poor crofter on +the estate of Gleneira. A clever lad, no doubt, who might perchance +rise to something above his father's fate. And then the Bishop, on the +lookout for recruits to the Gaelic-speaking clergy necessary to carry +on the work in the remoter glens, where the Episcopal faith still +lingers, had chosen him out like Samuel for the service of the Lord. +It had been a veritable translation, for the Bishop, being High +Church, had exalted views of the priesthood. The result being that +James Gillespie, fulfilled with a virtuous desire to justify the +Bishop's choice, soon lost the small amount of individuality he had +originally possessed. Educated by the Bishop, ordained by the Bishop, +made the Bishop's chaplain in order that the Bishop might coach him +through the rocks of social etiquette, he became, not unnaturally, a +sort of automaton, safe so far as his knowledge of the Bishop's views +went, but no further. On these points he was logic proof; on others +the veriest weathercock at the mercy of every breeze that blew. For +the rest, a good-looking, florid, fair young man, dressed rigorously +in clerical costume. This again being in deference to the Bishop who, +honest man, having his fair share of the serpent's wisdom, saw the +necessity of hedging this prophet in his own country about with every +dignity which might serve to emphasise the difference between his past +and present. The more so because the sparse congregations amid the +fastnesses of the hills were in the charge of different pastors. Once +a month or so the Reverend Mr. Wilson, from the Manse miles away down +the Strath, would drive up in a machine, put up with the Camerons at +the Lodge, and deliver a very cut-and-dried little sermon in the +school-house. On these occasions the Reverend Mr. Gillespie used to +trudge over the hills with his surplice in a brown paper parcel, so +leaving the Geneva gown and bands a fair field while he delivered an +equally cut-and-dried little homily to the still more outlying +faithful in a barn. About this arrangement, necessitated by ancient +custom, even the Bishop constrained his tongue, seeing that Mr. Wilson +belonged to the Church of Scotland, as by law established, and, what +is more, to the very highest and driest portion of it. He was a +courtly old gentleman, with a white tie, yards long, wound round his +neck numberless times, and finished off by an odd little bow made out +of the extreme ends; a learned old man with a turn of the leg, +suggesting a youth when calves were visible, and a vast store of +classical quotations remaining over from the days when he lectured on +the humanities at St. Andrews. Neither did the Bishop consider the +Reverend Father Macdonald, who came once in three months or so, and +generally on a week day, an intruder. On the contrary, the Reverend +James had instructions to ask him to dinner, and, if it was a Friday, +to have cockle soup and stewed lentils for him; that is to say, if the +invitation was accepted, which it was not as a rule, the Father +preferring to eat potatoes and butter at the Camerons, and endure the +old lady's good-natured scorn, for the sake of hearing Marjory sing +Scotch songs and play Scarlatti. For Dr. Carmichael's one relaxation +had been, music, in which, as in other things, the girl had proved +herself to be an apt pupil. As often as not, too, on these occasions, +old Mrs. Cameron would send a man with the dogcart down the Strath to +fetch up Mr. Wilson, and then the two old enemies could fence at each +other courteously over the single glass of port, for which the Jesuit +had a dispensation. And, if the buttons seemed inclined to come off +the foils, Marjory, in the next room, would strike up, "Come, bring to +me a stoup o' wine, and bring it in a silver tassie." Then their old +heads would wag, and they would give over the endless battle for the +sake of hearing a "bonnie lassie" sing their favourite song. But it +was very different when the Free Church missioner came round, for he +was an earnest, red-haired person, who any day of the week would +gladly have testified against Black Prelacy to the bitter end of the +stake. He was a stumbling-block, even to Marjory, who professed calm +tolerance; but then those courtly old admirers of hers, to say nothing +of Cousin Tom's rather foreign manners, had spoilt her. So that amid +all her theories--the theories of clever youth instinct with the love +of justice and liberty--she could not help being repelled by the +roughness of life when, as it were, she touched and handled it. The +people themselves, however, thought it a sign of strength to bang the +pulpit and bellow, as, indeed, it was, undoubtedly. So the consensus +of opinion in all sects was that the Free Church had the finest +preacher. Not that it mattered much in a place where church-going on a +Sunday was a recognised dissipation, which had to last for a week. +Thus, no matter who was in the pulpit, the little school-house on a +fine day overflowed; and even the Reverend Father Macdonald had not a +few applicants for a blessing against witchcraft if the cows did not +milk properly. This, however, was done on the sly, by accident as it +were, when the petitioners chanced to meet priestly authority in the +post-office.</p> + +<p class="normal">In order, therefore, to hold his own amid the hosts of Midian, the +Reverend James spent quite a large slice of his modest income on +all-round collars and silk cassocks; and even when the old Adam arose +at the sight of a red-brown river, and he <i>had</i> to creep away with a +hazel rod and a bag of worms to some seething pool where the sea-trout +lay, he still kept to his professional garments and sate on a rock +with his long coat-tails pinned behind his back, looking like a +gigantic crow about to fly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite this and other ridiculous habits, Marjory, with her clear, +honest eyes saw the real desire to do his duty to Church and State +underlying the young man's indecision; but, fortunately for him, she +had no notion that of late this had taken the form of wishing to marry +her. The fact being that in a recent visit the Bishop had not only +remarked that the parish clergy should be the husbands of one wife, +but had rather pointedly referred to the immense improvement in the +school standard, since Miss Carmichael had begun to practise teaching +there. The direct consequence of which had been to make the Reverend +James believe himself in love, and at the same time to make him regard +all Marjory's opinions as episcopally blessed. An effort needing +mental gymnastics of the highest class, especially when, as now, she +was bent on mischief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good news," she echoed. "Well, I hardly know; that must surely depend +entirely on what sort of person Captain Macleod turns out to be." This +she knew must, to begin with, savour of blasphemy to one born and bred +on the estate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Naturally, I may say, of course, but----" he looked at her +pathetically, like a dog when asked to perform a difficult trick; +"you--you--you surely have not heard anything against him, have you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory's eyes twinkled, but only for a moment; after all it was poor +fun depolarising his mental compass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Anything against him? No; except that he is too good-looking, I am +told."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Handsome is that handsome does," remarked the Reverend James, +cheerfully; it was a favourite proverb at the palace, and he felt sure +of his ground. Unfortunately, since it roused Marjory to +contradiction.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense! As if all the goodness in the world could change a snub +nose into a Grecian."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But surely, my dear Miss Marjory," protested the young man feebly, +"the proverb does not assert--em--that sort of thing. I have always +understood it--em--I mean the latter half--perhaps I should say the +simile--alludes to moral worth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Mr. Gillespie! does that mean you consider beauty and goodness +to be the same, or simply that you deny the value of physical beauty +altogether?" asked Marjory in aggrieved tones.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--I don't think I mean either," he replied, so naively that she was +obliged to laugh; "but indeed," he went on, "it seems to me, as I +remember the Bishop said in his sermon on All Souls, that beauty and +goodness are in a measure synonymous, that----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean," she interrupted hastily, but with a sort of quick +hesitation which came often to her speech when she was really +interested, "that not only are good things necessarily beautiful in a +way, but that beautiful things must be good? Look at Tito! All his +vileness did not mar the perfection of his beauty. It was a tower of +strength to him till the day of his death. It must be so--you can't +help it. The thing is good in itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Never having read "Romola," the Reverend James fell back discreetly on +a more unimpeachable proverb, by remarking, with the air of a man +making a valuable contribution to the argument:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Beauty is but skin deep."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who wants it to be more?" she asked, hotly. "That is all you see. No +one asks whether the muscles follow the proper curves beneath the +skin, or the bones are strong. And, after all, it seems to me that +goodness and beauty appeal to the same chord--the love of everything +that is clear, defined, orderly. Ugliness is so incoherent, so +indistinct, Mr. Gillespie! Did it ever strike you how unnecessarily +ugly we all are? Now, don't deny the fact. Remember the Bishop's hymn +says, 'only man is vile.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But that really does apply to his moral."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't agree with you. Some of us, perhaps, are wicked, but most of +us are hideous."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you really think so?" And the self-conscious look on his smug, +comely face was too much for her gravity. She laughed merrily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are exceptions to every rule, Mr. Gillespie; I only meant to +say that since the strongest and best, and therefore, according to +you, the most beautiful, had survived in the struggle for +existence----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"By the bye," he put in, for him quite eagerly, "the Bishop has just +sent me an excellent reply to the Darwinian----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory went on remorselessly, "That we were singularly plain-looking, +as a rule. For my part I would gladly have eliminated the Carmichael +nose if I had had any choice in the matter."</p> + +<p class="normal">The remark left a grand opening for a compliment if he could at the +moment have thought of anything save the crude assertion that he +considered it the most beautiful nose in the world. So he remained +silent, casting about in his mind for a less absolute form, with such +concentrated admiration in his face, that even Marjory could not avoid +noticing it, and with a sudden curl of her lip, changed the subject by +asking him, in her best categorical manner, when he had last been to +see old Peggy, who was bad with her rheumatism. Now old Peggy's +cottage was not an inviting-looking abode--a boulder-built hut with a +peat roof and a rudimentary chimney--and it lay close by in a hollow +between the road and a bog full of waving cotton grass. So the +Reverend James regretfully gave up his opportunity as lost for the +time; but a gleam of manly resolution came to him as he looked first +at the hut, then down the road, the pleasant sunshiny road stretching +away to where a thin blue smoke from the chimneys of Gleneira Lodge +rose above the silver firs and copper beeches to the right of the big +house. All that distance to traverse with Marjory, as against Peggy +Duncan the pauper, who was bad enough at the best, but, with the +rheumatism, simply appalling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm afraid I haven't time to-day," he began, with admirable regret, +which, however, changed to consternation as his companion paused and +held out her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then good-bye! I promised to look in on my way home. And on the whole +it is better as it is, for it is positively unsafe to visit old Peggy +in couples when she is ill. So long as she has but one visitor, you +know, the fear of losing a gossip bridles her tongue; but when there +are two, one is always a scapegoat." Now, Marjory looked at her +companion gravely, and spoke deliberately, "You wouldn't, I'm sure, +care to hear me abused; so it is wiser for me to go alone. Good-bye."</p> + +<p class="normal">She was off as she spoke down the brae, leaving him disappointed, yet +still vaguely content, the very thought of in the future having a wife +who would go and visit old Peggy filling him with peace, for that old +woman was a sore trial to his dignity, since she invariably made a +point of remembering his youth as a barefoot cotter's boy. But then at +heart she was a Presbyterian who did not believe in the sanctity of +orders. So he went on his way down the loch fairly satisfied with +himself, while Marjory took his place beside the sick bed of the +rheumatic old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl gave one regretful glance at the sunshine before she dived +into the darkness of the cottage. It was mean and squalid in the +extreme, yet to those accustomed to the dirt and warmth, the +discomfort and the cosiness of a Highland hut, its air of tidiness was +unusual. The mud floor was even and clean swept, the single pane of +glass doing duty as a window was neither broken nor patched with rags, +while the crazy, smoke-blackened dresser was ranged with common +earthenware. A gathering peat, just edged with fire, lay on the huge +stone hearth, above which a tiny black pot hung in the thin column of +pale blue smoke which, as it rose to the dim rafters, was illumined by +the only ray of sunlight in the house--that which streamed through the +round hole in the roof which did duty as a chimney. Beside the hearth +a fair-haired boy of about six lay fast asleep, while from a settle in +the darkness a pair of gleaming green eyes revealed the presence of a +cat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing more to be seen by Marjory's sun-blinded sight. Not a sound to +be heard, until suddenly a grey hen roosting in the rafters began to +cluck uproariously with much sidelong prancings of a pair of yellow +legs, and downward dips of a quaint, irascible, tufted head. Instantly +from a recess bed arose a patient moan and a pious aspiration that the +Lord's will might be done at all costs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good afternoon, Peggy! I hope your sleep has done you good," said +Marjory blithely, as she sate down on the edge of the bed, and looked +steadily at the occupant's face. Old Peggy Duncan, with the assertion +that she had not slept for days trembling on her tongue, wavered +before the girl's decision, and murmured something about closing an +eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is better than nothing, isn't it?" continued the uncompromising +visitor. "And as for wee Paulie! he's been having a fine snooze. +Haven't you, Paulie?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The child by the fire, rubbing his eyes drowsily, smiled back at her +rather sheepishly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed it's so," broke in the querulous voice, satisfied at finding a +legitimate object for complaint. "He's just the laziest, weariest +wean, and no caring a tinker's damn for his nanny. Just lyin' +sleepin', and me in an agony. Could ye not watch?--Ay!--Ay! But what +can one expect o' a child o' the devil----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Peggy! You're a wicked old woman to speak like that. Paul does more +than most boys twice his age. I'll be bound he has been stuffing +indoors with you all day long without a grumble. Run away now, dear +laddie, and get the fresh air."</p> + +<p class="normal">The order, spoken in Gaelic, produced a sudden flash of life all over +the little fellow, and he was out of the door in a second. Marjory +looked after him with a pleasant smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is a pretty boy, isn't he, Peggy?--quite the prettiest in the +glen."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye! he has the curse o' beauty. Sae had his mither. Ay! an' her +father before her. Thank the Lord, Miss Marjory, you're no bonnie."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall do nothing of the sort, Peggy. And how is the pain? Better +for that liniment I rubbed in yesterday?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Better!" There was a world of satisfied scorn in the old voice. +"Better frae ae teaspoonful o' stuff. Lord be gude to us, Miss +Marjory! Naethin' short o' a meeracle'll better me, an' ye talk o' a +carnal rubbin' doing it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would be a miracle if it did, wouldn't it, Peggy?" retorted the +girl, calmly; "but if it did no good at all there is no use in +repeating it, so I'll be off and leave you to your sleep again."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hoot awa! an' you tired wi' your walk. Just sit ye down and rest a +bit and dinna mind me. I'm used to being no minded, ye ken. Wha minds +a bit pauper body but the pairish? Two an' saxpence a week, an' a boll +o' meal term-day that's no meal at a', but just grits; grits and +dirt. I'm no wondering that they puts soddy (soda) until't at the +poor's-house to gar't swall. Ay! Aye! and me lyin' a week without +spiritual food, an' I cravin' for it from anyone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Peggy, you know quite well you told Mr. Gillespie you wanted +none of his priestcraft, the last time he was here. You are just a +bad, ungrateful old woman, and I've a great mind to go away without +making you a cup of tea or telling you the news."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old face set close in its white cap frills brightened visibly at +the last words. "Weel! Weel! I must na be hard on the puir lad. There +be divers gifts, an' may be he's gotten one somewhere. And but for the +pain makin' me clean wud, I'd have had the tea for you. Just cry on +Paulie--the kettle's on the fire, and he'll no be long, puir lammie."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marjory preferred to leave the boy to his play, and set about the +task herself quickly, dexterously, while old Peggy watched her with +sagacious eyes; for she herself had been a notable worker, and had +still a regretful admiration for the capability in others. Rather a +despicable object, perhaps, this fretful rheumatic old woman, +grumbling and growling at everything; and yet, could the secrets of +all hearts be revealed, she might have seemed more of a heroine and +martyr than many a canonised saint. A youth of ceaseless plodding toil +had been given in stolid honesty to her master's interests; then late +in life, when the hopes of womanhood were almost over, had come a +brief St. Martin's summer, where a wandering Englishman engaged on +some mining venture close by had married the sober lass as a means of +being comfortable for the time, and after a year had deserted her +shamefully, leaving her to work harder than ever for the sake of the +little daughter who remained to show that Peggy's short spell of love +had not been a dream. Some, indeed, there were who maintained that it +had never had any solid foundation, and that the marriage had been but +a pretence. This coming to the mother's ears had roused in her a +fierce anger, which in its turn gave rise to a passionate desire to +prove this child of hers to be above their petty spite, superior to +their plodding lives. And in a measure she succeeded. Jeanie Duncan +grew up in what, to a girl of her class, was luxury, while her mother +sold brown sugar, herrings, tarred rope, and tobacco--in fact, kept a +general store. Until the girl, like many another, fretted at home, +sought service, and disappeared beyond the circle of blue hills; to be +followed after a time by her mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">But though pretty Jeanie Duncan never returned, old Peggy did, +bringing with her a baby. Not an unusual sequel to the story; and so, +though the neighbours shook their heads, there was no need to question +the woman. What else could have been expected from flighty Jeanie +Duncan, whose head had been turned by Mr. Paul's painting her picture. +And Peggy said nothing, even while she concealed nothing. Silent from +her youth, she was more silent than ever as she reverted again to the +hard toil of those early days, until one January the cold settled into +her ill-clad old bones when she was gathering sticks in the woods and +left her a cripple. And then the loss of her independence broke her +spirit and turned her into a fretful scold. A dreary, toil-worn, +barren youth, desertion, degradation, outrage of love and pride--all +this gamut of grief had she sounded without an answering groan. The +straw which broke her patience was not the hardness but the charity of +her fellow-creatures. A most irrational old lady, no doubt, yet not +altogether blameworthy in her self-satisfied appreciation of the tea +"that was no from the pairish, praise be to the Lord," and very human, +certainly, in her eager desire to hear the news of that parish. Yet +her face when Marjory told her of the laird's return seemed to settle +into a strange indifference. "The laird! It will be Mr. Paul you're +meaning."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Mr. Paul; he is the laird now, you know, and he hasn't been here +for nine years. He has been away in India with his regiment."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lord sakes! as if I did na' know that; he has been the laird these +sax years gone. I mind it weel. And I mind him, too; ower weel, maybe. +A winsome laddie, fond of painting; but 'Thou shalt not make to +thyself the likeness,' ye ken. So he is coming home at last--bonnie +nae doot; and she, my Jeanie, is dust and ashes."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was seldom that Peggy alluded to her dead daughter, and there was a +wistful look in the crabbed old face. Marjory, quickly responsive, +stroked the crabbed old hand which lay on the coverlet gently; but old +Peggy would none of her sympathy and drew it away, while her voice +took almost a triumphant tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay! Dust and ashes! That's what we a' come to. Young and auld, Miss +Marjory, my dear, rich and poor. Ay! and pairish officers, forbye; +it's no to be escapit, thank the Lord! And if you're going ye might +just open yon drawer in the aumry an' tak' oot my deid claes. There's +a bonnie blaze in the fire that maun-na be wasted, and in life we are +in death, ye ken, so it's as weel to hae them aired. There's a deal o' +sickness comin' frae damp linen, and I'm sae subjec' to the +rheumatism."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That would be one of the ills you would leave behind you, Peggy," +suggested Marjory, with a tender smile at the oddity of the old +woman's thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm sure I hope sae, for it wad be maist terrible in the wings," +replied Peggy, gravely. Her eyes, following the girl as she complied +with the grim request, lit up with satisfaction, her mouth trembled in +the effort for calm indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay! sure enough it's the best of cloth, yon, and there is twa rows +back stitchin' as fine as fine, and a frill down the front. Some has a +lace edgin', but I'm no sure o' furbelows. It wad no be decent for me +to come before my Maker prinked oot like a young lass; though Mary +McAndrews, who was a gude four year aulder nor me, had real +Valenciennes. But, there! she was ae' flighty, puir thing; her mind +set on bows and gum flowers, no on things above. Fine cloth an' a +cambric frill's gude eneuch for my funeral; an' the coffin no from the +pairish, thank the Lord!"</p> + +<p class="normal">As old Peggy lay there in the bay bed gossiping over her shroud she +was a grim sight; yet a pathetic one, since there is nothing in the +wide world which appeals to the humanity within us so much as the +tired, toil-wasted hands of old age folded on a coverlet waiting for +death. Marjory, with her strong young ones straightening the dead +clothes, felt a strange thrill at her heart, even as she thought of +the long years of welcome struggle before she, too, would be glad of +rest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So Mr. Paul is to come hame again?" quavered the old voice, softened +inexplicably by that chill thought of death. "Aye, aye! he will be +bonnie still, for he was aye of the kind to mak' a bonnie corp. And no +that bad for a man--not by ordinair. Weel! when ye see him tell him +that ould Peggy's gone on the pairish, but that it'll no be a pairish +funeral. For there's twa bottles gude whiskey in the draw wi' the deid +claes, my dear, and that's eneuch to carry me to my grave as I sou'd +be carried."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Will Cameron the grieve, or, in plain English, the land steward of the +Gleneira property, was leaning lazily over the shrubbery gate, +watching two men mowing a narrow strip of grass on either side of the +grand approach leading up to the Big House; a proceeding which gave +the whole place a most ridiculous half-shaven air. It had its merits, +however, in Mr. Cameron's eyes, seeing that it was supposed to make +the roadway look kempt while it preserved the rest of the lawn for +hay; an economy sorely needed at the Big House, after the late laird's +riotous living. Even now, when matters had mended somewhat, honest +Will did not care to think of those times when all he saw of the laird +of Gleneira was a signature on I O U's; for, when all was said and +done, his own honesty seemed bound up in that of the old place. A +gardener was nailing up the creepers covering the porch; the windows +of the house were set wide open, and through them a noise of hammering +and brushing floated out into the crisp morning air as Marjory came +up the road from the lodge; her footsteps crunching in the loose +sea-gravel, which not even the coming and going of years had worn into +compactness, and leant over the gate likewise. Will shifted a little, +almost unconsciously, to make room for her, with loose-limbed easy +good-nature, and in so doing revealed the whole attitude of his +individuality towards Marjory Carmichael. Briefly she was the dearest +girl in the world, but rather apt to make a fellow move on, when he +would much rather have stopped where he was. Yet they were the best of +friends, almost playmates, although he was double her age and +distinctly bald. For the rest a very straightforward simple person, +with nothing complex about him. One of those men whom Nature has made +firstly a sportsman, secondly a farmer; in other words, a descendant +of both Cain and Abel. Marjory herself was very fond of him, and no +wonder, since during the years she had spent with his mother he had +set himself to make things pleasant for her as a man about a house can +do when he has absolutely no ulterior object in view. The mere +suggestion of such an object would have filled him with terror, for +Marjory's energy was appalling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a pretty place it is after all," she said suddenly, and in so +saying spoke the truth. Framed in by an amphitheatre of purple +heather-clad hills and dark green fir-clad spurs, Gleneira House with +its swelling lawns stretching away to the rocky beach of the loch, its +tall silver pines and clumps of rhododendrons looked bright and +cheerful despite the nameless want which hangs always round an empty +house; the dead look, as if, the soul having passed from it, naught +remained save for it to hasten back to the dust whence it came. There +was something, however, which struck one as homelike in its low +irregular outline, its bow windows set in rose, jasmine, and magnolia; +above all in its clustered stacks of chimneys rising without respect +to symmetry and suggesting comfortable firesides within. Cosy +firesides in corners, not set back to back in pairs after the modern +fashion. A conglomerate building altogether, not unlike a two-storied +summer-house full of French windows. An airy feminine sort of house, +unlike the usual aggressively stony Scotch mansions, yet fitting in +strangely with its fairylike background of hills, and woods, and +lochs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very pretty, but awfully out of repair," replied Will, +disconsolately. "The roof won't last much longer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why doesn't he--Captain Macleod I mean--put on a new one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Marjory! He can't afford it. A man has to spend a lot in an +expensive regiment like his, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nine years since he was in the Glen," interrupted the girl, bent on +her own thoughts. "I don't remember him a bit. What is he like, Will?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Awfully handsome; about the handsomest boy I ever saw, and I don't +suppose he has changed much."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that--anything more?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Spends a heap of money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know--anything more?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; you will like him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Women always do."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory turned down the corners of her mouth; a trick which with her +meant disapproval, disgust, dislike, disappointment,--such a variety +of small d's that Will was wont to say it was quite as reprehensible +as the collective big one of his sex.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He really is an awfully nice fellow," continued Will; "but the place +is going to rack and ruin. The farm houses are so poor that the south +country men won't take them, and a slack style of tenant only means +going from bad to worse. He ought to marry money. It is the only way +out of the difficulty, since he won't skin the woods or let the +place."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why doesn't he come and live here as his fathers did," put in the +girl, quickly; "why shouldn't he be satisfied to do his duty to the +people as his fathers did?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because his income isn't what theirs was to begin with. The place is +heavily mortgaged; everyone knows it, so there is no reason why I +shouldn't say so. Then Alick Macleod ran through a heap of money +somehow, and left a lot of debts which had to be paid off. I don't say +that the Captain mightn't have been more economical, but it isn't all +his fault. And then he won't touch the estate. That is right enough in +a way, and yet Smith, the hook-and-eye man, offered twice its value +for that bit of moor that marches with his forest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Captain Macleod refused?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Declined with thanks; and wrote me privately not to bother him again +with any proposals of that sort from a bloated mechanic."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory's mouth turned down again. "Indeed! that was very noble of +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So it was in a way," replied her companion, sticking to his own +ill-concealed satisfaction, "for the man is offensive to the last +degree. He has invented a tartan, and has a piper to play him to bed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he likes it, why not? Every man must have invented his own tartan, +once upon a time, you know; the Macleods into the bargain."</p> + +<p class="normal">Will Cameron smiled languidly. "You are a beggar to argue, Marjory. +But as I said before, the laird must marry money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sell himself instead of his property?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not? he is worth buying, and she needn't be ugly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ugly! as if that were the only question! I believe it is all you men +think of. Why, Will, you haven't told me anything about Captain +Macleod except that he is good-looking; and I knew that before. I +wanted to hear what he was like--he himself, I mean."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her with comical amusement. "You have come to the wrong +man, my dear. I never could tell my own character, much less anybody +else's. But here is old John, beaming with satisfaction at the thought +of coming slaughter among the birds. Ask him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it what the laird is like?" echoed the bent but active old man, +pausing with a troop of wiry-haired terriers at his heels. "Then he is +real bonnie, Miss Marjory; that's what he is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I told her; but she wants to know more." John Macpherson scratched +his ear dubiously, then brightened up. "Then it's a terrible good shot +he will be. Aye! ever since he was a laddie no higher than my heart. +Just a terrible good shot, that's what he is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"After all," remarked Will, as the old man passed on, "that gives you +as good a clue to the laird as anything else would do. Old John meant +that as the highest praise. The coachman in all probability would say +he was a first-rate rider. I have heard mother call him a good young +man, but that was when <i>I</i> had lost five pounds at the Skye gathering, +and he had won. The fact being that he had a knack of warping people's +judgment; it was he, by the way, who advised me to bet on a man who +couldn't putt a bit. He used always to twist me round his little +finger when we were boys together--and by Jove! he had a temper. +Sulky, too, and obstinate as a mule."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," interrupted Marjory, drily; "that's quite enough. Well, I +hope nobody nice will buy him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Will Cameron flushed up quite hotly. "Now, I call that really nasty, +Marjory, when it can't matter to you. And you know as well as I do +that we want money awfully; you, who are always railing at the black +huts, and the lack of chimneys, and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marjory, after a habit of hers when she was not quite sure of her +ground, had shifted it, and passed on to the house, whence the sounds +of sweeping and hammering continued. Will shook his head at her +retreating figure, smiled, and called out cheerfully:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell mother not to hurry, he can't come till the evening boat."</p> + +<p class="normal">Vain message, since you might just as well have made such an appeal to +old Time himself as to Mrs. Cameron, who, despite her seventy years +and portly figure, was bustling about, the very personification of +order, even in her haste. You felt instinctively that every symptom of +hurry was the result of a conscientious conception of the importance +of her part in the day's proceedings, and that to be calm would have +been considered culpable. Yet, as she trotted about, her voluminous +black skirts tucked through their placket-hole, not a hair of her flat +iron-grey curls was astray, not a fold of her white muslin kerchief, +or frill of her starched lace cap was awry, though her aides-de-camp, +a couple of sonsy Highland maids, were generally dishevelled, cross, +and hot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh! Marjory, my dear," she cried, catching sight of the latter, as +she entered the large low hall, set round with antlers; "ye're just in +the nick to help count the napery while I see to the laird's chamber. +He will be for having his old wee roomie, I misdoubt me; he was always +for having his own way, too. But he will just no have it, that's all. +Folks must accept their position, aye! and maintain their privileges +in these days, when every bit servant lassie claims a looking-glass to +prink at." The last words were delivered full in the face of a pert +South country maid, who, with an armful of towels, passed by in rather +an elaborate pink dress. It was merely a snap shot, however, for the +old lady hurried on her appointed way, leaving Marjory and the +offender, who was quite accustomed to being a target, in charge of the +dark lavender-scented linen closet. Pleasant work at all times this, +of handling the cool, smooth piles; the only household possessions +which never seem to suffer from being laid away, which come out of +their scented tomb with their smoothness emphasised by long pressure, +their folds sharply accurate, their very gloss seeming to have grown +in the dark. No fear of moth here; no hint of decay. Marjory, singling +out a fine tablecloth and napkins for the laird's first meal at home, +and choosing the whitest of sheets and pillow-cases for his bed, found +herself unable to believe that long years had passed since some +woman's hand had carefully put them away. It seemed impossible that it +should be so, and that they should be ready to begin their work as if +not a day had passed. Unchanged in a world of change! But the guest +himself would be more changed than his surroundings; for he could only +have been a boy--not much older than she herself--when he was last at +Gleneira. The thought lingered, and after her task was over she +wandered from room to room trying to put herself in his place, and +guess how it would strike him. For it was pleasant sometimes, when one +had an hour to spare, to spend it in that fanciful world of feeling, +with which her practical life had so little to do.</p> + +<p class="normal">His mother's sitting-room! That could not fail to be sad, even though +the fair-haired original of the faded portrait in pastels over the +mantelpiece had passed from life when he was still a child. Yet, if +<i>she</i> by any chance could see even the smallest thing that had once +belonged to that mother whose memory was a mere abstraction, who had +never really existed for her at all, she would feel sad, and so he +must also who had known his. Well, Captain Macleod's mother must have +been dreadfully fond of fancy work, to judge by the room! And yet, not +so long ago, she herself had been full of childish admiration for that +terrible screen in the corner, which now only excited a wild wonder +how any responsible human being could have wasted hours--nay! days, +months--in producing such a fearful result. It represented a +Highlander in full national costume, done in cross-stitch; the flesh +was worked in small pink beads, giving a horrible pimply appearance to +the face and a stony glare to the eyes; in the distance rose purple +silk hills, and the foreground consisted of an over-grown velvet pile +mongrel with a tail in feather stitch. In those childish days of +admiration, however, it had had a fearful charm of its own, born of +its inaccessibility. For, once within a certain radius, the whole +picture disappeared into a senseless medley of silk, worsted, and +beads. Only distance lent design, making four white beads and a black +one a recognisable equivalent for the human eye. As she stood looking +at it now, an amused smile curved her lips, with the remembrance that +in still more childish days she had mixed up this magnificent +Highlander with her conceptions of the absent laird. Probably it was +quite as like him now as the crayon drawing, labelled "Paul," of a +pallid boy holding a toy ship, which hung on the wall beside the +pastel. On the other side was another pallid boy holding another ship, +and labelled "Alick." As far as she could judge Alick might have grown +up to be Paul, and Paul to be Alick. Only Paul held his ship in his +right hand, and Alick in his left; but that was, of course, only +because their portraits had to look at each other across the picture +of their mother; because, as it were, of the exigencies of Art. She +smiled to herself as she drifted on lazily to what Mrs. Cameron had +considered the keystone of the laird's position. It was a dim, +dignified room, with a dreadful bed. So large, so square, so evenly +surrounded with Macleod tartan hangings that a sleeper immured therein +might well on waking lose his airs, and which way he was lying. A bed +which might have a dozen ghostly occupants, and the flesh and blood +one be none the wiser of those dead and gone lairds of Gleneira. +Marjory, oppressed by the very look of it, threw the windows, wide as +they would set, to the air and sunshine. Even so, it was a dreary, +depressing room, especially to one coming alone, unwelcomed by +kindred, to his old home. With a sudden impulse of pity she drew from +her belt a bunch of white heather and stag-horn moss which she had +gathered that morning, and arranged it neatly in a little empty vase +which stood on the wide dressing-table. A poor effort, yet it gave a +certain air of expectancy to the room; more appropriate also to the +occasion than more elaborate garden flowers would have been, since +white heather stood for luck, and the stag-horn moss was the badge of +the Macleod clan. A charming little welcome, truly, if the laird had +eyes to see! Her face, reflected in the looking-glass as she stood +smiling over her task, would, however, have been a more charming +welcome still could the laird have seen it. And then the sound of +wheels on the loose gravel outside sent her to the window in sudden +alarm; but it was only the Manse machine, drawn by the old grey horse, +with Father Macdonald on the front seat beside Mr. Wilson, who, as he +caught sight of her, stood up with profound bows, disclosing a curly +brown Brutus wig. And there was Will lounging at the horse's head, and +his mother on the steps with dignified gesticulations. Beyond towards +the Strath was the wide panorama of hill and moor and sea, flooded in +light. The sudden feeling that it is good to be here, which comes even +to untransfigured humanity at times, filled the girl's heart with +content as she nodded back to her two devoted old friends who were now +both standing up in the dogcart, waving their hats. How good everyone +was to her! How happy they all were together in the Glen! And she had +never before seemed to realise it so completely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heard I ever the like?" rose in Mrs. Cameron's most imperious tones. +"To pass by the house wi' an empty stomach, and it not even a fast! A +fast, say I? A feast for Gleneira, and twa glasses o' port wine for +Father Macdonald whether he will or no. Marjory, my lass, away with +them like good boys to the parlour and cry on Kirsty for the glasses. +Will, ye gawk, are there no grooms in Gleneira House that you must be +standing there doing their wark. Now, Mr. Wilson, just come you down +to <i>terry-firmy</i>, as you would say yourself. You're no golden calf, +man, to be put up on a pedestal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Madam!" cried he, gaily, clambering down with no small regard +to the Graces. "If it is a question of worship, 'tis I who should be +at your feet. <i>Facilius crescit quam</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>A cader va chi troppo in alto sale</i>," interrupted Father Macdonald, +clambering down on his side. He was a small man with round childish +face, possessed of that marvellously delicate yet healthy complexion +which one sees in Sisters of Charity; in those, briefly, who take no +care for beauty and lead a life of austerity and self-denial. A +complexion which a society woman would have given her eyes to possess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hoot away wi' your gifts o' tongues," retorted the old lady, in mock +indignation at the perennial jest of strange quotations. "Marjory, +just take them ben and stop their mouths wi' cake and wine. And make +them drink luck to the auld house that is to be graced wi' its +master."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, my dear Madam," said the incorrigible offender, ambling up the +steps, and giving a sly glance at Marjory, "you agree with our friend +Cicero, '<i>Nec, domo dominus sed domino domus honestanda est</i>.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Cameron treated the remark with silent contempt, and Marjory, +leading the way into the morning room where Paul Macleod's portrait +hung on the wall, looked back with a kind smile at the two old men +who, never having owned chick or child of their own, treated her as a +daughter. A sort of dream-daughter, dear yet far removed from the hard +realities of every-day familiarity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm so glad you were passing to-day, father," she said eagerly; "I +found a little Neapolitan song among some old music here, and I want +you to see if I sing it right."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Wilson, seated in the armchair, his legs disposed elegantly, +straightened his necktie, and made a remark to the effect that the +Neapolitans were the most debased Christian population in Europe. And +that despite the fact that they lived, as it were, under the very nose +of the Pope. An attack which was the result of an ever-green jealousy +in regard to the little Jesuit's superior knowledge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Neapolitan! Ah! my dear young lady, the patois is almost beyond me. +If it had been Roman!" The smooth childlike face grew almost wistful +thinking of the days so long ago spent in the still seclusion of the +Scotch college, or out in the noisy colour of the Roman streets; a +quaint memory for the old man who for fifty years had never seen a +town, whose very occupation was passing away from his life, as, one by +one, the old adherents to the old faith still lingering among the +mountain fastnesses, died and were buried by him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! you will manage," said Marjory, cheerfully. "It isn't as if you +didn't know the subject, for it is sure to be all about love. Songs +always are."</p> + +<p class="normal">So, while the cake and wine were coming in, she sate down to the piano +and sang, guided by the two old men, of love; for Mr. Wilson, great on +philology, had his views on the mutations of vowels and consonants, +and stood beside the little priest beating time to the phrases with +his gold eyeglasses.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Cameron found them so, and rallied them on their taste when there +was good port-wine on the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Madam," retorted Mr. Wilson, positively shining with delight +at his own opportunity of showing that his acquaintance was not +confined to dead languages. "We have only put the 'Weib und Gesang' +before the 'Wein'; and I am sure anyone who had the privilege of +hearing Miss Marjory sing would do the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">She made him a little mock curtsey, but Mrs. Cameron would none of it, +and cut a huge slice of cake. "No! no! minister; from the very +beginning o' things men-folks cared more for their stomachs than their +hearts. If Eve, poor body, had only given Adam a better dinner he +wouldna have been wantin' to eat apples betwixt whiles, and a deal o' +trouble might have been saved. But a woman's different. She takes it +ill if a man doesn't fall in love with her; she's aye wantin'----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm sure I don't want anything," put in Marjory, with her head in the +air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't be talkin' havers, child. I tell ye a woman's aye wantin' it. +Auld as I am----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Madam," expostulated Mr. Wilson.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Haud your whist, minister," interrupted Mrs. Cameron, tartly; "what +will you be knowing o' a woman's heart? I tell you she may be auld and +grey, she may hae left half the pleasures o' this world behind her, +she may hae been a wife for two score years, and spent her heart's +bluid in rearing weans, but what's left o' the heart will be turnin' +wi' regret to the time when the auld body who sits on the tither side +o' the fire--girding at his food, maybe--was courtin' her. Or, maybe, +when some ither auld body that's no at the tither side of the fire was +courtin'. There's no sayin'."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a silence: and then the old priest said under his breath: +"<i>Amor a nullo amato amor perdona</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Wilson nodded his brown Brutus wig in assent. He did not mind that +sort of Italian. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the humanities +could understand so much. So they were merry over the cake and wine; +merry even over the parting with it in obedience to the minister's +Horatian order: "<i>Lusisti satis, editsi satis, alque bibisti, Tempus +abire ibe est</i>"--which Mrs. Cameron insisted on having explained to +her word by word. It was a complete exposition, she asserted, of the +whole duty of man as viewed by men. To eat, to drink, to amuse +themselves, and then to run away.</p> + +<p class="normal">That same evening, in the mirk end of the gloaming, Marjory, walking +in the garden between the great borders of clove pinks which were +sending out their fragrance to meet the coming night, heard the <i>feu +de joie</i>, arranged by old John Macpherson to greet the laird's +arrival, go off like the beginning of a battle. Half an hour +afterwards Will Cameron returned, calling loudly for his supper, and +full of enthusiasm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Upon my word, Marjory, I think he is handsomer and more charming than +ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain," said the young lady, taking +a leaf out of Mr. Gillespie's book.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">People who only know the West Highlands in the rainy months of August +and September, when a chill damp, almost suggestive of winter, comes +to the air, will scarcely credit the intense heat which June and July +often bring to the narrow glens, shut in on all sides by sun-baked +mountains. Then the springs fail, and the cattle break through the +fences, seeking the nearest point of the river; or stand knee-deep in +the estuary water, flicking away the plague of flies with their tails, +and lowing seaward to the returning tides. Then the burns, fine as a +silver thread down the mountain sides, run with a clear bell-like +tinkle through the boulders over which they will dash with a roar and +a rush in the coming Lammas floods. Then the cotton grass hangs +motionless on its hair-like stem, and the bog myrtle gives out a hot, +dry, aromatic scent, to mingle with that of the drying grass. On such +days as these, everything having life instinctively seeks the shade. +So Marjory Carmichael, on the morning after the laird's return, left +the dusty high-road, crossed the fast hardening bogs by the tussocks +of gay mosses tufted with bell-heather, and so continued her walk +along the alder-fringed bank of the river. Even at that early hour not +a leaf was stirring; the very bees hung lazily on the pale lilac +scabious flowers, and the faint hush of the river had a metallic +sound. Marjory, clambering down a fern-clad bank, sat down beneath a +clump of hazels, set with green nuts. Below her the river, between the +alder stems, showed olive and gold in sunlight or shade, with every +now and again a foam fleck sailing by; for, some fifty yards above her +resting-place, the Eira, fresh from a boisterous half-mile scramble +among the rocks, rushed through a narrow chasm at racing speed, and +fell recklessly, dashing itself into a white heat of hurry in a +seething whirling pool set in sheer walls of rock, and thence finding +outlet for its passion in a wider basin, and so, with ever clearing +face, sliding into peace in the dark oily pool beneath the bank where +Marjory sate. Her favourite nook, however, in all the river side, lay +higher up, close to the leap, where she could watch the gleaming +sea-trout and an occasional salmon patiently trying at the fall, see +the flash of the rapids beyond the fringing ferns, or mark the +drifting shadows on the opposite hillside. But the single rowan tree, +clinging with distorted roots to the heather-tufted cliff, flung its +branches over the fall, and gave no shade elsewhere; hence on this +hottest of hot July mornings Marjory chose the hazel hollow instead, +and leaning back among the flowering grasses, which sent a pinkish +bloom of tiny fallen blossom on her curly hair, drew a long, closely +written letter from her pocket, turned to its last sheet, and began to +read it. Not for the first time, but then Cousin Tom's letters were +worth a dozen of most people's, especially when they had something to +say, as this one had:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a hurry you seem to be in to begin work; and I am always in such +a hurry to begin play. But then you have arrived, or are about to +arrive, at the years of discretion, and I am a mere child of +forty-one. Twenty years between us, dear! It is a lifetime; and what +right have I, or any other old foozle, to dictate to you, Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux, who, clever as she is, hardly knows, I think, when her +most affectionate and unworthy guardian is attempting a jest. It is an +evil habit in the old. Expect to hear from the School Committee in +Hounslow before many days are over. I think all is settled fairly, but +I hear there is no chance of your being needed before the beginning of +November. And this is still July. Three whole months, therefore, ere +Mademoiselle need take up the burden of teaching vulgar little boys +the elements of Euclid. And yet the momentous coming of age, when +Wisdom, let us hope, is to be justified of one of her children, is +this week. Marjory, my dear! Fate has given you a real holiday at +last! Of course, I am an incorrigible idler compared to you, but, +believe me, my heart has ached at times over your sense of duty! Life +is not all work, even if it is not all beer and skittles. So take the +goods the gods provide (as dear old Wilson would say in the proper +tongue--my Latin is merely a catalogue of dry bones)--put away all the +books--let two and two be five or five hundred for the time, while you +cross the Asses' Bridge with the rest of humanity. Wake up, my dear +little girl! or rather begin to dream! Of what? you ask. Of anything, +my dear, except Woman's Suffrage. By the way, I have six new reasons +against the latter, which I will detail to Mademoiselle Grands-serieux +when a detestable bacillus, who will neither be born nor die, permits +of my joining her in the earthly paradise. Meanwhile have a good +time--a real good time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory leant back again on a great basket of spreading lastrea which +gave out scent like honey as she crushed it. Cousin Tom was +delightful, and perhaps he was right. The sudden content with Life as +it was which had come to her the day before when she realised its +peace, its beauty, its kindliness, returned now. Through the arching +hazel boughs the sunlight filtered down in a tempered brilliance +restful to the eyes; a grasshopper shrilled in the bents; a yellow +butterfly, settling on a leaf beside her, folded its wings and, +apparently, went to sleep. An earthly paradise, indeed! Surely if one +could dream anywhere it would be here.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly a faint <i>shwish-shwish</i> broke the silence. <i>Shwish-shwish</i>, +at regularly recurring intervals. Marjory, recognising the sound, +wondered listlessly who could be fishing the lower pool at this early +hour. One of the keepers, perhaps, hopeful of a trout for his master's +breakfast; rather a forlorn chance even in the pot above, with that +cloudless sky. A jarring whizz, accompanied by a convulsion in the +alder branches, broke in on her drowsiness, making her sit up with +intelligent appreciation of the cause. The somebody, whoever he might +be, was "in" to the tree. Another convulsion, gentler, but more +prolonged; another short and sharp, as if somebody were losing his +temper. Then a persuasive wiggle to all points of the compass in turn, +and finally the whirr of a check reel.</p> + +<p class="normal">Somebody being evidently about to try conclusions with Nature, Marjory +leant forward in deep interest, knowing by bitter experience that it +was two to one against humanity. At last, as she expected, there came +a series of short, sharp jerks; then something she had not expected. +On the morning air one comprehensive monosyllable--"Damn." That was +all. No affix, no suffix; without nominative or accusative; soft, but +trenchant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A gentleman," said Marjory to herself, without a moment's hesitation, +as she rose to peer through the thick tangle of alders. If so, the +laird, of course. Yes! It must be he, on the opposite bank, standing +irresolute; weighing the pros and cons of breaking in, no doubt. +Marjory's experienced eyes following the taut line, rested finally on +the cast looped round a branch just above her, and apparently within +reach. The mere possibility was sufficient to make her forget all save +the instinct to help.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't break, please, I can get it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eager voice, unmistakably girlish and refined, echoed across to +Paul Macleod, who, after a moment's astonished search, traced it to a +face half-seen among the parting leaves. He took off his hat +mechanically, for though it might have been a pixie's there was no +mistaking its gender, and the sex found a large measure of outward +respect in Paul Macleod. For the rest, help offered was with him +invariably help accepted; a fact which accounted for a large portion +of his popularity, since people like those around whom the memory of +their own benevolence can throw a halo. So he stood watching Marjory +settle methodically to her task, wondering the while who the girl +could possibly be. For that she had white hands and trim ankles was +abundantly evident, and neither of these charms was to be expected in +the rustic beauties of the Glen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid I am giving you a lot of trouble," he said +sympathetically, as for the third time the branch flew back from +Marjory's hold with a sudden spring.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all," she gasped jerkily; one cannot speak otherwise on tiptoe +with both hands above one's head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I had better help."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you had," she answered resentfully, desisting for a moment +after a fourth rebuff. "There is no positive necessity for you to +remain idle. You might for instance reel in as I pull."</p> + +<p class="normal">His faint smile was tempered by respect. The young lady on the +opposite bank knew what she was about, and, perhaps, might even be +good looking, if she were not quite so red in the face. So he obeyed +meekly, and was rewarded by a gasp of triumph.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! I've got it. I knew you could help if you tried."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm immensely obliged," he began; then the girl's foot slipped, the +branch sprang from her hand, she made an ineffectual jump after it, +and the next instant the all but disentangled cast, flung into the air +by the rebound, was hard and fast in a higher twig.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory could have stamped with despite; thought it wiser to laugh, +but found the opposite bank full of silent, grieved sympathy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll get it yet," she called across the water, with renewed +determination.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think, if you'll allow me, I will break in," came the deferential +voice after a time. "It really must be very tiring to jump like that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all; thank you," she retorted, without a pause. "I never--give +in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So it appears. Will you allow me to come over and help?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Come over and help, indeed! Marjory's growing anger slackened to +contempt. As if he could come over without a detour of half a mile +down or quarter of a mile up the river; and he must know it, unless he +had no memory. "You can't," she jerked between her efforts. "You +had--better slack line--and sit down--I'll get it somehow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Very much "somehow." Her hat fell off first. Then, after a desperate +spring, in which she succeeded in clutching a lower branch, a hairpin +struck work. Hot, dishevelled, exasperated, yet still determined, she +persevered without deigning another reference to the silence over the +way, until an arm clothed in grey tweed reached over hers and bent the +branch down within her reach. She looked round, and, even in her +surprise, the great personal charm and beauty of the face looking into +hers struck her almost painfully; for it seemed to soothe her quick +vexation, and so to claim something from her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I jumped," he said, answering the look on hers. "It is quite easy by +the fall."</p> + +<p class="normal">Something new to her, something which sent a lump to her throat, made +her turn away and say stiffly: "I am sorry I gave you the trouble of +coming. It would have been better if you had broken in. Good morning."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood grave as a judge, courteous, deferential, yet evidently +amused, still bending down the bough.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will you not finish the task you began? You said you never gave in; +besides, I can hardly do it for myself." The fact was palpable; it +required two hands to disentangle a singularly awkward knot. To deny +this would be to confess her own annoyance, so she turned back again. +Rather an awkward task with a face so close to your own, watching your +ineptitude. And yet she forgot her impatience in a sudden thought. If +he had fallen! If that face had had the life crushed out of it!</p> + +<p class="normal">"You ought not to have jumped," she said, impulsively. "It was very +dangerous."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me; I have done it hundreds of times when I was a boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Boys may do foolish things."</p> + +<p class="normal">He smiled. "And men should not; but are dangerous things necessarily +foolish?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Needlessly dangerous things are so, surely?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In that case, what becomes of courage?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She paused, frankly surprised both at herself and him. How came it +that he understood so quickly, that she followed him so clearly? Yet +it was pleasant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Courage has nothing to do with the question."</p> + +<p class="normal">His smile broadened. "Thanks. I began by saying so. The fact being +that the jump is not dangerous."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No one else jumps it," she persisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me for mentioning that I am an unusually good jumper. +Besides--</p> +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"The game is never yet worth a rap</p> +<p class="t2">For a rational man to play,</p> +<p class="t0">Into which some misfortune, some mishap</p> +<p class="t2">Cannot possibly find its way."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Again something new to her, something which this time sent a thrill of +answering recklessness through her veins, something of the mere joy +and pride of life made her ask in quick interest--"Who wrote that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A man who gave in at last; he shot himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory's face paled. Yes; men did that sort of thing, she knew. She +had read of it, and accepted the truth of it calmly. Now for the first +time she felt that she understood it, that she too stood on the brink +of the Great Unknown Sea, which might bring her to the haven where she +would be, or to shipwreck. Then in quick relief came a new cause for +resentment in the perception, as she began to wind up the now +disentangled cast, that a large portion of line remained attached to +it. In other words, her companion had deliberately cut it, and brought +his rod with him; had risked his life not for the sake of his flies, +but simply to amuse himself at her expense.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think that is all I can do for you," she said, in a white heat of +annoyance. "Good morning, Captain Macleod."</p> + +<p class="normal">The name slipped from her unawares, and she recognised her own mistake +immediately. Her knowledge of his identity being a sort of +introduction, from which she could scarcely escape. For his position +as laird of Gleneira, owner of the very ground on which she was +trespassing, could not be ignored. She could not dismiss him like a +tramp. He took the advantage she had given him, coolly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks, so many," he said, holding back a branch to allow of her +passing before him, "but I am going also. It is too bright for sport. +In truth, I never expected any, and only came out to renew my +acquaintance with the river, and discover, what I expected, that I +have almost forgotten how to throw a fly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed, you have not forgotten how to break in, at any rate," she +replied viciously; then ashamed of her unnecessary heat, since surely +it was none of her business if he broke every cast he possessed, she +added, in superior tones, "there is no reason, however, why you should +not get a fish in the Long Pool. The sun won't touch it for half an +hour."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Long Pool," he echoed, "which is that? I'm afraid I have almost +forgotten it, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a palpable excuse for continuing the conversation, and as such +Marjory resented it; at the same time, no one ever appealed to her for +information without meeting with prompt attention, the teaching +element being strong in her. So was impatience at crass stupidity; or, +as Captain Macleod preferred to call it, a deficient bump of locality.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll see you as far as the Alder Island," she said at last, with some +irritation, "then you can't possibly make a mistake." That, at any +rate, would be better than trailing the whole two miles back to +Gleneira beside him. Not that he was forward or objectionable; on the +contrary, he treated her with a deference which would have been +pleasant had it not covered a quiet coercion which was perfectly +intolerable. So the glint of the Long Pool behind the Alder Island +came as a relief, and she pointed to it in a sort of triumph.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm afraid it is no use," he said despondently. "Too fine; besides, I +haven't had my breakfast, and it is growing late. I'll get Cameron to +come down afterwards and show me the casts. A river changes in ten +years."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can't possibly judge from here; and I can show you the cast +perfectly," she retorted. It had come to a stand-up fight with the +gloves on between his will and hers, and accustomed as she was to +instant submission from everybody of the opposite sex, she would not +confess her own defeat by getting rid of him with a crude dismissal. +To begin with he scarcely merited the insult, and, in addition, it +might be awkward afterwards. So she pointed out the probable lie of +the fish, and, her sporting instincts overcoming her contempt, +exclaimed against the gaudy cast he selected--a cast no decent fish +would have looked at except in flood time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! no!" she cried, in real eagerness. "Something less like a +firework, if you have one--a brown body and turkey wing. Ah! here's +the very thing. I don't believe in the steel loops, though, do you--? +Will doesn't. And you have bridge rings I see; I never saw them +before. They look good. Now then! Just below the break, down the slidy +bit, and across to the ripple--Oh-h!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The exclamation was caused by a fall as of a coiled hawser on the +water, and a separate "blob" of each fly on the surface.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better try again," she said gravely, "and don't thrash so; +use your wrist."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If there was more wind," he suggested.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense! you ought to be able to throw that distance anyhow. It's +all knack; it will come back after a cast or two. I'm sure it will."</p> + +<p class="normal">Apparently she was wrong. The line ceased, it is true, to fall in a +heap like an umbrella, yet failed by many feet to reach the break +above the slidy bit.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me the rod a moment," she cried, "and I'll show you the turn of +the wrist. You'll recognise it then."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was an instant's pause as she stood, one foot planted against a +stone, her lithe figure thrown backwards, her chin following the +little toss of her head, tilted sideways; so that her eager young face +was in full view of her companion; and then the long line flew out in +the spey cast and seemed to nestle down just where the water broke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bravo!" cried Captain Macleod, as much to the picture as to the +skill. And then before he could say another word came an eddy, a noise +like the cloop of a cork, a glint of a silvery side, and the whirr of +the reel. Things to drive all else from a fisherman's brain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In to him!" shouted the Captain, excitedly; "and a beauty, too. No! +no; keep it. I'd rather you kept it! I'd like to see you land him--if +you can."</p> + +<p class="normal">The implied doubt, joined to the vicious shooting of something like a +huge silver whiting with its tail in its mouth into the air, warning +the girl of the danger of a slack line, had the desired effect. She +set her teeth and gave herself up to repairing the error of +indecision. The fish, having got his head, was now further down the +pool than he should have been, and close to an ugly snag, towards +which he bored with the strange cunning which seems born in fish. +Marjory gave him the butt bravely, but he fought like a demon, and for +one instant the reel gave out an ominous clicking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I had better," came an eager voice beside her. "It is heavier +than I thought."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please not! Please let me keep it now! I'd rather lose him--there!" A +rapid wind-up emphasised her excitement. "I can manage him, you +see--if you will go down--there by the white stones--I'll get him +into the shallow--the tackle is so light I can scarcely bring him +up--and--and--don't be in a hurry--I'll bring him in right over the +click."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old imperiousness was back in full swing, and once again she had a +willing slave, eager as she was for the sight of something long and +brown curving, snakelike, into the shallow as if of its own free will, +or coming in despairingly "this side up." It was a sharp, swift +struggle, all the sharper and swifter because of that ominous snag +over the way; and then an eight-pound grilse with the sea-lice still +on him lay on the bank.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! What a beautiful creature! One of the prettiest I have ever +seen," cried Marjory, ecstatically, on her knees beside the prize.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very much so, indeed." Captain Macleod's voice was absent, and his +eyes were not on the fish. "You killed him splendidly."</p> + +<p class="normal">The light went out of the girl's face; she rose to her feet slowly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish I had given you the rod," she said, still looking down on the +palpitating, quivering bar of silver.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is most forgiving of you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned upon him almost indignantly. "Oh! I wasn't thinking of all +that--that stuff! I was thinking--it seems so cruel."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many things seem so afterwards. One might spend a lifetime in +regretting, if it was worth it; but it isn't."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Isn't it? I wish anyhow that I hadn't killed that fish."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not go further back, and wish you hadn't interfered to safe my +cast? for, as it happens, the one you chose out was the very one Fate +had ordained should remain in an alder bush----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I do," she replied stiffly, realising how he had played upon +her for the first time. The knowledge, rather to her own surprise, +brought tears to her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't wonder that you regret having helped me," he said with a +sudden change of manner. "If you will tell me where to leave the fish +I will no longer trouble you. I am sorry for having given you so much +already."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no mistaking the hidden depth of his apology. As he stood +there in the sunlight, looking at her gravely, Marjory felt to the +full the charm of his gracious presence. Who could really be angry +with him for such a trifle? For it was a trifle after all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My name is Marjory Carmichael," she said briefly, "and I live at the +Lodge with the Camerons. But I don't want the fish. I don't indeed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you shall not have it. I owe you some obedience, do I not?--and +thanks beyond measure."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stood there with his cap off smiling at her, and she, feeling +apologetic in her turn, hesitated. After all, if he was going her way +it would be foolishness itself to tramp that mile and a half with an +interval of fifty yards or so between them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now I must emulate your skill," he said cheerfully, "though I +can't expect your luck." And as she moved away she saw his flies +settle softly as thistledown in the right place. Well! that was better +than keeping up the pretence.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for him, though he continued to fish conscientiously, his thoughts +were with the figure of the retreating girl. She had amused him and +interested him greatly. A relation, he supposed, of Dr. Carmichael's; +in fact, he had a dim recollection of a curly-haired child scampering +about on a Sheltie ten years before; though he had never known the +doctor, who had lived as a recluse. But how came she here still, and +with the Camerons? A cut above them surely! By Jove! how she had hung +on to that grilse, and how nearly she had cried over it afterwards. +Maudlin sentimentality, of course, and yet he had felt the same a +hundred times over a wounded deer. The look in her eyes had been like +that, somehow; uncommonly pretty eyes they were, too, into the +bargain!</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Paul Macleod sate in the business-room, where so many lairds of +Gleneira had received rents and signed cheques, playing his part with +great propriety, much to Will Cameron's delight and astonishment. +Captain Macleod was, undoubtedly, the laird, and as such bound to a +semi-parental interest in every living thing, to say nothing of every +stick and stone about the old place. On the other hand, he had been +away in a perfectly different environment for nearly ten years, and it +seemed nothing short of marvellous to the factor that he should +remember every farmer and cottier, nay, more, their wives, and sons, +and daughters, by name. And so, perhaps it was; though, to tell truth, +the mental qualities it represented were small, being no more nor less +than a quick responsiveness to the renewal of past sensation; that +very responsiveness which ten years before had made Paul shrink from +giving an unpleasant memory a place in his life. Moralists are apt to +sneer at the popularity which the possessor of this faculty enjoys; +and, of course, it is easy to cheapen the sympathy of the man, who +when he sees you, is instantly reminded of all the past connected with +you in detail, and proceeds to inquire eagerly about your ox and ass, +your manservant and your maidservant, and everything that is within +your gate. Yet, when all is said and done, and though he certainly +gives the false impression that these things have never been out of +his mind, the gift is not only an enviable one, but in itself argues a +quicker sensibility than that possessed by his more stolid, if more +honest, neighbours.</p> + +<p class="normal">So there was no effort to Paul Macleod in taking up the thread of his +past life at Gleneira; at the same time, he felt no more regret at +hearing, as he did through Will's answers to his inquiries, of Jeanie +Duncan's death, somewhere in the vague South country, than he did for +many another item of news. Partly because that old life had really +passed out of existence for him altogether, and partly because Will, +being a good-natured kindly soul, said nothing about the child which +poor old Peggy had brought with her. There are many men of this +sort--more men for the matter of that than there are women--who hate +to face the sad aspect of life, and slur over a painful story whenever +they can.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus Captain Macleod was able to quit the past and plunge into the +future without even the slight regret which the news must have brought +him; for in his way he had really loved Jeanie, and the thought that +his admirable self-sacrifice had not availed to keep her memory +pleasant, would have been a distinct annoyance. As it was, he began at +once on plans and arrangements, which convinced Will Cameron that the +laird must be going, unconsciously, to follow his advice, and marry a +rich wife. Nothing else could explain the fact that Gleneira House had +to be generally smartened up for the present, pending more solid +repairs during winter, that carriages and horses had to be bought at +once, and preparations of all sorts made for the houseful of guests +which would come with the shooting season. In the matter of slates, +glass, stables, and garden, Will Cameron felt himself equal to the +occasion, but when chintzes and furniture came under discussion he +meekly suggested a reference to Maples', or Morris, or his mother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should prefer Mrs. Cameron," replied the laird, with a laugh. "If I +wanted the other sort of thing my sister Blanche would do it for me +fast enough. Take a brougham by the day--to save her own horse, you +know--and re-create poor old Gleneira. First day, paper, painting, +draping; second day, furnishing; third day, creeping things +innumerable--you know them. Chenille things climbing up the lamp, a +Japanese toad on the writing-table, and a spider on the edge of a +teacup." He rose and went to the window. "But that sort of thing is +desecration of this," he went on, looking out on the opalescent +shimmer of sea and sky and hills; "though it does well enough in South +Kensington. I never could fit myself out, even in clothes, with a view +to both hemispheres, and though some folk profess to prepare for +heaven and enjoy earth at the same time, I'm not made that way."</p> + +<p class="normal">He pulled himself up with an airy smile, and turned round again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So let us be off to Mrs. Cameron, and perhaps that young lady who is +staying with you--I met her by the river this morning----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory," put in Will, eagerly; "why, yes, of course, she is the very +person we want--has awfully good taste."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed," said the other, smiling again. He was thinking that in that +case he could not claim distinction since she had not favoured him +with much of her approval. Not that it mattered, since he had quite +made up his mind that during the next few weeks, before his married +sister came to do hostess, Marjory would be a decided acquisition to +the limited society at his command; for Paul was distinctly gregarious +in his tastes. It did not take much to amuse him; but he needed some +gentle interest to start the wheels of his pleasure, and that interest +was, preferably, a woman. So, being able thus to combine duty and +amusement by a visit to the Lodge, he calmly suggested an adjournment +on the spot, to which Will agreed, blissfully oblivious of the fact +that not half-an-hour before he had left his mother in the agonies of +redding up the best parlour, with a view to the laird's expected visit +in the afternoon.</p> + +<p class="normal">No doubt when the women of the future have won large interests for +themselves, such a spectacle as Mrs. Cameron presented when she saw +two tweed-clad figures lounging up the path together will be +impossible. Even nowadays the attempt to describe her feelings must +fall far short of the reality, since few of this generation can grasp +the mental position of the last, and Mrs. Cameron belonged to the +generation before that. Of far better birth than many a farmer's wife +who would be ashamed at being discovered engaged in household work, +Mrs. Cameron would as a rule have gloried in what was to her the sole +aim and object of woman's creation; but this was no ordinary occasion; +how could that be one which necessitated clean muslin curtains at a +time when clean muslin curtains should not be, a cake made after her +mother's original recipe baking in the oven, and a bottle of her dead +husband's very best Madeira waiting to be decanted on the sideboard?</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood transfixed on the steps, in the very act of running a tape +through the stiffened hem of the curtain, an operation which in itself +had reduced her patience to the lowest ebb; and then, after an +instant's pause, her resentment found an outlet in one expressive +epithet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Gowk!" For it was Will's fault, of course; had not the lad been a +perfect dispensation ever since he was born? (this being her favourite +word for describing all the inevitable trials of her life). Besides, +after the manner of most housewifely women, she always visited any +failure in domestic arrangements on the head of the nearest male +belonging to the family. No one but a man, no one but a man, sent to +make <i>her</i> life a burden, could have been guilty of such a disgraceful +blunder, when a word, a hint, could have kept the laird from coming +until the afternoon. The conviction brought a sort of martyred +resignation with it, as she continued in a lower key, "and the parlour +as bare as the loof o' my hand, save for the tea leaves on the +drugget."</p> + +<p class="normal">A more forlorn picture of discomfort could not have been suggested, +and Marjory, standing by with needle and thread, promptly suggested +that the laird should be shown into her study, since she was on the +point of going out; an assertion which mollified the old lady by its +suggestion that the visit must be to her alone. And wherefore not, +since she had seen three generations of Macleods come and go? So, with +vague remarks about sparing the rod and spoiling the child, which it +is to be supposed bore reference to poor Will's education, she hurried +off to meet her guest in the old-fashioned style, and take it out of +the offender--who in the meantime had, for hospitality's sake, to go +scot free--by a display of almost subservient humility to their +employer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come ben! Come ben, Gleneira, to your ain house. And tho' it is no so +tidy as I might have wished" (here a savage glance at her son +emphasised the stab) "it is not for me to say you nay, for even if we +have been here father and son, a' these years, it is no for us to be +forgettin' oor position and dependence."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't keep the laird standing on the steps all day," put in Will, +hurriedly; "he wants to have a crack with you, mother; let us go into +the parlour."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The parlour, William, as you should ken fine, is being redd up, so I +must fain ask the laird's pardon for takin' him to our boarder's wee +sitting-room."</p> + +<p class="normal">As a rule Mrs. Cameron would sooner have died than call Marjory a +boarder, and so level herself to the bit farmer-bodies who let +lodgings in the summer time; but at present any weapon against her +son's dignity was welcome, and she rejoiced to see him growing more +and more impatient. Letting lodgings, indeed! Aye, that was what the +poor shiftless creature would come to if he hadn't her to make both +ends meet!</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Mrs. Cameron," replied Paul, still holding her old hand and +looking sentimentally into her old face, "the pleasure of seeing you +is all I care for now. To begin with, it makes me feel years younger. +And how young I was when you caught me stealing your jam! I have +never forgotten the lecture you gave me, never! And then, do you +remember----?" He was fairly afloat on the sea of reminiscence now, +much to the old lady's gratification. But since this was distinctly an +irregular method of getting through a state visit, she led the way +defiantly to Marjory's little snuggery upstairs, with another sniff at +poor Will, which sent him off muttering something about letting its +owner know; a remark which increased his mother's wrath, and made her +more than ever set on a strict observance of the ceremony due to the +occasion. So she sat exactly opposite Paul on a high chair, and began +<i>seriatim</i> on all domestic events in the Gleneira family during the +past nine years, until his head whirled, and the life which had seemed +to him so varied and gay, reduced itself to a mere excerpt from the +first column of the Times. Yet his deferential courtesy never failed, +and, as usual, brought him its own reward; for after a time, the old +lady, finding it impossible to resist his charm, thawed completely, +and finally getting quite jolly, frankly confessed her annoyance, and +hurried off to see if the cake were not sufficiently baked to admit of +Gleneira's breaking bread in the house, just for luck's sake.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, left alone, began to frown. This was Miss Carmichael's room; +but, apparently, she meant to steer clear of it while he was there. +Girls did that sort of thing; it made them feel independent. +Meanwhile, what sort of a girl was she, judged by her room; that sort +of knowledge often came in very useful when the dear creatures were +shy. Fond of flowers, certainly, and in a rational way; these were not +arranged in bouquets, but set one or two in a vase wherever a vase +could stand, so that you could see them. Books? A closed bookcase full +of the dreariest backs; they must have belonged to her uncle, or +perhaps to old Cameron, who had been a bit of a student; but scarcely +to a girl who could throw a salmon line like Miss Carmichael. Yes! She +had certainly looked as well as she was ever likely to look, when +swaying her lithe body to the sway of the rod. Pictures? A good +photograph that, over the mantelpiece, of Andrea del Sarto's +Maddelena; from the original, of course, and full size. That was the +best of photographs, you could have them exact, and sometimes half an +inch made such a difference. How well he remembered his first sight of +the picture in that dark corner of the Borghese gallery, and the +effect its dreamy eyes had had on him; the wonder, too, whether the +casket really held a very precious ointment, or a still more precious +<i>acquatofana</i>. Either was possible with that dim, mysterious smile; +and the woman herself--for it was Del Sarto's wife, of course--had +been a lying devil who made her husband's life a perfect hell. Now, +had Miss Carmichael chosen that photograph for herself; and, if so, +why? Since it did not fit the salmon fishing any better than the +books. Ah! there in the bow window, cut off from the rest of the room +by muslin drapery, was a low wicker chair, placed close to a revolving +bookstand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now for the last new novel," he said to himself cynically. "What is +the odds on anything in these latter times. I have seen nice girls +since I came home reading things in public which I would not leave +about in the smoking-room for fear the housemaid might be shocked. +Eheu!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a sort of prolonged low whistle of surprise and disappointment, +mingled with a distinct personal aversion to the treatise on Conic +Sections, which he took up inadvertently. The fact being that Paul +Macleod had at one period of his life thought of Woolwich, and that +particular book had, as it were, stood in the way of his ambition. +Perhaps it was that which made him fling it down contemptuously, +with a sort of vague indictment against the owner. She had not looked +like it certainly, yet for all he knew she might be one of those +clear-headed, hard-hearted nondescripts--the opposite extreme from +that angel-faced, sensual-minded demon over the mantelpiece--who +despised the emotions they were born to create, and would scorn to +have a foolish, illogical, unreasoning, lovable sentimentality. There +he paused abruptly, and whistled again; for on the stand among the +books was a little vase holding some white heather and stag-horn moss. +A curious coincidence truly, even if it were nothing more. He stood +looking at it for a minute or two, and then quite coolly exchanged it +for a similar bouquet which he was wearing in his buttonhole; a +bouquet which he had found in a vase on his dressing-table.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just then the door opened, at first gently, then hurriedly, while +Marjory's voice exclaimed in joyous relief, "Gone at last! What a +relief!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul emerged from his concealment with outstretched hand. +"Good-morning, Miss Carmichael," he said in that charming voice of +his, "delighted to find you at home." She looked at him with level, +puzzled eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think you must have heard what I said just now, didn't you?" Her +directness went straight through the veneer of conventional +politeness, and startled him into corresponding frankness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; every word," he said, turning to take up his cap.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, please don't," she broke in eagerly. "It will make me feel so +ashamed. And it was only because I wanted to finish some papers and +send them off. You see to-morrow is my birthday, and I promised Tom to +take a holiday. But I forgot," she added with a quick apologetic +smile, "you don't know who Tom is, and it can't interest you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg your pardon," he interrupted, returning somewhat to his more +elaborate manner; "it interests me exceedingly to know who Tom is."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again her perfect unconsciousness drove him back to simplicity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tom is my guardian--Dr. Thomas Kennedy. I don't suppose <i>you</i> have +heard of him, but most people have; I mean of that sort. He is in +Paris now busy over a bacillus."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!" said Paul, beginning to weary; "and so to-morrow is your +birthday, and you are to have a holiday; a whole holiday. That sounds +very virtuous, Miss Carmichael, to a man who has perpetual holidays."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I am going to have six weeks! A real vacation. The first I've +ever had; because you see I've never been to school or college, and +work has always been more or less of an amusement to me. One must have +something to do, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me, but I seldom find the necessity. Life in itself occupies +all my spare time; I mean all the time I can spare from things that +are necessary to keep in life."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him again with frankly puzzled, half-amused eyes. "How +funny that sounds. I don't understand it a bit, but I daresay I shall +when I have really been idle for two or three weeks. Tom says it will +do me good before I start regular work. I am going to teach in a Board +school in November."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That seems a pity."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? I have to earn my own living, remember!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me for saying that that seems to me a greater pity still."</p> + +<p class="normal">The puzzled, amused look grew more pronounced. "And that sounds still +funnier. Can't you see that some of us must work; there are so many of +us nowadays. Besides, I like work; uncle used to say that was lucky, +because I had to. You see I am absolutely alone in the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that is the greatest pity of all." His voice, soft, kind, +courteous, carried them beyond the lightness of ordinary conversation +in a moment, and Marjory, recognising the fact, felt none of her +usually quick resentment at the intrusion of a stranger into her inner +life; for she was not of those who parade their possession of a soul, +perhaps because she took it as a matter of course.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose it is, in a way," she assented; "but I have been accustomed +to the position all my life, and somehow I never regret it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That seems to me rather unnatural in a girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is very lucky," she retorted. "What would become of me if I were +afraid?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You would probably lead a far happier life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">They were standing opposite each other, looking into each other's +faces, and the beauty of his, the unconsciousness of hers, held them +both captive.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because in all probability you would marry."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a silence for a moment, but Paul Macleod, no mean judge of +character, partly because of the complexity of his own, had rightly +gauged the measure of what he had to deal with. What many girls might +have deemed an impertinence Marjory passed by as a mere truism.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have often thought of that myself," she replied quietly; "but I +think you are mistaken."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was his turn now to put that terse, unconditional "Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not likely to marry; as uncle used to say, I have not purchasing +power equal to my requirements."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Meaning, of course, that your ideal is too high. I should have +fancied so. You are very young, Miss Carmichael. And I am old; +besides, ten years knocking about in Indian cantonments disposes +effectually of the theory of twin souls. It is very beautiful, no +doubt; but I fancy mine must have died in the measles, or some other +infantile ailment. It did not survive to riper years, at any rate. But +here comes Mrs. Cameron, so I shall escape scathing this time. I +generally do."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory felt she could well believe it, palpably unjust though such +immunity might be, as she watched the laird give back the fervid +greeting of the Reverend James Gillespie, who followed close on the +tray of cake and wine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear sir; welcome to the Glen," cried the young clergyman. "I have +been up at the Big House, and, hearing you were at the Lodge, ventured +to follow you. As parish clergyman----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed no! Gillespie," put in Mrs. Cameron, sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not say minister, my dear Madam," retorted the Reverend James +with uncommon spirit; "I said clergyman; and considering that the +lairds of Gleneira have ever clung loyally to the Church." Here +something in the old lady's face made him, as it were, climb down +again. "Well, let us say parish priest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed no, again," interrupted the good lady, with a grim smile. "What +would Father Macdonald be saying?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend Mr. Gillespie climbed down still further for the sake of +peace, though the vexed question of effectual orders was a favourite +hunting-ground of the Bishop's. "As a native of Gleneira, deeply +interested in the spiritual and moral welfare of its inhabitants, +allow me to express my sincere pleasure in your return. Believe me, +Gleneira, the people welcome you to their midst."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is really awfully kind of you all, when I have been such a +shocking ne'er-do-weel absentee. I assure you, Miss Carmichael, that +the number of times I've had to drink my own health in raw whiskey +this morning is incredible; enough to ruin it for the next year."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James put on his most professional air. "Too true. As the +Bishop says, whiskey is indeed the bane----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hoot, no!" interrupted Mrs. Cameron from the cake and wine; "good +whiskey ne'er harmed a good man. It is just the idle, feckless bodies +getting drunken that gives it a bad name."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But that is just the point, my dear lady," expostulated the young +man, feeling sure of his ground. "It is for the sake of the weaker +brother."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Havers!" began Mrs. Cameron; but the Reverend James was firm, and +quoted the text.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye, aye!" continued the old lady, "I ken where it comes from fine, +more's the pity, for I don't hold wi' it. It's just a premium on being +a poor body, and is the clear ruination o' this world whatever it may +be of the next. Gie me a useless, through--other man or woman, and +hey! it's a weaker brother an' maun' be cockered up."</p> + +<p class="normal">She showed so much animation that her opponent retired from the +contest discreetly by turning to the laird and beginning on a stock +subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry to say, Gleneira, that despite my own efforts, and the +Bishop's earnest desire for the erection of a church, matters remain +much as they were, when you were here last. That is to say, service +has still to be conducted in the school-house, which, er--in addition +to other illegitimate uses"--he glanced casually at his old enemy at +this point--"also serves as a post-office; a plan which has great and +undeniable inconvenience."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And convenience, too," put in Mrs. Cameron, remorselessly. "You see, +laird, the post is no delivered on the Sabbath-day, this bein' a +Christian land, and so when folk go to kirk they can kill twa birds +wi' one stane."</p> + +<p class="normal">This was too much. "In my opinion," retorted the Reverend James, +pompously, "it would be far less objectionable if Donald <i>did</i> deliver +the letters than that the last words of the blessing should be the +signal for handing them round the congregation. But as is so often the +case in Scotland, the veneration for the day--which, by the way, is +not the Sabbath----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, no!" interrupted the old lady, "I'm no going that gate. I've told +ye oft, Mr. Gillespie, it is naught to me if it's the Sabbath or +Sunday, or Lord's-day or the first day o' the week we are keeping. But +I ken fine that in my learnin' days I was taught to keep it holy, so +if there is ony mistake it was none o' my makin'. It's the fault of +the minister."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Gillespie coughed. "The hours of service are eleven o'clock for +matins, and four o'clock for evensong. Miss Marjory kindly helps us +with the harmonium. Indeed, one of my reasons for coming on here was +to ask her to settle the hymns for Sunday first, unless, indeed, you +yourself would select one suitable--er--to the occasion."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul took the proffered hymn-book with visible embarrassment, and +looked appealingly towards Marjory, but it was impossible to laugh, +for the Reverend James's proposition was saved from absurdity by its +absolute simplicity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really! my dear sir," he began, when Mrs. Cameron came to his rescue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gie the laird a harvest hymn, Mr. Gillespie. I'll warrant he has sown +his wild oats, though maybe after all, you would no care to be reapin' +them, Gleneira."</p> + +<p class="normal">He laughed very boyishly. "My dear old friend, if they were fifty +shillings a quarter, I should be the richest man in Lorneshire, +instead of the poorest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Poor," she echoed grimly; "you couldna' be poor if you tried. It is +no in some men. And now, Gleneira, there's some o' the farm folk +waiting to drink your health outside, so come awa'. And you, too, +Marjory, my dear, for you're a Gleneira lass when all's said and done. +And the parson can tak' a glass for his oft infirmities if he'll no do +it for anything less important."</p> + +<p class="normal">They followed her out into the sunshine, where, in a solemn +semi-circle, they found half-a-dozen or more of men and halflings, +headed, of course, by old John Macpherson as spokesman. He held a wine +glass in one hand, a black bottle in the other, and the liltiness of +his attitude, joined to a watery benevolence in his eye, told a tale +of previous exertions towards the laird's good health. It was evident +that, for the time being, he was an optimist, viewing the world as the +best of all possible worlds. A glass more, and he would be ready to +defend the proposition with his fists; another, and he would have wept +over its denial, for Aladdin's genii of the bottle was not more +powerful in metamorphosis than Scotch whiskey was on John Macpherson.</p> + +<p class="normal">"An' here's to you, Gleneira," he said, when Paul returned the glass. +"An' it's wissing you as rich as the Duke o' Wellington--Pech! +Mistress Cameron, but yon's gude whiskey--water never touched it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Even the refilled glass, as it passed from hand to hand, seemed to +have a vicarious effect on old John, who waxed more and more lilty, +and finally, when the others moved off, lingered for an audible +whisper, accompanied by an admiring glance at the laird.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gorsh! Miss Marjory, wass I no tellin' you he was bonnie, and iss he +not bonnie, whatever?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A leading question, John," said Paul, readily; "witness can't be +expected to answer it."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the argumentative mood was beginning. "An' what for no. Miss +Marjory will be a Highland lass, an' a Highland lass will no be so +shamefast, but they will be knowing a bonnie lad when they see one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I quite agree with you, John," said the girl, quickly, with a +suspicion of both a frown and a smile on her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul Macleod, as he walked home, found himself fully occupied in +trying, as it were, to piece the girl's character together to his +satisfaction. She was a novel experience, a pleasant one into the +bargain.</p> + +<p class="normal">So when she came to breakfast next morning, a bouquet of hot-house +flowers lay on her plate with Captain Macleod's best wishes for her +birthday.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think it is very kind of him," she said judicially, in reply to +Mrs. Cameron's rapture over the laird's condescension; "but Peter +Morrison will be furious at having his show spoilt. And he has +amputated the poor things at the knee. Men ought never to pick +flowers, they don't understand them, except gardeners, and they never +want to pick them at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">When she went up that afternoon to the Big House in order to aid Mrs. +Cameron's taste in the matter of new curtains, there was a little +bunch of white heather and stag-horn moss tucked into her belt. In +finding room amongst the vases for the newcomers this had seemed too +pretty to throw away, that was all. But Paul Macleod's keen eyes fell +on it at once with a certain satisfaction; nevertheless, he made no +allusion to the subject, a reticence which he would not have observed +towards most women of his acquaintance. It was sufficient for him to +be aware of its complicated history. That sort of thing gave an +infinite zest to life.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Even in the dusty glare of a dusty July sun, one of the largest houses +in Queen's Gardens looked cool and pleasant with its delicate shades +of grey on wall and portico, its striped jalousies and tiled window +gardens gay with scarlet geraniums, yellow calceolarias, and blue +lobelias; flowers, all of them, which seem somehow to have lost their +flowerfulness by being so constantly associated in one's mind with +area railings, barrel organs, and the eternal rat-tat of the postman's +knock--to be brief, with London. For all the passer-by knew or cared, +those lines of brilliant red, yellow, and blue blossoms might have +been cunningly composed of paper, and would have served their purpose +to the full as well had they been so, since no one, even inside the +house, ever looked on them in the light of living, breathing plants +going through a process of asphyxiation. It is difficult no doubt to +resist the temptation to have pot-plants in London, but how often when +brought face to face with the hideous ravages which a day or two of +its poisonous atmosphere makes on our favourites has not the true +flower-lover felt nothing short of murder. The inhabitants of the +house in Queen's Gardens, however, had not even this chance for +remorse, since the boxes were kept bright by contract, and if any poor +plant was ill-advised enough to droop and complain, it was promptly +rooted up and replaced by the man who came in the early mornings to +"walk the hospitals" before the family appeared on the scene.</p> + +<p class="normal">Within the house, the same spick and span, utterly impersonal +attention to beauty prevailed. From basement to attic it was simply +perfect in its appointments. As it might well be, since an artist in +copper utensils had been let loose in the kitchen, the greatest +authority in the world on wall papers had been allowed his will in +friezes and dados; and so on from cellar to roof. There is, of course, +a good deal to be said in favour of this modern specialism. It is +distinctly comforting to know, that if you have not reached +perfection, you have at any rate paid for it; but to some barbarians +the loss of individuality in such houses is very grievous. To begin +with, you lose a most delightful study of character. And after all, if +Mrs. Jones has a sneaking admiration for a pea-green carpet with pink +cabbage roses sprinkled over it, why, in heaven's name, should she +conceal the fact? No green that ever was dyed is greener than grass, +no flower that ever was woven is half as brilliant as the +blossom-mosaic which Nature spreads for you to tread upon when the +snow melts from the upland Alps. Yet the house was charming enough in +detail if a little confusing <i>en masse</i> to those sensitive to their +surroundings; since the drawing-room was Queen Anne, the dining-room +Tudor, and various other corridors and apartments Japanesque, +Renaissance, Early English, or Pompeian.</p> + +<p class="normal">This again did not affect the inmates, who, indeed, would have scorned +to feel as if time and space had been annihilated in the course of +half-a-dozen steps; such fanciful imaginations being almost wicked, +when time and space were distinctly necessary to the due performance +of your duty in that state of life to which it had pleased Providence +to call you.</p> + +<p class="normal">On this particular morning in July, Mr. and Mrs. Woodward and their +daughter Alice were seated at the breakfast table in the usual +comfortable indifferent silence of people who keep a diary of outside +engagements in a conspicuous place on the writing-table, and whose +inner lives move in decorous procession from morn till eve. A canary +was singing joyfully, but at the same time keeping a watchful eye on +the grey Persian cat which walked up and down rubbing itself, as it +passed and repassed, against Mrs. Woodward's gown, with an anxious +look on the bread and milk she was crumbling for it. Mr. Woodward, at +the other side of a central palm tree, studied the share list. Miss +Alice Woodward, who had evidently come down later than the others, was +still engaged listlessly on toast and butter; finally making a remark +in an undertone to her mother that as Jack had settled to ride with +her in the Park at eleven, she supposed it was about time to get +ready; a remark which resulted in her pushing away her plate +languidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have eaten no breakfast, my dear, and you are looking pale," said +her mother, comfortably; "I will get you some more Blaud's from the +Stores."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! I'm all right," replied the girl. "It's hot, and--and things are +tiresome. They generally are at the end of the season, aren't they?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She drifted easily, rather aimlessly, out of the room. Like everything +else in the house she was costly and refined; pretty in herself but +without any individuality. For the rest, blonde and graceful, with a +faintly discontented droop of the mouth, and large, full, china-blue +eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward watched her retreat furtively till the door closed behind +her, then laid down his paper and addressed his wife with the air of a +man who attends strictly to business. That was, in fact, his attitude +towards his daughter at all times. He did not, he said, understand +girls, but he did his duty by them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I heard from Macleod this morning, my dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward went on crumbling bread gently, and there was a pause. +"Well, what does he say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That the house will be ready for visitors by the 8th of next month, +and that it will give him great pleasure to welcome us as soon after +that date as we can manage."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing more?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only the old story; that he is most anxious for our consent in order +that he may speak definitely. There, read it yourself, a sensible, +gentlemanly letter. I really don't think she could do better."</p> + +<p class="normal">His tone was precisely what it would have been had he been +recommending the purchase of debenture stock in a safe concern.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I suppose we may consider it settled; I mean, if Alice likes the +place."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so; but I'm told it is charming; there is a man--in +hooks-and-eyes, by the way--who has the moor next it. I met him at the +Kitcheners' dinner. He said it only wanted money, and she will bring +that. Besides, the man himself is all that can be desired, even by a +girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward nodded her head. "Yes, that is such a comfort, and Lady +George is so nice. Alice is quite fond of her, which is a great point +with a sister-in-law. In fact, everything seems most satisfactory." +She paused a moment, and a faint shade of doubt showed on her face. +"Only, of course, there is Jack."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack! heaven and earth, Sophia! what has Jack to do with it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, of course, only you know, or at any rate you might have seen +that he--well, that he may object."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward's face passed from sheer amazement to that peculiar +expression of virtuous indignation which so many English fathers +reserve for those who, without a nomination, have the temerity to +admire their daughters.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack! that boy Jack?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is older than Alice, my dear," put in his wife, with meek +obstinacy. She, on the contrary, was smiling, for, no matter how +ineligible the victim, a scalp is always a scalp to a mother; and +Jack was not ineligible. On the contrary, he was the head of the +soap-boiling business, now that her husband had received a +consideration for his interest, and retired into the more genteel +trade of blowing soap bubbles on 'Change.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pooh!" retorted Mr. Woodward, angrily, "if he is troublesome send him +to me, I'll settle him. The lad must marry position, like Alice." He +paused, and his manner changed. "You don't, of course, mamma, +insinuate that--that Alice--that your daughter has been foolish +enough----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward rose with dignity, and gave the cat its bread and milk. +"<i>My</i> daughter is a dear, good, sensible girl, Mr. Woodward; but that +doesn't alter the fact that your <i>nephew</i> may be foolish. I consider +it extremely likely that he may be; it runs in the family."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward took up the share list again, using it--after the manner +of his kind when in domestic difficulties--as a shield, and his wife +put a fresh lump of sugar in the canary's cage, saw to its seed and +water, and left the room placidly. The bird was her bird, the cat her +cat, and therefore she did her duty by them. In the same conscientious +spirit she interviewed the housekeeper and ordered a very good dinner +for her husband because he was her husband. Some people have the knack +of getting a vast deal of purely selfish satisfaction out of their own +virtues. Finally, she went into the morning-room, and began to think +over the best way of doing her duty by her daughter also; for there +was this difficulty in the way, here, that she and Alice were too much +alike for sympathy. They found each other out continually, and, what +is more, placidly disapproved of the various little weaknesses they +shared in common. It is this inevitable likeness which is really at +the bottom of that state of affairs, which is expressed in the +feminine phrase, "they don't get on at home, somehow." But Alice was +not a revolting daughter. Apart from other considerations, she would +have thought it vulgar not to behave nicely to her parents, while Mrs. +Woodward herself would have felt her complacent self-respect +endangered if she had not had a high estimate of her own child; and +Alice was, in this aspect, a far easier subject than her brother Sam, +who, to tell truth, gave even his mother a few qualms in regard to his +personal appearance.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Alice was perfect in that respect, simply perfect. Not too +pronouncedly pretty; not the sort of girl whose photograph would be +put up surreptitiously in the shop windows, but really quite +unexceptionable as she came in to her mother's room and stood at the +window in her trim habit waiting for the horses to come round. Then +she turned to her mother composedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Father had a letter from Captain Macleod this morning, hadn't he? +When does he expect us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward gave a sigh of relief. It was an advantage sometimes to +be seen through, especially when you were anxious to give a word of +warning before that long ride with Jack in the Park, and you did not +quite know how to set about it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the 8th; that will suit your father nicely; he will have done his +meetings by then. And you will like the change, won't you, darling?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Immensely, of course. Then we had better go round to Redfern's to-day +and order tailor-made things; something that looks rough, you know, +but isn't. I hate rough things, they make me feel creepy. Ah! there is +Jack coming round the gardens. Good-bye, dearest."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stooped to kiss her mother dutifully ere leaving, and Mrs. +Woodward seized the opportunity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-bye, darling, and before you go, Alice, about Jack."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What about Jack, mamma?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You might tell him--perhaps."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What shall I tell him?" asked the girl, a trifle petulantly. "That we +are going down to stay at Gleneira with the Macleods. That is really +all there is to tell--as yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that, my dear; still--still it would be better if Jack did not +follow you about so much."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course, it would be better, and I have told him so often; I will +tell him again, if you like, so don't be anxious, you good, pretty +little mamma. I am very fond of Jack--he is a dear fellow--but I don't +intend to marry him. I see quite well how foolish it would be for us +both."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward, as she watched the riders pass down the road, told +herself that Alice was one in a thousand, and deserved to be happy, as +no doubt she would be if she married Paul Macleod, who was so very +nice-looking. This point of good looks was one upon which Mrs. +Woodward laid great insistence, and it enabled her to spend the next +hour or two in finishing a sentimental novel in which the lovers, +after sternly rejecting the counsels of parents and guardians, were +rewarded in the third volume with £50,000 a year and a baronetcy. For, +like most mothers, poor Mrs. Woodward was sadly at sea on the +matrimonial question. Its romantic side appealed to her fancy, its +business side to her experience, since no woman can have done her duty +in the married state for a quarter of a century without seeing that +where personal pleasure has been the motive power in one point, sheer +personal self-abnegation has been the motive in ten.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the cousins, after cantering round the Row, had reined in +their horses for a walk. Alice rode well, and the exercise had brought +an unwonted animation to her appearance. Jack, on the other hand, was +a tall, burly young fellow, a trifle over-dressed, but otherwise +unobjectionable, looked his best, with a heartwhole admiration for his +companion on his honest face. What a pretty couple they would make, +thought an old spinster, taking her constitutional in Kensington +Gardens, and began straightway to dream of a certain hunt ball where +someone had danced with her five times before supper. How many times +afterwards she had never had to confess, even to her twin sister; +thanks to the extras, which, of course, need not count. And yet +nothing had come of it! And just as she got so far in her +reminiscences Alice was saying to Jack pleasantly, "I shall miss these +rides of ours, Jack, shan't you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you miss them?" he asked anxiously, for there was a +superior wisdom in her tone which he knew and dreaded. "I'm going down +to Heddingford when you go. We can ride there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we are going to Scotland first; didn't mamma tell you? We are to +stay with Captain Macleod."</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Jack's heart gave a great throb of pain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Macleod?" he echoed, "that is the tall, handsome fellow, isn't it, +who used to hang round you before I came up from the works?"</p> + +<p class="normal">This allusion to Paul's good looks was unfortunate, since Jack's were +not improved by the sudden flush which crimsoned even his ears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what you mean by hanging round," retorted the girl, +quickly. "It is a very vulgar expression."</p> + +<p class="normal">This again was unwise, for Jack, knowing his strong point was not +refinement, felt instantly superior to such trivialities, and took the +upper hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Call it what you like, Ally. You know perfectly well what I mean, and +what he meant, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no denying it, and, after all, why should it be denied? Had +she not a right to have other lovers besides Jack?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us come for another canter," she said, in the tone of voice which +an elder sister might have used to a troublesome little brother, who +required to be coaxed out of ill humour. "There is no use being cross +about it, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">She went a little too far, and roused him into laying his hand on her +rein, abruptly. And the action startled her, for she hated any display +of emotion, being, in truth, totally unaccustomed to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not yet, Ally! I want to have this out first. It is time I did. And +yet I don't know how to begin; perhaps because it never had a +beginning. I've always cared for you--you know that. Ever since----" +the young man's eyes grew moist suddenly over some childish +recollection, and then an almost savage look came to his face. "And +you--you cared. I'm sure you cared----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Some people have the knack of saying the wrong thing, and in this case +poor Jack Woodward gave his mistress a handle both to her pride and +her prudence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Care," she echoed, in a patronising tone. "Of course, Jack, I cared. +I cared for you very much, and I care for you now. So much so that I +am not going to let you be foolish any more. We didn't understand what +things really meant in those old days----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You don't understand now," he broke in hotly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't I," she continued; "perhaps I don't, for I don't really see +what there is to make such a fuss about. And it is very selfish----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean to say that it is selfish of me to love you?" he cried. +"Selfish to----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She interrupted him again with the same facile wisdom.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very selfish, if we stand in each other's way. And, after all, Jack, +what we both need to make life really successful is something we +have neither of us got. We are only soap-boilers, you know, and +society----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Society!" he echoed sternly. "What has society to do with it? I +didn't think you were so worldly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not worldly," she retorted, in quite an aggrieved tone; "unless, +indeed, it is worldly to be sensible, to think of you as well as of +myself--to be unselfish and straightforward."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Straightforward! What, do you call it straightforward to let me hang +round you as I have done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really, Jack, you are <i>impayable</i> with your hangings round! Can you +not find a less objectionable phrase?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She was fencing with him, and he saw it, saw it and resented it with +the almost coarse resentment of a nature stronger and yet less +obstinate than hers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, if you like. I'll say you have played fast and loose with me--as +you have. You have known for years that I cared for you, and that I +intended to marry you. And when a girl allows that sort of thing to go +on without a word, and doesn't mean it, I say she is a flirt--a +heartless flirt, and I have nothing more to do with her."</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned his horse as he spoke, and without another word rode off, +leaving her to go home with the groom. Inexcusable violence, no doubt. +Alice told herself so again and again in the vain effort to get rid of +a certain surprised remorse, for the girl was emphatically a moral +coward, and any display of high-handed resentment, so far from rousing +her opposition, invariably made her doubtful of her own wisdom. She +hated scenes most cordially, hated, above all things, to have +opprobrious epithets hurled at her; for she clung with almost piteous +tenacity to her own virtue. It was too hard, too unkind of Jack to +blame her, and yet despite this, his condemnation seemed to dim that +lodestar of her firmament--common sense. After all, if he liked her, +why should they not marry? Why should such devotion be sacrificed to +the Moloch of position? In truth, as she thought over the incident, an +odd mixture of anger and regret came to upset her usual placidity, so +that, much to her own surprise, she broke down helplessly into tears +over her mother's conventional inquiry as to how she had enjoyed her +ride. Nor could she find any reason for this unwonted emotion, beyond +the fact that Jack had been brutal and called her a flirt, and had +ridden away, declaring that he would have nothing more to say to her. +That such would be the case Mrs. Woodward, as she administered sal +volatile and talked about the trying heat, felt was most devoutly to +be wished; but a long course of three volume novels warned her of the +danger of trusting to the permanence of lovers' quarrels. So after her +daughter had been provided with darkness and eau-de-cologne, and a +variety of other feminine remedies against the evil effects of +emotion, she went off to her own sitting-room to consider the position +by the light of her five-and-forty years of human experience. To begin +with, the girl's feelings were clearly more deeply implicated than +she, or for the matter of that Alice herself, had imagined. The +question, therefore, came uppermost whether this fact ought to be +admitted or deprecated; whether in short this evident dislike to +giving her cousin pain was the result of a romantic attachment or +simply the natural kindliness of a girl for a young fellow she had +known from infancy. Now the cogitations of mothers over their +daughters' matrimonial prospects are always fair game for both +moralist and novelist. For some mysterious reason the least display of +prudence is considered worldly; yet, on the face of it, a woman who +has had, say, five-and-twenty years of married life cannot possibly +fail to see how much of her own life has been made or marred by +influences which she never considered in accepting Dick, Tom, or +Harry. In nine cases out of ten it is the remembrance of her own +ignorance which makes her espouse the cause of the lover who can bring +the greatest number of chances for content. And it is idle to deny, +for instance, that a girl marrying into a family which will welcome +her is far less likely to quarrel with her husband than one who is +looked on askance by her mother-in-law. There is, in sober truth, an +immense deal to be said in favour of the French theory which holds +that given a favourable nidus, and kindly atmosphere, the germ of +happiness is more likely to grow into a goodly tree, and bear fruit a +thousandfold, than when it is planted in a hurry by two inexperienced +gardeners in the first pot which they fancy in the great Mart. Owing, +however, to our somewhat startling views as to the sanctity of the +romantic passion over the claims of duty towards oneself and others, +these minor considerations are considered mercenary to the last +degree, and the mother who is courageous enough to confess them openly +is held up to obloquy. Why, it is difficult to say, since none of us +really believe in the popular theory. It will not hold water for an +instant when put to the practical test of experience; even if we leave +out of consideration the fact that fully one-half of the people one +meets have never felt, and have never felt the desire to feel, an +absorbing passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward, for instance, had not; moreover she had brought Alice +up from the cradle to share her views of life, and had never once +found her way barred by any bias towards a more passionate outlook. In +fact, she was, in her mother's estimate, the very last girl in the +world to find sentiment soothing. On the contrary, it distressed her, +made her cry, necessitated her lying down with smelling-salts and a +hot-bottle. Then above all things she loved a certain refined +distinction and exclusiveness. Even as a child she had held her head +high in the soap-boiling connection, and though she would no doubt be +very fairly happy with Jack, the Macleod family was distinctly more +suitable. The question, therefore, soon resolved itself, not into +whether the outworks of the girl's placidity should be defended, but +how this could best be effected. How in short Jack could be prevented +from posing as a martyr; for Mrs. Woodward was sharp enough to see +that, at present at any rate, the danger lay entirely in her +daughter's remorse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was very unkind of Jack I must say," she commented skilfully on +the story which Alice unfolded to her after a time; "but you mustn't +be hard on him, my dear. Men never have so much self-control as we +have, and no doubt the knowledge that you were right vexed him. They +get over these little rebuffs very quickly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It--it seemed to hurt him though--and I hate--all that sort of +thing," murmured the girl doubtfully, looking as if she were going to +cry again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it hurts you apparently, though you know quite well that you only +did your duty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose so," remarked Alice, still more doubtfully; "only I wish he +hadn't been so unreasonable."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So do I; but in these cases the girl always has to have sense for +both. Besides Jack has a vile temper. But it is soon over. You will +see that he will come to dinner as usual--it is the opera night, and +he wouldn't miss that for anything--not even for you, my dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">Alice smiled a watery smile, and said she did not think it meant so +little to him as all that; but Mrs. Woodward maintained her position, +having, in fact, some grounds for her belief, owing to the despatch of +a certain little note which she had sent off before coming in to +console Alice, and which ran thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<span class="sc">Dear Jack</span>,--Alice tells me you were very much put about to-day +regarding our visit to Scotland; why, I can scarcely understand. Dear +boy, if only for your own sake--since you can scarcely wish to quarrel +with her, or us--do try and keep that temper of yours a little more +under control. The poor girl came home crying, and I really cannot +allow you to go out with her again if you are so inconsiderate. You +ought to know quite well how sensitive she is, so for goodness' sake +don't let this stupid misunderstanding disturb us all.--Your +affectionate Aunt,</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Sophia Woodward</span>."</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">P.S.--"We dine earlier to-day, as Alice wants to be in time for the +overture, 'Tannhauser.'"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A note which meant all or nothing according to the wishes of the +reader. In this case it meant all, for Jack, returning to his rooms +after a disastrous attempt to begin his future rôle in life by playing +whist with the old fogies at his club, was feeling that life, even as +a misogynist, was unendurable, when the sight of his aunt's +handwriting made his heart beat. The note was not in the least what he +had expected to receive, and made him somehow feel as if he had +grossly exaggerated the necessity for grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aunt Soph is on my side, anyhow," said the young man, with a certain +elation, "and I was a brute, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p class="normal">The result being, that before Alice, who had been spending the +afternoon with Paul Macleod's sister, Lady George Temple, had returned +from her drive, Jack, with a big gardenia in his coat, was ushered +into the drawing-room, where his aunt, in satin and diamonds, was +skimming through the last few pages of another novel which had to be +returned to the library that evening.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good boy!" she said, smiling. "Now, I hope you won't spoil Alice's +pleasure to-night by even alluding to your rudeness."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack looked a little aghast. "But, Aunt Sophia, I must beg her +pardon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you had better do it at once," replied Mrs. Woodward, "and get +it over. For there she is at the door. You can run downstairs and meet +her, for she will have to go up to dress at once. She is late as it +is."</p> + +<p class="normal">Begging your mistress's pardon on the way upstairs, before the eyes of +a butler and a footman, was not quite what Jack had pictured to +himself; but it was better than nothing, and Alice's unfeigned look of +relief at seeing him could not be mistaken.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward slept soundly that night, feeling that she had done a +good day's work, and steered the bark of her daughter's happiness out +of a great danger. And happiness to her philosophy meant much, since +virtue was so very much easier of attainment when life went smoothly. +This was partly the reason why she did not detail the past danger to +her husband after the manner of some wives, who love to chase sleep +from their good man's eyes by breaking in upon the delicious +drowsiness of the first ten minutes in bed by perfectly needless +revelations of past woe.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tie, in fact, between these two whose night-capped heads reposed +side by side, was a curious one if absolutely commonplace. It +consisted of a vast amount of mutual respect for each other's position +as husband or wife, a solid foundation of placid affection, and no +confidence. For instance, Mrs. Woodward knew considerably more about +her son Sam Woodward's debts than his father did, to say nothing of +minor points in the matter of household management; but then at least +two-thirds of Mr. Woodward's life was absolutely unknown to the wife +of his bosom. He breakfasted and dined at home on week days, and on +Sundays he added lunch to the other meals; what is more, he never +deserted her for the club on the occasion of "At Homes." But of his +life between 10 A.M. and 7 P.M. she knew nothing, except that he +lunched at a bar in the City. So far as this went, he was to her +exactly what he was to the outside world; that is to say, Mr. +Woodward, the lucky financier, whose name meant money. Even the +success or failure of the companies which she saw advertised with his +name as director did not interest her, for she knew by experience that +money and to spare was always forthcoming. And to tell the truth, Mr. +Woodward was a singularly lucky man. When the smash came to the +company "For Preserving the North American Indian from Total +Extinction by Supplying him with a Sparkling Beverage, Exhilarating +but non-Alcoholic, to take the Place of the Deleterious Fire Water," +he had happened to sell his last remaining share the day before; and +even when the scheme for supplying hard-boiled eggs to the settlers in +Africa failed, it did not affect the home supply at all. And yet Mr. +Woodward's character as a business man stood above suspicion, and the +worst that had ever been said of him was that he could sail a point or +two nearer to the wind with safety than most men.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that night he also slept the sleep of the just, undisturbed by the +thoughts of Jack's temerity. Even if he had known of it, it is to be +feared that he would have set the question aside with the mental +verdict that it was clearly the business of the girl's mother to see +to such things. Poor mothers! who as they look at the bald head on the +pillow beside their own cannot but feel, even while they would not now +part with it for all the world, that life would have been less +disappointing if circumstances had been more kind.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for Alice herself, she slept peacefully also, the doubt which poor +Jack's pain had raised in her gentle mind having been allayed by his +prompt submission. And Jack snored--positively snored; for he was +rather fatigued with his own excitement, being of the sort which takes +most things not so much keenly as heavily. To tell the truth, also, +his determination to marry his cousin was so fixed that the greater +part of his pain had been sheer inability to grasp the idea of denial; +so that he reverted gladly to the old position without asking +questions as a less tenacious man might have done.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Lord George Temple sate moodily in the armchair of his study in his +little house in Mayfair chewing the end of a cigar and looking +disconsolately at a tray of whiskey and water and a plate of oval thin +Captain's biscuits on the table. He was a red-haired smooth-faced man +with rather a long upper lip, and a good-natured, somewhat whimsical +expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a confounded shame!" he said to his wife, who, with an opera +cloak slipping from her pretty bare shoulders, was resting for a +moment before going upstairs to bed. "Graham gives his cook +twenty-five pounds a year--I heard her telling you so one day when she +was wanting a new one--and yet there wasn't a thing fit to eat on the +table----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I don't know," put in Lady George, absently; "I think those +stuffed larks came from Mirobolants. I saw that style of decoration in +his place the other day, and I'm quite sure the iced soufflé was +Bombardi's; I know the shape."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Exactly what I said!" continued the husband, "not a thing fit for a +gouty man to eat at the table, and yet a woman on twenty-five pounds +ought to be up to roast chicken and a rice pudding."</p> + +<p class="normal">Blanche Temple looked at her spouse with the compassionate air of +tolerance which she invariably extended to his views.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you can't give your friends roast chicken and rice pudding; you +can't, indeed, nowadays. People wouldn't come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear girl," interrupted Lord George, obstinately, "there were four +men at the table who, like myself, partook of soup, fish, and cheese +straws. And one poor beggar didn't even have the soup." The thought +was apparently comforting, for he began more contentedly on a biscuit. +But his wife was now interested in the subject. Most things interested +her, either to affirmation or denial, for Paul Macleod's sister was a +very clever woman, if at the same time curiously conventional.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well! I don't know who eats the things, then," she said, aggrievedly. +"Why, the last time we had a dinner-party--I mean when the Woodwards +were here--I'm sure Paul ought to be infinitely obliged to me for the +trouble I take--the cook who came in used pounds on pounds of stock +meat, and quarts on quarts of cream; to say nothing of a whole bottle +of whiskey. 'You had better give it her, my lady,' said Jane, 'for +fear as the dinner might 'ave no appearance.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Among other unknown and despised talents which did not suit Lady +George's theory of her own rôle in life was a distinct turn for +mimicry. Her admirable impersonation of Jane, therefore, made her +husband burst out laughing; since by a whimsical perversion of affairs +he loved his wife dearly for the very qualities which she feigned not +to possess. For Blanche was essentially a theatrical woman, loving to +pose in all the relations of life, her present one being that of a +dutiful sister. On Paul's return from India she had not only hastened +to impress on him the absolute necessity for his marrying an heiress +if he wished to keep Gleneira in the family, but had also introduced +him to Alice Woodward, as a girl who would suit the part admirably. +For Lady George knew her brother's foibles thoroughly, and understood +that if he married for money, the bride must be a person who would +neither offend his refinement, nor require much display of affection; +since Paul would certainly never give himself away by pretending a +depth of sentiment he did not feel, and yet would not marry without +something of the sort. That she felt was the worst of him. <i>Au fond</i> +he was absolutely truthful to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course you could sell if you liked," she had said to him +skilfully, well knowing that the very thought was utterly repugnant; +"trade is always ready to buy a Highland property. The only +alternative is to marry a girl with money. I know one, pretty, +lady-like, refined; a girl of whom you would be very fond if she were +your wife. Her father is a speculator. Not quite so safe, of course, +as a solid business--buttons or tallow--though, by the way, he has +something to do with soap. Still, these Woodwards are quite +presentable, and <i>Monsieur le père</i> has his wits about him. And then +you know there are always settlements, and deeds of gift, and those +sort of things which creditors make such a fuss about."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her brother winced visibly. "I should prefer not to have a row with +anybody else's creditors," he said shortly. "<i>I</i> shall have enough +apparently to do in keeping my own quiet. England is a terribly +expensive place to live in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"London, you mean," retorted his sister, gaily. "You can always go +down to Gleneira and vegetate."</p> + +<p class="normal">That had been at the beginning of the season, and now Paul had gone +down, not to vegetate, but to prepare the old place for the visit of +inspection; not without a certain resentful irritation at the +necessity for it. Though at the same time it put the affair on an +easier footing for the present.</p> + +<p class="normal">Afterwards, however, Paul had every intention of imparting sentiment +into the transaction, if it could be done; and he knew himself to have +a vast capacity for falling in love, after the approved romantic +fashion, with any pretty girl who was willing to let him make love to +her. So his sister, bewailing the pounds of stock meat and quarts of +cream expended on his behalf, yet felt that she had been successful; +but, then, she would hardly have recognised herself if she had not +been so, since in her own little world, which she carefully avoided +extending unwisely either upwards or downwards, Lady George Temple was +always cited as a success in all the rôles which she felt called upon +to play.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I heard from Paul to-day, by the way," she said, as she gathered up +her gloves and fan. "He wants me to go and call on that Mrs. Vane. You +remember who I mean, of course?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I don't," replied Lord George, relapsing into moodiness over the +biscuits.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You never do remember what I mean, dear! But she is the Colonel's +wife, who nursed Paul when he nearly died in India. Of course they do +it very often, I know, and it is more confusing than sending for a +woman whom you can pay and get rid of afterwards. Still, she really +did save his life--under Providence, of course--at least, Paul always +said so. Well, her husband, who, I believe, drank, or did something, +died two years ago, leaving her dreadfully off, so she went to live +with somebody--an uncle or an aunt, who, I fancy, must have left her +some money, for she has just taken a house somewhere in Chelsea. And +Paul, who hasn't seen her since those old days, has asked her to +Gleneira, and wants me to make her acquaintance first. Rather a bore, +for I wish to have a particularly pleasant party, and she will most +likely be an old frump."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Scarcely, my dear, if she nursed your brother, and he survived," +remarked Lord George, gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">His wife frowned. "How can you be so absurd, dear; she must be quite +old, for Paul wrote she was a perfect mother to him, and that is quite +six years ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George's eyes twinkled again. "My dear Blanche, you and Paul have +exaggerated notions on the subject of a mother's----" He paused, at a +rattle on the door-handle, and looked apprehensively at his wife. The +next instant two charming little figures in frilled white nightgowns +burst into the room, and flinging themselves into their mother's arms +began to cover her with kisses. The daintiest little creatures, a boy +and a girl, with angelic faces and shrill, excited, happy, little +voices.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you bad children!" cried Blanche, without a trace of vexation. +"So you wanted to see mother, did you? And now you have seen her, off +to bed with you before Nannie comes after you, there's dear ones! +Quick! or she will be coming."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quick, Adam! Quick, Evie!" echoed the happy voices excitedly, in a +rush to the open door, which ended in a sudden pull up, and a still +more excited cry. "Oh, mammy! Oh, daddy! here's Blazes comin' down the +stairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George's face lost its apprehensiveness in resignation. Yet, as +he settled himself back in his chair, his long upper lip betrayed a +disposition to smile, for Blasius, his youngest son, was apt to amuse +him. A very different child this, short, squat, and red-haired, who, +after sundry thumpings and bumpings outside, suggestive of falls, +appeared, rubbing his eyes sleepily, at the door; then the broad, +good-natured face expanded into a grin. "<i>Bickys'!</i>" he said, +laconically, as he toddled across to the tray.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! what a welly greedy little boy, ain't he, Evie?" said Adam. "We +come to see our darlin' mummie, didn't we, duckums?" He was at her +side for a swift caress, and back again to stand expectantly beside +his sister, whose little dancing feet were keeping time to her nodding +golden head. As pretty a picture of light-hearted innocent enjoyment +as heart could desire, even at eleven o'clock at night!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give him a biscuit, do, and let him go," said Lady George, hurriedly. +"It won't hurt him, they are quite plain. Dada will give you a +biscuit, Blasius, and then you can go back to bed, like a dear, can't +you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Blasius' large, round, blue eyes assumed a look of vacuity as the +sentence proceeded; but as he stood sturdily on his little bare feet +beside his father both little chubby hands went out at once, and a +singularly full voice for so young a child gave out conglomerately:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blathe's--'ll--take two, ta."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George shot a glance at his wife and complied; while from the +door came a little whisper, intended to be one of horror. "Oh, Addie! +ain't he a welly greedy little boy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now Blasius will go to bed like a good boy, with his good little +brother and sister," remarked Lady George, with forced optimism. "Adam +and----" Her voice failed before a soft thud as Blasius sat down +solidly, and stuck his little bare feet beyond his little white +nightgown.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mummie can go, Blazeth'll stay with dada--ta."</p> + +<p class="normal">Those two at the door stood bolt upright, with sidelong looks of pious +horror at each other--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Evie! \ +> Ain't he a weally naughty little boy?" +"Oh, Addle! /</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blasius <i>must</i> go to bed," began his mother, quite firmly, +"or--or--mummie will be very much grieved. Her little boy wouldn't +like to grieve his mummie, would he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George, who had looked hopeful at the decision of tone, sank back +in his chair and twiddled his thumbs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better ring for nurse at once, Blanche. It always comes to +that in the end, and the child will get cold."</p> + +<p class="normal">His wife frowned. Her theories had been so successful with Adam and +Eve that the necessity for reverting to the <i>vi et armis</i> with this +baby was grievous. She sate down beside him on the floor, and began in +mellifluous tones.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Listen, Blasius. Mummie wants her little Blasius to do something to +please her; she wants him to do something very much----" She got no +further, being gagged by a little soft hand and a very hard biscuit +together.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blazeth's not a deedy 'ickle boy. Blazeth'll give poor 'ickle mummie +hith bicky, and be a dood 'ickle boy. Then daddy'll gif him anofer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Little chortles of intense enjoyment came from those angelic faces at +the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go to bed, children; off with you at once," said their father, +quickly, whereupon an obedient patter of bare feet fled up the stairs +with an accompanying cackle of high, eager voices, busy over the pros +and cons of Blasius versus authority.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you think she'll assuade him, Evie? I don't." "I think he ought to +be smacked, I do." "I'd let him cry, it don't hurt a child to cry. +Nanna's mother says it's good for the lungs." "And Blazes likes to +cry, he does." "I say, Addie! how long will it be afore Duckum's +mummie has to ring the bell?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The last wonder being faintly audible from the landing above, settled +the business downstairs. Lord George rose and took the law into his +own hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, George!" cried his wife, reproachfully, "how can you expect to +train up children in the way they should go if you are so impatient? +If once I could have got Blasius to understand what was really +required of him----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Here the advent of a big, stalwart figure in a wrapper, bearing a +white shawl, brought such sudden comprehension to the stalwart little +one, that the room for one brief moment resounded with yells. The next +found the door closed upon them, and Lady George looked disconsolately +at her husband, as she listened to the retreating struggles of her +youngest born.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot think what makes him so different from the others," she +said, gloomily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear," replied her husband, consolingly, "Cain came after Adam and +Eve; perhaps the next will be Abel. Besides, Blasius was a risky name. +I told you so at the time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Saint Blasius was a very worthy man," retorted his spouse, hotly, +"and, considering that you and the boy were both born on his day, I +must say I think it quite natural that I should call my child George +Blasius--or, let me see, was it Blasius George?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a matter of no importance, my dear," replied her husband, +drily. He did not remind his wife, nor did she choose to remember that +at the time she had been playing the ultra ritualistic rôle. To tell +the truth, she did not care to be brought face to face with her past +impersonations, unless the fancy seized her to revert to them; when, +at a moment's notice, she could resume the character as if she had +never ceased to play it.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, the next day, with a view to making a suitable impression on +Paul's widow, as she chose to call Mrs. Vane, she put on her most +dowdy garments, and actually went in an omnibus down the King's-road. +Thus far her environment suited her foregone conclusions, but, as she +stood in the wide stretch down by the river, the brilliant sunshine +streaming upon a very bright knocker and a very white door, a certain +feeling of distrust crept over her. Nor was the darkened room into +which she was ushered reassuring. The parquet floors were almost bare, +the windows beneath the striped Venetian awnings were set wide open to +a balcony wreathed with blossoming creepers, and hung with cages of +singing birds. A scent of flowers was in the air, a coolness, an +emptiness, and yet the first impression was one of ease and comfort. +Not the room, this, of an old frump. And this was not an old frump +rising from a cushioned lounge and coming forward like a white shadow +in the half light.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How good of you to come!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George, dazzled as she was by the change from the sunlight +outside to the darkness within, yet saw enough to make her gasp. Lo! +this little bit of a woman with syren written all over her from the +tip of her dainty Parisian shoe to the crown of her fair, curly head, +was Paul's widow. His mother, forsooth! A pretty mother, indeed!</p> + +<p class="normal">Having got so far as this, Blanche, being, amongst other things, +somewhat of an artist, felt bound to admit that Violet Vane was very +pretty indeed; so pretty that it was a pleasure to watch the piquant +face, full of a quaint sort of humour and freshness, grow clear of the +shadows. In this half light she looked younger, no doubt, than she +really was; still, even in the garish day, Lady George felt +instinctively that her charm would remain. In fact, she was not at +all, no! not in the least, a suitable companion for Paul, when so much +depended on his being reasonable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't seen your brother for years," came the sweet but rather +thin voice. "It is so good of him to remember me. So more than good of +him to ask me down to Gleneira that I mean to go, if only to ensure +the kindness being credited to him. I wonder if he is much changed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a certain challenge in the speech which Lady George was +quick enough to recognise, and, as she recognised it, wondered if her +own astonishment had been too palpable, as that in itself would be a +mistake, so she replied deftly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is not changed in one thing--his gratitude to you. And I am +grateful also, for Paul is very dear to me. The dearest fellow in the +world, is he not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a statement to which, in the language of poker, Mrs. Vane could +hardly go one better, and therefore it left her, as it were, to an +under-study of devotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He used to be very nice when I knew him; but, then, sick people are +always nice; they are so much at one's mercy," said the little lady, +airily. They were, in their way, admirable types of their kind, these +two women; both artificial, yet with an artificiality which sprang +from the head in the one case, from the heart in the other; for Mrs. +Vane saw through herself, and Lady George did not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So that is Paul's sister," said the former to herself as, on the way +back to her lounge, after escorting her visitor in friendliest fashion +to the stairs, she paused to take up a photograph case lying on the +table. It contained Paul's portrait as he had been before the time +when she had watched his fair head tossing restlessly on the pillow in +that hot Indian room which nothing would cool. The memory of those +dreary days and nights came back to her in a rush, making her, +paradoxically, look years older, worn, haggard, and anxious. She +seemed to be back in them; to hear the gathering cry of the jackals +prowling past the open door, to see the flicker of the oil night-light +gleam on the splintered ice, turning it for a brief second to +diamonds, as she prepared it for the burning forehead above those +bright, yet glazed eyes; and, more than all, she seemed to feel the +old passionate protest against the possibility of his passing for ever +out of her life joined to the fierce determination to save him to the +uttermost. From what? from herself, perhaps. For Mrs. Vane had +performed the most unselfish act of her life when she had laughed and +scoffed at the devotion and gratitude of her patient. She had had +many, she said, and they had always felt like that during some period +of their convalescence. There was nothing for these sequelæ of jungle +fever like three months' leave to the bears in Kashmir; and, if he +liked, he might bring her home one of those little silk carpets for +her sitting-room as a fee; she would prefer a carpet to anything else. +And so Paul had come back with his unromantic offering, cured, as she +had prophesied, of his feverishness, but not of his friendliness. That +had lasted, despite a separation of years. And something else had +lasted also, to judge by the look on Mrs. Vane's face as she stood +with Paul's photograph in her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George Temple took a cab home, and tried to regain a sense of +lost importance by having the children down to tea. Paul had kept this +thing secret from her; he had allowed her for years to speak kindly, +effusively of the woman who had saved his life as if she were an old +frump, when she was really--Blanche, being a person of sense, felt +forced to acknowledge the truth--one of the most charming little +creatures imaginable, with just that half-sympathetic, half-bantering +manner which was so taking. And Paul, having done this, her own rôle +of devoted sisterhood suffered thereby; so she fell back upon her +motherhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, when her husband returned, he found the room littered with +Kindergarten toys, while Adam was threading beads by the +multiplication table, and Eve was busily engaged in marking the course +of the River Congo in red back-stitching on a remarkably black +continent of Africa, which was afterwards to do duty as a +kettleholder. Blasius, meanwhile, having been so far beguiled into the +Zeit-Geist as to consent to build a puff-puff out of some real +terra-cotta bricks and columns which were intended for an +architectural object lesson.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, George!" began his wife, pausing with a lump of sugar in the +tongs over his cup, "Paul's widow is dreadful; I don't know what I +shall do with her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hand her over to me--I can generally manage to get on with people," +he said, watching the tongs greedily; for the question of sugar in his +tea was the cause of much dispute between him and his wife. A slow +smile came to her face as she replaced the lump.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! my dear; it wouldn't be good for you," she said, coming back to +the present, and then she frowned. "I cannot think what induced Paul +to ask her just when so much depends on the Woodwards feeling +themselves to be <i>the</i> guests <i>par excellence</i>," she continued, after +a brief but picturesque description of the offender. "And this woman +is sure to sing, and play, and dance, and act. I saw it in her face."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jolly sort of person to have in a country house, I should say," +remarked her husband, secretly impressed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew <i>you</i> would say that, George," put in his wife, resignedly. +"Yes! she is just the sort of woman men love to dangle round."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then ask someone to dangle. That will leave the coast clear for Paul +and Miss Woodward."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George raised her eyebrows scornfully. "As if that would do any +good! That sort of woman always insists on having the best men, and +Paul looks that in most society; besides I don't feel called upon to +pave the way to an heiress for anyone else but my brother. That is +what it would come to. No! I cannot conceive why Paul should make +things so--so much more difficult for himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Natural depravity, my dear," suggested her husband, helping himself +on the sly to sugar. "There is such a thing--Hullo! what's that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">That was the sudden discovery on Blazes' part that an Ionic column, +when used as an engine funnel, would, if hit violently with a good, +squat Norman one, break off in the middle; a discovery which was +followed by an outburst of that craze for destruction which healthy +children display on the least provocation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He--he is not a 'Kindergarten' child," remarked his mother, +plaintively, when after a time the upstairs bell had once more been +rung and the offender carried off shrieking amid awed whispers of +intense enjoyment, about "welly welly naughty little boys" from Adam +and Eve.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, my dear, he isn't," assented Lord George, cheerfully. "Some of us +are made that way; his uncle, for instance; but he isn't a fool, and +he knows which side his bread is buttered; a fact which has a +marvellous effect in keeping a man straight."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear George! what a terrible thing to say. It is a reversion to +that fear of punishment----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear! I should like a second cup of tea, and this time I think you +might let me have a small lump of sugar--quite a small one."</p> + +<p class="normal">That evening Blanche wrote a long letter to her brother, which gave +her some trouble to compose. In it she lavished endless praises on +dear Mrs. Vane, who, to judge from her <i>looks</i>, must have had great +<i>trouble</i>, and fully deserved dear, kind Paul's grateful remembrance +of past services; which, by the way, she seemed to have extended to +many other fortunate invalids. Altogether a most delightful woman, of +<i>varied experiences</i> if a trifle <i>manierée</i>; "though this," she added, +"my dear Paul, is, I fear, a common fault with women who have been +made much of <i>by many men</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">As it so happened he read this remark at a small picnic party where +Marjory, the only lady present, was dispensing tea to Will Cameron, +himself, the Reverend James Gillespie, Father Macdonald, Mr. Wilson, +and Donald Post, who had been waylaid on the road just above the +little creek on the loch, where they had lit their fire, to say +nothing of the minister's man holding the Manse dogcart until its +occupants should choose to tear themselves away from temptation and +proceed on their journey.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Quid datur a Divis felice optatius hora?</i>" quoted the minister +gallantly, as he set aside the girl's offer of another cup and rose to +go, while little Father Macdonald, following his example, quoted a +verse from Tasso to show that the memory of a pleasant hour might give +even greater pleasure than the hour itself. Paul Macleod, watching +them, and fully alive to the adoring look on the Reverend James's +face, continuing, as it were the kindly affection of Will's, gave a +short laugh as he tore up his letter and threw it into the embers of +the dying fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory looked at him inquiringly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only something that seems singularly out of place with my present +surroundings," he said in quick response; "but the world has a knack +of seeming very far away when one is in Gleneira."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was true. The more so because the heat-haze lingered, turning the +hills which lay between the Glen and the world beyond it, into a pale +blue, formless wall, which seemed somehow more of an arbitrary +division than it would have done had the contours of each successive +rise been clearly visible. The fierce sun beat down on the limestone +rocks, giving a russet tinge even to their mosses, and Paul Macleod's +useless rod lay in its case, since the river was reduced to a mere +tinkle of clear water in a moraine of boulders. So he took to +haymaking instead, partly because it suited his mood to play the rôle +of country proprietor--for to a certain extent he shared his sister's +dramatic temperament--and partly because Marjory always brought Will +Cameron's tea into the fields. It was quite idyllic to watch her from +afar, making it ready on the outskirts of a nut coppice or belt of +firs, and then to see her stand out into the rolling, undulating waves +of new cut grass which were creeping up the hillsides before the +scythes, and call to them in her clear, young voice, for, of course, +the laird could not be left out in the heat when his factor was +enjoying the cool. So he used to lounge about as Will did in the +scented hay, and talk nonsense, with infinite grace and skill, until, +with the extinction of his pipe, the latter's tardy sense of duty +would take fire, and he would insist on a return to work.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the whole, it was scarcely what Paul would have expected to amuse +him, and yet, after ten years of a land where hay-fields are not, and +it is unsafe to sit about for fear of snakes, it was strangely +pleasant. And so delightfully innocent! This came home to him +one night when, on going to his room, he saw his purse on the +dressing-table, and remembered that for a whole week he had not opened +it. The world had gone on as if there were no such thing in it as +money. He mentioned the fact next day among the hay-cocks, declaring +that if someone would only be responsible for his bills, he himself +would never care to see a shilling again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not I," said Will, rather dolefully; "for I'm afraid, Gleneira, these +masons and carpenters will cost a lot more than we fancied. It is +always the way when one touches a place. I remember when Inveresta +began he told me I wasn't to exceed a thousand, and before he was half +way through his list of absolute necessaries, the figures had passed +fifteen hundred. And yet I don't think it can be helped."</p> + +<p class="normal">He blew disconsolately at his pipe as if it were in fault, for he +prided himself on managing the estates in his charge with strict +economy, but Paul smiled indifferently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My owner will be able to pay, I expect, when I get one. For when the +worst comes to the worst, Miss Carmichael, I can always put myself up +to auction. Do you think I should fetch a fair price? Item, one +Highland estate, seriously damaged by the Crofter Commission, and an +ancestral tree, ditto, by Darwinism. N.B.--Property encumbered by +several mortgages and one extravagant proprietor." He lay back against +a hay-cock with his hands behind his head, looking the personification +of lazy content as he watched her face shift and change. "You don't +seem to approve of my plan," he went on, in the same light tones, "but +the idea has infinite charm for me; it would save so much trouble, and +do so little harm. People sell themselves to the devil, we are told, +and that may be reprehensible--at any rate, it would be uncomfortable. +But what inconvenience or immorality can there be in making yourself +over, soul and body, to some virtuous Christian man or woman who, in +all probability, is far more capable of running the coach respectably +than you are?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The same immorality as there is in any other form of suicide, I +suppose," she replied coldly; but he was not to be put off.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what immorality is there in suicide, Miss Carmichael? I hold that +my life is my own, unless I make over the responsibility of it to +someone else, which you say is wrong. Therefore, I have a perfect +right to do what I please with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Once you have overcome the initial difficulty of discovering what you +do please," she retorted sharply. And he smiled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You use a detective camera apparently, but I admit it. I am only +certain of one thing, it pleases me to please myself. It pleases me +now to forget that there is such a thing as money, and to go to bed at +ten o'clock."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which shows that you are virtuously inclined, and that, +therefore----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I refuse to be whitewashed by your charity," he interrupted. "I am of +the earth, earthy; though sometimes I can lie on my back in the hay +and see heaven opening----" His voice, with a sudden cadence in it, +ceased as he sprang lightly to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come along, Cameron--you are intolerably long over that pipe--my +energy, Miss Carmichael, does not arise from Goodness, but from Greed. +If the hay is not in tonight, it may rain; if it rains, the hay will +be spoilt. If it is spoilt I shall have to buy more, and if I buy more +I shall not have that shilling to spend on myself. It comes to that in +the end, even in Arcadia."</p> + +<p class="normal">There were similar endings to many conversations in which Marjory +tilted bravely at various objects, which, in her heart of hearts, she +feared might be windmills. For she was never quite sure if he was in +earnest or not, and even when he had palpably played the fool with her +pet theories, or scouted a serious thought, a word, even a look, would +come to redeem the past, and give a curious zest to the future. Yet in +a way it distressed her also by confusing her clear-cut, unswerving +outlook on life. A man even professing such atrocious sentiments ought +to be unendurable, and this man was not. Far from it. And what was +almost more disconcerting, he evidently understood her better than +honest Will did; while, as for the Reverend James! the very thought +made her laugh. Yet, on the whole, she welcomed a reasonable cause +which, despite the holiday she had imposed on herself in obedience to +Cousin Tom's wishes, came to make an absence from the hay-fields less +marked, and a reversion to the young clergyman's company quite +natural. This being nothing more or less than a visit from the Bishop, +which, coming as it did in this holiday time, gave to the person who +was ostensibly responsible for the pupils' duties towards their +neighbours fearful anticipations of failure. For James Gillespie +was one of those persons who cannot teach; well meaning, fairly +well-educated, people who know the information they wish to impart and +cannot impart it, people who, in a repetition, invariably prompt the +wrong word, and send the hesitating memory hopelessly astray. And this +was a question of repetition, since the Bishop never interfered with +the secular teaching, which he left, with a Levite shake of the head, +to the Government inspector. So Marjory, relieved she scarcely knew +why, spent these afternoons in hammering the necessary precision into +the children's heads while the Reverend James sate watching her +rapturously and feeling that the whole parish, including himself, +would have no excuse for not knowing its duty towards its neighbour if +she were the clergyman's wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">And on the third day someone else seemed bitten with a desire to +learn, for Captain Macleod strolled in lazily and sate down on the +furthest bench, saying he had come to fetch the letters, and with her +permission would await their arrival in the cool. Why his presence +should have immediately aroused her to a resentful consciousness of +the adoring expression on the face beside her, she did not understand, +but the certainty and the uncertainty of it combined made her turn to +her companion with an audible asperity of tone:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I really think, Mr. Gillespie, that you might try and get the little +ones perfect in their hymn. You must remember that the last time the +Bishop inspected he told the children that the youngest Christian +should know one hymn, and the infants are not even perfect in the +'Happy Land.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">To hear being to obey, Mr. Gillespie retired towards the post-office +portion of the room where, with a semicircle of tiny bare-legged +lassies and laddies before him, he sate beside Paul Macleod and began +his task. It was rather a Herculean one, owing to the fact that his +pupils having no English, as the phrase runs, the simple stanzas were +to them mere gibberish.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is three months they will be learnin' it, whatever," said Mr. +McColl, cheerfully, when the last of the semicircle had failed +hopelessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is impossible, quite impossible," retorted Mr. Gillespie, in a +white heat of anxiety. "Some of them must have picked up something in +that case----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed, no, sir. Naethin's impossible with bairnies. And wee Paulie +there has it fine, for he is at me to learn it on him many a time, +because Miss Marjory was saying he would be a fool if he didn't. Speak +up, Paulie," he added, in the Gaelic, "you have it fine."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wee Paulie hung his close-cropped fair head with its odd little fringe +left over the forehead, so that nothing was to be seen but a rising +flush, and murmured some half-inaudible words, whereat the biggest boy +in Marjory's class said triumphantly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is saying that he will no be saying it to him, but to her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush! Donald," came the quick, clear, dictatorial young voice; "that +is not the way to speak. Stand down two places. Paul, come here."</p> + +<p class="normal">The big Paul, seated on the back bench, looked up and smiled, feeling +it would be rather pleasant than otherwise to obey; and little Paul +pattered shamefacedly across to the girl's side, yet with a confident +air which raised the sleek head a little, and showed a pair of very +long lashes on the flushed cheeks. As he edged close Marjory passed +her arm round him, and with the other hand raised his chin square and +straight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Paul, if you please," she said, in the Gaelic; "clasp your +hands, and say it right out--to the whole school, remember. You know +it quite well, and you should never, never pretend that you don't know +when you do. It is mean."</p> + +<p class="normal">Big Paul, thinking that even reproof sounded pleasant in that voice, +and, at any rate, must be bearable in that position, smiled again, and +continued smiling unavoidably, as little Paul reeled off the whole +hymn from beginning to end in confused, unintelligible fluency, broken +only by hurried gasps for breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A pretty little fellow," said Captain Macleod, in an undertone to his +neighbour. "Who is he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Old Peggy Duncan's grandson--Jeanie Duncan's child--you must remember +her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The words seemed to jar the very foundations of happy, idle, careless +content, and Paul, even in his surprise, felt aggrieved.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I remember her; but they told me she was dead. Who did she +marry?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James Gillespie put on his most professional manner. "I'm +afraid it is a very sad story, but no one really knows the facts of +the case. She left home, as you may have heard----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! I have heard," put in Paul, suddenly, resentfully. "And I--I can +understand the rest. It's a common enough story, in all conscience."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Too true, too true," began his companion, but the laird had risen, +and, with a remark that he would wait outside for the tardy letters, +left the schoolhouse. Apparently he tired even of that, for when +Marjory, after lingering longer than was necessary over the +arrangements for the morrow's inspection with Mr. Gillespie, came out +with a half-annoyed expectation of finding the tall figure still +lounging under the horse-chestnut tree, it had gone, rather to her +surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, it would ensure her the solitary walk home which she loved; +since really it was too much to expect her to devote a whole afternoon +to the Reverend James who, curtly dismissed to a neglected parishioner +up the Glen, watched her pass down the loch with wistful yet still +admiring eyes until she disappeared behind a knoll of ash trees, +hiding the bridge which carried the road to the other side of the +river, and so down the seashore to Gleneira House and Lodge. A road +which, beautiful at all times, was never so beautiful as in the +sunsetting. There was one point, however, where its beauty seemed to +culminate, where, after climbing a rocky knoll cushioned with bosses +of bell-heather and the close oak scrub which springs from the roots +of past cuttings, it dipped down to the very edge of the water. Here, +on spring tides, the waves crept up to smooth away the wheel marks, +and leave a scalloped fringe of seaweed on the turf beyond. And hence +you could see straight through the cleft of the Narrowest, where the +hills embosoming the upper portion of the loch sloped down into the +gentler contours of the lower, right away to the Linnhe Loch, and so +beyond the purple bluff of Mull to the wide Atlantic. On that evening +the sun was setting into it in a golden glory, guiltless of a cloud. +And Marjory, cresting the knoll, thought instantly that here, indeed, +was a chance of the Green Ray. For ever since she had read Jules +Verne's book the idea of this, the last legacy of a dying day, had +remained with her fancifully. Many and many a time, half in jest, half +in earnest, she had watched for it, wondering if she would feel +different after she had seen it. If, in fairy-tale fashion, the world +would seem the better for it. Even if the legend was no legend, and +the phenomenon simply a natural one, due to refraction, there must be +something exhilarating in seeing that which other people had not seen; +in seeing the world transfigured, even for a second, for you, and you +only. Unless, indeed, others were watching with you. And, then, what a +strange tie that would be! To have seen something together that the +rest of the world had not seen; something at which it would laugh, but +which you knew to be true. The quaintness of the idea attracted her as +she walked over the crisp shingle to sit on a rock close to the +incoming tide. Out yonder on the far sea horizon it was a blaze of +light, but closer in the loch showed like a golden network of ripples +with ever-widening meshes enclosing the purple water till it ended, at +her very feet, in a faint foam-edge. There was no sound save the +blab-blabbing of the tiny wavelets on the rocks as they whispered to +each other of the havoc they had done far out at sea, or met every now +and again with a little tinkle of laughter to drown a stone.</p> + +<p class="normal">To Marjory, looking and listening so intently that consciousness +seemed to leave eyes and ears, came a sudden dread, not for herself, +but for others different from what she was.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drowned--dead, drowned--drowned and cold--dead, dead, drowned!" Those +whispering voices seemed to repeat it over and over again, as for the +first time in her life she realised that others might not steer +straight for the sun across the ocean of life, as she did, +unswervingly. Of course, in a scholastic, unreal way she knew well +that there were swift currents to betray, big loadstone rocks to make +the compass waver, but till she had met Paul Macleod the possibility +of anyone deliberately and wilfully weighting his log and depolarising +his compass had not occurred to her. It is so, often, with those who, +as she was, are almost overburdened with that mysterious outcome of +past sacrifices, a sense of duty. But Paul, she recognised clearly, +might steer straight for the rocks, though his knowledge of seamanship +was equal to her own. On that point she would take no denial. It was +her one solace against her own interest in him. But for it what scorn +would be too great for the weakness of her tolerance for a handsome +face, a soft voice, and the most engaging of manners. No! The +charm--for there was undoubtedly a charm--lay elsewhere; in his +considerateness, his quick sympathy. This did not come, as he averred, +from a mere selfish desire to be liked, a mere selfish consideration +for his own comfort. It might suit him to say so, to declare his +disbelief in anything higher, to scoff, for instance, at the Green +Ray. The girl's thoughts rebounded swiftly to their starting-point, +and brought back sight to her dream-blinded eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Too late! Too late! The last outermost edge of the sun had dipped +beneath the sea; the fateful moment was past, and with the little +chill shudder of a breeze which had crept like a sigh over the water +at the Death of Day, the little wavelets at her feet were whispering--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drowned--dead--drowned! Who cares? Drowned! drowned! drowned!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She rose suddenly and stretched her hands out to the fast fading glow, +as if in entreaty. But only for a second; the next the voice of +someone coming up the opposite side of the knoll carolling a Gaelic +song made her turn quickly to see Paul Macleod outlined against the +blue of the hills as he paused on the summit to take breath and look +up into the child's face above him with a smile; for little Paul was +perched on his shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">The western glow, already leaving the earth, fell full on those two +faces, and on the firm delicate hands, holding the child secure. It +was like a St. Christopher, thought Marjory, with a pulse, almost of +pain, at her heart. For it left her bereft of something; of something +that had gone out irrevocably to be Paul's henceforth, even though the +first glimpse of her standing below made him loosen his clasp almost +roughly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that you, Miss Carmichael?" he called, walking on to meet her; +"I'm doing good Samaritan against the grain; but I found the little +imp on the road. He had fallen from a rowan tree and sprained his +ankle."</p> + +<p class="normal">She found it easier for some reason to speak to the child in reproof. +"I've told you so often not to climb so recklessly," she said in +Gaelic.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was getting berries for you; there was a bunch half ripe at the +very top; at least so he says," replied Captain Macleod in the same +language, then at her look of surprise added a trifle bitterly--"you +see I remember--we lairds don't often speak it--more's the pity--but I +have an uncomfortable memory for the days of my youth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was very good of you," she began, when he cut her short.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was least trouble to carry him. He was whimpering like a little +cur at the river pool, so I elected to bring him along instead of +going back half a mile to ask someone else to do it for me. His +grandmother's cottage is just below the point there, isn't it? He can +walk as far as that." As he spoke he swung the child to the ground +lightly. "And you needn't look so fierce, Miss Carmichael; it won't +hurt him."</p> + +<p class="normal">She took no notice of his remark, except to ask the child if he could +manage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you speak in that tone of voice he will say 'no,' of course; but I +assure you it is all right. I've tied it up tight, and it wasn't very +bad to begin with."</p> + +<p class="normal">It had indeed been very neatly bandaged with a handkerchief torn into +strips, and the sight softened her rising indignation. "Possibly, but +it will be none the worse for being put in hot water. Come, Paulie, +lean on me, and if it's bad I'll carry you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Before she could finish, the child was back on his namesake's +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you will show me the way down, I'll save you the trouble."</p> + +<p class="normal">The accent he laid deliberately on the pronoun took half the virtue +from his action, and yet the certainty that he had purposely put it +there showed her that he was alive to something else, and made her +lead the way silently to the cottage; and, even when there, the +remembrance of the St. Christopher picture joined to the unconscious +Highland hospitality, which forbids an unsought parting on the +threshold, made her ask if he would not come in and let old Peggy +thank him for his kindness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I doubt if she would," he replied curtly; "anyhow I won't risk it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps he exercised a wise discretion. Marjory herself was inclined +to think so, in view of the old woman's general attitude towards the +world.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pickin' rowan berries, was he," she echoed wrathfully, turning as she +so often did when angry to the broader Scotch of her youth; "they're +the deil's ain beads for young folk--aye! I mind it was so in the +beginning!" Her restless claw-like fingers busied themselves over the +coverlid, and her restless eyes followed Marjory, who was attending to +the sprained foot, which to say sooth was not a very serious matter. +"And Mr. Paul hefted the wean, and wouldna' come in bye to say a word +to the auld wife. That was real kind, or maybe it wasn't; but there! +he never brocht luck to my hoose, an' he wouldn't raise a finger to +do't. It's the way o' the warld, the way o' the warld."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is not fair, Peggy," retorted the girl, roused as she always was +by injustice. "The laird was speaking of you only the other day. He is +much annoyed at your having been allowed to go on the roll, and +said----"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old pauper's hands stopped their uncanny fingerings, and every +line of the old face hardened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I choose to be on the pairish, I'll be on the pairish. It's better +than Mr. Paul's charity, an' ye may just tell him sae frae old Peggy +Duncan. I may be wrang, I may be richt, an' Him above only kens hoo it +is, but I was no born on his land, and I'm no his poor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All the kinder of him to offer help," persisted Marjory. "And you +have no right, just because you are in an evil temper, to speak as if +he had done you some wrong."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wha says he did?--not I! D'ye think I soud be lyin' here wi' him oot +ben if he had. Na! Na! Half deid as they are, my auld fingers wad be +at his bonnie fause face." The very vigour of her own voice seemed to +choke her, and she fell into a fit of coughing, then lay back +exhausted into a more Christian frame of mind. "God guid us, Miss +Marjory," she gasped, "but I'm jest an awfu' limmer whiles. If I was +to be nippit awa' this nicht I ken fine whaur I'd wauken."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And quite right, too," replied her visitor, severely, recognising the +half-apologetic tenor of the last remark, and, seizing the opportunity +for a bit of her mind before old Peggy, with some sidelong sally, +should escape deftly from the difficulty, after her wont.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye, aye! The tongue is an unruly member, and yet I bridle it whiles +for fear o' findin' myself in the same mansion wi' the pairish +officer. Eh! yon's an awfu' man, Miss Marjory, for sweerin', and I +just couldna' thole him. So, if ye like, ye may give old Peggy +Duncan's thanks to the laird, when you see him, for bringing the +laddie hame. Maybe it was kind o' him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was kind of him, very kind," said the girl, stoutly, feeling dimly +pleased to hear herself say so, and know that there could be no +mistake about that. And yet she felt vexed when she found him waiting +for her on the road when she came out into the darkening dusk.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought it was the proper thing to do," he replied, to her little +stiff expression of regret that he should have troubled himself so +far.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What was the proper thing?" she asked captiously. "I am quite +accustomed to walking home in the dark."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Proper to act up to your opinion of me, and be self-sacrificing, +perhaps." He paused, then said, suddenly, "Don't let us quarrel, Miss +Carmichael; it is such a lovely evening."</p> + +<p class="normal">True a thousand-fold! True beyond measure! The light had left +everything, save the sky and the sea as they walked on side by side +silently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How's the patient?" he said, at last, reverting somewhat to the old, +airy, half-bantering tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well; thanks to you. If he had walked home he might have been laid up +for days."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did as little as I could, I assure you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"On the contrary, you did more than was necessary. Paul told me how +you comforted him, and sang songs all the way to cheer him up."</p> + +<p class="normal">She would not allow him this denial of his own virtues, or accept his +estimate of himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was to cheer myself up, and forget my dislike to carrying a +dirty little boy, I expect. The study of one's own motives, Miss +Carmichael----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He got no further, for she turned to him with a quick gesture of +pained denial. "Don't--please don't. Why should you slander yourself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Something in her tone roused a response in him for a moment, but the +next he had smothered it in a sort of reckless desire to shock this +girl with the intelligent, trustful eyes--to force her from her belief +in him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Slander," he echoed; "there is no slander, I assure you. What do you +know about my life? Would it help you to understand my complicated +state of mind about that boy, for instance, if I told you that I was +once madly in love with his mother, and that I still think her the +most beautiful woman I ever saw?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He had not intended this confidence; yet now he had given it, he did +not regret the impulse, nor did he wonder at it, since the thought of +that past idyll had been interfering so much with the present one +during the afternoon, that he felt inclined to get rid of both once +and for all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have always heard she was very beautiful," replied Marjory, slowly; +"but, of course, I did not know----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He burst into a hard laugh. "That I fell in love with her! Really, +Miss Carmichael, you are most disconcertingly cool!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was going to say," she put in, unmoved, "that I did not know she +was the sort of person----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would fall in love with? Indeed! Perhaps, as you appear to have +formed some sort of estimate as to the qualities likely to attract me, +you might give me a hint or two. It might help me in the selection of +a wife." He hardly knew what he was saying, for his temper had got the +better of him; indeed, he did not care for the moment what he said, +save that it should be something that would put an end to this +confidence of hers. But he had reckoned without her absolute +unconsciousness; what is more, without her fearlessness and high +spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I said nothing about a wife," she replied quietly. "Why should I? You +were talking of love, and I knew that you had made up your mind to +marry for money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I have; what then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, except this--that since you can set love aside so easily, I +fail to see what effect the memory of a past one could have on your +present life--that is all."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her in the growing darkness, wishing that he could see +her face more clearly; wishing still more keenly that he could see +straight into her mind and satisfy himself that this calm indifference +was simply cold-bloodedness. But what if it was something more? If +here, at last, he had found that of which most men dream at times; the +refuge from themselves. And when he spoke again his voice had changed +its tone, though the bitterness remained in the words.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You make no allowance, then, for the power of a sentiment, especially +when it is morbid and unhealthy. And yet such things mean more to most +of us than right or wrong; because they are more human."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a pause; then she turned to him with a smile, which he felt, +more than saw.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid I don't understand what you mean."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps it is as well you do not," he replied; and changed the +subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">But from that day their mutual attitude towards each other altered, +perhaps unconsciously. To tell the truth, the remembrance of the St. +Christopher rose up between her and Paul in his less admirable +impersonations. All the more so, perhaps, because of his strange, +impulsive confidence regarding his love for the boy's mother. He must +have been quite a boy himself at the time, she thought; no older than +she was now, and boys were so much younger than girls for their age. +She felt vaguely sorry for that young Paul and his fruitless love; for +Marjory, like most girls who have been much in contact with the poor, +accepted the facts of life calmly, looking at them straight in the +face, and calling them by their names fairly, ere she passed them by. +And so no doubt of that past to which Paul had alluded so frankly ever +crossed her mind. She felt, almost unconsciously, that he would not +have spoken about it to her had there been any cause for such +suspicion. So the only effect of his attempt to shock her was to bring +into stronger relief her confidence in his gentlemanly instincts. And +Paul, seeing this, metaphorically took off his shoes before the holy +ground which she prepared for him, even while he fretted against the +necessity imposed upon him by that better part of his nature, which, +in environments like these, would have its say. And then, even as he +discussed the matter with himself cynically, telling himself at one +and the same time that she was not human enough to see, and that it +would be cowardly to open her eyes, there would come with a rush a +fierce resentment at all reason. This was holiday time, and it would +soon be over for him. A week or two more and Gleneira would be full of +London ways and London talk; it would be time enough then to remember +the world, the flesh, and the devil.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">There was some excuse for his refusal to face a struggle, for in the +sunshiny days which followed, Nature herself held high holiday, and +the most prosaic might well have found it impossible to avoid falling +in with her gracious mood. The heather-flush was beginning to creep +over the curves of moor, the rowan berries ripened under the sun's +kiss, the juicy <i>guienne</i> cherries purpled the children's mouths, and +the oat fields hid their poverty in a cloak of golden marigold. Down +in the shady nooks the stately foxgloves still lingered, while on the +sunniest spots the bracken was gathering the sun-gold into its +delicate tracery against the coming gloom of winter. Such times come +rarely; times when it is possible to forget the world of toil and +trouble, of sin, sorrow, and shame, which lies beyond the circle of +the everlasting hills; times when one is content to let life slip +past, without counting its pulse-beat; times when one seems to enter +in spirit with that divine rest, because the whole world seems good in +our eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, dulled as he was by world-tarnish, felt the charm; Marjory, +fresh from her sober youth, yielded to it gladly. Will Cameron, with +the hay safe housed and harvest secure in the future, said the weather +was too good for farming, and gave himself a holiday, and even Mr. +Gillespie, free from inspection anxieties, and rejoicing in the +Bishop's praise, fell back for a while on college sermons, and studied +future ones in stones and running brooks. Only Mrs. Cameron, despising +the heat, bustled from kitchen to store-room, from store-room to +dairy, indignant over the irregular meals, and the still more +irregular milk. It was enough, she said, to turn that of human +kindness sour to have charge of five Ayrshires and two Jerseys in such +weather, with an English cook coming, or a Frenchman maybe--the laird +was equal to that iniquity--who would use crocks on crocks of powdered +butter. She knew them! graceless, godless creatures, and Will, instead +of wandering like a tinkler about the place, should be at the markets +buying pigs, to eat up the sinful waste of good victuals which would +begin ere long at the Big House. It was very well of William to smile, +and for the laird to say he didn't mind; but what would Lady George +say to the cook? And how did William expect to supply the Big House as +it should be supplied, when every crofter body was asking one and +eightpence a pound for butter she wouldn't look at? And it all +trysted, every pound of it, to the English folk over at the Forest, +who were coming down like a flight of locusts, devouring the land with +pipers and bad whiskey, and a set of idle, pasty-faced, meat-eating +English maids, ruining the country side with bad examples! There would +have to be a judgment, nothing less, when Sheenach--barefooted +Sheenach from the blackest hut on the property--Marjory would +mind it, seeing that she held it to be a disgrace to a Christian +landholder--set her up for new-fangled notions indeed!--had actually +spoken to her, Mrs. Cameron, about beer-money! The kitchen girl over +at the Forest, forsooth, got it, and three shillings a week for +washings. Heard one ever the like! a barefoot lass that had not spent +three shillings on washings since she was born, and would have to look +to it for white robes in the future. And Mistress Mackenzie at the +ferry house saying calmly that her prices would be doubled from the +10th August.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is too true, mother," Will would say consolingly. "I'd like to see +the Commission have its way, and destroy the Forests altogether, if +only to teach the people what it would mean. But there! parcel post is +only twopence a pound, and we can get butter from Devonshire. They pay +high rents there, you know, so they can afford to sell produce +cheaper." But even this paradox would not soothe the old lady's ire, +and the three idlers would escape from the butter-problem into the +wilderness of beauty beyond the fat pastures which fed the dairy; in +so doing, no doubt, following the example of the offending English +folk, who do not care to trouble their holiday with thoughts of the +dishonesty and greed they foster and encourage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many a tramp had these three over hill and dale. Sometimes climbing +the boulder-strewn heights whence sea and land showed like a map; more +often lingering by the river lazily, as it made its way through the +grassy uplands in a series of foamy leaps and oily pauses. For here +the sea-trout were to be beguiled by patience; if not by that, then by +the red-tailed fly which Will used with the consummate skill of the +real pot-fisher. Paul, on the other hand, beset by lingering +prejudice, would lounge on the bank intermittently, offering the rod +to Marjory in order to bring him luck; while she, engaged in +collecting a perfect herbarium, would deprecate her own past skill in +the Long Pool.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the admirable underhand cast was a chance also?" he retorted +drily. "Really, Miss Carmichael, my modesty is catching."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory laughed. "Oh, no! I learnt that from Will. I never could make +out whither he went on Sundays, till one day I came upon him in that +little strip of pasture in the middle of the larch plantation, +flicking at dandelions with his ten-foot rod. Then he confessed that +it was his usual occupation of a Sabbath afternoon, because it was so +deadly dull with nothing to do at home. So after that I flicked, too. +We used to do it against each other for hours, didn't we, Will?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ten for a dandie, twenty for a daisy, fifty for a bumble-bee," +murmured Will from under his tilted hat, as he lay on the grass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"An instance of the deceit which the irrational worship of the Sabbath +is apt to produce," remarked the Reverend James Gillespie, whose +conscience invariably assailed him when he had not made a professional +remark for some time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is so refreshing to hear you accuse Miss Carmichael," said Paul, +gravely. "Deceit is a mortal sin, isn't it, Mr. Gillespie?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James hesitated. He looked sorely out of place amid the +wilderness in his black garments, with Paul in his loose Indian suits, +and Will guiltless of coat and waistcoat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Deceit, cheating--whoever doth wickedly, etc.--generally comes under +common theft--non-bailable," murmured the tilted hat softly; for Will, +in his youth, had studied law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I congratulate you, Miss Carmichael," said Paul, still gravely, "on +having attained the position of a real criminal. I have a sneaking +admiration for them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because they have done--what I have been afraid to do!"</p> + +<p class="normal">So the day would slip by in idle talk and idler work, until the +lengthening shadows warned them they were far from home, and Will +would grow restless over the prospect of dinner <i>versus</i> the tea, with +which he had more than once been put off on occasions of gross +irregularity. While Paul would boast of his freedom from all control, +or offer to stand in the breach by begging a meal at the Lodge; since +even Mrs. Cameron's tongue softened when it spoke to the laird, and a +vein of humour ran through her blame.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's clean reediklous, Gleneira," she would say. "Here it is gone +ten, and supper was bidden at eight. An' if you expec' me, a Christian +woman, to tell Kursty that <i>my</i> son is even as them who mocked Elijah, +or that it was I that made a mistake, you're just wrong. An' a' for a +wheen trouties, that's no good for kipper or for anything but to +cocker yourselves up wi' at breakfast, instead of being contented with +good porridge, as your fathers were. But there! we ken find that Esau +sold his birthright for a mess o' pottage."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I don't wonder at it," Paul would reply gravely; "if he was half +so hungry as I am. How much was it, Cameron, that the hook-and-eye man +offered me for Gleneira? A man must eat, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">Whereupon the old lady would remark that, as she at least knew her +duty, his father's son should never lack bread in her house, and so +bustle away good-humouredly to hurry on supper. The unpunctuality was +not, however, always their fault; and on one occasion followed on an +incident which had a curious effect in still further softening +Marjory's judgment on handsome, idle, kindly Paul, and introducing +that vein of pity, which, in women of her type, seems an almost +necessary ingredient of affection. It may be only a triviality, the +half-humorous despair of a buttonless shirt, the possibility of dirty +tablecloths, or it may go further into uncared-for sickness and +loneliness, but the thought of personal discomfort to a man whom she +likes is always grievous to women who have not been educated out of +their housewifely instincts.</p> + +<p class="normal">It came about in this wise. There was a certain Loch of the Fairies +which, despite its great beauty, Marjory had seldom seen, for this +reason. It lay hidden in the highest corries of the deer forest, +accessible only by the burn watering the sheltered glen which, from +time immemorial, had been the sanctuary; and not even for Marjory +would old John Macpherson disturb his deer, or allow them to be +disturbed. But Paul thought differently when he found that the girl's +face brightened at the idea of an excursion thither; for, to him, the +nearest pleasure was invariably the best.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb," he said, with a laugh. "We +will start early and make a day of it. And I'll ask Gillespie to come. +He is always telling cock-and-bull stories about the big fish there, +so we will set him to catch one. I never did."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Will Cameron agreed also, saying he would take the opportunity to +meet the forest keeper on the march, and settle the position of a new +fence to keep the hinds from straying. Only old John shook his head, +with mutterings regarding future sport and old traditions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As if <i>that</i> were not worth all the sport in the world," said Paul, +almost exultantly, as, climbing the last bracken-set knoll, and +leaving the last Scotch fir hanging over a wild leap of the burn, they +filed past a sheer bluff, and saw in front of them a long, narrow, +almost level glen, through which the stream slid in alternate reaches +and foaming falls. On either side almost inaccessible cliffs; in front +of them, cutting the blue sky clearly, a serrated wall of rock closing +up the valley. Great sharp-edged fragments from the heights above lay +strewn among the sweeping stretches of heather, whence a brood of +grouse rose, blundering to the anxious cackle of the hen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There they are," said Will, from force of habit in a whisper, "up on +the higher pasture. I thought they would be; so we shan't disturb them +a bit if we keep to the burn."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, shading her eyes from the sun, stood looking on one of the +prettiest sights in the world; a herd of red deer dotted over a hill +slope, or seen outlined against the horizon line. Paul, from sheer +habit also, had slipped to the ground, and had his glass on them. +"Splendid royal to the left, Cameron--wonder if we shall get him this +year--and, by George, there's the old crooked horn! I remember, Miss +Carmichael, trying to put a bullet into him--well, we won't say how +many years ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a slaughterhouse a man's memory must be," remarked Marjory, with +her head in the air.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not in this case, at any rate," retorted Paul. "Sometimes I am +merciful--or miss; which answers the purpose quite as well." As he +spoke the memory of Jeanie Duncan rose quite causelessly to his mind, +and he started to his feet impatiently; for somehow little Paul's +existence had taken the bloom off his self-complacency in regard to +that episode.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now for the Pixie's loch," he cried gaily. "The ladies have it all +their own way there in destruction, if tales be true. I wonder which +of us three unfortunate males she will choose as her victim to-day?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, looking down as they crested the last boulder-strewn rise on +the almost black and oily sheet of water in the crater-like cup of the +corrie, felt that she did not wonder at the legends which had gathered +round the spot. The very perfection of its loneliness, its beauty, +marked it as a thing apart from the more familiar charm of the world +around it. There seemed scarce foothold for a goat on those pillared +cliffs which sank sheer into the dark water, and the streak or two of +snow lingering still in a northern recess marked, she felt sure, some +deep crevasse hidden from sight by the innocent-looking mantle of +white. Nor could one judge of the depth of the lake by the jagged +points of rocks which rose here and there from the surface of the +water, for, as she stood, she leant against a fragment of some earlier +world, which looked as if it must have fallen from the sky, since the +vacant place left by such a huge avalanche must have remained visible +for ever in the rocks above. So those out yonder might go down and +down, forming vast caves where the Pixie might hold her court of +drowned, dead men. She turned to look at Paul suddenly, +apprehensively; perhaps because, even in her innocence, she recognised +instinctively that there, with all its gifts, with all its charm, lay +the nature to which the syren's song is irresistible. But he, stopping +on the brink to dip his hand into the water, was looking back at her +with a laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By Jove!" he said, "isn't it cold? Enough to give anyone the +shivers."</p> + +<p class="normal">As he spoke, far out on the glassy glint of water came a speck of +stronger light, widening to a circle, widening, widening ever, in +softening ripples.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! I told you so!" cried the Reverend James, excitedly; "a +five-pounder at least!" After which, naturally, there was no time for +sentiment, no time for anything but an unconfessed race as to which of +the three should have his fly on the water first. Marjory, left to her +own devices, wandered as far as she could round the level edge, which +to the south lay between the lake and the cliff, until she came to the +moss-clad moraine, through which the water found its way to new life +in the first long leap of the burn below; for the loch itself was fed +by unseen springs. She could hear the stream beneath her feet tinkling +musically, and gurgling softly, as if laughing at something it had +left behind, or something it was going to meet; and the sound +oppressed her vaguely. Here, in an angle of sand, stood a half-ruined +boat-house, and within it a boat painted gaily, yet with an air of +disuse about it which made Marjory go inside and look at it more +closely. It seemed sound enough, and yet, as she wandered on, she +hoped that the fishers might not be tempted to use it out on those +unknown depths. Then, coming on a great bank of dewberries, she sank +down into the yielding heather and gave herself up to enjoyment, +finally stretching herself at long length on the springy softness, and +watching the lake through her half-closed eyelids. Suddenly, with a +smile, she began to sing, and then as suddenly ceased. Cliffs could +give back an echo, certainly, but not so clear an one as the tenor +tone which followed close on that first phrase of the "Lorelei." An +instant after Paul's figure showed round a rock below, busily engaged +with a swishing trout rod.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Die schönste Mädchen sitzet +Dort oben wunderbar." +</div> + +<p class="normal">An echo, indeed! and Marjory sat up among the dewberries, feeling +indignant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Captain Macleod," she called aggressively, "have you caught +anything?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned, as if he had been unaware of her presence, and raised his +cap. "It is not a question of my catching anything, Miss Carmichael, +but of my being caught. There is a syren about somewhere; I heard her +just now; did you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I generally hear myself when I am singing," she replied coldly. +"Where is Will?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Will," replied Paul, cheerfully, "is swearing round the corner. He +has just had a splendid rise, and his hook drew. No further +description necessary."</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed, and Captain Macleod went on in the easy familiar tone +which had taken the sting out of so many other remarks which, to +Marjory's unsophisticated ears, had savoured of impertinence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If we neither of us get another this round, we are going to start +over the hills for the fence. I want to see it myself. You will find a +splendid place for tea about a quarter of a mile down below the fall. +Heaps of sticks--bits of the primeval forest washed out of the +moss--so you will manage nicely; besides Gillespie will be here."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was just such a careless, brotherly speech as Will might have made, +and Marjory appreciated it. Besides the thought of an hour or two, +absolutely to herself, in those solitudes had an indescribable charm; +indescribable because, to those who know it not of themselves, words +are useless, and those who do need them not. For her, with a stainless +past and a hopeful future, it was bliss unalloyed to wander down the +burn-side, resting here and there, watching the ring-ouzel skim from +shelter, or an oak-eggar moth settle lazily on a moss-cushion. And +yet, as she sate perched on a rock far down the valley above a deeper +pool than usual, she amused herself by singing the "Lorelei" from +beginning to end, secure from unwelcome echoes. So back on her traces +to the baskets which had been hidden in the fern, and the preparations +for tea. The relics of the primeval forest burnt bravely aided by some +juniper branches, the kettle was filled, boiled, and set securely on a +stony hob; and then, free from cares, Marjory chose out a springy nest +among the short heather and curled herself round lazily to watch the +sky line where before long two figures should come striding into +sight, dark against the growing gold of the westering sun. Blissful +indeed; extremely comfortable also.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she woke Paul Macleod was calling her by name, and she started up +in a hurry. "I came on as fast as I could lest you should be +wearying," he said, and his face showed he spoke the truth. "It was +further than we thought for. Where's Gillespie? He can't be fishing +still, surely. I didn't see him on the shore as I came past."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, confused as she was by sudden awakening, remembered one +thing, and one thing only--the boat--the old rotten-looking boat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You didn't see him--and he hasn't been here! Oh! Captain Macleod, I +do hope nothing has happened--the boat----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense!" replied Paul, decisively, "nothing can have happened. +Still, it's late--you have been asleep some time, I expect. Perhaps he +has missed you, and gone home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He could not miss the fire," she said quickly, "and he cannot swim. +If he has taken the boat, and if----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no use imagining evil," put in Paul, drily; "as you are +anxious I will go----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will come with you," she said eagerly; "if I put some more wood on +the fire----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will be ready for us when we return," remarked Paul, cheerfully, +"and Gillespie will want his tea. I expect he is in to the big trout +or----" he paused before her anxious face and told her again that +nothing could have happened. She surely did not believe in pixies? +Still, he grew graver when a look at the boat-house proved it to be +empty, and his first shout brought no answer, except a confused, +resounding echo.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he had gone beyond that bluff into the inaccessible part, which he +is likely to have done with the boat--he might not hear. Come on--and +don't imagine the worst. If, when we can see all the water----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused, and said no more, as, with her following fast at his heels, +he hurried up the brae which hid the further reach of the lake. So, +being a step or two ahead, and several inches taller than she was, a +view halloo, followed by a laugh, was her first intimation that the +search had come to an end. The next instant she had joined the laugh, +for a more ridiculous sight than the Reverend James Gillespie +presented as he stood up, in full clerical costume, on an uneven rock +some two feet square, in the very middle of the loch, could scarcely +be imagined. The cause, however, was clear in the half-sunk, +water-logged boat, jammed on a jagged rock, which was just visible +above the water close by.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you been there long?" called Paul, recovering himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"All the afternoon," came back in hoarse and distinctly cross tones. +"I shouted till I could shout no more. I thought you had all gone +home!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gone to sleep," remarked Paul, aside, as he sate down and began +deliberately to unlace his boots. "Now, Miss Carmichael, if you will +look after the tea, I'll rescue the shipwrecked mariner, and bring him +to be comforted."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, eyeing the stretch of black water nervously, suggested he had +better wait for Will to turn up; but Paul laughed. "I'm relieved to +find you have some anxiety left for me--yet it is really absurd. I +could swim ten times the distance ten times over; besides, I'll bring +him back with the oars if that will satisfy you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt that it ought, yet as she turned to leave him, the keen pang +at her heart surprised her, and not even his gay call of reassurance, +"Two teas, please, hot, in ten minutes," given, she knew, from such +kindly motives, availed to drive away a sudden thought of that +gracious face--drowned--dead--drowned. Such irrational fears, when +they come at all, come overwhelmingly; since the mind, imaginative +enough even to admit them, is their natural prey. Yet this very +imagination of her own was in itself startling to the girl, who caught +herself wishing she had not sung the "Lorelei," with a sort of +surprised pain at her own fancifulness. It was absurd, ridiculous, and +yet the sight of Will's loose-limbed figure coming to meet her, +brought distinct relief as she bade him go on and help Captain +Macleod. Even so, as she blew at the fire and made the tea, the +thought would come that a man who could not swim would be of no +possible use if--if--if---- So, in the midst of her imaginings, came +at last the sight of three figures striding down the brae, talking and +laughing; at least, two of them were so engaged, the Reverend James +having scarcely recovered his temper, and being, in addition, almost +quite inaudible from his previous efforts to make himself heard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The pixie wouldn't have him, said he wouldn't suit the place," said +Paul, gravely, when, with the aid of several cups of tea, the victim +had finished his tale of the big trout, which had deliberately dragged +him on to a jag, knocked a hole in the bottom of the rotten old boat, +and left him helpless, taking advantage--and this seemed the greatest +offence--of the confusion consequent on the manœuvre, to swim away +with ten yards of good trout line and an excellent cast. At least, +this was Will's view of the situation, the Reverend James attempting +hoarsely to give greater prominence to the saving of his own life, +while Paul gave a graphic description of their procession down the +loch to the landing-place, with the clerical costume packed out of +harm's way in the fishing-basket which was swung to the butt end of +the rod, and Marjory indignantly disclaimed the slumber of the Seven +Sleepers, declaring that the shouting must have gone on when she had +been down the burn. So, chattering and laughing, the tea things were +packed up, and they started homewards.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us have a race down the level," said Paul, suddenly; "that water +was cold as ice."</p> + +<p class="normal">Five minutes after, when Marjory caught him up, as he lingered a +little behind the two others, who were just disappearing behind the +bluff at the entrance to the sanctuary, she was startled at his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ague," he said, in answer to her look. "That is the worst of India. I +told you the water was cold enough to give anyone the shivers." He +tried to laugh it off, but he was blue and pinched, his teeth were +chattering, and with every step the effort to stand steady became more +apparent. The sight of his helplessness made the girl forget +everything but her womanly instinct to give comfort.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had far better sit down for a while," she said, eagerly. "I can +easily light a fire, and we have the kettle. Some hot whiskey and +water----" But Paul was actually beyond refusal; he sate down weakly, +utterly knocked over for the time, and unable to do anything but +mutter, between the chatterings of his teeth, that it would not last +long--that it would be all right when the hot fit began--that she had +better go on and leave him. To all of which Marjory replied, in +businesslike fashion, by bringing him a great bundle of bracken as a +pillow, spreading her waterproof over him, and piling it over with +more fern, till he smiled faintly, and chattered something about there +being no necessity for covering him up with leaves--he was not dead +yet. Then the fire had to be lit, the kettle boiled, a jorum of hot +toddy brewed, a stone warmed and set to hands and feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, if you lie still for half an hour," she said magisterially, "I +expect you will be much better when I come back." And he was hot--as +fire, of course, and shaky still, but minus the cramps, and very +apologetic for the delay.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You couldn't possibly help it," she interrupted quickly. "You +looked--you looked----" and then something seemed to rise up in her +throat and keep her silent. But it was just this look of utter +helplessness which remained in her mind, bringing with it always a +tender compassion; and as the remembrance of him with little Paul on +his shoulder served to soften her towards his atrocious sentiments, so +that of his sudden physical collapse served to lessen the sort of +resentment she had hitherto felt to the charm of his great good looks. +She could not have explained how either of these facts came about; she +was not even aware that it was so, and yet it did make a difference in +her attitude towards him. A pity for his weakness, for his faults and +failings, came to take the place of condemnation.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the days passed, until one evening as they trudged home from an +unsuccessful raid on the river, Mr. Gillespie remarked that the +herring were in at Craignish, and the mackerel often came at the back +of the herring, so, maybe, it would be worth while to have a try at +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Better than the river, anyhow," grumbled Will, who, even with the +red-tailed fly, felt the horrid weight of an empty creel on his +shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul looked at Marjory. It had come to that in most things by this +time, and as often as not, as now, no words were necessary. "Then I +will tell John Macpherson to have the boat ready to-morrow, for it is +my last day--of leisure, I mean. My sister comes on Saturday, my +guests follow on Monday, and after that--the deluge, I suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should not wonder," remarked Will, gravely; "the midges were awful +to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">Both Paul and Marjory laughed; they could not help it, despite their +vague regret that holiday time was over.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Paul's last day was one of those never-to-be-forgotten days, when the +mist lies in light wreaths below the mountain tops, which rise clear +and sharp against an intense blue sky; when masses of white cloud hang +in mid-air, bringing with each new moment some fresh beauty, born of +shadow, to sea and shore; when a cool breeze blows unevenly, every now +and again darkening the water to a purple, and cresting the waves with +foam-streaks edged with turquoise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"None too soon," said Paul, briefly, as the "Tubhaneer" (so called +from her washing-tub-like build) cast off her moorings, and stood out +for the middle of the loch. "I told you it would be the deluge after +to-day, Miss Carmichael. We shall have rain to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Will nodded his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't talk of to-morrow!" said Marjory, quickly; "to-day is +enough, surely."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, from amid-ships, applauded softly, and she attempted a frown, +which ended feebly in a smile. And wherefore not? Sufficient, indeed, +unto that day was the pleasure thereof. The red-brown sail drew +bravely, the long line lay curled up forward, the oyster dredger +rested athwart, the rifles were with Paul amid-ships, the lithe rods +swept out astern behind Marjory as she leant lightly over the tiller, +her eyes upon the quivering sail; for it needed every inch she could +gain to avoid a tack, even though the current of the outgoing tide was +aiding them to slip through the Narrowest to the open sea beyond.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where will the white rock be?" she asked of Donald Post, who, being +learned in banks and baits, would often set his wife to carry the bag +while he was off and away after the sea fishing. He was now opening +mussels with a crunching sound, regular as a machine.</p> + +<p class="normal">'"Deed an' she will be right ahead of us whatever," he replied, +without a pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There will be plenty of water, I suppose?"</p> + +<p class="normal">'"Deed she will no be havin' much on her, anyhow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then how shall I steer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just as she is, Miss Marjory, just as she is; she will be doing fine, +I'm thinking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A miss is as good as a mile," murmured Paul, engaged in stretching +his long length comfortably over some ballast kegs. "Can you swim?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory nodded. "Then save me, please; I really am not inclined to +exert myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So it appears," remarked Will Cameron, in an injured tone. He and the +Reverend James were forward, busy over the tangled lengths of the long +line, and the necessity for restraining his tongue before the cloth +was telling even on the former's easy temper; for a long line in a +tangle is quite indescribable in Parliamentary language.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep her in a bit, Marjory. We must anchor over the fishing-house +bank for a while, and get bait for this--this <i>thing</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I shall have to tack."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tack, indeed! If you don't like it, I'll steer and you can tackle +this--this <i>thing</i>. Look out, Donald!--two trees and the white stone."</p> + +<p class="normal">Round went the tiller. "Now, John!" said the girl; the sail came down +with a clatter, the way slackened, the anchor, poised in Donald's +watchful hands, splashed overboard, and the "Tubhaneer" drew up to it +with her mast, and the two trees, and the white stone in a line.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well done, Miss Marjory; that was well done, whatever," rose Donald's +voice softly, between renewed crunching; and two minor splashes +following close on each other told that the Parson and Will had their +hand-lines down. Then came a silence, broken only by the fitful gurgle +of the water against the "Tubhaneer" as she swung round to the tide, +and that monotonous crunch, crunch of the mussel-knife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"John Roy, he wass takin' five whitin's from the bank last week," rose +Donald's voice once more, quite causelessly. "It wass a bit of himself +he was catching them with. It iss nothin' the whitin's iss liking so +much as a bit of himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then silence again, his hearers being too much accustomed to the +intricacies of Donald's style to be startled by this novel fact in +natural history. So, amid the stillness, a sudden jerk of the Reverend +James's right hand, a pause of intense expectation--to judge by the +rapt look on his comely face--then disappointment from bow to stern, +and a general slackness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will just be ain o' they pickers," mused Donald, recovering from +his momentary idleness; "or maybe a sooker. It iss the pickers and +sookers in this place that just beats all. Oo-aye! If it wass not a +picker, it will be a sooker."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is the difference between a picker and a sucker, Donald?" asked +Marjory, severely practical.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed, then, Miss Marjory, and it iss not any difference there will +be between them at all. It is a sooker that will not be caring a tamn +for the hook, and it is the picker that will not be caring a tamn +either."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ahem!" interrupted Mr. Gillespie, with reproachful glance at Donald's +unconscious back; "I believe, Miss Marjory, that pickers or suckers is +really only the local name for young codlings, lythe, or cuddies. In +fact, for all young fish."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is not them at all," retorted Donald, scornfully. "It iss sookers +and pickers, and not young fish they will be, and it iss not a local +name, whatever." The last came with such a glance of sovereign +contempt for the offender, that Paul, from his ballast kegs, smiled up +at Marjory, who smiled back at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Got him at last! and a good one too!" sang out Will, ending the +discussion by a new topic of all-absorbing interest, which held the +boat's crew in suspense till the rasping rub of the line over the side +and the drip of water falling back on water ceased in a disgusted +exclamation from the captor of a small flounder, hooked foul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Little deevil," murmured John Macpherson, in such a self-communing +tone, that the Reverend James felt the observation must pass.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It iss pulling like that they are," commented Donald, affably. "John +Roy he was fishin' at the ferry-house, and thinkin' it wass a +<i>skatach</i> he got, and cryin' on me for the gaff he wass, but it was +two flukies he was hookin' by their tails."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory looked as if she were inclined to dispute the fact, then +joined in the dreamful silence, which, with spasmodic awakenings as +fish after fish came over the side, lasted until there was enough +bait, and Will gave the word to move on. Then the anchor came up laden +with a root of oarweed, in which strange shells and starfish lay +entangled; so it was handed aft for Marjory to see.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is squeakin' like a mice yon beast will be," said Donald, pointing +to a sea-urchin. "Aye! an' bitin' most tarrible he is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is quite impossible," interrupted the girl, cutting short +various other facts which trembled on Donald's lips. "They couldn't +bite if they tried."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it is squeakin' like a mice they are, whatever," he retorted +doggedly; "for John Roy wass tellin' it to me." John Roy being +Donald's Mrs. Harris, the subject admitted of no further discussion, +and the ensuing pause was broken by a sudden question from Paul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you ever find niggerheads about here now? I remember when I was a +boy in petticoats----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He took the tiny cowrie of dazzling whiteness she handed him by way of +answer, and said no more. How many years, he wondered, was it since he +had last thought of niggerheads? Truly the world was a strange place, +and a man's brain stranger still.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now the long line, duly baited for skate and haddock, was being +paid out and left drifting, moored to floats which seemed to dance +away on the waves, as the "Tubhaneer" with sail full spread made for +the last, low, sunlit point, and so, entering the Linnhe Loch, headed +straight for the blue Kingairloch Hills. To the left lay Lismore, a +glimmering strip of green and gold amid the shining sea; behind was +Port Appin, with its heather-crested bluff, and spidery-black pier; +before them the serrated line of Ardnamurchan, and beyond, faint in +the distance, the headland of Mull jutting into a glint of the +Atlantic. To the right rose Shuna with its swelling grassy slopes and +cross-signed pebble shores, like a fairy island in the summer sea. So +further afield Appin House, set in fir knolls, Ardgour lighthouse +glimmering to the left, and beyond, all the hills rising clear and +cloudless to the peak of Ben Nevis.</p> + +<p class="normal">On Ami's bay a cluster of boats in shore told that the herring were +in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They never come to Loch Eira now," remarked Will, idly. "It is funny, +but they don't."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will not be funny at all, sir," expostulated Donald. "It wass +comin' they were every year, sure's I sit here, but it wass old John +Mackenzie he wass going after them on the Sabbath, and it wass not +coming any more after that they were."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that is a fact, of course?" asked Will, gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will not be a fact at all, sir," echoed Donald, "but it was old +John himself wass tellin' it to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe it to be quite true, Mr. Cameron," put in the Reverend +James; "indeed I remember the Bishop commenting upon the circumstance +in a sermon. He brought it in most beautifully, and so conclusively."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It wass a burnin' shame of the old <i>bodach</i>, whatever," grumbled John +Macpherson. "Ay! Ay! a dirty trick, whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, watching the sea-pyots wheel and veer against the blue of the +distant hills, smiled to herself. The mere thought of the Bishop in +his lawn sleeves seemed unreal out there in the sunshine. Everything +was unreal save the boat skimming with a little hiss through the +water.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's a steamer rounding the point below Lismore," said Will. "What +will she be, I wonder?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She will be the salt ship from Glasgow for the harrin'," replied +Donald, after prolonged deliberation. "That iss what she will be, an' +ferry welcome. I mind when the harrin' were in Glen Etive, and the +salt ship she wass not comin' at all, the people wass diggin' holes in +the peat, and fillin' them with the harrin'. It wass not keepin' ferry +well, but it was eating them were. A terrible year for sickness it +wass, though the harrin' was that plenty, they wass takin' them in +buckets."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed an' it was a dirty trick of that old <i>bodachs</i> to be driving +them away," grumbled Macpherson, "a dirty trick--Gorsh me!--yon's a +seal--quick, Mr. Paul!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a sudden, still stir in the crew, and all eyes turned to +where a smooth brown head slipped oilily through the water. Marjory +held her breath half-shrinkingly, yet said no word. Not even when Paul +whispered "Ready, Cameron?" and, heralded by a little flash and puff, +the simultaneous report of the rifles frightened the sea-pyots into +screaming flight. The head disappeared as the bullets went ricocheting +over the water in soft <i>ping-pings</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Too high," said one voice, mournfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! but the direction was good."</p> + +<p class="normal">These remarks, which in constant substance but varying form follow +most unsuccessful shots, appeared satisfactory to the speakers; for +Paul retired to the thwarts again, and Will resumed his pipe, while +Macpherson looked pensively through one of the rifles to see if it had +leaded, and the general excitement died down.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is curious," remarked Marjory, disdainfully relieved, and +speaking, as it were, to the circumambient air, "how even a remote +prospect of killing something will rouse a man's love of destruction."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, leaning one arm on the thwart, looked up at her solemnly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"True--too true. We are destructive, or rather, accurately speaking, +we should like to be destructive--only we aren't. That was a bad miss +of mine. But if we like to destroy, you women love to annex. Witness +that pile of seaweed and shells beside you. You don't really want it, +and ten to one when it comes to the bother of carrying it home, you +will leave it behind you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me," remarked the girl, "you shall carry it for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A foregone conclusion, if you wish it, of course; but in that case +you will simply add my services to your possessions. And in like +manner you will dispense with them when I cease to be amusing. Woman +all over!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks, Gleneira!" laughed Will. "It does me good to hear Marjory +kept in order. She bullies me awfully about shooting seals, and I +fully expected her to sneeze or cough. She generally does."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew you wouldn't hit," retorted Marjory, scornfully, "and it +pleased you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Pleased 'er and didn't 'urt me,' as the navvy said when his wife +beat him," put in Paul. "By Jove! Miss Carmichael, if I had known what +you thought, I would have put a bullet----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hist!" cried Marjory, holding up her hand. There, within a stone's +throw, was the smooth brown head, with large, liquid, confiding eyes +turned towards the boat. Not a ripple, not a sound, showed that it was +in motion, and yet it slipped past rapidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gorsh me! but the beast's tame," whispered John, unable to contain +himself in the inaction; but the whisper might as well have been a +clap of thunder, for the round head sank noiselessly into the water, +leaving scarcely a ripple behind it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why didn't you shoot, Captain Macleod?" asked Marjory, with an odd +little tremor in her voice, at which she herself was dimly surprised; +"you might have hit that time, for it couldn't have been more than +fifteen yards off."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never thought of it," he replied quietly; "the beast looked so +jolly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It looked quite as jolly when it was far away, no doubt."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I couldn't see it. And if we discuss that point I shall find it +as much out of my range as the seal was. So give me a good mark for +refraining when I did see its jolliness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Besides, it would have been no good trying. It would have been down +like a shot if we had stirred a finger," said Will, philosophically.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul Macleod sighed. "There goes my last claim to saintship. You are a +perfect devil's advocate, Cameron."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, really, Miss Marjory," put in the Reverend James, who had, as +usual, been left far behind in the quick interchange of thought, "I do +not see why you should object to shooting a seal. Man is permitted by +a merciful Creator to destroy animal life----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In order to preserve his own, and even then it seems a pity," +interrupted the girl, eagerly. "Oh, I daresay, Captain Macleod, the +feeling isn't strong enough to make me turn vegetarian, but it <i>is</i> +wanton cruelty to kill a poor seal which is of no use to anyone!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There you go!" grumbled Will. "Why! I wanted its paws awfully for +tobacco pouches--mine is quite worn out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your remark, Cameron, is childish and unreasonable," replied Paul, +from his lounge. "You cannot expect Miss Carmichael's tolerance of +humanity to extend to tobacco pouches. Let us be thankful it concedes +mutton chops."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A seal is a ferry clever beast, whatever," put in Donald. "It wass +John Roy wass walking on the rocks at Craignish, and he wass seeing a +big seal, and heavin' stones at it, and--gorsh me!--but it wass takin' +the stones and fro'ing them back at John. And, tamn me! but the +creature wass a better shot than John--oo--aye! a far better shot +whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that is a fact, Donald?" asked Will, solemnly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a fack at all, sir; but John Roy he wass tellin' it to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not so clever as the Kashmir bear, Donald?" put in Paul. "When it has +to cross a stream in flood it carries a big boulder on its head to +keep itself steady."</p> + +<p class="normal">"An' is that a fack, sir," asked Donald, readily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The people were telling it to me, anyhow!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then they were big liars whatever," said Donald, with such an +inimitable air of shocked conviction that a general shout of laughter +rose on the sunny air.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, bright, glad day! Oh, careless, foolish talk! Oh, deep abiding +sense of peace and good-will in all that sea-girt mountain world which +rose around them, havening their little boat! Could it be that there +was trouble, or toil, or tears, yonder where the mist floated so +tenderly, or there, where cottage and castle, meadow and moor, wheat +and tares were blended into one purple glory? There were not many such +days in life, so let us cherish the mere memory of them!</p> + +<p class="normal">The mackerel, it is true, were not to be beguiled, but what matter? +The boat skimmed over the blue water; two red-brown sails stood out to +the West or East.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No use trying any more," said Will at last, with a shake of the head +over Paul's placid repose; for lunch had come to fill up the measure +of content, and the laird was back among the ballast with a large +basket of strawberries. "I think, Donald, we might try the big lythe +off Shuna."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The tide will no be answerable awhile, sir, but there will be no +excuse for the <i>bedach ruachs</i> at the rocks; no excuse at all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let us hope the fish will have a sense of duty," murmured Paul from +the strawberries; "cold-blooded creatures generally have."</p> + +<p class="normal">They anchored out of the tide race in a backwater of the current, and +Marjory, looking over the side, could see far down into the green +depth where pale, pulsating Medusas came floating by, and every now +and again a flash of light told of a passing fish.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Too much tide," began Paul, eyeing the set of the lines from his +retreat, when four mighty and coincident strikes silenced his wisdom +for a while. But only for a while, since amid the rasp and rub of wet +lines against the side came Will's voice despondently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm in to some of you others."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So am I--and I----" echoed Marjory and the Reverend James. Only Donald +Post whispered softly, "It is the deevil is on mine whatever," and +Paul, without stirring hand and foot, suggested the mainland of +Scotland. But it was neither. The lines passed to the stern produced +conjointly a codling, which after swallowing two baits had tried at a +third, and so hooked itself foul in the fourth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's an object lesson for you, Miss Carmichael," said Paul, +teasingly. "How about your theory of the cruel hook and the poor +fish?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not feeling a tamn, fish is," commented Donald, calmly +disgorging the baits. "It was fishin' for <i>bodachs</i> old John Boy was, +and he was catchin' her foul by the eye, and the eye she come out. But +John Roy wass leavin' it on the hook and the <i>bodach</i> was comin' again +an' takin' his own eye."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And there is a fact for you," continued Paul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! No! sir," protested Donald, with a twinkle in his eye; "it will +no be a fack whatever, but John Roy he wass tellin' it to me." Whereat +there was laughter again.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, as the day drew down, they landed on Shuna to boil the kettle for +tea with driftwood gathered from the shore, and wonder idly as the +flames leapt up to shrivel the lowermost leaves of the rowan tree by +the spring, whence the wreckage which burnt so bravely had come; for +storm and stress seemed far from their world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, while the boatmen took their turn at the scones and cake, the +jam and toast, they climbed the grassy slopes, and, sitting down by +the old tower, watched the sunset idly; for all things, even pleasure, +seem idle on such days as these. The clouds had pricked westwards, as +if to aid the Atlantic in a coming storm, but below their heavy purple +masses lay a strip of greeny gold sky, into which the sun was just +sinking from a higher belt of crimson-tinted bars.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No Green Ray for us to-night," said Marjory, with a smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul raised his eyebrows. "No Green Ray on this or any other night, in +my candid opinion."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James looked puzzled. "I have often heard you mention +this Green Ray, Miss Marjory, but I am not quite sure to what you +allude."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To a fiction of Jules Verne's, that is all," put in Paul, quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing of the sort; people have seen it," corrected the girl, +eagerly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Say they have seen it," murmured Paul, obstinately, and Marjory +frowned.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will explain it to you, Mr. Gillespie," she went on, with assertion +in her voice. "It is a green ray of light which shoots through the +sea, just as the topmost curve of the sun touches the water. I watch +for it often. I intend to watch for it till I see it, as others have +done."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what good will it do to you when you have seen it?" asked Paul. +They were speaking to each other, despite the pretence of general +conversation; but it was so often.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't the least idea," she answered airily; "for all that, I look +forward to seeing it as a great event in my life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Great events are dangerous; like some very valuable medicines, +uncertain in their effects. Birth, for instance--you may be born a +fool or a wise man. Marriage--a chance of the die--so I'm told. +Death." He pointed dramatically upwards and downwards with a whimsical +look on his anxious, gracious face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I deny it, I deny it altogether," cried the girl, forgetting herself +and him in her eagerness. "You are either in existence before birth, +or you are not. In the one case you must remain yourself, in the other +you, being nonexistent, cannot suffer chance or change. It is the same +with death. If there is no <i>you</i> to survive, death itself ceases to be +since you are non-existent. If there is, you must remain yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Surely, my dear Miss Marjory," said the Reverend James, breaking in +on the girl's half-questioning appeal, "we are to be changed in the +twinkling of an eye?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And marriage, Miss Carmichael?" put in Paul, quietly, passing by the +last remark as if it, too, had been non-existent. "You left out +marriage in your philosophy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her face fell, yet softened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know; it is like the Green Ray, something to dream about."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To dream about! Ah! that sort of marriage is, I own, beyond the +vision of ordinary humanity."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But indeed there is nothing scientifically impossible in the Green +Ray. You have only to get the angle of refraction equal to the----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Spare me, please. If I have to swallow romance I prefer it +undisguised. Even as a boy I refused powders in jam."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wish I had," grumbled Will, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "I +have never been able to eat black-currant jelly in consequence. And it +is awfully nice in itself. Come, Marjory, we ought to be going."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is very hard to get rid of acquired tastes," muttered Paul, in an +undertone, as he rose, and quite familiarly held out his hand to help +Marjory to her feet also. "For instance, it will be difficult to +forget the flavour of the past fortnight."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you forget it?" They were standing apart from the others, +who were looking eastward to see if the boatmen were ready.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because the pleasure of it has been demoralising."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't believe in the demoralising effect of pleasure."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps not. You are one of the virtuously constituted whose pleasure +consists in behaving nicely. Mine doesn't."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her hand went out in an impulsive gesture of denial.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you say that? You are not----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How can you know what I am?" he began bitterly, yet indifferently; +his eyes, not upon her, but fixed far on the distant horizon, as if +arraigning some unseen power which had made him what he was. Then he +paused abruptly, and infinite surprise drove everything else from his +face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look!" he cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look?--what?--where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look!" His hand was on hers now, and its trembling touch seemed to +give her sight.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a new heaven and a new earth! For, on the outermost edge of the +world, the last beam of light from the sunken sun shot through the +waves, flooding sky, and sea, and shore, with a green light, soft and +pellucid as the heart of an emerald. But only for an instant. The next +he had loosed her hand and the light was gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you staring at so, Miss Carmichael?" His mocking tone jarred +her through and through. She looked at him in sheer bewilderment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The--the Green Ray!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Green Ray!" he echoed, in the same tones. "I say, Cameron! Here +is your cousin declaring she has seen the Green Ray. Did you see +anything?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only the seal you were watching out on the rocks yonder," called +Will. "Splendid shot, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Green Ray!" echoed the Reverend James, bustling up. "Dear me, how +interesting, and I missed it, somehow. What was it like, Miss +Marjory?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl stood with her clear, cold eyes fixed on Paul's face. "I +scarcely know. You had better ask Captain Macleod. If I saw anything, +he saw it also; and saw it first!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you have such a much more vivid imagination than I," he replied +easily, "that what would be to me merely an unusually beautiful +effect, might be to you a miracle. It is simply a question of +temperament, and mine is severely practical. In fact, Cameron, if we +are to get home to-night, it's time we were going."</p> + +<p class="normal">"By George!" said Will, when, with a general scramble, they had stowed +everything on board, "it's later than I thought, the tide has turned, +and the wind is almost down. We must take the sweeps, I am afraid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"All right," said Paul. "Hand us over an oar."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was a different man; the lazy content was gone, and he gave a +stroke from a straight back which made Donald gasp between his +efforts--"Gorsh me! but he is a fine rower, is the laird!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But there was silence--the silence of hard work--for the most part, as +they toiled home with wind and tide against them. Yet the scene was +beautiful as ever in the growing moonlight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are not more than a mile from the house here, Marjory," said Will, +as they rounded a point below the Narrowest; "but it will take us a +good hour to get her to the boat-house, and I can't leave her here; +it's spring tides, and the painter's not long enough. But I'll land +you on that rock, and the laird will see you home. Mother will be +getting anxious."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would rather stay," she was beginning, when Paul cut her short.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Back water, bow; pull, Donald. Luff her a bit. Miss Carmichael, +please. That will do." They were alongside the little jetty of rock, +and he was out. "Your hand, please, the seaweed is awfully slippery. +Donald, pass up those shells, will you, they are in my handkerchief. +All right, Cameron. Give way."</p> + +<p class="normal">It had all passed so quickly, and this masterful activity of Paul's +was so surprising, that Marjory, rather to her own surprise, found +herself following close on his heels as he forced a way for her +through the dense thickets of bracken, or held back a briar from the +path in silence. Yet the silence did not seem oppressive; it suited +her own confusion, her own vague pleasure and pain. She had seen the +Green Ray, but she had seen it through Paul Macleod's eyes. Yes; +whether he would or not, they had seen it hand in hand. He might deny +it, but the fact remained. He was one of those who could see it!</p> + +<p class="normal">And Paul, as he walked on, felt that the silence intensified his clear +pleasure and clearer pain. For there was no vagueness in <i>his</i> +emotions. It was not the first time that the touch of a woman's hand +had thrilled him through and through, as Marjory's had done as they +looked out over the sunset sea; but it was the first time that such a +thrill had not moved him to look upon the woman's face! And they had +stood still, hand in hand, like a couple of children, staring at the +Green Ray! What a fool he had been! What did it mean save something at +which he had always scoffed, at which he meant always to scoff! And +then the Green Ray? Was his brain softening that he should see visions +and dream dreams? He, Paul Macleod, who loved and forgot all, save his +own physical comfort. As everyone did in the end. And yet it was a +familiar pleasure to be in love again honestly, a pleasure to feel his +heart beating, to know that the girl he fancied was there beside him +in the moonlight, that he could tell her of his heart-beats if he +chose. But he did not choose. Love of that sort came and went! Did he +not know it? Did he not know his own nature, and was not that enough? +And yet, when they reached the high road a sudden desire to make her +also understand it, made him say, abruptly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"When do you begin work? In London, isn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes; in November."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you are really going to waste life in a dull, dirty school, +teaching vulgar little boys and girls."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall teach them not to be vulgar."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders. "You cannot fight against Nature, Miss +Carmichael; as we are born, we remain. You will only kill yourself in +your efforts at regeneration."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think not. I am very strong to begin with, and then I hate rusting +in idleness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Rust may be better than tarnish. When I think of you here in this +paradise--a fool's paradise, perhaps--and of what you must encounter +there, it seems preposterous for you to mix yourself up. But you do +not understand; you never will." He had forgotten his new outlook in +the old resentment at her unconsciousness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Understand what? I can understand most things if I try."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can you? I doubt it. You cannot understand me, for instance, but that +is beside the question. The only comfort is that real life will +disgust you. Then you will return to the home you should never have +left."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no home--you know that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can make one by marrying, as other girls do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not like other girls, thank you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you think I can't see that?" he broke out quite passionately. +"Should I be talking to you as I am if you were--why, I can't even +speak to you of what some of them are. It is because you are not as +other girls----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you wish me to behave as they do. You are scarcely logical." Her +tone was as ice, and, chilling his passion, sent him back to his +cynicism.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Logic and love do not generally run in double harness, Miss +Carmichael; but if you prefer the former, I am quite prepared to stick +to it. Someone wants a wife, someone wants a home. It is a mere case +of barter. What can be more natural, sensible----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And degrading."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me, not always. I will take my own case if you will allow me. +We have touched on it often before. Let us speak frankly now. I need +money, not for myself alone; for the property. You have hinted a +thousand times that I am a bad landlord; so I am. How can I help it +without money?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You could be a better landlord than you are."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I chose to live on porridge and milk; but I don't choose, and I +don't choose to sell. I prefer to stick to champagne and devilled +bones, and give up another personal pleasure instead. And you say it +is degrading."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I said nothing of the sort. I spoke of myself. It would degrade me. I +do not presume to speak of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you think it all the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if I do, what is that to you?" she cried suddenly, in hot anger. +"I do condemn you, if you will have the truth. I think you will +deliberately turn your back on the best part of life if you marry for +mere comfort--and, what is more, that you will regret it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Possibly. I regret most things after a time. Let us wait and see +whether you or I find the greatest happiness in life. Only we are not +likely to agree even there, for we shall not see the world in the same +light."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Unless High Heaven vouchsafes us another Green Ray," she said coldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The allusion aroused all his own vexation with himself, all his +impatience at her influence over him. They were passing the short cut +leading to the Lodge, and he paused.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think I need intrude on Mrs. Cameron tonight," he said. +"Good-bye, Miss Carmichael." Then suddenly he turned with a smile of +infinite grace. "Let us shake hands over it to show there is no +ill-feeling. It is my last holiday, remember; and, according to +you, I am going into penal servitude for life. But I'll chance my +ticket-of-leave. I am generally fairly virtuous when I have enough to +eat and drink. And we have had a good time, haven't we?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very," said Marjory. And though he tried hard to get up another +thrill as their hands met, he failed utterly. He might have been +saying good-bye to his grandmother for all the emotion it roused in +him; and as he strode home he scarcely knew if the fact were +disconcerting or satisfactory. The latter, in so far that it proved +his feeling for Marjory must be of a placid, sentimental form, to +which he was unaccustomed. What else could it be in such surroundings, +and with a girl who hadn't a notion what love meant?</p> + +<p class="normal">And Marjory, as she crossed the few yards between her and Mrs. +Cameron's comments, felt vexed that she was not more angry with the +culprit. But once again the thought of the St. Christopher, and of +Paul's blue, chattering lips, when he had the chills at the Pixie's +Lake, came to soften her and make her forget all but admiration and +pity.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Rain! Rain! Rain! One drop chasing the other down the window-pane like +boys upon a slide. Beyond them a swaying network of branches rising +out of the grey mist-curtain veiling the landscape, and every now and +again a wild whirl of wind from the southwest, bringing with it a +fiercer patter on the pane. Those who know the West coast of Scotland +in the mood with which in nine cases out of ten it welcomes the +Sassenach, will need no further description of the general depression +and discomfort in Gleneira House a week after Paul had said good-bye +to Marjory at the short cut. For he had been right, the deluge had +come; and even Mrs. Cameron, going her rounds through byre and barn in +pattens, with petticoats high kilted to her knees, shook her head, +declaring that if it were not for the promise she would misdoubt that +the long-prophesied judgment had overtaken this evil generation. And +she had lived in the Glen for fifty years.</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Lady George, who had arrived at Gleneira wet, chilled, +uncomfortable, yet still prepared to play her rôle of hostess to +perfection, fell a victim to a cold, which, as she complained, put it +out of her power to give a good rendering to the part. Since it was +manifestly impossible to receive her visitors, arriving in their +turn wet, chilled, uncomfortable, with anything like the optimism +required, for protestations that Highland rain did no harm, and hot +whiskey-and-water did good, were valueless, when you sneezed three +times during your remark. If she could only have gone to bed for one +day, there would have been some chance for her; but that was +impossible, since nowadays one couldn't have a good old-fashioned cold +in one's head without the risk of breaking up one's party from fear of +influenza! So she went about in a very smart, short, tweed costume, +with gaiters, and affected a sort of forced indifference even when the +cook, imported at fabulous wages, gave up her place on the third day, +saying she could not live in a shower bath, and was not accustomed to +a Zoölogical Gardens in the larder; when the upper housemaid gave +warning because hot water was not laid on to the top of the house, and +the kitchenmaid refused to make the porridge for the half-dozen +Highland lassies, who did all the work, on the ground that no +self-respecting girl would encourage others in such barbarous habits. +But all this, thank heaven! was on the other side of the swing door; +still, though the guests could scarcely give warning, matters were not +much brighter in, what servants call, collectively, the dining-room. +Breakfast was a godsend, for a judicious admixture of scones and jams, +and a little dexterous manipulation of the time at which people were +expected to come down, made it last till eleven at the earliest. And +then the hall was a providence. Large, and low, and comfortable, with +a blazing fire, and two doors, where the ladies could linger and talk +bravely of going out. Looking like it, also, in tweeds even shorter +and nattier than Lady George's, yet for all that succumbing after a +time to the impossibility of holding up an umbrella in such a gale of +wind, joined to gentle doubts as to whether a waterproof was +waterproof. Then there was lunch. But it was after lunch, when people +had manifestly over-eaten themselves, that the real strain of the day +began. So that the Reverend James Gillespie, coming to call, despite +the pouring rain, as in duty bound, was delighted with the warmth of +his reception, and Lady George, making the most of the pleasing +novelty, reverted unconsciously to a part suitable to the occasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me!" she said plaintively; "this is very distressing! Imagine, +my dear Mrs. Woodward! Mr. Gillespie assures me that there is no +church in the Glen, only a schoolhouse. Paul, dear, how came you never +to mention this, you bad boy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, who, after sending the most enthusiastic men forth on what he +knew must be a fruitless quest after grouse, was devoting himself to +the ladies, and in consequence felt unutterably bored, as he always +did when on duty, turned on his sister captiously:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought you would have remembered the fact. I did, and you are +older than I am. Why, you used always to cry--just like Blazes +does--if my mother wouldn't let you open the picture papers during +service."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George bridled up. It was so thoughtless of Paul, bringing all +the disagreeables in life into one sentence; and reminiscences of that +sort were so unnecessary, for everyone knew that even the best +childhood could not stand the light of adult memory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But surely there was a talk, even then, of a more suitable building. +I suppose it fell through. High time, is it not, dear Mrs. Woodward, +for our absentee landlord to repair his neglect?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The farm-steadings have first claim to repair, I'm afraid, Blanche," +returned Paul, refusing his part. "The church will have to stand over +as a luxury."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George, even in her indignation, hastened to cover the +imprudence, for the Woodwards were distinctly high.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a bit of it, Paul! We will all set to work at once, Mr. +Gillespie, and see what can be done--won't we, dear Mrs. Woodward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would suggest writing to the Bishop as the first step," said the +Reverend James, modestly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then a fancy fair," continued Lady George.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Delightful! a fancy fair, by all means," echoed an elderly +schoolfellow of Blanche's, who had been invited on the express +understanding that she was to do the flowers and second all +suggestions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I trust you will have nothing of the kind, Blanche," put in Paul, +with unusual irritation. "I hate charitable pocket-picking. I beg your +pardon for the crude expression, Miss Woodward, but I have some +excuse. On one occasion in India I was set on by every lady in the +station, with the result that I found twenty-five penwipers of sorts +in my pocket when I got home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Twenty-five, that was a large number," said Alice, stifling a yawn. +"What did you do with them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Put them away in lavender as keepsakes, of course."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Paul," put in his sister, hurriedly, recognising his unsafe +mood. "We do things differently in England. We do not set on young +men; we do not have----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A superfluity of penwipers," interrupted her brother, becoming +utterly exasperated; but as he looked out of the window he saw +something which made him sit down again beside Alice Woodward, and +devote himself to her amusement. Yet it was a sight which with most +men would have had exactly the opposite effect, for it was a glimpse +of a well-known figure battling with the wind and the rain along the +ferry road. But Paul Macleod had made up his mind; besides, rather to +his own surprise, the past few days had brought him very little of the +restless desire to be with Marjory, which he had expected from his +previous experiences in love. It was evidently a sentimental attack, +unreal, fanciful, Arcadian, like the episode in which it had arisen. +And yet a remark of his sister's at afternoon tea set him suddenly in +arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Gillespie told me there was a girl staying at the Camerons', +Paul, who was a sort of governess, or going to be one. And I +thought--if she hadn't a dreadful accent, or anything of that sort, +you know, of having her in the mornings for the children."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Carmichael, Blanche," he broke in, at a white heat, "is a very +charming girl, and I was going to ask you to call upon her, as soon as +the weather allowed of it. I have seen a good deal of her during the +last few weeks, and should like you to know her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Really, in his present mood, Paul was almost as bad as a dynamite +bomb, or a high-pressure boiler in the back kitchen! Still, mindful of +her sisterly devotion, Lady George covered his indiscretion +gracefully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, she is that sort of person, is she? I must have misunderstood Mr. +Gillespie, and I will call at once, for it is so pleasant, isn't it, +Alice dear, for girls to have companions."</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet, as she spoke, she told herself that this was an explanation +of her brother's patience in solitude, and that it would be far safer, +considering what Paul was, to keep an eye on this possible flirtation. +Meanwhile, the offender felt a kind of shock at the possibilities her +easy acquiescence opened up. He had been telling himself, with a +certain satisfaction, that the idyll was over, leaving both him and +her little the worse for it; and now, apparently, he was to have an +opportunity of comparing the girl he fancied, and the girl he meant to +marry, side by side. It was scarcely a pleasing prospect, and the +knowledge of this made him once more return to his set purpose of +fostering some kind of sentiment towards Alice Woodward. But the fates +were against him. Lord George, coming in wet, but lively, from a +constitutional, began enthusiastically, between his drainings of the +teapot, in search of something to drink, on the charms of a girl he +had met on the road. "A real Highland girl," continued the amiable +idiot, regardless of his wife's storm signals, "with a lot of jolly +curly hair: not exactly pretty, you know, but fresh as a daisy, bright +as a bee. I couldn't help thinking, you know, how much better you +would all feel, Blanche, if you went out for a blow instead of +sticking at home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We should not come into the drawing-room with dirty boots if we did, +should we, Alice dear? Just look at him, Mrs. Woodward! He isn't fit +for ladies' society, is he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George gave a hasty glance at his boots, swallowed his tepid +washings of the teapot with a muttered apology, and retired, leaving +his wife to breathe freely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That must be Miss Carmichael, I suppose," she remarked easily. "I am +beginning to be quite anxious to see this paragon, Paul."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing easier," replied her brother, shortly; "if you will be ready +at three to-morrow afternoon, I'll take you over and introduce you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Positively she felt relieved when, with some excuse about seeing +whether the sportsmen had returned, he left the drawing-room. It was +like being on the brink of a volcano when he was there, and yet, poor, +dear old fellow, he behaved very sweetly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She said as much to him, being clever enough to take his real +affection for her into consideration, during a brief quarter of an +hour's respite from duty which she managed in his business-room before +dinner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish <i>I</i> had a snuggery like this, Paul," she said, plaintively +shaking her head over his long length spread out on one side of the +fire, and Lord George's on the other, "but women always bear the brunt +of everything. If the barometer would go up I could manage; but it +<i>will</i> go down, and though I've taken away the one from the hall, +Major Tombs has an aneroid in his room, and <i>will</i> speak about it. And +Ricketts--I have had her for five years, George, you remember--gave me +warning to-day. It seems Jessie took advantage of the fire in +Ricketts's room to dry one of Paul's wet suits, and Ricketts thought +it was a burglar. She went into hysterics first, and now says she +never was so insulted in her life."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul laughed. "Would it do any good if I apologised?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wish it had been mine," grumbled Lord George. "This is my last coat +but one, and the sleeves of it are damp. I can't think why the dickens +the women can't turn 'em inside out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! of course, it's the women again, George, but the footman wants to +know if he is expected to grease boots, and I don't know what to say. +Someone used to grease them, I remember----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! if it comes to that," said Paul, hotly, "I'll grease 'em myself. +Why should you bother, Blanche?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now that is <i>so</i> like a man! Someone must bother; and really servants +are so troublesome about boots, though I must own one would think you +men were centipedes; there are fifty pairs in the laundry at present. +And Mrs. Woodward says her husband has smoked too many cigars and +drunk too much whiskey and soda. As if it were my fault." Poor Lady +George spoke quite tearfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I offered to take him out, but he said his waterproof wasn't +waterproof. What the dickens does a man mean by coming to the West +Highlands without a waterproof? One doesn't expect anything else in a +woman, of course, but a man!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George dried her eyes disconsolately. "Oh! it is no use, George, +importing the antagonism of sex into the matter. It is bad enough +without that. If we only had a billiard-room I could manage. Do you +know I think it quite criminal to build a house in the country without +one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are the Kindergarten toys, my dear," suggested her husband; +"the children seem to have tired of them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't try to be funny, please!" retorted his wife; "that would be +the last straw. And nurse says it is because they cannot get out that +they are so cross. Just when I was counting on them, too, as a +distraction."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, Blazes was that effectually this morning," replied her husband, +with an air of conviction; "he howled straight on end for two hours, +and when I went into the nursery to see what was up, I found the poor +little beggar sobbing over some grievance or another."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George flushed up. "It was only because he couldn't come down +with the others--I really can't have him; he is so unreasonable, and +Mrs. Woodward doesn't believe in my system."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind, my dear Blanche," said her brother, consolingly. "It +seems to answer nicely with good children, and children ought to be +good, you know. And the barometer is going up, it really is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"For wind, I suppose," replied his sister, tragically. Apparently it +was for wind; at any rate, Will Cameron coming up to see the laird on +business next day observed casually that this must be about the end of +it; an optimistic remark which has a certain definite significance in +a land of gales. Even the sportsmen were driven to the cold comfort of +examining the action of each other's weapons with veiled contempt, +discussing the respective merits of each other's accoutrements, from +cartridge cases to leggings, and trying to forget that the wild +weather was making the birds still wilder than they had been already. +It appeared to have the same effect upon humanity. Sam Woodward, who +had been a thorn in poor Lady George's side from the beginning, fell +out with the only man who could tolerate him, and thereafter told his +sister it was a beastly hole, and that he meant to make the <i>mater</i> +give him some oof, when he would cut and run to some place where +they weren't so beastly stuck up. Mr. Woodward, senior, after +roaming about disconsolately waiting for the post, was only +appeased by Lady George's suggestion that he would be doing yeoman's +service to the cause of civilisation if he composed a letter to the +Postmaster-General, calling attention to the disgraceful irregularity +in her Majesty's mails to Gleneira; whereupon he retired into the +library and wasted several sheets of foolscap.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the children, however, that the weather had the most +disastrous effect; so much so that Lord George, returning in the +afternoon from a blow with Paul--whose patience had given way over a +point-blank refusal on the under footman's part to stop another hour +if he was not allowed a fire in his room before dinner--found his wife +in the nursery standing helplessly before Blazes, who, in his flannel +nightgown, was seated stolidly on the floor. Adam and Eve, meanwhile, +were eyeing the scene from their beds, where, however, they had a +liberal supply of toys.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, George!" she cried appealingly, "he has such a hard, hard heart; +and I am sure he must get it from your side of the family, so <i>do</i> you +think you could do anything with him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Put him to bed like the others," suggested his father, weakly, +showing signs, at the same time, of beating a retreat, but pausing at +the sight of his wife's face, which, to tell the truth, was not far +from tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I have, but he gets out again, and nurse can't hold him in all the +time. Besides, it was Mrs. Woodward's fault for being so disagreeable +about my system; but the children were naughty, poor dears; only, of +course, Adam and Eve went to bed when they were told--you see, they +are <i>reasonable</i>, and knew that if they <i>did</i> they would be allowed to +come down again to dessert--and then they didn't really mind going to +bed to please me, the little dears. But Blasius actually slapped Mrs. +Woodward's face, and then she said he ought to be whipped. So we had +quite a discussion about it, and, in the heat of the moment, I told +Blasius he must stop in bed till he said he was sorry. And now I can't +make him stop in bed or say a word. He just sits and smiles."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here their mother's tone became so unlike smiles that Adam and Eve, +from their little beds, begged their ducksom mummie not to cry, even +though Blazes was the baddest little boy <i>they</i> had ever seen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he won't say it, you can't make him," remarked Lord George aside, +with conviction. "If I were you I'd chance it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I can't. You see, I told Mrs. Woodward I could manage my own +children, and so I've made quite a point of it with Blasius. I can't +give in."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George, who was in the Foreign Office, and great on diplomatic +relations, whistled softly. "Always a mistake to claim when you can't +coerce--or retaliate." Then he added, as if a thought had struck him, +"Look here! has he had his tea? No! then hand him over to me; I'll put +him in the little room by the business room. Nobody will hear him +there even if he does howl, and as he gets hungry he will cave in, I +expect. At any rate, he can't get out of bed there, and I don't think +he can like it."</p> + +<p class="normal">But for some unexplained reason, possibly original sin, Blasius +elected to be quite cheerful over the transfer. He informed the nurse, +as she put on his dressing-gown, that he was going to "'moke with +daddy," and when he reached the little bare room, which was almost a +closet, he tucked the same dressing-gown round his little legs very +carefully as he plumped down on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blazeth's goin' to stay here a long, long time," he said, +confidently. "Dood-night, daddy dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">In fact, he was so quiet that more than once his father, smoking in +the next room, got up to open the door softly and peer in to see if by +chance any evil could have befallen the small rebel; only to retire +finally, quite discomforted by the superior remark that "when +Blazeth's horry Blazeth's 'll let daddy know." To retire and meditate +upon the mysterious problem of fatherhood, and that duty to the soul +which, somehow or another, you have beckoned out of the unknown. In +nine times out of ten, thoughtlessly, to suit your own pleasure; in +ninety-nine times out of a hundred to bring it up to suit your own +convenience, to minister to your amusement, to justify your theories.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George, coming in with the falling twilight, when the duties of +afternoon tea were over in the drawing-room, found her husband, minus +a cigar, brooding over the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've done it, Blanche," he said defiantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Done what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Beaten him. I knew I should some day."</p> + +<p class="normal">His wife gave quite a sharp little cry. "Oh, George! and I trusted +you. I trusted you so entirely, because you knew it was wrong. And now +it can never be undone--never! You have ruined everything--all the +confidence, and the love--Oh! George, how could you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The man's face was a study, but it was one which few women could +understand, for there is something in a righteous disregard of +weakness which seems brutal to most of them; for to them justice, like +everything else, is an emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The little beggar bit me," he began, rather sheepishly, and then +suddenly he laughed. "He was awfully quiet, you know, and I thought he +was really getting hungry; so I went in, and by Jove! Blanche, he had +eaten nearly a whole dog biscuit! Paul keeps them there, you know, for +the puppy. Well, I felt he had me on the hip as it were, and if it +hadn't been for your face, I'd have given in--like a fool. So I sate +down and talked to him--like--like a father. And then he suddenly +slipped off my knee like an eel, and bit me on the calf. Got tired, I +suppose, and upon my soul, I don't wonder--we had been at it for +hours, remember. And then--I don't think I lost my temper, Blanche--I +don't, indeed; but it seemed to come home to me that it was he or I--a +sort of good fight, you know. So I told him that I wasn't going to be +bothered by him any more. He had had his fun, and must pay for it, as +he would have to do till the day of his death. And then I gave him a +regular spanking--yes! I did--and he deserved it."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was the oddest mixture of remorse, defiance, pain, and pride in +her husband's honest face, but Lady George could see nothing, think of +nothing, save the overthrow of her system, her belief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder you aren't ashamed of yourself!" she cried, quite +passionately. "It isn't as if he could reason about it as you can--it +isn't as if he understood--it is brute force to him, nothing more----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That's just it, you see," protested the culprit, feebly, "if he +<i>could</i> reason."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now the memory must be between you two always, and it isn't as it +used to be in the old barbarous days. Parents nowadays care for +something more than the old tyranny. We have a respect for our +children as for human beings like ourselves. And now you will never +be--or at least you <i>ought</i> never to be able to look him in the face +again! Just think what it means, George!" Blanche, as she stood there +with disclaiming hands and eloquent voice, felt herself no mean +exponent of the new order of things, and rose to the occasion. "If he +had been a man, you dared not have beaten him, so it was mean, brutal, +unworthy. How can you expect the child to forget it? Would you, if you +were in his place? No! He will never forget it, and the memory must +come between you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blazeth's horry."</p> + +<p class="normal">A round, full, almost manly voice, and a round, broad face, seamed +with tears, yet strangely cheerful withal, as if, the bolt having +fallen, the sky was clear once more.</p> + +<p class="normal">Blanche dropped to her knees, and, secure in her own conscience, held +out her arms to the little advancing figure, but the child steered +past them. It was fact, and fact alone, which impressed the sturdy +brain, which day by day was gathering up its store of experience +against the hand-to-hand fight with life, which, please God, would +come by and bye--the life which was no Kindergarten game, the life of +strange, unknown dangers, against which the only weapon is the sheer +steel of self-control. And this was a little foretaste of the fight in +which daddy had won; daddy, who could do nothing but clasp the little +figure close to his heart as it climbed to his knee, and then walk +away with it to the window to hide his own tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">His wife, standing where Blasius had passed her by, could see those +two round, red heads, so strangely like each other, though the one had +a shock of rough hair and the other was beginning to grow bald. And +she could hear that round full voice with a ring of concern in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blazeth's horry he hurt daddy such a lot. And daddy hurt Blazeths +awful; but he's a dood boy now. And oh, daddy! I don't fink them +bickeys is half as nice as daddy's--and Blazeths would like one, +becauth he's a dood boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">The storm was over. The sky was clear, and Lord George, as he carried +his youngest born pick-a-back upstairs to the nursery, felt that there +was a stronger tie between them than there had ever been before; a +strange new tie between him and the little soul he had beckoned out of +the unknown--the little soul to whom in future "Daddy says not" would +represent that whole concentrated force of law and order from which it +was at present sheltered, but which by and bye would be its only +teacher. And yet, when brought face to face with his wife's arguments, +he, being of the dumb kind, could only say:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see, my dear, Blazes is <i>not</i> a Kindergarten child, now is he?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">And still it rained!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul, this is awful," mourned poor Lady George, on the eighth +morning. "The post hasn't come at all for two days, and it is +positively heartrending to see poor Mr. Woodward trying to read +Monday's share-list for the third time. Then the beef hasn't come +either, and their maid won't eat any other meat. Hot roast twice a +day, and cold for lunch. All the servants have given warning, and I +don't believe the Woodwards will stand it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let them give warning, too," broke in her brother, hotly; then seeing +his sister's face, went on after his wont, consolingly. "Don't bother, +please, I'm not worth it. Besides, if Miss Woodward is going to do me +the honour of marrying Gleneira, it is as well that she should learn +to stand a little damp."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A little damp! Besides, she will have time to learn afterwards--women +always do after they are married--till then, they really have a right +to be amused. Can't you suggest something to cheer us up? I'm at my +wits' end. Even the book-box has gone astray, and it is so hard to +make conversation when you don't see the society papers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I black my face or stand on my head and sing a comic song? I've +done both in my salad days."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't be unkind, Paul, when I have taken so much trouble!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have, indeed," he echoed, walking to the window moodily, feeling +at once irritated and annoyed. Personally he would have found no +difficulty in amusing himself with Marjory, whom he had not seen for a +week, so close at hand. And suddenly the thought of someone else who +had had the knack of making time pass pleasantly occurred to him. +"I'll tell you what I'll do, Blanche, I'll wire to Mrs. Vane to come +at once. I expected to hear two days ago if she was to be with us this +week or next; but she would come anywhere to do a kindness, and she +would keep us alive--rain or no rain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would be too late," returned his sister, dejectedly. "To do any +good she should be here to-day. I will not be responsible for another +hour--another minute of this detestable climate." She spoke quite +tragically, but her brother was staring out of the window with all his +eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By all that's impossible! Yes, it is. Hooray, Blanche! There she is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who! What!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Violet! Violet Vane in Macniven's machine. How on earth----" He was +out of the door full of excitement, followed by his sister, who was +heard giving tragic orders for hot baths and blankets.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She must be half drowned," said Mrs. Woodward, hastening from her +room at the sound of wheels to join the little circle crowding round +the window to watch the arrival. "She will go to bed at once, of +course."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And have something warm," said one voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"More likely inflammation of the lungs. I remember----" suggested +another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bronchitis, at least--poor thing--poor thing----" put in a third.</p> + +<p class="normal">To which Cassandra chorus came the sound of a musical laugh and a +perfect ripple of chatter, as Paul, with a new cheerfulness in his +face, ushered in the daintiest little figure, which, as he held the +door open, looked back at him to finish the recital of her adventures +with words, "It was such fun."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Mrs. Vane," cried Lady George, "you must be dead!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only with laughing, I assure you. I am not a bit wet, thanks. I got +them to lend me a tarpaulin jacket and a sou'-wester. But Captain +Macleod tells me I was not expected--I am so sorry, but really I did +write."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The post is shamefully irregular," put in Mr. Woodward, majestically; +"it did not come yesterday, and I have no doubt it will not come +to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it has! I brought it. Peter Macniven--that was my +driver--proposed I should give it a lift, and Donald Post said it +would save time if I took out the Gleneira letters myself. So I did. +They are in my bag downstairs, Paul--quite a large bundle for Mr. +Woodward; and all the picture papers, and a packet of chocolates from +Fuller's. And, oh! by the way, Lady George, there was a basket of beef +and a box of books lying for you at the Oban pier, so I took the +liberty of bringing them along."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear--my dear Mrs. Vane!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George positively could say no more. Here was a guest, indeed. It +was as if a glint of sunshine had come into the house; so that after a +time the young man with a big head, whom Lady George had invited +because he could recite poetry to the young ladies, and who had for +the last few days been elaborating a sonnet on suicide, went hurriedly +out of the room to commit to paper the opening lines of a lyric, "To a +sea breeze sweeping away a storm." It was the same with everyone in +the house, and even the maids bustled to get her room in order, and +the butler, after laying an extra place at the dinner-table, remarked +in the housekeeper's room that now, perhaps, the dining-room would +have conversation that was worth listening to.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only Paul, remembering her ways of old, and that, spirits or no +spirits, the long journey must have fatigued one who was past the +first untiringness of youth, urged her to rest; but with a little +familiar nod of comprehension she set the very idea aside with scorn. +Thereby, to say sooth, starting fair with him by arousing once more +that tender admiration for pluck which, despite asseverations to the +contrary, most men have for courage and fire in a woman. Paul Macleod, +at any rate, felt it keenly when she came, plumaged like some delicate +butterfly, into the drawing-room before dinner, causing Mr. Woodward +to put down the share-list without a sigh, and Sam, who had been +laying down the law loudly, to become bashfully silent. And then when, +in consequence of her being the Honourable Mrs. Vane by virtue of a +most dishonourable husband, Paul took her down to dinner, how +different that dinner was! He recognised it gratefully; recognised the +readiness of her smile, the art which her bright eyes had of making +people believe in themselves and feel that they, too, had something to +say worth the saying. The art, in short, of the hostess, which Lady +George, with all her cleverness, had not; for the simple reason that +she thought too much about the effect she was producing. And Violet +Vane's worst enemies might call her artificial, but they could never +have called her self-conscious or selfish. While, as for the +artificiality, a woman must needs be that who is deadly weary, and who +has given herself bright eyes and a ready tongue by means of chloric +ether. Violet had to slip away for another dose ere she could face +what to her was the dreariest, deadliest hour of the day--the time +when the ladies wait patiently for the men to come up from the wine +and the cigars; for she was frankly, unblushingly, a man's woman, and +would confess as much to anyone with a smile. And wherefore not? She +had lived among them all her life. She had no babies to discuss, had +no experience of English housekeeping, and felt no sympathy with +woman's rights or wrongs; for the simple reason that she herself had +never felt the least disqualification of sex. She was <i>bonne camarade</i> +in every fibre of her mind and body; yet withal a thorough little +lady.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul, my friend," she said, as he made his way straight to her sofa, +where, with wide, bright eyes, she had been taking sights for future +steering, "you can have five minutes by the clock, and then monsieur +will be on duty again. Will he not? Yes! no doubt five minutes is +short; it will not suffice to tell me all you have to tell, will it? +But I would rather leave it for to-morrow. For I am tired, Paul, so +tired, and I don't want to be cross."</p> + +<p class="normal">Something in her voice touched him. "Of course, you are tired. I know +that. But when was our dear lady ever cross?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The old familiar title, given in the remote Indian station to the +dainty little woman who had made life so pleasant to so many, came to +his lips naturally, and the scent of the jasmine she wore carried him +back to the days when it had seemed an integral part of consciousness; +since life was divided into delirium-haunted forgetfulness and +confused awakenings to the familiar perfume. And those are things a +man never forgets. She laughed, though the words sent a throb to her +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cross?" she echoed; "I am always cross when people are dull. And you +are dull to-night, Paul. Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Those bright eyes were full of meaning, and he hesitated over the +remark that he had been waiting for the sunshine of her presence. She +laughed again, this time with an odd little ring in it. "My dear Paul, +you should not need sunshine nowadays." There was no mistaking her +intent, and he winced visibly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I always said you had antennae, Violet," he replied, with a flush; +"but how on earth have you found that out already?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She paused for a moment, and a mad desire to quote a proverb about +thieves came over her. So it was true, then! True, and she--she was +too late! She set her teeth firmly over her own pain. "Does it +generally need such great acumen to discover when Paul Macleod is in +love, <i>mon ami?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The sarcasm struck home, and he rose, feeling the position untenable. +"Come and sing," he said; "it is years since I heard you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head. "It will not do, Paul; not even though it is five +years six months seventeen days and a few hours or so since we sang +'La ci darem' together. The five minutes is not up yet, so sit down, +please, and tell me who these people are whom you want to amuse. Or, +stay! I will catalogue them, and then you can correct my mistakes. +Your sister? How handsome she is, yet not in the least like you. Lord +George? A perfect angel, with a twinkle in his eye. He is to be my +best friend. Your Miss Woodward? Alice is a pretty name, Paul; and her +hair shall be of what colour it shall please God. Am I right, +Benedict? Papa Woodward? Have a care, Paul! he studies the share-list +too much; so have it in Government securities. Mamma Woodward? What +her daughter will be at that age; it is such an advantage to a man, +Paul, to see exactly what his future will be. Master Woodward? No! I +will leave you to describe him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul winced again. "You are very clever, Violet--suppose you pass on +to the others----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I told you I was evil-tempered. Then there is the young man who +wrote a sonnet to somebody's eyebrow--probably mine--between the soup +and fish. Two young ladies colourless--your sister is clever, too, +Paul--and a couple of men to match. Finally the Moth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Jones, or is she Miss Smith? I met her in Devonshire with +another school friend. She was Watteau then--cream and roses. I met +her, too, on a yacht--anchors and lanyards. And here, like Lady +George, she is <i>moyen-âge</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why the Moth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because she takes her colour from what she preys upon; and she frets +my garment! That is all, except the lady who bicycles and thinks +Gleneira too hilly, and the man who takes photographs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Violet!" laughed Paul; "you are a witch."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me! I am an ass--all ears. And Bertie, Palmer, and Gordon come +next week. I'm glad of that; one can't make bricks without mud. Straw +requires the baser clay."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Straw! that is hardly complimentary to your sex!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me again! the highest duty of a woman is to please man, and he +is proverbially tickled by a straw. So now for the neighbours."</p> + +<p class="normal">"None."</p> + +<p class="normal">Violet Vane's eyebrows went up in derision. "There is no Sahara in +Lorneshire, and you have been here for three weeks--or is it a month?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be accurate, a month and four days."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear me! what a long time it takes to put up curtains."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very. I am sure those five minutes are over, Violet. Won't you come +and sing for us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"How--how dreadfully dull you must have been, Paul!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dreadfully. Blanche! will you try and persuade Mrs. Vane to sing to +us--she is obdurate with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George, delighted at her brother's virtue in seeking to break up +a <i>tête-a-tête</i>, was urgent in her appeals, and Mrs. Vane passed to +the piano, airily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is music here," cried Lord George, officiously producing a book +from the canterbury. Mrs. Vane took it with a gracious smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bach! Corelli! This is yours, I suppose, Miss Woodward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! I don't play," replied Alice, and Mrs. Vane turned instantly to +the flyleaf.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are no songs in that book," remarked Paul, black as thunder, +laying his hands on the volume. "Not that it matters--for Mrs. Vane +used not to need music----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor does she now," retorted the little lady, laughing, as she sate +down, saying as she did so, in an undertone, "Does Marjory Carmichael +play Bach well, Paul? I hope so; he is dreadful when murdered."</p> + +<p class="normal">The reply, if reply there came, was lost in her sudden burst into one +of those French <i>chansons</i> in which laughter and tears are so closely +interwoven that the mixture is apt to confuse the insular +understanding. Her singing was, like herself, bright, gracious, +fluent, with the rare perfection of training which conceals art.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She reminds me of Piccolomini," said Mr. Woodward, in pompous +delight, feeling himself the better for the remark, after the fashion +of men who are no longer afraid of being considered old. "A most +charming little person altogether. Who is she?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The widow of an Honourable--a Colonel--one of the Wentworths, I +suppose," replied Lady George, yielding to the reflected glory of a +successful guest. "She was very kind to Paul when he was ill in India, +and we are all very fond of her. A most desirable friend for him to +have."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Most desirable!" echoed Mr. Woodward; and Blanche felt that she had +been wise, since no one could tell how Paul would behave with a woman +of that sort. She might have felt still more doubtful if she had seen +the desirable friend after she reached the seclusion of her own room, +sitting dry-eyed and haggard before the looking-glass, as if to read +the ravages of time in each faintly-growing wrinkle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have been a fool!" she said, half aloud, as she rose; "but it may +not be too late. I thought at first he was in love with that girl; but +it is not she. Oh, why! Why didn't I tell him I was rich now, instead +of waiting like a romantic idiot to see if he could still care for me? +Care for me! As if any man wouldn't care for a woman such as I, if she +chose to let him care. Well! I must sleep now; I can't afford to look +older than I am." So she opened her dressing-case, took out a bottle +of chloral, measured herself out a full dose, and half an hour +afterwards was sleeping peacefully, like a child.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she woke the sun was streaming in at the open window--for she was +one of those to whom the close atmosphere of English houses is +unendurable--and she curled herself round comfortably in her bed to +consider the new aspect of affairs before rising to face them. In a +way she was to be pitied, for in sending Paul Macleod to Kashmir, in +order to buy a silk carpet, she had really touched the highest point +of self-abnegation of which she was capable. She had done it to save +him; for what? For this colourless girl who would never understand his +odd mixture of sentimentality and worldliness? No! not for that. Even +as a friend she could not stand by and see him ruin his prospects of +happiness in that fashion. Had she not hesitated herself in those old +days, when, by simply leaving a man who disgraced her every hour and +moment of his life, she could, after a brief period, no doubt of +horrible humiliation, have married Paul herself? She had hesitated +because of his future, for nothing else; and was she to stand by and +see him ruin it for no just cause, since she was wealthy enough now +for all his wants? There was a sufficiency of high moral tone in this +view of the question to serve her purpose, which she strengthened by +telling herself that if she had found Paul properly devoted to his +heiress, she would once more have sacrificed herself. All is fair, +says the proverb, in love and war; but Mrs. Vane felt much was fair +because it was not love, and came down to breakfast determined to see +what could be done. For Paul's sake first, of course, and then?--for +the present Mrs. Vane decided to leave that alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite the sunshine, the menkind came down slackly, grumbling at a +real shooting day being just "nippet awa by the Sawbath." Obedient, +nevertheless, to the order for church parade at the schoolhouse, +which, being of modest dimensions, overflowed after a time into the +road, where the latest comers contented themselves with sitting on the +turf-capped dyke beneath the chestnut tree, where they could just hear +the swell of the responses, and join in the hymns if they chose. Mrs. +Vane, standing during the <i>Venite</i> beside Paul, could see these +outdoor worshippers, and rather envied them, being at heart a thorough +little Bohemian. Yet the interior interested her quick brain also, and +she watched Lady George with furtive amusement, as the course of +service brought to that lady a dim suspicion that she had lost her +place. For, despite Mr. Gillespie's suggestion of a second and English +"diet" for the visitors, Blanche had preferred to bring them to the +Gaelic; moved thereto by a vague feeling that it gave, as it were, a +<i>cachet</i> to the laird of Gleneira, with whose importance she was +anxious to impress the Woodwards. The effect, however, was somewhat +disastrous, since Alice looked shocked and surprised, Sam laughed, and +Mrs. Woodward, after a frantic effort to follow the Psalms, gave up +the struggle. Mr. Woodward had--Blanche felt fortunately--remained at +home, for he was of the stern, uncompromising section of British +laymen who only attend service on high days, and have, in consequence, +strong opinions as to the necessity of the Athanasian Creed to the +stability of the English Church. Paul, tall and listless, looked so +persistently towards one dark corner, that at last Mrs. Vane's +watchful eyes, following his, discovered an attraction in the girl +playing the harmonium. And then it struck her that the voluntary had +been a bit of Corelli! Yet that was not the sort of face to make Paul +stare, as he undoubtedly was staring. She looked up at him quickly, +and with a real shock recognised something in his expression which she +had not expected, something which roused her to a sudden flame. It was +almost a relief when Donald Post, stealing in on tiptoe noisily, +caused a general stir, followed by an all-pervading smell of +sealing-wax from the other dark corner, which showed that Mr. McColl +was sealing up the bag; Lady George's face the while being an +unsuccessful attempt to combine horror and unconsciousness, while her +husband's, much to her annoyance, openly reflected the children's +unabashed interest. It was a greater relief still, when the sermon +came to an end, the letters were handed round, and, with joyful barks, +the collies rushed out, followed by the quality. All but Mrs. Vane, +who stood listening to a fugue of Bach's with a little fine smile on +her face. Inaction was over, and she must survey this new difficulty +without delay.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't wait," she said to Paul, lightly; "I love Bach, and Miss +Carmichael plays charmingly."</p> + +<p class="normal">He said a bad word under his breath as he passed out, and yet for the +life of him he could not be angry with her. She saw through him, of +course; right through to the very worst part of him, and yet she was +his friend. When he joined the gathering outside Lady George was +already shaking hands benignly with all and sundry, whispering between +whiles to Mrs. Woodward that it was a Highland custom, and so much +more conducive to proper relations between landlord and tenant than +the English standoffishness. In fact, she was in her element, in a new +part of great capabilities. Paul, on the other hand, merely nodded and +smiled; but his great personal beauty, his reputation as a soldier and +a sportsman, went further towards popularity among both the men and +the women than all his sister's condescension. And still the Bach +fugue went on, being, in truth, susceptible of many repeats and <i>da +capos</i>, while Marjory, over the music desk, gave annoyed glances at +the dainty little figure at the door. During the past week of Paul's +absence, the charm of his personality had faded, leaving behind it the +memory that he was hardly of her world; that even if he had been, he +was hardly the sort of man with whom she could have sympathy. And yet, +with the sight of him, had come back the old excuses, the old +conviction that he slandered himself. It did not make her feel any the +more kindly towards the world which held him back from his better +self; towards women, for instance, like this one at the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you not coming, Violet? The others have gone on."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul's voice had a note of warning in it, but she never heeded his +thunderings like others did, and in that lay the secret of her power +over him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am waiting for you to introduce me to Miss Carmichael," she said +calmly; "then we can walk home together. I want to ask her where she +learned to play Bach."</p> + +<p class="normal">A transparent prevarication, but one it was impossible to set aside; +nor, to tell truth, did Paul wish to set it aside. The temptation +presented to him by this little Eve in a Paris costume, was far too +welcome for that; so welcome that the very excess of his own fierce +desire to yield to it made him silent, while Mrs. Vane set herself +deliberately to pierce through the girl's shield of stiff politeness. +Not a difficult task with one so quick to respond to the least touch +of sympathy; besides, Mrs. Vane in her girlhood had lived in the great +world of music, among people who were to Marjory as prophets and +kings. So she was soon deep in eager inquiry, and positively felt +impatient as, when they were passing old Peggy's cottage, little Paul +started up from the brackens with a quick message that his grannie +would like to see Miss Marjory, if she could spare time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a pretty little fellow," remarked Mrs. Vane. "Is Paul a common +name about here? or is it a compliment to the laird?" She asked the +question carelessly, and was genuinely surprised at the look it +brought to the elder Paul's face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is certainly not out of compliment to me, so I presume it is a +common name--since you gave no other alternative." This was a manifest +loss of temper on his part, not to be justified so far as she could +see; therefore, in her opinion, a thing to be decently covered at the +time, however much it might mean when considered. So she remarked +that, common or not, it was a name she liked. And then she said +good-bye charmingly, warning Miss Carmichael that she must expect to +be disturbed for more Bach; and so drifted on daintily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is quite delightful, your Miss Carmichael," she began, +negligently, after a pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, who, after a handshake with Marjory, had rejoined her, looking +better pleased with himself, decided on adopting her mood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very; though I fail to see why you should use the possessive pronoun. +She would not thank you, believe me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because you discovered her, that is all. She is charming. Like +Brynhild, brave and bold."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cruel and cold."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense. Men like you, my friend, of the earth earthy, are alarmed +by the glistening circle of fire. Few have the courage to leap it and +wake the heart within. Gudrun, duly decked in diamonds and given away +by her father in St. George's, Hanover-square, is more in your line. +Better so, for Sigurd is a double-faced scoundrel, and Brynhild's +heart is too good to break." Her voice grew serious, a little bitter +smile came to her face; for Violet had a heart of her own.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I quite agree with you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The jest was gone both from his mind and hers, and she changed the +subject adroitly, certain of one thing, that here was a weapon ready +to her hand. Love <i>versus</i> Greed-of-Gold! Really, that method of +putting it sounded quite pretty. And then suddenly a fierce pang of +jealousy shot through her as she thought of the look she had caught +unawares on Paul's face. Alice Woodward would never rouse such a look +as that--never! Would it not be better to leave things as they were? +But, then, why should they not be turned to something better? If, +somehow, they could be manipulated so as to disgust him both with mere +money and mere affection, it would be better for all concerned. For +him, above all, since he could neither live without love or money; and +she could give him both.</p> + +<p class="normal">As they talked commonplaces during the remainder of the walk, Paul +felt more contented than he had done for a week, even while he was +asking himself captiously why this should be so. To see the girl you +like, and say not a single word to her ear alone, to shake hands with +her and feel no desire to prolong the touch, to look in her face and +see nothing that was not clear and cold in her eyes, was not, could +not, be comforting. Clearly his feeling for her was not to be classed +as a passion. And yet how glad he had been to see her. How contented +he had been to walk beside her, and what a sense of <i>bien-être</i> her +presence gave him. And it was distinctly satisfactory to find it so +little disturbing. Then, recognising the fact that he was becoming +absent in the effort to remember the exact look on her face as she +shook hands with him, he set the thought of her from him angrily. He +would not be the sport of a mere sentimental fancy, unworthy of a man +who had the courage to face his own manhood.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_13" href="#div1Ref_13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The next morning Paul, smoking his usual cigar of proprietorship about +the stables and dog kennels, saw Mrs. Vane coming with a pretty little +air of hesitation along one of the shrubbery paths.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ben trovato!</i> Who would have thought of finding you here?" she cried +gaily, just as if she had not been watching to catch him from her +window for the last ten minutes. "I have missed my way to the Lodge; +show it to me, please."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked into her clever, charming face, understanding perfectly what +she was at, and yet the <i>finesse</i> did not irritate him as it would +have done in another woman. Besides, in this instance, she was just a +little too clever, as he meant to prove to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By all means," he replied coolly; "I was just going there myself to +apologise to Mrs. Cameron for my sister's negligence, but really the +weather has been so bad."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane shot an amused glance at her tall companion. So Paul meant +to ride the high horse, that poorest of all defences against a quick +wit; like that of lance against bayonet, dignified and circumambient, +but quite ineffectual.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I am not going to see Mrs. Cameron," she retorted frankly; "I am +going to see if Miss Carmichael will be kind and play Bach to me; it +is a long time since I heard him played so well. You used to be fond +of him, too, in the old days, Paul. Don't you remember how you used to +lie on the sofa after that fever and declare that a wife's first duty +was to be able to play to her husband? But girls--at least, most +girls--don't care to play nowadays unless they are professionals. And +if they are professionals they don't care to be wives--not even to a +Highland laird."</p> + +<p class="normal">"In regard to the present musician," replied Paul, beginning to +dismount, "I am sure no such scheme of self-sacrifice ever entered her +head. Miss Carmichael is charming, I admit; but she has a mission in +life, and it is not to regulate me. That, I think, is a fair and full +statement of the truth, except that before I came here she used to +practise occasionally on the piano at the Big House, and, I presume, +left her music there by mistake."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane stopped in an attitude of tragic despair. "There! I have +gone and forgotten it after all, and that was my excuse for going so +soon. You see, your sister said it had better be taken back at once, +as none of the girls in the house played, and so it wouldn't be +wanted."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul bit his lip at the double thrust. "Perhaps it is as well you +<i>have</i> forgotten it," he said angrily; "Miss Carmichael will, no +doubt, be able to use it herself some day soon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That will be delightful," replied Mrs. Vane, with a sudden cessation +of attack.</p> + +<p class="normal">Five minutes after, rather to his own surprise, Paul Macleod found +himself talking to Marjory as he might have talked to any other girl +of his acquaintance, and wondering how he could have been such a fool +as to imagine himself to be in love with her. After all, he told +himself, his first theory had been right, and the ridiculously +unconventional familiarity of the past idyll was mainly responsible +for the mawkish sentimentality which had attacked him of late, but +which, thank heaven! was now over. How could it be otherwise with a +girl like Marjory--a perfect iceberg of primness and propriety?</p> + +<p class="normal">His sense of security, joined to a certain unconfessed resentment at +her apparent indifference as to whether he came or not, drove him into +more effusive apologies on his sister's behalf than he would otherwise +have made, and brought down on him a remark from Mrs. Cameron that +"Indeed and in truth Marjory would no be going to make strangers of +the laird and his sister, and he so kind, in and out o' the house for +weeks, just like a bairn of her own." Whereat Mrs. Vane, stifling a +desire to laugh at Paul's evident confusion, came to the rescue with a +well-timed diversion about some of the household troubles which had +been occupying Lady George.</p> + +<p class="normal">'"Deed!" said Mrs. Cameron, after listening sympathetically, "I can +well believe it! But the warld will come to an end soon, that's one +comfort. You see, it'll just no be possible' for Providence to put up +wi' it much longer, for it's a' I can do to have patience wi' my small +corner of the vineyard, an' that, praise be, is no sae bad as it might +be, seeing that I can hand my ain wi' most folk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Providence can do that also, surely, Mrs. Cameron?" laughed Paul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Maybe, an' maybe not. I grant ye it comes quits at the hinder end, +what wi' worms that die not, an' fires that be not quenched. But it's +a weary long time to blow at the flames o' wrath, and wadna suit me +that's aye for havin' it out and done wi'. Lord sakes! life wad no be +worth havin' if I had to write down a' the servant lassies cantrip's +in a big bookie against term day, an' keep my tongue on them +meanwhiles. And it is little the hussies would care if I did, for they +wad ken find I'd just forgive them when the day of reckoning came, an' +forgiveness just beats all for spoiling folk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's lucky for some of us," put in Mrs. Vane, with a laugh, "that +Providence isn't of your way of thinking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Deed, I am not as sure of that neither. Folk would think twice o' +breaking the law if it waant for the grips they have on mercy. It is +just, you see, in the nature o' man to stand by his luck if the odds +are even; but if he knows he'll get paicks he will just keep the body +in subjection. It is the same in all things. Just look at the +difference in the manners o' folks nowadays! Not half so good as in +the old times when they had to stand sponsor for each word with a +pistol shot. Why, I mind, Gleneira, your grandfather calling out +Glenrannooh for passing him on the kirk steps without a reverence!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I didn't know you were so bloodthirsty," remarked Paul; "and though I +quite agree with you, theoretically, I must be careful, since you +evidently don't believe in apologies."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Apologies," echoed Mrs. Cameron, scornfully. "No! no! Gleneira. +They're fine healin' balm to the sinner, but I'll have none coming +between me and my rights. There was James Gillespie telling little +Sandy McColl to go an' apologise to wee Peter Rankin for pulling his +hair, instead o' just giving the laddie a good skelping, and daring +him to do it again. So the bairns just bided their time and had it out +in a natural way, and you never saw such sichts they were. I'm no +saying folk should not be repentant o' their sins, but they should +just take the consequences along wi' the forgiveness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Or follow my example and take neither," suggested the laird.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Cameron looked at him sharply, then shook her head. "Havers! that +is what no mortal man can do, least of all, you, Gleneira, with your +soft heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Soft heart!" echoed Paul, derisively. "It is only that towards you, +Mrs. Cameron; to the world in general it is hard as adamant. Don't you +agree with me, Miss Carmichael?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hard enough to ensure your peace of mind, I hope," she replied +quietly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Violet Vane's bright eyes were on them both, and she gave an odd +little laugh. "I wonder if it is! I should like to vivisect you and +find out, Captain Macleod; only the process of seeing the 'wheels go +wound,' as Toddie says in 'Helen's Babies,' might end in stopping them +altogether. Perhaps it would be as well--for other people's hearts."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The heart is no easily damaged, anyway," put in Mrs. Cameron, with +the air of one who knows. "Folks like to think it is, but it is +maistly the stomach that goes wrang. I've seen a heap o' broken hearts +in my time cured wi' camomile tea; it's just grand for the digestion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall order Peter Macpherson to lay down a large bed at once," +began Paul, gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For the sake of your victims, I suppose," interrupted Mrs. Vane. +"Commend me to Captain Macleod, Mrs. Cameron, for shameless conceit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me," put in Paul, "for my own." He gave a glance at Marjory, +who was standing apart with a little fine smile of contempt on her +face, but she took no notice of him. To tell truth she scarcely knew +why she felt scornful, and, when they had gone, she sate down in +defiance of her promise to her books again, telling herself that Paul +by himself, willing to fall in with her life, was quite a different +being from Paul expecting her to be friends with his friends--people +whose dresses fitted them like a glove, and who looked charming. Yes, +that was the right word!--charming from the sole of their feet to the +crown of their heads. As if she had anything in common with such +people!--or, for the matter of that, with Paul, himself--she, whose +fate it was to work, and who liked that fate? Yet almost before +Captain Macleod and his companion had reached home after the <i>détour</i> +he begged for round the garden, Marjory had thrown down her book in a +temper at her own stupidity, run upstairs for her hat, and was off for +a wild, solitary scramble over the hills.</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul and his companion, meanwhile, strolling idly through the vineries +and hothouses, she with dainty dress, draped gingerly from fear of +stain, and vivid, whimsical face, diving like a honey-sucker at the +perfumed flowers, were enjoying themselves thoroughly in their own +way; so that the former, coming out at last from an atmosphere of +stephanotis and tropical heat to face the bright, sharp air of a +Highland glen, gave a little shiver, and told himself inconsequently +that Violet was the most charming companion in the world. And so she +was, being blessed with the infallible range-finder called tact; for +half the misunderstandings of life come from people either blazing +away at a bird that is out of shot, or blowing one to pieces,--that is +to say, from a failure to appreciate distance and the fact that, +though our best friend may be, so to speak, well within range over +night, that is no reason why we should reach him with the same sight +the next morning. In most of us feeling, tastes, dislikes, fluctuate +with every hour; nay, more, the individual, as a whole, hovers like +the needle of a barometer on either side of change, so that the more +sensitive of us are conscious of the difference in ourselves at +different times in the day, and it becomes possible for us to be +certain that we might do that at ten o'clock at night which we could +not do at ten o'clock in the day. Yet, despite this undoubted fact, +most of us resent the change of position in regard to our outlook in +life which it entails, the change of key which strict harmony +requires. Mrs. Vane, however, was not one of the many, and, as a rule, +when she played a dissonant note she did it out of malice +aforethought; as she did now when, looking back at the garden with its +low espaliers and broad walks bordered by old-fashioned flowers, she +paused to say sweetly, "It is a charming place, Paul; you ought to be +very happy here with her."</p> + +<p class="normal">He frowned as he held the door open for his companion to pass through; +but he was beginning to remember that she used the bayonet deftly, and +came to close quarters at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The personal pronoun, third person singular, feminine gender, +accusative case, is rather too vague to interest me, I'm afraid. Can't +you suggest something more concrete?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed as she pointed gaily to an upper path which, after a time, +would merge into theirs. "See! yonder are the young ladies, going +home, as we should be also, since you will be wanted. Don't let me +keep you, please. They will walk faster than I do, and I am used to +being left behind to fend for myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not by me," he replied, with a certain self-complacency, "and you +never will be, I trust. I should be a brute indeed were I to forget +all your kindness."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Dieu mercie</i>," she flashed out, in sudden, uncontrollable +resentment, "how I hate gratitude! It takes half the flavour out of +life. I often think I should have been happier if I had not been so +kind to people."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no doubt you made <i>them</i> much happier, if that is any +consolation to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not in the slightest." Then as suddenly her irritation passed, and +she looked up at him with a whimsical smile. "Paul," she said, "I +believe Miss Carmichael used to set you copies--or is it Miss +Woodward? anyhow, you are detestably didactic to-day; so it is just as +well the others are joining us, or you would be telling me that 'Evil +communications corrupt good manners.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The process is pleasant, anyhow," he replied, in one of those moments +of recognition which come to us, even with familiar friends, as some +quality or charm strikes us afresh; "and you couldn't corrupt my good +temper, for you always put me into one, somehow. I believe you use +arts and spells."</p> + +<p class="normal">She shrugged her shoulders gaily. "Burn me as a witch, by all means! +You can afford it since the next fairly good-looking woman you meet +will have exactly the same consolatory power. As you said, the +personal pronoun, feminine gender, third person singular, has a wide +application for Paul Macleod. Ah! Miss Woodward, what lovely ferns! We +have just been going round the houses, and there is a hibiscus out +which you ought to see. It put me in mind of India; you sent the seed +home from our garden, I think, didn't you, Captain Macleod? We might +go back and look at it now, and return by the beach, mightn't we? It +is no longer, and far prettier."</p> + +<p class="normal">The result of which easy, deft manipulation of a chance meeting being +that, ere the memory of his pleasant stroll with her had passed from +Paul's somewhat vagrant mind, he was performing the same pilgrimage +again under different guidance. Now, Alice Woodward was always counted +a most agreeable girl in her world, and Paul, as in duty bound, laid +himself out to please; yet all the time they were chatting amicably +about Shakespeare and the musical glasses he was conscious of an +effort, and of a desire to know what the other girls who were lagging +behind with Violet could be laughing at so gaily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the hibiscus," he said, stopping abruptly before the flower +which, with its creamy petals and crimson heart, had ten minutes +before carried him back to another hemisphere, another life--a +pleasant, younger life, with more possibilities of passion in it than +the present one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is very pretty," replied Alice, blandly, rather absently. "The +colours are lovely. I really think colours improve every year. Do you +remember at Constantinople, Captain Macleod, everyone agreed that +there was a decided advance on Venice? In that ballet before the +procession, you know, they really were exquisite."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul assented cheerfully, even though he felt such memories were as +water after wine to Mrs. Vane's appeal to the past. "It used to grow +by the well. Ah, Paul! how young you were on those days, and how you +used to enjoy life."</p> + +<p class="normal">That was true; and yet a well-cooked dinner and roomy stalls at a +first-class <i>spectacle</i> brought solid comfort more suitable to the +coming years; besides, Violet had always had the knack of taking the +colour out of other women, and while adapting herself more readily to +her surroundings than most, never lost a peculiar piquant charm of her +own which did not clash with her environment. Yet, as they strolled +home by the beach, it occurred to him that they were all, himself +included, out of touch with the glorious world of sea and sky and +mountain in which they stood. And Mrs. Vane agreed, or, at any rate, +was quick enough to read his thought, for as the girls trooped up the +stairs finishing a discussion on the relative merits of two balls, she +lingered in the hall to say quizzically:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is her name Virginia, Paul? and do you fancy a desert island? That +comes of having so much of the natural Adam left in you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, dear me! what has Blasius been doing now?" asked Lady George, +plaintively, overhearing the last words as she came out of the morning +room. At the same moment, as if in answer, the sturdy stump +intermingled with bumps which usually marked Blazes' rapid descent +from the nursery regions, was heard as a sort of running accompaniment +to a steady stream of violent objurgations delivered with immense +zest, in his round, full voice: "<i>Haud up! Ger' out, ye brute! Stiddy, +yer deevil! Stiddy yer!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nurse!" cried poor Blanche, aghast, to the stately figure, descending +behind the stumbling, bumping, yet swift offender, "what does this +mean? Where has Master Blasius picked up----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! if it comes to picking up, milady, that's easy sayin'. Master +Blazes told me last night 'is bath was 'devilish 'ot,' and when I +spoke to him serious told me it was the Capting."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really, Paul, I think you might be more careful," began his sister, +aggrievedly, when he interrupted her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not responsible for <i>that</i>, anyhow! What on earth is he up to +now?" For Blasius, having reached the bottom of the stairs, had, so to +speak, fallen tooth and nail on the sheepskin rug, which he was +bestriding with vehement kicks and upbraidings, as he clutched on to +the wool wildly--</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ger' up, ye deevil! Haud still, ye dommed brute!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is through Mary's young man as she's took up with bein' a +shepherd, milady," said nurse, swooping down on the child. "An' +through her never 'aving seen sheep shore, that's what it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul burst into a guffaw of laughter. "Old Angus! I swear to you, +Violet, it's the living image of old Angus. What a mimic the child +is!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do be quiet, Paul!" said his sister, hastily. "How can I---- Nurse, +tell Mary that I am much displeased, and that if I hear of her +watching the shepherd again----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I 'ave told her, milady," retorted the nurse, with as much dignity as +kicks and strugglings left to her, "and there an't no fear. Master +Blazes'll forget it sharp enough when he don't 'ear it. It is the +things 'as he do 'ear, constant"--a backward glance at Paul from the +turn of the stair emphasised the reproach.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is really very distressing," mourned Lady George, turning in grave +regret to Mrs. Vane, and then, seeing unqualified amusement in that +lady's face, yielding a little to her own sense of humour. "But he +really did it splendidly, though where the child gets the talent from, +I don't know. But fancy, Paul, if Mrs. Woodward had been here! I +should have died of shame, for she spent half an hour yesterday in +lecturing me. 'Dear Lady George,' she said, 'you mean well, and of +course the younger generation are always right.' Now, what are you all +laughing at?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"At you and your son, my dear," replied Paul. "That was Mrs. Woodward +to the life! So cheer up, Blanche. He will make his fortune on the +stage--or as a sheep farmer." And so full of smiles over the +recollection of the small sturdy figure struggling with the woolly +mat, he went off, feeling that in one way or another the morning had +passed pleasantly enough. Rationally also, without any attempt at +Arcadia. That danger was over, and incidentally he owed Mrs. Vane +another debt of gratitude for having driven him into calling at the +Lodge, and so discovering that Marjory, seen in ordinary society, was +not nearly so distracting a person as she had been when earth, and +air, and water had seemed to conspire in suggesting a new world of +dreams, where love was something very different to what it was in real +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Paul Macleod was not the only one of the party who felt satisfied +with the morning's work. Mrs. Vane, as she idled away an hour or two +in her room--one of her country-house maxims being that the less +people saw of you between meals the better--told herself that there +was time yet to stave off the immediate danger with Alice Woodward. +That was the one thing to be attained somehow--how, she did not care. +Paul had been flirting with Marjory, of course. Deny what he would, +the look she had surprised on his face on the Sunday did not come +there for nothing; besides, the girl herself had been too cold, too +distant, for absolute indifference. That farce of everything being +over for ever was easily played in absence, but was apt to break down +at a renewal of intimacy. It would be well to try if it would, at any +rate; and under any circumstances Paul was not likely to settle +matters with Alice until the party was on the eve of breaking up; +since it was always more convenient in these matters to have a way of +escape if you were refused.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward was of the same opinion, and said so to her husband +when, on laying his night-capped head on the conjugal pillow that +evening, he began to sound her as to the prospects of escape from the +dilatory posts, which, to tell truth, afforded him daily occupation. +For on the stroke of eleven he could fuss round, watch in hand, +counting the minutes of delay, and, after Donald had come and gone, +there was always that letter to the <i>Times</i>, exposing the iniquity of +whiskey bottles and pounds of tea in Her Majesty's mail bag, to be +composed against Lord George's return from the hill to the +smoking-room, when it had to be read aloud, amended, discussed, and +finally set aside till the next day. Then Donald would be later than +ever, and Mr. Woodward, tempted by the thought of detailing still more +horrible delinquencies, would withhold his letter for further +amendment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose it is all right, mamma," he began cautiously. "At least, I +noticed that the young people seemed to be--er--getting on to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite right," yawned the partner of his joys and sorrows. "How lucky +it was that Jack had to go to Riga about that tallow business."</p> + +<p class="normal">Even in the dark, with his head in night-cap, Mr. Woodward's paternal +dignity bristled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lucky! You speak, my dear, as if he had had claims, and I deny----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You can deny what you please, Mr. Woodward. I think it was lucky, for +now he need know nothing of the engagement till he returns."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps. My dear, by the way, have you any idea when the engagement +is likely to--ahem--er--come off?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward yawned once, twice. This was a detail scarcely +sufficient to warrant her being kept awake. "I can't say--not till we +are going to leave, I should think. That sort of thing breaks up a +party dreadfully. Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward sighed. "Only the posts really are so irregular. As I +said in my letter of to-day----"</p> + +<p class="normal">But this was too much for anyone's patience. "You can tell me +to-morrow, my dear," said the wife of his bosom, firmly. "I shouldn't +wonder if it were later than ever, for Lady George told me it was fair +day, or fast day, or something of that sort in Oban."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward gave a groan, and turned over to compose a still more +scathing report of the Gleneira mail.</p> + +<p class="normal">About the same time Blanche Temple, who, on her husband's late arrival +from the smoking-room, was found by him in dressing-gown and slippers +over the fire, reading a novel, and enjoying the only free time, she +said, a Highland hostess could hope for, was telling her lord and +master much the same tale. The young people were getting on, Paul was +really behaving charmingly, and little Mrs. Vane, contrary to her +expectations, seemed quite inclined to throw them together, so that +the future seemed clear. And Alice Woodward, had she been awake, would +doubtless have added her voice to the general satisfaction, for it was +distinctly pleasant to see the other girls' evident admiration of +Paul's good looks, and to hear their raptures over the beauty of +Gleneira. For a few months in autumn it would certainly be pleasant to +play the part Lady George was playing now, and for the rest of the +year there would be Constantinople, and civilisation generally.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the very next day at dinner something occurred to disturb one +person's peace, for Paul, as Mrs. Vane used to say, was a bad landlord +even to himself. His mind was not well fenced, and the gates, which +should have barred vagrant thoughts from intrusion, were as often as +not wide open or sadly out of repair. And this interruption was +trivial, being only a remark in his sister's clear, high-pitched +voice:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Gillespie was here again about that bazaar, and I believe, Paul, +he is in love with that Miss Carmichael of yours. At least, he talked +of her in a way--it would be most suitable, of course, and I really +think we ought to encourage it. It would give us old fogies something +to amuse us, wouldn't it, Mrs. Woodward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I disapprove of matchmaking on principle, Lady George," replied that +lady, severely; "but this, as you say, appears very suitable indeed. +She is a governess, or something of that sort of thing, I believe, and +they generally make admirable wives for poor clergymen. Understand +Sunday-schools, and don't expect to be taken about everywhere."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What an admirable wife for any poor man," put in a subaltern from +Paul's regiment, who had been asked down to make the sexes even; a +nice, fair-haired lad, given as yet to blushing over his own successes +in society. "If you will introduce me, Lady George, I might cut out +the curate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He isn't the curate," said his hostess, smiling. "By the way, Paul, +what are they in Scotland?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dissenting ministers!" retorted her brother, sullenly, angry with +her, and with himself; the one for inflicting, the other for feeling, +this sudden pain. Blanche's face was a study in outraged dignity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Paul!" she began, and then paused, speechless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is very good-looking, I think," said the echo diligently, "and I +hear----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is that?" put in Lord George from afar. "Miss Carmichael and the +parson! Pooh! she is far too good for that blatant young----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"George!" exclaimed his better half, this time with authority, "pray +remember that he is our clergyman--our parish clergyman."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are not likely to forget his pretensions to that position, +Blanche, considering how often he comes here," put in Paul, at a white +heat over what he told himself was an unwarrantable liberty with a +young lady's name, and feeling as if he could rend the whole company; +especially the unsuspecting subaltern.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a refreshing thing it is," came Mrs. Vane's half-jesting voice, +"to find the sexes have so high an opinion of each other! Go where you +will, Lady George, the news of an engagement makes nine-tenths of the +men swear she is too good for him, and all the women say he is too +good for her. Touching tributes; but what gender is truth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Masculine, of course!" put in her next-door neighbour, who prided +himself on being smart. "That dissentient tenth proves discrimination +the unanimity prejudice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me, it may only mean that men mix their prejudices as they do +their wines, while we women are consistent and prefer simplicity."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can hardly be expected at the present moment to say that I do," +retorted her companion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall remember that against you," laughed the little lady. +"Meanwhile I agree with the men. The young lady is too good for any of +you; she is charming."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give me first introduction, please," pleaded the subaltern. "I always +like people who are too good for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That explains the universality of your affections, I suppose, Mr. +Palmer," remarked Mrs. Vane, demurely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But really, Paul," said his sister, returning to the subject with +injured persistency when the laugh had subsided. "I cannot see why Mr. +Gillespie should not pay his pastoral visits if he chooses; besides we +had to discuss the church."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I trust the service won't be a repetition of the last one," +replied her brother, still woefully out of temper; "I, for one, will +refuse to go if it is. You agree with me, don't you, Miss Woodward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She smiled at him placidly. "Well! it was rather funny, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Funny!" echoed Sam Woodward. "I'll tell you what, it was the rummiest +go!" and he was proceeding to detail the whole to the new arrival whom +he had taken down to dinner, when Lady George, with a withering glance +in his direction, proceeded in a higher key.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The new church, I mean, Paul. We have arranged it all delightfully +while you horrid men have been killing birds. Alice is making a +subscription book with a Gothic window on the outside--illuminated, +you know--and a little appeal on the first page. It is to have an +initial letter, is it not, dear? Then by and bye, next year, perhaps, +when London isn't quite empty, Mrs. Woodward has promised her house +for a Highland fair--tartan things, and snoods--and--and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Queighs," suggested her husband, demurely, but she scorned the +interruption. "And spinning chairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Spinning chairs?" echoed Mr. Woodward, who, hearing for the first +time that his house was to be made use of, felt bound to show some +interest in the matter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! those things with very little seat, no back, and a lot of +carving. All the stall-keepers are to be dressed out of Scott's novels +and Mr. St. Clare is going to write--what was it, Mr. St. Clare?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A rondelet," muttered the poet, gloomily, looking up from the +chocolate creams with which he was trying to make life worth living.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course! a rondelet--that is the thing with very few words and a +great many rhymes, isn't it? And of course you, Paul, will wear the +kilt--local colour is everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear girl," cried Paul, too aghast for ill-humour. "I haven't worn +the kilt for years--pray consider----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The local colour of your knees," put in Lord George, brutally. "Never +mind, old man, a bottle of patent bronzine, like Blanche uses for her +slippers----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"George!" cried his wife, rising with an awful dignity. "Shall we go +into the drawing-room, Mrs. Woodward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was only his knees, my dear," protested the discomforted nobleman +in a whisper as she swept past him. "Hang it all! if a man mayn't +mention his brother-in-law's knees or his wife's slippers."</p> + +<p class="normal">But she was out of hearing, so he sate down in his chair again and +poured himself out a bumper of port viciously.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_14" href="#div1Ref_14">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">While the Big House was going on its way from cellar to attic, as if +it had been within the sound of Bow Bells instead of in a remote +Highland glen, Marjory for the first time in her life felt time heavy +on her hands; a thing not to be tolerated for an instant by a young +person of her views and prospects. She told herself that if this was +the result of her holiday, the sooner she set to work and forgot that +pleasant, idle time the better. For it had been pleasant, and Paul +Macleod had been kind. But what of that? His ways were not her +ways--his thoughts were not her thoughts; and then suddenly would come +the memory of that short instant on Isle Shuna when they had stood +hand in hand watching the Green Ray. Or was that only another result +of idleness?--that she should be growing fanciful. Paul himself had +denied seeing it, and after all, despite his kindness, he was the last +person to have sympathy with her ideals; yet such sympathy was the +only thing which could make her care for him or his society. She told +herself all this, over and over again, until she believed it; for +Marjory had not yet learnt to differentiate her head from her heart. +Many women never learn the art, and though some, no doubt, find the +difficulty lies in discovering their heads, a far greater number stop +short at a calm affection in the catalogue of their emotions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, for some reason or another, as yet inexplicable to the girl +herself, the melodious carol of a blackbird singing his heart out in a +cherry tree sent a pain to her own. It seemed to fill the world with +unrest, even though the house lay still as the grave; for Mrs. Cameron +and the lassies were away at the milking. She covered her ears to shut +out the sound and bent closer to her book, until suddenly she found +herself blindfolded by a pair of strong, slender, supple hands--hands +that could not be mistaken for an instant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tom!" she cried. "Oh, Tom! is it you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tom it is," said a voice with a pleasant intonation scarcely foreign, +and yet assuredly not wholly English. "<i>E' bene!</i> Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux! So this is the way you hold high holiday?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed to the open book, then, as she clung delighted to his arm, +put on an air of simulated disgust, perhaps to conceal the keen joy +which her welcome afforded him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Conic sections again, and I wandering round 'permiskus' calling for +some of my relations to kill the fatted calf!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The prodigal didn't come 'permiskus.' He wired ahead and they saw him +from afar."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then he didn't get an unexpected holiday, come express from Paris to +Oban, and then walk thirty miles over the hills because he had missed +the mail cart and was a fool----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why a fool?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? Because the bosom of my family was absorbed in conic sections! +And if that reason won't do, you really must wait until I have had +some veal--for to tell truth I'm ravenous--mostly for drinks!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He watched her as she flew off, singing as she went like any blackbird +out of sheer lightness of heart, and asked himself if this were not +enough? If he were bound to wait for something more? For Dr. Tom +Kennedy was not a man to require much time for such thoughts, +especially when he had been thinking of Marjory and his welcome all +that trudge of thirty miles over bog and heather. But the answer came +slowly, for he was quite as much in the dark on the vexed question of +Love and Marriage as most people, and the little Blind Boy with the +bow and arrows was as yet a part of his Pantheon. And yet there was +temptation enough to set mere romance aside, when, after anticipating +his every want, and fussing over him after the manner of a hen with a +solitary chicken, Marjory drew a low stool beside his chair, and, with +her elbows resting on her knees and her radiant face supported on her +hands, looked over him, as it were, in sheer content.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You don't know how nice it is to have you back," she said, suddenly +stretching out one hand to him--a favourite gesture of hers when +eager. He took it in both of his, bent over it, and kissed it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis worth the parting, child, to come back--to this."</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed merrily. "You have such pretty manners, Tom! I expect you +learnt them from grandpapa the Marquis and the <i>haute noblesse</i>. And +then in Paris, I suppose----"</p> + +<p class="normal">His heart contracted, but he interrupted her gaily. "I decline to be +scheduled in that fashion. My manners are my own, thank Heaven! in +spite of Galton on heredity. Oh! Marjory, my dear! what a relief it is +to get away from it all--from the eternal hunt for something that +escapes you--from the first chapter of Genesis to the Book of +Revelation; and now that I come to think of it, there is something new +about you--what is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head hastily. "Nothing. You said that last time, I +believe--people always look different. You have got greyer."</p> + +<p class="normal">He rubbed his close-cropped head disconsolately. "Have I?--well, I +can't help it. I'm getting old."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense! And I won't have you say you are glad to get away from +work--from the best work in the world! How can you tire of the only +thing worth anything, and of the search for truth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I'm forty-three--more than double your age. By the way, there +was a man I know who married a girl of sixteen when he was thirty-two. +And when he saw it down on the register it struck him all of a heap +that when she was forty he would be eighty. Matrimony, apparently, +isn't good for arithmetic--nor for the matter of that, arithmetic for +matrimony!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What silly stories you have, Tom," laughed the girl, "and in other +ways you really are so sensible."</p> + +<p class="normal">He rose suddenly and went to the window--a small, slight man, with a +keen brown face--and then, as if in excuse for the move, he picked a +spray or two of white jasmine and stuck them in his buttonhole. Then +he turned to her with a smile. "I should have been a deal more +sensible if people hadn't taught me things when I was young. Original +sin isn't in it with education. Come, Marjory! let us go and find my +cousin--or there will be a row in the house."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I like that!" retorted the girl, taking possession of his arm; "as if +anyone in the place dare say a word against you. Why, she told Dr. +Macrea the other day that she didn't intend to die till she could have +you to attend her!" Whereat they both laughed.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, in truth, there was much laughter and general good-will at the +Lodge that evening, when Dr. Kennedy insisted on Mrs. Cameron bringing +her knitting to the garden bench, while he and Marjory and Will +strolled about among the flowers, or stood talking here and there as +the fancy took them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you always wear jasmine, Tom?" asked the girl, idly bending to +catch a closer whiff of the buttonhole. "I suppose <i>she</i> used to give +it to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What she?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The one <i>she</i> of a man's life, of course."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fabulous creature! If they come at all, they come in crowds. Yes! now +I think of it, I fancy you are right. I was twelve, and she a +distracting young flirt of six. Her name was Pauline. I remember it, +because she was the last!----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Tom! how can you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fact; for twenty years after that the responsibilities of searching +for truth prevented my thinking of fictions."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And after that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Marjory, no history is ever written up to date. Even in your +beloved school-primers the last years of Her Gracious Majesty's reign +are glozed over by generalities. You see it is never safe to hazard an +opinion till events have proved it to be right. And then decent +reserve over the immediate past saves a lot of worry. I should hate to +confess that I had told a lie yesterday, though I might own up +placidly to one seven years ago. Yes! seven years should be close time +for confession. A man renews his vile body in that period, and can +take credit for having changed his morals also."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it is more than seven years since you were thirty-two."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have a head for arithmetic, my dear, not for--the other thing; +and it is possible that I am still only in the second volume of my +fiction."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean in love. What a delightfully funny idea!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mrs. Cameron!" cried the doctor, "do you see anything comic in the +spectacle of Methuselah wishing to get married; for I don't. I think +it is melancholy in the extreme."</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth he did think so, for though, when he was away, his own +sentimentality seemed sufficient for them both, the first look at +Marjory's face always told him that, if the received theories were +true, there was something yet to come before he had any right--in a +way any desire--to ask Marjory to be his wife. If they were true! +There lay the problem which he found so much difficulty in solving. +Like most men of his profession, he was almost over familiar with the +material side of the question, and, being naturally of delicate fibre, +an instinctive revolt made him exaggerate the part which romance was +to play in the purification of passion. To marry when you loved each +other was one thing; for one to love, and both to remain friends, was +another! And between these two ideals he hesitated; for Dr. Kennedy's +power lay not so much in strength as in a certain fineness of +perception and delicacy of touch. And yet at times a doubt +lingered--the doubt which had made him fall foul of the things he had +been taught in his youth. But even through this there ran a vein of +protest against the lack of colour which a more prosaic, more +material, and yet less animal view of the relations which ought to +exist between a man and woman would involve. For he was sentimental to +a degree, and told himself that the very fact of his age made it more +than ever necessary that his wife should be inspired to do her duty by +something more than mere affection. That is to say, once more, if +current theories were true! He came back to this point again and +again, unable to settle it to his own satisfaction, and finding his +chief comfort in the fact that Marjory had, hitherto, never shown the +least sign of loving anyone. If that were to continue in the future, +he could imagine the doubts and difficulties disappearing altogether; +but for this time was required, time for her to understand her own +nature. His knowledge, his experience of life, the position in which +he stood towards her, all combined to make him hyper-sensitive lest in +any way he should wrong her innocence and ignorance. Besides, he +himself would have been bitterly dissatisfied with the position. That +was the solid truth, which went further than anything else in making +him stand aloof; though, no doubt, he would have denied the fact +strenuously, since to men of his stamp a sentimental grief is better +than no sentiment at all. Yet the grief sate on him lightly because of +its very sentimentality, and because--though this again he would +strenuously have denied--in his heart of hearts he felt that it was +largely of his own making, and that one part of his nature was +satisfied and to spare. In these days, when the happiness of the +individual is both aim and end, it is curious to see how persistently +one form of happiness is ignored; the happiness which indubitably +comes from doing what you would <i>not</i> wish to do, unless you conceived +it to be your duty. And yet the very people who deny the possibility +of this content are the first to point out that, when all is said and +done, a man can only do what he wishes to do.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that when, on the next morning, Dr. Kennedy, who had listened to +the tale of what had been going on and what was going on in the Big +House with a certain foreboding, came to Marjory and urged her to +accompany him on a visit there in the afternoon, he did so with the +distinct intention of feeling the self-complacency of duty performed. +And Marjory, in her turn, thus brought face to face with the very +reasonable proposition, found it hard to make an excuse that did not +rouse her own indignation by being over serious. After all, why should +she not comply with Captain Macleod's urgent invitations? There was +nothing to be afraid of. Nevertheless, when she appeared, clothed in +white raiment with her best gloves on, she had so solemn and sedate an +air that the doctor felt aghast at his own act.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't look so like Iphigenia, my dear," he said; "or let us give it +up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly not. If it's the right thing to do, it has got to be done; +but I do feel like a sacrificial lamb. You don't, of course; but then +you are accustomed to society, a great deal of society, and I'm not. +Do you know, Tom, I have scarcely ever seen more than three or four +people of my own rank together in my life, and I positively don't know +any girls."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Time you did," he replied stoutly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I doubt if I have any manners," she protested.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had, at any rate; and new as the experience of the large party +gathered in the big drawing-room was to her, she found immediate +confidence in the perception that her companion would stand the test +of any society; indeed, as she sate talking to Alice Woodward, she +could not help noticing with a certain amused pride Lady George's +frigid politeness give way to interested endeavours to find out who +this most unusually well-bred specimen of a country doctor could be; +for Paul was not there to aid his sister's ignorance.</p> + +<p class="normal">But by and bye Mrs. Vane came in and made her way straight to Marjory +with pretty little words of welcome, yet with the Anglo-Indian lady's +reminiscent interest at the sight of a real live man at afternoon tea.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is he?" she asked; "did he come with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is my guardian--Dr. Kennedy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kennedy! not the famous Dr. Kennedy--Tom Kennedy of Paris?" And +before Marjory could get beyond the first syllable of acquiescence, +Mrs. Vane had crossed the room and was standing opposite Lady George.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I would ask you to introduce me to Dr. Kennedy," she said, "but it +would be of no use, for while he has made a name for himself since I +knew him, I have lost mine. So I will only ask him if he remembers the +jasmine bush at the Château Saumarez?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was an instant's bewilderment, and then Tommy Kennedy, who had +risen at her first word, took a step forward and both his hands went +out gladly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pauline!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so--and you are Alphonse! What a small place the world is after +all! To think of finding you at Gleneira. Lady George, you were +talking of theatricals this morning, and the idea fell through because +no one--not even your brother--would do the <i>jeune premier</i> with me. +He is found! Dr. Kennedy is one of the best amateur actors in Paris."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The past tense, if you please, my dear lady," protested the doctor. +"Consider my grey hairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is a remark which should not have been made, for we are +contemporaries. He was my first--no! one of my first loves, Lady +George. We used to give each other sweeties over the garden wall when +his grandmother, the Marquise de Brisson, was not looking; but the +jasmine bush, Alphonse, was at your uncle's, Prince Rosignacs's. Why! +you have a bit in your buttonhole now, and I----" She pointed to the +spray fastened into the laces of her tea-gown.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ce soir ma robe en est tout embaumée</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Respires-en moi l'adorant souvenir</i>," quoted Dr. Kennedy, looking at +the lapel of his coat tenderly; and Marjory, standing a little apart, +a mute spectator of the scene, felt a sudden sense of loneliness. He, +too, was at home in this idle, careless life, and she was the only one +who was out of it. It came upon her by surprise, for though she had +known and been proud of the fact that her guardian belonged by virtue +of his mother's birth to the best of French society, she had had no +actual experience of him in the part of a man of the world. But he was +that, and of a good world, too, she recognised frankly as she sate +listening to the now animated conversation about people she had never +heard of, things she had never seen, and at the same time trying to be +agreeable to the girls who, dutiously, had taken her in hand. She felt +that it was a duty, and a sort of indifferent resentment possessed +her, even when Lady George hoped she would accompany Dr. Kennedy, who +had kindly promised to dine with them next day and talk over the now +possible theatricals. Yet, rather to his surprise, she accepted +without even a look at his face, and made quite a polite little speech +about hoping to see more of the girls; and so, with a certain +independent grace, passed out into the hall, leaving him detained for +a moment by some last remark. She could hear Mrs. Vane's light laugh, +his voice, and then another laugh, as she stood waiting beside the +deferential butler, and all involuntarily her lip curled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Carmichael! How glad I am!" It was Paul, newly in from +the moor, looking his best, as a handsome man does, in his rough +shooting-clothes. He had a tuft of white heather and stag-horn moss in +one hand, and with a sudden impulse he held it out gaily to her. +"Tit-for-tat! you welcomed me here--though I never thanked you for so +doing, did I? It is my turn now."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had meant the offering for Violet Vane or Alice Woodward, whichever +he met first, but now it seemed as if fate had sent it for Marjory and +for no one else. He felt as if it were so, he looked as if it were so, +and for the first time in her life Marjory felt an odd little thrill +run through her veins.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you," she said soberly. "Yes! I did give it to you; so now we +are quits--I mean," she corrected hastily, "that--that we are on the +same footing."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was quite a tremor in her voice, too, as, seeing Dr. Kennedy +beside her, she turned to him quickly. "This is Captain Macleod, +Tom;--he has been very kind to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">In nine cases out of ten Paul Macleod on being introduced to a man +belonging to a girl in Marjory's position, and, as it were, having a +claim on her, would have been studiously, frigidly courteous, and no +more; and so might have once and for all chilled Marjory's sudden +confidence and relief in finding an old friend in her new environment; +but it is difficult for an emotional man to be cold, when a sudden +glow of content makes him feel absurdly happy. Consequently he went +out of his way to be frank and kindly in expressing his pleasure at +making the acquaintance of one of whom Miss Carmichael had so often +spoken.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In terms of reprobation, no doubt," replied Dr. Kennedy, lightly; "a +guardian is a disagreeable appendage, though I try to be as little of +a nuisance as I can."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So do I," retorted Paul, with a smile; "but Miss Carmichael is so +dreadfully hard to please."</p> + +<p class="normal">As Dr. Kennedy's keen brown eyes took in the figure before him, he +told himself that the girl must be hard indeed to please if she could +find fault with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the handsomest man I've seen for a long time," he said as +they walked home. "What is he like inside?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory paused with her head on one side, considering. "Oh! nice in a +way--the way of the world, I suppose, and I thought him nicer than +ever to-day; being in his own house agrees with him. Oh, Tom! how I +wish you hadn't accepted that invitation to dinner!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet when she returned from the Big House, she had a little flush on +her cheek, and when Dr. Kennedy challenged her to tell truth in answer +to Mrs. Cameron's inquiry as to how she got on, she answered with a +laugh and a nod: "Why not--it was rather interesting; quite an +evolutionary process. Before I went I was protoplasmic--all in a +jelly. Then at dinner we were all amoebic--digestive apparatus and +nothing else. Afterwards, with the ladies, I felt like a worm, or a +fish out of water. Then I wanted to have wings like a bird and fly +away, but I couldn't, for the quadrumana appeared from the +dining-room, and we all became apes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is the lassie talking about?" put in Mrs. Cameron, with a toss +of her head. "Can you no answer a straight question wi' a straight +answer? What then, I say, what then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! what then, Marjory?" asked Tom Kennedy, quickly; he knew the +answer, and yet he wanted to hear it from her lips, because it would +satisfy him that so far he had been right.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then--why then I suppose I became a girl--at any rate I enjoyed +it. They were all so kind, and Mrs. Vane--I suppose in your world, +Tom, there are heaps of women like that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not many so charming," he answered heartily. In truth it had been +very pleasant meeting her again after so many years; for a man, even +when he is in love, or supposes himself to be in love, with one woman, +is never proof against the pleasure of being made much of by another. +And Dr. Kennedy, with a quaint simplicity and wisdom, was perfectly +aware of his own reputation as one of the boldest adventurers in new +fields of discovery, and told himself that people made much of him for +their own sake, and because he carried his restless energy with him +into society as well as into his work. For energy is, as a rule, a +godsend to <i>fin-de-siècle</i> men and women. So the conceit of it slipped +off him like water from a duck's back, leaving him free to take his +world as he found it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marjory felt once more the little chill of regret for the things +she had not known in his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is one thing I forget to ask you," she said quickly. "Your name +is not Alphonse, is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! But she thought Tom unromantic, and so I promised to change my +name if she changed hers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Men don't generally do as much as that," grumbled Will. "So they are +going to have theatricals, are they? That means that all the horses +will be dead lame, and the laird will be wanting more."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How on earth do you make that out?" asked Dr. Kennedy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Women," said Will, laconically. "Something will always be wanted in a +hurry, the telegraph station is ten miles off, and women seem to think +a horse can change its legs when it comes home."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was some truth in his remark during the next ten days. Gleneira +House lived in a continual bustle which gave no time for thought, +save, perhaps, to Mrs. Vane, who, busy as she was, found time to +congratulate herself so far on the success of her plans; for Marjory +and Paul had perforce to meet constantly, and more than once something +occurred to encourage her belief that there was material for mischief +ready to her hand if it was needed.</p> + +<p class="normal">But other material came to light also, or so it seemed to her cynical +experience; and the clue to it came one day when she and Marjory, who +had grown keen, as was only natural, over the novelty of amusement, +were searching through an old portfolio of Paul's sketches for hints +likely to be of use for a drop scene.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was nothing more than the portrait of a girl with a bunch of red +rowans held up to her cheek.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is very well done, Paul," said Mrs. Vane, holding it up for him +to see, as he stood a little way off. "Who was the beautiful model?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He came over to her hastily. "Oh! no one you know; and it isn't really +worth looking at. A wretched caricature--I did not know it was there."</p> + +<p class="normal">Something in his voice roused the amused malice which always lurked +behind Mrs. Vane's treatment of Paul's foibles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I disagree with you; look, Miss Carmichael! Don't you think that +quite the best thing we have seen of Captain Macleod's doing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a lovely face," said the girl, "and it reminds me of someone----" +Then she looked up in sudden interest. "Surely it is Paul--little +Paul, I mean, Peggy Duncan's grandson; perhaps----" She stopped +abruptly, remembering the big Paul's confession, and blushed, she +scarcely knew why. Then, feeling vexed with herself for doing so, put +down the sketch, and taking up another, made some trivial remark about +its being very pretty. But Mrs. Vane had not done with the sketch. +"That Highland type of face----" she began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no need to theorise over the likeness in this case," +interrupted Paul, seeing through her, as he nearly always did. "It was +little Paul's mother; and as I think I told you once, Miss Carmichael, +the most beautiful woman I ever saw. That is why I call it a +caricature, Mrs. Vane."</p> + +<p class="normal">The anger in his voice was not to be mistaken, and Marjory, as he +moved away to resume his <i>tête-a-tête</i> with Alice Woodward, was left +with an uncomfortable feeling that she had somehow betrayed a secret, +though her common, sense resented the imputation. But Mrs. Vane looked +after his retreating figure with one of her fine smiles. So the memory +of this particular most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world--there must have +been a good many of them in Paul Macleod's life--was not pleasant to +him. Wherefore? The question came quite idly, and passed from her mind +without an answer. Marjory, on the other hand, took hers--as to +whether she was to blame or not--seriously to heart. So much so, that +when she had speech with Paul alone, which occurred naturally enough +when he brought her a cup of tea, as she sate stitching away for dear +life at some ridiculous theatrical property near the window, so as to +get the full advantage of the waning light, she reverted to the +subject at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't," he interrupted hurriedly, almost before she had begun. +"Please don't; I would so much rather you said nothing more about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I don't understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank heaven you don't," he replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you say that?" she cried reproachfully. "I cannot see why +I should not, if I can. I am not a fool----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory!" interrupted Dr. Kennedy, coming forward, "little Paul +Duncan has just come round from the Lodge with a message that his +grannie wants to see you. We might go round that way; it is getting +late as it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no hurry," put in Paul. "I will tell them to give the boy a +piece, and he can wait till Miss Carmichael has finished giving me +absolution."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is the wrong way about, surely?" she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the usual way between a man and a woman," replied Paul, "and +will be to the end of the chapter, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p class="normal">Half an hour afterwards Mrs. Vane, who had come out into the hall with +some parting instructions to Marjory, stood looking down with the +others at little Paul Duncan, who, weary of waiting, had cuddled +himself round on the doorstep and fallen into the heavy sleep of +childhood. "He looks very delicate," said Violet, kindly stooping over +him as he lay with one hand tucked into the back of his neck in rather +an unusual posture; and then suddenly she looked up at the big Paul, +for the trick had taken her back to the old days when she had watched +his sleep with jealous care, lest her patient should be disturbed; and +how often had she not wondered why he chose so uncomfortable a +position?</p> + +<p class="normal">Impossible! and yet there was a likeness. The name, too, and his +evident dislike to the mention of the boy's mother! It must mean +something--what? The thought left her pale, so that Paul, turning back +with her when those two had gone, noticed it, telling her that she was +overworking herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I am overworking," she retorted, with a strange mixture of +self-pity, blame, and fierce resentment. "I always do. Is it my fault +if I do things quicker than other people? Is it my fault if I see +things more clearly? You think I am always managing, managing; and so +I am. How can I help it when, everything keeps coming into my mind, +and no one thinks or cares?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Violet! You have been overworking, indeed. You must take it +easier, or we shall be having you laid up----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then what would Paul Macleod do?" she went on, with a reckless +laugh. "No! I won't make myself so disagreeable as all that--if I can +help it, Paul; but how can one help being disagreeable at times when +one is wise--wise and old? Oh, Paul, how old I am!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't see it," he answered, with an amused smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You! you never see anything," she began; then suddenly returned to +her own light, half-jesting manner. "No! that is not true; you see +most things, but you are too young to understand me. Dreadfully young +for your age, Paul, so it is lucky there are so many of us to look +after you."</p> + +<p class="normal">When she went upstairs to dress for dinner she sate down before the +looking-glass and stared at herself with a sort of repugnance. Yes! +she was old, hatefully old, in mind, in knowledge of the world, in +experience. That thought which had flashed through her brain at the +sight of little Paul lying asleep on the doorstep was not a nice +thought. Yet could she help its flashing? and, if there was anything +in the thought, might not the knowledge strengthen her hand in the +coming fight? For a fortnight's daily experience of Alice Woodward's +calm attractions had raised Mrs. Vane's opposition to her marriage +with Paul to virtuous horror. No true friend, she told herself, would +hesitate to throw every difficulty in the way of so disastrous a +connection. At the same time she felt almost afraid to reach out after +this new weapon, lest it might prove too heavy for those delicate +hands of hers, accustomed for the most part to leading reins. It was +one thing to goad and guide people into the right path, another to +split open their heads with a sledgehammer. Though how this could be +such a lethal weapon she could not see, since she knew enough of Paul +Macleod to doubt if he would have had the hardihood to mention Jeanie +Duncan to Marjory if there had been anything between them in the past. +And yet? So she stood before possibilities, shivering on the brink, +and finally telling herself there would be time enough to think of +such things if less heroic measures failed. It was a mistake to touch +pitch needlessly; at the same time it was as well to make sure there +was pitch in the pot. So the next day saw her, on some airy pretence +of getting old Peggy to knit stockings, sitting beside the old pauper +and bringing to bear on her ailments and wrongs all the gay +cheerfulness and sympathy which Paul declared always put him in a good +humour.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_15" href="#div1Ref_15">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Apparently it had the same effect on Peggy Duncan, for the next +Saturday when, as usual, her ancient schoolfellow and crony, Janet, +came to give the hovel that weekly redding up which was beyond little +Paul's ability, the old lady lay in her bed discoursing at length on +the "bit thing just made up o' fal-lals that sits in the auld chair as +if 't belonged to her, and chirrups awa like the lady's o' heaven's +hen. A sicht guid for sair e'en, no like what the house was maistly +acquaint wi'--just puir, ill-fa'ured warlocks."</p> + +<p class="normal">Whereupon Janet Faa tossed her head, and muttered in an undertone that +Peggy might speak for herself; she was no warlock whatever. But she +went on with her work, patiently, being accustomed to such sly hits +and finding the description of Mrs. Vane's dresses and the puckles o' +tea that appeared from her pocket far more interesting than the old +lady's usual snappishness. But then, under any circumstances, Peggy's +tongue would have been softened by the knowledge that help was more +than ever necessary that day, since visitors were expected to tea. So +the old woman watched the preparations with wrathful eyes, and did not +even quarrel with the polish of the two silver spoons, which, usually +secreted with her other treasures in the bottom drawer of the bureau, +now graced the clean tablecloth. To tell truth, however, fault-finding +would have had no practical effect, since Janet never took the +slightest notice of it, beyond remarking every now and again: "Whist, +woman! whist! It is no breath you will be having to crack with the +doctor."</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, wee Paulie, who contributed his share by timidly +presenting a mug full of early rowan-berries and heather for the +middle of the table, was sternly bidden to take away the ugly trash, +and solemnly warned against the sin of mistaking weeds for flowers, +and thus setting himself up to be a judge instead of abiding by the +will of Providence. The rebuke, however, did not seem to touch the +child, who, with many previous memories of Miss Marjory's liking for +the said "ugly trash," set the posy aside on a shelf at the back of +the bed, and so beyond the reach of his grandmother's eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If Towpie wad lay anither egg," said the old lady at last, surveying +the <i>tout ensemble</i> with a smile struggling with the frown which was +necessary to keep Janet Faa in subjection, "it wad nae be sae bad; but +I misdoot the silly thing is for clucking."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it is two eggs there are, Peggy, woman, and the shentlemans is +never for eatin' but one egg," protested Janet, who occasionally +helped at the Big House, and was great, in consequence, on the ways +and customs of the quality.</p> + +<p class="normal">Peggy sniffed. "That may be your way o' thinkin', it's no mine. Ye +soudna press on a guest what ye're no able to tak' yoursel'. And I'd +no cook it, ye ken--I'd just offer it up to show there was ane--Lord +sakes! wha's yon at the door, an' me wi' my bald head. Quick, Janet, +woman, my mutch, and pit it straight, woman! I'll no have it cockit +over an ear as if I were tipsy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will only be the master," said little Paul, coming from the door. +"He will be having a letter for you he says with a penny to pay."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then bid him tak' it back and pay himsel' if he's carin' for it. I'm +no. There's no letters for me that I'm carin' to have, and I'll just +no be fashed wi' them when there is company comin'--Hoot awa' wi' the +man comin' pryin', pryin', and me puttin' on my mutch for him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, Mistress Duncan," came in remonstrant tones from the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! you're there are ye. Weel! I'm obleeged to ye, sir, for comin' +sae far oot o' ye're road. An' I must pit ye to the trouble o' takin' +it back again, and tellin' them as sent it that Peggy Duncan is on the +pairish an' hasna a penny to spare for their trash."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. McColl, standing outside, looked longingly at the blue envelope, +with the seal of a well-known firm of Writers-to-the-Signet upon it, +and hesitated. Was it worth paying a penny on the chance of being the +first to spread news? A momentous question, which left a tremble in +his voice as he called again. "But there will be naethin' to pay, +Mistress Duncan. Here! Paulie, my man, rin with it to your grannie. +And it will be Scriven an' Plead's name on the anvelope, and they will +be the foremost Writers-to-the-Signet in Glasgow, whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They may be Writers to onybody else," retorted Peggy, taking the +bulky letter, however, and nodding to Mr. McColl, who had seized the +opportunity of slipping in so far. "But I dinna ken what right they +have to be Writers to me."</p> + +<p class="normal">The master put in a deft suggestion. "Then ye can see inside, Mistress +Duncan. If you are carin' for't I could be readin' it to you before I +was goin' on. I'm no in a hurry."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peggy's black eyes glittered with sheer malice as she tucked the +envelope away under her pillow, and lay back on it defiantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"An' I'm no in a hurry, either, Mr. McColl, an' I would be asking you +to have a sup tea, but that I'm expectin' the quality; sae gude day to +ye, and mony thanks for your kindness."</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet when poor Mr. McColl had retired discomfited, bemoaning the +loss of his penny, and Janet Faa, having done her part of the +business, had left the kettle in charge of little Paul, who sate +outside watching for the first glimpse of Miss Marjory, the old woman +brought out the envelope again and looked at it wistfully. Perhaps the +thoughts of the long years, during which she had waited in vain for +some word of the husband who had deserted her, came back to her; yet +as she muttered to herself--as she did often when alone--it was not +that thought which came uppermost.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye! aye! it's a fine thing the readin' o' writin'. If it were aboot +the lassie now; and me promising never to speir, never to let ony +other body know! I canna break my word, an' me sae near the Judgment. +It is no as if I were a Papist, like Janet, puir body, that can just +awa' an' get absolution, ye ken. I maun carry my sins wi' me, and it +will be ill eneuch flyin' wi' what I've got."</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I come in, Mrs. Duncan?" said a clear voice, breaking in on the +old woman's preoccupation. As a matter of fact, however, the +permission was scarcely needed, for Violet Vane was already in the +room, close to the bed, her eyes on the letter; yet her first words +made it appear as if her attention had been given to something else.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! you are expecting visitors, and I shall be in the way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Naethin' o' the sort, ma'am," replied Peggy, hastily, as usual on the +lookout for a grievance. "I'm no sae sair put to it yet but that I can +spare a cup o' tea for them that takes the trouble to come and see the +auld wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And a very good cup of tea, too," put in Mrs. Vane. "What you gave me +the other day was delicious. I only meant that strangers may not be +welcome when friends are talking secrets."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've nae friends and nae secrets," retorted the old woman, looking up +quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you are lucky," continued her visitor, lightly. "Friends are +often troublesome, especially over secrets; nine times out of ten you +daren't ask their advice for fear of their knowing too much."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ye'll no be askin' mony folks' advice, I'm thinking," said Peggy, +shrewdly. "Ye've plenty brains; eneuch for yoursel' and ithers to the +bargain."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane laughed. "Perhaps; but other folks' brains are better than +one's own sometimes. When I am in a difficulty I go to someone who is +as near a perfect stranger to me as possible and ask for advice. I +needn't take it, you know--Gracious! what is that?" That was a +clamorous cackling at the foot of the bed, and the stately march +therefrom of Towpie, the hen, triumphant over the laying of an egg in +her favourite nest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh ye o' little faith!" cried Peggy; "and me misca'ing the puir +beastie! It's a special Providence, aye, aye. He neither slumbers nor +sleeps, ye ken. And you will no be goin' to stop at Gleneira long, I'm +thinking." The question followed fast on the quotation as if there was +some connection in the old woman's mind between them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I leave it very soon, I'm sorry to say, as I think it the loveliest +place in the world; and it is sad to know that I shall not see it +again."</p> + +<p class="normal">The envelope had come put of its hiding-place again during this +speech, and Peggy was turning it over and over as if to attract +attention to it; but she failed, and had to resort to more direct +methods.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I canna think why they pit sic'can a big seal to a letter. Will there +be something on it that shoudna be broken?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not that I can see," replied Mrs. Vane, taking it up carelessly. +"Only the name, 'Scriven and Plead'--lawyers, Peggy--for there below +is W. S. Glasgow. It is what people call a lawyer's letter, I expect."</p> + +<p class="normal">"An' what will that be about?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Heaps of things. I couldn't say without reading it; shall I?" But +Peggy's claw-like hand shot forth in quick negation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll no be troubling you. I thocht, maybe, ye micht hae had +experience o' such things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I have, Peggy. Sometimes they are wills, and sometimes they are +money."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Aye!" interrupted the old woman, with a sinister chuckle, "but when +they're written to bit pauper bodies like me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then they are generally questions," replied Mrs. Vane, and though she +spoke easily she was conscious of a certain agitation of mind. +"Agreeable or disagreeable. Something to help a lawyer in tracing +somebody, or finding out some secret."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peggy lay back on her pillows with a sort of groan. "'Tis only the +pain, ma'am," she explained, then paused awhile; "I was thinkin' maybe +'twas that. An' if you coudna answer them, what then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing; they can't make you; only it is impossible to tell if you +can or cannot till you know the questions."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But if I canna know them without breaking a covenant? I might just +let the letter bide, maybe?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane hesitated an instant to run over the pros and cons hastily. +There was some secret, that was evident, and though the letter might +not be concerned with it, on the other hand it might. Peggy was +disinclined to trust it to her on the instant, but might think better +of it by and bye; anyhow, the first thing to ensure was that no one +else should have the chance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In that case, of course, you should, as you say, let it be. If it is +really important they will write again, and then it would be worth +while considering the matter. In the meanwhile, as a perfect stranger, +I should advise your setting it aside."</p> + +<p class="normal">Peggy looked at her admiringly. "It's a fine thing to hae deceesion o' +character, and me just fashing myself about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I put it away for you in a safe place?" asked her visitor, as +the old lady proceeded to put the letter back under the pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's safe eneuch there," she retorted sardonically. "I'll no move +till they lift me to my coffin, an' that will no be far, for it's to +stand on the table whaur the tea is setten oot. I've planned it a' ye +see wi' Janet, and there's twa bottles o' gude whiskey wi' the deid +claes in the bottom drawer. Ye canna expec' sinfu' man tae sit wi' a +corp without spirits."</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite the humour of the thought, which at another time would have +outweighed the grimness, Mrs. Vane shivered. It seemed to her as if +old Peggy were a corp already in that dim box bed, where she lay so +still, only her angry eyes and twitching fingers showing sign of life. +It was a relief to hear the grumbling voice again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Weel, yon's settled, thanks to you, an' I'll no be kep' lingerin' in +the deid thraw about papers that, for a' I ken, wad be as weel in the +fire. O, ma'am! ye dinna ken what it feels like to think o' bein' +called to the Throne, an' no bein' able to stir for the weight o' yer +sins. For a broken word is as heavy as lead ye ken."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you talk of being called, Peggy," protested Mrs. Vane, +uneasily. "You are no worse than you were." But here in her +nervousness she forgot her tact, and the old woman was in arms at +once. "Maybe ye ken better nor me, ma'am, that's only tholing the pain +alone in the night watches."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you should get some of the neighbours to sit up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Neebors!" interrupted Peggy, with an eldritch laugh. "They'll have +eneuch to do in settin' up wi' my corp; sae let them sleep on now an' +take <i>their</i> rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane shivered again, and, a sudden distaste to the whole business +coming over her, made an excuse to escape; yet when, almost at the +threshold, she met Marjory and Dr. Kennedy on their way to Peggy's +entertainment, she paused with the lightest of laughs to tell them +that the old woman was in one of her worst moods, and would make their +hair stand on end. For her part she had had her fill of horrors, and +intended to shock Mrs. Woodward by asking for a spoonful of brandy in +her tea! It was a relief to joke over it for the time, even though in +her heart she knew that she would have a <i>mauvais quart d'heure</i> +sooner or later; most likely later, when the time came for sleep and +she would have to seek the aid of that bottle of chloral--for Mrs. +Vane's mind was fragile as her body, and could not stand any great +strain. She could handle the reins deftly, and drive her team gaily +along the turnpike road, but she had never driven across country. So +it was a further relief to meet the butler in the hall carrying a +fresh teapot of tea into the drawing-room, while the footman followed +decorously bearing eight cups on a tray. Lady Hooker, the former +functionary replied, in answer to her inquiries, had driven over from +the Forest to see her ladyship in a <i>châr-a-banc</i>, with seven other +ladies, some children, and a piper playing on the box. He added the +last item in tones of tolerant contempt, born of a dispute downstairs +as to whether the musician should have his tea in the housekeeper's +room or the servants' hall; the womenkind, dazzled by his gorgeous +array, favouring the former, the menkind the latter, on the ground +that fine feathers did not make fine birds, and that without them he +was only Roderick the gillie's brother and a "hignorant 'ighland +beast" to boot.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George's face relaxed even at the sight of another woman, seeing +that that other was Mrs. Vane; for as she said afterwards, "It is +nearly twenty miles, you know, and a bad road, so the horses were +bound to have an hour's rest, and it requires a dreadful expenditure +of tissue to make tea last an hour; yet, if you don't, you have to put +on your boots in a hurry and begin the conservatories and the garden, +which no one wants to see in the least. Really, in the country, it +would be a charity to have a room where people could wait until the +horses came round, or rather, till the coachman got tired of flirting +with the maids, for in the end it comes to that, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">To tell truth, there was cause for Lady George's welcome of +reinforcements, for, despite the fact that the hall positively reeked +of mackintoshes, the drawing-room was redolent of the shower-proof +mantles worn by a bevy of ladies of the type so common on Mr. +McBrayne's steamers; ladies whose conception of the Highlands and +islands might be likened to a volume of Scott bound in waterproof!</p> + +<p class="normal">"We brought our sandwiches for lunch with us," explained one in reply +to Mrs. Vane's commonplace about the long drive; "and dear Lady Hooker +said we might rely on Highland hospitality for tea; and really it was +exquisite, a dream of beauty, and so interesting, too! Dear Lady +Hooker says that a portion of Waverley was really written in this +neighbourhood."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hope they were not the opening ones, then," remarked Mrs. Vane, +carelessly. "They always make me inclined to agree for the time with +the man who said it was a pity Sir Walter wrote in such small print."</p> + +<p class="normal">A perfectly bovine silence fell on her group, broken, however, by a +determined voice from over the way:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I agree with you absolutely, at least, as absolutely as the +limitations of human life allow. There is a lack of spiritual insight +in Sir Walter, a want of emotional instinct, an almost brutal content +with things as they are. His style is doubtless good, but personally I +confess to being unable to appreciate it fully. Even on a second +reading I find the story distracts my mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">The speaker was a slim, rather elegant-looking girl, with an odd +mixture of eagerness and stolidity on her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She writes a great deal," said Mrs. Vane's next-door neighbour in an +undertone of gratification, as if she gained a certain distinction by +being of the same party.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only a hundred brace!" came Lady Hooker's voice, compassionately. +"That's very poor, scarcely worth writing for--but then, you don't +rent the place, of course; that makes the difference. Sir Joseph +doesn't go in for grouse, of course; he is a deer man. But we couldn't +get on under five hundred brace for the table, we really couldn't. +Cooks are so extravagant. You will hardly believe it, Lady Temple, but +my Glasgow beef bill last week was over nine pounds, and we had three +sheep besides, and--how many deer was it, Miss Jones? Six? Yes, six +deer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That seems enough even for Noah's Ark or a menagerie," said Mrs. +Vane, sympathetically, and Lady George gave her a grateful smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But then, of course, the servants won't touch venison," went +on Lady Hooker, contentedly; "though really it makes very fair +clear soup--it does, indeed. Even Sir Joseph does not object; and +he is so particular. When we had the Marquis of Steyne's place in +Ross-shire----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! there are the children," said Lady George, with a sigh of relief. +"I thought, Lady Hooker, that my little boy and girl--oh, nurse! I did +not intend Master Blasius----"</p> + +<p class="normal">But nurse apparently had other views--possibly that of hearing the +pipes downstairs--for she feigned not to hear, and set Blazes down on +his feet with that final "jug" behind to his smock frock which is the +usual parting admonition to behave nicely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eve, my darling! Adam, my love! go and shake hands' with your little +visitors," said Lady George, keeping an apprehensive eye on Blazes, +who, with his legs very far apart, was clacking the whip he had +brought down with him, and making extraordinary cluckings in the roof +of his mouth, like a whole bevy of broody hens, in which occupation, +what with his close-cropped hair and white smock, he looked a carter +to the life. "Really, nurse!" she continued nervously; "I think, +perhaps, it would be better. He is so much younger than the others, +you see, Lady Hooker."</p> + +<p class="normal">But nurse was not to be put off with this subterfuge, and as she +happened to be keeping company with the carrier, she felt outraged by +the palpable suspicion. "Indeed, your ladyship," she said, in an +indignant whisper, "it is only the man as drives the ferry cart, and +'e is most respectable!"</p> + +<p class="normal">So it appeared, for beyond the usual "<i>ger'up</i>" Blasius' vocabulary +was, if anything, too endearing. So much so, that Lady George +suggested that since the children had had their tea, she thought it +would be nice for them to play on the lawn. She would ring for the +nursemaid to keep an eye on them, not that it would be necessary, +since she could trust darling Adam and Eve not to get into mischief +anywhere--out of Paradise. But here a difficulty presented itself. One +little girl, a very pretty child dressed in white serge and fur, +refused to go, and stood burying her face in the window curtain, and +digging the toe of one shoe into the carpet after the manner of +children who have made up their minds to give trouble.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She isn't my girl," came Lady Hooker's loud voice. "Sir Joseph +wouldn't tolerate that sort of thing, he is so particular. When we had +the Duke's place in Sutherland----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cressida, my sweet!" said the authoress, plaintively; "if you can +possibly wish to go, do wish; it would be so much more convenient for +dear little mother. I never coerce her, on principle, Lady George--she +is the only tie I have to life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Separated from her husband," put in Mrs. Vane's next-door neighbour, +in the same self-complacent whisper. "It is quite the proper thing +when you write, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is what Lady George says also," broke in Mrs. Woodward, a little +spitefully. "And I tell her that children were made to obey their +parents----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Should be made to obey them, you mean, dear Mrs. Woodward," +interrupted her hostess, rising to the bait; "but, as I say, it +depends upon experience. You may have found it necessary with--with +yours, but mine----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And mine also!" broke in the lady who wrote, enthusiastically. +"Cressida's mind is so beautiful in its intense naturalness, so +delicate in texture. It is the instinctive shyness of a sensitive +organism which----" She started, and turned round, for a loud, full, +yet childish voice rose confidently above her words.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blazeth' goin' to kiss the little gurl, then she won't be flighted, +but come along o' Blazeths."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she did, hand in hand, admiringly, while he cracked his whip and +cried, "<i>Ger'rup!</i>" to amuse her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And he can do old Angus awful well, too," whispered Eve to her +companion, as they passed out of the door. "We'll get him to do it by +the burn when Mary isn't looking. Mary doesn't like it, you know, +because her young man is a shepherd, too; but he really is quite a +genteel young fellar, and kept company with the under 'rouse last year +at the Forest--that's your place, isn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's a deal bigger than this," remarked the other. "And we have deers +and grouses."</p> + +<p class="normal">So the game of brag--which children play more naïvely than their +elders--began, while the authoress was explaining at length how it +came about that Cressida had consented to Blasius's methods of +persuasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think you need distress yourself," remarked Mrs. Vane, with +an odd little smile; "Blazes is really a remarkable boy; he invariably +goes down straight to first principles, and that is a deadly method of +argument--especially with our sex."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sex!" echoed the authoress, scenting the foe. "I deny the right of +man----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lady George!" said Mrs. Vane, hastily, "perhaps some of these ladies +might like to see the conservatories. I have on my boots."</p> + +<p class="normal">Blanche gave her another glance of heartfelt gratitude, and as she saw +her bear off a large contingent, told herself that she was worth three +of Alice Woodward, who was only equal to the bread and butter! And +Paul was anything but bread and butter! The thought, as such vagrant +ones have a trick of doing, begged for more consideration as she sate +turning a polite ear and tongue to the task of amusing the authoress, +who had remained behind; Mrs. Woodward meanwhile appearing deeply +interested in a certain place the Hookers had had in Perthshire, where +the gillies expected champagne and <i>pâti de foie gras</i> for their ball +supper. And she was fast approaching that condition of mind in which +the only thing which prevents our owning up that we are out of our +depth is the conviction that we know quite as much of what we are +talking about as the other party to the conversation, when the sudden +reappearance of the garden contingent bearing two bundles wrapped in +waterproofs supplied an all too efficient distraction.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the waterproofs being set on the ground disclosed the coy Cressida +and Blasius, both dripping, and inconceivably smeared with tar; but +both to all appearance in the highest of spirits.</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Lady George stood up tragically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!" replied Mrs. Vane, striving to be grave. "They are bad +children--all bad children," she added, turning to the group of elder +ones behind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, but we wasn't there!" came in a chorus, led by Adam and Eve, "we +wasn't, really. It's all his fault."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't! Don't come near me, child!" cried the devoted mother, hastily +retreating from the embrace of her only tie to life. "Cressida! +What--what have you been doing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh mummie! it was bewful. First he washted me, and then I washted +him, an' then we washted each other, didn't we, Blazes? and we said, +Haud up--ye----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The child is dripping!" interrupted Lady George, hastily. "I will +ring for nurse. Oh! Blasius, how could you think of such a thing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane pointed slily to the furred white pelisse. "It is rather +tempting," she said, aside; but Blanche was not to be mollified.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Mary? Where was Mary?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mary's dancing the Highland fling with James in the boot hole," +blabbed Eve, readily. "An' we wanted to dance too, but nursie was +there, an' so we comed away."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But where did you go? What were you doing? How came you not to see? +you two whom I can generally trust," persisted Lady George, growing +tearful from vexation, yet feeling vaguely that it all arose from +people bringing a piper with them when they came to call--a piper who +disorganised the household and introduced Highland flings into the +boot hole! "I insist, children, on hearing what you were all doing."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a dead silence, until for the first time Blazes lifted up +his loud, mellow voice, as he stood disregarded by a chair smearing +his tarry hands stolidly over its cover in a vain effort to amend +matters before nurse appeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They was flicking piggy wif a pin, and piggy was 'quealin' louder nor +Blazeths."</p> + +<p class="normal">And even Lady George--when the <i>châr-a-banc</i> had driven off, piper and +mackintoshes and all, with Cressida kissing her still tarry hands to a +struggling figure in Mary's arms at the nursery window--was forced to +admit that Blazes generally went straight to the point; and that after +all it had helped to pass the time. And as for Mary, she declared that +her ladyship might say what she liked about 'orseplay, an' lendin' +'erself to savage an' indignified dances in a boot 'ole, but 'ighland +flings wasn't in it--for a stetch in yer side an' no 'airpins to speak +of--with Master Blazes when you 'ad to 'old 'im and 'e didn't meant to +be 'eld.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_16" href="#div1Ref_16">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">For the next few days after the visit to old Peggy, which convinced +her that some secret lay in the old woman's keeping, Mrs. Vane +refrained from any attempt to interfere with Providence. To begin +with, she felt vaguely that the Scotch marriage laws were dangerous, +and the very fact that she knew enough of Paul to be sure that this +was not likely to be a mere vulgar entanglement, made her hesitate +before her own suspicions. On the other hand, this possibility of a +new string to her bow inclined her to slack off the other; the more so +because here again she was beginning to be afraid of her own weapon. +She had always recognised that, but for her interference, Paul would +have held to that discretion which is the better part of valour, have +seen no more of Marjory, and forgotten her; also, that the girl +herself had been quite as ready to dismiss this strange, if alluring, +figure from her thoughts, as belonging to a society--nay! to a +world--in which she had no part. But now? Mrs. Vane, as she watched +the easy familiarity which had of necessity recommenced between them, +as she noted the girl's quick, healthy response to the thousand and +one new thoughts and ways of this new life, could not help wondering +if the awakening to new pleasures might not rouse into action a new +set of emotions and instincts. For Marjory, as for Paul, there was +also danger; to her from the unfamiliarity, to him from the very +familiarity of the environment, which threw him back on past +experience, and rendered it well-nigh impossible for him to forget his +own nature, and dream himself in Arcadia. And then Dr. Kennedy's +appearance had complicated matters for Mrs. Vane, who, kindly to all, +had a weak spot in her heart for the friend of her earliest youth. It +did not take long for her sharp eyes to pierce through his pretence of +mere guardianship, and it gave her quite a pang to think of giving him +one. Yet here she comforted herself by the palpable jealousy which +Marjory showed towards those youthful days; a jealousy she did not +scruple to stimulate, for Mrs. Vane, with all her <i>finesse</i>, +occasionally made a mistake, and in the present instance did not +realise that in thus, as it were, emphasising a hitherto unknown side +of Dr. Kennedy's life she was adding to the strangeness of the +environment in which Marjory found herself; and at the same time +suggesting that it was no new thing to the one person to whose opinion +she was inclined to defer. So that, instead of helping her old friend +by the time-honoured device of exciting jealousy as a prelude to love, +Mrs. Vane, in reality, made it easier for the girl to drift from her +moorings.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very kind to your ward," said the little lady one day, +feeling impelled to give comfort as she noticed Dr. Kennedy's eyes +following Marjory rather wistfully. "But virtue has its own reward. Do +not pretend you don't understand, <i>Monsieur le Docteur!</i> for you do. +And I will give you my opinion--when she has seen a little more of the +world she will see what <i>it</i> has seen already--that there are not many +men in it like Dr. Tom Kennedy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She will see exactly what she chooses to see, <i>Madame!</i>" he replied, +with one of his little foreign bows, which, to Marjory, seemed to +reveal him in a new and worldly light.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Exactly," retorted the little lady; "and being of the Truth will +choose the Truth." And then suddenly her mood changed, and she laid +her hand close to his on the table as if to attract his attention to +her quick emotion. "Ah, <i>mon ami</i>, I envy you! you can afford to wait +for Paradise, and I have had mine. At least, I feel as if I had eaten +my apple and been turned out into the cold, for there hasn't been much +happiness in my life."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her with 'grave pity, noting with the eye of one +accustomed to the work the thousand and one little signs of wear and +tear in the clever, mobile face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have put plenty into other people's lives, anyhow," he said, in +kindly, if cold, comfort; and his words were true. With all her faults +Mrs. Vane had given more to the world than she had ever taken from it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, watching the little scene from afar, felt something of this, +as she told herself it was quite natural that Tom should enjoy the +companionship of his old friend. Who, in fact, would not enjoy talking +to so brilliant and charming a woman? at least, in this new world, +which could not somehow be cleft in two by a straight line dividing +right from wrong, darkness from light.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet, though she acknowledged this, she was as far as ever from +understanding it, and as ready as ever to disdain anything which +bordered on sentiment; on that unknown ground of Love or Passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Kennedy, repeating to her his part of <i>jeune premier</i> in the +little play which was to precede some tableaux, realised her lack of +change in this respect with mingled gratification and regret.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must keep my own counsel," he recited, in the even yet jerky tone +sacred to the learning of parts, "em--and not let her suspect the deep +attachment she has inspired--inspired--inspired. Now, don't tell me, +please; I know what comes next. Yes! I do, Mademoiselle! In nine cases +out of ten a proposal! So there! Well, where were we? Ah! 'But, soft' +(depends greatly on the stage floor, my dear sir). 'But, soft! she +comes!' Go on, Marjory. 'Enter Blanche--she comes,' is your cue."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis he! Henri!' Oh! Tom, do let us skip all that bosh!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Kennedy put down the hazel root he was whittling into a shepherd's +crook and looked at her in feigned surprise. "Bosh! Why, I intend to +work this up until I draw tears from every eye."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not from mine, Tom," smiled Marjory; "that sort of thing always makes +me laugh."</p> + +<p class="normal">They were lounging under the beech tree which grew close to the burn +at the bottom of the garden, and the dappled sunshine and shade from +the green canopy overhead made the green draperies outlining the fine +curves of Marjory's slender figure seem like a dress of leaves. +Leaning forward on the grass, her chin resting on her hands, her curly +head thrown back half-defiantly to look him in the face, she reminded +Dr. Kennedy of Rosalind; yet it was of another heroine that he spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Poor Juliet! I suppose she ought not to have survived to the +nineteenth century!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory's eyebrows puckered themselves in doubt. "I don't mean that; +perhaps I don't know what I mean; but Juliet loved Romeo, and +these"--she nodded at the little book between her elbows in careless +contempt--"they--they--Tom! you must allow there is too much of--of +that sort of thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went on whittling for a moment; it was the first time he had ever +touched on the subject with Marjory, and he felt at once curious and +constrained.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid that sort of thing--as you call it--will not reduce +itself to please you; it is part, and perhaps a necessary part, of +life," he said shortly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A part!" returned the girl, eagerly. "Not all? Now, in the novels and +these plays one hears of little else. It is all hero and heroine; +work, ambition, failure, success, are nowhere. It is very +uninteresting--don't you think so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Kennedy's face was a study in humour and gravity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Upon my word, I don't know, my child! But most people think otherwise +at some time of life. And you are a little hard, surely; you should +remember that after all the love-season is generally the crisis of +life's fever. Put it another way; the touchstone by which we can test +the lovers' ideal;" he paused till his innate doubt made him add: "At +least it should be so, though I'm afraid it isn't--not always."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him, and a troubled expression came to her eyes. "I +suppose not," she said absently; "that has always been a puzzle to me. +To love, and yet not to approve, seems to me a contradiction in +terms." The chips flew faster from the knot Dr. Kennedy was smoothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You talk as if love were reducible to logic, but it isn't." Then +the impossibility of a mutual understanding made him add more gently: +"It isn't a thing you can reason about. It comes and goes as it +chooses--not as you choose. That is the difficulty."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Difficulty," echoed Marjory, raising herself with a belligerent +air to clasp her hands about her knees and subside again into a +half-dreamy defiance as she sate looking out over the burn to the +sunlit point stretching into the blue loch. "It is manifestly unfair +if it is so; only I don't think it is. Else how is it possible to hold +love sacred? How is it possible to believe in it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid it will be believed in to the end of the chapter all the +same," replied her hearer, with a smile. "And it isn't so unfair when +all is said and done, since 'a love that is tender and true and strong +crowneth the life of the giver.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned on him sharply. "Where does that come from? Some extremely +sentimental---- Why, Tom! I believe you wrote that--now did you? Come! +own up!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I might have guessed it wouldn't pass muster with a young person who +has taken honours in English literature and knows the Elizabethan +poets by heart," he replied gravely. "Yes! Marjory, I am responsible +for that particular version of a time-honoured, crusted old sentiment. +I wrote it in delirium, or something like it--if that is any excuse."</p> + +<p class="normal">She edged closer to him in girlish eagerness. "This is quite +delightful. I never knew you wrote rhymes. I do, and burn them; but +<i>you!</i> Come, tell me the rest at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I burn them, too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! but that is only pretence, you know, just to keep oneself in +subjection. One remembers them all the same. I do. So now, once, +twice, thrice!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave an odd little grimace. "It was last year when I had fever," he +began apologetically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In Paris?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! They had sent me to the country, and there was a stream and some +reeds. I could see them as I lay in bed, and so---- Now, mind, if once +I begin to swear I won't leave off under half-a-crown!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wouldn't mind giving three shillings if it were worth it; so go on, +Tom, why should you be bashful?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I was delirious when I wrote it, of course," he replied; yet +there was a real tremor in his voice, as he began:--</p> + +<div class="poem1"> +<p class="i6">"Where the river's golden sheen floats by<br> +The plumes of the tall reeds touch the sky,</p> +<p class="t4">Like arrows from out a quiver.</p> +<p class="t0">But one bends over to reach the stream,<br> +Dreaming of naught but the golden gleam,</p> +<p class="t4">Weary for love of the river.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"'Oh, river! river! thou flowest fast;<br> +Yet leave me one kiss as thou goest past--</p> +<p class="t4">One kiss, to be mine for ever!'</p> +<p class="t0">She bent her head to the shining flood;<br> +On swept the river in careless mood,</p> +<p class="t4">Mocking her poor endeavour.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"'Oh, river! river! give back to me<br> +Some token of all I have given to thee,</p> +<p class="t4">To show thou art my lover!'</p> +<p class="t0">But the only answer to her prayer<br> +Was the shade of her own love mirrored there,</p> +<p class="t4">With the reeds that grew above her.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"The proud reeds chid her, yet still she sighed,<br> +Wondering such love could be so denied;</p> +<p class="t4">While ever towards the ocean,</p> +<p class="t0">Dreaming deep dreams of that future free,<br> +The river swept on to the unknown sea,</p> +<p class="t4">Careless of her devotion.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"A bird flew down when the sun set red,<br> +To sing his hymn from the reed's bowed head</p> +<p class="t4">To God, the All-good Giver.</p> +<p class="t0">Bowed by the weight of the singing bird,<br> +At long, long last the waters stirred,</p> +<p class="t4">As the reed's plume touched the river.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"'Oh! glad and sweet,' sang the bird, 'is Life,<br> +And Death is sweet, bringing Peace to Strife,</p> +<p class="t4">But Love is God's best treasure.</p> +<p class="t0">It cometh best when it comes unsought,<br> +It giveth all, and it asketh naught,</p> +<p class="t4">For true love hath no measure,'</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"The bird flew home when its song had ceased.<br> +The reed, from its one dear kiss released,</p> +<p class="t4">Shall give another never;</p> +<p class="t0">But a silver crown of dewdrops shone,<br> +Telling of true love given, not won,</p> +<p class="t4">In the reed's bright plume for ever.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"Go forth, my song! so that all may learn<br> +Love, like the reed's, needeth no return,</p> +<p class="t4">Save the baptism of the river.</p> +<p class="t0">Though the heart be sad, and the way be long,<br> +A love that is tender, and true, and strong,</p> +<p class="t4">Crowneth the life of the giver."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Kennedy recited well; the tremor of his voice had soon passed, and +with it, apparently, all sense of the personal application of the +verses; for as he sate, still whittling away at the hazel root, his +keen brown face wore a half-humorous and half-puzzled look, and after +a decent pause he gave an odd sort of laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It sounds pretty," he said; "but upon my word I don't know quite what +I meant, and I am almost certain it was not love, not what is +generally understood by love."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory looked at him judgmatically. "Nonsense! Of course it was love, +and what is more, Tom, I think you must have been in love when you +wrote it. Now confess, were you not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Once again the temptation to say "Yes! with you," rose uppermost; only +to meet with the old revulsion of feeling, born of the knowledge of +things hidden from her, and please God! always to be so hidden. In +love! Great heavens, no! if that were love. And yet, how could he +answer for her nature as well as his own? For a nature which his +practised eye told him was full of vitality, full of possibilities; +and young, ah! so young as yet in its knowledge of itself. If he told +her that he loved her and asked her to marry him, the chances were ten +to one that she would say "Yes." And yet the conviction that it was so +brought him no content, but only something of tender reluctance for +her, of vague contempt for himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In love!" he echoed. "I was in a delirium if you meant that, or near +it. Temperature a hundred and five point two, and Abbeville--he was +nursing me--good luck to him!--had just confessed there was not much +chance; as if I hadn't known that for days!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you never told me," she said, after a pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No; I didn't want to bother you, and----" He looked up to see her +face white, and his manner changed. "Don't, child! it's past and +over--besides I have a knack of pulling through--I am sorry I +mentioned it, now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" she asked, in a constrained voice. "I should like to +know, if I may?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear! of course you may. Pyæmia; the knife slipped, that was all. +The veriest scratch. What a fool I was to mention it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't say that," she flashed out suddenly. "Don't you know that I +like to hear everything--everything----" She paused, and her quick +resentment seemed to die down before a keener thought, and she sate +silent for a while. "I can scarcely think what it would have meant to +me," she went on, half to herself, before she turned her face to him +again. "I should have been quite alone in the world then, you know, +Tom."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Until you made a home of your own, perhaps," he replied quietly, +being, like most men of his temperament, somewhat given to +self-torture.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps; but it would never be the same," she said, as quietly. "It +would never seem to be the haven of rest that the thought of your +goodness is to me now. Do you know, Tom, that I always hearten myself +up by saying that if I am tired I can always ask you to let me rest, +and you would, wouldn't you?" As she spoke she stretched out her hand +towards him in her favourite gesture of appeal, and both of his, +leaving their work, had reached to it eagerly and clasped it close.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory!" he said, a surge of sheer happiness flooding heart and +brain with unalloyed content. "Promise me that always--and--and I am +satisfied."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Promise what?" she asked, smiling through the sudden tears which +brightened her eyes. "That I will come home to rest if I am tired? Of +course I shall. What is the use of having you, Tom, the best, the +kindest, if I don't make use of you? And I will. I'll come home fast +enough, you'll see, if----" She paused to give a wise shake of her +head, and then, clasping the hand he had released over the other which +lay upon her knee, she looked out absently over the running water at +her feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder how I shall like it?" she continued. "I wonder if it will be +what I have fancied it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Probably not," replied her companion, with a quick dread at his +heart. For how could it be so? What could this girl's imagining have +to do with that world which he knew so well: so well that the finer +tissue in him rebelled against the teaching which his very profession +forced him to accept as true, at any rate for the majority of men and +women. "Probably not," he repeated more quietly, "though that is just +the sort of thing it is impossible to predict of a girl who has been +brought up as you have. So it must be settled by experience."</p> + +<p class="normal">Half an hour afterwards Paul Macleod, coming over to the Lodge on the +pretence of giving notice of an afternoon rehearsal, found them still +busy over the loves and woes of Henri and Blanche. In fact, Dr. +Kennedy was on his knees disclaiming his part passionately; whereat +the newcomer frowned. First at the sight, secondly at his own dislike +to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have been trying to teach Miss Carmichael how to refuse an aspirant +firmly, yet sympathetically," said the doctor, coolly, rising to his +feet and putting the handkerchief he had spread on the ground into his +pocket; "but she finds a difficulty, apparently, in keeping her +countenance. It is a mistake, Marjory. Half the unhappy marriages in +the world come from the difficulty which the untutored mind has in +saying 'No' with decent courtesy. It is so much easier to say 'Yes,' +since that requires no diplomacy. If I had daughters I should always +impress on them that the eleventh commandment does not consist in +'Thou shalt not refuse.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shouldn't have thought it necessary to impress that on the girls of +the present day," remarked Paul, rather hastily, and Marjory flushed +up at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is never safe to generalise from a single experience, Captain +Macleod," she retorted, "and yours may have been exceptionally +fortunate--hitherto."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps it has--hitherto," he replied, and, after delivering his +message, went off in a huff. Yet he felt himself more on a plane with +Marjory than he had ever done before, slightly to his discomfiture; +for this atmosphere of quick give and take, this suspicion of jealous +anger, was familiar to him, and he could not mistake its +possibilities. So he devoted himself more than usual to his duty, and +though, of course, he made up his tiff a trifle sentimentally with +Marjory, he chose to be rather lordly over her relations with Dr. +Kennedy, and even went so far as to mention to his sister that he +suspected her <i>protégé</i>, Mr. Gillespie, was forestalled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Paul!" said Lady George, distractedly, "I really don't care +at the present moment who marries who. I might be in a better world +for that matter, if I weren't in Purgatory."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wherefore?" asked Paul, kindly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! the supper, and the servants, and the general civility," replied +Blanche, who was in reality enjoying the bustle, but, at the same +time, liked to pose as a victim. "Really, in these out-of-the-way +places one has to be a virtuous woman, and bring one's food from afar; +and then there is always Blasius. I suppose it is the name, as you +say, George, but, really, I don't believe that child <i>can</i> do what is +right."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nonsense, my dear," retorted her spouse, who ever since he undertook +to interpret the laws of nature to his youngest born had been a trifle +jealous of his pupil's reputation. "Blasius won the Derby in '73. What +has the child been doing now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh! nothing much; only he wouldn't eat his dinner just now because it +was only an egg, and the others had mutton. He really is too young to +have meat every day; so, as I was busy, I told nurse to put him to +bed, and he is sitting up in it making the most unearthly noises, as +if the whole farmyard were in the top landing. Listen! you can hear +him down here."</p> + +<p class="normal">There could be no doubt of it, and as they stood in the hall, looking +up involuntarily, a perfect babel of cluckings and cacklings, crowings +and quackings, seemed to come down the stairs with Mary, the +nursemaid, who was bearing the dirty dishes from the nursery dinner; +among them Blazes' despised egg.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The worst of it is," went on Lady George, in her high, plaintive +voice, "you never really know what the child means. Why, for instance, +should he cackle, as if he had laid an egg himself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">'"Um!" grumbled her husband. "More to the purpose why he refused his +dinner? Here, let me look at that tray, will you? By Jove, Blanche!" +he went on, holding out the egg-cup excitedly, "it's bad--no child +could be expected to eat that--what a fool!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was half-way up the stairs impetuously when his wife begged him to +be discreet, and wait for her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is just what I said," she confided to Paul, who followed full of +laughter. "You never can tell what he means till afterwards; now, of +course, I can guess that--that----" She paused, feeling that words +were unnecessary before the spectacle of Blasius, standing beside the +round, white pillow of his cot, and cackling vehemently. But Lord +George was too angry for amusement, and after an elaborate apology to +Blazes for the mistake, handed him over to the nurse with a sharp +order to re-dress him and take more care in future, which enabled that +functionary to veil her real regret under a show of indignation until +Blasius, who was sitting on her knee, and could presumably see more of +the truths than others, said consolingly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never mind, nursie! Cocky eat his own egg next time." Whereupon, she +burst into tears and hugged him for a darling, and a treasure, and the +one comfort of her life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think his meaning was obscure that time, Blanche," said her +husband, as they went downstairs. "If Cocky had committed the +indiscretion of laying a bad egg, why then--God bless the boy, he is a +little trump!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And has a wisdom beyond his years," added Paul, rather cynically; +"for he lays the blame where it should be given--on the Creator."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Paul! what a dreadful thing to say; please remember he is +your god-son."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, if he doesn't hear it from me he will from others, my dear +girl," replied her brother, with a shrug of the shoulders. "It is the +teaching of to-day. We are none of us responsible beings."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And upon my soul," growled Lord George, "I'm inclined to agree with +it in one sense--think of that fool of a nurse!--you should dismiss +her, Blanche."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, my dear Paul," persisted Lady George, disregarding her husband's +suggestion, "the question of heredity does not exclude the forces of +education. We can be altered----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've heard you say a dozen times, Blanche, that an altered body is +never satisfactory, even with the best of dressmakers," interrupted +Paul, as he turned off to the smoking-room. "So why should you think +it would answer with a soul?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is something the matter with Paul," remarked his sister, who +disliked above all things to have the logical sequence of her own +theories flung in her face; "but that is only to be expected. When one +is busy troubles come crowding in on every side. However, I have +written to Lady Hooker, and begged her as a personal favour not to +bring the piper to-morrow night; for, though I have warned the +servants about Highland flings, you cannot expect people to overcome +their natural instincts nowadays, and of course we shall be enjoying +ourselves, in a way, upstairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hope so," assented her husband, gloomily; "and I suppose, my dear, +I shall get my towel-horse back when it is all over."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, George! isn't that like a man?" cried his wife, triumphantly, +as if appealing to him for verification of a new and interesting +fact about himself. "As if you didn't know that tableaux in the +drawing-room and towel-horses in the bedrooms were quite incompatible +when scenery is required--especially rustic scenery. And Mrs. Vane +requires so many rocks! You may be thankful it wasn't <i>boulders</i>, for +then the pillows would have gone, and what would you have said to +that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George said nothing, but as he followed his brother-in-law's +example and turned off to the smoking-room, some connection of ideas +made him hum to himself:--</p> + + +<p class="center" style="font-size:90%">"Out of my stony grief Bethels I'll raise."</p> + + +<p class="normal">"Really, George!" called his wife, indignantly; "you and Paul are +<i>impayable</i>. It is a wonder Adam and Eve are so good."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_17" href="#div1Ref_17">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Private theatricals as a rule need no description, but these in the +barn at Gleneira House merit at least so much attention, in that, +for the major part of the audience, they were the first attempt at +play-acting it had ever seen; since even in the British Isles culture +and civilisation have not harried the glens which are hidden away in +the hearts of the hills. To tell truth, not a few of the audience came +doubtfully with a fear lest they might be backsliders; but, as luck +would have it, the Free Church section, being in process of choosing a +new minister, felt it could afford, for once, to test the iniquity of +the stage by actual experience. Besides, if the laird led the way, +there were still sufficient of the clan to follow him even to the jaws +of hell. So they came and waited for the curtain to rise, with a +quaint trepidation lest they should really enjoy themselves, and so +give place to the devil.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there was someone else besides the "<i>unco guid</i>" who felt vaguely +as if it would have been better she had not been there, as if she +wished that both the immediate past and the present had never come to +pass. And that was Marjory, as she stood at the far corner by the +door, whence she could escape easily when she was wanted behind the +scenes. Perhaps her face showed something of this, for Paul Macleod, +pausing beside her for a moment, said in a low tone:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've seen Mrs. Vane act in 'Her Bitterest Foe' before, and she alone +would carry it off. Then Bertie is splendid at the heavy parts, and +Dr. Kennedy, by all accounts, is almost professional. There is no +fear, I'm sure."</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned to him quickly. "Do I look nervous? I think I am, chiefly +from the novelty. It is the first play I've ever seen, remember."</p> + +<p class="normal">He knew that, and yet the idea struck him again with a certain regret +for her and for himself. For her that she should see one at all, for +himself that he should have seen so many. "After all," he parodied +lightly, "it is better sometimes never to have lived than to have +lived it all! There goes the prompter's bell, so keep your eyes open, +Miss Carmichael."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was no need for the advice, since the first look filled the girl +with astonishment at the almost ridiculous reality which the glare of +the footlights gave to the shreds and patches of scenery she had +helped to put together. No wonder, therefore, if Mrs. Vane, in her +simple black dress, looked the <i>ingenue</i> to perfection, and Major +Bertie's honest English face had quite a German cut about it. And how +well they acted! The ring of rough tenderness in the General's voice +was all that could be desired, while Mrs. Vane was faultlessly simple +and girlish. It could scarcely, Marjory told herself, be better; and +oh, how dreadful--how unbearable it would be if Tom fell below that +high standard! Another minute and his cue would come; so much she +knew, and a really hot regret rose up in her that she had not insisted +on invading the privacy of the rehearsals; then she would have known +what to expect. Yet what could he do with such a part? A part which +had always sounded to her so unreal, so unlike the man himself, so +unlike---- Then who was this hasty, hot-headed, imperious, impetuous +boy who burst upon the stage? She gave quite a little gasp of dismay, +and then forgot everything save that figure kneeling at its mistress's +feet, and pouring out its love, its grief, its remorse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bravo!" said Paul, under his breath, then added, in a different tone, +"You see there is no need to be nervous--he does it <i>con amore</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">A sudden jealousy had leapt up in him at the thought that Marjory +might listen to such wooing, and as he moved away to the vacant place +left for him by Alice Woodward, he told himself, with resentful +cynicism, that it was not the first time Dr. Kennedy had played the +lover's part, and that even Marjory should be satisfied by the +plaudits which were sure to follow.</p> + +<p class="normal">But she was not thinking of applause. She was too startled, too dazed +to think at all, for something new and hitherto undreamt of in her was +responding passionately to the passionate appeal to which she +listened, and her clasp on the chair behind which she stood slackened +in relief as the kiss of forgiveness was given. Oh, that was right! +Who, loving the man, would not forgive? Who could help it in such +case? And this--yes! this was love!</p> + +<p class="normal">It seemed to her as if the play passed in a moment, and yet that it +had stolen the reality from all the rest of her life; nor did she +realise who the actors were until, amid the applause with which the +curtain came down, she heard two familiar voices from the row of +chairs in front of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bravo! Bravissimo!" said one. "That was well done. He has my +compliments."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And mine," quoth the other, solemnly jocose. "But to think of it? Oh, +Thomas, my lad, <i>quod medicorum est promettant medice</i>, but this is no +healing o' hearts, man! Eh! Father Macdonald, but we will have at the +learned impostor; we will!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Amor al cor gentil ralto s'apprende</i>," put in the gentler voice, in +the same jocose strain; and then they both laughed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory stepped back involuntarily as if to avoid hearing more; but +she had heard enough, for there, as she raised her eyes, stood Dr. +Kennedy and Mrs. Vane, bowing their acknowledgments of the recall. The +old life had come back again, but with a strange new thrill in it +which made her heart beat, yet left her dazed and weary.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I could always act with Tom Kennedy," said Mrs. Vane, jubilant +over the success, when Marjory went behind the scenes to aid in the +coming tableaux, "I should make my fortune. He is the only amateur I +ever saw who knows how to make love!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He did it very well," assented Marjory, coldly. She felt glad that he +was too busy with the scenery for her to have speech with him; she +would not have known what to say--for she had liked it--she had +understood--and yet!---- It was bad enough to listen for a moment to +Paul's approval when he came round, escorting Alice Woodward, who was +wanted for the statue in "Winter's Tale."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You should be satisfied," he said with intent. "Personally I never +saw it better done, on--or off the stage."</p> + +<p class="normal">But then a look at the girl's face drove him back quick as thought to +the old Arcadian days when they had been so friendly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish the whole business were over," he said sharply. "It's an awful +nuisance, and you will all be dead tired to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Lord George will have his towel-horse again!" she answered, +lightly turning to a current jest as a shelter from the sense of his +thoughtfulness for her. "And there are but three more tableaux."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Three," he echoed; "there are only two on the programme."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the other is Mrs. Vane's <i>bon-bouche</i> to the house party. She +said they deserved a surprise; but I believe she would just as soon +let it slide--for she is very tired, Captain Macleod. Only it would be +hard on Mr. Gillespie, who is full of his part; besides it really +should be the prettiest of all--Mrs. Vane took so much trouble over +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you in it--and Dr. Kennedy?" he asked quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, only I--and Mr. Gillespie, of course. You see it was for the +house party."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Paul, as he went off to do host, wondered angrily what Violet +could mean; she always meant something--at least that was his +experience of her. The wonder lingered as he sate decorously between +Mrs. Woodward and Lady Hooker in the front row, listening between the +scenes to the account the latter gave of some tableaux she had got up +when they rented the Marquis of Tweedie's place in Peebleshire, and +whispering to the former, when the curtain rose finally on Alice as +Joan of Arc at the stake, that he hoped it was the last time her +daughter would suffer martyrdom in his house. For Paul invariably said +the right thing, if it paid him to do so, no matter what his real +feelings were at the moment; at the present time they were somewhat +mixed; the preponderant one being irritation at the whole round world.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now, that being the last tableau on the programme, the guests were +manifestly becoming filled with uneasy wonder as to whether they were +expected to make the move or not, when the tinkle of the bell warned +them of something more, and after a minute's pause the lights went out +suddenly. Then from the darkness came Wagner's "March of the Gods to +Walhalla," and the curtain, rising slowly, showed a scene which well +deserved the murmur of recognition which ran round the more critical +part of the audience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shouldn't have thought towel-horses could have done it--but she is a +deuced clever little soul," murmured Lord George to his neighbour, and +in truth, considering the resources at Mrs. Vane's command, the effect +was well-nigh marvellous. In the distance lay a stretch of sea and sky +lit by the light of a dying sunset which gained an almost real +radiance from the darkness of the foreground, where, with its back to +the audience, its foot upon the brink, a mailed figure, sword in hand, +bent, as if meditating a leap over the shadowy gulf which lay between +it and a low platform of rock overhanging the misty blue depths of the +distant sea. And on the rock, her silver helmet laid aside, her head +pillowed on her white arm, slept a warrior-maiden with her face turned +to the sunsetting. She was clad in soft, filmy, white draperies, but +the corselet of silver she wore above them rose and fell evenly with +her calm breathing; while round about her--so close that it seemed to +touch her wavy hair and silver, wing-shod feet--flickered and flamed a +mystic circle of fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it? What is it meant to be?" came eagerly from many of the +audience. And Paul knew--knew all too well--but he sate silent, +crushing down his anger at the skill of the thrust.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" echoed Alice Woodward, who, with an opera cloak thrown +over her last costume, had returned to her rôle of spectator. "Why, +Brynhild, of course, mamma! The Nibelungen, you know--we heard that +German tenor in it, if you remember. Mrs. Vane has staged it +beautifully, hasn't she, Captain Macleod; and how well the dress suits +Miss Carmichael's style. That is Mr. Gillespie, of course; he looks +taller in armour. You know, mamma, it is a sort of allegory. Sigurd +has to leap----" She paused abruptly to look at her companion. He had +started to his feet, and a quick cry of "Take care! Take care!" rose +from various parts of the house, for a breath of wind, coming from +some opening door, had bent the flames perilously near to those filmy +draperies.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look out, Gillespie! for God's sake look out!" he shouted; but the +mailed figure, failing to understand, turned to the audience, and the +next instant Paul, tearing off his coat the while, had leapt over the +footlights, and scattering the circle in his hurry was on his knees +beside Marjory crushing out the fire which had caught her dress. The +heated spirit spilt on the floor blazed up fiercely, almost hiding +those two, and rousing a shriek of dismay from the ladies.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Down with the curtain and keep the draught out!" shouted Paul; "and +run back the carpet some of you. Lie still a moment, please--it is +beyond you."</p> + +<p class="normal">As a matter of fact the sudden burst of flame was nearer to the mailed +figure, who, being penned in between it and the falling curtain, chose +the footlights and landed in Mrs. Woodward's arms a second before Dr. +Kennedy's voice rang out reassuringly to say it was all right.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You might bring a blanket, Kennedy," said Paul, still with his arms +round Marjory. "If you will excuse me a moment longer, Miss +Carmichael, it will be wiser--muslin is so apt to flare. Tell me if I +am hurting you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps he did not mean--being a gentleman in most ways--to lower his +voice in the least, and yet he did lower it. He could scarcely help +himself with that touch thrilling through him, and at the sound of the +tenderness in his own tones something in him seemed to cast itself +loose from all anchorage and, spreading white wings over the tempest +of emotion that arose in him, to bear him swiftly to a haven of +perfect content.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not hurt at all," she said; yet she looked at his face so close +to hers with startled eyes, and gave a little shiver; then went on +hastily. "But you--your shirt sleeve is all burnt--it is smouldering +still. Tom! come quick! No! No!--not for me. There was a spark still, +Captain Macleod--I saw it----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is out now at any rate--be still for one more second, please. +Thanks, Kennedy--just slip it under while I lift. So--a perfect +roly-poly! That is well over!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke lightly again, but he had grown very pale, and much to his +annoyance found himself in the doctor's hands for a scorch on his arm. +However, as his sister said plaintively, that and the unfortunate +break-up of Lord George's lamented towel-horse in the hurry was the +only mischief done. It might have been much worse, and though of +course it was really quite a lovely tableau--for which Mrs. Vane +deserved the highest praise--still it was a dangerous experiment. It +generally was dangerous to play with fire, remarked Paul, impatiently, +and had not his sister better make some diversion among the guests, or +they would be leaving with a sense of judgment on their souls. A reel +or two would hearten them up, while a glass of whiskey, and some weak +negus for the ladies before they went away, would finish the business. +Of course there was no piper, but Miss Carmichael could play "The +de'il amang them" to perfection, and would do that much to help +Gleneira, he felt sure.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is no greater test of the quality of a man's fibre than the way +in which he stands the goad of mental pain. Paul Macleod, smarting +under the sting which the certain knowledge that he loved Marjory +Carmichael as he had never loved any woman before and yet that she was +beyond his reach brought to him, showed this indubitably. All his +reckless self-will, all his wild resentment against controlling +circumstance, rose up in him, and only the fact that he had no +possible opportunity of so doing, prevented him from then and there +making his proposal to Alice Woodward. This may seem a strange +sequence to the discovery that you love another woman, but it was just +this discovery which set him in arms against himself. For this love +was a new emotion--a love which suited the girl with her clear eyes--a +love such as he had hitherto scouted as a dream fit only for +passionless, sexless idealists.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the result of this deliberate choice of lower levels was in its +way stranger still. For Alice Woodward, whose emotion under any +circumstances could never have risen to a higher point than calm +affection, felt more content than she had ever done over the future, +and actually lingered in her mother's room--a most unusual event in +that reserved family--to remark that Gleneira was really delightful in +the fine weather when the house was full of people.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Captain Macleod showed immense presence of mind, too," assented Mrs. +Woodward, contributing her quota to the general satisfaction.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very!" admitted Alice, colouring a little, "and he behaved so nicely +afterwards. In such good spirits, you know, though of course he must +have been in pain."</p> + +<p class="normal">So they retired to bed, well content with the state of affairs. Not so +Mrs. Vane, who, long after the others were asleep, sate waiting for a +well-known footstep to pass her door, on its way to the laird's own +room, which lay, quaintly apart from the others, with a little further +flight of stairs all to itself. And none came, though from below she +heard the voices of the menkind dispersing when their smoke was over, +and from above Lord George's stealthy tread as he passed the nursery. +And yet she had made up her mind that she must say a word to +Paul--must make certain of the truth--before she slept. She had not +been deceived; he was angry with her. Nay, worse! he was unhappy, yet +in a mood to make that unhappiness permanent. That must be prevented +somehow; so after a time she stole out into the passages, dark save +for the master's light--that light which has brought home the pang of +widowhood to so many a woman's heart, as she pauses on her way +upstairs to put it out. If she knew anything of Paul's nature, he +would not be in the smoking-room; once the necessity for restraint was +over, he would have taken the earliest opportunity of escaping from +the eyes of others. The business-room most likely, where he was secure +from most interruptions; but not from hers, though as he started to +his feet as she came in, he looked as though he had expected +otherwise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I waited for you upstairs," she said boldly, "for I must speak to you +to-night"--then she paused, startled; for she had expected anger, and +Paul had sunk wearily into his chair again, resting his head on his +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can't you let me be--surely you have done mischief enough already?" +he said; and then he turned to look at her, and think, even in his +resentment, that she had always liked him, always been good to him. "I +don't understand why you brought this about--not the accident, of +course; that no one could have foreseen, but all the other part. For +you did bring it about. Why? Do you want me to marry----<i>her?</i> You +know you don't. Then why should you have schemed to give me pain?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke with a concentrated bitterness which told her that his +patience was far spent. When she had left her room to seek him she had +been prepared to speak the truth, if need be, to a certain extent, but +now her quick wit showed her that she must risk all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" she answered quietly. "I do not wish you to marry Marjory +Carmichael; but neither do I wish you to marry that iceberg of a +girl, and be miserable. Let me have my say, Paul, for the sake of old +times. She does not love you, my poor Paul--I doubt if she can love +anything--and you do not love her, you do not even admire her. But you +did love the other, and when I saw you pretending that you did not, I +said to myself, 'He shall know the difference.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is a kind of knowledge a man can generally find out for +himself," broke in Paul, cynically. "But, still, I don't see--what +possible use?----" He paused, and turned from her again to his old +attitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What use!" she echoed, laying her hand on his shoulder. "Listen! and +I will tell you the truth--tell it you utterly. You are very dear to +me, Paul, and come what may I am your friend. Do you think, then, that +I could stand by and see you bring misery into your life needlessly; +quite needlessly, for you could do better for yourself than that. Long +ago, Paul, so long ago that the folly of it is over for you, and so I +can speak of it--you loved me; and I----" she paused, but went on +steadily. "I loved you--don't start, my friend, it is true; see! to +your face I say it is true. I loved you. But I kept the secret then, +Paul, for the sake of your future, as I tell it now for the sake of +your future, so that you may believe that I am a friend indeed; for a +woman will not stand by and see another woman sacrifice the happiness +of a man for whom she once sacrificed her own. That is why I say you +must not marry Alice Woodward--you must not, Paul! Give her up!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes met his unflinchingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Paul! think what you like; I do not care. As for that, I should +make you a better wife than Alice Woodward, for there would be the +memory of a past love between us, at any rate--a fair, honest love." +He had risen from his chair, and stood looking down on the brave, +spirited little figure before him with irrepressible admiration. What +pluck, what address she had! How skilfully she had steered her way +through dangers that would have wrecked another woman's self-esteem! +And with the memory of the past surging up in him he could not deny +her right to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am no fool, Paul," she went on, holding up her hand to check some +half-hesitating words upon his lips. "I know what I say. I know, too, +what most men would say if a woman spoke to them as I have spoken to +you to-night. Well! I risk all that. I never lacked courage in your +cause, Paul, and if I gave up my love in those old passionate days for +your sake, do you think I would let its shadow come between you and +happiness? You are marrying the girl for her money. Well, others have +money also. I have it now, if it comes to that. I do not ask you to +marry me, Paul," she added, with a sudden, hard little laugh. "I have +not needed Leap Year in my calendar of life, but I do ask you to +think. There are rich girls whom you might love."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is so like a woman! Have you forgotten your own handiwork +already? You would have me forget now that I am in love, but I shall +never forget."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Never is a long word," she answered, resuming her ordinary manner, +"and you forget so easily, my poor Paul!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have no right to say that, Violet," he broke in, hotly. "Have I +forgotten you? Have I forgotten your kindness? Do you think I would +let any other soul alive speak to me as you have done to-night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She swept him a swift, gracious little curtsey. "<i>Dieu mercie, +Monsieur!</i>" she laughed, "the temptation would be too great, I +suppose? But I will tell you, if you like, why you have not forgotten. +Because I have kept myself <i>en evidence</i>; that is why. You say that I +see clearly, my friend. It is true. I see so clearly that the glamour +goes even from my own actions. You are the captive of my bow and +spear, Paul, but you would have escaped if you could. And Alice +Woodward cannot spin webs as I do; she will never be able to keep you, +and then----? Good-night." She held out her hand suddenly, but Paul +stood irresolute.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are clear sighted, indeed. God knows you read me like a book +sometimes." He hesitated, then went on hurriedly, "I wonder if--if +Miss Carmichael----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Violet Vane shook her head with a smile. "That is the kind of +knowledge a man can generally find out for himself, my friend! +Personally, I think she will marry Tom Kennedy if she is left alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you. You certainly have courage, Violet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The courage of a surgeon who sees the knife is kindest in the end. I +have told you that you would be miserable with the woman you do not +love. I now tell you that you would not be happy with the woman you do +love."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because you have not the making of an archangel in you; that is why. +Do you think you have, Paul?" She stood for a moment at the door to +look up at him, as if she were making quite an ordinary remark. "But +there is the earth in the middle between the heavens above and the +waters beneath. Don't forget that, <i>my friend</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">When she had left him he lit another cigar out of sheer inability to +think of doing anything more decided, anything which in any way +affected his future, even to the extent of taking a night's repose; +that feeling of uncertainty being largely a result of sheer surprise +that he should have allowed Violet Vane's manœuvring to pass +unreproved. And this, in its turn, convinced him, as nothing else +would have done, that she understood him as no one else could do.</p> + +<p class="normal">And she? When he, coming up to his room, turned out the lamp on the +stair, he left the house in darkness, save for the candle he carried. +Yet Mrs. Vane was not even undressed. She was face down on her bed +trying to forget everything; above all, that old Peggy Duncan +possessed a secret which might--which might----</p> + +<p class="normal">For her own reference to the past had brought that other past back +upon her, and, as she buried her hot face in the pillow, she told +herself that she had not, after all, spoken the truth. She had said +that his happiness was her motive, when it was her own. And wherefore +not?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_18" href="#div1Ref_18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Marjory sate at the window pretending to be busy over laces and +ribbons, but in reality watching Dr. Kennedy's deft hands lit up by +the shaft of light from his microscope lamp, as, with the aid of a +tiny pair of tweezers, and a watchmaker's glass fixed in one eye, he +laid out the almost invisible film of some sea plant on a slide. For +they, that is to say, Marjory, Will, and the doctor, had spent the day +after the theatricals in dredging for oysters, as a relief to what the +latter called fishing for men; and something interesting had come up +in the dredger, which had to be set up despite the waning light. He +looked more natural when so employed, and yet, despite the grizzling +hair and the thin brown face, she seemed to trace in him as she had +never done before a hint of that figure on last night's stage, which +had opened her eyes to love in its passion, its unreason. And with +this fancy came the remembrance of Paul Macleod's swift resource, his +kindness, his courage. And both memories confused her, making her feel +as if the old landmarks had been removed, and she could not be certain +even of those she knew intimately; as if a man's ideals might yield no +clue to his actions. For Tom must surely have felt that storm and +stress before he could portray it so vividly? And then, even if this +were not so, his vast experience of things which she had been +accustomed to despise remained inexplicable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had no idea that you were so frivolous, Tom," she said suddenly, +laying down even her pretence of work.</p> + +<p class="normal">He wheeled round in his chair instantly, and let the glass fall from +his eye. "Are you aware that that is a very odd remark to make to a +man who believes he has found a new infusorian which may revolutionise +all our theories, especially when it is made by a young lady who is +busy, or ought to be busy, over her first ball-dress."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ought I?" She smiled back a little wearily. "I'm afraid I'm a bad +pupil, Tom. I was just wishing Lady George could have postponed it +till you had gone."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave a little grimace. "Thank you, my dear, I daresay it would be +pleasanter,----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't tease, Tom. You know what I mean, perfectly; it interrupts the +holiday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which is perilously near its close, by the way. I have to go back +next Thursday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I know. But don't talk of it; let us enjoy it while it lasts!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned back to his work again hurriedly. "Now, that is what I +should call truly frivolous. So be it. However, <i>Vogue la galère!</i> It +is a very easy philosophy, at any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">They were silent again for a space, and then she began again. "What I +meant was, that you must have seen so much of the world; and then you +are so interested in it. Last night," she hesitated a little, "it +struck me, Tom, that for all I knew, you might have--have seen +something like it when you were through the Franco-Prussian war, for +instance. You--you were quite a boy then, weren't you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A baby, so to speak. I remember nearly fainting over the first wound +I saw. Yes, Marjory, I've seen such romantic young fools many a time. +I see a good deal of that sort of thing necessarily in my profession. +It is human nature."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose so," she said curtly. "Well, I suppose I ought to go and +dress. Oh, Tom! why couldn't Lady George have put it off, and why +won't you let me stay at home?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because, when, after infinite toil, you have caught a netful of +mankind for theatricals, you naturally choose the next day for a +dance. And because a girl ought to go to a ball. How can she tell her +<i>metier</i> if she only keeps to one? Besides, it is your holiday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shan't like it a bit, and I shall feel dowdy in this thing." +She held up a white stuff gown, with the oddest mixture of +self-complacency and disdain. "Of course, it will do quite well, and +it would have been recklessly extravagant of me to get another, seeing +that I shan't want evening dresses at a Board School; but I shall be a +dowdy all the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I doubt it," remarked her guardian, busy adjusting his screws. "Now, +you really ought to go and dress, my dear. In my time girls----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"In your time!" she flashed out. "Why? Why, you are quite up to date, +Tom, and I--I am hopelessly <i>arriérée</i>, especially in my dress! Oh, +dear f I suppose I must----"</p> + +<p class="normal">A minute afterwards she came flying down the stairs, followed by Mrs. +Cameron, who had evidently been on the watch for the occasion in +Marjory's room, and was determined not to lose the scene downstairs. +It was rather a pretty one, though the first words were distinctly +sordid.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Tom! what did it cost?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, that really is the rudest question! I'm surprised at you," +returned Dr. Kennedy, trying to jest, though something in the girl's +face told him she was not far from tears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it is dreadful," she began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Naethin' o' the sort," broke in Mrs. Cameron, breathlessly. "Just +don't belie the nature God gave to you. It's just beautiful, and the +doctor and me has been agog these three days lest it should not come +in time, for it is ill getting things to Gleneira from Paris."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paris!" echoed Marjory. "Yes, I thought it looked like Paris! How +foolish of you, Tom!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so that is all the thanks you're giving him. Wait, my lass, till +you're as auld as I am, with no a soul in the wide world caring a +bawbee if you're clad in sackcloth and ashes, and then see if ye +woudna like to be made a lily o' the field. Just arrayed in glory +wi'out a toil or a spin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite right, Mrs. Cameron," put in Dr. Kennedy, with a laugh. "She +will have plenty of toiling and spinning by and bye; why shouldn't she +be a flower and do credit to us all for one evening?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him from head to foot. "A flower for you to wear in your +buttonhole, apparently. Tom, are all men alike?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am human, at any rate," he said quietly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, come away, come away!" cried Mrs. Cameron, impatiently. "Come and +put it on, like a good lassie, and don't be chopping logic. It's time +enough to be an angel when you've done being a girl, and you'll have +more chance o' bein' one if ye make the best o' your gifts in this +world, I can tell you. So come away, my dear, there may be a stitch or +two a-wantin', and the time is none too long."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Marjory stood her ground even after the old lady had bustled +upstairs again, and she looked so serious that Dr. Kennedy was driven +into suggesting that if she preferred it, she might wear her old gown.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not that," she said slowly. "It is beautiful. I could see that, +at a glance; but--Tom, did Mrs. Vane choose it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">His laugh had a certain content in it. "My dear child, I prefer people +to be dressed as I like, and I am generally supposed to have good +taste."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very, I should say," she remarked, with a curious accent of regret in +her voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the fact was indubitable. When she came down again in a shimmer of +silver and white, set cunningly with frosted rowan berries showing a +glint of scarlet here and there, she knew so well that her dress was +perfect, that from a new bashfulness she turned the tables on him +swiftly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tom," she cried, "I declare you have waxed the ends of your +moustache!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if I had been in Italy, I should have curled my hair, too," he +replied imperturbably. "It is not a crime."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that coat! It is not your ordinary one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not. The one I use here--since you are so particular--is a +dress jacket; the correct thing, I assure you, for a shooting lodge. +But I have the misfortune to be honorary surgeon to a potentate +somewhere, who insists on brass buttons on state occasions, so I don't +happen to have the intermediate affair. Besides, there are to be +lord-lieutenants and generals hanging round this evening from the Oban +gathering. If that is satisfactory to your highness, we should be +going."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And that red thing in your buttonhole?" she persisted, going close up +to him and touching the bit of ribbon with dainty curious finger. "It +is the Legion of Honour, I suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is called so; you look as if that were a crime also."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not know you had it, that was all," she said. And then, Will, +coming in full of fuss because his very occasional white tie had not +been folded properly in the wash, changed the <i>venue</i> by declaring +that fine feathers make fine birds, and that he was half ashamed to +belong to them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Naethin' o' the sort, Will," snapped Mrs. Cameron. "It's the fine +birds that grows the fine feathers, as ye'd see ony day o' the week if +ye went to my hen yard."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it is always the male bird which attends most to personal +appearance," remarked Marjory, sedately. Yet, despite her pretended +disdain, as they passed down the drawing-room corridor at Gleneira +House, she paused involuntarily to look for a second at what she saw +reflected in a pier glass at the end.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We do look nice, Tom," she said, with a faint laugh; "but I feel like +the old woman. I'm sure it isn't I. Now, you look as if you were born +to it."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had not the heart to tell her that she looked it also, so took +refuge in claiming his right of the first waltz.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I can't dance. You seem to forget, Tom, that I have never even +seen a waltz danced."</p> + +<p class="normal">His face fell. "What an ass I am, when I could have taught you in half +an hour. But you would pick it up in the first turn; let us try, at +any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please don't ask me," she began. "I don't want to dance. In fact, I +didn't tell you--on purpose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was unkind," he replied, and this plain statement of his +unvarnished opinion making the girl see her silence in the same light, +she added, hastily, "I will dance later on, if it will please you."</p> + +<p class="normal">He laid his hand on hers as it rested on his arm and looked at her +with a kindly smile. "That is right! It always gives me pleasure when +Mademoiselle Grauds-serieux unbends a little. I want you to enjoy +yourself to-night. Why not? You are young, happy, and will probably +be--pardon my incurable frivolity--the best-dressed girl in the room. +But there is our hostess, and after that I had better go and find a +partner. It is a duty at the beginning of a ball. Shall we say number +four or six for ours?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, six, please; something may have happened by that time."</p> + +<p class="normal">She felt, to tell the truth, as if something must be going to happen, +as she sate watching the scene from the quiet corner where Dr. Kennedy +left her. The lights, the music, the buzz of conversation seemed to go +to her head, and the sight of him skimming past like a swallow made +her suddenly regret her refusal. It seemed easy and pleasant. Yes; it +must be pleasant, and there were four more dances to sit out before +her chance came.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it one of the mortal sins, Miss Carmichael?" came Paul's voice +behind her. He had seen her enter with Dr. Kennedy, and, aided by Mrs. +Vane's one-syllabled verdict "Worth," had guessed the history of the +dress. And there he was looking very handsome, his arm still in a +sling so as to give him a pretext for laziness if he chose, and +meaning mischief out of sheer contrariety.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't dance," she answered, flushing a little, "but I am going to +try number six with Tom. I am almost sorry now I didn't say four; I +think I should like it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Try four with me," he answered, seating himself beside her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it will hurt your arm," she began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If it does we can sit down again; but I don't think it will. I find I +can generally do what I want to do without serious injury either to my +mind or my body." And then he added in a lower tone, "I should not ask +you if I was incapable; but if you would rather not trust me I must +submit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Tom--Dr. Kennedy----" she began, doubtfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is dancing number four with Mrs. Vane. I heard them settle it just +now."</p> + +<p class="normal">Why this information should have influenced her decision is not clear, +since she was perfectly prepared to see them dance not once but many +times together; yet it did, as Paul had guessed it would. Still, when +he had gone to play the part of host elsewhere, she began to regret +her promise, and the sight of him returning with the first bars of +number four to claim her made her attempt escape by pleading the risk +to his scorched arm. "It was surely," she said, "rash to have removed +the sling."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am always rash," he replied. "Come! you owe me some reward, and I +am quite capable of taking care of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">His words brought back the remembrance of the night before, and sent a +thrill through her; the next instant it seemed to her that she was +alone with him again, despite the whirl of dancers around them. Alone +with him, and a bunch of red rowans which, for the first time, she +noticed he wore in his buttonhole, and to which he began drawing her +attention at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We wear the same badge once more, you see, Miss Carmichael," he said +fluently. "It must be your welcome to a new world, as the white +heather was to me. Only, as usual, I am natural, and you are +artificially iced. Which is best? Well, if you will defend your +position, I will defend mine; for we must agree to differ since I +cannot freeze, and I sometimes wonder if you can thaw. Perhaps if I +had let you burn a little longer last night I might have found out and +been happy. I almost wish I had, only then--only then," he repeated in +a louder tone of triumph, "I shouldn't have had the pleasure of taking +you a whole turn round the room without your remembering that it <i>was</i> +your first turn--No! don't stop just because you do remember; another +turn will finish your lesson."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was very clever of you!" laughed Marjory, as they went on, she +gaining confidence at every step.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think it was," he replied; but he did not add that his art had +extended to exchanging the bouquet he had originally worn for some +rowan berries filched from the decorations.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Mrs. Vane, who had been more or less responsible for the discarded +jasmine, noticed it at once, and her voice was hard as she remarked to +her partner, "Your pupil has preferred another professor, Dr. Kennedy; +the patient instead of the physician. It is really very foolish of +Paul, with his arm."</p> + +<p class="normal">Tom Kennedy felt glad of the possibility of ignoring the first part of +her remark, for he was conscious of bitter disappointment, not to say +vexation. "He is not likely to hurt; it was the merest scorch." And +then his obstinacy made him add, as much for his own edification as +for hers, "She is lucky to begin so well; a tall man can steer better +as a rule."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane smiled. "That is overdone, my friend; there is not a better +steerer in the room than you are."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How can you tell; you need no guidance?" he began, when she stopped +him peremptorily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't, please; if you knew how sick of it I am. It comes, I know, as +part of the business with the lights, and the music, and the coffee, +and the ices; but you and I are such old friends." There was rather a +crush at the moment, and her partner being too busy to speak, she had +the conversation to herself for the time, and went on evenly, "How +well they dance! and her dress is simply perfection. I must get you to +choose mine. Yes! they look a charming couple; for he is wonderfully +handsome--handsomer than when he was younger--don't you think so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I never met him before this summer," replied her victim; and, to +change the subject, added, "but I knew his brother Alick in Paris. +Very like him, but not so fine a fellow--rather--well! he got into a +very fast set, and that accounts for a great deal."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane looked up in sudden interest. "Ah! I had almost forgotten. +Of course, he had a brother who died."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! quite suddenly. By all accounts none too soon for the estates. +He had half ruined them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so the present laird has to marry money, if he will. But you +never can count on Paul Macleod doing the wise thing. A pretty face, a +dress from Worth's, a---- Is that the end? Then I should like a cup of +coffee, if you please."</p> + +<p class="normal">And as they passed down the corridor she passed to other subjects, +leaving that barb to rankle. She was not often so cruel, but, to tell +truth, she was really angry with Paul, and told herself there was no +use in trying to keep him out of mischief. Doubtless, she had so far +startled him by her plain speaking as to prevent him from bringing +matters to a crisis with Alice; but here, at the slightest +provocation, he was flirting outrageously with Marjory, and +looking----</p> + +<p class="normal">"A message for you, sir," said the butler, coming up to Dr. Kennedy, +as they were about to return to the ball-room. "A little boy, sir, to +say a Mrs. Duncan is ill, and wants to see you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Little Paul!" cried Mrs. Vane; "poor old woman! I am sorry. Where is +he, Grierson? In the housekeeper's room? Then don't let us disturb +you; I'll show Dr. Kennedy the way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you trouble?" he began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis no trouble, my friend, and you may need something to take with +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I may need nothing," he answered. "I was round seeing her, as you +know, a few days ago; and she might die at any moment; her heart is +almost worn out."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane's gave a sudden throb. What if she died, and carried the +secret with her, just when it was most needed? The thought became +insistent as she listened to the boy's frightened tale of how his +grandmother had looked so strange, and bidden him seek Dr. Kennedy, +and then seemed to fall asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better keep the lad here awhile," said the latter, in an +undertone. "He has been delayed by not knowing where to find me, and, +without stimulants at hand, a fainting fit might pass into death." He +turned to ask for some brandy, and was off into the still moonlit +night hastily.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood looking after him for a moment, and then made her way back +to the ball-room mechanically. Another waltz had begun, and she +hastily scanned the dancers for Paul's figure, but neither he nor +Marjory were to be seen. Without an instant's hesitation she went to +the conservatory, and found--what she knew she would find.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Excuse my interrupting you," she said, "but I have a message from Dr. +Kennedy for Miss Carmichael. He has been called away for half an hour, +but will be back then; and he hopes, my dear," she laid her hand on +Marjory's arm affectionately, "that you will be ready for number ten. +Meanwhile, Paul, you ought either to continue the lesson, or find Miss +Carmichael another tutor. Ah! Major Bertie, have you found me! and I +have turned the heel of my slipper and must go and put on another +pair, but perhaps Miss Carmichael will console you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She waited till they had moved out of sight, and then turned to Paul, +almost passionately:</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you--you are engaged for this dance, I presume?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You presume a little too far, my dear Violet," he replied +dangerously. "I am a helpless cripple, and I cannot run in harness, +no matter how skilful the whip may be. If you are going back to the +ball-room may I give you my one arm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, thanks. I shall stay here."</p> + +<p class="normal">Never in their lives before had they come so near a quarrel, and, even +though Mrs. Vane was wise enough to see the provocation which her own +loss of temper had given him, the fact decided her. The change of +slippers included other alterations in her toilette, and five minutes +afterwards she was following Dr. Kennedy to Peggy Duncan's cottage. +The walk was nothing on that warm September night, and the excuse of a +desire to help sufficiently reasonable, her kindness in such ways +being proverbial. Many a deathbed had been cheered by her cheerful +aid, and yet, nerved as she was by experience, she shrank back at the +sight which met her eyes as she lifted the latch of the cottage and +entered. For the deep box bed, whereon old Peggy had passed so many +years, had been inconvenient, and Dr. Kennedy had lifted her to the +table, where she lay unconscious, looking like death itself, in the +limp, powerless sinking into the pillow of her grey head. The old +woman's dreary prophecy came back to Mrs. Vane, though this was not +certain death, as yet; since, with his back towards her, his warm +hands clasping those cold ones, his face bent on the watch for some +sign of life, stood Dr. Kennedy, trying the last resource of +artificial respiration. There is nothing in the whole range of +experience more absorbing, more pathetic than this struggle of the +living for the dying, whether it be for the new-born babe doubtful of +existence, or, as here, for an old worn-out heart. And if it is so, +even among a crowd of eager helpers, what was it here in the little +circle of dim light hedged in by darkness? Those two alone, so +strangely contrasted. It had been a sharp, fierce transition, even to +his experience, from, the ball-room full of lights and laughter; for +Tom Kennedy was not of those whom use hardens. He was one of those to +whom ever-widening vision discloses no clear horizon of dogmatic +belief or unbelief, but a further distance fading away into the great, +inconceivable, infinite mystery between which and him lay Life--Life, +whose champion he was, whose colours he wore unflinchingly, counting +neither its evil or its good. Life--nothing else. It is a queer +mistress, taken so, but an absorbing one, and he scarcely slackened +the rhythmic sweep of his arms even in his surprise at the figure +which, after a moment's pause, stepped forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You ought not to have come--it's no place for you; you had better go +back and send me help; though I fear it is no use," he said +authoritatively. For answer she slid her hands under the blanket he +had thrown over the old woman's limbs, and began to rub them with a +regularity matching his own.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They would not help so well as I."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have done it before then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Often--once all night long in cholera--a great friend--he died at +dawn." Yet the memory which had brought tears many a time failed to +touch her now, for her mind was intent on something else.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was she unconscious when you came?" she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not quite. There were some letters on her mind, and after she had +given them to me she went off--one often finds it so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then they were given! and she was too late! Yet stay! where could they +be--in his coat, of course, which he had taken off and thrown aside on +a chair for the sake of greater ease. Doubtless in the coat, for he +must have had it on at first, when the old woman was still conscious.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps hot water," she suggested, looking towards the kettle +swinging over the dying embers, but he shook his head, and she stayed +where she was. Ah! that was surely a change--a greyer tinge on the +worn, wrinkled old face, the faintest suspicion of a greater rest in +the slack limbs.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Kennedy paused, still holding the hands in his, and bent closer.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the great silence, Mrs. Vane seemed to hear her heart beating at +the thought--not of rest, but unrest; for something would have to be +done soon, if done at all. Nay! done now, for with a half-impatient +sigh the doctor gave up the struggle, folded the old hands upon the +old breast, and walked away to stand for a moment or two looking +moodily into the dull fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is always a disappointment," he said, turning to her again, and +mechanically going over to the dresser, where in the interval, +calculating on habit, she had set a bowl of water and a towel. And she +calculated rightly. As with his back towards her he washed his hands, +hers were in the pocket of his coat, and two packets of letters lay on +the floor behind the chair, as if they had slipped out, before she +went forward, coat in hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks!" he said, still in the meshes of habit; but then he paused, +and for an instant her heart was in her mouth, even though she had her +excuse ready should he discover the absence of the letters. It was +only, however, a remembrance of her which came to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must call someone," he said; "and you should go home at once. It +was good of you to come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! you had better call someone. I will stay till you return--I +would rather."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not afraid?--Ah! I forgot you had lived your life in India. I +shall not be more than ten minutes if I go up the hill to the +shepherd's; that will be the quickest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do not hurry on my account," she replied, quietly beginning to pile +some fresh peats on the fire. The doctor, as he turned for a last +look, his hand on the latch, told himself she was a plucky little soul +indeed; and yet, had he known it, her heart was melting within her at +the deed she was about to do, and her only strength lay in the thought +that it was for Paul's sake; for herself she would scorn such +meanness.</p> + +<p class="normal">The candle flickering to an end gave her little time, however, for +consideration, and almost as the door closed the letters were in her +hands. One long, blue, red-sealed, intact, as she remembered it, the +other an open envelope yellow with age, tied round with thread, and +containing several papers. Her wits were quick, and even as she +looked, the certainty came to her that if the blue letter asked +questions the other might answer them; besides there was no necessity +for breaking a seal; she shrank from that as yet. Even now her hand +shook, so that as she drew out the contents of the smaller envelope, +something fell from it to the ground. She stooped to pick it up just +as the candle flared up in the socket, and by the sudden blaze of +light she saw on the fallen paper a signature, and a line or two of +print.</p> + +<p class="normal">Great heavens! a marriage certificate--Ronald Alister Macleod! Who was +he?--Paul's brother, of course.</p> + +<p class="normal">These thoughts flashing through her brain did not prevent her +starting, as the flickering light seemed to give a semblance of +movement to Peggy's folded hands. The next instant she was in +darkness, still holding the letters, and she knelt hastily to coax a +flame from the peats, for time was passing, and she must know--must +read. Then, in swift suggestion, came the thought of substituting +another packet; Dr. Kennedy would be none the wiser, and that would +give her time. There must be other letters or papers at hand if she +could find them. Oh for a light!--and yet people deemed such deeds to +be deeds of darkness!----</p> + +<p class="normal">As if in answer to her thought, a tongue of bluish flame leapt through +the warmed peats, and by its light she found herself fumbling at the +old bureau. For it was, as it always is at such times, as if fate were +driving her against her will. Even as she acted, she felt that she had +not meant to act thus--to search and pry! The old woman's cherished +shroud, folded and frilled, made her shut one drawer hastily. And that +was a step--a step surely, and yet not an atom of paper was to be seen +anywhere! Ah! there was an old Bible on the shelf with blank pages. +She had torn some out, and slipped them into the envelope none too +soon, for Dr. Kennedy was at the door, breathless with running.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hurried all I could," he said; "for I felt I ought not to have left +you--it was not fair. But they are coming, and then I will take you +home." The words seemed to bring a remembrance, for he paused and +began to feel in his pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" she asked, with a catch in her voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The letters. I had them, certainly----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps they dropped--ah! here they are on the floor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thanks." Then he paused, looking curiously at them. "I wonder why I +fancied this one was tied with thread?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Even in her anxiety she could not resist a smile at the keenness of +the man; and how dull <i>she</i> had been, for there on the dresser stood +two candles in brass candlesticks. If she had only noticed them she +would have had time--would not, perhaps, have had this terror at her +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It may have been tied," she said coolly; "and something may have +dropped out when it fell. I'll light the candles and see." Then as she +came forward with them in her hand, the deadly anxiety in her would +brook no delay, and she asked, "Do you miss anything?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know--I have not the least notion what it was supposed +to contain; but this seems only to be an entry of births, +marriages----Great heavens! are you ill?" For Mrs. Vane, who had +stooped down on pretence of searching the floor, but in reality to +hide her intense relief, was standing as if petrified, her face white +as death.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing," she gasped, with an attempt at composure--"the strain, I +suppose--it is foolish."</p> + +<p class="normal">More than foolish, she told herself. It was perfectly insensate of her +not to have remembered the custom of entering such items in the family +Bible; and now she might unwittingly have given away the information +she was attempting to conceal. If so, it would be better for her to +know at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Such registers contain many secrets," she began, when a look of +curiosity in Dr. Kennedy's eyes made her pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Secrets," he echoed; "why should there be any? though there is one in +a way," he added, holding out the paper to her. It was the last entry +to which he pointed, and it ran thus: "Jeanie Duncan, born 17th April, +18--; married----; died 20th August, 18--." "A sad blank that," he +continued, adding, after a pause: "Perhaps the other letter may be +more important."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps it might be, and Mrs. Vane, as she waited, felt her breath +coming fast and short. It seemed an eternity of time until once more +he held something out for her to read, and turning silently to where +the dead woman lay, drew the sheet tenderly over the worn face. "The +irony of fate, indeed," he murmured as she read:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<span class="sc">Dear Madam</span>,--We have to advise you of the death of our esteemed +client, Mr. John Duncan, of Melbourne, Australia, and to inform you +that under his will you, as his widow, come into property amounting to +close on £100,000."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane's hand holding the letter fell to her side, and Dr. +Kennedy's voice said gravely:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Strange, isn't it, that the letter was never opened? All that money, +and a pauper's death----"</p> + +<p class="normal">The voice was his, but it might have been the accusing angel's for the +effect it had on Violet Vane. She gave one step forward, her arms +outstretched as if for pity, and with a little cry sank to her knees. +Her head was pillowed on the old woman's breast when Dr. Kennedy, +catching her as she fell, found that she had fainted, and +anathematised himself as a consummate ass for taking her at her own +estimation. Plucky as she was, the contrast had been too sharp. Life +and Death--Poverty and Riches. The whole gamut of harmonies and +discords lay in these words.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_19" href="#div1Ref_19">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane being one of those heaven-sent pivots or jewels, without +which the wheels of society are apt to come to a standstill, it was +only natural that her sudden collapse, joined to the general +depression which invariably follows on a country house entertainment, +should have reduced the inmates of Gleneira to a condition of blank +discontent. To tell truth, a large proportion of them had reasonable +cause for a vague uneasiness, if not for actual discomfort, though +Lady George wrinkled her high, white forehead in tragic perplexity +over some of the resulting phenomena.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," she said at lunch, "I was quite prepared that the cook +should give warning. They always do when they have worked hard, and, +really, the supper left nothing to be desired; besides, it is an empty +form when we are all going away next week. But why the housemaid +should want a new set of brushes <i>to-day</i>, when she knows I have to +send to Glasgow for them; and why Ean, the boy--such a good-looking +boy, too--who cleans the boots, should demand an immediate rise in +wages, I cannot think."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What's enough for one ain't enough for two," broke in Eve from her +sago pudding, with an indescribable twang and a semi-sentimental air. +"Mary's going to marry him; he asked her in the boot hole when the +piper was playing the 'Blue Bells of Scotland' in the kitching. The +thought of her 'ighland laddie bein' gone was too much for her +feelinks, so she accepted him, and he gave her a kiss."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eve!" cried her mother, in horrified accents, "don't say such +things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it's true, ducksie mummie," retorted the young lady, unabashed. +"Mary said so. We heard her telling nurse, didn't we, Adam?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, we did, Evie; and nursie said----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul!" cried Lady George, in desperation, "you might give the +children some of that trifle before you; it won't hurt them once in a +way. And I really think it was too bad of the Hookers to bring the +piper to the ball, after my making such a point of his not coming to +the play. I call it most unneighbourly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Blanche," protested Paul, "what is the use of being a rich +Highland proprietor if you don't have a piper, and what is the use of +having a piper if he mayn't play at functions? You agree with me, +don't you, Miss Woodward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Alice, looking dainty in the elaborate simplicity of a Paris +<i>batiste</i>, agreed with a smile, as she had learnt to do as a matter of +course whenever he chose to make these little appeals for sympathy, +with their underlying suggestion of a common future. He was really +very handsome and charming; everything a girl could desire in a +husband.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is all very well for you to talk of functions," continued his +sister, in aggrieved tones, "but the question is, what is a function? +Marriages, of course, and, I suppose, funerals; but that reminds me. +We really must have that projected picnic to the old burying-ground +this week. I want Mr. Woodward to see it, and he was talking of London +this morning."</p> + +<p class="normal">The end of the sentence was prompted by that desire of the hostess to +see her team of guests working fairly together for their own good, +which Lady George felt to be a part of her duty, and the guest thus +challenged had not opened his mouth since he sate down, except to fill +it with cold beef and pickles, which he swallowed gloomily, like a man +who, having missed his connection, is trying to while away the time +before the next train in the refreshment room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very kind," he said, in sepulchral tones, "but the +method in which Her Majesty's mails are delivered--or rather not +delivered, in this place, renders it necessary that I should +return at once. Just before lunch I received a letter which, I give +you my honour, had been mislaid in the post-bag--a most important +letter--a--a most---- However, as I was to have told you after lunch, +I--I feel it my duty--but, of course, this--er--will not make any +change in--in plans."</p> + +<p class="normal">He glanced comprehensively at his daughter, and Paul Macleod, seated +at the bottom of the table, felt as if the guard had come into the +refreshment room and said, "Time up, gentleman!" The closing scene of +the comedy was close at hand, and though he was quite prepared for it, +he still objected to the <i>force majeure</i> which compelled him to go +through with it; just as he objected to that other restraint which the +knowledge of his absurd feeling for Marjory brought with it. The whole +position irritated him to the last degree, and in one and the same +breath he told himself that he wished the business were over, and that +it had never begun. And yet, when he and Alice, in strolling round the +garden together, found themselves among the orange blossoms, he grew +quite sentimental. The heavy perfume and, artificial atmosphere seemed +to suit the growth of his physical content. Then, courteous by nature +to all women, he had already felt that this girl had a stronger claim +on his consideration than others, and this feeling produced just that +calm, continual attention which suited her lack of sentiment. There +was nothing in it to disturb her placidity or shake the quiet +conviction that in deciding on Gleneira and its owner she was +distinctly doing her duty by everybody, herself included. For Jack had +apparently acquiesced in her decision; at least, he wrote quite +cheerfully from Riga. So she listened contentedly to the covert +lovemaking which long experience had made so easy to Paul Macleod, +provided his companion had a decent share of good looks. In fact, one +of his chief causes of irritation in regard to Marjory was that he +never had the slightest desire to flirt with her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Mrs. Vane remained in her room by Dr. Kennedy's orders, who, +to tell truth, was rather surprised to find how severe a shock her +nervous system had sustained. When, in consequence of a little note +saying that if he would so far forego his holiday as to take her for a +patient, she would far rather see an old friend than a strange doctor, +he had gone over to see her, he had found her far worse than he had +expected. The truth being that she was in a fever of excitement to +know whether he suspected anything, and to hear all the particulars of +this strange bequest to poor old Peggy. If she had only known what the +long blue envelope had contained, she would not have advised the delay +in opening it, which had led to the poor old soul dying a pauper's +death, dying with bitter thoughts in her heart of the world she was +leaving. Mrs. Vane would have liked to tell so much to the doctor as a +sort of salve to her conscience, but she did not dare to do this. +There was a certain packet of letters locked away in her dressing-case +which forbade her risking the least inquiry. Yet she could not refrain +from asking if any other papers had been found which--which threw any +light----</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Kennedy, noting the nervous intertwining of her fingers, made a +mental note of bromide for the prescription he intended writing, and +then set himself quietly to tell her all he knew, just as if he were +exhibiting another sedative. The somewhat romantic aspects of the case +had evidently excited her imagination, and it would do her good to +talk over it soberly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then there were no other papers, after all," she said, with a sigh of +relief. "You seemed surprised at the time, I remember, but now you are +satisfied."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must be--no one could have taken them, and I certainly did not drop +anything from my pocket when I went to fetch help, for I have been +over the ground this morning. Besides, she only gave me two +things--the envelope and something else. I certainly thought it was a +bundle of letters, but I must have been mistaken."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But there was no entry in the register, was there, which would +account for old Peggy's anxiety that you should have it?" persisted +Mrs. Vane, with a little hurry in her breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"None. Except that she had something on her mind always, I feel sure, +regarding that unfortunate daughter of hers. She never behaved +naturally to little Paul; and now, of course, it is doubtful if he +will get the money. I must see the lawyers about it as I go through +Edinburgh. If old Peggy had only lived to make a will----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane rose from her pillow and looked him full in the face, with a +startled expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean she would have had the power to leave it to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, apparently she would have, to judge by the will. You had better +lie down again, Mrs. Vane! So--quite flat, please."</p> + +<p class="normal">He chose out the smelling salts unerringly, as if he knew all +about such things, from the bevy of silver-topped bottles on the +dressing-table, and when he saw her colour returning, went back with +the same certainty, apparently, of finding sal volatile or red +lavender.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Chloral!" he said, turning to her quickly as he smelt at a bottle. +"You mustn't take that, Mrs. Vane. I forbid it, and I expect you to +obey orders."</p> + +<p class="normal">A touch of her own airy, charming wilfulness showed on her face as she +looked at him while he stood dropping something into a glass for her +to take. "I won't--not while you are here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nor when I am gone, I hope. It isn't worth it--Pauline."</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave him an odd look, then buried her face in the pillow and began +to sob. Inarticulate, hysterical sobbing about Pauline--or was it +Paul? Dr. Kennedy could not be sure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is utterly upset; a case of complete nervous prostration," he +said, as he was leaving, in answer to Captain Macleod's eager +inquiries. "I don't wonder, for she works herself to death to make +things pleasant for everybody. Don't let them worry her by going to +sit with her, and that sort of thing. She is best alone. Or, if you +could spare ten minutes or so this afternoon--I've told her to get up +for a little change--she would like it, I know. She is very fond of +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are such old friends," put in Paul, quickly. "And she has sate up +with <i>me</i> often enough, God knows. I shouldn't be alive but for her. +Of course, I will go."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Talk of old times, then. It will make her forget the present, and +that will be good for her."</p> + +<p class="normal">So Paul went up with the afternoon tea tray and a bunch of jasmine, +which he had been down to the garden to gather, and talked about old +times in his softest voice, while Mrs. Vane sate and listened in the +big chair by the window. And she cheered up so much under the +treatment, that he sent the maid down for another plate of bread and +butter.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was very pleasant, but whether, as the unconscious suggester of the +entertainment had said, it was good for her, was another matter, +though, in a way, it relieved her nervous strain by making her more +certain of what she was going to do. Of one thing there could be no +doubt--the man who sate and talked to her, who forestalled her every +want, must not suffer. Paul must be saved, somehow, and so, for the +present, no one must know of that marriage certificate hidden in her +dressing-case, which would, if it were genuine, give Gleneira to Peggy +Duncan's grandson. Perhaps, after all, he would get his father's +money, and if so, a hundred thousand pounds would be enough for +anyone. Why should he rob Paul--her handsome, kindly Paul--of his +birthright? Of course, in one way that would make matters smooth for +her, since his engagement would certainly come to an end if he ceased +to be a Highland proprietor. The Woodwards would, in that case, never +hear of its being fulfilled. But it would give him such pain, and she +was not selfish enough to gain her own pleasure at such a price, if it +could be avoided. She was Paul's friend, his true friend, and she +would take the responsibility of concealing this thing for the +present; for ever, if need be. And then she gave up thinking, and took +to dreaming of what life would be if they two lived at Gleneira. They +would not be dull; men were never dull with her. He had not been dull +that afternoon when they had sate and talked. Ah! how pleasant it had +been, and surely to gain such content, both for him and for her, it +was allowable to conceal those letters for a time--only for a time?</p> + +<p class="normal">And while they were talking upstairs, Lady George had been +entertaining a solitary visitor in the drawing-room, the rest of the +party having gone out to take luncheon to the shooters on the hill. +This was the Reverend James Gillespie--who had come with a strict +attention to those trivialities of etiquette, which the Bishop had +often assured him should be a distinguishing mark of those set up to +teach the people--to inquire for the ladies after their fatigues. Now, +Lady George <i>was</i> fatigued, hence, indeed, the fact that she had +remained at home; and there is no doubt that she said, "Bother the +man!" when first informed that the Reverend James was in the +drawing-room. Then the love of posing came to her rescue. Here she +was, alone, wearied out, unable to go forth and enjoy herself. What an +opportunity for patient unselfishness! Besides, it was tea-time; she +could have the children down and provoke that ardent admiration of her +system which the Reverend James extended to everything at Gleneira.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell nurse to let Miss Eve and Master Adam have tea with me," she +said, as she swept downstairs. "I expect Master Blasius has not been a +good boy; in fact, I am sure he hasn't, but he can have jam in the +nursery. He will like that just as well."</p> + +<p class="normal">Unfortunately, it is never safe for a grown-up to predicate the +thoughts of a child. Perhaps, because something may strike the opening +mind as novel, or desirable, which the mature one has tried and found +wanting. Be that as it may, ten minutes after Adam and Eve had left +the nursery spick and span, hand-in-hand, Blazes was captured for the +fifth time on his way down the stairs in that curious succession of +bumps and slides, which was his favourite method of progression. And +the look of determination on his round, broad, good-natured face was +not in the least shaken by nurse's vehement upbraidings.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There ain't no use talkin' to 'im when he's like that," she said, +aside to Mary; "and he ain't a bit cross or naughty--look at 'im +smilin' be'ind my back--but my tea I must 'ave in peace an' quiet. So +into bed 'e goes, tucked up without 'is nighty, an' a bit of sugar to +suck. The joke of it'll keep 'im quiet a bit."</p> + +<p class="normal">Apparently, it did, for he lay in the night nursery chuckling to +himself, that "Blazeths wath a pore 'ickle beggar boy wif no thoes or +'tockings, an' no thirt to hith back," until nurse, sympathising with +the sentimental Mary, forgot to be vigilant.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Adam, in his green plush Vandyck suit, and Eve in a smock +to match, were seated, with decorously still tan legs, at the +tea-table, eating thin bread-and-butter daintily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is most gratifying," the Reverend James was remarking, in his most +professional manner, "to--to see such good children as yours, Lady +George. It is a lesson in the art of education."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is most gratifying to hear one's parish priest say so, Mr. +Gillespie," she replied, with meek dignity; "but, as you know, I make +it a study. I devote myself to them. I feel that one cannot too soon +recognise the sanctity, the individuality of the soul, the human +rights which these little ones share equally with us. Equally, did I +say? Nay, in fuller measure, since they are nearer Heaven than we +are--since they are pure and innocent, with better rights than ours to +happiness."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James cleared his throat. There was a flavour of +unorthodoxy about the latter part of these remarks which, in the +present position of spiritual authority to which Lady George had +exalted him, he could scarcely pass over.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a fallen humanity we must not forget, my dear lady," he began; +"these children----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George's maternal pride flashed up; besides she was beginning to +get a little tired of the Reverend James.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see very few signs of fallen humanity about mine," she interrupted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, my dear lady, you must remember also that your children have +privileges--they are baptized and regenerate--they are not in a state +of nature--Good Heavens, my dear lady! what is the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Gorgon's stony stare was genial in comparison with poor Blanche's +look of petrification.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blasius!" she cried, starting to her feet, "go away! go away at +once."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Blasius had no such intention. He advanced with a confidential nod +to his mother, a perfect picture of sturdy, healthy, naked babyhood; +beautiful in its curves and dimples.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blazeth's a pore 'ickle beggar boy wif no thoes or 'tockings +or---- Oh, mummie! that tickles awful!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The mellow chant ended abruptly, for Lady George had dashed at him +with an Algerian antimacassar, and now held him in her arms, trying +hard to be grave. She might have succeeded but for the Reverend +James's face of bland concern. That finished her, and she gave up the +struggle in a peal of laughter, in which her companion tried to join +feebly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bring Master Blasius' flannel dressing-gown, please," she said, when +nurse, full of explanations and excuses, flew in in a flurry; "that +and the antimacassar will keep him warm, and he can have his tea with +me."</p> + +<p class="normal">This incident, however, made it quite impossible for her to continue +the rôle she had been playing before. How could she? with Blasius +huddled up on her lap, eating bread and jam between his attempts to +count his bare toes; an arithmetical problem which he insisted on +solving, despite her efforts with the antimacassar. Not that the +necessity for change mattered, since she had a variety of other parts +to fall back upon, and so, being slightly bored by the Reverend +James's failure to respond, and evident disposition to remain +the spiritual director, she assumed that of Great Lady and +Helper-in-General to her world. In which character, she gave it as her +opinion that all parish clergymen should be married--if only in order +to make them understand children, and grasp the true bearings of the +education question.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whereat he blushed violently, and five minutes afterwards had confided +his hopes regarding Marjory to his hostess's sympathising ears. +Nothing could be more suitable, she told him; in fact, the idea had +occurred to her before, and she had no doubt that he would bring his +suit to a successful issue. Only, as a woman of the world who had seen +more of life than he had, she would advise a little boldness, a trifle +more self-assertion. His position, she said, was really an excellent +one on the whole, and she need hardly say that both she and her +brother would welcome Mrs. Gillespie as one of themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, with a complete reversal of their mutual positions, they parted, +and the Reverend James as he walked home, full of blushes and budding +hopes, told himself that since Lady George agreed with the Bishop it +was time he bestirred himself. The picnic at the old burying-ground +would afford him an excellent opportunity of proposing, and if he made +up his mind definitely on that point, it would make him less nervous.</p> + +<p class="normal">So when he reached home he went to the calendar of the daily lesson, +which hung by his bed, and ticked off the five days remaining to him, +just as schoolboys tick off their holidays. Five days--and then--yes! +then he would ask Marjory to marry him.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_20" href="#div1Ref_20">CHAPTER XX.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A morning in late September on a Highland loch. How good it is to be +there! The centre just rippled with crisp waves, while shorewards the +rocks show mirrored clearly in the smooth water, each bunch of russet +bracken or tuft of yellow bent almost more brilliant in the reflection +than the reality. The hills free from haze, standing like sentinels, +solid and firm; the wild cherry leaves aping the scarlet of the rowan +berries, the birch trees beginning to drop their golden bribe into the +still, emerald laps of the mossy hollows, as if seeking to buy the +secret of perpetual summer.</p> + +<p class="normal">A scene where it is meet to put off the travel-stained shoes which +have borne our feet along the trivial round, the common tasks of life, +and go back to the bare feet of simple pleasure. The pleasure of +children on the seashore, of young lambs in a blossoming meadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet there was an air of conscious effort, a virtuous look of duty on +many of the faces which assembled at the boat-house in order to be +ferried over to the other side of the loch, whence the ascent to the +old burying-ground was to be made.</p> + +<p class="normal">The shadow of coming separation lay upon most of the party; on none +more than Tom Kennedy, who had filched a few extra hours of Marjory's +companionship from the Great Enemy by scorning the mail cart in favour +of a solitary walk over the crest of Ben Morven to the nearest coach, +the place settled on for the picnic being so far on his way. And she, +though all unconscious of the keen pain at his heart, felt vaguely +that she would miss the touch of his kind hand, the sound of his kind +voice more than ever now, now that it seemed the only thing remaining +of the old calm confidence. Lady George was a prey to a thousand +cares, beginning with the lunch and culminating in the certainty that +some one of the three children--whom her husband had insisted on +bringing--would be drowned; just at the last, too, when she had +brought them safely through all the dangers of Gleneira, for they and +their nurse were to start by the early boat next morning. But the day +was indeed to be a fateful one, for was not this Paul's last chance of +speaking to Alice? and did not Mrs. Woodward, for all her conspicuous +calm, show to the watchful eye that she also was aware of the fact? +Paul himself showed nothing; but, then, he was always exasperatingly +cool when a little touch of excitement would, on the whole, be +pleasing.</p> + +<p class="normal">But of all the faces that of the Reverend James Gillespie displayed +the sense of duty most clearly, and what Paul lacked in animation he +made up for in sheer restlessness, since the time had come when he +must carry out his intention and ask Marjory Carmichael to marry him. +If only because it would be advisable to set up house at the November +term, when they would have a chance of furnishing cheaply and of +getting a good servant. So he wandered about in a fuss, alternately +trying to make an opportunity, and then flying from it, until Paul, +always observant, began to wonder what was up, and then, chancing upon +one of the bashful lover's bolder attempts, swore under his breath at +the fellow's impudence. Tom Kennedy was a gentleman, and Marjory, with +her iceberg of a heart would be happy enough in his keeping by and +bye; but this rampant, red-faced fool! And then he laughed, thinking +suddenly, causelessly, of a certain little face, looking very winsome +despite its weariness, which would have laughed too; for Mrs. Vane had +somehow failed to rally from the shock of old Peggy's death with her +usual elasticity, and was still in her room visible only to a favoured +few, Paul amongst the number. Only that morning she had looked at him +with her pretty, quizzical eyes and met his offer to escort her so far +on her southward journey with the remark that by that time he would no +longer be his own master.</p> + +<p class="normal">And it was true. Before he rowed across the loch again his future +would be settled, he would be Alice Woodward's Highland proprietor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your left, please, Miss Carmichael," he said, giving stroke with a +longer swing; "there is a nice, comfortable landing-place just beyond +the white stone, and I hate getting my feet wet, even in helping +ladies to keep theirs dry."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But we shall miss----" began Marjory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do as you're bid, my dear," put in Will Cameron, resignedly, from the +bow; "haven't you learnt by this time that the laird knows where he +wants to steer and sticks to it? After all, it saves a lot of trouble +to others."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Right you are!" assented Paul, gaily; "your left, please; not so much +as that; thank you! I've no desire to find the sunken rocks."</p> + +<p class="normal">The words were light, and a boat-load of people were listening to +them; yet Marjory, guiding the tiller ropes, felt that they were +spoken for her ear alone; that she and Paul were face to face, as they +so often were before his future, and the fact annoyed her. Yet, as +they stepped out on the little causeway of rock jutting forward like a +peer, the waves blab, blabbing upon its sides, reminded her of the +evening when she had sate listening to them and Paul had come along +the shore behind her, like another St. Christopher, bearing the burden +of the world's immortality--its childhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tom," she said, in a low voice, turning to him in swift appeal, why +she knew not, "let us get away from all this; we might go along the +point and look for clams, as we used to do. Remember, it is the last I +shall see of you; so don't talk about manners and being wanted; don't +think of what other people think."</p> + +<p class="normal">She spoke petulantly, but there were sudden tears in her eyes. Yet as +they moved off together neither of then realised that a fateful moment +had come and gone; that the trivial words covered an unconscious +revolt of one side of her woman's nature against the other, and that +if, instead of hunting clams like a couple of children, he had taken +her hand and told her the truth of love and marriage, as he had seen +it in life, she would have turned instinctively from the world's +apotheosis of passion, and so have found a compass to guide her out of +danger; but Tom Kennedy, being conscious that he himself was once more +under the glamour which had come and gone many times already even in +his sober life, could not find it in his heart to decry it utterly. So +they stalked clams instead, advancing on tiptoe over the wet sand with +eyes alert for every sign of an air-hole, and then pouncing like a cat +on a mouse to seize the collapsing tube before it sank down, down, +into the depths of gravel where even finger nails could not follow it. +And to them, as they laughed and hunted, came the Reverend James, +restless as ever, yet showing to advantage in a sport which he had +practised from his barefoot childhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was good to see his fair, florid face come up red with smug triumph +from each dive as he added another clam to the heap, until Marjory +forgot everything else in emulation, and Tom Kennedy, smiling at her +eagerness, sate down to a cigarette beside Lord George, who, engaged +in the same business, was watching the children paddle in the +shallows.</p> + +<p class="normal">A silent, yet sympathetic audience were these two men of middle age, +smiling to themselves over the gay voices and childish sallies. Over +Eve's eleventh ineffectual attempt to swallow an oyster which would +have been successful if Adam hadn't made her laugh; over Marjory's +indignant claim to a clam, which, during the dispute, disappeared for +ever. Smiling, too, over Blasius' solemn face as he informed daddy +that there was a "big crawly wild beast down there wif wobbly legs, +and Blazeths wanted daddy's hand. Blazeths wathn't afwaid, but he +wanted daddy's hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">The incoming tide was drowning the round brown heads of the boulders +out on the far point, as those two red ones, so curiously alike, bent +over the "wild beast wif wobbly legs," which Adam and Eve, with +wide-eyed superiority, said was nothing but a crab, a tiny crab! A +heron, driven from its last inch of seaweed, flapped slowly across the +bay, its trailing feet almost touching the water, and the sea-pyots +circled screaming round the invaders of their happy hunting-ground. In +the bend of the bay beneath a clump of alders showed a cluster of gay +dresses busy about a tablecloth, and above them, in wooded curves +merging into sheer slopes of rock and bent, rose Ben Morven. Half-way +up, right in the open, a single holly tree, like a black shadow, +marking the turn to the old burying-ground. Lord George came back from +the wild beast with a sober face, and eyes still watching that little +red head, bent now over a stick with which the wobbly legs were being +boldly prodded to a walk.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Queer start, children--aren't they?" he remarked confidentially, as +he lit another cigarette. "I never thought of it before I married, +give you my word. I suppose men don't--more's the pity." He gave a +glance at his companion's face, and went on with more assurance: "You +see no one ever talks of the paternal instinct; the women are supposed +to have it all their own way, in the maternal business, and it's a +shame, for a man needs that sort of thing more than they do. A woman +can't be done out of her motherhood, but a man loses everything except +a passing pleasure if he doesn't keep straight. Look at that boy, +Kennedy! He is the very moral of me, and I had to whack him the other +day. Well, I assure you, that I felt for the first time in my life +that I was immortal--that I had a stake in time and eternity. Why +don't they teach us this when we are young? Why don't they say +something about it in the marriage service, instead of letting a +couple of young fools undertake responsibilities for which they are +not fit?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Tom Kennedy shook his head. "Because we are not brave enough to face +our own instincts and call a spade a spade. I served a few years in +India once, and Hindooism is, I think, the only religion which sets +personal feelings aside utterly; and there the idea has been overlaid +with a horrible sensuality. Though on the whole it is not more +sickening than our artificial sentiment. But it's a weary subject. +Everyone talks of it, and yet no one cares to go back to the +beginning; to give up the romance----"</p> + +<p class="normal">His eyes wandered to Marjory, and he was silent. It was true. When all +was said and done he craved for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," remarked Lord George, judgmatically, after a pause, "there is +something wrong, somewhere. Take my own case. I married, as most +fellows do, to please myself, without a thought of the consequences. +And though, of course, some romance is necessary to make a man give up +his club and undertake the responsibility of a boy like Blazes--Good +Lord! and I promised his mother to keep him out of mischief!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The last words being evoked by the sight of his youngest born prone on +his back kicking madly in six inches of water, with the crab attached +to his big toe.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wanted it to come a walk wif Blazeths," he wailed pathetically; +"and it bited Blazeths instead, with a wobbly leg."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew how it would be, George," said his wife, with patient dignity, +when the culprits appeared before her. "But you are so self-confident. +You are always undertaking responsibilities for which Nature has not +fitted you. Give him to nurse, and cut the cucumber, do--there's a +good boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George shot a queer glance at Dr. Kennedy, and did as he was bid; +as most people did when Blanche put on her superior manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And, Dr. Kennedy," she continued, "I want you to do something for me. +The Hookers have brought--no! I don't mean the piper, George, though +they have brought him--not that it matters so much, for I have told +John Macpherson to keep him in the 'Tubhaneer,' which is anchored in +the stream, so he can do no harm, and the pipes will sound nice over +the water--No, Dr. Kennedy, it is a German professor, very +distinguished, but none of the Hooker party speak German. George will, +of course, take him in tow by and bye, being in the Foreign Office; +but just now, I thought--if you would not mind. Thanks, so much! it +always looks well to have more than one linguist. At present, I have +sent him to admire the view with Major Bertie, who says 'wunderschön' +at intervals; but that can't last long, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear Blanche, you are as good as a play!" protested her husband, +convulsed with laughter, at her unconscious mimicry, and even Dr. +Kennedy found it hard to keep his countenance over her innocent +surprise. Yet he was in no mood for amusement, and his face showed it +when, lunch being over, he drew out his watch, and looked meaningly to +Marjory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it time?" she asked, with a sudden sinking of the heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite time," echoed Paul, coolly, from his place by Alice Woodward; +"that is to say, if we are to be back to tea. It is a longer pull than +it looks. Now, good people! who is for the burying-ground? You are +coming, of course, Miss Woodward; I want you to see all the beauties +of Gleneira, and the view is splendid."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James, who had made up his mind that the descent, when +Marjory should have lost her natural escort, would be the very time +for his purpose, stood up manfully, and Major Bertie, under orders for +the time being to the athletic daughter of a neighbouring laird, +followed suit; but the rest, for the most part, declined what they +stigmatised as a gruesome invitation. The pull was not only long but +stiff, especially after lunch, and the view from below, enhanced by +idleness and a quiet cigar, good enough for them.</p> + +<p class="normal">So it was a small single file which, led by Paul, and brought up by +John Macpherson with the whiskey flask in case of accidents, toiled up +through the fern brakes, till half-way up the hill they struck the +path, and paused for breath beside a spring roughly set in masonry. +Beside it lay a pile of broken broomsticks, one of which Alice +Woodward took up, intending to use it as a staff.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will be the staves they are using to carry the coffins," remarked +old John, cheerfully, as he wiped his forehead with his coat sleeve; +"it is breaking them they are when they come down, at the wishing +well; and the lassies will come with them to wish for a jo---- Ay! ay! +it will be what they were using for old Peggy that the leddy will be +choosing, for it's new whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Alice dropped the stick with a little shiver of disgust, and Paul +moved on impatiently, while John, in reply to a query from the Major, +went on from behind in garrulous tones, "Ou, ay! it is a job, +whatever, but it's most the auld bodies like Peggy that's wantin' to +come to the auld place, and they're fine and light; all but the old +<i>bodach</i>, Angus MacKinnon, and by 'sunder he will be a job when his +turn comes, for he's as big as a stirk. Ay! ay! as big as a stirk, +whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! is not that worth the climb?" cried Paul, with a ring of real +pleasure in his voice which Marjory remembered so well on many a +similar occasion, as they reached the twin holly trees--sacred to an +older cult than that which had prompted the selection of a burial site +whence Iona might sometimes be seen--and sank down upon the short +thyme-set turf to admire the view.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are in luck!" cried Marjory, breathlessly. "Look! yonder is Iona."</p> + +<p class="normal">Out on the verge, between the golden sea and the golden sky, lay a +faint purple cloud no bigger than a man's hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why Iona?" asked Alice Woodward. "I mean why did they want to be +buried in sight of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As a perpetual witness to their faith when they could no longer +profess it, I suppose," said Tom Kennedy. "I like the idea."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would be rather difficult to carry out in Kensal Green, I should +say," put in Paul, lightly. "It wouldn't do to bury by belief +nowadays."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, surely," protested the Reverend James, "the Church custom of +burying towards the east is strictly enforced in all English +cemeteries." He might as well have kept silence as far as those +three--who by chance were sitting together--were concerned, for their +thoughts were far ahead of him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know," replied Dr. Kennedy, absently, "I think a broad +division would suffice. Those who hope--not necessarily for themselves +personally--and those who don't. And most of us, who care to think at +all, look 'sunward,' as Myers says, 'through the mist, and speak to +each other softly of a hope.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A mistake," broke in Paul's clearer voice. "It is better to thank +with brief thanksgiving 'Whatever gods there be, that no life lives +for ever----'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Finish the quotation, please," put in Marjory, quickly. "'That e'en +the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.' What more can anyone +want?" She stretched her hand, as she spoke, to the glitter and gleam +on the far horizon, and then turned with a smile to her companions. +"And this is the sunniest spot in the whole glen--the first to +get the light, and the last to lose it. I couldn't wish for a better +resting-place."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I should prefer the society of a cemetery," remarked Paul; "one's +tombstone would not be so detestably conspicuous as it would be up +here. Imagine it--Macleod of Gleneira, etc., etc.!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you have a tombstone at all?" asked the girl, lightly. "I +hate them; horrid, unsatisfactory things, full of texts that have +nothing to do with you, yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," put in Major Bertie, who had just returned from a tour of +inspection, "there's an epitaph up there, which, as the Americans say, +wraps round everything, and makes discontent impossible--'To John +Stewart, his ancestors and descendants.' That ought to satisfy you, +Miss Carmichael; or you might compose your own curious derangement, +like a fellow I knew in the regiment--classical sort of chap. He used +to write the most touching things, and weep over them profusely. Got +blown up in the Arsenal one day, and didn't need any of them. It's a +fact, Macleod. Before your time. So, if you have a fancy that way, +Miss Carmichael----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll note it in my will," she replied evasively; then, hearing a low +voice beside her quoting the lines beginning, "He is beyond the shadow +of night," she turned to Paul in quick surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have the knack of reading your thoughts, you see, though I don't +share them," he said quietly, adding in a lower tone: "And now, +Kennedy, I hurry no man's cattle, but if you are to catch that coach +you should be going, especially if Miss Carmichael is to see you to +the top of the ridge."</p> + +<p class="normal">The inexpressible charm, which was his by nature, born of a gracious +remembrance of other folk's interest, was on him as he spoke, and +contrasted sharply with the lack of it in the Reverend James +Gillespie, who jumped to his feet in a moment in a desperate resolve.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you like, Miss Marjory, I will go so far, and escort you back."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul looked at him distastefully from head to foot, and Dr. Kennedy +frowned, and set the suggestion aside decisively. "Thanks, Gillespie, +but I have some business to talk over with my ward. Good-bye, Macleod, +and thanks--for many kindnesses."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-bye, and--and good luck! Miss Woodward, if you don't mind, I +think we ought to be starting tea-wards. The downward path is easy, +but there are plenty of beauties to admire on the way. I am always too +much out of breath to do so on the upward path. Excelsior is not my +motto."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet as they paused at the first turn he looked back towards the two +figures cresting the rise, and remarked easily to his companion that +Miss Carmichael was quite a picture on the hillside, and walked like a +shepherd. And then, as easily, he proposed taking a <i>détour</i> through a +nut wood, and so by a path he knew back to the beach.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alice would like a cup of tea, please; she is rather tired," he said +to his sister, when they arrived there, and Lady George gave a little +gasp of relief. "Oh, Paul! I'm so glad! What a dear boy you are!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And about the same time Tom Kennedy and Marjory Carmichael stood side +by side on a neck of land connecting one range of hills with another. +The bog myrtle, crushed under their feet, sent an aromatic, +invigorating scent into the air. The fresh cool sea breeze, which had +gathered a heather perfume in its passage over the windswept moor, +blew in their faces, and a golden mist cloud, growing above the rising +shadow of the little valley on either side of them, shut out the world +below. The only sign of life, save those two standing hand in hand, +being a stone-chat twittering on a boulder, and a group of scared +sheep, waiting with backward turned heads for the next movement to +send them with a headlong rush and a clatter of stones into the mists +below.</p> + +<p class="normal">But none came. For those two stood silent for a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Tom!" she said at last; "was there ever anyone so good, so kind +as you are?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused a moment, looking into her tearful eyes, and something of +the earth earthy, seemed to slip from him, leaving him a clearer +vision.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You shall answer that question for yourself, some day, my friend," he +said. "A year hence--two years--three years. What does it matter? +<i>Auf-wieder-sehn!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Auf-wieder-sehn!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The echo of her own reply came back to her from the mist as she stood, +after he had gone, looking into the valley.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Auf-wieder-sehn!</i> Yes!--to such a tie as that there could be no other +parting.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_21" href="#div1Ref_21">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The Reverend James Gillespie had a certain coarse fibre in him, which +made it only natural that the snub direct he had received from Dr. +Kennedy should make him more determined than he had been before +on a <i>tête-a-tête</i> with Marjory. Consequently, much to her disgust, +she found him solemnly waiting for her on a tombstone in the old +burying-ground. The spectacle was an irritating one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why didn't you go down with the others?" she asked crossly. "You know +quite well I didn't need--anyone." A certain politeness prevented her +employing the personal pronoun. Not that her lover would have cared, +since he came of a class in which a certain amount of shrewishness in +the wooed is not only considered correct, but, to a certain extent, +propitious. And, although he had a veneer of polish on those points +which had come into friction with his new world, love-making was not +one of them. There he was, simply the cottier's son, full of inherited +tradition in regard to rural coquetry. A fact which, at the outset, +put Marjory at a disadvantage, since he refused to take the +uncompromising hint, which she gave as soon as it dawned upon her what +his purpose really was. And yet she could hardly refuse the man before +he had asked her the momentous question. So it was with concentrated +mixture of sheer wrath and intense amusement that she suddenly found +him, as they paused by the wishing-well, on his knees before her +declaiming his passion in set terms. The disposition to box his ears +vanished in almost hysterical laughter, until the blank surprise on +his face recalled her to the fact that the man was, at any rate, +paying her the highest tribute in his power, and had a right to be +heard. But not in that ridiculous position!</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better get up, Mr. Gillespie," she said peremptorily; "the +ground is quite damp, and I can hear what you have to say much better +when you are standing."</p> + +<p class="normal">The facts were undeniable but the prosaic interruption had checked the +flow of Mr. Gillespie's eloquence, and he stood red and stuttering +until Marjory's slender stock of patience was exhausted, and she +interrupted him, loftily:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose you meant just now to ask me to be your wife? If that was +so----"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her tone roused his temper. "Such was my intention," he interrupted +sulkily. "I thought I spoke pretty plainly, and I fancy you must have +been prepared for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Prepared! prepared for this!--this outrage on her girlish dreams. For +it was her first proposal. What right had this man to thrust himself +into her holy of holies and smirch the romance--the beauty of it all? +It is the feeling with which many a girl listens for the first time to +a lover.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Prepared!" she echoed. "Are you mad? The very idea is preposterous!"</p> + +<p class="normal">His face was a study. "The Bishop," he began, "and Lady George didn't +seem to--to think----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I am to understand that you have consulted them?" she asked, in +supreme anger; but his sense of duty came to his aid and made him +bold.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Bishop, of course. Apart from his spiritual authority, he has +claims upon me which I should be indeed ungrateful to ignore, and--and +it meant much to be sure of your welcome."</p> + +<p class="normal">The real good feeling underlying the stilted words went straight to +Marjory's sense of justice, and made her, metaphorically, pass the +Bishop. Besides, this little discussion had, as it were, taken the +personal flavour from the point at issue and left her contemptuously +tolerant, as she had been many and many a time over the Reverend +James's views of life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Lady George," she asked, categorically, magisterially; "has she +also claims to be consulted?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He coughed. "I rather think she broached the subject. She--she saw I +loved you." And here the man himself broke through the clerical +coating. "For I do love you. It isn't preposterous. I would do my best +to make you a good husband, and--and you could teach the school +children anything you liked."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Bishop wouldn't approve of that," she replied impatiently, yet in +kinder tones. "Oh! Mr. Gillespie, it only shows how little you +understand--how little you know. You would never have dreamed of such +a thing, you and the Bishop, if you had had the least conception of +what I really am. Perhaps I had no right to call it preposterous, but +it is impossible, utterly impossible, and he ought to have seen it."</p> + +<p class="normal">This slur on his patron's acumen roused the young man's doggedness. "I +do not see why it should be either preposterous or impossible, unless +you love someone else."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she turned and rent him, a whole torrent of indignant regret and +dislike seeming to loosen her tongue. "Love! Oh! don't dare to mention +the word. You don't understand it--it is profanation--I don't know +anything about it myself, but <i>this</i> must be wrong. Ah! Mr. Gillespie, +for goodness sake let us talk about something else!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then I am to understand that you refuse," he began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Refuse! of course I refuse." She felt she would have liked to go down +among the whole posse of people--Paul Macleod among the number, for +all she knew--who had deemed such a thing possible, and cry: "Listen! +I have refused him, do you hear? I hate him, and you, too." But the +next moment the very thought of coming amongst them, with him, as if +of her own free will, seemed to her unbearable, and she stopped short +in the headlong course downwards, which she had begun.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose you couldn't help it," she said, with a catch in her +breath, "and it is very kind of you, of course, and I am obliged and +all that; but if you wouldn't mind leaving me I should prefer it. I +don't want any tea, thanks; all I want is to get home."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--I am sorry," he stammered, utterly taken aback.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't be sorry!" she interrupted; "it has nothing to do with you, +I assure you. Only it is so strange at first. Good-bye."</p> + +<p class="normal">She was off at a dignified walk, with her head in the air, in an +opposite direction before he had recovered from his mingled surprise +and consternation at the effect his proposal had had on her. At any +rate, she had not been indifferent, and this thought bringing a +certain consolation with it, he made his way down to the picnic party, +and was soon recovering his equanimity over scones and jam.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory, on the other hand, felt her indignation grow as she hurried +along, regardless of briars and brakes, to the shore beyond the +Narrowest, where, out of sight of the others, she might hope to find a +boat which would ferry her across the loch.</p> + +<p class="normal">She found one, but hardly what she desired, since, as she made her way +through the alder brakes to a projecting rock, she saw the "Tubhaneer" +lying close in, with Paul Macleod and Alice Woodward in the stern, +while her brother and two of the children were lolling about in the +bows. They had been amusing themselves by tacking lazily about in the +slack water.</p> + +<p class="normal">She would have beaten a quick retreat had not Paul's eye been quicker +and a swift turn of the rudder shown her that she was observed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, don't trouble," she called, "I only want to get across, and I'll +find one of the rowing boats about, I expect."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are above," he called back; "the tide is running out fast now, +so I sent them to the upper bay. Just step on the further rock, if you +can, and I'll run her up to it for a second."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was something in the easy familiarity and decision of his manner +which always soothed her into reasonable compliance, and the next +minute she found herself apologising to Alice Woodward as the bellying +sail slanted them across the loch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Alice won't mind," said Paul, cheerfully; "she likes sailing, +don't you, Alice?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory looked at them, as they looked at each other, and was silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that was settled. And that again was Love. Love and Marriage! What +a ghastly farce it was when you came close to it!</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm sorry Kennedy has gone," remarked Paul, with his eyes on her +face; "he is one of the best fellows I ever met. We shall have to +tack, Sam; the tide is too strong."</p> + +<p class="normal">Even so; the uncertain breeze failing ere they reached the slack +water, they missed the landing-stage by a few yards and drifted into +the shallow, seaweedy bay below. But Paul was over the side, knee-deep +among the boulders, ere Marjory could expostulate. "Steady her a bit, +Sam, you can get a grip on that oarweed. Now then, Miss Carmichael, if +you please; I'm a duffer at steering, but I can lift you across +easily, if you'll allow me--thanks."</p> + +<p class="normal">She would have preferred to wade but for the opposition it would have +provoked, and when, after a few slippery strides, he set her down on +the shingle, turned to go with the briefest of acknowledgments.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait a bit, please," he said, quietly. "Alice, I must see Miss +Carmichael past the gate. MacInnes' bull is loose, and he isn't always +quite canny. I'll be back in a minute. Keep the helm in, Sam, and +don't let her drift; the current runs like a mill race round the +point."</p> + +<p class="normal">They were already well over the soft, sea-pink set turf; Marjory +walking fast, with heightened colour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is really no need for you to keep Miss Woodward waiting," she +said impatiently. "I am quite accustomed to take care of myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alice will not mind."</p> + +<p class="normal">Alice! Was he so eager for her to realise the new position that he +must needs enforce the knowledge of it upon her in this fashion?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad Miss Woodward does not mind. I should."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am perfectly aware of that--you have not her philosophic +acquiescence in the inevitable. It is a pity, for you fret yourself +needlessly over people--who are not worth it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Was he not worth it? The thought made her walk faster, until a sudden +cry from behind made her companion pause and look back hastily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good God! they'll be on the rocks," he cried, as, without an +instant's delay, he dashed across the sward down to the shore, +followed closely by Marjory, whose heart throbbed with sudden fear as +she realised what had occurred. The boat which they had left safely in +the backwater a minute before, was now racing down the stream with +sails full set. How this had occurred was another question, which +could not then be answered. Possibly Sam, proud of his new seamanship, +had proposed a sail. Anyhow, there they were in the stream, and even +without knowledge of that sunken shelf of rock half a mile further +down the curve, over which the water rushed in a fall at this time of +the tide, the young man sufficiently grasped the danger of the +situation to be doing his best to lower the sail again. But the rope +had kinked in the pulley, and the sudden discovery that he had +forgotten to re-ship the rudder--which Paul had removed in order to +bring the boat closer into shore--completed his consternation, +rendering him absolutely helpless. All this Captain Macleod took in as +he ran, and ere Marjory had reached him he had kicked off his boots +and flung coat and waistcoat aside to free himself for the sharp, +short struggle with the racing tide, in which lay his only chance of +reaching the boat. Then he waded breast high in the slack water, and +bided his time. It needed quick thought and quicker decision to seize +the exact moment when, by one supreme effort, he could hope to +succeed; and yet Marjory, watching with held breath, felt a wild rush +of exultation, not of fear, as with one splendid stroke he shot far +into the current. Swimming has always an effortless look, and the +sweeping stream, carrying him down, remorselessly aided the illusion, +so that not even Marjory, with her knowledge of the tide, guessed how +nearly Paul Macleod's strength was spent as his hand touched the +gunwale. But touch it he did, and the next moment, with Sam's help, he +was aboard and busy at the sail, while Alice Woodward, deeming the +danger over, began to cry helplessly, and even Marjory breathed again. +Only for a moment, however; the next, though the sail was down, she +realised that the boat was still in the current, and that Paul was +vainly trying to tear up a thwart. The rudder! the rudder must have +gone adrift in Sam's clumsy efforts to ship it!</p> + +<p class="normal">Then they were no better off than before--nay, worse! since they were +nearer those unseen rocks, and he--<i>he</i> was in danger now.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was to be done? The thought was agonising as, scarcely knowing +why, she kept abreast of the drifting boat, stumbling over the +boulders, slipping on the seaweed, unable to see, to think, to do +anything save listen to the ominously rising roar of the water which +just beyond the turn fell in a regular cascade over that black jagged +shelf of rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ah, those helpless children! and Paul! She must do something--try to +do something. And then on a sudden it came to her, as such things do +come, as if they had all been settled beforehand clear and connected. +At the last spit of land, not fifty yards above the fall, a streak of +sand bank, capped by a pile of boulders, jutted out. If she could +cross the dip and reach them! The herons used to sit there till well +on to half-tide, and once she and Will had found oysters. The trivial +thoughts came, as they will come in times of stress, flashing through +the brain without obscuring it. Even as she thought them, her mind was +busy over the one certainty, that somehow she must give help! By +cutting across the next grassy curve she would be there in time. They +might think she was deserting them. What then? If she could succeed +even so far, <i>he</i> would know that it was not so--<i>he</i> would understand +that she meant to be nearer--nearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">He did; and a great glow of pride in her pluck came to him, when, as +the boat swept round the curve, he saw her floundering, half swimming +towards the boulders, and at the sight bent quickly for a coil of +rope. But she had not thought of that--her one impulse having been to +get nearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now she is as far as she can go. Sheer at her feet, sliding among +the stones, is the stream--below her is the roar and rush of the fall, +save to her left, where it shelves to an eddy--above her is the boat +drifting, drifting, more slowly now, for the shelf of rock backs the +water a little. Then for the first time she realises what is to be +done, for there is Paul at the bows with the coil poised in his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course! that was it! that was it!</p> + +<p class="normal">She dug her heels into the crevices of the boulders as she stood +knee-deep among them, and kept her eyes upon his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now!"</p> + +<p class="normal">As the cry left her lips, something like a black snake shot out +through the air and flung itself across her breast, stinging and +almost blinding her with pain; but there was no time for pain--no +time! To seize it, bend it round the nearest boulder, and so twice +round her waist with a loop through across her arm, took all her +thoughts, all her strength, till, with a slow rasping noise of the wet +rope slipping on stone, the strain began and the knot grew tight. +Tight.--tighter--then a slip--then tighter again.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pain--yes, it was pain. My God! what pain. Ah! another slip. But +Paul--was that a knife he had in his hand? No! No! that should never +be; there should be no more slipping even if she drowned for it. With +more of sheer obstinacy than courage she flung herself sideways in the +water among the rocks. So, with her whole body wedged in behind the +two boulders, there could be no more slipping. There could be nothing +more but life or death for both of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">And it was life. Paul Macleod, standing knife in hand, ready to cut +the rope, felt the claim of her pluck to fair play, and paused. She +should do this thing if she could! And even as the decision came to +him, came also the knowledge that she had done it, as, with a sidelong +sway the boat brought up and drifted into slacker water.</p> + +<p class="normal">Five minutes after he was untying the knot and binding his wet +handkerchief round her bruised arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Salt water," he said, a trifle unsteadily, "is the best thing in the +world for bruises, and you are more bruised than hurt, I fancy. No! +Blanche," for Alice Woodward's shrieks had by that time attracted +plenty of help, and the boats had come over in hot haste from the +other side; "don't fuss over Miss Carmichael with sal volatile and +salts. She doesn't need it. But we are both wet through, and if she is +wise she will walk home with me at once. It is better than waiting for +the carriage."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, please," she replied, catching eagerly at the chance of escape +from the general excitement and gratitude. "Indeed, I would rather, +Lady George; I am not a bit hurt, only, as your brother says, wet +through, so I had better get home at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">They started off together at a brisk pace, but silently, until as they +topped the nearest rise, the chill evening wind striking through her +wet garments, made her shiver. Then he held out his hand to her +suddenly, with a smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come! let us run. It will take off the stiffness and keep us both +warm." So hand in hand, like a couple of children, they ran through +the autumn woods, startling the roe deer from the oak coverts, and the +sea-gulls from the little sheltered bays. Hand in hand, while the +shadows darkened and the gold in the west faded to grey. Warm, human +hand in hand, confident, content in their companionship, and seeking +nothing more than that confidence, that content.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think you'll take cold," said Paul, with the blood tingling +in his veins, and his breath coming fast.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't think I shall," she laughed.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_22" href="#div1Ref_22">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">But the remembrance of that thoughtless run through the darkening +woods seemed incredible--to the girl, at least--when next morning her +companion in it came down, as in duty bound, to inquire after the +result of her wetting, for he was palpably conventional and +commonplace. Partly because Lady George accompanied him, eager to +renew her protestations of gratitude, and partly because it was his +way whenever he had made any special departure from the ordinary line +of conduct, which he laid down for himself. This evident artificiality +had the effect of producing the same sort of unreality in Marjory, so +that the only straightforward part of the interview came from Lord +George, who, with an odd little quake in his voice, thanked her for +the fact that Blazes was at the present moment rehearsing the scene in +the nursery.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You should see the little beggar," he said. "'Pon my word he doesn't +seem to have missed a single detail. Has Sam to the life, and we have +been obliged to forbid Alice's screams; they were heard all over the +house."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what does he say was his own part in the business?" asked +Marjory. "All I remember is a face--very like yours, Lord George--with +great wide eyes, while Eve and Adam were hiding theirs."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George gave another odd little sound between a laugh and a sob. +"He says he sate still and swore, like Uncle Paul!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm afraid I did, Miss Carmichael," confessed the culprit, with a +flash of the old manner; "but really, the tangle that young idiot had +got things into, and stramash----" He turned to the window with a +frown, and looked out. "You are the heroine of the hour, I see," he +added cynically. "There is the Manse machine, with your two devoted +admirers in it, come to congratulate you. Blanche, if you have induced +Miss Carmichael to dine with us to-night--our last night--we had +better quit the court. By the way, Mrs. Vane desired me to say, Miss +Carmichael, that she did not intend to leave Gleneira without seeing +you again; so, as she is not well enough to come to the Lodge, you may +be induced to take pity on her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The covert implication that some such inducement was necessary to +overcome her reluctance, stung the girl's pride, without her +recognising the cause of it, and she accepted the invitation +hurriedly, telling herself she was glad it was the last, and that +after to-morrow she could return to the old peaceful days. The thought +made her turn with a quick expansion of face and manner to the two old +men who advanced to meet them, as she accompanied Lady George to the +garden-gate. Two old men almost tremulous with pride and delight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Tanto fortior tanto felicior!</i>" cried the little Father, his fresh, +round face beaming with sheer content.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So, so, young lady! we have heard the story," put in the minister, +full of courtly bows, in which those suggestions of a shapely calf had +a fair field. "True is it that <i>Fortis cadere, cedere non potest</i>. Ah, +Lady George! I have to express my great thankfulness that a dreadful +bereavement has been spared you, under Providence, by our dear young +friend's courage; or, rather, by her wisdom, since, without the quick +thought, the former would have been useless. In this case, to +paraphrase the saying, <i>tam Minerva quam Marte</i>, as even a soldier +must allow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not find me backward, sir, in acknowledging either Miss +Carmichael's wisdom or her courage," replied Paul, thus challenged; +but his tone had that suggestion of a hidden meaning in it, to which +Lady George objected, and rightly, as bad form; so she covered it by a +remark upon the beauty of a boy, who stood holding open the gate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is a little like that crayon portrait of you when you were a boy, +Paul," she added cheerfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is old Peggy's grandson," replied Marjory, "and as he has been +left to Dr. Kennedy's care, I am to look after him. He will be my +first pupil."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then the likeness will soon disappear," said Paul, in a low voice, as +he passed out.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps he will be not the worse of that," retorted Marjory, in the +same tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know. Men who are brought up by women are generally prigs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And women who have been brought up by men?" she asked sharply, not +thinking of herself or her past.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are brave," he said quietly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Brave! So he thought that of her. The one word was worth all the rest. +And as she went up the path again with Father Macdonald on her right +hand and Mr. Wilson on her left, all their fine phrases seemed +forgotten in that simple acknowledgment. She would remember that +always, even when the old peaceful days came back, as they would on +the morrow. There was only the dinner at the Big House between her and +that desirable consummation; but that was an ordeal without Tom, who +was at home anywhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">To tell truth, it would have been an ordeal to one less reluctant than +Marjory; for a general air of uncertainty, like that of amateur +theatricals when the prompter is best man, pervaded the party. Mrs. +Woodward called her host by his Christian name with a manifest effort +of memory, and when Sam ventured on a like familiarity with Blanche, +her face betrayed her real feelings. Indeed, she took a private +opportunity of confiding to Lord George her relief that it was only a +one-night part, as she could not stand it much longer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet you condemn poor Paul to a life-long connection with that young +bounder. Upon my soul! you women are queer creatures;" and the +perversity of the feminine nature appeared to absorb him for the rest +of the evening. Even Mrs. Vane, who ventured down to dinner for the +first time, could make nothing of the ghastly function, so she retired +immediately afterwards on plea of being tired, chiefly because she +wished to have an opportunity of seeing Marjory alone, which she +secured by bidding her in a whisper be sure and come to her room after +she had said good-bye to everyone else.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her departure reduced the drawing-room to flat despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the sadness of farewell," remarked Miss Smith, part of whose +contract was that she was to remain to the last and see nothing was +forgotten; not even a decent show of sentiment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Parting is such sweet sorrow," murmured the Major under his +moustache. He was the most cheerful of the party, since his flirtation +had resulted in another week's grouse shooting with his charmer's +father.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. St. Clare has written such a sweet thing called 'Good-bye,'" +continued the Moth, appealing to the Poet. "He might recite it to +cheer us up."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder how many poets there are who haven't written a piece on that +subject," put in Paul, hastily, as Mr. St. Clare gave a preliminary +cough, "and yet it will supply tons of agony to generations still +unborn."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are forty songs of that name," remarked Alice, practically. "I +wanted one for a friend, and the music man told me so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the remembrance of that friend, a certain young fellow with a +pleasant baritone voice, busy over tallow at Riga, gave her quite a +pang of regret.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mostly trash, too," assented the Major; "Tosti's is the best, but +even there one is all battered to pieces before the end."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is true," put in Marjory, eagerly. "You see, the poet begins by +fine-drawing the agony, the composer follows suit, and the singer +carries out the distortion. So in the third verse there is nothing for +it but to 'kill the coo.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I haven't heard 'Auld Robin Gray' for twenty years," murmured Lord +George. "No one sings anything but German nowadays. German or comic +operas."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Carmichael sings Scotch songs; I've heard her," said Paul from +the skein of silk he was holding for Alice Woodward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, do!" cried the Moth. "Something touching."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Somethin' to cheer us up, you mean," put in Sam; "somethin' with a +chorus, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Something old-fashioned," protested Lord George.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Something appropriate to the occasion," suggested his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Something Miss Carmichael approves of," came from the skein of silk.</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl stood by the piano for an instant, looking at them all with a +touch of fine scorn in her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will do my best," she said at last, with a laugh. The next instant, +with a crash of chords, her clear, fresh, young voice rang through the +room in that gayest and saddest of songs:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"A weary lot is thine, fair maid,</p> +<p class="t2">A weary lot is thine;</p> +<p class="t0">To pull the thorn thy brow to braid,</p> +<p class="t2">And press the rue for wine.</p> +<p class="t0">A lightsome eye, a soldier's mien,</p> +<p class="t2">A feather of the blue,</p> +<p class="t0">A doublet of the Lincoln green,</p> +<p class="t2">No more of me you knew,</p> +<p class="t8">My love,</p> +<p class="t0">No more of me you knew."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Paul's hands turning the skeins paused, his eyes were on the girl's +face as, with a mixture of recklessness and regret, she went on--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"The morn is merry June, I trow,</p> +<p class="t2">The rose is budding fain,</p> +<p class="t0">But she shall bloom in winter snow</p> +<p class="t2">Ere we two meet again!</p> +<p class="t0">He turned his charger as he spake</p> +<p class="t2">Upon the river shore,</p> +<p class="t0">Said 'Adieu for evermore,</p> +<p class="t8">My love,</p> +<p class="t0">And adieu for evermore.'"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">"What a heartless, unromantic, roving wretch!" remarked Lady George, +in the pause which followed the refrain. "I hope he was jilted after +all by the heiress; there generally is an heiress in these cases." +Then, becoming aware of the possible indiscretion of her words, she +looked at her brother hurriedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In that case he married and lived happily ever afterwards; at least, +that is what I should have done in his case. And I don't think he was +so heartless, after all. He told the truth. It isn't as if he had +sneaked away without saying good-bye."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory rose from the piano with a little shrug of her shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I must say good-night, at any rate, Lady George, and sneak up to see +Mrs. Vane; for it is getting late, and you have all to be up so +early."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, standing at the door holding it open for her to pass through, +was the last of the group to whom she had to give the conventional +farewell.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good-bye," she said, feeling above her real regret a relief that this +was the end.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Auf-wieder-sehn</i>," he replied. That was what Tom had said. As she +ran upstairs to Mrs. Vane's room she was telling herself passionately +that she did not want to see Captain Macleod again--that she would +rather he went out of her life altogether, and cease to make her +wonder at his changeful moods.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Entrez</i>," said the soft voice to her knock, and the next moment she +felt herself in an atmosphere in which she had never been before. The +semi-darkness of the pink-shaded light, the littered dressing-table, +the soft perfume, the thousand and one evidences of an almost sensuous +ease were to her absolutely novel. And the small figure, nestling in +the armchair, so dainty in its laces and little velvet-shod feet. All +that meant something she had never grasped before, something which +attracted and yet repelled her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How pretty it is," she said, in sudden impulse, as her fingers +stroked one of the soft folds almost caressingly. Mrs. Vane's hand +went out swiftly, and drew hers closer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't, child! That does for me, not for you. So this is good-bye. You +are not sorry?" Her eyes scanned the girl's closely, and then she +smiled. "If you are, you will get over it soon. That is the best of +work. I often wish I had some--to make me forget myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you do work--you work harder than anyone I know, in a way. Why, +to-night we were quite dull; so dull without you! Everyone missed you; +and yet----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And yet? out with it, little one!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was wondering if it was worth it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! if you have a craze to be admired, as I have. But I didn't ask +you to come here in order to talk about myself. You would not +understand me if I did. Pray Heaven you never may. So you have said +good-bye to them all, and you are not sorry! That is well. Now, let me +wish you good luck, and give you a word of advice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Twenty, if you like."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Make the most of that luck--and <i>Alphonse</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean Dr. Kennedy?" asked the girl, stiffly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dr. Kennedy. There are not many like him in this world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I doubt if there are any. At least, I have not met them," she +replied, with a quick flush of impatience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad to hear you say that. Good-bye, my dear, and forget us all +as soon as you can."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall remember your kindness--for you have been kind--all of you. +Good-bye."</p> + +<p class="normal">When the door had closed, Mrs. Vane leant back in her chair with a +sigh of relief. That was over then, and, so far as she could judge, +without harm to the girl. And now--now she could face the other +problem. Perhaps there need be no harm there, either, but she must +think--she must think. So in the softness, and the dimness, and the +luxury, her face grew more anxious, more weary, until the memory of +Marjory's words came back to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it worth it all? Whether it was worth it or not did not matter; +the plotting and planning had become a second nature to her--she must +think--she must think!</p> + +<p class="normal">And Marjory, passing out into the calm cool of the night, gave a sigh +of relief also. It was over; that strange life, so different from the +future one which lay before her. Was she sorry? Yes! a little. No one +could know Paul Macleod and not feel a regret at the thought of his +future. Yet she was glad it was over despite that queer sort of numb +pain at her heart at the thought of his unfailing kindness to her. And +now she would never see him again, never---- A red star showed low +down behind a turn in the rhododendrons, and a moment after Paul's +voice said easily, as he threw away his cigar:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have not been long."</p> + +<p class="normal">So it was not over! That was her first thought, and then came a quick +flutter at her heart. Over! was not it rather just beginning for +this--<i>this</i> was new. Her pride rose in arms against it instantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not expect--" she began almost haughtily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you not? That was rather foolish of you. You expected me to let +you walk home alone; but I think I know my duties; as a host, at any +rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was true. He did know them. There could not be two opinions as to +his considerate courtesy to all. She admitted the fact to herself +gladly, telling herself that it was quite natural he should see her +home, though the possibility of his doing so had not occurred to her. +Hitherto, of course, Tom had been with her; to-night she was alone. It +was the usual thing; yet not usual, surely, that they should be +walking fast through the darkness without a word, just as if they had +quarrelled. What was there to quarrel about? Nothing. Not his +engagement certainly, though he might think so if she kept silent on a +fact which no one had attempted to conceal. Hitherto she had had no +opportunity of alluding to it, but now there was no excuse. The merest +acquaintance would be expected to take such an opportunity of wishing +him good luck, unless--unless some personal motive prevented it. And +there was none. How could there be? since Paul was surely welcome to +do as he liked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet, for a time, the crunch of the gravel beneath their feet as they +walked on in silence was the only sound upon the cool night air. But +the glimmering white of the Lodge gate nerved her to the effort.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I want to congratulate you, Captain Macleod," she began, when he +interrupted her quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush! If there cannot be truth, don't let there be falsehood between +us."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was as if a thunderbolt had fallen, piercing her ignorance. She +stopped short, her pulses bounding to that strange new thrill in his +voice which seemed to make her forget her surprise, her indignation. +She had to steady her own tones ere she could reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There has been no falsehood on my part."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Has there not? Then there shall be none on mine. Marjory! I love you! +Nay! you shall listen----" His outstretched arm barred her quick +movement of disdain. "I shall not keep you long, but you must hear the +truth. I've loved you from the beginning--I love you now--I feel as if +I should love you always----"</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood there as if she had been turned to stone, listening, +listening, like a child to some fairy tale; and in the darkness a look +that had never been there before crept to her clear eyes, and a quiver +to her mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! I love you; not only as most men count love, so that the +touch of your hand thrills me, and the thought of your kisses is as +heaven---- Don't shrink from the truth--you must face it sometime--why +not now? It is so, and God knows it is no new thing to me. But this is +new--that you are my soul--if I have one--Marjory! Marjory! Why have +you made me feel like this?--why would you never see me as I really +am?--why would you always believe me better than I was?"</p> + +<p class="normal">His passionate questioning seemed to pass her by. She stood silent +till, in the darkness, he seized her hands and drew her closer to him, +peering into her face as if to read the answer there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For pity's sake don't look so kind, so sweet," he burst out +vehemently, for even in the faint starlight he could see something of +her eyes. "Tell me how vile I am--then I could go--then I could leave +you! Listen to me, Marjory--" his voice grew calmer, and a sort of +bitter entreaty came to its passionate anger--"I know quite well--I am +certain that my only chance of living what you hold to be a worthy +life lies with you, and yet I have renounced it--I do renounce it +without a shadow of remorse. Is not that enough? You are my better +self, my one hope of redemption, yet still I say, Adieu, my love, +adieu, for evermore!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And then the half-seen softness of her face seemed to madden him. +"Before God you <i>shall</i> see me as I am. You <i>shall</i> understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">His arms clasped her close, his reckless, passionate kiss was on her +lips, and then----</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he stood as it were before the tribunal which he had +invoked--that tribunal of perfect knowledge, of blinding truth, in +which alone lies the terror of judgment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory!" The whisper could scarcely be heard. "Marjory! is it true? +My God! is it true that you love me?" He still held her, but with a +touch which had changed utterly, and his tone was almost pitiful in +its appeal. "Marjory! why--why did I not know? Why did you hide +yourself from me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I did not know myself," she answered, and her voice had a +ring of pain in it; "how could I know? But it would have made no +difference--no difference to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The keenest reproach could not have hit him so hard as this +instinctive defence of her own ignorance, her own innocence; it +pierced the armour of his worldliness and went straight to that part +of his nature which, even at his worst, held fast to life in a sort of +veiled self-contempt.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are right; it would have made no difference, no difference to +such as I am." Then in the darkness he was at her feet kissing the hem +of her garment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Adieu, my love; adieu for evermore!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The next instant the sound of his retreating footsteps broke the +stillness, and she was alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alone, with a smile upon her face--a smile of infinite tenderness for +his manhood and for her own new-found womanhood, which tingled in each +vein and seemed to fill the whole world with the cry, "He loves me! he +loves me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">So this was Love. This unreasoning joy, this absorbing desire to hap +and to hold, to let all else slip by and be forgotten as nothing +worth; to live for oneself alone--oneself, since he and she were +one--one only!</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes; she loved him like that. And he? The memory of his voice, the +clasp of his hand, the touch of his lips came back to her in a rush, +dazing and bewildering her utterly, so that she stretched her arms +into the night and whispered into the darkness: "Paul, come back! you +must come back and tell me what it means. Paul! Paul!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But he was gone; and then the pity of it, the shame that he had left +her came home to her, not for herself, but for him, and with a little +short, sharp cry, such as will come with sudden physical pain, she +turned on her way tearless, composed, half stunned by her own emotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">When she had undressed she blew out the candle, and, kneeling by the +window, pressed her forehead against the cool glass while she gazed +unseeingly into the night.</p> + +<p class="normal">So this was Love!--the Love which the poets called divine--the Love to +which she had looked forward all her life. What did it mean? What was +it, this feeling which had come to her unbidden, unrecognised? For now +with opened eyes she understood that it had been there almost from the +beginning; that it had been the cause of all her moods and his. The +curious attraction and repulsion, the unrest, the desire to influence +him. Ought she to have known this sooner? Perhaps; and yet, how could +she when neither her own nature or her education had given her a hint +of this thing? The Love she had dreamed of had been a thing of the +mind, of conscious choice, and this was not. No! best to tell the +truth--it was not!</p> + +<p class="normal">As she knelt there, alone in her ignorance, not so much of evil as of +the realities of life, she could yet see that this unreasoning +attraction--though with her it could not but be indissolubly mixed up +with something higher, something nobler than itself; something which +craved a like nobility in its object--was yet in its very essence of +the earth earthy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without that something what was it?</p> + +<p class="normal">She was clear sighted was this girl, whose reasoning powers had been +trained to be truthful; so she did not attempt to deny that Paul +Macleod was not her ideal of what a man should be. That her whole soul +went out in one desire that he should be so, and in a tender longing +to help him, to comfort and console him, did not alter the fact. That +desire, that longing, was apart from this bewildering emotion which +filled the world with the cry, "He loves me! He loves me!" She loved +him as he was; not as he ought to be.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he was! And then her eyes seemed to come back from the darkness and +find a light as she remembered those words of his: "It is not only as +if I loved you as men count love."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he, too, understood--he, too, was torn in twain. A sense of +companionship seemed to come to her; she rose from her knees and crept +to bed. And as she lay awake the slow tears fell on her pillow. So +this was Love! this bitter pain, this keener joy; but underneath his +stress of passion, and her fainter reflection of it, lay something +which might bring peace if he would let it, and the thought of this +made her whisper softly:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul, I love you. Come back to me, Paul, and we will forget our +love."</p> + +<p class="normal">But up at the Big House he was cursing his own folly in yielding to +the temptation of seeing Marjory home. Yet what had come over him? He, +who for the most part behaved with some regard to gentlemanly +instincts. What had he done? The memory of it, seen by the light of +his knowledge of evil, filled him with shame. Well! that finished it. +When she had time to think she would never forgive him. She would +understand, and that look would fade from her face--that look +which---- But she was right! Even if he had seen it before, it would +have made no difference; he would have gone on his way all the same. +Why had he ever seen it to give him needless pain, and be a miserable +memory? The only thing was to forget it--to forget, not the love which +thrilled him--that, Heaven knows, could be easily forgotten--but that +other! Yes! he must forget it. That was the only thing to be done now.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_23" href="#div1Ref_23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Luckily, perhaps, for his determination to forget, a variety of causes +combined to give Paul Macleod breathing space before he had, as it +were, to take up the burden of his engagement with Alice Woodward. To +begin with, he had to pay a visit on the way south, and the delights +of really good partridge shooting are of a distinctly soothing nature. +There is something fat and calm and comfortable about the stubbles +and turnip fields which makes one think kindly of county magistrates +and quarter sessions, of growing stout, and laying down bins of port +wine. A very different affair this from cresting the brow of a +heather-covered hill, with a wild wind from the west scattering the +coveys like bunches of brown feathers, while the next brae rises +purple before you, and another--and another--and another! Up and up, +with a strain and an effort, yet with the pulse of life beating its +strongest.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, when the North mail finally set him down at Euston, the +Woodwards had gone to Brighton; and there was that going on in the +artistic little house in Brutonstreet, which would have made it unkind +for him to leave town and follow them, even if his own inclination had +not been to stay and see what the days brought forth. For Blasius was +ill, dangerously ill, and Lord George was a piteous sight as he +wandered aimlessly down to the Foreign Office, and, after a vain +effort to remain at work, wandered home again with the eager question +on his lips, "Is there any change?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But there was none. The child, after the manner of his sturdy kind, +took the disease as hardly as it could be taken, and then fought +against it as gamely. So the little life hung in the balance, till +there came a day when the pretence of the Foreign Office was set +aside, and Lord George sate in the nursery with his little son in his +arms, an unconscious burden in the red flannel dressing-gown, which +somehow seemed connected with so much of Blazes' short life. Blanche, +almost worn out, stood by the open window holding Paul's hand--Paul, +who was always so sympathetic, so kindly when one was in trouble. So +they waited to see whether the child would choose life or death; while +outside the people were picking their way gingerly through the mingled +sunshine and shade of a thunder shower. It was so silent that you +could hear the clock on the stairs ticking above the faint patter on +the window-pane, almost hear the splash of the slow tear-drop which +trickled down Lord George's cheek, and fell on Blazes' closed hand. +And then, suddenly, a pair of languid eyes opened, and the little +voice, mellow still, despite its weakness, said quietly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ith's waining. Blazeth wants a wumberwella."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the days following, if Blazes had wanted the moon, Lord George +would have entered into diplomatic relations with the man in it, +regarding a cession of territory; but the child, according to the +doctors, wanted sea air more than anything else. So, naturally enough, +they all migrated to Brighton, and, though he did not realise it, the +general sense of relief and contentment pervading the whole party did +much to make Paul Macleod feel the shackles bearable. Then Mrs. +Woodward and Alice were at one of the big hotels, the Temples were in +lodgings, while he, himself, had rooms at a golfing club, to which he +belonged; an arrangement which gave everyone a certain freedom. +Finally, as Paul discovered on the very first day, Alice showed much +more to advantage on the parade, or riding over the downs, or putting +on the green, than she had ever done at Gleneira.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes!" she said gaily, "I am a regular cockney at heart. I love +the pavements, and I hate uncivilised ways. I know when Blanche told +me she had to see the sheep cut up at Gleneira, I made a mental note +that I wouldn't. I couldn't, for I hate the sight of raw meat."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You bear the butchers' shops with tolerable equanimity," returned her +lover, who hardly liked her constant allusions to Highland barbarism; +"as a matter of fact, raw meat intrudes itself more on your notice in +town than it ever does in the country."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps; but then the sheep with the flowery pattern down their backs +don't look like sheep, and as for the beef, why, you can't connect the +joints with any part of the animal. At least, I can't, and I don't +believe you can, either. Now what part of the beast is an aitchbone?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul set the question aside by proposing a canter, and by the time +that was over he was quite ready to be sentimental; for Alice looked +well on horseback in a sort of willowy, graceful fashion, which made +the pastime seem superabundantly feminine.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, the subject had a knack of cropping up again and again; and +once, when she had excused herself for some aspersion by saying, +good-naturedly, that it was a mere matter of association, and that she +was of the cat kind, liking those things to which she was accustomed, +he had taken her up short by saying she would have to get accustomed +to Gleneira.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shall I?" she asked. "Somehow, I don't think we shall live there very +much. It is nice enough for six weeks' shooting; but, even then, the +damp spotted some of my dresses."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are getting plenty of new ones at any rate," retorted Paul, for +the room was littered with <i>chiffons</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">She raised her pretty eyebrows. "Oh, these are only patterns. I always +send for them when I'm away from town. It is almost as good as +shopping. But I don't mean to buy much now. I shall wait for the +winter sales. They are such fun, and I like getting my money's +worth--though, of course, father gives me as much as I want. Still, a +bargain is a bargain, isn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul acquiesced, but the conversation rankled in his mind. To begin +with, it gave him an insight into a certain <i>bourgeoise</i> strain in the +young lady's nature, and though he told himself that nothing else was +to be expected from Mr. Woodward's daughter--who derived her chief +charm from the fact that her father <i>had</i> made bargains and got his +money's worth--that did not make its presence any more desirable. And +then he could not escape the reflection that <i>he</i> was a bargain, and +that the whole family into which he was marrying would make a point of +having their money's worth.</p> + +<p class="normal">He would have realised this still more clearly if he could have seen +one of the daily letters which Mrs. Woodward, with praiseworthy +regularity, wrote to her lord and master in London, for it is a sort +of shibboleth of the married state that those in it should write to +each other every day whether they have anything to say or not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alice," she wrote, "is so sensible and seems quite content. At one +time I feared a slight entanglement with Jack, but Lady George has +been most kind and taken her to all the best places, which is, of +course, what we have a right to expect. By the way, there is an Irish +member here--O'Flanagin, or something like that--and he declares the +Land League will spread to the West Highlands. So you must be sure and +tie up the money securely, as it does not seem quite a safe +investment."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward, on receiving this missive, swore audibly, asserting that +the devil might take him if he knew of any investment which could be +called safe in the present unsettled state of the markets! For his +visit to Gleneira, where, as he angrily put it, telegrams came +occasionally and the post never--had somehow been the beginning of one +of those streaks of real ill-luck which defy the speculator. The +result being that Mr. Woodward generally left his office in the city +poorer by some thousands than he had entered it in the morning, and +though he knew his own fortune to be beyond the risk of actual +poverty, it altered his outlook upon life, and threatened his credit +as a successful financier.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor did it threaten his alone; there were uncomfortable rumours of +disaster in the air, which, in course of time, came to Lady George's +ears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do hope Mr. Woodward is not mixed up in it," she said to Paul, as +she sate working bilious-looking sunflowers on a faded bit of stuff +for the Highland bazaar; "but he was a little <i>distrait</i> when he came +down last Sunday, and he didn't eat any dinner to speak of--we dined +with them, you remember."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps I gave him too good a lunch at the club," replied her +brother, jocosely; "besides, he wouldn't let a few losses spoil his +appetite. He is well secured, and then he could always fall back on +his share in the soap-boiling business."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was not thinking of him, Paul, I was thinking of you. You could not +boil soap."</p> + +<p class="normal">The fact was indubitable, and though her brother laughed, he felt +vaguely that there were two sides to a bargain, and when his sister +began on the subject again, he met her hints with a frown.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am perfectly aware," he said, "that Patagonians are dangerous, and +Mr. Woodward knows it as well as I do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he was nicked--that is how that city man I met at dinner last +night put it--he was nicked in Atalantas also."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you had asked me, Blanche, instead of inquiring from strangers, as +you seem to have done," interrupted her brother, with great heat, "I +could have told you he was nicked, as you choose to call it, +heavily--very heavily. He has been unlucky of late. He admits it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good heavens, Paul! what are you going to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing. He is quite capable of managing his own affairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't pretend to be stupid, Paul! I mean your engagement."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What has business to do with that?" he asked, quickly taking the high +hand; but Lady George was his match there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Everything, unless you have fallen in love with her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Home thrusts of this sort are, however, unwise, since they rouse the +meanest antagonist to resistance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have it so if you will. I am quite ready to admit that love has +nothing to do with business. Honour has. I am engaged to Miss +Woodward, and that is enough for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Lady George shrugged her shoulders. There was a manly dogmatism about +his manner which was simply unbearable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear boy," she said, "if a man begins to talk about honour it is +time for a woman to beat a retreat. Since you have such strict notions +on the subject, I presume you have explained to Mr. Woodward the exact +state of affairs at Gleneira? The estate overburdened, and not a penny +of ready money to be had except by sale."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I really can't discuss the subject with you, Blanche. Women never +understand a man's code of honour on these points; and they never +understand business."</p> + +<p class="normal">She crushed down an obvious retort in favour of peace, for she was +genuinely alarmed. So much so, that the moment she returned to town +she went to see Mrs. Vane, thinking it more than likely that Paul +might have confided something to her. She was just the sort of little +woman in whom men did confide, and Paul was perfectly silly about her, +though, of course, she was a very charming little woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, Mrs. Vane had heard the rumours of Mr. Woodward's losses before, +and heard them with a glad heart, since the possibility of having to +use those letters which were locked up in her dressing-case weighed +upon her. But she had not heard them from Paul; had not seen him, in +fact, as she had only returned from the country two days before, and +had since been ill with fever.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless, the very next afternoon, in obedience to a little note +left at his club, Paul walked into her flower-decked drawing-room and +gave an exclamation of surprise and concern at the white face and +figure on the sofa.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have been ill," he said quickly; "why didn't you let me know +before?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only a go of fever; and I've danced all night long--some of the +dances with you, Paul--when I had a worse bout, and no one found me +out. Let me make you a cup of tea."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please not. I'll take one. Yes! I remember; that was our regimental +ball, and there were so few ladies; you never spared yourself, Violet, +never knew how to take care of yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps not. I must pay someone to do it, I suppose, like other old +women; for all my friends are deserting me. Two married last month, +and I hear from Mrs. Woodward that your wedding-day is fixed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was not aware of it," he replied, with a frown; "but if it were, I +fail to see why I should desert--my friends."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane laughed. "My dear Paul! you are something of a man of the +world; did you ever know of anyone like you keeping up a friendship +with anybody like me after his marriage? I mean out of the pages of a +French novel. Certainly not; and I am quite resigned to the prospect. +I suffered the blow in a minor degree when you left India. Besides, I +should not anyhow see much of you if you lived at Gleneira; and you +will have to do so, won't you, till Mr. Woodward recovers himself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul stirred his tea moodily. "So you have heard, too," he said +distastefully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Everybody has heard, of course. Such things are a godsend at this +time of the year. Lady Dorset was quite pathetic over your bad luck +yesterday, but I told her no one would think the <i>worse</i> of you or +Miss Woodward if you were to think <i>better</i> of it, since poverty--even +comparative poverty--would suit neither of you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The spirited pose of her head, as she spoke, the bold challenge of her +tone, were admirable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You said that! Would you have me break my word because my promised +wife had a few pounds less than I expected?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She laughed again. "How lofty you are, Paul! You caught that trick +from Marjory Carmichael. By the way, I heard from her to-day--she +comes up to town soon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I believe." His heart gave a throb at the sound of her name, but +he would not confess it, even to himself. "Excuse me if I hark back to +the other subject. I should like to hear what you have to say on it. +Women have such curious notions of honour, at least, Blanche----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"So Lady George has been taking you to task, has she? That was very +unwise of her. For my part I have no opinion. I never liked the +engagement, as you know; I like it still less now, when, if tales be +true, Mr. Woodward will not be able to make his daughter so handsome +an allowance as--as you expected. But they may not be true."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no reason why I should not tell you that they are true. The +allowance will be about a quarter of what was intended. Mr. Woodward +spoke to me to-day about it, hinting that it might make a difference; +but, of course, I cut him short."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course." There was a fine smile for an instant on her face ere she +went on. "Still, he was right, it does make a difference."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Undoubtedly it makes a difference," echoed Paul, testily. "No one +knows that better than I do. But that is no reason why I should back +out of my word. We shall have to vegetate at Gleneira, I suppose, or +live in a villa somewhere----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My poor Paul, how funny you are!" she interrupted, taking up a letter +which had been lying beside her, and giving it a little flourish. +"That is just what you could have done--with someone else! So you will +do for a girl you do not love, what you would not do for one--but it +is really too funny! One half of you being unable to exist without +love, the other without money, you cut the Gordian knot by +experimenting on life without either! Now, I should have tried to +secure both--you might have managed that, I think." She paused a +moment, and then went on. "As it is, my friend is not unwilling to +play the hero, to a limited extent, because it soothes him and makes +him feel less mercenary. Ah! my dear Paul, I understand. Only, might +it not be more heroic and less mercenary to give Miss Woodward a +chance of something more to her taste than a villa somewhere?--plus, +of course, the heroic husband! She may not like heroics; some of us +don't. You must be prepared for that."</p> + +<p class="normal">The gentle raillery of her tone had a touch of seriousness in it which +seemed to throw a new light on his view of the subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean that it is likely----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. I think it extremely likely that the Woodwards would rather +break it off."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why?" he asked, angrily rising to pace the room; "my prospects +have not changed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'They twain shall be one flesh,'" quoted Mrs. Vane, lightly. "And do +you really think so much of your heroism, that--unaided by love, +remember--you will fancy it will compensate Alice Woodward, who +loves the pavement, for the damp and dulness of Gleneira? I remember, +Paul"--her voice grew a trifle unsteady--"having to decide a similar +question, once. To decide whether I could compensate the man I loved +for something--well, for something which was not more dear to him than +civilisation is to this young lady, and, though I loved him, I knew I +could not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And--and were you right?" he asked with a sudden interest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course I was right. He recovered the loss of me rapidly, and yet I +am not unattractive--what is more, I am generally considered good +company, which I defy anyone to be if he careers up and down the room +like a Polar bear. Please sit down and let me make you a nice cup of +tea. The last, I am sure, must have been horrid. You don't know how to +take care of yourself a bit, Paul, but <i>you</i> are lucky. <i>You</i> will get +plenty of people to pay for the privilege of doing so."</p> + +<p class="normal">He told himself that she talked a great deal of nonsense at times, but +that she did it, as she did everything else, with infinite verve and +grace. Blanche, who had not said half as much, had made him angry; and +here he was seated beside Violet's sofa, enjoying his tea, and feeling +that sense of <i>bien être</i> which he always felt in her company.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet even she might have failed in producing this for once, if he could +have overheard a conversation which was going on over another cup of +tea in Queen's Gardens, where Mrs. Woodward, with a real frown on her +usually placid face, was listening to her husband's account of his +interview with Paul that morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very honourable, no doubt, but exceedingly unsatisfactory," she +remarked, with asperity. "I must say that I think you failed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you wish me to give the man his <i>congé</i>, my dear?" interrupted +her spouse, irritably. "If so, you should have told me so distinctly, +but if it comes to that I can write and dismiss him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have such a crude way of putting things, James, and though I +don't presume to understand business affairs I must own it seems +inexplicable how these difficulties have come about. And Alice is so +accustomed to civilisation, and Jack is coming back from Riga next +week, so it does seem to me a flying in the face of Providence."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward looked at her in impatient amaze. "Good heavens! Maria, +what do you mean? Who or what is flying in the face of Providence?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Everyone! Everything! It seems as if he had been away on purpose, so +that there should be no fuss. And they have always been so fond of +each other. Alice would be miserable if she had to think about money; +so why should she be sacrificed to Captain Macleod's notions of +honour----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear!----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, James! Sacrificed! You say you told him plainly the state of the +case, and he----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Behaved as a gentleman would. Expressed sorrow at my losses, but gave +me to understand that it would make no difference to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And to Alice? He never gave a thought to her, I suppose; but you men +are all alike--selfish to the core."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really, my dear," protested Mr. Woodward, roused by this general +attack.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, <i>you</i> are selfish. Are you not sitting there calmly proposing +to sacrifice Alice to an adventurer--a principled adventurer if you +like, though that is a miserable attempt to--what was it you used to +call guaranteed stock?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A disastrous attempt to combine safety and speculation," suggested +her husband, meekly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so! and this is a disastrous attempt to combine common sense and +romance. But I will not have Alice sacrificed. I will speak to the man +myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You shall do nothing of the sort, my dear. If necessary, I can do it; +but there is no hurry."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It must be settled before next week, unless you want a fuss; I tell +you that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It shall be settled; but I must talk to Alice first. It is surely +possible she may be in love with the man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Woodward shook her head wisely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why, in heaven's name, Maria? He is handsome--gentlemanly--well +born. Why should she not love him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because she is in love with Jack."</p> + +<p class="normal">"God bless my soul!"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_24" href="#div1Ref_24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When Paul Macleod left Mrs. Vane's drawing-room that afternoon she +told herself that she could, for once, afford to sit with folded hands +and let the world go its own way for a time. Everything seemed working +for her, so there was no need for her to work for herself. The +question of those letters could very well wait for a time. For all she +knew to the contrary, the lawyers might have similar proof of little +Paul's legitimacy; if they had not, why they ought to have. Unless, +indeed, that marriage certificate had nothing to do with the boy at +all. That in itself was conceivable with such a woman as Jeanie Duncan +must have been. Anyhow, for the present, the child was in comfortable +circumstances, since Dr. Kennedy had taken him in charge, and, as +Marjory mentioned in her letter, he was to come to London and become a +scholar at her school. The first thing was to see this foolish, +ridiculous engagement broken off, and then if the big Paul were wise, +and realised that both love and money were at his command, it might be +possible to tell him the truth. But under no other circumstances, +since none could console him as she could for the loss of Gleneira. +Therefore, for the sake of everybody concerned, the best thing that +could happen was that she should be Paul's wife. A great tenderness +showed in her face at the very thought. "Poor Paul," she said half +aloud; "he would be quite happy with me, quite content, and I, oh! +surely I deserve something after all these years? I am getting tired +of doing everything for people I do not care about, as I have done all +my life long."</p> + +<p class="normal">And it was true. In all the trivial details of life she was as +thoroughly unselfish a woman as ever stepped, ready at a moment's +notice to weary herself out for the sake of making the world more +pleasant to others.</p> + +<p class="normal">So those letters should remain locked up, perhaps for ever. In sober +truth she could scarcely imagine herself using them. Their +melodramatic force was so unlike the gentle spiriting by which she +usually effected her object; and though she could never recall the +night of poor old Peggy's death without a shudder, her sound common +sense told her that after all in advising the old woman not to open +the lawyer's letter, she had done so in ignorance. She had acted, as +she thought, for the best, and everybody was liable to make mistakes.</p> + +<p class="normal">So much for the one party to the interview; the other, once the spell +of Mrs. Vane's personality was removed, felt vaguely that matters were +becoming uncomfortable. It had never occurred to him before that <i>he</i> +ran the chance of being jilted, and the bare idea filled him with +indignation; and yet he saw the justice of Mrs. Vane's remarks. He was +not a good match for a girl who wished for nothing better than to +remain in that state of social comfort to which it had pleased +Providence to call her. But, if this were so, it would be better to +save his dignity by broaching the possibility himself. Anything was +better than being dismissed like a footman. He was never long in +deciding a question of this sort, yet, quick as he was, he found +himself not a moment too soon, for when he walked round to see Mr. +Woodward next morning, before that gentleman went down to office, he +found him in the act of writing a note asking him to call.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The fact is, Macleod," said the elder man, a little nervously, "I +wanted to continue our talk about your engagement to my daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul flushed up, but took the bull by the horns without a moment's +hesitation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I came for that purpose, sir. It has occurred to me that I have +somewhat overlooked Miss Woodward's side of the question, and I shall +be infinitely obliged if you would treat me with perfect frankness in +regard to what you, no doubt, know better than I."</p> + +<p class="normal">The dignity of this speech soothed him, and he awaited the reply with +tolerable equanimity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very straightforward--very straightforward on your part, Macleod," +said the man of business, approvingly. "One can scarcely be too +careful in regard--er--in regard to such contracts; and your remark +makes me regret more than ever--my--my duty. For you really have been +all that is--all our fancy painted you, I may say. But that does not +alter the fact that I am now a comparatively poor man. Of course, I +may, I very probably shall, recoup. At the same time it is not the +sort of security for--for--marriage settlements and trustees; you +understand me, of course. Now, what we have to face is this: Do you +think my daughter is suited to be the wife of a poor man--even a +possibly poor man? I don't. And, then, would she be content if she had +to live most of the year at Gleneira, away from society and--and +telegraph posts--I mean posts and telegraphs? It's a pretty +place, Macleod, and an interesting place--with--with a sort +of--er--<i>respectability</i> about it, but it is a devilish bit out of the +way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps; but I would do my best to make your daughter forget that," +said Paul, gloomily; the sense of being weighed in the balance and +found wanting--he, Paul Macleod, whom so many women had fancied--was +exquisitely painful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Woodward blew his nose elaborately. "Just so; of course, of +course! Very right and proper; very much so, indeed; only, my dear +Macleod, marriage, after all, is a speculation, and I don't like to +see my girl putting her capital into a concern which hasn't even a +good prospectus. How many shareholders would even my name produce, if +all we could say of a new railway was that, though the chances +were dead against traffic, we would do our best to ensure it? Of +course--er--if you were violently attached to each other one might +allow something for the--er--the good-will of the business. Under +those circumstances, I am led to believe--though I know nothing about +it myself--that young people are content to live--er--on a +ridiculously small income. My own impression is, however, that Alice +is not that sort of girl; but, of course, I may be mistaken."</p> + +<p class="normal">"In that case," put in Paul, loftily, "it would be best to refer to +Alice herself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Exactly what we--I mean--er--decidedly. You two can settle it for +yourselves. Her mother and I have no wish to interfere unnecessarily. +That, I think you will own, is fair dealing, though, of course, as a +business man I have felt it my duty to warn her against risking what +is virtually her all in a concern which, to put it briefly, has an +unpromising prospectus. And, if you will allow me, I will give you the +same advice."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a pompous warmth in his shake of the hand, but as he +accompanied his visitor to the door his tone changed to a confidential +whisper:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You see it isn't as if it were a limited liability, but the Lord only +knows how many children you might have."</p> + +<p class="normal">Paul, as he made his way to the little boudoir where Alice frittered +away so much of her time over <i>chiffons</i> and picture papers, felt that +he was being pursued by a Nemesis of his own creating. He had entered +into this engagement by the light of reason, in obedience to the +dictates of sound common sense, and it seemed likely that he would be +driven from it by the same means. He found her, for a wonder, busy +with needle and thread, and though the subject of it was only the +stitching of tinsel round some remarkably large velvet leaves pasted +on satin, it gave her a more solid air than she usually had. That, and +a brighter flush upon her cheek, told him that he was expected, and +forewarned him of her decision. Indeed, he felt that words were really +unnecessary, and that he might just as well have turned round and gone +downstairs again, leaving her white fingers busy with the gold thread. +But there was a certain strain of savagery in Paul Macleod, as there +is in most men when their dignity is touched, and he resolved to go +through with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have just seen your father," he began, "and now I have come to +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She might have been excused for turning a little pale and letting her +work drop, for his tone was not reassuring. He saw her dread of a +scene, and gave a faint laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no need to be afraid, Alice. I have never made myself +disagreeable to you yet, and I am not likely to begin now, when I have +come to ask you plainly whether you could be happy with me? Could +you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She clasped and unclasped her hands quite nervously. "I am ready to +try--if you like--if you think I ought to."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That has nothing to do with it. Put me out of the question, please. +Of course, it is always painful for a man to know that a woman does +not care for him sufficiently----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not that," she broke in hurriedly. "I would not have promised +if I had not liked you--it is the dulness, and the poverty. I have +never been accustomed to it, and I might not be contented, and then +how could I be a good wife if I were not happy? It is not as if there +would be distractions, but there would be none, and I don't like the +country as some girls do--Marjory Carmichael, for instance."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at her sharply, but her eyes met his without any hidden +meaning in them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She would not be dull, but I should, and then how could I cheer you +up? For you need cheering at Gleneira--you know you do."</p> + +<p class="normal">The truth irritated him. "From which I infer that you would rather be +free. Well! you have only to take me or leave me," he said curtly.</p> + +<p class="normal">She caught in her breath, and, as usual, the display of temper made +her piteous. "Don't be angry, Paul! There is nothing to be angry +about. If you wish it, I will try; but we can always be friends, and +if it is wiser to part, then it is wiser."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is for you to decide. I am at your orders." He stood there +looking very handsome, and she gave a sigh of indecision, though a +certain resentment at being, as it were, thrust into the breach, came +to her aid.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you think it wiser?" he repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How can I tell? All I want to do is my duty, and I am afraid----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If you are afraid, that is enough," he said, losing patience. +"Good-bye, Alice; if you had decided otherwise I would have tried to +be a good husband to you."</p> + +<p class="normal">A faint flush came to her cheek. "And I would have tried to be a good +wife; but----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't you think that with you trying to be a good husband +and I trying to be a good wife, life would have been a little +dreary--sometimes?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The curse of home truths seemed in the air, and Paul felt he had no +answer ready, and yet he liked her the better for the first touch of +sarcasm he had ever heard from her lips. It reminded him of Mrs. Vane.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he shook hands with her, the servant entering announced Mr. John +Woodward, and Paul, going downstairs, met a big, florid young man +coming up with a gardenia in his buttonhole, and a parcel tied with +gold thread in his hands. It was a box of Paris chocolates which Jack +had purchased on his way from Riga. The two scowled at each other as +they passed, after the manner of Englishmen who have never been +introduced, and Paul, as he put on his hat, felt a sudden insane +desire to go up again, and tell Alice that he had changed his mind. +And yet, as he walked aimlessly through the Park, and so northward +into the streets beyond, the certainty that life had been changed in +the twinkling of an eye came slowly to him, and as it did he scarcely +knew whither to turn for a little solid self-esteem. Of late he had +been nurturing his own magnanimity, and, as Mrs. Vane had told him to +his face, the fact that Alice Woodward's fortune was for the time +diminished, and in the future uncertain, had not been without its +consolation. It prevented him from feeling that people knew, to a +fraction, what price he had put upon himself. And now, though he was, +as it were, a "genuine reduction," he had been rejected! Rejected! the +thought was intolerable. Even the memory of Marjory, and the look in +her eyes which he had seen that last night, brought him cold comfort, +for he told himself that, even if he had wished to do so, he could +never go to her and say he had been jilted; yet he would not tell her +a lie.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he did not want to seek consolation from Marjory; after all, it +had only been the old story of a passing fancy fostered by romantic +surroundings. Since he had left Gleneira he had scarcely thought of +her, and for himself would have been quite content to fulfil his +engagement. Therein, to tell truth, lay the whole sting of the +position.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he wandered on until he found himself in Regent's Park, and then, +with that idle distaste to some decisive action which a return +clubwards would necessitate, in the Zoölogical Gardens. It was years +since he had been there of a morning without a band and a crowd. Years +since he had brought papers of nuts and biscuits, and given them to +the bears. But now he was free--yes! that was one comfort! he was free +to do as he liked, so he watched the Polar bear--which made him smile +at the recollection of Mrs. Vane's sally--and found a certain dreamy +pleasure in strolling round by the antelopes and recognising beasts +the like of which he had shot in strange climes. There is always some +satisfaction to be got from bygone prowess in sport, and, as he +finally found himself leaning over the railings of a tank where a pair +of dippers were bobbing about, he had in a measure forgotten the +present in the past.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, as he watched the birds indifferently, a sleek round head slid +suddenly, oilily from the water, and a pair of wistful brown eyes +looked into his.</p> + +<p class="normal">The card affixed to the railings only bore the legend:</p> + +<p class="center" style="font-size:90%">"<i>Phoca vitulina</i>;<br> +or, Common Seal."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet no magician's wand could have been more powerful in +transformation--say, rather translation--than the sight of the +creature so designated was to Paul Macleod. In the twinkling of an eye +the London haze--that condensed essence of millions of men, women, and +children, struggling confusedly for breath--had passed from him, and +he was in a new heaven and a new earth. A boat was rocking idly on the +summer sea, the blue clouds were sailing overhead, the world, its ways +and works, were beyond the rampart of encircling hills, while a girl, +with clear bright eyes, leant against the rudder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why didn't you shoot, Captain Macleod?" He could hear the odd little +tremor in her voice, as she gave the challenge, and feel the dim +surprise of his own answer: "I never thought of it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, with a rush, the one side of his nature challenged the other. +Why--why had he done these things? Why had he given up paradise? Had +he not been happy? In very truth, had he even thought of the world and +its ways, of himself and his instincts, when he was beside her? Yet, +what a return had he not made to this girl who had taught him to +forget these things. Had he not in a way taught her to know them? Had +he not roused in her something, blameless enough, God knows! in its +way, beautiful enough, though of the earth earthy, compared to that +other strange comradeship, in which there seemed no possibility of +passion, no sense of sex. In truth, he had taught her to love him as +women and men will love to the end of all things. Taught her, and left +her to face it alone--as he had left Jeanie Duncan long years ago.</p> + +<p class="normal">The unbidden remembrance brought a new shame with it for that old +offence, even while it intensified the sudden remorse he felt for the +present one; since Jeanie, in all her sweet maidenhood, had never +seemed so hedged about from evil as this Brynhild, whose very +womanhood had been hidden beneath her glittering armour of mail. That +he should have thought these things showed the strain of romance, the +touch of mysticism, which was in him by right of his race, and though, +as ever, he chafed against these things, he could not escape from +them, or from the self-contempt which took possession of him. Ever +since the night when he had said good-bye, as he had boasted, to the +best part of him, there had been something to prevent his realising +the extent of his degradation. First, the relief of certainty, +bringing with it a very real content; then, the anxiety for the child, +bringing out all the kindliness of his nature--finally, the knowledge +that he was not, after all, so mercenary. But now he was defenceless +against his own worldliness, against the memory of his wanton insult +to Marjory--for it was an insult, nothing less.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he wandered moodily back into the town, back to face his world and +its comments, it seemed to him as if there were not a rag anywhere +wherewith to cover his wounded self-esteem. One thing he could do: he +could go down and ask Marjory to marry him. He owed her so much. She +would refuse him, of course, since she was not the sort to care for +other folks' rejections; and he knew, by long experience, how keenly +such love as he had seen in her eyes resented neglect, how quick it +was in changing to repulsion if the pride were outraged.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes! he would go down to Gleneira and regain some of his belief in +himself by giving Marjory her revenge. Then he would go abroad and +shoot lions, or do something of that sort. Everyone would know he had +been jilted, so he might as well play the part to the bitter end, and +behave as a man ought to behave who has had a disappointment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile he might as well go and see Violet, and congratulate her on +her acumen. He might even go so far as to tell her that, taking her +words to heart, he was about to propose poverty to the girl he loved, +as he had proposed it to the girl he had not loved. She, of course, +not knowing of that wanton insult, would not understand how idle a +proposition it would be; but she liked to be thought clever--liked to +be at the bottom of everything.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he was not exactly in an amiable or easily managed mood as he +followed the servant upstairs at Mrs. Vane's house. And, as luck would +have it, he came at a time when she herself was too disturbed to have +the cool head and steady nerve necessary to steer him into the haven +where she would have him. Yet it was a trifling thing which had upset +her: merely the certainty that little Paul Duncan would not get a +penny of his grandmother's money. There it was in black and white, set +down in the wills and bequests column of the <i>Illustrated London +News</i>. Now, the difference between keeping a boy with a hundred +thousand pounds from possibly inheriting some acres of heavily +mortgaged bog and heather, and keeping a nameless, penniless waif from +a name and some hundreds a year was palpable. She was no hardened +criminal, and for the first time she found herself really facing the +question: "Am I to do this thing, or am I not to do it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Should she put those letters in the fire and say no more about them, +or should she tell the truth?</p> + +<p class="normal">Though she knew its contents almost by heart, she took the slender +packet out once more and looked doubtfully at the marriage +certificate.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Captain Macleod," said the servant at the door, for Paul was a +privileged visitor, with the <i>entrée</i> at all times to Mrs. Vane's +little sitting-room. She had barely time to thrust the paper under a +book ere he was beside her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How you startled me!" she said, with a nervous laugh, as she took his +hand. "I did not expect you to-day; you were here yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I came to inquire for your fever," he replied a trifle coldly. "You +have it again, I see--and feel. You should be in bed as it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">He wheeled the armchair to the fire, brought a cushion from the sofa, +and waited, holding it in his hand to settle it comfortably for her as +she sate down.</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave an odd little sort of choke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a coddle you are, Paul! There is nothing really the matter with +me. I grow old, that is all; I grow old." It was not a good beginning +for an interview in which she would need all her self-control, all her +common sense; and had the letter been within reach at that moment it +would have received scant justice at her hands, for nothing in the +wide world seemed worth consideration save this man with his kind ways +and soft voice. He, at any rate, must not suffer.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_25" href="#div1Ref_25">CHAPTER XXV.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The room was growing dusk. That pleasant duskiness which obliterates +corners and seems to concentrate comfort on the flame-lit circle by +the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a good nurse you are, Paul," she said, with an effort after her +usual airiness. "The woman you marry will be lucky."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad someone thinks so," he remarked briefly, "for there does not +seem to be much competition----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul!" she interrupted, with a sudden flutter at her heart. "Do you +mean----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! you were right, as usual, if that is any comfort to you. I have +got my dismissal. Does that satisfy you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him frankly. "It does. You do not like it, of course, +but I cannot be sorry. She was never good enough for you, even when +she was rich, and when she was poor----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't let us discuss it, please. The thing is over; and what with +those who are too good and those who are not good enough I seem to +have made a muddle of it. By the way, I suppose Miss Carmichael is +still at Gleneira?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly--but--but why? I fail to see the connection." It was not +true; she saw it clearly enough, and her voice showed it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only because I am going down there to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To burn your wings again?--that is foolish!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no wings to burn; but I am going to ask her to marry me--to +face the villa with me, as you put it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Vane started from her pillow with fear, surprise, dislike in +every feature.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you mad, Paul? The girl does not care for you; I'm certain of +that. Then she is half engaged, I believe, to Alphonse--Dr. Kennedy, I +mean. Her letter is full of him; you can see it if you like."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no doubt of it; he is a far more admirable person than I am. I +fully expect she will refuse me, but I mean to ask her all the same."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But why? Since you have told me so much you may as well tell me all. +Why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I choose, and because I like following your good advice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My advice?" she echoed; "my advice? That is too much." Then +recognising the fact that no good would follow on direct opposition, +she tacked skilfully. "If you choose, I suppose you will do it, though +I cannot for the life of me see why you should put yourself to +needless pain, for it must be pain, since you were certainly in love +with her at Gleneira----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe I was," he interrupted, "but I'll risk the pain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No doubt," she answered bitterly; "self-inflicted pain is always +bearable. But for the girl--why not consider her comfort? It is always +a disagreeable thing to refuse, and a man who forces a girl into that +position without due cause is----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A presumptuous cad, my dear Paul."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you! You are clever, Violet, and your conclusions are generally +right; but in this case you argue without knowledge of the premises."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know that Paul Macleod never did and never will come under that +category," she replied readily, "and that is enough for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If it were true, but it is not." He had not meant to tell her the +truth, but a certain contrariety led him on. "I used not to be one, +perhaps; but I was one to her. That last night, after I was engaged to +Alice, I told her that I loved her."</p> + +<p class="normal">A little fine smile showed on Mrs. Vane's face. "Well, it was not fair +on Alice, but it was very like Paul. Only why repeat the mistake?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You do not understand. I was half mad, I think, at leaving her--and +at her unconsciousness. And then--and then, I kissed her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really? That was very naughty, of course; but still more like Paul."</p> + +<p class="normal">He winced, as if she had struck him. "Don't laugh, Violet, as if it +were the old story; it isn't."</p> + +<p class="normal">His tone struck a chill of fear to her heart, yet she still kept up +her amused serenity. "Is it not? Yet she is surely not the first girl +you have kissed without a 'by your leave.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was silent, and then to her infinite surprise, as he sate leaning +forward looking into the fire, covered his face with his hands as if +to shut out an unwelcome sight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You don't understand," he said, in a low voice. "She hadn't a +reproach--she--I can see the look in her eyes still."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was another silence, and then Mrs. Vane's voice came with an +indescribable chill in it:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mean that she loved you, or you think she did."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sure of it. She did not deny it. Violet! she is the first woman, +I verily believe, who has loved me truly, and I repaid her by insult."</p> + +<p class="normal">A dangerous rush of sheer anger came to send tact and prudence to the +wind for the time. "You say that! The only woman! Then I say, Paul, +that you insult others by your doubts--others who have loved you +longer. Paul!" She was very close upon the verge, when she pulled +herself up short, and gave a little laugh. "You cannot think her love +very deep if you say she will refuse you. But what reason have you to +think she will? Because you kissed her? That is absurd, and you know +it. I believe you wish her to accept you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do I?" he asked wearily; "for the life of me I scarcely know; but I +mean to ask her. I must. Surely you can see that; you generally +understand me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do understand you, Paul; better perhaps than you understand +yourself. That is why I tell you not to go down to Gleneira. You are +<i>tête montée</i> now. You are not yourself. Look the matter in the face! +Supposing she were to accept you; what then?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused a moment. "I should marry her, I suppose--but she won't. I +am not the sort of fellow she could marry." His voice had the +tenderest ring in it, but his head was turned away. To see it she +leant forward closer to him, almost on her knees, and the firelight +lit up her eager, appealing face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul, don't deceive yourself with doubts. You love her more than +ever, and if, as you say, she loves you, the result is a foregone +conclusion, if you meet. It is a future of poverty, and, oh, how you +will regret it! Don't go, Paul, I beg of you; I beseech you--I am an +old friend, my dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">As she laid her flashing jewelled hands on his shoulder, his went up +mechanically and drew them down. So holding them in his, he looked +into her face kindly. "You are, indeed--but I must go--I have no +choice."</p> + +<p class="normal">His soft, caressing touch made her risk all, and her breath came fast +in swift denial. "No choice! That is not true! You said but now, no +one had loved you truly but this girl. Think, Paul, did not I? You +know I did. Was it for my own sake that I gave you up--that I sent you +away? You know it was not. I am not of the sort on whom the world +turns its back. I would have faced it gladly. It was for you. Because +you loved your profession--because--but you know it all! Even when I +was free, but poor, I would not claim you. Will Marjory do as much for +you? Will she say, 'I love you, but I will not injure you by marrying +you'? I think not. But I should not injure you now--I am rich, I am +rich, and I love you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Once before she had told him so plainly, but it had then been with an +easy self-control, suggesting the idea but withholding its inception. +Now she was pleading as if for life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are very good," he muttered, feeling the truth of what she said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!" she echoed, with a tinge of bitterness at her lack of power to +move him more. "How good you will never know. I have stood between you +and more evil than you dream of; and now I ask you to stay with me, +Paul, not because I love you, but because you are always happy with +me, because you will be safe with me--with me--only with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">That was true also; he was always happy with her. But safe?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not understand," he said. "Why should I be safer with you? I +know of no danger." Then he clasped her hands tighter, looking into +her face curiously. "What is it, Violet? Is there danger? You +speak---- By Heaven! there is something, Violet! What is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew from him quickly, realising her own imprudence, for she was +not prepared for any decisive step. "Nothing, Paul--nothing to speak +of," she said, rising to her feet with a hasty laugh, but her voice +shook, her hands were trembling. "Since you will not listen, go to +Marjory; she can protect you as well as I can."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't care to hide behind any woman," he said sternly. "Not even +behind you. What is it? You are not the kind of woman to say that sort +of thing unless you meant it. What danger do you know that I do not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Even to hear his questioning roused her to a sense of what the +knowledge would mean to him, and the instinct of defence overcame even +her pride. "Am I not the sort of woman? All women are alike when they +are jealous. Can't you see it, Paul--can't you understand? or will you +force me to say it all over again? I know nothing, positively nothing, +to prevent your marrying Marjory. Go down to Gleneira if you will."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head. "Don't prevaricate, Violet. I had rather you lied +to me, but for pity's sake do neither. Be my friend and tell me the +truth."</p> + +<p class="normal">For an instant his gentleness overcame her fence. "I cannot, Paul--I +cannot," she almost wailed; then remembering herself, she went on, +"How can I, when there is nothing to tell?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will not leave the room till I know," was his reply. "There <i>is</i> +something, and you shall tell me. You will not; then I must find out +for myself--there was a letter in your hand. Let me go, Violet! I +don't want to hurt you, but I must and will have that letter, +unless---- No! I cannot trust you for the truth. I must see that +letter for myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">She knew enough of him to recognise that now his imperious temper was +roused, her only chance lay in an appeal to his affection.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Listen, Paul! I have done so much for you. Pay me back now--only this +little thing. I don't want you to see that letter--you have no right +to see it."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head, and she flung the hands she had been detaining from +her with a cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You do not trust me! You do not trust me! That is hard after all +these years."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! I cannot trust you, dear; you are too good to me," he said +gently, as he walked over to the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">The dusk had grown into dark, and he passed on to the window, in hopes +of sufficient light to decipher the letter he held; failing that he +came back to the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't strain your eyes over it," she said bitterly, as she leant--as +if tired out--against the mantelpiece, watching him sombrely. "I +strained mine over it once--needlessly. I will ring for lights, and +you can surely wait for so much, now you have got your own way."</p> + +<p class="normal">So they waited in silence, standing side by side before the fire, till +the servant had set the shaded lamp on the table, and drawn the window +curtains carefully, methodically. Then he glanced at the +superscription, and pointing to it, said, "Why did you read it?" for +across the first blank page was scrawled legibly, "Not to be read by +anyone till Paul Macleod of Gleneira is dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because I chose--the reason why <i>you</i> read it, I suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old admiration for her spirit which, even now, did not hesitate to +meet him boldly on his own ground, rose in him as, instinctively, he +turned to the signature for some further light to guide him in reading +the closely written sheets. Then his eye caught a name at the bottom +of a page where the writing merged from ink to a faint pencil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jeanie Duncan!" he exclaimed, half aloud; "what can she have to do +with me?" The instant after he turned to Mrs. Vane, as those who are +puzzled turn to those who are better informed. "Janet Macleod! did she +marry a Macleod after all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She married your brother Alick, and the boy is their son. Now you +know the worst--and <i>I</i> have told you it--<i>I</i>, who would not hurt you +for the world."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She married---- Then little Paul?" He stood as if unable to grasp the +meaning of his own words.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sit down, dear, and read it, since you have chosen to read. There is +no hurry. You know the worst," she said gently.</p> + +<p class="normal">So with a sort of dazed incredulity he read on in silence:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Paul Macleod! yes! Paul! you shall read this some day; some day soon. +I am revenged. You were ashamed of me, and now I am the laird of +Gleneira's wife. Yet I did not mean to be revenged till he came, like +a fool, and put it into my head. I was getting tired of the life, +too--of the hard, thankless life. It was by chance I fell in with him +in Paris. I went there with someone and stayed on; so he could not +guess that I was Jeanie Duncan, whom he had never seen. And I hated +him because he was your brother; so he grew mad after me, and promised +marriage. Then the thought came--I, whom the laird's Jock did not +think good enough to love or marry, will take the laird himself, and +flaunt it over them all. So we were married, and then, before I had +time to settle anything, he died--died of drink, Paul!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well! I hated him, so I did not care. I hated him for being so like +you, and caring for me when you did not----</p> + +<p class="normal">"And now, if it is a boy, I will have my revenge--my just revenge--and +turn you out of the old place. But I wait, because, if it is a girl, +you will not care, and I will not have you jeer because my revenge has +failed. I pray day and night that it may be a boy, and lest I should +die, I write all about it, and put my marriage lines with the letter. +Then my son can come, and turn you out. I did not seek revenge, +remember. It came into my hand, and it is just. You know that it is +just!</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Jeanie Duncan</span>.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"P.S.--Look in the photograph shops in Paris for 'La Belle Écossaise,' +if you wish to know what I was like when <i>he</i> married me."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Paul, reading methodically, paused for a second, passed his hand +across his forehead as if to clear his mind, and then went on to a +fainter pencil scrawl:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Well! I have waited, Paul! It is a boy--so like you, Paul! I lie and +think--for they say I am dying, and so it cannot hurt now--that he +<i>is</i> your son, and that we were married in the old days. But it is all +a lie! He is <i>his</i> son, and I will have my revenge! If only I could +remember anything but the old days, Paul! Ah! surely when people love +as we did---- No! I do not understand. Only, the boy is so like you. I +lie and think, and I feel he must never turn you out. Never! never! +Only, if you die, then the boy must have his rights, for he is your +son.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Janet Macleod</span>.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">"P.S.--Mother will keep this; she has come to see me die, so it will +be quite safe. She does not know I am married, and I have written +outside that no one is to read it till you are dead. Ah, Paul! I wish +you could have seen it. Forgive me, Paul--forgive me that he is not +your son!"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A greyness had come to the handsome face, and, as he folded up the +letter methodically, his hands trembled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How long?" he asked; and it seemed almost as if he could not finish +the sentence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since the night of old Peggy's death. I suspected something, so I +stole it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You suspected!" he interrupted quickly. "What could you suspect?" +Then he laughed bitterly. "I suppose you suspected I was the boy's +father, and thought the knowledge would be useful. If I had been it +would have been better." His hand holding the letter came down heavily +on the mantelpiece as he rose in sudden passion. "My God! what a +devilish revenge!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave a quick catch in her breath. She had been silent till now, +but now it was time to begin--time to make him think.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You forget that she repented--that she gave up her revenge. That is +why I said nothing, Paul. I am a woman, too, and I know how she +repented. I did not dare to speak--to disobey her dying wish; who has +a right to do that, Paul?--no one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the boy," he murmured, "the boy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The boy will not suffer. If you die he will have his rights, as his +mother wished. If he were really your son he would not have Gleneira +till then, and you can look after him. It is not as if he were in +want, dear."</p> + +<p class="normal">He sate listening, listening to that soft, persuasive voice, which had +such a knack of following his every thought, and yet of leading them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had no right to steal the letters, of course," it went on a little +louder, "but I am not sorry; for others might not have understood, and +so the poor thing's repentance would have come to naught. Now, no one +knows but you and I. You who loved her, I who pity her; because I love +you, Paul, as she loved you."</p> + +<p class="normal">She came a step closer with wide-open, serious eyes, and touched him +on the breast with her slender white hand. The faint perfume of +jasmine which always lingered round her stole in on his senses +familiarly, taking him back to many a past pleasure and kindness +associated with it, and, half unconsciously, his empty hand clasped +hers; and so they stood looking, not at each other, but into the fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So it is easy to fulfil her wish--her dying wish. You did her a +wrong, Paul, in the old days, and you owe her reparation. She did not +wish you to read the letter, remember; but that can be as if it had +not been. Give it to me, dear! I would have burnt it before, as she +would have wished it burnt, but I wanted you to know for certain what +she had wished."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her small, white hand was on his, the paper rustled and seemed to slip +from his hold while he stood, as if mesmerised, looking into the fire. +It was all true--every word of it true.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give it to me, Paul. You are thinking of the boy; but we could bring +him up, you and I, if you would have it so. Paul! This is my reward at +last! I can do this for you, now that I am rich."</p> + +<p class="normal">But still his fingers resisted faintly, and there was a pause, a long +pause. Then the hand which lay in his seemed to slacken, to lie in his +like a dead hand, and her voice came with a sob in its softness:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul! do this for me, and I will ask no more. Paul! let me save +you--save you and Marjory!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was her last plea. She had kept it back till now, hoping against +hope, and, as she made it, she touched the highest point of +self-forgetfulness it is possible for a woman to reach. But in +touching it she struck a false note in the syren's song, and Paul +Macleod's hand closed like a vice over his one tie to an honest +life--the letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The name had roused him. "Marjory!" he echoed absently. Then he turned +and looked at his companion compassionately, yet decisively. "You mean +to be kind, Violet, but you don't understand," he said quietly; then +raised her little slack hand, stooped to kiss it, and left her so, +standing by the fire alone. She had played for her love boldly, +skilfully, and she had lost. She had tried to save Paul for his own +sake, and she had failed. Yet even so, the innate courage of the woman +faced the facts without a tear, without a complaint.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is my own fault," she said, half aloud. "I ought to have burnt the +letter long ago, but I was not meant for that sort of thing. My heart +is too soft." Then she smiled a little bitterly. It was at the +remembrance of Paul Macleod's assertion, "You do not understand!" If +she did not understand him, who could?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_26" href="#div1Ref_26">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Nearly a month had gone by since Marjory Carmichael had whispered to +the darkness, "Come back to me, Paul, and we will forget our love." +The sudden awakening to the realities, not only of life but of her own +nature, caused by his reckless avowal of love, had passed, as all +awakenings must, into calm acquiescence in the commonplace facts of +consciousness. There was no denying of the truth possible to her clear +sight, and as she sate on the last day of October, on the last day of +holiday before she and little Paul set off together to make +acquaintance with a new world, she laid down her pen in the middle of +a sentence in the letter she was writing to Tom Kennedy, and looked +out over the stormy whitecrested waves of the loch set in its rampart +of grey, snow-powdered, mist-shrouded hills, and wondered how she +could have been so blind for so long. Blind to half the great problems +of life! And then, with a smile, infinitely sweeter than it used to be +because infinitely stronger, she took up a letter which lay beside +her, and leaning back in her chair began to read it over again, just +as she had re-read a letter down by the river side three months +before, on the day when her holiday began--on the day when she had +first seen Paul Macleod.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it was a very different letter from the one Dr. Kennedy had sent +her then; for all unconsciously the girl, in the first bewilderment of +her awakening, had stretched out her hands to him, as it were, for +help, and he had given her what he could, smiling a trifle bitterly as +he wrote to think how little that was. "You ask me to tell you the +truth," she read, "but how can I when I do not know it myself? If I +had, the world might have been different--for us both. Only this +seems clear, that friendship is a bigger thing than love, unless +they both grow from the same root, and then--I fancy, Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux, that the botanists ought to characterise the product +as a sport! It is rare enough--God knows! I have sate for hours over +the puzzle, trying to get at the bottom of myself, only to come back +to the old paradox that Love is not worth calling Love unless it is +something which is not Love. And that is no solution. Pure and simple, +unveiled of mist and sentiment, it is all too easy of explanation. It +is ever-present, and must be so--it seems--till the end of all things. +Then there is--shall we call it the transcendental form conceivable +only to those who recognise some innate, or almost innate, sense of +order or beauty in mankind. That too, given this premise, is easy. I +believe I understand it. I am sure you do. It is the hybrid of these +two held up to our admiration, and believed in by the majority of +cultivated people, which beats me altogether. Look round you, dear, +and think for yourself. A man and a woman have mental sympathy with +each other. What has that to do with marriage? A man and a woman are +married. What has that to do with mental sympathy? The two things are +not incompatibles. Heaven forbid! But have friendship and what the +world calls love any real connection, and what part have they to play +in marriage? That sounds like a conundrum, and perhaps it is as well, +since we were getting too serious, and that is a fatal mistake when +there is no answer to the riddle. But there is a sacrilegious little +story, my dear, regarding the reasons for not enforcing celibacy on +the clergy, which is not altogether irrelevant to our subject. Luther, +I believe, is responsible for declaring that marriage is a +'discipline' not to be surpassed in spiritual efficacy; a discipline +before which hair shirts and flagellations are sensual indulgence. +N.B.--Was Luther any relation of the Cornish man who said, 'Women was +like pilchards; when 'ums bad 'ms bad, and when 'ms good they is but +middlin'?' I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle G.S., but one must +laugh--if one is not to cry. What if love were the mutual attraction +of certain elements, which combined and neutralised in the children, +would go to form a more useful compound of humanity? Would not this go +further towards raising our instincts out of the mire than all the +romance in the world? And then it would account, of course--since +chemicals are apt to evolve heat in combining--for a good deal of +friction in the married state, which in its turn must polish the +sufferers! But as this theory canonises Mrs. Caudle, and makes +wife-beating a virtue, perhaps we had better change the subject by +saying, as we said at the beginning--friendship is a bigger thing than +love, and so pass on to the lives we have to lead, love or no love."</p> + +<p class="normal">So with kindly thought, and a plentiful humour irradiating every page, +he went on to tell her of his work, of stirring scenes in that +hand-to-hand fight with Death, the great enemy of Love, in which he +lived. A tender, charming letter, such as his were always. Letters +which none know how to write save those who, despising the control of +time and space, have learnt to lean over the edge of the world, and +claim a part in some far-off life. Letters which, without one word of +sentiment from beginning to end, leave both the writer's and reader's +hearts full of a great kindliness and peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">They set Marjory a thinking, as they were meant to do, and the result +was good, since her clear common sense never failed her. Yet side by +side with that common sense existed a certain fanciful idealism, which +took the place of the former in matters beyond the limits of plain +reason. And this, as she read, made her pause to wonder if Tom could +be right, and the calm content which came to her from him, so +different from the unrest which the mere thought of Paul produced, +meant that they were too nearly akin to need neutralisation. Then she +laid down the letter and took up the pen again, striving unconsciously +to imitate his playful touch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, Tom!" she wrote; "I am not growing morbid. I am not, as you call +it, trying to measure my world with home-made imitations of the +imperial quart; still, I do wish I knew what the cubit was! Then I +would add it to my stature and rise superior--perhaps. If I had known +what I know now when my holiday began would it have made any +difference? If I had had a mother, if I had been brought up with other +girls, should I have gone on as I did, using a wrong terminology? I +will tell you something, Tom. What I thought was love in those old +days is just what I feel for you, dear. Perhaps I might have thought +so all my life if I had not met him. And now, if I meet him again, +Tom, what will happen? I sit down before the proposition; but it is +not to be solved like a problem in Euclid, because I have discovered +that my heart and my brain are quite separate, and I used to think +they were both a part of me. Don't tell me, please, that I am wrong. +Perhaps I am physiologically. I know all about that horrid little +V-shaped spot in the <i>medulla oblongata</i>, isn't it, where a pin-point +will stop Tears and Laughter, Love and Friendship for ever. What then? +Does it make it easier to understand why the heart beats, to know that +we can stop its beating? I wish I knew! I wish I knew! I don't want it +to beat, but it will. Oh! what a mercy it is that we two do not love +each other!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She laid down the pen as a knock came to the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A strange shentlemen to see Miss Carmichael," said the new servant +who had replaced the peccant Kirsty discovered--direful offence--in +putting a dirty skimmer into the milk.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, in the country a "strange gentleman" generally resolves itself +into the piano-tuner, so Marjory bade him be shown up with a certain +calm impatience at the necessity for explaining that his services +would not be wanted; then, the thread of her thoughts broken rudely, +she sate waiting, her eyes fixed absently on the words, "that we two +do not love each other!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked up from them to see Paul Macleod standing at the door. He +had come back to her!</p> + +<p class="normal">Five minutes before she had asked, almost passionately, of her friend +what she would do in such case. Now there was but one answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul!" Her outstretched hand sought his, as he stood tall and +straight trying to master his emotion, to preserve the calm to which +he had schooled himself through the long journey which had ended +here--here, where he might once have found rest; here, where all, save +such self-respect as apology might leave him, was lost for ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul--Oh! how tired you look--how cold your hands are! Come, +dear--come and warm yourself; you must be perished!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not speak, perhaps because the hoar frost of pride which had +chilled his eyes melted before the radiance of hers; and hoar frost is +but water after all. So she drew him to the fire, and then, still +holding one hand as if loth to lose touch of it, knelt on one knee to +stir the peats to a brighter blaze.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm so glad you have come back," she said, with a little tremble in +her voice; "so glad!" And then she looked up suddenly into the face +above her, surprised at the almost painful strength of his grip. For +Paul Macleod's composure was almost gone, and he was struggling hard +for self-control. What she saw kept her silent; but she bent towards +him till her soft, warm cheek touched his hand caressingly. The +action, with its tale of tender solicitude, its boundless sympathy, +was too much for him. He drew in his breath hard, and resting his arm +on the mantelpiece turned from her to hide his face upon it, and so +escape the pity in her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">And he had dreamed of something so different! Of something coldly +just, reasonably reproachful! Without a word she had guessed, had +<i>known</i>, that he must be free to come, because he <i>had</i> come back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it, dear?" she asked softly, as she stood beside him. "Are +you afraid that I am angry? Are you afraid that I care--about <i>that?</i> +Paul! I do not choose to care--I will not. Look at me, and you will +see if that is not the truth!"</p> + +<p class="normal">What he saw was a face soft with the passion he knew so well--the +passion which lies so perilously close to self--which claims so much, +and resents so easily. But it was radiant also, as with a white flame +of cleansing fire, pitiless in its purity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it to me?" she went on, her voice ringing clearer. "What is +it to any woman unless she stoops to care? Oh! I understand now, +Paul--I understand things of which I never even dreamed before; things +which have been in your life--things which might have been in mine, +perhaps--God knows!--if I had been in your place. But they are no more +to me than this--a grief, a regret, because they are a stain upon your +past, as all wrong must be. They are no more to me than that, because +I do not choose to count them more!"</p> + +<p class="normal">So, with a smile in her eyes, and a quiver of pain on her lips, she +raised her face to his and kissed him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus neither humiliation nor forgiveness was allowed a part in this +woman's reading of the Divine Comedy. Perhaps she was wrong, and yet +no scorn, no righteous indignation, could have made Paul Macleod feel +more acutely the gulf which lay between his past and hers. Between +their futures also. They might be friends, but from that pure Love of +hers he was for ever outcast, though she might not know it--though he +might spend his life in trying to conceal the fact that he lived on a +lower plane than she did. Why! the past was with him <i>now</i>, even at +the touch of her lips. He loved her, as he had loved so often before.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory!" he cried passionately, "I don't deserve it, but I can't +miss it--if you will put up with me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She drew herself away, and looked at him with a half-tender, +half-mocking expression.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Put up with you? What else is there to be done now that you have come +back to me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">What else, indeed! She was right; it was he who had taken the +responsibility, he who defied natural consequences in this dreaming of +something beyond and above his past. He was not hardened enough to be +blind to this, and the thought showed on his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come," she said consolingly, "sit down and tell me all about it--why +you came back, I mean; I know why you went away."</p> + +<p class="normal">If she did, he felt that she was wiser than he, since, sitting so +beside her, sure of her sympathy, her confidence, it seemed incredible +that he should have fled from this sure haven of his own free will. He +told her all, it seemed to him without a pang; told her of his +dismissal, of the change in his prospects. Yet, when he put Jeanie +Duncan's letter into her hands, and walked away to the window while +she read it, he felt more of a cur than he had ever done in all his +life before. What would the girl say? What could she say but that it +served him right? If she dismissed him also, and told him that she did +not care to exchange her love for his, would not that serve him right +also!</p> + +<p class="normal">And so, as he stood frowning moodily at the growing glint of sunshine +far out in the West driving the mists in dense masses up the Glen, her +voice came to him as she laid down the letter with a sigh:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad she called him Paul."</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned quickly to her in a sort of incredulous amaze! Was that all +she had to say? A sort of chill crept over him, even though he found +himself at her feet, with her hands in his, kissing them softly as he +told her, with a break in his voice, that she was too good--too good +for any man. The thought brought him a certain consolation, as she +went on, evidently with the desire of taking all sting from his +memories--to speak of the strange coincidence of little Paul's +devotion to her, and of her liking for the lovable little lad. Surely, +if Gleneira had to go, he would far rather it went to him than to some +stranger, who would care nothing for her and her ways.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why?" she said, a trifle tearfully; "he has been so much with me +lately, since old Peggy died, that I felt quite lost without him when +he went yesterday for a farewell visit up the Glen to the Macintoshes. +The boys were his great playmates. So you see, Paul, it will not +matter so much, for he will live with us, of course, and it is a long, +long time before he comes of age. And even then I don't believe he +will turn you out of house and home altogether. We will teach him +better things than that! Won't we?"</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, spoken of in her calm, clear voice, and with her wise eyes +on his, and that sweet convincing "we" in her phrases, the prospect +did not seem so hopeless. Yet he caught himself wishing that she had +not taken his renunciation quite so much as a matter of course; +wishing that she appreciated his victory over temptation more keenly. +Yet, how could she, when he had not told her that part of the +business, or how near he had been to purchasing peace with dishonour +by destroying Jeanie Duncan's letter and the marriage certificate it +contained. But there were many things in his past, he told himself, +with a sigh, of which it was better she should continue to know +nothing; for her own sake, not for his. He could scarcely fear her +blame, and it would have been a certain comfort to, as it were, bring +her closer to him by confession. But Paul Macleod was too much of a +gentleman for that kind of self-indulgence, and he was realising for +the first time in his life the supreme impotence of repentance either +in the past or the future. Had he not, even at the time, repented him +of the evil in regard to Jeanie Duncan; yet had not a Nemesis grown +out of his very repentance?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come with me part of the way back, dear," he said, when the necessity +for writing business letters broke through even his desire to linger +within touch of her kind hand. "I can't bear somehow to lose sight of +you for an instant, but I must go--there are the lawyers--and Dr. +Kennedy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can tell Tom if you like," replied Marjory. "I write to him most +days."</p> + +<p class="normal">Something rose up in her hearer and cursed Tom, though the next moment +he was reviling himself. That sort of thing would have to be put away +for ever when he was Marjory's husband.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will have to marry me as soon as you can," he said, with what to +her seemed great irrelevance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will marry you as soon as you like, Paul; you know that," she +replied cheerfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes! so far was easy; but afterwards? How would she ever put up with +him? Yet the question was once more forgotten in the charm of the +present.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the end of a soft day, and the summitless mountains looked +purple and green under the mist wreaths which every now and again +seemed to descend to fill the valley and leave sparkling drops of dew +on the little curls below Marjory's cap, while the river ran roaring +beside them, making a kind of droning accompaniment to the shriller +drip from the trees upon the stones. Then the fine rain would cease, +the birds begin to twitter, rustling the damp leaves, and sending a +faster shower on the path; while from the West a gleaming blade of +light would sever the mists, and give a glimpse of a new heaven and a +new earth, where the sun was setting peacefully.</p> + +<p class="normal">As she walked along beside him, her face seemed to hold the sunshine, +his the mist, and once, in the middle of some talk over the future, he +paused to hark back to the past.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If we could begin it all over again from the day I first met you on +the river, I think I might have a better chance--at least, I would not +play the fool so utterly--at least, my memories of <i>you</i> would be free +from pain--and I should have left undone the things that I have done."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should you say that?" she asked. "Is it not enough that what you +did made me love you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your godfathers and godmothers should have christened you +Barnabasina," he replied, with an effort after his old, light manner, +"for you are verily a daughter of consolation, Marjory; but even you +cannot take the sting out of some things. If I could have the past +over again! Nothing short of that will satisfy me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her quick, bright face grew brighter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you shall have it, dear, as far as I'm concerned. Yes! you +shall! It will be pleasant for me, too. Don't laugh at my fancy, for I +like fancies sometimes; they help one along the dead level bits of the +road. I'll say 'good-bye' here, Paul, here in the very spot where you +said good-bye before--do you think I could forget it? And then +to-morrow----" she hesitated in her very eagerness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, to-morrow, Marjory?" he echoed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To-morrow you shall meet me at the old place on the river--you +remember it, of course, and we shall begin all over again--all over +again from the very beginning, to the very end. I remember them all, +Paul; everything, I believe, that you ever said--everything, at any +rate, that you ever said which I disliked. Is that unkind? And so when +the time comes for those bits you shall not say them--we will cut them +out of the past."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will be Hamlet with the Prince left out," he said, falling in with +her playful mood.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a bit of it! Besides if it were I should not mind. It was never +the prince I liked, but Paul--the real Paul."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wonder which one that is," he replied quickly, yet with a smile; +for her radiant face would not be cheated of its due.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We shall see to-morrow--good-bye, Paul."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! No! Marjory. Neither that, nor adieu, any more. Till +to-morrow--<i>Auf-wieder-sehn</i>, my love! <i>Auf-wieder-sehn</i>."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_27" href="#div1Ref_27">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The beginning of a new day, a new life!</p> + +<p class="normal">That, perhaps, should have been Marjory's first thought when, drawing +up the blind, she stood in the early dawn at the window looking out on +a world white with hoar frost. But it was not; for her eyes fell upon +a bunch of late rowans still adorning the tree, which stood so close +that, on windy nights, the berries would tap against the panes like +some ghostly visitant claiming admittance. They also were veiled +in a silvery tracery, and so the trivial remembrance of a certain +ball-dress came uppermost, instead of any sober reflection. As a +matter of fact, the larger half of existence can be excellently +executed on a penny whistle.</p> + +<p class="normal">What a very good imitation those berries had been which Tom had sent +from Paris; and how unlikely it was, since she and Paul were both +poor, that she would have so magnificent a garment again. It would not +be wanted, that was one comfort, if they lived quietly at Gleneira, +which, of course, they must do, unless Paul were to try and get back +to active service again. She must talk that over with him--that and +many another thing--when they began life again down by the river side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's ill singing the mavis' song but in the mavis' time," quoted Mrs. +Cameron, with a wise shake of the head, when Marjory came whistling +down the stairs to breakfast. "And half-past eight o' the clock on a +chill November morn in a white world is no the time for anything save +a sup o' hot porridge."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wasn't singing the mavis' song," she laughed; "it was the lark's, +and they always begin early." And her clear voice broke gaily into the +phrase, "And Phœbus 'gins to rise."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it's ill singing on an empty stomach," persisted the old lady; +"and ill manners, too, to be sae blithe when ye are leaving us. What's +up wi' you, lassie?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory gave her a queer look. "Everything! it's going to be a fine +day for one thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wha kens? That's no a thing ye can say at half-past eight o' the +clock. Sing you the 'Flowers of the Forest,' my bairn; that's more o' +the truth in this world."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her old, faded voice quavered over the first line, "I've seen the +morning, wi' gold the hills adorning," and Marjory's clear, young one +took up the song cheerfully, "And loud tempest storming before the mid +o' day." Then she paused mischievously. "That's a foolish version, +though; the old one is better: 'I've heard the lilting at our yowe +milking, Lassies a' lilting before the dawn o' day.' And dawn is +before half-past eight o' the clock, even in November."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mrs. Cameron looked at her somewhat mollified, beating time with her +mittened fingers to the familiar rhythm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Weel! weel! One way or the t'ither it's the bonniest song ever sung +in this world, and I mind, when I was a lassie, thinkin' that my +jo--he wasna John, my dear,--sang it like the angels out o' heaven. +But there! commend me to a lassie that's in love wi' the most +ordinair' o' men for a blaspheemous sacrileegous creature, if he's +weel favoured, and that's the truth. There isn't one o' the cardinal +virtues, but she'll dig up--maybe from some ither decent man's kale +yard and plant it amang his weeds wi' a light heart. Aye! and watter +it wi' tears too when she finds it no thrivin'. It's the way o' women, +and she's happier when she gives up the gairdening and sets to rear +bairns instead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish Will could hear you admit that children are a comfort," +laughed Marjory, from her porridge.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what's hindering him but sloth?" asked the old lady, rushing +eagerly to an old battle ground. "But there! was it not predicted as +the end o' a' things. Just a great Darkness as o' Night, and that is +what folks is coming to nowadays. It just beats me to roust the +hussies from their beds before six. And it's no from them bein' +hirelings a'together, for it's the same with the cottages. Where the +peat smoke used to go up wi' the mist wreaths at the earliest blink, +there's naething but an empty lum. Aye! and a cauld hearth! Not even a +gathering peat to keep the warmth o' home aboot the place. But there! +what could ye expec' wi' such names as they give the matches--Lucifers +and Damnstickers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear mother!" exclaimed Will, in horrified accents, as he lounged +in lazily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm no swearing, William," she retorted, with great dignity. "Tho' +maybe I hae a claim to be angry an' sin not, wi' a farmer son that +comes down to his breaking o' bread when the beasts have begun to chew +the cud."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear mother!" quoth Will, good-naturedly. "You look after the +beasts, and my corn is all carried."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Weel! weel! When I'm carried to me grave ye'll find the difference, +even if ye get a wife. Aye, aye! I ken fine what she'll be like--just +one o' the sort wi' a hump somewhere. I kenna whaur the fashion'll put +it then, since 'of that hour knoweth no man,' but it will be +somewheres, an' her hair will be as if a clucking hen had bin scrapin' +in't."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I deny it; I deny it," laughed Will; "when I marry, I shall marry a +girl just like Marjory. Only she shall not be quite so tall, or so +clever, and shall be thinner, and less opinionated--more of my sort, +and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And her hair shall be of a different colour," laughed Marjory, in her +turn; "I'm glad I don't leave you heartbroken--or anyone else, +either," she added, half to herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">And as she passed through her little sitting-room, before starting on +her rendezvous with Paul, she paused for an instant before her letter +to Tom Kennedy, which still lay unfinished, as she had left it, and +looked down again on those last words. They were true still, and with +a sudden impulse she took up the pen to say so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tom!" she wrote, "the problem is solved! Paul has come back to me, +and we are going to begin a new life together. Yet, I stretch out my +hands to you, dear, as I did before, and say 'Friendship is a bigger +thing than love!'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she went gaily through the garden to pick a late carnation for +Paul's buttonhole, and as she picked it she sang the "Flowers o' the +Forest."</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"I've seen Tweed's silver streams,<br> +Glittering in the sunny beams,<br> +Grow drumly and dark as he row'd on his way."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">The tune, with its haunting cadences, lingered in her mind, and more +than once fell from her lips, when with a light heart she faced the +ups and downs of the white road as it crept round the loch to where +the bridge, spanning the river, would enable her to strike across the +moss-hags to the alder-fringed bank above. And Paul would be on the +other side as he had been before. But he should not jump this time, +for that was one of the things she did not like; those things which +she was going to take out of his life and hers. The very thought, +indeed, of the risk of a slip made her shiver as she paused for a +moment on the bridge, and saw the yellow-brown flood, swollen with the +night's rain, rushing against the piers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Drumly and dark!" Drumly it was, yet scarcely dark. It ran too fast +for that, and up yonder, where she was to meet Paul, it would be a +mass of foam with yellow lights in it. A sort of syllabub of a river +pouring over the curved edge of the rock heavily. Not like water at +all, but like some drugged draught; falling not with a roar or a rush, +but with slow, deafening boom. The waters of Lethe might fall so, she +fancied. Well! Paul should run no risk of them to-day, for she was +before her time, and would be there to warn him. So thinking, she +clambered down to the water's edge, and seating herself on the only +level slab of rock, which projected slightly over the boiling pool +below, she faced the downward course of the river, certain thus of +seeing the first glimpse of her lover's tall figure above the bracken +which crested the almost perpendicular rocks on the other side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've seen this morning." It was a most distracting tune! All the more +so because the words would follow Mrs. Cameron's sentimental lead, +instead of keeping to the old lament with the lilt of battle and +sudden death in it.</p> + +<div class="poem1"> +<p class="i6">"The flowers o' the forest that fought aye the foremost,<br> +The prime o' our land are cauld in the clay."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">That was why they played it as a Dead March in the Highland regiments. +If Paul decided not to retire, it might be played at his funeral some +day. At Paul's funeral! The very thought seemed impossible; and yet +the girl's heart throbbed more with pride than fear. "That fought aye +the foremost." Yes! if she were a soldier's wife that was what a +soldier should do, even if she had to sit "drearie, lamenting her +dearie."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was too bad, she told herself, for the tune to haunt her so, since +Paul would be coming soon now, and when they had first met her head +had not been full of the "Flowers of the Forest" and such things; she +had been reading one of Tom's letters. How foolish of her not to have +brought one to complete the illusion! unless, indeed, there were, by +chance, one in her pocket. Yes! a scrap of one, old enough to rouse +her curiosity and engross her attention as she smoothed it out and +began to read.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be disappointed in love! The phrase is arbitrarily bound up with +the state of celibacy. Wherefore, my dear Marjory? wherefore? If love, +as we once agreed, I think, is the touchstone of life, then marriage +appears to me to be the continual essay of love, where, alas! the gold +does not often reach the standard for hall marking; therefore it is +conceivably better to be continually in love and not to marry. I don't +know how it is, Mademoiselle Grands-serieux, but my philosophy +invariably ends in paradoxes of doubtful propriety--now, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked up smiling, then rose to her feet quickly, for there was a +rustle behind her. Paul might have been there ahead of her after all, +and have gone up to look at the river. Yes! there was someone at the +head of the fall, where the solitary rowan tree leant above the +alder-bushes, for the branches swayed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Paul!" she cried across the boom of the river, "is that you? Come +down a bit; I'm here!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm coming, Miss Marjory, I'm coming," answered a childish voice; +"but it is the berries I'm getting for you first. It is the last I +will be getting you in Gleneira, I'm thinking, and they're real +beauties, whatever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Great heavens! how reckless of the boy! yet, was not recklessness in +the blood? There he was, clinging to an overhanging branch; any +instant he might fall, and---- "Paul!" she cried quickly, +peremptorily; "come down at once. I don't want them."</p> + +<p class="normal">She saw his bright, flushed face through the sparse yellowing leaves, +close to the bunch of red berries, clutched by the little brown hand. +So like that picture of his mother--so like--so like Paul, too!--her +Paul. Ah, God in heaven!</p> + +<p class="normal">The child had slipped. "Hold tight, Paul! Hold tight!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Vain cry! Almost before it was uttered the seething foam with the +sunny glints in it had stifled his swift scream.</p> + +<p class="normal">Marjory made no sound. White, desperate, she leant over the slippery +edge of the shelf, clutched at something that seethed upwards for a +second, lost her balance, and was gone--in silence. The heavy foam +closed over her like a snow-drift with the sun on it, and all the help +the bravest heart could have given was the hope that unconsciousness +might come quickly through some kindly rock, and not in the slow agony +of suffocation.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was all over in a minute, for Nature knows her own mind when she is +in the tragic mood. She allows no time for unavailing tears. When, not +a minute afterwards, Paul Macleod's cry of "Marjory! Marjory!" with +its ring of glad certainty, echoed over the pool, there was not a sign +to show that she would ever give answer to his call again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory! Marjory! Marjory!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Pitiful appeal, though he knew it not, not even when a vague wonder at +her tardiness clouded the careless joy which had come to him with this +dawn of a new day, a new life. For the night seemed to have stolen his +fears as fit companions for its shadows, and left him nothing but his +hopes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Marjory! Marjory! Marjory!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Is there anything in the wide world so terrible as the slow dread +which comes as the minutes pass unavailingly by?--as the certainty +that something has gone amiss seems to grow from the very passion of +protestation against the possibility?--and then, when fear has gone, +and unknown grief is the companion of the fruitless search, in which a +wild hope will spring up sometimes to intensify the pain? Of such +things all men may surely pray that fancy, and not memory, may speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Tom Kennedy's letter--lighter than the love which had penned +it--that gave the first clue, and the hope went out from Paul +Macleod's face for ever when his quick eye found it like a foam bubble +in a backwater near the ford.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will be in the Long Pool we must be looking," whispered the rough, +tender voices to each other, but Paul heard. Paul knew, Paul +understood what would come--if not that night, then the next day--or +the next.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Fate was merciful, and did not prolong the agony.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't look, laird! Oh, my dear! you that I carried in my arms as a +laddie--don't look," sobbed old Macpherson, as, with the first streak +of the following dawn, the men who had been working all the night long +bent over the oil-strewn, torch-lit depth through which the grapnel +came up, slowly, heavily.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Paul was no coward. He had looked death steadily in the face many +and many a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Stand back, John!" he said quietly. "I'll lift her in."</p> + +<p class="normal">And as he held her there in his arms while they drifted down stream a +space to a shelving grassy bank, he bent over her calm face, and +thanked "whatever gods there be," passionately, for the gift of that +sharp cut just showing beneath the damp curls through which some +friendly rock had brought a quick end to life. As he looked up again, +the dawn was out-paling the stars, and the birds in the alder-bushes +were stirring into song.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What day is it?" he asked, drearily, of old John; and that sudden +forgetfulness was the only sign he showed at the time of the terrible +shock he had sustained. Yet none who noticed it could ever forget the +look which came to his face, when, guided by the clue given by the +child's cap still clenched in the girl's hand, a further search ended +in the discovery of little Paul's body, and Marjory's lover realised +that she must have lost her life in the effort to save his namesake. +Indeed, in after years, old John, telling the tale, would often say +that he never went in such fear of seeing murder done as when Mr. +Gillespie had suggested the touching propriety of burying the brave +girl and her little friend side by side. He had even taken the bunch +of rowan berries found in the boy's fingers from the girl's breast, +where they had laid them, as no doubt they had been intended to lie, +saying, in a sort of fury, that nothing of the child's should come +near her. But beyond that he made no sign.</p> + +<p class="normal">And old John said true. Paul Macleod came back courteous and calm +among the many mourners who climbed one sunny afternoon to that sunny +spot on the southern slope of the hill, where Marjory had said the +light lingered longest. James Gillespie, his fair, florid face gaining +a dignity from his office, leading the way bareheaded, in his white +surplice, through the dead bracken and over the heathery slopes, while +his voice steadied itself over the words of consolation and hope. Tom +Kennedy, and Will, the laird, and Mr. Wilson--who, old as he was, +would not be gainsaid--carrying their dear dead, resting at times upon +some lichen-covered rock, or aided by other hands, tenderly, +sorrowfully, willing as theirs, falling for a time a step behind. All, +save Paul, who, setting even old John's offer of help aside, kept his +clasp tight upon the tough ash staff until, as they passed the +wishing-well on their downward way, he broke it across his knee +fiercely and flung the pieces on the dismal little pile. And then it +was that Father Macdonald, who, with sad, serene eyes, and softly +moving lips, had followed at a little distance, pleaded with the Great +Judge for another soul needing mercy.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Paul came back courteous and calm also from that smaller, drearier +procession, which laid the new-found heir among his forbears in the +stone vault belonging to the Macleods, far over by Ardmore point, in +the old kirk-yard. Dr. Kennedy, knowing all the circumstances, would +fain have spared the empty honour to the dead boy, but all his +arguments in favour of silence were unavailing. So old Peggy's little +grandson rested under a broad, silver plate, proclaiming him to be the +only son of Ronald Alister Macleod, of Gleneira, and Janet Duncan, his +wife. The sleet showers were slanting bitterly; and the outgoing tide, +buffeting with the westerly wind, almost swamped the little white +coffin as it lay in the bottom of the "Tubhaneer," while Paul sate +steering for the point steadily, as if he were not chilled through to +the marrow of both body and soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the drenching he got, no doubt, as he stood alone, as chief +mourner, on the bare, wind-swept point, that made him look so ghastly. +He said so, at any rate, when Dr. Kennedy, noting his appearance with +professional eyes, recommended him to go to bed. It was Indian ague, +he said, nothing more; he was subject to it; had, in fact, had several +similar attacks at Gleneira.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he retired, courteously, calmly as ever, to the Big House, where he +set aside all offers of companionship. And there, Dr. Kennedy, with +that look on Paul Macleod's handsome face haunting his professional +soul, sought him next morning on pretence of saying goodbye. But by +that time Paul was past anything save that odd, rhythmical tossing +from side to side of the restless head, which comes when the brain is +conscious of nothing but the fever raging in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lord George came down at once, gentle as any woman, and surprised to +hear the long tale Dr. Kennedy had to tell, for Paul had only written +of the sad accident. And Lady George followed, with two plain, black +dresses and a little assortment of highly starched linen collars and +cuffs in her portmanteaux, ready at all points to take up the rôle of +nurse; though why a woman should nurse better in handcuffs, which +prevent all natural play of the wrist, and why a patient should be +supposed to like the dangling of starched cap-strings in his face, is +another matter.</p> + +<p class="normal">And still the head tossed restlessly, and the parched lips went on +muttering, muttering. At the first, of many things faintly articulate; +many things, and of many places; then, by degrees, centring round one +time, one scene; finally emerging into a monotonous whisper--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Violet! Violet! Violet!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think we had better telegraph for Mrs. Vane," said Dr. Kennedy, +looking grave; "his mind has gone back to that time when she nursed +him through something similar. It is often so in brain cases, and we +cannot afford to lose a chance of saving him--sane. That previous +attack lessens the chance terribly."</p> + +<p class="normal">She came, of course, without an instant's delay, as she would have +come to anyone who needed her extraordinary tact and care; and Dr. +Kennedy gave a sigh of relief when, stealing in for a look about dawn +on the next day, he found her seated on a stool beside the low camp +bed, one hand laid lightly on the sick man's breast, the other as +lightly keeping the ice bag on his forehead, while he lay still, quite +still.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I used to do it before," she whispered, "and it seems to soothe +him--do you think it foolish?"</p> + +<p class="normal">For Dr. Kennedy, with a smile, had looked round the room, wondering at +the woman's quick touch which had transformed it. A night-light +flickered from the floor in one corner, the curtains had gone and the +bed was shifted to the centre, so that the mingled light of waning +night and dawning day fell sideways on the patient, and he could have +seen--if he could have seen at all--the door set wide open to the long +corridor to which some of Peter Macpherson's orange trees, the scarlet +hibiscus, and a few hot-house plants gave the look of a verandah. A +faint scent from them filled the air, and the large, empty room, +almost devoid of furniture, had lost its snug English comfort +altogether.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Foolish?" he echoed, going to the window, and looking out, absently. +"Who can say? The brain knows its own secrets. He seems to have +responded to the suggestion, and, for all we can tell, is ten years +younger to-day than he was yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish he were! I wish he were." The whisper came so passionately, +that Dr. Kennedy turned and looked at her curiously, sadly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is no worse, surely," she asked, rising softly, her hands seeming +to melt away, as it were, leaving the sick man unconscious of their +going. "Surely he is not worse?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! I was only thinking it might be better for us all if his memory +stopped where it is now--if he could forget."</p> + +<p class="normal">She clasped her hands together tightly. "If he could!--if only he +could forget--I would not care how much I remembered."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_epilogue" href="#div1Ref_epilogue">EPILOGUE.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was once more autumn. The rowans were as red, the heather as +purple, as it had been in the year when Jeanie Duncan had sate for her +portrait and Marjory Carmichael had taken her holiday; as red, as +purple, as both will be until--</p> + +<div class="poem1"> +<p class="i6">"The slow sea rise and the sheer cliff crumble,</p> +<p class="t2">Till terrace and meadow the deep gulfs drink,</p> +<p class="t0">Till the strength of the waves of the high tides humble</p> +<p class="t2">The fields that lessen, the rocks that shrink."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">For Nature is supremely indifferent whether she gives birth to fools +or knaves, or whether the Great Reaper fills his sheaf with wheat or +tares.</p> + +<p class="normal">The evening shadows were lengthening in the Glen, and from the little +school-house by the horse-chestnut tree the cadence of children's +voices rose and fell over the stirring measure of a processional hymn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not so fast! not so fast! who told you to gallop it like that?" cried +a smartly dressed young woman at the harmonium; a young lady with that +curious resemblance to a commonplace book, which the profession of +teaching brings to all but clever faces.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Marjory was saying it should be gay-like," murmured a rebellious +voice among the elder scholars; the younger pausing with awed glances +at the only authority they had known.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then she was wrong," retorted the Reverend James Gillespie's owner. +"It should be stately and solemn as befits a--a hymn. Don't you agree +with me, James?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perfectly, perfectly. The Bishop agrees also." His face beamed +unalloyed content; for he had read "dust to dust, ashes to ashes," +over many a coffin since his voice broke down one November morning +some years ago, and the memory of one funeral scarcely troubles him +more than another; each and all have a place in that growing sense of +his sacerdotal position, which makes him greatly regret that in those +earlier days he did not wear a biretta when exercising his priestly +function in committing his flock to their graves.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the evening shadows were lengthening also along the white road +that curves and crests the points and bays of the loch. A glint of +light where Paul had stood like St. Christopher, a deeper shadow where +Marjory had sate listening to the blabbing of the waves. Light and +shadow mingled in the woods, through which they had run hand in hand, +though with every moment the sunset glow left some golden birch or +scarlet cherry; and down among the tall, silver firs by the house a +faint white mist was beginning to rise over the trim lawns.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is growing chill, Paul!" said an anxious voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be continued in our next, Blazes; your aunt is inexorable!" The +tone was gracious as ever, but thinner, as Paul Macleod rose from his +lounge chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, Uncle Paul! How many runs did you make?" cried Blasius, eagerly. +It had been his first term at Harrow, and this tale he had been +hearing of past prowess in cricket was too interesting to be thus left +pointless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How many? I forget. Perhaps your aunt will remember----"</p> + +<p class="normal">A little spasm of pain passed over Violet's face. "How lazy you are, +Paul! You will end by remembering nothing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why should I remember when you do it so much better than I? It was a +good lot, Blasius, and I recollect being awfully proud at the time. +But these things slip by, somehow. When you are as old as I am----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You really ought to go in, Paul!" came that warning voice, with a +studied patience in it. "This is not the Riviera, remember."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, worse luck! I suppose it is the proper thing to come down here, +but it is an awful bore in some ways. Ah! there's George, back from +the hill--well, he likes it, that is one comfort."</p> + +<p class="normal">Blanche stood at the jasmine-covered porch to welcome her husband, for +the advancing years had, as is so often the case, decided her final +selection of a part in favour of the devoted wife--the fact being that +she was becoming a trifle too matronly for most of the others, while +the growing independence of the children stood in the way of a +satisfactory rendering of the maternal one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Taking him in? That is right," she said approvingly, to her +sister-in-law, as Paul, on his wife's arm, paused to look at the birds +old John's son was laying out on the step. Old John himself, sturdy on +his legs as ever, but mindful of the dignity due to head keeperdom, +standing by. And then, not to be outdone, she turned to her husband. +"George! you ought not to dawdle about in wet feet. Please go in, too, +and change."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wet? My dear, the moors are as dry as a bone. Aren't they, John?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As dry as they will have been these fifty years, whatever," replied +the old man. "As dry as they would be that summer, Gleneira, when you +and----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do come in, Paul!" came the anxious voice, again. "Look, how the mist +is rising----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"By Jove! that's a fine young bird!" interrupted Paul, inconsequently, +with a flash of his old interest. "By the way, Violet, you might tell +the cook not to roast them to cinders as she did last night, and, +while I remember it, I wish you'd speak to Cunningham about that +horse----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Really, Paul!" said his sister; "I think you might give the grooms +their orders yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">He smiled kindly, and laid his other hand upon his wife's, as together +they went slowly to the smoking-room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid I give you a lot of trouble," he said apologetically, as +he held the door open for her to pass through--"but I have such a +wretched memory, and you are so kind."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't say that, Paul! don't say that; what does it matter? I am quite +happy if you are."</p> + +<p class="normal">She watched his face curiously, eagerly, almost passionately; but she +saw nothing save that easy, kindly smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had her wish been fulfilled? and had he left memory behind in the +Valley of the Shadow, where he had left so much of the old Paul? She +could scarcely tell, for he never spoke of that one summer, but lived +his life as if it had not been.</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + + +<p class="normal">But the light was lingering still on that steep slope, whence the +purple cloud of Iona could be seen lying like an amethyst on the +golden shield of the sea--for the sky was hung with blood-red pennants +as if the hosts of heaven were going forth to war.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Tom Kennedy looked out over sea and sky from the gravestone which +told that Marjory Carmichael died in attempting to save the life of +Paul Macleod. There was a bunch of red rowans on the green grass. He +brings one every year when, his brief holiday over, he climbs over the +hill--as he did on the last day he saw her--on his way back to the +work-a-day world, and that hand-to-hand fight with Death in others +which will cease with his own.</p> + +<p class="normal">His eyes are troubled, for it comes back to him every year as he sits +there that he might have saved her--if he had known.</p> + +<p class="normal">Known what? A smile comes to his face as he takes out an old letter +and reads the last words she ever wrote to him, "Yet I stretch out my +hands to you and say, again and again, Friendship is a bigger thing +than Love!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The mists are rising even there as he turns to breast the hill, the +cloud wreaths sweep solemnly in from the sea in stately curves, and as +he pauses on the summit for a last look downwards, lo! there is +nothing at all in earth, or sea, or sky, save himself and a grey, +encircling mist. Love and Friendship, Life and Death, Sunshine and +Shade! Where are they?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Red Rowans, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED ROWANS *** + +***** This file should be named 40141-h.htm or 40141-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/1/4/40141/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (New York Public Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Red Rowans + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: July 4, 2012 [EBook #40141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED ROWANS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (New York Public Library) + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=N48nAAAAMAAJ + (New York Public Library) + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + + RED ROWANS + + + + + + + RED ROWANS + + + + + BY + + MRS. F. A. STEEL + + AUTHOR OF "MISS STUART'S LEGACY," ETC. + + + + + + New York + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND LONDON + 1895 + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + Copyright, 1894, + By MACMILLAN AND CO. + + + + + + + RED ROWANS: A LOVE STORY. + + + + + PROLOGUE. + + "Love took up the Harp of Life and + .... smote the Chord of Self." + + +"Am I really like yon?" + +A small brown hand pointed peremptorily to a finished drawing on a +sketcher's easel hard by, and a pair of blue eyes frowned somewhat +imperiously at a young man, who, with one knee on the ground, was +busily searching in the long grass for a missing brush, while palette +and colours lay beside him ready to be packed up. The frown, however, +was lost on the back of his head, for he gave a decisive denial, +without turning round to look at the questioner. + +The girl's eyes shifted once more to the drawing, and an odd, wistful +curiosity came to her face as she took a step nearer to the easel. +What she saw there was really rather a clever study of herself as she +had been standing a few moments before, erect, yet with a kind of +caress towards the branch full of scarlet rowan berries, which one +round firm arm bent down from the tree above, against her glowing +face. There was a certain strength in the treatment; the artist had +caught something of the glorious richness of colouring in the figure +and its background, but the subject had been too much for him, and he +admitted it frankly. In truth, it would have needed a great painter to +have done Jeanie Duncan justice as she stood under the rowan tree that +autumn evening, and Paul Macleod was at best but a dabbler in art. +Still, it was a truthful likeness, though the nameless charm which +belongs to one face and not to another of equal beauty of form--in +other words, the mysterious power of attraction--had escaped pencil +and brush. There was nothing spiritual in this charm; it was +simply the power which physical beauty has sometimes to move the +imagination--almost the spiritual nature of men; and, such as it was, +it breathed from every curve of Jeanie Duncan's face and form. She was +very young, not more than seventeen at the most, and, as yet, in that +remote Highland glen, where every girl, regardless of her appearance, +had a jo, the pre-eminence of her own good looks had never dawned upon +her. So there was no mock humility in the words which followed on +rather a long pause. + +"I'll no be sae bonnie, I'm thinking." + +Something in her tone struck through even her companion's absorption; +for Paul Macleod was given to forgetting his world over trivialities. +He looked up sharply, rose hastily, stepped across to where she stood, +and laid his hand on her shoulder in easy familiarity. + +"Why, Jeanie, what's the matter now?" + +She moved away impatiently from his touch, and, as if from habit, her +arm, showing white under the russet bedgown she wore, went up to the +branch above her head. And there she stood once more with the ripe red +berries against her ripe red lips. + +"I'm sayin' I'll no be sae bonnie as yon." + +"Your eyes are not quite so blue, certainly; your cheeks not quite so +pink, your hair not quite so golden, nor your----" + +"That's enough, sir; ye needn't fash yourself more. I'm no for sale by +public roup. I was sayin' myself that I'll no be near sae bonnie as +yon." + +The rowan berries were being viciously stripped from their stems, and +allowed to fall in a defiant patter on the ground; yet there were +audible tears in the young voice. + +"You little goose! I didn't know you were so vain, Jeanie," he began. + +"I'm no vain," she interrupted, sharply. "It's no that, Mr. Paul. I +dinna care--at least no much--but if a lassie's bonnie----" she paused +suddenly and let the branch go. It swung back, sending a red shower of +overripe berries pattering round the girl and the man. + +"Well, Jeanie! If a lassie's bonnie?" repeated Paul Macleod, watching +the rapid changes in her vivid face with amused admiration; "if a +lassie's bonnie, what happens?" + +She confronted him with a certain dignity new to his experience of +her. + +"Ye ken fine, Mr. Paul, the difference it makes to a lassie if she is +real bonnie. Wasn't it yourself was lilting the 'Beggar-Maid' at me +the morn?" + +"Gracious Heavens, Jeanie! Ambitious as well! On which of the crowned +heads of Europe have you set your young affections? Tell me, that I +may kill him!" + +His arm slipped easily to her waist, and he bent to look in the face +which fell as it were before his touch. Yet it was paler than it had +been; for Jeanie Duncan neither giggled nor blushed. + +"It's no matter where I set my heart," she said, curtly, "when I'm no +bonnie." + +"Who said so? Not I," he remarked, coolly. + +"You said my eyes were no sae blue, my lips no sae red, my hair----" + +"Thank heaven they're not! Why, Jeanie! You must surely know that you +are a thousand times more beautiful than that--that chromo-lithograph +over there, which is only fit for a second-class Christmas number or +an undergraduate's room!" + +She withdrew herself from his arm, looking at him doubtfully, ready to +flare up in an instant. + +"You're no pokin' fun at me?" + +"Poking fun! Why"--his voice deepened suddenly, he stretched his hand +towards her again--"you are simply the most beautiful woman I have +ever seen." + +There was no mistaking the ring of reality in his tone, and yet there +was nothing emotional about it. He seemed to be asserting the fact as +much for his own benefit as for hers; and she also was lost in +herself, in her own eagerness, as she looked again at the portrait. + +"But it's real bonnie, Mr. Paul! Will it be as bonnie as the +Beggar-Maid?" + +"Still harping upon kings!" he said, coming back to her lightly. "Take +my advice, Jeanie, and be content with commoners." + +"But if I'm no content?" + +"Uneasy lies the head! Don't you remember my reading that to you the +other day?" + +She flashed round on him in an instant, superb in her quick response, +her quick resentment. + +"I mind mony a thing ye've read, mony a thing ye've said, mony a thing +ye've done. I've a deal to mind; too much, may be." + +It came as a shock to Paul Macleod. For his heart had, as yet, an +uncomfortable knack of acknowledging the truth. His head, however, +came to the rescue as usual, by swift denial that those long days +spent in painting Jeanie's portrait under the rowan tree were hardly +wise. + +"One can't have too much of a good thing, and it has been pleasant, +hasn't it?" + +"Mither says it's bin a sair waste o' time," replied the girl, +evasively. + +"I haven't wasted mine," retorted the young man airily. "Just look at +that masterpiece! And I've been as good as a quarter's schooling to +you, little one; think of the information I've imparted to my model, +the books I've lent, the--the things I've taught----" + +"Aye. You've taught me a deal. I ken that fine." + +He gave an impatient toss of his head as he turned away to pack up his +belongings; the girl helping him silently as if accustomed to the +task. + +Not a soul was in sight, though a wreath of blue peat smoke behind a +neighbouring clump of firs showed the near presence of a cottage. Save +for this one sign there was no trace of humanity in the scene except +those two in the foreground; both in their way types of youth, health, +and beauty--of physical nature at its best. But the solitude was not +silent. A breeze coming up with sunsetting rustled the rowan leaves, +and surged among the silver firs, in echo, as it were, to the long +hush of distant breakers on a rocky shore which came rhythmically to +mingle with the nearer rush of the burns streaking the hillside; while +far and near the air was filled with the wailing cry of lambs newly +separated from the ewes; most melancholy and depressing of all sounds, +especially when the sadness of coming night settles over earth and +sky, sending the shadows to creep up the hillsides and drive the +sunshine before their purple battalions. A veritable battle, this, of +assault and defence; each point of vantage, each knoll held by the +besieged until, surrounded by the enemy, the sunlight dies by inches, +gallantly, hopelessly, and the struggle begins again higher up. + +The girl and boy--for Paul Macleod was still in the early +twenties--felt oppressed by their surroundings, and after the manner +of youthful humanity they resented a feeling which had no foundation +in themselves. Were they not happy, alive to the uttermost, ready to +face the unknown, eager for the experience which the world seemed to +find so dreary? Why should they be saddened by things which were not +as _they_ were; which had had their day, or did not care to have it? + +"Come with me as far as the gate, Jeanie," he said, impatiently. "Ah! +I know you don't generally, but you might to-day. Then you can lock +it. If any of old Mackenzie's lambs were to get through to their +mothers he would lay the blame on you." + +"Why not to you, Mr. Paul?" + +He laughed rather contemptuously. "Because the road leads to your +croft, not mine; besides, no one ever lays blame to me. I never get +into trouble, somehow. I have all the luck that way, it seems, while +my brother--who is really no worse, I suppose--is always in hot water. +I never saw such a fellow." + +"They're saying," began Jeanie--half to cover the fact that she had +taken the first step down the sheep track--"that the laird----" she +stopped abruptly and looked furtively at her companion. + +"You may as well tell me what they are saying, Jeanie," he remarked, +coolly. "You always have to in the end, you know, and so there is no +use in making a fuss." + +She was not a girl to be at every one's command, but sooner or later +most women find it pleasant to be under orders, for a time, at any +rate; doubtless as the result of that past slavery of which we hear so +much nowadays. The feeling will be eradicated in the next generation +or so, but it must be allowed for in this. + +"They're sayin' Gleneira will have to sell the place, and"--she looked +at the face beside her critically, as if to judge how far she might +go--"they're sayin' it's a pity you were no the laird, Mr. Paul, for +you love every stick and stone about, and he is never coming near it +at all, at all." + +The young man walked on in silence. + +"Did ye know that I've never seen the laird, Mr. Paul, though me an' +mither has lived at the croft since I can mind anything; but, then, +she is no going down the strath, and he is no carin' for the fishin', +as you are; you're knowin' every stone in the river, I'm thinkin'." + +He turned to her with a quick laugh as if to dismiss the subject. "And +every face beside it; for I like pretty things, and some of them are +pretty. I'll tell you what it is, Jeanie, Gleneira's the most +beautiful place I ever saw; and you are the most beautiful girl in it. +Beggar-Maids haven't a chance, so I shall expect to be invited to your +nuptials with King Cophetua; a poor laird's Jock like myself can't +compete with a crowned head." The bitterness of his tone had more to +do with the prospect of having to let Gleneira go, than to the +manifest difficulty of appropriating Jeanie Duncan without offending +his head or her heart. + +"There's better worth having than crowns, maybe," said the girl, +doggedly. + +"Right! crowned heads may be penniless; let us say an old monarch wi' +siller." + +"There's better worth having than siller, maybe." + +Paul looked at her curiously. Apparently it was not for nothing that +he had amused his sitter by reciting the almost endless repertoire of +old ballads and songs in which he had taken delight since his earliest +boyhood. For it was part of his rather complex nature that he should +admire the romance and sentiment in which, with the easily adopted +cynicism of a clever lad, he professed to disbelieve. It suited him as +a refuge from himself; and yet the fact that Jeanie Duncan had +accepted this admiration as a proof of eternal truth did not displease +him. + +"Better worth than siller!" he echoed, wilfully provoking the answer +which he knew would come. "Why! there is nothing better worth than +siller--in the end." + +"Aye, there is," she put in confidently, "there's love. You've tell't +me the sang, many a time;--It's love that gar's the world gang round." + +Was it? They stood at the gate together, she holding it open for him +to pass, and the question came upon him suddenly. The old question +which comes to most men. Was it worth it? Should he, or should he not, +go the commonplace way of the world, and take what he could get? Yes, +if he could take it without bringing something into his life for ever, +which in all human probability he would not care to keep--_for ever_. +Even memory was a tie; and yet--his heart beat quicker, and the +knowledge that passion was beginning to disturb the balance of his +reason came home to him, bringing with it the same quick denial with +which he had met his own doubt as to the wisdom of the past. It was +his way of defending the emotional side of his nature. + +"Take care, Jeanie!" he said, seizing on the first commonplace detail +which met his eye, "that gate is newly tarred; you'll dirty your +hands." + +For the first time the girl challenged him deliberately. + +"I'm no carin'," she said defiantly, "my hands is used to dirt. I'm +not like you. It'll no hurt me." + +She closed the gate behind him sturdily, fastening the padlock, and +then without another word turned to go. In so doing she roused in an +instant all his obstinacy, all the imperious contrariety which would +not tolerate the decision of another, even though it tallied with his +own. + +"Are you going without saying good-bye, Jeanie? That's rude," he +began, stretching his hand over the gate, and once more wilfully +provoking a situation. "Nonsense! The least you can do is to shake +hands, and say thank you for all the benefits----" + +He paused, and the next instant had vaulted over the gate and was +kissing away her tears and calling everything to witness that he had +not meant to be unkind, that she was the dearest little girl in +creation. Both of which assertions were absolutely true to him at the +time; she had looked too bewilderingly sweet in her sudden burst of +grief for prudence. + +For the next half-hour, if there be another motive power besides Love +behind the veiled mystery of Life bidding the world go round, these +two young people did not trouble themselves about it. The descending +mists crept down to meet the shadows, the shadows crept up to meet the +mists, but sea and sky and land were full of light for the boy and +girl absorbed in the vast selfishness of passion. So lost in the +glamour with which the great snare for youth and freedom is gilded, +that neither of them thought at all of the probable ending to such a +fair beginning. Jeanie, because to her this new emotion was something +divine; Paul, because her estimate of it aided a certain +fastidiousness which, in the absence of better motives, had served +hitherto to keep him fairly straight. So, in a measure, the idyllic +beauty of the position as they sate, side by side on a lichen-covered +stone looking into each other's eyes, and supremely satisfied with +each other's appearance, served to make Paul Macleod's professions +more passionate than they would have been had she been less innocent. + +It was not until with a wrench he had acknowledged that it really was +time for her to be going home, and he was striding down the road +alone, that a chill came over him with the question-- + +"_Que diable allait il faire dans cette galere?_" + +It was one which, like a floating log after the rapids are past, +always came to the surface of Paul Macleod's life when the turmoil of +emotion was over. This time it brought an unpleasant surprise with it, +for to tell truth he had imagined himself secure against assault. He +had considered the situation calmly; had, so to speak, played with it, +asserting his power of evading its natural consequences if he chose, +of accepting them if he considered it worth while. And now, with his +heart still beating, his face still flushed, and with Jeanie's kisses +still tingling on his lips, it was no use denying that he had been +taken by storm. And it annoyed him. Suddenly the thought that it was +just the sort of scrape his brother would have fallen into came to +enhance the odd contempt which Paul Macleod's head always had for his +heart. The certainty, however, that he shared that brother's extremely +emotional nature was so unwelcome that it served for a time to +strengthen him in denial of his own weakness of will. After all, +impulse was the essence of passion. Had he not, recognising this, +voluntarily bade reason and prudence step aside. Would not any man +have been a fool to think twice of the future with Jeanie Duncan's +face ready to be kissed? It was worth something; in a way it was worth +all the rest of the world put together. So the serio-comedy might have +ended as such serio-comedies usually do but for the merest triviality; +nothing more nor less than the perception that he had tarred his hands +in vaulting over the gate! The offending stains sobered him, as no +advice, no reasoning, no reproof, could have done. To begin with, +there was no possibility of denying to himself that, be Love what it +may, he, Paul Macleod, would never in a calm moment of volition have +dirtied his hands in that fashion. He hated to be touched or soiled by +common things, without, as it were, a "by your leave." Then there was +a prophetic tinge in the consequences of his setting barriers at +defiance which appealed to his imagination. After all, would it be +worth while to carry about for the rest of your life an indelible mark +of a past pleasure, which could scarcely fail to become a disagreeable +reminiscence, no matter what was the _denouement_ of the present +situation? Marriage? Hardly that. Not only was he too poor to marry +for love, but was it by any means certain that such love as this was +worth the sacrifice of freedom. On the other hand, the only possible +alternative was, to begin with, such shocking bad form. The Macleods +of Gleneira had always kept straight in Gleneira itself. Besides, if +he harmed the girl in any way, he knew perfectly well that the regret +would be a tie to him all his life. That was the worst of having an +imagination. Other men might do it; he could not, if only for his own +sake. Then there was Jeanie, to think of poor little Jeanie, who +didn't even grasp the fact that she was in danger--who would---- + +Ah! Was it worth while? The question came back insistently, as, with a +plentiful supply of the salt butter recommended by the housekeeper at +Gleneira, he tried to get rid of the tar. He was no milksop, though he +liked delicate surroundings, and found a certain refinement necessary +to his comfort, but, if he had no objections to soiling his hands in +obedience to his own sovereign will and pleasure, he was always eager +to have them clean again. And so it was with his life. + +Poor little Jeanie Duncan! She in her innocent self-abandonment would +have welcomed anything which would have marked her as his indelibly. +And yet a real regard for her prompted his calculations. If he had +held her cheaper he would not have dreaded the remorse which would be +a tie to him all his life. It never occurred to him that this +squeamishness had come too late, or that the fine-weather flirtation +had in itself done the mischief; that the injury to an innocent girl +lies in the mind only. + +"Tell Donald that I shall want the light cart at five to-morrow +morning. I have to catch the Oban steamer," he said to the astonished +housekeeper as he sate down to his solitary dinner; for he had come to +Gleneira with the intention of spending long-leave in pottering about +the old place with gun and rod. + +So while Jeanie Duncan slept the sleep of perfect content, her lover +drove past the cottage in the grey mist of a rainy autumn morning +feeling intensely virtuous; and all the more so because his heart +really ached, even at the sight of the tarred gate. And no doubt +nine-tenths of the men he knew would have applauded his resolution in +running away, patted him on the back, told him he was a very fine +fellow, and said that but for his self-control the affair might have +ended miserably. Perhaps they would have been right; though, as a +matter of fact, Paul Macleod was running away from the natural +consequence of his own actions. + +Jeanie Duncan read his note of farewell with a scared white face. It +was gentle, regretful, kindly, and it killed her belief in Love for +ever. And unfortunately Love had not come to her in its sensual guise. +It had represented to her all the Truth, and Goodness, and Beauty in +the world. So she lost a good deal; and naturally enough a great +restlessness and desire for something to fill the empty space took +possession of her. Finally, when Spring drew on, and the first broods +were trying their wings, she--to use the phrase adopted by those who +tired of life in the remote glens--"thought of service in Glasgow." +Vague euphemism for much seeing of that unseen world beyond the hills. + +But while Paul Macleod in his travels carried with him the +consciousness of virtue, she had for memory the knowledge that she had +been weighed in the balance and found wanting. + +Two very different legacies from the same past. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + +Within the long, low cottage the black smoke-polished rafters rose in +inky darkness above the rough whitewashed walls, and the mud floor +showed the traces of past leaks in many a hill and hollow. The two +tiny windows were set breathlessly agape, and through the open door a +flood of hot bright sunshine threw a bar of mote-speckled light across +the room, gilding the heads of the scholars who sat swinging their +legs on the benches and sending a sort of reflected glint from the +white wall up into the sombre shadow of the roof. Such was the +Episcopal Grant-in-Aid School of Gleneira one July day, some ten years +after Paul Macleod had driven down in the mist to catch the Oban +steamer. + +Without, was a pale, heat-blanched sky set in tall spectral-looking +hills which had lost contour and individuality in a haze, blending +rock and heather, grass and fern, hollows and heights, into one +uniform tint of transparent blue. Between the mountains there was a +little level growth of green corn flecked by yellow marigolds, white +ox-eyes, and scarlet poppies; then a stretch of dusty road, ending in +cool shadows of sycamore and pine, beside the school-house garden. + +A wonderful garden this. Of Liliputian size, yet holding in its tiny +clasp a specimen of almost every plant that grows and blows. Three +potato haulms, four cabbages, a dozen onions, half a yard of peas; a +tuft of parsley, two bronze-leaved beet-roots, a head of celery. This, +flanked by a raspberry cane, a gooseberry bush, and supported by an +edge of strawberry plants, constituted the kitchen garden. Beyond, in +the trim box-edged border leading to the school-house door, were +pansies, roses, geraniums, lilies, and peonies; every conceivable +flower, each family represented by one solitary scion. Last, not +least, the quaint drops of the Dielytra; which the children with +awestruck voices call "The Bishop." For when you strip away the pink, +sheathing petals, is there not inside a man in full white lawn +sleeves? And is not a man in lawn sleeves a disturbing element in a +remote Highland glen, where half the people are rigid Presbyterians? +Here in this little garden the bees hum lazily and the butterflies +come and go; sometimes one, misled by the stream of sunshine pouring +through the open door, floats in among the yawning scholars, rousing +them to momentary alertness and a faint wonder as to the ultimate fate +of the wanderer; whether he will philosophically give up the +enterprise or, foolishly persistent, lose himself amid the +smoke-blackened rafters. + +The passing interest, however, dies down again into the sleepy stolid +indifference which is the outward and visible sign of that inward +desire for freedom felt by each child in the school. No keen longing, +but simply a dull wish to be out on the hillside, down by the burn, +under the trees; anywhere away from catechisms, collects, or shoes and +stockings. The last being the worst infliction of all to these wild +little Highland colts accustomed for six days of the week to bare +feet, since the coarse knitted hose and hobnailed boots belonging to +the seventh are a direful aggravation of the tortures of Sunday +school; while even the glorious gentility bestowed by a pair of side +springs is but poor compensation for the discomfort to the wearer. + +Perhaps that was the reason why each pair of legs on the benches +swayed helplessly to the rhythm of a singularly unmelodious hymn which +the scholars were singing, led by the master in a muffled nasal chant. +The tune itself was old and quaint, having in its recurring semitones +a barbaric monotony which a lighter phrase here and there showed was +not so much due to the composition in itself as to its present +interpreter. The words were still more quaint, forming a sort of +Litany of the Prophets, with innumerable verses and many vain +repetitions. + +Nevertheless, it was an evident favourite with the children; partly, +it may be hoped, from its own intrinsic merits, mostly, it is to be +feared, from the startling novelties in Scripture history which it was +capable of promulgating when, as in the present case, the schoolmaster +was engaged in his secondary profession of postmaster. + +As the tune rose and fell, there came every now and again a pause, so +sudden, so absolute that a passer-by on the dusty road might well have +asked himself if some direful catastrophe had not occurred. Nothing of +the sort. A glance within would have shown him everything at its +usual; the scholars in rows, from the kilted urchin of four--guiltless +of English--to whom school is the art of sitting still, to the girl of +fourteen, blissfully conscious of a new silk handkerchief and the +admiration it excites in the bashful herd-boy on the opposite bench. +In the corner, at a table with a slanting desk, the master was busy +sorting the letters which Donald Post, as he is called, has just +brought in; the latter meanwhile mopping his hot face and disburdening +his bag of minor matters in the shape of tea, sugar, and bread, and +himself of the budget of news he has accumulated during his +fourteen-mile walk; in an undertone, however, for the hymn goes on. + +"_Whair is noo' the pro-phet Dan'l?_" droned the master, followed by a +wavering choir of childish trebles and gruff hobbledehoy voices, +"_Whair is noo' the pro-phet Dan'l?_" + +The exigencies of the tune necessitated a repetition of the momentous +question again and yet again, the tune dying away into a pause, during +which the master's attention wandered to a novel superscription on a +letter. The children held their breath, the hum of the bees outside +became audible, all nature seemed in suspense awaiting the answer. + +"I'm thinking it will be from Ameriky," hazarded the master +thoughtfully to Donald Post, and, the solution seeming satisfactory, +he returned with increased energy to the triumphant refrain + +"_Safe intil the Pro-mised Land_." + +The children caught it up _con amore_ with a vague feeling of relief. +A terrible thing indeed, to Presbyterians or Episcopalians alike, if +the Prophet Daniel had been left hanging between heaven and another +place! So great a relief, that the gay progress of the tune and the +saint was barely marred by the master's renewed interest in a +postcard; which distraction led him into making an unwarrantable +statement that-- + +"_He went up in a fiery char-yot_." + +True, the elder pupils tittered a little over the assertion, but the +young ones piped away contentedly, vociferously. The Promised Land +once attained, the means were necessarily quite a secondary +consideration; and mayhap to their simple imaginings a fiery chariot +was preferable to the den of lions. + +"_Where is noo' the twal A-postles?_" led off the master again, after +a whispered remark to Donald Post, which provoked so interesting a +reply that the fate of the twelve remained trembling in the balance +long enough for the old refrain to startle the scholars from growing +inattention. + +"_Safe intil the Promised Land_." + +The sound echoed up into the rafters. Truly a blessed relief to reach +the haven after delays and difficulties. + +"_They went through_"--began the master. But whether in orthodox +fashion it would have been "_great tri-bu-la-tion_," or whether, on +the principle of compensation, the den of lions would have been +allowed twelve saints, will never be known. The mote-speckled beam of +sunshine through the door was darkened by a slight girlish figure, the +children hustled to their feet with much clatter of the unaccustomed +boots and shoes, and the schoolmaster, drowning his last nasal note +under a guilty cough, busied himself over a registered letter. For +Miss Marjory Carmichael objected on principle to the Litany of the +Prophets. + +The rather imperious frown, struggling with an equally obstinate smile +which showed on the newcomer's face, vanished at the sight of Donald +Post. + +"Any for me?" she asked eagerly. It was a charming voice, full of +interest and totally devoid of anxiety. An acute ear would have told +at once that life had as yet brought nothing to the speaker which +would make post-time a delight or a dread. She had for instance no +right to expect a love-letter or a dun; and her eagerness was but the +desire of youth for something new, her expectancy only the girlish +belief in something which must surely come with the coming years. For +the rest, a winsome young lady with a pair of honest hazel eyes and +honest walking boots. + +"'Deed no, Miss Marjory," replied the schoolmaster, selecting a thin +envelope and holding it up shamelessly to the light--a bold stroke to +divert attention from the greater offence of the hymn, "Forbye ain wi' +the Glasky post-mark that will just be ain o' they weary circulars, +for as ye may see for yoursel', Miss Marjory, the inside o't's +leethographed." + +"Thank you, Mr. McColl," said the girl, severely, as she took the +letter, "but if you have no objection I should prefer finding out its +contents in a more straightforward fashion." + +"Surely! Surely!" Mr. McColl, having got a little more than he +expected, gave another exculpatory cough, and looked round to Donald +Post for moral support. Perhaps from a sense that he often needed a +like kindness, this was an appeal which the latter never refused, and +if he could not draw upon real reminiscence for a remark or anecdote +bearing on the point, he never had any hesitation in giving an +I. O. U. on fancy and so confounding his creditors. On the present +occasion, however, he was taken at a disadvantage, being engaged in +trying to conceal from Marjory's uncompromising eyes a bottle of +whiskey which formed a contraband item in his bag; consequently he had +only got as far as a preliminary murmur that "there wass a good mony +wass liking to be reading their ain letters but that it was James +Macniven"--when the schoolmaster plucked up courage for further +defence. + +"Aye! Aye! 'tis but natur'l to sinfu' man to be liking his ain. Not +that they circulars interestin' readin', even if a body is just set on +learnin' like Miss Marjory. And I'm thinkin' it will only be from a +wine mairchant likely. It's extraordinair' the number of circulars +they'll be sending out; but the whiskey is a' the same. Bad, filthy +stuff, what will give parral--y--ses to them that drinks it." + +This second bid for favour, accompanied as it was by an unfortunate +glance for support at Donald--who was struggling unsuccessfully with +the neck of the black bottle--proved too much for Marjory's dignity, +and the consequent smile encouraged Mr. McColl to go on, oblivious +apparently of his last remark. + +"And it's whiskey we shall all be wanting, and plenty of it, to drink +the young laird's health. But I was forgetting you could scarcely have +heard the news, Miss Marjory, since it is only coming in the post just +now. It is the laird, Miss Marjory, that is to be home to-morrow by +the boat!" + +The girl forgot an incipient frown in sheer surprise. "Here! Captain +Macleod?" + +"Aye! it's the machine is to meet him at the ferry, the light cart for +his traps, and the house to be ready." In his desire for importance +Mr. McColl in the last words had given himself away completely, for +Marjory lived at Gleneira Lodge with her cousin, the factor. + +"The house to be got ready! Impossible! Mrs. Cameron had heard nothing +when I came out. Where did the news come from?" Marjory's voice, +especially to those who knew and loved her, as these good folks did, +never admitted of refusal, so the postmaster coughed again between the +thumps of the office stamp, which he had begun to use in a hurry. + +"It will be Mistress Macniven that was telling Donald Post, and Donald +Post he will be telling it to me." The words came in a sort of +sing-song, echoed by Donald himself in a croon of conviction. + +"Hou-ay! it was Mistress Macniven wass tellin' it to me, and it iss me +that iss tellin' it to Mr. McColl, and it is fine news--tamn me, but +it is fine news whatever." + +A twinkle came to Marjory's eyes, for in her character of Grand +Inquisitress to the Glen, such startling language was too evidently a +drag across the trail. + +"But where did Mrs. Macniven hear it?" + +"Aye! aye!" assented Donald, rising to go abruptly, "that is what it +will be, but she was tellin' it to me, whatever." + +"I don't believe a word of it," continued the girl; "Captain Macleod +would have written to my cousin, I know. It is just idle gossip." + +This was too much for the postmaster, who posed, as well as he might, +for being an authority on such questions. In the present instance he +preferred the truth to incredulity. + +'"Deed, Miss Marjory," he said, with unblushing effrontery, "it'll +just be one o' they postcards." + +"Hou-ay!" echoed Donald, softly. "She'll be yon o' they postcards, +whatever." + +"A postcard! What postcard?" + +Mr. McColl handed her one with the air of a man who has done his duty. +"Will you be taking it with you, or shall I be giving it to Donald, +here?" + +Marjory looked at him with speechless indignation; at least, she +trusted that was her expression, though the keen sense of humour, +which is the natural heritage of the Celt, struggled with her dignity +at first. + +"I am really ashamed of you, Mr. McColl," she said at last, with +becoming severity. "Of you and Mrs. Macniven; you ought to know better +than pry into other folks' secrets." + +But now that the cat was out of the bag, the postmaster showed fight. +"'Deed, and I'm no for seeing it was a secret at all! It is a penny +people will be paying if they're needin' secrets. And the laird is not +so poor, but he would put a penny to it if he was caring; though yon +crabbed writin' they teach the gentlefolk nowadays, is as most as gude +as an envelope. Lorsh me! Miss Marjory, but my laddies would be +gettin' tawse for a postcard like yon. It was just awful ill to read." + +"To read! Mr. McColl, I really am surprised at you! It is most +dishonourable to read other people's letters," protested the girl, +with great heat. + +"Surely! Surely! but yon's a postcard." + +From this position he refused to budge an inch, being backed up in it +by Donald, who, being unable to read, was busy in stowing away various +letters in different hiding-places in his person, with a view to their +future safe delivery at the proper destination. "It was a ferry useful +thing," he said, "was postcards, and if Miss Marjory would mind it +wass, when old Mistress Macgregor died her sons wass sending to Oban +for the whiskey to come by the ferry. But it wass the day before the +buryin' that a postcard wass coming to say the whiskey was to be at +the pier. But young Peter's cart wass going to the ferry to fetch the +whiskey and he was meeting Peter and telling him of the postcard. So +if it had not been for the postcaird it wass no whiskey they would be +having to Mistress Macgregor's funeral, whatever." A judicious +mingling of fact and fiction which outlasted Marjory's wrath. She put +the cause of offence in her pocket, remarking pointedly that as Donald +had such a budget of important news to retail, that would most likely +be the quickest mode of delivery, and then turned to her task of +giving the children their usual Sunday lesson, which she began with +such a detailed homily on the duty towards your neighbour, that Mr. +McColl took the excuse of Donald's departure to accompany him into the +garden, and remain there until she passed on to another subject. + +For Marjory Carmichael ruled the Glen absolutely; perhaps because she +was the only young lady in it. Girls there were and plenty, but none +in her own class of life, and the result on her character had been to +make her at once confident and unconscious of her own powers. She was +not, for instance, at all aware what a very learned young person she +was, and the fact that she had been taught the differential calculus +and the theory of Greek accents affected her no more than it affects +the average young man of one-and-twenty. The consequence being a +restfulness which, as a rule, is sadly wanting in the clever girls of +the period, who never can forget their own superiority to the mass of +their female relations. Having been brought up entirely among men, her +strongest characteristic was not unnaturally an emotional reserve, and +up to the present her life had been pre-eminently favourable to the +preservation of that bloom which is as great a charm to a girl as it +is to a flower, and which morbid self-introspection utterly destroys. +To tell the truth, however, she was apt to be over contemptuous of +gush, while her hatred of scenes was quite masculine. In fact, at +one-and-twenty, Marjory knew more about her head than her heart, +chiefly because, as yet, the call on her affections had been very +small. Her father, a shiftless delicate dreamer, brought up by a +brother years his senior, had married against that brother's wish, the +offence being aggravated by the fact that the bride with whom he ran +away was his brother's ward. One of those calm but absolutely hopeless +quarrels ensued which come sometimes to divide one portion of a family +from the other, without apparently much regret on either side. The +young couple had the butterfly instinct, and lived for the present. +They also had the faculty for making friends in a light airy fashion, +and after various vicissitudes, borne with the gayest good temper, +some one managed to find him a post as consul in some odd little +seaport in the south, where sunshine kept them alive and contented +until Marjory chose to put in an appearance and cost her mother's +life. The blow seemed to make the husband still more dreamy and +unpractical than ever, and, when cholera carried him off suddenly four +years afterwards, he made no provision whatever for the child's +future, save a scrawl, written with difficulty at the last moment, +begging his brother to look after Marjory for the sake of old times. + +Perhaps it was the best thing he could have done, since nothing short +of despair would have affected Dr. Carmichael, who had by this time +become so absorbed in the effort to understand life that he had almost +forgotten how to feel it. People wondered why a man, who had gained a +European reputation for his researches, should have cared to linger on +in a remote country district like Gleneira, and some went so far as to +hint that something more than mere displeasure at his brother's +disobedience lay at the bottom of his dislike to the marriage and his +subsequent misanthropy. + +Be that as it may, his first look at little Marjory's curly head was +absolutely unemotional, and he remarked to his housekeeper that it was +a good thing she seemed to take more after her mother than her father, +who had always been a cause of anxiety. For the rest, it was a pity +she was not a boy. Orphans should always be boys; it simplified +matters so much for the relations. However, Mrs. Campbell, the +housekeeper, must make the best of it, and bring her up as a girl. He +could not. + +But Marjory took a different view of the situation, and before six +months had passed it dawned upon the Doctor that, as often as not, she +was trotting round with her doll in his shadow as he paced the garden, +or sitting in a corner of his study intent on some game of her own. + +She was a singularly silent unobjectionable child at such times; at +others, if he might judge from the sounds that reached him, quite the +reverse. He laid down his pen to watch her as she sate in the sunshine +by the window one day, and heard her instantly tell her doll, that if +she was naughty and disturbed Dr. Carmichael she must be sent into the +garden. Another day he came upon her in his chair poring over a Greek +treatise in an attitude which even he recognised as a faithful copy of +his own. Finally, he discovered that she had taught her doll to draw +geometrical figures such as she often saw on the papers littered about +the room. This palpable preference for him and his occupations being +distinctly flattering, he began to take more notice of her, and try +experiments with her memory. So, by degrees, becoming interested in +her quick intelligence, he deliberately began to educate her, as he +would have educated a boy, with a view to her making her own living in +the future. As indeed she would have to do, in the event of his death; +since years before her advent he had sunk all his private means in an +annuity, and the expenses of his scientific work did not allow of his +saving much. The prospect neither pleased nor displeased the girl. It +came simply, naturally, to her, as it does to a boy. On the other +hand, she certainly worked harder than any boy would have done, partly +because she took it for granted that the tasks set her by Dr. +Carmichael were very ordinary ones, and partly because of that +feminine tolerance of mere drudgery which makes it so difficult to +compare the intellectual work of a man and a woman. For while you can +safely assume that an undergraduate has not worked more than so many +hours or minutes a day, it is quite possible that a girl student may +have sate up half the night over a trivial exercise. The primal curse +on labour, it must be remembered, was not extended to the woman, who +had a peculiar ban of her own. + +So, by the time she was seventeen, Marjory Carmichael was learned +beyond her years in Greek and Latin, and displayed a genius for +mathematics which fairly surprised her uncle. Then he died suddenly, +leaving her to the guardianship of a distant relation and ardent +disciple in Edinburgh, who was instructed to spend what small sum +might remain, after paying just debts, on completing the girl's +education, and starting her, not before the age of twenty-one, in a +career; preferably teaching, which he considered the most suitable +opening for her. She was strong, he said, in the letter in which he +informed Dr. Kennedy of his wishes, and singularly sensible for a +girl, despite a distressing want of proportion in her estimate of +things. Being neither sentimental nor sensitive, she was not likely to +give trouble. So far good, but at the very end of the letter came a +remark showing that the old man was not quite the fossil he pretended +to be. It ran thus: "All this concerns her head only; of her heart I +know nothing. Let us hope she has none; for it is a terrible drawback +to a woman who has brains. Anyhow, it has had no education from me." + +The description somehow did not prepare Dr. Tom Kennedy for either the +face or manner which greeted him on his arrival at the house of +mourning, but then he himself had the softest heart in the world, and +the mere sight of a lonely slip of a thing in a black dress gave him a +pang. But that was only for a moment; five minutes afterwards he +wondered how that suggestion of kissing and comforting her in +semi-fatherly fashion could have arisen. Yet the same evening after +she had bidden him good-night with a little stilted hope that he would +be comfortable, the temptation returned with redoubled force, when, on +going into the study for another volume of the book he had taken up to +his bedroom to read, he found her fast asleep in the dead man's chair, +her arms flung out over the table, her cheek resting on one of the +ponderous volumes which had been the dead man's real companions. Her +fresh young face looked happy enough in its sleep, though the marks of +tears were still visible, and yet Dr. Kennedy felt another pang. Had +the child no better confidante than that musty, fusty old book? Yet he +did not dare to rouse her, even though the room struck cold and +dreary, for he felt that the knowledge that he had so far been witness +of her weakness would be an offence, a barrier between them, and that +was the last thing he desired. So he crept out of the room again +discreetly, and smoked another cigar over the not uninteresting +novelty of his guardianship. For Tom Kennedy was sentimental, and +gloried in the fact. + +"You are very kind," said Marjory to him, a day or two afterwards, +with a half-puzzled and critical appreciation of his tact and +consideration. "But I don't see why you should take such trouble about +me. I shall get on all right, I expect. I think it is a mistake that +uncle has forbidden my beginning work till I am twenty-one, but, as it +can't be helped, I must go on as I've been doing, I suppose. I would +rather not go to school if that can be arranged. You see I don't know +any girls, and I am not sure if I should get on with them. If I could +stop here, Mr. Wilson at the Manse would look over my work, and I +could come up to Edinburgh for my examinations, you know." + +Evidently his guardianship was not going to be a burden to him. This +clear-eyed young damsel, despite a very dainty feminine appearance, +was evidently quite capable of looking ahead. + +"I will do my best to arrange everything as you wish," he replied, +feeling somehow a little hurt in his feelings. "My great object, of +course, will be that you shall be as happy as possible." + +"Happy?" she echoed, quaintly. "Uncle never said anything about that. +I'm not sure if I want that sort of thing." + +"What sort of thing?" he put in, rather aghast. + +"Oh! nonsense, and all that; and yet----" She looked at him with +almost tragic earnestness. "I am not sure if I don't like it after +all. It is funny, but it is nice." + +"What is nice?" + +"You're being so kind. Only I think it would make me lazy, and that +wouldn't do at all. Uncle used to say I must never forget that I had +to earn my own living." + +"And I--well! I'm afraid I should like to make you forget it," he +answered; "but we needn't quarrel about it, I suppose. At any rate, +not for the next four years." + +"But I don't mean to quarrel with you at all," she said, very +sedately. "I mean to be friends; it is so much more convenient." +Perhaps it was on the whole; even though as the years went on Dr. +Thomas Kennedy, aged forty, began to wish that her twenty-first +birthday would find her willing to continue the tie on another +footing. And yet he recognised, not without a certain admiration, that +she was not likely to be happy, even if married to one whom she +trusted and liked as she trusted and liked him, unless she had first +faced the world by herself. Of course, if she were to fall in love it +would be different; then, like other women, she might take a certain +pride in giving up her future. But she was scarcely likely to fall in +love with him, unless he made love to her, and that was exactly what +he could not do. In a sort of whimsical way he told himself it would +not be fair, since in his heart of hearts he did not believe in the +master passion! not, at least, in the romantic form in which alone it +would appeal to a girl like Marjory. To affect her it must be +something very intense indeed; something, in short, which his infinite +tenderness for the girl prevented him from giving. Perhaps if there +had been any symptoms of another lover appearing on the scene all this +philosophic consideration might have disappeared under the pressure of +rudimentary jealousy; but there were none. Indeed, barring the +Episcopalian clergyman, who was quite out of the question, there was +no young man of Marjory's own rank, or near it, at Gleneira, where he +had arranged for her to stay on with a distant cousin of his own. And +neither Will Cameron, the factor, nor old Mr. Wilson, at the Manse, +nor any of the occasional visitors were more likely to stir the +romantic side of the girl's nature than he was himself. Less likely, +indeed, since he had the manifest charm of being a person of more +importance. In appearance he was a small, dark man with a vivacious +face and something of a foreign manner, the latter being due to his +having wandered about on the Continent for years seeking surgical +experience at the cannon's mouth. So, on his last visit to Gleneira, +where he spent all his rare holidays, he had told himself point-blank +that he of all men in the world was bound in honour not to take +advantage of his ward's innocence and undisguised affection. She was +exceptionally fitted for the future she had mapped out for herself, so +in a way he was bound to let her try it. + +Consequently, as she sate that July afternoon teaching the children +their duty to their neighbour, there was no _arriere pensee_ of any +kind in her affectionate reliance on Cousin Tom's unfailing interest. +That would last until she grew tired of teaching, and he grew old. +Then, always supposing that it was agreeable to both parties, they +might settle down somewhere and be the best of friends till death did +them part. + +Weary of teaching! That did not seem likely, to judge by the way she +taught; and yet through all her work she was conscious of that +postcard in her pocket; conscious of the fact that there was no +denying Donald's proposition, and that it brought great news whatever. +But as she followed the trooping children out of doors to the +horse-chestnut shade, she took no notice whatever of Mr. McColl's +evident desire to re-open the question, and, with a curt remark that +the children knew their duty to their neighbour admirably, she set off +with a light, rapid step down the white road. + +Mr. McColl looked after her admiringly, unresentfully. Miss Marjory +was Miss Marjory, and without her help his grant in aid would be but a +poor thing, what with the Bishop's lawn sleeves and the new standards; +both of which are stumbling-blocks in a remote Highland parish even +when there is no other school within ten miles. Well, well, it was +grand news for the Glen that the laird was to be home, and there were +others besides Miss Marjory who would be glad to hear it. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + +Mr. McColl was right, as Marjory herself had ere long to acknowledge; +for she had not gone far ere quick steps echoed behind her, and, +looking round, she saw the Reverend James Gillespie trying to overtake +her. She paused in resigned vexation, experience having taught her the +wisdom of waiting for him; the fact being that the fusion point of +mind and body was with him extremely low, and heat had a disastrous +effect on both; so she waited--that honest walking boot of hers +beating a very girlish tattoo of impatience the while against a rock. + +"This is great news, Miss Marjory," he began, breathlessly. "Great +news--I may say, good news--is--is it not?" + +The latter rather alarmed inquiry being the result of a glance at her +face; for she was in a contradictory mood, and the Reverend James +never had any fixed opinions in minor matters. He took them from his +friends and was, in consequence, often in the position of a child who, +having filled both hands with biscuits, is suddenly offered a sweetie. +Even then he was quite ready to swallow the new contribution if it was +firmly put into his mouth. There was no little excuse for him, +however, since his present environment in a measure forced him to a +poor opinion of himself in the past. The fact being that until the age +of fifteen he had been nothing more than the son of a poor crofter on +the estate of Gleneira. A clever lad, no doubt, who might perchance +rise to something above his father's fate. And then the Bishop, on the +lookout for recruits to the Gaelic-speaking clergy necessary to carry +on the work in the remoter glens, where the Episcopal faith still +lingers, had chosen him out like Samuel for the service of the Lord. +It had been a veritable translation, for the Bishop, being High +Church, had exalted views of the priesthood. The result being that +James Gillespie, fulfilled with a virtuous desire to justify the +Bishop's choice, soon lost the small amount of individuality he had +originally possessed. Educated by the Bishop, ordained by the Bishop, +made the Bishop's chaplain in order that the Bishop might coach him +through the rocks of social etiquette, he became, not unnaturally, a +sort of automaton, safe so far as his knowledge of the Bishop's views +went, but no further. On these points he was logic proof; on others +the veriest weathercock at the mercy of every breeze that blew. For +the rest, a good-looking, florid, fair young man, dressed rigorously +in clerical costume. This again being in deference to the Bishop who, +honest man, having his fair share of the serpent's wisdom, saw the +necessity of hedging this prophet in his own country about with every +dignity which might serve to emphasise the difference between his past +and present. The more so because the sparse congregations amid the +fastnesses of the hills were in the charge of different pastors. Once +a month or so the Reverend Mr. Wilson, from the Manse miles away down +the Strath, would drive up in a machine, put up with the Camerons at +the Lodge, and deliver a very cut-and-dried little sermon in the +school-house. On these occasions the Reverend Mr. Gillespie used to +trudge over the hills with his surplice in a brown paper parcel, so +leaving the Geneva gown and bands a fair field while he delivered an +equally cut-and-dried little homily to the still more outlying +faithful in a barn. About this arrangement, necessitated by ancient +custom, even the Bishop constrained his tongue, seeing that Mr. Wilson +belonged to the Church of Scotland, as by law established, and, what +is more, to the very highest and driest portion of it. He was a +courtly old gentleman, with a white tie, yards long, wound round his +neck numberless times, and finished off by an odd little bow made out +of the extreme ends; a learned old man with a turn of the leg, +suggesting a youth when calves were visible, and a vast store of +classical quotations remaining over from the days when he lectured on +the humanities at St. Andrews. Neither did the Bishop consider the +Reverend Father Macdonald, who came once in three months or so, and +generally on a week day, an intruder. On the contrary, the Reverend +James had instructions to ask him to dinner, and, if it was a Friday, +to have cockle soup and stewed lentils for him; that is to say, if the +invitation was accepted, which it was not as a rule, the Father +preferring to eat potatoes and butter at the Camerons, and endure the +old lady's good-natured scorn, for the sake of hearing Marjory sing +Scotch songs and play Scarlatti. For Dr. Carmichael's one relaxation +had been, music, in which, as in other things, the girl had proved +herself to be an apt pupil. As often as not, too, on these occasions, +old Mrs. Cameron would send a man with the dogcart down the Strath to +fetch up Mr. Wilson, and then the two old enemies could fence at each +other courteously over the single glass of port, for which the Jesuit +had a dispensation. And, if the buttons seemed inclined to come off +the foils, Marjory, in the next room, would strike up, "Come, bring to +me a stoup o' wine, and bring it in a silver tassie." Then their old +heads would wag, and they would give over the endless battle for the +sake of hearing a "bonnie lassie" sing their favourite song. But it +was very different when the Free Church missioner came round, for he +was an earnest, red-haired person, who any day of the week would +gladly have testified against Black Prelacy to the bitter end of the +stake. He was a stumbling-block, even to Marjory, who professed calm +tolerance; but then those courtly old admirers of hers, to say nothing +of Cousin Tom's rather foreign manners, had spoilt her. So that amid +all her theories--the theories of clever youth instinct with the love +of justice and liberty--she could not help being repelled by the +roughness of life when, as it were, she touched and handled it. The +people themselves, however, thought it a sign of strength to bang the +pulpit and bellow, as, indeed, it was, undoubtedly. So the consensus +of opinion in all sects was that the Free Church had the finest +preacher. Not that it mattered much in a place where church-going on a +Sunday was a recognised dissipation, which had to last for a week. +Thus, no matter who was in the pulpit, the little school-house on a +fine day overflowed; and even the Reverend Father Macdonald had not a +few applicants for a blessing against witchcraft if the cows did not +milk properly. This, however, was done on the sly, by accident as it +were, when the petitioners chanced to meet priestly authority in the +post-office. + +In order, therefore, to hold his own amid the hosts of Midian, the +Reverend James spent quite a large slice of his modest income on +all-round collars and silk cassocks; and even when the old Adam arose +at the sight of a red-brown river, and he _had_ to creep away with a +hazel rod and a bag of worms to some seething pool where the sea-trout +lay, he still kept to his professional garments and sate on a rock +with his long coat-tails pinned behind his back, looking like a +gigantic crow about to fly. + +Despite this and other ridiculous habits, Marjory, with her clear, +honest eyes saw the real desire to do his duty to Church and State +underlying the young man's indecision; but, fortunately for him, she +had no notion that of late this had taken the form of wishing to marry +her. The fact being that in a recent visit the Bishop had not only +remarked that the parish clergy should be the husbands of one wife, +but had rather pointedly referred to the immense improvement in the +school standard, since Miss Carmichael had begun to practise teaching +there. The direct consequence of which had been to make the Reverend +James believe himself in love, and at the same time to make him regard +all Marjory's opinions as episcopally blessed. An effort needing +mental gymnastics of the highest class, especially when, as now, she +was bent on mischief. + +"Good news," she echoed. "Well, I hardly know; that must surely depend +entirely on what sort of person Captain Macleod turns out to be." This +she knew must, to begin with, savour of blasphemy to one born and bred +on the estate. + +"Naturally, I may say, of course, but----" he looked at her +pathetically, like a dog when asked to perform a difficult trick; +"you--you--you surely have not heard anything against him, have you?" + +Marjory's eyes twinkled, but only for a moment; after all it was poor +fun depolarising his mental compass. + +"Anything against him? No; except that he is too good-looking, I am +told." + +"Handsome is that handsome does," remarked the Reverend James, +cheerfully; it was a favourite proverb at the palace, and he felt sure +of his ground. Unfortunately, since it roused Marjory to +contradiction. + +"Nonsense! As if all the goodness in the world could change a snub +nose into a Grecian." + +"But surely, my dear Miss Marjory," protested the young man feebly, +"the proverb does not assert--em--that sort of thing. I have always +understood it--em--I mean the latter half--perhaps I should say the +simile--alludes to moral worth." + +"Now, Mr. Gillespie! does that mean you consider beauty and goodness +to be the same, or simply that you deny the value of physical beauty +altogether?" asked Marjory in aggrieved tones. + +"I--I don't think I mean either," he replied, so naively that she was +obliged to laugh; "but indeed," he went on, "it seems to me, as I +remember the Bishop said in his sermon on All Souls, that beauty and +goodness are in a measure synonymous, that----" + +"Do you mean," she interrupted hastily, but with a sort of quick +hesitation which came often to her speech when she was really +interested, "that not only are good things necessarily beautiful in a +way, but that beautiful things must be good? Look at Tito! All his +vileness did not mar the perfection of his beauty. It was a tower of +strength to him till the day of his death. It must be so--you can't +help it. The thing is good in itself." + +Never having read "Romola," the Reverend James fell back discreetly on +a more unimpeachable proverb, by remarking, with the air of a man +making a valuable contribution to the argument:-- + +"Beauty is but skin deep." + +"Who wants it to be more?" she asked, hotly. "That is all you see. No +one asks whether the muscles follow the proper curves beneath the +skin, or the bones are strong. And, after all, it seems to me that +goodness and beauty appeal to the same chord--the love of everything +that is clear, defined, orderly. Ugliness is so incoherent, so +indistinct, Mr. Gillespie! Did it ever strike you how unnecessarily +ugly we all are? Now, don't deny the fact. Remember the Bishop's hymn +says, 'only man is vile.'" + +"But that really does apply to his moral." + +"I don't agree with you. Some of us, perhaps, are wicked, but most of +us are hideous." + +"Do you really think so?" And the self-conscious look on his smug, +comely face was too much for her gravity. She laughed merrily. + +"There are exceptions to every rule, Mr. Gillespie; I only meant to +say that since the strongest and best, and therefore, according to +you, the most beautiful, had survived in the struggle for +existence----" + +"By the bye," he put in, for him quite eagerly, "the Bishop has just +sent me an excellent reply to the Darwinian----" + +Marjory went on remorselessly, "That we were singularly plain-looking, +as a rule. For my part I would gladly have eliminated the Carmichael +nose if I had had any choice in the matter." + +The remark left a grand opening for a compliment if he could at the +moment have thought of anything save the crude assertion that he +considered it the most beautiful nose in the world. So he remained +silent, casting about in his mind for a less absolute form, with such +concentrated admiration in his face, that even Marjory could not avoid +noticing it, and with a sudden curl of her lip, changed the subject by +asking him, in her best categorical manner, when he had last been to +see old Peggy, who was bad with her rheumatism. Now old Peggy's +cottage was not an inviting-looking abode--a boulder-built hut with a +peat roof and a rudimentary chimney--and it lay close by in a hollow +between the road and a bog full of waving cotton grass. So the +Reverend James regretfully gave up his opportunity as lost for the +time; but a gleam of manly resolution came to him as he looked first +at the hut, then down the road, the pleasant sunshiny road stretching +away to where a thin blue smoke from the chimneys of Gleneira Lodge +rose above the silver firs and copper beeches to the right of the big +house. All that distance to traverse with Marjory, as against Peggy +Duncan the pauper, who was bad enough at the best, but, with the +rheumatism, simply appalling. + +"I'm afraid I haven't time to-day," he began, with admirable regret, +which, however, changed to consternation as his companion paused and +held out her hand. + +"Then good-bye! I promised to look in on my way home. And on the whole +it is better as it is, for it is positively unsafe to visit old Peggy +in couples when she is ill. So long as she has but one visitor, you +know, the fear of losing a gossip bridles her tongue; but when there +are two, one is always a scapegoat." Now, Marjory looked at her +companion gravely, and spoke deliberately, "You wouldn't, I'm sure, +care to hear me abused; so it is wiser for me to go alone. Good-bye." + +She was off as she spoke down the brae, leaving him disappointed, yet +still vaguely content, the very thought of in the future having a wife +who would go and visit old Peggy filling him with peace, for that old +woman was a sore trial to his dignity, since she invariably made a +point of remembering his youth as a barefoot cotter's boy. But then at +heart she was a Presbyterian who did not believe in the sanctity of +orders. So he went on his way down the loch fairly satisfied with +himself, while Marjory took his place beside the sick bed of the +rheumatic old woman. + +The girl gave one regretful glance at the sunshine before she dived +into the darkness of the cottage. It was mean and squalid in the +extreme, yet to those accustomed to the dirt and warmth, the +discomfort and the cosiness of a Highland hut, its air of tidiness was +unusual. The mud floor was even and clean swept, the single pane of +glass doing duty as a window was neither broken nor patched with rags, +while the crazy, smoke-blackened dresser was ranged with common +earthenware. A gathering peat, just edged with fire, lay on the huge +stone hearth, above which a tiny black pot hung in the thin column of +pale blue smoke which, as it rose to the dim rafters, was illumined by +the only ray of sunlight in the house--that which streamed through the +round hole in the roof which did duty as a chimney. Beside the hearth +a fair-haired boy of about six lay fast asleep, while from a settle in +the darkness a pair of gleaming green eyes revealed the presence of a +cat. + +Nothing more to be seen by Marjory's sun-blinded sight. Not a sound to +be heard, until suddenly a grey hen roosting in the rafters began to +cluck uproariously with much sidelong prancings of a pair of yellow +legs, and downward dips of a quaint, irascible, tufted head. Instantly +from a recess bed arose a patient moan and a pious aspiration that the +Lord's will might be done at all costs. + +"Good afternoon, Peggy! I hope your sleep has done you good," said +Marjory blithely, as she sate down on the edge of the bed, and looked +steadily at the occupant's face. Old Peggy Duncan, with the assertion +that she had not slept for days trembling on her tongue, wavered +before the girl's decision, and murmured something about closing an +eye. + +"That is better than nothing, isn't it?" continued the uncompromising +visitor. "And as for wee Paulie! he's been having a fine snooze. +Haven't you, Paulie?" + +The child by the fire, rubbing his eyes drowsily, smiled back at her +rather sheepishly. + +"'Deed it's so," broke in the querulous voice, satisfied at finding a +legitimate object for complaint. "He's just the laziest, weariest +wean, and no caring a tinker's damn for his nanny. Just lyin' +sleepin', and me in an agony. Could ye not watch?--Ay!--Ay! But what +can one expect o' a child o' the devil----" + +"Peggy! You're a wicked old woman to speak like that. Paul does more +than most boys twice his age. I'll be bound he has been stuffing +indoors with you all day long without a grumble. Run away now, dear +laddie, and get the fresh air." + +The order, spoken in Gaelic, produced a sudden flash of life all over +the little fellow, and he was out of the door in a second. Marjory +looked after him with a pleasant smile. + +"He is a pretty boy, isn't he, Peggy?--quite the prettiest in the +glen." + +"Aye! he has the curse o' beauty. Sae had his mither. Ay! an' her +father before her. Thank the Lord, Miss Marjory, you're no bonnie." + +"I shall do nothing of the sort, Peggy. And how is the pain? Better +for that liniment I rubbed in yesterday?" + +"Better!" There was a world of satisfied scorn in the old voice. +"Better frae ae teaspoonful o' stuff. Lord be gude to us, Miss +Marjory! Naethin' short o' a meeracle'll better me, an' ye talk o' a +carnal rubbin' doing it." + +"It would be a miracle if it did, wouldn't it, Peggy?" retorted the +girl, calmly; "but if it did no good at all there is no use in +repeating it, so I'll be off and leave you to your sleep again." + +"Hoot awa! an' you tired wi' your walk. Just sit ye down and rest a +bit and dinna mind me. I'm used to being no minded, ye ken. Wha minds +a bit pauper body but the pairish? Two an' saxpence a week, an' a boll +o' meal term-day that's no meal at a', but just grits; grits and +dirt. I'm no wondering that they puts soddy (soda) until't at the +poor's-house to gar't swall. Ay! Aye! and me lyin' a week without +spiritual food, an' I cravin' for it from anyone." + +"Now, Peggy, you know quite well you told Mr. Gillespie you wanted +none of his priestcraft, the last time he was here. You are just a +bad, ungrateful old woman, and I've a great mind to go away without +making you a cup of tea or telling you the news." + +The old face set close in its white cap frills brightened visibly at +the last words. "Weel! Weel! I must na be hard on the puir lad. There +be divers gifts, an' may be he's gotten one somewhere. And but for the +pain makin' me clean wud, I'd have had the tea for you. Just cry on +Paulie--the kettle's on the fire, and he'll no be long, puir lammie." + +But Marjory preferred to leave the boy to his play, and set about the +task herself quickly, dexterously, while old Peggy watched her with +sagacious eyes; for she herself had been a notable worker, and had +still a regretful admiration for the capability in others. Rather a +despicable object, perhaps, this fretful rheumatic old woman, +grumbling and growling at everything; and yet, could the secrets of +all hearts be revealed, she might have seemed more of a heroine and +martyr than many a canonised saint. A youth of ceaseless plodding toil +had been given in stolid honesty to her master's interests; then late +in life, when the hopes of womanhood were almost over, had come a +brief St. Martin's summer, where a wandering Englishman engaged on +some mining venture close by had married the sober lass as a means of +being comfortable for the time, and after a year had deserted her +shamefully, leaving her to work harder than ever for the sake of the +little daughter who remained to show that Peggy's short spell of love +had not been a dream. Some, indeed, there were who maintained that it +had never had any solid foundation, and that the marriage had been but +a pretence. This coming to the mother's ears had roused in her a +fierce anger, which in its turn gave rise to a passionate desire to +prove this child of hers to be above their petty spite, superior to +their plodding lives. And in a measure she succeeded. Jeanie Duncan +grew up in what, to a girl of her class, was luxury, while her mother +sold brown sugar, herrings, tarred rope, and tobacco--in fact, kept a +general store. Until the girl, like many another, fretted at home, +sought service, and disappeared beyond the circle of blue hills; to be +followed after a time by her mother. + +But though pretty Jeanie Duncan never returned, old Peggy did, +bringing with her a baby. Not an unusual sequel to the story; and so, +though the neighbours shook their heads, there was no need to question +the woman. What else could have been expected from flighty Jeanie +Duncan, whose head had been turned by Mr. Paul's painting her picture. +And Peggy said nothing, even while she concealed nothing. Silent from +her youth, she was more silent than ever as she reverted again to the +hard toil of those early days, until one January the cold settled into +her ill-clad old bones when she was gathering sticks in the woods and +left her a cripple. And then the loss of her independence broke her +spirit and turned her into a fretful scold. A dreary, toil-worn, +barren youth, desertion, degradation, outrage of love and pride--all +this gamut of grief had she sounded without an answering groan. The +straw which broke her patience was not the hardness but the charity of +her fellow-creatures. A most irrational old lady, no doubt, yet not +altogether blameworthy in her self-satisfied appreciation of the tea +"that was no from the pairish, praise be to the Lord," and very human, +certainly, in her eager desire to hear the news of that parish. Yet +her face when Marjory told her of the laird's return seemed to settle +into a strange indifference. "The laird! It will be Mr. Paul you're +meaning." + +"Yes, Mr. Paul; he is the laird now, you know, and he hasn't been here +for nine years. He has been away in India with his regiment." + +"Lord sakes! as if I did na' know that; he has been the laird these +sax years gone. I mind it weel. And I mind him, too; ower weel, maybe. +A winsome laddie, fond of painting; but 'Thou shalt not make to +thyself the likeness,' ye ken. So he is coming home at last--bonnie +nae doot; and she, my Jeanie, is dust and ashes." + +It was seldom that Peggy alluded to her dead daughter, and there was a +wistful look in the crabbed old face. Marjory, quickly responsive, +stroked the crabbed old hand which lay on the coverlet gently; but old +Peggy would none of her sympathy and drew it away, while her voice +took almost a triumphant tone. + +"Ay! Dust and ashes! That's what we a' come to. Young and auld, Miss +Marjory, my dear, rich and poor. Ay! and pairish officers, forbye; +it's no to be escapit, thank the Lord! And if you're going ye might +just open yon drawer in the aumry an' tak' oot my deid claes. There's +a bonnie blaze in the fire that maun-na be wasted, and in life we are +in death, ye ken, so it's as weel to hae them aired. There's a deal o' +sickness comin' frae damp linen, and I'm sae subjec' to the +rheumatism." + +"That would be one of the ills you would leave behind you, Peggy," +suggested Marjory, with a tender smile at the oddity of the old +woman's thought. + +"I'm sure I hope sae, for it wad be maist terrible in the wings," +replied Peggy, gravely. Her eyes, following the girl as she complied +with the grim request, lit up with satisfaction, her mouth trembled in +the effort for calm indifference. + +"Ay! sure enough it's the best of cloth, yon, and there is twa rows +back stitchin' as fine as fine, and a frill down the front. Some has a +lace edgin', but I'm no sure o' furbelows. It wad no be decent for me +to come before my Maker prinked oot like a young lass; though Mary +McAndrews, who was a gude four year aulder nor me, had real +Valenciennes. But, there! she was ae' flighty, puir thing; her mind +set on bows and gum flowers, no on things above. Fine cloth an' a +cambric frill's gude eneuch for my funeral; an' the coffin no from the +pairish, thank the Lord!" + +As old Peggy lay there in the bay bed gossiping over her shroud she +was a grim sight; yet a pathetic one, since there is nothing in the +wide world which appeals to the humanity within us so much as the +tired, toil-wasted hands of old age folded on a coverlet waiting for +death. Marjory, with her strong young ones straightening the dead +clothes, felt a strange thrill at her heart, even as she thought of +the long years of welcome struggle before she, too, would be glad of +rest. + +"So Mr. Paul is to come hame again?" quavered the old voice, softened +inexplicably by that chill thought of death. "Aye, aye! he will be +bonnie still, for he was aye of the kind to mak' a bonnie corp. And no +that bad for a man--not by ordinair. Weel! when ye see him tell him +that ould Peggy's gone on the pairish, but that it'll no be a pairish +funeral. For there's twa bottles gude whiskey in the draw wi' the deid +claes, my dear, and that's eneuch to carry me to my grave as I sou'd +be carried." + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + +Will Cameron the grieve, or, in plain English, the land steward of the +Gleneira property, was leaning lazily over the shrubbery gate, +watching two men mowing a narrow strip of grass on either side of the +grand approach leading up to the Big House; a proceeding which gave +the whole place a most ridiculous half-shaven air. It had its merits, +however, in Mr. Cameron's eyes, seeing that it was supposed to make +the roadway look kempt while it preserved the rest of the lawn for +hay; an economy sorely needed at the Big House, after the late laird's +riotous living. Even now, when matters had mended somewhat, honest +Will did not care to think of those times when all he saw of the laird +of Gleneira was a signature on I O U's; for, when all was said and +done, his own honesty seemed bound up in that of the old place. A +gardener was nailing up the creepers covering the porch; the windows +of the house were set wide open, and through them a noise of hammering +and brushing floated out into the crisp morning air as Marjory came +up the road from the lodge; her footsteps crunching in the loose +sea-gravel, which not even the coming and going of years had worn into +compactness, and leant over the gate likewise. Will shifted a little, +almost unconsciously, to make room for her, with loose-limbed easy +good-nature, and in so doing revealed the whole attitude of his +individuality towards Marjory Carmichael. Briefly she was the dearest +girl in the world, but rather apt to make a fellow move on, when he +would much rather have stopped where he was. Yet they were the best of +friends, almost playmates, although he was double her age and +distinctly bald. For the rest a very straightforward simple person, +with nothing complex about him. One of those men whom Nature has made +firstly a sportsman, secondly a farmer; in other words, a descendant +of both Cain and Abel. Marjory herself was very fond of him, and no +wonder, since during the years she had spent with his mother he had +set himself to make things pleasant for her as a man about a house can +do when he has absolutely no ulterior object in view. The mere +suggestion of such an object would have filled him with terror, for +Marjory's energy was appalling. + +"What a pretty place it is after all," she said suddenly, and in so +saying spoke the truth. Framed in by an amphitheatre of purple +heather-clad hills and dark green fir-clad spurs, Gleneira House with +its swelling lawns stretching away to the rocky beach of the loch, its +tall silver pines and clumps of rhododendrons looked bright and +cheerful despite the nameless want which hangs always round an empty +house; the dead look, as if, the soul having passed from it, naught +remained save for it to hasten back to the dust whence it came. There +was something, however, which struck one as homelike in its low +irregular outline, its bow windows set in rose, jasmine, and magnolia; +above all in its clustered stacks of chimneys rising without respect +to symmetry and suggesting comfortable firesides within. Cosy +firesides in corners, not set back to back in pairs after the modern +fashion. A conglomerate building altogether, not unlike a two-storied +summer-house full of French windows. An airy feminine sort of house, +unlike the usual aggressively stony Scotch mansions, yet fitting in +strangely with its fairylike background of hills, and woods, and +lochs. + +"Very pretty, but awfully out of repair," replied Will, +disconsolately. "The roof won't last much longer." + +"Why doesn't he--Captain Macleod I mean--put on a new one?" + +"My dear Marjory! He can't afford it. A man has to spend a lot in an +expensive regiment like his, and----" + +"Nine years since he was in the Glen," interrupted the girl, bent on +her own thoughts. "I don't remember him a bit. What is he like, Will?" + +"Awfully handsome; about the handsomest boy I ever saw, and I don't +suppose he has changed much." + +"I know that--anything more?" + +"Spends a heap of money." + +"I know--anything more?" + +"Yes; you will like him." + +"Why?" + +"Women always do." + +Marjory turned down the corners of her mouth; a trick which with her +meant disapproval, disgust, dislike, disappointment,--such a variety +of small d's that Will was wont to say it was quite as reprehensible +as the collective big one of his sex. + +"He really is an awfully nice fellow," continued Will; "but the place +is going to rack and ruin. The farm houses are so poor that the south +country men won't take them, and a slack style of tenant only means +going from bad to worse. He ought to marry money. It is the only way +out of the difficulty, since he won't skin the woods or let the +place." + +"Why doesn't he come and live here as his fathers did," put in the +girl, quickly; "why shouldn't he be satisfied to do his duty to the +people as his fathers did?" + +"Because his income isn't what theirs was to begin with. The place is +heavily mortgaged; everyone knows it, so there is no reason why I +shouldn't say so. Then Alick Macleod ran through a heap of money +somehow, and left a lot of debts which had to be paid off. I don't say +that the Captain mightn't have been more economical, but it isn't all +his fault. And then he won't touch the estate. That is right enough in +a way, and yet Smith, the hook-and-eye man, offered twice its value +for that bit of moor that marches with his forest." + +"And Captain Macleod refused?" + +"Declined with thanks; and wrote me privately not to bother him again +with any proposals of that sort from a bloated mechanic." + +Marjory's mouth turned down again. "Indeed! that was very noble of +him." + +"So it was in a way," replied her companion, sticking to his own +ill-concealed satisfaction, "for the man is offensive to the last +degree. He has invented a tartan, and has a piper to play him to bed." + +"If he likes it, why not? Every man must have invented his own tartan, +once upon a time, you know; the Macleods into the bargain." + +Will Cameron smiled languidly. "You are a beggar to argue, Marjory. +But as I said before, the laird must marry money." + +"Sell himself instead of his property?" + +"Why not? he is worth buying, and she needn't be ugly." + +"Ugly! as if that were the only question! I believe it is all you men +think of. Why, Will, you haven't told me anything about Captain +Macleod except that he is good-looking; and I knew that before. I +wanted to hear what he was like--he himself, I mean." + +He looked at her with comical amusement. "You have come to the wrong +man, my dear. I never could tell my own character, much less anybody +else's. But here is old John, beaming with satisfaction at the thought +of coming slaughter among the birds. Ask him!" + +"Is it what the laird is like?" echoed the bent but active old man, +pausing with a troop of wiry-haired terriers at his heels. "Then he is +real bonnie, Miss Marjory; that's what he is." + +"So I told her; but she wants to know more." John Macpherson scratched +his ear dubiously, then brightened up. "Then it's a terrible good shot +he will be. Aye! ever since he was a laddie no higher than my heart. +Just a terrible good shot, that's what he is." + +"After all," remarked Will, as the old man passed on, "that gives you +as good a clue to the laird as anything else would do. Old John meant +that as the highest praise. The coachman in all probability would say +he was a first-rate rider. I have heard mother call him a good young +man, but that was when _I_ had lost five pounds at the Skye gathering, +and he had won. The fact being that he had a knack of warping people's +judgment; it was he, by the way, who advised me to bet on a man who +couldn't putt a bit. He used always to twist me round his little +finger when we were boys together--and by Jove! he had a temper. +Sulky, too, and obstinate as a mule." + +"Thank you," interrupted Marjory, drily; "that's quite enough. Well, I +hope nobody nice will buy him." + +Will Cameron flushed up quite hotly. "Now, I call that really nasty, +Marjory, when it can't matter to you. And you know as well as I do +that we want money awfully; you, who are always railing at the black +huts, and the lack of chimneys, and----" + +But Marjory, after a habit of hers when she was not quite sure of her +ground, had shifted it, and passed on to the house, whence the sounds +of sweeping and hammering continued. Will shook his head at her +retreating figure, smiled, and called out cheerfully:-- + +"Tell mother not to hurry, he can't come till the evening boat." + +Vain message, since you might just as well have made such an appeal to +old Time himself as to Mrs. Cameron, who, despite her seventy years +and portly figure, was bustling about, the very personification of +order, even in her haste. You felt instinctively that every symptom of +hurry was the result of a conscientious conception of the importance +of her part in the day's proceedings, and that to be calm would have +been considered culpable. Yet, as she trotted about, her voluminous +black skirts tucked through their placket-hole, not a hair of her flat +iron-grey curls was astray, not a fold of her white muslin kerchief, +or frill of her starched lace cap was awry, though her aides-de-camp, +a couple of sonsy Highland maids, were generally dishevelled, cross, +and hot. + +"Eh! Marjory, my dear," she cried, catching sight of the latter, as +she entered the large low hall, set round with antlers; "ye're just in +the nick to help count the napery while I see to the laird's chamber. +He will be for having his old wee roomie, I misdoubt me; he was always +for having his own way, too. But he will just no have it, that's all. +Folks must accept their position, aye! and maintain their privileges +in these days, when every bit servant lassie claims a looking-glass to +prink at." The last words were delivered full in the face of a pert +South country maid, who, with an armful of towels, passed by in rather +an elaborate pink dress. It was merely a snap shot, however, for the +old lady hurried on her appointed way, leaving Marjory and the +offender, who was quite accustomed to being a target, in charge of the +dark lavender-scented linen closet. Pleasant work at all times this, +of handling the cool, smooth piles; the only household possessions +which never seem to suffer from being laid away, which come out of +their scented tomb with their smoothness emphasised by long pressure, +their folds sharply accurate, their very gloss seeming to have grown +in the dark. No fear of moth here; no hint of decay. Marjory, singling +out a fine tablecloth and napkins for the laird's first meal at home, +and choosing the whitest of sheets and pillow-cases for his bed, found +herself unable to believe that long years had passed since some +woman's hand had carefully put them away. It seemed impossible that it +should be so, and that they should be ready to begin their work as if +not a day had passed. Unchanged in a world of change! But the guest +himself would be more changed than his surroundings; for he could only +have been a boy--not much older than she herself--when he was last at +Gleneira. The thought lingered, and after her task was over she +wandered from room to room trying to put herself in his place, and +guess how it would strike him. For it was pleasant sometimes, when one +had an hour to spare, to spend it in that fanciful world of feeling, +with which her practical life had so little to do. + +His mother's sitting-room! That could not fail to be sad, even though +the fair-haired original of the faded portrait in pastels over the +mantelpiece had passed from life when he was still a child. Yet, if +_she_ by any chance could see even the smallest thing that had once +belonged to that mother whose memory was a mere abstraction, who had +never really existed for her at all, she would feel sad, and so he +must also who had known his. Well, Captain Macleod's mother must have +been dreadfully fond of fancy work, to judge by the room! And yet, not +so long ago, she herself had been full of childish admiration for that +terrible screen in the corner, which now only excited a wild wonder +how any responsible human being could have wasted hours--nay! days, +months--in producing such a fearful result. It represented a +Highlander in full national costume, done in cross-stitch; the flesh +was worked in small pink beads, giving a horrible pimply appearance to +the face and a stony glare to the eyes; in the distance rose purple +silk hills, and the foreground consisted of an over-grown velvet pile +mongrel with a tail in feather stitch. In those childish days of +admiration, however, it had had a fearful charm of its own, born of +its inaccessibility. For, once within a certain radius, the whole +picture disappeared into a senseless medley of silk, worsted, and +beads. Only distance lent design, making four white beads and a black +one a recognisable equivalent for the human eye. As she stood looking +at it now, an amused smile curved her lips, with the remembrance that +in still more childish days she had mixed up this magnificent +Highlander with her conceptions of the absent laird. Probably it was +quite as like him now as the crayon drawing, labelled "Paul," of a +pallid boy holding a toy ship, which hung on the wall beside the +pastel. On the other side was another pallid boy holding another ship, +and labelled "Alick." As far as she could judge Alick might have grown +up to be Paul, and Paul to be Alick. Only Paul held his ship in his +right hand, and Alick in his left; but that was, of course, only +because their portraits had to look at each other across the picture +of their mother; because, as it were, of the exigencies of Art. She +smiled to herself as she drifted on lazily to what Mrs. Cameron had +considered the keystone of the laird's position. It was a dim, +dignified room, with a dreadful bed. So large, so square, so evenly +surrounded with Macleod tartan hangings that a sleeper immured therein +might well on waking lose his airs, and which way he was lying. A bed +which might have a dozen ghostly occupants, and the flesh and blood +one be none the wiser of those dead and gone lairds of Gleneira. +Marjory, oppressed by the very look of it, threw the windows, wide as +they would set, to the air and sunshine. Even so, it was a dreary, +depressing room, especially to one coming alone, unwelcomed by +kindred, to his old home. With a sudden impulse of pity she drew from +her belt a bunch of white heather and stag-horn moss which she had +gathered that morning, and arranged it neatly in a little empty vase +which stood on the wide dressing-table. A poor effort, yet it gave a +certain air of expectancy to the room; more appropriate also to the +occasion than more elaborate garden flowers would have been, since +white heather stood for luck, and the stag-horn moss was the badge of +the Macleod clan. A charming little welcome, truly, if the laird had +eyes to see! Her face, reflected in the looking-glass as she stood +smiling over her task, would, however, have been a more charming +welcome still could the laird have seen it. And then the sound of +wheels on the loose gravel outside sent her to the window in sudden +alarm; but it was only the Manse machine, drawn by the old grey horse, +with Father Macdonald on the front seat beside Mr. Wilson, who, as he +caught sight of her, stood up with profound bows, disclosing a curly +brown Brutus wig. And there was Will lounging at the horse's head, and +his mother on the steps with dignified gesticulations. Beyond towards +the Strath was the wide panorama of hill and moor and sea, flooded in +light. The sudden feeling that it is good to be here, which comes even +to untransfigured humanity at times, filled the girl's heart with +content as she nodded back to her two devoted old friends who were now +both standing up in the dogcart, waving their hats. How good everyone +was to her! How happy they all were together in the Glen! And she had +never before seemed to realise it so completely. + +"Heard I ever the like?" rose in Mrs. Cameron's most imperious tones. +"To pass by the house wi' an empty stomach, and it not even a fast! A +fast, say I? A feast for Gleneira, and twa glasses o' port wine for +Father Macdonald whether he will or no. Marjory, my lass, away with +them like good boys to the parlour and cry on Kirsty for the glasses. +Will, ye gawk, are there no grooms in Gleneira House that you must be +standing there doing their wark. Now, Mr. Wilson, just come you down +to _terry-firmy_, as you would say yourself. You're no golden calf, +man, to be put up on a pedestal." + +"My dear Madam!" cried he, gaily, clambering down with no small regard +to the Graces. "If it is a question of worship, 'tis I who should be +at your feet. _Facilius crescit quam_." + +"_A cader va chi troppo in alto sale_," interrupted Father Macdonald, +clambering down on his side. He was a small man with round childish +face, possessed of that marvellously delicate yet healthy complexion +which one sees in Sisters of Charity; in those, briefly, who take no +care for beauty and lead a life of austerity and self-denial. A +complexion which a society woman would have given her eyes to possess. + +"Hoot away wi' your gifts o' tongues," retorted the old lady, in mock +indignation at the perennial jest of strange quotations. "Marjory, +just take them ben and stop their mouths wi' cake and wine. And make +them drink luck to the auld house that is to be graced wi' its +master." + +"Ah, my dear Madam," said the incorrigible offender, ambling up the +steps, and giving a sly glance at Marjory, "you agree with our friend +Cicero, '_Nec, domo dominus sed domino domus honestanda est_.'" + +Mrs. Cameron treated the remark with silent contempt, and Marjory, +leading the way into the morning room where Paul Macleod's portrait +hung on the wall, looked back with a kind smile at the two old men +who, never having owned chick or child of their own, treated her as a +daughter. A sort of dream-daughter, dear yet far removed from the hard +realities of every-day familiarity. + +"I'm so glad you were passing to-day, father," she said eagerly; "I +found a little Neapolitan song among some old music here, and I want +you to see if I sing it right." + +Mr. Wilson, seated in the armchair, his legs disposed elegantly, +straightened his necktie, and made a remark to the effect that the +Neapolitans were the most debased Christian population in Europe. And +that despite the fact that they lived, as it were, under the very nose +of the Pope. An attack which was the result of an ever-green jealousy +in regard to the little Jesuit's superior knowledge. + +"Neapolitan! Ah! my dear young lady, the patois is almost beyond me. +If it had been Roman!" The smooth childlike face grew almost wistful +thinking of the days so long ago spent in the still seclusion of the +Scotch college, or out in the noisy colour of the Roman streets; a +quaint memory for the old man who for fifty years had never seen a +town, whose very occupation was passing away from his life, as, one by +one, the old adherents to the old faith still lingering among the +mountain fastnesses, died and were buried by him. + +"Ah! you will manage," said Marjory, cheerfully. "It isn't as if you +didn't know the subject, for it is sure to be all about love. Songs +always are." + +So, while the cake and wine were coming in, she sate down to the piano +and sang, guided by the two old men, of love; for Mr. Wilson, great on +philology, had his views on the mutations of vowels and consonants, +and stood beside the little priest beating time to the phrases with +his gold eyeglasses. + +Mrs. Cameron found them so, and rallied them on their taste when there +was good port-wine on the table. + +"My dear Madam," retorted Mr. Wilson, positively shining with delight +at his own opportunity of showing that his acquaintance was not +confined to dead languages. "We have only put the 'Weib und Gesang' +before the 'Wein'; and I am sure anyone who had the privilege of +hearing Miss Marjory sing would do the same." + +She made him a little mock curtsey, but Mrs. Cameron would none of it, +and cut a huge slice of cake. "No! no! minister; from the very +beginning o' things men-folks cared more for their stomachs than their +hearts. If Eve, poor body, had only given Adam a better dinner he +wouldna have been wantin' to eat apples betwixt whiles, and a deal o' +trouble might have been saved. But a woman's different. She takes it +ill if a man doesn't fall in love with her; she's aye wantin'----" + +"I'm sure I don't want anything," put in Marjory, with her head in the +air. + +"Don't be talkin' havers, child. I tell ye a woman's aye wantin' it. +Auld as I am----" + +"My dear Madam," expostulated Mr. Wilson. + +"Haud your whist, minister," interrupted Mrs. Cameron, tartly; "what +will you be knowing o' a woman's heart? I tell you she may be auld and +grey, she may hae left half the pleasures o' this world behind her, +she may hae been a wife for two score years, and spent her heart's +bluid in rearing weans, but what's left o' the heart will be turnin' +wi' regret to the time when the auld body who sits on the tither side +o' the fire--girding at his food, maybe--was courtin' her. Or, maybe, +when some ither auld body that's no at the tither side of the fire was +courtin'. There's no sayin'." + +There was a silence: and then the old priest said under his breath: +"_Amor a nullo amato amor perdona_." + +Mr. Wilson nodded his brown Brutus wig in assent. He did not mind that +sort of Italian. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the humanities +could understand so much. So they were merry over the cake and wine; +merry even over the parting with it in obedience to the minister's +Horatian order: "_Lusisti satis, editsi satis, alque bibisti, Tempus +abire ibe est_"--which Mrs. Cameron insisted on having explained to +her word by word. It was a complete exposition, she asserted, of the +whole duty of man as viewed by men. To eat, to drink, to amuse +themselves, and then to run away. + +That same evening, in the mirk end of the gloaming, Marjory, walking +in the garden between the great borders of clove pinks which were +sending out their fragrance to meet the coming night, heard the _feu +de joie_, arranged by old John Macpherson to greet the laird's +arrival, go off like the beginning of a battle. Half an hour +afterwards Will Cameron returned, calling loudly for his supper, and +full of enthusiasm. + +"Upon my word, Marjory, I think he is handsomer and more charming than +ever." + +"Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain," said the young lady, taking +a leaf out of Mr. Gillespie's book. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + +People who only know the West Highlands in the rainy months of August +and September, when a chill damp, almost suggestive of winter, comes +to the air, will scarcely credit the intense heat which June and July +often bring to the narrow glens, shut in on all sides by sun-baked +mountains. Then the springs fail, and the cattle break through the +fences, seeking the nearest point of the river; or stand knee-deep in +the estuary water, flicking away the plague of flies with their tails, +and lowing seaward to the returning tides. Then the burns, fine as a +silver thread down the mountain sides, run with a clear bell-like +tinkle through the boulders over which they will dash with a roar and +a rush in the coming Lammas floods. Then the cotton grass hangs +motionless on its hair-like stem, and the bog myrtle gives out a hot, +dry, aromatic scent, to mingle with that of the drying grass. On such +days as these, everything having life instinctively seeks the shade. +So Marjory Carmichael, on the morning after the laird's return, left +the dusty high-road, crossed the fast hardening bogs by the tussocks +of gay mosses tufted with bell-heather, and so continued her walk +along the alder-fringed bank of the river. Even at that early hour not +a leaf was stirring; the very bees hung lazily on the pale lilac +scabious flowers, and the faint hush of the river had a metallic +sound. Marjory, clambering down a fern-clad bank, sat down beneath a +clump of hazels, set with green nuts. Below her the river, between the +alder stems, showed olive and gold in sunlight or shade, with every +now and again a foam fleck sailing by; for, some fifty yards above her +resting-place, the Eira, fresh from a boisterous half-mile scramble +among the rocks, rushed through a narrow chasm at racing speed, and +fell recklessly, dashing itself into a white heat of hurry in a +seething whirling pool set in sheer walls of rock, and thence finding +outlet for its passion in a wider basin, and so, with ever clearing +face, sliding into peace in the dark oily pool beneath the bank where +Marjory sate. Her favourite nook, however, in all the river side, lay +higher up, close to the leap, where she could watch the gleaming +sea-trout and an occasional salmon patiently trying at the fall, see +the flash of the rapids beyond the fringing ferns, or mark the +drifting shadows on the opposite hillside. But the single rowan tree, +clinging with distorted roots to the heather-tufted cliff, flung its +branches over the fall, and gave no shade elsewhere; hence on this +hottest of hot July mornings Marjory chose the hazel hollow instead, +and leaning back among the flowering grasses, which sent a pinkish +bloom of tiny fallen blossom on her curly hair, drew a long, closely +written letter from her pocket, turned to its last sheet, and began to +read it. Not for the first time, but then Cousin Tom's letters were +worth a dozen of most people's, especially when they had something to +say, as this one had:-- + +"What a hurry you seem to be in to begin work; and I am always in such +a hurry to begin play. But then you have arrived, or are about to +arrive, at the years of discretion, and I am a mere child of +forty-one. Twenty years between us, dear! It is a lifetime; and what +right have I, or any other old foozle, to dictate to you, Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux, who, clever as she is, hardly knows, I think, when her +most affectionate and unworthy guardian is attempting a jest. It is an +evil habit in the old. Expect to hear from the School Committee in +Hounslow before many days are over. I think all is settled fairly, but +I hear there is no chance of your being needed before the beginning of +November. And this is still July. Three whole months, therefore, ere +Mademoiselle need take up the burden of teaching vulgar little boys +the elements of Euclid. And yet the momentous coming of age, when +Wisdom, let us hope, is to be justified of one of her children, is +this week. Marjory, my dear! Fate has given you a real holiday at +last! Of course, I am an incorrigible idler compared to you, but, +believe me, my heart has ached at times over your sense of duty! Life +is not all work, even if it is not all beer and skittles. So take the +goods the gods provide (as dear old Wilson would say in the proper +tongue--my Latin is merely a catalogue of dry bones)--put away all the +books--let two and two be five or five hundred for the time, while you +cross the Asses' Bridge with the rest of humanity. Wake up, my dear +little girl! or rather begin to dream! Of what? you ask. Of anything, +my dear, except Woman's Suffrage. By the way, I have six new reasons +against the latter, which I will detail to Mademoiselle Grands-serieux +when a detestable bacillus, who will neither be born nor die, permits +of my joining her in the earthly paradise. Meanwhile have a good +time--a real good time." + +Marjory leant back again on a great basket of spreading lastrea which +gave out scent like honey as she crushed it. Cousin Tom was +delightful, and perhaps he was right. The sudden content with Life as +it was which had come to her the day before when she realised its +peace, its beauty, its kindliness, returned now. Through the arching +hazel boughs the sunlight filtered down in a tempered brilliance +restful to the eyes; a grasshopper shrilled in the bents; a yellow +butterfly, settling on a leaf beside her, folded its wings and, +apparently, went to sleep. An earthly paradise, indeed! Surely if one +could dream anywhere it would be here. + +Suddenly a faint _shwish-shwish_ broke the silence. _Shwish-shwish_, +at regularly recurring intervals. Marjory, recognising the sound, +wondered listlessly who could be fishing the lower pool at this early +hour. One of the keepers, perhaps, hopeful of a trout for his master's +breakfast; rather a forlorn chance even in the pot above, with that +cloudless sky. A jarring whizz, accompanied by a convulsion in the +alder branches, broke in on her drowsiness, making her sit up with +intelligent appreciation of the cause. The somebody, whoever he might +be, was "in" to the tree. Another convulsion, gentler, but more +prolonged; another short and sharp, as if somebody were losing his +temper. Then a persuasive wiggle to all points of the compass in turn, +and finally the whirr of a check reel. + +Somebody being evidently about to try conclusions with Nature, Marjory +leant forward in deep interest, knowing by bitter experience that it +was two to one against humanity. At last, as she expected, there came +a series of short, sharp jerks; then something she had not expected. +On the morning air one comprehensive monosyllable--"Damn." That was +all. No affix, no suffix; without nominative or accusative; soft, but +trenchant. + +"A gentleman," said Marjory to herself, without a moment's hesitation, +as she rose to peer through the thick tangle of alders. If so, the +laird, of course. Yes! It must be he, on the opposite bank, standing +irresolute; weighing the pros and cons of breaking in, no doubt. +Marjory's experienced eyes following the taut line, rested finally on +the cast looped round a branch just above her, and apparently within +reach. The mere possibility was sufficient to make her forget all save +the instinct to help. + +"Don't break, please, I can get it." + +Her eager voice, unmistakably girlish and refined, echoed across to +Paul Macleod, who, after a moment's astonished search, traced it to a +face half-seen among the parting leaves. He took off his hat +mechanically, for though it might have been a pixie's there was no +mistaking its gender, and the sex found a large measure of outward +respect in Paul Macleod. For the rest, help offered was with him +invariably help accepted; a fact which accounted for a large portion +of his popularity, since people like those around whom the memory of +their own benevolence can throw a halo. So he stood watching Marjory +settle methodically to her task, wondering the while who the girl +could possibly be. For that she had white hands and trim ankles was +abundantly evident, and neither of these charms was to be expected in +the rustic beauties of the Glen. + +"I am afraid I am giving you a lot of trouble," he said +sympathetically, as for the third time the branch flew back from +Marjory's hold with a sudden spring. + +"Not at all," she gasped jerkily; one cannot speak otherwise on tiptoe +with both hands above one's head. + +"Perhaps I had better help." + +"Perhaps you had," she answered resentfully, desisting for a moment +after a fourth rebuff. "There is no positive necessity for you to +remain idle. You might for instance reel in as I pull." + +His faint smile was tempered by respect. The young lady on the +opposite bank knew what she was about, and, perhaps, might even be +good looking, if she were not quite so red in the face. So he obeyed +meekly, and was rewarded by a gasp of triumph. + +"There! I've got it. I knew you could help if you tried." + +"I'm immensely obliged," he began; then the girl's foot slipped, the +branch sprang from her hand, she made an ineffectual jump after it, +and the next instant the all but disentangled cast, flung into the air +by the rebound, was hard and fast in a higher twig. + +Marjory could have stamped with despite; thought it wiser to laugh, +but found the opposite bank full of silent, grieved sympathy. + +"I'll get it yet," she called across the water, with renewed +determination. + +"I think, if you'll allow me, I will break in," came the deferential +voice after a time. "It really must be very tiring to jump like that." + +"Not at all; thank you," she retorted, without a pause. "I never--give +in." + +"So it appears. Will you allow me to come over and help?" + +Come over and help, indeed! Marjory's growing anger slackened to +contempt. As if he could come over without a detour of half a mile +down or quarter of a mile up the river; and he must know it, unless he +had no memory. "You can't," she jerked between her efforts. "You +had--better slack line--and sit down--I'll get it somehow." + +Very much "somehow." Her hat fell off first. Then, after a desperate +spring, in which she succeeded in clutching a lower branch, a hairpin +struck work. Hot, dishevelled, exasperated, yet still determined, she +persevered without deigning another reference to the silence over the +way, until an arm clothed in grey tweed reached over hers and bent the +branch down within her reach. She looked round, and, even in her +surprise, the great personal charm and beauty of the face looking into +hers struck her almost painfully; for it seemed to soothe her quick +vexation, and so to claim something from her. + +"I jumped," he said, answering the look on hers. "It is quite easy by +the fall." + +Something new to her, something which sent a lump to her throat, made +her turn away and say stiffly: "I am sorry I gave you the trouble of +coming. It would have been better if you had broken in. Good morning." + +He stood grave as a judge, courteous, deferential, yet evidently +amused, still bending down the bough. + +"Will you not finish the task you began? You said you never gave in; +besides, I can hardly do it for myself." The fact was palpable; it +required two hands to disentangle a singularly awkward knot. To deny +this would be to confess her own annoyance, so she turned back again. +Rather an awkward task with a face so close to your own, watching your +ineptitude. And yet she forgot her impatience in a sudden thought. If +he had fallen! If that face had had the life crushed out of it! + +"You ought not to have jumped," she said, impulsively. "It was very +dangerous." + +"Pardon me; I have done it hundreds of times when I was a boy." + +"Boys may do foolish things." + +He smiled. "And men should not; but are dangerous things necessarily +foolish?" + +"Needlessly dangerous things are so, surely?" + +"In that case, what becomes of courage?" + +She paused, frankly surprised both at herself and him. How came it +that he understood so quickly, that she followed him so clearly? Yet +it was pleasant. + +"Courage has nothing to do with the question." + +His smile broadened. "Thanks. I began by saying so. The fact being +that the jump is not dangerous." + +"No one else jumps it," she persisted. + +"Pardon me for mentioning that I am an unusually good jumper. +Besides-- + + + "The game is never yet worth a rap + For a rational man to play, + Into which some misfortune, some mishap + Cannot possibly find its way." + + +Again something new to her, something which this time sent a thrill of +answering recklessness through her veins, something of the mere joy +and pride of life made her ask in quick interest--"Who wrote that?" + +"A man who gave in at last; he shot himself." + +Marjory's face paled. Yes; men did that sort of thing, she knew. She +had read of it, and accepted the truth of it calmly. Now for the first +time she felt that she understood it, that she too stood on the brink +of the Great Unknown Sea, which might bring her to the haven where she +would be, or to shipwreck. Then in quick relief came a new cause for +resentment in the perception, as she began to wind up the now +disentangled cast, that a large portion of line remained attached to +it. In other words, her companion had deliberately cut it, and brought +his rod with him; had risked his life not for the sake of his flies, +but simply to amuse himself at her expense. + +"I think that is all I can do for you," she said, in a white heat of +annoyance. "Good morning, Captain Macleod." + +The name slipped from her unawares, and she recognised her own mistake +immediately. Her knowledge of his identity being a sort of +introduction, from which she could scarcely escape. For his position +as laird of Gleneira, owner of the very ground on which she was +trespassing, could not be ignored. She could not dismiss him like a +tramp. He took the advantage she had given him, coolly. + +"Thanks, so many," he said, holding back a branch to allow of her +passing before him, "but I am going also. It is too bright for sport. +In truth, I never expected any, and only came out to renew my +acquaintance with the river, and discover, what I expected, that I +have almost forgotten how to throw a fly." + +"Indeed, you have not forgotten how to break in, at any rate," she +replied viciously; then ashamed of her unnecessary heat, since surely +it was none of her business if he broke every cast he possessed, she +added, in superior tones, "there is no reason, however, why you should +not get a fish in the Long Pool. The sun won't touch it for half an +hour." + +"The Long Pool," he echoed, "which is that? I'm afraid I have almost +forgotten it, too." + +It was a palpable excuse for continuing the conversation, and as such +Marjory resented it; at the same time, no one ever appealed to her for +information without meeting with prompt attention, the teaching +element being strong in her. So was impatience at crass stupidity; or, +as Captain Macleod preferred to call it, a deficient bump of locality. + +"I'll see you as far as the Alder Island," she said at last, with some +irritation, "then you can't possibly make a mistake." That, at any +rate, would be better than trailing the whole two miles back to +Gleneira beside him. Not that he was forward or objectionable; on the +contrary, he treated her with a deference which would have been +pleasant had it not covered a quiet coercion which was perfectly +intolerable. So the glint of the Long Pool behind the Alder Island +came as a relief, and she pointed to it in a sort of triumph. + +"I'm afraid it is no use," he said despondently. "Too fine; besides, I +haven't had my breakfast, and it is growing late. I'll get Cameron to +come down afterwards and show me the casts. A river changes in ten +years." + +"You can't possibly judge from here; and I can show you the cast +perfectly," she retorted. It had come to a stand-up fight with the +gloves on between his will and hers, and accustomed as she was to +instant submission from everybody of the opposite sex, she would not +confess her own defeat by getting rid of him with a crude dismissal. +To begin with he scarcely merited the insult, and, in addition, it +might be awkward afterwards. So she pointed out the probable lie of +the fish, and, her sporting instincts overcoming her contempt, +exclaimed against the gaudy cast he selected--a cast no decent fish +would have looked at except in flood time. + +"No! no!" she cried, in real eagerness. "Something less like a +firework, if you have one--a brown body and turkey wing. Ah! here's +the very thing. I don't believe in the steel loops, though, do you--? +Will doesn't. And you have bridge rings I see; I never saw them +before. They look good. Now then! Just below the break, down the slidy +bit, and across to the ripple--Oh-h!" + +The exclamation was caused by a fall as of a coiled hawser on the +water, and a separate "blob" of each fly on the surface. + +"You had better try again," she said gravely, "and don't thrash so; +use your wrist." + +"If there was more wind," he suggested. + +"Nonsense! you ought to be able to throw that distance anyhow. It's +all knack; it will come back after a cast or two. I'm sure it will." + +Apparently she was wrong. The line ceased, it is true, to fall in a +heap like an umbrella, yet failed by many feet to reach the break +above the slidy bit. + +"Give me the rod a moment," she cried, "and I'll show you the turn of +the wrist. You'll recognise it then." + +There was an instant's pause as she stood, one foot planted against a +stone, her lithe figure thrown backwards, her chin following the +little toss of her head, tilted sideways; so that her eager young face +was in full view of her companion; and then the long line flew out in +the spey cast and seemed to nestle down just where the water broke. + +"Bravo!" cried Captain Macleod, as much to the picture as to the +skill. And then before he could say another word came an eddy, a noise +like the cloop of a cork, a glint of a silvery side, and the whirr of +the reel. Things to drive all else from a fisherman's brain. + +"In to him!" shouted the Captain, excitedly; "and a beauty, too. No! +no; keep it. I'd rather you kept it! I'd like to see you land him--if +you can." + +The implied doubt, joined to the vicious shooting of something like a +huge silver whiting with its tail in its mouth into the air, warning +the girl of the danger of a slack line, had the desired effect. She +set her teeth and gave herself up to repairing the error of +indecision. The fish, having got his head, was now further down the +pool than he should have been, and close to an ugly snag, towards +which he bored with the strange cunning which seems born in fish. +Marjory gave him the butt bravely, but he fought like a demon, and for +one instant the reel gave out an ominous clicking. + +"Perhaps I had better," came an eager voice beside her. "It is heavier +than I thought." + +"Please not! Please let me keep it now! I'd rather lose him--there!" A +rapid wind-up emphasised her excitement. "I can manage him, you +see--if you will go down--there by the white stones--I'll get him +into the shallow--the tackle is so light I can scarcely bring him +up--and--and--don't be in a hurry--I'll bring him in right over the +click." + +The old imperiousness was back in full swing, and once again she had a +willing slave, eager as she was for the sight of something long and +brown curving, snakelike, into the shallow as if of its own free will, +or coming in despairingly "this side up." It was a sharp, swift +struggle, all the sharper and swifter because of that ominous snag +over the way; and then an eight-pound grilse with the sea-lice still +on him lay on the bank. + +"Oh! What a beautiful creature! One of the prettiest I have ever +seen," cried Marjory, ecstatically, on her knees beside the prize. + +"Very much so, indeed." Captain Macleod's voice was absent, and his +eyes were not on the fish. "You killed him splendidly." + +The light went out of the girl's face; she rose to her feet slowly. + +"I wish I had given you the rod," she said, still looking down on the +palpitating, quivering bar of silver. + +"That is most forgiving of you!" + +She turned upon him almost indignantly. "Oh! I wasn't thinking of all +that--that stuff! I was thinking--it seems so cruel." + +"Many things seem so afterwards. One might spend a lifetime in +regretting, if it was worth it; but it isn't." + +"Isn't it? I wish anyhow that I hadn't killed that fish." + +"Why not go further back, and wish you hadn't interfered to safe my +cast? for, as it happens, the one you chose out was the very one Fate +had ordained should remain in an alder bush----" + +"Perhaps I do," she replied stiffly, realising how he had played upon +her for the first time. The knowledge, rather to her own surprise, +brought tears to her eyes. + +"I don't wonder that you regret having helped me," he said with a +sudden change of manner. "If you will tell me where to leave the fish +I will no longer trouble you. I am sorry for having given you so much +already." + +There was no mistaking the hidden depth of his apology. As he stood +there in the sunlight, looking at her gravely, Marjory felt to the +full the charm of his gracious presence. Who could really be angry +with him for such a trifle? For it was a trifle after all. + +"My name is Marjory Carmichael," she said briefly, "and I live at the +Lodge with the Camerons. But I don't want the fish. I don't indeed." + +"Then you shall not have it. I owe you some obedience, do I not?--and +thanks beyond measure." + +He stood there with his cap off smiling at her, and she, feeling +apologetic in her turn, hesitated. After all, if he was going her way +it would be foolishness itself to tramp that mile and a half with an +interval of fifty yards or so between them. + +"And now I must emulate your skill," he said cheerfully, "though I +can't expect your luck." And as she moved away she saw his flies +settle softly as thistledown in the right place. Well! that was better +than keeping up the pretence. + +As for him, though he continued to fish conscientiously, his thoughts +were with the figure of the retreating girl. She had amused him and +interested him greatly. A relation, he supposed, of Dr. Carmichael's; +in fact, he had a dim recollection of a curly-haired child scampering +about on a Sheltie ten years before; though he had never known the +doctor, who had lived as a recluse. But how came she here still, and +with the Camerons? A cut above them surely! By Jove! how she had hung +on to that grilse, and how nearly she had cried over it afterwards. +Maudlin sentimentality, of course, and yet he had felt the same a +hundred times over a wounded deer. The look in her eyes had been like +that, somehow; uncommonly pretty eyes they were, too, into the +bargain! + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + +Paul Macleod sate in the business-room, where so many lairds of +Gleneira had received rents and signed cheques, playing his part with +great propriety, much to Will Cameron's delight and astonishment. +Captain Macleod was, undoubtedly, the laird, and as such bound to a +semi-parental interest in every living thing, to say nothing of every +stick and stone about the old place. On the other hand, he had been +away in a perfectly different environment for nearly ten years, and it +seemed nothing short of marvellous to the factor that he should +remember every farmer and cottier, nay, more, their wives, and sons, +and daughters, by name. And so, perhaps it was; though, to tell truth, +the mental qualities it represented were small, being no more nor less +than a quick responsiveness to the renewal of past sensation; that +very responsiveness which ten years before had made Paul shrink from +giving an unpleasant memory a place in his life. Moralists are apt to +sneer at the popularity which the possessor of this faculty enjoys; +and, of course, it is easy to cheapen the sympathy of the man, who +when he sees you, is instantly reminded of all the past connected with +you in detail, and proceeds to inquire eagerly about your ox and ass, +your manservant and your maidservant, and everything that is within +your gate. Yet, when all is said and done, and though he certainly +gives the false impression that these things have never been out of +his mind, the gift is not only an enviable one, but in itself argues a +quicker sensibility than that possessed by his more stolid, if more +honest, neighbours. + +So there was no effort to Paul Macleod in taking up the thread of his +past life at Gleneira; at the same time, he felt no more regret at +hearing, as he did through Will's answers to his inquiries, of Jeanie +Duncan's death, somewhere in the vague South country, than he did for +many another item of news. Partly because that old life had really +passed out of existence for him altogether, and partly because Will, +being a good-natured kindly soul, said nothing about the child which +poor old Peggy had brought with her. There are many men of this +sort--more men for the matter of that than there are women--who hate +to face the sad aspect of life, and slur over a painful story whenever +they can. + +Thus Captain Macleod was able to quit the past and plunge into the +future without even the slight regret which the news must have brought +him; for in his way he had really loved Jeanie, and the thought that +his admirable self-sacrifice had not availed to keep her memory +pleasant, would have been a distinct annoyance. As it was, he began at +once on plans and arrangements, which convinced Will Cameron that the +laird must be going, unconsciously, to follow his advice, and marry a +rich wife. Nothing else could explain the fact that Gleneira House had +to be generally smartened up for the present, pending more solid +repairs during winter, that carriages and horses had to be bought at +once, and preparations of all sorts made for the houseful of guests +which would come with the shooting season. In the matter of slates, +glass, stables, and garden, Will Cameron felt himself equal to the +occasion, but when chintzes and furniture came under discussion he +meekly suggested a reference to Maples', or Morris, or his mother. + +"I should prefer Mrs. Cameron," replied the laird, with a laugh. "If I +wanted the other sort of thing my sister Blanche would do it for me +fast enough. Take a brougham by the day--to save her own horse, you +know--and re-create poor old Gleneira. First day, paper, painting, +draping; second day, furnishing; third day, creeping things +innumerable--you know them. Chenille things climbing up the lamp, a +Japanese toad on the writing-table, and a spider on the edge of a +teacup." He rose and went to the window. "But that sort of thing is +desecration of this," he went on, looking out on the opalescent +shimmer of sea and sky and hills; "though it does well enough in South +Kensington. I never could fit myself out, even in clothes, with a view +to both hemispheres, and though some folk profess to prepare for +heaven and enjoy earth at the same time, I'm not made that way." + +He pulled himself up with an airy smile, and turned round again. + +"So let us be off to Mrs. Cameron, and perhaps that young lady who is +staying with you--I met her by the river this morning----" + +"Marjory," put in Will, eagerly; "why, yes, of course, she is the very +person we want--has awfully good taste." + +"Indeed," said the other, smiling again. He was thinking that in that +case he could not claim distinction since she had not favoured him +with much of her approval. Not that it mattered, since he had quite +made up his mind that during the next few weeks, before his married +sister came to do hostess, Marjory would be a decided acquisition to +the limited society at his command; for Paul was distinctly gregarious +in his tastes. It did not take much to amuse him; but he needed some +gentle interest to start the wheels of his pleasure, and that interest +was, preferably, a woman. So, being able thus to combine duty and +amusement by a visit to the Lodge, he calmly suggested an adjournment +on the spot, to which Will agreed, blissfully oblivious of the fact +that not half-an-hour before he had left his mother in the agonies of +redding up the best parlour, with a view to the laird's expected visit +in the afternoon. + +No doubt when the women of the future have won large interests for +themselves, such a spectacle as Mrs. Cameron presented when she saw +two tweed-clad figures lounging up the path together will be +impossible. Even nowadays the attempt to describe her feelings must +fall far short of the reality, since few of this generation can grasp +the mental position of the last, and Mrs. Cameron belonged to the +generation before that. Of far better birth than many a farmer's wife +who would be ashamed at being discovered engaged in household work, +Mrs. Cameron would as a rule have gloried in what was to her the sole +aim and object of woman's creation; but this was no ordinary occasion; +how could that be one which necessitated clean muslin curtains at a +time when clean muslin curtains should not be, a cake made after her +mother's original recipe baking in the oven, and a bottle of her dead +husband's very best Madeira waiting to be decanted on the sideboard? + +She stood transfixed on the steps, in the very act of running a tape +through the stiffened hem of the curtain, an operation which in itself +had reduced her patience to the lowest ebb; and then, after an +instant's pause, her resentment found an outlet in one expressive +epithet. + +"The Gowk!" For it was Will's fault, of course; had not the lad been a +perfect dispensation ever since he was born? (this being her favourite +word for describing all the inevitable trials of her life). Besides, +after the manner of most housewifely women, she always visited any +failure in domestic arrangements on the head of the nearest male +belonging to the family. No one but a man, no one but a man, sent to +make _her_ life a burden, could have been guilty of such a disgraceful +blunder, when a word, a hint, could have kept the laird from coming +until the afternoon. The conviction brought a sort of martyred +resignation with it, as she continued in a lower key, "and the parlour +as bare as the loof o' my hand, save for the tea leaves on the +drugget." + +A more forlorn picture of discomfort could not have been suggested, +and Marjory, standing by with needle and thread, promptly suggested +that the laird should be shown into her study, since she was on the +point of going out; an assertion which mollified the old lady by its +suggestion that the visit must be to her alone. And wherefore not, +since she had seen three generations of Macleods come and go? So, with +vague remarks about sparing the rod and spoiling the child, which it +is to be supposed bore reference to poor Will's education, she hurried +off to meet her guest in the old-fashioned style, and take it out of +the offender--who in the meantime had, for hospitality's sake, to go +scot free--by a display of almost subservient humility to their +employer. + +"Come ben! Come ben, Gleneira, to your ain house. And tho' it is no so +tidy as I might have wished" (here a savage glance at her son +emphasised the stab) "it is not for me to say you nay, for even if we +have been here father and son, a' these years, it is no for us to be +forgettin' oor position and dependence." + +"Don't keep the laird standing on the steps all day," put in Will, +hurriedly; "he wants to have a crack with you, mother; let us go into +the parlour." + +"The parlour, William, as you should ken fine, is being redd up, so I +must fain ask the laird's pardon for takin' him to our boarder's wee +sitting-room." + +As a rule Mrs. Cameron would sooner have died than call Marjory a +boarder, and so level herself to the bit farmer-bodies who let +lodgings in the summer time; but at present any weapon against her +son's dignity was welcome, and she rejoiced to see him growing more +and more impatient. Letting lodgings, indeed! Aye, that was what the +poor shiftless creature would come to if he hadn't her to make both +ends meet! + +"My dear Mrs. Cameron," replied Paul, still holding her old hand and +looking sentimentally into her old face, "the pleasure of seeing you +is all I care for now. To begin with, it makes me feel years younger. +And how young I was when you caught me stealing your jam! I have +never forgotten the lecture you gave me, never! And then, do you +remember----?" He was fairly afloat on the sea of reminiscence now, +much to the old lady's gratification. But since this was distinctly an +irregular method of getting through a state visit, she led the way +defiantly to Marjory's little snuggery upstairs, with another sniff at +poor Will, which sent him off muttering something about letting its +owner know; a remark which increased his mother's wrath, and made her +more than ever set on a strict observance of the ceremony due to the +occasion. So she sat exactly opposite Paul on a high chair, and began +_seriatim_ on all domestic events in the Gleneira family during the +past nine years, until his head whirled, and the life which had seemed +to him so varied and gay, reduced itself to a mere excerpt from the +first column of the Times. Yet his deferential courtesy never failed, +and, as usual, brought him its own reward; for after a time, the old +lady, finding it impossible to resist his charm, thawed completely, +and finally getting quite jolly, frankly confessed her annoyance, and +hurried off to see if the cake were not sufficiently baked to admit of +Gleneira's breaking bread in the house, just for luck's sake. + +Paul, left alone, began to frown. This was Miss Carmichael's room; +but, apparently, she meant to steer clear of it while he was there. +Girls did that sort of thing; it made them feel independent. +Meanwhile, what sort of a girl was she, judged by her room; that sort +of knowledge often came in very useful when the dear creatures were +shy. Fond of flowers, certainly, and in a rational way; these were not +arranged in bouquets, but set one or two in a vase wherever a vase +could stand, so that you could see them. Books? A closed bookcase full +of the dreariest backs; they must have belonged to her uncle, or +perhaps to old Cameron, who had been a bit of a student; but scarcely +to a girl who could throw a salmon line like Miss Carmichael. Yes! She +had certainly looked as well as she was ever likely to look, when +swaying her lithe body to the sway of the rod. Pictures? A good +photograph that, over the mantelpiece, of Andrea del Sarto's +Maddelena; from the original, of course, and full size. That was the +best of photographs, you could have them exact, and sometimes half an +inch made such a difference. How well he remembered his first sight of +the picture in that dark corner of the Borghese gallery, and the +effect its dreamy eyes had had on him; the wonder, too, whether the +casket really held a very precious ointment, or a still more precious +_acquatofana_. Either was possible with that dim, mysterious smile; +and the woman herself--for it was Del Sarto's wife, of course--had +been a lying devil who made her husband's life a perfect hell. Now, +had Miss Carmichael chosen that photograph for herself; and, if so, +why? Since it did not fit the salmon fishing any better than the +books. Ah! there in the bow window, cut off from the rest of the room +by muslin drapery, was a low wicker chair, placed close to a revolving +bookstand. + +"Now for the last new novel," he said to himself cynically. "What is +the odds on anything in these latter times. I have seen nice girls +since I came home reading things in public which I would not leave +about in the smoking-room for fear the housemaid might be shocked. +Eheu!" + +It was a sort of prolonged low whistle of surprise and disappointment, +mingled with a distinct personal aversion to the treatise on Conic +Sections, which he took up inadvertently. The fact being that Paul +Macleod had at one period of his life thought of Woolwich, and that +particular book had, as it were, stood in the way of his ambition. +Perhaps it was that which made him fling it down contemptuously, +with a sort of vague indictment against the owner. She had not looked +like it certainly, yet for all he knew she might be one of those +clear-headed, hard-hearted nondescripts--the opposite extreme from +that angel-faced, sensual-minded demon over the mantelpiece--who +despised the emotions they were born to create, and would scorn to +have a foolish, illogical, unreasoning, lovable sentimentality. There +he paused abruptly, and whistled again; for on the stand among the +books was a little vase holding some white heather and stag-horn moss. +A curious coincidence truly, even if it were nothing more. He stood +looking at it for a minute or two, and then quite coolly exchanged it +for a similar bouquet which he was wearing in his buttonhole; a +bouquet which he had found in a vase on his dressing-table. + +Just then the door opened, at first gently, then hurriedly, while +Marjory's voice exclaimed in joyous relief, "Gone at last! What a +relief!" + +Paul emerged from his concealment with outstretched hand. +"Good-morning, Miss Carmichael," he said in that charming voice of +his, "delighted to find you at home." She looked at him with level, +puzzled eyes. + +"I think you must have heard what I said just now, didn't you?" Her +directness went straight through the veneer of conventional +politeness, and startled him into corresponding frankness. + +"Yes; every word," he said, turning to take up his cap. + +"Oh, please don't," she broke in eagerly. "It will make me feel so +ashamed. And it was only because I wanted to finish some papers and +send them off. You see to-morrow is my birthday, and I promised Tom to +take a holiday. But I forgot," she added with a quick apologetic +smile, "you don't know who Tom is, and it can't interest you----" + +"I beg your pardon," he interrupted, returning somewhat to his more +elaborate manner; "it interests me exceedingly to know who Tom is." + +Again her perfect unconsciousness drove him back to simplicity. + +"Tom is my guardian--Dr. Thomas Kennedy. I don't suppose _you_ have +heard of him, but most people have; I mean of that sort. He is in +Paris now busy over a bacillus." + +"Indeed!" said Paul, beginning to weary; "and so to-morrow is your +birthday, and you are to have a holiday; a whole holiday. That sounds +very virtuous, Miss Carmichael, to a man who has perpetual holidays." + +"But I am going to have six weeks! A real vacation. The first I've +ever had; because you see I've never been to school or college, and +work has always been more or less of an amusement to me. One must have +something to do, you know." + +"Pardon me, but I seldom find the necessity. Life in itself occupies +all my spare time; I mean all the time I can spare from things that +are necessary to keep in life." + +She looked at him again with frankly puzzled, half-amused eyes. "How +funny that sounds. I don't understand it a bit, but I daresay I shall +when I have really been idle for two or three weeks. Tom says it will +do me good before I start regular work. I am going to teach in a Board +school in November." + +"That seems a pity." + +"Why? I have to earn my own living, remember!" + +"Pardon me for saying that that seems to me a greater pity still." + +The puzzled, amused look grew more pronounced. "And that sounds still +funnier. Can't you see that some of us must work; there are so many of +us nowadays. Besides, I like work; uncle used to say that was lucky, +because I had to. You see I am absolutely alone in the world." + +"And that is the greatest pity of all." His voice, soft, kind, +courteous, carried them beyond the lightness of ordinary conversation +in a moment, and Marjory, recognising the fact, felt none of her +usually quick resentment at the intrusion of a stranger into her inner +life; for she was not of those who parade their possession of a soul, +perhaps because she took it as a matter of course. + +"I suppose it is, in a way," she assented; "but I have been accustomed +to the position all my life, and somehow I never regret it." + +"That seems to me rather unnatural in a girl." + +"It is very lucky," she retorted. "What would become of me if I were +afraid?" + +"You would probably lead a far happier life." + +"Why?" + +They were standing opposite each other, looking into each other's +faces, and the beauty of his, the unconsciousness of hers, held them +both captive. + +"Because in all probability you would marry." + +There was a silence for a moment, but Paul Macleod, no mean judge of +character, partly because of the complexity of his own, had rightly +gauged the measure of what he had to deal with. What many girls might +have deemed an impertinence Marjory passed by as a mere truism. + +"I have often thought of that myself," she replied quietly; "but I +think you are mistaken." + +It was his turn now to put that terse, unconditional "Why?" + +"I am not likely to marry; as uncle used to say, I have not purchasing +power equal to my requirements." + +"Meaning, of course, that your ideal is too high. I should have +fancied so. You are very young, Miss Carmichael. And I am old; +besides, ten years knocking about in Indian cantonments disposes +effectually of the theory of twin souls. It is very beautiful, no +doubt; but I fancy mine must have died in the measles, or some other +infantile ailment. It did not survive to riper years, at any rate. But +here comes Mrs. Cameron, so I shall escape scathing this time. I +generally do." + +Marjory felt she could well believe it, palpably unjust though such +immunity might be, as she watched the laird give back the fervid +greeting of the Reverend James Gillespie, who followed close on the +tray of cake and wine. + +"My dear sir; welcome to the Glen," cried the young clergyman. "I have +been up at the Big House, and, hearing you were at the Lodge, ventured +to follow you. As parish clergyman----" + +"'Deed no! Gillespie," put in Mrs. Cameron, sharply. + +"I did not say minister, my dear Madam," retorted the Reverend James +with uncommon spirit; "I said clergyman; and considering that the +lairds of Gleneira have ever clung loyally to the Church." Here +something in the old lady's face made him, as it were, climb down +again. "Well, let us say parish priest." + +"'Deed no, again," interrupted the good lady, with a grim smile. "What +would Father Macdonald be saying?" + +The Reverend Mr. Gillespie climbed down still further for the sake of +peace, though the vexed question of effectual orders was a favourite +hunting-ground of the Bishop's. "As a native of Gleneira, deeply +interested in the spiritual and moral welfare of its inhabitants, +allow me to express my sincere pleasure in your return. Believe me, +Gleneira, the people welcome you to their midst." + +"It is really awfully kind of you all, when I have been such a +shocking ne'er-do-weel absentee. I assure you, Miss Carmichael, that +the number of times I've had to drink my own health in raw whiskey +this morning is incredible; enough to ruin it for the next year." + +The Reverend James put on his most professional air. "Too true. As the +Bishop says, whiskey is indeed the bane----" + +"Hoot, no!" interrupted Mrs. Cameron from the cake and wine; "good +whiskey ne'er harmed a good man. It is just the idle, feckless bodies +getting drunken that gives it a bad name." + +"But that is just the point, my dear lady," expostulated the young +man, feeling sure of his ground. "It is for the sake of the weaker +brother." + +"Havers!" began Mrs. Cameron; but the Reverend James was firm, and +quoted the text. + +"Aye, aye!" continued the old lady, "I ken where it comes from fine, +more's the pity, for I don't hold wi' it. It's just a premium on being +a poor body, and is the clear ruination o' this world whatever it may +be of the next. Gie me a useless, through--other man or woman, and +hey! it's a weaker brother an' maun' be cockered up." + +She showed so much animation that her opponent retired from the +contest discreetly by turning to the laird and beginning on a stock +subject. + +"I am sorry to say, Gleneira, that despite my own efforts, and the +Bishop's earnest desire for the erection of a church, matters remain +much as they were, when you were here last. That is to say, service +has still to be conducted in the school-house, which, er--in addition +to other illegitimate uses"--he glanced casually at his old enemy at +this point--"also serves as a post-office; a plan which has great and +undeniable inconvenience." + +"And convenience, too," put in Mrs. Cameron, remorselessly. "You see, +laird, the post is no delivered on the Sabbath-day, this bein' a +Christian land, and so when folk go to kirk they can kill twa birds +wi' one stane." + +This was too much. "In my opinion," retorted the Reverend James, +pompously, "it would be far less objectionable if Donald _did_ deliver +the letters than that the last words of the blessing should be the +signal for handing them round the congregation. But as is so often the +case in Scotland, the veneration for the day--which, by the way, is +not the Sabbath----" + +"No, no!" interrupted the old lady, "I'm no going that gate. I've told +ye oft, Mr. Gillespie, it is naught to me if it's the Sabbath or +Sunday, or Lord's-day or the first day o' the week we are keeping. But +I ken fine that in my learnin' days I was taught to keep it holy, so +if there is ony mistake it was none o' my makin'. It's the fault of +the minister." + +Mr. Gillespie coughed. "The hours of service are eleven o'clock for +matins, and four o'clock for evensong. Miss Marjory kindly helps us +with the harmonium. Indeed, one of my reasons for coming on here was +to ask her to settle the hymns for Sunday first, unless, indeed, you +yourself would select one suitable--er--to the occasion." + +Paul took the proffered hymn-book with visible embarrassment, and +looked appealingly towards Marjory, but it was impossible to laugh, +for the Reverend James's proposition was saved from absurdity by its +absolute simplicity. + +"Really! my dear sir," he began, when Mrs. Cameron came to his rescue. + +"Gie the laird a harvest hymn, Mr. Gillespie. I'll warrant he has sown +his wild oats, though maybe after all, you would no care to be reapin' +them, Gleneira." + +He laughed very boyishly. "My dear old friend, if they were fifty +shillings a quarter, I should be the richest man in Lorneshire, +instead of the poorest." + +"Poor," she echoed grimly; "you couldna' be poor if you tried. It is +no in some men. And now, Gleneira, there's some o' the farm folk +waiting to drink your health outside, so come awa'. And you, too, +Marjory, my dear, for you're a Gleneira lass when all's said and done. +And the parson can tak' a glass for his oft infirmities if he'll no do +it for anything less important." + +They followed her out into the sunshine, where, in a solemn +semi-circle, they found half-a-dozen or more of men and halflings, +headed, of course, by old John Macpherson as spokesman. He held a wine +glass in one hand, a black bottle in the other, and the liltiness of +his attitude, joined to a watery benevolence in his eye, told a tale +of previous exertions towards the laird's good health. It was evident +that, for the time being, he was an optimist, viewing the world as the +best of all possible worlds. A glass more, and he would be ready to +defend the proposition with his fists; another, and he would have wept +over its denial, for Aladdin's genii of the bottle was not more +powerful in metamorphosis than Scotch whiskey was on John Macpherson. + +"An' here's to you, Gleneira," he said, when Paul returned the glass. +"An' it's wissing you as rich as the Duke o' Wellington--Pech! +Mistress Cameron, but yon's gude whiskey--water never touched it." + +Even the refilled glass, as it passed from hand to hand, seemed to +have a vicarious effect on old John, who waxed more and more lilty, +and finally, when the others moved off, lingered for an audible +whisper, accompanied by an admiring glance at the laird. + +"Gorsh! Miss Marjory, wass I no tellin' you he was bonnie, and iss he +not bonnie, whatever?" + +"A leading question, John," said Paul, readily; "witness can't be +expected to answer it." + +But the argumentative mood was beginning. "An' what for no. Miss +Marjory will be a Highland lass, an' a Highland lass will no be so +shamefast, but they will be knowing a bonnie lad when they see one." + +"I quite agree with you, John," said the girl, quickly, with a +suspicion of both a frown and a smile on her face. + +Paul Macleod, as he walked home, found himself fully occupied in +trying, as it were, to piece the girl's character together to his +satisfaction. She was a novel experience, a pleasant one into the +bargain. + +So when she came to breakfast next morning, a bouquet of hot-house +flowers lay on her plate with Captain Macleod's best wishes for her +birthday. + +"I think it is very kind of him," she said judicially, in reply to +Mrs. Cameron's rapture over the laird's condescension; "but Peter +Morrison will be furious at having his show spoilt. And he has +amputated the poor things at the knee. Men ought never to pick +flowers, they don't understand them, except gardeners, and they never +want to pick them at all." + +When she went up that afternoon to the Big House in order to aid Mrs. +Cameron's taste in the matter of new curtains, there was a little +bunch of white heather and stag-horn moss tucked into her belt. In +finding room amongst the vases for the newcomers this had seemed too +pretty to throw away, that was all. But Paul Macleod's keen eyes fell +on it at once with a certain satisfaction; nevertheless, he made no +allusion to the subject, a reticence which he would not have observed +towards most women of his acquaintance. It was sufficient for him to +be aware of its complicated history. That sort of thing gave an +infinite zest to life. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + +Even in the dusty glare of a dusty July sun, one of the largest houses +in Queen's Gardens looked cool and pleasant with its delicate shades +of grey on wall and portico, its striped jalousies and tiled window +gardens gay with scarlet geraniums, yellow calceolarias, and blue +lobelias; flowers, all of them, which seem somehow to have lost their +flowerfulness by being so constantly associated in one's mind with +area railings, barrel organs, and the eternal rat-tat of the postman's +knock--to be brief, with London. For all the passer-by knew or cared, +those lines of brilliant red, yellow, and blue blossoms might have +been cunningly composed of paper, and would have served their purpose +to the full as well had they been so, since no one, even inside the +house, ever looked on them in the light of living, breathing plants +going through a process of asphyxiation. It is difficult no doubt to +resist the temptation to have pot-plants in London, but how often when +brought face to face with the hideous ravages which a day or two of +its poisonous atmosphere makes on our favourites has not the true +flower-lover felt nothing short of murder. The inhabitants of the +house in Queen's Gardens, however, had not even this chance for +remorse, since the boxes were kept bright by contract, and if any poor +plant was ill-advised enough to droop and complain, it was promptly +rooted up and replaced by the man who came in the early mornings to +"walk the hospitals" before the family appeared on the scene. + +Within the house, the same spick and span, utterly impersonal +attention to beauty prevailed. From basement to attic it was simply +perfect in its appointments. As it might well be, since an artist in +copper utensils had been let loose in the kitchen, the greatest +authority in the world on wall papers had been allowed his will in +friezes and dados; and so on from cellar to roof. There is, of course, +a good deal to be said in favour of this modern specialism. It is +distinctly comforting to know, that if you have not reached +perfection, you have at any rate paid for it; but to some barbarians +the loss of individuality in such houses is very grievous. To begin +with, you lose a most delightful study of character. And after all, if +Mrs. Jones has a sneaking admiration for a pea-green carpet with pink +cabbage roses sprinkled over it, why, in heaven's name, should she +conceal the fact? No green that ever was dyed is greener than grass, +no flower that ever was woven is half as brilliant as the +blossom-mosaic which Nature spreads for you to tread upon when the +snow melts from the upland Alps. Yet the house was charming enough in +detail if a little confusing _en masse_ to those sensitive to their +surroundings; since the drawing-room was Queen Anne, the dining-room +Tudor, and various other corridors and apartments Japanesque, +Renaissance, Early English, or Pompeian. + +This again did not affect the inmates, who, indeed, would have scorned +to feel as if time and space had been annihilated in the course of +half-a-dozen steps; such fanciful imaginations being almost wicked, +when time and space were distinctly necessary to the due performance +of your duty in that state of life to which it had pleased Providence +to call you. + +On this particular morning in July, Mr. and Mrs. Woodward and their +daughter Alice were seated at the breakfast table in the usual +comfortable indifferent silence of people who keep a diary of outside +engagements in a conspicuous place on the writing-table, and whose +inner lives move in decorous procession from morn till eve. A canary +was singing joyfully, but at the same time keeping a watchful eye on +the grey Persian cat which walked up and down rubbing itself, as it +passed and repassed, against Mrs. Woodward's gown, with an anxious +look on the bread and milk she was crumbling for it. Mr. Woodward, at +the other side of a central palm tree, studied the share list. Miss +Alice Woodward, who had evidently come down later than the others, was +still engaged listlessly on toast and butter; finally making a remark +in an undertone to her mother that as Jack had settled to ride with +her in the Park at eleven, she supposed it was about time to get +ready; a remark which resulted in her pushing away her plate +languidly. + +"You have eaten no breakfast, my dear, and you are looking pale," said +her mother, comfortably; "I will get you some more Blaud's from the +Stores." + +"Oh! I'm all right," replied the girl. "It's hot, and--and things are +tiresome. They generally are at the end of the season, aren't they?" + +She drifted easily, rather aimlessly, out of the room. Like everything +else in the house she was costly and refined; pretty in herself but +without any individuality. For the rest, blonde and graceful, with a +faintly discontented droop of the mouth, and large, full, china-blue +eyes. + +Mr. Woodward watched her retreat furtively till the door closed behind +her, then laid down his paper and addressed his wife with the air of a +man who attends strictly to business. That was, in fact, his attitude +towards his daughter at all times. He did not, he said, understand +girls, but he did his duty by them. + +"I heard from Macleod this morning, my dear." + +Mrs. Woodward went on crumbling bread gently, and there was a pause. +"Well, what does he say?" + +"That the house will be ready for visitors by the 8th of next month, +and that it will give him great pleasure to welcome us as soon after +that date as we can manage." + +"Nothing more?" + +"Only the old story; that he is most anxious for our consent in order +that he may speak definitely. There, read it yourself, a sensible, +gentlemanly letter. I really don't think she could do better." + +His tone was precisely what it would have been had he been +recommending the purchase of debenture stock in a safe concern. + +"Then I suppose we may consider it settled; I mean, if Alice likes the +place." + +"Just so; but I'm told it is charming; there is a man--in +hooks-and-eyes, by the way--who has the moor next it. I met him at the +Kitcheners' dinner. He said it only wanted money, and she will bring +that. Besides, the man himself is all that can be desired, even by a +girl." + +Mrs. Woodward nodded her head. "Yes, that is such a comfort, and Lady +George is so nice. Alice is quite fond of her, which is a great point +with a sister-in-law. In fact, everything seems most satisfactory." +She paused a moment, and a faint shade of doubt showed on her face. +"Only, of course, there is Jack." + +"Jack! heaven and earth, Sophia! what has Jack to do with it?" + +"Nothing, of course, only you know, or at any rate you might have seen +that he--well, that he may object." + +Mr. Woodward's face passed from sheer amazement to that peculiar +expression of virtuous indignation which so many English fathers +reserve for those who, without a nomination, have the temerity to +admire their daughters. + +"Jack! that boy Jack?" + +"He is older than Alice, my dear," put in his wife, with meek +obstinacy. She, on the contrary, was smiling, for, no matter how +ineligible the victim, a scalp is always a scalp to a mother; and +Jack was not ineligible. On the contrary, he was the head of the +soap-boiling business, now that her husband had received a +consideration for his interest, and retired into the more genteel +trade of blowing soap bubbles on 'Change. + +"Pooh!" retorted Mr. Woodward, angrily, "if he is troublesome send him +to me, I'll settle him. The lad must marry position, like Alice." He +paused, and his manner changed. "You don't, of course, mamma, +insinuate that--that Alice--that your daughter has been foolish +enough----" + +Mrs. Woodward rose with dignity, and gave the cat its bread and milk. +"_My_ daughter is a dear, good, sensible girl, Mr. Woodward; but that +doesn't alter the fact that your _nephew_ may be foolish. I consider +it extremely likely that he may be; it runs in the family." + +Mr. Woodward took up the share list again, using it--after the manner +of his kind when in domestic difficulties--as a shield, and his wife +put a fresh lump of sugar in the canary's cage, saw to its seed and +water, and left the room placidly. The bird was her bird, the cat her +cat, and therefore she did her duty by them. In the same conscientious +spirit she interviewed the housekeeper and ordered a very good dinner +for her husband because he was her husband. Some people have the knack +of getting a vast deal of purely selfish satisfaction out of their own +virtues. Finally, she went into the morning-room, and began to think +over the best way of doing her duty by her daughter also; for there +was this difficulty in the way, here, that she and Alice were too much +alike for sympathy. They found each other out continually, and, what +is more, placidly disapproved of the various little weaknesses they +shared in common. It is this inevitable likeness which is really at +the bottom of that state of affairs, which is expressed in the +feminine phrase, "they don't get on at home, somehow." But Alice was +not a revolting daughter. Apart from other considerations, she would +have thought it vulgar not to behave nicely to her parents, while Mrs. +Woodward herself would have felt her complacent self-respect +endangered if she had not had a high estimate of her own child; and +Alice was, in this aspect, a far easier subject than her brother Sam, +who, to tell truth, gave even his mother a few qualms in regard to his +personal appearance. + +But Alice was perfect in that respect, simply perfect. Not too +pronouncedly pretty; not the sort of girl whose photograph would be +put up surreptitiously in the shop windows, but really quite +unexceptionable as she came in to her mother's room and stood at the +window in her trim habit waiting for the horses to come round. Then +she turned to her mother composedly. + +"Father had a letter from Captain Macleod this morning, hadn't he? +When does he expect us?" + +Mrs. Woodward gave a sigh of relief. It was an advantage sometimes to +be seen through, especially when you were anxious to give a word of +warning before that long ride with Jack in the Park, and you did not +quite know how to set about it. + +"On the 8th; that will suit your father nicely; he will have done his +meetings by then. And you will like the change, won't you, darling?" + +"Immensely, of course. Then we had better go round to Redfern's to-day +and order tailor-made things; something that looks rough, you know, +but isn't. I hate rough things, they make me feel creepy. Ah! there is +Jack coming round the gardens. Good-bye, dearest." + +She stooped to kiss her mother dutifully ere leaving, and Mrs. +Woodward seized the opportunity. + +"Good-bye, darling, and before you go, Alice, about Jack." + +"What about Jack, mamma?" + +"You might tell him--perhaps." + +"What shall I tell him?" asked the girl, a trifle petulantly. "That we +are going down to stay at Gleneira with the Macleods. That is really +all there is to tell--as yet." + +"I know that, my dear; still--still it would be better if Jack did not +follow you about so much." + +"Of course, it would be better, and I have told him so often; I will +tell him again, if you like, so don't be anxious, you good, pretty +little mamma. I am very fond of Jack--he is a dear fellow--but I don't +intend to marry him. I see quite well how foolish it would be for us +both." + +Mrs. Woodward, as she watched the riders pass down the road, told +herself that Alice was one in a thousand, and deserved to be happy, as +no doubt she would be if she married Paul Macleod, who was so very +nice-looking. This point of good looks was one upon which Mrs. +Woodward laid great insistence, and it enabled her to spend the next +hour or two in finishing a sentimental novel in which the lovers, +after sternly rejecting the counsels of parents and guardians, were +rewarded in the third volume with L50,000 a year and a baronetcy. For, +like most mothers, poor Mrs. Woodward was sadly at sea on the +matrimonial question. Its romantic side appealed to her fancy, its +business side to her experience, since no woman can have done her duty +in the married state for a quarter of a century without seeing that +where personal pleasure has been the motive power in one point, sheer +personal self-abnegation has been the motive in ten. + +Meanwhile the cousins, after cantering round the Row, had reined in +their horses for a walk. Alice rode well, and the exercise had brought +an unwonted animation to her appearance. Jack, on the other hand, was +a tall, burly young fellow, a trifle over-dressed, but otherwise +unobjectionable, looked his best, with a heartwhole admiration for his +companion on his honest face. What a pretty couple they would make, +thought an old spinster, taking her constitutional in Kensington +Gardens, and began straightway to dream of a certain hunt ball where +someone had danced with her five times before supper. How many times +afterwards she had never had to confess, even to her twin sister; +thanks to the extras, which, of course, need not count. And yet +nothing had come of it! And just as she got so far in her +reminiscences Alice was saying to Jack pleasantly, "I shall miss these +rides of ours, Jack, shan't you?" + +"Why should you miss them?" he asked anxiously, for there was a +superior wisdom in her tone which he knew and dreaded. "I'm going down +to Heddingford when you go. We can ride there." + +"But we are going to Scotland first; didn't mamma tell you? We are to +stay with Captain Macleod." + +Poor Jack's heart gave a great throb of pain. + +"Macleod?" he echoed, "that is the tall, handsome fellow, isn't it, +who used to hang round you before I came up from the works?" + +This allusion to Paul's good looks was unfortunate, since Jack's were +not improved by the sudden flush which crimsoned even his ears. + +"I don't know what you mean by hanging round," retorted the girl, +quickly. "It is a very vulgar expression." + +This again was unwise, for Jack, knowing his strong point was not +refinement, felt instantly superior to such trivialities, and took the +upper hand. + +"Call it what you like, Ally. You know perfectly well what I mean, and +what he meant, too." + +There was no denying it, and, after all, why should it be denied? Had +she not a right to have other lovers besides Jack? + +"Let us come for another canter," she said, in the tone of voice which +an elder sister might have used to a troublesome little brother, who +required to be coaxed out of ill humour. "There is no use being cross +about it, you know." + +She went a little too far, and roused him into laying his hand on her +rein, abruptly. And the action startled her, for she hated any display +of emotion, being, in truth, totally unaccustomed to it. + +"Not yet, Ally! I want to have this out first. It is time I did. And +yet I don't know how to begin; perhaps because it never had a +beginning. I've always cared for you--you know that. Ever since----" +the young man's eyes grew moist suddenly over some childish +recollection, and then an almost savage look came to his face. "And +you--you cared. I'm sure you cared----" + +Some people have the knack of saying the wrong thing, and in this case +poor Jack Woodward gave his mistress a handle both to her pride and +her prudence. + +"Care," she echoed, in a patronising tone. "Of course, Jack, I cared. +I cared for you very much, and I care for you now. So much so that I +am not going to let you be foolish any more. We didn't understand what +things really meant in those old days----" + +"You don't understand now," he broke in hotly. + +"Don't I," she continued; "perhaps I don't, for I don't really see +what there is to make such a fuss about. And it is very selfish----" + +"Do you mean to say that it is selfish of me to love you?" he cried. +"Selfish to----" + +She interrupted him again with the same facile wisdom. + +"Very selfish, if we stand in each other's way. And, after all, Jack, +what we both need to make life really successful is something we +have neither of us got. We are only soap-boilers, you know, and +society----" + +"Society!" he echoed sternly. "What has society to do with it? I +didn't think you were so worldly." + +"I am not worldly," she retorted, in quite an aggrieved tone; "unless, +indeed, it is worldly to be sensible, to think of you as well as of +myself--to be unselfish and straightforward." + +"Straightforward! What, do you call it straightforward to let me hang +round you as I have done?" + +"Really, Jack, you are _impayable_ with your hangings round! Can you +not find a less objectionable phrase?" + +She was fencing with him, and he saw it, saw it and resented it with +the almost coarse resentment of a nature stronger and yet less +obstinate than hers. + +"Yes, if you like. I'll say you have played fast and loose with me--as +you have. You have known for years that I cared for you, and that I +intended to marry you. And when a girl allows that sort of thing to go +on without a word, and doesn't mean it, I say she is a flirt--a +heartless flirt, and I have nothing more to do with her." + +He turned his horse as he spoke, and without another word rode off, +leaving her to go home with the groom. Inexcusable violence, no doubt. +Alice told herself so again and again in the vain effort to get rid of +a certain surprised remorse, for the girl was emphatically a moral +coward, and any display of high-handed resentment, so far from rousing +her opposition, invariably made her doubtful of her own wisdom. She +hated scenes most cordially, hated, above all things, to have +opprobrious epithets hurled at her; for she clung with almost piteous +tenacity to her own virtue. It was too hard, too unkind of Jack to +blame her, and yet despite this, his condemnation seemed to dim that +lodestar of her firmament--common sense. After all, if he liked her, +why should they not marry? Why should such devotion be sacrificed to +the Moloch of position? In truth, as she thought over the incident, an +odd mixture of anger and regret came to upset her usual placidity, so +that, much to her own surprise, she broke down helplessly into tears +over her mother's conventional inquiry as to how she had enjoyed her +ride. Nor could she find any reason for this unwonted emotion, beyond +the fact that Jack had been brutal and called her a flirt, and had +ridden away, declaring that he would have nothing more to say to her. +That such would be the case Mrs. Woodward, as she administered sal +volatile and talked about the trying heat, felt was most devoutly to +be wished; but a long course of three volume novels warned her of the +danger of trusting to the permanence of lovers' quarrels. So after her +daughter had been provided with darkness and eau-de-cologne, and a +variety of other feminine remedies against the evil effects of +emotion, she went off to her own sitting-room to consider the position +by the light of her five-and-forty years of human experience. To begin +with, the girl's feelings were clearly more deeply implicated than +she, or for the matter of that Alice herself, had imagined. The +question, therefore, came uppermost whether this fact ought to be +admitted or deprecated; whether in short this evident dislike to +giving her cousin pain was the result of a romantic attachment or +simply the natural kindliness of a girl for a young fellow she had +known from infancy. Now the cogitations of mothers over their +daughters' matrimonial prospects are always fair game for both +moralist and novelist. For some mysterious reason the least display of +prudence is considered worldly; yet, on the face of it, a woman who +has had, say, five-and-twenty years of married life cannot possibly +fail to see how much of her own life has been made or marred by +influences which she never considered in accepting Dick, Tom, or +Harry. In nine cases out of ten it is the remembrance of her own +ignorance which makes her espouse the cause of the lover who can bring +the greatest number of chances for content. And it is idle to deny, +for instance, that a girl marrying into a family which will welcome +her is far less likely to quarrel with her husband than one who is +looked on askance by her mother-in-law. There is, in sober truth, an +immense deal to be said in favour of the French theory which holds +that given a favourable nidus, and kindly atmosphere, the germ of +happiness is more likely to grow into a goodly tree, and bear fruit a +thousandfold, than when it is planted in a hurry by two inexperienced +gardeners in the first pot which they fancy in the great Mart. Owing, +however, to our somewhat startling views as to the sanctity of the +romantic passion over the claims of duty towards oneself and others, +these minor considerations are considered mercenary to the last +degree, and the mother who is courageous enough to confess them openly +is held up to obloquy. Why, it is difficult to say, since none of us +really believe in the popular theory. It will not hold water for an +instant when put to the practical test of experience; even if we leave +out of consideration the fact that fully one-half of the people one +meets have never felt, and have never felt the desire to feel, an +absorbing passion. + +Mrs. Woodward, for instance, had not; moreover she had brought Alice +up from the cradle to share her views of life, and had never once +found her way barred by any bias towards a more passionate outlook. In +fact, she was, in her mother's estimate, the very last girl in the +world to find sentiment soothing. On the contrary, it distressed her, +made her cry, necessitated her lying down with smelling-salts and a +hot-bottle. Then above all things she loved a certain refined +distinction and exclusiveness. Even as a child she had held her head +high in the soap-boiling connection, and though she would no doubt be +very fairly happy with Jack, the Macleod family was distinctly more +suitable. The question, therefore, soon resolved itself, not into +whether the outworks of the girl's placidity should be defended, but +how this could best be effected. How in short Jack could be prevented +from posing as a martyr; for Mrs. Woodward was sharp enough to see +that, at present at any rate, the danger lay entirely in her +daughter's remorse. + +"It was very unkind of Jack I must say," she commented skilfully on +the story which Alice unfolded to her after a time; "but you mustn't +be hard on him, my dear. Men never have so much self-control as we +have, and no doubt the knowledge that you were right vexed him. They +get over these little rebuffs very quickly." + +"It--it seemed to hurt him though--and I hate--all that sort of +thing," murmured the girl doubtfully, looking as if she were going to +cry again. + +"And it hurts you apparently, though you know quite well that you only +did your duty." + +"I suppose so," remarked Alice, still more doubtfully; "only I wish he +hadn't been so unreasonable." + +"So do I; but in these cases the girl always has to have sense for +both. Besides Jack has a vile temper. But it is soon over. You will +see that he will come to dinner as usual--it is the opera night, and +he wouldn't miss that for anything--not even for you, my dear." + +Alice smiled a watery smile, and said she did not think it meant so +little to him as all that; but Mrs. Woodward maintained her position, +having, in fact, some grounds for her belief, owing to the despatch of +a certain little note which she had sent off before coming in to +console Alice, and which ran thus:-- + + +"Dear Jack,--Alice tells me you were very much put about to-day +regarding our visit to Scotland; why, I can scarcely understand. Dear +boy, if only for your own sake--since you can scarcely wish to quarrel +with her, or us--do try and keep that temper of yours a little more +under control. The poor girl came home crying, and I really cannot +allow you to go out with her again if you are so inconsiderate. You +ought to know quite well how sensitive she is, so for goodness' sake +don't let this stupid misunderstanding disturb us all.--Your +affectionate Aunt, + + "Sophia Woodward." + +P.S.--"We dine earlier to-day, as Alice wants to be in time for the +overture, 'Tannhauser.'" + + +A note which meant all or nothing according to the wishes of the +reader. In this case it meant all, for Jack, returning to his rooms +after a disastrous attempt to begin his future role in life by playing +whist with the old fogies at his club, was feeling that life, even as +a misogynist, was unendurable, when the sight of his aunt's +handwriting made his heart beat. The note was not in the least what he +had expected to receive, and made him somehow feel as if he had +grossly exaggerated the necessity for grief. + +"Aunt Soph is on my side, anyhow," said the young man, with a certain +elation, "and I was a brute, I'm afraid." + +The result being, that before Alice, who had been spending the +afternoon with Paul Macleod's sister, Lady George Temple, had returned +from her drive, Jack, with a big gardenia in his coat, was ushered +into the drawing-room, where his aunt, in satin and diamonds, was +skimming through the last few pages of another novel which had to be +returned to the library that evening. + +"Good boy!" she said, smiling. "Now, I hope you won't spoil Alice's +pleasure to-night by even alluding to your rudeness." + +Jack looked a little aghast. "But, Aunt Sophia, I must beg her +pardon." + +"Then you had better do it at once," replied Mrs. Woodward, "and get +it over. For there she is at the door. You can run downstairs and meet +her, for she will have to go up to dress at once. She is late as it +is." + +Begging your mistress's pardon on the way upstairs, before the eyes of +a butler and a footman, was not quite what Jack had pictured to +himself; but it was better than nothing, and Alice's unfeigned look of +relief at seeing him could not be mistaken. + +Mrs. Woodward slept soundly that night, feeling that she had done a +good day's work, and steered the bark of her daughter's happiness out +of a great danger. And happiness to her philosophy meant much, since +virtue was so very much easier of attainment when life went smoothly. +This was partly the reason why she did not detail the past danger to +her husband after the manner of some wives, who love to chase sleep +from their good man's eyes by breaking in upon the delicious +drowsiness of the first ten minutes in bed by perfectly needless +revelations of past woe. + +The tie, in fact, between these two whose night-capped heads reposed +side by side, was a curious one if absolutely commonplace. It +consisted of a vast amount of mutual respect for each other's position +as husband or wife, a solid foundation of placid affection, and no +confidence. For instance, Mrs. Woodward knew considerably more about +her son Sam Woodward's debts than his father did, to say nothing of +minor points in the matter of household management; but then at least +two-thirds of Mr. Woodward's life was absolutely unknown to the wife +of his bosom. He breakfasted and dined at home on week days, and on +Sundays he added lunch to the other meals; what is more, he never +deserted her for the club on the occasion of "At Homes." But of his +life between 10 A.M. and 7 P.M. she knew nothing, except that he +lunched at a bar in the City. So far as this went, he was to her +exactly what he was to the outside world; that is to say, Mr. +Woodward, the lucky financier, whose name meant money. Even the +success or failure of the companies which she saw advertised with his +name as director did not interest her, for she knew by experience that +money and to spare was always forthcoming. And to tell the truth, Mr. +Woodward was a singularly lucky man. When the smash came to the +company "For Preserving the North American Indian from Total +Extinction by Supplying him with a Sparkling Beverage, Exhilarating +but non-Alcoholic, to take the Place of the Deleterious Fire Water," +he had happened to sell his last remaining share the day before; and +even when the scheme for supplying hard-boiled eggs to the settlers in +Africa failed, it did not affect the home supply at all. And yet Mr. +Woodward's character as a business man stood above suspicion, and the +worst that had ever been said of him was that he could sail a point or +two nearer to the wind with safety than most men. + +So that night he also slept the sleep of the just, undisturbed by the +thoughts of Jack's temerity. Even if he had known of it, it is to be +feared that he would have set the question aside with the mental +verdict that it was clearly the business of the girl's mother to see +to such things. Poor mothers! who as they look at the bald head on the +pillow beside their own cannot but feel, even while they would not now +part with it for all the world, that life would have been less +disappointing if circumstances had been more kind. + +As for Alice herself, she slept peacefully also, the doubt which poor +Jack's pain had raised in her gentle mind having been allayed by his +prompt submission. And Jack snored--positively snored; for he was +rather fatigued with his own excitement, being of the sort which takes +most things not so much keenly as heavily. To tell the truth, also, +his determination to marry his cousin was so fixed that the greater +part of his pain had been sheer inability to grasp the idea of denial; +so that he reverted gladly to the old position without asking +questions as a less tenacious man might have done. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + +Lord George Temple sate moodily in the armchair of his study in his +little house in Mayfair chewing the end of a cigar and looking +disconsolately at a tray of whiskey and water and a plate of oval thin +Captain's biscuits on the table. He was a red-haired smooth-faced man +with rather a long upper lip, and a good-natured, somewhat whimsical +expression. + +"It is a confounded shame!" he said to his wife, who, with an opera +cloak slipping from her pretty bare shoulders, was resting for a +moment before going upstairs to bed. "Graham gives his cook +twenty-five pounds a year--I heard her telling you so one day when she +was wanting a new one--and yet there wasn't a thing fit to eat on the +table----" + +"Well, I don't know," put in Lady George, absently; "I think those +stuffed larks came from Mirobolants. I saw that style of decoration in +his place the other day, and I'm quite sure the iced souffle was +Bombardi's; I know the shape." + +"Exactly what I said!" continued the husband, "not a thing fit for a +gouty man to eat at the table, and yet a woman on twenty-five pounds +ought to be up to roast chicken and a rice pudding." + +Blanche Temple looked at her spouse with the compassionate air of +tolerance which she invariably extended to his views. + +"But you can't give your friends roast chicken and rice pudding; you +can't, indeed, nowadays. People wouldn't come." + +"My dear girl," interrupted Lord George, obstinately, "there were four +men at the table who, like myself, partook of soup, fish, and cheese +straws. And one poor beggar didn't even have the soup." The thought +was apparently comforting, for he began more contentedly on a biscuit. +But his wife was now interested in the subject. Most things interested +her, either to affirmation or denial, for Paul Macleod's sister was a +very clever woman, if at the same time curiously conventional. + +"Well! I don't know who eats the things, then," she said, aggrievedly. +"Why, the last time we had a dinner-party--I mean when the Woodwards +were here--I'm sure Paul ought to be infinitely obliged to me for the +trouble I take--the cook who came in used pounds on pounds of stock +meat, and quarts on quarts of cream; to say nothing of a whole bottle +of whiskey. 'You had better give it her, my lady,' said Jane, 'for +fear as the dinner might 'ave no appearance.'" + +Among other unknown and despised talents which did not suit Lady +George's theory of her own role in life was a distinct turn for +mimicry. Her admirable impersonation of Jane, therefore, made her +husband burst out laughing; since by a whimsical perversion of affairs +he loved his wife dearly for the very qualities which she feigned not +to possess. For Blanche was essentially a theatrical woman, loving to +pose in all the relations of life, her present one being that of a +dutiful sister. On Paul's return from India she had not only hastened +to impress on him the absolute necessity for his marrying an heiress +if he wished to keep Gleneira in the family, but had also introduced +him to Alice Woodward, as a girl who would suit the part admirably. +For Lady George knew her brother's foibles thoroughly, and understood +that if he married for money, the bride must be a person who would +neither offend his refinement, nor require much display of affection; +since Paul would certainly never give himself away by pretending a +depth of sentiment he did not feel, and yet would not marry without +something of the sort. That she felt was the worst of him. _Au fond_ +he was absolutely truthful to himself. + +"Of course you could sell if you liked," she had said to him +skilfully, well knowing that the very thought was utterly repugnant; +"trade is always ready to buy a Highland property. The only +alternative is to marry a girl with money. I know one, pretty, +lady-like, refined; a girl of whom you would be very fond if she were +your wife. Her father is a speculator. Not quite so safe, of course, +as a solid business--buttons or tallow--though, by the way, he has +something to do with soap. Still, these Woodwards are quite +presentable, and _Monsieur le pere_ has his wits about him. And then +you know there are always settlements, and deeds of gift, and those +sort of things which creditors make such a fuss about." + +Her brother winced visibly. "I should prefer not to have a row with +anybody else's creditors," he said shortly. "_I_ shall have enough +apparently to do in keeping my own quiet. England is a terribly +expensive place to live in." + +"London, you mean," retorted his sister, gaily. "You can always go +down to Gleneira and vegetate." + +That had been at the beginning of the season, and now Paul had gone +down, not to vegetate, but to prepare the old place for the visit of +inspection; not without a certain resentful irritation at the +necessity for it. Though at the same time it put the affair on an +easier footing for the present. + +Afterwards, however, Paul had every intention of imparting sentiment +into the transaction, if it could be done; and he knew himself to have +a vast capacity for falling in love, after the approved romantic +fashion, with any pretty girl who was willing to let him make love to +her. So his sister, bewailing the pounds of stock meat and quarts of +cream expended on his behalf, yet felt that she had been successful; +but, then, she would hardly have recognised herself if she had not +been so, since in her own little world, which she carefully avoided +extending unwisely either upwards or downwards, Lady George Temple was +always cited as a success in all the roles which she felt called upon +to play. + +"I heard from Paul to-day, by the way," she said, as she gathered up +her gloves and fan. "He wants me to go and call on that Mrs. Vane. You +remember who I mean, of course?" + +"No, I don't," replied Lord George, relapsing into moodiness over the +biscuits. + +"You never do remember what I mean, dear! But she is the Colonel's +wife, who nursed Paul when he nearly died in India. Of course they do +it very often, I know, and it is more confusing than sending for a +woman whom you can pay and get rid of afterwards. Still, she really +did save his life--under Providence, of course--at least, Paul always +said so. Well, her husband, who, I believe, drank, or did something, +died two years ago, leaving her dreadfully off, so she went to live +with somebody--an uncle or an aunt, who, I fancy, must have left her +some money, for she has just taken a house somewhere in Chelsea. And +Paul, who hasn't seen her since those old days, has asked her to +Gleneira, and wants me to make her acquaintance first. Rather a bore, +for I wish to have a particularly pleasant party, and she will most +likely be an old frump." + +"Scarcely, my dear, if she nursed your brother, and he survived," +remarked Lord George, gravely. + +His wife frowned. "How can you be so absurd, dear; she must be quite +old, for Paul wrote she was a perfect mother to him, and that is quite +six years ago." + +Lord George's eyes twinkled again. "My dear Blanche, you and Paul have +exaggerated notions on the subject of a mother's----" He paused, at a +rattle on the door-handle, and looked apprehensively at his wife. The +next instant two charming little figures in frilled white nightgowns +burst into the room, and flinging themselves into their mother's arms +began to cover her with kisses. The daintiest little creatures, a boy +and a girl, with angelic faces and shrill, excited, happy, little +voices. + +"Oh, you bad children!" cried Blanche, without a trace of vexation. +"So you wanted to see mother, did you? And now you have seen her, off +to bed with you before Nannie comes after you, there's dear ones! +Quick! or she will be coming." + +"Quick, Adam! Quick, Evie!" echoed the happy voices excitedly, in a +rush to the open door, which ended in a sudden pull up, and a still +more excited cry. "Oh, mammy! Oh, daddy! here's Blazes comin' down the +stairs." + +Lord George's face lost its apprehensiveness in resignation. Yet, as +he settled himself back in his chair, his long upper lip betrayed a +disposition to smile, for Blasius, his youngest son, was apt to amuse +him. A very different child this, short, squat, and red-haired, who, +after sundry thumpings and bumpings outside, suggestive of falls, +appeared, rubbing his eyes sleepily, at the door; then the broad, +good-natured face expanded into a grin. "_Bickys'!_" he said, +laconically, as he toddled across to the tray. + +"Oh! what a welly greedy little boy, ain't he, Evie?" said Adam. "We +come to see our darlin' mummie, didn't we, duckums?" He was at her +side for a swift caress, and back again to stand expectantly beside +his sister, whose little dancing feet were keeping time to her nodding +golden head. As pretty a picture of light-hearted innocent enjoyment +as heart could desire, even at eleven o'clock at night! + +"Give him a biscuit, do, and let him go," said Lady George, hurriedly. +"It won't hurt him, they are quite plain. Dada will give you a +biscuit, Blasius, and then you can go back to bed, like a dear, can't +you?" + +Blasius' large, round, blue eyes assumed a look of vacuity as the +sentence proceeded; but as he stood sturdily on his little bare feet +beside his father both little chubby hands went out at once, and a +singularly full voice for so young a child gave out conglomerately:-- + +"Blathe's--'ll--take two, ta." + +Lord George shot a glance at his wife and complied; while from the +door came a little whisper, intended to be one of horror. "Oh, Addie! +ain't he a welly greedy little boy?" + +"And now Blasius will go to bed like a good boy, with his good little +brother and sister," remarked Lady George, with forced optimism. "Adam +and----" Her voice failed before a soft thud as Blasius sat down +solidly, and stuck his little bare feet beyond his little white +nightgown. + +"Mummie can go, Blazeth'll stay with dada--ta." + +Those two at the door stood bolt upright, with sidelong looks of pious +horror at each other-- + +"Oh, Evie! \ + > Ain't he a weally naughty little boy?" +"Oh, Addle! / + +"Blasius _must_ go to bed," began his mother, quite firmly, +"or--or--mummie will be very much grieved. Her little boy wouldn't +like to grieve his mummie, would he?" + +Lord George, who had looked hopeful at the decision of tone, sank back +in his chair and twiddled his thumbs. + +"You had better ring for nurse at once, Blanche. It always comes to +that in the end, and the child will get cold." + +His wife frowned. Her theories had been so successful with Adam and +Eve that the necessity for reverting to the _vi et armis_ with this +baby was grievous. She sate down beside him on the floor, and began in +mellifluous tones. + +"Listen, Blasius. Mummie wants her little Blasius to do something to +please her; she wants him to do something very much----" She got no +further, being gagged by a little soft hand and a very hard biscuit +together. + +"Blazeth's not a deedy 'ickle boy. Blazeth'll give poor 'ickle mummie +hith bicky, and be a dood 'ickle boy. Then daddy'll gif him anofer." + +Little chortles of intense enjoyment came from those angelic faces at +the door. + +"Go to bed, children; off with you at once," said their father, +quickly, whereupon an obedient patter of bare feet fled up the stairs +with an accompanying cackle of high, eager voices, busy over the pros +and cons of Blasius versus authority. + +"Do you think she'll assuade him, Evie? I don't." "I think he ought to +be smacked, I do." "I'd let him cry, it don't hurt a child to cry. +Nanna's mother says it's good for the lungs." "And Blazes likes to +cry, he does." "I say, Addie! how long will it be afore Duckum's +mummie has to ring the bell?" + +The last wonder being faintly audible from the landing above, settled +the business downstairs. Lord George rose and took the law into his +own hands. + +"Oh, George!" cried his wife, reproachfully, "how can you expect to +train up children in the way they should go if you are so impatient? +If once I could have got Blasius to understand what was really +required of him----" + +Here the advent of a big, stalwart figure in a wrapper, bearing a +white shawl, brought such sudden comprehension to the stalwart little +one, that the room for one brief moment resounded with yells. The next +found the door closed upon them, and Lady George looked disconsolately +at her husband, as she listened to the retreating struggles of her +youngest born. + +"I cannot think what makes him so different from the others," she +said, gloomily. + +"My dear," replied her husband, consolingly, "Cain came after Adam and +Eve; perhaps the next will be Abel. Besides, Blasius was a risky name. +I told you so at the time." + +"Saint Blasius was a very worthy man," retorted his spouse, hotly, +"and, considering that you and the boy were both born on his day, I +must say I think it quite natural that I should call my child George +Blasius--or, let me see, was it Blasius George?" + +"It is a matter of no importance, my dear," replied her husband, +drily. He did not remind his wife, nor did she choose to remember that +at the time she had been playing the ultra ritualistic role. To tell +the truth, she did not care to be brought face to face with her past +impersonations, unless the fancy seized her to revert to them; when, +at a moment's notice, she could resume the character as if she had +never ceased to play it. + +So, the next day, with a view to making a suitable impression on +Paul's widow, as she chose to call Mrs. Vane, she put on her most +dowdy garments, and actually went in an omnibus down the King's-road. +Thus far her environment suited her foregone conclusions, but, as she +stood in the wide stretch down by the river, the brilliant sunshine +streaming upon a very bright knocker and a very white door, a certain +feeling of distrust crept over her. Nor was the darkened room into +which she was ushered reassuring. The parquet floors were almost bare, +the windows beneath the striped Venetian awnings were set wide open to +a balcony wreathed with blossoming creepers, and hung with cages of +singing birds. A scent of flowers was in the air, a coolness, an +emptiness, and yet the first impression was one of ease and comfort. +Not the room, this, of an old frump. And this was not an old frump +rising from a cushioned lounge and coming forward like a white shadow +in the half light. + +"How good of you to come!" + +Lady George, dazzled as she was by the change from the sunlight +outside to the darkness within, yet saw enough to make her gasp. Lo! +this little bit of a woman with syren written all over her from the +tip of her dainty Parisian shoe to the crown of her fair, curly head, +was Paul's widow. His mother, forsooth! A pretty mother, indeed! + +Having got so far as this, Blanche, being, amongst other things, +somewhat of an artist, felt bound to admit that Violet Vane was very +pretty indeed; so pretty that it was a pleasure to watch the piquant +face, full of a quaint sort of humour and freshness, grow clear of the +shadows. In this half light she looked younger, no doubt, than she +really was; still, even in the garish day, Lady George felt +instinctively that her charm would remain. In fact, she was not at +all, no! not in the least, a suitable companion for Paul, when so much +depended on his being reasonable. + +"I haven't seen your brother for years," came the sweet but rather +thin voice. "It is so good of him to remember me. So more than good of +him to ask me down to Gleneira that I mean to go, if only to ensure +the kindness being credited to him. I wonder if he is much changed?" + +There was a certain challenge in the speech which Lady George was +quick enough to recognise, and, as she recognised it, wondered if her +own astonishment had been too palpable, as that in itself would be a +mistake, so she replied deftly: + +"He is not changed in one thing--his gratitude to you. And I am +grateful also, for Paul is very dear to me. The dearest fellow in the +world, is he not?" + +It was a statement to which, in the language of poker, Mrs. Vane could +hardly go one better, and therefore it left her, as it were, to an +under-study of devotion. + +"He used to be very nice when I knew him; but, then, sick people are +always nice; they are so much at one's mercy," said the little lady, +airily. They were, in their way, admirable types of their kind, these +two women; both artificial, yet with an artificiality which sprang +from the head in the one case, from the heart in the other; for Mrs. +Vane saw through herself, and Lady George did not. + +"So that is Paul's sister," said the former to herself as, on the way +back to her lounge, after escorting her visitor in friendliest fashion +to the stairs, she paused to take up a photograph case lying on the +table. It contained Paul's portrait as he had been before the time +when she had watched his fair head tossing restlessly on the pillow in +that hot Indian room which nothing would cool. The memory of those +dreary days and nights came back to her in a rush, making her, +paradoxically, look years older, worn, haggard, and anxious. She +seemed to be back in them; to hear the gathering cry of the jackals +prowling past the open door, to see the flicker of the oil night-light +gleam on the splintered ice, turning it for a brief second to +diamonds, as she prepared it for the burning forehead above those +bright, yet glazed eyes; and, more than all, she seemed to feel the +old passionate protest against the possibility of his passing for ever +out of her life joined to the fierce determination to save him to the +uttermost. From what? from herself, perhaps. For Mrs. Vane had +performed the most unselfish act of her life when she had laughed and +scoffed at the devotion and gratitude of her patient. She had had +many, she said, and they had always felt like that during some period +of their convalescence. There was nothing for these sequelae of jungle +fever like three months' leave to the bears in Kashmir; and, if he +liked, he might bring her home one of those little silk carpets for +her sitting-room as a fee; she would prefer a carpet to anything else. +And so Paul had come back with his unromantic offering, cured, as she +had prophesied, of his feverishness, but not of his friendliness. That +had lasted, despite a separation of years. And something else had +lasted also, to judge by the look on Mrs. Vane's face as she stood +with Paul's photograph in her hand. + +Lady George Temple took a cab home, and tried to regain a sense of +lost importance by having the children down to tea. Paul had kept this +thing secret from her; he had allowed her for years to speak kindly, +effusively of the woman who had saved his life as if she were an old +frump, when she was really--Blanche, being a person of sense, felt +forced to acknowledge the truth--one of the most charming little +creatures imaginable, with just that half-sympathetic, half-bantering +manner which was so taking. And Paul, having done this, her own role +of devoted sisterhood suffered thereby; so she fell back upon her +motherhood. + +Thus, when her husband returned, he found the room littered with +Kindergarten toys, while Adam was threading beads by the +multiplication table, and Eve was busily engaged in marking the course +of the River Congo in red back-stitching on a remarkably black +continent of Africa, which was afterwards to do duty as a +kettleholder. Blasius, meanwhile, having been so far beguiled into the +Zeit-Geist as to consent to build a puff-puff out of some real +terra-cotta bricks and columns which were intended for an +architectural object lesson. + +"Oh, George!" began his wife, pausing with a lump of sugar in the +tongs over his cup, "Paul's widow is dreadful; I don't know what I +shall do with her." + +"Hand her over to me--I can generally manage to get on with people," +he said, watching the tongs greedily; for the question of sugar in his +tea was the cause of much dispute between him and his wife. A slow +smile came to her face as she replaced the lump. + +"No! my dear; it wouldn't be good for you," she said, coming back to +the present, and then she frowned. "I cannot think what induced Paul +to ask her just when so much depends on the Woodwards feeling +themselves to be _the_ guests _par excellence_," she continued, after +a brief but picturesque description of the offender. "And this woman +is sure to sing, and play, and dance, and act. I saw it in her face." + +"Jolly sort of person to have in a country house, I should say," +remarked her husband, secretly impressed. + +"I knew _you_ would say that, George," put in his wife, resignedly. +"Yes! she is just the sort of woman men love to dangle round." + +"Then ask someone to dangle. That will leave the coast clear for Paul +and Miss Woodward." + +Lady George raised her eyebrows scornfully. "As if that would do any +good! That sort of woman always insists on having the best men, and +Paul looks that in most society; besides I don't feel called upon to +pave the way to an heiress for anyone else but my brother. That is +what it would come to. No! I cannot conceive why Paul should make +things so--so much more difficult for himself." + +"Natural depravity, my dear," suggested her husband, helping himself +on the sly to sugar. "There is such a thing--Hullo! what's that?" + +That was the sudden discovery on Blazes' part that an Ionic column, +when used as an engine funnel, would, if hit violently with a good, +squat Norman one, break off in the middle; a discovery which was +followed by an outburst of that craze for destruction which healthy +children display on the least provocation. + +"He--he is not a 'Kindergarten' child," remarked his mother, +plaintively, when after a time the upstairs bell had once more been +rung and the offender carried off shrieking amid awed whispers of +intense enjoyment, about "welly welly naughty little boys" from Adam +and Eve. + +"No, my dear, he isn't," assented Lord George, cheerfully. "Some of us +are made that way; his uncle, for instance; but he isn't a fool, and +he knows which side his bread is buttered; a fact which has a +marvellous effect in keeping a man straight." + +"My dear George! what a terrible thing to say. It is a reversion to +that fear of punishment----" + +"My dear! I should like a second cup of tea, and this time I think you +might let me have a small lump of sugar--quite a small one." + +That evening Blanche wrote a long letter to her brother, which gave +her some trouble to compose. In it she lavished endless praises on +dear Mrs. Vane, who, to judge from her _looks_, must have had great +_trouble_, and fully deserved dear, kind Paul's grateful remembrance +of past services; which, by the way, she seemed to have extended to +many other fortunate invalids. Altogether a most delightful woman, of +_varied experiences_ if a trifle _manieree_; "though this," she added, +"my dear Paul, is, I fear, a common fault with women who have been +made much of _by many men_." + +As it so happened he read this remark at a small picnic party where +Marjory, the only lady present, was dispensing tea to Will Cameron, +himself, the Reverend James Gillespie, Father Macdonald, Mr. Wilson, +and Donald Post, who had been waylaid on the road just above the +little creek on the loch, where they had lit their fire, to say +nothing of the minister's man holding the Manse dogcart until its +occupants should choose to tear themselves away from temptation and +proceed on their journey. + +"_Quid datur a Divis felice optatius hora?_" quoted the minister +gallantly, as he set aside the girl's offer of another cup and rose to +go, while little Father Macdonald, following his example, quoted a +verse from Tasso to show that the memory of a pleasant hour might give +even greater pleasure than the hour itself. Paul Macleod, watching +them, and fully alive to the adoring look on the Reverend James's +face, continuing, as it were the kindly affection of Will's, gave a +short laugh as he tore up his letter and threw it into the embers of +the dying fire. + +Marjory looked at him inquiringly. + +"Only something that seems singularly out of place with my present +surroundings," he said in quick response; "but the world has a knack +of seeming very far away when one is in Gleneira." + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + +It was true. The more so because the heat-haze lingered, turning the +hills which lay between the Glen and the world beyond it, into a pale +blue, formless wall, which seemed somehow more of an arbitrary +division than it would have done had the contours of each successive +rise been clearly visible. The fierce sun beat down on the limestone +rocks, giving a russet tinge even to their mosses, and Paul Macleod's +useless rod lay in its case, since the river was reduced to a mere +tinkle of clear water in a moraine of boulders. So he took to +haymaking instead, partly because it suited his mood to play the role +of country proprietor--for to a certain extent he shared his sister's +dramatic temperament--and partly because Marjory always brought Will +Cameron's tea into the fields. It was quite idyllic to watch her from +afar, making it ready on the outskirts of a nut coppice or belt of +firs, and then to see her stand out into the rolling, undulating waves +of new cut grass which were creeping up the hillsides before the +scythes, and call to them in her clear, young voice, for, of course, +the laird could not be left out in the heat when his factor was +enjoying the cool. So he used to lounge about as Will did in the +scented hay, and talk nonsense, with infinite grace and skill, until, +with the extinction of his pipe, the latter's tardy sense of duty +would take fire, and he would insist on a return to work. + +On the whole, it was scarcely what Paul would have expected to amuse +him, and yet, after ten years of a land where hay-fields are not, and +it is unsafe to sit about for fear of snakes, it was strangely +pleasant. And so delightfully innocent! This came home to him +one night when, on going to his room, he saw his purse on the +dressing-table, and remembered that for a whole week he had not opened +it. The world had gone on as if there were no such thing in it as +money. He mentioned the fact next day among the hay-cocks, declaring +that if someone would only be responsible for his bills, he himself +would never care to see a shilling again. + +"Not I," said Will, rather dolefully; "for I'm afraid, Gleneira, these +masons and carpenters will cost a lot more than we fancied. It is +always the way when one touches a place. I remember when Inveresta +began he told me I wasn't to exceed a thousand, and before he was half +way through his list of absolute necessaries, the figures had passed +fifteen hundred. And yet I don't think it can be helped." + +He blew disconsolately at his pipe as if it were in fault, for he +prided himself on managing the estates in his charge with strict +economy, but Paul smiled indifferently. + +"My owner will be able to pay, I expect, when I get one. For when the +worst comes to the worst, Miss Carmichael, I can always put myself up +to auction. Do you think I should fetch a fair price? Item, one +Highland estate, seriously damaged by the Crofter Commission, and an +ancestral tree, ditto, by Darwinism. N.B.--Property encumbered by +several mortgages and one extravagant proprietor." He lay back against +a hay-cock with his hands behind his head, looking the personification +of lazy content as he watched her face shift and change. "You don't +seem to approve of my plan," he went on, in the same light tones, "but +the idea has infinite charm for me; it would save so much trouble, and +do so little harm. People sell themselves to the devil, we are told, +and that may be reprehensible--at any rate, it would be uncomfortable. +But what inconvenience or immorality can there be in making yourself +over, soul and body, to some virtuous Christian man or woman who, in +all probability, is far more capable of running the coach respectably +than you are?" + +"The same immorality as there is in any other form of suicide, I +suppose," she replied coldly; but he was not to be put off. + +"And what immorality is there in suicide, Miss Carmichael? I hold that +my life is my own, unless I make over the responsibility of it to +someone else, which you say is wrong. Therefore, I have a perfect +right to do what I please with it." + +"Once you have overcome the initial difficulty of discovering what you +do please," she retorted sharply. And he smiled. + +"You use a detective camera apparently, but I admit it. I am only +certain of one thing, it pleases me to please myself. It pleases me +now to forget that there is such a thing as money, and to go to bed at +ten o'clock." + +"Which shows that you are virtuously inclined, and that, +therefore----" + +"I refuse to be whitewashed by your charity," he interrupted. "I am of +the earth, earthy; though sometimes I can lie on my back in the hay +and see heaven opening----" His voice, with a sudden cadence in it, +ceased as he sprang lightly to his feet. + +"Come along, Cameron--you are intolerably long over that pipe--my +energy, Miss Carmichael, does not arise from Goodness, but from Greed. +If the hay is not in tonight, it may rain; if it rains, the hay will +be spoilt. If it is spoilt I shall have to buy more, and if I buy more +I shall not have that shilling to spend on myself. It comes to that in +the end, even in Arcadia." + +There were similar endings to many conversations in which Marjory +tilted bravely at various objects, which, in her heart of hearts, she +feared might be windmills. For she was never quite sure if he was in +earnest or not, and even when he had palpably played the fool with her +pet theories, or scouted a serious thought, a word, even a look, would +come to redeem the past, and give a curious zest to the future. Yet in +a way it distressed her also by confusing her clear-cut, unswerving +outlook on life. A man even professing such atrocious sentiments ought +to be unendurable, and this man was not. Far from it. And what was +almost more disconcerting, he evidently understood her better than +honest Will did; while, as for the Reverend James! the very thought +made her laugh. Yet, on the whole, she welcomed a reasonable cause +which, despite the holiday she had imposed on herself in obedience to +Cousin Tom's wishes, came to make an absence from the hay-fields less +marked, and a reversion to the young clergyman's company quite +natural. This being nothing more or less than a visit from the Bishop, +which, coming as it did in this holiday time, gave to the person who +was ostensibly responsible for the pupils' duties towards their +neighbours fearful anticipations of failure. For James Gillespie +was one of those persons who cannot teach; well meaning, fairly +well-educated, people who know the information they wish to impart and +cannot impart it, people who, in a repetition, invariably prompt the +wrong word, and send the hesitating memory hopelessly astray. And this +was a question of repetition, since the Bishop never interfered with +the secular teaching, which he left, with a Levite shake of the head, +to the Government inspector. So Marjory, relieved she scarcely knew +why, spent these afternoons in hammering the necessary precision into +the children's heads while the Reverend James sate watching her +rapturously and feeling that the whole parish, including himself, +would have no excuse for not knowing its duty towards its neighbour if +she were the clergyman's wife. + +And on the third day someone else seemed bitten with a desire to +learn, for Captain Macleod strolled in lazily and sate down on the +furthest bench, saying he had come to fetch the letters, and with her +permission would await their arrival in the cool. Why his presence +should have immediately aroused her to a resentful consciousness of +the adoring expression on the face beside her, she did not understand, +but the certainty and the uncertainty of it combined made her turn to +her companion with an audible asperity of tone: + +"I really think, Mr. Gillespie, that you might try and get the little +ones perfect in their hymn. You must remember that the last time the +Bishop inspected he told the children that the youngest Christian +should know one hymn, and the infants are not even perfect in the +'Happy Land.'" + +To hear being to obey, Mr. Gillespie retired towards the post-office +portion of the room where, with a semicircle of tiny bare-legged +lassies and laddies before him, he sate beside Paul Macleod and began +his task. It was rather a Herculean one, owing to the fact that his +pupils having no English, as the phrase runs, the simple stanzas were +to them mere gibberish. + +"It is three months they will be learnin' it, whatever," said Mr. +McColl, cheerfully, when the last of the semicircle had failed +hopelessly. + +"It is impossible, quite impossible," retorted Mr. Gillespie, in a +white heat of anxiety. "Some of them must have picked up something in +that case----" + +"'Deed, no, sir. Naethin's impossible with bairnies. And wee Paulie +there has it fine, for he is at me to learn it on him many a time, +because Miss Marjory was saying he would be a fool if he didn't. Speak +up, Paulie," he added, in the Gaelic, "you have it fine." + +Wee Paulie hung his close-cropped fair head with its odd little fringe +left over the forehead, so that nothing was to be seen but a rising +flush, and murmured some half-inaudible words, whereat the biggest boy +in Marjory's class said triumphantly: + +"He is saying that he will no be saying it to him, but to her." + +"Hush! Donald," came the quick, clear, dictatorial young voice; "that +is not the way to speak. Stand down two places. Paul, come here." + +The big Paul, seated on the back bench, looked up and smiled, feeling +it would be rather pleasant than otherwise to obey; and little Paul +pattered shamefacedly across to the girl's side, yet with a confident +air which raised the sleek head a little, and showed a pair of very +long lashes on the flushed cheeks. As he edged close Marjory passed +her arm round him, and with the other hand raised his chin square and +straight. + +"Now, Paul, if you please," she said, in the Gaelic; "clasp your +hands, and say it right out--to the whole school, remember. You know +it quite well, and you should never, never pretend that you don't know +when you do. It is mean." + +Big Paul, thinking that even reproof sounded pleasant in that voice, +and, at any rate, must be bearable in that position, smiled again, and +continued smiling unavoidably, as little Paul reeled off the whole +hymn from beginning to end in confused, unintelligible fluency, broken +only by hurried gasps for breath. + +"A pretty little fellow," said Captain Macleod, in an undertone to his +neighbour. "Who is he?" + +"Old Peggy Duncan's grandson--Jeanie Duncan's child--you must remember +her." + +The words seemed to jar the very foundations of happy, idle, careless +content, and Paul, even in his surprise, felt aggrieved. + +"Of course I remember her; but they told me she was dead. Who did she +marry?" + +The Reverend James Gillespie put on his most professional manner. "I'm +afraid it is a very sad story, but no one really knows the facts of +the case. She left home, as you may have heard----" + +"Yes! I have heard," put in Paul, suddenly, resentfully. "And I--I can +understand the rest. It's a common enough story, in all conscience." + +"Too true, too true," began his companion, but the laird had risen, +and, with a remark that he would wait outside for the tardy letters, +left the schoolhouse. Apparently he tired even of that, for when +Marjory, after lingering longer than was necessary over the +arrangements for the morrow's inspection with Mr. Gillespie, came out +with a half-annoyed expectation of finding the tall figure still +lounging under the horse-chestnut tree, it had gone, rather to her +surprise. + +Still, it would ensure her the solitary walk home which she loved; +since really it was too much to expect her to devote a whole afternoon +to the Reverend James who, curtly dismissed to a neglected parishioner +up the Glen, watched her pass down the loch with wistful yet still +admiring eyes until she disappeared behind a knoll of ash trees, +hiding the bridge which carried the road to the other side of the +river, and so down the seashore to Gleneira House and Lodge. A road +which, beautiful at all times, was never so beautiful as in the +sunsetting. There was one point, however, where its beauty seemed to +culminate, where, after climbing a rocky knoll cushioned with bosses +of bell-heather and the close oak scrub which springs from the roots +of past cuttings, it dipped down to the very edge of the water. Here, +on spring tides, the waves crept up to smooth away the wheel marks, +and leave a scalloped fringe of seaweed on the turf beyond. And hence +you could see straight through the cleft of the Narrowest, where the +hills embosoming the upper portion of the loch sloped down into the +gentler contours of the lower, right away to the Linnhe Loch, and so +beyond the purple bluff of Mull to the wide Atlantic. On that evening +the sun was setting into it in a golden glory, guiltless of a cloud. +And Marjory, cresting the knoll, thought instantly that here, indeed, +was a chance of the Green Ray. For ever since she had read Jules +Verne's book the idea of this, the last legacy of a dying day, had +remained with her fancifully. Many and many a time, half in jest, half +in earnest, she had watched for it, wondering if she would feel +different after she had seen it. If, in fairy-tale fashion, the world +would seem the better for it. Even if the legend was no legend, and +the phenomenon simply a natural one, due to refraction, there must be +something exhilarating in seeing that which other people had not seen; +in seeing the world transfigured, even for a second, for you, and you +only. Unless, indeed, others were watching with you. And, then, what a +strange tie that would be! To have seen something together that the +rest of the world had not seen; something at which it would laugh, but +which you knew to be true. The quaintness of the idea attracted her as +she walked over the crisp shingle to sit on a rock close to the +incoming tide. Out yonder on the far sea horizon it was a blaze of +light, but closer in the loch showed like a golden network of ripples +with ever-widening meshes enclosing the purple water till it ended, at +her very feet, in a faint foam-edge. There was no sound save the +blab-blabbing of the tiny wavelets on the rocks as they whispered to +each other of the havoc they had done far out at sea, or met every now +and again with a little tinkle of laughter to drown a stone. + +To Marjory, looking and listening so intently that consciousness +seemed to leave eyes and ears, came a sudden dread, not for herself, +but for others different from what she was. + +"Drowned--dead, drowned--drowned and cold--dead, dead, drowned!" Those +whispering voices seemed to repeat it over and over again, as for the +first time in her life she realised that others might not steer +straight for the sun across the ocean of life, as she did, +unswervingly. Of course, in a scholastic, unreal way she knew well +that there were swift currents to betray, big loadstone rocks to make +the compass waver, but till she had met Paul Macleod the possibility +of anyone deliberately and wilfully weighting his log and depolarising +his compass had not occurred to her. It is so, often, with those who, +as she was, are almost overburdened with that mysterious outcome of +past sacrifices, a sense of duty. But Paul, she recognised clearly, +might steer straight for the rocks, though his knowledge of seamanship +was equal to her own. On that point she would take no denial. It was +her one solace against her own interest in him. But for it what scorn +would be too great for the weakness of her tolerance for a handsome +face, a soft voice, and the most engaging of manners. No! The +charm--for there was undoubtedly a charm--lay elsewhere; in his +considerateness, his quick sympathy. This did not come, as he averred, +from a mere selfish desire to be liked, a mere selfish consideration +for his own comfort. It might suit him to say so, to declare his +disbelief in anything higher, to scoff, for instance, at the Green +Ray. The girl's thoughts rebounded swiftly to their starting-point, +and brought back sight to her dream-blinded eyes. + +Too late! Too late! The last outermost edge of the sun had dipped +beneath the sea; the fateful moment was past, and with the little +chill shudder of a breeze which had crept like a sigh over the water +at the Death of Day, the little wavelets at her feet were whispering-- + +"Drowned--dead--drowned! Who cares? Drowned! drowned! drowned!" + +She rose suddenly and stretched her hands out to the fast fading glow, +as if in entreaty. But only for a second; the next the voice of +someone coming up the opposite side of the knoll carolling a Gaelic +song made her turn quickly to see Paul Macleod outlined against the +blue of the hills as he paused on the summit to take breath and look +up into the child's face above him with a smile; for little Paul was +perched on his shoulder. + +The western glow, already leaving the earth, fell full on those two +faces, and on the firm delicate hands, holding the child secure. It +was like a St. Christopher, thought Marjory, with a pulse, almost of +pain, at her heart. For it left her bereft of something; of something +that had gone out irrevocably to be Paul's henceforth, even though the +first glimpse of her standing below made him loosen his clasp almost +roughly. + +"Is that you, Miss Carmichael?" he called, walking on to meet her; +"I'm doing good Samaritan against the grain; but I found the little +imp on the road. He had fallen from a rowan tree and sprained his +ankle." + +She found it easier for some reason to speak to the child in reproof. +"I've told you so often not to climb so recklessly," she said in +Gaelic. + +"He was getting berries for you; there was a bunch half ripe at the +very top; at least so he says," replied Captain Macleod in the same +language, then at her look of surprise added a trifle bitterly--"you +see I remember--we lairds don't often speak it--more's the pity--but I +have an uncomfortable memory for the days of my youth." + +"It was very good of you," she began, when he cut her short. + +"It was least trouble to carry him. He was whimpering like a little +cur at the river pool, so I elected to bring him along instead of +going back half a mile to ask someone else to do it for me. His +grandmother's cottage is just below the point there, isn't it? He can +walk as far as that." As he spoke he swung the child to the ground +lightly. "And you needn't look so fierce, Miss Carmichael; it won't +hurt him." + +She took no notice of his remark, except to ask the child if he could +manage. + +"If you speak in that tone of voice he will say 'no,' of course; but I +assure you it is all right. I've tied it up tight, and it wasn't very +bad to begin with." + +It had indeed been very neatly bandaged with a handkerchief torn into +strips, and the sight softened her rising indignation. "Possibly, but +it will be none the worse for being put in hot water. Come, Paulie, +lean on me, and if it's bad I'll carry you----" + +Before she could finish, the child was back on his namesake's +shoulder. + +"If you will show me the way down, I'll save you the trouble." + +The accent he laid deliberately on the pronoun took half the virtue +from his action, and yet the certainty that he had purposely put it +there showed her that he was alive to something else, and made her +lead the way silently to the cottage; and, even when there, the +remembrance of the St. Christopher picture joined to the unconscious +Highland hospitality, which forbids an unsought parting on the +threshold, made her ask if he would not come in and let old Peggy +thank him for his kindness. + +"I doubt if she would," he replied curtly; "anyhow I won't risk it." + +Perhaps he exercised a wise discretion. Marjory herself was inclined +to think so, in view of the old woman's general attitude towards the +world. + +"Pickin' rowan berries, was he," she echoed wrathfully, turning as she +so often did when angry to the broader Scotch of her youth; "they're +the deil's ain beads for young folk--aye! I mind it was so in the +beginning!" Her restless claw-like fingers busied themselves over the +coverlid, and her restless eyes followed Marjory, who was attending to +the sprained foot, which to say sooth was not a very serious matter. +"And Mr. Paul hefted the wean, and wouldna' come in bye to say a word +to the auld wife. That was real kind, or maybe it wasn't; but there! +he never brocht luck to my hoose, an' he wouldn't raise a finger to +do't. It's the way o' the warld, the way o' the warld." + +"That is not fair, Peggy," retorted the girl, roused as she always was +by injustice. "The laird was speaking of you only the other day. He is +much annoyed at your having been allowed to go on the roll, and +said----" + +The old pauper's hands stopped their uncanny fingerings, and every +line of the old face hardened. + +"If I choose to be on the pairish, I'll be on the pairish. It's better +than Mr. Paul's charity, an' ye may just tell him sae frae old Peggy +Duncan. I may be wrang, I may be richt, an' Him above only kens hoo it +is, but I was no born on his land, and I'm no his poor." + +"All the kinder of him to offer help," persisted Marjory. "And you +have no right, just because you are in an evil temper, to speak as if +he had done you some wrong." + +"Wha says he did?--not I! D'ye think I soud be lyin' here wi' him oot +ben if he had. Na! Na! Half deid as they are, my auld fingers wad be +at his bonnie fause face." The very vigour of her own voice seemed to +choke her, and she fell into a fit of coughing, then lay back +exhausted into a more Christian frame of mind. "God guid us, Miss +Marjory," she gasped, "but I'm jest an awfu' limmer whiles. If I was +to be nippit awa' this nicht I ken fine whaur I'd wauken." + +"And quite right, too," replied her visitor, severely, recognising the +half-apologetic tenor of the last remark, and, seizing the opportunity +for a bit of her mind before old Peggy, with some sidelong sally, +should escape deftly from the difficulty, after her wont. + +"Aye, aye! The tongue is an unruly member, and yet I bridle it whiles +for fear o' findin' myself in the same mansion wi' the pairish +officer. Eh! yon's an awfu' man, Miss Marjory, for sweerin', and I +just couldna' thole him. So, if ye like, ye may give old Peggy +Duncan's thanks to the laird, when you see him, for bringing the +laddie hame. Maybe it was kind o' him." + +"It was kind of him, very kind," said the girl, stoutly, feeling dimly +pleased to hear herself say so, and know that there could be no +mistake about that. And yet she felt vexed when she found him waiting +for her on the road when she came out into the darkening dusk. + +"I thought it was the proper thing to do," he replied, to her little +stiff expression of regret that he should have troubled himself so +far. + +"What was the proper thing?" she asked captiously. "I am quite +accustomed to walking home in the dark." + +"Proper to act up to your opinion of me, and be self-sacrificing, +perhaps." He paused, then said, suddenly, "Don't let us quarrel, Miss +Carmichael; it is such a lovely evening." + +True a thousand-fold! True beyond measure! The light had left +everything, save the sky and the sea as they walked on side by side +silently. + +"How's the patient?" he said, at last, reverting somewhat to the old, +airy, half-bantering tone. + +"Well; thanks to you. If he had walked home he might have been laid up +for days." + +"I did as little as I could, I assure you." + +"On the contrary, you did more than was necessary. Paul told me how +you comforted him, and sang songs all the way to cheer him up." + +She would not allow him this denial of his own virtues, or accept his +estimate of himself. + +"That was to cheer myself up, and forget my dislike to carrying a +dirty little boy, I expect. The study of one's own motives, Miss +Carmichael----" + +He got no further, for she turned to him with a quick gesture of +pained denial. "Don't--please don't. Why should you slander yourself?" + +Something in her tone roused a response in him for a moment, but the +next he had smothered it in a sort of reckless desire to shock this +girl with the intelligent, trustful eyes--to force her from her belief +in him. + +"Slander," he echoed; "there is no slander, I assure you. What do you +know about my life? Would it help you to understand my complicated +state of mind about that boy, for instance, if I told you that I was +once madly in love with his mother, and that I still think her the +most beautiful woman I ever saw?" + +He had not intended this confidence; yet now he had given it, he did +not regret the impulse, nor did he wonder at it, since the thought of +that past idyll had been interfering so much with the present one +during the afternoon, that he felt inclined to get rid of both once +and for all. + +"I have always heard she was very beautiful," replied Marjory, slowly; +"but, of course, I did not know----" + +He burst into a hard laugh. "That I fell in love with her! Really, +Miss Carmichael, you are most disconcertingly cool!" + +"I was going to say," she put in, unmoved, "that I did not know she +was the sort of person----" + +"I would fall in love with? Indeed! Perhaps, as you appear to have +formed some sort of estimate as to the qualities likely to attract me, +you might give me a hint or two. It might help me in the selection of +a wife." He hardly knew what he was saying, for his temper had got the +better of him; indeed, he did not care for the moment what he said, +save that it should be something that would put an end to this +confidence of hers. But he had reckoned without her absolute +unconsciousness; what is more, without her fearlessness and high +spirit. + +"I said nothing about a wife," she replied quietly. "Why should I? You +were talking of love, and I knew that you had made up your mind to +marry for money." + +"So I have; what then?" + +"Nothing, except this--that since you can set love aside so easily, I +fail to see what effect the memory of a past one could have on your +present life--that is all." + +He looked at her in the growing darkness, wishing that he could see +her face more clearly; wishing still more keenly that he could see +straight into her mind and satisfy himself that this calm indifference +was simply cold-bloodedness. But what if it was something more? If +here, at last, he had found that of which most men dream at times; the +refuge from themselves. And when he spoke again his voice had changed +its tone, though the bitterness remained in the words. + +"You make no allowance, then, for the power of a sentiment, especially +when it is morbid and unhealthy. And yet such things mean more to most +of us than right or wrong; because they are more human." + +There was a pause; then she turned to him with a smile, which he felt, +more than saw. + +"I am afraid I don't understand what you mean." + +"Perhaps it is as well you do not," he replied; and changed the +subject. + +But from that day their mutual attitude towards each other altered, +perhaps unconsciously. To tell the truth, the remembrance of the St. +Christopher rose up between her and Paul in his less admirable +impersonations. All the more so, perhaps, because of his strange, +impulsive confidence regarding his love for the boy's mother. He must +have been quite a boy himself at the time, she thought; no older than +she was now, and boys were so much younger than girls for their age. +She felt vaguely sorry for that young Paul and his fruitless love; for +Marjory, like most girls who have been much in contact with the poor, +accepted the facts of life calmly, looking at them straight in the +face, and calling them by their names fairly, ere she passed them by. +And so no doubt of that past to which Paul had alluded so frankly ever +crossed her mind. She felt, almost unconsciously, that he would not +have spoken about it to her had there been any cause for such +suspicion. So the only effect of his attempt to shock her was to bring +into stronger relief her confidence in his gentlemanly instincts. And +Paul, seeing this, metaphorically took off his shoes before the holy +ground which she prepared for him, even while he fretted against the +necessity imposed upon him by that better part of his nature, which, +in environments like these, would have its say. And then, even as he +discussed the matter with himself cynically, telling himself at one +and the same time that she was not human enough to see, and that it +would be cowardly to open her eyes, there would come with a rush a +fierce resentment at all reason. This was holiday time, and it would +soon be over for him. A week or two more and Gleneira would be full of +London ways and London talk; it would be time enough then to remember +the world, the flesh, and the devil. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + +There was some excuse for his refusal to face a struggle, for in the +sunshiny days which followed, Nature herself held high holiday, and +the most prosaic might well have found it impossible to avoid falling +in with her gracious mood. The heather-flush was beginning to creep +over the curves of moor, the rowan berries ripened under the sun's +kiss, the juicy _guienne_ cherries purpled the children's mouths, and +the oat fields hid their poverty in a cloak of golden marigold. Down +in the shady nooks the stately foxgloves still lingered, while on the +sunniest spots the bracken was gathering the sun-gold into its +delicate tracery against the coming gloom of winter. Such times come +rarely; times when it is possible to forget the world of toil and +trouble, of sin, sorrow, and shame, which lies beyond the circle of +the everlasting hills; times when one is content to let life slip +past, without counting its pulse-beat; times when one seems to enter +in spirit with that divine rest, because the whole world seems good in +our eyes. + +Paul, dulled as he was by world-tarnish, felt the charm; Marjory, +fresh from her sober youth, yielded to it gladly. Will Cameron, with +the hay safe housed and harvest secure in the future, said the weather +was too good for farming, and gave himself a holiday, and even Mr. +Gillespie, free from inspection anxieties, and rejoicing in the +Bishop's praise, fell back for a while on college sermons, and studied +future ones in stones and running brooks. Only Mrs. Cameron, despising +the heat, bustled from kitchen to store-room, from store-room to +dairy, indignant over the irregular meals, and the still more +irregular milk. It was enough, she said, to turn that of human +kindness sour to have charge of five Ayrshires and two Jerseys in such +weather, with an English cook coming, or a Frenchman maybe--the laird +was equal to that iniquity--who would use crocks on crocks of powdered +butter. She knew them! graceless, godless creatures, and Will, instead +of wandering like a tinkler about the place, should be at the markets +buying pigs, to eat up the sinful waste of good victuals which would +begin ere long at the Big House. It was very well of William to smile, +and for the laird to say he didn't mind; but what would Lady George +say to the cook? And how did William expect to supply the Big House as +it should be supplied, when every crofter body was asking one and +eightpence a pound for butter she wouldn't look at? And it all +trysted, every pound of it, to the English folk over at the Forest, +who were coming down like a flight of locusts, devouring the land with +pipers and bad whiskey, and a set of idle, pasty-faced, meat-eating +English maids, ruining the country side with bad examples! There would +have to be a judgment, nothing less, when Sheenach--barefooted +Sheenach from the blackest hut on the property--Marjory would +mind it, seeing that she held it to be a disgrace to a Christian +landholder--set her up for new-fangled notions indeed!--had actually +spoken to her, Mrs. Cameron, about beer-money! The kitchen girl over +at the Forest, forsooth, got it, and three shillings a week for +washings. Heard one ever the like! a barefoot lass that had not spent +three shillings on washings since she was born, and would have to look +to it for white robes in the future. And Mistress Mackenzie at the +ferry house saying calmly that her prices would be doubled from the +10th August. + +"It is too true, mother," Will would say consolingly. "I'd like to see +the Commission have its way, and destroy the Forests altogether, if +only to teach the people what it would mean. But there! parcel post is +only twopence a pound, and we can get butter from Devonshire. They pay +high rents there, you know, so they can afford to sell produce +cheaper." But even this paradox would not soothe the old lady's ire, +and the three idlers would escape from the butter-problem into the +wilderness of beauty beyond the fat pastures which fed the dairy; in +so doing, no doubt, following the example of the offending English +folk, who do not care to trouble their holiday with thoughts of the +dishonesty and greed they foster and encourage. + +Many a tramp had these three over hill and dale. Sometimes climbing +the boulder-strewn heights whence sea and land showed like a map; more +often lingering by the river lazily, as it made its way through the +grassy uplands in a series of foamy leaps and oily pauses. For here +the sea-trout were to be beguiled by patience; if not by that, then by +the red-tailed fly which Will used with the consummate skill of the +real pot-fisher. Paul, on the other hand, beset by lingering +prejudice, would lounge on the bank intermittently, offering the rod +to Marjory in order to bring him luck; while she, engaged in +collecting a perfect herbarium, would deprecate her own past skill in +the Long Pool. + +"And the admirable underhand cast was a chance also?" he retorted +drily. "Really, Miss Carmichael, my modesty is catching." + +Marjory laughed. "Oh, no! I learnt that from Will. I never could make +out whither he went on Sundays, till one day I came upon him in that +little strip of pasture in the middle of the larch plantation, +flicking at dandelions with his ten-foot rod. Then he confessed that +it was his usual occupation of a Sabbath afternoon, because it was so +deadly dull with nothing to do at home. So after that I flicked, too. +We used to do it against each other for hours, didn't we, Will?" + +"Ten for a dandie, twenty for a daisy, fifty for a bumble-bee," +murmured Will from under his tilted hat, as he lay on the grass. + +"An instance of the deceit which the irrational worship of the Sabbath +is apt to produce," remarked the Reverend James Gillespie, whose +conscience invariably assailed him when he had not made a professional +remark for some time. + +"It is so refreshing to hear you accuse Miss Carmichael," said Paul, +gravely. "Deceit is a mortal sin, isn't it, Mr. Gillespie?" + +The Reverend James hesitated. He looked sorely out of place amid the +wilderness in his black garments, with Paul in his loose Indian suits, +and Will guiltless of coat and waistcoat. + +"Deceit, cheating--whoever doth wickedly, etc.--generally comes under +common theft--non-bailable," murmured the tilted hat softly; for Will, +in his youth, had studied law. + +"I congratulate you, Miss Carmichael," said Paul, still gravely, "on +having attained the position of a real criminal. I have a sneaking +admiration for them." + +"Why?" + +"Because they have done--what I have been afraid to do!" + +So the day would slip by in idle talk and idler work, until the +lengthening shadows warned them they were far from home, and Will +would grow restless over the prospect of dinner _versus_ the tea, with +which he had more than once been put off on occasions of gross +irregularity. While Paul would boast of his freedom from all control, +or offer to stand in the breach by begging a meal at the Lodge; since +even Mrs. Cameron's tongue softened when it spoke to the laird, and a +vein of humour ran through her blame. + +"It's clean reediklous, Gleneira," she would say. "Here it is gone +ten, and supper was bidden at eight. An' if you expec' me, a Christian +woman, to tell Kursty that _my_ son is even as them who mocked Elijah, +or that it was I that made a mistake, you're just wrong. An' a' for a +wheen trouties, that's no good for kipper or for anything but to +cocker yourselves up wi' at breakfast, instead of being contented with +good porridge, as your fathers were. But there! we ken find that Esau +sold his birthright for a mess o' pottage." + +"And I don't wonder at it," Paul would reply gravely; "if he was half +so hungry as I am. How much was it, Cameron, that the hook-and-eye man +offered me for Gleneira? A man must eat, you know." + +Whereupon the old lady would remark that, as she at least knew her +duty, his father's son should never lack bread in her house, and so +bustle away good-humouredly to hurry on supper. The unpunctuality was +not, however, always their fault; and on one occasion followed on an +incident which had a curious effect in still further softening +Marjory's judgment on handsome, idle, kindly Paul, and introducing +that vein of pity, which, in women of her type, seems an almost +necessary ingredient of affection. It may be only a triviality, the +half-humorous despair of a buttonless shirt, the possibility of dirty +tablecloths, or it may go further into uncared-for sickness and +loneliness, but the thought of personal discomfort to a man whom she +likes is always grievous to women who have not been educated out of +their housewifely instincts. + +It came about in this wise. There was a certain Loch of the Fairies +which, despite its great beauty, Marjory had seldom seen, for this +reason. It lay hidden in the highest corries of the deer forest, +accessible only by the burn watering the sheltered glen which, from +time immemorial, had been the sanctuary; and not even for Marjory +would old John Macpherson disturb his deer, or allow them to be +disturbed. But Paul thought differently when he found that the girl's +face brightened at the idea of an excursion thither; for, to him, the +nearest pleasure was invariably the best. + +"As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb," he said, with a laugh. "We +will start early and make a day of it. And I'll ask Gillespie to come. +He is always telling cock-and-bull stories about the big fish there, +so we will set him to catch one. I never did." + +And Will Cameron agreed also, saying he would take the opportunity to +meet the forest keeper on the march, and settle the position of a new +fence to keep the hinds from straying. Only old John shook his head, +with mutterings regarding future sport and old traditions. + +"As if _that_ were not worth all the sport in the world," said Paul, +almost exultantly, as, climbing the last bracken-set knoll, and +leaving the last Scotch fir hanging over a wild leap of the burn, they +filed past a sheer bluff, and saw in front of them a long, narrow, +almost level glen, through which the stream slid in alternate reaches +and foaming falls. On either side almost inaccessible cliffs; in front +of them, cutting the blue sky clearly, a serrated wall of rock closing +up the valley. Great sharp-edged fragments from the heights above lay +strewn among the sweeping stretches of heather, whence a brood of +grouse rose, blundering to the anxious cackle of the hen. + +"There they are," said Will, from force of habit in a whisper, "up on +the higher pasture. I thought they would be; so we shan't disturb them +a bit if we keep to the burn." + +Marjory, shading her eyes from the sun, stood looking on one of the +prettiest sights in the world; a herd of red deer dotted over a hill +slope, or seen outlined against the horizon line. Paul, from sheer +habit also, had slipped to the ground, and had his glass on them. +"Splendid royal to the left, Cameron--wonder if we shall get him this +year--and, by George, there's the old crooked horn! I remember, Miss +Carmichael, trying to put a bullet into him--well, we won't say how +many years ago." + +"What a slaughterhouse a man's memory must be," remarked Marjory, with +her head in the air. + +"Not in this case, at any rate," retorted Paul. "Sometimes I am +merciful--or miss; which answers the purpose quite as well." As he +spoke the memory of Jeanie Duncan rose quite causelessly to his mind, +and he started to his feet impatiently; for somehow little Paul's +existence had taken the bloom off his self-complacency in regard to +that episode. + +"Now for the Pixie's loch," he cried gaily. "The ladies have it all +their own way there in destruction, if tales be true. I wonder which +of us three unfortunate males she will choose as her victim to-day?" + +Marjory, looking down as they crested the last boulder-strewn rise on +the almost black and oily sheet of water in the crater-like cup of the +corrie, felt that she did not wonder at the legends which had gathered +round the spot. The very perfection of its loneliness, its beauty, +marked it as a thing apart from the more familiar charm of the world +around it. There seemed scarce foothold for a goat on those pillared +cliffs which sank sheer into the dark water, and the streak or two of +snow lingering still in a northern recess marked, she felt sure, some +deep crevasse hidden from sight by the innocent-looking mantle of +white. Nor could one judge of the depth of the lake by the jagged +points of rocks which rose here and there from the surface of the +water, for, as she stood, she leant against a fragment of some earlier +world, which looked as if it must have fallen from the sky, since the +vacant place left by such a huge avalanche must have remained visible +for ever in the rocks above. So those out yonder might go down and +down, forming vast caves where the Pixie might hold her court of +drowned, dead men. She turned to look at Paul suddenly, +apprehensively; perhaps because, even in her innocence, she recognised +instinctively that there, with all its gifts, with all its charm, lay +the nature to which the syren's song is irresistible. But he, stopping +on the brink to dip his hand into the water, was looking back at her +with a laugh. + +"By Jove!" he said, "isn't it cold? Enough to give anyone the +shivers." + +As he spoke, far out on the glassy glint of water came a speck of +stronger light, widening to a circle, widening, widening ever, in +softening ripples. + +"There! I told you so!" cried the Reverend James, excitedly; "a +five-pounder at least!" After which, naturally, there was no time for +sentiment, no time for anything but an unconfessed race as to which of +the three should have his fly on the water first. Marjory, left to her +own devices, wandered as far as she could round the level edge, which +to the south lay between the lake and the cliff, until she came to the +moss-clad moraine, through which the water found its way to new life +in the first long leap of the burn below; for the loch itself was fed +by unseen springs. She could hear the stream beneath her feet tinkling +musically, and gurgling softly, as if laughing at something it had +left behind, or something it was going to meet; and the sound +oppressed her vaguely. Here, in an angle of sand, stood a half-ruined +boat-house, and within it a boat painted gaily, yet with an air of +disuse about it which made Marjory go inside and look at it more +closely. It seemed sound enough, and yet, as she wandered on, she +hoped that the fishers might not be tempted to use it out on those +unknown depths. Then, coming on a great bank of dewberries, she sank +down into the yielding heather and gave herself up to enjoyment, +finally stretching herself at long length on the springy softness, and +watching the lake through her half-closed eyelids. Suddenly, with a +smile, she began to sing, and then as suddenly ceased. Cliffs could +give back an echo, certainly, but not so clear an one as the tenor +tone which followed close on that first phrase of the "Lorelei." An +instant after Paul's figure showed round a rock below, busily engaged +with a swishing trout rod. + + + "Die schoenste Maedchen sitzet + Dort oben wunderbar." + + +An echo, indeed! and Marjory sat up among the dewberries, feeling +indignant. + +"Captain Macleod," she called aggressively, "have you caught +anything?" + +He turned, as if he had been unaware of her presence, and raised his +cap. "It is not a question of my catching anything, Miss Carmichael, +but of my being caught. There is a syren about somewhere; I heard her +just now; did you?" + +"I generally hear myself when I am singing," she replied coldly. +"Where is Will?" + +"Will," replied Paul, cheerfully, "is swearing round the corner. He +has just had a splendid rise, and his hook drew. No further +description necessary." + +She laughed, and Captain Macleod went on in the easy familiar tone +which had taken the sting out of so many other remarks which, to +Marjory's unsophisticated ears, had savoured of impertinence. + +"If we neither of us get another this round, we are going to start +over the hills for the fence. I want to see it myself. You will find a +splendid place for tea about a quarter of a mile down below the fall. +Heaps of sticks--bits of the primeval forest washed out of the +moss--so you will manage nicely; besides Gillespie will be here." + +It was just such a careless, brotherly speech as Will might have made, +and Marjory appreciated it. Besides the thought of an hour or two, +absolutely to herself, in those solitudes had an indescribable charm; +indescribable because, to those who know it not of themselves, words +are useless, and those who do need them not. For her, with a stainless +past and a hopeful future, it was bliss unalloyed to wander down the +burn-side, resting here and there, watching the ring-ouzel skim from +shelter, or an oak-eggar moth settle lazily on a moss-cushion. And +yet, as she sate perched on a rock far down the valley above a deeper +pool than usual, she amused herself by singing the "Lorelei" from +beginning to end, secure from unwelcome echoes. So back on her traces +to the baskets which had been hidden in the fern, and the preparations +for tea. The relics of the primeval forest burnt bravely aided by some +juniper branches, the kettle was filled, boiled, and set securely on a +stony hob; and then, free from cares, Marjory chose out a springy nest +among the short heather and curled herself round lazily to watch the +sky line where before long two figures should come striding into +sight, dark against the growing gold of the westering sun. Blissful +indeed; extremely comfortable also. + +When she woke Paul Macleod was calling her by name, and she started up +in a hurry. "I came on as fast as I could lest you should be +wearying," he said, and his face showed he spoke the truth. "It was +further than we thought for. Where's Gillespie? He can't be fishing +still, surely. I didn't see him on the shore as I came past." + +Marjory, confused as she was by sudden awakening, remembered one +thing, and one thing only--the boat--the old rotten-looking boat. + +"You didn't see him--and he hasn't been here! Oh! Captain Macleod, I +do hope nothing has happened--the boat----" + +"Nonsense!" replied Paul, decisively, "nothing can have happened. +Still, it's late--you have been asleep some time, I expect. Perhaps he +has missed you, and gone home." + +"He could not miss the fire," she said quickly, "and he cannot swim. +If he has taken the boat, and if----" + +"There is no use imagining evil," put in Paul, drily; "as you are +anxious I will go----" + +"I will come with you," she said eagerly; "if I put some more wood on +the fire----" + +"It will be ready for us when we return," remarked Paul, cheerfully, +"and Gillespie will want his tea. I expect he is in to the big trout +or----" he paused before her anxious face and told her again that +nothing could have happened. She surely did not believe in pixies? +Still, he grew graver when a look at the boat-house proved it to be +empty, and his first shout brought no answer, except a confused, +resounding echo. + +"If he had gone beyond that bluff into the inaccessible part, which he +is likely to have done with the boat--he might not hear. Come on--and +don't imagine the worst. If, when we can see all the water----" + +He paused, and said no more, as, with her following fast at his heels, +he hurried up the brae which hid the further reach of the lake. So, +being a step or two ahead, and several inches taller than she was, a +view halloo, followed by a laugh, was her first intimation that the +search had come to an end. The next instant she had joined the laugh, +for a more ridiculous sight than the Reverend James Gillespie +presented as he stood up, in full clerical costume, on an uneven rock +some two feet square, in the very middle of the loch, could scarcely +be imagined. The cause, however, was clear in the half-sunk, +water-logged boat, jammed on a jagged rock, which was just visible +above the water close by. + +"Have you been there long?" called Paul, recovering himself. + +"All the afternoon," came back in hoarse and distinctly cross tones. +"I shouted till I could shout no more. I thought you had all gone +home!" + +"Gone to sleep," remarked Paul, aside, as he sate down and began +deliberately to unlace his boots. "Now, Miss Carmichael, if you will +look after the tea, I'll rescue the shipwrecked mariner, and bring him +to be comforted." + +Marjory, eyeing the stretch of black water nervously, suggested he had +better wait for Will to turn up; but Paul laughed. "I'm relieved to +find you have some anxiety left for me--yet it is really absurd. I +could swim ten times the distance ten times over; besides, I'll bring +him back with the oars if that will satisfy you?" + +She felt that it ought, yet as she turned to leave him, the keen pang +at her heart surprised her, and not even his gay call of reassurance, +"Two teas, please, hot, in ten minutes," given, she knew, from such +kindly motives, availed to drive away a sudden thought of that +gracious face--drowned--dead--drowned. Such irrational fears, when +they come at all, come overwhelmingly; since the mind, imaginative +enough even to admit them, is their natural prey. Yet this very +imagination of her own was in itself startling to the girl, who caught +herself wishing she had not sung the "Lorelei," with a sort of +surprised pain at her own fancifulness. It was absurd, ridiculous, and +yet the sight of Will's loose-limbed figure coming to meet her, +brought distinct relief as she bade him go on and help Captain +Macleod. Even so, as she blew at the fire and made the tea, the +thought would come that a man who could not swim would be of no +possible use if--if--if---- So, in the midst of her imaginings, came +at last the sight of three figures striding down the brae, talking and +laughing; at least, two of them were so engaged, the Reverend James +having scarcely recovered his temper, and being, in addition, almost +quite inaudible from his previous efforts to make himself heard. + +"The pixie wouldn't have him, said he wouldn't suit the place," said +Paul, gravely, when, with the aid of several cups of tea, the victim +had finished his tale of the big trout, which had deliberately dragged +him on to a jag, knocked a hole in the bottom of the rotten old boat, +and left him helpless, taking advantage--and this seemed the greatest +offence--of the confusion consequent on the man[oe]uvre, to swim away +with ten yards of good trout line and an excellent cast. At least, +this was Will's view of the situation, the Reverend James attempting +hoarsely to give greater prominence to the saving of his own life, +while Paul gave a graphic description of their procession down the +loch to the landing-place, with the clerical costume packed out of +harm's way in the fishing-basket which was swung to the butt end of +the rod, and Marjory indignantly disclaimed the slumber of the Seven +Sleepers, declaring that the shouting must have gone on when she had +been down the burn. So, chattering and laughing, the tea things were +packed up, and they started homewards. + +"Let us have a race down the level," said Paul, suddenly; "that water +was cold as ice." + +Five minutes after, when Marjory caught him up, as he lingered a +little behind the two others, who were just disappearing behind the +bluff at the entrance to the sanctuary, she was startled at his face. + +"Ague," he said, in answer to her look. "That is the worst of India. I +told you the water was cold enough to give anyone the shivers." He +tried to laugh it off, but he was blue and pinched, his teeth were +chattering, and with every step the effort to stand steady became more +apparent. The sight of his helplessness made the girl forget +everything but her womanly instinct to give comfort. + +"You had far better sit down for a while," she said, eagerly. "I can +easily light a fire, and we have the kettle. Some hot whiskey and +water----" But Paul was actually beyond refusal; he sate down weakly, +utterly knocked over for the time, and unable to do anything but +mutter, between the chatterings of his teeth, that it would not last +long--that it would be all right when the hot fit began--that she had +better go on and leave him. To all of which Marjory replied, in +businesslike fashion, by bringing him a great bundle of bracken as a +pillow, spreading her waterproof over him, and piling it over with +more fern, till he smiled faintly, and chattered something about there +being no necessity for covering him up with leaves--he was not dead +yet. Then the fire had to be lit, the kettle boiled, a jorum of hot +toddy brewed, a stone warmed and set to hands and feet. + +"Now, if you lie still for half an hour," she said magisterially, "I +expect you will be much better when I come back." And he was hot--as +fire, of course, and shaky still, but minus the cramps, and very +apologetic for the delay. + +"You couldn't possibly help it," she interrupted quickly. "You +looked--you looked----" and then something seemed to rise up in her +throat and keep her silent. But it was just this look of utter +helplessness which remained in her mind, bringing with it always a +tender compassion; and as the remembrance of him with little Paul on +his shoulder served to soften her towards his atrocious sentiments, so +that of his sudden physical collapse served to lessen the sort of +resentment she had hitherto felt to the charm of his great good looks. +She could not have explained how either of these facts came about; she +was not even aware that it was so, and yet it did make a difference in +her attitude towards him. A pity for his weakness, for his faults and +failings, came to take the place of condemnation. + +So the days passed, until one evening as they trudged home from an +unsuccessful raid on the river, Mr. Gillespie remarked that the +herring were in at Craignish, and the mackerel often came at the back +of the herring, so, maybe, it would be worth while to have a try at +them. + +"Better than the river, anyhow," grumbled Will, who, even with the +red-tailed fly, felt the horrid weight of an empty creel on his +shoulders. + +Paul looked at Marjory. It had come to that in most things by this +time, and as often as not, as now, no words were necessary. "Then I +will tell John Macpherson to have the boat ready to-morrow, for it is +my last day--of leisure, I mean. My sister comes on Saturday, my +guests follow on Monday, and after that--the deluge, I suppose." + +"I should not wonder," remarked Will, gravely; "the midges were awful +to-day." + +Both Paul and Marjory laughed; they could not help it, despite their +vague regret that holiday time was over. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + +Paul's last day was one of those never-to-be-forgotten days, when the +mist lies in light wreaths below the mountain tops, which rise clear +and sharp against an intense blue sky; when masses of white cloud hang +in mid-air, bringing with each new moment some fresh beauty, born of +shadow, to sea and shore; when a cool breeze blows unevenly, every now +and again darkening the water to a purple, and cresting the waves with +foam-streaks edged with turquoise. + +"None too soon," said Paul, briefly, as the "Tubhaneer" (so called +from her washing-tub-like build) cast off her moorings, and stood out +for the middle of the loch. "I told you it would be the deluge after +to-day, Miss Carmichael. We shall have rain to-morrow." + +Will nodded his head. + +"Oh, don't talk of to-morrow!" said Marjory, quickly; "to-day is +enough, surely." + +Paul, from amid-ships, applauded softly, and she attempted a frown, +which ended feebly in a smile. And wherefore not? Sufficient, indeed, +unto that day was the pleasure thereof. The red-brown sail drew +bravely, the long line lay curled up forward, the oyster dredger +rested athwart, the rifles were with Paul amid-ships, the lithe rods +swept out astern behind Marjory as she leant lightly over the tiller, +her eyes upon the quivering sail; for it needed every inch she could +gain to avoid a tack, even though the current of the outgoing tide was +aiding them to slip through the Narrowest to the open sea beyond. + +"Where will the white rock be?" she asked of Donald Post, who, being +learned in banks and baits, would often set his wife to carry the bag +while he was off and away after the sea fishing. He was now opening +mussels with a crunching sound, regular as a machine. + +'"Deed an' she will be right ahead of us whatever," he replied, +without a pause. + +"There will be plenty of water, I suppose?" + +'"Deed she will no be havin' much on her, anyhow." + +"Then how shall I steer?" + +"Just as she is, Miss Marjory, just as she is; she will be doing fine, +I'm thinking." + +"A miss is as good as a mile," murmured Paul, engaged in stretching +his long length comfortably over some ballast kegs. "Can you swim?" + +Marjory nodded. "Then save me, please; I really am not inclined to +exert myself." + +"So it appears," remarked Will Cameron, in an injured tone. He and the +Reverend James were forward, busy over the tangled lengths of the long +line, and the necessity for restraining his tongue before the cloth +was telling even on the former's easy temper; for a long line in a +tangle is quite indescribable in Parliamentary language. + +"Keep her in a bit, Marjory. We must anchor over the fishing-house +bank for a while, and get bait for this--this _thing_." + +"Then I shall have to tack." + +"Tack, indeed! If you don't like it, I'll steer and you can tackle +this--this _thing_. Look out, Donald!--two trees and the white stone." + +Round went the tiller. "Now, John!" said the girl; the sail came down +with a clatter, the way slackened, the anchor, poised in Donald's +watchful hands, splashed overboard, and the "Tubhaneer" drew up to it +with her mast, and the two trees, and the white stone in a line. + +"Well done, Miss Marjory; that was well done, whatever," rose Donald's +voice softly, between renewed crunching; and two minor splashes +following close on each other told that the Parson and Will had their +hand-lines down. Then came a silence, broken only by the fitful gurgle +of the water against the "Tubhaneer" as she swung round to the tide, +and that monotonous crunch, crunch of the mussel-knife. + +"John Roy, he wass takin' five whitin's from the bank last week," rose +Donald's voice once more, quite causelessly. "It wass a bit of himself +he was catching them with. It iss nothin' the whitin's iss liking so +much as a bit of himself." + +Then silence again, his hearers being too much accustomed to the +intricacies of Donald's style to be startled by this novel fact in +natural history. So, amid the stillness, a sudden jerk of the Reverend +James's right hand, a pause of intense expectation--to judge by the +rapt look on his comely face--then disappointment from bow to stern, +and a general slackness. + +"It will just be ain o' they pickers," mused Donald, recovering from +his momentary idleness; "or maybe a sooker. It iss the pickers and +sookers in this place that just beats all. Oo-aye! If it wass not a +picker, it will be a sooker." + +"What is the difference between a picker and a sucker, Donald?" asked +Marjory, severely practical. + +"'Deed, then, Miss Marjory, and it iss not any difference there will +be between them at all. It is a sooker that will not be caring a tamn +for the hook, and it is the picker that will not be caring a tamn +either." + +"Ahem!" interrupted Mr. Gillespie, with reproachful glance at Donald's +unconscious back; "I believe, Miss Marjory, that pickers or suckers is +really only the local name for young codlings, lythe, or cuddies. In +fact, for all young fish." + +"She is not them at all," retorted Donald, scornfully. "It iss sookers +and pickers, and not young fish they will be, and it iss not a local +name, whatever." The last came with such a glance of sovereign +contempt for the offender, that Paul, from his ballast kegs, smiled up +at Marjory, who smiled back at him. + +"Got him at last! and a good one too!" sang out Will, ending the +discussion by a new topic of all-absorbing interest, which held the +boat's crew in suspense till the rasping rub of the line over the side +and the drip of water falling back on water ceased in a disgusted +exclamation from the captor of a small flounder, hooked foul. + +"Little deevil," murmured John Macpherson, in such a self-communing +tone, that the Reverend James felt the observation must pass. + +"It iss pulling like that they are," commented Donald, affably. "John +Roy he was fishin' at the ferry-house, and thinkin' it wass a +_skatach_ he got, and cryin' on me for the gaff he wass, but it was +two flukies he was hookin' by their tails." + +Marjory looked as if she were inclined to dispute the fact, then +joined in the dreamful silence, which, with spasmodic awakenings as +fish after fish came over the side, lasted until there was enough +bait, and Will gave the word to move on. Then the anchor came up laden +with a root of oarweed, in which strange shells and starfish lay +entangled; so it was handed aft for Marjory to see. + +"It is squeakin' like a mice yon beast will be," said Donald, pointing +to a sea-urchin. "Aye! an' bitin' most tarrible he is." + +"That is quite impossible," interrupted the girl, cutting short +various other facts which trembled on Donald's lips. "They couldn't +bite if they tried." + +"Then it is squeakin' like a mice they are, whatever," he retorted +doggedly; "for John Roy wass tellin' it to me." John Roy being +Donald's Mrs. Harris, the subject admitted of no further discussion, +and the ensuing pause was broken by a sudden question from Paul. + +"Do you ever find niggerheads about here now? I remember when I was a +boy in petticoats----" + +He took the tiny cowrie of dazzling whiteness she handed him by way of +answer, and said no more. How many years, he wondered, was it since he +had last thought of niggerheads? Truly the world was a strange place, +and a man's brain stranger still. + +And now the long line, duly baited for skate and haddock, was being +paid out and left drifting, moored to floats which seemed to dance +away on the waves, as the "Tubhaneer" with sail full spread made for +the last, low, sunlit point, and so, entering the Linnhe Loch, headed +straight for the blue Kingairloch Hills. To the left lay Lismore, a +glimmering strip of green and gold amid the shining sea; behind was +Port Appin, with its heather-crested bluff, and spidery-black pier; +before them the serrated line of Ardnamurchan, and beyond, faint in +the distance, the headland of Mull jutting into a glint of the +Atlantic. To the right rose Shuna with its swelling grassy slopes and +cross-signed pebble shores, like a fairy island in the summer sea. So +further afield Appin House, set in fir knolls, Ardgour lighthouse +glimmering to the left, and beyond, all the hills rising clear and +cloudless to the peak of Ben Nevis. + +On Ami's bay a cluster of boats in shore told that the herring were +in. + +"They never come to Loch Eira now," remarked Will, idly. "It is funny, +but they don't." + +"It will not be funny at all, sir," expostulated Donald. "It wass +comin' they were every year, sure's I sit here, but it wass old John +Mackenzie he wass going after them on the Sabbath, and it wass not +coming any more after that they were." + +"And that is a fact, of course?" asked Will, gravely. + +"It will not be a fact at all, sir," echoed Donald, "but it was old +John himself wass tellin' it to me." + +"I believe it to be quite true, Mr. Cameron," put in the Reverend +James; "indeed I remember the Bishop commenting upon the circumstance +in a sermon. He brought it in most beautifully, and so conclusively." + +"It wass a burnin' shame of the old _bodach_, whatever," grumbled John +Macpherson. "Ay! Ay! a dirty trick, whatever." + +Marjory, watching the sea-pyots wheel and veer against the blue of the +distant hills, smiled to herself. The mere thought of the Bishop in +his lawn sleeves seemed unreal out there in the sunshine. Everything +was unreal save the boat skimming with a little hiss through the +water. + +"There's a steamer rounding the point below Lismore," said Will. "What +will she be, I wonder?" + +"She will be the salt ship from Glasgow for the harrin'," replied +Donald, after prolonged deliberation. "That iss what she will be, an' +ferry welcome. I mind when the harrin' were in Glen Etive, and the +salt ship she wass not comin' at all, the people wass diggin' holes in +the peat, and fillin' them with the harrin'. It wass not keepin' ferry +well, but it was eating them were. A terrible year for sickness it +wass, though the harrin' was that plenty, they wass takin' them in +buckets." + +"'Deed an' it was a dirty trick of that old _bodachs_ to be driving +them away," grumbled Macpherson, "a dirty trick--Gorsh me!--yon's a +seal--quick, Mr. Paul!" + +There was a sudden, still stir in the crew, and all eyes turned to +where a smooth brown head slipped oilily through the water. Marjory +held her breath half-shrinkingly, yet said no word. Not even when Paul +whispered "Ready, Cameron?" and, heralded by a little flash and puff, +the simultaneous report of the rifles frightened the sea-pyots into +screaming flight. The head disappeared as the bullets went ricocheting +over the water in soft _ping-pings_. + +"Too high," said one voice, mournfully. + +"Yes! but the direction was good." + +These remarks, which in constant substance but varying form follow +most unsuccessful shots, appeared satisfactory to the speakers; for +Paul retired to the thwarts again, and Will resumed his pipe, while +Macpherson looked pensively through one of the rifles to see if it had +leaded, and the general excitement died down. + +"It is curious," remarked Marjory, disdainfully relieved, and +speaking, as it were, to the circumambient air, "how even a remote +prospect of killing something will rouse a man's love of destruction." + +Paul, leaning one arm on the thwart, looked up at her solemnly. + +"True--too true. We are destructive, or rather, accurately speaking, +we should like to be destructive--only we aren't. That was a bad miss +of mine. But if we like to destroy, you women love to annex. Witness +that pile of seaweed and shells beside you. You don't really want it, +and ten to one when it comes to the bother of carrying it home, you +will leave it behind you." + +"Pardon me," remarked the girl, "you shall carry it for me." + +"A foregone conclusion, if you wish it, of course; but in that case +you will simply add my services to your possessions. And in like +manner you will dispense with them when I cease to be amusing. Woman +all over!" + +"Thanks, Gleneira!" laughed Will. "It does me good to hear Marjory +kept in order. She bullies me awfully about shooting seals, and I +fully expected her to sneeze or cough. She generally does." + +"I knew you wouldn't hit," retorted Marjory, scornfully, "and it +pleased you." + +"'Pleased 'er and didn't 'urt me,' as the navvy said when his wife +beat him," put in Paul. "By Jove! Miss Carmichael, if I had known what +you thought, I would have put a bullet----" + +"Hist!" cried Marjory, holding up her hand. There, within a stone's +throw, was the smooth brown head, with large, liquid, confiding eyes +turned towards the boat. Not a ripple, not a sound, showed that it was +in motion, and yet it slipped past rapidly. + +"Gorsh me! but the beast's tame," whispered John, unable to contain +himself in the inaction; but the whisper might as well have been a +clap of thunder, for the round head sank noiselessly into the water, +leaving scarcely a ripple behind it. + +"Why didn't you shoot, Captain Macleod?" asked Marjory, with an odd +little tremor in her voice, at which she herself was dimly surprised; +"you might have hit that time, for it couldn't have been more than +fifteen yards off." + +"I never thought of it," he replied quietly; "the beast looked so +jolly." + +"It looked quite as jolly when it was far away, no doubt." + +"But I couldn't see it. And if we discuss that point I shall find it +as much out of my range as the seal was. So give me a good mark for +refraining when I did see its jolliness." + +"Besides, it would have been no good trying. It would have been down +like a shot if we had stirred a finger," said Will, philosophically. + +Paul Macleod sighed. "There goes my last claim to saintship. You are a +perfect devil's advocate, Cameron." + +"But, really, Miss Marjory," put in the Reverend James, who had, as +usual, been left far behind in the quick interchange of thought, "I do +not see why you should object to shooting a seal. Man is permitted by +a merciful Creator to destroy animal life----" + +"In order to preserve his own, and even then it seems a pity," +interrupted the girl, eagerly. "Oh, I daresay, Captain Macleod, the +feeling isn't strong enough to make me turn vegetarian, but it _is_ +wanton cruelty to kill a poor seal which is of no use to anyone!" + +"There you go!" grumbled Will. "Why! I wanted its paws awfully for +tobacco pouches--mine is quite worn out." + +"Your remark, Cameron, is childish and unreasonable," replied Paul, +from his lounge. "You cannot expect Miss Carmichael's tolerance of +humanity to extend to tobacco pouches. Let us be thankful it concedes +mutton chops." + +"A seal is a ferry clever beast, whatever," put in Donald. "It wass +John Roy wass walking on the rocks at Craignish, and he wass seeing a +big seal, and heavin' stones at it, and--gorsh me!--but it wass takin' +the stones and fro'ing them back at John. And, tamn me! but the +creature wass a better shot than John--oo--aye! a far better shot +whatever." + +"And that is a fact, Donald?" asked Will, solemnly. + +"Not a fack at all, sir; but John Roy he wass tellin' it to me." + +"Not so clever as the Kashmir bear, Donald?" put in Paul. "When it has +to cross a stream in flood it carries a big boulder on its head to +keep itself steady." + +"An' is that a fack, sir," asked Donald, readily. + +"The people were telling it to me, anyhow!" + +"Then they were big liars whatever," said Donald, with such an +inimitable air of shocked conviction that a general shout of laughter +rose on the sunny air. + +Oh, bright, glad day! Oh, careless, foolish talk! Oh, deep abiding +sense of peace and good-will in all that sea-girt mountain world which +rose around them, havening their little boat! Could it be that there +was trouble, or toil, or tears, yonder where the mist floated so +tenderly, or there, where cottage and castle, meadow and moor, wheat +and tares were blended into one purple glory? There were not many such +days in life, so let us cherish the mere memory of them! + +The mackerel, it is true, were not to be beguiled, but what matter? +The boat skimmed over the blue water; two red-brown sails stood out to +the West or East. + +"No use trying any more," said Will at last, with a shake of the head +over Paul's placid repose; for lunch had come to fill up the measure +of content, and the laird was back among the ballast with a large +basket of strawberries. "I think, Donald, we might try the big lythe +off Shuna." + +"The tide will no be answerable awhile, sir, but there will be no +excuse for the _bedach ruachs_ at the rocks; no excuse at all." + +"Let us hope the fish will have a sense of duty," murmured Paul from +the strawberries; "cold-blooded creatures generally have." + +They anchored out of the tide race in a backwater of the current, and +Marjory, looking over the side, could see far down into the green +depth where pale, pulsating Medusas came floating by, and every now +and again a flash of light told of a passing fish. + +"Too much tide," began Paul, eyeing the set of the lines from his +retreat, when four mighty and coincident strikes silenced his wisdom +for a while. But only for a while, since amid the rasp and rub of wet +lines against the side came Will's voice despondently. + +"I'm in to some of you others." + +"So am I--and I----" echoed Marjory and the Reverend James. Only Donald +Post whispered softly, "It is the deevil is on mine whatever," and +Paul, without stirring hand and foot, suggested the mainland of +Scotland. But it was neither. The lines passed to the stern produced +conjointly a codling, which after swallowing two baits had tried at a +third, and so hooked itself foul in the fourth. + +"There's an object lesson for you, Miss Carmichael," said Paul, +teasingly. "How about your theory of the cruel hook and the poor +fish?" + +"It is not feeling a tamn, fish is," commented Donald, calmly +disgorging the baits. "It was fishin' for _bodachs_ old John Boy was, +and he was catchin' her foul by the eye, and the eye she come out. But +John Roy wass leavin' it on the hook and the _bodach_ was comin' again +an' takin' his own eye." + +"And there is a fact for you," continued Paul. + +"No! No! sir," protested Donald, with a twinkle in his eye; "it will +no be a fack whatever, but John Roy he wass tellin' it to me." Whereat +there was laughter again. + +So, as the day drew down, they landed on Shuna to boil the kettle for +tea with driftwood gathered from the shore, and wonder idly as the +flames leapt up to shrivel the lowermost leaves of the rowan tree by +the spring, whence the wreckage which burnt so bravely had come; for +storm and stress seemed far from their world. + +Then, while the boatmen took their turn at the scones and cake, the +jam and toast, they climbed the grassy slopes, and, sitting down by +the old tower, watched the sunset idly; for all things, even pleasure, +seem idle on such days as these. The clouds had pricked westwards, as +if to aid the Atlantic in a coming storm, but below their heavy purple +masses lay a strip of greeny gold sky, into which the sun was just +sinking from a higher belt of crimson-tinted bars. + +"No Green Ray for us to-night," said Marjory, with a smile. + +Paul raised his eyebrows. "No Green Ray on this or any other night, in +my candid opinion." + +The Reverend James looked puzzled. "I have often heard you mention +this Green Ray, Miss Marjory, but I am not quite sure to what you +allude." + +"To a fiction of Jules Verne's, that is all," put in Paul, quickly. + +"Nothing of the sort; people have seen it," corrected the girl, +eagerly. + +"Say they have seen it," murmured Paul, obstinately, and Marjory +frowned. + +"I will explain it to you, Mr. Gillespie," she went on, with assertion +in her voice. "It is a green ray of light which shoots through the +sea, just as the topmost curve of the sun touches the water. I watch +for it often. I intend to watch for it till I see it, as others have +done." + +"And what good will it do to you when you have seen it?" asked Paul. +They were speaking to each other, despite the pretence of general +conversation; but it was so often. + +"I haven't the least idea," she answered airily; "for all that, I look +forward to seeing it as a great event in my life." + +"Great events are dangerous; like some very valuable medicines, +uncertain in their effects. Birth, for instance--you may be born a +fool or a wise man. Marriage--a chance of the die--so I'm told. +Death." He pointed dramatically upwards and downwards with a whimsical +look on his anxious, gracious face. + +"I deny it, I deny it altogether," cried the girl, forgetting herself +and him in her eagerness. "You are either in existence before birth, +or you are not. In the one case you must remain yourself, in the other +you, being nonexistent, cannot suffer chance or change. It is the same +with death. If there is no _you_ to survive, death itself ceases to be +since you are non-existent. If there is, you must remain yourself." + +"Surely, my dear Miss Marjory," said the Reverend James, breaking in +on the girl's half-questioning appeal, "we are to be changed in the +twinkling of an eye?" + +"And marriage, Miss Carmichael?" put in Paul, quietly, passing by the +last remark as if it, too, had been non-existent. "You left out +marriage in your philosophy." + +Her face fell, yet softened. + +"I do not know; it is like the Green Ray, something to dream about." + +"To dream about! Ah! that sort of marriage is, I own, beyond the +vision of ordinary humanity." + +"But indeed there is nothing scientifically impossible in the Green +Ray. You have only to get the angle of refraction equal to the----" + +"Spare me, please. If I have to swallow romance I prefer it +undisguised. Even as a boy I refused powders in jam." + +"Wish I had," grumbled Will, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. "I +have never been able to eat black-currant jelly in consequence. And it +is awfully nice in itself. Come, Marjory, we ought to be going." + +"It is very hard to get rid of acquired tastes," muttered Paul, in an +undertone, as he rose, and quite familiarly held out his hand to help +Marjory to her feet also. "For instance, it will be difficult to +forget the flavour of the past fortnight." + +"Why should you forget it?" They were standing apart from the others, +who were looking eastward to see if the boatmen were ready. + +"Because the pleasure of it has been demoralising." + +"I don't believe in the demoralising effect of pleasure." + +"Perhaps not. You are one of the virtuously constituted whose pleasure +consists in behaving nicely. Mine doesn't." + +Her hand went out in an impulsive gesture of denial. + +"Why should you say that? You are not----" + +"How can you know what I am?" he began bitterly, yet indifferently; +his eyes, not upon her, but fixed far on the distant horizon, as if +arraigning some unseen power which had made him what he was. Then he +paused abruptly, and infinite surprise drove everything else from his +face. + +"Look!" he cried. + +"Look?--what?--where?" + +"Look!" His hand was on hers now, and its trembling touch seemed to +give her sight. + +It was a new heaven and a new earth! For, on the outermost edge of the +world, the last beam of light from the sunken sun shot through the +waves, flooding sky, and sea, and shore, with a green light, soft and +pellucid as the heart of an emerald. But only for an instant. The next +he had loosed her hand and the light was gone. + +"What are you staring at so, Miss Carmichael?" His mocking tone jarred +her through and through. She looked at him in sheer bewilderment. + +"The--the Green Ray!" + +"The Green Ray!" he echoed, in the same tones. "I say, Cameron! Here +is your cousin declaring she has seen the Green Ray. Did you see +anything?" + +"Only the seal you were watching out on the rocks yonder," called +Will. "Splendid shot, wasn't it?" + +"The Green Ray!" echoed the Reverend James, bustling up. "Dear me, how +interesting, and I missed it, somehow. What was it like, Miss +Marjory?" + +The girl stood with her clear, cold eyes fixed on Paul's face. "I +scarcely know. You had better ask Captain Macleod. If I saw anything, +he saw it also; and saw it first!" + +"But you have such a much more vivid imagination than I," he replied +easily, "that what would be to me merely an unusually beautiful +effect, might be to you a miracle. It is simply a question of +temperament, and mine is severely practical. In fact, Cameron, if we +are to get home to-night, it's time we were going." + +"By George!" said Will, when, with a general scramble, they had stowed +everything on board, "it's later than I thought, the tide has turned, +and the wind is almost down. We must take the sweeps, I am afraid." + +"All right," said Paul. "Hand us over an oar." + +He was a different man; the lazy content was gone, and he gave a +stroke from a straight back which made Donald gasp between his +efforts--"Gorsh me! but he is a fine rower, is the laird!" + +But there was silence--the silence of hard work--for the most part, as +they toiled home with wind and tide against them. Yet the scene was +beautiful as ever in the growing moonlight. + +"We are not more than a mile from the house here, Marjory," said Will, +as they rounded a point below the Narrowest; "but it will take us a +good hour to get her to the boat-house, and I can't leave her here; +it's spring tides, and the painter's not long enough. But I'll land +you on that rock, and the laird will see you home. Mother will be +getting anxious." + +"I would rather stay," she was beginning, when Paul cut her short. + +"Back water, bow; pull, Donald. Luff her a bit. Miss Carmichael, +please. That will do." They were alongside the little jetty of rock, +and he was out. "Your hand, please, the seaweed is awfully slippery. +Donald, pass up those shells, will you, they are in my handkerchief. +All right, Cameron. Give way." + +It had all passed so quickly, and this masterful activity of Paul's +was so surprising, that Marjory, rather to her own surprise, found +herself following close on his heels as he forced a way for her +through the dense thickets of bracken, or held back a briar from the +path in silence. Yet the silence did not seem oppressive; it suited +her own confusion, her own vague pleasure and pain. She had seen the +Green Ray, but she had seen it through Paul Macleod's eyes. Yes; +whether he would or not, they had seen it hand in hand. He might deny +it, but the fact remained. He was one of those who could see it! + +And Paul, as he walked on, felt that the silence intensified his clear +pleasure and clearer pain. For there was no vagueness in _his_ +emotions. It was not the first time that the touch of a woman's hand +had thrilled him through and through, as Marjory's had done as they +looked out over the sunset sea; but it was the first time that such a +thrill had not moved him to look upon the woman's face! And they had +stood still, hand in hand, like a couple of children, staring at the +Green Ray! What a fool he had been! What did it mean save something at +which he had always scoffed, at which he meant always to scoff! And +then the Green Ray? Was his brain softening that he should see visions +and dream dreams? He, Paul Macleod, who loved and forgot all, save his +own physical comfort. As everyone did in the end. And yet it was a +familiar pleasure to be in love again honestly, a pleasure to feel his +heart beating, to know that the girl he fancied was there beside him +in the moonlight, that he could tell her of his heart-beats if he +chose. But he did not choose. Love of that sort came and went! Did he +not know it? Did he not know his own nature, and was not that enough? +And yet, when they reached the high road a sudden desire to make her +also understand it, made him say, abruptly: + +"When do you begin work? In London, isn't it?" + +"Yes; in November." + +"And you are really going to waste life in a dull, dirty school, +teaching vulgar little boys and girls." + +"I shall teach them not to be vulgar." + +He shrugged his shoulders. "You cannot fight against Nature, Miss +Carmichael; as we are born, we remain. You will only kill yourself in +your efforts at regeneration." + +"I think not. I am very strong to begin with, and then I hate rusting +in idleness." + +"Rust may be better than tarnish. When I think of you here in this +paradise--a fool's paradise, perhaps--and of what you must encounter +there, it seems preposterous for you to mix yourself up. But you do +not understand; you never will." He had forgotten his new outlook in +the old resentment at her unconsciousness. + +"Understand what? I can understand most things if I try." + +"Can you? I doubt it. You cannot understand me, for instance, but that +is beside the question. The only comfort is that real life will +disgust you. Then you will return to the home you should never have +left." + +"I have no home--you know that." + +"You can make one by marrying, as other girls do." + +"I am not like other girls, thank you----" + +"Do you think I can't see that?" he broke out quite passionately. +"Should I be talking to you as I am if you were--why, I can't even +speak to you of what some of them are. It is because you are not as +other girls----" + +"Then you wish me to behave as they do. You are scarcely logical." Her +tone was as ice, and, chilling his passion, sent him back to his +cynicism. + +"Logic and love do not generally run in double harness, Miss +Carmichael; but if you prefer the former, I am quite prepared to stick +to it. Someone wants a wife, someone wants a home. It is a mere case +of barter. What can be more natural, sensible----" + +"And degrading." + +"Pardon me, not always. I will take my own case if you will allow me. +We have touched on it often before. Let us speak frankly now. I need +money, not for myself alone; for the property. You have hinted a +thousand times that I am a bad landlord; so I am. How can I help it +without money?" + +"You could be a better landlord than you are." + +"If I chose to live on porridge and milk; but I don't choose, and I +don't choose to sell. I prefer to stick to champagne and devilled +bones, and give up another personal pleasure instead. And you say it +is degrading." + +"I said nothing of the sort. I spoke of myself. It would degrade me. I +do not presume to speak of you." + +"But you think it all the same." + +"And if I do, what is that to you?" she cried suddenly, in hot anger. +"I do condemn you, if you will have the truth. I think you will +deliberately turn your back on the best part of life if you marry for +mere comfort--and, what is more, that you will regret it." + +"Possibly. I regret most things after a time. Let us wait and see +whether you or I find the greatest happiness in life. Only we are not +likely to agree even there, for we shall not see the world in the same +light." + +"Unless High Heaven vouchsafes us another Green Ray," she said coldly. + +The allusion aroused all his own vexation with himself, all his +impatience at her influence over him. They were passing the short cut +leading to the Lodge, and he paused. + +"I don't think I need intrude on Mrs. Cameron tonight," he said. +"Good-bye, Miss Carmichael." Then suddenly he turned with a smile of +infinite grace. "Let us shake hands over it to show there is no +ill-feeling. It is my last holiday, remember; and, according to +you, I am going into penal servitude for life. But I'll chance my +ticket-of-leave. I am generally fairly virtuous when I have enough to +eat and drink. And we have had a good time, haven't we?" + +"Very," said Marjory. And though he tried hard to get up another +thrill as their hands met, he failed utterly. He might have been +saying good-bye to his grandmother for all the emotion it roused in +him; and as he strode home he scarcely knew if the fact were +disconcerting or satisfactory. The latter, in so far that it proved +his feeling for Marjory must be of a placid, sentimental form, to +which he was unaccustomed. What else could it be in such surroundings, +and with a girl who hadn't a notion what love meant? + +And Marjory, as she crossed the few yards between her and Mrs. +Cameron's comments, felt vexed that she was not more angry with the +culprit. But once again the thought of the St. Christopher, and of +Paul's blue, chattering lips, when he had the chills at the Pixie's +Lake, came to soften her and make her forget all but admiration and +pity. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + +Rain! Rain! Rain! One drop chasing the other down the window-pane like +boys upon a slide. Beyond them a swaying network of branches rising +out of the grey mist-curtain veiling the landscape, and every now and +again a wild whirl of wind from the southwest, bringing with it a +fiercer patter on the pane. Those who know the West coast of Scotland +in the mood with which in nine cases out of ten it welcomes the +Sassenach, will need no further description of the general depression +and discomfort in Gleneira House a week after Paul had said good-bye +to Marjory at the short cut. For he had been right, the deluge had +come; and even Mrs. Cameron, going her rounds through byre and barn in +pattens, with petticoats high kilted to her knees, shook her head, +declaring that if it were not for the promise she would misdoubt that +the long-prophesied judgment had overtaken this evil generation. And +she had lived in the Glen for fifty years. + +Poor Lady George, who had arrived at Gleneira wet, chilled, +uncomfortable, yet still prepared to play her role of hostess to +perfection, fell a victim to a cold, which, as she complained, put it +out of her power to give a good rendering to the part. Since it was +manifestly impossible to receive her visitors, arriving in their +turn wet, chilled, uncomfortable, with anything like the optimism +required, for protestations that Highland rain did no harm, and hot +whiskey-and-water did good, were valueless, when you sneezed three +times during your remark. If she could only have gone to bed for one +day, there would have been some chance for her; but that was +impossible, since nowadays one couldn't have a good old-fashioned cold +in one's head without the risk of breaking up one's party from fear of +influenza! So she went about in a very smart, short, tweed costume, +with gaiters, and affected a sort of forced indifference even when the +cook, imported at fabulous wages, gave up her place on the third day, +saying she could not live in a shower bath, and was not accustomed to +a Zooelogical Gardens in the larder; when the upper housemaid gave +warning because hot water was not laid on to the top of the house, and +the kitchenmaid refused to make the porridge for the half-dozen +Highland lassies, who did all the work, on the ground that no +self-respecting girl would encourage others in such barbarous habits. +But all this, thank heaven! was on the other side of the swing door; +still, though the guests could scarcely give warning, matters were not +much brighter in, what servants call, collectively, the dining-room. +Breakfast was a godsend, for a judicious admixture of scones and jams, +and a little dexterous manipulation of the time at which people were +expected to come down, made it last till eleven at the earliest. And +then the hall was a providence. Large, and low, and comfortable, with +a blazing fire, and two doors, where the ladies could linger and talk +bravely of going out. Looking like it, also, in tweeds even shorter +and nattier than Lady George's, yet for all that succumbing after a +time to the impossibility of holding up an umbrella in such a gale of +wind, joined to gentle doubts as to whether a waterproof was +waterproof. Then there was lunch. But it was after lunch, when people +had manifestly over-eaten themselves, that the real strain of the day +began. So that the Reverend James Gillespie, coming to call, despite +the pouring rain, as in duty bound, was delighted with the warmth of +his reception, and Lady George, making the most of the pleasing +novelty, reverted unconsciously to a part suitable to the occasion. + +"Dear me!" she said plaintively; "this is very distressing! Imagine, +my dear Mrs. Woodward! Mr. Gillespie assures me that there is no +church in the Glen, only a schoolhouse. Paul, dear, how came you never +to mention this, you bad boy?" + +Paul, who, after sending the most enthusiastic men forth on what he +knew must be a fruitless quest after grouse, was devoting himself to +the ladies, and in consequence felt unutterably bored, as he always +did when on duty, turned on his sister captiously: + +"I thought you would have remembered the fact. I did, and you are +older than I am. Why, you used always to cry--just like Blazes +does--if my mother wouldn't let you open the picture papers during +service." + +Lady George bridled up. It was so thoughtless of Paul, bringing all +the disagreeables in life into one sentence; and reminiscences of that +sort were so unnecessary, for everyone knew that even the best +childhood could not stand the light of adult memory. + +"But surely there was a talk, even then, of a more suitable building. +I suppose it fell through. High time, is it not, dear Mrs. Woodward, +for our absentee landlord to repair his neglect?" + +"The farm-steadings have first claim to repair, I'm afraid, Blanche," +returned Paul, refusing his part. "The church will have to stand over +as a luxury." + +Lady George, even in her indignation, hastened to cover the +imprudence, for the Woodwards were distinctly high. + +"Not a bit of it, Paul! We will all set to work at once, Mr. +Gillespie, and see what can be done--won't we, dear Mrs. Woodward?" + +"I would suggest writing to the Bishop as the first step," said the +Reverend James, modestly. + +"And then a fancy fair," continued Lady George. + +"Delightful! a fancy fair, by all means," echoed an elderly +schoolfellow of Blanche's, who had been invited on the express +understanding that she was to do the flowers and second all +suggestions. + +"I trust you will have nothing of the kind, Blanche," put in Paul, +with unusual irritation. "I hate charitable pocket-picking. I beg your +pardon for the crude expression, Miss Woodward, but I have some +excuse. On one occasion in India I was set on by every lady in the +station, with the result that I found twenty-five penwipers of sorts +in my pocket when I got home." + +"Twenty-five, that was a large number," said Alice, stifling a yawn. +"What did you do with them?" + +"Put them away in lavender as keepsakes, of course." + +"My dear Paul," put in his sister, hurriedly, recognising his unsafe +mood. "We do things differently in England. We do not set on young +men; we do not have----" + +"A superfluity of penwipers," interrupted her brother, becoming +utterly exasperated; but as he looked out of the window he saw +something which made him sit down again beside Alice Woodward, and +devote himself to her amusement. Yet it was a sight which with most +men would have had exactly the opposite effect, for it was a glimpse +of a well-known figure battling with the wind and the rain along the +ferry road. But Paul Macleod had made up his mind; besides, rather to +his own surprise, the past few days had brought him very little of the +restless desire to be with Marjory, which he had expected from his +previous experiences in love. It was evidently a sentimental attack, +unreal, fanciful, Arcadian, like the episode in which it had arisen. +And yet a remark of his sister's at afternoon tea set him suddenly in +arms. + +"Mr. Gillespie told me there was a girl staying at the Camerons', +Paul, who was a sort of governess, or going to be one. And I +thought--if she hadn't a dreadful accent, or anything of that sort, +you know, of having her in the mornings for the children." + +"Miss Carmichael, Blanche," he broke in, at a white heat, "is a very +charming girl, and I was going to ask you to call upon her, as soon as +the weather allowed of it. I have seen a good deal of her during the +last few weeks, and should like you to know her." + +Really, in his present mood, Paul was almost as bad as a dynamite +bomb, or a high-pressure boiler in the back kitchen! Still, mindful of +her sisterly devotion, Lady George covered his indiscretion +gracefully. + +"Oh, she is that sort of person, is she? I must have misunderstood Mr. +Gillespie, and I will call at once, for it is so pleasant, isn't it, +Alice dear, for girls to have companions." + +And yet, as she spoke, she told herself that this was an explanation +of her brother's patience in solitude, and that it would be far safer, +considering what Paul was, to keep an eye on this possible flirtation. +Meanwhile, the offender felt a kind of shock at the possibilities her +easy acquiescence opened up. He had been telling himself, with a +certain satisfaction, that the idyll was over, leaving both him and +her little the worse for it; and now, apparently, he was to have an +opportunity of comparing the girl he fancied, and the girl he meant to +marry, side by side. It was scarcely a pleasing prospect, and the +knowledge of this made him once more return to his set purpose of +fostering some kind of sentiment towards Alice Woodward. But the fates +were against him. Lord George, coming in wet, but lively, from a +constitutional, began enthusiastically, between his drainings of the +teapot, in search of something to drink, on the charms of a girl he +had met on the road. "A real Highland girl," continued the amiable +idiot, regardless of his wife's storm signals, "with a lot of jolly +curly hair: not exactly pretty, you know, but fresh as a daisy, bright +as a bee. I couldn't help thinking, you know, how much better you +would all feel, Blanche, if you went out for a blow instead of +sticking at home." + +"We should not come into the drawing-room with dirty boots if we did, +should we, Alice dear? Just look at him, Mrs. Woodward! He isn't fit +for ladies' society, is he?" + +Lord George gave a hasty glance at his boots, swallowed his tepid +washings of the teapot with a muttered apology, and retired, leaving +his wife to breathe freely. + +"That must be Miss Carmichael, I suppose," she remarked easily. "I am +beginning to be quite anxious to see this paragon, Paul." + +"Nothing easier," replied her brother, shortly; "if you will be ready +at three to-morrow afternoon, I'll take you over and introduce you." + +Positively she felt relieved when, with some excuse about seeing +whether the sportsmen had returned, he left the drawing-room. It was +like being on the brink of a volcano when he was there, and yet, poor, +dear old fellow, he behaved very sweetly. + +She said as much to him, being clever enough to take his real +affection for her into consideration, during a brief quarter of an +hour's respite from duty which she managed in his business-room before +dinner. + +"I wish _I_ had a snuggery like this, Paul," she said, plaintively +shaking her head over his long length spread out on one side of the +fire, and Lord George's on the other, "but women always bear the brunt +of everything. If the barometer would go up I could manage; but it +_will_ go down, and though I've taken away the one from the hall, +Major Tombs has an aneroid in his room, and _will_ speak about it. And +Ricketts--I have had her for five years, George, you remember--gave me +warning to-day. It seems Jessie took advantage of the fire in +Ricketts's room to dry one of Paul's wet suits, and Ricketts thought +it was a burglar. She went into hysterics first, and now says she +never was so insulted in her life." + +Paul laughed. "Would it do any good if I apologised?" + +"Wish it had been mine," grumbled Lord George. "This is my last coat +but one, and the sleeves of it are damp. I can't think why the dickens +the women can't turn 'em inside out." + +"Oh! of course, it's the women again, George, but the footman wants to +know if he is expected to grease boots, and I don't know what to say. +Someone used to grease them, I remember----" + +"Oh! if it comes to that," said Paul, hotly, "I'll grease 'em myself. +Why should you bother, Blanche?" + +"Now that is _so_ like a man! Someone must bother; and really servants +are so troublesome about boots, though I must own one would think you +men were centipedes; there are fifty pairs in the laundry at present. +And Mrs. Woodward says her husband has smoked too many cigars and +drunk too much whiskey and soda. As if it were my fault." Poor Lady +George spoke quite tearfully. + +"Well, I offered to take him out, but he said his waterproof wasn't +waterproof. What the dickens does a man mean by coming to the West +Highlands without a waterproof? One doesn't expect anything else in a +woman, of course, but a man!" + +Lady George dried her eyes disconsolately. "Oh! it is no use, George, +importing the antagonism of sex into the matter. It is bad enough +without that. If we only had a billiard-room I could manage. Do you +know I think it quite criminal to build a house in the country without +one." + +"There are the Kindergarten toys, my dear," suggested her husband; +"the children seem to have tired of them." + +"Oh, don't try to be funny, please!" retorted his wife; "that would be +the last straw. And nurse says it is because they cannot get out that +they are so cross. Just when I was counting on them, too, as a +distraction." + +"Well, Blazes was that effectually this morning," replied her husband, +with an air of conviction; "he howled straight on end for two hours, +and when I went into the nursery to see what was up, I found the poor +little beggar sobbing over some grievance or another." + +Lady George flushed up. "It was only because he couldn't come down +with the others--I really can't have him; he is so unreasonable, and +Mrs. Woodward doesn't believe in my system." + +"Never mind, my dear Blanche," said her brother, consolingly. "It +seems to answer nicely with good children, and children ought to be +good, you know. And the barometer is going up, it really is." + +"For wind, I suppose," replied his sister, tragically. Apparently it +was for wind; at any rate, Will Cameron coming up to see the laird on +business next day observed casually that this must be about the end of +it; an optimistic remark which has a certain definite significance in +a land of gales. Even the sportsmen were driven to the cold comfort of +examining the action of each other's weapons with veiled contempt, +discussing the respective merits of each other's accoutrements, from +cartridge cases to leggings, and trying to forget that the wild +weather was making the birds still wilder than they had been already. +It appeared to have the same effect upon humanity. Sam Woodward, who +had been a thorn in poor Lady George's side from the beginning, fell +out with the only man who could tolerate him, and thereafter told his +sister it was a beastly hole, and that he meant to make the _mater_ +give him some oof, when he would cut and run to some place where +they weren't so beastly stuck up. Mr. Woodward, senior, after +roaming about disconsolately waiting for the post, was only +appeased by Lady George's suggestion that he would be doing yeoman's +service to the cause of civilisation if he composed a letter to the +Postmaster-General, calling attention to the disgraceful irregularity +in her Majesty's mails to Gleneira; whereupon he retired into the +library and wasted several sheets of foolscap. + +It was on the children, however, that the weather had the most +disastrous effect; so much so that Lord George, returning in the +afternoon from a blow with Paul--whose patience had given way over a +point-blank refusal on the under footman's part to stop another hour +if he was not allowed a fire in his room before dinner--found his wife +in the nursery standing helplessly before Blazes, who, in his flannel +nightgown, was seated stolidly on the floor. Adam and Eve, meanwhile, +were eyeing the scene from their beds, where, however, they had a +liberal supply of toys. + +"Oh, George!" she cried appealingly, "he has such a hard, hard heart; +and I am sure he must get it from your side of the family, so _do_ you +think you could do anything with him?" + +"Put him to bed like the others," suggested his father, weakly, +showing signs, at the same time, of beating a retreat, but pausing at +the sight of his wife's face, which, to tell the truth, was not far +from tears. + +"So I have, but he gets out again, and nurse can't hold him in all the +time. Besides, it was Mrs. Woodward's fault for being so disagreeable +about my system; but the children were naughty, poor dears; only, of +course, Adam and Eve went to bed when they were told--you see, they +are _reasonable_, and knew that if they _did_ they would be allowed to +come down again to dessert--and then they didn't really mind going to +bed to please me, the little dears. But Blasius actually slapped Mrs. +Woodward's face, and then she said he ought to be whipped. So we had +quite a discussion about it, and, in the heat of the moment, I told +Blasius he must stop in bed till he said he was sorry. And now I can't +make him stop in bed or say a word. He just sits and smiles." + +Here their mother's tone became so unlike smiles that Adam and Eve, +from their little beds, begged their ducksom mummie not to cry, even +though Blazes was the baddest little boy _they_ had ever seen. + +"If he won't say it, you can't make him," remarked Lord George aside, +with conviction. "If I were you I'd chance it." + +"But I can't. You see, I told Mrs. Woodward I could manage my own +children, and so I've made quite a point of it with Blasius. I can't +give in." + +Lord George, who was in the Foreign Office, and great on diplomatic +relations, whistled softly. "Always a mistake to claim when you can't +coerce--or retaliate." Then he added, as if a thought had struck him, +"Look here! has he had his tea? No! then hand him over to me; I'll put +him in the little room by the business room. Nobody will hear him +there even if he does howl, and as he gets hungry he will cave in, I +expect. At any rate, he can't get out of bed there, and I don't think +he can like it." + +But for some unexplained reason, possibly original sin, Blasius +elected to be quite cheerful over the transfer. He informed the nurse, +as she put on his dressing-gown, that he was going to "'moke with +daddy," and when he reached the little bare room, which was almost a +closet, he tucked the same dressing-gown round his little legs very +carefully as he plumped down on the floor. + +"Blazeth's goin' to stay here a long, long time," he said, +confidently. "Dood-night, daddy dear." + +In fact, he was so quiet that more than once his father, smoking in +the next room, got up to open the door softly and peer in to see if by +chance any evil could have befallen the small rebel; only to retire +finally, quite discomforted by the superior remark that "when +Blazeth's horry Blazeth's 'll let daddy know." To retire and meditate +upon the mysterious problem of fatherhood, and that duty to the soul +which, somehow or another, you have beckoned out of the unknown. In +nine times out of ten, thoughtlessly, to suit your own pleasure; in +ninety-nine times out of a hundred to bring it up to suit your own +convenience, to minister to your amusement, to justify your theories. + +Lady George, coming in with the falling twilight, when the duties of +afternoon tea were over in the drawing-room, found her husband, minus +a cigar, brooding over the fire. + +"I've done it, Blanche," he said defiantly. + +"Done what?" + +"Beaten him. I knew I should some day." + +His wife gave quite a sharp little cry. "Oh, George! and I trusted +you. I trusted you so entirely, because you knew it was wrong. And now +it can never be undone--never! You have ruined everything--all the +confidence, and the love--Oh! George, how could you?" + +The man's face was a study, but it was one which few women could +understand, for there is something in a righteous disregard of +weakness which seems brutal to most of them; for to them justice, like +everything else, is an emotion. + +"The little beggar bit me," he began, rather sheepishly, and then +suddenly he laughed. "He was awfully quiet, you know, and I thought he +was really getting hungry; so I went in, and by Jove! Blanche, he had +eaten nearly a whole dog biscuit! Paul keeps them there, you know, for +the puppy. Well, I felt he had me on the hip as it were, and if it +hadn't been for your face, I'd have given in--like a fool. So I sate +down and talked to him--like--like a father. And then he suddenly +slipped off my knee like an eel, and bit me on the calf. Got tired, I +suppose, and upon my soul, I don't wonder--we had been at it for +hours, remember. And then--I don't think I lost my temper, Blanche--I +don't, indeed; but it seemed to come home to me that it was he or I--a +sort of good fight, you know. So I told him that I wasn't going to be +bothered by him any more. He had had his fun, and must pay for it, as +he would have to do till the day of his death. And then I gave him a +regular spanking--yes! I did--and he deserved it." + +There was the oddest mixture of remorse, defiance, pain, and pride in +her husband's honest face, but Lady George could see nothing, think of +nothing, save the overthrow of her system, her belief. + +"I wonder you aren't ashamed of yourself!" she cried, quite +passionately. "It isn't as if he could reason about it as you can--it +isn't as if he understood--it is brute force to him, nothing more----" + +"That's just it, you see," protested the culprit, feebly, "if he +_could_ reason." + +"And now the memory must be between you two always, and it isn't as it +used to be in the old barbarous days. Parents nowadays care for +something more than the old tyranny. We have a respect for our +children as for human beings like ourselves. And now you will never +be--or at least you _ought_ never to be able to look him in the face +again! Just think what it means, George!" Blanche, as she stood there +with disclaiming hands and eloquent voice, felt herself no mean +exponent of the new order of things, and rose to the occasion. "If he +had been a man, you dared not have beaten him, so it was mean, brutal, +unworthy. How can you expect the child to forget it? Would you, if you +were in his place? No! He will never forget it, and the memory must +come between you----" + +"Blazeth's horry." + +A round, full, almost manly voice, and a round, broad face, seamed +with tears, yet strangely cheerful withal, as if, the bolt having +fallen, the sky was clear once more. + +Blanche dropped to her knees, and, secure in her own conscience, held +out her arms to the little advancing figure, but the child steered +past them. It was fact, and fact alone, which impressed the sturdy +brain, which day by day was gathering up its store of experience +against the hand-to-hand fight with life, which, please God, would +come by and bye--the life which was no Kindergarten game, the life of +strange, unknown dangers, against which the only weapon is the sheer +steel of self-control. And this was a little foretaste of the fight in +which daddy had won; daddy, who could do nothing but clasp the little +figure close to his heart as it climbed to his knee, and then walk +away with it to the window to hide his own tears. + +His wife, standing where Blasius had passed her by, could see those +two round, red heads, so strangely like each other, though the one had +a shock of rough hair and the other was beginning to grow bald. And +she could hear that round full voice with a ring of concern in it. + +"Blazeth's horry he hurt daddy such a lot. And daddy hurt Blazeths +awful; but he's a dood boy now. And oh, daddy! I don't fink them +bickeys is half as nice as daddy's--and Blazeths would like one, +becauth he's a dood boy." + +The storm was over. The sky was clear, and Lord George, as he carried +his youngest born pick-a-back upstairs to the nursery, felt that there +was a stronger tie between them than there had ever been before; a +strange new tie between him and the little soul he had beckoned out of +the unknown--the little soul to whom in future "Daddy says not" would +represent that whole concentrated force of law and order from which it +was at present sheltered, but which by and bye would be its only +teacher. And yet, when brought face to face with his wife's arguments, +he, being of the dumb kind, could only say: + +"You see, my dear, Blazes is _not_ a Kindergarten child, now is he?" + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + +And still it rained! + +"Paul, this is awful," mourned poor Lady George, on the eighth +morning. "The post hasn't come at all for two days, and it is +positively heartrending to see poor Mr. Woodward trying to read +Monday's share-list for the third time. Then the beef hasn't come +either, and their maid won't eat any other meat. Hot roast twice a +day, and cold for lunch. All the servants have given warning, and I +don't believe the Woodwards will stand it." + +"Let them give warning, too," broke in her brother, hotly; then seeing +his sister's face, went on after his wont, consolingly. "Don't bother, +please, I'm not worth it. Besides, if Miss Woodward is going to do me +the honour of marrying Gleneira, it is as well that she should learn +to stand a little damp." + +"A little damp! Besides, she will have time to learn afterwards--women +always do after they are married--till then, they really have a right +to be amused. Can't you suggest something to cheer us up? I'm at my +wits' end. Even the book-box has gone astray, and it is so hard to +make conversation when you don't see the society papers." + +"Shall I black my face or stand on my head and sing a comic song? I've +done both in my salad days." + +"Oh, don't be unkind, Paul, when I have taken so much trouble!" + +"You have, indeed," he echoed, walking to the window moodily, feeling +at once irritated and annoyed. Personally he would have found no +difficulty in amusing himself with Marjory, whom he had not seen for a +week, so close at hand. And suddenly the thought of someone else who +had had the knack of making time pass pleasantly occurred to him. +"I'll tell you what I'll do, Blanche, I'll wire to Mrs. Vane to come +at once. I expected to hear two days ago if she was to be with us this +week or next; but she would come anywhere to do a kindness, and she +would keep us alive--rain or no rain." + +"It would be too late," returned his sister, dejectedly. "To do any +good she should be here to-day. I will not be responsible for another +hour--another minute of this detestable climate." She spoke quite +tragically, but her brother was staring out of the window with all his +eyes. + +"By all that's impossible! Yes, it is. Hooray, Blanche! There she is." + +"Who! What!" + +"Violet! Violet Vane in Macniven's machine. How on earth----" He was +out of the door full of excitement, followed by his sister, who was +heard giving tragic orders for hot baths and blankets. + +"She must be half drowned," said Mrs. Woodward, hastening from her +room at the sound of wheels to join the little circle crowding round +the window to watch the arrival. "She will go to bed at once, of +course." + +"And have something warm," said one voice. + +"More likely inflammation of the lungs. I remember----" suggested +another. + +"Bronchitis, at least--poor thing--poor thing----" put in a third. + +To which Cassandra chorus came the sound of a musical laugh and a +perfect ripple of chatter, as Paul, with a new cheerfulness in his +face, ushered in the daintiest little figure, which, as he held the +door open, looked back at him to finish the recital of her adventures +with words, "It was such fun." + +"My dear Mrs. Vane," cried Lady George, "you must be dead!" + +"Only with laughing, I assure you. I am not a bit wet, thanks. I got +them to lend me a tarpaulin jacket and a sou'-wester. But Captain +Macleod tells me I was not expected--I am so sorry, but really I did +write." + +"The post is shamefully irregular," put in Mr. Woodward, majestically; +"it did not come yesterday, and I have no doubt it will not come +to-day." + +"But it has! I brought it. Peter Macniven--that was my +driver--proposed I should give it a lift, and Donald Post said it +would save time if I took out the Gleneira letters myself. So I did. +They are in my bag downstairs, Paul--quite a large bundle for Mr. +Woodward; and all the picture papers, and a packet of chocolates from +Fuller's. And, oh! by the way, Lady George, there was a basket of beef +and a box of books lying for you at the Oban pier, so I took the +liberty of bringing them along." + +"My dear--my dear Mrs. Vane!" + +Lady George positively could say no more. Here was a guest, indeed. It +was as if a glint of sunshine had come into the house; so that after a +time the young man with a big head, whom Lady George had invited +because he could recite poetry to the young ladies, and who had for +the last few days been elaborating a sonnet on suicide, went hurriedly +out of the room to commit to paper the opening lines of a lyric, "To a +sea breeze sweeping away a storm." It was the same with everyone in +the house, and even the maids bustled to get her room in order, and +the butler, after laying an extra place at the dinner-table, remarked +in the housekeeper's room that now, perhaps, the dining-room would +have conversation that was worth listening to. + +Only Paul, remembering her ways of old, and that, spirits or no +spirits, the long journey must have fatigued one who was past the +first untiringness of youth, urged her to rest; but with a little +familiar nod of comprehension she set the very idea aside with scorn. +Thereby, to say sooth, starting fair with him by arousing once more +that tender admiration for pluck which, despite asseverations to the +contrary, most men have for courage and fire in a woman. Paul Macleod, +at any rate, felt it keenly when she came, plumaged like some delicate +butterfly, into the drawing-room before dinner, causing Mr. Woodward +to put down the share-list without a sigh, and Sam, who had been +laying down the law loudly, to become bashfully silent. And then when, +in consequence of her being the Honourable Mrs. Vane by virtue of a +most dishonourable husband, Paul took her down to dinner, how +different that dinner was! He recognised it gratefully; recognised the +readiness of her smile, the art which her bright eyes had of making +people believe in themselves and feel that they, too, had something to +say worth the saying. The art, in short, of the hostess, which Lady +George, with all her cleverness, had not; for the simple reason that +she thought too much about the effect she was producing. And Violet +Vane's worst enemies might call her artificial, but they could never +have called her self-conscious or selfish. While, as for the +artificiality, a woman must needs be that who is deadly weary, and who +has given herself bright eyes and a ready tongue by means of chloric +ether. Violet had to slip away for another dose ere she could face +what to her was the dreariest, deadliest hour of the day--the time +when the ladies wait patiently for the men to come up from the wine +and the cigars; for she was frankly, unblushingly, a man's woman, and +would confess as much to anyone with a smile. And wherefore not? She +had lived among them all her life. She had no babies to discuss, had +no experience of English housekeeping, and felt no sympathy with +woman's rights or wrongs; for the simple reason that she herself had +never felt the least disqualification of sex. She was _bonne camarade_ +in every fibre of her mind and body; yet withal a thorough little +lady. + +"Paul, my friend," she said, as he made his way straight to her sofa, +where, with wide, bright eyes, she had been taking sights for future +steering, "you can have five minutes by the clock, and then monsieur +will be on duty again. Will he not? Yes! no doubt five minutes is +short; it will not suffice to tell me all you have to tell, will it? +But I would rather leave it for to-morrow. For I am tired, Paul, so +tired, and I don't want to be cross." + +Something in her voice touched him. "Of course, you are tired. I know +that. But when was our dear lady ever cross?" + +The old familiar title, given in the remote Indian station to the +dainty little woman who had made life so pleasant to so many, came to +his lips naturally, and the scent of the jasmine she wore carried him +back to the days when it had seemed an integral part of consciousness; +since life was divided into delirium-haunted forgetfulness and +confused awakenings to the familiar perfume. And those are things a +man never forgets. She laughed, though the words sent a throb to her +heart. + +"Cross?" she echoed; "I am always cross when people are dull. And you +are dull to-night, Paul. Why?" + +Those bright eyes were full of meaning, and he hesitated over the +remark that he had been waiting for the sunshine of her presence. She +laughed again, this time with an odd little ring in it. "My dear Paul, +you should not need sunshine nowadays." There was no mistaking her +intent, and he winced visibly. + +"I always said you had antennae, Violet," he replied, with a flush; +"but how on earth have you found that out already?" + +She paused for a moment, and a mad desire to quote a proverb about +thieves came over her. So it was true, then! True, and she--she was +too late! She set her teeth firmly over her own pain. "Does it +generally need such great acumen to discover when Paul Macleod is in +love, _mon ami?_" + +The sarcasm struck home, and he rose, feeling the position untenable. +"Come and sing," he said; "it is years since I heard you." + +She shook her head. "It will not do, Paul; not even though it is five +years six months seventeen days and a few hours or so since we sang +'La ci darem' together. The five minutes is not up yet, so sit down, +please, and tell me who these people are whom you want to amuse. Or, +stay! I will catalogue them, and then you can correct my mistakes. +Your sister? How handsome she is, yet not in the least like you. Lord +George? A perfect angel, with a twinkle in his eye. He is to be my +best friend. Your Miss Woodward? Alice is a pretty name, Paul; and her +hair shall be of what colour it shall please God. Am I right, +Benedict? Papa Woodward? Have a care, Paul! he studies the share-list +too much; so have it in Government securities. Mamma Woodward? What +her daughter will be at that age; it is such an advantage to a man, +Paul, to see exactly what his future will be. Master Woodward? No! I +will leave you to describe him." + +Paul winced again. "You are very clever, Violet--suppose you pass on +to the others----" + +"I told you I was evil-tempered. Then there is the young man who +wrote a sonnet to somebody's eyebrow--probably mine--between the soup +and fish. Two young ladies colourless--your sister is clever, too, +Paul--and a couple of men to match. Finally the Moth." + +"Who?" + +"Miss Jones, or is she Miss Smith? I met her in Devonshire with +another school friend. She was Watteau then--cream and roses. I met +her, too, on a yacht--anchors and lanyards. And here, like Lady +George, she is _moyen-age_." + +"But why the Moth?" + +"Because she takes her colour from what she preys upon; and she frets +my garment! That is all, except the lady who bicycles and thinks +Gleneira too hilly, and the man who takes photographs." + +"My dear Violet!" laughed Paul; "you are a witch." + +"Pardon me! I am an ass--all ears. And Bertie, Palmer, and Gordon come +next week. I'm glad of that; one can't make bricks without mud. Straw +requires the baser clay." + +"Straw! that is hardly complimentary to your sex!" + +"Pardon me again! the highest duty of a woman is to please man, and he +is proverbially tickled by a straw. So now for the neighbours." + +"None." + +Violet Vane's eyebrows went up in derision. "There is no Sahara in +Lorneshire, and you have been here for three weeks--or is it a month?" + +"To be accurate, a month and four days." + +"Dear me! what a long time it takes to put up curtains." + +"Very. I am sure those five minutes are over, Violet. Won't you come +and sing for us?" + +"How--how dreadfully dull you must have been, Paul!" + +"Dreadfully. Blanche! will you try and persuade Mrs. Vane to sing to +us--she is obdurate with me." + +Lady George, delighted at her brother's virtue in seeking to break up +a _tete-a-tete_, was urgent in her appeals, and Mrs. Vane passed to +the piano, airily. + +"There is music here," cried Lord George, officiously producing a book +from the canterbury. Mrs. Vane took it with a gracious smile. + +"Bach! Corelli! This is yours, I suppose, Miss Woodward?" + +"No! I don't play," replied Alice, and Mrs. Vane turned instantly to +the flyleaf. + +"There are no songs in that book," remarked Paul, black as thunder, +laying his hands on the volume. "Not that it matters--for Mrs. Vane +used not to need music----" + +"Nor does she now," retorted the little lady, laughing, as she sate +down, saying as she did so, in an undertone, "Does Marjory Carmichael +play Bach well, Paul? I hope so; he is dreadful when murdered." + +The reply, if reply there came, was lost in her sudden burst into one +of those French _chansons_ in which laughter and tears are so closely +interwoven that the mixture is apt to confuse the insular +understanding. Her singing was, like herself, bright, gracious, +fluent, with the rare perfection of training which conceals art. + +"She reminds me of Piccolomini," said Mr. Woodward, in pompous +delight, feeling himself the better for the remark, after the fashion +of men who are no longer afraid of being considered old. "A most +charming little person altogether. Who is she?" + +"The widow of an Honourable--a Colonel--one of the Wentworths, I +suppose," replied Lady George, yielding to the reflected glory of a +successful guest. "She was very kind to Paul when he was ill in India, +and we are all very fond of her. A most desirable friend for him to +have." + +"Most desirable!" echoed Mr. Woodward; and Blanche felt that she had +been wise, since no one could tell how Paul would behave with a woman +of that sort. She might have felt still more doubtful if she had seen +the desirable friend after she reached the seclusion of her own room, +sitting dry-eyed and haggard before the looking-glass, as if to read +the ravages of time in each faintly-growing wrinkle. + +"I have been a fool!" she said, half aloud, as she rose; "but it may +not be too late. I thought at first he was in love with that girl; but +it is not she. Oh, why! Why didn't I tell him I was rich now, instead +of waiting like a romantic idiot to see if he could still care for me? +Care for me! As if any man wouldn't care for a woman such as I, if she +chose to let him care. Well! I must sleep now; I can't afford to look +older than I am." So she opened her dressing-case, took out a bottle +of chloral, measured herself out a full dose, and half an hour +afterwards was sleeping peacefully, like a child. + +When she woke the sun was streaming in at the open window--for she was +one of those to whom the close atmosphere of English houses is +unendurable--and she curled herself round comfortably in her bed to +consider the new aspect of affairs before rising to face them. In a +way she was to be pitied, for in sending Paul Macleod to Kashmir, in +order to buy a silk carpet, she had really touched the highest point +of self-abnegation of which she was capable. She had done it to save +him; for what? For this colourless girl who would never understand his +odd mixture of sentimentality and worldliness? No! not for that. Even +as a friend she could not stand by and see him ruin his prospects of +happiness in that fashion. Had she not hesitated herself in those old +days, when, by simply leaving a man who disgraced her every hour and +moment of his life, she could, after a brief period, no doubt of +horrible humiliation, have married Paul herself? She had hesitated +because of his future, for nothing else; and was she to stand by and +see him ruin it for no just cause, since she was wealthy enough now +for all his wants? There was a sufficiency of high moral tone in this +view of the question to serve her purpose, which she strengthened by +telling herself that if she had found Paul properly devoted to his +heiress, she would once more have sacrificed herself. All is fair, +says the proverb, in love and war; but Mrs. Vane felt much was fair +because it was not love, and came down to breakfast determined to see +what could be done. For Paul's sake first, of course, and then?--for +the present Mrs. Vane decided to leave that alone. + +Despite the sunshine, the menkind came down slackly, grumbling at a +real shooting day being just "nippet awa by the Sawbath." Obedient, +nevertheless, to the order for church parade at the schoolhouse, +which, being of modest dimensions, overflowed after a time into the +road, where the latest comers contented themselves with sitting on the +turf-capped dyke beneath the chestnut tree, where they could just hear +the swell of the responses, and join in the hymns if they chose. Mrs. +Vane, standing during the _Venite_ beside Paul, could see these +outdoor worshippers, and rather envied them, being at heart a thorough +little Bohemian. Yet the interior interested her quick brain also, and +she watched Lady George with furtive amusement, as the course of +service brought to that lady a dim suspicion that she had lost her +place. For, despite Mr. Gillespie's suggestion of a second and English +"diet" for the visitors, Blanche had preferred to bring them to the +Gaelic; moved thereto by a vague feeling that it gave, as it were, a +_cachet_ to the laird of Gleneira, with whose importance she was +anxious to impress the Woodwards. The effect, however, was somewhat +disastrous, since Alice looked shocked and surprised, Sam laughed, and +Mrs. Woodward, after a frantic effort to follow the Psalms, gave up +the struggle. Mr. Woodward had--Blanche felt fortunately--remained at +home, for he was of the stern, uncompromising section of British +laymen who only attend service on high days, and have, in consequence, +strong opinions as to the necessity of the Athanasian Creed to the +stability of the English Church. Paul, tall and listless, looked so +persistently towards one dark corner, that at last Mrs. Vane's +watchful eyes, following his, discovered an attraction in the girl +playing the harmonium. And then it struck her that the voluntary had +been a bit of Corelli! Yet that was not the sort of face to make Paul +stare, as he undoubtedly was staring. She looked up at him quickly, +and with a real shock recognised something in his expression which she +had not expected, something which roused her to a sudden flame. It was +almost a relief when Donald Post, stealing in on tiptoe noisily, +caused a general stir, followed by an all-pervading smell of +sealing-wax from the other dark corner, which showed that Mr. McColl +was sealing up the bag; Lady George's face the while being an +unsuccessful attempt to combine horror and unconsciousness, while her +husband's, much to her annoyance, openly reflected the children's +unabashed interest. It was a greater relief still, when the sermon +came to an end, the letters were handed round, and, with joyful barks, +the collies rushed out, followed by the quality. All but Mrs. Vane, +who stood listening to a fugue of Bach's with a little fine smile on +her face. Inaction was over, and she must survey this new difficulty +without delay. + +"Don't wait," she said to Paul, lightly; "I love Bach, and Miss +Carmichael plays charmingly." + +He said a bad word under his breath as he passed out, and yet for the +life of him he could not be angry with her. She saw through him, of +course; right through to the very worst part of him, and yet she was +his friend. When he joined the gathering outside Lady George was +already shaking hands benignly with all and sundry, whispering between +whiles to Mrs. Woodward that it was a Highland custom, and so much +more conducive to proper relations between landlord and tenant than +the English standoffishness. In fact, she was in her element, in a new +part of great capabilities. Paul, on the other hand, merely nodded and +smiled; but his great personal beauty, his reputation as a soldier and +a sportsman, went further towards popularity among both the men and +the women than all his sister's condescension. And still the Bach +fugue went on, being, in truth, susceptible of many repeats and _da +capos_, while Marjory, over the music desk, gave annoyed glances at +the dainty little figure at the door. During the past week of Paul's +absence, the charm of his personality had faded, leaving behind it the +memory that he was hardly of her world; that even if he had been, he +was hardly the sort of man with whom she could have sympathy. And yet, +with the sight of him, had come back the old excuses, the old +conviction that he slandered himself. It did not make her feel any the +more kindly towards the world which held him back from his better +self; towards women, for instance, like this one at the door. + +"Are you not coming, Violet? The others have gone on." + +Paul's voice had a note of warning in it, but she never heeded his +thunderings like others did, and in that lay the secret of her power +over him. + +"I am waiting for you to introduce me to Miss Carmichael," she said +calmly; "then we can walk home together. I want to ask her where she +learned to play Bach." + +A transparent prevarication, but one it was impossible to set aside; +nor, to tell truth, did Paul wish to set it aside. The temptation +presented to him by this little Eve in a Paris costume, was far too +welcome for that; so welcome that the very excess of his own fierce +desire to yield to it made him silent, while Mrs. Vane set herself +deliberately to pierce through the girl's shield of stiff politeness. +Not a difficult task with one so quick to respond to the least touch +of sympathy; besides, Mrs. Vane in her girlhood had lived in the great +world of music, among people who were to Marjory as prophets and +kings. So she was soon deep in eager inquiry, and positively felt +impatient as, when they were passing old Peggy's cottage, little Paul +started up from the brackens with a quick message that his grannie +would like to see Miss Marjory, if she could spare time. + +"What a pretty little fellow," remarked Mrs. Vane. "Is Paul a common +name about here? or is it a compliment to the laird?" She asked the +question carelessly, and was genuinely surprised at the look it +brought to the elder Paul's face. + +"It is certainly not out of compliment to me, so I presume it is a +common name--since you gave no other alternative." This was a manifest +loss of temper on his part, not to be justified so far as she could +see; therefore, in her opinion, a thing to be decently covered at the +time, however much it might mean when considered. So she remarked +that, common or not, it was a name she liked. And then she said +good-bye charmingly, warning Miss Carmichael that she must expect to +be disturbed for more Bach; and so drifted on daintily. + +"She is quite delightful, your Miss Carmichael," she began, +negligently, after a pause. + +Paul, who, after a handshake with Marjory, had rejoined her, looking +better pleased with himself, decided on adopting her mood. + +"Very; though I fail to see why you should use the possessive pronoun. +She would not thank you, believe me." + +"Because you discovered her, that is all. She is charming. Like +Brynhild, brave and bold." + +"Cruel and cold." + +"Nonsense. Men like you, my friend, of the earth earthy, are alarmed +by the glistening circle of fire. Few have the courage to leap it and +wake the heart within. Gudrun, duly decked in diamonds and given away +by her father in St. George's, Hanover-square, is more in your line. +Better so, for Sigurd is a double-faced scoundrel, and Brynhild's +heart is too good to break." Her voice grew serious, a little bitter +smile came to her face; for Violet had a heart of her own. + +"I quite agree with you." + +The jest was gone both from his mind and hers, and she changed the +subject adroitly, certain of one thing, that here was a weapon ready +to her hand. Love _versus_ Greed-of-Gold! Really, that method of +putting it sounded quite pretty. And then suddenly a fierce pang of +jealousy shot through her as she thought of the look she had caught +unawares on Paul's face. Alice Woodward would never rouse such a look +as that--never! Would it not be better to leave things as they were? +But, then, why should they not be turned to something better? If, +somehow, they could be manipulated so as to disgust him both with mere +money and mere affection, it would be better for all concerned. For +him, above all, since he could neither live without love or money; and +she could give him both. + +As they talked commonplaces during the remainder of the walk, Paul +felt more contented than he had done for a week, even while he was +asking himself captiously why this should be so. To see the girl you +like, and say not a single word to her ear alone, to shake hands with +her and feel no desire to prolong the touch, to look in her face and +see nothing that was not clear and cold in her eyes, was not, could +not, be comforting. Clearly his feeling for her was not to be classed +as a passion. And yet how glad he had been to see her. How contented +he had been to walk beside her, and what a sense of _bien-etre_ her +presence gave him. And it was distinctly satisfactory to find it so +little disturbing. Then, recognising the fact that he was becoming +absent in the effort to remember the exact look on her face as she +shook hands with him, he set the thought of her from him angrily. He +would not be the sport of a mere sentimental fancy, unworthy of a man +who had the courage to face his own manhood. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + +The next morning Paul, smoking his usual cigar of proprietorship about +the stables and dog kennels, saw Mrs. Vane coming with a pretty little +air of hesitation along one of the shrubbery paths. + +"_Ben trovato!_ Who would have thought of finding you here?" she cried +gaily, just as if she had not been watching to catch him from her +window for the last ten minutes. "I have missed my way to the Lodge; +show it to me, please." + +He looked into her clever, charming face, understanding perfectly what +she was at, and yet the _finesse_ did not irritate him as it would +have done in another woman. Besides, in this instance, she was just a +little too clever, as he meant to prove to her. + +"By all means," he replied coolly; "I was just going there myself to +apologise to Mrs. Cameron for my sister's negligence, but really the +weather has been so bad." + +Mrs. Vane shot an amused glance at her tall companion. So Paul meant +to ride the high horse, that poorest of all defences against a quick +wit; like that of lance against bayonet, dignified and circumambient, +but quite ineffectual. + +"But I am not going to see Mrs. Cameron," she retorted frankly; "I am +going to see if Miss Carmichael will be kind and play Bach to me; it +is a long time since I heard him played so well. You used to be fond +of him, too, in the old days, Paul. Don't you remember how you used to +lie on the sofa after that fever and declare that a wife's first duty +was to be able to play to her husband? But girls--at least, most +girls--don't care to play nowadays unless they are professionals. And +if they are professionals they don't care to be wives--not even to a +Highland laird." + +"In regard to the present musician," replied Paul, beginning to +dismount, "I am sure no such scheme of self-sacrifice ever entered her +head. Miss Carmichael is charming, I admit; but she has a mission in +life, and it is not to regulate me. That, I think, is a fair and full +statement of the truth, except that before I came here she used to +practise occasionally on the piano at the Big House, and, I presume, +left her music there by mistake." + +Mrs. Vane stopped in an attitude of tragic despair. "There! I have +gone and forgotten it after all, and that was my excuse for going so +soon. You see, your sister said it had better be taken back at once, +as none of the girls in the house played, and so it wouldn't be +wanted." + +Paul bit his lip at the double thrust. "Perhaps it is as well you +_have_ forgotten it," he said angrily; "Miss Carmichael will, no +doubt, be able to use it herself some day soon." + +"That will be delightful," replied Mrs. Vane, with a sudden cessation +of attack. + +Five minutes after, rather to his own surprise, Paul Macleod found +himself talking to Marjory as he might have talked to any other girl +of his acquaintance, and wondering how he could have been such a fool +as to imagine himself to be in love with her. After all, he told +himself, his first theory had been right, and the ridiculously +unconventional familiarity of the past idyll was mainly responsible +for the mawkish sentimentality which had attacked him of late, but +which, thank heaven! was now over. How could it be otherwise with a +girl like Marjory--a perfect iceberg of primness and propriety? + +His sense of security, joined to a certain unconfessed resentment at +her apparent indifference as to whether he came or not, drove him into +more effusive apologies on his sister's behalf than he would otherwise +have made, and brought down on him a remark from Mrs. Cameron that +"Indeed and in truth Marjory would no be going to make strangers of +the laird and his sister, and he so kind, in and out o' the house for +weeks, just like a bairn of her own." Whereat Mrs. Vane, stifling a +desire to laugh at Paul's evident confusion, came to the rescue with a +well-timed diversion about some of the household troubles which had +been occupying Lady George. + +'"Deed!" said Mrs. Cameron, after listening sympathetically, "I can +well believe it! But the warld will come to an end soon, that's one +comfort. You see, it'll just no be possible' for Providence to put up +wi' it much longer, for it's a' I can do to have patience wi' my small +corner of the vineyard, an' that, praise be, is no sae bad as it might +be, seeing that I can hand my ain wi' most folk." + +"But Providence can do that also, surely, Mrs. Cameron?" laughed Paul. + +"Maybe, an' maybe not. I grant ye it comes quits at the hinder end, +what wi' worms that die not, an' fires that be not quenched. But it's +a weary long time to blow at the flames o' wrath, and wadna suit me +that's aye for havin' it out and done wi'. Lord sakes! life wad no be +worth havin' if I had to write down a' the servant lassies cantrip's +in a big bookie against term day, an' keep my tongue on them +meanwhiles. And it is little the hussies would care if I did, for they +wad ken find I'd just forgive them when the day of reckoning came, an' +forgiveness just beats all for spoiling folk." + +"It's lucky for some of us," put in Mrs. Vane, with a laugh, "that +Providence isn't of your way of thinking." + +"'Deed, I am not as sure of that neither. Folk would think twice o' +breaking the law if it waant for the grips they have on mercy. It is +just, you see, in the nature o' man to stand by his luck if the odds +are even; but if he knows he'll get paicks he will just keep the body +in subjection. It is the same in all things. Just look at the +difference in the manners o' folks nowadays! Not half so good as in +the old times when they had to stand sponsor for each word with a +pistol shot. Why, I mind, Gleneira, your grandfather calling out +Glenrannooh for passing him on the kirk steps without a reverence!" + +"I didn't know you were so bloodthirsty," remarked Paul; "and though I +quite agree with you, theoretically, I must be careful, since you +evidently don't believe in apologies." + +"Apologies," echoed Mrs. Cameron, scornfully. "No! no! Gleneira. +They're fine healin' balm to the sinner, but I'll have none coming +between me and my rights. There was James Gillespie telling little +Sandy McColl to go an' apologise to wee Peter Rankin for pulling his +hair, instead o' just giving the laddie a good skelping, and daring +him to do it again. So the bairns just bided their time and had it out +in a natural way, and you never saw such sichts they were. I'm no +saying folk should not be repentant o' their sins, but they should +just take the consequences along wi' the forgiveness." + +"Or follow my example and take neither," suggested the laird. + +Mrs. Cameron looked at him sharply, then shook her head. "Havers! that +is what no mortal man can do, least of all, you, Gleneira, with your +soft heart." + +"Soft heart!" echoed Paul, derisively. "It is only that towards you, +Mrs. Cameron; to the world in general it is hard as adamant. Don't you +agree with me, Miss Carmichael?" + +"Hard enough to ensure your peace of mind, I hope," she replied +quietly. + +Violet Vane's bright eyes were on them both, and she gave an odd +little laugh. "I wonder if it is! I should like to vivisect you and +find out, Captain Macleod; only the process of seeing the 'wheels go +wound,' as Toddie says in 'Helen's Babies,' might end in stopping them +altogether. Perhaps it would be as well--for other people's hearts." + +"The heart is no easily damaged, anyway," put in Mrs. Cameron, with +the air of one who knows. "Folks like to think it is, but it is +maistly the stomach that goes wrang. I've seen a heap o' broken hearts +in my time cured wi' camomile tea; it's just grand for the digestion." + +"I shall order Peter Macpherson to lay down a large bed at once," +began Paul, gravely. + +"For the sake of your victims, I suppose," interrupted Mrs. Vane. +"Commend me to Captain Macleod, Mrs. Cameron, for shameless conceit." + +"Pardon me," put in Paul, "for my own." He gave a glance at Marjory, +who was standing apart with a little fine smile of contempt on her +face, but she took no notice of him. To tell truth she scarcely knew +why she felt scornful, and, when they had gone, she sate down in +defiance of her promise to her books again, telling herself that Paul +by himself, willing to fall in with her life, was quite a different +being from Paul expecting her to be friends with his friends--people +whose dresses fitted them like a glove, and who looked charming. Yes, +that was the right word!--charming from the sole of their feet to the +crown of their heads. As if she had anything in common with such +people!--or, for the matter of that, with Paul, himself--she, whose +fate it was to work, and who liked that fate? Yet almost before +Captain Macleod and his companion had reached home after the _detour_ +he begged for round the garden, Marjory had thrown down her book in a +temper at her own stupidity, run upstairs for her hat, and was off for +a wild, solitary scramble over the hills. + +Paul and his companion, meanwhile, strolling idly through the vineries +and hothouses, she with dainty dress, draped gingerly from fear of +stain, and vivid, whimsical face, diving like a honey-sucker at the +perfumed flowers, were enjoying themselves thoroughly in their own +way; so that the former, coming out at last from an atmosphere of +stephanotis and tropical heat to face the bright, sharp air of a +Highland glen, gave a little shiver, and told himself inconsequently +that Violet was the most charming companion in the world. And so she +was, being blessed with the infallible range-finder called tact; for +half the misunderstandings of life come from people either blazing +away at a bird that is out of shot, or blowing one to pieces,--that is +to say, from a failure to appreciate distance and the fact that, +though our best friend may be, so to speak, well within range over +night, that is no reason why we should reach him with the same sight +the next morning. In most of us feeling, tastes, dislikes, fluctuate +with every hour; nay, more, the individual, as a whole, hovers like +the needle of a barometer on either side of change, so that the more +sensitive of us are conscious of the difference in ourselves at +different times in the day, and it becomes possible for us to be +certain that we might do that at ten o'clock at night which we could +not do at ten o'clock in the day. Yet, despite this undoubted fact, +most of us resent the change of position in regard to our outlook in +life which it entails, the change of key which strict harmony +requires. Mrs. Vane, however, was not one of the many, and, as a rule, +when she played a dissonant note she did it out of malice +aforethought; as she did now when, looking back at the garden with its +low espaliers and broad walks bordered by old-fashioned flowers, she +paused to say sweetly, "It is a charming place, Paul; you ought to be +very happy here with her." + +He frowned as he held the door open for his companion to pass through; +but he was beginning to remember that she used the bayonet deftly, and +came to close quarters at once. + +"The personal pronoun, third person singular, feminine gender, +accusative case, is rather too vague to interest me, I'm afraid. Can't +you suggest something more concrete?" + +She laughed as she pointed gaily to an upper path which, after a time, +would merge into theirs. "See! yonder are the young ladies, going +home, as we should be also, since you will be wanted. Don't let me +keep you, please. They will walk faster than I do, and I am used to +being left behind to fend for myself." + +"Not by me," he replied, with a certain self-complacency, "and you +never will be, I trust. I should be a brute indeed were I to forget +all your kindness." + +"_Dieu mercie_," she flashed out, in sudden, uncontrollable +resentment, "how I hate gratitude! It takes half the flavour out of +life. I often think I should have been happier if I had not been so +kind to people." + +"I have no doubt you made _them_ much happier, if that is any +consolation to you." + +"Not in the slightest." Then as suddenly her irritation passed, and +she looked up at him with a whimsical smile. "Paul," she said, "I +believe Miss Carmichael used to set you copies--or is it Miss +Woodward? anyhow, you are detestably didactic to-day; so it is just as +well the others are joining us, or you would be telling me that 'Evil +communications corrupt good manners.'" + +"The process is pleasant, anyhow," he replied, in one of those moments +of recognition which come to us, even with familiar friends, as some +quality or charm strikes us afresh; "and you couldn't corrupt my good +temper, for you always put me into one, somehow. I believe you use +arts and spells." + +She shrugged her shoulders gaily. "Burn me as a witch, by all means! +You can afford it since the next fairly good-looking woman you meet +will have exactly the same consolatory power. As you said, the +personal pronoun, feminine gender, third person singular, has a wide +application for Paul Macleod. Ah! Miss Woodward, what lovely ferns! We +have just been going round the houses, and there is a hibiscus out +which you ought to see. It put me in mind of India; you sent the seed +home from our garden, I think, didn't you, Captain Macleod? We might +go back and look at it now, and return by the beach, mightn't we? It +is no longer, and far prettier." + +The result of which easy, deft manipulation of a chance meeting being +that, ere the memory of his pleasant stroll with her had passed from +Paul's somewhat vagrant mind, he was performing the same pilgrimage +again under different guidance. Now, Alice Woodward was always counted +a most agreeable girl in her world, and Paul, as in duty bound, laid +himself out to please; yet all the time they were chatting amicably +about Shakespeare and the musical glasses he was conscious of an +effort, and of a desire to know what the other girls who were lagging +behind with Violet could be laughing at so gaily. + +"That is the hibiscus," he said, stopping abruptly before the flower +which, with its creamy petals and crimson heart, had ten minutes +before carried him back to another hemisphere, another life--a +pleasant, younger life, with more possibilities of passion in it than +the present one. + +"It is very pretty," replied Alice, blandly, rather absently. "The +colours are lovely. I really think colours improve every year. Do you +remember at Constantinople, Captain Macleod, everyone agreed that +there was a decided advance on Venice? In that ballet before the +procession, you know, they really were exquisite." + +Paul assented cheerfully, even though he felt such memories were as +water after wine to Mrs. Vane's appeal to the past. "It used to grow +by the well. Ah, Paul! how young you were on those days, and how you +used to enjoy life." + +That was true; and yet a well-cooked dinner and roomy stalls at a +first-class _spectacle_ brought solid comfort more suitable to the +coming years; besides, Violet had always had the knack of taking the +colour out of other women, and while adapting herself more readily to +her surroundings than most, never lost a peculiar piquant charm of her +own which did not clash with her environment. Yet, as they strolled +home by the beach, it occurred to him that they were all, himself +included, out of touch with the glorious world of sea and sky and +mountain in which they stood. And Mrs. Vane agreed, or, at any rate, +was quick enough to read his thought, for as the girls trooped up the +stairs finishing a discussion on the relative merits of two balls, she +lingered in the hall to say quizzically: + +"Is her name Virginia, Paul? and do you fancy a desert island? That +comes of having so much of the natural Adam left in you." + +"Oh, dear me! what has Blasius been doing now?" asked Lady George, +plaintively, overhearing the last words as she came out of the morning +room. At the same moment, as if in answer, the sturdy stump +intermingled with bumps which usually marked Blazes' rapid descent +from the nursery regions, was heard as a sort of running accompaniment +to a steady stream of violent objurgations delivered with immense +zest, in his round, full voice: "_Haud up! Ger' out, ye brute! Stiddy, +yer deevil! Stiddy yer!_" + +"Nurse!" cried poor Blanche, aghast, to the stately figure, descending +behind the stumbling, bumping, yet swift offender, "what does this +mean? Where has Master Blasius picked up----" + +"Oh! if it comes to picking up, milady, that's easy sayin'. Master +Blazes told me last night 'is bath was 'devilish 'ot,' and when I +spoke to him serious told me it was the Capting." + +"Really, Paul, I think you might be more careful," began his sister, +aggrievedly, when he interrupted her. + +"I'm not responsible for _that_, anyhow! What on earth is he up to +now?" For Blasius, having reached the bottom of the stairs, had, so to +speak, fallen tooth and nail on the sheepskin rug, which he was +bestriding with vehement kicks and upbraidings, as he clutched on to +the wool wildly-- + +"_Ger' up, ye deevil! Haud still, ye dommed brute!_" + +"It is through Mary's young man as she's took up with bein' a +shepherd, milady," said nurse, swooping down on the child. "An' +through her never 'aving seen sheep shore, that's what it is." + +Paul burst into a guffaw of laughter. "Old Angus! I swear to you, +Violet, it's the living image of old Angus. What a mimic the child +is!" + +"Do be quiet, Paul!" said his sister, hastily. "How can I---- Nurse, +tell Mary that I am much displeased, and that if I hear of her +watching the shepherd again----" + +"I 'ave told her, milady," retorted the nurse, with as much dignity as +kicks and strugglings left to her, "and there an't no fear. Master +Blazes'll forget it sharp enough when he don't 'ear it. It is the +things 'as he do 'ear, constant"--a backward glance at Paul from the +turn of the stair emphasised the reproach. + +"It is really very distressing," mourned Lady George, turning in grave +regret to Mrs. Vane, and then, seeing unqualified amusement in that +lady's face, yielding a little to her own sense of humour. "But he +really did it splendidly, though where the child gets the talent from, +I don't know. But fancy, Paul, if Mrs. Woodward had been here! I +should have died of shame, for she spent half an hour yesterday in +lecturing me. 'Dear Lady George,' she said, 'you mean well, and of +course the younger generation are always right.' Now, what are you all +laughing at?" + +"At you and your son, my dear," replied Paul. "That was Mrs. Woodward +to the life! So cheer up, Blanche. He will make his fortune on the +stage--or as a sheep farmer." And so full of smiles over the +recollection of the small sturdy figure struggling with the woolly +mat, he went off, feeling that in one way or another the morning had +passed pleasantly enough. Rationally also, without any attempt at +Arcadia. That danger was over, and incidentally he owed Mrs. Vane +another debt of gratitude for having driven him into calling at the +Lodge, and so discovering that Marjory, seen in ordinary society, was +not nearly so distracting a person as she had been when earth, and +air, and water had seemed to conspire in suggesting a new world of +dreams, where love was something very different to what it was in real +life. + +But Paul Macleod was not the only one of the party who felt satisfied +with the morning's work. Mrs. Vane, as she idled away an hour or two +in her room--one of her country-house maxims being that the less +people saw of you between meals the better--told herself that there +was time yet to stave off the immediate danger with Alice Woodward. +That was the one thing to be attained somehow--how, she did not care. +Paul had been flirting with Marjory, of course. Deny what he would, +the look she had surprised on his face on the Sunday did not come +there for nothing; besides, the girl herself had been too cold, too +distant, for absolute indifference. That farce of everything being +over for ever was easily played in absence, but was apt to break down +at a renewal of intimacy. It would be well to try if it would, at any +rate; and under any circumstances Paul was not likely to settle +matters with Alice until the party was on the eve of breaking up; +since it was always more convenient in these matters to have a way of +escape if you were refused. + +Mrs. Woodward was of the same opinion, and said so to her husband +when, on laying his night-capped head on the conjugal pillow that +evening, he began to sound her as to the prospects of escape from the +dilatory posts, which, to tell truth, afforded him daily occupation. +For on the stroke of eleven he could fuss round, watch in hand, +counting the minutes of delay, and, after Donald had come and gone, +there was always that letter to the _Times_, exposing the iniquity of +whiskey bottles and pounds of tea in Her Majesty's mail bag, to be +composed against Lord George's return from the hill to the +smoking-room, when it had to be read aloud, amended, discussed, and +finally set aside till the next day. Then Donald would be later than +ever, and Mr. Woodward, tempted by the thought of detailing still more +horrible delinquencies, would withhold his letter for further +amendment. + +"I suppose it is all right, mamma," he began cautiously. "At least, I +noticed that the young people seemed to be--er--getting on to-day." + +"Quite right," yawned the partner of his joys and sorrows. "How lucky +it was that Jack had to go to Riga about that tallow business." + +Even in the dark, with his head in night-cap, Mr. Woodward's paternal +dignity bristled. + +"Lucky! You speak, my dear, as if he had had claims, and I deny----" + +"You can deny what you please, Mr. Woodward. I think it was lucky, for +now he need know nothing of the engagement till he returns." + +"Perhaps. My dear, by the way, have you any idea when the engagement +is likely to--ahem--er--come off?" + +Mrs. Woodward yawned once, twice. This was a detail scarcely +sufficient to warrant her being kept awake. "I can't say--not till we +are going to leave, I should think. That sort of thing breaks up a +party dreadfully. Why?" + +Mr. Woodward sighed. "Only the posts really are so irregular. As I +said in my letter of to-day----" + +But this was too much for anyone's patience. "You can tell me +to-morrow, my dear," said the wife of his bosom, firmly. "I shouldn't +wonder if it were later than ever, for Lady George told me it was fair +day, or fast day, or something of that sort in Oban." + +Mr. Woodward gave a groan, and turned over to compose a still more +scathing report of the Gleneira mail. + +About the same time Blanche Temple, who, on her husband's late arrival +from the smoking-room, was found by him in dressing-gown and slippers +over the fire, reading a novel, and enjoying the only free time, she +said, a Highland hostess could hope for, was telling her lord and +master much the same tale. The young people were getting on, Paul was +really behaving charmingly, and little Mrs. Vane, contrary to her +expectations, seemed quite inclined to throw them together, so that +the future seemed clear. And Alice Woodward, had she been awake, would +doubtless have added her voice to the general satisfaction, for it was +distinctly pleasant to see the other girls' evident admiration of +Paul's good looks, and to hear their raptures over the beauty of +Gleneira. For a few months in autumn it would certainly be pleasant to +play the part Lady George was playing now, and for the rest of the +year there would be Constantinople, and civilisation generally. + +But the very next day at dinner something occurred to disturb one +person's peace, for Paul, as Mrs. Vane used to say, was a bad landlord +even to himself. His mind was not well fenced, and the gates, which +should have barred vagrant thoughts from intrusion, were as often as +not wide open or sadly out of repair. And this interruption was +trivial, being only a remark in his sister's clear, high-pitched +voice: + +"Mr. Gillespie was here again about that bazaar, and I believe, Paul, +he is in love with that Miss Carmichael of yours. At least, he talked +of her in a way--it would be most suitable, of course, and I really +think we ought to encourage it. It would give us old fogies something +to amuse us, wouldn't it, Mrs. Woodward?" + +"I disapprove of matchmaking on principle, Lady George," replied that +lady, severely; "but this, as you say, appears very suitable indeed. +She is a governess, or something of that sort of thing, I believe, and +they generally make admirable wives for poor clergymen. Understand +Sunday-schools, and don't expect to be taken about everywhere." + +"What an admirable wife for any poor man," put in a subaltern from +Paul's regiment, who had been asked down to make the sexes even; a +nice, fair-haired lad, given as yet to blushing over his own successes +in society. "If you will introduce me, Lady George, I might cut out +the curate." + +"He isn't the curate," said his hostess, smiling. "By the way, Paul, +what are they in Scotland?" + +"Dissenting ministers!" retorted her brother, sullenly, angry with +her, and with himself; the one for inflicting, the other for feeling, +this sudden pain. Blanche's face was a study in outraged dignity. + +"My dear Paul!" she began, and then paused, speechless. + +"He is very good-looking, I think," said the echo diligently, "and I +hear----" + +"What is that?" put in Lord George from afar. "Miss Carmichael and the +parson! Pooh! she is far too good for that blatant young----" + +"George!" exclaimed his better half, this time with authority, "pray +remember that he is our clergyman--our parish clergyman." + +"We are not likely to forget his pretensions to that position, +Blanche, considering how often he comes here," put in Paul, at a white +heat over what he told himself was an unwarrantable liberty with a +young lady's name, and feeling as if he could rend the whole company; +especially the unsuspecting subaltern. + +"What a refreshing thing it is," came Mrs. Vane's half-jesting voice, +"to find the sexes have so high an opinion of each other! Go where you +will, Lady George, the news of an engagement makes nine-tenths of the +men swear she is too good for him, and all the women say he is too +good for her. Touching tributes; but what gender is truth?" + +"Masculine, of course!" put in her next-door neighbour, who prided +himself on being smart. "That dissentient tenth proves discrimination +the unanimity prejudice." + +"Pardon me, it may only mean that men mix their prejudices as they do +their wines, while we women are consistent and prefer simplicity." + +"I can hardly be expected at the present moment to say that I do," +retorted her companion. + +"I shall remember that against you," laughed the little lady. +"Meanwhile I agree with the men. The young lady is too good for any of +you; she is charming." + +"Give me first introduction, please," pleaded the subaltern. "I always +like people who are too good for me." + +"That explains the universality of your affections, I suppose, Mr. +Palmer," remarked Mrs. Vane, demurely. + +"But really, Paul," said his sister, returning to the subject with +injured persistency when the laugh had subsided. "I cannot see why Mr. +Gillespie should not pay his pastoral visits if he chooses; besides we +had to discuss the church." + +"Then I trust the service won't be a repetition of the last one," +replied her brother, still woefully out of temper; "I, for one, will +refuse to go if it is. You agree with me, don't you, Miss Woodward?" + +She smiled at him placidly. "Well! it was rather funny, wasn't it?" + +"Funny!" echoed Sam Woodward. "I'll tell you what, it was the rummiest +go!" and he was proceeding to detail the whole to the new arrival whom +he had taken down to dinner, when Lady George, with a withering glance +in his direction, proceeded in a higher key. + +"The new church, I mean, Paul. We have arranged it all delightfully +while you horrid men have been killing birds. Alice is making a +subscription book with a Gothic window on the outside--illuminated, +you know--and a little appeal on the first page. It is to have an +initial letter, is it not, dear? Then by and bye, next year, perhaps, +when London isn't quite empty, Mrs. Woodward has promised her house +for a Highland fair--tartan things, and snoods--and--and----" + +"Queighs," suggested her husband, demurely, but she scorned the +interruption. "And spinning chairs." + +"Spinning chairs?" echoed Mr. Woodward, who, hearing for the first +time that his house was to be made use of, felt bound to show some +interest in the matter. + +"Yes! those things with very little seat, no back, and a lot of +carving. All the stall-keepers are to be dressed out of Scott's novels +and Mr. St. Clare is going to write--what was it, Mr. St. Clare?" + +"A rondelet," muttered the poet, gloomily, looking up from the +chocolate creams with which he was trying to make life worth living. + +"Of course! a rondelet--that is the thing with very few words and a +great many rhymes, isn't it? And of course you, Paul, will wear the +kilt--local colour is everything." + +"My dear girl," cried Paul, too aghast for ill-humour. "I haven't worn +the kilt for years--pray consider----" + +"The local colour of your knees," put in Lord George, brutally. "Never +mind, old man, a bottle of patent bronzine, like Blanche uses for her +slippers----" + +"George!" cried his wife, rising with an awful dignity. "Shall we go +into the drawing-room, Mrs. Woodward?" + +"It was only his knees, my dear," protested the discomforted nobleman +in a whisper as she swept past him. "Hang it all! if a man mayn't +mention his brother-in-law's knees or his wife's slippers." + +But she was out of hearing, so he sate down in his chair again and +poured himself out a bumper of port viciously. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + +While the Big House was going on its way from cellar to attic, as if +it had been within the sound of Bow Bells instead of in a remote +Highland glen, Marjory for the first time in her life felt time heavy +on her hands; a thing not to be tolerated for an instant by a young +person of her views and prospects. She told herself that if this was +the result of her holiday, the sooner she set to work and forgot that +pleasant, idle time the better. For it had been pleasant, and Paul +Macleod had been kind. But what of that? His ways were not her +ways--his thoughts were not her thoughts; and then suddenly would come +the memory of that short instant on Isle Shuna when they had stood +hand in hand watching the Green Ray. Or was that only another result +of idleness?--that she should be growing fanciful. Paul himself had +denied seeing it, and after all, despite his kindness, he was the last +person to have sympathy with her ideals; yet such sympathy was the +only thing which could make her care for him or his society. She told +herself all this, over and over again, until she believed it; for +Marjory had not yet learnt to differentiate her head from her heart. +Many women never learn the art, and though some, no doubt, find the +difficulty lies in discovering their heads, a far greater number stop +short at a calm affection in the catalogue of their emotions. + +Still, for some reason or another, as yet inexplicable to the girl +herself, the melodious carol of a blackbird singing his heart out in a +cherry tree sent a pain to her own. It seemed to fill the world with +unrest, even though the house lay still as the grave; for Mrs. Cameron +and the lassies were away at the milking. She covered her ears to shut +out the sound and bent closer to her book, until suddenly she found +herself blindfolded by a pair of strong, slender, supple hands--hands +that could not be mistaken for an instant. + +"Tom!" she cried. "Oh, Tom! is it you?" + +"Tom it is," said a voice with a pleasant intonation scarcely foreign, +and yet assuredly not wholly English. "_E' bene!_ Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux! So this is the way you hold high holiday?" + +He pointed to the open book, then, as she clung delighted to his arm, +put on an air of simulated disgust, perhaps to conceal the keen joy +which her welcome afforded him. + +"Conic sections again, and I wandering round 'permiskus' calling for +some of my relations to kill the fatted calf!" + +"The prodigal didn't come 'permiskus.' He wired ahead and they saw him +from afar." + +"Then he didn't get an unexpected holiday, come express from Paris to +Oban, and then walk thirty miles over the hills because he had missed +the mail cart and was a fool----" + +"But why a fool?" + +"Why? Because the bosom of my family was absorbed in conic sections! +And if that reason won't do, you really must wait until I have had +some veal--for to tell truth I'm ravenous--mostly for drinks!" + +He watched her as she flew off, singing as she went like any blackbird +out of sheer lightness of heart, and asked himself if this were not +enough? If he were bound to wait for something more? For Dr. Tom +Kennedy was not a man to require much time for such thoughts, +especially when he had been thinking of Marjory and his welcome all +that trudge of thirty miles over bog and heather. But the answer came +slowly, for he was quite as much in the dark on the vexed question of +Love and Marriage as most people, and the little Blind Boy with the +bow and arrows was as yet a part of his Pantheon. And yet there was +temptation enough to set mere romance aside, when, after anticipating +his every want, and fussing over him after the manner of a hen with a +solitary chicken, Marjory drew a low stool beside his chair, and, with +her elbows resting on her knees and her radiant face supported on her +hands, looked over him, as it were, in sheer content. + +"You don't know how nice it is to have you back," she said, suddenly +stretching out one hand to him--a favourite gesture of hers when +eager. He took it in both of his, bent over it, and kissed it. + +"'Tis worth the parting, child, to come back--to this." + +She laughed merrily. "You have such pretty manners, Tom! I expect you +learnt them from grandpapa the Marquis and the _haute noblesse_. And +then in Paris, I suppose----" + +His heart contracted, but he interrupted her gaily. "I decline to be +scheduled in that fashion. My manners are my own, thank Heaven! in +spite of Galton on heredity. Oh! Marjory, my dear! what a relief it is +to get away from it all--from the eternal hunt for something that +escapes you--from the first chapter of Genesis to the Book of +Revelation; and now that I come to think of it, there is something new +about you--what is it?" + +She shook her head hastily. "Nothing. You said that last time, I +believe--people always look different. You have got greyer." + +He rubbed his close-cropped head disconsolately. "Have I?--well, I +can't help it. I'm getting old." + +"Nonsense! And I won't have you say you are glad to get away from +work--from the best work in the world! How can you tire of the only +thing worth anything, and of the search for truth?" + +"Because I'm forty-three--more than double your age. By the way, there +was a man I know who married a girl of sixteen when he was thirty-two. +And when he saw it down on the register it struck him all of a heap +that when she was forty he would be eighty. Matrimony, apparently, +isn't good for arithmetic--nor for the matter of that, arithmetic for +matrimony!" + +"What silly stories you have, Tom," laughed the girl, "and in other +ways you really are so sensible." + +He rose suddenly and went to the window--a small, slight man, with a +keen brown face--and then, as if in excuse for the move, he picked a +spray or two of white jasmine and stuck them in his buttonhole. Then +he turned to her with a smile. "I should have been a deal more +sensible if people hadn't taught me things when I was young. Original +sin isn't in it with education. Come, Marjory! let us go and find my +cousin--or there will be a row in the house." + +"I like that!" retorted the girl, taking possession of his arm; "as if +anyone in the place dare say a word against you. Why, she told Dr. +Macrea the other day that she didn't intend to die till she could have +you to attend her!" Whereat they both laughed. + +But, in truth, there was much laughter and general good-will at the +Lodge that evening, when Dr. Kennedy insisted on Mrs. Cameron bringing +her knitting to the garden bench, while he and Marjory and Will +strolled about among the flowers, or stood talking here and there as +the fancy took them. + +"Why do you always wear jasmine, Tom?" asked the girl, idly bending to +catch a closer whiff of the buttonhole. "I suppose _she_ used to give +it to you." + +"What she?" + +"The one _she_ of a man's life, of course." + +"Fabulous creature! If they come at all, they come in crowds. Yes! now +I think of it, I fancy you are right. I was twelve, and she a +distracting young flirt of six. Her name was Pauline. I remember it, +because she was the last!----" + +"Oh, Tom! how can you!" + +"Fact; for twenty years after that the responsibilities of searching +for truth prevented my thinking of fictions." + +"And after that?" + +"My dear Marjory, no history is ever written up to date. Even in your +beloved school-primers the last years of Her Gracious Majesty's reign +are glozed over by generalities. You see it is never safe to hazard an +opinion till events have proved it to be right. And then decent +reserve over the immediate past saves a lot of worry. I should hate to +confess that I had told a lie yesterday, though I might own up +placidly to one seven years ago. Yes! seven years should be close time +for confession. A man renews his vile body in that period, and can +take credit for having changed his morals also." + +"But it is more than seven years since you were thirty-two." + +"You have a head for arithmetic, my dear, not for--the other thing; +and it is possible that I am still only in the second volume of my +fiction." + +"You mean in love. What a delightfully funny idea!" + +"Mrs. Cameron!" cried the doctor, "do you see anything comic in the +spectacle of Methuselah wishing to get married; for I don't. I think +it is melancholy in the extreme." + +In truth he did think so, for though, when he was away, his own +sentimentality seemed sufficient for them both, the first look at +Marjory's face always told him that, if the received theories were +true, there was something yet to come before he had any right--in a +way any desire--to ask Marjory to be his wife. If they were true! +There lay the problem which he found so much difficulty in solving. +Like most men of his profession, he was almost over familiar with the +material side of the question, and, being naturally of delicate fibre, +an instinctive revolt made him exaggerate the part which romance was +to play in the purification of passion. To marry when you loved each +other was one thing; for one to love, and both to remain friends, was +another! And between these two ideals he hesitated; for Dr. Kennedy's +power lay not so much in strength as in a certain fineness of +perception and delicacy of touch. And yet at times a doubt +lingered--the doubt which had made him fall foul of the things he had +been taught in his youth. But even through this there ran a vein of +protest against the lack of colour which a more prosaic, more +material, and yet less animal view of the relations which ought to +exist between a man and woman would involve. For he was sentimental to +a degree, and told himself that the very fact of his age made it more +than ever necessary that his wife should be inspired to do her duty by +something more than mere affection. That is to say, once more, if +current theories were true! He came back to this point again and +again, unable to settle it to his own satisfaction, and finding his +chief comfort in the fact that Marjory had, hitherto, never shown the +least sign of loving anyone. If that were to continue in the future, +he could imagine the doubts and difficulties disappearing altogether; +but for this time was required, time for her to understand her own +nature. His knowledge, his experience of life, the position in which +he stood towards her, all combined to make him hyper-sensitive lest in +any way he should wrong her innocence and ignorance. Besides, he +himself would have been bitterly dissatisfied with the position. That +was the solid truth, which went further than anything else in making +him stand aloof; though, no doubt, he would have denied the fact +strenuously, since to men of his stamp a sentimental grief is better +than no sentiment at all. Yet the grief sate on him lightly because of +its very sentimentality, and because--though this again he would +strenuously have denied--in his heart of hearts he felt that it was +largely of his own making, and that one part of his nature was +satisfied and to spare. In these days, when the happiness of the +individual is both aim and end, it is curious to see how persistently +one form of happiness is ignored; the happiness which indubitably +comes from doing what you would _not_ wish to do, unless you conceived +it to be your duty. And yet the very people who deny the possibility +of this content are the first to point out that, when all is said and +done, a man can only do what he wishes to do. + +So that when, on the next morning, Dr. Kennedy, who had listened to +the tale of what had been going on and what was going on in the Big +House with a certain foreboding, came to Marjory and urged her to +accompany him on a visit there in the afternoon, he did so with the +distinct intention of feeling the self-complacency of duty performed. +And Marjory, in her turn, thus brought face to face with the very +reasonable proposition, found it hard to make an excuse that did not +rouse her own indignation by being over serious. After all, why should +she not comply with Captain Macleod's urgent invitations? There was +nothing to be afraid of. Nevertheless, when she appeared, clothed in +white raiment with her best gloves on, she had so solemn and sedate an +air that the doctor felt aghast at his own act. + +"Don't look so like Iphigenia, my dear," he said; "or let us give it +up." + +"Certainly not. If it's the right thing to do, it has got to be done; +but I do feel like a sacrificial lamb. You don't, of course; but then +you are accustomed to society, a great deal of society, and I'm not. +Do you know, Tom, I have scarcely ever seen more than three or four +people of my own rank together in my life, and I positively don't know +any girls." + +"Time you did," he replied stoutly. + +"But I doubt if I have any manners," she protested. + +He had, at any rate; and new as the experience of the large party +gathered in the big drawing-room was to her, she found immediate +confidence in the perception that her companion would stand the test +of any society; indeed, as she sate talking to Alice Woodward, she +could not help noticing with a certain amused pride Lady George's +frigid politeness give way to interested endeavours to find out who +this most unusually well-bred specimen of a country doctor could be; +for Paul was not there to aid his sister's ignorance. + +But by and bye Mrs. Vane came in and made her way straight to Marjory +with pretty little words of welcome, yet with the Anglo-Indian lady's +reminiscent interest at the sight of a real live man at afternoon tea. + +"Who is he?" she asked; "did he come with you?" + +"He is my guardian--Dr. Kennedy." + +"Kennedy! not the famous Dr. Kennedy--Tom Kennedy of Paris?" And +before Marjory could get beyond the first syllable of acquiescence, +Mrs. Vane had crossed the room and was standing opposite Lady George. + +"I would ask you to introduce me to Dr. Kennedy," she said, "but it +would be of no use, for while he has made a name for himself since I +knew him, I have lost mine. So I will only ask him if he remembers the +jasmine bush at the Chateau Saumarez?" + +There was an instant's bewilderment, and then Tommy Kennedy, who had +risen at her first word, took a step forward and both his hands went +out gladly. + +"Pauline!" + +"Just so--and you are Alphonse! What a small place the world is after +all! To think of finding you at Gleneira. Lady George, you were +talking of theatricals this morning, and the idea fell through because +no one--not even your brother--would do the _jeune premier_ with me. +He is found! Dr. Kennedy is one of the best amateur actors in Paris." + +"The past tense, if you please, my dear lady," protested the doctor. +"Consider my grey hairs." + +"That is a remark which should not have been made, for we are +contemporaries. He was my first--no! one of my first loves, Lady +George. We used to give each other sweeties over the garden wall when +his grandmother, the Marquise de Brisson, was not looking; but the +jasmine bush, Alphonse, was at your uncle's, Prince Rosignacs's. Why! +you have a bit in your buttonhole now, and I----" She pointed to the +spray fastened into the laces of her tea-gown. + +"_Ce soir ma robe en est tout embaumee_." + +"_Respires-en moi l'adorant souvenir_," quoted Dr. Kennedy, looking at +the lapel of his coat tenderly; and Marjory, standing a little apart, +a mute spectator of the scene, felt a sudden sense of loneliness. He, +too, was at home in this idle, careless life, and she was the only one +who was out of it. It came upon her by surprise, for though she had +known and been proud of the fact that her guardian belonged by virtue +of his mother's birth to the best of French society, she had had no +actual experience of him in the part of a man of the world. But he was +that, and of a good world, too, she recognised frankly as she sate +listening to the now animated conversation about people she had never +heard of, things she had never seen, and at the same time trying to be +agreeable to the girls who, dutiously, had taken her in hand. She felt +that it was a duty, and a sort of indifferent resentment possessed +her, even when Lady George hoped she would accompany Dr. Kennedy, who +had kindly promised to dine with them next day and talk over the now +possible theatricals. Yet, rather to his surprise, she accepted +without even a look at his face, and made quite a polite little speech +about hoping to see more of the girls; and so, with a certain +independent grace, passed out into the hall, leaving him detained for +a moment by some last remark. She could hear Mrs. Vane's light laugh, +his voice, and then another laugh, as she stood waiting beside the +deferential butler, and all involuntarily her lip curled. + +"Miss Carmichael! How glad I am!" It was Paul, newly in from +the moor, looking his best, as a handsome man does, in his rough +shooting-clothes. He had a tuft of white heather and stag-horn moss in +one hand, and with a sudden impulse he held it out gaily to her. +"Tit-for-tat! you welcomed me here--though I never thanked you for so +doing, did I? It is my turn now." + +He had meant the offering for Violet Vane or Alice Woodward, whichever +he met first, but now it seemed as if fate had sent it for Marjory and +for no one else. He felt as if it were so, he looked as if it were so, +and for the first time in her life Marjory felt an odd little thrill +run through her veins. + +"Thank you," she said soberly. "Yes! I did give it to you; so now we +are quits--I mean," she corrected hastily, "that--that we are on the +same footing." + +There was quite a tremor in her voice, too, as, seeing Dr. Kennedy +beside her, she turned to him quickly. "This is Captain Macleod, +Tom;--he has been very kind to me." + +In nine cases out of ten Paul Macleod on being introduced to a man +belonging to a girl in Marjory's position, and, as it were, having a +claim on her, would have been studiously, frigidly courteous, and no +more; and so might have once and for all chilled Marjory's sudden +confidence and relief in finding an old friend in her new environment; +but it is difficult for an emotional man to be cold, when a sudden +glow of content makes him feel absurdly happy. Consequently he went +out of his way to be frank and kindly in expressing his pleasure at +making the acquaintance of one of whom Miss Carmichael had so often +spoken. + +"In terms of reprobation, no doubt," replied Dr. Kennedy, lightly; "a +guardian is a disagreeable appendage, though I try to be as little of +a nuisance as I can." + +"So do I," retorted Paul, with a smile; "but Miss Carmichael is so +dreadfully hard to please." + +As Dr. Kennedy's keen brown eyes took in the figure before him, he +told himself that the girl must be hard indeed to please if she could +find fault with it. + +"That is the handsomest man I've seen for a long time," he said as +they walked home. "What is he like inside?" + +Marjory paused with her head on one side, considering. "Oh! nice in a +way--the way of the world, I suppose, and I thought him nicer than +ever to-day; being in his own house agrees with him. Oh, Tom! how I +wish you hadn't accepted that invitation to dinner!" + +Yet when she returned from the Big House, she had a little flush on +her cheek, and when Dr. Kennedy challenged her to tell truth in answer +to Mrs. Cameron's inquiry as to how she got on, she answered with a +laugh and a nod: "Why not--it was rather interesting; quite an +evolutionary process. Before I went I was protoplasmic--all in a +jelly. Then at dinner we were all amoebic--digestive apparatus and +nothing else. Afterwards, with the ladies, I felt like a worm, or a +fish out of water. Then I wanted to have wings like a bird and fly +away, but I couldn't, for the quadrumana appeared from the +dining-room, and we all became apes!" + +"What is the lassie talking about?" put in Mrs. Cameron, with a toss +of her head. "Can you no answer a straight question wi' a straight +answer? What then, I say, what then?" + +"Yes! what then, Marjory?" asked Tom Kennedy, quickly; he knew the +answer, and yet he wanted to hear it from her lips, because it would +satisfy him that so far he had been right. + +"And then--why then I suppose I became a girl--at any rate I enjoyed +it. They were all so kind, and Mrs. Vane--I suppose in your world, +Tom, there are heaps of women like that?" + +"Not many so charming," he answered heartily. In truth it had been +very pleasant meeting her again after so many years; for a man, even +when he is in love, or supposes himself to be in love, with one woman, +is never proof against the pleasure of being made much of by another. +And Dr. Kennedy, with a quaint simplicity and wisdom, was perfectly +aware of his own reputation as one of the boldest adventurers in new +fields of discovery, and told himself that people made much of him for +their own sake, and because he carried his restless energy with him +into society as well as into his work. For energy is, as a rule, a +godsend to _fin-de-siecle_ men and women. So the conceit of it slipped +off him like water from a duck's back, leaving him free to take his +world as he found it. + +But Marjory felt once more the little chill of regret for the things +she had not known in his life. + +"There is one thing I forget to ask you," she said quickly. "Your name +is not Alphonse, is it?" + +"No! But she thought Tom unromantic, and so I promised to change my +name if she changed hers." + +"Men don't generally do as much as that," grumbled Will. "So they are +going to have theatricals, are they? That means that all the horses +will be dead lame, and the laird will be wanting more." + +"How on earth do you make that out?" asked Dr. Kennedy. + +"Women," said Will, laconically. "Something will always be wanted in a +hurry, the telegraph station is ten miles off, and women seem to think +a horse can change its legs when it comes home." + +There was some truth in his remark during the next ten days. Gleneira +House lived in a continual bustle which gave no time for thought, +save, perhaps, to Mrs. Vane, who, busy as she was, found time to +congratulate herself so far on the success of her plans; for Marjory +and Paul had perforce to meet constantly, and more than once something +occurred to encourage her belief that there was material for mischief +ready to her hand if it was needed. + +But other material came to light also, or so it seemed to her cynical +experience; and the clue to it came one day when she and Marjory, who +had grown keen, as was only natural, over the novelty of amusement, +were searching through an old portfolio of Paul's sketches for hints +likely to be of use for a drop scene. + +It was nothing more than the portrait of a girl with a bunch of red +rowans held up to her cheek. + +"That is very well done, Paul," said Mrs. Vane, holding it up for him +to see, as he stood a little way off. "Who was the beautiful model?" + +He came over to her hastily. "Oh! no one you know; and it isn't really +worth looking at. A wretched caricature--I did not know it was there." + +Something in his voice roused the amused malice which always lurked +behind Mrs. Vane's treatment of Paul's foibles. + +"I disagree with you; look, Miss Carmichael! Don't you think that +quite the best thing we have seen of Captain Macleod's doing?" + +"It is a lovely face," said the girl, "and it reminds me of someone----" +Then she looked up in sudden interest. "Surely it is Paul--little +Paul, I mean, Peggy Duncan's grandson; perhaps----" She stopped +abruptly, remembering the big Paul's confession, and blushed, she +scarcely knew why. Then, feeling vexed with herself for doing so, put +down the sketch, and taking up another, made some trivial remark about +its being very pretty. But Mrs. Vane had not done with the sketch. +"That Highland type of face----" she began. + +"There is no need to theorise over the likeness in this case," +interrupted Paul, seeing through her, as he nearly always did. "It was +little Paul's mother; and as I think I told you once, Miss Carmichael, +the most beautiful woman I ever saw. That is why I call it a +caricature, Mrs. Vane." + +The anger in his voice was not to be mistaken, and Marjory, as he +moved away to resume his _tete-a-tete_ with Alice Woodward, was left +with an uncomfortable feeling that she had somehow betrayed a secret, +though her common, sense resented the imputation. But Mrs. Vane looked +after his retreating figure with one of her fine smiles. So the memory +of this particular most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world--there must have +been a good many of them in Paul Macleod's life--was not pleasant to +him. Wherefore? The question came quite idly, and passed from her mind +without an answer. Marjory, on the other hand, took hers--as to +whether she was to blame or not--seriously to heart. So much so, that +when she had speech with Paul alone, which occurred naturally enough +when he brought her a cup of tea, as she sate stitching away for dear +life at some ridiculous theatrical property near the window, so as to +get the full advantage of the waning light, she reverted to the +subject at once. + +"Don't," he interrupted hurriedly, almost before she had begun. +"Please don't; I would so much rather you said nothing more about it." + +"But I don't understand." + +"Thank heaven you don't," he replied. + +"Why should you say that?" she cried reproachfully. "I cannot see why +I should not, if I can. I am not a fool----" + +"Marjory!" interrupted Dr. Kennedy, coming forward, "little Paul +Duncan has just come round from the Lodge with a message that his +grannie wants to see you. We might go round that way; it is getting +late as it is." + +"There's no hurry," put in Paul. "I will tell them to give the boy a +piece, and he can wait till Miss Carmichael has finished giving me +absolution." + +"That is the wrong way about, surely?" she said. + +"It is the usual way between a man and a woman," replied Paul, "and +will be to the end of the chapter, I'm afraid." + +Half an hour afterwards Mrs. Vane, who had come out into the hall with +some parting instructions to Marjory, stood looking down with the +others at little Paul Duncan, who, weary of waiting, had cuddled +himself round on the doorstep and fallen into the heavy sleep of +childhood. "He looks very delicate," said Violet, kindly stooping over +him as he lay with one hand tucked into the back of his neck in rather +an unusual posture; and then suddenly she looked up at the big Paul, +for the trick had taken her back to the old days when she had watched +his sleep with jealous care, lest her patient should be disturbed; and +how often had she not wondered why he chose so uncomfortable a +position? + +Impossible! and yet there was a likeness. The name, too, and his +evident dislike to the mention of the boy's mother! It must mean +something--what? The thought left her pale, so that Paul, turning back +with her when those two had gone, noticed it, telling her that she was +overworking herself. + +"Of course I am overworking," she retorted, with a strange mixture of +self-pity, blame, and fierce resentment. "I always do. Is it my fault +if I do things quicker than other people? Is it my fault if I see +things more clearly? You think I am always managing, managing; and so +I am. How can I help it when, everything keeps coming into my mind, +and no one thinks or cares?" + +"My dear Violet! You have been overworking, indeed. You must take it +easier, or we shall be having you laid up----" + +"And then what would Paul Macleod do?" she went on, with a reckless +laugh. "No! I won't make myself so disagreeable as all that--if I can +help it, Paul; but how can one help being disagreeable at times when +one is wise--wise and old? Oh, Paul, how old I am!" + +"I don't see it," he answered, with an amused smile. + +"You! you never see anything," she began; then suddenly returned to +her own light, half-jesting manner. "No! that is not true; you see +most things, but you are too young to understand me. Dreadfully young +for your age, Paul, so it is lucky there are so many of us to look +after you." + +When she went upstairs to dress for dinner she sate down before the +looking-glass and stared at herself with a sort of repugnance. Yes! +she was old, hatefully old, in mind, in knowledge of the world, in +experience. That thought which had flashed through her brain at the +sight of little Paul lying asleep on the doorstep was not a nice +thought. Yet could she help its flashing? and, if there was anything +in the thought, might not the knowledge strengthen her hand in the +coming fight? For a fortnight's daily experience of Alice Woodward's +calm attractions had raised Mrs. Vane's opposition to her marriage +with Paul to virtuous horror. No true friend, she told herself, would +hesitate to throw every difficulty in the way of so disastrous a +connection. At the same time she felt almost afraid to reach out after +this new weapon, lest it might prove too heavy for those delicate +hands of hers, accustomed for the most part to leading reins. It was +one thing to goad and guide people into the right path, another to +split open their heads with a sledgehammer. Though how this could be +such a lethal weapon she could not see, since she knew enough of Paul +Macleod to doubt if he would have had the hardihood to mention Jeanie +Duncan to Marjory if there had been anything between them in the past. +And yet? So she stood before possibilities, shivering on the brink, +and finally telling herself there would be time enough to think of +such things if less heroic measures failed. It was a mistake to touch +pitch needlessly; at the same time it was as well to make sure there +was pitch in the pot. So the next day saw her, on some airy pretence +of getting old Peggy to knit stockings, sitting beside the old pauper +and bringing to bear on her ailments and wrongs all the gay +cheerfulness and sympathy which Paul declared always put him in a good +humour. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + +Apparently it had the same effect on Peggy Duncan, for the next +Saturday when, as usual, her ancient schoolfellow and crony, Janet, +came to give the hovel that weekly redding up which was beyond little +Paul's ability, the old lady lay in her bed discoursing at length on +the "bit thing just made up o' fal-lals that sits in the auld chair as +if 't belonged to her, and chirrups awa like the lady's o' heaven's +hen. A sicht guid for sair e'en, no like what the house was maistly +acquaint wi'--just puir, ill-fa'ured warlocks." + +Whereupon Janet Faa tossed her head, and muttered in an undertone that +Peggy might speak for herself; she was no warlock whatever. But she +went on with her work, patiently, being accustomed to such sly hits +and finding the description of Mrs. Vane's dresses and the puckles o' +tea that appeared from her pocket far more interesting than the old +lady's usual snappishness. But then, under any circumstances, Peggy's +tongue would have been softened by the knowledge that help was more +than ever necessary that day, since visitors were expected to tea. So +the old woman watched the preparations with wrathful eyes, and did not +even quarrel with the polish of the two silver spoons, which, usually +secreted with her other treasures in the bottom drawer of the bureau, +now graced the clean tablecloth. To tell truth, however, fault-finding +would have had no practical effect, since Janet never took the +slightest notice of it, beyond remarking every now and again: "Whist, +woman! whist! It is no breath you will be having to crack with the +doctor." + +On the other hand, wee Paulie, who contributed his share by timidly +presenting a mug full of early rowan-berries and heather for the +middle of the table, was sternly bidden to take away the ugly trash, +and solemnly warned against the sin of mistaking weeds for flowers, +and thus setting himself up to be a judge instead of abiding by the +will of Providence. The rebuke, however, did not seem to touch the +child, who, with many previous memories of Miss Marjory's liking for +the said "ugly trash," set the posy aside on a shelf at the back of +the bed, and so beyond the reach of his grandmother's eyes. + +"If Towpie wad lay anither egg," said the old lady at last, surveying +the _tout ensemble_ with a smile struggling with the frown which was +necessary to keep Janet Faa in subjection, "it wad nae be sae bad; but +I misdoot the silly thing is for clucking." + +"But it is two eggs there are, Peggy, woman, and the shentlemans is +never for eatin' but one egg," protested Janet, who occasionally +helped at the Big House, and was great, in consequence, on the ways +and customs of the quality. + +Peggy sniffed. "That may be your way o' thinkin', it's no mine. Ye +soudna press on a guest what ye're no able to tak' yoursel'. And I'd +no cook it, ye ken--I'd just offer it up to show there was ane--Lord +sakes! wha's yon at the door, an' me wi' my bald head. Quick, Janet, +woman, my mutch, and pit it straight, woman! I'll no have it cockit +over an ear as if I were tipsy." + +"It will only be the master," said little Paul, coming from the door. +"He will be having a letter for you he says with a penny to pay." + +"Then bid him tak' it back and pay himsel' if he's carin' for it. I'm +no. There's no letters for me that I'm carin' to have, and I'll just +no be fashed wi' them when there is company comin'--Hoot awa' wi' the +man comin' pryin', pryin', and me puttin' on my mutch for him." + +"But, Mistress Duncan," came in remonstrant tones from the door. + +"Oh! you're there are ye. Weel! I'm obleeged to ye, sir, for comin' +sae far oot o' ye're road. An' I must pit ye to the trouble o' takin' +it back again, and tellin' them as sent it that Peggy Duncan is on the +pairish an' hasna a penny to spare for their trash." + +Mr. McColl, standing outside, looked longingly at the blue envelope, +with the seal of a well-known firm of Writers-to-the-Signet upon it, +and hesitated. Was it worth paying a penny on the chance of being the +first to spread news? A momentous question, which left a tremble in +his voice as he called again. "But there will be naethin' to pay, +Mistress Duncan. Here! Paulie, my man, rin with it to your grannie. +And it will be Scriven an' Plead's name on the anvelope, and they will +be the foremost Writers-to-the-Signet in Glasgow, whatever." + +"They may be Writers to onybody else," retorted Peggy, taking the +bulky letter, however, and nodding to Mr. McColl, who had seized the +opportunity of slipping in so far. "But I dinna ken what right they +have to be Writers to me." + +The master put in a deft suggestion. "Then ye can see inside, Mistress +Duncan. If you are carin' for't I could be readin' it to you before I +was goin' on. I'm no in a hurry." + +Peggy's black eyes glittered with sheer malice as she tucked the +envelope away under her pillow, and lay back on it defiantly. + +"An' I'm no in a hurry, either, Mr. McColl, an' I would be asking you +to have a sup tea, but that I'm expectin' the quality; sae gude day to +ye, and mony thanks for your kindness." + +And yet when poor Mr. McColl had retired discomfited, bemoaning the +loss of his penny, and Janet Faa, having done her part of the +business, had left the kettle in charge of little Paul, who sate +outside watching for the first glimpse of Miss Marjory, the old woman +brought out the envelope again and looked at it wistfully. Perhaps the +thoughts of the long years, during which she had waited in vain for +some word of the husband who had deserted her, came back to her; yet +as she muttered to herself--as she did often when alone--it was not +that thought which came uppermost. + +"Aye! aye! it's a fine thing the readin' o' writin'. If it were aboot +the lassie now; and me promising never to speir, never to let ony +other body know! I canna break my word, an' me sae near the Judgment. +It is no as if I were a Papist, like Janet, puir body, that can just +awa' an' get absolution, ye ken. I maun carry my sins wi' me, and it +will be ill eneuch flyin' wi' what I've got." + +"May I come in, Mrs. Duncan?" said a clear voice, breaking in on the +old woman's preoccupation. As a matter of fact, however, the +permission was scarcely needed, for Violet Vane was already in the +room, close to the bed, her eyes on the letter; yet her first words +made it appear as if her attention had been given to something else. + +"Ah! you are expecting visitors, and I shall be in the way." + +"Naethin' o' the sort, ma'am," replied Peggy, hastily, as usual on the +lookout for a grievance. "I'm no sae sair put to it yet but that I can +spare a cup o' tea for them that takes the trouble to come and see the +auld wife." + +"And a very good cup of tea, too," put in Mrs. Vane. "What you gave me +the other day was delicious. I only meant that strangers may not be +welcome when friends are talking secrets." + +"I've nae friends and nae secrets," retorted the old woman, looking up +quickly. + +"Then you are lucky," continued her visitor, lightly. "Friends are +often troublesome, especially over secrets; nine times out of ten you +daren't ask their advice for fear of their knowing too much." + +"Ye'll no be askin' mony folks' advice, I'm thinking," said Peggy, +shrewdly. "Ye've plenty brains; eneuch for yoursel' and ithers to the +bargain." + +Mrs. Vane laughed. "Perhaps; but other folks' brains are better than +one's own sometimes. When I am in a difficulty I go to someone who is +as near a perfect stranger to me as possible and ask for advice. I +needn't take it, you know--Gracious! what is that?" That was a +clamorous cackling at the foot of the bed, and the stately march +therefrom of Towpie, the hen, triumphant over the laying of an egg in +her favourite nest. + +"Oh ye o' little faith!" cried Peggy; "and me misca'ing the puir +beastie! It's a special Providence, aye, aye. He neither slumbers nor +sleeps, ye ken. And you will no be goin' to stop at Gleneira long, I'm +thinking." The question followed fast on the quotation as if there was +some connection in the old woman's mind between them. + +"I leave it very soon, I'm sorry to say, as I think it the loveliest +place in the world; and it is sad to know that I shall not see it +again." + +The envelope had come put of its hiding-place again during this +speech, and Peggy was turning it over and over as if to attract +attention to it; but she failed, and had to resort to more direct +methods. + +"I canna think why they pit sic'can a big seal to a letter. Will there +be something on it that shoudna be broken?" + +"Not that I can see," replied Mrs. Vane, taking it up carelessly. +"Only the name, 'Scriven and Plead'--lawyers, Peggy--for there below +is W. S. Glasgow. It is what people call a lawyer's letter, I expect." + +"An' what will that be about?" + +"Heaps of things. I couldn't say without reading it; shall I?" But +Peggy's claw-like hand shot forth in quick negation. + +"I'll no be troubling you. I thocht, maybe, ye micht hae had +experience o' such things." + +"So I have, Peggy. Sometimes they are wills, and sometimes they are +money." + +"Aye!" interrupted the old woman, with a sinister chuckle, "but when +they're written to bit pauper bodies like me?" + +"Then they are generally questions," replied Mrs. Vane, and though she +spoke easily she was conscious of a certain agitation of mind. +"Agreeable or disagreeable. Something to help a lawyer in tracing +somebody, or finding out some secret." + +Peggy lay back on her pillows with a sort of groan. "'Tis only the +pain, ma'am," she explained, then paused awhile; "I was thinkin' maybe +'twas that. An' if you coudna answer them, what then?" + +"Nothing; they can't make you; only it is impossible to tell if you +can or cannot till you know the questions." + +"But if I canna know them without breaking a covenant? I might just +let the letter bide, maybe?" + +Mrs. Vane hesitated an instant to run over the pros and cons hastily. +There was some secret, that was evident, and though the letter might +not be concerned with it, on the other hand it might. Peggy was +disinclined to trust it to her on the instant, but might think better +of it by and bye; anyhow, the first thing to ensure was that no one +else should have the chance. + +"In that case, of course, you should, as you say, let it be. If it is +really important they will write again, and then it would be worth +while considering the matter. In the meanwhile, as a perfect stranger, +I should advise your setting it aside." + +Peggy looked at her admiringly. "It's a fine thing to hae deceesion o' +character, and me just fashing myself about it." + +"Shall I put it away for you in a safe place?" asked her visitor, as +the old lady proceeded to put the letter back under the pillow. + +"It's safe eneuch there," she retorted sardonically. "I'll no move +till they lift me to my coffin, an' that will no be far, for it's to +stand on the table whaur the tea is setten oot. I've planned it a' ye +see wi' Janet, and there's twa bottles o' gude whiskey wi' the deid +claes in the bottom drawer. Ye canna expec' sinfu' man tae sit wi' a +corp without spirits." + +Despite the humour of the thought, which at another time would have +outweighed the grimness, Mrs. Vane shivered. It seemed to her as if +old Peggy were a corp already in that dim box bed, where she lay so +still, only her angry eyes and twitching fingers showing sign of life. +It was a relief to hear the grumbling voice again. + +"Weel, yon's settled, thanks to you, an' I'll no be kep' lingerin' in +the deid thraw about papers that, for a' I ken, wad be as weel in the +fire. O, ma'am! ye dinna ken what it feels like to think o' bein' +called to the Throne, an' no bein' able to stir for the weight o' yer +sins. For a broken word is as heavy as lead ye ken." + +"Why should you talk of being called, Peggy," protested Mrs. Vane, +uneasily. "You are no worse than you were." But here in her +nervousness she forgot her tact, and the old woman was in arms at +once. "Maybe ye ken better nor me, ma'am, that's only tholing the pain +alone in the night watches." + +"Then you should get some of the neighbours to sit up." + +"Neebors!" interrupted Peggy, with an eldritch laugh. "They'll have +eneuch to do in settin' up wi' my corp; sae let them sleep on now an' +take _their_ rest." + +Mrs. Vane shivered again, and, a sudden distaste to the whole business +coming over her, made an excuse to escape; yet when, almost at the +threshold, she met Marjory and Dr. Kennedy on their way to Peggy's +entertainment, she paused with the lightest of laughs to tell them +that the old woman was in one of her worst moods, and would make their +hair stand on end. For her part she had had her fill of horrors, and +intended to shock Mrs. Woodward by asking for a spoonful of brandy in +her tea! It was a relief to joke over it for the time, even though in +her heart she knew that she would have a _mauvais quart d'heure_ +sooner or later; most likely later, when the time came for sleep and +she would have to seek the aid of that bottle of chloral--for Mrs. +Vane's mind was fragile as her body, and could not stand any great +strain. She could handle the reins deftly, and drive her team gaily +along the turnpike road, but she had never driven across country. So +it was a further relief to meet the butler in the hall carrying a +fresh teapot of tea into the drawing-room, while the footman followed +decorously bearing eight cups on a tray. Lady Hooker, the former +functionary replied, in answer to her inquiries, had driven over from +the Forest to see her ladyship in a _char-a-banc_, with seven other +ladies, some children, and a piper playing on the box. He added the +last item in tones of tolerant contempt, born of a dispute downstairs +as to whether the musician should have his tea in the housekeeper's +room or the servants' hall; the womenkind, dazzled by his gorgeous +array, favouring the former, the menkind the latter, on the ground +that fine feathers did not make fine birds, and that without them he +was only Roderick the gillie's brother and a "hignorant 'ighland +beast" to boot. + +Lady George's face relaxed even at the sight of another woman, seeing +that that other was Mrs. Vane; for as she said afterwards, "It is +nearly twenty miles, you know, and a bad road, so the horses were +bound to have an hour's rest, and it requires a dreadful expenditure +of tissue to make tea last an hour; yet, if you don't, you have to put +on your boots in a hurry and begin the conservatories and the garden, +which no one wants to see in the least. Really, in the country, it +would be a charity to have a room where people could wait until the +horses came round, or rather, till the coachman got tired of flirting +with the maids, for in the end it comes to that, you know." + +To tell truth, there was cause for Lady George's welcome of +reinforcements, for, despite the fact that the hall positively reeked +of mackintoshes, the drawing-room was redolent of the shower-proof +mantles worn by a bevy of ladies of the type so common on Mr. +McBrayne's steamers; ladies whose conception of the Highlands and +islands might be likened to a volume of Scott bound in waterproof! + +"We brought our sandwiches for lunch with us," explained one in reply +to Mrs. Vane's commonplace about the long drive; "and dear Lady Hooker +said we might rely on Highland hospitality for tea; and really it was +exquisite, a dream of beauty, and so interesting, too! Dear Lady +Hooker says that a portion of Waverley was really written in this +neighbourhood." + +"I hope they were not the opening ones, then," remarked Mrs. Vane, +carelessly. "They always make me inclined to agree for the time with +the man who said it was a pity Sir Walter wrote in such small print." + +A perfectly bovine silence fell on her group, broken, however, by a +determined voice from over the way: + +"I agree with you absolutely, at least, as absolutely as the +limitations of human life allow. There is a lack of spiritual insight +in Sir Walter, a want of emotional instinct, an almost brutal content +with things as they are. His style is doubtless good, but personally I +confess to being unable to appreciate it fully. Even on a second +reading I find the story distracts my mind." + +The speaker was a slim, rather elegant-looking girl, with an odd +mixture of eagerness and stolidity on her face. + +"She writes a great deal," said Mrs. Vane's next-door neighbour in an +undertone of gratification, as if she gained a certain distinction by +being of the same party. + +"Only a hundred brace!" came Lady Hooker's voice, compassionately. +"That's very poor, scarcely worth writing for--but then, you don't +rent the place, of course; that makes the difference. Sir Joseph +doesn't go in for grouse, of course; he is a deer man. But we couldn't +get on under five hundred brace for the table, we really couldn't. +Cooks are so extravagant. You will hardly believe it, Lady Temple, but +my Glasgow beef bill last week was over nine pounds, and we had three +sheep besides, and--how many deer was it, Miss Jones? Six? Yes, six +deer." + +"That seems enough even for Noah's Ark or a menagerie," said Mrs. +Vane, sympathetically, and Lady George gave her a grateful smile. + +"But then, of course, the servants won't touch venison," went +on Lady Hooker, contentedly; "though really it makes very fair +clear soup--it does, indeed. Even Sir Joseph does not object; and +he is so particular. When we had the Marquis of Steyne's place in +Ross-shire----" + +"Ah! there are the children," said Lady George, with a sigh of relief. +"I thought, Lady Hooker, that my little boy and girl--oh, nurse! I did +not intend Master Blasius----" + +But nurse apparently had other views--possibly that of hearing the +pipes downstairs--for she feigned not to hear, and set Blazes down on +his feet with that final "jug" behind to his smock frock which is the +usual parting admonition to behave nicely. + +"Eve, my darling! Adam, my love! go and shake hands' with your little +visitors," said Lady George, keeping an apprehensive eye on Blazes, +who, with his legs very far apart, was clacking the whip he had +brought down with him, and making extraordinary cluckings in the roof +of his mouth, like a whole bevy of broody hens, in which occupation, +what with his close-cropped hair and white smock, he looked a carter +to the life. "Really, nurse!" she continued nervously; "I think, +perhaps, it would be better. He is so much younger than the others, +you see, Lady Hooker." + +But nurse was not to be put off with this subterfuge, and as she +happened to be keeping company with the carrier, she felt outraged by +the palpable suspicion. "Indeed, your ladyship," she said, in an +indignant whisper, "it is only the man as drives the ferry cart, and +'e is most respectable!" + +So it appeared, for beyond the usual "_ger'up_" Blasius' vocabulary +was, if anything, too endearing. So much so, that Lady George +suggested that since the children had had their tea, she thought it +would be nice for them to play on the lawn. She would ring for the +nursemaid to keep an eye on them, not that it would be necessary, +since she could trust darling Adam and Eve not to get into mischief +anywhere--out of Paradise. But here a difficulty presented itself. One +little girl, a very pretty child dressed in white serge and fur, +refused to go, and stood burying her face in the window curtain, and +digging the toe of one shoe into the carpet after the manner of +children who have made up their minds to give trouble. + +"She isn't my girl," came Lady Hooker's loud voice. "Sir Joseph +wouldn't tolerate that sort of thing, he is so particular. When we had +the Duke's place in Sutherland----" + +"Cressida, my sweet!" said the authoress, plaintively; "if you can +possibly wish to go, do wish; it would be so much more convenient for +dear little mother. I never coerce her, on principle, Lady George--she +is the only tie I have to life." + +"Separated from her husband," put in Mrs. Vane's next-door neighbour, +in the same self-complacent whisper. "It is quite the proper thing +when you write, you know." + +"That is what Lady George says also," broke in Mrs. Woodward, a little +spitefully. "And I tell her that children were made to obey their +parents----" + +"Should be made to obey them, you mean, dear Mrs. Woodward," +interrupted her hostess, rising to the bait; "but, as I say, it +depends upon experience. You may have found it necessary with--with +yours, but mine----" + +"And mine also!" broke in the lady who wrote, enthusiastically. +"Cressida's mind is so beautiful in its intense naturalness, so +delicate in texture. It is the instinctive shyness of a sensitive +organism which----" She started, and turned round, for a loud, full, +yet childish voice rose confidently above her words. + +"Blazeth' goin' to kiss the little gurl, then she won't be flighted, +but come along o' Blazeths." + +And she did, hand in hand, admiringly, while he cracked his whip and +cried, "_Ger'rup!_" to amuse her. + +"And he can do old Angus awful well, too," whispered Eve to her +companion, as they passed out of the door. "We'll get him to do it by +the burn when Mary isn't looking. Mary doesn't like it, you know, +because her young man is a shepherd, too; but he really is quite a +genteel young fellar, and kept company with the under 'rouse last year +at the Forest--that's your place, isn't it?" + +"It's a deal bigger than this," remarked the other. "And we have deers +and grouses." + +So the game of brag--which children play more naively than their +elders--began, while the authoress was explaining at length how it +came about that Cressida had consented to Blasius's methods of +persuasion. + +"I don't think you need distress yourself," remarked Mrs. Vane, with +an odd little smile; "Blazes is really a remarkable boy; he invariably +goes down straight to first principles, and that is a deadly method of +argument--especially with our sex." + +"Sex!" echoed the authoress, scenting the foe. "I deny the right of +man----" + +"Lady George!" said Mrs. Vane, hastily, "perhaps some of these ladies +might like to see the conservatories. I have on my boots." + +Blanche gave her another glance of heartfelt gratitude, and as she saw +her bear off a large contingent, told herself that she was worth three +of Alice Woodward, who was only equal to the bread and butter! And +Paul was anything but bread and butter! The thought, as such vagrant +ones have a trick of doing, begged for more consideration as she sate +turning a polite ear and tongue to the task of amusing the authoress, +who had remained behind; Mrs. Woodward meanwhile appearing deeply +interested in a certain place the Hookers had had in Perthshire, where +the gillies expected champagne and _pati de foie gras_ for their ball +supper. And she was fast approaching that condition of mind in which +the only thing which prevents our owning up that we are out of our +depth is the conviction that we know quite as much of what we are +talking about as the other party to the conversation, when the sudden +reappearance of the garden contingent bearing two bundles wrapped in +waterproofs supplied an all too efficient distraction. + +For the waterproofs being set on the ground disclosed the coy Cressida +and Blasius, both dripping, and inconceivably smeared with tar; but +both to all appearance in the highest of spirits. + +Poor Lady George stood up tragically. + +"Yes!" replied Mrs. Vane, striving to be grave. "They are bad +children--all bad children," she added, turning to the group of elder +ones behind. + +"Oh, but we wasn't there!" came in a chorus, led by Adam and Eve, "we +wasn't, really. It's all his fault." + +"Don't! Don't come near me, child!" cried the devoted mother, hastily +retreating from the embrace of her only tie to life. "Cressida! +What--what have you been doing?" + +"Oh mummie! it was bewful. First he washted me, and then I washted +him, an' then we washted each other, didn't we, Blazes? and we said, +Haud up--ye----" + +"The child is dripping!" interrupted Lady George, hastily. "I will +ring for nurse. Oh! Blasius, how could you think of such a thing?" + +Mrs. Vane pointed slily to the furred white pelisse. "It is rather +tempting," she said, aside; but Blanche was not to be mollified. + +"And Mary? Where was Mary?" + +"Mary's dancing the Highland fling with James in the boot hole," +blabbed Eve, readily. "An' we wanted to dance too, but nursie was +there, an' so we comed away." + +"But where did you go? What were you doing? How came you not to see? +you two whom I can generally trust," persisted Lady George, growing +tearful from vexation, yet feeling vaguely that it all arose from +people bringing a piper with them when they came to call--a piper who +disorganised the household and introduced Highland flings into the +boot hole! "I insist, children, on hearing what you were all doing." + +There was a dead silence, until for the first time Blazes lifted up +his loud, mellow voice, as he stood disregarded by a chair smearing +his tarry hands stolidly over its cover in a vain effort to amend +matters before nurse appeared. + +"They was flicking piggy wif a pin, and piggy was 'quealin' louder nor +Blazeths." + +And even Lady George--when the _char-a-banc_ had driven off, piper and +mackintoshes and all, with Cressida kissing her still tarry hands to a +struggling figure in Mary's arms at the nursery window--was forced to +admit that Blazes generally went straight to the point; and that after +all it had helped to pass the time. And as for Mary, she declared that +her ladyship might say what she liked about 'orseplay, an' lendin' +'erself to savage an' indignified dances in a boot 'ole, but 'ighland +flings wasn't in it--for a stetch in yer side an' no 'airpins to speak +of--with Master Blazes when you 'ad to 'old 'im and 'e didn't meant to +be 'eld. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + +For the next few days after the visit to old Peggy, which convinced +her that some secret lay in the old woman's keeping, Mrs. Vane +refrained from any attempt to interfere with Providence. To begin +with, she felt vaguely that the Scotch marriage laws were dangerous, +and the very fact that she knew enough of Paul to be sure that this +was not likely to be a mere vulgar entanglement, made her hesitate +before her own suspicions. On the other hand, this possibility of a +new string to her bow inclined her to slack off the other; the more so +because here again she was beginning to be afraid of her own weapon. +She had always recognised that, but for her interference, Paul would +have held to that discretion which is the better part of valour, have +seen no more of Marjory, and forgotten her; also, that the girl +herself had been quite as ready to dismiss this strange, if alluring, +figure from her thoughts, as belonging to a society--nay! to a +world--in which she had no part. But now? Mrs. Vane, as she watched +the easy familiarity which had of necessity recommenced between them, +as she noted the girl's quick, healthy response to the thousand and +one new thoughts and ways of this new life, could not help wondering +if the awakening to new pleasures might not rouse into action a new +set of emotions and instincts. For Marjory, as for Paul, there was +also danger; to her from the unfamiliarity, to him from the very +familiarity of the environment, which threw him back on past +experience, and rendered it well-nigh impossible for him to forget his +own nature, and dream himself in Arcadia. And then Dr. Kennedy's +appearance had complicated matters for Mrs. Vane, who, kindly to all, +had a weak spot in her heart for the friend of her earliest youth. It +did not take long for her sharp eyes to pierce through his pretence of +mere guardianship, and it gave her quite a pang to think of giving him +one. Yet here she comforted herself by the palpable jealousy which +Marjory showed towards those youthful days; a jealousy she did not +scruple to stimulate, for Mrs. Vane, with all her _finesse_, +occasionally made a mistake, and in the present instance did not +realise that in thus, as it were, emphasising a hitherto unknown side +of Dr. Kennedy's life she was adding to the strangeness of the +environment in which Marjory found herself; and at the same time +suggesting that it was no new thing to the one person to whose opinion +she was inclined to defer. So that, instead of helping her old friend +by the time-honoured device of exciting jealousy as a prelude to love, +Mrs. Vane, in reality, made it easier for the girl to drift from her +moorings. + +"You are very kind to your ward," said the little lady one day, +feeling impelled to give comfort as she noticed Dr. Kennedy's eyes +following Marjory rather wistfully. "But virtue has its own reward. Do +not pretend you don't understand, _Monsieur le Docteur!_ for you do. +And I will give you my opinion--when she has seen a little more of the +world she will see what _it_ has seen already--that there are not many +men in it like Dr. Tom Kennedy." + +"She will see exactly what she chooses to see, _Madame!_" he replied, +with one of his little foreign bows, which, to Marjory, seemed to +reveal him in a new and worldly light. + +"Exactly," retorted the little lady; "and being of the Truth will +choose the Truth." And then suddenly her mood changed, and she laid +her hand close to his on the table as if to attract his attention to +her quick emotion. "Ah, _mon ami_, I envy you! you can afford to wait +for Paradise, and I have had mine. At least, I feel as if I had eaten +my apple and been turned out into the cold, for there hasn't been much +happiness in my life." + +He looked at her with 'grave pity, noting with the eye of one +accustomed to the work the thousand and one little signs of wear and +tear in the clever, mobile face. + +"You have put plenty into other people's lives, anyhow," he said, in +kindly, if cold, comfort; and his words were true. With all her faults +Mrs. Vane had given more to the world than she had ever taken from it. + +Marjory, watching the little scene from afar, felt something of this, +as she told herself it was quite natural that Tom should enjoy the +companionship of his old friend. Who, in fact, would not enjoy talking +to so brilliant and charming a woman? at least, in this new world, +which could not somehow be cleft in two by a straight line dividing +right from wrong, darkness from light. + +Yet, though she acknowledged this, she was as far as ever from +understanding it, and as ready as ever to disdain anything which +bordered on sentiment; on that unknown ground of Love or Passion. + +Dr. Kennedy, repeating to her his part of _jeune premier_ in the +little play which was to precede some tableaux, realised her lack of +change in this respect with mingled gratification and regret. + +"I must keep my own counsel," he recited, in the even yet jerky tone +sacred to the learning of parts, "em--and not let her suspect the deep +attachment she has inspired--inspired--inspired. Now, don't tell me, +please; I know what comes next. Yes! I do, Mademoiselle! In nine cases +out of ten a proposal! So there! Well, where were we? Ah! 'But, soft' +(depends greatly on the stage floor, my dear sir). 'But, soft! she +comes!' Go on, Marjory. 'Enter Blanche--she comes,' is your cue." + +"'Tis he! Henri!' Oh! Tom, do let us skip all that bosh!" + +Dr. Kennedy put down the hazel root he was whittling into a shepherd's +crook and looked at her in feigned surprise. "Bosh! Why, I intend to +work this up until I draw tears from every eye." + +"Not from mine, Tom," smiled Marjory; "that sort of thing always makes +me laugh." + +They were lounging under the beech tree which grew close to the burn +at the bottom of the garden, and the dappled sunshine and shade from +the green canopy overhead made the green draperies outlining the fine +curves of Marjory's slender figure seem like a dress of leaves. +Leaning forward on the grass, her chin resting on her hands, her curly +head thrown back half-defiantly to look him in the face, she reminded +Dr. Kennedy of Rosalind; yet it was of another heroine that he spoke. + +"Poor Juliet! I suppose she ought not to have survived to the +nineteenth century!" + +Marjory's eyebrows puckered themselves in doubt. "I don't mean that; +perhaps I don't know what I mean; but Juliet loved Romeo, and +these"--she nodded at the little book between her elbows in careless +contempt--"they--they--Tom! you must allow there is too much of--of +that sort of thing." + +He went on whittling for a moment; it was the first time he had ever +touched on the subject with Marjory, and he felt at once curious and +constrained. + +"I am afraid that sort of thing--as you call it--will not reduce +itself to please you; it is part, and perhaps a necessary part, of +life," he said shortly. + +"A part!" returned the girl, eagerly. "Not all? Now, in the novels and +these plays one hears of little else. It is all hero and heroine; +work, ambition, failure, success, are nowhere. It is very +uninteresting--don't you think so?" + +Dr. Kennedy's face was a study in humour and gravity. + +"Upon my word, I don't know, my child! But most people think otherwise +at some time of life. And you are a little hard, surely; you should +remember that after all the love-season is generally the crisis of +life's fever. Put it another way; the touchstone by which we can test +the lovers' ideal;" he paused till his innate doubt made him add: "At +least it should be so, though I'm afraid it isn't--not always." + +She looked at him, and a troubled expression came to her eyes. "I +suppose not," she said absently; "that has always been a puzzle to me. +To love, and yet not to approve, seems to me a contradiction in +terms." The chips flew faster from the knot Dr. Kennedy was smoothing. + +"You talk as if love were reducible to logic, but it isn't." Then +the impossibility of a mutual understanding made him add more gently: +"It isn't a thing you can reason about. It comes and goes as it +chooses--not as you choose. That is the difficulty." + +"Difficulty," echoed Marjory, raising herself with a belligerent +air to clasp her hands about her knees and subside again into a +half-dreamy defiance as she sate looking out over the burn to the +sunlit point stretching into the blue loch. "It is manifestly unfair +if it is so; only I don't think it is. Else how is it possible to hold +love sacred? How is it possible to believe in it?" + +"I am afraid it will be believed in to the end of the chapter all the +same," replied her hearer, with a smile. "And it isn't so unfair when +all is said and done, since 'a love that is tender and true and strong +crowneth the life of the giver.'" + +She turned on him sharply. "Where does that come from? Some extremely +sentimental---- Why, Tom! I believe you wrote that--now did you? Come! +own up!" + +"I might have guessed it wouldn't pass muster with a young person who +has taken honours in English literature and knows the Elizabethan +poets by heart," he replied gravely. "Yes! Marjory, I am responsible +for that particular version of a time-honoured, crusted old sentiment. +I wrote it in delirium, or something like it--if that is any excuse." + +She edged closer to him in girlish eagerness. "This is quite +delightful. I never knew you wrote rhymes. I do, and burn them; but +_you!_ Come, tell me the rest at once." + +"Perhaps I burn them, too." + +"Oh! but that is only pretence, you know, just to keep oneself in +subjection. One remembers them all the same. I do. So now, once, +twice, thrice!" + +He gave an odd little grimace. "It was last year when I had fever," he +began apologetically. + +"In Paris?" + +"No! They had sent me to the country, and there was a stream and some +reeds. I could see them as I lay in bed, and so---- Now, mind, if once +I begin to swear I won't leave off under half-a-crown!" + +"I wouldn't mind giving three shillings if it were worth it; so go on, +Tom, why should you be bashful?" + +"Because I was delirious when I wrote it, of course," he replied; yet +there was a real tremor in his voice, as he began:-- + + + "Where the river's golden sheen floats by + The plumes of the tall reeds touch the sky, + Like arrows from out a quiver. + But one bends over to reach the stream, + Dreaming of naught but the golden gleam, + Weary for love of the river. + + "'Oh, river! river! thou flowest fast; + Yet leave me one kiss as thou goest past-- + One kiss, to be mine for ever!' + She bent her head to the shining flood; + On swept the river in careless mood, + Mocking her poor endeavour. + + "'Oh, river! river! give back to me + Some token of all I have given to thee, + To show thou art my lover!' + But the only answer to her prayer + Was the shade of her own love mirrored there, + With the reeds that grew above her. + + "The proud reeds chid her, yet still she sighed, + Wondering such love could be so denied; + While ever towards the ocean, + Dreaming deep dreams of that future free, + The river swept on to the unknown sea, + Careless of her devotion. + + "A bird flew down when the sun set red, + To sing his hymn from the reed's bowed head + To God, the All-good Giver. + Bowed by the weight of the singing bird, + At long, long last the waters stirred, + As the reed's plume touched the river. + + "'Oh! glad and sweet,' sang the bird, 'is Life, + And Death is sweet, bringing Peace to Strife, + But Love is God's best treasure. + It cometh best when it comes unsought, + It giveth all, and it asketh naught, + For true love hath no measure,' + + "The bird flew home when its song had ceased. + The reed, from its one dear kiss released, + Shall give another never; + But a silver crown of dewdrops shone, + Telling of true love given, not won, + In the reed's bright plume for ever. + + "Go forth, my song! so that all may learn + Love, like the reed's, needeth no return, + Save the baptism of the river. + Though the heart be sad, and the way be long, + A love that is tender, and true, and strong, + Crowneth the life of the giver." + + +Dr. Kennedy recited well; the tremor of his voice had soon passed, and +with it, apparently, all sense of the personal application of the +verses; for as he sate, still whittling away at the hazel root, his +keen brown face wore a half-humorous and half-puzzled look, and after +a decent pause he gave an odd sort of laugh. + +"It sounds pretty," he said; "but upon my word I don't know quite what +I meant, and I am almost certain it was not love, not what is +generally understood by love." + +Marjory looked at him judgmatically. "Nonsense! Of course it was love, +and what is more, Tom, I think you must have been in love when you +wrote it. Now confess, were you not?" + +Once again the temptation to say "Yes! with you," rose uppermost; only +to meet with the old revulsion of feeling, born of the knowledge of +things hidden from her, and please God! always to be so hidden. In +love! Great heavens, no! if that were love. And yet, how could he +answer for her nature as well as his own? For a nature which his +practised eye told him was full of vitality, full of possibilities; +and young, ah! so young as yet in its knowledge of itself. If he told +her that he loved her and asked her to marry him, the chances were ten +to one that she would say "Yes." And yet the conviction that it was so +brought him no content, but only something of tender reluctance for +her, of vague contempt for himself. + +"In love!" he echoed. "I was in a delirium if you meant that, or near +it. Temperature a hundred and five point two, and Abbeville--he was +nursing me--good luck to him!--had just confessed there was not much +chance; as if I hadn't known that for days!" + +"And you never told me," she said, after a pause. + +"No; I didn't want to bother you, and----" He looked up to see her +face white, and his manner changed. "Don't, child! it's past and +over--besides I have a knack of pulling through--I am sorry I +mentioned it, now." + +"What is it?" she asked, in a constrained voice. "I should like to +know, if I may?" + +"My dear! of course you may. Pyaemia; the knife slipped, that was all. +The veriest scratch. What a fool I was to mention it!" + +"Don't say that," she flashed out suddenly. "Don't you know that I +like to hear everything--everything----" She paused, and her quick +resentment seemed to die down before a keener thought, and she sate +silent for a while. "I can scarcely think what it would have meant to +me," she went on, half to herself, before she turned her face to him +again. "I should have been quite alone in the world then, you know, +Tom." + +"Until you made a home of your own, perhaps," he replied quietly, +being, like most men of his temperament, somewhat given to +self-torture. + +"Perhaps; but it would never be the same," she said, as quietly. "It +would never seem to be the haven of rest that the thought of your +goodness is to me now. Do you know, Tom, that I always hearten myself +up by saying that if I am tired I can always ask you to let me rest, +and you would, wouldn't you?" As she spoke she stretched out her hand +towards him in her favourite gesture of appeal, and both of his, +leaving their work, had reached to it eagerly and clasped it close. + +"Marjory!" he said, a surge of sheer happiness flooding heart and +brain with unalloyed content. "Promise me that always--and--and I am +satisfied." + +"Promise what?" she asked, smiling through the sudden tears which +brightened her eyes. "That I will come home to rest if I am tired? Of +course I shall. What is the use of having you, Tom, the best, the +kindest, if I don't make use of you? And I will. I'll come home fast +enough, you'll see, if----" She paused to give a wise shake of her +head, and then, clasping the hand he had released over the other which +lay upon her knee, she looked out absently over the running water at +her feet. + +"I wonder how I shall like it?" she continued. "I wonder if it will be +what I have fancied it?" + +"Probably not," replied her companion, with a quick dread at his +heart. For how could it be so? What could this girl's imagining have +to do with that world which he knew so well: so well that the finer +tissue in him rebelled against the teaching which his very profession +forced him to accept as true, at any rate for the majority of men and +women. "Probably not," he repeated more quietly, "though that is just +the sort of thing it is impossible to predict of a girl who has been +brought up as you have. So it must be settled by experience." + +Half an hour afterwards Paul Macleod, coming over to the Lodge on the +pretence of giving notice of an afternoon rehearsal, found them still +busy over the loves and woes of Henri and Blanche. In fact, Dr. +Kennedy was on his knees disclaiming his part passionately; whereat +the newcomer frowned. First at the sight, secondly at his own dislike +to it. + +"I have been trying to teach Miss Carmichael how to refuse an aspirant +firmly, yet sympathetically," said the doctor, coolly, rising to his +feet and putting the handkerchief he had spread on the ground into his +pocket; "but she finds a difficulty, apparently, in keeping her +countenance. It is a mistake, Marjory. Half the unhappy marriages in +the world come from the difficulty which the untutored mind has in +saying 'No' with decent courtesy. It is so much easier to say 'Yes,' +since that requires no diplomacy. If I had daughters I should always +impress on them that the eleventh commandment does not consist in +'Thou shalt not refuse.'" + +"I shouldn't have thought it necessary to impress that on the girls of +the present day," remarked Paul, rather hastily, and Marjory flushed +up at once. + +"It is never safe to generalise from a single experience, Captain +Macleod," she retorted, "and yours may have been exceptionally +fortunate--hitherto." + +"Perhaps it has--hitherto," he replied, and, after delivering his +message, went off in a huff. Yet he felt himself more on a plane with +Marjory than he had ever done before, slightly to his discomfiture; +for this atmosphere of quick give and take, this suspicion of jealous +anger, was familiar to him, and he could not mistake its +possibilities. So he devoted himself more than usual to his duty, and +though, of course, he made up his tiff a trifle sentimentally with +Marjory, he chose to be rather lordly over her relations with Dr. +Kennedy, and even went so far as to mention to his sister that he +suspected her _protege_, Mr. Gillespie, was forestalled. + +"My dear Paul!" said Lady George, distractedly, "I really don't care +at the present moment who marries who. I might be in a better world +for that matter, if I weren't in Purgatory." + +"Wherefore?" asked Paul, kindly. + +"Oh! the supper, and the servants, and the general civility," replied +Blanche, who was in reality enjoying the bustle, but, at the same +time, liked to pose as a victim. "Really, in these out-of-the-way +places one has to be a virtuous woman, and bring one's food from afar; +and then there is always Blasius. I suppose it is the name, as you +say, George, but, really, I don't believe that child _can_ do what is +right." + +"Nonsense, my dear," retorted her spouse, who ever since he undertook +to interpret the laws of nature to his youngest born had been a trifle +jealous of his pupil's reputation. "Blasius won the Derby in '73. What +has the child been doing now?" + +"Oh! nothing much; only he wouldn't eat his dinner just now because it +was only an egg, and the others had mutton. He really is too young to +have meat every day; so, as I was busy, I told nurse to put him to +bed, and he is sitting up in it making the most unearthly noises, as +if the whole farmyard were in the top landing. Listen! you can hear +him down here." + +There could be no doubt of it, and as they stood in the hall, looking +up involuntarily, a perfect babel of cluckings and cacklings, crowings +and quackings, seemed to come down the stairs with Mary, the +nursemaid, who was bearing the dirty dishes from the nursery dinner; +among them Blazes' despised egg. + +"The worst of it is," went on Lady George, in her high, plaintive +voice, "you never really know what the child means. Why, for instance, +should he cackle, as if he had laid an egg himself?" + +'"Um!" grumbled her husband. "More to the purpose why he refused his +dinner? Here, let me look at that tray, will you? By Jove, Blanche!" +he went on, holding out the egg-cup excitedly, "it's bad--no child +could be expected to eat that--what a fool!" + +He was half-way up the stairs impetuously when his wife begged him to +be discreet, and wait for her. + +"It is just what I said," she confided to Paul, who followed full of +laughter. "You never can tell what he means till afterwards; now, of +course, I can guess that--that----" She paused, feeling that words +were unnecessary before the spectacle of Blasius, standing beside the +round, white pillow of his cot, and cackling vehemently. But Lord +George was too angry for amusement, and after an elaborate apology to +Blazes for the mistake, handed him over to the nurse with a sharp +order to re-dress him and take more care in future, which enabled that +functionary to veil her real regret under a show of indignation until +Blasius, who was sitting on her knee, and could presumably see more of +the truths than others, said consolingly: + +"Never mind, nursie! Cocky eat his own egg next time." Whereupon, she +burst into tears and hugged him for a darling, and a treasure, and the +one comfort of her life. + +"I don't think his meaning was obscure that time, Blanche," said her +husband, as they went downstairs. "If Cocky had committed the +indiscretion of laying a bad egg, why then--God bless the boy, he is a +little trump!" + +"And has a wisdom beyond his years," added Paul, rather cynically; +"for he lays the blame where it should be given--on the Creator." + +"My dear Paul! what a dreadful thing to say; please remember he is +your god-son." + +"Well, if he doesn't hear it from me he will from others, my dear +girl," replied her brother, with a shrug of the shoulders. "It is the +teaching of to-day. We are none of us responsible beings." + +"And upon my soul," growled Lord George, "I'm inclined to agree with +it in one sense--think of that fool of a nurse!--you should dismiss +her, Blanche." + +"But, my dear Paul," persisted Lady George, disregarding her husband's +suggestion, "the question of heredity does not exclude the forces of +education. We can be altered----" + +"I've heard you say a dozen times, Blanche, that an altered body is +never satisfactory, even with the best of dressmakers," interrupted +Paul, as he turned off to the smoking-room. "So why should you think +it would answer with a soul?" + +"There is something the matter with Paul," remarked his sister, who +disliked above all things to have the logical sequence of her own +theories flung in her face; "but that is only to be expected. When one +is busy troubles come crowding in on every side. However, I have +written to Lady Hooker, and begged her as a personal favour not to +bring the piper to-morrow night; for, though I have warned the +servants about Highland flings, you cannot expect people to overcome +their natural instincts nowadays, and of course we shall be enjoying +ourselves, in a way, upstairs." + +"I hope so," assented her husband, gloomily; "and I suppose, my dear, +I shall get my towel-horse back when it is all over." + +"Now, George! isn't that like a man?" cried his wife, triumphantly, +as if appealing to him for verification of a new and interesting +fact about himself. "As if you didn't know that tableaux in the +drawing-room and towel-horses in the bedrooms were quite incompatible +when scenery is required--especially rustic scenery. And Mrs. Vane +requires so many rocks! You may be thankful it wasn't _boulders_, for +then the pillows would have gone, and what would you have said to +that?" + +Lord George said nothing, but as he followed his brother-in-law's +example and turned off to the smoking-room, some connection of ideas +made him hum to himself:-- + + + "Out of my stony grief Bethels I'll raise." + + +"Really, George!" called his wife, indignantly; "you and Paul are +_impayable_. It is a wonder Adam and Eve are so good." + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + +Private theatricals as a rule need no description, but these in the +barn at Gleneira House merit at least so much attention, in that, +for the major part of the audience, they were the first attempt at +play-acting it had ever seen; since even in the British Isles culture +and civilisation have not harried the glens which are hidden away in +the hearts of the hills. To tell truth, not a few of the audience came +doubtfully with a fear lest they might be backsliders; but, as luck +would have it, the Free Church section, being in process of choosing a +new minister, felt it could afford, for once, to test the iniquity of +the stage by actual experience. Besides, if the laird led the way, +there were still sufficient of the clan to follow him even to the jaws +of hell. So they came and waited for the curtain to rise, with a +quaint trepidation lest they should really enjoy themselves, and so +give place to the devil. + +But there was someone else besides the "_unco guid_" who felt vaguely +as if it would have been better she had not been there, as if she +wished that both the immediate past and the present had never come to +pass. And that was Marjory, as she stood at the far corner by the +door, whence she could escape easily when she was wanted behind the +scenes. Perhaps her face showed something of this, for Paul Macleod, +pausing beside her for a moment, said in a low tone: + +"I've seen Mrs. Vane act in 'Her Bitterest Foe' before, and she alone +would carry it off. Then Bertie is splendid at the heavy parts, and +Dr. Kennedy, by all accounts, is almost professional. There is no +fear, I'm sure." + +She turned to him quickly. "Do I look nervous? I think I am, chiefly +from the novelty. It is the first play I've ever seen, remember." + +He knew that, and yet the idea struck him again with a certain regret +for her and for himself. For her that she should see one at all, for +himself that he should have seen so many. "After all," he parodied +lightly, "it is better sometimes never to have lived than to have +lived it all! There goes the prompter's bell, so keep your eyes open, +Miss Carmichael." + +There was no need for the advice, since the first look filled the girl +with astonishment at the almost ridiculous reality which the glare of +the footlights gave to the shreds and patches of scenery she had +helped to put together. No wonder, therefore, if Mrs. Vane, in her +simple black dress, looked the _ingenue_ to perfection, and Major +Bertie's honest English face had quite a German cut about it. And how +well they acted! The ring of rough tenderness in the General's voice +was all that could be desired, while Mrs. Vane was faultlessly simple +and girlish. It could scarcely, Marjory told herself, be better; and +oh, how dreadful--how unbearable it would be if Tom fell below that +high standard! Another minute and his cue would come; so much she +knew, and a really hot regret rose up in her that she had not insisted +on invading the privacy of the rehearsals; then she would have known +what to expect. Yet what could he do with such a part? A part which +had always sounded to her so unreal, so unlike the man himself, so +unlike---- Then who was this hasty, hot-headed, imperious, impetuous +boy who burst upon the stage? She gave quite a little gasp of dismay, +and then forgot everything save that figure kneeling at its mistress's +feet, and pouring out its love, its grief, its remorse. + +"Bravo!" said Paul, under his breath, then added, in a different tone, +"You see there is no need to be nervous--he does it _con amore_." + +A sudden jealousy had leapt up in him at the thought that Marjory +might listen to such wooing, and as he moved away to the vacant place +left for him by Alice Woodward, he told himself, with resentful +cynicism, that it was not the first time Dr. Kennedy had played the +lover's part, and that even Marjory should be satisfied by the +plaudits which were sure to follow. + +But she was not thinking of applause. She was too startled, too dazed +to think at all, for something new and hitherto undreamt of in her was +responding passionately to the passionate appeal to which she +listened, and her clasp on the chair behind which she stood slackened +in relief as the kiss of forgiveness was given. Oh, that was right! +Who, loving the man, would not forgive? Who could help it in such +case? And this--yes! this was love! + +It seemed to her as if the play passed in a moment, and yet that it +had stolen the reality from all the rest of her life; nor did she +realise who the actors were until, amid the applause with which the +curtain came down, she heard two familiar voices from the row of +chairs in front of her. + +"Bravo! Bravissimo!" said one. "That was well done. He has my +compliments." + +"And mine," quoth the other, solemnly jocose. "But to think of it? Oh, +Thomas, my lad, _quod medicorum est promettant medice_, but this is no +healing o' hearts, man! Eh! Father Macdonald, but we will have at the +learned impostor; we will!" + +"_Amor al cor gentil ralto s'apprende_," put in the gentler voice, in +the same jocose strain; and then they both laughed. + +Marjory stepped back involuntarily as if to avoid hearing more; but +she had heard enough, for there, as she raised her eyes, stood Dr. +Kennedy and Mrs. Vane, bowing their acknowledgments of the recall. The +old life had come back again, but with a strange new thrill in it +which made her heart beat, yet left her dazed and weary. + +"If I could always act with Tom Kennedy," said Mrs. Vane, jubilant +over the success, when Marjory went behind the scenes to aid in the +coming tableaux, "I should make my fortune. He is the only amateur I +ever saw who knows how to make love!" + +"He did it very well," assented Marjory, coldly. She felt glad that he +was too busy with the scenery for her to have speech with him; she +would not have known what to say--for she had liked it--she had +understood--and yet!---- It was bad enough to listen for a moment to +Paul's approval when he came round, escorting Alice Woodward, who was +wanted for the statue in "Winter's Tale." + +"You should be satisfied," he said with intent. "Personally I never +saw it better done, on--or off the stage." + +But then a look at the girl's face drove him back quick as thought to +the old Arcadian days when they had been so friendly. + +"I wish the whole business were over," he said sharply. "It's an awful +nuisance, and you will all be dead tired to-morrow." + +"But Lord George will have his towel-horse again!" she answered, +lightly turning to a current jest as a shelter from the sense of his +thoughtfulness for her. "And there are but three more tableaux." + +"Three," he echoed; "there are only two on the programme." + +"But the other is Mrs. Vane's _bon-bouche_ to the house party. She +said they deserved a surprise; but I believe she would just as soon +let it slide--for she is very tired, Captain Macleod. Only it would be +hard on Mr. Gillespie, who is full of his part; besides it really +should be the prettiest of all--Mrs. Vane took so much trouble over +it." + +"Are you in it--and Dr. Kennedy?" he asked quickly. + +"No, only I--and Mr. Gillespie, of course. You see it was for the +house party." + +And Paul, as he went off to do host, wondered angrily what Violet +could mean; she always meant something--at least that was his +experience of her. The wonder lingered as he sate decorously between +Mrs. Woodward and Lady Hooker in the front row, listening between the +scenes to the account the latter gave of some tableaux she had got up +when they rented the Marquis of Tweedie's place in Peebleshire, and +whispering to the former, when the curtain rose finally on Alice as +Joan of Arc at the stake, that he hoped it was the last time her +daughter would suffer martyrdom in his house. For Paul invariably said +the right thing, if it paid him to do so, no matter what his real +feelings were at the moment; at the present time they were somewhat +mixed; the preponderant one being irritation at the whole round world. + +And now, that being the last tableau on the programme, the guests were +manifestly becoming filled with uneasy wonder as to whether they were +expected to make the move or not, when the tinkle of the bell warned +them of something more, and after a minute's pause the lights went out +suddenly. Then from the darkness came Wagner's "March of the Gods to +Walhalla," and the curtain, rising slowly, showed a scene which well +deserved the murmur of recognition which ran round the more critical +part of the audience. + +"Shouldn't have thought towel-horses could have done it--but she is a +deuced clever little soul," murmured Lord George to his neighbour, and +in truth, considering the resources at Mrs. Vane's command, the effect +was well-nigh marvellous. In the distance lay a stretch of sea and sky +lit by the light of a dying sunset which gained an almost real +radiance from the darkness of the foreground, where, with its back to +the audience, its foot upon the brink, a mailed figure, sword in hand, +bent, as if meditating a leap over the shadowy gulf which lay between +it and a low platform of rock overhanging the misty blue depths of the +distant sea. And on the rock, her silver helmet laid aside, her head +pillowed on her white arm, slept a warrior-maiden with her face turned +to the sunsetting. She was clad in soft, filmy, white draperies, but +the corselet of silver she wore above them rose and fell evenly with +her calm breathing; while round about her--so close that it seemed to +touch her wavy hair and silver, wing-shod feet--flickered and flamed a +mystic circle of fire. + +"What is it? What is it meant to be?" came eagerly from many of the +audience. And Paul knew--knew all too well--but he sate silent, +crushing down his anger at the skill of the thrust. + +"What is it?" echoed Alice Woodward, who, with an opera cloak thrown +over her last costume, had returned to her role of spectator. "Why, +Brynhild, of course, mamma! The Nibelungen, you know--we heard that +German tenor in it, if you remember. Mrs. Vane has staged it +beautifully, hasn't she, Captain Macleod; and how well the dress suits +Miss Carmichael's style. That is Mr. Gillespie, of course; he looks +taller in armour. You know, mamma, it is a sort of allegory. Sigurd +has to leap----" She paused abruptly to look at her companion. He had +started to his feet, and a quick cry of "Take care! Take care!" rose +from various parts of the house, for a breath of wind, coming from +some opening door, had bent the flames perilously near to those filmy +draperies. + +"Look out, Gillespie! for God's sake look out!" he shouted; but the +mailed figure, failing to understand, turned to the audience, and the +next instant Paul, tearing off his coat the while, had leapt over the +footlights, and scattering the circle in his hurry was on his knees +beside Marjory crushing out the fire which had caught her dress. The +heated spirit spilt on the floor blazed up fiercely, almost hiding +those two, and rousing a shriek of dismay from the ladies. + +"Down with the curtain and keep the draught out!" shouted Paul; "and +run back the carpet some of you. Lie still a moment, please--it is +beyond you." + +As a matter of fact the sudden burst of flame was nearer to the mailed +figure, who, being penned in between it and the falling curtain, chose +the footlights and landed in Mrs. Woodward's arms a second before Dr. +Kennedy's voice rang out reassuringly to say it was all right. + +"You might bring a blanket, Kennedy," said Paul, still with his arms +round Marjory. "If you will excuse me a moment longer, Miss +Carmichael, it will be wiser--muslin is so apt to flare. Tell me if I +am hurting you." + +Perhaps he did not mean--being a gentleman in most ways--to lower his +voice in the least, and yet he did lower it. He could scarcely help +himself with that touch thrilling through him, and at the sound of the +tenderness in his own tones something in him seemed to cast itself +loose from all anchorage and, spreading white wings over the tempest +of emotion that arose in him, to bear him swiftly to a haven of +perfect content. + +"I'm not hurt at all," she said; yet she looked at his face so close +to hers with startled eyes, and gave a little shiver; then went on +hastily. "But you--your shirt sleeve is all burnt--it is smouldering +still. Tom! come quick! No! No!--not for me. There was a spark still, +Captain Macleod--I saw it----" + +"It is out now at any rate--be still for one more second, please. +Thanks, Kennedy--just slip it under while I lift. So--a perfect +roly-poly! That is well over!" + +He spoke lightly again, but he had grown very pale, and much to his +annoyance found himself in the doctor's hands for a scorch on his arm. +However, as his sister said plaintively, that and the unfortunate +break-up of Lord George's lamented towel-horse in the hurry was the +only mischief done. It might have been much worse, and though of +course it was really quite a lovely tableau--for which Mrs. Vane +deserved the highest praise--still it was a dangerous experiment. It +generally was dangerous to play with fire, remarked Paul, impatiently, +and had not his sister better make some diversion among the guests, or +they would be leaving with a sense of judgment on their souls. A reel +or two would hearten them up, while a glass of whiskey, and some weak +negus for the ladies before they went away, would finish the business. +Of course there was no piper, but Miss Carmichael could play "The +de'il amang them" to perfection, and would do that much to help +Gleneira, he felt sure. + +There is no greater test of the quality of a man's fibre than the way +in which he stands the goad of mental pain. Paul Macleod, smarting +under the sting which the certain knowledge that he loved Marjory +Carmichael as he had never loved any woman before and yet that she was +beyond his reach brought to him, showed this indubitably. All his +reckless self-will, all his wild resentment against controlling +circumstance, rose up in him, and only the fact that he had no +possible opportunity of so doing, prevented him from then and there +making his proposal to Alice Woodward. This may seem a strange +sequence to the discovery that you love another woman, but it was just +this discovery which set him in arms against himself. For this love +was a new emotion--a love which suited the girl with her clear eyes--a +love such as he had hitherto scouted as a dream fit only for +passionless, sexless idealists. + +And the result of this deliberate choice of lower levels was in its +way stranger still. For Alice Woodward, whose emotion under any +circumstances could never have risen to a higher point than calm +affection, felt more content than she had ever done over the future, +and actually lingered in her mother's room--a most unusual event in +that reserved family--to remark that Gleneira was really delightful in +the fine weather when the house was full of people. + +"Captain Macleod showed immense presence of mind, too," assented Mrs. +Woodward, contributing her quota to the general satisfaction. + +"Very!" admitted Alice, colouring a little, "and he behaved so nicely +afterwards. In such good spirits, you know, though of course he must +have been in pain." + +So they retired to bed, well content with the state of affairs. Not so +Mrs. Vane, who, long after the others were asleep, sate waiting for a +well-known footstep to pass her door, on its way to the laird's own +room, which lay, quaintly apart from the others, with a little further +flight of stairs all to itself. And none came, though from below she +heard the voices of the menkind dispersing when their smoke was over, +and from above Lord George's stealthy tread as he passed the nursery. +And yet she had made up her mind that she must say a word to +Paul--must make certain of the truth--before she slept. She had not +been deceived; he was angry with her. Nay, worse! he was unhappy, yet +in a mood to make that unhappiness permanent. That must be prevented +somehow; so after a time she stole out into the passages, dark save +for the master's light--that light which has brought home the pang of +widowhood to so many a woman's heart, as she pauses on her way +upstairs to put it out. If she knew anything of Paul's nature, he +would not be in the smoking-room; once the necessity for restraint was +over, he would have taken the earliest opportunity of escaping from +the eyes of others. The business-room most likely, where he was secure +from most interruptions; but not from hers, though as he started to +his feet as she came in, he looked as though he had expected +otherwise. + +"I waited for you upstairs," she said boldly, "for I must speak to you +to-night"--then she paused, startled; for she had expected anger, and +Paul had sunk wearily into his chair again, resting his head on his +hand. + +"Can't you let me be--surely you have done mischief enough already?" +he said; and then he turned to look at her, and think, even in his +resentment, that she had always liked him, always been good to him. "I +don't understand why you brought this about--not the accident, of +course; that no one could have foreseen, but all the other part. For +you did bring it about. Why? Do you want me to marry----_her?_ You +know you don't. Then why should you have schemed to give me pain?" + +He spoke with a concentrated bitterness which told her that his +patience was far spent. When she had left her room to seek him she had +been prepared to speak the truth, if need be, to a certain extent, but +now her quick wit showed her that she must risk all. + +"No!" she answered quietly. "I do not wish you to marry Marjory +Carmichael; but neither do I wish you to marry that iceberg of a +girl, and be miserable. Let me have my say, Paul, for the sake of old +times. She does not love you, my poor Paul--I doubt if she can love +anything--and you do not love her, you do not even admire her. But you +did love the other, and when I saw you pretending that you did not, I +said to myself, 'He shall know the difference.'" + +"That is a kind of knowledge a man can generally find out for +himself," broke in Paul, cynically. "But, still, I don't see--what +possible use?----" He paused, and turned from her again to his old +attitude. + +"What use!" she echoed, laying her hand on his shoulder. "Listen! and +I will tell you the truth--tell it you utterly. You are very dear to +me, Paul, and come what may I am your friend. Do you think, then, that +I could stand by and see you bring misery into your life needlessly; +quite needlessly, for you could do better for yourself than that. Long +ago, Paul, so long ago that the folly of it is over for you, and so I +can speak of it--you loved me; and I----" she paused, but went on +steadily. "I loved you--don't start, my friend, it is true; see! to +your face I say it is true. I loved you. But I kept the secret then, +Paul, for the sake of your future, as I tell it now for the sake of +your future, so that you may believe that I am a friend indeed; for a +woman will not stand by and see another woman sacrifice the happiness +of a man for whom she once sacrificed her own. That is why I say you +must not marry Alice Woodward--you must not, Paul! Give her up!" + +"And, then?" + +Her eyes met his unflinchingly. + +"Yes, Paul! think what you like; I do not care. As for that, I should +make you a better wife than Alice Woodward, for there would be the +memory of a past love between us, at any rate--a fair, honest love." +He had risen from his chair, and stood looking down on the brave, +spirited little figure before him with irrepressible admiration. What +pluck, what address she had! How skilfully she had steered her way +through dangers that would have wrecked another woman's self-esteem! +And with the memory of the past surging up in him he could not deny +her right to speak. + +"I am no fool, Paul," she went on, holding up her hand to check some +half-hesitating words upon his lips. "I know what I say. I know, too, +what most men would say if a woman spoke to them as I have spoken to +you to-night. Well! I risk all that. I never lacked courage in your +cause, Paul, and if I gave up my love in those old passionate days for +your sake, do you think I would let its shadow come between you and +happiness? You are marrying the girl for her money. Well, others have +money also. I have it now, if it comes to that. I do not ask you to +marry me, Paul," she added, with a sudden, hard little laugh. "I have +not needed Leap Year in my calendar of life, but I do ask you to +think. There are rich girls whom you might love." + +"That is so like a woman! Have you forgotten your own handiwork +already? You would have me forget now that I am in love, but I shall +never forget." + +"Never is a long word," she answered, resuming her ordinary manner, +"and you forget so easily, my poor Paul!" + +"You have no right to say that, Violet," he broke in, hotly. "Have I +forgotten you? Have I forgotten your kindness? Do you think I would +let any other soul alive speak to me as you have done to-night?" + +She swept him a swift, gracious little curtsey. "_Dieu mercie, +Monsieur!_" she laughed, "the temptation would be too great, I +suppose? But I will tell you, if you like, why you have not forgotten. +Because I have kept myself _en evidence_; that is why. You say that I +see clearly, my friend. It is true. I see so clearly that the glamour +goes even from my own actions. You are the captive of my bow and +spear, Paul, but you would have escaped if you could. And Alice +Woodward cannot spin webs as I do; she will never be able to keep you, +and then----? Good-night." She held out her hand suddenly, but Paul +stood irresolute. + +"You are clear sighted, indeed. God knows you read me like a book +sometimes." He hesitated, then went on hurriedly, "I wonder if--if +Miss Carmichael----" + +Violet Vane shook her head with a smile. "That is the kind of +knowledge a man can generally find out for himself, my friend! +Personally, I think she will marry Tom Kennedy if she is left alone." + +"Thank you. You certainly have courage, Violet." + +"The courage of a surgeon who sees the knife is kindest in the end. I +have told you that you would be miserable with the woman you do not +love. I now tell you that you would not be happy with the woman you do +love." + +"And why?" + +"Because you have not the making of an archangel in you; that is why. +Do you think you have, Paul?" She stood for a moment at the door to +look up at him, as if she were making quite an ordinary remark. "But +there is the earth in the middle between the heavens above and the +waters beneath. Don't forget that, _my friend_." + +When she had left him he lit another cigar out of sheer inability to +think of doing anything more decided, anything which in any way +affected his future, even to the extent of taking a night's repose; +that feeling of uncertainty being largely a result of sheer surprise +that he should have allowed Violet Vane's man[oe]uvring to pass +unreproved. And this, in its turn, convinced him, as nothing else +would have done, that she understood him as no one else could do. + +And she? When he, coming up to his room, turned out the lamp on the +stair, he left the house in darkness, save for the candle he carried. +Yet Mrs. Vane was not even undressed. She was face down on her bed +trying to forget everything; above all, that old Peggy Duncan +possessed a secret which might--which might---- + +For her own reference to the past had brought that other past back +upon her, and, as she buried her hot face in the pillow, she told +herself that she had not, after all, spoken the truth. She had said +that his happiness was her motive, when it was her own. And wherefore +not? + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Marjory sate at the window pretending to be busy over laces and +ribbons, but in reality watching Dr. Kennedy's deft hands lit up by +the shaft of light from his microscope lamp, as, with the aid of a +tiny pair of tweezers, and a watchmaker's glass fixed in one eye, he +laid out the almost invisible film of some sea plant on a slide. For +they, that is to say, Marjory, Will, and the doctor, had spent the day +after the theatricals in dredging for oysters, as a relief to what the +latter called fishing for men; and something interesting had come up +in the dredger, which had to be set up despite the waning light. He +looked more natural when so employed, and yet, despite the grizzling +hair and the thin brown face, she seemed to trace in him as she had +never done before a hint of that figure on last night's stage, which +had opened her eyes to love in its passion, its unreason. And with +this fancy came the remembrance of Paul Macleod's swift resource, his +kindness, his courage. And both memories confused her, making her feel +as if the old landmarks had been removed, and she could not be certain +even of those she knew intimately; as if a man's ideals might yield no +clue to his actions. For Tom must surely have felt that storm and +stress before he could portray it so vividly? And then, even if this +were not so, his vast experience of things which she had been +accustomed to despise remained inexplicable. + +"I had no idea that you were so frivolous, Tom," she said suddenly, +laying down even her pretence of work. + +He wheeled round in his chair instantly, and let the glass fall from +his eye. "Are you aware that that is a very odd remark to make to a +man who believes he has found a new infusorian which may revolutionise +all our theories, especially when it is made by a young lady who is +busy, or ought to be busy, over her first ball-dress." + +"Ought I?" She smiled back a little wearily. "I'm afraid I'm a bad +pupil, Tom. I was just wishing Lady George could have postponed it +till you had gone." + +He gave a little grimace. "Thank you, my dear, I daresay it would be +pleasanter,----" + +"Don't tease, Tom. You know what I mean, perfectly; it interrupts the +holiday." + +"Which is perilously near its close, by the way. I have to go back +next Thursday." + +"Yes, I know. But don't talk of it; let us enjoy it while it lasts!" + +He turned back to his work again hurriedly. "Now, that is what I +should call truly frivolous. So be it. However, _Vogue la galere!_ It +is a very easy philosophy, at any rate." + +They were silent again for a space, and then she began again. "What I +meant was, that you must have seen so much of the world; and then you +are so interested in it. Last night," she hesitated a little, "it +struck me, Tom, that for all I knew, you might have--have seen +something like it when you were through the Franco-Prussian war, for +instance. You--you were quite a boy then, weren't you?" + +"A baby, so to speak. I remember nearly fainting over the first wound +I saw. Yes, Marjory, I've seen such romantic young fools many a time. +I see a good deal of that sort of thing necessarily in my profession. +It is human nature." + +"I suppose so," she said curtly. "Well, I suppose I ought to go and +dress. Oh, Tom! why couldn't Lady George have put it off, and why +won't you let me stay at home?" + +"Because, when, after infinite toil, you have caught a netful of +mankind for theatricals, you naturally choose the next day for a +dance. And because a girl ought to go to a ball. How can she tell her +_metier_ if she only keeps to one? Besides, it is your holiday." + +"I shan't like it a bit, and I shall feel dowdy in this thing." +She held up a white stuff gown, with the oddest mixture of +self-complacency and disdain. "Of course, it will do quite well, and +it would have been recklessly extravagant of me to get another, seeing +that I shan't want evening dresses at a Board School; but I shall be a +dowdy all the same." + +"I doubt it," remarked her guardian, busy adjusting his screws. "Now, +you really ought to go and dress, my dear. In my time girls----" + +"In your time!" she flashed out. "Why? Why, you are quite up to date, +Tom, and I--I am hopelessly _arrieree_, especially in my dress! Oh, +dear f I suppose I must----" + +A minute afterwards she came flying down the stairs, followed by Mrs. +Cameron, who had evidently been on the watch for the occasion in +Marjory's room, and was determined not to lose the scene downstairs. +It was rather a pretty one, though the first words were distinctly +sordid. + +"Oh, Tom! what did it cost?" + +"Now, that really is the rudest question! I'm surprised at you," +returned Dr. Kennedy, trying to jest, though something in the girl's +face told him she was not far from tears. + +"But it is dreadful," she began. + +"Naethin' o' the sort," broke in Mrs. Cameron, breathlessly. "Just +don't belie the nature God gave to you. It's just beautiful, and the +doctor and me has been agog these three days lest it should not come +in time, for it is ill getting things to Gleneira from Paris." + +"Paris!" echoed Marjory. "Yes, I thought it looked like Paris! How +foolish of you, Tom!" + +"And so that is all the thanks you're giving him. Wait, my lass, till +you're as auld as I am, with no a soul in the wide world caring a +bawbee if you're clad in sackcloth and ashes, and then see if ye +woudna like to be made a lily o' the field. Just arrayed in glory +wi'out a toil or a spin." + +"Quite right, Mrs. Cameron," put in Dr. Kennedy, with a laugh. "She +will have plenty of toiling and spinning by and bye; why shouldn't she +be a flower and do credit to us all for one evening?" + +She looked at him from head to foot. "A flower for you to wear in your +buttonhole, apparently. Tom, are all men alike?" + +"I am human, at any rate," he said quietly. + +"Oh, come away, come away!" cried Mrs. Cameron, impatiently. "Come and +put it on, like a good lassie, and don't be chopping logic. It's time +enough to be an angel when you've done being a girl, and you'll have +more chance o' bein' one if ye make the best o' your gifts in this +world, I can tell you. So come away, my dear, there may be a stitch or +two a-wantin', and the time is none too long." + +But Marjory stood her ground even after the old lady had bustled +upstairs again, and she looked so serious that Dr. Kennedy was driven +into suggesting that if she preferred it, she might wear her old gown. + +"It is not that," she said slowly. "It is beautiful. I could see that, +at a glance; but--Tom, did Mrs. Vane choose it?" + +His laugh had a certain content in it. "My dear child, I prefer people +to be dressed as I like, and I am generally supposed to have good +taste." + +"Very, I should say," she remarked, with a curious accent of regret in +her voice. + +But the fact was indubitable. When she came down again in a shimmer of +silver and white, set cunningly with frosted rowan berries showing a +glint of scarlet here and there, she knew so well that her dress was +perfect, that from a new bashfulness she turned the tables on him +swiftly. + +"Tom," she cried, "I declare you have waxed the ends of your +moustache!" + +"And if I had been in Italy, I should have curled my hair, too," he +replied imperturbably. "It is not a crime." + +"And that coat! It is not your ordinary one." + +"It is not. The one I use here--since you are so particular--is a +dress jacket; the correct thing, I assure you, for a shooting lodge. +But I have the misfortune to be honorary surgeon to a potentate +somewhere, who insists on brass buttons on state occasions, so I don't +happen to have the intermediate affair. Besides, there are to be +lord-lieutenants and generals hanging round this evening from the Oban +gathering. If that is satisfactory to your highness, we should be +going." + +"And that red thing in your buttonhole?" she persisted, going close up +to him and touching the bit of ribbon with dainty curious finger. "It +is the Legion of Honour, I suppose." + +"It is called so; you look as if that were a crime also." + +"I did not know you had it, that was all," she said. And then, Will, +coming in full of fuss because his very occasional white tie had not +been folded properly in the wash, changed the _venue_ by declaring +that fine feathers make fine birds, and that he was half ashamed to +belong to them. + +"Naethin' o' the sort, Will," snapped Mrs. Cameron. "It's the fine +birds that grows the fine feathers, as ye'd see ony day o' the week if +ye went to my hen yard." + +"And it is always the male bird which attends most to personal +appearance," remarked Marjory, sedately. Yet, despite her pretended +disdain, as they passed down the drawing-room corridor at Gleneira +House, she paused involuntarily to look for a second at what she saw +reflected in a pier glass at the end. + +"We do look nice, Tom," she said, with a faint laugh; "but I feel like +the old woman. I'm sure it isn't I. Now, you look as if you were born +to it." + +He had not the heart to tell her that she looked it also, so took +refuge in claiming his right of the first waltz. + +"But I can't dance. You seem to forget, Tom, that I have never even +seen a waltz danced." + +His face fell. "What an ass I am, when I could have taught you in half +an hour. But you would pick it up in the first turn; let us try, at +any rate." + +"Please don't ask me," she began. "I don't want to dance. In fact, I +didn't tell you--on purpose." + +"That was unkind," he replied, and this plain statement of his +unvarnished opinion making the girl see her silence in the same light, +she added, hastily, "I will dance later on, if it will please you." + +He laid his hand on hers as it rested on his arm and looked at her +with a kindly smile. "That is right! It always gives me pleasure when +Mademoiselle Grauds-serieux unbends a little. I want you to enjoy +yourself to-night. Why not? You are young, happy, and will probably +be--pardon my incurable frivolity--the best-dressed girl in the room. +But there is our hostess, and after that I had better go and find a +partner. It is a duty at the beginning of a ball. Shall we say number +four or six for ours?" + +"Oh, six, please; something may have happened by that time." + +She felt, to tell the truth, as if something must be going to happen, +as she sate watching the scene from the quiet corner where Dr. Kennedy +left her. The lights, the music, the buzz of conversation seemed to go +to her head, and the sight of him skimming past like a swallow made +her suddenly regret her refusal. It seemed easy and pleasant. Yes; it +must be pleasant, and there were four more dances to sit out before +her chance came. + +"Is it one of the mortal sins, Miss Carmichael?" came Paul's voice +behind her. He had seen her enter with Dr. Kennedy, and, aided by Mrs. +Vane's one-syllabled verdict "Worth," had guessed the history of the +dress. And there he was looking very handsome, his arm still in a +sling so as to give him a pretext for laziness if he chose, and +meaning mischief out of sheer contrariety. + +"I can't dance," she answered, flushing a little, "but I am going to +try number six with Tom. I am almost sorry now I didn't say four; I +think I should like it." + +"Try four with me," he answered, seating himself beside her. + +"But it will hurt your arm," she began. + +"If it does we can sit down again; but I don't think it will. I find I +can generally do what I want to do without serious injury either to my +mind or my body." And then he added in a lower tone, "I should not ask +you if I was incapable; but if you would rather not trust me I must +submit." + +"But Tom--Dr. Kennedy----" she began, doubtfully. + +"Is dancing number four with Mrs. Vane. I heard them settle it just +now." + +Why this information should have influenced her decision is not clear, +since she was perfectly prepared to see them dance not once but many +times together; yet it did, as Paul had guessed it would. Still, when +he had gone to play the part of host elsewhere, she began to regret +her promise, and the sight of him returning with the first bars of +number four to claim her made her attempt escape by pleading the risk +to his scorched arm. "It was surely," she said, "rash to have removed +the sling." + +"I am always rash," he replied. "Come! you owe me some reward, and I +am quite capable of taking care of you." + +His words brought back the remembrance of the night before, and sent a +thrill through her; the next instant it seemed to her that she was +alone with him again, despite the whirl of dancers around them. Alone +with him, and a bunch of red rowans which, for the first time, she +noticed he wore in his buttonhole, and to which he began drawing her +attention at once. + +"We wear the same badge once more, you see, Miss Carmichael," he said +fluently. "It must be your welcome to a new world, as the white +heather was to me. Only, as usual, I am natural, and you are +artificially iced. Which is best? Well, if you will defend your +position, I will defend mine; for we must agree to differ since I +cannot freeze, and I sometimes wonder if you can thaw. Perhaps if I +had let you burn a little longer last night I might have found out and +been happy. I almost wish I had, only then--only then," he repeated in +a louder tone of triumph, "I shouldn't have had the pleasure of taking +you a whole turn round the room without your remembering that it _was_ +your first turn--No! don't stop just because you do remember; another +turn will finish your lesson." + +"That was very clever of you!" laughed Marjory, as they went on, she +gaining confidence at every step. + +"I think it was," he replied; but he did not add that his art had +extended to exchanging the bouquet he had originally worn for some +rowan berries filched from the decorations. + +But Mrs. Vane, who had been more or less responsible for the discarded +jasmine, noticed it at once, and her voice was hard as she remarked to +her partner, "Your pupil has preferred another professor, Dr. Kennedy; +the patient instead of the physician. It is really very foolish of +Paul, with his arm." + +Tom Kennedy felt glad of the possibility of ignoring the first part of +her remark, for he was conscious of bitter disappointment, not to say +vexation. "He is not likely to hurt; it was the merest scorch." And +then his obstinacy made him add, as much for his own edification as +for hers, "She is lucky to begin so well; a tall man can steer better +as a rule." + +Mrs. Vane smiled. "That is overdone, my friend; there is not a better +steerer in the room than you are." + +"How can you tell; you need no guidance?" he began, when she stopped +him peremptorily. + +"Don't, please; if you knew how sick of it I am. It comes, I know, as +part of the business with the lights, and the music, and the coffee, +and the ices; but you and I are such old friends." There was rather a +crush at the moment, and her partner being too busy to speak, she had +the conversation to herself for the time, and went on evenly, "How +well they dance! and her dress is simply perfection. I must get you to +choose mine. Yes! they look a charming couple; for he is wonderfully +handsome--handsomer than when he was younger--don't you think so?" + +"I never met him before this summer," replied her victim; and, to +change the subject, added, "but I knew his brother Alick in Paris. +Very like him, but not so fine a fellow--rather--well! he got into a +very fast set, and that accounts for a great deal." + +Mrs. Vane looked up in sudden interest. "Ah! I had almost forgotten. +Of course, he had a brother who died." + +"Yes! quite suddenly. By all accounts none too soon for the estates. +He had half ruined them." + +"And so the present laird has to marry money, if he will. But you +never can count on Paul Macleod doing the wise thing. A pretty face, a +dress from Worth's, a---- Is that the end? Then I should like a cup of +coffee, if you please." + +And as they passed down the corridor she passed to other subjects, +leaving that barb to rankle. She was not often so cruel, but, to tell +truth, she was really angry with Paul, and told herself there was no +use in trying to keep him out of mischief. Doubtless, she had so far +startled him by her plain speaking as to prevent him from bringing +matters to a crisis with Alice; but here, at the slightest +provocation, he was flirting outrageously with Marjory, and +looking---- + +"A message for you, sir," said the butler, coming up to Dr. Kennedy, +as they were about to return to the ball-room. "A little boy, sir, to +say a Mrs. Duncan is ill, and wants to see you." + +"Little Paul!" cried Mrs. Vane; "poor old woman! I am sorry. Where is +he, Grierson? In the housekeeper's room? Then don't let us disturb +you; I'll show Dr. Kennedy the way." + +"Why should you trouble?" he began. + +"'Tis no trouble, my friend, and you may need something to take with +you." + +"I may need nothing," he answered. "I was round seeing her, as you +know, a few days ago; and she might die at any moment; her heart is +almost worn out." + +Mrs. Vane's gave a sudden throb. What if she died, and carried the +secret with her, just when it was most needed? The thought became +insistent as she listened to the boy's frightened tale of how his +grandmother had looked so strange, and bidden him seek Dr. Kennedy, +and then seemed to fall asleep. + +"You had better keep the lad here awhile," said the latter, in an +undertone. "He has been delayed by not knowing where to find me, and, +without stimulants at hand, a fainting fit might pass into death." He +turned to ask for some brandy, and was off into the still moonlit +night hastily. + +She stood looking after him for a moment, and then made her way back +to the ball-room mechanically. Another waltz had begun, and she +hastily scanned the dancers for Paul's figure, but neither he nor +Marjory were to be seen. Without an instant's hesitation she went to +the conservatory, and found--what she knew she would find. + +"Excuse my interrupting you," she said, "but I have a message from Dr. +Kennedy for Miss Carmichael. He has been called away for half an hour, +but will be back then; and he hopes, my dear," she laid her hand on +Marjory's arm affectionately, "that you will be ready for number ten. +Meanwhile, Paul, you ought either to continue the lesson, or find Miss +Carmichael another tutor. Ah! Major Bertie, have you found me! and I +have turned the heel of my slipper and must go and put on another +pair, but perhaps Miss Carmichael will console you." + +She waited till they had moved out of sight, and then turned to Paul, +almost passionately: + +"And you--you are engaged for this dance, I presume?" + +"You presume a little too far, my dear Violet," he replied +dangerously. "I am a helpless cripple, and I cannot run in harness, +no matter how skilful the whip may be. If you are going back to the +ball-room may I give you my one arm?" + +"No, thanks. I shall stay here." + +Never in their lives before had they come so near a quarrel, and, even +though Mrs. Vane was wise enough to see the provocation which her own +loss of temper had given him, the fact decided her. The change of +slippers included other alterations in her toilette, and five minutes +afterwards she was following Dr. Kennedy to Peggy Duncan's cottage. +The walk was nothing on that warm September night, and the excuse of a +desire to help sufficiently reasonable, her kindness in such ways +being proverbial. Many a deathbed had been cheered by her cheerful +aid, and yet, nerved as she was by experience, she shrank back at the +sight which met her eyes as she lifted the latch of the cottage and +entered. For the deep box bed, whereon old Peggy had passed so many +years, had been inconvenient, and Dr. Kennedy had lifted her to the +table, where she lay unconscious, looking like death itself, in the +limp, powerless sinking into the pillow of her grey head. The old +woman's dreary prophecy came back to Mrs. Vane, though this was not +certain death, as yet; since, with his back towards her, his warm +hands clasping those cold ones, his face bent on the watch for some +sign of life, stood Dr. Kennedy, trying the last resource of +artificial respiration. There is nothing in the whole range of +experience more absorbing, more pathetic than this struggle of the +living for the dying, whether it be for the new-born babe doubtful of +existence, or, as here, for an old worn-out heart. And if it is so, +even among a crowd of eager helpers, what was it here in the little +circle of dim light hedged in by darkness? Those two alone, so +strangely contrasted. It had been a sharp, fierce transition, even to +his experience, from, the ball-room full of lights and laughter; for +Tom Kennedy was not of those whom use hardens. He was one of those to +whom ever-widening vision discloses no clear horizon of dogmatic +belief or unbelief, but a further distance fading away into the great, +inconceivable, infinite mystery between which and him lay Life--Life, +whose champion he was, whose colours he wore unflinchingly, counting +neither its evil or its good. Life--nothing else. It is a queer +mistress, taken so, but an absorbing one, and he scarcely slackened +the rhythmic sweep of his arms even in his surprise at the figure +which, after a moment's pause, stepped forward. + +"You ought not to have come--it's no place for you; you had better go +back and send me help; though I fear it is no use," he said +authoritatively. For answer she slid her hands under the blanket he +had thrown over the old woman's limbs, and began to rub them with a +regularity matching his own. + +"They would not help so well as I." + +"You have done it before then?" + +"Often--once all night long in cholera--a great friend--he died at +dawn." Yet the memory which had brought tears many a time failed to +touch her now, for her mind was intent on something else. + +"Was she unconscious when you came?" she asked. + +"Not quite. There were some letters on her mind, and after she had +given them to me she went off--one often finds it so." + +Then they were given! and she was too late! Yet stay! where could they +be--in his coat, of course, which he had taken off and thrown aside on +a chair for the sake of greater ease. Doubtless in the coat, for he +must have had it on at first, when the old woman was still conscious. + +"Perhaps hot water," she suggested, looking towards the kettle +swinging over the dying embers, but he shook his head, and she stayed +where she was. Ah! that was surely a change--a greyer tinge on the +worn, wrinkled old face, the faintest suspicion of a greater rest in +the slack limbs. + +Dr. Kennedy paused, still holding the hands in his, and bent closer. + +In the great silence, Mrs. Vane seemed to hear her heart beating at +the thought--not of rest, but unrest; for something would have to be +done soon, if done at all. Nay! done now, for with a half-impatient +sigh the doctor gave up the struggle, folded the old hands upon the +old breast, and walked away to stand for a moment or two looking +moodily into the dull fire. + +"It is always a disappointment," he said, turning to her again, and +mechanically going over to the dresser, where in the interval, +calculating on habit, she had set a bowl of water and a towel. And she +calculated rightly. As with his back towards her he washed his hands, +hers were in the pocket of his coat, and two packets of letters lay on +the floor behind the chair, as if they had slipped out, before she +went forward, coat in hand. + +"Thanks!" he said, still in the meshes of habit; but then he paused, +and for an instant her heart was in her mouth, even though she had her +excuse ready should he discover the absence of the letters. It was +only, however, a remembrance of her which came to him. + +"I must call someone," he said; "and you should go home at once. It +was good of you to come." + +"Yes! you had better call someone. I will stay till you return--I +would rather." + +"You are not afraid?--Ah! I forgot you had lived your life in India. I +shall not be more than ten minutes if I go up the hill to the +shepherd's; that will be the quickest." + +"Do not hurry on my account," she replied, quietly beginning to pile +some fresh peats on the fire. The doctor, as he turned for a last +look, his hand on the latch, told himself she was a plucky little soul +indeed; and yet, had he known it, her heart was melting within her at +the deed she was about to do, and her only strength lay in the thought +that it was for Paul's sake; for herself she would scorn such +meanness. + +The candle flickering to an end gave her little time, however, for +consideration, and almost as the door closed the letters were in her +hands. One long, blue, red-sealed, intact, as she remembered it, the +other an open envelope yellow with age, tied round with thread, and +containing several papers. Her wits were quick, and even as she +looked, the certainty came to her that if the blue letter asked +questions the other might answer them; besides there was no necessity +for breaking a seal; she shrank from that as yet. Even now her hand +shook, so that as she drew out the contents of the smaller envelope, +something fell from it to the ground. She stooped to pick it up just +as the candle flared up in the socket, and by the sudden blaze of +light she saw on the fallen paper a signature, and a line or two of +print. + +Great heavens! a marriage certificate--Ronald Alister Macleod! Who was +he?--Paul's brother, of course. + +These thoughts flashing through her brain did not prevent her +starting, as the flickering light seemed to give a semblance of +movement to Peggy's folded hands. The next instant she was in +darkness, still holding the letters, and she knelt hastily to coax a +flame from the peats, for time was passing, and she must know--must +read. Then, in swift suggestion, came the thought of substituting +another packet; Dr. Kennedy would be none the wiser, and that would +give her time. There must be other letters or papers at hand if she +could find them. Oh for a light!--and yet people deemed such deeds to +be deeds of darkness!---- + +As if in answer to her thought, a tongue of bluish flame leapt through +the warmed peats, and by its light she found herself fumbling at the +old bureau. For it was, as it always is at such times, as if fate were +driving her against her will. Even as she acted, she felt that she had +not meant to act thus--to search and pry! The old woman's cherished +shroud, folded and frilled, made her shut one drawer hastily. And that +was a step--a step surely, and yet not an atom of paper was to be seen +anywhere! Ah! there was an old Bible on the shelf with blank pages. +She had torn some out, and slipped them into the envelope none too +soon, for Dr. Kennedy was at the door, breathless with running. + +"I hurried all I could," he said; "for I felt I ought not to have left +you--it was not fair. But they are coming, and then I will take you +home." The words seemed to bring a remembrance, for he paused and +began to feel in his pocket. + +"What is it?" she asked, with a catch in her voice. + +"The letters. I had them, certainly----" + +"Perhaps they dropped--ah! here they are on the floor." + +"Thanks." Then he paused, looking curiously at them. "I wonder why I +fancied this one was tied with thread?" + +Even in her anxiety she could not resist a smile at the keenness of +the man; and how dull _she_ had been, for there on the dresser stood +two candles in brass candlesticks. If she had only noticed them she +would have had time--would not, perhaps, have had this terror at her +heart. + +"It may have been tied," she said coolly; "and something may have +dropped out when it fell. I'll light the candles and see." Then as she +came forward with them in her hand, the deadly anxiety in her would +brook no delay, and she asked, "Do you miss anything?" + +"I do not know--I have not the least notion what it was supposed +to contain; but this seems only to be an entry of births, +marriages----Great heavens! are you ill?" For Mrs. Vane, who had +stooped down on pretence of searching the floor, but in reality to +hide her intense relief, was standing as if petrified, her face white +as death. + +"Nothing," she gasped, with an attempt at composure--"the strain, I +suppose--it is foolish." + +More than foolish, she told herself. It was perfectly insensate of her +not to have remembered the custom of entering such items in the family +Bible; and now she might unwittingly have given away the information +she was attempting to conceal. If so, it would be better for her to +know at once. + +"Such registers contain many secrets," she began, when a look of +curiosity in Dr. Kennedy's eyes made her pause. + +"Secrets," he echoed; "why should there be any? though there is one in +a way," he added, holding out the paper to her. It was the last entry +to which he pointed, and it ran thus: "Jeanie Duncan, born 17th April, +18--; married----; died 20th August, 18--." "A sad blank that," he +continued, adding, after a pause: "Perhaps the other letter may be +more important." + +Perhaps it might be, and Mrs. Vane, as she waited, felt her breath +coming fast and short. It seemed an eternity of time until once more +he held something out for her to read, and turning silently to where +the dead woman lay, drew the sheet tenderly over the worn face. "The +irony of fate, indeed," he murmured as she read:-- + + +"Dear Madam,--We have to advise you of the death of our esteemed +client, Mr. John Duncan, of Melbourne, Australia, and to inform you +that under his will you, as his widow, come into property amounting to +close on L100,000." + + +Mrs. Vane's hand holding the letter fell to her side, and Dr. +Kennedy's voice said gravely: + +"Strange, isn't it, that the letter was never opened? All that money, +and a pauper's death----" + +The voice was his, but it might have been the accusing angel's for the +effect it had on Violet Vane. She gave one step forward, her arms +outstretched as if for pity, and with a little cry sank to her knees. +Her head was pillowed on the old woman's breast when Dr. Kennedy, +catching her as she fell, found that she had fainted, and +anathematised himself as a consummate ass for taking her at her own +estimation. Plucky as she was, the contrast had been too sharp. Life +and Death--Poverty and Riches. The whole gamut of harmonies and +discords lay in these words. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + +Mrs. Vane being one of those heaven-sent pivots or jewels, without +which the wheels of society are apt to come to a standstill, it was +only natural that her sudden collapse, joined to the general +depression which invariably follows on a country house entertainment, +should have reduced the inmates of Gleneira to a condition of blank +discontent. To tell truth, a large proportion of them had reasonable +cause for a vague uneasiness, if not for actual discomfort, though +Lady George wrinkled her high, white forehead in tragic perplexity +over some of the resulting phenomena. + +"Of course," she said at lunch, "I was quite prepared that the cook +should give warning. They always do when they have worked hard, and, +really, the supper left nothing to be desired; besides, it is an empty +form when we are all going away next week. But why the housemaid +should want a new set of brushes _to-day_, when she knows I have to +send to Glasgow for them; and why Ean, the boy--such a good-looking +boy, too--who cleans the boots, should demand an immediate rise in +wages, I cannot think." + +"What's enough for one ain't enough for two," broke in Eve from her +sago pudding, with an indescribable twang and a semi-sentimental air. +"Mary's going to marry him; he asked her in the boot hole when the +piper was playing the 'Blue Bells of Scotland' in the kitching. The +thought of her 'ighland laddie bein' gone was too much for her +feelinks, so she accepted him, and he gave her a kiss." + +"Eve!" cried her mother, in horrified accents, "don't say such +things." + +"But it's true, ducksie mummie," retorted the young lady, unabashed. +"Mary said so. We heard her telling nurse, didn't we, Adam?" + +"Yes, we did, Evie; and nursie said----" + +"Paul!" cried Lady George, in desperation, "you might give the +children some of that trifle before you; it won't hurt them once in a +way. And I really think it was too bad of the Hookers to bring the +piper to the ball, after my making such a point of his not coming to +the play. I call it most unneighbourly." + +"My dear Blanche," protested Paul, "what is the use of being a rich +Highland proprietor if you don't have a piper, and what is the use of +having a piper if he mayn't play at functions? You agree with me, +don't you, Miss Woodward?" + +Alice, looking dainty in the elaborate simplicity of a Paris +_batiste_, agreed with a smile, as she had learnt to do as a matter of +course whenever he chose to make these little appeals for sympathy, +with their underlying suggestion of a common future. He was really +very handsome and charming; everything a girl could desire in a +husband. + +"It is all very well for you to talk of functions," continued his +sister, in aggrieved tones, "but the question is, what is a function? +Marriages, of course, and, I suppose, funerals; but that reminds me. +We really must have that projected picnic to the old burying-ground +this week. I want Mr. Woodward to see it, and he was talking of London +this morning." + +The end of the sentence was prompted by that desire of the hostess to +see her team of guests working fairly together for their own good, +which Lady George felt to be a part of her duty, and the guest thus +challenged had not opened his mouth since he sate down, except to fill +it with cold beef and pickles, which he swallowed gloomily, like a man +who, having missed his connection, is trying to while away the time +before the next train in the refreshment room. + +"You are very kind," he said, in sepulchral tones, "but the +method in which Her Majesty's mails are delivered--or rather not +delivered, in this place, renders it necessary that I should +return at once. Just before lunch I received a letter which, I give +you my honour, had been mislaid in the post-bag--a most important +letter--a--a most---- However, as I was to have told you after lunch, +I--I feel it my duty--but, of course, this--er--will not make any +change in--in plans." + +He glanced comprehensively at his daughter, and Paul Macleod, seated +at the bottom of the table, felt as if the guard had come into the +refreshment room and said, "Time up, gentleman!" The closing scene of +the comedy was close at hand, and though he was quite prepared for it, +he still objected to the _force majeure_ which compelled him to go +through with it; just as he objected to that other restraint which the +knowledge of his absurd feeling for Marjory brought with it. The whole +position irritated him to the last degree, and in one and the same +breath he told himself that he wished the business were over, and that +it had never begun. And yet, when he and Alice, in strolling round the +garden together, found themselves among the orange blossoms, he grew +quite sentimental. The heavy perfume and, artificial atmosphere seemed +to suit the growth of his physical content. Then, courteous by nature +to all women, he had already felt that this girl had a stronger claim +on his consideration than others, and this feeling produced just that +calm, continual attention which suited her lack of sentiment. There +was nothing in it to disturb her placidity or shake the quiet +conviction that in deciding on Gleneira and its owner she was +distinctly doing her duty by everybody, herself included. For Jack had +apparently acquiesced in her decision; at least, he wrote quite +cheerfully from Riga. So she listened contentedly to the covert +lovemaking which long experience had made so easy to Paul Macleod, +provided his companion had a decent share of good looks. In fact, one +of his chief causes of irritation in regard to Marjory was that he +never had the slightest desire to flirt with her. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Vane remained in her room by Dr. Kennedy's orders, who, +to tell truth, was rather surprised to find how severe a shock her +nervous system had sustained. When, in consequence of a little note +saying that if he would so far forego his holiday as to take her for a +patient, she would far rather see an old friend than a strange doctor, +he had gone over to see her, he had found her far worse than he had +expected. The truth being that she was in a fever of excitement to +know whether he suspected anything, and to hear all the particulars of +this strange bequest to poor old Peggy. If she had only known what the +long blue envelope had contained, she would not have advised the delay +in opening it, which had led to the poor old soul dying a pauper's +death, dying with bitter thoughts in her heart of the world she was +leaving. Mrs. Vane would have liked to tell so much to the doctor as a +sort of salve to her conscience, but she did not dare to do this. +There was a certain packet of letters locked away in her dressing-case +which forbade her risking the least inquiry. Yet she could not refrain +from asking if any other papers had been found which--which threw any +light---- + +Dr. Kennedy, noting the nervous intertwining of her fingers, made a +mental note of bromide for the prescription he intended writing, and +then set himself quietly to tell her all he knew, just as if he were +exhibiting another sedative. The somewhat romantic aspects of the case +had evidently excited her imagination, and it would do her good to +talk over it soberly. + +"Then there were no other papers, after all," she said, with a sigh of +relief. "You seemed surprised at the time, I remember, but now you are +satisfied." + +"I must be--no one could have taken them, and I certainly did not drop +anything from my pocket when I went to fetch help, for I have been +over the ground this morning. Besides, she only gave me two +things--the envelope and something else. I certainly thought it was a +bundle of letters, but I must have been mistaken." + +"But there was no entry in the register, was there, which would +account for old Peggy's anxiety that you should have it?" persisted +Mrs. Vane, with a little hurry in her breath. + +"None. Except that she had something on her mind always, I feel sure, +regarding that unfortunate daughter of hers. She never behaved +naturally to little Paul; and now, of course, it is doubtful if he +will get the money. I must see the lawyers about it as I go through +Edinburgh. If old Peggy had only lived to make a will----" + +Mrs. Vane rose from her pillow and looked him full in the face, with a +startled expression. + +"You mean she would have had the power to leave it to him." + +"Yes, apparently she would have, to judge by the will. You had better +lie down again, Mrs. Vane! So--quite flat, please." + +He chose out the smelling salts unerringly, as if he knew all +about such things, from the bevy of silver-topped bottles on the +dressing-table, and when he saw her colour returning, went back with +the same certainty, apparently, of finding sal volatile or red +lavender. + +"Chloral!" he said, turning to her quickly as he smelt at a bottle. +"You mustn't take that, Mrs. Vane. I forbid it, and I expect you to +obey orders." + +A touch of her own airy, charming wilfulness showed on her face as she +looked at him while he stood dropping something into a glass for her +to take. "I won't--not while you are here." + +"Nor when I am gone, I hope. It isn't worth it--Pauline." + +She gave him an odd look, then buried her face in the pillow and began +to sob. Inarticulate, hysterical sobbing about Pauline--or was it +Paul? Dr. Kennedy could not be sure. + +"She is utterly upset; a case of complete nervous prostration," he +said, as he was leaving, in answer to Captain Macleod's eager +inquiries. "I don't wonder, for she works herself to death to make +things pleasant for everybody. Don't let them worry her by going to +sit with her, and that sort of thing. She is best alone. Or, if you +could spare ten minutes or so this afternoon--I've told her to get up +for a little change--she would like it, I know. She is very fond of +you." + +"We are such old friends," put in Paul, quickly. "And she has sate up +with _me_ often enough, God knows. I shouldn't be alive but for her. +Of course, I will go." + +"Talk of old times, then. It will make her forget the present, and +that will be good for her." + +So Paul went up with the afternoon tea tray and a bunch of jasmine, +which he had been down to the garden to gather, and talked about old +times in his softest voice, while Mrs. Vane sate and listened in the +big chair by the window. And she cheered up so much under the +treatment, that he sent the maid down for another plate of bread and +butter. + +It was very pleasant, but whether, as the unconscious suggester of the +entertainment had said, it was good for her, was another matter, +though, in a way, it relieved her nervous strain by making her more +certain of what she was going to do. Of one thing there could be no +doubt--the man who sate and talked to her, who forestalled her every +want, must not suffer. Paul must be saved, somehow, and so, for the +present, no one must know of that marriage certificate hidden in her +dressing-case, which would, if it were genuine, give Gleneira to Peggy +Duncan's grandson. Perhaps, after all, he would get his father's +money, and if so, a hundred thousand pounds would be enough for +anyone. Why should he rob Paul--her handsome, kindly Paul--of his +birthright? Of course, in one way that would make matters smooth for +her, since his engagement would certainly come to an end if he ceased +to be a Highland proprietor. The Woodwards would, in that case, never +hear of its being fulfilled. But it would give him such pain, and she +was not selfish enough to gain her own pleasure at such a price, if it +could be avoided. She was Paul's friend, his true friend, and she +would take the responsibility of concealing this thing for the +present; for ever, if need be. And then she gave up thinking, and took +to dreaming of what life would be if they two lived at Gleneira. They +would not be dull; men were never dull with her. He had not been dull +that afternoon when they had sate and talked. Ah! how pleasant it had +been, and surely to gain such content, both for him and for her, it +was allowable to conceal those letters for a time--only for a time? + +And while they were talking upstairs, Lady George had been +entertaining a solitary visitor in the drawing-room, the rest of the +party having gone out to take luncheon to the shooters on the hill. +This was the Reverend James Gillespie--who had come with a strict +attention to those trivialities of etiquette, which the Bishop had +often assured him should be a distinguishing mark of those set up to +teach the people--to inquire for the ladies after their fatigues. Now, +Lady George _was_ fatigued, hence, indeed, the fact that she had +remained at home; and there is no doubt that she said, "Bother the +man!" when first informed that the Reverend James was in the +drawing-room. Then the love of posing came to her rescue. Here she +was, alone, wearied out, unable to go forth and enjoy herself. What an +opportunity for patient unselfishness! Besides, it was tea-time; she +could have the children down and provoke that ardent admiration of her +system which the Reverend James extended to everything at Gleneira. + +"Tell nurse to let Miss Eve and Master Adam have tea with me," she +said, as she swept downstairs. "I expect Master Blasius has not been a +good boy; in fact, I am sure he hasn't, but he can have jam in the +nursery. He will like that just as well." + +Unfortunately, it is never safe for a grown-up to predicate the +thoughts of a child. Perhaps, because something may strike the opening +mind as novel, or desirable, which the mature one has tried and found +wanting. Be that as it may, ten minutes after Adam and Eve had left +the nursery spick and span, hand-in-hand, Blazes was captured for the +fifth time on his way down the stairs in that curious succession of +bumps and slides, which was his favourite method of progression. And +the look of determination on his round, broad, good-natured face was +not in the least shaken by nurse's vehement upbraidings. + +"There ain't no use talkin' to 'im when he's like that," she said, +aside to Mary; "and he ain't a bit cross or naughty--look at 'im +smilin' be'ind my back--but my tea I must 'ave in peace an' quiet. So +into bed 'e goes, tucked up without 'is nighty, an' a bit of sugar to +suck. The joke of it'll keep 'im quiet a bit." + +Apparently, it did, for he lay in the night nursery chuckling to +himself, that "Blazeths wath a pore 'ickle beggar boy wif no thoes or +'tockings, an' no thirt to hith back," until nurse, sympathising with +the sentimental Mary, forgot to be vigilant. + +Meanwhile, Adam, in his green plush Vandyck suit, and Eve in a smock +to match, were seated, with decorously still tan legs, at the +tea-table, eating thin bread-and-butter daintily. + +"It is most gratifying," the Reverend James was remarking, in his most +professional manner, "to--to see such good children as yours, Lady +George. It is a lesson in the art of education." + +"It is most gratifying to hear one's parish priest say so, Mr. +Gillespie," she replied, with meek dignity; "but, as you know, I make +it a study. I devote myself to them. I feel that one cannot too soon +recognise the sanctity, the individuality of the soul, the human +rights which these little ones share equally with us. Equally, did I +say? Nay, in fuller measure, since they are nearer Heaven than we +are--since they are pure and innocent, with better rights than ours to +happiness." + +The Reverend James cleared his throat. There was a flavour of +unorthodoxy about the latter part of these remarks which, in the +present position of spiritual authority to which Lady George had +exalted him, he could scarcely pass over. + +"It is a fallen humanity we must not forget, my dear lady," he began; +"these children----" + +Lady George's maternal pride flashed up; besides she was beginning to +get a little tired of the Reverend James. + +"I see very few signs of fallen humanity about mine," she interrupted. + +"But, my dear lady, you must remember also that your children have +privileges--they are baptized and regenerate--they are not in a state +of nature--Good Heavens, my dear lady! what is the matter?" + +The Gorgon's stony stare was genial in comparison with poor Blanche's +look of petrification. + +"Blasius!" she cried, starting to her feet, "go away! go away at +once." + +But Blasius had no such intention. He advanced with a confidential nod +to his mother, a perfect picture of sturdy, healthy, naked babyhood; +beautiful in its curves and dimples. + +"Blazeth's a pore 'ickle beggar boy wif no thoes or 'tockings +or---- Oh, mummie! that tickles awful!" + +The mellow chant ended abruptly, for Lady George had dashed at him +with an Algerian antimacassar, and now held him in her arms, trying +hard to be grave. She might have succeeded but for the Reverend +James's face of bland concern. That finished her, and she gave up the +struggle in a peal of laughter, in which her companion tried to join +feebly. + +"Bring Master Blasius' flannel dressing-gown, please," she said, when +nurse, full of explanations and excuses, flew in in a flurry; "that +and the antimacassar will keep him warm, and he can have his tea with +me." + +This incident, however, made it quite impossible for her to continue +the role she had been playing before. How could she? with Blasius +huddled up on her lap, eating bread and jam between his attempts to +count his bare toes; an arithmetical problem which he insisted on +solving, despite her efforts with the antimacassar. Not that the +necessity for change mattered, since she had a variety of other parts +to fall back upon, and so, being slightly bored by the Reverend +James's failure to respond, and evident disposition to remain +the spiritual director, she assumed that of Great Lady and +Helper-in-General to her world. In which character, she gave it as her +opinion that all parish clergymen should be married--if only in order +to make them understand children, and grasp the true bearings of the +education question. + +Whereat he blushed violently, and five minutes afterwards had confided +his hopes regarding Marjory to his hostess's sympathising ears. +Nothing could be more suitable, she told him; in fact, the idea had +occurred to her before, and she had no doubt that he would bring his +suit to a successful issue. Only, as a woman of the world who had seen +more of life than he had, she would advise a little boldness, a trifle +more self-assertion. His position, she said, was really an excellent +one on the whole, and she need hardly say that both she and her +brother would welcome Mrs. Gillespie as one of themselves. + +So, with a complete reversal of their mutual positions, they parted, +and the Reverend James as he walked home, full of blushes and budding +hopes, told himself that since Lady George agreed with the Bishop it +was time he bestirred himself. The picnic at the old burying-ground +would afford him an excellent opportunity of proposing, and if he made +up his mind definitely on that point, it would make him less nervous. + +So when he reached home he went to the calendar of the daily lesson, +which hung by his bed, and ticked off the five days remaining to him, +just as schoolboys tick off their holidays. Five days--and then--yes! +then he would ask Marjory to marry him. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + +A morning in late September on a Highland loch. How good it is to be +there! The centre just rippled with crisp waves, while shorewards the +rocks show mirrored clearly in the smooth water, each bunch of russet +bracken or tuft of yellow bent almost more brilliant in the reflection +than the reality. The hills free from haze, standing like sentinels, +solid and firm; the wild cherry leaves aping the scarlet of the rowan +berries, the birch trees beginning to drop their golden bribe into the +still, emerald laps of the mossy hollows, as if seeking to buy the +secret of perpetual summer. + +A scene where it is meet to put off the travel-stained shoes which +have borne our feet along the trivial round, the common tasks of life, +and go back to the bare feet of simple pleasure. The pleasure of +children on the seashore, of young lambs in a blossoming meadow. + +Yet there was an air of conscious effort, a virtuous look of duty on +many of the faces which assembled at the boat-house in order to be +ferried over to the other side of the loch, whence the ascent to the +old burying-ground was to be made. + +The shadow of coming separation lay upon most of the party; on none +more than Tom Kennedy, who had filched a few extra hours of Marjory's +companionship from the Great Enemy by scorning the mail cart in favour +of a solitary walk over the crest of Ben Morven to the nearest coach, +the place settled on for the picnic being so far on his way. And she, +though all unconscious of the keen pain at his heart, felt vaguely +that she would miss the touch of his kind hand, the sound of his kind +voice more than ever now, now that it seemed the only thing remaining +of the old calm confidence. Lady George was a prey to a thousand +cares, beginning with the lunch and culminating in the certainty that +some one of the three children--whom her husband had insisted on +bringing--would be drowned; just at the last, too, when she had +brought them safely through all the dangers of Gleneira, for they and +their nurse were to start by the early boat next morning. But the day +was indeed to be a fateful one, for was not this Paul's last chance of +speaking to Alice? and did not Mrs. Woodward, for all her conspicuous +calm, show to the watchful eye that she also was aware of the fact? +Paul himself showed nothing; but, then, he was always exasperatingly +cool when a little touch of excitement would, on the whole, be +pleasing. + +But of all the faces that of the Reverend James Gillespie displayed +the sense of duty most clearly, and what Paul lacked in animation he +made up for in sheer restlessness, since the time had come when he +must carry out his intention and ask Marjory Carmichael to marry him. +If only because it would be advisable to set up house at the November +term, when they would have a chance of furnishing cheaply and of +getting a good servant. So he wandered about in a fuss, alternately +trying to make an opportunity, and then flying from it, until Paul, +always observant, began to wonder what was up, and then, chancing upon +one of the bashful lover's bolder attempts, swore under his breath at +the fellow's impudence. Tom Kennedy was a gentleman, and Marjory, with +her iceberg of a heart would be happy enough in his keeping by and +bye; but this rampant, red-faced fool! And then he laughed, thinking +suddenly, causelessly, of a certain little face, looking very winsome +despite its weariness, which would have laughed too; for Mrs. Vane had +somehow failed to rally from the shock of old Peggy's death with her +usual elasticity, and was still in her room visible only to a favoured +few, Paul amongst the number. Only that morning she had looked at him +with her pretty, quizzical eyes and met his offer to escort her so far +on her southward journey with the remark that by that time he would no +longer be his own master. + +And it was true. Before he rowed across the loch again his future +would be settled, he would be Alice Woodward's Highland proprietor. + +"Your left, please, Miss Carmichael," he said, giving stroke with a +longer swing; "there is a nice, comfortable landing-place just beyond +the white stone, and I hate getting my feet wet, even in helping +ladies to keep theirs dry." + +"But we shall miss----" began Marjory. + +"Do as you're bid, my dear," put in Will Cameron, resignedly, from the +bow; "haven't you learnt by this time that the laird knows where he +wants to steer and sticks to it? After all, it saves a lot of trouble +to others." + +"Right you are!" assented Paul, gaily; "your left, please; not so much +as that; thank you! I've no desire to find the sunken rocks." + +The words were light, and a boat-load of people were listening to +them; yet Marjory, guiding the tiller ropes, felt that they were +spoken for her ear alone; that she and Paul were face to face, as they +so often were before his future, and the fact annoyed her. Yet, as +they stepped out on the little causeway of rock jutting forward like a +peer, the waves blab, blabbing upon its sides, reminded her of the +evening when she had sate listening to them and Paul had come along +the shore behind her, like another St. Christopher, bearing the burden +of the world's immortality--its childhood. + +"Tom," she said, in a low voice, turning to him in swift appeal, why +she knew not, "let us get away from all this; we might go along the +point and look for clams, as we used to do. Remember, it is the last I +shall see of you; so don't talk about manners and being wanted; don't +think of what other people think." + +She spoke petulantly, but there were sudden tears in her eyes. Yet as +they moved off together neither of then realised that a fateful moment +had come and gone; that the trivial words covered an unconscious +revolt of one side of her woman's nature against the other, and that +if, instead of hunting clams like a couple of children, he had taken +her hand and told her the truth of love and marriage, as he had seen +it in life, she would have turned instinctively from the world's +apotheosis of passion, and so have found a compass to guide her out of +danger; but Tom Kennedy, being conscious that he himself was once more +under the glamour which had come and gone many times already even in +his sober life, could not find it in his heart to decry it utterly. So +they stalked clams instead, advancing on tiptoe over the wet sand with +eyes alert for every sign of an air-hole, and then pouncing like a cat +on a mouse to seize the collapsing tube before it sank down, down, +into the depths of gravel where even finger nails could not follow it. +And to them, as they laughed and hunted, came the Reverend James, +restless as ever, yet showing to advantage in a sport which he had +practised from his barefoot childhood. + +It was good to see his fair, florid face come up red with smug triumph +from each dive as he added another clam to the heap, until Marjory +forgot everything else in emulation, and Tom Kennedy, smiling at her +eagerness, sate down to a cigarette beside Lord George, who, engaged +in the same business, was watching the children paddle in the +shallows. + +A silent, yet sympathetic audience were these two men of middle age, +smiling to themselves over the gay voices and childish sallies. Over +Eve's eleventh ineffectual attempt to swallow an oyster which would +have been successful if Adam hadn't made her laugh; over Marjory's +indignant claim to a clam, which, during the dispute, disappeared for +ever. Smiling, too, over Blasius' solemn face as he informed daddy +that there was a "big crawly wild beast down there wif wobbly legs, +and Blazeths wanted daddy's hand. Blazeths wathn't afwaid, but he +wanted daddy's hand." + +The incoming tide was drowning the round brown heads of the boulders +out on the far point, as those two red ones, so curiously alike, bent +over the "wild beast wif wobbly legs," which Adam and Eve, with +wide-eyed superiority, said was nothing but a crab, a tiny crab! A +heron, driven from its last inch of seaweed, flapped slowly across the +bay, its trailing feet almost touching the water, and the sea-pyots +circled screaming round the invaders of their happy hunting-ground. In +the bend of the bay beneath a clump of alders showed a cluster of gay +dresses busy about a tablecloth, and above them, in wooded curves +merging into sheer slopes of rock and bent, rose Ben Morven. Half-way +up, right in the open, a single holly tree, like a black shadow, +marking the turn to the old burying-ground. Lord George came back from +the wild beast with a sober face, and eyes still watching that little +red head, bent now over a stick with which the wobbly legs were being +boldly prodded to a walk. + +"Queer start, children--aren't they?" he remarked confidentially, as +he lit another cigarette. "I never thought of it before I married, +give you my word. I suppose men don't--more's the pity." He gave a +glance at his companion's face, and went on with more assurance: "You +see no one ever talks of the paternal instinct; the women are supposed +to have it all their own way, in the maternal business, and it's a +shame, for a man needs that sort of thing more than they do. A woman +can't be done out of her motherhood, but a man loses everything except +a passing pleasure if he doesn't keep straight. Look at that boy, +Kennedy! He is the very moral of me, and I had to whack him the other +day. Well, I assure you, that I felt for the first time in my life +that I was immortal--that I had a stake in time and eternity. Why +don't they teach us this when we are young? Why don't they say +something about it in the marriage service, instead of letting a +couple of young fools undertake responsibilities for which they are +not fit?" + +Tom Kennedy shook his head. "Because we are not brave enough to face +our own instincts and call a spade a spade. I served a few years in +India once, and Hindooism is, I think, the only religion which sets +personal feelings aside utterly; and there the idea has been overlaid +with a horrible sensuality. Though on the whole it is not more +sickening than our artificial sentiment. But it's a weary subject. +Everyone talks of it, and yet no one cares to go back to the +beginning; to give up the romance----" + +His eyes wandered to Marjory, and he was silent. It was true. When all +was said and done he craved for it. + +"Well," remarked Lord George, judgmatically, after a pause, "there is +something wrong, somewhere. Take my own case. I married, as most +fellows do, to please myself, without a thought of the consequences. +And though, of course, some romance is necessary to make a man give up +his club and undertake the responsibility of a boy like Blazes--Good +Lord! and I promised his mother to keep him out of mischief!" + +The last words being evoked by the sight of his youngest born prone on +his back kicking madly in six inches of water, with the crab attached +to his big toe. + +"I wanted it to come a walk wif Blazeths," he wailed pathetically; +"and it bited Blazeths instead, with a wobbly leg." + +"I knew how it would be, George," said his wife, with patient dignity, +when the culprits appeared before her. "But you are so self-confident. +You are always undertaking responsibilities for which Nature has not +fitted you. Give him to nurse, and cut the cucumber, do--there's a +good boy." + +Lord George shot a queer glance at Dr. Kennedy, and did as he was bid; +as most people did when Blanche put on her superior manner. + +"And, Dr. Kennedy," she continued, "I want you to do something for me. +The Hookers have brought--no! I don't mean the piper, George, though +they have brought him--not that it matters so much, for I have told +John Macpherson to keep him in the 'Tubhaneer,' which is anchored in +the stream, so he can do no harm, and the pipes will sound nice over +the water--No, Dr. Kennedy, it is a German professor, very +distinguished, but none of the Hooker party speak German. George will, +of course, take him in tow by and bye, being in the Foreign Office; +but just now, I thought--if you would not mind. Thanks, so much! it +always looks well to have more than one linguist. At present, I have +sent him to admire the view with Major Bertie, who says 'wunderschoen' +at intervals; but that can't last long, you know." + +"My dear Blanche, you are as good as a play!" protested her husband, +convulsed with laughter, at her unconscious mimicry, and even Dr. +Kennedy found it hard to keep his countenance over her innocent +surprise. Yet he was in no mood for amusement, and his face showed it +when, lunch being over, he drew out his watch, and looked meaningly to +Marjory. + +"Is it time?" she asked, with a sudden sinking of the heart. + +"Quite time," echoed Paul, coolly, from his place by Alice Woodward; +"that is to say, if we are to be back to tea. It is a longer pull than +it looks. Now, good people! who is for the burying-ground? You are +coming, of course, Miss Woodward; I want you to see all the beauties +of Gleneira, and the view is splendid." + +The Reverend James, who had made up his mind that the descent, when +Marjory should have lost her natural escort, would be the very time +for his purpose, stood up manfully, and Major Bertie, under orders for +the time being to the athletic daughter of a neighbouring laird, +followed suit; but the rest, for the most part, declined what they +stigmatised as a gruesome invitation. The pull was not only long but +stiff, especially after lunch, and the view from below, enhanced by +idleness and a quiet cigar, good enough for them. + +So it was a small single file which, led by Paul, and brought up by +John Macpherson with the whiskey flask in case of accidents, toiled up +through the fern brakes, till half-way up the hill they struck the +path, and paused for breath beside a spring roughly set in masonry. +Beside it lay a pile of broken broomsticks, one of which Alice +Woodward took up, intending to use it as a staff. + +"It will be the staves they are using to carry the coffins," remarked +old John, cheerfully, as he wiped his forehead with his coat sleeve; +"it is breaking them they are when they come down, at the wishing +well; and the lassies will come with them to wish for a jo---- Ay! ay! +it will be what they were using for old Peggy that the leddy will be +choosing, for it's new whatever." + +Alice dropped the stick with a little shiver of disgust, and Paul +moved on impatiently, while John, in reply to a query from the Major, +went on from behind in garrulous tones, "Ou, ay! it is a job, +whatever, but it's most the auld bodies like Peggy that's wantin' to +come to the auld place, and they're fine and light; all but the old +_bodach_, Angus MacKinnon, and by 'sunder he will be a job when his +turn comes, for he's as big as a stirk. Ay! ay! as big as a stirk, +whatever." + +"There! is not that worth the climb?" cried Paul, with a ring of real +pleasure in his voice which Marjory remembered so well on many a +similar occasion, as they reached the twin holly trees--sacred to an +older cult than that which had prompted the selection of a burial site +whence Iona might sometimes be seen--and sank down upon the short +thyme-set turf to admire the view. + +"We are in luck!" cried Marjory, breathlessly. "Look! yonder is Iona." + +Out on the verge, between the golden sea and the golden sky, lay a +faint purple cloud no bigger than a man's hand. + +"But why Iona?" asked Alice Woodward. "I mean why did they want to be +buried in sight of it?" + +"As a perpetual witness to their faith when they could no longer +profess it, I suppose," said Tom Kennedy. "I like the idea." + +"Would be rather difficult to carry out in Kensal Green, I should +say," put in Paul, lightly. "It wouldn't do to bury by belief +nowadays." + +"But, surely," protested the Reverend James, "the Church custom of +burying towards the east is strictly enforced in all English +cemeteries." He might as well have kept silence as far as those +three--who by chance were sitting together--were concerned, for their +thoughts were far ahead of him. + +"I don't know," replied Dr. Kennedy, absently, "I think a broad +division would suffice. Those who hope--not necessarily for themselves +personally--and those who don't. And most of us, who care to think at +all, look 'sunward,' as Myers says, 'through the mist, and speak to +each other softly of a hope.'" + +"A mistake," broke in Paul's clearer voice. "It is better to thank +with brief thanksgiving 'Whatever gods there be, that no life lives +for ever----'" + +"Finish the quotation, please," put in Marjory, quickly. "'That e'en +the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.' What more can anyone +want?" She stretched her hand, as she spoke, to the glitter and gleam +on the far horizon, and then turned with a smile to her companions. +"And this is the sunniest spot in the whole glen--the first to +get the light, and the last to lose it. I couldn't wish for a better +resting-place." + +"I should prefer the society of a cemetery," remarked Paul; "one's +tombstone would not be so detestably conspicuous as it would be up +here. Imagine it--Macleod of Gleneira, etc., etc.!" + +"Why should you have a tombstone at all?" asked the girl, lightly. "I +hate them; horrid, unsatisfactory things, full of texts that have +nothing to do with you, yourself." + +"Well," put in Major Bertie, who had just returned from a tour of +inspection, "there's an epitaph up there, which, as the Americans say, +wraps round everything, and makes discontent impossible--'To John +Stewart, his ancestors and descendants.' That ought to satisfy you, +Miss Carmichael; or you might compose your own curious derangement, +like a fellow I knew in the regiment--classical sort of chap. He used +to write the most touching things, and weep over them profusely. Got +blown up in the Arsenal one day, and didn't need any of them. It's a +fact, Macleod. Before your time. So, if you have a fancy that way, +Miss Carmichael----" + +"I'll note it in my will," she replied evasively; then, hearing a low +voice beside her quoting the lines beginning, "He is beyond the shadow +of night," she turned to Paul in quick surprise. + +"I have the knack of reading your thoughts, you see, though I don't +share them," he said quietly, adding in a lower tone: "And now, +Kennedy, I hurry no man's cattle, but if you are to catch that coach +you should be going, especially if Miss Carmichael is to see you to +the top of the ridge." + +The inexpressible charm, which was his by nature, born of a gracious +remembrance of other folk's interest, was on him as he spoke, and +contrasted sharply with the lack of it in the Reverend James +Gillespie, who jumped to his feet in a moment in a desperate resolve. + +"If you like, Miss Marjory, I will go so far, and escort you back." + +Paul looked at him distastefully from head to foot, and Dr. Kennedy +frowned, and set the suggestion aside decisively. "Thanks, Gillespie, +but I have some business to talk over with my ward. Good-bye, Macleod, +and thanks--for many kindnesses." + +"Good-bye, and--and good luck! Miss Woodward, if you don't mind, I +think we ought to be starting tea-wards. The downward path is easy, +but there are plenty of beauties to admire on the way. I am always too +much out of breath to do so on the upward path. Excelsior is not my +motto." + +Yet as they paused at the first turn he looked back towards the two +figures cresting the rise, and remarked easily to his companion that +Miss Carmichael was quite a picture on the hillside, and walked like a +shepherd. And then, as easily, he proposed taking a _detour_ through a +nut wood, and so by a path he knew back to the beach. + +"Alice would like a cup of tea, please; she is rather tired," he said +to his sister, when they arrived there, and Lady George gave a little +gasp of relief. "Oh, Paul! I'm so glad! What a dear boy you are!" + +And about the same time Tom Kennedy and Marjory Carmichael stood side +by side on a neck of land connecting one range of hills with another. +The bog myrtle, crushed under their feet, sent an aromatic, +invigorating scent into the air. The fresh cool sea breeze, which had +gathered a heather perfume in its passage over the windswept moor, +blew in their faces, and a golden mist cloud, growing above the rising +shadow of the little valley on either side of them, shut out the world +below. The only sign of life, save those two standing hand in hand, +being a stone-chat twittering on a boulder, and a group of scared +sheep, waiting with backward turned heads for the next movement to +send them with a headlong rush and a clatter of stones into the mists +below. + +But none came. For those two stood silent for a time. + +"Oh, Tom!" she said at last; "was there ever anyone so good, so kind +as you are?" + +He paused a moment, looking into her tearful eyes, and something of +the earth earthy, seemed to slip from him, leaving him a clearer +vision. + +"You shall answer that question for yourself, some day, my friend," he +said. "A year hence--two years--three years. What does it matter? +_Auf-wieder-sehn!_" + +"_Auf-wieder-sehn!_" + +The echo of her own reply came back to her from the mist as she stood, +after he had gone, looking into the valley. + +_Auf-wieder-sehn!_ Yes!--to such a tie as that there could be no other +parting. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + +The Reverend James Gillespie had a certain coarse fibre in him, which +made it only natural that the snub direct he had received from Dr. +Kennedy should make him more determined than he had been before +on a _tete-a-tete_ with Marjory. Consequently, much to her disgust, +she found him solemnly waiting for her on a tombstone in the old +burying-ground. The spectacle was an irritating one. + +"Why didn't you go down with the others?" she asked crossly. "You know +quite well I didn't need--anyone." A certain politeness prevented her +employing the personal pronoun. Not that her lover would have cared, +since he came of a class in which a certain amount of shrewishness in +the wooed is not only considered correct, but, to a certain extent, +propitious. And, although he had a veneer of polish on those points +which had come into friction with his new world, love-making was not +one of them. There he was, simply the cottier's son, full of inherited +tradition in regard to rural coquetry. A fact which, at the outset, +put Marjory at a disadvantage, since he refused to take the +uncompromising hint, which she gave as soon as it dawned upon her what +his purpose really was. And yet she could hardly refuse the man before +he had asked her the momentous question. So it was with concentrated +mixture of sheer wrath and intense amusement that she suddenly found +him, as they paused by the wishing-well, on his knees before her +declaiming his passion in set terms. The disposition to box his ears +vanished in almost hysterical laughter, until the blank surprise on +his face recalled her to the fact that the man was, at any rate, +paying her the highest tribute in his power, and had a right to be +heard. But not in that ridiculous position! + +"You had better get up, Mr. Gillespie," she said peremptorily; "the +ground is quite damp, and I can hear what you have to say much better +when you are standing." + +The facts were undeniable but the prosaic interruption had checked the +flow of Mr. Gillespie's eloquence, and he stood red and stuttering +until Marjory's slender stock of patience was exhausted, and she +interrupted him, loftily: + +"I suppose you meant just now to ask me to be your wife? If that was +so----" + +Her tone roused his temper. "Such was my intention," he interrupted +sulkily. "I thought I spoke pretty plainly, and I fancy you must have +been prepared for it." + +Prepared! prepared for this!--this outrage on her girlish dreams. For +it was her first proposal. What right had this man to thrust himself +into her holy of holies and smirch the romance--the beauty of it all? +It is the feeling with which many a girl listens for the first time to +a lover. + +"Prepared!" she echoed. "Are you mad? The very idea is preposterous!" + +His face was a study. "The Bishop," he began, "and Lady George didn't +seem to--to think----" + +"Then I am to understand that you have consulted them?" she asked, in +supreme anger; but his sense of duty came to his aid and made him +bold. + +"The Bishop, of course. Apart from his spiritual authority, he has +claims upon me which I should be indeed ungrateful to ignore, and--and +it meant much to be sure of your welcome." + +The real good feeling underlying the stilted words went straight to +Marjory's sense of justice, and made her, metaphorically, pass the +Bishop. Besides, this little discussion had, as it were, taken the +personal flavour from the point at issue and left her contemptuously +tolerant, as she had been many and many a time over the Reverend +James's views of life. + +"And Lady George," she asked, categorically, magisterially; "has she +also claims to be consulted?" + +He coughed. "I rather think she broached the subject. She--she saw I +loved you." And here the man himself broke through the clerical +coating. "For I do love you. It isn't preposterous. I would do my best +to make you a good husband, and--and you could teach the school +children anything you liked." + +"The Bishop wouldn't approve of that," she replied impatiently, yet in +kinder tones. "Oh! Mr. Gillespie, it only shows how little you +understand--how little you know. You would never have dreamed of such +a thing, you and the Bishop, if you had had the least conception of +what I really am. Perhaps I had no right to call it preposterous, but +it is impossible, utterly impossible, and he ought to have seen it." + +This slur on his patron's acumen roused the young man's doggedness. "I +do not see why it should be either preposterous or impossible, unless +you love someone else." + +Then she turned and rent him, a whole torrent of indignant regret and +dislike seeming to loosen her tongue. "Love! Oh! don't dare to mention +the word. You don't understand it--it is profanation--I don't know +anything about it myself, but _this_ must be wrong. Ah! Mr. Gillespie, +for goodness sake let us talk about something else!" + +"Then I am to understand that you refuse," he began. + +"Refuse! of course I refuse." She felt she would have liked to go down +among the whole posse of people--Paul Macleod among the number, for +all she knew--who had deemed such a thing possible, and cry: "Listen! +I have refused him, do you hear? I hate him, and you, too." But the +next moment the very thought of coming amongst them, with him, as if +of her own free will, seemed to her unbearable, and she stopped short +in the headlong course downwards, which she had begun. + +"I suppose you couldn't help it," she said, with a catch in her +breath, "and it is very kind of you, of course, and I am obliged and +all that; but if you wouldn't mind leaving me I should prefer it. I +don't want any tea, thanks; all I want is to get home." + +"I--I am sorry," he stammered, utterly taken aback. + +"Oh, don't be sorry!" she interrupted; "it has nothing to do with you, +I assure you. Only it is so strange at first. Good-bye." + +She was off at a dignified walk, with her head in the air, in an +opposite direction before he had recovered from his mingled surprise +and consternation at the effect his proposal had had on her. At any +rate, she had not been indifferent, and this thought bringing a +certain consolation with it, he made his way down to the picnic party, +and was soon recovering his equanimity over scones and jam. + +Marjory, on the other hand, felt her indignation grow as she hurried +along, regardless of briars and brakes, to the shore beyond the +Narrowest, where, out of sight of the others, she might hope to find a +boat which would ferry her across the loch. + +She found one, but hardly what she desired, since, as she made her way +through the alder brakes to a projecting rock, she saw the "Tubhaneer" +lying close in, with Paul Macleod and Alice Woodward in the stern, +while her brother and two of the children were lolling about in the +bows. They had been amusing themselves by tacking lazily about in the +slack water. + +She would have beaten a quick retreat had not Paul's eye been quicker +and a swift turn of the rudder shown her that she was observed. + +"Oh, don't trouble," she called, "I only want to get across, and I'll +find one of the rowing boats about, I expect." + +"They are above," he called back; "the tide is running out fast now, +so I sent them to the upper bay. Just step on the further rock, if you +can, and I'll run her up to it for a second." + +There was something in the easy familiarity and decision of his manner +which always soothed her into reasonable compliance, and the next +minute she found herself apologising to Alice Woodward as the bellying +sail slanted them across the loch. + +"Oh, Alice won't mind," said Paul, cheerfully; "she likes sailing, +don't you, Alice?" + +Marjory looked at them, as they looked at each other, and was silent. + +So that was settled. And that again was Love. Love and Marriage! What +a ghastly farce it was when you came close to it! + +"I'm sorry Kennedy has gone," remarked Paul, with his eyes on her +face; "he is one of the best fellows I ever met. We shall have to +tack, Sam; the tide is too strong." + +Even so; the uncertain breeze failing ere they reached the slack +water, they missed the landing-stage by a few yards and drifted into +the shallow, seaweedy bay below. But Paul was over the side, knee-deep +among the boulders, ere Marjory could expostulate. "Steady her a bit, +Sam, you can get a grip on that oarweed. Now then, Miss Carmichael, if +you please; I'm a duffer at steering, but I can lift you across +easily, if you'll allow me--thanks." + +She would have preferred to wade but for the opposition it would have +provoked, and when, after a few slippery strides, he set her down on +the shingle, turned to go with the briefest of acknowledgments. + +"Wait a bit, please," he said, quietly. "Alice, I must see Miss +Carmichael past the gate. MacInnes' bull is loose, and he isn't always +quite canny. I'll be back in a minute. Keep the helm in, Sam, and +don't let her drift; the current runs like a mill race round the +point." + +They were already well over the soft, sea-pink set turf; Marjory +walking fast, with heightened colour. + +"There is really no need for you to keep Miss Woodward waiting," she +said impatiently. "I am quite accustomed to take care of myself." + +"Alice will not mind." + +Alice! Was he so eager for her to realise the new position that he +must needs enforce the knowledge of it upon her in this fashion? + +"I am glad Miss Woodward does not mind. I should." + +"I am perfectly aware of that--you have not her philosophic +acquiescence in the inevitable. It is a pity, for you fret yourself +needlessly over people--who are not worth it." + +Was he not worth it? The thought made her walk faster, until a sudden +cry from behind made her companion pause and look back hastily. + +"Good God! they'll be on the rocks," he cried, as, without an +instant's delay, he dashed across the sward down to the shore, +followed closely by Marjory, whose heart throbbed with sudden fear as +she realised what had occurred. The boat which they had left safely in +the backwater a minute before, was now racing down the stream with +sails full set. How this had occurred was another question, which +could not then be answered. Possibly Sam, proud of his new seamanship, +had proposed a sail. Anyhow, there they were in the stream, and even +without knowledge of that sunken shelf of rock half a mile further +down the curve, over which the water rushed in a fall at this time of +the tide, the young man sufficiently grasped the danger of the +situation to be doing his best to lower the sail again. But the rope +had kinked in the pulley, and the sudden discovery that he had +forgotten to re-ship the rudder--which Paul had removed in order to +bring the boat closer into shore--completed his consternation, +rendering him absolutely helpless. All this Captain Macleod took in as +he ran, and ere Marjory had reached him he had kicked off his boots +and flung coat and waistcoat aside to free himself for the sharp, +short struggle with the racing tide, in which lay his only chance of +reaching the boat. Then he waded breast high in the slack water, and +bided his time. It needed quick thought and quicker decision to seize +the exact moment when, by one supreme effort, he could hope to +succeed; and yet Marjory, watching with held breath, felt a wild rush +of exultation, not of fear, as with one splendid stroke he shot far +into the current. Swimming has always an effortless look, and the +sweeping stream, carrying him down, remorselessly aided the illusion, +so that not even Marjory, with her knowledge of the tide, guessed how +nearly Paul Macleod's strength was spent as his hand touched the +gunwale. But touch it he did, and the next moment, with Sam's help, he +was aboard and busy at the sail, while Alice Woodward, deeming the +danger over, began to cry helplessly, and even Marjory breathed again. +Only for a moment, however; the next, though the sail was down, she +realised that the boat was still in the current, and that Paul was +vainly trying to tear up a thwart. The rudder! the rudder must have +gone adrift in Sam's clumsy efforts to ship it! + +Then they were no better off than before--nay, worse! since they were +nearer those unseen rocks, and he--_he_ was in danger now. + +What was to be done? The thought was agonising as, scarcely knowing +why, she kept abreast of the drifting boat, stumbling over the +boulders, slipping on the seaweed, unable to see, to think, to do +anything save listen to the ominously rising roar of the water which +just beyond the turn fell in a regular cascade over that black jagged +shelf of rock. + +Ah, those helpless children! and Paul! She must do something--try to +do something. And then on a sudden it came to her, as such things do +come, as if they had all been settled beforehand clear and connected. +At the last spit of land, not fifty yards above the fall, a streak of +sand bank, capped by a pile of boulders, jutted out. If she could +cross the dip and reach them! The herons used to sit there till well +on to half-tide, and once she and Will had found oysters. The trivial +thoughts came, as they will come in times of stress, flashing through +the brain without obscuring it. Even as she thought them, her mind was +busy over the one certainty, that somehow she must give help! By +cutting across the next grassy curve she would be there in time. They +might think she was deserting them. What then? If she could succeed +even so far, _he_ would know that it was not so--_he_ would understand +that she meant to be nearer--nearer. + +He did; and a great glow of pride in her pluck came to him, when, as +the boat swept round the curve, he saw her floundering, half swimming +towards the boulders, and at the sight bent quickly for a coil of +rope. But she had not thought of that--her one impulse having been to +get nearer. + +And now she is as far as she can go. Sheer at her feet, sliding among +the stones, is the stream--below her is the roar and rush of the fall, +save to her left, where it shelves to an eddy--above her is the boat +drifting, drifting, more slowly now, for the shelf of rock backs the +water a little. Then for the first time she realises what is to be +done, for there is Paul at the bows with the coil poised in his hand. + +Of course! that was it! that was it! + +She dug her heels into the crevices of the boulders as she stood +knee-deep among them, and kept her eyes upon his face. + +"Now!" + +As the cry left her lips, something like a black snake shot out +through the air and flung itself across her breast, stinging and +almost blinding her with pain; but there was no time for pain--no +time! To seize it, bend it round the nearest boulder, and so twice +round her waist with a loop through across her arm, took all her +thoughts, all her strength, till, with a slow rasping noise of the wet +rope slipping on stone, the strain began and the knot grew tight. +Tight.--tighter--then a slip--then tighter again. + +Pain--yes, it was pain. My God! what pain. Ah! another slip. But +Paul--was that a knife he had in his hand? No! No! that should never +be; there should be no more slipping even if she drowned for it. With +more of sheer obstinacy than courage she flung herself sideways in the +water among the rocks. So, with her whole body wedged in behind the +two boulders, there could be no more slipping. There could be nothing +more but life or death for both of them. + +And it was life. Paul Macleod, standing knife in hand, ready to cut +the rope, felt the claim of her pluck to fair play, and paused. She +should do this thing if she could! And even as the decision came to +him, came also the knowledge that she had done it, as, with a sidelong +sway the boat brought up and drifted into slacker water. + +Five minutes after he was untying the knot and binding his wet +handkerchief round her bruised arm. + +"Salt water," he said, a trifle unsteadily, "is the best thing in the +world for bruises, and you are more bruised than hurt, I fancy. No! +Blanche," for Alice Woodward's shrieks had by that time attracted +plenty of help, and the boats had come over in hot haste from the +other side; "don't fuss over Miss Carmichael with sal volatile and +salts. She doesn't need it. But we are both wet through, and if she is +wise she will walk home with me at once. It is better than waiting for +the carriage." + +"Yes, please," she replied, catching eagerly at the chance of escape +from the general excitement and gratitude. "Indeed, I would rather, +Lady George; I am not a bit hurt, only, as your brother says, wet +through, so I had better get home at once." + +They started off together at a brisk pace, but silently, until as they +topped the nearest rise, the chill evening wind striking through her +wet garments, made her shiver. Then he held out his hand to her +suddenly, with a smile. + +"Come! let us run. It will take off the stiffness and keep us both +warm." So hand in hand, like a couple of children, they ran through +the autumn woods, startling the roe deer from the oak coverts, and the +sea-gulls from the little sheltered bays. Hand in hand, while the +shadows darkened and the gold in the west faded to grey. Warm, human +hand in hand, confident, content in their companionship, and seeking +nothing more than that confidence, that content. + +"I don't think you'll take cold," said Paul, with the blood tingling +in his veins, and his breath coming fast. + +"I don't think I shall," she laughed. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + +But the remembrance of that thoughtless run through the darkening +woods seemed incredible--to the girl, at least--when next morning her +companion in it came down, as in duty bound, to inquire after the +result of her wetting, for he was palpably conventional and +commonplace. Partly because Lady George accompanied him, eager to +renew her protestations of gratitude, and partly because it was his +way whenever he had made any special departure from the ordinary line +of conduct, which he laid down for himself. This evident artificiality +had the effect of producing the same sort of unreality in Marjory, so +that the only straightforward part of the interview came from Lord +George, who, with an odd little quake in his voice, thanked her for +the fact that Blazes was at the present moment rehearsing the scene in +the nursery. + +"You should see the little beggar," he said. "'Pon my word he doesn't +seem to have missed a single detail. Has Sam to the life, and we have +been obliged to forbid Alice's screams; they were heard all over the +house." + +"And what does he say was his own part in the business?" asked +Marjory. "All I remember is a face--very like yours, Lord George--with +great wide eyes, while Eve and Adam were hiding theirs." + +Lord George gave another odd little sound between a laugh and a sob. +"He says he sate still and swore, like Uncle Paul!" + +"I'm afraid I did, Miss Carmichael," confessed the culprit, with a +flash of the old manner; "but really, the tangle that young idiot had +got things into, and stramash----" He turned to the window with a +frown, and looked out. "You are the heroine of the hour, I see," he +added cynically. "There is the Manse machine, with your two devoted +admirers in it, come to congratulate you. Blanche, if you have induced +Miss Carmichael to dine with us to-night--our last night--we had +better quit the court. By the way, Mrs. Vane desired me to say, Miss +Carmichael, that she did not intend to leave Gleneira without seeing +you again; so, as she is not well enough to come to the Lodge, you may +be induced to take pity on her." + +The covert implication that some such inducement was necessary to +overcome her reluctance, stung the girl's pride, without her +recognising the cause of it, and she accepted the invitation +hurriedly, telling herself she was glad it was the last, and that +after to-morrow she could return to the old peaceful days. The thought +made her turn with a quick expansion of face and manner to the two old +men who advanced to meet them, as she accompanied Lady George to the +garden-gate. Two old men almost tremulous with pride and delight. + +"_Tanto fortior tanto felicior!_" cried the little Father, his fresh, +round face beaming with sheer content. + +"So, so, young lady! we have heard the story," put in the minister, +full of courtly bows, in which those suggestions of a shapely calf had +a fair field. "True is it that _Fortis cadere, cedere non potest_. Ah, +Lady George! I have to express my great thankfulness that a dreadful +bereavement has been spared you, under Providence, by our dear young +friend's courage; or, rather, by her wisdom, since, without the quick +thought, the former would have been useless. In this case, to +paraphrase the saying, _tam Minerva quam Marte_, as even a soldier +must allow." + +"You will not find me backward, sir, in acknowledging either Miss +Carmichael's wisdom or her courage," replied Paul, thus challenged; +but his tone had that suggestion of a hidden meaning in it, to which +Lady George objected, and rightly, as bad form; so she covered it by a +remark upon the beauty of a boy, who stood holding open the gate. + +"He is a little like that crayon portrait of you when you were a boy, +Paul," she added cheerfully. + +"He is old Peggy's grandson," replied Marjory, "and as he has been +left to Dr. Kennedy's care, I am to look after him. He will be my +first pupil." + +"Then the likeness will soon disappear," said Paul, in a low voice, as +he passed out. + +"Perhaps he will be not the worse of that," retorted Marjory, in the +same tone. + +"I don't know. Men who are brought up by women are generally prigs." + +"And women who have been brought up by men?" she asked sharply, not +thinking of herself or her past. + +"Are brave," he said quietly. + +Brave! So he thought that of her. The one word was worth all the rest. +And as she went up the path again with Father Macdonald on her right +hand and Mr. Wilson on her left, all their fine phrases seemed +forgotten in that simple acknowledgment. She would remember that +always, even when the old peaceful days came back, as they would on +the morrow. There was only the dinner at the Big House between her and +that desirable consummation; but that was an ordeal without Tom, who +was at home anywhere. + +To tell truth, it would have been an ordeal to one less reluctant than +Marjory; for a general air of uncertainty, like that of amateur +theatricals when the prompter is best man, pervaded the party. Mrs. +Woodward called her host by his Christian name with a manifest effort +of memory, and when Sam ventured on a like familiarity with Blanche, +her face betrayed her real feelings. Indeed, she took a private +opportunity of confiding to Lord George her relief that it was only a +one-night part, as she could not stand it much longer. + +"Yet you condemn poor Paul to a life-long connection with that young +bounder. Upon my soul! you women are queer creatures;" and the +perversity of the feminine nature appeared to absorb him for the rest +of the evening. Even Mrs. Vane, who ventured down to dinner for the +first time, could make nothing of the ghastly function, so she retired +immediately afterwards on plea of being tired, chiefly because she +wished to have an opportunity of seeing Marjory alone, which she +secured by bidding her in a whisper be sure and come to her room after +she had said good-bye to everyone else. + +Her departure reduced the drawing-room to flat despair. + +"It is the sadness of farewell," remarked Miss Smith, part of whose +contract was that she was to remain to the last and see nothing was +forgotten; not even a decent show of sentiment. + +"Parting is such sweet sorrow," murmured the Major under his +moustache. He was the most cheerful of the party, since his flirtation +had resulted in another week's grouse shooting with his charmer's +father. + +"Mr. St. Clare has written such a sweet thing called 'Good-bye,'" +continued the Moth, appealing to the Poet. "He might recite it to +cheer us up." + +"I wonder how many poets there are who haven't written a piece on that +subject," put in Paul, hastily, as Mr. St. Clare gave a preliminary +cough, "and yet it will supply tons of agony to generations still +unborn." + +"There are forty songs of that name," remarked Alice, practically. "I +wanted one for a friend, and the music man told me so." + +Then the remembrance of that friend, a certain young fellow with a +pleasant baritone voice, busy over tallow at Riga, gave her quite a +pang of regret. + +"Mostly trash, too," assented the Major; "Tosti's is the best, but +even there one is all battered to pieces before the end." + +"That is true," put in Marjory, eagerly. "You see, the poet begins by +fine-drawing the agony, the composer follows suit, and the singer +carries out the distortion. So in the third verse there is nothing for +it but to 'kill the coo.'" + +"I haven't heard 'Auld Robin Gray' for twenty years," murmured Lord +George. "No one sings anything but German nowadays. German or comic +operas." + +"Miss Carmichael sings Scotch songs; I've heard her," said Paul from +the skein of silk he was holding for Alice Woodward. + +"Oh, do!" cried the Moth. "Something touching." + +"Somethin' to cheer us up, you mean," put in Sam; "somethin' with a +chorus, you know." + +"Something old-fashioned," protested Lord George. + +"Something appropriate to the occasion," suggested his wife. + +"Something Miss Carmichael approves of," came from the skein of silk. + +The girl stood by the piano for an instant, looking at them all with a +touch of fine scorn in her face. + +"I will do my best," she said at last, with a laugh. The next instant, +with a crash of chords, her clear, fresh, young voice rang through the +room in that gayest and saddest of songs:-- + + + "A weary lot is thine, fair maid, + A weary lot is thine; + To pull the thorn thy brow to braid, + And press the rue for wine. + A lightsome eye, a soldier's mien, + A feather of the blue, + A doublet of the Lincoln green, + No more of me you knew, + My love, + No more of me you knew." + + +Paul's hands turning the skeins paused, his eyes were on the girl's +face as, with a mixture of recklessness and regret, she went on-- + + + "The morn is merry June, I trow, + The rose is budding fain, + But she shall bloom in winter snow + Ere we two meet again! + He turned his charger as he spake + Upon the river shore, + Said 'Adieu for evermore, + My love, + And adieu for evermore.'" + + +"What a heartless, unromantic, roving wretch!" remarked Lady George, +in the pause which followed the refrain. "I hope he was jilted after +all by the heiress; there generally is an heiress in these cases." +Then, becoming aware of the possible indiscretion of her words, she +looked at her brother hurriedly. + +"In that case he married and lived happily ever afterwards; at least, +that is what I should have done in his case. And I don't think he was +so heartless, after all. He told the truth. It isn't as if he had +sneaked away without saying good-bye." + +Marjory rose from the piano with a little shrug of her shoulders. + +"I must say good-night, at any rate, Lady George, and sneak up to see +Mrs. Vane; for it is getting late, and you have all to be up so +early." + +Paul, standing at the door holding it open for her to pass through, +was the last of the group to whom she had to give the conventional +farewell. + +"Good-bye," she said, feeling above her real regret a relief that this +was the end. + +"_Auf-wieder-sehn_," he replied. That was what Tom had said. As she +ran upstairs to Mrs. Vane's room she was telling herself passionately +that she did not want to see Captain Macleod again--that she would +rather he went out of her life altogether, and cease to make her +wonder at his changeful moods. + +"_Entrez_," said the soft voice to her knock, and the next moment she +felt herself in an atmosphere in which she had never been before. The +semi-darkness of the pink-shaded light, the littered dressing-table, +the soft perfume, the thousand and one evidences of an almost sensuous +ease were to her absolutely novel. And the small figure, nestling in +the armchair, so dainty in its laces and little velvet-shod feet. All +that meant something she had never grasped before, something which +attracted and yet repelled her. + +"How pretty it is," she said, in sudden impulse, as her fingers +stroked one of the soft folds almost caressingly. Mrs. Vane's hand +went out swiftly, and drew hers closer. + +"Don't, child! That does for me, not for you. So this is good-bye. You +are not sorry?" Her eyes scanned the girl's closely, and then she +smiled. "If you are, you will get over it soon. That is the best of +work. I often wish I had some--to make me forget myself." + +"But you do work--you work harder than anyone I know, in a way. Why, +to-night we were quite dull; so dull without you! Everyone missed you; +and yet----" + +"And yet? out with it, little one!" + +"I was wondering if it was worth it?" + +"Yes! if you have a craze to be admired, as I have. But I didn't ask +you to come here in order to talk about myself. You would not +understand me if I did. Pray Heaven you never may. So you have said +good-bye to them all, and you are not sorry! That is well. Now, let me +wish you good luck, and give you a word of advice." + +"Twenty, if you like." + +"Make the most of that luck--and _Alphonse_." + +"You mean Dr. Kennedy?" asked the girl, stiffly. + +"Dr. Kennedy. There are not many like him in this world." + +"I doubt if there are any. At least, I have not met them," she +replied, with a quick flush of impatience. + +"I am glad to hear you say that. Good-bye, my dear, and forget us all +as soon as you can." + +"I shall remember your kindness--for you have been kind--all of you. +Good-bye." + +When the door had closed, Mrs. Vane leant back in her chair with a +sigh of relief. That was over then, and, so far as she could judge, +without harm to the girl. And now--now she could face the other +problem. Perhaps there need be no harm there, either, but she must +think--she must think. So in the softness, and the dimness, and the +luxury, her face grew more anxious, more weary, until the memory of +Marjory's words came back to her. + +Was it worth it all? Whether it was worth it or not did not matter; +the plotting and planning had become a second nature to her--she must +think--she must think! + +And Marjory, passing out into the calm cool of the night, gave a sigh +of relief also. It was over; that strange life, so different from the +future one which lay before her. Was she sorry? Yes! a little. No one +could know Paul Macleod and not feel a regret at the thought of his +future. Yet she was glad it was over despite that queer sort of numb +pain at her heart at the thought of his unfailing kindness to her. And +now she would never see him again, never---- A red star showed low +down behind a turn in the rhododendrons, and a moment after Paul's +voice said easily, as he threw away his cigar: + +"You have not been long." + +So it was not over! That was her first thought, and then came a quick +flutter at her heart. Over! was not it rather just beginning for +this--_this_ was new. Her pride rose in arms against it instantly. + +"I did not expect--" she began almost haughtily. + +"Did you not? That was rather foolish of you. You expected me to let +you walk home alone; but I think I know my duties; as a host, at any +rate." + +It was true. He did know them. There could not be two opinions as to +his considerate courtesy to all. She admitted the fact to herself +gladly, telling herself that it was quite natural he should see her +home, though the possibility of his doing so had not occurred to her. +Hitherto, of course, Tom had been with her; to-night she was alone. It +was the usual thing; yet not usual, surely, that they should be +walking fast through the darkness without a word, just as if they had +quarrelled. What was there to quarrel about? Nothing. Not his +engagement certainly, though he might think so if she kept silent on a +fact which no one had attempted to conceal. Hitherto she had had no +opportunity of alluding to it, but now there was no excuse. The merest +acquaintance would be expected to take such an opportunity of wishing +him good luck, unless--unless some personal motive prevented it. And +there was none. How could there be? since Paul was surely welcome to +do as he liked. + +Yet, for a time, the crunch of the gravel beneath their feet as they +walked on in silence was the only sound upon the cool night air. But +the glimmering white of the Lodge gate nerved her to the effort. + +"I want to congratulate you, Captain Macleod," she began, when he +interrupted her quickly. + +"Hush! If there cannot be truth, don't let there be falsehood between +us." + +It was as if a thunderbolt had fallen, piercing her ignorance. She +stopped short, her pulses bounding to that strange new thrill in his +voice which seemed to make her forget her surprise, her indignation. +She had to steady her own tones ere she could reply. + +"There has been no falsehood on my part." + +"Has there not? Then there shall be none on mine. Marjory! I love you! +Nay! you shall listen----" His outstretched arm barred her quick +movement of disdain. "I shall not keep you long, but you must hear the +truth. I've loved you from the beginning--I love you now--I feel as if +I should love you always----" + +She stood there as if she had been turned to stone, listening, +listening, like a child to some fairy tale; and in the darkness a look +that had never been there before crept to her clear eyes, and a quiver +to her mouth. + +"Yes! I love you; not only as most men count love, so that the +touch of your hand thrills me, and the thought of your kisses is as +heaven---- Don't shrink from the truth--you must face it sometime--why +not now? It is so, and God knows it is no new thing to me. But this is +new--that you are my soul--if I have one--Marjory! Marjory! Why have +you made me feel like this?--why would you never see me as I really +am?--why would you always believe me better than I was?" + +His passionate questioning seemed to pass her by. She stood silent +till, in the darkness, he seized her hands and drew her closer to him, +peering into her face as if to read the answer there. + +"For pity's sake don't look so kind, so sweet," he burst out +vehemently, for even in the faint starlight he could see something of +her eyes. "Tell me how vile I am--then I could go--then I could leave +you! Listen to me, Marjory--" his voice grew calmer, and a sort of +bitter entreaty came to its passionate anger--"I know quite well--I am +certain that my only chance of living what you hold to be a worthy +life lies with you, and yet I have renounced it--I do renounce it +without a shadow of remorse. Is not that enough? You are my better +self, my one hope of redemption, yet still I say, Adieu, my love, +adieu, for evermore!" + +And then the half-seen softness of her face seemed to madden him. +"Before God you _shall_ see me as I am. You _shall_ understand." + +His arms clasped her close, his reckless, passionate kiss was on her +lips, and then---- + +Then he stood as it were before the tribunal which he had +invoked--that tribunal of perfect knowledge, of blinding truth, in +which alone lies the terror of judgment. + +"Marjory!" The whisper could scarcely be heard. "Marjory! is it true? +My God! is it true that you love me?" He still held her, but with a +touch which had changed utterly, and his tone was almost pitiful in +its appeal. "Marjory! why--why did I not know? Why did you hide +yourself from me?" + +"I did not know myself," she answered, and her voice had a +ring of pain in it; "how could I know? But it would have made no +difference--no difference to you." + +The keenest reproach could not have hit him so hard as this +instinctive defence of her own ignorance, her own innocence; it +pierced the armour of his worldliness and went straight to that part +of his nature which, even at his worst, held fast to life in a sort of +veiled self-contempt. + +"You are right; it would have made no difference, no difference to +such as I am." Then in the darkness he was at her feet kissing the hem +of her garment. + +"Adieu, my love; adieu for evermore!" + +The next instant the sound of his retreating footsteps broke the +stillness, and she was alone. + +Alone, with a smile upon her face--a smile of infinite tenderness for +his manhood and for her own new-found womanhood, which tingled in each +vein and seemed to fill the whole world with the cry, "He loves me! he +loves me!" + +So this was Love. This unreasoning joy, this absorbing desire to hap +and to hold, to let all else slip by and be forgotten as nothing +worth; to live for oneself alone--oneself, since he and she were +one--one only! + +Yes; she loved him like that. And he? The memory of his voice, the +clasp of his hand, the touch of his lips came back to her in a rush, +dazing and bewildering her utterly, so that she stretched her arms +into the night and whispered into the darkness: "Paul, come back! you +must come back and tell me what it means. Paul! Paul!" + +But he was gone; and then the pity of it, the shame that he had left +her came home to her, not for herself, but for him, and with a little +short, sharp cry, such as will come with sudden physical pain, she +turned on her way tearless, composed, half stunned by her own emotion. + +When she had undressed she blew out the candle, and, kneeling by the +window, pressed her forehead against the cool glass while she gazed +unseeingly into the night. + +So this was Love!--the Love which the poets called divine--the Love to +which she had looked forward all her life. What did it mean? What was +it, this feeling which had come to her unbidden, unrecognised? For now +with opened eyes she understood that it had been there almost from the +beginning; that it had been the cause of all her moods and his. The +curious attraction and repulsion, the unrest, the desire to influence +him. Ought she to have known this sooner? Perhaps; and yet, how could +she when neither her own nature or her education had given her a hint +of this thing? The Love she had dreamed of had been a thing of the +mind, of conscious choice, and this was not. No! best to tell the +truth--it was not! + +As she knelt there, alone in her ignorance, not so much of evil as of +the realities of life, she could yet see that this unreasoning +attraction--though with her it could not but be indissolubly mixed up +with something higher, something nobler than itself; something which +craved a like nobility in its object--was yet in its very essence of +the earth earthy. + +Without that something what was it? + +She was clear sighted was this girl, whose reasoning powers had been +trained to be truthful; so she did not attempt to deny that Paul +Macleod was not her ideal of what a man should be. That her whole soul +went out in one desire that he should be so, and in a tender longing +to help him, to comfort and console him, did not alter the fact. That +desire, that longing, was apart from this bewildering emotion which +filled the world with the cry, "He loves me! He loves me!" She loved +him as he was; not as he ought to be. + +As he was! And then her eyes seemed to come back from the darkness and +find a light as she remembered those words of his: "It is not only as +if I loved you as men count love." + +Then he, too, understood--he, too, was torn in twain. A sense of +companionship seemed to come to her; she rose from her knees and crept +to bed. And as she lay awake the slow tears fell on her pillow. So +this was Love! this bitter pain, this keener joy; but underneath his +stress of passion, and her fainter reflection of it, lay something +which might bring peace if he would let it, and the thought of this +made her whisper softly:-- + +"Paul, I love you. Come back to me, Paul, and we will forget our +love." + +But up at the Big House he was cursing his own folly in yielding to +the temptation of seeing Marjory home. Yet what had come over him? He, +who for the most part behaved with some regard to gentlemanly +instincts. What had he done? The memory of it, seen by the light of +his knowledge of evil, filled him with shame. Well! that finished it. +When she had time to think she would never forgive him. She would +understand, and that look would fade from her face--that look +which---- But she was right! Even if he had seen it before, it would +have made no difference; he would have gone on his way all the same. +Why had he ever seen it to give him needless pain, and be a miserable +memory? The only thing was to forget it--to forget, not the love which +thrilled him--that, Heaven knows, could be easily forgotten--but that +other! Yes! he must forget it. That was the only thing to be done now. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Luckily, perhaps, for his determination to forget, a variety of causes +combined to give Paul Macleod breathing space before he had, as it +were, to take up the burden of his engagement with Alice Woodward. To +begin with, he had to pay a visit on the way south, and the delights +of really good partridge shooting are of a distinctly soothing nature. +There is something fat and calm and comfortable about the stubbles +and turnip fields which makes one think kindly of county magistrates +and quarter sessions, of growing stout, and laying down bins of port +wine. A very different affair this from cresting the brow of a +heather-covered hill, with a wild wind from the west scattering the +coveys like bunches of brown feathers, while the next brae rises +purple before you, and another--and another--and another! Up and up, +with a strain and an effort, yet with the pulse of life beating its +strongest. + +Then, when the North mail finally set him down at Euston, the +Woodwards had gone to Brighton; and there was that going on in the +artistic little house in Brutonstreet, which would have made it unkind +for him to leave town and follow them, even if his own inclination had +not been to stay and see what the days brought forth. For Blasius was +ill, dangerously ill, and Lord George was a piteous sight as he +wandered aimlessly down to the Foreign Office, and, after a vain +effort to remain at work, wandered home again with the eager question +on his lips, "Is there any change?" + +But there was none. The child, after the manner of his sturdy kind, +took the disease as hardly as it could be taken, and then fought +against it as gamely. So the little life hung in the balance, till +there came a day when the pretence of the Foreign Office was set +aside, and Lord George sate in the nursery with his little son in his +arms, an unconscious burden in the red flannel dressing-gown, which +somehow seemed connected with so much of Blazes' short life. Blanche, +almost worn out, stood by the open window holding Paul's hand--Paul, +who was always so sympathetic, so kindly when one was in trouble. So +they waited to see whether the child would choose life or death; while +outside the people were picking their way gingerly through the mingled +sunshine and shade of a thunder shower. It was so silent that you +could hear the clock on the stairs ticking above the faint patter on +the window-pane, almost hear the splash of the slow tear-drop which +trickled down Lord George's cheek, and fell on Blazes' closed hand. +And then, suddenly, a pair of languid eyes opened, and the little +voice, mellow still, despite its weakness, said quietly: + +"Ith's waining. Blazeth wants a wumberwella." + +In the days following, if Blazes had wanted the moon, Lord George +would have entered into diplomatic relations with the man in it, +regarding a cession of territory; but the child, according to the +doctors, wanted sea air more than anything else. So, naturally enough, +they all migrated to Brighton, and, though he did not realise it, the +general sense of relief and contentment pervading the whole party did +much to make Paul Macleod feel the shackles bearable. Then Mrs. +Woodward and Alice were at one of the big hotels, the Temples were in +lodgings, while he, himself, had rooms at a golfing club, to which he +belonged; an arrangement which gave everyone a certain freedom. +Finally, as Paul discovered on the very first day, Alice showed much +more to advantage on the parade, or riding over the downs, or putting +on the green, than she had ever done at Gleneira. + +"Oh, yes!" she said gaily, "I am a regular cockney at heart. I love +the pavements, and I hate uncivilised ways. I know when Blanche told +me she had to see the sheep cut up at Gleneira, I made a mental note +that I wouldn't. I couldn't, for I hate the sight of raw meat." + +"You bear the butchers' shops with tolerable equanimity," returned her +lover, who hardly liked her constant allusions to Highland barbarism; +"as a matter of fact, raw meat intrudes itself more on your notice in +town than it ever does in the country." + +"Perhaps; but then the sheep with the flowery pattern down their backs +don't look like sheep, and as for the beef, why, you can't connect the +joints with any part of the animal. At least, I can't, and I don't +believe you can, either. Now what part of the beast is an aitchbone?" + +Paul set the question aside by proposing a canter, and by the time +that was over he was quite ready to be sentimental; for Alice looked +well on horseback in a sort of willowy, graceful fashion, which made +the pastime seem superabundantly feminine. + +Still, the subject had a knack of cropping up again and again; and +once, when she had excused herself for some aspersion by saying, +good-naturedly, that it was a mere matter of association, and that she +was of the cat kind, liking those things to which she was accustomed, +he had taken her up short by saying she would have to get accustomed +to Gleneira. + +"Shall I?" she asked. "Somehow, I don't think we shall live there very +much. It is nice enough for six weeks' shooting; but, even then, the +damp spotted some of my dresses." + +"You are getting plenty of new ones at any rate," retorted Paul, for +the room was littered with _chiffons_. + +She raised her pretty eyebrows. "Oh, these are only patterns. I always +send for them when I'm away from town. It is almost as good as +shopping. But I don't mean to buy much now. I shall wait for the +winter sales. They are such fun, and I like getting my money's +worth--though, of course, father gives me as much as I want. Still, a +bargain is a bargain, isn't it?" + +Paul acquiesced, but the conversation rankled in his mind. To begin +with, it gave him an insight into a certain _bourgeoise_ strain in the +young lady's nature, and though he told himself that nothing else was +to be expected from Mr. Woodward's daughter--who derived her chief +charm from the fact that her father _had_ made bargains and got his +money's worth--that did not make its presence any more desirable. And +then he could not escape the reflection that _he_ was a bargain, and +that the whole family into which he was marrying would make a point of +having their money's worth. + +He would have realised this still more clearly if he could have seen +one of the daily letters which Mrs. Woodward, with praiseworthy +regularity, wrote to her lord and master in London, for it is a sort +of shibboleth of the married state that those in it should write to +each other every day whether they have anything to say or not. + +"Alice," she wrote, "is so sensible and seems quite content. At one +time I feared a slight entanglement with Jack, but Lady George has +been most kind and taken her to all the best places, which is, of +course, what we have a right to expect. By the way, there is an Irish +member here--O'Flanagin, or something like that--and he declares the +Land League will spread to the West Highlands. So you must be sure and +tie up the money securely, as it does not seem quite a safe +investment." + +Mr. Woodward, on receiving this missive, swore audibly, asserting that +the devil might take him if he knew of any investment which could be +called safe in the present unsettled state of the markets! For his +visit to Gleneira, where, as he angrily put it, telegrams came +occasionally and the post never--had somehow been the beginning of one +of those streaks of real ill-luck which defy the speculator. The +result being that Mr. Woodward generally left his office in the city +poorer by some thousands than he had entered it in the morning, and +though he knew his own fortune to be beyond the risk of actual +poverty, it altered his outlook upon life, and threatened his credit +as a successful financier. + +Nor did it threaten his alone; there were uncomfortable rumours of +disaster in the air, which, in course of time, came to Lady George's +ears. + +"I do hope Mr. Woodward is not mixed up in it," she said to Paul, as +she sate working bilious-looking sunflowers on a faded bit of stuff +for the Highland bazaar; "but he was a little _distrait_ when he came +down last Sunday, and he didn't eat any dinner to speak of--we dined +with them, you remember." + +"Perhaps I gave him too good a lunch at the club," replied her +brother, jocosely; "besides, he wouldn't let a few losses spoil his +appetite. He is well secured, and then he could always fall back on +his share in the soap-boiling business." + +"I was not thinking of him, Paul, I was thinking of you. You could not +boil soap." + +The fact was indubitable, and though her brother laughed, he felt +vaguely that there were two sides to a bargain, and when his sister +began on the subject again, he met her hints with a frown. + +"I am perfectly aware," he said, "that Patagonians are dangerous, and +Mr. Woodward knows it as well as I do." + +"But he was nicked--that is how that city man I met at dinner last +night put it--he was nicked in Atalantas also." + +"If you had asked me, Blanche, instead of inquiring from strangers, as +you seem to have done," interrupted her brother, with great heat, "I +could have told you he was nicked, as you choose to call it, +heavily--very heavily. He has been unlucky of late. He admits it." + +"Good heavens, Paul! what are you going to do?" + +"Nothing. He is quite capable of managing his own affairs." + +"Don't pretend to be stupid, Paul! I mean your engagement." + +"What has business to do with that?" he asked, quickly taking the high +hand; but Lady George was his match there. + +"Everything, unless you have fallen in love with her." + +Home thrusts of this sort are, however, unwise, since they rouse the +meanest antagonist to resistance. + +"Have it so if you will. I am quite ready to admit that love has +nothing to do with business. Honour has. I am engaged to Miss +Woodward, and that is enough for me." + +Lady George shrugged her shoulders. There was a manly dogmatism about +his manner which was simply unbearable. + +"My dear boy," she said, "if a man begins to talk about honour it is +time for a woman to beat a retreat. Since you have such strict notions +on the subject, I presume you have explained to Mr. Woodward the exact +state of affairs at Gleneira? The estate overburdened, and not a penny +of ready money to be had except by sale." + +"I really can't discuss the subject with you, Blanche. Women never +understand a man's code of honour on these points; and they never +understand business." + +She crushed down an obvious retort in favour of peace, for she was +genuinely alarmed. So much so, that the moment she returned to town +she went to see Mrs. Vane, thinking it more than likely that Paul +might have confided something to her. She was just the sort of little +woman in whom men did confide, and Paul was perfectly silly about her, +though, of course, she was a very charming little woman. + +Now, Mrs. Vane had heard the rumours of Mr. Woodward's losses before, +and heard them with a glad heart, since the possibility of having to +use those letters which were locked up in her dressing-case weighed +upon her. But she had not heard them from Paul; had not seen him, in +fact, as she had only returned from the country two days before, and +had since been ill with fever. + +Nevertheless, the very next afternoon, in obedience to a little note +left at his club, Paul walked into her flower-decked drawing-room and +gave an exclamation of surprise and concern at the white face and +figure on the sofa. + +"You have been ill," he said quickly; "why didn't you let me know +before?" + +"Only a go of fever; and I've danced all night long--some of the +dances with you, Paul--when I had a worse bout, and no one found me +out. Let me make you a cup of tea." + +"Please not. I'll take one. Yes! I remember; that was our regimental +ball, and there were so few ladies; you never spared yourself, Violet, +never knew how to take care of yourself." + +"Perhaps not. I must pay someone to do it, I suppose, like other old +women; for all my friends are deserting me. Two married last month, +and I hear from Mrs. Woodward that your wedding-day is fixed." + +"I was not aware of it," he replied, with a frown; "but if it were, I +fail to see why I should desert--my friends." + +Mrs. Vane laughed. "My dear Paul! you are something of a man of the +world; did you ever know of anyone like you keeping up a friendship +with anybody like me after his marriage? I mean out of the pages of a +French novel. Certainly not; and I am quite resigned to the prospect. +I suffered the blow in a minor degree when you left India. Besides, I +should not anyhow see much of you if you lived at Gleneira; and you +will have to do so, won't you, till Mr. Woodward recovers himself?" + +Paul stirred his tea moodily. "So you have heard, too," he said +distastefully. + +"Everybody has heard, of course. Such things are a godsend at this +time of the year. Lady Dorset was quite pathetic over your bad luck +yesterday, but I told her no one would think the _worse_ of you or +Miss Woodward if you were to think _better_ of it, since poverty--even +comparative poverty--would suit neither of you." + +The spirited pose of her head, as she spoke, the bold challenge of her +tone, were admirable. + +"You said that! Would you have me break my word because my promised +wife had a few pounds less than I expected?" + +She laughed again. "How lofty you are, Paul! You caught that trick +from Marjory Carmichael. By the way, I heard from her to-day--she +comes up to town soon." + +"So I believe." His heart gave a throb at the sound of her name, but +he would not confess it, even to himself. "Excuse me if I hark back to +the other subject. I should like to hear what you have to say on it. +Women have such curious notions of honour, at least, Blanche----" + +"So Lady George has been taking you to task, has she? That was very +unwise of her. For my part I have no opinion. I never liked the +engagement, as you know; I like it still less now, when, if tales be +true, Mr. Woodward will not be able to make his daughter so handsome +an allowance as--as you expected. But they may not be true." + +"There is no reason why I should not tell you that they are true. The +allowance will be about a quarter of what was intended. Mr. Woodward +spoke to me to-day about it, hinting that it might make a difference; +but, of course, I cut him short." + +"Of course." There was a fine smile for an instant on her face ere she +went on. "Still, he was right, it does make a difference." + +"Undoubtedly it makes a difference," echoed Paul, testily. "No one +knows that better than I do. But that is no reason why I should back +out of my word. We shall have to vegetate at Gleneira, I suppose, or +live in a villa somewhere----" + +"My poor Paul, how funny you are!" she interrupted, taking up a letter +which had been lying beside her, and giving it a little flourish. +"That is just what you could have done--with someone else! So you will +do for a girl you do not love, what you would not do for one--but it +is really too funny! One half of you being unable to exist without +love, the other without money, you cut the Gordian knot by +experimenting on life without either! Now, I should have tried to +secure both--you might have managed that, I think." She paused a +moment, and then went on. "As it is, my friend is not unwilling to +play the hero, to a limited extent, because it soothes him and makes +him feel less mercenary. Ah! my dear Paul, I understand. Only, might +it not be more heroic and less mercenary to give Miss Woodward a +chance of something more to her taste than a villa somewhere?--plus, +of course, the heroic husband! She may not like heroics; some of us +don't. You must be prepared for that." + +The gentle raillery of her tone had a touch of seriousness in it which +seemed to throw a new light on his view of the subject. + +"You mean that it is likely----" + +"Yes. I think it extremely likely that the Woodwards would rather +break it off." + +"But why?" he asked, angrily rising to pace the room; "my prospects +have not changed." + +"'They twain shall be one flesh,'" quoted Mrs. Vane, lightly. "And do +you really think so much of your heroism, that--unaided by love, +remember--you will fancy it will compensate Alice Woodward, who +loves the pavement, for the damp and dulness of Gleneira? I remember, +Paul"--her voice grew a trifle unsteady--"having to decide a similar +question, once. To decide whether I could compensate the man I loved +for something--well, for something which was not more dear to him than +civilisation is to this young lady, and, though I loved him, I knew I +could not." + +"And--and were you right?" he asked with a sudden interest. + +"Of course I was right. He recovered the loss of me rapidly, and yet I +am not unattractive--what is more, I am generally considered good +company, which I defy anyone to be if he careers up and down the room +like a Polar bear. Please sit down and let me make you a nice cup of +tea. The last, I am sure, must have been horrid. You don't know how to +take care of yourself a bit, Paul, but _you_ are lucky. _You_ will get +plenty of people to pay for the privilege of doing so." + +He told himself that she talked a great deal of nonsense at times, but +that she did it, as she did everything else, with infinite verve and +grace. Blanche, who had not said half as much, had made him angry; and +here he was seated beside Violet's sofa, enjoying his tea, and feeling +that sense of _bien etre_ which he always felt in her company. + +Yet even she might have failed in producing this for once, if he could +have overheard a conversation which was going on over another cup of +tea in Queen's Gardens, where Mrs. Woodward, with a real frown on her +usually placid face, was listening to her husband's account of his +interview with Paul that morning. + +"Very honourable, no doubt, but exceedingly unsatisfactory," she +remarked, with asperity. "I must say that I think you failed." + +"Did you wish me to give the man his _conge_, my dear?" interrupted +her spouse, irritably. "If so, you should have told me so distinctly, +but if it comes to that I can write and dismiss him." + +"You have such a crude way of putting things, James, and though I +don't presume to understand business affairs I must own it seems +inexplicable how these difficulties have come about. And Alice is so +accustomed to civilisation, and Jack is coming back from Riga next +week, so it does seem to me a flying in the face of Providence." + +Mr. Woodward looked at her in impatient amaze. "Good heavens! Maria, +what do you mean? Who or what is flying in the face of Providence?" + +"Everyone! Everything! It seems as if he had been away on purpose, so +that there should be no fuss. And they have always been so fond of +each other. Alice would be miserable if she had to think about money; +so why should she be sacrificed to Captain Macleod's notions of +honour----" + +"My dear!----" + +"Yes, James! Sacrificed! You say you told him plainly the state of the +case, and he----" + +"Behaved as a gentleman would. Expressed sorrow at my losses, but gave +me to understand that it would make no difference to him." + +"And to Alice? He never gave a thought to her, I suppose; but you men +are all alike--selfish to the core." + +"Really, my dear," protested Mr. Woodward, roused by this general +attack. + +"Well, _you_ are selfish. Are you not sitting there calmly proposing +to sacrifice Alice to an adventurer--a principled adventurer if you +like, though that is a miserable attempt to--what was it you used to +call guaranteed stock?" + +"A disastrous attempt to combine safety and speculation," suggested +her husband, meekly. + +"Just so! and this is a disastrous attempt to combine common sense and +romance. But I will not have Alice sacrificed. I will speak to the man +myself." + +"You shall do nothing of the sort, my dear. If necessary, I can do it; +but there is no hurry." + +"It must be settled before next week, unless you want a fuss; I tell +you that." + +"It shall be settled; but I must talk to Alice first. It is surely +possible she may be in love with the man?" + +Mrs. Woodward shook her head wisely. + +"But why, in heaven's name, Maria? He is handsome--gentlemanly--well +born. Why should she not love him?" + +"Because she is in love with Jack." + +"God bless my soul!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + +When Paul Macleod left Mrs. Vane's drawing-room that afternoon she +told herself that she could, for once, afford to sit with folded hands +and let the world go its own way for a time. Everything seemed working +for her, so there was no need for her to work for herself. The +question of those letters could very well wait for a time. For all she +knew to the contrary, the lawyers might have similar proof of little +Paul's legitimacy; if they had not, why they ought to have. Unless, +indeed, that marriage certificate had nothing to do with the boy at +all. That in itself was conceivable with such a woman as Jeanie Duncan +must have been. Anyhow, for the present, the child was in comfortable +circumstances, since Dr. Kennedy had taken him in charge, and, as +Marjory mentioned in her letter, he was to come to London and become a +scholar at her school. The first thing was to see this foolish, +ridiculous engagement broken off, and then if the big Paul were wise, +and realised that both love and money were at his command, it might be +possible to tell him the truth. But under no other circumstances, +since none could console him as she could for the loss of Gleneira. +Therefore, for the sake of everybody concerned, the best thing that +could happen was that she should be Paul's wife. A great tenderness +showed in her face at the very thought. "Poor Paul," she said half +aloud; "he would be quite happy with me, quite content, and I, oh! +surely I deserve something after all these years? I am getting tired +of doing everything for people I do not care about, as I have done all +my life long." + +And it was true. In all the trivial details of life she was as +thoroughly unselfish a woman as ever stepped, ready at a moment's +notice to weary herself out for the sake of making the world more +pleasant to others. + +So those letters should remain locked up, perhaps for ever. In sober +truth she could scarcely imagine herself using them. Their +melodramatic force was so unlike the gentle spiriting by which she +usually effected her object; and though she could never recall the +night of poor old Peggy's death without a shudder, her sound common +sense told her that after all in advising the old woman not to open +the lawyer's letter, she had done so in ignorance. She had acted, as +she thought, for the best, and everybody was liable to make mistakes. + +So much for the one party to the interview; the other, once the spell +of Mrs. Vane's personality was removed, felt vaguely that matters were +becoming uncomfortable. It had never occurred to him before that _he_ +ran the chance of being jilted, and the bare idea filled him with +indignation; and yet he saw the justice of Mrs. Vane's remarks. He was +not a good match for a girl who wished for nothing better than to +remain in that state of social comfort to which it had pleased +Providence to call her. But, if this were so, it would be better to +save his dignity by broaching the possibility himself. Anything was +better than being dismissed like a footman. He was never long in +deciding a question of this sort, yet, quick as he was, he found +himself not a moment too soon, for when he walked round to see Mr. +Woodward next morning, before that gentleman went down to office, he +found him in the act of writing a note asking him to call. + +"The fact is, Macleod," said the elder man, a little nervously, "I +wanted to continue our talk about your engagement to my daughter." + +Paul flushed up, but took the bull by the horns without a moment's +hesitation. + +"I came for that purpose, sir. It has occurred to me that I have +somewhat overlooked Miss Woodward's side of the question, and I shall +be infinitely obliged if you would treat me with perfect frankness in +regard to what you, no doubt, know better than I." + +The dignity of this speech soothed him, and he awaited the reply with +tolerable equanimity. + +"Very straightforward--very straightforward on your part, Macleod," +said the man of business, approvingly. "One can scarcely be too +careful in regard--er--in regard to such contracts; and your remark +makes me regret more than ever--my--my duty. For you really have been +all that is--all our fancy painted you, I may say. But that does not +alter the fact that I am now a comparatively poor man. Of course, I +may, I very probably shall, recoup. At the same time it is not the +sort of security for--for--marriage settlements and trustees; you +understand me, of course. Now, what we have to face is this: Do you +think my daughter is suited to be the wife of a poor man--even a +possibly poor man? I don't. And, then, would she be content if she had +to live most of the year at Gleneira, away from society and--and +telegraph posts--I mean posts and telegraphs? It's a pretty +place, Macleod, and an interesting place--with--with a sort +of--er--_respectability_ about it, but it is a devilish bit out of the +way." + +"Perhaps; but I would do my best to make your daughter forget that," +said Paul, gloomily; the sense of being weighed in the balance and +found wanting--he, Paul Macleod, whom so many women had fancied--was +exquisitely painful. + +Mr. Woodward blew his nose elaborately. "Just so; of course, of +course! Very right and proper; very much so, indeed; only, my dear +Macleod, marriage, after all, is a speculation, and I don't like to +see my girl putting her capital into a concern which hasn't even a +good prospectus. How many shareholders would even my name produce, if +all we could say of a new railway was that, though the chances +were dead against traffic, we would do our best to ensure it? Of +course--er--if you were violently attached to each other one might +allow something for the--er--the good-will of the business. Under +those circumstances, I am led to believe--though I know nothing about +it myself--that young people are content to live--er--on a +ridiculously small income. My own impression is, however, that Alice +is not that sort of girl; but, of course, I may be mistaken." + +"In that case," put in Paul, loftily, "it would be best to refer to +Alice herself." + +"Exactly what we--I mean--er--decidedly. You two can settle it for +yourselves. Her mother and I have no wish to interfere unnecessarily. +That, I think you will own, is fair dealing, though, of course, as a +business man I have felt it my duty to warn her against risking what +is virtually her all in a concern which, to put it briefly, has an +unpromising prospectus. And, if you will allow me, I will give you the +same advice." + +There was a pompous warmth in his shake of the hand, but as he +accompanied his visitor to the door his tone changed to a confidential +whisper: + +"You see it isn't as if it were a limited liability, but the Lord only +knows how many children you might have." + +Paul, as he made his way to the little boudoir where Alice frittered +away so much of her time over _chiffons_ and picture papers, felt that +he was being pursued by a Nemesis of his own creating. He had entered +into this engagement by the light of reason, in obedience to the +dictates of sound common sense, and it seemed likely that he would be +driven from it by the same means. He found her, for a wonder, busy +with needle and thread, and though the subject of it was only the +stitching of tinsel round some remarkably large velvet leaves pasted +on satin, it gave her a more solid air than she usually had. That, and +a brighter flush upon her cheek, told him that he was expected, and +forewarned him of her decision. Indeed, he felt that words were really +unnecessary, and that he might just as well have turned round and gone +downstairs again, leaving her white fingers busy with the gold thread. +But there was a certain strain of savagery in Paul Macleod, as there +is in most men when their dignity is touched, and he resolved to go +through with it. + +"I have just seen your father," he began, "and now I have come to +you." + +She might have been excused for turning a little pale and letting her +work drop, for his tone was not reassuring. He saw her dread of a +scene, and gave a faint laugh. + +"There is no need to be afraid, Alice. I have never made myself +disagreeable to you yet, and I am not likely to begin now, when I have +come to ask you plainly whether you could be happy with me? Could +you?" + +She clasped and unclasped her hands quite nervously. "I am ready to +try--if you like--if you think I ought to." + +"That has nothing to do with it. Put me out of the question, please. +Of course, it is always painful for a man to know that a woman does +not care for him sufficiently----" + +"It is not that," she broke in hurriedly. "I would not have promised +if I had not liked you--it is the dulness, and the poverty. I have +never been accustomed to it, and I might not be contented, and then +how could I be a good wife if I were not happy? It is not as if there +would be distractions, but there would be none, and I don't like the +country as some girls do--Marjory Carmichael, for instance." + +He looked at her sharply, but her eyes met his without any hidden +meaning in them. + +"She would not be dull, but I should, and then how could I cheer you +up? For you need cheering at Gleneira--you know you do." + +The truth irritated him. "From which I infer that you would rather be +free. Well! you have only to take me or leave me," he said curtly. + +She caught in her breath, and, as usual, the display of temper made +her piteous. "Don't be angry, Paul! There is nothing to be angry +about. If you wish it, I will try; but we can always be friends, and +if it is wiser to part, then it is wiser." + +"That is for you to decide. I am at your orders." He stood there +looking very handsome, and she gave a sigh of indecision, though a +certain resentment at being, as it were, thrust into the breach, came +to her aid. + +"Do you think it wiser?" he repeated. + +"How can I tell? All I want to do is my duty, and I am afraid----" + +"If you are afraid, that is enough," he said, losing patience. +"Good-bye, Alice; if you had decided otherwise I would have tried to +be a good husband to you." + +A faint flush came to her cheek. "And I would have tried to be a good +wife; but----" + +"Well?" + +"Don't you think that with you trying to be a good husband +and I trying to be a good wife, life would have been a little +dreary--sometimes?" + +The curse of home truths seemed in the air, and Paul felt he had no +answer ready, and yet he liked her the better for the first touch of +sarcasm he had ever heard from her lips. It reminded him of Mrs. Vane. + +As he shook hands with her, the servant entering announced Mr. John +Woodward, and Paul, going downstairs, met a big, florid young man +coming up with a gardenia in his buttonhole, and a parcel tied with +gold thread in his hands. It was a box of Paris chocolates which Jack +had purchased on his way from Riga. The two scowled at each other as +they passed, after the manner of Englishmen who have never been +introduced, and Paul, as he put on his hat, felt a sudden insane +desire to go up again, and tell Alice that he had changed his mind. +And yet, as he walked aimlessly through the Park, and so northward +into the streets beyond, the certainty that life had been changed in +the twinkling of an eye came slowly to him, and as it did he scarcely +knew whither to turn for a little solid self-esteem. Of late he had +been nurturing his own magnanimity, and, as Mrs. Vane had told him to +his face, the fact that Alice Woodward's fortune was for the time +diminished, and in the future uncertain, had not been without its +consolation. It prevented him from feeling that people knew, to a +fraction, what price he had put upon himself. And now, though he was, +as it were, a "genuine reduction," he had been rejected! Rejected! the +thought was intolerable. Even the memory of Marjory, and the look in +her eyes which he had seen that last night, brought him cold comfort, +for he told himself that, even if he had wished to do so, he could +never go to her and say he had been jilted; yet he would not tell her +a lie. + +But he did not want to seek consolation from Marjory; after all, it +had only been the old story of a passing fancy fostered by romantic +surroundings. Since he had left Gleneira he had scarcely thought of +her, and for himself would have been quite content to fulfil his +engagement. Therein, to tell truth, lay the whole sting of the +position. + +So he wandered on until he found himself in Regent's Park, and then, +with that idle distaste to some decisive action which a return +clubwards would necessitate, in the Zooelogical Gardens. It was years +since he had been there of a morning without a band and a crowd. Years +since he had brought papers of nuts and biscuits, and given them to +the bears. But now he was free--yes! that was one comfort! he was free +to do as he liked, so he watched the Polar bear--which made him smile +at the recollection of Mrs. Vane's sally--and found a certain dreamy +pleasure in strolling round by the antelopes and recognising beasts +the like of which he had shot in strange climes. There is always some +satisfaction to be got from bygone prowess in sport, and, as he +finally found himself leaning over the railings of a tank where a pair +of dippers were bobbing about, he had in a measure forgotten the +present in the past. + +So, as he watched the birds indifferently, a sleek round head slid +suddenly, oilily from the water, and a pair of wistful brown eyes +looked into his. + +The card affixed to the railings only bore the legend: + + + "_Phoca vitulina_; + or, Common Seal." + + +Yet no magician's wand could have been more powerful in +transformation--say, rather translation--than the sight of the +creature so designated was to Paul Macleod. In the twinkling of an eye +the London haze--that condensed essence of millions of men, women, and +children, struggling confusedly for breath--had passed from him, and +he was in a new heaven and a new earth. A boat was rocking idly on the +summer sea, the blue clouds were sailing overhead, the world, its ways +and works, were beyond the rampart of encircling hills, while a girl, +with clear bright eyes, leant against the rudder. + +"Why didn't you shoot, Captain Macleod?" He could hear the odd little +tremor in her voice, as she gave the challenge, and feel the dim +surprise of his own answer: "I never thought of it!" + +Then, with a rush, the one side of his nature challenged the other. +Why--why had he done these things? Why had he given up paradise? Had +he not been happy? In very truth, had he even thought of the world and +its ways, of himself and his instincts, when he was beside her? Yet, +what a return had he not made to this girl who had taught him to +forget these things. Had he not in a way taught her to know them? Had +he not roused in her something, blameless enough, God knows! in its +way, beautiful enough, though of the earth earthy, compared to that +other strange comradeship, in which there seemed no possibility of +passion, no sense of sex. In truth, he had taught her to love him as +women and men will love to the end of all things. Taught her, and left +her to face it alone--as he had left Jeanie Duncan long years ago. + +The unbidden remembrance brought a new shame with it for that old +offence, even while it intensified the sudden remorse he felt for the +present one; since Jeanie, in all her sweet maidenhood, had never +seemed so hedged about from evil as this Brynhild, whose very +womanhood had been hidden beneath her glittering armour of mail. That +he should have thought these things showed the strain of romance, the +touch of mysticism, which was in him by right of his race, and though, +as ever, he chafed against these things, he could not escape from +them, or from the self-contempt which took possession of him. Ever +since the night when he had said good-bye, as he had boasted, to the +best part of him, there had been something to prevent his realising +the extent of his degradation. First, the relief of certainty, +bringing with it a very real content; then, the anxiety for the child, +bringing out all the kindliness of his nature--finally, the knowledge +that he was not, after all, so mercenary. But now he was defenceless +against his own worldliness, against the memory of his wanton insult +to Marjory--for it was an insult, nothing less. + +As he wandered moodily back into the town, back to face his world and +its comments, it seemed to him as if there were not a rag anywhere +wherewith to cover his wounded self-esteem. One thing he could do: he +could go down and ask Marjory to marry him. He owed her so much. She +would refuse him, of course, since she was not the sort to care for +other folks' rejections; and he knew, by long experience, how keenly +such love as he had seen in her eyes resented neglect, how quick it +was in changing to repulsion if the pride were outraged. + +Yes! he would go down to Gleneira and regain some of his belief in +himself by giving Marjory her revenge. Then he would go abroad and +shoot lions, or do something of that sort. Everyone would know he had +been jilted, so he might as well play the part to the bitter end, and +behave as a man ought to behave who has had a disappointment. + +Meanwhile he might as well go and see Violet, and congratulate her on +her acumen. He might even go so far as to tell her that, taking her +words to heart, he was about to propose poverty to the girl he loved, +as he had proposed it to the girl he had not loved. She, of course, +not knowing of that wanton insult, would not understand how idle a +proposition it would be; but she liked to be thought clever--liked to +be at the bottom of everything. + +So he was not exactly in an amiable or easily managed mood as he +followed the servant upstairs at Mrs. Vane's house. And, as luck would +have it, he came at a time when she herself was too disturbed to have +the cool head and steady nerve necessary to steer him into the haven +where she would have him. Yet it was a trifling thing which had upset +her: merely the certainty that little Paul Duncan would not get a +penny of his grandmother's money. There it was in black and white, set +down in the wills and bequests column of the _Illustrated London +News_. Now, the difference between keeping a boy with a hundred +thousand pounds from possibly inheriting some acres of heavily +mortgaged bog and heather, and keeping a nameless, penniless waif from +a name and some hundreds a year was palpable. She was no hardened +criminal, and for the first time she found herself really facing the +question: "Am I to do this thing, or am I not to do it?" + +Should she put those letters in the fire and say no more about them, +or should she tell the truth? + +Though she knew its contents almost by heart, she took the slender +packet out once more and looked doubtfully at the marriage +certificate. + +"Captain Macleod," said the servant at the door, for Paul was a +privileged visitor, with the _entree_ at all times to Mrs. Vane's +little sitting-room. She had barely time to thrust the paper under a +book ere he was beside her. + +"How you startled me!" she said, with a nervous laugh, as she took his +hand. "I did not expect you to-day; you were here yesterday." + +"I came to inquire for your fever," he replied a trifle coldly. "You +have it again, I see--and feel. You should be in bed as it is." + +He wheeled the armchair to the fire, brought a cushion from the sofa, +and waited, holding it in his hand to settle it comfortably for her as +she sate down. + +She gave an odd little sort of choke. + +"What a coddle you are, Paul! There is nothing really the matter with +me. I grow old, that is all; I grow old." It was not a good beginning +for an interview in which she would need all her self-control, all her +common sense; and had the letter been within reach at that moment it +would have received scant justice at her hands, for nothing in the +wide world seemed worth consideration save this man with his kind ways +and soft voice. He, at any rate, must not suffer. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + +The room was growing dusk. That pleasant duskiness which obliterates +corners and seems to concentrate comfort on the flame-lit circle by +the fire. + +"What a good nurse you are, Paul," she said, with an effort after her +usual airiness. "The woman you marry will be lucky." + +"I'm glad someone thinks so," he remarked briefly, "for there does not +seem to be much competition----" + +"Paul!" she interrupted, with a sudden flutter at her heart. "Do you +mean----" + +"Yes! you were right, as usual, if that is any comfort to you. I have +got my dismissal. Does that satisfy you?" + +She looked at him frankly. "It does. You do not like it, of course, +but I cannot be sorry. She was never good enough for you, even when +she was rich, and when she was poor----" + +"Don't let us discuss it, please. The thing is over; and what with +those who are too good and those who are not good enough I seem to +have made a muddle of it. By the way, I suppose Miss Carmichael is +still at Gleneira?" + +"Certainly--but--but why? I fail to see the connection." It was not +true; she saw it clearly enough, and her voice showed it. + +"Only because I am going down there to-morrow." + +"To burn your wings again?--that is foolish!" + +"I have no wings to burn; but I am going to ask her to marry me--to +face the villa with me, as you put it." + +Mrs. Vane started from her pillow with fear, surprise, dislike in +every feature. + +"Are you mad, Paul? The girl does not care for you; I'm certain of +that. Then she is half engaged, I believe, to Alphonse--Dr. Kennedy, I +mean. Her letter is full of him; you can see it if you like." + +"I have no doubt of it; he is a far more admirable person than I am. I +fully expect she will refuse me, but I mean to ask her all the same." + +"But why? Since you have told me so much you may as well tell me all. +Why?" + +"Because I choose, and because I like following your good advice." + +"My advice?" she echoed; "my advice? That is too much." Then +recognising the fact that no good would follow on direct opposition, +she tacked skilfully. "If you choose, I suppose you will do it, though +I cannot for the life of me see why you should put yourself to +needless pain, for it must be pain, since you were certainly in love +with her at Gleneira----" + +"I believe I was," he interrupted, "but I'll risk the pain." + +"No doubt," she answered bitterly; "self-inflicted pain is always +bearable. But for the girl--why not consider her comfort? It is always +a disagreeable thing to refuse, and a man who forces a girl into that +position without due cause is----" + +"Is what?" + +"A presumptuous cad, my dear Paul." + +"Thank you! You are clever, Violet, and your conclusions are generally +right; but in this case you argue without knowledge of the premises." + +"I know that Paul Macleod never did and never will come under that +category," she replied readily, "and that is enough for me." + +"If it were true, but it is not." He had not meant to tell her the +truth, but a certain contrariety led him on. "I used not to be one, +perhaps; but I was one to her. That last night, after I was engaged to +Alice, I told her that I loved her." + +A little fine smile showed on Mrs. Vane's face. "Well, it was not fair +on Alice, but it was very like Paul. Only why repeat the mistake?" + +"You do not understand. I was half mad, I think, at leaving her--and +at her unconsciousness. And then--and then, I kissed her." + +"Really? That was very naughty, of course; but still more like Paul." + +He winced, as if she had struck him. "Don't laugh, Violet, as if it +were the old story; it isn't." + +His tone struck a chill of fear to her heart, yet she still kept up +her amused serenity. "Is it not? Yet she is surely not the first girl +you have kissed without a 'by your leave.'" + +He was silent, and then to her infinite surprise, as he sate leaning +forward looking into the fire, covered his face with his hands as if +to shut out an unwelcome sight. + +"You don't understand," he said, in a low voice. "She hadn't a +reproach--she--I can see the look in her eyes still." + +There was another silence, and then Mrs. Vane's voice came with an +indescribable chill in it: + +"You mean that she loved you, or you think she did." + +"I am sure of it. She did not deny it. Violet! she is the first woman, +I verily believe, who has loved me truly, and I repaid her by insult." + +A dangerous rush of sheer anger came to send tact and prudence to the +wind for the time. "You say that! The only woman! Then I say, Paul, +that you insult others by your doubts--others who have loved you +longer. Paul!" She was very close upon the verge, when she pulled +herself up short, and gave a little laugh. "You cannot think her love +very deep if you say she will refuse you. But what reason have you to +think she will? Because you kissed her? That is absurd, and you know +it. I believe you wish her to accept you." + +"Do I?" he asked wearily; "for the life of me I scarcely know; but I +mean to ask her. I must. Surely you can see that; you generally +understand me." + +"I do understand you, Paul; better perhaps than you understand +yourself. That is why I tell you not to go down to Gleneira. You are +_tete montee_ now. You are not yourself. Look the matter in the face! +Supposing she were to accept you; what then?" + +He paused a moment. "I should marry her, I suppose--but she won't. I +am not the sort of fellow she could marry." His voice had the +tenderest ring in it, but his head was turned away. To see it she +leant forward closer to him, almost on her knees, and the firelight +lit up her eager, appealing face. + +"Paul, don't deceive yourself with doubts. You love her more than +ever, and if, as you say, she loves you, the result is a foregone +conclusion, if you meet. It is a future of poverty, and, oh, how you +will regret it! Don't go, Paul, I beg of you; I beseech you--I am an +old friend, my dear." + +As she laid her flashing jewelled hands on his shoulder, his went up +mechanically and drew them down. So holding them in his, he looked +into her face kindly. "You are, indeed--but I must go--I have no +choice." + +His soft, caressing touch made her risk all, and her breath came fast +in swift denial. "No choice! That is not true! You said but now, no +one had loved you truly but this girl. Think, Paul, did not I? You +know I did. Was it for my own sake that I gave you up--that I sent you +away? You know it was not. I am not of the sort on whom the world +turns its back. I would have faced it gladly. It was for you. Because +you loved your profession--because--but you know it all! Even when I +was free, but poor, I would not claim you. Will Marjory do as much for +you? Will she say, 'I love you, but I will not injure you by marrying +you'? I think not. But I should not injure you now--I am rich, I am +rich, and I love you." + +Once before she had told him so plainly, but it had then been with an +easy self-control, suggesting the idea but withholding its inception. +Now she was pleading as if for life. + +"You are very good," he muttered, feeling the truth of what she said. + +"Yes!" she echoed, with a tinge of bitterness at her lack of power to +move him more. "How good you will never know. I have stood between you +and more evil than you dream of; and now I ask you to stay with me, +Paul, not because I love you, but because you are always happy with +me, because you will be safe with me--with me--only with me." + +That was true also; he was always happy with her. But safe? + +"I do not understand," he said. "Why should I be safer with you? I +know of no danger." Then he clasped her hands tighter, looking into +her face curiously. "What is it, Violet? Is there danger? You +speak---- By Heaven! there is something, Violet! What is it?" + +She drew from him quickly, realising her own imprudence, for she was +not prepared for any decisive step. "Nothing, Paul--nothing to speak +of," she said, rising to her feet with a hasty laugh, but her voice +shook, her hands were trembling. "Since you will not listen, go to +Marjory; she can protect you as well as I can." + +"I don't care to hide behind any woman," he said sternly. "Not even +behind you. What is it? You are not the kind of woman to say that sort +of thing unless you meant it. What danger do you know that I do not?" + +Even to hear his questioning roused her to a sense of what the +knowledge would mean to him, and the instinct of defence overcame even +her pride. "Am I not the sort of woman? All women are alike when they +are jealous. Can't you see it, Paul--can't you understand? or will you +force me to say it all over again? I know nothing, positively nothing, +to prevent your marrying Marjory. Go down to Gleneira if you will." + +He shook his head. "Don't prevaricate, Violet. I had rather you lied +to me, but for pity's sake do neither. Be my friend and tell me the +truth." + +For an instant his gentleness overcame her fence. "I cannot, Paul--I +cannot," she almost wailed; then remembering herself, she went on, +"How can I, when there is nothing to tell?" + +"I will not leave the room till I know," was his reply. "There _is_ +something, and you shall tell me. You will not; then I must find out +for myself--there was a letter in your hand. Let me go, Violet! I +don't want to hurt you, but I must and will have that letter, +unless---- No! I cannot trust you for the truth. I must see that +letter for myself." + +She knew enough of him to recognise that now his imperious temper was +roused, her only chance lay in an appeal to his affection. + +"Listen, Paul! I have done so much for you. Pay me back now--only this +little thing. I don't want you to see that letter--you have no right +to see it." + +He shook his head, and she flung the hands she had been detaining from +her with a cry. + +"You do not trust me! You do not trust me! That is hard after all +these years." + +"No! I cannot trust you, dear; you are too good to me," he said +gently, as he walked over to the table. + +The dusk had grown into dark, and he passed on to the window, in hopes +of sufficient light to decipher the letter he held; failing that he +came back to the fire. + +"Don't strain your eyes over it," she said bitterly, as she leant--as +if tired out--against the mantelpiece, watching him sombrely. "I +strained mine over it once--needlessly. I will ring for lights, and +you can surely wait for so much, now you have got your own way." + +So they waited in silence, standing side by side before the fire, till +the servant had set the shaded lamp on the table, and drawn the window +curtains carefully, methodically. Then he glanced at the +superscription, and pointing to it, said, "Why did you read it?" for +across the first blank page was scrawled legibly, "Not to be read by +anyone till Paul Macleod of Gleneira is dead." + +"Because I chose--the reason why _you_ read it, I suppose." + +The old admiration for her spirit which, even now, did not hesitate to +meet him boldly on his own ground, rose in him as, instinctively, he +turned to the signature for some further light to guide him in reading +the closely written sheets. Then his eye caught a name at the bottom +of a page where the writing merged from ink to a faint pencil. + +"Jeanie Duncan!" he exclaimed, half aloud; "what can she have to do +with me?" The instant after he turned to Mrs. Vane, as those who are +puzzled turn to those who are better informed. "Janet Macleod! did she +marry a Macleod after all?" + +"She married your brother Alick, and the boy is their son. Now you +know the worst--and _I_ have told you it--_I_, who would not hurt you +for the world." + +"She married---- Then little Paul?" He stood as if unable to grasp the +meaning of his own words. + +"Sit down, dear, and read it, since you have chosen to read. There is +no hurry. You know the worst," she said gently. + +So with a sort of dazed incredulity he read on in silence: + + +"Paul Macleod! yes! Paul! you shall read this some day; some day soon. +I am revenged. You were ashamed of me, and now I am the laird of +Gleneira's wife. Yet I did not mean to be revenged till he came, like +a fool, and put it into my head. I was getting tired of the life, +too--of the hard, thankless life. It was by chance I fell in with him +in Paris. I went there with someone and stayed on; so he could not +guess that I was Jeanie Duncan, whom he had never seen. And I hated +him because he was your brother; so he grew mad after me, and promised +marriage. Then the thought came--I, whom the laird's Jock did not +think good enough to love or marry, will take the laird himself, and +flaunt it over them all. So we were married, and then, before I had +time to settle anything, he died--died of drink, Paul! + +"Well! I hated him, so I did not care. I hated him for being so like +you, and caring for me when you did not---- + +"And now, if it is a boy, I will have my revenge--my just revenge--and +turn you out of the old place. But I wait, because, if it is a girl, +you will not care, and I will not have you jeer because my revenge has +failed. I pray day and night that it may be a boy, and lest I should +die, I write all about it, and put my marriage lines with the letter. +Then my son can come, and turn you out. I did not seek revenge, +remember. It came into my hand, and it is just. You know that it is +just! + + "Jeanie Duncan. + +"P.S.--Look in the photograph shops in Paris for 'La Belle Ecossaise,' +if you wish to know what I was like when _he_ married me." + + +Paul, reading methodically, paused for a second, passed his hand +across his forehead as if to clear his mind, and then went on to a +fainter pencil scrawl: + + +"Well! I have waited, Paul! It is a boy--so like you, Paul! I lie and +think--for they say I am dying, and so it cannot hurt now--that he +_is_ your son, and that we were married in the old days. But it is all +a lie! He is _his_ son, and I will have my revenge! If only I could +remember anything but the old days, Paul! Ah! surely when people love +as we did---- No! I do not understand. Only, the boy is so like you. I +lie and think, and I feel he must never turn you out. Never! never! +Only, if you die, then the boy must have his rights, for he is your +son. + + "Janet Macleod. + +"P.S.--Mother will keep this; she has come to see me die, so it will +be quite safe. She does not know I am married, and I have written +outside that no one is to read it till you are dead. Ah, Paul! I wish +you could have seen it. Forgive me, Paul--forgive me that he is not +your son!" + + +A greyness had come to the handsome face, and, as he folded up the +letter methodically, his hands trembled. + +"How long?" he asked; and it seemed almost as if he could not finish +the sentence. + +"Since the night of old Peggy's death. I suspected something, so I +stole it." + +"You suspected!" he interrupted quickly. "What could you suspect?" +Then he laughed bitterly. "I suppose you suspected I was the boy's +father, and thought the knowledge would be useful. If I had been it +would have been better." His hand holding the letter came down heavily +on the mantelpiece as he rose in sudden passion. "My God! what a +devilish revenge!" + +She gave a quick catch in her breath. She had been silent till now, +but now it was time to begin--time to make him think. + +"You forget that she repented--that she gave up her revenge. That is +why I said nothing, Paul. I am a woman, too, and I know how she +repented. I did not dare to speak--to disobey her dying wish; who has +a right to do that, Paul?--no one." + +"But the boy," he murmured, "the boy." + +"The boy will not suffer. If you die he will have his rights, as his +mother wished. If he were really your son he would not have Gleneira +till then, and you can look after him. It is not as if he were in +want, dear." + +He sate listening, listening to that soft, persuasive voice, which had +such a knack of following his every thought, and yet of leading them. + +"I had no right to steal the letters, of course," it went on a little +louder, "but I am not sorry; for others might not have understood, and +so the poor thing's repentance would have come to naught. Now, no one +knows but you and I. You who loved her, I who pity her; because I love +you, Paul, as she loved you." + +She came a step closer with wide-open, serious eyes, and touched him +on the breast with her slender white hand. The faint perfume of +jasmine which always lingered round her stole in on his senses +familiarly, taking him back to many a past pleasure and kindness +associated with it, and, half unconsciously, his empty hand clasped +hers; and so they stood looking, not at each other, but into the fire. + +"So it is easy to fulfil her wish--her dying wish. You did her a +wrong, Paul, in the old days, and you owe her reparation. She did not +wish you to read the letter, remember; but that can be as if it had +not been. Give it to me, dear! I would have burnt it before, as she +would have wished it burnt, but I wanted you to know for certain what +she had wished." + +Her small, white hand was on his, the paper rustled and seemed to slip +from his hold while he stood, as if mesmerised, looking into the fire. +It was all true--every word of it true. + +"Give it to me, Paul. You are thinking of the boy; but we could bring +him up, you and I, if you would have it so. Paul! This is my reward at +last! I can do this for you, now that I am rich." + +But still his fingers resisted faintly, and there was a pause, a long +pause. Then the hand which lay in his seemed to slacken, to lie in his +like a dead hand, and her voice came with a sob in its softness: + +"Paul! do this for me, and I will ask no more. Paul! let me save +you--save you and Marjory!" + +It was her last plea. She had kept it back till now, hoping against +hope, and, as she made it, she touched the highest point of +self-forgetfulness it is possible for a woman to reach. But in +touching it she struck a false note in the syren's song, and Paul +Macleod's hand closed like a vice over his one tie to an honest +life--the letter. + +The name had roused him. "Marjory!" he echoed absently. Then he turned +and looked at his companion compassionately, yet decisively. "You mean +to be kind, Violet, but you don't understand," he said quietly; then +raised her little slack hand, stooped to kiss it, and left her so, +standing by the fire alone. She had played for her love boldly, +skilfully, and she had lost. She had tried to save Paul for his own +sake, and she had failed. Yet even so, the innate courage of the woman +faced the facts without a tear, without a complaint. + +"It is my own fault," she said, half aloud. "I ought to have burnt the +letter long ago, but I was not meant for that sort of thing. My heart +is too soft." Then she smiled a little bitterly. It was at the +remembrance of Paul Macleod's assertion, "You do not understand!" If +she did not understand him, who could? + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Nearly a month had gone by since Marjory Carmichael had whispered to +the darkness, "Come back to me, Paul, and we will forget our love." +The sudden awakening to the realities, not only of life but of her own +nature, caused by his reckless avowal of love, had passed, as all +awakenings must, into calm acquiescence in the commonplace facts of +consciousness. There was no denying of the truth possible to her clear +sight, and as she sate on the last day of October, on the last day of +holiday before she and little Paul set off together to make +acquaintance with a new world, she laid down her pen in the middle of +a sentence in the letter she was writing to Tom Kennedy, and looked +out over the stormy whitecrested waves of the loch set in its rampart +of grey, snow-powdered, mist-shrouded hills, and wondered how she +could have been so blind for so long. Blind to half the great problems +of life! And then, with a smile, infinitely sweeter than it used to be +because infinitely stronger, she took up a letter which lay beside +her, and leaning back in her chair began to read it over again, just +as she had re-read a letter down by the river side three months +before, on the day when her holiday began--on the day when she had +first seen Paul Macleod. + +But it was a very different letter from the one Dr. Kennedy had sent +her then; for all unconsciously the girl, in the first bewilderment of +her awakening, had stretched out her hands to him, as it were, for +help, and he had given her what he could, smiling a trifle bitterly as +he wrote to think how little that was. "You ask me to tell you the +truth," she read, "but how can I when I do not know it myself? If I +had, the world might have been different--for us both. Only this +seems clear, that friendship is a bigger thing than love, unless +they both grow from the same root, and then--I fancy, Mademoiselle +Grands-serieux, that the botanists ought to characterise the product +as a sport! It is rare enough--God knows! I have sate for hours over +the puzzle, trying to get at the bottom of myself, only to come back +to the old paradox that Love is not worth calling Love unless it is +something which is not Love. And that is no solution. Pure and simple, +unveiled of mist and sentiment, it is all too easy of explanation. It +is ever-present, and must be so--it seems--till the end of all things. +Then there is--shall we call it the transcendental form conceivable +only to those who recognise some innate, or almost innate, sense of +order or beauty in mankind. That too, given this premise, is easy. I +believe I understand it. I am sure you do. It is the hybrid of these +two held up to our admiration, and believed in by the majority of +cultivated people, which beats me altogether. Look round you, dear, +and think for yourself. A man and a woman have mental sympathy with +each other. What has that to do with marriage? A man and a woman are +married. What has that to do with mental sympathy? The two things are +not incompatibles. Heaven forbid! But have friendship and what the +world calls love any real connection, and what part have they to play +in marriage? That sounds like a conundrum, and perhaps it is as well, +since we were getting too serious, and that is a fatal mistake when +there is no answer to the riddle. But there is a sacrilegious little +story, my dear, regarding the reasons for not enforcing celibacy on +the clergy, which is not altogether irrelevant to our subject. Luther, +I believe, is responsible for declaring that marriage is a +'discipline' not to be surpassed in spiritual efficacy; a discipline +before which hair shirts and flagellations are sensual indulgence. +N.B.--Was Luther any relation of the Cornish man who said, 'Women was +like pilchards; when 'ums bad 'ms bad, and when 'ms good they is but +middlin'?' I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle G.S., but one must +laugh--if one is not to cry. What if love were the mutual attraction +of certain elements, which combined and neutralised in the children, +would go to form a more useful compound of humanity? Would not this go +further towards raising our instincts out of the mire than all the +romance in the world? And then it would account, of course--since +chemicals are apt to evolve heat in combining--for a good deal of +friction in the married state, which in its turn must polish the +sufferers! But as this theory canonises Mrs. Caudle, and makes +wife-beating a virtue, perhaps we had better change the subject by +saying, as we said at the beginning--friendship is a bigger thing than +love, and so pass on to the lives we have to lead, love or no love." + +So with kindly thought, and a plentiful humour irradiating every page, +he went on to tell her of his work, of stirring scenes in that +hand-to-hand fight with Death, the great enemy of Love, in which he +lived. A tender, charming letter, such as his were always. Letters +which none know how to write save those who, despising the control of +time and space, have learnt to lean over the edge of the world, and +claim a part in some far-off life. Letters which, without one word of +sentiment from beginning to end, leave both the writer's and reader's +hearts full of a great kindliness and peace. + +They set Marjory a thinking, as they were meant to do, and the result +was good, since her clear common sense never failed her. Yet side by +side with that common sense existed a certain fanciful idealism, which +took the place of the former in matters beyond the limits of plain +reason. And this, as she read, made her pause to wonder if Tom could +be right, and the calm content which came to her from him, so +different from the unrest which the mere thought of Paul produced, +meant that they were too nearly akin to need neutralisation. Then she +laid down the letter and took up the pen again, striving unconsciously +to imitate his playful touch. + +"No, Tom!" she wrote; "I am not growing morbid. I am not, as you call +it, trying to measure my world with home-made imitations of the +imperial quart; still, I do wish I knew what the cubit was! Then I +would add it to my stature and rise superior--perhaps. If I had known +what I know now when my holiday began would it have made any +difference? If I had had a mother, if I had been brought up with other +girls, should I have gone on as I did, using a wrong terminology? I +will tell you something, Tom. What I thought was love in those old +days is just what I feel for you, dear. Perhaps I might have thought +so all my life if I had not met him. And now, if I meet him again, +Tom, what will happen? I sit down before the proposition; but it is +not to be solved like a problem in Euclid, because I have discovered +that my heart and my brain are quite separate, and I used to think +they were both a part of me. Don't tell me, please, that I am wrong. +Perhaps I am physiologically. I know all about that horrid little +V-shaped spot in the _medulla oblongata_, isn't it, where a pin-point +will stop Tears and Laughter, Love and Friendship for ever. What then? +Does it make it easier to understand why the heart beats, to know that +we can stop its beating? I wish I knew! I wish I knew! I don't want it +to beat, but it will. Oh! what a mercy it is that we two do not love +each other!" + +She laid down the pen as a knock came to the door. + +"A strange shentlemen to see Miss Carmichael," said the new servant +who had replaced the peccant Kirsty discovered--direful offence--in +putting a dirty skimmer into the milk. + +Now, in the country a "strange gentleman" generally resolves itself +into the piano-tuner, so Marjory bade him be shown up with a certain +calm impatience at the necessity for explaining that his services +would not be wanted; then, the thread of her thoughts broken rudely, +she sate waiting, her eyes fixed absently on the words, "that we two +do not love each other!" + +She looked up from them to see Paul Macleod standing at the door. He +had come back to her! + +Five minutes before she had asked, almost passionately, of her friend +what she would do in such case. Now there was but one answer. + +"Paul!" Her outstretched hand sought his, as he stood tall and +straight trying to master his emotion, to preserve the calm to which +he had schooled himself through the long journey which had ended +here--here, where he might once have found rest; here, where all, save +such self-respect as apology might leave him, was lost for ever. + +"Paul--Oh! how tired you look--how cold your hands are! Come, +dear--come and warm yourself; you must be perished!" + +He did not speak, perhaps because the hoar frost of pride which had +chilled his eyes melted before the radiance of hers; and hoar frost is +but water after all. So she drew him to the fire, and then, still +holding one hand as if loth to lose touch of it, knelt on one knee to +stir the peats to a brighter blaze. + +"I'm so glad you have come back," she said, with a little tremble in +her voice; "so glad!" And then she looked up suddenly into the face +above her, surprised at the almost painful strength of his grip. For +Paul Macleod's composure was almost gone, and he was struggling hard +for self-control. What she saw kept her silent; but she bent towards +him till her soft, warm cheek touched his hand caressingly. The +action, with its tale of tender solicitude, its boundless sympathy, +was too much for him. He drew in his breath hard, and resting his arm +on the mantelpiece turned from her to hide his face upon it, and so +escape the pity in her eyes. + +And he had dreamed of something so different! Of something coldly +just, reasonably reproachful! Without a word she had guessed, had +_known_, that he must be free to come, because he _had_ come back. + +"What is it, dear?" she asked softly, as she stood beside him. "Are +you afraid that I am angry? Are you afraid that I care--about _that?_ +Paul! I do not choose to care--I will not. Look at me, and you will +see if that is not the truth!" + +What he saw was a face soft with the passion he knew so well--the +passion which lies so perilously close to self--which claims so much, +and resents so easily. But it was radiant also, as with a white flame +of cleansing fire, pitiless in its purity. + +"What is it to me?" she went on, her voice ringing clearer. "What is +it to any woman unless she stoops to care? Oh! I understand now, +Paul--I understand things of which I never even dreamed before; things +which have been in your life--things which might have been in mine, +perhaps--God knows!--if I had been in your place. But they are no more +to me than this--a grief, a regret, because they are a stain upon your +past, as all wrong must be. They are no more to me than that, because +I do not choose to count them more!" + +So, with a smile in her eyes, and a quiver of pain on her lips, she +raised her face to his and kissed him. + +Thus neither humiliation nor forgiveness was allowed a part in this +woman's reading of the Divine Comedy. Perhaps she was wrong, and yet +no scorn, no righteous indignation, could have made Paul Macleod feel +more acutely the gulf which lay between his past and hers. Between +their futures also. They might be friends, but from that pure Love of +hers he was for ever outcast, though she might not know it--though he +might spend his life in trying to conceal the fact that he lived on a +lower plane than she did. Why! the past was with him _now_, even at +the touch of her lips. He loved her, as he had loved so often before. + +"Marjory!" he cried passionately, "I don't deserve it, but I can't +miss it--if you will put up with me?" + +She drew herself away, and looked at him with a half-tender, +half-mocking expression. + +"Put up with you? What else is there to be done now that you have come +back to me?" + +What else, indeed! She was right; it was he who had taken the +responsibility, he who defied natural consequences in this dreaming of +something beyond and above his past. He was not hardened enough to be +blind to this, and the thought showed on his face. + +"Come," she said consolingly, "sit down and tell me all about it--why +you came back, I mean; I know why you went away." + +If she did, he felt that she was wiser than he, since, sitting so +beside her, sure of her sympathy, her confidence, it seemed incredible +that he should have fled from this sure haven of his own free will. He +told her all, it seemed to him without a pang; told her of his +dismissal, of the change in his prospects. Yet, when he put Jeanie +Duncan's letter into her hands, and walked away to the window while +she read it, he felt more of a cur than he had ever done in all his +life before. What would the girl say? What could she say but that it +served him right? If she dismissed him also, and told him that she did +not care to exchange her love for his, would not that serve him right +also! + +And so, as he stood frowning moodily at the growing glint of sunshine +far out in the West driving the mists in dense masses up the Glen, her +voice came to him as she laid down the letter with a sigh: + +"I am glad she called him Paul." + +He turned quickly to her in a sort of incredulous amaze! Was that all +she had to say? A sort of chill crept over him, even though he found +himself at her feet, with her hands in his, kissing them softly as he +told her, with a break in his voice, that she was too good--too good +for any man. The thought brought him a certain consolation, as she +went on, evidently with the desire of taking all sting from his +memories--to speak of the strange coincidence of little Paul's +devotion to her, and of her liking for the lovable little lad. Surely, +if Gleneira had to go, he would far rather it went to him than to some +stranger, who would care nothing for her and her ways. + +"Why?" she said, a trifle tearfully; "he has been so much with me +lately, since old Peggy died, that I felt quite lost without him when +he went yesterday for a farewell visit up the Glen to the Macintoshes. +The boys were his great playmates. So you see, Paul, it will not +matter so much, for he will live with us, of course, and it is a long, +long time before he comes of age. And even then I don't believe he +will turn you out of house and home altogether. We will teach him +better things than that! Won't we?" + +In truth, spoken of in her calm, clear voice, and with her wise eyes +on his, and that sweet convincing "we" in her phrases, the prospect +did not seem so hopeless. Yet he caught himself wishing that she had +not taken his renunciation quite so much as a matter of course; +wishing that she appreciated his victory over temptation more keenly. +Yet, how could she, when he had not told her that part of the +business, or how near he had been to purchasing peace with dishonour +by destroying Jeanie Duncan's letter and the marriage certificate it +contained. But there were many things in his past, he told himself, +with a sigh, of which it was better she should continue to know +nothing; for her own sake, not for his. He could scarcely fear her +blame, and it would have been a certain comfort to, as it were, bring +her closer to him by confession. But Paul Macleod was too much of a +gentleman for that kind of self-indulgence, and he was realising for +the first time in his life the supreme impotence of repentance either +in the past or the future. Had he not, even at the time, repented him +of the evil in regard to Jeanie Duncan; yet had not a Nemesis grown +out of his very repentance? + +"Come with me part of the way back, dear," he said, when the necessity +for writing business letters broke through even his desire to linger +within touch of her kind hand. "I can't bear somehow to lose sight of +you for an instant, but I must go--there are the lawyers--and Dr. +Kennedy." + +"I can tell Tom if you like," replied Marjory. "I write to him most +days." + +Something rose up in her hearer and cursed Tom, though the next moment +he was reviling himself. That sort of thing would have to be put away +for ever when he was Marjory's husband. + +"You will have to marry me as soon as you can," he said, with what to +her seemed great irrelevance. + +"I will marry you as soon as you like, Paul; you know that," she +replied cheerfully. + +Yes! so far was easy; but afterwards? How would she ever put up with +him? Yet the question was once more forgotten in the charm of the +present. + +It was the end of a soft day, and the summitless mountains looked +purple and green under the mist wreaths which every now and again +seemed to descend to fill the valley and leave sparkling drops of dew +on the little curls below Marjory's cap, while the river ran roaring +beside them, making a kind of droning accompaniment to the shriller +drip from the trees upon the stones. Then the fine rain would cease, +the birds begin to twitter, rustling the damp leaves, and sending a +faster shower on the path; while from the West a gleaming blade of +light would sever the mists, and give a glimpse of a new heaven and a +new earth, where the sun was setting peacefully. + +As she walked along beside him, her face seemed to hold the sunshine, +his the mist, and once, in the middle of some talk over the future, he +paused to hark back to the past. + +"If we could begin it all over again from the day I first met you on +the river, I think I might have a better chance--at least, I would not +play the fool so utterly--at least, my memories of _you_ would be free +from pain--and I should have left undone the things that I have done." + +"Why should you say that?" she asked. "Is it not enough that what you +did made me love you?" + +"Your godfathers and godmothers should have christened you +Barnabasina," he replied, with an effort after his old, light manner, +"for you are verily a daughter of consolation, Marjory; but even you +cannot take the sting out of some things. If I could have the past +over again! Nothing short of that will satisfy me." + +Her quick, bright face grew brighter. + +"Then you shall have it, dear, as far as I'm concerned. Yes! you +shall! It will be pleasant for me, too. Don't laugh at my fancy, for I +like fancies sometimes; they help one along the dead level bits of the +road. I'll say 'good-bye' here, Paul, here in the very spot where you +said good-bye before--do you think I could forget it? And then +to-morrow----" she hesitated in her very eagerness. + +"Yes, to-morrow, Marjory?" he echoed. + +"To-morrow you shall meet me at the old place on the river--you +remember it, of course, and we shall begin all over again--all over +again from the very beginning, to the very end. I remember them all, +Paul; everything, I believe, that you ever said--everything, at any +rate, that you ever said which I disliked. Is that unkind? And so when +the time comes for those bits you shall not say them--we will cut them +out of the past." + +"It will be Hamlet with the Prince left out," he said, falling in with +her playful mood. + +"Not a bit of it! Besides if it were I should not mind. It was never +the prince I liked, but Paul--the real Paul." + +"I wonder which one that is," he replied quickly, yet with a smile; +for her radiant face would not be cheated of its due. + +"We shall see to-morrow--good-bye, Paul." + +He shook his head. + +"No! No! Marjory. Neither that, nor adieu, any more. Till +to-morrow--_Auf-wieder-sehn_, my love! _Auf-wieder-sehn_." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + +The beginning of a new day, a new life! + +That, perhaps, should have been Marjory's first thought when, drawing +up the blind, she stood in the early dawn at the window looking out on +a world white with hoar frost. But it was not; for her eyes fell upon +a bunch of late rowans still adorning the tree, which stood so close +that, on windy nights, the berries would tap against the panes like +some ghostly visitant claiming admittance. They also were veiled +in a silvery tracery, and so the trivial remembrance of a certain +ball-dress came uppermost, instead of any sober reflection. As a +matter of fact, the larger half of existence can be excellently +executed on a penny whistle. + +What a very good imitation those berries had been which Tom had sent +from Paris; and how unlikely it was, since she and Paul were both +poor, that she would have so magnificent a garment again. It would not +be wanted, that was one comfort, if they lived quietly at Gleneira, +which, of course, they must do, unless Paul were to try and get back +to active service again. She must talk that over with him--that and +many another thing--when they began life again down by the river side. + +"It's ill singing the mavis' song but in the mavis' time," quoted Mrs. +Cameron, with a wise shake of the head, when Marjory came whistling +down the stairs to breakfast. "And half-past eight o' the clock on a +chill November morn in a white world is no the time for anything save +a sup o' hot porridge." + +"I wasn't singing the mavis' song," she laughed; "it was the lark's, +and they always begin early." And her clear voice broke gaily into the +phrase, "And Ph[oe]bus 'gins to rise." + +"Then it's ill singing on an empty stomach," persisted the old lady; +"and ill manners, too, to be sae blithe when ye are leaving us. What's +up wi' you, lassie?" + +Marjory gave her a queer look. "Everything! it's going to be a fine +day for one thing." + +"Wha kens? That's no a thing ye can say at half-past eight o' the +clock. Sing you the 'Flowers of the Forest,' my bairn; that's more o' +the truth in this world." + +Her old, faded voice quavered over the first line, "I've seen the +morning, wi' gold the hills adorning," and Marjory's clear, young one +took up the song cheerfully, "And loud tempest storming before the mid +o' day." Then she paused mischievously. "That's a foolish version, +though; the old one is better: 'I've heard the lilting at our yowe +milking, Lassies a' lilting before the dawn o' day.' And dawn is +before half-past eight o' the clock, even in November." + +Mrs. Cameron looked at her somewhat mollified, beating time with her +mittened fingers to the familiar rhythm. + +"Weel! weel! One way or the t'ither it's the bonniest song ever sung +in this world, and I mind, when I was a lassie, thinkin' that my +jo--he wasna John, my dear,--sang it like the angels out o' heaven. +But there! commend me to a lassie that's in love wi' the most +ordinair' o' men for a blaspheemous sacrileegous creature, if he's +weel favoured, and that's the truth. There isn't one o' the cardinal +virtues, but she'll dig up--maybe from some ither decent man's kale +yard and plant it amang his weeds wi' a light heart. Aye! and watter +it wi' tears too when she finds it no thrivin'. It's the way o' women, +and she's happier when she gives up the gairdening and sets to rear +bairns instead." + +"I wish Will could hear you admit that children are a comfort," +laughed Marjory, from her porridge. + +"And what's hindering him but sloth?" asked the old lady, rushing +eagerly to an old battle ground. "But there! was it not predicted as +the end o' a' things. Just a great Darkness as o' Night, and that is +what folks is coming to nowadays. It just beats me to roust the +hussies from their beds before six. And it's no from them bein' +hirelings a'together, for it's the same with the cottages. Where the +peat smoke used to go up wi' the mist wreaths at the earliest blink, +there's naething but an empty lum. Aye! and a cauld hearth! Not even a +gathering peat to keep the warmth o' home aboot the place. But there! +what could ye expec' wi' such names as they give the matches--Lucifers +and Damnstickers." + +"My dear mother!" exclaimed Will, in horrified accents, as he lounged +in lazily. + +"I'm no swearing, William," she retorted, with great dignity. "Tho' +maybe I hae a claim to be angry an' sin not, wi' a farmer son that +comes down to his breaking o' bread when the beasts have begun to chew +the cud." + +"My dear mother!" quoth Will, good-naturedly. "You look after the +beasts, and my corn is all carried." + +"Weel! weel! When I'm carried to me grave ye'll find the difference, +even if ye get a wife. Aye, aye! I ken fine what she'll be like--just +one o' the sort wi' a hump somewhere. I kenna whaur the fashion'll put +it then, since 'of that hour knoweth no man,' but it will be +somewheres, an' her hair will be as if a clucking hen had bin scrapin' +in't." + +"I deny it; I deny it," laughed Will; "when I marry, I shall marry a +girl just like Marjory. Only she shall not be quite so tall, or so +clever, and shall be thinner, and less opinionated--more of my sort, +and----" + +"And her hair shall be of a different colour," laughed Marjory, in her +turn; "I'm glad I don't leave you heartbroken--or anyone else, +either," she added, half to herself. + +And as she passed through her little sitting-room, before starting on +her rendezvous with Paul, she paused for an instant before her letter +to Tom Kennedy, which still lay unfinished, as she had left it, and +looked down again on those last words. They were true still, and with +a sudden impulse she took up the pen to say so. + +"Tom!" she wrote, "the problem is solved! Paul has come back to me, +and we are going to begin a new life together. Yet, I stretch out my +hands to you, dear, as I did before, and say 'Friendship is a bigger +thing than love!'" + +Then she went gaily through the garden to pick a late carnation for +Paul's buttonhole, and as she picked it she sang the "Flowers o' the +Forest." + + + "I've seen Tweed's silver streams, + Glittering in the sunny beams, + Grow drumly and dark as he row'd on his way." + + +The tune, with its haunting cadences, lingered in her mind, and more +than once fell from her lips, when with a light heart she faced the +ups and downs of the white road as it crept round the loch to where +the bridge, spanning the river, would enable her to strike across the +moss-hags to the alder-fringed bank above. And Paul would be on the +other side as he had been before. But he should not jump this time, +for that was one of the things she did not like; those things which +she was going to take out of his life and hers. The very thought, +indeed, of the risk of a slip made her shiver as she paused for a +moment on the bridge, and saw the yellow-brown flood, swollen with the +night's rain, rushing against the piers. + +"Drumly and dark!" Drumly it was, yet scarcely dark. It ran too fast +for that, and up yonder, where she was to meet Paul, it would be a +mass of foam with yellow lights in it. A sort of syllabub of a river +pouring over the curved edge of the rock heavily. Not like water at +all, but like some drugged draught; falling not with a roar or a rush, +but with slow, deafening boom. The waters of Lethe might fall so, she +fancied. Well! Paul should run no risk of them to-day, for she was +before her time, and would be there to warn him. So thinking, she +clambered down to the water's edge, and seating herself on the only +level slab of rock, which projected slightly over the boiling pool +below, she faced the downward course of the river, certain thus of +seeing the first glimpse of her lover's tall figure above the bracken +which crested the almost perpendicular rocks on the other side. + +"I've seen this morning." It was a most distracting tune! All the more +so because the words would follow Mrs. Cameron's sentimental lead, +instead of keeping to the old lament with the lilt of battle and +sudden death in it. + + + "The flowers o' the forest that fought aye the foremost, + The prime o' our land are cauld in the clay." + + +That was why they played it as a Dead March in the Highland regiments. +If Paul decided not to retire, it might be played at his funeral some +day. At Paul's funeral! The very thought seemed impossible; and yet +the girl's heart throbbed more with pride than fear. "That fought aye +the foremost." Yes! if she were a soldier's wife that was what a +soldier should do, even if she had to sit "drearie, lamenting her +dearie." + +It was too bad, she told herself, for the tune to haunt her so, since +Paul would be coming soon now, and when they had first met her head +had not been full of the "Flowers of the Forest" and such things; she +had been reading one of Tom's letters. How foolish of her not to have +brought one to complete the illusion! unless, indeed, there were, by +chance, one in her pocket. Yes! a scrap of one, old enough to rouse +her curiosity and engross her attention as she smoothed it out and +began to read. + +"To be disappointed in love! The phrase is arbitrarily bound up with +the state of celibacy. Wherefore, my dear Marjory? wherefore? If love, +as we once agreed, I think, is the touchstone of life, then marriage +appears to me to be the continual essay of love, where, alas! the gold +does not often reach the standard for hall marking; therefore it is +conceivably better to be continually in love and not to marry. I don't +know how it is, Mademoiselle Grands-serieux, but my philosophy +invariably ends in paradoxes of doubtful propriety--now, doesn't it?" + +She looked up smiling, then rose to her feet quickly, for there was a +rustle behind her. Paul might have been there ahead of her after all, +and have gone up to look at the river. Yes! there was someone at the +head of the fall, where the solitary rowan tree leant above the +alder-bushes, for the branches swayed. + +"Paul!" she cried across the boom of the river, "is that you? Come +down a bit; I'm here!" + +"I'm coming, Miss Marjory, I'm coming," answered a childish voice; +"but it is the berries I'm getting for you first. It is the last I +will be getting you in Gleneira, I'm thinking, and they're real +beauties, whatever." + +Great heavens! how reckless of the boy! yet, was not recklessness in +the blood? There he was, clinging to an overhanging branch; any +instant he might fall, and---- "Paul!" she cried quickly, +peremptorily; "come down at once. I don't want them." + +She saw his bright, flushed face through the sparse yellowing leaves, +close to the bunch of red berries, clutched by the little brown hand. +So like that picture of his mother--so like--so like Paul, too!--her +Paul. Ah, God in heaven! + +The child had slipped. "Hold tight, Paul! Hold tight!" + +Vain cry! Almost before it was uttered the seething foam with the +sunny glints in it had stifled his swift scream. + +Marjory made no sound. White, desperate, she leant over the slippery +edge of the shelf, clutched at something that seethed upwards for a +second, lost her balance, and was gone--in silence. The heavy foam +closed over her like a snow-drift with the sun on it, and all the help +the bravest heart could have given was the hope that unconsciousness +might come quickly through some kindly rock, and not in the slow agony +of suffocation. + +It was all over in a minute, for Nature knows her own mind when she is +in the tragic mood. She allows no time for unavailing tears. When, not +a minute afterwards, Paul Macleod's cry of "Marjory! Marjory!" with +its ring of glad certainty, echoed over the pool, there was not a sign +to show that she would ever give answer to his call again. + +"Marjory! Marjory! Marjory!" + +Pitiful appeal, though he knew it not, not even when a vague wonder at +her tardiness clouded the careless joy which had come to him with this +dawn of a new day, a new life. For the night seemed to have stolen his +fears as fit companions for its shadows, and left him nothing but his +hopes. + +"Marjory! Marjory! Marjory!" + +Is there anything in the wide world so terrible as the slow dread +which comes as the minutes pass unavailingly by?--as the certainty +that something has gone amiss seems to grow from the very passion of +protestation against the possibility?--and then, when fear has gone, +and unknown grief is the companion of the fruitless search, in which a +wild hope will spring up sometimes to intensify the pain? Of such +things all men may surely pray that fancy, and not memory, may speak. + +It was Tom Kennedy's letter--lighter than the love which had penned +it--that gave the first clue, and the hope went out from Paul +Macleod's face for ever when his quick eye found it like a foam bubble +in a backwater near the ford. + +"It will be in the Long Pool we must be looking," whispered the rough, +tender voices to each other, but Paul heard. Paul knew, Paul +understood what would come--if not that night, then the next day--or +the next. + +But Fate was merciful, and did not prolong the agony. + +"Don't look, laird! Oh, my dear! you that I carried in my arms as a +laddie--don't look," sobbed old Macpherson, as, with the first streak +of the following dawn, the men who had been working all the night long +bent over the oil-strewn, torch-lit depth through which the grapnel +came up, slowly, heavily. + +But Paul was no coward. He had looked death steadily in the face many +and many a time. + +"Stand back, John!" he said quietly. "I'll lift her in." + +And as he held her there in his arms while they drifted down stream a +space to a shelving grassy bank, he bent over her calm face, and +thanked "whatever gods there be," passionately, for the gift of that +sharp cut just showing beneath the damp curls through which some +friendly rock had brought a quick end to life. As he looked up again, +the dawn was out-paling the stars, and the birds in the alder-bushes +were stirring into song. + +"What day is it?" he asked, drearily, of old John; and that sudden +forgetfulness was the only sign he showed at the time of the terrible +shock he had sustained. Yet none who noticed it could ever forget the +look which came to his face, when, guided by the clue given by the +child's cap still clenched in the girl's hand, a further search ended +in the discovery of little Paul's body, and Marjory's lover realised +that she must have lost her life in the effort to save his namesake. +Indeed, in after years, old John, telling the tale, would often say +that he never went in such fear of seeing murder done as when Mr. +Gillespie had suggested the touching propriety of burying the brave +girl and her little friend side by side. He had even taken the bunch +of rowan berries found in the boy's fingers from the girl's breast, +where they had laid them, as no doubt they had been intended to lie, +saying, in a sort of fury, that nothing of the child's should come +near her. But beyond that he made no sign. + +And old John said true. Paul Macleod came back courteous and calm +among the many mourners who climbed one sunny afternoon to that sunny +spot on the southern slope of the hill, where Marjory had said the +light lingered longest. James Gillespie, his fair, florid face gaining +a dignity from his office, leading the way bareheaded, in his white +surplice, through the dead bracken and over the heathery slopes, while +his voice steadied itself over the words of consolation and hope. Tom +Kennedy, and Will, the laird, and Mr. Wilson--who, old as he was, +would not be gainsaid--carrying their dear dead, resting at times upon +some lichen-covered rock, or aided by other hands, tenderly, +sorrowfully, willing as theirs, falling for a time a step behind. All, +save Paul, who, setting even old John's offer of help aside, kept his +clasp tight upon the tough ash staff until, as they passed the +wishing-well on their downward way, he broke it across his knee +fiercely and flung the pieces on the dismal little pile. And then it +was that Father Macdonald, who, with sad, serene eyes, and softly +moving lips, had followed at a little distance, pleaded with the Great +Judge for another soul needing mercy. + +And Paul came back courteous and calm also from that smaller, drearier +procession, which laid the new-found heir among his forbears in the +stone vault belonging to the Macleods, far over by Ardmore point, in +the old kirk-yard. Dr. Kennedy, knowing all the circumstances, would +fain have spared the empty honour to the dead boy, but all his +arguments in favour of silence were unavailing. So old Peggy's little +grandson rested under a broad, silver plate, proclaiming him to be the +only son of Ronald Alister Macleod, of Gleneira, and Janet Duncan, his +wife. The sleet showers were slanting bitterly; and the outgoing tide, +buffeting with the westerly wind, almost swamped the little white +coffin as it lay in the bottom of the "Tubhaneer," while Paul sate +steering for the point steadily, as if he were not chilled through to +the marrow of both body and soul. + +It was the drenching he got, no doubt, as he stood alone, as chief +mourner, on the bare, wind-swept point, that made him look so ghastly. +He said so, at any rate, when Dr. Kennedy, noting his appearance with +professional eyes, recommended him to go to bed. It was Indian ague, +he said, nothing more; he was subject to it; had, in fact, had several +similar attacks at Gleneira. + +So he retired, courteously, calmly as ever, to the Big House, where he +set aside all offers of companionship. And there, Dr. Kennedy, with +that look on Paul Macleod's handsome face haunting his professional +soul, sought him next morning on pretence of saying goodbye. But by +that time Paul was past anything save that odd, rhythmical tossing +from side to side of the restless head, which comes when the brain is +conscious of nothing but the fever raging in it. + +Lord George came down at once, gentle as any woman, and surprised to +hear the long tale Dr. Kennedy had to tell, for Paul had only written +of the sad accident. And Lady George followed, with two plain, black +dresses and a little assortment of highly starched linen collars and +cuffs in her portmanteaux, ready at all points to take up the role of +nurse; though why a woman should nurse better in handcuffs, which +prevent all natural play of the wrist, and why a patient should be +supposed to like the dangling of starched cap-strings in his face, is +another matter. + +And still the head tossed restlessly, and the parched lips went on +muttering, muttering. At the first, of many things faintly articulate; +many things, and of many places; then, by degrees, centring round one +time, one scene; finally emerging into a monotonous whisper-- + +"Violet! Violet! Violet!" + +"I think we had better telegraph for Mrs. Vane," said Dr. Kennedy, +looking grave; "his mind has gone back to that time when she nursed +him through something similar. It is often so in brain cases, and we +cannot afford to lose a chance of saving him--sane. That previous +attack lessens the chance terribly." + +She came, of course, without an instant's delay, as she would have +come to anyone who needed her extraordinary tact and care; and Dr. +Kennedy gave a sigh of relief when, stealing in for a look about dawn +on the next day, he found her seated on a stool beside the low camp +bed, one hand laid lightly on the sick man's breast, the other as +lightly keeping the ice bag on his forehead, while he lay still, quite +still. + +"I used to do it before," she whispered, "and it seems to soothe +him--do you think it foolish?" + +For Dr. Kennedy, with a smile, had looked round the room, wondering at +the woman's quick touch which had transformed it. A night-light +flickered from the floor in one corner, the curtains had gone and the +bed was shifted to the centre, so that the mingled light of waning +night and dawning day fell sideways on the patient, and he could have +seen--if he could have seen at all--the door set wide open to the long +corridor to which some of Peter Macpherson's orange trees, the scarlet +hibiscus, and a few hot-house plants gave the look of a verandah. A +faint scent from them filled the air, and the large, empty room, +almost devoid of furniture, had lost its snug English comfort +altogether. + +"Foolish?" he echoed, going to the window, and looking out, absently. +"Who can say? The brain knows its own secrets. He seems to have +responded to the suggestion, and, for all we can tell, is ten years +younger to-day than he was yesterday." + +"I wish he were! I wish he were." The whisper came so passionately, +that Dr. Kennedy turned and looked at her curiously, sadly. + +"He is no worse, surely," she asked, rising softly, her hands seeming +to melt away, as it were, leaving the sick man unconscious of their +going. "Surely he is not worse?" + +"No! I was only thinking it might be better for us all if his memory +stopped where it is now--if he could forget." + +She clasped her hands together tightly. "If he could!--if only he +could forget--I would not care how much I remembered." + + + + + EPILOGUE. + + +It was once more autumn. The rowans were as red, the heather as +purple, as it had been in the year when Jeanie Duncan had sate for her +portrait and Marjory Carmichael had taken her holiday; as red, as +purple, as both will be until-- + + + "The slow sea rise and the sheer cliff crumble, + Till terrace and meadow the deep gulfs drink, + Till the strength of the waves of the high tides humble + The fields that lessen, the rocks that shrink." + + +For Nature is supremely indifferent whether she gives birth to fools +or knaves, or whether the Great Reaper fills his sheaf with wheat or +tares. + +The evening shadows were lengthening in the Glen, and from the little +school-house by the horse-chestnut tree the cadence of children's +voices rose and fell over the stirring measure of a processional hymn. + +"Not so fast! not so fast! who told you to gallop it like that?" cried +a smartly dressed young woman at the harmonium; a young lady with that +curious resemblance to a commonplace book, which the profession of +teaching brings to all but clever faces. + +"Miss Marjory was saying it should be gay-like," murmured a rebellious +voice among the elder scholars; the younger pausing with awed glances +at the only authority they had known. + +"Then she was wrong," retorted the Reverend James Gillespie's owner. +"It should be stately and solemn as befits a--a hymn. Don't you agree +with me, James?" + +"Perfectly, perfectly. The Bishop agrees also." His face beamed +unalloyed content; for he had read "dust to dust, ashes to ashes," +over many a coffin since his voice broke down one November morning +some years ago, and the memory of one funeral scarcely troubles him +more than another; each and all have a place in that growing sense of +his sacerdotal position, which makes him greatly regret that in those +earlier days he did not wear a biretta when exercising his priestly +function in committing his flock to their graves. + +And the evening shadows were lengthening also along the white road +that curves and crests the points and bays of the loch. A glint of +light where Paul had stood like St. Christopher, a deeper shadow where +Marjory had sate listening to the blabbing of the waves. Light and +shadow mingled in the woods, through which they had run hand in hand, +though with every moment the sunset glow left some golden birch or +scarlet cherry; and down among the tall, silver firs by the house a +faint white mist was beginning to rise over the trim lawns. + +"It is growing chill, Paul!" said an anxious voice. + +"To be continued in our next, Blazes; your aunt is inexorable!" The +tone was gracious as ever, but thinner, as Paul Macleod rose from his +lounge chair. + +"But, Uncle Paul! How many runs did you make?" cried Blasius, eagerly. +It had been his first term at Harrow, and this tale he had been +hearing of past prowess in cricket was too interesting to be thus left +pointless. + +"How many? I forget. Perhaps your aunt will remember----" + +A little spasm of pain passed over Violet's face. "How lazy you are, +Paul! You will end by remembering nothing." + +"Why should I remember when you do it so much better than I? It was a +good lot, Blasius, and I recollect being awfully proud at the time. +But these things slip by, somehow. When you are as old as I am----" + +"You really ought to go in, Paul!" came that warning voice, with a +studied patience in it. "This is not the Riviera, remember." + +"No, worse luck! I suppose it is the proper thing to come down here, +but it is an awful bore in some ways. Ah! there's George, back from +the hill--well, he likes it, that is one comfort." + +Blanche stood at the jasmine-covered porch to welcome her husband, for +the advancing years had, as is so often the case, decided her final +selection of a part in favour of the devoted wife--the fact being that +she was becoming a trifle too matronly for most of the others, while +the growing independence of the children stood in the way of a +satisfactory rendering of the maternal one. + +"Taking him in? That is right," she said approvingly, to her +sister-in-law, as Paul, on his wife's arm, paused to look at the birds +old John's son was laying out on the step. Old John himself, sturdy on +his legs as ever, but mindful of the dignity due to head keeperdom, +standing by. And then, not to be outdone, she turned to her husband. +"George! you ought not to dawdle about in wet feet. Please go in, too, +and change." + +"Wet? My dear, the moors are as dry as a bone. Aren't they, John?" + +"As dry as they will have been these fifty years, whatever," replied +the old man. "As dry as they would be that summer, Gleneira, when you +and----" + +"Do come in, Paul!" came the anxious voice, again. "Look, how the mist +is rising----" + +"By Jove! that's a fine young bird!" interrupted Paul, inconsequently, +with a flash of his old interest. "By the way, Violet, you might tell +the cook not to roast them to cinders as she did last night, and, +while I remember it, I wish you'd speak to Cunningham about that +horse----" + +"Really, Paul!" said his sister; "I think you might give the grooms +their orders yourself." + +He smiled kindly, and laid his other hand upon his wife's, as together +they went slowly to the smoking-room. + +"I am afraid I give you a lot of trouble," he said apologetically, as +he held the door open for her to pass through--"but I have such a +wretched memory, and you are so kind." + +"Don't say that, Paul! don't say that; what does it matter? I am quite +happy if you are." + +She watched his face curiously, eagerly, almost passionately; but she +saw nothing save that easy, kindly smile. + +Had her wish been fulfilled? and had he left memory behind in the +Valley of the Shadow, where he had left so much of the old Paul? She +could scarcely tell, for he never spoke of that one summer, but lived +his life as if it had not been. + + + * * * * * + + +But the light was lingering still on that steep slope, whence the +purple cloud of Iona could be seen lying like an amethyst on the +golden shield of the sea--for the sky was hung with blood-red pennants +as if the hosts of heaven were going forth to war. + +And Tom Kennedy looked out over sea and sky from the gravestone which +told that Marjory Carmichael died in attempting to save the life of +Paul Macleod. There was a bunch of red rowans on the green grass. He +brings one every year when, his brief holiday over, he climbs over the +hill--as he did on the last day he saw her--on his way back to the +work-a-day world, and that hand-to-hand fight with Death in others +which will cease with his own. + +His eyes are troubled, for it comes back to him every year as he sits +there that he might have saved her--if he had known. + +Known what? A smile comes to his face as he takes out an old letter +and reads the last words she ever wrote to him, "Yet I stretch out my +hands to you and say, again and again, Friendship is a bigger thing +than Love!" + +The mists are rising even there as he turns to breast the hill, the +cloud wreaths sweep solemnly in from the sea in stately curves, and as +he pauses on the summit for a last look downwards, lo! there is +nothing at all in earth, or sea, or sky, save himself and a grey, +encircling mist. Love and Friendship, Life and Death, Sunshine and +Shade! Where are they? + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Red Rowans, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED ROWANS *** + +***** This file should be named 40141.txt or 40141.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/1/4/40141/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (New York Public Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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