initial commit of ebook 9374HEADmain

1 files changed, 8036 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/9374.txt b/9374.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..498ac02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/9374.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8036 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Night of the Nets, by Amelia E. Barr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Night of the Nets
+
+Author: Amelia E. Barr
+
+Posting Date: September 10, 2012 [EBook #9374]
+Release Date: November, 2005
+First Posted: September 26, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NIGHT OF THE NETS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG
+Distributed Proofreaders, from images generously made
+available by the Canadian Institute for Historical
+Microreproductions.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A KNIGHT OF THE NETS
+
+BY
+
+AMELIA E. BARR
+
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I    THE WORLD SHE LIVED IN.
+
+II   CHRISTINA AND ANDREW.
+
+III  THE AILING HEART.
+
+IV   THE LASH OF THE WHIP.
+
+V    THE LOST BRIDE.
+
+VI   WHERE IS MY MONEY?
+
+VII  THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
+
+VIII A GREAT DELIVERANCE.
+
+IX   THE RIGHTING OF A WRONG.
+
+X    TAKE ME IN TO DIE.
+
+XI   DRIVEN TO HIS DUTY.
+
+XII  AMONG HER OWN PEOPLE.
+
+XIII THE "LITTLE SOPHY".
+
+
+
+_Grey sky, brown waters: as a bird that flies
+  My heart flits forth to these;
+Back to the winter rose of Northern skies,
+  Back to the Northern seas_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE WORLD SHE LIVED IN
+
+
+It would be easy to walk many a time through "Fife and all the lands
+about it" and never once find the little fishing village of
+Pittendurie. Indeed, it would be a singular thing if it was found,
+unless some special business or direction led to it. For clearly it was
+never intended that human beings should build homes where these
+cottages cling together, between sea and sky,--a few here, and a few
+there, hidden away in every bend of the rocks where a little ground
+could be levelled, so that the tides in stormy weather break with
+threat and fury on the very doorstones of the lowest cottages.  Yet as
+the lofty semicircle of hills bend inward, the sea follows; and there
+is a fair harbour, where the fishing boats ride together while their
+sails dry in the afternoon sun. Then the hamlet is very still; for the
+men are sleeping off the weariness of their night work, while the
+children play quietly among the tangle, and the women mend the nets or
+bait the lines for the next fishing. A lonely little spot, shut in by
+sea and land, and yet life is there in all its passionate variety--love
+and hate, jealousy and avarice, youth, with its ideal sorrows and
+infinite expectations, age, with its memories and regrets, and "sure
+and certain hope."
+
+The cottages also have their individualities. Although they are much of
+the same size and pattern, an observing eye would have picked out the
+Binnie cottage as distinctive and prepossessing. Its outside walls were
+as white as lime could make them; its small windows brightened with
+geraniums and a white muslin curtain; and the litter of ropes and nets
+and drying fish which encumbered the majority of thatches, was
+pleasantly absent. Standing on a little level, thirty feet above the
+shingle, it faced the open sea, and was constantly filled with the
+confused tones of its sighing surges, and penetrated by its pulsating,
+tremendous vitality.
+
+It had been the home of many generations of Binnies, and the very old,
+and the very young, had usually shared its comforts together; but at
+the time of my story, there remained of the family only the widow of
+the last proprietor, her son Andrew, and her daughter Christina.
+Christina was twenty years old, and still unmarried,--a strange thing
+in Pittendurie, where early marriages are the rule. Some said she was
+vain of her beauty and could find no lad whom she thought good enough;
+others thought she was a selfish, cold-hearted girl, feared for the
+cares and the labours of a fisherman's wife.
+
+On this July afternoon, the girl had been some hours mending the pile
+of nets at her feet; but at length they were in perfect order, and she
+threw her arms upward and outward to relieve their weariness, and then
+went to the open door. The tide was coming in, but the children were
+still paddling in the salt pools and on the cold bladder rack, and she
+stepped forward to the edge of the cliff, and threw them some wild
+geranium and ragwort. Then she stood motionless in the bright sunlight,
+looking down the shingle towards the pier and the little tavern, from
+which came, in drowsy tones, the rough monotonous songs which seamen
+delight to sing--songs, full of the complaining of the sea, interpreted
+by the hoarse, melancholy voices of sea faring men.
+
+Standing thus in the clear light, her great beauty was not to be
+denied. She was tall and not too slender; and at this moment, the set
+of her head was like that of a thoroughbred horse, when it pricks its
+ears to listen. She had soft brown eyes, with long lashes and heavy
+eyebrows--eyes, reflecting the lances of light that darted in and out
+of the shifting clouds--an open air complexion, dazzling, even teeth,
+an abundance of dark, rippling hair, and a flush of ardent life opening
+her wide nostrils, and stirring gently the exquisite mould of her
+throat and bust. The moral impression she gave was that of a pure,
+strong, compassionate woman; cool-headed, but not cold; capable of
+vigorous joys and griefs.
+
+After a few minutes' investigation, she went back to the cottage, and
+stood in the open doorway, with her head leaning against the lintel.
+Her mother had begun to prepare the evening meal; fresh fish were
+frying on the fire, and the oat cakes toasting before it. Yet, as she
+moved rapidly about, she was watching her daughter and very soon she
+gave words to the thoughts troubling and perplexing her motherly
+speculations.
+
+"Christina," she said, "you'll not require to be looking for Andrew.
+The lad is ben the house; he has been asleep ever since he eat his
+dinner."
+
+"I know that, Mother."
+
+"Well then, if it is Jamie Logan, let me tell you it is a poor
+business. I have a fear and an inward down-sinking anent that young
+man."
+
+"Perfect nonsense, Mother! There is nothing to fear you about Jamie."
+
+"What good ever came through folk saved from the sea? Tell me that,
+Christina! They bring sorrow back with them. That is a fact none will
+deny."
+
+"What could Andrew do but save the lad?"
+
+"Why was the lad running before such a sea? He should have got into
+harbour; there was time enough. And if it was Andrew's duty to save
+him, it is not your duty to be loving him. You may take that much sense
+from me, anyway."
+
+"_Whist, Mother_! He has not said a word of love to me."
+
+"He perfectly changes colours every time he sees you, and why so, if it
+be not for love of you? I am not liking the look of the thing,
+Christina, and your brother is not liking it; and if you don't take
+care of yourself, you'll be in a burning fever of first love, and
+beyond all reasoning. Even now, you are making yourself a speculation
+to the whole village."
+
+"Jamie is a straight-forward lad. I'm thinking he would lay his life
+down for me."
+
+"I thought he had not said a word of love to you."
+
+"A girl knows some things that are not told her."
+
+"Very fine; but it will not be the fashion now to lie down and die for
+Annie Laurie, or any other lass. A young man who wants a wife must
+bustle around and get siller to keep her with. Getting married, these
+days is not a thing to make a song about. You are but a young thing
+yet, Christina, and you have much to learn."
+
+"Would you not like to be young again, Mother?"
+
+"No, I would not! I would not risk it. Besides, it would be going back;
+and I want to go forward and upward. But you need not try to turn the
+talk from Jamie Logan that way. I'll say again what I said before, you
+will be in a fever of first love, and not to be reasoned with, if you
+don't take care of yourself."
+
+The girl flushed hotly, came into the house, and began to re-arrange
+the teacups with a nervous haste; for she heard Jamie's steps on the
+rocky road, and his voice, clear as a blackbird's, whistling gayly "In
+the Bay of Biscay O!"
+
+"The teacups are all right, Christina. I am talking anent Jamie Logan.
+The lad is just a temptation to you; and you will require to ask for
+strength to be kept out of temptation; for the Lord knows, the best of
+us don't expect strength to resist it."
+
+Christina turned her face to her mother, and then left her answer to
+Jamie Logan. For he came in at the moment with a little tartan shawl in
+his hand, which he gallantly threw across the shoulders of Mistress
+Binnie.
+
+"I have just bought it from a peddler loon," he said. "It is bonnie and
+soft, and it sets you well, and I hope you will pleasure me by wearing
+it."
+
+His face was so bright, his manner so charming, that it was impossible
+for Janet Binnie to resist him. "You are a fleeching, flattering
+laddie," she answered; but she stroked and fingered the gay kerchief,
+while Christina made her observe how bright were the colours of it, and
+how neatly the soft folds fell around her. Then the door of the inner
+room opened, and Andrew came sleepily out.
+
+"The fish is burning," he said, "and the oat cakes too; for I am
+smelling them ben the house;" and Janet ran to her fireside, and
+hastily turned her herring and cakes.
+
+"I'm feared you won't think much of your meat to-night," she said
+regretfully; "the tea is fairly ruined."
+
+"Never mind the meat, Mother," said Andrew. "We don't live to eat."
+
+"Never mind the meat, indeed! What perfect nonsense! There is something
+wrong with folk that don't mind their meat."
+
+"Well then, you shouldn't be so vain of yourself, Mother. You were
+preening like a young girl when I first got sight of you--and the meat
+taking care of itself."
+
+"Me, vain! No! No! Nobody that knows Janet Binnie can ever say she is
+vain. I wot well that I am a frail, miserable creature, with little
+need of being vain, either for myself or my children. You are a great
+hand at arguing, Andrew, but you are always in the wrong. But draw to
+the table and eat. I'll warrant the fish will prove better than it is
+bonnie."
+
+They sat down with a pleasant content that soon broadened into mirth
+and laughter, as Jamie Logan began to tell and to show how the peddler
+lad had fleeched and flethered the fisher wives out of their bawbees;
+adding at the last "that he could not come within sight of their fine
+words, they were that civil to him."
+
+"Senselessly civil, no doubt of it," answered Janet. "A peddler aye
+gives the whole village a fit of the liberalities. The like of Jean
+Robertson spending a crown on him! Foolish woman, the words are not to
+seek that she'll get from me in the morning."
+
+Then Jamie took a letter from his pocket, and showed it to Andrew
+Binnie. "Robert Toddy brought it this morning," he said, "and, as you
+may see, it is from the firm of Henderson Brothers, Glasgow; and they
+say there will be a berth for me very soon now in one of their ships.
+And their boats are good, and their captains good, and there is chances
+for a fine sailor on that line. I may be a captain myself one of these
+days!" and he laughed so gayly, and looked so bravely into the face of
+such a bold idea, that he persuaded every one else to expect it for
+him. Janet pulled her new shawl a little closer and smiled, and her
+thought was: "After all, Christina may wait longer, and fare worse; for
+she is turned twenty." Yet she showed a little reserve as she asked:--
+
+"Are you then Glasgow-born, Jamie?"
+
+"Me! Glasgow-born! What are you thinking of? I am from the auld East
+Neuk; and I am glad and proud of being a Fifer. All my common sense
+comes from Fife. There is none loves the 'Kingdom' more than I, Jamie
+Logan. We are all Fife together. I thought you knew it."
+
+At these words there was a momentary shadow across the door, and a
+little lassie slipped in; and when she did so, all put down their cups
+to welcome her. Andrew reddened to the roots of his hair, his eyes
+filled with light, a tender smile softened his firm mouth, and he put
+out his hand and drew the girl to the chair which Christina had pushed
+close to his own.
+
+"You are welcome, and more than welcome, Sophy," said the Mistress; but
+for all that, she gave Sophy a glance in which there was much
+speculation not unmixed, with fear and disapproval. For it was easy to
+see that Andrew Binnie loved her, and that she was not at all like him,
+nor yet like any of the fisher-girls of Pittendurie. Sophy, however,
+was not responsible for this difference; for early orphanage had placed
+her in the care of an aunt who carried on a dress and bonnet making
+business in Largo, and she had turned the little fisher-maid into a
+girl after her own heart and wishes.
+
+Sophy, indeed, came frequently to visit her people in Pittendurie; but
+she had gradually grown less and less like them, and there was no
+wonder Mistress Binnie asked herself fearfully, "what kind of a wife at
+all Sophy would make for a Fife fisherman?" She was so small and genty,
+she had such a lovely face, such fair rippling hair, and her gown was
+of blue muslin made in the fashion of the day, and finished with a lace
+collar round her throat, and a ribbon belt round her slender waist.
+
+"A bonnie lass for a carriage and pair," thought Janet Binnie; "but
+whatever will she do with the creel and the nets? not to speak of the
+bairns and the housework?"
+
+Andrew was too much in love to consider these questions. When he was
+six years old, he had carried Sophy in his arms all day long; when he
+was twelve, they had paddled on the sands, and fished, and played, and
+learned their lessons together. She had promised then to be his wife as
+soon as he had a house and a boat of his own; and never for one moment
+since had Andrew doubted the validity and certainty of this promise. To
+Andrew, and to Andrew's family, and to the whole village of
+Pittendurie, the marriage of Andrew Binnie and Sophy Traill was a fact
+beyond disputing. Some said "it was the right thing," and more said "it
+was the foolish thing," and among the latter was Andrew's mother;
+though as yet she had said it very cautiously to Andrew, whom she
+regarded as "clean daft and senselessly touchy about the girl."
+
+But she sent the young people out of the house while she redd up the
+disorder made by the evening meal; though, as she wiped her teacups,
+she went frequently to the little window, and looked at the four
+sitting together on the bit of turf which carpeted the top of the cliff
+before the cottage. Andrew, as a privileged lover, held Sophy's hand;
+Christina sat next her brother, and facing Jamie Logan, so it was easy
+to see how her face kindled, and her manner softened to the charm of
+his merry conversation, his snatches of breezy sea-song, and his clever
+bits of mimicry. And as Janet walked to and fro, setting her cups and
+plates in the rack, and putting in place the tables and chairs she did
+what we might all do more frequently and be the wiser for it--she
+talked to herself, to the real woman within her, and thus got to the
+bottom of things.
+
+In less than an hour there began to be a movement about the pier, and
+then Andrew and Jamie went away to their night's work; and the girls
+sat still and watched the men across the level sands, and the boats
+hurrying out to the fishing grounds. Then they went back to the
+cottage, and found that Mistress Binnie had taken her knitting and gone
+to chat with a crony who lived higher up the cliff.
+
+"We are alone, Sophy" said Christina; "but women folk are often that."
+She spoke a little sadly, the sweet melancholy of conscious, but
+unacknowledged love being heavy in her heart, and she would not have
+been sorry, had she been quite alone with her vaguely happy dreams.
+Neither of the girls was inclined to talk, but Christina wondered at
+Sophy's silence, for she had been unusually merry while the young men
+were present.
+
+Now she sat quiet on the door step, clasping her left knee with little
+white hands that had no sign of labour on them but the mark of the
+needle on the left forefinger. At her side, Christina stood, her tall
+straight figure fittingly clad in a striped blue and white linsey
+petticoat, and a little josey of lilac print, cut low enough to show
+the white, firm throat above it. Her fine face radiated thought and
+feeling; she was on the verge of that experience which glorifies the
+simplest life. The exquisite glooming, the tender sky, the full heaving
+sea, were all in sweetest sympathy; they were sufficient; and Sophy's
+thin, fretful voice broke the charm and almost offended her.
+
+"It is a weary life, Christina. How do you thole it?"
+
+"You are just talking, Sophy. You were happy enough half an hour
+since."
+
+"I wasn't happy at all."
+
+"You let on like you were. I should think you would be as fear'd to act
+a lie, as to tell one."
+
+"I'll be going away from Pittendurie in the morning."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I have my reasons."
+
+"No doubt you have a 'because' of your own. But what will Andrew say?
+He is not expecting you to leave to-morrow."
+
+"I don't care what Andrew says."
+
+"Sophy Traill!"
+
+"I don't. Andrew Binnie is not the whole of life to me."
+
+"Whatever is the matter with you?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+Then there was a pause, and Christina's thoughts flew seaward. In a few
+minutes, however, Sophy began talking again. "Do you go often into
+Largo, Christina?" she asked.
+
+"Whiles, I take myself that far. You may count me up for the last year;
+for I sought you every time."
+
+"Ay! Do you mind on the road a real grand house, fine and old, with a
+beautiful garden and peacocks in it--trailing their long feathers over
+the grass and gravel?"
+
+"You will be meaning Braelands? Folks could not miss the place, even if
+they tried to."
+
+"Well then, did you ever notice a young man around? He is always
+dressed for the saddle, or else he is in the saddle, and so most sure
+to have a whip in his hand."
+
+"What are you talking about? What is the young man to you?"
+
+"He is brawly handsome. They call him Archie Braelands."
+
+"I have heard tell of him. And by what is said, I should not think he
+was an improving friend for any good girl to have."
+
+"This, or that, he likes me. He likes me beyond everything."
+
+"Do you know what you are saying, Sophy Traill?"
+
+"I do, fine."
+
+"Are you liking him?"
+
+"It would not be hard to do."
+
+"Has he ever spoke to you?"
+
+"Well, he is not as shy as a fisher-lad. I find him in my way when I'm
+not thinking. And see here, Christina; I got a letter from him this
+afternoon. A real love letter! Such lovely words! They are like poetry;
+they are as sweet as singing."
+
+"Did you tell Andrew this?"
+
+"Why would I do that?"
+
+"You are a false little cutty, then. I would tell Andrew myself, but I
+am loath to hurt his true heart. Now you are to let Archie Braelands
+alone, or I will know the reason why."
+
+"Preserve us all! What a blazing passion for nothing at all! Can't a
+lassie chat with a lad for a half hour without calling a court of
+sessions about it?" and she rose and shook out her dress, saying with
+an air of offence:--
+
+"You may tell Andrew, if you like to. It would be a very poor thing if
+a girl is to be miscalled every time a man told her she was pretty."
+
+"I'm not saying any woman can help men making fools of themselves; but
+you should have told Braelands that you were all the same as married,
+being promised so long to Andrew Binnie. And you ought to have told
+Andrew about the letter."
+
+"Everybody can't live in Pittendurie, Christina. And if you live with a
+town full of folk, you cannot go up and down, saying to every man you
+meet, 'please, sir, I have a lad of my own, and you are not to cast a
+look at me, for Andrew Binnie would not like it."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Sophy, or else know what you are yattering about. I
+would think shame to talk so scornful of the man I was going to marry."
+
+"You can let it go for a passing remark. And if I have said anything to
+vex you, we are old friends, Christina, and it is not a lad that will
+part us. Sophy requires a deal of forgiving."
+
+"She does," said Christina with a smile; "so I just forgive her as I go
+along, for she is still doing something out of the way. But you must
+not treat Andrew ill. I could not love you, Sophy, if you did the like
+of that. And you must always tell me everything about yourself, and
+then nothing will go far wrong."
+
+"Even that. I am not given to lying unless it is worth my while. I'll
+tell you aught there is to tell. And there is a kiss for Andrew, and
+you may say to him that I would have told him I was going back to Largo
+in the morning, only that I cannot bear to see him unhappy. That a
+message to set him on the mast-head of pride and pleasure."
+
+"I will give Andrew the kiss and the message, Sophy. And you take my
+advice, and keep yourself clear of that young Braelands. I am
+particular about my own good name, and I mean to be particular about
+yours."
+
+"I have had your advice already, Christina."
+
+"Well, this is a forgetful world, so I just mention the fact again."
+
+"All the same, you might remember, Christina, that there was once a
+woman who got rich by minding her own business;" and with a laugh, the
+girl tied her bonnet under her chin, and went swiftly down the cliff
+towards the village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+CHRISTINA AND ANDREW
+
+
+This confidence greatly troubled Christina; and as Sophy crossed the
+sands and vanished into the shadows beyond, a strange, sad presentiment
+of calamity oppressed her heart. Being herself in the enthusiasm of a
+first love, she could not conceive such treachery possible as Sophy's
+word seemed to imply. The girl had always been petted, and yet
+discontented with her situation; and had often made complaints which
+had no real foundation, and which in brighter moods she was likely to
+repudiate. And this night Andrew, instead of her Aunt Kilgour, was the
+object of her dissatisfaction--that would be all. To-morrow she would
+be complaining to Andrew of her aunt's hard treatment of her, and
+Andrew would be whispering of future happiness in her ears.
+
+Upon the whole, therefore, Christina thought it would be cruel and
+foolish to tell her brother a word of what Sophy had said. Why should
+she disturb his serene faith in the girl so dear to him, until there
+was some more evident reason to do so? He was, as his mother said,
+"very touchy" about Sophy, being well aware that the village did not
+approve of the changes in her dress, and of those little reluctances
+and reserves in her behaviour, which had sprung up inevitably amid the
+refinements and wider acquaintances of town life.
+
+"And so many things happen as the clock goes round," she thought.
+"Braelands may say or do something that will put him out of favour. Or
+he may take himself off to a foreign country--he is gey fond of France
+and Germany too--and Goodness knows he will never be missed in
+Fifeshire. Or _them behind_ may sort what flesh and blood cannot
+manage; so I will keep a close mouth anent the matter. One may think
+what one dare not say; for words, once spoken, cannot be wiped out with
+a sponge--and more's the pity!"
+
+Christina had also reached a crisis in her own life,--a crisis so
+important, that it quite excused the apparent readiness with which she
+dismissed Sophy's strange confidence. For the feeling between Jamie
+Logan and herself had grown to expression, and she was well aware that
+what had hitherto been in a large measure secret and private to
+themselves, had this night become evident to others. And she was not
+sure how Jamie would be received. Andrew had saved his life in a sudden
+storm, and brought him to the Binnie cottage until he should be able to
+return to his own place. But instead of going away, he had hired his
+time for the herring season to a Pittendurie fisherman; and every spare
+hour had found him at the Binnie cottage, wooing the handsome
+Christina.
+
+The village was not unanimously in his favour. No one could say
+anything against Jamie Logan; but he was a stranger, and that fact was
+hard to get over. A man must serve a very strict and long probation to
+be adopted into a Fife fishing community, and it was considered "very
+upsetting" for an unkent man to be looking up to the like of Christina
+Binnie,--a lass whose forbears had been in Pittendurie beyond the
+memory or the tradition of its inhabitants.
+
+Janet also was not quite satisfied; and Christina knew this. She
+expected her daughter to marry a fisherman, but at least one who owned
+his share in a good boat, and who had a house to take a wife to. This
+strange lad was handsome and good-tempered; but, as she reflected, and
+not unfrequently said, "good looks and a laugh and a song, are not
+things to lippen to for housekeeping." So, on the whole, Christina had
+just the same doubts and anxieties as might trouble a fine lady of
+family and wealth, who had fallen in love with some handsome fellow
+whom her relatives were uncertain about favouring.
+
+A week after Sophy's visit, however, Jamie found the unconquerable hour
+in which every true love comes to its blossoming. It was the Sabbath
+night, and a great peace was over the village. The men sat at their
+doors talking in monosyllables to their wives and mates; the children
+were asleep; and the full ocean breaking and tinkling upon the shingly
+coast. They had been at kirk together in the afternoon, and Jamie had
+taken tea with the Binnies after the service. Then Andrew had gone to
+see Sophy, and Janet to help a neighbour with a sick husband; so Jamie,
+left with Christina, had seized gladly his opportunity to teach her the
+secret of her own heart.
+
+Sitting on the lonely rocks, with the moonlit sea at their feet, they
+had confessed to each other how sweet it was to love. And the plans
+growing out of this confession, though humble enough, were full of
+strange hope and happy dreaming to Christina. For Jamie had begged her
+to become his wife as soon as he got his promised berth on the great
+Scotch line, and this event would compel her to leave Pittendurie and
+make her home in Glasgow,--two facts, simply stupendous to the
+fisher-girl, who had never been twenty miles from her home, and to whom
+all life outside the elementary customs of Pittendurie was wonderful
+and a little frightsome.
+
+But she put her hand in Jamie's hand, and felt his love sufficient for
+whatever love might bring or demand. Any spot on earth would be heaven
+to her with him, and for him; and she told him so, and was answered as
+women love to be answered, with a kiss that was the sweetness and
+confidence of all vows and promises. Among these simple,
+straight-forward people, there are no secrecies in love affairs; and
+the first thing Jamie did was to return to the cottage with Christina
+to make known the engagement they had entered into.
+
+They met Andrew on the sands. He had been disappointed. Sophy had gone
+out with a friend, and her aunt had seemed annoyed and had not asked
+him to wait. He was counting up in his mind how often this thing had
+happened lately, and was conscious of an unhappy sense of doubt and
+unkindness which was entirely new to him. But when Christina stepped to
+his side, and Jamie said frankly, "Andrew, your dear sweet sister loves
+me, and has promised to be my wife, and I hope you will give us the
+love and favour we are seeking," Andrew looked tenderly into his
+sister's face, and their smiles met and seemed to kiss each other. And
+he took her hand between his own hands, and then put it into Jamie's.
+
+"You shall be a brother to me, Jamie," he said; "and we will stand
+together always, for the sake of our bonnie Christina." And Jamie could
+not speak for happiness; but the three went forward with shining eyes
+and linked hands, and Andrew forgot his own fret and disappointment, in
+the joy of his sister's betrothal.
+
+Janet came home as they sat in the moonlight outside the cottage. "Come
+into the house," she cried, with a pretense of anger. "It is high time
+for folk who have honest work for the morn to be sleeping. What hour
+will you get to the week's work, I wonder, Christina? If I leave the
+fireside for a minute or two, everything stops but daffing till I get
+back again. What for are you sitting so late?"
+
+"There is a good reason, Mother!" said Andrew, as he rose and with
+Jamie and Christina went into the cottage. "Here is our Christina been
+trysting herself to Jamie, and I have been giving them some good
+advice."
+
+"Good advice!" laughed Janet. "Between you and Jamie Logan, it is the
+blind leading the blind, and nothing better. One would think there was
+no other duty in life than trysting and marrying. I have just heard
+tell of Flora Thompson and George Buchan, and now it is Christina
+Binnie and Jamie Logan. The world is given up, I think, to this weary
+lad and lass business."
+
+But Janet's words belied her voice and her benign face. She was really
+one of those delightful women who are "easily persuaded," and who
+readily accept whatever is, as right. For she had naturally one of the
+healthiest of human souls; besides which, years had brought her that
+tender sagacity and gentleness, which does not often come until the
+head is gray and the brow furrowed. So, though her words were fretful,
+they were negatived by her beaming smile, and by the motherly fashion
+in which she drew Christina to her side and held out her hand to Jamie.
+
+"You are a pair of foolish bairns," she said; "and you little know what
+will betide you both."
+
+"Nothing but love and happiness, Mother," answered Jamie.
+
+"Well, well! look for good, and have good. I will not be one to ask
+after evil for you. But mind one thing, Jamie, you are marrying a
+woman, and not an angel. And, Christina, if you trust to any man, don't
+expect over much of him; the very best of them will stumble once in a
+while."
+
+Then she drew forward the table, and put on the kettle and brewed some
+toddy, and set it out with toasted cake and cheese, and so drank, with
+cheerful moderation, to the health and happiness of the newly-promised
+lovers. And afterwards "the books" were opened, and Andrew, who was the
+priest of the family, asked the blessing of the Infinite One on all its
+relationships. Then the happiness that had been full of smiles and
+words became too deep for such expression, and they clasped hands and
+kissed each other "good night" in a silence, that was too sweetly
+solemn and full of feeling for the translation of mere language.
+
+Before the morning light, Mistress Binnie had fully persuaded herself
+that Christina was going to make an unusually prosperous marriage. All
+her doubts had fled. Jamie had spoken out like a man, he had the best
+of prospects, and the wedding was likely to be something beyond a
+simple fisherman's bridal. She could hardly wait until the day's work
+was over, and the evening far enough advanced for a gossiping call on
+her crony, Marget Roy. Last night she had fancied Marget told her of
+Flora Thompson's betrothal with an air of pity for Christina; there was
+now a delightful retaliation in her power. But she put on an expression
+of dignified resignation, rather than one of pleasure, when she made
+known the fact of Christina's approaching marriage.
+
+"I am glad to hear tell of it," said Marget frankly. "Christina will
+make a good wife, and she will keep a tidy house, I'll warrant her."
+
+"She will, Marget. And it is a very important thing; far more so than
+folks sometimes think. You may put godliness into a woman after she is
+a wife, but you can not put cleanliness; it will have to be born in
+her."
+
+"And so Jamie Logan is to have a berth from the Hendersons? That is far
+beyond a place in Lowrie's herring boats."
+
+"I'm thinking he just stopped with Lowrie for the sake of being near-by
+to Christina. A lad like him need not have spent good time like that."
+
+"Well, Janet, it is a good thing for your Christina, and I am glad of
+it."
+
+"It is;" answered Janet, with a sigh and a smile. "The lad is sure to
+get on; and he's a respectable lad--a Fifer from Kirkcaldy--handsome
+and well-spoken of; and I am thinking the _Line_ has a big bargain in
+him, and is proud of it. Still, I'm feared for my lassie, in such an
+awful, big, wicked-like town as Glasgow."
+
+"She'll not require to take the whole town in. She will have her Bible,
+and her kirk, and her own man. There is nothing to fear you. Christina
+has her five senses."
+
+"No doubt. And she is to have a floor of her own and all things
+convenient; so there is comfort and safety in the like of that."
+
+"What for are you worrying yourself then?"
+
+"There's contingencies, Marget,--contingencies. And you know Christina
+is my one lassie, and I am sore to lose her. But 'lack a day! we cannot
+stop the clock. And marriage is like death--it is what we must all come
+to."
+
+"Well Janet, your Christina has been long spared from it. She'll be
+past twenty, I'm thinking."
+
+"Christina has had her offers, Marget. But what will you? We must all
+wait for the right man, or go to the de'il with the wrong one."
+
+Thus the conversation went on, until Janet had exhausted all the
+advantages and possibilities that were incident to Christina's good
+fortune. And perhaps it was out of a little feeling of weariness of the
+theme, that Marget finally reminded her friend that she would be
+"lonely enough wanting her daughter," adding, "I was hearing too, that
+Andrew is not to be kept single much longer; and it will be what no one
+expects if Sophy Traill ever fills Christina's shoes."
+
+"Sophy is well enough," answered Janet with a touch of pride. "She
+suits Andrew, and it is Andrew that has to live with her."
+
+"And you too, Janet?"
+
+"Not I! Andrew is to build his own bigging. I have the life rent of
+mine. But I shall be a deal in Glasgow myself. Jamie has his heart
+fairly set on that."
+
+She made this statement with an air of prideful satisfaction that was
+irritating to Mistress Roy; and she was not inclined to let Janet enter
+anew into a description of all the fine sights she was to see, the
+grand guns of preachers she was to hear, and the trips to Greenock and
+Rothesay, which Jamie said "would just fall naturally in the way of
+their ordinary life." So Marget showed such a hurry about her household
+affairs as made Janet uncomfortable, and she rose with a little offence
+and said abruptly:--
+
+"I must be going. I have the kirkyard to pass; and between the day and
+the dark it is but a mournful spot."
+
+"It is that," answered Marget. "Folks should not be on the road when
+the bodiless walk. They might be in their way, and so get ill to
+themselves."
+
+"Then good night, and good befall you;" but in spite of the
+benediction, Janet felt nettled at her friend's sudden lack of
+interest.
+
+"It was a spat of envy no doubt," she thought; "but Lord's sake! envy
+is the most insinuating vice of the lot of them. It cannot behave
+itself for an hour at a time. But I'm not caring! it is better to be
+envied than pitied."
+
+These reflections kept away the thought and fear of the "bodiless," and
+she passed the kirkyard without being mindful of their proximity; the
+coming wedding, and the inevitable changes it would bring, filling her
+heart with all kinds of maternal anxieties, which in solitude would not
+be put aside for all the promised pride and _eclat_ of the event. As
+she approached the cottage, she met Jamie and Christina coming down the
+cliff-side together, and she cried, "Is that you, Jamie?"
+
+"As far as I know, it's myself, Mother," answered Jamie.
+
+"Then turn back, and I'll get you a mouthful of bread and cheese.
+You'll be wanting it, no doubt; for love is but cold porridge to a man
+that has to pull on the nets all night."
+
+"You have spoken the day after the fair, Mother," answered Jamie.
+"Christina has looked well to me, and I am bound for the boats."
+
+"Well, well, your way be it."
+
+Then Christina turned back with her mother, and they went silently back
+to the cottage, their hearts being busy with the new hopes and
+happiness that had come into their hitherto uneventful lives. But
+reticence between this mother and daughter was not long possible; they
+were too much one to have reserves; and neither being sleepy, they soon
+began to talk over again what they had discussed a hundred times
+before--the wedding dress, and the wedding feast, and the napery and
+plenishing Christina was to have for her own home. They sat on the
+hearth, before the bit of fire which was always necessary in that
+exposed and windy situation; but the door stood open, and the moon
+filled the little room with its placid and confidential light. So it is
+no wonder, as they sat talking and vaguely wondering at Andrew's
+absence, Christina should tell her mother what Sophy had said about
+Archie Braelands.
+
+Janet listened with a dour face. For a moment she was glad; then she
+lifted the poker, and struck a block of coal into a score of pieces,
+and with the blow scattered the unkind, selfish thoughts which had
+sprung up in her heart.
+
+"It is what I expected," she answered. "Just what I expected,
+Christina. A lassie dressed up in muslin, and ribbons, and artificial
+roses, isn't the kind of a wife a fisherman wants--and sooner or
+later, like goes to like. I am not blaming Sophy. She has tried hard to
+be faithful to Andrew, but what then? Nothing happens for nothing; and
+it will be a good thing for Andrew if Sophy leaves him; a good thing
+for Sophy too, I'm thinking; and better _is_ better, whatever comes or
+goes."
+
+"But Andrew will fret himself sorely."
+
+"He will; no doubt of that. But Andrew has a good heart, and a good
+heart breaks bad fortune. Say nothing at all to him. He is wise enough
+to guide himself; though God knows! even the wisest of men will have a
+fool in his sleeve sometimes."
+
+"Would there be any good in a word of warning? Just to prepare him for
+the sorrow that is on the road."
+
+"There would be no sense in the like of it. If Andrew is to get the
+fling and the buffet, he will take it better from Sophy than from any
+other body. Let be, Christina. And maybe things will take a turn for
+the dear lad yet. Hope for it anyhow. Hope is as cheap as despair."
+
+"Folks will be talking anon."
+
+"They are talking already. Do you think that I did not hear all this
+clash and clavers before? Lucky Sims, and Marget Roy, and every
+fish-wife in Pittendurie, know both the beginning and the end of it.
+They have seen this, and they have heard that, and they think the very
+worst that can be; you may be sure of that."
+
+"I'm thinking no wrong of Sophy."
+
+"Nor I. The first calamity is to be born a woman; it sets the door open
+for every other sorrow--and the more so, if the poor lassie is bonnie
+and alone in the world. Sophy is not to blame; it is Andrew that is in
+the fault."
+
+"How can you say such a thing as that, Mother?"
+
+"I'll tell you how. Andrew has been that set on having a house for his
+wife, that he has just lost the wife while he was saving the siller for
+the house. I have told him, and better told him to bring Sophy here;
+but nothing but having her all to himself will he hear tell of. It is
+pure, wicked selfishness in the lad! He simply cannot thole her to give
+look or word to any one but himself. Perfect scand'lous selfishness!
+That is where all the trouble has come from."
+
+"_Whist, Mother_! He is most at the doorstep. That is Andrew's foot, or
+I am much mista'en."
+
+"Then I'll away to Lizzie Robertson's for an hour. My heart is knocking
+at my lips, and I'll be saying what I would give my last bawbee to
+unsay. Keep a calm sough, Christina."
+
+"You need not tell me that, Mother."
+
+"Just let Andrew do the talking, and you'll be all right. It is easy to
+put him out about Sophy, and then to come to words. Better keep peace
+than make peace."
+
+She lifted the stocking she was knitting, and passed out of one door as
+Andrew came in at the other. He entered with that air of strength and
+capability so dear to the women of a household. He had on his kirk
+suit, and Christina thought, as he sat down by the open window, how
+much handsomer he looked in his blue guernsey and fishing cap.
+
+"You'll be needing a mouthful and a cup of tea, Andrew?" she asked.
+
+Andrew shook his head and answered pleasantly, "Not I, Christina. I had
+my tea with Sophy. Where is mother?"
+
+"She is gone to Lizzie Robertson's for an hour. Her man is yet very
+badly off. She said she would sit with him till the night turned.
+Lizzie is most worn out, I'm sure, by this time."
+
+"Where is Jamie?"
+
+"He said he was going to the fishing. He will have caught his boat, or
+he would have been back here again by this hour."
+
+"Then we are alone? And like to be for an hour? eh, Christina?"
+
+"There will be no one here till mother comes at the turn of the night.
+What for are you asking the like of them questions, Andrew?"
+
+"Because I have been seeking this hour. I have things to tell you,
+Christina, that must never go beyond yourself; no, not even to mother,
+unless the time comes for it. I am not going to ask you to give me your
+word or promise. You are Christina Binnie, and that is enough."
+
+"I should say so. The man or woman who promises with an oath is not to
+be trusted. There is you and me, and God for our witness. What ever you
+have to say, the hearer and the witness is sufficient."
+
+"I know that. Christina, I have been this day to Edinburgh, and I have
+brought home from the bank six hundred pounds."
+
+"Six hundred pounds, Andrew! It is not believable."
+
+"_Whist, woman!_ I have six hundred pounds in my breast pocket, and I
+have siller in the house beside. I have sold my share in the
+'_Sure-Giver_,' and I have been saving money ever since I put on my
+first sea-boots."
+
+"I have always thought that saving money was your great fault, Andrew."
+
+"I know. I know it myself only too well. Many's the Sabbath day I have
+been only a bawbee Christian, when I ought to have put a shilling in
+the plate. But I just could not help it."
+
+"Yes, you could."
+
+"Tell me how, then."
+
+"Just try and believe that you are putting your collection into the
+hand of God Almighty, and not into a siller plate. Then you will put
+the shilling down and not the bawbee."
+
+"Perhaps. The thought is not a new one to me, and often I have forced
+myself to give a white shilling instead of a penny-bit at the kirk
+door, just to get the better of the de'il once in a while. But for all
+that I know right well that saving siller is my besetting sin. However,
+I have been saving for a purpose, and now I am most ready to take the
+desire of my heart."
+
+"It is a good desire; I am sure of that, Andrew."
+
+"I think it is; a very good one. What do you say to this? I am going to
+put all my siller in a carrying steamer--one of the Red-White fleet.
+And more to it. I am to be skipper, and sail her from the North Sea to
+London."
+
+"Will she be a big boat, Andrew?"
+
+"She will carry three thousand 'trunks' of fish in her ice chambers.
+What do you think of that?"
+
+"I am perfectly dazzled and dumbfoundered with the thought of it. You
+will be a man of some weight in the world, when that comes to pass."
+
+"I will be Captain Binnie, of the North Sea fleet, and Sophy will have
+reason enough for her muslins, and ribbons, and trinkum-trankums--God
+bless her!"
+
+"You are a far forecasting man, Andrew."
+
+"I have been able to clear my day and my way, by the help of
+Providence, so far," said Andrew, with a pious reservation; "just as my
+decent kirk-going father was before me. But that is neither here nor
+there, and please God, this will be a monumental year in my life."
+
+"It will that. To get the ship and the wife you want, within its twelve
+bounds, is a blessing beyond ordinary. I am proud to hear tell of such
+good fortune coming your way, Andrew."
+
+"Ay; I knew you would. But I have the siller, and I have the skill, and
+why shouldn't I lift myself a bit?"
+
+"And Sophy with you? Sophy will be an ornament to any place you lift
+her to. And you may come to own a fishing fleet yourself some day,
+Andrew!"
+
+"I am thinking of it," he answered, with the air of a man who feels
+himself master of his destiny. "But come ben the house with me,
+Christina. I have something to show you."
+
+So they went together into an inner room, and Andrew moved aside a
+heavy chest of drawers which stood against the wall. Then he lifted a
+short plank beneath them, and putting his arm far under the flooring,
+he pulled forth a tin box.
+
+The key to it was in the leather purse in his breast pocket, and there
+was a little tantalizing delay in its opening. But when the lid was
+lifted, Christina saw a hoard of golden sovereigns, and a large roll of
+Bank of England bills. Without a word Andrew added the money in his
+pocket to this treasured store, and in an equal silence the flooring
+and drawers were replaced, and then, without a word, the brother and
+sister left the room together.
+
+There was however a look of exultation on Christina's face, and when
+Andrew said "You understand now, Christina?" she answered in a voice
+full of tender pride.
+
+"I have seen. And I am sure that Andrew Binnie is not the man to be
+moving without knowing the way he is going to take."
+
+"I am not moving at all, Christina, for three months or perhaps longer.
+The ship I want is in dry dock until the winter, and it is all this
+wealth of siller that I am anxious about. If I should go to the fishing
+some night, and never come back, it would be the same as if it went to
+the bottom of the sea with me, not a soul but myself knowing it was
+there."
+
+"But not now, Andrew. You be to tell me what I am to do if the like of
+that should happen, and your wish will be as the law of God to me."
+
+"I am sure of that, Christina. Take heed then. If I should go out some
+night and the sea should get me, as it gets many better men, then you
+will lift the flooring, and take the money out of hiding. And you will
+give Sophy Traill one half of all there is. The other half is for
+mother and yourself. And you will do no other way with a single bawbee,
+or the Lord will set His face against it."
+
+"I will do just what you tell me."
+
+"I know it. To think different, would be just incredible nonsense. That
+is for the possibilities, Christina. For the days that are coming and
+going, I charge you, Christina Binnie, never to name to mortal creature
+the whereabouts of the money I have shown you."
+
+"Your words are in my heart, Andrew. They will never pass my lips."
+
+"Then that is enough of the siller. I have had a happy day with Sophy,
+and O the grace of the lassie! And the sweet innocence and lovesomeness
+of her pretty ways! She is budding into a very rose of beauty! I bought
+her a ring with a shining stone in it, and a gold brooch, and a bonnie
+piece of white muslin with the lace for the trimming of it; and the joy
+of the little beauty set me laughing with delight. I would not call the
+Queen my cousin, this night."
+
+"Sophy ought to love you with all her heart and soul, Andrew."
+
+"She does. She has arled her heart and hand to me. I thank _The Best_
+for this great mercy."
+
+"And you can trust her without a doubt, dear lad?"
+
+"I have as much faith in Sophy Traill, as I have in my Bible."
+
+"That is the way to trust. It is the way I trust Jamie. But you'll mind
+how ready bad hearts and ill tongues are to give you a sense of
+suspicion. So you'll not heed a word of that kind, Andrew?"
+
+"Not one. The like of such folk cannot give me a moment's
+trouble--there was Kirsty Johnston--"
+
+"You may put Kirsty Johnston, and all she says to the wall."
+
+"I'm doing it; but she called after me this very evening, 'take care of
+yourself, Andrew Binnie.' 'And what for, Mistress?' I asked. 'A beauty
+is hard to catch and worse to keep,' she answered; and then the laugh
+of her! But I didn't mind it, not I; and I didn't give her word or look
+in reply; for well I know that women's tongues cannot be stopped, not
+even by the Fourth Commandment."
+
+Then Andrew sat down and was silent, for a happiness like his is felt,
+and not expressed. And Christina moved softly about, preparing the
+frugal supper, and thinking about her lover in the fishing boats,
+until, the table being spread, Andrew drew his chair close to his
+sister's chair, and spreading forth his hands ere he sat down, said
+solemnly;--
+
+_"This is the change of Thy Right Hand, O Thou Most High! Thou art
+strong to strengthen; gracious to help; ready to better; mighty to
+save, Amen!"_
+
+It was the prayer of his fathers for centuries--the prayer they had
+used in all times of their joy and sorrow; the prayer that had grown in
+his own heart from his birth, and been recorded for ever in the sagas
+of his mother's people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE AILING HEART
+
+
+Not often in her life had Christina felt so happy as she did at this
+fortunate hour. Two things especially made her heart sing for joy; one
+was the fact that Jamie had never been so tender, so full of joyful
+anticipation, so proud of his love and his future, as in their
+interview of that evening. The very thought of his beauty and goodness
+made her walk unconsciously to the door, and look over the sea towards
+the fishing-grounds, where he was doubtless working at the nets, and
+thinking of her. And next to this intensely personal cause of
+happiness, was the fact that of all his mates, and even before his
+mother or Sophy, Andrew had chosen _her_ for his confidant. She loved
+her brother very much, and she respected him with an equal fervour. Few
+men, in Christina's opinion, were able to stand in Andrew Binnie's
+shoes, and she felt, as she glanced at his strong, thoughtful face,
+that he was a brother to be very proud of.
+
+He sat on the hearth with his arms crossed above his head, and a sweet,
+grave smile irradiating his strong countenance, Christina knew that he
+was thinking of Sophy, and as soon as she had spread the frugal meal,
+and they had sat down to their cakes and cheese, Andrew began to talk
+of her. He seemed to have dismissed absolutely the thought of the
+hidden money, and to be wholly occupied with memories of his love. And
+as he talked of her, his face grew vivid and tender, and he spoke like
+a poet, though he knew it not.
+
+"She is that sweet, Christina, it is like kissing roses to kiss her.
+Her wee white hand on my red face is like a lily leaf. I saw it in the
+looking-glass, as we sat at tea. And the ring, with the shining stone,
+set it finely. I am the happiest man in the world, Christina!"
+
+"I am glad with all my heart for you, Andrew, and for Sophy too. It is
+a grand thing to be loved as you love her."
+
+"She is the sweetness of all the years that are gone, and of all that
+are to come."
+
+"And Sophy loves you as you love her? I hope she does that, my dear
+Andrew."
+
+"She will do. She will do! no doubt of it, Christina! She is shy now,
+and a bit frighted at the thought of marriage--she is such a gentle
+little thing--but I will make her love me; yes I will! I will make her
+love me as I love her. What for not?"
+
+"To be sure. Love must give and take equal, to be satisfied. I know
+that myself. I am loving Jamie just as he loves me."
+
+"He is a brawly fine lad. Peddie was saying there wasn't a better
+worker, nor a merrier one, in the whole fleet."
+
+"A good heart is always a merry one, Andrew."
+
+"I'm not doubting it."
+
+Thus they talked with kind mutual sympathy and confidence; and a
+certain sweet serenity and glad composure spread through the little
+room, and the very atmosphere was full of the peace and hope of
+innocent love. But some divine necessity of life ever joins joy and
+sorrow together; and even as the brother and sister sat speaking of
+their happiness, Christina heard a footstep that gave her heart a
+shock. Andrew was talking of Sophy, and he was not conscious of Jamie's
+approach until the lad entered the house. His face was flushed, and
+there was an air of excitement about him which Andrew regarded with an
+instant displeasure and suspicion. He did not answer Jamie's greeting,
+but said dourly:--
+
+"You promised to take my place in the boat to-night, Jamie Logan; then
+what for are you here, at this hour? I see one thing, and that is, you
+cannot be trusted to."
+
+"I deserve a reproof, Andrew, for I have earned it," answered Jamie;
+and there was an air of candid regret in his manner which struck
+Christina, but which was not obvious to Andrew as he added, "I'll not
+lie to you, anent the matter."
+
+"You needn't. Nothing in life is worth a lie."
+
+"That may be, or not be. But it was just this way. I met an old friend
+as I was on my way to the boat, and he was poor, and hungry, and
+thirsty, and I be to take him to the 'public,' and give him a bite and
+a sup. Then the whiskey set us talking of old times and old
+acquaintances, and I clean forgot the fishing; and the boats went away
+without me. And that is all there is to it."
+
+"Far too much! Far too much! A nice lad you will be to trust to in a
+big ship full of men and women and children! A glass of whiskey, and a
+crack in the public house, set before your promised word and your duty!
+How will I trust Christina to you? When you make Andrew Binnie a
+promise, he expects you to keep it. Don't forget that! It may be of
+some consequence to you if you are wanting his sister for a wife."
+
+With these words Andrew rose, went into his own room without a word of
+good-night, and with considerable show of annoyance, closed and bolted
+the door behind him. Jamie sat down by Christina, and waited for her to
+speak.
+
+But it was not easy for her to do so. Try as she would, she could not
+show him the love she really felt. She was troubled at his neglect of
+duty, and so sorry that he, of all others, should have been the one to
+cast the first shadow across the bright future which she had been
+anticipating before his ill-timed arrival. It was love out of time and
+season, and lacked the savour and spontaneity which are the result of
+proper conditions. Jamie felt the unhappy atmosphere, and was offended.
+
+"I'm not wanted here, it seems," he said in a tone of injury.
+
+"You are wanted in the boat, Jamie; that is where the fault lies. You
+should have been there. There is no outgait from that fact."
+
+"Well then, I have said I was sorry. Is not that enough?"
+
+"For me, yes. But Andrew likes a man to be prompt and sure in business.
+It is the only way to make money."
+
+"Make money! I can make money among Andrew Binnie's feet, for all he
+thinks so much of himself. A friend's claims are before money-making.
+I'll stand to that, till all the seas go dry."
+
+"Andrew has very strict ideas; you must have found that out, Jamie, and
+you should not go against them."
+
+"Andrew is headstrong as the north-wind. He goes clear o'er the bounds
+both sides. Everything is the very worst, or the very best. I'm not
+denying I was a bit wrong; but I consider I had a good excuse for it."
+
+"Is there ever a good excuse for doing wrong, Jamie? But we will let
+the affair drop out of mind and talk. There are pleasanter things to
+speak of, I'm sure."
+
+But the interview was a disappointment. Jamie went continually back to
+Andrew's reproof, and Christina herself seemed to be under a spell. She
+could not find the gentle words that would have soothed her lover, her
+manner became chill and silent; and Jamie finally went away, much hurt
+and offended. Yet she followed him to the door, and watched him kicking
+the stones out of his path as he went rapidly down the cliff-side. And
+if she had been near enough, she would have heard him muttering
+angrily:--
+
+"I'm not caring! I'm not caring! The moral pride of they Binnies is
+ridic'lus! One would require to be a very saint to come within sight of
+them."
+
+Such a wretched ending to an evening that had begun with so much hope
+and love! Christina stood sadly at the open door and watched her lover
+across the lonely sands, and felt the natural disappointment of the
+circumstances. Then the moon began to rise, and when she noticed this,
+she remembered how late her mother was away from home, and a slight
+uneasiness crept into her heart. She threw a plaid around her head, and
+was going to the neighbour's where she expected to find her, when Janet
+appeared.
+
+She came up to the cliff slowly, and her face was far graver than
+ordinary when she entered the cottage, and with a pious ejaculation
+threw off her shawl.
+
+"What kept you at all, Mother? I was just going to seek you."
+
+"Watty Robertson has won away at last."
+
+"When did he die?"
+
+"He went away with the tide. He was called just at the turn. Ah,
+Christina, it is loving and dying all the time! Life is love and death;
+for what is our life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little
+time, and then vanisheth away."
+
+"But Watty was well ready for the change, Mother?"
+
+"He went away with a smile. And I staid by poor Lizzie, for I have
+drank of the same cup, and I know how bitter was the taste of it. Old
+Elspeth McDonald stretched the corpse, and her and I had a change of
+words; but Lizzie was with me."
+
+"What for did you clash at such a like time?"
+
+"She covered up his face, and I said: 'Stop your hand, Elspeth. Don't
+you go to cover Watty's face now. He never did ill to any one while he
+lived, and there's no need to hide his face when he is dead.' And we
+had a bit stramash about it, for I can't abide to hide up the face that
+is honest and well loved, and Lizzie said I was right, and so Elspeth
+went off in a tiff."
+
+"I think there must be 'tiffs' floating about in the air to-night.
+Jamie and Andrew have had a falling out, and Jamie went away far less
+than pleased with me."
+
+"What's to do between them?"
+
+"Jamie met with an old friend who was hungry and thirsty, and he went
+with him to the 'public' instead of going to the boat for Andrew, as he
+promised to do. You know how Andrew feels about a word broken."
+
+"_Toots_! Andrew Binnie has a deal to learn yet. You should have told
+him it was better to show mercy, than to stick at a mouthful of words.
+Had you never a soft answer to throw at the two fractious fools?"
+
+"How could I interfere?"
+
+"Finely! If you don't know the right way to throw with a thrawn man,
+like Andrew, and to come round a soft man, like Jamie, I'm sorry for
+you! A woman with a thimble-full of woman-wit could ravel them both
+up--ravel them up like a cut of worsteds."
+
+"Well, the day is near over. The clock will chap twelve in ten minutes,
+and I'm going to my bed. I'm feared you won't sleep much, Mother. You
+look awake to your instep."
+
+"Never mind. I have some good thoughts for the sleepless. Folks don't
+sleep well after seeing a man with wife and bairns round him look death
+and judgment in the face."
+
+"But Watty looked at them smiling, you said?"
+
+"He did. Watty's religion went to the bottom and extremity of things.
+I'll be asking this night for grace to live with, and then I'll get
+grace to die with when my hour comes. You needn't fash your heart about
+me. Sleeping or waking, I am in His charge. Nor about Jamie; he'll be
+all right the morn. Nor about Andrew, for I'll tell him not to make a
+Pharisee of himself--he has his own failing, and it isn't far to seek."
+
+And it is likely Janet had her intended talk with her son, for nothing
+more was said to Jamie about his neglect of duty; and the little cloud
+was but a passing one, and soon blew over. Circumstances favoured
+oblivion. Christina's love encompassed both her brother and her lover,
+and Janet's womanly tact turned every shadow into sunshine, and
+disarmed all suspicious or doubtful words. Also, the fishing season was
+an unusually good one; every man was of price, and few men were better
+worth their price than Jamie Logan. So an air of prosperity and
+happiness filled each little cottage, and Andrew Binnie was certainly
+saving money--a condition of affairs that always made him easy to live
+with.
+
+As for the women of the village, they were in the early day up to their
+shoulders in work, and in the more leisurely evenings, they had
+Christina's marriage and marriage presents to talk about. The girl had
+many friends and relatives far and near, and every one remembered her.
+It was a set of china from an aunt in Crail, or napery from some
+cousins in Kirkcaldy, or quilts from her father's folk in Largo, and so
+on, in a very charming monotony. Now and then a bit of silver came, and
+once a very pretty American clock. And there was not a quilt or a
+tablecloth, a bit of china or silver, a petticoat or a ribbon, that the
+whole village did not examine, and discuss, and offer their
+congratulations over.
+
+Christina and her mother quite enjoyed this popular manifestation of
+interest, and Jamie was not at all averse to the good-natured
+familiarity. And though Andrew withdrew from such occasions, and
+appeared to be rather annoyed than pleased by the frequent intrusion of
+strange women, neither Janet nor Christina heeded his attitude very
+much.
+
+"What for would we be caring?" queried the mother. "There is just one
+woman in the world to Andrew. If it was Sophy's wedding-presents now,
+he would be in a wonder over them! But he is not wanting you to marry
+at all, Christina. Men are a selfish lot. Somehow, I think he has taken
+a doubt or a dislike to Jamie. He thinks he isn't good enough for you."
+
+"He is as good as I want him. I'm feared for men as particular as
+Andrew. They are whiles gey ill to live with. Andrew has not had a
+smile for a body for a long time, and he has been making money. I
+wonder if there is aught wrong between Sophy and himself."
+
+"You might away to Largo and ask after the girl. She hasn't been here
+in a good while. And I'm thinking yonder talk she had with you anent
+Archie Braelands wasn't all out of her own head."
+
+So that afternoon Christina put on her kirk dress, and went to Largo to
+see Sophy. Her walk took her over a lonely stretch of country, though,
+as she left the coast, she came to a lovely land of meadows, with here
+and there waving plantations of young spruce or fir trees. Passing the
+entrance to one of these sheltered spots, she saw a servant driving
+leisurely back and forward a stylish dog-cart; and she had a sudden
+intuition that it belonged to Braelands. She looked keenly into the
+green shadows, but saw no trace of any human being; yet she had not
+gone far, ere she was aware of light footsteps hurrying behind her, and
+before she could realise the fact, Sophy called her in a breathless,
+fretful way "to wait a minute for her." The girl came up flushed and
+angry-looking, and asked Christina, "whatever brought her that far?"
+
+"I was going to Largo to see you. Mother was getting worried about you.
+It's long since you were near us."  "I am glad I met you. For I was
+wearied with the sewing to-day, and I asked Aunt to let me have a
+holiday to go and see you; and now we can go home together, and she
+will never know the differ. You must not tell her but what I have been
+to Pittendurie. My goodness! It is lucky I met you."
+
+"But where have you been, Sophy?"
+
+"I have been with a friend, who gave me a long drive."
+
+"Who would that be?"
+
+"Never you mind. There is nothing wrong to it. You may trust me for
+that, Christina. I was fairly worn out, and Aunt hasn't a morsel of
+pity. She thinks I ought to be glad to sew from Monday morning to
+Saturday night, and I tell you it hurts me, and gives me a cough, and I
+had to get a breath of sea-air or die for it. So a friend gave me what
+I wanted."
+
+"But if you had come to our house, you could have got the sea-air
+finely. Sophy! Sophy! I am misdoubting what you tell me. How came you
+in the wood?"
+
+"We were taking a bit walk by ourselves there. I love the smell of the
+pines, and the peace, and the silence. It rests me; and I didn't want
+folks spying, and talking, and going with tales to Aunt. She ties me up
+shorter than needs be now."
+
+"He was a mean fellow to leave you here all by yourself."
+
+"I made him do it. Goodness knows, he is fain enough to be seen by high
+and low with me. But Andrew would not like it; he is that
+jealous-natured--and I just _be_ to have some rest and fresh air."
+
+"Andrew would gladly give you both."
+
+"Not he! He is away to the fishing, or about his business, one way or
+another, all the time. And I am that weary of stitch, stitch,
+stitching, I could cry at the thought of it."
+
+"Was it Archie Braelands that gave you the drive?"
+
+"Ay, it was. Archie is just my friend, nothing more. I have told him,
+and better told him, that I am to marry Andrew."
+
+"He is a scoundrel then to take you out."
+
+"He is nothing of the kind. He is just a friend. I am doing Andrew no
+wrong, and myself a deal of good."
+
+"Then why are you feared for people seeing you?"
+
+"I am not feared. But I don't want to be the wonder and the talk of
+every idle body. And I am not able to bear my aunt's nag, nag, nag at
+me. I wish I was married. It isn't right of Andrew to leave me so much
+to myself. It will be his own fault if he loses me altogether. I am
+worn out with Aunt Kilgour, and my life is a fair weariness to me."
+
+"Andrew is getting everything brawly ready for you. I wish I could tell
+you what grand plans he has for your happiness. Be true to Andrew,
+Sophy, and you will be the happiest bride, and the best loved wife in
+all Scotland."
+
+"Plans! What plans? What has he told you?"
+
+"I am not free to speak, Sophy. I should not have said a word at all. I
+hope you will just forget I have."
+
+"Indeed I will not! I will make Andrew tell me his plans. Why should he
+tell you, and not me? It is a shame to treat me that way, and he shall
+hear tell of it."
+
+"Sophy! Sophy! I would as lief you killed me as told Andrew I had given
+you a hint of his doings. He would never forgive me. I can no forgive
+myself. Oh what a foolish, wicked woman I have been to say a word to
+you!" and Christina burst into passionate weeping.
+
+"_Whist_! Christina; I'll never tell him, not I! I know well you
+slipped the words to pleasure me. But giff-gaff makes us good friends,
+and so you must just walk to the door with me and pass a word with my
+aunt, and say neither this nor that about me, and I will forget you
+ever said Andrew had such a thing as a 'plan' about me."
+
+The proposal was not to Christina's mind, but she was ready to face any
+contingency rather than let Andrew know she had given the slightest
+hint of his intentions. She understood what joy he had in the thought
+of telling his great news to Sophy at its full time, and how angry he
+would naturally feel at any one who interfered with his designs. In a
+moment, without intention, with the very kindest of motives, she had
+broken her word to her brother, and she was as miserable as a woman
+could be over the unhappy slip. And Sophy's proposal added to her
+remorse. It made her virtually connive at Sophy's intercourse with
+Archie Braelands, and she felt herself to be in a great strait. In
+order to favour her brother she had spoken hastily, and the swift
+punishment of her folly was that she must now either confess her fault
+or tacitly sanction a wrong against him.
+
+For the present, she could see no way out of the difficulty. To tell
+Andrew would be to make him suspicious on every point. He would then
+doubtless find some other hiding place for his money, and if any
+accident did happen, her mother, and Sophy, and all Andrew loved, would
+suffer for her indiscretion. She took Sophy's reiterated promise, and
+then walked with the girl to her aunt's house. It was a neat stone
+dwelling, with some bonnets and caps in the front window, and when the
+door was opened, a bell rang, and Mistress Kilgour came hastily from an
+inner room. She looked pleased when she saw Sophy and Christina, and
+said:--
+
+"Come in, Christina. I am glad you brought Sophy home in such good
+time. For I'm in a state of perfect frustration this afternoon. Here's
+a bride gown and bonnet to make, and a sound of more work coming."
+
+"Who is to be married, Miss Kilgour?"
+
+"Madame Kilrin of Silverhawes--a second affair, Christina, and she more
+than middle-aged."
+
+"She is rich, though?"
+
+"That's it! rich, but made up of odds and ends, and but one eye to see
+with: a prelatic woman, too, seeking all things her own way."
+
+"And the man? Who is he?"
+
+"He is a lawyer. Them gentry have their fingers in every pie, hot or
+cold. However, I'm wishing them nothing but good. Madame is a constant
+customer. Come, come, Christina, you are not going already?"
+
+"I am hurried to-night. Mistress Kilgour. Mother is alone. Andrew is
+away to Greenock on business."
+
+"So you came back with Sophy. I am glad you did. There are some folks
+that are o'er ready to take charge of the girl, and some that seem to
+think she can take charge of herself. Oh, she knows fine what I mean!"
+And Miss Kilgour pointed her fore-finger at Sophy and shook her head
+until all the flowers in her cap and all the ringlets on her front hair
+dangled in unison.
+
+Sophy had turned suddenly sulky and made no reply, and Miss Kilgour
+continued: "It is her way always, when she has been to your house,
+Christina. Whatever do you say to her? Is there anything agec between
+Andrew and herself? Last week and the week before, she came back from
+Pittendurie in a temper no saint could live with."
+
+"I'm so miserable. Aunt. I am miserable every hour of my life."
+
+"And you wouldn't be happy unless you were miserable, Sophy. Don't mind
+her talk, Christina. Young things in love don't know what they want."
+
+"I am sick, Aunt."
+
+"You are in love, Sophy, and that is all there is to it. Don't go,
+Christina. Have a cup of tea first?"
+
+"I cannot stop any longer. Good-bye, Sophy. I'll tell Andrew to come
+and give you a walk to-morrow. Shall I?"
+
+"If you like to. He will not come until Sunday, though; and then he
+will be troubled about walking on the Sabbath day. I'm not caring to go
+out."
+
+"That is a lie, Sophy Traill!" cried her aunt. "It is the only thing
+you do care about."
+
+"You had better go home, Christina," said Sophy, with a sarcastic
+smile, "or you will be getting a share of temper that does not belong
+to you. I am well used to it."
+
+Christina made an effort to consider this remark as a joke, and under
+this cover took her leave. She was thankful to be alone with herself.
+Her thoughts and feelings were in a tumult; she could not bring any
+kind of reason out of their chaos. Her chagrin at her own folly was
+sharp and bitter. It made her cry out against herself as she trod
+rapidly her homeward road. Almost inadvertently, because it was the
+shortest and most usual way, she took the route that led her past
+Braelands. The great house was thrown open, and on the lawns was a
+crowd of handsomely dressed men and women, drinking tea at little
+tables set under the trees and among the shrubbery. Christina merely
+glanced at the brave show of shifting colour, and passed more quickly
+onward, the murmur of conversation and the ripple of laughter pursuing
+her a little way, for the evening was warm and quiet.
+
+She thought of Sophy among this gay crowd, and felt the incongruity of
+the situation, and a sense of anger sprung up in her breast at the
+girl's wicked impatience and unfaithfulness. It had caused her also to
+err, for she had been tempted by it to speak words which had been a
+violation of her own promise, and yet which had really done no good.
+
+"She was always one of those girls that led others into trouble," she
+reflected. "Many a scolding she has got me when I was a wee thing, and
+to think that now! with the promise to Andrew warm on my lips, I have
+put myself in her power! It is too bad! It is not believable!"
+
+She was glad when she came within sight of the sea; it was like a
+glimpse of home. The damp, fresh wind with its strong flavour of brine
+put heart into her, and the few sailors and fishers she met, with their
+sweethearts on their arms and their blue shirts open at their throats,
+had all a merry word or two to say to her. When she reached her home,
+she found Andrew sitting at a little table looking over some papers
+full of strange marks and columns of figures. His quick glance, and the
+quiet assurance of his love contained in it, went sorely to her heart.
+She would have fallen at his feet and confessed her unadvised admission
+to Sophy gladly, but she doubted, whether it would be the kindest and
+wisest thing to do.
+
+And then Janet joined them, and she had any number of questions to ask
+about Sophy, and Christina, to escape being pressed on this subject,
+began to talk with forced interest of Madame Kilrin's marriage. So,
+between this and that, the evening got over without suspicion, and
+Christina carried her miserable sense of disloyalty to bed and to sleep
+with her--literally to sleep, for she dreamed all night of the
+circumstance, and awakened in the morning with a heart as heavy as
+lead.
+
+"But it is just what I deserve!" she said crossly to herself, as she
+laced her shoes, "what need had I to be caring about Sophy Traill and
+her whims? She is a dissatisfied lass at the best, and her love affairs
+are beyond my sorting. Serves you right, Christina Binnie! You might
+know, if anybody might, that they who put their oar into another's boat
+are sure to get their fingers rapped. They deserve it too."
+
+However, Christina could not willingly dwell long on sorrowful
+subjects. She was always inclined to subdue trouble swiftly, or else to
+shake it away from her. For she lived by intuition, rather than by
+reason; and intuition is born of, and fed by, home affection and devout
+religion. Something too of that insight which changes faith into
+knowledge, and which is the birthright of primitive natures, was hers,
+and she divined, she knew not how, that Sophy would be true to her
+promise, and not say a word which would lead Andrew to doubt her. And
+so far she was right. Sophy had many faults, but the idea of breaking
+her contract with Christina did not even occur to her.
+
+She wondered what plans Andrew had, and what good surprise he was
+preparing for her, but she was in no special hurry to find it out. The
+knowledge might bring affairs to a permanent crisis between her and
+Andrew,--might mean marriage--and Sophy dreaded to face this question,
+with all its isolating demands. Her "friendship" with Archie Braelands
+was very sweet to her; she could not endure to think of any event which
+must put a stop to it. She enjoyed Archie's regrets and pleadings. She
+liked to sigh a little and cry a little over her hard fate; to be
+sympathised with for it; to treat it as if she could not escape from
+it; and yet to be nursing in her heart a passionate hope to do so.
+
+And after all, the process of reflection is unnatural and uncommon to
+nine tenths of humanity; and so Christina lifted her daily work and
+interests, and tried to forget her fault. And indeed, as the weeks went
+on, she tried to believe it had been no fault, for Sophy was much
+kinder to Andrew for some time; this fact being readily discernible in
+Andrew's cheerful moods, and in the more kindly interest which he then
+took in his home matters.
+
+"For it is well with us, when it is well with Sophy Traill, and we have
+the home weather she lets us have," Janet often remarked. The assertion
+had a great deal of truth in it. Sophy, from her chair in Mistress
+Kilgour's workroom, greatly influenced the domestic happiness of the
+Binnie cottage, even though they neither saw her, nor spoke her name.
+But her moods made Andrew happy or miserable, and Andrew's moods made
+Janet and Christina happy or miserable; so sure and so wonderful a
+thing is human solidarity. Yes indeed! For what one of us has not known
+some man or woman, never seen, who holds the thread of a destiny and
+yet has no knowledge concerning it. This thought would make life a
+desperate tangle if we did not also know that One, infinite in power
+and mercy, guides every event to its predestined and its wisest end.
+
+For a little while after Christina's visit, Sophy was particularly kind
+to Andrew; then there came a sudden change, and Christina noticed that
+her brother returned from Largo constantly with a heavy step and a
+gloomy face. Occasionally he admitted to her that he had been "sorely
+disappointed," but as a general thing he shut himself in his room and
+sulked as only men know how to sulk, till the atmosphere of the house
+was tingling with suppressed temper, and every one was on the edge of
+words that the tongue meant to be sharp as a sword.
+
+One morning in October, Christina met her brother on the sands, and he
+said, "I will take the boat and give you a sail, if you like,
+Christina. There is only a pleasant breeze."
+
+"I wish you would, Andrew," she answered. "This little northwester will
+blow every weariful thought away."
+
+"I'm feared I have been somewhat cross and ill to do for, lately.
+Mother says so."
+
+"Mother does not say far wrong. You have lost your temper often,
+Andrew, and consequent your common sense. And it is not like you to be
+unfair, not to say unkind; you have been that more than once, and to
+two who love you dearly."
+
+Andrew said no more until they were on the bay, then he let the oars
+drift, and asked:--
+
+"What did you think of Sophy the last time you saw her? Tell me truly,
+Christina."
+
+"Who knows aught about Sophy? She hardly knows her own mind. You cannot
+tell what she is thinking about by her face, any more than you can tell
+what she is going to do by her words. She is as uncertain as the wind,
+and it has changed since you lifted the oars. Is there anything new to
+fret yourself over?"
+
+"Ay, there is. I cannot get sight of her."
+
+"Are you twenty-seven years old, and of such a beggary of capacity as
+not to be able to concert time and place to see her?"
+
+"But if she herself is against seeing me, then how am I going to
+manage?"
+
+"What way did you find out that she was against seeing you?"
+
+"Whatever else could I think, when I get no other thing but excuses?
+First, she was gone away for a week's rest, and Mistress Kilgour said I
+had better not trouble her--she was that nervous."
+
+"Where did she go to?"
+
+"I don't believe she was out of her aunt's house. I am sure the postman
+was astonished when I told him she was away, and her aunt's face was
+very confused-like. Then when I went again she had a headache, and
+could hardly speak a word to me; and she never named about the week's
+holiday. And the next time there was a ball dress making; and the next
+she had gone to the minister's for her 'token,' and when I said I would
+go there and meet her, I was told not to think of such a thing; and so
+on, and so on, Christina. There is nothing but put-offs and put-bys,
+and my heart is full of sadness and fearful wonder."
+
+"And if you do see her, what then, Andrew?"
+
+"She is that low-spirited I do not know how to talk to her. She has
+little to say, and sits with her seam, and her eyes cast down, and all
+her pretty, merry ways are gone far away. I wonder where! Do you think
+she is ill, Christina?" he asked drearily.
+
+"No, I do not, Andrew."
+
+"Her mother died of a consumption, when she was only a young thing, you
+know."
+
+"That is no reason why Sophy should die of a consumption. Andrew, have
+you ever told her what your plans are? Have you told her she may be a
+lady and live in London if it pleases her? Have you told her that you
+will soon be _Captain Binnie_ of the North Sea fleet?"
+
+"No, no! What for would I bribe the girl? I want her free given love. I
+want her to marry plain Andrew Binnie. I will tell her everything the
+very hour she is my wife. That is the joy I look forward to. And it is
+right, is it not?"
+
+"No. It is all wrong. It is all wrong. Girls like men that have the
+spirit to win siller and push their way in the world."
+
+"I cannot thole the thought of Sophy marrying me for my money."
+
+"You think o'er much of your money. Ask yourself whether in getting
+money you have got good, or only gold. And about marrying Sophy, it is
+not in your hand. Marriages are made in heaven, and unless there has
+been a booking of your two names above, I am feared all your courting
+below will come to little. Yet it is your duty to do all you can to win
+the girl you want; and I can tell you what will win Sophy Traill, if
+anything on earth will win her."  Then she pointed out to him how fond
+Sophy was of fine dress and delicate living; how she loved roses, and
+violets, and the flowers of the garden, so much better than the pale,
+salt blossoms of the sea rack, however brilliant their colours; how she
+admired such a house as Braelands, and praised the glory of the
+peacock's trailing feathers. "The girl is not born for a poor man's
+wife," she continued, "her heart cries out for gold, and all that gold
+can buy; and if you are set on Sophy, and none but Sophy, you will have
+to win her with what she likes best, or else see some other man do so."
+
+"Then I will be buying her, and not winning her."
+
+"Oh you unspeakable man! Your conceit is just extraordinary! If you
+wanted any other good thing in life, from a big ship to a gold ring,
+would you not expect to buy it? Would your loving it, and wanting it,
+be sufficient? Jamie Logan knew well what he was about, when he brought
+us the letter from the Hendersons' firm. I love Jamie very dearly; but
+I'm free to confess the letter came into my consideration."
+
+Talking thus, with the good wind blowing the words into his heart,
+Christina soon inspired Andrew with her own ideas and confidence His
+face cleared; he began to row with his natural energy; and as they
+stepped on the wet sands together, he said almost joyfully:--
+
+"I will take your advice, Christina. I will go and tell Sophy
+everything."
+
+"Then she will smile in your face, she will put her hand in your hand;
+maybe, she will give you a kiss, for she will be thinking in her heart,
+'how brave and how clever my Andrew is.' And he will be taking me to
+London and making me a lady!' and such thoughts breed love, Andrew. You
+are well enough, and few men handsomer or better--unless it be Jamie
+Logan--but it isn't altogether the man; it is what the man _can do_."
+
+"I'll go and see Sophy to-morrow."
+
+"Why not to-day?"
+
+"She is going to Mariton House to fit a dress and do some sewing. Her
+aunt told me so."
+
+"If I was you, I would not let her sew for strangers any longer. Go and
+ask her to marry you at once, and do not take 'no' from her."
+
+"Your words stir my heart to the bottom of it, and I will do as you
+say, Christina; for Sophy has grown into my life, like my own folk, and
+the sea, and the stars, and my boat, and my home. And if she will love
+me the better for the news I have to tell her, I am that far gone in
+love with her I must even put wedding on that ground. Win her I must;
+or else die for her."
+
+"Win her, surely; die for her, nonsense! No man worth the name of man
+would die because a woman wouldn't marry him. God has made more than
+one good woman, more than one fair woman."
+
+"Only one woman for Andrew Binnie."
+
+"To be sure, if you choose to limit yourself in that way. I think
+better of you. And as for dying for a woman, I don't believe in it."
+
+"Poor Matt Ballantyne broke his heart about Jessie Graham."
+
+"It was a very poor heart then. Nothing mends so soon as a good heart.
+It trusts in the Omnipotent, and gets strength for its need, and then
+begins to look around for good it can do, or make for others, or take
+to itself. If Matt broke his heart for Jessie, Jessie would have been
+poorly cared for by such a weak kind of a heart. She is better off with
+Neil McAllister, no doubt."
+
+"You have done me good, Christina. I have not heard so many sound
+observes in a long time."
+
+And with that Janet came to the cliff-top and called to them to hurry.
+"Step out!" she cried, "here is Jamie Logan with a pocket full of great
+news; and the fish is frying itself black, while you two are
+daundering, as if it was your very business and duty to keep hungry
+folk waiting their dinner for you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE LAST OF THE WHIP
+
+
+With a joyful haste Christina went forward, leaving her brother to
+follow in more sober fashion. Jamie came to the cliff-top to meet her,
+and Janet from the cottage door beamed congratulations and radiant
+sympathy.
+
+"I have got my berth on the Line, Christina! I am to sail next Friday
+from Greenock, so I'll start at once, my dearie! And I am the happiest
+lad in Fife to-day!"
+
+He had his arms around her as he spoke, and he kissed her smiles and
+glad exclamations off her lips before she could put them into words.
+Then Andrew joined them, and after clasping hands with Jamie and
+Christina, he went slowly into the cottage, leaving the lovers alone
+outside. Janet was all excitement.
+
+"I'm like to greet with the good news, Andrew," she said, "it came so
+unexpected Jamie was just daundering over the sands, kind of
+down-hearted, he said, and wondering if he would stay through the
+winter and fish with Peddle or not, when little Maggie Johnston cried
+out, 'there is a big letter for you, Jamie Logan,' and he went and got
+it, and, lo and behold! it was from the Hendersons themselves! And they
+are needing Jamie now, and he'll just go at once, he says. There's luck
+for you! I am both laughing and crying with the pride and the pleasure
+of it!"
+
+"I wouldn't make such a fuss, anyway, Mother. It is what Jamie has been
+looking for and expecting, and I am glad he has won to it at last."
+
+"Fuss indeed! Plenty of 'fuss' made over sorrow; why not over joy? And
+if you think me a fool for it, I'm not sure but I might call you my
+neighbour, if it was only Sophy Traill or her affairs to be 'fussed'
+over."
+
+"Never mind Sophy, Mother. It is Jamie and Christina now, and Christina
+knows her happiness is dear to me as my own."
+
+"Well then, show it, Andrew. Show it, my lad! We must do what we can to
+put heart into poor Jamie; for when all is said and done, he is going
+to foreign parts and leaving love and home behind." And she walked to
+the door and looked at Jamie and Christina, who were standing on the
+cliff-edge together, deeply engaged in a conversation that was of the
+highest interest to themselves. "I have fancied you have been a bit shy
+with Jamie since yon time he set an old friend before his promise to
+you, Andrew; but what then?"
+
+"I wish Christina had married among our own folk. I have no wrong to
+say in particular of Jamie Logan, but I think my sister might have made
+her life with some good man a bit closer to her."
+
+"I thought, Andrew, that you were able to look sensibly at what comes
+and goes. If it was a matter of business, you would be the first to see
+the advantage of building your dyke with the stones you could get at.
+And you may believe me or not, but there's a deal of the successful
+work of this life carried through on that principle. Well, in marrying
+it is just as wise. The lad you _can get_, is happen better than the
+lad you _want_. Anyhow Christina is going to marry Jamie; and I'm sure
+he is that loving and pleasant, and that fond of her, that I have no
+doubt she will be happy as the day is long."
+
+"I hope it is the truth, Mother, that you are saying."
+
+"It is; but some folks won't see the truth, though they are dashing
+their noses against it. None so blind as they who won't see."
+
+"Well, it isn't within my right to speak to-day."
+
+"Yes, it is. It is your right and place to speak all the good and
+hopeful words you can think of. Don't be dour, Andrew. Man! man! how
+hard it is to rejoice with them that do rejoice! It takes more
+Christianity to do that than most folks carry around with them."
+
+"Mother, you are a perfectly unreasonable woman. You flyte at me, as if
+I was a laddie of ten years old--but I'll not dare to say but what you
+do me a deal of good;" and Andrew's face brightened as he looked at
+her.
+
+"You would hardly do the right thing, if I didn't flyte at you, Andrew.
+And maybe I wouldn't do it myself, if I was not watching you; having
+nobody to scold and advise is very like trying to fly a kite without
+wind. Go to the door and call in Jamie and Christina. We ought to take
+an interest in their bit plans and schemes; and if we take it, we ought
+to show we take it."
+
+Then Andrew rose and went to the open door, and as he went he laid his
+big hand on his mother's shoulder, and a smile flew from face to face,
+and in its light every little shadow vanished. And Jamie was glad to
+bring in his promised bride, and among her own people as they eat
+together, talk over the good that had come to them, and the changes
+that were incident to it. And thus an hour passed swiftly away, and
+then "farewells" full of love and hope, and laughter and tears, and
+hand-clasping, and good words, were said; and Jamie went off to his new
+life, leaving a thousand pleasant hopes and expectations behind him.
+
+After he was fairly out of sight, and Christina stood looking tearfully
+into the vacancy where his image still lingered, Andrew led her to the
+top of the cliff, and they sat down together. It was an exquisite
+afternoon, full of the salt and sparkle of the sea; and for awhile both
+remained silent, looking down on the cottages, and the creels, and the
+drying nets. The whole village seemed to be out, and the sands were
+covered with picturesque figures in sea-boots and striped hanging caps,
+and with the no less picturesque companion figures in striped
+petticoats. Some of the latter were old women, and these wore
+high-crowned, unbordered caps of white linen; others were young women,
+and these had no covering at all on their exuberant hair; but most of
+them displayed long gold rings in their ears, and bright scarlet or
+blue kerchiefs round their necks. Andrew glanced from these figures to
+his sister; and touching her striped petticoat, he said:--
+
+"You'll be changing this for what they call a gown, when you go to
+Glasgow! How soon is that to be, Christina?"
+
+"When Jamie has got well settled in his place. It wouldn't be prudent
+before."
+
+"About the New Year, say?"
+
+"Ay; about the New Year."
+
+"I am thinking of giving you a silk gown for your wedding."
+
+"O Andrew! if you would! A silk gown would set me up above every thing!
+I'll never forget such a favour as that."
+
+"I'll do it."
+
+"And Sophy will see to the making of it. Sophy has a wonderful taste
+about trimming, and the like of that. Sophy will stand up with me, and
+you will be Jamie's best man; won't you, Andrew?"
+
+"Ay, Sophy will see to the making of it. Few can make a gown look as
+she can. She is a clever bit thing"--then after a pause he added sadly,
+"there was one thing I did not tell you this morning; but it is a
+circumstance I feel very badly about."
+
+"What is it? You know well that I shall feel with you."
+
+"It is the way folks keep hinting this and that to me; but more, that I
+am mistrusting Mistress Kilgour. I saw a young fellow standing at the
+shop door talking to her the other morning very confidential-like--a
+young fellow that could not have any lawful business with her."
+
+"What kind of a person was he?"
+
+"A large, dark man, dressed like a picture in a tailor's window. His
+servant-man, in a livery of brown and yellow, was holding the horses in
+a fine dog-cart. I asked Jimmy Faulds what his name was and he laughed
+and said it was Braelands of Braelands, and he should think I knew it
+and then he looked at me that queer, that I felt as if his eyes had
+told me of some calamity. 'What is he doing at Mistress Kilgour's?' I
+asked as soon as I could get myself together, and Jimmy answered, 'I
+suppose he is ordering Madame Braelands' millinery,' and then he
+snickered and laughed again, and I had hard lines to keep my hands from
+striking him.'
+
+"What for at all?"
+
+"I don't know. I wish I did."
+
+"If I give you my advice, will you take it?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Then for once--if you don't want Braelands to win Sophy from you--put
+your lover's fears and shamefacedness behind your back. Just remember
+who and what you are, and what you are like to be, and go and tell
+Sophy everything, and ask her to marry you next Monday morning. Take
+gold in your pocket, and buy her a wedding gift--a ring, or a brooch,
+or some bonnie thing or other; and promise her a trip to Edinburgh or
+London, or any other thing she fancies."
+
+"We have not been 'cried' yet. And the names must be read in the kirk
+for three Sundays."
+
+"Oh man! Cannot you get a licence? It will cost you a few shillings,
+but what of that? You are too slow, Andrew. If you don't take care, and
+make haste, Braelands will run away with your wife before your very
+eyes."
+
+"I'll not believe it. It could not be. The thing is unspeakable, and
+unbearable. I'll face my fate the morn, and I'll know the best--or the
+worst of what is coming to me."
+
+"Look for good, and have good, that is, if you don't let the good hour
+go by. You, Andrew Binnie! that can manage a boat when the north wind
+is doing its mightiest, are you going to be one of the cony kind, when
+it comes to a slip of a girl like Sophy? I can not think it, for you
+know what Solomon said of such--'Oh Son, it is a feeble folk.'"
+
+"I don't come of feeble folk, body nor soul; and as I have said, I will
+have the whole matter out with Sophy to-morrow."
+
+"Good--but better _do_ than say."
+
+The next morning a swift look of intelligence passed between Andrew and
+Christina at breakfast, and about eleven o'clock Andrew said, "I'll
+away now to Largo, and settle the business we were speaking of,
+Christina." She looked up at him critically, and thought she had never
+seen a handsomer man. Though only a fisherman, he was too much a force
+of nature to be vulgar. He was the incarnation of the grey, old
+village, and of the North Sea, and of its stormy winds and waters.
+Standing in his boots he was over six feet, full of pluck and fibre, a
+man not made for the town and its narrow doorways, but for the great
+spaces of the tossing ocean. His face was strong and finely formed; his
+eyes grey and open--as eyes might be that had so often searched the
+thickest of the storm with unquailing glance. A sensitive flush
+overspread his brow and cheeks as Christina gazed at him, and he said
+nervously:--
+
+"I will require to put on my best clothes; won't I, Christina?"
+
+She laid her hand on his arm, and shook her head with a pleasant smile.
+She was regarding with pride and satisfaction her brother's fine
+figure, admirably shown in the elastic grace of his blue Guernsey. She
+turned the collar low enough to leave his round throat a little bare,
+and put his blue flannel _Tam o' Shanter_ over his close, clustering
+curls. "Go as you are," she said. "In that dress you feel at home, and
+at ease, and you look ten times the man you do in your broadcloth. And
+if Sophy cannot like her fisher-lad in his fisher-dress, she isn't
+worthy of him."
+
+He was much pleased with this advice, for it precisely sorted with his
+own feelings; and he stooped and kissed Christina, and she sent him
+away with a smile and a good wish. Then she went to her mother, who was
+in a little shed salting some fish. "Mother," she cried, "Andrew has
+gone to Largo."
+
+"Like enough. It would be stranger, if he had stopped at home."
+
+"He has gone to ask Sophy to marry him next week--next Monday."
+
+"Perfect nonsense! We'll have no such marrying in a hurry, and a
+corner. It will take a full month to marry Andrew Binnie. What would
+all our folks say, far and near, if they were not bid to the wedding?
+Set to that, you have to be married first. Marrying isn't like
+Christmas, coming every year of our Lord; and we _be_ to make the most
+of it. I'll not give my consent to any such like hasty work. Why, they
+are not even 'called' in the kirk yet."
+
+"Andrew can get a licence."
+
+"Andrew can get a fiddle-stick! None of the Binnies were ever married,
+but by word of the kirk, and none of them shall be, if I can help it.
+Licence indeed! Buying the right to marry for a few shillings, and the
+next thing will be a few more shillings for the right to un-marry. I'll
+not hear tell of such a way."
+
+"But, Mother, if Andrew does not get Sophy at once, he may lose her
+altogether."
+
+"_Humph_! No great loss."
+
+"The biggest loss in the world that Andrew can have. Things are come to
+a pass. If Andrew does not marry her at once, I am feared Braelands
+will carry her off."
+
+"He is welcome to her."
+
+"No, no, Mother! Do you want Braelands to get the best of Andrew?"
+
+"The like of him get the best of Andrew! I'll not believe it. Sophy
+isn't beyond all sense of right and feeling. If, after all these years,
+she left Andrew for that fine gentleman, she would be a very Jael of
+deceit and treachery. I wish I had told her about her mother's second
+cousin, bonnie Lizzie Lauder."
+
+"What of her? I never heard tell, did I, Mother?"
+
+"No. We don't speak of Lizzie now."
+
+"Why then?"
+
+"She was very bonnie, and she was very like Sophy about hating to work;
+and she was never done crying to all the gates of pleasure to open wide
+and let her enter. And she went in."
+
+"Well, Mother? Is that all?"
+
+"No. I wish in God's mercy it was! The avenging gates closed on her.
+She is shut up in hell. There, I'll say no more."
+
+"Yes, Mother. You will ask God's mercy for her. It never faileth."
+
+Janet turned away, and lifted her apron to her eyes, and stood so
+silent for a few minutes. And Christina left her alone, and went back
+into the house place, and began to wash up the breakfast-cups and cut
+up some vegetables for their early dinner. And by-and-by her mother
+joined her, and Christina began to tell how Andrew had promised her a
+silk gown for her wedding. This bit of news was so wonderful and
+delightful to Janet, that it drove all other thoughts far from her. She
+sat down to discuss it with all the care and importance the subject
+demanded. Every colour was considered; and when the colour had been
+decided, there was then the number of yards and the kind of trimming to
+be discussed, and the manner of its making, and the person most
+suitable to undertake the momentous task. For Janet was at that hour
+angry with Mistress Kilgour, and not inclined to "put a bawbee her
+way," seeing that it was most likely she had been favouring Braeland's
+suit, and therefore a bitter enemy to Andrew.
+
+After the noon meal, Janet took her knitting, and went to tell as many
+of her neighbours as it was possible to see during the short afternoon,
+about the silk gown her Christina was to be married in; and Christina
+spread her ironing table, and began to damp, and fold, and smooth the
+clean linen. And as she did so, she sang a verse or two of 'Hunting
+Tower,' and then she thought awhile, and then she sang again. And she
+was so happy, that her form swayed to her movements; it seemed to smile
+as she walked backwards and forwards with the finished garments or the
+hot iron in her hands. She was thinking of the happy home she would
+make for Jamie, and of all the bliss that was coming to her. For before
+a bird flies you may see its wings, and Christina was already pluming
+hers for a flight into that world which in her very ignorance she
+invested with a thousand unreal charms.
+
+She did not expect Andrew back until the evening. He would most likely
+have a long talk with Sophy; there was so much to tell her, and when it
+was over, it would be in a large measure to tell again to Mistress
+Kilgour. Then it was likely Andrew would take tea with his promised
+wife, and perhaps they might have a walk afterwards; so, calculating
+all these things. Christina came to the conclusion that it would be
+well on to bed time, before she knew what arrangements Andrew had made
+for his marriage and his life after it.
+
+Not a single unpleasant doubt troubled her mind, she thought she knew
+Sophy's nature so well; and she could hardly conceive it possible, that
+the girl should have any reluctances about a lad so well known, so
+good, and so handsome, and with such a fine future before him, as
+Andrew Binnie. All Sophy's flights and fancies, all her favours to
+young Braelands, Christina put down to the dissatisfaction Sophy so
+often expressed with her position, and the vanity which arose naturally
+from her recognised beauty and youthful grace. But to be "a settled
+woman," with a loving husband and "a house of her own," seemed to
+Christina an irresistible offer; and she smiled to herself when she
+thought of Sophy's surprise, and of the many pretty little airs and
+conceits the state of bridehood would be sure to bring forth in her
+self-indulgent nature.
+
+"She will be provoking enough, no doubt," she whispered as she set the
+iron sharply down; "but I'll never notice it. She is very little more
+than a bairn, and but a canary-headed creature added to that. In a year
+or two, Andrew, and marriage, and maybe motherhood, will sober and
+settle her. And Andrew loves her so. Most as well as Jamie loves me.
+For Andrew's sake, then, I'll bear with all her provoking ways and
+words. She'll be _our own_, anyway, and we be to have patience with
+they of our own household. Bonnie wee Sophy."
+
+It was about mid-afternoon when she came to this train of forbearing
+and conciliating reflections. She was quite happy in it; for Christina
+was one of those wise women, who do not look into their ideals and
+hopes too closely. Her face reflecting them was beautiful and benign;
+and her shoulders, and hands, her supple waist and limbs, continued the
+symphonies of her soft, deep, loving eyes and her smiling mouth. Every
+now and then she burst into song; and then her thrilling voice, so
+sweet and fresh, had tones in it that only birds and good women full of
+love may compass. Mostly the song was a lilt or a verse which spoke for
+her own heart and love; but just as the clock struck three, she broke
+into a low laugh which ended in a merry, mocking melody, and which was
+evidently the conclusion of her argument concerning Sophy's behaviour
+as Andrew's wife--
+
+"Toot! toot! quoth the grey-headed father,
+  She's less of a bride than a bairn;
+She's ta'en like a colt from the heather,
+  With sense and discretion to learn.
+
+"Half-husband I trow, and half daddy,
+  As humour inconstantly leans;
+The man must be patient and steady,
+  That weds with a lass in her teens."
+
+She had hardly finished the verse, when she heard a step blending with
+its echoes. Her ears rung inward; her eyes dilated with an unhappy
+expectancy; she put down her iron with a sudden faint feeling, and
+turned her face to the door.
+
+Andrew entered the cottage. He looked at her despairingly, and sinking
+into his chair, he covered his wretched face with his hands.
+
+It was not the same man who had left her a few hours before. A change,
+like that which a hot iron would make upon a green leaf, had been made
+in her handsome, hopeful, happy brother. She could not avoid an
+exclamation that was a cry of terror; and she went to him and kissed
+him, and murmured, she knew not what words of pity and love. Under
+their influence, the flood gates of sorrow were unloosed, he began to
+weep, to sob, to shake and tremble, like a reed in a tempest.
+
+Christina saw that his soul was tossed from top to bottom, and in the
+madness of the storm, she knew it was folly to ask "why?" But she went
+to the door, closed it, slipped forward the bolt, and then came back to
+his side, waiting there patiently until the first paroxysm of his grief
+was over. Then she said softly:--
+
+"Andrew! My brother Andrew! What sorrow has come to you? Tell
+Christina."
+
+"Sophy is dead--dead and gone for me. Oh Sophy, Sophy, Sophy!"
+
+"Andrew, tell me a straight tale. You are not a woman to let any sorrow
+get the mastery over you."
+
+"Sophy has gone from me. She has played me false--and after all these
+years, deceived and left me."
+
+"Then there is still the Faithful One. His love is from everlasting, to
+everlasting. He changeth not."
+
+"Ay; I know," he said drearily. But he straightened himself and
+unfastened the button at his throat, and stood up on his feet, planting
+them far apart, as if he felt the earth like the reeling deck of a
+ship. And Christina opened the little window, and drew his chair near
+it, and let the fresh breeze blow upon him; and her heart throbbed
+hotly with anger and pity.
+
+"Sit down in the sea wind, Andrew," she said. "There's strength and a
+breath of comfort in it; and try and give your trouble words. Did you
+see Sophy?"
+
+"Ay; I saw her."
+
+"At her aunt's house?"
+
+"No. I met her on the road. She was in a dog-cart; and the master of
+Braelands was driving her. I saw her, ere she saw me; and she was
+looking in his face as she never looked in my face. She loves him,
+Christina, as she never loved me."
+
+"Did you speak to her?"
+
+"I was that foolish, and left to myself. She was going to pass me,
+without a look or a word; but I could not thole the scorn and pain of
+it, and I called out to her, '_Sophy_! _Sophy_!'"
+
+"And she did not answer you?"
+
+"She cruddled closer to Braelands. And then he lifted the whip to hurry
+the horse; and before I knew what I was doing, I had the beast by the
+head--and the lash of the whip--struck me clean across the cheek bone."
+
+"Oh Andrew! Andrew!" And she bent forward and looked at the outraged
+cheek, and murmuring, "I see the mark of it! I see the mark of it!" she
+kissed the long, white welt, and wetted it with her indignant tears.
+
+Andrew sat passive under her sympathy until she asked, "Did Braelands
+say anything when he struck you? Had he no word of excuse?"
+
+"He said: 'It is your own fault, fisherman. The lash was meant for the
+horse, and not for you.'"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And I was in a passion; and I shouted some words I should not have
+said--words I never said in my life before. I didn't think the like of
+them were in my heart."
+
+"I don't blame you, Andrew."
+
+"I blame myself though. Then I bid Sophy get out of the cart and come
+to me;--and--"
+
+"Yes, dear?"
+
+"And she never moved or spoke; she just covered her face with her
+hands, and gave a little scream;--for no doubt I had frighted her--and
+Braelands, he got into the de'il's own rage then, and dared me to call
+the lady 'Sophy' again; 'for,' said he, 'she will be my wife before
+many days'; and with that, he struck the horse savagely again and
+again, and the poor beast broke from my hand, and bounded for'ard; and
+I fell on my back, and the wheels of the cart grazed the soles of my
+shoon as they passed me."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"I don't know how long I lay there."
+
+"And they went on and left you lying in the highway?"
+
+"They went on."
+
+"The wicked lass! Oh the wicked, heartless lass!"
+
+"You are not able to judge her, Christina."
+
+"But you can judge Braelands. Get a warrant for the scoundrel the morn.
+He is without the law."
+
+"Then I would make Sophy the common talk, far and near. How could I
+wrong Sophy to right myself?"
+
+"But the whip lash! the whip lash! Andrew. You cannot thole the like of
+that!"
+
+"There was One tholed for me the lash and the buffet, and answer'd
+never a word. I can thole the lash for Sophy's sake. A poor love I
+would have for Sophy, if I put my own pride before her good name. If I
+get help 'from beyond,' I can thole the lash, Christina."
+
+He was white through all the tan of wind, and sea, and sun; and the
+sweat of his suffering stood in great beads on his pallid face and
+brow. Christina lifted a towel, which she had just ironed, and wiped it
+away; and he said feebly;--
+
+"Thank you, dear lass! I will go to my bed a wee."
+
+So Christina opened the door of his room and he tottered in, swaying
+like a drunken man, and threw himself upon his bed. Five minutes
+afterward she stepped softly to his side. He was sunk in deep sleep,
+fathoms below the tide of grief whose waves and billows had gone over
+him.
+
+"Thanks be to the Merciful!" she whispered. "When the sorrow is too
+great, then He giveth His beloved sleep."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LOST BRIDE
+
+
+This unforeseen and unhappy meeting forced a climax in Sophy's love
+affairs, which she had hitherto not dared to face. In fact,
+circumstances tending that way had arisen about a week previously; and
+it was in consequence of them, that she was publicly riding with
+Braelands when Andrew met them. For a long time she had insisted on
+secrecy in her intercourse with her "friend." She was afraid of Andrew;
+she was afraid of her aunt; she was afraid of being made a talk and a
+speculation to the gossips of the little town. And though Miss Kilgour
+had begun to suspect somewhat, she was not inclined to verify her
+suspicions. Madame Braelands was a good customer, therefore she did not
+wish to know anything about a matter which she was sure would be a
+great annoyance to that lady.
+
+But Madame herself forced the knowledge on her. Some friend had called
+at Braelands and thought it right to let her know what a dangerous
+affair her son was engaged in. "For the girl is beautiful," she said,
+"there is no denying that; and she comes of fisher-folk, who have
+simply no idea but that love words and love-kisses must lead to
+marrying and housekeeping, and who will bitterly resent and avenge a
+wrong done to any woman of their class, as you well know, Madame."
+
+Madame did know this very well; and apart from her terror of a
+_mesalliance_ for the heir of Braelands, there was the fact that his
+family had always had great political influence, and looked to a public
+recognition of it. The fisher vote was an important factor in the
+return of any aspirant for Parliamentary honour; and she felt keenly
+that Archie was endangering his whole future career by his attentions
+to a girl whom it was impossible he should marry, but who would have
+the power to arouse against him a bitter antagonism, if he did not
+marry her.
+
+She affected to her friend a total indifference to the subject of her
+son's amusements, and she said "she was moreover sure that Archibald
+Braelands would never do anything to prejudice his own honour, or the
+honour of the humblest fisher-girl in Fifeshire." But all the same, her
+heart was sick with fear and anxiety; and as soon as her informant had
+gone, she ordered her carriage, dressed herself in all her braveries,
+and drove hastily to Mistress Kilgour's.
+
+At that very hour, this lady was fussing and fuming angrily at her
+niece. Sophy had insisted on going for a walk, and in the altercation
+attending this resolve, Mistress Kilgour had unadvisably given speech
+to her suspicions about Sophy's companion in these frequent walks, and
+threatened her with a revelation of these doubts to Andrew Binnie. But
+in spite of all, Sophy had left the house; and her aunt was nursing her
+wrath against her when Madame Braeland's carriage clattered up to her
+shop door.
+
+Now if Madame had been a prudent woman, and kept the rein on her
+prideful temper, she would have found Mistress Kilgour in the very mood
+suitable for an ally. But Madame had also been nursing her wrath, and
+as soon as Mistress Kilgour had appeared, she asked angrily:--
+
+"Where is that niece of yours, Mistress Kilgour? I should very much
+like to know."
+
+The tone of the question irritated the dressmaker, and instantly her
+sympathies flew toward her own kith, and kin, and class. Also, her
+caution was at once aroused, and she answered the question,
+Scotch-wise, by another question:--
+
+"What for are you requiring to see Sophy, Madame?"
+
+"Is she in the house?"
+
+"Shall I go and see?"
+
+"Go and see, indeed! You know well she is not. You know she is away
+somewhere, walking or driving with my son--with the heir of Braelands.
+Oh, I have heard all about their shameful carryings-on."
+
+"You'll not need to use the word 'shameful' with regard to my niece,
+Sophy Traill, Madame Braelands. She has never earned such a like word,
+and she never will. You may take my say-so for that."
+
+"It is not anybody's say-so in this case. Seeing is believing, and they
+have been seen together, walking in Fernie wood, and down among the
+rocks on the Elie coast, and in many other places."
+
+"Well and good, Madame. What by that? Young things will be young
+things."
+
+"What by that? Do you, a woman of your age, ask me such a question?
+When a gentleman of good blood and family, as well as great wealth,
+goes walking and driving with a poor girl of no family at all, do you
+ask what by that? Nothing but disgrace and trouble can be looked for."
+
+"Speak for your own kin and side, Madame. And I should think a woman of
+your age--being at least twenty years older than myself--would know
+that true love never asks for a girl's pedigree. And as for 'disgrace,'
+Sophy Traill will never call anything like 'disgrace' to herself. I
+will allow that Sophy is poor, but as for family, the Traills are of
+the best Norse strain. They were sea-fighters, hundreds of years before
+they were sea-fishers; and they had been 'at home' on the North Sea,
+and in all the lands about it, centuries before the like of the
+Braelands were thought or heard tell of."
+
+Mistress Kilgour was rapidly becoming angry, and Madame would have been
+wise to have noted the circumstance; but she herself was now past all
+prudence, and with an air of contempt she took out her jewelled watch,
+and beginning to slowly wind it, said:--
+
+"My good woman, Sophy's father was a common fisherman. We have no call
+to go back to the time when her people were pirates and sea-robbers."
+
+"I am _my own_ woman, Madame. And I will take my oath I am not _your_
+woman, anyhow. And 'common' or uncommon, the fishermen of Fife call no
+man master but the Lord God Almighty, from whose hands they take their
+food, summer and winter. And I will make free to say, moreover, that if
+Braelands loves Sophy Traill and she loves him, worse might befall him
+than Sophy for a wife. For if God thinks fit to mate them, it is not
+Griselda Kilgour that will take upon herself to contradict the Will of
+Heaven."
+
+"Don't talk rubbish, Mistress Kilgour. People who live in society have
+to regard what society thinks and says."
+
+"It is no ways obligatory, Madame, the voice of God and Nature has more
+weight, I'm thinking, and if God links two together, you will find it
+gey and hard to separate them."
+
+"I heard the girl was promised since her babyhood to a fisherman called
+Andrew Binnie."
+
+"For once you have heard the truth, Madame. But you know yourself that
+babyhood and womanhood are two different things; and the woman has just
+set at naught the baby. That is all."
+
+"No, it is not all. This Andrew Binnie is a man of great influence
+among the fishers, and my son cannot afford to make enemies among that
+class. It will be highly prejudicial to him."
+
+"I cannot help that Madame. Braelands is well able to row his own boat.
+At any rate, I am not called to take an oar in it."
+
+"Yes, you are. I have been a good customer to you, Mistress Kilgour."
+
+"I am not denying it; at the same time I have been a good dress and
+bonnet maker to you, and earned every penny-bit you have paid me. The
+obligation is mutual, I'm thinking."
+
+"I can be a still better customer if you will prevent this
+gentle-shepherding and love-making. I would not even scruple at a
+twenty pound note, or perhaps two of them."
+
+"_Straa_! If you were Queen of England, Madame, I would call you an
+insolent dastard, to try and bribe me against my own flesh and blood.
+You are a very Judas, to think of such a thing. Good blood! fine
+family! indeed! If your son is like yourself, I'm not caring for him
+coming into my family at all."
+
+"Mistress Kilgour, you may close my account with you. I shall employ
+you no more."
+
+"Pay me the sixteen pounds odd you owe me, and then I will shut my
+books forever against Braelands. Accounts are not closed till
+outstanding money is paid in."
+
+"I shall send the money."
+
+"The sight of the money would be better than the promise of it, Madame;
+for some of it is owing more than a twelvemonth;" and Mistress Kilgour
+hastily turned over to the Braelands page of her ledger, while Madame,
+with an air of affront and indignation, hastily left the shop.
+
+Following this wordy battle with her dressmaker, Madame had an equally
+stubborn one with her son, the immediate consequence of which was that
+very interview whose close was witnessed by Andrew Binnie. In this
+conference Braelands acknowledged his devotion to Sophy, and earnestly
+pleaded for Mistress Kilgour's favour for his suit. She was now quite
+inclined to favour him. Her own niece, as mistress of Braelands, would
+be not only a great social success, but also a great financial one.
+Madame Braelands's capacity for bonnets was two every year; Sophy's
+capacity was unlimited. Madame considered four dresses annually quite
+extravagant; Sophy's ideas on the same subject were constantly
+enlarging. And then there would be the satisfaction of overcoming
+Madame. So she yielded easily and gracefully to Archie Braelands's
+petition, and thus Sophy suddenly found herself able to do openly what
+she had hitherto done secretly, and the question of her marriage with
+Braelands accepted as an understood conclusion.
+
+At this sudden culmination of her hardly acknowledged desires, the girl
+was for a short tune distracted. She felt that Andrew must now be
+definitely resigned, and a strangely sad feeling of pity and reluctance
+assailed her. There were moments she knew not which lover was dearest
+to her. The habit of loving Andrew had grown through long years in her
+heart; she trusted him as she trusted no other mortal, she was not
+prepared to give up absolutely all rights in a heart so purely and so
+devotedly her own. For if she knew anything, she knew right well that
+no other man would ever give her the same unfaltering, unselfish
+affection.
+
+And when she dared to consider truthfully her estimate of Archie
+Braelands, she judged his love, passionate as it was, did not ring true
+through all its depths. There were times when her little _gaucheries_
+fretted him; when her dress did not suit him; when he put aside an
+engagement with her for a sail with a lord, or a dinner party with
+friends, or a social function at his own home. Andrew put no one before
+her; and even the business that kept him from her side was all for her
+future happiness. Every object and every aim of his life had reference
+to her. It was hard to give up such a perfect love, and she felt that
+she could not see Andrew face to face and do it. Hence her refusals to
+meet him, and her shyness and silence when a meeting was unavoidable.
+Hence, also, came a very peculiar attitude of Andrew's friends and
+mates; for they could not conceive how Andrew's implicit faith in his
+love should prevent him from finding out what was so evident to every
+man and woman in Largo.
+
+Alas! the knowledge had now come to him. That it could have come in any
+harder way, it is difficult to believe. There was only one palliation
+to its misery--it was quite unpremeditated--but even this mitigation
+of the affront hardly brought him any comfort as yet Braelands was
+certainly deeply grieved at the miserable outcome of the meeting. He
+knew the pride of the fisher race, and he had himself a manly instinct,
+strong enough to understand the undeserved humiliation of Andrew's
+position. Honestly, as a gentleman, he was sorry the quarrel had taken
+place; as a lover, he was anxious to turn it to his own advantage. For
+he saw that, in spite of all her coldness and apparent apathy, Sophy
+was affected and wounded by Andrew's bitter imploration and its
+wretched and sorrowful ending. If the man should gain her ear and
+sympathy, Braelands feared for the result. He therefore urged her to an
+immediate marriage; and when Mistress Kilgour was taken into counsel,
+she encouraged the idea, because of the talk which was sure to follow
+such a flagrant breach of the courtesies of life.
+
+But even at this juncture, Sophy's vanity must have its showing; and
+she refused to marry, until at least two or three suitable dresses
+should have been prepared; so the uttermost favour that could be
+obtained from the stubborn little bride was a date somewhere within two
+weeks away.
+
+During these two weeks there was an unspeakable unhappiness in the
+Binnie household. For oh, how dreary are those wastes of life, left by
+the loved who have deserted us! These are the vacant places we water
+with our bitterest tears. Had Sophy died, Andrew would have said, "It
+is the Lord; let him do what seemeth right in his sight." But the
+manner and the means of his loss filled him with a dumb sorrow and
+rage; for in spite of his mother's and sister's urging, he would do
+nothing to right his own self-respect at the price of giving Sophy the
+slightest trouble or notoriety. Suffer! Yes, he suffered at home, where
+Janet and Christina continually reminded him of the insult he ought to
+avenge; and he suffered also abroad, where his mates looked at him with
+eyes full of surprise and angry inquiries.
+
+But though the village was ringing with gossip about Sophy and young
+Braelands, never a man or woman in it ventured to openly question the
+stern, sullen, irritable man who had been so long recognised as her
+accepted lover. And whether he was in the boats or out of them, no one
+dared to speak Sophy's name in his presence. Indeed, upon the whole, he
+was during these days what Janet Binnie called "an ill man to live
+with--a man out of his senses, and falling away from his meat and his
+clothes."
+
+This misery continued for about two weeks without any abatement, and
+Janet's and Christina's sympathy was beginning to be tinged with
+resentment. It seems so unnatural and unjust, that a girl who had
+already done them so much wrong, and who was so far outside their daily
+life, should have the power to still darken their home, and infuse a
+bitter drop into their peculiar joys and hopes.
+
+"I am glad the wicked lass isn't near by me," said Janet one morning,
+when Andrew had declared himself unable to eat his breakfast and gone
+out of the cottage to escape his mother's pleadings and reproofs. "I'm
+glad she isn't near me. If she was here, I could not keep my tongue
+from her. She should hear the truth for once, if she never heard it
+again. They should be words as sharp as the birch rod she ought to have
+had, when she first began her nonsense, and her airs and graces."
+
+"She is a bad girl; but we must remember that she was left much to
+herself--no mother to guide her, no sister or brother either."
+
+"It would have been a pity if there had been more of them. One scone of
+that baking is enough. The way she has treated our Andrew is
+abominable. Flesh and blood can't bear such doings."
+
+As Janet made this assertion, a cousin of Sophy's came into the
+cottage, and answered her. "I know you are talking of Sophy," she said,
+"and I am not wondering at the terrivee you are making. As for me,
+though she is my cousin, I'll never exchange the Queen's language with
+her again as long as I live in this world. But all bad things come to
+an end, as well as good ones, and I am bringing what will put a stop at
+last to all this clishmaclaver about that wearisome lassie,"--and with
+these words she handed Janet two shining white cards, tied together
+with a bit of silver wire.
+
+They were Sophy's wedding cards; and she had also sent from Edinburgh a
+newspaper containing a notice of her marriage to Archibald Braelands.
+The news was very satisfactory to Janet. She held the bits of cardboard
+with her fingertips, looking grimly at the names upon them. Then she
+laughed, not very pleasantly, at the difference in the size of the
+cards. "He has the wee card now," she said, "and Sophy the big one; but
+I'm thinking the wee one will grow big, and the big one grow little
+before long. I will take them to Andrew myself; the sight of them will
+be a bitter medicine, but it will do him good. Folks may count it great
+gain when they get rid of a false hope."
+
+Andrew was walking moodily about the bit of bare turf in front of the
+cottage door, stopping now and then to look over the sea, where the
+brown sails of some of the fishing boats still caught the lazy south
+wind. He was thinking that the sea was cloudy, and that there was an
+evil-looking sky to the eastward; and then, as his mind took in at the
+same moment the dangers to the fishers who people the grey waters and
+his own sorrowful wrong, he turned and began to walk about
+muttering--"Lord help us! We must bear what is sent."
+
+Then Janet called him, and he watched for her approach. She put the
+cards into his hand saying, "Sophy's cousin, Isobel Murray, brought
+them." Her voice was full of resentment; and Andrew, not at the moment
+realising a custom so unfamiliar in a fishing-village, looked
+wonderingly in his mother's face, and then at the fateful white
+messengers.
+
+"Read the names on them, Andrew man, and you'll know then why they are
+sent to Pittendurie."
+
+Then he looked steadily at the inscription, and the struggle of the
+inner man shook the outward man visibly. It was like a shot in the
+backbone. But it was only for a moment he staggered; though he had few
+resources, his faith in the Cross and his confidence in himself made
+him a match for his hard fate. It is in such critical moments the soul
+reveals if it be selfish or generous, and Andrew, with a quick upward
+fling of the head, regained absolutely that self-control, which he had
+voluntarily abdicated.
+
+"You will tell Isobel," he said, "that I wish Mistress Braelands every
+good thing, both for this life and the next." Then he stepped closer to
+his mother and kissed her; and Janet was so touched and amazed that she
+could not speak. But the look of loving wonder on her face was far
+better than words. And as she stood looking at him, Andrew put the
+cards in his pocket, and went down to the sea; and Janet returned to
+the cottage and gave Isobel the message he had sent.
+
+But this information, so scanty and yet so conclusive, by no means
+satisfied the curiosity of the women. A great deal of indignation was
+expressed by Sophy's kindred and friends in the village at her total
+ignoring of their claims. They did not expect to be invited to a house
+like Braelands; but they did think Sophy ought to have visited them and
+told them all about her preparations and future plans. They were her
+own flesh and blood, and they deeply resented her non-recognition of
+the claims of kindred. Isobel, as the central figure of this
+dissatisfaction, was a very important person. She at least had received
+"cards," and the rest of the cousins to the sixth degree felt that they
+had been grossly slighted in the omission. So Isobel, for the sake of
+her own popularity, was compelled to make common cause, and to assert
+positively that "she thought little of the compliment." Sophy only
+wanted her folk to know she was now Mistress Braelands, and she had
+picked her out to carry the news--good or bad news, none yet could say.
+
+Janet was not inclined to discuss the matter with her. She was so cold
+about it, that Isobel quickly discovered she had 'work to finish at her
+own house,' for she recollected that if the Binnies were not inclined
+to talk over the affair there were plenty of wives and maids in
+Pittendurie who were eager to do so. So Janet and Christina were
+quickly left to their own opinions on the marriage, the first of which
+was, that "Sophy had behaved very badly to them."
+
+"But I wasn't going to say bad words for Isobel to clash round the
+village," said Janet "and I am gey glad Andrew took the news so
+man-like and so Christian-like. They can't make any speculations about
+Andrew now, and that will be a sore disappointment to the hussies, for
+some of them are but ill willy creatures."
+
+"I am glad Andrew kept a brave heart, and could bring good words out of
+it."
+
+"What else would you expect from Andrew? Do you think Andrew Binnie
+will fret himself one moment about a wife that is not his wife? He
+would not give the de'il such a laugh over him. You may take my word,
+that he will break no commandment for any lass; and Sophy Braelands
+will now have to vacate his very thoughts."
+
+"I am glad she is married then. If her marriage cures Andrew of that
+never-ending fret about her, it will be a comfort."
+
+"It is a cure, sure as death, as far as your brother is concerned.
+Fancy Andrew Binnie pining and worrying about Archie Braelands's wife!
+The thing would be sinful, and therefore fairly impossible to him! I'm
+as glad as you are that no worse than marriage has come to the lass;
+she is done with now, and I am wishing her no more ill than she has
+called to herself."
+
+"She has brought sorrow enough to our house," said Christina. "All the
+days of my own courting have been saddened and darkened with the worry
+and the care of her. Andrew was always either that set up or that
+knocked down about her, that he could not give a thought to Jamie's and
+my affairs. It was only when you talked about Sophy, or his wedding
+with Sophy, that he looked as if the world was worth living in. He was
+fast growing into a real selfish man."
+
+"_Toots!_ Every one in love--men or women--are as selfish as they can
+be. The whole round world only holds two folk: their own self, and
+another. I would like to have a bit of chat before long, that did not
+set itself to love-making and marrying."
+
+"Goodness, Mother! You have not chatted much with me lately about
+love-making and marrying. Andrew's trouble has filled the house, and
+you have hardly said a word about poor Jamie, who never gave either of
+us a heartache. I wonder where he is to-day!"
+
+Janet thought a moment and then answered: "He would leave New York for
+Scotland, last Saturday. 'T is Wednesday morning now, and he will maybe
+reach Glasgow next Tuesday. Then it will not take him many hours to
+find himself in Pittendurie."
+
+"I doubt it. He will not be let come and go as he wants to. It would
+not be reasonable. He will have to obey orders. And when he gets off,
+it will be a kind of favour. A steamboat and a fishing-boat are two
+different things, Mother, forbye, Jamie is but a new hand, and will
+have his way to win."
+
+"What are you talking about, you silly, fearful lassie? It would be a
+poor-like, heartless captain, that had not a fellow-feeling for a lad
+in love. Jamie will just have to tell him about yourself, and he will
+send the lad off with a laugh, or maybe a charge not to forget the
+ship's sailing-day. Hope well, and have well, lassie."
+
+"You'll be far mistaken, Mother. I am not expecting Jamie for more than
+two or three trips--but he'll be thinking of me, and I can not help
+thinking of him."
+
+"Think away, Christina. Loving thoughts keep out others, not as good. I
+wonder how it would do to walk as far as Largo, and find out all about
+the marriage from Griselda Kilgour. Then _I_ would have the essentials,
+and something worth telling and talking about."
+
+"I would go, Mother. Griselda will be thirsty to tell all she knows,
+and just distracted with the glory of her niece. She will hold herself
+very high, no doubt."
+
+"Griselda and her niece are two born fools, and I am not to be put to
+the wall by the like of them. And it is not beyond hoping, that I'll be
+able to give the woman a mouthful of sound advice. She's a set-up body,
+but I shall disapprove of all she says."
+
+"You may disapprove till you are black in the face, Mother, but
+Griselda will hold her own; she is neither flightersome, nor easy
+frightened. I'm feared it is going to rain. I see the glass has
+fallen."
+
+"I'm not minding the 'glass'. The sky is clear, and I think far more of
+the sky, and the look of it, than I do of the 'glass'. I wonder at
+Andrew hanging it in our house; it is just sinful and unlucky to be
+taking the change of the weather out of His hands. But rain or fine, I
+am going to Largo."
+
+As she spoke, she was taking out of her kist a fine Paisley shawl and a
+bonnet, and with Christina's help she was soon dressed to her own
+satisfaction. Fortunately one of the fishers was going with his cart to
+Largo, so she got a lift over the road, and reached Griselda Kilgour's
+early in the afternoon. There were no bonnets and caps in the window of
+the shop, and when Janet entered, the place had a covered-up,
+Sabbath-day look that kindled her curiosity. The ringing of the bell
+quickly brought Mistress Kilgour forward, and she also had an unusual
+look. But she seemed pleased to see Janet, and very heartily asked her
+into the little parlour behind.
+
+"I'm just home," she said, "and I'm making myself a cup of tea ere I
+sort up the shop and get to my day's work again. Sit down, Janet, and
+take off your things, and have a cup with me. Strange days and strange
+doings in them lately!"
+
+"You may well lift up your eyes and your hands, Griselda. I never heard
+tell of the like. The whole village is in a flustration; and I just
+came o'er-by, to find out from you the long and the short of
+everything. I'm feared you have been sorely put about with the wilful
+lass."
+
+"Mistress Braelands had no one to lippen to but me. I had everything to
+look after. The Master of Braelands was that far gone in love, he
+wasn't to be trusted with anything. But my niece has done a good job
+for herself."
+
+"It is well _some one_ has got good out of her treachery. She brought
+sorrow enough to my house. But I'm glad it is all over, and that
+Braelands has got her. She wouldn't have suited my son at all,
+Griselda."
+
+"Not in the least," answered the dressmaker with an air of offence.
+"How many lumps of sugar, Janet?"
+
+"I'm not taking sugar. Where was the lass married?"
+
+"In Edinburgh." We didn't want any talk and fuss about the wedding, and
+Braelands he said to me, 'Mistress Kilgour, if you will take a little
+holiday, and go with Sophy to Edinburgh, and give her your help about
+the things she requires, we shall both of us be your life-long
+debtors.' And I thought Edinburgh was the proper place, and so I went
+with Sophy--putting up a notice on the shop door that I had gone to
+look at the winter fashions and would be back to-day--and here I am for
+I like to keep my word.
+
+"You didn't keep it with my Andrew, for you promised to help him with
+Sophy, you promised that more than once or twice."
+
+"No one can help a man who fights against himself, and Andrew never did
+prize Sophy as Braelands did, the way that man ran after the lass, and
+coaxed and courted and pleaded with her! And the bonnie things he gave
+her! And the stone blind infatuation of the creature! Well I never saw
+the like. He was that far gone in love, there was nothing for him but
+standing up before the minister."
+
+"What minister?"
+
+"Dr. Beith of St. Andrews. Braelands sits in St. Andrews, when he is in
+Edinburgh for the winter season and Dr. Beith is knowing him well. I
+wish you could have seen the dresses and the mantillas, the bonnets and
+the fineries of every sort I had to buy Sophy, not to speak of the
+rings and gold chains and bracelets and such things, that Braelands
+just laid down at her feet."
+
+"What kind of dresses?"
+
+"Silks and satins--white for the wedding-dress--and pink, and blue and
+tartan and what not! I tell you McFinlay and Co. were kept busy day and
+night for Sophy Braelands."
+
+Then Mistress Kilgour entered into a minute description of all Sophy's
+beautiful things, and Janet listened attentively, not only for her own
+gratification, but also for that of every woman in Pittendurie. Indeed
+she appeared so interested that her entertainer never suspected the
+anger she was restraining with difficulty until her curiosity had been
+satisfied. But when every point had been gone over, when the last thing
+about Sophy's dress and appearance had been told and discussed, Janet
+suddenly inquired, "Have they come back to Largo yet?"
+
+"Indeed nothing so common," answered Griselda, proudly. "They have gone
+to foreign lands--to France, and Italy, and Germany,"--and then with a
+daring imagination she added, "and it's like they won't stop short of
+Asia and America."
+
+"Well, Jamie Logan, my Christina's promised man is on the American
+line. I dare say he will be seeing her on his ship, and no doubt he
+will do all he can to pleasure her."
+
+"Jamie Logan! Sophy would not think of noticing him now. It would not
+be proper."
+
+"What for not? He is as good a man as Archie Braelands, and if all
+reports be true, a good deal better."
+
+"_Archie_ indeed! I'm thinking 'Master Braelands' would be more as it
+should be."
+
+"I'll never 'master' him. He is no 'master' of mine. What for does he
+have a Christian name, if he is not to be called by it?"
+
+"Well, Janet, you need not show your temper. Goodness knows, it is as
+short as a cat's hair. And Braelands is beyond your tongue, anyhow."
+
+"I'm not giving him a word. Sophy will pay every debt he is owing me
+and mine. The lassie has been badly guided all her life, and as she
+would not be ruled by the rudder, she must be ruled by the rocks."
+
+"Think shame of yourself! For speaking ill to a new-made bride! How
+would you like me to say such words to Christina?"
+
+"Christina would never give occasion for them. She is as true as steel
+to her own lad."
+
+"Maybe she has no temptation to be false. That makes a deal of differ.
+Anyway, Sophy is a woman now in the married state, and answerable to
+none but her husband. I hope Andrew is not fretting more than might be
+expected."
+
+"Andrew! Andrew fretting! Not he! Not a minute! As soon as he knew she
+was a wife, he cast her out of his very thoughts. You don't catch
+Andrew Binnie putting a light-of-love lassie before a command of God."
+
+"I won't hear you talk of my niece--of the mistress of Braelands--in
+that kind of a way, Janet. She's our betters now, and we be to take
+notice of the fact."
+
+"She'll have to learn and unlearn a good lot before she is to be spoke
+of as any one's 'betters.' I hope while she is seeing the world she
+will get her eyes opened to her own faults; they will give her plenty
+to think of."
+
+"Keep me, woman! Such a way to go on about your own kin."
+
+"She is no kin to the Binnies. I have cast her out of my reckoning."
+
+"She is Christina's sixth cousin."
+
+"She is nothing at all to us. I never did set any store by those Orkney
+folks--a bad lot! A very selfish, false, bad lot!"
+
+"You are speaking of my people, Janet."
+
+"I am quite aware of it, Griselda."
+
+"Then keep your tongue in bounds."
+
+"My tongue is my own."
+
+"My house is my own. And if you can't be civil, I'll be necessitated to
+ask you to leave it."
+
+"I'm going as soon as I have told you that you have the most
+gun-powdery temper I ever came across; forbye, you are fairly drunk
+with the conceit and vanity of Sophy's grand marriage. You are full as
+the Baltic with the pride of it, woman!"
+
+"Temper! It is you, that are in a temper."
+
+"That's neither here nor there. I have my reasons."
+
+"Reasons, indeed! I'd like to see you reasonable for once."
+
+"Yes, I have my reasons. How was my lad Andrew used by the both of you?
+And what do you think of his last meeting with that heartless limmer
+and her fine sweetheart?"
+
+"Andrew should have kept himself out of their way. As soon as Braelands
+came round Sophy, Andrew got the very de'il in him. I was aye feared
+there would be murder laid to his name."
+
+"You needn't have been feared for the like of that. Andrew Binnie has
+enough of the devil in him to keep the devil out of him. Do you think
+he would put blood on his soul for Sophy Traill? No, not for twenty
+lasses better than her! You needn't look at me as if your eyes were
+cocked pistols. I have heard all I wanted to hear, and said all I
+wanted to say, and now I'll be stepping homeward."
+
+"I'll be obligated to you to go at once--the sooner the better."
+
+"And I'll never speak to you again in this world, Griselda; nor in the
+next world either, unless you mend your manners. Mind that!"
+
+"You are just full of envy, and all uncharitableness, and evil
+speaking, Janet Binnie. But I trust I have more of the grace of God
+about me than to return your ill words."
+
+"That may be. It only shows folk that the grace of God will bide with
+an old woman that no one else can bide with."
+
+"Old woman! I am twenty years younger--"
+
+But Janet had passed out of the room and clashed the shop door behind
+her with a pealing ring; so Griselda's little scream of indignation
+never reached her. It is likely, however, she anticipated the words
+that followed her, for she went down the street, folding her shawl over
+her ample chest, and smiling the smile of those who have thrown the
+last word of offence.
+
+She did not reach home until quite dark, for she was stopped frequently
+by little groups of the wives and maids of Pittendurie, who wanted to
+hear the news about Sophy. It pleased Janet, for some reason, to
+magnify the girl's position and all the fine things it had brought her.
+Perhaps, because she felt dimly that it placed Andrew's defeat in a
+better Tight. No one could expect a mere fisherman to have any chance
+against a man able to shower silks and satins and gold and jewels upon
+his bride, and who could take her to France and Italy and Germany, not
+to speak of Asia and America.
+
+But if this was her motive, it was a bit of motherhood thrown away.
+Andrew had sources of comfort and vindication which looked far beyond
+all petty social opinion. He was on the sea alone till nearly dark;
+then he came home, with the old grave smile on his face, saying, as he
+entered the house, "There will be a heavy blow from the northeast
+to-night, Christina. I see the boats are all at anchor, and no prospect
+of a fishing."
+
+"Ay, and I saw the birds, who know more than we do, making for the
+rocks. I wish mother would come,"--and she opened the door and looked
+out into the dark vacancy. "There is a voice in the sea to-night,
+Andrew, and I don't like the wail of it."
+
+But Andrew had gone to his room, and so she left the door open until
+Janet returned. And the first question Janet asked was concerning
+Andrew. "Has he come home yet, Christina? I'm feared for a boat on the
+sea to-night."
+
+"He is home, and I think he has fallen asleep. He looked very tired."
+
+"How is he taking his trouble?"
+
+"Like a man. Like himself. He has had his wrestle out on the sea, and
+has come out with a victory."
+
+"The Lord be thanked! Now, Christina, I have heard everything about
+that wicked lassie. Let us have a cup of tea and a herring--for it is
+little good I had of Griselda's wishy-washy brew--and then I'll tell
+you the news of the wedding, the beginning and the end of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WHERE IS MY MONEY?
+
+
+In the morning it was still more evident that Andrew had thrown himself
+on God, and--unperplext seeking, had found him. But Janet wondered a
+little that he did not more demonstratively seek the comfort of The
+Book. It was her way in sorrow to appeal immediately to its known
+passages of promise and comfort, and she laid it open in his way with
+the remark:
+
+"There is the Bible. Andrew; it will have a word, no doubt, for you."
+
+"And there is the something beyond the Bible, Mother, if you will be
+seeking it. When the Lord God speaks to a man, he has the perfection of
+counsel, and he will not be requiring the word of a prophet or an
+apostle. From the heart of The Unseen a voice calls to him, and gives
+him patience under suffering. I _know_, for I have heard and answered
+it." Then he walked to the door, and opening it, he stood there
+repeating to himself, as he looked over the waters which had been the
+field of his conflict and his victory:--
+
+  "But peace they have that none may gain that live;
+  And rest about them that no love can give
+  And over them, while death and life shall be,
+  The light and sound and darkness of the Sea."
+
+It was a verse that meant more to Andrew than he would have been able
+to explain. He only knew that it led him somehow through those dim,
+obscure pathways of spiritual life, on which the light of common day
+does not shine. And as he stood there, his mother and sister felt
+vaguely that they knew what "moral beauty" meant, and were the better
+for the knowledge.
+
+He did not try to forget Sophy; he only placed her beyond his own
+horizon; and whereas he had once thought of her with personal hope and
+desire, he now remembered her only with a prayer for her happiness, or
+if by chance his tongue spoke her name, he added a blessing with it.
+Never did he make a complaint of her desertion, but he wept inwardly;
+and it was easy to see that he spent many of those hours that make the
+heart grey, though they leave the hair untouched. And it was at this
+time he contracted the habit of frequently looking up, finding in the
+very act that sense of strength and help and adoration which is
+inseparable to it. And thus, day by day, he overcame the aching sorrow
+of his heart, for no man is ever crushed from without; if he is abased
+to despair, his ruin has come from within.
+
+About three weeks after Sophy's marriage, Christina was standing one
+evening at the gloaming, looking over the immense, cheerless waste of
+waters. Mists, vague and troublous as the background of dreams, were on
+the horizon, and there Was a feeling of melancholy in the air. But she
+liked the damp, fresh wind, with its taste of brine, and she drew her
+plaid round her, and breathed it with a sense of enjoyment. Very soon
+Andrew came up the cliff, and he stood at her side, and they spoke of
+Jamie and wondered at his whereabouts, and after a little pause, Andrew
+added:--
+
+"Christina, I got a very important letter to-day, and I am going
+to-morrow about the business I told you of. I want to start early in
+the morning, so put up what I need in my little bag. And I wish you to
+say nothing to mother until all things are settled."
+
+"She will maybe ask me the question, Andrew."
+
+"I told her I was going about a new boat, and she took me at my word
+without this or that to it. She is a blithe creature, one of the Lord's
+most contented bairns. I wish we were both more like her."
+
+"I wish we were, Andrew. If we could just do as mother does! for she
+leaves yesterday where it fell, and trusts to-morrow with God, and so
+catches every blink of happiness that passes by her."
+
+"God forever bless her! There is no mother like the mother that bore
+us; we must aye remember that, Christina. But it is a dour, storm-like
+sky yon," he continued, pointing eastward. "We shall have a snoring
+breeze before midnight."
+
+Then Christina thought of her lover again, and as they turned in to the
+fireside, she began to tell her brother her hopes and fears about
+Jamie, and to read him portions of a letter received that day from
+America. While Andrew's trouble had been fresh and heavy on him,
+Christina had refrained herself from all speech about her lover; she
+felt instinctively that it would not be welcome and perhaps hardly
+kind. But this night it fell out naturally, and Andrew listened kindly
+and made his sister very happy by his interest in all that related to
+Jamie's future. Then he ate some bread and cheese with the women, and
+after the exercise went to his room, for he had many things to prepare
+for his journey on the following day.
+
+Janet continued the conversation. It related to her daughter's marriage
+and settlement in Glasgow, and of this subject she never wearied.
+
+The storm Andrew had foreseen was by this time raging round the
+cottage, the Clustering waves making strange noises on the sands and
+falling on the rocks with a keen, lashing sound It affected them
+gradually; their hearts became troubled, and they spoke low and with
+sad inflections, for both were thinking of the sailor-men and fishermen
+peopling the lonely waters.
+
+"I wouldn't put out to sea this night," said Janet. "No, not for a
+capful of sovereigns."
+
+"Yet there will be plenty of boats, hammering through the big waves all
+night long, till the dawn shows in the east; and it is very like that
+Jamie is now on the Atlantic--a stormy place, God knows!"
+
+"A good passage, if it so pleases God!" said Janet, lifting her eyes to
+heaven, and Christina looked kindly at her mother for the wish. But
+talking was fast becoming difficult, for the wind had suddenly veered
+more northerly, and, sleet-laden, it howled and shrieked down the wide
+chimney. In one of the pauses forced on them by this blatant intruder,
+they were startled by a human cry, loud and piercing, and quite
+distinct from the turbulent roar of winds and waves.
+
+Both women were on their feet on the instant Both had received the same
+swift, positive impression, that it came from Andrew's room, and they
+were at his door in a moment. It was locked. They called him, and he
+made no answer. Again and again, with ever increasing terror, they
+entreated him to open to them; for the door was solid and heavy, and
+the lock large and strong, and no power they possessed could avail to
+force an entrance. He heeded none of, their passionate prayers until
+Janet began to cry bitterly. Then he turned the key and they entered.
+
+Andrew looked at them with anger; his countenance was pale and
+distraught, and a quiet fury burned in his eyes. He could not speak,
+and the women regarded him with fear and wonder. Presently he managed
+to articulate with a thick difficulty:--
+
+"My money! My money! It is all gone!"
+
+"Gone!" shrieked Christina, "that is just impossible."
+
+"It is all gone!" Then he gripped her cruelly by the shoulder, and
+asked in a fierce whisper:
+
+"What did you do with it?"
+
+"Me? Andrew!"
+
+"Ay, you! You wicked lass, you!"
+
+"I never put finger on it"
+
+"Christina! Christina! To think that I trusted you for this! Go out of
+my sight, will you! I'm not able to bear the face of you!"
+
+"Andrew! Andrew! Surely, you are not calling me a 'thief'?"
+
+"Who, then?" he cried, with gathering rage, "unless it be Jamie Logan?"
+
+"Don't be so wicked as to wrong innocent folk such a way; Jamie never
+saw, never heard tell of your money. The unborn babe is not more
+guiltless than Jamie Logan."
+
+"How do _you_ know that? How do _I_ know that? The very night I told
+you of the money--that very night I showed you where I kept it--that
+night Jamie ought to have been in the boats, and he was not in them.
+What do you make of that?"
+
+"Nothing. He is as innocent as I am."
+
+"And he was drinking with some strange man at the public. What were
+they up to? Tell me that. And then he comes whistling up the road, and
+says he missed his boat. A made up story! and after it he goes off to
+America! Oh. woman! woman! If you can't put facts together. I can."
+
+"Jamie never touched a bawbee of your money. I'll ware my life on that.
+For I never let on to any mortal creature that you had a penny of
+silent money. God Almighty knows I am speaking the truth."
+
+"You won't dare to bring God Almighty's name into such a black
+business. Are you not feared to take it into your mouth?"
+
+Then Janet laid her hand heavily on his shoulder. He had sat down on
+his bed, and was leaning heavily against one of the posts, and the very
+fashion of his countenance was changed; his hair stood upright, and he
+continually smote his large, nervous hands together.
+
+"Andrew," said his mother, angrily, "you are just giving yourself up to
+Satan. Your passion is beyond seeing, or hearing tell of. And think
+shame of yourself for calling your sister a 'thief and a 'liar' and
+what not. I wonder what's come over you! Step ben the house, and talk
+reasonable to us."
+
+"Leave me to myself! Leave me to myself! I tell you both to go away.
+Will you go? both of you?"
+
+"I'm your mother, Andrew."
+
+"Then for God's sake have pity on me, and leave me alone with my
+sorrow! Go! Go! I'm not a responsible creature just now--" and his
+passion was so stern and terrific that neither of them dared to face
+any increase of it.
+
+So they left him alone and went back to the sputtering fireside--for
+the rain was now beating down the chimney--and in awe-struck whispers
+Christina told her mother of the money which Andrew had hoarded through
+long laborious years, and of the plans which the loss of it would break
+to pieces.
+
+"There would be a thousand pounds, or near by it. Mother, I'm
+thinking," said Christina. "You know well how scrimping with himself he
+has been. Good fishing or bad fishing, he never had a shilling to spend
+on any one. He bought nothing other boys bought; when he was a laddie,
+and when he grew to the boats, you may mind that he put all he made
+away somewhere. And he made a deal more than folks thought. He had a
+bit venture here, and a bit there, and they must have prospered
+finely."
+
+"Not they!" said Janet angrily. "What good has come of them? What good
+_could_ come of money, hid away from everybody but himself? Why didn't
+he tell his mother? If her thoughts had been round about his siller, it
+would not have gone an ill road. A man who hides away his money is just
+a miracle of stupidity, for the devil knows where it is if no decent
+human soul does."
+
+It was a mighty sorrow to bear, even for the two women, and Janet wept
+like a child over the hopes blasted before she knew of them. "He should
+have told us both long since," she sobbed. "I would have been praying
+for the bonnie ship building for him, every plank would have been laid
+with a blessing. And as I sat quiet in my house, I would have been
+thinking of my son Captain Binnie, and many a day would have been a
+bright day, that has been but a middling one. So selfish as the lad has
+been!"
+
+"Maybe it wasn't pure selfishness, Mother. He was saving for a good
+end."
+
+"It was pure selfishness! He was that way even about Sophy. Nobody but
+himself must have word or look from her, and the lassie just wearied of
+him. Why wouldn't she? He put himself and her in a circle, and then
+made a wilderness all round about it. And Sophy wanted company, for
+when a girl says 'a man is all the world to her,' she doesn't mean that
+nobody else is to come into her world. She would be a wicked lass if
+she did."
+
+"Well, Mother, he lost her, and he bore his loss like a man."
+
+"Ay, men often bear the loss of love easier than the loss of money.
+I've seen far more fuss made over the loss of a set of fishing-nets,
+than over the brave fellows that handled them. And to think of our
+Andrew hiding away his gold all these years for his own hoping and
+pleasuring! A perfectly selfish pleasuring! The gold might well take
+wings to itself and fly away. He should have clipped the wings of it
+with giving a piece to the kirk now and then, and a piece to his mother
+and sister at odd times, and the flying wouldn't have been so easy. Now
+he has lost the whole, and he well deserves it I'm thinking his Maker
+is dourly angry with him for such ways, and I am angry myself."
+
+"Ah well, Mother, there is no use in our anger; the lad is suffering
+enough, and for the rest we must just leave him to the general mercy of
+God."
+
+"'General mercy of God.' Don't let me hear you use the like of such
+words, Christina. The minister would tell you it is a very loose
+expression and a very dangerous doctrine. He was reproving Elder
+McInnes for them very words, and any good minister will be keeping his
+thumb on such a wide outgate. Andrew knows well that he has to have the
+particular and elected grace of God to keep him where he ought to be.
+This hid-away money has given him a sore tumble, and I will tell him so
+very plainly."
+
+"Don't trouble him, Mother. He will not bear words on it, even from
+you."
+
+"He will have to bear them. I am not feared for Andrew Binnie, and he
+shall not be left in ignorance of his sin. Whether he knows it or not,
+he has done a deed that would make a very poor kind of a Christian
+ashamed to look the devil in the face; and I be to let him know it."
+
+But in the morning Andrew looked so utterly wretched, that Janet could
+only pity him. "I'll not be the one to break the bruised reed," she
+said to Christina, for the miserable man sat silent with dropped eyes
+the whole day long, eating nothing, seeing nothing, and apparently lost
+to all interests outside his own bewildering, utterly hopeless
+speculations. It was not until another letter came about the ship he
+was to command, that he roused himself sufficiently to write and cancel
+the whole transaction. He could not keep his promises financially, and
+though he was urged to make some other offer, he would have nothing
+from The Fleet on any humbler basis than his first proposition. With a
+foolish pride, born of his great disappointment and anger, he turned
+his back on his broken hopes, and went sullen and sorrowful back to his
+fishing-boat.
+
+He had never been even in his family a very social man. Jokes and songs
+and daffing of all kinds were alien to his nature. Yet his grave and
+pleasant smile had been a familiar thing, and gentle words had always
+hitherto come readily to his lips. But after his ruinous loss, he
+seldom spoke unless it was to his mother. Christina he noticed not,
+either by word or look, and the poor girl was broken-hearted under this
+silent accusation. For she felt that Andrew doubted both her and Jamie,
+and though she was indignant at the suspicion, it eat its way into her
+heart and tortured her.
+
+For put the thought away as she would, the fact of Jamie's dereliction
+that unfortunate night would return and return, and always with a more
+suspicious aspect. Who was the man he was drinking with? Nobody in the
+village but Jamie, knew him. He had come and gone in a night. It was
+possible that, having missed the boat, Jamie had brought his friend up
+the cliff to call on her; that, seeing the light in Andrew's room, they
+had looked in at the window, and so might have seen Andrew and herself
+standing over the money, and then watched until it was returned to its
+hiding-place. Jamie _had_ come whistling in a very pronounced manner up
+to the house--that might have been because he had been drinking, and
+then again, it might not--and then there was his quarrel with Andrew!
+Was that a planned affair, in order to give the other man time to carry
+off the box? She could not remember whether the curtain had been drawn
+across the window or not; and when she dared to name this doubt to
+Andrew, he only answered--
+
+"What for are you asking after spilled milk?"
+
+The whole circumstance was so mysterious that it stupified her. And yet
+she felt that it contained all the elements of sorrow and separation
+between Jamie and herself. However, she kept assuring her heart that
+Jamie would be in Glasgow the following week; and she wrote a letter to
+meet him, expressing a strong desire that he would "be sure to come to
+Pittendurie, as there was most important business." But she did not
+like to tell him what the business was, and Jamie did not answer the
+request. In fact, the lad could not, without resigning his position
+entirely. The ship had been delayed thirty hours by storms, and there
+was nearly double tides of work for every man on her in order that she
+might be able to keep her next sailing day. Jamie was therefore so
+certain that a request to go on shore about his own concerns would be
+denied, that he did not even ask the favour.
+
+But he wrote to Christina, and explained to her in the most loving
+manner the impossibility of his leaving his duties. He said "that for
+her sake, as well as his own, he was obligated to remain at his post,"
+and he assured her that this obligation was "a reasonable one."
+Christina believed him fully, and was satisfied, her mother only smiled
+with shut lips and remained silent; but Andrew spoke with a bitterness
+it was hard to forgive; still harder was it to escape from the wretched
+inferences his words implied.
+
+"No wonder he keeps away from Pittendurie!" he said with a scornful
+laugh. "He'll come here no more--unless he is made to come, and if it
+was not for mother's sake, and for your good name, Christina, I would
+send the constables to the ship to bring him here this very day."
+
+And Christina could make no answer, save that of passionate weeping.
+For it shocked her to see, that her mother did not stand up for Jamie,
+but went silently about her house duties, with a face as inscrutable as
+the figure-head of Andrew's boat.
+
+Thus backward, every way flew the wheels of life in the Binnie cottage.
+Andrew took a grim pleasure in accepting his poverty before his mother
+and sister. In the home he made them feel that everything but the
+barest necessities were impossible wants. His newspaper was resigned,
+his pipe also, after a little struggle He took his tea without sugar,
+he put the butter and marmalade aside, as if they were sinful luxuries,
+and in fact reduced his life to the most essential and primitive
+conditions it was possible to live it on. And as Janet and Christina
+were not the bread winners, and did not know the exact state of the
+Binnie finances, they felt obliged to follow Andrew's example. Of
+course, all Christina's little extravagances of wedding preparations
+were peremptorily stopped. There would be no silk wedding gown now. It
+began to look, as if there would be no wedding at all.
+
+For Andrew's continual suspicions, spoken and unspoken, insensibly
+affected her, and that in spite of her angry denials of them. She
+fought against their influence, but often in vain, for Jamie did not
+come to Pittendurie either after the second or the third voyage. He was
+not to blame; it was the winter season, and delays were constant, and
+there were other circumstances--with which he had nothing whatever to
+do--that still put him in such a position that to ask for leave of
+absence meant asking for his dismissal. And then there would be no
+prospect at all of his marriage with Christina.
+
+But the fisher folk, who had their time very much at their own command
+and who were nursed in a sense of every individual's independence, did
+not realise Jamie's dilemma. It could not be made intelligent to them,
+and they began to wonder, and to ask embarrassing questions. Very soon
+there was a shake of the head and a sigh of pity whenever "poor
+Christina Binnie" was mentioned.
+
+So four wretched months went by, and then one moonlight night in
+February, Christina heard the quick footstep and the joyous whistle she
+knew so well. She stood up trembling with pleasure; and as Jamie flung
+wide the door, she flew to his arms with an irrepressible cry. For some
+minutes he saw nothing and cared for nothing but the girl clasped to
+his breast; but as she began to sob, he looked at Janet--who had
+purposely gone to the china rack that she might have her back to
+him--and then at Andrew who stood white and stern, with both hands in
+his pockets, regarding him.
+
+The young man was confounded by this reception, he released himself
+from Christina's embrace, and stepping forward, asked anxiously "What
+ever is the matter with you, Andrew? You aren't like yourself at all.
+Why, you are ill, man! Oh, but I'm vexed to see you so changed."
+
+"Where is my money, James Logan? Where is the gold and the bank-notes
+you took from me?--the savings of all my lifetime."
+
+"Your money, Andrew? Your gold and bank-notes? _Me_ take your money!
+Why, man, you are either mad or joking--and I'm not liking such jokes
+either." Then he turned to Christina and asked, "What does he mean, my
+dearie?"
+
+"I mean this," cried Andrew with gathering passion, "I mean that I had
+nearly a thousand pounds taken out of my room yon night that you should
+have gone to the boats--and that you did _not_ go."
+
+"Do you intend to say that I took your thousand pounds? Mind your
+words, Andrew Binnie!" and as he spoke, he put Christina behind him and
+stood squarely before Andrew. And his face was a flame of passion.
+
+"I am most sure you took it. Prove to me that you did not."
+
+Before the words were finished, they were answered with a blow, the
+blow was promptly returned; and then the two men closed in a deadly
+struggle. Christina was white and sick with terror, but withal glad
+that Andrew had found himself so promptly answered. Janet turned
+sharply at the first blow, and threw herself between the men. All the
+old prowess of the fish-wife was roused in her.
+
+"How dare you?" she cried in a temper quite equal to their own. "I'll
+have no cursing and fighting in my house," and with a twist of her hand
+in her son's collar, she threw him back in his chair. Then she turned
+to Jamie and cried angrily--
+
+"Jamie Logan, my bonnie lad, if you have got nothing to say for
+yourself, you'll do well to take your way down the cliff."
+
+"I have been called a 'thief' in this house," he answered; and wounded
+feeling and a bitter sense of wrong made his voice tremble. "I came
+here to kiss my bride; and I know nothing at all of what Andrew means.
+I will swear it. Give me the Bible."
+
+"Let my Bible alone," shouted Andrew. "I'll have no man swear to a lie
+on my Bible. Get out of my house, James Logan, and be thankful that I
+don't call the officers to take care of you."
+
+"There is a mad man inside of you, Andrew Binnie, or a devil of some
+kind, and you are not fit to be in the same house with good women. Come
+with me, Christina. I'll marry you tonight at the Largo minister's
+house. Come my dear lassie. Never mind aught you have, but your
+plaidie."
+
+Christina rose and put out her hand. Andrew leaped to his feet and
+strode between them.
+
+"I will strike you to the ground, if you dare to touch my sister
+again," he shouted, and if Janet had not taken both his hands in her
+own strong grip, Andrew would have kept his threat. Then Janet's anger
+turned most unreasonably upon Christina--
+
+"Go ben the house," she screamed. "Go ben the house, you worrying,
+whimpering lassie. You will be having the whole village fighting about
+you the next thing."
+
+"I am going with Jamie, Mother."
+
+"I will take very good care, you do _not_ go with Jamie. There is not a
+soul, but Jamie Logan, will leave this house tonight. I would just like
+to see any other man or woman try it," and she looked defiantly both at
+Andrew and Christina.
+
+"I ran the risk of losing my berth to come here," said Jamie. "More
+fool, I. I have been called 'thief' and 'loon' for doing it. I came for
+your sake, Christina, and now you must go with me for my sake. Come
+away, my dearie, and there is none that shall part us more."
+
+Again Christina rose, and again her mother interfered. "You will go out
+of this house alone, Jamie Logan. I don't know whether you are right or
+wrong. I know nothing about that weary siller. But I do know there has
+been nothing but trouble to my boy since he saved you from the sea. I
+am not saying it is your fault; but the sea has been against him ever
+since, and now you will go away, and you will stay away."
+
+"Christina, am I to go?"
+
+"Go, Jamie, but I will come to you, and there is none that shall keep
+me from you."
+
+Then Jamie went, and far down on the sands Christina heard him call,
+"Good-bye, Christina! Good-bye!" And she would have answered him, but
+Janet had locked the door, and the key was in her pocket. Then for
+hours the domestic storm raged, Andrew growing more and more positive
+and passionate, until even Janet was alarmed, and with tears and
+coaxing persuaded him to go to bed. Still in this hurly burly of
+temper, Christina kept her purpose intact. She was determined to go to
+Glasgow as soon as she could get outside. If she was in time for a
+marriage with Jamie, she would be his wife at once. If Jamie had gone,
+then she would hire herself out until the return of his ship.
+
+This was the purpose she intended to carry out in the morning, but
+before the dawn her mother awakened her out of a deep sleep. She was in
+a sweat of terror.
+
+"Run up the cliff for Thomas Roy," she cried, "and then send Sandy for
+the doctor."
+
+"What is the matter, Mother."
+
+"Your brother Andrew is raving, and clean beyond himself, and I'm
+feared for him, and for us all. Quick Christina! There is not a moment
+to lose!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE END
+
+
+On this same night the Mistress of Braelands sat musing by the glowing
+bit of fire in her bedroom, while her maid, Allister, was folding away
+her silk dinner-gown, and making the preparations for the night's
+toilet. She was a stately, stern-looking woman, with that air of
+authority which comes from long and recognised position. Her
+dressing-gown of pale blue flannel fell amply around her tall form; her
+white hair was still coiled and puffed in an elaborate fashion, and
+there was at the wrist-bands of her sleeves a fall of lace which half
+covered her long, shapely white hands. She was pinching its plaits
+mechanically, and watching the effect as she idly turned them in the
+firelight to catch the gleam of opal and amethyst rings. But this
+accompaniment to her thoughts was hardly a conscious one; she had
+admired her hands for so many years that she was very apt to give to
+their beauty this homage of involuntary observation, even when her
+thoughts were fixed on subjects far-off and alien to them.
+
+"Allister," she said, suddenly, "I wonder where Mr. Archibald will be
+this night."
+
+"The Lord knows, Madame, and it is well he does; for it is little we
+know of ourselves and the ways we walk in."
+
+"The Lord looks after his own, Allister, and Mr. Archibald was given to
+him by kirk and parents before he was a month old. But if a man marries
+such a woman as you know nothing about, and then goes her ways, what
+will you say then?"
+
+"It is not as bad as that, Madame. Mrs. Archibald is of well-known
+people, though poor."
+
+"Though low-born, Allister. Poverty can be tholed, and even respected;
+but for low birth there is no remedy but being born over again."
+
+"Well, Madame, she is Braelands now, and that is a cloak to cover all
+defects; and if I was you I would just see that it did so."
+
+"She is my son's wife, and must be held as such, both by gentle and
+simple."
+
+"And there is few ills that have not a good side to them, Madame. If
+Mr. Archibald had married Miss Roberta Elgin, as you once feared he
+would do, there would have been a flitting for you and for me, Madame.
+Miss Roberta would have had the whole of Braelands House to herself,
+and the twenty-two rooms of it wouldn't have been enough for her. And
+she would have taken the Braelands's honour and glory on her own
+shoulders. It would have been 'Mrs. Archibald Braelands' here and there
+and everywhere, and you would have been pushed out of sight and
+hearing, and passed by altogether, like as not; for if youth and beauty
+and wealth and good blood set themselves to have things their own way,
+which way at all will age that is not rich keep for itself? Sure as
+death, Madame, you would have had to go to the Dower House, which is
+but a mean little place, though big enough, no doubt, for all the
+friends and acquaintances that would have troubled themselves to know
+you there."
+
+"You are not complimentary, Allister. I think I have few friends who
+would _not_ have followed me to the Dower House."
+
+"Surely, Madame, you may as well think so. But carriages aye stop at
+big houses; indeed, the very coachmen and footmen and horses are dead
+set against calling at cottages. There is many a lady who would be
+feared to ask her coachman to call at the Dower House. But what for am
+I talking? There is no occasion to think that Mrs. Archibald will ever
+dream of sending you out of his house."
+
+"I came here a bride, nearly forty years ago, Allister," she said, with
+a touch of sentimental pity for herself in the remembrance.
+
+"So you have had a long lease, Madame, and one like to be longer; for
+never a better son than your son; and I do think for sure that the lady
+he has married will be as biddable as a very child with you."
+
+"I hope so. For she will have everything to learn about society, and
+who can teach her better than I can, Allister?"
+
+"No one, Madame; and Mrs. Archibald was ever good at the uptake. I am
+very sure if you will show her this and that, and give her the word
+here and there yourself, Madame, there will be no finer lady in Fife
+before the year has come and gone. And she cannot be travelling with
+Mr. Archibald without learning many a thing all the winter long."
+
+"Yes, they will not be home before the spring, I hear."
+
+"And oh, Madame, by that date you will have forgot that all was not as
+you wanted it! And no doubt you will give the young things the loving
+welcome they are certain to be longing for."
+
+"I do not know, Allister. The marriage was a great sorrow, and shame,
+and disappointment to me. I am not sure that I have forgiven it."
+
+"Lady Beith was saying you never would forgive it. She was saying that
+you could never forgive any one's faults but your own."
+
+"Lady Beith is very impertinent. And pray what faults has Lady Beith
+ever seen in me?"
+
+"It was her general way of speaking, Madame. She has that way."
+
+"Then you might tell Lady Beith's woman, that such general ways of
+speaking are extremely vulgar. When her ladyship speaks of the Mistress
+of Braelands again, I will ask her to refer to me, particularly. I have
+my own virtues as well as my own faults, and my own position, and my
+own influence, and I do not go into the generalities of life. I am the
+Mistress of Braelands yet, I hope."
+
+"I hope so, Madame. As I was saying, Mrs. Archibald is biddable as a
+child; but then again, she is quite capable of taking the rudder into
+her own hands, and driving in the teeth of the wind. You can't ever be
+sure of fisher blood. It is like the ocean, whiles calm as a sleeping
+baby, whiles lashing itself into a very fury. There is both this and
+that in the Traills, and Mrs. Archibald is one of them."
+
+"Any way and every way, this marriage is a great sorrow to me."
+
+"I am not disputing that, Madame; but I am sure you remember what the
+minister was saying to you at his last visitation--that every sorrow
+you got the mastery over was a benefactor."
+
+"The minister is not always orthodox, Allister."
+
+"He is a very good man; every one is saying that."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt, but he deviates."
+
+"Well then, Madame, even if the marriage be as bad as you fancy it, bad
+things as well as good ones come to an end, and life, after all, is
+like a bit of poetry I picked up somewhere, which says:
+
+  There's nane exempt frae worldly cares
+    And few frae some domestic jars
+  Whyles _all_ are in, whyles _all_ are out,
+    And grief and joy come turn about.
+
+And it's the turn now for the young people to be happy. Cold and bleak
+it is here on the Fife coast, but they are among roses and sunshine and
+so God bless them, I say, and keep us and every one from cutting short
+their turn of happiness. You had your bride time, Madame, and when
+Angus McAllister first took me to his cottage in Strathmoyer, I thought
+I was on a visit to Paradise."
+
+"Give me my glass of negus, and then I will go to bed. Everybody has
+taken to preaching and advising lately, and that is not the kind of
+fore-talk that spares after-talk--not it, Allister."
+
+She sunk then into unapproachable silence, and Allister knew that she
+needed not try to move her further that night in any direction. Her
+eyes were fixed upon the red coals, but she was really thinking of the
+roses and sunshine of the South, and picturing to herself her son and
+his bride, wandering happily amid the warmth and beauty.
+
+In reality, they were crossing the Braelands's moor at that very moment
+The rain was beating against the closed windows of their coach, and the
+horses floundering heavily along the boggy road. Sophy's head rested on
+her husband's shoulder, but they were not talking, nor had they spoken
+for some time. Both indeed were tired and depressed, and Archie at
+least was unpleasantly conscious of the wonderment their unexpected
+return would cause.
+
+The end of April or the beginning of May had been the time appointed,
+and yet here they were, at the threshold of their home, in the middle
+of the winter. Sophy's frail health had been Archie's excuse for a
+season in the South with her; and she was coming back to Scotland when
+the weather was at its very bleakest and coldest. One excuse after
+another formed itself in Archie's mind, only to be peremptorily
+dismissed. "It is no one's business but our own," he kept assuring
+himself, "and I will give neither reason nor apology but my wife's
+desire." and yet he knew that reasons and apologies would be asked, and
+he was fretting inwardly at their necessity, and wondering vaguely if
+women ever did know what they really wanted.
+
+For to go to France and Germany and Italy, had seemed to Sophy the very
+essence of every joy in life. Before her marriage, she had sat by
+Archie's side hour after hour, listening to his descriptions of foreign
+lands, and dreaming of all the delights that were to meet her in them.
+She had started on this bridal trip with all her senses set to an
+unnatural key of expectation, and she had, of course, suffered
+continual disappointments and disillusions. The small frets and
+sicknesses of travel, the loneliness of being in places where she could
+not speak even to her servants, or go shopping without an attendant,
+the continual presence of what was strange--of what wounded her
+prejudices and very often her conscience,--and the constant absence
+of all that was familiar and approved, were in themselves no slight
+cause of unhappiness.
+
+Yet it had been a very gradual disillusion, and one mitigated by many
+experiences that had fully justified even Sophy's extravagant
+anticipations. The trouble, in the main, was one common to a great
+majority of travellers for pleasure--a mind totally unprepared for
+the experience.
+
+She grew weary of great cities which had no individual character or
+history in her mind; weary of fine hotels in which she was of no
+special importance; weary of art which had no meaning for her. Her
+child-like enthusiasms, which at first both delighted and embarrassed
+her husband, faded gradually away; the present not only lost its charm,
+but she began to look backward to the homely airs and scenes of Fife,
+and to suffer from a nostalgia that grew worse continually.
+
+However, Archie bore her unreasonable depression with great
+consideration. She was but a frail child after all, and she was in a
+condition of health demanding the most affectionate patience and
+tenderness he could give her. Besides, it was no great sin in his eyes
+to be sick with longing for dear old Scotland. He loved his native
+land; and his little mountain blue-bell, trembling in every breeze, and
+drooping in every hour of heat and sunshine, appealed to the very best
+instincts of his nature. And when Sophy began to voice her longing, to
+cry a little in his arms, and to say she was wearying for a sight of
+the great grey sea round her Fife home, Archie vowed he was homesick as
+a man could be, and asked, "why they should stop away from their own
+dear land any longer?"
+
+"People will wonder and talk so, Archie They will say unkind
+things--they will maybe say we are not happy together."
+
+"Let them talk. What care we? And we are happy together. Do you want to
+go back to Scotland tomorrow? today--this very hour?"
+
+"Aye. I do, Archie. And I am that weak and poorly, if I don't go soon,
+maybe I will have to wait a long time, and then you know."
+
+"Yes, I know. And that would never, never do. Braelands of Fife cannot
+run the risk of having his heir born in a foreign country. Why, it
+would be thrown up to the child, lad and man, as long as he lived! So
+call your maid, my bonnie Sophy, and set her to packing all your braws
+and pretty things, and we will turn our faces to Scotland's hills and
+braes tomorrow morning."
+
+Thus it happened that on that bleak night in February, Archie Braelands
+and his wife came suddenly to their home amid the stormy winds and
+rains of a stormy night. Madame heard the wheels of their carriage as
+she sat sipping her negus, and thinking over her conversation with
+Allister and her alert soul instantly divined _who_ the late comers
+were.
+
+"Give me my silk morning gown and my brocade petticoat, Allister," she
+cried, as she rose up hastily and set down her glass. "Mr. Archibald
+has come home; his carriage is at the door--haste ye, woman!"
+
+"Will you be heeding your silks to-night, Madame?"
+
+"Get them at once. Quick! Do you think I will meet the bride in a
+flannel dressing-gown? No, no! I am not going to lose ground the first
+hour."
+
+With nervous haste the richer garments were donned, and just as the
+final gold brooch was clasped, Archie knocked at his mother's door. She
+opened to him with her own hands, and took him to her heart with an
+effusive affection she rarely permitted herself to exhibit.
+
+"I am so glad that you are dressed, Mother," he said. "Sophy must not
+miss your welcome, and the poor little woman is just weary to death."
+Then he whispered some words to her, which brought a flush of pride and
+joy to his own face, but no such answering response to Madame's.
+
+"Indeed," she replied, "I am sorry she is so tired. It seems to me,
+that the women of this generation are but weak creatures."
+
+Then she took her son's arm, and went down to the parlour, where
+servants were re-kindling the fire, and setting a table with
+refreshments for the unexpected guests. Sophy was resting on a sofa
+drawn towards the hearth. Archie had thrown his travelling cloak of
+black fox over her, and her white, flower-like face, surrounded by the
+black fur, had a singularly pathetic beauty. She opened her large blue
+eyes as Madame approached and looked at her with wistful entreaty; and
+Madame, in spite of all her pre-arrangements of conduct, was unable at
+that hour not to answer the appeal for affection she saw in them. She
+stooped and kissed the childlike little woman, and Archie watched this
+token of reconciliation and promise with eyes wet with happiness.
+
+When supper was served, Madame took her usual place at the head of the
+table, and Archie noticed the circumstance, though it did not seem a
+proper time to make any remark about it. For Sophy was not able to eat,
+and did not rise from her couch; and Madame seemed to fall so properly
+into her character of hostess, that it would have been churlish to have
+made the slightest dissent. Yet it was a false kindness to both; for in
+the morning Madame took the same position, and Archie felt less able
+than on the previous night to make any opposition, though he had told
+himself continually on his homeward journey that he would not suffer
+Sophy to be imposed upon, and would demand for her the utmost title of
+her rights as his wife.
+
+In this resolve, however, he had forgot to take into account his
+mother's long and absolute influence over him. When she was absent, it
+was comparatively easy to relegate her to the position she ought to
+occupy; when she was present, he found it impossible to say or do
+anything which made her less than Mistress of Braelands. And during the
+first few weeks after her return, Sophy helped her mother-in-law
+considerably against herself. She was so anxious to please, so anxious
+to be loved, so afraid of making trouble for Archie, that she submitted
+without protest to one infringement after another on her rights as the
+wife of the Master of Braelands. All the same she was dumbly conscious
+of the wrong being done to her; and like a child, she nursed her sense
+of the injustice until it showed itself in a continual mood of sullen,
+silent protest.
+
+After the lapse of a month or more, she became aware that even her ill
+health was used as a weapon against her, and she suddenly resolved to
+throw off her lassitude, and assert her right to go out and call upon
+her friends. But she was petulant and foolish in the carrying out of
+the measure. She had made up her mind to visit her aunt on the
+following day, and though the weather was bitterly cold and damp, she
+adhered to her resolution. Madame, at first politely, finally with
+provoking positiveness, told her "she would not permit her to risk her
+life, and a life still more precious, for any such folly."
+
+Then Sophy rose, with a sudden excitement of manner, and rang the bell.
+When the servant appeared, she ordered the carriage to be ready for her
+in half an hour. Madame waited until they were alone, and then said:
+
+"Sophy, go to your room and lie down. You are not fit to go out. I
+shall counter-order the carriage in your name."
+
+"You will not," cried the trembling, passionate girl. "You have ordered
+and counter-ordered in my name too much. You will, in the future, mind
+your own affairs, and leave me to attend to mine."
+
+"When Archie comes back"
+
+"You will tell him all kinds of lies. I know that."
+
+"I do not lie."
+
+"Perhaps not; but you misrepresent things so, that you make it
+impossible for Archie to get at the truth. I want to see my aunt. You
+have kept me from her, and kept her from me, until I am sick for a
+sight of those who _really_ love me. I am going to Aunt Kilgour's this
+very morning, whether you like it or not."
+
+"You shall not leave this house until Archie comes back from Largo. I
+will not take the responsibility."
+
+"We shall see. _I_ will take the responsibility myself. _I_ am mistress
+of Braelands. You will please remember that fact. And I know my rights,
+though I have allowed you to take them from me."
+
+"Sophy, listen to me."
+
+"I am going to Aunt Kilgour's."
+
+"Archie will be very angry."
+
+"Not if you will let him judge for himself. Anyway, I don't care. I am
+going to see my aunt! You expect Archie to be always thinking of
+feelings, and your likes and dislikes. I have just as good a right to
+care about my aunt's feelings. She was all the same as mother to me. I
+have been a wicked lassie not to have gone to her lang syne."
+
+"Wicked lassie! Lang syne! I wish you would at least try to speak like
+a lady."
+
+"I am not a lady. I am just one of God's fisher folk. I want to see my
+own kith and kin. I am going to do so."
+
+"You are not--until your husband gives you permission."
+
+"Permission! do you say? I will go on my own permission, Sophy
+Braelands's permission."
+
+"It is a shame to take the horses out in such weather--and poor old
+Thomas."
+
+"Shame or not, I shall take them out."
+
+"Indeed, no! I cannot permit you to make a fool and a laughing-stock of
+yourself." She rang the bell sharply and sent for the coachman When he
+appeared, she said:
+
+"Thomas, I think the horses had better not go out this morning. It is
+bitterly cold, and there is a storm coming from the northeast. Do you
+not think so?"
+
+"It is a bad day, Madame, and like to be worse."
+
+"Then we will not go out."
+
+As Madame uttered the words, Sophy walked rapidly forward. All the
+passion of her Viking ancestors was in her face, which had undergone a
+sort of transfiguration. Her eyes flashed, her soft curly yellow hair
+seemed instinct with a strange life and brilliancy, and she said with
+an authority that struck Madame with amazement and fear:
+
+"Thomas, you will have the carriage at the door in fifteen minutes,
+exactly," and she drew out her little jewelled watch, and gave him the
+time with a smiling, invincible calmness.
+
+Thomas looked from one woman to the other, and said, fretfully, "A man
+canna tak' twa contrary orders at the same minute o' time. What will I
+do in the case?"
+
+"You will do as I tell you, Thomas," said Madame. "You have done so for
+twenty years. Have you come to any scath or wrong by it?"
+
+"If the carriage is not at the door in fifteen minutes, you will leave
+Braelands this night, Thomas," said Sophy. "Listen! I give you fifteen
+minutes; after that I shall walk into Largo, and you can answer to your
+master for it. I am Mistress of Braelands. Don't forget that fact if
+you want to keep your place, Thomas."
+
+She turned passionately away with the words, and left the room. In
+fifteen minutes she went to the front door in her cloak and hood, and
+the carriage was waiting there. "You will drive me to my aunt Kilgour's
+shop," she said with an air of reckless pride and defiance. It pleased
+her at that hour to humble herself to her low estate. And it pleased
+Thomas also that she had done so. His sympathy was with the fisher
+girl. He was delighted that she had at last found courage to assert
+herself, for Sophy's wrongs had been the staple talk of the
+kitchen-table and fireside.
+
+"No born lady I ever saw," he said afterwards to the cook, "could have
+held her own better. It will be an even fight between them two now, and
+I will bet my shilling on fisherman Traill's girl."
+
+"Madame has more wit, and more _hold out_" answered the cook. "Mrs.
+Archibald is good for a spurt, but I'll be bound she cried her eyes red
+at Griselda Kilgour's, and was as weak as a baby."
+
+This opinion was a perfectly correct one. Once in her aunt's little
+back parlour, Sophy gave full sway to her childlike temper. She told
+all her wrongs, and was comforted by her kinswoman's interest and pity,
+and strengthened in her resolution to resist Madame's interference with
+her life. And then the small black teapot was warmed and filled, and
+Sophy begged for a herring and a bit of oatcake; and the two women sat
+close to one another, and Miss Kilgour told Sophy all the gossip and
+clash of gossip there had been about Christina Binnie and her lover,
+and how the marriage had been broken off, no one knowing just why, but
+many thinking that since Jamie Logan had got a place on "The Line," he
+was set on bettering himself with a girl something above the like of
+Christina Binnie.
+
+And as they talked Helen Marr came into the shop for a yard of ribbon,
+and said it was the rumour all through Pittendurie, that Andrew Binnie
+was all but dead, and folks were laying all the blame upon the Mistress
+of Braelands, for that every one knew that Andrew had never held up his
+head an hour since her marriage. And though Miss Kilgour did not
+encourage this phase of gossip, yet the woman would persist in
+describing his sufferings, and the poverty that had come to the Binnies
+with the loss of their only bread-winner, and the doctors to pay, and
+the medicine folks said they had not the money to buy, and much more of
+the same sort, which Sophy heard every word of, knowing also that Helen
+Marr must have seen her carriage at the door, and so, knowing of her
+presence, had determined that she should hear it.
+
+Certainly if Helen had wished to wound her to the very heart, she
+succeeded. When Miss Kilgour got rid of her customer, and came back to
+Sophy, she found her with her face in the pillow, sobbing passionately
+about the trouble of her old friends. She did not name Andrew, but the
+thought of his love and suffering hurt her sorely, and she could not
+endure to think of Janet's and Christina's long hardships and sorrow.
+For she knew well how much they would blame her, and the thought of
+their anger, and of her own apparent ingratitude, made her sick with
+shame and grief. And as they talked of this new trouble, and Sophy sent
+messages of love and pity to Janet and Christina, the shop-bell rung
+violently, and Sophy heard her husband's step, and in another moment he
+was at her side, and quite inclined to be very angry with her for
+venturing out in such miserable weather.
+
+Then Sophy seized her opportunity, and Miss Kilgour left them alone for
+the explanation that was better to be made there than at Braelands. And
+for once Archie took his wife's part without reservation. He was not
+indeed ill-pleased that she had assumed her proper position, and when
+he slipped a crown into Thomas's hand, the man also knew that he had
+done wisely. Indeed there was something in the coachman's face and air
+which affected Madame unpleasantly, before she noticed that Sophy had
+returned in her husband's company, and that they were evidently on the
+most affectionate terms.
+
+"I have lost this battle," she said to herself, and she wisely
+retreated to her own room, and had a nominal headache, and a very
+genuine heartache about the loss.
+
+All day long Sophy was at an unnatural pitch, all day long she exerted
+herself, as she had not done for weeks and months, to entertain and
+keep her husband at her side, and all day long her pretty wifely
+triumph was bright and unbroken. The very servants took a delight in
+ministering to it, and Madame was not missed in a single item of the
+household routine. But about midnight there was a great and sudden
+change. Bells were frantically rung, lights flew about the house, and
+there was saddling of horses and riding in hot haste into Largo for any
+or all the doctors that could be found.
+
+Then Madame came quietly from her seclusion, and resumed her place as
+head of the household, for the little mistress of one day lay in her
+chamber quite unconscious of her lost authority. Some twelve hours
+later, the hoped-for heir of Braelands was born, and died, and Sophy,
+on the very outermost shoal of life, felt the wash and murmur of that
+dark river which flows to the Eternal Sea.
+
+It was no time to reproach the poor little wife, and yet Madame did not
+scruple to do so. "She had warned Sophy,--she had begged her not to go
+out--she had been insulted for endeavouring to prevent what had come to
+pass just as she had predicted." And in spite of Archie's love and
+pity, her continual regrets did finally influence him. He began to
+think he had been badly used, and to agree with Madame in her
+assertions that Sophy must be put under some restrictions, and
+subjected to some social instruction.
+
+"The idea of the Braelands's carriage standing two hours at Griselda
+Kilgour's shop door! All the town talking about it! Every one wondering
+what had happened at Braelands, to drive your wife out of doors in such
+weather. All sorts of rumours about you and Sophy, and Griselda shaking
+her head and sighing and looking unspeakable things, just to keep the
+curiosity alive; and the crowds of gossiping women coming and going to
+her shop. Many a cap and bonnet has been sold to your name, Archie, no
+doubt, and I can tell you my own cheeks are kept burning with the shame
+of the whole affair! And then this morning, the first thing she said to
+me was, that she wanted to see her cousins Isobel and Christina."
+
+"She asked me also about them, Mother, and really, I think she had
+better be humoured in this matter. Our friends are not her friends."
+
+"They ought to be."
+
+"Let us be just. When has she had any opportunity to make them so? She
+has seen no one yet,--her health has been so bad--and it did often
+look. Mother, as if you encouraged her _not_ to see callers."
+
+"Perhaps I did, Archie. You cannot blame me. Her manners are so crude,
+so exigent, so effusive. She is so much pleased, or so indifferent
+about people; so glad to see them, or else so careless as to how she
+treats them. You have no idea what I suffered when Lady Blair called,
+and insisted on meeting your wife. Of course she pretended to fall in
+love with her, and kissed, and petted, and flattered Sophy, until the
+girl hardly knew what she was doing or saying. And as for 'saying,' she
+fell into broad Scotch, as she always does when she is pleased or
+excited, and Lady Blair professed herself charmed, and talked broad
+Scotch back to her. And I? I sat tingling with shame and annoyance, for
+I knew right well what mockeries and laughter Sophy was supplying
+Annette Blair with for her future visitors."
+
+"I think you are wrong. Lady Blair is not at all ill-natured. She was
+herself a poor minister's daughter, and accustomed to go in and out of
+the fishers' cottages. I can imagine that she would really be charmed
+with Sophy."
+
+"You can 'imagine' what you like; that will not alter the real state of
+the case; and if Sophy is ever to take her position as your wife, she
+must be prepared for it. Besides which, it will be a good thing to give
+her some new interests in life, for she must drop the old ones. About
+that there cannot be two opinions."
+
+"What then do you propose, Mother?"
+
+"I should get proper teachers for her. Her English education has been
+frightfully neglected; and she ought to learn music and French."
+
+"She speaks French pretty well. I never saw any one pick up a language
+as cleverly as she did the few weeks we were in Paris."
+
+"O, she is clever enough if she wants to be! There is a French woman
+teaching at Miss Linley's Seminary. She will perfect her. And I have
+heard she also plays well. It would be a good thing to engage her for
+Sophy, two or three hours a day. A teacher for grammar, history,
+writing, etc., is easily found. I myself will give her lessons in
+social etiquette, and in all things pertaining to the dignity and
+decorum which your wife ought to exhibit. Depend upon it, Archie, this
+routine is absolutely necessary. It will interest and occupy her idle
+hours, of which she has far too many; and it will wean her better than
+any other thing from her low, uncultivated relations."
+
+"The poor little woman says she wants to be loved; that she is lonely
+when I am away; that no one but the servants care for her; that
+therefore she wants to see her cousins and kinsfolk."
+
+"She does me a great injustice. I would love her if she would be
+reasonable--if she would only trust me. But idle hearts are lonely
+hearts, Archie. Tell her you wish her to study, and fit herself for the
+position you have raised her to. Surely the desire to please you ought
+to be enough. Do you know _who_ this Christina Binnie is that she talks
+so continually about?"
+
+"Her fourth or fifth cousin, I believe."
+
+"She is the sister of the man you won Sophy from--the man whom you
+struck across the cheek with your whip. Now do you wish her to see
+Christina Binnie!"
+
+"Yes, I do! Do you think I am jealous or fearful of my wife? No, by
+Heaven! No! Sophy may be unlearned and unfashionable, but she is loyal
+and true, and if she wants to see her old lover and his sister, she has
+my full permission. As for the fisherman, he behaved very nobly. And I
+did not intend to strike him. It was an accident, and I shall apologise
+for it the first opportunity I have to do so."
+
+"You are a fool, Archie Braelands."
+
+"I am a husband, who knows his wife's heart and who trusts in it. And
+though I think you are quite right in your ideas about Sophy's
+education, I do not think you are right in objecting to her seeing her
+old friends. Every one in this bound of Fife knows that I married a
+fisher-girl. I never intend to be ashamed of the fact. If our social
+world will accept her as the representative of my honour and my family,
+I shall be obliged to the world. If it will not, I can live without its
+approval--having Sophy to love me and live with me. I counted all this
+cost before I married; you may be sure of that, Mother."
+
+"You forgot, however, to take my honour and feelings into your
+consideration."
+
+"I knew, Mother, that you were well able to protect your own honour and
+feelings."
+
+This conversation but indicates the tone of many others which occupied
+the hours mother and son passed together during Sophy's convalescence.
+And the son, being the weaker character of the two, was insensibly
+moved and moulded to all Madame's opinions. Indeed, before Sophy was
+well enough to begin the course of study marked out for her, Archie had
+become thoroughly convinced that it was his first duty to his wife and
+himself to insist upon it.
+
+The weak, loving woman made no objections. Indeed, Archie's evident
+enthusiasm sensibly affected her own desires. She listened with
+pleasure to the plans for her education, and promised "as soon as she
+was able, to do her very best."
+
+And there was a strange pathos in the few words "as soon as I am able,"
+which Archie remembered years afterwards, when it was far too late. At
+the moment, they touched him but lightly, but _Oh, afterwards!_ Oh,
+afterwards! when memory brought back the vision of the small white face
+on the white pillow, and the faint golden light of the golden curls
+shadowing the large blue eyes that even then had in them that wide gaze
+and wistfulness that marks those predestined for sorrow or early death.
+Alas! Alas! We see too late, we hear too late, when it is the dead who
+open the eyes and the ears of the living!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A GREAT DELIVERANCE
+
+
+While these clouds of sorrow were slowly gathering in the splendid
+house of Braelands, there was a full tide of grief and anxiety in the
+humble cottage of the Binnies. The agony of terror which had changed
+Janet Binnie's countenance, and sent Christina flying up the cliff for
+help, was well warranted by Andrew's condition. The man was in the most
+severe maniacal delirium of brain inflammation, and before the dawning
+of the next day, required the united strength of two of his mates to
+control him. To leave her mother and brother in this extremity would
+have been a cruelty beyond the contemplation of Christina Binnie. Its
+possibility never entered her mind. All her anger and sense of wrong
+vanished before the pitiful sight of the strong man in the throes of
+his mental despair and physical agony. She could not quite ignore her
+waiting lover, even in such an hour; but she was not a ready writer, so
+her words were few and to the point:--
+
+DEAR JAMIE--Andrew is ill and like to die, and my place, dear lad, is
+here, until some change come. I must stand by mother and Andrew now,
+and you yourself would bid me do so. Death is in the house and by the
+pillow, and there is only God's mercy to trust to. Andrew is clean off
+his senses, and ill to manage, so you will know that he was not in
+reason when he spoke so wrong to you, and you will be sorry for him and
+forgive the words he said, because he did not know what he was saying;
+and now he knows nothing at all, not even his mother. Do not forget to
+pray for us in our sorrow, dear Jamie, and I will keep ever a prayer
+round about you in case of danger on the sea or on land. Your true,
+troth-plighted wife,
+
+CHRISTINA BINNIE
+
+
+This letter was her last selfish act for many a week. After it had been
+written, she put all her own affairs out of her mind and set herself
+with heart and soul, by day and by night, to the duty before her. She
+suffered no shadow of the bygone to darken her calm strong face or to
+weaken the hands and heart from which so much was now expected. And she
+continually told herself not to doubt in these dark days the mercy of
+the Eternal, taking hope and comfort, as she went about her duties,
+from a few words Janet had said, even while she was weeping bitterly
+over her son's sufferings--
+
+"But I am putting all fear Christina, under my feet, for nothing comes
+to pass without helping on some great end."
+
+Now what great end Andrew's severe illness was to help on, Christina
+could not divine; but like her brave mother, she put fear under her
+feet, and looked confidently for "the end" which she trusted would be
+accomplished in God's time and mercy.
+
+So week after week the two women walked with love and courage by the
+sick man's side, through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Often his
+life lay but within his lips, and they watched with prayer continually,
+lest he should slip away to them that had gone before, wanting its
+mighty shield in the great perilous journey of the soul. And though
+there is no open vision in these days, yet His Presence is ever near to
+those who seek him with all the heart. So that wonderful things were
+seen and experienced in that humble room, where the man lay at the
+point of death.
+
+Andrew had his share of these experiences. Whatever God said to the
+waiting, watching women, He kept for His suffering servant some of His
+richest consolations, and so made all his bed in his sickness. Andrew
+was keenly sensible of these ministrations, and he grew strong in their
+heavenly strength; for though the vaults of God are full of wine, the
+soul that has drunk of His strong wine of Pain knows that it has tasted
+the costliest vintage of all, and asks on this earth no better.
+
+And as our thoughts affect our surroundings, quite as much as rain or
+sunshine affect the atmosphere, these two women, with the sick man on
+their hearts and hands, were not unhappy women. They did their very
+best, and trusted God for the outcome. Thus Heaven helped them, and
+their neighbours helped them, and taking turns in their visitation,
+they found the Kirk also to be a big, calm friend in the time of their
+trouble. And then one morning, before the dawn broke, when life seemed
+to be at its lowest point, when hope was nearly gone, and the shadow of
+Death fell across the sick man's face, there was suddenly a faint,
+strange flutter. Some mighty one went out of the door, as the sunshine
+touched the lintel, and the life began to turn back, just as the tide
+began to flow.
+
+Then Janet rose up softly and opened the house door, and looking at her
+son and at the turning waters, she said solemnly:--
+
+"Thank God, Christina! He has turned with the tide? He is all right
+now."
+
+It was April, however, in its last days, before Andrew had strength
+sufficient to go down the cliff, and the first news he heard in the
+village, was that Mistress Braelands had lain at death's door also.
+Doubtless it explained some testimony private to his own experience,
+for he let the intelligence pass through his ear-chambers into his
+heart, without remark, but it made there a great peace--a peace pure
+and loving as that which passeth understanding.
+
+There was, however, no hope or expectation of his resuming work until
+the herring fishing in June, and Janet and Christina were now suffering
+sorely from a strange dilemma. Never before in all their lives had they
+known what it was to be pinched for ready money. It was hard for Janet
+to realise that there was no longer "a little bit in the Largo bank to
+fall back on." Naturally economical, and always regarding it as a
+sacred duty to live within the rim of their shilling, they had never
+known either the slow terror of gathering debt, or the acute pinch of
+actual necessity. But Andrew's long sickness, with all its attendant
+expenses, had used up all Janet's savings, and the day at last dawned
+when they must either borrow money, or run into debt.
+
+It was a strange and humiliating position, especially after Janet's
+little motherly bragging about her Christina's silken wedding gown, and
+brawly furnished floor in Glasgow. Both mother and daughter felt it
+sorely; and Christina looked at her brother with some little angry
+amazement, for he appeared to be quite oblivious of their cruel strait.
+He said little about his work, and never spoke at all about Sophy or
+his lost money. In the tremendous furnace of his affliction, these
+elements of it appeared to have been utterly consumed.
+
+Neither mother nor sister liked to remind him of them, nor yet to point
+out the poverty to which his long sickness had reduced them. It might
+be six weeks before the herring fishing roused him to labour, and they
+had spent their last sixpence. Janet began seriously to think of
+lifting the creel to her shoulders again, and crying "fresh fish" in
+Largo streets. It was so many years since she had done this, that the
+idea was painful both to Christina and herself. The girl would gladly
+have taken her mother's place, but this Janet would not hearken to. As
+yet, her daughter had never had to haggle and barter among fish wives,
+and house-wives; and she would not have her do it for a passing
+necessity. Besides Jamie might not like it; and for many other reasons,
+the little downcome would press hardest upon Christina.
+
+There was one other plan by which a little ready money could be
+raised--that was, to get a small mortgage on the cottage, and when all
+had been said for and against this project, it seemed, after all, to be
+the best thing to do.
+
+Griselda Kilgour had money put away, and Christina was very certain she
+would be glad to help them on such good security as a house and an acre
+or two of land. Certainly Janet and Griselda had parted in bad bread at
+their last interview, but in such a time of trouble, Christina did not
+believe that her kinswoman would remember ill words that had passed,
+especially as they were about Sophy's marriage--a subject on which they
+had every right to feel hurt and offended.
+
+Still a mortgage on their home was a dreadful alternative to these
+simple-minded women; they looked upon it as something very like a
+disgrace. "A lawyer's foot on the threshold," said Janet, "and who or
+what is to keep him from putting the key of the cottage in his own
+pocket, and sending us into a cold and roofless world? No! No!
+Christina. I had better by far lift the creel to my shoulders again.
+Thank God, I have the health and strength to do it!"
+
+"And what will folks be saying of me, to let you ware yourself on the
+life of that work in your old age? If you turn fish-wife again, then I
+be to seek service with some one who can pay me for my hands' work."
+
+"Well, well, my dear lass, to-night we cannot work, but we may sleep;
+and many a blessing comes, and us not thinking of it. Lie down a wee,
+and God will comfort you; forbye, the pillow often gives us good
+counsel. Keep a still heart tonight, and tomorrow is another day."
+
+Janet followed her own advice, and was soon sleeping as soundly and as
+sweetly as a play-tired child; but Christina sat in the open doorway,
+thinking of the strait they were in, and wondering if it would not be
+the kindest and wisest thing to tell Andrew plainly of their necessity.
+Sooner or later, he would find out that his mother was making his bread
+for him; and she thought such knowledge, coming from strangers, or
+through some accident, would wound him more severely than if she
+herself explained their hard position to him. As for the mortgage, the
+very thought of it made her sick. "It is just giving our home away, bit
+by bit--that is what a mortgage is--and whatever we are to do, and
+whatever I ought to do, God only knows!"
+
+Yet in spite of the stress of this, to her, terrible question, a
+singular serenity possessed her. It was as if she had heard a voice
+saying "Peace, be still!" She thought it was the calm of nature,--the
+high tide breaking gently on the shingle with a low murmur, the soft
+warmth, the full moonshine, the sound of the fishermen's voices calling
+faintly on the horizon,--and still more, the sense of divine care and
+knowledge, and the sweet conviction that One, mighty to help and to
+save, was her Father and her Friend. For a little space she walked
+abreast of angels. So many things take place in the soul that are not
+revealed, and it is always when we are wrestling _alone_, that the
+comforting ones come. Christina looked downward to the village sleeping
+at her feet,
+
+  "Beneath its little patch of sky,
+  And little lot of stars,"
+
+and upward, to where innumerable worlds were whirling noiselessly
+through the limitless void, and forgot her own clamorous personality
+and "the something that infects the world;" and doing this, though she
+did not voice her anxiety, it passed from her heart into the Infinite
+Heart, and thus she was calmed and comforted. Then, suddenly, the
+prayer of her childhood and her girlhood came to her lips, and she
+stood up, and clasping her hands, she cast her eyes towards heaven, and
+said reverently:--
+
+"_This is the change of Thy Right Hand, O Thou Most High
+    Thou art strong to strengthen.'
+    Thou art gracious to help!
+    Thou art ready to better.'
+    Thou art mighty to save'"_
+
+As the words passed her lips, she heard a movement, and softly and
+silently as a spirit, her brother Andrew, fully dressed, passed through
+the doorway. His arm lightly touched Christina's clothing, but he was
+unconscious of her presence. He looked more than mortal, and was
+evidently seeing _through_ his eyes, and not _with_ them. She was
+afraid to speak to him. She did not dream of touching him, or of
+arresting his steps. Without a sign or word, he went rapidly down the
+cliff, walking with that indifference to physical obstacles which a
+spirit that had cast off its incarnation might manifest.
+
+"He is walking in his sleep, and he may get into danger or find death
+itself," thought Christina, and her fear gave strength and fleetness to
+her footsteps as she quickly followed her brother. He made no noise of
+any kind; he did not even disturb a pebble in his path; but went
+forward, with a motion light and rapid, and the very reverse of the
+slow, heavy-footed gait of a fisherman. But she kept him in sight as he
+glided over the ribbed and water-lined sands, and rounded the rocky
+points which jutted into the sea water. After a walk of nearly two
+miles, he made direct for a series of bold rocks which were penetrated
+by numberless caverns, and into one of these he entered.
+
+Hitherto he had not shown a moment's hesitation, nor did he now though
+the path was dangerously narrow and rocky, overhanging unfathomable
+abysses of dark water. But Christina was in mortal terror, both for
+herself and Andrew. She did not dare to call his name, lest, in the
+sudden awakening he might miss his precarious foothold, and fall to
+unavoidable death. She found it almost impossible to follow him nor
+indeed in her ordinary frame of mind could she have done so. But the
+experience, so strange and thrilling, had lifted her in a measure above
+the control of the physical and she was conscious of an exaltation of
+spirit which defied difficulties that would ordinarily have terrified
+her. Still she was so much delayed by the precautions evidently
+necessary for her life, that she lost sight of her brother, and her
+heart stood still with fright.
+
+Prayers parted her white lips continually, as she slowly climbed the
+hollow crags that seemed to close together and forbid her further
+progress. But she would not turn back, for she could not believe that
+Andrew had perished. She would have heard the fall of his body or its
+splash in the water beneath and so she continued to climb and clamber
+though every step appeared to make further exploration more and more
+impossible.
+
+With a startling unexpectedness, she found herself in a circular
+chamber, open to the sky and on one of the large boulders lying around,
+Andrew sat. He was still in the depths of a somnambulistic sleep; but
+he had his lost box of gold and bank-notes before him, and he was
+counting the money. She held her breath. She stood still as a stone.
+She was afraid to think. But she divined at once the whole secret.
+Motionless she watched him, as he unrolled and rerolled the notes, as
+he counted and recounted the gold, and then carefully locked the box,
+and hid the key under the edge of the stone on which he sat.
+
+What would he now do with the box? She watched his movements with a
+breathless interest. He sat still for a few moments, clasping his
+treasure firmly in his large, brown hands; then he rose, and put it in
+an aperture above his head, filling the space in front of it with a
+stone that exactly fitted. Without hurry, and without hesitation, the
+whole transaction was accomplished; and then, with an equal composure
+and confidence, he retraced his steps through the cavern and over the
+rocks and sands to his own sleeping room.
+
+Christina followed as rapidly as she was able; but her exaltation had
+died away, and left her weak and ready to weep; so that when she
+reached the open beach, Andrew was so far in advance as to be almost
+out of sight. She could not hope to overtake him, and she sat down for
+a few minutes to try and realise the great relief that had come to
+them--to wonder--to clasp her hands in adoration, to weep tears of joy.
+When she reached her home at last, it was quite light. She looked into
+her brother's room, and saw that he was lying motionless in the deepest
+sleep; but Janet was half-awake, and she asked sleepily:--
+
+"Whatever are you about so early for, Christina? Isn't the day long
+enough for the sorrow and the care of it?"
+
+"Oh, Mother! Mother! The day isn't long enough for the joy and the
+blessing of it."
+
+"What do you mean, my lass? What is it in your face? What have you
+seen? Who has spoken a word to you?" and Janet rose up quickly, and put
+her hands on Christina's shoulders; for the girl was swaying and
+trembling, and ready to break out into a passion of sobbing.
+
+"I have seen, Mother, the salvation of the Lord! I have found Andrew's
+lost money! I have proved that poor Jamie is innocent! We aren't poor
+any longer. There is no need to borrow, or mortgage, or to run in debt.
+Oh, Mother! Mother! The blessing you bespoke last night, the blessing
+we were not thinking of, has come to us."
+
+"The Lord be thanked! I knew He would save us, in His own time, and His
+time is never too late."
+
+Then Christina sat down by her mother's side, and in low, intense
+tones, told her all she had seen. Janet listened with kindling face and
+shining eyes.
+
+"The mercy of God is on His beloved, and His regard is unto His elect,"
+she cried, "and I am glad this day, that I never doubted Him, and never
+prayed to Him with a grudge at the bottom of my heart." Then she began
+to dress herself with her old joyfulness, humming a line of this and
+that psalm or paraphrase, and stopping in the middle to ask Christina
+another question; until the kettle began to simmer to her happy mood,
+and she suddenly sung out joyfully four lines, never very far from her
+lips:--
+
+"My heart is dashed with cares and fears,
+   My song comes fluttering and is gone;
+ Oh! High above this home of tears.
+   Eternal Joy sing on!"
+
+How would it feel for the hyssop on the wall to turn cedar, I wonder?
+Just about as Janet and Christina felt that morning, eating their
+simple breakfast with glad hearts. Poor as the viands were, they had
+the flavour of joy and thankfulness, and of a wondrous salvation. "It
+is the Lord's doing!" This was the key to which the two women set all
+their hopes and rejoicing, and yet even into its noble melody there
+stole at last a little of the fret of earth. For suddenly Janet had a
+fear--not of God, but of man--and she said anxiously to her daughter:--
+
+"You should have brought the box home with you, Christina. O my lass,
+if some other body should have seen what you have seen, then we will be
+fairly ruined twice over."
+
+"No, no. Mother! I would not have touched the box for all there is in
+it. Andrew must go for it himself. He might never believe it was where
+I saw it, if he did not go for it. You know well he suspicioned both
+Jamie and me; and indeed, Mother dear, you yourself thought worse of
+Jamie than you should have done."
+
+"Let that be now, Christina. God has righted all. We will have no casts
+up. If I thought of any one wrongly, I am sorry for it, and I could not
+say more than that even to my Maker. If ill news was waiting for
+Andrew, it would have shaken him off his pillow ere this."
+
+"Let him sleep. His soul took his body a weary walk this morning. He is
+sore needing sleep, no doubt."
+
+"He will have to wake up now, and go about his business. It is high
+time."
+
+"You should mind, Mother, what a tempest he has come through; all the
+waves and billows of sorrow have gone over him."
+
+"He is a good man, and ought to be the better of the tempest. His ship
+may have been sorely beaten and tossed, but his anchor was fast all
+through the storm. It is time he lifted anchor now, and faced the brunt
+and the buffet again. An idle man, if he is not a sick man, is on a lee
+shore, let him put out to sea, why, lassie! A storm is better than a
+shipwreck."
+
+"To be sure, Mother. Here the dear lad comes!" and with that Andrew
+sauntered slowly into the kitchen. There was no light on his face, no
+hope or purpose in his movements. He sat down at the table, and drew
+his cup of tea towards him with an air of indifference, almost of
+despair. It wounded Janet. She put her hand on his hand, and compelled
+him to look into her face. As he did so, his eyes opened wide;
+speculation, wonder, something like hope came into them. The very
+silence of the two women--a silence full of meaning--arrested his soul.
+He looked from one to the other, and saw the same inscrutable joy
+answering his gaze.
+
+"What is it, Mother?" he asked. "I can see you have something to tell
+me."
+
+"I have that, Andrew! O my dear lad, your money is found! I do not
+think a penny-bit of it is missing. Don't mind me! I am greeting for
+the very joy of it--but O Andrew, you be to praise God! It is his
+doing, and marvellous in our eyes. Ask Christina. She can tell you
+better than I can."
+
+But Andrew could not speak. He touched his sister's hand, and dumbly
+looked into her happy face. He was white as death, but he sat bending
+forward to her, with one hand outstretched, as if to clasp and grasp
+the thing she had to tell him. So Christina told him the whole story,
+and after he had heard it, he pushed his plate and cup away, and rose
+up, and went into his room and shut the door. And Janet said
+gratefully:--
+
+"It is all right, Christina. He'll get nothing but good advice in God's
+council chamber. We'll not need to worry ourselves again anent either
+the lad or the money. The one has come to his senses, and the other
+will come to its use. And we will cast nothing up to him; the best boat
+loses her rudder once in a while."
+
+It was not long before Andrew joined his mother and sister, and the man
+was a changed man. There was grave purpose in his calm face, and a joy,
+too deep for words, in the glint of his eyes and in the graciousness of
+his manner.
+
+"Come, Christina!" he said. "I want you you to go with me; we will
+bring the siller home together. But I forget--it is maybe too far for
+you to walk again to-day?"
+
+"I would walk ten times as far to pleasure you, Andrew. Do you know the
+place I told you of?"
+
+"Aye, I know it well. I hid the first few shillings there that I ever
+saved."
+
+As they walked together over the sands Christina said: "I wonder,
+Andrew, when and how you carried the box there? Can you guess at all
+the way this trouble came about?"
+
+"I can, but I'm ashamed to tell you, Christina. You see, after I had
+shown you the money, I took a fear anent it. I thought maybe you might
+tell Jamie Logan, and the possibility of this fretted on my mind until
+it became a sure thing with me. So, being troubled in my heart, I
+doubtless got up in my sleep and put the box in my oldest and safest
+hiding-place."
+
+"But why then did you not remember that you had done so?"
+
+"You see, dearie, I hid it in my sleep, so then it was only in my sleep
+I knew where I had put it. There is two of us, I am thinking, lassie,
+and the one man does not always tell the other man all he knows. I
+ought to have trusted you, Christina; but I doubted you, and, as mother
+says, doubt aye fathers sin or sorrow of some kind or other."
+
+"You might have safely trusted me, Andrew."
+
+"I know now I might. But he is lifeless that is faultless; and the
+wrong I have done I must put right. I am thinking of Jamie Logan?"
+
+"Poor Jamie! You know now that he never wronged you?"
+
+"I know, and I will let him know as soon as possible. When did you hear
+from him? And where is he at all?"
+
+"I don't know just where he is. He sailed away yon time; and when he
+got to New York, he left the ship."
+
+"What for did he do that?"
+
+"O Andrew, I cannot tell. He was angry with me for not coming to
+Glasgow as I promised him I would."
+
+"You promised him that?"
+
+"Aye, the night you were taken so bad. But how could I leave you in
+Dead Man's Dale and mother here lone to help you through it? So I wrote
+and told him I be to see you through your trouble, and he went away
+from Scotland and said he would never come back again till we found out
+how sorely all of us had wronged him."
+
+"Don't cry, Christina! I will seek Jamie over the wide world till I
+find him. I wonder at myself I am shamed of myself. However, will you
+forgive me for all the sorrow I have brought on you?"
+
+"You were not altogether to blame, Andrew. You were ill to death at the
+time. Your brain was on fire, poor laddie, and it would be a sin to
+hold you countable for any word you said or did not say. But if you
+will seek after Jamie either by letter or your own travel, and say as
+much to him as you have said to me I may be happy yet, for all that has
+come and gone."
+
+"What else can I do but seek the lad I have wronged so cruelly? What
+else can I do for the sister that never deserved ill word or deed from
+me? No, I cannot rest until I have made the wrong to both of you as far
+right as sorrow and siller can do."
+
+When they reached the cavern, Andrew would not let Christina enter it
+with him. He said he knew perfectly well the spot to which he must go,
+and he would not have her tread again the dangerous road. So Christina
+sat down on the rocks to wait for him, and the water tinkled beneath
+her feet, and the sunshine dimpled the water, and the fresh salt wind
+blew strength and happiness into her heart and hopes. In a short time,
+the last moment of her anxiety was over, and Andrew came back to her,
+with the box and its precious contents in his hands. "It is all here!"
+he said, and his voice had its old tones, for his heart was ringing to
+the music of its happiness, knowing that the door of fortune was now
+open to him, and that he could walk up to success, as to a friend, on
+his own hearthstone.
+
+That afternoon he put the money in Largo bank, and made arrangements
+for his mother's and sister's comfort for some weeks. "For there is
+nothing I can do for my own side, until I have found Jamie Logan, and
+put Christina's and his affairs right," he said. And Janet was of the
+same opinion.
+
+"You cannot bless yourself, laddie, until you bless others," she said,
+"and the sooner you go about the business, the better for everybody."
+
+So that night Andrew started for Glasgow, and when he reached that
+city, he was fortunate enough to find the very ship in which Jamie had
+sailed away, lying at her dock. The first mate recalled the young man
+readily.
+
+"The more by token that he had my own name," he said to Andrew. "We are
+both of us Fife Logans, and I took a liking to the lad, and he told me
+his trouble."
+
+"About some lost money?" asked Andrew.
+
+"Nay, he said nothing about money. It was some love trouble, I take it.
+He thought he could better forget the girl if he ran away from his
+country and his work. He has found out his mistake by this time, no
+doubt."
+
+"You knew he was going to leave 'The Line' then?"
+
+"Yes, we let him go; and I heard say that he had shipped on an American
+line, sailing to Cuba, or New Orleans, or somewhere near the equator."
+
+"Well, I shall try and find him."
+
+"I wouldn't, if I was you. He is sure to come back to his home again.
+He showed me a lock of the lassie's hair. Man! a single strand of it
+would pull him back to Scotland sooner or later."
+
+"But I have wronged him sorely. I did not mean to wrong him, but that
+does not alter the case."
+
+"Not a bit. Love sickness is one thing; a wrong against a man's good
+name or good fortune, is a different matter. I would find him and right
+him."
+
+"That is what I want to do."
+
+And so when the _Circassia_ sailed out of Greenock for New York, Andrew
+Binnie sailed in her. "It is not a very convenient journey," he said
+rather sadly, as he left Scotland behind him, "but wrong has been done,
+and wrong has no warrant, and I'll never have a good day till I put the
+wrong right; so the sooner the better, for, as Mother says, 'that which
+a fool does at the end a wise man does at the beginning.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE RIGHTING OF A WRONG
+
+
+So Andrew sailed for New York, and life resumed its long forgotten
+happy tenor in the Binnie cottage. Janet sang about her spotless
+houseplace, feeling almost as if it was a new gift of God to her; and
+Christina regarded their small and simple belongings with that tender
+and excessive affection which we are apt to give to whatever has been
+all but lost and then unexpectedly recovered. Both women involuntarily
+showed this feeling in the extra care they took of everything. Never
+had the floors and chairs and tables been scrubbed and rubbed to such
+spotless beauty; and every cup and platter and small ornament was
+washed and dusted with such care as could only spring from heart-felt
+gratitude in its possession. Naturally they had much spare time, for as
+Janet said, 'having no man to cook and wash for lifted half the work
+from their hands,' but they were busy women for all that. Janet began a
+patch-work quilt of a wonderful design as a wedding present for
+Christina; and as the whole village contributed "pieces" for its
+construction, the whole village felt an interest in its progress. It
+was a delightful excuse for Janet's resumption of her old friendly,
+gossipy ways; and every afternoon saw her in some crony's house,
+spreading out her work, and explaining her design, and receiving the
+praises and sometimes the advice of her acquaintances.
+
+Christina also, quietly but yet hopefully, began again her preparations
+for her marriage; for Janet laughed at her fears and doubts. "Andrew
+was sure to find Jamie, and Jamie was sure to be glad to come home
+again. It stands to reason," she said confidently. "The very sight of
+Andrew will be a cordial of gladness to him; for he will know, as soon
+as he sees the face of him, that the brother will mean the sister and
+the wedding ring. If you get the spindle and distaff ready, my lass,
+God is sure to send the flax; and by the same token, if you get your
+plenishing made and marked, and your bride-clothes finished, God will
+certainly send the husband."
+
+"Jamie said in his last letter--the one in which he bid me farewell--'I
+will never come back to Scotland.'"
+
+"_Toots! Havers!_ 'I _will_' is for the Lord God Almighty to say. A
+sailor-man's 'I will' is just breath, that any wind may blow away. When
+Andrew gives him the letter you sent, Jamie will not be able to wait
+for the next boat for Scotland."
+
+"He may have taken a fancy to America and want to stop there."
+
+"What are you talking about, Christina Binnie? There is nothing but
+scant and want in them foreign countries. Oh! my lass, he will come
+home, and be glad to come home; and you will have the hank in your own
+hand. See that you spin it cannily and happily."
+
+"I hope Andrew will not make himself sick again looking for the lost."
+
+"I shall have little pity for him, if he does. I told him to make good
+days for himself; why not? He is about his duty; the law of kindness is
+in his heart, and the purpose of putting right what he put wrong is the
+wind that drives him. Well then, his journey--be it short or
+long--ought to be a holiday to him, and a body does not deserve a
+holiday if he cannot take advantage of one. Them were my last words to
+Andrew."
+
+"Jamie may have seen another lass. I have heard say the lassies in
+America are gey bonnie."
+
+"I'll just be stepping if you have nothing but frets and fears to say.
+When things go wrong, it is mostly because folks will have them wrong
+and no other way."
+
+"In this world, Mother, the giffs and the gaffs--"
+
+"In this world, Christina, the giffs and the gaffs generally balance
+one another. And if they don't,--mind what I say,--it is because there
+is a moral defect on the failing side. Oh! but women are flightersome
+and easy frighted."
+
+"Whyles you have fears yourself, Mother."
+
+"Ay, I am that foolish whyles; but I shall be a sick, weak body, when I
+can't outmarch the worst of them."
+
+"You are just an oracle, Mother."
+
+"Not I; but if I was a very saint, I would say every morning of my
+life: 'Now then, Soul, hope for good and have good.' Many a sad heart
+folks get they have no need to have. Take out your needle and thimble
+and go to your wedding clothes, lassie; you will need them before the
+summer is over. You may take my word for that."
+
+"If Jamie should still love me."
+
+"Love you! He will be that far gone in love with you that there will be
+no help for him but standing up before the minister. That will be seen
+and heard tell of. Lift your white seam, and be busy at it; there is
+nothing else to do till tea time, and I am away for an hour or two to
+Maggie Buchans. Her man went to Edinburgh this morning. What for, I
+don't know yet, but I'll maybe find out."
+
+It was on this very afternoon that Janet first heard that there was
+trouble and a sound of more trouble at Braelands. Sophy had driven down
+in her carriage the previous day to see her cousin Isobel Murray, and
+some old friends who had gone into Isobel's had found the little
+Mistress of Braelands weeping bitterly in her cousin's arms. After this
+news Janet did not stay long at Maggie Buchans; she carried her
+patch-work to Isobel Murray's, and as Isobel did not voluntarily name
+the subject, Janet boldly introduced it herself.
+
+"I heard tell that Sophy Braelands was here yesterday."
+
+"Aye, she was."
+
+"A grand thing for you, Isobel, to have the Braelands's yellow coach
+and pair standing before the Murray cottage all of two or three hours."
+
+"It did not stand before my cottage, Janet. The man went to the public
+house and gave the horses a drink, and himself one too, or I am much
+mistaken, for I had to send little Pete Galloway after him."
+
+"I think Sophy might have called on me."
+
+"No doubt she would have done so, had she known that Andrew was away,
+but I never thought to tell her until the last moment."
+
+"Is she well? I was hearing that she looked but poorly."
+
+"You were hearing the truth. She looks bad enough."
+
+"Is she happy, Isobel?"
+
+"I never asked her that question."
+
+"You have eyes and observation. Didn't you ask yourself that question?"
+
+"Maybe I did."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I have nothing to say anent it."
+
+"What was she talking about? You know, Isobel, that Sophy is kin of
+mine, and I loved her mother like my own sister. So I be to feel
+anxious about the little body. I'm feared things are not going as well
+as they might do. Madame Braelands is but a hard-grained woman."
+
+"She is as cruel a woman and as bad a woman as there is between this
+and wherever she may be."
+
+"Isn't she at Braelands?"
+
+"Not for a week or two. She's away to Acker Castle, and her son with
+her."
+
+"And why not Sophy also?"
+
+"The poor lassie would not go--she says she could not. Well, Janet, I
+may as good confess that there is something wrong that she does not
+like to speak of yet. She is just at the crying point now, the reason
+why and wherefore will come anon."
+
+"But she be to say something to you."
+
+"I'll tell you. She said she was worn out with learning this and that,
+and she was humbled to death to find out how ignorant and full of
+faults she was. Madame Braelands is both schoolmistress and
+mother-in-law, and there does not seem to be a minute of the day in
+which the poor child isn't checked and corrected. She has lost all her
+pretty ways, and she says she cannot learn Madame's ways; and she is
+feared for herself, and shamed for herself. And when the invitation
+came for Acker Castle, Madame told her she must not accept it for her
+husband's sake, because all his great friends were to be there, and
+they were to discuss his going to Parliament, and she would only shame
+and disgrace him. And you may well conceive that Sophy turned obstinate
+and said she would bide in her own home. And, someway, her husband did
+not urge her to go and this hurt her worst of all; and she felt lonely
+and broken-hearted, and so came to see me. That is everything about it,
+but keep it to yourself, Janet, it isn't for common clash."
+
+"I know that. But did Madame Braelands and her son really go away and
+leave Sophy her lone?"
+
+"They left her with two or three teachers to worry the life out of her.
+They went away two days ago; and Madame was in full feather and glory,
+with her son at her beck and call, and all her grand airs and manners
+about her. Sophy says she watched them away from her bedroom window,
+and then she cried her heart out. And she couldn't learn her lessons,
+and so sent the man teacher and the woman teacher about their business.
+She says she will not try the weary books again to please anybody; they
+make her head ache so that she is like to swoon away."
+
+"Sophy was never fond of books; but I thought she would like the
+music."
+
+"Aye, if they would let her have her own way about it. She has her
+father's little fiddle, and when she was but a bare-footed lassie, she
+played on it wonderful."
+
+"I remember. You would have thought there was a linnet living inside of
+it."
+
+"Well, she wanted to have some lessons on it, and her husband was
+willing enough, but Madame went into hysterics about the idea of
+anything so vulgar. There is a constant bitter little quarrel between
+the two women, and Sophy says she cannot go to her husband with every
+slight and cruelty. Madame laughs at her, or pretends to pet her, or
+else gets into passions at what she calls Sophy's unreasonableness; and
+Archie Braelands is weary to death of complaining, and just turns sulky
+or goes out of the house. Oh, Janet, I can see and feel the bitter,
+cruel task-woman over the poor, foolish child! She is killing her, and
+Archie Braelands does not see the right and the wrong of it all."
+
+"I'll make him see it."
+
+"You will hold your tongue, Janet. They who stir in muddy water only
+make it worse."
+
+"But Archie Braelands loved her, or he would not have married her; and
+if he knew the right and the wrong of poor Sophy's position--"
+
+"I tell you, that is nothing to it, Janet."
+
+"It is everything to it. Right is right, in the devil's teeth."
+
+"I'm sorry I said a word to you; it is a dangerous thing to get between
+a man and his wife. I would not do it, not even for Sophy; for reason
+here or reason there, folks be to take care of themselves; and my man
+gets siller from Braelands, more than we can afford to lose."
+
+"You are taken with a fit of the prudentials, Isobel; and it is just
+extraordinary how selfish they make folk."
+
+And yet Janet herself, when going over the conversation with Christina,
+was quite inclined on second thoughts not to interfere in Sophy's
+affairs, though both were anxious and  sorrowful about the motherless
+little woman.
+
+"She ought to be with her husband wherever he is, court or castle,"
+said Christina. "She is a foolish woman to let him go away with her
+enemy, and such a clever enemy as Madame Braelands is. I think, Mother,
+you ought to call on Sophy, and give her a word of love and a bit of
+good advice. Her mother was very close to you."
+
+"I know, Christina; but Isobel was right about the folly of coming
+between a man and his wife. I would just get the wyte of it. Many a
+sore heart I have had for meddling with what I could not mend."
+
+Yet Janet carried the lonely, sorrowful little wife on her heart
+continually; though, after a week or two had passed and nothing new was
+heard from Braelands, every one began to give their sympathy to
+Christina and her affairs. Janet was ready to talk of them. There were
+some things she wished to explain, though she was too proud to do so
+until her friends felt interest enough to ask for explanations. And as
+soon as it was discovered that Andrew had gone to America, the interest
+and curiosity was sufficiently keen and eager to satisfy even Janet.
+
+"It fairly took the breath from me," said Sabrina Roy, "when I was told
+the like of that. I cannot think there is a word of truth in such a
+report."
+
+Mistress Roy was sitting at Janet's fireside, and so had the privilege
+of a guest; but, apart from this, it gave Janet a profound satisfaction
+to answer: "Ay, well, Sabrina, the clash is true for once in a
+lifetime. Andrew has gone to America, and the Lord knows where else
+beside."
+
+"Preserve us all! I wouldn't believe it, only from your own lips,
+Janet. Whatever would be the matter that sent him stravaging round the
+world, with no ship of his own beneath his feet or above his head?"
+
+"A matter of right and wrong, Sabrina. My Andrew has a strict
+conscience and a sense of right that would be ornamental in a very
+saint. Not to make a long story of it, he and Jamie Logan had a
+quarrel. It was the night Andrew took his inflammation, and it is very
+sure his brain was on fire and off its judgment at the time. But we
+were none of us thinking of the like of that; and so the bad words
+came, and stirred up the bad blood, and if I hadn't been there myself,
+there might have been spilled blood to end all with, for they were both
+black angry."
+
+"Guide us, woman! What was it all about?"
+
+"Well, Sabrina, it was about siller; that is all I am free to say.
+Andrew was sure he was right, and Jamie was sure he was wrong; and they
+were going fairly to one another's throats, when I stepped in and flung
+them apart."
+
+"And poor Christina had the buff and the buffet to take and to bear for
+their tempers?"
+
+"Not just that. Jamie begged her to go away with him, and the lassie
+would have gone if I hadn't got between her and the door. I had a hard
+few minutes, I can tell you, Sabrina; for when men are beside
+themselves with passion, they are in the devil's employ, and it's no
+easy work to take a job out of _his_ hands. But I sent Jamie flying
+down the cliff, and I locked the door and put the key in my pocket, and
+ordered Andrew and Christina off to their beds, and thought I would
+leave the rest of the business till the next day; but before midnight
+Andrew was raving, and the affair was out of my hands altogether."
+
+"It is a wonder Christina did not go after her lad."
+
+"What are you talking about, Sabrina? It would have been a world's
+wonder and a black, burning shame if my girl had gone after her lad in
+such a calamitous time. No, no, Christina Binnie isn't the kind of girl
+that shrinks in the wetting. When her time of trial came, she did the
+whole of her duty, showing herself day by day a witness and a testimony
+to her decent, kirk-going forefathers."
+
+"And so Andrew has found out he was wrong and Jamie Logan right?"
+
+"Aye, he has. And the very minute he did so, he made up his mind to
+seek the lad far and near and confess his fault."
+
+"And bring him back to Christina?"
+
+"Just so. What for not? He parted them, and he has the right and duty
+to bring them together again, though it take the best years of his life
+and the last bawbee of his money."
+
+"Folks were saying his money was all spent."
+
+"Folks are far wrong then. Andrew has all the money he ever had. Andrew
+isn't a bragger, and his money has been silent so far, but it will
+speak ere long."
+
+"With money to the fore, you shouldn't have been so scrimpit with
+yourselves in such a time of work and trouble. Folks noticed it."
+
+"I don't believe in wasting anything, Sabrina, even grief. I did not
+spend a penny, nor a tear, nor a bit of strength, that was useless.
+What for should I? And if folks noticed we were scrimpit, why didn't
+they think about helping us? No, thank God! We have enough and a good
+bit to spare, for all that has come and gone, and if it pleases the
+Maker of Happiness to bring Jamie Logan back again, we will have a
+bridal that will make a monumental year in Pittendurie."
+
+"I am glad to hear tell o' that. I never did approve of two or three at
+a wedding. The more the merrier."
+
+"That is a very sound observe. My Christina will have a wedding to be
+seen and heard tell of from one sacramental occasion to another."
+
+"Well, then, good luck to Andrew Binnie, and may he come soon home and
+well home, and sorrow of all kinds keep a day's sail behind him. And
+surely he will go back to the boats when he has saved his conscience,
+for there is never a better sailor and fisher on the North Sea. The men
+were all saying that when he was so ill."
+
+"It is the very truth. Andrew can read the sea as well as the minister
+can read the Book. He never turns his back on it; his boat is always
+ready to kiss the wind in its teeth. I have been with him when _rip!
+rip! rip_! went her canvas; but I hadn't a single fear, I knew the lad
+at the helm. I knew he would bring her to her bearings beautifully. He
+always did, and then how the gallant bit of a creature would shake
+herself and away like a sea-gull. My Andrew is a son of the sea as all
+his forbears were. Its salt is in his blood, and when the tide is going
+with a race and a roar, and the break of the waves and the howl of the
+wind is like a thousand guns, then Andrew Binnie is in the element he
+likes best; aye, though his boat be spinning round like a laddie's
+top."
+
+"Well, Janet, I will be going."
+
+"Mind this, Sabrina, I have told you all to my heart's keel; and if
+folks are saying to you that Jamie has given Christina the slip, or
+that the Binnies are scrimpit for poverty's sake, or the like of any
+other ill-natured thing, you will be knowing how to answer them."
+
+"'Deed, I will! And I am real glad things are so well with you all,
+Janet."
+
+"Well, and like to be better, thank God, as soon as Andrew gets back
+from foreign parts."
+
+In the meantime, Andrew, after a pleasant sail, had reached New York.
+He made many friends on the ship, and in the few days of bad weather
+usually encountered came to the front, as he always did when winds were
+blowing and sailor-men had to wear oil skins. The first sight of the
+New World made him silent. He was too prudent to hazard an opinion
+about any place so remote and so strange, though he cautiously admitted
+"the lift was as blue as in Scotland and the sunshine not to speak ill
+of." But as his ideas of large towns had been formed upon Edinburgh and
+Glasgow, he could hardly admire New York. "It looks," he said to an
+acquaintance who was showing him the city, "it looks as if it had been
+built in a hurry;" for he was thinking of the granite streets and piers
+of Glasgow. "Besides," he added, "there is no romance or beauty about
+it; it is all straight lines and squares. Man alive! you should see
+Edinburgh the sel of it, the castle, and the links, and the bonnie
+terraces, and the Highland men parading the streets, it is just a bit
+of poetry made out of builders stones."
+
+With the information he had received from the mate of the "Circassia,"
+and his advice and directions, Andrew had little difficulty in locating
+Jamie Logan. He found his name in the list of seamen sailing a steamer
+between New York and New Orleans; and this steamer was then lying at
+her pier on the North River. It was not very hard to obtain permission
+to interview Jamie, and armed with this authority, he went to the ship
+one very hot afternoon about four o'clock.
+
+Jamie was at the hold, attending to the unshipping of cargo; and as he
+lifted himself from the stooping attitude which his work demanded, he
+saw Andrew Binnie approaching him. He pretended, however, not to see
+him, and became suddenly very deeply interested in the removal of a
+certain case of goods. Andrew was quite conscious of the affectation,
+but he did not blame Jamie; it only made him the more anxious to atone
+for the wrong he had done. He stepped rapidly forward, and with
+extended hands said:--
+
+"Jamie Logan, I have come all the way from Scotland to ask you to
+forgive me. I thought wrong of you, and I said wrong to you, and I am
+sorry for it. Can you pass it by for Christ's sake?"
+
+Jamie looked into the speaker's face, frankly and gravely, but with the
+air of a man who has found something he thought lost. He took Andrew's
+hands in his own hands and answered:--
+
+"Aye, I can forgive you with all my heart. I knew you would come to
+yourself some day, Andrew; but it has seemed a long time waiting. I
+have not a word against you now. A man that can come three thousand
+miles to own up to a wrong is worth forgiving. How is Christina?"
+
+"Christina is well, but tired-like with the care of me through my long
+sickness. She has sent you a letter, and here it is. The poor lass has
+suffered more than either of us; but never a word of complaining from
+her. Jamie, I have promised her to bring you back with me. Can you
+come?"
+
+"I will go back to Scotland with you gladly, if it can be managed. I am
+fair sick for the soft gray skies, and the keen, salt wind of the North
+Sea. Last Sabbath Day I was in New Orleans--fairly baking with the heat
+of the place--and I thought I heard the kirk bells across the sands,
+and saw Christina stepping down the cliff with the Book in her hands
+and her sweet smile making all hearts but mine happy. Andrew man, I
+could not keep the tears out of my een, and my heart was away down to
+my feet, and I was fairly sick with longing."
+
+They left the ship together and spent the night in each other's
+company. Their room was a small one, in a small river-side hotel, hot
+and close smelling; but the two men created their own atmosphere. For
+as they talked of their old life, the clean, sharp breezes of
+Pittendurie swept through the stifling room; they tasted the brine on
+the wind's wings, and felt the wet, firm sands under their feet. Or
+they talked of the fishing boats, until they could see their sails
+bellying out, as they lay down just enough to show they felt the fresh
+wind tossing the spray from their bows and lifting themselves over the
+great waves as if they stepped over them.
+
+Before they slept, they had talked themselves into a fever of home
+sickness, and the first work of the next day was to make arrangements
+for Jamie's release from his obligations. There was some delay and
+difficulty about this matter, but it was finally completed to the
+satisfaction of all parties, and Andrew and Jamie took the next Anchor
+Line steamer for Glasgow.
+
+On the voyage home, the two men got very close to each other, not in
+any accidental mood of confidence, but out of a thoughtful and assured
+conviction of respect. Andrew told Jamie all about his lost money and
+the plans for his future which had been dependent on it, and Jamie
+said--
+
+"No wonder you went off your health and senses with the thought of your
+loss, Andrew I would have been less sensible than you. It was an awful
+experience, man, I cannot tell how you tholed it at all."
+
+"Well, I didn't thole it, Jamie. I just broke down under it, and God
+Almighty and my mother and sister had to carry me through the ill time;
+but all is right now. I shall have the boat I was promised, and at the
+long last be Captain Binnie of the Red-White Fleet. And what for
+shouldn't you take a berth with me? I shall have the choosing of my
+officers, and we will strike hands together, if you like it, and you
+shall be my second mate to start with."
+
+"I should like nothing better than to sail with you and under you,
+Andrew. I couldn't find a captain more to my liking."
+
+"Nor I a better second mate. We both know our business, and we shall
+manage it cleverly and brotherly."
+
+So Jamie's future was settled before the men reached Pittendurie, and
+the new arrangement well talked over, and Andrew and his proposed
+brother-in-law were finger and thumb about it. This was a good thing
+for Andrew, for his secretive, self-contained disposition was his weak
+point, and had been the cause of all his sorrow and loss of time and
+suffering.
+
+They had written a letter in New York and posted it the day they left,
+advising Janet and Christina of the happy home-coming; but both men
+forgot, or else did not know, that the letter came on the very same
+ship with themselves, and might therefore or might not reach home
+before them. It depended entirely on the postal authority in
+Pittendurie. If she happened to be in a mood to sort the letters as
+soon as they arrived, and then if she happened to see any one passing
+who could carry a letter to Janet Binnie, the chances were that Janet
+would receive the intelligence of her son's arrival in time to make
+some preparation for it.
+
+As it happened, these favourable circumstances occurred, and about four
+o'clock one afternoon, as Janet was returning up the cliff from Isobel
+Murray's, she met little Tim Galloway with the letter in his hand.
+
+"It is from America," said the laddie, "and my mother told me to hurry
+myself with it. Maybe there is folk coming after it."
+
+"I'll give you a bawbee for the sense of your words, Tim," answered
+Janet; and she hastened herself and flung the letter into Christina's
+lap, saying:--
+
+"Open it, lassie, it will be full of good news. I shouldn't wonder if
+both lads were on their way home again."
+
+"Mother, Mother, they _are_ home; they will be here anon, they will be
+here this very night. Oh, Mother, I must put on my best gown and my
+gold ear-rings and brush my hair, and you'll be setting forward the tea
+and making a white pudding; for Jamie, you know, was always saying none
+but you could mix the meal and salt and pepper, and toast it as it
+should be done."
+
+"I shall look after the men's eating, Christina, and you make yourself
+as braw as you like to. Jamie has been long away, and he must have a
+full welcome home again."
+
+They were both as excited as two happy children; perhaps Janet was most
+evidently so, for she had never lost her child-heart, and everything
+pleasant that happened was a joy and a wonder to her. She took out her
+best damask table-cloth, and opened her bride chest for the real china
+kept there so carefully; and she made the white pudding with her own
+hands, and ran down the cliff for fresh fish and the lamb chops which
+were Andrew's special luxury. And Christina made the curds and cream,
+and swept the hearth, and set the door wide open for the home-comers.
+
+And as good fortune comes where it is looked for, Andrew and Jamie
+entered the cottage just as everything was ready for them. There was no
+waiting, no cooled welcome, no spoiled dainties, no disappointment of
+any kind. Life was taken up where it had been most pleasantly dropped;
+all the interval of doubt and suffering was put out of remembrance, and
+when the joyful meal had been eaten, as Janet washed her cups and
+saucers and tidied her house, they talked of the happy future before
+them.
+
+"And I'll tell you what, bairnies," said the dear old woman as she
+stood folding her real china in the tissue paper devoted to that
+purpose, "I'll tell you what, bairnies, good will asks for good deeds,
+and I'll show my good will by giving Christina the acre of land next my
+own. If Jamie is to go with you, Andrew, and your home is to be with
+me, lad--"
+
+"Where else would it be, Mother?"
+
+"Well, then, where else need Jamie's home be but in Pittendurie? I'll
+give the land for his house, and what will you do, Andrew? Speak for
+your best self, my lad."
+
+"I will give my sister Christina one hundred gold sovereigns and the
+silk wedding-gown I promised her."
+
+"Oh, Andrew, my dear brother, how will I ever thank you as I ought to?"
+
+"I owe you more, Christina, than I can count."
+
+"No, no, Andrew," said Janet. "What has Christina done that siller can
+pay for? You can't buy love with money, and gold isn't in exchange for
+it. Your gift is a good-will gift. It isn't a paid debt, God be
+thanked!"
+
+The very next day the little family went into Largo, and the acre was
+legally transferred, and Jamie made arrangements for the building of
+his cottage. But the marriage did not wait on the building; it was
+delayed no longer than was necessary for the making of the silk
+wedding-gown. This office Griselda Kilgour undertook with much
+readiness and an entire oblivion of Janet's unadvised allusions to her
+age. And more than this, Griselda dressed the bride with her own hands,
+adding to her costume a bonnet of white tulle and orange blossoms that
+was the admiration of the whole village, and which certainly had a
+bewitching effect above Christina's waving black hair, and shining
+eyes, and marvellous colouring.
+
+And, as Janet desired, the wedding was a holiday for the whole of
+Pittendurie. Old and young were bid to it, and for two days the dance,
+the feast, and the song went gayly on, and for two days not a single
+fishing boat left the little port of Pittendurie. Then the men went out
+to sea again, and the women paid their bride visits, and the children
+finished all the dainties that were else like to be wasted, and life
+gradually settled back into its usual grooves.
+
+But though Jamie went to the fishing, pending Andrew's appointment to
+his steamboat, Janet and Christina had a never-ceasing interest in the
+building and plenishing of Christina's new home. It was not
+fashionable, nor indeed hardly permissible, for any one to build a
+house on a plan grander than the traditional fisher cottage; but
+Christina's, though no larger than her neighbours', had the modern
+convenience of many little closets and presses, and these Janet filled
+with homespun napery, linseys, and patch-work, so that never a young
+lass in Pittendurie began life under such full and happy circumstances.
+
+In the fall of the year the new fire was lit on the new hearth, and
+Christina moved into her own home. It was only divided from her
+mother's by a strip of garden and a low fence, and the two women could
+stand in their open doors and talk to each other. And during the summer
+all had gone well. Jamie had been fortunate and made money, and Andrew
+had perfected all his arrangements, so that one morning in early
+September, the whole village saw "The Falcon" come to anchor in the
+bay, and Captain Binnie, in his gold-buttoned coat and gold-banded cap,
+take his place on her bridge, with Jamie, less conspicuously attired,
+attending him.
+
+It was a proud day for Janet and Christina, though Janet, guided by
+some fine instinct, remained in her own home, and made no afternoon
+calls. "I don't want to force folk to say either kind or unkind things
+to me," she said to her daughter. "You know, Christina, it is a deal
+harder to rejoice with them that rejoice than to weep with them that
+weep. Sabrina Roy, as soon as she got her eyes on Andrew in his
+trimmings, perfectly changed colours with envy; and we have been a
+speculation to far and near, more than one body saying we were going
+fairly to the mischief with out extravagance. They thought poverty had
+us under her black thumb, and they did not think of the hand of God,
+which was our surety."
+
+However, that afternoon Janet had a great many callers, and not a few
+came up the cliff out of real kindness, for, doubt as we will, there is
+a constant inflowing of God into human affairs. And Janet, in her
+heart, did not doubt her neighbours readily; she took the homage
+rendered in a very pleased and gracious manner, and she made a cup of
+tea and a little feast for her company, and the clash and clatter in
+the Binnie cottage that afternoon was exceedingly full of good wishes
+and compliments. Indeed, as Janet reviewed them afterwards, they
+provoked from her a broad smile, and she said with a touch of
+good-natured criticism:--
+
+"If we could make compliments into silk gowns, Christina, you and I
+would be bonnily clad for the rest of our lives. Nobody said a
+nattering word but poor Bella McLean, and she has been soured and sore
+kept down in the world by a ne'er-do-weel of a husband."
+
+"She should try and guide him better," said Christina. "If he was my
+man, I would put him through his facings."
+
+"_Toots_, Christina. You are over young in the marriage state to offer
+opinions about men folk. As far as I can see, every woman can guide a
+bad husband but the poor soul that has the ill-luck to have one. Open
+the Book now, and let us thank God for the good day He has given us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"TAKE ME IN TO DIE!"
+
+
+After this, the pleasant months went by with nothing but Andrew's and
+Jamie's visits to mark them, and, every now and then, a sough of sorrow
+from the big house of Braelands. And now that her own girl was so
+happily settled, Janet began to have a longing anxiety about poor
+Sophy. She heard all kinds of evil reports concerning the relations
+between her and her husband, and twice during the winter there was a
+rumour, hardly hushed up, of a separation between them.
+
+Isobel Murray, to whom at first Sophy turned in her sorrow, had not
+responded to any later confidences. "My man told me to neither listen
+nor speak against Archie Braelands," she said to Janet. "We have our
+own boat to guide, and Sophy cannot be a friend to us; while it is very
+sure Braelands can be an enemy beyond our 'don't care.' Six little lads
+and lassies made folk mind their own business. And I'm no very sure but
+what Sophy's troubles are Sophy's own making. At any rate, she isn't
+faultless; you be to have both flint and stone to strike fire."
+
+"I'll not hear you say the like of that, Isobel. Sophy may be misguided
+and unwise, but there is not a wrong thought in her heart. The bit
+vanity of the young thing was her only fault, and I'm thinking she has
+paid sorely for it."
+
+All winter, such vague and miserable bits of gossip found their way
+into the fishing village, and one morning in the following spring,
+Janet met a young girl who frequently went to Braelands House with
+fresh fish. She was then on her way home from such an errand, and Janet
+fancied there was a look of unusual emotion on her broad, stolid face.
+
+"Maggie-Ann," she said, stopping her, "where have you been this
+morning?"
+
+"Up to Braelands."  "And what did you see or hear tell of?"
+
+"I saw nothing; but I heard more than I liked to hear."
+
+"About Mistress Braelands? You know, Maggie-Ann, that she is my own
+flesh and blood, and I be to feel her wrongs my wrongs."
+
+"Surely, Janet There had been a big stir, and you could feel it in the
+very air of the house. The servants were feared to speak or to step,
+and when the door opened, the sound of angry words and of somebody
+crying was plain to be heard. Jean Craigie, the cook, told me it was
+about the Dower House. The mistress wants to get away from her
+mother-in-law, and she had been begging her husband to go and live in
+the Dower House with her, since Madame would not leave them their own
+place."
+
+"She is right," answered Janet boldly. "I wouldn't live with that fine
+old sinner myself, and I think there are few women in Fife I couldn't
+talk back to if I wanted. Sophy ought never to have bided with her for
+a day. They have no business under the same roof. A baby and a popish
+inquisitor would be as well matched."
+
+It had, indeed, come at last to Sophy's positive refusal to live longer
+with her mother-in-law. In a hundred ways the young wife felt her
+inability to cope with a woman so wise and so wicked, and she had
+finally begun to entreat Archie to take her away from Braelands. The
+man was in a strait which could end only in anger. He was completely
+under his mother's influence, while Sophy's influence had been
+gradually weakened by Madame's innuendos and complaints, her pity for
+Archie, and her tattle of visitors. These things were bad enough; but
+Sophy's worst failures came from within herself. She had been snubbed
+and laughed at, scolded and corrected, until she had lost all
+spontaneity and all the grace and charm of her natural manner. This
+condition would not have been so readily brought about, had she
+retained her health and her flower-like beauty. But after the birth of
+her child she faded slowly away. She had not the strength for a
+constant, never-resting assertion of her rights, and nothing less would
+have availed her; nor had she the metal brightness to expose or
+circumvent the false and foolish positions in which Madame habitually
+placed her.
+
+Little by little, the facts of the unhappy case leaked out, and were
+warmly commented on by the fisher-families with whom Sophy was
+connected either by blood or friendship. Her father's shipmates were
+many of them living and she had cousins of every degree among the
+nets--men and women who did not forget the motherless, fatherless
+lassie who had played with their own children. These people made Archie
+feel their antagonism. They would neither take his money, nor give him
+their votes, nor lift their bonnets to his greeting. And though such
+honest, primitive feelings were proper enough, they did not help Sophy.
+On the contrary, they strengthened Madame's continual assertion that
+her son's marriage had ruined his public career and political
+prospects. Still there is nothing more wonderful than the tugs and
+twists the marriage tie will bear. There were still days in which
+Archie--either from love, or pity, or contradiction, or perhaps from a
+sense of simple justice--took his wife's part so positively that Madame
+must have been discouraged if she had been a less understanding woman.
+As it was, she only smiled at such fitful affection, and laid her plans
+a little more carefully. And as the devil strengthens the hands of
+those who do his work, Madame received a potent reinforcement in the
+return home of her nearest neighbour, Miss Marion Glamis. As a girl,
+she had been Archie's friend and playmate; then she had been sent to
+Paris for her education, and afterwards travelled extensively with her
+father who was a man of very comfortable fortune. Marion herself had a
+private income, and Madame had been accustomed to believe that when
+Archie married, he would choose Marion Glamis for his wife.
+
+She was a tall, high-coloured, rather mannish-looking girl, handsome in
+form, witty in speech, and disposed towards field sports of every kind.
+She disliked Sophy on sight, and Madame perceived it, and easily worked
+on the girl's worst feelings. Besides, Marion had no lover at the time,
+and she had come home with the idea of Archie Braelands tilling such
+imagination as she possessed. To find herself supplanted by a girl of
+low birth, "without a single advantage" as she said frankly to Archie's
+mother, provoked and humiliated her. "She has not beauty, nor grace,
+nor wit, nor money, nor any earthly thing to recommend her to Archie's
+notice. Was the man under a spell?" she asked.
+
+"Indeed she had a kind of beauty and grace when Archie married her,"
+answered Madame; "I must admit that. But bringing her to Braelands was
+like transplanting a hedge flower into a hot-house. She has just wilted
+ever since."
+
+"Has she been noticed by Archie's friends at all?"
+
+"I have taken good care she did not see much of Archie's friends, and
+her ill health has been a splendid excuse for her seclusion. Yet it was
+strange how much the few people she met admired her. Lady Blair goes
+into italics every time she comes here about 'The Beauty', and the
+Bells, and Curries, and Cupars, have done their best to get her to
+visit them. I knew better than permit such folly. She would have told
+all sorts of things, and raised the country-side against me; though,
+really, no one will ever know what I have gone through in my efforts to
+lick the cub into shape!"
+
+Marion laughed, and, Archie coming in at that moment, she launched all
+her high spirits and catches and witticisms at him. Her brilliancy and
+colour and style were very effective, and there was a sentimental
+remembrance for the foundation of a flirtation which Marion very
+cleverly took advantage of, and which Archie was not inclined to deny.
+His life was monotonous, he was ennuye, and this bold, bright
+incarnation, with her half disguised admiration for himself, was an
+irresistible new interest.
+
+So their intimacy soon became frequent and friendly. There were
+horseback rides together in the mornings, sails in the afternoons, and
+duets on the piano in the evenings. Then her Parisian toilets made poor
+Sophy's Largo dresses look funnily dowdy, and her sharp questions and
+affected ignorances of Sophy's meanings and answers were cleverly aided
+by Madame's cold silences, lifted brows, and hopeless acceptance of
+such an outside barbarian. Long before a dinner was over, Sophy had
+been driven into silence, and it was perhaps impossible for her to
+avoid an air of offence and injury, so that Marion had the charming in
+her own hands. After dinner, Admiral Glamis and Madame usually played a
+game of chess, and Archie sang or played duets with Marion, while
+Sophy, sitting sadly unnoticed and unemployed, watched her husband give
+to his companion such smiles and careful attentions as he had used to
+win her own heart.
+
+What regrets and fears and feelings of wrong troubled her heart during
+these unhappy summer evenings, God only knew. Sometimes her presence
+seemed to be intolerable to Madame, who would turn to her and say
+sharply: "You are worn out, Sophy, and it is hardly fair to impose your
+weariness and low spirits on us. Had you not better go to your room?"
+Occasionally, Sophy refused to notice this covert order, and she
+fancied that there was generally a passing expression of pleasure on
+her husband's face at her rebellion. More frequently, she was glad to
+escape the slow, long torture, and she would rise, and go through the
+formality of shaking hands with each person and bidding each
+"good-night" ere she left the room. "Fisher manners," Madame would
+whisper impatiently to Marion. "I cannot teach her a decent effacement
+of her personality." For this little ceremony always ended in Archie's
+escorting her upstairs, and so far he had never neglected this formal
+deference due his wife. Sometimes too he came back from the duty very
+distrait and unhappy-looking, a circumstance always noted by Madame
+with anger and scorn.
+
+To such a situation, any tragedy was a possible culmination, and day by
+day there was a more reckless abuse of its opportunities. Madame, when
+alone with Sophy, did not now scruple to regret openly the fact that
+Marion was not her daughter-in-law, and if Marion happened to be
+present, she gave way to her disappointment in such ejaculations as--
+
+"Oh! Marion Glamis, why did you stay away so long? Why did you not come
+home before Archie's life was ruined?" And the girl would sigh and
+answer: "Is not my life ruined also? Could any one have imagined Archie
+Braelands would have an attack of insanity?" Then Sophy, feeling her
+impotence between the tongues of her two enemies, would rise and go
+away, more or less angrily or sadly, followed through the hall and
+half-way upstairs by the snickering, confidential laughter of their
+common ridicule.
+
+At the latter end of June, Admiral Glamis proposed an expedition to
+Norway. They were to hire a yacht, select a merry party, and spend July
+and August sailing and fishing in the cool fiords of that picturesque
+land. Archie took charge of all the arrangements. He secured a yacht,
+and posted a notice in the Public House of Pittendurie for men to sail
+her. He had no doubt of any number of applications; for the work was
+light and pleasant, and much better paid than any fishing-job. But not
+a man presented himself, and not even when Archie sought out the best
+sailors and those accustomed to the cross seas between Scotland and
+Norway, could he induce any one to take charge of the yacht and man
+her. The Admiral's astonishment at Archie's lack of influence among his
+own neighbours and tenants was not very pleasant to bear, and Marion
+openly said:--
+
+"They are making cause with your wife, Archie, against you. They
+imagine themselves very loyal and unselfish. Fools! a few extra
+sovereigns would be much better."
+
+"But why make cause for my wife against me, Marion?" asked Archie.
+
+"You know best; ask Madame, she is my authority," and she shrugged her
+shoulders and went laughing from his side.
+
+Nothing in all his married life had so annoyed Archie as this dour
+displeasure of men who had always before been glad to serve him. Madame
+was indignant, sorrowful, anxious, everything else that could further
+irritate her angry son; and poor Sophy might well have prayed in those
+days "deliver me from my friends!" But at length the yacht was ready
+for sea, and Archie ran upstairs in the middle of one hot afternoon to
+bid his wife "goodbye!"
+
+She was resting on her bed, and he never forgot the eager, wistful,
+longing look of the wasted white face on the white pillow. He told her
+to take care of herself for his sake. He told her not to let any one
+worry or annoy her. He kissed her tenderly, and then, after he had
+closed the door, he came back and kissed her again; and there were days
+coming in which it was some comfort to him to remember this trifling
+kindness.
+
+"You will not forget me, Archie?" she asked sadly.
+
+"I will not, sweetheart," he answered.
+
+"You will write me a letter when you can, dear?"
+
+"I will be sure to do so."
+
+"You--you--you will love me best of all?"
+
+"How can I help it? Don't cry now. Send me away with a smile."
+
+"Yes, dear. I will try and be happy, and try and get well."
+
+"I am sorry you cannot go with us, Sophy."
+
+"I am sorry too, Archie; but I could not bear the knocking about, and
+the noise and bustle, and the merry-making. I should only spoil your
+pleasure. I wouldn't like to do that, dear. Good-bye, and good-bye."
+
+For a few minutes he was very miserable. A sense of shame came over
+him. He felt that he was unkind, selfish, and quite unworthy of the
+tender love given him. But in half an hour he was out at sea, Marion
+was at his side, the Admiral was consulting him about the cooling of
+the dinner wines, the skipper was promising them a lively sail with a
+fair wind--and the white, loving face went out of his memory, and out
+of his consideration.
+
+Yet while he was sipping wine and singing songs with Marion Glamis, and
+looking with admiration into her rosy, glowing face, Sophy was
+suffering all the slings and arrows of Madame's outrageous hatred. She
+complained all dinner-time, even while the servants were present, of
+the deprivation she had to endure for Sophy's sake. The fact was she
+had not been invited to join the yachting-party, two very desirable
+ladies having refused to spend two months in her society. But she
+ignored this fact, and insisted on the fiction that she had been
+compelled to remain at home to look after Sophy.
+
+"I wish you had gone! Oh, I wish you had gone and left me in peace!"
+cried the poor wife at last in a passion. "I could have been happy if I
+had been left to myself."
+
+"And your low relations! You have made mischief enough with them for
+Archie, poor fellow! Don't tell me that you make no complaints. The
+shameful behaviour of those vulgar fishermen, refusing to sail a yacht
+for Braelands, is proof positive of your underhand ways."
+
+"My relations are not low. They would scorn to do the low, cruel,
+wicked things some people who call themselves 'high born' do all the
+time. But low or high, they are mine, and while Archie is away, I
+intend to see them as often as I can."
+
+This little bit of rebellion was the one thing in which she could show
+herself Mistress of Braelands; for she knew that she could rely on
+Thomas to bring the carriage to her order. So the next morning she went
+very early to call on Griselda Kilgour. Griselda had not seen her niece
+for some time, and she was shocked at the change in her appearance,
+indeed, she could hardly refrain the exclamations of pity and fear that
+flew to her lips.
+
+"Send the carriage to the _Queens Arms_," she said, "and stay with me
+all day, Sophy, my dear."
+
+"Very well, Aunt, I am tired enough. Let me lie down on the sofa, and
+take off my bonnet and cloak. My clothes are just a weight and a
+weariness."
+
+"Aren't you well, dearie?"
+
+"I must be sick someway, I think. I can't sleep, and I can't eat; and I
+am that weak I haven't the strength or spirit to say a word back to
+Madame, however ill her words are to me."
+
+"I heard that Braelands had gone away?"
+
+"Aye, for two months."
+
+"With the Glamis crowd?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why didn't you go too?"
+
+"I couldn't thole the sail, nor the company."
+
+"Do you like Miss Glamis?"
+
+"I'm feared I hate her. Oh! Aunt, she makes love to Archie before my
+very eyes, and Madame tells me morning, noon, and night, that she was
+his first love and ought to have married him."
+
+"I wouldn't stand the like of that. But Archie is not changed to you,
+dearie?"
+
+"I cannot say he is; but what man can be aye with a fond woman, bright
+and bonnie, and not think of her as he shouldn't think? I'm not blaming
+Archie much. It is Madame and Miss Glamis, and above all my own
+shortcomings. I can't talk, I can't dress, I can't walk, nor in any way
+act, as that set of women do. I am like a fish out of its element. It
+is bonnie enough in the water; but it only flops and dies if you take
+it out of the water and put it on the dry land. I wish I had never seen
+Archie Braelands! If I hadn't, I would have married Andrew Binnie, and
+been happy and well enough."
+
+"You were hearing that he is now Captain Binnie of the Red-White
+Fleet?"
+
+"Aye, I heard. Madame was reading about it in the Largo paper. Andrew
+is a good man, Aunt. I am glad of his good luck."
+
+"Christina is well married too. You were hearing of that?"
+
+"Aye; but tell me all about it."
+
+So Griselda entered into a narration which lasted until Sophy slipped
+into a deep slumber. And whether it was simply the slumber of utter
+exhaustion, or whether it was the sweet oblivion which results from a
+sense of peace long denied, or perhaps the union of both these
+conditions, the result was that she lay wrapped in an almost lethargic
+sleep for many hours. Twice Thomas came with the carriage, and twice
+Griselda sent him away. And the man shook his head sadly and said:--
+
+"Let her alone; I wouldn't be the one to wake her up for all my place
+is worth. It may be a health sleep."
+
+"Aye, it may be," answered Griselda, "but I have heard old folk say
+that such black, deep sleep is sent to fit the soul for some calamity
+lying in wait for it. It won't be lucky to wake her anyway."
+
+"No, and I am thinking nothing worse can come to the little mistress
+than the sorrow she is tholing now. I'll be back in an hour, Miss
+Kilgour."
+
+Thus it happened that it was late in the afternoon when Sophy returned
+to her home, and her rest had so refreshed her that she was more than
+usually able to hold her own with Madame. Many unpardonable words were
+said on both sides; and the quarrel, thus early inaugurated, raged from
+day to-day, either in open recrimination, or in a still more
+distressing interference with all Sophy's personal desires and
+occupations. The servants were, in a measure, compelled to take part in
+the unnatural quarrel; and before three weeks were over, Sophy's
+condition was one of such abnormal excitement that she was hardly any
+longer accountable for her actions. The final blow was struck while she
+was so little able to bear it. A letter from Archie, posted in
+Christiania and addressed to his wife, came one morning. As Sophy was
+never able to come down to breakfast, Madame at once appropriated the
+letter. When she had read it and finished her breakfast, she went to
+Sophy's room.
+
+"I have had a letter from Archie," she said.
+
+"Was there none for me?"
+
+"No; but I thought you might like to know that Archie says he never was
+so happy in all his life. The Admiral, and Marion, and he, are in
+Christiania for a week or two, and enjoying themselves every minute of
+the time. Dear Marion! _She_ knows how to make Archie happy. It is a
+great shame I could not be with them."
+
+"Is there any message for me?"
+
+"Not a word. I suppose Archie knew I should tell you all that it was
+necessary for you to know."
+
+"Please go away; I want to go to sleep."
+
+"You want to cry. You do nothing but sleep and cry, and cry and sleep;
+no wonder you have tired Archie's patience out."
+
+"I have not tired Archie out. Oh, I wish he was here! I wish he was
+here!"
+
+"He will be back in five or six weeks, unless Marion persuades him to
+go to the Mediterranean--and, as the Admiral is so fond of the sea,
+that move is not unlikely."
+
+"Please go away."
+
+"I shall be only too happy to do so."
+
+Now it happened that the footman, in taking in the mail, had noticed
+the letter for Sophy, and commented on it in the kitchen; and every
+servant in the house had been glad for the joy it would bring to the
+lonely, sick woman. So there was nothing remarkable in her maid saying,
+as she dressed her mistress:--
+
+"I hope Mr. Braelands is well; and though I say it as perhaps I
+shouldn't say it, we was all pleased at your getting Master's letter
+this morning. We all hope it will make you feel brighter and stronger,
+I'm sure."
+
+"The letter was Madame's letter, not mine, Leslie."
+
+"Indeed, it was not, ma'am. Alexander said himself, and I heard him,
+'there is a long letter for Mrs. Archibald this morning,' and we were
+all that pleased as never was."
+
+"Are you sure, Leslie?"
+
+"Yes, I am sure."
+
+"Go down-stairs and ask Alexander."
+
+Leslie went and came back immediately with Alexander's positive
+assertion that the letter was directed to _Mrs. Archibald Braelands,_
+Sophy made no answer, but there was a swift and remarkable change in
+her appearance and manner. She put her physical weakness out of her
+consideration, and with a flush on her cheeks and a flashing light in
+her eyes, she went down to the parlour. Madame had a caller with her, a
+lady of not very decided position, who was therefore eager to please
+her patron; but Sophy was beyond all regard for such conventionalities
+as she had been ordered to observe. She took no notice of the visitor,
+but going straight to Madame, she said:--
+
+"You took my letter this morning. You had no right to take it; you had
+no right to read it; you had no right to make up lies from it and come
+to my bedside with them. Give me my letter."
+
+Madame turned to her visitor. "You see this impossible creature!" she
+cried. "She demands from me a letter that never came."  "It did come.
+You have my letter. Give it to me."
+
+"My dear Sophy, go to your room. You are not in a fit state to see any
+one."
+
+"Give me my letter. At least, let me see the letter that came."
+
+"I shall do nothing of the kind. If you choose to suspect me, you must
+do so. Can I make your husband write to you?"
+
+"He did write to me."
+
+"Mrs. Stirling, do you wonder now at my son's running away from his
+home?"
+
+"Indeed I am fairly astonished at what I see and hear."
+
+"Sophy, you foolish woman, do not make any greater exhibit of yourself
+that you have done. For heaven's sake, go to your own room. I have only
+my own letter, and I told you all of importance in it."
+
+"Every servant in the house knows that the letter was mine."
+
+"What the servants know is nothing to me. Now, Sophy, I will stand no
+more of this; either you leave the room, or Mrs. Stirling and I will do
+so. Remember that you have betrayed yourself. I am not to blame."
+
+"What do you mean, Madame?"
+
+"I mean that you may have hallucinations, but that you need not exhibit
+them to the world. For my son's sake, I demand that you go to your
+room."
+
+"I want my letter. For God's sake, have pity on me, and give me my
+letter!"
+
+Madame did not answer, but she took her friend by the arm and they left
+the room together. In the hall Madame saw a servant, and she said
+blandly--
+
+"Go and tell Leslie to look after her mistress, she is in the parlour.
+And you may also tell Leslie that if she allows her to come down again
+in her present mood, she will be dismissed."
+
+"Poor thing!" said Mrs. Stirling. "You must have your hands full with
+her, Madame. Nobody had any idea of such a tragedy as this though I
+must say I have heard many wonder about the lady's seclusion."
+
+"You see the necessity for it. However, we do not wish any talk on the
+subject."
+
+Slowly it came to Sophy's comprehension that she had been treated like
+an insane woman, and her anger, though quiet, was of that kind that
+means action of some sort. She went to her room, but it was only to
+recall the wrong upon wrong, the insult upon insult she had received.
+
+"I will go away from it all," she said. "I will go away until Archie
+returns. I will not sleep another night under the same roof with that
+wicked woman. I will stay away till I die, ere I will do it."
+
+Usually she had little strength for much movement, but at this hour she
+felt no physical weakness. She made Leslie bring her a street costume
+of brown cloth, and she carefully put into her purse all the money she
+had. Then she ordered the carriage and rode as far as her aunt
+Kilgour's. "Come for me in an hour, Thomas," she said, and then she
+entered the shop.
+
+"Aunt, I am come back to you. Will you let me stay with you till Archie
+gets home? I can bide yon dreadful old woman no longer."
+
+"Meaning Madame Braelands?"
+
+"She is just beyond all things. This morning she has kept a letter that
+Archie wrote me; and she has told me a lot of lies in its place. I'm
+not able to thole her another hour."
+
+"I'll tell you what, Sophy, Madame was here since I saw you, and she
+says you are neither to be guided nor endured I don't know who to
+believe."
+
+"Oh! aunt, aunt, you know well I wouldn't tell you a lie. I am so
+miserable! For God's sake, take me in!"
+
+"I'd like to, Sophy, but I'm not free to do so."
+
+"You're putting Madame's bit of siller and the work she's promised you
+from the Glamis girl before my heart-break. Oh, how can you?"
+
+"Sophy, you have lived with me, and I saw you often dissatisfied and
+unreasonable for nothing at all."
+
+"I was a bit foolish lassie then. I am a poor, miserable, sick woman
+now."
+
+"You have no need to be poor, and miserable, and sick. I won't
+encourage you to run away from your home and your duty. At any rate,
+bide where you are till your husband comes back. I would be wicked to
+give you any other advice."
+
+"You mean that you won't let me come and stay with you?"
+
+"No, I won't. I would be your worst enemy if I did."
+
+"Then good-bye. You will maybe be sorry some day for the 'No' you have
+just said."
+
+She went slowly out of the store, and Griselda was very unhappy, and
+called to her to come back and wait for her carriage. She did not heed
+or answer, but walked with evident purpose down a certain street. It
+led her to the railway station, and she went in and took a ticket for
+Edinburgh. She had hardly done so when the train came thundering into
+the station, she stepped into it, and in a few minutes was flying at
+express rate to her destination. She had relatives in Edinburgh, and
+she thought she knew their dwelling place, having called on them with
+her Aunt Kilgour when they were in that city, just previous to her
+marriage. But she found that they had removed, and no one in the
+vicinity knew to what quarter of the town. She was too tired to pursue
+inquiries, or even to think any more that day, and she went to a hotel
+and tried to rest and sleep. In the morning she remembered that her
+mother's cousin, Jane Anderson, lived in Glasgow at some number in
+Monteith Row. The Row was not a long one, even if she had to go from
+house to house to find her relative. So she determined to go on to
+Glasgow.
+
+She felt ill, strangely ill; she was in a burning fever and did not
+know it. Yet she managed to get into the proper train, and to retain
+her consciousness for sometime afterwards, ere she succumbed to the
+inevitable consequences of her condition. Before the train reached its
+destination, however, she was in a desperate state, and the first
+action of the guard was to call a carriage and send her to a hospital.
+
+After this kindness had been done, Sophy was dead to herself and the
+world for nearly three weeks. She remembered nothing, she knew nothing,
+she spoke only in the most disconnected and puzzling manner. For her
+speech wandered between the homely fisher life of her childhood and the
+splendid social life of Braelands. Her personality was equally
+perplexing. The clothing she wore was of the finest quality; her rings,
+and brooch, and jewelled watch, indicated wealth and station; yet her
+speech, especially during the fever, was that of the people, and as she
+began to help herself, she had little natural actions that showed the
+want of early polite breeding. No letter or card, no name or address of
+any kind, was found on her person; she appeared to be as absolutely
+lost as a stone dropped into the deep sea.
+
+And when she came to herself and realised where she was, and found out
+from her attendant the circumstances under which she had been brought
+to the hospital, she was still more reticent. For her first thought
+related to the annoyance Archie would feel at her detention in a public
+hospital; her second, to the unmerciful use Madame would make of the
+circumstance. She could not reason very clearly, but her idea was to
+find her cousin and gain her protection, and then, from that more
+respectable covett, to write to her husband. She might admit her
+illness--indeed, she would be almost compelled to do that, for she had
+fallen away so much, and had had her hair cut short during the height
+of the fever--but Archie and Madame must not know that she had been in
+a public hospital. For fisher-people have a singular dislike to public
+charity of any kind; they help one another. And, to Sophy's
+intelligence, the hospital episode was a disgrace that not even her
+insensibility could quite excuse.
+
+Several weeks passed in that long, spotless, white room full of
+suffering, before Sophy was able to stand upon her feet, before indeed
+she began to realise the passage of time, and the consequences which
+must have followed her long absence and silence. But all her efforts at
+writing were failures. The thought she wished to express slipped off
+into darkness as soon as she tried to write it; her vision failed her,
+her hands failed her; she could only sink back upon her pillow and lie
+inert and almost indifferent for hours afterwards. And as the one
+letter she wished to write was to Archie, she could not depute it to
+any one else. Besides, the nurse would tell _where_ she was, and that
+was a circumstance she must at all hazards keep to herself. It had been
+hot July weather when she was first placed on her hard, weary bed of
+suffering, it was the end of September when she was able to leave the
+hospital. Her purse with its few sovereigns in it was returned to her,
+and the doctor told her kindly, if she had any friends in the world, to
+go at once to their care.
+
+"You have talked a great deal of the sea and the boats," he said; "get
+close to the sea if you can; it is perhaps the best and the only thing
+for you."
+
+She thanked him and answered: "I am going to the Fife coast. I have
+friends there, I think." She put out a little wasted hand, and he
+clasped it with a sigh.
+
+"So young, so pretty, so good," he said to the nurse, as they stood
+watching her walk very feebly and unsteadily away.
+
+"I will give her three months at the longest, if she has love and care.
+I will give her three weeks--nay, I will say three days, if she has to
+care for herself, or if any particular trouble come to her."
+
+Then they turned from the window, and Sophy hired a cab and went to
+Monteith Row to try and find her friends. She wanted to write to her
+husband and ask him to come for her. She thought she could do this best
+from her cousin's home. "I will give her a bonnie ring or two, and I
+will tell her the whole truth, and she will be sure to stand by me, for
+there is nothing wrong to stand by, and blood is aye thicker than
+water." And then her thoughts wandered on to a contingency that brought
+a flush of pain to her cheeks. "Besides, maybe Archie might have an ill
+thought put into his head, and then the doctors and nurses in the
+hospital could tell him what would make all clear." She went through
+many of the houses, inquiring for Ellen Montgomery, but could not find
+her, and she was finally obliged to go to a hotel and rest. "I will
+take the lave of the houses in the morning," she thought, "it is aye
+the last thing that is the right thing; everybody finds that out."
+
+That evening, however, something happened which changed all her ideas
+and intentions. She went into the hotel parlour and sat down; there
+were some newspapers on the table, and she lifted one. It was an
+Edinburgh paper, but the first words her eyes fell on was her husband's
+name. Her heart leaped up at the sight of it, and she read the
+paragraph. Then the paper dropped from her hands. She felt that she was
+going to faint, and by a supreme effort of will she recalled her senses
+and compelled them to stay and suffer with her. Again, and then again,
+she read the paragraph, unable at first to believe what she did read,
+for it was a notice, signed by her husband, advising the world in
+general that she had voluntarily left his home, and that he would no
+longer be responsible for any debt she might contract in his name. To
+her childlike, ignorant nature, this public exposure of her was a final
+act. She felt that it was all the same as a decree of divorce. "Archie
+had cast her off; Madame had at last parted them." For an hour she sat
+still in a very stupour of despair.
+
+"But something might yet be done; yes, something must be done. She
+would go instantly to Fife; she would tell Archie everything. He could
+not blame her for being sick and beyond reason or knowledge. The
+doctors and nurses of the hospital would certify to the truth of all
+she said." Ah! she had only to look in a mirror to know that her own
+wasted face and form would have been testimony enough.
+
+That night she could not move, she had done all that it was possible
+for her to do that day; but on the morrow she would be rested and she
+might trust herself to the noise and bustle of the street and railway.
+The day was well on before she found strength to do this; but at length
+she found herself on the direct road to Largo, though she could hardly
+tell how it had been managed. As she approached the long chain of Fife
+fishing-villages, she bought the newspaper most widely read in them;
+and, to her terror and shame, found the same warning to honest folk
+against her. She was heartsick. With this barrier between Archie and
+herself, how could she go to Braelands? How could she face Madame? What
+mockery would be made of her explanations? No, she must see Archie
+alone. She must tell him the whole truth, somewhere beyond Madame's
+contradiction and influence. Whom should she go to? Her aunt Kilgour
+had turned her away, even before this disgrace. Her cousin Isobel's
+husband had asked her not to come to his house and make loss and
+trouble for him. If she went direct to Braelands, and Archie happened
+to be out of the house, Madame would say such things of her before
+every one as could never be unsaid. If she went to a hotel, she would
+be known, and looked at, and whispered about, and maybe slighted. What
+must she do? Where could she see her husband best? She was at her wit's
+end. She was almost at the end of her physical strength and
+consciousness. And in this condition, two men behind her began to talk
+to the rustle of their turning newspapers.
+
+"This is a queer-like thing about Braelands and his wife," said one.
+
+"It is a very bad thing. If the wife has gane awa', she has been driven
+awa' by bad usage. There is an old woman at Braelands that is as
+evil-hearted as if she had slipped out o' hell for a few years.
+Traill's girl was good and bonnie; she was too good, or she would have
+held her ain side better."
+
+"That may be; but there is a reason deeper than that. The man is
+wanting to marry the Glamis girl. He has already began a suit for
+divorce, I hear. Man, man, there is always a woman at the bottom of
+every sin and trouble!"
+
+Then they began to speak of the crops and the shooting, and Sophy
+listened in vain for more intelligence. But she had heard enough. Her
+soul cried out against the hurry and shame of the steps taken in the
+matter. "So cruel as Archie is!" she sighed. "He might have looked for
+me! He might have found me even in that awful hospital! He ought to
+have done so, and taken me away and nursed me himself! If he had loved
+me! If he had loved me, he would have done these things!". Despair
+chilled her very blood. She had a thought of going to Braelands, even
+if she died on its threshold; and then suddenly she remembered Janet
+Binnie.
+
+As Janet's name came to her mind, the train stopped at Largo, and she
+slipped out among the hurrying crowd and took the shortest road to
+Pittendurie. It was then nearly dark, and the evening quite chill and
+damp; but there was now a decisive end before the dying woman. "She
+must reach Janet Binnie, and then leave all to her. She would bring
+Archie to her side. She would be sufficient for Madame. If this only
+could be managed while she had strength to speak, to explain, to put
+herself right in Archie's eyes, then she would be willing and glad to
+die." Step by step, she stumbled forward, full of unutterable anguish
+of heart, and tortured at every movement by an inability to get breath
+enough to carry her forward.
+
+At last, at last, she came in sight of Janet's cottage. The cliff
+terrified her; but she must get up it, somehow. And as she painfully
+made step after step, a light shone through the open door and seemed to
+give her strength and welcome. Janet had been spending the evening with
+her daughter, and had sat with her until near her bedtime. She was
+doing her last household duties, and the last of all was to close the
+house-door. When she went to do this, a little figure crouched on the
+door-step, two weak hands clasped her round the knees, and the very
+shadow of a thin, pitiful voice sobbed:--
+
+"Janet! Take me in, Janet! Take me in to die! I'll not trouble you
+long--it is most over, Janet!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+DRIVEN TO HIS DUTY
+
+
+Toward this culmination of her troubles Archie had indeed contributed
+far too much, but yet not as much as Sophy thought. He had taken her
+part, he had sought for her, he had very reluctantly come to accept his
+mother's opinions. His trip had not been altogether the heaven Madame
+represented it. The Admiral had proved himself dictatorial and
+sometimes very disagreeable at sea; the other members of the party had
+each some unpleasant peculiarities which the cramped quarters and the
+monotony of yacht life developed. Some had deserted altogether, others
+grumbled more than was agreeable, and Marion's constant high spirits
+proved to be at times a great exaction.
+
+Before the close of the pleasure voyage, Archie frequently went alone
+to remember the sweet, gentle affection of his wife, her delight in his
+smallest attentions, her instant recognition of his desires, her
+patient endeavours to please him, her resignation to all his neglect.
+Her image grew into his best imagination, and when he left the yacht at
+her moorings in Pittendurie Bay, he hastened to Sophy with the
+impatience of a lover who is also a husband.
+
+Madame had heard of his arrival and was watching for her son. She met
+him at the door and he embraced her affectionately, but his first words
+were, "Sophy, I hope she is not ill. Where is she?"
+
+"My dear Archie, no one knows. She left your home three weeks after you
+had sailed."
+
+"My God, Mother, what do you mean?"
+
+"No one knows why she left, no one knows or can find out where she went
+to. Of course, I have my suspicions."
+
+"Sophy! Sophy! Sophy!" he cried, sinking into a chair and covering his
+face, but, whatever Madame's suspicions, she could not but see that
+Archie had not a doubt of his wife's honour. After a few minutes'
+silence, he turned to his mother and said:--
+
+"You have scolded for once, Mother, more than enough. I am sure it is
+your unkindness that has driven my wife from her home. You promised me
+not to interfere with her little plans and pleasures."
+
+"If I am to bear the blame of the woman's low tastes, I decline to
+discuss the matter," and she left the room with an air of great
+offence.
+
+Of course, if Madame would not discuss the matter with him, nothing
+remained but the making of such inquiries as the rest of the household
+could answer. Thomas readily told all he knew, which was the simple
+statement that "he took his mistress to her aunt's and left her there,
+and that when he returned for her, Miss Kilgour was much distressed and
+said she had already left." Archie then immediately sought Miss
+Kilgour, and from her learned the particulars of his wife's
+wretchedness, especially those points relating to the appropriated
+letter. He flushed crimson at this outrage, but made no remark
+concerning it.
+
+"My one desire now," he said, "is to find out where Sophy has taken
+refuge. Can you give me any idea?"
+
+"If she is not in Pittendurie,--and I can find no trace of her
+there,--then I think she may be in Edinburgh or Glasgow. You will mind
+she had cousins in Edinburgh, and she was very kind with them at the
+time of her marriage. I thought of them first of all, and I wrote three
+letters to them; but there has been no answer to any of the three. She
+has friends in Glasgow, but I am sure she had no knowledge as to where
+they lived. Besides, I got their address from kin in Aberdeen and wrote
+there also, and they answered me and said they had never seen or heard
+tell of Sophy. Here is their letter."
+
+Archie read it carefully and was satisfied that Sophy was not in
+Glasgow. The silence of the Edinburgh cousins was more promising, and
+he resolved to go at once to that city and interview them. He did not
+even return to Braelands, but took the next train southward. Of course
+his inquiries utterly failed. He found Sophy's relatives, but their air
+of amazement and their ready and positive denial of all knowledge of
+his lost wife were not to be doubted. Then he returned to Largo. He
+assured himself that Sophy was certainly in hiding among the
+fisher-folk in Pittendurie, and that he would only have to let it be
+known that he had returned for her to appear. Indeed she must have seen
+the yacht at anchor, and he fully expected to find her on the door-step
+waiting for him. As he approached Braelands, he fancied her arms round
+his neck, and saw her small, wistful, flushing face against his breast;
+but it was all a dream. The door was closed, and when it admitted him
+there was nothing but silence and vacant rooms. He was nearly
+distracted with sorrow and anger, and Madame had a worse hour than she
+ever remembered when Archie asked her about the fatal letter that had
+been the active cause of trouble.
+
+"The letter was Sophy's," he said passionately, "and you knew it was.
+How then could you be so shamefully dishonourable as to keep it from
+her?"
+
+"If you choose to reproach me on mere servants' gossip, I cannot
+prevent you."
+
+"It is not servants' gossip. I know by the date on which Sophy left
+home that it must have been the letter I wrote her from Christiania. It
+was a disgraceful, cruel thing for you to do. I can never look you in
+your face again, Mother. I do not feel that I can speak to you, or even
+see you, until my wife has forgiven both you and myself. Oh, if I only
+knew where to look for her!"
+
+"She is not far to seek; she is undoubtedly among her kinsfolk at
+Pittendurie. You may remember, perhaps, how they felt toward you before
+you went away. After you went, she was with them continually."
+
+"Then Thomas lies. He says he never took her anywhere but to her aunt
+Kilgour's."
+
+"I think Thomas is more likely to lie than I am. If you have strength
+to bear the truth, I will tell you what I am convinced of."
+
+"I have strength for anything but this wretched suspense and fear."
+
+"Very well, then, go to the woman called Janet Binnie; you may
+recollect, if you will, that her son Andrew was Sophy's ardent
+lover--so much so, that her marriage to you nearly killed him. He has
+become a captain lately, wears gold buttons and bands, and is really a
+very handsome and important man in the opinion of such people as your
+wife. I believe Sophy is either in his mother's house or else she has
+gone to--London."
+
+"Why London?"
+
+"Captain Binnie sails continually to London. Really, Archie, there are
+none so blind as those who won't see."
+
+"I will not believe such a thing of Sophy. She is as pure and innocent
+as a little child."
+
+Madame laughed scornfully. "She is as pure and innocent as those
+baby-faced women usually are. As a general rule, the worst creature in
+the world is a saint in comparison. What did Sophy steal out at night
+for? Tell me that. Why did she walk to Pittendurie so often? Why did
+she tell me she was going to walk to her aunt's, and then never go?"
+
+"Mother, Mother, are you telling me the truth?"
+
+"Your inquiry is an insult, Archie. And your blindness to Sophy's real
+feelings is one of the most remarkable things I ever saw. Can you not
+look back and see that ever since she married you she has regretted and
+fretted about the step? Her heart is really with her fisher and sailor
+lover. She only married you for what you could give her; and having got
+what you could give her, she soon ceased to prize it, and her love went
+back to Captain Binnie,--that is, if it had ever left him."
+
+Conversation based on these shameful fabrications was continued for
+hours, and Madame, who had thoroughly prepared herself for it, brought
+one bit of circumstantial evidence after another to prove her
+suspicions. The wretched husband was worked to a fury of jealous anger
+not to be controlled. "I will search every cottage in Pittendurie," he
+said in a rage. "I will find Sophy, and then kill her and myself."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Archibald Braelands. Find the woman,--that is
+necessary,--then get a divorce from her, and marry among your own kind.
+Why should you lose your life, or even ruin it, for a fisherman's old
+love? In a year or two you will have forgotten her and thrown the whole
+affair behind your back."
+
+It is easy to understand how a conversation pursued for hours in this
+vein would affect Archie. He was weak and impulsive, ready to suspect
+whatever was suggested, jealous of his own rights and honour, and on
+the whole of that pliant nature which a strong, positive woman like
+Madame could manipulate like wax. He walked his room all night in a
+frenzy of jealous love. Sophy lost to him had acquired a sudden charm
+and value beyond all else in life; he longed for the morning; for
+Madame's positive opinions had thoroughly convinced him, and he felt a
+great deal more sure than she did that Sophy was in Pittendurie. And
+yet, after every such assurance to himself, his inmost heart asked
+coldly, "Why then has she not come back to you?"
+
+He could eat no breakfast, and as soon as he thought the village was
+awake, he rode rapidly down to Pittendurie. Janet was alone; Andrew was
+somewhere between Fife and London; Christina was preparing her morning
+meal in her own cottage. Janet had already eaten hers, and she was
+washing her tea-cup and plate and singing as she did so,--
+
+  "I cast my line in Largo Bay,
+     And fishes I caught nine;
+   There's three to boil, and three to fry,
+     And three to bait the line,"
+
+when she heard a sharp rap at her door. The rap was not made with the
+hand; it was peremptory and unusual, and startled Janet. She put down
+the plate she was wiping, ceased singing, and went to the door. The
+Master of Braelands was standing there. He had his short riding-whip in
+his hand, and Janet understood at once that he had struck her house
+door with the handle of it. She was offended at this, and she asked
+dourly:--
+
+"Well, sir, your bidding?"
+
+"I came to see my wife. Where is she?"
+
+"You ought to know that better than any other body. It is none of my
+business."
+
+"I tell you she has left her home."
+
+"I have no doubt she had the best of good reasons for doing so."
+
+"She had no reason at all."
+
+Janet shrugged her shoulders, smiled with scornful disbelief, and
+looked over the tossing black waters.
+
+"Woman, I wish to go through your house, I believe my wife is in it."
+
+"Go through my house? No indeed. Do you think I'll let a man with a
+whip in his hand go through my house after a poor frightened bird like
+Sophy? No, no, not while my name is Janet Binnie."
+
+"I rode here; my whip is for my horse. Do you think I would use it on
+any woman?"
+
+"God knows, I don't."
+
+"I am not a brute."
+
+"You say so yourself."
+
+"Woman, I did not come here to bandy words with you."
+
+"Man, I'm no caring to hear another word you have to say; take yourself
+off my door-stone," and Janet would have shut the door in his face, but
+he would not permit her.
+
+"Tell Sophy to come and speak to me."
+
+"Sophy is not here."
+
+"She has no reason to be afraid of me."
+
+"I should think not."
+
+"Go and tell her to come to me then."
+
+"She is not in my house. I wish she was."
+
+"She _is_ in your house."
+
+"Do you dare to call me a liar? Man alive! Do it again, and every
+fisher-wife in Pittendurie will help me to give you your fairings."
+
+"_Tush!_! Let me see my wife."
+
+"Take yourself off my doorstep, or it will be the worse for you."
+
+"Let me see my wife."
+
+"Coming here and chapping on my door--on Janet Binnie's door!--with a
+horsewhip!"
+
+"There is no use trying to deceive me with bad words. Let me pass."
+
+"Off with you! you poor creature, you! Sophy Traill had a bad bargain
+with the like of you, you drunken, lying, savage-like, wife-beating
+pretence o' a husband!"
+
+"Mother' Mother!" cried Christina, coming hastily forward; "Mother,
+what are you saying at all?"
+
+"The God's truth, Christina, that and nothing else. Ask the mean,
+perfectly unutterable scoundrel how he got beyond his mother's
+apron-strings so far as this?"
+
+Christina turned to Braelands. "Sir," she said, "what's your will?"
+
+"My wife has left her home, and I have been told she is in Mistress
+Binnie's house."
+
+"She is not. We know nothing about the poor, miserable lass, God help
+her!"
+
+"I cannot believe you."
+
+"Please yourself anent believing me, but you had better be going, sir.
+I see Limmer Scott and Mistress Roy and a few more fishwives looking
+this way."
+
+"Let them look."
+
+"Well, they have their own fashion of dealing with men who ill use a
+fisher lass. Sophy was born among them."
+
+"You are a bad lot! altogether a bad lot!"
+
+"Go now, and go quick, or we'll prove to you that we are a bad lot!"
+cried Janet. "I wouldn't myself think anything of putting you in a
+blanket and tossing you o'er the cliff into the water." And Janet, with
+arms akimbo and eyes blazing with anger, was not a comfortable sight.
+
+So, with a smile of derision, Braelands turned his back on the women,
+walking with an affected deliberation which by no means hid the white
+feather from the laughing, jeering fisher-wives who came to their door
+at Janet's call for them, and whose angry mocking followed him until he
+was out of sight and hearing. Then there was a conclave in Janet's
+house, and every one told a different version of the Braelands trouble.
+In each case, however, Madame was credited with the whole of the
+sorrow-making, though Janet stoutly asserted that "a man who was feared
+for his mother wasn't fit to be a husband."
+
+"Madame's tongue and temper is kindled from a coal out of hell," she
+said, "and that is the God's truth; but she couldn't do ill with them,
+if Archie Braelands wasn't a coward--a sneaking, trembling coward, that
+hasn't the heart in him to stand between poor little Sophy and the most
+spiteful, hateful old sinner this side of the brimstone pit."
+
+But though the birr and first flame of the village anger gradually
+cooled down, Janet's and Christina's hearts were hot and heavy within
+them, and they could not work, nor eat, nor sleep with any relish, for
+thinking of the poor little runaway wife. Indeed, in every cottage
+there was one topic of wonder and pity, and one sad lament when two or
+three of the women came together: "Poor Sophy! Poor Sophy Braelands!" It
+was noticeable, however, that not a single woman had a wrong thought of
+Sophy. Madame could easily suspect the worst, but the "worst" was an
+incredible thing to a fisher-wife. Some indeed blamed her for not
+tholing her grief until her husband came back, but not a single heart
+suspected her of a liaison with her old lover.
+
+Archie, however, returned from his ineffectual effort to find her with
+every suspicion strengthened. Madame could hardly have hoped for a
+visit so completely in her favour, and after it Archie was entirely
+under her influence. It is true he was wretchedly despondent, but he
+was also furiously angry. He fancied himself the butt of his friends,
+he believed every one to be talking about his affairs, and, day by day,
+his sense of outrage and dishonour pressed him harder and harder. In a
+month he was quite ready to take legal steps to release himself from
+such a doubtful tie, and Madame, with his tacit permission, took the
+first step towards such a consummation by writing with her own hand the
+notice which had driven Sophy to despair.
+
+While events were working towards this end, Sophy was helpless and
+senseless in the Glasgow hospital. Archie's anger was grounded on the
+fact that she must know of his return, and yet she had neither come
+back to her home nor sent him a line of communication. He told himself
+that if she had written him one line, he would have gone to the end of
+the earth after her. And anon he told himself that if she had been true
+to him, she would have written or else come back to her home. Say she
+was sick, she could have got some one to use the pen or the telegraph
+for her. And this round of reasoning, always led into the same channel
+by Madame, finally assumed not the changeable quality of argument, but
+the positiveness of fact.
+
+So the notice of her abandonment was sent by the press far and wide,
+and yet there came no protest against it; for Sophy had brought to the
+hospital nothing by which she could be identified, and as no hint of
+her personal appearance was given, it was impossible to connect her
+with it. Thus while its cruel words linked suspicion with her name in
+every household where they went, she lay ignorantly passive, knowing
+nothing at all of the wrong done her and of the unfortunate train of
+circumstances which finally forced her husband to doubt her love and
+her honour. It was an additional calamity that this angry message of
+severance was the first thing that met her consciousness when she was
+at all able to act.
+
+Her childish ignorance and her primitive ideas aided only too well the
+impression of finality it gave. She put it beside all she had seen and
+heard of her husband's love for Marion Glamis, and the miserable
+certainty was plain to her. She knew she was dying, and a quiet place
+to die in and a little love to help her over the hard hour seemed to be
+all she could expect now; the thought of Janet and Christina was her
+last hope. Thus it was that Janet found her trembling and weeping on
+her doorstep; thus it was she heard that pitiful plaint, "Take me in,
+Janet! Take me in to die!"
+
+Never for one moment did Janet think of refusing this sad petition. She
+sat down beside her; she laid Sophy's head against her broad loving
+breast; she looked with wondering pity at the small, shrunken face, so
+wan and ghostlike in the gray light. Then she called Christina, and
+Christina lifted Sophy easily in her arms, and carried her into her own
+house. "For we'll give Braelands no occasion against either her or
+Andrew," she said. Then they undressed the weary woman and made her a
+drink of strong tea; and after a little she began to talk in a quick,
+excited manner about her past life.
+
+"I ran away from Braelands at the end of July," she said. "I could not
+bear the life there another hour; I was treated before folk as if I had
+lost my senses; I was treated when I was alone as if I had no right in
+the house, and as if my being in it was a mortal wrong and misery to
+every one. And at the long last the woman there kept Archie's letter
+from me, and I was wild at that, and sick and trembling all over; and I
+went to Aunt Griselda, and she took Madame's part and would not let me
+stay with her till Archie came back to protect me. What was I to do? I
+thought of my cousins in Edinburgh and went there, and could not find
+them. Then there was only Ellen Montgomery in Glasgow, and I was ill
+and so tired; but I thought I could manage to reach her."
+
+"And didn't you reach her, dearie?"
+
+"No. I got worse and worse; and when I reached Glasgow I knew nothing
+at all, and they sent me to the hospital."
+
+"Oh, Sophy! Sophy!"
+
+"Aye, they did. What else could be, Janet? No one knew who I was; I
+could not tell any one. They weren't bad to me. I suffered, but they
+did what they could to help me. Such dreadful nights, Janet! Such long,
+awful days! Week after week in which I knew nothing but pain; I could
+not move myself. I could not write to any one, for my thoughts would
+not stay with me; and my sight went away, and I had hardly strength to
+live."
+
+"Try and forget it, Sophy, darling," said Christina. "We will care for
+you now, and the sea-winds will blow health to you."
+
+She shook her head sadly. "Only the winds of heaven will ever blow
+health to me, Christina," she answered; "I have had my death blow. I am
+going fast to them who have gone before me. I have seen my mother
+often, the last wee while. I knew it was my mother, though I do not
+remember her; she is waiting for her bit lassie. I shall not have to go
+alone; and His rod and staff will comfort me, I will fear no evil."
+
+They kissed and petted and tried to cheer her, and Janet begged her to
+sleep; but she was greatly excited and seemed bent on excusing and
+explaining what she had done. "For I want you to tell Archie
+everything, Janet," she said. "I shall maybe never see him again; but
+you must take care, that he has not a wrong thought of me."
+
+"He'll get the truth and the whole truth from me, dearie."
+
+"Don't scold him, Janet. I love him very much. It is not his fault."
+
+"I don't know that."
+
+"No, it is not. I wasn't home to Braelands two days before Madame began
+to make fun of my talk, and my manners, and my dress, and of all I did
+and said. And she got Archie to tell me I must mind her, and try to
+learn how to be a fine lady like her; and I could not--I could not. And
+then she set Archie against me, and I was scolded just for nothing at
+all. And then I got ill, and she said I was only sulky and awkward; but
+I just could not learn the books I be to learn, nor walk as she showed
+me how to walk, nor talk like her, nor do anything at all she tried to
+make me do. Oh, the weary, weary days that I have fret myself through!
+Oh, the long, painful nights! I am thankful they can never, never come
+back."
+
+"Then don't think of them now, Sophy. Try and rest yourself a bit, and
+to-morrow you shall tell me everything."
+
+"To-morrow will be too late, can't you see that, Janet? I must clear
+myself to-night--now--or you won't know what to say to Archie."
+
+"Was Archie kind to you, Sophy?"
+
+"Sometimes he was that kind I thought I must be in the wrong, and then
+I tried again harder than ever to understand the weary books and do
+what Madame told me. Sometimes they made him cross at me, and I thought
+I must die with the shame and heartache from it. But it was not till
+Marion Glamis came back that I lost all hope. She was Archie's first
+love, you know."
+
+"She was nothing of the kind. I don't believe he ever cared a pin for
+her. You had the man's first love; you have it yet, if it is worth
+aught. He was here seeking you, dearie, and he was distracted with the
+loss of you."
+
+"In the morning you will send for him, Janet, very early; and though
+I'll be past talking then, you will talk for me. You will tell him how
+Madame tortured me about the Glamis girl, how she kept my letters, and
+made Mrs. Stirling think I was not in my right mind," and so between
+paroxysms of pain and coughing, she went over and over the sad story of
+petty wrongs that had broken her heart, and driven her at last to
+rebellion and flight.
+
+"Oh! my poor lassie, why didn't you come to Christina and me?"
+
+"There was aye the thought of Andrew. Archie would have been angry,
+maybe, and I could only feel that I must get away from Braelands. When
+aunt failed me, something seemed to drive me to Edinburgh, and then on
+to Glasgow; but it was all right, you see, I have saved you and
+Christina for the last hour," and she clasped Christina's hand and laid
+her head closer to Janet's breast.
+
+"And I would like to see the man or woman that will dare to trouble you
+now, my bonnie bairn," said Janet. There was a sob in her voice, and
+she crooned kind words to the dying girl, who fell asleep at last in
+her arms. Then Janet went to the door, and stood almost gasping in the
+strong salt breeze; for the shock of Sophy's pitiful return had hurt
+her sorely. There was a full moon in the sky, and the cold, gray waters
+tossed restlessly under it. "Lord help us, we must bear what's sent!"
+she whispered; then she noticed a steamboat with closely reefed sails
+lying in the offing; and added thankfully, "There is 'The Falcon,' God
+bless her! And it's good to think that Andrew Binnie isn't far away;
+maybe he'll be wanted. I wonder if I ought to send a word to him; if
+Sophy wants to see him, she shall have her way; dying folk don't make
+any mistakes."
+
+Now when Andrew came to anchor at Pittendurie, it was his custom to
+swing out a signal light, and if the loving token was seen, Janet and
+Christina answered by placing a candle in their windows. This night
+Janet put three candles in her window. "Andrew will wonder at them,"
+she thought, "and maybe come on shore to find out whatever their
+meaning may be." Then she hurriedly closed the door. The night was
+cold, but it was more than that,--the air had the peculiar coldness
+that gives sense of the supernatural, such coldness as precedes the
+advent of a spirit. She was awed, she opened her mouth as if to speak,
+but was dumb; she put out her hands--but who can arrest the invisible?
+
+Sleep was now impossible. The very air of the room was sensitive.
+Christina sat wide awake on one side of the bed, Janet on the other;
+they looked at each other frequently, but did not talk. There was no
+sound but the rising moans of the northeast wind, no light but the glow
+of the fire and the shining of the full moon looking out from the
+firmament as from eternity. Sophy slept restlessly like one in
+half-conscious pain, and when she awoke before dawning, she was in a
+high fever and delirious; but there was one incessant, gasping cry for
+"Andrew!"
+
+"Andrew! Andrew! Andrew!" she called with fast failing breath, "Andrew,
+come and go for Archie. Only you can bring him to me." And Janet never
+doubted at this hour what love and mercy asked for. "Folks may talk if
+they want to," she said to Christina, "I am going down to the village
+to get some one to take a message to Andrew. Sophy shall have her will
+at this hour if I can compass it."
+
+The men of the village were mostly yet at the fishing, but she found
+two old men who willingly put out to "The Falcon" with the message for
+her captain. Then she sent a laddie for the nearest doctor, and she
+called herself for the minister, and asked him to come and see the sick
+woman; "forbye, minister," she added, "I'm thinking you will be the
+only person in Pittendurie that will have the needful control o' temper
+to go to Braelands with the news." She did not specially hurry any one,
+for, sick as Sophy was, she believed it likely Archie Braelands and a
+good doctor might give her such hope and relief as would prolong her
+life a little while. "She is so young," she thought, "and love and
+sea-breezes are often a match for death himself."
+
+The old men who had gone for Andrew were much too infirm to get close
+to "The Falcon." For with the daylight her work had begun, and she was
+surrounded on all sides by a melee of fishing-boats. Some were
+discharging their boxes of fish; others were struggling to get some
+point of vantage; others again fighting to escape the uproar. The air
+was filled with the roar of the waves and with the voices of men,
+blending in shouts, orders, expostulations, words of anger, and words
+of jest.
+
+Above all this hubbub, Andrew's figure on the steamer's bridge towered
+large and commanding, as he watched the trunks of fish hauled on board,
+and then dragged, pushed, thrown, or kicked, as near the mouth of the
+hold as the blockade of trunks already shipped would permit. But, sharp
+as a crack of thunder, a stentorian voice called out:--
+
+"Captain Binnie wanted! Girl dying in Pittendurie wants him!"
+
+Andrew heard. The meaning of the three lights was now explained. He had
+an immediate premonition that it was Sophy, and he instantly deputed
+his charge to Jamie, and was at the gunwale before the shouter had
+repeated his alarm. To a less prompt and practised man, a way of
+reaching the shore would have been a dangerous and tedious
+consideration; but Andrew simply selected a point where a great wave
+would lift a small boat near to the level of the ship's bulwarks, and
+when this occurred, he leaped into her, and was soon going shoreward as
+fast as his powerful stroke at the oars could carry him.
+
+When he reached Christina's cottage, Sophy had passed beyond all earthly
+care and love. She heeded not the tenderest words of comfort; her life
+was inexorably coming to its end; and every one of her muttered words
+was mysterious, important, wondrous, though they could make out nothing
+she said, save only that she talked about "angels resting in the
+hawthorn bowers." Hastily Christina gave Andrew the points of her
+sorrowful story, and then she suddenly remembered that a strange man had
+brought there that morning some large, important-looking papers which he
+had insisted on giving to the dying woman. Andrew, on examination, found
+them to be proceedings in the divorce case between Archibald Braelands
+and his wife Sophy Traill.
+
+"Some one has recognised her in the train last night and then followed
+her here," he said pitifully. "They were in a gey hurry with their cruel
+work. I hope she knows nothing about it."
+
+"No, no, they didn't come till she was clean beyond the worriments of
+this life. She did not see the fellow who put them in her hands; she
+heard nothing he said to her."
+
+"Then if she comes to herself at all, say nothing about them. What for
+should we tell her? Death will break her marriage very soon without
+either judge or jury."
+
+"The doctor says in a few hours at the most."
+
+"Then there is no time to lose. Say a kind 'farewell' for me,
+Christina, if you find a minute in which she can understand it. I'm off
+to Braelands," and he put the divorce papers in his pocket, and went
+down the cliff at a run. When he reached the house, Archie was at the
+door on his horse and evidently in a hurry; but Andrew's look struck
+him on the heart like a blow. He dismounted without a word, and
+motioned to Andrew to follow him. They turned into a small room, and
+Archie closed the door. For a moment there was a terrible silence, then
+Andrew, with passionate sorrow, threw the divorce papers down on the
+table.
+
+"You'll not require, Braelands, to fash folk with the like of them;
+your wife is dying. She is at my sister's house. Go to her at once."
+
+"What is that to you? Mind your own business, Captain Binnie."
+
+"It is the business of every decent man to call comfort to the dying.
+Go and say the words you ought to say. Go before it is too late."
+
+"Why is my wife at your sister's house?"
+
+"God pity the poor soul, she had no other place to die in! For Christ's
+sake, go and say a loving word to her."
+
+"Where has she been all this time? Tell me that, sir."
+
+"Dying slowly in the public hospital at Glasgow."
+
+"_My God_!"
+
+"There is no time for words now; not a moment to spare. Go to your wife
+at once."
+
+"She left me of her own free will. Why should I go to her now?"
+
+"She did not leave you; she was driven away by devilish cruelty. And
+oh, man, man, go for your own sake then! To-morrow it will be too late
+to say the words you will weep to say. Go for your own sake. Go to
+spare yourself the black remorse that is sure to come if you don't go.
+If you don't care for your poor wife, go for your own sake!"
+
+"I do care for my wife. I wished--"
+
+"Haste you then, don't lose a moment! Haste you! haste you! If it is
+but one kind word before you part forever, give it to her. She has
+loved you well; she loves you yet; she is calling for you at the
+grave's mouth. Haste you, man! haste you!"
+
+His passionate hurry drove like a wind, and Braelands was as straw
+before it. His horse stood there ready saddled; Andrew urged him to it,
+and saw him flying down the road to Pittendurie before he was conscious
+of his own efforts. Then he drew a long sigh, lifted the divorce papers
+and threw them into the blazing fire. A moment or two he watched them
+pass into smoke, and then he left the house with all the hurry of a
+soul anxious unto death. Half-way down the garden path, Madame
+Braelands stepped in front of him.
+
+"What have you come here for?" she asked in her haughtiest manner.
+
+"For Braelands."
+
+"Where have you sent him to in such a black hurry?"
+
+"To his wife. She is dying."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!"
+
+"She is dying."
+
+"No such luck for my house. The creature has been dying ever since he
+married her."
+
+"_You_ have been _killing her_ ever since he married her. Give way,
+woman, I don't want to speak to you; I don't want to touch the very
+clothes of you. I think no better of you than God Almighty does, and He
+will ask Sophy's life at your hands."
+
+"I shall tell Braelands of your impertinence. It will be the worse for
+you."
+
+"It will be as God wills, and no other way. Let me pass. Don't touch
+me, there is blood on your hands, and blood on your skirts; and you are
+worse--ten thousand times worse--than any murderer who ever swung on
+the gallows-tree for her crime! Out of my way, Madame Braelands!"
+
+She stood before him motionless as a white stone with passion, and yet
+terrified by the righteous anger she had provoked. Words would not come
+to her, she could not obey his order and move out of his way, so Andrew
+turned into another path and left her where she stood, for he was
+impatient of delay, and with steps hurried and stumbling, he followed
+the husband whom he had driven to his duty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AMONG HER OWN PEOPLE
+
+
+Braelands rode like a man possessed, furiously, until he reached the
+foot of the cliff on which Janet's and Christina's cottages stood. Then
+he flung the reins to a fisher-laddie, and bounded up the rocky
+platform. Janet was standing in the door of Christina's cottage talking
+to the minister. This time she made no opposition to Braelands's
+entrance; indeed, there was an expression of pity on her face as she
+moved aside to let him pass.
+
+He went in noiselessly, reverently, suddenly awed by the majesty of
+Death's presence. This was so palpable and clear, that all the mere
+material work of the house had been set aside. No table had been laid,
+no meat cooked; there had been no thought of the usual duties of the
+day-time. Life stood still to watch the great mystery transpiring in
+the inner room.
+
+The door to it stood wide open, for the day was hot and windless.
+Archie went softly in. He fell on his knees by his dying wife, he
+folded her to his heart, he whispered into her fast-closing ears the
+despairing words of love, reawakened, when all repentance was too late.
+He called her back from the very shoal of time to listen to him. With
+heart-broken sobs he begged her forgiveness, and she answered him with
+a smile that had caught the glory of heaven. At that hour he cared not
+who heard the cry of his agonising love and remorse. Sophy was the
+whole of his world, and his anguish, so imperative, brought perforce
+the response of the dying woman who loved him yet so entirely. A few
+tears--the last she was ever to shed--gathered in her eyes; fondest
+words of affection were broken on her lips, her last smile was for him,
+her sweet blue eyes set in death with their gaze fixed on his
+countenance.
+
+When the sun went down, Sophy's little life of twenty years was over.
+Her last few hours were very peaceful. The doctor had said she would
+suffer much; but she did not. Lying in Archie's arms, she slipped
+quietly out of her clay tabernacle, and doubtless took the way nearest
+to her Father's House. No one knew the exact moment of her
+departure--no one but Andrew. He, standing humbly at the foot of her
+bed, divined by some wondrous instinct the mystic flitting, and so he
+followed her soul with fervent prayer, and a love which spurned the
+grave and which was pure enough to venture into His presence with her.
+
+It was a scene and a moment that Archibald Braelands in his wildest and
+most wretched after-days never forgot. The last rays of the setting sun
+fell across the death-bed, the wind from the sea came softly through
+the open window, the murmur of the waves on the sands made a mournful,
+restless undertone to the majestic words of the minister, who, standing
+by the bed-side, declared with uplifted hands and in solemnly
+triumphant tones the confidence and hope of the departing spirit.
+
+"'Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
+
+"'Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the
+earth and the world; even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art
+God.
+
+"'For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past;
+and as a watch in the night.
+
+"'The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason
+of strength, they be four-score years, yet is their strength labor and
+sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.'"
+
+Then there was a pause; Andrew said "_It is over!_" and Janet took the
+cold form from the distracted husband, and closed the eyes forever.
+
+There was no more now for Archie to do, and he went out of the room
+followed by Andrew.
+
+"Thank you for coming for me, Captain," he said, "you did me a kindness
+I shall never forget."
+
+"I knew you would be glad. I am grieved to trouble you further,
+Braelands, at this hour; but the dead must be waited on. It was Sophy's
+wish to be buried with her own folk."
+
+"She is my wife."
+
+"Nay, you had taken steps to cast her off."
+
+"She ought to be brought to Braelands."
+
+"She shall never enter Braelands again. It was a black door to her.
+Would you wish hatred and scorn to mock her in her coffin? She bid my
+mother see that she was buried in peace and good will and laid with her
+own people."
+
+Archie covered his face with his hands and tried to think. Not even
+when dead could he force her into the presence of his mother--and it
+was true he had begun to cast her off; a funeral from Braelands would
+be a wrong and an insult. But all was in confusion in his mind and he
+said: "I cannot think. I cannot decide. I am not able for anything
+more. Let me go. To-morrow--I will send word--I will come."
+
+"Let it be so then. I am sorry for you, Braelands--but if I hear
+nothing further, I will follow out Sophy's wishes."
+
+"You shall hear--but I must have time to think. I am at the last point.
+I can bear no more."
+
+Then Andrew went with him down the cliff, and helped him to his saddle;
+and afterwards he walked along the beach till he came to a lonely spot
+hid in the rocks, and there he threw himself face downward on the
+sands, and "communed with his own heart and was still." At this supreme
+hour, all that was human flitted and faded away, and the primal essence
+of self was overshadowed by the presence of the Infinite. When the
+midnight tide flowed, the bitterness of the sorrow was over, and he had
+reached that serene depth of the soul which enabled him to rise to his
+feet and say "Thy Will be done!"
+
+The next day they looked for some communication from Braelands; yet
+they did not suffer this expectation to interfere with Sophy's explicit
+wish, and the preparations for her funeral went on without regard to
+Archie's promise. It was well so, for there was no redemption of it. He
+did not come again to Pittendurie, and if he sent any message, it was
+not permitted to reach them. He was notified, however, of the funeral
+ceremony, which was set for the Sabbath following her death, and Andrew
+was sure he would at least come for one last look at the wife whom he
+had loved so much and wronged so deeply. He did not do so.
+
+Shrouded in white, her hands full of white asters, Sophy was laid to
+rest in the little wind blown kirkyard of Pittendurie. It was said by
+some that Braelands watched the funeral from afar off, others declared
+that he lay in his bed raving and tossing with fever, but this or that,
+he was not present at her burial. Her own kin--who were fishers--laid
+the light coffin on a bier made of oars, and carried it with psalm
+singing to the grave. It was Andrew who threw on the coffin the first
+earth. It was Andrew who pressed the cover of green turf over the small
+mound, and did the last tender offices that love could offer. Oh, so
+small a mound! A little child could have stepped over it, and yet, to
+Andrew, it was wider than all the starry spaces.
+
+The day was a lovely one, and the kirkyard was crowded to see little
+Sophy join the congregation of the dead. After the ceremony was over
+the minister had a good thought, he said: "We will not go back to the
+kirk, but we will stay here, and around the graves of our friends and
+kindred praise God for the 'sweet enlargement' of their death." Then he
+sang the first line of the paraphrase, "O God of Bethel by whose hand,"
+and the people took it from his lips, and made holy songs and words of
+prayer fill the fresh keen atmosphere and mingle with the cries of the
+sea-birds and the hushed complaining of the rising waters. And that
+afternoon many heard for the first time those noble words from the Book
+of Wisdom that, during the more religious days of the middle ages, were
+read not only at the grave-side of the beloved, but also at every
+anniversary of their death.
+
+"But if the righteous be cut off early by death; she shall be at rest.
+
+"For honor standeth not in length of days; neither is it computed by
+number of years.
+
+"She pleased God and was beloved, and she was taken away from living
+among sinners.
+
+"Her place was changed, lest evil should mar her understanding or
+falsehood beguile her soul.
+
+"She was made perfect in a little while, and finished the work of many
+years.
+
+"For her soul pleased God, and therefore He made haste to lead her
+forth out of the midst of iniquity.
+
+"And the people saw it and understood it not; neither considered they
+this--
+
+"That the grace of God and His mercy are upon His saints, and His
+regard unto His Elect."
+
+Chief among the mourners was Sophy's aunt Griselda. She now bitterly
+repented the unwise and unkind "No." Sophy was dearer to her than she
+thought, and when she had talked over her wrongs with Janet, her
+indignation knew no bounds. It showed itself first of all to the author
+of these wrongs. Madame came early to her shop on Monday morning, and
+presuming on her last confidential talk with Miss Kilgour, began the
+conversation on that basis.
+
+"You see, Miss Kilgour," she said with a sigh, "what that poor girl's
+folly has led her to."
+
+"I see what she has come to. I'm not blaming Sophy, however."
+
+"Well, whoever is to blame--and I suppose Braelands should have been
+more patient with the troubles he called to himself--I shall have to
+put on 'blacks' in consequence. It is a great expense, and a very
+useless one; but people will talk if I do not go into mourning for my
+son's wife."
+
+"I wouldn't do it, if I was you."
+
+"Society obliges. You must make me two gowns at least."
+
+"I will not sew a single stitch for you."
+
+"Not sew for me?"
+
+"Never again; not if you paid me a guinea a stitch."
+
+"What do you mean? Are you in your senses?"
+
+"Just as much as poor Sophy was. And I'll never forgive myself for
+listening to your lies about my niece. You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself. Your cruelties to her are the talk of the whole
+country-side."
+
+"How dare you call me a liar?"
+
+"When I think of wee Sophy in her coffin, I could call you something
+far worse."
+
+"You are an impertinent woman."
+
+"Ah well, I never broke the Sixth Command. And if I was you, Madame, I
+wouldn't put 'blacks' on about it. But 'blacks' or no 'blacks,' you can
+go to some other body to make them for you; for I want none of your
+custom, and I'll be obliged to you to get from under my roof. This is a
+decent, God-fearing house."
+
+Madame had left before the end of Griselda's orders; but she followed
+her to the door, and delivered her last sentence as Madame was stepping
+into her carriage. She was furious at the truths so uncompromisingly
+told her, and still more so at the woman who had been their mouthpiece.
+"A creature whom I have made! actually made!" she almost screamed. "She
+would be out at service today but for me! The shameful, impertinent,
+ungrateful wretch!"  She ordered Thomas to drive her straight back
+home, and, quivering with indignation, went to her son's room. He was
+dressed, but lying prone upon his bed; his mother's complaining
+irritated his mood beyond his endurance. He rose up in a passion; his
+white haggard face showed how deeply sorrow and remorse had ploughed
+into his very soul.
+
+"Mother!" he cried, "you will have to hear the truth, in one way or
+another, from every one. I tell you myself that you are not guiltless
+of Sophy's death--neither am I."
+
+"It is a lie."
+
+"Do go out of my room. This morning you are unbearable."
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Are you going to permit people to
+insult your mother, right and left, without a word? Have you no sense
+of honour and decency?"
+
+"No, for I let them insult the sweetest wife ever a man had. I am a
+brute, a monster, not fit to live. I wish I was lying by Sophy's side.
+I am ashamed to look either men or women in the face."
+
+"You are simply delirious with the fever you have had."
+
+"Then have some mercy on me. I want to be quiet."
+
+"But I have been grossly insulted."
+
+"We shall have to get used to that, and bear it as we can. We deserve
+all that can be said of us--or to us." Then he threw himself on his bed
+again and refused to say another word. Madame scolded and complained
+and pitied herself, and appealed to God and man against the wrongs she
+suffered, and finally went into a paroxysm of hysterical weeping. But
+Archie took no notice of the wordy tempest, so that Madame was
+confounded and frightened, by an indifference so unusual and unnatural.
+
+Weeks of continual sulking or recrimination passed drearily away.
+Archie, in the first tide of his remorse, fed himself on the miseries
+which had driven Sophy to her grave. He interviewed the servants and
+heard all they had to tell him. He had long conversations with Miss
+Kilgour, and made her describe over and over Sophy's despairing look
+and manner the morning she ran away. For the poor woman found a sort of
+comfort in blaming herself and in receiving meekly the hard words
+Archie could give her. He visited Mrs. Stirling in regard to Sophy's
+sanity, and heard from that lady a truthful report of all that had
+passed in her presence. He went frequently to Janet's cottage, and took
+all her home thrusts and all her scornful words in a manner so humble,
+so contrite, and so heart-broken, that the kind old woman began finally
+to forgive and comfort him. And the outcome of all these interviews and
+conversations Madame had to bear. Her son, in his great sorrow, threw
+off entirely the yoke of her control. He found his own authority and
+rather abused it. She had hoped the final catastrophe would draw him
+closer to her; hoped the coolness of friends and acquaintances would
+make him more dependent on her love and sympathy. It acted in the
+opposite direction. The public seldom wants two scapegoats. Madame's
+ostracism satisfied its idea of justice. Every one knew Archie was very
+much under her control. Every one could see that he suffered dreadfully
+after Sophy's death. Every one came promptly to the opinion that Madame
+only was to blame in the matter. "The poor husband" shared the popular
+sympathy with Sophy.
+
+However, in the long run, he had his penalty to pay, and the penalty
+came, as was most just, through Marion Glamis. Madame quickly noticed
+that after her loss of public respect, Marion's affection grew colder.
+At the first, she listened to the tragedy of Sophy's illness and death
+with a decent regard for Madame's feelings on the subject. When Madame
+pooh-poohed the idea of Sophy being in an hospital for weeks, unknown,
+Marion also thought it "most unlikely;" when Madame was "pretty sure
+the girl had been in London during the hospital interlude," Marion also
+thought, "it might be so; Captain Binnie was a very taking man." When
+Madame said, "Sophy's whole conduct was only excusable on the
+supposition of her unaccountability," Marion also thought "she did act
+queerly at times."
+
+Even these admissions were not made with the warmth that Madame
+expected from Marion, and they gradually grew fainter and more general.
+She began to visit Braelands less and less frequently, and, when
+reproached for her remissness, said, "Archie was now a widower, and she
+did not wish people to think she was running after him;" and her manner
+was so cold and conventional that Madame could only look at her in
+amazement. She longed to remind her of their former conversations about
+Archie, but the words died on her lips. Marion looked quite capable of
+denying them, and she did not wish to quarrel with her only visitor.
+
+The truth was that Marion had her own designs regarding Archie, and she
+did not intend Madame to interfere with them. She had made up her mind
+to marry Braelands, but she was going to have him as the spoil of her
+own weapons--not as a gift from his mother. And she was not so blinded
+by hatred as to think Archie could ever be won by the abuse of Sophy.
+On the contrary, she very cautiously began to talk of her with pity,
+and even admiration. She fell into all Archie's opinions and moods on
+the subject, and declared with warmth and positiveness that she had
+always opposed Madame's extreme measures. In the long run, it came to
+pass that Archie could talk comfortably with Marion about Sophy, for
+she always reminded him of some little act of kindness to his wife, or
+of some instance where he had decidedly taken her part, so that,
+gradually, she taught him to believe that, after all, he had not been
+so very much to blame.
+
+In these tactics, Miss Glamis was influenced by the most powerful of
+motives--self-preservation. She had by no means escaped the public
+censure, and in that set of society she most desired to please, had
+been decidedly included in the polite ostracism meted out to Madame.
+Lovers she had none, and she began to realise, when too late, that the
+connection of her name with that of Archie Braelands had been a wrong
+to her matrimonial prospects that it would be hard to remedy. In fact,
+as the winter went on, she grew hopeless of undoing the odium generated
+by her friendship with Madame and her flirtation with Madame's son.
+
+"And I shall make no more efforts at conciliation," she said angrily to
+herself one day, after finding her name had been dropped from Lady
+Blair's visiting-list; "I will now marry Archie. My fortune and his
+combined will enable us to live where and how we please. Father must
+speak to him on the subject at once."
+
+That night she happened to find the Admiral in an excellent mood for
+her purpose. The Laird of Binin had not "changed hats" with him when
+they met on the highway, and he fumed about the circumstance as if it
+had been a mortal insult.
+
+"I'll never lift my hat to him again, Marion, let alone open my mouth,"
+he cried; "no, not even if we are sitting next to each other at the
+club dinner. What wrong have I ever done him? Have I ever done him a
+favour that he should insult me?"
+
+"It is that dreadful Braelands's business. That insolent, selfish,
+domineering old woman has ruined us socially. I wish I had never seen
+her face."
+
+"You seemed to be fond enough of her once."
+
+"I never liked her; I now detest her. The way she treated Archie's wife
+was abominable. There is no doubt of that. Father, I am going to take
+this situation by the horns of its dilemma. I intend to marry Archie.
+No one in the county can afford to snub Braelands. He is popular and
+likely to be more so; he is rich and influential, and I also am rich.
+Together we may lead public opinion--or defy it. My name has been
+injured by my friendship with him. Archie Braelands must give me his
+name."
+
+"By St. Andrew, he shall!" answered the irritable old man. "I will see
+he does. I ought to have considered this before, Marion. Why did you
+not show me my duty?"
+
+"It is early enough; it is now only eight months since his wife died."
+
+The next morning as Archie was riding slowly along the highway, the
+Admiral joined him. "Come home to lunch with me," he said, and Archie
+turned his horse and went. Marion was particularly sympathetic and
+charming. She subdued her spirits to his pitch; she took the greatest
+interest in his new political aspirations; she listened to his plans
+about the future with smiling approvals, until he said he was thinking
+of going to the United States for a few months. He wished to study
+Republicanism on its own ground, and to examine, in their working
+conditions, several new farming implements and expedients that he
+thought of introducing. Then Marion rose and left the room. She looked
+at her father as she did so, and he understood her meaning.
+
+"Braelands," he said, when they were alone, "I have something to say
+which you must take into your consideration before you leave Scotland.
+It is about Marion."
+
+"Nothing ill with Marion, I hope?"
+
+"Nothing but what you can cure. She is suffering very much, socially,
+from the constant association of her name with yours."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Allow me to explain. At the time of your sweet little wife's death,
+Marion was constantly included in the blame laid to Madame Braelands.
+You know now how unjustly."
+
+"I would rather not have that subject discussed."
+
+"But, by Heaven, it must be discussed! I have, at Marion's desire, said
+nothing hitherto, because we both saw how much you were suffering; but,
+sir, if you are going away from Fife, you must remember before you go
+that the living have claims as well as the dead."
+
+"If Marion has any claim on me, I am here, willing to redeem it."
+
+"'If,' Braelands; it is not a question of 'if.' Marion's name has been
+injured by its connection with your name. You know the remedy. I expect
+you to behave like a gentleman in this matter."
+
+"You expect me to marry Marion?"
+
+"Precisely. There is no other effectual way to right her."
+
+"I see Marion in the garden; I will go and speak to her."
+
+"Do, my dear fellow. I should like this affair pleasantly settled."
+
+Marion was sitting on the stone bench round the sun dial. She had a
+white silk parasol over her head, and her lap was full of
+apple-blossoms. A pensive air softened her handsome face, and as Archie
+approached, she looked up with a smile that was very attractive. He sat
+down at her side and began to finger the pink and white flowers. He was
+quite aware that he was tampering with his fate as well; but at his
+very worst, Archie had a certain chivalry about women that only needed
+to be stirred by a word or a look indicating injustice. He was not keen
+to perceive; but when once his eyes were opened, he was very keen to
+feel.
+
+"Marion," he said kindly, taking her hand in his, "have you suffered
+much for my fault?"
+
+"I have suffered, Archie."
+
+"Why did you not tell me before?"
+
+"You have been so full of trouble. How could I add to it?"
+
+"You have been blamed?"
+
+"Yes, very much."
+
+"There is only one way to right you, Marion; I offer you my name and my
+hand. Will you take it?"
+
+"A woman wants love. If I thought you could ever love me--"
+
+"We are good friends. You have been my comforter in many miserable
+hours. I will make no foolish protestations; but you know whether you
+can trust me. And that we should come to love one another very
+sincerely is more than likely."
+
+"I _do_ love you. Have I not always loved you?"
+
+And this frank avowal was just the incentive Archie required. His heart
+was hungry for love; he surrendered himself very easily to the charming
+of affection. Before they returned to the house, the compact was made,
+and Marion Glamis and Archibald Braelands were definitely betrothed.
+
+As Archie rode home in the gloaming, it astonished him a little to find
+that he felt a positive satisfaction in the prospect of telling his
+mother of his engagement--a satisfaction he did not analyze, but which
+was doubtless compounded of a sense of justice, and of a not very
+amiable conviction that the justice would not be more agreeable than
+justice usually is. Indeed, the haste with which he threw himself from
+his horse and strode into the Braelands's parlour, and the hardly
+veiled air of defiance with which he muttered as he went "It's her own
+doing; let her be satisfied with her work," showed a heart that had
+accepted rather than chosen its destiny, and that rebelled a little
+under the constraint.
+
+Madame was sitting alone in the waning light; her son had been away
+from her all day, and had sent her no excuse for his detention. She was
+both angry and sorrowful; and there had been a time when Archie would
+have been all conciliation and regret. That time was past. His mother
+had forfeited all his respect; there was nothing now between them but
+that wondrous tie of motherhood which a child must be utterly devoid of
+grace and feeling to forget. Archie never quite forgot it. In his worst
+moods he would tell himself, "after all she is my mother. It was
+because she loved me. Her inhumanity was really jealousy, and jealousy
+is cruel as the grave." But this purely natural feeling lacked now all
+the confidence of mutual respect and trust. It was only a natural
+feeling; it had lost all the nobler qualities springing from a
+spiritual and intellectual interpretation of their relationship.
+
+"You have been away all day, Archie," Madame complained. "I have been
+most unhappy about you."
+
+"I have been doing some important business."
+
+"May I ask what it was?"
+
+"I have been wooing a wife."
+
+"And your first wife not eight months in her grave!"
+
+"It was unavoidable. I was in a manner forced to it."
+
+"Forced? The idea! Are you become a coward?"
+
+"Yes," he answered wearily; "anything before a fresh public discussion
+of my poor Sophy's death."
+
+"Oh! Who is the lady?"
+
+"There is only one lady possible."
+
+"Marion Glamis?"
+
+"I thought you could say 'who'."
+
+"I hope to heaven you will never marry that woman! She is false from
+head to foot. I would rather see another fisher-girl here than Marion
+Glamis."
+
+"You yourself have made it impossible for me to marry any one but
+Marion; though, believe me, if I could find another 'fisher-girl' like
+Sophy, I would defy everything, and gladly and proudly marry her
+to-morrow."
+
+"That is understood; you need not reiterate. I see through Miss Glamis
+now, the deceitful, ungrateful creature!"
+
+"Mother, I am going to marry Miss Glamis. You must teach yourself to
+speak respectfully of her."
+
+"I hate her worse than I hated Sophy. I am the most wretched of women;"
+and her air of misery was so genuine and hopeless that it hurt Archie
+very sensibly.
+
+"I am sorry," he said; "but you, and you only, are to blame. I have no
+need to go over your plans and plots for this very end; I have no need
+to remind you how you seasoned every hour of poor Sophy's life with
+your regrets that Marion was _not_ my wife. These circumstances would
+not have influenced me, but her name has been mixed up with mine and
+smirched in the contact."
+
+"And you will make a woman with a 'smirched' name Mistress of
+Braelands? Have you no family pride?"
+
+"I will wrong no woman, if I know it; that is my pride. If I wrong
+them, I will right them. However, I give myself no credit about
+righting Marion, her father made me do so."
+
+"My humiliation is complete, I shall die of shame."
+
+"Oh, no! You will do as I do--make the best of the affair. You can talk
+of Marion's fortune and of her relationship to the Earl of Glamis, and
+so on."
+
+"That nasty, bullying old man! And you to be frightened by him! It is
+too shameful."
+
+"I was not frightened by him; but I have dragged one poor innocent
+woman's name through the dust and dirt of public discussion, and,
+before God, Mother, I would rather die than do the same wrong to
+another. You know the Admiral's temper; once roused to action, he would
+spare no one, not even his own daughter. It was then my duty to protect
+her."
+
+"I have nursed a viper, and it has bitten me. To-night I feel as if the
+bite would be fatal."
+
+"Marion is not a viper; she is only a woman bent on protecting herself.
+However, I wish you would remember that she is to be your
+daughter-in-law, and try and meet her on a pleasant basis. Any more
+scandal about Braelands will compel me to shut up this house absolutely
+and go abroad to live."
+
+The next day Madame put all her pride and hatred out of sight and went
+to call on Marion with congratulations; but the girl was not deceived.
+She gave her the conventional kiss, and said all that it was proper to
+say; but Madame's overtures were not accepted.
+
+"It is only a flag of truce," thought Madame as she drove homeward,
+"and after she is married to Archie, it will be war to the knife-hilt
+between us. I can feel that, and I would not fear it if I was sure of
+Archie. But alas, he is so changed! He is so changed!"
+
+Marion's thoughts were not more friendly, and she did not scruple to
+express them in words to her father. "That dreadful old woman was here
+this afternoon," she said. "She tried to flatter me; she tried to make
+me believe she was glad I was going to marry Archie. What a consummate
+old hypocrite she is! I wonder if she thinks I will live in the same
+house with her?"
+
+"Of course she thinks so."
+
+"I will not. Archie and I have agreed to marry next Christmas. She will
+move into her own house in time to hold her Christmas there."
+
+"I wouldn't insist on that, Marion. She has lived at Braelands nearly
+all her life. The Dower House is but a wretched place after it. The
+street in which it stands has become not only poor, but busy, and the
+big garden that was round it when the home was settled on her was sold
+in Archie's father's time, bit by bit, for shops and a preserving
+factory. You cannot send her to the Dower House."
+
+"She cannot stay at Braelands. She charges the very air of any house
+she is in with hatred and quarrelling. Every one knows she has saved
+money; if she does not like the Dower House, she can go to Edinburgh,
+or London, or anywhere she likes--the further away from Braelands, the
+better."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE "LITTLE SOPHY"
+
+
+Madame did not go to the Dower House. Archie was opposed to such a
+humiliation of the proud woman, and a compromise was made by which she
+was to occupy the house in Edinburgh which had been the Braelands's
+residence during a great part of every winter. It was a handsome
+dwelling, and Madame settled herself there in great splendour and
+comfort; but she was a wretched woman in spite of her surroundings. She
+had only unhappy memories of the past, she had no loving anticipations
+for the future. She knew that her son was likely to be ruled by the
+woman at his side, and she hoped nothing from Marion Glamis. The big
+Edinburgh house with its heavy dark furniture, its shadowy draperies,
+and its stately gloom, became a kind of death chamber in which she
+slowly went to decay, body and soul.
+
+No one missed her much or long in Largo, and in Edinburgh she found it
+impossible to gather round herself the company to which she had been
+wont. Unpleasant rumours somehow clung to her name; no one said much
+about her, but she was not popular. The fine dwelling in St. George's
+Square had seen much gay company in its spacious rooms; but Madame
+found it a hopeless task to re-assemble it. She felt this want of
+favour keenly, though she need not have altogether blamed herself for
+it, had she not been so inordinately conscious of her own personality.
+For Archie had undoubtedly, in previous winters, been the great social
+attraction. His fine manners, his good nature, his handsome appearance,
+his wealth, and his importance as a matrimonial venture, had crowded
+the receptions which Madame believed owed their success to her own tact
+and influence.
+
+Gradually, however, the truth dawned upon her; and then, in utter
+disgust, she retired from a world that hardly missed her, and which had
+long only tolerated her for the accidents of her connections and
+surroundings. Her disposition for saving grew into a passion; she
+became miserly in the extreme, and punished herself night and day in
+order that she might add continually to the pile of hoarded money which
+Marion afterwards spent with a lavish prodigality. Occasionally her
+thin, gray face, and her haggard figure wrapped in a black shawl, were
+seen at the dusty windows of the room she occupied. The rest of the
+house she closed. The windows were hoarded up and the doors padlocked,
+and yet she lived in constant fear of attacks from thieves on her life
+for her money. Finally she dismissed her only servant lest she might be
+in league with such characters; and thus, haunted by terrors of all
+kinds and by memories she could not destroy, she dragged on for twenty
+years a life without hope and without love, and died at last with no
+one but her lawyer and her physician at her side. She had sent for
+Archie, but he was in Italy, and Marion she did not wish to see. Her
+last words were uttered to herself. "I have had a poor life!" she
+moaned with a desperate calmness that was her only expression of the
+vast and terrible desolation of her heart and soul.
+
+"A poor life," said the lawyer, "and yet she has left twenty-six
+thousand pounds to her son."
+
+"A poor life, and a most lonely flitting," reiterated her physician
+with awe and sadness.
+
+However, she herself had no idea when she removed to Edinburgh of
+leading so "poor a life." She expected to make her house the centre of
+a certain grave set of her own class and age; she expected Archie to
+visit her often; she expected to find many new interests to occupy her
+feelings and thoughts. But she was too old to transplant. Sophy's death
+and its attending circumstances had taken from her both personally and
+socially more than she knew. Archie, after his marriage, led entirely
+by Marion and her ways and desires, never went towards Edinburgh. The
+wretched old lady soon began to feel herself utterly deserted; and when
+her anger at this position had driven love out of her heart, she fell
+an easy prey to the most sordid, miserable, and degrading of passions,
+the hoarding of money. Nor was it until death opened her eyes that she
+perceived she had had "a poor life."
+
+She began this Edinburgh phase of it under a great irritation. Knowing
+that Archie would not marry until Christmas, and that after the
+marriage he and Marion were going to London until the spring, she saw
+no reason for her removal from Braelands until their return. Marion had
+different plans. She induced Archie to sell off the old furniture, and
+to redecorate and re-furnish Braelands from garret to cellar. It gave
+Madame the first profound shock of her new life. The chairs and tables
+she had used sold at auction to the tradespeople of Largo and the
+farmers of the country-side! She could not understand how Archie could
+endure the thought. Under her influence, he never would have endured
+it; but Archie Braelands smiled on, and coaxed, and sweetly dictated by
+Marion Glamis, was ready enough to do all that Marion wished.
+
+"Of course the old furniture must be sold," she said. "Why not? It will
+help to buy the new. We don't keep our old gowns and coats; why then
+our old chairs and tables?"
+
+"They have associations."
+
+"Nonsense, Archie! So has my white parasol. Shall I keep it in tissue
+paper forever? Such sentimental ideas are awfully behind the times.
+Your grandfather's coat and shoes will not dress you to-day; neither,
+my dear, can his notions and sentiments direct you."
+
+So Braelands was turned, as the country people said, "out of the
+windows," and Madame hastened away from the sight of such desecration.
+It made Archie popular, however. The artisans found profitable work in
+the big rooms, and the county families looked forward to the
+entertainments they were to enjoy in the renovated mansion. It restored
+Marion also to general estimation. There was a future before her now
+which it would be pleasant to share, and every one considered that her
+engagement to Archie exonerated her from all participation in Madame's
+cruelty. "She has always declared herself innocent," said the
+minister's wife, "and Braelands's marriage to her affirms it in the
+most positive manner. Those who have been unjust to Miss Glamis have
+now no excuse for their injustice." This authoritative declaration in
+Marion's favour had such a decided effect that every invitation to her
+marriage was accepted, and the ceremony, though purposely denuded of
+everything likely to recall the tragedy now to be forgotten, was really
+a very splendid private affair.
+
+On the Sabbath before it, Archie took in the early morning a walk to
+the kirkyard at Pittendurie. He was going to bid Sophy a last farewell.
+Henceforward he must try and prevent her memory troubling his life and
+influencing his moods and motives. It was a cold, chilling morning, and
+the great immensity of the ocean spread away to the occult shores of
+the poles. The sky was grey and sombre, the sea cloudy and unquiet; and
+far off on the eastern horizon, a mysterious portent was slowly rolling
+onward.
+
+He crossed the stile and walked slowly forward. On his right hand there
+was a large, newly-made grave with an oar standing upright at its head,
+and some inscription rudely painted on it. His curiosity was aroused,
+and he went closer to read the words: "_Be comforted! Alexander Murray
+has prevailed_." The few words so full of hope and triumph, moved him
+strangely. He remembered the fisherman Murray, whose victory over death
+was so certainly announced; and his soul, disregarding all the
+forbidding of priests and synods, instantly sent a prayer after the
+departed conqueror. "Wherever he is," he thought, "surely he is closer
+to Heaven than I am."
+
+He had been in the kirkyard often when none but God saw him, and his
+feet knew well the road to Sophy's grave. There was a slender shaft of
+white marble at the head, and Andrew Binnie stood looking at it.
+Braelands walked forward till only the little green mound separated
+them. Their eyes met and filled with tears. They clasped hands across
+her grave and buried every sorrowful memory, every sense of wrong or
+blame, in its depth and height. Andrew turned silently away; Braelands
+remained there some minutes longer. The secret of that invisible
+communion remained forever his own secret. Those only who have had
+similar experiences know that souls who love each other may, and can,
+exchange impressions across immensity.
+
+He found Andrew sitting on the stile, gazing thoughtfully over the sea
+at the pale grey wall of inconceivable height which was drawing nearer
+and nearer. "The fog is coming," he said, "we shall soon be going into
+cloud after cloud of it."
+
+"They chilled and hurt her once. She is now beyond them."
+
+"She is in Heaven. God be thanked for His great mercy to her!"
+
+"If we only knew something _sure_. Where is Heaven? Who can tell?"
+
+"In Thy presence is fullness of joy, and at Thy right hand pleasures
+forevermore. Where God is, there is Heaven."
+
+"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard."
+
+"But God _hath_ revealed it; not a _future_ revelation, Braelands, but
+a _present_ one." And then Andrew slowly, and with pauses full of
+feeling and intelligence, went on to make clear to Braelands the
+Present Helper in every time of need. He quoted mainly from the Bible,
+his one source of all knowledge, and his words had the splendid
+vagueness of the Hebrew, and lifted the mind into the illimitable. And
+as they talked, the fog enveloped them, one drift after another passing
+by in dim majesty, till the whole world seemed a spectacle of
+desolation, and a breath of deadly chillness forced them to rise and
+wrap their plaids closely round them. So they parted at the kirk yard
+gate, and never, never again met in this world.
+
+Braelands turned his face towards Marion and a new life, and Andrew
+went back to his ship with a new and splendid interest. It began in
+wondering, "whether there was any good in a man abandoning himself to a
+noble, but vain regret? Was there no better way to pay a tribute to the
+beloved dead?" Braelands's costly monument did not realise his
+conception of this possibility; but as he rowed back to his ship in the
+gathering storm, a thought came into his mind with all the assertion of
+a clang of steel, and he cried out to his Inner Man.
+
+"_That_, oh my soul, is what I will do; _that_ is what will keep my
+love's name living and lovely in the hearts of her people."
+
+His project was not one to be accomplished without much labour and
+self-denial. It would require a great deal of money, and he would have
+to save with conscientious care many years to compass his desire, which
+was to build a Mission Ship for the deep sea fishermen Twelve years he
+worked and saved, and then the ship was built; a strong steam-launch,
+able to buffet and bear the North Sea when its waves were running wild
+over everything. She was provided with all appliances for religious
+comfort and teaching; she had medicines for the sick and surgical help
+for the wounded; she carried every necessary protection against the
+agonising "sea blisters" which torture the fishermen in the winter
+season. And this vessel of many comforts was called the "Sophy Traill."
+
+She is still busy about her work of mercy. Many other Mission Ships now
+traverse the great fishing-fleets of the North Sea, and carry hope and
+comfort to the fishermen who people its grey, wild waters; but none is
+so well beloved by them as the "Little Sophy." When the boats lie at
+their nets on a summer's night, it is on the "Little Sophy" that "Rock
+of Ages" is started and then taken up by the whole fleet. And when the
+stormy winds of winter blow great guns, then the "Little Sophy," flying
+her bright colours in the daytime and showing her many lights at night,
+is always rolling about among the boats, blowing her whistle to tell
+them she is near by, or sending off help in her lifeboat, or steaming
+after a smack in distress.
+
+Fifteen years after Andrew and Archie parted at the kirkyard, Archie
+came to the knowledge first of Andrew's living monument to the girl
+they had both loved so much. He was coming from Norway in a yacht with
+a few friends, and they were caught in a heavy, easterly gale. In a few
+hours there was a tremendous sea, and the wind rapidly rose to a
+hurricane. The "Little Sophy" steamed after the helpless craft and got
+as near to her as possible; but as she lowered her lifeboat, she saw
+the yacht stagger, stop, and then founder. The tops of her masts seemed
+to meet, she had broken her back, and the seas flew sheer over her.
+
+The lifeboat picked up three men from her, and one of them was Archie
+Braelands. He was all but dead from exposure and buffeting; but the
+surgeon of the Mission Ship brought him back to life.
+
+It was some hours after he had been taken on board; the storm had gone
+away northward as the sun set. There was the sound of an organ and of
+psalm-singing in his ears, and yet he knew that he was in a ship on a
+tossing sea, and he opened his eyes, and asked weakly:
+
+"Where am I?"
+
+The surgeon stooped to him and answered in a cheery voice: "_On the
+'Sophy Traill!'_"
+
+A cry, shrill as that of a fainting woman, parted Archie's lips, and he
+kept muttering in a half-delirious stupor all night long, "_The Sophy
+Traill! The Sophy Traill!_" In a few days he recovered strength and was
+able to leave the boat which had been his salvation; but in those few
+days he heard and saw much that greatly influenced for the noblest ends
+his future life.
+
+All through the borders of Fife, people talked of Archie's strange
+deliverance by this particular ship, and the old story was told over
+again in a far gentler spirit. Time had softened ill-feeling, and
+Archie's career was touched with the virtue of the tenderly remembered
+dead.
+
+"He was but a thoughtless creature before he lost wee Sophy," Janet
+said, as she discussed the matter; "and now, where will you find a
+better or a busier man? Fife's proud of him, and Scotland's proud of
+him, and if England hasn't the sense of discerning _who_ she ought to
+make a Prime Minister of, that isn't Braelands's fault."
+
+"For all that," said Christina, sitting among her boys and girls,
+"Sophy ought to have married Andrew. She would have been alive to-day
+if she had."
+
+"You aren't always an oracle, Christina, and you have a deal to learn
+yet; but I'm not saying but what poor Sophy did make a mistake in her
+marriage. Folks should marry in their own class, and in their own
+faith, and among their own folk, or else ninety-nine times out of a
+hundred they marry sorrow; but I'm not so sure that being alive to-day
+would have been a miracle of pleasure and good fortune. If she had had
+bairns, as ill to bring up and as noisy and fashious as yours are, she
+is well spared the trouble of them."
+
+"You have spoiled the bairns yourself, Mother. If I ever check or scold
+them, you are aye sure to take their part."
+
+"Because you never know when a bairn is to blame and when its mother is
+to blame. I forgot to teach you that lesson."
+
+Christina laughed and said something about it "being a grand thing
+Andrew had no lads and lasses," and then Janet held, her head up
+proudly, and said with an air of severe admonition:
+
+"It's well enough for you and the like of you to have lads and lasses;
+but my boy Andrew has a duty far beyond it, he has the 'Sophy Traill'
+to victual and store, and send out to save souls and bodies."
+
+"Lads and lasses aren't bad things, Mother."
+
+"They'll be all the better for the 'Sophy Traill' and the other boats
+like her. That laddie o' yours that will be off to sea whether you like
+it or not, will give you many a fear and heartache. Andrew's 'boat of
+blessing' goes where she is bid to go, and does as she is told to do.
+That's the difference."
+
+Difference or not, his "boat of blessing" was Andrew's joy and pride.
+She had been his salvation, inasmuch as she had consecrated that
+passion for hoarding money which was the weak side of his character.
+She had given to his dead love a gracious memory in the hearts of
+thousands, and "a name far better than that of sons and daughters."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Night of the Nets, by Amelia E. Barr
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NIGHT OF THE NETS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 9374.txt or 9374.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/7/9374/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen and PG
+Distributed Proofreaders, from images generously made
+available by the Canadian Institute for Historical
+Microreproductions.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.