Inchbracken Part 33

But the following morning he was riding along the sh.o.r.e very early--earlier than the fisher folk, who, of course, came prowling along later in search of plunder and sea wreck. He came on the bodies of several of the drowned, and at last on a lady with her Indian maid.

The lady had a piece of that chain twisted in her fingers, and not far off he came on a little baby so carefully tied up, and still alive. He had his own duties for the day, and he could be of no service to the dead, who, he knew besides, would be cared for by the proper authorities in a very little while, so he left them where they lay.

But the baby was alive, and while he was examining it looked up in his face with such a friendly trustful look that he could not help taking it up and vowing to be a father to it till its own should be found.'

'And so he has been keeping my child hidden away through all these months of desolation!'

'My dear fellow, he had' no intention of that whatever. He wrote to the Edinburgh newspapers at once; but you must remember that at the time of the shipwreck your father was not aware that he had a grandchild at all, nor for weeks after. If Roderick Brown had left the child beside its mother to be found by the coastguards or the fishermen, it would have been handed over to the mercy of parish charity, which is perhaps not over tender. And who can tell if it would have survived till you went to claim it? The chain, too, is heavy and valuable, and who knows but that might have been temptation enough to keep the child out of your sight for ever?'

'Let us go to the child at once, then, Kenneth! and not to the sh.o.r.e with its miserable memories of wrecks and corpses.'

So the horse was put about, and they struck across the moor to Glen Effick.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

_AUGUSTUS WALLOWBY_.

Eppie Ness was at her door when Kenneth and his friend drew up before it. She had a foreboding, when she saw two of them, that the other must be the father of her baby, and that he was come to take it away; and tears rose plentifully to her eyes and trickled over her withered cheeks as she led them into her house.

The baby was in its cradle and asleep, and however homely might be the cottage surroundings, no one could say that it had suffered from neglect or privation. It lay among dainty coverings of cambric and lace, like some infant princess, or a sacred image before which a perpetual oblation of praise and incense is offered up.

It was impossible that Steele should recognize his child, seeing that its life had been measured only by days when he last saw it, but he _thought_ he recognized it, and no one would dispute his right to do so. He also observed a strong resemblance in it to its deceased mother, which confirmed his faith in its ident.i.ty, if that were possible. Yet, when one recalls that only a few weeks before Mrs.

Sangster had seen with equal clearness its strong family likeness to Tibbie Tirpie, one may doubt if the likeness test is of much consequence.

The clothing in which it had been wrapped up when found was produced.

It consisted entirely of Indian fabrics. Even Steele could tell that much, but not having the feminine eye for embroideries and tissues, he could not identify any of the articles. He was able to recognize his wife's cipher, however, embroidered on a handkerchief, so that all possibility of doubt was at an end.

He thanked Eppie profusely, and handed her his purse as some instalment of the debt he owed her.

'Na na, sir!' she said, 'Miss Brown pays me weel, an' it's her ye're awin' yer thanks til, for the care o' yer bairn, for she cudna hae ta'en mair tent on't gin it had been her ain. I'm mis...o...b..in' but she'll be wae to ken it's to be ta'en frae her. An', oh sir! gin ye hae nae body partic'lar to mind it for ye, will ye tak _me_ for its nurse? It wad be a sair heartbreak to me to be parted frae the wee dawtie, an', I'm thinkin', she wad miss me hersel'!'

Steele felt a twinge of jealousy already. To think that any one should have a nearer place than himself in his child's regard; but he consented, and with thanks, that his daughter should remain for the present where she was, till he had time to consider of her future disposal. After hanging over the cradle, awakening the baby and making it cry with his awkward endearments, he was at last persuaded to hand back the new and incomprehensible possession to Eppie to be soothed and comforted, and then after lingering and talking, and repet.i.tion manifold, Kenneth was able to get him away and to carry him home.

All the village idlers were in the street to admire the dog-cart and the groom, and wonder what the gentlemen could have to say in so long an interview with Eppie Ness. No sooner had they gone, however, than Eppie herself came forth br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with the news, and mightily uplifted, if also sad at the possible chance of being parted from her charge, to tell the neighbours that a great gentleman was claiming her nurseling for his own child, that it was to be brought up as one of the first ladies of the land, and that aiblins she, Eppie Ness, might have to journey into foreign parts in attendance on the precious infant.

'An' it's wae gude Mister Brown wull be, to hae the wee dawtie ta'en frae him!'

'An' it's blate the Presbytery may weel be,' added Peter Malloch 'for a' the daftlike clavers they hae set rinnin' fornent him.'

Mrs. Sangster was in Ebenezer Prittie's shop when the news was brought in of the father that had appeared to claim the minister's bairn. They both listened to the tale with much curiosity and interest, but without one twinge of compunction at their own uncharitable constructions in time past. They were both far too excellent for that, and the lady's mind too well regulated to suppose that she could possibly have acted or thought amiss. On the contrary, she was disposed to draw improvement and instruction from the whole matter in the usual way, by moralizing on the inscrutable ways of Providence, and hoping that it would be 'a warning to the church office-bearers to practice a more abundant charity in the future, and to refrain from hasty judgments.'

'Hech! ay, mem,' sighed Ebenezer, 'it's juist hum'lin' to think what haste an' uncharitableness the Presbytery hae leuten themsel's be betrayed intil! An' Mester Dowlas! an' Mester Geddie! twa sic gude men. That they suld sae far hae forgotten a' christian charity! It's juist hum'lin'! But the best o' us wull gae wrang whiles!'

Joseph Smiley was the last man in the village to hear the news. His wife was cooking, while he sat rocking the cradle till the food should be prepared. Tibbie came bustling in from the street.

'There's news steerin', Tib!' she cried, 'but I haena juist gotten the richts o't yet. Get up! Joseph Smiley, I win'er ye dinna think shame!

A muckle man like you, hingin' about the house like a singet cat, at this time o' day! Out wi' ye! an' bring back word what's steerin'. An'

de'il a bite ye'se get, till ye can tell us a' about it!'

'Poor Joseph! He had come to this! Laid by the heels at last! and no mistake. The jaunty bachelor, so alert and brisk, was quenched for ever, and a poor, meek, hen-pecked creature had taken his place, sighing under a mother-in-law's iron yoke, which grew heavier each day as the victim developed new capacity of endurance.

After Tibbie's bold stroke of invasion, there was nothing left for him but to succ.u.mb. Resistance would have raised such a scandal as must have lost him his beadleship, and would probably have driven him from the parish, so he had felt compelled to admit his marriage as the lesser evil, even although it involved a severe private _rebuke_ before the a.s.sembled kirk-session for the matrimonial irregularity.

The bitterest day of his life was probably the Sunday on which he 'kirket' his wife. Shambling down the village street in front of his mother-in-law, who stepped out behind with the briskness and precision of a corporal's guard, he seemed 'going,' as Mrs. Ebenezer Prittie, who surveyed them out of her window, observed to her spouse, 'like a fool to the correction of the stocks,' and Mrs. P. was not sorry for him. There was a twinkle of scornful pity in the eye of the onlookers at seeing this notorious lady-killer thus taken in charge, which stung Joseph's self-love like the cut of a whip; but his discomfiture was not complete till they met Jean Macaulay. Jean surveyed their procession with open eyes, and then looking her old sweetheart full in the face, she threw back her head and uttered an echoing laugh. There was a ring of vexation in the sound which might have brought consolation for the affront, but Joseph was already too miserable to be nicely observant. His eyes fell before her, and his head hung forward in abject confusion; and he crept about his duties that day around the tent more like a whipped cur than the brisk and consequential beadle of other days.

As Kenneth drove his friend home to Inchbracken, his kind heart was rejoicing to note the improvement in his condition. The happy discovery had acted on him like a cordial given to a fainting man. His very bearing was altered. He sat squarely in his seat looking about him with clear and animated eyes, a different person from the limp and nerveless invalid, seeing nothing left to him in earth or sky worth a moment's regard, whom he had driven out a few hours before. Finding there was still something left in his own life to interest him, Steele began also to interest himself in the life of his fellows. He talked to Kenneth about the Browns who had so tenderly cared for his child, and the Browns with Kenneth was an inexhaustible subject. Now that he had found a friendly listener, he talked about them freely enough, and by the time they had reached Inchbracken, Steele knew all about his engagement.

Understanding in what direction the morning drive had been made, the sympathetic Julia had arranged herself for dinner in a species of half mourning, and her voice and mien were more subduedly sorrowful than ever. As the disconsolate entered the drawing room, she lifted her head from a book over which she had been drooping in willowy fashion, all mournful sympathy for the haggard desolation she expected to see depicted on his face; but for once she found herself completely out of tune.

Major Steele sat down beside Lady Caroline and began to recount the discovery he had made--what a miracle had occurred on his behalf, and what a paragon among infants was his new found daughter.

'Mary Brown's baby! your daughter?' cried Lady Caroline. 'That is perfectly delightful! Would you like me to send over for it, that you may have it here under your own eye?'

She was probably not very sorry, however, that Major Steele thought it would be better for him to make a daily visit to his offspring, until he could arrange to remove it to Edinburgh.

The two elder men were agreeably surprised by the brightened manner of their guest. He seemed transformed since morning from a dismal hypochondriac, into a person cheerful and companionable; or, as Captain John put it, 'he seemed to have completely picked himself up.'

He in particular was well pleased to meet some one who could talk to him of India, and enable him to live over again the years he spent there in his youth. It followed that they sat longer than usual in the dining room, drank their coffee there, and adjourned straight to the smoking room, so that the ladies saw no more of them that evening.

This was just as well for Julia, whose artistic soul had been sadly jarred by finding herself pitched in a wrong key. It took her hours to modulate down into a more everyday state of feeling,--for there must be a kind of feeling at the back even of make-believe emotion, if it is to be a successful representation. But that was only part of what she would have to do. The spectator must be led down by easy gradation, or her revulsion from pensive melancholy to a chastened cheerfulness might seem abrupt, intentional, and ridiculous.

Artificial feeling has this advantage in displaying itself, that it is single, and free from the complexities and contradictions which confuse and distract the real, in its manifestation; and hence grief on the stage is often beautiful, while in private life it is generally revolting and grotesque. But this very singleness and clear definition makes it more difficult for the artificial to change front; while the real, having been always blurred and muddy and indistinct, can readily transfer itself to a new category. The floating cloud pa.s.ses readily enough from the form of an eagle to a ship, a horse or a whale; but clay once trimmed and modelled into a given shape must be broken down and worked up afresh in order to take a new form. Julia therefore kept in the background for a day or two, before coming forward prominently in a new role. Prominence, however, was by no means so very easy now.

Since Major Steele's mind had recovered a healthier tone, the men in the house were all eager for his company. The General had Blue-Books and Reports of the Board of Control on which he desired information, and Captain John talked pig-sticking and tigerhunts by the hour.

If Julia would only have taken some personal interest in the baby, she might have succeeded, but she was much too clever and artistic to try any course so obvious as that. Besides, she abominated babies. 'Damp, sticky little abominations, which always squalled when you did anything to them! and scrabbled their little wet fingers over your face, which was always unpleasant, and sometimes inconvenient.' If she would have talked about bringing up young children, infant health and disease, baths, powders, pap and teething, she might have kept the Major at her side by the hour; for the new responsibilities of a parent weighed heavily upon him, and he had no one to advise with, Lady Caroline having forgotten all she ever knew on such matters, if she ever knew anything. He rode over to Eppie every day and had long talks with her on the engrossing subject; but when he returned, the billiard room or smoking room were his usual haunts.

It was not long too before Julia had other matters of her own to attend to. Since the awakening of her fantastical interest in Major Steele, Augustus Wallowby's daily offerings of amorous rubbish had grown wearisome, and reply to them a positive bore. Her letters had grown intermittent, and dwindled down to the shortest billets.

Augustus remonstrated--waxed plaintive--drivelled--Julia lost patience and ceased to write altogether. Had Augustus followed suit, it is likely the correspondence would not have remained long in abeyance, and that it would have been the lady who would have revived it; but Augustus dared not venture on that experiment, indeed he had become too deeply in earnest to think of it. He had thought over her pretty speeches spoken, and written in her earlier letters, and the delight of having a lord for a cousin and visitor, till from merely supposing that she must admire him very much, he had worked himself up to an almost crazy eagerness about _her_, believed himself to be cherishing a most ardent attachment, and began to feel deeply touched at his own sensibility.

Likewise he had cut the ground from under his own feet; or perhaps 'burned his ships' is the more usual metaphor. On returning home from the North, his good fortune with the ladies and this new conquest were much in his thoughts, weighty hints and dark sayings babbled from his lips before he was aware, and then, to mend matters, he would explain and confide till they were made much worse. All his acquaintance knew that he was going to be married, and the younger men reverenced him in advance on account of the n.o.ble family he was about to enter, 'related to half the peerage.'

The news did not act so pleasantly for him on his lady friends. No one should say that they had been jilted, or had made fruitless attempts to win him! and they took care that the cooling of the intimacy should begin on their side. His neighbour Sir Timothy Kettlebotham had three fine daughters, with 20,000 certain to their fortunes a-piece, and he had been wont to practise a good deal of archery with them on the lawn, as well as to sing numberless duets and glees, and a.s.sist at small carpet dances in the evening. But now Miss Kitura had strained her wrist and could not draw a bow, Miss Felicia had medical orders not to sing until her chest grew stronger, and Miss Frances was away on a visit. He found himself condemned to dine at home four or five times in the week, and to knock about the billiard hall of an evening if he could secure a companion, or to fall asleep in his chair if he could not, without a chance of the female society and admiration to which he had grown accustomed.

He wrote more and more pleadingly, which to Julia was more and more tiresome, and therefore elicited no reply. In sheer desperation, he packed his portmanteau and hurried to the north. He had a standing invitation to return when he pleased from Mrs. Sangster, who still cherished fatuous hopes of making him a son-in-law. Therefore, when one frosty evening about Christmas time he drew up at the door, he was made as welcome as the flowers in spring. Since the vindication of Roderick Brown's character, that lady had an uncomfortable intuition that her all-wisdom was set less store on both by her husband and daughter. But here was the prize returned; it could be with only one object, and these ingrates would have to admit her judicious management after all.

Augustus drove over to Inchbracken the following day very early. When his card was brought to Julia she was greatly surprised, and better pleased with the man than she had been yet. This long journey at such a season, and over muddy roads showed some energy and strength of purpose, and if only he would talk like a rational being and a gentleman, instead of maundering like a lackadaisical idiot as he had been doing of late in his letters, she believed she might bring herself to respect and even like him. She was beginning to realize, too, that her sympathy for Major Steele was so much brain power thrown away. There had been something respectable, nay more, touching, and almost grand, in such abandonment of grief and utter desolation on the part of a widower crushed by the untimely loss of his wife and child; but that a distinguished officer should ride away from good company every day to drivel for hours with an old woman over a sticky infant was preposterous, nay it was disgusting!

There were half-a-dozen of Augustus' latest letters on her table still unopened. She tore them open now, and glanced at the contents to place herself _au courant_ with the gentleman's ideas, but the reading nearly destroyed her good resolutions. The letters were both abject and ridiculous, and she wondered how she would even learn to tolerate such a husband, and hesitated whether to go down to him at all. Being, however, a business minded person, who meant to settle herself comfortably and respectably in life, and knew she could not have everything, she choked down the unpractical idea, and after a critical survey of herself in the gla.s.s, she went down to receive her visitor.

Her manner was all gracious friendliness, and Augustus was disarmed for the moment, and saved from doing anything absurd, which might have been the death of his hopes. He had expected to be received with coldness, and had prepared many moving protestations; he had even selected the precise spot of the carpet on which he was prepared to kneel; and surely that, he thought, with perhaps a tear or two (and he had a misgiving that in certain contingencies they would not be far of!) would finish the matter. And so it would have done, for in spite of self-command, Julia would have laughed, and Augustus Wallowby's love, his infatuation,--whatever it should be called,--would never have survived a laugh. He would have rushed from the house, and no apology would ever have induced him to return.

They chatted as pleasantly as possible, thanks to Julia, who kept the conversation well on the ordinary track, carefully avoiding sentiment and everything tiresome. Augustus regained his equanimity under this treatment, and was saved from making a fool of himself. He had come with a purpose, however; and that purpose must be fulfilled, if not in the melodramatic fashion he had intended, at least in such form as circ.u.mstances would permit. He told her that his life was a burden to him at so great a distance from her, and begged that she would let the marriage take place the following month.

She replied that it was very nice of him to be so impatient, of course; but really he must allow her a little time to prepare for so momentous a change in her life. He pressed her to name a time. She supposed in a year. 'And you must not, dear Augustus, be so exacting as you have shown signs of being lately. A woman should be allowed to take the full enjoyment out of her last year of freedom. You know, after that, you expect us to be obedient slaves. Oh yes! Don't protest! Men are all alike!' with an engaging smile, which gratified Augustus, and made him pull out his whiskers to their greatest length.

He remonstrated about the year, however, with great earnestness, and there were threatenings of a watery look in his eyes, which induced her to relent so far; for her gracious blandishments being really well done, had had a reflex action, and she was getting into a less hard humour herself.

'Six months! then,' she said. 'Now see what influence you have already! It quite frightens me.'