Christine by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (the two towers ebook TXT) 📖

in the way o' his duty. What does he know, puir fellow! anent a mither's love or sorrow?"

"I'm glad feyther hes wee Jamie for his comfort."

"Ay, but Jamie doesna comfort me, in the place o' Neil."

"You hae me, Mither. Dinna forget Christine."

"Would I do that? Never! Christine is worth a' the lads in Scotland. They marry--and forget."

"The Domine says he loves his mother today, better than ever, and her dead near fifty years."

"The Domine is a wonder, and he ne'er put a wife in her place. I hope your feyther didna go to the toun today. Where has Jamie been?"

"He went out with feyther, this morning. I think they went to the boats, but I canna weel say. They ought to be hame by this hour. I wonder what is keeping them sae late?"

"Weel, Christine, the trouble hes gone by, this time, and we willna ca' it back. If your feyther didna come across the lad i' the town, it will mebbe be best to let him get back to the Maraschal without remark or recollection."

"To be sure, Mither."

"I wonder what's keeping your feyther? It is too late, and too cold, for Jamie to be out."

"I hear their voices, Mither. They're coming up the hill. Stir the fire into a blaze o' welcome. Just listen to the laddie laughing--and feyther laughing too. Whatever has happened to them?"

James Ruleson and the lad at his side came into the cottage the next moment. The light of the laugh was yet on their faces, and oh, what a happy stir their advent made in the cozy, firelit room! Margot forgot she had been crying and complaining, she was helping her man take off his heavy coat, and Christine was helping the child, who was in a state of great excitement:

"I hae been to the circus!" he cried. "Christine! Gran'mither! I hae been to the circus! It was wonderful! I did not want to leave it. I wanted to stay always there. I want to go tomorrow. Gran'feyther! Will you take me tomorrow? Say yes! Do say yes!"

"Why, James!" cried Margot, "I never heard tell o' the like! Hae ye lost your senses, gudeman?"

"No, I think I hae just found them. I am sair-hearted, because I didna send all the lads there. Let us hae a cup o' tea, and we will tell you how we spent the day."

Then there was a ten minutes hurry, and at the end a well spread table, and four happy faces round it; and as Margot handed Ruleson his big tea cup, she said, "Now, James Ruleson, tell us what you and the lad hae been after today, that took you into such a sinfu' place as a circus. You'll hae to face the Domine on the matter. You, a ruling elder, in a circus! I'm mair than astonished! I'm fairly shocked at ye! And I'm feared it was a premeditated sin. And ye ken what the Domine thinks o' premeditated sins."

"It was far from a sin o' any kind, gudewife. Jamie and I were on our way to the boat, for a few hours' fishing, when we met a lad wi' a note from Finlay, saying he wanted a few words o' advice from me, and I took a sudden thought o' a day's rest, and a bit o' pleasure wi' little Jamie. Sae, to the town we went, and first o' all to Finlay's, and I had a long talk wi' him, about some railway shares he owns, on my advice; and they hae turned out sae weel, he wanted me to tak' part o' the profit. I wouldna do that, but I let him gie twenty pounds towards the school fund."

"You might hae put that twenty in your ain pouch, gudeman, and nae fault in the same. You are too liberal anent the school. Our ain lads get naething from it."

"Jamie will hae the gude o' it, and lots o' Culraine lads and lasses until they get a better one. Weel, so be it! After Finlay and I had finished our crack, I took Jamie to Molly Stark's, and we had a holiday dinner."

"Chicken pie! Custard pudding! Strawberry tarts! Nuts and raisins! And a big orange! Grandmither! Oh, it was beautiful! Beautiful!"

"Then we walked about the town a bit, and I saw a big tent, and men playing music before it, and when we got close pictures of animals and of horses, and men riding. And Jamie saw many little lads going in, especially one big school, and he said, 'Grandfeyther, tak' me in too!' And I took counsel wi' my ain heart for a minute, and it said to me, 'Tak' the lad in,' and so I did."

"And now you're blaming yoursel'?"

"I am not. I think I did right. There was neither sound nor sight o' wrang, and the little laddie went wild wi' pleasure; and to tell the vera truth, I was pleased mysel' beyond a' my thoughts and expectations. I would like to tak' you, Margot, and Christine too. I would like it weel. Let us a' go the morn's night."

"I hae not lost my senses yet, James. Me go to a circus! Culraine wad ne'er get o'er the fact. It wad be a standing libel against Margot Ruleson. As for Christine!"

"I wad like weel to go wi' Feyther."

"I'm fairly astonished at you, Christine! Lassie, the women here would ne'er see you again, they wad feel sae far above ye. I'm not the keeper o' your feyther's gude name, but I hae a charge o'er yours, and it is clear and clean impossible, for you to go to a circus."

"If Feyther goes----"

"Your feyther hasna heard the last o' his spree yet. To think o' him leaving the narrow road. Him, near saxty years old! The kirk session on the matter will be a notable one. Elders through the length and breadth o' Scotland will be takin' sides. Dear me, James Ruleson, that you, in your auld age, should come to this!" and then Margot laughed merrily and her husband and Christine understood she was only joking.

"And you'll maybe go wi' us all some afternoon, Margot?"

"Na, na, James! I'll not gie Jess Morrison, and the like o' her, any occasion for their ill tongues. They'd just glory in Margot Ruleson, Elder Ruleson's wife, going to the circus. I wouldn't be against going mysel' I'd like to go, but I wouldn't gie them the pleasure o' tossing my gude name on their ill-natured tongues."

"I saw Peter Brodie there, and his three lads, and his daughter Bella."

"Weel, James, tak' the little laddie again, if so you wish. Peter will stand wi' you, and he's the real ruling elder. But Christine is different. It lets a woman down to be talked about, whether she is right, or wrang."

Then Jamie was allowed to give his version of the wonder and the joy of a circus, and the last cups of tea were turned into some glorious kind of a drink, by the laughter and delight his descriptions evoked. Then and there it was resolved that his grandfather must take him again on the following day, and with this joyous expectation in his heart, the child at last fell asleep.

When Ruleson and his wife were alone, Margot noticed that her man's face became very somber and thoughtful. He was taking his bed-time smoke by the fireside, and she waited beside him, with her knitting in her hands, though she frequently dropped it. She was sure he had something on his mind, and she waited patiently for its revealing. At length he shook the ashes from his pipe, and stood it in its proper corner of the hob, then going to the window, he looked out and said,

"It's fair and calm, thank God! Margot, I saw Neil today." As he spoke, he sat down, and looked at her, almost sorrowfully.

"What did he say for himsel'?"

"I didna speak to him. I was in Finlay's store, at the back o' it, whar Finlay hes his office. A young man came into the store, and Finlay got up and went to speak to him. It was Rath, and when he went awa', Finlay called me, and showed me a little group on the sidewalk. They were Rath and his sister, our Neil and Provost Blackie's son."

"Our Provost Blackie's son?"

"Just sae. And Neil and him were as well met and friendly as if they had been brought up in the same cottage. The four o' them stood talking a few minutes, and then Neil offered his arm to Miss Rath, and led the young lady to a carriage waiting for them. She smiled and said something, and Neil turned and bowed to Rath and young Blackie, and then stepped into the carriage and took his seat beside the lady, and they drove off together."

"Gudeman, you arena leeing to me?"

"I am telling you the plain evendown truth, Margot."

"Did he see you?"

"No. I keepit oot o' his way."

"Whatna for?"

"I needna say the words."

"I'll say them for you--you thought he would be ashamed o' you."

"Ay, he might hae been. Dinna cry, woman. Dear, dear woman, dinna cry! It's our ain fault--our ain fault. If we had stood firm for the pulpit, if we had said, 'you must be either a preacher or a schoolmaster,' this wouldna hae been. We were bent on makin' a gentleman o' him, and now he prefers gentlemen to fishermen--we ought to hae expectit it."

"It is cruel, shamefu', ungratefu' as it can be!"

"Ay, but the lad is only seeking his ain good. If he still foregathered wi' our rough fisher-lads, we wouldn't like it. And we would tell him sae."

"He might hae found time to rin down, and see us for an hour or twa, and gie us the reasons for this, and that."

"He looked like he was courting the young lady--and we know of auld times, wife, that when our lads began courting, we hed to come after. I was wrang to gie in to his studying the law. Studying the gospels, he wad hae learned that there are neither rich nor poor, in God's sight. We gave the lad to God, and then we took him awa' frae God, and would mak' a lawyer and a gentleman o' him. Weel, as far as I can see, he is going to be a' we intended. We are getting what we hae worked for. There's nane to blame but oursel's."

This reasoning quite silenced Margot. She considered it constantly, and finally came to her husband's opinion. Then she would not talk about Neil, either one way, or the other, and it soon fell out that the lad's name was never mentioned in the home where he had once ruled almost despotically. Only Christine kept her faith in Neil. She wrote him long letters constantly. She told him all that was going on in the village, all about his father and mother, the Domine and the school house. She recalled pleasant little incidents of the past, and prefigured a future when she would see him every day. And she seldom named little Jamie. She divined that Neil was jealous of the position the child had gained in the household. And Christine was no trouble-maker. Her letters were all messages of peace and good will, and without any advice from her father she had personally come to very much the same