Inchbracken: The Story of a Fama Clamosa

  CHAPTER XIII.

  _A HARBOUR OF REFUGE_.

  Roderick having bestowed his companion safely in the shieling ofStephen Boague, did not linger. He started at once down the glen bythe path beaten by the shepherd and his family. Down a glen, over amountain shoulder, across rolling upland, zig-zagging between marshand peat bog, at length coming out on the road, and in course of timegaining the inn from which they had started in the forenoon. There wasno lifting or clearing away of the mist, it had thickened rather, andfilled the air with a diffused drizzling spray, which settleddrenchingly on every thing, trickling down rock and herbage, soakinginto clothing and ground, till like sponge, they were distended withmoisture.

  He was wet already, as well as more or less bruised, battered, andfoot-sore from his late experience, therefore the drizzle did not addmaterially to his discomfort, besides, the ferment in his mind madehim insensible to bodily pains. He had heard from Mrs. Sangster's ownlips when apparent danger had momentarily removed the restraints ofcivilized life, and her native egotistic worldliness and greed foronce spoke out for themselves, that she was contemplating a matchbetween Sophia and Wallowby. His Sophia, for whom like another Jacobearning his Rachel, he had laboured and borne so long. He had not goneout each morning for fourteen years, it is true, driving the cattlebefore him on the pastures of Auchlippie; but these are not the daysin which human life is measured by centuries. Out of what theinsurance companies would call his presumption of life, he hadbestowed a far larger percentage on Sophia, than were the fourteenyears devoted by the patriarch to winning his bride, not to mentiondifference in intensity. Notwithstanding the beauty of the sacredepisode, one cannot but suspect some coolness, along with the muchpatience required to watch the beloved object drifting from the brightbloom of girlhood into the sun-burnt maturity of thirty summers, andstill keep waiting to work out the bargain. Roderick had been workingout his bridal on the other line, not ministering to the greed of agrasping father-in-law, but submitting to whims, exactions, andpretensions innumerable from the coarse-fibred mother of his charmer.How she had taken upon her to regulate his orthodoxy!--had sat injudgment on all that he did! reproved and exhorted him! and how he hadborne it all, and attributed it to ignorant good intentions, for thelove of Sophia! Sophia, whom he had picked blaeberries for inchildhood, and worshipped openly ever since.

  And had he not been given fair encouragement too? When he returnedfrom Edinburgh for his college vacations, had he not always met aspecial welcome there, and received invitations to come and stay asfrequently as even he could desire? And since then, had he not becomein every respect what this most fickle of mothers the most approved?Had he not cast aside the offer of a good manse and stipend, and comeforth with the faithful to suffer tribulation for righteousness' sake?Had he not been zealous, and showed his desire to spend and be spentin the cause of truth? True, he had obeyed the command of conscience,and not of Mrs. Sangster in all this; but his line of conduct had beenthe one she belauded as most noble and holy, and she had already, inthe earlier time, let him clearly see that personally she approvedhim, and had given him every facility for becoming intimate with hergirl. And now without the pretence of falling out or complaint againsthim, she was deliberately contemplating to marry her to another man.Was ever such treachery, fickleness, worldly-mindedness, and all thatis worst?

  Poor young man! It _was_ bad treatment looked at from _his_ point ofview,--it was black, and deserving of all the hard names he applied toit; but then there are more points of view than one, and who shalldecide which is to prevail over the others? His was the suitor's pointof view, but there is also that of the sought, and likewise that ofher family. A family can wed its flower and pride but once, and it isneither unnatural nor improper that it should try to do its best,which, speaking in the general, means to secure a rich husband for thegirl. The most mercenary will admit that riches do not necessarilybring happiness, but the moral point is whether happiness is possiblewithout them. Many have doubted whether happiness is compatible withpoverty, but no one has ventured to assert that the poverty is anelement in the happiness.

  Therefore, friend Roderick, there is something to be said on the sideof the old woman. It is not to _your_ interests she can be held bound,further than the truth and justice due to all our fellow creaturesrequire, but to her daughter's. As to how the case may appear from thedaughter's point of view, you have no right to say, or even to think,as you have never put it in her power to tell you, and a maiden maynot divulge the secret of her preferences unasked. She has encouragedyou, you say? But how? Answered you civilly when you spoke to her?Could a lady do less? Has not been averse to your company? Why shouldshe be? Could she civilly have shown a distaste for it? And supposingshe felt no distaste, but rather liked it? Must a woman be prepared tomarry any man whose company she finds pleasurable, or less irksomethan solitude? You never spoke the word, my friend, that would havecalled her to speak for herself, and therefore you have no right tocomplain; though I grant that Mrs. Sangster may have beeninconsiderate and fickle, and may be mercenary. Still, if when sheextended her encouragement, you did not tender your proposal, andthereby nail her, she must be allowed to change her mind if shedesires. As to Sophia herself, the probability is, that her affectionsare, and will remain, in an amorphous form, or let us say in solution,until such time as her relatives provide her with a husband round whomthey may properly crystallize, as they no doubt will, and she willprove a pattern wife and mother. I fear, however, that as regards thenucleus round which her affections are to gather, as in the case ofsugar (another sweet substance), any stick will answer quite well.

  Love is blind, and young love headstrong, therefore it is littlewonder if these cold-blooded reflections did not occur to Roderick. Hefretted and fumed as he walked along, and was thoroughly miserable,while the moisture dripped steadily from his hat brim, and meanderedin little brooks down his neck.

  Eventually he reached the inn, and bade the landlord send out a gig ortax-cart at once, to bring in Mrs. Sangster. The landlady cameforward, officious to welcome a guest, and eager to show hospitalityto her minister.

  'Wae's me, sir, but ye _are_ drouket! Past a' kennin', ye micht haebeen soomin' e'y loch, forby climbin' the craig. Stap in by, aside thetwa gentlemen, an' warm yersel'. An' I'se bring ye a drap toddy to hetyer insides, an' syne ye'll gang to yer bed, an' I'se toast yer breeksafore the kitchen fire. Lord pity me! the man's as blae as a corpabout the gills--clean fushionless an' forfuchan wi' cauld an' weet!Gude grant he bena taeh doon wi' a fivver o' tap o't. Ye'll be for yerdenner, sir, whan Mrs. Sangster comes in? But that winna be for twahours yet; sae gang tae yer bed, sir, ey now, an' I'se see to dryin'yer claes.'

  Roderick entered the room where sat Peter Sangster and his friend. Aroaring fire of wood billets and peat blazed on the hearth, each had asmoking tumbler at his elbow, and soothed himself with a pipe. Therewas a steaminess and a flavour of broadcloth and shoe leather diffusedabout the apartment, but it was evident the gentlemen themselves werenearly dried, and subsiding into a sort of drowsy comfort under theunited influence of warmth, toddy, and tobacco.

  'Ahoy! Sir preacher! Turned up at last? and what have you done with mymother?'

  'She is safe in a shieling up one of the cross glens, and I havealready ordered a gig to be sent for her. You may expect her in littlemore than an hour. We very nearly got lost on the hill in consequenceof waiting to look for an eye-glass she had dropped. When that wasfound, you had gone out of hearing, and we found ourselves alone.Eventually we had recourse to the old device of following runningwater, and a pretty course it led us, over slippery rock faces, andinto pools of ice-cold water. Your mother thought she was drowned morethan once, and at last gave up all hope of getting home alive, and butthat she could hear the barking of dogs and the cries of children alittle way below, she would have collapsed altogether.'

  'Hm,' said Peter, 'I can imagine--I am glad it was you and not me! Theold lady is ap
t to cut up rough under difficulty. However I had my owntroubles. See my coat! Split right up the middle and only heldtogether by the collar and the two pins which Mrs. Tuppeny here hastagged it together with. I have to sit bolt upright, or they run intome like skewers whenever I lean back. Perhaps they are skewers.'

  'Ha!' broke in Wallowby, 'we heard a screach overhead, and when Ilooked up, there were a pair of boot heels within a foot of my eye,the legs belonging to them were only dimly visible, and whatever wasabove that was out of sight in the mist. The guide got hold of one, Itook the other, while Miss Sophia stood well to the one side. Then wesaid one, two, three, and gave a pull together. There was a crack ofrending broad-cloth and oh! such an unearthly howl. He must havefancied he was being dragged down into the pit of darkness. Eh, Peter?and there stood my gentleman clutching his fingers into the cravats ofhis two preservers and panting like a steamboat!--Pretty exhibition ofnerves, my fine fellow!--What will they say at the club when they hearof it?'

  'You shut up! for a clumsy blunderbuss! You nearly dislocated my hipjoint with your idiotic wrenching, and then wonder that I cried out!'

  'What has become of Miss Sophia?' asked Roderick.

  'Tea and bed upstairs,' replied Wallowby with a guffaw; 'the landladymarched her up stairs to bed first thing, like a naughty child who hadwet her frock, and I heard her say, she would dry her coats for her.What are coats by the way? Scottice for garters? I know what breeksare.'

  'Here's a lad speerin' for Mistress Sangster, gentlemen,' said Mrs.Tuppeny opening the door and pushing in a damp and touselled-lookingyouth, who grasped his dripping 'Tam o' Shanter' tightly in bothhands.

  'I was to speer for Mistress Sangster hersel.'

  'She has not come in yet, but I am her son.'

  'An' there's Master Brown, the young leddy's brither,' added Mrs.Tuppeny, 'I'm thinkin' it'll be a' richt.'

  'A weel, sir, General Drysdale sends his compliments to MistressSangster---- He sends his compliments' (and he looked into the crownof his hat as though he expected to find them there) 'an' he's taenthe leeberty o' bringin' Miss Brown hame wi' him til Inchbracken, todry hersel', an' he'll tak her hame the morn. He fand her e'y glen,down by fornent the Herder's Scaur, a' weel an' droukit like, an' forfear she suld tak the cauld, he juist on wi' her til a pownie, an'they're gane skelpin' hame til Inchbracken.'

  'Very kind of General Drysdale,' said Roderick, giving the messenger ashilling. 'Here! Mrs. Tuppeny, give him a jorum of your toddy! Helooks as wet as any of us.'

  'An it's yer pleasure, sir, I'se gie him a gude drink o' yill---- Cockthe like o' _him_ wi' the best Glenlivet! An' I'm no for giein' toddyto thae hafflin callants, no ways; they dinna need it, an' it's an illtrick to learn them. The weet's nae harm tae cottar folks' bairns,they're aye plouterin' e'y burns, an' it juist keeps them caller. Butsay the word, sir, an' he's hae the yill!' and so saying she pulledthe messenger out before her and closed the door.

  'I can't say much for your sister's politeness, Brown,' said Peter.'When a lady accepts a man's escort, she is bound to stick to it, Ishould say, and not go off with the first stranger who rides up in themist, without even a word of apology or farewell. I don't see why shecould not have stuck by me.'

  'And broken her neck down that precipice where you so nearly stuckfast yourself?' said Roderick. 'Your hands seem to have been fullenough taking care of yourself. I think one may without presumption orprofanity regard General Drysdale's opportune appearance asprovidential.'

  'But it wasn't General Drysdale's opportune appearance! It was thatstuck-up puppy his son.'

  'And a far more ominous appearance for your peace, too, my boy,' saidWallowby with a chuckle. 'But grin and bear it, old man. You will onlybe laughed at if you get mad.'

  Mrs. Tuppeny looked in again.

  'Mister Brown! yer room's ready up the stair. Come awa, sir, an' takaff yer claes, an' I'se dry them for ye. Ye'll get yer death, sir, an'ye bena quick! Juist see til the dub ye're stan'in' in! A' dreepitfrae yersel! An' the reek frae yer fore pairts as ye staund fornentthe lowe--ne'er mind the drap toddy-come awa! I'se brew ye a soupbetter an' stronger whan ye're in ower amang the blankets.'

  So Roderick, half pushed and half exhorted, found himself forthwithupstairs and in bed, while Mrs. Tuppeny stood beside him with a nogginof her hottest and strongest toddy.

  'Drink it down, sir! It wadna harm a sookin' bairn. An' ye're needn't.Noo see gin ye canna sleep a wee. It wad do ye gude. Gin ye dinna taktent, ye'se no wag yer pow in a poopit this mony a day.'