THE MOTHER OF KING LEMUEL.
It was not till Ralph Peden had returned to the study of the manse
of the Marrow kirk of Dullarg, and the colour induced by exercise
had had time to die out of his naturally pale cheeks, that he
remembered that he had left his Hebrew Bible and Lexicon, as well
as a half-written exegesis on an important subject, underneath the
fatal whin bush above the bridge over the Grannoch water. He would
have been glad to rise and seek it immediately--a task which,
indeed, no longer presented itself in such terrible colours to
him. He found himself even anxious to go. It would be a serious
thing were he to lose his father's Lexicon and Mr. Welsh's Hebrew
Bible. Moreover, he could not bear the thought of leaving the
sheets of his exposition of the last chapter of Proverbs to be the
sport of the gamesome Galloway winds--or, worse thought, the
laughing-stock of gamesome young women who whistled with two
fingers in their mouths.
Yet the picture of the maid of the loch which rose before him
struck him as no unpleasant one. He remembered for one thing how
the sun shone through the tangle of her hair. But he had quite
forgotten, on the other hand, at what part of his exegesis he had
left off. It was, however, a manifest impossibility for him to
slip out again. Besides, he was in mortal terror lest Mr. Welsh
should ask for his Hebrew Bible, or offer to revise his chapter of
the day with him. All the afternoon he was uneasy, finding no
excuse to take himself away to the loch-side in order to find his
Bible and Lexicon.
"I understand you have been studying, with a view to license, the
last chapter of the Proverbs of Solomon?" said Gilbert Welsh,
interrogatively, bending his shaggy brows and pouting his underlip
at the student.
The Marrow minister was a small man, with a body so dried and
twisted ("shauchelt" was the local word) that all the nerve stuff
of a strong nature had run up to his brain, so that when he walked
he seemed always on the point of falling forward, overbalanced by
the weight of his cliff-like brow.
"Ralph, will you ground the argument of the mother of King Lemuel
in this chapter? But perhaps you would like to refer to the
original Hebrew?" said the minister.
"Oh, no," interrupted Ralph, aghast at the latter suggestion, "I
do not need the text--thank you, sir."
But, in spite of his disclaimer, he devoutly desired to be where
the original text and his written comment upon it were at that
moment--which, indeed, was a consummation even more devoutly to be
wished than he had any suspicion of. The Marrow minister leaned
his head on his hand and looked waitingly at the young man.
Ralph recalled himself with an effort. He had to repeat to himself
that he was in the manse study, and almost to pinch his knee to
convince himself of the reality of his experiences. But this was
not necessary a second time, for, as he sat hastily down on one of
Allen Welsh's hard-wood chairs, a prickle from the gorse bush
which he had brought back with him from Loch Grannoch side was
argument sharp enough to convince Bishop Berkeley.
"Compose yourself to answer my question," said the minister, with
some slight severity. Ralph wondered silently if even a minister
of the Marrow kirk in good standing, could compose himself on one
whin prickle for certain, and the probability of several others
developing themselves at various angles hereafter.
Ralph "grounded" himself as best as he could, explaining the views
of the mother of King Lemuel as to the woman of virtue and
faithfulness. He seemed to himself to have a fluency and a fervour
in exposition to which he had been a stranger. He began to have
new views about the necessity for the creation of Eve. Woman might
possibly, after all, be less purely gratuitous than he had
supposed.
"The woman who is above rubies," said he, "is one who rises early
to care for the house, who oversees the handmaids as they cleanse
the household stuffs--in a" (he just saved himself from saying "in
a black pot")--"in a fitting vessel by the rivers of water."
"Well put and correctly mandated," said Mr. Welsh, very much
pleased. There was unction about this young man. Though a bachelor
by profession, he loved to hear the praises of good women; for he
had once known one.
"She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and--"
Here Ralph paused, biting his tongue to keep from describing the
picture which rose before him.
"And what," said the minister, tentatively, leaning forward to
look into the open face of the young man, "what is the distinction
or badge of true beauty and favour of countenance, as so well
expressed by the mother of King Lemuel?"
"A LILAC SUNBONNET!" said Ralph Peden, student in divinity.