Produced by David Widger
OLIVE
A NOVEL
BY DINAH MARIA CRAIK, AKA: Dinah Maria Mulock
“BY THE AUTHOR OF
'JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN'”
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. BOWERS
1875
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1850.
[Illustration: Frontispiece]
[Illustration: Titlepage]
OLIVE.
CHAPTER I.
“Puir wee lassie, ye hae a waesome welcome to a waesome warld!”
Such was the first greeting ever received by my heroine, Olive Rothesay.
However, she would be then entitled neither a heroine nor even “Olive
Rothesay,” being a small nameless concretion of humanity, in colour and
consistency strongly resembling the “red earth,” whence was taken the
father of all nations. No foreshadowing of the coming life brightened
her purple, pinched-up, withered face, which, as in all new-born
children, bore such a ridiculous likeness to extreme old age. No tone
of the all-expressive human voice thrilled through the unconscious wail
that was her first utterance, and in her wide-open meaningless eyes
had never dawned the beautiful human soul. There she lay, as you and
I, reader, with all our compeers, lay once-a helpless lump of breathing
flesh, faintly stirred by animal life, and scarce at all by that
inner life which we call spirit. And, if we thus look back, half in
compassion, half in humiliation, at our infantile likeness-may it not be
that in the world to come some who in this world bore an outward image
poor, mean, and degraded, will cast a glance of equal pity on
their well-remembered olden selves, now transfigured into beautiful
immortality?
I seem to be wandering from my Olive Rothesay; but time will show the
contrary. Poor little spirit! newly come to earth, who knows whether
that “waesome welcome” may not be a prophecy? The old nurse seemed
almost to dread this, even while she uttered it, for with superstition
from which not an “auld wife” in Scotland is altogether free, she
changed the dolorous croon into a “Gude guide us!” and, pressing the
babe to her aged breast, bestowed a hearty blessing upon her nursling of
the second generation--the child of him who was at once her master and
her foster-son.
“An' wae's me that he's sae far awa', and canna do't himsel. My bonnie
bairn! Ye're come into the warld without a father's blessing.”
Perhaps the good soul's clasp was the tenderer, and her warm heart
throbbed the warmer to the new-born child, for a passing remembrance of
her own two fatherless babes, who now slept--as close together, as when,
“twin-laddies,” they had nestled in one mother's bosom--slept beneath
the wide Atlantic which marks the sea-boy's grave.
Nevertheless, the memory was now grown so dim with years, that it
vanished the moment the infant waked, and began to cry. Rocking to
and fro, the nurse tuned her cracked voice to a long-forgotten
lullaby--something about a “boatie.” It was stopped by a hand on her
shoulder, followed by the approximation of a face which, in its bland
gravity, bore “M.D.” on every line.
“Well, my good---- excuse me, but I forget your name.”
“Elspeth, or mair commonly, Elspie Murray. And no an ill name, doctor.
The Murrays o' Perth were”----
“No doubt--no doubt, Mrs. Elsappy.”
“_Elspie_, sir. How daur ye ca' me out o' my name, wi' your unceevil
English tongue!”
“Well, then, Elspie, or what the deuce you like,” said the doctor, vexed
out of his proprieties. But his rosy face became rosier when he met the
horrified and sternly reproachful stare of Elspie's keen blue eyes as
she turned round--a whole volume of sermons expressed in her “Eh, sir?”
Then she added, quietly,
“I'll thank ye no to speak ill words in the ears o' this puir innocent
new-born wean. It's no canny.”
“Humph!--I suppose I must beg pardon again. I shall never get out what
I wanted to say--which is, that you must be quiet, my good dame, and
you must keep Mrs. Rothesay quiet. She is a delicate young creature, you
know, and must have every possible comfort that she needs.”
The doctor glanced round the room as though there was scarce enough
comfort for his notions of worldly necessity. Yet though not luxurious,
the antechamber and the room half-revealed beyond it seemed to furnish
all that could be needed by an individual of moderate fortune and
desires. And an eye more romantic and poetic than that of the worthy
medico might have found ample atonement for the want of rich furniture
within, in the magnificent view without. The windows looked down on a
lovely champaign, through which the many-winding Forth span its silver
network, until, vanishing in the distance, a white sparkle here and
there only showed whither the river wandered. In the distance, the blue
mountains rose like clouds, marking the horizon. The foreground of this
landscape was formed by the hill, castle-crowned--than which there is
none in the world more beautiful or more renowned.
In short, Olive Rothesay shared with many a king and hero the honour of
her place of nativity. She was born at Stirling.
Perhaps this circumstance of birth has more influence over character
than many matter-of-fact people would imagine. It is pleasant, in after
life, to think that we first opened our eyes in a spot famous in the
world's story, or remarkable for natural beauty. It is sweet to say,
“Those are _my_ mountains,” or “This is _my_ fair valley;” and there
is a delight almost like that of a child who glories in his noble or
beautiful parents, in the grand historical pride which links us to
the place where we were born. So this little morsel of humanity, yet
unnamed, whom by an allowable prescience we have called Olive, may
perhaps be somewhat influenced in after life by the fact that her cradle
was rocked under the shadow of the hill of Stirling, and that the first
breezes which fanned her baby brow came from the Highland mountains.
But the excellent presiding genius at this interesting advent “cared for
none of these things.” Dr. Jacob Johnson stood at the window with his
hands in his pockets--to him the wide beautiful world was merely a field
for the exercise of the medical profession--a place where old women
died, and children were born. He watched the shadows darkening over
Ben-Ledi--calculating how much longer he ought in propriety to stay with
his present patient, and whether he should have time to run home and
take a cosy dinner and a bottle of port before he was again required.
“Our sweet young patient is doing well, I think, nurse,” said he, at
last, in his most benevolent tones.
“Ye may say that, doctor--ye suld ken.”
“I might almost venture to leave her, except that she seems so lonely,
without friend or nurse, save yourself.”
“And wha's the best nurse for Captain Angus Rothesay's wife and bairn,
but the woman that nursed himsel?” said Elspie, lifting up her tall
gaunt frame, and for the second time frowning the little doctor into
confused silence. “An' as for friends, ye suld just be unco glad o' the
chance that garr'd the leddy bide here, and no amang her ain folk. Else
there wadna hae been sic a sad welcome for her bonnie bairn. Maybe a
waur, though,” added the woman to herself, with a sigh, as she once more
half-buried her little nursling in her capacious embrace.
“I have not the slightest doubt of Captain Rothesay's respectability,”
answered Dr. Johnson. _Respectability_! applied to the scions of
a family which had had the honour of being nearly extirpated at
Flodden-field, and again at Pinkie. Had the trusty follower of the
Rothesays heard the term, she certainly would have been inclined to
annihilate the presumptuous Englishman. But she was fortunately engaged
in stilling the cries of the poor infant, who, in return for the pains
she took in addressing it, began to give full evidence that the weakness
of its lungs was not at all proportionate to the smallness of its size.
“Crying will do it good. A fine child--a very fine child,” observed the
doctor, as he made ready for his departure, while the nurse proceeded
in her task, and the heap of white drapery was gradually removed, until
from beneath it appeared a very--very tiny specimen of babyhood.
“Ye needna trouble yoursel to say what's no' true,” was the answer;
“it's just a bit bairnie--unco sma' An' that's nae wonder, considering
the puir mither's trouble.”
“And the father is gone abroad?”
“Just twa months sin' syne. But eh! doctor, look ye here,” suddenly
cried Elspie, as with her great, brown, but tender hand she was rubbing
down the delicate spine of the now quieted babe.
“Well--what's the matter now?” said Dr. Johnson rather sulkily, as he
laid down his hat and gloves, “The child is quite perfect, rather small
perhaps, but as nice a little girl as ever was seen. It's all right.”
“It's no a' richt,” cried the nurse, in a tone trembling between anger
and apprehension. “Doctor, see!”
She pointed with her finger to a slight curve at the upper part of the
spine, between the shoulder and neck. The doctor's professional anxiety
was aroused--he came near and examined the little creature, with a
countenance that grew graver each instant.
“Aweel?” said Elspie, inquiringly.
“I wish I had noticed this before; but it would have been of no use,” he
answered, his bland tones made earnest by real feeling.
“Eh, what?” said the nurse.
“I am sorry to say that the child is _deformed_--slightly so--very
slightly I hope--but most certainly deformed. Hump-backed.”
At this terrible sentence Elspie sank back in her chair. Then she
started up, clasping the child convulsively, and faced the doctor.
[Illustration: Page 5, How daur ye speak so]
“Ye lee, ye ugly creeping Englisher! How daur ye speak so of ane o' the
Rothesays,--frae the blude o' whilk cam the tallest men an' the bonniest
leddies--ne'er a cripple amang them a ---- How daur ye say that my
master's bairn will be a------. Wae's me! I canna speak the word.”
“My poor woman!” mildly said the doctor, “I am really concerned.”
“Haud your tongue, ye fule!” muttered Elspie, while she again laid the
child on her lap, and examined it earnestly for herself. The result
confirmed all. She wrung her hands, and rocked to and fro, moaning
aloud.
“Ochone, the wearie day! O my dear master, my bairn, that I nursed on
my knee! how will ye come back an' see your first-born, the last o' the
Rothesays, a puir bit crippled lassie!”
A faint call from the inner room startled both doctor and nurse.
“Good heavens!” exclaimed the former. “We must think of the mother.
Stay--I'll go. She does not, and she must not, know of this. What a
blessing that I have already told her the child was a fine and perfect
child. Poor thing, poor thing!” he added passionately, as he hurried to
his patient leaving Elspie hushed into silence, still mournfully gazing
on her charge.
It would have been curious to mark the changes in the nurse's face
during that brief interval. At first it wore a look almost of
repugnance as she regarded the unconscious child, and then that very
unconsciousness seemed to awaken her womanly compassion. “Puir hapless
wean, ye little ken what ye're coming to! Lack o' kinsman's love, and
lack o' siller, and lack o' beauty. God forgie me--but why did He send
ye into the waefu' warld at a'?”
It was a question, the nature of which has perplexed theologians,
philosophers, and metaphysicians, in every age, and will perplex them
all to the end of time. No wonder, therefore, that it could not be
solved by the poor simple Scotswoman. But as she stood hushing the
child to her breast, and looking vacantly out of the window at the far
mountains which grew golden in the sunset, she was unconsciously soothed
by the scene, and settled the matter in a way which wiser heads might
often do with advantage.
“Aweel! He kens best. He made the warld and a' that's in't; and maybe
He will gie unto this puir wee thing a meek spirit to bear ill-luck. Ane
must wark, anither suffer. As the minister says, It'll a' come richt at
last.”
Still the babe slept on, the sun sank, and night fell upon the earth.
And so the morning and evening made the first day of the new existence,
which was about to be developed, through all the various phases which
compose that strange and touching mystery--a woman's life.