PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE
Campbell returned to the dining-room pleasantly enough. He placed his
chair at his mother's side, and asked: "Are you feeling ill, mother?"
"Rather, Robert, and the library is objectionable to me, since you began
to smoke there. In fact, I have long been prejudiced against the room,
for your father had a trick of sending for me to come there, whenever he
was compelled to tell me of some misfortune. Consequently, I have
associated the library with calamity, and I did not wish to hear your
important news there."
"Calamity? No, no! My news is altogether happy and delightful. Mother, I
am going to be married in October, to the loveliest woman in the world,
and she is as good and clever as she is beautiful."
"Married! May I ask after the lady's name?"
"Theodora Newton. Her father is the Methodist preacher at Kendal, a town
in Westmoreland."
"England?"
"Yes."
"She is an Englishwoman?"
"Of course!"
"I might have known it. I never knew a Scotchwoman called Theodora."
"It is a good name and suits her to perfection. Her father belongs to
the Northumberland Newtons, a fine old family."
"It may be. I never heard of them. You say he is a Methodist preacher?"
"A remarkable preacher. I heard him last Sunday."
"Robert Campbell! Have you fairly forgotten yourself? Methodists are
Arminians, and Arminians I hold in utter abomination, as every good
Calvinist should."
"I know nothing about such subjects. This generation, mother, is getting
hold of more tolerant ideas. But it makes no matter to me what creed
Theodora believes in. I should love her just the same even if she were a
Roman Catholic."
"A man in love, Robert, suffers from a temporary collapse o' good sense.
But when I hear you say things like that, I think you are mad entirely."
"No, mother. I never was so happy in all my five senses as I am now. The
world was never so beautiful, and life never so desirable, as since I
loved Theodora."
"Doubtless you think she is a nonsuch, but I call your case one of
lamentable self-pleasing. To the lures of what you consider a beautiful
woman, you are sacrificing your noblest feelings and traditions. Don't
deceive yourself. Was there not in all Scotland a girl of your own race
and faith, good enough for you to marry?"
"I never saw one I wanted to marry."
"I might mention Jane Dalkeith."
"You need not. I would not marry Jane if she was the only woman in the
world!"
"You prefer above all others an Englishwoman and a Methodist?"
"Decidedly."
"You have made up your mind to marry this doubly objectionable woman?"
"Positively, some time next October."
"And what is to become of me, and your sisters?"
"That is what I wish to understand."
"I have my dower-house in Saltcoats, but it is small and uncomfortable.
If I go there, I shall have to leave the Kirk I have sat in for
thirty-seven years, the minister who is dear and profitable to me, all
the friends I have in the world, and the numerous----"
"Mother, I wish you to do none of these things. This house is large
enough for us all. The south half, which you now occupy, you can retain
for yourself and my sisters. I shall refurnish, as Theodora desires, the
northern half, and if you will continue the management of the house and
table, we can all surely eat in our present dining-room. There will only
be one more to cater for, and I will allow liberally for that in the
weekly sum for your expenditure. Theodora is no housekeeper and does not
pretend to be. She is immensely clever and intellectual, and has been a
professor in a large Methodist College for girls."
"You will be a speculation to all who know you."
"I am not caring a penny piece. They can speculate all they choose to. I
shall meanwhile be extremely indifferent. I have come at last, mother,
to understand that in a great love there is great happiness. The whole
soul can take shelter there."
"The soul takes shelter in nothing and in no one related to this earth.
That is some of last Sabbath's teaching, I suppose."
"Yes," he answered. "I was at Theodora's side all last Sunday and I
learned this lesson in the sweetest way imaginable."
"I wish you to talk modestly before your sisters, and I do not like to
hear the Sabbath called Sunday."
Robert laughed and answered: "Well, mother, we have so little sunshine
in Scotland, we really cannot speak of any day as Sunday."
"You may laugh, Robert, but such things are related to spiritual
ordinances, and are not joking matters."
"You are right, mother. Let us get back to business. Will you accept my
proposal, or do you prefer to go to your own home?"
"I have been used to consider this house my own home, for thirty-seven
years, and if I leave it, I wonder what kind of housekeeping will go on
in it, with a college woman to superintend things? You would be left to
the servant lasses, and their doings and not-doings would be enough to
turn my hair gray."
"Then, mother, you will stay here, as I propose?"
"I cannot do my duty, and leave."
"I thank you, mother." Then, turning to his sisters, he said: "I hope
you are satisfied, girls."
"There is no other course for us," answered Isabel. "We must stay where
mother stays. It would be unkind to leave her now--when you are
practically leaving her."
"I hope Theodora will be nice," said Christina. "If she is, we may be
happy."
"Do your best, Christina, to make all pleasant, and you will please me
very much," said Robert. "And, Isabel, I am not leaving any of you.
Marriage will not alter me in regard to my relationship to mother,
yourself, and Christina. I promise you that."
"If you intend to make many alterations in the house, you will have to
see about them at once," said Mrs. Campbell.
"To-morrow I shall send men to remove all the old furniture from the
rooms I intend to decorate."
"To remove it! Where to?"
"To Bailey's auction rooms."
"Robert Campbell! Your poor, dear father's rooms, and he not gone two
years yet!"
"To-morrow will be nine days short of the two years. Do you wish his
rooms to remain untouched for nine days longer, mother?"
"It is no matter. Let his lounge, and his chair and his bagatelle board
go--let all go! The dead, as well as the living, must make way for
Theodora."
"And, mother, as the hall will be entirely changed, and there will be
much traffic through it, you had better remove early in the morning
those huge glass cases of impaled insects and butterflies. If you wish
to keep them, take them to your rooms; if not, let them go to Bailey's."
"They may as well go with the rest. Your father valued them highly in
this life, but----"
"They are the most lugubrious, sorrowful objects. They make me shudder.
How could any one imagine they were ornamental?"
"Your father thought them to be very curious and instructive, and they
cost a great deal of money."
"If during the night you remember any changes you would like to make, we
can discuss them in the morning," said Robert.
He went out gaily, and as he closed the door, began to sing:
"_My love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly blown in June;
My Love is like a melody,
That's sweetly played in tune._"
Then the library shut in the singer and the song, and all was silence.
Mrs. Campbell did not speak, and Isabel looked at her with a kind of
contemptuous pity. She thought her mother had but lamely defended her
position, and was sure she could have done it more effectively.
Christina was simply interested. There was really something going to
happen, and as far as she could see, the change in the house would
bring other changes still more important. She was satisfied, and she
looked at her silent mother and sister impatiently. Why did they not say
something?
At length Mrs. Campbell rose from the sofa, and began to walk slowly up
and down the room, and with motion came speech.
"I think, Isabel," she said, "I signified my opinions and desires
plainly enough to your brother."
"You spoke with your usual wisdom and clearness, mother."
"Do you think Robert understood that I consider this house my house, and
that I intend to be mistress in it? Why, girls, your father made me
mistress here more than thirty-seven years ago. That ought to be enough
for Robert."
"Robert is now in father's place," said Christina.
"Robert cannot take from me what your father gave me. This house is
morally mine, and always will be, while I choose to urge my claim. I am
not going to be put to the wall by two lovesick fools. No, indeed!"
"I think Robert showed himself very wise for his own--and Theodora's
interests; and he would refute your moral claim, I assure you, mother,
without one qualm of conscience."
"Refute me! He might as well try to refute the Bass rock. A mother is
irrefutable, Isabel! But his conduct will necessitate us all using a
deal of diplomacy. You do not require to be told why, or how, at the
present time. I have a forecasting mind, and I can see how things are
going to happen, but just now, we must keep a calm sound in all our
observes, for the man is in the burning fever of an uncontrollable love,
and clean off his reason--on the subject of that Englishwoman, he is mad
entirely."
"I wonder what Dr. Robertson, and the Kirk, and people in general, will
say?"
"What they will say to our faces is untelling, Isabel; what they will
say when we are not bodily present, it is easy to surmise. Every one
will consider Robert Campbell totally beyond his senses. He is. That
creature in a place called Kendal, has bewitched him. As you well know,
the prime and notable quality of Robert Campbell was, that he could make
money, and especially save money. He always, in this respect, reminded
me of his grandfather, whom every one called 'Old Economy.' Now, what is
he doing? Squandering money on every hand! Expensive journeys for the
sole end of love-making, expensive presents no doubt, half of Traquair
House redecorated and refurnished, wedding expenses coming on, honeymoon
expenses; goodness only knows what else will be emptying the purse. And
for whom? An Englishwoman, a Methodist, a poor school-teacher. She will
neither be to hold nor to bind in her own expenses; for coming to
Traquair House will be to her like entering a superior state of
existence, and she won't know how to carry herself in it. We may take
that to be a certainty. But I think I can teach her! Yes, I think I can
teach her!"
"How will you do it, mother?"
"I cannot exactly specify now. She will give me the points, and
opportunities; and correcting, and advising, come most effectively from
the passing events of daily life. As I said, she will give me plenty of
occasions or I'm no judge of women--especially brides."
"You might be flustered if you were in a hurry and unprepared, mother,
and miss points of advantage, or get more than you gave, but if you had
a plan thought out----"
"No, no, Isabel! I have lived long enough to learn the wisdom of
building my wall with the stones I find at the foot of it."
"Many a sore heart the poor thing will get!" said Christina, with an air
of mock pity.
"We cannot say too much or go too far, while Robert is as daft in love
as he is at present," continued Mrs. Campbell. "We must be cautious, and
that is the good way--the bit-by-bitness is what tells; now a look, now
a word, now a hint, there a suspicion, there a worriment, there a
hesitation or a doubt. It is the bit-by-bitness tells! This is a
forgetful world, so I mention this fact again. And remember also, that
men are the most uncertain part of creation. I have known Robert
Campbell thirty years and I have just found him out. He is a curious
creature, is Robert. He thinks himself steady as the hills, but in
reality he is just as unstable as water. Good-night, girls! We will go
for our sleep now, though I'm doubting if we get any."
"Theodora won't keep _me_ awake," said Christina. Isabel did not speak
then, but as they stood a moment at their bedroom doors, she said:
"Mother is not to be trifled with. She is going to make Theodora trouble
enough. I'm telling you."
"I don't care if she does! Anything for a change. Good-night!"
"Good-night! I do not expect to sleep."
"Perfect nonsense! Why should you keep awake for a woman in Kendal? Shut
your eyes and forget her. Or dream that she brings you a husband."
"I'll do no such thing. That's a likely story!" and the two doors shut
softly to the denial, and Christina's low laugh at it.
When the three women came down to breakfast in the morning, they found a
dozen men at work dismantling the hall and the rooms on the north side
of the house. The glass cases of insects and butterflies, and the
old-fashioned engravings of Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, the Duke of
Wellington, and Queen Victoria's marriage ceremony were just leaving the
house. Mrs. Campbell, walking in her most stately manner, approached the
foreman and began to give him some orders. He listened impatiently a few
moments, and then answered with small courtesy:
"I have my written directions, ma'am, from the master, and I shall
follow them to the letter. There is no use in you bothering and
interfering," and with the last word on his lips, he turned from her to
address some of his workmen.
She looked at him in utter amazement and speechless anger; then with an
apparent haughty indifference, turned into the breakfast-room bringing
the word "interfering" with her, and flavoring every remark she made
with it. She was in a white heat of passion, and really felt herself to
have been insulted beyond all pacification. Isabel had been a little in
advance, and had not seen and heard the affront, but she was in thorough
sympathy with her mother. Christina was differently affected. The idea
of a workman telling her mother not to interfere in her own house was so
flagrantly impudent, that it was to Christina flagrantly funny. Every
time Mrs. Campbell imitated the man, she felt that she must give way,
and at length the strain was uncontrollable, and she burst into a
screaming passion of laughter.
"Forgive me, mother!" she said as soon as speech was possible. "That
man's impertinence to you has made me hysterical, for I never saw you
treated so disrespectfully before. I was very nervous when I rose this
morning."
"You must conquer such absurd feelings, Christina. Observe your sister
and myself. We should be ashamed to exhibit such a total collapse of
will power."
"Excuse me, mother. I will go to my room until I feel better."
"Very well, Christina. You had better take a drink of water. Remember,
you must learn to meet annoyance like a sensible woman."
"I will, mother."
But after breakfast when Isabel came to her, she went off into peals of
laughter again, burying her face in the pillows, and only lifting it to
ejaculate: "It was too delicious, Isabel--too deliciously funny for
anything! If you had seen that man stare mother in the face--and tell
her not to interfere! I wondered how he dared, but I admired him for it;
he was a big, handsome fellow. Oh, how I wished I was like him! What
privileges men do have?"
"Do you mean to call it a privilege to tell mother not to interfere?"
"Many a time I would like to have done it; yes, many a time. I know it
is wicked, but mother does interfere too much. It is her specialty!" and
Christina appeared ready for another fit of laughter.
"If you laugh any more, Christina, I shall feel it my duty to throw cold
water in your face. Mother told me to do so."
"Such advice comes from her interfering temper. That handsome fellow was
right."
"Behave yourself, Christina. What is the matter with you?"
"It is the change, Isabel. To see lots of men in the hall, and that
heavy black furniture and the poor beetles and butterflies, and the
great men's pictures going away----"
"Can't you speak correctly? Are you sick?"
"I must be!"
"Go back to bed, and I will get mother to give you a sleeping powder."
"That will be better than cold water. If you could only have seen
mother's face, Isabel, when that man told her not to interfere. As for
him, he had a wink in his eyes, I know. I hope I shall never see him
again. If I do----"
"I trust you will behave decently, as Christina Campbell ought to do."
"If he winks, I shall laugh. I know I shall."
"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
"I am, but what good does that do?"
"See here, Christina, there are going to be many changes in this house,
and if you intend to meet them with this idiotic laughter, what pleasure
can you expect? Be sensible, Christina."
Poor Christina! The keenest of all her faculties was her sense of the
ridiculous. On this side of her nature, her intellect could have been
highly developed, but instead it had been ruthlessly depressed and
ignored. The comic page of the newspapers, the only page she cared for,
was generally removed; she could tell a funny story delightfully, but no
one smiled if she did so; she saw the comical attributes of every one,
and everything, but it was a grave misdemeanor to point them out; and
thus snubbed and chided for the one thing she could do, she feared to
attempt others which she knew only in a mediocre manner.
At the dinner table she was able to take her place in a placid, sensible
mood. She found the family deep in the discussion of an immediate
removal to the seashore. It was at any rate about the usual time of
their summer migration, and Robert was advising his mother to go to the
Isle of Arran. But Mrs. Campbell had resolved to go to Campbelton, where
she had many relations. "We can stay at the _Argyle Arms_," she said,
"and then neither the Lairds nor the Crawfords will have the face to be
dropping in for a few days' change, at my expense."
Christina looked distressed, and touched Isabel's foot to excite her to
rebellion. "Mother," said Isabel dolorously, "Christina and I hate
Campbelton! It smells of whiskey and fish, and not even the great sea
winds can make the place clean and sweet."
"It makes me ill," ventured Christina.
"My family have lived there for generations, Christina, and it never
made them ill. They are, indeed, very robust and healthy."
"There is nothing to see, mother."
"I am ashamed of you, Christina. It is a town of the greatest antiquity,
and was, as you ought to know, the capital of the Dalriadan kingdom in
the sixth and seventh century."
"I know all about its antiquities, mother. I wish I didn't."
"Christina, what is the matter with you to-day?"
"I am tired of living, mother."
"Robert, do you hear your sister?"
"Why are you tired of living, Christina?" asked Robert, not unkindly.
"We do not live, brother; that is the reason."
"What do you mean?"
"Life is variety. To us every day is the same, except the Sabbath, and
that is the worst day of all. I don't blame you, brother, for a
desperate effort to change your life. If I were a man I should run
away."
"What do you mean by a desperate effort, Christina?"
"I mean marriage. Sometimes I feel that I would run away with any man
that would marry me."
"_Hush!_ Such a feeling is shameful. What do you wish instead of
Campbelton?"
The courage of the desperate possessed Christina and she answered: "I
should like to travel. I want to see Edinburgh and London and Paris like
other girls whose families have money, and Isabel feels as badly at our
restrictions as I do."
"What do you say, mother? Will you go with the girls to Edinburgh and
London? Paris is out of the question. I will pay all expenses."
"I will do nothing of the kind. I am going to Campbelton. I suppose the
girls can go by themselves."
"You know better, mother."
"English girls go all over the world by themselves, and some kinds of
Scotch girls are beginning to think mothers an unnecessary institution."
Robert looked at Isabel, and she said: "We might have a courier. I mean
a lady courier."
"I will not permit my daughters to go stravaging round the world with
any strange woman. Robert, I think you have behaved most imprudently to
propose any such thing."
"In _your_ company, mother, was my suggestion. I do think an entire
change of people and surroundings would do both you and my sisters a
great deal of good."
"Changes are plentiful; too many are now in progress."
So the subject died in bad temper, and Robert felt his proffered
kindness to have been very ungraciously received. But when he rose from
the table, Christina touched his arm as he passed her chair. "Thank you,
brother," she said. "You wished to give us a little pleasure. It is not
your fault we are deprived of it."
He saw that her eyes were full of tears, and her weary, plaintive voice
touched his heart, so he turned to his mother and said:
"Think of what I have proposed. I will not stint you in expenses. Give
the girls and yourself a little pleasure--do."
"Your own expenses are going to be tremendous, Robert, furnishing,
travelling and what not. I can't conscientiously increase them."
At these words Christina left the room. Robert did not answer his
mother's remark, but he looked at Isabel, and she understood the look as
entrusting the further prosecution of the subject to her.
Mrs. Campbell, however, refused to give up Campbelton. "I heard," she
said, "that Mrs. Walter Galbraith was going to France and Italy.
Perhaps she will allow you to travel with her."
Isabel looked at her mother with something like reproach. "You know
well, mother, that Mrs. Galbraith dresses and travels in the most
extravagant fashion. She would not be seen with two old maids in plain
brown merino suits. We should look like her servants. Even if we got
stylish travelling gowns, we should want dinner dresses, and opera
dresses, and cloaks and changes, and small necessities innumerable. It
would cost a thousand pounds, if not more, to clothe us both for a three
months' travel with Mrs. Galbraith."
"Then be sensible women and go to Campbelton. You can take your wheels
and on the firm sands of Macrihanish Bay have a five miles' unbroken
spin. There are boating and fishing and very interesting walks."
"And Christina will find company for her wheel and walks, mother. The
last time we were in Campbelton, the schoolmaster, James Rathey, was
constantly with her. He was in love, and Christina liked him. After we
came home he wrote to her, and I had hard work to prevent her answering
his letters."
"You ought to have told me this before."
"I was sorry for her. Poor girl, he was the only lover she ever had!"
"Such folly! I shall watch the schoolmaster myself this summer. I have
influence enough to get him dismissed. He shall not teach in Campbelton
another year."
"Oh, mother, how cruel and unjust that would be! I am sorry I told you."
And Isabel felt the case to be hopeless, and did not make another plea.
She went straight to her sister's room. "Mother is not to be moved,
Christina," she said. "We shall have to go to Campbelton."
"So be it. Jamie Rathey will be having his vacation now, and he can play
the fiddle and sing '_The Laird o' Cockpen_' worth listening to. He
promised to buy a wheel before I came again, and then we will away to
Macrihanish sands for a race. I won't be cheated out of that pleasure,
Isabel, and you need not say a word about it."
"You cannot hide it. Every one but mother knew about you and James
Rathey last year, and Aunt Laird would have told mother, but I begged
her not. If you begin that foolishness again, I must attend to the
matter."
"You mean you will tell mother?"
"Yes, decidedly."
"Then you will be an ill-natured sister."
A little later Mrs. Campbell appeared and told them to pack their
trunks, and lock up the clothing they did not intend to take with them.
"The paperers and painters are coming into the house to-morrow morning,"
she said. "We shall take the boat for Campbelton directly after an early
breakfast."
As neither Isabel nor Christina made any protest, she added: "You may
go at once and buy yourselves a couple of suits, one for church, and a
white one that will be easily laundered. I suppose hats, gloves, shoes,
and some other things will be necessary. You can each of you spend forty
pounds. This is a gift, I shall not take it from your allowance."
"I cannot see through mother," observed Christina as they were on their
shopping expedition.
"Can you see through anything, Christina? I cannot."
"She had a great fit of the liberalities this morning. What for?"
"She was buying us. One way or another, she has us all under her feet."
"Poor Theodora!"
"Keep your pity for poor Christina. If Theodora has been a
schoolmistress she knows fine how to hold her own."
"With schoolgirls--perhaps. Mother is different."
"The difference is not worth counting. Women, old and young, are very
much alike."
"Do you believe the paperers and painters begin work to-morrow?"
"Mother said so. It is one of her virtues to tell the truth. You know
how often she declares she would not lie even to the devil."
"Yes--but was that the truth?"
"It is not right to criticise and question what your mother says,
Christina."
In the morning the arrival of a number of men with pails, and brushes,
and paint-pots, justified Mrs. Campbell's assertion, and the three women
were glad to escape the dirt, noise, and confusion in Traquair House,
even for the _Argyle Arms_ in Campbelton. Robert went with them to the
boat, and Isabel's pathetic acceptance of what she disliked, and the
tears in Christina's eyes made him a little unhappy. He slipped some
gold into their hands, as he bid them good-bye, and their silent looks
of pleasure at his remembrance, soothed the uncertain sense of some
unkindness or unfairness which had troubled him since Christina's
rebellious outbreak. He was glad he had gone with them to the boat, and
glad that he had given them a parting token of his brotherly care, and
he felt that he could now turn cheerfully to his own pressing but
delightful affairs.
He was singularly happy in them, and really glad to be rid of all advice
and interference. Men who had known him for many years, wondered at his
boyish joyfulness. He was a different Robert Campbell, but then it was
generally known he was in love, and all the world loves a lover. No one
was cruel or malicious enough to warn, or advise, or shadow the glory of
his expectations by any doubt of their full accomplishment. The
initiated gossiped among themselves, and some said: "Campbell is a fool
to be making such a fuss about any woman;" and others spoke of Mrs.
Traquair Campbell, and "wondered how the English girl would manage her."
"The poor lassie will be at her mercy," said one old man.
"She will," answered his companion, "for the Traquair Campbells' ways
will be dark to a stranger. It takes a Scotchwoman to match a
Scotchwoman."
"Yet I have heard that the old lady is a wonder o' good sense and
prudence. Her husband was a useless body, but she managed him fine, and
was one o' those women that are a crown to their husbands."
The first speaker laughed peculiarly. "Man, David!" he said, "little you
ken, if you take King Solomon's ideas of a comfortable wife to live wi'.
The women who are a crown to a poor man are generally a crown o' thorns,
I'm thinking."
But no doubts or fears troubled Robert Campbell. He thought only of his
marvellous fortune in winning a woman so lovely and so good. He was not
unmindful of either her intellect or her education, but he did not talk
of these excellencies, even to his chief friend Archie St. Claire. He
had a feeling that intellect and learning were masculine attributes, and
he preferred to dwell entirely on the sweet feminine virtues of his
beloved. But this, or that, there was no other woman in the world but
Theodora to Robert Campbell, for lovers are selfish creatures, and Lord
Beaconsfield says truly: "To a man in love, all other women are
uninteresting, if not repulsive."
So the days and the weeks went happily past, in preparing a home for
Theodora. He went over and over very frequently the last few words--"a
home for Theodora!" and they sung, and swung, and shone in his heart,
and made his life a fairy story. "I never knew what it was to be happy
before," he said repeatedly; and it was the truth, for up to this time
he had never felt the joy of that mystical blending of two souls, when
self is lost and found again in the being of another.
Twice he took a trip to Campbelton, and found all to his satisfaction.
His mother was surrounded by her kindred, a situation a Scotch man or
woman tolerates with an equanimity that is astonishing; and Isabel and
Christina wore their usual air of placid indifference to everything.
They were all desirous to know what had been done in the house, but he
refused to enter into explanations. "It is ill praising or banning
half-done work," he said in excuse, "but I promise on my next visit to
take you home with me, and then you will see the work finished."
"And then you will go and get married?" asked Christina, and he answered
with a smile, "Then I shall go and get married."
"When you bring Theodora home she will give us a little pleasure, I
hope."
"I am sure she will. Theodora is fond of company and entertainments, and
she will wish you to share them with us, and that will add to my
pleasure also."
"We shall see."
"Do you doubt what I say?"
"My dreams never come true, Robert."
"Theodora will make them come true."
Then Christina laughed a little, and Isabel looked at her mother's dour,
scornful face and copied it.
Robert noticed the expression, and he asked pleasantly: "What kind of
summer have you had, Isabel?"
"Exactly the summer we expected. Sometimes the minister called, and
talked in an exciting manner about Calvinism, and the smallpox; and we
have been surrounded by a crowd of relatives. Mother has enjoyed them
very much; she had not seen some of her fourth and fifth cousins for
nearly seven years; they had increased in number considerably during
that interval, and their names, and dispositions, the sicknesses they
had been through, the various talents they showed, have all been to talk
over a great many times. Oh, mother has enjoyed it much! It makes no
matter about Christina and myself."
"It does make matter, Isabel. This coming winter I intend to see you go
out as much as you desire."
"Thank you, brother. Christina will enjoy the opportunities. I have
outlived the desire for amusements. I would rather travel, and see
places and famous things. People no longer interest me."
"I think with a little inquiry that can be managed. I am so happy,
Isabel, I wish every one else to be happy."
She looked at her brother wonderingly, and at night as the sisters sat
doing their hair in Christina's room she said: "Love must be an amazing
thing, Christina, to change any one the way it has changed Robert
Campbell. The man has been in a sense converted--he has found grace,
whether it be the grace of God, or the grace of Love, I know not, no,
nor anybody else just yet."
"St. John says, 'God is love.' I have often wondered about those words."
"Then keep your wonder. If you ask for explanations about things, all
the wonder and the beauty goes out of them. When I was at school, and
had to pull a rose to pieces and write down all the Latin names of its
structure, its beauty was gone. The rose was explained to us, but it
wasn't a rose any longer. God is Love. We will thank St. John for
telling us that beautiful truth, but we will not ask for explanations.
Maybe you may find out some day all that Love means. You are not too
old, and would be handsome if you were dressed becomingly, and were
happy."
"Happy?"
"Yes. Happiness makes people beautiful. Look at Robert. He was rather
good-looking before he was in love, he is now a very handsome man.
Theodora has worked wonders in his appearance."
"He takes more pains with his dress."
"That helps, of course."
"My hair is very good yet, Isabel."
"You have splendid hair, and fine eyes. Properly dressed you would not
look over twenty-two years old."
"You think so, because you love me a little."
"I love you better than I love anything else. We have suffered a great
deal together. I do not mean afflictions and big troubles, but a
lifelong, never-lifted repression and depression, and a perfect
starvation of heart and soul."
"Not soul, Isabel. We could always go to the Kirk, and we had our Bible
and good books, and the like."
"It was all dead comfort. There was no life, no love in it."
"Maybe it was our fault, perhaps we ought to have stood up for our
rights. Girls have begun to do so now."
"We may be to blame, who knows? Good-night."
Three weeks after this conversation, Robert came to Campbelton for his
mother and sisters. He was in the same glad mood, and what was still
more remarkable, patient and cheerful with all the small worries and
explanations and contradictory directions of Mrs. Campbell. She was
carrying back to Glasgow two Skye terriers, a tortoise-shell cat,
presents of kippered herring and cheeses, and, above all, a tiny
marmoset monkey given her by a third cousin, who was master of a sailing
vessel trading to South American ports. She was immoderately fond and
proud of this gift, and no one but Robert was allowed to carry the
basket in which it was cradled in soft wool.
But encumbered on every hand and charged continually about this, that,
and the other, Robert kept his temper better than his sisters; and at
length, with the help of two or three vehicles, brought all safely to
Traquair House. Now, if Mrs. Campbell had thus loaded and impeded
herself and her whole family for the very purpose of making their entry
into the renovated home a scene of confusion, in which it was impossible
to observe things, she could not have succeeded better. Christina,
indeed, uttered an exclamation of delight, but the great interest of all
parties was to get rid of their various impediments. Each of the girls
had a Skye terrier, Mrs. Campbell had the cat, Robert the marmoset, and
there were bundles, bonnet boxes, parcels, umbrellas, parasols, rugs,
etc., all to be carried in, counted, and checked off Mrs. Campbell's
list of her belongings.
But in an hour the confusion had settled, and by the time the travellers
had removed their hats and wraps and washed and dressed, a good dinner
was on the table. It put every one in a more agreeable temper, and when
they had eaten it, there was still light enough to examine the changes
that had been made. Mrs. Campbell declared she was tired, but she could
not resist the offer of Robert's arm and the way in which he said:
"Come, mother, I shall not be happy without your approval; I never knew
you to be tired with any day's work, no matter how it might tire
others."
The compliment won her. She rose instantly, and leaning on her son's arm
passed into the hall. It had been dark and gloomy, though fairly
handsome. It was now finished in the palest shades, was light and airy
and looked much larger. Where the cases of impaled beetles and crucified
butterflies had stood, there were pots of ferns and flowers, and the
special furniture necessary was of light woods and modern designs. All
the rooms leading from this hall were richly and elegantly furnished;
the same idea of lightness and gracefulness being admirably carried out.
Nothing had been forgotten, even the most trivial toilet articles were
present in their most beautiful form. Isabel lifted some of these, and
asked: "How did you know about such things, Robert?"
"I did not know, Isabel," he answered, "but I went to a place where such
things are sold, and told them to fit a lady's toilet perfectly, with
all that ladies use and desire. Theodora may not like the perfumes;
indeed, I do not think she uses perfume of any kind, but they can be
sent back, or changed."
"Well, Robert," said Mrs. Campbell, when all apartments had been
examined, "these rooms are fit for a queen, and many a poor queen never
had anything half so splendid and comfortable. Theodora will be
confounded by their richness and beauty. I should say she never saw
anything like them."
"Indeed, you are mistaken, mother. I met her first at John Priestley's,
Member of Parliament for Sheffield, where she was the guest of his
daughter, and in their mansion the rooms are much handsomer than
anything we have here. Theodora has been a guest in some of the finest
manor houses in England. These rooms are quite modest compared with some
she has occupied."
"I think, then, she will be too fine for this family. But Robert, I can
not, and I will not, change my ways at my time of life. I may be plain
and common--perhaps--I may be vulgar in Theodora's eyes, but----"
"My dear mother, you are all a woman and a mother should be. You
represent the finest ladies of your generation. Theodora is the fruit
and flower of a later one, different, but no better than your own. You
are everything I want. I would not have you changed in any respect." He
looked into her face with eyes full of love, and gently pressed her arm
against his side.
Such appreciative words as these were most unusual, and Mrs. Campbell
felt them thrill her heart with pleasure. She even half-resolved to try
to like Robert's wife, and spoke enthusiastically about the taste her
son had displayed. In the morning she was still more delighted, for then
she discovered that her own drawing-room had been redecorated, a new
light carpet laid, and many beautiful pieces of furniture added to
brighten its usual gloom. Nor had Isabel's and Christina's rooms been
forgotten; in many ways they had been beautified, and only the family
dining-room had been left in the gloom of its dark, though handsome
furniture. But Robert hoped by the following summer his mother would be
willing to have it totally changed, for he remembered hearing Theodora
say that the room in which people eat ought to be, above all other rooms
in the house, bright, and light, and cheerful. Indeed, she thought it a
matter of well-being to eat under the happiest circumstances possible.
In the height of the women's delight and gratitude, Robert set off on
his wedding journey. His joy infected the whole house. Even the cross
McNab and the mournful Jepson were heard laughing, and Christina spoke
of this as among the wonderfuls of her existence. Perhaps the one most
pleased was Mrs. Campbell. She had been surrounded by the same
depressing furniture and upholstery for thirty-seven years, and she had
almost a childish pleasure in the new white lace curtains which had been
hung in her rooms. They gave her a sense of youth, of something
unusually happy and hopeful. Many times in a day, she went, unknown to
any one, into the drawing-room and took the fine lace drapery in her
fingers, to examine and admire its beauty. The girls also were more
cheerful. Indeed, the tone of the house had been uplifted and changed,
and all through the influence of more light, some graceful modern
furniture, and a little--alas, that it was so little!--good will and
gratitude.
On the fifth of October Robert Campbell was married, and about a week
afterwards, Archie St. Claire called one evening upon his family.
"I have just returned from Kendal," he said, "and I thought you would
like to hear about the wedding. You were none of you there."
"We had satisfactory reasons for not going," answered Mrs. Campbell.
"I was Robert's best man."
"I supposed so. Robert said very little about his arrangements. What do
you think of the bride?"
"She is a most beautiful woman, fine-natured and sweet-tempered, and
loved by all who come near her. Robert has found a jewel."
"How was she dressed?" asked Isabel.
"Perfectly. White satin and lace, of course, but what I liked was the
simplicity of the gown. I heard some one call it a Princess shape. It
fit her beautiful form without a crease, and fell in long soft folds to
her white shoes."
"White shoes? Nonsense!" ejaculated Mrs. Campbell.
"White shoes with diamond buckles."
"Paste buckles more likely."
"They looked like diamonds. Her veil fell backward and touched the
bottom of her dress."
"Backward! Then of what use was it? I thought brides wore a veil to
cover their faces."
"It would have been a sin and a shame to have covered her face. She
looked like an angel. She wore no jewels, and she carried instead of
flowers a small Bible bound in purple velvet and gold."
"Were there many present?"
"The streets were crowded, and the church was crowded. The Blue Coat
Boys--a large old school in Kendal--scattered flowers before her as she
walked from the church gates to the altar; and the old rector who had
married her father and mother was quite affected by the ceremony. He
kissed and blessed her at the altar-rail, after it was over."
"Kissed Robert Campbell's bride. Surely you are joking, Mr. St.
Claire."
"No, it is a common thing in English churches after the bridal ceremony
if the minister is a friend. It was a solemn and affecting sight."
"Then her father did not marry her?"
"He gave her away. He could not have performed the ceremony in the
parish church."
"Do you mean that she was not married in her father's church?"
"She was married in the parish church, one of the most beautiful places
of worship I was ever in--a grand old edifice."
"Do you mean that my son was married in an Episcopal church, at the very
horns of an Episcopal altar?" asked Mrs. Campbell indignantly.
"It was the most beautiful marriage service I ever saw. And the sweet
old bells chimed so joyously, I can never forget them."
"Was there a wedding breakfast?" asked Isabel.
"About twenty guests sat down to a very prettily decorated breakfast
table, and after the meal, Robert and his bride began their journey
through life together. I have brought you some bride cake," and he took
from a box in his hand three smaller white boxes, tied with white
ribbon, and presented them. Mrs. Campbell laid hers unopened on the
table without a word of thanks or courtesy, and Isabel and Christina
followed her example.
"There was a crowd at the railway station," continued Mr. St. Claire,
"and the Blue Coat Boys met the bride singing a wedding-hymn. Robert
gave them a noble check for their school."
"I'll warrant he did. The more fool he!"
"And the last thing they heard as they left Kendal must have been the
church bells chiming joyfully--'_Hail, Happy Morn_'!"
"Do you know where they went? Robert was not sure when he left
Scotland."
"I think I do, Mrs. Campbell. They had intended going through the Fife
towns, and by old St. Andrews to Wick, and so to the Orkneys and
Shetlands. But it was late in the season for this trip, so they went to
Paris and the Mediterranean. I think they were right."
"Paris, of course. All the fools go there!"
"Well, Mrs. Campbell, Scotland is a bleak place for a honeymoon."
"Mr. St. Claire, if it does for a man's home, it may do to honeymoon in.
That is my opinion."
"I don't agree with you, Mrs. Campbell. A honeymoon is a sort of
transcendental existence, and a man naturally wants to spend it as
nearly in Paradise as possible. There's no place like the Mediterranean
for sunshine, and it is poetical and picturesque, and just the place for
lovers."
Failing, with all his willing good nature, to rouse any apparent
interest in a subject he considered highly interesting, he felt a little
offended, and rose to depart. But ere he reached the parlor door he
turned and said: "I had nearly forgotten one very remarkable thing about
the bride."
"Let us hear it, by all means," said Mrs. Campbell.
"I stayed a few days after the marriage, in order to visit Windermere
and Keswick Lake with Mr. Newton--by-the-by, wonderfully beautiful
spots, nothing like them in Scotland--and one day while waiting in his
study, I picked up a book. Imagine my astonishment, when I saw it had
been written by the bride."
At this information Mrs. Campbell threw up her hands with a laugh that
terminated in something like a shriek. Isabel laid her hand on her
mother's arm, and asked: "Are you ill, mother?"
"No," she answered promptly. "I am only like Mr. St. Claire, astonished.
I need not have been. Every girl scribbles a little now. Poetry, of
course."
"You mean Mrs. Campbell's book?"
"Yes."
"On the contrary, it was a most learned and interesting study of ancient
and sacred geography."
"A schoolbook!" and the words were scoffed out with utter contempt.
"Then a most fascinating one. It gave the Latin and Saxon names of our
own old cities, and all the historical and biographical incidents
connected with them. It treated the names in the Bible and ancient
history in the same way. The preacher was very modest about it, but said
it was now in all the best schools, and that his daughter had quite a
good income from the royalty on its sale. And he added: 'Since you have
discovered her secret, I may tell you that she has written two novels,
and a volume of----'"
"Plays, I dare say."
"No, ma'am, of Social Essays."
"Really, Mr. St. Claire, we can stand no more revelations concerning the
bride's perfections! Robert Campbell is only a master of iron workers
and coal miners, and I fear he will feel painfully his inferiority to
such a marvellously beautiful and intellectual woman. As for myself, and
my poor girls, I can only say--grant us patience!"
St. Claire bowed, and made a hurried exit. "Ill-natured and envious
creatures as ever I met," he mused. "I'm sorry for Mrs. Robert! She will
have troubles great and small with those women under her roof, and I
wonder if Robert will have the gumption to stand by her. He was always
extraordinarily afraid of his mother. I should be afraid of her myself.
I am thankful my mother isn't the least like her! My mother is made of
love and sweet-temper, and she is more of a lady in her winsey skirt and
linen short gown than Mrs. Traquair Campbell is in all her silk and lace
and jewelry. Thank God for His mercies! The Book says a good wife is
from the Lord. I know, by personal experience, that a good mother is
even more so. I'll just write mother a letter this very night, and tell
her all about the wedding. She will enjoy every word of it, and at the
end say: 'God bless the young things! With His blessing they'll do weel
enough, whatever comes.'"
There was no blessing in Mrs. Campbell's heart. She looked at her girls
in silence until she heard the closing of the front door, then she
asked: "What do you say to Mr. St. Claire's story?" and Isabel answered:
"I say what you said, mother--grant us patience!"
"Tut, Isabel! Patience? Nonsense! I think little of that grace. Theodora
may be a beauty, a school-teacher, and an authoress, but we three women
can match her."
"Whatever made Robert marry her?"
"That is past speculating about! But she is the man's choice--such as it
is. Doubtless he thinks her without a fault, but, as I told you before,
the bit-by-bitness can soon change that opinion--a little mustard seed
of suspicion or difference of any kind, can grow to a great tree. I'm
telling you! Do not forget what I say. I am just distracted as yet with
the situation. This world is a hard place."
"I think so too, mother," said Christina, "and it is small comfort to be
told the next is probably worse."
"I have had lots of trouble in my life, girls, but the worst of all
comes with what your father called 'the lad and lass business.' It was
that drove your brother David beyond seas, and I have not heard a word
from him since he went away one day in a passion. But this or that, mind
you, I have always come out of every tribulation victorious--and there
is now three of us--we shall be hard enough to beat."
"Theodora has a good many points in her favor," said Christina.
"Count them up, then; count them up! She is a beauty, a genius, an
Englishwoman, a Methodist, a teacher of women, a writer of books, and no
doubt she will try to set up the golden image of her manifold
perfections in Traquair House--but which of us three will bow down
before it? Tell me! Tell me that, Christina!"
"Not I, mother."
"Nor I," added Isabel.
"Nor I, you may take an oath on that," said Mrs. Campbell. "And what
says the Good Book, 'a threefold cord is not easily broken?' Now you may
give me Dr. Chalmer's last sermons, and I'll take a few words from him
to settle my mind and put me to sleep; for I am fairly distracted with
the prospect of such a monumental woman among us. But I'll say nothing
about her, one way or the other, and then I cannot be blamed. I would
advise you both to be equally prudent."
But Isabel and Christina were not of their mother's mind. Such a
delightful bit of gossip had never before come into their lives, and
they went to Isabel's room to talk it all over again, for Isabel being
the eldest had the largest and the best furnished room. Isabel made a
social event of it, by placing a little table between them, set with the
special dainties she kept for her private refreshment. And they felt it
to be a friendly and cheerful thing, to have this special woman to
season the rich cates and fruit provided. So it had struck twelve before
Christina rose and remarked:
"You told me, Isabel, there were going to be changes, and you are right.
The next one will be the home-coming, and I dare say Robert will descend
on us in the most unexpected time and way."
"You are much mistaken, Christina. I am sure Robert will be telegraphing
Jepson from every station on the road. The most trivial things will be
directed by him. Let us go to bed now; I am sleepy."
"So am I. Thank you for the good things. They sweetened a disagreeable
subject."
"Perhaps she may be better than we expect. One can never tell what the
unknown may turn out to be. Mother is inclined to be suspicious of all
strangers," said Isabel.
"If mother's eyes were out, she would see faults in any one."
"Perhaps, if they were coming into Traquair House. She does not trouble
herself about people who leave the Campbells alone."
"She spoke of poor brother David to-night. Did you notice it?"
"Yes."
"It was the first time I have heard her mention him since he left us."
"She has spoken of him to me, three or four times--a word or two--no
more."
"Do you know where he is?"
"No."
"Does mother know?"
"No."
"Does any one know?"
"No. Mother is sure he is dead. I think so myself. He would have written
to Robert if he was alive. He was gey fond of Robert."
"I was at school when he went away. I never heard why he went, for when
I came home I was forbidden to name him. Did he do anything wrong?"
"No, no! You must not suppose such a thing. He was the most loving and
honorable of men."
"Then why did he go away? Do you know?"
"Yes, I know all about it."
"Tell me, Isabel. I will never name the subject again. What did he do?"
"Just what Robert has done--married a girl not wanted in the family."
"Who was the girl? Why was she not wanted?"
"Her name was Agnes Symington. She was a minister's daughter."
"Was she pretty?"
"Very pretty, and good and sweet as a woman could be."
"Pretty, and good, and sweet, and a minister's daughter! What more did
mother want?"
"Money."
"Was she poor?"
"Yes. Her father was dead, and she had learned dressmaking to support
her mother and herself. She came to make our winter dresses, and David
saw her and loved her. Though she was a minister's daughter, mother had
always sent her to the servants' table, and she was nearly mad to
think David had married a girl from the servants' table. It was
disgraceful--in a way. The servants talked, and so did every one that
knew us. But David loved her, and when he went he took both Agnes and
her mother with him."
"What did father say?"
"He took David's part. He took it angrily. He amazed us. He sold David's
share in the works for him, and so let strangers into the company, and
he sent him away with his blessing, and plenty of money. David was
crying when he bid father good-bye; and father was never the same after
David left. We always believed that father knew where he went, and that
he heard from him, through Mr. Oliphant or Dr. Robertson. But mother
could get no words from him about David, except 'The boy did right. God
pity the man whose wife is chosen for him!' I think father had to marry
mother to save the works. I think so; I was not told it as a fact. Do
not breathe a word of what I have told you. It is a dead story. David
and father are both gone, and I dare say David's wife is married again."
"Thank you for telling me the story, Isabel. I will keep your
confidence. Do not doubt it. I do not blame David. I think he did right.
I wish I could do the same thing. I----"
"Good-night!"
"I would run away to-morrow."