A RUNAWAY BRIDE
At seven precisely Mrs. Campbell re-entered the dining-room. Isabel was
already there, and Jepson was bringing in the broth. Neither Robert nor
Christina was present, and she wondered a little, but asked no
questions. In a few moments Theodora took her place, and without remark
permitted Jepson to serve her. But she was evidently in trouble, and she
did not touch the food before her. At length Mrs. Campbell asked:
"Where is Robert? Is he not ready for dinner?"
"He is asleep. I suppose he is not ready for dinner."
"What time did he return home?"
"Very early. He said he was sleepy. He is always sleepy. I fear he is
ill, a healthy man cannot always be needing sleep."
"The Campbells, all of them, are famous for their ability to sleep. They
can sleep at all hours, and in any place--a four-inch-wide plank would
suffice them for a sofa. They can order a sleep whenever they desire,
and it comes. It is very remarkable."
"Very," answered Theodora, in a tone of unavoidable contempt.
"I have heard people say it was a great gift, and it is quite a family
gift."
"I hope my little David will not inherit it," said Theodora.
"There is nothing of the Campbell family about the boy," replied Mrs.
Campbell.
Theodora did not say she was glad, but she looked the words, and her
expression of satisfaction was annoying to both Isabel and her mother.
The former said with petulant decision:
"I can sleep at any time I wish. I think this family trait is a great
and peculiar blessing."
"Circumstances may sometimes make it so, Isabel," answered Theodora,
"but I would rather wake and suffer, than sink into animal
unconsciousness half my life. Robert has slept, or pretended to sleep,
twelve hours out of the last twenty-four, and he does not even dream."
"Dream!" cried Mrs. Campbell in disgust, "dream, I hope not! Only fools
dream. My children go to bed for the purpose of sleeping. Dream indeed!
The Campbells have good sense, and they don't lose it when they sleep."
"Oh, but I think dreaming is one of the most sensible things we do. The
soul is comforted by dreaming, instructed and warned by dreaming. I
should feel spiritually dead, if the blessed, prophesying dreams failed
to visit me."
"I wonder where Christina is taking dinner," said Mrs. Campbell. She
refused to continue a conversation so senseless and disagreeable, and
her way of doing so, was not only to ignore Theodora's topic, but also
to introduce a subject which she considered important and interesting.
And of course Christina's dinner was a matter that put dreaming out of
court and question.
Isabel thought she was dining with the Brodies, and Mrs. Campbell said,
"In that case she ought to have sent a message to her family."
"She is so occupied, mother, she forgets. We must make some allowances
at this time."
"Of course, Isabel. I expect to do so."
Then the door was suddenly thrown open and Robert entered. His face was
dark, he was biting his thumbnail, and his eyes were full of a dull
fire. He had not a word for any one but Jepson, whom he ordered to
remove the broth. "The house smells of it," he said with an air of
disgust. He ate what dinner he took without speaking, an act Gothic,
almost brutal, when it can be avoided, but none of the three women cared
to break the silence, lest they might turn silence into visible, audible
anger.
Theodora made a pretence of eating, but it was only a pretence and she
left the room as soon as the cloth was drawn. Robert did not in any way
notice her departure, but he began a grumbling kind of conversation with
his mother, as soon as the three Campbells were alone. He said he was
worn out with the expense and rioting anent Christina's marriage. It had
been fine dinners, and suppers, and fooleries of all kinds for weeks,
and more weeks, and money wasting away like water running into sand. He
saw no good coming of it. He was glad the end was in sight, etc.,
etc.--grumble, grumble, grumble, his voice never lifted above a deep,
sulky monotone, his face dark with frowns and discontent.
He was so ill-tempered Mrs. Campbell thought it best to leave him alone
with his cigar. It seemed better to worry out her anxieties with Isabel,
who, however, was not in a mood to talk them away. "I am so depressed,
mother," she complained. "I hardly know what I am saying. I feel as if I
had a great sorrow. The room is dark, the air heavy, the whole house
feels full of trouble. It is crowded, too. With a little effort I feel
that I could see the crowd. Do you understand?"
"My God! Isabel, control yourself. We want no Second Sight here. The
Argyle Campbells are great seers, and you must close your ears to their
whisperings, and whatever sights are under your eye-balls, deny them
vision. You must, you must! For, as your grandfather, Ivan Campbell,
used to say, 'the Second Sight, children, isna a blessing, it is aye
dool and sorrow, or ill chance it shows you.'"
"Mother, I must tell you the truth. I am unhappy about Christina."
"So am I."
"She ought to have sent us a message. She would, had it been possible.
Oh, mother, what or who prevented her?"
"Perhaps she did. Have you asked Scot?"
"No, but if any message had been sent by him he would have told Jepson
at once, and Jepson heard our conversation about her absence at the
dinner table, yet he made no remark."
"What do you fear?"
"My fear has no form. That is what frightens me. If I knew----"
"You are nervous, Isabel, very nervous. She left home well, and in good
spirits."
"I never saw her in better health, or finer spirits."
"Do you not remember, that she once stayed at Colonel Allison's till
near midnight, without sending us any message? We were in a fright about
her at that time."
"But you commanded her never to do the like again."
"Christina has not obeyed my commands very particularly of late. They do
not seem important to her."
"She has had so much to do, and she knew Sir Thomas would not be in
Glasgow to-night. If I knew she was well and safe, I should be glad she
was not here, for this is an unhappy house with Robert in the devil's
own temper, and Dora looking like the grave."
"Dora makes Robert ill-tempered. It is all her fault, and we have to
suffer for it."
"She evidently suffers also."
"She deserves to suffer."
"Suppose we send for Scot. He must be in the stable yet."
"As you like."
In a quarter of an hour Scot stood within the dining-room door
respectfully indignant at the summons and the delay it would cause him.
He was rather glad the ladies were anxious and quite in the mood to tell
anything he thought might be disagreeable.
"Where did you take Miss Christina first of all this morning, Scot?"
asked Mrs. Campbell.
"To the florist's shop on Buchanan Street. She bought a posy of
daffy-down-dillys and came out with them in her hand."
"Where next?"
"To Madame Barnard's. She didna stop five minutes there, but Madame cam'
to the doorstep wi' her, and bid Miss Christina good-bye and wished her
a' the good luck in the round world itsel'."
"Then?"
"She told me then to go back to the stable, but to be sure and come for
her at four o'clock. I asked where I was to come, and she laughed
pleasantly and said, 'Come to Bailie Brodie's,' and gave me the
Crescent, and the number o' the house forbye."
"Did you go to Bailie Brodie's at four o'clock?"
"I did that same thing, ma'am."
"Well?"
"A servant lass told me Miss Campbell hadna been there that day, nor
that week. So I drove home again, and at half after five I went to the
train for Mr. Campbell, but I missed him. He had come by an early
train, while I was at Brodies'."
"Did you notice any one speak to Miss Campbell?"
"No one."
"Did she take the right way to Brodies'?"
"She took the best way--up Sauchiehall Street."
"That will do, Scot."
Scot shut the door, and the two women looked with troubled eyes into
each other's faces. Mrs. Campbell then turned to the clock and said, "It
is on the stroke of nine, Isabel. We will wait until ten; then I shall
speak to your brother."
The hour went miserably, almost silently away, and then Mrs. Campbell
went to her son. He treated her fears with contemptuous indifference.
"It is like you women," he said, "you always make a mountain out of a
molehill. If any one of the women in this house knows how to take care
of herself, it is Christina Campbell! Go to your beds, and tell Jepson
to sit up for her."
"Robert, do you understand that she said she was going to the Brodies',
and then did not go?"
"Who said she was not there?"
"One of the Brodie servant lasses."
"_Tush!_ She went there, no doubt, but did not stay long enough to
acquaint that particular servant with her visit. I have no doubt Marion
Brodie and Christina went off somewhere together, and they are likely
together at this hour."
"I never thought of that, Robert. Indeed it is very likely they went to
Netta Galbraith, who is to be second bridesmaid."
"Of course, and they are having a mock marriage in order to practise
their parts. I hope we shall have no more marriages in the family, they
are ruinously expensive, and make nothing but misery and anxiety."
Mrs. Campbell sighed, and lifted her eyes heaven-ward, but she did not
remain with her son. She was really afraid to leave Isabel, for she
looked almost distracted, and on the point of vision. "And I will not
have it," she whispered to herself, "no, I will not. There shall be no
prophecy of calamity in this house, whether from the dead or the
living--not if mortal woman can help it."
She opened the dining-room door to this thought, and Isabel stayed her
rapid walk and asked anxiously, "Well, mother?"
"Your brother says there is no occasion to worry. He made out a very
clear case of the circumstance," and she explained his supposition
concerning Christina's and Marion Brodie's visit together to Netta
Galbraith.
Isabel shook her head. "That is not it," she answered positively.
"He advised us to go to bed."
"I will not until Christina returns, or Robert does something to clear
up her failure to come."
"How do you feel?"
"Unquiet and unhappy. Mother, something extraordinary has happened."
"I hope you are not seeing things."
"No. The 'visiting' is past--but it will come again."
"It must not! It must not! Deny it every time! Oh, Isabel--if anything
should happen to put off the marriage, whatever should we do?"
"Bear it."
"The talk of it! The wonder of it! The mortification of it!"
"Mother, why are you fearing such a misfortune? Robert says all is
right. You have always believed Robert's word."
"Yes, yes! Robert knows, Robert feels, when he is in the right mood, but
to-night he is in a bad mood--cross and evil as Satan."
Dismally they talked together for another hour, and then Robert joined
them. He had caught fear from some source, and he asked for a list of
such places as Christina was likely to visit. Then he called a cab and
went first to Glover's Theatre. He was just in time to see the exit of
the Box crowd, but Christina was not among them. Suddenly the
consequences of a delayed marriage struck him like a buffet in his face.
The loss of money--the loss of prestige--the talk--the newspapers! Oh,
the thing was impossible, and he tried to put the apprehension of it
away with a stamp of his foot. He was equally unsuccessful wherever he
called. No one had seen Christina that day, and he finally went home
puzzled, and even anxious, but sure that her unaccountable absence was
the result of some misunderstanding that would be cleared up when
morning came. He insisted on the family retiring, but told Jepson to
leave the gas burning, and be ready to open the door if called upon to
do so. Then he also went upstairs, but sleep was far from him. Theodora
appeared to be asleep, but though her eyes were closed, her heart was
waking. One kind word would have brought him all the comfort love could
give. He was touched, however, by the sweetness and peace that brooded
over her, and by the calm and restful atmosphere pervading her room. He
stood a moment at the side of the apparently sleeping woman, but was
reluctant--perhaps ashamed--to awaken her. David slept in her
dressing-room and he went to the child's cot and looked at the beautiful
boy. When he was asleep, the likeness to his father was very evident,
and Robert noticed it.
"I was once as innocent and as fair as he is. I must have looked just
like him," and sitting down by a table he held his head in his hands,
and thought of them, and of Christina's delay, listening always for the
carriage, the step, the ring at the door, that never came.
The next morning the whole family were late and unrested. Jepson was
sorting the mail as Isabel came downstairs, and she asked anxiously,
"What time is it, Jepson?"
"Nine o'clock, miss. Here is a letter for you, miss."
She saw at once it was from Christina, and she took it eagerly, and ran
back to her own room with it. Trembling from head to feet, she broke the
seal and read:
MY DEAR SISTER:
I was married to-day at half-past eleven to Jamie Rathey. I met
him twelve days ago, and we went into the picture gallery, and
sat there all day talking, and I found out that I loved Jamie,
and did not love Sir Thomas. I promised to marry him, and we
rented a nice floor and furnished it very prettily, and hired
two servants, and so after the marriage ceremony, went to our
own home for lunch. Do not blame me, Isabel. I have never been
happy in all my life, and I want to be happy, and I shall be
happy with Jamie. I have sent all the gifts Sir Thomas gave me
back, and written him a letter. He will forgive me, and I know
you will. Mother will forbid you to mention me, and she will
never forgive. I know Robert will feel hurt, but he has no
cause. I begged him to secure the fish that was on the hook for
him, and he would not. I thought all well over, and I did not
see why I should any longer sacrifice myself for the Campbells.
For twenty-eight years I was miserable--child and woman. Nobody
loved me but Jamie. I had nothing other girls and women had.
But I am happy at last! Happy at last! Oh, Isabel, be glad for
me. I will write to you every month, but you need not try to
find me out. You could not. You might as well look for a
needle in a hay-stack. Dear Isabel, do not forget me. Your
loving sister,
CHRISTINA RATHEY.
And Isabel cried and wrung her hands and said softly, but from her very
heart, "I am glad, I am glad! You did right, Christina! Yes, you did!
You did! And Isabel will stand by you till the last. She will! She
will!"
With tears still on her white cheeks, she went down to the dining-room.
Robert and his mother were at the table, and evidently not on agreeable
terms. "Jepson thought you had a letter from Christina," said Mrs.
Campbell, "and I am astonished you did not bring it to us, at once."
"I thought it would be better, to see first what news it contained."
"Well? Can you not speak?"
Then Isabel put the letter into her mother's hand.
And in a few minutes there was a cry like that of a woman wounded and
crushed to death. With frantic passion Mrs. Campbell threw the letter at
her son, and then with bitter execrations assailed the child she accused
of killing her.
"Mother, mother! Do be quiet!" pleaded Isabel.
"She has killed me! I shall die of shame! I shall die! She has broken my
heart!"
Robert read the letter through, his face growing darker and darker as he
read. When he had finished, he threw it on the fire, and Isabel rushed
to the grate and rescued it, though it was smoked, and browned, and
mostly illegible. But she clasped its tinder and ashes in her hands,
cried over them, and finally left the room with the precious relics
clasped to her heart.
"Have you gone crazy too?" called her mother.
"Let her alone!" said Robert.
"And pray what is the matter with you?"
"I am ashamed of the way you are behaving."
"It is your sister of whom you must be ashamed. Her disgraceful marriage
will kill me."
"It is the result of your own doing, and withholding."
"I am to bear the blame, of course. Poor mother!"
"You never gave her any happiness, and when she got the opportunity she
gave it to herself. That was natural."
"She had all the happiness I had."
"You had your husband, your family, your house, your servants, and your
social duties. You were quite happy, but none of these things made
happiness for your daughters. They wanted the pleasures of youth--gay
company, gay clothing, travel and lovers, and none of these things you
gave them. I was often very sorry for them."
"Then why did you not help them yourself?"
"Do you remember the year I begged you to take your daughters to
Edinburgh and London, and offered to pay all expenses, and you would not
do it?"
"I did not wish to go to Edinburgh and London."
"No, you wanted to go to Campbelton, and so you made your daughters go
with you, though they hated the place. There Christina met this low
fellow whom she married. She had no other lover. To the Campbelton
rabble you sacrificed my sisters from their babyhood."
"Robert Campbell! How dare you call my kindred 'rabble'?"
"The name is good enough. Do you think I have forgotten how they treated
my wife's clothing, and our rooms?"
"What are you bringing up that old story for?"
"It comes in naturally to-day, and I have not forgotten it. For your
cruelty at that time, you are rightly served. Christina has avenged
Theodora."
He flung the last words at her over his shoulder as he left the room.
She had no opportunity to answer them, indeed she was not able to do so.
It seemed to her as if she had been stricken dumb from head to feet; as
if her world was being swept away from her, and she could not protest
against it. Isabel had left her in anger and opposition. Robert in
reproach. As for Christina, she had smitten her on every side, and gone
away without contrition and without reproof. And Robert's few words had
been keener than a sword, for they were edged with Truth, and Truth
drove them to her very soul.
But she had no thought of surrendering any foothold of her position. She
only wanted time to consider herself, for this solid defection of son
and daughters had come like a cataclysm out of a clear sky, unforeseen,
entire, and apparently complete in its misery. Her first resolve was to
go to Theodora, and have the circumstance "out" with her. But her limbs
were as heavy as her heart, and when with difficulty she reached the
door of the room, she heard her son talking to his wife. And it had been
brought home to her that morning that Robert could not be depended on,
therefore she must risk no more uncertain encounters. Theodora alone,
she did not fear; but Theodora and Robert in alliance meant certain
defeat.
So she stumbled back to the sofa and sat down. Nature ordered her to lie
down, but she flatly refused. "This is a critical time," she said to
herself, "and Margaret Campbell, there is to be no lying down. You be to
keep on the defensive." But she rang for Jepson, and told him to tell
Miss Campbell her mother wanted her. In a few minutes Isabel answered
the summons, and as soon as she entered the room she cried out, "Oh,
mother, mother, mother! what is the matter? You are ill."
"Ay, Isabel, I am ill, and it would be a miracle if I were not ill." The
words came slowly and with effort, and Isabel was terrified by her
mother's face, for it was gray as ashes, and had on it an expression of
terror, as if she had looked on Death as he passed her by.
"Lie down, mother. You ought to lie down."
"Get me a glass--a big glass--of red Burgundy."
Isabel obeyed, and when she had drunk it, she said in something of her
natural voice and manner, "Burgundy is the strong wine. It is full of
iron, and we require plenty of iron in our blood. In the common crowd,
it goes to their hands, and helps them to work hard, but in the Campbell
clans, it goes to the hearts of both men and women."
"And makes them hard-hearted."
"Hard to their own, and worse to their foes--and to strangers. Oh,
Isabel, Isabel, this is the blackest day I have ever seen! What shall we
do?"
"Bear it. Others have borne the like. We can."
"I can never look my friends in the face again."
"Never mind either friends or foes. In nine days they will have said
their say. Let them."
"Yesterday at this hour, I was the proudest and happiest woman in
Glasgow. To-day I am----"
"The bravest woman in Glasgow. Defy your trouble, as you always do.
Christina's conduct is most unusual, and few will understand it--they
can't. But, oh mother, stand by your daughter! Tell every one, that when
she found out she loved Mr. Rathey better than Sir Thomas Wynton, she
did what was honorable and womanly, and that you admire her truth and
sincerity, though of course, somewhat disappointed. Such words as these
will silence the ill-natured, and satisfy the friendly. You will say
them, mother?"
"Something like them, no doubt."
"And we must find Christina, and you will forgive her, and protect her?"
"I will do no such things."
"It would stop people's tongues."
"Their tongues may clash till doomsday, ere I will stop them that gate.
Never name the wicked woman to me again. I do not know her any more, and
I do not want to know, whether she is living or dead, in plenty or
poverty, sick or well, happy or miserable. She is out o' this world, as
far as I am concerned. _Sure!_"
"What did Robert say?"
"Threw the whole blame on mysel'--evil be to him!"
"Mother!"
"Yes, evil be to the son who condemns his mother, whether she be right
or wrong."
"He will not get Sir Thomas to invest money in the works now, I fear.
That will trouble him."
"Weel! The Campbell furnaces have kept blazing so far, without Wynton
siller to help them, and their fires willna go out for the want o' it."
"I wonder how Sir Thomas will take his disappointment."
"It is untelling how any man will take anything. You couldna speculate
as to how Robert Campbell would take a plate o' parritch; he might like
them, and he might send them to the Back o' Beyond. All men are made
that way, and we poor women can only put up wi' their tempers and
tantrums. God help us!"
At this moment Jepson entered with a basket filled with moss and purple
pansies. A card was attached bearing the following message:
"_Sir Thomas Wynton sends sincere sympathy, and kind regards to
Mrs. and Miss Campbell. He will not intrude on their grief at
present, but will call in a few days._"
Isabel laid her face against the flowers, Mrs. Campbell read the card
with pleasure, and a slight flush of color came back to her cheeks.
"This bit of card will give me the upper hand of a' the clashing jades,
who come here wondering and sighing, and doubting and fearing. I shall
shake it in their faces, and bid them tak' notice that Sir Thomas Wynton
is still in the family as it were. And I shall make one other observe
anent the marriage failure, that Sir Thomas will take as personal, any
and all unpleasant remarks concerning the Campbells."
"When Sir Thomas pays his visit----"
"You be to see that Dora is present. The creature has a wonderful way o'
saying consoling words. I hae noticed that all men find her pleasant and
satisfactory. She has the trick o' speaking just what they want to
hear--the jade!"
"Do speak decently of Dora, mother. She is Robert's wife."
"More's the pity. God help the poor man! Little pleasure he has wi'
her."
"It is not her fault."
"I see how it is--she will lead you wrong next."
"No one can lead me wrong. I wonder if Sir Thomas went to see Robert
to-day."
"I think Robert would go and see him. We may wonder all day, but we will
know, when Robert comes home; that is, if his temper will let him talk.
_Dod!_ but he is a true Campbell--flesh, blood, and bone."
"When Robert was in love with Dora, love made him a kind, good-tempered
man."
"Kind men are not profitable in a house; they give where they ought to
grip; and it is a sma' share o' this world you will get wi' good temper.
You be to threep, and threaten for what you want, and the fires in the
furnaces would soon burn low, if there was a kind, good-tempered man
watching o'er them."
"Now you are talking like yourself, mother. You will soon put your
trouble under your feet."
"Weel, I am not going to sit down on the ash-heap wi' it, as the parfect
man o' Uz did--if there ever was such a man--which I am doubting; all
the mair, because nobody I ever heard of could tell me in what country
on the face o' the globe a place called Uz might be found. If there isna
a place called Uz, it is mair than likely there never was a man called
Job."
"The Bible says there was."
"Ay, in a parable. The Bible is aye ready to drop into a parable."
"Mother, if you would try and sleep now."
"I will not. I would get sick if I did. I am on watch at present, for I
am not up to mark, and I will not gie sickness the fine opportunity o'
sleep. If Robert comes hame reasonable, I'll have my talk out wi' him.
I am not going to suffer his contradictions, not if I know it."
Fortunately Robert came home early, and was in a civil and communicative
mood. He said "he had been to see Sir Thomas, and had been treated in
the most considerate manner."
"What did he say about Christina?" asked Isabel timidly.
"He would hear no wrong of her. He said she had written him a beautiful
letter, a most honorable letter, a letter he would prize to his dying
hour. He thought she had done right, both for herself and him. He told
me she had returned all his gifts, and he had directed the jeweler to
hold them for her further orders. He thinks she will be sure to call
there, in order to find out if they have been given to him, and he has
left a note with the jewels, begging her to keep them as a sign of their
friendship, and a reminder of the pleasant hours they have spent
together. A most unusual and gentlemanly way of looking at things, I
must say."
"Will he take a share in the works now?" asked Mrs. Campbell.
"I do not know. He is going abroad as soon as he has rearranged his
affairs. He said he would call on you in a few days."
"He sent us some lovely flowers," said Isabel.
"He is a most wasteful man."
"He sent mother and me pansies in a lovely basket lined with moss; they
were to say for him he would 'remember' us. And he sent Dora the same
basket, filled with white hyacinths. Oh, how sweet they were!"
"And what did they say?"
"I looked for their meaning, and found it was 'unobtrusive loveliness.'
You see Dora rarely came into the parlor, when he called."
"That may be so, but he had no business to notice her absence.
'Unobtrusive' indeed, and 'loveliness.' Some men don't know when they go
too far."
"He meant all in kindness," said Mrs. Campbell, "and I hope he will
call."
Sir Thomas kept his promise. Three days after Christina had so
mercilessly jilted him, he called on her mother and sister. But by this
time he had taken a still more exalted view of his false love's conduct.
He told Mrs. Campbell, that it was not sympathy, but congratulations,
that were due her. Was she not the proud mother of a noble daughter,
whom neither rank nor wealth could lure from the paths of truth and
honor? Of a daughter who held love as beyond price, and who would not
wrong either his or her own heart. He waxed eloquent on this subject,
and was tearful over the lost treasure of her noble daughter's
affection. And Mrs. Campbell smiled grimly, and wondered "if he really
thought she was silly enough to believe he believed in any such
balderdash."
Isabel certainly believed in him with all her heart, and was never weary
of his chivalrous, exalted platitudes; and like all men in love
trouble, Sir Thomas was never weary of talking of his wounded heart, and
lost bride. So Isabel quickly became his favorite confidant. She
listened patiently and with evident interest; she helped him to praise
Christina, and when he got to wiping his eyes, Isabel was ready to weep
with him.
In a couple of weeks he began to talk of his intended travel, and on
this subject Isabel was sincerely inquisitive and enthusiastic. The
strongest desire of her heart was to travel in strange countries, and
she asked so many questions about the trip Sir Thomas proposed taking,
that he brought his maps and guidebooks, and showed her his route down
the Mediterranean to Greece, up the Adriatic to Montenegro and
Herzegovina, over the Dalmatian mountains, through Austria and Hungary
to Buda-Pesth, northward to Prague, Berlin, and Hamburg, into the
Baltic, and so by Zealand and the Skager Rack across the North Sea to
England again. Oh, what a heaven it opened up to the reserved, solitary
woman!
It was impossible for Isabel to hide her delight, and so when this trip
had been thoroughly talked over, he came one wet afternoon with the
books and maps explanatory of his last journey, which had been
altogether on the American continent. He showed her where he had hunted
big game in the forests of the Hudson Bay Company, and he described to
her the old cities of French Canada. Many afternoons were spent in
talking about New York, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and the
wonders of California, Alaska, and Texas. Finally, he carried her to
Brazil and Cuba, to the West Indies and to the beautiful Bermudas.
In these parlor wanderings, she lived a life far, far apart from the
wet, dull streets of Glasgow, and the monotonous ennui and strife of
Traquair House; besides which advantage, both Sir Thomas and herself
lost in such pleasant loiterings the first sore pangs of their bereaved
hearts. For obvious reasons, both Robert and Mrs. Campbell tolerated
these--to them--tiresome recollections. Robert considered the baronet
yet as a possible business contingent; and Mrs. Campbell silenced all
doubtful sympathizers with remarks about his friendship, and his
constant visits. One Sabbath she managed affairs so cleverly, that he
even went to Dr. Robertson's church, sat in their pew, and returned home
to dine with them. The next day he started on his two years' travel,
promising to write Isabel descriptions of all the wonderfuls he saw.
On the night of the same day, Robert called together the women of his
household and in the bluntest words told them the strictest economy was
hence-forward to be observed. He said the wastrie of the past three or
four months was unbelievable, and it had to be made up by a steady
curtailment of all household expenses. Then turning to his mother he
asked, "in what direction she thought it best to begin?"
She answered promptly: "You are right, Robert. The expenses of the
house have been very extravagant, and retrenchment is both wise and
necessary. I think in the first place we ought to reduce the number of
servants. One man can be spared from the stable, and the second man in
the house is not a necessity. McNab must do with one kitchen girl,
instead of two; and your son no longer needs a nurse. A boy of his age
ought to wait on himself."
"David has not needed a nurse for a long time."
"_Who_ did you say?"
"David."
"I ordered you not to call the boy by that name, in my presence."
"It is his baptismal name. He has no other name."
"Call him Nebuchadnezzar, or Satan, or any name you like in your own
room, but in my presence----"
"His name is always David. I was going to remind you that Ducie has been
a general servant in the house for many months. She has assisted your
chambermaid, helped McNab in the kitchen, and Jepson about the table. I
think she has been the most effective maid in the house."
"She may have been chambermaid, cook, and butler rolled into one, but
she is not wanted here, and the sooner she finds her way back to Kendal
the better every one will like it."
Then Theodora quietly gathered the silks with which she was working, and
without noise or hurry left the room. She heard her mother-in-law's
scornful laugh, and her husband's angry voice as she closed the door,
but she allowed neither to detain her in an atmosphere so highly charged
with hatred and opposition.
In about an hour Robert strode into her parlor, and with a lowering face
and peevish voice asked: "Why did you go away?"
"There was no further reason for my presence, and more than one reason
why it was better for me to go away."
"It is evident you feel no interest in the curtailment of my expenses."
"I am sure that curtailment is not necessary. You gave your shareholders
a dividend of ten-per-cent a short time ago, and you are always
complaining that the business is too large for you to carry alone. And I
do not see that there is the smallest curtailment in your personal
expenses."
"Pray what have you to do with my personal expenses?"
"I speak of them because I personally have no expenses from which to
draw conclusions."
"I suppose you have as many personal expenses as any other woman. My
mother thinks you have more."
"Your mother grudges me the little food I eat. How much money have you
given me during the six years I have been your wife?"
"I have paid all your bills."
"What kind of bills?"
"All kinds."
"No. You have paid for a physician when I was sick--nothing else. I have
bought little new clothing, and what I have bought I paid for."
"You did not require new clothing."
"When it was to renew and alter, I paid all expenses with my own money."
"_You! You have no money!_ All the money you have is mine. I have
allowed you to use it for your personal expenses. Many husbands would
not have done so."
"It was my money, Robert. I made it before I even knew your name."
"It was all my money the moment you were my wife."
"It is all gone now. I had to borrow a sovereign from Ducie."
"Good gracious! What an absurdity! What did you want with a sovereign?
You have credit in half-a-dozen shops."
"I wanted money, not credit. I cannot buy stamps, stationery, music,
medicine, and many other things with credit. And the church wants cash
always. I cannot pay church dues with credit. When I borrowed a
sovereign from Ducie I wanted a prescription of Dr. Fleming's made up."
"You have credit at Starkie's."
"Starkie does not make up prescriptions. I had to send to Fraser's and I
have no credit at Fraser's."
Then he threw a sovereign on the table and said: "Pay Ducie at once. I
do not want her chattering all over Glasgow and Kendal."
"So you have decided to send Ducie away?"
"Yes."
"She is all that is left me of my old happy life. Oh, Robert, Robert!
have some pity on me."
"My mother and sister are giving up three servants. Surely you can
relinquish one."
"It is Scot in the stable, who gives up his helper. It is Jepson in the
house, it is McNab in the kitchen. None of these three servants affect
your mother's and sister's comfort in the least. Ducie is everything to
David and myself. She keeps our rooms clean and comfortable, brings my
breakfast, waits on me when I am sick, walks out with David when I am
not able to do so, and in many other ways makes things more bearable. I
beg you, Robert, not to send her away."
"Then the other three servants must also remain."
"You are not poor, you only feel poor because you spent so much on
Christina."
"Who was a wicked failure, and mother says you were the prompter of her
sinful conduct."
"Me! I had no more to do with her final choice than your mother had. I
did not even know the name of the man she married."
"But you talked sentiment, poetry, honor, and such stuff to her."
"Never. She would not have understood me if I had."
"What do you mean?"
"What I say, Christina turned sentiment, poetry, honor, and such stuff,
into laughter. She saw only one side of any person or thing--the comic
side. If she could mimic you, she partly understood you; if she could
not mimic you, then you were uninteresting and unknowable. But Christina
was as kind to me as she could be to any one. She is gone, and I have no
friend left here."
"Am I not your friend?"
"You are my husband. I have had many friends, none of them were the
least like you."
"A poor man between his mother and his wife is in a desperate fix."
"He is, because he has no business to be in such a position. It is an
unnatural one--a forbidden one. Until a man is willing to give up his
mother, he has no right to take a wife. Under all conditions it must be
one or the other; the two existing happily together are so rare, that
they are merely exceptions that prove the rule."
"It would have been very hard on my mother, had I given her up for a
wife."
"Yet your mother took her husband away from his mother, and so backward
goes it, to the Eden days of every race. And you also made the same
mistake that Rebekah told Isaac she was weary of her life for--you
married a stranger, and because of this, she is continually asking, as
Rebekah did, What good is my life to me with this daughter of Heth under
my roof? And also she has made our lives of no good to us!"
"Is it not my duty to love and honor my mother? Is it not right?"
"It is your duty, and your right also, to love and honor the wife whom
you have persuaded to leave her father and mother, her home and
friends."
"Then the right of the mother, and the right of the wife, are both
positive?"
"So positive that both cannot be served in the same place, and at the
same time; for the one right will be broken to pieces against the other
right, since there is no community of feeling between the family claim
of the mother and the moral and natural claim of the wife."
"Then what is a man to do?"
"'A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave unto his wife.' That
is the imperative, and ultimate decision of the God and Father of us
all. And if it were not the nearly universal rule, what miserable,
loveless children would be born, and how the jealous, quarrelling
families of the earth would have become hateful in God's sight. We have
only to consider our own case. Until your mother came between us, we
loved each other truly, and were very happy."
"A man with a big business, Dora, has something else to think of than
love."
"In his hours of business, yes; but in his hours of relaxation, his love
ought to rest and refresh him." There was a movement in the next room,
and Theodora went there with light, swift steps. Robert was walking
moodily up and down, and through the open door he saw her kneeling by a
large chair, and David's arms were round her neck, and she was telling
him he must now go to bed. "Were you tired, that you fell asleep here?"
she asked, and he answered: "I was waiting for you, mother, to hear my
prayer, and kiss me good-night; and the sleep came to me."
Then she sat down, and David knelt at her knees, and said the Lord's
prayer, adding to it a petition for blessing on his father, his
grandmother Campbell, his aunts Isabel and Christina, his grandfather
and grandmother Newton, and his dear mother, with a final petition that
God would love David and make him a good boy. It was a scene so sweet
and natural that Robert stood still in respect to the simple rite,
vaguely wondering in what forgotten life he had spoken words like them.
Then Theodora called Ducie, and gave the child into her care, but as he
was leaving the room he saw his father, and running to him, he said:
"Father, kiss David too." Robert's heart stirred to the eager request,
and he lifted the little lad in his arms, and actually did kiss him. In
that moment the pretty face with its glances so free, so bright, so
seeking, without guile or misgiving, impressed itself on Robert's memory
forever. Even after the child had gone away, he felt as if he still held
him, and the consciousness of the soft, rosy cheek against his own was
so vivid that he put his hand up and stroked his cheek until the
sensation left him.
He was really in a great strait of feeling, and, if he could not do
right of himself, was in a strait, out of which there was no other
decent way. He looked longingly at Theodora, who had resumed her work,
and her pale, passionless face touched him by its complete contrast to
the face he had just left--the hard, gossipy, pitiless, scornful face of
his mother. He could not forget his son's prayer. He knew it well, he
himself was never one to prompt, nor to correct, so it was certain that
Theodora had taught the boy to pray for those who constantly spoke evil
of her. He resolved to tell his mother of this incident, and again he
tried to read the feeling on his wife's face. It was not depression, it
was not sorrow, it was far from anger, there was nothing of indifference
in it, and nothing restless or uncertain. He did not understand it. How
could such a man as Robert understand a life of pure piety and
intelligence, working its way upward through love and pain.
He sat down by her and touched her hand, but said only one word:
"Theodora!" She lifted her sad, lovely eyes to his. "Theodora!" he said
again, and she laid her hand in his, and whispered "Robert!" Then his
kiss brought back the color to her cheeks and the light to her eyes, and
when he vowed that he loved her and David more dearly than any other
mortals, she believed him; and found sweet words to excuse all his
faults, and to tell him he was "loved with all her heart."
Was she a foolish woman to forgive so easily, and so much? It was
because she loved so much that she could forgive so much, and of such
loving, foolish hearts is the Kingdom of Heaven. For no love is so swift
and welcome as returning love. Even the angels desire to witness the
reunion of hearts that have been kept apart by fault, or fate, and as
for Theodora, she had the courage to be happy in this promise of better
days, knowing that she came not to this house by accident, but that it
was the very place God had chosen for her. Besides which, the heart has
its arguments as well as the head, and at this hour she was judging
Robert by her love, and not by her understanding.