ANGUS BALLISTER
If Love comes, it comes; but no reasoning can put it there.
Love gives a new meaning to Life.
Her young heart blows
Leaf by leaf, coming out like a rose.
The next morning the women of the village were early at the pier to
watch the boats come in. They were already in the offing, their
gunwales deep in the water, and rising heavily on the ascending waves;
so they knew that there had been good fishing. Margot was prominent
among them, but Christine had gone to the town to take orders from the
fish dealers; for Margot Ruleson's kippered herring were famous, and
eagerly sought for, as far as Edinburgh, and even Glasgow.
It was a business Christine liked, and in spite of her youth, she did
it well, having all her mother's bargaining ability, and a readiness
in computing values, that had been sharpened by her knowledge of
figures and profits. This morning she was unusually fortunate in all
her transactions, and brought home such large orders that they
staggered Margot.
"I'll ne'er be able to handle sae many fish," she said, with a happy
purposeful face, "but there's naething beats a trial, and I be to do
my best."
"And I'll help you, Mither. It must ne'er be said that we twa turned
good siller awa'."
"I'm feared you canna do that today, Christine. Neil hasna been to
speak wi', since he heard ye had gone to the toun; he wouldna' even
hear me when I ca'ed breakfast."
"Neil be to wait at this time. It willna hurt him. If Neil happens to
hae a wish, he instantly feels it to be a necessity, and then he
thinks the hale house should stop till his wish is gi'en him. I'm
going to the herring shed wi' yoursel'."
"Then there will be trouble, and no one so sorry for it as Christine!
I'm telling you!"
At this moment Neil opened the door, and looked at the two women.
"Mother," he said in a tone of injury and suffering, "can I have any
breakfast this morning?"
"Pray, wha's hindering you? Your feyther had his, an hour syne. Your
porridge is yet boiling in the pot, the kettle is simmering on the
hob, and the cheena still standing on the table. Why didna you lift
your ain porridge, and mak' yoursel' a cup o' tea? Christine and
mysel' had our breakfasts before it chappit six o'clock. You cam' hame
wi' your feyther, you should hae ta'en your breakfast with him."
"I was wet through, and covered with herring scales. I was in no
condition to take a meal, or to sit with my books and Christine all
morning, writing."
"I canna spare Christine this morning, Neil. That's a fact." His
provoking neatness and deliberation were irritating to Margot's sense
of work and hurry, and she added, "Get your breakfast as quick as you
can. I'm wanting the dishes out o' the way."
"I suppose I can get a mouthful for myself."
"Get a' you want," answered Margot; but Christine served him with his
plate of porridge and basin of new milk, and as he ate it, she toasted
a scone, and made him a cup of tea.
"Mother is cross this morning, Christine. It is annoying to me."
"It needna. There's a big take o' fish in, and every man and woman,
and every lad and lass, are in the herring sheds. Mither just run awa'
from them, to see what orders for kippers I had brought--and I hae
brought nine hundred mair than usual. I must rin awa' and help her
now."
"No, Christine! I want you most particularly, this morning."
"I'll be wi' you by three in the afternoon."
"Stay with me now. I'll be ready for you in half an hour."
"I can hae fifty fish ready for Mither in half an hour, and I be to go
to her at once. I'll be back, laddie, by three o'clock."
"I'm just distracted with the delay," but he stopped speaking, for he
saw that he was alone. So he took time thoroughly to enjoy his scone
and tea, and then, not being quite insensible to Christine's kindness,
he washed the dishes and put them away.
He had just finished this little duty, when there was a knock at the
outside door. He hesitated about opening it. He knew no villager would
knock at his father's door, so it must be a stranger, and as he was
not looking as professional and proper as he always desired to appear,
he was going softly away, when the door was opened, and a bare-footed
lad came forward, and gave him a letter.
He opened it, and looked at the signature--"Angus Ballister." A sudden
flush of pleasure made him appear almost handsome, and when he had
read the epistle he was still more delighted, for it ran thus:
DEAR NEIL,
I am going to spend the rest of vacation at Ballister Mansion, and
I want you with me. I require your help in a particular business
investigation. I will pay you for your time and knowledge, and
your company will be a great pleasure to me. This afternoon I will
call and see you, and if you are busy with the nets, I shall enjoy
helping you.
Your friend,
ANGUS BALLISTER.
Neil was really much pleased with the message, and glad to hear of an
opportunity to make money, for though the young man was selfish, he
was not idle; and he instantly perceived that much lucrative business
could follow this early initiation into the Ballister affairs. He
quickly finished his arrangement of the dishes and the kitchen, and
then, putting on an old academic suit, made his room as scholarly and
characteristic as possible. And it is amazing what an _air_ books and
papers give to the most commonplace abode. Even the old inkhorn and
quill pens seemed to say to all who entered--"Tread with respect. This
is classic ground."
His predominating thought during this interval was, however, not of
himself, but of Christine. She had promised to come to him at three
o'clock. How would she come? He was anxious about her first
appearance. If he could in any way have reached her, he would have
sent his positive command to wear her best kirk clothes, but at this
great season neither chick nor child was to be seen or heard tell of,
and he concluded finally to leave what he could not change or direct
to those household influences which usually manage things fairly
well.
As the day went on, and Ballister did not arrive, he grew irritably
nervous. He could not study, and he found himself scolding both
Ballister and Christine for their delay. "Christine was so ta'en up
wi' the feesh, naething else was of any import to her. Here was a
Scottish gentleman coming, who might be the makin' o' him, and a
barrel o' herrin' stood in his way." He had actually fretted himself
into his Scotch form of speech, a thing no Gael ever entirely forgets
when really worried to the proper point.
When he had said his heart's say of Christine, he turned his
impatience on Ballister--his behavior was that o' the ordinary rich
young man, who has naething but himsel' to think o'. He, Neil Ruleson,
had lost a hale morning's wark, waiting on his lairdship. Weel, he'd
have to pay for it, in the long run. Neil Ruleson had no waste hours
in his life. Nae doubt Ballister had heard o' a fast horse, or a
fast----
Then Ballister knocked at the door, and Neil stepped into his
scholarly manner and speech, and answered Ballister's hearty greeting
in the best English style.
"I am glad to see you, Neil. I only came to Ballister two days ago,
and I have been thinking of you all the time." With these words the
youth threw his Glengary on the table, into the very center and front
of Neil's important papers. Then he lifted his chair, and placed it
before the open door, saying emphatically as he did so--
Lands may be fair ayont the sea,
But Scotland's hills and lochs for me!
O Neil! Love of your ain country is a wonderful thing. It makes a man
of you."
"Without it you would not be a man."
Ballister did not answer at once, but stood a moment with his hand on
the back of the deal, rush-bottomed chair, and his gaze fixed on the
sea and the crowd of fishing boats waiting in the harbor.
Without being strictly handsome, Ballister was very attractive. He had
the tall, Gaelic stature, and its reddish brown hair, also brown eyes,
boyish and yet earnest. His face was bright and well formed, his
conversation animated, his personality, in full effect, striking in
its young alertness.
"Listen to me, Neil," he said, as he sat down. "I came to my majority
last March, when my uncle and I were in Venice."
"Your uncle on your mother's side?"
"No, on the sword side, Uncle Ballister. He told me I was now my own
master, and that he would render into my hands the Brewster and
Ballister estates. I am sure that he has done well by them, but he
made me promise I would carefully go over all the papers relating to
his trusteeship, and especially those concerning the item of
interests. It seems that my father had a good deal of money out on
interest--I know nothing about interest. Do you, Neil?"
"I know everything that is to be known. In my profession it is a
question of importance."
"Just so. Now, I want to put all these papers, rents, leases,
improvements, interest accounts, and so forth, in your hands, Neil.
Come with me to Ballister, and give the mornings to my affairs. Find
out what is the usual claim for such service, and I will gladly pay
it."
"I know the amount professionally charged, but----"
"I will pay the professional amount. If we give the mornings to this
work, in the afternoons we will ride, and sail, fish or swim, or pay
visits--in the evenings there will be dinner, billiards, and
conversation. Are you willing?"
"I am delighted at the prospect. Let the arrangement stand, just so."
"You will be ready tomorrow?"
"The day after tomorrow."
"Good. I will----"
Then there was a tap at the door, and before Neil could answer it,
Christine did so. As she entered, Ballister stood up and looked at
her, and his eyes grew round with delighted amazement. She was in full
fisher costume--fluted cap on the back of her curly head, scarlet
kerchief on her neck, long gold rings in her ears, gold beads round
her throat, and a petticoat in broad blue and yellow stripes.
"Christine," said Neil, who, suddenly relieved of his great anxiety,
was unusually good-tempered. "Christine, this is my friend, Mr. Angus
Ballister. You must have heard me speak of him?"
"That's a fact. The man was your constant talk"--then turning to
Ballister--"I am weel pleased to see you, Sir;" and she made him a
little curtsey so full of independence that Ballister knew well she
was making it to herself--"and I'm wondering at you twa lads," she
said, "sitting here in the house, when you might be sitting i' the
garden, or on the rocks, and hae the scent o' the sea, or the flowers
about ye."
"Miss Ruleson is right," said Ballister, in his most enthusiastic
mood. "Let us go into the garden. Have you really a garden among these
rocks? How wonderful!"
How it came that Ballister and Christine took the lead, and that Neil
was in a manner left out, Neil could not tell; but it struck him as
very remarkable. He saw Christine and his friend walking together,
and he was walking behind them. Christine, also, was perfectly
unembarrassed, and apparently as much at home with Ballister as if he
had been some fisher-lad from the village.
Yet there was nothing strange in her easy manner and affable intimacy.
It was absolutely natural. She had never realized the conditions of
riches and poverty, as entailing a difference in courtesy or good
comradeship; for in the village of Culraine, there was no question of
an equality founded on money. A man or woman was rated by moral, and
perhaps a little by physical qualities--piety, honesty, courage,
industry, and strength, and knowledge of the sea and of the
fisherman's craft. Christine would have treated the great Duke of
Fife, or Her Majesty, Victoria, with exactly the same pleasant
familiarity.
She showed Ballister her mother's flower garden, that was something
beyond the usual, and she was delighted at Ballister's honest
admiration and praise of the lovely, rose-sweet plot. Both seemed to
have forgotten Neil's presence, and Neil was silent, blundering
about in his mind, looking for some subject which would give him
predominance.
Happily strolling in and out the narrow walks, and eating ripe
gooseberries from the bushes, they came to a little half-circle of
laburnum trees, drooping with the profusion of their golden blossoms.
There was a wooden bench under them, and as Christine sat down a few
petals fell into her lap.
"See!" she cried, "the trees are glad o' our company," and she laid
the petals in her palm, and added--"now we hae shaken hands."
"What nonsense you are talking, Christine," said Neil.
"Weel then, Professor, gie us a bit o' gude sense. Folks must talk in
some fashion."
And Neil could think of nothing but a skit against women, and in
apologetic mood and manner answered:
"I believe it is allowable, to talk foolishness, in reply to women's
foolishness."
"O Neil, that is cheap! Women hae as much gude sense as men hae, and
whiles they better them"--and then she sang, freely and clearly as a
bird, two lines of Robert Burns' opinion--
"He tried His prentice hand on man,
And then He made the lasses O!"
She still held the golden blossoms in her hand, and Ballister said:
"Give them to me. Do!"
"You are vera welcome to them, Sir. I dinna wonder you fancy them.
Laburnum trees are money-bringers, but they arena lucky for lovers. If
I hed a sweetheart, I wouldna sit under a laburnum tree wi' him, but
Feyther is sure o' his sweetheart, and he likes to come here, and
smoke his pipe. And Mither and I like the place for our bit secret
cracks. We dinna heed if the trees do hear us. They may tell the
birds, and the birds may tell ither birds, but what o' that? There's
few mortals wise enough to understand birds. Now, Neil, come awa wi'
your gude sense, I'll trouble you nae langer wi' my foolishness. And
good day to you, Sir!" she said. "I'm real glad you are my brother's
friend. I dinna think he will go out o' the way far, if you are wi'
him."
Ballister entreated her to remain, but with a smile she vanished among
the thick shrubbery. Ballister was disappointed, and somehow Neil was
not equal to the occasion. It was hard to find a subject Ballister
felt any interest in, and after a short interval he bade Neil good-bye
and said he would see him on the following day.
"No, on the day after tomorrow," corrected Neil. "That was the time
fixed, Angus. Tomorrow I will finish up my work for the university,
and I will be at your service, very happily and gratefully, on Friday
morning." Then Neil led him down the garden path to the sandy shore,
so he did not return to the cottage, but went away hungry for another
sight of Christine.
Neil was pleased, and displeased. He felt that it would have been
better for him if Christine had not interfered, but there was the
delayed writing to be finished, and he hurried up the steep pathway to
the cottage. Some straying vines caught his careless footsteps, and
threw him down, and though he was not hurt, the circumstance annoyed
him. As soon as he entered the cottage, he was met by Christine, and
her first remark added to his discomfort:
"Whate'er hae you been doing to yoursel', Neil Ruleson? Your coat is
torn, and your face scratched. Surely you werna fighting wi' your
friend."
"You know better, Christine. I was thrown by those nasty blackberry
vines. I intend to cut them all down. They catch everyone that passes
them, and they are in everyone's way. They ought to be cleared out,
and I will attend to them tomorrow morning, if I have to get up at
four o'clock to do it."
"You willna touch the vines. Feyther likes their fruit, and Mither is
planning to preserve part o' it. And I, mysel', am vera fond o' vines.
The wee wrens, and the robin redbreasts, look to the vines for food
and shelter, and you'll not dare to hurt their feelings, for
"The Robin, wi' the red breast,
The Robin, and the wren,
If you do them any wrong,
You'll never thrive again."
"Stop, Christine, I have a great deal to think of, and to ask your
help in."
"Weel, Neil, I was ready for you at three o'clock, and then you werna
ready for me."
"Tell me why you dressed yourself up so much? Did you know Ballister
was coming?"
"Not I! Did you think I dressed mysel' up for Angus Ballister?"
"I was wondering. It is very seldom you wear your gold necklace, and
other things, for just home folk."
"Weel, I wasn't wearing them for just hame folk. Jennie Tweedie is to
be married tonight, and Mither had promised her I should come and help
them lay the table for the supper, and the like o' that. Sae I was
dressed for Jennie Tweedie's bridal. I wasna thinking of either you,
or your fine friend."
"I thought perhaps you had heard he was coming. Your fisher dress is
very suitable to you. No doubt you look handsome in it. You likely
thought its novelty would--would--make him fall in love with you."
"I thought naething o' that sort. Novelty! Where would the novelty be?
The lad is Fife. If he was sae unnoticing as never to get acquaint wi'
a Culraine fisher-wife, he lived maist o' his boyhood in Edinburgh.
Weel, he couldna escape seeing the Newhaven fisherwomen there, nor
escape hearing their wonderful cry o' 'Caller herrin'!' And if he had
ony feeling in his heart, if he once heard that cry, sae sweet, sae
heartachy, and sae winning, he couldna help looking for the woman who
was crying it; and then he couldna help seeing a fisher-wife, or
lassie. I warn you not to think o' me, Christine Ruleson, planning and
dressing mysel' for any man. You could spane my love awa' wi' a very
few o' such remarks."
"I meant nothing to wrong you, Christine. All girls dress to please
the men."
"Men think sae. They are vera mich mista'en. Girls dress to outdress
each ither. If you hae any writing to do, I want to gie you an hour's
wark. I'll hae to leave the rest until morning."
Then Neil told her the whole of the proposal Angus had made him. He
pointed out its benefits, both for the present and the future, and
Christine listened thoughtfully to all he said. She saw even further
than Neil did, the benefits, and she was the first to name the subject
nearest to Neil's anxieties.
"You see, Neil," she said, "if you go to Ballister, you be to hae the
proper dress for every occasion. The best suit ye hae now will be
nane too good for you to wark, and to play in. You must hae a new suit
for ordinary wear, forbye a full dress suit. I'll tell you what to
do--David Finlay, wha dresses a' the men gentry round about here, is
an old, old friend o' Feyther's. They herded together, and went to
school and kirk togither, and Feyther and him have helped each ither
across hard places, a' their life long."
"I don't want any favors from David Finlay."
"Hae a little patience, lad. I'm not asking you to tak' favors from
anyone. I, mysel', will find the money for you; but I canna tell you
how men ought to dress, nor what they require in thae little odds and
ends, which are so important."
"Odds and ends! What do you mean?"
"Neckties, gloves, handkerchiefs, hats, and a proper pocket book for
your money. I saw Ballister take his from his pocket, to put the
laburnum leaves in, and I had a glint o' the bank bills in it, and I
ken weel it is more genteel-like than a purse. I call things like
these 'odds and ends.'"
"Such things cost a deal of money, Christine."
"I was coming to that, Neil. I hae nearly ninety-six pounds in the
bank. It hes been gathering there, ever since my grandfeyther put five
pounds in for me at my baptisement--as a nest egg, ye ken--and all I
hae earned, and all that Feyther or Mither hae gien me, has helped it
gather; and on my last birthday, when Feyther gave me a pound, and
Mither ten shillings, I had ninety-six pounds. Now, Neil, dear lad,
you can hae the use o' it all, if so be you need it. Just let Dave
Finlay tell you what to get, and get it, and pay him for it--you can
pay me back, when money comes easy to you."
"Thank you, Christine! You have always been my good angel. I will pay
you out o' my first earnings. I'll give you good interest, and a
regular I. O. U. which will be----"
"What are you saying, Neil? Interest! Interest! Interest on love? And
do you dare to talk to me anent your I. O. U. If I canna trust your
love, and your honor, I'll hae neither interest nor paper from you.
Tak my offer wi' just the word between us, you are vera welcome to the
use o' the money. There's nae sign o' my marrying yet, and I'll not be
likely to want it until my plenishing and napery is to buy. You'll go
to Finlay, I hope?"
"I certainly will. He shall give me just what is right."
"Now then, my time is up. I will be ready to do your copying at five
o'clock in the morning. Then, after breakfast, you can go to the town,
but you won't win into the Bank before ten, and maist likely Finlay
will be just as late. Leave out the best linen you hae, and I'll
attend to it, wi' my ain hands."
"Oh, Christine, how sweet and good you are! I'm afraid I am not worthy
o' your love!"
"Vera likely you are not. Few brothers love their sisters as they
ought to. It willna be lang before you'll do like the lave o' them,
and put some strange lass before me."
"There's nae lass living that can ever be to me what you hae been, and
are. You hae been mother and sister baith, to me."
"Dear lad, I love thee with a' my heart. All that is mine, is thine,
for thy use and help, and between thee and me the word and the bond
are the same thing."
Christine was much pleased because Neil unconsciously had fallen into
his Scotch dialect. She knew then that his words were spontaneous, not
of consideration, but of feeling from his very heart.
In a week the change contemplated had been fully accomplished. Neil
had become accustomed to the luxury of his new home, and was making
notable progress in the work which had brought him there.
Twice during the week Margot had been made royally happy by large
baskets of wonderful flowers and fruit, from the Ballister gardens.
They were brought by the Ballister gardener, and came with Neil's love
and name, but Margot had some secret thoughts of her own. She
suspected they were the result of a deeper and sweeter reason than a
mere admiration for her wonderful little garden among the rocks; but
she kept such thoughts silent in her heart. One thing she knew well,
that if Christine were twitted on the subject, she would hate Angus
Ballister, and utterly refuse to see him. So she referred to the gifts
as entirely from Neil, and affected a little anxiety about their
influence on Ballister.
"I hope that young man isna thinking," she said, "that his baskets o'
flowers and fruit is pay enough for Neil's service."
"Mither, he promised to pay Neil."
"To be sure. But I didna hear o' any fixed sum. Some rich people hae a
way o' giving sma' favors, and forgetting standing siller."
"He seemed a nice young man, Mither, and he did admire your garden. I
am sure he has told Neil to send the flowers because you loved
flowers. When folk love anything, they like others who love as they
do. Mebbe they who love flowers hae the same kind and order o' souls.
You ken if a man loves dogs, he is friendly at once wi' a stranger who
loves dogs; and there's the Domine, who is just silly anent auld
coins--copper, siller or gold--he cares not, if they're only auld
enough. Nannie Grant, wha keeps his house, told Katie Tweedie that he
took a beggar man into his parlor, and ate his dinner with him, just
because he had a siller bit o' Julius Caesar in his pouch, and wouldna
part wi' it, even when he was wanting bread."
"Weel then, the Domine doubtless wanted the penny."
"Vera likely, but he wouldna tak it frae the puir soul, wha thought
sae much o' it; and Nannie was saying that he went away wi' a guid
many Victoria pennies i' his pouch."
"The Domine is a queer man."
"Ay, but a vera guid man."
"If he had a wife, he would be a' right."
"And just as likely a' wrang. Wha can tell?"
"Weel, that's an open question. What about your ain marriage?"
"I'll marry when I find a man who loves the things I love."
"Weel, the change for Neil, and for the a' of us has been--in a way--a
gude thing. I'll say that."
Margot was right. Even if we take change in its widest sense, it is a
great and healthy manifestation, and it is only through changes that
the best lives are made perfect. For every phase of life requires its
own environment, in order to fulfill perfectly its intention and if it
does not get it, then the intent, or the issue, loses much of its
efficiency. "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not
God," is a truth relative to the greatest nations, as well as to the
humblest individual.
Neil was benefited in every way by the social uplift of a residence in
a gentleman's home, and the active, curious temperament of Angus
stimulated him. Angus was interested in every new thing, in every new
idea, in every new book. The world was so large, and so busy, and he
wanted to know all about its goings on. So when Neil's business was
over for the day, Angus was eagerly waiting to tell him of something
new or strange which he had just read, or heard tell of, and though
Neil did not realize the fact, he was actually receiving, in these
lively discussions with his friend, the very best training for his
future forensic and oratorical efforts.
Indeed he was greatly pleased with himself. He had not dreamed of
being the possessor of so much skill in managing an opposite opinion;
nor yet of the ready wit, which appeared to flow naturally with his
national dialect. But all this clever discussion and disputing was
excellent practice, and Neil knew well that his visit to Ballister had
been a change full of benefits to him.
One of the results of Neil's investigations was the discovery that Dr.
Magnus Trenabie had been presented to the church of Culraine by the
father of Angus, and that his salary had never been more than fifty
pounds a year, with the likelihood that it had often been much less.
Angus was angry and annoyed.
"I give my gamekeeper a larger salary," he said. "It is a shame!
The doctor's salary must be doubled at once. If there are any
technicalities about it, look to them as quickly as possible. Did my
father worship in that old church?"
"He did, and I have heard my father tell very frequently, how the old
man stood by the church when the great Free Kirk secession happened.
He says that at that burning time everyone left Dr. Trenabie's church
but Ballister and ten o' his tenants, and that the doctor took no
notice of their desertion, but just preached to your father and the
ten faithful. He was never heard to blame the lost flock, and he never
went into the wilderness after them. Your father would not hear of his
doing so.
"Magnus," he would say, "tak' time, and bide a wee. The puir wanderers
will get hungry and weary in their Free Kirk conventicles, and as the
night comes on, they'll come hame. Nae fear o' them!"
"Did they come home?"
"Every one of them but three stubborn old men. They died out of its
communion, and the old Master pitied them, and told their friends he
was feared that it would go a bit hard wi' them. He said, they had
leaped the fence, and he shook his head, and looked down and doubtful
anent the outcome, since naebody could tell what ill weeds were in a
strange pasture."
After this discovery Angus went to the old church, where his father
had worshiped, and there he saw Christine, and there he fell freshly
in love with her every Sabbath day. It did not appear likely that love
had much opportunity, in those few minutes in the kirk yard after the
service, when Neil and Angus waited for Margot and Christine, to
exchange the ordinary greetings and inquiries. James Ruleson, being
leading elder, always remained a few minutes after the congregation
had left, in order to count the collection and give it to the Domine,
and in those few minutes Love found his opportunity.
While Neil talked with his mother of their family affairs, Angus
talked with Christine. His eyes rained Love's influence, his voice was
like a caress, the touch of his hand seemed to Christine to draw her
in some invisible way closer to him. She never remembered the words he
said, she only knew their inarticulate meaning was love, always love.
When it was time for Ruleson to appear, Margot turned to Angus and
thanked him for some special gift or kindness that had come to the
cottage that week, and Angus always laughed, and pointing to Neil,
said:
"Neil is the culprit, Mrs. Ruleson. It is Neil's doing, I assure you."
And of course this statement might be, in several ways, the truth. At
any rate, the old proverb which advises us "never to look a gift horse
in the mouth," is a good one. For the motive of the gift is more than
the gift itself.
These gifts were all simple enough, but they were such as delighted
Margot's childlike heart--an armful of dahlias or carnations--a basket
of nectarines or apricots--two or three dozen fresh eggs--a pot of
butter--a pair of guinea fowls, then rare in poultry yards, or a brood
of young turkeys to feed and fatten for the New Year's festival. About
these fowls, Neil wrote her elaborate directions. And Margot was more
delighted with these simple gifts than many have been with a great
estate. And Christine knew, and Angus knew that she knew, and it was a
subtle tie between them, made of meeting glances and clasping hands.