THE SKIPPER’S CHAMBER.
One day towards the close of the fishing-season, the marquis called
upon Duncan; and was received with a cordial unembarrassed welcome.
“I want you, Mr MacPhail,” said his lordship, “to come and live
in that little cottage, on the banks of the burn, which one of the
under game-keepers, they tell me, used to occupy. I’ll have it
put in order for you, and you shall live rent-free as my piper.”
“I thank your lortship’s crace,” said Duncan, “and she would pe
proud of ta honour, put it’ll pe too far away from ta shore for
her poy’s fishing.”
“I have a design upon him too,” returned the marquis. “They’re
building a little yacht for me--a pleasure-boat, you understand
--at Aberdeen, and I want Malcolm to be skipper. But he is such a
useful fellow, and so thoroughly to be depended upon, that I should
prefer his having a room in the house. I should like to know he
was within call any moment I might want him.”
Duncan did not clutch at the proposal. He was silent so long that
the marquis spoke again.
“You do not quite seem to like the plan, Mr MacPhail,” he said.
“If aal wass here as it used to wass in ta Highlants, my lort,”
said Duncan, “when efery clansman wass son or prother or father to
his chief, tat would pe tifferent; put my poy must not co and eat
with serfants who haf nothing put teir waches to make tem love
and opey your lortship. If her poy serfs another man, it must pe
pecause he loves him, and looks upon him as his chief, who will
shake haands with him and take ta father’s care of him; and her
poy must tie for him when ta time comes.”
Even a feudal lord cannot be expected to have sympathized with
such grand patriarchal ideas; they were much too like those of the
kingdom of heaven; and feudalism itself had by this time crumbled
away--not indeed into monthly, but into half-yearly wages. The
marquis, notwithstanding, was touched by the old man’s words,
matter-of-fact as his reply must sound after them.
“I would make any arrangements you or he might wish,” he said.
“He should take his meals with Mrs Courthope, have a bedroom to
himself, and be required only to look after the yacht, and now and
then do some bit of business I couldn’t trust any one else with.”
The highlander’s pride was nearly satisfied.
“So,” he said, “it’ll pe his own henchman my lort will pe making
of her poy?”
“Something like that. We’ll see how it goes. If he doesn’t like
it, he can drop it. It’s more that I want to have him about me
than anything else. I want to do something for him when I have a
chance. I like him.”
“My lort will pe toing ta laad a creat honour,” said Duncan. “Put,”
he added, with a sigh, “she’ll pe lonely, her nainsel!”
“He can come and see you twenty times a day--and stop all night
when you particularly want him. We’ll see about some respectable
woman to look after the house for you.”
“She’ll haf _no_ womans to look after her,” said Duncan fiercely.
“Oh, very well!--of course not, if you don’t wish it,” returned
the marquis, laughing.
But Duncan did not even smile in return. He sat thoughtful and
silent for a moment, then said:
“And what’ll pecome of her lamps and her shop?”
“You shall have all the lamps and candlesticks in the house to
attend to and take charge of,” said the marquis, who had heard of
the old man’s whim from Lady Florimel; “and for the shop, you won’t
want that when you’re piper to the Marquis of Lossie.”
He did not venture to allude to wages more definitely.
“Well, she’ll pe talking to her poy apout it,” said Duncan, and
the marquis saw that he had better press the matter no further for
the time.
To Malcolm the proposal was full of attraction. True, Lord Lossie
had once and again spoken so as to offend him, but the confidence
he had shown in him had gone far to atone for that. And to be near
Lady Florimel!--to have to wait on her in the yacht and sometimes
in the house!--to be allowed books from the library perhaps!--
to have a nice room, and those lovely grounds all about him!--It
_was_ tempting!
The old man also, the more he reflected, liked the idea the more. The
only thing he murmured at was being parted from his grandson at night.
In vain Malcolm reminded him that during the fishing-season he had to
spend most nights alone; Duncan answered that he had but to go to the
door, and look out to sea, and there was nothing between him and his
boy; but now he could not tell how many stone walls might be standing
up to divide them. He was quite willing to make the trial, however, and
see if he could bear it. So Malcolm went to speak to the marquis.
He did not _altogether_ trust the marquis, but he had always taken
a delight in doing anything for anybody--a delight rooted in a
natural tendency to ministration, unusually strong, and specially
developed by the instructions of Alexander Graham conjoined with the
necessities of his blind grandfather; while there was an alluring
something, it must be confessed, in the marquis’s high position
--which let no one set down to Malcolm’s discredit: whether the
subordination of class shall go to the development of reverence or
of servility, depends mainly on the individual nature subordinated.
Calvinism itself has produced as many loving children as abject slaves,
with a good many between partaking of the character of both kinds.
Still, as he pondered over the matter on his way, he shrunk a
good deal from placing himself at the beck and call of another; it
threatened to interfere with that sense of personal freedom which
is yet dearer perhaps to the poor than to the rich. But he argued
with himself that he had found no infringement of it under Blue
Peter; and that, if the marquis were really as friendly as he
professed to be, it was not likely to turn out otherwise with him.
Lady Florimel anticipated pleasure in Malcolm’s probable consent
to her father’s plan; but certainly he would not have been greatly
uplifted by a knowledge of the sort of pleasure she expected. For
some time the girl had been suffering from too much liberty. Perhaps
there is no life more filled with a sense of oppression and lack
of freedom than that of those under no external control, in whom
Duty has not yet gathered sufficient strength to assume the reins
of government and subject them to the highest law. Their condition
is like that of a creature under an exhausted receiver--oppressed
from within outwards for want of the counteracting external weight.
It was amusement she hoped for from Malcolm’s becoming in a sense
one of the family at the House--to which she believed her knowledge of
the extremely bare outlines of his history would largely contribute.
He was shown at once into the presence of his lordship, whom he
found at breakfast with his daughter.
“Well, MacPhail,” said the marquis, “have you made up your mind to
be my skipper?”
“Wullin’ly, my lord,” answered Malcolm.
“Do you know how to manage a sail-boat?”
“I wad need, my lord.”
“Shall you want any help?”
“That depen’s upo’ saiveral things--her ain size, the wull o’ the
win’, an’ whether or no yer lordship or my leddy can tak the tiller.”
“We can’t settle about that then till she comes. I hear she’ll soon
be on her way now.--But I cannot have you dressed like a farmer!”
said his lordship, looking sharply at the Sunday clothes which
Malcolm had donned for the visit.
“What was I to du, my lord?” returned Malcolm apologetically. “The
only ither claes I hae, are verra fishy, an’ neither yersel’ nor
my leddy cud bide them i’ the room aside ye.”
“Certainly not,” responded the marquis, as in a leisurely manner
he devoured his omelette: “I was thinking of your future position
as skipper of my boat.--What would you say to a kilt now?”
“Na, na, my lord,” rejoined Malcolm; “a kilt’s no seafarin’ claes.
A kilt wadna du ava’, my lord.”
“You cannot surely object to the dress of your own people,” said
the marquis.
“The kilt ’s weel eneuch upon a hill-side,” said Malcolm, “I dinna
doobt; but faith! sea-farin’, my lord, ye wad want the trews as
weel.”
“Well, go to the best tailor in the town, and order a naval suit
--white ducks and a blue jacket--two suits you’ll want.”
“We s’ gar ae shuit sair s’ (_satisfy us_) to begin wi’, my lord.
I’ll jist gang to Jamie Sangster, wha maks a’ my claes--no ’at
their mony!--an’ get _him_ to mizzur me. He’ll mak them weel eneuch
for me. You’re aye sure o’ the worth o’ yer siller frae _him_.”
“I tell you to go to the best tailor in the town, and order two
suits.”
“Na, na, my lord; there’s nae need. I canna affoord it forbye. We’re
no a’ made o’ siller like yer lordship.”
“You booby! do you suppose I would tell you to order clothes I did
not mean to pay for?”
Lady Florimel found her expectation of amusement not likely to be
disappointed.
“Hoots, my lord!” returned Malcolm, “that wad never du. I _maun_ pey
for my ain claes. I wad be in a constant terror o’ blaudin’ (_spoiling_)
o’ them gien I didna, an’ that wad be eneuch to mak a body meeserable.
It wad be a’ the same, forbye, oot _an’_ oot, as weirin’ a leevry!”
“Well, well! please your pride, and be damned to you!” said the
marquis.
“Yes, let him please his pride, and be damned to him!” assented
Lady Florimel with perfect gravity.
Malcolm started and stared. Lady Florimel kept an absolute composure.
The marquis burst into a loud laugh. Malcolm stood bewildered for
a moment.
“I’m thinkin’ I’m gaein’ daft (_delirious_)!” he said at length,
putting his hand to his head. “It’s time I gaed. Guid mornin’, my
lord.”
He turned and left the room, followed by a fresh peal from his
lordship, mingling with which his ear plainly detected the silvery
veins of Lady Florimel’s equally merry laughter.
When he came to himself and was able to reflect, he saw there must
have been some joke involved: the behaviour of both indicated as
much; and with this conclusion he heartened his dismay.
The next morning Duncan called on Mrs Partan, and begged her acceptance
of his stock in trade, as, having been his lordship’s piper for some
time, he was now at length about to occupy his proper quarters within
the policies. Mrs Findlay acquiesced, with an air better suited to the
granting of slow leave to laboursome petition, than the accepting of
such a generous gift; but she made some amends by graciously expressing
a hope that Duncan would not forget his old friends now that he was
going amongst lords and ladies, to which Duncan returned as courteous
answer as if he had been addressing Lady Florimel herself.
Before the end of the week, his few household goods were borne in a
cart through the sea-gate dragonised by Bykes, to whom Malcolm dropped
a humorous “Weel Johnny!” as he passed, receiving a nondescript kind of
grin in return. The rest of the forenoon was spent in getting the place
in order, and in the afternoon, arrayed in his new garments, Malcolm
reported himself at the House. Admitted to his lordship’s presence, he
had a question to ask and a request to prefer.
“Hae ye dune onything my lord,” he said, “aboot Mistress Catanach?”
“What do you mean?”
“Anent yon cat-prowl aboot the hoose, my lord.”
“No. You haven’t discovered anything more--have you?”
“Na, my lord; I haena had a chance. But ye may be sure she had nae
guid design in ’t.”
“I don’t suspect her of any.”
“Weel, my lord, hae ye ony objection to lat me sleep up yonner?”
“None at all--only you’d better see what Mrs Courthope has to
say to it. Perhaps you won’t be so ready after you hear her story.”
“But I hae yer lordship’s leave to tak ony room I like?”
“Certainly. Go to Mrs Courthope, and tell her I wish you to choose
your own quarters.”
Having straightway delivered his lordship’s message, Mrs Courthope,
wondering a little thereat, proceeded to show him those portions of
the house set apart for the servants. He followed her from floor
to floor--last to the upper regions, and through all the confused
rambling roofs of the old pile, now descending a sudden steep-yawning
stair, now ascending another where none could have been supposed to
exist--oppressed all the time with a sense of the multitudinous and
intricate, such as he had never before experienced, and such as perhaps
only the works of man can produce, the intricacy and variety of those
of nature being ever veiled in the grand simplicity which springs from
primal unity of purpose.
I find no part of an ancient house so full of interest as the garret
region. It has all the mystery of the dungeon-cellars with a far more
striking variety of form, and a bewildering curiosity of adaptation,
the peculiarities of roof-shapes and the consequent complexities of
their relations and junctures being so much greater than those of
foundation-plans. Then the sense of lofty loneliness in the deeps
of air, and at the same time of proximity to things aerial--doves
and martins, vanes and gilded balls and lightning-conductors, the
waves of the sea of wind, breaking on the chimneys for rocks, and the
crashing roll of the thunder--is in harmony with the highest spiritual
instincts; while the clouds and the stars look, if not nearer, yet
more germane, and the moon gazes down on the lonely dweller in
uplifted places, as if she had secrets with such. The cellars are the
metaphysics, the garrets the poetry of the house.
Mrs Courthope was more than kind, for she was greatly pleased
at having Malcolm for an inmate. She led him from room to room,
suggesting now and then a choice, and listening amusedly to his
remarks of liking or disliking, and his marvel at strangeness or
extent. At last he found himself following her along the passage
in which was the mysterious door, but she never stayed her step,
or seemed to intend showing one of the many rooms opening upon it.
“Sic a bee’s-byke o’ rooms!” said Malcolm, making a halt. “Wha sleeps
here?”
“Nobody has slept in one of these rooms for I dare not say how many
years,” replied Mrs Courthope, without stopping; and as she spoke
she passed the fearful door.
“I wad like to see intill this room,” said Malcolm.
“That door is never opened,” answered Mrs Courthope, who had now
reached the end of the passage, and turned, lingering as in act
while she spoke to move on.
“And what for that?” asked Malcolm, continuing to stand before it.
“I would rather not answer you just here. Come along. This is not
a part of the house where you would like to be, I am sure.”
“Hoo ken ye that, mem? An’ hoo can I say mysel’ afore ye hae shawn
me what the room ’s like? It may be the verra place to tak my fancy.
Jist open the door, mem, gien ye please, an lat’s hae a keek intill
’t.”
“I daren’t open it. It’s never opened, I tell you. It’s against the
rules of the house. Come to my room, and I’ll tell you the story
about it.”
“Weel, ye’ll lat me see intill the neist--winna ye? There’s nae
law agane openin’ hit--is there?” said Malcolm, approaching the
door next to the one in dispute.
“Certainly not; but I’m pretty sure, once you’ve heard the story I
have to tell, you won’t choose to sleep in this part of the house.”
“Lat’s luik, ony gait.”
So saying, Malcolm took upon himself to try the handle of the
door. It was not locked: he peeped in, then entered. It was a small
room, low-ceiled, with a deep dormer-window in the high pediment of
a roof, and a turret-recess on each side of the window. It seemed
very light after the passage, and looked down upon the burn. It
was comfortably furnished, and the curtains of its tent-bed were
chequered in squares of blue and white.
“This is the verra place for me, mem,” said Malcolm, reissuing;--
“that is,” he added, “gien ye dinna think it’s ower gran’ for the
likes o’ me ’at’s no been used to onything half sae guid.”
“You’re quite welcome to it,” said Mrs Courthope, all but confident he
would not care to occupy it after hearing the tale of Lord Gernon.
She had not moved from the end of the passage while Malcolm was in
the room--somewhat hurriedly she now led the way to her own. It
seemed half a mile off to the wondering Malcolm, as he followed her
down winding stairs, along endless passages, and round innumerable
corners. Arrived at last, she made him sit down, and gave him
a glass of home-made wine to drink, while she told him the story
much as she had already told it to the marquis, adding a hope to
the effect that, if ever the marquis should express a wish to pry
into the secret of the chamber, Malcolm would not encourage him in
a fancy, the indulgence of which was certainly useless, and might
be dangerous.
“_Me!_” exclaimed Malcolm with surprise. “--As gien he wad heed a
word _I_ said!”
“Very little sometimes will turn a man either in one direction or
the other,” said Mrs Courthope.
“But surely, mem, ye dinna believe in sic fule auld warld stories
as that! It’s weel eneuch for a tale, but to think o’ a body turnin’
ae fit oot o’ ’s gait for ’t, blecks (_nonplusses_) me.”
“I don’t say I believe it,” returned Mrs Courthope, a little
pettishly; “but there’s no good in mere foolhardiness.”
“Ye dinna surely think, mem, ’at God wad lat onything depen’ upo’
whether a man opent a door in ’s ain hoose or no! It’s agane a’
rizzon!” persisted Malcolm.
“There might be reasons we couldn’t understand,” she replied. “To
do what we are warned against from any quarter, without good reason,
must be foolhardy at best.”
“Weel, mem, I maun hae the room neist the auld warlock’s, ony gait,
for in that I’m gauin’ to sleep, an’ in nae ither in a’ this muckle
hoose.”
Mrs Courthope rose, full of uneasiness, and walked up and down the
room.
“I’m takin’ upo’ me naething ayont his lordship’s ain word,” urged
Malcolm.
“If you’re to go by the very word,” rejoined Mrs Courthope, stopping
and looking him full in the face, “you might insist on sleeping in
Lord Gernon’s chamber itself.”
“Weel, an’ sae I micht,” returned Malcolm.
The hinted possibility of having to change bad for so much worse,
appeared to quench further objection.
“I must get it ready myself then,” she said resignedly, “for the
maids won’t even go up that stair. And as to going into any of
those rooms----!”
“’Deed no, mem! ye sanna du that,” cried Malcolm. “Sayna a word to
ane o’ them. I s’ wadger I’m as guid ’s the auld warlock himsel’ at
makin’ a bed. Jist gie me the sheets an’ the blankets, an’ I’ll du
’t as trim ’s ony lass i’ the hoose.”
“But the bed will want airing,” objected the housekeeper.
“By a’ accoonts, that’s the last thing it’s likly to want--lyin’
neist door to _yon_ chaumer. But I hae sleepit mony’s the time er’
noo upo’ the tap o’ a boat-load o’ herrin’, an’ gien that never did
me ony ill, it’s no likly a guid bed’ll kill me gien it sud be a
wee mochy (_rather full of moths_).”
Mrs Courthope yielded and gave him all that was needful, and before
night Malcolm had made his new quarters quite comfortable. He did
not retire to them, however, until he had seen his grandfather laid
down to sleep in his lonely cottage.
About noon the next day the old man made his appearance in the
kitchen. How he had found his way to it, neither he nor any one
else could tell. There happened to be no one there when he entered,
and the cook when she returned stood for a moment in the door,
watching him as he felt flitting about with huge bony hands whose
touch was yet light as the poise of a butterfly. Not knowing the
old man, she fancied at first he was feeling after something in the
shape of food, but presently his hands fell upon a brass candlestick.
He clutched it, and commenced fingering it all over. Alas! it was
clean, and with a look of disappointment he replaced it. Wondering
yet more what his quest could be, she watched on. The next instant
he had laid hold of a silver candlestick not yet passed through
the hands of the scullery maid; and for a moment she fancied him a
thief, for he had rejected the brass and now took the silver; but
he went no farther with it than the fireplace, where he sat down
on the end of the large fender, and, having spread his pocket
handkerchief over his kilted knees, drew a similar rag from somewhere,
and commenced cleaning it.
By this time one of the maids who knew him had joined the cook,
and also stood watching him with amusement. But when she saw the
old knife drawn from his stocking, and about to be applied to the
nozzle, to free it from adhering wax, it seemed more than time to
break the silence.
“Eh! that’s a siller can’lestick, Maister MacPhail,” she cried,
“an’ ye maunna tak a k-nife till ’t, or ye’ll scrat it a’ dreidfu’.”
An angry flush glowed in the withered cheeks of the piper, as,
without the least start at the suddenness of her interference, he
turned his face in the direction of the speaker.
“You take old Tuncan’s finkers for persons of no etchucation, mem!
As if tey couldn’t know ta silfer from ta prass! If tey wass so
stupid, her nose would pe telling tem so. Efen old Tuncan’s knife
’ll pe knowing petter than to scratch ta silfer--or ta prass
either; old Tuncan’s knife would pe scratching nothing petter tan
ta skin of a Cawmill.”
Now the candlestick had no business in the kitchen, and if it
were scratched, the butler would be indignant; but the girl was
a Campbell, and Duncan’s words so frightened her that she did not
dare interfere. She soon saw, however, that the piper had not
over-vaunted his skill: the skene left not a mark upon the metal; in a
few minutes he had melted away the wax he could not otherwise reach,
and had rubbed the candlestick perfectly bright, leaving behind
him no trace except an unpleasant odour of train oil from the rag.
From that hour he was cleaner of lamps and candlesticks, as well
as blower of bagpipes, to the House of Lossie; and had everything
provided necessary to the performance of his duties with comfort
and success.
Before many weeks were over, he had proved the possession of
such a talent for arrangement and general management, at least in
everything connected with illumination, that the entire charge of
the lighting of the house was left in his hands,--even to that
of its stores of wax and tallow and oil; and great was the pleasure
he derived, not only from the trust reposed in him, but from other
more occult sources connected with the duties of his office.