Alexander raised himself from his couch in the heather.
"Good day!" said the new-comer.
"Good day!"
The youth stood beside him. "I am Ian Rullock."
"I am Alexander Jardine."
"Of Glenfernie?"
"Aye, you've got it."
"Then we're the neighbors that are to be friends."
"If we are to be we are to be.... I want a friend.... I don't know if
you're the one that is to answer."
The other dropped beside him upon the heath. "I saw you walking along
the hilltop. So when you did not come on I thought I'd climb and meet
you. This is a lonely, miserable country!"
Alexander was moved to defend. "There are more miserable! It's got its
points."
"I don't see them. I want London!"
"That's Babylon.--It's your own country. You're evening it with
England!"
"No, I'm not. But you can't deny that it's poor."
"There's one of its sons, named Touris, that is not poor!"
Rullock rose upon one knee. "The wise man gets rich and the fool
stays poor. Do you want to be friends or do you want to fight?"
Alexander clasped his hands behind his head and lay back upon the
earth. "No, I do not want to fight--not now! I wouldn't fight you,
anyhow, for standing up for one to whom you're beholden."
Silence fell between them, each having eyes upon the other. Something
drew each to each, something repelled each from each. It was a
question, between those forces, which would gain. Alexander did not
feel strange with Ian, nor Ian with Alexander. It was as though they
had met before. But how they had met and why, and where and when, and
what that meeting had entailed and meant, was hidden from their gaze.
The attractive increased over the repellent. Ian spoke.
"There's none down there but my uncle and his sister, my aunt. Come on
down and let me show you the place."
"I do not care if I do." He rose, and the two went along the hilltop
and down the path.
Ian was the readier in talk. "I am going soon to Edinburgh--to
college."
"I'm going, too. The first of the year. I am going to try if I can
stand the law."
"I want to be a soldier."
"I don't know what I want.... I want to journey--and journey--and
journey ... with a book along."
"Do you like books?"
"Aye, fine!"
"I like them right well. Are there any pretty girls around here?"
"I don't know. I don't like girls."
"I like them at times, in their places. You must wrestle bravely,
you're so strong in the shoulder and long in the arm!"
"You're not so big, but you look strong yourself."
Each measured the other with his eyes. Friendship was already here. It
was as though hand had fitted into glove.
"What is your dog named?"
"Hector."
"Mine's Bran. You come to Glenfernie to-morrow and I'll show you a
place that's all mine. It's the room in the old keep. I've books there
and apples and nuts and curiosities. There's a big fireplace, and my
father's let me build a furnace besides, and I've kettles and
crucibles and pans and vials--"
"What for?"
Alexander paused and gazed at Ian, then gave into his keeping the
great secret. "Alchemy. I'm trying to change lead into gold."
Ian thrilled. "I'll come! I'll ride over. I've a beautiful mare."
"It's not eight miles--"
"I'll come. We're just in at Black Hill, you see, and I've had no time
to make a place like that! But I'll show you my room. Here's the park
gate."
They walked up an avenue overarched by elms, to a house old but not so
old, once half-ruinous, but now mended and being mended, enlarged, and
decorated, the aim a spacious place alike venerable and modern.
Workmen yet swarmed about it. The whole presented a busy, cheerful
aspect--a gracious one, also, for under a monster elm before the
terrace was found the master and owner, Mr. Archibald Touris. He
greeted the youths with a manner meant to exhibit the expansive heart
of a country gentleman.
"You've found each other out, have you? Why, you look born to be
friends! That's as it should be.--And what, Alexander, do you think of
Black Hill?"
"It looks finely a rich man's place, sir."
Mr. Touris laughed at his country bluntness, but did not take the
tribute amiss. "Not so rich--not so mighty rich. But enough, enough!
If Ian here behaves himself he'll have enough!" A master workman
called him away. He went with a large wave of the hand. "Make yourself
at home, Alexander! Take him, Ian, to see your aunt Alison." He was
gone with the workman.
"I'll take you there presently," said Ian. "I'm fond of Aunt
Alison--you'll like her, too--but she'll keep. Let's go see my mare
Fatima, and then my room."
Fatima was a most beautiful young, snowy Arabian. Alexander sighed
with delight when they led her out from her stable and she walked
about with Ian beside her, and when presently Ian mounted she curveted
and caracoled. Ian and she suited each other. Indefinably, there was
about him, too, something Eastern. The two went to and fro, the mare's
hoofs striking music from the flags. Behind them ran a gray range of
buildings overtopped by bushy willows. Alexander sat on a stone bench,
hugged his knees, and felt true love for the sight. Ian had come to
him like a gift from the blue.
Ian dismounted, and they watched Fatima disappear into her stall.
"Come now and see the house."
The house was large and cumbered with furniture too much and too rich
for the Scotch countryside. Ian's room had a great, rich bed and a
dressing-table that drew from Alexander a whistle, contemplative and
scornful. But there were other matters besides luxury of couch and
toilet. Slung against the wall appeared a fine carbine, the pistols
and sword of Ian's father, and a wonderful long, twisted, and
damascened knife or dirk--creese, Ian called it--that had come in some
trading-ship of his uncle's. And he had books in a small closet room,
and a picture that the two stood before.
"Where did you get it?"
"There was an Italian who owed my uncle a debt. He had no money, so he
gave him this. He said that it was painted a long time ago and that it
was very fine."
"What is it?"
"It is a Bible piece. This is a city of refuge. This is a sinner
fleeing to it, and here behind him is the avenger of blood. You can't
see, it is so dark. There!" He drew the window-curtain quite aside. A
flood of light came in and washed the picture.
"I see. What is it doing here?"
"I don't know. I liked it. I suppose Aunt Alison thought it might hang
here."
"I like to see pictures in my mind. But things like that poison me!
Let's see the rest of the house."
They went again through Ian's room. Coming to a fine carved ambry, he
hesitated, then stood still. "I'm going to show you something else! I
show it to you because I trust you. It's like your telling me about
your making gold out of lead." He opened a door of the ambry, pulled
out a drawer, and, pressing some spring, revealed a narrow, secret
shelf. His hand went into the dimness and came out bearing a silver
goblet. This he set carefully upon a neighboring table, and looked at
Alexander somewhat aslant out of long, golden-brown eyes.
"It's a bonny goblet," said Alexander. "Why do you keep it like that?"
Ian looked around him. "Years and years ago my father, who is dead
now, was in France. There was a banquet at Saint-Germain. _A very
great person_ gave it and was in presence himself. All the gentlemen
his guests drank a toast for which the finest wine was poured in
especial goblets. Afterward each was given for a token the cup from
which he drank.... Before he died my father gave me this. But of
course I have to keep it secret. My uncle and all the world around
here are Whigs!"
"James Stewart!" quoth Alexander. "Humph!"
"Remember that you have not seen it," said Ian, "and that I never said
aught to you but _King George, King George!_" With that he restored
the goblet to the secret shelf, put back the drawer, and shut the
ambry door. "Friends trust one another in little and big.--Now let's
go see Aunt Alison."
They went in silence along a corridor where every footfall was subdued
in India matting. Alexander spoke once:
"I feel all through me that we're friends. But you're a terrible fool
there!"
"I am not," said Ian. His voice carried the truth of his own feeling.
"I am like my father and mother and the chieftains my kin, and I have
been with certain kings ever since there were kings. Others think
otherwise, but I've got my rights!"
With that they came to the open door of a room. A voice spoke from
within:
"Ian!"
Ian crossed the threshold. "May we come in, Aunt Alison? It's
Alexander Jardine of Glenfernie."
A tall, three-leaved screen pictured with pagodas, palms, and macaws
stood between the door and the rest of the room. "Come, of course!"
said the voice behind this.
Passing the last pagoda edge, the two entered a white-paneled parlor
where a lady in dove-gray muslin overlooked the unpacking of fine
china. She turned in the great chair where she sat. "I am truly glad
to see Alexander Jardine!" When he went up to her she took his two
hands in hers. "I remember your mother and how fine a lassie she was!
Good mind and good heart--"
"We've heard of you, too," answered Alexander. He looked at her in
frank admiration, _Eh, but you're bonny!_ written in his gaze.
Mrs. Alison, as they called her, was something more than bonny. She
had loveliness. More than that, she breathed a cleanliness of spirit,
a lucid peace, a fibered self-mastery passing into light. Alexander
did not analyze his feeling for her, but it was presently one of great
liking. Now she sat in her great chair while the maids went on with
the unpacking, and questioned him about Glenfernie and all the family
and life there. She was slight, not tall, with hair prematurely
white, needing no powder. She sat and talked with her hand upon Ian.
While she talked she glanced from the one youth to the other. At last
she said:
"Alexander Jardine, I love Ian dearly. He needs and will need
love--great love. If you are going to be friends, remember that love
is bottomless.--And now go, the two of you, for the day is getting
on."
They passed again the macaw-and-pagoda screen and left the paneled
room. The August light struck slant and gold. The two quitted the
house and crossed the terrace into the avenue without again
encountering the master of the place.
"I will go with you to the top of the hill," said Ian. They climbed
the ridge that was like a purple cloud. "I'll come to Glenfernie
to-morrow or the next day."
"Yes, come! I'm fond of Jamie, but he's three years younger than I."
"You've got a sister?"
"Alice? She's only twelve. You come. I've been wanting somebody."
"So have I. I'm lonelier than you."
They came to the level top of the heath. The sun rode low; the shadow
of the hill stretched at their feet, out over path and harvest-field.
"Good-by, then!"
"Good-by!"
Ian stood still. Alexander, homeward bound, dropped over the crest.
The earth wave hid from him Black Hill, house and all. But, looking
back, he could still see Ian against the sky. Then Ian sank, too.
Alexander strode on toward Glenfernie. He went whistling, in expanded,
golden spirits. Ian--and Ian--and Ian! Going through a grove of oaks,
blackbirds flew overhead, among and above the branches. _The cranes of
Ibycus!_ The phrase flashed into mind. "I wonder why things like that
disturb me so!... I wonder if there's any bottom or top to living
anyhow!... I wonder--!" He looked at the birds and at the violet
evening light at play in the old wood. The phrase went out of his
mind. He left the remnant of the forest and was presently upon open
moor. He whistled again, loud and clear, and strode on happily.
Ian--and Ian--and Ian!