Of late it has truly been a time of startling events with me. One
surprise has followed hard on the heels of another, and possibilities
new to my horizon are looming before me, bidding fair to alter--and may
I trust perfect?--my whole line of life. And yet I am not unduly excited
or exercised in mind. I wonder is this because my drama is being acted
on staging of God's own making, and amidst scenery painted by His own
hand? I know how strongly we are all influenced by environment. A
thunderstorm over the busy city, raging around crowded haunts and
lighting up with its pointed fire all of man's handiwork, is to me
appalling and menacing; in the country, among the echoing hills and
sombre woods, it is grand and inspiring. When I think of it, it is not
unlikely that a closer acquaintance with Nature and an insight into the
marvellous laws which govern her have brought to me a keener sense of
the true proportion of things. The pulsing sap in a February sprig of
hawthorn is wonderful and mysterious, more wonderful far than Joe's
acquaintance with Toledo or my meeting Desiree Stuart in Nithbank Wood.
* * * * *
Accompanied by Bang and Jip, I walked out to the station yesterday to
meet Murray Monteith, and when I saw him step from the train to the
platform I felt what Betty calls a 'ruggin'' at my heart, for very
emphatically he appeared as a link binding me to a life which I know I
must soon re-enter, and which I have lately ignored and well-nigh
forgotten.
Monteith is one of the aristocrats of our profession, a gentleman by
breeding and nature from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot.
Quiet, reserved, well knit and well groomed, he fills the eye and takes
the heart wherever he goes, and as I shook hands with him I felt a
secret pride in the knowledge that he is my partner.
I welcomed him warmly to the strath of his forefathers, and assured him
that if his knife and fork happened to be reversed at dinner, or if any
one offered a left-hand shake, he must just count it an accident, as we
had long ago ceased to remember the disreputable part his namesake
played in pre-Bannockburn days.
We had a twelve o'clock dinner: broth--not the kind everybody or anybody
makes, but Betty's broth--boiled beef, with potatoes in their skins,
followed by a jam-roll, of which Monteith had two liberal helpings. I
told him that long ago it was usual to finish up a dinner with another
plateful of broth, and he assured me that had he not partaken of the
jam-roll he would gladly have revived the custom. I didn't forget to
tell Betty of the appreciation, and I know it pleased her, for when we
drew in our chairs for a smoke I heard her voice from the back-kitchen
raised, as timmer as of old, in the lilting strains of 'The Farmer's
Boy.'
Then through tobacco-reek we talked business--at least Monteith did, and
I listened. He had much to tell me, and he talks well. After disposing
of some private matters, we broached the all-important object of our
visit to Mrs Stuart, and it was only when we came to the unpleasant part
of Miss Stuart's affairs that I told him of my wonderful discovery and
the astonishing part that Joe had played in it.
Dressed in his Sunday best, Joe was awaiting his call in the kitchen,
and on being brought in he was closely questioned by Monteith. Not only
did Joe confirm all he had told me before, but he added to our knowledge
by giving us the exact date of the baptism of the Major's baby. It
synchronised with the date of a black day in Joe's life, when a girl
died of whom he was very fond. When I was thinking sentimentally of his
tragedy, and making allowances for much remissness that Betty deplores,
Monteith, with arched eyebrow, was staring at him through a monocle,
thanking Providence for having so opportunely sent him our way, and
counting him a means to a successful end.
Long after Joe had left the room, Murray Monteith sat lost in thought.
Monteith cannot leave a fire alone when he is thinking anything out. His
room in our premises in Charlotte Square adjoins mine, and if I hear
through the wall a vigorous poking and smashing going on I know he is
tackling a ticklish problem. Yesterday, in five minutes, he 'bashed'
Betty's fire out of recognition; and when for the tenth time he had
lifted and dropped the poker he turned to me suddenly and said, 'By
Jove, Russell, this will be a bitter pill for our friends Smart &
Scobie!' I told him I didn't care a rap for that; what gratified me
beyond measure was the fact that a sweet, sensitive girl had been spared
humiliation, and that, instead of being a nameless lassie, she was Miss
Stuart of Abereran.
I spoke very feelingly, and Monteith wasn't slow to notice it. He
focussed me slowly through his monocle. 'I share that sentiment with
you, Russell,' he said. 'I am not unmindful of her, though I give voice
to my feeling of exultation in scoring a point. I trust Miss Stuart has
no inkling of what has been standing in our way to prevent a settlement
in her affairs. You--you haven't met her yet?'
'Oh yes; we are a small community here, and I have spoken to her once or
twice.'
'Then you've been visiting at Nithbank House?'
'Not since I went under my mother's care twenty years ago, when the
Ewarts lived there.'
'Oh!' and again he fixed me through his monocle. But he saw I was
disinclined to go into details, and his good breeding made further
questioning impossible. 'Well,' he said, after a pause, 'Mrs Stuart will
be delighted to know all this. Her stepson, Maurice Stuart, has been at
the root of all this trouble. I understand he wanted to marry Miss
Stuart; but she would have nothing to do with him, and in retaliation he
has done his level best to turn the mystery of his uncle's marriage to
his own account. He it was who instructed Smart and Scobie. He's an
awful waster, I believe, and his stepmother long ago cut him adrift.'
This was news to me, but I feigned indifference, and as adroitly as I
possibly could turned the subject of our conversation to Joe and the
part he had yet to play. 'I think, Monteith,' I said, 'we ought to take
him with us to-day to Nithbank House. Mrs Stuart will be interested in
him, and wishful, no doubt, to see and talk with him.'
'Oh, certainly,' said Monteith, as he snipped the end off another cigar;
'and, if he's still about, you had better call him at once. The carriage
is at the door, I see.'
Mrs Stuart had very kindly sent her brougham for us; and so it came to
pass that when we left the door Joe was sitting on the dicky beside the
coachman, arms folded and eyes front--conscious, however, I felt sure,
that Nathan's Betty was approvingly watching him from behind the
dining-room curtains.
We were received very graciously by Mrs Stuart in the library. I
introduced Monteith to her, and she at once apologised for having put
him to the trouble and inconvenience of travelling so far. Then she
inquired in a very kindly way after my health, and told me that when
first her niece had informed her of my residence in the village she felt
annoyed that the firm had not advised her; but that, after all, it was
perhaps wisely kept from her, as she would only have worried me about
business and made herself a nuisance.
I laughingly said something in reply about doctors being autocrats, and
thanked her for her inquiries and consideration, and, to my great
relief, the subject was gradually and agreeably changed to something
else.
The Hon. Mrs Stuart is tall and angular, and she dresses in stern black,
as becometh a sorrowing widow. She has, for a woman, a very square,
assertive chin and a somewhat determined mouth; but the effect of the
hard, firm chiselling of the lower part of the face is discounted by the
kindly expression of her mellow, blue-gray eyes. Her hair is streaked
with gray, and she has arrived at that time of life when, for
preference, she sits and talks to visitors with her back to the light.
As Monteith had surmised, the important business she had referred to in
her letter had to do with Miss Stuart's affairs, and as this was causing
her great anxiety we went into the matter at once.
She explained to us, as she had done privately to me before, that she
really didn't know, or, rather, that she had never had opportunities of
knowing, her late brother-in-law, General Stuart. 'He was queer,' she
said, 'very queer; lived in a bleak part of Cornwall most of his time,
preferring it to Abereran in Perthshire; for years kept his marriage a
secret, and made no mention of a daughter; and then, when we were
looking forward with reasonable certainty to some day seeing Maurice
laird of Abereran, a handsome girl of eighteen, an undoubted Stuart, was
brought home from a Continental school, and, as his daughter, Desiree
Stuart, installed mistress of his house. Personally, I had not a doubt
of Miss Stuart's status or right of birth; but Maurice--well'----and she
shrugged her shoulders and looked thoughtfully away down the avenue.
I asked my partner to tell her what we had learned from Joe, and he did
so in that easy, off-hand, taken-for-granted style which we men of law
sometimes affect, and which is intended to impress our clients with our
astuteness and perspicacity. At first Mrs Stuart looked indifferent; but
as the story was unfolded, and Joe's part established, she sat forward
in her chair in utter amazement. 'Remarkable! remarkable!' she
exclaimed. 'I never heard of such a wonderful coincidence.'
After we had discussed it in all its bearings, and settled on a definite
plan of action, Joe was brought in. As my presence and advice were no
longer necessary, I asked that I might be permitted to see Miss Stuart
with reference to her Banku shares, and to this Mrs Stuart readily
agreed. When we were passing through the hall to the drawing-room she
asked if it was my intention to acquaint her niece with the news we had
learned. I replied that as Miss Stuart had not been made aware of the
nature of the difficulty which had so long confronted us, it wouldn't be
advisable to tell her all we knew; but, with her permission, I would
take the opportunity of informing her that certain knowledge we had
acquired lately was likely to hasten a settlement. She agreed with me in
this, and it was with a beating heart I entered the drawing-room.