That same night, while they watched their dead at Melmar, the young moon
shone kindly into the open parlor window of a pretty cottage, where some
anxiety, but no sorrow was. This little house stood upon a high bank of
the river Esk, just after that pretty stream had passed through the
pretty village of Lasswade. The front of the house was on the summit of
the height, and only one story high, while the rapid slope behind
procured for it the advantage of two stories at the back. It was a
perfectly simple little cottage, rich in flowers, but nothing else,
furnished with old, well-preserved furniture, as dainty, as bright, and
as comfortable as you could imagine, and looking all the better for
having already answered the wants of two or three generations. The
window was open, and here, too, came in the tinkle of running water, and
the odor of roses, along with the moonlight. Candles stood on the table,
but they had not been lighted; and two ladies sat by the window,
enjoying the cool breeze, the sweet light, the “holy time” of
evening--or, perhaps, not aware of enjoying anything, busy with their
own troubles and their own thoughts.
“I doubt if I should advise,” said the elder of the two, “but though I’m
an old maid myself, I am not prejudiced either one way or another, my
dear. I’ve lived too long, Katie, to say this or that manner of life’s
the happiest; it does not matter much whether you are married or not
married, happiness lies aye in yourself. It’s common to think a single
woman very lone and dreary when she comes to be old; but I’m not afraid
for you. Somebody else will have bairns for you, Katie, if you do not
have them for yourself. Solitude is not in your cup, my dear--I’m
prophet enough to read that.”
Her companion made no answer; and in the little pause which ensued, the
Esk, and the roses, and the moonlight came in as a sweet unconscious
chorus, but a chorus full of whispers which struck deeper than those
quiet words of quiet age.
“But on the other side,” continued the old lady, “Charlie is as good a
fellow as ever lived--the best son, the kindest heart! I would not trust
myself praising him any more than praising you, my dear. You are both a
comfort and a credit to us all, and maybe that is why we should like to
make the two of you one. We’re no’ so very romantic, Katie, in our
family--that is to say,” continued the speaker, with sudden animation,
“the women of us--for if Charlie, or any lad belonging to the house, was
to offer himself without his whole heart and love, he had better never
show his face to me.”
“But, auntie,” said the younger lady, with a smile, “would it be right
to take a whole heart and love, and only have kindness to give in
exchange?”
“Women are different, my dear,” said Katie Logan’s maiden aunt; “I will
confess I do not like myself to hear young girls speaking about love--I
would never advise a _man_ to marry without it--nay, the very thought
makes me angry; but--perhaps you’ll think it no compliment to us,
Katie--women are different; I have no fears of a good woman liking her
husband, no’ even if she was married against her will, as sometimes
happens. I would advise you not to be timid, so far as that is
concerned. Charlie’s very fond of you, and he’s a good lad. To be
married is natural at your age, to have a house of your own, and your
own place in this world; and then there are the bairns. Colin will soon
be off your hands, but the other three are young. Do you think it would
not be best for them if you married a _friend_?”
Katie did not reply; but perhaps it was this last argument which moved
her to a long low sigh of unwelcome conviction. The old lady’s emphatic
_friend_ was Scotch for a relative. Would it indeed be better for them
that Katie’s husband should be her cousin?
“Unless,” said her aunt, rising up to light the candles, yet pausing to
give effect to this last precaution; “unless, my dear, there should be a
single thought of any other man resting in your mind. If there is,
Katie, think no more of Charlie Cassilis. I’m willing you should marry
him first and grow fond of him after; but, my dear, stop and think--do
you like any other person better than him?”
“Maybe I do, auntie,” said the low voice, softly; and Katie shook her
head thoughtfully in the darkness, with a half melancholy, half pleased
motion; “maybe I do.”
“Then, for pity’s sake, not another word!” cried the old lady; and that
kindest of aunts rustled out of the pretty parlor, taking one of the
candlesticks in her hand, with a commotion and haste which showed that
Katie’s quiet half confession had by no means pleased her, in spite of
her avowed impartiality. Lucifer, son of the morning, had not fallen at
that time into such degrading familiarity with housekeepers and
housemaids as has chanced now to that unhappy spirit. Matches were none
in all the village of Lasswade, nor throughout the kingdom, save slender
slips of wood anointed with brimstone, and bearing the emphatic name of
_spunk_ in all the regions north of the Tweed. So Katie’s respectable
aunt, who was kind to her servants, rustled along the passage to the
kitchen to light the candle, and on the way there and the way back
recovered her temper--which was all the better for Katie; and by-and-bye
the quiet maiden household shut itself up and went to sleep.
And perhaps when Katie knelt by her bedside that night to say her
prayers--by the white bed where little Isabel slept the deep sleep which
all the children sleep, thank Heaven, when we are awake with our
troubles--a little weariness of heart made a sigh among her prayers. She
was not romantic--the women of her family were otherwise disposed, as
good Auntie Isabel said, who had not a single selfish impulse in her
composition; and Katie was grieved to disappoint Cousin Charlie, and
perhaps feared, as women always do, with an unconscious vanity, for the
consequences of his disappointment; was she right to damage his
happiness, to refuse a supporter for herself, a protector for her
children, all for the sake of Huntley, who might perhaps have forgotten
her years ago? Katie could not answer her own question, but she did what
was the wisest course under the circumstances--laid her head resolutely
down, on her pillow and fell asleep, leaving time and the hour to solve
the question for her, and only sure of one thing--that her impulse was
right.
But the question returned to her when she opened her eyes, in the
morning, in those first waking moments, when, as Béranger says, all our
cares awake before us, assault afresh, and, as if the first time, the
soul which has escaped them in the night. Was she right? All through her
early morning duties this oft-repeated question beset the mind of Katie;
and it needs only to see what these duties were, to acknowledge how
pertinacious it was. The cottage belonged to Aunt Isabel, who had
received gladly her orphan nieces and nephews after the death of Dr.
Logan. Aunt Isabel’s spare income was just enough for herself and her
maid, who, heretofore, had been sole occupants of the pretty little
house, and Katie and her orphans managed to live upon theirs, which was
also a very small income, but marvelously taken care of--and pleasantly
backed by the gooseberry-bushes and vegetable beds of the cottage
garden, which riches their mistress made common property. On Katie’s
advent, Aunt Isabel retired from the severe duties of housekeeping in
her own person. It was Katie who made the tea and cut the bread and
butter, and washed with her own hands the delicate cups and saucers
which Aunt Isabel would not trust to a servant. Then the elder sister
had to see that the boys were ready, with all their books strapped on
their shoulder, and their midday “piece” in their pocket, for school.
Then Isabel’s daintier toilet had to be superintended; and if Katie had
a weakness, it was to see her sister prettily dressed, and “in the
fashion"--and that little maiden sent forth fair and neat to the ladies’
seminary which illustrated the healthful village of Lasswade; and then
Katie went to the kitchen, to determine what should be had for dinner,
and sometimes to lend her own delicate skill to the making of a pudding
or the crimping of a frill. When all was done, there was an unfailing
supply of needlework to keep her hands employed. On this particular
morning, Aunt Isabel meditated a call upon Miss Hogg, in Lasswade, and
Katie had been so much persecuted by that question which some malicious
imp kept always addressing to her, that she felt heated and out of
breath in the pretty parlor. So she took up her work, put her thread and
scissors in her pocket, and went out to the garden to sit on a low
garden seat, with the grass under her feet, and the trees over her, and
sweet Esk singing close at hand, thinking it might be easier to pursue
her occupation there.
Perhaps that was a mistake. It is not easy to sew, nor to read, nor even
to think, out of doors on a June morning, with a sweet river drowsing
by, and the leaves, and the roses, and the birds, and the breeze making
among them that delightful babble of sound and motion which people call
the quiet of the country. Still Katie _did_ work; she was making shirts
for Colin, who had just gone into Edinburgh to Cousin Charlie’s
office;--stitching wristbands! and in spite of the sunshine and her
perplexed thoughts, Katie’s button-holes were worth going ten miles to
see.
But was she right? Search through all the three kingdoms and you could
not have found a better fellow than Cousin Charlie, who was very fond of
Katie Logan, and had been for years. The elder sister liked him
heartily, knew that he would be kind to her orphans, believed him every
thing that was good in man; but while she reasoned with herself, the
color wavered upon her cheek, and somewhere in heart a voice, which
might have been the Esk river, so closely its whisper ran with her
thoughts, kept saying, “Dinna forget me, Katie!” till, by dint of
persistence, all the other meditations yielded, and this, with a
triumphant shout, kept the field. Oh, Huntley Livingstone! who had, just
as like as no’, forgotten Katie--was she right?
He could not have come at a better time--he came quite unannounced,
unintroduced, so suddenly that Katie made an outcry almost of
terror--one moment, nobody with her but the Esk, and the roses, and her
own thoughts--not a shadow on the grass, not a step on the road. The
next moment, Huntley, standing there between her and the sky, between
her and home, shutting out every thing but himself, who had to be first
attended to. If she had only seen him a moment sooner, she might have
received him quite calmly, with the old smile of the elder-sister; but
because of the start, Katie getting up, dropping her work, and holding
out her hands, looked about as agitated, as glad, as tearful, as out of
herself, as even Huntley was.
“I have come home--to Norlaw--to remain,” said Huntley, when he began to
know what he was saying, which was not just the first moment; “and you
are not an old Katie in a cap, as you threatened to be; but first I’ve
come to say out what I dared not say in the manse parlor--and you know
what that is. Katie, if you have forgotten me--Heaven knows I never will
blame you!--it’s seven weary years since then--if you have forgotten me,
Katie, tell me I am not to speak!”
Katie had two or three impulses for the moment--to tell the truth, she
was quite happy, rejoiced to be justified in the unsolicited affection
she had given, and entirely contented in standing by this sudden
Œdipus, who was to resolve all her doubts. Being so, she could almost
have run away from the embarrassment and gravity of the moment, and made
a little natural sport of the solemnity of the lover, who stood before
her as if his life depended on it. Perhaps it was the only coquettish
thought which Katie Logan ever was guilty of. But she conquered it--she
looked up at him with her old smile.
“Speak, Huntley!” she said; and having said so much, there was not, to
tell the truth, a great deal more necessary. Huntley spoke, you may be
sure, and Katie listened; and the very roses on the cottage wall were
not less troubled about Cousin Charlie for the next hour than she was.
And when Aunt Isabel returned, and Katie went in with a blush, holding
Huntley’s arm, to introduce him simply as “Huntley Livingstone,” with a
tone and a look which needed no interpretation, there was no longer a
doubt in Katie’s mind as to whether she was right.
But she did not think it needful to tell Huntley what question she was
considering when his sudden appearance startled her out of all her
perplexities; and it is very likely that in that, at least, Katie was
perfectly right.