The young couple were a good deal surprised at the unexpected visit
of their father and mother; for although they had been led to hope,
from the success of the old lady’s mission, that their pardon would be
conceded, they had still, by hearing nothing further on the subject,
passed the interval in so much anxiety, that it had materially
impaired their happiness. Charles, who was well aware of the natural
obduracy of his father’s disposition, had almost entirely given up all
expectation of ever being restored to his favour; and the despondency
of the apprehensions connected with this feeling underwent but little
alleviation when he observed the clouded aspect, the averted eye,
and the momentary glances, with which his wife was regarded, and the
troubled looks from time to time thrown towards himself. Nevertheless,
the visit, which was at first so embarrassing to all parties, began
to assume a more cordial character; and the generosity of Charles’
nature, which led him to give a benevolent interpretation to the
actions and motives of every man, soon mastered his anxieties; and he
found himself, after the ice was broken, enabled to take a part in the
raillery of his mother, who, in high glee and good humour, joked with
her blooming and blushing daughter-in-law, with all the dexterity and
delicacy of which she was so admirable a mistress.
‘Eh!’ said she, ‘but this was a galloping wedding o’ yours, Charlie.
It was an unco-like thing, Bell--na, ye need na look down, for ye
maunna expek me to ca’ you by your lang-nebbit baptismal name, now that
ye’re my gude-dochter--for ceremony’s a cauldrife commodity amang near
frien’s. But surely, Bell, it would hae been mair wiselike had ye been
cried in the kirk three distink Sabbaths, as me and your gude-father
was, instead o’ gallanting awa under the scog and cloud o’ night, as
if ye had been fain and fey. Howsever, it’s done noo; and the gudeman
means to be vastly genteel. I’m sure the post should get a hag when we
hear o’ him coming wi’ hundreds o’ pounds in his pouch, to gi’e awa
for deil-be-licket but a gratus gift o’ gude will, in hansel to your
matrimonial. But Charlie, your gudeman, Bell, was ay his pet, and so
am nane surprised at his unnatural partiality, only I ken they’ll hae
clear e’en and bent brows that ’ill see him gi’eing ony sic almous to
Watty.’
When the parental visitors had sat about an hour, during the great part
of which the Leddy o’ Grippy continued in this strain of clishmaclaver,
the Laird said to her it was time to take the road homeward. Charles
pressed them to stay dinner. This, however, was decidedly refused by
his father, but not in quite so gruff a manner as he commonly gave
his refusals, for he added, giving Charles the bank-bill, as he moved
across the room towards the door,--
‘Hae, there’s something to help to keep the banes green, but be
careful, Charlie, for I doubt ye’ll hae need, noo that ye’re the head
o’ a family, to look at baith sides o’ the bawbee before ye part wi’t.’
‘It’s for a whole hundred pound,’ exclaimed Lady Grippy in an exulting
whisper to her daughter-in-law--while the old man, after parting with
the paper, turned briskly round to his son, as if to interrupt his
thankfulness, and said,--
‘Charlie, ye maun come wi’ Watty and me on Wednesday; I hae a bit
alteration to make in my papers; and, as we need na cry sic things at
the Cross, I’m mindit to hae you and him for the witnesses.’
Charles readily promised attendance; and the old people then made their
congées and departed.
In the walk homeward Claud was still more taciturn than in the morning;
he was even sullen, and occasionally peevish; but his wife was in full
pipe and glee; and, as soon as they were beyond hearing, she said,--
‘Every body maun alloo that she’s a well far’t lassie yon; and, if
she’s as good as she’s bonny, Charlie’s no to mean wi’ his match. But,
dear me, gudeman, ye were unco scrimpit in your talk to her--I think
ye might hae been a thought mair complaisant and jocose, considering
it was a marriage occasion; and I wonder what came o’er mysel that I
forgot to bid them come to the Grippy and tak their dinner the morn,
for ye ken we hae a side o’ mutton in the house; for, since ye hae
made a conciliation free gratus wi’ them, we need na be standing on
stapping-stanes; no that I think the less of the het heart that Charlie
has gi’en to us baith; but it was his forton, and we maun put up wi’t.
Howsever, gudeman, ye’ll alloo me to make an observe to you anent the
hundred pound. I think it would hae been more prudent to hae gi’en
them but the half o’t, or ony smaller sum, for Charlie’s no a very
gude guide;--siller wi’ him gangs like snaw aff a dyke; and as for his
lilywhite-handit madam, a’ the jingling o’ her spinnit will ne’er make
up for the winsome tinkle o’ Betty Bodle’s tocher purse. But I hae been
thinking, gudeman, noo that Charlie’s by hand and awa, as the ballad
o’ ‘Woo’t and Married and a’’ sings, could na ye persuade our Watty to
mak up to Betty, and sae get her gear saved to us yet?’
This suggestion was the only wise thing, in the opinion of Claud,
that ever he had heard his wife utter; it was, indeed, in harmonious
accordance with the tenor of his own reflections, not only at the
moment, but from the hour in which he was first informed of the
marriage. For he knew, from the character of Miss Betty Bodle’s father,
that the entail of the Grippy, in favour of Walter, would be deemed
by him a satisfactory equivalent for any intellectual defect. The
disinheritance of Charles was thus, in some degree, palliated to his
conscience as an act of family policy rather than of resentment; in
truth, resentment had perhaps very little to say in the feeling by
which it was dictated;--for, as all he did and thought of in life was
with a view to the restoration of the Walkinshaws of Kittlestonheugh,
we might be justified, for the honour of human nature, to believe,
that he actually contemplated the sacrifice which he was making of his
first-born to the Moloch of ancestral pride, with reluctance, nay, even
with sorrow.
In the meantime, as he returned towards Grippy with his wife, thus
discoursing on the subject of Miss Betty Bodle and Walter, Charles
and Isabella were mutually felicitating themselves on the earnest
which they had so unexpectedly received of what they deemed a thorough
reconciliation. There had, however, been something so heartless in
the behaviour of the old man during the visit, that, notwithstanding
the hopes which his gift encouraged, it left a chill and comfortless
sensation in the bosom of the young lady, and her spirit felt it as the
foretaste of misfortune. Averse, however, to occasion any diminution
of the joy which the visit of his parents had afforded to her husband,
she endeavoured to suppress the bodement, and to partake of the
gladdening anticipations in which he indulged. The effort to please
others never fails to reward ourselves. In the afternoon, when the old
dowager called, she was delighted to find them both satisfied with the
prospect, which had so suddenly opened, and so far, too, beyond her
most sanguine expectations, that she also shared in their pleasure, and
with her grandson inferred, from the liberal earnest he had received,
that, in the papers and deeds he was invited to witness, his father
intended to make some provision to enable him to support the rank in
society to which Isabella had been born, and in which his own taste
prompted him to move. The evening, in consequence, was spent by them
with all the happiness which the children of men so often enjoy with
the freest confidence, while the snares of adversity are planted around
them, and the demons of sorrow and evil are hovering unseen, awaiting
the signal from destiny to descend on their blind and unsuspicious
victims.