On leaving the office of Mr. Keelevin, Charles invited his father and
brother to go home with him; but the old man abruptly turned away.
Walter, however, appeared inclined to accept the invitation, and was
moving off with Charles, when their father looked back, and chidingly
commanded him to come along.
At any other time, this little incident would have been unnoticed by
Charles, who, believing the old man had made some liberal provision
for him or for his wife, was struck with the harsh contrast of such
behaviour to the paternal affection by which he thought him actuated;
and he paused, in consequence, thoughtfully looking after him as he
walked towards the Cross, followed by Walter.
Grippy had not proceeded above twenty or thirty paces when he stopped,
and turning round, called to his son, who immediately obeyed the
summons.
‘Charlie,’ said he, ‘I hope t’ou’ll let nae daffing nor ploys about
this marriage o’ thine tak up thy attention frae the shop; for business
maun be minded; and I’m thinking t’ou had as weel be making up a bit
balance-sheet, that I may see how the counts stand between us.’
This touched an irksome recollection, and recalled to mind the
observation which his father had made on the occasion of Fatherlans’
ruin, with respect to the hazards of taking into partnership a man with
the prospect of a family.
‘I hope,’ was his reply, ‘that it is not your intention, sir, to close
accounts with me?’
‘No, Charlie, no,’ was his answer.--‘I’ll maybe mak things better for
thee--t’ou’ll no be out o’ the need o’t. But atween hands mak up the
balance-sheet, and come doun on Saturday wi’ thy wife to Grippy, and
we’ll hae some discourse anent it.’
With these words, the old man and Walter again went on towards the
Cross, leaving Charles standing perplexed, and unable to divine the
source and motives of his father’s behaviour. It seemed altogether
so unaccountable, that for a moment he thought of going back to
Mr. Keelevin to ask him concerning the settlements; but a sense of
propriety restrained him, and he thought it alike indelicate and
dishonourable to pry into an affair which was so evidently concealed
from him. But this restraint, and these considerations, did not in
any degree tend to allay the anxiety which the mysteriousness of his
father’s conduct had so keenly excited; so that, when he returned home
to Isabella, he appeared absent and thoughtful, which she attributed
to some disappointment in his expectations,--an idea the more natural
to her, as she had, from the visit on Sunday, been haunted with an
apprehension that there was something unsound in the reconciliation.
Upon being questioned as to the cause of his altered spirits, Charles
could give no feasible reason for the change. He described what had
passed, he mentioned what his father had said, and he communicated the
invitation, in all which there was nothing that the mind could lay hold
of, nor aught to justify his strange and indescribable apprehension, if
that feeling might be called an apprehension, to which his imagination
could attach no danger, nor conjure up any thing to be feared. On
the contrary, so far from having reason to suspect that evil was
meditated against him, he had received a positive assurance that his
circumstances would probably receive an immediate improvement; but for
all that, there had been, in the reserve of the old man’s manner, and
in the vagueness of his promises, a something which sounded hollowly to
his hope, and deprived him of confidence in the anticipations he had
cherished.
While Isabella and he were sitting together conversing on the subject,
the old Leddy Plealands came in, anxious to hear what had been done,
having previously been informed of the intended settlements, but not
of their nature and objects. In her character, as we have already
intimated, there was a considerable vein, if not of romantic sentiment,
unquestionably of morbid sensibility. She disliked her son-in-law from
the first moment in which she saw him; and this dislike had made her so
averse to his company, that, although their connexion was now nearly
of four-and-twenty years’ standing, she had still but a very imperfect
notion of his character. She regarded him as one of the most sordid of
men, without being aware that avarice with him was but an agent in the
pursuit of that ancestral phantom which he worshipped as the chief,
almost the only, good in life; and, therefore, could neither imagine
any possible ground for supposing, that, after being reconciled,
he could intend his first-born any injury, nor sympathize with the
anxieties which her young friends freely confessed both felt, while
she could not but deplore the unsatisfactory state of their immediate
situation.
In the meantime, Walter and his father were walking homeward. The old
man held no communion with his son; but now and then he rebuked him for
halloing at birds in the hedges, or chasing butterflies, a sport so
unbecoming his years.
In their way they had occasion to pass the end of the path which led to
Kilmarkeckle, where Miss Bodle, the heiress, resided with her father.
‘Watty,’ said Grippy to his son, ‘gae thy ways hame by thysel, and tell
thy mither that am gaun up to the Kilmarkeckle to hae some discourse
wi’ Mr. Bodle, so that she need na weary if I dinna come hame to my
dinner.’
‘Ye had better come hame,’ said Watty, ‘for there’s a sheep’s head in
the pat, wi’ a cuff o’ the neck like ony Glasgow bailie’s.--Ye’ll no
get the like o’t at Kilmarkeckle, where the kail’s sae thin that every
pile o’ barley runs roun’ the dish, bobbing and bidding gude day to its
neighbour.’
Claud had turned into the footpath from the main road, but there was
something in this speech which did more than provoke his displeasure;
and he said aloud, and with an accent of profound dread,--‘I hope the
Lord can forgi’e me for what I hae done to this fool!’
Walter was not so void of sense as to be incapable of comprehending the
substance of this contrite exclamation; and instantly recollecting his
mother’s admonition, and having some idea, imperfect as it was, of the
peril of parchments with seals on them, he began, with obstreperous
sobs and wails, to weep and cry, because, as he said, ‘My father and
our Charlie had fastened on me the black bargain o’ a law plea to wrang
me o’ auld daddy’s mailing.’
Grippy was petrified; it seemed to him that his son was that day
smitten, in anger to him by the hand of Heaven, with a more disgusting
idiocy than he had ever before exhibited, and, instigated by the
aversion of the moment, he rushed towards him, and struck him so
furiously with his stick, that he sent him yelling homeward as fast
as he could run. The injustice and the rashness of the action were
felt at once, and, overpowered for a few seconds by shame, remorse,
and grief, the old man sat down on a low dry-stone wall that bounded
the road on one side, and clasping his hands fervently together,
confessed with bitter tears that he doubted he had committed a great
sin. It was, however, but a transitory contrition, for, hearing some
one approaching, he rose abruptly, and lifting his stick, which he had
dropped in his agitation, walked up the footpath towards Kilmarkeckle;
but he had not advanced many paces when a hand was laid on his
shoulder. He looked round, and it was Walter, with his hat folded
together in his hand.
‘Father,’ said the fool, ‘I hae catched a muckle bum-bee; will ye help
to haud it till I take out the honey blob?’
‘I’ll go hame, Watty--I’ll go hame,’ was the only answer he made, in an
accent of extreme sorrow, ‘I’ll go hame; I daur do nae mair this day,’
and he returned back with Walter to the main road, where, having again
recovered his self-possession, he said, ‘I’m dafter than thee to gang
on in this fool gait; go, as I bade thee, hame and tell thy mother
no to look for me to dinner, for I’ll aiblins bide wi’ Kilmarkeckle.’
In saying which, he turned briskly round, and, without ever looking
behind, walked with an alert step, swinging his staff courageously,
and never halted till he reached Kilmarkeckle House, where he was met
at the door by Mr. Bodle himself, who, seeing him approaching up the
avenue, came out to meet him.