For some time after the funeral of Mrs. Walter Walkinshaw, the
affairs of the Grippy family ran in a straight and even current. The
estrangement of the old man from his first-born suffered no describable
increase, but Charles felt that it was increasing. The old Leddy, in
the meanwhile, had a world of cares upon her hands in breaking up the
establishment which had been formed for Walter at the house on the
Divethill, and in removing him back with the infant and the nurse to
Grippy. And scarcely had she accomplished these, when a letter from
her daughter, Mrs. Milrookit, informed her that the preparations for
an addition to the ‘sma’ family’ of Dirdumwhamle were complete, and
that she hoped her mother could be present on the occasion, which was
expected to come to pass in the course of a few weeks from the date.
Nothing was more congenial to the mind and habits of the Leddy, than a
business of this sort, or, indeed, any epochal domestic event, such as,
in her own phraseology, was entitled to the epithet of a handling. But
when she mentioned the subject to her husband, he objected, saying,--
‘It’s no possible, Girzy, for ye ken Mr. and Mrs. Givan are to be here
next week with their dochter, Miss Peggy, and I would fain hae them
to see an ony thing could be brought to a head between her and our
Geordie. He’s noo o’ a time o’ life when I would like he were settled
in the world, and amang a’ our frien’s there’s no a family I would be
mair content to see him connected wi’ than the Givans, who are come o’
the best blood, and are, moreover, o’ great wealth and property.’
‘Weel, if e’er there was the like o’ you, gudeman,’ replied the Leddy,
delighted with the news; ‘an ye were to set your mind on a purpose o’
marriage between a goose and a grumphie, I dinna think but ye would
make it a’ come to pass. For wha would hae thought o’ this plot on the
Givans, who, to be sure, are a most creditable family, and Miss Peggy,
their dochter, is a vera genty creature, although it’s my notion she’s
no o’ a capacity to do meikle in the way o’ throughgality. Howsever,
she’s a bonny playock, and noo that the stipend ye alloo’t to Watty
is at an end, by reason of that heavy loss which we all met wi’ in
his wife, ye’ll can weel afford to help Geordie to keep her out in a
station o’ life; for times, gudeman, are no noo as when you and me cam
thegither. Then a bein house, and a snod but and ben, was a’ that was
lookit for; but sin genteelity came into fashion, lads and lasses hae
grown leddies and gentlemen, and a Glasgow wife saullying to the kirk
wi’ her muff and her mantle, looks as puckered wi’ pride as my lord’s
leddy.’
Claud, who knew well that his helpmate was able to continue her
desultory consultations, as long as she could keep herself awake,
here endeavoured to turn the speat of her clatter into a new channel,
by observing, that hitherto they had not enjoyed any great degree of
comfort in the marriages of their family.
‘Watty’s,’ said he, ‘ye see, has in a manner been waur than nane;
for a’ we hae gotten by’t is that weakly lassie bairn; and the sumph
himsel is sae ta’en up wi’t, that he’s a perfect obdooracy to every wis
o’ mine, that he would tak another wife to raise a male-heir to the
family.’
‘I’m sure,’ replied the Leddy, ‘it’s just a sport to hear you, gudeman,
and your male-heirs. What for can ye no be content wi’ Charlie’s son?’
The countenance of Grippy was instantaneously clouded, but in a moment
the gloom passed, and he said,--
‘Girzy Hypel, t’ou kens naething about it. Will na Watty’s dochter
inherit the Divethill by right o’ her father, for the Plealands, and so
rive the heart again out o’ the Kittlestonheugh, and mak a’ my ettling
fruitless? Noo, what I wis is, that Geordie should tak a wife to himsel
as soon as a possibility will alloo, and if he has a son, by course o’
nature, it might be wised in time to marry Watty’s dochter, and so keep
the property frae ganging out o’ the family.’
‘Noo, gudeman, thole wi’ me, and no be angry,’ replied the Leddy;
‘for I canna but say it’s a thing past ordinar that ye never seem to
refleck, that Charlie’s laddie might just as weel be wised to marry
Watty’s dochter, as ony son that Geordie’s like to get; and over and
moreover, the wean’s in the world already, gudeman, but a’ Geordie’s
are as trouts in the water; so I redde you to consider weel what ye’re
doing, and gut nae fish till ye catch them.’
During this speech, Claud’s face was again overcast; the harsh and
agonizing discord of his bosom rudely jangled through all the depths
of his conscience, and reminded him how futile his wishes and devices
might be rendered either by the failure of issue, or the birth of
daughters. Every thing seemed arranged by Providence, to keep the
afflicting sense of the wrong he had done his first-born constantly
galled. But it had not before occurred to him, that even a marriage
between the son of Charles and Walter’s daughter could not remedy the
fault he had committed. The heirs-male of George had a preference in
the entail; and such a marriage would, in no degree, tend to prevent
the Kittlestonheugh from being again disjoined. In one sentence, the
ambitious old man was miserable; but rather than yet consent to retrace
any step he had taken, he persevered in his original course, as if the
fire in his heart could be subdued by adding fresh piles of the same
fuel. The match which he had formed for George was accordingly brought
to what he deemed a favourable issue; for George, possessing but little
innate delicacy, and only eager to become rich, had no scruple in
proposing himself, at his father’s suggestion, to Miss Peggy Givan;
and the young lady being entirely under the control of her mother, who
regarded a union with her relations, the Grippy family, as one of the
most desirable, peaceably acquiesced in the arrangement.
Prior, however, to the marriage taking place, Mr. Givan, a shrewd and
worldly man, conceiving, that, as George was a younger son, his elder
brother married, and Walter’s daughter standing between him and the
succession to the estate,--he stipulated that the bridegroom should
be settled as a principal in business. A short delay in consequence
occurred between the arrangement and the solemnization; but the
difficulty was overcome, by the old man advancing nearly the whole
of his ready money as a proportion of the capital which was required
by the house that received George into partnership. Perhaps he might
have been spared this sacrifice, for as such he felt it, could he have
brought himself to divulge to Mr. Givan the nature of the entail which
he had executed; but the shame of that transaction had by this time
sunk so deep, that he often wished and tried to consider the deed as
having no existence.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Milrookit had become the mother of a son; the only
occurrence which, for some time, had given Claud any unalloyed
satisfaction. But it also was soon converted into a new source of
vexation and of punishment; for Leddy Grippy, ever dotingly fond of
Walter, determined, from the first hour in which she heard of the
birth of Walkinshaw Milrookit, as the child was called, to match him
with her favourite’s Betty; and the mere possibility of such an event
taking place filled her husband with anxiety and fear; the expressions
of which, and the peevish and bitter accents that he used in checking
her loquacity on the subject, only served to make her wonderment at his
prejudices the more and more tormenting.