The benevolent lawyer found the old man in his accustomed seat by the
fireside. Walter was in the room with him, dressed for church, and
dandling his child. At first Mr. Keelevin felt a little embarrassment,
not being exactly aware in what manner the news he had to communicate
might be received; but seeing how Walter was engaged, he took occasion
to commend his parental affection.
‘That’s acting like a father, Mr. Walter,’ said he; ‘for a kind parent
innocently pleasuring his bairn is a sight that the very angels are
proud to look on. Mak muckle o’ the poor wee thing, for nobody can tell
how long she may be spared to you. I dare say, Mr. Walkinshaw,’ he
added, addressing himself to Claud, ‘ye hae mony a time been happy in
the same manner wi’ your own children?’
‘I had something else to tak up my mind,’ replied the old man gruffly,
not altogether pleased to see the lawyer, and apprehensive of some new
animadversions.
‘Nae doubt, yours has been an eydent and industrious life,’ said
Mr. Keelevin, ‘and hitherto it has na been without a large share o’
comfort. Ye canna, however, expek a greater constancy in fortune and
the favour o’ Providence than falls to the common lot of man; and ye
maun lay your account to meet wi’ troubles and sorrows as weel as your
neighbours.’
This was intended by the speaker as a prelude to the tidings he had
brought, and was said in a mild and sympathetic manner; but the heart
of Claud, galled and skinless by the corrosion of his own thoughts,
felt it as a reproach, and he interrupted him sharply.
‘What ken ye, Mr. Keelevin, either o’ my trumps or my troubles?’ And he
subjoined, in his austerest and most emphatic manner, ‘The inner man
alone knows, whether, in the gifts o’ fortune, he has gotten gude, or
but only gowd. Mr. Keelevin, I hae lived long eneugh to mak an observe
on prosperity,--the whilk is, that the doited and heedless world is
very ready to mistak the smothering growth of the ivy, on a doddered
stem, for the green boughs o’ a sound and nourishing tree.’
To which Walter added singingly, as he swung his child by the arms,--
‘Near planted by a river,
Which in his season yields his fruit,
And his leaf fadeth never.’
‘But no to enter upon any controversy, Mr. Walkinshaw,’ said Mr.
Keelevin,--‘ye’ll no hae heard the day how your son Charles is?’
‘No,’ replied Claud, with a peculiarly impressive accent; ‘but, at the
latest last night, the gudewife sent word he was very ill.’
‘I’m greatly concerned about him,’ resumed the lawyer, scarcely
aware of the address with which, in his simplicity, he was moving on
towards the fatal communication; ‘I am greatly concerned about him,
but mair for his young children--they’ll be very helpless orphans, Mr.
Walkinshaw.’
‘I ken that,’ was the stern answer, uttered with such a dark and
troubled look, that it quite daunted Mr. Keelevin at the moment from
proceeding.
‘Ye ken that!’ cried Walter, pausing, and setting down the child on the
floor, and seating himself beside it; ‘how do ye ken that, father?’
The old man eyed him for a moment with a fierce and strong aversion,
and, turning to Mr. Keelevin, shook his head, but said nothing.
‘What’s done, is done, and canna be helped,’ resumed the lawyer; ‘but
reparation may yet, by some sma cost and cooking, be made; and I hope
Mr. Walkinshaw, considering what has happened, ye’ll do your duty.’
‘I’ll sign nae papers,’ interposed Walter; ‘I’ll do nothing to wrang my
wee Betty Bodle,’--and he fondly kissed the child.
Mr. Keelevin looked compassionately at the natural, and then, turning
to his father, said,--
‘I hae been this morning to see Mr. Charles.’
‘Weel, and how is he?’ exclaimed the father eagerly.
The lawyer, for about the term of a minute, made no reply, but looked
at him steadily in the face, and then added solemnly,--
‘He’s no more!’
At first the news seemed to produce scarcely any effect; the iron
countenance of the old man underwent no immediate change--he only
remained immoveable in the position in which he had received the shock;
but presently Mr. Keelevin saw that he did not fetch his breath, and
that his lips began to contract asunder, and to expose his yellow teeth
with the grin almost of a skull.
‘Heavens preserve us, Mr. Walkinshaw!’ cried Mr. Keelevin, rising
to his assistance; but, in the same moment, the old man uttered a
groan so deep and dreadful, so strange and superhuman, that Walter
snatched up his child, and rushed in terror out of the room. After
this earthquake-struggle, he in some degree recovered himself, and the
lawyer returned to his chair, where he remained some time silent.
‘I had a fear o’t, but I was na prepar’t, Mr. Keelevin, for this,’
said the miserable father; ‘and noo I’ll kick against the pricks nae
langer. Wonderful God! I bend my aged grey head at thy footstool. O lay
not thy hand heavier upon me than I am able to bear. Mr. Keelevin, ye
ance said the entail cou’d be broken if I were to die insolvent--mak
me sae in the name of the God I have dared so long to fight against.
An Charlie’s dead--murdered by my devices! Weel do I mind, when he was
a playing bairn, that I first kent the blessing of what it is to hae
something to be kind to;--aften and aften did his glad and bright young
face thaw the frost that had bound up my heart, but ay something new
o’ the world’s pride and trash cam in between, and hardent it mair and
mair.--But a’s done noo, Mr. Keelevin--the fight’s done and the battle
won, and the avenging God of righteousness and judgement is victorious.’
Mr. Keelevin sat in silent astonishment at this violence of sorrow. He
had no previous conception of that vast abyss of sensibility which lay
hidden and unknown within the impenetrable granite of the old man’s
pride and avarice; and he was amazed and overawed when he beheld it
burst forth, as when the fountains of the great deep were broken up,
and the deluge swept away the earliest and the oldest iniquities of man.
The immediate effect, when he began to recover from his wonder, was a
sentiment of profound reverence.
‘Mr. Walkinshaw,’ said he, ‘I have long done you great injustice;’
and he was proceeding to say something more as an apology, but Claud
interrupted him.
‘You hae ne’er done me any manner of wrong, Mr. Keelevin; but I hae
sinned greatly and lang against my ain nature, and it’s time I sou’d
repent. In a few sorrowful days I maun follow the lamb I hae sacrificed
on the altars o’ pride; speed a’ ye dow to mak the little way I hae to
gang to the grave easy to one that travels wi’ a broken heart. I gie
you nae further instructions--your skill and honest conscience will
tell you what is needful to be done; and when the paper’s made out,
come to me. For the present leave me, and in your way hame bid Dr.
Denholm come hither in the afternoon.’
‘I think, Mr. Walkinshaw,’ replied Mr. Keelevin, falling into his
professional manner on receiving these orders, ‘that it would be as
weel for me to come back the morn, when ye’re more composed, to get the
particulars of what ye wish done.’
‘O man!’ exclaimed the hoary penitent, ‘ye ken little o’ me. Frae the
very dawn o’ life I hae done nothing but big and build an idolatrous
image; and when it was finished, ye saw how I laid my first-born on its
burning and brazen altar. But ye never saw what I saw--the face of an
angry God looking constantly from behind a cloud that darkened a’ the
world like the shadow of death to me; and ye canna feel what I feel
now, when His dreadful right hand has smashed my idol into dust. I hae
nae langer part, interest nor portion in the concerns of this life; but
only to sign ony paper that ye can devise, to restore their rights to
the twa babies that my idolatry has made fatherless.’
‘I hope, in mercy, Mr. Walkinshaw, that ye’ll be comforted,’ said the
worthy lawyer, deeply affected by his vehemence.
‘I hope so too, but I see na whar at present it’s to come frae,’
replied Claud, bursting into tears, and weeping bitterly. ‘But,’ he
added, ‘I would fain, Mr. Keelevin, be left to mysel--alack! alack!
I hae been oure lang left to mysel. Howsever, gang away the day, and
remember Dr. Denholm as ye pass;--but I’ll ne’er hae peace o’ mind till
the paper’s made and signed; so, as a Christian, I beg you to make
haste, for it will be a Samaritan’s act of charity.’
Mr. Keelevin perceived that it was of no use at that time to offer any
further consolation, and he accordingly withdrew.