The shock which the delicate frame of Mrs. Walkinshaw of
Kittlestonheugh received on hearing of her daughter’s precipitate
marriage, and the distress which it seemed to give her husband, acted
as a stimulus to the malady which had so long undermined her health,
and the same night she was suddenly seized with alarming symptoms.
Next day the disease evidently made such rapid progress, that even the
Doctors ventured to express their apprehensions of a speedy and fatal
issue.
In the meantime, the Leddy was doing all in her power to keep up the
spirits of the young couple, by the reiterated declaration, that, as
soon as her son ‘had come to himsel’’, as she said, ‘he would come down
with a most genteel settlement;’ but day after day passed, and there
was no indication of any relenting on his part; and Robina, as we still
must continue to call her, was not only depressed with the thought of
her rashness, but grieved for the effect it had produced on her mother.
None of the party, however, suffered more than the Laird of
Dirdumwhamle. He heard of the acceleration with which the indisposition
of Mrs. Walkinshaw was proceeding to a crisis, and, knowing the
sentiments of his brother-in-law with respect to male heirs, he could
not disguise to himself the hazard that he ran of seeing his son cut
out from the succession to the Kittlestonheugh estate; and the pang of
this thought was sharpened and barbed by the reflection, that he had
himself contributed and administered to an event which, but for the
marriage, would probably have been procrastinated for years, during
which it was impossible to say what might have happened.
At Camrachle, the news of the marriage diffused unmingled satisfaction.
Mrs. Charles Walkinshaw saw in it the happy escape of her son from
a connexion that might have embittered his life; and cherished the
hope that her brother-in-law would still continue his friendship and
kindness.
Walkinshaw himself was still more delighted with the event than his
mother. He laughed at the dexterity with which his grandmother had
brought it about; and, exulting in the feeling of liberty which it
gave to himself, he exclaimed, ‘We shall now see whether, indeed, my
uncle was actuated towards me by the affection he professed, or by some
motive of which the springs are not yet discovered.’
The minister, who was present at this sally, said little; but he
agreed with his young friend, that the event would soon put his
uncle’s affections to the test. ‘I cannot explain to myself,’ was his
only observation, ‘why we should all so unaccountably distrust the
professions of your uncle, and suppose, with so little reason, in truth
against the evidence of facts, that he is not actuated by the purest
and kindest motives.’
‘That very suspicion,’ said Mrs. Eadie mysteriously, ‘is to me a
sufficient proof that he is not so sincere in his professions as he
gets the credit of being. But I know not how it is, that, in this
marriage, and in the sudden illness of his wife, I perceive the tokens
of great good to our friends.’
‘In the marriage,’ replied the minister, ‘I certainly do see something
which gives me reason to rejoice; but I confess that the illness
of Mrs. Walkinshaw does not appear to me to bode any good. On the
contrary, I have no doubt, were she dying, that her husband will not be
long without a young wife.’
‘Did not I tell you,’ said Mrs. Eadie, turning to Mrs. Charles, ‘that
there would be a death before the good to come by Glengael, to you or
yours, would be gathered? Mrs. Walkinshaw of Kittlestonheugh is doomed
to die soon; when this event comes to pass, let us watch the issues and
births of Time.’
‘You grow more and more mystical every day,’ said her husband
pensively. ‘I am sorry to observe how much you indulge yourself in
superstitious anticipations; you ought to struggle against them.’
‘I cannot,’ replied the majestic Leddy, with solemnity--‘The mortal
dwelling of my spirit is shattered, and lights and glimpses of
hereafter are breaking in upon me. It has been ever so with all my
mother’s race. The gift is an ancient inheritance of our blood; but it
comes not to us till earthly things begin to lose their hold on our
affections. The sense of it is to me an assurance that the bark of life
has borne me to the river’s mouth. I shall now soon pass that headland,
beyond which lies the open sea:--from the islands therein no one ever
returns.’
Mr. Eadie sighed; and all present regarded her with compassion, for her
benign countenance was strangely pale; her brilliant eyes shone with
a supernatural lustre; and there was a wild and incommunicable air in
her look, mysteriously in unison with the oracular enthusiasm of her
melancholy.
At this juncture a letter was handed in. It was the answer from
Glengael to Mrs. Eadie’s application respecting Walkinshaw; and it had
the effect of changing the painful tenor of the conversation.
The contents were in the highest degree satisfactory. Mr. Frazer not
only promised his influence, declaring that he considered himself as
the agent of the family interests, but said, that he had no doubt of
procuring at once the cadetcy, stating, at the same time, that the
progress and complexion of the French Revolution rendered it probable
that Government would find it expedient to augment the army; in which
case, a commission for young Walkinshaw would be readily obtained; and
he concluded with expressions of his sorrow at hearing his kinswoman
had of late been so unwell, urging her to visit him at Glengael Castle,
to which the family was on the point of removing for the summer, and
where her native air might, perhaps, essentially contribute to her
recovery.
‘Yes,’ said she, after having read the letter aloud, and congratulated
Walkinshaw on the prospect which had opened.--‘Yes; I will visit
Glengael. The spirits of my fathers hover in the silence of those
mountains, and dwell in the loneliness of the heath. A voice within
has long told me, that my home is there, and I have been an exile since
I left it.’
‘My dear Gertrude,’ said Mr. Eadie,--‘you distress me exceedingly this
morning. To hear you say so pains me to the heart. It seems to imply
that you have not been happy with me.’
‘I was happy with you,’ was her impressive answer. ‘I was happy;
but then I thought the hopes of my youth had perished.--The woeful
discovery that rose like a ghost upon me withered my spirit; and the
death of my children has since extinguished the love of life. Still,
while the corporeal tenement remained in some degree entire, I felt not
as I now feel; but the door is thrown open for my departure. I feel the
airs of the world of spirits blowing in upon me; and as I look round
to see if I have set my house in order, all the past of life appears
in a thousand pictures; and the most vivid in the series are the sunny
landscapes of my early years.’
Mr. Eadie saw that it was in vain to reason with his wife in such a
mood; and the Walkinshaws sympathized with the tenderness that dictated
his forbearance, while James turned the conversation, by proposing to
his sister and Ellen, that they should walk into Glasgow next day, to
pay their respects to the young couple.
Doubtless there was a little waggery at the bottom of this proposition;
but there was also something of a graver feeling.--He was desirous to
ascertain what effect the marriage of Robina had produced on his uncle
with respect to himself, and also to communicate, through the medium of
his grandmother, the favourable result of the application to Glengael,
in the hope, that, if there was any sincerity in the professions of
partiality with which he had been flattered, that his uncle would
assist him in his outfit either for India or the army. Accordingly,
the walk was arranged as he proposed; but the roads in the morning
were so deep and sloughy, that the ladies did not accompany him; a
disappointment which, however acute it might be to him, was hailed
as a God-send by the Leddy, whose troubles and vexations of spirit
had, from the wedding-day, continued to increase, and still no hope of
alleviation appeared.