The Leddy having so happily brought her second lawsuit to a victorious
issue, and already menacing a third, did not feel that her triumph
would be complete, until she had obtained the plaudits of the world;
and the first person on whom she resolved to levy her exactions of
applause was naturally enough the mother of Walkinshaw.
As soon as Pitwinnoch had left the house, she persuaded Milrookit to
send the carriage for Mrs. Charles, with injunctions to the coachman
not to say a word of what had passed, as she intended herself to have
the pleasure of communicating the glad tidings. This he very readily
agreed to; for, notwithstanding the grudge which he felt at having been
so simply mulcted of so large a sum, he really felt his mind relieved
by the result of the discovery; perhaps, in complying, he had some
sinister view towards the Leddy’s good-will--some distant vista of his
thousand pounds.
Mrs. Charles was a good deal surprised at the message to come
immediately to Kittlestonheugh; and her timid and gentle spirit, in
consequence of learning from the coachman that the old lady was there,
anticipated some disaster to her son. Her fears fluttered as she drove
on alone. The broad dark shadows that had crossed the path of her
past pilgrimage were remembered with melancholy forebodings, and the
twilight of the evening having almost faded into night, she caught
gloomy presentiments from the time, and sighed that there was no end to
her sorrows.
The season was now advanced into September; and though the air was
clear, the darkness of the road, the silence of the fields, and the
occasional glimmers of the fire that the horses’ hoofs struck from
the stones, awakened associations of doubt, anxiety, and danger; but
the serene magnificence of the starry heavens inspired hope, and the
all-encompassing sky seemed to her the universal wings of Providence,
vigilant and protecting with innumerable millions of eyes.
Still the devotional enthusiasm of that fancy was but a transient glow
on the habitual pale cast of her thoughts; and she saw before her, in
the remainder of her mortal journey, only a continuance of the same
road which she had long travelled--a narrow and a difficult track
across a sterile waste, harsh with brambles, and bleak and lonely.
So is it often, under the eclipse of fortune, even with the bravest
spirits; forgetting how suddenly before, in the darkest hour, the
views of life have changed, they yield to the aspect of the moment,
and breathe the mean and peevish complaints of faithlessness and
despondency. Let it not, therefore, be imputed as an unworthy weakness,
that a delicate and lowly widow, whose constant experience had been an
unbroken succession of disappointments and humiliations, should, in
such an hour, and shrinking with the sensibilities of a mother, wonder
almost to sinning why she had been made to suffer such a constancy
of griefs. But the midnight of her fate was now past, and the dawn
was soon to open upon her with all its festal attributes of a bright
and joyous morning--though our friend the Leddy was not so brisk in
communicating the change as we could have wished.
She was sitting alone in the parlour when the carriage returned; and as
the trembling mother was shown into the room, she received her with the
most lugubrious face that her features could assume.
‘Come awa’, Bell Fatherlans,’ said she, ‘come away, and sit down. O
this is a most uncertain world--nothing in it has stability;--the winds
blow--the waters run--the grass grows--the snow falls--the day flieth
away unto the uttermost parts of the sea, and the night hideth her
head in the morning cloud, and perisheth for evermore. Many a lesson
we get--many a warning to set our thoughts on things above; but we’re
ay sinking, sinking, sinking, as the sparks fly upward.--Bell, Bell,
we’re a’ like thorns crackling under a kail-pot.’
‘What has occurred?’ exclaimed Mrs. Charles; ‘I beg you’ll tell me at
once.’
‘So I will, when I hae solaced you into a religious frame o’ mind to
hear me wi’ a Christian composity o’ temper; for what I maun tell is,
though I say’t mysel, a something.’
‘For goodness and mercy, I entreat you to proceed.--Where is Mr.
Milrookit? where is Robina?’
‘Ye need na hope to see muckle o’ them the night,’ replied the Leddy.
‘Poor folk, they hae gotten their hands filled wi’ cares. O Bell,
Bell--when I think o’t--it’s a judgement--it’s a judgement, Bell
Fatherlans, aboon the capacity o’ man! Really, when I consider how
I hae been directit--and a’ by my own skill, knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding--it’s past a’ comprehension. What would my worthy father
hae said had he lived to see the day that his dochter won sic a braw
estate by her ain interlocutors?--and what would your gudefather hae
said, when he was ay brag bragging o’ the conquest he had made o’ the
Kittlestonheugh o’ his ancestors--the whilk took him a lifetime to
do--had he seen me, just wi’ a single whisk o’ dexterity, a bit touch
of the law, make the vera same conquest for your son Jamie Walkinshaw
in less than twa hours?’
‘You astonish me! to what do you allude? I am amazed, and beginning to
be confounded,’ said Mrs. Charles.
‘Indeed it is no wonder,’ replied the Leddy; ‘for wha would hae thought
it, that I, an aged ’literate grandmother, would hae bamboozlet an
Embrough Writer to the Signet on a nice point, and found out the ground
of an action for damages against that tod o’ a bodie Pitwinnoch, for
intromitting wi’ ane of the four pleas o’ the Crown? Had I kent what I
ken now, uncle Watty might still hae been to the fore, and in the full
possession of his seven lawful senses--for, woman as I am, I would hae
been my own man o’ business, counsel, and executioner, in the concos
mentos sederunt--whereby I was so ’frauded o’ my rightful hope and
expectation. But Pitwinnoch will soon fin’ the weight o’ the lion’s paw
that his doobileecity has roused in me.’
Mrs. Charles, who was much amused by the exultation with which the
Leddy had recounted her exploits in the bed and board plea, perceiving
that some new triumph equally improbable had occurred, felt her
anxieties subside into curiosity; and being now tolerably mistress of
her feelings, she again inquired what had happened.
‘I’ll tell you,’ said the Leddy; ‘and surely it’s right and proper you
his mother should know, that, through my implementing, it has been
discovered that your son is an heir-male according to law!’
‘No possible!’ exclaimed the delighted mother, the whole truth flashing
at once on her mind.
‘Aye, that’s just as I might hae expectit--a prophet ne’er got honour
in his own country; and so a’ the thank I’m to get for my pains is a
no possible!’ said the Leddy offended, mistaking the meaning of the
interjection. ‘But it is a true possible; and Milrookit has consentit
to adjudicate the estate--so ye see how ye’re raised to pride and
affluence by my instrumentality. Firstly, by the bed and board plea, I
found a mean to revisidend your ’nuity; and secondly, I hae found the
libel proven, that Beenie, being a dochter, is an heir-female, and is,
by course of law, obligated to renounce the estate.’
‘This is most extraordinary news, indeed,’ rejoined Mrs. Charles,
‘after for so many years believing my poor children so destitute;’ and
a flood of tears happily came to her relief.
‘But, Bell Fatherlans,’ resumed the Leddy, ‘I’ll tak you wi’ the
tear in your ee, as both you and Jamie maun be sensible, that, but
for my discerning, this great thing never could hae been brought to
a come-to-pass. I hope ye’ll confabble thegither anent the loss I
sustained by what happened to uncle Watty, and mak me a reasonable
compensation out o’ the rents; the whilk are noo, as I am creditably
informed, better than fifteen hundred pounds per anno Domini, that’s
the legality for the year o’ our Lord;--a sma’ matter will be a great
satisfaction.’
‘Indeed,’ said Mrs. Charles, ‘James owes you much; and your kindness
in giving him the bill so generously, I know, has made a very deep
impression on his heart.’
‘He was ay a blithe and kindly creature,’ exclaimed the Leddy, wiping
her eye, as if a tear had actually shot into it--‘and may be it winna
fare the waur wi’ him when I’m dead and gone. For I’ll let you into
a secret--it’s my purpose to mak a last will and testament, and cut
off Milrookit wi’ a shilling, for his horridable niggerality about
the bed and board concern. Na, for that matter, as ye’ll can fen noo
without ony ’nuity, but your ain son’s affection, I hae a great mind,
and I’ll do’t too--that’s what I will--for fear I should be wheedled
into an adversary by my dochter Meg for the Milrookits,--I’ll gie the
thousand pound heritable bond to your Mary for a tocher; is not that
most genteel of me? I doot few families hae had a grandmother for their
ancestor like yours.’
Some further conversation to the same effect was continued, and
the injustice which Milrookit had attempted seemed to Mrs. Charles
considerably extenuated by the readiness with which he had acknowledged
the rights of her son. For, notwithstanding all the Leddy’s triumphant
oratory and legal phraseology, she had no difficulty in perceiving the
true circumstances of the case.