When the news of the approaching festivities at Dalrulzian were known in
Dunearn, Miss Barbara Erskine and her household were flung into a
whirlpool of excitement such as had not disturbed their calm for more
years than could be reckoned. There was, of course, no question as to
the immediate acceptance by the old lady of her nephew's invitation to
her to do the honours of his house. She was very much touched and
pleased--with that satisfaction, above all, which is so sweet to a
woman--of feeling that John was doing absolutely "the right thing" in
placing her, his old aunt, at the head of affairs. It was a compliment
to the family, to the old neighbours, as well as to herself. But it is
not too much to say that from the scullery to the drawing-room her house
was turned upside-down by this great event. Miss Barbara's first thought
was, as was natural, that a great many things would be wanted. She went
instantly to her "napery" closet,--Agnes, her old maid, attending her
with the key,--and brought out stores of shining damask, milk-white and
fragrant, every tablecloth with its pile of napkins, like a hen with
chickens. "I never inquired into the napery at Dalrulzian," the old lady
said; "but it would be a great temptation to a woman with a sma' family
to take the use of it; and for anything I know, he may be in want of
table-linen. Ye'll pack a boxful, Agnes, whether or no. There's the
great table-cloths with the crown pattern, they are the biggest I have.
Ye'll take them, and table-napkins. You may take ten or twelve dozen.
They are always useful."
"And you'll take the best silver, mem," said Janet, for this was in her
department. If it had been suggested to them that their best Paisley
shawls, on which both Janet and Agnes set great store, would have been
useful to cover the faded places on the carpet, these devoted women
would have sacrificed their most cherished possessions. Miss Barbara's
old epergnes and table ornaments, which, happily, were older and less
solid than the camel and palm-trees at Tinto, were packed into a huge
box, with all her available forks and spoons, and sent off in a cart
before her to the scene of the entertainment. Then a still more
important question arose as to the help that would be required to
produce a dinner and a ball-supper worthy of the Erskine name. Miss
Barbara put her trust in Janet, who had managed all her own household
affairs for a great number of years. "I'll take ye both with me," she
said to the two women, who made her comfort and credit the occupation of
their lives, "and when ye consider what's at stake, you'll just put your
hand to anything; and ye like a ploy, both of ye, and plenty of young
faces about the house."
"Eh, but I do that," said Agnes; "and I would not wonder but Mr John's
meaning to take a survey of all the misses, and him a wanter and a
bonnie lad into the bargain. We'll maybe hear who it is to be."
But Janet demurred. "It's not to be denied but I would like to go," she
said; "and blithe, blithe would I be to put to my hand, if it was only
to boil a pitawtie, and proud to think the auld family, so lang away,
was holding up its head again. But then there's Bauby Rolls, that's been
housekeeper so long, and a good cook and a good woman. She would think
we meant to interfere."
"It would ill become either Bauby or any other person to think me
interfering in my nephew's house," said Miss Barbara. "Ye'll just come,
Janet. I am saying nothing against Bauby; but she'll be out of the way
of managing for a pairty."
"There are plenty of pairties in the winter-time," said Janet. "I
wouldna stand in other folk's gait. Na, naebody would say _you_ were
interfering, Miss Barbara. Wha has a better right in your ain nephew's
house?--but me, it's another question. I couldna gang ben to her
kitchen, or look at a single article, but it would be thought I was
meddling. What would I think if Bauby Rolls came here on a veesit to
help me? I would say I maun be getting doited, though I cannot see it: I
maun be losing the use o' my faculties. I judge of her by mysel'. She
would think the same of me. But Agnes, you can take her," said the
housekeeper, with a fine and delicate contempt. "She has aye her head
full of whigmaleeries; but she'll stand in nobody's way."
"I'll not ask your leave, Janet, to take my own woman with me," said
Miss Barbara, with some annoyance.
"Na, mem, I never thought that," retorted her factotum. "I'm seldom
consulted, though maybe it would be none the worse for the family if I
were letten say my say. For a ball-supper there's naething better than a
fine boned turkey well stuffed and larded," she added, reflectively;
"and I'm no' against soup. It's new-fashioned; but there's new-fashioned
things that's just as good as the old. One thing I set my face against
is thae new drinks--Cup as they call them. They take an awfu' quantity
of wine; and in the heat o' the dancing thae young things will just
spoil their stomachs, never thinking what they're swallowing. That's my
opinion. I'm no' saying I'm ony authority, and Mr Rolls will have a'
that in his hands, and will not lippen to a woman; but that's my
opinion. It's an awfu' waste of wine. I would rather give them good
honest champagne out of the bottle, that they might see what they are
taking, far sooner than that wasteful Cup."
"That's very true, Janet," said Miss Barbara; "I'm of that opinion
myself. But in most houses it's the gentleman himself (when there is a
gentleman) that manages the cellar; and it would never do for a lady to
say anything. But I will mind to tell him (for it's my own opinion), if
he consults me."
"And for sweet things, there's nothing like ice-creams, if she can make
them," said Janet. "If she were to say, mem, of her own accord, that she
has little experience, you might send me a line by the postman, and I
would do my best; but no' unless it's of her own accord. Na, na; I ken
by mysel'. If a strange woman were to come into my kitchen and meddle
with my denner! But tak' you Agnes, Miss Barbara. She might make up a
match yet, for a' that's come and gane, with Tammas Rolls."
Miss Barbara appeared accordingly at Dalrulzian the day before the great
dinner, in her old coach, with her two best gowns in the imperial, and
all her old ornaments, and with Agnes her maid seated primly by her,
inside. The chariot was almost as old as Miss Barbara herself, and was
kept for great occasions. It was drawn by two somewhat funereal black
horses from the Red Lion at Dunearn--altogether a solemn turn-out, and
quite unlike the handy little phaeton in which usually the old lady
drove about. The postboy took away those noble steeds when he had housed
the chariot in the Dalrulzian stables, to which he was to return in four
days to take it back with its mistress. And Miss Barbara bore a grave
though cheerful countenance as she walked into the drawing-room, and
took her place there on the great tapestry sofa. The box of plate and
linen had arrived before her, and she felt that it was necessary at once
to look into the details of the proposed entertainment. "Will you send
the housekeeper to me," she said to Rolls, with dignity, thinking it
beneath the solemnity of the occasion to call Bauby by any less weighty
title. Bauby came in with good-natured alacrity; but she was somewhat
abashed by the air of gravity on Miss Barbara's face, whom she was not
accustomed to see in such state. "Come in, my woman," said the old lady.
"It's a great responsibility for you to have the charge of all this. You
will like a little assistance with your dinner. I'm well aware that both
that and the supper for the ball are in very good hands so far as the
provisions go. But your master being young, and without experience, and
as there's no lady in the house, I think it my duty to be of service,"
Miss Barbara said. Bauby stood before her greatly flushed, and laid a
number of hems, one over the other, on her apron. "Hoot, mem, we'll just
manage fine," she said, growing red. But this did not satisfy the august
old lady.
"If you're in want of any help," she said, "there's a woman of mine----"
Rolls, who had been waiting outside the door, came to the rescue. He
appeared behind the flushed Bauby. "She's a confused creature," he said,
"but she knows her business. We've put it all down, Miss Barbara, in the
new-fashioned way. I'm aware that at the Castle and other grand places
it's written in French, but good Scots is good enough for us."
It was no small effort to find and produce from Bauby's pocket the bill
of fare of the approaching dinner. But this document took away Miss
Barbara's breath. It was some time before she got over it. Instead of
the chaos which she half feared, yet half hoped for, as a means of
exercising her own gifts on her nephew's behalf, it was an elaborate
_menu_, drawn out in full form, that was placed before her eyes. The old
lady was struck dumb for a moment, and when she spoke there was a
certain awe in her tone. "If you can set a dinner like that on the
table," she said, "I have not a word to say."
"Oh, mem, we'll manage fine," said Bauby, in her soft, round,
good-humoured voice.
"Miss Barbara," said Rolls, "I'm no braggart; but I've seen a thing or
two in my life. And Bauby, she has far more in her than appears. She's
just a confused creature in speech; but pit her to her goblets and her
sauces, and she kens well what she's about. She has the real spirit of
it in her; and when her blood's up for the credit of the family----"
"Eh, mem!" cried Bauby herself, putting her apron to her eyes, for her
tears came readily; "do you think I would let them say that Mr John
couldna give a denner as good as the best? and he such a fine lad, and
wanting a wife, and his mammaw so far away!"
"Never you mind his mammaw," cried Miss Barbara, with natural family
feeling; "she was never a great manager. But if you set that dinner on
the table, Bauby Rolls, you're a woman worthy of all respect, and I hope
my nephew will know when he's well off."
She withdrew to the room prepared for her after this, a little
crestfallen, yet doing due honour to the native powers. "We'll say
nothing to Janet," she said to her faithful old maid, as she sat at her
toilet. "Janet is an excellent woman, and just the right person for a
house like mine. But she has not that invention. Four made dishes,
besides all the solids! We'll not say a word to Janet. It would be more
than she could bear."
"You see, Miss Barbara, there's two of them to settle it," said Agnes,
as she brushed out the old lady's abundant white hair; "and a man is
awfu' discriminating about eating and drinking. He may not have sense
like a woman, but he has more taste of his mouth."
"There is something in that," said her mistress; "if it's Rolls, John
has got a treasure in that man. The Cornel's dinners were always very
English, to my way of thinking--but that would be their own fault; or if
it's my nephew himself----" she added, doubtfully. What was a great
quality in Rolls catering for other people, would have been almost a
vice, in the eyes of this prejudiced old lady, in the young master of
the house.
"Mr John!" said Agnes, still more moved,--"a bonnie lad like him! Na,
na; it would never be that. It'll be the young misses, and not the
dishes, he will be thinking about. And who knows but we may see the one
that's his choice? And I wish she may be a lovely young lady for his
sake."
"She would need to be something more than that," said Miss Barbara,
shaking her head. "A little money would be a great advantage to the
estate."
"Eh, but mem, he maun marry for love," said Agnes; "what's siller in
comparison? And I think I know Somebody for my pairt----"
"Whisht, Agnes," said her mistress peremptorily; "whatever thought may
be in your head, to name it spoils all."
For these two simple women were still of opinion that Providence had
created John Erskine's wife for him, and that he could not mistake the
guidance of that unerring hand.