The Chamberlain's quarters were in the eastern turret, and there he went
so soon as he could leave his Grace, who quickly forgot the Frenchman
and his story, practising upon Simon the speech he had prepared in his
evening walk, alternated with praise extravagant--youthfully rapturous
almost--of his duchess, who might, from all his chafing at her absence,
have been that night at the other end of the world, instead of merely in
the next county on a few days' visit.
“Ah! you are smiling, Sim!” said he. “Old whinstone! You fancy Argyll
an imbecile of uxoriousness. Well, well, my friend, you are at liberty;
Lord knows, it's not a common disease among dukes! Eh, Sim? But
then women like my Jean are not common either or marriages were less
fashions. Upon my word, I could saddle Jock and ride this very night
to Luss, just to have the fun of throwing pebbles at her window in the
morning, and see her wonder and pleasure at finding me there. Do you
know what, cousin? I am going to give a ball when she comes home. We'll
have just the neighbours, and I'll ask M. Soi-disant, who'll give us
the very latest step. I like the fellow's voice, it rings the
sterling metal.... And now, my lords, this action on the part of the
Government.... Oh, the devil fly away with politics! I must go to a
lonely bed!” And off set Mac-Cailen Mor, the noble, the august, the man
of silk and steel, whom 'twas Simon MacTaggart's one steadfast ambition
in life to resemble even in a remote degree.
And then we have the Chamberlain in his turret room, envious of that
blissful married man, and warmed to a sympathetic glow with Olivia
floating through the images that rose before him.
He drew the curtains of his window and looked in that direction where
Doom, of course, was not for material eyes, finding a vague pleasure in
building up the picture of the recluse tower, dark upon its promontory.
It was ten o'clock. It had been arranged at their last meeting that
without the usual signal he should go to her to-night before twelve.
Already his heart beat quickly; his face was warm and tingling with
pleasant excitation, he felt a good man.
“By God!” he cried. “If it was not for the old glaur! What for does
heaven--or hell--send the worst of its temptations to the young and
ignorant? If I had met her twenty years ago! Twenty years ago! H'm!
'Clack!' goes the weaver's shuttle! Twenty years ago it was her mother,
and Sim MacTaggart without a hair on his face trying to kiss the good
lady of Doom, and her, perhaps na' half unwilling. I'm glad--I'm glad.”
He put on a pair of spurs, his fingers trembling as those of a lad
dressing for his first ball, and the girl a fairy in white, with her
neck pink and soft and her eyes shy like little fawns in the wood.
“And how near I was to missing it!” he thought. “But for the scheming
of a fool I would never have seen her. It's not too late, thank the Lord
for that! No more of yon for Sim MacTaggart. I've cut with the last of
it, and now my face is to the stars.”
His hands were spotless white, but he poured some water in a basin
and washed them carefully, shrugging his shoulders with a momentary
comprehension of how laughable must that sacrament be in the eyes of
the worldly Sim MacTaggart. He splashed the water on his lips, drew on a
cloak, blew out the light, and went softly downstairs and out at a side
door for which he had a pass-key. The night was still, except for the
melancholy sound of the river running over its cascades and echoing
under the two bridges; odours of decaying leaves surrounded him, and the
air of the night touched him on his hot face like a benediction. A heavy
dew clogged the grass of Cairnbaan as he made for the stables, where a
man stood out in the yard waiting with a black horse saddled. Without a
word he mounted and rode, the hoofs thudding dull on the grass. He left
behind him the castle, quite dark and looming in its nest below the
sentinel hill; he turned the bay; the town revealed a light or two;
a bird screamed on the ebb shore. Something of all he saw and heard
touched a fine man in his cloak, touched a decent love in him; his heart
was full with wholesome joyous ichor; and he sang softly to the creaking
saddle, sang an air of good and clean old Gaelic sentiment that haunted
his lips until he came opposite the very walls of Doom.
He fastened his horse to a young hazel and crossed the sandy interval
between the mainland and the rock, sea-wrack bladders bursting under his
feet, and the smells of seaweed dominant over the odours of the winter
wood. The tower was pitch dark. He went into the bower, sat on the
rotten seat among the damp bedraggled strands of climbing flowers, and
took his flageolet from his pocket.
He played softly, breathing in the instrument the very pang of love.
It might have been a psalm and this forsaken dew-drenched bower a great
cathedral, so rapt, so devoted, his spirit as he sought to utter the
very deepest ecstasy. Into the reed he poured remembrance and regret;
the gathered nights of riot and folly lived and sorrowed for; the ideals
cherished and surrendered; the remorseful sinner, the awakened soul.
No one paid any heed in Castle Doom.
That struck him suddenly with wonder, as he ceased his playing for a
moment and looked through the broken trellis to see the building black
below the starry sky. There ought, at least, to be a light in the window
of Olivia's room. She had made the tryst herself, and never before had
she failed to keep it. Perhaps she had not heard him. And so to his
flageolet again, finding a consolation in the sweetness of his own
performance.
“Ah!” said he to himself, pausing to admire--“Ah! there's no doubt I
finger it decently well--better than most--better than any I've heard,
and what's the wonder at that? for it's all in what you feel, and the
most of people are made of green wood. There's no green timber here; I'm
cursed if I'm not the very ancient stuff of fiddles!”
He had never felt happier in all his life. The past?--he wiped that off
his recollection as with a sponge; now he was a new man with his feet
out of the mire and a clean road all the rest of the way, with a clean
sweet soul for his companion. He loved her to his very heart of hearts;
he had, honestly, for her but the rendered passion of passion--why! what
kept her?
He rammed the flageolet impatiently into his waistcoat, threw back his
cloak, and stepped out into the garden. Doom Castle rose over him black,
high and low, without a glimmer. A terrific apprehension took possession
of him. He raised his head and gave the signal call, so natural that it
drew an answer almost like an echo from an actual bird far off in some
thicket at Achnatra. And oh! felicity; here she was at last!
The bolts of the door slid back softly; the door opened; a little figure
came out. Forward swept the lover, all impatient fires--to find himself
before Mungo Boyd!
He caught him by the collar of his coat as if he would shake him.
“What game is this? what game is this?” he furiously demanded. “Where is
she?”
“Canny, man, canny!” said the little servitor, releasing himself with
difficulty from the grasp of this impetuous lover. “Faith! it's anither
warnin' this no' to parley at nicht wi' onything less than twa or three
inch o' oak dale atween ye and herm.”
“Cut clavers and tell me what ails your mistress!”
“Oh, weel; she hisna come oot the nicht,” said Mungo, waving his arms to
bring the whole neighbourhood as witness of the obvious fact.
The Chamberlain thrust at his chest and nearly threw him over.
“Ye dull-witted Lowland brock!” said he; “have I no' the use of my own
eyes? Give me another word but what I want and I'll slash ye smaller
than ye are already with my Ferrara.”
“Oh, I'm no' that wee!” said Mungo. “If ye wad jist bide cool--”
“'Cool' quo' he! Man! I'm up to the neck in fire. Where is she?”
“Whaur ony decent lass should be at this 'oor o' the nicht--in her naked
bed.”
“Say that again, you foul-mouthed dog o' Fife, and I'll gralloch you
like a deer!” cried the Chamberlain, his face tingling.
“Losh! the body's cracked,” said Mungo Boyd, astounded at this nicety.
“I was to meet her to-night; does she know I'm here?”
“I rapped at her door mysel' to mak' sure she did.”
“And what said she?”
“She tauld me to gae awa'. I said it was you, and she said it didna
maitter.”
“Didna maitter!” repeated the Chamberlain, viciously, mimicking the
eastland accent. “What ails her?”
“Ye ought to ken that best yoursel'. It was the last thing I daur ask
her,” said Mungo Boyd, preparing to retreat, but his precaution was not
called for, he had stunned his man.
The Chamberlain drew his cloak about him, cold with a contemptuous
rebuff. His mouth parched; violent emotions wrought in him, but he
recovered in a moment, and did his best to hide his sense of ignominy.
“Oh, well!” said he, “it's a woman's way, Mungo.”
“You'll likely ken,” said Mungo; “I've had sma' troke wi' them mysel'.”
“Lucky man! And now that I mind right, I think it was not to-night I was
to come, after all; I must have made a mistake. If you have a chance
in the morn's morning you can tell her I wasted a tune or two o' the
flageolet on a wheen stars. It is a pleasant thing in stars, Mungo, that
ye aye ken where to find them when ye want them!”
He left the rock, and took to horse again, and home. All through
the dark ride he fervently cursed Count Victor, a prey of an idiotic
jealousy.