Lochinvar: A Novel
Page 57
EPILOGUE OF SUPEREROGATION
BEING CHAPTER FIFTY-FOURTH, AND LAST
Peace and silence cinctured the ancient tower of Lochinvar like theblue circle of the vault of heaven. Kate and Wat were walking thebattlements. It was a narrow promenade, but they kept the closertogether. From the gable chimneys immediately above them the blueperfumed reek of a peat fire went up straight as a monument. In thekitchen Jean Gordon and her tow-headed servitor, Mall, were preparingthe evening meal. There, at the foot of the loch, could be seen JackScarlett switching his long fishing-pole, his boat and his figureshowing black against the bright lake.
Wat shaded his face with his hand and looked under it, for the sun shothis rays slantwise.
"What is the matter with old Jack?" he said; "yonder he goes, pullingas hard as he can for the shore. I see two people sitting on aheather-tussock by the landing-place."
When Kate had looked once swiftly, she clapped her hands. "'Tis Maisieand Will!" she cried, merrily. "Oh, I wonder if they have brought thebabe?"
"The babe?" said her husband, "wherefore should they bring the babe,carrying him all the way from Earlstoun?"
"I should never let him out of my arms," cried Kate, "if I had such aboy."
She stopped somewhat suddenly and changed the subject.
"Look," she said, pointing with her finger, "Jack is showing them hisfish. It is as well that he seems to have a good, taking in his basket;for, faith! there is little in the house but salted black-faced mutton."
Long before the boat could approach near enough to the tower to renderconversation possible, Kate and Maisie were crying out unintelligiblegreetings one to the other, while with his hand on her skirts WillGordon endeavored to induce his wife to sit down, lest she shouldoverbalance herself and fall out of the boat.
Kate ran down the narrow turret stairs to the landing-place, whereuponWat followed hastily, lest she should throw herself bodily into thewater. The boat touched the wooden fenders, and the next moment the twowomen were in each other's arms. The men shook hands gravely, but saidnothing, after their kind. Jack Scarlett took up his string of fish anddeparted kitchenward without a word, keeping his eyes studiously on theground.
Meanwhile the two women were sobbing quietly and contentedly, each onher friend's shoulder.
Then Will Gordon must needs turn and endeavor to cheer them with theeternal masculine tact.
"Why, lassies," he said, with loud joviality, "what can there be tocry about now, when everything has fallen out so well after all ourtroubles?"
His wife turned to him fiercely.
"You great gaby!" she cried, pointedly, "get into the house and leaveus alone. Can you not see we are just glad?"
"Yes--glad and happy!" corroborated Kate. "What silly things men be!"
Wat and Will slunk off without a word. They did not so much as smileat the manner of the gladness of women. Even when they were safe inthe square, oak-panelled hall, they seemed to have little to say toeach other, except as to the crops on Gordonstoun and concerning theplanting of trees at Will's new house of Afton.
Presently the women came back, whereupon, for no obvious reason, Watand Will immediately plucked up heart and became suddenly voluble.
"Wat," said Kate, daring him to a refusal with her eyes, "I am goingover to Earlstoun to-morrow to see the baby."
"What!" cried her husband, "why not fetch it here to-night? I will leadan expedition to bring it this very moment, and Scarlett and Will shallbe my officers."
"_It_, indeed, you--you _man_!" cried Kate, contemptuously. "Why, youcould not be trusted with him."
"We might break it," said Will Gordon, quietly, "or it might even cry,and then what should we do? Better is it that we should all return tothe Earlstoun to-morrow. Sandy and Jean have gone to Afton for a while."
And so it was arranged, perhaps because of the last-mentioned fact.
But Kate cried out impetuously, after a silence of five minutes: "I donot believe that I can wait till to-morrow to see the lovely thing."
"No, nor I either!" said Maisie, grievingly. She let her eyes rest amoment reproachfully on her husband, to convey to him that it was allhis fault.
The two men looked at each other. Their glances of mutual sympathy saideach to each: "This it is to be wedded."
"Well," said Wat, more cheerfully, like a man who knows it is vain tofight against his destiny, "let us all go there together to-night."
The women sprang up and clapped their hands.
"Scarlett," cried Kate, "ferry us across in the boat at once."
"What may be the great hurry?" he said. "The trouts are frying fine."
"We are going back to Earlstoun," said Kate, with decision in her tone.
"Is the auld hoose on fire, or what's a' the red-hot haste?" calledScarlett, from the kitchen, where he was superintending the sprinklingof oatmeal on the trouts--a delicate operation.
"Man, the bairn may be greeting!" said Will Gordon; whereat Wat Gordonsuddenly laughed aloud--and then just judgment seemed about to descendupon them. But their several wives looked at each other to decidewhich should be the executioner. "After all," said the four eyes, asthey took counsel, "is it worth it?" It was enough that they were_men_--nothing could be expected of that breed when it came to a matterof the finer feelings.
Jean Gordon came anxiously panting up the stairs.
"You will be the better o' your suppers afore ye gang ony sic roads atthis time of night," she said, determinedly.
So in a trice the trouts were brought in, and Scarlett sat down alongwith Lochinvar and his guests, for such was the sweet and honorablecustom of the tower.
Then in the beauty of a late and gracious gloaming, they rowed oversoftly to the blossoming heather of the loch-side, and took theirway by two and two up the hill. The two women walked on in front inwhispered sibylline converse, sometimes looking over their shouldersto insure that their husbands did not encroach too closely upon themysteries.
At the top of the hill Wat and Kate with one instinct stopped a momentand looked down upon the peace of their moorland home. Jack Scarlettwas dragging a rod across the loch from the stern of the returningboat. Jean Gordon and Mall, her maid, were setting the evening fireto "keep in" till the morning. The topmost chimney still gave forth afaint blue "pew" of peat-reek, which went straight up into the stillnight air and was lost among the thickening spear-points of the stars.
Kate took her husband's arm.
"Are you sorry, Wat?" she said, with something like the dew of tears inher voice, "that you gave up the command of a regiment to come to thisquiet place--and to me?"
In the hearing of his cousin Wat only smiled at her question, butprivately he took possession of his wife's hand, and kept it in hisall the way as they went down the hill, till they came through theEarlstoun wood past the tree in which Sandy had hidden so long. Butat the well-house gate Kate suddenly dropped Wat's hand, and she andMaisie darted simultaneously towards the great doorway of Earlstoun.
Their husbands stood petrified.
"There is baby crying, after all! Did I not tell you?" cried Kate andMaisie together, looking reproachfully at each other as they ran.
Wat and Will were left alone by the curb of the well-house ofEarlstoun; they clasped hands silently in the dusk of the gloaming andlooked different ways. And though they did not speak, the grip of theirright hands was at once a thanksgiving and a prayer.
THE END
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Transcribers' Notes:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when apredominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were notchanged.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalancedquotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Page 84: "extragavances" probably is a misprint for "extravagances".
Page 245: "eastern ness" was printed as two words.