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diff --git a/21109.txt b/21109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b63accb --- /dev/null +++ b/21109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7593 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Big Game, by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Big Game + A Story for Girls + +Author: Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21109] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIG GAME *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + + +Big Game +A Story for Girls + +By Mrs George de Horne Vaizey +________________________________________________________________________ +A charming little book. The son of the family aspires to be a poet, much +to his father's annoyance: he ought to have a proper job in the family +firm. + +His sister hits on a plan to get his work published, which would be a +step in the right direction, one that might help to change the father's +mind. She discovers that the editor of a poetry magazine always takes +a holiday in a very remote hotel in the Scottish highlands, so she books +a holiday for them in the same hotel. + +The woman who runs the hotel hates women guests, and isn't very polite +to most people, but they manage to charm her, and get her on their side, +until one Sunday they make the fatal mistake of going to the wrong +church. That eventually passes over. Meanwhile Margot, the heroine, +has been wooing the poetry editor. They go fishing together, and one +day they go for a long walk in which the weather turns nasty. Margot +catches pneumonia and is very ill. + +They get back to their homes in London. Margot's lover turns out not to +have been the poetry editor after all, yet somehow young Ron finds that +one of his poems has been published. How this happens is revealed in +the last chapter. An average length book, probably more for girls than +for boys. N.H. +________________________________________________________________________ + +BIG GAME +A STORY FOR GIRLS + +BY MRS GEORGE DE HORNE VAIZEY + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +PLANS. + +It was the old story of woman comforting man in his affliction; the +trouble in this instance appearing in the shape of a long blue envelope +addressed to himself in his own handwriting. Poor young poet! He had +no more appetite for eggs and bacon that morning; he pushed aside even +his coffee, and buried his head in his hands. + +"Back again!" he groaned. "Always back, and back, and back, and these +are my last verses: the best I have written. I felt sure that these +would have been taken!" + +"So they will be, some day," comforted the woman. "You have only to be +patient and go on trying. I'll re-type the first and last pages, and +iron out the dog's ears, and we will send it off on a fresh journey. +Why don't you try the _Pinnacle Magazine_? There ought to be a chance +there. They published some awful bosh last month." + +The poet was roused to a passing indignation. + +"As feeble as mine, I suppose! Oh, well, if even you turn against me, +it is time I gave up the struggle." + +"Even you" was not in this instance a wife, but "only a sister," so +instead of falling on her accuser's neck with explanations and caresses, +she helped herself to a second cup of coffee, and replied coolly-- + +"Silly thing! You know quite well that I do nothing of the sort, so +don't be high-falutin. I should not encourage you to waste time if I +did not know that you were going to succeed in the end. I don't think; +I _know_!" + +"How?" queried the poet. "How?" He had heard the reason a dozen times +before, but he longed to hear it again. He lifted his face from his +hands--an ideal face for a poet; clean-cut, sensitive, with deep-set +eyes, curved lips, and a finely-modelled chin. "How do you know?" + +"I feel!" replied the critic simply. "Of course, I am prejudiced in +favour of your work; but that would not make it haunt me as if it were +my own. I can see your faults; you are horribly uneven. There are +lines here and there which make me cold; lines which are put in for the +sake of the rhyme, and nothing more; but there are other bits,"--the +girl's eyes turned towards the window, and gazed dreamily into +space--"which sing in my heart! When it is fine, when it is dark, when +I am glad, when I am in trouble, why do your lines come unconsciously +into my mind, as if they expressed my own feelings better than I can do +it myself? That's not rhyme--that's poetry! It is the real thing; not +pretence." + +A glad smile passed over the boy's face; he stretched out his hand +towards the neglected cup, and quaffed coffee and hope in one reviving +draught. "But no one seems to want poetry nowadays!" + +"True! I think you may have to wait until you have made a name in the +other direction. Why not try fiction? Your prose is excellent, almost +as good as your verse." + +"Can't think of a plot!" + +"Bah! you are behind the times, my dear! You don't need a plot. Begin +in the middle, meander back to the beginning, and end in the thick of +the strife. Then every one wonders and raves, and the public--`mostly +fools!'--think it must be clever, because they don't understand what +it's about." + +"Like the lady and the tiger,--which came out first?" + +"Ah! if you could think of anything as baffling as that, your future +would be made. Write a novel, Ron, and take me for the heroine. You +might have a poet, too, and introduce some of your own love-songs. I'd +coach you in the feminine parts, and you could give me a royalty on the +sales." + +But Ronald shook his head. + +"I might try short stories, perhaps--I've thought of that--but not a +novel. It's too big a venture; and we can't spare the time. There are +only four months left, and unless I make some money soon, father will +insist upon that hateful partnership." + +The girl left her seat and strolled over to the window. She was +strikingly like her brother in appearance, but a saucy imp of humour +lurked in the corners of her curving lips, and danced in her big brown +eyes. + +Margot Vane at twenty-two made a delightful picture of youth and +happiness, and radiant, unbroken health. Her slight figure was upright +as a dart; her cheeks were smooth and fresh as a petal of a rose; her +hair was thick and luxuriant, and she bore herself with the jaunty, +self-confident gait of one whose lines have been cast in pleasant +places, and who is well satisfied of her own ability to keep them +pleasant to the end. + +"Anything may happen in four months--and everything!" she cried +cheerily. "I don't say that you will have made your name by September, +but if you have drawn a reasonable amount of blood-money, father will +have to be satisfied. It is in the bond! Work away, and don't worry. +You are improving all the time, and spring is coming, when even ordinary +people like myself feel inspired. We will stick to the ordinary methods +yet awhile, but if matters get desperate, we will resort to strategy. +I've several lovely plans simmering in my brain!" + +The boy looked up eagerly. + +"Strategy! Plans! What plans? What can we possibly do out of the +ordinary course?" + +But Margot only laughed mischievously, and refused to be drawn. + +The cruel parent in the case of Ronald Vane was exemplified by an +exceedingly worthy and kind-hearted gentleman, who followed the +profession of underwriter at Lloyd's. His family had consisted of three +daughters before Ronald appeared to gratify a long ambition. Now, Mr +Vane was a widower, and his son engrossed a large share in his +affections, being at once his pride, his hope, and his despair. The lad +was a good lad; upright, honourable, and clean-living; everything, in +fact, that a father could wish, if only,--but that "if" was the +mischief! It was hard lines on a steady-going City man, who was famed +for his level-headed sobriety, to possess a son who eschewed fact in +favour of fancy, and preferred rather to roam the countryside composing +rhymes and couplets, than to step into a junior partnership in an +established and prosperous firm. + +It is part of an Englishman's creed to appreciate the great singers of +his race,--Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, not to mention a dozen lesser +fry; but, strange to say, though he feels a due pride in the row of +poets on his library shelves, he yet regards a poet by his own fireside +as a humiliation and an offence. A budding painter, a sculptor, a +musician, may be the boast of a proud family circle, but to give a youth +the reputation of writing verses is at once to call down upon his head a +storm of ridicule and patronising disdain! He is credited with being +effeminate, sentimental, and feeble-minded; his failure is taken as a +preordained fact; he becomes a butt and a jest. + +Mr Vane profoundly hoped that none of the underwriters at Lloyd's would +hear of Ronald's scribbling. It would handicap the boy in his future +work, and make it harder for him to get rid of his "slips"! No one +could guess from the lad's appearances that there was anything wrong,-- +that was one comfort! He kept his hair well cropped, and wore as high +and glossy collars as any fellow in his right mind. + +"You don't know when you are well off!" cried the irate father. "How +many thousands would be thankful to be in your shoes, with a place kept +warm to step into, and an income assured from the start! I am not +asking you to sit mewed up at a desk all day. If you want to use your +gift of words, you couldn't have a better chance than as a writer at +Lloyd's. There's scope for imagination too,--judiciously applied! And +you would have your evenings _free_ for scribbling, if you haven't had +enough of it in the daytime." + +Ronald's reply dealt at length with the subject of environment, and his +father was given to understand that the conditions in which his life was +spent were mean, sordid, demoralising; fatal to all that was true and +beautiful. The lad also gave it as his opinion that, so far from +regarding money as a worthy object for a life's ambition, the true lover +of Nature would be cumbered by the possession of more than was +absolutely necessary for food and clothing. And as for neglecting a +God-given gift-- + +"What authority have you for asking me to believe that the gift exists +at all, except in your own imagination? Tell me that, if you please!" +cried the father. "You spend a small income in stamps and paper, but so +far as I know no human creature can be induced to publish your God-given +rhymes!" + +At this point matters became decidedly strained, and a serious quarrel +might have developed, had it not been for the diplomatic intervention of +Margot, the youngest and fairest of Mr Vane's three daughters. + +Margot pinched her father's ears and kissed him on the end of his nose, +a form of caress which he seemed to find extremely soothing. + +"He is only twenty-one, darling," she said, referring to the turbulent +heir. "You ought to be thankful that he has such good tastes, instead +of drinking and gambling, like some other young men. Really and truly I +believe he is a genius, but even if he is not, there is nothing to be +gained by using force. Ron has a very strong will--you have yourself, +you know, dear, only of course in your case it is guided by judgment and +common sense--and you will never drive him into doing a thing against +his will. Now just suppose you let him go his own way for a time! Six +months or a year can't matter so very much out of a lifetime, and you +will never regret erring on the side of kindness." + +"Since when, may I ask, have you set yourself up as your father's +mentor?" cried that gentleman with a growl; but he was softening +obviously, and Margot knew as much, and pinched his nose for a change. + +"You must try to remember how you felt yourself when you were young. If +you wanted a thing, how _badly_ you wanted it, and how _soon_, and how +terribly cruel every one seemed who interfered! Give Ron a chance, like +the dear old sportsman as you are, before you tie him down for life! +It's a pity I'm not a boy--I should have loved to be at Lloyd's. Even +now--if I went round with the slips, and coaxed the underwriters, don't +you think it might be a striking and lucrative innovation?" + +Mr Vane laughed at that, and reflected with pride that not a man in the +room could boast such a taking little witch for his daughter. Then he +grew grave, and returned to the subject in hand. + +"In what way do you propose that I shall give the boy a chance?" + +"Continue his allowance for a year, and let him give himself up to his +work! If at the end of the year he has made no headway, it should be an +understanding that he joins you in business without any more fuss; but +if he _has_ received real encouragement,--if even one or two editors +have accepted his verses, and think well of them--" + +"Yes? What then?" + +"Then you must consider that Ron has proved his point! It is really a +stiff test, for it takes mediocre people far longer than a year to make +a footing on the literary ladder. You would then have to continue his +allowance, and try to be thankful that you are the father of a poet, +instead of a clerk!" + +Mr Vane growled again, and, what was worse, sighed into the bargain, a +sigh of real heartache and disappointment. + +"I have looked forward for twenty years to the time when my son should +be old enough to help me! I have slaved all my life to keep a place for +him, and now he despises me for my pains! And you will want to be off +with him, I suppose, rambling about the country while he writes his +rhymes. I shall have to say good-bye to the pair of you! It doesn't +matter how dull or lonely the poor old father may be." + +Margot looked at him with a reproving eye. + +"That's not true, and you know it isn't! I love you best of any one on +earth, and I am only talking to you for your own good. I'd like to stay +in the country with Ronald in summer, for he does so hate the town, but +I'll strike a bargain with you, too! Last year I spent three months in +visiting friends. This year I'll refuse all invitations, so that you +shan't be deprived of any more of my valuable society." + +"And why should you give up your pleasures, pray? Why are you so +precious anxious to be with the boy? Are you going to aid and abet him +in his efforts?" + +"Yes, I am!" answered Margot bravely. "He has his life to live, and I +want him to spend it in his own way. If he becomes a great writer, I'll +be prouder of him than if he were the greatest millionaire on earth. +I'll move heaven and earth to help him, and if he fails I'll move them +again to make him a good underwriter! So now you know!" + +Mr Vane chewed his moustache, disconsolately resigned. + +"Ah well! the partnership will have to go to a stranger, I suppose. I +can't get on much longer without help. I hoped it might be one of my +own kith and kin, but--" + +"Don't be in a hurry, dear. I may fall in love with a pauper, and then +you can have a son-in-law to help you, instead of a son." + +Mr Vane pushed her away with an impatient hand. + +"No more son-in-laws, thank you! One is about as many as I can tackle +at a time. Edith has been at me again with a sheaf of bills--" + +His eldest daughter's husband had recently failed in business, in +consequence of which he himself was at present supporting a second +establishment. He sighed, and reflected that it was a thankless task to +rear a family. The infantine troubles of teething, whooping-cough, and +scarlatina were trifles as compared with the later annoyance and +difficulties of dealing with striplings who had the audacity to imagine +themselves grown-up, and competent to have a say in their own lives! + +If things turned out well, they took the credit to themselves! If ill, +then papa had to pay the bills! Mr Vane was convinced that he was an +ill-used and much-to-be-pitied martyr. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE SISTERS. + +Mr Vane's house overlooked Regent's Park, and formed the corner house +of a white terrace boasting Grecian pillars and a railed-in stretch of +grass in front of the windows. The rooms were large and handsome, and +of that severe, box-like outline which are the despair of the modern +upholsterer. The drawing-room boasted half a dozen windows, four in +front, and two at the side, and as regards furnishings was a curious +graft of modern art upon an Early Victoria stock. Logically the +combination was an anachronism; in effect it was charming and +harmonious, for the changes had been made with the utmost caution, in +consideration of the feelings of the head of the household. + +Mr Vane's argument was that he preferred solid old-fashioned furniture +to modern gimcracks, and had no wish to conform to artistic fads, and +his daughters dutifully agreed, and--disobeyed! Their mode of procedure +was to withdraw one article at a time, and to wait until the parental +eye had become accustomed to the gap before venturing on a second +confiscation. On the rare occasions when the abduction was discovered, +it was easy to fall back upon the well-worn domestic justification, "Oh, +that's been gone a _long_ time!" when, in justice to one's own power of +observation, the matter must be allowed to drop. + +The eldest daughter of the household had married five years before the +date at which this narrative opens, and during that period had enjoyed +the happiness of a true and enduring devotion, and the troubles +inseparable from a constant financial struggle, ending with bankruptcy, +and a retreat from a tastefully furnished villa at Surbiton to a dreary +lodging in Oxford Terrace. Poor Edith had lost much of her beauty and +light-hearted gaiety as a result of anxiety and the constant care of two +delicate children; but never in the blackest moment of her trouble had +she wished herself unwed, or been willing to change places with any +woman who had not the felicity of being John Martin's wife. + +Trouble had drawn Jack and herself more closely together; she was in +arms in a passion of indignation against that world which judged a man +by the standpoint of success or failure, and lay in readiness to heave +another stone at the fallen. At nightfall she watched for his coming to +judge of the day's doings by the expression of his face, before it lit +up with the dear welcoming smile. At sight of the weary lines, strength +came to her, as though she could move mountains on his behalf. As they +sat together on the horsehair sofa, his tired head resting on her +shoulder, the strain and the burden fell from them both, and they knew +themselves millionaires of blessings. + +The second daughter of the Vane household was a very different character +from her sensitive and highly-strung sister. The fairies who had +attended her christening, and bequeathed upon the infant the gifts of +industry, common sense, and propriety, forgot to bestow at the same time +that most valuable of all qualities,--the power to awaken love! Her +relatives loved Agnes--"Of course," they would have said; but when "of +course" is added in this connection, it is sadly eloquent! The poor +whom she visited were basely ungrateful for her doles, and when she +approached empty-handed, took the occasion to pay a visit to a +neighbour's back yard, leaving her to flay her knuckles on an +unresponsive door. + +Agnes had many acquaintances, but no friends, and none of the young men +who frequented the house had exhibited even a passing inclination to pay +her attention. + +Edith had been a belle in her day; while as for Margot, every masculine +creature gravitated towards her as needles to a magnet. Among various +proposals of marriage had been one from so solid and eligible a _parti_, +that even the doting father had laid aside his grudge, and turned into +special pleader. He had advanced one by one the different claims to +consideration possessed by the said suitor, and to every argument Margot +had meekly agreed, until the moment arrived at which she was naturally +expected to say "Yes" to the concluding exhortation, when she said "No" +with much fervour, and stuck to it to the end of the chapter. Pressed +for reasons for her obstinacy, she could advance none more satisfying +than that "she did not like the shape of his ears"! but the worthy man +was rejected nevertheless, and took a voyage to the Cape to blow away +his disappointment. + +No man crossed as much as a road for the sake of Agnes Vane! It was a +tragedy, because this incapacity of her nature by no means prohibited +the usual feminine desire for appreciation. Agnes could not understand +why she was invariably passed over in favour of her sisters, and why +even her father was more influenced by the will-o'-the-wisp Margot than +by her own staid maxims. Agnes could not understand many things. In +this obtuseness, perhaps, and in a deadly lack of humour lay the secret +of her limitations. + +On the morning after the conversation between the brother and sister +recorded in the last chapter the young poet paced his attic sitting- +room, wrestling with lines that halted, and others which were palpably +artificial. Margot's accusations had gone home, and instead of +indulging in fresh flights, he resolved to correct certain errors in the +lines now on hand until the verses should be polished to a flawless +whole. Any one who has any experience with the pen understands the +difficulty of such a task, and the almost hopeless puzzle of changing a +stone in the mosaic without disturbing the whole. The infinite capacity +for taking pains is not by any means a satisfying definition of genius, +but it is certainly one great secret of success. + +Ronald's awkward couplet gave him employment for the rest of the +morning, and lunch-time found him still dissatisfied. An adjective +avoided his quest--the right adjective; the one and only word which +expressed the precise shade of meaning desired. From the recesses of +his brain it peeped at him, now advancing so near that it was almost +within grasp, anon retreating to a shadowy distance. There was no help +for it but to wait for the moment when, tired of its game of hide-and- +seek, it would choose the most unexpected and inappropriate moment to +peer boldly forward, and make its curtsy. + +Meantime Margot had dusted the china in the drawing-room, watered the +plants, put in an hour's practising, and done a _few_ odds and ends of +mending; in a word, had gone through the programme which comprises the +duties of a well-to-do modern maiden, and by half-past eleven was +stepping out of the door, arrayed in a pretty spring dress, and her +third best hat. She crept quietly along the hall, treading with the +cautious steps of one who wishes to escape observation; but her +precautions were in vain, for just as she was passing the door of the +morning-room it was thrown open from within, and Agnes appeared upon the +threshold--Agnes neat and trim in her morning gown of serviceable fawn +alpaca, her hands full of tradesmen's books, on her face an expression +of acute disapproval. + +"Going out, Margot? So early? It's not long past eleven o'clock!" + +"I know?" + +"Where are you going?" + +"Don't know!" + +"If you are passing down Edgware Road--" + +"I'm not!" + +The front door closed with a bang, leaving Agnes discomfited on the mat. +There was no denying that at times Margot was distinctly difficult in +her dealings with her elder sister. She herself was aware of the fact, +and repented ardently after each fresh offence, but alas! without +reformation. + +"We don't fit. We never shall, if we live together a hundred years. +Edgware Road, indeed, on a morning like this, when you can hear the +spring a-calling, and it's a sin and a shame to live in a city at all! +If I had told her I was going into the Park, she would have offered +stale bread for the ducks!" Margot laughed derisively as she crossed +the road in the direction of the Park, and passing in through a narrow +gateway, struck boldly across a wide avenue between stretches of grass +where the wind and sun had full play, and she could be as much alone as +possible, within the precincts of the great city. + +In spite of her light and easy manner, the problem of her brother's +future weighed heavily upon the girl's mind. The eleventh hour +approached, and nothing more definite had been achieved in the way of +encouragement than an occasional written line at the end of the printed +rejections: "Pleased to see future verses," "Unsuitable; but shall be +glad to consider other poems." Even the optimism of two-and-twenty +recognised that such straws as these could not weigh against the hard- +headed logic of a business man! + +It was in the last degree unlikely that Ronald would make any striking +success in literature in the time still remaining under the terms of the +agreement, unless--as she herself had hinted--desperate measures were +adopted to meet desperate needs. A scheme was hatching in Margot's +brain,--daring, uncertain; such a scheme as no one but a young and self- +confident girl could have conceived, but holding nevertheless the +possibilities of success. She wanted to think it out, and movement in +the fresh air gave freedom to her thoughts. + +Really it was simple enough,--requiring only a little trouble, a little +engineering, a little harmless diplomacy. Ronald was a mere babe where +such things were concerned, but he would be obedient and do as he was +told, and for the rest, Margot was confident of her own powers. + +The speculative frown gave way to a smile; she laughed, a gleeful, +girlish laugh, and tossed her head, unconsciously acting a little +duologue, with nods and frowns and upward languishing glance. All +things seem easy to sweet and twenty, when the sun shines, and the scent +of spring is in the air. The completed scheme stood out clear and +distinct in Margot's mind. Only one small clue was lacking, and that +she was even now on the way to discover! + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +A TONIC. + +Margot wandered about the Park so lost in her own thoughts that she was +dismayed to find that it was already one o'clock, when warned by the +departing stream of nursemaids that it must be approaching luncheon hour +she at last consulted her watch. + +Half an hour's walk, cold cutlets and an irate Agnes, were prospects +which did not smile upon her; it seemed infinitely more agreeable to +turn in an opposite direction, and make as quickly as possible for +Oxford Terrace, where she would be certain of a welcome from poor sad +Edith, who was probably even now lunching on bread and cheese and +anxiety, while her two sturdy infants tucked into nourishing beefsteak. +Edith was one of those dear things who did not preach if you were late, +but was content to give you what she had, without apologising. + +Margot trotted briskly past Dorset Square, took a short cut behind the +Great Central Hotel, and emerged into the dreary stretch of Marylebone +Road. + +Even in the spring sunshine it looked dull and depressing, with the +gloomy hospital abutting at the corner, the flights of dull red flats on +the right. + +A block of flats--in appearance the most depressing--in reality the most +interesting of buildings! + +Inside those walls a hundred different households lived, and moved, and +had their being. Every experience of life and death, of joy and grief, +was acted on that stage, the innumerable curtains of which were so +discreetly drawn. Margot scanned the several rows of windows with a +curious interest. To-day new silk _brise-bise_ appeared on the second +floor, and a glimpse of a branching palm. Possibly some young bride had +found her new home in this dull labyrinth, and it was still beautiful in +her sight! Alas, poor bird, to be condemned to build in such a nest! +Those curtains to the right were shockingly dirty, showing that some +over-tired housewife had retired discomfited from the struggle against +London grime. Up on the sixth floor there was a welcome splash of +colour in the shape of Turkey red curtains, and a bank of scarlet +geranium. Margot had decided long since that this flat must belong to +an art student to whom colour was a necessity of life; who toiled up the +weary length of stairs on her return from the day's work, tasting in +advance the welcome of the cosy room. She herself never forgot to look +up at that window, or to send a mental message of sympathy and cheer to +its unknown occupant. + +Oxford Terrace looked quite cheerful in comparison with the surrounding +roads,--and almost countrified into the bargain, now that the beech +trees were bursting into leaf. Margot passed by two or three blocks, +then mounting the steps at the corner of a new terrace, walked along +within the railed-in strip of lawn until she reached a house in the +middle of the row. A peep between draped Nottingham lace curtains +showed a luncheon table placed against the wall, after the cheerful +fashion of furnished apartments, when one room does duty for three, at +which sat two little sailor-suited lads and a pale mother, smiling +bravely at their sallies. + +Margot felt the quick contraction of the heart which she experienced +afresh at every sight of Edith's changed face, but next moment she +whistled softly in the familiar key, and saw the light flash back. +Edith sprang to the door, and appeared flushed and smiling. + +"Margot, how sweet of you! I _am_ glad! Have you had lunch?" + +"No. Give me anything you have. I'm awfully late. Bread and jam will +do splendidly. Halloa, youngsters, how are you? We'll defer kisses, I +think, till you are past the sticky stage. I've been prowling about the +Park for the last two hours enjoying the spring breezes, and working out +problems, and suddenly discovered it was too late to go home." + +She sank down on a seat by the table, shaking her head in response to an +anxious glance. "No, not my own affairs, dear; only Ron's! Can't the +boys run away now, and let us have a chat? I know you have had enough +of them by your face, and I've such a lot to say. Don't grumble, boys! +Be good, and you shall be happy, and your aunt will take you to the Zoo. +Yes, I promise! The very first afternoon that the sun shines; but +first I shall ask mother if you have deserved it by doing what you are +told." + +"Run upstairs, dears, and wash, and put on your boots before Esther +comes," said Mrs Martin fondly; and the boys obeyed, with a lingering +obedience which was plainly due rather to bribery than training. + +The elder of the two was a sturdy, plain-featured lad, uninteresting +except to the parental eye; the younger a beauty, a bewitching, plump, +curly-headed cherub of four years, with widely-opened grey eyes and a +Cupid's bow of a mouth. Margot let Jim pass by with a nod, but her hand +stretched out involuntarily to stroke Pat's cheek, and ruffle his curly +pow. + +Edith smiled in sympathetic understanding, but even as she smiled she +turned her head over her shoulder to speak a parting word to the older +lad. + +"Good-bye, darling! We'll have a lovely game after tea!" Then the door +shut, and she turned to her sister with a sigh. + +"Poor Jim! everybody overlooks him to fuss over Pat, and it is hard +lines. Children feel these things much more than grown-up people +realise. I heard yells resounding from their bedroom one day last year, +and flew upstairs to see what was wrong. There was Pat on the floor, +with Jim kneeling on his chest, with his fingers twined in his hair, +which he was literally dragging out by the roots. He was put to bed for +being cruel to his little brother, but when I went to talk quietly to +him afterwards, he sobbed so pitifully, and said, `I only wanted some of +his curls to put on, to make people love me too!' Poor wee man! You +know what a silly way people have of saying, `Will you give me one of +your curls?' and poor Jim had grown tired of walking beside the pram, +and having no notice taken of him. I vowed that from that day if I +showed the least preference to either of the boys it should be to Jim. +The world will be kind to Pat; he will never need friends." + +"No, Pat is all right. He has the `come-hither eye,' as his mother had +before him!" + +"And his aunt!" + +Margot chuckled complacently. "Well! it's a valuable thing to possess. +I find it most useful in my various plights. They are dear naughty +boys, both of them, and I always love them, but rather less than usual +when I see you looking so worn out. You have enough strain on you +without turning nursemaid into the bargain." + +Mrs Martin sighed, and knitted her delicate brows. + +"I do feel such a wicked wretch, but one of the hardest bits of life at +the present is being shut up with the boys in one room all day long. +They are very good, poor dears, but when one is racked with anxiety, it +is a strain to play wild Indians and polar bears for hours at a stretch. +We do some lessons now, and that's a help--and Jack insisted that I +should engage this girl to take them out in the afternoon. I must be a +wretched mother, for I am thankful every day afresh to hear the door +bang behind them, and to know that I am free until tea-time." + +"Nonsense! Don't be artificial, Edie! You know that you are nothing of +the sort, and that it's perfectly natural to be glad of a quiet hour. +You are a marvel of patience. I should snap their heads off if I had +them all day, packed up in this little room. What have you had for +lunch? No meat? And you look so white and spent. How wicked of you!" + +"Oh, Margot," sighed the other pathetically, "it's not food that I need! +What good can food do when one is racked with anxiety? It's my mind +that is ill, not my body. We can't pay our way even with the rent of +the house coming in, unless Jack gets something to do very soon, and I +am such a stupid, useless thing that I can do nothing to help." + +"Except to give up your house, and your servants, and turn yourself into +nurse, and seamstress, and tailor, and dressmaker, rolled into one; and +live in an uproar all day long, and be a perfect angel of sympathy every +night--that's all!--and try to do it on bread and cheese into the +bargain! There must be something inherently mean in women, to skimp +themselves as they do. You'd never find a man who would grudge tenpence +for a chop, however hard up he might be, but a woman spends twopence on +lunch, and a sovereign on tonics! Darling, will it comfort you most if +I sympathise, or encourage? I know there are moods when it's pure +aggravation to be cheerful!" + +Edith sighed and smiled at one and the same moment. + +"I don't know! I'd like to hear a little of both, I think, just to see +what sort of a case you could make out." + +"Very well, then, so you shall, but first I'll make you comfy. Which is +the least lumpy chair which this beautiful room possesses? Sit down +then, and put up your feet while I enjoy my lunch. I do love damson +jam! I shall finish the pot before I'm satisfied... Well, to take the +worst things first, I do sympathise with you about the table linen! One +clean cloth a week, I suppose? It must be quite a chronicle of the +boys' exploits! I should live on cold meat, so that they couldn't spill +he gravy. And the spoons. They feel gritty, don't they? What is it +exactly that they are made of? Poor old, dainty Edie! I know you hate +it, and the idea that aliens are usurping your own treasures. Stupid +people like Agnes would say that these are only pin-pricks, which we +should not deign to notice, but sensible people like you and me know +that constant little pricks take more out of one than the big stabs. If +the wall-paper had not been so hideous, your anxieties would have seemed +lighter, but it's difficult to bear things cheerfully against a +background of drab roses. Here's an idea now! If all else fails, start +a cheerful lodging-house. You'd make a fortune, and be a philanthropist +to boot... This _is_ good jam! I shall have to hide the stones, for +the sake of decency.--I know you think fifty times more of Jack than of +yourself. It's hard luck to feel that all his hard work ends in this, +and men hate failure. They have the responsibility, poor things, and it +must be tragic to feel that through their mistakes, or rashness, or +incapacity, as the case may be, they have brought hard times upon their +wives. I expect Jack feels the table cloth even more than you do! You +smart, but you don't feel, `This is my fault!'" + +"It isn't Jack's fault," interrupted Jack's wife quickly. "He never +speculated, nor shirked work, nor did anything but his best. It was +that hateful war, and the upset of the market, and--" + +"Call it misfortune, then; in any case the fact remains that he is the +bread-winner, and has failed to provide--cake! We are not satisfied +with dry bread nowadays. You are always sure of that from father, if +from no one else." + +"But I loathe taking it! And I would sooner live in one room than go +home again, as some people do. When one marries one loses one's place +in the old home, and it is never given back. Father loves me, but he +would feel it a humiliation to have me back on his hands. Agnes would +resent my presence, and so would you. Yes, you would! Not consciously, +perhaps, but in a hundred side-issues. We should take up your spare +rooms, and prevent visitors, and upset the maids. If you ran into debt, +father would pay your debts as a matter of course, but he grudges paying +mine, because they are partly Jack's." + +"Yes, I understand. It must be hateful for you, dear. I suppose no man +wishes to pay out more money than he need, especially when he has worked +hard to make it, as the pater has done; but if you take him the right +way he is a marvel of goodness.--This year--next year--sometime-- +never;--I'm going to be married next year! Just what I had decided +myself... I must begin to pick up bargains at the sales." + +Margot rose from her seat, flicking the crumbs off her lap with a fine +disregard of the flower-wreathed carpet, and came over to a seat beside +her sister. + +"Now, shall I change briefs, and expatiate on the other side of the +question? ... Why, Edie, every bit of this trouble depends on your +attitude towards it, and on nothing else. You are all well; you are +young; you adore each other; you have done nothing dishonourable; you +have been able to pay your debts--what does the rest matter? Jack has +had a big disappointment. Very well, but what's the use of crying over +spilt milk? Get a fresh jug, and try for cream next time! The children +are too young to suffer, and think it's fine fun to have no nursery, and +live near Edgware Road. If you and Jack could just manage to think the +same, you might turn it all into a picnic and a joke. Jack is strong +and clever and industrious, and you have a rich father; humanly +speaking, you will never want. Take it with a smile, dear! If you will +smile, so will Jack. If you push things to the end, it rests with you, +for he won't fret if he sees you happy. He _does_ love you, Edie! I'm +not sentimental, but I think it must be just the most beautiful thing in +the world to be loved like that. I should like some one to look at me +as he does at you, with his eyes lighting up with that deep, bright +glow. I'd live in an attic with my Jack, and ask for nothing more!" + +The elder woman smiled--a smile eloquent of a sadder, maturer wisdom. +She adored her husband, and gloried in the knowledge of his love of +herself, but she knew that attics are not conducive to the continuance +of devotion. Love is a delicate plant, which needs care and nourishment +and discreet sheltering, if it is to remain perennially in bloom. The +smile lingered on her lips, however; she rested her head against the +cushions of her chair and cried gratefully-- + +"Oh, Margot, you do comfort me! You are so nice and human. Do you +really, truly think I am taking things too seriously? Do you think I am +depressing Jack? Wouldn't he think me heartless if I seemed bright and +happy?" + +"Try it and see! You can decide according to the effect produced, but +first you must have a tonic, to brace you for the effort. I've a new +prescription, and we are going to Edgware Road to get it this very +hour." + +"Quinine, I suppose. Esther and the boys can get it at the chemist's, +but really it will do roe no good." + +"I'm sure it wouldn't. Mine is a hundred times more powerful." + +"Iron? I can't take it. It gives me headaches." + +"It isn't iron. Mine won't give you a headache, unless the pins get +twisted. It's a finer specific for low spirits feminine, than any +stupid drugs. A new hat!" + +Edith stared, and laughed, and laughed again. + +"You silly girl! What nonsense! I don't need a hat." + +"That's nonsense if you like! It depresses me to see you going about in +that dowdy thing, and it must be a martyrdom for you to wear it every +day. Come out and buy a straw shape for something and `eleven-three'," +(it's always "eleven-three" in Edgware Road), "and I'll trim it with +some of your scraps. You have such nice scraps. Then we'll have tea, +and you shall walk part of the way home with me, and meet Jack, and +smile at him and look pretty, and watch him perk up to match. What do +you say?" + +Edith lifted her eyes with a smile which brought back the youth and +beauty to her face. + +"I say, thank you!" she said simply. "You are a regular missionary, +Margot. You spend your life making other people happy." + +"Goodness!" cried Margot, aghast. "Do I? How proper it sounds! You +just repeat that to Agnes, and see what she says. You'll hear a +different story, I can tell you!" + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +MARGOT'S SCHEME. + +The sisters repaired to Edgware Road, and after much searching finally +ran to earth a desirable hat for at least the odd farthing less than it +would have cost round the corner in Oxford Street. This saving would +have existed only in imagination to the ordinary customer, who is +presented with a paper of nail-like pins, a rusty bodkin, or a highly- +superfluous button-hook as a substitute for lawful change; but Margot +took a mischievous delight in collecting farthings and paying down the +exact sum in establishments devoted to eleven-threes, to the disgust of +the young ladies who supplied her demands. + +The hat was carried home in true Bohemian fashion, encased in a huge +paper bag, and a happy hour ensued, when the contents of the scrap-box +were scattered over the bed, and a dozen different effects studied in +turn. Edith sat on a chair before the glass with the skeleton frame +perched on her head at the accepted fashionable angle, criticising fresh +draperies and arrangement of flowers, and from time to time uttering +sharp exclamations of pain as Margot's actions led to an injudicious use +of the dagger-like pins. Her delicate finely-cut face and misty hair +made her a delightful model, and she smiled back at the face in the +mirror, reflecting that if you happened to be a pauper, it was at least +satisfactory to be a pretty one, and that to possess long, curling +eyelashes was a distinct compensation in life. Margot draped an old +lace veil over the hard brim, caught it together at the back with a +paste button, and pinned a cluster of brown roses beneath the brim, with +just one pink one among the number, to give the _cachet_ to the whole. + +"There's Bond Street for you!" she cried triumphantly; and Edith flushed +with pleasure, and wriggled round and round to admire herself from +different points of view. + +"It _is_ a tonic!" she declared gratefully. "You are a born milliner, +Margot. It will be a pleasure to go out in this hat, and I shall feel +quite nice and conceited again. It's so long since I've felt conceited! +I'm ever and ever so much obliged. Can you stay on a little longer, +dear, or are you in a hurry to get back?" + +"No! I shall get a scolding anyway, so I might as well have all the +fling I can get. I'll have tea with you and the boys, and a little +private chat with Jack afterwards. You won't mind leaving us alone for +a few minutes? It's something about Ron, but I won't promise not to get +in a little flirtation on my own account." + +Jack's wife laughed happily. + +"Flirt away--it will cheer him up! I'll put the boys to bed, and give +you a fine opportunity. Here they come, back from their walk. I must +hurry, dear, and cut bread and butter. I'll carry down the hat, and put +it on when Jack comes in." + +Aunt Margot's appearance at tea was hailed with a somewhat qualified +approval. + +"You must talk to _us_, mother," Jim said sternly; "talk properly, not +only, `Yes, dear,' `No, dear,' like you do sometimes, and then go on +speaking to her about what we can't understand. She's had you all +afternoon!" + +"So I have, Jim. It's your turn now. What do you want to say?" + +Jim immediately lapsed into silence. Having gained his point, he had no +remark to offer, but Pat lifted his curly head and asked eagerly-- + +"Muzzer, shall I ever grow up to be a king?" + +"No, my son; little boys like you are never kings." + +"Not if I'm very good, and do what I'm told?" + +"No, dear, not even then. No one can be a king unless his father is a +king, too, or some very, very great man. What has put that in your +head, I wonder? Why do you want to be a king?" + +Pat widened his clear grey eyes; the afternoon sunshine shone on his +ruffled head, turning his curls to gold, until he looked like some +exquisite cherub, too good and beautiful for this wicked world. + +"'Cause if I was a king I could take people prisoners and cut off their +heads, and stick them upon posts," he said sweetly; his mother and aunt +exchanged horrified glances. Pat alternated between moods of angelic +tenderness, when every tiger was a "good, _good_ tiger," and naughty +children "never did it any more," and a condition of frank cannibalism, +when he literally wallowed in atrocities. His mother forbode to +lecture, but judiciously turned the conversation. + +"Kings can do much nicer things than that, Patsy boy. Our kind King +Edward doesn't like cutting off heads a bit. He is always trying to +prevent men from fighting with each other." + +"Is he?" + +"Yes, he is. People call him the Peace-maker, because he prevents so +many wars." + +"_Bother_ him!" cried Pat fervently. + +Margot giggled helplessly. Mrs Martin stared fixedly out of the +window, and Jim in his turn took up the ball of conversation. + +"Mummie, will you die before me?" + +"I can't tell, dear; nobody knows." + +"Will daddy die before me?" + +"Probably he will." + +"May I have his penknife when he's dead?" + +"I think it's about time to cut up that lovely new cake!" cried Margot, +saving the situation with admirable promptitude. "We bought it for you +this afternoon, and it tastes of chocolate, and all sorts of good +things." + +The bait was successful, and a silence followed, eloquent of intense +enjoyment; then the table was cleared and various games were played, in +the midst of which Jack's whistle sounded from without, and his wife and +sons rushed to meet him. They looked a typical family group as they re- +entered the room, Edith happily hanging on to his arm, the boys prancing +round his feet, and the onlooker felt a little pang of loneliness at the +sight. + +John Martin was a tall, well-made man, with a clean-shaven face and +deep-set grey eyes. He was pale and lined, and a nervous twitching of +the eyelids testified to the strain through which he had passed, but it +was a strong face and a pleasant face, and, when he looked at his wife, +a face of indescribable tenderness. At the moment he was smiling, for +it was always a pleasure to see his pretty sister-in-law, and to-night +Edith's anxious looks had departed, and she skipped by his side as eager +and excited as the boys themselves. + +"Dad, dad, has there been any more 'splosions?" + +"Hasn't there been no fearful doings on in the world, daddy?" + +"Jack! Jack! I've got a new tonic. It has done me such a lot of +good!" + +Jack turned from one to the other. + +"No, boys, no,--no more accidents to-day! What is it, darling? You +look radiant. What is the joke?" + +"Look out of the window for a minute! Margot, you talk to him, and +don't let him look round." + +Edith pinned on the new hat before the mirror, carefully adjusting the +angles, and pulling out her cloudy hair to fill in the necessary spaces. +Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes sparkled; it was no longer the worn +white wife, but a pretty, coquettish girl, who danced up to Jack's side +with saucy, uplifted head. + +"There! What do you think of that?" + +The answer of the glowing eyes was more eloquent than words. Jack +whistled softly beneath his breath, walking slowly round and round to +take in the whole effect. + +"I say, that _is_ fetching! That's something like a hat you wore the +summer we were engaged. You don't look a day older. Where did you run +that to earth, darling?" + +"Can't you see Bond Street in every curve? I should have thought it was +self-evident. Margot said I was shabby, and that a new hat would do me +good, so we went out and bought it. Do you think I am extravagant? +It's better to spend on this than on medicine, and three guineas isn't +expensive for real lace, is it?" + +She peered in her husband's face with simulated anxiety, but his smile +breathed pleasure unqualified. + +"I'm delighted that you have bought something at last! You have not +spent a penny on yourself for goodness knows how long." + +"Goose!" cried Edith. "He has swallowed it at a gulp. Three guineas, +indeed--as if I dare! Four and eleven-pence three-farthings in Edgware +Road, and my old lace veil, and one of the paste buttons you gave me at +Christmas, and some roses off last year's hat, and Margot's clever +fingers, and my--pretty face! Do you think I am pretty still?" + +"I should rather think I do!" Jack framed his wife's face in his hands, +stooping to kiss the soft flushed cheeks as fondly as he had done in the +time of that other lace-wreathed hat six years before. Pat and Jim +returned to their dominoes, bored by such foolish proceedings on the +part of their parents, while Margot covered her face with her hands, +with ostentatious propriety. + +"This is no place for me! Consider my feelings, Jack. I'm like a story +I once read in an old volume of _Good Words_, `Lovely yet Unloved!' +When you have quite finished love-making, I want a private chat with +you, while Edie puts the boys to bed. They will hate me for suggesting +such a thing, but it is already past their hour, and I must have ten +minutes' talk on a point of life and death!" + +"Come away, boys; we are not wanted here. Daddy will come upstairs and +see you again before you go to sleep." + +Mother and sons departed together, and Jack Martin sat down on the +corner of the sofa and leant his head on his hand. With his wife's +departure the light went out of his face, but he smiled at his sister- +in-law with an air of affectionate _camaraderie_. + +"You are a little brick, Margot! You have done Edie a world of good. +What can I do for you in return? I am at your service." + +Margot pulled forward the chair that her sister had chosen as the least +lumpy which the room afforded, and seated herself before him, returning +his glance with an odd mixture of mischief and embarrassment. + +"It's about Ron. The year of probation is nearly over." + +"I know it." + +"Two months more will decide whether he is to be a broker or a poet. It +will mean death to Ronald to be sent into the City." + +"You are wrong there. If he is a poet, no amount of brokering will +alter the fact, any more than it will change the colour of his eyes or +hair. It is bound to come out sooner or later. You will probably think +me a brute, if I suggest that a little discipline and knowledge of the +world might improve the value of his writings." + +"Yes, I will! What does a poet want with a knowledge of the world, in +the common, sordid sense? Let him keep his mind unsullied, and be an +inspiration to others. When we were children, we used to keep birds in +the nursery, in a very fine cage with golden bars, and we fed them with +every bird delicacy we could find. They lived for a little time, and +tried to sing, poor brave things! We threw away the cage in a fury, +after finding one soft dead thing after another lying huddled up in a +corner. No one shall cage Ronald, if I can prevent it! It's no use +pretending to be cold-blooded and middle-aged, Jack, for I know you are +with us at heart. This means every bit as much to Ron as your business +troubles do to you." + +Jack drew in his breath with a wince of pain. + +"Well, what is it you wish me to do? I am afraid I have very little +influence in the literary world, and I have always heard that +introductions do more harm than good. An editor would soon ruin his +paper if he accepted all the manuscripts pressed upon him by admiring +relatives." + +"But you see I don't ask you for an introduction. It's just a piece of +information I want, which I can't get for myself. You know the +_Loadstar Magazine_?" + +"Certainly I do." + +"Well, the _Loadstar_ is--the _Loadstar_! The summit of Ron's ambition. +It's the magazine of all others which he likes and admires, and the +editor is known to be a man of great power and discernment. It is said +that if he has the will, he can do more than any man in London to help +on young writers. It is useless sending manuscripts, for he refuses to +consider unsolicited poetical contributions. He shuts himself up in a +fastness in Fleet Street, and the door thereof is guarded with dragons +with lying tongues. I know! I have made it my business to inquire, but +I feel convinced that if he once gave Ron a fair reading, he would +acknowledge his gifts. There is no hope of approaching him direct, but +I intend to get hold of him all the same." + +Jack Martin looked up at that, his thin face twitching into a smile. + +"You little baggage! and you expect me to help you. I must hear some +more about this before I involve myself any further. What mischief are +you up to now?" + +"Dear Jack, what can I do; a little girl like me?" cried Miss Margot, +mightily meek all of a sudden, as she realised that she had ventured a +step too far. "I wouldn't for the whole world get you into trouble. +It's just a little, simple thing that I want you to find out from some +one in the office." + +"I don't know any one in the office." + +"But you could find out some one who did? For instance, you know that +Mr Oliver who illustrates? I've seen his things in the _Loadstar_. +You could ask him in a casual, off-hand manner without ever mentioning +our name." + +"What could I ask him?" + +"Such a nice, simple little question! Just the name of the place where +the editor proposes to spend this summer holiday, and the date on which +he will start." + +Jack stared in amazement, but the meekest, most demure of maidens +confronted him from the opposite chair, with eyes so translucently +candid, lips so guilelessly sweet, that it seemed incredible that any +hidden mischief could lurk behind the innocent question. Nevertheless +seven years' intimacy with Miss Margot made Jack Martin suspicious of +mischief. + +"What do you know about this editor man? Have you seen him anywhere? +He is handsome, I suppose, and a bachelor?" + +"You're a wretch!" retorted Miss Margot. "I don't know the man from +Adam, and he may be a Methuselah for all I care; but if possible I want +it to happen that Ron and I chance to be staying in the same place, in +the same house, or hotel, or _pension_, whichever it may be, when he +goes away for his yearly rest. We are going to the country in any +case--why should we not be guided by the choice of those older and wiser +than ourselves? Why should we not meet the one of all others we are +most anxious to know?" + +"Just so! and having done so, you will confide in the editor that Ronald +is an embryo Poet Laureate, and try to enlist his kind sympathy and +assistance!" + +Margot smiled; a smile of lofty superiority. + +"No, indeed! I know rather better than that! He will be out on a +holiday, poor man, and won't want to be troubled with literary +aspirants. He has enough of them all the year round. We'll never +mention poetry, but we will try to get to know _him_, and to make him +like us so much that he will want to see more of us when we return to +town. No one can live in the same house with Ron, and have an +opportunity of talking to him day by day, without feeling that he is +different from other boys, and alone together in the country one can +never tell what may happen. Opportunities may arise, too; opportunities +for help and service. We would be on the look-out for them, and would +try by every means in our power to forge the first link in the chain. +Don't look so solemn, old Jack, it's all perfectly innocent! You can +trust me to do nothing you would disapprove." + +"I believe I can. You are a madcap, Margot, but you are a good girl. +I'm not afraid of you, but I imagine that the editor will be a match for +a dozen youngsters like you and Ron, and will soon see through your +little scheme. However, I'll do what I can. In big offices holiday +arrangements have to be made a good while ahead, so it ought not to be +difficult to get the information you want. Now I must be off upstairs +to see the boys before they get into bed. Shall I see you again when I +come down?" + +"No, indeed! I've played truant since half-past eleven, so I shall have +to hang about the end of the terrace until father appears, and go in +under his wing, to escape a scolding from Agnes. I had arranged to pay +calls with her this afternoon. I wonder how it is that my memory is so +dreadfully uncertain about things I don't want to do! Good-bye then, +Jack, and a hundred thanks. Posterity will thank you for your help." + +Jack Martin laughed and shrugged his shoulders. He had a man's typical +disbelief in the ability of his wife's relatives. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +AN EXPLOSION. + +Relationships were somewhat strained in the Vane household during the +next few weeks, the two elder members being banded together in an +unusual partnership to bring about the confusion of the younger. + +"I can't understand what you are making such a fuss about. You'll have +to give in, in the end. You a poet, indeed! What next? If you would +come down to breakfast in time, and give over burning the gas till one +o'clock in the morning, it would be more to the point than writing silly +verses. I'd be ashamed to waste my time scribbling nonsense all day +long!" So cried Agnes, in Martha-like irritation, and Ronald turned his +eyes upon her with that deep, dreamy gaze which only added fuel to the +flame. + +He was not angry with Agnes, who, as she herself truly said, "did not +understand." Out of the storm of her anger an inspiration had fluttered +towards him, like a crystal out of the surf. "The Worker and the +Dreamer"--he would make a poem out of that idea! Already the wonderful +inner vision pictured the scene--the poet sitting idle on the hillside, +the man of toil labouring in the heat and glare of the fields, casting +glances of scorn and impatience at the inert form. The lines began to +take shape in his brain. + + "...And the worker worked from the misty dawn, + Till the east was golden and red; + But the dreamer's dream which he thought to scorn, + Lived on when they both were dead..." + +"I asked him three times over if he would have another cup of coffee, +and he stared at me as if he were daft! I believe he _is_ half daft at +times, and he will grow worse and worse, if Margot encourages him like +this!" Agnes announced to her father, on his weary return from City. + +It was one of Agnes's exemplary habits to refuse all invitations which +could prevent her being at home to welcome her father every afternoon, +and assist him to tea and scones, accompanied by a minute _resume_ of +the bad news of the day. What the housemaid had broken; what the cat +had spilt; the parlourmaid's impertinences; the dressmaker's +delinquencies; Ronald's vapourings; the new and unabashed transgressions +of Margot--each in its turn was dropped into the tired man's cup with +the lumps of sugar, and stirred round with the cream. There was no +escaping the ordeal. On the hottest day of summer there was the boiling +tea, with the hot muffins, and the rich, indigestible cake, exactly as +they had appeared amidst the ice and snows of January; and the +accompanied recital hardly varied more. It was a positive relief to +hear that the chimney had smoked, or the parrot had had a fit. + +Once a year Agnes departed on a holiday, handing over the keys to +Margot, who meekly promised to follow in her footsteps; and then, +heigho! for a fortnight of Bohemia, with every arrangement upside down, +and appearing vastly improved by the change of position. Instead of tea +in the drawing-room, two easy-chairs on the balcony overlooking the +Park; cool iced drinks sipped through straws, and luscious dishes of +fruit. Instead of Agnes, stiff and starched and tailor-made, a radiant +vision in muslin and laces, with a ruffled golden head, and distracting +little feet peeping out from beneath the frills. + +"Isn't this fun?" cried the vision. "Don't you feel quite frivolous and +Continental? Let's pretend we are a newly-married couple, and you adore +me, and can't deny a thing I ask! There was a blouse in Bond Street +this morning... Sweetest darling, wouldn't you like me to buy it to- +morrow, and show me off in it to your friends? I told them to send it +home on approval. I knew you couldn't bear to see your little girl +unhappy for the sake of four miserable guineas!" + +This sort of treatment was very agreeable to a worn-out City man, and as +a pure matter of bargaining, the blouse was a cheap price to pay for the +refreshment of that cool, restful hour, and the pretty chatter which +smoothed the tired lines out of his face, and made him laugh and feel +young again. + +Another night Mr Vane would be decoyed to a rendezvous at Earl's Court, +when Margot would wear the blouse, and insist upon turning round the +pearl band on her third finger, so as to imitate a wedding-ring, looking +at him in languishing fashion across the table the while, to the delight +of fellow-diners and his own mingled horror and amusement. Then they +would wander about beneath the glimmer of the fairy-lights, listening to +the band, as veritable a pair of lovers as any among the throng. + +As summer approached, Mr Vane's thoughts turned to these happy +occasions, and it strengthened his indignation against his son to +realise that this year a cloud had arisen between himself and his +dearest daughter. Margot had openly ranked herself against him, which +was a bitter pill to swallow, and, so far from showing an inclination to +repent as the prescribed time drew to a close, the conspirators appeared +only to be the more determined. Long envelopes were continually being +dispatched to the post, to appear with astonishing dispatch on the +family breakfast-table. The pale, wrought look on Ronald's face as he +caught sight of them against the white cloth! No parent's heart could +fail to be wrung for the lad's misery; but the futility of it added to +the inward exasperation. Thousands of men walking the streets of London +vainly seeking for work, while this misguided youth scorned a safe and +secure position! + +The pent-up irritation exploded one Sunday evening, when the presence of +Edith and her husband recalled the consciousness of yet another +disappointment. Mr Vane had made his own way, and, after the manner of +successful men, had little sympathy with failure. The presence of the +two pale, dejected-looking young men filled him with impatient wrath. +At the supper-table he was morose and irritable, until a chance remark +set the fuse ablaze. + +"Yes, yes! You all imagine yourselves so clever nowadays that you can +afford to despise the experience of men who knew the world before you +were born! I can see you look at each other as I speak! I'm not blind! +I'm an out-of-date old fogey who doesn't know what he is talking about, +and hasn't even the culture to appreciate his own children. Because one +has composed a bundle of rhymes that no one will publish, he must needs +assume an attitude of forbearance with the man who supplies the bread +and butter! I've never been accustomed to regard failure as an instance +of superiority, but no doubt I am wrong--no doubt I am behind the +times--no doubt you are all condemning me in your minds as a blundering +old ignoramus! A father is nothing but a nuisance who must be tolerated +for the sake of what can be got out of him." + +He looked round the table with his tired, angry eyes. Jack Martin sat +with bent head and lips pressed tightly together, repressing himself for +his wife's sake. Edith struggled against tears. Agnes served the salad +dressing and grunted approval. Margot, usually so pert and ready of +retort, stared at the cloth with a frown of strained distress. Only +Ronald faced him with steady eyes. + +"That is not true, father, and you know it yourself!" + +"I know nothing, it appears! That's just what I say. Why don't you +undertake my education? You never show me your work; you take the +advice of a child like Margot, and leave me out in the cold, and then +expect me to have faith enough to believe you a genius without a word of +proof. You want to become known to the public? Very well, bring down +some of that precious poetry and read it aloud to us now! You can't say +then that I haven't given you a chance!" + +It was a frightful prospect! The criticism of the family is always an +ordeal to the budding author, and the moment was painfully unpropitious. +It would have been as easy for a bird to sing in the presence of the +fowler. Ronald turned white to the lips, but his reply came as +unwavering as the last. + +"Do you think you would care to hear even the finest poetry in the world +read aloud to-night? Mine is very far from the best. I will read it to +you if you wish, but you must give me a happier opportunity." + +Agnes laughed shortly. + +"Shilly-shally! I can't understand what opportunity you want. If it's +good, it can't be spoilt by being read one day instead of another; if +it's bad, it won't be improved by waiting. This is cherry-pie, and +there is some tipsy cake. Edith, which will you have?" + +Edith would have neither. She was still trembling with wounded +indignation against her father for that cruel hit at her husband. She +sat pale and silent, vowing never to enter the house again until Jack's +fortunes were restored; never to accept another penny from her father's +hands. She was comparatively little interested in the discussion about +poetry. Ron was a dear boy; she would be sorry if he were disappointed, +but Jack was her life, and Jack was working for bread! + +If she had followed the moment's impulse, she would have risen and left +the room, and though better counsel prevailed, she could not control the +spice of temper which made the cherry-pie abhorrent. + +Jack, as a man, saw no reason why he should deny himself the mitigations +of the situation; he helped himself to cream and sifted sugar with +leisurely satisfaction, and sensibly softened in spirit. After all, +there was a measure of truth in what the old man said, and his bark was +worse than his bite. If his own boy, Pat, took it into his head to go +off on some scatter-brain prank when he came of age, it would be a big +trouble, or if later on he came a cropper in business-- Jack waited for +a convenient pause, and then deftly turned the conversation to politics, +and by the time that cheese was on the table, he and his father-in-law +were discussing the mysteries of the last Education Bill with the +satisfaction of men who hold similar views on the inanities of the +opposite party. Later on they bade each other a friendly good-night; +but Edith went straight from the bedroom to the street, and clung +tightly to her husband's arm as they walked along the pavement opposite +the Park, enjoying the quiet before entering the busy streets. + +"We'll never come again!" she cried tremulously. "We'll stay at home, +and have a supper of bread and cheese and love with it! You shan't be +taunted and sneered at by any man on earth, if he were twenty times my +father! What an angel you were, Jack, to keep quiet, and then talk as +if nothing had happened! I was choking with rage!" + +"Poor darling!" said Jack Martin tenderly. "You take things too much to +heart. It's rough on you, but you must remember that it's rough on the +old man too. You are his eldest child, and the beauty of the family. +He hoped great things for you, and it is wormwood and gall to his proud +spirit to see you struggling along in cheap lodgings. We can't wonder +if he explodes occasionally. It's wonderful that he is as civil to me +as he is; he has put me down as a hopeless blunderer!" + +There was a touch of bitterness in the speaker's voice, for all his +brave assumption of composure, and his wife winced at the sound. She +clung more tightly to his arm, and raised her face to his with eager +comfort. + +"Don't mind what he says! Don't mind what any one says. I believe in +you. I trust you! The good times will come back again, dear, and we +will be happier than ever, because we shall know how to appreciate them. +Even if we were always poor, I'd rather have you for my husband than +the greatest millionaire in the world!" + +"Thank God for my wife!" said Jack Martin solemnly. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +A MANAGING WOMAN. + +Meanwhile Ronald and Margot were holding a conclave on the third floor. +"I must get away from home at once!" cried the lad feverishly. "I can't +write in this atmosphere of antagonism. I breathe it in the air. It +poisons everything I do. If I am to have only three more months of +liberty, I must spend them in my own way, in the country with you, +Margot, away from all this fret and turmoil. It's my last chance. I +might as well throw up the sponge at once, if we are to stay here." + +"Yes, we must go away; for father's sake as well as our own," replied +Margot slowly. She leant her head against the back of her chair, and +pushed the hair from her brow. Without the smile and the sparkle she +was astonishingly like her brother,--both had oval faces, well-marked +eyebrows, flexible scarlet lips, and hazel eyes, but the girl's chin was +made in a firmer mould, and the expression of dreamy abstraction which +characterised the boy's face was on hers replaced by animation and +alertness. + +"Father will be miserable to-night because he flared out at supper; but +he'll flare again unless we put him out of temptation. He likes his own +way as much as we like ours, and it's so difficult for parents to +realise that their children are grown-up. We seem silly babies in his +eyes, and he longs to be able to shut us up in the nursery until we are +sorry, as he used to do in the old days. As for our own plans, Ron, +they are all settled. I was just waiting for a quiet opportunity to +tell you. I have been busy planning and scheming for some time back, +but it was only to-night that my clue arrived. Jack, my emissary, +slipped it into my hand after supper. Read that!" + +She held out a half sheet of paper with an air of triumph, on which were +scribbled the following lines:-- + +"Name, Elgood. Great walker, climber, etcetera. Goes every June with +brother to small lonely inn (Nag's Head)--Glenaire--six miles' drive +from S--, Perthshire. Scenery fine, but wild; accommodation limited; +landlady refuses lady visitors, which fact is supposed to be one of the +chief attractions; Elgood reported to be tough nut to crack; chief +object of holiday, quiet and seclusion; probably dates two or three +weeks from June 15." + +Ronald read, and lifted a bewildered face. + +"What does it all mean? How do this man's plans affect ours? I don't +understand what you are driving at, Margot, but I should love to go to +Scotland! The mountains in the dawning, and the shadows at night, and +the dark green of the firs against the blue of the heather--oh, wouldn't +it be life to see it all again, after this terrible brick city! How +clever of you to think of Scotland!" + +"My dear boy, if it had been Southend it would have been all the same. +We are going where Mr Elgood goes, for Mr Elgood, you must know, is +the editor of _The Loadstar_--the man of all others who could give you a +helping hand. Now, Ron, I am quite prepared for you to be shocked, but +I know that you will agree in the end, so please give in as quickly as +possible, and don't make a fuss. You have been sending unknown poems to +unknown editors for the last two years, with practically no result. +It's not the fault of your poems--of that I am convinced. In ten years' +time every one will rave about them, but you can't afford to wait ten +years, or even ten months. Our only hope is to interest some big +literary light, whose verdict can't be ignored, and persuade him to +plead your cause, or at least to give you such encouragement as will +satisfy father that you are not deluded by your own conceit. I've +thought and thought, and lain awake thinking, till I feel quite tired +out, and then at last I hit on this plan,--to find out where Mr Elgood +is going for his holidays, and go to the same place, so that he can't +help getting to know us, whatever he may wish. Ordinary methods are +useless at this stage of affairs. We must try a desperate remedy for a +desperate situation!" + +"I'm sure I am willing. I would try any crazy plan that had a +possibility of success for the next three months. But yours isn't +possible. The landlady won't take ladies. That's an unsurmountable +objection at the start." + +But Margot only preened her head with a smile of undaunted self- +confidence. + +"She'll take _me_!" she declared complacently. "She can't refuse me +shelter for a night at least, after such a long, tiring journey, and +I'll be such a perfect dear, that after twenty-four hours she wouldn't +be bribed to do without me! You can leave Mrs McNab to me, Ron. I'll +manage her. Very well then, there we shall be, away from the madding +crowd, shut up in that lonely Highland glen, in the quaint little inn; +two nice, amiable, attractive young people with nothing to do but make +ourselves amiable and useful to our companions. Mr Elgood can't be +young; he is certainly middle-aged, perhaps quite old; he will be very +tired after his year's work, and perhaps even ill. Very well then, we +will wait upon him and save him trouble! You shall bicycle to the +village for his tobacco and papers, and I'll read aloud and bring him +cups of tea. We won't worry him, but we'll be there all the time, +waiting and watching for an opportunity. One never knows what may +happen in the country. He might slip into the river some day, and you +could drag him out. Ronald, wouldn't it be perfectly lovely if you +could save his life!" + +The two youthful faces confronted each other breathlessly for a moment, +and then simultaneously boy and girl burst into a peal of laughter. +They laughed and laughed again, till the tear-drops shone on Margot's +lashes, and Ronald's pale face was flushed with colour. + +"You silly girl! What nonsense you talk! I'm afraid Mr Elgood won't +give me a chance of rescuing him. He won't want to be bothered with +literary aspirants on his summer holiday, and he will guess that I want +his help--" + +"He mustn't guess anything of the kind until the end of the time. You +must even never mention the word poetry. It would neither be fair to +him, nor wise for ourselves. What we have to do is to make ourselves so +charming and interesting that at the end of the three weeks he will want +to help us as much as we want to be helped. I understand how to manage +old gentlemen I've had experience, you see, in rather a difficult +school. Poor father! I must run down to comfort him before I go to +bed. I feel sure he is sitting in the library, puffing away at his +pipe, and feeling absolutely retched. He always does after he has been +cross." + +Ronald's face hardened with youthful disapproval. "Why should you pity +him? It's his own fault." + +"That makes it all the harder, for he has remorse to trouble him, as +well as disappointment. You must not be hard on the pater, Ron. +Remember he has looked forward to having you with him in business ever +since you were born, and it is awfully hard on him to be disappointed +just when he is beginning to feel old and tired, and would be glad of a +son's help. It is not easy to give up the dream of twenty years!" + +Ronald felt conscience-stricken. He knew in his own heart that he would +find it next to impossible to relinquish his own dawning ambitions, and +the thought silenced his complaints. He looked at his sister and smiled +his peculiarly sweet smile. + +"You have a wide heart, Margot. It can sympathise with both plaintiff +and defendant at the same time." + +"Why, of course!" asserted Margot easily. "I love them both, you see, +and that makes things easy. Go to bed, dear boy, and dream of Glenaire! +Your chance is coming at the eleventh hour." + +The light flashed in the lad's eyes as he bent his head for the good- +night kiss--a light of hope and expectation, which was his sister's best +reward. + +Ron had worked, fretted, and worried of late, and his health itself +might break down under the strain, for his constitution was not strong. +During one long, anxious year there had been fear of lung trouble, and +mental agitation of any kind told quickly upon him. Margot's thoughts +flew longingly to the northern glen where the wind blew fresh and cool +over the heather, with never a taint of smoke and grime to mar its God- +given purity. All that would be medicine indeed, after the year's +confinement in the murky city! Ron would lift up his head again, like a +plant refreshed with dew; body and mind alike would then expand in +jubilant freedom. + +Margot crept down the darkened staircase, treading with precaution as +she passed her sister's room. The hall beneath was in utter darkness, +for it was against Agnes's economical instincts to leave a light burning +after eleven o'clock, even for the convenience of the master of the +house. When Mr Vane demurred, she pointed out that it was the easiest +thing in the world for him to put a match to the candle which was left +waiting for his use, and that each electric light cost--she had worked +it all out, and mentioned a definite and substantial sum which would be +wasted by the end of the year if the light were allowed to burn in hall +or staircase while he enjoyed his nightly read and smoke. + +"Would you wish this money to be wasted?" she asked calmly; and thus +questioned, there was no alternative but to reply in the negative. It +would never do for the head of the house to pose as an advocate of +extravagance; but all the same he was irritated by the necessity, and +with Agnes for enforcing it. + +Margot turned the handle of the door and stood upon the threshold +looking across the room. + +It was as she had imagined. On the big leather chair beside the +tireless grate sat Mr Vane, one hand supporting the pipe at which he +was drearily puffing from time to time, the other hanging limp and idle +by his side. Close at hand stood his writing-table, the nearer corner +piled high with books, papers, and reviews, but to-night they had +remained undisturbed. The inner tragedy of the man's own life had +precluded interest in outside happenings. He wanted his wife! That was +the incessant cry of his heart, which, diminished somewhat by the +passage of the years, awoke to fresh intensity at each new crisis of +life! The one love of his youth and his manhood; the dearest, wisest, +truest friend that was ever sent by God to be the helpmeet of man--why +had she been taken from him just when he needed her most, when the +children were growing up, and her son, the longed-for Benjamin, was at +his most susceptible age? It was a mystery which could never be solved +this side of the grave. As a Christian Mr Vane hung fast to the belief +that love and wisdom were behind the cloud; but, though his friends +commented on his bravery and composure, no one but himself knew at what +a cost his courage was sustained. Every now and then, when the longing +was like an ache in his soul, and when he felt weary and dispirited, and +irritated by the self-will of the children who were children no longer, +then, alas! he was apt to forget himself, and to utter bitter, hasty +words which would have grieved _her_ ears, if she had been near to +listen. After each of these outbreaks he suffered tortures of remorse +and loneliness, realising that by his own deed he had alienated his +children; grieving because they did not, could not understand! + +Except, perhaps, Margot! Margot, the third little daughter, whose +coming in the place of the much-desired boy had been a keen +disappointment to both parents. The mother had been doubly tender to +the child, as if to compensate for that passing pang; but Mr Vane +recalled with contrition that he himself had remained indifferent and +neglectful until two or three years later, when at last Ronald had made +his tardy appearance. Then ensued constant visits to the nursery, to +examine the progress of the son and heir; and after the daily +questioning and inspection it was impossible to resist bestowing some +little attention on the bewitching curly-headed, chubby-cheeked little +damsel who clung to his trouser leg, and raised entreating eyes from the +altitude of his knee. Mr Vane felt guiltily conscious of having +neglected this child, and now in the content of gratified ambition he +proceeded to make good that neglect by petting her to her heart's +desire, until as time went on it became an open question whether his +daily visits were not paid even more to the girl than to the boy. +Ronald remained his father's pride, but Margot was his joy, his pet,--in +years to come his comfort and companion. + +There was more of the dead mother in this last daughter than in either +of the elder sisters; she had her mother's gift of insight and +understanding. + +This was not the first time of many that she had crept downstairs after +the household was in bed, to play David to his Saul, and to-night, as he +turned his eyes to the doorway and recognised her slight figure, it was +not surprise which he felt, but rather a shamed and uneasy +embarrassment. "Margot! It's very late! Why are you not in bed?" + +She shut the door and crossed the room to his side. + +"I wanted to talk to you!" + +"To remonstrate, I suppose, for what I said at supper! You and Ron are +angry, no doubt, and feel yourselves badly used. You have come to fight +his battles, as usual." + +"No. I don't want to fight at all. Just to talk to you a little while, +and say I'm sorry." + +She seated herself on the arm of his chair as she spoke, and leant her +shoulder carelessly against his; but he edged away, still sore and +suspicious. + +"Sorry for what?" + +"For you! Because _you're_ sorry. Because I knew you'd be sitting +alone, doing nothing else but being sorry. So I came down to put my +arms round your dear old neck, and kiss your dear old head, and tell you +that I love you. Badly!" + +Yes! Margot understood. In just such pretty simple words would his own +Margaret have chased away the black spirit years ago. Mr Vane puffed +at his pipe, staring fixedly across the room, to conceal the sudden +moistening of his eyes, but his figure sank back into its old place, no +longer repulsing the caress. + +"It's a hard task for a lonely man to manage a family of children. He +gets all the kicks, and none of the thanks!" + +"That's exaggeration, dear--which you are always protesting against in +others. We are tiresome and self-willed, but we know very well how much +we owe to you, and your care for us. It hurts us as much as it hurts +you when we disagree; but we've got to live our own lives, father!" + +"And you imagine that you know better how to set about it than a man who +has lived more than twice as long, and has had ten times the +experience?" + +Margot hesitated. + +"In a way--no; in a way--_yes_! We know ourselves, daddy, as even you +cannot do, and it is impossible for one person, however kind and wise he +may be, to lay down the law as to what is to be the object of other +lives. We all have our own ambitions; what could satisfy one, would +leave another empty and aching. Agnes, for instance, and me! How +different we are! Her idea of happiness would be a house worked by +machinery, where every hour the same things happened at precisely the +same moment, and there were never any cataracts and breaks, and nobody +ever came down late to breakfast. _I_ should like to have breakfast in +bed, and a new excitement every single day! We are not all cut out of +one pattern, and we are not children any longer, dear. Sometimes you +forget that. When _you_ were twenty-three, you were married, and had a +home of your own." + +"Ron is not twenty-one." + +"When you were twenty-one, did you want your own way, or were you +willing for other people to decide for you?" + +Mr Vane sighed, and moved his head impatiently. + +"Here we are back again at the same old argument! It's waste of time, +Margot. I can't alter my ideas, but I'll try to keep a tighter rein +over myself for the next few months. We mustn't have any more scenes +like to-night." + +"No." Margot spoke as gravely as himself. "We mustn't, daddy, for your +sake as well as ours, and therefore I think it wise to remove the cause +of your irritation. You said we might go away to the country together, +Ron and I, and we have decided on Scotland--on a glen in Perthshire, six +miles from the nearest station, where the landlady of a quaint little +inn takes in a few boarders. It will be very primitive, I expect, and +we shall live on cream and porridge and mountain air, and grow brown and +bonnie, and study Nature as we have never had a chance of doing before. +Six miles from a station, daddy! There's seclusion, if you like!" + +Mr Vane knitted his brow, uncertain whether to approve or object. + +"How did you come to hear of this place, if it is so out of the world?" + +"Jack heard of some people who like it so much that they have gone back +again and again." Margot paused for a moment, and then added +resolutely, "They go to fish. Probably they will be there again this +summer. They are two brothers--one of them is quite old. I don't know +anything about the other. Of course, wherever we stay we shall meet +other people--but you don't mind that, do you, dear? You can trust us +not to associate with any one who is not what you would approve?" + +"Oh yes. I am not afraid of you in that way, and Ron is sensible enough +where you are concerned. He'll take care of you. I wouldn't allow you +to stay at a big hotel without Agnes or some older woman, but you are +welcome to your little inn, if it takes your fancy. If it rains all +day, in Highland fashion, Ronald may discover that there are +compensations even in Regent's Park. How soon are you off?" + +"The middle of June, if all's well, and we'll stay on as long as we are +happy and enjoying ourselves. Then there will be your holiday to +consider, dear. I thought it would be such a good idea if you took Jack +with you, while I went to the seaside with Edith and the boys. Jack and +you agree so well, and have so many tastes in common. You would make +splendid _compagnons de voyage_!" + +Mr Vane drew back in his chair to stare at her beneath frowning brows. + +"If there is one thing in this world more objectionable than another, +it's a managing woman!" he cried emphatically. "Don't you develop into +one, Margot, if you wish to keep any influence over me. I've seen +danger signals once or twice lately, and I tell you plainly--I won't +stand it! Be satisfied with what you have gained, and carry Ron away to +your Highland glen, but leave my holiday alone, if you please. I'm +quite capable of choosing a companion for myself if I need one." + +"Yes, dear," said Margot meekly; but her smile showed no sign of +contrition. She had heard this terrible indictment times without +number, but as yet there had come no waning of her influence. As she +felt her way carefully up the dark staircase a few minutes later, she +smiled to herself with complacent satisfaction; for not only had the +Scotch trip received the parental sanction, but the first step was taken +towards securing a holiday for poor tired Jack. Mr Vane might protest, +but the idea once suggested would take root in his mind, and by the time +that it developed into action he would imagine that it was entirely his +own inspiration. What did it matter? For Jack's sake even more than +his own it was better that he should be so deluded; and Margot was +happily above the littleness of desiring to monopolise the credit for +her ideas. So long as a point was gained, she was more than content to +remain inconspicuously in the background. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +PREPARATIONS. + +Every one said that it would rain. It was most depressing. You had +only to mention that you intended to spend your summer holiday in a +Highland glen, to set the torrent of warning in full flow. "It will +rain all the time.--It always rains in Scotland... You will be +soaked... You will be starved... You will feel as if you have gone +back to winter. You will miss all the summer in the South... You will +get rheumatism... You will be bored to death." On and on it went, each +newcomer adding volume to the chorus, until it became quite difficult to +remember that one was starting on a pleasure trip, and not on a perilous +Arctic exploration. + +"Take plenty of wraps!" urged the wise ones. "Don't imagine that you +will be able to wear pretty white things, as you do at home. Take old +things that don't matter, for no one will see you, and you will never +want to wear them again. You will shiver round the fire in the +evenings. Be sure to take rugs. You won't have half enough blankets on +the bed. I was in the Highlands for a month two years ago, and we had +one fine day!" + +"Well!" queried Margot of this last Job's comforter, "and what was +_that_ like? Were you glad that you were there for that one day at +least?" + +The speaker paused, and over her face there passed a wave of +illuminating recollection. She was a prosaic, middle-aged woman, but +for the moment she looked young,--young and ardent. + +"Ah!" she sighed. "That day! It was wonderful; I shall never forget +it. We went to bed cold and tired, looking forward to another dark, +depressing morning, and woke in a dazzle of sunlight, to see the +mountains outlined against a blue sky. We ran out into the road, and +held out our hands to the sun, and the wind blew towards us, the soft, +wet, heathery wind, and it tasted like--_nectar_! We could not go +indoors. We walked about all day, and laughed, and sang. We walked +miles. It seemed as if we could not tire. I--I think we were `fey.'" +She paused again, and the light flickered out, leaving her cold and +prosaic once more. "The rest of the time was most unfortunate. I +contracted a severe chill, and my sister-in-law had rheumatism in her +ankles. Now, my dear, be sure to take good strong boots--" + +Margot and Ronald listened politely to all the good advice which was +lavished upon them, but, after the manner of youth, felt convinced that +in their case precautions were needless. It was going to be fine. If +it had been wet in previous years, all the more reason why this coming +summer should be warm and dry. The sun was going to shine; the clouds +were going to roll away; Mr Elgood was going to fall in love with Ron +at first sight, and prove himself all that was wise, and kind, and +helpful. Delightful optimism of youth, which is worth more than all the +wisdom of maturer years! + +Margot set about her preparations unhampered by the financial troubles +which befall less fortunate girls. Her father was lavishly generous to +his favourite daughter, supplementing her dress allowance by constant +gifts. It was one of his greatest pleasures in life to see his pretty +Margot prettily attired, a pleasure in which the young lady herself +fully concurred. She had too much good taste to transport all the +frills and fripperies of London to a Highland glen; but, on the other +hand, she set her face firmly against the mustard-coloured tweeds +affected by so many women for country wear, choosing instead a soft dull +blue, a hundred times more becoming. For headgear there was a little +cap of the same material, with a quill feather stuck jauntily through a +fold at the side, while neat, strong little boots and a pair of doeskin +gloves gave a delightfully business-like air to the costume. In the +rug-strap was a capacious golf cloak, displaying a bright plaid lining. +This was waiting in readiness for the six-mile drive at the end of the +journey, and inside the large dress-box was a selection of well-chosen +garments--a white serge coat and skirt for bright weather; cottons and +lawns for the warm days that must surely come; a velveteen dress for +chilly evenings, blouses galore, and even a fur-lined cloak. Margot +felt a thrill of wondering satisfaction in her own prudence, as she +packed this latter garment, on a hot June day, with the scent of roses +filling the room from the vase on the toilet table. + +She packed sketching materials also, plenty of fancy-work destined to +provide presents for the coming Christmas, a selection of sixpenny +novels, and one or two pet classics from her own library, which +travelled about with her wherever she went. + +Ronald's preparations were more easy, for surely no stock-in-trade is so +simple as that of an author! His favourite stylographic pen, his +favourite note-book, and that was an end of it so far as work was +concerned. He took his half-plate camera with him, however; and the two +handsome free-wheel bicycles were carefully swathed for the journey. + +"I can't understand why you couldn't be content to go to some nice +south-country place, instead of travelling to the other end of the +country in this dusty weather," Agnes opined, as she assiduously fixed +the label to every separate piece of the luggage which was piled +together in the hall. "It's so foolish to waste time and money when +there are nice places at hand. Now, there's Cromer--" + +"You don't get heather-clad mountains at Cromer, Agnes, and we shan't +have promenades at Glenaire, nor bands, nor crowds of fashionable people +quizzing each other all day long. We prefer the real, true, genuine +country." + +"Oh, well, you'll be tired of it soon enough! Margot will hate it. We +shall have you hurrying back at the end of a fortnight, bored to death. +I don't think that lock of yours is quite safe, Margot. I shouldn't +wonder if you found some things missing when you arrive. The guards +have a splendid chance on these all-night journeys," prophesied Agnes +cheerfully. She stared in surprise when Margot burst into a peal of +laughter, and repeated, "Poor old Agnes!" as if she, secure and +comfortable at home, were the one to be pitied, instead of the careless +travellers into the unknown! + +The sisters kissed each other in perfunctory manner, Ron shook hands, +and nodded vaguely in response to half a dozen injunctions and +reminders; then the travellers took their places in the cab, bending +forward to wave their adieux, looking extraordinarily alike the while-- +young and eager and handsome, with the light of the summer sun reflected +in their happy eyes. + +Agnes felt a little chill as she shut the door and walked back into the +quiet house. All the morning she had looked forward to the hours of +peace and quietness which would follow the departure of the two children +of the household; but now that the time had arrived she was conscious of +an unwonted feeling of depression. The sound of that last pitying, +"Poor old Agnes!" rang in her ears. Why "poor"? Why should Margot +speak of her as some one to be pitied? As her father's eldest unmarried +daughter and the mistress of the house, she was surely a person to be +approved and envied. And yet, recalling those two vivid, radiant faces, +Agnes dimly felt that there was something in life which Margot and Ron +had found, and she herself had missed. + +"I don't understand!" she repeated to herself with wrinkled brows. A +vague depression hung over her spirits; she thought uneasily of her +years, and wondered if she were growing old, unconscious of the fact +that she had never yet succeeded in being young. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +GLENAIRE. + +Margot and Ronald slept through their long journey with the fortitude of +youth, enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Perth, took train again for a +couple of hours, and finally set out on the last and most enjoyable +stage of their journey--the six-mile drive to the head of Glenaire. + +The first portion of the road gave little promise of beauty, but with +every mile that was traversed the scenery began to assume a wilder and a +sterner aspect. The mountains were high and bare, with few trees upon +their banks, except here and there a patch of dark green firs. When the +sun retired behind a cloud they looked somewhat grim and forbidding, but +as it emerged from the shelter they became in a moment a soft, blooming +purple; a wonder of beauty against the high, blue sky. In the valley +were rolling plains of meadowland, of richest, most verdant green, with +here and there a blaze of golden gorse or of thickly-growing rushes, to +mark the presence of hidden water. + +At long intervals was seen a little white cottage, set back from the +road, where some lonely shepherd tended his sheep; and, at the sound of +wheels, little linty-headed children would rush out to the gate, and +stand gazing at the strangers with big round eyes, which looked light +against the tan of their faces. + +What a life for young and old to live all the year round, looking out on +the grim bare hills; alone with God and Nature, and the dumb, patient +animals! Day after day alone, in a little niche between grey rocks; +alone in the summer-time, when the winds blew soft, and the buttercups +made splashes of gold across the green; alone in the winter, when the +mountains seemed to shut out the light, and the snow lay deep on the +ground. + +Margot looked with a shudder at the tall poles set here and there along +the road. She had inquired as to their purpose, and had been informed +that they were so placed to act as landmarks; for when the drifts lay +deep, the ends of the poles served to point out the direction of the +road, whereas without their aid the traveller would of a certainty be +lost on the moors. Poor little linty-locked ones, imprisoned in the +tiny cot in those bitter days! + +Margot's thoughts flew homeward, to the well-kept roads near her own +home; to the grumbling and indignation of the family, if perchance a +recent fall of snow had not been swept away as speedily as might be: +"The road was thick with mud. Impossible to cross without splashing +one's shoes. The snow was left to melt on the pavement--disgraceful!" +The Southerner railed at the discomfort of a greasy roadway; the +Northerner was thankful to escape death by the aid of a warning pole! + +Suddenly and unexpectedly the road took a quick swerve to the right, and +lo, a narrow glen leading apparently into the very heart of the +mountains. + +Glenaire village at last! A little group of cottages, two whitewashed +kirks, a schoolhouse, a post office, a crowded emporium where everything +was to be purchased, from a bale of wincey to a red herring or a coil of +rope; a baker's shop, sending forth a warm and appetising odour; a +smithy, through the open door of which came out a glare of heat, +astonishingly welcome after the long, chill drive; bare-footed children +playing at tares by the wayside; an old man in a plaid, smoking a pipe +and turning on the new arrivals a kindly, weather-beaten face,--these +were the impressions left on Margot's mind as the horses put on an extra +spurt, knowing full well that rest and food were near at hand. + +After the little group of houses there came another stretch of road for +perhaps three-quarters of a mile; a road which wound along between +moorland on the right, and on the left a straggling tarn, thickly +surrounded by rushes. The cone-shaped mountain at the head of the glen +towered ever nearer and nearer, until it seemed as if it must be +impossible to drive a hundred yards farther. Seen in the broad light of +a summer afternoon it was wonderfully beautiful; but it was a wild and +lonesome spot, and, given cloud or rain, its very grandeur and isolation +would increase the sense of gloom. + +Margot had time to shiver at an imaginary picture before an exclamation +from Ron attracted her attention. There it stood! the little white inn, +nestled beneath the shelter of a rock, so near to the head of the glen +that the road came to an abrupt ending but a few yards farther on. A +door in the middle; two small-paned windows on either side; a row of +five windows overhead; to the right a garden stocked with vegetables and +a tangle of bright-coloured flowers; to the left the stable-yard. This +was the Nag's Head, and in the doorway stood the redoubtable Mrs McNab +herself, staring with steely eyes at the daring feminine intruder. + +The one overpowering impression made by Mrs McNab was cleanliness! She +was so obtrusively, aggressively, immaculately clean, that the like of +her had never before dazzled the eyes of the benighted Southern +visitors. Her lilac print gown was glossy from the press of the iron; +the hands folded across the snowy apron were puffed and lined from +recent parboiling; her face shone like a mirror from a generous use of +good yellow soap. White stockings showed above her black felt slippers; +her hair--red streaked with grey--was plastered down on each side of her +head, and, for greater security, tied with a broad black ribbon. A +stiff white collar was fastened by a slab of pebble rimmed in silver, +which proudly imagined itself to be an ornamental brooch. There was not +a single feminine curve in her body; stiff and square she stood, like a +sentinel on guard, her lips pressed into a thin line; in her eyes a +smouldering flame. + +Margot took her in, with one swift comprehensive glance, as the driver +reined up his tired horses before the door. A temper; a quick temper, a +temper easily provoked, but a kindly woman nevertheless. No country +bumpkin, but a shrewd, capable business woman, with two light blue eyes +fixed stolidly on the main chance; a woman, moreover, blessed with a +sense of humour; else why those deep lines stretching from nose to chin; +that radiating nest of wrinkles round the eyes? + +Margot's courage revived at the sight. She sprang down lightly from her +perch and advanced towards the house, smiling in her most fascinating +manner. + +"How do you do, Mrs McNab? We have arrived, you see. So glad to be +here at last!" + +The mistress of the inn stared into her face, stolidly unmoved. + +"It was two brithers I was expecting. I'm no caring for leddies!" + +"You like gentlemen better? Oh, so do I--_Much_!" cried Margot with a +gush. "But they need us to look after them, don't they? My brother is +not at all strong. The drive has been delightful, but rather cold, all +the same. I am afraid he may be chilled." She stretched out a little +ungloved hand, and laid it lightly on the hard red fist. "Feel! We +_should_ love some tea!" + +Mrs McNab looked down at the delicate little hand, up into the pleading +eyes, and over her set square face there passed a contortion,--there is +really no other word to describe it,--a contortion of unwilling +amusement. The chin dropped, the lips twitched, the red lines which did +duty for eyebrows wrinkled towards the nose. Similarly affected, an +Irishwoman would have invoked all the saints in her calendar, and rained +welcomes and blessings in a breath; an Englishwoman would have smiled a +gracious welcome; but Mrs McNab drew away from the beguiling touch, +turned a broad back on her guests, and with a curt "Come yer ways!" led +the way into the house. + +Behind her back Margot beamed and grimaced triumphantly to her +confederate. Victory was in the air! Mrs McNab could not refuse to +grant a night's shelter to a tired and chilly traveller, and by to- +morrow--Margot smiled to herself, recalling the contortion of the dour +Scotch face,--by to-morrow she was complacently satisfied that Mrs +McNab would no longer wish to be rid of her unexpected guest! + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE BROTHERS ELGOOD. + +Inside the inn a mingling of odours greeted the nostrils. Furniture +polish, soft soap, various whiffs from the bar, which by good fortune +opened into the stable-yard, and was distinct from the house itself; a +sweet, heavy odour of milk from the dairy; a smell of musk from the +plants ranged along the window-sills. In the dining-room the tablecloth +was laid, with a large home-cured ham in the place of honour. The floor +was covered with oilcloth; the furniture was covered with horsehair. On +the mantelpiece stood two large specimens of granite, and a last year's +almanac. Red rep curtains were draped across the window, so as to +conceal all the view except a glimpse of the road. The walls were hung +with a fearsome paper, in which bouquets of deep blue flowers were +grouped on a background of lozenges of an orange hue. Over the +mantelpiece hung a coloured print of Queen Victoria; over the sideboard +a print entitled "Deerstalking," representing two Highlanders in plaids +and bonnets standing over the prostrate form of a "monarch of the +waste." In the corner by the window were massed together quite an +imposing collection of "burial cards," memorialising McNab connections +dead and gone, all framed to match in black bands with silver beadings. + +Anything less homelike and inviting can hardly be imagined to welcome +tired travellers at the end of a long and chilly journey. Margot +shivered as she crossed the portals, and rubbed her hands together in +disconsolate fashion, even her cheery optimism failing at the sight. + +"It's so--_slippery_!" was the mental comment. "What an appalling room +to sit in! What must it be like in bad weather! And no fire! We'd die +of cold if we sat here all the evening. If the worst comes to the +worst, I'll hug my hot bottle. What a mercy I remembered to bring it!" + +Mrs McNab was speaking in hard, aloof accents, after the manner of one +who, having been interrupted in her work by unwelcome intruders, is +still determined to perform her duty toward them, as a matter of +distasteful necessity. Shades of the obsequious landladies of the +South! The tired guests quailed before the severity of this Northern +welcome. + +"If it's tea you're wanting, the kettle's on the hob. It will be +waiting for you before ye're ready for it. Ye'll be wanting a wash, I'm +thinking." + +It was a statement, not a question, and, in response to it, brother and +sister meekly ascended the staircase to the rooms allotted to their use +in the front of the house--two whitewashed cribs, provided with nothing +which was not absolutely necessary; a small, white-covered bed; a wooden +chest of drawers, made to do duty for a dressing-table also, by the +presence of a small mirror set fair and square in the middle of a +coarse-grained mat; a few pegs on the wall, a deal washstand, and a +couple of chairs--that was all; but everything was exquisitely clean and +orderly, and what did one want with luxurious upholstery when a peep +through the open windows revealed a view which sent the blood racing +through the veins in very ecstasy of delight? Purple mountains and a +blue sky; golden yellow of gorse--a silver sheet of water, reflecting +the dark fringe of the pines--it was wonderfully, incredibly beautiful +in the clear afternoon light. + +Margot thrust her head out of the window, forgetful of cold and fatigue. +What joy to think of waking up every morning for a month to a scene +like this! Thirty mornings, and on every one of them the sun would +shine, and the air blow clear and sweet. She would put on her thick, +nailed boots, and clamber up the glen, to see what lay at the other side +of the pass; she would take her sketching materials, and sit on that +sunny knoll, trying to make some sort of a picture to send home to the +poor father in his smoky prison-house. On hot days she would wade in +the cool grey tarn... + +The little maid was knocking at the door, and announcing that tea was +ready, while Margot was still weaving her rose-coloured dreams. It was +a cold douche in more ways than one, to return to the depressing +atmosphere of the dining-room, but the meal itself was tempting and +plentiful. Scones and toast, eggs and strawberry-jam, besides the solid +flank of ham, and, better than all, plenty of delicious cream and fresh +butter. + +Margot poured out tea for herself and Ron, and, taking the hot-water-jug +on her knee, warmed her numbed hands on it as she ate. For the first +five or ten minutes no time was wasted in talking; then, the first pangs +of hunger being appeased, the two young people began to compare +impressions. + +"Do you suppose this is the only sitting-room? Do you suppose we shall +have to sit here in the evenings and when it rains? Fancy a long wet +day, Ron, shining on horsehair chairs, with your feet on an oil-clothed +floor, gazing at funeral cards! I should go to bed!" + +"It wouldn't be a bad idea. Rest cure, you know! If we are very +energetic in fine weather, we may be glad of a rest; but there _is_ +another room. I caught sight of a sanctuary filled with woollen mats +and wax flowers, with a real live piano in the corner. `The best +parlour,' I should say, and the pride of Mrs McNab's heart. I don't +know if she will allow you to enter." + +"She will; but she won't have a fire. It has been spring-cleaned, and +has a waterfall of green paper in the grate--I can see it all!" Margot +declared, with a shudder. She hugged the hot-water-jug still closer, +and shivered expressively. "I shall be obliged to raid the kitchen-- +there's nothing else for it!" + +"You daren't!" + +Margot laughed derisively, but her answer was checked by the sudden +appearance of a man's figure pacing slowly past the window. Brother and +sister sprang from their chairs, with a simultaneous impulse, rushed +across the room, and crouched behind the moreen curtains. "Is it?" they +queried breathlessly of each other--"Mr Elgood? Can it be?" + +If it were Mr Elgood, he was certainly not imposing, so far as looks +were concerned. A dumpy little man, of forty years or more, dressed in +a baggy suit of grey tweed, with carpet slippers on his dumpy little +feet. He had evidently started out of the inn to enjoy a smoke in the +open air, sublimely unconscious of the scrutiny that was levelled upon +him the while. His uncovered head showed a large bald patch, his face +was round and of a cherubic serenity. + +"I could twist him round like a teetotum!" whispered Margot, holding up +a pert first finger and peering complacently. + +"He looks terribly commonplace!" sighed Ronald disconsolately. "Not in +the least the sort of man I expected." + +Together they peered and peeped, ducking behind the curtains as the +stranger approached, and gazing out again the moment his back was +turned. Every now and then he halted in his promenade, stuck his hands +inside his baggy pockets, and tilted slowly to and fro on the points of +his carpeted toes. Anon he took his pipe from his mouth, and blew out +big whiffs of smoke, glancing around the while with an expression of +beatific contentment. The whole appearance of the man was an embodiment +of the holiday spirit, the unrestrained enjoyment of one who has escaped +from work, and sees before him a pageant of golden idle hours. Margot +and Ronald smiled in sympathy even as they looked. He was a plain +little man, a fat little man, a middle-aged little man, but they +recognised in him the spirit of abiding youth, and recognising, felt +their hearts warm towards him. + +"He is nice, Ron, after all! I like him!" + +"So do I. A capital chap. But he can't possibly be Elgood of the +_Loadstar_." + +Even as he spoke the last word the door was thrown suddenly open, and +Mrs McNab entered, carrying a plate of hot scones. She stopped short +to stare in surprise, while the two new arrivals hurried back to the +table, obviously discomposed at being discovered playing the part of +Peeping Tom. + +Seated once more before the tea-tray, Margot made an effort at +composure; decided that honesty was the best policy, and said in her +most charming manner-- + +"We were looking at the gentleman who is walking up and down! Another +of your guests, I suppose? It is interesting to see people who are +staying in the same house." + +Mrs McNab planted the scones in the centre of the table, and gathered +together the soiled plates with a wooden stolidity. To all appearances +she might not have heard a word that had been said. Margot seized the +hot-water-jug, and shivered ostentatiously, trusting to pity to prevail +where guile had failed; and sure enough the pale blue eye turned on her +like a flash of steel. + +"What's ailing ye with the water-jug?" + +"I'm ailing myself!" returned Margot meekly. "So cold! I can't get +warm. Tired out after the long journey." + +She tried her best to look delicate and fragile, but the healthy bloom +on her cheeks contradicted her words, and the landlady's reply showed no +softening of heart. + +"Cramped, more like! Better go ye're ways for a guid sharp trot, to +bring the blood back to your veins. Ye'll be in time for the +afternoon's post; but unless ye're expecting news of your own, ye needna +fash for the rest. Mr Elgood's gane to fetch them." + +"Mr Elgood?" Information had come at last, and in the most unexpected +fashion. "The gentleman we have been watching?" + +The thin lips lifted with a suspicion of scorn. + +"Oh, him! That's just the brither. The real Mr Elgood's away till the +village. You passed it on the road." + +She disappeared into the "lobby," and brother and sister nodded at each +other solemnly, the while they munched the hot buttered scones. + +"We'll go! As soon as we have finished. I long to see what he is like. +I'm glad it is not--" Margot nodded towards the window, and Ron +assented with a lofty superiority-- + +"Yes--he is not the type! A good sort, no doubt, but hardly an +intellectual leader. One could not imagine him writing those grand +articles." + +"He may be useful, though, for he looks a friendly little soul, and if +we get intimate with him we must know his brother, too... These scones +are the most delectable things! Do you think She will be shocked if we +eat them all? I feel a conviction that I shall get into the way of +calling her `She'--with a capital S. `She who must be obeyed!' I +thought She would be softened by the sight of me hugging the jug, and +offer to light a fire at once; but not a bit of it! Her cure was much +more drastic. I'll accept it this time, as it suits my purpose, but +when to-morrow comes,--we'll see!" + +Margot nodded her head meaningly, pushed her chair back from the table, +and picked up the golf cape which lay over the back of a chair. "After +all, I believe `She' is right! It will do us good to have a scamper, +and the unpacking can wait until the light goes." She peered discreetly +through the window, and held up a detaining hand. "Wait a moment until +the `Brither' has turned back towards the village. Then we'll sally out +of the door and meet him face to face." + +Ron picked up his grey cap,--a coat he disdained, though he also was far +from warm,--and followed his sister into the bare entrance-hall, with +its pungent mingling of odours. From the back of the house could be +heard the jangling of milk-pails, and a feminine voice raised in shrill +invective; but no one was in sight, and the conspirators emerged unseen +from the door of the inn, and turned to the left, endeavouring somewhat +unsuccessfully to appear unconscious of the approaching figure. + +"Good afternoon! Good afternoon!" cried the stranger, in a full genial +voice. + +"Good afternoon!" cried the confederates, in eager response; then they +passed by, and were conscious, by the cessation of the crunching +footsteps, that the "Brither" had halted to look after them as they +went. + +"He likes our looks! He is going to be friendly... I don't wonder!" +soliloquised Margot, looking with fond eyes at the tall figure of the +youth by her side; at the clean-cut, sensitive face beneath the +deerstalker cap. + +"He was pleased to see us. All men admire Margot," said Ron to himself, +noting with an artist's appreciation the picture made by the graceful +figure of the girl, with her vivid, healthful colouring, the little cap +set jauntily on her chestnut locks, the breeze showing glimpses of the +bright tartan lining of her cloak. + +Starting under such promising auspices, brother and sister merrily +continued their way along the winding road which skirted the border of +the tarn. Fresh from London smoke and grime, the clear mountain air +tasted almost incredibly pure and fresh. One wanted to open the mouth +wide and drink it in in deep gulps; to send it down to the poor clogged +lungs,--most marvellous and reviving of tonics! + +"It makes me feel--_clean_!" gasped Margot, at the end of a deep +respiration, and Ron's eyes lighted with the inward glow which showed +that imagination was perfecting the idea. + +Margot loved to watch the lad at moments like these, when he strode +along, forgetful of her presence, oblivious of everything but his own +thoughts; his face set, save for those glowing eyes, and now and then an +involuntary twitch of the lips. In her own poor way she could grasp the +trend of his mind, could toil after him as he flew. + +That word "clean" had suggested wonderful thoughts. God's wind, blowing +fresh over the ageless hills, untainted by the soil of the city; the +wind of the moorland and the heights! Must not a man's soul perforce be +clean who lived alone in the solitude with God? Dare he remain alone in +that awful companionship with a taint upon his life?... + +Ronald dreamt, and Margot pondered, making no excuses for the silence +which is a sign of truest understanding, until the scattered village +came in sight, and curiosity awakened once more. + +"Why did they have two churches, I wonder? There can't be enough people +to fill even one, and every one is Presbyterian in the Highlands. Why +don't they all meet together?" cried Margot, in her ignorance. + +At the door of the outlying cottages the fair-haired matrons stood to +stare at the new arrivals. They all seemed fresh and rosy, and of an +exquisite cleanliness; they each bore a linty-haired infant in their +arms, or held by the hand a toddling mite of two or three summers; but +they made no sign of welcome, and, when Margot smiled and nodded in her +friendly fashion, either retreated hastily into the shadow, or responded +in a manner painfully suggestive of Mrs McNab's contortion. Then came +the scattered shops; the baker's, the draper's, (fancy being condemned +to purchase your whole wardrobe in that dreary little cell!) the grocer +and general emporium in the middle of the row; last of all, the post +office and stationer's shop combined. + +Brother and sister cast a swift glance down the road, but there was no +male figure in sight which could by any possibility belong to a visitor +from the South. + +"You go in, and I'll mount guard at the door. Buy some postcards to +send home!" suggested Ron; and, nothing loath, Margot entered the little +shop, glancing round with a curious air. There was no other customer +but herself; but a queer little figure of a man stood behind the +counter, sorting packets of stationery. He turned his head at her +approach, and displayed a face thickly powdered with freckles of +extraordinary size and darkness. Margot was irresistibly reminded of an +advertisement of "The Spotted Man," which she had once seen in a +travelling circus, and had some ado to restrain a start of surprise. +The eyes looking out between the hairless lids, looked like nothing so +much as a pair of larger and more animated freckles, and the hair was of +the same washed--out brown. Whether the curious-looking specimen was +fourteen or forty was at first sight a problem to decide, but a closer +inspection proved the latter age to be the more likely, and when Margot +smiled and wished him a cheery good afternoon, he responded with unusual +cordiality for an inhabitant of the glen. + +"Good efternoun to ye, mem! What may ye be seeking, the day?" + +Margot took refuge in the picture postcards, which afforded a good +excuse for deliberation. The great object was to dally in the post +office as long as possible, in the hope of meeting the real Mr Elgood; +and to this end she turned over several packets of views, making the +while many inquiries; and the spotted man was delighted to expatiate on +the beauties of his native land, the more so, as, presumably, it was not +often that so lavish a purchaser came his way. + +They were in the middle of the fourth packet of views, and the selected +pile of cards had reached quite a formidable height, when a familiar +whistle from the doorway started Margot into vivid attention, and a +minute later a tall dark man stepped hastily into the shop. + +What a marvellous thing is family likeness! In height, in complexion, +and feature alike this man appeared diametrically the opposite of the +stout little person encountered outside the inn; yet in his thin, +cadaverous face there was an intangible something which marked him out +as a child of the same parents. The brother on whom Margot was now +gazing was considerably the younger of the two, and might have been +handsome, given a trifle more flesh and animation. As it was, he looked +gaunt and livid, and his shoulders were rounded, as with much stooping +over a scholar's desk. + +"A fine big bundle for ye the day, Mister Elgood! I'm thinking the +whole of London is coming down upon ye," the postmaster declared +affably, as he handed over a formidable packet of letters. Envelopes +white and envelopes blue, long manuscript envelopes, which Margot +recognised with a reminiscent pang; rolled-up bundles of papers. The +stranger took them over with a thin hand, thrust them into the pockets +of his coat, with a muttered word of acknowledgment, and turned back to +the door. + +Now for the first time Margot stood directly in his path, and waited +with a thrill of curiosity and excitement to see whether he would echo +his brother's welcome. In this Highland glen the ordinary forms and +ceremonies of society were hopelessly out of place, and it seemed as if +perforce there must be an atmosphere of _camaraderie_ between the few +visitors whom Fate had thrown together in the spirit of holiday-making. + +Margot's prettiest smile and bow were in waiting to greet the faintest +flicker of animation on the grave, dark face, but it did not come. Mr +Elgood's deep-set eyes stared at her with an unseeing gaze--stared as it +were straight through her, without being conscious of her presence. She +might have been a chair, a table, a post of wood by the wayside, for all +the notice bestowed upon her by the man whose favour she had travelled +some hundreds of miles to obtain. + +Another moment and he had left the shop, leaving Margot to draw out her +purse and pay for her purchases in a tingling of pique and +disappointment. + +"That gentleman will be staying up at the Nag's Head with yourself," +vouchsafed the spotted postmaster affably. "A fine gentleman--a ferry +fine gentleman! They say he will be a ferry great man up in London. I +suppose you will be hearing of his name?" + +Margot's response was somewhat depressed in tone. + +"Yes. She had heard of Mr Elgood... She would take four, not five, +postcards of the Nag's Head. No; there was nothing else she was +needing. The two penny packets of notepaper were certainly very cheap, +the coloured tints and scalloped borders quite wonderful to behold; but +she did not require any to-day, thank you. Perhaps another time. Good +morning!" + +Outside in the road Ronald was pacing up and down, twirling his stick, +and looking bright and animated. He came hurrying back to meet Margot, +hardly waiting to reach her side before breaking into speech. + +"Well--well! You saw him? Did you notice the shape of his head? You +can see it all in his face--the force and the insight, the imagination. +The face of a scholar, and the body of a sportsman, A magnificent +combination! Did you notice his walk?" + +"Oh, I noticed him well enough. I noticed all there was to see. I have +no complaints to make about his appearance." + +"What have you to complain of then? What has gone wrong?" + +"He never noticed me!" + +Ron laughed; a loud boyish laugh of amusement! + +"Poor old Margot! That was it, was it? An unforgivable offence. He +lives up in the clouds, my dear; compared with him, you and I are +miserable little earth-worms crawling about the ground. It will take +some time before he is even aware of our presence. We will have to make +friends with the brother, and trust by degrees to make him conscious of +our existence. It's worth waiting for!" + +Ronald was plainly afire with enthusiastic admiration of his hero; but +for once Margot refused to be infected. + +"I'm not a worm!" she murmured resentfully. "Worm, indeed! I'm every +bit as good as he!" + +For twenty yards she walked on in silence, tilting her chin in petulant +scorn. Then-- + +"Do you remember the old story of Johnny-head-in-air, Ron?" she asked +mischievously. "He had a fall. A fall and a dousing! If he isn't very +careful, the same sad fate may await your wonderful Mr Elgood!" + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +AN EXCELLENT BEGINNING. + +Dinner was served at seven o'clock at the Nag's Head, and was a +substantial meal, consisting of spiced salt beef, gooseberry pie, and +cheese. Mrs McNab carved the joint at the sideboard, and directed the +movements of the maid by a series of glares which appeared to be fraught +with wondrous significance. + +"Brither Elgood" took the head of the table, and beamed upon his +companions with cherubic good-nature, while his brother sat on his left, +immersed in thought and his dinner. An elderly man with a strong +Glasgow accent came next, accompanied by a homely, kindly-looking wife. +(Margot sighed with relief to find that after all she was not the only +lady of the company). Across from them sat a bowed old man, wearing a +clerical collar with his tweed coat, and a thin, weedy-looking youth, +evidently his son. An eminently staid and respectable company, but +hardly of thrilling interest! + +Ronald's handsome, clear-cut face stood out like a cameo among them, +while Margot's fluffy net blouse looked a garment of superfine +smartness. There was no opportunity of talking to either of the +brothers Elgood, separated as they were by the length of the table. The +clergyman, Mr Moffat, remarked that it had been a fine day, an ex- +ceptionally fine day! Mrs Macalister, the Glasgow lady, handed the +mustard with the suggestion that it was always an improvement to a +boiled round; but with these thrilling exceptions the newcomers were +left to their own devices. Conversation even among the older residents +was spasmodic and intermittent, and in no sense could the meal be termed +sociable or cheerful. + +As soon as it was over "the real Mr Elgood" darted upstairs to his own +room, the remaining gentlemen strolled out of doors to smoke their +pipes, and Mrs Macalister escorted Margot to the best parlour across +the landing. + +It was a chill, yet fusty little apartment, the shrine of the +accumulated treasures of Mrs McNab's lifetime. Time was when she had +been cook to a family in Edinburgh, before McNab won her reluctant +consent to matrimony. Photographs of different members of "The Family" +were displayed in plush frames on the mantelpiece, table, and piano-top. +Mr Moncrieff in Sheriff's attire, "The Mistress" in black satin; +Master Percy in cap and gown, Miss Isabel reclining in a hammock, Master +Bunting and Miss Poppet in various stages of development. There was +also a framed picture of "The House"; a tambourine painted with purple +iris by Miss Isabel's own hands; an old bannerette in cross-stitch +pendent from the mantelpiece, a collection of paper mats, shaded from +orange to white, the glass-covered vase of wax flowers which had +attracted Ron's notice, one or two cheap china vases, a pot of musk +placed diametrically in the centre of a wicker table, a sofa, and two +"occasional chairs" gorgeously upholstered in red satin and green plush. + +Mrs Macalister seated herself in the larger of the chairs, Margot took +possession of the smaller, and heroically stifled a yawn. Another +evening she would wrap herself in her golf cape and go out into the +clear cool evening air; but now at last fatigue overpowered her; fatigue +and a little chill of disappointment and doubt. How would it be +possible to become intimate with a man who sat at the opposite end of +the table, shut himself in his own room, and was apparently oblivious of +his surroundings? With characteristic recklessness Margot had put on +her very prettiest blouse, hoping to make a good impression on this +first evening, but for all the attention it had received it might as +well have been black delaine! She sighed and yawned again, whereupon +Mrs Macalister manifested a kindly concern. + +"You're tired out, poor lassie! Ye've had a weary journey of it. From +London, I believe? I have a daughter married in Notting Hill. Will +that be anywhere near where you stay? I'm hoping she'll be up to visit +us in the New Year, and bring the baby with her. I have five children. +The eldest girl is settled in Glasgow. I say, that's something to be +thankful for, to have a married daughter near by. There was a young +lawyer paying her attention who's away to the Cape. If it had been him, +I'd have broken my heart! It's bad enough to have Lizzie in London, +where, if the worst comes to the worst, ye can get to her for thirty- +three shillings, but I couldn't bear one of my girls to go abroad..." + +"But the men have to go--it's their duty to the Empire; and somebody +must marry the poor things," Margot declared, still stifling yawns, but +roused to a sleepy interest in Lizzie and her sisters. She foresaw that +Mrs Macalister would need but the slightest encouragement to divulge +her entire family history, and wondered whether time would prove her to +be more of a solace or a bore. As a rule, she herself preferred to +monopolise the larger share of a conversation, but to-night she was too +tired to do more than offer the necessary remarks by the way. + +"Oh ay, that's right enough. I don't object to their marrying, so long +as it isn't one of my girls. I sent Isabel off on a visit to a school +friend when young Bailey began to grow particular. A mother can manage +these things, if she's any gumption, without letting the young people +suspect that there is any interference. They like their own way, young +people do, and Isabel is obstinate, like her father. Mr Macalister can +be led, but he'll never be driven. Ye have to ca' canny to get the +better of him." + +Margot murmured a few words of polite but somewhat vague import, being +rather puzzled to decide in what light she was expected to view Mr +Macalister's characteristics. It occurred to her that as the good lady +was determined to talk, the conversation might be carefully directed +into more interesting channels, and valuable information gleaned +concerning the other guests of the house. + +"Have you been staying here long? Are you going to make a long visit?" +she inquired; whereupon her companion began again with increased vigour. + +"We've been a matter of a week, and as for the future, it just depends! +Mr Macalister's been failing for the past year. He's just unduly set +on his business, and his nerves," (she pronounced it "nearves") "are in +a terrible condition. The doctor warned him he would have a collapse if +he didn't get a rest at once. `Take him away where he can't get letters +and telegrams every hour of the day,' he told me. `Take him to the +quietest place you can find, and keep him there as long as ye can!' So +here we are; but how long he'll put up with it, is past my knowledge. +He begins to weary already, and of course no man will ever believe that +any one else will take his place. They're conceited creatures, my dear. +Mr Macalister--" + +"It is nice for him having so many companions. I suppose you know the +other visitors quite well?" Margot felt that for one evening she had +heard as much as she cared for about Mr Macalister, and headed the +subject in the desired direction with unflinching determination. "The +Mr Elgood who took the head of the table seems very agreeable." + +"Oh ay, he's a friendly wee body!" Mrs Macalister allowed, +patronisingly. "There's no harm in him, nor in his brother neither, +though he keeps himself to himself, and is always busy with his fishing, +or writing, or what not. My husband went fishing with him one day, but +they didn't seem to hit it exactly. Mr Macalister is very genial-like +when he's in health, and he can't do with any one who's stand-off. He +always says--" + +"But Mrs McNab seems to prefer the younger brother. He must be nice, +or she would not like him so much," interrupted Margot once more; and +Mrs Macalister smiled with unruffled good-humour. + +"Oh ay, they're just two dour, silent bodies who understand each other +and each other's ways. He goes and has a crack with her now and then, +and I've even heard them laugh,"--her voice took an awed and incredulous +tone--"but at the table he never raises his voice. Mr Macalister says +he is very close. He couldn't get anything out of him at all, and all +his friends say Mr Macalister ought to have been a lawyer, for he's +just wonderful for getting to the bottom of things. Of course when a +man's run down, he isna at his best. Ye can't judge him, as I say, as +you can when he's in his usual--" + +Margot groaned in spirit! To keep Mr Macalister out of the +conversation was evidently a hopeless feat. She saw before her a long +succession of interviews when she would sit caged up in this little +room, listening to the expressions of his virtues and failings! To- +night she felt a moral conviction that she would soon fall asleep under +the strain, and making an excuse of writing home, escaped to her own +room, scribbled a few words on the back of a postcard, wrapped herself +in her golf cape, and went out into the road in search of Ron. + +It was still broad daylight, but now the sky was grey and colourless, +and the mountains had ceased to smile. Like grim watching sentinels +they stood on either side, closing in the Glen in a solitude that was +almost awesome to behold. It seemed impossible to believe that twenty- +four hours earlier one had been in the great city, and had considered +Regent's Park countrified! Margot hurried forward to meet Ron, who was +strolling along by himself, the other men of the party being out of +sight. He looked at her with some anxiety, as she approached, and asked +an eager question-- + +"What's the matter? Aren't you well? I thought you were not coming +out. You look quite white!" + +"I'm cold and tired, and--scarey! The beauty seems to have disappeared, +and it's all so grim and grey. I made an excuse and came out to you +with a card to post--but we needn't take it to-night, it's too far to +the village." + +"Nonsense! the walk is just what you need. You are tired with sitting +still, and a sharp trot will warm you up, and help you to sleep. Come +along. I'll give you a start to the bend of the road, and race you to +the nearest tree." + +Margot was not in the least in the mood for running races, but as a +means of getting warm it was not to be despised, so she started +promptly, running with swift, easy steps, and gradually quickening pace, +as Ron gained upon her from the rear. She had not been educated at a +girls' public school and been captain of the sports committee for +nothing, and, given a short handicap, could often come off best. As the +following footsteps grew nearer and nearer she spurted bravely forward, +the ends of her cape streaming wildly in the breeze, her uncovered hair +ruffled into curling ends. The tree was but a few yards distant; she +was laughing and panting, dodging from right and left, to prevent Ron +from passing by from behind, when round a bend in the road a figure +appeared directly in her path, the figure of Brither Elgood himself, his +round eyes bulging with surprise and curiosity. He came to an abrupt +standstill in the middle of the road, and the racers followed his +example, looking, if the truth were told, a trifle abashed to be +discovered in so childish an amusement. + +"Halloa! What is the matter? Is the Inn on fire?" + +Margot laughed merrily. The voice, the tone, the manner, were those of +a friend of a lifetime, rather than an acquaintance of an hour. It was +impossible to answer formally; moreover, the humour of the idea made its +appeal. + +"No, indeed! On ice, more likely! We were so cold that a race seemed +the only chance of getting warm! I hope we didn't startle you too +much!" + +"I like being startled," returned Mr Elgood complacently. He stood +still, swinging his cane, looking from brother to sister with bright, +approving eyes. "I was afraid you were feeling tired after your +journey, but evidently you have not yet reached the age of fatigue. +That's right! Thats quite right! I am glad that you have joined us at +the Nag's Head. We are a respectable and harmonious party, but we need +life--young life! We may weary _you_, but you will refresh and enliven +us. In the name of our little company, I welcome you to the Glen?" + +"Thank you, sir," said Ron simply, while Margot, as usual, hastened to +amplify his words. + +"I hope we shall be friends. I hope we shall all be friends. I was +dreadfully tired really, but I felt worse staying in the house, and in +that little parlour after dinner I nearly fell asleep." + +Mr Elgood's eyes lit up with a flash of humour. + +"But when a man's out of health you canna judge him! When he's in his +usual, Mr Macalister's a verra interesting character!" he said +solemnly. Then, meeting Margot's start and smile, he began to laugh +again, and to shake in his happy, jelly-like fashion. "Ah--ha, I know! +I guessed what was in store for you, as I saw you led away. She's a +good woman that; a good, kind, womanly woman. Her devotion does her +credit. When you and I get a wife, sir, we shall do well if we find one +half so loyal and devoted." + +He looked at Ron as he spoke, bringing his eyebrows together in a quick, +scrutinising glance; but Ron's face was blank and unresponsive. +Enshrined in his heart was a dim figure, half goddess, half fairy, a +creature of thistledown, of snow, of blossom tossed before the wind; a +lovely illusive vision who in due time was to appear and complete his +life. It was a violation of the shrine to suggest a Mrs Macalister! +He stood still, his brows knitted, his lips pressed together in a thin, +warning line. Margot was impatient at his lack of response, but all the +same he looked wonderfully handsome and interesting, and she could see +that Mr Elgood regarded him with awakened interest, conscious that here +was a character cut out of a pattern of its own, not made in the same +mould as the vast majority of his fellows. + +They turned and walked together along the winding road. Evidently +friendship progressed quickly in this quiet glen, and guests living +beneath the same roof accepted each other in simple, natural fashion, as +members of a common household. Margot felt a sense of protection in the +presence of this little man, so much older than herself, so friendly, so +absolutely unsentimental in manner. His head was on a level with her +own, and she read a frank admiration in his eyes, but it was an +admiration of which Agnes herself could not have disapproved. He was +the kind of man one would have chosen for an uncle--an indulgent +bachelor uncle with plenty of money, and a partiality for standing +treat! + +"Tell me about the people in the Inn! I am always so interested in +people!" she cried eagerly. "My brother likes other things better-- +books and pictures and mountains--but I like the living things best. I +know a good deal about Mr Macalister's health, and about Lizzie, and +Isabel, and their husbands and babies, and their lovers before they were +married. They come from Glasgow--and the old clergyman is Scotch too, I +suppose. Is every one Scotch except ourselves and you? We come from +London--" + +Mr Elgood's face shadowed quickly. + +"Yes! but don't mention it. Never mention it!" he cried quickly. "I +live there, too, or as nearly live as is possible in the surroundings. +Now for three or four weeks I've escaped, and my one endeavour is to +forget that such a place exists. I ask every one as a favour never to +mention as much as the name in my hearing. You'll remember, won't you, +and be good enough to indulge me? For the moment Miss--Miss Vane, I am +a Heelander, born and bred, a strapping young chieftain of five-and- +twenty. The Elgood of Elgood, an it please you, in bonnet and kilt, and +my foot is on my native heather!" + +He tilted his cap on one side, and threw a swagger into his walk, +cleverly remindful of the swirl of tartan skirts, then turning upon +Margot, queried quickly-- + +"Why do you laugh? It's rude to laugh! Is it so impossible to think of +me in the character?" + +"I laugh because I'm pleased," Margot answered, truthfully enough. "I +do love to pretend! Let's bury London and our lives there, and pretend +that we are _all_ Highlanders! We will be your guests up in your +mountain fastness, and you will take us about, and show us the scenes of +your historic feuds with neighbouring clans, and we will swear to help +you, if any new trouble should arise!" + +"Right oh!" cried Mr Elgood, laughing. "I shall be only too proud. +I'm a sociable beggar--during holiday time--and want to do nothing but +smoke and talk. To talk nonsense, of course. Nothing dull or +improving." He cast a sudden, suspicious look at the girl's face. "You +are not clever by any chance, are you? I can't stand cleverness in the +country." + +Margot laughed gaily. + +"I think I am--rather!" she declared audaciously. "I couldn't confess +to being stupid, even to please a Highland chief, but it's in a very +feminine way. I don't know anything about politics or science, and I've +forgotten almost all that I learnt at school, but I take an interest in +things, and understand people pretty well. I am generally clever enough +to get my own way!" + +She laughed again, remembering the purpose of the moment, and its close +connection with this newly-made acquaintance. Instinctively she turned +towards Ron, and the two pairs of brown eyes met, and flashed a message +of mischief, affection, and secret understanding--a glance which made +the watcher sigh with a sudden realisation of his own lost youth, his +bald head, and increasing bulk. They were only a pair of children, +these newcomers; kindly, affectionate, light-hearted children, whose +companionship would be a tonic to a lonely, tired man. The broad +cherubic countenance showed a passing shadow of wistfulness, as he +slacked his pace and said in hesitating tones-- + +"I am afraid I have tacked myself on to you, without waiting for an +invitation. I will say good evening now, unless I can act as guide, or +help you in any way. Have you any special object in your walk?" + +"Only the post office in the village. Do please come with us if you +will! We should be delighted to have you!" cried Margot eagerly; and +Ron looked down into the little man's face with his beautiful dreamy +eyes, and said simply, "Please come, sir," with a sincerity which there +was no denying. + +Mr Elgood beamed with satisfaction. "Come awa, then, ma bonnie men!" +he cried jauntily, and waved his stick in the air. + +For the very first evening Margot could not help thinking that they had +made an excellent beginning! + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +AN AWKWARD MEETING. + +Being a prudent damsel, and wise in her day and generation, Margot set +before herself the subjugation of Mrs McNab as her first duty in +Glenaire. To this end she repaired to her bedroom after breakfast on +the morning after her arrival, made her bed, carefully put away every +article of clothing, and tidied the oddments on the dressing-table; went +through the same performance in Ron's little crib adjoining her own, and +sailed downstairs in a glow of virtuous satisfaction. + +Mrs McNab had apparently only one maid to help her to attend to her +eight guests and to keep the inn in its present condition of immaculate +order and cleanliness, though a shaggy-headed man--presumably the master +of the house--could be seen through the staircase window, meekly +brushing boots, and cleaning knives in a corner of the flagged yard. He +had a small, wizened face, to which the unkempt hair, tufted eyebrows, +and straggling whiskers gave a strong resemblance to a Skye terrier dog. +Margot watched him now and then for a minute or two as she passed up +and down, and heard him speaking once or twice, but he "had the Gaelic," +and the sing-song voice and mysterious words sounded weirdly in her +ears. Sometimes, as he put the final polish on the boots, he would +break into song,--a strange, tuneless song which quavered up and down, +and ended on long-sustained notes. Once even she saw the slippered feet +move in jaunty dance-step to and fro, but at the sound of a clatter of +saucepans from the kitchen close at hand he retired into his corner, and +polished with redoubled energy. Mrs McNab evidently kept her husband +in order, even as she did her house! + +Elspeth, the maid, was a girl of eighteen or twenty, with a thin figure +encased in a lavender print gown, and flaxen hair pulled so tightly back +from her forehead that her eyebrows seemed to be permanently elevated by +the process. Her face shone from the effects of constant soaping, and +was absolutely void of expression. From morn till night she rushed +breathlessly from one duty to another, rated continuously by Mrs +McNab's strident voice, with never so much as a bleat of protest. When +waiting at table, she snored loudly from nervousness, and the big red +fist trembled as she carried the dishes to and fro, but her face +remained blankly expressionless as before. Margot smiled at her +radiantly every time that they met, and mentally decided to bequeath to +her half her own wardrobe before leaving the Glen. In comparison with +such a lot of drudgery, her own life seemed inexcusably idle and self- +indulgent! + +It took a considerable amount of courage to beard in her own den a woman +of whom the members of her own household stood in such evident awe, but +there was at least no nervousness apparent in Margot's manner as she +tapped at the kitchen door at eleven o'clock that first morning, and +thrust her pretty face round the opening to request permission to enter. +Mrs McNab had descended from her work upstairs, and surely her heart +must be softened by the spectacle of those two immaculately tidy rooms! + +"Mrs McNab, I'm cold! May I come in and warm myself by your fire?" + +The mistress of the inn turned a stonily surprised face from the table, +before which she stood chopping suet with a short-handled knife; she did +not suspend her work, but simply heightened her voice to make it heard +above the harsh, monotonous noise. + +"Cold, are ye? Havers! It's a fine June day. There's no call for any +one to feel cold, if they don't sit about idling away their time. Put +on yer cloak, and go a turn down the Glen!" + +Margot suppressed a thrill of indignation at that accusation of +idleness. Had she not made two whole beds, and even stooped to pick +stray pins off the carpet? She pushed the door open and walked boldly +forward. + +"I'll go out as soon as I'm warm. If I caught a chill, I should give a +lot of trouble, and you have enough to do without fussing over me. I +know you would be a good nurse, Mrs McNab--good housekeepers always +are. I know without being told that you have a cupboard chock full of +medicines and mixtures, and plasters and liniments, and neat little +rolls of lint and oilskins. Is it this one?" She laid her hand on a +closed door, drawing the while nearer and nearer to the fire. "What a +perfectly beautiful oak chest! That's genuine! One can see it at a +glance. The lovely elbow-grease polish can never be imitated. So +different from the faked-up, over-carved things glittering with varnish +that one sees so often nowadays. What a shame to keep it hidden away in +the kitchen!" + +Mrs McNab pounded stolidly away at the suet. + +"I dinna ken where the shame can be!" she responded drily. "It's my own +chest, and my mither's before me, and it's a pity if I mayna keep it +where it pleases meself. There's no call that I know of to turn out my +things, so that ither folks can have the fun of staring at them!" + +Mrs McNab's manner was certainly the reverse of gracious, but, +remembering the momentary softening of the grim face which she had +witnessed the night before, Margot was determined not to be easily +discouraged. Having gone so far, one could not retreat without +irrevocably burning one's boats. Now or never victory must be wrested +from the enemy! + +With a charming little air of domesticity she seated herself upon the +polished fender-stool at the side of the open grate, catching up her +skirt so that it should not be caught by the blaze, and smiling across +the room in her most confiding fashion. + +"Please let me stay, Mrs McNab! It's such a lovely cosy kitchen, and +my brother is out, and I feel so lost! Couldn't I do something to help? +Are those gooseberries in that basket? Do they need picking? I can't +cook, but I can pick gooseberries with any man living. Do let me! You +said I was idling away my time. Give me a chance to work!" + +Mrs McNab grunted sourly. + +"There's no call for you to do anything of the sort. I never was one to +take work upon myself that I couldna perform. The girl would have +picked them before now, if she didna go about making more work than she +gets through. She can do them when she gets downstairs!" + +Poor, struggling, machine-like Elspeth! Margot felt a pang of pity for +her unappreciated efforts, and the determination to spare her one task +at least brought with it renewed courage. + +"Let me do them as a pleasure to myself! I should feel so proud when +the pie came to table, if I had helped to prepare it, and it would be an +excuse to sit by this lovely fire. Please?" + +"Kitchen work is no for the likes of you. Ye wouldna like it if ye +soiled yer fine new gown!" + +"If I asked you very nicely, perhaps you would lend me an apron!" + +Mrs McNab threw down her chopper, and turned to wipe her hands on a +roller towel. Perhaps she had come to the conclusion that as a pure +saving of time it would be wise to give in without further demur; +perhaps the twinkling appeal of the brown eyes touched a vulnerable spot +in her heart; perhaps the service itself was of some value at the +moment. + +Margot did not concern herself as to causes, but was content to realise +that she had won the victory. She meekly allowed herself to be tied +into a coarse white apron, and set to work on the big basket of berries +with nimble fingers. Picking gooseberries is not a task which requires +much skill or experience; perhaps quickness is the criterion by which it +can best be tested, and Mrs McNab's sharp glances soon discovered that +her new apprentice was no laggard at the work. The little green balls +fell from Margot's fingers into the basin with quite extraordinary +quickness. She kept her eyes on her work, but her tongue wagged. + +Margot talked, and Mrs McNab grunted, but the grunts grew ever softer +and less repellent. The first attempt at a joke was met with a sniff of +disdain, but a second effort produced a dry cackle, and that was a +triumph indeed! When the suet had been reduced to shreds, there was +bread to sift, and eggs to beat; and then Mrs McNab washed her hands +and dropped her working apron preparatory to going upstairs to see after +"the girl." She made no demur at leaving Margot alone in the kitchen, +for, having undertaken a task, she was plainly expected to carry it +through. + +It was astonishing how much fruit one basket could hold! One wide- +lipped basin had already been filled, and another pressed into the +service, yet even a vigorous tilt to the side failed to show any signs +of the bottom of the basket. Margot had achieved her double purpose of +warming herself and breaking the ice of her hostess's reserve, and now +was in a fidget to be off to join Ron on the hillside; but the fear of +Mrs McNab was strong upon her, and she dare not move until her task was +complete. + +There she sat upon the low fender-stool, the big white apron concealing +the blue tweed dress, her pretty, flushed face bent over her work, to +all appearances the most industrious of Cinderellas, while the pendulum +of the old oak clock clicked noisily to and fro, and through the open +door came a whiff of clean cool air, laden with the scent of flowers and +sweet-briar, with the pungent aromatic odour of growing herbs, with the +heavy sweetness of the dairy. + +Margot thought with a shudder of the gloomy underground regions in +Regent's Park, where the servants of the house spent the greater part of +their lives. In her own future spells of authority she determined to be +very, very indulgent to pleas for "outings"; nay, even to make it a +matter of duty to plan days of sunshine and liberty for the patient, +uncomplaining workers. + +The sun was beginning to peep forth from behind the clouds, and its rays +dancing across the kitchen floor were an almost irresistible temptation +to one newly escaped from town. Margot gave the basket an impatient +shake, and, as another means to the desired end, popped a couple of +berries into her mouth. So sweet did they taste, so fresh and ripe, +that another two soon followed suit, and henceforth she ate as steadily +as she worked. There could be no hesitation in so doing, for in fruit- +picking it is an unwritten law that the worker is free to take his toll. + +It was while Margot's hand was raised to her mouth for the eighth or +ninth time that a footstep sounded on the flagged floor of the scullery +behind her back, and a man's voice and laugh startled her into vivid +attention. In both was a note which immediately recalled her companion +of the night before,--the cheery, warm-hearted pseudo-chieftain of the +Glen--yet in both rang a difference which told that the newcomer was not +he, but probably one closely connected by birth and association. + +_The_ Mr Elgood; the Editor; the all-powerful dispenser of Ronald's +fortunes! Margot felt convinced that it could be no one else, and +experienced a moment of keen anticipation, followed by a shock of +disgust, as she grasped the meaning of his words. + +"Ah-ha! So I've caught you pilfering again. What will Mrs McNab say +when she finds all her good fruit disappearing like this? You'll have +to bribe me not to carry tales. Better turn me into a confederate--eh? +Are they ripe?" + +A long thin hand descended over Margot's shoulder, the fingers +deliberately feeling after the plumpest and yellowest of the berries. +_He had mistaken her for Elspeth_! Stupefaction mingled with +wrath,--_Elspeth_! A vision of the square-built, flat-headed, +hopelessly graceless figure rose before Margot's outraged vision, and +resentment lighted into a blaze. Could any apron in the world be large +enough to cause a resemblance between two such diametrically different +figures! Margot appreciated her own beauty in an honest, unaffected +fashion, as one of the good gifts which had been showered upon her, and +for the moment the sense of injury eclipsed that of embarrassment. + +With an impetuous movement she turned her face over her shoulder--that +vivid pink and white face which made such a startling contrast to +Elspeth's stolidity--and stared with widely-opened hazel eyes into that +other pair of eyes so near her own. + +It was the younger Mr Elgood sure enough,--but seen close at hand, with +that mischievous smile curling his lips, he had an extraordinary +youthful and boyish appearance. Margot received an instantaneous +impression of kindliness and strength, of a glinting sense of humour, +before the change came. Such a change! If she had been a wild animal +prepared to spring, horror and dismay could not have been more +eloquently depicted upon his face. The eyes widened, the features +stiffened into a mask, the outstretched hand fell limply to his side. +He opened his lips to say something, several things, but the words were +unintelligible; a mere broken stammer of apology, as he wheeled round +and walked hastily from the room. + +The door slammed behind him; she heard his footsteps over the flagged +hall. Poor Margot! Never before in her life had she so keenly desired +to make a good impression; never had she so signally failed. It was +indeed an unpromising beginning to the campaign! + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +A MOORLAND WALK. + +A second time that day Margot came into close contact with Mr George +Elgood. She was strolling slowly up and down the road with "the +Chieftain," waiting for Ron to make his appearance before starting for a +ramble over the countryside, when through the doorway of the inn out +dashed the "Editor," making in the same direction, in the headlong, +unseeing fashion which was plainly a characteristic. When about twenty +yards distant, he lifted his eyes from the ground, became suddenly +conscious of the two figures slowly strolling towards him, stopped short +in the middle of the path, and, wheeling round, darted quickly in the +opposite direction. + +The cut was too glaring to be ignored. Margot's cheeks flamed with +annoyance, which the sound of a low chuckle by her side did not help to +subdue. She reared her little head to its haughtiest angle, and spoke +in frosty accents. + +"I am afraid I am in the way. Pray don't let me interfere with your +plans. Won't you join your brother before he goes too far? He is +walking very fast--" + +There was a note of satire in the last words which made the Chieftain +chuckle once more. + +"Not I," he replied easily. "I can have his society any time I like. +Yours is infinitely more refreshing. Keeps up a pretty good pace, don't +he? Scared, you know. Scared to death! Running to cover like a +frightened hare!" + +"Scared of what?" + +"Of you?" + +Margot had known the answer to the question before she had put it, but, +woman-like, was none the less affronted. Accustomed to be sought after +and admired by mankind in general, it was a disagreeable experience to +find herself repelled by the man of all others whom she was most anxious +to ingratiate. Her face stiffened, and her rounded little chin +projected itself proudly, the while her companion looked on with +twinkling amusement. + +"That makes you feel pretty mad, don't it?" he inquired genially. "You +are not accustomed to that sort of treatment. Most of 'em run the other +way, don't they? I should, in their place! But you mustn't be hard on +old George. When I said `you,' I used the word as a plural, not as +applying with any special significance to your charming self. It is +womankind as a whole which he finds terrifying. Run a mile any day +rather than meet a woman face to face! You must not imagine that there +is anything unusual in his avoidance of yourself. It's always the same +tale." + +Margot paused a moment, to reflect dismally that in this case there was +small hope for the fulfilment of her scheme, then ventured the natural +feminine question-- + +"Has he been crossed in love?" + +"Who? George?" George's brother appeared to find something +mysteriously ludicrous in the suggestion, for he shook with delighted +laughter. "Rather not! Never had enough to do with a woman to give +himself a chance. He's an old hermit of a bachelor, Miss Vane, absorbed +in his work, and becoming more of a slave to it every year of his life. +Even on a holiday he can't take it easy like other folks. He has some +writing on hand just now--a paper of sorts which he has undertaken to +have ready by a certain time, and it appears to his benighted intellect +that a holiday is an excellent opportunity of getting it through. Mad, +you see; stark, staring mad, but an excellent fellow all the same. One +of the very best. I have a large experience of men, but I've never met +one to compare with him for all-round goodness and simplicity of heart. +We all have our failings, and there are worse things than a little +shyness and reserve. If he avoids you like the plague, try to pity him +for the loss it entails upon himself, and take no offence! As I said +before, it's not a personal matter. He knows that you are a stranger +and a woman, but I don't suppose he has the most glimmering idea of what +you are really like!" + +"Oh yes, he has. I was sitting in the kitchen this morning, and he came +and spoke to me under the impression that I was Elspeth! The impression +lasted until he got quite near. I was wearing an apron, but still,--I +wasn't pleased! When he saw my face instead of hers, he fled for his +life. But he _did_ see it! He knows quite well what I am like." + +"And in the depths of your little girl heart you think he is a strange +fellow, not to want to see you again! You can't understand why he +should go out of his way to be kind to Elspeth, and avoid some one +infinitely more attractive. Don't be offended, but that's a wrong view +to take of the case. In my brother's eyes Elspeth is more attractive +than yourself, for she is poor, you see, and ugly, and leads a life of +all work and no play. He might be able to do her a good turn. Besides, +he has known her for several years, and has had time to become +reconciled to her existence, so to speak. Custom goes a long way with +shy people. George would rather beard a den of lions than face the +company in the inn parlour on a wet evening, but he is a welcome guest +in the kitchen, and Mrs McNab adores him to the extent of submitting to +muddy boots without a murmur. He cracks jokes with her in a free-and- +easy manner which strikes awe into the heart of tremblers like myself. +It's my first visit to the Nag's Head, and I'm still in the stage of +abject submission. She's a wonderful woman!" + +Margot smiled with returning composure. She divined her companion's +desire to change the subject of conversation, and was quite willing to +further his efforts. What she had already heard concerning George +Elgood supplied ample food for meditation. + +Viewed in dispassionate light, it was not wholly disconcerting, for if +the citadel could but once be stormed, there seemed a certainty of +gaining sympathy and consideration. She must be content to wait in +patience, until the hermit had become reconciled to her existence; but +Ron, as a fellow-man, could venture on advances on his own account. + +She must talk to Ron in private, and try to instil into him some of her +own energy and enterprise. He was a dear, wonderful fellow, but +absolutely wanting in initiative. Poets, she supposed, were always +dreamy, impracticable creatures, unfitted to attend to practical +interests, and dependent upon the good offices of some adoring woman +working meekly in the background. + +Her eyes brightened eloquently as she watched her brother's approach +along the winding path. What a handsome young figure of manhood he made +in his Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, the close-fitting deerstalker +cap showing the light chestnut hair, from which no barber's shears could +succeed in banishing the natural kink and curl. No one would suspect, +to look at him, that he cherished poetical ambitions! Margot was +English enough to be thankful for this fact, illogical as it may appear. +She was proud to realise that he looked a thorough sportsman, and in +absolute harmony with his surroundings, and instinctively her pride and +affection voiced themselves in words. The Chieftain might not be the +rose, but he was at least near the rose, and it would be well to enlist +his interest as well as that of his brother. + +"Doesn't he look splendid?" + +Mr Elgood started, and for a moment his round face expressed the +blankest bewilderment, then his eyes lit upon Ron, and comprehension +dawned. + +"Ah, yes," he returned indifferently, "nice-looking lad! Pity he hasn't +more to say for himself. What's he supposed to do? Business or +profession?" + +"It's not decided. He has not long come down from Cambridge. He is +quiet, but he is very clever, all the same. Much cleverer than most +boys of his age." + +"Humph!" The Chieftain's tone was distinctly sceptical. "Yes! Good +degree?" + +Margot's colour heightened in embarrassment. + +"Nothing special. Only a pass. It isn't in _that_ way that his +cleverness shows." + +"Just so! Just so! I've met men like that before. Well, don't spoil +him, that's all. Worship him in your heart, but not to his face. Looks +to me as if he needed hardening up. A bit moony and sentimental. What? +Don't mind my saying so, do you?" + +"Not a bit!" returned Margot proudly; but she cared horribly, all the +same, and for the moment her liking for her companion suffered a +distinct eclipse. "I know him, you see, and understand him as no +stranger can do. He needs appreciation, for he is too apt to lose faith +in himself, and he is not sentimental at all. He has plenty of +sentiment, but that's a different thing!" + +"Yes--Um!" responded the Chieftain mischievously, his little eyes +twinkling with amusement as they scanned the girl's flushed, injured +face. "Quite so! Sorry I spoke. He is, without doubt, an unusually +gifted young man." He bowed towards Margot, with an inference too +transparent to be mistaken, and at which she was obliged to laugh, +despite herself. + +Ronald joined them at this moment, and looked from one to the other with +his big, dreamy eyes. Margot was irritated to see that he looked even +more absent-minded than usual, just when she was anxious that he should +show to most advantage. He asked no questions in words, however, but +Mr Elgood hastened to reply to the unspoken query in his eyes. + +"Your sister and I have been having an argument. I don't know how it +came about. Hate arguments myself, especially on a holiday. Besides, +it's a waste of time. Whoever knew any one converted by an argument? +Each one goes away more satisfied than ever that he is in the right, and +that his opponent is talking rubbish; present company excluded, of +course. So far as I can remember, we were discussing cleverness. If +you were asked for a definition of a clever man, what would you say? +How would you describe him?" + +Ronald stood in the centre of the road, his hands clasped behind his +back, his brows knitted in thought. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred +would have answered such a question off-hand with a few light words; Ron +bent the weight of his mind to it, with whole-hearted earnestness. + +"Cleverness!" he repeated slowly. "It's a poor word! There's no depth +in it. When a man is called clever, it means, I think, more an ability +to display a superficial knowledge than any real, stored-up wisdom. It +may even be a double-edged compliment!" + +"Scored!" cried the Chieftain gaily, as he waved his stick in the air, +and led the way forward with a jaunty tread. "Proposed, seconded, and +carried that cleverness is a delusion to be sedulously avoided! Just +what I always said. I've known clever people in my day--squillions of +them, and, my hat! how stupid they were! That little lass dabbling in +the lake is wiser than the whole crowd." He pointed to a fair-haired +child wading by the side of the tarn. "The spirit of childhood--that's +what we want! the spirit of joy in present blessings, and untroubled +trust for the future. That little lass has a life of hardship and toil +ahead--but what does she care? The sun shines to-day, and the funny wee +mannie fra the inn is going to gie her a bawbee for goodies. It's a bad +habit which he has fallen into; a shocking bad habit, but he canna cure +himself of it." He threw a penny to the smiling, expectant child, then +turning sharply to the left, led the way across the low-lying ground +towards the base of the nearest hill. + +Margot noticed that, as he went, he turned from time to time quick, +scrutinising glances at Ron's face, as though trying to satisfy a doubt, +and classify him in his own mind. Evidently the lad's serious, somewhat +pedantic manner of replying had invested him with a new interest, but +when he spoke again it was only in reference to the afternoon's +expedition itself. + +"I am not going to take you far," he announced. "I object to walking, +on principle. What I maintain is, that we were never intended to walk! +If we had been, we should have had four legs, instead of two. I never +walk if I can possibly induce something else to carry me. And climbing +is another mistake. What is it that one admires about mountains? Their +height and grandeur! Very well, then, where is the point of vantage +from which to view them? The base, of course. Climb up to the top, and +you lose the whole effect, to say nothing of chucking away your valuable +breath. See that little path winding up the slope? That leads to the +moors, and when you are once on the moors you can walk about on the +level all day long, if you are so disposed, and the air goes to the head +of even a lazy old fellow like myself, and makes me quite gay and +frisky. You two youngsters can go on ahead and engage in light +conversation, while I puff along in the rear. At my age and bulk even +the most witty conversation palls when climbing a hillside. When you +get to the end of the footpath sit down and wait till I arrive, and take +no notice of me till I get my wind. Then we'll start fair. Off with +you!" + +Margot ran forward, laughing, and she and Ron were soon scrambling up +the hillside, side by side. + +"That's a good fellow. I like him! He will be very interesting when +one gets beneath the surface," pronounced the boy thoughtfully. + +Margot nodded emphatically. + +"I'm going to love him! I feel it in my bones, and he is going to love +me too, but unfortunately he's the wrong man. He says that his brother +hates women, and will do all he can to avoid me, so you must take things +into your own hands, Ron! I can't help you, so you must help yourself. +You will have to cultivate his acquaintance, and get him to take you +about, and talk to him, and try to get intimate. You will, won't you? +Promise me that you will!" + +She looked with anxiety into the lad's face as she spoke, for previous +experience had proved that Ron possessed the full share of those +failings which are most characteristic of his temperament: a sudden +cooling of interest at critical moments; a shirking of responsibility, +an inclination to drift. It was a part of the artistic nature, which +had an irritating effect on more practical mortals. Now, as she feared, +he remained as placidly unmoved by the intelligence as if it had no +bearing whatever on his own prospects. + +"Oh, all right. I'll see! You can't rush things, if a fellow keeps out +of your way. Our opening will come in time, if we leave it to chance +and don't worry. I believe I am going to do really good work here, +Margot! I had an idea last night, after you had gone to bed, and I was +watching the stars through the pines. I won't read it to you yet, for +it wants working up, but it's good--I am sure it is good! And that +little stream along from the house; I found a song motif in +that,--`_Clear babbling over amber bed_!' How's that for a word- +picture? Shows the whole thing, doesn't it? The crystal clearness of +the water; the music of its flow, the curious golden colour of the +rocks. I'm always pleased when I can hit off a description in a line. +I'm glad we came, Margot! There's inspiration in this place." + +But for once Margot refused to be sympathetic. + +"You did not come for inspiration, you came for a definite, practical +purpose; and if you write a hundred poems, it won't make up for +neglecting it. Now, Ron, wake up! I shall be angry with you if you +don't do all you can for yourself. Promise me that you will try!" + +"All right! All right! Do let us be happy while we have the chance, +Margot. We had enough worry at home, and this place is perfect. Let us +be wise children, and take no thought for the morrow. What would Elgood +think of you, beginning to worry about the future, the moment his back +was turned? She was a pretty illustration, wasn't she?--that little +bare-headed child. Did you notice her hair? Almost white against the +russet of her skin." + +Margot grunted unsympathetically. She was out of breath with scrambling +up the hillside, a trifle out of temper also, and consequently not in +the mood to enthuse over artistic contrasts. She did not speak again +until the summit was reached, and she threw herself on the ground to +rest, and wait the arrival of the Chieftain. His gasps and grunts could +already be heard in the distance, for, notwithstanding his various +handicaps, he was surprisingly nimble, and in a few moments a round +scarlet face hove into sight, and a round grey body rolled over on the +ground by her side. + +"Piff! piff! whew-w! Don't look at me, please--I don't like--being +stared at by ladies--when my--complexion is flushed!" he gasped +brokenly, mopping his face with a large silk handkerchief. "Every +time--I--come up here--I vow I'll--never come again; but when _I'm_ once +up, I--never want to go down!" + +He flourished his handkerchief to the left, pointing out the wide +moorland, beautiful in colouring with its bright rank greens, and the +bloomy purple of heather undulating gently up and down like the waves of +an inland sea. + +The pure rarefied air fanned the heated faces of the climbers, and with +every moment seemed to instil fresh life and vigour. It was easy to +believe that, once started, one would wander on and on over this +wonderful moorland, feeling no fatigue, possessed with the desire to go +farther and farther, to see what surprise lay beyond the next hillock. + +After all, it was Mr Elgood who made the first start. One moment he +lay still, puffing and blowing, bemoaning past youth, and bewailing loss +of strength; the next, like an indiarubber ball, he had bounced to his +feet, and was strutting forward, waving his short arms in the air, the +white silk handkerchief streaming behind him like a flag. + +"_Allons, mes enfants_! No lolling allowed on the moors. Keep your eye +on that green peak to the right, and make for it as straight as a die. +A few hundred yards away is a cottage where, if we are very polite and +ask prettily, the guid-wife will give us a cup of buttermilk, the Gaelic +substitute for afternoon tea. In a certain spot, which shall be +nameless, I should as soon think of drinking poison in glassfuls, but +after a stretch on the moors it tastes like nectar! Take my word for +it, and try!" + +That was the first walk which Ron and Margot had ever taken over a +Scotch moor, and to the last day of their lives they remembered it with +joy. The air went to their heads so that they grew "fey," and sang, and +laughed, and teased each other like a couple of merry-hearted children, +while the Chieftain was the biggest child of the three. + +At times he declared that he was tired out and must turn back, but +hardly were the words out of his mouth, than, lo, he was dancing an +impromptu hornpipe with astonishing nimbleness and dexterity! He took a +lively interest in all that his companions did and said, and did not +hesitate to put question after question in order to arrive at a fuller +understanding of any case in point; but London, and all that took place +in London, remained a forbidden topic. He was the Elgood of Elgood, and +they were "his bonnie men," and life outside the Highlands had ceased to +exist. + +Margot was delighted that the little man should have a chance of seeing +Ronald in one of his lightest, most boyish moods, for from the +expression of his face she feared that he had not so far previously been +favourably impressed by the lad's personality. Now it was impossible +not to admire and laugh as Ron played imaginary bagpipes on the end of +his walking-stick, or droned out lugubrious ballads in imitation of a +strolling minstrel who had visited the inn the night before. The ballad +dramatised the circumstances of the moment: the perilous ascent, the +wandering of three strangers across the moor, the flowing bowl which was +to refresh and strengthen them for the return journey. Ron's knowledge +of the native dialect was so slight that he fell back upon the more +stately phraseology of the early English poets, introducing a strange +Scotch term now and again with irresistibly comic effect. + +The two listeners cheered him on with bursts of delighted laughter, +while at an unexpected clever turn, or apt stringing together of words, +the Chieftain would clap his hands and caper with delight. + +"Good! good!" he would cry. "Neat! neat!" while his twinkling eyes +surveyed the boy with increasing respect. "Do you often improvise?" he +asked, when the ballad came to an end, and when Ron replied truthfully +enough in the negative, "Well, I have heard many fellows do it worse!" +was his flattering comment. + +Margot had expected more, and felt that more was deserved, for the +ballad had been quite a brilliant effort to be rattled off on the spur +of the moment, but she could only hope that, in conclave with his +brother, the Chieftain might be more enthusiastic, and manage to impress +upon that absent-minded genius that the boy was worthy of his notice and +study. + +In due time--a very short time, as it appeared--the cottage was reached +owned by the "guid-wife," who was ready to give--not sell--draughts of +buttermilk to the passers-by. Margot was a little chary of the first +taste, but the keen moorland air had done its work, and she too found it +as nectar to the palate. The guid-wife "had no English," but the two +women conversed eloquently with the language of the eyes, concerning the +sleeping baby in its cradle, and the toddling urchins around the door. +Here in the solitude this brave woman of the people reared her family, +made their garments, tended them when they were sick, cooked for them, +baked for them, washed for them, mended for them, and kept the three- +roomed cot as exquisitely clean as hands could make it. The girl who +dusted the drawing-room and arranged a few vases of flowers as her duty +in life, gazed at her with awe, and felt ashamed of her own idle +existence! + +The buttermilk quaffed, Mr Elgood led the way to a thick patch of +heather some few hundred yards nearer home, came to a standstill, and, +spreading his handkerchief under his head, lay down with great +deliberation and crossed his arms in beatific content. + +"Now, if you want to discover what comfort means, find a soft patch for +yourselves, and take a nap before we start for home. No upholsterer on +earth ever manufactured a mattress to equal a bed of heather. If you +don't want to sleep, kindly keep your distance, and enjoy yourselves +with discretion, for if I'm awakened in the middle of my siesta, nothing +short of murder will appease me!" + +He shut his eyes even as he spoke, and composed himself with a sigh of +content. Margot, nothing loath, took off her cap, and, spreading her +cape over the bushes, nestled contentedly into its folds. Ron scorned +the idea of sleep, but as he was curious to test the comforts of the +heather, down he lay in his turn; and so soft, so springy, so eminently +luxurious did the new bed appear, that he felt no desire to rise. +Presently his eyes dropped, rose heavily once or twice, and rose no +more. Margot's head burrowed more deeply into her cape. Deep regular +snores sounded from the bush where Mr Elgood reposed. All three were +fast asleep! + +The sun shone on them; the hum of a thousand insects rose from the +grass; high in the air a lark trilled his triumphant song. It was rest +indeed to sleep and dream in such surroundings! + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +THE TRUE CHURCH. + +Life flowed on very quietly and uneventfully at the Nag's Head during +the next few days. The clergyman and his son were determined walkers, +who set out each morning on a new expedition over the countryside, and +at the evening dinner boasted of the number of miles they had traversed. +What they had seen appeared to be of secondary importance, and they +were correspondingly depressed or elated according as they had fallen +short of, or surpassed previous records of distance. + +Mr Macalister sat in the garden, reading day-old editions of the +"_Glasga He-rald_" from the front page to the last, while his wife made +pilgrimages to the village shop to buy infinitesimal articles of +drapery, and exchange details of domestic history with the good lady in +charge of the emporium. + +Mr George Elgood went out fishing in a river two or three miles +distant, accompanied sometimes by his brother, but for the most part by +himself. He also sat at his bedroom window, writing by the hour +together, and always and at all times he avoided his fellow-guests with +a quiet persistence which could not be gainsaid. By the time that +Margot had been in the inn for four days, he had advanced to the point +of bidding her good-night and good morning, staring steadily at a point +about a yard above her head, while on one historic occasion he even +brought himself to remark that it was a fine day. Once also, looking up +suddenly at dinner, she met his eyes fixed upon her with an expression +of intent scrutiny; but he turned aside in evident perturbation at being +discovered, and though the little puss thereafter wore her prettiest +dresses, and took special pains with the arrangement of her hair, the +incident was never repeated. + +Goaded thereto by his sister's entreaties, Ronald had proposed himself +as the companion of a morning's fishing expedition, but he returned home +bored and irritated, and could not be persuaded to repeat the +experiment. As Mr Elgood had left him at one point in the stream, and +himself repaired to another some two hundred yards distant, the +opportunities for conversation had been limited, while not even a twitch +of the line had rewarded his amateur efforts. + +Margot coaxed, reasoned, and finally stormed, but to no avail. In a +quiet, amiable fashion, Ronald could be as obstinate as a mule, and he +was plainly determined to go his own way. The sun shone; the +surroundings were magnificent; he was free from the jarring dissensions +of home; in easy, light-hearted manner he was content to live for the +moment, and shut his eyes to troubles ahead. + +"Remember what the Chieftain said to as the first day we were here!" he +protested vigorously. "We ought to cultivate the spirit of children; to +rejoice in the present, and trust for the future; whereas you want me to +begin worrying the very first thing. I do call it stupid of you, +Margot!" + +"But, my dear boy--remember September! September is coming, and if you +don't bestir yourself to take advantage of this last chance, you will be +bemoaning your hard fate, and calling out that your life is ruined! Do, +for goodness' sake, descend from the clouds and be practical for once! +I'd help you if I could, but how can I, when the man refuses even to +look at me?" + +Margot's voice took a plaintive tone as she uttered those last words. +She was so unaccustomed to be ignored, that the editor's avoidance +rankled in her mind. She found her thoughts persistently returning to +him in every period of leisure; when he was near, she was acutely +conscious of his presence; when he was absent, her mind followed after +him, wondering where he was, what he was doing, and of what he was +thinking. Having once seen a glimpse of the real man when, in the +character of Elspeth, she had looked into his face, sparkling with +youth, kindliness, and humour, she understood that the abstracted figure +which sat at the table at meal-times was but the shell of the real +George Elgood, and that, if the barriers of shyness and reserve could +once be overcome, he would prove an even more fascinating companion than +his brother. The desire to know him grew daily in intensity, while, +unconsciously to herself, the personal element slowly predominated the +thought of Ron and Ron's future. + +Now, as the brother and sister argued together, they were hurrying along +by the edge of the tarn on their way to service at the kirk, for this +was Sunday morning, the fifth day after their arrival at the Glen. + +Ron, as usual, had been late in starting, and before the village was +reached his watch showed that it was already five minutes past the time +when service began. They had been sternly directed by Mrs McNab to go +to the kirk at the far end of the village, and inquire for the inn pew, +but as it would take several minutes longer to traverse the length of +the straggling street, Margot suggested that it would be wise to attend +the nearer of the two churches. + +"There can be no difference. They are both Presbyterian," quoth she, in +her ignorance; so in they went, to be met in the doorway by an elder in +his Sabbath "blacks," his solemn face surrounded by a fringe of sandy +whisker. The pews were very narrow and very high, shut in a box-like +seclusion by wooden doors; the minister, in his pulpit, was just giving +out the number of the psalm, and the precentor, after tapping his +tuning-fork and holding it to his ear, burst forth into wailing notes of +surprising strength and volume. Margot rose automatically to her feet, +to subside in confusion, as the seated congregation gazed at her in +stolid rebuke. In this kirk it was the custom to sit while singing, and +stand during prayers--a seemly and decorous habit which benighted +Southerners had difficulty in understanding. + +The singing of the metrical psalm sounded strangely in unaccustomed +ears. Of melody there seemed little or none. The notes ascended and +fell, and quavered into odd, unexpected trills and shakes, but it was +sung with an earnestness and an intensity which could not fail to be +impressive. The women, clean and tidy in their Sabbath bravery, sat +with eyes fixed unwaveringly on their books; the children piped lustily +by their sides; at the door of the pews the heads of the different +families peered over their spectacles at the printed words, their +solemn, whiskered faces drawn out to abnormal length. + +In a corner by himself sat a weather-beaten old shepherd, singing with +closed eyes, his shaggy head waving to and fro in time with the strain. +Up in this lonesome glen those words had been his stay and comfort +during a life of hardship. Like David of old, he had sung them on the +mountainside, and they had been as a guide unto his feet, a lamp unto +his eyes. He needed no book and no spectacles to enable him to join his +note to the strain. Margot looked at him with a thrill of understanding +and reverence. A saint of God, a lowly dweller on earth, for whom was +waiting one of the "higher" places in the kingdom of heaven. + +The sermon was long and rambling, and somewhat difficult for Southern +ears to follow; there was a solemn collection taken in small boxes +secured to long wooden handles, thrust in turns down the various pews +with somewhat comical effect; then the service was over, and Margot and +Ron came out into the village street, to find themselves face to face +with a stream of worshippers who were returning from the farther kirk. +Foremost among the number was Mrs McNab, large and imposing to behold +in her Sabbath best, with her small husband ambling meekly by her side. +Margot smiled at her in friendly fashion, and was dismayed to receive in +return a glare of incredulous anger. What had she done to offend? She +could not imagine what was wrong, and continued to stare blankly after +the unbending figure, until presently her eye encountered another well- +known face bent upon her with a smile. The Chieftain and his brother +were close behind; so close that even the Editor's shyness could not +attempt an escape. In another moment they were walking together, Margot +between the two men, Ron on the outside, a few paces apart from the +rest. + +Margot glanced from one to the other with puzzled eyes. The Chieftain +beamed upon her frankly. The Editor looked, and looked away, knitting +his brows in embarrassment. + +"What have I done?" she cried eagerly. "Why is Mrs McNab so cross? +All was peace and joy when we left the inn. I had done my very best to +help her, and now--you saw how she scowled! How can I possibly have +offended her in this short time?" + +The Chieftain chuckled softly. + +"A good deal, I'm afraid! I'm sorry for you, after all your efforts at +conciliation. It's bad luck that you should have stumbled upon an +unforgivable offence. I'm afraid that there is no doubt that you will +be turned out of the inn, neck and crop. Not to-day, perhaps, as she +won't send out the trap, but certainly to-morrow morning." + +"I shan't go!" protested Margot defiantly. If eviction had been +probable, she did not believe that the Chieftain would have taken it in +so unperturbed a fashion; but it was evident that she had committed some +offence, and that he was aware of its nature. "But what have I done?" +she continued urgently. "That's what I want to discover. There can't +be any harm in going to church!" + +"Oh, can't there, just? That's the whole crux of the matter. You went +to the wrong church!" + +There was a pause of stunned surprise while Margot gasped, and Ron's +sleepy eyes brightened with curiosity. + +"The wrong church! How can that be? They are both Scotch +Presbyterians? There is no difference between them?" + +"Only this difference, that the members of one kirk are hardly on +speaking terms with the members of the other! That their leaders are at +law together in the Courts, and that feeling runs so high, even in this +sleepy hollow, that Mrs McNab, being a Free, refuses to sell milk to +the `Wees,' and is shamed to the heart to think that a guest living +under her house-roof should have condescended to attend their service. +It will be all over the Glen this afternoon that the bonny lady fra the +inn chose to give her offering of siller to the `Wees,' and they will +bear themselves haughtily in consequence. Mrs McNab feels that she has +been humiliated the day in the eyes of the neighbourhood. No wonder she +looks coldly upon you!" + +Margot flushed with resentment and indignation, but before she could +speak Ron burst into impetuous speech. + +"They quarrel? Up here? A handful of men and women among the great +mountains? How can they do it? How can they harbour ill-feeling? + +"And what can they quarrel about? There must be such tiny, trivial +differences. I am thankful I am not a Dissenter!" cried Margot proudly. +"There are so many sects that one gets muddled among them all, and even +in the same one it appears that there are differences! I am thankful +that I belong to the Church." + +The Chieftain looked at her quietly. + +"To which Church?" + +"The Church of England, of course." + +"Oh!" He elevated his light eyebrows expressively. "Because its +members have no quarrels with one another?" + +Margot frowned uneasily. + +"Oh, well--I suppose they have. But at the worst there are two parties, +as compared to a dozen. You cannot deny that we are more united?" + +"I should not boast too much about the unity of a Church in which civil +war is permanently in progress; and what about charity and humility of +mind? Suppose now, suppose for a moment that a family of strangers come +to live in the house next your own in town, and you discover among other +things that they are Dissenters. How does it influence your attitude +towards them?" He thrust his ruddy face nearer, staring fixedly into +hers. "Answer me that! Feel just the same? Exactly the same? No +cooling off in the intention to call? _Quite_ sure you never used the +expression, `only Dissenters!' and passed by on the other side?" + +Margot's cheeks blazed. Her lids dropped, and the corners of her mouth +drooped in self-conscious shame. There was a moment's silence, then a +low murmur sounded on her ear, and, looking up quickly, she saw the +Editor's dark face turned upon his brother, with reproach written large +in frowning brow and flashing eye. He was taking up the cudgels in her +defence; reproaching his own brother for forcing her into an awkward +position. + +Margot's heart gave a leap of joy at the discovery; in the flash of an +eye her mood, her outlook on life, the very scene itself, seemed +transfused with new radiance and joy. The sun seemed to peep out +through the grey clouds, the underlying anxiety and worry of the past +days took to itself wings, and disappeared. Her brown eyes thanked him +with a glance more eloquent than she was aware; she laughed softly, and +her laugh was sweet as a chime of bells. + +"Yes, I have! I confess it. I've been narrow-minded and uncharitable, +and a snob into the bargain. I've no right to throw stones... What +Church do you belong to, Mr Elgood?" + +The little man stood still in the middle of the road, throwing out his +arms on either side, with a gesture wonderfully eloquent. His round, +chubby face shone with earnestness and exaltation. + +"To the Church of Christ! The Church of loyalty, and obedience, and +love towards the brethren! To the Church of Christ, wherever I find it! +When will Christians learn to remember the points on which they agree, +rather than those on which they differ? The questions of form and +ceremony; of Church government and ritual; how small they are, how +unutterably trivial, compared to the great facts of the Fatherhood of +God, and the sacrifice of Christ! Did the Power who made every one of +us with different faces and different forms, expect us all to think +mathematically alike? I cannot believe it! It is our duty to trust in +God and love our brethren; to live together in peace, seeing the best in +each other, acknowledging the best, thinking no evil! To see men who +make a profession of religion quarrelling and persecuting each other for +trivial differences, is a ghastly spectacle--a ghastly spectacle!" He +walked on, swinging his short arms to and fro, then suddenly looked up +with a keen glance into Ron's eager face. + +There were no traces of dreaminess in the brown eyes at this moment; the +dilated pupil gave to them an appearance of extraordinary depth and +intensity; it was easy to see that the lad had been swept off his feet +by the rugged force of the speaker's words, and was kindled into a like +enthusiasm. + +Lads of nineteen and twenty make it so much a matter of principle to +suppress all exhibition of feeling, that it is almost startling to come +across one who is not ashamed to betray a little human emotion. Mr +Elgood evidently found it so, for he continued to cast those quick +peering glances until the inn was reached, and the little party +separated, to prepare for the midday dinner. + +Margot walked slowly up the steep staircase leading to her room, and sat +herself down on the bed to think out the problem. More and more did she +long to pierce through the armour by which the strange, silent man was +enveloped; but how was it to be done? Opportunities were few and far +between, and now, for the first time in her life, confidence in her own +powers deserted her, and she was overcome by a strange new feeling of +humility and doubt. Who and what was she, that such a man should stoop +to accept her friendship; poor, unlettered girl that she was, while he +was acknowledged as one of the leading intellects of the day? Yet deep +in her heart the thought lingered that between this man and herself +existed a certain affinity, which, given an opportunity, might bridge +over greater gaps than that of intellect and learning. How was that +opportunity to be gained? She might be willing to sacrifice much to +attain it, but there was one thing that could never be thrown on one +side--her natural maidenly pride and dignity! Not even for Ron's sake +could she bring herself to make advances to a man who, so far from +exhibiting any desire for her company, had gone markedly out of his way +to avoid it. + +Ron himself was useless in such circumstances, a creature of moods, +living for the moment only, content to forget the future in the +enjoyment of present good. To drive him into the Editor's company +against his will could do no good, since he would certainly reveal +himself in his worst light, and in aggravating, topsy-turvy fashion he +had taken a violent fancy for the wrong brother. + +The Chieftain's geniality and candour, his boy-like lightness of heart +on the one hand, his passion for right on the other, were fast +developing a species of hero-worship in the lad's mind. Margot foresaw +that, as time passed by, the two would grow closer together, and that +any chance of intimacy with the other brother would retreat helplessly +into the background. Unless--! Her face flamed as a possible solution +of the difficulty darted suddenly into her mind. Could she? Dared she +risk it? Yes, she could. It would be difficult, but she could bring +herself to face it, if after a few days' consideration it still seemed +the only way out of the difficulty. + +Margot rose from the bed, and began quietly to prepare for dinner. Her +face looked grave and anxious, but it had lost its troubled, fretted +expression. She had made up her mind what to do, and with the decision +came rest and ease of mind. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +MUSIC HATH CHARMS. + +For the next two days it rained incessantly, and Margot sat in the +little parlour of the inn talking to Mrs Macalister, or rather +listening while Mrs Macalister talked, and playing draughts with Mr +Macalister, who had relapsed into hopeless gloom of mind, and was with +difficulty prevented from rushing home by the first train. + +"The doctor said we were to keep him from the office for a good month at +least, and there's not three weeks of the time gone by. If he goes back +now, what will be the use of spending all this money on travelling and +keep, and what not? It will be all clean waste," sighed the poor dame +sadly. "He's a bit fratchety and irritable, I'm free to admit, but you +should not judge a man when his nerves are upset. There's not a better +man on earth than Mr Macalister when he has his health. It's dull for +a man-body to be shut up in an inn, without the comforts of home, and +feeling all the time that there's money going out. It is different when +he can be out and about with his fishing and what not.--If you could +just manage to amuse him a bit, like a good lassie!..." + +The good lassie nodded reassuringly into the troubled, kindly face. + +"I'll do my best. I have an old father of my own, who has nerves too, +and I am used to amusing him. I'll take Mr Macalister in hand till the +weather clears." + +It was not a congenial task, for, truth to tell, Mr Macalister was not +a beguiling object, with his lugubrious face, lack-lustre eyes, and +sandy, outstanding whiskers; nor did he in the first instance betray any +gratitude for the attention bestowed upon him. A stolid glance over his +spectacles was his first response to Margot's overtures; his next, a +series of grunts and sniffs, and when at last he condescended to words +it was invariably to deride or throw doubt on her statements. + +"Tut, nonsense! Who told you that? I would think so, indeed!" followed +by another and more determined retreat behind the _Glasgow Herald_. + +In the corner of the room Mrs Macalister sat meekly knitting, never +venturing a look upwards so long as her spouse was in view, but urging +Margot onward by nods and winks and noiseless mouthings, the moment that +she was safe from observation. + +It had its comic side, but it was also somewhat pathetic. These two +good commonplace souls had travelled through life together side by side +for over thirty years, and, despite age, infirmity, and "nearves", were +still lovers at heart. Before the wife's eyes the figure of "Mr +Macalister" loomed so large that it blocked out the entire world; to +him, even in this hour of depression, "the wife" was the one supreme +authority. + +Fortunately for herself and her friends, Margot was gifted with +sufficient insight to grasp the poetry behind the prose, and it gave her +patience to persevere. Solution came at last, in the shape of the +wheezy old piano in the corner, opened in a moment of aimless wandering +to and fro. Margot was no great performer, but what she could play she +played by heart, and Nature had provided her with a sweet, thrush-like +voice, with that true musical thrill which no teaching can impart. At +the first few bars of a Chopin nocturne Mr Macalister's newspaper +wavered, and fell to his knee. Margot heard the rustle of it, slid +gradually into a simpler melody, and was conscious of a heavy hand +waving steadily to and fro. + +"Ha-ha!" murmured Mr Macalister, at the end of the strain. "Hum-hum! +The piano wants tuning, I'm thinking!" It was foreign to his nature to +express any gratification, but that he had deigned to speak at all was a +distinct advance, and equal to a whole volume of compliments from +another man. + +"Maybe," he added, after a pause, "if ye were to sing us a ballad it +would be less obsearved!" + +So Margot sang, and, finding a book of Scotch selections, could gratify +the old man by selecting his favourite airs, and providing him with an +excuse to hum a gentle accompaniment. Music, it appeared, was Mr +Macalister's passion in life. As a young man he had been quite a +celebrated performer at Penny Readings and Church Soirees, and had been +told by a lady who had heard Sims Reeves that she preferred his +rendering of "Tom Bowling" to that of the famous tenor. This anecdote +was proudly related by his wife, and though Mr Macalister cried, +"Hoots!" and rustled his paper in protest, it was easy to see that he +was gratified by the remembrance. + +Margot essayed one Scotch air after another, and was instructed in the +proper pronunciation of the words; feigning, it is to be feared, an +extra amount of incapacity to pronounce the soft "ch," for the sake of +giving her patient a better opportunity of displaying his superior +adroitness. + +Comparatively speaking, Mr Macalister became quite genial and agreeable +in the course of that musical hour, and when Margot finished her +performance by singing "The Oak and the Ash," he waxed, for him, +positively enthusiastic. + +"It's a small organ," he pronounced judicially, "a ve-ry small organ. +Ye would make a poor show on a concert platform, but for all that, I'm +not saying that it might not have been worse. Ye can keep in tune, and +that's a mearcy!" + +"Indeed, Alexander, I call it a bonnie voice! There's no call for +squallings and squakings in a bit of a room like this. I love to hear a +lassie's voice sound sweet and clear, and happy like herself, and that's +just the truth about Miss Vane's singing. Thank ye, my dear. It's been +a treat to hear you." + +The broad, beaming smile, the sly little nod behind Mr Macalister's +back, proclaiming triumph and delighted gratitude--these sent Margot up +to her room heartened and revived in spirits, for there is nothing on +earth so invigorating as to feel that we have helped a fellow-creature. +The sunshine came back to her own heart, even as it was slowly breaking +its way through the clouds overhead. She thrust her head out of the +window, and opening her mouth, drank in great gulps of the fresh damp +air, so sweet and reviving after the mouldy atmosphere of "the parlour." +Over the mountain tops in the direction from which the wind was blowing +the clouds were slowly drifting aside, leaving broader and broader +patches of blue. Blue! After the long grey hours of rain and mist. +The rapture of it was almost beyond belief! A few minutes more, and the +glen would be alight with sunshine. She would put on boots, cap, and +cape, and hurry out to enjoy every moment that remained. + +The strong-soled little boots were lifted from their corner behind the +door, and down sat Margot on the floor, school-girl fashion, and began +to thread the laces in and out, and tie them securely into place. Then +the deerstalker cap was pinned on top of the chestnut locks, and the +straps of the grey cape crossed over the white flannel blouse. Now she +was ready, and the sunshine was already calling to her from without, +dancing across the floor, and bringing a delicious warmth into the +atmosphere. + +Margot threw open the door and was about to descend the narrow +staircase, when she stopped short, arrested by an unexpected sound. +Some one was singing softly in a room near at hand, repeating the +refrain of the ballad which she had taken last on her list. The deep +bass tones lingered softly on the words-- + + "And the lad who marries me, + Must carry me hame to my North Coun-tree!" + +George Elgood was echoing her song in the seclusion of his own room! He +had been indoors all the time, then, listening to her while she sang! +Margot's cheeks grew hot with embarrassment, yet in the repeated strain +there was a suggestion of appreciation, of lingering enjoyment which did +away with the idea of adverse criticism. + +"Oh, the Oak and the Ash,"--the strain seemed to swell in volume, +growing ever nearer and nearer. "And the lad who marries me--" + +The door flew open, and they stood facing one another, each framed as in +a picture in the lintel of the doorways, divided only by a few yards of +boarded passage. The strain came to an abrupt conclusion, frozen upon +his lips by the shock of surprise and embarrassment. For the third time +in their short acquaintance Margot looked straight into his eyes; for +the third time recognised in their depths something that in mysterious +fashion seemed to respond to a want in her own nature; for the third +time saw the lids drop, heard an unintelligible murmur of apology, and +watched a hasty retreat. + +For a moment Margot stood motionless, an expression of wounded pride +clouding the young rounded face, then very slowly descended the +staircase, traversed the length of the "lobby," and stood outside the +door, looking anxiously to right and left. + +There he was, a strong, well-built figure in knickerbockers and Norfolk +coat striding rapidly up the hill path to the right,--trying, no doubt, +to put as much distance as possible between himself and the +objectionable girl who seemed ever to be appearing when she was not +wanted. For a long minute Margot stood gazing miserably ahead, then +turning resolutely to the left, came face to face with the Chieftain +returning from the village with his pockets bulging with papers. + +His sudden appearance at this moment of depression had a peculiar +significance to the girl's mind. Doubt crystallised into resolution; +with a rapid beating of the heart she determined to grasp her courage in +both hands, and boldly make the plunge which she had been meditating for +some days past. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +REVELATIONS. + +At sight of Margot the Chieftain first beamed delight, and then screwed +his chubby face into an expression of concern. + +"Halloa! What's up? You look pretty middling doleful!" cried he, +casting an eloquent glance towards the inn windows, then lowering his +voice to a stage whisper, "Macalisteritis, eh? Too much stuffy parlour +and domestic reminiscences? Never mind! Pack clouds away, and welcome +day! The sun is shining, and I have a packet of bull's eyes for you in +one pocket and a budget of letters in another. No, you don't! Not one +single one of them to read in the house--come and sit on a stone by the +tarn, and we'll suck peppermints and read 'em together. Wonderful how +much better you'll feel when you've had a good blow of fresh air. I was +prancing mad when I went out this afternoon, but now--a child might play +with me!" + +He threw out his short arms with his favourite sweeping gesture, his +coat flapped to and fro in the breeze, he stepped out with such a jaunty +tread on his short broad feet, that at sight of him Margot's depression +vanished like smoke, and she trotted along by his side with willing +footsteps. + +"That's better! That's better! Never saw you look melancholy before, +and never want to again... `Shocking disappearance of dimples! A young +lady robbed of her treasures! Thief still at large! Consternation in +the neighbourhood!' Eh! How's that? Young women who have been endowed +with dimples should never indulge in low spirits. It's a criminal +offence against their neighbours. Where's your brother?" + +Margot laughed at the suddenness of the question. It was one of the +Chieftain's peculiarities to leap upon one like this, taking one +unawares, and surprising thereby involuntary revelations. + +"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "Over the hills and far away, +I suppose--studying them in a new aspect. He loved them yesterday in +the rain; to-day he felt sure that it would clear, and he wanted to see +the mists rise. He does so intensely love studying Nature." + +"Humph?" + +Margot looked at him sharply, her head involuntarily assuming a +defensive tilt. + +"What does `Humph' mean, pray?" + +"Just exactly and precisely what it says!" + +"It doesn't sound at all flattering or nice." + +"Probably not. It wasn't intended to be." + +"Mr Elgood, how can you! What can you have to say about Ron that isn't +to his credit? I thought you liked him! I thought you admired him! +You must see--you _must_--that he is different from other boys of his +age. So much more clever, and thoughtful, and appreciative!" + +"That's where the pity comes in! It's pitiful to see a lad like that +mooning away his time, when he ought to be busy at football or cricket, +or playing tricks on his betters. What business has he to appreciate +Nature? Tell me that! At twenty--is it, or only nineteen?--he ought to +be too much engrossed in exercising his muscles, and letting off steam +generally, to bother his head about effects of sun and mist. Sun and +mist, indeed! A good wholesome ordinary English lad doesn't care a toss +about sun or mist, except as they help or hinder his enjoyment of +sport!" + +"Ronald is not an `ordinary English boy'!" + +"Hoity-toity! Now she's offended!" The Chieftain looked at his +companion's flushed cheeks with twinkling eyes, not one whit daunted by +her airs of dignified displeasure. "Don't want me to say what isn't +true, do you? He's a nice lad--a very nice lad, and a clever one into +the bargain, though by no means the paragon you think him. That's why +I'm sorry to see him frittering away his youth, instead of making hay +while the sun shines. He'll be old soon enough. Wake up some fine +morning to find himself with a bald head and stiff joints. Then he'll +be sorry! Wouldn't bother my head about him if I didn't like the lad. +Have a peppermint? It will soothe your feelings." + +The parcel of round black bull's eyes was held towards Margot in +ingratiating fashion. It was impossible to refuse, impossible to +cherish angry feelings, impossible to do anything but laugh and be happy +in the presence of this kindest and most cheery of men. Margot took the +peppermint, and sucked it with frank enjoyment the while she sat by the +tarn reading her letters. Having received nothing from home for several +days, the same post had now brought letters from her father, Edith, and +Agnes, to say nothing of illustrated missives from the two small +nephews. Mr Vane's note was short, and more an echo of her own last +letter than a record of his own doings. + +"Glad to know that you like your surroundings--pleased to hear that the +weather keeps fine--hope you will enjoy your excursion," etcetera, +etcetera. + +Just at the end came a few sentences which to the reader's quick wits +were full of hidden meaning. + +"Agnes is taking the opportunity of your absence to organise a second +spring cleaning. It seems only the other day since we were upset +before. I dined at the club last night. It is difficult to know what +to do with oneself on these long light evenings.--I would run away over +Sunday, if I could think of any place I cared to go to... Town seems +very empty." + +"Poor dear darling!" murmured Margot sympathetically, at which the +Chieftain lifted his eyes to flash upon her a glance of twinkling +amusement. He made no spoken comment, however, but returned to the +perusal of his own correspondence, while Margot broke open the envelope +of Agnes's letter. + +Two sheets of handwriting, with immense spaces between both words and +lines--"My dear Margot," as a beginning--"Your affectionate sister, +Agnes Mary Vane," as a conclusion. Thrilling information to the effect +that the charwoman was coming on Friday. Complaints of the late arrival +of the sweep. Information requested concerning a missing mat which was +required to complete a set. Mild disapproval of the Nag's Head Inn. "I +cannot understand what you find to rave about in such quarters." A sigh +of impatience and resignation was the tribute paid to this letter, and +then Margot settled herself more comfortably on the stone, and prepared +to enjoy a treat--a real heart-to-heart talk with her beloved eldest +sister. + +Edith had the gift of sympathy. Just as Agnes never understood, Edith +always seemed able to put herself in another's place, and enter into +that person's joys and griefs. She herself might be sad and downcast, +but in her darkest hour she could always rejoice in another's good +fortune, and forget her own woes in eager interest and sympathy. Now, +sitting alone in the dreary lodging-house sitting-room in Oxford +Terrace, she was able mentally to project herself into the far-off +Highland glen, and to feel an ungrudging joy in the pleasure of others. +Never a hint of "How I envy you! How I wish I were there!" Not a +mention of "I" in obtruding, shadow-like fashion from first to last, but +instead, tender little anecdotes about the boys; motherly solicitude for +their benefit, and humble asking of advice from one younger and less +experienced than herself; an outpouring of tenderness for her husband, +and of a beautiful and unbroken trust and belief, which failure was +powerless to shake. + +"Jack is working like a slave trying to build up the ruins of the old +business. It is difficult, discouraging work, and so far the results +are practically nil, but they will come. Something will come! More and +more I feel the conviction in my heart that all this trouble and +upheaval have been because God has some better thing in store for us +both. We have only to wait and be patient, and the way will open.--I +don't want to be rich, only just to have enough money to live simply and +quietly. We are so rich in each other's companionship that we can +afford to do without luxuries. Last night we had a dinner of herbs-- +literally herbs--a vegetarian feast costing about sixpence halfpenny, +but with such lots of love to sweeten it, and afterwards we went out for +a stroll into the Park, and I wore the hat you trimmed, and Jack made +love to me. We _were_ happy! I saw people looking at us with envious +eyes. They thought we were a pair of lovers building castles in the +air, instead of an old married couple with two bouncing boys, having the +workhouse in much nearer proximity than any castle--but they were right +to envy us all the same. We have the best thing!" + +The letter dropped on to Margot's knee, and she sat silent, gazing +before her with shining eyes, her face softened into a beautiful +tenderness of expression. For some time she was unconscious that her +companion had returned his own letters to his coat pocket, and was lying +along the ground, his head resting upon his hand, watching her with a +very intent scrutiny; but when at last her eyes were unconsciously drawn +towards him, she spoke at once, as if answering an unspoken question. + +"What a wonderful thing love is!" + +The Chieftain's light eyebrows were elevated in interrogation. + +"In connection with the `dear darling' previously mentioned, if one may +ask?" + +"That was my father. I love him dearly, but just now I was thinking of +the other sort of love. This letter is from my eldest sister. She was +a beautiful girl, and could have married half a dozen rich men if she +had wished, but she chose the poorest of them all, a dear, good, +splendid man, who has been persistently unsuccessful all the way +through. Everything--financially speaking, I mean,--has been against +him. They have had continual anxiety and curtailment, until at last +they have had to let their pretty house and go into dingy lodgings. My +father is very down on Jack. He is a successful man himself, and don't +you think it needs a very fine nature to keep up faith in a person who +seems persistently to fail? But my sister never doubts. She loves her +husband more, and idealises him more, than on the day they were +married." + +"And you call that man unsuccessful?" + +Margot hardly recognised the low, earnest tones: her quick glance +downward surprised a spasm of pain on the chubby face, which she had +always associated with unruffled complacency. It appeared that here +also lay a hidden trouble, a secret grief carefully concealed from the +world. + +"Isn't that rather a misuse of the word? A man who has gained and kept +such a love can never be called a failure by any one who understands the +true proportions of life. With all his monetary losses he is rich... +And she is rich also... Richer than she knows." + +Margot's hand closed impulsively on Edith's letter and held it towards +him. + +"Yes, you are right. Read that, and you will see how right you are. +There are no secrets in it--its just a word-photograph of Edith herself, +and I'd like you to see her, as you understand so well. She's my +dearest sister, whom I admire more than anybody in the world." + +Mr Elgood took the letter without a word, and read over its contents +slowly once, and then, even more slowly, a second time. When at last he +had finished he still held the sheet in his hands, smoothing it out with +gentle, reverent fingers. + +"Yes!" he said slowly. "I can see her. She is a beautiful creature. I +should like to know her in the flesh. You must introduce us to one +another some day. I haven't come across too many women like that in my +life. It would be an honour to know her, to help her, if that were +possible." He sighed, and stretching out his hand laid the letter on +Margot's knee. "You are right, Miss Bright Eyes, love is a wonderful +thing!" + +Margot glanced at him with involuntary, girlish curiosity, the +inevitable question springing to her lips before Prudence had time to +order silence. + +"Do you--have you--did you ever--" + +The Chieftain laughed softly. + +"Have I ever been in love, you would ask! What do you take me for, +pray? Am I such a blind, cold-hearted clod that I could go through the +world for forty-five years and keep my heart untouched? Of course I +have loved. I do love! It was once and for ever with me--" + +"But you are not--" + +"Married? No! She died long ago; but even if she had lived she was not +for me. She would have been the wife of another man; a good fellow; I +think she would have been happy. As it is, we remember her together. +She was a bright, sunshiny creature who carried happiness with her +wherever she went... To have known her is the comfort of our lives--not +the grief. We have lived through the deep waters, and can now rejoice +in her gain... Do you know there is something about yourself which has +reminded me of her several times! That is one reason why I like being +with you, and am interested in your life. I should like you to think of +me as a friend, and come to me for help if you were ever in need of +anything that I could give." + +The colour rushed into Margot's cheeks, and her heart beat with +suffocating quickness. Here was the opportunity for which she had +longed, offered to her without any preliminary effort or contriving on +her own part! The place, the time, the person were all in readiness, +waiting for her convenience. If through cowardice or wavering she +allowed the moment to pass, she could never again hope for another such +opening. Already the Chieftain was watching her with surprise and +curiosity, the softness of the last few minutes giving place to the +usual alert good-humour. + +"Hey? Well! What is it? What's the trouble? Out with it! Anything I +can do?" + +"Mr Elgood," said Margot faintly, "you are very good, very kind; I am +most grateful to you. I hope you _will_ help me, but first there is +something I must say... I--I have been deceiving you from the +beginning!" + +"What's that?" The Chieftain sat up suddenly and stared at her beneath +frowning brows. "Deceiving me? _You_? I don't believe a word of it! +What is there to deceive me about, pray? You are not masquerading under +a false name, I suppose? Not married, for instance, and passing +yourself off as single for some silly school-girl freak?" + +"Oh no! Oh no! Everything that I have told you about myself is true, +absolutely true." + +"I knew it. You are not the sort that could act a lie. What's all the +fuss about, then?" + +"What I have told you is true, but--but--I have not told you _all_!" + +"I should think not, indeed! Who expected that you should? I am not at +all sure that I care to hear it." + +"Oh, but--I want to tell you!" + +The Chieftain chuckled with amusement. He was evidently comfortably +convinced of the non-importance of the forthcoming revelations, and +Margot's courage suffered another ebb as she returned his unsuspicious +glance. + +"I--we--we knew that you were staying at the Nag's Head!" + +The Chieftain cocked a surprised eyebrow, startled but unresentful. + +"You knew that we were here, before you arrived, and met us in the +flesh? Is that so? I wonder how you heard! I make it a rule to keep +my holiday plans as secret as possible, for the very good reason that a +holiday _is_ a holiday, and one wants a change of companionship as well +as scene. How in the world did you hear that we were bound for +Glenaire? I'm curious!" + +Margot's eyelids fell guiltily, but Nature had generously endowed these +same lids with long black lashes, the points of which curled up in a +manner distractingly apparent when shown in contrast with a flushed pink +cheek; so it happened that instead of being hardened by the sight, the +Chieftain drew a few inches nearer, and smiled with genial approval. + +"Well, out with it! _How_ did you hear?" + +"I--asked!" + +"Asked?" The brow became a network of astonished wrinkling. "You +asked? Whom did you ask? And why? What did you know about us, to give +you interest in our comings or goings? This grows curiouser and +curiouser! I imagined that we were as absolute strangers to you as you +were to us." + +"It--it--there was the magazine--it was because of the magazine." + +"Oh, indeed! You knew the name through the magazine! I understand!" +The Chieftain straightened himself, and the laugh died out of his eyes. +For the first time in the history of their short acquaintance Margot saw +his face set in firm, hard lines, the business face which had been left +at home, together with the black coats and silk hats of City wear, and +seeing it, trembled with fear. But it was too late to retreat; for +better or worse she was bound to go forward and complete her half- +finished revelations. + +"I wanted to get to know your brother, because he is the editor of the +_Loadstar_, and I had heard people say that he was the most powerful +literary man in London; that if he chose to take up any one who was +beginning to write he could do more to help than any one else. We know +no literary people at home, and I wanted to. Badly!" + +"I see! Just so. Written a novel, and want help to get it into print," +returned the Chieftain slowly. He had drawn down his lips into an +expression of preternatural gravity, but the hard look had disappeared. +The murder was out, and he was not angry; he might pretend to be, but +Margot was too sharp-witted to be frightened by a pretence. + +She drew a sigh of relief as she replied-- + +"No, indeed. Couldn't to save my life. It's--Ron! I was thinking of +him, not of myself. He is a poet!" + +The Chieftain groaned aloud, as if in pain. + +"Oh, I know you won't believe it, but he is! He writes wonderful poems. +Not rhymes, but poems; beautiful poems that live in your mind. He will +be another Tennyson or Browning when he is a little older." + +The Chieftain groaned again, a trifle more loudly than before. + +"It's true! It really is true. You must have seen yourself that he is +different from other boys of his age. You heard him reeling off those +impromptu lines the other day, and said how clever they were! I have +seen you looking at his face when he has been thinking out some idea. I +knew what he was doing, and you didn't; but you guessed that he was +different from ordinary people." + +"I saw that he was mooning about something, and wondered if he was right +in the head! If he'd been my boy, I should have taken care to keep his +nose so close to the grindstone that he would have no time to moon! +Poet, indeed! Didn't you tell me that your father was a successful +business man? What is he about, to countenance such nonsense?" + +"He doesn't!" replied Margot sadly. "No one does but me, and that's why +I had to act. Father agrees with you. He doesn't care for books, and +looks down upon literary men as poor, effeminate sort of creatures, who +know nothing of the world. He is ashamed that his only son writes +verses. Ron detests the idea of business, but he has had to promise +father that he would go into his office if at the end of a year he had +had no encouragement to persevere in literature. But how is a young +unknown poet to make himself known? The magazines announce that they +can accept no unsolicited poetical contributions; the publishers laugh +at the idea of bringing out a book by a man of whom no one has heard. A +boy might be a second Shakespeare, but no one would believe in him until +they had first broken his heart by their ridicule and unbelief. The +year is out in September, so matters were getting desperate, when at +last I--thought of this plan! I felt sure that if a man who was a real +judge of literary power met Ron face to face, and got to know him, he +would realise his gifts, and be willing to give him a chance. It was no +use trying in London in the midst of the full pressure of work, but in +the country everything is different. I knew a man who knew a man in the +office of the _Loadstar_, and asked him to find out your brother's +plans--" + +As she was speaking Margot was conscious of a succession of stifled +chuckles which her companion vainly tried to suppress. The Chieftain's +amusement had evidently overmastered his threatened displeasure, and +when at length she paused, he burst into an irresistible guffaw of +laughter, rubbed his hands together, and cried gleefully-- + +"Stalked him! Stalked him! Poor old George! Big game, and no mistake. +Ran him to earth... Eh, what? Bravo, bravo, Miss Bright Eyes! You +are a first-class conspirator." + +He laughed again and again, with ever-increasing merriment, laughed till +his eyes disappeared in wrinkles of fat, till the tears streamed +helplessly down his cheeks. His portly form shook with the violence of +his merriment; he kicked the air with his short, fat feet. + +Margot stared at this strange exhibition in an amazement, which +gradually changed into annoyance and outraged dignity; so that when at +last the Chieftain sat up to mop his eyes with a large silk pocket- +handkerchief, he beheld a very dignified young lady sitting by his side +in a position of poker-like rigidity, with her head tilted to an +expressive angle. + +"Sorry!" he panted hastily. "Sorry I smiled. A compliment, you know, +if you look at it in the right light. It's such an uncommonly good +idea, and so original. `The Stalking of the Editor'--eh? Well, now +that you have made such a rattling good beginning, why don't you go on +and prosper? Here you are; there he is; the field is your own. Why +don't you go in and win?" + +Margot's face fell, and her haughty airs vanished, as she turned towards +him a pair of widely-opened eyes, eloquent with plaintive surprise. + +"But I can't! How can I, when he runs away the moment I appear? I made +Ron go fishing with him one day, but he went off and left him alone, and +now it's no use persuading any more. Ron says it is only waste of time! +As for me, I have hardly spoken a word to him all this time, though I +feel that if I did really know him, I--" she hesitated, knitting her +brows, and pursing her soft red lips--"I could make him understand! I +decided at last to confide in you, because you have been so kind and +friendly to us from the first that I felt sure you would be willing to +help. You will, won't you? Even if personally you don't approve of a +literary career, will you give Ron a chance of living his life in his +own way? If your brother approved of his writings, and helped him to a +beginning, even the very smallest beginning, father would be satisfied +that he was not wasting his time." + +The Chieftain clasped his hands around his knees, and sat staring at her +with thoughtful gaze. His eyes rested upon the clear childlike eyes, +the sweet lips, the broad, honest brow, as though studying them in a new +light, and with regard to some problem suddenly presented to the mind. +Whatever was the question waiting to be decided, the answer was self- +evidently favourable, for his eyes lightened, he stretched out an +impetuous hand, and laid it upon her arm. + +"Right!" he cried heartily. "Right! I'll help you! The lad's a good +lad, and a clever lad; but what I do will be for your sake, not his! +You are a dear girl! The dearest girl I have ever met--save one! For +the sake of the bit of her that lives again in you, I am at your +service. You shall have your chance. From to-day forward I will see to +it that George makes a member of our party wherever we go. He has done +enough writing; it is time that he began to play. Make him play, Miss +Vane! He has been old all his life; teach him to be young! He is the +best fellow in the world, but he is fast asleep. Wake him up! There is +just one condition, and that is, that you leave your brother and his +scribblings alone for the time being! Don't mention them, or any +question of the sort, but be content just to show yourself to George, +your own bright, natural girl-self, as you have shown it to me. Learn +to know one another, and forget all about the boy. His turn will come +later on! You promise?" + +"Ye-es!" faltered Margot shyly. "Yes, I do; but you must promise too-- +that you will, that you won't, won't let your brother think--" + +The Chieftain touched her arm once more, with a gesture of kindly +reassurement. + +"Don't you worry, little girl! He shall have no thoughts about you that +are not altogether chivalrous and true. It's not you who are going to +move in this matter, remember! You've given it over into my hands; it +is I who am to pull the strings. No, you needn't thank me. It strikes +me that we are going to work out pretty even over this business. If you +want help for your brother, I need it just as badly for mine. I have +realised for a long time that he needed a medicine which no doctor could +supply." He looked into her face with a sudden radiant smile. "It +strikes me I might have searched a very long time before finding any one +so eminently fitted to undertake his cure!" + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +RASPBERRY-PICKING. + +Margot awoke the next morning with the pleasant feeling that something +was going to happen, and as she dressed, curiosity added an additional +savour to the anticipation. What would happen? How would the Chieftain +set to work? Would the Editor consider himself a victim, or yield +readily to the temptation? Certainly he had so far manifested no +anxiety to enjoy her society, had, indeed, seemed to avoid her at all +points; and yet, and yet-- Margot possessed her full share of a woman's +divination, and, despite appearances, the inward conviction lingered +that if the first natural shyness could be overcome, he would soon +become reconciled to her companionship, and might even--she blushed at +her own audacity!--_enjoy_ the change from his usual solitude. + +Like a true daughter of Eve, Margot did her best to help on this happy +_denouement_ by taking special pains with her toilette, putting on one +of her prettiest washing frocks, and coiling her chestnut locks in the +most becoming fashion, and the consciousness of looking her best sent +her down to breakfast in the happiest of spirits. + +Other countries may carry off the palm for the cooking of the more +elaborate meals of the day, but surely no breakfast can touch that +served in a well-ordered Scottish household. The smoothly boiled +porridge, with its accompaniment of thick yellow cream; the new-laid +eggs; the grilled trout, fresh from the stream; the freshly baked "baps" +and "scones," the crisp rolls of oatcake; and last, but not least, the +delectable, home-made marmalade, which is as much a part of the meal as +the coffee itself. He must be difficult to please who does not +appreciate such a meal as Mrs McNab served each morning to her guests +in the dining-room of the Nag's Head! + +It was when Margot had reached the marmalade stage, and George Elgood, a +persistent late-comer, was setting to work on his ham and eggs, that the +Chieftain fired the first gun of the assault. + +"When are you going to invite us all to come up and have tea with you in +your fairy dell, George?" he demanded suddenly. "What do you think of +this fellow, Mrs Macalister, finding a veritable little heaven below, +and keeping it to himself all this time? There's an easy ascent by the +head of the glen for those who object to the steeper climb; there's +shade, and water and everything that the most exacting person could want +for an ideal picnic. To be in the country on a day like this, and not +to go for a picnic seems to me a deliberate waste of opportunity, What +about this afternoon, eh? That will suit you as well as any other time, +I presume?" + +To say that the Editor appeared surprised by this sudden threatening of +his solitude, would be to state the case too mildly. He looked +absolutely stunned with astonishment, and his predicament was all the +more enhanced by the fact that already murmurs of assent and +anticipation welcomed the idea from his neighbours to right and to left. +He stared incredulously into his brother's face, wrinkled his brow, and +stammered out a laboured excuse. + +"I'm afraid I-- The dell is in no sense my property--No doubt it would +make a capital site for a picnic, but I--I have no right to pose as +host!" + +"Rubbish, my boy! You are not going to get out of it so easily as that. +We expect you to act as master of the ceremonies, and show us the +beauties you have kept to yourself so long. Yes, and to catch some +trout for us, too! What do you say to that, Mrs Macalister? How does +freshly grilled trout strike you as an accessory to a picnic? We'll +have two fires, with the kettle on one, and the gridiron on the other, +and Mrs McNab will send up a hamper of good things to complete the +feast. We'll leave George to manage that, as he knows how to get round +her; only do the thing well when you are about it; that's all I have to +say! We shall bring rattling big appetites, shan't we, Miss Vane?" + +Margot's glance passed by his to dwell with remorseful commiseration on +the Editor's perturbed face. This was her own doing; a direct +consequence of her appeal of the day before! The expression of the +brown eyes was wonderfully eloquent, and meeting them the Editor +bestirred himself to smile back a grateful recognition. By this time, +however, the murmur had grown into definite speech; Mrs Macalister was +stating at length her life's experience as to picnics, and laying down +the law as to what was necessary for their success; the clergyman and +his son were debating how to reach the dell from the farthest point of +the day's expedition; Mr Macalister was slowly repeating-- + +"Trout! Grilled trout! It's a strange-like idea to have fish at a +picnic!" + +It was plainly too late in the day for the Editor to refuse an +invitation which had already been practically accepted! With a better +grace than might have been expected he resigned himself to his fate, and +the smile which he sent round the table was very charming in its shy +cordiality. + +"I shall be delighted if you will honour me by coming so far; and no +doubt with Mrs McNab's help I shall be able to provide refreshments. +Shall we say half-past four?" + +"Four o'clock would be better. We want plenty of time to linger over +tea, and ramble about afterwards," said the Chieftain firmly; and there +being no dissent from this amendment, the Editor nodded assent, and, +gathering his papers in his hand, hurried out of the room. + +Margot followed on the first opportunity. She felt the eyes of the +Chieftain fixed on her face from across the room, and could imagine the +twinkle of humorous meaning with which they would be alight but she felt +too self-conscious and ill at ease to respond. Like a frightened little +rabbit she scuttled upstairs to her own room and remained there, busying +herself with odd pieces of work until the inmates of the inn had taken +themselves off for their morning's excursions, and quiet reigned +throughout the house. Then, and not till then, she opened her door and +peered cautiously at that other door across the landing. It was closely +shut, and taking for granted that within its portals the bewildered +scholar was making the most of his free hours, Margot crept quietly down +the staircase, and turned to the right towards the kitchen. It occurred +to her that she might be able to help Mrs McNab in her preparations for +the afternoon, and by doing so relieve the pangs of her own conscience. +All this work, and worry, and bewilderment, on her account--as a +response to her appeal! She blushed guiltily, hardly knowing whether to +feel more gratified or annoyed with the Chieftain for so speedy a +demonstration of his power; dreading the moment when they should meet +again, and she must perforce brave the mischievous messages of his eyes. + +The kitchen door was closely shut. Mrs McNab was too capable a +housewife to allow the noise and odour of culinary preparations to +invade the rest of the house; but by this time Margot was sure of her +welcome, for scarcely a day had passed by that she had not offered her +services, and been condescendingly permitted to shell peas, stone fruit, +or whip up snowy masses of cream. Mrs McNab always accorded permission +with the air of an empress conferring an order upon some humble +suppliant, but none the less Margot felt assured that she appreciated +the help, and would have missed it, had it not been forthcoming. + +This morning she tapped on the door, opened it, and thrust her head +round the corner, to behold a tableau which remained fixed irrevocably +in heart and memory. In the middle of the floor stood the mistress of +the inn, arms akimbo, engaged in laying down the law in characteristic, +downright fashion to some one who sat perched upon the dresser with +hands thrust deep into knickerbocker pockets, and feet in rough climbing +boots swinging nonchalantly to and fro; some one with a bright, almost +boyish face alight with fun, laughter, and defiance. + +For the second time Margot beheld the real George Elgood denuded of his +mask of shyness and reserve, and thrilled at the recognition. This +sunny, stone-flagged kitchen seemed fated to be the scene of unexpected +meetings! She would have retreated in haste, but at the sound of her +entrance Mr Elgood jumped hastily to the floor, and Mrs McNab +authoritatively waved her forward. + +"Here she is to speak for herself! Come yer ways, Miss Vane. I was +saying to Mr Elgood that maybe he'd listen to your advice, as he willna +tak' mine. You're a leddy, and ken how such things should be done, and +if there's any call to waste the morning, and run into daft-like +expense, when everything a reasonable body need want is lying ready to +hand--" + +Margot looked from one to the other in bewilderment, her spirits rising +with the discovery that for the first time in their short acquaintance +the Editor met her glance with an expression of relief rather than of +dread. He was smiling still, and the boyish look lingered on his face, +making him appear an absolutely different creature from the grave, +formidable hermit to whom she was accustomed. + +Margot's eyes danced, and she answered as naturally as if she had been +speaking to Ron himself. + +"I don't know in the least what I am giving an opinion about--but I am +not a `reasonable body,' and as a rule the result of `daft-like expense' +is very nice! I'm afraid that isn't what you wanted me to say, Mrs +McNab, but I must be honest. Perhaps I may feel differently when I know +what I am talking about." + +"Your picnic!" cried Mrs McNab. + +"My picnic!" corrected the Editor. "I never gave a picnic before, and +I'm weighed down by responsibility. My brother refuses to help me, and +Mrs McNab is a Spartan, and nips my suggestions in the bud. She thinks +we ought to be satisfied with bread and butter; I want cakes and fruit; +I want her to bake, and she says she has no time to bake; I want to send +over to Rew on the chance of getting strawberries; she says she has no +one to send. If you agree with me, Miss Vane, perhaps she will make +time; I know by experience that she is always better than her word!" + +Mrs McNab sniffed ironically. + +"There's scones for ye, and good fresh butter--what do ye want forbye? +Ye'd get nae mair if ye were at hame, and it's not going to kill ye, +walking a couple of miles. I've something else to do on a Thursday +morning than waste my time messing over things that aren't needed." + +Mr Elgood leant against the dresser, and surveyed her more in sorrow +than in anger. + +"Now what have you to do?" he demanded. "It's absurd to pretend that +there is anything to clean, because you never give a thing a chance to +become dirty. There is cold meat for lunch, as you yourself informed +me, so there's no cooking on hand. This house goes by machinery, with +Elspeth to stoke up the motive power. What can be left for you? I +can't think of a single thing." + +"Maybe not. A man-body never kens what goes on under his nose, though +he'd be keen enough to find out if anything went wrong. It's the day I +clean my candlesticks and brasses. They don't go on shining by +themselves, whatever ye may think." + +"Candlesticks and brasses!" George Elgood repeated the words with +gloomy emphasis, fixing the speaker with reproachful eyes. +"Candlesticks and brasses! And you put such things as those before +_me_, and the first--one of the first, favours I have ever asked! ... A +big plum cake, with almonds at the top, and a round of shortbread; it +seems to me a most moderate request. There's not a soul in the inn who +will notice a shade of extra polish on the candlesticks to-night, but +they will all bear me a lifelong grudge if I don't give them enough to +eat. Have you ever been to a picnic where you were expected to be +satisfied with bread and butter, Miss Vane?" + +Margot's shake of the head was tragic in its solemnity. + +"Never! and I don't intend to begin. I know where we can get some +fruit, at any rate, for I heard the woman at the grocer's shop saying +that she had raspberries to sell. That is far easier than sending over +to Rew, and I'd be delighted to take a basket and bring back all I can +get. While Mrs McNab makes the cakes!" + +Mrs McNab sniffed again, but vouchsafed no further answer. Mr +Elgood's face brightened, and he cried eagerly-- + +"That is kind of you! Raspberries are very nearly as good as +strawberries, and it would be splendid to get them so near at hand. I-- +er--" he frowned, with a momentary return to his old embarrassment--"I +will come too, and carry the basket, for we must hope to have a fairly +heavy load." + +Margot could hardly believe in the reality of this sudden change of +position, as she set out for the village ten minutes later, with George +Elgood by her side. He carried the basket lent by Mrs McNab, and swung +along with big easy strides, while she trotted by his side, a pretty +girlish figure in her cool white frock. It was left to her to do the +greatest share of the talking; but one reassuring fact was quickly +discovered, namely, that her companion's shyness seemed to consist +mainly in the dread of breaking strange ground, for once the first +plunge over he showed none of the expected embarrassment or distress. +If he could not be called talkative, he was at least an appreciative +listener; not a single point of her conversation missed its due share of +interest; while his deep, quiet laugh proved an incentive to fresh +flights of fancy. For a whole ten days had Margot been waiting for her +opportunity, and now that it had come she was keen to turn it to the +best possible advantage. Had the Chieftain been at hand to watch her +with his quizzical glance, she might have been tongue-tied and ill at +ease; even Ronald's presence would have brought with it a feeling of +self-consciousness; but in the kindly solitude of the mountain road she +could be herself, without thought of any one but her companion. +Remembering the warning which she had received, she kept the +conversation on strictly impersonal topics, avoiding even the mention of +Ron's name, but never had ordinary topics seemed so interesting, or the +way to the village so extraordinarily quickly traversed! + +Inside the fusty grocer's shop the good Mrs Forsyth manifested none of +a Southerner's delight at the advent of a customer for her superfluous +fruit; she appeared, indeed, to receive Margot's first inquiry in a +somewhat flisty and off-hand manner, as though advantage were being +taken of a careless word, which she had not expected to have taken in +serious earnest. George Elgood, distinctly rebuffed, muttered +unintelligible words of apology, but already Margot was beginning to +understand the dour Northern manner, and pressed the attack with +undiminished eagerness. Thus coerced, Mrs Forsyth was forced to +acknowledge that she wouldna deny that she had raspberries in the +garden; and that it seemed a pity they should waste, as she hadna the +time to "presarve." There was no telling--maybe when the children came +hame from school in the afternoon they wouldna be above picking a +basketful, and taking it down to the inn. + +"But we want them now! We want as many as you can possibly spare, but +we must have them to take back with us now!" + +"And who's to pick them for ye, I would ask?" demanded Mrs Forsyth with +scathing directness. "I've the shop to mind, and the dinner to cook; +it's not likely I can be out picking fruit at the same time, and there's +not anither soul in the house forbye mysel! I'm thinking you'll have to +wait, or do without!" + +"We could pick them ourselves!" pleaded the Editor eagerly. "You would +have no trouble except to measure the fruit after it is gathered, and +tell us what we owe! I don't care how much I pay. I want some fruit +this morning, and if I can't get it from you I shall have to drive over +to Rew. That would cost five or six shillings for the trap alone, so +you see I shall get off well, even if you charge me twice the usual +price." + +But here again the benighted Southerner found himself brought up sharply +against an unexpected phase of Scottish character, for Mrs Forsyth was +distinctly on her high horse at the thought of being offered more than +her due. She had her price; a fair-like price, she informed him +loftily, and she stuck to it. She wasna the woman to make differences +between one person and anither. Justice was justice, and she would like +to meet the man who could say she had ever stooped to accept a bribe. + +So on and so on, while once again George Elgood hung his head abashed, +and glanced in distress at his companion. In the delight afforded by +that appeal Margot felt equal to dealing with ten Mrs Forsyths, each +equally unreasonable and "kamstary." + +"We will leave the price to you; we will leave everything to you!" she +cried gaily. "I know it's asking a great deal to be allowed to come +into your garden and pick for ourselves, but we are rather in a +difficulty, for this gentleman is giving a picnic this afternoon, and +Mrs McNab has no fruit to give us. It would be a favour not only to +us, but to the whole party if you would say Yes. _Please_!" + +The way in which Margot said "Please!" with head on one side, and +upraised, beseeching _eyes_, was one of the most fatal of her +blandishments. Even the redoubtable Mrs McNab had succumbed at the +sight, and in her turn Mrs Forsyth also was overcome. She made no +further objections, but led the way through the house into a long +stretch of vegetable garden, the end portion of which was thickly +planted with raspberry bushes. + +"Help yourself!" she said briefly. "You're welcome to all that's fit to +eat." + +So the two who had been strangers, and had suddenly developed into a +kind of partnership of aim, set to work to fill the basket, which for +better convenience was slung over a branch of one of the bushes. + +The sun shone down on them; the life-giving breeze blew round them; they +were alone together among the flowers and the scented herbs. They +worked side by side, laughing over their efforts, comparing their +takings, gloating over the quickly-filling basket like a couple of +children recognising each other as playmates, and disdaining the +ordinary preliminaries of acquaintanceship. + +"It's so kind of you to help me!" said the man. + +"It's so kind of you to let me!" returned the maid. + +"I--I have noticed that you seem always to be helping people." + +"I didn't think you noticed anything at all!" + +He had not intended to say so much. She did not stop to consider what +she was implying. Both blushed, relapsed into silence, and picked fruit +assiduously for several moments, before beginning again-- + +"I am afraid this picnic will be a great bore to you." + +"Indeed, I think it is going to be a pleasure. I should have thought of +it before, but that sort of thing does not come easily to me. I have +lived too much alone!" + +"You have your work--you have been absorbed in your work." + +"Have I? I'm afraid that is not altogether true!" + +Margot glanced up surprised, met the dark eyes fixed full upon her, and +looked hurriedly away. + +"I have been finding it increasingly difficult to be absorbed," he +continued dreamily. "I have heard you all laughing and talking together +downstairs, and my thoughts have wandered. Once you sang... Do you +remember that wet afternoon when you sang? I did not seem able to write +at all that afternoon." + +The basket was full of fruit by now; Margot lifted it by one handle; +George Elgood lifted it by the other. They walked down the sunlit +garden into the house. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +TROUT FISHING. + +There was a short, somewhat embarrassed silence while Margot kept her +eyes fixed on the scene of the late meal, the two smouldering fires, the +piled-up hampers and baskets, and the Editor drummed with his fingers, +and chewed his moustache. + +"Er--" he began haltingly at last. "How do you think it has gone?" + +"You mean the--" + +"Picnic! Yes. My first entertainment. I feel responsible. Think they +enjoyed it at all?" + +"I'm sure of it. Immensely! They thawed wonderfully. Think of the +duet! To hear Mr Macalister singing was a revelation. It has been a +delightful change from the ordinary routine. And the trout! The trout +was a huge success. How amiable of it to let itself be caught so +conveniently!" + +The Editor smiled, with the conscious pride of the experienced +fisherman. + +"There was not much `let' about it. He led me a pretty dance before he +gave up the struggle, but I was on my mettle, and bound to win. Do you +know anything about fishing, Miss Vane?" + +"I?" Margot laughed happily. "Just as much as I have gleaned from +watching little boys fish for minnows in Regent's Park! I don't think I +have ever particularly wanted to know more. It seems so dull to stand +waiting for hours for what may never come, not daring to speak, in case +you may scare it away! What do you think about all the time?" + +He turned and looked at her at that, his lips twitching with amusement. +Seated on the ground as they were, the two faces were very near +together, and each regarded the other with the feeling of advancing a +step further in the history of their acquaintance. + +"He really _is_ young!" decided Margot, with a sigh of relief. "It's +only the frown and the stoop and the eyeglasses which make him look as +if he were old." + +George Elgood looked into the pink and white face, and his thoughts +turned instinctively to a bush of briar roses which he had seen and +admired earlier in the day. So fresh, and fair, and innocent! Were all +young girls so fragrant and flower-like as this? Then he thought of the +little prickles which had stung his hand as he had picked a bud from the +same bush for his buttonhole, and smiled with latent mischief. After +all, the remembrance did not lessen the likeness. Miss Margot looked as +if she might--under provocation--display a prickle or two of her own! + +"What do I think about?" he repeated slowly. "That is rather a +difficult question to answer; but this good little river, I am thankful +to say, does not leave one much time for thought. There's a little +channel just beyond the bridge that is a favourite place for sea trout. +Would you like to see it?" + +"Might I? Really? Oh, please!" cried Margot, all in a breath. Her +very prettiest "please," accompanied by a quick rise to her feet which +emphasised the eagerness of her words. + +George Elgood lost no time in following her example, and together they +walked briskly away towards the head of the dell; that is to say, in the +opposite direction to that taken by the other members of the party. +George Elgood had picked up his fishing-tackle as he went--by an almost +unconscious impulse, as it seemed--and unconsciously his conversation +drifted to the all-absorbing topic. + +"If we take a sharp cut across this hill--I'll give you a hand down the +steep bits!--we hit the river at the best spot. You have been grumbling +at the wet weather, but you will see the good effects of rain, from a +fisherman's point of view. The river is full from bank to bank, rushing +down to the sea. It is a fine sight, a river in flood! I don't know +anything in Nature which gives the same impression of power and joy. +That's where Norway has the pull. Her mountains can't compare with the +Swiss giants, but everywhere there is a glorious wealth of water. No +calm sleeping lakes, but leaping cataracts of rivers filling whole +valleys, as my little stream here fills its small banks; roaring and +dashing, and sparkling in the sun. Norway is perfection, from a +fisherman's point of view; but there is plenty of sport to be found +nearer home. I have had no cause to complain for the last fortnight. +This way--to the right! It's just a little rough going at first, but it +cuts off a good mile. You are sure you don't mind?" + +Margot's laugh rang out jubilantly. She scrambled up the steep mountain +path with nimble feet, easily out-distancing her guide, until the +hilltop was reached, and she stood silhouetted against the sky, while +the wind blew out her white skirts, and loosened curling tendrils of +hair. + +Below could be traced the course of the river, winding in and out in +deep curves, and growing ever broader and fuller with every mile it +traversed. The sunlight which played on it, making it look like a +silver ribbon, played also on the yellow gorse and purple heather; on +the long grey stretch of country in the distance; on that softer blue +plain joining the skyline, which was the sea itself. A breath of salt +seemed to mingle with the aromatic odour of the heather, adding tenfold +to its exhilaration. + +As Margot stood holding on to her hat, and waiting for her companion's +approach, she felt such a glorious sense of youth and well-being, such +an assurance of happiness to come, as is seldom given to mortals to +enjoy. It was written in her face, her radiant, lovely young face, and +the light in the eyes which she turned upon him made the shy scholar +catch his breath. + +"You did that well! Magnificently well!" he cried approvingly. "But +you must take the descent carefully, please. There are one or two +sudden dips which might be awkward if you were not prepared. I know +them all. Shall I,--would you,--will you take my hand?" + +"Thank you!" said Margot, and laid her hand in his with an acceptance as +simple as if he had been her own brother. It was a very pretty little +hand, in which its owner felt a justifiable pride, and it lay like a +white snowflake in the strong brown palm stretched out to meet it. + +For just a moment George Elgood kept his fingers straight and unclasped, +while he gazed downward at it with kindling eyes, then they closed in a +tight, protecting clasp, and together they began the descent. + +For the most part it was easy enough, but the awkward places came so +often and unexpectedly that it did not seem worth while to unloose that +grasp until the bottom was safely reached. Margot had a dream-like +sensation of having wandered along for hours, but in reality it was a +bare ten minutes before she and her guide were standing on level ground +by the side of the rushing river. + +"Thank you! That was a great help," she said quietly. George Elgood, +with a sudden access of shyness, made no reply, but busied himself with +preparation. + +"I'll just make another cast, to show you how one sets to work. I take +a pretty big fly--the trout like that. These are the flies--all sizes, +as you see. I am rather proud of them, for I make them myself in the +winter months, when one can enjoy only the pleasures of anticipation. +It's a good occupation for a leisure hour." + +"You make them yourself!" Margot repeated incredulously, stretching out +her hand to receive one of the hairy morsels on her palm, and bending +over it in unaffected admiration. "But how clever of you! How can you +have the patience? It must be dreadfully finicky work!" + +"It is a trifle `finicky,' no doubt!" He laughed over the repetition of +the word. "But it's a refreshing change to work with one's hands +sometimes, instead of one's brain. Now shall I give you your first +lesson in the art? Don't imagine for a moment that fishing means +standing still for the hour together, with nothing more exciting than +the pulling-in of your fish the moment he bites. That's the idea of the +outsider who does not know what adventure he is losing, what hope and +suspense, what glorious triumph! Like most things, it's the struggle +that's the glory of the thing, not the prize. Shall I soak this cast +for you, and give you your first lesson?" + +"Oh, please! I'd love it! It would be too kind of you!" cried Margot +eagerly. She had not the faintest idea what "soaking a cast" might +mean, and listened in bewilderment to a score of unfamiliar expressions; +but it is safe to affirm that she would have assented with equal fervour +to almost any proposition which her companion made. + +There and then followed the first lesson on the seemingly easy, but in +reality difficult, task of "casting," the Editor illustrating his lesson +by easy, graceful throws, which Margot tried in vain to imitate. She +grew impatient, stamping her feet, and frowning fiercely with her dark +eyebrows, while he looked on with the amused indulgence which one +accords to a child. + +"Are you always in such a hurry to accomplish a thing at once?" + +"Yes, always! It's only when you don't care that you can afford to +wait." + +"It sometimes saves time in the end to make haste slowly!" + +"Oh, don't confound me with proverbs!" cried Margot, turning a flushed, +petulant face at him over her shoulder. "I know I am impetuous and +imprudent, but--the horrid thing _will_ twist up! Don't you think I +might have a demonstration this time? Let me watch, and pick up hints. +I'm sure I should learn more quickly that way, and it would be less +boring for you. Please!" + +At that he took the rod, nothing loth, and Margot seated herself on the +ground, a trifle short of breath after her exertions, and not at all +sorry to have the chance of looking on while some one else did the work. +She was intently conscious of her companion's presence, but he seemed +to forget all about her, as wading slightly forward into the stream he +cast his fly in slow, unerring circuit. How big he looked, how strong +and masterful; how graceful were the lines of his tall lean figure! +From where she sat Margot could see the dark profile beneath the +deerstalker cap, the long straight nose, the firmly-closed lips, the +steady eyes. It was the face of a man whom above all things one could +trust. "A poor dumb body," Mrs Macalister had dubbed him, scornfully; +but Margot had discovered that he was by no means dumb, and that once +the first barriers were broken, he could talk with the best, and bring +into his conversation the added eloquence of expression. She recalled +the lighting of his absorbed eyes as he had looked down at her own white +hand, and flushed at the remembrance. + +Margot had often pitied the wives and sisters of enthusiastic fishermen +who had perforce to sit mum-chance in the background, but to-day she was +conscious of no dissatisfaction with her own position. She possessed +her full share of the girl's gift of building castles, and it would not +be safe to say how high the airy structure had risen before suddenly the +rod bent, and the Editor's intent face lit up with elation. The fish +was hooked; it now remained to "play" with him, in professional +parlance, till he could be landed with credit to himself and his captor. + +For the next half-hour Margot was keenly, vividly interested in studying +the tactics of the game. The reel screamed out, as the captive made a +gallant dash for liberty; the Editor splashed after him, running hastily +by the side of the river, now reeling in his line, now allowing it full +play; and at the distance of a few yards she ran with him, now holding +her breath with suspense, now clasping her hands in triumph, until at +last, his struggles over, the captive floated heavily upon the stream. + +It was the end for which she had longed throughout thirty of the most +exciting moments that she had ever known; but now that victory was +secured, woman--like she began to feel remorse. + +"Oh, is it dead? Have you killed it? But it's horrid, you know--quite +horrible! A big strong man like you, and that poor little fish--" + +"Not little at all! It's a good six-pounder," protested the fisherman, +quick to defend his sport against depreciation. "No--he's not dead yet, +but he soon will be. I will just--" + +"Wait! Wait! Let me get out of the way." Margot flew with her fingers +in her ears, then pulled them out to cry--"Is it done? Is it over? Can +I come back?" + +"Yes; it is all right. I've put him in my bag. You will appreciate him +better in his table guise. I'll take him back as a peace-offering to +Mrs McNab, for her own evening meal. We have already had our share at +the pic--" + +Suddenly his hands fell to his sides, he straightened himself, and +turned his eyes upon her, filled with puzzle and dismay. + +"The pic--" + +"--Nic!" concluded Margot faintly. Rosy red were her cheeks; a weight +as of lead pressed on her eyelids, dragging them down, down, beneath his +gaze. "I--I--_forgot_! We were to have gone to find them! Do you +suppose they are--hiding still?" + +He laughed at that, though in somewhat discomfited fashion. + +"Rather not! Given us up long ago. It must be getting on for an hour. +I can't think how I came to forget--" + +Margot glanced at him shyly beneath her curling lashes. + +"It was the fish! A fisherman can't be expected to remember anything +when he is landing a trout!" she suggested soothingly. Nevertheless she +remembered with a thrill of joy that his forgetfulness had dated back to +a time when there had been no fish in prospect. "Do you suppose they +have gone home?" + +"We will go and see. From that mound over there we can overlook the +path to the inn. Perhaps we had better keep a little in the background! +It would be as well that they should not see us, if they happened to +look up--" + +If it were possible to feel a degree hotter, Margot felt it at that +moment, as she followed George Elgood up the little hillock to the +right, and, pausing just short of the top, peered stealthily around. A +simultaneous exclamation broke from both lips; simultaneously they drew +back, and crouched on their knees to peer over the heather. + +There they went!--straggling in a row in the direction of the inn, the +party of revellers who had been so basely deserted. + +First, the clergyman, with his hands clasped behind his back, his head +bent in thought; a pensive reveller, this, already beginning to repent a +heavy, indigestible meal; next, Mrs Macalister, holding her skirts in +characteristic fashion well up in front and sweeping the ground behind; +a pace or two in the rear, her spouse, showing depression and weariness +in every line of his body. Yet farther along the two young men carrying +the empty hampers; last of all, at quite a little distance from the +rest, the figure of the Chieftain stepping out with a tread even more +conspicuously jaunty than usual, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, +his head turned from side to side, as if curiously scanning the +hillsides. + +At one and the same moment Margot and the Editor ducked their heads, and +scrambled backwards for a distance of two or three yards. There was a +moment's silence, then instinctively their eyes met. Margot pressed her +lips tightly together, George Elgood frowned, but it was all in vain; no +power on earth could prevent the mischievous dimples from dipping in her +cheeks; no effort could hide the twinkle in his eyes--they buried their +heads in their hands, and shook with laughter! + +When at last composure was regained, George Elgood pulled his watch from +his pocket, glanced at the time, and cried eagerly-- + +"There is still an hour before we need be back for dinner. As well be +hanged for a sheep as a lamb. Let us go back to the river, and try our +luck once more!" + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +A TELEGRAM. + +It was a very shamefaced Margot who made her appearance at the dinner- +table that evening; but, to her unspeakable relief, she found that there +was no cause for embarrassment. Instead of the meaning glances and +joking remarks which she had dreaded, she was greeted with the ordinary +kindly prosaic welcome, and not even Mrs Macalister herself ventured an +innuendo. The Chieftain was the only one who alluded to the non- +appearance of the searchers, and the manner in which he did so was a +triumph of the commonplace. + +"Muddled up that hide-and-seek finely, didn't we?" he cried cheerily. +"Afraid you had all your trouble for nothing. I happened to catch a +glimpse of you heading off in the wrong direction, so turned into `It' +myself, and rooted them all out of their lairs. Then we played some +sensible, middle-aged, sitting-down games, and strolled home in time for +a siesta before dinner. Very good picnic, I call it. Great success! +We'll have another, one of these fine days." + +"'Deed yes, and we will!" assented Mrs Macalister genially. "It stirs +a body up to have an outing now and then. I was thinking, why shouldn't +we drive over to B-- and see the old castle and all the sights? I've +been hankering to go ever since we arrived; but it mounts up when you +drive about by yourselves. If we shared two carriages between us, it +would make all the difference, and it seems foolish-like to be in a +neighbourhood and not see what there is to be seen. You can get +carriages from Rew, they tell me, if you order them a day or two +before." + +To the amazement of the company, it was George Elgood of all others who +hastened to second the proposal. + +"A capital idea!" he cried. "B-- is one of the finest old ruins in +Scotland. Of course we must go; it would be worse than foolish to go +home without seeing it. I have been before, so I could act as guide, +and those who possess cameras had better take them also, as the place is +rich in subjects." + +The clergyman and his son pricked up their ears at this, photography +being with them only a degree less absorbing a pastime than that of +walking; Ron awoke suddenly to the remembrance that his half-plate +camera had never been unpacked since his arrival; and the three vied +with each other in asking questions about the proposed excursion, and in +urging that a date should be fixed. Before the meal had come to a +conclusion, plans were mapped out, and a division of labour made, by +which one person was held responsible for the hiring of carriages, +another for the promised food, while George Elgood was left to arrange +the plan of campaign. + +"We are a happy family, we are, we are, we are!" hummed the Chieftain, +under his breath, as he cast a twinkling glance across the table to +where Margot sat, as demure to outward seeming as she was excited at +heart. + +"Why do you avoid me?" he demanded of her plumply, the next morning, +when, after several unsuccessful attempts, he ran her to earth by the +side of the tarn. "Scurry out of my way like a frightened bunny +whenever I come along. Won't do, you know! Not going to trouble myself +to do you good turns, if you round on me afterwards, and avoid me as if +I were the plague. What's it all about?" + +"Nothing," stammered Margot confusedly. "I only felt rather-- You _do_ +tease, you know, and your eyes twinkle so mischievously that I felt that +discretion was the better part of valour." + +"Well, don't do it again then, that's all, or I may turn rusty and upset +the apple-cart. No reason that I know of why I should be ostracised, +because I try to help my fellow-creatures. What are you doing over +here? Reading? What a waste of time! Much better come and chuck +stones into the lake with me." + +Margot's brown eyes widened in reproof. + +"Don't you like books?" + +"Hate the sight of 'em! Especially on a holiday. Never want to see as +much as a line of print from the time I leave home to the time I return. +Especially,"--his eyes twinkled in the mischievous manner to which +exception had just been taken--"especially poetry! Don't mind my saying +so, do you?" + +"Not a bit," returned Margot promptly, tossing her first stone into the +lake with a vehemence which held more than a suspicion of temper. "Of +course I never--one would never--_expect_ you to like it. It would be +the last thing one would expect--" + +"Too fat?" + +She blushed at that, and had the grace to look a trifle distressed. + +"Oh, not that altogether. It's a `_Je ne sais quoi_,' don't you know. +One could tell at a glance that you were not a literary man." + +The Chieftain chuckled, bent down to gather a handful of stones, and +raised a red smiling face to hers. + +"Well, well, we can't all be geniuses, you know! One in a glen is about +as much as you can expect to meet in these hard times. But I can chuck +stones with the best of 'em. That one was a good dozen yards beyond +your last throw. Put your back into it, and see what you can do. It's +a capital way of letting off steam." + +Margot was tempted to protest against the accusation, but reflection +prompted silence, since after all she _was_ cross, and there was no +denying it. + +She took the little man's advice, and "let off steam" by the vigour and +determination with which she hurled pebbles into the lake, making them +skim along the surface in professional manner for an ever longer and +longer space before finally disappearing from sight. + +The Chieftain cheered her on with example and precept, and, as usual, +irritation died a speedy death in the presence of his bright, cheery +personality. While they were still laughing and cheering each other on +to fresh exploits, a lad from the post office passed along the road, and +the Chieftain wheeled round to call out the usual question-- + +"Anything for me? Is the post in already?" + +The lad shook his head. He was a red-headed sociable-looking creature +who seemed only too glad to enliven his walk by a chat _en route_. His +teeth showed in a cheerful smile as he replied-- + +"The post willna be here for an hour or mair. It's just a telegram!" + +A telegram! It said much for the peaceful seclusion of the Glen that +the very sound of the word brought a chill of apprehension to the +listening ears. No one received telegrams at the Nag's Head. One and +all the visitors had sojourned thither with the aim of getting away as +far as possible from the world of telegrams, and electric trams, and +tube railways, and all the nerve-shattering inventions of modern life. +Their ambition was to outlive the sense of hurry; to forget that such a +thing as hurry existed, and browse along in peaceful uninterrupted ease. + +To-day, however, in that far-away world beyond the heather-clad +mountains something must have happened of such importance to some member +of the little party that it could not wait for the leisurely medium of +the post, but for good or ill had demanded instant attention. + +Margot and the Chieftain stood in silence for a moment before he asked +the second question. + +"Who is it for?--What's the name?" + +"Macalister!" + +The name was pronounced with the lengthy drawl to which the hearers were +growing familiar. They looked at each other with sighs of relief, +followed swiftly by contrition. + +"I hope nothing is wrong! I hope it's not bad news. Poor Mr +Macalister's `nearves'!" + +"No, no! Nothing of the sort. Why imagine evil? Always look at the +bright side as long as you can. Take for granted that it is good news, +splendid news--the news he would like most to hear. Cut along, laddie! +People pay for telegrams with the intention of getting them to their +destination as quickly as possible. We'll defer the pleasure of a +conversation to our next merry meeting." + +The red-headed one grinned complacently and continued on his way, +whistling as he went. There was about him no suggestion of a harbinger +of bad tidings; the sun shone from a cloudless sky, and awoke sparkling +reflections in the water; the scene was one of unbroken peace and +happiness, and yet, and yet,--some shadow seemed to have fallen on +Margot's soul, so that she could no longer take any interest in the mere +throwing of stones. Her heart followed the footsteps of the messenger +down the winding path, and stood still as he entered the inn. + +"What is it, little girl? You look as if you had seen a ghost!" + +The Chieftain stood observing her with an expression of kindly concern, +for the pretty face had turned white beneath its tan, and the brown eyes +were wide and tense, as if beholding something hidden from ordinary +gaze. She gazed fixedly, not back in his face, but past him down the +lane towards the inn. + +"I'm--afraid! I _feel_ it is not good news. It means trouble--big +trouble! It is hanging over me like a cloud!" + +He looked at her swiftly, and his face changed. + +"Come then," he said quietly, "we will go back. If it is trouble, we +may be able to help. I never ignore presentiments; they are sent to us +all from time to time, and if we are faithful we obey them, like a +summons. One came to me years ago. It was late at night, and I was +just off to bed, when suddenly it came--the remembrance of a friend far +off; the insistent remembrance; the certainty that he needed me, and +that I must hasten to help. By all the laws of common sense I should +have shrugged my shoulders and gone to sleep; but what are we, to judge +by our own poor knowledge the great unknown forces of God? I went out +there and then, caught a midnight train, and was at his house by seven +in the morning. His wife met me on the stair and said, `How did you +know?' ... He lay dying in his bed, and all that night he had been +calling for me. There was something I could do for him, better than any +one else. He wished to place it in my hands before he went, and God had +mercifully provided the opportunity. Never say that anything is +impossible in this world, little girl! According to your faith so shall +it be unto you." + +Margot did not answer except by a faint, strained smile. Her eyes were +fixed upon the doorway of the inn, waiting for the reappearance of the +messenger, but he did not come, and the delay lent weight to her +apprehension. + +They spoke no more, but walked silently side by side, until they drew +near to the inn, when suddenly the silence of the Glen was broken by a +strange, unaccustomed sound. What was it? Whence did it come? From +some animal surely; some animal in pain or fear, piteously making known +its needs! It could not be the moan of human woe! Yet even as she +passionately denied the thought, Margot recognised in her heart that it +was true, and darting quickly forward made her way into the inn parlour. +The messenger still stood outside the door, waiting in stolid patience +for instructions, and by his side was Mrs McNab, wiping floury hands in +her apron, in evident perturbation of spirit. + +On the plush-bedecked sofa in the corner of the parlour the half- +inanimate form of Mrs Macalister swayed helplessly to and fro, while on +either side stood two men--her husband and George Elgood--looking on in +helpless, masculine fashion. Her cap had fallen back from her head, her +ruddy face was bleached to a livid grey, from her lips came from time to +time that pitiful, hopeless wail. At first it seemed to have no +definite sound, but as one listened it took to itself words,--always the +same words, repeated again and again-- + +"My lassie! My Lizzie! Oh, my lassie!" + +"Nay, dearie, nay! You mustna give way. She's better off. You must be +strong. We'll bear it together." + +It was Mr Macalister who spoke; but Margot hardly recognised the voice, +hardly recognised the face, which, for all its pallor and quiver of +pain, was yet strong and calm. All trace of the peevish discontent that +had hung like a cloud over the man had vanished like a mist; his bowed +back seemed to have straightened itself and grown erect; the whining +voice was composed and full of courage. He had forgotten his nerves in +the presence of a great calamity; nay, more than that--he had forgotten +himself; his one care and anxiety was for his wife! + +The tears smarted in Margot's eyes; she ran forward, dropped on her +knees before the chair, and clasped her strong young arms round the +swaying figure, steadying it with loving, gentle pressure. The wan eyes +stared at her unrecognisingly for a moment, then, at the sight of her +girlish beauty, old memories returned, and the tears began to rain. + +"Lizzie's gone! Lizzie's gone! I'll never see her again. All in a +moment, and me so far away. My little Lizzie!... I canna bear it!..." + +"She never suffered, mother. She knew nothing about it. It's better +for her than a long, painful illness. You must be thankful for her +sake." Mr Macalister looked down at Margot, and bravely essayed an +explanation. "It was an accident. We've just heard. Instantaneous, +they say. The mother's sore upset, but she's a brave woman. She'll +bear it bravely for all our sakes. We'll need to get back to Glasgow." + +"Yes. I'll help! I'll pack for her. Don't trouble about anything. +I'll see that it is all right. You'll let me help you, dear, won't +you?" Margot put up a tender hand, to straighten the cap on the poor, +dishevelled head; and something in the simple, daughterly action seemed +to reach the poor woman's heart, and bring with it the first touch of +calmness. She sat up and looked blankly from side to side. + +"I--I'm sorry! I shouldna give way. I never lost a child before, you +see, and Lizzie was such a one for her mother. I wrote to her only last +night. She leaves two bairnies of her own, but they are so young. +They'll never remember her!" The pitiful trembling began again, +whereupon George Elgood's hand held out a glass of water, and Margot +took it from him to lift it to the quivering lips. + +"They will need you all the more, and you must be strong for their +sakes. That's what she would wish, isn't it?" + +"Yes, yes. I must take care of the children. And Fred--poor Fred! but +he hasn't loved her as I have done for nearly thirty years. Father, +when can we get back?" + +"I'll see, my dearie. I'll see! Leave all to me. I'll settle it all, +and this good lassie will pack your things. Ye need trouble for +nothing, my lass,--ye need trouble for nothing." + +He laid his broad hand on his wife's shoulder with a gesture infinitely +tender, then turned and went stumbling out of the room, while Margot's +eyes met the tear-drenched ones above her with a flash of enthusiasm. + +"He is--_splendid_!" + +Even at that moment Mrs Macalister showed a faint kindling of response. + +"Didn't I tell ye? When a man's out of health ye canna judge. When +he's in his usual, there's no one to touch Mr Macalister." + +With an instinctive movement Margot turned her head upward till her eyes +met those of George Elgood, and exchanged a flash of mutual +understanding. It heartened her like a drink of water in a thirsty +land, for underlying the pity and the kindliness she recognised +something else; something that existed for herself alone, and which +seemed to bring with it an electric thrill of happiness. + +Outside in the "lobby" the Chieftain was looking up trains in his own +_Bradshaw_, and arranging with Mrs McNab for the long drive to the +station, while Mr Macalister was writing out a return message with +trembling fingers. + +"Come upstairs with me, dear!" said Margot gently. "You shall lie on +the bed while I do the packing. It's a long journey, and you must be as +fresh as possible when you arrive. They will be waiting for you, you +know, and expecting you to comfort them. You have told me how they all +rely upon you. You wouldn't like to fail just when they need you most!" + +Mrs Macalister raised herself feebly from her chair, but her poor face +quivered helplessly. + +"I'm a broken reed for any one to lean on. I can only remember that +Lizzie's gone. There's no strength left in me. She was the flower of +the flock. And me so far away!" + +For the next hour the poor woman lay on the bed in her room, now sobbing +in helpless paroxysms of grief, now relating pitiful, commonplace +anecdotes of the dead daughter so dearly beloved, a dazed helpless +creature, unable to do a hand's turn for herself, while her husband +crept in and out, quiet, resourceful, comforting, full of unselfish +compassion. Margot had hard work to keep back her own tears, as he +clumsily pressed his own services upon her, picking up odd garments, +folding them carefully in the wrong way, and rummaging awkwardly through +the drawers. + +The trap was to be ready to start by twelve o'clock, and ten minutes +before the time Margot carried a sponge and basin of water to the +bedside, bathed the poor, tear-stained face, brushed the straggling +locks of grey hair, and helped to fasten bonnet and cloak. It was +pathetic to see the helplessness into which grief had stricken this +capable, bustling woman. She lifted her chin, to allow the strings of +her bonnet to be tied by Margot's hands, and sat meekly while the +"dolman" was hooked. It was like dressing a big docile baby; like a +child, too, the manner in which she clung to her husband's arm down the +narrow stair. + +Mrs McNab was standing below in the lobby, her hard face flushed to an +unnatural red. She held a basket in her hand filled with dainty paper +packages containing fruit, sandwiches, and cakes. Unable to voice her +sympathy, she had put it into deeds, striving to ensure some comfort for +the long journey ahead. + +Mrs Macalister smiled a pitiful travesty of a smile in acknowledgment, +and her friends pressed her hand, mercifully refraining from speech. +When it came to parting from Margot, however, that was a different +matter. Mrs Macalister stooped from the seat of the trap to kiss the +girl's cheek once and again. + +"You're a guid lassie," she said, trembling. "I would have been lost +without you! The Lord bless you, my dear!" + +"Ay! and she _shall_ be blessed!" added Mr Macalister's voice, deeply. + +Margot thrilled at the sound of those words, and stood back on the path +watching the departing wheels through a mist of tears. They had gone, +those two good, loving, simple creatures, and in all likelihood she +would never see them again; for a moment their lives had touched, but +the currents had swept them apart; they were as ships that had passed in +the night. To the end of time, however, she must be the better for the +meeting, for in their need they had leant upon her, and she had been +able to help. They had blessed her in patriarchal fashion, and the +sound of their words still rang in her ears-- + +"The Lord bless you!" + +"Ay! and she _shall_ be blessed?" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +CRITICISM. + +Out of sympathy and respect for Mr and Mrs Macalister, nothing more +was said about the next picnic party for several days after their tragic +departure from the Glen, but the intervening time was, to Margot at +least, full of interest and excitement. One morning, for instance, as +she strolled from the breakfast-room to the road, as was the easy custom +of the hour, a hurried step followed in the same direction, and George +Elgood, staring hard in an opposite direction, advanced an opinion that +one lesson in fishing was mere waste of time, whereas two, or perhaps +three, might possibly convey some real knowledge of the art. Er--did +Miss Vane feel inclined to pay another visit to the river? + +Miss Vane, poking the gravel with the points of her shoes, was--er--yes! +quite inclined, if Mr Elgood was sure she would not interrupt his sport +Mr Elgood, with equal eagerness and incoherence, assured Miss Vane that +she would do nothing of the kind, and hurried back to the inn, murmuring +vaguely concerning eleven o'clock. + +In the quiet of the riverside, however, he regained his self-possession, +and once more proved himself to be the most interesting of companions, +the most patient of instructors. Margot thought fishing a delightful +and absorbing pursuit, which was the more remarkable as she was rather +stupid than otherwise in mastering the initial movements. Mr Elgood +encouraged her, however, by saying that some of the cleverest "rods" of +his acquaintance had been the slowest in picking up the knack. The +great thing was to have plenty of practice! She ought to come up every +morning for as much time as she could spare; meantime, as she had been +standing so long, would she not like to sit down, and rest awhile before +walking home? + +Then they sat down side by side on the grassy bank, and talked together +as a man and a maid love to talk in the summer of their youth, +exchanging innocent confidences, comparing thoughts and opinions, +marvelling that they are so much alike. + +Margot faithfully observed her promise to make no references to her +ambitions on her brother's behalf, and, truth to tell, her silence +involved little effort, for she was guiltily conscious of being so much +engrossed in her own affairs that even Ron's ambitions had faded into +the background. As for the lad himself, he was happy enough, wandering +about by himself studying "effects" to transcribe to paper, or scouring +the countryside with the Chieftain, whom he frankly adored, despite the +many exceedingly plain-spoken criticisms and exhortations received from +his lips. + +"Your sister has been telling me about that rhyming craze of yours," the +little man said suddenly one day. "Likewise about her own very pretty +little scheme for the subjugation of my brother. Told you that she'd +told me, eh? Expect she did! She is pleased to believe she is a +designing little adventuress, whereas as a matter of fact she's as clear +as crystal, and any one with half an eye could see through her schemes. +Well! I laid down the law that neither she nor you are to worry my +brother about business matters during his holiday, for, to tell you the +truth, he has had his full share of worry of late. But what about me? +I'm a plain, common-sense, steady-going old fellow, who might perhaps be +able to give you a word or two of advice! What's all this nonsense +about throwing aside a post that's waiting for you, and which means an +income for life, in order to live in an attic, and scribble verses for +magazines? If you knew the world, young man, you would understand that +you are blessedly well off, to have your way made smooth, and would not +be in such a hurry to meet disappointments half way. They will come +soon enough! At the best of it, you will have a hard row to hoe. Why +make it worse?" + +Ronald flushed in sensitive fashion, but there was no hint of offence in +his manner, as he replied-- + +"It is hardly a question of an attic, sir. My father would not +disinherit me because I preferred literature to business. I might have +a pittance instead of a fortune, but I should not have to fear want. +And why should I not live my own life? If I am bound to meet troubles, +surely it is only right to provide what compensations I can, and my best +compensation would be congenial work! I don't want to be rich. Let +some other fellow take the post, and get his happiness out of it; it +would be slavery to me." + +"Humph! No boy likes the idea of putting his nose to the grindstone. +They all kick a bit at the thought of an office desk, but nine out of +ten enjoy the life when they get into the swing. It's a great secret of +happiness in this world, to be kept so busy that we have not time to +think of ourselves. We need work for its own sake, even more than for +what it brings; but our work must be worthy. There's no real success +away from that... About those verses now! It's a pleasant occupation +for you to sling them together--I haven't a word to say against it as a +recreation--but that's a different thing from serious work. There's +only one thing which justifies a man in cutting himself adrift from the +world, in opposition to the wishes of those who have his interests most +at heart, and that is, a strong and solemn conviction of a special +mission in life. Very well then! If you agree so far, let us proceed +to consider the mission of a poet. There's only one justification for +his existence--only one thing that distinguishes him from the +professional rhymester whom nobody wants, and who is the bane and terror +of society, and that is--_that he has something to say_! Now take your +own case--a lad without as much as a moustache on his face; the son of a +rich father, who has lain soft all his life, and had the bumps rolled +flat before him. What do you imagine that you are going to teach the +world? Do you fondly believe that you have anything to say that has not +been said before, and a thousand times better into the bargain?" + +Ronald looked up and gazed dreamily ahead. He had taken off his cap, as +his custom was in these moorland tramps, which were becoming of daily +occurrence, and his hair was ruffled on his forehead, giving an air of +even more than ordinary youth to his face. The hazel eyes were dark, +and the curved lips trembled with emotion; he was searching his soul for +the reply to a question on which more than life seemed to depend, and +while he gazed at the purple mountains with unseeing eyes the Chieftain +gazed at his illumined face, and felt that he had received his answer. + +The words of Wordsworth's immortal ode rushed into his brain, and he +recognised that this ignorant lad possessed a knowledge which was hidden +from the world. Heaven, with its clouds of glory, lay close around him, +ignorant of worldly wisdom though he might be. God forbid that the one +should ever be exchanged for the other! + +The Chieftain was answered, but like Ron he remained silent. They +walked on over the short, springy grass, breathed the clear, fresh +breeze, and thought their own thoughts. It was not until nearly a mile +had been traversed that Ron turned his head and said simply, as if +answering a question put but a moment before-- + +"I sing, because I must! It is my life. I have not thought of other +people, except in so far as their approval would justify me in my +father's eyes. You could no doubt judge better than I if what I have to +say has value or not. Will you read some of my lines?" + +A curious sound broke from the Chieftain's lips, a sound something +between a groan and a laugh. He frowned, pursed his lips, swung his +short arms vigorously to and fro, shook his head with an air of +determined opposition, then suddenly softened into a smile. + +"It's a strange world, my masters! A strange world! You never know +your luck! In the middle of my holiday, and a Scotch moor into the +bargain! I'll try Timbuctoo another year! Nothing else for it. Where +does my brain-rest come in, I want to know! You and your verses--be +plagued to the pair of you! Got some about you now, I suppose? Hand +them over, then,--the first that come to the surface--and let me get +through with it as soon as possible!" + +He plumped down on the grass as he spoke, took out a large bandana +handkerchief and mopped his brow with an air of resignation, while +Ronald fumbled awkwardly in his pocket. + +"I have several pencil copies. I think you can make them out. This is +the latest. A Madrigal--`To my Lady.'" + +"Love-song?" + +"Yes." + +"Ever been in love?" + +"No." + +"What a pity when charming--poets--sing of things they don't understand! +Well, well, hand it over! I'll bear it as bravely as I may--" + +Ron winced, and bit his lower lip. It was agony to sit by and watch the +cool, supercilious expression on the critic's face, the indifferent +flick of the fingers with which the sheet was closed and returned. + +"Anything more?" + +"You don't care for that one?" + +"Pretty platitudes! Read them before a score of times--and somewhat +more happily expressed. If I were a poet--which I'm not, thank +goodness!--I could turn 'em out by the score. Ten shillings each, +reduction upon taking a dozen. Suitable for amateur tenors, or the +fashion-magazines. Alterations made if required... Anything else in +the lucky bag?" + +"There's my note-book. They are all in there--the new ones, I mean, +written since I came up here. You can read which you please." + +Ron took the precious leather book from his pocket, and handed it over +with an effort as painful as that of submitting a live nerve to the +dentist's tool. As he sat on the ground beside his critic he dug his +heels into the grass, and the knuckles of his clenched hands showed +white through the tan. The beginning had not been propitious, and he +knew well that no consideration for his feelings would seal the lips of +this most honest of critics. For a few moments he had not courage to +look at his companion's face, but even without that eloquent guide it +was easy to follow his impressions. + +A grunt, a groan, a long incredulous whistle, a sharp intake of breath-- +these were but too readily translated as adverse criticisms, but between +these explosions came intervals of silence less easy to explain. Ron +deliberately rolled over on his side, turning his back on his companion, +thereby making it impossible to see his face. Those who have never +trusted their inmost thoughts to paper can hardly imagine the acute +suffering of the moment when they are submitted to the cold criticism of +an outsider. Life and death themselves seemed to hang in the balance +for the young poet during the half-hour when he lay on the heather +listening to each sound and movement of his critic. At the end of half +an hour the interruption came. A yawn, a groan, the pressure of a heavy +hand on his shoulder. + +"Now then, wake up, over there! Time to move on!" + +Awake! As if it were possible that he could be asleep! Never in his +life had he been more acutely, painfully conscious of his surroundings. +Ron rose to his feet, casting the while a tense glance at his +companion's face. What verdict would he see written on eye and mouth as +the result of that half-hour's study? He met a smile of bland good- +humour; the cheery, carelessly complacent smile of the breakfast-table, +the smoke-room, the after-dinner game; with not one trace of emotion, of +kindled feeling, or even ordinary appreciation! The black note-book was +tossed into his hands, as carelessly as if it had been a ball; even a +commonplace word of comment was denied. + +It was a bitter moment, but, to the lad's credit be it said, he met it +bravely. A gulp to a tiresome lump in the throat, a slight quivering of +the sensitive lips, and he was master of himself again, hastily stuffing +the precious note-book out of sight, and striving to display the right +amount of interest in his companion's conversation. It was not until +the inn was within sight that Mr Elgood made the slightest allusion to +the verses which he had read. + +"Ah--about those rhymes!" he began casually. "Don't take yourself too +seriously, you know. It's a strange thing that young people constitute +themselves the pessimists of the world, while the old ones, who know +what real trouble is, are left to do the optimism by themselves. If you +are bound to sing, sing cheerfully! Try to forget that `sad' rhymes +with `glad,' and don't feel it necessary to end in the minor key. That +rhyming business has a lot to answer for. I like you best when you are +content to be your natural, cheerful self!" + +"You think, then--you do think--some of them a little good?" + +Ron's wistful voice would have melted a heart of stone. The Chieftain +laid a hand on his arm with a very kindly pressure. + +"There are some of 'em," he said cheerfully, "which are a lot better +than others. I'm not partial to amateur verses myself, but I don't mind +telling you for your comfort that I've seen worse, before now-- +considerably worse!" + +Poor Ron! It was bitter comfort. In the blessed privacy of his own +room he sat himself down to read over the pages of the little black book +with painful criticism, asking himself miserably if it were really true +that they were feeble amateur efforts, tinged with pretence and +unreality. Here and there a flush and a wince proved that the +accusation had gone home, when a vigorous pencil mark on the side of the +page marked the necessity for correction, but on the whole he could +honestly refute the charge; could declare, with the bold yet humble +conviction of the true craftsman, that it was good work; work well done; +work worth doing! + +The dreamy brown eyes sent out a flash of determination. + +"I _can_!" said Ron to himself. "And I _will_!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +A MOUNTAIN MIST. + +Three days later a wagonette was chartered from Rew, to drive the +diminished party to the scene of the haunted castle. Margot felt rather +shy in the position of the only lady, but a mild proposition that she +should stay at home had been so vigorously vetoed that she had nothing +more to say. + +"If one clergyman, plus one brother, plus one bald-headed veteran, +aren't sufficient chaperons for one small girl, things are coming to a +pretty pass indeed!" protested the Chieftain vigorously. "If you stay +at home, we _all_ stay, so that's settled, and the disappointment and +upset will be on your head. Why all this fuss, I should like to know? +One might think you were shy." + +Margot pouted, and wriggled her shoulders inside her white blouse. + +"I _am_ shy!" + +"You are, are you? Hadn't noticed it before. Of whom, if one may ask?" + +She turned at that, and walked back to the inn, nose in air, but +thereafter there were no more demurs. + +It was indeed a very decorous little party which sat in two rows of +three, facing each other in the wagonette during the eight-mile drive. +The clergyman and the Chieftain, with Margot between them; and opposite, +the three dreamers: the Editor, Ron, and young Mr Menzies,--each +apparently too much immersed in his own thoughts to care for +conversation. Margot was quite thankful when the drive came to an end, +outside castle walls, grim and grey, but imposing as ever, though they +were in reality but a shell, surrounding a plot of innocent green grass. +There were isolated towers still standing, however, approached by +winding stone stairways, and short lengths of walks along the ramparts, +and quaint little barred windows through which one could view the +surrounding country. When Margot thrust her pretty laughing face +through one of these latter to greet her friends below, every +photographer among them insisted upon snap-shotting her then and there, +and for a good half-hour she was kept busy, posing in various attitudes, +to give the desired touch of life to the pictures. + +Photography over, the next duties were to partake of lunch and to wander +round the small, and it must be confessed somewhat uninteresting little +village; then,--since the return home counted as one of the chief +attractions in the programme--the little party broke up into two, the +clergyman and his son preferring the longer route, round by the roads, +the other four to take the short--cut across the moors. + +A five-mile walk across the moors! Given health, settled skies, and +congenial society, it would be difficult to name a more exhilarating +occupation for a summer afternoon; but, truth to tell, the weather had +taken a decided turn for the worse since midday, and it needed some +optimism to set forth on a long exposed walk. + +The subject had been discussed at lunch with special reference to +Margot, as the only lady of the party; but, as she aptly observed, she +was bound to get back somehow, and, as a choice of evils, preferred to +walk through rain, rather than sit still to be soaked through and +through on the seat of the wagonette. It was therefore decided to make +an early start, and allow no loitering by the way; but when the village +had been left about a mile behind an unexpected delay occurred. The +Chieftain thrust his hands into his pockets, and stopped short in the +middle of the road, with an expression of dismay. + +"Eh, what! Here's a fine kettle of fish! Where's my bunch of keys? +They were here as safe as houses, a few minutes back. I was jingling +tunes on them as we passed the school. You heard me jingling 'em! +Dropped them on the road, I suppose, and walked on like a blind bat. +Serves me right to have to turn back to find 'em. Can't lose my keys, +you know. Got to find them somehow, or there'll be the mischief to pay. +You'll have to go on, George, and take Miss Vane with you. There's no +time for conundrums, if you want to get home dry." He looked towards +Ron with questioning eyebrows. "Feel inclined to keep me company? I +don't fancy that walk by my lonesome." + +"Of course I do. I should not think of leaving you behind by yourself, +sir," returned Ron eagerly. "We can't have far to go, and we can soon +catch up the others, if we make a sprint for it. Go on, Margot. We'll +be after you in no time." + +In the circumstances there was nothing else to be done, nor indeed, +after a long morning spent in wandering about as a party, was Margot +inclined to quarrel with the fate which provided an interesting _tete-a- +tete_ for the walk home. She contented herself with expressing profuse +sympathy for the Chieftain's loss, and with prophesying cheerfully that +the keys were certain to be found, then promptly dismissed the subject +from her mind, and gave herself up to the enjoyment of the moment. + +"I really think we are wise not to wait about," George Elgood said, in +accents of self-vindication, as they moved on together. "The glass is +high, but I don't like the look of things, all the same, and for your +sake shall be glad when we are nearer home. Are you pretty warmly +dressed, if the rain should come on?" + +"Don't I look it? I couldn't possibly have anything more suitable than +this tweed coat and skirt. It doesn't matter how wet it gets. It won't +spoil." + +"I was thinking about your own comfort, not of the clothes. You never +carry an umbrella with you, I notice!" + +"I can't be bothered! Showers are such an everyday occurrence up here, +that one would be doing nothing else. I rather like the feel of the +rain on my face, and besides,"--she laughed mischievously, "it's good +for the complexion!" + +"Is that so?" he asked gravely, his dark eyes dwelling on the soft, +rounded cheeks, which grew a shade more pink beneath his gaze. Suddenly +his lips twitched, with the one-sided, humorous smile which brought the +youth into his face. "I don't think the need in that direction is so +pressing that it could not be postponed with advantage, for to-day at +least. Do you mind walking fairly quickly? I shall feel more +comfortable when we are nearer home." + +Margot was serenely indifferent whether it rained or not, but none the +less she appreciated the Editor's care for her welfare, which showed +itself in a dozen little graceful acts during the first part of their +walk. For one unaccustomed to women's society he was marvellously +observant, and Margot felt a sweeter satisfaction in being so protected +than in all her former independence. They climbed the hillside which +led to the moor and set out radiantly to traverse the grey expanse; grey +and cheerless to-day in very deed, with a thick, blanket-like dampness +in the atmosphere of which dwellers in southern climes are happily +ignorant. + +George Elgood turned up the collar of his coat, and Margot thrust her +hands into her pockets, shivering slightly the while, but neither made +any complaint in words. As usual, it was left to Margot to do most of +the talking; but though her companion's responses were short, they were +yet so sympathetic and appreciative, that there was never any difficulty +in finding a fresh subject. Like most couples with whom friendship is +fast making way for a warmer emotion, personal topics were the most +appreciated, and what was happening in the world--the discoveries of +science, the works of the great writers--palled in interest before +sentences beginning with, "I think," and, "Do you think?" + +"I wish--" + +"Have you ever wished--?" + +They looked at each other as they spoke, with bright, questioning +glances, which seemed ever to hail some precious new discovery of mind, +drawing them closer and closer together. The hour of enchantment had +come, when they moved in a world of their own, unconscious of external +accidents. The moisture hung in dewdrops on the Editor's cap, Margot's +hair curled damply on her forehead; but they felt neither cold nor +discomfort. It was unusually dark for the time of day, and had grown +mysteriously darker during the last half-hour; but visitors to the +Highlands become philosophically resigned to sudden and unpleasant +atmospheric changes, and fall into the way of ignoring them as far as +possible. + +It was only when they reached a point in the moor from whence the ground +sloped sharply downward towards the Glen that they awoke to the +consciousness of danger, for instead of a rolling stretch of green +surrounded by purple hills, they seemed to be looking down into a +cauldron of floating mist and steam, blocking out the view, confusing +the eyes, and slowly but surely concealing the familiar landmarks. + +Margot and the Editor stopped short with simultaneous exclamations of +dismay, then wheeled quickly round, to see what lay behind. Here indeed +the fog was much less dense, but the distance was already obliterated, +while long, smoke-like tendrils of mist were closing in on every hand. +The signs which they had noted had portended something worse than rain; +something which the dwellers in moorland regions learn to fear and dread +above all other phenomena,--a mountain mist! + +George Elgood's face was eloquent with self-reproach. + +"This is my fault! Where were my eyes, that I did not see what was +happening? The darkness should have warned me long ago. I am horribly +ashamed of myself, Miss Vane!" + +"You needn't be. It's as much my fault as yours. I did notice the damp +on my face, but I thought it was rain. What are we to do?" + +It was a simple question, but terribly difficult to answer. With every +moment those rolling masses of mist settled down more densely over the +hillsides. To walk forward was to walk blindfold over a treacherous +country; to return seemed hardly more propitious, though as a choice of +evils it was the one to be preferred. + +"We must go back. We can't have come more than two or three miles. We +must get back, and drive round by the road. Probably we shall meet +Geoffrey and your brother _en route_!" + +Even as he spoke the Editor turned and led the way towards the little +village which had been left behind less than an hour before. There was +no time to waste, for the darkness was increasing, and the clammy +dankness of the air struck to the very marrow. + +"I shall never forgive myself if you suffer through this. It was my +business to look after you. There's only this slight excuse--that we +were mounting towards the highest part of the moor, which was naturally +the clearest. The mist seems to have gathered from all around." + +Margaret looked and shivered, but hastened to appease his anxiety. + +"I think we _did_ notice, but as we were expecting rain, a little +mistiness was natural. We could not tell that it was going to spread +like this. Never mind! It will be quite an adventure to brag about +when we are back in town. `Lost on the Scotch moors! Tourists +disappear in a mist!' It would make a thrilling headline, wouldn't it?" + +She laughed as she spoke, but the laugh had rather a forced tone. +Suddenly she became conscious that she was tired and chilled, that her +coat was soaked, and her boots heavy with damp. Though only a few paces +away, the figure of her companion was wreathed with tendrils of mist; +they were floating round her also; blinding her eyes, catching her +breath, sending fresh shivers down her back. A pang of fear shot +through her at the thought of what might lie ahead. + +Like two grey ghosts they struggled onward through the gloom. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +LOST ON THE MOOR. + +George Elgood's haste to reach the end of the moor gave wings to his +feet, so that Margot had much ado to keep pace. Contrary to +expectation, the fog did not lessen as they advanced, but closed in upon +them thicker and thicker, so that the ground beneath their feet became +invisible, and progress was broken by sundry trips and stumbles over +projecting mounds of heather. The air seemed to reek with moisture, and +a deadly feeling of oppression, almost of suffocation, affected the +lungs, as the curling wreath of mist closed overhead. + +Half an hour earlier Margot had felt that any sort of adventure (if +experienced in George Elgood's company) must of necessity be enjoyable, +but during that swift silent retreat she was conscious of a dawning of +something perilously like fear. Her breath came in quickened pants, she +kept her eyes fixed in a straining eagerness on the tall figure looming +darkly ahead. If she once lost sight of him, what would become of her? +It made her shudder to think of being left alone upon that shrouded +moor! + +Every now and then as he walked, the Editor gave voice to a loud "coo- +ee," in hope that the echoes might reach the ears of his brother and +Ronald, who should by now be approaching in the same direction; but no +reply floated back to his anxious ears. + +"Perhaps they have gone round by the road," he suggested tentatively. +"If they were some time in following, they may have seen the fog, and +come to the conclusion that discretion was the better part of valour." + +"Ron wouldn't go another way if he thought I was in danger! He promised +father to take care of me. I know he will come." + +"Then we are bound to meet; unless--" George Elgood stopped short +hurriedly. It was not for him to open his companion's eyes to the fact +that the direction which they were taking had become a matter of +speculation, as one after another the familiar landmarks faded from +view. + +The two brothers might pass by within a few yards, or their paths might +diverge by miles, but in either case they would be equally invisible. +The only hope was to go on sending out the familiar cry, which would at +once prove their identity. "Not that we should be any better off with +them than without!" he told himself dolefully. + +Margot did not ask for a completion of the unfinished sentence, perhaps +because she guessed only too truly its import. A few steps farther on +her foot came in contact with a stone hidden beneath a clump of furze; +she stumbled, tried in vain to recover herself, and fell forward on her +knees. The shock and the severe pricking which ensued forced a cry of +dismay, and the Editor turned back hurriedly, and uttered a startled +inquiry. + +"Miss Vane, where are you?" + +"I'm here!" replied a doleful voice, and a dark form stirred at his +feet. "I--_fell_! On a horrid bush! My hands are full of prickles." + +"I'll light a match while you get them out. It's my fault. I might +have guessed what would happen. I'd like to kick myself for being so +thoughtless." + +"Please don't! We don't want any more tribulations. I--I'm quite all +right!" cried Margot, with tremulous bravery. The flicker of a match +showed a pale face, and two little hands grimed with dust and earth. +She brushed them hastily together, and peered up into his face. "It's +pretty thick, isn't it?" + +"Abominably thick! I have heard of the sudden way in which these +mountain mists come on, but I've never been in one before. I could kick +myself once more for not having noticed it sooner. I suppose I was too +much absorbed in our conversation." + +The match died out, and there was a moment's silence, in which Margot +seemed to hear the beating of her own heart. Then in the darkness a +hand lifted hers, and placed it against an arm which felt reassuringly +solid. + +"You must let me help you along. A moor is not the easiest place in the +world to cross in the dark. You won't mind my shouts? I want to let +the other fellows know where we are, if they are within hearing." + +"Oh, I don't mind. I'll shout, too! They must be near. It seems +ridiculous that we can't see each other." + +But still no answering cry came back, and Margot's sense of comfort in +the supporting arm gradually gave place to a revival of her first dread. +She shivered, and swallowed a lump in her throat before daring a +fateful question. + +"Mr Elgood, do you know--have you the faintest idea where we are +going?" + +His arm tightened over her hand, but he made no attempt at +prevarication. + +"No, I haven't! For the last five or ten minutes it has been purely +guess-work." + +"We may be going in the wrong direction, or round and round in a +circle!" + +"We may--I am afraid it is more than probable. I have been thinking +that it might be better to stay where we are. We can't have strayed +very far out of the course as yet, but--" Again he stopped, and this +time Margot completed the sentence. + +"I know! It's not safe to wander about when we can't see what is ahead. +I've been thinking the same thing. We had better sit down and wait. +They will come to look for us. I'm sure they will come, and there's a +cottage somewhere near, where we have been for milk. That's another +chance. If we keep calling the people, they may hear us." + +"Oh yes, yes! Some one will hear, or the mist will rise as suddenly as +it fell. It will be only for a short time," returned the Editor +sturdily. "Now look here--the ground is soaking--you can't possibly sit +on it without something underneath. If you could spare your cape it +would serve us both as a rug, and I'm going to wrap you up in my coat." + +He loosened his arm, as if to take off the said coat forthwith, but +Margot's fingers tightened their grasp in very determined fashion. + +"You are not! I won't wear it. I absolutely refuse to do any such +thing. How can you suggest such a horridly selfish arrangement--I to +wear your coat, while you sit shivering in shirt-sleeves? Never! I'd +rather freeze!" + +"Put it the other way. Am I, a man, to hug my coat, and let a girl sit +on the soaking grass? How do you suppose I should feel? I'd rather +freeze, too!" + +Margot gave a quavering little laugh. + +"It seems to me we have a pretty good chance of doing it--coat or no +coat. If I am a girl, I'm a healthy one, and I must take my chance. +Did you happen to put your newspaper in your pocket this morning? That +would be better than nothing." + +"Of course I did! That will do capitally. What a blessing you thought +of it! There! Sit down quickly, and I'll pull a bit down under your +feet. Can't I wrap that cape more tightly round you? And the hood? +Hadn't you better have the hood up?" + +"Yes, please! I had forgotten the hood. That will be cosy!" + +Margot's cold cheeks flamed with sudden colour as she felt the touch of +careful fingers settling the hood round head and face, and fumbling for +the hook under the chin. At that moment at least cold was not the +predominant sensation! There was a short silence while the Editor +seated himself by her side, and felt in his pockets. + +"You won't mind if I smoke?" + +"I shall like it, especially if you have fusees. I love the smell of +fusees! You don't ask me to have a cigarette, I notice, and yet it is +fashionable for girls to smoke nowadays. How did you know that I +didn't?" + +"I _did_ know! I can hardly tell why, but I am thankful for it, all the +same. I am too old-fashioned to care for smoking women. A girl loses +her charm when she apes a man's habits." + +"Yes. I agree. I am sorry I am not a man, but as I'm a girl I prefer +to be a real one, and have my clothes smelling sweet and violety, +instead of like a fusty railway carriage. But men seem to find smoke +soothing at times. I wish I had a feminine equivalent of it just now. +It's a little bit frightening to sit still and stare into this blank +white wall. Couldn't you tell me something interesting to pass the +time?" + +"It's a little difficult to be `interesting' to order. What particular +kind of narrative would distract you best?" + +"Oh--something about yourself. Something you have done, or felt, or +planned for another day. I'm so interested in people!" returned Margot, +wrapping the folds of her cloak more closely round her, and slipping her +hands deep down into the inside pockets. "Have you had any thrilling +experiences or adventures that you don't mind speaking about? The more +thrilling the better, please, for my feet _are_ so cold!" + +She shivered, in involuntary childish fashion, and George Elgood sighed +profoundly. + +"This is about the biggest adventure I've had. I was once snowed up for +a night in a rest-house on one of the Swiss mountains, but we had every +ordinary comfort, and knew exactly where we were, so that it didn't +amount to much, after all. I was going up with my guide, and met +another party of two brothers and a sister coming down, and we all took +shelter together, while one of the guides returned to the village, to +let the people in the hotel know of our safety. When the door was open +the prospect was sufficiently eerie, but we made a fire and brewed tea, +and passed the time pleasantly enough. The worst part of it was that I +had to give up the ascent next day, as there was too much snow to make +it prudent to go on." + +"Oh! Yes! Was she pretty?" + +She felt, rather than saw, his start of surprise. + +"Who?" + +"The sister. You said there was a girl in the other party." + +"I'm _sure_ I don't know! I didn't notice." + +"Don't you care how people look?" + +"It doesn't interest me, unless I am already attracted in other ways. +At least--" he hesitated conscientiously. "I _used_ not to be. I think +I am growing more noticing. Geoff always said I needed to be awakened +to the claims of beauty. I understand now that it may be a great +additional charm." + +How did he understand? Who or what had increased his power of +observation? Margot hoped that she knew; longed to be certain, yet +dreaded the definite information. In a little flurry of nervousness she +began to talk volubly on her own account, hoping thereby to ward off +embarrassing explanations. + +"I seem fated to come in for adventures. I went over to Norway one +summer, and the engines broke down half-way across the North Sea, and at +the same time all the electric lights went out. It was terribly rough, +and we rolled for a couple of hours--the longest hours I have ever +known! The partitions of the cabins did not quite reach to the roof, +and you could hear the different conversations going on all round. In a +dreary kind of way I realised that they were very funny, and that I +should laugh over them another day. Quite near us were two jolly +English schoolboys, who kept ordering meals all the next day, and +shouting out details to a poor sister who was lying terribly ill in the +next cabin `Monica, we are having bacon! Have a bit of bread soaked in +fat?' Then Monica would groan--a heartrending groan, and they would +start afresh. `Buck up, Monica--try a muffin!' At lunch-time they +pressed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding upon her, and she groaned +louder than ever. She _was_ ill, poor girl. In Norway there was an +alarm of fire in one of those terrible wooden hotels, and we all jumped +on each other's balconies to get to the outside staircases. It was soon +extinguished, but it was a very bad scare. And now this is the third. +Mr Elgood, do coo-ee again! Ron must be looking for me, unless he is +lost himself." + +The Editor put his hands to his mouth and sent forth a succession of +long-drawn-out calls, which seemed as though they must surely be heard +for miles around, but in the silence which followed no note of reply +could be heard. In the face of such continued disappointment, Margot +had not the courage to go on making conversation, but relapsed into a +dreary silence, which was broken only by the gentle puff-puff of the +Editor's pipe. In the darkness and silence neither took note of time, +or realised how it sped along. Only by physical sensations could it be +checked, but gradually these became disagreeably pressing. + +Margot's feet were like ice, her fingers so cold as to be almost +powerless; but as the minutes passed slowly by the active discomfort was +replaced by a feeling of drowsy indifference. She seemed to have been +sitting for years staring into a blank white wall, and had no longer any +desire to move from her position. It was easier to sit still, and wait +upon Fate. + +Beneath the veil of darkness her head drooped forward, and she swayed +gently from side to side. For some time these movements were so slight +as to pass unnoticed by her companion, but as the drowsiness increased +the muscles seemed to lose control, the swayings became momentarily more +pronounced, until she tilted violently over, to recover herself with a +jerk and a groan. Then indeed George Elgood was startled into anxious +attention. + +"What is it? What is the matter? Are you in pain?" + +The inarticulate murmur which did duty for reply seemed only to whet +anxiety still further. + +"Miss Vane, are you ill? For pity's sake tell me what is wrong!" + +Another murmur sounded faintly in his ear, followed by an +incoherent--"I'm only--asleep! So--very--tired!" + +With a sharp exclamation the Editor leapt upwards, and the drowsy Margot +felt herself suddenly hoisted to her feet by a pair of strong arms. The +arms retained their hold of her even after she was erect, shaking her to +and fro with almost painful energy. + +"But you _must_ not sleep! Margot, Margot, awake! I can't let you +sleep. It is the worst thing you could do. Speak to me, Margot. Tell +me you understand. Margot! Darling! Oh, do rouse yourself, and try to +understand!" + +Margot never forgot that moment, or the wonder of it. She seemed to +herself to be wandering in a strange country, far, far away from the +solid tangible earth--a land of darkness and dreams, of strange, numbing +unreality. Her eyes were open, yet saw nothing: impalpable chains +fettered her limbs, so that they grew stiff and refused to move; an icy +coldness crept around her heart. Hearing, like the other senses, was +dulled, yet through the throbbing silence a sound had penetrated, +bringing with it a thrill of returning life. Some one had called +"_Margot_" in a tone she had never heard before. Some one had said, +"_Darling_!" + +Back through the fast-closing mists of unconsciousness Margot's soul +struggled to meet her mate. Her fingers tightened feebly on his, and +her cold lips breathed a reply. + +"Yes--I am here! Do you want me?" + +Something like a sob sounded in the Editor's throat. + +"Do I want you? My little Margot! Did I ever want anything before? +Come, I will warm your little cold hands. I will lead you every step of +the way. You can't sit here any longer to perish of cold. We will walk +on, and ask God to guide our feet. Lean on me. Don't be afraid!" + +Then the dream became a moving one, in which she was borne forward +encircled by protecting arms; on and on; unceasingly onward, with ever- +increasing difficulty and pain. + +George Elgood never knew whether he hit, as he supposed, a straight road +forward, or wandered aimlessly over the same ground. His one care was +to support his companion, and to test each footstep before he took it; +for the rest, he had put himself in God's hands, with a simple faith +which expected a reply; and when at last the light of the cottage +windows shone feebly through the mist his thankfulness was as great as +his relief. + +As for Margot, she was too completely exhausted to realise relief; she +knew only a shrinking from the light, from the strange watching face; a +deathly sensation as of falling from a towering height, before darkness +and oblivion overpowered her, and she lay stretched unconscious upon the +bed. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +PARTINGS. + +It was six days later when Margot opened her eyes, and found herself +lying on the little white bed in the bedroom of the Nag's Head, with +some one by the window whose profile as outlined against the light +seemed strangely and sweetly familiar. She stared dumbly, with a +confused wonder in her brain. _Edith_? It could not possibly be Edith! +What should bring Edith up to Glenaire in this sudden and unexpected +fashion? And why was she herself so weak and languid that to speak and +ask the question seemed an almost impossible exertion? + +What had happened? Was she only dreaming that her head ached, and her +hands seemed too heavy to move, and that Edith sat by the window near a +table covered with medicine bottles and glasses? Margot blinked her +eyes, and stared curiously around. No! it was no dream; she was +certainly awake, and through the dull torpor of her brain a remembrance +began slowly to work. Something had happened! She had been tired and +cold; oh, cold, cold, cold; so cold that it had seemed impossible to +live. She had wandered on and on, through an eternity of darkness, +which had ended in the blackness of night. Her head throbbed with the +effort of thinking; she shut her eyes and lay quietly, waiting upon +remembrance. + +Suddenly it came. A faint flush of colour showed itself in the white +cheek, and a tingle of warmth ran through the veins. She remembered now +upon whose arm she had hung, whose voice it was which had cheered her +onward; in trembling, incredulous fashion she remembered what that voice +had said! + +A faint exclamation sounded through the stillness, whereupon Edith +looked round quickly, and hurried to the bedside. + +"Margot! My darling! Do you know me at last?" + +Margot smiled wanly. The smooth rounded face had fallen away sadly in +that week of fever and unconsciousness, and a little hand was pushed +feebly forward. + +"Of course. I'm so glad! Edie, have I been ill?" + +"Yes, darling; but you are better now. After a few days' rest you will +be well again. You must not be nervous about your dear self." + +"And you came?" + +"Yes, darling; Ron telegraphed, and father and I came up at once. Agnes +is taking care of the boys." + +"So kind! I remember--it was the mist. Was--Ron--safe?" + +"Yes, darling, quite safe. He and Mr Elgood arrived at the cottage +very soon after you, and were so thankful to find you there." + +"Is--is _everybody_ well?" + +Again that faint flush showed on the cheeks; but Edie was mercifully +blind, and answered with direct simplicity-- + +"Every one, dear, and you are going to be quite well, too. You must not +talk any more just now, for you are rather a weak little girl still. +Drink this cup of milk, and roll over, and have another nap. It is good +to see you sleeping quietly and peacefully again. There! Shut your +eyes, like a good girl!" + +Then once more Margot floated off into unconsciousness; but this time it +was the blessed, health-restoring unconsciousness of sleep, such sleep +as she had not known for days past, and from which she awoke with rested +body and clearer brain. + +When the dear father came in to kiss and greet her, a thin white hand +crept up to stroke his hair, and pull his ear in the way he loved, +whereupon he blinked away tears of thankfulness, and essayed to be +fierce and reproachful. + +"So you couldn't be satisfied until you had dragged the whole family +after you, to the ends of the earth! There's no pleasing some people. +This is my reward for being such a fool as to think you could take care +of yourself!" + +"Ducky Doodles!" murmured Margot fondly. As of yore, she manifested not +the faintest alarm at his pretence of severity, but twitched his ear +with complacent composure, and once more Mr Vane blinked and swallowed +a lump in his throat. There had been hours during those last days when +he had feared that he might never again hear himself called "Ducky +Doodles," and what a sad grey world that would have meant! + +Then came Ron, a little embarrassed, as was natural in a lad of his +years, but truly loving and tender all the same, and Margot's brown +_eyes_ searched his face with wistful questioning. + +There was so much that she wanted to ask and to hear, and concerning +which no one had as yet vouchsafed information. Ron could tell her all +that was to be told, which it was impossible to pass another night +without knowing, yet there he sat, sublimely unconscious that she wanted +to be assured of anything but his own safety. With the energy of +despair, Margot forced herself to put a question. + +"How are all--the others?" + +"The Elgoods? They are all right. Awfully worried about you, you know, +and that sort of thing. Afraid the governor might think they were to +blame. The idea of your going down with pneumonia, and frightening us +all into fits! I thought you were too healthy to be bowled over so +soon, but a London life doesn't fit one for exposure. The governor was +furious with me for bringing you to the North." + +But for once Margot was not interested in her father's feelings. She +turned her head on the pillow and put yet another question. + +"They did not catch colds, too?" + +"Oh, colds!" Ron laughed lightly. "Of course, we all had colds; what +else could you expect? We were lucky to get off so easily. The Elgoods +put off leaving until you were safely round the corner, but they are off +first thing to-morrow." + +At this there was a quick rustle of the bedclothes. + +"Going? _Where_?" asked a startled voice, in which sounded an +uncontrollable quiver of apprehension. "Not away for altogether?" + +"Yes! Their time was up three days ago. It is awfully decent of them +to have stayed on for so long. We shall meet in town, I suppose; but +your Editor man is no use to me, Margot. That little scheme has fallen +flat. From first to last he has never troubled to show the faintest +interest in my existence, and has avoided the governor all he knew. The +Chieftain is worth a dozen of him. He has kept the whole thing going +this last week, amused the governor, looked after Edith, been a perfect +brick to me. I'm glad we came, if it were only for the sake of making +his acquaintance, for he is the grandest man I've ever known; but your +scheme has failed, old girl." + +From Margot's expression it would appear that everything on earth had +failed. Her face looked as white as the pillow against which she +rested, and her eyes were tragic in her despairing sadness. Ron +bestirred himself to comfort her, full of gratitude for so heartfelt an +interest. + +"Never mind! You did your best, and it's nobody's fault that he turned +out such a Diogenes. The governor has been awfully decent since he came +up, and I don't despair of getting the time extended. He is much more +amenable, apart from Agnes, and I fancy the Chieftain puts in a good +word for me now and then--not on the score of literature, of course--but +after they have been talking together, the governor always seems to look +upon me with more--more _respect_, don't you know, and less as if I were +a hopeless failure, of whom he was more or less ashamed. That's a gain +in itself, isn't it?" + +"'Um!" assented Margot vaguely. "I suppose they drive over to catch the +evening express? Did he--they--say anything about me?" + +Ron started in surprise. + +"My dear girl, we have talked of nothing else _but_ you, for the last +week! Pulse, temperature, sleep; sleep, temperature, pulse; every hour +the same old tale. You have given us all a rare old fright; but thank +goodness you are on the mend at last. The doctor says it is only a +matter of time." + +"Did--they--send any message?" + +"No! Edie said you were not to be excited. Awfully sorry to miss +saying good-bye, and that sort of thing, but hope to meet you another +day in town." + +Margot shut her eyes, and the line of curling lashes looked +astonishingly black against her cheek. + +"I see. Very kind! I'm--tired, Ron. I can't talk any more." + +Ron rose from his seat with, it must be confessed, a sigh of relief. He +was ill at ease in the atmosphere of the sick-room, and hardly +recognised his jaunty, self-confident companion in this wan and languid +invalid. He dropped a light kiss on Margot's forehead, and hurried +downstairs, to be encountered on the threshold of the inn by George +Elgood, who for once seemed anxious to enter into conversation. + +"You have been to see your sister. Did she--er--was she well enough to +send any message before we go?" + +"Oh, she's all right--quite quiet and sensible again, but doesn't bother +herself much about what is going on. I told her you were off, but she +didn't seem to take much notice. Expect she's so jolly thankful to feel +comfortable again that she doesn't care for anything else." + +"Er--quite so, quite so!" repeated the Editor hastily; and Ron passed on +his way, satisfied that he had been all that was tactful and +considerate, and serenely unconscious that he had eclipsed the sun of +that summer's day for two anxious hearts! + +There was little sleep for poor Margot that night, and in the morning +Edith noticed with alarm the flushed cheeks and shining eyes which +seemed to predict a return of the feverish symptoms. She drew down the +blind and seated herself by the bedside, determined to guard the door +and allow no visitors. The child had evidently had too much excitement +the day before, and must now be kept absolutely quiet. But Margot +tossed and fidgeted, and threw the clothes restlessly about, refusing to +shut her eyes, and allow herself to be tucked up, as the elder sister +lovingly advised. Her eyes were strained, and every now and then she +lifted her head from the pillow with an anxious, listening movement. At +last it came, the sound for which she had been waiting--the rumble of +wheels, the clatter of horses' hoofs, the grunts and groans of the +ostler as he lifted the heavy bags to their place. Margot's brown eyes +looked up with a piteous entreaty. + +"They are going! You must be quick, Edie. Run down quickly and say +good-bye!" + +"It isn't necessary, dear. I saw them before coming upstairs. Ron is +there, and father." + +"But you must! I want you to go. Quickly, before it is too late. +Edie, you _must_!" + +There was no denying so vehement a command. Edith turned silently away, +confirmed in a growing suspicion, and yearning tenderly over the little +sister's suffering. It was the younger brother, of course!--the tall, +silent man, whose lips had been so dumb, whose eyes so eloquent, during +the critical days of Margot's illness, and who had been the girl's +companion on the misty moor. What had happened during those hours of +suspense and danger? What barriers had been swept aside; what new +vistas opened? Edith's own love was too sweet and sacred a thing to +allow her to pry and question into the heart-secrets of another, as is +the objectionable fashion of many so-called friends, but with her keen +woman-senses she took in George Elgood's every word, look, and movement +during the brief parting scene. + +He stood aside, leaving his brother to utter the conventional farewells; +his lips were set, and his brows drawn together; but ever and anon, as +if against his will, his eyes shot anxious glances towards the window of +the room where Margot lay. Edith moved a few steps nearer, to give the +chance of a few quiet words, if it was in his heart to speak, but none +came. A moment later he had swung himself up beside his brother on the +high seat of the cart, and the wheels were beginning to move. + +Edith went slowly back to her post, dreading to meet the gaze of those +dear brown eyes, which had lost their sparkle, and become so pathetic in +their dumb questioning. She had no reassuring message to give, and +could only affect a confidence which she was far from feeling. + +"Well, dear, they are off, but it is not good-bye--only _au revoir_, as +you are sure to meet again in town before long. Mr Elgood asked +permission to call upon me in town. Nice little man! He has been so +wonderfully kind and considerate. I can't think why he should trouble +himself so much for a complete stranger. The tall one looked sorry to +go! He kept looking up at your window. He has a fine face--strong and +clever. He must be an interesting companion." + +Margot did not answer; but five minutes later she asked to have the +curtain drawn, as the light hurt her eyes. They had a somewhat red and +inflamed appearance for the rest of the day; but when Mr Vane commented +on the fact, the dear, wise Edie assured him that it was a common +phenomenon after illness, and laid a supply of fresh handkerchiefs on +the bed--table in such a quiet and unobtrusive fashion, that they might +have grown there of their own accord. + +"Some day," thought Margot dismally to herself, "some day I shall laugh +over this!" For the present, however, her sense of humour was strangely +blunted, and the handkerchiefs were needed for a very different purpose. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +A PROUD MOMENT. + +Margot's recovery was somewhat tedious, so that it was quite three weeks +after the departure of the brothers Elgood before she was strong enough +to face the journey home. In the meantime Edith remained in charge as +nurse, while Mr Vane and Ron varied the monotony of life in the Glen by +making short excursions of two or three days' duration to places of +interest in the neighbourhood. + +Notwithstanding the unchanged position of affairs, they appeared to be +on unusually good terms, a fact which would have delighted Margot if she +had been in her usual health and spirits; but she had become of late so +languid and preoccupied as to appear almost unconscious of her +surroundings. Once a day she did, indeed, rouse herself sufficiently to +show some interest in passing events, that is to say, when the post +arrived in the morning; but the revival was but momentary, and on each +occasion was followed by a still deeper depression. + +The elder sister was very tender during those days of waiting; very +tactful and patient with little outbursts of temper and unreasonable +changes of mind. She knew that it was not so much physical as mental +suffering which was retarding the girl's progress, and yearned over her +with a sympathy that was almost maternal in its depth. + +The little sister had proved herself such a true friend during the +trials of the last few years, that she would have gone through fire and +water to save her from pain; but there are some things which even the +most devoted relative cannot do. + +Edith could not, for instance, write to George Elgood and question him +concerning his silence: could not ask how it came to pass that while his +brother had written to Margot, to Ronald, even to herself, he remained +silent, content to send commonplace messages through a third person. As +for Margot herself, she never mentioned the younger of the two brothers, +but was always ready to talk about the elder, and seemed unaffectedly +pleased at her sister's appreciation of the kindly, genial little man. + +"But why was he so sweet to me?" Edith would ask, with puzzled +wonderment. "From the moment I arrived he seemed to be on the outlook +to see how he could help. And he took an interest in Jack, and asked +all about him and his affairs. The astonishing thing is that I told +him, too! Though he was a stranger, his interest was so _real_ and deep +that I could confide in him more easily than in many old friends. Had +you been talking about us to him, by any chance?" + +Margot turned her head on the pillow, and stared out of the window to +the ridge of hills against the skyline. Her cheeks had sunk, making the +brown eyes appear pathetically large and worn. There was a listlessness +in her expression which was strangely different from the vivacious, +self-confident Margot of a few weeks ago. + +"Yes, I spoke about you one day. He liked you, because you were so fond +of Jack. He was in love himself, and the girl died, but he loves her +still, just the same. He tries to help other girls for her sake. He +said he wanted to know you. If it were ever in his power to help you +and Jack, he would do it; but sometimes no one can help. It makes +things worse when they try. You might just as well give up at once." + +"Margot! What heresy, dear! From you, too, who are always preaching +courage and perseverance! That's pneumonia croaking, not the gallant +little champion of the family! What would Ron and I have done without +you this last year, I should like to know? Isn't it nice to see father +and the boy on such good terms? I believe that also is in a great +degree due to Mr Elgood's influence. The pater told me that he +congratulated him on having such a son, and seemed to think Ron quite +unusually gifted. It is wonderful how much one man thinks of another +man's judgment! We have said the same thing for years past, and it has +had no effect; but when a calm, level-headed man of business drops a +word, it is accepted as gospel. You will be happy, won't you, darling, +if Ron's future is harmoniously arranged?" + +"Ron will be happy!" said Margot shortly. At the moment it seemed to +her as if such good fortune could never again be her own. She must +always be miserable, since George Elgood cared so little for her that he +could disappear into space and leave her without a word. Formal +messages sent through another person did not count, when one recalled +the tone of the voice which had said, "_Margot_!" and blushed at the +remembrance of that other word which had followed. + +Sometimes, during those long days of convalescence, Margot almost came +to the conclusion that what she had heard had been the effect of +imagination only; as unreal and dream-like as the other events of that +fateful afternoon. At other times, as if in contradiction of these +theories, every intonation of the Editor's voice would ring in her ears, +and once again she would flush and tremble with happiness. + +At last the day arrived when the return to town need no longer be +delayed. Mr Vane was anxious to return to his work, Edith to her +husband and children; and the doctor pronounced Margot strong enough to +bear the journey in the comfortable invalid carriage which had been +provided. + +Preparations were therefore made for an early start, and poor Elspeth +made happy by such a wholesale legacy of garments as composed a very +trousseau in the estimation of the Glen. + +No one was bold enough to offer a gift to Mrs McNab, but when the last +moment arrived Margot lifted her white face with lips slightly pursed, +like a child asking for a kiss. As on the occasion of her first +appearance, a contortion of suppressed emotion passed over the dour +Scotch face, and something suspiciously like moisture trembled in the +cold eyes. + +"When ye come back again, come back twa!" was the enigmatical sentence +with which the landlady made her adieu, and a faint colour flickered in +Margot's cheek as she pondered over its significance. + +The journey home was broken by a night spent in Perth, and London was +reached on the afternoon of a warm July day. The trees in the Park +looked grey with dust, the air felt close and heavy after the +exhilaration of the mountain breezes to which the travellers had become +accustomed; even the house itself had a heavy, stuffy smell, despite the +immaculate cleanliness of its _regime_. + +Jack Martin was waiting to take his wife back to Oxford Terrace, the +children having already preceded her, and Margot felt a sinking of +loneliness at being left to Agnes's tender mercies. + +"Dear me, child, what a wreck you look! Your Highland holiday has been +a fine upset for us all. What did I tell you before you started? +Perhaps another time you may condescend to listen to what I say!" Such +was the ingratiating welcome bestowed upon the weary girl on her +arrival; yet when Margot turned aside in silence, and made no response +to the accompanying kiss of welcome, Agnes felt hurt and aggrieved. +From morning to night she had bustled about the house, assuring herself +that everything was in apple-pie order; arranging flowers, putting out +treasures of fancy-work, providing comforts for the invalid. "And she +never notices, nor says one word of thanks. I can't understand Margot!" +said poor Agnes to herself for the hundredth time, as she seated herself +at the head of the table for dinner. + +"Are there any letters for me, Agnes?" queried Margot anxiously. + +"One or two, I believe, and a paper or something of the sort. You can +see them after dinner." + +"I want them now!" said Margot obstinately. She pushed back her chair +from the table, and walked across the room to the desk where newly- +arrived letters were laid out to await the coming of their owners. +Three white envelopes lay there, and a rolled-up magazine, all addressed +to herself. She flushed expectantly as she bent to examine the +different handwritings. Two were uninterestingly familiar, belonging to +faithful girl friends who had hastened to welcome her home; the third +was unmistakably a man's hand,--small and compact, the letters fine, and +accurately formed. + +A blessed intuition told Margot that her waiting was at an end, and that +this was the message for which she had longed ever since her return to +consciousness. With a swift movement she slipped the envelope into her +pocket, to be opened later on in the privacy of her room, and returned +to the table, bearing the other communications in her hand. + +"I should have thought that after six weeks' absence from home you might +have been willing to talk to _me_, instead of wanting to read letters at +your very first meal!" said Agnes severely; and Margot laughed in good- +natured assent. + +"I won't open them! It was only curiosity to see what they were. I'll +talk as much as you like, Aggie dear." + +It was, all of a sudden, so easy to be amiable and unselfish! The +nervous irritation which had made it difficult to be patient, even with +dear, tactful Edie during the last weeks, had taken wing and departed +with the first sight of that square white envelope. The light came back +to Margot's eyes; she held her head erect, the very hollows in her +cheeks seemed miraculously to disappear, and to be replaced by the old +dimpling smile. Mr Vane and Ron exchanged glances of delight at the +marvellous manner in which their invalid had stood the journey home. + +The letters and parcel lay unnoticed on the table until the conclusion +of the meal, but as Margot picked them up preparatory to carrying them +upstairs to her own room, she gave a sudden start of astonishment. + +"Ron, it's the _Loadstar_! Some one has sent me a copy of the +_Loadstar_. From the office, I think, for the name is printed on the +cover. Who could it be?" + +"The Editor, of course--as a mark of attention on your return home. +Lazy beggar! It was easier than writing a letter," laughed Ron easily, +stretching out his hand as he spoke to take forcible possession, for the +magazine was of more interest to himself than to Margot, and he felt +that a new copy was just what was needed to occupy the hours before +bedtime. + +Margot made no demur, but stood watching quietly while Ron tore off the +wrapper, and flattened the curled paper. She was not in a reading mood, +but the suggestion that George Elgood might have sent the magazine made +it precious in her sight, and she waited anxiously for its return. + +"It's mine, Ron. It was sent to me! I want to take it upstairs." + +"Let me look at the index first, to see who is writing this month! You +don't generally care for such stiff reading; I say, there's a fine +collection of names! It's stronger than ever this month. I don't +believe there is another paper in the world which has such splendid +fellows for contribu--" + +Ron stopped short, his voice failing suddenly in the middle of the word. +His jaw dropped, and a wave of colour surged in his cheeks. + +"It--it can't be!" he gasped incredulously. "It _can't_! There must be +another man of the same name. It can't possibly be meant for _me_!..." + +"What? What? Let me see? What are you talking about?" cried Margot, +peering eagerly over his shoulder, while Ron pointed with a trembling +finger to the end of the table of contents. Somehow the words seemed to +be printed in a larger type than the rest. They grew larger and larger +until they seemed to fill the whole page--"_Solitude. A Fragment. By +Ronald Vane_!" + +"Oh, Ron, it is!" shrieked Margot, in happy excitement. "It _is_ you, +and no one else! I _told_ you it was beautiful when you read it to me +that day in the Glen! Oh, when did you send it to him?" + +"Never! I never so much as mentioned my verses in his hearing. That +was part of the bargain--that we should not worry him on his holiday. +Margot, it was you! You are only pretending that you know nothing about +it. It must be your doing." + +"Indeed it isn't! I never even spoke of you to him." Margot had the +grace to blush at the confession; but by this time Ron had turned over +the pages until he had come to the one on which his own words faced him +in the beautiful distinct typing of the magazine, and the rapture of the +moment precluded every other sentiment. He did not hear what Margot +said, so absorbed was he in re-reading the lines in their delightful new +setting. + +"It _is_ good; but it is only a fragment. It isn't finished. Why was +this chosen, instead of one of the others?" + +"I told you you would ruin it if you made it longer. It is perfect as +it is, and anything more would be padding. It is a little gem, worthy +even of a place in the _Loadstar_. Father, do you hear? Do you +understand? Look at your son's name among all those great men! Aren't +you glad? Aren't you _proud_! Aren't you going to congratulate us +_both_?" + +Mr Vane growled a little, for the sake of appearances; but though his +eyebrows frowned, the corners of his lips relaxed in a manner distinctly +complacent. Even recognising as he did the herald of defeat, it was +impossible to resist a thrill of pride as his eye glanced down the +imposing list of names held open for his inspection. A great scientist; +a great statesman; a leading author; an astronomer known throughout the +world; a soldier veteran, and near the end that other name, so dearly +familiar--the name of his own son! The voice in which he spoke was +gruff with emotion. "Humph! You are in good company, at least. Let me +see the verses themselves. There must be something in them, I suppose, +but I am no judge of these things." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +"IN CORN." + +Meantime Margot had returned to the far end of the room, and adroitly +slipped the third letter out of her pocket, feeling that it would be +selfish to delay reading the contents, as they must certainly cast some +light upon the present situation. Her heart sank a little as she +recognised that the attention was less personal than she had imagined, +but even so, it was to herself that the magazine had been directed, and +that was an evidence of the fact that in publishing the poem her +pleasure had been considered even more than Ronald's advancement. + +She tore open the stiff white envelope and read as follows:-- + +"Dear Miss Vane,-- + +"I hear that you are to arrive home this afternoon, and intend to take +the liberty of calling upon you after dinner, in the hope that you may +be able to give me a few minutes of uninterrupted conversation on a +subject of great importance. If you are too much fatigued after your +journey, pray have no scruples in refusing me admission, in which case I +shall take an early opportunity of calling again; but after the strain +of the past few weeks I do not find myself able to wait longer than is +absolutely necessary for an interview. + +"Yours faithfully,-- + +"George Elgood." + +"Is that from Elgood? What does he say? What does he say? Let us see +what he says!" petitioned Ron eagerly; but Margot returned the letter to +her pocket, resolutely ignoring his outstretched hand. + +"He gives no explanation, but he is coming to-night. Coming to call +after dinner, and he asks me to see him alone, so I'll find out all +about it, and tell you afterwards." + +"Alone!" Ron's face was eloquent with surprise, disappointment, and a +dawning suspicion. "Why alone? It's more my affair than yours. I +_must_ thank him before he goes." + +"I'll send for you, then. I suppose he wants to explain to me first. +I'll be sure to send for you!" reiterated Margot hurriedly, as she +disappeared through the doorway. Her first impulse was, girl-like, to +make for her own room, to give those final touches to hair and dress, +which are so all-important in effect, and that done, to sit alone, +listening for the expected knock at the door, the sound of footsteps +ascending to the drawing-room. To meet George Elgood here! To see his +tall dark figure outlined against the familiar background of home,-- +Margot gasped at the thought, and felt her heart leap painfully at every +fresh sound. + +The postman, the parcels delivery, a van from the Stores, had all +claimed the tribute of a blush, a gasp, and a fresh rush to the glass, +before at last slow footsteps were heard mounting the stairs, and Mary's +voice at the door announced, "A gentleman to see you, Miss Margot!" and +in another minute, as it seemed, she was facing George Elgood across the +length of the drawing-room. + +The roles of invalid and anxious inquirer seemed for the moment to be +reversed, for while she was pink and smiling, he was grave and of a +ghastly pallor. Nervous also; for the first words of greeting were an +unintelligible murmur, and they seated themselves in an embarrassed +silence. + +"You--er--you received my letter?" + +"Yes!" Margot gazed at the tips of her dainty slippers, and smiled +softly to herself. In the interval which had passed since they last +met, the Editor had evidently suffered a relapse into his old shyness +and reserve. She had guessed as much from the somewhat stilted +phraseology of his letter, and was prepared to reassure him by her own +outspoken gratitude. + +"Yes; I was so pleased!" + +He gave a little start of astonishment, and stared at her with bright, +incredulous eyes. + +"Pleased? You mean it? You did not think it a liberty--" + +"Indeed I did not. I guessed what you had to tell me, and it made me so +happy." + +He leaned forward impetuously, the blood flushing his cheeks. + +"You had guessed before? You knew it was coming?" + +"Not exactly, but I hoped--" + +"_Hoped_!--Margot, is it possible that you have cared, too? It seems +too wonderful to be true.--I never dreamt of such amazing happiness. At +the best it seemed possible that you would be willing to give me a +hearing. I did not dare to write, but this time of waiting has seemed +as if it would never end..." + +As he began to speak Margot faced him with candid eyes, but at the sound +of his voice, and at sight of the answering flash of his eyes, her lids +quivered and fell, and she shrank back against the cushions of her +chair. Astonishment overwhelmed her; but the relief, the thankfulness, +the rapture of the moment obliterated everything else. She gave a +strangled sob of emotion and said faintly-- + +"It--it has seemed long to me, too!" + +At that he was on his knees before her, clasping her hands and gazing at +her with an expression of rapturous relief. "Oh, Margot, my darling, +was it because I was not there? Have you missed me? Not as I have +missed you--that is not possible, but enough to remember me sometimes, +and to be glad to meet again. Have you thought of me at all, Margot?" + +"I--I have thought of nothing else!" sighed Margot. She was generous +with her assurance, knowing the nature of the man with whom she had to +deal, and her reward was the sight of the illumined face turned upon +her. + +There, in a corner of a modern drawing-room, with a glimpse of a London +street between the curtain folds, Margot and George Elgood found the +Eden which is discovered afresh by all true lovers. Such moments are +too sacred for intrusion; they live enshrined in memory until the end of +life. + +It was not until a considerable time had flown by that Margot recalled +the events of the earlier evening, and with them still another claim +held by her lover upon her gratitude and devotion. Drawing back, so as +to lift her charming face to his--a rosy, sparkling face, unrecognisable +as the same white and weary visage of a few hours back, she laid her +hand on his, and said sweetly-- + +"We went off at a tangent, didn't we? I don't know how we went off, and +forgot the real business of the evening; but I never finished thanking +you! You must think me terribly ungrateful!" + +George Elgood regarded her with puzzled, adoring eyes. + +"I haven't the least idea what you are talking about, but what does it +matter? What does anything matter, except that we love each other, and +are the happiest creatures on earth? Business, indeed! Why need we +trouble ourselves to talk about business? Margot, do you know that you +have a dimple in the middle of your cheek? The most beautiful dimple in +the world!" + +Margot shook her head at him with a pretence of disapproval, smiling the +while, so as to show off the dimple to the best advantage. + +"You mustn't make me conceited. I am vain enough already to know that +you love me, and have taken so much trouble to please me. It _was_ kind +of you!" + +"What was kind, sweetheart? There is no kindness in loving you. I had +no choice in the matter, for I simply could not help myself!" + +"Ah, but you know what I mean! You have given me my two greatest +desires! I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw it." + +He stared at her for a moment, then smiled complacently. + +"You mean--my note?" + +"No, I didn't mean your note. Not this time. I meant the magazine!" + +"Magazine!" + +The accent of bewilderment was unmistakably genuine, and Margot hastened +to explain still further. + +"The new number of the _Loadstar_ with Ron's poem in it!" + +"Ron's poem!" The note of bewilderment was accentuated to one of +positive incredulity. "A poem by your brother in the _Loadstar_! I did +not know that he wrote at all." + +Now it was Margot's turn to stare and frown. + +"You didn't know! But you _must_ have known. How else could it get in? +You must have given permission." + +"My sweetheart, what have I to do with the _Loadstar_, or any other +magazine? What has my permission to do with it?" + +"Everything in the world! Oh, I know exactly what has happened. Your +brother has told you about Ron, and showed you his verses, and you put +them in for his sake--_and mine_! Because you knew I should be pleased, +and because they are good too, and you were glad to help him. He is +longing to come in to thank you himself. We shall both thank you all +our lives!" + +George Elgood's face of stupefaction was a sight to behold. His +forehead was corrugated with lines of bewilderment; he stared at her in +blankest dismay. + +"What _are_ you talking about, sweetheart? What does it all mean? Your +brother has no need to thank me for any success which he has gained. I +should have been only too delighted to help him in any way that was in +my power, but I have no influence with the _Loadstar Magazine_." + +"No influence! How can that be when you are the Editor?" + +"I am the _What_?" + +"Editor! You have every influence. You _are_ the magazine!" + +George Elgood rose to his feet with a gesture of strongest astonishment. + +"I the Editor of a magazine! My dearest little girl, what are you +dreaming about? There never was a man less suited to the position. I +know nothing whatever of magazines--of any sort of literature. I am in +corn!" + +A corn merchant! Margot's brain reeled. She lay back in her chair, +staring at him with wide, stunned eyes, too utterly prostrated by +surprise to be capable of speech! + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +AN INTERVIEW WITH THE EDITOR. + +Could it be believed that it was the _Chieftain_ who was the Editor, +after all! That short, fat, undignified, commonplace little man! "Not +in the least the type,"--so Ron had pronounced, in his youthful +arrogance, "No one would ever suspect _you_ of being literary!" so saucy +Margot had declared to his face. She blushed at the remembrance of the +words, blushed afresh, as, one after another, a dozen memories rushed +through her brain. That afternoon by the tarn, for example, when she +had summoned courage to confess her scheme, and he had lain prone on the +grass, helpless and shaken with laughter! + +No wonder that he had laughed! but oh, the wickedness, the duplicity of +the wretch, to breathe no word of her mistake, but promptly set to work +to weave a fresh plot on his own account! This was the reason why he +had extracted a promise that George was not to be told of Ron's ambition +during his holiday, feigning an anxiety for his brother's peace of mind, +which he was in reality doing his best to destroy! This was the +explanation of everything that had seemed mysterious and contradictory. +He had been laughing in his sleeve all the time he had pretended to +help! + +George Elgood listened with a mingling of amaze, amusement, and +tenderness to the hidden history of the weeks at Glenaire. Being in the +frame of mind when everything that Margot did seemed perfect in his +eyes, he felt nothing but admiration for her efforts on her brother's +behalf. + +It was an ingenious, unselfish little scheme, and the manner in which +she had laid it bare to the person most concerned was delightfully +unsophisticated. He laughed at her tenderly, stroking her soft, pretty +hair with his big man's hand, the while he explained that he was a +business man pure and simple, and had made no excursions whatever into +literature; that the "writing" with which he had been occupied was +connected with proposed changes in his firm, and a report of a technical +character. + +Margot flamed with indignation, but before the angry words had time to +form themselves on her lips, the thought occurred that after all the +help vouchsafed to her had been no pretence, but a very substantial +reality. Ron's foot _had_ been placed on the first rung of the ladder, +while as for herself, what greater good could she have found to desire +than that which, through the Chieftain's machinations, had already come +to pass? She lifted her face to meet the anxious, adoring gaze bent +upon her, and cried hurriedly-- + +"He--he meant it all the time! He _meant_ it to happen!" + +"Meant what, darling?" + +"_This_!" + +Margot waved her hand with a gesture sufficiently expressive, whereat +her lover laughed happily. + +"Bless him! of course he did. He has been badgering me for years past +to look out for a wife; and when we met you he was clever enough to +realise that you were the one woman to fill the post. If he had said as +much to me at that stage of affairs, I should have packed up and made +off within the hour; if he had said it to you, you would have felt it +incumbent upon you to do the same. Instead, he let you go on in your +illusion, while he designed the means of throwing us into each other's +society. Good old Geoff! I'm not at all angry with him. Are you?" + +Margot considered the point, her head tilted to a thoughtful angle. + +"I'm--not--sure! I think I am, just a little bit, for I hate to be +taken in. He was laughing at me all the time." + +"But after all, he has done what you wished! I envy him for being able +to give you such pleasure; but perhaps I may be able to do as much in +another way. Geoff tells me that Mr Martin has had financial troubles, +and there is nothing I would not do to help any one who belongs to you. +I'm out of my depths in poetry, but in business matters I can count, and +in this case I shall not be satisfied until I _do_." + +Margot drew a long breath of contentment. "Oh, if Jack is happy, and +Ron is successful, and I have--_You_!--there will be nothing left to +wish for in all the world. Poor Ron! he is waiting eagerly to come in +to thank you for publishing his verse, and wondering why in the world +you wanted to see me alone. Don't you think you ought just to read it, +to be able to say it is nice?" + +"No, I don't! You are all the poetry I can attend to to-night, and for +goodness' sake keep him away; I shall have to interview your father +later on, but after waiting all these weeks I must have you to myself a +little longer." + +"Oh, I won't send for him. I don't want him a bit," cried Margot +naively, "but he will come!" + +And he did! + +Waiting downstairs in the study, an hour seemed an absurd length of +time, and when no summons came Ron determined to take the law in his own +hands and join the conference. The tableau which was revealed to him on +opening the drawing-room door struck him dumb with amazement, and the +explanations which ensued appeared still more extraordinary. + +George Elgood speedily beat a retreat to the study, where Mr Vane +listened to his request with quiet resignation. Elderly, grey-haired +fathers have a way of seeing more than their children suspect, and +Margot's father had recognised certain well-known signs in the manner in +which he had been questioned concerning his daughter's progress during +those anxious days at Glenaire. His heart sank as he listened to the +lover's protestations, but he told himself that he ought to be thankful +to know that his little Margot had chosen a man of unblemished +character, who was of an age to appreciate his responsibility, possessed +an income sufficient to keep her in comfort, and, last but not least, a +home within easy distance of his own. + +Late that evening, when her lover had taken his departure, Margot stole +down to the study and sat silently for a time on her old perch on the +arm of her father's chair, with her head resting lovingly against his +own. He was thankful to feel her dear presence, and to know that she +wished to be near him on this night of all others, but his heart was too +full to speak, and it was she who at last spoke the first words. + +"I never knew," she said softly, "I never knew that it was possible to +be as happy as this. It's so wonderful! One can't realise it all. +Father dear, I've been thinking of you! ... I never realised before +what it meant to you when mother died--all that you lost! You have been +good, and brave, and unselfish, dear, and we must have tried you sorely +many times. We didn't understand, but I understand a little bit now, +daddy, and it makes me love you more. You'll remember, won't you, that +this is going to draw us closer together, not separate us one little +bit? You'll be _sure_ to remember?" + +"Bless you, dear!" he said, and stroked her hand with tender fingers. +"It is sweet to hear you say so, at least. I'm glad you are going to be +happy, and if I am to give you away at all, I am glad it is to a strong, +sensible man whom I can trust and respect; but it will be a sad day for +me when you leave the old home, Margot." + +Margot purred over him with tenderest affection. + +"How I wish Agnes would marry!" + +"What has that to do with it, pray?" + +"Then you could live with me, of course! I should love it," said Margot +warmly; and though her father had no intention of accepting such an +invitation, it remained through life a solace to him to remember that it +had been in the girl's heart to wish it. + +Next morning at twelve o'clock a daintily attired damsel ascended a +dusty staircase in Fleet Street and desired to see the Editor in his +den. The dragon who guarded the fastness inquired of her if she had an +appointment, and, unsoftened by the charm of her appearance, volunteered +the information that Mr Elgood would see no stray callers. + +"He will see _me_!" returned Margot arrogantly; and she was right, for, +to the surprise of the messenger, the sight of the little printed card +was followed by an order to "Show the lady in at once." + +A moment later Margot made her first entrance into an Editor's den, and +round the corner of a big desk caught a glimpse of a decorous, black- +coated figure whom at first sight it was difficult to associate with the +light-hearted Chieftain of Glenaire. As they confronted each other, +however, the round face twinkled into a smile, which served as fuel to +the girl's indignation. She stopped short, ostentatiously disregarding +the outstretched hand, drew her brows together, and proclaimed +haughtily-- + +"I have come to let you know that you are found out. I know all about +it now. You have been laughing at me all the time?" + +"Well,--very nearly!" he assented smilingly. "You are such a nice +little girl to laugh at, you see, and it was an uncommonly good joke! +Do you remember the day when you confided to me solemnly that you had +journeyed to Scotland on purpose to stalk me, and run me to earth? +You'd have been a bit embarrassed if I'd told you the truth then and +there, wouldn't you now? And besides--I see quite enough of literary +aspirants all the year round. It was a bit hard to be hunted down on +one's holidays. I felt bound to prevaricate, for the sake of my own +peace. Then again there was George! Where would George have come in? +If I had confessed my identity, should I have been kept awake, as I was +last night, listening to his rhapsodies by the hour together? By the +way, we are going to be near relatives. Don't you want to shake hands?" + +"I'm very angry indeed!" maintained Margot stubbornly--nevertheless her +hand was in his, and her fingers involuntarily returned his pressure. +"Are you--_glad_! Do you think I shall--do? Does he seem _really_ +happy?" + +"Ah, my dear!" he sighed, and over the plump features there passed once +more the expression of infinite longing which Margot had seen once +before, when, in a moment of confidence, he had spoken of his dead love. +"Ah, my dear, how happy he is! There is no word to express such +happiness! George has not frittered away his affections on a number of +silly flirtations--his heart is whole, and it is wholly yours. Do you +owe me no thanks for bringing you together? You wanted to help your +brother; I wanted to help mine; so we are equally guilty or +praiseworthy, as the case may be. For myself I am very well satisfied +with the result?" + +Margot blushed, and cast down her eyes. + +"I'm satisfied, too!" she said shyly. "Much more than satisfied--and +Ron is enraptured. Have you seen him? He said he was coming to see you +first thing this morning!" + +"Have I seen him, indeed? I should think I had! I thought I should +never get rid of the boy. I told him straight that the magazine comes +first to me, and that not even a prospective sister-in-law--with +dimples!--could induce me to accept a line for publication otherwise +than on its own merits. But the boy has power. I can't tell yet how +far it may go, but it's worth encouraging. When he gave me his +manuscript book to read I was struck by one fragment, and wrote it out +in shorthand, to publish as a surprise to you both. I like the lad, and +will be glad to help him so far as it is in my power. I can give him a +small post in this office, where at least he will be in the atmosphere; +but after that his future rests with himself. What he writes that is +worth publishing, I will publish, but it will be judged on its merits +alone, and without any remembrance of his private associations. He will +have his chance!" + +He put out his hands and held her gently by the elbows, smiling at her +the while with the kindliest of smiles. + +"Now are you satisfied, little girl? From the moment that you looked at +me with _her_ eyes, and asked my help, I have had no better wish than to +give it. I did not set about it quite in your own way, perhaps, but the +end is the same. Don't trouble any more about the lad, but let me +smooth the way with your father, while you devote yourself to George. +His happiness is in your hands. Be good to him! He looks upon you as +an angel from heaven! Be an angel for his sake! He sees in you +everything that is good, and pure, and womanly. Be what he believes! +Humanly speaking, his life is yours, and these little hands will draw +him more strongly than any power in the world. It's a big +responsibility, little girl, but I am not afraid! I know a good woman +when I see one, and can trust George to your care. You will be very +happy. I wonder if in the midst of your happiness you will sometimes +remember--a lonely man?" + +Margot twisted herself quickly from his grasp, and her arms stretched +out and encircled his neck. She did not speak, but her lips, pressed +against his cheek, gave an assurance more eloquent than words. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Big Game, by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIG GAME *** + +***** This file should be named 21109.txt or 21109.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/0/21109/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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