Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L I -^V} 574£ K152 ^ ■';;^ieS3;iV • K^te Carnegie and Those Ministers WOK AS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. BESIDE THE BONNIE BRIER BUSH. Eleventh Edition, completing eightieth thousand. C)-ou<7i %vo, gilt top, 6j. EDITION DE LUXE. With 12 Etchings by WiLLlAM HoLE, R.S.A., 255-. net. 50 copies -with Illustrations on Japanese Vellum, c,os. per copy net. THE DAYS OF AULD LANGSYNE. Fourth Edition, completing sixtieth thousaftd. Crown Zvo, gilt top, 6s. LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW. EMte Carnegie and 'Those Ministers By Ian Maclaren 47000 LONDON HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW 1896 Edinburgh : T. and A, Constable, Printers to Iler :\Iajesty I ' ^ TO A CERTAIN BROTHERHOOD FAITHFUL IN CRITICISM LOYAL IN AFFECTION TENDER IN TROUBLE Ik CONTENTS V t PAGE •^ Pandemonium, i Peace, 24 A Home of many Generations, 37 r^ A Secret Chamber, 52 V ^ Concerning Besoms, 63 f A Pleasaunce, 80 A Woman of the New Dispensation, ... 96 A Woman of the Old Dispensation, . . .116 A Daughter of Debate, 134 A Supra-Lapsarian, .... . . 151 viii CO.VTENTS PACE In the Gloaming, 169 KiLBCXJiE Manse, 186 Preparing for the Sacrament, .... 202 A Moderate, . . . ' 220 Joint Potentates, 237 Dried Rose-leaves, 253 Smouldering Fires, 271 Love-sickness 287 The Fear of God, 304 The Wounds of a Friend, 322 Light at Eventide, 342 Without Fear and without Reproach, . . . 361 Marget Howe's Confessional, 376 Love is Lord, 393 PANDEMONIUM It was the morning before the Twelfth, years ago, and nothing like unto Muirtown Station could have been found in all the travelling world. For Muirtown, as everybody knows, is the centre which receives the southern immigrants in autumn, and distributes them, with all their belongings of ser- vants, horses, dogs, and luggage, over the north country from Athole to Sutherland. All night, express trains, whose ordinary forma- tion had been reinforced by horse-boxes, carriage- trucks, saloons, and luggage-vans, drawn by two engines, and pushed up inclines by a third, had been careering along the three iron trunk roads that run from London to the North. Four hours ago they had forced the Border, that used to be more jealously guarded, and had begun to con- verge on their terminus. Passengers, awakened by the caller air, and looking out still half asleep, miss the undis- ciplined hedgerows and many-shaped patches of pasture, the warm brick homesteads and shaded ponds of the south. Square fields cultivated up to a foot of the stone dykes or wire-fencing, the A a KATE CARNEGIE strong grey-stone farm-houses, the swift-running burns, and the never-distant hills, brace the mind. Local passengers come in with deliberation, whose austere faces condemn the luxurious disorder of night travel, and challenge the defence of Arminian doctrine. A voice shouts * Carstairs Junction,' with a command of the letter r, which is the be- quest of an unconquerable past, and inspires one with the hope of some day hearing a freeborn Scot say * Auchterarder.' The train runs over bleak moorlands with black peat-holes, through alluvial straths yielding their last pickle of corn, between iron furnaces blazing strangely in the morning light, at the foot of historical castles built on rocks that rise out of the fertile plains, and then, after a space of sudden darkness, any man with a soul counts the ten hours' dust and heat but a slight price for the sight of the Scottish Rhine flowing deep, clear, and swift by the foot of its wooded hills, and the ' Fair City,' in the heart of her meadows. ' Do you see the last wreath of mist floating off the summit of the hill, and the silver sheen of the river against the green of the woods? Quick, dad,' and the General, accustomed to obey, stood up beside Kate for the brief glimpse between the tunnel and a prison. Yet they had seen the snows of the Himalayas, and the great river that runs through the plains of India. But it is so with PANDEMONIUM $ Scottish folk, that they may have lived opposite the Jungfrau at Miirren, and walked among the big trees of the Yosemite Valley, and watched the blood-red afterglow on the Pyramids, and yet will value a sunset behind the Cuchullin Hills, and the Pass of the Trossachs, and the mist shot through with light on the sides of Ben Nevis, and the Tay at Dunkeld — ^just above the bridge — better guerdon for their eyes. * Ay, lassie ' — the other people had left at Stirling, and the General fell back upon the past — * there 's just one bonnier river, and that 's the Tochty, at a bend below the Lodge, as we shall see it, please God, this evening.* ' Tickets ! ' broke in a voice with authority. 'This is no the station, an' ye '11 hae to wait till the first diveesion o' yir train is emptied. Kildrummie? Ye change, of coorse, but yir branch '11 hae a lang wait the day. It'll be an awfu' fecht wi' the Hielant train. Muirtown platform '11 be worth seein' ; it '11 juist be michty,' and the collector departed, smacking his lips in prospect of the fray. ' Upon my word,' said the General, taken aback for a moment by the easy manners of his country- man, but rejoicing in every new assurance of home, ' our people are no' blate.' ' Isn't it delicious to be where character has not been worn smooth by centuries of oppression, but 4 KATE CARNEGIE where each man is himself? Conversation has salt here, and tastes in the mouth. We've just heard two men speak this morning, and each face is bitten into my memory. Now our turn has come,' and the train wound itself in at last. Porters, averaging six feet and with stentorian voices, were driving back the mixed multitude in order to afford foothold for the new arrivals on that marvellous landing-place, which, in those days, served for all the trains which came in and all that went out, both north and south. One man tears open the door of a first with command- ing gesture. ' A' change, and hurry up ! Na, na,' rejecting the offer of a private engagement ; ' we hev nae time for that trade the day. Ye maun cairry yir bags yersels ; the dogs and boxes '11 tak us a' oor time.' He unlocks an under com- partment and drags out a pair of pointers, who fawn upon him obsequiously in gratitude for their release. * Doon wi' ye ! ' as one to whom duty denies the ordinary courtesies of life, and he fastens them to the base of an iron pillar. Deserted immediately by their deliverer, the pointers made overtures to two elderly ladies, standing bewildered in the crush, to be repulsed with umbrellas, and then sit down upon their tails in despair. Their forlorn condition, left friendless amid this babel, gets upon their nerves, and after a slight rehearsal, just to make certain of the tune. PANDEMONIUM 5 they lift up their voices in melodious concert, to the scandal of the two females, who cannot escape the neighbourhood, and regard the pointers with horror. Distant friends, also in bonds and distress of mind, feel comforted, and join cheerfully, while a large black retriever, who had foolishly at- tempted to obstruct a luggage barrow with his tail, breaks in with a high solo. Two collies — their tempers irritated by obstacles as they follow their masters, who had been taking their morning in the second-class refreshment-room — fall out by the way, and obtain, as by magic, a clear space in which to settle details ; while a fox-terrier, escap- ing from his anxious mistress, has mounted a pile of boxes, and gives a general challenge. Porters fling open packed luggage-vans with a swing, setting free a cataract of portmanteaus, boxes, hampers, baskets, which pours across the platform for yards, led by a frolicsome black- leather valise, whose anxious owner has fought her adventurous way to the van for the purpose of explaining to a phlegmatic Scot that he would know it by a broken strap, and must lift it out gently, for it contained breakables. ' It can gang itsel, that ane,' as the afflicted woman followed its reckless progress with a wail. * Sail, if they were a' as clever on their feet as yon box there wud be less tribble,' and with two assistants he falls upon the congested mass within. 6 KATE CARNEGIE They perform prodigies of strength, handling huge trunks that ought to have filled some woman with repentance as if they were Gladstone bags, and light weights as if they were paper parcels. With unerring scent they detect the latest label among the remains of past history, and the air resounds with * Hielant train,' * Aiber- deen fast,' * Aiberdeen slow,' ' Muirtown ' — this with indifference — and at a time ' Dunleith,' and once ' Kildrummie,' with much contempt. By this time stacks of baggage of varying size have been erected, the largest of which is a pyramid in shape, with a very uncertain apex. Male passengers — heads of families, and new to Muirtown — hover anxiously round the outskirts, and, goaded on by female commands, rush into the heart of the fray for the purpose of claiming a piece of luggage, which turns out to be some other person's, and retire hastily after a fair-sized portmanteau descends on their toes, and the sharp edge of a trunk takes them in the small of the back. Footmen with gloves and superior airs make gentlemanly efforts to collect the family luggage, and are rewarded by having some hope- lessly vulgar tin boxes, heavily roped, deposited among its initialled glory. One elderly female, who had been wise to choose some other day to revisit her native town, discovers her basket flung up against a pillar, like wreckage from a storm, PANDEMONIUM 7 and settles herself down upon it with a sigh of relief. She remains unmoved amid the turmoil, save when a passing gun-case tips her bonnet to one side, giving her a very rakish air, and a good- natured retriever on a neighbouring box is so much taken with her appearance that he offers her a friendly caress. Restless people, who re- member that their train ought to have left half an hour ago, and cannot realise that all bonds are loosed on the eleventh, fasten on any man in a uniform, and suffer many rebuffs. ' There 's nae use asking me,' answers a guard, coming off duty and pushing his way through the crowd as one accustomed to such spectacles ; ' a *m juist in frae Carlisle ; get baud o' a porter.' ' Coupar- Angus ?' — this from the porter — * that 's the Aiberdeen slow ; it 's no' made up yet, and little chance o't till the express an' the Hielant be aff. Whar '11 it start frae ? ' breaking away ; ' forrit, a' tell ye, forrit.' Fathers of families, left on guard, and misled by a sudden movement * forrit,' rush to the waiting- room and bring out, for the third time, the whole expedition, to escort them back again with shame. Barrows with towering piles of luggage are pushed through the human mass by two porters, who allow their engine to make its own way with much confidence, condescending only at a time to shout, • A' say, hey, oot o' there ! ' and treating any testy 8 KATE CARNEGIE complaint with the silent contempt of a drayman for a costermonger. Old hands, who have fed at their leisure, in callous indifference to all alarms, lounge about in great content, and a group of sheep-farmers having endeavoured in vain, after one tasting, to settle the merits of a new dip, take a glance in the ' Hielant ' quarter, and adjourn the conference once more to the refresh- ment-room. Groups of sportsmen discuss the prospects of to-morrow in detail, and tell stories of ancient twelfths, while chieftains from London, in full Highland dress, are painfully conscious of the whiteness of their legs. A handful of pre- posterous people who persist in going south when the world has its face northwards, threaten to complain to headquarters if they are not sent away, and an official with a loud voice and a bubtle gift of humour intimates that a train is about to leave for Dundee. During this time wonderful manoeuvres have been executed on the lines of rail opposite the platform. Trains have left with all the air of a departure, and disappeared round the curve outside the station, only to return in fragments. Half a dozen carriages pass without an engine, as if they had started on their own account, brake-vans that one saw presiding over expresses stand forsaken, a long procession of horse-boxes rattles through, and a saloon carriage, with people, is so much in PANDEMONIUM 9 evidence that the name of an Engh'sh duke is freely mentioned, and every new passage relieves the tedium of the vi^aiting. Out of all this confusion trains begin to grow and take shape, and one, with green carriages, looks so complete that a rumour spreads that the Hielant train has been made up and may appear any minute in its place. The sunshine beating through the glass roof, the heat of travel, the dust of the station, the moving carriages with their various colours, the shouts of railway officials, the recur- ring panics of fussy passengers, begin to affect the nerves. Conversation becomes broken, porters are beset on every side with questions they cannot answer, rushes are made on any empty carriages within reach, a child is knocked down and cries. Over all this excitement and confusion one man is presiding, untiring, forceful, ubiquitous — a sturdy man, somewhere about five feet ten, whose lungs are brass and nerves fine steel wire. He is dressed, as to his body, in brown corduroy trousers, a blue jacket and waistcoat with shining brass buttons, a grey fliannel shirt, and a silver- braided cap, which, as time passes, he thrusts further back on his head till its peak stands at last almost erect, a crest seen high above the conflict. As to the soul of him, this man is clothed with resolution, courage, authority, and an infectious enthusiasm. He is the brain and will of the whole organism. lo KATE CARNEGIE its driving-power. Drivers lean out of their engines, one hand on the steam throttle, their eyes fixed on this man ; if he waves his hands, trains move ; if he holds them up, trains halt. Strings of carriages out in the open are carrying out his plans, and the porters toil like maniacs to meet his commands. Piles of luggage disappear as he directs the attack, and his scouts capture isolated boxes hidden among the people. Every horse-box has a place in his memory, and he has calculated how many carriages would clear the north traffic ; he carries the destination of families in his head, and has made arrangements for their comfort. ' Soon ready now, sir,' as he passed swiftly down to receive the last southerner, ' and a second compartment reserved for you,' till people watched for him, and the sound of his voice, 'Forrit wi' the Hielant luggage,' inspired bewildered tourists with confidence, and became an argument for Providence. There is a general movement towards the northern end of the station ; five barrows, whose luggage swings dangerously and has to be held on, pass in procession ; dogs are collected and trailed along in bundles ; families pick up their bags and press after their luggage, cheered to recognise a familiar piece peeping out from strange goods ; a bell is rung with insistence. The Aberdeen express leaves — its passengers re- garding the platform with pity, — and the guard of PANDEMONIUM xi the last van slamming his door in triumph. The great man concentrates his force with a wave of his hand for the tour de force of the year, the despatch of the Highland train. The southern end of the platform is now deserted — the London express departed half an hour ago with thirteen passengers, very crestfallen and envious — and across the open centre porters hustle barrows at headlong speed, with neglected pieces of luggage. Along the edge of the High- land platform there stretches a solid mass of life, close -packed, motionless, silent, composed of tourists, dogs, families, lords, dogs, sheep-farmers, keepers, clericals, dogs, footmen, commercials, ladies'-maids, grooms, dogs, waiting for the empty train that, after deploying hither and thither, picking up some trifle, a horse-box or a duke's saloon, at every new raid, is now backing slowly in for its freight. The expectant crowd has ceased from conversation, sporting or otherwise ; respect- able elderly gentlemen brace themselves for the scramble, and examine their nearest neighbours suspiciously ; heads of families gather their be- longings round them by signs, and explain in a whisper how to act ; one female tourist — of a certain age and severe aspect — refreshes her memory as to the best window for the view of Killiecrankie. The luggage has been piled in huge masses at each end of the siding ; the 12 KATE CARNEGIE porters rest themselves against it, taking off their caps and wiping their foreheads with handkerchiefs of many colours and uses. It is the stillness be- fore the last charge ; beyond the outermost luggage an arm is seen waving, and the long coil of carriages begins to twist into the station. People who know their ancient Muirtown well, and have taken part in this day of days, will remember a harbour of refuge beside the book- stall, protected by the buffers of the Highland siding on one side and a breakwater of luggage on the other, and persons within this shelter could see the storming of the train to great advantage. Carmichael, the young Free Kirk minister of Drumtochty, who had been tasting the civilisa- tion of Muirtown overnight, and was waiting for the Dunleith train, leant against the back of the bookstall, watching the scene with frank, boyish interest. Rather under six feet in height, he passed for more, because he stood so straight and looked so slight, for his limbs were as slender as a woman's, while women (in Muirtown) had envied his hands and feet. But in chest measure he was only two inches behind Saunders Baxter, the grieve of Drumsheugh, who was the standard of manhood by whom all others were tried and (mostly) condemned in Drumtochty. Chancing to come upon Saunders putting the stone one day with the bothy lads, Carmichael had taken PANDEMONIUM 13 his turn, with the result that his stone lay fore- most in the final heat by an inch exactly. Mac- Lure saw them kneeling together to measure, the Free Kirk minister and the ploughmen all in a bunch, and went on his way rejoicing to tell the Free Kirk folk that their new minister was a man of his hands. His hair was fair, just touched with gold, and he wore it rather long, so that in the excitement of preaching a lock sometimes fell down on his forehead, which he would throw back with a toss of his head — a gesture Mrs. Mac- fadyen, our critic, thought very taking. His dark blue eyes used to enlarge with passion in the Sacrament and grow so tender, the healthy tan disappeared and left his cheeks so white, that the mothers were terrified lest he should die early, and sent offerings of cream on Monday morning. For though his name was Carmichael, he had Celtic blood in him, and was full of all kinds of emotion, but mostly those that were brave and pure and true. He had done well at the Univer- sity, and was inclined to be philosophical, for he knew little of himself and nothing of the world. There were times when he allowed himself to be supercilious and sarcastic ; but it was not for an occasional jingle of cleverness the people loved him, or, for that matter, any other man. It was his humanity that won their hearts, and this he had partly from his mother, partly from his train- 14 KATE CARNEGIE ing. Through a kind Providence and his mother's countriness, he had been brought up among ani- mals — birds, mice, dormice, guinea-pigs, rabbits, dogs, cattle, horses — till he knew all their ways, and loved God's creatures as did S. Francis d'Assisi, to whom every creature of God was dear, from Sister Swallow to Brother Wolf. So he learned, as he grew older, to love men and women and little children, even although they might be ugly, or stupid, or bad-tempered, or even wicked, and this sympathy cleansed away many a little fault of pride and self-conceit and impatience and hot temper, and in the end of the days made a man of John Carmichael. The dumb animals had an instinct about this young fellow, and would make overtures to him that were a certi- tificate for any situation requiring character. Horses by the wayside neighed at his approach, and stretched out their velvet muzzles to be stroked. Dogs insisted upon sitting on his knees, unless quite prevented by their size, and then they put their paws on his chest. Hillocks was utterly scandalised by his collie's familiarity with the minister, and brought him to his senses by the application of a boot, but Carmichael waived all apologies. ' Rover and I made friends two days ago on the road, and my clothes will take no injury.' And indeed they could not, for Car- michael, except on Sundays and at funerals, wore PANDEMONIUM 15 a soft hat and suit of threadbare tweeds, on which a microscopist could have found traces of a peat bog, moss of dykes, the scale of a trout, and a tiny bit of heather. His usual fortune befell him that day in Muir- town Station, for two retrievers, worming their way through the luggage, reached him, and made known their wants. 'Thirsty? I believe you. All the way from England, and heat enough to roast you alive. I 've got no dish, else I 'd soon get water. Inver- ness? Poor chaps, that's too far to go with your tongues like a lime-kiln. Down, good dogs ; I '11 be back in a minute.' You can have no idea, unless you have tried it, how much water a soft clerical hat can hold — if you turn up the edges and bash down the inside with your fist, and fill the space to the brim. But it is difficult to convey such a vessel with undi- minished content through a crowd, and altogether impossible to lift one's eyes. Carmichael was therefore quite unconscious that two new-comers to the shelter were watching him with keen delight as he came in bareheaded, flushed, tri- umphant — amid howls of welcome — and knelt down to hold the cup till, drinking time about in strict honour, the retrievers had reached the maker's name. « Do you think they would like a biscuit ? ' said 1 6 KATE CARNEGIE a clear, sweet, low voice, with an accent of pride and just a flavour of amusement in its tone. Carmichael rose in much embarrassment, and was quite confounded. They were standing together — father and daughter, evidently — and there was no manner of doubt about him. A spare man, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, straight as a rod, and having an air of command, with keen grey eyes, close-cropped hair turning white, a clean-shaven face except where a heavy moustache covered a firm-set mouth — one recognised in him a retired army man of rank, a colonel at least, it might be a general ; and the bronze on his face suggested long Indian service. But he might have been dressed in Rob Roy tartan, or been a naval officer in full uniform, for all Carmichael knew. A hundred thousand faces pass before your eyes and are forgotten, mere physical impressions ; you see one, and it is in your heart for ever, as you saw it the first time. Wavy black hair, a low, straight forehead, hazel eyes with long eyelashes, a perfectly-shaped Grecian nose, a strong mouth whose upper lip had a curve of softness, a clear-cut chin with one dimple, small ears set high in the head, and a rich creamy complexion — that was what flashed upon Carmichael as he turned from the retrievers. He was a man so unobservant of women that he could not have described a PANDEMONIUM 17 woman's dress to save his life or any other person's ; and now that he is married — he is a middle-aged man now, and threatened with stout- ness — it is his wife's reproach that he does not know when she wears her new spring bonnet for the first time. Yet he took in this young woman's dress, from the smart hat, with a white bird's wing on the side, and the close-fitting tailor-made jacket, to the small, well-gloved hand in dogskin, the grey tweed skirt, and one shoe, with a tip on it, that peeped out below her frock. Critics might have hinted that her shoulders were too square, and that her figure wanted somewhat in softness of outline ; but it seemed to Carmichael that he had never seen so winsome or highbred a woman ; and so it has also seemed to many who have gone farther afield in the world than the young minister of Drumtochty. Carmichael was at that age when a man prides himself on dressing and thinking as he pleases, and had quite scandalised a Muirtown elder — a stout gentleman, who had come out in '43, and could with difficulty be weaned from Dr. Chal- mers — by making his appearance on the preced- ing evening in amazing tweeds and a grey flannel shirt He explained casually that for a fifteen- mile walk flannels were absolutely necessary, and that he was rather pleased to find that he had come from door to door in four hours and two B i8 KATE CARNEGIE minutes exactly. His host was at a loss for words, because he was comparing this unconven- tional youth with the fathers, who wore large white stocks and ambled along at about two and a half miles an hour, clearing their throats also in a very impressive way, and seasoning the principles of the Free Kirk with snuff of an excellent fra- grance. It was hard even for the most generous charity to identify the spirit of the Disruption in such a figure, and the good elder grew so proper and so didactic that Carmichael went from bad to worse. 'Well, you would find the congregation in excellent order. The Professor was a most pains- taking man, though retiring in disposition, and his sermons were thoroughly solid and edifying. They were possibly just a little above the heads of Drumtochty, but I always enjoyed Mr. Cun- ningham myself,' nodding his head as one who understood all mysteries. ' Did you ever happen to hear the advice Jamie Soutar gave the deputation from Muirtown when they came up to see whether Cunningham would be fit for the North Kirk, where two Bailies stand at the plate every day, and the Provost did not think himself good enough to be an elder?' for Carmichael was full of wickedness that day, and earning a judgment. His host indicated that the deputation had PANDEMONIUM 19 given in a very full and satisfactory report — he was, in fact, on the Session of the North himself — but that no reference had been made to Jamie. 'Well, you must know,' and Carmichael laid him- self out for narration, ' the people were harassed with raids from the Lowlands during Cunning- ham's time, and did their best in self-defence. Spying makes men cunning, and it was wonderful how many subterfuges the deputations used to practise. They would walk from Kildrummie as if they were staying in the district, and one retired tradesman talked about the crops as if he was a farmer, but it was a pity that he didn't know the difference between the cereals. *"Yon man that wes up aifter yir minister, Elspeth," Hillocks said to Mrs. Macfadyen, "hesna hed muckle money spent on his eddication. ' A graund field o' barley,' he says, and as sure as a'm stannin' here, it wes the haugh field o' aits." ' " He 's frae Glaisgie," was all Elspeth answered, " and by next Friday we '11 hae his name an' kirk. He said he wes up for a walk an' juist dropped in, the wratch." 'Some drove from Muirtown, giving out that they were English tourists, speaking with a fine East Coast accent, and were rebuked by Lachlan Campbell for breaking the Sabbath. Your men put up their trap at the last farm in Netheraird — which always has grudged Drumtochty its ministers ao KATE CARNEGIE and borne their removal with resignation — and came up in pairs, who pretended they did not know one another. ' Jamie was hearing the Professor's last lecture on Justification, and our people asked him to take charge of the strangers. He found out the town from their hats, and escorted them to the bound- aries of the parish, assisting their confidences till one of your men — I think it was the Provost — admitted that it had taken them all their time to follow the sermon. '"A'm astonished at ye," said Jamie, for the Netheraird man let it out; "yon wes a sermon for young fouk, juist milk, ye ken, tae the ordinar discoorses. Surely," as if the thought had just struck him, " ye werena thinkin' o' callin' Maister Cunningham tae Muirtown. ' " Edinboorgh, noo ; that micht dae gin the feck o' the members be professors, but Muirtown wud be clean havers. There's times when the Drumtochty fouk themsels canna understand the cratur, he 's that deep. As for Muirtown " — here Jamie allowed himself a brief rest of enjoyment ; " but ye 've hed a fine drive, tae say naethin' o' the traivel."' Then, having begun, Carmichael retailed so many of Jamie's most wicked sayings, and so exalted the Glen as a place ' where you can go up one side and down the other with your dogs, and PANDEMONIUM 21 every second man you meet will give you some- thing to remember,' that the city dignitary doubted afterwards to his wife ' whether this young man was . . . quite what we have been accustomed to in a Free Church minister.' Carmichael ought to have had repentances for shocking a worthy man, but instead thereof laughed in his room and slept soundly, not knowing that he would be humbled in the dust by midday to-morrow. It seemed to him on the platform as if an hour passed while he who had played with a city father stood, clothed with shame, before this command- ing young woman. Had she ever looked upon a more abject wretch? and Carmichael photographed himself with merciless accuracy, from his hair that he had not thrown back to an impress of dust which one knee had taken from the platform, and he registered a resolution that he would never be again boastfully indifferent to the loss of a button on his coat. She stooped and fed the dogs who did her homage, and he marked that her profile was even finer — more delicate, more perfect, more bewitching — than her front face ; but he still stood holding his shapeless hat in his hand, and for the first time in his life had no words to say. * They are very politfe dogs,' and Miss Carnegie gave Carmichael one more chance ; * they make as much of a biscuit as if it were a feast ; but I do aa KATE CARNEGIE think dogs have such excellent manners ; they are always so unself-conscious.* ' I wish I were a dog,' said Carmichael, with much solemnity, and afterwards was filled with thankfulness that the baggage behind gave way at that moment, and that an exasperated porter was able to express his mind freely. ' Dinna try tae lift that box for ony sake, man. Sail, ye 're no' feared,' as Carmichael, thirsting for action, swung it up unaided ; and then, catching sight of the merest wisp of white, * A' didna see ye were a minister, an' the word cam oot sudden.' * You would find it a help to say Northumber- land, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham,' and with a smile to Carmichael, still bare-headed and now redder than ever, Miss Carnegie went along the platform to see the Highland train depart. It was worth waiting to watch the two minutes' scrimmage, and to hear the great man say, as he took off his cap with deliberation and wiped his brow, ' That 's anither year ower ; some o' you lads, see tae that Dunleith train.' There was a day when Carmichael would have enjoyed the scene to the full, but now he had eyes for nothing but that tall, slim figure and the white bird's wing. When they disappeared into the Dunleith train, Carmichael had a wild idea of entering the same compartment, and in the end had to be pushed PANDEMONIUM 23 into the last second by the guard, who knew most of his regular people and every one of the Drum- tochty men. He was so much engaged with his own thoughts that he gave two English tourists to understand that Lord Kilspindie's castle, standing amid its woods on the bank of the Tay, was a recently erected dye-works, and that as the train turned off the North trunk line for Dunleith they might at any moment enter the pass of Killiecrankie, PEACE ' The last stage now, Kit ; in less than two hours we'll see Tochty woods. The very thought makes me a boy again, and it seems but yesterday that I kissed your mother on the door-step of the old lodge, and went off to the Crimean War. •That's Muirtown Castle over there in the wood — a grand place in its way, but nothing to our home, lassie. Kilspindie — he was Viscount Hay then — joined me at Muirtown, and we fought through the weary winter. He left the army after the war, with lots of honour. A good fellow was Hay, both in the trenches and the mess- room. ' I 've never seen him since, and I daresay he 's forgotten a battered old Indian. Besides, he's the big swell in this district, and I 'm only a poor Hielant laird, with a wood and a tumble-down house and a couple of farms.' 'You are also a shameless hypocrite and de- ceiver, for you believe that the Carnegies are as old as the Hays, and you know that, though you have only two farms, you have twelve medals and 84 PEACE 25 seven wounds. What does money matter? It simply makes people vulgar.' ' Nonsense, lassie ; if a Carnegie runs down money, it 's because he has got none and wishes he had. If you and I had only a few hundreds a year over the half-pay to rattle in our pockets, we should have lots of little pleasures, and you might have lived in England, with all sorts of variety and comfort, instead of wandering about India with a gang of stupid old chaps who have been so busy fighting that they never had time to read a book.' 'You mean like yourself, dad, and V.C., and Colonel Kinloch ? Where could a girl have found finer company than with my Knights of King Arthur? And do you dare to insinuate that I could have been content away from the regiment, that made me their daughter after mother died, and the army ? ' Pleasure ! ' and Kate's cheek flushed, ' I 've had it since I was a little tot and could remember anything — the bugles sounding reveille in the clear air, and the sergeants drilling the new drafts in the morning, and the regiment coming out with the band before and you at its head, and hearing " God Save the Queen " at a review, and seeing the companies passing like one man before the General. ' Don't you think that 's better than tea-drinking, 26 KATE CARNEGIE and gossiping, and sewing-meetings, and going for walks in some stupid little hole of a country town ? O you wicked, aggravating dad ! Now, what more will money do ? ' ' Well,' said the General, with much gravity, ' if you were even a moderate heiress there is no saying but that we might pick up a presentable husband for you among the lairds. As it is, I fancy a country minister is all you could expect. ' Don't . . . my ears will come off some day ; one was loosened by a cut in the Mutiny. No, I '11 never do the like again. But some day you will marry, all the same,' and Kate's father rubbed his ears. ' No, I 'm not going to leave you, for nobody else could ever make a curry to please ; and if I do, it will not be a Scotch minister — horrid, bigoted wretches, V.C. says. Am I like a minister's wife, to address mothers' meetings and write out sermons ? By the way, is there a kirk at Drumtochty, or will you read prayers to Janet and Donald and me ? ' ' When I was a lad there was just one minister in Drumtochty, Mr. Davidson, a splendid specimen of the old school, who, on great occasions, wore gaiters and a frill with a diamond in the centre ; he carried a gold-headed stick, and took snuff out of a presentation box. ' His son Sandie was my age to a year, and PEACE 27 many a ploy we had together. There was the jackdaw's nest in the ivy on the old tower we harried together,' and the General could only indicate the delighlful risk of the exploit * My father and the minister were pacing the avenue at the time, and caught sight of us against the sky. * It 's your rascal and mine. Laird,' we heard the minister say, and they waited till we got down, and then each did his duty by his own for trying to break his neck ; but they were secretly proud of the exploit, for I caught my father showing old Lord Kilspindie the spot, and next time Hay was up he tried to reach the place, and stuck where the wall hangs over. I '11 point out the hole this evening ; you can see it from the other side of the den quite plain. * Sandie went to the church — I wish every par- son were as straight — and Kilspindie appointed him to succeed the old gentleman ; and when I saw him in his study last month, it seemed as if his father stood before me, except the breeches and the frill ; but Sandie has a marvellous stock. — What havers I 'm deivin' you with, lassie ! ' 'Tell me about Sandie this minute — did he remember the raiding of the jackdaws ? ' ' He did,' cried the General in great spirits ; ' he just looked at me for an instant — no one knew of my visit — and then he gripped my hands, and do you know, Kit, he was . . . well, and there was 28 KATE CARNEGIE a lump in my throat too; it would be about thirty years, for one reason and another, since we met.' 'What did he say? the very words, dad,' and Kate held up her finger in command. * " Jack, old man, is this really you ? "—he held me at arm's-length—" man, div ye mind the jack- daw's nest ? " ' ' Did he ? And he 's to be our padre. I know I '11 love him at once. Go on, everything, for you 've never told me anything about Drumtochty.' * We had a glorious time going over old times. We fished every trout again, and we shot our first day on the moor again with Peter Stewart, Kilspindie's head keeper, as fine an old highlander as ever lived. Stewart said in the evening, " You 're a pair of prave boys, as becometh your fathers' sons," and Sandie gave him two and fourpence he had scraped for a tip, but I had only one and elevenpence — we were both kept bare. But he knew better than to refuse our offerings, though he never saw less than gold or notes from the men that shot at the lodge, and Sandie remem- bered how he touched his highland bonnet and said, " I will be much obliged to you both ; and you will be coming to the moor another day, for I hef his lordship's orders." * Boys are queer animals, lassie ; we were prouder that Peter accepted our poor little tip than about PEACE 99 the muirfowl we shot, though I had three brace and Sandie four. Highlanders are all gentlemen by birth, and be sure of this. Kit, it 's only that breed which can manage boys and soldiers. But where am I now ? ' ' With Sandie — I beg his reverence's pardon — with the Rev. the padre of Drumtochty,' and Kate went over and sat down beside the General to anticipate any rebellion, for it was a joy to see the warrior turning into a boy before her eyes. ' Well ? ' *We had a royal dinner, as it seemed to me. Sandie has a couple of servants, man and wife, who rule him with a rod of iron, but I would for- give that for the cooking and the loyalty. After dinner he disappeared with a look of mystery, and came back with a cobwebbed bottle of the old shape, short and bunchy, which he carried as if it were a baby. * " Just two bottles of my father's port left ; we '11 have one to-day to welcome you back, and we '11 keep the other to celebrate your daughter's marriage." He had one sister, younger by ten years, and her death in girlhood nearly broke his heart. It struck me from something he said that his love is with her; at any rate, he has never married. Sandie has just one fault — he would not touch a cheroot; but he snuffs handsomely out of his father's box. 30 KATE CARNEGIE 'Of course, I can't say anything about his preaching, but it 's bound to be sensible stuff.' ' Bother the sermons ! he 's an old dear himself, and I know we shall be great friends. We '11 flirt together, and you will not have one word to say, so make up your mind to submit.' *We shall have good days in the old place, lassie ; but you know we are poor, and must live quietly. What I have planned is a couple of handy women or so in the house with Donald. Janet is going to live at the gate where she was brought up, but she will look after you well, and we '11 always have a bed and a glass of wine for a friend. Then you can have a run up to London and get your things. Kit,' and the General looked wistfully at his daughter, as one who would have given her a kingdom. * Do you think your girl cares so much about luxuries and dresses? Of course I like to look well — every woman does ; and if she pretends otherwise, she 's a hypocrite ; but money just seems to make some women hideous. It is enough for me to have you all to myself up in your old home, and to see you enjoying the rest you have earned. We '11 be as happy as two lovers, dad,' and Kate threw an arm round her father's neck and kissed him. * We have to change here,' as the train began to slow ; * prepare to see the most remarkable rail- PEACE 31 way in the empire, and a guard to correspond,' And then it came upon them, the first sight that made a Drumtochty man's heart warm, and assured him that he was nearing home. An engine on a reduced scale, that had once served in the local goods department of a big station, and then, having grown old and asthmatic, was transferred on half-pay, as it were, to the Kildrummie branch, where it puffed between the junction and the terminus half a dozen times a day, with two carriages and an occasional coal- truck. Times there were when wood was exported from Kildrummie, and then the train was taken down in detachments, and it was a pleasant legend that, one market-day, when Drumtochty was down in force, the engine stuck, and Drumsheugh invited the Glen to get out and push. The two carriages were quite distinguished in construction, and had seen better days. One consisted of a single first-class compartment in the centre, with a bulge of an imposing appearance, supported on either side by two seconds. As no native ever travelled second, one compartment had been employed as a reserve to the luggage van, so that Drumtochty might have a convenient place of deposit for calves, but the other was jealously reserved by Peter Bruce for strangers with second- class tickets, that his branch might not be put to confusion. The other carriage was three-fourths 3» KATE CARNEGIE third class and one-fourth luggage, and did the real work ; on its steps Peter stood and dispensed wisdom, between the junction and Kildrummie. But neither the carriages nor the engine could have made history without the guard, beside whom the guards of the main line — even of the expresses that ran to London — were as nothing — fribbles and weaklings. For the guard of the Kildrummie branch was absolute ruler, lording it over man and beast without appeal, and treating the Kildrummie stationmaster as a federated power. Peter was a short man of great breadth, like unto the cutting of an oak-tree, with a penetrating grey eye, an immovable countenance, and bushy whiskers. It was understood that when the line was opened, and the directors were about to fill up the post of guard from a number of candidates qualified by long experience on various lines, Peter, who had been simply wasting his time driving a carrier's cart, came in, and sitting down opposite the board — two lairds and a farmer — looked straight before him, without making any application. It was felt by all in an instant that only one course was open, in the eternal fitness of things. Experience was well enough, but special creation was better, and Peter was immediately appointed, his name being asked by the chairman afterwards as a formality. From the beginning he took up a masterful position, receiving his ' PEACE 33 human cargo at the junction and discharging it at the station with a power that even Drumtochty did not resist, and a knowledge of individuals that was almost comprehensive. It is true that, boasting one Friday evening concerning the * crooded ' state of the train, he admitted with reluctance that ' There 's a stranger in the second I canna mak oot,' but it is understood that he solved the problem before the man got his luggage at Kildrummie. Perhaps Peter's most famous achievement was his demolition of a south-country bagman, who had made himself unpleasant, and the story was much tasted by our guard's admirers. This self- important and vivacious gentleman, seated in the first, was watching Peter's leisurely movements on the Kildrummie platform with much impatience, and lost all self-control on Peter going outside to examine the road for any distant passenger. ' Look here, guard, this train ought to have left five minutes ago, and I give you notice that if we miss our connection I '11 hold your company responsible.' At the sound of this foreign voice with its indecent clamour, Peter returned and took up his position opposite the speaker, while the staff and the whole body of passengers — four Kildrummie and three Drumtochty, quite sufficient for the situation — waited the issue. Not one word did C •VMr, 34 KATE CARNEGIE Peter deign to reply, but he fixed the irate traveller with a gaze so searching, so awful, so irresistible, that the poor man fell back into his seat and pretended to look out at the opposite window. After a pause of thirty seconds, Peter turned to the engine-driver — * They 're a' here noo, an' there 's nae use waitin' langer ; ca' awa, but ye needna distress the engine.' It was noticed that the foolhardy traveller kept the full length of the junction between himself and Peter till the Dunleith train came in, while his very back was eloquent of humiliation, and Hillocks offered his snuff-box ostentatiously to Peter, which that worthy accepted as a public tribute of admiration. ' Look, Kate, there he is ' ; and there Peter was, standing in his favourite attitude, his legs wide apart and his thumbs in his armholes, superior, abstracted, motionless, till the train stopped, when he came forward. ' Prood tae see ye, General, coming back at laist, an' the Miss wi' ye ; it '11 no' be the blame o' the fouk up by gin ye bena happy. Drum- tochty lies an idea o' itsel, and peety the man 'at tries tae drive them, but they 're couthy. * This wy, an' a '11 see tae yir luggage,' and before Peter made for the Dunleith van it is said that he took off his cap to Kate ; but if so, this PEACE 35 was the only time he had ever shown such gallantry to a lady. Certainly he must have been flustered by some- thing, for he did not notice that Carmichael, over- come by shyness at the sight of the Carnegies in the first, had hid himself in the second, till he closed the doors ; then the Carnegies heard it all. ' It 's I, Peter,' very quietly ; ' your first has passengers to-day, and ... I '11 just sit here.' ' Come oot o' that,' after a moment, during which Peter had simply looked; then the hat and the tweeds came stumbling into the first, making some sort of a bow and muttering an apology. ' A '11 tak yir ticket, Maister Carmichael,' with severity. ' General,' suddenly relaxing, ' this is the Free Kirk minister of yir pairish, an' a'm jidgin' he'll no try the second again.' Carmichael lifted his head and caught Kate's eye, and at the meeting of humour they laughed aloud. Whereupon the General said, ' My daughter. Miss Carnegie,' and they became so friendly before they reached Kildrummie that Carmichael forgot his disgraceful appearance, and when the General offered him a lift up, simply clutched at the opportunity. The trap was a four-wheeled dog-cart. Kate drove, with her father by her side and Carmichael behind, but he found it necessary to turn round to give information of names and places, and he so 36 KATE CARNEGIE managed that he could catch Kate's profile half the time. When he got down at the foot of the hill by Hillocks's farm, to go up the near road, instead thereof he scrambled along the ridge, and looked through the trees as the carriage passed below. But he did not escape. ' What 's he glowerin' at doon there ? ' Hillocks inquired of Jamie Soutar, to whom he was giving some directions about a dyke, and Hillocks made a reconnaisance. ' A '11 warrant that 's the General and his dochter. She 's a weel-faured lassie, an' speerity-lookin'.' * It cowes a',' said Jamie to himself ; * the first day he ever saw her ; but it 's aye the way, aince an' ever, or . . . never.' ' What 's the Free Kirk, dad ? ' when Carmichael had gone. ' Is it the same as the Methodists?' ' No, no, quite different. I 'm not up in those things, but I 've heard it was a lot of fellows who would not obey the laws, and so they left and made a kirk for themselves, where they do what- ever they like. By the way, that was the young fellow we saw giving the dogs water at Muirtown. I rather like him ; but why did he look such a fool, and try to escape us at the junction ? ' ' How should I know ? I suppose because he is a . . . foolish boy. And now, dad, for the Lodge and Tochty woods.' A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS It was the custom of the former time to construct roads on a straight line, with a preference for up-hill and down, and engineers refused to make a circuit of twenty yards to secure level ground. There were two advantages in this uncompro- mising principle of construction, and it may be doubtful which commended itself most to the mind of our fathers. Roads were drained after the simplest fashion, because a standing pool in the hollow had more than a compensation in the dryness of the ascent and descent, while the necessity of sliddering down one side and scrambling up the other reduced driving to the safe average of four miles an hour — horse-doctors forming a class by themselves, and being pre- served in their headlong career by the particular Providence which has a genial regard for persons who have too little sense or have taken too much liquor. Degenerate descendants, anxious to ob- tain the maximum of speed with the minimum of exertion, have shown a quite wonderful in- genuity in circumventing hills, so the road be- 38 KATE CARNEGIE tween Drumtochty Manse and Tochty Lodge gate was duplicated, and the track that plunged into the hollow was now forsaken of wheeled traffic and overgrown with grass. ' This way, Kate ; it 's the old road, and the way I came to kirk with my mother. Yes, it's narrow, but we '11 get through, and down below it is worth the seeing.' So they forced a passage where the overgrown hedges resisted the wheels, and the trees, wet with a morning shower, dashed Kate's jacket with a pleasant spray, and the rail of the dog-cart was festooned with tendrils of honeysuckle and wild geranium. 'There is the parish kirk of Drumtochty,' as they came out and halted on the crest of the hill, 'and though it be not much to look at after the Norman churches of the south, it's a brave old kirk in our fashion, and well set in the Glen.' For it stood on a knoll, whence the ground sloped down to the Tochty, and it lay with God's acre round it in the shining of the sun. Half a dozen old beeches made a shadow in the summer-time, and beat off the winter's storms. One standing at the west corner of the kirkyard had a fuller and sweeter view of the Glen than could be got anywhere save from the beeches at the Lodge ; but then nothing like unto that can A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 39 be seen far or near, and I have marvelled why painting men have never had it on their canvas. ' Our vault is at the east end, where the altar was in the old days, and there our dead of many generations lie. A Carnegie always prayed to be buried with his people in Drumtochty, but as it happened, two out of three of our house have fallen on the field, and so most of us have not had our wish. ' Black John, my great-grandfather, was out in '45, and escaped to France. He married a High- land lassie orphaned there, and entered the French service, as many a Scot did before him since the days of the Scots Guards. But when he felt himself a-dying, he asked leave of the English government to come home, and he would not die till he laid himself down in his room in the tower. Then he gave directions for his funeral, how none were to be asked of the county folk but Drummonds and Hays and Stewarts from Blair Athole, and such like that had been out with the Prince. And he made his wife promise that she would have him dressed for his coffin as he fought on Culloden field, for he had kept the clothes. 'Then he asked that the window should be opened that he might hear the lilting of the burn below; and he called for my grandfather, who was only a young lad, and commanded 40 KATE CARNEGIE him to enter one of the Scottish regiments and be a loyal king's man, since all was over with the Stewarts. ' He said a prayer and kissed his wife's hand, being a courtly gentleman, and died listening to the sound of the water running over the stones in the den below.' ' It was as good as dying on the field,' said Kate, her face flushing with pride ; ' that is an ancestor worth remembering. And did he get a worthy funeral ? ' ' More than he asked for ; his old comrades gathered from far and near, and some of the chiefs that were out of hiding came down, and they brought him up this very road, with the pipers playing before the coffin. Fifty gentlemen buried John Carnegie, and every man of them had been out with the Prince. ' When they gathered in the stone hall you '11 see soon, his friend-in-arms, Patrick Murray, gave three toasts. The first was " The King," and every man bared his head ; the second was " To him that is gone " ; the third was " To the friends that are far awa " ; and then one of the chiefs proposed another, " To the men of Culloden " ; and after that every gentleman dashed his glass on the floor. Though he was only a little lad at the time, my grandfather never forgot the sight. ' He also told me that his mother never shed a A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 41 tear, but looked prouder than he ever saw her, and before they left the hall she bade each gentle- man good-bye, and to the chief she spoke in Gaelic, being of Cluny's blood and a gallant lady. ' Another thing she did also which the lad could not forget, for she brought down her husband's sword from the room in the turret, and Patrick Murray, of the House of Athole, fastened it above the big fireplace, where it hangs unto this day, crossed now with my father's, as you will see, Kate, unless we stand here all day going over old stories.' ' They 're glorious stories, dad ; why didn't you tell them to me before? I want to get into the spirit of the past, and feel the Carnegie blood swing- ing in my veins before we come to the Lodge. What did they do afterwards, or was that all ? ' ' They mounted their horses in the courtyard, and as each man passed out of the gate he took off his hat and bowed low to the widow, who stood in a window I will show you, and watched till the last disappeared into the avenue ; but my grandfather ran out and saw them ride down the road in order of threes, a goodly company of gentlemen. But this sight is better than horse- men and swords.' They were now in the hollow between the kirk and the Lodge, a cup of greenery surrounded by wood. Behind, they still saw the belfry through 42 KATE CARNEGIE the beeches ; before, away to the right, the grey stone of a turret showed among the trees. The burn that sang to Black John ran beneath them with a pleasant sound, and fifty yards of turf climbed up to the cottage where the old road joined the new and the avenue of the Lodge began. Over this ascent the branches met, through which the sunshine glimmered and flickered, and down the centre came a white and brown cow in charge of an old woman, * It 's Bell Robb, that lives in the cottage there among the bushes. I was at the parish school with her, Kate; she's just my age — for we were all John Tamson's bairns in those days, and got our learning and our licks together, laird's son and cottar's daughter. ' People would count it a queer mixture now- adays, but there were some advantages in the former parish - school idea ; there were lots of cleverer subalterns in the old regiment, but none knew his men so well as I did, I had played and fought with their kind. Would you mind saying a word to Bell . , . just her name or something?' for this was a new life to the pride of the regi- ment, as they called Kate, and Carnegie was not sure how she might take it. Kate was a lovable lass, but, like every complete woman, she had a temper and a stock of prejudices. She was good comrade with all true men, although her heart A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 43 was whole, and with a few women that did not mince their words or carry two faces ; but Kate had claws inside the velvet, and once she so handled with her tongue a young fellow who offended her that he sent in his papers. What she said was not much, but it was memorable, and every word drew blood. Her father was never quite certain what she would do, although he was always sure of her love. * Do you suppose, dad, that I 'm to take up with all your friends of the jackdaw days ? You seem to have kept fine company.' Kate was already out of the dog-cart, and now took Bell by the hand. ' I am the General's daughter, and he was tell- ing me that you and he were playmates long ago. You '11 let me come to see you, and you '11 tell me all his exploits when he was John Carnegie ? ' ' To think he minded me, an' him sae lang awa at the weary wars.' Bell was between the laugh- ing and the crying. ' We 're lifted to ken oor laird 's a General, and that he 's gotten sic honour. There's nae bluid like the auld bluid, an' the Carnegies cud aye afford to be hamely. ' Ye 're like him,' and Bell examined Kate care- fully ; ' but a' can tell yir mither's dochter, a weel-faured, mettlesome lady as wes ever seen. Wae's me, wae's me for the wars,' at the sight of Carnegie's face ; ' but ye '11 come in to see 44 KATE CARNEGIE Marjorle. A '11 mak her ready,' and Bell hurried into the cottage. * Marjorie has been blind from her birth. She was the pet of the school, and now Bell takes care of her. Davidson was telling me that she wanted to support Marjorie off the wages she earns as a field hand on the farms, and the parish had to force half a crown a week on them ; but hear this.' ' Never mind hoo ye look.' Bell was speaking. ' A' canna keep them waitin' till ye be snoddit' * Gie me ma kep, at ony rate, that the minister brocht frae Muirtown, and Drumsheugh's shawl ; it wudna be respectfu' to oor laird, an' it his first veesit ' ; and there was a note of refinement in the voice, as of one living apart. ' Yes, I 'm here, Marjorie,' and the General stooped over the low bed where the old woman was lying, 'and this is my daughter, the only child left me ; you would hear that all my boys were killed.' ' We did that, and we were a' wae for ye ; a' thocht o' ye, and a' saw ye in yir sorrow, for them 'at canna see ootside see the better inside. But it'll be some comfort to be in the hame o' yir people aince mair, and to ken ye 've dune yir wark weel. It's pleasant for us to think the licht'll be burnin' in the windows o' the Lodge again, and that ye 're come back aifter the wars. A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 45 ' Miss Kate, wull ye lat me pass ma hand ower yir face, an' then a '11 ken what like ye are better nor some 'at hes the joy o' seein' ye wi' their een. . . . The Glen '11 be the happier for the sicht o' ye ; a' thank ye for yir kindness to a puir woman.' ' If you begin to pay compliments, Marjorje, I '11 tell you what I think of that cap ; for the pink is just the very shade for your complexion, and it 's a perfect shape.' 'Ma young minister, Maister Carmichael, seleckit it in Muirtown, an' a' heard that he went ower sax shops to find one to his fancy ; he never forgets me, an' he wrote me a letter on his holiday. A'body likes him for his bonnie face an* honest ways.' ' Oh, I know him already, Marjorie, for he drove up with us, and I thought him very nice ; but we must go, for you know I 've not yet seen our home, and I 'm just tingling with curiosity.' ' You '11 not leave without breakin' bread ; it 's little we hae, but we can offer ye oatcake an' milk in token o' oor loyalty.' And then Bell brought the elements of Scottish food ; and when Marjorie's lips moved in prayer as they ate, it seemed to Carnegie and his daughter like a sacrament. So the two went from the fellowship of the poor to their ancient house. 46 KATE CARNEGIE They drove along the avenue between the stately beeches that stood on either side and reached out their branches, almost but not quite unto meeting, so that the sun, now in the south, made a train of h"ght down which the General and Kate came home. At the end of the beeches the road wheeled to the right, and Kate saw for the first time the dwelling-place of her people. Tochty Lodge was of the fourth period of Scottish castellated architecture, and till it fell into dis- repair was a very perfect example of the sixteenth century mansion-house, where strength of defence could not yet be dispensed with, for the Carnegies were too near the highland border to do without thick walls or to risk habitation on the ground floor. The buildings had first been erected on the L plan, and then had been made into a quadrangle, so that on the left was the main part, with a tower at the south-west corner over the den, and a wing at the south-east coming out to meet the gate. On the north-east and north were a tower and rooms now in ruins, and along the west ran a wall some six feet high with a stone walk three feet from the top, whence you could look down on the burn. A big gateway, whose doors were of oak studded with nails, with a grated lattice for observation, gave entrance to the courtyard. In the centre of the yard there was an ancient oak and a A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 47 draw-well whose water never failed. The eastern face was bare of ivy, except at the north corner, where stood the jackdaws' tower ; but the rough grey stone was relieved by the tendrils and red blossoms of the hardy tropaeolum, which despises the rich soil of the south and the softer air, and grows luxuriantly on our homely northern houses. As they came to the gateway, the General bade Kate pull up and read the scroll above, which ran, in clear-cut letters — TRY AND THEN TRVST ■ BETTER GVDE ASSVRANCE BOT TRUST NOT OR YE TRY • FOR FEAR OF REPENTANCE. * We 've been a slow, dour race. Kit, who never gave our heart lightly, but having given it, never played the traitor. Fortune has not favoured us, for acre after acre has gone from our hands, but, thank God, we 've never had dishonour.' ' And never will, dad, for we are the last of the race.' Janet Macpherson was waiting in the deep doorway of the tower, and gave Kate welcome as one whose ancestors had for four generations served the Carnegies, since the day Black John had married a Macpherson. 48 KATE CARNEGIE ' Call of my heart ! ' she cried, and took Kate in her arms, ' It is your foster-mother that will be glad to see you in the home of your people, and will be praying that God will give you peace and good days.' Then they went up the winding stone stair, with deep, narrow windows, and came into the dining- hall where the fifty Jacobites toasted the king, and many a gathering had taken place in the olden time. It was thirty-five feet long by fifteen broad, and twenty-two feet high. The floor was of flags over arches below, and the bare stonewalls showed at the windows and above the black oak panelling which reached ten feet from the ground. The fireplace was six feet high, and so wide that two could sit on either side within. Upon the mantelpiece the Carnegie arms stood out in bold relief under the two crossed swords. One or two portraits of dead Carnegies, and some curious weapons, broke the monotony of the walls, and from the roof hung a finely-wrought iron candelabra. The western portion of the hall was separated by a screen of open woodwork, and made a pleasant dining-room. A door in the corner led into the tower, which had a library, with Carnegie's bedroom above, and higher still, Kate's room, each with a tiny dressing-closet. For the Carnegies always lived together in this tower, and their guests at the other end of the hall. The library had two windows. From one you could A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 49 look down and see nothing but the foliage of the den, with a gleam of water where the burn made a pool, and from the other you looked over a meadow, with big trees, to the Tochty sweeping round a bend, and across to the high opposite banks, covered with brushwood. First they visited Carnegie's room. ' Here have we been born, and died if we did not fall in battle, and it 's not a bad billet after all for an old soldier. Yes, that is your mother, when we were married ; but I like this one better,' and the General touched his breast, for he carried his love next his heart, in a silver locket, of Indian workmanship. Three fine deerskins lay on the floor, and one side of the room was hung with tapestry; but the most striking piece of furnishing in the room was an oak cupboard, sunk a foot into the wall. ' I '11 show you something in that cabinet after luncheon, Kate; but now let's see your room.' ' How beautiful ! and how cunning you have been ! ' and then she took an inventory of the furniture, all new, but all in keeping with the age of the room. 'You have spent far too much on a very self-willed and bad-tempered girl.' ' Well, Donald,' said the General, at table, to his D 50 KATE CARNEGIE faithful servant, ' how do you think Drumtochty will suit you ? ' * Any place where you and Miss Kate will be living iss a good place for me, and there are six or maybe four men I hef been meeting that hef the language, but not good Gaelic — just poor Perthshire talk,' for Donald was a West High- lander, and prided himself on his better speech. 'And what about a kirk, Donald? Aren't you Free, like Janet?' 'Oh yes, I am Free; but it iss not to that kirk I will be going most here, and I am telling Janet that she will be caring more about a man that hass a pleasant way with him than about the truth.' ' What's wrong with things, Donald, since we lay in Edinburgh twenty years ago, and you used to give me bits of the Free Kirk sermons ?' ' It iss all wrong that they hef been going these last years ; for they stand to sing, and they sit to pray, and they will be using human himes. And it iss great pieces of the Bible they hef cut out, and I am told that they are not done yet, but are going from bad to worse,' and Donald invited questioning. ' What more are they after, man ? ' ' It will be myself that has found it out, and it iss only what might be expected, but I am not saying that you will be believing me,' I A HOME OF MANY GENERATIONS 51 ' Out with it, Donald ; let 's hear what kind of people we 've come amongst.' 'They've been just fairly left to themselves, and the godless bodies hef taken to watering the whisky.' A SECRET CHAMBER ' The cabinet now, dad, and at once,' when they went up the stairs and were standing in the room. 'Just give me three guesses about the mystery; but first let me examine.' It was pretty to see Kate opening the doors, curiously carved with hunting scenes, and search- ing the interior, tapping with her knuckles and listening for a hollow sound. ' Is it a treasure we are to find ? Then that 's one point. Not in the cabinet ? I have it ; there is a door into some other place ; am I not right ? ' ' Where could it be ? We 're in a tower cut off fi'om the body of the Lodge, with a room above and a room below ' ; and the General sat down to allow full investigation. After many journeys up and down the stair, and many questions that brought no light, Kate played a woman's trick up in her room. ' The General wishes to show me the concealed room in this tower, Janet, or whatever you call it. Would you kindly tell us how to get entrance? You needn't come down ; just explain to me ' ; and Kate was very pleasant indeed. 62 A SECRET CHAMBER 53 ' Yes, I am hearing there iss a room in the tower, Miss Kate, that strangers will not be able to find ; and it would be very curious if the Carnegies did not have a safe place for an honest gentleman when he wass in a little trouble. All the good houses will have their secret places, and it will not be easy to find some of them. Oh no ; now I will remember one at Glamis Castle ' ' Never mind Glamis, nurse, for the General is waiting. Where is the spring; is it in the oak cabinet ? ' ' It will be good for the General to be resting himself after his luncheon, and he will be thinking- many things in his room. Oh yes,' continued Janet, settling herself down to narrative, and giving no heed to Kate's beguiling ways, 'old Mary that died near a hundred would be often telling me stories of the old days when I wass a little girl, and the one I liked best wass about the hiding of the Duke of Perth.' ' You will tell me that to-morrow, when I come down to see your house, Janet, and to-day you '11 tell me how to open the spring.' ' But it would be a pity not to finish the story about the Duke of Perth, for it goes well, and it will be good for a Carnegie to hear it.' And Kate flung herself into the window-seat, but was hugely interested all the same. * Mary wass sitting at her door in the evening, 54 KATE CARNEGIE and that would be three days after Culloden, for the news had been sent by a sure hand from the laird, when a man came riding along the road, and as soon as Mary saw him she knew he wass somebody ; but perhaps it will be too long a story,' and Janet began to arrange dresses in a wardrobe. ' No, no ; as you have begun it, I want to hear the end ; but quick, for there 's the room to see and the rest of the Lodge before it grows dark. What like was he ? ' ' He wass a man that looked as if he would be commanding, but his clothes were common grey, and stained with the road. He wass very tired, and could hardly hold himself up in the saddle, and his horse wass covered with foam. " Is this Tochty Lodge ? " he asked, softening his voice as one trying to speak humbly. " I am passing this way, and have a message for Mistress Carnegie ; think you that I can have speech of her quietly ? " ' So Mary will go up and tell the lady that one wass waiting to see her, and that he seemed a noble gentleman. When they came down to the courtyard he had drawn water for his horse from the well, and wass giving him to drink, thinking more of the beast that had borne him than of his own need, as became a man of birth. * At the sight of the lady he took off his bonnet A SECRET CHAMBER 55 and bowed low, and asked if he might hef a private audience ; to which Mistress Carnegie replied, " We are private here," and asked, " Have you been with my son ? " ' " We fought together for the Prince three days since — my name is Perth. I am escaping for my life, and desire a brief rest, if it please you, and bring no danger to your house." '"Ye had been welcome, my lord duke," and Mary used to show how her mistress straightened herself, " though you were the poorest soldier that had drawn his sword for the good cause, and ye will stay here till it be safe for you to escape to France." ' He wass four weeks hidden in the room, and although the soldiers searched all the house, they could never find the place, and Mrs. Carnegie put scorn upon them, asking why they did her so much honour and whom they sought. Oh yes, it wass a cunning place for the bad times, and you will be pleased to see it.' ' And the secret, Janet,' cried Kate, her hand upon the door ; ' you know it quite well.' ' So does the General, Catherine of my heart,' said Janet, 'and he will be liking to show it himself.' So Kate departed in a rage, and gave orders that there be no more delay, for she would not spend an afternoon seeking for rat-holes. 56 KATE CARNEGIE ' No rat-hole, Kit, but a very fair chamber for a hunted man ; it is twenty years and more since this door opened last, for none knows the trick of it save Janet and myself. There it goes.' A panel in the back of the cabinet slid aside behind its neighbour, and left a passage through which one could squeeze himself with an effort. * We go up a stair now, and must have light ; a candle will do ; the air is perfectly pure, for there 's plenty of ventilation.' And then they crept up by steps in the thickness of the walls, till they stood in a chamber under six feet high, but otherwise as large as the bedroom below. The walls were lined with wood, and there were two tiny slits that gave air, but hardly any light. The only furniture in the room was an oaken chest, clasped with iron and curiously locked. ' Our plate chest, Kit ; but there 's not much silver and gold in it, worse luck for you, lassie ; in fact, we're a pack of fools to set store by it. There 's nothing in the kist but some old clothes, and perhaps some buckles and such like. I dare- say there is a lock of hair also. Some day we will have a look inside.' ' To-day ! instantly ! ' and Kate shook her father. ' You are a dreadful hypocrite, for I can see that you would rather Tochty were burned down than this box be lost. Are there any relics of Prince Charlie in it? Quick!' A SECRET CHAMBER 57 * Be patient ; it 's a difficult key to turn ; there now ; ' but there was not much to see — only pieces of woollen cloth tightly folded down. ' Call Janet, Kate, for she ought to see this opening, and we '11 carry everything down to my room, for no one could tell what like things are in this gloom. Yes, Perth lived here for weeks, and used to go up to the gallery where Black John's mother sat with her maid ; but the son was hiding in the North, and never reached his house till he came to die.' First of all they came upon a ball dress of the former time, of white silk, with a sash of Mac- pherson tartan, besides much fine lace. ' That is the dress your great-grandmother wore as a bride at the Court of Versailles in the fifties. She was only a lassie, and seemed like her hus- band's daughter. The Prince danced with her, and they counted the dress something to be kept, and that night Locheil and Cluny also had a reel with Sheena Carnegie, while Black John looked like a young man, for he had been too sorely wounded to be able to dance with her himself.' And then the General carried down with his own hands a Highland gentleman's evening dress, trews of the Royal tartan, and a velvet coat with silver buttons, and a light plaid of fine cloth. ' And this was her husband's dress that night ; but why the Stewart tartan ? ' 58 KATE CARNEGIE ' No, lassie, that is the suit the Prince wore at Holyrood, where he gave a great ball after Pres- tonpans, and danced with the Edinburgh ladies. It was smuggled across to France at last with other things of the Prince's, and he gave it to Carnegie. "It will remind you of our great days," he said, " when the Stewarts saw their friends in Mary's Palace." Last of all, the General lifted out a casket and laid it on his table. Within it was a brooch, such as might once have been worn either by a man or a woman ; diamonds set in gold, and in the midst a lock of fair hair. ' Is it really, father ? ' And Kate took the jewel in her hand. ' Yes, the Prince's hair — his wedding present to Sheena Macpherson.' Kate kissed it fervently, and passed it to Janet, who placed it carefully in the box, while the General made believe to laugh. 'Your mother wore the brooch on great occa- sions, and you will do the same, Kit, for auld lang syne. There are two or three families left in Perthshire that will like to see it on your breast.' ' Yes, and there will maybe be more than two or three that will like to see the lady that wears it.' This from Janet. 'Your compliments are a little late, and you A SECRET CHAMBER 59 may keep them to yourself, Janet ; it would have been kinder to tell me ' ' Tell you what ? ' And the General looked very provoking. * I hate to be beaten.' Kate first looked angry, and . then laughed. ' What else is there to see?' ' There is the gallery, which is the one feature in our poor house, and we will try to reach it from the Duke's hiding-place, for it was a cleverly designed hole, and had its stair up as well as down.' And then they all came out into one of the strangest rooms you could find in Scotland, and one that left a pleasant picture in their minds who had seen it lit of a winter night, and the wood burning on the hearth, and Kate dancing a reel with Lord Hay or some other brisk young man, while the General looked on from one of the deep window recesses. The gallery extended over the hall and Kate's drawing-room, and measured fifty feet long from end to end. The upper part of the walls was divided into compartments by an arcading, made of painted pilasters and flat arches. Each com- partment had a motto, and this was on one side of the fireplace — A • nice • wyfe • and A • back • doore Oft • maketh • a • rich Man • poore. 6o KATE CARNEGIE And on the other — Give • liberalye To • neidfvl • folke • Denye • nane • of • Them • al • for • litle Thow • knawest • heir In • this • lyfe of what Chaunce • may • the Befall. The glory of the gallery, however, was its ceiling, which was of seventeenth-century work, and so wonderful that many learned persons used to come and study it. After the great disaster when the Lodge was sold and allowed to fall to pieces, this fine work went first, and now no one examining its remains could have imagined how wonderful it was, and in its own way how beautiful. This ceiling was of wood, painted, and semi-elliptical in form, and one wet day, when we knew not what else to do, Kate and I counted more than three hundred panels. It was an arduous labour for the neck, and the General refused to help us ; but I am sure that we did not make too many, for we worked time about, while the General took note of the figures, and our plan was that each finished his tale ol work at some amazing beast, so that we could make no mistake. Some of the panels were circles, and they were filled in with coats of arms ; some were squares, and they contained a bestiary A SECRET CHAMBER 6i of that day. It was hard indeed to decide whether the circles or the squares were more interesting. The former had the arms of every family in Scotland that had the remotest con- nection with the Carnegies, and besides swept in a wider field, comprising David King of Israel, who was placed near Hector of Troy, and Arthur of Brittany not far from Moses — all of whom had appropriate crests and mottoes. In the centre were the arms of our Lord Christ as Emperor of Judea, and the chief part of them was the Cross. But it came upon one with a curious shock to see this coat among the shields of Scottish nobles. There were beasts that could be recognised at once, and these were sparingly named ; but others were astounding, and above them were inscribed titles such as these : Shoe-lyon, Musket, Ostray ; and one fearsome animal in the centre was designated the Ram of Arabia. This display of heraldry and natural history was reinforced by the cardinal virtues in seventeenth-century dress : Charitas as an elderly female of extremely for- bidding aspect, receiving two very imperfectly clad children ; and Temperantia as a furious- looking person — male on the whole rather than female— pouring some liquor — surely water — from a jug into a cup, with averted face, and leaving little to be desired. The afternoon sun shining in through a western window and lingering among 62 KATE CARNEGIE the black and white tracery, so that the marking of a shield came into relief or a beast suddenly- glared down on one, had a weird, old-world effect. 'It's half an armoury and half a managerie,' said Kate, 'and I think we'll have tea in the library with the windows open to the Glen.' And so they sat together in quietness, with books of heraldry and sport and ancient Scottish classics and such like round them, while Janet went out and in. 'So Donald has been obliged to leave his kirk,' for Kate had not yet forgiven Janet. ' He says it 's very bad here ; I hope you won't go to such a place.' 'What would Donald Macdonald be saying against it ? ' inquired Janet severely. 'Oh, I don't remember — lots of things. He thought you were making too much of the minister.' ' The minister iss a good man, and hass some Highland blood in him, though he hass lost his Gaelic, and he will be very pleasant in the house. If I wass seeing a sheep, and it will be putting on this side and that, and quarrelling with every- body, do you know what I will be thinking ? ' * That 's Donald, I suppose ; well ? ' ' I will say to myself, that sheep iss a goat.' And Janet left the room with the laurels of victory. CONCERNING BESOMS It is one of the miseries of modern life, for which telephones are less than compensation, that ninety out of a hundred city folk have never known the comfort and satisfaction of dwelling in a house. When the sashes are flying away from the windows and the skirting boards from the floor, and the planks below your feet are a finger-breadth apart, and the pipes are death-traps, it does not matter that the walls are covered by art papers and plastered over with china dishes. This erection, wherein human beings have to live and work and fight their sins and prepare for eternity, is a fraud and a He. No man compelled to exist in such an environment of unreality can respect himself or other people ; and if it come to pass that he holds cheap views of life, and reads smart papers, and does sharp things in business, and that his talk be only a clever jingle, then a plea in extenua- tion will be lodged for him at the Great Assize. Small wonder that he comes to regard the world of men as an empty show and is full of cynicism, who has shifted at brief intervals from one shanty 63 64 KATE CARNEGIE to another, and never had a fit dwelling-place all his years. When a prophet cometh from the Eternal to speak unto modern times, as Dante did unto the Middle Ages, and constructs the other world before our eyes, he will have one circle in his hell for the builders of rotten houses, and doubtless it will be a collection of their own works, so that their sin will be its punishment, as is most fitting and the way of things. Surely there will also be some corner of heaven kept for the man who, having received a charge to build the shell wherein two people were to make a home, laid its foundations deep and raised strong walls that nothing but gunpowder could rend in pieces, and roofed it over with oaken timber and lined it with the same, so that many generations might live therein in peace and honour. Such a house was the Lodge in those days, although at last beginning to show signs of decay, and it somehow stirred up the heroic spirit of the former time within a man to sit before the big fire in the hall, with grim Carnegies looking down from the walls and daring you to do any mean- ness, while the light blazing out from a log was flung back from a sword that had been drawn in the '15. One was unconsciously reinforced in the secret place of his manhood, and inwardly con- vinced that what concerneth every man is not whether he fail or succeed, but that he do his CONCERNING BESOMS 65 duty, according to the light which may have been given him, until he die. It was also a regeneration of the soul to awake in a room of the eastern tower, where the Carnegies' guests slept, and fling up the window, with its small square panes, to fill one's lungs with the snell northern air, and look down on the woods glistening in every leaf, and the silver Tochty just touched by the full-risen sun. Miracles have been wrought in that tower, for it happened once that an Edinburgh advocate came to stay at the Lodge, who spake after a quite marvellous fashion, known neither in England nor Scotland ; and being himself of pure bourgeois blood, the fifth son of a factor, felt it necessary to despise his land, from its kirk downwards, and had a collection of japes at Scottish ways, which in his provincial simplicity he offered to the Carnegies. It seemed to him certain that people of Jacobite blood and many travels would have relished his clever talk, for it is not given to a national decadent to understand either the people, he has deserted or the ancient houses at whose door he stands. Carnegie was the dullest man living in the matter of sneering, and Kate took an instant dislike to the mincing little man, whom she ever afterwards called the Popinjay, and so handled him with her tongue that his superiority was mightily shaken. But there was good stuff in the advocate, besides some brains, and after a B 66 KATE CARNEGIE week's living in the Lodge, he forgot to wear his eyeglass, and let his r's out of captivity, and attempted to make love to Kate, which foolishness that masterful dam.sel brought to speedy con- fusion. It was also said that when he went back to the Parliament House every one could under- stand what he said, and that he got two briefs in one week, which shows how good it is to live in an ancient house with honest people. * Is there a ghost, dad ? ' They were sitting before the fire in the hall after dinner — Kate in her favourite posture, leaning forward and nursing her knee. The veterans and I thought that she always looked at her best so, with her fine eyes fixed on the fire, and the light bringing her face into relief against the shadow. We saw her feet then — one lifted a little from the ground — and V. C. declared they were the smallest you could find for a woman of her size. ' She knows it, too,' he used to say, ' for when a woman has big feet she always keeps them tucked in below her gown. A woman with an eight size glove and feet to correspond is usually a paragon of modesty, and strong on women's rights.' ' Kate's glove is number six, and I think it 's a size too big,' broke in the Colonel — we were all lying in the sun on a bank below the beeches at the time, and the Colonel was understood to be CONCERNING BESOMS 67 preparing a sermon for some meeting — * but it 's a strong little hand and a steady ; she used to be able to strike a shilling in the air at revolver practice.' * Ghost, lassie ? Oh, in the Lodge, a Carnegie ghost — not one I 've ever heard of ; so you may sleep in peace, and I 'm below, if you feel lonely the first night' * You are most insulting ; one would think I were a milksop. I was hoping for a ghost — a white lady by choice. Did no Carnegie murder his wife, for instance, through jealousy or quar- relling ? ' * The Carnegies have never quarrelled,' said the General with much simplicity ; * you see, the men have generally been away fighting, and the women had never time to weary of them.' * No woman ever wearies of a man unless he be a fool and gives in to her — then she grows sick of him. Life might be wholesome, but it would have no smack; it would be like meat without mustard. If a man cannot rule, he ought not to marry, for his wife will play the fool in some fashion or other like a runaway horse, and he has half the blame. Why did he take the box-seat ? ' and Kate nodded to the fire. 'What are you laughing at ? ' 'Perhaps I ought to be shocked, but the thought of any one trying to rule you. Kit, tickles 68 KATE CARNEGIE me immensely. I have had the reins since you were a bairn, and you have been a handful. You were a " smatchit " at six years old, and a " trim- mie " at twelve, and you are qualifying for the highest rank in your class.' 'What may that be, pray? It seems to me that the Scottish tongue is a perfect treasure- house for impertinent people. How Scots must congratulate themselves that they need never be at a loss when they are angry or even simply frank!' ' If it comes to downiaght swearing, you must go to Gaelic,' said the General, branching off, ' Donald used to be quite contemptuous of any slight efforts at profanity in the barrack-yard, although they sickened me. " Toots, Colonel ; ye do not need to be troubling yourself with such poor little words, for they are just nothing at all, and yet the bodies will be saying them over and over again like parrots. Now a Lochaber man could hef been saying what he wass wanting for fifteen minutes, and nefer hef used the same word twice, unless he had been forgetting his Gaelic. It 's a peautiful lan- guage, the Gaelic, when you will not be fery well pleased with a man." ' ' That is very good, dad, but I think we were speaking in Scotch, and you have not told me that nice complimentary title I am living to CONCERNING BESOMS 69 deserve. Is "cutty" the disreputable word? for I think I 've passed that rank already ; it sounds quite familiar.' ' No, it 's a far more fetching word than " cutty," or even than " randy " (scold), which you may have heard.' ' I have,' replied Kate instantly, ' more than once, and especially after I had a difference in opinion with Lieutenant Strange. You called me one or two names then, dad — in fact you were quite eloquent ; but you know that he was a bad fellow, and that the regiment was well rid of him ; but I 'm older now, and I have not heard my promotion.' * It 's the most vigorous word that Scots have for a particular kind of woman.' ' Describe her,' demanded Kate. ' One who has a mind of her own,' began the General carefully, * and a way, too ; who is not easily cowed or managed, who is not ' * A fool/ suggested Kate, * Who is not conspicuously soft in manner,' pur- sued the General with discretion, ' who might even have a temper.' ' Not a tame rabbit, in fact I understand what you are driving at, and I know what a model must feel when she is being painted. And now kindly pluck up courage and name the picture.' And Kate leant back, with her hands behind 70 KATE CARNEGIE her head, challenging the General — if he dared. 'Well?' * Besom,' And he was not at all ashamed, for a Scot never uses this word without a ring of fondness and admiration in his voice, as of one who gives the world to understand that he quite disapproves of this audacious woman, wife or daughter of his, but is proud of her all the time. It is indeed a necessity of his nature for a Scot to have husks of reproach containing kernels of compliment, so that he may let out his heart and yet preserve his character as an austere person, destitute of vanity and sentiment. ' Accept your servant's thanks, my General. I am highly honoured.' And Kate made a sweeping courtesy, whereupon they both laughed merrily ; and a log blazing up suddenly made an old Carnegie smile who had taken the field for Queen Mary, and was the very man to have delighted in a besom. 'When I was here in June' — and the General stretched himself in a deep red-leather chair — ' I stood a while one evening watching a fair-haired, blue-eyed little maid who was making a daisy- chain and singing to herself in a garden. Her mother came out from the cottage, and, since she did not see me, devoured the child with eyes of love. Then something came into her mind — perhaps that the good man would soon be home CONCERNING BESOMS 71 for supper ; she rushed forward and seized the child, as if it had been caught in some act of mischief. " Come into the house, this meenut, ye little beesom, an' say yir carritches. What's the chief end o' man ? " ' ' Could she have been so accomplished at that age ? ' Kate inquired with interest. ' Are you sure about the term of endearment? Was the child visibly flattered ? ' 'She caught my eye as they passed in, and flung me a smile like one excusing her mother's fondness. But Davidson hears better things, for as soon as he appears the younger members of a family are taken from their porridge and set to their devotions. ' " What are ye glowerin' at there, ye little cutty ? Toom (empty) yir mooth this meenut and say the twenty-third Psalm to the minister." ' ' Life seems full of incident, and the women make the play. What about the men ? Are they merely a chorus ? ' 'A stranger spending a week in one of our farmhouses would be ready to give evidence in a court of justice that he had never seen women so domineering or men so submissive as in Drum- toclity. 'Why? Because the housewife who sits in church as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth speaks with much fluency and vigour at home, 72 KATE CARNEGIE and the man says nothing. His normal state is doing wrong and being scolded from morning till night — for going out without his breakfast, for not cleaning his boots when he comes in, for spoiling chairs by sitting on them with wet clothes, for spilling his tea on the tablecloth, for going away to market with a dusty coat, for visiting the stable with his Sunday coat, for not speaking at all to visitors, for saying things he oughtn't when he does speak, — till the long- suffering man, raked fore and aft, rushes from the house in desperation, and outside remarks to himself, by way of consolation, " Losh keep 's ! there's nae livin' wi' her the day; her tongue's little better than a threshing-mill." His con- fusion, however, is neither deep nor lasting, and in a few minutes he has started for a round of the farm in good heart, once or twice saying " Sail ! " in a way that shows a lively recollection of his wife's gifts.' 'Then the men love to be ruled,' began Kate with some contempt ; ' it does not give me a higher idea of the district' * Wait a moment, young woman, for all that goes for nothing except to show that the men allow the women to be supreme in one sphere.' ' In the dairy, I suppose? ' * Perhaps ; and a very pleasant kingdom, too, as I remember it, when a hot, thirsty, tired laddie, who CONCERNING BESOMS 73 had been fishing or ferreting, was taken into the cool, moist, darkened place, and saw a dish of milk creamed for his benefit by some sonsy housewife. Sandie and I used to think her omnipotent, and heard her put the gudeman through his facings with awe, but by-and-by we noticed that her power had limits. When the matter had to do with anything serious, sowing or reaping or kirk or market, his word was law. * He said little, but it was final, and she never contradicted. It was rare to hear a man call his wife by name ; it was usually " gudewife," and she always referred to him as the "maister." And without any exception, these silent, reserved men were " maister " ; they had a look of au- thority.' 'They gave way in trifles, to rule in a crisis, which is just my idea of masculine government,* expatiated Kate. *A woman likes to say what she pleases and have her will in little things ; she has her way, and if a man corrects her because she is inaccurate, and nags at her when she does anything he does not approve, then he is very foolish and very trying, and if she is not quite a saint she will make him suffer. 'Do you remember Dr. Pettigrew, that prim little effigy of a man, and his delightful Irish wife, and how conversation used to run when he was within hearing ? ' 74 KATE CARNEGIE ' Glad to have a tasting, Kit,' and the General lay back in expectation. '"Oi remember him, as foine an upstanding young officer as ye would wish to see, six feet in his boots." * " About five feet ten, I believe, was his exact height, my dear." * " Maybe he wasn't full-grown then, but he was a good-looking man, and as pretty a rider as ever sat on a horse. Well, he was a Warwickshire man " ' " Bucks, he said himself." ' " He was maybe born in both counties for all you know." ' " Alethea ! " with a cough and reproving look. '"At any rate Oi saw him riding in a steeple- chase in the spring of %T, at Aldershot." ' " It must, I think, have been '66. We were at Gibraltar in '6"]. Please be accurate." ' " Bother your accuracy ! for ye are driving the pigs through my story. Well, Oi was telling ye about the steeplechase Jimmy Brook rode. It was a mile, and he had led for half, and so he was just four hundred yards from the post." '"A half would be eight hundred and eighty yards." '"Oi wish from my heart that geography, arithmetic, memory, and accuracy, and every other work of Satan were drowned with Moses CONCERNING BESOMS 75 in the Red Sea. Go, for any sake, and bring me a glass of irritated water." * ' Capital ! ' cried the General. ' T heard that myself, or something like it. Pettigrew was a tiresome wretch, but he was devoted to his wife in his own way.' 'Which was enough to make a woman throw things at him, as very likely Alethea did when they were alone. What a fool he was to bother about facts ! the charm of Lithy was that she had none — dates and suchlike would have made her quite uninteresting. The only dates I can quote myself are the Rebellion and the Mutiny, and I '11 add the year we came home. I don't like datey women ; but then it 's rather cheap for one to say that who doesn't know anything,' and Kate sighed very becomingly at the contemplation of her ignorance. 'Except French, which she speaks like a Parisian,' murmured the General. ' That 's a fluke, because I was educated at the Scotch convent with these dear old absurd nuns who were Gordons, and Camerons, and Mac- donalds, and didn't know a word of English.' * Who can manage her horse like a rough-rider,' continued the General, counting on his finger, ' and dance like a Frenchwoman, and play whist like a half-pay officer, and ' * That 's not education ; those are simply the 76 KATE CARNEGIE accomplishments of a besom. You know, dad, I 've never read a word of Darwin, and I got tired of George Eliot and went back to Scott.' * I 've no education myself,' said the General ruefully, 'except the Latin the old dominie thrashed into me, and some French which all our set in Scotland used to have, and ... I can hold my own with the broadsword. When I think of all those young officers know, I wonder we old chaps were fit for anything.' ' Well, you see, dad,' and Kate began to count also, ' you were made of steel wire, and were never ill ; you could march for a day and rather enjoy a fight in the evening ; you would go anywhere, and the men followed just eighteen inches behind ; you always knew what the enemy was going to do before he did it, and you always did what he didn't expect you to do. That 's not half the list of your accomplishments, but they make a good beginning for a fighting man.' * It will be all mathematics in the future. Kit, and there will be no fighting at close quarters. The officers will wear gloves and spectacles — but where are we now, grumbling as if we were sitting in a club window ? Besides, these young fellows can fight as well as pass exams. You were saying that it was a shame of a man to complain of his wife flirting ' and the General studied the ceiling. CONCERNING BESOMS 77 'You know that I never said anything of the kind ; some women are flirty in a nice way, just as some are booky, and some are dressy, and some are witty, and some are horsey ; and I think a woman should be herself. I should say the right kind of man would be proud of his wife's strong point, and give her liberty.' * He is to have none, I suppose, but just be a foil to throw her into relief. Is he to be allowed any opinions of his own ? ... It looks hard, that cushion. Kit, and I 'm an old broken-down man.' 'You deserve leather, for you know what I think about a man's position quite well. If he allow himself to be governed by his wife in serious matters, he is not worth calling a man.' 'Like poor Major Macintosh.' ' Exactly. What an abject he was before that woman, who was simply ' ' Not a besom, Kate,' interrupted the General anxiously, afraid that a classical word was to be misused. ' Certainly not, for a besom must be nice, and at bottom a lady — in fact, a woman of decided character,' * Quite so. You 've hit the bull's-eye, Kit, and paid a neat compliment to yourself. Have you a word for Mrs. Macintosh?' A vulgar termagant' — the General indicated that would do — ' who would call her husband an 78 KATE CARNEGIE idiot aloud before a dinner-table, and quarrel like a fishwife with people in his presence. ' Why, he daren't call his soul his own ; he belonged to the kirk, you know, and there was a Scotch padre, but she marched him off to our service, and if you had seen him trying to find the places in the Prayer-book ! If a man hasn't courage enough to stand by his faith, he might as well go and hang himself. Don't you think the first thing is to stick by your religion, and the next by your country, though it cost one his life ? ' ' That 's it, lassie ; every gentleman does.' * She was a disgusting woman,' continued Kate, 'and jingling with money; I never saw so many precious stones wasted on one woman ; they always reminded me of a jewel in a swine's snout' * Kate ! ' remonstrated her father, * that 's ' ' Rather coarse, but it 's her blame ; and to hear Mrs. Macintosh calculating what each officer had. I told her we would live in a Lodge at home and raise our own food. My opinion is that her father was a publican, and I 'm sure she had once been a Methodist.' ♦Why?' ' Because she was so churchy, always talking about celebrations and vigils, and explaining that it was a sin to listen to a Dissenting chaplain.' CONCERNING BESOMS 79 ' Then, Kate, if your man — as they say here — tried to make you hold his views ? ' ' I wouldn't, and I 'd hate him.' ' And if he accepted yours ? ' ' I 'd despise him,' replied Kate promptly. * You are a perfect contradiction.' ' You mean I 'm a woman, and a besom, and therefore I don't pretend to be consistent or logical, or even fair, but I am right.' Then they went up the west tower to the General's room, and looked out on the woods and the river, and on a field of ripe corn upon the height across the river, flooded with the moonlight. * Home at last, lassie, you and I, and another not far off, maybe.' Kate kissed her father, and said, ' One in love, dad . . . and faith.' A PLEASAUNCE The General read morning prayers in brief, omitting the Psalms and lessons, and then after breakfast, with much gossip and ancient stories from Donald, the father and daughter went out to survey their domain, and though there be many larger, yet there can be few more romantic in the north. That Carnegie had a fine eye and a sense of things who, out of all the Glen — for the Hays had little in Drumtochty in those days — fastened on the site of the Lodge and planted three miles of wood, birch and oak and beech and ash, with the rowan-tree, along the river that goes out and in seven times in that distance ; so that his descendants might have a fastness for their habitation and their children might grow up in kindly woods on which the south sun beats from early spring till late autumn, and within the sight and sound of clean running water. No wonder they loved their lonely home with tenacious hearts, and left it only because it was in their blood to be fighting. They had been out at Langside and Philiphaugh, in the '15 and the '45, and 80 A PLEAS AUNCE 8i always on the losing side. The Lodge had never been long without a young widow and a fatherless lad, but family history had no warning for him — in fact, seemed rather to be an inspiration in the old way — for no sooner had the young laird loved and married than he would hear of another rebellion, and ride off some morning to fight for that ill-fated dynasty the love of which was ever another name for death. There was always a Carnegie ready as soon as the white cockade ap- peared anywhere in Scotland, and each of the house fought like the men before him, save that he brought fewer at his back and had less in his pocket. Little was left to the General and our Kate, and then came the great catastrophe that lost them the Lodge, and so the race has now neither name nor house in Scotland, save in the vault in Drumtochty Kirk. It is a question whether one is wise to revisit any place where he has often been in happier times and see it desolate. For me, at least, it was a mistake, and the melan- choly is still upon me. The deserted house fall- ing at last to pieces, the overgrown garden, the crumbling paths, the gaping bridges over the little burns, and the loneliness, chilled one's soul. There was no money to spare in the General's time, but it is wonderful what one gardener, who has no hours, and works for love's sake, can do, even in a place that needed half a dozen. Then he was F 82 KATE CARNEGIE assisted unofficially by Donald, who declared that working in the woods was * fery healthy and good for one or two small cuts I happened to get in India/ and Kate gave herself to the garden. The path by the river was kept in repair, and one never knew when Kate might appear round the corner. Once I had come down from the cottage on a fine February day to see the snowdrops in the sheltered nooks, for there were little dells white as snow at that season in Tochty woods, and Kate, hearing that I had passed, came of her kindness to take me back to luncheon. She had on a jacket of sealskin that we greatly admired, and a felt hat with three grouse feathers on the side, and round her throat a red satin scarf The sun was shining on the bend of the path, and she came into the light singing ' Jock o' Hazeldean,' walking as Kate ever did in song with a swinging step like soldiers on a march. It seemed to me that day that she was born to be the wife either of a noble or a soldier, and I still wish at times within my heart she were Countess of Kilspindie, for then the Lodge had been a fair sight to-day, and her father had died in his own room. And other times I have imagined myself Kilspindie, who was then Lord Hay, and questioned whether I should have ordered Tochty to be dismantled and left a waste as it is this day, and would have gone away to the wars, or would not have loved to keep it in order A PLEASAUNCE 83 for her sake, and visited it in the spring-time when the primroses are out, and in the autumn when the leaves are blood-red. Then I declare that Hay, being of a brave stock, and having acted as a man of honour — for that is known to all now — ought to have put a good face on his disappointment ; but all the time I know one man who would have followed Lord Hay's suit and who regrets that he ever again saw Tochty Lodge. ' First of all,' said the General as they sallied forth, ' we shall go to the Beeches, and see a view for which one might travel many days, and pay a ransom.' So they went out into the court with its draw- well, from which they must needs have a draught. Suddenly the General laid down the cup like a man in sudden pain, for he was thinking of Cawn- pore ; and they passed quickly through the gate- way and turned into a path that wound among great trees that had been planted, it was said, by the Carnegie who rode with Montrose. They were walking on a plateau stretching out beyond the line of the Lodge, and therefore commanding the Glen, if one had eyes to see and the trees were not in the way. Kate laid her hand on the General's arm beneath an ancient beech, and they stood in silence to receive the blessing of the place ; for surely never is the soul so open to the voice of nature as by the side of running water and in the 84 KATE CARNEGIE heart of a wood. The fretted sunlight made shifting figures of brightness on the ground ; above, the innumerable leaves rustled and whis- pered ; a squirrel darted along a branch and watched the intruders with bright, curious eyes ; the rooks cawed from the distance ; the pigeons cooed in sweet, sad cadence close at hand. They sat down on the bare roots at their feet and yielded themselves to the genius of the forest — the god who will receive the heart torn and distracted by the fierce haste and unfinished labours and vain ambitions of life, and will lay its fever to rest and encompass it with the quietness of eternity. ' Father,' whispered Kate, after a while, as one wishing to share confidences, for there must be something to tell, * where are you ? ' ' You wish to know ? Well, all day I 've been fishing down the stream, and am coming home, very tired, very dirty, very happy, and I meet my mother just outside those trees. I am boasting of the fish that I have caught, none of which, I 'm sure, can be less than half a pound. She is rating me for my appearance and beseeching me to keep at a distance. Then I go home and down into the vaulted kitchen, where Janet's mother gives me joyous welcome, and produces dainties saved from dinner for my eating. The trout are now at biggest only a quarter of a pound, for they have A PLEASAUNCE 85 to be cooked as a final course ; but those that were hooked and escaped are each a pound, except one in the hole below Lynedoch Bridge, which was two pounds to an ounce. Afterwards I make a brave attempt to rehearse the day in the gunroom to Sandie, who first taught me to cast a line, and fall fast asleep, and, being shaken up, sneak off to bed, creeping slowly up the stair, where the light is falling, to the little room above yours, where, as I am falling over, I seem to hear my mother's voice as in this sighing of the wind. Ah me, what a day it was ! And you. Kit ? ' ' Oh, I was back in the convent with my nuns, and Sister Flora was trying to teach me English grammar in good French, and I was correcting her in bad French, and she begins to laugh because it is all so droll. " I am Scotch, and I teach you English all wrong, and you tell me what I ought to say in French which is all wrong ; let us go into the garden," for she was a perfect love and always covered my faults. I am sitting in the arbour, and the Sister brings a pear that has fallen. " I do not think it is wicked," she says, and I say it is simply a duty to eat up fallen pears, and we laugh again. As we sit, they are singing in the chapel, and I hear "Ave Maria, ora pro nobis." Then I think of you, and the tears will come to my eyes, and I try to hide my face, but the Sister understands and comforts me. " Your 86 KATE CARNEGIE father is a gallant gentleman, and the good God pities you, and will keep him in danger," and I fondle the Sister, and wonder whether any more pears have fallen. How peaceful it is within that high wall, which is rough and forbidding outside, but inside it is hung with greenery, and among the leaves I see pears and peaches. But I missed you, dad,' and Kate touched her father, for thej^ had a habit of just touching each other gently when together. 'Do you really think we have been in India, and that you have a dozen medals, and I am — an old maid ? ' 'Certainly not. Kit, a mere invention — we are boy and girl, and — we '11 go on to the view.' Suddenly they came out from the shade into a narrow lane of light, where some one of the former time, with an eye and a soul, had cleared a passage among the trees, so that one standing at the inner end and looking outwards could see the whole Glen, while the outstretched branches of the beeches shaded his eyes. Morning in the summer-time about five o'clock was a favourable hour, because one might see the last mists lift and the sun light up the face of Ben Urtach ; and evening-tide was better, because the Glen showed wonderfully tender in the soft light, and the Grampians were covered with glory. But it was best to take your first view towards noon, for then you could trace the Tochty A PLEASAUNCE 87 upwards as it appeared and reappeared, till it was lost in woods at the foot of Glen Urtach, with every spot of interest on either side. Below the kirk it ran broad and shallow, with a bank of brushwood on one side and a meadow on the other fringed with low bushes, from behind which it was possible to drop a fly with some prospect of success, while in quite unprotected situations the Drumtochty fish laughed at the tempter, and departed with contemptuous whisks of the tail. Above the haughs was a little mill, where flax was once spun and its lade still remained, running between the Tochty and the steep banks down which the glen descended to the river. Opposite this mill the river ran with strength, escaping from the narrows of the bridge, and there it was that William MacLure drove Sir George across in safety, because the bridge was not for use that day. Whether that bridge was really built by Marshal Wade in his great work of pacifying the Highlands is very far from certain, but Drum- tochty did not relish any trifling with its traditions, and had a wonderful pride in its solitary bridge, as well it might, since from the Beeches nothing could well be more picturesque. Its plan came nearly to an inverted V, and the apex was just long enough to allow the horses to rest after the ascent, before they precipitated themselves down the other side. During that time the driver leant 88 KATE CARNEGIE on the ledge, and let his eye run down the river, taking in the Parish Kirk above and settling on the Lodge, just able to be seen among the trees where the Tochty below turned round the bend. What a Drumtochty man thought on such occa- sions he never told, but you might have seen even Whinnie nod his head with emphasis. The bridge stood up clear of banks and woods, grey, uncom- promising, unconventional, yet not without some grace of its own in its high arcs and abrupt descents. One with good eyes and a favouring sun could see the water running underneath, and any one caught its sheen higher up, before a wood came down to the water's edge and seemed to swallow up the stream. Above the wood it is seen again, with a meal-mill on the left nestling in among the trees, and one would call the Tochty the veriest burn, but it was there that Posty lost his life to save a little child. And then it dwindles into the thinnest thread of silver, and at last is seen no more from the Beeches. From the Tochty the eye makes its raids on north and south. The dark, massy pine-woods on the left side of the glen are broken at intervals by fields as they threaten to come down upon the river, and their shelter lends an air of comfort and warmth to the glen. On the right the sloping land is tilled from the bank above the river up to the edge of the moor that swells in green and purple to the foot A PLEASAUNCE 89 of the northern rampart of mountains, but on this side also the glen here and there breaks into belts of fir, which fling their kindly arms round the scattered farmhouses, and break up the monotony of green and gold with squares of dark green foliage and the brown of the tall, bare trunks. Between the meandering stream and the cultivated land and the woods and the heather and the dis- tant hills, there was such a variety as cannot be often gathered into the compass of one landscape. ' And all our own,' cried Kate in exultation ; ' let us congratulate ourselves.' ' I only wish it were, lassie. Why, didn't you understand we have only these woods and a few acres of ploughed land now ? ' 'You stupid old dad! I begin to believe that you have had no education. Of course the Hays have got the land, but we have the view and the joy of it. This is the only place where one can say to a stranger, " Behold Drumtochty," and he will see it at a flash and at its best' 'You're brighter than your father. Kit, and a contented lassie to boot, and for that word I '11 take you straight to the Pleasaunce.' ' What a charming name ! it suggests a fairy world, with all sorts of beautiful things and people.' 'Quite right. Kit '—and leading the way down to a hollow, surrounded by wood and facing the sun, the General opened a door in an ivy-covered wall 90 KATE CARNEGIE — ' for there is just one Pleasaunce on the earth, and that is a garden.' It had been a risk to raise certain people's expectations and then bring them into Tochty garden, for they can be satisfied with no place that has not a clean-shaven lawn and beds of unvarying circles — pyrethrum, calceolaria, and geranium — and brakes of rare roses, and glass- houses with orchids worth fifty pounds each, which is a garden in high life, full of luxury, extrava- gance, weariness. As Kate entered, a moss-rose which wandered at its will caught her skirt, and the General cut a blossom, which she fastened in her breast ; and surely there is no flower so win- some and fragrant as this homely rose. ' Like yourself. Miss Carnegie,' and the General rallied his simple wit for the occasion — ' very sweet and true ; with a thorn, too, if one gripped it the wrong way.' Whereat he made believe to run, and had the better speed because there were no gravel walks with boxwood borders here, but alleys of old turf that were pleasant both to the touch and the eye. In the centre where all the ways met he capitu- lated with honours of war, and explained that he had intended to compare Kate to a violet, which was her natural emblem, but had succumbed to the temptation of her eyes, 'which make men wicked. Kit, with the gleam that is in them.' A PLEASAUNCE 91 ' Isn't it a tangle ? ' Which it was, and no one could look upon it without keen delight, unless he were a horticultural pedant in whom the apprecia- tion of nature had been killed by parterres. There was some principle of order, and even now, when the Pleasaunce is a wilderness, the traces can be found. A dwarf fruit-tree stood at every corner, and between the trees a three-foot border of flowers kept the peas and potatoes in their places. But the borders were one sustained, elaborate, glorified disorder. There were roses of all kinds that have ever gladdened poor gardens and simple hearts — yellow tea-roses, moss-roses with their firm, shapely buds, monthly roses that bore nearly all the year in a warm spot, the white-brier that is dear to north-country people, besides standards in their glory, with full, Kound purple blossom. Among the roses, compassing them about and jostling one another, some later, some earlier in bloom, most of them together in the glad summer days, one could find to his hand wallflowers and primroses, sweet-william and dusty-miller, daisies red and white, forget-me-nots and pansies, pinks and carnations, marigolds and phloxes of many varieties. The confusion of colours was prepos- terous, and showed an utter want of aesthetic sense. In fact, one may confess that the Lodge garden was only one degree removed from the vulgarity and prodigality of nature. There was 92 KATE CARNEGIE no taste, no reserve, no harmony about that gar- den. Nature simply ran riot and played accord- ing to her will like a child of the former days, bursting into apple blossom and laburnum gold and the bloom of peas and the white strawberry- flower in early summer, and then, later in the year, weaving garlands of blazing red, yellow, white, purple, round beds of stolid roots and brakes of currant-bushes. There was a copper beech, where the birds sang, and from which they raided the fruit with the skill of Highland caterans. The Lodge bees lived all day in this garden, save when they went to reinforce their sweetness from the heather bloom. The big trees stood round the place and covered it from every wind except the south, and the sun was ever blessing it. There was one summer-house, a mass of honey- suckle, and there they sat down as those that had come back to Eden from a wander year. 'Well, Kit?' ' Thank God for our Pleasaunce ! ' And they would have stayed for hours, but there was one other spot that had a fascination for the General neither years nor wars had dulled, and he, who was the most matter-of-fact and romantic of men, must see and show it to his daughter before they ceased. ' A mile and more, Kit, but through the woods and by the water all the way.' Sometimes they went down a little ravine made A PLEASAUNCE 93 by a small burn fighting and wearing its way for ages to the Tochty, and stood on a bridge of two planks and a handrail thrown over a tiny pool, where the water was resting on a bed of small pebbles. The oak copse covered the sides of the tiny glen and met across the streamlet, and one below could see nothing but greenery and the glint of the waterfall where the burn broke into the bosky dell from the bare heights above. Other times the path, that allowed two to walk abreast if they wished very much and kept close together, would skirt the face of the high river- bank, and if you peeped down through the foliage of the clinging trees you could see the Tochty running swiftly and the overhanging branches dipping in their leaves. Then the river would make a sweep and forsake its bank, leaving a peninsula of alluvial land between, where the geranium and the hyacinth and the iris grew in deep, moist soil. One of these was almost clear of wood and carpeted with thick, soft turf, and the river beside it was broad and shining. ' We shall go down here,' said the General, ' and I will show you something that I count the finest monument in Perthshire, or, maybe, in broad Scotland.' In the centre of the sward, with trees just touching it with the tips of their branches, was a little square, with a simple weather beaten railing. 94 KATE CARNEGIE And the General led Kate to the spot, and stood for a while in silence. 'Two young Scottish lassies, Kate, who died two hundred years ago, and were buried here, and this is the ballad — • " Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They were twa bonnie lassies, They biggit a hoose on yonder brae And theikit it ower wi' rashes." ' Then the General and Kate sat down by the river-edge, and he told her the deathless story, how in the plague of 1666 they fled to this dis- trict to escape infection ; how a lover came to visit one of them and brought death in his kiss ; how they sickened and died ; how they were laid to rest beside the Tochty water ; and generations have made their pilgrimage to the place, so won- derful and beautiful is love. They loved, and their memory is immortal. Kate rested her chin on her hand and gazed at the running water, which continued while men and women live and love and die. ' He ought not to have come ; it was a cowardly, selfish act ; but I suppose,' added the General, ' he could not keep away.' ' Be sure she thought none the less of him for his coming, and I think a woman will count life itself a small sacrifice for love,' and Kate went over to the grave. A PLEASAUNCE 95 A thrush was singing as they turned to go, and nothing was said on the way home till they came near the Lodge. ' Who can that be going in, Kate ? He seems a padre.' ' I do not know, unless it be our fellow-traveller from Muirtown ; but he has been re-dressing him- self, and is not improved.' * Father,' and Kate stayed the General as they crossed the threshold of their home, ' we have seen many beautiful things to-day, for which I thank you ; but the greatest was love.' A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION Carmichael's aunt, who equipped his house, was determined on one point, and would not hear of a clerical housekeeper for her laddie. Margaret Meiklewham — a woman of a severe countenance, and filled with the spirit of the Disruption — who had governed the minister of Pitscowrie till his decease, and had been the terror of callow young probationers, offered herself, and gave instances of her capability. ' Gin ye leave yir nephew in my hands, ye needna hae ony mair concern. A '11 manage him fine, an' haud him on the richt road. Ye may lippen tae't, a' wesna five-and-thirty year wi' Maister MacWheep for naethin'. He wes a wee fractious an' self-willed at the off-go, an' wud be wantin' this an' that for his denner, but he sune learned tae tak what wes pit afore him ; an' as for gaein' oot withoot telUn' me, he wud as sune hae thocht o' fleein' ; when he cam in he keepit naethin' back at his tea. * Preachin' wes kittle wark in Pitscowrie, for the A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 97 fouk were avvfu' creetics, though they didna maybe think sae muckle o' themselves as Drumtochty, A' aye githered their jidgment through the week, an' gin he hed made a slip meddling wi' warks or sic-like in his sermon, it wes pit richt next Sabbath, and sovereignty whuppit in at the feenish. ' Ye ken the Auld Kirk hes tae be watchit like a cat wi' a moose ; an' though a' say it as sudna, Maister MacWheep wud hae made a puir job o' the business himsel. The pairish meenister wes terrible plausible, an' askit oor man tae denner afore he wes settled in his poopit, an' he wes that simple, he wud hae gaen,' and Margaret indicated by an uplifting of her eyebrows the pitiable inno- cence of MacWheep. ' Ye guidit him, nae doot ? ' inquired Car- michael's aunt, with interest. ' " Maister MacWheep," says I,' and Miss Meikle- wham's lips were very firm, ' " a '11 no' deny that the Auld Kirk is Christian, an' a've never said that a Moderate cudna be savit, but the less trokin' (trafficking) ye hae wi' them the better. There 's maybe naethin' wrang wi' a denner, but the next thing '11 be an exchange o' poopits, an' the day ye dae that ye may close the Free Kirk." ' And the weemen ' — here the housekeeper paused as one still lost in amazement at the G 98 KATE CARNEGIE audacity with which they had waylaid the helpless MacWheep — 'there wes ae madam in Muirtown that hed the face tae invite hersel oot tae tea wi' three dochters, an' the way they wud flatter him on his sermons wes shamefu'. * If they didna begin askin' him tae stay wi' them on Presbytery days, and Mrs. MacOmish hed the face tae peety him wi' naebody but a hoosekeeper. He lat oot tae me, though, that the potatoes were as hard as a stane at denner, an' that he hed juist ae blanket on his bed, which wesna great management for four weemen.' As Carmichael's aunt seemed to be more and more impressed, Margaret moistened her lips and rose higher. * So the next time ma lady comes oot tae see the spring flooers,' she said, * a' explained that the minister wes sae delicate that a' didna coont it richt for him tae change his bed, and a' thocht it wud be mair comfortable for him tae come hame on the Presbytery nichts, an' safer. * What said she ? No' a word,' and Miss Meikle- wham recalled the ancient victory with relish. ' She lookit at me, and a' lookit at her, an' nae- thing passed ; but that wes the laist time a' saw her at the manse. A 've hed experience, and a 'm no feared tae tak chairge o' yir nephew.' Carmichael's aunt was very deferential, com- plimenting the eminent woman on her gifts and A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 99 achievements, and indicating that it would be hard for a young Free Kirk minister to obtain a better guardian ; but she had already made arrange- ments with a woman from the south, and could not change, Drumtochty was amazed at her self-will, and declared by the mouth of Kirsty Stewart that Carmichael's aunt had flown in the face of Provi- dence. Below her gentle simplicity she was, how- ever, a shrewd woman, and was quite determined that her nephew should not be handed over to the tender mercies of a clerical housekeeper, who is said to be a heavier yoke than the Confession of Faith, for there be clever ways of escape from confessions, but none from Margaret Meiklewham ; and while all the churches are busy every year in explaining that their Articles do not mean what they say, Miss Meiklewham had a snort which was beyond all she said, and that was not by any means restricted. 'John,' said Carmichael's aunt, one day, after they had been buying carpets, * I 've got a house- keeper for you that will keep you comfortable and can hold her tongue,' but neither then nor after- wards, neither to her nephew nor to Drumtochty, did Carmichael's aunt tell where she secured Sarah. ' That 's my secret, John,' she used to say, with much roguishness, ' an' ye maun confess that loo KATE CARNEGIE there 's ae thing ye di'nna ken. Ye '11 hae the best-kept manse in the Presbytery, an' ye '11 hae nae concern, sae be content' Which he was, and asked no questions, so that he knew no more of Sarah the day she left than the night she arrived ; and now he sometimes speculates about her history, but he has no clue. She was an event in the life of the parish, and there are those who speak of her unto this day with exasperation. The new housekeeper was a subject of legitimate though ostentatiously veiled curiosity, and it was expected that a full biography by Elspeth Macfadyen would be at the disposal of the kirkyard, as well as the Free Kirk gate, within ten days of her arrival ; it might even be on the following Sabbath, although it was felt that this was asking too much of Elspeth. It was on the Friday evening Mrs. Macfadyen called, with gifts of butter and cream for the minister, and was received with grave, silent courtesy. While they played with the weather, the visitor made a swift examination, and she gave the results on Sabbath for what they were worth. ' A tall, black wumman, spare an' erect, no ill- faured nor ill-made — na, na, a '11 alloo that ; a trig, handy cummer, wi' an eye like a hawk an' a voice like pussy ; nane o' yir gossipin', haverin', stravaigin' kind. He'll be clever 'at gets ony- A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION loi thing out o' her or maks much o' a bargain wi' her. ' Sail, she 's a madam, an' nae mistak. If that waeful, cunnin', tramping wratch Clockie didna come tae the door, when I was sittin', an' askit for the new minister. Ye ken he used tae come an' hear Maister Cunningham on the principles o' the Disruption for an 'oor, givin' oot that he wes comin' roond tae the Free Kirk view; then he got his denner an' a suit o' claithes.' ' A' mind o' Clockie gettin' five shillin's ae day,' remarked Jamie Soutar, who was at the Free Kirk that morning ; ' he hed started Dr. Chalmers wi the minister ; Dr. Guthrie he coontit to be worth aboot half-a-croon ; but he aince hed ten shillin's oot o' the Cardross case. He wes graund on the doctrine o' speeritual independence, and terrible drouthy ; but a 'm interruptin' ye, Elspeth.' ' " The minister is at dinner," says she, " and can't be disturbed ; he sees no one at the door," '"It's reeligion a'm come aboot," says Clockie, stickin' in his foot tae keep the door open, " an' a '11 juist wait at the fire." '"It's more likely to be whisky, from your breath, and you will find a public-house in the village ; we give nothing to vagrants here." Then she closed the door on his foot, and the language he used in the yard wesna connectit wi' reeligion.' Drumtochty admitted that this showed a woman loa KATE CARNEGIE of vigour — although our conventions did not allow us to treat Clockie or any known wastrel so masterfully, — and there was an evident anxiety to hear more. ' Her dress was black an' fittit like a glove, an' was sat aff wi' a collar an' cuffs, an' a' saw she hedna come frae the country, so that wes ae thing settled ; yon 's either a toon dress or maybe her ain makin' frae patterns. ' It micht be Edinburgh or Glesgie, but a' began tae jalouse England aifter hearin' her hannel Clockie, sae a' watchit for a word tae try her tongue.' ' Wurk is a gude handy test,' suggested Jamie ; ' the; English hae barely ae r^ an' the Scotch hae aboot sax in 't' * She wudna say 't, Jamie, though a' gied her a chance, speakin' aboot ae wumman daein' a'thing in the manse, sae a' fell back on church, an' that brocht oot the truth. She didna say " chich," so she's no English-born, an' she didna say " churrrch," so she 's been oot o' Scotland. It wes half an' between, an' so a' said it wud be pleasant for her tae be in her ain country again, aifter livin' in the sooth.' Her hearers indicated that Elspeth had not fallen beneath herself, and began to wonder how a woman who had lived in London would fit into Drumtochty. A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION lot o ' What div ye think she said tae me ? ' Then Drumtochty understood that there had been an incident, and that Elspeth as a conversationalist, if not as a raconteur, had found her equal. ' " You are very kind to think of my move- ments, but'" — and here Mrs. Macfadyen spoke very slowly — * " I 'm afraid they don't teach home geography at your school. Paisley is not out of Scotland.' " 'Ye've met yir match, Elspeth,' said Jamie with a hoarse chuckle, and the situation was apparent to all. It was evident that the new housekeeper was minded to hide her past, and the choice of her last residence was a stroke of diabolical genius. Paisley is an ancient town inhabited by a virtuous and industrious people, who used to make shawls and now spin thread, and the atmosphere is so literary that it is be- lieved every tenth man is a poet. Yet people do not boast of having been born there, and natives will pretend they came from Greenock. No one can mention Paisley without a smile, and yet no one can say what amused him. Certain names are the source of perennial laughter, in which their inhabitants join doubtfully, as persons not sure whether to be proud or angry. They generally end in an apology, while the public, grasping vaguely at the purpose of such a place, settle on it every good tale that is going about I04 KATE CARNEGIE the world unprovided for and fatherless. So a name comes to be bathed in the ridiculous, and a mere reference to it passes for a stroke of supreme felicity. * Paisley ! ' — Jamie again tasted the idea — ' she '11 be an acqueesition tae the Glen.' It was Sarah's first stroke of character to arrive without notice — having utterly baffled Peter at the Junction — and to be in complete possession of the manse on the return of Car- michael and his aunt from pastoral visits. ' Sarah ! ' cried the old lady in amazement at the sight of the housekeeper in full uniform, calm and self-possessed, as one having been years in this place, ' when did ye come ? ' 'Two hours ago, ma'm, and I think I under- stand the house. Shall I bring tea into the dining-room, or would you rather have it in the study?' But she did not once glance past his aunt to Carmichael, who was gazing in silence at this composed young woman in the doorway. * This is Sarah, John, who hes come to keep yir house,' and his aunt stepped back. 'Sarah, this is my dear laddie, the minister.' Perhaps because her eyes were of a flashing black that pierced one like a steel blade, Sarah usually looked down in speaking to you, but now she gave Carmichael one swift, comprehensive look that judged him soul and body ; then her A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 105 eyes fell, and her face, always too hard and keen, softened. *I will try, sir, to make you comfortable, and you will tell me anything that is wrong.' 'You took us by surprise, Sarah,' and Car- michael, after his hearty fashion, seized his housekeeper's hand ; ' let me bid you welcome to the manse. I hope you will be happy here, and not feel lonely.* But the housekeeper only bowed, and turned to his aunt. ' Dinner at six ? As you were not in, and it did not seem any use consulting the woman that was here, I am preparing for that hour.' ' Well, ye see, Sarah, we have just been taking tea, with something to it, but if ' ' Gentlemen prefer evening dinner, ma'm.' 'Quite right, Sarah,' burst in Carmichael in great glee ; ' tea-dinner is the most loathsome meal ever invented, and we'll never have it in the Free Manse. ' That is an admirable woman, auntie,' as Sarah disappeared, 'with sound views on important subjects. I '11 never ask again where she came from ; she is her own testimonial.' ' You maunna be extravagant, John ; Sarah hes never seen a manse before, and I must tell her not to ' ' Ruin me, do you mean, by ten courses every io6 KATE CARNEGIE evening, like the dinners West-end philanthropists used to give our men to show them how to behave at table ? We '11 be very economical, only having meat twice a week — salt fish the other days — but it will always be dinner.' 'What ails you at tea-dinner, John? it's very tasty and homely.' ' It 's wicked, auntie, and has done more injury to religion than drinking. No, I'm not joking — that is a childish habit — but giving utterance to profound truth, which ought to be proclaimed on the house-tops, or perhaps in the kitchens. * Let me explain, and I '11 make it as plain as day. All heresy is just bad thinking, and that comes from bad health, and the foundation of health is food. A certain number of tea-dinners would make a man into a Plymouth Brother. It's a mere question of time. ' You see, if a man's digestion is good he takes a cheerful view of things ; but if he is full of bile, then he is sure that everybody is going to be lost except himself and his little set, and that's heresy. Apologetics is just dietetics ; now, there's an epi- gram made for you on the spot, and you don't know what it means, so we'll have a walk instead.' His aunt knew what was coming, but was too late to resist, so she was twice taken round the room for exercise, till she cried out for mercy, and A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 107 was left to rest while Carmichael went out to get an appetite for that dinner. Nothing was said during its progress, but when Sarah had finally departed after her first triumph, won under every adverse circumstance of strange- ness and limited resources, Carmichael took his aunt's hand and kissed it. ' It is an illuminated address you deserve, auntie, for such a paragon ; as it is, I shall be the benefactor of a Presbytery, asking the men up by turns on fast-days, and sending them home speechless with satisfaction.' ' Sarah was always a clever woman ; if she had only ' But Carmichael heard not, in his boyish excitement of householding. ' Clever is a cold word for such genius. Mark my words, there is not a manse in Perthshire that shall not sound with the praise of Sarah. I vow perpetual celibacy on the spot. No man would dream of marrying that had the privilege of such a housekeeper.' ' Ye 're a silly laddie, John ; but some day a fair face will change a' yer life, an' if she be a good wumman like your mother, I'll thank God.' ' No woman can be compared with her,' and the minister sobered. ' You and she have spoiled me for other women, and now you have placed me beyond temptation with such a cook.' So it came to pass that Carmichael, who knew io8 KATE CARNEGIE nothing about fine cooking till Sarah formed his palate with her cunning sauces, and, after all, cared as little what he ate as any other healthy young man, boasted of his housekeeper continu- ally by skilful allusions, till the honest wives of his fathers and brethren were outraged and grew feline, as any natural woman will if a servant is flung in her face in this aggravating fashion. ' I 'm glad to hear you 're so well pleased, Mr. Carmichael,' Mrs. MacGuffie would say, who was full of advice, and fed visitors on the produce of her garden, 'but no man knows comfort till he marries. It's a chop one day and a steak the next all the year round — nothing tasty or ap- petising ; and as for his shirts, most bachelors have to sew on their own buttons. Ah, you all pretend to be comfortable, but I know better, for Mr. MacGuffie has often told me what he suffered.' Whereat Carmichael would rage furiously, and then, catching sight of MacGuffie, would bethink him of a Christian revenge. MacGuffie was invited up to a day of humiliation — Sarah re- ceiving for once carte blanche — and after he had powerfully exhorted the people from the words, ' I am become like a bottle in the smoke,' he was conducted to the manse in an appropriately mournful condition, and set down at the table. He was inclined to dwell on the decadence of A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 109 Disruption principles during soup, but as the dinner advanced grew wonderfully cheerful, and being installed in an arm-chair with a cup of decent coffee beside him, sighed peacefully, and said, ' Mr. Carmichael, you have much cause for thankfulness.' Mr. MacGuffie had not come to the age of sixty, however, without learning some- thing, and he only gave his curious spouse to understand that Carmichael had done all in his power to make his guest comfortable, and was not responsible for his servant's defects. Ladies coming with their husbands to visit the manse conceived a prejudice against Sarah, on the general ground of dislike to all housekeepers as a class of servants outside of any mistress's control, and therefore apt to give themselves airs, and especially because this one had a subtle suggestion of independent personality that was all the more irritating because it could not be made plain to the dull male intelligence, which was sadly deceived. ' What a lucky man Carmichael is on his first venture ! ' Even Dr. Dowbiggin, of St. Columba's, Muirtown, grew enthusiastic to his wife in the privacy of their bedchamber, on a sacramental visit, and every one knows that the doctor was a responsible man, ministering to four bailies and making 'overtures' to the Assembly, beginning with 'Whereas' and ending with 'Venerable no KATE CARNEGIE House.' ' I am extremely pleased to see . . . everything so nice.' ' You mean, James, that you have had a good dinner, far too ambitious for a young minister's table. Did you ever see an entree on a Dis- ruption table, or dessert with finger glasses ? I call it sinful — for the minister of Drumtochty, at least ; and I don't believe he was ever accustomed to such ways. If she attended to his clothes, it would set her better than cooking French dishes. Did you notice the coat he was wearing at the station ? — ^just like a gamekeeper. But it is easy for a woman to satisfy a man ; give him some- thing nice to eat, and he '11 ask no more.' ' So far as my recollection serves me, Maria ' — the Doctor was ruffled, and fell into his public style — * I made no reference to food, cooked or uncooked, and perhaps I may be allowed to say that it is not a subject one thinks of ... at such seasons. What gave me much satisfaction was to see one of our manses so presentable ; as re- gards the housekeeper, so far as I had an oppor- tunity of observing, she seemed a very capable woman indeed,' and the Doctor gave one of his coughs, which were found most conclusive in debate. * It 's easy to be a man's servant,' retorted Mrs. Dowbiggin, removing a vase of flowers from the dressing-table with contempt, ' for tJiey never look A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION iii below the surface. Did you notice her hands, as white and smooth as a lady's ? You may be sure there's little scrubbing and brushing goes on in this manse.' ' How do you know, Maria ? ' — the Doctor was weakening. * You have never been in the house before.' * We '11 soon see that, James, though I dare say it would never occur to a man to do such a thing. Did you ever look below the bed ? ' ' Never,' replied the Doctor promptly, who was not constructed to stoop, ' and I am not going to begin after that . . . ah . . . this evening, with work before me to-morrow. But I would be glad to see you.' ' I have done so every night of my life for fear of robbers, and the dust I 've seen in strange houses — it's there you can tell a good servant,' and Mrs. Dowbiggin nodded with an air of great sagacity. ' Well,' demanded the Doctor, anxiously watch- ing the operation, ' guilty or not guilty ? ' ' She knew what I would do. I hate those sharp women ' ; and then the Doctor grew so eloquent over uncharitable judgments and un- reasonable prejudices that his wife denounced Sarah bitterly as a * cunning woman who got on the blind side of gentlemen.' Her popularity with Carmichael's friends was 112 KATE CARNEGIE beyond question, for though she was a reserved woman, with no voluntary conversation, they all sent messages to her, inquired for her well-being at Fast-days, and brought her gifts of handker- chiefs, gloves, and suchlike. When they met at Theologicals and Synods they used to talk of Sarah with unction — till married men were green with envy — being simple fellows and helpless in the hands of elderly females of the Meiklewham genus. For there are various arts by which a woman, in Sarah's place, wins a man's gratitude, and it may be admitted that one is skilful cook- ing. Sensible and book-reading men do not hunger for six courses, but they are critical about their toast and . . . nothing more, for that is the pulse. Then a man also hates to have any fixed hour for breakfast — never thinking without a shudder of houses where they have prayers at 7.50 — but a man refuses to be kept waiting five minutes for dinner. If a woman will find his belongings, which he has scattered over three rooms and the hall, he invests her with many virtues ; and if she packs his portmanteau, he will associate her with St. Theresa. But if his hostess be inclined to discuss problems with him, he will receive her name with marked coldness ; and if she follow up this trial with evil food, he will conceive a rooted dislike for her, and will flee her house. So simple is a man. A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 113 When Sarah proposed to Carmichael that she should prepare breakfast after he rang for his hot water, and when he never caught a hint of re- proach on her face though he sat up till three and came down at eleven, he was lifted, hardly be- lieving that such humanity could be found among women, who always seem to have a time-table they are carrying out the livelong day. * The millennium is near at hand,' said Mac- Queen, when the morning arrangements of the Free Kirk manse of Drumtochty were made known to him — MacQueen, who used to arrive without so much as a nightshirt, having left a trail of luggage behind him at various junctions, and has written books so learned that no one dares to say that he has not read them. Then he placed an ounce of shag handy, and Carmichael stoked the fire, and they sat down, with Beaton, who could refer to the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas from beginning to end, and they discussed the doctrine of Scripture in the Fathers, and the formation of the Canon, and the authorship of the Pentateuch till two, in the study. Afterwards they went to MacQueen's room to hear him on the Talmud, and next adjourned to Beaton's room, who offered a series of twelve preliminary observations on the Theology of Rupert of Deutz, whereupon his host promptly put out his candle, leaving that man of supernatural memory to go II 114 KATE CARNEGIE to bed in the dark ; and as Carmichael pulled up the blind in his own room, the day was breaking and a blackbird had begun to sing. Next after- noon Beaton had resumed his observations on Rupert, but now they were lying among the heather on the side of Glen Urtach, and Car- michael was asleep, while MacQueen was thinking that they would have a good appetite for dinner that evening. Sarah had only one fault to find with her master, and that was his Bohemian dress : but since it pleased him to go one button less through studied carelessness, she let him have his way ; and as for everything else, she kept her word to his aunt, and saw that he wanted for nothing, serving him with perpetual thoughtfulness and swift capacity. Little passed between them except a good- natured word or two from him and her courteous answer, but she could read him as a book, and when he came home that day from Muirtown she saw he was changed. He was slightly flushed, and he could not sit still, wandering in and out his study till dinner-time. He allowed the soup to cool, and when she came in with sweets he had barely touched his cutlet. ' It is the sauce you like, sir,' with some re- proach in her voice. * So it is, Sarah — and first-rate.' Then he added A WOMAN OF THE NEW DISPENSATION 115 suddenly, * Can you put a button on this coat to- night, and give it a good brush ?' In the evening Sarah went down to post a letter, and heard the talk, how Miss Carnegie had come home with the General, and was worthy of her house ; how the minister also had driven up with her from Muirtown ; and on her return she did her best by the coat, handling it very kindly, and singing softly to herself ' Robin Adair.' Next morning he came down in his blacks — the worst-made suit ever seen on a man, ordered to help a village tailor at his home — and announced his intention of starting after lunch for Saunder- son's manse, beyond Tochty woods, where he would stay all night. • He will call on the way down, and, if he can, coming back,' Sarah said to herself, as she watched him go, * but it 's a pity he should go in such a coat; it might have been put together with a pitchfork. It only makes the difference greater, and 'tis wider than he knows already. And yet a woman can marry beneath her without loss ; but for a man it is ruin.' She went up to his room and made it neat, which was ever in disorder on his leaving, and then she went to a western window and looked into the far distance. A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION Every Sabbath at eleven o'clock, or as soon thereafter as the people were seated — considera- tion was always shown to distant figures coming down from the high glen — Carmichael held what might be called High Mass in the Free Kirk. Nothing was used in praise but the Psalms of David, with an occasional Paraphrase, sanctioned by usage and sound teaching. The prayers were expected to be elaborate in expression and care- ful in statement, and it was then that they prayed for the Queen and Houses of Parliament. And the sermon was the event to which the efforts of the minister, and the thoughts of the people, had been moving for the whole week. No person was absent, except through sore sickness, or urgent farm duty ; nor did rain or snow reduce the con- gregation by more than ten people, very old or very young. Carmichael is now minister of a West End kirk, and, it is freely rumoured in Drum- tochty, has preached before Lords of Session ; but he has never been more nervous than facing A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 117 that handful of quiet, impenetrable, critical faces in his first kirk. When the service was over, the people broke into little bands that disappeared along the west road, and over the moor, and across the Tochty. Carmichael knew each one was re- viewing his sermon, head by head, and, pacing his garden, he remembered the missing points with dismay. It was the custom of the Free Kirk minister to go far afield of a summer evening, and to hold informal services in distant parts of the parish. This was the joy of the day to him, who was really very young, and hated all conventionalities, even unto affectation. He was never weary of complaining that he had to wear a gown, which was continually falling back, and being hitched over with impatient motions, and the bands, which he could never tie, and were, he explained to a horrified beadle in Muirtown, an invention of Satan to disturb the preacher's soul before his work. Once, indeed, he dared to appear without his trappings, on the plea of heat, but the visible dismay and sorrow of the people were so great — some failing to find the Psalm till the first verse had been sung — that he perspired freely, and for- got the middle head of his discourse. 'It's a mercy,' remarked Mrs. Macfadyen to Burnbrae afterwards, 'that he didna play that trick when there wes a bairn tae be baptized. It ii8 KATE CARNEGIE wudna hae been lichtsome for its fouk ; a'body wants a properly ordained minister. Ye '11 gie him a hint, Burhbrae, for he 's young and forder- some (rash), but gude stuff for a' his pliskies (frolics).' No one would have liked to see the sacred robes in the places of evening worship, and Car- michael threw all forms to the winds — only drawing the line, with great regret and some searchings of heart, at his tweed jacket. His address for these summer evening gatherings he studied as he went through the fragrant pine-woods or over the moor by springy paths that twisted through the heather, or along near cuts that meant leaping little burns and climbing dykes, whose top stones were apt to follow your heels with embarrassing attachment. Here and there the minister would stop as a trout leapt in a pool, or a flock of wild duck crossed the sky to Loch Sheuchie, or the cattle thrust inquisi- tive noses through some hedge, as a student snatches a mouthful from some book in passing. For these walks were his best study ; when thinking of his people in their goodness and simplicity, and touched by nature at her gentlest, he was freed from many vain ideas of the schools and from artificial learning, and heard the Galilean speak as He used to do among the fields of corn. He came on people going in the same direction, but they only saluted, refraining even from the A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 119 weather, since the minister's thoughts must not be disturbed, and they were amazed to notice that he stooped to pluck a violet in the wood. His host would come a little way to meet him and explain the arrangements that had been made for a kirk. Sometimes the meeting-place was the granary of the farm, with floor swept clean and the wooden shutters opened for light, where the minister preached against a mixed background of fanners, corn measures, piles of sacks, and spare implements of the finer sort ; and the congregation, who had come up a ladder cautiously like hens going to roost — being severally warned about the second highest step — sat on bags stuffed with straw, boards resting on upturned pails, while a few older folk were accommodated with chairs, and some youngsters disdained not the floor. It was pleasanter in the barn, a cool, lofty, not un- impressive place of worship, with its mass of golden straw and its open door through which various kindly sounds of farm life came in and strange visitors entered. The collies, most sociable of animals, would saunter in and make friendly advances to Carmichael reading a chap- ter; then, catching their master's eye, and de- tecting no encouragement, would suddenly realise that they were at kirk, and compose themselves to sleep — 'juist like ony Christian,' as Hillocks I20 KATE CARNEGIE once remarked with envy, his own plank allowing no liberties — and never taking any part except in a hymn like ' See the mighty host advancing, Satan leading on,' which they regarded as recreation rather than worship. It was also recalled for years that a pet lamb came into Donald Menzies's barn and wandered about for a while, and Carmichael told that pretty legend of St. Francis, how he saw a white lamb among the kids, and burst into tears at the sight, because it reminded him of Jesus among the sinners. Indeed, these services were very ex- temporaneous, with hymns instead of psalms, and sermons without divisions. Carmichael also allowed himself illustrations from the life around, and even an anecdote at a time, which was all the more keenly relished that it would have been considered a confession of weakness in a regular sermon. He has been heard to say that he came nearer the heart of things once or twice in the barns than he has ever done since, not even excepting that famous course of sermons every one talked about last year, the Analysis of Doubt, which almost converted two professors to Christianity, and were heard by the editor of the Caledonian in the disguise of a street preacher. It was also pleasantly remembered A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 121 for long in the parish that Dr. Davidson appeared one evening in Donald Menzies's barn and joined affably in 'The Sweet By-and-By.' Afterwards, being supplied with a large arm-chair, he heard the address with much attention — nodding approval four times, if not five — and pronouncing the benediction with such impressiveness that Donald felt some hesitation in thrashing his last stack in the place next day. The Doctor followed up this visit with an exhortation from the pulpit on the following Sabbath, in which he care- fully distinguished such services by an ordained minister, although held in a barn, from unlicensed Plymouthistic gatherings held in corn -rooms — this at Milton's amateur efforts — and advised his people in each district to avail themselves of 'my friend Mr. Carmichael's excellent minis- trations,' which Papal Bull, being distributed to the furthest corner of the parish before nightfall, greatly lifted the Free Kirk and sweetened the blood of the Glen for years. It seemed to me, watching things in Drumtochty during those days with an impartial mind, that the Doctor, with his care for the poor, his sympathy for the oppressed, his interest in everything human, his shrewd, practical wisdom, and his wide toleration, was the very ideal of the parish clergyman. He showed me much courtesy while I lived in the Cottage, although I did not belong to his com- 122 KATE CARNEGIE munion ; and as my imagination re-constructs the old parish of a winter night by the fire, I miss him as he used to be on the road, in the people's homes, in his pulpit, among his books — ever an honourable and kind-hearted gentleman. One evening a woman came into Donald Menzies's barn just before the hour of service, elderly, most careful in her widow's dress, some- what austere in expression, but very courteous in her manner. No one recognised her at the time, but she was suspected to be the forerunner of the Carnegie household, and Donald offered her a front seat. She thanked him for his good- will, but asked for a lower place, greatly delighting him by a reference to the parable wherein the Master rebuked the ambitious Pharisees who scrambled for chief seats. Their accent showed of what blood they both were, and that their Gaelic had still been mercifully left them, but they did not use it because of their perfect breeding, which taught them not to speak a foreign tongue in this place. So the people saw Donald offer her a hymn-book and heard her reply : ' It iss not a book that I will be using, and it will be a peety to take it from other people ' ; nor would she stand at the singing, but sat very rigid and with closed lips. When Carmichael, who had a pleasant tenor voice and a good ear, sang a A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 123 solo, then much tasted in such meetings, she arose and left the place, and the minister thought he had never seen anything more uncompromising than her pale, set face. It was evident that she was Free Kirk and of the Highland persuasion, which was once over- praised and then has been over-blamed, but is never understood by the Lowland mind ; and as Carmichael found that she had come to live in a cottage at the entrance to the Lodge, he looked in on his way home. She was sitting at a table reading the Bible, and her face was more hostile than in the meeting; but she received him with much politeness, dusting a chair and praying him to be seated. ' You have just come to the district to reside, I think ? I hope you will like our Glen.' 'Itwasshere that I lived long ago, but I hef been married and away with my mistress many years, and there are not many that will know me.' 'But you are not of Drumtochty blood?' in- quired the minister. * There iss not one drop of Sassenach blood in my veins ' — this with a sudden flash. ' I am a Macpherson and my husband was a Macpherson ; but we hef served the house of Carnegie for four generations.' * You are a widow, I think, Mrs. Macpherson ? ' 124 KATE CARNEGIE and Carmichael's voice took a tone of sympathy, * Have you any children ? ' ' My husband iss dead and I had one son, and he iss dead also ; that iss all, and I am alone ' ; but in her voice there was no weakening. ' Will you let me say how sorry I am ? ' pleaded Carmichael ; ' this is a great grief, but I hope you have consolations.' ' Yes, I will be having many consolations ; they both died like brave men with their face to the enemy. There were six that did not feel fery well before Ian fell ; he could do good work with the sword as well as the bayonet, and he wass not bad with the dirk at a time.' Neither this woman nor her house was like anything in Drumtochty ; for in it there was a buffet for dishes, and a carved chest and a large chair, all of old black oak ; and above the mantel- piece two broadswords were crossed, with a circle of war medals beneath on a velvet ground, flanked by two old pistols. ' I suppose those arms have belonged to your people, Mrs. Macpherson ; may I look at them ? ' * They are not anything to be admiring, and it wass not manners that I should hef been boasting of my men. It iss a pleasant evening and good for walking.' * You were at the meeting, I think ? ' and Carmichael tried to get nearer this iron woman. A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 125 ' We were sorry you had to go out before the end. Did you not feel at home ? ' ' I will not be accustomed to the theatre, and I am not liking it instead of the church.' 'But surely there was nothing worse in my singing alone than praying alone?' and Carmichael began to argue like a Scotsman, who always fancies that people can be convinced by logic, and forgets that many people, Celts in especial, are ruled by their heart and not by their head ; * do you see anything wrong in one praising God aloud in a hymn, as the Virgin Mary did ? ' ' It iss the Virgin Mary you will be coming to next, no doubt, and the Cross and the Mass, like the Catholics, although I am not saying anything against them, for my mother's cousins four times removed were Catholics, and fery good people. But I am a Presbyterian, and do not want the Virgin Mary.' Carmichael learned at that moment what it was to argue with a woman, and he was to make more discoveries in that department before he came to terms with the sex ; and he would have left in despair had it not been for an inspiration of his good angel. ' Well, Mrs. Macpherson, I didn't come to argue about hymns, but to bid you welcome to the Glen and to ask for a glass of water, for preaching is thirsty work.' 126 KATE CARNEGIE 'It iss black shame I am crying on myself for sitting here and offering you neither meat nor drink,' and she was stung with regret in an instant. * It iss a little spirits you will be tasting, and this iss Talisker which I will be keeping for a friend, for whisky iss not for women.' She was full of attention, but when Carmichael took milk instead of whisky, her suspicions re- vived, and she eyed him again. 'You are not one of those new people I am hearing of in the Lowlands that are wiser than the fery Apostles ? ' 'What people?' and Carmichael trembled for his new position. ' " Total abstainers " they will call themselves,' and the contempt in her accent was wonderful. 'No, I am not,' Carmichael hastened to re- assure his hostess ; ' but there are worse people than abstainers in the world, and it would be better if we had a few more. I will stick to the milk, if you please.' ' You will take what you please,' and she was again mollified ; * but the great ministers always had their tasting after preaching ; and I hef heard one of them say that it wass a sin to despise the Lord's mercies. You will be taking another glass of milk and resting a little.' 'This hospitality reminds me of my mother, Mrs. Macpherson.' Carmichael was still inspired, A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 127 and was, indeed, now in full sail. ' She was a Highland woman, and had the Gaelic. She sometimes called me Ian instead of John.' * When you wass preaching about the shepherd finding the sheep, I wass wondering how you had the way to the heart, and I might have been thinking, oh yes, I might hef known ' — all the time Janet was ever bringing something new out of the cupboard, though Carmichael only sipped the milk. ' And what wass your mother's name?' * Farquharson ; her people came from Braemar; but they are all dead now, and I am the last of the race.' * A good clan,' cried Janet, in great spirits, * and a loyal ; they were out with the Macphersons in the '45. Will you happen to know whether your ancestor suffered ? ' 'That he did, for he shot an English officer dead on his doorstep, and had to flee the country ; it was not a pretty deed.' * Had the officer broken bread with him ? ' in- quired Janet anxiously. ' No, he had come to quarter himself and his men on him, and said something rude about the Prince.' ' Your ancestor gave him back his word like a gentleman ; but he would maybe hef to stay away for a while. Wass he of the chief's blood ? ' 128 KATE CARNEGIE ' Oh no, just a little laird, and he lost his bit of land, and we never saw the place again.' ' He would be a Dunniewassal, and proud it iss I am to see you in my house ; and the Gaelic, will you hef some words ? ' 'Just the sound of it, Mrs. Macpherson,' and he repeated his three sentences, all that he had learned of his mother, who had become a Scots- woman in her speech. ' Call me Janet, my dear ; and it iss the good Gaelic your mother must have had, and it makes my heart glad to think my minister iss a Far- quharson, by the mother's side.' 'We sing nothing but Psalms at church, Mrs. — Janet, so you will be pleased, and we stand to pray and sit to sing.' ' Tuts, tuts, I am not minding about a bit hime at a time from a friend, but it iss those Low- landers meddling with everything I do not like, and I am hoping to hear you sing again, for it wass a fery pretty tune ' ; and the smith, passing along the road when Carmichael left that evening, heard Janet call him 'my dear,' and invoke a thousand blessings on his head. When he called again in the end of the week to cement the alliance and secure her presence on Sabbath, Janet was polishing the swords, and was willing enough to give their history. 'This waas my great-grandfather's, and these A WOMAN OF THP: OLD DISPENSATION 129 two nicks in the blade were made on the dragoons at Prestonpans ; and this wass my husband's sword, for he wass sergeant-major before he died, a fery brave man, good at the fighting and the praying too. ' Maybe I am wrong, and I do not know what you may be thinking, but things come into my mind when I am reading the Bible, and I will be considering that it wass maybe not so good that the Apostles were fishing-people.' * What ails you at fishermen, Janet ? ' ' Nothing at all but one thing ; they are clever at their nets and at religion, but I am not hearing that they can play with the sword or the dirk. * It wass a fery good intention that Peter had that night, no doubt, and I will be liking him for it when he took his sword to the policeman, but it wass a mighty poor blow. If Ian or his father had got as near as that, it would not have been an ear that would have been missing.' ' Perhaps his head,' suggested Carmichael. ' He would not have been putting his nose into honest people's business again, at any rate,' and Janet nodded her head as one who could see a downright blow that left no regrets ; ' it hass always made me ashamed to read about that ear. * It wass not possible, and it iss maybe no good speaking about it now' — Janet felt she had a minister now she could open her mind to, — ' but I I30 KATE CARNEGIE it would lief been better if our Lord could hef had twelve Macphersons for His Apostles.' ' You mean they would have been more brave and faithful ? ' * There wass a price of six thousand pounds, or it might be four, put on Cluny's head after Cul- loden, and the English soldiers were all up and down the country, but I am not hearing that any clansman betrayed his chief. 'Thirty pieces of silver wass a fery small re- ward for such a dirty deed, and him one of the Chief's tail too ; it wass a mistake to be trusting to fisher-folk instead of Glen's men. ' There iss something I hef wished,' concluded Janet, who seemed to have given her mind to the whole incident, 'that Peter or some other man had drawn his skean-dhu and slippit it quietly into Judas. We would hef been respecting him fery much to-day, and it would hef been a good lesson — oh yes, a fery good lesson — to all traitors.' As they got more confidential, Janet began to speak of signs and dreams, and Carmichael asked her if she had the second sight. ' No ; it iss not a lie I will be telling you, my dear, nor will I be boasting. I have not got it, nor had my mother ; but she heard sounds, oh yes, and knew what wass coming to pass. * " Janet," she would say, " I have heard the knock three times at the head of the bed ; it will A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 131 be your Uncle Alister, and I must go to see him before he dies." ' * And was she ' ' Oh yes, she wass in time, and he wass expect- ing her ; and once she saw the shroud begin to rise on her sister, but no more ; it never covered the face before her eyes ; but the knock, oh yes, many times.' * Have you known any one that could tell what was happening at a distance, and gave warning of danger?' for the latent Celt was awakening in Carmichael, with his love of mystery and his sense of the unseen. * Listen, my dear ' — Janet lowered her voice as one speaking of sacred things — 'and I will tell you of Ina Macpherson, who lived to a hundred and two, and had the vision clear and sure. * In the great war with Russia I wass staying in the clachan of my people, and then seven lads of our blood were with the Black Watch, and every Sabbath the minister would pray for them and the rest of the lads from Badenoch that were away at the fighting. ' One day Ina came into my sister's house, and she said, " It iss danger that I am seeing," and my heart stood still in my bosom for fear that it wass my own man Hamish. ' " No," and she looked at me, " not yet, and not to-day," but more she would not say about him. 132 KATE CARNEGIE " Is it my son Ronald?" my sister cried, and Ina only looked before her. " It 's a sore travail, and round a few black tartans I see many men in grey, pressing them hard ; ochone, ochone ! " ' " It 's time to pray," I said ; and there wass a man in the clachan that wass mighty in prayer, and we gathered into his kitchen, four-and-twenty women and four men, and every one had a kins- man in the field. * It iss this minute that I hear Dugald crying to the Almighty, " Remember our lads, and be their help in the day of battle, and give them the necks of their enemies," and he might be wrestling for half an hour, when Ina rose from her knees and said, " The prayer is answered, for the tartans have the field, and I see blood on Ronald, but it is not his own." ' ' And did you ever hear ' 'Wait, my dear, and I will tell you, for the letter came from my nephew, and this is what he wrote : — '"It wass three to one, and the gloom came on me, for I thought that I would never see Glen- feshie again, nor the water of the loch, nor the deer on the side of the hill. Then I wass suddenly strengthened with all might in the inner man, and it iss five Russians that I hef killed to my own hands." 'And so it wass, and a letter came from his A WOMAN OF THE OLD DISPENSATION 133 captain, who wass of Cluny's blood, and it will be read in church, and a fery proud woman wass my sister.' These were the stories that Janet told to her minister in the days before the Carnegies came home, as well as afterwards, and so she prepared him to be an easier prey to a soldier's daughter. A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE They met under the arch of the gate, and Car- michael returned with the Carnegies, Kate making much of him, and insisting that he should stay to luncheon. ' You are our first visitor, Mr. Carmichael, and the General says that we need not expect more than six, so we mean to be very kind to them. Do you live far from here ? ' * Quite near — ^just two miles west. I happened to be passing ; in fact, I 'm going down to the next parish, and I ... I thought that I would like to call and . . . and bid you welcome ' ; for Carmichael had not yet learned the art of conver- sation, which stands mainly in touching details lightly and avoiding the letter I. * It is very cruel of you to be so honest and dispel our flattering illusions ' — Kate marvelled at his mendacity ; — * we supposed you had come " anes errand " — I 'm picking up Scotch — to call on your new neighbours. Does the high road pass the Lodge ? ' * Oh no ; the road is eight miles further ; but 134 A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 135 the Drumtochty people take the near way through the woods ; it 's also much prettier. I hope you will not forbid us, General ; two people a week is all the traffic' ' Forbid them — not I,' said Carnegie, laughing. ' A man is not born and bred in this parish with- out learning some sense. It would be a right-of- way case, and Drumtochty would follow me from court to court, and would never rest till they had gained or we were all ruined. ' Has it ever struck you, Mr. Carmichael, that one of the differences between a Highlander and a Scot is that each has got a pet enjoyment? With the one it 's a feud, and with the other it 's a lawsuit. A Scot dearly loves a " ganging plea." ' No, no : Tochty woods will be open so long as Kate and I have anything to say in the matter. The Glen and our people have not had the same politics, but we 've lived at peace, as neighbours ought to do, with never a lawsuit even to give a fillip to life.' ' So you see, Mr. Carmichael/ said Kate, ' you may come and go at all times through our terri- tory ; but it would be bare courtesy to call at the Lodge for afternoon tea.' ' Or tiffin,' suggested the General ; ' and we can always offer curry, as you see. My daughter has a capital recipe she wiled out of an old Hindoo rascal that cooked for our mess. You really 136 KATE CARNEGIE need not take it on that account,' as Carmichael was doing his best in much misery : * it is only- meant to keep old Indians in fair humour — not to be a test of good manners. By the way, Janet has been sounding your praises ; how have you won her heart?' * Oh, very easily — by having some drops of Highland blood in my veins ; and so I am for- given all my faults, and am credited with all sorts of excellences.' * Then the Highlanders are as clannish as ever,' cried the General. ' Scotland has changed so much in the last half-century that the Highlanders might have become quite unsentimental and matter-of-fact. 'Lowland civilisation only crossed the High- land line after '45, and it will take more than a hundred and thirty years to recast a Celt. Scottish education and theology are only a veneer on him, and below he has all his old instincts. ' So far as I can make out, a Celt will rather fish than plough, and be a gamekeeper than a workman ; but if he be free to follow his own way, a genuine Highlander would rather be a soldier than any- thing else under the sun.' * What better could a man be ? ' and Kate's eyes sparkled ; ' they must envy the old times when their fathers raided the Lowlands and came home A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 137 with the booty. It's a pity everybody is so respectable now, don't you think ? ' ' Certainly the police are very meddlesome,' and Carmichael now devoted himself to Kate, with- out pretence of including the General ; ' but the spirit is not dead. A Celt is the child of gener- ations of cattle-stealers, and the raiding spirit is still in the blood. May I offer an anecdote ? ' * Six, if you have got so many, and they are all about Highlanders,' and Kate leant forward and nursed her knee, for they had gone into the library. ' Last week I was passing the cattle-market in Edinburgh, and a big Highland drover stopped me, begging for a little money. ' " It iss from Lochaber I hef come with some beasties, and to-morrow I will be walking back all the way, and it iss this night I hef no bed. I wass considering that the gardens would be a good place for a night, but they are telling me that the police will be disturbing me." * He looked so simple and honest that I gave him half a crown and said that I was half a Highlander. I have three Gaelic sentences, and I reeled them off with my best accent. ' " Got forgive me," he said, " for thinking you to be a Sassenach body, and taking your money from you. You are a fery well-made man, and here iss your silver piece, and may you always hef one in your pocket." 138 KATE CARNEGIE • " But what about your bed ? " '"Tuts, tuts! that will be all right, for I hef maybe got some six or five notes of my own that were profit on the beasties ; but it iss a pity not to be taking anything that iss handy when a body happens to be in the south." ' ' Capital ! ' Kate laughed merrily, and her too rare laugh I used to think the gayest I ever heard. ' It was the only opportunity left him of following his fathers. What a fine business it must have been, starting from Braemar one afternoon, a dozen men well armed, and getting down to Strathmore in the morning ; then lying hid in some wood all day, and collecting a herd of fat cattle in the evening, and driving them up Glen Shee, not knowing when there might be a fight.' ' Hard lines on the Scottish farmers. Kit, who might be very decent fellows, to lose their cattle or get a cut from a broadsword.' ' Oh, they had plenty left ; and seriously, dad, without joking, you know, what better could a Presbyterian Lowlander do than raise good beef for Highland gentlemen ? Mr. Carmichael, I beg pardon ; you seem so good a Celt that I forgot you were not of our faith.' ' We are not Catholics,' the General explained gravely, ' although many of our blood have been, and my daughter was educated in a convent. We A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 139 belong to the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and will go into Muirtown at a time, but mostly we shall attend the kirk of my old friend Dr. Davidson. Every man is entitled to his faith, and Miss Carnegie rather ' 'Forgot herself.' Kate came to her father's relief. * She often does ; but one thing Miss Carnegie remembers, and that is that General Carnegie likes his cheroot after tiffin. Do you smoke, Mr. Carmichael ? Oh, I am allowed to stay, if you don't object, and have forgiven my rudeness.' * You make too much of a word, Miss Carnegie.' Carmichael was not a man to take offence till his pride was roused. ' Very likely my drover was a true-blue Presbyterian, and his minister as genuine a cateran as himself. * Years ago I made the acquaintance of an old Highland minister called MacTavish, and he sometimes stays with me on his way north in the spring. For thirty years he has started at the first sign of snow, and spent winter spoiling the good people of the south. Some years he has gone home with three hundred pounds.* ' But how does he get the money ? ' inquired the General, ' and what does he use it for ? ' * He told me the history of his campaigns when he passed in March, and it might interest you ; it 's our modern raid, and although it 's not so 140 KATE CARNEGIE picturesque as a foray of the Macphersons, yet it has points, and shows the old spirit lives. * " She wass a goot woman, Janet Cameron, oh yes, Mr. John, a fery exercised woman, and when she wass dying she will be saying peautiful things, and one day she will be speaking of a little field she had beside the church. ' " ' What do you think I should be doing with that piece of ground ? ' she will be saying, * for the end iss not far off, and it iss not earth I can be taking with me, oh no, nor cows.' ' " ' No, Janet,' I said, ' but it iss a nice field, and lies to the sun. It might be doing good after you are gone, if it wass not wasted on your mother's cousins twice removed in Inverness, who will be drinking every drop of it, and maybe going to the Moderate Kirk.' ' " It wass not for two months or maybe six weeks she died, and I will be visiting her every second day. Her experiences were fery good, and I hef told them at sacraments in the north. The people in the south are free with their money, but it iss not the best of my stories that I can give them ; they are too rich for their stomachs. '"Janet will often be saying to me, 'Mister Dugald, it iss a thankful woman that I ought to be, for though I lost my man in the big storm and two sons in the war, I hef had mercies, oh yes. There wass the Almighty and my cow, and A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 141 between them I hef not wanted, oh no : they just did.' ' " ' Janet, you will be forgetting your field that iss lying next the manse, and the people will be thinking that it iss a glebe; but I am telling them that it iss Janet Cameron's, who iss a fery experienced woman, and hass nefer seen the in- side of a Moderate Kirk since the Disruption.' ' " Maybe you will be astonished. Mister John, but when Janet's will will be read that piece of ground wass left to the Free Kirk, which wass fery kind and mindful of Janet, and I made a sermon about her from the text of the * elect lady.' ' " It wass a good field, but it needed a dyke and some drains, and it wass not our people that had the money. So I made another sermon on the text, ' The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it,' and went down to the south. It wass not a dyke and some drains, but enough to build a byre and a stable I came back with. That wass in '55, and before '60 there will be a new manse with twelve rooms that iss good for letting to the English people. But it wass ten years the church needed, and a year for the porch to keep it warm, for I am not liking stoves, and will not hef one in Crianshalloch. '" It iss wonderful how much money the bodies hef in Glasgow, and it iss good for them to be X4» KATE CARNEGIE hearing sound doctrine at a time. There will be no Arminianism when I am preaching, and no joking ; but maybe there will be some parables, oh yes, about the sheep coming in at the manse door for want of a fence, and the snow lying in the pulpit." ' There is a cateran for you, and, mind you, a good fellow too. It's not greed sends him out, but sheer love of spoil. Would you like to see MacTavish next time he passes up with the cattle ? ' for Carmichael was emboldened by the reception of his sketch. ' Nothing we should like better, for the General and I want to know all about Scotland ; but don't you think that those ministers have injured the Highlanders ? Janet, you know, has such gloomy ideas about religion.' * There is no doubt, Miss Carnegie, that a load of Saxon theology has been landed on the Celt, and it has disfigured his religion. Sometimes I have felt that the Catholic of the west is a truer type of northern faith than the Presbyterian of Ross-shire.' * I am so glad to hear you say that,' said Miss Carnegie, * for we had one or two west Catholics in the old regiment, and their superstitions were lovely. You remember, dad, the Maclvers.' 'That was all well enough. Kit, but none of them could get the length of corporal ; they were A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 143 fearfully ignorant, and were reported at intervals for not keeping their accoutrements clean.' 'That only showed how religious they were, didn't it, Mr. Carmichael ? Hadn't the early Christians a rooted objection to the bath? I remember our padre saying that in a lecture.' 'There are a good many modern Christians of the same mind, Miss Carnegie, and I don't think our poor Highlanders are worse than Lowlanders; but Catholic or Protestant, they are all subject to the gloom. I cannot give the Gaelic word. ' What is that ? Oh, a southerner would call it depression, and assign it to the liver, for he traces all trouble to that source. But there is no word for this mood in English, because it is not an English experience. My mother fell under it at times, and I saw the effect.' ' Tell us, please, if all this description does not weary you ? ' and Kate shone on Carmichael, who would have talked on the Council of Nice or the rotation of crops to prolong his privileges. ' It comes on quite suddenly, and is quite a spiritual matter — a cloud which descends and envelops the soul. While it lasts a Highlander will not laugh nor sing ; he will hardly speak, and he loses all hope about everything. One of our men has the gloom at a time, and then he believes that he is . . . damned. I am speaking theologically.' 144 KATE CARNEGIE ' The regiment must have been fond of theology, dad. Yes, we understand.' 'Once he went out to the hill, and \a.y all night wrestling and agonising to be sure whether there was a God. You know he's just a small farmer, and it seems to me splendid that such a man should give himself to the big problems of the universe. Do you know,' and Carmichael turned to the General, who was smoking in great peace, ' I believe that is the reason the Highlanders are such good fighting men. They fear God, and they don't fear any other person.' ' I '11 vouch for one thing,' said the veteran with emphasis ; * our men put off the gloom, or what- ever you call it, when they smelt powder ; I never saw a panic in a Highland regiment in more than forty years' soldiering.' ' What 's the reason of the gloom ? I believe that I have a touch of it myself at times — don't stare at me, dad, it's rude — ^just a thin mist, you know, but distinctly not indigestion. Is it a matter of race ? ' 'Of course, but that's no explanation,' Car- michael had fallen into his debating society style ' I mean one has to go further back ; all our habits are shaped by environment.' ' One moment, please. I have always wanted to ask some clever person what environment meant. I asked Colonel MacLeod once, dad. A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 145 and he said it was out of the new book on tactics, and he was thankful he had retired. Now Mr. Carmichael will make it plain,' and Kate was very demure. * It is rather stupid to use the word so much as people do now,' and Carmichael glanced dubiously at Kate ; ' scientific men use it for circumstances.' 'Is that all? then do, pray, say environment. Such a word introduces one into good society, and gives one the feeling of being well dressed ; now about a Highlander's environment, is it his kilt you are thinking of, or his house, or what ? * ' His country ' — and Carmichael's tone had a slight note of resentment, as of one ruffled by this frivolity — * with its sea-lochs, and glens, and mists. Any one who has been bred and reared at the foot of one of our mountains will have a different nature and religion from one living in Kent or Italy. He has a sense of reverence, and surely that is a good thing.' * Nothing more needed nowadays,' the General broke in with much spirit ; * it seems to me that people nowadays respect nobody, neither the Queen nor Almighty God. As for that man Brimstone, he will never cease till he has ruined the Empire. You needn't look at me, Kate, for Mr. — Carmichael must know this as well as any other sensible man. * Why, sir,' and now the General was on his K 146 KATE CARNEGIE feet, ' I was told on good authority at the club last week by a newspaper man — a monstrously clever man — that Mr, Brimstone, when he is going down to the House of Commons to disestablish the Church, or the army, or something, will call in at a shop and order two hundred silk hats to be sent to his house. What do you call that, sir ? ' ' I should call it a deliberate ' ^ Jeu d esprit. Of course it is, dad,' and Kate threw an appealing glance to Carmichael, who had sprung to his feet and was standing stiffly behind his chair, for he was a fierce Radical. 'Perhaps it was, lassie, — those war correspon- dents used to be sad rascals, — and, at any rate, politics are bad taste. Another cheroot, Mr. Carmichael ? Oh, nonsense ! you must tell my daughter more about your Highlanders. They are a loyal set, at any rate, and we all admire that.' ' Yes, they are,' and Carmichael unbent again, * and will stick by their side whether it be right or wrong. They 're something like a woman in their disposition.' ' Indeed,' said Kate, who did not think Car- michael had responded very courteously to her lead, 'that is very interesting. They are, you mean, full of prejudices and notions, * If a Highlander takes you into his friendship, you may say or do what you like, he will stand by A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 147 you, and although his views are as different from yours as black from white, will swear he agrees with every one. If he 's not your friend, he can see no good in anything you do, although you be on his own side.' ' In fact, he has very little judgment, and no sense of justice ; and I think you said,' Kate went on sweetly, * his nature reminded you of a woman's ? ' * You 're sure that you like cheroots ? ' for the General did not wish this lad. Radical though he was, sacrificed on his first visit ; ' some men are afraid of the opium in them.' 'Please do not interrupt Mr. Carmichael when he is making a capital comparison,' and Kate held him to the point. ' What I intend is really a compliment,' went on Carmichael, * and shows the superior fineness and sensitiveness of a woman's mind.' Kate indicated that she was sure that was his meaning, but waited for details. 'You see,' with the spirit of one still fresh to the pulpit, *a man is slower, and goes by evidence ; a woman is quicker, and goes by her instincts.' ' Like the lower animals,' suggested Kate, sweetly, ' by scent, perhaps. Well ? ' 'You are twisting my words. Miss Carnegie. Carmichael did not like being bantered by this self-possessed young woman. ' Let mc put it this 148 KATE CARNEGIE way. Would a jury of women be as impartial as a jury of men ? Why, a bad-looking man would have no chance, for they would condemn him at once, not for what he did, but for what they imagined he was.' * Which would save a lot of time, and rid society of some precious scoundrels,' with vivid recollec- tions of her own efforts in this direction. * Then you grant that women have some intelligence, although no sense of justice, which is a want?' 'Far brighter than men,' said Carmichael eagerly; 'just consider the difference between a man's and a woman's speech. A man arranges and argues from beginning to end, and is the slave of connection. He will labour every idea to exhaustion before he allows it to escape, and then will give a solemn cough by way of punctuating with a full stop before he goes on to his next point. Of course the audience look at their watches and make for the door.' * What would a woman do ? ' Kate inquired with much interest ' A lady was speaking lately at Muirtown for an orphanage at Ballyskiddle, and described how Patsy was rescued from starvation, and greatly affected us. " Patsy will never want bread again," she concluded, and two bailies wept aloud. 'Then she went on, and it seemed to me a stroke of genius, — "Speaking about Patsy, has A DAUGHTER OF DEBATE 149 any lady present a black dress suitable for a widow woman ? " Before we knew that we had left Patsy the people were in a widow's home, and the bailies were again overcome. I mention them because it is supposed that a bailie is the most important human being in Scotland, and he feels it his duty not to yield to emotion. ' No, a woman speaker never sacrifices her capital ; she carries it with her from England to France in her speech, and recognises no Channel passage. In fact,' and Carmichael plunged into new imagery, ' a man's progress is after the manner of a mole, while a woman flits from branch to branch like a ' ' Squirrel — I know,' came in Kate, getting tired. * Bird, I meant. Why do you say squirrel ? ' and Carmichael looked suspiciously at Kate. 'Because it's such a careless, senseless, irre- sponsible little beast Have you met many women, Mr. Carmichael ? Really they are not all fools, as you have been trying to suggest for the last ten minutes.' * Highlanders are a safer subject of conversation than women,' said the General good-naturedly, as he bade Carmichael good-bye. 'And you must tell us more about them next time you call, which I hope will be soon.' Carmichael halted twice on his way through the woods ; once he stamped his foot and looked ISO KATE CARNEGIE like a man whose pride had been ruffled ; the other time he smiled to himself as one who was thinking of a future pleasure. It was dusk as he crossed Lynedoch Bridge, and he looked down upon the pool below where the trout were leaping. Half an hour passed, and then he started off at high speed for Kilbogie Manse. 'Please God, if I am worthy,' he was saying to himself; 'but I fear she is too high above me every way.' A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN Jeremiah Saunderson had remained in the low estate of a ' probationer ' for twelve years after he left the Divinity Hall, where he was reported so great a scholar that the Professor of Apolo- getics spoke to him deprecatingly, and the Pro- fessor of Dogmatics openly consulted him on obscure writers. He had wooed twenty-three congregations in vain, from churches in the black country, where the colliers rose in squares of twenty, and went out without ceremony, to suburban places of worship where the beadle, after due consideration of the sermon, would take up the afternoon notices and ask that they be read at once for purposes of utility, which that unflinching functionary stated to the minister with accuracy and much faithfulness. Vacant congregations desiring a list of candidates, made one exception, and prayed that Jeremiah should not be let loose upon them, till at last it came home to the unfortunate scholar himself that he was an offence and a by-word. He began to dread the ordeal of giving his name, and, as is still told, 161 152 KATE CARNEGIE declared to a household, living in the fat wheat- lands and without any imagination, that he was called Magor Missabib. When a stranger makes a statement of this kind with a sad seriousness, no one judges it expedient to offer any remark ; but it was skilfully arranged that Missabib's door should be locked from the outside, and one member of the household sat up all night. The sermon next day did not tend to confidence — having seven quotations in unknown tongues, — and the attitude of the congregation was one of alert vigilance ; but no one gave any outward sign of uneasiness, and six able-bodied men, col- lected in a pew below the pulpit, knew their duty in an emergency. Saunderson's election to the Free Church of Kilbogie was therefore an event in the ecclesiasti- cal world, and a consistent tradition in the parish explained its inwardness on certain grounds, com- plimentary both to the judgment of Kilbogie and the gifts of Mr. Saunderson. On Saturday even- ing he was removed from the train by the merest accident, and left the railway station in such a maze of meditation that he ignored the road to Kilbogie altogether, although its sign-post was staring him in the face, and continued his way to Drumtochty. It was half-past nine when Jamie Soutar met him on the high road through our glen, still travelling steadily west, and being A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 153 arrested by his appearance, beguiled Iiim into conversation, till he elicited that Saunderson was minded to reach Kilbogie. For an hour did the wanderer rest in Jamie's kitchen, during which he put Jamie's ecclesiastical history into a state of thorough repair — making seven distinct parallels between the errors that had afflicted the Scottish Church and the early heretical sects, — and then Jamie gave him in charge of a ploughman who was courting in Kilbogie, and was not averse to a journey that seemed to illustrate the double meaning of charity. Jeremiah was handed over to his anxious hosts at a quarter to one in the morning, covered with mud, somewhat fatigued, but in great peace of soul, having settled the place of election in the prophecy of Habakkuk as he came down with his silent companion through Tochty woods. Nor was that all he had done. When they came out from the shadow and struck into the parish of Kilbogie — whose fields, now yellow unto harvest, shone in the moonlight, — his guide broke silence and enlarged on a plague of field-mice which had quite suddenly appeared, and had sadly devastated the grain of Kilbogie. Saunder- son awoke from study and became exceedingly curious, first of all demanding a particular account of the coming of the mice, their multitude, their habits, and their determination. Then he asked 154 KATE CARNEGIE many questions about the moral conduct and godliness of the inhabitants of Kilbogie, which his companion, as a native of Drumtochty, painted in gloomy colours, although indicating that even in Kilbogie there was a remnant. Next morning the minister rose at daybreak, and was found wandering through the fields in such a state of excitement that he could hardly be induced to look at breakfast. When the 'books' were placed before him, he turned promptly to the ten plagues of Egypt, which he expounded in order as preliminary to a full treatment of the visita- tions of Providence. ' He cowes (beats) a' ye ever saw or heard,' the farmer of Mains explained to the elders at the gate. ' He gaed tae bed at half twa and wes oot in the fields by four, an a 'm dootin' he never saw his bed. He's lifted abune the body a'thegither, an' can hardly keep himsel awa frae the Hebrew at his breakfast. Ye '11 get a sermon the day, or ma name is no Peter Pitillo.' Mains also declared his conviction that the invasion of mice would be dealt with after a scriptural and satisfying fashion. The people went in full of expectation, and to this day old people recall Jeremiah Saunderson's trial sermon with lively admiration. Experienced critics were suspicious of candidates who read lengthy chapters from both Testaments and prayed at length for the A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 155 Houses of Parliament, for it was justly held that no man would take refuge in such obvious devices for filling up the time unless he was short of sermon material. One unfortunate, indeed, ruined his chances at once by a long petition for those in danger on the sea — availing himself with some eloquence of the sympathetic imagery of the one hundred and seventh Psalm, — for this effort was regarded as not only the most barefaced padding, but also as evidence of an almost incredible blind- ness to circumstances. 'Did he think Kilbogie wes a fishing-village ? ' Mains inquired of the elders afterwards, with pointed sarcasm. Kilbogie was not indifferent to a well-ordered prayer — although its palate was coarser in the appreciation of felici- tous terms and allusions than that of Drumtochty — and would have been scandalised if the Queen had been omitted ; but it was by the sermon the young man must stand or fall, and Kilbogie despised a man who postponed the ordeal. Saunderson gave double pledges of capacity and fulness before he opened his mouth in the sermon, for he read no Scripture at all that day, and had only one prayer, which was mainly a statement of the Divine Decrees and a careful confession of the sins of Kilbogie; and then, having given out his text from the prophecy of Joel, he reverently closed the Bible and placed it on the seat behind him. His own reason for this 156 KATE CARNEGIE proceeding was a desire for absolute security in enforcing his subject, and a painful remembrance of the disturbance in a south country church when he landed a Bible — with clasps — on the head of the precentor in the heat of a discourse defending the rejection of Esau. Our best and simplest actions — and Jeremiah was as simple as a babe — can be misconstrued, and the only dissentient from Saunderson's election insisted that the Bible had been deposited on the floor, and asserted that the object of this profanity was to give the preacher a higher standing in the pulpit. This malignant reading of circumstances might have wrought mischief — for Saunderson's gaunt figure did seem to grow in the pulpit — had it not been for the bold line of defence taken up by Mains. ' Gin he wanted tae stand high, wes it no tae preach the word ? an' gin he wanted a soond foundation for his feet, what better could he get than the twa Testaments ? Answer me that' It was seen at once that no one could answer that, and the captious objector never quite recovered his position in the parish, while it is not the least of Kilbogie's boasting, in which the Auld Kirk will even join against Drumtochty, that they have a minister who not only does not read his sermons and does not need to quote his texts, but carries the whole book in at least three A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 157 languages in his head, and once, as a proof thereof, preached with it below his feet. Much was to be looked for from such a man ; but even Mains, whetted by intercourse with Saunderson, was astonished at the sermon. It was a happy beginning to draw a parallel between the locusts of Joel and the mice of Kilbogie, and gave the preacher an opportunity of describing the appearance, habits, and destruction of the locusts, which he did solely from Holy Scripture, translating various passages afresh, and combin- ing lights with marvellous ingenuity. This brief preface of half an hour, which was merely a stimulant for the Kilbogie appetite, led up to a thorough examination of physical judgments, during which both Bible and Church history were laid under liberal contribution. At this point the minister halted, and complimented the congrega- tion on the attention they had given to the facts of the case, which were his first head, and suggested that before approaching the doctrine of visitations they might refresh themselves with a Psalm. The congregation were visibly im- pressed, and many made up their minds while singing * That man hath perfect blessedness ' ; and while others thought it due to themselves to suspend judgment till they had tasted the doc- trine, they afterwards confessed their confidence. iS8 KATE CARNEGIE It goes without saying that he was immediately beyond the reach of the ordinary people on the second head, and even veterans in theology panted after him in vain, so that one of the elders, nodding assent to an exposure of the Manichaean heresy, suddenly blushed as one who had played the hypocrite. Some professed to have noticed a doctrine that had not been touched upon, but they never could give it a name, and it excited just admiration that a preacher, starting from a plague of mice, should have made a way by strictly scientific methods into the secret places of theology. Saunderson allowed his hearers a brief rest after the second head, and cheered them with the assurance that what was still before them would be easy to follow. It was the appli- cation of all that had gone before to the life of Kilbogie, and the preacher proceeded to convict the parish under each of the ten commandments — with the plague of mice ever in reserve to silence excuses — till the delighted congregation could have risen in a body and taken Saunderson by the hand for his fearlessness and faithfulness. Perhaps the extent and thoroughness of this monumental sermon can be best estimated by the fact that Claypots, father of the present tenant, who always timed his rest to fifty minutes exactly, thus overseeing both the introduction and application of the sermon, had a double A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 159 portion, and even a series of supplementary dozes, till at last he sat upright through sheer satiety. It may also be offered as evidence that the reserve of peppermint held by mothers for their bairns was pooled, doles being furtively passed across pews to conspicuously needy fami- lies, and yet the last had gone before Saunderson finished. Mains reported to the congregational meeting that the minister had been quiet for the rest of the day, but had offered to say something about Habakkuk to any evening gathering, and had cleared up at family worship some obscure points in the morning discourse. He also informed the neighbours that he had driven his guest all the way to Muirtown, and put him in an Edinburgh carriage with his own hands, since it had emerged that Saunderson, through absence of mind, had made his down journey by the triangular route of Dundee. It was quite impossible for Kilbogie to conceal their pride in electing such a miracle of learning, and their bearing in Muirtown was distinctly changed ; but indeed they did not boast vainly about Jeremiah Saunderson, for his career was throughout on the level of that monu- mental sermon. When the Presbytery in the gaiety of their heart examined Saunderson to ascertain whether he was fully equipped for the work of the ministry, he professed the whole i6o KATE CARNEGIE Old Testament in Hebrew, and MacWheep of Pitscowrie, who always asked the candidate to read the twenty-third Psalm, was beguiled by Jeremiah into the Book of Job, and reduced to the necessity of asking questions by indicating verbs with his finger. His Greek examination led to an argument between Jeremiah and Dr. Dowbiggin on the use of the aorist, from which the minister-elect of Kilbogie came out an easy first; and his sermons were heard to within measurable distance of the second head by an exact quorum of the exhausted court, who were kept by the clerk sitting at the door, and pre- venting MacWheep escaping. His position in the court was assured from the beginning, and fulfilled the function of an Encyclopsedia, with occasional amazing results, as when information was asked about some Eastern sect for whose necessities the Presbytery were asked to collect, and to whose warm piety affecting allusion was made, and Jeremiah showed clearly, with the reporters present, that the Cappadocians were guilty of a heresy beside which Morisonianism was an unsullied whiteness. His work as ex- aminer-in-general for the court was a merciful failure, and encouraged the students of the district to return to their district court, who, on the rumour of him, had transferred themselves in a body to a Highland Presbytery, where the A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN i6i standard question in Philosophy used to be, 'How many horns has a dilemma, and distin- guish the one from the other.' No man knew what the minister of Kilbogie might not ask — he was only perfectly certain that it would be beyond his knowledge; but as Saunderson always gave the answer himself in the' end, and im- puted it to the student, anxiety was reduced to a minimum. Saunderson, indeed, was in the custom of passing all candidates and reporting them as marvels of erudition, whose only fault was a becoming modesty — which, however, had not concealed from his keen eye hidden treasures of learning. Beyond this sphere the good man's services were not used by a body of shrewd ecclesiastics, as the inordinate length of an ordination sermon had ruined a dinner pre- pared for the court by ' one of our intelligent and large-hearted laymen,' and it is still pleasantly told how Saunderson was invited to a congre- gational soiree — an ancient meeting, where the people ate oranges, and the speaker rallied the minister on being still unmarried — and discoursed, as a carefully chosen subject, on the Jewish feasts, — with illustrations from the Talmud, — till some one burst a paper-bag and allowed the feelings of the people to escape. When this history was passed round Muirtown Market, Kilbogie thought still more highly of their L i62 KATE CARNEGIE minister, and indicated their opinion of the other parish in severely theological language. Saunderson's reputation for unfathomable learn- ing and saintly simplicity was built up out of many incidents, and grew with the lapse of years to a solitary height in the big strath, so that no man would have dared to smile had the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie appeared in Muirtown in his shirt-sleeves, and Kilbogie would only have been a trifle more conceited. Truly he was an amazing man, and, now that he is dead and gone, the last of his race, I wish some man of his pro- fession had written his life, for the doctrine he taught and the way he lived will not be believed by the new generation. The arrival of his goods was more than many sermons to Kilbogie, and I had it from Mains' own lips. It was the kindly fashion of those days that the farmers carted the new minister's furniture from the nearest railway station, and as the railway to Kildrummie was not yet open, they had to go to Stormont Station on the north line ; and a pleasant procession they made passing through Pitscowrie, ten carts in their best array, and drivers with a semi-festive air. Mr. Saunderson was at the station, having reached it, by some miracle, without mistake, and was in a condition of abject nervousness about the handling and conveyance of his belongings. 'You will be careful — exceeding careful,' he A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 163 implored ; * if one of the boxes were allowed to descend hurriedly to the ground, the result to what is within would be disastrous. I am much afraid that the weight is considerable, but I am ready to assist ' ; and he got ready. 'Dinna pit yirsel intae a feery-farry (commo- tion) ' — but Mains was distinctly pleased to see a little touch of worldliness, just enough to keep the new minister in touch with humanity. ' It '11 be queer stuff oor lads canna lift, an' a '11 gie ye a warranty that the '11 no be a cup o' the cheeny broken ' ; and then Saunderson conducted his congregation to the siding. 'Dod, man,' remarked Mains to the station- master, examining a truck with eight boxes ; * the manse '11 no want for dishes at ony rate. But let 's start on the furniture ; whar hae ye got the rest o' the plenishing ? * Naething mair? havers, man, ye dinna mean tae say they pack beds an' tables in boxes ; a' doot there 's a truck missin'.' Then Mains went over where the minister was fidgeting beside his possessions. *No, no,' said Saunderson, when the situation was put before him, ' it 's all here. I counted the boxes, and I packed every box myself. That top one contains the fathers — deal gently with it ; and the Reformation divines are just below it. Books are easily injured, and they feel it. I do 1 64 KATE CARNEGIE believe there is a certain life in them, and , . . and . . . they don't like being ill-used,' and Jeremiah looked wistfully at the ploughmen. * Div ye mean tae say,' as soon as Mains had recovered, 'that ye've brocht naethin' for the manse but bukes, naither bed nor bedding? Keep's a',' as the situation grew upon him, ' whar are ye tae sleep, and what are ye tae sit on ? An' div ye never eat ? This croons a' ; ' and Mains gazed at his new minister as one who supposed that he had taken Jeremiah's measure and had failed utterly. ^ Mea culpa — it's . . . my blame,' and Saunderson was evidently humbled at this public exposure of his incapacity ; * some slight furnishing will be expedient, even necessary, and I have a plan for book-shelves in my head ; it is ingenious and convenient, and if there is a worker in wood . . .* ' Come awa tae the dog-cart, sir,' said Mains, realising that even Kilbogie did not know what a singular gift they had obtained, and that dis- cussion on such sublunary matters as pots and pans was useless, not to say profane. So eight carts got a box each ; one, Jeremiah's ancient kist of moderate dimensions ; and the tenth — that none might be left unrecognised — a hand-bag that had been on the twelve years' probation with its master. The story grew as it passed west- wards, and when it reached us we were given A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 165 to understand that the Free Kirk minister of Kilbogie had come to his parish with his clothing in a paper parcel and twenty-four packing-cases filled with books, in as many languages — half of them dating from the introduction of printing, and fastened by silver clasps, — and that if Drum- tochty seriously desired to hear an intellectual sermon at a time, we must take our way through Tochty woods. Mrs. Pitillo took the minister into her hands, and compelled him to accompany her to Muir- town, where she had him at her will for some time, so that she equipped the kitchen (fully), a dining-room (fairly), a spare bedroom (amply), Mr. Saunderson's own bedroom (miserably), and secured a table and two chairs for the study. This success turned her head. Full of motherly forethought, and having a keen remembrance that probationers always retired in the afternoon at Mains to think over the evening's address, and left an impress of the human form on the bed when they came down to tea, Mrs. Pitillo sug- gested that a sofa would be an admirable addition to the study. As soon as this piece of furniture, of a size suitable for his six feet, was pointed out to the minister, he took fright, and became quite unmanageable. He would not have such an article in his study on any account, partly because it would only feed a tendency to sloth — which, i66 KATE CARNEGIE he explained, was one of his besetting sins — and partly because it would curtail the space avail- able for books, which, he indicated, were the proper furniture of any room, but chiefly of a study. So great was his alarm, that he repented of too early concessions about the other rooms, and explained to Mrs. Pitillo that every inch of space must be rigidly kept for the overflow from the study, which he expected — if he were spared — would reach the garrets. Several times on their way back to Kilbogie, Saunderson looked wist- fully at Mrs. Pitillo, and once opened his mouth as if to speak, from which she gathered that he was grateful for her kindness, but dared not yield any further to the luxuries of the flesh. What this worthy woman endured in securing a succession of reliable housekeepers for Mr. Saunderson and overseeing the interior of that remarkable home she was never able to explain to her own satisfaction, though she made many honest efforts, and one of her last intelligible utterances was a lamentable prophecy of the final estate of the Free Church manse of Kilbogie. Mr. Saunderson himself seemed at times to have some vague idea of her painful services, and once mentioned her name to Carmichael in feeling terms. There had been some delay in providing for the bodily wants of the visitor after his eight miles' walk from Drumtochty, and it seemed likely A SUPRA-LAPSARIAN 167 that he would be obliged to take his meal standing for want of a chair. ' While Mrs. Pitillo lived, I have a strong im- pression, almost amounting to certainty, that the domestic arrangements of the manse were better ordered ; she had the episcopal faculty in quite a conspicuous degree, and was, I have often thought, a woman of sound judgment. * We were not able at all times to see eye to eye, as she had an unfortunate tendency to meddle with my books and papers, and to arrange them after an artificial fashion. This she called tidying, and, in its most extreme form, cleaning. ' With all her excellences, there was also in her what I have noticed in most women, a certain flavour of guile, and on one occasion, when I was making a brief journey through Holland and France in search of comely editions of the fathers, she had the books carried out to the garden and dusted. It was the space of two years before I regained mastery of my library again, and unto this day I cannot lay my hands on the service- book of King Henry VIII., which I had in the second edition, to say nothing of an original edition of Rutherford's Lex Rex. ' It does not become me, however, to reflect on the eff'orts of that worthy matron, for she was by nature a good woman, and if any one could be saved by good works, her place is assured. I was i68 KATE CARNEGIE with her before she died, and her last words to me were, " Tell Jean tae dust yir bukes aince in the sax months, and for ony sake keep ae chair for sittin' on." It was not the testimony one would have desired in the circumstances, but yet, Mr. Carmichael, I have often thought that there was a spirit of ... of unselfishness, in fact, that showed the working of grace.' Later in the same evening Mr. Saunderson's mind returned to his friend's spiritual state, for he entered into a long argument to show that while Mary was more spiritual, Martha must also have been within the Divine Election. IN THE GLOAMING ^ August is our summer-time in the north, and Carmichael found it pleasant walking from Lyne- doch Bridge to Kilbogie. The softness of the gloaming, and the freshness of the falling dew, and the scent of the honeysuckle in the hedge, and the smell of the cut corn in the fields — for harvest is earlier down there than with us, — and the cattle chewing the cud, and the sheltering shadow of old beech-trees, shed peace upon him, and touched the young minister's imagination. Fancies he may have had in early youth, but he had never loved any woman except his mother and his aunt. There had been times when he and his set declared they would never marry, and one, whose heart was understood to be blighted, had drawn up the constitution of a celibate Union. It was never completed — and therefore never signed — because the brotherhood could not agree about the duration of the vows ; the draftsman, who has been twice married since then, standing stiffly for their perpetuity, while the others considered that a dispensing power might be lodged in the Moderator of Assembly. 160 I70 KATE CARNEGIE This railing against marriage on the part of his friends was pure boyishness, and they all were engaged on the mere prospect of a kirk, but Carmichael had more of a mind on the matter. There was in him an ascetic bent, inherited from some Catholic ancestor, and he was almost con- vinced that a minister would serve God with more abandonment in the celibate state. As an only child, and brought up by a mother given to noble thoughts, he had learned to set women in a place by themselves, and considered marriage for ordi- nary men to savour of sacrilege. His mother had bound it as a law upon him that he was never to exercise his tongue on a woman's failings, never to argue with a woman unto her embarrass- ment, never to regard her otherwise than as his superior. Women noticed that Carmichael bore himself to them as if each were a Madonna, and treated him in turn according to their nature. Some were abashed, and could not understand the lad's shyness ; those were saints. Some were amused, and suspected him of sarcasm ; those were less than saints. Some horrified him unto confusion of face because of the shameful things they said. One middle-aged female, whose conver- sation oscillated between physiology and rescue work, compelled Carmichael to sue for mercy on the ground that he had not been accustomed to speak about such details of life with a woman, and IN THE GLOAMING 171 ever afterwards described him as a prude. It seemed to Carmichael that he was disliked by some women because he thought more highly of them than they thought of themselves. Carmichael was much tried by the baser of his fellow-students, especially a certain class of smug, self-contented, unctuous men, who neither had endured hardship to get to college, nor did any work at college. They were described in reports as the ' fruits of the revival,' and had been taken from behind counters and sent to the Uni- versity, not because they had any love of letters, like Domsie's lads at Drumtochty, but because rich old ladies were much impressed by the young men's talk, and the young men were perfectly aware that they would be better off in the ministry than in any situation they could gain by their own merits. As Carmichael grew older, and therefore more charitable, he discovered with what faulty tools the work of the world, and even of kirks, is carried on, and how there is a root of good in very coarse and common souls. When he was a young judge — from whom may the Eternal deliver us all — he was bitter against the 'fruits,' as he called them, because they did their best to escape examinations, and spoke in a falsetto voice, and had no interest in dogs, and because they told in- credible tales of their spiritual achievements. But chiefly did Carmichael's gorge rise against those 172 KATE CARNEGIE unfortunates because of the mean way they spoke of marriage, and on this account, being a high- spirited young fellow, he said things which could hardly be defended, and of which afterwards he honestly repented. ' Yes, religion is profitable for both worlds,* one of them would exhort by the junior common-room fire, ' and if you doubt it, look at me ; five and twenty shillings a week as a draper's assistant was all I had, and no chance of rising. Now I 'm a gentleman ' — here Carmichael used to look at the uncleanly little man and snort, — ' and in two years I could ask any girl in religious society, and she would take me. A minister can marry any woman, if he be evangelical. Ah,' he would conclude, with a fine strain of piety, 'the Gospel is its own reward.' What enraged Carmichael as he listened in the distance to these pseans of pharisaism was the disgusting fact that the ' fruits ' did carry off great spoil in the marriage field, so that to a minister without culture, manners, or manliness, a middle- class family would give their pet daughter, when they would have refused her to a ten times better man fighting his way up in commerce. If she died, then this enterprising buccaneer would achieve a second and third conquest, till in old age he would rival the patriarchs in the number of his wives and possessions. As for the girl, IN THE GLOAMING 173 Carmichael concluded that she was still under the glamour of an ancient superstition, and took the veil after a very commonplace and squalid Protestant fashion. This particular ' fruit ' against whom Carmichael in his young uncharitableness espe- cially raged, because he was more self-complacent and more illiterate than his fellows, married the daughter of a rich, self-made man, and on the father's death developed a peculiar form of throat disease, which laid him aside from the active work of the ministry — a mysterious providence, as he often explained — but allowed him to enjoy life with a guarded satisfaction. What Carmichael said to him about his ways and his Gospel was very unpleasant, and quite unlike Carmichael's kindly nature, but the only revenge the victim took was to state his conviction that Scotland would have nothing to do with a man that was utterly worldly, and in later years to warn vacant churches against one who did not preach the Cross. After one of those common-room encounters, Carmichael used to fling himself out into the east wind and greyness of Edinburgh, fuming against the simplicity of good people, against the provin- cialism of his college, against the pharisaism of his church, against the Philistinism of Scottish life. He would go down to Holyrood and pity Queen Mary, transported from the gay court of France 174 KATE CARNEGIE to Knox's Scotland, divided between theology and bloodshed. In the evening he would sweep his table clean of German books on the Penta- teuch, and cover it with prints of the old masters, which he had begun to collect, and ancient books of Catholic devotion, and read two letters to his mother from her uncle, who had been a Vicar- General, and died in an old Scottish convent in Spain. There was very little in the letters be- yond good wishes, and an account of the Vicar- General's health, but they seemed to link a Free Kirk divinity student on to the Holy Catholic Church, Mother Church cast her spell over his imagination, and he envied the lot of her priests, who held a commission no man denied and ad- ministered a world-wide worship, whom a splendid tradition sanctioned, whom each of the arts hast- ened to aid ; while he was to be the minister of a local sect and work with the ' fruits,' who knew nothing of Catholic Christianity, but supposed their little eddy, whereon they danced like rotten sticks, to be the main stream. Next day a re- action would set in, and Carmichael would have a fit of Bohemianism, and resolve to be a man of letters. So the big books on theology would again be set aside, and he would write an article for Ferrier's Journal^ that kindliest of all journals to the young author, which he would receive back in a week * with thanks.' The Sunday night came, and IN THE GLOAMING 175 Carmichael sat down to write his weekly letter to his mother — she got notes between ; he found them all in her drawers, not a scrap missing, — and as he wrote, his prejudices, and petulances, and fancies, and unrest passed away. Before he had told her all that happened to him during the week — touching gently on the poor Revivalist, although his mother had a saving sense of humour, and was a quite wonderful mimic — and saying nothing of his even- ing with St. Francis de Sales — for this would have alarmed her at once — he knew perfectly well that he would be neither a Roman nor a reporter, but a Free Kirk minister, and was not utterly cast down; for notwithstanding the yeasty commo- tion of youth and its censoriousness, he had a shrewd idea that a man is likely to do his life-work best in the tradition of his faith and blood. Next morning his heart warmed as he went in through the college gates, and he would have defended Knox unto the death, as the maker of Scotland. His fellow-students seemed now a very honest set of men, as indeed they were, although a trifle limited in horizon, and he hoped that one of the 'fruits' was 'satisfied with his Sunday's work,' which shows that as often as a man of twenty-one gets out of touch with reality, he ought straight- way to sit down and write to his mother. Car- michael indeed told me one evening at the Cottage that he never had any mystical call to 176 KATE CARNEGIE the ministry, but only had entered the Divinity Hall instead of going to Oxford, because his mother had this for her heart's desire, and he loved her. As a layman it perhaps did not become me to judge mysteries, but I dared to say that any man might well be guided by his mother in religion, and that the closer he kept to her memory the better he would do his work. After which both of us smoked furiously, and Carmichael, two minutes later, was moved to remark that some Turkish I had then was enough to lure a man up Glen Urtach in the month of December. The young minister was stirred on the way to Kilbogie, and began to dream dreams in the twilight. Love had come suddenly to him, and after an unexpected fashion. Miss Carnegie was of another rank and another faith, nor was she even his ideal woman, neither conspicuously spiritual nor gentle, but frank, outspoken, fearless, self-willed. He could also see that she had been spoiled by her father and his friends, who had given her carte blanche to say and do what she pleased. Very likely — he could admit that even in the first blush of his emotion — she might be passionate and prejudiced on occasion, even a fierce hater. This he had imagined in the Tochty woods, and was not afraid, for her imperfections seemed to him a provocation and an attraction. IN THE GLOAMING 177 They were the defects of her qualities — of her courage, candour, generosity, affection. Car- michacl leant upon a stile, and recalled the carriage of her head, the quick flash of her eye, the tap of her foot, the fascination of her manner. She was free from the affectations, gaucheries, commonplaces, wearinesses of many good women he had known. St. Theresa had been the woman enshrined in the tabernacle of his heart, but life might have been a trifle tiresome if a man were married to a saint. The saints have no humour, and do not relax. Life with a woman like Miss Carnegie would be effervescent and stimulating, full of surprises and piquancy. No, she was not a saint, but he felt by an instinct she was pure, loyal, reverent, and true at the core. She was a gallant lass, and ... he loved her. What an absurdity was this reverie, and Car- michael laughed aloud at himself. Twice he had met Miss Carnegie — on one occasion she had found him watering strange dogs out of his hat, and on the other he had given her to understand that women were little removed from fools. He had made the worst of himself, and this young woman, who had lived with smart people, must have laughed at him. Very likely she had made him into a story, for as a raconteur himself he knew the temptation to work up raw material ; or perhaps Miss Carnegie had forgotten long ago M 178 KATE CARNEGIE that he had called. Suppose that he should call to-morrow on his way home, and say, ' General Carnegie, I think it right to tell you that I admire your daughter very much, and should like your permission to pay my addresses. I am Free Church minister in Drumtochty, and my stipend is ;^200 a year' ... his laugh this time was rather bitter. The Carnegies would be at once admitted into the county set, and he would only meet them at a time. . . . Lord Hay was a hand- some and pleasant young fellow. He would be at Glen Urtach House for the shooting in a few days . . . that was a likely thing to happen . . . the families were old friends . . . there would be great festivities in the Glen . . . perhaps he would be asked to propose the bride's health. ... It really seemed a providence that Saun- derson should come along the road when he was playing the fool like a puling boy, for if any man could give a douche to love-sickness it was the minister of Kilbogie. Carmichael was standing in the shadow as Saunderson came along the road, and the faint light was a perfect atmosphere for the dear old bookman. Standing at his full height he might have been six feet, but, with much poring over books and meditation, he had descended some three inches. His hair was long, not because he made any conscious claim to genius, but because IN THE GLOAMING 179 he forgot to get it cut, and, with his flowing, un- trimmed beard, was now quite grey. Within his clothes he was the merest skeleton, being so thin that his shoulder-blades stood out in sharp out- line, and his hands were almost transparent. The redeeming feature in Saunderson was his eyes, which were large and eloquent, of a trustful, wistful hazel, the beautiful eyes of a dumb animal. Whether he was expounding doctrines of an in- credible disbelief in humanity, or exalting, in rare moments, the riches of a divine love in which he did not expect to share, or humbly beseeching his brethren to give him information on some point in scholarship no one knew anything about except himself, or stroking the hair of some little child sitting upon his knee, those eyes were ever simple, honest, and most pathetic. Young ministers coming to the Presbytery full of self-conceit and new views were arrested by their light shining through the glasses, and came in a year or two to have a profound regard for Saunderson, curiously compounded of amusement at his ways, which for strangeness were quite beyond imagina- tion, admiration for his knowledge, which was amazing for its accuracy and comprehensive- ness, respect for his honesty, which feared no conclusion, however repellent to flesh and blood, but chiefly of love for the unaffected and shining goodness of a man in whose virgin soul neither z8o KATE CARNEGIE self nor this world had any part. For years the youngsters of the Presbytery knew not how to address the minister of Kilbogie, since any one who had dared to call him Saunderson, as they said ' Carmichael,' and even ' MacWheep,' though he was elderly, would have been deposed, without delay, from the ministry — so much reverence at least was in the lads — and ' Mister ' attached to this personality would be like a silk hat on the head of an Eastern sage. Jenkins of Pitrodie always considered that he was inspired when he one day called Saunderson ' Rabbi,' and unto the day of his death Kilbogie was so called. He made protest against the title as being forbidden in the Gospels, but the lads in- sisted that it must be understood in the sense of scholar, whereupon Saunderson disowned it on the ground of his slender attainments. The lads saw the force of this objection, and admitted that the honourable word belonged by rights to Mac- Wheep, but it was their fancy to assign it to Saunderson — whereat Saunderson yielded, only exacting a pledge that he should never be so called in public, lest all concerned be condemned for foolishness. When it was announced that the University of Edinburgh had resolved to confer the degree of D.D. on him for his distinguished learning and great services to theological scholar- ship, Saunderson, who was delighted when Dow- IN THE GLOAMING i8i biggin of Muirtown got the honour for being an ecclesiastic, would have refused it for himself had not his boys gone out in a body and compelled him to accept. They also purchased a Doctor's gown and hood, and invested him. with them in the name of Kilbogie two days before the capping. One of them saw that he was duly brought to the Tolbooth Kirk, where the capping ceremonial in those days took place. Another sent a list of Saunderson's articles to British and foreign theo- logical and philological reviews, which filled half a column of the Caledonian^ and drew forth a complimentary article from that exceedingly able and caustic paper, whose editor lost all his hair through sympathetic emotion the morning of the Disruption, and ever afterwards pointed out the faults of the Free Kirk with much frankness. The fame of Rabbi Saunderson was so spread abroad that a great cheer went up as he came in with the other Doctors elect, in which he cordially joined, considering it to be intended for his neigh- bour, a successful West-end clergyman, the author of a Life of Dorcas and other pleasing booklets. For some time after his boys said 'Doctor' in every third sentence, and then grew weary of a too common title, and fell back on 'Rabbi,' by which he was known until the day of his death, and which is now engraved on his tombstone. The Rabbi was tasting some morsel of literature 1 82 KATE CARNEGIE as he came along, and halted opposite Carmichael, whom he did not see in the shadow, that he might enjoy it aloud. 'That is French verse. Rabbi, I think, but it sounds archaic ; is it from a Huguenot poet?' 'Assuredly,' replied the Rabbi, not one whit astonished that a man should come out from a hedge on Kilbogie road and recognise his quota- tion ; ' from Clement Marot, whom, as you re- member, there is good evidence Queen Mary used to read. It is you, John Carmichael.' The Rabbi awoke from the past, and held Carmichael's hand in both of his. 'This was very mindful. You were going home from Pitscowrie and turned aside to visit me. * It is unfortunate that I am hastening to a farm called the Mains, on the border of Pitscowrie parish, to expound the Word ; but you will go on to the manse and straitly charge Barbara to give you food, and I will hasten to return.' And the Rabbi looked forward to the night with great satisfaction. ' No, I am not coming from Pitscowrie, and you are not going there, as far as one can see. Why, you are on your way to Tochty woods ; you are going west instead of east ; Rabbi, tell the truth, have you been snuffing?' This was a searching question, and full of history. When the Rabbi turned his back against IN THE GLOAMING 183 the wind to snufF with greater comfort, he was not careful to resume his original position, but continued cheerfully in the new direction. This weakness was so well known that the school bairns would watch till he had started, and stand in a row on the road to block his progress. Then there would be a parley, which would end in the Rabbi capitulating and rewarding the children with peppermints, whereupon they would see him fairly off again and go on their way — often look- ing back to see that he was safe, and somehow loving him all the more for his strange ways. So much indeed was the Rabbi beloved that a Pitscowrie laddie, who described Saunderson freely as a 'daftie' to Mains' grandson, did not see clearly for a week, and never recovered his lost front tooth. 'That,' remarked young Mains, "11 learn Pit- scowrie tae set up impidence aboot the minister.' 'There is no doubt that I snuffed — it was at Claypots steading, — but there was no wind that I should turn. This is very remarkable, John, and . . . disconcerting. ' These humiliations are doubtless a lesson,' resumed the Rabbi as they hurried to Mains, ' and a rebuke. Snuffing is in no sense a necessity, and I have long recognised that the habit requires to be restricted — very carefully restricted. For some time I have had fixed times — once in the 1 84 KATE CARNEGIE forenoon, once in the afternoon, and again in the evening. Had I restrained myself till my work was over and I had returned home, this mis- adventure would not have occurred, whereby I have been hindered and the people will have been kept waiting for their spiritual food. ' It is exactly twenty years to-night since I began this meeting in Mains,' the Rabbi explained to Carmichael, * and I have had great pleasure in it and some profit. My subject has been the Epistle to the Romans, and by the goodness of God we are approaching the last chapters. The salutations will take about a year or so ; Rufus, chosen in the Lord, will need careful treatment ; and then I thought, if I were spared, of giving another year to a brief review of the leading points of doctrine ; eh ? ' Carmichael indicated that the family at Mains would almost expect something of the sort, and inquired whether there might not be a few passages requiring separate treatment at fuller length than was possible in this hurried com- mentary. ' Quite so, John, quite so ; no one is more bitterly conscious of the defects of this exposition than myself — meagre and superficial to a degree, both in the patristic references and the experi- mental application ; but we are frail creatures, John, and it is doubtful whether the exposition of IN THE GLOAMING 185 any book should extend unto a generation. It has always caused me regret that Mains — I mean the father of the present tenant — departed before we had come to the comfort of the eighth chapter. The Rabbi's mind was much affected by this thought, and twice in the kitchen his eye wandered to the chair where his friend had sat, with his wife beside him. From Priscilla and Aquila he was led into the question of hospitality, on which he spoke afterwards till they came to the manse, where he stationed Carmichael on the doorstep till he secured a light. * There is a parcel of books on the floor, partially opened, and the way of passing is narrow and somewhat dangerous in the darkness.' KILBOGIE MANSE Ministers there were in the great strath so orderly that they kept their sealing-wax in one drawer and their string in another, while their sermons were arranged under the books of the Bible, and tied with green silk. Dr. Dowbiggin, though a dull man and of a heavy carriage, could find in an instant the original draft of a motion on instrumental music he made in the Presbytery of Muirtown in the year '59, and could also give the exact page in the blue-books for every word he had uttered in the famous case when he showed that the use of an harmonium to train MacWheep's choir was a return to the bondage of Old Testa- ment worship. His collection of pamphlets was supposed to be unique, and was a terror to con- troversialists, no man knowing when a rash utter- ance on the bottomless mystery of 'spiritual independence' might not be produced from the Doctor's coat-tail pocket. He retired to rest at 10.15, and rose at six, settling the subject of his next sermon on Sabbath evening, and finish- ing the first head before breakfast on M )nday 18S KILBOGIE MANSE 187 morning. He had three hats— one for funerals, one for marriages, one for ordinary occasions — and has returned from the Presbytery door to brush his coat. Morning prayers in Dr. Dow- biggin's house were at 8.5, and the wrath of the Doctor was so dangerous that one probationer staying at the manse, and not quite independent of influence, did not venture to undress, but snatched a fearful doze sitting upright on a cane- bottomed chair, lest he should not be in at the psalm. Young ministers of untidy habits regarded Dr. Dowbiggin's study with despair, and did not recover their spirits till they were out of Muir- town. Once only did this eminent man visit the manse of Kilbogie, and in favourable moments after dinner he would give his choicer experiences. ' It is my invariable custom to examine the bed to see that everything is in order, and any one sleeping in Kilbogie Manse will find the good of such a precaution. I trust that I am not a luxurious person — it would ill become one who came out in '43, — but I have certainly become accustomed to the use of sheets. When I saw there were none on the bed, I declined to sleep without them, and I indicated my mind very distinctly on the condition of the manse. ' Would you believe it ? ' the Doctor used to go on. * Saunderson explained, as if it were a usual occurrence, that he had given away all the spare 1 88 KATE CARNEGIE linen in his house to a girl that had to marry in . . . urgent circumstances, and had forgotten to get more. And what do you think did he offer as a substitute for sheets ? ' No one could even imagine what might not occur to the mind of Saunderson. * Towels, as I am an honourable man ; a collec- tion of towels, as he put it, " skilfully attached together, might make a pleasant covering." That is the first and last time I ever slept in the Free Church Manse of Kilbogie. As regards Saun- derson's study, I will guarantee that the like of it cannot be found within Scotland,' and at the very thought of it that exact and methodical ecclesiastic realised the limitations of language. His boys boasted of the Rabbi's study as some- thing that touched genius in its magnificent dis- orderliness, and Carmichael was so proud of it that he took me to see it as to a shrine. One whiff of its atmosphere as you entered the door gave an appetite and raised the highest expecta- tions. For any bookman can estimate a library by scent — if an expert he could even write out a catalogue of the books and sketch the appear- ance of the owner. Heavy odour of polished mahogany, Brussels carpets, damask curtains, and table-cloths; then the books are kept within glass, consist of sets of standard works in half calf, and the owner will give you their cost whole- KILBOGIE MANSE 189 sale to a farthing. Faint fragrance of delicate flowers, and Russia leather, with a hint of cigarettes ; prepare yourself for a marvellous wall-paper, etchings, bits of oak, limited editions, and a man in a velvet coat. Smell of paste and cloth binding and general newness means yester- day's books and a man racing through novels with a paper-knife. Those are only book-rooms by courtesy, and never can satisfy any one who has breathed the sacred air. It is a rich and strong spirit, not only filling the room, but pouring out from the door and possessing the hall, redeeming an opposite dining-room from grossness, and a more distant drawing-room from frivolity, and even lending a goodly flavour to bedrooms on upper floors. It is distilled from curious old duodecimos packed on high shelves out of sight, and blows over folios, with large clasps, that once stood in monastery libraries, and gathers a subtle sweetness from parchments that were illuminated in ancient scriptoriums that are now grass-grown, and is fortified with good old musty calf. The wind was from the right quarter on the first day I visited Kilbogie Manse, and as we went up the garden walk the Rabbi's library already bade us welcome, and assured us of our reward for a ten-miles' walk. Saunderson was perfectly helpless in all manner of mechanics — he could not drive a tack 1 90 KATE CARNEGIE through anything except his own fingers, and had given up shaving at the suggestion of his elders — and yet he boasted, with truth, that he had got three times as many books into the study as his predecessor possessed in all his house. For Saunderson had shelved the walls from the floor to the ceiling, into every corner and over the doors, and above the windows, as well as below them. The wright had wished to leave the space clear above the mantelpiece. * Ye 'II be hanging Dr. Chalmers there, or maybe John Knox, and a bit clock '11 be handy for letting ye ken the 'oors on Sabbath.' The Rabbi admitted that he had a Knox, but was full of a scheme for hanging him over his own history, which he considered both appropriate and convenient. As regards time, it was the last thing of which that worthy man desired to be reminded — going to bed when he could no longer see for weariness, and rising as soon as he awoke, taking his food when it was brought to him, and being conducted to church by the beadle after the last straggler was safely seated. He even cast covetous eyes upon the two windows, which were absurdly large, as he considered, but com- promised matters by removing the shutters and filling up the vacant space with slender works of devotion. It was one of his conceits that the rising sun smote first on an A'Kempis, for KILBOGIE MANSE 191 this he had often noticed as he worked of a morning. Book-shelves had longago failed toaccommodate Rabbi's treasures, and the floor had been bravely utilised. Islands of books, rugged and perpen- dicular, rose on every side ; long promontories reached out from the shore, varied by bold head- lands ; and so broken and varied was that floor that the Rabbi was pleased to call it the iEgean Sea, where he had his Lesbos and his Samos. It is absolutely incredible, but it is all the same a simple fact, that he knew every book and its location, having a sense of the feel as well as the shape of his favourites. This was not because he had the faintest approach to orderliness — for he would take down twenty volumes and never restore them to the same place by any chance. It was a sort of motherly instinct by which he watched over them all, even loved prodigals that wandered over all the study and then set off" on adventurous journeys into distant rooms. The restoration of an emigrant to his lawful home was celebrated by a feast in which, by a confusion of circumstances, the book played the part of the fatted calf, being read afresh from beginning to end. During his earlier and more agile years the Rabbi used to reach the higher levels of his study by wonderful gymnastic feats, but after two falls — one with three Ante-Nicene fathers in close i9« KATE CARNEGIE pursuit — he determined to call in assistance. This he did after an impressive fashion. When he attended the roup at Pitfoodles — a day of his- torical prices — and purchased in open competition, at three times its value, a small stack ladder, Kilbogie was convulsed, and Mains had to offer explanations. ' He 's cuttit aff seevin feet, and rins up it tae get his tapmaist bukes, but that's no' a',' and then Mains gave it to be understood that the rest of the things the minister had done with that ladder were beyond words. For in order that the rough wood might not scar the sensitive backs of the fathers, the Rabbi had covered the upper end with cloth, and for that purpose had utilised a pair of trousers. It was not within his ability in any way to reduce or adapt his material, so that those interesting garments remained in their original shape, and, as often as the ladder stood reversed, presented a very impressive and diverting spectacle. It was the inspiration of one of Carmichael's most successful stories — how he had done his best to console a woman on the death of her husband, and had not altogether failed, till she caught sight of the deceased's nether garments waving disconsolately on a rope in the garden, when she refused to be comforted. * Toom (empty) breeks tae me noo,' and she wept profusely, * toom breeks tae me.' KILBOGIE MANSE 193 One of the great efforts of the Rabbi's life was to seat his visitors, since, beyond the one chair, accommodation had to be provided on the table, wheresoever there happened to be no papers, and on the ledges of the bookcases. It was pretty to see the host suggesting from a long experience those coigns of vantage he counted easiest and safest, giving warnings also of unsuspected danger in the shape of restless books that might either yield beneath one's feet or descend on one's head. Carmichael, however, needed no such guidance, for he knew his way about in the marvellous place, and at once made for what the boys called the throne of the fathers. This was a lordly seat, laid as to its foundation in mediaeval divines of ponderous content, but excellently finished with the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, softened by two cushions, one for a seat and another for a back. Here Carmichael used to sit in great content, smoking and listening while the Rabbi hunted an idea through Scripture with many authorities, or defended the wildest Calvinism with strange, learned arguments ; from this place he would watch the Rabbi searching for a lost note on some passage of Holy Writ amid a pile of papers two feet deep, through which he bur- rowed on all-fours, or climbing for a book on the sky-line, to forget his errand and to expound some point of doctrine from the top of the ladder. N 194 KATE CARNEGIE ' You 're comfortable, John, and you do not want to put off your boots after all that travelling to and fro ? Then I will search for Barbara, and secure some refreshment for our bodies,' and Car- michael watched the Rabbi depart with pity, for he was going on a troublous errand. Housekeepers are, after beadles, the most won- derful functionaries in the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, and every species could be found within a day's journey of Drumtochty. Jenkins, indeed, suggested that a series of papers on Church Insti- tutions read at the clerical club should include one on housekeepers, and offered to supply the want, which was the reason why Dr. Dowbiggin refused to certify him to a vacancy, speaking of him as 'frivolous and irresponsible.' The class ranged from Sarah of Drumtochty, who could cook and knew nothing about ecclesiastical affairs, to that austere damsel, Margaret Meiklewham of Pitscowrie, who had never prepared an appetising meal in her life, but might have sat as an elder in the Presbytery. Among all her class, Barbara MacCluckie stood an easy worst, being the most incapable, unsightly, evil-tempered, vexatious woman into whose hands an unmarried man had ever been delivered. MacWheep had his own trials, but his ruler saw that he had sufficient food and some comfort, but Barbara laid herself out to make the Rabbi's life KILBOGIE MANSE 195 a misery. He only obtained his meals as a favour, and an extra blanket had to be won by a week's abject humiliation. Fire was only allowed him at times, and he secured oil for his lamp by stratagem. Latterly he was glad to send strange ministers to Mains, and his boys alone forced lodgment in the manse. The settlement of Barbara was the great calamity of the Rabbi's life, and was the doing of his own good-nature. He first met her when she came to the manse one evening to discuss the unlawfulness of infant baptism and the duty of holding Sunday on Saturday, being the Jewish Sabbath. His interest deepened on learning that she had been driven from twenty-nine situations through the persecution of the ungodly; and on her assuring him that she had heard a voice in a dream bidding her take charge of Kilbogie Manse, the Rabbi, who had suffered many things at the hands of young girls given to lovers, installed Barbara, and began to repent that very day. A tall, bony, forbidding woman, with a squint, and a nose turn- ing red as she stated from chronic indigestion, let it be said for her that she did not fall into the sins of her predecessors. It was indeed a pleasant jest in Kilbogie for four Sabbaths that she allowed a local Romeo, who knew not that his Juliet was gone, to make his adventurous way to her bed- room window, and then showed such an amazing visage that he was laid up for a week through the 196 KATE CARNEGIE suddenness of his fall. What the Rabbi endured no one knew, but his boys understood that the only relief he had from Barbara's tyranny was on Sabbath evening when she stated her objections to the doctrine, and threatened henceforward to walk into Muirtown in order to escape from unsound doctrine. On such occasions the Rabbi laid himself out for her instruction with much zest, and he knew when he had produced an impression, for then he went supperless to bed. Between this militant spirit and the boys there was an undying feud, and Carmichael was not at all hurt to hear her frank references to himself. ' What need he come stravagin' doon frae Drumtochty for? it wud set him better tae wait on his ain fouk. A licht-headed fellow, they say as kens ; an' as for his doctrine — weel, maybe it '11 dae for Drumtochty. ' Tea ? Did ye expect me tae hae biling water at this 'oor o' the nicht? My word, the money wud flee in this hoose gin a' wesna here. Milk '11 dae fine for yon birkie : he micht be gled tae get onything, sorning on a respectable manse every ither week.' 'You will pardon our humble provision' — this is how the Rabbi prepared Carmichael ; * we have taken my worthy Abigail unawares, and she cannot do for us what in other circumstances would be her desire. She has a thorn in the KILBOGIE MANSE 197 flesh which troubles her, and makes her do what she would not, but I am convinced that her heart is right* That uncompromising woman took no notice of Drumtochty, but busied herself in a search for the Rabbi's bag, which he insisted had been brought home from Muirtown that morning, and which was at last found covered with books. ' Do not open it at present, Barbara ; you can identify the contents later if it be necessary, but I am sure they are all right, and the Rabbi watched Barbara's investigations with evident anxiety. 'Maybe ye hae brocht back what ye started wi', but gin ye hev, it 's the first time a' can mind. Laist sacrament at Edinburgh ye pickit up twal books, ae clothes brush, an' a crochet cover for a chair, an' left a'thing that belonged tae ye.' ' It was an inadvertence ; but I obtained a drawer for my own use this time, and I was careful to pack its contents into the bag, leaving nothing.' But the Rabbi did not seem over-confident. * There 's nae question that ye hev filled the pack,' said Barbara, with much deliberation and an ominous calmness; 'but whether wi' yir ain gear or some ither body's, a '11 leave ye tae judge yirsel. A '11 juist empty the bag on the bukes ' ; and Barbara selected a bank of Puritans for the display of her master's spoil. * Ae slipbody (bodice), weel hemmed and gude 198 KATE CARNEGIE stuflf — ye didna tak' that wi' ye, at ony rate ; twa pillow-slips — they '11 come in handy, oor ain are wearin' thin ; ae pair o' sheets — '11 just dae for the next trimmie that ye want tae set up in her hoose ; this '11 be a bolster-slip, a'm judgin' ' ' It must be the work of Satan,' cried the poor Rabbi, who constantly saw the hand of the great enemy in the disorder of his study. * I cannot believe that my hands packed such garments in place of my own.' ' Ye '11 be satisfied when ye read the name ; it 's plain eneuch ; ye needna gang dodderin' aboot here and there lookin' for yir glasses ; there 's twa pair on your head already'; for it was an hour of triumph to Barbara's genial soul. 'It's beyond understanding,' murmured the Rabbi. ' I must have mistaken one drawer for another in the midst of meditation ' ; and then, when Barbara had swept out of the room with the varied linen on her arm, 'This is very humiliat- ing, John, and hard to bear.' * Nonsense, Rabbi ; it 's one of the finest things you have ever done. Half a dozen journeys of that kind would refurnish the manse; it's just a pity you can't annex a chair ' ; but he saw that the good man was sorely vexed. •You are a good lad, John, and it is truly marvellous what charity I have received at the hands of young men who might have scorned and KILBOGIE MANSE 199 mocked me. God knows how my heart has been filled with gratitude, and I . . have mentioned your names in my unworthy prayers, that God may do to you all according to the kindness ye have shown unto me.' It was plain that this lonely, silent man was much moved, and Carmichael did not speak. 'People consider that I am ignorant of my failings and weaknesses, and I can bear witness with a clear conscience that I am not angry when they smile and nod the head ; why should I be ? But, John, it is known to myself only, and Him before whom all hearts are open, how great is my suffering in being among my neighbours as a sparrow upon the housetop. ' May you never know, John, what it is to live alone and friendless till you lose the ways of other men and retire within yourself, looking out on the multitude passing on the road as a hermit from his cell, and knowing that some day you will die alone, with none to . . . give you a draught of water ! ' 'Rabbi, Rabbi,' — for Carmichael was greatly distressed at the woe in the face opposite him, and his heart was tender that night, — ' why should you have lived like that ? Do not be angry, but . . . did God intend ... it cannot be wrong . . . I mean . . . God did give Eve to Adam.' ' Laddie, why do ye speak with fear and a faltering voice? Did I say aught against that 200 KATE CARNEGIE gracious gift or the holy mystery of love, which is surely the sign of the union betwixt God and the soul, as is set forth after a mystical shape in the Song of Songs ? But it was not for me — no, not for me. I complain not, neither have I vexed my soul. He doeth all things well.' 'But, dear Rabbi' — and Carmichael hesitated, not knowing where he stood. * Ye ask me why ' — the Rabbi anticipated the question — 'and I will tell you plainly, for my heart has ever gone forth to you. For long years I found no favour in the eyes of the Church, and it seemed likely I would be rejected from the ministry as a man useless and unprofitable. How could I attempt to win the love of any maiden, since it did not appear to be the will of God that I should ever have a place of habitation ? It consisted not with honour, for I do hold firmly that no man hath any right to seek unto himself a wife till he have a home.' 'But . . .' ' Afterwards, you would say. Ah, John ! then had I become old and unsightly, not such a one as women could care for. It would have been cruel to tie a maid for life to one who might only be forty years in age, but was as seventy in his pilgrimage, and had fallen into unlovely habits.' Then the Rabbi turned on Carmichael his gentle eyes, that were shining with tears. KILBOGIE MANSE 201 ' It will be otherwise with you, and so let it be. May I live to see you rejoicing with the wife of your youth ! ' So it came to pass that it was to this unlikely man Carmichael told his new-born love, and he was amazed at the understanding of the Rabbi, as well as his sympathy and toleration. *A maid of spirit — and that is an excellent thing ; and any excess will be tamed by life. Only see to it that ye agree in that which lieth beneath all churches and maketh souls one in God. May He prosper you in your wooing as He did the patriarch Jacob, and far more abundantly ! ' Very early in the morning Carmichael awoke, and being tempted by the sunrise, arose and went downstairs. As he came near the study door he heard a voice in prayer, and knew that the Rabbi had been all night in intercession. ' Thou hast denied me wife and child ; deny me not Thyself. ... A stranger Thou hast made me among men ; refuse me not a place in the City. . . . Deal graciously with this lad who has been to me as a son in the Gospel. . . . He has not despised an old man ; put not his heart to confusion. . . .' Carmichael crept upstairs again, but not to sleep, and at breakfast he pledged the Rabbi to come up some day and see Kate Carnegie. PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT English folk have various festivals in the religious year, as becometh a generous country, but in our austere and thrifty Glen there was only one high day, and that was Sacrament Sabbath. It is rumoured— but one prefers not to believe scandals — that the Scottish Kirk nowadays is encouraging a monthly Sacrament, after which nothing remains in the way of historical declension except for people to remain for the Sacrament as it may occur to them, and for men like Drumsheugh to get up at meetings to give their religious experi- ences, when every one that has any understanding will know that the reserve has gone out of Scottish character, and the reverence from Scot- tish faith. Dr. Davidson's successor, a boisterous young man of bourgeois manners, elected by popular vote, has got guilds, where Hillocks's granddaughter reads papers on Emerson and refers to the Free Kirk people as Dissenters, but things were different in the old days before the Revolution. The Doctor had such unquestioning confidence in himself that he considered his very MS PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 203 presence a sufficient defence for the Kirk, and was of such perfect breeding that he reg" Jed other Kirks with unbroken charity. He was not the man to weary the parish with fussy little schemes, and he knew better than level down the Sacrament. It was the summit of the year to which the days climbed, from which they fell away, and it was held in the middle of August. Then Nature was at her height in the Glen, and had given us of her fulness. The barley was golden, and, rustling in the gentle wind, wearied for the scythe ; the oats were changing daily, and had only so much greenness as would keep the feathery heads firm for the handling ; the potatoes, having received the last touch of the plough, were well banked up and flowering pleasantly; the turnips, in fine levels, like Hillocks's, or gently sloping fields, like Menzies's, were so luxuriant that a mere townsman could not have told the direction of the drills ; the hay had been gathered into long stacks like unto the shape of a two- storied house, and the fresh aftermath on the field was yielding sweet morsels for the horses of an evening ; the pasture was rich with the hardy white clover, and one could hear from the road the cattle taking full mouthfuls; young spring animals, like calves and lambs, were now falling into shape and beginning independent life, though with an occasional hankering after the past, when 204 KATE CARNEGIE the lambs would fall a-bleating for their mothers, and calves would hang about the gate at even- ing, where they had often fought shamelessly to get a frothy nose once more into the milk- pail. Our little gardens were full ablow, a very blaze and maze of colour and foliage, wherein the owner wandered of an evening examining flowers and fruit with many and prolonged speculations — much aided by the sriioke of tobacco — as to the chance of gaining a second at our horticultural show with his stocks, or honourable mention for a dish of mixed fruit. The goodwife might be seen of an afternoon about that time, in a sun- bonnet and a gown carefully tucked up, gathering her berry harvest for preserves, with two young assistants, who worked at a modest distance from their mother, very black as to their mouths, and preserving the currants, as they plucked them, by an instantaneous process of their own invention. Next afternoon a tempting fragrance of boiling sugar would make one's mouth water as he passed, and the same assistants, never weary in well-doing, might be seen setting saucers of black jam upon the window-sill to 'jeel,' and receiving, as a kind of blackmail, another saucer- ful of • skim,' which, I am informed, is really the refuse of the sugar, but, for all that, wonderfully toothsome. Bear with a countryman's petty PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 205 foolishness, ye mighty people who live in cities, and whose dainties come from huge manufactories. Some man reading these pages will remember that red-letter day of the summer-time long ago, and the faithful hands that plucked the fruit, and the old kitchen, with its open beams, and the peat fire glowing red, and the iron arm that held the copper -lined pan — much lent round the district, — and the smack of the hot, sweet berries, more grateful than any banquet of later days. The bees worked hard in this time of affluence, and came staggering home with spoil from the hills, but it was holiday season on the farms. Between the last labours on the roots and the beginning of harvest there was no exacting de- mand from the land, and managing farmers in- vented tasks to fill up the hours. An effort was made to restore carts and implements to their original colour, which was abruptly interrupted by the first day of cutting, so that one was not surprised to see a harvest cart blue on one side and a rich crusted brown on the other. Drum- sheugh would even send his men to road-making, and apologise to the neighbours — 'juist reddin' up aboot the doors,' — while Saunders the foreman and his staff laboured in a shamefaced manner like grown-ups playing at a children's game. Hillocks used to talk vaguely about going to see a married sister in Glasgow, and one year got as 2o6 KATE CARNEGIE far as Kildrummie, where he met Piggie Walker, and returned to have a deal in potatoes with that enterprising man. More than once Drumsheugh — but then his position was acknowledged — set off on the Monday for Carnoustie, with a large carpet-bag containing, among other things, two pounds of butter and two dozen eggs, and announced his intention of spending a fortnight at the ' saut water.' The kirkyard would bid him good-bye, and give him a united guarantee that Sabbath would be kept at Drumtochty during his absence, but the fathers were never astonished to see the great man drop into Muirtown market next Friday on his way west — having found four days of unrelieved gaiety at that Scottish Monaco enough for flesh and blood. This season of small affairs was redeemed by the Sacrament, and preparations began far off with the cleaning of the kirk. As early as June our beadle had the face of one with something on his mind, and declined to pledge himself for roups of standing corn, where his presence was much valued, not on business grounds, but as an official sanction of the proceedings. Drumtochty always felt that Dr. Davidson was fully represented by his man, and John could no longer disentangle the two in his own mind — taking a gloomy view of the parish when he was laid up by lumbago and the Doctor had to struggle on single-handed PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 207 and regarding the future when both would be gone with despair. 'Ay, ay, Hillocks,' he once remarked to that worthy, * this '11 be a queer-like place when me an' the Doctor's awa. Na, na, a' daurna promise for the roup, but ye can cairry it on whether a'm there or no' ; prices dinna hang on a beadle, and they're far mair than appearances. A'm juist beginning tae plan the reddin' up for the Saicra- ment, an' a 've nae speerit for pleesure ; div ye ken. Hillocks, a' wud actually coont a funeral dis- trackin'.' 'Ye hev an awfu' responsibility, there's nae doot o' that, John, but gin ye juist jined the fouk for ae field, it wud be an affset tae the day, an' the auctioneer wud be lifted.' With the beginning of July, John fairly broke ground in the great effort, and was engaged thereon for six weeks, beginning with the dusting of the pulpit, and concluding with the beating of Drumsheugh's cushion. During that time the Doctor only suggested his wants to John, and the fathers themselves trembled of a Sabbath morn- ing, lest in a moment of forgetfulness they might carry in some trace of their farms with them and mar the great work. It was pretty to see Whinnie labouring at his feet in a grassy corner, while John watched him from the kirk door with an unre- lenting countenance. .208 KATE CARNEGIE The elders also had what might be called their cleaning at this season, examining into the cases of any who had made a ' mistak ' since last August, and deciding whether they should be allowed to * gang forrit.' These deliberations were begun at the door, where Drumsheugh and Domsie stood the last five minutes before the Doctor ap- peared, and were open to the congregation, who from their places within learned the offenders' prospects. 'The Doctor '11 dae as he considers richt, an* he 's juist ower easy pleased wi' onybody 'at starts a-greetin', but yon 's ma jidgment, Dominie.' ' I do not wish to dispute with you, Drum- sheugh ' — Domsie always spoke English on such occasions — 'and the power of the keys is a solemn charge. But we must temper a just measure of severity with a spirit of mercy.' 'Ye may temper this or temper that,' said Drumsheugh, going to the root of the matter, 'but a' tell ye. Dominie, there's ower mony o' thae limmers in the country juist noo, an' a 'm for making an example o' Jean Ferguson.' So Jean did not present herself for a token on the approaching Fast-day, and sat out with the children during the Sacrament with as becoming an expression of penitence as her honest, comely face could accomplish. Nor did Jean or her people bear any grudge against the Doctor or the PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 209 Session for their severity. She had gone of her own accord to confess her fault, and was willing that her process of cleansing should be thorough before she received absolution. When a com- panion in misfortune spoke of the greater leniency of Pitscowrie, Jean expressed her thankfulness that she was of Drumtochty. * Nane o' yir loose wys for me — gie me a richt minister as dis his duty ' ; which showed that whatever might be her deflections in practice, Jean's ideas of morals were sound. Preparations in the parish at large began two weeks before the Sacrament, when persons whose attendance had been, to say the least, irregular slipped in among the fathers without ostentation, and dropping into a conversation on the weather, continued, as it were, from last Sabbath, used it skilfully to offer an apology for past failures in church observance. ' It 's keepit up wonderfu' through the week, for a' never like ower bricht mornin's,' old Sandie Ferguson would remark casually, whose arrival, swallowlike, heralded the approach of the great occasion. 'The roads are graund the noo frae the heich (high glen) ; we 've hed an awfu' winter, neeburs, up oor wy — clean blockit up. Them 'at lives ablow are michty favoured, wi' the kirk at their door.' 'It's maist extraordinar' hoo the seasons are O 2IO KATE CARNEGIE changin" — Jamie Soutar could never resist Sandie's effrontery. — • A' mind when Mairch saw the end o' the snaw, an' noo winter is hangin' aboot in midsummer. A'm expcckin' tae hear, in another five year, that the drifts laist through the Sacrament in August. It '11 be a sair trial for ye, Sandie, a wullin' kirk-goer — but ye '11 hae the less responsibility.' * Millhole 's here, at ony rate, the day, an' we 're gled tae see him ' — for Drumsheugh's pride was to have a large Sacrament — and so Sandie would take his place at an angle to catch the Doctor's eye, and pay such rapt attention to the sermon that any one not knowing the circumstances might have supposed that he had just awaked from sleep. Ploughmen, who on other Sabbaths slept in the forenoon and visited their sweethearts the rest of the day, presented themselves for tokens on the Fast-day, and made the one elaborate toilette of the year on Saturday evening, when they shaved in turns before a scrap of glass hung outside the bothy door, and the foreman, skilled in the clipping of horses, cut their hair, utilising a porridge-bowl with much ingenuity to secure a round cut. They left early on the Sabbath morning, and formed themselves into a group against the gable of the kirk — being reviewed with much satisfaction by Drumsheugh, who had PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 211 a keen eye for absentees from the religious function of the year. At the first sound of the bell the ploughmen went into kirk a solid mass, distributing themselves in the servants' pews attached to the farmers' pews, and maintaining an immovable countenance through every part of the service, any tendency to somnolence being promptly and effectually checked by the foreman, who allowed himself some ease when alone on other days, but on Sacrament Sabbath realised his charge and never closed an eye. The women and children proceeded to their places on arrival, and the fathers followed them as the bell gave signs of ceasing. Drumsheugh and Domsie then came in from the plate and the administration of discipline, and the parish waited as one man for the appearance of John with the Bible — the Doctor following, — and envied those whose seat commanded the walk from the manse down which the procession came every Sabbath with dignity, but once a year with an altogether peculiar majesty. Drumtochty exiles meeting in London or other foreign places, and recalling the Glen, never part without lighting on John and passing contempt on all officials beside him. * Ye mind John ? ' one will say, wagging his head with an amazement that time and distance has in nowise cooled, and his fellow-glensman will reply, ' Ay, ye may a 12 KATE CARNEGIE traivel the warld ower or ye see his marrow.' Then they fall into a thoughtful silence, and each knows that his neighbour is following John as he comes down the kirkyard on the great day. ' Comin' in at the door lookin' as if he didna ken there wes a body in the kirk a' aye coontit best,' but his friend has another preference. * It wes fine, but, man, tae see him set the bukes doon on the pulpit cushion, and then juist gie ae glisk roond the kirk as much as tae say, " What think ye o* that ? " cowed a'thing.' It has been given to myself amid other privileges to see (and store in a fond memory) the walk of a University mace-bearer, a piper at the Highland gathering, a German stationmaster (after the war), and an alderman (of the old school), but it is bare justice to admit, although I am not of Drumtochty, but only as a proselyte of the gate, that none of those efforts is at all to be compared with John's achievement. Within the manse the Doctor was waiting in pulpit array, grasping his father's snuff- box in a firm right hand, and it was understood that, none seeing them, and as a preparation for the strain that would immediately be upon them, both the minister and his man relaxed for a minute. ' Is there a respectable attendance, John ? ' and the Doctor would take a preliminary pinch. ' Drumsheugh does not expect many absentees.' PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 213 * Naebody 's missin' that a' cud see, sir, except that ill gettit wratch, Tammie Ronaldson, and a' coont him past redemption. A' gaed in as a' cam doon, and gin he wesna lyin' in his bed sleepin' an' snorin' like a heathen.' * Well, John, did you do your duty as an officer of the church ? ' ' A' stood ower him, Doctor, an' a' juist said tae masel, "Shall a' smite wi' the sword?" but a' left him alane for this time.' And so they started — John in front with the books, and the Doctor a pace behind, his box now in the left hand, with a handkerchief added, and the other holding up his gown, both dignitaries bareheaded, unself-conscious, absorbed in their office. The books were carried level with the top button of John's waistcoat — the Psalm-book being held in its place by the two extended thumbs, — and neither were allowed to depart from the absolute horizontal by an eighth of an inch, even going up the pulpit stairs. When they had been deposited in their place, and slightly patted, just to settle them, John de- scended to make way for the Doctor, who had been waiting beneath in a commanding attitude. He then followed the minister up, and closed the door — not with a bang, but yet so that all might know he had finished his part of the work. If any one had doubted how much skill went to this 214 KATE CARNEGIE achievement, he had his eyes opened when John had the lumbago, and the smith arrived at the kirk door three yards ahead of the Doctor, and let the Psalm-book fall on the pulpit floor. ' We 're thankfu' tae hae ye back, John,' said Hillocks. ' Yon wes a temptin' o' Providence.' Once only had I the privilege of seeing John in this his glory, and the sight of him afflicted me with a problem no one has ever solved. It might, indeed, be made a branch of scientific investigation, and would then be called the Genesis of Beadles. Was a beadle ever a baby ? What like was he before he appeared in his office ? Was he lying as a cardinal in petto till the right moment, and then simply showed himself to be appointed as one born unto this end ? No one dared to hint that John had ever followed any other avocation, and an effort to con- nect John with the honourable trade of plumbing in the far past was justly regarded as a dis- graceful return of Tammie Ronaldson's for much faithful dealing. Drumtochty refused to consider his previous history, if he had any, and looked on John in his office as a kind of Melchizedek, a mysterious, isolated work of Providence. He was a mere wisp of a man, with a hard, keen face, iron-grey hair brushed low across his forehead, and clean-shaven cheeks. * A've naething tae say against a beard,' on PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 215 being once consulted, ' an' a 'm no prepared tae deny it maun be in the plan o' Providence. In fact, gin a' wes in a private capaucity, a' michtna shave, but in ma public capaucity, a've nae alternative. It wud be a fine story tae gang roond the Presbytery o' Muirtown that the beadle o' Drumtochty hed a beard.' His authority was supreme under the Doctor, and never was disputed by man or beast save once, and John himself admitted that the cir- cumstances were quite peculiar. It was during the Doctor's famous continental tour, when Drumsheugh fought with strange names in the kirkyard, and the Presbytery supplied Drum- tochty in turn. The minister of St. David's, Muirtown, was so spiritual that he left his voice at the foot of the pulpit stairs, and lived in the Song of Solomon, with occasional excursions into the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and it was thoughtless not to have told Mr. Curlew that two or three dogs — of unexceptionable manners — attended our kirk with their masters. They would no more have thought of brawling in church than John himself, and they knew the parts of the service as well as the Doctor ; but dogs have been so made by our common Crea- tor that they cannot abide falsetto, and Mr. Curlew tried them beyond endurance. When he lifted up his voice in • Return, return, O Shulamite, 2i6 KATE CARNEGIE return, return,' a long wail in reply, from below a back seat where a shepherd was slumbering, proclaimed that his appeal had not altogether failed. * Put out that dog/ said the preacher in a very natural voice, with a strong suggestion of bad temper ; * put that dog out immediately ; it's most disgraceful that such ... eh, conduct should go on in a Christian church. Where is the church officer ? ' ' A'm the Beadle o' Drumtochty' — standing in his place — * an' a '11 dae yir pleesure ' ; and the occasion was too awful for any one, even the dog's master, to assist, far less to laugh. So Laddie was conducted down the passage — a dog who would not condescend to resist — and led to the outer gate of the kirkyard, and John came in amid a dead silence — for Mr. Curlew had not yet got his pulpit note again — and faced the preacher. ' The dog's oot, sir, but a' tak this congregation tae witness, ye begood (began) it yirsel,' and it was said that Mr. Curlew's pious and edifying chant was greatly restricted in country kirks from that day. It was not given to the beadle to sit with the elders in that famous court of morals which is called the Kirk Session, and of which strange stories are told by Southern historians, but it was his to show out and in the culprits with PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 217 much solemnity. He was able to denote the exact offence in the language of Kirk law, and was considered happy in his abbreviations for technical terms. As a familiar of the Inquisi- tion he took oversight of the district, and saw that none escaped the wholesome discipline of the Church. ' Ye 're back,' he said, arresting Peter Ferguson as he tried to escape down a by-road, and eyeing the prodigal sternly, who had fled from discipline to London, and there lost a leg ; ' the '11 be a meetin' o' Session next week afore the Saicra- ment ; wull a' tell the Doctor ye 're comin' ? ' ' No, ye '11 dae naething o' the kind, for a '11 no' be there. A've nae suner got hame aifter ma accident, but ye 're tormentin' me on the verra road wi' yir Session. Ye drave me awa aince, an' noo ye wud harry (hunt) me aff again.' 'Aweel, aweel' — and John was quite calm — ' dinna pit yirsel in a feery-farry (excitement) ; ye '11 gang yir ain wy and earn yir ain jidg- ment. It wes for yir gude a' spoke, and noo a 've dune ma pairt, an' whatever comes o't, ye '11 no hae me or ony ither body tae blame.' ' What think ye '11 happen ? ' — evidently sobered by John's tone, yet keeping up a show of defiance. •Ye wud think the Session wes the Sheriff o' Perthshire tae hear ye blawin' and threatenin'.' 2i8 KATE CARNEGIE ' It 's no' for me tae say what may befa' ye, Peter Ferguson, for a'm no yir jidge, but juist a frail mortal, beadle though I be ; but a' may hev ma thochts. ' Ye refused the summons sax months syne, and took yir wys tae London — that was contumacy added tae yir ither sin. Nae doot ye made certain ye hed escapit, but hed ye? A' leave it tae yirsel, for the answer is in yir body,' and John examined Peter's wooden leg with an austere interest. ' Ay, ay, ma man,' he resumed — for Peter was now quite silenced by this uncompromising inter- pretation of the ways of Providence — * ye aff tae London, an' the Lord aifter ye, an' whuppit aff ae leg. Noo ye declare ye '11 be as countermacious as ever, an' a 'm expeckin' the Lord '11 come doon here an' tak the ither leg, an' gin that disna dae, a' that remains is tae stairt on yir airms ; and, man Peter, ye '11 be a bonnie-like sicht before a's dune.' This was very faithful dealing, and it had its desired effect, for Peter appeared at next meeting, and in due course was absolved, as became an obedient son of the Church. John did not, however, always carry the sword, but bore himself gently to young people so long as they did not misbehave in church, and he had a very tender heart towards probationers, as being PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT 219 callow members of that great ecclesiastical guild in which he was one of the heads. When one of those innocents came to take the Doctor's place, John used to go in to visit them in the dining-room on Saturday evening, partly to temper the severity of his wife. Dr. Davidson's housekeeper, who dealt hardly with the lads, and partly to assist them with practical hints regard- ing pulpit deportment and the delivery of their sermons. One unfortunate was so nervous and clinging that John arranged his remarks for him into heads — with an application to two classes, — and then, having suggested many points, stopped under the yew arch that divided the kirkyard from the manse garden, and turned on the shaking figure which followed. * Ae thing mair ; aifter ye 're dune wi' yir ser- mon, whether ye 're sweatin' or no', for ony sake fa' back in yir seat and dicht (wipe) yir broo,' which being done by the exhausted orator, made a great impression on the people, and was so spread abroad, that a year afterwards it won for him the parish of Pitscowrie. A MODERATE As a matter of fact, Dr. Davidson, minister of Drumtochty, stood exactly five feet nine in his boots, and was therefore a man of quite moderate height ; but this is not what you had dared to state to any loyal and self-respecting person in the parish. For ' the Doctor ' — what suggestions of respect and love were in that title on a Drumtochty tongue — was so compactly made, and bore himself with such dignity, both in walk and conversation, that Drumsheugh, although not unaccustomed to measurement and a man of scrupulous accuracy, being put into the witness- box, would have sworn that Dr. Davidson was * aboot sax feet aff and on — maybe half an inch mair, standin' at his full hicht in the pulpit.' Which fond delusion seemed to declare abroad, as in a parable, the greatness of the Doctor. Providence had dealt bountifully with Dr. Davidson, and had bestowed on him the largest benefit of heredity. He was not the first of his house to hold this high place of parish minister — the only absolute monarchy in the land, — and he must not receive over-praise for not falling into A MODERATE ' 221 those personal awkwardnesses and petty tyrannies which are the infallible signs of one called suddenly to the throne. His were the pride of blood, the inherent sense of authority, the habit of rule, the gracious arts of manner, the conviction of popular devotion, the grasp of affairs, the interest in the people's life, which are the marks and aids of a royal caste. It was not in the nature of things that the Doctor should condescend to quarrel with a farmer or mix himself up with any vulgar squabble, because his will was law in ninety cases in a hundred, and in the other ten he skilfully anticipated the people's wishes. When the minister of Nether Pitfoodles — who had sermons on 'Love, Courtship, and Marriage,' and was much run after in Muirtown — quarrelled with his elders about a collection, and asked the inter- ference of the Presbytery, Dr. Davidson dealt severely with him in open court as one who had degraded the ministry and discredited govern- ment. It was noticed also that the old gentleman would afterwards examine Nether Pitfoodles curi- ously for minutes together in the Presbytery, and then shake his head. • Any man,' he used to say to his reverend brother of Kildrummie, as they went home from the Presbytery together, * who gets into a wrangle with his farmers about a collection is either an upstart or he is a fool, and in neither case ought 222 KATE CARNEGIE he to be a minister of the Church of Scotland.' And the two old men would lament the decay of the ministry over their wine in Kildrummie Manse — being both of the same school, cul- tured, clean-living, kind-hearted, honourable, but not extravagantly evangelical clergymen. They agreed in everything except the matter of their after-dinner wine, Dr. Davidson having a par- tiality for port, while the minister of Kildrummie insisted that a generous claret was the hereditary drink of a Scottish gentleman. This was only, however, a subject of academic debate, and was not allowed to interfere with practice — the abb6 of Drumtochty taking his bottle of claret, in an appreciative spirit, and the cur^ of Kildrummie disposing of his two or three glasses of port with cheerful resignation. If Drumtochty exalted its minister above his neighbours, it may be urged in excuse that Scottish folk are much affected by a man's birth, and Dr. Davidson had a good ancestry. He was the last of his line, and represented a family that for two centuries had given her sons to the Kirk. Among those bygone worthies the Doctor used to select one in especial for honourable mention. He was a minister of Dunleith, whose fanners preferred to play ball against the wall of the kirk to hearing him preach, and gave him in- solence on his offering a pious remonstrance. A MODERATE 223 Whereupon the Davidson of that day, being, like all his race, short in stature but mighty in strength, first beat the champion player one Sabbath morning at his own game to tame an unholy pride, and then thrashed him with his fist to do good to his soul. This happy achieve- ment in practical theology secured an immediate congregation, and produced so saiutary an effect on the schismatic ball-player that he became in due course an elder, and was distinguished for his severity in dealing with persons absenting themselves from public worship, or giving them- selves overmuch to vain amusements. At the close of the last century the Doctor's grandfather was minister of the High Kirk, Muir- town, where he built up the people in loyalty to Kirk and State, and himself recruited for the Perthshire Fencibles. He also delivered a sermon entitled * The French Revolution the just judg- ment of the Almighty on the spirit of insubordin- ation,' for which he received a vote of thanks from the Lord Provost and Bailies of Muirtown in council assembled, as well as a jewel from the Earl of Kilspindie, the grandfather of our lord, which the Doctor inherited and wore on the third finger of his left hand. Had Carmichael or any other minister decked himself after this fashion, it had not fared well with him, but even the Free Kirk appreciated a certain pomp in Dr. Davidson, 224 KATE CARNEGIE and would have resented his being as other men. He was always pleased to give the history of the ring, and generally told a story of his an- cestor, which he had tasted much more frequently than the sermon. A famous judge had asked him to dinner as he made his circuit, and they had disputed about the claret, till at last its excellence compelled respect at the close of the first bottle. '"Now, Reverend Sir," said the judge, "this wine has been slandered, and its fair fame taken away without reason. I demand that you absolve it from the scandal." ' " My Lord," said my worthy forebear, " you are a great criminal lawyer, but you are not well read in Kirk law, for no offender can be absolved without three appearances." ' 'My grandfather,' the Doctor used to conclude, 'had the best of that jest, besides at least two bottles of claret, for in those days a clergyman took more wine than we would now think seemly, although, mark you, the old gentleman always denounced drunkenness on two grounds: first, because it was an offence against religion, and second, because it was a sign of weakness.' Some old folk could remember the Doctor's father, who never attained to the Doctorate, but was a commanding personage. He published no sermons, but as the first Davidson in Drumtochty, A MODERATE 225 he laid the foundations of good government. The Kilspindie family had only recently come into the parish — having purchased the larger part of the Carnegies' land — and Drumtochty took a thrawn fit, and among other acts of war pulled down time after time certain new fences. The minister was appealed to by his lordship, and having settled the rights of the matter, he bade the factor wait in patience till the Sacrament, and Drumsheugh's father used to tell unto the day of his death, as a historical event, how the Doctor's father stood at the communion-table and debarred from the Sacrament evil livers of all kinds, and that day in especial all who had broken Lord Kilspindie's fences — which was an end of the war. There was a picture of him in the Doctor's study, showing a very determined gentleman, who brought up both his parish and his family upon the stick, and with undeniable success. With such blood in his veins it was not to be expected that our Doctor should be after the fashion of a modern minister. No one had ever seen him (or wished to see him) in any other dress than black cloth, and a broad-brimmed silk hat, with a white stock of many folds, and a bunch of seals depending from some mysterious pocket. His walk, so assured, so measured, so stately, was a means of grace to the parish, con- firming every sound and loyal belief, and was P 226 KATE CARNEGIE crowned, so to say, by his stick, which had a gold head, and having made history in the days of his father, had reached the position of a hereditary sceptre. No one could estimate the aid and comfort that stick gave to the Doctor's visits, but one quite understood the force of the com- parison Hillocks once drew, after the Doctor's death, between the coming to his house of the Doctor and a * cry ' from his energetic successor under the new regtfne. * He 's a hard-workin' body, oor new man, aye rin rinnin', fuss fussin' roond the pairish, an' he's a pop'lar hand in the pulpit, but it's a puir business a veesit frae him. ' It 's juist in an' oot like a cadger buyin' eggs, nae peace an' nae solemnity. Of coorse it's no his blame that he's naethin' tae look at, for that's the wy he wes made, an' his father keepit a pig (china) shop, but at ony rate he micht get a wise- like stick. * Noo, there wes the Doctor 'at 's dead an' gone; he didna gang scrammelin' an' huntin' aifter the fouk frae Monday tae Saiturday. Na, na, he didna lower himscl' preachin' an' paiterin' like a missionary body. He announced frae the pulpit whar he wes gaein' and when he wes comin'. ' " It 's my purpose," ' and Hillocks did his best to imitate the Doctor, ' " to visit the farm of Hillocks on Wednesday of this week, and I A MODERATE 227 desire to meet with all persons living thereon " ; it vves worth callin' an intimation, an' gied ye pleesure in yir seat. 'On Tuesday aifternoon John wud juist drap in tae see that a'thing wes ready, and the next aifternoon the Doctor comes himsel', an' the first thing he dis is tae lay the stick on the table, an' gin he hed never said a word, tae see it lyin' there wes a veesitation. But he's a weel-meanin' bit craturie, Maister Peebles, an' handy wi' a magic- lantern. Sail,' and then Hillocks became in- capable of speech, and you knew that the thought of Dr. Davidson explaining comic slides had quite overcome him. This visitation counted as an event in domestic life, and the Doctor's progress through the Glen was noted in the kirkyard,and any special remark duly reported. Nothing could be more perfect than his manner on such occasions, being leisurely, comprehensive, dignified, gracious. First of all he saluted every member of the family down to the bairns by name, for had he not at least married the heads of the household, and certainly baptized all the rest? Unto each he made some kindly remark also — to the goodman a com- mendation of his careful farming, to the good- wife a deserved compliment on her butter ; the eldest daughter was praised for the way in which she was sustaining the ancient reputation of 228 KATE CARNEGIE Hillocks' dairy ; there was a word to Hillocks' son on his masterly ploughing ; and some good word of Dominie Jamieson's about the little lassie was not forgotten. After which the Doctor sat down — there was some difficulty in getting the family to sit in his presence — and held a thorough review of the family history for the last year, dwelling upon the prospects of Charlie, for whom the Doctor had got a situation, and Jean, the married daughter, whose husband might one day have a farm with four pair of horses in the Carse of Gowrie. The Doctor would then go out to give his opinion on the crops, which was drawn from keen practical knowledge — his brochure on ' The Potato Disease : Whence it Came and How it is to be Met ' created much stir in its day — and it was well known that the Doctor's view on bones or guano as a preferable manure was de- cisive. On his return the servants came in — to whom also he said a word — and then from the head of the table he conducted worship — the ploughmen looking very uneasy and the children never taking their eyes off his face, while the gudewife kept a watchful eye on all. At the prayer she was careful to be within arm's reach of Hillocks, since on one memorable occasion that excellent man had remained in an attitude of rapt devotion after the others had risen from their knees, which sight profoundly affected the family, A MODERATE 229 and led the Doctor to remark that it was the only time he had seen Hillocks play the Pharisee in public. The Doctor's favourite passages were the eulogium on the model housewife in Proverbs, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the 12th chapter of Romans, from which he deduced many very searching and practical lessons on diligence, honesty, mercy, and hospitality. Before he left, and while all were under the spell of his presence, the Doctor would approach the delicate subject of Hillocks' 'tout-mout' (dispute) with Gormack over a purchase at a roup, in which it was freely asserted that Gormack had corrupted the Kil- drummie auctioneer, a gentleman removed above pecuniary bribes, but not unaffected by liquid refreshment. So powerfully did the Doctor appeal to Hillocks' neighbourliness that he took snuff profusely, and authorised the Doctor to let it be understood at Gormack that the affair was at an end, which treaty was confirmed by the two parties in Kildrummie train, when Hillocks lent Gormack his turnip-sowing machine and borrowed in turn Gormack's water-cart. Mr. Curlew had more than once hinted in the Presbytery of Muir- town that Dr. Davidson was not so evangelical as might be desired, and certainly Mr. Curlew's visitation was of a much more exciting nature ; but St. David's congregation was never without a quarrel, while the Doctor created an atmosphere 230 KATE CARNEGIE in Drumtochty wherein peace and charity flour- ished exceedingly. Whatever might be urged in praise of his visitation, surely the Doctor could never be more stately or fatherly than on Sacrament Sabbath, as he stood in his place to begin service. His first act was to wipe elaborately those gold eye- glasses, without which nothing would have been counted a sermon in Drumtochty Kirk, and then, adjusting them with care, the Doctor made a de- liberate survey of the congregation, beginning at his right hand and finishing at his left. Below him sat the elders in their blacks, wearing white stocks that had cost them no little vexation that morning, and the precentor, who was deter- mined no man, neither Saunders Baxter nor an- other, should out-sing him that day in Coleshill. Down the centre of the kirk ran a long table, covered with pure white linen, bleached in the June showers and wonderfully ironed, whereon a stain must not be found, for along that table would pass the holy bread and wine. Across the aisle on either side, the pews were filled with stal- wart men, solemn beyond their wonted gravity, and kindly women in simple finery, and rosy- cheeked bairns. The women had their tokens wrapt in snowy handkerchiefs, and in their Bibles they had sprigs of apple-ringy and mint, and other sweet-scented plants. By-and-by there would be A MODERATE 231 a faint fragrance of peppermint in the kirk — the only religious and edifying sweet, which flourishes wherever sound doctrine is preached, and dis- appears before new views, and is therefore now confined to the Highlands of Wales and Scotland, the last home of our fathers' creed. The two back seats were of black oak, richly carved. In the one sat the General and Kate, and across the passage Viscount Hay, Lord Kilspindie's eldest son, a young man of noble build and carriage, handsome and debonair, who never moved during the sermon save twice, and then he looked at the Carnegies' pew. When the Doctor had satisfied himself that none were missing of the people, he dropped his eye-glass — each act was so closely followed that Drumsheugh below could tell where the Doctor was — and took snuff after the good old fashion, tapping the box twice, selecting a pinch, distri- buting it evenly, and using first a large red bandana and then a delicate white cambric hand- kerchief. When the cambric disappeared, each person seized his Bible, for the Doctor would say immediately, with a loud, clear voice, preceded by a gentlemanly clearance of the throat, ' Let us compose our minds for the worship of Almighty God by singing to His praise the first Psalm. " That man hath perfect blessedness Who walketh not astray — " ' 232 KATE CARNEGIE Then Peter Rattray of the high Glen would come in late, and the Doctor would follow him with his eye till the unfortunate man reached his pew, where his own flesh and blood withdrew them- selves from him as if he had been a leper, and Peter himself wished that he had never been born. 'Five minutes earlier, Peter, would have pre- vented this unseemly interruption — ahem.' ' In counsel of ungodly men, Nor stands in sinners' way.* Before the Sacrament the Doctor gave one of his college sermons on some disputed point in divinity, and used language that was nothing short of awful. ' Grant me those premises,' he would say, while the silence in the kirk could be felt, ' and I will show to any reasonable and unprejudiced person that those new theories are nothing but a re- suscitated and unjustifiable Pelagianism,' Such passages produced a lasting impression in the parish, and once goaded Drumsheugh's Saunders into voluntary speech. ' Yon wes worth ca'in' a sermon. Did you ever hear sic words out o' the mouth o' a man ? Noo that bleatin' cratur Curlew 'at comes frae Muir- town is jist pittin' by the time. Sail, ae sermon o' the Doctor's wud last yon body for a year.' After the sermon the people sang, "Twas on that night when doomed to know,' A MODERATE 233 and the elders, who had gone out a few minutes before, entered the kirk in procession bearing the elements, and set them before the Doctor, now standing at the table. The people came from, their pews and took their seats, singing as they moved, while the children were left to their own devices, tempered by the remembrance that their doings could be seen by the Doctor, and would receive a just recompence of reward from their own kin in the evening. Domsie went down one side and Drumsheugh the other, collecting the tokens, whose clink, clink in the silver dish was the only sound. * If there be any other person who desires to take the Sacrament at this the first table ' (for the Sacrament was given then to detachments), * let him come without delay.' ' Let us go, dad,' whispered Kate. * He is a dear old padre, and . . . they are good people and our neighbours.' ' But they won't kneel, you know, Kit ; will you . . . ?' ' We '11 do as they do ; it is not our Sacrament.' So the father and daughter went up the kirk and took their places on the Doctor's left hand. A minute later Lord Hay rose and went up his aisle, and sat down opposite the Carnegies, looking very nervous, but also most modest and sincere. The Doctor gave the cup to the General, who 234 KATE CARNEGIE passed it to Kate, and from her it went to Weelum Maclure, and another cup he gave to Hay, whom he had known from a child, and he handed it to Marget Howe, and she to Whinnie, her man ; and so the two cups passed down from husband to wife, from wife to daughter, from daughter to servant, from lord to tenant, till all had shown forth the Lord's death in common fellowship and love as becometh Christian folk. In the solemn silence the sunshine fell on the faces of the com- municants, and the singing of the birds came in through the open door with the scent of flowers and ripe corn. Before the congregation left, the Doctor addressed a few words of most practical advice, exhorting them, in especial, to live in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, and to be good neighbours. It was on one of those occasions that he settled a dispute between masters and men — whether the cutting of grass for the horses' break- fast should be included in the day's work — and ended the only bitterness known in Drumtochty. At the kirk gate Hay introduced himself to his father's friend, and the General looked round to find his daughter, but Kate had disappeared. She had seen the face of Marget Howe after the Sacrament as the face of one in a vision, and she had followed Marget to the road. • Will you let me walk with you for a little ? I am General Carnegie's daughter, and I would like A MODERATE 235 to speak to you about the Sacrament ; it was lovely.' ' Ye dae me much honour, Miss Carnegie,' and Marget slightly flushed, 'an' much pleasure, for there is naething dearer tae me than keeping the Sacrament; it is my joy every day and muckle comfort in life.' ' But I thought you had it only once a year ? ' questioned Kate. ' With bread and wine in outward sign that is once, and maybe eneuch, for it makes ane high day for us all, but div ye not think. Miss Carnegie, that all our life should be ane Sacrament ? ' ' Tell me,' said Kate, looking into Marget's sweet, spiritual face. ' Is it no the picture of His Luve, who thocht o' everybody but Himsel', an' saved everybody but Himsel', an' didna He say we maun drink His cup and live His life ? ' Kate only signed that Marget should go on. ' Noo a'm judgin' that ilka ane o's is savit juist as we are baptized intae the Lord's death, and ilka time ane o's keeps back a hot word, or humbles a proud heart, or serves anither at a cost, we have eaten the Body and drunk the Blood o' the Lord.' ' You are a good woman,' cried Kate in her im- pulsive way, so quick to be pleased or offended. 'May I come to see you some day?' 236 KATE CARNEGIE * Dinna think me better than I am : a woman who had many sins tae fecht and needit many trials tae chasten her ; but ye will be welcome at Whinny Knowe for yir ain sake and yir people's, an' gin it ever be in ma pooer tae serve ye, Miss Carnegie, in ony wy, it wull be ma joy.' Twice as she came through the woods Kate stopped ; once she bit her lip, once she dashed a tear from her eye. ' Where did you go to, lassie ? ' and the General met Kate at the gateway. ' Lord Hay came to the drive with me, and was quite disappointed not to meet you — a very nice lad indeed, manly and well-mannered.' * Never mind Lord Hay, dad ; I 've been with the most delightful woman I 've ever seen.' * Do you mean she was in kirk ? ' ' Yes, sitting across the table ; she is a farmer's wife, and a better lady than any we saw in India. ' Oh, dad,' and Kate kissed her father, ' I wish I had known my mother ; it had been better for me, and , , , happier for you.' JOINT POTENTATES Among all the houses in a Scottish parish the homeliest and kindliest is the manse, for to its door some time in the year comes every in- habitant, from the laird to the cottar-woman. Within the familiar and old-fashioned study, where the minister's chair and writing-table could not be changed without discomposing the parish, and where there are fixed degrees of station, so that the laird has his chair and the servant lass hers, the minister receives and does his best for all the folk committed to his charge. Here he consults with the factor about some improvement in the arrangements of the little commonwealth, he takes counsel with a farmer about his new lease and promises to say a good word to his lordship, he confirms the secret resolution of some modest gifted lad to study for the holy ministry, he hears the shamefaced confession of some lassie whom love has led astray, he gives good advice to a son leaving the Glen for the distant dangerous world, he comforts the mother who has received bad news from abroad. Genera- 237 238 KATE CARNEGIE tions have come in their day to this room, and generations still unborn will come in their joys and sorrows, with their trials and their affairs, while the manse stands and human life runs its old course. And when, as was the case with Dr. Davidson in Drumtochty, the minister is ordained to the parish in his youth, and, in- stead of hurrying hither and thither, preaching in vacancies, scheming and intriguing, he dwells all his days among his own people, he himself knows three generations, and accumulates a store of practical wisdom for the help of his people. What may be the place of the clergyman in an English parish, and what associations of sympathy and counsel the rectory may have for the English farm-labourer, it is not permitted to a northern man to know, but it is one good thing at least in our poor land that the manse is another word for guidance and good cheer, so that Jean advises Jock in their poor little perplexity about a new place to * slip doon an' see the Doctor,' and Jock, although appearing to refuse, does *gie a cry at the manse,' and comes home to the gudewife mightily comforted. The manse-builders of the ancient days were men of a shrewd eye and much wisdom. If any- where the traveller in the north country sees a house of moderate size peeping from among a clump of trees in the lap of a hill where the north- JOINT POTENTATES 239 easter cannot come and the sun shines full and warm, then let him be sure that is the manse, with the kirk and God's acre close beside, and that the fertile little fields around are the glebe, which the farmers see are ploughed and sown and reaped first in the parish. Drumtochty manse lay beneath the main road, so that the cold wind blowing from the north went over its chimneys, and on the east it was sheltered by the Tochty woods. Southwards it overlooked the fields that sloped towards the river, and westwards, through some ancient trees, one study window had a peep of the west, although it was not given to the parish manse to lie of an evening in the glory of the setting sun, as did the Free Kirk. Standing at the gate and looking down beneath the beeches that stood as sentinels on either side of the little drive, one caught a pleasant glimpse of the manse garden, with its close-cut lawn and flower-beds and old summer-house and air of peace. No one troubled the birds in that place, and they had grown shameless in their familiarity with dignities — a jackdaw having once done his best to steal the Doctor's bandana handkerchief, and the robins settling on his hat. Irreve -^nce has limits, and in justice to a privileged friend it ought to be explained that the Doctor wore on these occasions an aged wide-awake and carried no gold-headed stick. His dog used to follow 240 KATE CARNEGIE him step by step as he fed the birds and pottered among the flowers, and then it always ended in the old man sitting down on a seat at the foot of the lawn, with Skye at his feet, and looking across the Glen where he had been born, and where, for nearly half a century he had ministered. Kate caught him once in this attitude, and was so successful in her sketch that some have pre- ferred it to the picture in oils that was presented to the Doctor by the Presbytery of Muirtown, and was painted by an R.A. who spent a fortnight at the manse and departed with some marvellous heads, still to be identified, in certain councillors and nobles of the past. Both are hanging in the same house now, far from Drumtochty, and there they call one * Public Capaucity ' and the other ' Private Capaucity,' and you require to have seen both to know our kindly, much-loved Moderate. As John grew old with his master and mellowed, he would make believe to work close by, so that at times they might drop into talk, recalling names that had died out of the Glen, shrewd sayings that fell from lips now turned to dust, curious customs that had ceased for ever, all in great charity. Then there would come a pause, and John would say, 'Ay, ay,' and go away to the bees. Under the influence of such reminiscences John used to become depressed, and gently pre- pare Rebecca for the changes that were not far JOINT POTENTATES 241 off, when Drumtochty would have a new minister and a new beadle. • The Doctor 's failin', Becca, an' it 's no tae be expeckit that a '11 be lang aifter him ; it wudna be fittin', an' a 'm no wantin't. Aifter ye 've carried the bukes afore ae minister for five-and-thirty year, ye 're no anxious for a change ; naebody '11 ever come doon the kirkyaird like the Doctor, an' a' cudna brak ma step ; na, na, there 's no mony things a' michtna learn, but a' cudna brak ma step.' Rebecca went on with her dinner in silence; even capable men had weaknesses somewhere, and she was accustomed to those moralisings. 'A'm the auldest beadle in the Presbytery o' Muirtown — though a' say it as sudna, an' the higher the place the mair we'll hae tae answer for, Becca. Nae man can hold the poseetion a'm in withoot anxieties. Noo there wes the "Eruption" in '43' — it could not be ignorance which made John cling to this word, and so we supposed that the word was adopted in the spirit of historical irony — 'that wes a crisis. Did a' ever tell ye, Rebecca, that there wes juist ae beadle left the next morning tae cairry on the Presbytery of Muirtown ? ' 'Ay, forty times an' mair,' replied that un- compromising woman, ' an' it wud set ye better tae be servin' the Doctor's lunch than sittin' haverin' an' blawin' there.' Q 242 KATE CARNEGIE No sane person in Drumtochty would have believed that any human being dared to address John after this fashion, and it is still more in- credible that the great man should have risen without a word and gone about his duty. Such a surprising and painful incident suggests the question whether a beadle or any other person in high position ought to be married, and so be exposed to inevitable familiarities. Hillocks took this view strongly in the kirkyard at the time of John's marriage — although neither he nor any one knew with how much reason — and he impressed the fathers powerfully. 'Becca cam frae Kilspindie Castle near thirty year syne, and John 's took the bukes aboot the same time ; they 've agreed no that ill for sic a creetical poseetion a' that time, him oot an' her in, an' atween them the Doctor 's no been that ill servit ; they micht hae lat weel alane. ' She 's no needin' a man tae keep her,' and Hillocks proceeded to review the situation, 'for Becca's hed a gude place, an' she disna fling awa' her siller on dress. As for John, a' canna mak him oot, for he gets his stockin's darned and his white stock dune as weel an' maybe better than if he wes mairried.' The kirkyard could see no solution of the problem, and Hillocks grew pessimistic. •It'll be a doon-come tae him, a'm judgin', JOINT POTENTATES 243 an"ll no be for the gude o' the pairish. He's never been crossed yet, an' he '11 no tak weel wi' contradickin'. . . / 'She wudna daur,' broke in Whinny, 'an' him the beadle.' 'Ye ken little aboot weemen,' retorted Hillocks, * for yir gudewife is by hersel' in the pairish, an' micht be a sanct ; the maist o' them are a cam- steary lot A'm no sayin',' he summed up, ' that Becca '11 gie the beadle the word back or refuse to dae his biddin', but she '11 be pittin' forrit her ain opeenions, an' that's no what he's been accus- tomed tae in Drumtochty.' They were married one forenoon in the study, with Drumsheugh and Domsie for witnesses — the address given by the Doctor could hardly be distinguished from an ordination charge — and John announced his intention of accompanying his master that afternoon to the General Assembly while Rebecca remained in charge of the manse. * It wudna be wise-like for us twa,' exclaimed the beadle, 'tae be stravagin' ower the country for three or fower days like wild geese, but the pairish micht expect something. Noo, a 've hed ma share o' a Presbytery an' a Synod, tae say naethin' o' Kirk Sessions, but a 've never seen an Assembly. ' Gin you cud get a place, a' wud spend ma time considering hoo the officer comes in, and hoo he 244 KATE CARNEGIE lays down the buke an' sic-like ; a' micht get a hint/ said John, with much modesty. So John went alone for his wedding-tour, and being solemnly introduced to Thomas, the chief of all beadles, discussed mysteries with him unto great edification ; but he was chiefly impressed by the Clerk of the Free Kirk Assembly— into which he had wandered on an errand of explora- tion — who was a fiery-faced old gentleman with a stentorian voice and the heart of a little child.