Donald Ross of Heimra (Volume 2 of 3)

A couple of days thereafter Mr. Purdie arrived; and the Little Red Dwarf appeared to bear with much equanimity the rating that Miss Stanley administered to him over his action in the James Macdonald case.

"Oh, ay," said he, "Macdonald will find out now who is master – the law, or himself. He is the most ill-condeetioned man in the whole district – an ill-condeetioned, thrawn, contentious rascal, and the worst example possible for his neighbours; but he'll find out now; he'll find out that the law is not to be defied with impunity – "

"What do you mean?" said she. "I told you to stop all proceedings."

"I cannot stop the Procurator-Fiscal," said the Troich Bheag Dhearg, grimly, "when he institutes a prosecution for deforcement of the sheriff's officer."

"But I got the sheriff's officer to go away peaceably," said she; "and I told him that the case would be inquired into."

"Just that," replied Mr. Purdie, with a certain self-assurance. "But it was not the business of the sheriff's officer to inquire into the case at all. He had merely to execute the sheriff's warrant; and in doing that, as he now declares, he was deforced. Macdonald will find out whether he can set the law at defiance – even with that mischief-making ne'er-do-weel Donald Ross at his elbow egging him on."

"Mr. Ross did not egg him on!" said Mary Stanley, indignantly; "for I was there, and saw the whole transaction. Mr. Ross interfered for the sake of peace, or there would have been murder done."

"Ay? and I wonder what right has Mr. Ross to interfere wi' the Lochgarra tenants!" said Mr. Purdie, rather scornfully – but with an angry light twinkling in his small blue eyes.

"Because I asked him," said Mary, drawing herself up. "And I will ask him again, when it suits me."

Mr. Purdie said nothing. His heavily down-drawn mouth was more than usually dogged in expression; and it was with difficulty Mary extracted from him the information that the punishment the sheriff would most likely inflict on Macdonald was a fine of forty shillings, with the alternative of three weeks' imprisonment.

"I will pay the fine," said she, promptly. "I did not authorise you to have that man turned out of his croft; and I won't have anyone turned out until I have a thorough investigation made, and the rents revised, and the arrears cancelled."

But when she proceeded to place before him the comprehensive project she had formed – to carry out which he had been summoned from Inverness – the factor abandoned his obstinate attitude, and became almost plaintive.

"Ye'll ruin the estate, Miss Stanley; and ye'll not make these people one whit more contented. Have I not had experience of them, years and years before you ever came to the place? And now that the Land League is their god, nothing will satisfy them but getting crofts and farms, arable land and pasture, all rent free, and the landlords taking the first train for the South. The poor, deluded craytures – if it was not for their spite and ill-will – one could almost peety them; for what would be the advantage to them of a lot of useless land, with no stock to put on it? But maybe they expect to have the stock bought and given to them as well? – I would not wonder! There's they scoundrels in the newspapers, that do not know the difference between a barn-door and a peat-stack, they've filled the heads o' the ignorant craytures with all kinds of nonsense, and they would have the deer-forests divided up – the deer-forests! – they might as well try to plough, sow, and reap the Atlantic – "

"All that does not concern me," she said, interrupting him without scruple. "What does concern me is to have myself put right, in the first place. That is to say, I wish to have rents fixed that the people can pay without getting into arrears – just rents, so that they can have no right to complain."

"Ay, and ye'll go on remitting this and remitting that," said the factor; "and if ye remitted everything they would still grumble! I tell ye, Miss Stanley, I've had experience; and it's not the way to treat these people. The more ye give them, the more they'll ask. What you consider justice, they will consider weakness; they will expect more and more; and complain if they do not get it. I'm telling ye the truth, Miss Stanley, about these idle, and ill-willed, and ill-thrawn craytures: what you propose is no the way to deal wi' them at all – "

"But I propose to take that way none the less," said Mary. And Käthchen, sitting there, and listening, and regarding the Troich Bheag Dhearg, said to herself: 'My good friend, you have tremendous shoulders, and a powerful mouth, and suspicious and vindictive eyes; but you don't in the least know with whom you have to do. Your obstinacy won't answer; and if you are discreet, you will allow it to subside.'

"I have done my best for the estate," he said, with some stiffness.

"Yes," said Mary, "no doubt. But then the result that has been arrived at is not quite satisfactory – according to modern notions. Perhaps the old way was the best; but I am going to try the new – and I suppose I can do what I like with my own, as the saying is. And so, Mr. Purdie, I wish you to go out to-morrow morning and call on Mr. Watson, and give him my compliments – oh, no," she said, interrupting herself: "on second thoughts I will drive out to Craiglarig myself – for it is a great favour I have to ask. Will you dine with us this evening, Mr. Purdie?"

"I thank ye, but I hope ye'll excuse me," said the factor. "I have some various things to look into, and I'll just give the evening to them at the inn."

"Then we shall see you in the morning" – and therewithal the Little Red Dwarf took his departure.

Now to tell the truth, when the sheep-farmer of Craiglarig was asked to assist in this scheme, he did not express himself very hopefully as to the issue; but he was a good-natured man; and he said he would place as much of his time at Miss Stanley's disposal as he reasonably could. And so they set to work to revalue the crofts. No doubt the composition of this amateur court might have been impugned; for it consisted of the owner of the estate, her factor, and her chief tenant; but then again Mary constituted herself, from the very outset, the champion of the occupants of the smaller holdings, Mr. Purdie took the side of the landlords, while Mr. Watson, apart from his services as interpreter, maintained a benevolent neutrality. It was slow and not inspiriting work; for the crofters did not seem to believe that any amelioration of their condition was really meant; they were too afraid to speak, or too sullen to speak; and when they did speak, in many cases their demands were preposterous. But Mary stuck to her task.

"I must put myself right, to begin with," she said, as she had said all along. "Thereafter we will see."

And sometimes she would look out towards Heimra Island; and there was a kind of reproach in her heart. How much easier would all this have been for them, if only young Ross had consented to put aside for the moment that fierce internecine feud between him and the factor! Was Mr. Purdie, she asked herself, the sort of man that Donald Ross of Heimra should raise to the rank of being his enemy? However, the days passed, and there was no sign – no glimmer of the white sails of the Sirène coming away from the distant shores – no mention of the young master having been seen anywhere on the mainland.

"I warrant," said Mr. Purdie, when some remark chanced to be made, "I warrant I can tell where that cheat-the-gallows is off to – away to France for more o' that smuggled brandy so that he can spend his days and nights in drunkenness and debauchery!"

"You forget, Mr. Purdie," said Käthchen, with something very nearly approaching disdain, "that we have made the acquaintance of Mr. Ross, and know something of himself and his habits."

"Do ye?" he said, turning upon her. "I tell ye, ye do not! And a good thing ye do not! A smooth-tongued hypocrite – specious – sly – it is well for ye that ye are ignorant of what that poaching, mischief-making dare-devil really is; but ye'll find out in time – ye'll find out in time."

And indeed it was not until the self-appointed commission had done its work, and Mr. Purdie had gone away to the south again, that young Ross of Heimra reappeared: he said he had heard of what had been arranged; and he thought Miss Stanley had been most generous. This casual encounter took place just as Mary and Kate Glendinning were nearing Lochgarra House; and when they had gone inside, Käthchen said —

"Well, I don't know what has come over you, Mamie. You used always to be so self-possessed – to seem as if you were conferring a favour by merely looking at anyone. And now, when you stand for a few minutes talking to Mr. Ross, you are quite nervous and shamefaced – and apparently anxious for the smallest sign of approval – "

"You have far too much imagination, Käthchen," said Mary, as she went off to her own room.

And then again, that same night, Käthchen was at one of the windows, looking out. She could not distinguish anything, for it was quite dark; she could only hear the wind howling in from the sea.

"Do you know where you should be at this moment, Mamie?" she said. "You ought to be going up the grand staircase of some great opera-house – your cloak of crimson velvet, white-furred – the diamonds in your hair shining through your lace hood – and you should have at least three gentlemen to escort you to your box, carrying opera-glasses, and flowers. That's more like you. And yet here you banish yourself away to this out-of-the-world place – you seek for no amusement – you busy yourself all day about peats, and drains, and seed-potatoes – and the highest reward you set before yourself is to get a half-hearted 'Thank you' from a sulky crofter – "

"Käthchen," said Mary, "I would advise you to read the third chapter of the General Epistle of James."

"Ah, well," said Käthchen – and she was not deeply offended by that hint about the bridling of the tongue – "wait till your brother and Mr. Frank Meredyth come up – and you'll find them saying the same thing. Philanthropy is all very well; but you need not make yourself a white slave." And then she turned to the black window again, and to her visions. "There's one thing, Mamie: I wish Mr. Ross could see you going up that grand staircase."

CHAPTER IV

HER GUEST

"It will be all different now," said Käthchen, one evening, when they were come to within a week of the arrival of Mary's brother and his friend Frank Meredyth. "And you deserve some little rest, Mamie, and some little amusement, after all your hard work. And I want you to be considerate – towards Mr. Meredyth, I mean. It isn't merely grouse and grilse that are bringing him here. You know what your brother says – that there is no one in such request for shooting parties; he could just have his pick of invitations, all over Scotland, every autumn; so you may be sure it isn't merely for the grouse and the salmon-fishing he is coming to a little place like Lochgarra. Oh, you need not pretend to deny it, Mamie! And all I want is that you should be a little considerate. He may be very anxious to have you, and yet not quite so anxious to take over your hobby as well. He may not even be interested in the price of home-knitted stockings."

Mary Stanley did not answer just at once. The two girls were slowly walking up and down the stone terrace outside the house. It was ten o'clock at night; but it was not yet dark, nor anything approaching to dark. All the world was of a pale, clear, wan lilac colour: and in this coldly luminous twilight any white object – the front of a cottage, for example, or the little Free Church building across the bay – appeared startlingly distinct. There was an absolute silence; the sea was still; two hours ago the sun had gone down behind what seemed a vast and motionless lake of molten copper; and now there was a far-reaching expanse of pearly grey, with the long headlands and Eilean Heimra gathering shadows around them. The heavens were cloudless and serene; over the sombre hills in the east a star throbbed here and there, but it had to be sought for. There appeared to be neither lamp nor candle down in the village – there was no need of them on these magical summer nights.

"I do not see that it will be so different," said Mary, presently. "Fred will have to look after Mr. Meredyth. No doubt there will be something of a commotion in so quiet a place – the dogs, and keepers, and ponies; by the way, there will be gillies wanted for the fishing as well as for the shooting later on – "

Käthchen began to snigger a little.

"I do believe, Mamie," she said, "that that is all the interest you have in the shooting – it will provide so much more employment for your beloved crofters."

"Oh, yes, I suppose the place will be a little more brisk and lively," Mary continued, "though that won't improve it much in my estimation. I wonder what made Fred hire that wretched little steam-launch." She looked towards the tiny vessel that was lying close to the quay: the small white funnel and the decks forward were visible in the mystic twilight; the hull was less clearly defined. "Fancy that thing coming sputtering and crackling into the bay on a beautiful night like this!"

"It would be very handy to take a message out to Heimra Island," said Käthchen, demurely.

Mary glanced at her, and laughed.

"My dear Käthchen, curiosity is a humiliating weakness; but I will tell you what is in the letter that is lying on the hall table – and that is likely to lie there, unless a wind springs up from some quarter to-morrow. It is an invitation to Mr. Ross to come and dine with us on Monday next."

"Monday?" said Kate Glendinning, looking surprised. "The very day your brother and Mr. Meredyth come here?"

"For that very reason," said Mary. "I wish Mr. Ross to understand why we have never asked him to dine with us – well, of course he would understand for himself – two girls, living by themselves – and – and knowing him only for so short a time. But now, you see, I ask him for the very first evening that my brother is in the house – and that's all right and correct – if there's any Mrs. Grundy in Lochgarra."

"The Free Church Minister!" said Käthchen, spitefully – for she had never forgiven the good man for his having kept aloof from the fray at Ru-Minard.

"Mr. Ross has been very kind to me – in his reserved and distant way," Mary said, "and I should not like him to think me ungrateful – "

"He cannot do that," said Käthchen, "if he hasn't been blind to what your eyes have said to him again and again."

"What do you mean, Käthchen?" Mary demanded – at once alarmed and resentful.

Käthchen retreated quickly: it had been a careless remark.

"Oh, I don't mean anything. I mean your eyes have said 'Thank you,' again and again; and it is but right they should. He has indeed been very thoughtful and kind – and always so respectful – keeping himself in the background. Oh, you need not be afraid, Mamie: you won't find me suggesting that you shouldn't have the most frank and friendly relations with Mr. Ross. At the same time – "

"Yes, at the same time?"

"I was wondering," said Käthchen, with a little hesitation, "how he might get on with your brother and Mr. Meredyth – or, rather, how they might get on with him – "

"My brother and Mr. Meredyth," said Mary, a little proudly, "will remember that Mr. Ross is my guest: that will be enough."

But Kate Glendinning's uneasy forecast was not without some justification – as Mary was soon to discover. The two visitors from the South arrived on the Monday afternoon, and there were many curious eyes covertly following the waggonette as it drove through the village. Of the two strangers, the taller, who was Mary Stanley's brother, was a young fellow of about four or five-and-twenty, good looking rather, of the fair English type, with an aquiline nose, a pretty little yellow-white moustache, and calm grey eyes. His companion, some eight or ten years older, was of middle height, or perhaps a trifle under, active and wiry-looking, with a sun-tanned face, a firm mouth, and shrewd eyes, that on the whole were also good-natured. Both of the travellers were in high spirits – and no wonder: they had heard good accounts of the grouse; they had just caught a glimpse of the Garra, which had plenty of water after the recent rains; over there was the little steam launch that could amuse them now and again for an idle hour; and beyond the bay the big, odd-looking house, against its background of fir and larch, seemed to offer them a hospitable welcome.

Mary was at the top of the semicircular flight of stairs to greet them; but even as she accompanied them into the great oak hall she instinctively felt that there was something unusual in her brother's manner towards her. And when, presently, Mr. Meredyth had been taken away to be shown his own room, Fred Stanley remained behind: Käthchen had not yet put in an appearance, for some reason or another.

"Well, what's the matter, Fred?" Mary said at once.

He had been kicking about the drawing-room in a discontented fashion, staring out of the windows or glancing at the engravings while his friend was there; but now these two were alone.

"The matter?" said he. "Plenty the matter! I don't like to find that you have been making a fool of yourself, and that you are still bent on making a fool of yourself."

"But we can't help it if we are born that way," she said, sweetly.

"Oh, you know quite well what I mean," said this tall young gentleman with the boyish moustache. "I had heard something of it before; but I thought we might as well stop the night at Inverness on the way north; and I saw Mr. Purdie. Now, mind you, Mamie, don't you take it into your head that Purdie said anything against you – he did not. He's a shrewd-headed fellow, and knows which side his bread is buttered. But he answered my questions. And I find you have just been ruining this place – turning the whole neighbourhood into a pauper asylum – and – and flinging the thing away, as you might call it."

"But it wasn't left to you, Fred," she reminded him, gently. "And I have been doing my best – after inquiry."

"Oh, I know," he said impatiently; "you've been got at by a lot of sentimentalists in London – faddists – slummers – popularity-hunters; and now, here in the Highlands, you have been working into the hands of those agitator fellows who are trying to stir up anarchy and rebellion everywhere; and you let yourself be imposed upon by a parcel of scheming and cunning crofters, who don't thank you, to begin with, and who would pull down this house to the ground and burn it the moment your back was turned if they dared."

"You haven't been very long in Lochgarra," said she, with much good humour, "but you seem to have used your time industriously. You know all about it – "

"Oh, it isn't only this place!" he said. "Everyone who reads the papers – who knows anything of the Highlands – is aware of what is going on. And you have allowed yourself to be taken in! For the credit of the family – for the sake of your own common sense – you might have waited a little. Here was Mr. Purdie, who knew the place, who knew the people; but you must needs take the whole matter in your own hands, and begin to throw away your money right and left, as if you had come into a dukedom! What do you suppose is the rental now – after all your abatements?"

"Well, I don't exactly know," said she. "But isn't it better to take what the people can really give you than nothing at all? You can't live on arrears? And, my dear Fred, what cause have you to grumble? The amount of rent affects me only; whereas I offer you the shooting and fishing, which has nothing to do with these matters. Why can't you amuse yourself and let me alone? What I have done I have considered. I have inquired into the condition of these people. To make rents practicable is not to throw away money. Indeed – but I am not going to discuss the question with you at all. Go away and get out your fly-book, and take Mr. Meredyth down to the Garra, and see if you can pick up a grilse before dinner."

But he was not to be put off by her bland amiability.

"Of course," said he, "it is very kind of you to offer me the fishing and the shooting; but I should have been better pleased to have had them without encumbrances."

"What do you mean?" said she.

"Why, who has the fishing and shooting here?" said he. "This poaching scoundrel, Ross. I am told the whole place is in league with him. He can do what he likes."

"And what further information did you gather at Inverness?" she asked, rather contemptuously.

"Well, but look here, Mamie," he remonstrated, with a sense of his wrongs gaining upon him. "Consider the position you have put me in. You know how Frank is in request at this time of the year – a thundering good shot – and used to managing things about country-houses – "

"As well as leading cotillons in London," she interposed, with smiling eyes.

"And why not?" said he, boldly. "Oh, I suppose you consider that effeminate: you would rather have him living among rocks and caves, like this smuggling fellow, and shooting seagulls for his dinner? However, look at my position. I ask him to come down with me, at your suggestion. I tell him it isn't a grand shooting – and that he'll get more sea-trout than salmon in the river – but he comes all the same; and then we discover that the whole place is at the mercy of this idling blackguard of a fellow – if we get a few birds or find a pool undisturbed, it is with his sufferance – "

"So you have acquired all this information at Inverness?" said she. "But I wouldn't entirely trust it if I were you. I am afraid Mr. Purdie is rather prejudiced. He may have been exaggerating. However, if there is any truth in what he says, I'll tell you what you ought to do: ask Mr. Ross to join your shooting and fishing parties. You'll meet him to-night at dinner."

"Here – in this house?" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Mamie, are you mad?"

"I hope not," she said quietly. "But Mr. Ross has been very kind to me of late, in helping me in various little ways; and as I couldn't well ask him to dinner when only Kate and I were in the house, I took the first opportunity after your arrival – "

"And so Frank and I, after being warned that the great annoyance and vexation we should find in the place is this fellow Ross, are coolly informed that we are to meet him at dinner, and I suppose we are expected to be civil to him!"

"I certainly do expect you to be civil to him," said Mary.

"Oh, but it's too bad!" he said, impatiently, and he went to the window and turned his back on her. And then he faced round again. "I wonder what Frank will think! I was almost ashamed to ask him to come here, even as it was – a small shooting, not much fishing, and the stalking merely a chance; but, all the same, he accepts; then the first thing we hear of on reaching Inverness is all about this vexation and underhand going on; and the next thing is that we are asked to meet at dinner the very person who causes all the trouble! Now, Mamie, I appeal to yourself, don't you think it is a little too hard?"

She hesitated. She began to fear she had been thoughtless – indiscreet – too much taken up with her own plans and projects.

"At all events, Fred," she pleaded, "your meeting Mr. Ross at dinner can't matter one way or the other – and you will be able to judge for yourself. To me he does not seem the kind of young man you would suspect of spending his time in poaching; in fact, as I understand it, he is looking forward to being called to the Bar, and I should think he was busier with books than with cartridges or salmon flies."

"You are sure he said he would come to-night?" asked this young Fred Stanley, looking at his sister.

"Yes."

"Definitely promised?"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't think he will."

"Why?"

"Because," said the young man, as he went leisurely towards the door, "there might be a question of evening dress. You haven't a Court tailor at Lochgarra, have you?"

Mary flushed slightly.

"I don't care whether he appears in evening dress or not," said she. "Most likely he will come along from his yacht; and a yachting suit is as good as any – in my eyes."

That evening, when the young hostess came downstairs, the large drawing-room was all suffused with a soft warmth of colour, for the sun was just sinking behind the violet-grey Atlantic, and the glory of the western skies streamed in through the several windows. Käthchen was here; and Käthchen's eyes lighted up with pleasure when she saw how Mary was attired. And yet could any costume have been simpler than this dress of cream-coloured China silk, its only ornamentation being a bunch of deep crimson fuchsias at the opening of the bodice, with another cluster of the same flowers at her belt? She wore no jewellery of any kind whatsoever.