White Heather: A Novel (Volume 2 of 3)

'The fat's in the fire now,' said the skipper.

'I wonder if the guinea 'll pay for the broken glass,' said Jimmy Laidlaw.

But it was the little old musician, whose scheme this had been, who was most concerned.

'We'll have to get hold o' the lad and pacify him,' said he. 'The Hielan deevil! But if he doesna come back here, he'll get among a worse lot than we are – we'll have to get hold o' him, Captain, and bring him to his senses.'

Well, in the end – after a day or two – Ronald was pacified; and he did go back to the club, and resumed his relations with the friends and acquaintances he had formed there. And that was how it came about that Meenie's married sister – who happened to know certain members of the Rev. Andrew Strang's congregation, and who was very curious to discover why it was that Meenie betrayed such a singular interest in this mere gamekeeper, and was repeatedly referring to him in her correspondence – added this postscript to a letter which she was sending to Inver-Mudal:

'I don't know whether it may interest you to hear that Ronald Strang, Mr. Strang's brother, whom you have several times asked about, is drinking himself to death, and that in the lowest of low company.'

END OF VOL. II

1

Pronounced Mackise, with the accent on the second syllable.

2

'I am asleep, do not waken me' is the English equivalent of the Gaelic name of the air, which is a very old one, and equally pathetic in its Irish and Highland versions.

3

'Husry,' housewifery.