THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40

"It is very comfortable not to be brought in like an enemy in spite
of him, as even a year ago I could have been proud to do."

"And I to have brought you," he answered, "but it is far better as it
is. He is very cordial, and wants to give up the Auchinvar estate to
me; indeed, he told me that he always meant me to have it as soon as
I had washed my hands of you--you wicked syren--but I think you will
agree with me that he had better leave it to his daughter Mary, who
has nothing. We never reckoned on it."

"Nor on anything else," said Ermine, smiling.

"You have never heard my ways and means," he said, "and as a prudent
woman you ought, you know. See," taking out his tablets, "here is my
calculation."

"All that!"

"On the staff in India there were good opportunities of saving; then
out of that sum I bought the house, and with my half-pay, our income
will be very fair, and there would be a pension afterwards for you.
This seems to me all we can reasonably want."

"Unless I became like "die Ilsebill" in the German tale. After four
years of living from hand to mouth, this will be like untold gold.
To wish to be above strict economy in wheeled chairs has seemed like
perilous discontent in Rose and me."

"I have ventured on the extravagance of taking the ponies and little
carriage off my brother's hands, it is low enough for you, and I
shall teach Rose to ride one of the ponies with me."

"The dear little Rose! But, Colin, there is a dreadful whisper about
her going with her father, and Ailie too! You see now his character
is cleared, he has been offered a really lucrative post, so that he
could have them with him."

"Does he wish it?"

"I dare not ask. I must be passive or I shall be selfish. You are
all my world, and Edward has no one. Make them settle it without me.
Talk of something else! Tell me how your brother is to be taken care
of."

"There cannot be a better nurse than Alick Keith; and Ferguson, the
agent, is there, getting directions from Keith whenever he can bear
it. I am best out of the way of all that. I have said once for all
that I will do anything for them except live at Gowanbrae, and I am
sick of demonstrating that the poor child's existence is the greatest
possible relief to me; and I hope now not to go back till the whole
is settled and done with."

"You look regularly worn out with the discussions!"

"It was an endless business! The only refreshment was in now and
then getting over to Bishopsworthy."

"What? to Rachel?" said Ermine archly.

"Rachel is showing to great advantage. I did not think it was in her
to be so devoted to the child, and it is beautiful to see her and Mr.
Clare together."

"There's a triumph," said Ermine, smiling. "Do you grant that the
happy medium is reached, that Alick should learn to open his eyes and
Rachel to shut hers?"

"Well! Her eyes are better, but he, poor lad, has been in no spirits
to open his very wide. The loss of his sister went very deep, and
those aguish attacks, though they become much slighter, make him look
wretchedly ill. I should have doubted about leaving him in charge in
his present state, but that he was urgent on me, and he is spared all
the night nursing. Any way, I must not leave him longer than I can
help. I may have one week with you at home--at our home, Ermine."

"And let us make the most of that," said Ermine, quickly.

Meanwhile Alison, sore and sick at heart, wandered on the esplanade,
foreboding that the blow was coming that she ought to rejoice at, if
her love could only be more unselfish. At last the Colonel joined
her, and, as usual, his tone of consideration cheered and supported
her when in actual conference with him, and as he explained his
plans, he added that he hoped there would be scarcely any
interruption to her intercourse with her sister.

"You know," she said abruptly, "that we could go to Ekaterinburg."

"And what is your feeling about it? Remember, Ailie, that I am your
brother too." And as she hesitated, "your feelings--no doubt you are
in many minds!"

"Ah, yes; I never settled anything without Ermine, and she will not
help me now. And she has been so worn with the excitement and
anxiety of all this long detention of yours, that I don't dare to say
a word that could prey on her."

"In fact, you would chiefly be decided by Edward's own wishes."

"If I were sure of them," sighed poor Alison; "but he lives on
experiments, and can hardly detach himself from them even to attend
to Ermine herself. I don't know whether we should be a comfort or a
burthen, and he would be afraid to hurt our feelings by telling the
truth. I have been longing to consult you who have seen him at that
place in Russia."

"And indeed, Ailie, he is so wedded to smoke and calculations, and so
averse to this sublunary world, that though your being with him might
be beneficial, still I greatly question whether the risk of carrying
poor little Rose to so remote a place in such a climate, would be
desirable. If he were pining to have a home made for him, it would
be worth doing; as it is, the sacrifice would be disproportioned."

"It would be no sacrifice if he only wanted us."

"Where you are wanted is here. Ermine wants you. I want you. The
Temples want you."

"Now, Colin, tell me truly. Edward feels as I do, and Dr. Long spoke
seriously of it. Will not my present position do you and Ermine harm
among your friends?"

"With no friend we wish to make or keep!"

"If I do remain," continued Alison, "it must be as I am. I would not
live upon you, even if you asked me, which you have too much sense to
do; and though dear Lady Temple is everything to me, and wants me to
forget that I am her governess, that would be a mere shuffle, but if
it is best for you that I should give it up, and go out, say so at
once."

"Best for me to have eight Temples thrown on my hands, all in
despair! To have you at Myrtlewood is an infinite relief to me, both
on their account and Ermine's. You should not suspect a penniless
Scotsman of such airs, Ailie."

"Not you, Colin, but your family."

"Isabel Menteith thinks a glass-blower was your father, and
Mauleverer your brother, so yours is by far the most respectable
profession. No, indeed, my family might be thankful to have any one
in it who could do as you have done."

Alison's scruples were thus disposed of, and when Edward's brain
cleared itself from platinum, he showed himself satisfied with the
decision, though he insisted on henceforth sending home a sum
sufficient for his daughter's expenses, and once said something that
could be construed into a hope of spending a quiet old age with her
and his sister; but at present he was manifestly out of his element,
and was bent on returning to Ekaterinburg immediately after the
marriage.

His presence was but a qualified pleasure. Naturally shy and absent,
his broken spirits and removal from domestic life, and from society,
had exaggerated his peculiarities; and under the pressure of
misfortune, caused in a great measure by his own negligence, he had
completely given way, without a particle of his sister's patience or
buoyancy, and had merely striven to drown his troubles in engrossing
problems of his favourite pursuit, till the habit of abstraction had
become too confirmed to be shaken off. When the blot on his name was
removed, he was indeed sensible that he was no longer an exile, but
he could not resume his old standing, friendships rudely severed
could not be re-united; his absorption had grown by indulgence; old
interests had passed away; needful conformity to social habits was
irksome, and even his foreign manner and appearance testified to his
entire unfitness for English life.

Tibbie was in constant dread of his burning the house down, so
incalculable and preposterous were his hours, and the Colonel,
longing to render the house a perfect shrine for his bride, found it
hard to tolerate the fumes with which her brother saturated it. If
he had been sure that opium formed no portion of Edward's solace, his
counsel to Alison would have been less decisive. To poor little
Rose, her father was an abiding perplexity and distress; she wanted
to love him, and felt it absolute naughtiness to be constantly
disappointed by his insensibility to her approaches, or else repelled
and disgusted by that vice of the Russian sheep. And a vague hint of
being transported to the Ural mountains, away from Aunt Ermine, had
haunted her of late more dreadfully than even the lions of old; so
that the relief was ineffable when her dear Colonel confided to her
that she was to be his niece and Aunt Ermine's handmaid, sent her to
consult with Tibbie on her new apartment, and invited Augustus to the
most eligible hole in the garden. The grotto that Rose, Conrade, and
Francis proceeded to erect with pebbles and shells, was likely to
prove as alarming to that respectable reptile as a model cottage to
an Irish peasant.

Ermine had dropped all scruples about Rose's intercourse with other
children, and the feeling that she might associate with them on equal
terms, perhaps, was the most complete assurance of Edward's
restoration. She was glad that companionship should render the
little maiden more active and childlike, for Edward's abstraction had
made her believe that there might be danger in indulging the
dreaminess of the imaginative child.

No one welcomed the removal of these restraints more warmly than Lady
Temple. She was perhaps the happiest of the happy, for with her
there was no drawback, no sorrow, no parting to fear. Her first
impulse, when Colonel Keith came to tell her his plans, was to seize
on hat and shawl, and rush down to Mackarel Lane to kiss Ermine with
all her heart, and tell her that "it was the most delightful thing of
her to have consented at last, for nobody deserved so well to be
happy as that dear Colonel;" and then she clung to Alison, declaring
that now she should have her all to herself, and if she would only
come to Myrtlewood, she would do her very best to make her
comfortable there, and it should be her home--her home always.

"In fact," said Ermine, afterwards to the Colonel, "when you go to
Avoncester, I think you may as well get a licence for the wedding of
Alison Williams and Fanny Temple at the same time. There has been
quite a courtship on the lady's part."

The courtship had been the more ardent from Fanny's alarm lest the
brother should deprive her of Alison; and when she found her fears
groundless, she thanked him with such fervour, and talked so eagerly
of his sister's excellences that she roused him into a lucid
interval, in which he told Colonel Keith that Lady Temple might give
him an idea of the style of woman that Lucy had been. Indeed, Colin
began to think that it was as well that he was so well wrapped up in
smoke and chemistry, otherwise another might have been added to the
list of Lady Temple's hopeless adorers. The person least satisfied
was Tibbie, who could not get over the speediness of the marriage,
nor forgive the injury to Miss Williams, "of bringing her hame like
any pleughman's wife, wantin' a honeymoon trip, forbye providin'
hersel' with weddin' braws conformable. Gin folk tak' sic daft
notions aff the English, they'd be mair wise like to bide at hame,
an' that's my way o' thinkin'."

Crusty as she was, there was no danger of her not giving her warmest
welcome, and thus the morning came. Tibbie had donned her cap, with
white satin ribbons, and made of lace once belonging to the only
heiress who had ever brought wealth to the Keiths. Edward Williams,
all his goods packed up, had gone to join his sisters, and the
Colonel, only perceptibly differing from his daily aspect in having
a hat free from crape, was opening all the windows in hopes that a
thorough draft would remove the last of the tobacco, when the letters
were brought in, and among them one of the black bordered bulletins
from Littleworthy, which ordinarily arrived by the second post. It
was a hurried note, evidently dashed off to catch the morning mail.

My Dear Colonel,--Alick tells me to write in haste to catch the
morning post, and beg you to telegraph the instant your wedding is
over. The doctors see cause to hasten their measures, but your
brother will have nothing done till the will is signed. He and Alick
both desire you will not come, but it is getting to be far too much
for Alick. I would tell you more if there were time before the post
goes. Love to dear Ermine.
Very sincerely yours,
R. KEITH.

There was so shocked and startled a look on Colin's face, that Tibbie
believed that his brother must be dead, and when in a few almost
inaudible words he told her that he must start for Bishopsworthy by
the afternoon train, she fairly began to scold, partly by way of
working off the irritation left by her alarm. "The lad's clean
demented! Heard ye ever the like, to rin awa' frae his new-made wife
afore the blessin's been weel spoke; an' a' for the whimsie of that
daft English lassie that made siccan a piece of work wi' her
cantrips."

"I am afraid she is right now," said the Colonel, "and my brother
must not be left any longer."

"Hout awa, Maister Colin, his lordship has come between you and your
luve oft enough already, without partin' ye at the very church door.
Ye would na have the English cast up to us, that one of your name did
na ken better what was fittin by his bride!"

"My bride must be the judge, Tibbie. You shall see whether she bids
me stay," said Colin, a little restored by his amusement at her
anxiety for his honour among the English. "Now desire Smith to meet
me at the church door, and ride at once from thence to Avoncester;
and get your face ready to give a cheerful welcome, Tibbie. Let her
have that, at least, whatever may come after."

Tibbie looked after him, and shook her head, understanding from her
ain laddie's pallid check, and resolute lip, nay, in the very sound
of his footfall, how sore was his trial, and with one-sided
compassion she muttered, "Telegrafted awa on his vera weddin' day.
His Lordship'll be the death o' them baith before he's done."

As it was in every way desirable that the wedding should be
unexpected by Avonmonth in general, it was to take place at the close
of the ordinary morning service, and Ermine in her usual seat within
the vestry, was screened from knowing how late was Colin's entrance,
or seeing the determined composure that would to her eyes have
betrayed how much shaken he was. He was completely himself again by
the time the congregation dispersed, leaving only Grace Curtis, Lady
Temple, and the little best man, Conrade, a goodly sight in his grey
suit and scarlet hose. Then came the slow movement from the vestry,
the only really bridal-looking figure being Rose in white muslin and
white ribbons; walking timidly and somewhat in awe beside her younger
aunt; while her father upheld and guided the elder. Both were in
quiet, soft, dark dresses, and straw bonnets, but over hers Ermine
wore the small though exquisite Brussels lace veil that had first
appeared at her mother's wedding; and thankful joy and peaceful awe
looked so lovely on her noble brow, deep, soft dark eyes, and the
more finely moulded, because somewhat worn, features; and so
beauteously deepened was the carnation on her cheek, that Mr.
Mitchell ever after maintained that he had never married any one to
compare with that thirty-three years' old bride upon crutches, and,
as he reported to his wife, in no dress at all.

Her brother, who supported her all the time she stood, was infinitely
more nervous than she was. Her native grace and dignity, and absence
of all false shame entirely covered her helplessness, and in her
earnestness, she had no room for confusion; her only quivering of
voice was caught for one moment from the tremulous intensity of
feeling that Colin Keith could not wholly keep from thrilling in his
tones, as he at last proclaimed his right to love and to cherish her
for whom he had so long persevered.

Unobserved, he filled up the half-written despatch with the same pen
with which he signed the register, and sent Conrade to the door with
it to his already mounted messenger. Then assuming Edward's place as
Ermine's supporter, he led her to the door, seated her in her wheeled
chair, and silently handing Rachel's note as his explanation to
Alison, he turned away, and walked alone by Ermine's side to his own
house. Still silent, he took her into the bright drawing-room he had
so long planned for her, and seated her in her own peculiar chair.
Then his first words were, "Thank God for this!"

She knew his face. "Colin, your brother is worse?" He bent his
head, he could not speak.

"And you have to go to him! This very day?"

"Ermine, you must decide. You are at last my first duty!"

"That means that you know you ought to go. Tell me what it is."

He told the substance of the note, ending with, "If you could come
with me!"

"I would if I should not be a tie and hindrance. No, I must not do
that; but here I am, Colin, here I am. And it is all true--it has
all come right at last! All we waited for. Nothing has ever been
like this."

She was the stronger. Tears, as much of loving thankfulness as of
overflowing disappointment, rushed into his eyes at such a fulfilment
of the purpose that he had carried with him by sea and land, in
battle and sickness, through all the years of his manhood. And
withal her one thought was to infuse in its strongest measure the
drop of happiness that was to sustain him through the scenes that
awaited him, to make him feel her indeed his wife, and to brighten
him with the sunbeam face that she knew had power to cheer him.
Rallying her playfulness, she took off her bonnet, and said as she
settled her hair, "There, that is being at home! Take my shawl, yes,
and these white gloves, and put them out of sight, that I may not
feel like a visitor, and that you may see how I shall look when you
come back. Do you know, I think your being out of the way will be
rather a gain, for there will be a tremendous feminine bustle with
the fitting of our possessions."

Her smile awoke a responsive look, and she began to gaze round and
admire, feeling it safest to skim on the surface; and he could not
but be gratified by her appreciation of the pains spent upon this,
her especial home. He had recovered himself again by the time these
few sentences had passed; they discussed the few needful arrangements
required by his departure, and Tibbie presently found them so
cheerful that she was quite scandalized, and when Ermine held out her
hands, saying, "What Tibbie, won't you come and kiss me, and wish me
joy?" she exclaimed--

"Wish ye joy! It's like me to wish ye joy an yer lad hurled awa frae
yer side i' the blink o' an ee, by thae wild telegrams. I dinna see
what joy's to come o't; it's clean again the Scripture!"

"I told you I had left it to her to decide, Tibbie," said the
Colonel.

"Weel, an what wad ye hae the puir leddy say? She kens what sorts
ye, when the head of yer name is sick an lyin' among thae English
loons that hae brocht him to siccan a pass."

"Right, Tibbie," exclaimed Ermine, greatly amused at the unexpected
turn, purely for the sake of putting Maister Colin in the wrong. "If
a gentleman won't be content without a bride who can't walk, he must
take the consequence, and take his wedding trip by himself! It is my
belief, Tibbie, as I have just been telling him, that you and I shall
get the house in all the better order for having him off our hands,
just at first," she added, with a look of intelligence.

"Deed, an maybe we shall," responded Tibbie, with profound
satisfaction. "He was aye a camsteary child when there was any wark
on hand."

Colin could not help laughing, and when once this had been effected,
Ermine felt that his depression had been sufficiently met, and that
she might venture on deeper, and more serious sympathy, befitting the
chastened, thankful feelings with which they hailed the crowning of
their youthful love, the fulfilment of the hopes and prayers that the
one had persisted in through doubt and change, the other had striven
to resign into the All-wise Hands.

They had an early meal together, chiefly for the sake of his wheeling
her to the head of his table, and "seeing how she looked there," and
then the inexorable hour was come, and he left her, with the echo of
her last words in his ear, "Goodbye, Colin, stay as long as you
ought. It will make the meeting all the sweeter, and you have your
wife to some back to now. Give a sister's love to your brother, and
thanks for having spared you," and his last look at the door was
answered with her sunshiny smile.

But when, a few minutes after, Edward came up with Alison for his
farewell, they found her lying back in her chair, half fainting, and
her startled look told almost too plainly that she had not thought of
her brother. "Never mind," said Edward, affectionately, as much to
console Alison as Ermine for this oblivion; "of course it must be so,
and I don't deserve otherwise. Nothing brought me home but Colin
Keith's telling me that he saw you would not have him till my
character was cleared up; and now he has repaired so much of the evil
I did you, all I can do is to work to make it up to you in other
ways. Goodbye, Ermine, I leave you all in much better hands than
mine ever were, you are right enough in feeling that a week of his
absence outweighs a year of mine. Bless you for all that you and he
have done for my child. She, at least, is a comfort to you."

Ermine's powers were absolutely exhausted; she could only answer him
by embraces and tears; and all the rest of the day she was, to use
her own expression, "good for nothing but to be let alone." Nor,
though she exerted herself that she might with truth write that she
was well and happy, was she good for much more on the next, and her
jealous guardians allowed her to see no one but soft, fondling Lady
Temple, who insisted on a relationship (through Rachel), and whose
tender pensive quietness could not fail to be refreshment to the
strained spirits, and wearied physical powers, and who better than
anybody could talk of the Colonel, nay, who could understand, and
even help Ermine herself to understand, that these ever-welling tears
came from a source by no means akin to grief or repining.

The whole aspect of the rooms was full of tokens of his love and
thought for her. The ground-floor had been altered for her
accommodation, the furniture chosen in accordance with her known
tastes or with old memories, all undemonstratively prepared while yet
she had not decided on her consent. And what touched her above all,
was the collection of treasures that he had year by year gathered
together for her throughout the weary waiting, purchases at which
Lady Temple remembered her mother's banter, with his quiet evasions
of explanation. No wonder Ermine laid her head on her hand, and
could not retain her tears, as she recalled the white, dismayed face
of the youth, who had printed that one sad earliest kiss on her brow,
as she lay fire-scathed and apparently dying; and who had cherished
the dream unbroken and unwaveringly, had denied himself consistently,
had garnered up those choice tokens when ignorant over whether she
still lived; had relied on her trust, and come back, heart-whole, to
claim and win her, undaunted by her crippled state, her poverty, and
her brother's blotted name. "How can such love ever be met? Why am
I favoured beyond all I could have dared to image to myself?" she
thought, and wept again; because, as she murmured to Fanny, "I do
thank God for it with all my heart, and I do long to tell him all.
I don't think my married life ought to begin by being sillier than
ever I was before, but I can't help it."

"And I do love you so much the better for it," said Fanny; a better
companion to-day than the grave, strong Alison, who would have been
kind, but would have had to suppress some marvel at the break-down,
and some resentment that Edward had no greater share in it.

The morning's post brought her the first letter from her husband,
and in the midst of all her anxiety as to the contents, she could not
but linger a moment on the aspect of the Honourable Mrs. Colin Keith
in his handwriting; there was a carefulness in the penmanship that
assured her that, let him have to tell her what he would, the very
inditing of that address had been enjoyment to him. That the border
was black told nothing, but the intelligence was such as she had been
fully prepared for. Colin had arrived to find the surgeon's work
over, but the patient fast sinking. Even his recognition of his
brother had been uncertain, and within twenty-four hours of the
morning that had given Colin a home of his own, the last remnant of
the home circle of his childhood had passed from him.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40