A Knight of the Nets

THE WORLD SHE LIVED IN

It would be easy to walk many a time through “Fife and all the lands about it” and never once find the little fishing village of Pittendurie.  Indeed, it would be a singular thing if it was found, unless some special business or direction led to it.  For clearly it was never intended that human beings should build homes where these cottages cling together, between sea and sky,—­a few here, and a few there, hidden away in every bend of the rocks where a little ground could be levelled, so that the tides in stormy weather break with threat and fury on the very doorstones of the lowest cottages.  Yet as the lofty semicircle of hills bend inward, the sea follows; and there is a fair harbour, where the fishing boats ride together while their sails dry in the afternoon sun.  Then the hamlet is very still; for the men are sleeping off the weariness of their night work, while the children play quietly among the tangle, and the women mend the nets or bait the lines for the next fishing.  A lonely little spot, shut in by sea and land, and yet life is there in all its passionate variety—­love and hate, jealousy and avarice, youth, with its ideal sorrows and infinite expectations, age, with its memories and regrets, and “sure and certain hope.”

The cottages also have their individualities.  Although they are much of the same size and pattern, an observing eye would have picked out the Binnie cottage as distinctive and prepossessing.  Its outside walls were as white as lime could make them; its small windows brightened with geraniums and a white muslin curtain; and the litter of ropes and nets and drying fish which encumbered the majority of thatches, was pleasantly absent.  Standing on a little level, thirty feet above the shingle, it faced the open sea, and was constantly filled with the confused tones of its sighing surges, and penetrated by its pulsating, tremendous vitality.

It had been the home of many generations of Binnies, and the very old, and the very young, had usually shared its comforts together; but at the time of my story, there remained of the family only the widow of the last proprietor, her son Andrew, and her daughter Christina.  Christina was twenty years old, and still unmarried,—­a strange thing in Pittendurie, where early marriages are the rule.  Some said she was vain of her beauty and could find no lad whom she thought good enough; others thought she was a selfish, cold-hearted girl, feared for the cares and the labours of a fisherman’s wife.

On this July afternoon, the girl had been some hours mending the pile of nets at her feet; but at length they were in perfect order, and she threw her arms upward and outward to relieve their weariness, and then went to the open door.  The tide was coming in, but the children were still paddling in the salt pools and on the cold bladder rack, and she stepped forward to the edge of the cliff, and threw them some wild geranium and ragwort.  Then she stood motionless in the bright sunlight, looking down the shingle towards the pier and the little tavern, from which came, in drowsy tones, the rough monotonous songs which seamen delight to sing—­songs, full of the complaining of the sea, interpreted by the hoarse, melancholy voices of sea faring men.

Standing thus in the clear light, her great beauty was not to be denied.  She was tall and not too slender; and at this moment, the set of her head was like that of a thoroughbred horse, when it pricks its ears to listen.  She had soft brown eyes, with long lashes and heavy eyebrows—­eyes, reflecting the lances of light that darted in and out of the shifting clouds—­an open air complexion, dazzling, even teeth, an abundance of dark, rippling hair, and a flush of ardent life opening her wide nostrils, and stirring gently the exquisite mould of her throat and bust.  The moral impression she gave was that of a pure, strong, compassionate woman; cool-headed, but not cold; capable of vigorous joys and griefs.

After a few minutes’ investigation, she went back to the cottage, and stood in the open doorway, with her head leaning against the lintel.  Her mother had begun to prepare the evening meal; fresh fish were frying on the fire, and the oat cakes toasting before it.  Yet, as she moved rapidly about, she was watching her daughter and very soon she gave words to the thoughts troubling and perplexing her motherly speculations.

“Christina,” she said, “you’ll not require to be looking for Andrew.  The lad is ben the house; he has been asleep ever since he eat his dinner.”

“I know that, Mother.”

“Well then, if it is Jamie Logan, let me tell you it is a poor business.  I have a fear and an inward down-sinking anent that young man.”

“Perfect nonsense, Mother!  There is nothing to fear you about Jamie.”

“What good ever came through folk saved from the sea?  Tell me that, Christina!  They bring sorrow back with them.  That is a fact none will deny.”

“What could Andrew do but save the lad?”

“Why was the lad running before such a sea?  He should have got into harbour; there was time enough.  And if it was Andrew’s duty to save him, it is not your duty to be loving him.  You may take that much sense from me, anyway.”

“Whist, Mother!  He has not said a word of love to me.”

“He perfectly changes colours every time he sees you, and why so, if it be not for love of you?  I am not liking the look of the thing, Christina, and your brother is not liking it; and if you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll be in a burning fever of first love, and beyond all reasoning.  Even now, you are making yourself a speculation to the whole village.”

“Jamie is a straight-forward lad.  I’m thinking he would lay his life down for me.”

“I thought he had not said a word of love to you.”

“A girl knows some things that are not told her.”

“Very fine; but it will not be the fashion now to lie down and die for Annie Laurie, or any other lass.  A young man who wants a wife must bustle around and get siller to keep her with.  Getting married, these days is not a thing to make a song about.  You are but a young thing yet, Christina, and you have much to learn.”

“Would you not like to be young again, Mother?”

“No, I would not!  I would not risk it.  Besides, it would be going back; and I want to go forward and upward.  But you need not try to turn the talk from Jamie Logan that way.  I’ll say again what I said before, you will be in a fever of first love, and not to be reasoned with, if you don’t take care of yourself.”

The girl flushed hotly, came into the house, and began to re-arrange the teacups with a nervous haste; for she heard Jamie’s steps on the rocky road, and his voice, clear as a blackbird’s, whistling gayly “In the Bay of Biscay O!”

“The teacups are all right, Christina.  I am talking anent Jamie Logan.  The lad is just a temptation to you; and you will require to ask for strength to be kept out of temptation; for the Lord knows, the best of us don’t expect strength to resist it.”

Christina turned her face to her mother, and then left her answer to Jamie Logan.  For he came in at the moment with a little tartan shawl in his hand, which he gallantly threw across the shoulders of Mistress Binnie.

“I have just bought it from a peddler loon,” he said.  “It is bonnie and soft, and it sets you well, and I hope you will pleasure me by wearing it.”

His face was so bright, his manner so charming, that it was impossible for Janet Binnie to resist him.  “You are a fleeching, flattering laddie,” she answered; but she stroked and fingered the gay kerchief, while Christina made her observe how bright were the colours of it, and how neatly the soft folds fell around her.  Then the door of the inner room opened, and Andrew came sleepily out.

“The fish is burning,” he said, “and the oat cakes too; for I am smelling them ben the house;” and Janet ran to her fireside, and hastily turned her herring and cakes.

“I’m feared you won’t think much of your meat to-night,” she said regretfully; “the tea is fairly ruined.”

“Never mind the meat, Mother,” said Andrew.  “We don’t live to eat.”

“Never mind the meat, indeed!  What perfect nonsense!  There is something wrong with folk that don’t mind their meat.”

“Well then, you shouldn’t be so vain of yourself, Mother.  You were preening like a young girl when I first got sight of you—­and the meat taking care of itself.”

“Me, vain!  No!  No!  Nobody that knows Janet Binnie can ever say she is vain.  I wot well that I am a frail, miserable creature, with little need of being vain, either for myself or my children.  You are a great hand at arguing, Andrew, but you are always in the wrong.  But draw to the table and eat.  I’ll warrant the fish will prove better than it is bonnie.”

They sat down with a pleasant content that soon broadened into mirth and laughter, as Jamie Logan began to tell and to show how the peddler lad had fleeched and flethered the fisher wives out of their bawbees; adding at the last “that he could not come within sight of their fine words, they were that civil to him.”

“Senselessly civil, no doubt of it,” answered Janet.  “A peddler aye gives the whole village a fit of the liberalities.  The like of Jean Robertson spending a crown on him!  Foolish woman, the words are not to seek that she’ll get from me in the morning.”

Then Jamie took a letter from his pocket, and showed it to Andrew Binnie.  “Robert Toddy brought it this morning,” he said, “and, as you may see, it is from the firm of Henderson Brothers, Glasgow; and they say there will be a berth for me very soon now in one of their ships.  And their boats are good, and their captains good, and there is chances for a fine sailor on that line.  I may be a captain myself one of these days!” and he laughed so gayly, and looked so bravely into the face of such a bold idea, that he persuaded every one else to expect it for him.  Janet pulled her new shawl a little closer and smiled, and her thought was:  “After all, Christina may wait longer, and fare worse; for she is turned twenty.”  Yet she showed a little reserve as she asked:—­

“Are you then Glasgow-born, Jamie?”

“Me!  Glasgow-born!  What are you thinking of?  I am from the auld East Neuk; and I am glad and proud of being a Fifer.  All my common sense comes from Fife.  There is none loves the ‘Kingdom’ more than I, Jamie Logan.  We are all Fife together.  I thought you knew it.”

At these words there was a momentary shadow across the door, and a little lassie slipped in; and when she did so, all put down their cups to welcome her.  Andrew reddened to the roots of his hair, his eyes filled with light, a tender smile softened his firm mouth, and he put out his hand and drew the girl to the chair which Christina had pushed close to his own.

“You are welcome, and more than welcome, Sophy,” said the Mistress; but for all that, she gave Sophy a glance in which there was much speculation not unmixed, with fear and disapproval.  For it was easy to see that Andrew Binnie loved her, and that she was not at all like him, nor yet like any of the fisher-girls of Pittendurie.  Sophy, however, was not responsible for this difference; for early orphanage had placed her in the care of an aunt who carried on a dress and bonnet making business in Largo, and she had turned the little fisher-maid into a girl after her own heart and wishes.

Sophy, indeed, came frequently to visit her people in Pittendurie; but she had gradually grown less and less like them, and there was no wonder Mistress Binnie asked herself fearfully, “what kind of a wife at all Sophy would make for a Fife fisherman?” She was so small and genty, she had such a lovely face, such fair rippling hair, and her gown was of blue muslin made in the fashion of the day, and finished with a lace collar round her throat, and a ribbon belt round her slender waist.

“A bonnie lass for a carriage and pair,” thought Janet Binnie; “but whatever will she do with the creel and the nets? not to speak of the bairns and the housework?”

Andrew was too much in love to consider these questions.  When he was six years old, he had carried Sophy in his arms all day long; when he was twelve, they had paddled on the sands, and fished, and played, and learned their lessons together.  She had promised then to be his wife as soon as he had a house and a boat of his own; and never for one moment since had Andrew doubted the validity and certainty of this promise.  To Andrew, and to Andrew’s family, and to the whole village of Pittendurie, the marriage of Andrew Binnie and Sophy Traill was a fact beyond disputing.  Some said “it was the right thing,” and more said “it was the foolish thing,” and among the latter was Andrew’s mother; though as yet she had said it very cautiously to Andrew, whom she regarded as “clean daft and senselessly touchy about the girl.”

But she sent the young people out of the house while she redd up the disorder made by the evening meal; though, as she wiped her teacups, she went frequently to the little window, and looked at the four sitting together on the bit of turf which carpeted the top of the cliff before the cottage.  Andrew, as a privileged lover, held Sophy’s hand; Christina sat next her brother, and facing Jamie Logan, so it was easy to see how her face kindled, and her manner softened to the charm of his merry conversation, his snatches of breezy sea-song, and his clever bits of mimicry.  And as Janet walked to and fro, setting her cups and plates in the rack, and putting in place the tables and chairs she did what we might all do more frequently and be the wiser for it—­she talked to herself, to the real woman within her, and thus got to the bottom of things.

In less than an hour there began to be a movement about the pier, and then Andrew and Jamie went away to their night’s work; and the girls sat still and watched the men across the level sands, and the boats hurrying out to the fishing grounds.  Then they went back to the cottage, and found that Mistress Binnie had taken her knitting and gone to chat with a crony who lived higher up the cliff.

“We are alone, Sophy” said Christina; “but women folk are often that.”  She spoke a little sadly, the sweet melancholy of conscious, but unacknowledged love being heavy in her heart, and she would not have been sorry, had she been quite alone with her vaguely happy dreams.  Neither of the girls was inclined to talk, but Christina wondered at Sophy’s silence, for she had been unusually merry while the young men were present.

Now she sat quiet on the door step, clasping her left knee with little white hands that had no sign of labour on them but the mark of the needle on the left forefinger.  At her side, Christina stood, her tall straight figure fittingly clad in a striped blue and white linsey petticoat, and a little josey of lilac print, cut low enough to show the white, firm throat above it.  Her fine face radiated thought and feeling; she was on the verge of that experience which glorifies the simplest life.  The exquisite glooming, the tender sky, the full heaving sea, were all in sweetest sympathy; they were sufficient; and Sophy’s thin, fretful voice broke the charm and almost offended her.

“It is a weary life, Christina.  How do you thole it?”

“You are just talking, Sophy.  You were happy enough half an hour since.”

“I wasn’t happy at all.”

“You let on like you were.  I should think you would be as fear’d to act a lie, as to tell one.”

“I’ll be going away from Pittendurie in the morning.”

“What for?”

“I have my reasons.”

“No doubt you have a ‘because’ of your own.  But what will Andrew say?  He is not expecting you to leave to-morrow.”

“I don’t care what Andrew says.”

“Sophy Traill!”

“I don’t.  Andrew Binnie is not the whole of life to me.”

“Whatever is the matter with you?”

“Nothing.”

Then there was a pause, and Christina’s thoughts flew seaward.  In a few minutes, however, Sophy began talking again.  “Do you go often into Largo, Christina?” she asked.

“Whiles, I take myself that far.  You may count me up for the last year; for I sought you every time.”

“Ay!  Do you mind on the road a real grand house, fine and old, with a beautiful garden and peacocks in it—­trailing their long feathers over the grass and gravel?”

“You will be meaning Braelands?  Folks could not miss the place, even if they tried to.”

“Well then, did you ever notice a young man around?  He is always dressed for the saddle, or else he is in the saddle, and so most sure to have a whip in his hand.”

“What are you talking about?  What is the young man to you?”

“He is brawly handsome.  They call him Archie Braelands.”

“I have heard tell of him.  And by what is said, I should not think he was an improving friend for any good girl to have.”

“This, or that, he likes me.  He likes me beyond everything.”

“Do you know what you are saying, Sophy Traill?”

“I do, fine.”

“Are you liking him?”

“It would not be hard to do.”

“Has he ever spoke to you?”

“Well, he is not as shy as a fisher-lad.  I find him in my way when I’m not thinking.  And see here, Christina; I got a letter from him this afternoon.  A real love letter!  Such lovely words!  They are like poetry; they are as sweet as singing.”

“Did you tell Andrew this?”

“Why would I do that?”

“You are a false little cutty, then.  I would tell Andrew myself, but I am loath to hurt his true heart.  Now you are to let Archie Braelands alone, or I will know the reason why.”

“Preserve us all!  What a blazing passion for nothing at all!  Can’t a lassie chat with a lad for a half hour without calling a court of sessions about it?” and she rose and shook out her dress, saying with an air of offence:—­

“You may tell Andrew, if you like to.  It would be a very poor thing if a girl is to be miscalled every time a man told her she was pretty.”

“I’m not saying any woman can help men making fools of themselves; but you should have told Braelands that you were all the same as married, being promised so long to Andrew Binnie.  And you ought to have told Andrew about the letter.”

“Everybody can’t live in Pittendurie, Christina.  And if you live with a town full of folk, you cannot go up and down, saying to every man you meet, ’please, sir, I have a lad of my own, and you are not to cast a look at me, for Andrew Binnie would not like it.”

“Hold your tongue, Sophy, or else know what you are yattering about.  I would think shame to talk so scornful of the man I was going to marry.”

“You can let it go for a passing remark.  And if I have said anything to vex you, we are old friends, Christina, and it is not a lad that will part us.  Sophy requires a deal of forgiving.”

“She does,” said Christina with a smile; “so I just forgive her as I go along, for she is still doing something out of the way.  But you must not treat Andrew ill.  I could not love you, Sophy, if you did the like of that.  And you must always tell me everything about yourself, and then nothing will go far wrong.”

“Even that.  I am not given to lying unless it is worth my while.  I’ll tell you aught there is to tell.  And there is a kiss for Andrew, and you may say to him that I would have told him I was going back to Largo in the morning, only that I cannot bear to see him unhappy.  That a message to set him on the mast-head of pride and pleasure.”

“I will give Andrew the kiss and the message, Sophy.  And you take my advice, and keep yourself clear of that young Braelands.  I am particular about my own good name, and I mean to be particular about yours.”

“I have had your advice already, Christina.”

“Well, this is a forgetful world, so I just mention the fact again.”

“All the same, you might remember, Christina, that there was once a woman who got rich by minding her own business;” and with a laugh, the girl tied her bonnet under her chin, and went swiftly down the cliff towards the village.