A Knight of the Nets

THE LAST OF THE WHIP

With a joyful haste Christina went forward, leaving her brother to follow in more sober fashion.  Jamie came to the cliff-top to meet her, and Janet from the cottage door beamed congratulations and radiant sympathy.

“I have got my berth on the Line, Christina!  I am to sail next Friday from Greenock, so I’ll start at once, my dearie!  And I am the happiest lad in Fife to-day!”

He had his arms around her as he spoke, and he kissed her smiles and glad exclamations off her lips before she could put them into words.  Then Andrew joined them, and after clasping hands with Jamie and Christina, he went slowly into the cottage, leaving the lovers alone outside.  Janet was all excitement.

“I’m like to greet with the good news, Andrew,” she said, “it came so unexpected Jamie was just daundering over the sands, kind of down-hearted, he said, and wondering if he would stay through the winter and fish with Peddle or not, when little Maggie Johnston cried out, ‘there is a big letter for you, Jamie Logan,’ and he went and got it, and, lo and behold! it was from the Hendersons themselves!  And they are needing Jamie now, and he’ll just go at once, he says.  There’s luck for you!  I am both laughing and crying with the pride and the pleasure of it!”

“I wouldn’t make such a fuss, anyway, Mother.  It is what Jamie has been looking for and expecting, and I am glad he has won to it at last.”

“Fuss indeed!  Plenty of ‘fuss’ made over sorrow; why not over joy?  And if you think me a fool for it, I’m not sure but I might call you my neighbour, if it was only Sophy Traill or her affairs to be ‘fussed’ over.”

“Never mind Sophy, Mother.  It is Jamie and Christina now, and Christina knows her happiness is dear to me as my own.”

“Well then, show it, Andrew.  Show it, my lad!  We must do what we can to put heart into poor Jamie; for when all is said and done, he is going to foreign parts and leaving love and home behind.”  And she walked to the door and looked at Jamie and Christina, who were standing on the cliff-edge together, deeply engaged in a conversation that was of the highest interest to themselves.  “I have fancied you have been a bit shy with Jamie since yon time he set an old friend before his promise to you, Andrew; but what then?”

“I wish Christina had married among our own folk.  I have no wrong to say in particular of Jamie Logan, but I think my sister might have made her life with some good man a bit closer to her.”

“I thought, Andrew, that you were able to look sensibly at what comes and goes.  If it was a matter of business, you would be the first to see the advantage of building your dyke with the stones you could get at.  And you may believe me or not, but there’s a deal of the successful work of this life carried through on that principle.  Well, in marrying it is just as wise.  The lad you can get, is happen better than the lad you want.  Anyhow Christina is going to marry Jamie; and I’m sure he is that loving and pleasant, and that fond of her, that I have no doubt she will be happy as the day is long.”

“I hope it is the truth, Mother, that you are saying.”

“It is; but some folks won’t see the truth, though they are dashing their noses against it.  None so blind as they who won’t see.”

“Well, it isn’t within my right to speak to-day.”

“Yes, it is.  It is your right and place to speak all the good and hopeful words you can think of.  Don’t be dour, Andrew.  Man! man! how hard it is to rejoice with them that do rejoice!  It takes more Christianity to do that than most folks carry around with them.”

“Mother, you are a perfectly unreasonable woman.  You flyte at me, as if I was a laddie of ten years old—­but I’ll not dare to say but what you do me a deal of good;” and Andrew’s face brightened as he looked at her.

“You would hardly do the right thing, if I didn’t flyte at you, Andrew.  And maybe I wouldn’t do it myself, if I was not watching you; having nobody to scold and advise is very like trying to fly a kite without wind.  Go to the door and call in Jamie and Christina.  We ought to take an interest in their bit plans and schemes; and if we take it, we ought to show we take it.”

Then Andrew rose and went to the open door, and as he went he laid his big hand on his mother’s shoulder, and a smile flew from face to face, and in its light every little shadow vanished.  And Jamie was glad to bring in his promised bride, and among her own people as they eat together, talk over the good that had come to them, and the changes that were incident to it.  And thus an hour passed swiftly away, and then “farewells” full of love and hope, and laughter and tears, and hand-clasping, and good words, were said; and Jamie went off to his new life, leaving a thousand pleasant hopes and expectations behind him.

After he was fairly out of sight, and Christina stood looking tearfully into the vacancy where his image still lingered, Andrew led her to the top of the cliff, and they sat down together.  It was an exquisite afternoon, full of the salt and sparkle of the sea; and for awhile both remained silent, looking down on the cottages, and the creels, and the drying nets.  The whole village seemed to be out, and the sands were covered with picturesque figures in sea-boots and striped hanging caps, and with the no less picturesque companion figures in striped petticoats.  Some of the latter were old women, and these wore high-crowned, unbordered caps of white linen; others were young women, and these had no covering at all on their exuberant hair; but most of them displayed long gold rings in their ears, and bright scarlet or blue kerchiefs round their necks.  Andrew glanced from these figures to his sister; and touching her striped petticoat, he said:—­

“You’ll be changing this for what they call a gown, when you go to Glasgow!  How soon is that to be, Christina?”

“When Jamie has got well settled in his place.  It wouldn’t be prudent before.”

“About the New Year, say?”

“Ay; about the New Year.”

“I am thinking of giving you a silk gown for your wedding.”

“O Andrew! if you would!  A silk gown would set me up above every thing!  I’ll never forget such a favour as that.”

“I’ll do it.”

“And Sophy will see to the making of it.  Sophy has a wonderful taste about trimming, and the like of that.  Sophy will stand up with me, and you will be Jamie’s best man; won’t you, Andrew?”

“Ay, Sophy will see to the making of it.  Few can make a gown look as she can.  She is a clever bit thing”—­then after a pause he added sadly, “there was one thing I did not tell you this morning; but it is a circumstance I feel very badly about.”

“What is it?  You know well that I shall feel with you.”

“It is the way folks keep hinting this and that to me; but more, that I am mistrusting Mistress Kilgour.  I saw a young fellow standing at the shop door talking to her the other morning very confidential-like—­a young fellow that could not have any lawful business with her.”

“What kind of a person was he?”

“A large, dark man, dressed like a picture in a tailor’s window.  His servant-man, in a livery of brown and yellow, was holding the horses in a fine dog-cart.  I asked Jimmy Faulds what his name was and he laughed and said it was Braelands of Braelands, and he should think I knew it and then he looked at me that queer, that I felt as if his eyes had told me of some calamity.  ‘What is he doing at Mistress Kilgour’s?’ I asked as soon as I could get myself together, and Jimmy answered, ’I suppose he is ordering Madame Braelands’ millinery,’ and then he snickered and laughed again, and I had hard lines to keep my hands from striking him.’

“What for at all?”

“I don’t know.  I wish I did.”

“If I give you my advice, will you take it?”

“I will.”

“Then for once—­if you don’t want Braelands to win Sophy from you—­put your lover’s fears and shamefacedness behind your back.  Just remember who and what you are, and what you are like to be, and go and tell Sophy everything, and ask her to marry you next Monday morning.  Take gold in your pocket, and buy her a wedding gift—­a ring, or a brooch, or some bonnie thing or other; and promise her a trip to Edinburgh or London, or any other thing she fancies.”

“We have not been ‘cried’ yet.  And the names must be read in the kirk for three Sundays.”

“Oh man!  Cannot you get a licence?  It will cost you a few shillings, but what of that?  You are too slow, Andrew.  If you don’t take care, and make haste, Braelands will run away with your wife before your very eyes.”

“I’ll not believe it.  It could not be.  The thing is unspeakable, and unbearable.  I’ll face my fate the morn, and I’ll know the best—­or the worst of what is coming to me.”

“Look for good, and have good, that is, if you don’t let the good hour go by.  You, Andrew Binnie! that can manage a boat when the north wind is doing its mightiest, are you going to be one of the cony kind, when it comes to a slip of a girl like Sophy?  I can not think it, for you know what Solomon said of such—­’Oh Son, it is a feeble folk.’”

“I don’t come of feeble folk, body nor soul; and as I have said, I will have the whole matter out with Sophy to-morrow.”

“Good—­but better do than say.”

The next morning a swift look of intelligence passed between Andrew and Christina at breakfast, and about eleven o’clock Andrew said, “I’ll away now to Largo, and settle the business we were speaking of, Christina.”  She looked up at him critically, and thought she had never seen a handsomer man.  Though only a fisherman, he was too much a force of nature to be vulgar.  He was the incarnation of the grey, old village, and of the North Sea, and of its stormy winds and waters.  Standing in his boots he was over six feet, full of pluck and fibre, a man not made for the town and its narrow doorways, but for the great spaces of the tossing ocean.  His face was strong and finely formed; his eyes grey and open—­as eyes might be that had so often searched the thickest of the storm with unquailing glance.  A sensitive flush overspread his brow and cheeks as Christina gazed at him, and he said nervously:—­

“I will require to put on my best clothes; won’t I, Christina?”

She laid her hand on his arm, and shook her head with a pleasant smile.  She was regarding with pride and satisfaction her brother’s fine figure, admirably shown in the elastic grace of his blue Guernsey.  She turned the collar low enough to leave his round throat a little bare, and put his blue flannel Tam o’ Shanter over his close, clustering curls.  “Go as you are,” she said.  “In that dress you feel at home, and at ease, and you look ten times the man you do in your broadcloth.  And if Sophy cannot like her fisher-lad in his fisher-dress, she isn’t worthy of him.”

He was much pleased with this advice, for it precisely sorted with his own feelings; and he stooped and kissed Christina, and she sent him away with a smile and a good wish.  Then she went to her mother, who was in a little shed salting some fish.  “Mother,” she cried, “Andrew has gone to Largo.”

“Like enough.  It would be stranger, if he had stopped at home.”

“He has gone to ask Sophy to marry him next week—­next Monday.”

“Perfect nonsense!  We’ll have no such marrying in a hurry, and a corner.  It will take a full month to marry Andrew Binnie.  What would all our folks say, far and near, if they were not bid to the wedding?  Set to that, you have to be married first.  Marrying isn’t like Christmas, coming every year of our Lord; and we be to make the most of it.  I’ll not give my consent to any such like hasty work.  Why, they are not even ‘called’ in the kirk yet.”

“Andrew can get a licence.”

“Andrew can get a fiddle-stick!  None of the Binnies were ever married, but by word of the kirk, and none of them shall be, if I can help it.  Licence indeed!  Buying the right to marry for a few shillings, and the next thing will be a few more shillings for the right to un-marry.  I’ll not hear tell of such a way.”

“But, Mother, if Andrew does not get Sophy at once, he may lose her altogether.”

“Humph!  No great loss.”

“The biggest loss in the world that Andrew can have.  Things are come to a pass.  If Andrew does not marry her at once, I am feared Braelands will carry her off.”

“He is welcome to her.”

“No, no, Mother!  Do you want Braelands to get the best of Andrew?”

“The like of him get the best of Andrew!  I’ll not believe it.  Sophy isn’t beyond all sense of right and feeling.  If, after all these years, she left Andrew for that fine gentleman, she would be a very Jael of deceit and treachery.  I wish I had told her about her mother’s second cousin, bonnie Lizzie Lauder.”

“What of her?  I never heard tell, did I, Mother?”

“No.  We don’t speak of Lizzie now.”

“Why then?”

“She was very bonnie, and she was very like Sophy about hating to work; and she was never done crying to all the gates of pleasure to open wide and let her enter.  And she went in.”

“Well, Mother?  Is that all?”

“No.  I wish in God’s mercy it was!  The avenging gates closed on her.  She is shut up in hell.  There, I’ll say no more.”

“Yes, Mother.  You will ask God’s mercy for her.  It never faileth.”

Janet turned away, and lifted her apron to her eyes, and stood so silent for a few minutes.  And Christina left her alone, and went back into the house place, and began to wash up the breakfast-cups and cut up some vegetables for their early dinner.  And by-and-by her mother joined her, and Christina began to tell how Andrew had promised her a silk gown for her wedding.  This bit of news was so wonderful and delightful to Janet, that it drove all other thoughts far from her.  She sat down to discuss it with all the care and importance the subject demanded.  Every colour was considered; and when the colour had been decided, there was then the number of yards and the kind of trimming to be discussed, and the manner of its making, and the person most suitable to undertake the momentous task.  For Janet was at that hour angry with Mistress Kilgour, and not inclined to “put a bawbee her way,” seeing that it was most likely she had been favouring Braeland’s suit, and therefore a bitter enemy to Andrew.

After the noon meal, Janet took her knitting, and went to tell as many of her neighbours as it was possible to see during the short afternoon, about the silk gown her Christina was to be married in; and Christina spread her ironing table, and began to damp, and fold, and smooth the clean linen.  And as she did so, she sang a verse or two of ’Hunting Tower,’ and then she thought awhile, and then she sang again.  And she was so happy, that her form swayed to her movements; it seemed to smile as she walked backwards and forwards with the finished garments or the hot iron in her hands.  She was thinking of the happy home she would make for Jamie, and of all the bliss that was coming to her.  For before a bird flies you may see its wings, and Christina was already pluming hers for a flight into that world which in her very ignorance she invested with a thousand unreal charms.

She did not expect Andrew back until the evening.  He would most likely have a long talk with Sophy; there was so much to tell her, and when it was over, it would be in a large measure to tell again to Mistress Kilgour.  Then it was likely Andrew would take tea with his promised wife, and perhaps they might have a walk afterwards; so, calculating all these things.  Christina came to the conclusion that it would be well on to bed time, before she knew what arrangements Andrew had made for his marriage and his life after it.

Not a single unpleasant doubt troubled her mind, she thought she knew Sophy’s nature so well; and she could hardly conceive it possible, that the girl should have any reluctances about a lad so well known, so good, and so handsome, and with such a fine future before him, as Andrew Binnie.  All Sophy’s flights and fancies, all her favours to young Braelands, Christina put down to the dissatisfaction Sophy so often expressed with her position, and the vanity which arose naturally from her recognised beauty and youthful grace.  But to be “a settled woman,” with a loving husband and “a house of her own,” seemed to Christina an irresistible offer; and she smiled to herself when she thought of Sophy’s surprise, and of the many pretty little airs and conceits the state of bridehood would be sure to bring forth in her self-indulgent nature.

“She will be provoking enough, no doubt,” she whispered as she set the iron sharply down; “but I’ll never notice it.  She is very little more than a bairn, and but a canary-headed creature added to that.  In a year or two, Andrew, and marriage, and maybe motherhood, will sober and settle her.  And Andrew loves her so.  Most as well as Jamie loves me.  For Andrew’s sake, then, I’ll bear with all her provoking ways and words.  She’ll be our own, anyway, and we be to have patience with they of our own household.  Bonnie wee Sophy.”

It was about mid-afternoon when she came to this train of forbearing and conciliating reflections.  She was quite happy in it; for Christina was one of those wise women, who do not look into their ideals and hopes too closely.  Her face reflecting them was beautiful and benign; and her shoulders, and hands, her supple waist and limbs, continued the symphonies of her soft, deep, loving eyes and her smiling mouth.  Every now and then she burst into song; and then her thrilling voice, so sweet and fresh, had tones in it that only birds and good women full of love may compass.  Mostly the song was a lilt or a verse which spoke for her own heart and love; but just as the clock struck three, she broke into a low laugh which ended in a merry, mocking melody, and which was evidently the conclusion of her argument concerning Sophy’s behaviour as Andrew’s wife—­

“Toot! toot! quoth the grey-headed father,
  She’s less of a bride than a bairn;
She’s ta’en like a colt from the heather,
  With sense and discretion to learn.

“Half-husband I trow, and half daddy,
  As humour inconstantly leans;
The man must be patient and steady,
  That weds with a lass in her teens.”

She had hardly finished the verse, when she heard a step blending with its echoes.  Her ears rung inward; her eyes dilated with an unhappy expectancy; she put down her iron with a sudden faint feeling, and turned her face to the door.

Andrew entered the cottage.  He looked at her despairingly, and sinking into his chair, he covered his wretched face with his hands.

It was not the same man who had left her a few hours before.  A change, like that which a hot iron would make upon a green leaf, had been made in her handsome, hopeful, happy brother.  She could not avoid an exclamation that was a cry of terror; and she went to him and kissed him, and murmured, she knew not what words of pity and love.  Under their influence, the flood gates of sorrow were unloosed, he began to weep, to sob, to shake and tremble, like a reed in a tempest.

Christina saw that his soul was tossed from top to bottom, and in the madness of the storm, she knew it was folly to ask “why?” But she went to the door, closed it, slipped forward the bolt, and then came back to his side, waiting there patiently until the first paroxysm of his grief was over.  Then she said softly:—­

“Andrew!  My brother Andrew!  What sorrow has come to you?  Tell Christina.”

“Sophy is dead—­dead and gone for me.  Oh Sophy, Sophy, Sophy!”

“Andrew, tell me a straight tale.  You are not a woman to let any sorrow get the mastery over you.”

“Sophy has gone from me.  She has played me false—­and after all these years, deceived and left me.”

“Then there is still the Faithful One.  His love is from everlasting, to everlasting.  He changeth not.”

“Ay; I know,” he said drearily.  But he straightened himself and unfastened the button at his throat, and stood up on his feet, planting them far apart, as if he felt the earth like the reeling deck of a ship.  And Christina opened the little window, and drew his chair near it, and let the fresh breeze blow upon him; and her heart throbbed hotly with anger and pity.

“Sit down in the sea wind, Andrew,” she said.  “There’s strength and a breath of comfort in it; and try and give your trouble words.  Did you see Sophy?”

“Ay; I saw her.”

“At her aunt’s house?”

“No.  I met her on the road.  She was in a dog-cart; and the master of Braelands was driving her.  I saw her, ere she saw me; and she was looking in his face as she never looked in my face.  She loves him, Christina, as she never loved me.”

“Did you speak to her?”

“I was that foolish, and left to myself.  She was going to pass me, without a look or a word; but I could not thole the scorn and pain of it, and I called out to her, ‘Sophy! Sophy!’”

“And she did not answer you?”

“She cruddled closer to Braelands.  And then he lifted the whip to hurry the horse; and before I knew what I was doing, I had the beast by the head—­and the lash of the whip—­struck me clean across the cheek bone.”

“Oh Andrew!  Andrew!” And she bent forward and looked at the outraged cheek, and murmuring, “I see the mark of it!  I see the mark of it!” she kissed the long, white welt, and wetted it with her indignant tears.

Andrew sat passive under her sympathy until she asked, “Did Braelands say anything when he struck you?  Had he no word of excuse?”

“He said:  ’It is your own fault, fisherman.  The lash was meant for the horse, and not for you.’”

“Well?”

“And I was in a passion; and I shouted some words I should not have said—­words I never said in my life before.  I didn’t think the like of them were in my heart.”

“I don’t blame you, Andrew.”

“I blame myself though.  Then I bid Sophy get out of the cart and come to me;—­and—­”

“Yes, dear?”

“And she never moved or spoke; she just covered her face with her hands, and gave a little scream;—­for no doubt I had frighted her—­and Braelands, he got into the de’il’s own rage then, and dared me to call the lady ‘Sophy’ again; ‘for,’ said he, ’she will be my wife before many days’; and with that, he struck the horse savagely again and again, and the poor beast broke from my hand, and bounded for’ard; and I fell on my back, and the wheels of the cart grazed the soles of my shoon as they passed me.”

“And then?”

“I don’t know how long I lay there.”

“And they went on and left you lying in the highway?”

“They went on.”

“The wicked lass!  Oh the wicked, heartless lass!”

“You are not able to judge her, Christina.”

“But you can judge Braelands.  Get a warrant for the scoundrel the morn.  He is without the law.”

“Then I would make Sophy the common talk, far and near.  How could I wrong Sophy to right myself?”

“But the whip lash! the whip lash!  Andrew.  You cannot thole the like of that!”

“There was One tholed for me the lash and the buffet, and answer’d never a word.  I can thole the lash for Sophy’s sake.  A poor love I would have for Sophy, if I put my own pride before her good name.  If I get help ‘from beyond,’ I can thole the lash, Christina.”

He was white through all the tan of wind, and sea, and sun; and the sweat of his suffering stood in great beads on his pallid face and brow.  Christina lifted a towel, which she had just ironed, and wiped it away; and he said feebly;—­

“Thank you, dear lass!  I will go to my bed a wee.”

So Christina opened the door of his room and he tottered in, swaying like a drunken man, and threw himself upon his bed.  Five minutes afterward she stepped softly to his side.  He was sunk in deep sleep, fathoms below the tide of grief whose waves and billows had gone over him.

“Thanks be to the Merciful!” she whispered.  “When the sorrow is too great, then He giveth His beloved sleep.”