A Banished Beauty

Front matter

A BANISHED BEAUTY BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. DAYS IN THULE, WITH ROD, GUN, AND CAMERA. [Ready. THAMES RIGHTS AND THAMES WRONGS. [Nearly. THE CURIOSITIES OF ALE AND BEER. ANGLING IN SALT WATER. THE BOOK OF THE ALL-ROUND ANGLER. WITH THE BEST INTENTIONS. AN IRISH MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. tAd^AislJSHJBD Beauty ]oha WilliamBlackuuood & Sons : Edinburgh slondon. * mdcccxcJ TO D AH LI E CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. I AM APPOINTED HISTORIAN OF THE VAIL FAMILV, I It. BEAUTY AND THE , . . . . 6 III. INTRODUCTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, AND A GENERAL CLEARANCE OF DECKS FOR ACTION, . . 28 IV. A DARK STORY, . . . . -47 V. GROUSE AND LAND-LEAGUERS, . . -63 VI. A PICNIC AT PORT GHEIRADHA, AND WHAT CAME OF IT, . . . . . .88 VII. "NIMROD" WALKER SAVES THE SPINDRIFT, AND MAKES A DISCOVERY, . . . .117 VIII. HAROLD AND NORAH CATCH A SALMON, AND JOHN VAIL SHOOTS A SNIPE, . . . .128 IX.

WHICH INTRODUCES SHU.M, SHOOTS THE GILDED PEDESTAL, AND CAPTURES A MYSTERIOUS POACHER, . . . . CONTENTS. VIII X. JUDITH HOOKS A COD-FISH, AND HAROLD CARRIES GOOD NEWS TO PORT GHEIRADHA, . -155 XI. CONFIDENCES, INTRIGUES, AND CLIFF RABBITS, . 165 XII. STALKING EXTRAORDINARY, . . . 184 XIII. A STALKER STALKED, .... I94 XIV. OF OLD LOVES AND A RED COW, . . . 204 XV. RUNAWAYS, . . . . . .214 XVI. THE GILLIES' BALL, ..... 221 XVII. AN ELOPEMENT, ..... 234 XVIII. AMOS MAKES A DISCOVERY, . . . 242 XIX. FAREWELL TO GLEN-NA-MUILNE, . . . 249 XX. THE HEAVY FATHER, .... 261 XXI. COUNSEL'S OPINION, .... 269 XXII. BANISHED NO MORE, .... 280 XXIII. FROM NATURAL CAUSES, . . . . 29 1 The two illustrations {pp. ioo and 300) are reproductions in Swantype, from photographs taken by the author in the Island of Lewis. The title-page is reproduced from a drawing by Mr G. D. Rowlandson.

Chapter I

I AM APPOINTED HISTORIAN OF THE VAIL FAMILY. " Yes, it was one of the happiest years of my life," said my old friend John Vail, thoughtfully, as somewhere about midnight we enjoyed a last cigar in the seclusion of his sanctum in the old York shire manor-house. " Salmon, grouse, hares, wild-fowl, and trout all in abundance, an amusing piece of deer-stalking, a sea teeming with fish, thousands of blue-rocks in the caves on the coast, the cliffs swarming with rabbits, splendid weather to enjoy all these things, and, to crown all, that romantic affair which ended so happily." As he spoke I noticed that his eyes ranged round the room, on the walls of which hung guns, fishing rods, a creel, some cases of rare birds, and not a A few fine heads of stags bearing noble antlers. But dwelling slightly on these, they finally rested lov ingly on two pictures which were side by side exactly opposite his writing-table.

One was a por trait of his nephew, the other of a lady who — but her introduction I may defer for a while. My host was not usually given to gush in the slightest degree, but on one subject — the charms of life in the northern wilds of Scotland — he was always prone to wax enthusiastic, and that night he certainly had a sympathetic listener. " Quite a romance," he continued ; " I have read less interesting things in novels. Yes ; truth is certainly often far stranger than fiction." He was speaking more to himself than to me, and was gazing through the smoke of his cigar at the portraits. There was silence for a minute or two, and then, turning suddenly to me, he said, " Make a book of it." "I ?" " Yes, you : I mean it. You know the place and the life we led there. You have heard the story often, and you knew all the people, with one or two exceptions, who were mixed up in it."

" But, my dear fellow, it's a love-story, and what do I know about such matters ? " said I. " What ! never been in love ? " " Well, perhaps I — " Of course you have, and know all about it. " I may know all about myself, but it does not follow that I can describe other people's love-affairs." I AM APPOINTED HISTORIAN. 3 " Nonsense, old man ; love is the same all the world over. History repeats itself more frequently in such matters than in anything else." " You speak with authority. How many love affairs have you had experience of?" It was a foolish and thoughtless remark of mine, for it opened an old wound. John Vail answered me not, but rose up and stood, English fashion, with his back to the blazing log-fire. I thought, as he faced me, what a splendid specimen of an English man he was, and how lightly he bore his sixty eight years.

A long life spent mostly in the open air, and devoted to rural sports and the manage ment of his estate, had left him, when within two years of seventy, with vigorous frame, no faculty impaired, and the elastic step of a young man. His honest grey eyes were clear and bright, his brown hair was unchanged in colour, but in his beard of darker brown, signs of life's winter were beginning to show. Fully six feet in height he stood, erect, broad-shouldered, and shapely. " Well, will you write it ? " he said, after a pause. " I hardly know ; a book is a serious undertaking. This one would involve months of work—pleasure able enough, certainly, but hard for all that — and much time, too, before putting pen to paper, in working out the story." " Working out the story ! Why, the story is worked out for you !

" exclaimed my friend. "All you have to do is to relate the facts ; in short, turn yourself for the nonce into the family historian. I know that Norah, the little puss, keeps a diary, and I will try and persuade her to let you see, at any rate, parts of it. Then there are a number of use ful entries in my game-book, and Judith, Harold, and I can tell you everything else you need know. Of course, the real names could not be made pub lic property — call us Jones, Robinson, Brown, any thing you like — but I really think that for our own family I will have a few copies of the book printed with the actual names. Now, as to a title, we might call the book ' Norah' simply ; or — or — I have it. If you do not object to an alliteration, call it 'A Ban ished Beauty.' That is appropriate and taking. Of course you will say something about the salmon fishing and the grouse-shooting, and a word or two about those snipe we used to find so near the house ; some of those days on the salmon-river were exciting, and many people would like to read about that splendid shooting we had at the wild blue - rock pigeons from the sea, and " I had been unable to stop him, but I managed here to say, " But, my dear fellow, I have not yet said I could write the book."

" Not write the book ! " exclaimed my friend. " No, no, you must not say that. Why, we have settled how it could be done, chosen a title, and as good as laid the keel. No ; I shall not let you back out of it now." John Vail had decided the thing could and should be done, and I knew it would have to be done. In very truth, I must confess to having had a secret I AM APPOINTED HISTORIAN. 5 longing to write just such a work as the one pro posed, and it was a decided advantage to have all the material to hand. So I said no more in the way of protest, but after remaining a fortnight with my friends, the greater part of which was spent in making voluminous notes, I returned to London, and with many misgivings as to my fitness to under take the task of writing a chapter in the history of the Vail family, commenced this story of love and sport in the Outer Hebrides.

That my manu script, and later my proofs, have been carefully scanned by the good people of Helmsgarth Manor, and that numberless additions and alterations have been made in consequence, I need hardly say, and equally, of course, I am greatly indebted to my friends. They express themselves delighted with the result, which is very gratifying, and if others who care to read of Norah Lismore and life in the far North are equally pleased, the authors — in which term it is only proper to include the Vails — will feel that their labours have not been altogether wasted.

Chapter II. Beauty And The

" Squoosh," murmured the yielding mud. " Oh!" cried Amos Gildersleeves, as he suddenly sank waist-deep into the quagmire. " Crrrrack ! " shrieked the ill-treated fly-rod, as the young man threw his whole weight upon it and broke its back. "Poor thing!" said a sympathetic young lady who was sitting by an ancient cairn on the hill top, overlooking many miles of undulating moor land through which a small river gambolled amid rocks and boulders, and finally emptied itself into a noble bay. It was a merry thing, that same river, though it had its serious moments too, as when it paused, as if for reflection, in some quiet pool. But after a solemn swirl or two it would glide easily to the top of the next fall, down which it would dash wildly and in shattered divided con dition, to reunite in some slow - flowing reach.

Then it would enjoy further gambols among the boulders, succeeded by more gloom in deep pools, more headlong falls, more division followed by union ; no two yards of its course exactly alike, but always down, down, down until finally its ambercoloured waters joined their kindred in the great, insatiable, all-engulfing sea. The girl by the cairn had been gazing down the valley, perhaps comparing the stream of her life with that moorland river, when her somewhat sad reflections were interrupted by the little incident above recorded, which happened a hundred yards or so away from her. By the side of the river ran a path which, according to the natives, "wass only used by the old women of the island, and the shentlemens at the lodge." In places where water drained off the moor down deep gullies in the peat, and so into the river, mud had collected, and moss and grass had grown over it.

Not one of these was in any sense a bog, — merely three feet of mud with a good rock bottom. Missing a stepping-stone, Amos suddenly descended, and being strange to the country, and having ideas on the subject of bogs gathered prin cipally from Irish fiction, was too terror-stricken to move. With beads of perspiration on his fore head he called loudly for help, believing that he was alone kept from sinking in over his head by the broken pieces of his rod on which he partly rested. " Why, he must have injured himself," said the young lady to a tall, old man clad in frieze, who sat smoking a dudheen on the stones near her. " Go, Padneen, and see if you can help him." " I will, your honour, miss," said Padneen, and at once strode over the moor towards Amos. " Are ye hurt?" he asked, when he had come within speaking distance. » Yes— that is, no, not hurt ; but for God's sake get me out of this bog !

" said the angler, piteously. "Sorra a bog," said Padneen, contemptuously, putting his hands in his pockets. " But maybe it would be good for you not to sthop in the mud too long." " For heaven's sake be quick, man, and give me a hand ! " cried Amos, almost angrily. " Don't you see the danger I'm in ? " The old Irishman apparently enjoyed the scene, for little wrinkles radiated from the corners of his keen grey eyes ; but he no longer hesitated, and giving Amos the required hand, soon " made him lave that," as he afterwards told his mistress. It took the young man some seconds to recover himself after his fright, and he sat on a heathery knoll looking ruefully at his legs which, arrayed in various coverings of strange shape and pattern, the designs of certain enterprising West-end tradesmen, had appeared to him so beautiful that morning, though perhaps a trifle new.

Those knickerbocker breeches, of the same pattern and shape as " we always make for 'is Grace when in the 'ighlands ; " those exquisite brown leather boots so carefully anointed with cream ; those yellow leggings, and those plaid stockings ; and even the lower portion of that coat of wondrous check, — all covered with a thick plaster of rich black mud. It would have annoyed any one ; but it annoyed Amos particularly, for he prided himself on his dress, and had no love of sports involving mud-baths. It was very dis tressing to see such a sudden destruction of personal appearance, and he cursed himself for having for a few minutes left the side of Hector, the gillie who had hitherto been his guardian-angel and kept him out of troubles of this kind. " They ought to put up notice-boards by the side of all these blooming places," he remarked indignantly to Padneen, who had been standing watching him with just the suspicion of a twinkle in his eye.

" They're fearfully dangerous. Not that men like myself need fear them, but to ladies, you know, who don't know their way about, they're simply awful things." It was a peculiarity of this young man to live in perpetual terror of " giving himself away," as he termed it ; indeed he rarely made a remark or asked a question which might imply ignorance or some weakness on his part without qualifying it with some such statement as, " Not that I do not under stand these matters," or, " Not that a man like me really requires information, but I should like to hear your opinion." With regard to the notice-boards, Padneen said with a grin that they would be " mighty convaynient for some people," adding under his breath, " Begor, there'd be no lack of fuel then." Might he tell the young lady who sent him that the gintleman wasn't hurt ?

Amos had not observed the watcher by the cairn, but pricked up his ears at Padneen's question, and holding anything in the shape of a petticoat dear, said he would go and thank her himself, at which Padneen looked the reverse of pleased. "What is your mistress's name, my man ? " said Amos to the old Irishman as they climbed the hill. " Her name, is it ? " said Padneen with a puzzled look, and then lapsed into silence. " I asked you what was your mistress's name — don't you understand ? " " Well now, maybe you've heard it and maybe you haven't. It's a fine name anyway. It's — it's, — well now, it's quare how I forget thim things, but maybe the mistress would tell yer honour if yer honour will ask her." His " honour " did not pursue the subject further, but after a pause he said, " What part of Ireland do you come from ?

" "From Ireland is it?" said Padneen with a laugh. " Begor, I'm a Scotchman, and have been since the day I was born." Amos turned red, and would have argued the point, but they were then almost at the cairn. Padneen's mistress on seeing them coming towards her had at first risen and commenced to walk away, but, perhaps not wishing to appear discourteous, returned and stood waiting for them. It cannot be said that Amos presented himself to her under the most favourable circumstances, and he felt it, but possibly relied on the charms of his manner to make up for his unpleasant appearance. Looking at him coming up the hillside, she could see that he was a somewhat flabby -faced young man of average height, with washed-out eyes, and eyelashes so fair that they seemed altogether absent ; that his features were coarse and not striking, and bore traces of dissipation ; that his mouth, partly hidden by a light reddish-brown moustache, was large, and his lips thick ; that he was, in short, a commonplace young fellow, such as can be seen by the dozen any day in our large cities.

Amos, looking up towards the cairn, had a far more pleasing vision. Firstly, he saw two lustrous, liquid, deep violet eyes of surpassing beauty — eyes that, if displayed in courts or theatres, the two places where lovely women become famous (or otherwise), would have gained for their owner a world-wide reputation. Amos looked at those won derful eyes as long as he dared, and was too dazzled to carefully note any other feature of the face of which they were a part. But that the lashes which guarded them were long and out-curved ; that the cheeks bore the bloom of health ; that the com plexion was of a purity found only in Ireland, Devonshire, and suchlike humid climates ; that above her fair temples waved masses of dark-brown hair, which in some lights seemed covered with a golden sheen ; that her figure was as nearly perfect as one would wish at nineteen, for she was no more; that her feet and hands were small, and that she smiled as he came towards her, but whether with pleasure or amusement he could not say,— all these things he noted, but in a hazy kind of way, being dazzled by those eyes as aforesaid.

" I could not resist the pleasure of coming to thank you for sending your servant to help me out of that bog-hole ; you know they are nasty places to get into. Not that I felt in any danger, you know, but if I had got out by myself, and without the help you sent, I should have got more muddy than I am as it is. It was very thoughtful of you to send the old fellow to me." "Oh, not at all," the young lady replied, and as she spoke there was just enough of an echo of an Irish brogue to make Amos think it was the sweet est voice he had ever heard in his life. " We think nothing of slipping into a little place like that ; but you called out so loudly that I feared you had hurt yourself, sprained your ankle or something, so I sent Padneen to help you. I am glad it was a false alarm." It is unpleasant, after believing you have just escaped a great danger in which you showed more or less terror, to be told that " we think nothing of that sort of thing," and that the alarm was false.

So Amos quickly changed the subject. "Your servant has been trying to persuade me that he is a Scotchman," he said ; " as if a man like myself cannot distinguish between the two races." The lady's face clouded a little as she replied, " He said so with the best of motives. It is a harmless fancy. He is rather apt to intentionally mislead strangers who ask him questions." Amos felt himself turning painfully red, and at tempted a fresh subject, being loath to leave the light of those wondrous eyes. "Ah, I see you do a little fishing," he said. " Yes," she answered. " It is the day which Lady Macleod said no one would be on the river, so I came to catch a salmon ; but seeing you, I have been waiting on the hill-top until you had fished the upper pools." There was no mistake about the colour in the young man's face this time, and he began to think the lady of the violet orbs by no means so agreeable as she might have been.

At breakfast that morning his host, John Vail, had said, " Be sure and leave the river alone, Gildersleeves. It is the one day in the week reserved for the owner's friends. Try some of the lochs." But to get to the best of them necessitated walking some distance up the river, and seeing no one, and the gillie remark ing that "she wass joost fine for feshing," he gave up all ideas of brown trout, and flogged away in the hopes of there being a salmon so foolish, or so hungry, or so savage as to take his fly. Of course he was profuse in his apologies, casting all possible blame on Hector, and begged to stay a little with the lady while she tried certain pools which he had not yet fished. The proposal was not cordially accepted, nor indeed accepted at all ; but on his saying that perhaps she would let him see her fish, so that he might learn the best casts, the young Irish girl simply said he might if he wished, and walked towards the river.

It was now late in the day, and the sun was hid den behind a heavy bank of clouds which lay to the westward. An up-stream wind caused a ruffling of the water in the deep pools, and altogether it was an excellent evening for salmon-fishing. " It's past six, so you will get no salmon now, I fear," said Amos. " Why ? " said the young lady, slightly lifting her arched eyebrows. " Oh, don't you know that the fish never rise here before ten in the morning or after six in the even ing? " said Amos, with a patronising air. " No ; I have never heard that, and I know it to be untrue, as I often catch them before breakfast and much later than this. Who told you so ? " The face of the young man fell, and he bit his lips. He began to find that there was really not very great pleasure to be obtained in the society of the beautiful unknown, however violet her eyes.

" Given myself away again," he thought to him self; but he said, " Oh, I always place myself in the hands of the gillie when fishing a strange river. Both he and the keeper said early morning and late evening were no use." " I expect you will find that your gillie and the keeper like to breakfast at nine and sup at seven," said the girl, with a quiet smile ; and Amos began positively to dislike her. " Not that a man like myself believes everything he's told," he hastened to say ; " in fact, I never believed it at all, and only mentioned the matter to get your opinion. I have left my gillie some distance up the river trying to find the greater part of my line which an immense salmon carried away. I rose him in the big rock pool, and saw his head and shoulders as he took the fly. I should think he weighed twenty pounds or more."

"And how did you come to lose him?" said the fair angler, a bored look on her face giving way to one of interest. " Why, the fellow dashed down-stream as hard as he could go, and in a second had out seventy yards of line, and then broke me. Hector said he thought he could recover the line with the gaff, so I left him and fished down to where you saw me." " Where did you lose the fish ? " asked the lady, and on hearing that it was in the "Bothy" pool, said the gillie would very likely hook up the line, as the water about there was not very deep ; but it was not improbable that when the line broke, the fly fell out of the fish's mouth. Amos had no wish to see the lost monster, for reasons which will shortly appear, but remarked, " That may or may not be. Captain Profumo Walker — ' Nimrod Walker ' he is called in the City — who is one of the best salmon-fishermen in Eng land, says that he once hooked a salmon which he played from two o'clock until it was dark, when he lost patience, laid his rod on the ground with a big stone on it to keep it from being carried away by the fish, and went home to dinner.

He forgot about the affair until next morning, when he found the fish still on, and after playing it for two hours, killed it. Not many men could have done that." " No, I should think not," said the girl, who had commenced to tie on a sober - coloured but rather hairy fly. "You should see the flies I have brought from London," remarked Amos, with some condescen sion. " My quiet flies are better than the gaudy things made in the south — at least on these rivers." " Given myself away again," thought Amos to himself; but he quickly changed the subject, and admired the lady's rod, of which she was proud, and for the first time agreed with a remark made by our friend. She even unbent so far as to offer to lend it to him if he would like to fish one or two of the pools. Amos, who, it may easily be understood, was none too warm after his mud-bath, and was shivering in the cool breeze which had sprung up at sundown, felt much more inclined to go home than to fish ; but seeing an opportunity of distinguishing himself, and for get ting back so much of himself as he had "given away," said he would like to take a cast or two, "just to try the balance of the rod, — not that I cannot see with half an eye it's a stunner."

So he took it with a careless air, as one who had salmon-fished all his life. The pool was a wide one. At its head the stream was divided by a great rock, from the top of which it was usual to cast when the water was not so high as to make the necessary jump across the smaller channel dangerous. The river being slightly in spate, to get to the rock was impossible, so a very long line had to be cast right across the pool to place the fly under the opposite bank, where the salmon usually la}'. Amos did not know this, and began in an airy way to cast his fly a few yards out, and not even to the centre of the stream. "No salmon here," said he, and was about to hand back the rod, but its owner told him that the fish were on the opposite side of the pool where he had not tried. The poor young man could not bring himself to acknowledge he was unable to cast so far, but merely said, " Oh, didn't I fish that bit ?

" and pulling a quantity of line off the reel, prepared to make the attempt. The first cast resulted in the fly and a half-dozen yards of line all going on to the water in a heap a little beyond the centre of the stream, and far from the desired point. The next was made with much vigour, but the gut twisted itself up into a variety of knots which Padneen devoted some ten minutes or so to unravelling, looking now and again at B the salmon-fisher with a peculiar expression which irritated Amos exceedingly. " I shall be giving myself away again if I'm not careful," he thought to himself, and determined to place the fly at the desired spot. There was a look of stern determination in Gildersleeves' eye as he grasped the rod and made one or two false casts with shortened line preparatory to making his great effort.

Then came a mighty swoosh as he threshed the air with the rod ; but in lieu of the line flying out over the water, Amos felt a sudden check, and heard such a yell as only an Irishman can give. In fact, the line never reached the surface of the pool at all, for the end of it had twisted lovingly round the neck of the old Irishman, and the hook had caught in the back of his head. It did not stay there, however, but came away, bearing on its point a fragment of skin, on which were a few short iron-grey hairs. Amos had scalped Padneen, and Padneen never forgave him. "Ar, take your rod, do, Miss Norah!" roared out the old man, " or it's the eyes of us he'll be tearing out of our heads next ! " Amos went up to Padneen, and told him angrily that he would thank him to keep out of the way another time when he was making a long cast.

The young lady said nothing but looked much, and held out her hand for her rod, which Amos gave her, saying something to the effect that it did not suit him — which was true. He would have gone then, but in the distance appeared Hector, the gillie ; and not liking to venture along that treacherous path without a guide, he lingered until such time as the man, who was a half-mile or more away, should reach them. Meanwhile, to his aston ishment, the girl commenced casting right across the pool to the spot where he had vainly attempted to place his fly. "Wiped my eye, by Jingo ! " he muttered to himself, and felt that his cup was full. But in this he was mistaken, for during the next few minutes that vessel was destined to fill to the very brim and pour over. In the small hours of that morning a silvery salmon had left the sea and made its way up the river until it came to the very pool where Amos had so distinguished himself.