The House of Achendaroch. An old maid's story

Front matter

THE HOUSE OF ACHENDAROCH. In (Dlb iflaia's Store. BY MARY EMILY CAMERON. Jonboit: SAMUEL TINSLEY & CO., io, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 1878. [AU Rights Reserved.'] Ho LOCHIEL, CHIEF OF CLAN-CAMERON, THIS LITTLE BOOK Is bp Permission BY HIS LOYAL clanswoman MARY EMILY CAMERON. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAOE I. INVERDEEN . . . . . . 1 II. KATE MACRAE . . . . .19 Til. CHARLIE . . . . . .36 IV. THE DEATH-STROKE . . . . .42 V. THE FUNERAL . . . . .57 VI. VISITS . . . . . .64 VII. THE NEW LAIRD . . . . .75 VIII. OWER THE BORDER AND AWA* . . .79 IX. MARY, AS WELL AS HER COUSIN . . . 103 X. THE FAITHFUL CITY . . . .111 XI. AT HOME ...... 139 XII. DONALD SHAW PLANTS TREES . . .159 XIII. BLANCHE . . . . . .166 XIV. THE CASTLE . . . . . .183 XV. A DILEMMA ...... 200 XVI. ACHENDAROCH MARCH . . . . 209 XVII. THE OLD NEW YEAR .... 219

Part II

I. A TRYING SEASON ..... 226 II. THE FATAL JOUENEY .... 248 III. THE TREASON ..... 257 IV. BAD NEWS ...... CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE V. THE WEDDING ..... 282 VI. THE FAITHFUL CITY AGAIN . . ■ 291 VII. A PARTY AND A BABY .... 297 VIII. THE TRUE KNIGHT ..... 300 IX. MAN AND WIFE . . . . .311 X. THE DISMISSAL ..... 320 XI. DEEN BANK ...... 331 XII. THE PRODIGAL ..... 338 XIII. WEE CHARLIE ..... 344 XIV. THE WIDOW'S TROUBLES .... 351 XV. THE REFUSAL ..... 357

Part III

I. THE OLD HOME ..... 363 II. THE WIDOWER ..... 373 in. conclusion . . ' . . . . OE ACHENDAKOCH.

Chapter I. Inverdeen

Picture to yourself a quiet, old-fashioned, country town. Do not think of black-and-white Gothic or Jacobean fronts; varied with the Indian-red coloured brick of later days, lighted by soft sunlight, shining through a whitish-blue sky. But call up to the imagination stone fronts ; grey, or dull red, many crow-stepped gables, many dormer windows, carved with quaint scroll-work, thistles, and various dates of the seventeenth century ; outside stairs, low archways, here and there a projecting turret. Most of the modern houses meanly plain, the shops small and dingy. But the light — the air ! It is the middle of May — true ; any one who dressed by the almanack and fancied a summer garb the correct thing for the season, would walk along, shivering and grumbling at the hyperborean climate — so deceitful, he would say, so bright, yet so cold.

Why, the sky is as blue, the sunlight as strong, and the shadows as sharp as they could be in Italy. But the man we see in the rough country dress thinks nothing of the cold ; not that he is particularly hardy, only he has never been used to any place but Inver deen. What is he? The seniors of his own neighbourhood would tell you that Charlie MacRae was a nice lad ; yet he is at least five-and-twenty. You Southron stranger would say that he was a gentlemanly-looking young man ; to which the senior would reply : " Aye, he is that ; a very gentlemanlike laddie indeed ; and a clever laddie, too." This laddie was about six feet high, and well-pro portioned ; people seeing him in an English town would have said, " What a tall young man !" But in the north of Scotland nobody thought of him as tall.

He did not stoop in the least, and was rather broad for his age. His features were prominent without coarseness ; and his Highland bonnet, with a stag's head crest on one side, showed abundant curly hair of a tint which narrowly escaped being red, but which was just what suited his complexion. Notwithstanding his rough grey suit, his appearance Lad, on the whole, rather a tendency to the affectation of refine ment than the reverse. He soon entered a gunsmith's shop. As it was springtide, the fishing-tackle — not the shooting gear — was set forth. This gunsmith's was one of the best shops in the town. Quite pretty shop-windows it had ; a stuffed eagle for the central object on one side, a stuffed wild-cat on the other ; with stuffed owls, stuffed hawks, stuffed squirrels and weasels, stuffed grouse and ptarmigan: otter-skins, and badger-skins, made into sporrans for the Highland dress, with the heads mounted for tops.

Charles MacRae looked about him for some time; first at the flies for angling displayed in a glass case, then at the rods. He did his very utmost not to feel puzzled, to put on a grave, wise face ; chose a very handsome fishing-rod, brightly varnished, with bright brass mountings ; a large yellow salmon-fly, and two red ones, leaving the rest to the gunsmith's discretion ; then a pocket-book to keep his flies in. Here he was more at home ; the gunsmith saw it too, and changed the curious smile which had hitherto widened his straight, thin-lipped mouth, for the look a tradesman has towards a customer who understands what he is about. But INVERDEEN. 3 when the purchases were all made, and their new owner had ordered them to be sent to his lodgings packed for travelling, because he was going to his cousin's at Achendaroch, Mr. Fraser's thin lips were again formed into the curious smile.

The angler walked briskly down the street, till he dived down a low-browed archway, leading into a court, with a door on each side. Going in by one of these, he made his way up a dingy staircase, with clums)* wooden balusters, to a lobby as dingy. From this he went into a large room looking into the street, but now fitted up as a lawyer's office, with the usual office or library table covered with red taped bundles of papers, a few chairs, and, of course, tin boxes. Two of the largest of these had the word " Achen daroch " conspicuously painted on them in white letters. There was a little room, where a lanky, uncomfortable looking boy, in clothes too short for him, was perched on a high stool in front of a high desk. After looking over papers for a short time Charles passed the boy, when he had asked him a question or two, and went into a third room, nearly as good as the first, looking fit for the younger partner of a firm, but now occupied by a man in a rusty iron-grey suit, tall and thin, with reddish hair, a low, square forehead, keen little grey eyes, which would be called pene trating or cunning, whichever the observer chose to fancy them ; the mouth was large, or rather wide, for the lips were not thick, while a look broke over the face now and then, as if Donald Shaw, head clerk to Charles MacRae, Writer to the Signet, could tell a good story, sing a good song, or enjoy a broad jest.

On seeing Charles he half rose from his chair, sat down again, and said to his master, who was leaning in an easy gentlemanly attitude, with an elbow on the dirty painted mantelshelf : " I am glad ye're come back, for I was wishing to talk to you about yon dispute between the harbour trustees and the town council." 1-2 " Eh ! Donald, what's the matter now 1 Has any one been here about it to-day 1" " Indeed, no ; it's early in the forenoon as yet. No person has been here to-day, except one o' the Achendaroch tenants, wishing that the laird would build him a new byre ; but I told him that yourself would be seeing Sir Kenneth soon, and that I could say nothing about it in the meantime." "That was all right. But about the harbour-men and the baillies — how did you hear that?" " Well, it was last night, from an acquaintance o' my own, not here at all, at all, that I heard what I was wishing to tell you."

"" And what was it, Donald 1 Come, man, out with it, for I've no time to waste, for I'm going to Achendaroch this afternoon." " Indeed, yes ; I know that fine. You were telling it me yourself yesterday." Charles was in a hurry ; but not only was he anxious to gain his clerk's information for its own sake, his curiosity was whetted by the sort of mystery thrown over the way in which Donald had found out this piece of intelligence ; so at last Donald went on : " Well, you know as well as I do, that the trustees of the harbour are keen to get yon piece of ground by the old fort, opposite the muckle green ; they are for dredging the bottom of the river's mouth, too, to make the water deeper ; then cutting away some of the road, making a strong wall, and throwing the road back." " Yes, yes ; I know all that."

" Well, that's no all, though. They'll need to take nearly the whole o' yon low-lying ground between the river and the fort, to make a dock for repairing old vessels, if not for building new ones ; at least, I couldn't say they'll need to get it ; but that's what they're wishing for, whatever." " Aye, aye ! and what is to hinder them from getting it?" INVERDEEN. " Just this. As you know, yon ground belongs to the town now. It used to belong to Government, because it was part of the fort property ; but the town has it now. Well, the upshot of it all is, just that the harbour trustees think they ought to have this land given them for nothing, or almost nothing, and of course the provost and the baillies are for gaining as much as ever they can by the transaction to fill their coffers; and so in the end, it's likely the affair will have to be tried before the Court of Session in Edinburgh."

"But how is it possible for this to be of any importance to me 1 They have not gone to law yet ; if they are wise they will settle the matter without taking it to the Edin burgh law-courts." " Ah ! But I'm no thinking they will. I would advise you, sir, to keep your eyes open ; if once they begin, there's no saying where they'll end. Many cases have been taken before the House of Lords of much less consequence than this." Charles was beginning to see his clerk's drift by this time, so he said, with a ha-ha sort of noise in his throat : " Have they thought of an agent yet, did ye hear V " No, no ; they've, not got that length yet ; but why should not you be their agent as well as any other person V' " I wonder which side has the fairest claim. Which do you think, Donald V " Indeed, I'm thinking there'll no be much to choose between them.

There'll be just six o' one and half a dozen o' the other, I'm thinking." " What a pity they should not settle the affair by arbi tration," said Charles, who, though as anxious to make his way in the world as any professional man either in Inver deen or elsewhere, was no rogue." " But," said he, looking at his watch, " I must settle things that will have to be attended to while I'm away; not that I think it will be many days before I'm back again." " Well, well, I dare say ye'll enjoy yourself very well at Achendaroch for a whilie ; no that the laird 's much of a companion, nor the lady neither ;" for Donald liked com panions of a very jovial stamp. " They certainly are very quiet people ; but one enjoys the country at this season. Moreover, they are my cousins, and it is but right I should go there sometimes; to say nothing of business, though Sir Kenneth and I have a good deal of that to talk over."

Donald at that moment gave a sharp glance at his master, which would have shown to any bystander that the clerk was by far the shrewder man of the two. But they plunged into business details, where we need not follow them. Then Charles left the office, and walked into a street one degree more lively than that he had just left, dived down another close, as it is called, better-looking than the first ; having at the back a glimpse of a town garden, with some old useless fruit-trees, and beds with neglected box-edgings in it. The doorstep of this house was cleaned very white ; there was a great old brass knocker, rubbed very bright ; the un carpeted boards of the wide old staircase looked as if they had been soaked in hot water ; so did the dresser, the tables, and chairs in the bare kitchen, which was seen from the bottom of the stairs.

The lobby at the top of the stairs was wide, and dark, and cold. The drawing-room opened out of this, and did not look lively, though the fire shone and flickered, and everything looked cosy. The abundance of books, the large desk, the German pipes, the total absence of needlework, proclaimed it a bachelor's room ; while the neatness of everything declared that a good woman was somewhere not far off. Indeed, Charles lost fully ten minutes in hunting up books, which had been hidden away from sheer love of tidiness ; but this done he went into another parlour, where sat in quiet state the presiding genius of the white step, the bright brass, the soaked and INVERDEEN. 7 boiled furniture, the clean, dull room, and the hidden books. That this was a widowed dame was plain at the first glance by the limp dress of black woollen, the thin black shawl, the close cap with black ribbons ; her only ornament was a gold brooch with dark hair.

She was busily knitting a boy's worsted stocking when Charles came into the room. On seeing him the lady looked up from her work, showing a cheery, contented face, which would have seemed out of keeping with her mourning habiliments to any one who did not know she had been a widow many years. " Well, indeed, ye are early home the day," was this lady's greeting to Charles, looking at him with honest, kind eyes, set in a shrewd Scottish face. They were not tender, loving eyes, but cool, grey ones, such as looked calmly at Charles from head to foot, like those of a homely, careful mother inspecting her son before he leaves her for a day's pleasure, anxious to see if his appearance comes up to her wishes. The inspection finished, her expression was as if saying to herself : " He looks very gentlemanly, but has dressed himself out very smartly ; for the crested bonnet the worthy woman looked on as finery.

" I wonder where he is going. I only hope he has no foolish notion in his head about any young lady." But she had little time for thought ; would have had none at all, only thought is so very swift, for her friend said, answering the look, nothing had been said : " You see I'm not dressed for the office ; the fact is I am going to Achendaroch this afternoon." " Aye, aye, I was thinking ye would be going somewhere, when I saw ye looking, as ye do, more like a laird than a lawyer ;" for she was proud of him too. " And will ye be at home to your dinner?" " No ; I am afraid I cannot wait for my regular dinnertime ; but I must have something before I start." On re collecting himself : "I shall not require much, though ; I shall be at Achendaroch in time for dinner." " Well, then, ye had better take some broth.

If ye'll be contented with that, I'll tell Christie to take some up to you." " But I see the table covered for your own dinner. I would much rather take it here, because then I could chat with you the while." This broth made its appearance in a few minutes. There was nothing else for dinner but a great piece of grey mutton, curling up at the thin end of the bones, and, of course, potatoes. The broth was grey too, with green parsley floating about in it, and green bits of leek ; not by any means a dish tempting to the eyes or nostrils of a bon vivant, though very satisfying. Mrs. Gunn, not being aware that it was bad manners to ask questions, was at no loss for conversation. The first question asked now was : " And how long do ye think ye'll be away ? and what is to become of the office in the meantime ?"

" Oh, indeed, it is uncertain. I do not suppose I shall make a long stay, and" — evasively — "Shaw will take care of business matters while I am in the country ; in fact, he knows quite, or" — thinking he had made too great an admission — "nearly as much as I do myself, at any rate." Charles spoke very distinctly and rather slowly when he meant to be dignified, dropping his words down like counters, one by one. " Aye, aye, I dare say he does that indeed," said Mrs. Gunn, thinking, " and much better too ;" only not for the world would she have said anything so rude. " Yes, it is really a great point in a legal practice like mine to have a man one can place dependence on ■ it is INVERDEEN. 9 impossible to remain always at one's post," was the answer, for Charles knew that Donald was no favourite with the old lady, and that she was a person of very decided opinions.

" Ah, indeed ! ye can depend upon him fine, may be," but looking very grave, and heaving a sigh. " It is a sad, sad thing to see a fine laad like yon going with such dissi pated companions as he does. I feel so sorry for his poor mother. What would myself feel to see my own Alick going through the town with such characters as Donald is seen with ?" Charles suddenly thought that it must have been from some of these drinking companions that his clerk gained his tidings about the harbour dispute. He had his own suspicions as to these habits of Donald's, but shut his eyes to the fact, and shut his mouth against the mention of them, because the man was a great help to him in his pro fession : he was older, and moreover, a great deal more long-headed and knowing than the young lawyer himself. Yet he winced under Mrs. Gunn's sharp-sightedness so much, as to feel relieved when what Christie called the " deyner " came to an end, and he could leave her either to doze or knit, just as she liked.

She has been called " old lady," and most likely will be so called again in the course of this narrative, because she was of the old world ; and moreover, having been left a widow while young, if she had any affectation it was to seem older rather than younger than she was ; as thinking the proprieties of life demanded it. But she was a great deal too active to rest after dinner ; the potatoes, the grey broth, the grey mutton, Christie with dark grey hands, and grey face, Christie's mistress after laying down her grey knitting, all went downstairs together, where a good deal of the broth, a good deal of the potatoes, and very little of the meat were set out for Christie; a good deal of the broth, a good deal of the meat, and but little of the potatoes were set aside for Alick Gunn to eat, when he came home from school.

The rest was laid by, locked up, and the key put safely in Mrs. Gunn's pocket, side by side with that of the press where bread, butter, and cheese were kept : for it was a favourite maxim of the good woman's that a master's eye was worth a dozen servants, her own in the absence of a master ; this certainly saved her a vast deal of anxiety, as most maxims do which have their root in an over-strained notion of the wickedness of mankind. Let the idea once gain firm hold of the mind that everything natural is wrong, black all over, without light shades, or bright spots, then everything wrong be comes a matter of course; of course, little children all lie, and pilfer ; of course, young men drink, or all do worse ; all tradespeople cheat. Thus is saved the mental labour of trying to find out whether or not Johnnie tells lies, or Jessie steals sugar ; nobody believes a word Johnnie says, and the sugar is kept out of Jessie's way ; they know that they are considered little liars and thieves : if the parents happen to be easy-going people, they hear these things jested about, as what all children will do ; if the parents are strict, the small people are kept on a very short tether, without any one taking the trouble to consider whether the tethers all require it to be of the same length ; and either way, miss learning that lying, stealing, and the like are downright odious things, that every person must shun for himself by inward strength from Above.

Only, for mamma to find out that Johnnie is truthful, but very ob stinate ; that Willie's besetting faults are the clean contrary, would give her much, much more mental exercise, than the other plan does. Thus Mrs. Gunn kept everything under lock and key, and accordingly never felt the slightest anxiety as to her servants' honesty ; she supposed all servant lassies would linger on errands, and would loiter doubly after nightfall ; INVERDEEN. 11 thus her mind was set perfectly at rest as to any suspicions of the morals of the poor lassie. This locking up was soon done, and then Mrs. Gunn went back to the easy chair in her parlour to knit, and do what she called "thinking," but which was more properly talking to herself; there was nothing else to occupy her afternoons unless some kind neighbour looked in, and that was truly delightful, for one hour's gossip with a friend would furnish materials for three hours of this so-called thinking.

The worthy woman was in the midst of a most interest ing conversation, telling herself what a "foolish laad" Charlie was to go about visiting great people like the Achendarochs, instead of sitting in his office waiting for clients, when the " foolish laad " himself walked into the room, not only in his grey suit, nailed shoes, and stag-crested bonnet, but with a large tartan plaid wrapped round his body. Charles merely wished his landlady good-evening, said he would send the office-boy for his portmanteau, and left her to her meditations. Humble as a saint, and as sincere too, she was, as far as her own condition in life went : that expression of face, with eyes which looked quietly at everything and everybody, which never dilated, never flashed, the set smile on the ■wrinkled lips, with corners seldom raised in mirth, seldom depressed by gloom.

Those eyes had been bright once, twinkling with pleasure, if not flashing with passion ; tears had flowed and flowed years before, but had been dried up long ago ; those sallow flattened cheeks had been round and rosy once, but the tears had overflowed them and had destroyed their colour and shape, as water-floods do bright fair fields. The lips had been easy to part in laughter or merry talk, had pouted in young anger once ; but grief came, and laughter went. The grief was gone, and the anger too ; heavenly comforts and heavenly hopes had stopped the tears, and given a calmness which stamped the face with an old grave look at an age when, had life been brighter, the owner would have appeared only in middle life. Mrs. Gunn was only unworldly for herself, not for others; at least not with respect to the hard business of life.

She thought it the first duty of every young man to get on ; that his not getting on was enough to nullify any good qualities of heart or head he might be possessed of ; looked forward anxiously to her own son doing it. There was a standing contention between herself and her only son-in law, because he was not plodding enough to please her; for, though, all in a quiet little way, Dr. MacKenzie had culti vated a taste for books, and for the arts ; he had married Mrs. Gunn's only daughter when she was sixteen, and it was considered a capital match for Maggie Gunn. The good lady was not altogether pleased with Charles MacRae, she did not mind his love of fishing, yet, though she had no ill-will, not a spark of real envy, she felt and saw clearly that Charles treated her as an inferior ; and that feeling helped her native penetration to discover that his idea of getting on was different from her own, that it was not by working his way up, step by step, but by at once claiming a place for himself as a gentleman, and scheming to gain that place.

On Charles's way to the stable where his dog-cart was kept, he had to pass the principal thoroughfare of the town. Here he saw standing, at some distance before him, the Provost, a retired tradesman held in high repute ; the senior Baillie, a flourishing tradesman not retired ; and the Fiscal or Public Prosecutor, who was a lawyer, a man quite after Mrs. Gunn's heart, and unlike Charles. Seeing this group brought to his mind the matter of the harbour, so hur ried as he was, he raised his bonnet to the Provost, and stayed for a few moments chatting with the triumvirate • then walked off very fast, to save time. IS o sooner was he INVERDEEN. 13 out of hearing, than Baillie Ross said, with a wink to the Provost : " Where's Charlie Stag going in such a hurry, have ve any idea, Provost?" The Provost had not, but Mr. MacTavish, the Fiscal, said, with an air of such deep consideration as the importance of the subject demanded : "Oh,he's always talking about his cousin at Achendaroch."

The others laughed, and a young brother-in-law of the Fiscal's, who was listening respectfully to the improving con versation of his elders, wondered who in the world Charlie Stag could be ; he was not an Inverdeen lad, and did not know that it was the custom of the place to bestow a sobri quet on any one who had the least peculiarity; that Baillie James Ross, a rough sort of man, an ironmonger, was called Jamie Hard, while another Mr. James Ross, a quiet, gentle mannered pastrycook, was called Jamie Sweetie; that Charles MacRae's bonnet and crest formed in the estimation of his fellow-townsmen, the badge of a would-be fine gentle man, so that he was the individual pointed out by the curious nickname of Stag. "Ah ! then it's there he'll be going; at least, it's fully likely he will," said the Provost.

" Indeed, I can believe that," Baillie Ross answered. " I thought that fine tartan plaid and all the rest of it did not look like business." " Is there anything wrong with the old General, I won der ?" Mr. MacTavish asked thoughtfully. The Baillie laughed at this. "No, no, nothing wrong ; only Charlie is factor, don't ye see, and the laird and the lady hospitable people ; so, when there's any business to be done, they ask him to go there." " There will not be much a— muse— ment for MacRae whatever," responded the Provost with gravity. " It would be different if the Captain was there." " But he is with his regiment, of course," the Fiscal said ; then in a meditative way, in a slightly undertone befitting the delicacy of the subject : " What age is the young lady now, d'ye know, Provost ?" This was received with a general laugh.

The worthy Chief Magistrate shook his head profoundly. " I could not say, indeed. Oh, she'll be but quite a girlie as yet. Charlie Stag would never be such a fool as to think he had any chance there, whatever age she was." Chorus of laughter and " No, no, no !" from all three fathers of the city, upon which they separated, having edi fied one another and their young listener very deeply by their conversation. Of course it was not gossip, because it is a well-known fact that men never do talk gossip. Charles, meanwhile, was driving himself and his new fishing-tackle along a richly-cultivated valley, backed by green hills, with blue mountains in the distance ; but though he admired all these things, he thought more about his own affairs than about them ; then, as he passed along, his road took him by degrees nearer the mountains, and more and more among scenery belonging to their neighbourhood.