David Todd. The romance of his life and loving

Front matter

THE ROMANCE OF HIS LIFE AND LOVING BY DAVID MACLURE AUTHOR OF " THOUGHTS ON LIFE," ETC. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited LONDON, PARIS. AND MELBOURNE PRINTED IN U. S. A. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. David Todd, i II. Crosscairn and the Black Bull, - g III. Dalmelington, - 20 IV. Pulpit and Pew, ----- 34 V. More About the Minister, - - - 38 VI. A Text, 47 VII. Church and Congregation, - - - 62 VIII. A Love Affair, 68 IX. More About the Love Affair, - - 77 X. The Social Element, - 83 XI. Mrs. Maxwell, ----- 91 XII. Mrs. McNeish, ----- 109 XIII. Mysie's Aunt, 119 XIV. A Windfall, 129 XV. Trouble at Dalmelington, - - - 133 XVI. Grace and her Father, - - - 142 XVII. A Little Chat, 151 XVIII. The Minister's Weak Toint, - - 159 XIX. A Visit to the Minister, - - - CONTENTS. XX. Hugh Dickie, 175 XXI. A Sudden Check, 184 XXII.

The Minister Determines to Investigate, -....- 188 XXIII. Mysie Leaves Service, - 197 XXIV. Meg McDuff, ----- 203 XXV. The Journey's End, - - - - 214 XXVI. How Shall I Decide? - - - 221 XXVII. The Minister's Strong Point, - - 229 XXVIII. " What Befel, Let Gossips Tell," -

Chapter I. David Todd

DAVID TODD, on being ushered from the door of Squire Amphlett's country-house of Dal melington, bore a more than ordinarily grave face. He had but now ended an exceedingly serious in terview with the worthy Squire Amphlett's daugh ter, and its results had not been of a character to brighten his features or make light his steps. It was apparent that David Todd's heart was heavy, and that the weight there was not one easily to be removed. Mr. Todd had entered Squire Amphlett's house with fear and trembling, with hope and misgiving. He had entered a suitor in love, confident only in the earnest sincerity of his devotion. He had pressed his suit with the deep intensity of a serious and determined nature, and now he left the house with the bitter disappointment and gravity a re jected suitor of such a nature only can feel.

David Todd had loved Grace Amphlett for years; he had watched her as she grew from girlhood and had set her image away secretly in his heart ; he had worshipped her there and had confided his love to her there only, and never till this unhappy day had he told his secret. Many and many a time he had said to himself, whispering in the solitude of his own lonely thoughts: "She will one day be mine ; inthe fullness of time I will tell her of my love ; I will make known to her how constant my thought and purpose has been through years, looking toward her as the bright star that is to shine for me and guide me through a happy life." To-day, with the tender secret throbbing in his heart, with the all-pervading thought of love en rapturing his otherwise quiet life, with the time ripe for the utterance of vows of devotion, he had fulfilled the first part of his cherished purpose, he 'had asked Grace Amphlett to be his wife.

To his ear nest passion she had answered: "I can never be to you more than a friend. ' ' Disappointed, trembling, he had urged her to take back her words and give him a hope for the future. "Your father," he said, "when last I spoke to him of this matter, prepared me for an adverse answer, but still he gave me the hope that whatever the discouragement of to-day, I might yet look forward to a brighter to morrow." She had replied: "Do not let my father's well-meant words place you in a false position ; do not force me to be more emphatic than I have been. You have my answer. — There, Mr. Todd, pardon me if I have not shown you all the consideration which your sincerity and regard have deserved ; be lieve me, I have not been intentionally harsh. Let us still be the same friends we have been in the past."

Pale and haggard, he had sunk into a chair and passionately bemoaned his fate; abject and cower ing, he had cried: "How can I forget the purpose of years, how can I forget to love you!" Then, with his face still pale, but with a calm dignity he had arisen and said: "I thank you, Grace, for your consideration in this unhappy interview. I will leave you, but I cannot cease to love you. I fear that time will not heal the wounds of this day ; I cannot take you out of my heart, my life is in my passion, and I cannot, I cannot, give you up." Then he took his leave deliberately, with little in his features to mark the passion that had ruled him, little ex cept a firm, fixed expression settling upon his pale, sad face. Fifteen years before the time of this episode, the people of Crosscairn had buried a good old man, who, for many years had officiated as minister of the village church, preaching extraordinarily dry sermons and offering outrageously long prayers, but dispensing much that was gentle and good outside of the church walls, in his daily ministrations at the homes of his flock.

Indeed, he must have been a very good old man to have remained for forty years the shepherd of a flock containing so many black sheep as that of Crosscairn. Not that Crosscairn was distinctively a fold containing black sheep only, but like many another parish it possessed a surplus of iniquity in the shape of envy, deceit, and vituper ation, and the scandal arising therefrom, notwithstanding there were hardly a dozen adults in the parish who did not in spirit stand within the market place of their own opinion and bawl daily, "Lord, I thank Thee I am not as other men." When the worthies of Crosscairn lowered the good old shepherd into the grave and turned sadly away from the churchyard, it became incumbent to supply the pulpit, and now came the gauntlet of ministerial candidacy. Old rounders, holding the claims of diplomas and reverend presence, ran first, and were sorely hacked in their passage between the lines, for Crosscairn had many a sharp tongue whetted by continual prac tice.

Next came young aspirants with crisp parch ments, newly fledged but attempting lofty flights. These were doves to the hawks of Crosscairn. One of the latter, on being taken home to dinner by a worthy elder of the church, after the morning ser mon, saw fit to apologize for his great carnal appe tite when confronted by the tempting dinner, say ing he was always hungry after preaching in the morning, at which the worthy elder replied drily enough: "Weel, I'm no' surprised, considering the trash that comes aff yer stomach in the mornin'."* Came in course of time gentlemen of the cloth in variety. Came Rev. Insipidity, pouring out the gospels liberally diluted. Came Rev. Bombast, fir- * Anecdote from Ramsay's " Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Char acter," ing exceedingly small theological shot from an ex ceedingly big and noisy gun.

Came Rev. Suavity, soaping and lubricating his doctrine to such an ex tent that he only accelerated his own pace out of the pulpit and parish. Came Rev. Aggressive, who in throwing a choice collection of warlike darts and thunderbolts, threw a mischievous boomerang which recoiled on himself. Came Reverends Farce, Sincerity, and Palaver in all shades of character dis pensing the gospel variously. Some spreading it like a very thin plaster upon the soul ; some feeding it to the hungry soul in chunks, uncouth, coarse, and hard, and very indigestible; some administering it as a very blue pill, and others in the same form with a slight coat of sugar; some all sugar and no pill. Diversity infinite. Came, in short, many candidates — and left, for Crosscairn on most subjects was hypercritical and consequently hard to please.

Finally, came David Todd. He had now been for nearly fourteen years the pastor of Crosscairn, which spoke well, at least, for his character of determination and purpose, con sidering the fate of his predecessors, and with these characteristics we have mainly to do ; the story of his life from this point may perhaps develop other characteristics. David Todd was preeminently a shady man. He professed to keep the ten commandments, without ostentation, but he was specially zealous in his obedience to that more modern commandment, DAX'ID TODD. which some later Moses has supplemented and called the Eleventh, viz., "Mind your own business." For fourteen years he had gone in and out before his people, a man of quiet and steady habits, ever the same, a man above just reproach and consistent in every emergency which the years had developed.

He was a tall, spare man with a long, pale face,' prominent nose and brows, and square chin, the face and manner indicative of one who looked be yond the present and possessed boldness of purpose with executive ability to accomplish the purpose determined. Aside from these personal indications of character his mind and motives were not to be deciphered clearly. Without being absolutely se cret or mysterious in his appearance or manners he was emphatically shady. That is, he never came out into any glow whatever either in his pulpit or out of it. It is to be doubted if he ever took the sunny side of the street from choice. By analogy, he had that about his presence which eternally suggested of him, indoors, sombre apartments, heavily draped, and walls hung with silhouette portraits of distin guished undertakers.

Out-of-doors he suggested groves and glades, dusky and umbrageous twilight and evening. In short, he possessed eminently that peculiarity which brought him indirectly in kindred with an astronomical event known as a solar eclipse, inasmuch as he seemed constantly to be seen as through a piece of smoked glass ; and yet David Todd was neither a ghoul nor a sphinx, but an agreeable gentleman enough, staid and serious truly, with a touch of melancholy and a positive inclina tion to adhere to the principles of the aforementioned eleventh commandment. The latter was perhaps more noticeable in him, in view of the character of many of his parishioners who were noto riously incapable of any zeal whatever in that direction. David Todd occupied the manse adjoining the parish church. The manse was an old-fashioned edifice standing at the head of Crosscairn's principal thoroughfare, known as the Kirk Brae.

A cozy, comfortable house, with a low roof and large dormer windows ; the main entrance, a heavy, oaken door, opened on the street, and was approached by four stone steps. A plain, substantial house, having a somewhat demure appearance, — for houses like ani mals sometimes resemble the human family; and if the manse might be described as men are, with pro priety, it was a decent, staid, well-behaved house; not given to outward show, in no wise vain or worldly, inclined to keep its own counsel, and hav ing a religious bias somewhat severe. Even the younger of Crosscairn's progeny were conscious of this last peculiarity, and passed the portals of the manse much as they would have passed its grave and reverend occupant. Older people recognized its shrewd taciturnity in having its mouth (the front door) invariably closed, and its eyes (the windows) open, — that is, the upper part of the casement over looked the passer by, at a distance from the ground to defy any inside inspection in return.

Mrs. McNeish was the presiding deity of this re treat ; whose function was that of housekeeper ; in this and supplementary duties about the premises she was assisted by Sandy, her husband, who also attended to the horticultural department in the care of the glebe land attached. In the government of the domestic realm Mrs. McNeish was an absolute monarch, and Sandy, though royal consort, but a court minstrel, who, to carry out the metaphor, played second fiddle, and a very small fiddle at that. Finally, Mrs. McNeish's domestic force was augmented by a scullery maid in her teens, of the species generally denominated in Crosscairn idiom, "Wee servant lassie," this com modity being, from time to time, as to individuality uncertain ; inasmuch as Mrs. McNeish made fre quent and periodical changes, her temper being such as to make it utterly impossible for one of her own sex to live under the same roof with her for more than six consecutive months.

The present '.'wee lassie" was the daughter of a neighbor; Mysie McGill was her name, a poor little drudge who had been bred in a home of poverty, and who from her earliest years had not known any other mission on earth than to manipulate pots and pans at her father's fireside, and mind the baby through the entire period of her life, there never having been an interval in her ca reer when a baby was not to be cared for, with the fairest prospects of another similar routine m the fullness of time. Mysie was far from being a child in mind, face, or form, though only one in years. She had carried too many burdens for her parents, stooped under weary loads of noisy infants, coal, wood, and water, had been up too late at night and too early in the morning, had roasted and shivered in extremes, sub sisted on miserable fare, and heard so often the story of poverty, and seen the struggle of those who are born to its heritage, that nature had been handi capped, and circumstances had produced trium phantly an anxious, careworn, little old woman aged fifteen.

She had been under the rule of McNeish about three months, fate having ordained a phe nomenal revolution, in producing as a novelty in her father's home a toddling child with no immi nent prospect of having its nose broken. Such was David Todd's household, and in this house, under closely identical conditions, he had lived ever since his advent at Crosscairn. Now, toward its quiet precincts he bent his steps, buried in thought, repeating to himself as he passed up the stone steps and closed the oaken door behind him, "I cannot take her from my heart, I cannot change the purpose of years, I cannot give her up."

Chapter II

crosscairn and the black bull. A QUAINT old seaport town is Crosscairn, lying at the foot of a long range of hills and look ing out over a beautiful bay to the surging ocean beyond. Its principal street, known as the Kirk Brae, extends east and west, and is a broad thorough fare with continuous rows of stone houses in various styles of architecture, some low roofed and thatched, others more pretentious, with overhanging windows, and an occasional round tower or turreted wall savoring of a mediæval age. Toward the western end of the street, the buildings are plain and square, this being the business centre of the town, where, at the water's edge, a wide wharf is the mart of Crosscairn's commerce. Crosscairn's commerce, however, being limited and its domestic trade being far from extensive, the traffic of business extends for not more than three hundred yards from the water, and here the Kirk Brae fades into the calm of a quiet street, gradually becoming more retired and suburban till it reaches its eastern terminus, a quarter of a mile distant, where it abuts the parish manse in a locality somewhat rural in character.

There are a few side streets running at right angles from the main thoroughfare, which, in the past, had made pretentious attempts to rival the Kirk Brae in all the dignity and importance of full-grown streets, but like many young lives, with dreams of the fairest attainments in the future, have outlived the limits of expectation and hope, and now, instead of re sounding with the hum of traffic, straggle away in quite a lonely and dejected course, from the first bold corner start, and find themselves at a distance of three hundred linear yards, or thereabout, in the midst of open fields and picturesque groves, fallincr into the innocent companionship of primitive country lanes, and fading out of existence among pine forests or grassy meadows. From the windows of the manse, the Minister, looking down the Kirk Brae at sunset, could often contemplate a beautiful scene.

At times, far away to the west, he saw the gorgeous hues of evening, glowing in the sky, in delicate tints of orange, blue, and tender emerald, or bolder in tone, lying streaked or banked in angry red, purple, and black, while against this wall of nature's fresco lay the sea calm as a mirror, reflecting the glowing light, or dashing in crests, now black, now white, against the horizon. Here and there a white sail gleamed on the water, and at the shore the network of masts and rigging at the wharf formed a lattice, through which the glowing tones of color streamed and flooded the street, gilding every point and corner of tower, wall, window, and cornice, with an edge of glancing light. The Kirk Brae, at its business point, is known as the Crosscairn Quays. Here, about wide wharfs, are collected the objects which give evidence of the town's thrift and industry.

A small fleet of fishing-boats, with here and there a larger vessel, find a harbor here; and upon the wharves there is a confusion of boxes and casks, lumber and iron mongery in variety, with, additionally interspersed, a boat undergoing repair or being constructed ; rem nants of wrecks, in spars, shreds of sail and tangles of rigging ; sea craft taken hopefully from the water in partial wreck to become hopelessly total wreck on shore. Seafaring people, mingling with landsmen DA VID TODD. 12 having a rural savor, and smart young clerks, and complacent well-to-do merchants move about, while a pleasant din of hammers striking, voices calling, and the bustle of busy feet gives life to the scene ; and still above all exists a commingling of maritime odors of seawater, tar, and pitch, with distinct smells of fish in various states and processes.

Flanking the Quays and standing back upon the beach, a long row of fishermen's huts, dingy, smoky, and picturesque, look out to the sea. At irregular intervals upon the beach, a boat is drawn up and long lines of fishing nets hang everywhere, drying in the sun and the wind. Beyond these the shore lies in its natural uninhabited state, in possession of old Ocean alone. From the foot of the Kirk Brae, at that point known as the Quays, a road extending northward and southward skirts the shore, with the sea in full view for miles along its course. A winding and zig-zag road, always within sound of the waves, some times running so near the water that the spray falls upon it, as the great waves roll in and break with resounding boom upon the black and jagged rocks below, where nature in her moods has diversified the level beach, sometimes taking a sudden turn as if fearing the anger of the sea and stretching away, leaving a wide expanse of sandy beach between, with the surf racing over its level face and creeping to the roots of the short turf grass that borders the road-bed.

A most delightful road to travel, on a pleasant summer afternoon, when the sun has gone down and left his trailing robes of splendor along the horizon, when the sea lies calm and still under a mellow light, and the clouds, flecked with gold and crimson, grow a deeper purple, as the gray light of evening deepens into darkness and the uncertain shadows of night. A wild and lonely road on a dark and stormy night, when the wind, rushing in blasts from the distant sea, tells of disaster and wreck, — when the clouds, black and heavy, hide the stars, and the waters roar and dash in the pitchy darkness, — when the waves, goaded into fury, hurl themselves against the beetling rocks and the spray flies high on the wind, — when the surf moans and wails along the sandy beach, and the spent water creeps, hissing like a serpent, to the roadside.

At the corner of the Kirk Brae, where that thoroughfare joins the Quays, stands one of Crosscairn's most active institutions — the Black Bull Inn, a fa mous resort for Crosscairn's male population, both nautical and otherwise. A signboard bearing a representation of an animal of the bovine species, in a highly ferocious attitude, with head down, glar ing eyeballs, horns at a malicious angle, and tail erect, ending in a twirl, adorns the entrance to the house and gives it a name. In seeking the tap or sitting-room of the Black Bull, you do not come upon it in a jiffy, as one might say, but reach it by easy stages, somewhat after the manner of a candi date for admission to the inner mysteries of a secret organization, thus: after crossing the threshold you find yourself in a hallway looking toward two broad steps, and a green door with an oval window; as cending these steps and passing the green door you stand at the entrance to a long hall on either side of which are ranged a row of casks of uniform size, heads up and all painted green, suggesting a troop of Robin Hood's merry men drawn up in military form, the atmosphere here being so alcoholic as to carry the conceit of bold Robin's merry men a step further, indeed, and suggest as a supplementary thought, the suspicion that every merry man was addicted to the use of very ardent spirits.

Passing the green casks and turning to the right, you are in the tap room, a cozy place with sanded floor and walls hung with pictures of the race-course and the chase in very strong colors. Facing the door stands the shrine of Bacchus; behind it long lines of long-necked bottles standing like a synod of sober divines on parade, thickset pewter tankards, looking like sleek and opulent merchants standing for their pictures at the Board of Trade, stocky lit tle stone tobys, looking like lusty drovers in gray smocks at a country fair, slender-waisted wine glasses, looking like very genteel, but somewhat consumptive young ladies at a female seminary ; decanters, lemons, long clay pipes, etc., etc., the whole array surmounted by a bull's head (the work of a taxidermist) whose horns (the bull's), short and polished, are bright with favors and tipped with silver.

It was here that all questions private or state were discussed. There was no subject whatever that the frequenters of the Black Bull lyceum would CROSSCAIRN AMD THE BLACK BULL. 1$ not grapple with, whether of things "in heaven above, or earth beneath, or the waters under the earth." The Black Bull tap, every night, was an adjourned meeting of parliament, a cabinet of state ministers, a council of arbitrators. Did the Queen send forth an address, the Pope a dogma, or the Czar a manifesto, the Black Bull censors, sitting in council, accepted or repudiated. Did a congress of political long-heads produce an opinion as to international law, the Black Bull parliament de nounced or praised it (generally the former). Did David Todd utter a new thought from the pulpit of the parish church, the critics of the Black Bull analyzed its orthodoxy and pronounced judgment.

Did old Nanny Clark get a cabbage on credit at the green-grocer's, this council brought down upon her a mature and deliberate condemnation. Oh, but they were choice judges of affairs! every man had an opinion to vent and every man sat in judgment on his neighbor. "O Lord, I thank Thee, etc.," as aforesaid. The proprietor of the Black Bull, a very stout, red-faced individual, looking as though his cuticle would crack under the pressure of another ounce of nutriment, and suggesting when he laughed, coughed, or sneezed, a horrible case of apoplexy, rejoiced in the name of Bob Cherry. His nose was an object of interest to all who saw it. In its bulbous form and warm color it suggested his name readily, though a careful observer of some imagination might have contended that a strawberry was a better comparison on account of the perforated character of its surface, while a person given to justifiable hyper bole might have likened it to a highly inflamed and angry felon.

Bob Cherry stood behind the bar on the evening of the Minister's visit to the Squire's, while the customary members of the Black Bull parliament were lounging about, chatting in groups or skirmishing in advance of the more important issues that might arise later. Hugh Dickie, a prominent villager, had entered the tap only a moment before. Hugh was a stout, florid, rather good-looking man, dressed in a comfortable and well-made suit of gray ; the type of such men as one sees often at country fairs, re ferred to as a competent judge of live stock, particularly bulls of fine breed and race-horses of enviable pedigree. A man who had a presence and who would have been remarked where others of a superior order might have passed unnoticed. Hugh Dickie, as land factor to Squire Amphlett, held a somewhat important standing in Crosscairn and vicinity among a great many persons in divers stations and grades in life, the prominent reasons for this being, first, that his position was considered particularly a respectable and responsible one, re quiring special experience and knowledge; second, that he had considerable patronage to dispense in procuring the labor and much of the material requi site to the proper conduct of Squire Amphlett's estate of Dalmelington.

In manner Hugh Dickie was free and had a tongue sharpened to the edge. Hugh Dickie, entering the tap, paid prompt trib ute at the shrine, and stood listening to a member from nowhere in particular whose sentiments found vent as follows: "As I was sayin', auld Dr. Cameron will never ha'e his place filled wi' as guid a man. It's a pity that wi' a' his knowledge o' pills, plasters, and draughts, he canna mak' himsel' young again. Gin young John Hopson tak's his place, as I hear he will, the grave-digger will ha'e his hands fu'." Hugh broke in bluntly: "An' whar did ye get a' yer knowledge o' the medical profession, ma frien'? Ha'e ye been tae college wi' young Hopson an' learned that he's no' up tae the mark? I tell ye, ma man, it's high time there was a funeral at Dr. Cameron's, — the auld pill-maker has sent scores o' patients tae the next warld, an' it's high time he gaed there himsel' tae count them."

"Deed, he'll ha'e mair departed spirits tae count gin young Hopson tak's up the trade," was the re tort. "I grant ye that," said Hugh, squaring himself for continued debate and laying his right forefinger on the palm of his left hand. "I grant ye that, but Hopson wi' his improved knowledge o' the present day an' a' the experience o' the past in medicine, will save mair sick folk than the auld doctor kills, which is sayin' a vera great deal. Ye shouldna' say oucht against a young man, because he is young, when he has learned a' the auld. No, no, Dr. Cameron may be guid enough, when there is nae better tae be had, but young John Hopson will be better ; besides, the lad is as fair an' likely a youth as ane can find. Ye ken him, dinna ye? He's auld Andrew Hopson's son, Andrew Hopson o' Car rick Road ; there's no' a better man in a' the toun."

"Except the Minister, Todd," said one. "Nae exceptions," said Hugh, "least ofa' Todd. Todd's nae better than the warst o' us, or even Bob Cherry there." This raised a laugh at Cherry's expense, "Let me tell ye," said Cherry, when the laugh had sub sided — "Let me tell ye why Dickie doesna like the Minister. Look ye! the guid man preached a ser mon aboot the Deevil, or his archangel, I'm no' sure which, the last time Dickie was at the kirk. When the kirk was oot, says Dickie: 'Weel, that's the last time I'll listen tae a man wha will stand in the pulpit and expose me before the whole congre gation.' " Here Cherry, who had kept a supernaturally sober face, grew red and purple, the veins in his forehead began to swell, his eyes threatened to roll out upon his cheeks, and he gurgled his mirth and shook his fat sides, ending the paroxysm by coughing vio lently, clawing frantically at his neckcloth, and sinking down exhausted.

"Awa wi' ye, ye auld sinner!" laughed Hugh; "are ye no' afeard o' a judgment? I dinna wonder ye'r near choked wi' yer evil words: 'gin David Todd saw ye noo, he'd preach a sermon on the judgment o' Ananias." The company laughed heartily; meantime glasses clinked, and the smoke from the pipes went wreath ing itself to the ceiling in fantastic shapes. "The Squire is aff at Edinboro', I hear." This from Sandy McNeish, who found rest of an even ing here, after the cares of a day spent under the government of his wife. "Ay," replied Hugh, "there since Wednesday last." "He's aff tae Edinboro' much o' late," said another. "I'd no' say," chimed in the man who had de preciated young Hopson, "but there is something wrang at Dalmelington"; then turning to Hugh, "What does the Squire gang tae Edinboro' for?"

"Tae see the Castle belike," retorted Hugh bluntly. "He micht buy a picture o' it, an' see it, wi' mair ease and less trouble." was the instant re joinder; then addressing the others: "It's a castle in the air he gangs tae see ; ye ken the Squire is aye at his speculations; tak' my word, friends, he wad na' gang sae aften tae Edinboro, unless the fear o' losing pounds, shillin's, an' pence ca'd him there. " Hugh turned to the speaker and, with a great deal of natural dryness, delivered himself of the following: "Ye'r a vera wise man, Tammy. Solomon in a' his glory was na' a circumstance tae you. Ye'r an unco' guid hand at the gab, an' ye ken a' aboot the Squire an' his speculations, nae doot; but let DA VID TODD. 20 me beg o' you, ma braw lad, as ye ken sae muckle noo dinna seek for ony mair, or ye'r head will no' be able tae contain it.