A Fair Norwegian

Front matter

BY THE SAME AUTHOR Crown Svo, cloth extra, price 5s. Cheap Edition, paper covers, 2s. ONE FALSE STEP BY ANDREW STEWART " This is a charming novel." — Daily Chronicle OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER Edinburgh and London BY ANDREW STEWART — *-_ AUTHOR OF "ONE FALSE STEP" ETC. ETC. EDINBURGH & LONDON OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER PRINTED BY MORRISON AND OIBB, EDINBURGH, FOR OLIPHANT, ANDERSON, & FERRIER, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE i. "the pines" 7 II. UNSOLICITED ADVICE 19 in. miss Webster's party 27 iv. jamie's bonnie knife 38 v. author and critic 48 vi. the skeleton in Mackenzie's cupboard . . 57 VII. MACKENZIE "AT HOME " 66 VIII. MISS OLSEN HAS A STRANGE EXPERIENCE ... 74 IX. THE ANONYMOUS

LETTER 82

X. HAMILTON CONFRONTED WITH THE ANONYMOUS

Chapter I

" THE PINES" WEBSTER sat in her cosy and delightful tt^J'lWjtt study or boudoir, which served as library and (fJ^-MiSX business room combined, at her elegant resid $k* ence, The Pines, Sherrington Crescent, Glasgow. vS_fh She was dictating names and addresses to a young W lady acting for the time being as her secretary, and who was busily engaged in addressing, sealing, and stamping dainty little invitation missives to one of Miss Webster's popular Saturday afternoon bachelor parties. Though one of the kindest-hearted, sunniest-tempered women in all Scotland, Miss Webster was regarded by some people, who in reality sadly misunderstood her, as eccentric, chiefly on the ground that she did and said things that other women, with the fear of Mrs. Grundy strong upon them, would have been afraid to say or do, and which they con demned in her for no other reason.

She was, in truth, simply a woman of character, who was pleased to think for herself, without shaping her life and conduct after conventional patterns ; and who had the strength of mind to carry out a line of action, not caring what people might say regarding it, once it had obtained the sanction and approval of her own conscience. These bachelor parties of hers were a case in point. They were great events in the lives of the young men invited to them, who consisted chiefly of budding artists, sculptors, journalists, poets, novelists, and musicians. They were truly Bohemian in character. Evening dress was distinctly objected to, and the utmost freedom compatible with good manners and gentlemanly behaviour was the rule regarding them. Some ladies affected to be greatly scandalised at Miss Webster and her parties, and openly said that it was very unladylike to hold such gatherings in her house, she being a maiden lady.

And yet the motive which prompted the gatherings was in the highest degree laudable, springing as it did from deep religious convictions and an earnest desire to do good. Miss Webster, whose sincere, simple piety no one who knew her could doubt, had been much troubled and distressed by the irreligious and sceptical tendencies of the young men of the artistic and literary professions, with whom her own literary tastes brought her in contact ; and with a view to do what she could to check and counteract such tendencies, she organised her Bachelor Parties. She sought, by bringing the young men together in a social capacity, and surrounding them with the refining influences of a Christian home, with the fellowship of one another, herself, and one or two ladies whom she generally had present to play or sing, to lead them on to better thoughts and higher things, and at the least to keep them out of mischief.

The means she took for doing this may have been all too inadequate for the object, but the motive, at least, was worthy of respect ; and though some of the young men invited joked among themselves at Miss Webster's transparent efforts to beguile them into the humdrum paths of respectability, "THE PINES" 9 they, in their secret hearts, respected her all the same for the motive which prompted the effort, and for her own noble and inspiring Christian life and delightful personality. While Miss Webster thoroughly enjoyed the society of her young Bohemian friends, being herself a writer of tales and sketches, principally for religious magazines, they, on their part, knew the worth of her friendship, for, strange to state, she was personally acquainted with the majority of the best known literary men and artists of the age, as well as being on excellent terms with many publishers and editors.

If she took a liking for a young man, she could often further his interests by securing a publisher to read his poems or stories, or a purchaser for a picture ; so that her friendship was to several of them of sterling monetary value, apart altogether from the attractive nature of her gatherings, and the magnetic influence of the lady herself. She might have been any age from forty to sixty, for her motherly, cheerful face, always lighted with a sunny smile, so daintily set in the matron-like cap of white lace and black satin, and brightened with a flower, was so fresh and well preserved that it was impossible to do more than guess at her age, and it was felt as a very ungracious thing to do even that, so kind and sympathetic was the heart that beat in her buxom bosom. One of her great charms lay in her voice.

It was so soft, so clear, so tender in its tones, that the homely Lowland Scotch, in which she frequently, though not invariably, spoke, took on an added dignity and grace when it fell from her lips, and seemed one of the sweetest and most musical dialects in the world. There were those who were regarded as good judges of the Doric who considered that Miss Webster spoke it with a purity and sweetness that could not be surpassed. It was a refined Scotch that had no vulgarity about it, and it fell from her lips with a naturalness that seemed inborn with her, and never sounded strange or harsh even to the most refined ear. The young lady who was assisting Miss Webster as secretary was a Norwegian, and as she forms the heroine of this strange tale, it is but right that an effort should be made to place her before the mental eye of the reader.

Miss Minnie Olsen was a young and beautiful girl of perhaps two-and-twenty years. Her head was finely formed and gracefully poised. Her features were regular, and the way in which her rich yellow hair was braided reminded one of the Venus de Milo. Her eyes were blue, and shone with a tender light that spoke of a warm, affectionate heart, and they looked you in the face with a frank fearlessness that told of unaffected, artless sincerity. Her complexion was pale, the Hps rosy red, and the ever-changing lines of the delicate mouth flashed sweetness and intelligence across the face. She was in no way related to Miss Webster, being simply an acquaintance, and the beginning of their friendship happened thus. On the previous summer, while travelling in Norway, Miss Webster had lingered at Odde, at the head of the beautiful Hardanger Fiord, attracted by the charms of the place.

At one of the hotels she made the acquaintance of a Norwegian family from Bergen named Olsen, and was treated by them with great kindness and consideration. During her short stay at Odde, the acquaintance thus formed ripened into a warm friendship, and Mr. Olsen, who held a good position in the Government of his country, and was one of Bergen's most enterprising shipping merchants, became so much attached to Miss Webster that she shared in all the family excursions, and visited with them the Esplandsfos, the Lettefos, the Baurbrae Glacier, and the Skjeggedalsfos. As the time drew near for Mr. Olsen to return home, nothing would please him but that Miss Webster should accompany them to Bergen ; and here, as she had nothing to hurry her back to Scotland, she spent another delightful fortnight of the fullest enjoyment in the Olsens' beautiful villa, which stood well up on the slope of "THE PINES" 11 the Drammensvei, under a beetling cliff overlooking the fiord, with the city lying at its feet.

In return for the kindness and hospitality thus extended towards her, Miss Webster would not leave Bergen till she had received a promise from the father that his eldest daughter, Minnie, should next year pay a six months' visit to The Pines. The Olsen family could speak English almost to perfection, so that Minnie, when she paid her proTTiiRp.fl visit to Scot land, became a general favourite by her sweet, natural, engaging manners, and dehghtful powers of conversation. She was a sunny-tempered, guileless-hearted girl, who trusted aU with a frank fearlessness as if there were no such thing as evil in the world. " Eh ! bless the dear lamb," Miss Webster had said to Hamilton Mackenzie, her favourite friend amongst all her Hterary acquaintances, " she's just like a bairn ; believes a' that even you, HamHton, say to her," — this with a motherly, playful pat on the shoulder, — " an' thinks that your jokes are a' true, while finely I ken they are just made up.

She mak's me young again wi' her innocent ways, and you must see to it, Hamilton, that none o' your frien's mak' love to her, mind that. It would be a heartbreak to me if ony harm cam' to the lassie while she was under my roof." " There is no danger of that, Miss Webster, I assure you," was the ready reply. "You give the lads no chance of flirting with her, and Miss Olsen's refined and ladylike manners are a sufficient protection against any impertinence on the part of the young men. Miss Olsen is a great success, I assure you. I hear nothing but words of praise concerning her, and I can say for myself she is one of the most charming young ladies I have ever met." "She's a' that, and she is as guid as she is charming, Hamilton. But it's sayin' a great deal that, frae ane o' your wide experience wi' the lasses.

But just you see and no' fa' in love wi' her yersel', though I dinna ken ony man body I would sooner see her married to. If she were ance oot o' my care, an' back among her ain folks, I'd be pleased if you took a trip to Norway just to see her." Mackenzie made no reply to this light-hearted banter. He simply smiled, and a faint flush of colour mounted to his dark, swarthy face. He turned his head away, and became absorbed in an album which he lifted from a table ; but that night, as he left Miss Webster's and went down to his office to write his leader for next day's paper, he muttered bitterly to himself — "This is a miserable sham of a life to lead, and God knows I am heartily sick of it. H it were not for the utter cowardliness of the step, I could put an end to it once for all, and be done with it.

I am treated with a respect I know myself to be utterly unworthy of, being simply a mean impostor, undeserving of the respect of honest men and women. And yet, though I may be a weak, I am not a conscious or deHberate villain. But The Pines is getting too dangerous a place for me, and I must visit it as seldom as possible ; for if Miss Webster only knew me as I know myself, she would show me to the door — and yet I cannot, I dare not tell her that I am not what I seem to be." Miss Olsen had been only two months at The Pines, and during that period Mackenzie had visited the place much oftener than he had been in the habit of doing before her arrival, yet not so frequently as to cause remark. He felt the spell of Miss Olsen's influence the first night he was introduced to her, and though he fought against it with all the power of which he was capable, he was compelled to admit to himself that he was powerless to resist the charms of her presence.

It was on one of these friendly visits Miss Webster had spoken to him as she did, half in jest, half in earnest, for with her keen, kindly eyes she had observed Mackenzie's marked attentions to Miss Olsen, and thought it best to give him a friendly word of warning in time. " THE PINES " 13 Miss Webster lived in really fine style at The Pines, extending open-handed hospitality to men of letters and artists, her chief sources of income being a small annuity derived from the realisation of her late father's estate, the slender sum she earned by her own literary labours, and what she received from the trustees of James Guthrie, a distant relative of her own, who was an imbecile, and lived under her watchful, tender, and motherly care. Poor James Guthrie, or " Jamie," as he was familiarly called, had fallen heir to a large fortune, left him by his uncle ; but though at the time of this windfall he was twenty-two years of age, he was quite insensible and in different to the fact, and was more delighted over the present of a meerschaum pipe which Mackenzie gave him, securing the friendship and devotion of Jamie thereby for ever, than he wae with his great riches, which he could not value, and which it was doubtful if he realised that he possessed.

Jamie was a handsome-looking fellow, of powerful body, splendid, massive head, but weak mind and limbs. He might have been dangerous to have in a house but for the sad fact that his powers of locomotion were so feeble as to necessitate an invalid's chair for taking him into the open air for exercise, though he could move about the room with difficulty on his feet, catching at things as he went for support, and for a short time only. Miss Webster, it was said, was allowed £1000 per annum for the maintenance of her unfortunate relative ; and this sum, with her own annuity and literary earnings, — though these seldom amounted to much, as publishers at times took advantage of her good-nature and easy circumstances, and conveniently " forgot " to pay for work done, — enabled her to live in ladylike comfort, and to exercise freely her kind and hospitable disposition.

Jamie had apartments of his own in the basement flat of the fine building, so that he might have the utmost privacy, and be able to go out freely to the large and beautiful garden at the back of the house. He had a keeper, who attended to all his wants — a stout, staid, elderly man named William Wallace, who had been coachman to Jamie's uncle for many years, and knew all his ways. Jamie was very shy of company, and so seldom was he seen by anyone coming about the house, that his presence in it was known only to intimate friends. One of these friends was Hamilton Mackenzie. Miss Webster trusted him as she might have trusted a son. She confided all her affairs to him, asked his advice in literary and business matters, and even as to whom she should invite to her little Bohemian parties. He had the " run " of the house, and Jamie, who at this time was a man of twenty-six years of age, with a handsome black beard and curly dark hair, was deeply attached to Hamilton, with a doglike fondness that made him happy when he was near, and miserable when he was absent.

The doctor who attended Jamie encouraged him in all innocent pleasures, and as he considered smoking one of these, regarding it as an indulgence that would serve, at least, to divert him, or perhaps soothe him, he soon became an inveterate smoker — a devotee of tobacco, using nothing but the finest brands of cigars and the choicest and most expensive tobaccos. He had a cosy httle smoking-room, or divan, most luxuriously fitted up for him ; and as Mackenzie himself was an inveterate smoker, he never visited The Pines but he went down to Jamie's sanctum, and there smoked one of his cigars, diverting the poor imbecile with childish stories, and such funny and amusing tricks as his feeble intellect could appreciate and understand. There was never a party at which Mackenzie was present that he did not suddenly disappear during the course of the evening ; and when on his return he was asked by some of the young men where he had been, he would reply truth fully, that he had been away enjoying a smoke, and they " THE PINES" 15 generally reproached him for scuttling off without letting them know.

Miss Webster, of course, always knew where he had gone, and covered his retreat by some simple device. It was a liberty he alone could take, as she did not en courage smoking in her guests. And now, having explained matters so far as to make the opening scene intelligible, we go back to Miss Webster and Miss Olsen, as they sit in the study engaged in writing out invitations. " Have I given you all the names on the list, Minnie, my dear 1 " Miss Webster was saying as we come upon them. " Oh yes, Miss Webster," replied Miss Olsen, looking up with her bright smile and clear blue eyes that ahvays made Miss Webster feel young again to see. "You have given me all save one — Mr. Mackenzie. He completes the list, but I suppose he hardly needs a special invitation ? " " No, dearie, you are right. Hamilton does not need an invitation.

We can scarcely get on without him. But we'll perhaps be better to send him one when we are at it. Would you like him to be present ? " " I should think he will add much to the pleasures of the evening," she replied calmly. " He is a very nice gentle man — so cheery, so agreeable — so what you call it — ah, yes, so humorous, and so gentle." "Yes, he's a' you say, Minnie, and I've got into the habit o' leaning on his help so much, that I canna very weel get on withoot him." "Do you think, Miss Webster," said Miss Olsen, with hesitation, "that Mr. Mackenzie is very happy? Yet I suppose he must be, he is always so cheerful, and so — so — nice. Is that what I should say ? " " Yes, Minnie, you are quite correct. He is nice. But what mak's ye ask if he's happy? I never thocht he was onything else."

" I may be wrong— oh, I hope I am ! But I have fancied I saw a sad expression come into his face, even while he was saying something very funny to make you laugh, and a far-away look in his beautiful brown eyes ; and I have seen him check a rising sigh, as if something troubled him." "He is a man of deep thought and feeling," returned Miss Webster. "Not like sae mony o' the young men o' this fast and flippant generation; an' I've nae doot he thinks much on the troubles and sorrows o' existence. I ken he writes wi' great power on the perplexities o' life. I wouldna like to think, Minnie, that he was unhappy, or in trouble— though nae doot, like the rest o' us, he has his ain ' bubbly-jock,' as we say in Scotland, to fash and trouble him. I must confess, though, that I ken very little aboot the lad.

His folk live in the south o' Scotland, and I know that he is a kind, considerate son to his parents. I know also that he lives in lodgings doon in St. Vincent Street, an' I believe that he gaes hame every Saturday night to see his folks. He came to me when he first arrived in Glasgow, frae London, wi' a letter o' introduction frae Ruskin, an' that was enough for me. I ken nae mair aboot him, except in a literary way, an' that's a' to his credit. He is fast making a good position to himself as an author and journalist, an' London will likely very soon draw him south again, as it does so many more of the best literary men and women." " Ah, Miss Webster, it has never succeeded in drawing you," said Minnie, with sincere admiration in her voice, for she regarded her hostess as one of the great literary lights of the day.

"No, it has never drawn me, an' never will," was the reply. " The heather seldom tak's root when transplanted to foreign soil ; besides, I'm no' a literary light in ony particular sense of the term. I write for pleasure mair than fame, an' I'm no' driven to the pen wi' the scourge o' hunger, like some o' our cleverest writers. But Hamilton is a young man I've the highest hopes o', gang whaur he may. He writes wi' a good and noble purpose ; though "THE PINES" 17 when you mention it, I must say a vein o' sadness goes through it all." "Ah, he has a good heart, Miss Webster; I felt that when I saw him for the first time, and I knew it when I heard him speak. It is so good of him to tear himself away from your delightful parties, where he always enjoys himself so much, so that he may not disappoint his parents."

"Weel, you see, Minnie," returned Miss Webster thought fully, " I only believe that he goes home on the Saturdays. He never said so to me. He's pretty close whaur his frien's are concerned, I must say that." " But you surely do not think, Miss WTebster " — " Weel, lassie, really I dinna ken what to think at times aboot Mackenzie. I like the lad wi' maist a mither's affection ; but a' the same he's a bit o' a mystery to me ; an' whiles I've had my doubts ; but I ken nae wrang about him, or, much as I like him, he widna visit The Pines." "It does not need that one should do wrong to be unhappy, does it, Miss Webster ? " " No, certainly not. But it generally happens that some one has done wrong to cause the unhappiness. But I'm no' willin' to admit that Hamilton's unhappy. I ken that young men mak' themsel's unhappyneedlessly, wi' their doubts an' indifference to things spiritual, an' their pessimistic and materialistic views.

I ken Hamilton's tinged wi' the prevailing malady, — at least he has nae love for the kirk, an' he's whiles unco hard on puir ministers ; but see you, my dearie, an' no' tak' a warmer interest in him than your folks at hame would approve of, for I want to gie ye back to your dear parents in bonnie Bergen heart-whole, an' stronger, an' prettier, if possible, with your visit to Scotland." A slight tinge of red, the merest hint of a blush, sufficient to show that she understood Miss Webster's allusion, rose on Miss Olsen's cheek and brow. She laughed a blithe, sunny-hearted laugh, wet the gummed tip of an envelope with her rosy lips, stamped it down on the desk with her hand, and said cheerily, as she rose and waltzed about the room — "There is no danger of that, dear Miss Webster — none whatever, I assure you."

" I'm pleased to hear 't," said Miss Webster, gathering up the addressed envelopes, "though I couldna wish you better than to see you married to a good Scotsman. But it's only natural you should have a jo in your ain country amang your ain kith an' kin. Aweel, God grant he may be worthy o' you, whae'er he be, for I'll be unco sweert to part wi' you, when your time comes to gae back to your ain hame."

Chapter II Unsolicited Advice

JlllljISAMILTON MACKENZIE had just left The f-7 |f^il|® Pines, having stayed to tea, chatting with KAf^MS****!/ Miss Olsen and Miss Webster, and enjoying SJ a quiet cigar with Jamie down in his smoking-divan, Æ__, and was hurrying down to the Bugle office in the "S* centre of the city, to his duties therein, as leader writer and critic. The time had passed so pleasantly and quickly that he was surprised to find it was already six o'clock ; and as he had some finishing touches to put to an article he was writing for one of the London magazines before beginning his usual labours of the evening, he was a little annoyed with himself at having overstayed the time he had calculated upon having in the quietude of his office for private literary work. But he had not the heart to begrudge the loss of time so pleasantly spent in the society of Miss Olsen.

Indeed, the sweetness and joy of that hour were ample reward for any sacrifice of time. " It was all too sweet and pleasant for me," he mused, as he sped down Buchanan Street through the rain. " I feel like one wandering in a dream of delight while under the delicious spell of her sweet, soft voice. What a lovely voice it is. I cannot analyse its qualities, or tell the secret of its power ; all I know is this, that it enthrals me, and I feel as one enchanted by some wizard spell while listening to its tones. I have never met a woman yet with such deliciously natural and unaffected manners. Oh, how I enjoy her society! She lifts me into a purer, higher, healthier atmosphere than I am accustomed to breathe ; and yet— yet I know that I am playing with fire in thus selfishly indulging myself. Can it be that it is sinful in me to taste such pure delights, that fill and satisfy my heart as nothing else in this world does ?

I fear danger ahead, but, alas ! I have not strength now to resist it. God help me ! I am, indeed, a miserable man." In a few minutes he entered his sanctum dedicated to leaders and reviews in the newspaper office, lighted the gas, and, taking up his pen, drew from his desk a parcel of MS., and with a weary sigh prepared to write. The room in which he sat was one of several entering off a long lobby. Two sides of the room were lined with bookshelves, on which were ranged volumes of newspaper clippings, Parliamentary blue-books, Acts of Parliament, encyclopædias, dictionaries, gazetteers, and other books of reference, like Tlie Statesman's Tear Book, Tlie Parlia mentary Companion, The Dictionary of Dates, Men of the Time, etc. The wall was hung with maps, and the only window the room contained looked out to a dingy back court, where lorries loaded and unloaded bales of merchandise from various warehouses all day long, and horses pranced and carters swore from dawn till dusk.

As he sits there at his desk, with the gaslight falling full upon his face as he balances the pen in his fingers, we get a good look at the kind of man he is in appearance. He is dark in complexion, with brown, gentle, sad eyes, which beam with such a clear, soft, winning light that instinctively one feels that here is a man with a warm, kind heart— a man worthy of trust, deserving of all confidence and esteem. UNSOLICITED ADVICE 21 His hair is thin and fine, dark brown in hue, and he is slightly bald on the top of the head. The mouth is com pletely concealed by a thick, heavy beard and moustache, dark brown as to colour, and massy in texture. His forehead is narrow but deep, his nose is straight and drooping, the thin, quivering nostrils betraying a temperament of great refinement and sensibihty.

He looks like a man who has had a hard fight with the world, for the lines of care are plainly marked on his face, as it is thus seen in repose. Yet he is evidently one who will not shirk his duty, however irksome it may be; but who, if needful, will bear his burden uncomplainingly, and die fighting to the last. The quiet hours of the late afternoon in his little work room are fruitful hours to Hamilton Mackenzie; for then the busy newspaper office is at its quietest : the ponderous machines below, that shake the building as they devour the white webs of paper and disgorge them impressed with the news of two hemispheres, are still; the literary staff have not yet returned for evening work ; and even the all-pervasive "devils" in their eager hunt for "copy" are indolently sorting " pie " up in the composing-room.

Many of Hamilton's most popular articles for the metropolitan magazines have been indited during this daily restful spell ; but he has indulged himself too long this afternoon in the sweet and grateful society of The Pines, and the day's programme of work he had allotted himself in consequence has suffered. It is too late to make up for lost time, but the short hour at his disposal may be utilised, so he pauses to collect his thoughts and pick up the chain of the dropped link on the page before him. It is no simple matter this, for his mind is perturbed, and persistently there floats into his mental vision a radiant maiden with flaxen hair and blue, bright eyes and cherry lips; and her light-hearted, merry laugh and sweet-toned, restful voice rings ever in his ear, and scatters his thoughts, and will not let him begin.