Paul and Christina

Chapter I. This Spring Of Love

Lonely, dark islands, in pale sea-water, where, dimly peering;, Passed the white-sailed ships, scornfully, silently, wheeling and

vering, Swift out of sight again ; while the wind searches what it finds

never

Love's lips are always young ; Love's lore is very old ; If you have ever loved, the key you hold

To all that hath of Love been said or sung.

'"pHERE are forlorn and cheerless seas to the JL north of the Pentland Firth, but beyond their belts of foam, and beyond the ocean pyra mids of the Orcades, you may catch in clear weather, the grey headlands of the lonely Shet land Isles.

They are inhabited by no servile or savage race ; for they are the children of those Norsemen who left their name and fame in France, Italy and Spain, and who a century later took service at Byzantium. Moslems in Asia and Sclavonians on the Black Sea knew the temper of their steel : and to this day the lions of the Acropolis at Athens are scored with the runes which tell of their triumphs.

It was in the Orkneys and Shetlands they took the deepest root — first helping the Pict and then the Scot, and filling all the northern isles with the stirring stories of their deeds. The step between pagan sea-kings and Christian whalers and fishermen is a long one, and it required centuries to take — even yet the old life leavens the new and the better one. Walk through a Shetland town, and it will be readily seen that the names above the doors, are those of the Icelandic Sagas, while the ordinary-spoken English has many traces of their peculiar forms.

The men preserve much of their ancient character; they are silent, indomitable, adven turous and deeply pious, inclined to be indolent but ready at any moment for an enterprise full of danger or promising great returns. The women are remarkably handsome, tall and stately, with cool, calm, blue eyes, and a great abundance of hair, yellow as the dawn. In the old pagan days they ruled all things with a high hand, but three centuries of austere and mystical Calvinism has subdued to a more womanly temper their lofty spirits. Yet who can be absolutely delivered from their ancestors? Not only do the physical peculiarities of the tenth-century viking linger in the Shetlanders, but the superstitions of Thor, marble the natures, permeated through and through with the sternest and most distinctive of Christian creeds.

Such a man was Paul Thorsen. He had been on Arctic seas when the great ice mountains reeled around him, and he had sung hymns amid the crashing uproar, because he " knew right well that God was with him ! " And yet, for Christina Bork's love he could go at mid night to the kirk at Weesdale with a charm, and

offer a vow of alms " if all went as he desired it."

i

Coming home, he met his mate, Magnus Yool. Magnus had on his fishing-suit of tanned sheepskins, and he carried many a fathom of line over his shoulders. On the dusky moor he looked like some giant of an earlier world.

" Where hast thou been, Paul ? " he asked.

" Well then, I have been to make a vow.

" And in the meantime the boat waits."

" I have vowed ten silver pieces to John Sabiston's orphans."

"That is a good deal."

"As you take it."

" For what then ? "

"For the good-will of Christina Bork."

"As everyone knows, Christina's good-will would be dear at a groat."

"What is it you mean, Magnus?"

"Well, it is neither more nor less than this: I like not Christina. She is vain. She is selfwilled. She is unkind to her mother. And know this, Paul — the bad daughter will make the bad wife."

" If thou had ever been in love, Magnus

" I have loved once — yes ! But thou wilt take thy own way in this matter, that is well known, Paul."

" I have seen that Christina hath faults, but when a girl is loved in spite of her faults, what then?"

"Well, then one marries!" and Magnus shrugged his big shoulders as over an inevita ble misfortune.

" But here are other things than marrying to think about, Paul. It is time the lines were out, and the boats are waiting for thee and for me." And even as he spoke the harsh, plaintive cries of the boatmen were heard amid the bellowing of the waves that broke among the rocks on the beach.

Though it was May, the night was dark, with a wild carry overhead out of the north-west, and a black sea tumbling wild and high about the boats. Nothing could be distinctly seen, only a vague trouble and turmoil, as if a battle was going on in the dark. But these fishers were used to the sea in all her moods and they looked out over the tossing waters, spreading away into endless dark without a fear.

" The Lord open the mouth of the grey fish and hold His hand about the boat ! " said Mag nus, reverently, as he lifted the anchor ; and Paul turned, with a prayer on his lips, and looked for a moment toward the home of his beloved.

Christina was snugly tucked between feathers and eider-down and she thought not of her lover upon the black, bleak sea. She was a beautiful girl, with a nature in which bitter and

6 PAUL AND CflRISTIN'A.

sweet were perversely mingled — subtle, seduc tive charms of manners were hers, and also a native capacity for the treachery which is in the blood and bone of wild animals accustomed to compass their desires by craftiness and stealth. All her virtues were in a rudimentary state ; a supreme selfishness dominated her — and when selfishness is the subsoil of character, any evil seed dropped into it, either by the wayside or the fireside, is sure to grow.

She was the youngest of a large family and the only child left to cheer her mother's old age : for one night her father and brothers had gone to the fishing and had frozen to death in the open boat. The icy wind had slain those whom the sea had spared, and when the boat drifted in with the morning tide it was manned, like a spectre bark, only with the dead. But the terrible tragedy made no lasting impression upon Christina ; and home circumstances, full of gracious opportunities for a generous soul, suggested nothing to her but a more resolute protection of her own comfort and her own in terests.

" But they are queer folk that have no faults," said her mother ; " and very soon Christina will

THIS SPRING Of LOVE. f

be a wife, with her own love and her own nome, and the good will put down the bad."

So Helga Bork, with a wistful hopefulness, looked always for what was good in her child's character, hoping against hope with that con stant anguish of patience which lifts a mother's love so near to the divine mercy, which " endureth forever." She was a woman nearly sixty years old, with a grey head and a face full of that pitifulness and sweetness that only sorrow and hard experience of sorrow can give.

On the morning after Paul Thorsen had made his vow, she was standing at the table cleaning some fish and thinking lovingly and trustfully of her child, when Christina entered the room, rosy and smiling from ^her long sleep. She broiled for herself some slices of mutton, toasted her cake, made her tea, and then sat down before the fire to eat and drink with a deliber ate enjoyment.

She made such a very pretty picture that it was not hard, in its beauty, to forget the intense selfishness of the solitary meal ; not hard to forget that the mother had been on the pier for two hours helping to unload the boats, and that, after her hard labor, she had come home

8 PALL AMD CHRISTINA.

to find the hearth cold and the breakfast un cooked. When the neglect first began Chris tina had made excuses : " She had a headache, or a cold, or she had overslept herself." Then she became tired of, or ashamed of, her excuses and sulked in their place.

The mother had been mostly silent. If neither love nor duty could make her daughter care for her comfort she would not demand an ungracious service. And very soon Christina quite persuaded herself that her mother had gone so many years to meet the boats that she liked to go ; and from this point it was not hard to arrive at another — when any unusual delay prevented the fire from being bright and the house-place clean, she felt it as a personal injury and annoyance.

This morning, however, all was cheery and comfortable ; and Christina, after her first cup of tea, was inclined to be very talkative.

" There is to be a tea-party at Peter Hay's to-night, mother, and I should well like to go."

"But, for all that I will not consent, Chris tina. Thou knowest that there will be drink ing and dancing the whole night through. Our own men are all now busy at the nets ; the men

77/75 SPRING OF LOVE. 9

thou wilt meet at Hay's are like to be smug glers and strangers. A good girl will not want to dance with them. No, indeed ! "

" Thou thinkest I am sixty years old. If I .want any pleasure, it is ever, ' No, I will not consent.' "

" Christina, there was once a chicken shut up from danger and it complained that it was not allowed to feed openly on the dunghill. That is the way with thee."

" Now then I will marry Paul Thorsen. He loves me and he will give me my own way ; and I shall go and come as it pleases me. That is what! will do."

" Then thou wilt marry sorrow and bring sorrow also to a good man's heart. If thou marry Paul Thorsen it is my hope that he will hold thee with a firm hand."

"If he can do that he can do something worth talking about. See, he is coming here. When he is well dressed he is not bad looking, and I shall make him leave the nets and lines, and do as far better men do. Then he can wear broadcloth and a red sash and he will bring me silk and lace, and gold ornaments, and fine tea and brandy. Yes, indeed ! I shall io PAUL AND CHRISTINA.

want for nothing, and of all these things I will also give thee a good share."

" Dost thou then think that thou can make a smuggler of Paul Thorsen? Paul is an hon est man, and the seed of Adam will not make him less than an honest man."

" We shall see."

"Tell thy thought to him. Tell it to him plain and soon. I know well what answer thou wilt get."

" I will tell him — at my own time. He will do as I say. Good-morning to thee, Paul ! "

She rose as she spoke and stood with out stretched hand looking at him ; her fair rosy face in a flush of youth and beauty, and her yellow hair floating round her like sunrise.

Never had she seemed to Paul so bewitch ing, and never before had she been so kind. He had a large, brave countenance, honest and kindly, and eyes that reminded one of the sea, and his face glowed crimson with joy, as with a trembling sense of his coming happiness, he drank the tea she made him.

The links and meadows were green and full of flowers, and the skylarks building low among them were filling the air with their rapturous

THIS SPRING OF LOVE. il

songs. The sea was blue and dimpling with incalculable laughter in the sunshine, and the voices of countless water-birds mingled with the whish-h of the incoming tide. Paul and Christina went out together and while they walked under the blue sky, in a world full of the salt and sparkle and breeze of the waves, Paul told Christina, with manly sincerity and eagerness, how dearly he loved her; and she promised him to be his wife.

Helga Bork knew how it was when she saw her daughter coming home with Paul. For a moment she felt a kind of pity for the young man. Such a true heart ! Such a true love ! She wondered that one so wise and prudent as Paul Thorsen could not see that Christina had no more heart than a kitten.

Perhaps he did see it, but she had grown into his life as the sea and the stars had grown into it. He could not bear to think of existence without her. And perhaps he also thought that it would be his delightful task to awaken the slumbering soul of the girl. Very good men often deceive themselves with this idea: for the sleeping princess is the dream of all pure, true lovers. So Paul rather liked Christina's coldness and indifference to every one. To win her affections with the morning dew upon them — that was Paul Thorsen's happy dream.

For it is not women, but men, who love romantically. Women like to marry prosperous men, and wedding garments and housekeep ing prospects divide with love their hearts. Thus on the previous night while Paul was hastening across the dark moor to make his vow for her, Christina was sitting with her feel, upon the fender, trimming a new bonnet, anc* laying plans for the silk and lace she intended Paul to procure for her.

The marriage was to be solemnized at the end 'of the summer fishing and Christina was determined to have a great wedding feast.

" Paul hath promised me a silk dress," she said, " and his mother will give me a gold ring and the chain his grandfather bought in Hol land, and the necklace, too, perhaps. And we shall have a great procession to the kirk, and a feast, and a dance afterwards ! All this, and more too ! " she added proudly.

" And I will give thee a good store of blankets, and of knit clothing that my own hands have made. And besides, thou shalt have the silver chain and cross that was brought hundreds of years ago from the Southern Seas by thy fore father Bor — thou hast seen how he lies in stone, in Scalloway Kirk. Now, then, what has Paul said to thee of thy home?"

" Paul hath a good house and he will buy many new things for it. He has saved £400 and more, too, and he owns the boat in which he sails, and part of the one which Nicol Sin clair rents. Oh, I shall make myself very com fortable—after a little ! "

" 'After a little ! ' What dost thou mean, then ? "

"When I get the house to myself."

" If thou would be a happy wife, I counsel thee, meddle not in such a matter as that. There is no man in Shetland loves his mother better than Paul Thorsen loves Margery Thorsen. She was there before fhee. Think of that ! "

" That may be, but is not my affair ; and be fore the winter she will go to her daughter at Voe Ness. Nanna Thorsen married well. It is with the daughter the mother should stay. That is what I think ; and I shall soon make Paul in the same mind. Thou wilt see ! "

" Paul's mother will be well away from thee ! " said Helga, indignantly. "And know this— it is not with thee that I would live. I would ask shelter with the seals in the Varra caves first ! Yes, indeed I would ! "

" Now thou art angry for nothing. That is ever thy way, mother. And why must thou care for Margery Thorsen? She is no kin of thine. It seems to me thou can think of every one but thy own daughter."

" Well, then, thou thinkest very well for thy self. In thy own heart thou art the first and the last. Yes, indeed ! "

And Christina laughed and went off to the public fountain for water. She carried the small bucket upon her head with a lofty and nonchalant grace. Her hands were occupied with her fine knitting, and as the glancing needles swiftly glided to and fro, she sang, in a clear, shrill voice :

" Oh, my sailor comes over the sea With a golden ring and chain for me,

And the King shall pay for it all ! He'll merrily shake his canvas free, He'll give them a chase over the sea, And steal away by the Shetland lee With a golden ring and chain for me,

And the King shall pay for it all 1

"The fisher may toil fora penny fee, My sailor brings fortune over the sea ;

And the King must pay for it all ! His ship is steady, and strong, and tight ; He can sing and dance, and sail and fight ; His hand is ready to take his right ; A lucky cargo he lands to-night,

And the King must pay for it all ! "

As she finished the verse Jane Sinclair joined her and said, " It is not wise, then, to sing such songs. If the minister heard, he would not like it, Christina. That is certain."

" Very well, then, he need not to listen."

" And Paul Thorsen would be of the same mind."

" He too, then. He need not to listen."

" Is Paul not to be thy good-man?"

" ' Good-man ! ' Few of them deserve that name."

" Paul is a good man. Art thou not to be his wife ? "

" One might get a worse marriage."

" I heard that he had asked thee to be his wife.'

" I heard that, too."

" What did thou say to that question? "

" I said what I said."

" Thou can do nothing but mock, Christina."

"Well then, Jane?"

" I will go into no more questions and guesses with thee. There is too much love in the world, else it would not be squandered on the unworthy. That is what I think."

" Fret not thyself about Paul. It is his own fault if he loves me. He can come, and he can go. What hinders him ? "

" Love hinders him. Well thou knowest, in the matter of love, the beginning is when one likes, but the ending is when one can." Then Jane turned away ; but Christina, seating her self on the edge of the fountain, finished her song to the babble and tinkle of the falling water.

Chapter II. Paul Thorsen's Temptation

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

Every man is the first man to himself, And Eves are just as plentiful as apples, is no one that can play the fool so ^ completely as a wise man ; and many be sides Magnus Yool were very sorry to see the grave and good Paul Thorsen so bewitched by a pretty face. " But why shall I talk to him on the matter?" asked Magnus, "for he hath put his ears to sleep." Even Paul's mother, after one or two attempts to reason with her son, gave up all hope of preventing the mar riage.

" What is to be is sure to happen," she said with a dreary resignation ; " and when men will not listen to reason, what need to be wasteful of words ? "

iS PAUL AND CHRISTINA.

And, indeed, there was good cause for the hopeless resignation of Margery's decision. For Paul's infatuation increased steadily. He had been a careful, prudent man ; always living strictly within the rim of his shilling, and put ting a large share of his earnings away. But at Christina's word his sovereigns melted into ornaments and silk, and into new and often un necessary furniture. If Paul Thorsen, aged twenty-seven, could have foreseen what follies Paul Thorsen, aged twenty-eight, would be guilty of, he would have asked anxiously, " Shall I, then, be mad a year hence ? "

It was well that the courtship was a short one, and that at the end of three months Paul took his bride to his home. It was a comfort able house of five rooms, built of stone and well furnished, and from the cellar to the roof-coping it had been made spotlessly clean for its new mistress. She came to it at the head of a bridal procession of two hundred women and men ; stepping proudly, in her silk dress and gold and silver ornaments, to the joyful strains of the bridal song. It swelled all along the line, it filled the old grey streets with a jubilant noise, for it was taken up by the women standing in

PAUL THORSEN'S TEMPTATION. 1 9

their doors and looking from their \vindo\vs; and by the little children who ran alongside and peeped at Christina with merry mischiev ous faces as they piped, in thin clear voices :

" Hey the bonnie bride and the breast-knots of white !

God bless her, on every hand,

With the health of the sea and the wealth of the ssa, With love and with gold, and with land.

Then there followed some days and weeks in the which Paul thought himself to be the most blessed of men. Christina was delighted with her new position, and disposed to take to the full all the privileges it gave her. And one of her first acts of authority was to entirely re arrange the house. Paul sat in his chair and watched her. He found it delightful to see her tripping busily about, and he was charmed to be consulted about the position of every chair and table. For she looked so beautiful with her tucked-up hair and dress, and her fine arms white and bare, and her little airs of perplexity and interest — so beautiful that he never wearied of watching her.

But it was a very different thing to Margery Thorsen. She sat pained and silent as the rooms she had made so clean and pleasant were

*o PAUL AND CHJUSTIMA.

re-cleaned and re-ordered. Women may de ceive men, but they rarely deceive women. Margery understood Christina. She was quite sure that all this pretty pretence was part of a well-considered plan for her removal. But what could she say? If she had given her thought utterance Christina would have fled to Paul with tears of injured innocence, and she must have taken the position of a jealous and unreasonable woman.

But oh, why did not Paul perceive the strait in which she was? Paul, who had ever before been so ready to enter into all her feelings, and sympa thize with all her sorrows and annoyances. Often she let her work drop, and looked into his face with eyes full of grief and amazement. He did not see in them the petrified tears — the piti ful questions, which none but he could answer. Alas ! Alas ! that even the sweetest love should too often be in its first development purely selfish ; thinking only of its own happi ness, forgetful of relative duties and of soberer affections. Margery Thorsen uttered no com plaint, but her heart grew very still ; so still that she thought something must have died there. For this was one of those dumb sorrows which

PAUL TH OR SEN'S TEMPTATION. 21

hunt in silent packs ; they do not bark, but oh ! how they rend the desolate and aching heart !

So, to Christina, the first weeks of her mar ried life passed pleasantly enough. She was well known, and she was quite happy in receiv ing visits of congratulation and in the exhibi tion of her pretty home. But in a little while the interest in her wedding died out, and there was no more to be said on that matter. Then Isabel Hay married, and her tocher and fine plenishing was on every one's tongue. Isabel had been one of Christina's companions, and she was among the first to call upon the new bride. The visit filled her with dissatisfaction about her own position. Isabel had a sofa and a set of gilded china, and Christina, want ing these things felt as if she had nothing.

Passing Nicol Sinclair's house she saw his sister Jane standing within the open door. Very soon they were talking of the bride, and Christina spoke with ill-concealed jealousy of her many belongings.

" But I envy her not, Christina," said Jane ; "what comes wrong never stays long. The minister will tell you the same thing. He will that."

"Hay has done well for his family, Jane, and it were a good thing if more of our men had his spirit."

"Tell that to Paul Thorsen, and thou wilt see how he will answer thee. And if a man does wrong, then how can he do well ? Thou knows better."

" I will tell Paul. Oh, yes ! I will tell him soon and fast now. As for doing wrong, there is no wrong in the matter. Hay pays good money for whatever he brings into harbor. Yes, indeed he does."

" He cheats the Government and he breaks the laws. If he was caught he would go to prison instead of to sea. A good woman will not ask her man to take his honor and his life in his hands — for what ? That she may wear fine clothes, and sit upon a sofa, and drink her tea out of a gilded tea-cup. That is what I say."

" Thou art only a woman by thyself. There is nothing wrong in the trade. That is what I say. That is what wiser and richer folks than thou art say. Yes, indeed ! "

"Why, then, did the minister reprove Hay, not once, but twice, from the pulpit ? Why did he refuse to him the holy cup ? Thou knows

PAUL THORSEN'S TEMPTATION. *3

right well it is wrong. Thou must not be another Eve, and let the devil use thee to tempt a good man to sin."

" Who gave thee a license to preach to me ? Now I will go, and it will be long ere I speak to thee again, Jane Sinclair."

With the words she turned away from Jane, holding her pretty head very high and lifting her dress well, in order to show the fine latched shoes which Paul had procured her by sending to Aberdeen for them.

That night when Paul returned to his home it was after ten hours' hard work and he was physically very weary. Christina threw around him all the enchantments of her beauty and manner. She made him the hot, strong tea which he loved, she fed him with the food he relished, she sat beside him in the glow of the comfortable fire, she caressingly held between her own his big brown hand. When his pipe had still further soothed him, she told him of her visit to Isabel Sabay and expatiated on the beauty and desirableness of the many things which Isabel's house contained.

Paul grew restless as she spoke, but he Jcept his own opinion and answered her not.

*4 PAUL A.\fi CHRISTINA.

'' Say that thou will give them to me. Say that, Paul.'*

I cannot, then, say that. All I have, all I can earn, is for thee. I will try and work harder — if I can get the work to do."

"How foolish thou art, Paul! Why need thou work so hard ? Why dost thou go to the fishing at all ? Such a strong man, such a good sailor, as thou art ! The nets I would fling to the bottom of the sea. Ragon Hay will give thee far better work. Listen to me, Paul."

He roused himself then, and looked steadily into the rosy face full of winsome charms lifted to his. " Dost thou mean the words which thou hast said to me, Christina?"

"Ay, I mean them; every word, I mean it."

She thought her victory was won and she smiled brightly and drew down his face and kissed him. He rose up then and put her gently, but very firmly, away from him. " Know this, my Christina," he answered : " I would cut off my right hand — ay, I would turn my back on thee, beloved one, forever — rather than do the thing thou asks of me."

His eyes were glowing and his face stern and set to his purpose. A wise woman would have

PAUL TffORSEN'S TEMPTATION. 25

perceived that he was as immovable on this subject as Sunburgh Head. But Christina had no conception of a nature beyond temptation. If smiles would not move him then she would try tears. She put her face upon her folded arms and cried passionately.

He stood looking at her. Love and anger strove hard in his heart. In a few moments he touched her gently. " My Christina, stop crying and then I will talk to thee."