A sister to Esau

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A STRANGE TITLE DEED .... i

II. WORDS HALF SPOKEN 16

II. Words Half Spoken

"Why are we whose strength is but for a day, so full of schemes ? Let the mind which is now glad hate to carry its care beyond the present, and temper the bitters of life with easy smiles. " — Horace.

1 ' To-night Love claims his full control

And with desire and with regret My soul this hour has drawn your soul A little nearer yet."

— Rosetti.

"D ODNEY HOUSE was at this date a beautiful •*-^ residence, half castellated, and half-monastic in style ; a house with a home-like air ; long, ram bling, old, and full of all pleasant conditions. It was surrounded by a wide garden space, laid out in the Dutch fashion. In summer and autumn this gar den was a very paradise of sweet scents ; flowers, and fruits, and herbs mingling their separate perfumes in one general spicy fragrance.

Around, the land was hilly and woody, broken by miniature copses, full of the tones of water, and the in land sounds of trees and birds ; of the cuckoo's sweet dissyllable, and the nightingale's solemn music ; and from the meadows and the painful furrows, the lark's all-invincible song of hope.

The sea was not far away, and its blessed breezes mingled with the landward winds, and charged them potently with the magic savors of iodine and ozone. From the upper windows of the house, and from the higher fells around it, many a mile of Ocean's gray spaces were clearly visible, and often the Colonel rose early, that he might see in the morning light the fleet of fishing boats tip the horizon ; their wet sails barred with sunshine, waving and bending with the wind, and glorious as an army with banners. Between him and the sea were

Upon the landward braes, Scattered farms and cottar folk : And the fishers who kept to their own old ways, In the village that huddled beneath the rock ; Where a sheltering cove made a safe retreat For the brown lug-sails of their little fleet.

But further description might reveal the precise locality to inquisitive tourists, who would hunt it, and make it a lion, and get it at last into guide books.

Now Scotia Rodney was a girl of the fields and the woods. She was a familiar of the animals who dwelt in them, and the birds told her their secrets. She understood the brotherhood of the trees, and the scent of herbs was delicious to her ; all her clothing smelt of the ethereal perfume of the shy woodruff. But Bertha was a girl of the house. Her small feet loved carpeted rooms, she liked the sunshine through cur tains, she enjoyed soft couches and touching lovestories, and the ripple of her own voice to the piano. The wind disarranged her hair, the rain gave her cold, the cold made her shiver, and the sun spoiled her skin. Bertha's world could have been easily arranged within the precincts of a handsome modern house, and the daily walk, which the Colonel compelled her to take for her health's sake, was one of those things she was resolved to put a stop to — as soon as she was married.

Mrs. Rodney had much the same tastes as her daughter Bertha, though in her case they were the result of circumstances. Her life in India did not admit of much out-door exercise, and the sedentary habit once formed was not to be broken. She thought the weather in Scotland just as home-compelling, and then, she had grown old and a little stout ; movement tired her, and the house did not get on well if she was out of it.

Naturally, then, Bertha became her companion, and many things made her a very sympathetic one. Bertha's neatness, her love of order, her dainty per sonal predelictions, were all reproductions of the same qualities in herself. If there was any employment Scotia hated, it was needlework ; but Bertha could dawdle a month away embroidering her crest upon her handkerchief. And as she sat sewing by her mother's side, they talked together of the subjects so interesting to such women — their callers and their servants, their little grievances and their new dresses.

Scotia's tastes had been derived from her father, but he was not able to give her the same sympathy. His health was frail ; he was a late riser ; it was always afternoon or evening before he felt able to take his regular walk, and this was the only effort he made. But he liked to talk with Scotia of all she saw in her solitary rambles ; and was often able to supplement her investigations by his own early experience.

Families are often thus sharply divided, especially if their number be small. And at first in the Rodney family the mischief of it was not apparent. It began when Scotia was scarce sixteen, and when the Colonel went out a great deal. Then his demands for the companionship of his daughters were frequently felt by Bertha to be a trial and a grievance, and she ap plied herself diligently to the consideration of some plan for escaping these frequent walks. She had headaches ; she had her music to practice ; her mother needed her help. She took pains to concili ate Scotia, and to engage her to assume the' duty as her own, so that by the mere iteration of events, Scotia gradually became the constant companion of her father.

Scotia was not loth to accept the position. They walked, and sailed, and rode together ; and when stormy weather compelled them to keep the house, the Colonel busied his eldest daughter in revising his military diary, and in answering his letters. The par tial isolation which these literary duties demanded was not at first disagreeable to Mrs. Rodney and Bertha. But as the years went on and the Colonel's health failed, and the girls grew to womanhood, then this close companionship fretted their mother. The estate was entirely at the Colonel's disposal. He could give it all to Scotia if he desired, and though it was understood that in the matter of Blair Rodney, both the young man and the girls were to have the utmost freedom of choice, Mrs. Rodney felt sure that her hus band's influence would almost unconsciously be in favor of a marriage between Scotia and the next natu ral heir to Rodney Law.

She knew also that the Colonel would not break the estate. She had hinted at this possibility, and had been met by the most positive assertion that he had no moral right to do so. " One of the girls must marry Blair, and keep the estate intact," he said.

20 A SIS TEX TO ESAU,

" But suppose neither of the girls will marry Blair, or suppose that Blair has no disposition to marry either of the girls ? Both conditions are supposable, Kinross."

" Of course they are, Dorinda."

"Well, then?"

" It is supposable, also, that the girls will marry some one, if they neither of them marry our cousin."

" They are beautiful ; one will be rich. They are sure to marry."

" Then we will choose the son-in-law of the best family, and give him our name."

" He may refuse to take it."

" Then the other one."

" He also may refuse. There are men who will not part with their family name for either love or gold. Would you ? Divide the estate between your daughters. Why should you care for men you never saw ? Has not Providence, by denying you sons, de creed that your family should die out."

" Dorinda, why should my late cousin James Rod ney have cared for me ? He had never seen me. He was friendly with the Blairs, and also with Blair Rod ney's father. Yet he respected my prior claim, and rendered me the fullest justice. Shall I be less honora ble to my posterity ? And Providence has not de creed the extinction of my family. I have third, fourth, and fifth cousins. I must wrong none of them."

The expected visit of Blair Rodney was then a very important affair. The Colonel was secretly desirous that Scotia should marry the young man, and so in herit aftei him. Mrs. Rodney was determined that Bertha should be the mistress of Rodney Law. Both were reckoning without any adequate knowledge of their quantities. Nothing could be predicted of the coming suitor, for nothing particular was known of him. Under the circumstances, Scotia and Bertha were equally uncertain. The Colonel assured his wife that he had left all to that ordinating power which controls every human life ; yet twenty times a day he checked himself, for wondering how far his express command, or even his wish, would influence Scotia. Mrs. Rodney was certain that her daughters' husbands were chosen from all eternity, yet she talked continually to Bertha about Blair Rodney, and urged her to secure his affections as the only means of secur ing her future wealth and position.

Nor did she think herself specially unkind in this partisanship. She believed that Scotia's beauty might well stand for her fortune. Bertha was far less at tractive to the general eye, and as one of them must be rich, and the other arrive at riches and position through a fortunate marriage, it seemed to Mrs. Rod ney, Scotia was best equipped by nature to win what she did not inherit. She reminded Bertha that luxury was a necessity to her ; and that she was totally unfit to endure privation of any kind. On the contrary, Scotia was indifferent to physical discomfort ; she was careless of money and unappreciative of social honor. How easy, then, it would be for Scotia to de scend a little in rank, all her tastes being of so un fashionable a kind !

It was while affairs were in this condition the Colo nel had the writing on the Stone Pillar renewed. The crisis of his daughters' lives drew near, and he counted upon everything likely to intensify their family pride, and the clannish affection which would be its legitimate outcome. He himself had been greatly moved by the ancient record, and he supposed Scotia and Bertha shared his emotion. In a large measure, Scotia did so ; Bertha lacked the sentiment of rever ence, and to her the old Stone was an old stone, and nothing more. Very soon, however, it became some thing definitely disagreeable, for the Colonel made it the terminus of his daily walk, and Bertha grew weary to death of the monotony of the road ; of the reiter ated enthusiasm ; of being compelled to endorse senti ments she did not feel.

As the spring advanced, the expected visit of Blair Rodney began to assume a definite aspect. He was in correspondence with the Colonel, and he asserted his delight in the prospect. But when the Colonel fixed a certain day for his arrival, the young man found an indisputable excuse, — " He preferred not to be bound by any date. He would much rather give them a surprise."

This reply did not please Colonel Rodney. He un derstood from it far more of Blair Rodney than Blair expressed.

" The fellow must have an amazing self-compla cency, Dorinda," was his comment on the letter ; for he felt the pettiness of that nature which supposes, in its measureless conceit, that the " surprise " of its arrival must necessarily be delightful.

Scotia evidently held the same opinion. " My cousin is preparing an overwhelming pleasure ; he is going to give us a 'surprise ' visit. We have been on the watchtovver for a week," she said to the minister, as she was sauntering with him one evening be tween the manse and Rodney House. The Colonel was with them, but he was a little behind, having been detained by his steward about some farm matter.

They stood still as she spoke, and Angus Bruce looked steadily at Scotia. Her irresistible beauty made his heart thrill and tremble with delight. She stood in the rays of the setting sun and her hair was a glory around her. Rosy emanations appeared to come from her radiant face. Her green cloth dress, the pink kerchief round her throat, the white daisies in her hand, the little gypsy bonnet of rough straw tied under her white, resolute chin, were all indivisible parts of an exquisite womanly picture.

"Miss Rodney !"

The two words were two volumes. They were words with a soul in them. They forced open the minister's usually firm lips, and they quivered with the heat and passion that had enabled them to break that well-guarded barrier.

And common as the words were, Scotia understood their meaning. She looked into the face of Angus Bruce, and she was dumb. But he saw the soul leap into her eyes, and his soul saluted it then and there. Her red lips parted, she was going to speak, and at the same moment the Colonel laid his hand upon her shoulder, and stepped between them. Whether the movement was accidental or intentional Scotia could not determine. But it brought with it a chill restraint. Neither Bruce nor Scotia could speak, and the Colo nel's words seemed to be very far away from the two full hearts, that affected to listen to them.

At the door the minister stood still ; he would go no further, and in spite of an exaggerated civility on the Colonel's part, he declined his invitation to supper. Scotia stood motionless and speechless. She tried to catch the minister's glance once more, but he did not permit her ; and she felt an inexpressible sinking of her heart, as he turned away without any sign of their momentary understanding.

With a grumble of disappointment the Colonel passed into the house ; but Scotia lingered until she saw the lonely figure disappear among the somber shadows of the garden. Then her hands dropped to her side, and the daisies were scattered at her feet. She stooped to gather them, for she heard Bertha's step, and she was glad to find in the act an excuse, not only for her loitering, but for an attitude which per mitted her to look upon the ground instead of in her sister's face.

" Was Angus Bruce walking with you to-night, Scotia ? "

"Yes. He would not come in. Father pressed him to do so, but he would not come in."

"It is a strange thing that we never meet him when I walk with you. One might suppose that father wished to make a marriage between you and the minister."

" One might suppose any number of absurd things. Supposition is not circumstance."

" What are you picking up ? Daisies ? Did Angus Bruce give them to you ? "

" I am sure he did."

" I gathered them myself, at the foot of the Stone Pillar."

" I do not believe you ! " Bertha spoke with a con temptuous passion, and Scotia stood straight and looked at her.

" Is it worth your while to be jealous, Bertha ? "

The words were aggravating. Scotia was sorry as soon as they were uttered, sorry and ashamed. But Bertha gave her no opportunity of modifying them. She flung back the one word "jealous"; and with a white face, left Scotia standing at the open door, with the re-gathered daisies in her hand.

Those who know what it is to touch, without grasp ing, may comprehend the sickness of disappointment which depressed Scotia, and which made her momen tarily thoughtless and unkind. For Bertha's words at that hour were specially bitter, because Angus Bruce had spoken, and then instantly been as one who had not spoken. She knew, also, that she had answered him ; and she was humiliated, because he had not accepted her answer. ,

" I will never give him such an opportunity to wound me again." She promised her heart this sat isfaction, but it refused to find any comfort in the retaliation. And then, not unnaturally, the personal irritation became more general, and she felt that all the world was out of touch and sympathy with her.

Colonel Rodney was eating his brose and butter when she went to the parlor, and an open letter was by his side. She took her place at the table with a shrug, and a meaning glance at the untidy epistle. The writing was large and blotted, and it had been closed with a sprawling seal of red wax.

" Another of Cousin Blair's impertinent apologies, I suppose ; " she said.

" Why impertinent, Scotia ? "

" If you do not see it so, dear mother, then of course I misunderstand the situation."

" Blair Rodney is not Angus Bruce ; " said Bertha very sweetly. " The minister has nothing to do but run after the Laird. Blair is a gentleman with an es tate to manage."

" There is no comparison between the men, Bertha."

" That is precisely what I was saying, Scotia."

" The minister will have a large enough question to answer soon ; " said the Colonel. " From Shetland to Galloway, Scotland is at fever heat anent the affairs of her kirk. And the Queen and the Parliament are even-down Gallios ; they care for none of these things."

A spirit of contradiction took instant possession of Scotia. She was delighted to include the whole kirk in the one special minister who had wounded her that night ; and she answered with a petulent pity :

" Poor Gallic ! If I had an enemy, I would like to make him a scripture character, and have him preached about from countless pulpits, generation after generation ; more particularly, if a fault was attributed to him impossible in the state of society in which he lived."

Bertha looked at her sister, and then at her mother, and Mrs. Rodney said :

" Scotia my dear, you are in a bad temper. You are cutting your mutton as if you were cutting some one's head off. Is it the minister you are mentally punish ing, or is it Blair Rodney ? He is disappointing, but he will be here very soon now."

" I hope Blair Rodney may never show his face in this house."

" My dear, the house is your father's house."

" God be thanked for that mercy ! "

" And as for Gallio, he was a despiser of true re ligion ; and your father is not to be opposed in

WORDS HALF SPOKE iV. 27

using him as a symbol of a wickedly careless govern ment."

" Pardon, mother ! I think we do Gallic great injus tice. He was really nothing worse than a good magis trate, who refused to take any interest in a theological fight."

" Scotia ! "

" Father, I appeal to you. The Jews took the Christians to the court of Gallic, and charged them with not worshiping God according to their law — that is, as they worshiped him. The Proconsul Gallic was a pagan ; he knew nothing about the tenets of Christianity, nor yet of Judaism. He felt very much as you would feel, father, if you were called upon to decide a quarrel between Antinomians and Separatists, or Buchanists and Brownists. I dare say you would not care, either."

She had laid down the offending knife and fork, and she spoke with a nervous amount of temper she very rarely exhibited. Mrs. Rodney was astonished and curious. She understood that the old Roman was a mere pretense, and that Scotia's flushed cheeks and eyes, shining with restrained tears, were the evidences of an annoyance far more personal than Gallio's court or the Scottish kirk. She glanced at Bertha, and Bertha sighed, cast down her eyes, and then lifting them, gazed pointedly out of a certain window. Mrs. Rodney understood her. Angus Bruce, then, was a factor in the trouble, but in what respect she could not guess. However, her suspicions were excited, and she continued :

" I think you are sick, Scotia. You have fever; that is to be seen, very plainly. I will give you some medi cine before you go to bed."

28 A SIS7'EX TO ESAU.

" No ! I am not sick, mother ; though it is a kind of sickness to have the whim of telling the truth. You once said so, father."

" Yes, my dear ; but I meant about worldly things. It is a pity I spoke of Gallio ; but he is the natural example in cases of religious carelessness."

" I know he is ; and perhaps it is as well not to ob ject. If men and women are to be misrepresented and made examples of in the pulpit, it is better that Greeks and Romans should be the victims. They are dead, and perhaps they won't mind — also, they cannot talk back."

The Colonel looked at his Dorinda inquisitively. A smile was in his eyes, though his lips were drawn tightly together. " There is mair in the atmosphere than its ain proper elements ; as Adam Gowrie would say. Now girls, what is it ? "

" Nothing," said Scotia promptly.

" Nothing," said Bertha, with an air of innocence.

" Nothing that I am familiar with ; " said Mrs. Rod ney doubtfully.

" Then Scotia, my child, if you feel cross, attack your neighbors ; that will be fair play, for I'll be bound you will only be paying back scores. Leave religion alone — and the Holy Bible."

" The Holy Bible says nothing of religion. It talks of God, not of religion. It tells us to be godly, not religious. As for us, we think far more of our own souls than we do of God."

" What is the difference, Scotia ? "

" Just the difference of thinking of yourself, and of forgetting self — the difference between the fear of hell and the love of God."

" Ring the bell, and let us have the Exercise ; " said the Colonel sternly. He rose hastily from the table, and went to the reading desk, and began to turn with an affectionate reverence the leaves of The Book. And the men and maids came heavily in, and the psalm was sung. Then the Colonel passed over the regular portion, and selected the i8th chapter of Acts, and Scotia's face burned and she quivered with angry feel ing, when she was compelled in her turn to read the i5th verse. But she was not convinced. On the con trary, the Roman Proconsul became at that hour one of her friends ; even on her knees she was inclined to defend him.

And her heart was wounded by this public defec tion of her father. In all family troubles and disputes he was generally on her side ; why had he forsaken her this night ? Was he suspicious of the tender feel ing between Angus Bruce and herself ? If so, he ought to have understood her suffering and her irri tability, and given her sympathy. And so the calm, holy tones of her father praying, did not comfort or soothe her. She thought he had been unkind. And oh ! the behavior of Angus was strange and unkind enough.

But afterward, when he bade her " good-night," when he drew her wkhin his arm, and held her close to his heart, when his full eyes sought hers, and he kissed her twice, she went out of the room with a smile ; with her head lifted, and her soul full of comfort.

III. Blair Rodney Arrives

" I marked all kindred powers the heart finds fair : —

Truth with awed lips ; and Hope, with eyes upcast;

And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen Past To signal fires : Love's throne was not with these ; but far above

All passionate wind of welcome and farewell ; He sat in breathless bowers they dream not of ;

Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, and Hope foretell ;

And Fame be for Love's sake desirable." — Rosetti.

T3LAIR RODNEY came the next morning. His •^ letter of the preceding evening had put aside immediate expectation, he had been forgotten except by Bertha, and the surprise he had pleased himself with arranging appeared to be complete. The Colonel was in his morning sleep ; Mrs. Rodney was with her housekeeper; Scotia had gone to Kirk-Logie. Only Bertha was prepared to receive him. For the vague letter had not deceived her. The smallness of her own mind enabled her to anticipate and follow such petty maneuvers.

Just before noon-hour, the young man came ; and he was not disappointed in the sensation his arrival caused. The exclamations, the hurrying hospitality, the welcomes, and the apologies which attend unexpected arrivals, he had them all. And Bertha added her little pinch to the incense burned in his honor, though she was wondering all the time what pleasure he found in the temporary excitement, to compensate him for the writing of unnecessary letters, and a whole night in the small tavern in Rodney village.

Her own plan before a visit was to have everything well understood. She liked servants and a carriage Waiting her arrival ; and she preferred stepping out of it into a household full of pleasant anticipations of her visit. Improvised meals, hurriedly prepared rooms, and plans already formed, without reference to her presence and pleasure, did not do her justice.

But then her cousin was a man, and men — as women of all ages have found out — are sometimes queer. As he was eating his breakfast, she sat demurely busy with her needle, watching him. He was talking to his hostess, and therefore Bertha had plenty of oppor tunity to make a transient appraisement of his quali ties. She found him good-looking enough. Thought ful people might have said that his head was too small, but then he was remarkably tall and sinewy ; and it was likely that the tales they had heard of his leaping and running, his walking and golf-playing, were correct. He looked precisely like an athlete, who could march up to a five-barred gate, put his hand on the topmost rail, and vault lightly over it. This was said to be an ordinary feat of Blair Rodney, and Bertha felt that she would like to see him perform it.

Scotia had supposed that his talk would be of bul locks and sheep, and agricultural games and fairs. On the contrary, he talked only of family and kirk matters. After the first questions and answers on subjects relating entirely to the Rodneys, Blair plunged enthusiastically into the controversy between the Kirk and the State. He did not seem to care for

32 ^ LISTER TO ESAU.

any other subject, but on this one he was bigoted and passionate and intolerant of all who were not as one sided as himself.

" How is your minister on the question ? " had been one of his first inquiries. And when he was told that Angus Bruce had as yet taken no decided part, his scorn for such a position was measureless. " If ever the Kirk needed her sons to stand by her, it was at the present hour ! He, for one, would never desert her ! All he had was hers, etc., etc."

In the middle of such a confession of faith, Angus Bruce entered, and the Colonel came in with him. A lull in the theological discussion followed, but Bertha saw that Blair Rodney was impatient to renew his favorite argument, and with a pretty modesty, she said :

" My cousin was explaining to us, father, the posi tion of the State as regards the Kirk. He has made me feel as if the Kirk was very unreasonable."

" I mean to say, sir, that the decrees of the great courts of the kingdom are not to be set aside by a presbytery or two. The laws must be obeyed, even by clergymen ! "

He looked defiantly at Angus Bruce, and Angus answered :

" This is not the age of Nebuchadnezzar, Mr. Rodney. He might indeed send forth his couriers to the one hundred and twenty provinces of his empire, all bearing precisely the same ecclesiastical edict — but Her Majesty Victoria has no such power."

" She is the lawful head of the Church."

" I say nothing of the English Church. The Scotch Kirk can have no head, nor any superior in things spiritual but her Lord, Jesus Christ."

•• I am with you on that point, Mr. Bruce ; " said the Colonel, and he spoke with a decision that could not be gainsayed — " but the Kirk of Scotland is beyond our guiding ; and as for Victoria, I am her ever faithful servant ! Dr. Chalmers "

" Dr. Chalmers," interrupted Blair, with some pas sion — " Dr. Chalmers would fly in the face of Provi dence, or any other creature who did not think his thoughts, and say ' Amen ! ' to his prelections."

" I think, Blair, that Dr. Chalmers has a great com mission."

" And he rides on the very top of it, sir."

" So he should, so he should ! You must know, Blair, that passive obedience is for the army. It is a doctrine the Presbyterian Kirk could never abide."