"I have something to say to father," answered Neil, "about the Government, and so----"
"Oh, the Government!" cried Madame, as she stood with her lighted candle in her hand at the open door; "dinna call it a government, Neil; call it a blunderment, or a plunderment, if you like, but the other name is out o" all befitting."
"Mother, wait a moment," said Neil. "You were saying that Maria would want to be taken to dances; I got an invitation to-day. What do you say to this for an introduction?" As he spoke he took out of his pocket a gilt-edged note tied with transverse bands of gold braid and narrow red ribbon. Madame watched him impatiently as he carefully and deliberately untied the bows, and his air of reverential regard put her in a little temper.
"Cut the strings and be done wi" it, Neil," she said crossly. "There is nae invite in the world worth such a to-do as you are making. And dinna forget, my lad, that you once nearly threw your life awa" for a bit o"
orange ribbon! Maybe the red is just as dangerous."
Then Neil took the red ribbon between his finger and thumb, and dropping it into the fire looked at his mother with the denial in his face. "It is from Mrs. Percival," he said; and she nodded her understanding, but could not help giving him a last word ere she closed the door:
"If you hae a fancy for ribbons, Neil, tak" my advice, and get a blue one; a" the good men in the country are wearing blue."
CHAPTER II.
THE FAIR AND THE BRAVE.
At breakfast next morning the conversation turned naturally upon the arrival of Maria Semple. The Elder showed far the most enthusiasm concerning it. He wondered, and calculated, and supposed, till he felt he had become tiresome and exhausted sympathy, and then he subsided into that painful att.i.tude of disappointment and resignation, which is, alas, too often the experience of the aged? His companions were not in sympathy with him. Madame was telling herself she must not expect too much. Once she had set her heart upon a beautiful girl who was to become Neil"s wife, and her love had been torn up by the roots: "maist women carry a cup of sorrow for some one to drink," she thought, "and I"m feared for them." As for Neil, he felt sure the girl was going to be a tie and a bore, and he considered his brother exceedingly selfish in throwing the care of his daughter upon his aged parents.
It was not a pleasant meal, but in good hearts depression and doubt find no abiding place. When Neil had gone to his affairs, the Elder looked at his wife, and she gave him his pipe with a smile, and talked to him about Maria as she put away her china. And she had hardly turned the key of the gla.s.s closet, when the knocker of the front door fell twice--two strokes, clear, separate, distinct. The Elder rose quickly and with much excitement. "That is Bradley"s knock," he said; "I never heard it before, but it is just the way he would call any one."
He was going out of the room as he spoke, and Madame joined him. When they entered the hall the front door was open, and a short, stout man was standing on the threshold, holding a young girl by the hand. He delivered her to the Elder very much as he would have delivered a valuable package intrusted to his care, and then, as they stood a few moments in conversation, Maria darted forward, and with a little cry of joy nestled her head on her grandmother"s breast. The confiding love of the action was irresistible. "You darling!" whispered the old lady with a kiss; "let me look at you!" And she put her at arm"s length, and gazed at the pretty, dark face with its fine color, and fine eyes, charmingly set off by the scarlet hood of her traveling cloak.
"What do you think o" your granddaughter, Elder?" she asked, when he joined them, and her voice was trembling with love and pride.
"I think she is yoursel" o"er again; the vera same bonnie Janet Gordon I woo"d and loved in Strathallen nearly fifty years syne. Come and gie me twenty kisses, bairnie. You are a vera cordial o" gladness to our hearts."
Madame had swithered in her own mind before the arrival of Maria about the room she was to occupy--the little one in the wing, furnished in rush and checked blue and white linen; or the fine guest room over the best parlor. A few moments with her grandchild had decided her. "She shall hae the best we have," she concluded. "What for would I gie it to my cousin Gordon"s wife, and lock my ain flesh and blood out o" it?" So she took Maria to her best guest chamber, and when the girl stood in the center of it and looked round with an exclamation of delight, she was well rewarded.
"This is the finest room I ever saw," said Maria. "I love splendid rooms, and mahogany makes any place handsome. And the looking gla.s.ses! O grandmother, I can see myself from top to toe!" and she flung aside her cloak, and surveyed her little figure in its brown camblet dress and long white stomacher, with great satisfaction.
"And where are your clothes, Maria?" asked Madame.
"I brought a small trunk with me, and Mr. Bradley will send it here this morning; the rest of my trunks were sent with Captain De Vries. I dare say they will be here soon."
"They are here already, De Vries arrived yesterday, but the rest o" your trunks, how many more have you, la.s.sie?"
"Three large, and one little one. Father told me I was to get everything I wanted, and I wanted so many things. I got them all, grandmother--beautiful dresses, and mantillas, and pelerines; and dozens of pretty underwear. I have had four women sewing for me ever since last Christmas."
"But the expense o" it, Maria!"
"Mrs. Charlton said I had simply received the proper outfit for a young lady entering society."
"But whatever did your father say?"
"He whistled very softly. There are many ways of whistling, grandmother, and my father"s whistle was his form of saying he was astonished."
"I hae no doubt he was astonished."
"I had to have summer and winter dresses, and ball dresses, and home dresses, and street dresses; and all the little things which Mrs.
Charlton says are the great things. Father is very generous to me, and he has ordered Lambert and Co. to send me thirty pounds every month. He told me that food and wood and every necessity of life was very dear in New York, and that if I was a good girl I would do my full share in bearing the burden of life."
This was her pretty way of making it understood that she was to pay liberally for her board, and then, with a kiss, she added, "let us go downstairs. I want to see all the house, grandmother. It is like home, and I have had so little home. All my life nearly has been spent at school. Now I am come home."
They went down hand in hand, and found the Elder walking about in an excited manner. "I think I shall bide awa" from business to-day," he said; "I dinna feel like it. It isna every day a man gets a granddaughter."
_"Tuts!_ Nonsense, Alexander! Go your ways to the store, then you can talk to your acquaintance o" your good fortune. Maria and I will hae boxes to unpack, and clothes to put away; and you might as weel call at De Vries, and tell him to get Miss Semple"s trunks here without sauntering about them. Batavius is a slow creature. And Neil must hae the news also, so just be going as quick as you can, Alexander."
He was disappointed; he had hoped that Maria would beg him to stay at home, but he put on his long coat with affected cheerfulness, and with many little delays finally took the road. Then the two women went through the house together, and by that time Bradley had sent the small trunk, and they unpacked it, and talked about the goods, and about a variety of subjects that sprang naturally from the occupation.
All at once Madame remembered to ask Maria where she had spent the previous night, and the girl answered, "I slept at the Bradley"s. It was quite twilight when we reached their house, and Mr. Bradley said this road was beset by thieves and bad people after dark, and he also thought you retired early and would not care to be disturbed."
"Vera considerate o" Mr. Bradley, I am sure; perhaps mair so than necessary. Maria, my dear, I hope you are not very friendly wi" his daughter."
"Not friendly with Agnes Bradley! Why, grandmother, I could not be happy without her! She has been my good angel for three years. When she came to Mrs. Charlton"s I had no friends, for I had such a bad temper the girls called me "Spitfire" and "Vixen" and such names, and I was proud of it. Agnes has made me gentle and wishful to do right. Agnes is as nearly an angel as a woman can be."
"Fair nonsense, Maria! And I never was fond o" angelic women, they dinna belong to this world; and your grandfather dislikes John Bradley, he will not allow any friendship between you and Agnes Bradley. That is sure and certain."
"What has Mr. Bradley done wrong to grandfather?"
"Naething; naething at all! He just does not like him."
"I shall have to explain things to grandfather. He ought not to take dislikes to people without reason."
"There"s no one can explain things to your grandfather that he does not want to understand. I know naething o" John Bradley, except that he is a Methodist, and that kind o" people are held in scorn."
"I think we can use up all our scorn on the Whigs, grandmother, and let the Methodists alone. Mr. Bradley is a Tory, and trusted and employed by the Government, and I am sure he preached a beautiful sermon last Sunday at Stamford."
"Your grandfather said he would preach at Stamford."
"He preached on the green outside the town. There were hundreds to listen to him. Agnes led the singing."
"Maria Semple! You don"t mean to tell me you were at a field preaching!"
"It was a good preaching and----"
"The man is a saddle-maker! I hae seen him working, day in and day out, in his leather ap.r.o.n."
"St. Paul was a tent-maker; he made a boast of it, and as he was a sensible man, I have no doubt he wore an ap.r.o.n. He would not want to spoil his toga."
_"Hush! Hush!_ You must not speak o" Saint Paul in that tempered and common way. The Apostles belong to the Kirk. Your father was brought up a good Presbyterian."
"Dear grandmother, I am the strictest kind of Presbyterian. I really went to hear Agnes. If you had seen her standing by her father"s side on that green hill and heard her sing:
"Israel, what hast thou to dread?