"Yes, sir, if you please, sir," said Hamish; but he did not understand; and he stood.
The man looked at him; called for some one: a young lad came, and to him was given the letter.
"You may wait here, then," said he to Hamish; "but I think rehearsal is over, and Miss White has most likely gone home."
The man went into the box-office again; Hamish was left alone there, in the great empty vestibule. The Piccadilly Theatre had seldom seen within its walls a more picturesque figure than this old Highlandman, who stood there with his sailor"s cap in his hand, and with a keen excitement in the proud and fine face. There was a watchfulness in the gray eyes like the watchfulness of an eagle. If he twisted his cap rather nervously, and if his heart beat quick, it was not from fear.
Now, when the letter was brought to Miss White, she was standing in one of the wings, laughing and chatting with the stage manager. The laugh went from her face. She grew quite pale.
"Oh, Mr. Cartwright," said she, "do you think I could go down to Erith and be back before six in the evening?"
"Oh yes, why not?" said he carelessly.
But she scarcely heard him. She was still staring at that sheet of paper, with its piteous cry of the sick man. Only to see her once more--to shake hands in token of forgiveness--to say good-by for the last time: what woman with the heart of a woman could resist this despairing prayer?
"Where is the man who brought this letter?" said she.
"In front, miss," said the young lad, "by the box-office."
Very quickly she made her way along the gloomy and empty corridors, and there in the twilit hall she found the gray-haired old sailor, with his cap held humbly in his hands. "Oh, Hamish," said she, "is Sir Keith so very ill?"
"Is it ill, mem?" said Hamish; and quick tears sprang to the old man"s eyes. "He iss more ill than you can think of, mem; it iss another man that he iss now. Ay, ay, who would know him to be Sir Keith Macleod?"
"He wants me to go and see him; and I suppose I have no time to go home first--"
"Here is the list of the trains, mem," said Hamish, eagerly, producing a certain card. "And it iss me and Colin Laing, that"s my cousin, mem; and we hef a cab outside; and will you go to the station? Oh, you will not know Sir Keith, mem; there iss no one at all would know my master now."
"Come along, then, Hamish," said she, quickly. "Oh, but he cannot be so ill as that. And the long sea-voyage will pull him round, don"t you think?"
"Ay, ay, mem," said Hamish; but he was paying little heed. He called up the cab, and Miss White stepped inside, and he and Colin Laing got on the box.
"Tell him to go quickly," she said to Hamish, "for I must have something instead of luncheon if we have a minute at the station."
And Miss White, as the cab rolled away, felt pleased with herself. It was a brave act.
"It is the least I can do for the sake of my bonny Glenogie," she was saying to herself, quite cheerfully. "And if Mr. Lemuel were to hear of it? Well, he must know that I mean to be mistress of my own conduct. And so the poor Glenogie is really ill. I can do no harm in parting good friends with him. Some men would have made a fuss."
At the station they had ten minutes to wait; and Miss White was able to get the slight refreshment she desired. And although Hamish would fain have kept out of her way--for it was not becoming in a rude sailor to be seen speaking to so fine a lady--she would not allow that.
"And where are you going, Hamish, when you leave the Thames?" she asked, smoothing the fingers of the glove she had just put on again.
"I do not know that, mem," said he.
"I hope Sir Keith won"t go to Torquay or any of those languid places.
You will go to the Mediterranean, I suppose?"
"Maybe that will be the place, mem," said Hamish.
"Or the Isle of Wight, perhaps," said she, carelessly.
"Ay, ay, mem--the Isle of Wight--that will be a ferry good place, now.
There wa.s.s a man I wa.s.s seeing once in Tobbermorry, and he wa.s.s telling me about the castle that the Queen herself will hef on that island. And Mr. Ross, the Queen"s piper, he will be living there too."
But, of course, they had to part company when the train came up; and Hamish and Colin Laing got into a third-cla.s.s carriage together. The cousin from Greenock had been hanging rather in the background; but he had kept his ears open.
"Now, Hamish," said he, in the tongue in which they could both speak freely enough, "I will tell you something; and do not think I am an ignorant man, for I know what is going on. Oh yes. And it is a great danger you are running into."
"What do you mean, Colin?" said Hamish; but he would look out of the window.
"When a gentleman goes away in a yacht, does he take an old woman like Christina with him? Oh no; I think not. It is not a customary thing.
And the ladies" cabin; the ladies" cabin is kept very smart, Hamish. And I think I know who is to have the ladies" cabin?"
"Then you are very clever, Colin," said Hamish, contemptously. "But it is too clever you are. You think it strange that the young English lady should take that cabin. I will tell you this--that it is not the first time nor the second time that the young English lady has gone for a voyage in the _Umpire_, and in that very cabin too. And I will tell you this, Colin; that it is this very year she had that cabin; and was in Loch Tua, and Loch-na-Keal, and Loch Scridain, and Calgary Bay. And as for Christina--oh, it is much you know about fine ladies in Greenock! I tell you that an English lady cannot go anywhere without someone to attend to her."
"Hamish, do not try to make a fool of me," said Laing angrily. "Do you think a lady would go travelling without any luggage? And she does not know where the _Umpire_ is going!"
"Do you know?"
"No."
"Very well, then. It is Sir Keith Macleod who is the master when he is on board the _Umpire_, and where he wants to go the others have to go."
"Oh, do you think that? And do you speak like that to a man who can pay eighty-five pounds a year of rent?"
"No, I do not forget that it is a kindness to me that you are doing, Colin; and to Sir Keith Macleod, too; and he will not forget it. But as for this young lady, or that young lady, what has that to do with it?
You know what the bell of Sc.o.o.n said, "_That which concerns you not, meddle not with._""
"I shall be glad when I am back in Greenock," said Colin Laing, moodily.
But was not this a fine, fair scene that Miss Gertrude White saw around her when they came in sight of the river and Erith pier?--the flashes of blue on the water, the white-sailed yachts, the russet-sailed barges, and the sunshine shining all along the thin line of the Ess.e.x sh.o.r.e. The moment she set foot on the pier she recognized the _Umpire_ lying out there, the great white mainsail and jib idly flapping in the summer breeze: but there was no one on deck. And she was not afraid at all; for had he not written in so kindly a fashion to her; and was she not doing much for his sake too?
"Will the shock be great?" she was thinking to herself. "I hope my bonnie Glenogie is not so ill as that; for he always looked like a man.
And it is so much better that we should part good friends."
She turned to Hamish.
"There is no one on the deck of the yacht, Hamish," said she.
"No, mem," said he, "the men will be at the end of the pier, mem, in the boat, if you please, mem."
"Then you took it for granted I should come back with you?" said she, with a pleasant smile.
"I wa.s.s thinking you would come to see Sir Keith, mem," said Hamish, gravely. His manner was very respectful to the fine English lady; but there was not much of friendliness in his look.
She followed Hamish down the rude wooden steps at the end of the pier; and there they found the dingy awaiting them, with two men in her.
Hamish was very careful of Miss White"s dress as she got into the stern of the boat; then he and Colin Laing got into the bow; and the men half paddled and half floated her along to the _Umpire_--the tide having begun to ebb.
And it was with much ceremony, too, that Hamish a.s.sisted Miss White to get on board by the little gangway; and for a second or two she stood on deck and looked around her while the men were securing the dingy. The idlers lounging on Erith pier must have considered that this was an additional feature of interest in the summer picture--the figure of this pretty young lady standing there on the white decks and looking around her with a pleased curiosity. It was some little time since she had been on board the _Umpire_.