She laughed aloud in the joy of it; then, rolling over again, struck out for the opposite sh.o.r.e. Higher up the estuary there was a little sheltered bay whence she could watch the panorama of dawn. When she drew herself out of the water on to a convenient rock the air struck warm, and the stone beneath her had scarce lost yester-sun"s heat. It would be a perfect day--if anything over hot, for a faint opalescence already lay on sea and sky.
As she sat waiting for the first rays of the sun to "skim the sea with flying feet of gold," she unplaited her russet hair, which had become loosened, and, combing out its long length with her fingers, prepared to plait it up again.
Suddenly a voice startled her.
"A beauteous mermaid, by Jove! Fair lady----"
The theatrical intonation did not deceive her. She slipped like any seal into the water, and so protected looked back to see Marmaduke Muir. He was still in his over-night"s dress-clothes, but their utter disarray made them more consonant with his occupation, for he held a salmon-rod in his hand, a creel had unfastened his ruffled shirt at the neck, and he had evidently torn off his stiff stock for more ease, and kicked away his pumps for firmer foothold on the rocks. His face showed no sign of last night"s carouse, and Marrion, looking at it, could not but confess that some sins leave no mark on a man. Ere she could utter a word, his surprise found speech.
"Why, Marmie!" Then in a half-awed tone he added: "What beautiful hair you"ve got, my dear!"
"Aye," she replied imperturbably, feigning perfect calm, "it"s fine!
Folk is aye tellin" me o" "t. The hairdresser in Edinbro" was offering me a lot for it."
He sat down on the rocks above where she lay swaying with the long roll of the distant waves outside the bar, her hands holding to the seaweed.
"Goth and Vandal! But you didn"t let him have it. Wise Marmie, but then you always were wisdom itself! I remember----"
He was becoming vaguely sentimental, so she brought him back to earth with a round turn.
"You"ll no have been gettin" any fish the morn?" she queried.
"No fish!" he echoed loftily. "What do you call that?"
He pulled out of his creel a seven-inch burnie and laid it with pomp on the rocks. Then their young laughter echoed out into the dawn.
"But I got a hold on another," he went on, keen as a boy. "A real good one--as big as any I ever got in the castle pool--perhaps bigger. You see they were talking of the fishing yesterday and they all said it was no good. Not enough water. So I didn"t intend to try; but--well, you see, my dear, I got drunk last night--I did--and I woke up about half an hour ago with a beastly headache. So then I thought I"d go out and see if the fish weren"t moving, and as they"d put me to bed in my clothes--I must have been horrid drunk, and Andrew, you see, was away with his people--I just took one of Peter"s rods and ferried myself over in the boat. It"s up yonder. I"ll take you back in it, if you like."
The idea was preposterous. Marrion imagined herself arriving at the castle, where the servants were ever early astir, in her bathing dress with the Captain! So she hastily drew a red herring across the trail.
"And was the fish real big, Captain Duke?" she asked.
"Big! I tell you it was the biggest I, or, for the matter of that, anyone else ever caught in the castle pool."
"Fish are aye big when they are in the water, I"m thinking," she cast back at him, as, loosing her seaweed hold, she struck out.
He sprang up.
"You"re not going to try and cross now!" he cried, pointing to where in mid-stream a wide oily streak told that tide and river were flowing out fast. "The ebb is at its strongest. Marmie, don"t be a fool!"
She gave a quick glance forward, then looked back to smile farewell.
"Aye, it"s strong, but I"ve done it before now. There"s no fear for me, Captain Duke."
So saying she turned her head upstream, seeing indeed that she would have to be careful not to be swept past her bearings when she got to mid-channel; so she did not see Marmaduke tear off his creel, his coat, and waistcoat, and, in thin ruffled shirt and kersey breeches, launch himself into the water. But his tremendous underwater strokes soon brought him up almost beside her to shake his curly head like a retriever. She looked at him startled and quickened her strokes, whereupon he changed to overhand and ranged up beside her without effort.
"Where did you learn yon?" she asked, more for something to break a silence which made her heart beat than from curiosity. "You usen"t to swim that way."
"In the Indies," he replied, laughing. "I must teach it to you; but it isn"t much good in currents. By Jove, how jolly this is. Why the deuce did I take the boat? I say--look out! I feel the trend of the stream."
Small doubt of that. They were through the backwater and in another minute would be in the full of outgoing river and outgoing tide. The opposite bank seemed slipping past them rapidly. Duke changed his stroke instantly and ranged up beside Marrion.
"It will be easier together," he said, pa.s.sing his hand over her shoulder, and obediently she pa.s.sed hers over his.
"Now then, together!" he cried. "And if you tire you know what to do; and keep time, there"s a good girl."
So they struck off, the forward lunge of his long legs aiding hers, that were so far behind in strength. Thus they battled the stream shoulder to shoulder, almost cheek to cheek, her long loose hair sweeping across him, until the worst of it was over and the girl would fain have loosed her grip and turned sh.o.r.ewards definitely.
"Not yet!" he laughed. "Let"s swim out to sea a bit! Look--isn"t it worth it?"
Aye, worth everything else in the world. Far out in the east over that restless horizon the first ray of the sun had tipped, sending a widening, radiant path of pure gold to meet them. It shone on her red-brown hair, turning it to bronze; it shone in their blue eyes, turning them to sapphires; and it shone on their wholesome, happy faces, transfiguring them out of all semblance to beings of dingy earth and purifying them from all mortal taint. They were freed souls swimming in the vasty ether, all around them the dawn of a new day.
So they went on and on, till suddenly Duke veered their course sh.o.r.ewards with one guiding stroke.
"I shall tire you out," he said softly, and his freed hand, as he disentangled her hair from his neck, lifted the shiny strands to his lips for a second. "You have got such jolly hair, Marmie! I wonder you don"t wear it down your back. None of the fellows could resist you then."
Their faces were away from the dawn now and hers already had a cloud on it.
"I"m going to the big rock. I left my shawl there," she said, directing her course towards it.
Duke followed suit in silence. Suddenly he said--
"I can"t think how I was such a fool as to get drunk last night. It shan"t occur again; but, you know, I shouldn"t have had this perfectly stunning time if I hadn"t, should I? We must repeat it every morning, Marmie, mustn"t we?"
"Weather permitting," she replied, almost bitterly. "But it"s no often sae comfortable to be in the water as it is this morning, Mr. Duke."
"Ah, you should have been with me in the Indies! You could stop in all day. You"re not feeling cold, I hope?"
Cold! With every pulse in her body clamouring for sheer joy in his presence.
"I"ll no be cold when I get my shawl," she said calmly; then, seeing him turn, called quickly--
"You"re no going across again, Mr. Duke, it isn"t safe!"
"Didn"t I tell you so from the beginning, eh? No; of course I"m not.
I"m going to swim up the side to the steps and send the ghillie for the boat."
She watched the rhythmic spluttering of his overhand stroke past the point. He would be home before her, she thought, as somewhat wearily she climbed the rocks to the keep. It had been a real joy. In all her life, long or short, she would never forget it.
That was the pity of it, for the memory might become a pain.
CHAPTER V
Marmaduke Muir"s repentances, like many of his virtues and vices, were apt to be evanescent. So the next week, it is to be feared, saw many a lapse from his intention that drunkenness should not occur again. In truth it needed a strong will to be sober in Drummuir Castle. The old lord himself had a head which nothing could upset, and though he went to his bed groaning with gout, no one could have said his wits were in the least astray. Now Marmaduke had to a certain extent inherited this toleration of alcohol, a fact which at once gratified his father and set the old sinner to the graceless task of inciting his son to more and more gla.s.ses of good claret, champagne, and port in order to see how far the inheritance went. And Marmaduke, partly because he was anxious to ingratiate himself with his irascible parent and partly from sheer _joie de vivre_, fell in with the old man"s whim. In reality it meant much to him that he should get to the right side of his father. He had a chance of his majority if only fifteen hundred pounds odd could be found over and above the regulation purchase money. It was a big price; but the vacancy was in a crack Highland regiment and the majority would give him almost the certainty of commanding in the future.