Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

From The Examiner.

Strathcairn. By Charles Allston Collins, Author of "A Cruise upon Wheels." In two Volumes. Low, Son, and Marston.

THIS tale is a romance of August holiday adventure that arose from the renting of a month's shooting upon a well-stocked Highland moor. As a story it is well invented and well told. The interest is strong; the incidents and several of the characters are unhackneyed, and though vividly romantic, possible enough to take their place in a picture of easy every-day life with a cheery English shooting party on a Scottish moor. At the same time all is told smoothly and pleasantly, without superfluous words or incidents; the narrative is graceful, carefullywritten English, the dialogue lively with character, and the author's wit never unequal to the occasion, whether it be the comic or the pathetic side of his tale that he turns towards us. There is no secret and there is no crime in the book. Under the autumn sky there is acted out an interesting story, of which it is understood from the beginning that it can end only with a wail of wintry wind, and the fall of the dead leaf from its hough. And yet there is no false sentiment of melancholy. The book ends with a healthy faith in Time-strong, patient, merciful Time —and his sister Hope.

"I have said that our party was divided and that we filled two carriages; but in reality it was almost as if we were all together. We changed about, we got down whenever at each other's windows; nay, we did more there was a few minutes' pause, and talked than this, for in the course of the morning and before we reached York, where we were to have a late lunch or an early dinner, whichever we chose to consider it, we in the carriage in which I occupied a seat were suddenly startled by the apparition at one of the windows of a piece of folded paper fastened with string to the end of a long stick. The paper contained a wretchedly bad riddle, suggested, I think, by the name of one of the stations we had just passed, but bad as it was it made us laugh, and a means of communication between the two carriages having now been hit upon, an incessant fire of riddles and answers and all sorts of jokes (except good ones) was kept up between the two carriages.

"At York we found out that we were all very hungry, and made a capital meal, though, as we were too much burried to finish it, we were obliged to buy all sorts of eatables for subsequent consumption on the road. Then, of a fishing-rod I think it was composed of+ of course, the string and the stick-two joints were wanted in order that the occupants of the two carriages might exchange their delicacies; in short, we indulged in a thousand mad follies, and there was not one of us sufficiently steady even to read the newspaper,

a fixed smile of the most complacent kind, and enjoying thoroughly all that was going on around her, managed to knit incessantly all through the day.

The exceptional condition that is the main-except, by the by, Mrs. Crawfurd, who, with spring of romance in this story of "Strathcairn " is not crime, but insanity. The Earl of Strathcairn is mad, as men are mad outside the lunatic asylums; odd on some point, unreasonable, and perhaps a little dangerous. The earl's eccentricity takes chiefly the form of extreme parsimony. He lived at Strathcairn Castle, a widower with an only child, a daughter full of beauty and of a fresh and pure simplicity, who had been there immured with him and her old nurse, ignorant of the world and perhaps but who could tell?-incapable of knowing it or living in it. By all her humble neighbors she was known affectionately as the Lily of Strathcairn. The earl's parsimony caused the game to increase on It was the best in Scotland, and of course he was glad to take the good price it would fetch him in the shooting season. For a certain August this Castle of Strathcairn and its shooting had been taken by Sir John Balmain, who with his party of friends set off thither in the true holiday spirit.

his moor.

The castle had been taken on condition that a particular turret should be reserved for the earl's daughter, Lady Helen, who would live retired there with a nurse and an old servant during her father's absence. The old servant, as it turned out at last, and as the reader sees from the first, was the earl himself, fabled to be abroad, who chose to remain in the turret, save his money, and keep watch and ward over the property. Two of the English party in the castle were Mr. Beaumont, the literary gentleman who tells the tale, and a noble young soldier, Captain Gordon. There is among the holiday-makers curiosity about the secluded Lily, but meanwhile the poor child fastens upon Captain Gordon, a gallant, honorable man, who, imperfect as her nature seems to be, cannot resist the fascination of her innocence and

beauty. At last he has this to confide to his most perfect frankness, but not the othfriend Beaumont :

"I will tell you about it. One day, not long after our first coming here, I went out to try the fishing. You were all of you gone to the hill to shoot, and I was entirely alone. I walked through the thick plantation which, as you know, lies just outside the walls of the castle gardens, and which, as you also know, is of considerable extent. As I passed along the narrow path I thought that I heard a sort of rustling sound beside me, and stopping to listen, I found that it stopped too; yet when I moved on again I still heard it. It fidgeted me, for I could not make it out, though I could not help supposing that it must be some dog which had followed me from the house without my observing it. I saw a little in front of me a spot where the wood was a degree less thick than in other places, and I thought it possible that there I might be able to obtain some solution of this little puzzle. So, as soon as I reached this particular spot, I turned round as sharply as I possibly could, and without the very slightest warning. In one moment I found myself face to face with the strangest loveliness I had ever beheld. You have seen this creature," he added; "so I need not attempt to describe her to you. But you have not seen her as I did then. A little bower of trees and shrubs was round her, and from the darkness behind, her face and the white covering on her head showed in a strange kind of half light. She stood there motionless, gazing at me, and I stood and gazed at her. There was wonder and curiosity in her look, but nothing at all, it seemed to me, of shame or awkwardness. The awkwardness fell to

my share, all of it, and I hardly knew what I had best do in so strange a situation. At last I determined to speak.

"I am afraid I am obstructing the path by which you wish to pass,' I said, and stood aside out of the way as I spoke.

"She made no answer, and I repeated what I had just said. She answered at length, in a low voice, I am going with you as long as you are in my wood.'

"I did not know then, by the by, as I do now, that the fir enclosure on the west side of the Strathcairn gardens goes always by the name of Helen's Wood. I believe there is some story of the earl having made this part of the estate over to his daughter; but I don't rightly know about it. You may conceive, however, how astonished I was at this

[blocks in formation]

ers.

"I was so entirely staggered by this, that for some time I did not know what to answer. At last I said,—

But why do you make me an exception? You know me no more than the others.'

“Oh, yes, I do,' was her reply. 'I have seen you continually since you have been here. Whenever you have gone out, I have watched you, and my nurse saw you, with the second sight, before you came.

"There was no answering this at all; so I did not attempt it.

"Come and see my wood,' she said, after a moment. She did not wait for any answer, but turning round, led the way back by the path along which I had just passed. I folfowed her, and after pursuing the pathway a certain distance, she turned aside into a very narrow and indeed almost imperceptible track, and looking round as if to beckon me on, went before me into the very thickest part of the plantation.

"As we passed along, the whole thing seemed to me to be invested with a strange unreality. The figure before me, the wood around, nay, the part that I myself was playing, all seemed unreal. I was as one acting involuntarily, and with no actual share in the transaction in which he is engaged; and so we continued for some time to thread the intricacies of the wood, no word being exchanged between us, till quite suddenly we emerged into a little open space in which there stood the very smallest chapel. I had ever seen."

The earl and his daughter are Roman Catholics. In this ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Helen, there is a side for each of them right and left of the high altar, and the girl decorates all the shrines with her fresh flowers. There is a service here sometimes by a priest, Father Matthias, who makes occasional visits to Strathcairn, and who alone has influence over the earl.

When the month was expired, and the earl, appearing in the character of his own agent, had produced an astounding inventory of damages to be made good, and when Sir John and his party were all gone, there were new tenants expected. Mr. Beaumont had been acting for his friend Gordon, who was resolved to venture all for Lady Helen. There had been negotiation, therefore, through Andrews, the earl's faithful keeper, and another letting of the moor had been secured upon hard terms for Captain Gordon, whose guest

Beaumont was to be, and who wanted so lit-
tle of the castle that he and Beaumont were,
except in paying for their fare, to be as
guests, and dine at the earl's table. They
were half starved by insane stinginess,
charged, as beyond the bond, sixpence a
glass for all the watered wine they drank,
and when they went out with their guns
were carefully kept off the best
game-pre-
serves by one device or another. One day
the dinner was a singed sheep's head, its
tongue and brains being reserved for the
next day. And this was the first experience
of the mad earl's housekeeping in the way
of breakfast:-
:-

[blocks in formation]

"""Sax months," you thriftless devil; and you, that have the guardianship of the pou'try-yard, allowed my substance, in the shape of grain, to be wasted for sax months naething in return for her keep, any more an unprincipled beast that just gives than you do yourself, you idle, extravagant hussy?'

on

Yes, and picked up what the others might have had that are doing their duty. You should have twisted her neck and sold her five months ago.'

"I'm not extravagant any more than yourself, Strathcairn, and ye knaw it!' said "Neither tea nor coffee appeared upon the the woman, indignantly. It's naething that board; there was no sign of anything in the the auld creature has received from my hands shape of meat, no butter, no bread. In since she ceased to make herself useful, the place of these luxuries three huge bowls of gude-for-naething auld beastie! She's just porridge smoked upon the table, in the mid-picked up a living how she could.' dle of which, there appeared also a great piled-up dish of the inevitable oat-cake. I suppose that I must have involuntarily suffered a certain amount of dissatisfaction to show itself in my appearance; for our host "There's nawbody wad buy "auld Magwent so far, after looking at me suspiciously, gie" now,' remarked the woman, sulkily. as to mutter something about the cows giv-She's awful bad, too, with the pip.' ing so little just then, that they could only get butter enough to supply their customers. The lad went down to the burn,' he added, to get some trout, too; but the water was so thick that it was useless.'

"Maybe you'd like an egg?' asked the old sinner presently.

"I firmly believe that he knew there was not one to be had, or he never would have made the offer. However, he summoned Mr. Andrews, and bade him send the hen-wife up without delay. A great, gaunt, bony woman, with a cast in her eye, appeared in due time. "Wal, Phemie, how are the hens doing?' "They're just doing naething, my lord,' said the woman, in a deep bass voice, and looking at the two strangers while she spoke, —that is, next to naething."

"What, wont they lay?'

"Naw. We do all we can to make them, but it's to little purpose; they're a thankless, unfruitful lot just noo.'

"Do you mean to say, woman, that you've got no eggs at all?'

"Nane over and above what it's needful to send into the toon.'

"Then I'll tell ye what,' retorted her master, after a moment's reflection. Tomorrow is the sawbath, as ye call it, ye heretical devils, so we'll just hae the beast ourselves, and make a meal befitting the day. So go your ways and make short work of her, and see that ye look more carefully after my substance for the future, or it'll be the warse for ye.'

[ocr errors]

All this while nothing was seen of the Lady of the Turret. But the next visit of Father Matthias produced a change in the earl's policy. It was on his arrival that the Lady Helen for the first time reappeared; then, too, for the first time the earl set a good dinner and good wine upon his table.

"When we two entered the room where dinner was served, I think we must both have started, so great was our surprise. In one moment we saw that the table was brill

iantly lighted, that it was covered with plate, both gold and silver, that there was a stranger present, and that the head of the table was occupied by the Lily of Strathcairn.

"Then you can't give these gentlemen, "I believe that both Gordon and myself who are not satisfied with their porritch as were entirely upset and lost in the bewilderyou and I are, an egg apiece for their break-ment of this surprise. For myself I hardly

[blocks in formation]

knew what happened during the first two or three minutes after our entry into the room. I only know that somehow or other we got into our places, that we were presented to

the stranger, and that he was called Father at one of the windows of the north tower, Matthias. But these were small matters. and looking up we saw the Lily of StrathThe presence of the daughter of the house at cairn standing watching us as we talked. the head of the table, that was the wonderful thing, that was the only thing to be thought of, nor could even that be thought of steadily at this time.

"The Lily of Strathcairn was splendidly attired. A dress of the usual dark-green color, but made of velvet of the richest and most lustrous kind, showed the fairness of her complexion and hair to such advantage as made her beauty seem almost unearthly. Gold and pearls were about her neck lying on the deep green of the velvet, and there were diamonds in her hair. The beauty and splendor of the creature were indeed wonderful to behold, and I could hardly be surprised at the infatuation of my friend, however deeply I might and did deplore it."

Father Matthias knew Gordon's father to be rich and liberal; knew that he owned several estates, of which one only was entailed. He smoothed the way, therefore, for the lovers at Strathcairn, and they were happy; she completely, he uneasily; for how would it be in the world away from Strathcairn with a wife who might be like an Undine taken from her native streams? And then, what a father! Meanwhile his own father had heard talk at the clubs of his son's infatuation for the only daughter of the mad Earl of Strathcairn, who was as mad herself, but in a different way. For his son's happiness, he felt it necessary to prevent a marriage into such a family, and wrote in generous strain to that effect to his son's friend, Beaumont. Considering the earl's character, apart from any question that might arise of difference of creed, Mr. Gordon knew that to refuse money to his son in the event of his marriage, would be to make the match impossible,-and this he did. The scene between the friends after this letter had been received and acted upon is very delicately and skilfully imagined. The lovers have come in from a ride together; Gordon is hopeful. The innocent mind seems to him to be developing; the strangeness only the result of extraordinary bringing up and unwholesome seclusion. He comes to the holder of ill news flushed with new pleasure:

"Do you know,' continued Gordon, turning towards me, and clapping me on the shoulder, I feel so happy to-day that I am inclined to approach a subject which I have been trying not to think of for some time

"As he spoke, there was a tapping sound

"She smiled and' nodded with a sort of childish gladness as Gordon turned round. Then she signed that we should go on with our conversation, and stood there watching us, my friend looking up from time to time to the turret-window, the very window, by the by, at which I had first caught sight of her on the morning after our arrival at the castle."

"And what,' I asked, resuming our talk where it had been interrupted,— what is the subject which you have been dreading so keenly?'

"Why, it is this,' replied Gordon, looking up once more at the window: I feel that the time has come when I must make some announcement of what is going on here to my family at home.'

"Alas, the hour had come. He had run to meet his fate. Already I had decided in my own mind that he must be told of what had happened, and that the contents of his But I had not had the heart yet to break the father's letter must be made known to him. bad news. Seeing him in such spirits, and so happy, how could I tell him what I had to say? Those spirits, that happiness, were in this case the precursors of evil. Like Romeo, his bosom's lord sat lightly on his throne just when the bad tidings were at hand.

"How shall I make it known to them?' asked Gordon, surprised at my silence.

"To one member of your family,' I said, the words grating in my throat as I spoke, -to your father, what is going on here is known already.'

"Gordon started violently, as he heard these words, and looking past him, I observed that the poor girl at the turret-window shiftcould be that had moved him. ed her position too, as if wondering what it

"My father knows what is going on?' cried Gordon. Stop, that letter-you have not-but no, you couldn't.'

"I have not written to your father,' I answered, if that is what you mean; but he has written to me.'

"And why to you?' he cried, almost angrily. Where is the letter?'

[ocr errors]

It is here,' I answered, and I took it from my pocket and handed it to him.

"Since this disclosure had taken place, my friend had not looked up once to the turretwindow. The Lily of Strathcairn was still there, and now she made a little questioning grimace to me, as if asking what all this that was going on could mean.

The looking on of Lady Helen at that unheard conversation of her lover with his

friend, which unfolds the tragedy of her own life, is only one of many delicate artistic touches in this very clever book. It was with her own lips that the poor child was at last forced to pronounce her doom. The following extract is long, but to quote it will remove all possible doubt of the high promise of Mr. Charles Collins's genius: :

"There was no sound of footsteps outside before the door opened slowly, and the Lily of Strathcairn entered the room. The walls of the castle are thick and the doors double, and we heard no sound to tell us of her approach. Old Jeannie, who followed her young mistress, closed the door after her, and then they both stood there, not advancing

into the room.

"There was something infinitely touching about this young lady's appearance, as she waited there in entire ignorance of what was coming, but with a vague fear, too, of something wrong. After one timid glance round the room at first entering it, she remained with her eyes fixed upon her father. One of her hands was in old Jeannie's, the other fidgeted nervously with her dress, and I thought that she even trembled a little. It was impossible, however, to add to her trouble by watching all her movements, so I looked away. I could feel, without looking, that my companion who stood by me was touched to the quick by what he saw. His breath came thick and frequent, and often in short and broken sighs, inaudible to anybody but myself. There was now a pause of some duration. It was broken at last by Lord Strathcairn.

"Helen, come here,' said the earl, speaking in a tone of command, but not unkindly. The young lady left her nurse, and crossed the room to where her father stood. He took her hand, and looked down at her with a sort of grim affection. You see this gentleman,' he said, pointing to where Gordon stood.

"The Lily of Strathcairn turned round towards her lover. Their eyes met, and the old lovely smile passed over the girl's face. It was there only for a moment, though, for she could see by Gordon's expression that trouble was at hand.

edge that it's been no difficult task-to consider your father's will as law, and to quesI'll not enter into the reasons which render tion none of his decisions. That being so, necessary the step which I'm now taking, partly because you'd not understand them, and partly because I choose that my child should take it for granted that what her father does is right, and act upon his judgment without inquiry.'

"The earl stopped again; for what he had to say seemed to stick in hie throat. He appeared to expect some answer; but there was none. The Lily of Strathcairn stood with her eyes fixed on her father, waiting with white lips for what was coming. Father Matthias had turned away from his window, and watching the young lady with eager eyes, waited also for what was to come.

[ocr errors]

"It came only too soon. Now, child, listen to me,' said Lord Strathcairn. This gentleman has been told by me already what I now tell you in his presence,-that-that you and he must part.

"She looked up quickly in his face, then she turned as if to read in the face of her lover whether this could be true, and she even moved a few steps towards him. But Gordon had averted his head, as if unable to look on while this horror was accomplished.

"Father,' she said, going back to him, and half smiling, you are playing with me -as you sometimes do?'

6

I am in earnest,' said the earl. Now, Helen, be what I and this holy father have sought to make you.' He spoke hastily and eagerly; for she had left him now, and supporting herself against the chimney-piece at his side, had buried her face in her hands I am ashamed to see a daughter of this house with so little pride. I tell you that this thing must be

"But, father,' said the unhappy girl, going back to him, and placing her hand in an attitude of remonstrance on his arm, ' what has he done?'

[blocks in formation]

6

"Lord Strathcairn,' said Gordon, unable to control himself longer, and standing boldly forward, this must not be. I claim it as a right that you make it known to all here present, and, above all, to HER, that I am free from blame in this matter. Oh, Helen!' he cried, arresting his own words, it is because I am poor that I am thrown aside like this.'

"Helen,' the earl went on; the time has arrived when you must choose between him and me.' He paused here, as if in difficulty as to how he should proceed; but presently he went on. I'm not speaking, Helen, as I might do, with authority and in a tone of command, and the reason why I abstain from doing so is that I know most certainly that it's not needful. You've been "Stop, sir,' interrupted the earl. If brought up-and I'm prepared to acknowl-you'd fain be guilty of the impious work of

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »