An Orkney Maid - Amelia Barr 3 стр.

First, the guests came all together from some agreed-upon rendezvous. They walked, for private carriages were very rare and there were none for hire. However, this walking party was generally a very pleasant introduction to a more pleasant and intimate evening. The women were wrapped up in their red or blue cloaks, and the men carried their dancing slippers, fans, bouquets, and other small necessities of the ballroom.

Second, the old and the young had an equal share in any entertainment, and if there was a difference, it was in favour of the old. On this very night Conall Ragnor danced in every figure called, except a saraband, which he said was too slow and formal to be worth calling a dance. Even old Adam Vedder who had come on his own invitationbut welcome all the samewent through the Orkney Quickstep with the two prettiest girls present, Thora Ragnor and Maren Torrie. For honourable age was much respected and every young person wished to share his happiness with it.

A very marked characteristic was the evident pleasure old and young had in the gratification of their sense of taste, in the purely animal pleasure of eating good things. No one had a bad appetite, and if anyone wished for more of a dish they liked, they asked for it. Indeed they had an easy consciousness of paying their hostess a compliment, and of giving themselves a little more pleasure.

Finally, they made the day, day; and the night, night. Such gatherings broke up about eleven oclock; then the girls went home unwearied, to sleep, and morning found them rosy and happy, already wondering who would give them the next dance.

CHAPTER II

ADAM VEDDERS TROUBLE

Boris did not remain long in the home port. It was drawing near to Lent, and this was a sacred term very highly regarded by the citizens of this ancient cathedral town. Of course in the Great Disruption the National Episcopal Church had suffered heavy loss, but Lent was a circumstance of the Soul, so near and dear to its memory, that even those disloyal to their Mother Church could not forget or ignore it. In some cases it was secretly more faithfully observed than ever before; then its penitential prayers became intensely pathetic in their loneliness. For these self-bereft souls could not help remembering the days when they went up with the multitude to keep the Holy Fast in the House of their God.

Rahal Ragnor had never kept it. It had been only a remnant of popery to her. Long before the Free Kirk had been born, she and all her family had been Dissenters of some kind or other. And yet her life and her home were affected by this Episcopal In Memoriam in a great number of small, dominating ways, so that in the course of years she had learned to respect a ceremonial that she did not endorse. For she knew that no one kept Lent with a truer heart than Conall Ragnor, and that the Lenten services in the cathedral interfered with his business to an extent nothing purely temporal would have been permitted to do.

So, after the little dance given to Boris, there was a period of marked quietness in Kirkwall. It was as if some mighty Hand had been laid across the strings of Life and softened and subdued all their reverberations. There was no special human influence exerted for this purpose, yet no one could deny the presence of some unseen, unusual element.

Every day seems like Sabbath Day, said Thora.

It is Lent, answered Rahal.

And after Lent comes Easter, dear Mother.

That is the truth.

In the meantime Boris had gone to Edinburgh on the bark Sea Gull to complete his cargo of Scotch ginghams and sewed muslins, native jewelry and table delicacies. Perhaps, indeed, the minimum notice accorded Lent in the metropolitan city had something to do with this journey, which was not a usual one; but after the departure of the Sea Gull the Ragnor household had settled down to a period of domestic quiet. The Master had to make up the hours spent in the cathedral by a longer stay in the store, and the women at this time generally avoided visiting; they feltthough they did not speak of itthe old prohibition of unkind speech, and the theological quarrel was yet so new and raw that to touch it was to provoke controversy, instead of conversation.

It was at such vacant times that old Adam Vedders visits were doubly welcome. One day in mid-Lent he came to the Ragnor house, when it was raining with that steady deliberation that gives no hope of anything better. Throwing off his waterproof outer garments, he left them to drip dry in the kitchen. An old woman, watching him, observed:

Thou art wetting the clean floor, Master Vedder, and he briskly answered: That is thy business, Helga, not mine. Is thy mistress in the house?

Would she be out, if she had any good sense left?

How can a man tell what a woman will do? Where is thy mistress? and he spoke in a tone so imperative, that she answered with shrinking humility:

I ask thy favour. Mistress Ragnor is in the right-hand parlour. I will look after thy cloak.

It will be well for thee to do that.

Then Adam went to the right-hand parlour and found Rahal sitting by the fire sewing.

I am glad to see thee, Rahal, he said.

I am glad to see thee alwaysmore at this time than at any other.

Well, that is good, but why at this time more than at any other?

The town is depressed; business goes on, but in a silent fashion. There is no social pleasuresurely the reason is known to thee!

So it is, and the reason is good. When people are confessing their sins, and asking pardon for the same, they cannot feel it to be a cheerful entertainment; and, as thou observed, it affects even their business, which I myself notice is done without the usual joking or quarrelling or drinking of good healths. Well, then, that also is right. Where is Thora?

She is going to a lecture this afternoon to be given by the Archdeacon Spens to the young girls, and she is preparing for it. And as these words were uttered, Thora entered the room. She was dressed for the storm outside, and wore the hood of her cloak drawn well over her hair; in her hands were a pair of her fathers slippers.

For thee I brought them, she said, as she held them out to Vedder. I heard thy voice, and I was sure thy feet would be wet. See, then, I have brought thee my fathers slippers. He would like thee to wear themso would I.

I will not wear them, Thora. I will not stand in any mans shoes but my own. It is an unchancy, unlucky thing to do. Thanks be to thee, but I will keep my own standing, wet or dry. Look to that rule for thyself, and remember what I say. Let me see if thou art well shod.

Thora laughed, stood straight up, and drew her dress taut, and put forward two small feet, trigly protected by high-laced boots. Then, looking at her mother, she asked: Are the boots sufficient, or shall I wear over them my French clogs?

Vedder answered her question. The clogs are not necessary, he said. The rain runs off as fast as it falls. Thy boots are all such trifling feet can carry. What can women do on this hard world-road with such impediments as French clogs over English boots?

Mr. Vedder, they will do whatever they want to do; and they will go wherever they want to go; and they will walk in their own shoes, and work in their own shoes, and be well satisfied with them.

Thora, I am sorry I was born in the last century. If I had waited for about fifty years I would have been in proper time to marry thee.

Perhaps.

Yes; for I would not have let a woman so fair and good as thou art go out of my family. We should have been man and wife. That would certainly have happened.

If two had been willing, it might have been. Now our talk must end; the Archdeacon likes not a late comer; and with this remark, and a beaming smile, she went away.

Then there was a silence, full of words longing to be spoken; but Rahal Ragnor was a prudent woman, and she sighed and sewed and left Vedder to open the conversation. He looked at her a little impatiently for a few moments, then he asked:

To what port has thy son Boris sailed?

Boris intends to go to Leith, if wind and water let him do so.

Boris is not asking wind and water about his affairs. There is a question I know not how to answer. I am wanting thy help.

If that be so, speak thy mind to me.

I want a few words of advice about a woman.

Is that woman thy granddaughter, Sunna?

A right guess thou hast made.

Then I would rather not speak of her.

Thy reason? What is it?

She is too clever for a simple woman like me. I have not two faces. I cannot make the same words mean two distinct and separate things. Sunna has all thy self-wisdom, but she has not thy true heart and thy wise tongue.

Listen to me! Things have come to thisBoris has made love to Sunna in the face of all Kirkwall. He has done this for more than a year. Then for two weeks before he left for Leith he came not near my house, and if he met Sunna in any friends house he was no longer her lover. What is the meaning of this? My girl is unhappy and angry, and I myself am far from being satisfied; thou tell, what is wrong between them?

I would prefer neither to help nor hinder thee in this matter. There is a broad way between these two ways, that I am minded to take. It will be better for me to do so, and perhaps better for thee also.

I thought I could count on thee for my friend. Bare is a mans back without friends behind it! In thee I trusted. While I feared and doubted, I thought, If worse comes I will go at once to Rahal RagnorThou hast failed me.

Say not thatmy old, dear friend! It is beyond truth. What I know I told to my husband; and I asked him if it would be kind and well to tell thee, and he said to me: Be not a bearer of ill news to Vedder. Little can thou trust any evil report; few people are spoken of better than they deserve. Then I gave counsel to myself, thus: Conall has four dear daughters, he knows. Conall loves his old friend Vedder; if he thought to interfere was right, he would advise Vedder to interfere or he would interfere for him, and my wish was to spare thee the sorrow that comes from womens tongues. I was also sure that if the news was true, it would find thee outif not true, why should Rahal Ragnor sow seeds of suspicion and ill-will? Is Sunna disobedient to thee?

She is something worseshe deceives me. Her name is mixed up with some reportI know not what. No one loves me well enough to tell me what is wrong.

Well, then, thou art more feared than loved. Few know thee well enough to risk thy anger and all know that Norsemen are bitter cruel to those who dare to say that one hair of their women is out of its place. Who, then, would dare to say this or that about thy granddaughter?

Rahal Ragnor could speak safely to me.

Then there was silence for a few moments and Rahal sat with her doubled-up left hand against her lips, gazing out of the window. Vedder did not disturb her. He waited patiently until she said:

If I tell thee what was told me, wilt thou visit the story upon my husband, or myself, or any of my children?

Vedder took a signet ring from his finger and kissed it. Rahal, he said, I have kissed this ring of my fathers to seal the promise I shall make thee. If thou wilt give me thy confidence in this matter of Sunna Vedder, it shall be for thy good, and for the good of thy husband, and for the good of all thy children, as far as Adam Vedder can make it so.

I ask a special promise for my son Boris, for he is concerned in this matter.

Boris can take good care of Boris: nevertheless, I promise thee that I will not say or look or do, with hands or tongue, anything that will injure, or even annoy, Boris Ragnor. Unto the end of my life, I promise this. What may come after, I know not. If there should be a wrong done, we will fight it out elsewhere.

Thy words are sufficient. Listen, then! There is a family, in the newest and best part of the town, called McLeod. They are yet strange here. They are Highland Scotch. Many say they are Roman Catholics. They sing Jacobite songs, and they go not to any church. They have opened a great trading route; and they have brought many new customs and new ideas with them. A certain class of our people make much of them; others are barely civil to them; the best of our citizens do not notice them at all. But they have plenty of money, and live extravagantly, and the garrisons officers are constantly seen there. Do you know them?

I have heard of them.

McLeod has a large trading fleet, and he has interfered with the business of Boris in many ways.

Hast thou ever seen him? Tell me what he is like.

I have seen him many times. He is a complete Highlander; tall, broad-shouldered and apparently very strong, also very graceful. He has high cheekbones, and a red beard, but all talk about him, and many think him altogether handsome.

And thou? What dost thou think?

When I saw him, he was in earnest discussion with one of his men, and he was not using English but sputtering a torrent of shrill Gaelic, shrugging his shoulders, throwing his arms about, thrilling with excitementbut for all that, he was the picture of a man that most women would find irresistible.

I have heard that he wears the Highland dress.

Not on the street. They have many entertainments; he may wear it in some of them; but I think he is too wise to wear it in public. The Norseman is much indebted to the Scotbut it would not do to flaunt the feathered cap and philabeg too muchon Kirkwall streets.

You ought to know.

Yes, I am Highland Scotch, thank God! I understand this man, though I have never spoken to him. I know little about the Lowland Scot. He is a different race, and is quite a different man. You would not like him, Adam.

I know him. He is a fine fellow; quiet, cool-blooded, has little to say, and wastes no strength in emotion. Theres wisdom for youbut go on with thy talk, woman; it hurts me, but I must hear it to the end.

Well, then, Kenneth McLeod has the appearance of a gentleman, though he is only a trader.

Say smuggler, Rahal, and you might call him by a truer name.

Many whisper the same word. Of a smuggler, a large proportion of our people think no wrong. That you know. He is a kind of hero to some girls. Many grand parties these McLeods givemusic and dancing, and eating and drinking, and the young officers of the garrison are there, as well as our own gay young men; and where these temptations are, young women are sure to go. His aunt is mistress of his house.

Now, then, this thing happened when Boris was last here. One night he heard two men talking as they went down the street before him. The rain was pattering on the flagged walk and he did not well understand their conversation, but it was altogether of the McLeods and their entertainments. Suddenly he heard the name of Sunna Vedder. Thrice he heard it, and he followed the men to the public house, called for whiskey, sat down at a table near them and pretended to be writing. But he grew more and more angry as he heard the free and easy talk of the men; and when again they named Sunna, he put himself into their conversation and so learned they were going to McLeods as soon as the hour was struck for the dance. Boris permitted them to go, laughing and boastful; an hour afterwards he followed.