“I never knew he had sought it, dearest.”
“Yet he did. I should have told you before, but he persecuted me with his protestations of love. Often and often have I remained in my room all the evening long when I knew he was below.”
“Well, he cursed me from the bottom of his heart and departed. Not before I told him that our quarrel could not end thus, that I was too proud to stand abuse, that when well I should fight him.”
“Oh, no – no – no! For my sake you must not fight.”
“Annie, my ain little dove, do you remember these two wee lines:
“‘I could not love thee half so much,
Loved I not honour more.’
“There is no hatred so deep and bitter as that between two men who have once been friends. No; both Craig and I will be better pleased after we fight; but this quarrel I fear must end in blood.”
Poor Annie shuddered. Just at that moment Shufflin’ Sandie appeared on the scene. He was never far away.
“Can I get ye a plaid, Mr Grahame, to throw o’er your legs? It’s gettin’ cold now, I fear.”
“No, no, my good fellow; we don’t want attendance at present. Thank you all the same, however.”
Oscar, Reginald’s great Newfoundland, came bounding round now to his master’s side. He had been hunting rats and rabbits. The embrace he gave his master was rough, but none the less sincere. Then he lay down by his feet, on guard, as it were; for a dog is ever suspicious.
Annie was very silent and very sad. Reginald drew her towards him, and she rested her head on his shoulder. But tears bedimmed her blue eyes, and a word of sympathy would have caused her to burst into a fit of weeping that would probably have been hysterical in its nature. So Reginald tried to appear unconcerned.
They sat in silence thus for some time. The silence of lovers is certainly golden.
Presently, bright, neatly-dressed Fanny came tripping round, holding in advance of her a silver salver.
“A letter, sir,” she said, smiling.
Reginald took it slowly from the salver, and his hand shook visibly.
“Annie,” he said, somewhat sadly, “I believe this contains my sailing orders.”
Chapter Five.
A Discovery That Appalled and Shocked Everyone
Reginald had guessed aright. The good barque Wolverine would sail from Glasgow that day month, wind and weather permitting, for the South Atlantic, and round the Horn to the South Pacific Islands and San Francisco.
This was from the captain; but a note was enclosed from Mrs Hall, Reginald’s pet aunt, hoping he was quite restored to health and strength, and would join them some hours before sailing. She felt certain, she said, that the long voyage would quite restore her, and her daughter Ilda and wee niece Matty were wild with delight at the prospect of being —
“All alone on the wide, wide sea.”
“Oh, my darling!” cried Annie, “I believe my heart will break to lose you.”
“But it will not be for long, my love – a year at most; and, oh, our reunion will be sweet! You know, Annie, I am very poor, with scarce money enough to procure me an outfit. It is better our engagement should not be known just yet to the old Laird, your uncle. He would think it most presumptuous in me to aspire to the hand of his heiress. But I shall be well and strong long before a month; and think, dearest, I am to have five hundred pounds for acting as private doctor and nurse to Mrs Hall! When I return I shall complete my studies, set up in practice, and then, oh, then, Annie, you and I shall be married!
“‘Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one.’”
But the tears were now silently chasing each other down her cheeks.
“Cheer up, my own,” said Reginald, drawing her closer to him.
Presently she did, and then the woman, not the child, came uppermost.
“Reginald,” she said, “tell me, is Miss Hall very beautiful?”
“I hardly know how to answer you, Annie. I sometimes think she is. Fragile, rather, with masses of glittering brown hair, and hazel eyes that are sometimes very large, as she looks at you while you talk. But,” he added, “there can be no true love unless there is a little jealousy. Ah, Annie,” he continued, smiling, “I see it in your eye, just a tiny wee bit of it. But it mustn’t increase. I have plighted my troth to you, and will ever love you as I do now, as long as the sun rises over yonder woods and forests.”
“I know, I know you will,” said Annie, and once more the head was laid softly on his shoulder.
“There is one young lady, however, of whom you have some cause to be jealous.”
“And she?”
“I confess, Annie, that I loved her a good deal. Ah, don’t look sad; it is only Matty, and she is just come five.”
Poor Annie laughed in a relieved sort of way. The lovers said little more for a time, but presently went for a walk in the flower-gardens, and among the black and crimson buds of autumn. Reginald could walk but slowly yet, and was glad enough of the slight support of Annie’s arm.
“Ah, Annie,” he said, “it won’t be long before you shall be leaning on my arm instead of me on yours.”
“I pray for that,” said the child-woman.
The gardens were still gay with autumnal flowers, and I always think that lovers are a happy adjunct to a flower-garden. But it seemed to be the autumn buds that were the chief attraction for Reginald at present. They were everywhere trailing in vines over the hedgerows, supported on their own sturdy stems or climbing high over the gables and wings of the grand old hall.
The deadly nightshade, that in summer was covered with bunches of sweetest blue, now grew high over the many hedges, hung with fruitlike scarlet bunches of the tiniest grapes. The Bryonia Alba, sometimes called the devil’s parsnip, that in June snows the country hedges over with its wealth of white wee flowers, was now splashed over with crimson budlets. The holly berries were already turning. The black-berried ivy crept high up the shafts of the lordly Lombardy poplars. Another tiny berry, though still green, grew in great profusion – it would soon be black – the fruit of the privet. The pyrocanthus that climbs yonder wall is one lovely mass of vermilion berries in clusters. These rival in colour and appearance the wealth of red fruit on the rowan trees or mountain ashes.
“How beautiful, Annie,” said Reginald, gazing up at the nodding berries. “Do you mind the old song, dear? —
“‘Oh, rowan tree, oh, rowan tree,
Thou’lt ay be dear to me;
Begirt thou art with many thoughts
Of home and infancy.
“‘Thy leaves were ay the first in spring
Thy flowers the summer’s pride;
There wasn’t such a bonnie tree
In a’ the countryside,
Oh, rowan tree!’”
“It is very beautiful,” said Annie, “and the music is just as beautiful, though plaintive, and even sad. I shall play it to you to-night.”
But here is an arbour composed entirely of a gigantic briar, laden with rosy fruit. Yet the king-tree of the garden is the barberry, and I never yet knew a botanist who could describe the lavish loveliness of those garlands of rosy coral. With buds of a somewhat deeper shade the dark yews were sprinkled, and in this fairy-like garden or arboretum grew trees and shrubs of every kind.
Over