Mary C. E. Wemyss

“ If Scotland could do this for one man—then Scotland forever, for all men. There was a lorry for the luggage—a car for Marcus and Diana, and for the household a kind of a char-à-banc, Pillar presiding over all and preventing Marcus from interfering. He showed no excitement. He knew his Scotland; if not one part, then another. They were all the same. In one, less grouse than in another—seldom more: in another, more fishing: scenery more or less the same in all parts. Mountains higher in one part than another—nothing much to choose between them—and midges everywhere. ”

“ An old woman making hay, in a patch of a field, at the side of the road, came down to the low stone wall and greeted him in her soft native tongue; which greeting conveyed to him a wish for good luck in his wooing. She understood! Her smiling, sunken eyes held memories. It must have been years ago that she was wooed, yet she had not forgotten! Who could forget, if it had been among these hills, beside these burns, under this sky that he had loved? O Scotland! No wonder Shan’t addressed her letters to Uncle Marcus “Glenbossie, darlin’ Scotland.” ”

“ Watkins thought he had proposed to Diana and was in an agony of mind not knowing whether she knew it or not. If she did not know it, he thought he would leave things alone. But if she knew he had proposed, he would be equally willing to let things stand. Glad to let them! But he had been rushed, as it were, into a declaration. The perfidy of Pease had upset him; the prettiness of Diana had distracted him. And yet he had always vowed that nothing should ever induce him to marry a pretty woman. True beauty must be strange: must not be admired of the people—or understood by the crowd. ”

“ But, Elsie, I want her to see something of the world; I want her to have the amusement a girl of her age should have. I want her to see men so that she may choose between them. I want her to stay in London for a few months and I want to leave her with my brother. I don’t think you like him? He was a dear to me when I was Diana’s age and a fierce chaperon. ”

“ Once he had seen Diana walk down the platform with her chin in the air, as was her habit, approved by her uncle, who thought she walked as a woman should walk, and as few did, he was more cautious, and dodged behind mountains of luggage, but never losing sight of the figure in blue tweed. She wore her hat well pulled down over her eyes, and he was glad. Once his he would want the whole world to see her, but till then he would have all men blind to her beauty. ”

“ So when she was thrown from the pony and lay in her bed unconscious, a black cloud hung over the Lodge of Glenbossie, and Marcus, in the depths of despair, wandered here and there unable to do anything because he had done everything that could be done and it had not availed. Sandy and John just stood around, to be there if anything should happen—and nothing happened, that was the worst of it. Anything—excepting, of course, one thing—would be better than this lying still—conscious of nothing. ”

“ Why are you and Aunt Elsie both afraid of the opposite sex? Aunt Elsie is frightened if she meets a drunken bricklayer in a lane after sundown. Why? You are just as afraid of a woman. Why? I would rather go round the world alone with a man than with a woman. I shan’t do it because it’s not done—as they say. But Dick says there should be no possible harm in it.
When Marcus came down to breakfast he was as silent, as quiet, as a heron fishing on the shore of a Highland loch—and as shy. He was sure Diana would put her arms round his neck and forgive him—and ask his forgiveness. ”

“ Being very much of a man he was very much of a boy. Diana had spoken in fun of desert islands. Did she realize how deeply implanted in the heart of every real man is the longing for the primordial life? Not for long, perhaps, but to experience it, for once? Hastings had dreamed all his life of a desert island. He had cooked, he had built, he had slept, on a desert island. ”

“ She was singing a hymn: sharing a hymn-book with a black man—not even a man black in parts, as is commonly to be met at the seaside, but a real black man.
Marcus watched in despair. For his niece he had ceased to exist—only as part of this world had she known him. She was translated to another: a world where the sands were more golden, the sea more glassy than they could ever be here on earth. ”

“ She was expecting Diana on a long stay, so there lurked a smile at the corners of her mouth and a twinkle in her honest grey eyes. While Eustace was abroad, Diana would be hers. She was thankful Eustace had married so devoted a wife. She had known people express surprise that Lady Carston should leave her children, suggesting that however much you love your husband your children should not be neglected. Sibyl’s children were not neglected, nor had they ever been. Elsie loved them. Not even a mother could feel more for them than she felt. ”

“ And in a bathing-machine the uncle found shelter. They are safer, and wiser and better things, than aunts. Where Aunt Elsie might have helped him, the bathing-machine got him out of a difficulty, and protected him.
Marcus Maitland had forgotten what the seaside was like. It compared in no way with the shores of a sea loch in Scotland—where the peace and beauty are indescribable; where he had many a time watched the swift sweep of the gulls on the wing—the diving of terns. He had seen seals swimming about—wise old men of the sea. ”

“ If a sister knows not a brother’s heart he has none to know. “Dearest Sibyl,” wrote Marcus, “why didn’t you tell me you were in London and taking Diana to her first dance? I had always meant to give her a pearl necklace for her coming-out ball. I will take her, of course, while you are abroad, on one condition, and that is that she isn’t always rushing off to her aunt in the country. I dislike that woman, as you know. I dislike all strong-minded, self-opinionated women. You are quite right, she is no fit companion for a girl of Diana’s age. Who has a better right to Diana than I have? ”

“ Skye paints her foreground as no other foreground is painted, so rich in colour, so deep—so varied. No skies can vie with hers in blueness, when they are blue. No distance is so enchanting in its softness. No breeze so caressing in its gentleness. No hills can compare with the Cuchullins in their splendid ruggedness, and the sun never sets in Scotland, leaving behind him more glorious promises of his coming again than he does in Skye. ”

“ Why should Miss Carston have her? Under the care of Miss Carston she would grow up a suffragette; would grow up everything a man would wish a girl not to be; self-opinionated, strong-minded, argumentative; always right, never wrong. It was a horrible thought. And Pillar had been perfectly willing that Shan’t should stay. If Pillar didn’t mind, who should?
It was only right that Diana and Shan’t should not be separated. Miss Carston could have Dick in the holidays. That should satisfy her. If anything could satisfy a nature so exacting! ”

“ So, Marcus, will you have her? Elsie, dear as she is, is rather too strong-minded a woman for a girl to be with altogether. She is a little too earnest and strenuous. I want Diana to frivol. I don’t want her to see too deeply into the things of life—yet. Everything with Elsie is spelt with a capital letter, and is heavily underlined. Woman to her is so much more than mere woman. I don’t want Diana at her age to be faced with sex problems. Dear Elsie is inclined to see in man woman’s chief and natural enemy. You will understand! She wants Diana to do great things in life. ”

“ Pillar, his man, says he wants something young about the house (Marcus, not Pillar) . What have you to do with that? you will say. Don’t say it. I want you and Marcus to be friends—I want Diana to see something of the world and the world to see something of her. There, it’s out! Worldly woman that I am! You have a literary recluse at your gate (they are so dangerous when they come out) . I am afraid of him. You have a muscular parson. I am afraid of him. I am afraid of all men—tinkers, tailors, soldiers and sailors, rich men, poor men, apothecaries, and thieves—they are all thieves. ”

“ At one o’clock in the morning Diana was singing in her bath and Marcus lay in bed wondering what it was she wanted to confess. He fell asleep uncertain whether he liked a niece in the house or not. He had pictured to himself a quiet, mousey niece, demure and obedient! But how charming she had looked on the sofa!—she got her feet from him, did she? A great attraction in women, pretty feet; and none too common. He must see that she gave enough for her boots. It was where some women economized. He shuddered to think of women out in the street, on muddy days, in house shoes. ”

“ Would a man be anywhere else on God’s earth? No, not if he be a sportsman and something of a Scotsman. It is not necessary to be more than that to make one eager to claim kinship with every one as one stands for the first time after many months on Scottish ground. Marcus bethought himself of the portrait of an ancestress of his wearing a tartan sash and blessed her for having worn it and for having passed on to him something of her love for the Highlands that had lain in her heart beneath the tartan band.
As Marcus stood on the platform he pointed out to Diana its many beauties. ”

“ If a man were a true Christian—and all fishermen should be that, for the earliest of all Christians were fishermen before anything else—he would give the rod oftener to the gillie who stands beside him, knowing himself to be by far the better fisherman of the two. For hours he stands there with that certain knowledge biting into his heart.
If Marcus had told Sandy all that lay in his heart, Sandy would have been profoundly interested, no doubt, because he had had cause, in his time, to think of women as interfering creatures—and of small use in a world of God-fearing men. ”

“ She was of so delightful a nature that what she enjoyed she wanted others to enjoy. The thought of Mr. Pease riding up and down Bestways hills on his bicycle, ministering to the souls and bodies of old men and women, seemed, viewed from the moors of Scotland, where souls had such a chance, rather a sad lot. Uncle Marcus could well afford to give both Mr. Pease and Mr. Watkins a holiday. They would never question the smallness of the rent asked for the fishing, so Marcus could hide his light under a bushel and could easily escape the thanks he dreaded. ”

“ When Diana got the telegram she read it aloud, and Elsie began feebly about a picnic—and more picnics—and a possible dance—and more dances, but Diana’s heart was already in the Highlands. “Darling Uncle Man!” she cried. “Delicious old Marky Man!” And Marcus put his head under her hand and swallowed with gratitude. “Not you, you darling, blessed black angel,” she said.
“Bribery and corruption,” said Aunt Elsie, as she pulled furiously at the weeds in the garden; “pure bribery—it isn’t that the child cares for him—she only goes—because she wants to go to Scotland. I shall at least have Dick. ”

“ Didn’t Marcus know it to his cost? But nothing would matter if Diana were happy in the end and Elsie must help to that end. It was not a question of which of them had the means to make her happy; she might take all the kudos so long as Diana was happy.
Never had Uncle Marcus reached such heights of self-effacement. He now saw clearly enough that the feud between him and Miss Carston had been in the nature of a joke—a poor joke, but a joke. It had amused them to imagine themselves enemies. They were now fighters in a common cause. ”

“ Diana said: “If I did, Dick would be very pleased. Love can’t be selfish and live—even Shan’t says, ‘Love can’t be shelfish,’ and it can’t.”
“Then I don’t love,” said Marcus ruefully.
“Yes, my uncle, you do.”
“It’s a devilish selfish kind of love, then.”
“It is that,” agreed Diana softly.
“I can’t,” confessed Marcus, “bear to think of your aunt waiting to snatch you from me. She’s so violent.”
Diana laughed. “What a delightful description of Aunt Elsie!” ”

“ Watkins must always run to ground. If any new idea were to burst upon Bestways it must come from him. He could bear a woman to be anything rather than original. He would have talked more if he could have afforded to. But his thoughts were to him as valuable as jewels, he must keep them until he could be paid for them. He couldn’t afford to be amusing like ordinary people. But still the thought that had inspired Mrs. Sloane had been a wise one—Of course, if he only went to Miss Carston’s garden when Miss Diana was there, Miss Carston would think—that he only went—what would she think? ”

“ There was nothing left for Diana to do but find the streets hot and the parks empty. To be with Mr. Maitland could not in any way be called a pleasure. Diana was wonderfully loyal to her uncle. Elsie was glad of that. She wouldn’t have had the child otherwise, but that it was loyalty that prevented her really saying what she thought of him, she knew. It could be nothing else. She was glad she had said to Diana when she had left for London: “Now, Diana, remember, whatever you think of your uncle, you mustn’t say it—even to me. He means to be very kind.”
Diana had implicitly obeyed her aunt. ”