Alastair

“ Then one morning at Blair, Alastair's pipes announced his return, bringing with him the rest of his Ulstermen and a considerable levy of the western clans—MacDonalds of Glengarry, Keppoch, and Clanranald, Macleans from Morvern and Mull, Stewarts from Appin, and Camerons from Lochaber. The clans had only one object, to take order with Argyll, for they hated the house of Diarmaid far more than the Covenant. Now was the time to avenge ancient wrongs and to break the pride of a chief who had boasted that no mortal enemy could enter his country. ”

“ On September 14, Forbes of Culloden congratulated Old Glengarry on his return home, and regretted that so many of his clan were out under Lochgarry, a kinsman. [150c] Old Glengarry had written to Forbes ‘lamenting the folly of his friends.’ He, like Lovat, was really ‘sitting on the fence.’ His clan was out; his second son Æneas led it at Falkirk. Alastair was in France. At the close of 1745, Alastair, conveying a detachment of the Royal Scots, in French service, and a piquet of the Irish brigade to Scotland, was captured on the seas and imprisoned in the Tower of London. ”

“ Looking back across his life to this point of departure, it seemed to Alistair that he had found the clue of his tangled skein, and that he might in time achieve a complete answer to the riddle of his fate. For a moment the longing of his heart returned to that green islet in its grey sea, and he bitterly regretted that he had not been left to live out his life there among the clansmen whom he loved, and by whom he was beloved, who esteemed him as a prince among them, and would have still esteemed and shielded him had he become the outlaw of the Raj. ”

“ Alistair murmured an expression of gratitude.
“I hope you will look on me as a friend too,” the Duchess of Gloucester went on. “Will you let me speak to you frankly, and will you be frank with me in return?”
“Will you pardon me if I am?” asked Alistair. “It is easy for some men to be frank; but when I am frank I find I only shock good people.” ”

“ Lord Alistair was not long in awakening in the mind of the Duchess of Gloucester the same feeling that he awakened in most good women—a regret that such a life should be running to waste, and a desire to save him. ”

“ The Prince himself sprang up from a lounge chair in the bright little hall, and [243] grasped him cordially by the hand, exclaiming as he did so:
“Ada, my dear, here is my old chum, Alistair Stuart.”
A woman some years younger than her husband, with a face in which womanly grace and keen intelligence were harmoniously united, rose from the midst of a group of small children, and offered her hand with equal friendliness.
“I am so glad you have come. I have heard so much about you from Bertie that I hope you will let me treat you as an old friend. Do you like children?” ”

“ It was the first time Lord Alistair had ever visited this part of the house, and the whole spectacle depressed him. He found himself pitying the departed servants who had had to occupy such mean and desolate quarters. Why should it be necessary for these fellow-creatures to pass their lives so shabbily? Why should one man be worse off than another? And that sensation of a spiritual kinship between himself [257] and all the underlings of the world, which had first come to him as he stood on Westminster Bridge, returned like a wave of melancholy over his heart. ”

“ The poor Pretender winced at this plain speaking.
“I trust, Count, you have not degraded my family Order,” he said, with a flash of pride.
“On the contrary, Prince, I have given it prestige in British eyes. Lord Alistair Stuart belongs to the highest nobility; his brother is Minister of the Interior. Permit me to assure you that the moment it becomes known that he has accepted the Order of the Holy Sepulchre its value will be greatly increased. You will be able to sell as many of the second and third classes as you like.” ”

“ It seemed to her that life could never be jolly again. Nothing had turned out as she had hoped. Marriage seemed to have made things worse instead of better. Alistair left her to herself as much as formerly, and when he was with her they had less and less to say to one another. And they became really poor. The Duke’s intentions as regards his brother’s allowance remained undeclared. In the meantime the South Kensington furniture, the copper saucepans, and the Cromwellian oak had been bought on the hire system, and there was trouble about the instalments. ”

“ But there is one eye keener than a mother’s, and that is a rival’s. The Home Secretary had read with angry jealousy the letters in which the Duchess described the growing intimacy between Alistair and Hero, and innocently indulged her hopeful anticipations. ”

“ The real censorships of books in every age had been exercised by human stupidity. The Index Expurgatorius of ignorance and spite was vaster than the British Museum Catalogue.
Stuart found himself more than half committed to the cause already. His effort on behalf of Don Juan, slight and unsuccessful as it had been, had brought him a letter of thanks from the Prince, and an invitation to call on him if Lord Alistair should ever find himself in Rome. Des Louvres continued to speak hopefully of the Pretender’s prospects. ”

“ Lord Astar admired her dress, and Elsie told him that she had sat up all the night before to finish it. She also informed him that the bonnet, or at least the bird which composed it, had been a present from King Tommy, of Yoolaman.
"And so the Prince is not your only royal admirer," said Lord Astar. "Are lower mortals privileged to lay tributes of loyalty at your feet?"
As he spoke, Elsie became suddenly aware that Blake was passing along the gangway behind her chair. She felt that he stopped, knew instinctively that he had heard Lord Astar's speech, and was waiting for her reply. ”

“ The Duchess waited till she and Trent were alone to broach the topic that was engrossing her thoughts.
“I think all is going well,” she said. “They seem quite wrapped up in each other. But I am still a little anxious about Alistair. The poor boy seems to be so much ashamed of his disgrace; he has told me that he does not think he is good enough for a girl like Hero Vanbrugh.” ”

“ It happened that the Duchess had literary tastes, she had heard of Stuart’s poems, and she engaged him in conversation on that ground.
“Have you given up writing?” she asked. “I don’t think you have published anything for a long time.”
“Everyone has given up writing,” Alistair returned with a bitterness that surprised himself. It had grown up in his mind unconsciously; his literary disappointments had become part of his general feud with the successful order of mankind.
The look on the face of the Princess made him hasten to explain himself.
“The English public will not tolerate literature ”

“ It would be [238] simpler to go under, to efface himself, and cease to keep before the world.
But he found that Molly was determined that he should go. She had made up her mind that the Prince’s invitation was a repudiation of the Duke of Trent, and an intimation that Stuart’s irregular connection with herself had not lowered him in the royal estimation.
Alistair, of course, knew better. He saw perfectly well that Prince Herbert’s reference to his family was a delicate way of saying that the visit must be a private one. ”

“ You must forgive my saying that Lord Alistair Stuart is a very black sheep indeed.”
“Alistair is not hopeless,” said the Duke, astonished to find himself defending his brother. “He is young yet, and he may settle down and marry some respectable woman.”
“Heaven forbid!” Sir Bernard Vanbrugh noted his listener’s bewilderment at this unexpected rejoinder. “The greatest service a man like your brother can render to society is to lead the life he is leading. Nature understands these things better than we do. ”

“ She drove to the Cooperage in her father’s carriage at the fashionable hour of the afternoon, walked up the yard without noticing its inmates, except by a nod in passing, and knocked at the bright green door.
It was opened by Alistair himself, who could not restrain an exclamation of pleasure.
“Is Lady Alistair at home?” Hero asked smilingly.
“You have come to call on her? That is good of you! She is upstairs; I will fetch her down.” ”

“ John was the only one who actually did.”
“In other words, my brother is the ringleader—is that so?”
“I think his lordship is the only one of the whole crew who has any pluck,” was the response. “He was in the chair when the thing was decided on.”
The Duke of Trent drew his lips together.
“Do you know where to find him?”
“I have men watching them all. Lord Alistair has stayed indoors all day.” The Chief Commissioner hesitated, and then went on. “Your Grace will excuse me if I refer to a private matter which perhaps you would wish to hear at once. ”

“ It could not have occurred to him in any case that the Duke of Trent’s brother was a probable aspirant to the prize which the Duke had failed to gain, and, in fact, his mind was so thoroughly armed against the possibility of Lord Alistair as a son-in-law that he never thought of him in any such connection.
He spoke of him freely to Hero, as he might have spoken of a character in some play which they had both seen.
“I like that scapegrace because he is so sincere,” he confided to her one evening after Stuart had left them. “He never seems to have acquired the habit of hypocrisy. ”

“ I write on behalf of my son Alistair. I hardly know how to express myself without seeming unkind, but you will understand what a shock it has been to his mother to see him in the Bankruptcy Court. He was here last night, and from what he has said to me I feel sure that you do not wish him ill. His only chance of salvation is an entire change of life, and that can only be brought about by your influence. The tremendous hold you have over him is my only excuse for appealing to you like this. ”

“ If I were a Catholic, I would go into a monastery, so as to leave her free. That is the last word of Christianity for a man like me. The last word of science is the lethal chamber.”
Sir Bernard had an inspiration.
“Why don’t you go back to Molly Finucane?”
Alistair fell back in his chair as if he had received a blow. He woke out of his dream. Sir Bernard was right, and his mother had been wrong. He had no business to unite his wrecked career with such a life as Hero Vanbrugh’s. Molly Finucane was the true match for him. She was a scapegoat like himself. ”

“ For he happened to be one of the few in whom the world is interested, and when the world is interested in a man it will not suffer [18] him to go down to sheol in peace. Its hisses are the reaction of its cheers, and those who court its notice put their lives to the hazard, like Esther when she went to touch the sceptre of Ahasuerus.
The world knew Alistair Stuart in two characters—as the brother and heir-presumptive of the Duke of Trent and Colonsay, and as the lover of Molly Finucane. ”

“ That dog of a prince, the Auersperg, tried to carry off Mademoiselle Julie in his automobile, but the young prince interfered and while they were quarreling I seized her and took her away. All the other women have escaped too."
"Thank God, Picard," exclaimed John, wringing the huge hand of the peasant, who was at once a peasant and a prince too.
"And look," said Carstairs, who with Wharton had approached unnoticed. "An aeroplane comes like the flight of an eagle, and my guess is poor if it is not our friend, the great Lannes." ”

“ Perhaps Lord Alistair’s transgressions had aroused in their breasts a secret fellow-feeling such as they could never have for their upright, decorous master. The conduct which had disgraced Lord Alistair in the eyes of his equals had made him a hero in theirs. Disgrace, after all, is a relative term; what is ignominy in the schoolroom is often glory in the playground. ”

“ Alistair was touched by his mother’s self-denial on his behalf, and cheered by Hero’s delicate sympathy. In the first flush of his new resolution, amid the distractions of his changed life, and buoyed up by the inspiration of his love, the path of reformation was made smooth for him. The gloomy feelings that had haunted him in London returned into the remote recesses of consciousness. The bright constellation of Ormuzd rose beckoning before him, and the dark [279] Sign of the Suffering One sank below the horizon of life. ”

“ In my view, I ought not to have to say, marriage is an infinitely more important step than the granting of a policy. Are you willing for me to examine you with the same care as if you were asking my employers to insure you for a few thousand pounds?”
The Duke opened his eyes. Not even Sir Bernard Vanbrugh’s reputation for originality—eccentricity it is called in Government departments—had prepared him for such a proposition. But any momentary irritation was quickly swallowed up in the comforting reflection: What sort of reception would this man give to Alistair! ”

“ A grimace of pain was Allister's only answer.
"And was the sleep of this poor worm's wise and illustrious benefactor filled with the jassmine-incense of celestial happiness?"
"May your flesh be jellied and your bones splintered," was Allister's discourteous shot into the trumpet. "May your ancestors——"
"Harmless is the bluster of the paper tiger," interrupted Ssu Yin, with a playful malice. He went on in a more kindly vein: "A gem cannot be polished without friction, or a man perfected without adversity. ”

“ It is as if diseased human nature instinctively sought its own remedy, as the suffering animal seeks out the herb possessed of healing powers.
As Alistair Stuart took his way through the mean streets of Lambeth and Vauxhall, with their narrow dirty pavements, their scanty shops at the street-corners and their taverns in which the only touches of brightness and prosperity seemed concentrated, he felt the temptation growing strong upon him. ”