Leslie Cairns

“ They knew a great many other derogatory facts about Leslie Cairns and her methods which they kept strictly sub rosa.
Doris was ready to welcome Leslie with warmth. She sorely lacked companions of interest. She had begun to grow bored to satiety by admiration. The freshies’ and sophs’ adoration for her was too superficial to be satisfying. They enjoyed rushing the college beauty. Each class liked to parade her on the campus and fête her at Baretti’s, the Colonial or at their pet Hamilton tea shops as a triumphant class trophy. She was selfish, but not shallow ”

“ Peter Cairns spoke with a finality which set Leslie’s heart to pounding violently.
“My car was built for speed and I know how to get the speed out of it without arousing the natives. Look out, and don’t get pinched.” Leslie brought her car up on an exact line with the racer. “One, two, three, go to it,” she called animatedly. Then she was off over the pike on not only a go-as-you please race to Hamilton. ”

“ Greater than the knowledge that their work could now go on, was the wonder of the partners at the summary defeat of Leslie Cairns’s dishonorable scheme. Peter Graham was more concerned with the return of the workmen than anything else. He had not passed through three trying years on the campus with Leslie Cairns always a menace. Guiseppe Baretti was filled with secret bliss over one lovely fact. Peter Car-rins had received his letter.
Meanwhile Baretti’s new roadster had hardly made port at the inn when Leslie Cairns turned her car into Hamilton Pike, bent on a visit to her garage site. ”

“ In short, Baretti would have seen Leslie Cairns and Peter Cairns meet precisely in front of the east-end gates of the campus.
190 CHAPTER XXII.
A BUSINESS PROPOSAL “Run your car off to one side where it won’t interfere with the traffic.” The financier ordered Leslie about precisely as he might have ordered one of his men. His tones reached her, coldly concise, entirely devoid of affection. “There, that will do.” He skillfully manipulated the racer to a point parallel with her car, but out of the way of passing automobiles. ”

“ A “QUEER CATCH” “And from today on we shall be driven slaves, bound by the order of good-intentioned Travelers to the ill-fare and welfare of Hamilton,” Leila Harper proclaimed dramatically to Leslie Cairns as she entered Room 15 at Wayland Hall in answer to Leslie’s call of “Come.”
“I can stand it if you can,” Leslie returned imperturbably as she gave a final pat to her smartly-coiffed head and viewed the effect with commendable satisfaction. “Thanks to a permanent wave. I’m not quite so ugly as I used to be,” she told Leila with a half sardonic smile. ”

“ Marjorie laid Leslie’s letter on the willow magazine stand with a little sigh.
“There will be.” Ronny made the assertion with positiveness. “What a splendid thing for Leslie Cairns to wish to do! The way will open for her. You’ll see. She is trying earnestly to think of everyone but herself. And that is truly the only sure road to the heart’s desire.”
27 CHAPTER IV.
A TWILIGHT SERENADE After dinner that night in the beautiful summer dining room which opened upon a broad side veranda, tropically picturesque with palms and oleanders, Marjorie and Ronny repaired to their favorite haunt. ”

“ Lead really useful lives, you know,” Vera announced with joking energy.
“Midget is that ambitious!” Leila became colloquially Celtic.
Vera’s light announcement brought forth plenty of similar jesting resolves from the others. With 76conversation flowing in a purely personal channel Leslie Cairns’ name was not mentioned again. Having pledged their word to do all they could to help her six of the reunited Travelers were only too well content to allow the subject to drop. They had not yet come to the stage of regarding Leslie from Marjorie’s great-spirited viewpoint. ”

“ Now she handed Leslie the letter from Peter Cairns.
“Uh-h-h-h!” Leslie dropped down on a gilt-framed, pale-hued Dresden settee with a pretense of total collapse. Next second she sat up with a jerk. “Gaylord, I beg your pardon for ragging you. You seem to be a good sport,” was her half-humorous apology.
Mrs. Gaylord with difficulty maintained a grave 158face. Strangely enough, at heart she did not dislike Leslie. Constant companionship with the financier’s long-neglected daughter from the standpoint of a duenna had shown her plainly all Leslie’s faults and virtues. ”

“ I know her to be great-spirited. She wishes to help Leslie.”
“My own belief,” came the hearty reply. “After all, Miss Marjorie, the burden of Miss Cairns’ offenses were against yourself, Miss Remson and myself.” The president smiled rather wryly. “You have chosen to eliminate yourself in the problem. 89I can do no better than to emulate your fine example of true Christian spirit. It remains for Miss Remson to speak her mind. In confidence I will say that the personal side of Miss Remson’s and my grievances against Miss Cairns were never brought before the Board. ”

“ We’re all Travelers together you know, sworn to share each other’s joys and sorrows. If you do, then——”
“No, I don’t; not the least bit.” Leslie was smiling now. “I thought for a minute I did; 84but not now. The gang will support me during the ordeal,” she concluded humorously.
“Now it seems we know something of what we are about to be doing, and still not much of anything. Let us do ourselves proud as escorts, and then see what happens.” Leila made a sweeping bow to Leslie, crooking an inviting arm. “Will you kindly be taking my Irish arm, Miss Cairns?” ”

“ Another brother, James, a young man of vigorous mental powers, and originally of stalwart physique, who had been working at his trade as a tailor in Glasgow, fell into bad health, which soon showed the symptoms of rapid consumption. He came home hoping to benefit by the change, but it became increasingly clear that he had only come home to die. He lingered till the autumn, and passed away at Oldcambus at the end of September. It was with this background of change and shadow that the ordination of John Cairns took place at Berwick on August 6, 1845. ”

“ With graceful precision, he made his way to his hostess and took faultless leave of her, Cairns and Ledyard attempting vainly to imitate his poise, urbanity and self-possession.
The icy air of the street did Cairns good and aided Ledyard. So they got themselves out across the sidewalk and ultimately into Desboro's town car, which was waiting, as usual.
"Little bunny-hugging, bread-and-butter beasts," muttered Ledyard to himself. "Lord! Don't they want us to draw the line between them and the sort we're to meet at supper?"
"They're jus' fools," said Cairns. "No harm in 'em! ”

“ A few weeks later he and his sister removed to Edinburgh, where they were joined in the autumn by their brother William. William Cairns, who had been schoolmaster at Oldcambus for thirty-two years, was in many respects a notable man. Deprived, as we have seen, in early manhood of the power of walking, he had set himself to improve his mind and had acquired a great store of general information. He was shrewd, humorous, genial, and intensely human, and had made himself the centre of a large circle of friends, many of whom were to be found far beyond the bounds of his native parish and county. ”

“ South-eastwards, a few miles along the coast, lay Berwick-on-Tweed, the scene of John Cairns's future labours as a minister; while away in the opposite direction, in the heart of the Lammermoors, near the headwaters of the Whitadder and the Dye, was the home of his immediate ancestors. These were tenants of large sheep-farms; but, through adverse circumstances, his grandfather, Thomas Cairns, unable to take a farm of his own, had to earn his living as a shepherd. ”

“ Russell was the son of a Perthshire parish minister, but his parents were dead, and he lived with an uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Wilson, whose own family consisted of two sons and three daughters. Cairns was introduced by Russell to the Wilson family, and soon became intimate with them. His special friend—at last the dearest friend he had in this world—was the younger son, George, afterwards the well-known chemist and Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh. No two men could be less alike—George Wilson with a bright, alert, nimble mind ”

“ His three nephews, who during the Edinburgh period were staying in town studying for the ministry, always spent Saturday afternoon at Spence Street, and sometimes a student friend would come with them. Dr. Cairns was usually free on such occasions to devote an hour or two to his young friends. He was always ready to enter into discussions on philosophical problems that happened to be interesting them, and the power and ease with which he dealt with these gave an impression as of one heaving up and pitching about huge masses of rock. ”

“ She saw Cairns as an average man, neither good nor evil, a son of his father and the seed thereof, bound by a strict code of honour and a lax code of morals. She saw him as a dull man with the superficial polish that even the roughest pebble acquires in the stream of life. ”

“ John Cairns first went to Mr. M'Gregor's school when the family removed to Cockburnspath from Aikieside, and he made such progress that two years later, when he was ten years old, the master proposed that he should join a Latin class which was then being formed. This proposal caused great searchings of heart at home. His father, with anxious conscientiousness, debated with himself as to whether it would be right for him thus to set one of his sons above the rest. He could not afford to have them all taught Latin, so would it be fair to the others that John should be thus singled out from them? ”

“ A few years earlier a new manse had been secured for the minister. This manse is the end house of a row of three called Wellington Terrace. These stand just within the old town walls, which are here pierced by wide embrasures. They are separated from the walls by a broad walk and a row of grass-plots, alternating with paved spaces opposite the embrasures, on which cannon were once planted. The manse faces south, and is roomy and commodious. When Dr. Cairns moved into it, he had an elderly servant as his housekeeper, of whom he is said to have been not a little afraid ”

“ The lower floor was at least wrapped in silence—even little Matilda was in bed—when Winifred, in the pretty coral gown that set off her dark hair and eyes, ran down at last at the sound of Leslie's step, to greet a short, veiled lady.
"Here we are, Win—Della and the boy, and all. She wants to go straight to her room, first."
"Yes, indeed! I'm very glad to see you, Mrs. Bosby. You'll have to step on these boards to reach the stairs. Will you come right up?"
"It is very good of you to have us," said the visitor, in a sweet, low voice. "I trust you won't take any trouble for us." ”

“ They were nearing Aden, though nothing on the mauve horizon told of the outpost where the filth of the East begins to overwhelm the ugliness of the West. Victoria and Cairns were leaning on the starboard bulwark. She was looking vacuously into the greying sky, conscious that Cairns was watching her. She felt with extraordinary clearness that he was gazing as if spell-bound at the soft and regular rise and fall of her skin towards the coarse black openwork of her bodice. Far away in the twilight was something long and black, hardly more than a line vanishing towards the north. ”

“ Meanwhile, in August 1867, Cairns became professor of apologetics in the United Presbyterian Theological Hall, retaining his charge at Berwick. His students testify to his zeal and success, especially recalling his insistence on the essential harmony between culture and reason. His numerous engagements impaired his strength, and in the autumn of 1868 he recruited on the continent, continuing the process next spring by a walking tour on the Scottish borders, and spending the following autumn in Italy. ”

“ At this point, the ladies all became pale, a great many of them said, “O, Lord!” fervently, and turned away; while we stronger-hearted men gazed on with the most absorbing interest and anxiety. Leslie soon regained his composure and equilibrium, and resumed his perilous walk.
On reaching the Canada side, he was saluted with thunders of applause from both shores and the bridge; and, after resting awhile, and taking a glass of lemonade (probably) , he again stepped upon the rope, balancing-pole in hand, and a coffee-sack over his head. ”

“ Yet if in this respect Cairns failed to reach a level worthy of his splendid intellect, the defect was due not to any selfish view of his own interest, but rather to the narrowness of the groove into which his mind had fallen, and to the atmosphere of Orange sentiment in which he had grown up. As a politician he is already beginning to be forgotten; but as a judge he will be held in honourable remembrance as one of the five or six most brilliant luminaries that have adorned the English bench since those remote days [29] in which the beginning of legal memory is placed. ”

“ In 1877 Cairns, as a sort of reparation, appointed Lord Chelmsford's son, Alfred Henry Thesiger [q. v.] , a lord-justice of the appeal court. On the defeat of the conservatives at the general election, Cairns resigned with Mr. Disraeli, and after Lord Derby's death (23 Oct. 1869) led the opposition in the House of Lords. His resistance to the disestablishment of the Irish church was vigorous and tenacious. ”

“ David Cairns, who had fortunately arrived the evening before. His brother William, on account of his bodily infirmity, remained below. The end was evidently near, but he was conscious at intervals, and his voice when he spoke was clear and firm. "You are very ill, John," said his brother. "Oh no," he replied, "I feel much better." "But you are in good hands?" "Yes, in the best of hands." Then his mind began to wander, and he spoke more brokenly: "There is a great battle to fight, but the victory is sure ... God in Christ ... Good men must unite and identify themselves with the cause." ”