nearly twenty-four hours later the chill of the wintry night had closed over the village of bellendean. the frosty weather had gone, and was replaced by the clammy dampness and heavily charged atmosphere of a thaw. there had been showers during the day, and a scotch mist had set in with the falling of the night. janet matheson and her old husband were sitting on either side of the fire. peter had got to feel the severity of the winter weather, and though he still did his day’s work, he was heavy and tired, and sat stretching his long limbs across the hearth with that desire for more rest which shows the flagging of the strength and spirit. janet on the other side of the fire was knitting the usual dark-grey stocking with yards of leg, which it was astonishing to think could be always wanted by one man. they were talking little. an observation once in half an hour or so, a little stir of response, and then the silence would fall over them again, unbroken by anything but the fall of the ashes from the grate, or the ticking of the clock. sometimes janet would carry on a little monologue for a few minutes, to which peter gave here and there a deep growl of reply; but there was little that could be called conversation between the old pair, who knew all each other’s thoughts, and were ‘company’ to each other without a word said. there were few sounds even outside: now and then a heavy foot going by: now and then a boy running in his heavy shoes on some cold errand. the cold and the rain had sent indoors all the usual stragglers of the night.
‘yon letter’s near a week auld,’ said peter. they had not been talking of joyce; but a quarter of an hour before had briefly, with a few straggling remarks at long intervals, discussed the crop which ‘the maister’ had settled upon for the long park, a selection of which peter did not approve; but no explanation was needed for this introduction of a new subject. there could be no doubt between them as to what ‘yon letter’ meant.
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‘there’ll be anither the morn,’ said janet, ‘when she has passed the thursday, it aye comes on the saturday. she will have been thrang with something or other. it’s the time coming on for a’ thae pairties and balls.’
peter gave a long low subterraneous laugh. ‘it would be a queer thing,’ he said, ‘for you and me to see oor joyce at ane o’ thae grand balls.’
‘and wherefore no?’ said janet. ‘take you my word for’t, she’ll aye be ane o’ the bonniest there.’
‘i’m no doubtin’ that,’ he said; and silence fell again over the cottage kitchen—silence broken only after a long time by an impatient sigh from janet, who had just cast off her stocking, rounding the ample toe.
‘eh,’ she said, ‘just to hae ae glimpse of her! i would ken in a moment.’
‘what are ye wantin’ to ken?’
‘oh, naething,’ said janet, putting down the finished stocking after pulling it into shape and smoothing it with her hand. she took up her needles again and pulled out a long piece of worsted to set on the other, with again a suppressed sigh.
‘siching and sabbing never mean naething,’ said peter oracularly.
‘weel, weel! i would like to see in her bonnie face that she’s happy amang thae strange folk. if ye maun ken every thocht that comes into a body’s heart——’
‘hae ye ony reason——’ said peter, and then paused with a ghost of his usual laugh. ‘ye’re just that conceited, ye think she canna be happy but with you and me.’
‘it’s maybe just that,’ said janet.
‘it’s just that. she has mair to mak’ her happy than the like of us ever heard tell of. i wouldna wonder if ye were just jealous—o’ a’ thae enterteenments.’
‘i wouldna wonder,’ janet said. and then there was a long silence again.
presently a faint sound of footsteps approaching from a distance came muffled from the silence outside. the old people, with their rural habit of attention to all such passing sounds, listened unawares each on their side. light steps in light shoes, not any of the heavy walkers of bellendean. would it be somebody from the manse coming from the station? or maybe one of the maids from the house? they both listened without any conscious reason, as village people do. at last peter spoke—
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—
‘if she wasna hunders o’ miles away, i would say that was her step.’
‘dinna speak such nonsense,’ said janet. then suddenly throwing down her needles with a cry, ‘it’s somebody coming here!—whisht, whisht,’ she added to herself, ‘that auld man’s blethers puts nonsense in a body’s heid.’ janet rose up to her feet with an agitated cry. some one had touched the latch. she rushed to the door and turned the key— ‘we were just gaun to oor beds,’ she cried, in a tone of apology.
and then the door was pushed open from without. the old woman uttered a shriek of wonder and joy, yet alarm, and with a great noise old peter stumbled to his feet.
it was her or her ghost. the rain glistening upon her hat and her shoulders—her eyes shining like brighter drops of dew—a colour on her cheeks from the outdoor air, a gust of the fragrance of that outdoor atmosphere—the ‘caller air’ that had always breathed about joyce—coming in with her. she stood and smiled and said, ‘it’s me,’ as if she had come home after a day’s absence, as if no chasm of time and distance had ever opened between.
no words can ever describe the agitated moment of such a return, especially when so unexpected and strange, exciting feelings of fear as well as delight. they took her in, they brought her to the fire, they took off her cloak which was wet, and the hat that was ornamented like jewels with glistening drops of the scotch mist. they made her sit down, touching her shoulders, her hair, her arms, the very folds of her dress, with fond caressing touches, laughing and crying over her. poor old peter was inarticulate in his joy and emotion. nothing but a succession of those low rolling laughs would come from him, and great lakes of moisture were standing under the furrows of his old eyebrows. he sat down opposite to her, and did nothing but gaze at her with a tenderness unspeakable, the ecstasy which was beyond all expression. janet retained her power of movement and of speech.
‘eh, my bonnie lamb! eh, my ain bairn! you’ve come back to see your auld folk. and the lord bless you, my darlin’! it’s an ill nicht for the like of you—but we’ll warm you and dry you if we can do naething mair; and there’s your ain wee room aye ready, and oh, a joyfu’ welcome, a joyfu’ welcome!’
‘no, granny, i cannot go back to my own room. i’ve come but for a moment. i’m going away on a journey, and there’s little time, little time. but i couldn’t pass by——’
‘pass by—— no, that would ha’ been a bonny business,’ said peter, with his laugh—‘to have passed by.
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’
joyce told them an incoherent story about a ship that was to sail to-night. ‘i am going from leith—and there was just an hour or two—and i must be back by the nine o’clock train. it’s not very long, but i must not lose my ship.’
‘and are they with you, joyce, waitin’ for you? and whatfor did ye no bring the cornel? the cornal wasna proud—he didna disdain the wee bit place. and no even a maid with ye to take care of ye! oh ay, my bonnie woman, weel i understand that—you would have naebody with ye to disturb us, but just a’ to oorsels——’
‘ony fule,’ said peter, ‘would see that.’
‘we’re a’ just fules,’ said janet, ‘for weel i see that, and yet i’m no sure i’m pleased that she’s let to come her lane—for i would have her guarded that nae strange wind, no, nor the rain, should touch her. i’m wantin’ twa impossible things—that she should be attendit like a princess, and yet that we should have her her lane, a’ to you and me.’
‘it’s very cold outside,’ said joyce, ‘and oh, so warm and cosy here! i have never seen a place so warm nor so like home since i went away. granny, will you mask some tea though it’s so late? i think i would like a cup of tea.’
‘that will i!’ cried janet, with a sense of pleasure such as a queen might feel when her most beloved child asked her for a duchy or a diamond. her face shone with pure satisfaction and delight, and her questions ran on as she moved to and fro, making the kettle boil (which was always just on the eve of boiling), getting out her china teapot, her best things, ‘for we maun do her a’ honour, like a grand visitor, though she’s our ain bairn and no the least changed——’ these observations janet addressed to peter, though they were mingled with a hundred tender things to joyce, and so mixed that the change of the person was hard to follow.
‘whatfor should she be changed?’ said peter, with his tremulous growl of happiness. the old man sat, with an occasional earthquake of inward laughter passing over him, never taking his eyes from her. he was less critical than janet; no suspicions or fears were in his mind. he took her own account of herself with profound faith. whatfor should she be changed? whatfor should she be otherwise than happy? she had come to see them in the moment she had in the middle of her journey, alone, as was natural—for anybody with her would have made a different thing of it altogether, and weel did joyce ken that. he was thoroughly satisfied, and more blessed than words could say. he sat well
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pleased and listened, while janet told her everything that had passed. although it had been told in letters, word of mouth was another thing, and joyce had a hundred questions to put. she was far more concerned to hear everything that could be told her than to tell about herself; but if peter remarked this at all, it was only as a perfection the more in his ‘bonnie woman’—his good lassie that never thought of herself.
‘and oh, but the captain was kind, kind!’ said janet. ‘he came and sat where ye are sitten’, my bonnie doo, and just tauld me everything i wanted to ken—how ye were looking, and the way ye were speaking, and that you and the cornel were great friends, and the very things ye were dressed in, joyce. he must have taken an awfu’ deal of notice to mind everything. he would just come and sit for hoors——’
joyce moved her seat a little farther from the fire. the heat was great, and had caught her cheek and made it flush. it grew white again when she withdrew from the glow, but she smiled and said in a low tone, ‘he is very kind: and you would see the lady, granny, and miss greta.’
‘no for a long time. you had always a great troke with them, joyce, and they with you, but when once my bonnie bird was flown, it’s little they thought of your old granny. there was a great steer about the captain and her, but i kenna if it was true. there’s aye a talk aboot something, but the half o’t is lees. he’s owre good for her, it’s my opinion. i’ve a real soft corner for the captain.’
‘he kent the way to get roond ye,’ said peter, ‘aye flatterin’ aboot that bit lassie there.’
‘he was real kind. he would just sit for hours, and mind everything.’
‘granny,’ cried joyce, interrupting hastily, ‘you have told me nothing about the new mistress, and how she took up my place.’
‘but i wrote it a’ down in my letters,’ said janet. ‘that’s no like word of mouth, you’re thinking? well, you see, joyce’—and janet went over the whole career of the new schoolmistress, who had not given entire satisfaction. ‘as wha could?’ said the old woman. ‘ye just spoiled them, they could get nobody that would have pleased them after you.’
‘you’re no asking aboot andrew,’ said peter.
‘eh, poor lad!’ cried janet, ‘i wouldna have wondered if he had come ower the nicht: but now it’s too late.’
‘granny,’ cried joyce, with a little cry of alarm, ‘you’ll say nothing to andrew? oh, not a word! never let him know i
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was here. i would fain, fain not be unkind—but there are some things that cannot be. oh, i was very silly, i should have known. you’ll tell him to think of me no more—that i’m not worthy of it; but, oh, never tell i’ve been here.’
‘no, my bonnie lamb, no, my ain dear. he never was worthy o’ you. he shall hear not a word—nor nae ither person, if that’s your pleasure, joyce.’
‘oh, granny dear! but it’s time now, and i must go.’
janet’s heart was very heavy; but there was no time for questions, and she saw that joyce was little disposed to explain. ‘we’ll go with her to the station, and see her off,’ she said, taking her big shawl out of the aumrie. ‘i’m laith, laith to part with you, joyce: but it would be nae kindness to make ye late, and they’ll be meeting you at the train.’
‘i must not be late,’ joyce replied. she looked round with a faint smile, and tears were in her eyes, and her lips moved as if she was saying something. janet’s heart was sore for her child. why was she left to travel all alone in a wild and dark night like this? why should she say nothing of her father, or of any one that was with her? janet’s mind misgave her—she was full of fears: joyce was ‘no hersel’. she was very loving, very tender, and smiled, and tried to look at ease; but she could not deceive the old woman whom love enlightened, who knew all her ways and her looks. there was something in her eyes which janet did not know. she did not understand what it meant, but it meant trouble. there was trouble written all over joyce. her fond old guardian knew not what it was, only knew it was there.
the two old people went to the station with her through the windy, weeping night, saying little on either side. joyce clasped her old grandmother’s arm tightly in hers, but scarcely spoke, and peter stalked beside them, half exhilarated, half heart-broken—he did not know which. to have had her for a little was sweet, but then to see her go away. she clung to them, crying quietly under her veil, as they put her into a corner of a vacant carriage—not without a forlorn pride that it was first class—and wrapped her cloak round her. they had no fine phrases, but to smooth the folds of her dress, to tuck the cloak round her, was always some faint satisfaction. ‘i’ll write,’ she said, ‘as soon as i can, but it may be long. you’ll not lose heart, only wait, wait, and i’ll write——’
‘oh, my darlin’, we’ll wait—but, joyce, where are you goin’, where are you goin’, that you speak like that?’
‘good-bye, grandfather,—good-bye, granny, dear granny!’
janet clutched peter with a grasp that hurt even that old arm
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of his, all muscle and sinew. ‘noo,’ she said, in an imperative whisper, ‘gang hame to your bed: i’m goin’ after her. dinna say a word to me, but gang hame to you bed. i’ll come back the morn’s morning, or as soon as i can.’
‘gaun after her! and what good will that do her?’ cried peter in consternation.
‘at least, i’ll see her safe,’ said janet, clambering into a third-class carriage. the train was almost in motion, and carried her off before her astonished husband could say another word. the old man stood bewildered, and looked after the train which carried them both from him. but he had that inexhaustible rural patience which makes so many things supportable. after a few minutes he went away, slowly shaking his head. ‘she has nae ticket,’ he said to himself, ‘and little money in her pooch, and what guid can she do in ony case?’ but after a while he obeyed janet’s injunction and went slowly home.
it was hard work for janet to keep sight of joyce when they came to the great edinburgh station: she was little accustomed to crowds—to be hustled and pushed about as a poor old woman getting out of a third-class carriage so often is: but fortunately her eyes had kept the long sight of youth, and she managed to trace the movements of her child. one thing was sure, that nobody was there to meet joyce, not even a maid. the girl made her way by dark passages and corners to the place where another little train was starting for leith, where janet followed her breathless. it was very raw and cold, windy and gusty, the wind blowing about the light of the lamps, driving wild clouds across the sky, dashing rain from time to time against the carriage windows, and the atmosphere was dreary with a sense of the wilder darkness of the approaching sea. presently they came to the port and to the quay, where a confused mass of vessels, made half visible by the flaring melancholy lights, lay together, with lamps swinging at their masts. the pavement was wet and slippery, the wind was keen and cold, and blew blasts of stinging rain like tears over her face as she toiled along. but she never lost sight of joyce. the firth was tumbling in dark waves, faintly visible in a liquid line, apparent at least so far that it was not solid earth, but something wilder, more dreadful, insecure—and it raved and dashed against the pier and the sides of the ships, sometimes sending up a leaping white vision of spray like something flying at your throat, and always a sound as of contending voices, the shout of oncoming, the long grinding drag of the withdrawal as wave followed wave. the boats moved and creaked at anchor, the lamps and dim masts
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and funnels rising and falling. there were gangways each with its little coloured smoky lamp, from one steamboat to another, lying ready to start, three or four deep against the pier. janet saw the solitary figure which she had tracked so long pause, as if with a moment’s hesitation, at the first of these gangways, and she made a rush forward at the last after this long course, to grip her child by the dress, by whatever thing she could clutch and hold, and cry, ‘no, no; you’ll gang no further! oh, joyce, my bairn, you’ll gang no further!’ but she slipped and fell, being exhausted with the long and weary walk, and, breathless with labour and fatigue, could get nothing out but a panting no, no, which had no meaning. when she got to her feet again the slim figure was gone. she thought she could trace it on the farthest point, standing upon the paddle-box of the steamer, and ever after believed that the speck of whiteness in the dark was joyce’s face turned back towards home. that was the last she saw.
the old woman stood upon the pier for long after. she stood and watched while a few other passengers arrived, talking dolefully about the stormy night, and tried to take a little comfort thinking that perhaps ‘the cornel’ might be among them, and joyce after all have a protector and companions. there was one tall man, indeed, speaking ‘high english,’ whom janet almost made up her mind, with an unspeakable lightening of her heart, must be ‘the cornel.’ her old eyes could not trace him through the maze of the steamboats to the one upon which she had kept a despairing watch: but fatigue and misery had by this time dimmed her faculties. then that farthest boat, the one that held her child, with shouts and shrieks of steam, and lights wavering through the gloom, and every dreadful noise, got into motion, and went out upon the tumbling, stormy sea. janet watched the light rising and sinking, the only thing visible, till that too disappeared in the darkness. and then all was quiet but the booming of the firth against the piers, and the creek and jar of the other steamboats preparing to follow. she withdrew a little and leant against a post, and dried her eyes with a trembling hand. ‘oh, my bairn! my bairn!’ she said to herself.
‘what ails the woman?’ said the watchman on the pier. ‘there’s naething to make a wark about; they’ll get a bit heezy, but nae danger. it’ll be a son or a daughter ye’ve been seeing off.’
‘oh, man, i’m thankful to you!’ said janet. ‘are they a’ for the same airt.’
‘they’re a’ for the far north,’ said the watchman, continuing his heavy march.
