the march sun shone clear and cold on grey staneholme, standing on the verge of a wide moor, with the [page 180]troubled german ocean for a background, and the piping east wind rattling each casement. there was haste and hurry in staneholme, from the laird's mother down through her buxom merry daughters to the bareheaded servant-lasses, and the substitutes for groom and lacquey, in coarse homespun, and honest, broad blue bonnets. there was bustle in the little dining-room with its high windows, which the sea-foam sometimes dimmed, and its spindle-legged chairs and smoked pictures. there was blithe work in the cheerful hall, in whose broad chimney great seacoal fires blazed—at whose humming wheels the young mays of staneholme, as well as its dependants, still took their morning turn. there was willing toil in the sleeping-rooms, with their black cabinets and heavy worsted curtains. and there was a thronged mêlée in the court formed by the outhouses, over whose walls the small-leaved ivy of the coast clustered untreasured. staneholme's favourite horse was rubbing down; and staneholme's dogs were airing in couples. even the tenantry of the never-failing pigeon-house at the corner of the old garden were in turmoil, for half-a-score of their number had been transferred to the kitchen this morning to fill the goodly pasties which were to anticipate the blackberry tarts and sweet puddings, freezing in rich cream. but the sun had sunk behind the moor where the broom was only budding, and the last sea-mew had flown to its scaur, and the smouldering whins had leaped up into the first yellow flame of the bonfires, and the more shifting, fantastic, brilliant banners of the aurora borealis shot across the frosty sky, before the first faint shout announced that staneholme and his lady [page 181]had come home. with his wife behind him on his bay, with pistols at his saddle-bow, and "jock" on "the long-tailed yad" at his back, with tenant retainers and veteran domestics pressing round—and ringing shouts and homely huzzas and good wishes filling the air, already heavy with the smoke of good cheer—staneholme rode in. he lifted down an unresisting burden, took in his a damp, passive hand, and throwing over his shoulder brief, broken thanks, hurried up the flight of stairs, through the rambling, crooked passages into the hall.
staneholme was always a man of few words. he was taken up, as was right, with the little lady, whose habit trailed behind her, and who never raised her modest eyes. "well-a-day! the laird's bargain was of sma' buik," thought the retainers, but "hurrah" for the fat brose and lumps of corned beef, and the ale and the whisky, with which they are now to be regaled!
in the hall stood joan and madge and mysie, panting to see their grand edinburgh sister. they were only hindered from running down into the yard by the deposed mistress of staneholme, whose hair was as white as snow, and who wore no mode mantle nor furbelows nor laces, like proud lady carnegie. she was dressed in a warm plaiden gown and a close mob cap, with huge keys and huswife balancing each other at either pocket-hole, and her cracked voice was very sweet as she reiterated "bide till he bring her here, my bairns," and her kindly smile was motherly to the whole world. but think you poor vanquished nelly carnegie's crushed heart leapt up to meet these homes—that her eyes glanced cordially at joan, [page 182]and madge, and mysie—that her cheek was bent gratefully to receive old lady staneholme's caress? no, no; nelly was too wretched to cry, but she stood there like a marble statue, and with no more feeling, or show of feeling. was this colourless, motionless young girl, in her dusty, disarranged habit, and the feather of her hat ruffled by the wind, the gay edinburgh beauty who had won staneholme! what glamour of perverse fashion had she cast into his eyes!
"wae's me, will dule never end in this weary warld? adam lad, adam, what doom have you dragged doon on yoursel'?" cried lady staneholme; and while the thoughtless, self-absorbed girls drew back in disappointment, she met her son's proud eyes, and stepping past him, let her hand press lightly for a second on his shoulder as she took in hers nelly's lifeless fingers. she said simply to the bride, "you are cold and weary, my dear, and supper is served, and we'll no bide making compliments, but you're welcome hame to your ain gudeman's house and folk; and so i'll lead you to your chamber in staneholme, and then to the table-head, your future place." and on the way she explained first with noble humility that she did not wait for a rejoinder, because she had been deaf ever since staneholme rode post haste from edinburgh from the last sitting of the parliament; and that since she was growing old, although it was pleasant to her to serve the bairns, yet she would be glad to relinquish her cares, and retire to the chimney-corner to her wheel and her book; and she blessed the lord that she had lived to see the young mistress of staneholme who would guide the house[page 183]hold when she was at her rest. nelly heard not, did not care to recognise that the lady of staneholme, in her looks, words, and actions, was beautiful with the rare beauty of a meek, quiet, loving spirit which in those troublous days had budded and bloomed and been mellowed by time and trial. nor did nelly pause to consider that had she chosen, she whose own mother's heart had never melted towards her, might have been nestled in that bosom as in an ark of peace.
when lady staneholme conducted nelly down the wide staircase into the chill dining-room, and to the chair opposite the claret-jug of the master of the house, nelly drew back with sullen determination.
"na, but, my bairn, i'm blithe for you to fill my place; staneholme's mither may well make room for staneholme's wife," urged the lady, gently.
but nelly remained childishly rooted in her refusal to preside at his board, unless compelled; and her brow, knit at the remembrance of her fall, was set to meet the further encounter. joan and madge and mysie, with their blooming cheeks, and their kissing-strings new for the occasion, stared as if their strange sister was but half endowed with mother wit; and lady staneholme hesitated until adam home uttered his short, emphatic "as she pleases, mother," while the flush flew to his forehead, and his firm lip shook.
staneholme had resolved never to control the wife he had forced into his arms, beyond the cold, daily intercourse which men will interchange with a deadly foe, as well as with a trusty frere; never to approach her side, nor [page 184]attempt to assuage her malice nor court her frozen lips into a smile. this was his purpose, and he abode by it. he farmed his land, he hunted, and speared salmon, was rocked in his fishing-boat as far as st. abbs, read political pamphlets, and sat late over his wine, and sometimes abetted the bold smuggling, much like his contemporaries. but no pursuit which he followed with fitful excess seemed to satisfy him as it did others, and he never sought to supplement it by courting his alien wife.
lady staneholme would fain have made her town-bred daughter-in-law enamoured with the duties of a country life, and cheered the strange joylessness of her honeymoon. failing in this attempt, she, with a covert sigh, half-pain, half-pleasure, resumed the old oversight of larder and dairy. such care was then the delight of many an unsophisticated laird's helpmate; and, to the contented lady of staneholme, it had quite made up for the partial deprivation of social intercourse to which her infirmity had subjected her. joan, madge, and mysie, wearied of haughty nelly after they had grown accustomed to the grand attire she wore, denied that they had ever been dazzled with it, and ceased to believe that she had danced minuets in the assembly rooms before miss jacky murray. they had their own company and their own stories, into which they had no temptation to drag an interloper.
nelly, in her desolation standing apart in the centre of the wholesome, happy family circle, grew to have her peculiar habits and occupations, her self-contained life into which none of the others could penetrate.
