The Twa Miss Dawsons Part 28

"No' the nicht, I think, Geordie."

Then they shook hands and the mate went rapidly down the street, and the others were more than half way to Saughleas before George uttered a word.

That night Willie Calderwood startled his mother by saying suddenly after a long time of silence,--

"I am off to-morrow morning for Liverpool, mother. I have a letter that I meant to show to George, but I couldna, and you must tell him. I have a chance to be second officer on one of the great ocean steams.h.i.+ps.

What do you think of that, mother? I think I'll take it."

"Then you've given up all thoughts of the 'John Seaton'?"

"Yes. This is a far better post--as you must see, mother, with a chance of promotion. I mean to command one of these fine s.h.i.+ps yet."

"But must you go so soon? You are expected to go to the marriage to-morrow."

"Yes. And I would have liked to see the last o' May Dawson. But 'business before pleasure,' ye ken, mother; and n.o.body will miss me, I dare say. And Marion will say all that is needful to the bride."

Willie spoke cheerily--too cheerily, his mother thought, to be quite natural. "No thought of Jean Dawson shall ever come between my mother and me," Willie was thinking. "Even if she cared for me, it could never be; and I must get away from the sight of her, or I shall do something foolish, and give my mother all the old pain over again." Then after a long time of silence, he said, "If you were to live in Liverpool, or near it, mother, I could see you oftener than if I had to come to Portie."

"Yes, I have been thinking of that."

"Marion wouldna like it?"

"No, I dare say not. But it might be well for her to have a change."

"Well, then, that is settled. But there need be no haste, mother."

"A month or two sooner or later would make little difference."

And then they were silent again. Mrs Calderwood was thinking, "I am sorrier for her than I am for him. He is a man, with a man's work to do, and he will forget her. But as for Jean--she's no' the kind of woman to forget."

So Willie kissed his sister in her morning sleep, and was away long before she opened her eyes on May's marriage day. If any one but his sister missed him amid the gay doings of the day, no one said so. The eyes and thoughts of all were on the bride and her attendant maidens, and it was a sight worth seeing.

May behaved as a bride should, who of her own free will is leaving her father's house to go to the house of her husband. Jean stood by her and her quietness kept the bride quiet also. But even Jean's colour changed many times as they stood with all the kindly admiring eyes upon them.

And when the ceremony was over, and the breakfast, and the speech-making, and the few painful moments of lingering that followed, and the happy bridegroom had at last gone away with his bonny bride, then n.o.body saw Jean till a long hour and more was over.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

ANOTHER PROPOSAL.

Captain Harefield was at the wedding an honoured guest, as all could see, and for a very good reason, it was said. Through the Blackford groom, it had come to be known in Portie that a change had fallen on the fortunes of Captain Harefield.

Through the sad and sudden death of a distant cousin, he had become heir to a large estate in one of the southern English counties, and though he might have a while to wait for the full enjoyment of his inheritance, and for the tide that was to come with it, there was in the mean time a happy change in his circ.u.mstances as far as money was concerned. He had not come to Blackford House this time, to escape duns. And his sister had not come to take care of him.

The chances were that he had an object in view in coming, and on the wedding day more than one of those who saw the looks he cast at the bride and her maidens, had felt satisfied as to what that object might be. Mr Dawson was one of these.

There were several guests still in the house, when a week had pa.s.sed.

Mr Dawson and his sister were sitting one afternoon on the terrace, when Captain Harefield rode up, and in a little he had joined Miss Dawson in the garden. The father watched them as they came and went among the trees.

"Jean has the ba' at her foot this time, I'm thinking," said he. "Weel, weel! It it pleases her, it will please me."

"She'll never please ye in that way. Dinna think it."

"I'm no' so sure that it would please me--no' so sure as I was this time last year. But I think she might be satisfied."

"She'll need a stronger hand to guide her."

"She has strength and sense to guide _him_, and that might do as well."

"It wouldna be for her happiness were she to be persuaded to such a marriage," said Miss Jean gravely.

"Persuaded! No, that is not likely. But, Jean, I like the lad, though he is no' a Solomon, I confess, and he has a high place in the world--or he will ha'e ane--and Jean would do him credit."

"High place or no', he is no' her equal in any important sense. If she cared for him, she might guide him and put up with him, as many another woman has to do. As to persuading her--no one could do that; but if she thought your heart was set on it, she might persuade herself to her ain unhappiness."

"I'se never persuade her. And I would ha'e ill sparin' her. But it would be a fine position, and she would keep it we'll."

"Ay, if she could take it with a good conscience. But that she canna do," said Miss Jean.

When the bustle attending the wedding was over and all the guests were gone, a new life began at Saughleas. As far as George was concerned, it was not just the life his father would have chosen for him. But George was a man now, and every day that pa.s.sed proved to his father that he was a man that might safely be trusted to guide himself. It would have pleased his father that he should at once have taken his place as the young laird of Saughleas. There were many signs among the other proprietors of the neighbourhood, that he would have been welcomed to the houses of people who had held hitherto only business intercourse with his father.

There was no need for George to return to the counting-house again. Mr Dawson acknowledged himself to be a richer man than was generally supposed, and George, as the heir of Saughleas, might "take a long tether," as far as the spending of money was concerned.

And he need not lead an idle life. All the congenial occupations of a country gentleman were open to him, to say nothing of the amus.e.m.e.nts which only men of comparative leisure could enjoy. Or he might farm his own land. Whether he could make such farming profitable to himself might be doubtful, but he might do good in the countryside, and he would thus have an opportunity of bringing himself into contact with people whose acquaintance was to be desired,--the lairds and gentlemen farmers of the north.

It was to his sister oftener than to his son that all this was said; and listening to him, Miss Jean could not but wonder what had become of the sense and judgment that had guided him through all his life till now.

"When you are dead and gone, and George has a son of his ain, he'll get willingly in the countryside what you are so anxious for him to take now. It would bring neither the honour nor the pleasure that you are dreaming about for him, if he were to turn his back upon--the shop--for that was the foundation o' your fortune, though you are a banker and a s.h.i.+p-owner now. Let George win his ain way, as his father did before him; it will be mair to his credit, and mair to his happiness, than any such change as ye would fain see in his way of life. And he'll be far safer."

"A body would think to hear ye, Jean, that I was like to be ashamed o'

the shop, and the makin' o' my ain way in the world; I'm so far from that, that I seek no other credit or honour in the countryside than what I have won as a man of business. But it might be different with my son."

"Weel, honour and consideration seldom come the sooner for the seeking.

They'll come to George in good time, if he shall deserve them. It's little honour he would be like to get from men o' sense if he were content to sit down with what you ha'e won for him, putting himself in the place that ye ha'e honestly and honourably won for yourself. That would be for the honour o' neither you nor him, though ye may think it."

"It was for him I won it. There would be neither pleasure nor profit for me, at my time o' life, in seekin' any change. But I acknowledge it would be a pleasure to me to see my son taking his right place in the countryside. It is no' as if he werena fit for it. Just look at him!

Who is there to compare with him? And he has as good blood in his veins as the most o' them, when a' is said."

"He'll get his right place in time, never fear. And he'll get it all the readier that he's no' in haste about it."

In the mean time George was in his father's office, setting himself to the mastering of all details and succeeding therein, in a way that astonished his father. It was that part of the business that had to do with s.h.i.+pping interests which he liked best, and which chiefly claimed his attention at this time. His father acknowledged that he had a clear head, and a power of application that would stand him in stead either as merchant or landed proprietor. And the pleasure he had in his son's companions.h.i.+p, and in his sympathy with his work, went far to keep him silent as to any change in his present course.

As for George, he was for the most part silent also, because he was unwilling by opposition to his father's wishes to put in jeopardy the new and pleasant relations existing between them. But to his sister and his aunt he spoke plainly enough.

If any of them were to have special consideration from their neighbours, it must be because of his father's life, and what he had accomplished in it. As for his a.s.suming the position of the young laird of Saughleas while his father continued the laborious life of a man of business, that would be only contemptible. If he were to take his own way in life, he must win the right to do so, and he made no secret of the possibility that, as the years went on, his way of life might in some respects be different from his father's.

He pleased his father in one way. He took great interest in all that concerned the management of the estate. He was fond of the place as his home. They agreed in most things which concerned its prosperity and prospects, and if George was less eager than his father in his desire to add to its extent, he did not vex him by showing this too plainly. They differed in opinion about this, and about other things often. But Mr Dawson put great restraint upon himself at such times, striving to remember that George had a right as a man to hold his own opinions and to act upon them though they differed from his. George, on his part, felt no temptation to fail in the perfect respect he owed to his father, in his words and in his ways. And so, in course of time, things bade fair to adjust themselves to the satisfaction of both.

As was to be supposed, Jean and her aunt looked on with deep interest, while the father and son were thus happily though warily renewing their acquaintance, but they said little about it, even to each other. During the first month after May went away there was much going on at Saughleas. Emily Corbett, who had come for the wedding, stayed a while, and Hugh stayed also, though he was strong and well and able for any thing now. There were young people coming to the house for their sakes,--Marion Calderwood, who was Emily's chief friend, and the young Petries, and others; and there were expeditions here and there, and garden parties at various houses; and Jean's time and thoughts were much occupied.