Weir of Hermiston: An Unfinished Romance

etter. It had contained something in the nature of an invitation or a reference to an invitation-precisely what, neither of them now remembered. When Innes had received it, there had bee

ff the supplies; he had fitted himself out with the beginnings of quite a good law library, which, upon some sudden losses on the turf, he had been obliged to sell before they were paid for; and his bookseller, hearing some rumour of the event, took out a warrant for his arrest. Innes had early word of it, and was able to take precautions. In this immediate welter of his affairs, with an unpleasant charge hanging over him, he

going than Archie was to see him come; and he carr

stes at last. By the way, did you get my answer? No? How very provok

ou heartily welcome, of course. But you surely have not come t

. "What are the Courts to fri

ey were together at meal times, together o' nights when the hour had come for whisky-toddy; but it might have been noticed (had there been any one to pay heed) that they were rarely so much together by day. Archie had Hermiston to attend to, multifarious activities in the hills, in which he did not require, and had even refused, Frank's escort. He would be off sometimes in the morning and leave only a no

lliott?" said he one morning, after he had jus

ied the housekeeper drily, measuring his d

ine what business

his business," retorte

at made the charm of his disposition, and brok

hat. Why, Archie and I were at the High School together, and we've been to college together, and we were going to the Bar together, when-you know! Dear, dear me! what a pity that was! A life

and, saving your presence, there's little sense in taking the Lo

worse than put our heads together, like a couple of sensible people, and bring it to an end. Let me tell you, ma'am, that Archie is really quite a promising young man, an

hink the lass is crying on me," said

rained, old broomsti

ed into the kitchen, and before he

ibly body! Settin' up his snash to me! Let him gang to the black toon where he's mebbe wantit-birling in a curricle-wi' pimatum on his heid-making a mess o' himsel' wi' nesty hizzies-a fair disgrace!" It was impossible to hear without admiration Kirstie's graduated disgust, as she brought forth, one after another, these somewhat baseless char

e were no more hours of gossip over the supper tray! All his blandishments we

of him in her private hours; but she was accustomed to play the part of silent auditor to Kirstie's tirades and silent recipient of Kirstie's buffets, and she had learned not only to be a very capable girl of her years, but a very secret and prudent one besides. Frank was thus conscious that he had one ally and sympathiser in the midst of that general union of disfavour that surrounded, watched, and waited on him in the house of Hermiston; but he had little comfort or society from that alliance, and the demure little maid (twelve on her last birthday) preserved her own counsel, and tripped on his service, brisk, dumbly responsive, but inexorably unconversational. For the others, they were beyond hope and beyond endurance. Never had a young Apollo been cast among such rustic barbarians. But perhaps the cause of his ill-success lay in one trait which was habitual and unconscious with him, yet diagnostic of the man. It was his practice to approach any one person at the expense of some one else. He offered you an a

rofane. Clem, who saw him but for a day or two before he went to Glasgow, wanted to know what the fule's business was, and whether he meant to stay here all session time! "Yon's a

e quite a poet,

mannie?" had been the

body!" sa

the sardonic poet, and

would have been a friend worth making. Dand, on the other hand, he did not value sixpence, and he showed it even while he tried to flatter. Condescension is an excellent th

ning before his death. Young Hay and young Pringle appeared again. There was another supper at Windiclaws, another dinner at Driffel; and it resulted in Frank being taken to the bosom of the county people as unreservedly as he had been repudiated by the country folk. He occupied Hermiston after the manner of an invader in a con

ur Recluse to-day?

hie is a good fellow, an excellent fellow, a fellow I always liked. I think it small of him to take his little disgrace so hard, and shut himself up. 'Grant that it is a ridiculous story, painfully ridiculous,' I keep telling him. 'Be a man! Live it down, man!' But not he.

of the matter, so deftly indicated by a single word. "A capital idea!" they would add, and wonder at the aplomb and positi

I was his guest. But it's no use. He will neither accept the invitations he gets, nor stop brooding about the ones where he's left out. What I'm afraid of is that the wound's ulcerating. He had always one of those dark, secret, angry natures-a little underhand and plenty of bile-you know the sort. He must have inherited it from the Weirs, w

would say. "I'll tell you plainly, and between ourselves, I scarcely like to stay there any longer; only, man, I'm positively afraid to leave him alone. You'll see, I shall be blamed for it later on. I'm staying at a great

good of you, I must say that. If there's any blame going

ouldn't be expected to stand that-but he steers very near the wind. No, it's not pleasant; but I tell ye, man, in conscience I don't think it would be fair to leave h

ere was a residential house and a walled garden, wherever there was a dwarfish castle and a park, wherever a quadruple cottage by the ruins of a peel-tower showed an old family going down, and wherever a handsome villa with a carriage approach and a shrubbery marked the coming up of a new one-probably on the wheels of machinery-Archie began to be regarded in the light of a dark, perhaps a vicious mystery, and the future developments of his career to be looked for with uneasiness and confidential whispering. He had done something disgraceful, my dear. What, was not pr

ak side, for like many young men coming to the Bar, and before they had been tried and found wanting, he flattered himself he was a fellow of unusual quickness and penetration. They knew nothing of Sherlock Holmes in those days, but there was a good deal said of Talleyrand. And if you could have caught Frank off his guard, he would have confessed with a smirk that, if he resem

he. "I have something t

"Hold on till I get my rod up. I'll go wi

n to reel u

ith his answer, and the angle was almost packed up, he had become completely Weir, and the hanging face gloomed on his you

eable, but let us understand one another from the beg

you don't want my c

ber-and that was at dinner. If we two fellows are to live together pleasantly-and I see no reas

hands. Is this the way you treat a

it this way, if you like-that I know my own character, that I'm looking forward (with great pleasure, I assure you) to a long visit from you, and that I'm taking precautions at the first. I see the thing th

commonly discreet, he would have been decently courteous. And there was another consideration. The secret he was protecting was not his own merely; it was hers: it belonged to that inexpressible she who was fast taking possession of his soul, and whom he would soon have defended at the cost of burning cities. By the time he had watched Frank as far as the Swingleburn-foot, appearing and disappearing in the tarnished heather, still stalking at a fierce gait but alr

no more ready money to go anywhere else; he would have to borrow from Archie the next club-night; and ill as he thought of his host's manners, he was sure of his practical generosity. Frank's resemblance to Talleyrand strikes me as imaginary; but at least not Talleyrand himself could have more obediently taken his lesson from the facts. He met Archie at dinner without resentment, almost with cordiality. You mus

t direction towards the sources of the Clyde, he laid his finger on Cauldstaneslap and two other neighbouring farms, Kingsmuirs and Polintarf. But it was difficult to advance farther. With his rod for a pretext, he vainly visited each of them in turn; nothing was to be seen suspicious about this trinity of moorland settlements. He would have tried to follow Archie, had it been the least possible, but the nature of the land precluded the idea. He did the next best, ensconced himself in a quiet corner, and pursued his movements with a telescope. It was equally in vain, and he soon wearied of his futile vigilance, left the telescope at home, and had almost given the matter up in despair, when, on the twenty-seventh day of his visit, he was suddenly confronted with the person whom he sought. The first Sunday Kirstie had managed to stay away from kir

milkmaid," he obser

said

ngs to his exalted family. The single objection! for the four black brothers are awkward customers. If anything were to go wrong, Gib w

s, I am sure,

, and with your solemn society, my dear fellow. But confess that the milkma

atter," ret

the glance, until not impudence itself could have denied that he was blushing. And at this Archie lost some of h

dance, you'll see who's an ass. Think now, if they only applied (say) a quarter as much talent as I have applied to the q

it now," interrupte

I wanted, an articulate

mind you-" b

dear fellow, don't. It's quite needl

grace or the timidity to suffer him to rattle on, he was by no means done with the subject. When he came home to dinner, he was greeted with a sly demand, how things we

've been thinking it over, and I wish to beg you very seriously to b

" said

end, I cannot stand by and see you rushing head down into these dangers. My dear b

s with irritation, persisted in th

peak more by the card, the end of Miss C

imagination. There is nothing to be said against that young lad

galach! I make a note besides of your valuable testimony to her character. I only want to look a

" he said, struggling to be composed, "but beca

e? I have put two and two together, just as the parish will be doing tomorrow, and the whole of Tweeddale in two weeks, and the black brothers-well, I won't put a date on that; it will be a dark and stormy morning! Your secret, in other words, is poor Poll's. And I want to ask of you as a friend whether you

r no more of this," he s

l me one thing first. Tell me if this i

as far as that. I can do so much justice to your moti

I say, man, don't forget your prayers! I don't often do the moral-don't go in

indescribably sweet to him. He felt a pleasant sense of power. He looked down on Archie as on a very little boy whose strings he pulled-as on a horse whom he had backed and bridled by sheer power of intelligence, and whom he might ride to glory or the grave at pleasure. Which