NANCY STAIR 
 
AU^iO^w 
 
NANCY STAIR 
 
 A NO TEL 
 
 BY 
 
 ELINOR MACARTNEY LANE 
 
 AUTHOR OF MILLS OF GOD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 MCMV 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1904, BY 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 Published May, 
 
To frank 25rett 
 
 Who accepted, with a kind letter, 
 
 The first story I ever wrote, 
 
 This tale of J^atttp <tait is dedicated^ 
 
 As a tribute of affection, 
 
 From one old friend to another. 
 
 9616^8 
 
* For woman is not undeveloped man, 
 But diverse ; could we make her as the man, 
 Sweet Love were slain : his dearest bond is this, 
 Not like to like, but like in difference. " 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 "Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears, 
 
 Her noblest work she classes, O, 
 Her prentice hand she tried on man, 
 And then she made the lasses, O.* 
 
 ROBERT BURNS. 
 
 "Ye can t educate women as you can men. They re 
 elemental creatures ; and ye can no more change their 
 natures than ye can stop fire from burning. " 
 
 HUGH PITCAIRN. 
 
PEEFACE BY LORD STAIR 
 
 Two excellent accounts of the beautiful 
 Nancy Stair have already been published; the 
 first by Mrs. George Opie, in the Scots News, 
 giving a detailed account of the work on the 
 burnside, and a more recent one by Professor 
 Erskine, of our own University, which is little 
 more than a critical dissertation upon Nancy as 
 a poet; the heart of the matter with him being 
 to commend her English verses, as well as those 
 in " gude braid Scot." 
 
 With these accounts to be secured so easily 
 it may seem presumptuous, as well as superflu 
 ous, for me to undertake a third. I state at 
 the outset, therefore, that it is beyond my am 
 bition and my abilities to add a word to stories 
 told, so well. Nor do I purpose to mention 
 either the work on the burn or Nancy s song- 
 making, save when necessary for clearness. 
 
 For me, however, the life of Nancy Stair has 
 a far deeper significance than that set forth by 
 either of these gifted authors. My knowledge 
 [ix] 
 
PREFACE BY LORD STAIR 
 
 of her was naturally of the most intimate; I 
 watched her grow from a wonderful child into 
 a wonderful woman ; and saw her, with a man s 
 education, none but men for friends, and no 
 counselings save from her own heart, solve most 
 wisely for the race the problem put to every 
 woman of gift ; and with sweetest reasoning and 
 no bitter renouncings enter the kingdom of 
 great womanhood. 
 
 To tell this intimate side of her life with 
 what skill I have is the chief purpose of my 
 writing, but there are two other motives almost 
 as strong. The first of these is to clear away 
 the mystery of the murder which for so long 
 clouded our lives at Stair. To do this there is 
 no man in Scotland to-day so able as myself. 
 It was I who bid the Duke to Stair ; the quarrel 
 which brought on the meeting fell directly be 
 neath my eyes ; I heard the shots and found the 
 dead upon that fearful night, and afterward 
 went blindfolded through the bitter business of 
 the trial. I was the first, as well, to scent the 
 truth at the bottom of the defense, and have in 
 my possession, as I write, the confession which 
 removed all doubt as to the manner in which 
 the deed was committed. 
 
PREFACE BY LORD STAIR 
 
 The second reason is to set clear Nancy s 
 relation to Robert Burns^ of which too much 
 has been made, and whose influence upon her 
 and her writings has been grossly exaggerated. 
 Her observation of natural genius in him 
 changed her greatly, and I have tried to set 
 this forth with clearness; but it affected her in 
 a very different manner from that which her 
 two famous biographers have told, and I have 
 it from her own lips that it was because of the 
 Burns episode that she stopped writing alto 
 gether. 
 
 If it be complained against me that the tale 
 has my own life s story in it, I would answer 
 to the charge that only a great and passionate 
 first love could have produced a child like 
 Nancy, and I believe that the world is ever a 
 bit interested in the line of people whose loves 
 and hates have produced a recognized genius. 
 Then, too, the circumstances attending her birth 
 had more influence on her after life than may 
 at first be seen, giving me as they did such a 
 tenderness for her that I have never been able 
 to cross her in any matter whatever. 
 
 Much of the story, of which I was not di 
 rectly a witness, comes from Nancy herself. I 
 [xi] 
 
PREFACE BY LORD STAIR 
 
 have sent the tale to Alexander Carmichael as 
 well, and in all important matters his recollec 
 tions accord with mine. 
 
 There came to me but yesterday, in this 
 queer old city, a letter from him urging me back 
 to Stair, closed with a stanza that was not born 
 to die: 
 
 "Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
 And never brought to min , 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
 And the days of Auld Lang Syne ? " 
 
 They should not, Sandy, and none know it 
 better than we; and I long for a grip of your 
 hand, lad, and to feel the winds blow through 
 the rowans at Stair and the copper birches of 
 Arran ; to hear the blackbirds whistle across the 
 gowan-tops; to see the busy burn-folk through 
 the break in the old south wall; and with the 
 ending of these writings my steps are turned 
 toward home. 
 
 ROME, 1801. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. AT STAIR HOUSE, NEAR EDINBURGH, IN 1768 . 
 
 II. I GO ON A CRUISE AND FIND A HIDDEN TREASURE . 15 
 HI. THE TREASURE BECOMES MINE, BUT IS CLAIMED BY 
 
 ITS OWNER . 29 
 
 IV. ENTER NANCY STAIR 41 
 
 V. I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A STRANGE CHILD . 53 
 
 VI. NANCY BEGINS HER STUDY OF THE LAW . 61 
 
 VII. I TAKE NANCY S EDUCATION IN HAND ... 74 
 
 VIII.- THE DAFT DAYS * 86 
 
 IX. DANVERS BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH 
 
 NANCY 105 
 
 X. NANCY VISITS HIS GRACE OF BORTHWICKE . . 124 
 
 XI. DANVERS CARMICHAEL MAKES A PROPOSAL . . 142 
 
 XII. I MEET A GREAT MAN : 
 
 XIII. THE DUKE VISITS STAIR FOR THE FIRST TIME . 166 
 
 XIV. NANCY MEETS HER RIVAL I 74 
 
 XV. CONCERNING DANVERS CARMICHAEL AND HIS 
 
 GRACE OF BORTHWICKE I 85 
 
 XVI. NANCY STAIR ARRANGES MATTERS .... 204 
 
 XVII. " THE SWAP o RHYMING WARE " . 213 
 
 XVIII. I GO DOWN TO MAUCHLINE 23~/ 
 
 XIX. THE QUARREL BETWEEN DANVERS AND NANCY . 241 
 
 XX. DANVERS GIVES us A GREAT SURPRISE . . .259 
 XXI. THE ALLISONS BALL AND THAT WHICH FOLLOWED IT 
 
 XXII. A STRANGE MEETING j 
 
 XXIII. A FALSE RUMOR CAUSES TROUBLE . . -298 
 
 XXIV. THE MURDER 3 ^ 
 
 XXV. THE TRIAL ~ 
 
 XXVI. THE DEFENSE j~j 
 
 XXVII. THE MISTS ALL CLEARED AWAY . . 361 
 
NANCY STAIE 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AT STAIR HOUSE, NEAR EDINBURGH, IN 1768 
 
 BY reason of a breakneck ride through the 
 Pentlands, I entered the dining-room at Stair 
 very late one morning to find Huey MacGrath 
 in a state of deepest gloom waiting to serve my 
 breakfast. 
 
 " Good morning, Huey," I said, opening The 
 Glasgow Sentinel which had come by the post. 
 
 " Good morning, my lord," he returned, in 
 a grudging tone. 
 
 " It s a fine morning," said I. 
 
 "Ye think sae!" with a show of great 
 surprise. 
 
 " Why, man ! " I cried, " can not ye see for 
 yourself? " 
 
 "We ve the spring rains to come yet." 
 
 " They re by these ten days," I answered. 
 
 " Nae, nae," he said quietly. " That was jest 
 the equinoctial, I m thinking." 
 
 [1] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. I 
 
 " The equinoctial comes in March, man ! " I 
 observed with some surprise. 
 
 " Tarnmas was telling me yesterday that the 
 roads to London were fair unpassable." 
 
 " Nonsense," said I. " The summer s here, 
 Huey." 
 
 " There s a chill at the gloamin , yet. Nae, 
 nae," he went on earnestly, " simmer s far 
 awa , I ve seen snaw s late s this ! " 
 
 " Ye ve had wonderful eyesight," I laughed, 
 seeing the point toward which this talk was 
 aimed. "And did ye hear nothing of tidal 
 waves, Huey? " I asked; " with impassable roads 
 to London, and snow in June, you ve surely 
 heard of some disasters by sea." 
 
 "Ah!" he cried, "ye can tell of what I m 
 thinking, for I ve seen the signs of it in ye for 
 a fortnight back. You re like your father be 
 fore you, and your grandfather, as weel, for the 
 curse of wandering seems to follow the name 
 of Stair. With the first warm day ye have your 
 windows wide open; and next your beds are 
 into a draught fit to blaw ye from between the 
 sheets; and then ye re up in the morning, aff 
 on a hoorse scouring the hills as tho ye were 
 gyte; and at the end your valise s packed, the 
 
CHAP. I NANCY STAIR 
 
 coach stopped, and ye aif amang the heathen, 
 Gude alane kens wheer ! 
 
 "Ah, laddie!" he continued, his voice 
 changed to an affectionate wail, " dinna be gane 
 awa ! Ye ve niver seen Stair in the simmer 
 time ; but when the elderberries and lilacs flower 
 on the burn; and the gilly flowers and holly 
 hocks are bloomin by the north tower; when 
 the wind blows soft through the rowans, and 
 the pineys pink and white faces, as big as cab 
 bages, nod against the old south wall, there s 
 no bonnier place in Scotland than your own 
 place of Stair." 
 
 He was so moved at the thought of my leav 
 ing him, that I answered in some haste, 
 
 " In truth, Huey, I ve no thought of going 
 away." 
 
 " Ah," he answered, " ye don t know it, but 
 ye have. It s been in ye for a week back," and 
 casting his eye out of the window, " there s 
 Mr. Carmichael now, riding in by the Holm 
 gate. I ll jest open the door till him." 
 
 This was an entirely unnecessary attention 
 
 on Huey s part, as Sandy Carmichael, whose 
 
 estate of Arran Towers joins my own on the 
 
 west, generally opened the door of Stair for 
 
 2 [3] 
 
NANCY STAIE CHAP. I 
 
 himself, or the windows either, for the matter 
 of that, if the latter were more convenient en 
 trance from the place he happened to be. 
 
 My recollections of Sandy begin with my 
 recollections of myself. As lads together, in 
 deed before we were long out of skirts, we 
 guddled for fish in the burn-water; went birds 
 nesting, raced our ponies, fought each other be 
 hind the stables and made a common stock of 
 our money for the purchase of dimpies, peoys 
 and jelly-tarts. We attended the High School 
 together and upon leaving it chose the same col 
 lege, where Sandy ran a merry pace, throwing 
 his money out of the windows, as it were, and 
 gaining for himself the reputation of wearing 
 more waistcoats, drinking more whisky, making 
 love to more women, and writing better verses, 
 than any other man in the University. 
 
 He was a big, athletic, clean-limbed fellow, 
 with brown hair, a bright face, warm eyes, and 
 friendly genial ways which came from the kind 
 est heart in the world. Five years before the 
 time of which I write, which would be in 1763, 
 he had married the Honorable Miss Llewellyn 
 from the north, a pitiable pale-colored lady, 
 who, half crazed by jealousy and ill health, was 
 
CHAP. I NANCY STAIR 
 
 sending him back to unmarried ways again. 
 Being only sister to Lord Glenmore, who had 
 no heirs and was subject to seizures of a very 
 malignant type, it was yearly expected that the 
 title would come to Sandy s bit of a boy, a hand 
 some-faced little fellow of four, who paid me 
 long visits at self-selected times, demanding my 
 watch, a pipe to smoke, and horses to ride. 
 
 Before Huey had time to reach the door, 
 Sandy, in his riding clothes, with his cap on 
 the back of his head, stood looking in at me. 
 There was a scowl between his brows, and by 
 this as well as other certain signs, I knew that 
 all was not well with him. 
 
 " Will ye go on a cruise with me? " says he 
 from the doorway with no introduction what 
 ever. 
 
 " Would it be an unseemly prying into your 
 affairs to ask where to?" I inquired with a 
 smile. 
 
 " North or south," said he, still keeping his 
 place by the door. "It s immaterial to me, so 
 I escape accompanying my womenfolk to Lon 
 don." 
 
 " And if I go with ye," says I, " your wife 
 will like me less than she does now." 
 [5] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. I 
 
 " That would be impossible, so ye needn t 
 worry over it," he returned dryly. " The only 
 good word ye ever had from her was that if 
 ye d been a less handsome man ye might have 
 been a better one." 
 
 " And even that could scarce be termed ful 
 some flattery," I observed. 
 
 " Will ye go 1 " he repeated, his mind set on 
 the one point. 
 
 A sudden thought, bred of some news in the 
 paper which I had just received, came to me 
 upon the instant. 
 
 " Let us take the boat from Leith, and go 
 north by the Orkney and Hebrides Islands, 
 through the Minch to the west coast. There are 
 all kinds of stories afloat concerning the gipsies 
 and free traders who live in those deep coves; 
 we migjit fall in with a pirate ship 
 
 " Or find a hidden treasure ! " he said scof- 
 fingly, as he seated himself on the other side of 
 the table and took some coffee, the frown gone, 
 and the Sandy I knew with the bright face and 
 laughing eye back again. 
 
 " Aye," he went on in his humorous way, " I 
 am convinced twill be hidden treasure we ll find, 
 Jock. We ll go ashore at midnight, and under 
 
 [6] 
 
CHAP. I NANCY STAIR 
 
 a stunted pine will be a sailor s chest. Hidden 
 treasures are always found in sailors chests, 
 ye know. And taking a three-foot bar of iron, 
 which every gentleman in tales carries con 
 cealed upon his person, we, you and I, none 
 of the others, of course, will pry this chest 
 open to find ducats and doubloons, and pias 
 tres, and sous-marquees and a map of the 
 Spanish Main and the Dry Tortugas with 
 crosses in blood. I ll tell you, ye can have my 
 share of it now," he cried, laughing at me. 
 
 " Ye re over generous," says I, for jesting of 
 this kind was a thing to which I was accustomed 
 in him. 
 
 He dropped the raillery on the moment, how 
 ever, to take a note-book from his pocket. 
 
 "Whom shall we ask?" he inquired in his 
 natural voice. 
 
 Now I had one other friend, almost as dear 
 to me as Sandy, named Hugh Pitcairn. But 
 while there could be no doubt of the affection 
 each had for me, there could be equally no 
 doubt of the dislike they bore each other, this 
 feeling having grown from the first day they 
 met in the hockey grounds of the High School, 
 where almost at sight of each other they fell to 
 [7] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. I 
 
 fighting, until finally pulled apart by some of 
 the older lads. 
 
 " In this connection," said I, getting back at 
 him a bit, for his jeering at my plans, " what 
 do you think of Hugh Pitcairn? " 
 
 " In this connection," he returned dryly, " I 
 do not think of Hugh Pitcairn at all." 
 
 "It s strange," I went on, in the same re 
 mote tone, as though it were a subject men 
 tioned for the first time, " that ye should dis 
 like him so." 
 
 " It can not match the strangeness of any 
 one s enduring his society," he replied with heat. 
 
 " Well, well," said I, putting Pitcairn out 
 of the talk. " What do you say to Geordie Mac- 
 Allister? " 
 
 " The very man," he cried, writing the name 
 in the book. 
 
 " And Graham Annesley," I went on. 
 
 " Good again." 
 
 " And Donald McDonald." 
 
 " He won t do at all ! " Sandy broke out in 
 a determined way. " He s gone the way of all 
 trouble, which is the way of women. He s 
 crazed about the Lady Mary Llewellyn and 
 we ll have no one along who is sighing for a 
 
CHAP. I NANCY STAIR 
 
 woman, be she his own or another man s wife. 
 That s what I like in you, Jock Stair," he said, 
 gazing at me with approval. " YeVe your 
 faults " 
 
 " No ? " I said, with pretended amazement. 
 
 " Ye d gamble on the flight of angels 
 
 " Ye re speaking of some one else, maybe," 
 I suggested. 
 
 "And ye drink more than ye should, but 
 you re my own man where the women are con 
 cerned; for never since I knew ye, and that s 
 ever since ye were born, have I seen ye look 
 with wanting at maid, wife, or widow, and ye re 
 wise in that," he added in a tone whose bitter 
 ness came from the unhappiness of his own 
 wedded life. 
 
 To put the talk into a brighter channel, I 
 hastened to suggest a fourth and fifth compan 
 ion for the cruise, upon which we fell to pass 
 ing judgment on the companionable men of our 
 acquaintance, weighing their congeniality to us 
 and to each other until one o clock was past be 
 fore we set about the business of delivering our 
 invitations. 
 
 Offering to accompany Sandy on these er 
 rands, I thought I heard a groan, and on leav- 
 
 [9] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. I 
 
 ing the dining-room I made sure of another, and 
 on the instant knew that they came from Huey 
 MacGrath. 
 
 This expedition falling so quickly on the 
 heels of his warning was an odd occurrence 
 and for some reason, perhaps in remembrance of 
 my recent assertion that I had no heart to leave 
 Stair, there fell a funny performance between 
 us. He handed me my cap and coat, determined 
 to catch my eye, and I, having no desire to see 
 the reproach which his glance contained, was 
 equally set to avoid it; so that I received my 
 cap with my eyes on my boots, my gloves with 
 an averted head, and my riding-stick looking 
 out of the doorway, and mounted my horse with 
 no small resentment in my breast at this sur 
 veillance from a servant which would never be 
 borne in any spot outside of Scotland. 
 
 " I m thinking," said I to Sandy as we rode 
 toward the town gate, "I m thinking of dis 
 charging Huey when I come back." 
 
 " That will make the fifty-third time," said 
 Sandy, with a grin, as he started his horse off 
 at a gallop. 
 
 After the visits with Sandy, I kept an en 
 gagement with Hugh Pitcairn at the Star and 
 [10] 
 
CHAP. I NANCY STATE 
 
 Garter, just around the corner from the Tron 
 Church, at four o clock of the same day. It was 
 a few minutes past the hour as I neared the 
 place, to find him standing by the doorway, his 
 back to the passers by, a French cap pulled low 
 over his eyes, reading from a ponderous book 
 which he was balancing with some difficulty 
 against the door-rail. 
 
 " I hope I ve not kept ye waiting ! " said I. 
 
 " Ye have kept me waiting," he answered, 
 but with no resentment. 
 
 " I ve been seeing some men about a cruise, 
 and it took more time than I thought," I ex 
 plained by way of apology. 
 
 "You re off on a cruise?" he asked, as we 
 seated ourselves at one of the tables. 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 "With the Carmichael fellow, I suppose?" 
 he asked. 
 
 " I am going with Mr. Carmichael," said I. 
 
 " Well, it s just no thing for you to be doing 
 at all," he returned ; " you should stay at home 
 and look after your affairs. The Carlyles have 
 broken the entail, and you may be able to buy 
 the land on the other side of Burnwater that 
 you ve been wanting so long." 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. I 
 
 " And why can t you attend to the matter ? " 
 I cried. " Ye handle all my business, and do it 
 far better than I ever could, beside, I can leave 
 procuration- 
 He smiled at this in an exasperatingly su 
 perior way as though I had used the word 
 loosely, and went on : " The estate itself is to be 
 looked to," and here he seemed to have learned 
 his lesson out of Huey MacGrath s book. 
 
 " As for the house," I broke in, " it s taken 
 better care of in my absence than when I am in 
 it ; and it s money in my pocket to leave matters 
 with MacGrath to manage. I can not see," I 
 said with some heat, perhaps helped by the 
 brandy I was drinking, " why in heaven s name 
 I shouldn t go on a cruise if I desire to ! If I d 
 ties of any kind, a wife or children 
 
 This was Pitcairn s chance, and he broke my 
 talk to take it. 
 
 " Your friend Carmichael has both, and to 
 them his first duty lies." And any one with his 
 wits about him can imagine the rest of the talk, 
 for he fell into an attitude of strong disapproval 
 of the whole plan; stating in a cold legal way 
 that Sandy had already let me in for more than 
 one trouble ; had caused me to spend large sums 
 
CHAP. I NANCY STAIR 
 
 of money, foolishly doing the like himself; that 
 we were both incapable of good husbandry; 
 given to drinking more than was wise, and over 
 fond of the society of persons whom we were 
 pleased to call men of talent, but who were, by 
 his judgment, doggerel-making people, of loose 
 morals, with no respect for fact, the conduct 
 which became the general, or the laws of Christ. 
 
 He went over for the twentieth time Sandy s 
 arrest for pulling off most of the door-knockers 
 in Edinburgh ; this event having occurred when 
 the lad was but sixteen and home for the vaca 
 tion; as well as the scandal of his having bid 
 the Lord President in a high and excited voice 
 to stick his head out of the window, and upon 
 that venerable gentleman complying, shouting: 
 " Now stick it in again ! " 
 
 At the end of this discourse he invited me to 
 remain at home with him and spend the even 
 ings over a new treatise on the Laws of Evi 
 dence which he had just brought from the 
 University, at which I laughed in his face and 
 told him that I had neither the wit nor the in 
 clination for such an enterprise. His last words 
 were to the effect that there would be trouble 
 bred of the expedition, and he closed his ha- 
 [13] 
 
NANGY STAIR CHAP. I 
 
 rangue in the following manner, as we stood on 
 the South Bridge, where our ways parted : 
 
 " The Carmichael man has no judgment 
 either for your affairs or his own. His heart 
 may be all right, but he s got no common sense, 
 and a man like that is little better than a fool." 
 
 [14] 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 I GO ON A CRUISE AND FIND A HIDDEN TREASURE 
 
 IN spite of Hugh Pitcairn we were off the 
 following Monday, going out of Leith, with a 
 clear sky, a stiff breeze, and six men of our own 
 feather, caring little where our destination lay, 
 if the cards turned well, the drink held plenty, 
 and the ocean rolled beneath us. North we 
 went; north till the sea itself seemed quieter 
 and lonelier; north where the twilight held far 
 into the night, to be back by two of the morn 
 ing; north by John o Groats and the Pentland 
 Skerries ; till one June day found us turned far 
 down the wild west coast; a colorless cruise be 
 hind us, with never a storm, a pirate ship, nor 
 a sight of the jolly roger. 
 
 At the end of the day of which I speak we 
 
 were lying in toward shore, and I was aft with 
 
 a pipe for company, when Sandy came from 
 
 behind the pile of sail-cloth against which I sat 
 
 [15] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. II 
 
 to say that the brig would have to lay by for 
 repairs and to inquire what I thought of going 
 ashore for an adventure. 
 
 " Where are we? " I asked. 
 
 " Somewhere above Landgore. "Tis the very 
 place for treasure," he added, with a laugh. 
 
 " There s nothing would suit me better than 
 a night ashore," said I with truth, for I had had 
 enough of the drink, the slack language, and 
 the rough sea life, and looked forward to the 
 land with a pleasant hurry of thoughts. 
 
 The moon shone bright in a sky of plain 
 dark blue, making a path of swaying gold to 
 ward the beach, where we could see the water 
 curl upon the sands like suds. A little back 
 was a steep rise of granite rocks, with gorse and 
 heather growing on the sides, at the bottom 
 of which some gipsies, or free-traders, had built 
 a great fire, and we heard them singing a 
 drunken catch in chorus, and saw them whirling 
 round and round the fire in a circle, as we 
 stepped ashore from the boat. 
 
 An ugly silence fell as we approached them, 
 
 and their women drew off, thinking that we 
 
 were government men, no doubt; but finding 
 
 that we had no weightier business than to get 
 
 [16] 
 
CHAP. II NANCY STAIR 
 
 some information as to our whereabouts, one of 
 them gave us word that the path up the cliff 
 led to the Cuckoo Tavern, kept by Mother Dick- 
 enson, where we could obtain what refreshment 
 we needed as well as lodgment for the night. 
 We had gone some fifty feet when one of the 
 men cried after us: 
 
 " An if luck s wi ye, ye may have a glyff 
 of the handsomest lass in Scotland," at which 
 a woman cuffed him with a ringing sound. 
 There followed a muttered curse and a roar of 
 laughter, which was the last we had of them. 
 
 The path up the cliff twisted and roved in 
 such a manner to avoid the many boulders that 
 the inn-light proved little better than a will-o - 
 the-wisp to guide us, and it was in a breathless 
 condition that we reached the quaint low house, 
 which was both neat and comfortable, seeming 
 peculiarly so perhaps after our long voyage. 
 
 A queer old woman, with a humorous wry 
 face, yellow and deeply lined, sharp black eyes, 
 and a ready manner, stood behind a small bar 
 and took note of us upon our entrance, with the 
 air of one well able to judge our rank and 
 bearing. 
 
 The rest went off with her to inspect the 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. II 
 
 chambers which she was able to offer, laughing 
 and chaffing each other as was their way, leav 
 ing me alone in the main room with my back 
 to the fire. As I stood thus I heard a sudden 
 noise, saw the curtain of a door at the side 
 raised, and a girl in a black robe with a lighted 
 candle in her hand looked in at me. 
 
 For twenty-seven years I had waited for a 
 sight of that girl ! 
 
 She was tall and slight, and carried herself 
 with the careless grace of a child ; her hair was 
 of a bronze color, parted over the brows and 
 rippling back into a great knot low on the 
 head; her skin was cream, with a faint, steady 
 pink burning in the cheeks, but as is the way of 
 men, it was the eyes and lips I noted most ; eyes 
 of gray, filled with poetry and passion; eyes 
 which looked out under brows black and heavy 
 and between lashes, curled and long, giving a pe 
 culiar significance to the glance. The lips were 
 scarlet, the upper one being noticeably short 
 and full; lips mutable and inviting, lips that 
 were made for mine and all this I knew in the 
 first minute that our eyes met, when, as it seemed 
 to me, our two souls rushed together. 
 
 At gaze with each other we stood, no word 
 [181 
 
CHAP. II NANCY STAIR 
 
 spoken between us, for a full minute of time, 
 when the noise of the men coming back dis 
 turbed her; she dropped the curtain and the 
 light of her candle disappeared, a little at a time, 
 as though she were walking from me down some 
 long passage-way. 
 
 I do not know how love comes to other na 
 tures than my own, and men of notable integ 
 rity have told me how leisurely they strolled 
 into the condition of loving ; but for me, by one 
 questioning glance from a pair of eyes, half 
 gray, half blue, I was sunk fathoms deep in 
 love, in love that knows nothing, cares for noth 
 ing but the one beloved. Soul and body I was 
 signed, sealed, and delivered, "hers," in that 
 first sight I had of her in the doorway with the 
 candle in her hand and the crimson curtain 
 framing her as if she were a picture. 
 
 We had supper, of which I ate nothing; 
 liquor, of which I drank nothing; and merry 
 talk, in which I took no part, Sandy jeering at 
 me for a dull ass, I remember, and pretending 
 regret at not having asked the Eeverend Slow- 
 boy in my place; but his talk was of no moment 
 to me, for my pulse was going like a trip-ham 
 mer, my brain reeled with that headiest wine 
 s [19] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. II 
 
 of Nature s brewing, and I wanted to get out 
 under the stars and be alone. 
 
 Having some skill at singing, Geordie Mac- 
 Allister urged that I recall the catch we had 
 heard on the beach; but finding me adamant 
 against such an exhibition, Dame Dickenson 
 offered a suggestion for our entertainment. 
 
 " There s a ward of mine here, a young lady, 
 who has the music, and, seeing ye re all gentle 
 men, might be urged to a song." 
 
 Five minutes from the time that she was 
 seated with us, I had heard her voice, our eyes 
 had held each other again, and I saw a carna 
 tion flush bloom suddenly in her cheek as our 
 hands touched. She brought with her a curious 
 old instrument, like a lute with many strings, 
 and upon this she struck chords to the song she 
 sang, " The Wronged Love of Great Laird Greg 
 ory," the melody of which seems ever to be with 
 me; and yesterday, when I heard Nancy croon 
 ing it to herself, I cried aloud as a woman 
 might, for the unfulfilled in all our lives, and 
 my dead youth, and Marian Ingarrach. 
 
 And at her singing, the four of us or five 
 it may be, for I can not now rightly recall 
 [30] 
 
CHAP. II NANCY STAIR 
 
 whether Sawney MacAllister came ashore that 
 night or not sat before her beauty as though 
 it were a part of witchery, for there was a 
 bookish strangeness to it that on this wild coast, 
 in a nest of smugglers and free-traders, after 
 a cruise of rough living and deep drinking, we 
 should be listening to the voice of a girl whose 
 beauty was upsetting to the senses of man and 
 whose bearing denoted breeding of the highest 
 order. 
 
 She left us after a second singing, bidding 
 us good-night in a laughing, friendly fashion, 
 and looking at every one, save me, full in the 
 eyes, as a child might have done ; but when her 
 hand touched mine, her eyes fell before me, and 
 I, who knew something of woman s ways, felt 
 with a leaping heart that she knew. 
 
 The rest were gone from the room when 
 Sandy Carmichael, who had made the pretense 
 of another pipe, came back to me as I stood 
 looking into the fire. 
 
 " You saw her first ! " he said. 
 
 " Aye," I answered, " and it s all over 
 with me ! " 
 
 " Is it to the church door? " he asked. 
 [31] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. II 
 
 " It s to the foot of the Throne itself," I an 
 swered. " It s wherever she leads," for I was 
 young and phrase-making was in the blood. 
 
 " Well," he says, " ye re Lord Stair, and if 
 ye choose to marry a gips 
 
 " Choose ! " I cried. " I have no choice. 
 The men who stand balancing as to whether 
 they will or they won t, with Would it be 
 wise? * or Acceptable to the world? I have no 
 knowledge of, and want none, as I have told 
 you often." 
 
 " Well," said he, " I ve always called you 
 crazy, Jock Stair," and here he put his hand 
 lovingly on my shoulder, " but I never discov 
 ered until to-night how crazy you are. I m not 
 denying there s something fine about it; but is 
 it sensible? Think o Pitcairn," he said, with 
 a laughing devil in his eye. 
 
 " Pitcairn may go to perdition," I answered 
 with some heat. 
 
 " It s not Pitcairn that s on his way there, 
 I m thinking," he returned, with a droll look; 
 " but we must all learn by experience, so gang 
 your own gate. We re off at five in the morn 
 ing. Do you go! " 
 
 [32] 
 
CHAP. II NANCY STAIR 
 
 He saw by my manner that nothing save an 
 earthquake could get me from the house, and 
 whistling, with some significance, " The Deil 
 Has Nae Got all the Fools," he left me without 
 a good-by word. After he had gone I went 
 forth into the open to be alone. The stars were 
 shining brightly through white clouds, which 
 the sea winds drove across the sky, and far 
 down the cliff I could see the great beach fire 
 and catch the laughter and song of the gipsy 
 folk and free-traders. 
 
 Tales were not wanting of the men of Stair 
 who had lost their wits when crossed in love; 
 who had run away with other men s wives and 
 had abided with some jauntiness the world s 
 dispraise, cleaving until death did them part to 
 the one woman who seemed God-made for them. 
 I had thought before this, in a slighting man 
 ner, of the strange doings of my forebears ; but 
 the thing was upon me, and, come life, come 
 death, I knew that there was henceforward for 
 me but one woman in the world, Marian Ingar- 
 rach, an Irish gipsy-girl, with a beauty beyond 
 the natural, and a voice of music like the sound 
 ing of an old harp. 
 
 [33] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. II 
 
 I stood under the great tree, the blood of a 
 man and a lover pulsing sweet and feverishly 
 through my veins, when I saw her come out 
 on the balcony, over the sea door, where some 
 posies grew, which she had come to move back 
 from the wind. I was not one to lose an oppor 
 tunity like this, for nature in me was strong 
 and impulse-driven. I crossed the space which 
 divided us and spoke up to her. 
 
 "Will you come down?" I called to her; 
 " I have that which I would say to you to 
 night." 
 
 She started at the sound of my voice, hesi 
 tated for a moment, and with no answer in 
 words disappeared from the porch, coming out 
 of the door near which I stood. 
 
 Her hair, in two long plaits, hung almost to 
 her knees, and by the moonlight I could see the 
 flush of her cheek and the silver sheen of her 
 eyes as she looked up at me with questioning 
 in her glance, and I remember now the clutch 
 at my throat which seemed to hold back all I 
 would say, as I took off my cap and stood be 
 fore her. 
 
 " I love you," I said headily, " I love you 
 and I want you for my wife," and, seeing the 
 [24] 
 
CHAP. II NANCY STAIR 
 
 highness of the absurdity that my first words 
 to her should be a proposal of marriage, I cried, 
 
 " Oh, my dear ! my dear ! ye ll think me daft 
 to talk thus; but we men of Stair go gyte in 
 these affairs. Tis love at first sight with us, 
 or none at all; but if ye ll have me, I ll make 
 ye Lady Stair; and what s far more, I ll try to 
 make you a happy woman the rest of your 
 days. 
 
 " It seems wild enough for me to be talking 
 so," I went on, " to you, who do not even know 
 my name," and here she interrupted me with a 
 shy smile. 
 
 " Jock ! " she said, reaching forth her hand, 
 and the door of heaven opened, as it seemed. 
 
 " How did you know 1 " I asked. 
 
 " Sure," she said, " I listened for it. The 
 other big man called you that." 
 
 " You cared to know ! " I whispered, for my 
 arm was around her by this time, and the world 
 had slipped away. 
 
 " Very much." 
 
 " And you think you could learn to love me, 
 Marian? " 
 
 I felt the little body quiver in my arms, and 
 when she spoke there was fear in her voice. 
 [25] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. II 
 
 " Do you think it is right! " she asked. " Do 
 you think it can be right? It seems as though 
 for years, for all my life, I had waited for your 
 coming, and I loved you the minute I saw you 
 you whom a few hours agone I did not know 
 to be a living man. Tell me," she went on ex 
 citedly, " you who are a man and of the world, 
 can this be all good? " 
 
 " It is as God meant such things to fall," I 
 answered her, "and He deal so with me as I 
 shall deal with thee." 
 
 "But," she persisted, "are you sure you 
 understand? You tell me you are Lord of 
 Stair, and I ve no doubt of it, for truth shines 
 from your eyes; but what do you ken of me? 
 I who have no name, who was left by some 
 gipsy folk at the inn door, and whose breeding 
 what I ve of it came from a Jacobite priest 
 who teaches by the Cairn Mills." 
 
 There was never another voice so full of 
 music, so caressing or so feminine, as Marian 
 Ingarrach s, none, not even Nancy Stair s ; and 
 as she uttered these depreciations of herself, I 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " You are as I would have you." 
 
 "Entirely?" 
 
 [26] 
 
CHAP. II NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Entirely." 
 
 "And you ll not be ashamed of me? " 
 
 It was in this question that I had her first 
 teasing of me, for she was woman, and knew as 
 well as I of the beauty, which gave her a queen s 
 right to the hearts of men. 
 
 "Ashamed of you," I cried. "Ah, girl, 
 dinna ye see I canna get my breath for wantin 
 ye?" 
 
 She stood looking at me, her chin well up 
 and an amused and a glad look in her eyes. 
 
 " Ah," she said at length, " you are the one 
 who is worth all that a woman has to give, and 
 the blood of all the lawless folk of which I come 
 speaks for you, Jock Stair! For ye woo as a 
 man should woo; and I m won as a woman 
 should be won, because she has no will left to 
 choose." 
 
 And she turned her face toward mine. 
 
 "I m just yours for the asking, Jock." 
 
 I drew her to me, and we kissed each other 
 beneath the starlit blue, with the sea wind blow 
 ing our hair and the gipsy singing coming, in 
 broken bits of melody, up through the gorse 
 and heather. 
 
 I made a song of it after, in my limping 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. II 
 
 verse, which Nancy found one day, and laughed 
 at, I remember: 
 
 The gipsies are out, I can see their lights moving, 
 Race answers to race, neath the stars and the blue ; 
 
 They are living and laughing and mating and loving, 
 As I stand in the midnight with you, love, with you! 
 
 [38] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE TREASURE BECOMES MINE, BUT IS CLAIMED 
 BY ITS OWNER 
 
 THERE was no sleep for me that night, and 
 I lay awake till the clear day, watching the gulls 
 fly across the window and waiting the time when 
 I might see her once again. Early as it was 
 when I arose, the wee bit lassie who brought 
 me the hot water said in answer to my inquiry 
 that the other gentlemen had been gone since 
 the daybreak, and declining her offer of break 
 fasting in my room, I went down to the spence, 
 hoping that Marian might be there before me. 
 I found the room empty, however, save for 
 Dame Dickenson, who had spread a table for 
 me between the fire and the window, through 
 which I could see the waves curl on the lower 
 beach and the sunshine break into flying sparks 
 over the fine blue sea. I was never one to mince 
 words when there was aught to be said, nor to 
 put off settling until another time a thing which 
 could be fixed upon the moment. 
 [39] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. HI 
 
 " Sit ye down," I said to the little body, who 
 was plainly of a rank and comprehension above 
 the vulgar. " Sit ye down ! There are a few 
 words that I would like to have with ye." 
 
 She remained standing, but paused in her 
 employ to give me a wordless attention as I 
 went on: 
 
 " I am John Stair, Lord of Stair and Alton 
 in the Mearns, and I want to marry your ward, 
 Marian Ingarrach." 
 
 She set the rest of the dishes before me as 
 though not hearing my speech, but I saw the 
 corners of her mouth twitch a bit and, after re 
 moving the cover of the haddie, she cast a glance 
 over the top of my head rather than directly at 
 me, as she said : 
 
 " Ye re a cautious body, Lord Stair." 
 
 " I know what I intend to do," I answered, 
 and there was a silence between us for a space. 
 
 " Ye re a quare man," she broke forth pres 
 ently, looking at me humorously over her 
 glasses. " Aye, a quare man ! Ye come here 
 with a pack of riotous livers from Edinburgh, 
 clap your eyes on my young lady for the first 
 time last night, and are for marryin her off 
 hand this morning with no more to do over it 
 [30] 
 
CHAP. Ill NANCY STAIR 
 
 than if marryin was a daily performance of 
 yours." 
 
 I said no words, but regarded her with a 
 smile. 
 
 " Sure," she went on, looking at me with 
 great equanimity, " ye canna soften my heart 
 by your smilin . Ye re a handsome man, my 
 lord, and ye ve the strong way with ye that 
 black men often have; but I ve met in with 
 handsome men afore now, and the handsomer 
 the more to be feared. Dickenson was a dark 
 man himself," she added, with a twinkle in her 
 eye. Another silence fell between us, as I 
 watched her needles click in and out and catch 
 the firelight. 
 
 " Perhaps," she said presently, " ye d like 
 to have a little knowledge of the girl you re 
 wantin for a wife." 
 
 " It s the matter which lies nearest my heart 
 at the moment," I answered her ; and at this her 
 voice and face became more serious, and she 
 stopped her knitting, looking direetly at me as 
 she spoke. 
 
 "There s little to tell," she began, "little 
 that I could take book-oath to, I mean, for one 
 bad night in March, eighteen years back, I 
 [31] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. Ill 
 
 heard a wail at the door, and opening it found 
 a gipsy-hamper with the baby inside. She was 
 finely dressed and there was a note pinned OB 
 her little shirt, which wait a bit," she said, " I 
 can show it ye." At this she crossed the room 
 to a wooden cupboard, unlocked the door, and 
 took from it a small box, the key of which she 
 had in her bosom. Opening this she handed 
 me a slip of paper, upon which was written, in 
 a coarse male hand: 
 
 " HARRIET DICKENSON : 
 
 " If you will keep the child money will be sent for you 
 and her. I want her brought up a lady." 
 
 " There was a roll of gold in the basket with 
 her, forty pounds, my lord. And the writer has 
 kept his word. Money has been sent ever since, 
 sometimes from Italy, once from Russia, and 
 then from the Far East. That is all that I 
 know." 
 
 " But you have beliefs concerning the mat 
 ter?" I asked. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " though the truth of them 
 
 could not be proved. Twenty years ago, when 
 
 I was maid at Squire Eglinton s, on the Irish 
 
 coast, near Carrickfergus, he had one daugh- 
 
 [33] 
 
CHAP. Ill NANCY STAIR 
 
 ter, a flower of a girl, who ran away with a 
 gipsy man she met in her father s park. The 
 young lady loved me and knew where my home 
 in Scotland was. I have thought, my lord, that 
 mayhap she died, and twas the father-man who 
 brought the baby to my door. I have told you 
 all but this : if Miss Eileen ever had a daughter, 
 it could not be more like her than Marian is." 
 
 A hundred questions came to me at once, 
 but before one of them was asked I had a sight 
 of the girl herself, coming from the country 
 side of the house, the wind blowing her hair 
 about her face and carrying away swarms of 
 white petals from the hawthorn-blooms she held 
 in her arms. As she was hid from my sight by 
 the corner of the house, Sandy Carmichael en 
 tered the room, his hands thrust far into his 
 pockets, and his pipe held at a curious angle 
 between his teeth. 
 
 " What ! " I cried in amazement. " You 
 here ! I thought you were gone at daylight." 
 
 " Did ye now I " he asked, with raillery in 
 his voice. " Did ye think," and he put his hand 
 on my shoulder after his own fashion, " did you 
 think I d leave you, Jock, in this, your last ex 
 tremity? Ye re not married yet? " he went on 
 [33] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. HI 
 
 jokingly, "I m not too late for the wedding? 
 Oh," he broke out with a laugh, " how have the 
 mighty fallen!" 
 
 " Not yet," I answered him ; " but it will be 
 no fault of mine if I m not a married man by 
 night." 
 
 He changed color at this, and getting the 
 dame on his side the two of them urged a wait 
 ing I know not for what; and more thought, 
 which would have brought me to the same con 
 clusion ; but their talk and their arguments went 
 high over my head, for I was fixed as fate that 
 nothing but Marian s mind against it could 
 move me from the wish I had. As the three 
 of us stood thus, the talk going back and forth, 
 the girl came into the room, and at sight of me 
 went white, changing on the instant to a glori 
 ous pink, which flushed her face all over like 
 a rose. 
 
 " Good morning, Lord Stair," she said. 
 
 I crossed the room, and took her hand and 
 kissed it. 
 
 " Marian," I said, " will you marry me to 
 day?" 
 
 She sent a hurried look around the three of 
 us, and as a woman discovers things, knew that 
 [34] 
 
CHAP. Ill NANCT STAIR 
 
 they were against me in the matter. It took 
 her not one second to decide for me, and my 
 being leaped toward her as she spoke. 
 
 "When you will, my lord," she said. "I 
 have no wishes that are not your own." 
 
 It was a little past noon of the same day, 
 with none to see save Sandy Carmichael, Dame 
 Dickenson, and Uncle Ben, that Father Pierre, 
 from the Cairn Mills, made Marian and myself 
 one in a marriage such as the gods intended 
 when the world was young and the age of 
 gold. 
 
 About three o clock Sandy left us, going on 
 horse to join his party, which was to lay by for 
 him at Landgore. Marian and I walked with 
 him far beyond the sea light, he leading his 
 horse and telling us that it was but the strong 
 remembrance that he had a wife at home which 
 prevented his carrying her away with him. He 
 had great joy in my happiness, and his strong 
 laugh rolled round and round in echoes among 
 the rocks as we went along together. Before 
 we parted his mood changed a bit, and he 
 turned suddenly and laid his arm across my 
 shoulder. 
 
 "You ll not forget me, laddie?" he said 
 4 [35] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP, in 
 
 earnestly, with his head turned a bit from me 
 so that his eyes could not be seen. 
 
 Our hands gripped each other at the end, as 
 though we could not speak the word of good- 
 by, and my dear, who knew the thought that 
 my marriage might in some way make the 
 friendship between us less close took our 
 locked hands between her little ones and held 
 them to her breast. 
 
 " Believe me," she said, as though making 
 a vow, " that all I can ever do to make this 
 friendship stronger I shall do; oh, believe me 
 in that!" 
 
 Sandy kissed her on the cheek, she stuck a 
 piece of pink heather in his coat, and he 
 mounted his horse and was off at a bolt. Twice 
 we saw him turn and wave his cap toward us; 
 we called to him, and he shouted back some 
 thing in return, the meaning of which we were 
 unable to discover, and so went down a sudden 
 turn of the rocks and was lost to sight. 
 
 There are some parts of every life that 
 can not be set forth. The first sacred months 
 of my marriage are of these. The little inn, 
 [361 
 
CHAP. Ill NANCY STAIR 
 
 which was no longer in Dame Dickenson s pos 
 session, I purchased, and we made it into a 
 home. And the time is all of Marian ! Marian 
 standing in white in the going down of the 
 braeside to welcome me; Marian on my knee 
 in the twilight looking out seaward and star- 
 ward; Marian with her brown head and face, 
 such as the angels have, resting on my breast 
 in the gold of the dawning ; Marian Marian 
 Marian I, an old man, who was once that 
 bonny Jock Stair, all your own, call to you. 
 Can you come? Will it ever be again? See! 
 I stretch my hands, wrinkled, old, to that far 
 off blue, and ask you, as I have a thousand 
 times, to send me peace. 
 
 All that summer we lived in the little house, 
 and toward autumn there were reasons why my 
 wife should not be troubled with new cares. 
 Sandy came to see us frequently; whiles I ran 
 up to Edinburgh to tend to needful matters. 
 One day in March, because of some wish my 
 dear had half expressed, I went to town to get 
 some of the jewels with which the Ladies Stair 
 had adorned themselves in days gone by. I 
 [37] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. HI 
 
 had promised a short absence, but there was a 
 matter of some fastenings to be mended at the 
 goldsmith s, and my stay was three days. Rid 
 ing backward as fast as a postboy, I came on 
 the porch suddenly to find a weeper, as if one 
 were dead, hanging upon the knocker. Drop 
 ping the box and riding-whip I pushed the door 
 ajar with a great shove and entered, upon 
 Dame Dickenson, who was coming out of her 
 room, from which place I heard a faint cry. 
 Her eyes were red with weeping; she looked 
 scared and went white at the sight of me, and 
 with a horrid presentiment of trouble, I cried 
 on the instant, in a voice which I heard myself 
 as coming from some other: 
 
 "Where is she?" 
 
 " Oh, my lord," she said, and her voice broke 
 and went off into a shriek, " did ye no meet wi 
 Mr. Cannichael? He s gone for ye." 
 
 " I met nobody," I cried, and again there 
 was a tiny wail as of a new-born babe from the 
 next room. 
 
 " Oh, my lord ! " she cried again, springing 
 
 forward and putting herself between me and the 
 
 doorway which I made to enter. " Ask God for 
 
 strength to bear what s been sent ye. Say a 
 
 [381 
 
CHAP. Ill NANCY STAIR 
 
 prayer, my lord. Ask Him to let ye remember 
 the baby that s come to you. Pray, my 
 lord," she cried ; " prepare yourself." 
 
 I pushed her from me and threw the door 
 wide open. 
 
 There was a body in the room laid out for 
 burial, with candles burning at the head and 
 foot a slim, young, girlish body; and as 
 Father Pierre, who was kneeling by it, turned 
 his face toward mine I knew that Marian, be 
 cause of me, had gone forever. Something 
 seemed to strike me at the back of the head and 
 a black vapor fell before my eyes and stopped 
 my breath I knew that Father Pierre caught 
 me in his arms, a merciful unconsciousness 
 seized me, and everything faded away. 
 
 When I came to myself I was in my own 
 sleeping-room at Stair, a night-light burning on 
 the table, and some one on the other side of 
 the screen sat reading by the fire. I saw the 
 top of the head over the chair-rail, and knew it 
 was Sandy CarmichaePs. Five weeks longer I 
 lay there, and on toward midsummer, my fever 
 having lasted four months, Sandy proposed I 
 [39] 
 
NANCY STAIE CHAP. Ill 
 
 should start as soon as I was able and tour the 
 world. It had been an old dream of mine, but 
 with little taste for life, I set sail from Glasgow 
 for Gibraltar some time in August, 1769, to 
 visit other lands and see new lives with old sor 
 rows like my own. 
 
 [40] 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ENTER NANCY STAIB 
 
 I HAD been from Scotland near five years, 
 when two letters were handed to me as I sat in 
 The British Sailors Tavern, in Calcutta; one 
 of which was from Hugh Pitcairn and the other 
 from Sandy Carmichael. I thought as I read 
 them what characteristic epistles they were, for 
 Hugh s read as though I had parted from him 
 but the day before, and urged my return to look 
 after some land interest which he as my solici 
 tor felt should have my immediate supervision. 
 
 " There is another thing," he added, " which 
 should bring you home. Huey MacGrath is ail 
 ing and I fear is sickening to die." 
 
 Sandy spoke, as was his way, of our old 
 affection and his wish to see me once again, and 
 he ended by a tender reference to the baby of 
 mine who was growing, a big girl and needed 
 me, he said. 
 
 God knows how lonely I was when these 
 two letters came to me, and the thoughts of 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IV 
 
 home and a child dependent upon me brought, 
 for the first time since my dread trouble, a sense 
 of comfort. Huey sick unto death was another 
 call to my heart, and in four days time I was 
 homeward bound. 
 
 Before I stepped ashore at Leith it was 
 Sandy who waved to me from the quay ; Sandy 
 whose hand gripped mine so hard the fingers 
 ached for days ; Sandy whose eyes beamed with 
 joy as he looked at me and took me back to Stair. 
 
 " I ve been living on the docks awaiting your 
 return until the town doubtless thinks I m going 
 for a sailor," he cried. " Well, it s good to have 
 you back, Jock Stair and I believe that Huey 
 MacGrath s illness is little more than a longing 
 for the sight of you." 
 
 On our ride homeward his whole talk turned 
 about his boy Danvers, of whom he spoke with 
 unfettered approval and satisfaction, which 
 came from a strange source. 
 
 " He looks like you, Jock Stair ! It s heav 
 en s truth that he s the image of you t It seems 
 odd that I, who am a brown man, should have 
 a son with an olive skin and hair like ink, but 
 it s a fact. And he s like ye in other ways, for 
 he rides like a monkey and can thrash any one 
 [48] 
 
CHAP. IV NANCY STAIR 
 
 of his weight in the county. Aye," he concluded, 
 " ye ll be proud of Danvers ! " 
 
 " And what of my girl f " I asked. 
 
 " Nancy," he said, a curious look coming 
 into his face as he smiled ; " she s one you must 
 see to judge of for yourself. IVe raised her up 
 as well as I could. I ve spent time with her ! " 
 
 His determined reticence, which had some 
 humor in it, put me on my metal concerning the 
 child, and the day after my arrival I sent Tarn 
 MacColl with a written request to Dame Dicken- 
 son to fetch the little one immediately to Stair. 
 
 Six days later Tarn returned bringing a 
 large sheet of paper, which I have before me 
 as I write. It was folded after a curious fash 
 ion, with no address, and opening it I found 
 the following: 
 
 * 
 
 
 i 
 
 ./V 
 
 [43] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IV 
 
 For the first time in five years I laughed 
 aloud. This was something worth. Here was 
 an atom, not yet five, who took her pen in hand 
 and misspelled her firm intention to do as she 
 chose. I folded the paper and laid it aside, 
 wondering what kind of offspring I had be 
 gotten, and the following morning took horse 
 to Landgore to see this very determined little 
 body for myself. 
 
 As I came in sight of the place after my long 
 ride, strange voices called to me from the sea, 
 from the heather, from the great copper birch 
 over the house. Eyes long dead seemed look 
 ing into mine, hands were on my hair, and there 
 came to me, with the feeling of mortal sickness, 
 the terrible, sweet remembrances of an early 
 passion and of things to be known to none save 
 Marian and me and the One who does most 
 wisely for the Great End, but bitterly to us who 
 see but a little of the way. 
 
 Reaching the porch, my strength left me 
 utterly, and I leaned against one of the wooden 
 pillars for support. Standing thus, I saw a 
 child running down the braeside at the top of 
 her speed, with no knowledge of my presence, 
 but coming at her fastest to reach the house. 
 [44] 
 
CHAP. IV NANCY STAIR 
 
 She wore a short-waisted black frock, with a 
 very long skirt, which almost touched the 
 ground. On her feet were red shoes, which 
 twinkled in and out of the black, as with great 
 great dexterity and lightness, she clambered up 
 the steps of the porch and stood before me, one 
 of the miracles of God before which we human 
 folk stand abashed. For here was Marian 
 again. Marian to the turn of an eyelash; to 
 the finger tips; in the bronze chestnut curls 
 which stood like a halo round the face; in the 
 supple little woman-body ; in all the dear, quaint, 
 beautiful baby who stood before me devouring 
 me with gray eyes, and looking at me with a 
 radiant, shy smile as she held a kitten tail up 
 against her breast. 
 
 After a few seconds regard of me, during 
 which I could see by her face that she was 
 piecing some bits of knowledge together, she 
 clapped her hands. 
 
 " Jock ! " she cried, with a rapturous smile. 
 
 I can never tell the joy and horror of the 
 moment, for my name was the first word my 
 beloved had ever spoken to me, and at the sound 
 of it from this, her child, my heart leaped into 
 my throat; there came a whirring in the top of 
 [45] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IV 
 
 my head and a singing in my ears, and as I 
 sank upon the old stone settle something like 
 a moan escaped me. 
 
 In the next minute I knew Nancy Stair for 
 all time. The sight of suffering seemed to put 
 her past herself, and, dashing toward me, she 
 climbed up on the seat. I could feel the warmth 
 of her body and the clinging of her dimpled 
 arm as she drew my head against her naked, 
 palpitating little breast as though to defend me 
 from suffering against the whole world. 
 
 " Oh, you poor fing ! " she cried. " You poor 
 fing! Does you hurt? " 
 
 When I had in some degree recovered my 
 self-control, the child sat down beside me, so 
 close that she pushed her small body against 
 mine, with one rose-leaf of a hand laid upon 
 my knee in a protective fashion, every little 
 while giving me a pat, as a mother soothes a 
 child. 
 
 Sitting thus, my arm around her, my soul 
 stirred to its depths, my eyes brooded over all 
 her baby charms. 
 
 She was of a slender, round figure, with 
 dimpled neck and arms. Her head was broad, 
 her forehead low, with noticeably black brows, 
 [46] 
 
CHAP. IV NANCY STATE 
 
 and she had a way, when perplexed, I very soon 
 discovered, of drawing these together, the right 
 one falling a bit lower than the left. It was the 
 eyes which struck one first, however; brooding, 
 passionate, observant, quick to look within or 
 without, and fearless in their glance. Mrs. Opie 
 states that they were black, and Reynolds 
 painted them bright blue; but the truth is, that 
 they were like her mother s, clear gray, with 
 pupils of unusual size, and heavy lashed, espe 
 cially on the under lid. 
 
 She was still under five, but I had not been 
 with her a quarter of an hour before I recog 
 nized a potent and wonderful personality and 
 knew that there was something which this small 
 soul had in her keeping to give the world which 
 others have not. 
 
 " Sandy was here," I heard her sweet voice 
 saying when I had recovered myself. " Sandy 
 was nere one day. He fetched the drey hen you 
 sent me." Here she patted my knee, looking up 
 as though to assure me of her protection. 
 
 " He said the rabbits were from you," she 
 went on; "and the owl got broke that was in 
 the box. It was too little for him." 
 
 " Sandy brought me," she said finally, " the 
 [47] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IV 
 
 child that stares so," and she pointed, her eye 
 brows puckered together, at a rag-doll, with 
 painted cheeks and round, offensive eyes, sitting 
 head down in a corner of the porch. 
 
 Beyond money, I had not sent even a mes 
 sage to the child in all these years of absence, 
 and my heart filled with gratitude to that friend 
 who had made me a fairy-grandfather and won 
 a child s love for me, who was so unthoughtful 
 and so far away. 
 
 As we sat thus, Dame Dickenson heard the 
 sound of voices, and came from the house to 
 welcome me with a smile, though the tears were 
 in her eyes as she spoke her words of welcome. 
 
 Her life of ease and freedom from money- 
 care had changed her greatly, and with her 
 black silk frock, her lace kerchief and cap, she 
 seemed quite like some old gentlewoman. I 
 tried, knowing the inadequacy of words, even 
 while speaking, to thank her for my wonderful 
 child, when she interrupted me. 
 
 "I should have died but for her after" 
 she broke off here, not wishing to name the sor 
 row between us. " But you ve not seen the won 
 der of her yet; she has the whole Cairn Mills 
 bewitched, and if she were a queen on her throne 
 [48] 
 
CHAP. IV NANCY STAIR 
 
 could not have her way more than she does 
 now." 
 
 It was of a piece with the Dame s thought- 
 fulness to have prepared for me a room which 
 I had never known, and where no memories 
 dwelt; a low-raftered apartment on the land- 
 side of the house, with a window looking over 
 the garden and a fire burning cheerily in the cor 
 ner chimney. Dropping off to sleep, happier than 
 I thought it possible for me to be again, I be 
 came aware that there was some one in the room 
 with me. Opening my eyes, I found Nancy, 
 with her long white gown gathered on her breast 
 to keep it from the floor, standing looking at 
 me, her head about level with my own as it lay 
 on the pillow. 
 
 "What is it? "I asked. 
 
 " GetinwifJock," she answered. 
 
 "What?" I inquired again, for she had 
 slipped her words all together. 
 
 " Get in wif Jock," she repeated, with 
 an unmistakable movement of her small hand 
 to turn back the bed covers. 
 
 "You darling!" I cried, and drew her in 
 beside me. 
 
 The tenderness I felt for her as she lay on 
 [49] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IV 
 
 my breast was akin to agony. I trembled at the 
 touch of her, and what she meant to me, and all 
 that I had missed. And long after she fell 
 asleep, I lay, seeing the past with new eyes, un 
 derstanding new truths, and making myself, 
 please God, a better man. 
 
 I woke the next morning about eight, to find 
 her gone, but as I was dressing by the window 
 I saw her below me in the garden, busy with 
 some hens that were clucking all about her. 
 
 " Hello, Little Flower," I called to her.* 
 
 She smiled up at me, blinking in the strong 
 sunshine, and I hastened down to join her. 
 
 " Are you willing to come back with me to 
 Stair?" I asked. 
 
 "We re getting ready, Jock," she answered, 
 putting her hand in mine. 
 
 " We 1 " I inquired. " Whom do you mean 1 " 
 
 " Nancy Stair," she said, touching herself on 
 the breast with her small forefinger, " Dame 
 Dickenson, Father Michel, Uncle Ben, the two 
 
 * The name came to me with no thought, but for years it was the 
 one she fancied most, and many of her early poems were signed 
 L. F. S., or sometimes by nothing save a queer little drawing, half 
 rose and half daisy. 
 
 (The manuscript of the " Maid with the Wistfu Eye " in the 
 Edinburgh collection has only this mark as signature.) 
 
 [50] 
 
CHAP. IV NANCY STAIK 
 
 or three dogs, the kittens, the one without a 
 name, the drey hen, and the broken owl " 
 
 " Nancy Stair," I broke in, with some firm 
 ness in my voice, " it will be utterly impossible 
 to take all these folk up to Stair Castle." 
 
 She looked at me and went white, as grown 
 people do when news which chills the blood is 
 suddenly brought to them, and struck her little 
 hands together as though in pain. Turning 
 suddenly she left me and trotted oft* through a 
 cleft in the stone wall of the kitchen garden, to 
 which place I followed her, with remorse in my 
 heart for the rough way in which I had spoken. 
 
 I found her lying flat in the grass, her face 
 hidden in her arms, her body trembling, but she 
 made no sound. 
 
 " What is it, dear? " I asked. 
 
 " I can t go," she said, without looking up, 
 " I can t go, Jock." 
 
 "Why? "I inquired. 
 
 She arose at this and leaned against me, her 
 head but little above my knee and her eyes look 
 ing straight up into mine. 
 
 "Oh, don t you see?" she cried. "I can t 
 go ! I can t go and leave my people, Jock ! " 
 
 I can see now that then was the time I 
 5 [511 
 
NANCY STAIE CHAP. IV 
 
 should have heen firm with her, and have es 
 caped the tyranny of latter years. Firm with 
 her! Firm! while Nancy stood leaning against 
 me with her baby curls under my hand. Firm ! 
 with eyes that held tears in them, tears which 
 I had caused. 
 
 " Take them," I cried, " take the free-traders, 
 the old wreck, the Cairn Mills, and the new 
 light-house, for all of me; but never let me see 
 that look in your face again, my little one ! " 
 and I had her in my arms, as weak a father as 
 I had been as lover and as husband, with the 
 resulting that I, John Stair, Lord of Stair and 
 Alton in the Mearns, in company with Dame 
 Dickenson, Father Michel, Uncle Ben, the two 
 or three dogs, the kittens, the Nameless One, 
 the " drey hen," and a small child holding a 
 dissipated-looking owl with but one whole 
 feather in its tail, drove up to the gateway of 
 Stair Castle in a gipsy wagon of an abandoned 
 character, on the afternoon of a day in late 
 February, in the year 1773. 
 
 [52] 
 
CHAPTEK V 
 
 I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A STEANGE CHILD 
 
 SEVEBAL days after this strange home-com 
 ing some business called me to the far woods, 
 where I was detained until the afternoon sun 
 was well on its way behind the hills. Nearing 
 the house I discovered Nancy huddled in a lit 
 tle bunch, sitting by her lee-lane in a spot of 
 sunshine on the west steps such a lovable, 
 touchable little bundle as she sat there, with her 
 chin in her hand. I looked for the exuberant 
 welcome which I had always received, but it was 
 wanting; and as I stood waiting some greeting 
 from her, she made a quaint gesture of dis 
 missal to me: 
 
 "Jock mustn t disturb Nancy now," she 
 said ; " Nancy s making verses." There was in 
 the atom s voice nothing but a statement of her 
 wishes. That I was her father and one to be 
 obeyed never entered her curly head, and her 
 tone implied the belief that I would respect her 
 rights as she would mine. I can honestly state 
 [53] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. V 
 
 that I never was more dismayed in my life. I 
 entered the library, wondering what had hap 
 pened in my absence, and considering whether 
 to send for Dickenson and make some inquiries. 
 
 It was gone a half hour perhaps before 
 Nancy came in through the low window, and 
 crossing the room to the place I sat, leaned her 
 self against my knee. 
 
 " Listen," she said : 
 
 Jock Stair s gone away, 
 
 Where I cannot fancy. 
 Jock Stair s gone away, 
 
 Gone and left his Nancy. 
 
 O, Jock, I cannot say 
 
 How much I miss you, 
 If you were here to-day 
 
 Nancy would kiss you. 
 
 Her cheeks were roses, her eyes shone with 
 a misty light, and the verse so rapturous to her 
 self that she struck her little hands together 
 when she had finished. 
 
 "Do you like it, Jock? Is it pretty?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " You blessed baby," I answered, " who 
 taught you?" 
 
 " They come," she said, " and afterward 
 Nancy s head-iks," and she put her morsel of 
 [54] 
 
CHAP. V NANCY STAIE 
 
 a hand to her forehead, as a grown person with 
 headache does. 
 
 " Head-iks! " she said again with emphasis. 
 
 The second day after this remarkable event, 
 Sandy, who was riding by, called over the wall 
 to me, as I stood with Nancy by my side. 
 
 " Well," he cried, " what do you think of my 
 girl, Nancy Stair?" 
 
 " The same that you do yourself," I re 
 torted. " Come in and lunch with us, won t 
 you! " 
 
 He made no answer in words, but turning 
 his horse toward the south gate, entered the 
 policy, and I sent Nancy off to tell Kirstie that 
 Mr. Carmichael would dine with us, for I 
 thought it no right part of a child s rearing that 
 she should hear herself discussed. 
 
 As she took her small body around the box 
 wood, lifting it up on the toes at every step 
 a way she had when pleased " You ve raised up 
 a wonderful child for me, Sandy," I said, and I 
 told him of the verses she writ the day before. 
 
 "Aye," he answered, "I didn t tell ye of 
 
 them, for I wanted that ye should find out about 
 
 her verses yourself. I ve a book full of them, 
 
 and she but five. But after all s said and done," 
 
 [55] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. V 
 
 he went on, " tis the heart of her that s more 
 wonderful than the head. Christmas a year 
 hack I was walking out with her, and some 
 shiftless heggars got in the path and asked for 
 money. i In truth, I answered, knowing what 
 frauds they were, I haven t a penny in the 
 world ! I thought the child had let the inci 
 dent pass unnoticed, hut that evening the door 
 to my hedroom opened and Nancy, in her white 
 nightgown, walked in. She came to the writing- 
 table shyly, and after putting a large copper 
 penny on the edge of the tahle, pushed it toward 
 me with her forefinger. 
 
 " You tan have it, she said ; I tan dit 
 anover. 
 
 " There it is, the copper penny," he cried, 
 with a laugh, though there were tears in his 
 eyes, showing me the end of his watch-f oh from 
 which the hit of money hung. 
 
 " The dear little thing had thought I really 
 had not a penny in the world and had brought 
 her only one to sacrifice upon the altar of our 
 friendship. Oh, Jock Stair," and the union he- 
 tween us spoke in the words, " how are you and 
 I to raise up a soul like this and keep it un 
 spotted from the world? " 
 [56] 
 
CHAP. V NANCY STAIR 
 
 As I stated at the beginning of my story, I 
 have no intention of saying a word of Nancy s 
 charities or of her verse-making save when 
 necessary for the clearness of my tale, but I 
 find the time has now come when some mention 
 of the first must be made. It could be judged 
 from the anecdote already told, of her bring 
 ing " her people " to Stair, that she formed 
 strong attachments ; but as time went by I found 
 that this affection extended to almost every 
 thing that lived. She was a lawless little 
 body, going around the grounds at her own 
 pleasure, and bringing back some living thing 
 at every expedition to be cared for at the house. 
 These findings included lame dogs, rabbits, 
 cats, and finally she came into the library, 
 breathless : 
 
 " I got a boy to-day, Jock," she said, exactly 
 as I might have stated I had caught a fish. " A 
 boy," she repeated, every feature in her face 
 alight ; " Father Michel s got him." 
 
 "For Heaven s sake, Nancy," I inquired, 
 " what do you intend to do with him? " 
 
 " Keep him," she answered. 
 
 Going down with her to inspect this new 
 treasure, I found a lad eight or ten years of 
 [57] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. V 
 
 age, very sickly, with a hump upon his back, 
 and of a notably unprepossessing appearance, 
 carrying a fiddle, and evidently forsaken by 
 some strolling player. She had set her mind 
 upon his staying, and he stayed ; but finding the 
 trouble her accumulated possessions were giv 
 ing at Stair, she showed me within the week a 
 bit of her power to get her own way ; a thought 
 which afterward bore such large results for the 
 whole of Scotland. 
 
 The former lord, my honored father, had 
 erected under some trees far off by the burn 
 water several small stone houses for the ser 
 vants which my beautiful Irish mother brought 
 with her from her own country. Because my 
 bachelor ways had needed little service these 
 dwellings had gradually fallen into disuse and 
 disrepair, the few serving people I required 
 finding abundant lodgment in the attic cham 
 bers. These tiny houses, built of gray stone, 
 with ivy growing around the windows, had 
 taken Nancy s fancy from the instant her eyes 
 first lighted on them. 
 
 The evening before her sixth birthday, as 
 we stood together watching the sun go down, a 
 thought for the following day came to me. 
 [58] 
 
CHAP. V NANCY STAIR 
 
 " And what do you want for your birthday, 
 Little Flower? " I asked. 
 
 " The little houses," she said, leaning her 
 head against me. 
 
 "What for?" I inquired, thinking perhaps 
 that she believed them play houses. 
 
 " Dame Dickenson, Father Michel, Uncle 
 Ben " she stopped. 
 
 " To live in? " I inquired. 
 
 " To keep," she answered quietly. 
 
 The more I thought it over the more pleased 
 I became with the idea that these devoted peo 
 ple, who gave their lives to Nancy, should be 
 rewarded. I was perhaps especially pleased at 
 the thought of doing something for Father 
 Michel, of whom I would now be speaking. 
 
 He was at this time a young man, still under 
 twenty-five, who had come, none knew from what 
 place, to live at the Cairn Mills with the dear 
 old priest who married Marian and me. What 
 tragedy had been behind him none knew, but 
 Dickenson told me that from the time he first 
 saw the child his heart went out to her, and that 
 after the meeting there was no keeping him 
 from the old inn, where he finally took up his 
 residence as one of the family. 
 [59] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. V 
 
 Old Uncle Ben, whose sea tales were one of 
 Nancy s chief est joys, and whose wooden leg 
 was her greatest perplexity, I felt deserved some 
 recognition of his service, and, to shorten the 
 telling, in less than a month these houses were 
 occupied as Nancy had desired they should be 
 Father Michel being given the large one, with 
 Nancy s dwarfed boy, Dame Dickenson the next, 
 and Uncle Ben becoming the proud occupant 
 of a third. It seemed a sort of child s play to 
 me at first, and Mrs. Opie s statement that I 
 built these houses at this period for the work 
 on the Burnside, is entirely without f oundation,. 
 
 Some credit has been bestowed upon me as 
 well for the working out of a labor problem 
 here, but it is honor undeserved, for the thing 
 began in the entirely unintentional manner 
 which I have set down, and the working out of 
 it came at a later date through Nancy s think-, 
 ing and the zeal and goodness of Father Michel.* 
 
 * It was about this period that the " Lace School " was regularly 
 begun, which occurred by no plan of mine, but in the following 
 way : Sandy had had two young women from the north for house 
 service at Arran, and finding them unused to labor, proposed that 
 Dame Dickenson should teach them the Irish lace-making which 
 she had learned in her own country. And in a short time there 
 were nine or ten young girls of the neighborhood under regular in 
 struction in this industry. 
 
 [60] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 NANCY BEGINS HEK STUDY OF THE LAW 
 
 THERE has been some delay in bringing 
 Hugh Pitcairn into my story, and, as I read 
 that which I have written, I seem to have set 
 him down in a scant and dry manner little cal 
 culated to do justice to his many virtues. These 
 virtues, however, were of the kind which made 
 him a fine citizen rather than a jolly companion 
 over a bowl of brose. He was a tall man, 
 heavily built, with a large face, thick bristly 
 hair, and blue eyes set extraordinarily far apart. 
 The bridge of his nose being noticeably low, 
 this peculiarity gave the upper part of his face 
 the appearance of being very sparsely settled. 
 It was Robert Burns, I remember, who made 
 this descriptive observe concerning him. A 
 lowland body, but kin to the Pitcairns of the 
 north, he had come to the High School depend 
 ent for his education upon the generosity of a 
 rich uncle, and from the time he entered was 
 [61] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VI 
 
 easily first in all of his classes. Of an unbend 
 ing rectitude, unmerciful in his judgments, ana 
 lytical, penetrating, and accumulative, he was 
 at an early age destined for two things success 
 and unpopularity. He left the High School with 
 us, to enter upon the study of the law with 
 Maxwell, of Dalgleish, and rising rapidly in his 
 profession was at the age of thirty-three recog 
 nized as the soundest, most learned, and bitter 
 est tongued lawyer in Auld Keekie. 
 
 Justice to his mind was a simple thing; a 
 man had either broken the law or he had not; 
 if he had, he should be punished. " Extenuat 
 ing circumstances " was a phrase used only by 
 the sentimental and the guilty. I recall, as I 
 write, his telling me with some pride and an 
 amused smile of a certain occasion, when he 
 had wrung a verdict from a jury against their 
 sympathies, that the spectators had hissed him 
 on his way out of court. 
 
 " He s not a man at all. He s only a Head," 
 Sandy Carmichael said of him once, and I find 
 enough truth in the statement to make it worth 
 setting down. 
 
 His conceit of himself was high, as is the 
 case with many self-made men, but he had a 
 [62] 
 
CHAP. VI NANCY STAIR 
 
 fine code of conduct for the direction of his pri 
 vate affairs, was aggressively honest and fear 
 less, and an earnest believer in God, himself, 
 and the Scots law. 
 
 Like other great men he had his failings, 
 however, and he set up to be a judge of music 
 and poetry, for which he had as vile an ear as 
 could be conceived; and to hear him read from 
 Kamsay or Fergusson was an infliction not un 
 necessarily to be borne. One night, I remem 
 ber, in 86, Burns and I stopped at Pitcairn s 
 on our way home from Creech s and got him to 
 read Leith Races and Caller Oysters, and Rab 
 afterward went out and rolled over and over 
 in a snow-drift, roaring with laughter, till some 
 of the town-guard, who chanced to be going by, 
 were for arresting him on the charge of drunk 
 enness. 
 
 It may be easily judged from this descrip 
 tion that my friend Sandy and he were at op 
 posite poles from each other, as I have said, 
 and as time passed this dislike increased until 
 it became the chiefest vexation of my life. If 
 I mentioned Hugh s name to Sandy, he would 
 maintain a disdainful silence or turn the talk 
 with abruptness; while if Sandy s name was 
 [63] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VI 
 
 spoken before Pitcairn, the great lawyer would 
 raise his eyebrows, shrug his shoulders, or make 
 some biting criticism which rendered me resent 
 ful and highly uncomfortable as well. 
 
 As soon as I was firmly fixed in my old home 
 again, Pitcairn began to drop in on me, as his 
 practise had been before my marriage, and his 
 attitude to Nancy was a thing humorous to see. 
 Hers to him was not without its droll side as 
 well, for when he was present, especially if he 
 talked of his cases, the child would sit on a 
 stool, with some live thing held in her lap, lit 
 erally devouring him with her eyes as he nar 
 rated the story of some criminal whom he had 
 hanged or transported. I have seen her imitate 
 his gesture as he talked, and sigh with relief 
 when the jury handed in its verdict and the 
 culprit s doom was finally settled. It was not 
 long, however, before she evinced a strong dis 
 like to being left alone with him, and if I had 
 occasion to leave the room where the three of 
 us were together she would invariably fol 
 low me. 
 
 In an unfortunate moment, driving by the 
 old court in a pony chaise, I stopped, knowing 
 that Pitcairn had a case on, and took Nancy in 
 [64] 
 
CHAP. VI NANCY STAIR 
 
 " to see him at his work." Every little while 
 after that I would find her disappeared from the 
 house, and on going to the court would see her 
 midget pony fastened outside, and the little 
 chestnut head and big gray eyes looking over 
 the back of the high bench in front; for the 
 officers, who knew she was my daughter, soon 
 grew to understand her ways and let her in 
 without parley. I can solemnly affirm that I 
 thought this a most unwise way for a child to 
 spend her time, but there was something about 
 Nancy herself which prevented my giving or 
 ders. I can not say that she ever disobeyed me, 
 and yet, I knew then, as I know now, that had 
 I tried to stop her she would have evaded me, 
 and as it turned out in the end, it was all for 
 the best. 
 
 I who was with her day by day could feel 
 her growing dislike of Hugh Pitcairn, and once 
 she came to me after a visit to the court, her 
 cheeks flaming, her eyes dilated, and her body 
 literally shaking with emotion. 
 
 "He cursed at Pitcairn as they dragged 
 him out," she said, and then bringing her little 
 fists down on my knee, she cried with apparent 
 irrelevancy : 
 
 [65] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VI 
 
 "It s not the way, Jock! It s not the 
 way!" 
 
 Less than a fortnight after I was sitting over 
 some accounts in the east room, when Hugh Pit- 
 cairn entered unannounced. 
 
 " Well, Jock Stair," he said, " that daughter 
 of yours lost me as pretty a case to-day as I 
 ever had." 
 
 " Indeed, Hugh," I returned, " I m in no way 
 answerable for that." 
 
 " I don t know ahout that ! " he broke in. 
 " This case was one of a young woman who had 
 taken a purse. She established the fact that she 
 was a widow with two small children, one of 
 whom was dying and needed medicine. I 
 thought at first that she borrowed one of the 
 children, they frequently do, but it was estab 
 lished hers. I drew attention to the anarchy 
 which would inevitably follow if each individual 
 were allowed to help himself to his neighbor s 
 belongings, and the jury was with me. As I 
 was concluding, that child of yours slipped from 
 her place, climbed the steps on the side, and 
 heeding judges and jury less than Daft Jamie, 
 went straight toward the prisoner, pulled her 
 self up on a chair beside the woman, and put- 
 [66] 
 
CHAP. VI NANCY STAIR 
 
 ting her arms around the culprit s neck, as 
 though to defend her against the devil himself, 
 turned her eyes in my direction and fairly glow 
 ered at me. 
 
 " The spectators cheered, and a woman in 
 the front cried, God bless the baby, while the 
 judge Carew it was, a sentimentalist and a 
 menace to the bar dried the tears from his eyes 
 openly, and the jury decided against me with 
 out leaving the box" he thundered, as though 
 I were in some way responsible. 
 
 I groaned. Taking this for sympathy, he 
 went on: 
 
 " I m glad ye feel about it as I do." 
 
 " To be frank with you, Pitcairn," I an 
 swered, " I don t; and it s not for your lost case 
 I groan, but for what is likely to come to me 
 because of it." 
 
 Nor was I mistaken. Just at the gloaming 
 time, while there was still a little of the yellow 
 hanging in the west, I saw the figure of a 
 woman with a baby in her arms outlined clear 
 against the sky on the top of the hill, and by 
 her side trotted the little creature who had all 
 my heart, leading her home. 
 
 "There," said I to Pitcairn, pointing to 
 6 [67] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VI 
 
 them, " that s what your inadequacy at the law 
 has cost me. There are three more people 
 whom Nancy has fetched home for me to sup 
 port." 
 
 " I wonder at ye sometimes, Jock Stair," he 
 cried at this, "I wonder at ye! for in many 
 ways ye seem an intelligent man that ye can 
 let a small girl-child have her way with you 
 as ye do." 
 
 The outer door closed as he spoke, and I 
 heard the patter of little feet. 
 
 " She s not being raised right. She ll be 
 a creature of no breeding. Ye should take 
 her " 
 
 At this the door opened and Nancy came in. 
 At the sight of Pitcairn she stopped on her way 
 toward me, and her black brows came together 
 in an ecstasy of rage. Putting her little body 
 directly in front of him she looked him full in 
 the eye. 
 
 " Devil ! " she said, and walked out of the 
 room, leaving us standing staring at each other, 
 speechless, and I noted with glee that, on one 
 occasion at least, I saw Hugh Pitcairn abashed. 
 
 This occurrence in the court did not pass in 
 the town unnoticed, for Bishop Ames, of St. 
 [68] 
 
CHAP. VI NANCY STAIE 
 
 Margaret s, on the following Sunday preached 
 from the text: "And a little child shall lead 
 them," telling the story from the pulpit; while 
 the Sentinel of the next week spoke of Nancy 
 with flattery and tenderness. The publicity 
 given to the affair alarmed me in no small de 
 gree, and I reasoned with myself that a child 
 who had such fearlessness and such disrespect 
 for established ways was a problem which some 
 body wiser than myself should have the hand 
 ling of. 
 
 There were three other occurrences which 
 fell about this time which brought this thought 
 still more vividly to my mind, the first of these 
 bringing the knowledge that she had no religion. 
 Entering the hall one morning I met the little 
 creature coming from the stairway, dragging an 
 enormous book behind her as though it were a 
 go-cart. She had put a stout string through the 
 middle of the volume, and with this passed 
 round her waist was making her way with it 
 toward the library. 
 
 " Jock," she said, backing at sight of me and 
 sitting down upon the great volume as though 
 it were a footstool, " did you ever read a book 
 called Old Testament?" 
 
 [69] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VI 
 
 " Not so much as I should," I answered, 
 realizing with a strange jolt of mind that it was 
 the Bible she was dragging after her. 
 
 " I got it in the attic," she said, as she 
 climbed upon my knee, " and I thought at first 
 it was a joke-book. And after I thought it was 
 a fairy-book; but as I go on, there seems more 
 to itr 
 
 And the second of these episodes was as 
 disconcerting : 
 
 The dwarfed boy was Nancy s peculiar care 
 among the Burnside people, and the question as 
 to why he was made " crookit," as she called it, 
 was one which I had never been able to answer 
 to her satisfaction. 
 
 Coming in one day with a little bunch of 
 violets for me, she stopped before leaving the 
 room, and said, as though telling me a funny 
 secret : 
 
 " Jamie Henderlin took Nancy s money." 
 
 "What?" I cried. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " took it out of the little 
 bag when he thought I was not looking." 
 
 " What did you do ? " I inquired. 
 
 "I?" she turned away shyly, "I made out 
 that I didn t see him." 
 
 [70] 
 
CHAP. VI NANCY STAIR 
 
 " But, Nancy," I said, " that was not really 
 kind. As he grows older he will steal." 
 
 " Take," she interrupted firmly. 
 
 " He will take from other people." 
 
 " He is a dwarf, Jock," she said, with a sweet 
 irrelevance, which had its logic, however, in her 
 kind heart. 
 
 " That doesn t make it right." 
 
 " He wanted it more than I did," she went 
 on; " I don t need it " 
 
 " That doesn t excuse him, either." 
 
 " Perhaps," she said, " if you and I, mine 
 Jock, were made as he is we might do something 
 worse than he has done. People laugh at him! 
 He mayn t be right. I m not saying that he is 
 right; but I am saying that I am not going to 
 hurt his feelings. The Lord has done that 
 enough already." 
 
 And the third one, never told by Mrs. Opie, 
 and a fortunate thing it was for us, had to do 
 with her skill in the use of a pen. She was still 
 a very little child, lying on a rug by the fire, 
 reading out of the Bible, as I sat at the desk 
 looking over some accounts which would not 
 come right. There was the matter of a draft 
 for five pounds, with my own name to it, which 
 
XAXCY STAIR CHAP. VI 
 
 I had certainly no remembrance of ever having 
 signed. 
 
 " What s the matter. Jock? said Xancy, 
 seeing my knit brow. 
 
 "They won t come right Little Flower," I 
 answered. 
 
 She came over to me and looked at the 
 accounts. 
 
 " X"ancy made one just like Jock s." she said. 
 
 "What?" I cried, with consternation. 
 
 " Xancy made one just like 
 Jock s." she repeated. "A poor lady who was 
 very sick," she explained. " was by here one day 
 you had gone. I made one for her." 
 
 " Xancy." I said, taking her on my knee, 
 " do you know that it is a crime to sign another 
 person s name without his leave!" 
 
 "How crime?" 
 
 "Well, it s the thing people get locked in 
 jails for " 
 
 She laughed out loud and lay back on my 
 arm at this. 
 
 "It s all mine, isn t it?" she asked. 
 
 I had told this so often that I couldn t gain 
 say it 
 
 a Wrong to write Sandy s name, not \crong 
 [72] 
 
CHAP. VI NANCY STAIR 
 
 to write Jock s" she crooned in a sort of song; 
 and this was as far as I got with her concern 
 ing it. 
 
 I told Sandy these three tales, and he roared 
 with glee. 
 
 " Her morals are all tail first," he said, 
 "though very sound! But she ll have us in 
 the poor farm and herself in jail if she keeps 
 this up." 
 
 173] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 I TAKE Kurd s EDUCATION IN HAND 
 
 FATHER MICHEL* Sandy, and Hugh Pitcairn 
 woe tte only ones who knew enough of the 
 child to make their advices on the subject of 
 an education for her of any value, and it was 
 the priest whom I consulted first. 
 
 Yy lord," KM nod, iftef fifltenmg :: -7 
 tale, "it s a peculiar case, and one which, I 
 openly state, is beyond me. In every bout with 
 her I am routed by a certain lawless sincerity 
 of utterance, or by her fastening her eyes upon 
 me and asking, Wbyf or Who says that? 9 
 She is gentleness and sweetness itself; but any 
 attempt which I have ever made to instruct her 
 in religion has been utterly without results. 
 Sometimes she goes to sleep, other whiles she 
 laughs and questions me in a way that makes 
 the flesh crawl. When I told her of the cruci 
 fixion of our blessed Lord, she fell into such a 
 frenzy that it brought on the aching head and 
 [74] 
 
CHAP. VIE XAXCY STAIK 
 
 fever, which you will remember caused your 
 lordship such alarm. We have the raising of 
 a genius upon us, and by that I mean one who 
 knows more, sees deeper, feels more keenly 
 than is given to most or to any except the few. 
 Miss Xancy is a fearless soul, a passionate, lov 
 ing, powerful nature, and my belief is that the 
 only way to control her is to let her develop 
 her own powers in her own way. It is a hard 
 question, a subtle question, my lord; but I be 
 lieve it is the only way." 
 
 Sandy was in London at the time, but the 
 same day on which I had the talk with Father 
 Michel I sent for Hugh Pitcairn, asking him to 
 dine with me and talk over the Problem of 
 X^ancy. 
 
 " It s like this, Hugh," said I, as we sat over 
 some wine of his particular fancy, " God has 
 been kind enough to send me a wonderful child, 
 and I want to do what s right by her. I want 
 her to have the reasonable education of a man 
 and to keep her as far as possible from the 
 influence of the usual unthinking female. I 
 neither want her instructed in false modesty, 
 lying, nor the deception of the male sex. It is 
 on the male virtues that I want the accent 
 [75] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VII 
 
 placed; bravery, honesty, self-knowledge, and 
 responsibility for her words and conduct; good 
 manly virtues that most women know only as 
 words of the dictionary." 
 
 Hugh stared across at me, and there was a 
 look in his eyes of being tolerant toward crass 
 ignorance as he answered: 
 
 " There are whiles when you are more hu 
 morous than others, Jock Stair. This is your 
 most fanciful time yet. There s no such thing 
 possible, and ye can just rest by that ! Ye can t 
 make a woman into a man by any method of 
 rearing, for there are six thousand years of an 
 cestry to overcome. That s somewhat, and with 
 the female physiology and the Lord himself 
 against you, I m thinking it wise for you to 
 have your daughter reared like other women 
 and to fulfil woman s great end." 
 
 " And what s that? " I asked. 
 
 "To marry and bring children into the 
 world," he returned, as certainly as he would 
 have stated the time of day. 
 
 "When all s said and done and theorized 
 
 over concerning the female sex," he went on, 
 
 " ye just find yourself back at that. Ye can t 
 
 educate a woman as ye can a man ; she s not got 
 
 [76] 
 
CHAP. VII NANCY STAIR 
 
 the same faculties to take in the information 
 that ye offer her. Why," he cried, " ye can t 
 give her any sense of abstract right or wrong. 
 In order to protect her young she has inherited 
 certain keen faculties and instincts which we 
 poor male creatures are without; but from the 
 minute she becomes a wife or mother she ceases 
 in some degree to have a conscience. No," he 
 finished, " when a woman s emotions are stirred 
 you can t believe a word she says." 
 
 "Ye ve seen for yourself that Nancy s dif 
 ferent from the girl children ye ve known/ I 
 said, with some remonstrance in my voice. 
 
 " She has power, true. And magnetism, 
 true. And great beauty," he answered, count 
 ing these on his fingers as though they were 
 points in law ; " but give her a man s education, 
 and what have ye done? Simply made a dan 
 gerous contrivance of her to get her own way. 
 I tell ye, Jock," he said in conclusion, " ye can t 
 civilize women. They are not intended to be 
 civilized." 
 
 The longer I thought this talk over, the more 
 
 firmly I became fixed in the belief that Hugh 
 
 knew nothing concerning the matter, and that 
 
 my own ideas on the subject were the best, and 
 
 [77] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VII 
 
 in less than a week I had my own old school- 
 books down, and was casting around for a tutor 
 for Nancy, firm in my intention of " bringing 
 her up a perfect gentleman," as Hugh derisively 
 stated. I fixed on Latin for her, and sound 
 mathematics, and later Greek and Logic, and 
 when I showed this list of studies to Pitcairn, 
 I recall that he looked at me, with the usual pity 
 in his glance, and asked dryly : 
 
 "Why not tiger shooting and the high- 
 jump!" 
 
 Sandy was from home at this time, having 
 been called to a dying wife, poor fellow, or I 
 should have taken advice with him concerning 
 a certain old teacher of his boy Danvers, for 
 whom I had a great liking. While awaiting his 
 return I took the Little Flower into my con 
 fidence, and found her delighted that she was 
 to be "teached." There was one point upon 
 which she was firm, however, which was that 
 none but Father Michel should be her instruc 
 tor, and the good man, with many a dubious 
 shake of his head, entered upon his work the 
 following week. 
 
 Often after this time I would come upon them 
 in the small writing-room where the studies were 
 [78] 
 
CHAP. VII NANCY STAIR 
 
 conducted, to find the little one standing by the 
 father s knee, as he held the book; for her, or 
 sitting in his lap looking up at him with a funny 
 earnestness, as though they were playing to 
 gether, going over 
 
 rego 
 
 regere 
 
 rexi 
 
 rectus 
 
 or some such work, and amazing us both by her 
 capacities. 
 
 On her ninth birthday Hugh gave her the 
 ponderous tome from which so much of Mrs. 
 Opie s facts have been obtained, and into this 
 volume she put her verses and her thoughts just 
 as they came into her curly head, standing upon 
 a stool to make her high enough to reach the 
 writing-table with comfort. There was an un 
 spoken understanding between us that I was at 
 liberty to read this book, but never in her pres 
 ence. One night after she had spent the after 
 noon at work upon it, I drew it toward me, to 
 find a new set of verses beginning : 
 
 The heifer by the milking pail, 
 Whose neck-cloth is so white, etc. 
 
 [79] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VII 
 
 and underneath the following, in which the in 
 fluence of the Good Book was surely visible: 
 
 "MY COMANDMENCE! 
 
 1. I must love Jock Stair first of all created things, for he 
 
 was my mother s friend and mine. 
 
 2. Since the Lord has cast the poor from him I must do 
 
 what I can for them. 
 
 3. I must not be afraid of any livving thing, for no gentle 
 
 man can show forth fear. 
 
 4. I must not wish Huey Macrath from Stair, tho he snuf 
 
 fles and his ears are large, for he was here before I 
 was and is very ritechus. 
 
 5. I must not swear, tho Sandy does, and to say dam 
 
 is not godly, for a girl. ... 
 
 More to morrow, ^jj. 
 
 L. F. S." I 
 
 I was prouder of these than I have words 
 to tell, seeing that already she was beginning 
 to consider conduct. And an event which fol 
 lowed soon after made me plume myself still 
 further. I had taught her to play chess, and 
 Danvers Carmichael being home from his Eng 
 lish school, Sandy and I made a merry wager 
 of a game for a guinea a side, each of us back 
 ing the talent of our own offspring. Nancy, 
 who was about half Danvers height, drew the 
 whites, and led off by the good conservative 
 opening of the king s knight, the boy replying 
 [80] 
 
CHAP. VII NANCY STAIR 
 
 well and putting the pieces out after the usual 
 fashion. Nancy unexpectedly played her queen. 
 " Check," she said. Band interposed a pawn. 
 Nancy moved a knight. " Check," she said 
 again. Dand was forced to move his king, and 
 in three moves I could see the game was hers. 
 Suddenly she retreated and began a process 
 which never in my whole experience with her 
 had I seen duplicated. She trifled ineffectually 
 with her men, moving them hither and thither 
 with no purpose or aim ; and, to crown all, after 
 one of these fruitless moves, the boy cried, 
 "Mate," placing his queen triumphantly from 
 one side of the board to the other. Nancy s eyes 
 shone with pleasure. 
 
 " You beat me," she cried. " Sandy won 
 the guinea, Jock." 
 
 I can not recall when a small thing annoyed 
 me as much as this one did, and the next morn 
 ing, finding the Little Flower making verses on 
 the west wall, I sat down to get some explana 
 tion from her. 
 
 "Nancy," I began, "why did you play so 
 badly at chess last night? " 
 
 The shy look with which I was familiar came 
 into her face. 
 
 [81] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VII 
 
 " He can t play chess, Jock," she said. 
 
 " I know it," I cried ; " I saw that ; but why 
 did you disgrace your father, young woman, 
 answer me that? " 
 
 " Oh," she answered, with great earnestness, 
 "do you no see? He s a man-child, and his 
 father was looking on; and it would have been 
 a fair disgrace for him to be beaten at the game 
 by me, who am only a girl, and younger. I 
 couldn t do it, Jock," she cried, and her cheeks 
 flushed with a glorious pink color. " I couldn t 
 do it. No gentleman could ! " 
 
 I glowed with pride at the sight of her, my 
 hopes rose high, and I told the story, together 
 with her " Comandmence," to Hugh Pitcairn 
 for his admiration and approval. 
 
 He was as unmoved, however, at the end of 
 my narration as at the beginning of it. 
 
 " She s no a woman yet ; she s just a wee 
 bit bairn ; but as soon as she begins to sigh 
 for joes and bawbees she ll be just like the rest. 
 They re all of them elemental things," he said 
 with conviction, "and ye can t change their 
 natures any more than ye can stop fire from 
 burning." 
 
 Later he began to alter his opinion of her, 
 [831 
 
CHAP. VII NANCY STAIR 
 
 however, and it fell, I think, largely through his 
 own vanity. I have told of the scene in the 
 court which resulted in Jeanie Henderlin and 
 her two children coming to be Burn-folk, and 
 from that time Nancy would turn back every 
 little while to her interest in the law. There 
 were some compilations of celebrated cases 
 among my books, and for a while her talk ran 
 of the trials for murder and poisoning and the 
 scuttling of ships, until I wondered where the 
 thing would lead. Part of these accounts were 
 briefed; others contained the evidence entire, 
 indictments, questions and answers, the judges 
 instructions, and the verdict rendered, all with 
 much legal verbiage and twisting. 
 
 One night, in her twelfth year, she asked 
 Hugh Pitcairn some questions concerning a 
 poison case, which happened to be one he had 
 studied with interest himself, and he denounced 
 the verdict as one unlawful and obtained by 
 sentiment rather than from the evidence itself, 
 promising to send another book to her contain 
 ing his own view of the matter. Here was a 
 ground in which a friendship with Hugh could 
 take firm root, and from that time on there were 
 heavy volumes coming to Nancy from the great 
 7 [ 83 1 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VII 
 
 barrister constantly, and to hear her quizzed by 
 him concerning the law on certain points was 
 one of the most humorous bits of my life. I 
 never rightly understood this trend of Nancy s 
 mind. In her talks with me I found it was 
 never to discover the naked law on a point, but 
 how punishment might be evaded, that inter 
 ested her. " If he d said this," or " had he left 
 that unsaid," or " if the defense had proven," 
 was the burden of her remarks, and I thought 
 at times that if Hugh saw the thing as I did he 
 would find at bottom of all her lawing only a 
 woman s desire to discover how people could be 
 got out of trouble, whether deserving punish 
 ment or not. 
 
 In her fifteenth year, when I was obliged to 
 go to London concerning the Forfeited Estates, 
 I had her with me; but even then the lawing 
 between Pitcairn and herself did not cease, for 
 packets passed between them constantly, and 
 soon after our return, Nancy s being eighteen 
 at the time, I found that she had wrought a 
 change in him, as well as in the rest of us. 
 
 " Jock Stair," he said to me one night, as 
 though addressing a jury, " I told you once that 
 it was impossible to civilize a woman, that all 
 [84] 
 
CHAP. VII NANCY STAIE 
 
 education just went over their heads and af 
 fected their natures none at all; that it was 
 heyond them to conceive an abstract right or 
 wrong; that I had never seen one who had a 
 jot of public spirit. I feel a sense of duty in 
 telling you I ve changed. I have seen one. 
 It s your daughter, Nancy Stair ! " 
 
 [85] 
 
CHAPTER VIH 
 
 THE DAFT DAYS 
 
 WE came back to Scotland in July, 1786, 
 and one day, late in the month, Nancy came in 
 to tell me that she intended having a birthday 
 party that same evening. 
 
 "Whose!" said I. 
 
 " Mine," she answered. 
 
 " It s all very well, but your birthday is not 
 in July " 
 
 " I never fancied March to be born in," she 
 replied imperturbably, " and Pve changed it." 
 
 " And who are you going to bid to the feast 
 of your adopted birthday? " 
 
 " You," she said, " and Sandy, and Jamie 
 Henderlin, for he s back from Germany, and I 
 want to hear him play." * 
 
 It is altogether hopeless to set in cold words 
 
 * After Jamie Henderlin became famous for his yiolin playing it 
 was noised abroad that I alone was his patron. But the truth of 
 the matter is that Sandy shared with me the expense of hii German 
 studies. 
 
 [86] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 the charm of her as she stood before me that 
 morning in her white frock, her. hair in a 
 bunch of curls on top of her head and some 
 posies in her hand. I have seen many pretty 
 women in my time, some few handsome ones, 
 but Nancy Stair is the only one I ever saw who 
 deserved to be described as beautiful. The 
 fashion-prints of the day were full of her, and 
 I have one account before me, printed at the 
 very time of which I write, 1786: 
 
 " Miss Stair," it reads, " is just back from 
 London, where for two years she has studied 
 her voice with Trebillini. 
 
 " Her beauty is bewildering ; her gowns the 
 acme of elegance and feminine grace; her wit, 
 her eyes, her lips, the toast of the town. Her 
 songs, a second printing of which is being 
 clamored for, are being read over the Three 
 Kingdoms, with a letter from his Royal Maj 
 esty, George III, on the fly-leaf commending 
 them. When it is known that she is to attend 
 service at St. Giles the clubs are emptied and 
 half the beaux of the town may be found on 
 their knees where they can have a view of her. 
 The greatest statesmen and lawyers of the day 
 are her intimate friends, and the crowds follow 
 [87] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VHI 
 
 her in admiration when she drives through the 
 streets." 
 
 A good picture, but scant, for there is not 
 a word in it of her heart, the kindest and bravest 
 that ever beat in woman s breast, nor her great 
 love and tenderness to all created things. 
 
 On the afternoon of this dinner I fixed my 
 mind definitely upon a matter upon which I had 
 been pondering for some time. Coming in from 
 the bank about five, I called Nancy to me, and 
 handed her the box I carried. 
 
 "Is it a present for me?" she asked, her 
 face aglow. 
 
 " A present for you, Little Flower, from the 
 proudest father in the world." 
 
 As I spoke she opened the casket and her 
 eyes fell on the gems of which I have already 
 written the ornaments of the ladies of Stair 
 for hundreds of years gone by but for none, 
 save one, so fair as she. I would have sold 
 Stair itself, if need be, to give her such joy. 
 The emerald necklace, which had been a year 
 in the making, a brooch of the same stones, 
 with diamonds glittering in flower clusters, I 
 found, were the ones she liked the best, and she 
 brought a mirror to sit beside me as she tried 
 [88] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 tliem all, one by one, upon her hair, her neck, 
 and arms, demanding that Dame Dickenson and 
 Huey be brought to look at her. 
 
 And a curious thing fell, that, as she was 
 engaged with the jewels, a note was brought 
 from Mr. Pitcairn, which she read without in 
 terest, saying after; 
 
 " Does he think I care anything about * Lori- 
 mer vs. The Crown with a necklace like this 1 " 
 and I fell to wondering, with some dismay, what 
 Hugh would think concerning her masculine 
 mind if he had heard the speech. 
 
 We were awaiting a summons to the meal 
 that evening when Nancy entered; a new 
 Nancy, and one so wondrous to behold that 
 Sandy and I started at the sight of her. She 
 wore a gown of yellow crepe embroidered in 
 gold, low and sleeveless, with a fold in the back, 
 after the fashion of the ladies of Watteau, 
 and a long train falling far behind. Her hair 
 was gathered high and dressed with jewels 
 which sparkled as well upon her throat and 
 hands. The thing that marked her most, an 
 alluring touchableness, was doubly present as 
 she came toward us, laughing, with a profound 
 courtesy. 
 
 [89] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIII 
 
 "My Lord Stair and Mr. Carmichael, you 
 who have had the raising of me, how do you 
 like the work of your hands? " 
 
 " Ye can not throw us off our guard by braw 
 clothes, Lady," Sandy responded, with a laugh, 
 " for we know you only too well, and to our 
 distress of mind and pocket. Ye re a spoiled 
 bit, in spite of^the severe discipline your father 
 and I have reared ye by. Here s a thing I got 
 from a peddler-body for ye," he ended. 
 
 She opened the morocco case which he 
 handed her, to find a necklet of pearls with dia 
 monds clasping them, and the tears came into 
 her eyes as she kissed him for the gift. 
 
 " I can not thank ye enough ! never, in all 
 my life for all ye ve done for me, Sandy. I 
 love you," she says, "and well you know it; 
 and with that we ll go to dinner. I go with 
 Jamie," she added, slipping her arm through 
 his, " for ye must learn that genius ever goes 
 before wealth and titles," and with a laugh she 
 and Jamie Henderlin went out before us. 
 
 After dinner we sat outside for a while, 
 
 Sandy and I smoking, as Nancy and Jamie 
 
 talked of the outer world and the celebrities of 
 
 London and Paris. The lamps from the little 
 
 [90] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIE 
 
 settlement on the burn twinkled through the 
 trees, while farther off the lights from the town 
 of Edinburgh shone soft and silvery beneath 
 the glimmering moon. We could hear the bleat 
 ing of the sheep and the lowing of the cows in 
 the long lane down by the Holm and the bells 
 of the old Tron deaving our ears by striking 
 the hour of eight. J* 
 
 There is little use, with Jamie playing to 
 the greatest people of the world at the moment 
 of my writing, for me to tell the surprise and 
 delight we had in his music; or the new joy 
 that Sandy felt in Nancy s singing, it being the 
 first time he had heard her voice for over two 
 years. 
 
 " Do you want to hear some of my own 
 verses? " she asked him at length. " Mr. Thom 
 son has been kind enough to set some of them 
 to music." And then she sang, for the first time 
 to my hearing, those two songs of hers which 
 were afterward whistled, sung, hummed, or 
 shouted by every one in Scotland, from the 
 judge on the bench to the caddie on the streets : 
 
 Soutar Sandy, 
 
 Wed wi Mandy 
 
 On a Monday morning, 
 
 [91] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIII 
 
 and the set of three double verses, since pub 
 lished in the Glasgow Sentinel, " The Maid wi 
 the Wistfu Eye," * which, as I hope for Heaven, 
 Rab Burns told me one night at Creech s he 
 envied her for having written. 
 
 Suddenly, as she was looking over the music, 
 she began to hum, and Dame Dickenson and 
 I exchanged a look of strange remembrance, 
 as, with no accompaniment whatever, and as 
 though the thought had just seized her, she 
 poured forth her soul and her voice together 
 in that old gipsy tune Marian s song, as I 
 have always called it: 
 
 " Love that is life 
 Love that is death, 
 Love that is mine " 
 
 changed at the last into: 
 
 * Love that is wrong, 
 Love that is strong, 
 Love that is death " 
 
 and as we listened, taken out of ourselves by 
 her beauty and the tragedy of her voice, a fig 
 ure came from the gloom into the light of the 
 doorway, and a gay voice cried: 
 
 * Poems by Nancy Stair, Pailey Edition, pages 44, 67 
 
 [92] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Shall I be arrested for trespass, Lord 
 Stair? " and to our amazement Danvers Car- 
 michael stood before us. 
 
 I had never seen the lad since the day it was 
 determined to make an Oxford man of him, in 
 stead of following out his father s wishes and 
 fetching him home to our own University, and 
 the surprise I felt at sight of him, a grown man 
 and a monstrous fine one, gave me something 
 of a jolt in my mind at the rapid passing of 
 the years. 
 
 He was tall and handsome, with bright, 
 brave ways, a distinguished carriage, and a de 
 lightful speaking voice. His face was clean 
 shaven, showing a chin heavy but with fine 
 lines, and lips which curved back complacently 
 over teeth of singular whiteness. His mouth 
 denoted pride as well as obstinacy, which, taken 
 with the brooding look in the eye, gave me the 
 impression of a nature both jealous and pas 
 sionate. One of his greatest charms, and I felt 
 it on the instant of our meeting, was a gay but 
 unassertive manner, possible only to those who 
 have had a secured position from birth. I 
 noted as well a fine sense in his relation to 
 others, and believe that if he had come a-beg- 
 [93] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIII 
 
 ging we would have known him to be gently 
 born. He wore high boots, a broad hat, and a 
 handsome riding suit of light cloth, with a cloak 
 hanging from one shoulder. He carried him 
 self with jauntiness and surety; gave one s 
 hand a hearty grip, and, to sum it all up, was 
 one of the finest men I have ever seen, and a 
 son of whom even Sandy Carmichael had a 
 right to be proud, in spite of the fact that he 
 was a man of fashion and something of a dandy. 
 He had as well a certain romantic appearance 
 and a glance which made young girls drop their 
 eyes before him and set old ladies to talking of 
 their first loves. 
 
 "When Dand Carmichael goes up High 
 Street I never saw a woman looking down it," 
 Bob Blake said of him once, which sums it all 
 up very well. 
 
 Upon being asked by his father as to the 
 suddenness of his appearance among us, he 
 said with a laugh : 
 
 "I came with some men to Leith, and the 
 Leith fly set me down at the door of The Star 
 and Garter by the Tron church about an hour 
 ago. I asked mine host of the inn if I could 
 get a horse from him to ride to Arran House; 
 [94] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 upon which he told me that there would be no 
 use in my going to Arran as Mr., Carmichael 
 was from home, being bid to dinner at Lord 
 Stair s; that it was the eighteenth birthday of 
 Mistress Nancy Stair, and that Jamie Hender- 
 lin had come from Germany with his violin the 
 week before and was to play at Stair House 
 after the dinner; that the Lord Stair, who was 
 a fond father, had but this afternoon given the 
 family jewels to Mistress Nancy, and that one 
 ruby alone would buy the inn; that Mr. Car 
 michael had brought a present for her of a 
 pearl necklace with diamonds in it of great 
 value; that Mistress Nancy Stair, who was the 
 handsomest girl in three kingdoms, had a yel 
 low gown, a great deal of which lay on the floor, 
 the stuff of which he understood had come from 
 France ; that Dame Dickenson had made a birth 
 day cake, and there was a salmon for the din 
 ner with egg sauce, and that eggs were uncom 
 mon high and the tax on whisky a thing not to 
 be borne. There were some other trifling de 
 tails he mentioned," he said with a wave of his 
 hand and a laugh, " which have unfortunately 
 escaped my memory." 
 
 There was much real humor in his relation 
 [95] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIIJ 
 
 of the inn gossip, and the brightness of his 
 presence caused a gayer air to our small fes 
 tivity. Our talk brought Nancy to the door, 
 where she stood in a shaft of light looking down 
 at us. 
 
 "What are you laughing about? " she cried. 
 
 At the sound of her voice Danvers sprang 
 to his feet and went toward her with out 
 stretched hand, but at the sight of her beauty or 
 her jewels, I know not which, he changed his 
 mind and made a sweeping bow instead. 
 
 " And this," he said, " is the Miss Nancy of 
 whom I have heard so much 
 
 " Sandy s apt to mention me," she answered 
 demurely. 
 
 " He never did you justice," he responded, 
 with a smile toward his father. "In all but 
 this he s the best parent in the world, but he s 
 fallen short in the matter of letting me know 
 about you." 
 
 " If ye d stayed in ye re own country ye d 
 have known," retorted Sandy, from behind his 
 pipe. 
 
 "I have been away too long," Dand an 
 swered him, but the look was at Nancy. 
 
 " Do you stay now ? " she asked. 
 [961 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 " I had intended to go back at the end of 
 the week, but I have changed my mind. With 
 my father s leave, I ll spend the summer 
 
 " It does not take you long to change your 
 mind," Nancy returned with a smile. 
 
 " No," he said, and here he leaned forward, 
 took her hand and kissed it. " No ! It took me 
 just one second." 
 
 I knew that she was not to be moved by any 
 admiration which happened to come by. She 
 paid a gracious attention to Danvers Car- 
 michael, it is true, insisting, though he stoutly 
 affirmed to the contrary, that she knew him to 
 be hungry, that one could not dine at The Star 
 and Garter, ordering a small table with some 
 cold fowl and a bottle of wine for him, all 
 as though it were the thing nearest her heart. 
 I, who knew her, understood that if it had been 
 a tramp body from the lowlands who had come 
 upon us she would have given the same thought 
 to him and forgotten him by morning; but to 
 a man, London bred and unaware as yet with 
 whom his dealings lay, her solicitude for him 
 might readily be interpreted as having some 
 thing more purely personal in its nature. 
 
 And this day was to be marked by another 
 [97] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIII 
 
 event than the home-coming of Danvers; an 
 event which, if it had occurred six weeks later, 
 might have changed the destiny of many lives, 
 and given England another Premier than Will 
 iam Pitt. Before we parted for the night, Dan 
 vers took from his pocket a book, which he 
 handed to Nancy with a bow. 
 
 " It s not family jewels ; nor yet a trifling 
 necklace of pearls; nor can I honestly affirm it 
 was intended as a gift, but if you will accept 
 it from me as a birthday token it will make me 
 very glad," and he handed the volume to her. 
 
 "Poetry," she said with a pleased smile, 
 " and in the Scot. Robert Burns ! Is he a new 
 man? " 
 
 " He s a plowman in Ayr, somewhere, and 
 I have it that his verses are something fine. 
 I ve not read them myself, and the thought 
 comes to me a little late that they may not be 
 the fittest reading for a young lady, but your 
 father will judge of it for you." 
 
 Sandy and I laughed aloud at this. 
 
 " The reason these ill-natured gentlemen 
 laughed at you as they did was because of the 
 lax way they have brought me up," Nancy ex 
 plained. " They ve let me gang my am gate 
 [981 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 since I was five. I ve had no right raising," 
 she said, and the very sweetness of her as she 
 said it would have made any man keen for the 
 rearing which produced her. " So, considering 
 my superior knowledge of evil, I ll look the 
 book over myself and see if it is the kind of 
 reading I should like to put in the hands of 
 Sandy and Jock." 
 
 Danvers Carmichael s eyes glowed with hu 
 mor as he joined in the laugh with us. 
 
 " Under your careful bringing up they 
 should be fine fellows, these fathers of ours," 
 he laughed. 
 
 " I ve done the best I could by them," Nancy 
 answered demurely; "but on the whole, Mr. 
 Carmichael, I think I have succeeded better 
 with Jamie Henderlin." 
 
 When Nancy withdrew, Danvers went with 
 her to the foot of the stairs, holding her in talk 
 for a few minutes, with looks of passionate ap 
 proval in his eyes. 
 
 Before we went to our rooms, for I insisted 
 that they should remain all night at Stair, the 
 talk turned upon marriage in some way, and 
 Sandy rallied his son upon his bachelorhood. 
 
 " Twenty-four years old," he said, " and a 
 8 [99] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIII 
 
 bachelor still! Why, I was a father at that 
 time. Never mind," he continued, " never mind, 
 my lad. Your time is coming ! " 
 
 " In truth, I think it has come," Danvers 
 returned, simply, and the glance that went with 
 the words was not toward his father, but to 
 ward me. 
 
 I was lying in my bed with eyes staring wide 
 at the ceiling, recalling Nancy s real birthday 
 more than eighteen years gone by; thinking of 
 Marian; wondering if she knew the beauty of 
 the child we had; demanding from the Great 
 Father of all that she should know should re 
 member Nancy and me; that she, the mother 
 and wife, might, in some way unknown to us, 
 still be a part of our earthly living; recalling 
 Danvers with approval, dreaming perhaps that 
 Nancy and he, at no far date, might marry and 
 so cement a friendship between two middle- 
 aged gentlemen who had foregathered with 
 each other many years before, when I heard a 
 light tap at my door. 
 
 "Who is it?" I cried. 
 
 " It s Nancy," answered the voice. " May I 
 come in? " 
 
 She pushed the door ajar and entered in a 
 [100] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIK 
 
 long white dressing-gown, carrying" m. one hand 
 a branch of candles and in the/oihe? a boot, 
 with her finger marking the place. 
 
 It is exceedingly hard for me to describe the 
 beauty of her, the uplifted look on her face and 
 the shine of her eye, for this beauty seemed 
 kindled by a fire from within, and she had with 
 it an excitement as of one who had heard pleas 
 ant news or to whom great treasures have just 
 been given. 
 
 " Jock," she asked, " have you been sleep 
 ing?" 
 
 " No," said I. 
 
 " Oh, listen then," she cried, " for indeed it 
 was not possible that I should sleep without 
 telling you what s come to me. It s this Burns 
 man," she went on; "no one, not eyen Shake 
 speare, has spoken so. It s as though he taught 
 a new religion. It s kindness all through, and 
 charity and love ; with rhymes upon rhymes, as 
 if it were child s play for him to make verses. 
 It s raised me out of myself. It s what I ve 
 always known was true. It s the liberty, equal 
 ity, and fraternity of France. It s the all 
 men were born free and equal of the col 
 onies. It s all, and more, that I ve tried to work 
 [101] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. VIII 
 
 out oh. 1 the burn-side. It s like a great voice 
 calling. -Ob, : she cried, " Ramsay s nothing to 
 him, and Fergusson but a gusty child." 
 
 " Nancy, darling," I said, " have ye risen in 
 the middle of the night to tear down the idols 
 of your childhood? Let me see the book," I 
 cried, for a bit of rhyme was a choicer draught 
 to me than a glass of an old vintage. 
 
 " Let me read ye this," she said I can re 
 member now the slant white light of a late moon 
 coming in through the casement, the honey 
 suckle s breath, and her face, half in light, half 
 in shadow, as she read the Epistle to Davie. 
 As I listened I sat upright, more engrossed, 
 wider eyed; and when she came to those two 
 stanzas, the greatest of their kind ever penned, 
 I was off my feet with her, and on my oath we 
 sat till the purpling flush came in the east, in 
 an ecstasy of appreciation of him " who walked 
 in glory and in joy behind his plow upon the 
 mountain- side " : 
 
 " What tho , like commoners of air, 
 We wander out, we know not where, 
 But either house or hall without. 
 
 Yet nature s charms, the hills and woods, 
 The sweeping vales, an foaming floods 
 Are free alike to all 
 
 [102] 
 
CHAP. VIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 In days when daisies deck the ground, 
 
 And blackbirds whistle clear, 
 With honest joy our hearts will bound, 
 
 To see the coming year : 
 
 On braes when we please then, heights. 
 
 We ll sit an sowth a tune; whistle softly 
 
 Syne rhyme UlVt, we ll time till t, 
 
 afterwards, to *t. 
 
 An sing t when we hae done." 
 
 "Oh, Jock," she says, "I ve done it often; 
 haven t you? " 
 
 " It s no in titles nor in rank; 
 It s no in wealth like Lon non bank, 
 
 To purchase peace and rest; 
 It s no in makin muckle mair 
 It s no in books, it s no in lear learning 
 
 To make us truly blest : 
 If happiness hae not her seat 
 An centre in the breast, 
 We may be wise, or rich, or great, 
 But never can be blest ; 
 Nae treasures nor pleasures 
 
 Could make us happy lang; 
 The heart ay s the part ay 
 That makes us right or wrang." 
 
 BURNS, 1785. 
 
 "It s just grand," I said, "Nancy; and 
 there re no two ways of it." 
 
 "There s about all there is of life in this 
 little book, and it s made my rhyming-ware 
 [103] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. VIII 
 
 cheap. Do you think," she says, coming over to 
 kiss me before I sent her off to bed, " do you 
 think I can ever meet wi Mr. Burns! " 
 
 " If you want it, you shall," I said ; " unless 
 the man himself objects. We ll have him up 
 to Stair ; and now forget him and get some rest, 
 Little Flower." 
 
 She went away and left me, and I turned to 
 sleep with that great couplet going over and 
 over in my head like the clatter of horses hoofs : 
 
 " The heart ay s the part ay 
 That makes us right or wrang." 
 
 [104] 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 DANVEES BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH 
 
 NANCY 
 
 THERE were two reasons why Danvers was 
 able to see Nancy almost uninterruptedly the 
 next two or three weeks, the first being that we 
 were but late returned from London, with old 
 ties to be formed anew; and the second, a law 
 affair among the Burn-folk, the trouble of which 
 took much of Nancy s time, and eventually 
 brought into our lives the great Duke of Borth- 
 wicke, of whom I shall have more to say. 
 These left Danvers a fair field where Nancy 
 was concerned, and no man living ever covered 
 his ground better or made a braver wooing. 
 From the minute his eye lighted upon her in 
 the doorway it seemed as though it were " all 
 by with him," as the country folk say, for he 
 seemed to have no thoughts but for her, with 
 the world welcome to a knowledge of the fact. 
 
 Every day the conservatories of Arran were 
 [105] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 stripped for her, hampers of fruit, and books, 
 and notes which sent the blood rioting to her 
 cheeks, were over every morning; and before 
 they could be forgotten, Danvers was there in 
 person, a handsome, passionate, dominating 
 lover, whose nature was one I could understand 
 and whose love-making was as headlong and 
 impetuous as my own had been. 
 
 I remember watching him bending over her 
 one night as they stood together before going 
 in to dinner, and Marian s words came back to 
 me at sight of him: 
 
 " For ye woo as a man should woo ; and I m 
 won as a woman should be won because she 
 has no will to choose." 
 
 Talk of Danvers fell between Sandy and me 
 quite naturally at this time, and one night, 
 when I was praising his boy to him with much 
 enthusiasm, he answered with a laugh: 
 
 "Of course you like him! Why shouldn t 
 you! You re of a piece, the two of you. You 
 are both primeval creatures, not far removed 
 in your love-making from the time when men 
 lived in caves, and if they wanted a woman they 
 knocked her down with a club and carried her 
 home, and the wooing was over." 
 [106] 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Barring the knocking down," I answered, 
 " it s not so bad a way." 
 
 " That s well enough," he retorted, " where 
 women are but gentle female animals. But take 
 a woman with a mind or gift such as Nancy 
 Stair has and ye ll find a complication in the 
 affair not to be solved with a club." 
 
 The two of us had no small sport with Dan- 
 vers over his condition, for he had fallen in love 
 to such an extent that he would start sentences 
 which he forgot to finish, make the most irrele 
 vant remarks, or drop into a-dreaming in the 
 midst of talk, so that his father fell to recalling 
 him by shouting: 
 
 " View Halloo ! " in a very loud voice, as 
 they do on the hunting field, following it up 
 by talk full of a jeering seriousness, as it 
 were: 
 
 " Do you think, Danvers, in er your pres 
 ent state, you would be able to get this letter 
 to the post! " 
 
 Or, 
 
 "Would ye be like to fall into a sound 
 slumber if ye started to ring for a stable-boy, 
 Band? " 
 
 Or, 
 
 [107] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 " Do you think you could charge your mind, 
 without danger to it, with passing me the 
 brandy?" all of which the lad bore with an 
 amused smile and open shamelessness. 
 
 One night, after dinner, during this time, I 
 recall that there was a discussion over the cut 
 ting of a roadway between our houses, and after 
 Sandy had thrown in the fatherly suggestion 
 that if Danvers remained at Arran much longer 
 the road would be worn by his footsteps with 
 no expense to us, Danvers, who was awaiting 
 Nancy to walk on the porch with him, began : 
 
 " I think " 
 
 "Ye need go no further," Sandy broke in, 
 with a laugh. "You flatter yourself! You 
 think" he continued; "you ve been incapable 
 of thought for nearly two weeks. Neither of 
 us would give a boddle for your opinion on any 
 subject save one. I ll wager," he said, coming 
 over to his son and putting a hand on each of 
 his shoulders, " that ye could not count twenty 
 straight ahead, if your salvation depended on 
 it. And to think that I have been raising a 
 great fellow like you to be ordered about by a 
 slip of a girl. Ye re crazy," he said, going on, 
 " stark, Bedlam crazy ! " 
 
 [108] 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 On the moment of his speaking Nancy came 
 to the door with mutinous eyes, a riot of color 
 in her cheeks, and some filmy white stuff drawn 
 round her head and shoulders, and as she stood 
 Danvers turned to us. 
 
 " Look at her ! " he cried. " How else would 
 ye have me be? " 
 
 We were out of doors one afternoon, per 
 haps a week later, sitting in the shadow of the 
 great tower. Nancy, in a frock of green, cut 
 out at the neck, and a bewildering hig hat with 
 pink flowers upon it, was pouring tea for us, 
 with Danvers Carmichael lying at full length on 
 the grass beside her, smoking and inventing 
 excuses at intervals to touch her hand. 
 
 The talk drifted round to Robert Burns, 
 and when I stated the manner in which Nancy 
 and I had spent the first night we had had his 
 book, Danvers regarded us with no small degree 
 of amazement. 
 
 " Did you," he inquired, after a pause, " sit 
 up all night reading rhyme, the two of you ! " 
 
 "We did," said I; "and it s not the first 
 night we have passed so, Nancy Stair and I." 
 
 " But why," he went on, " couldn t you wait 
 till the morning? " 
 
 [109] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 " We re no made that way," I answered, with 
 a laugh. 
 
 " Well," he returned, " the thing is as incom 
 prehensible to me as if you d tattooed yourself ; 
 but," he added philosophically, clasping his 
 hands behind his head and staring up into the 
 sky, " every man knows his own fun. There s 
 a friend of mine who knows this Burns," he 
 added. 
 
 "What does he say of him?" I inquired 
 with interest. 
 
 " Billy s hardly one to appreciate poetry," 
 he answered, " but he fell in with Burns some 
 where at a masons meeting. He said he was a 
 handsome pirate, who had sent the clergy of his 
 native place into despair; that he made love to 
 every woman he saw, and that his name was 
 the scandal of the county; but that personally 
 he considered the man a wonder and liked him 
 fine." 
 
 " Jock s going to have him here," Nancy 
 said, with a pleased smile and shining eyes. 
 
 " No, no," cried Danvers Carmichael, vehe 
 mently, sitting upright. " I wouldn t do that, my 
 lord." 
 
 " Why not ? " Nancy inquired. 
 [110] 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 " It s a matter," he said, " that I could ex 
 plain better to Lord Stair than to you, Miss 
 Nancy," and there was a consideration for her 
 in his tone which warmed my heart toward him. 
 
 " You mean," Nancy said, with a smile, 
 " that he s not a good man and will make love 
 to me, mayhap, or that it might harm me in 
 some way. You don t appreciate the rearing 
 I ve had, I m afraid," she said, handing down 
 another cup of tea to him. " Lawing with Pit- 
 cairn and dealing with all manner of roguery 
 
 
 and villainy on the burn-side have taught me 
 many things. These two gentlemen have reared 
 me up in a strange way. Once I heard Sandy 
 say: 
 
 " She s a filly that s got to be given her 
 head, and she ll soon learn the fences that it is 
 wise to take and the ones that it is wise to let 
 alone. " 
 
 "And were we not wise?" Sandy inter 
 rupted, " were we not wise? Ye know, Mistress 
 Stair, ye were no easy matter to bring up. Al 
 ways like a flower, gentle as a ewe lamb, seeing 
 into everybody s heart, verse-making till your 
 poor little head ached, joining gipsy folk, fore 
 gathering with tramps and criminals, wheed- 
 [111] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 ling the heart out of every one of us, but under 
 it all, fixed in a determination to have your own 
 way in spite of the deil himself. Ye were a 
 pretty problem for two lone men to handle." 
 
 " Don t be believing them, Dandy," she said, 
 turning the light of those wonderful gray eyes 
 down on him. " Ye will not, will ye? They are 
 not always truthful," she said, with a side- 
 glance toward us both. 
 
 "In spite of your training?" Dandy 
 laughed. 
 
 " In spite of my training," Nancy answered 
 demurely. 
 
 As we sat thus, the bright warm day pass 
 ing lazily toward the twilight, I saw a figure 
 come from one of the houses on the burn, and 
 start at the top of speed along the ford-rift, 
 which led through the harrowed field. As it 
 neared the south gate I saw that it was Jamie 
 Henderlin, who broke into our group, his pallor 
 and anxiety forming abundant excuse for the 
 interruption to our talk. 
 
 " Miss Nancy," he cried, " they ve convicted 
 him!" 
 
 "Convicted Lapraik?" Nancy asked, as 
 though it were impossible. 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Yes, in an hour or less. Pitcairn had an 
 other witness and Tod s sentenced to trans 
 portation ! " 
 
 No happening which I can think of would 
 have set Nancy Stair more plainly before Dan- 
 vers than this one, which fell directly beneath 
 his eye. 
 
 " But," she said, and her eyes blackened as 
 she spoke, " the man is innocent." 
 
 " Every one knows it," Jamie cried ; " but 
 Meenie s like to go to the grave because of the 
 trouble, which means naught to Pitcairn or to 
 him called the Duke of Borthwicke." 
 
 "Ah, well, Jamie," said Nancy soothingly, 
 "you must not worry over it. There is more 
 than one way to circumvent Mr. Pitcairn; and 
 a few jurymen, more or less, are nothing to fash 
 one s soul about one way or another. Who was 
 the new witness 1 " 
 
 " His name was McGuirk." 
 
 "A Hieland body?" Nancy inquired. 
 
 " In the service of the duke himself." 
 
 " What did he swear to? " 
 
 "He swore to Tod s having threated the 
 duke s life, and that Tod had said to him there 
 was a way to even the matter of the raised rent." 
 [113] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 "Ah," said Nancy, and there was a bit of 
 admiration in her tone, "the duke s a clever 
 man. In all his law-suiting he finds out just 
 what bit of testimony is needed and gets it." 
 
 " If you ll excuse me," she said, rising, " I ll 
 g6 down and see Meenie, who probably thinks 
 everything in life is over." 
 
 As she went over the grass with Jamie, 
 Danvers Carmichael turned an astonished face 
 toward us. 
 
 "What is it all about? " he asked. 
 
 "It s a long tale," I answered, "which, 
 stripped of its trappings, runs like this : Meenie 
 is Jamie s adopted sister, and the Lapraik man 
 is a sweetheart of hers who owns a bit farm in 
 the Highlands next to Borthwicke Castle 
 
 " For Heaven s sake," Sandy exclaimed, 
 blowing a cloud of smoke toward the sky, 
 " don t tell that tale again, Jock Stair." 
 
 " And the Duke of Borthwicke wants the 
 farm to add to his land," I went on, unper 
 turbed, " and Lapraik will not sell. So one fine 
 day he is accused of theft by the duke s factor, 
 some of the Montrose silver is found under his 
 roof, and he is arrested and convicted, as you 
 have just heard. Common rumor has it that 
 [1141 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 the duke wants him out of the country the 
 fact that he was brought to Edinburgh to be 
 tried shows that there is a powerful influence 
 pushing the thing along. Pitcairn is the duke s 
 man of business, which makes the handling of 
 it easier here where he is counsel for the 
 crown." 
 
 "It will make it an odd affair if Nancy 
 takes the matter in hand, considering she s Pit- 
 cairn s own pupil," Sandy suggested. 
 
 " Is it true she s studied the law under Pit- 
 cairn?" Danvers inquired. 
 
 " Scots and English," I answered. 
 
 "In the name of smitten Caesar," he cried, 
 for that was a word of the time, " what for? " 
 
 "We ve never come to any settlement of 
 it between us, but your father holds that she 
 studied it to circumvent it," I answered, with a 
 laugh. " She told us once that the more law one 
 knew the safer one could break it." 
 
 "I think," Danvers returned, rising and 
 looking away from us to the burn " I think she 
 needs some one to look after her." 
 
 " It has dawned upon us that that was your 
 opinion," Sandy rejoined drolly. 
 
 " Lawing with Pitcairn, managing an army 
 9 [115] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 of poor folk on the burn, attending to charities, 
 settling disputes it s not right. The poor 
 child has a headache all the time, for it s a 
 man s work she s doing. Women are for better 
 things. A woman should save her vitality." 
 
 "For what?" asked his father. 
 
 " For wifehood and motherhood," Danvers 
 responded. 
 
 It sounded like a leaf from Pitcairn s book, 
 but while his whole talk was disrespectful to 
 us as older men, it had a rare manly quality 
 fine to see. In the very midst of it Nancy was 
 with us again, and, minding Danvers Carmi- 
 chael no more than she did the wooden benches, 
 came over to me. 
 
 " I m going to see the Duke of Borthwicke," 
 said she. 
 
 " Is it your intention," I inquired, " to send 
 out scouts for his grace that ye may interview 
 him? I understand him to be a peripatetic 
 body, who travels a great deal in furtherance 
 of his nefarious schemes. He may not even be 
 in Scotland." 
 
 " He is in Edinburgh at the moment," she 
 answered, " at the Sign of the Blue Thistle. 
 He has with him his secretary, Donovan; his 
 [116] 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIK 
 
 valet, and two serving-men. They have their 
 lodgment in four rooms on the second floor; 
 he is bid to the ball at the Duchess of Gordon s 
 to-night and at eleven to-morrow leaves in his 
 private coach for the Highlands." 
 
 " The Government should employ you, 
 Nancy Stair," Sandy broke in with a laugh. 
 The country is just now needing people who 
 can pick up such accurate information." 
 
 " It was no great matter to do," she ex 
 plained. " When people whose lives are hang 
 ing on the duke s acts have been watching him 
 for days they are like to know his movements. 
 I will go to-night, before the ball ; and if you ll 
 excuse me now, I ll try to get some rest," and 
 with no further word she left us. 
 
 She had scarce turned the box-hedge when 
 Danvers Carmichael gave us a taste of his na 
 ture and had his say with us in language free 
 and skirting the profane. 
 
 " Suppose," he began, " suppose she goes to 
 see the duke, and suppose, which is far from 
 likely, that she is able to obtain an audience 
 with him, what is there for her to say? She 
 can not very well just call the man a scoundrel ! 
 And as for the Lapraik affair, if he has the ras- 
 [117] 
 
NANCY STAIK CHAP. IX 
 
 cality to do the act, it s not likely that he will 
 flinch at the naming of it." 
 
 Getting no answer to this from either of us 
 he went on at white heat, stating in violent and 
 unshaded English the wrong of allowing a girl, 
 little more than a child, to visit a man of the 
 duke s repute, and giving it as his opinion that 
 his father and I were the ones to take the affair 
 upon our shoulders. He even volunteered to 
 visit the duke himself in Tod s behalf. 
 
 " And in your own tongue," asked Sandy, 
 "what would ye say when ye got there? " 
 
 " Ye might just call him a scoundrel, as ye 
 suggested Nancy s doing. His grace might re 
 ceive it better coming from a man," I said 
 cheerfully. 
 
 " Sit ye down, lad," Sandy said at length ; 
 " sit ye down. And stop making a windmill of 
 your arms as ye stand on that rise, or we may 
 think we are all Dutch folk together; and just 
 give over thinking ye know all women, because 
 ye ve made love to some senseless London fil 
 lies with no brains in their heads whatever. 
 It s a wise man that understands that no two 
 women are alike. John Stair and I have seen 
 something of life in our time, aye, and some- 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIK 
 
 thing of women ; but Nancy s a different crea 
 ture from anything in our ken. Ye might just 
 trust a little to our judgment of her." 
 
 If Danvers were abashed by this speech he 
 showed it never a whit, but stood very erect, 
 his brows drawn into a scowl not unlike Nancy s 
 own, glowering first at his father and then at 
 me. Sandy, who was, in his mind s eye, re- 
 rigging a schooner, went on with his paper-and- 
 pencil work, unconscious of his son s scrutiny. 
 I dropped my eyes to the Allan Ramsay, which 
 I had opened at random, but lost nothing of 
 Danvers s conduct, and liked him for it. He 
 had known but the women who needed protec 
 tion, and his attitude to my mind bespoke the 
 chivalrous gentleman. 
 
 "Will she go alone? " he inquired abruptly. 
 
 " She will probably take Father Michel." 
 
 "And might I inquire without discourtesy 
 who Father Michel is? " 
 
 " He is a priest who came up with us from 
 Landgore, and the best man I ever knew," said 
 I. " Tis he who attends to the burn people." 
 
 "And will he tell her what to say to his 
 Grace of Borthwicke? " 
 
 " She will not need to be told," I answered. 
 [1191 
 
NANCY STAIE CHAP. IX 
 
 " Indeed, Dandy Carmichael, this is not the first 
 time she has gone on such errands." 
 
 " And does she get her way? " 
 
 " She has never failed yet." 
 
 " It s true," Danvers went on, " that I ve met 
 none of her kind, but if she go to the Duke of 
 Borthwicke, as man to man " 
 
 " She will not go as man to man," Sandy 
 broke in with a smile. " She will go as woman 
 to man. There s a mighty differ." 
 
 " You see, Dandy," said I, trying to smooth 
 the talk a bit, " although she s my own, there s 
 sure no harm in my saying that she is an extraor 
 dinary creature. That she has great beauty a 
 blind man could see; but that s the least of her, 
 for she has the heart and the principles of the 
 purest and the best. But, oh, laddie, in her 
 dealings with men she has the knowledge of the 
 deil himself. Mayhap she ll cry a bit, or flout 
 the duke, or laugh at his ways. She ll do the 
 thing which she finds his mood and the hou>* 
 suit, and she ll come away with the pardon ii 
 her hand, and say ever after that the duke is 
 maligned and that at heart he is a very good 
 man. And she ll believe it, too." 
 
 Dinner without Nancy was a tasteless affair, 
 [ISO] 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 and we spent little time at table, having the 
 pipes and wine brought into the library. As 
 we sat there the sound of Jamie s violin came 
 sobbing up from the Burnside as he played for 
 his stricken sister in the old low house where 
 three hearts were praying for Nancy Stair. 
 Sitting there with a silence, save for the music, 
 between us, we heard a door open on the floor 
 above and the sound of light footsteps on the 
 stair. She came to the doorway, looked in to 
 see if we were alone, and then, with neither shy 
 ness nor self-consciousness, came in to " show 
 us how she looked." 
 
 " I ve put on my best frock the one the 
 girls made for me on the burn in the lace 
 work," she said. 
 
 It was cobwebby stuff over white satin, the 
 neck, cut in the free fashion of the time, show 
 ing her dimpled shoulders and the turn of the 
 breast. She had dressed her hair in a bunch 
 of curls, high on the head, and over her fore 
 head she wore the circlet of diamonds which 
 my great-grandfather had given to that French 
 ancestress of ours with the uncommendable but 
 frank conduct. Around her neck was the fa 
 mous necklace of diamonds and emeralds, and 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. IX 
 
 at the bosom a cluster of diamonds winked and 
 twinkled at every breath. She stood for one 
 minute near me, her eyes like misty gray stars 
 shining over the bloom of roses, her slender 
 arms bared, and one slight hand, shining with 
 rings, laid on the table. 
 
 " Do I look pretty, Jock ? " she said, as I 
 raised the little hand to my lips and kissed it, 
 with what a passion of love only he can know 
 whose nature is a tempestuous loving one like 
 mine, and whose only daughter is his sweet 
 heart and his wife. 
 
 " Well," she said, satisfied with my expres 
 sions, " the coach is at the door," and then, hold 
 ing out her hand to Danvers, " Will ye not wish 
 me luck, Mr. Carmichael ? " 
 
 Danvers Carmichael had spoken no word and 
 made no sign since her entrance until he was 
 thus directly addressed, and the three of us 
 turned suddenly toward him as he stood by the 
 chimney-piece. A look of unfettered admira 
 tion of her was in his eyes as he answered: 
 
 " There s no one wishing you that more than 
 I, Miss Nancy." 
 
 Father Michel s grave face looked at us 
 serenely from the coach window for a minute, 
 [122] 
 
CHAP. IX NANCY STAIR 
 
 and we stood on the steps watching them drive 
 away and listening to the horses hoofs growing 
 fainter and fainter along the outer road. 
 
 Before they had died away entirely Danvers 
 turned toward me. 
 
 " Lord Stair," he said, " may I call myself 
 so much at home as to ring for a groom? I 
 want my horse. I m going to ride after her." 
 
 "What for? " Sandy inquired. 
 
 " To protect her," he answered. 
 
 " Well," observed Sandy, dryly, " ye may as 
 well go and be on hand in case there s need of 
 help. Nancy," he added with a laugh, " won t 
 need it. But you may be called in to protect 
 the duke." 
 
 [123] 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 NANCY VISITS HIS GBACE OF BOKTHWICKE 
 
 AT the time of which I write John Montrose, 
 Duke of Borthwicke, Ardvilarchan, and Drum- 
 blaine, was the most noticed man in the Three 
 Kingdoms, and held by many to be the greatest 
 scoundrel in the politics of Europe. He was a 
 picturesque and stately devil, tall, clean shaven, 
 with fine features and damnable light blue eyes 
 with a baffling gleam in them. He had a singu 
 lar grace in the use of his body, especially in 
 the movement of his hands, which were mark 
 edly expressive and attractive; and whether 
 drawn to him or not, one could deny neither his 
 potency nor his distinction of bearing, which 
 was one of race as well as breeding. The first 
 view I ever had of him was in Parliament 
 House, where I noted on the instant the mag 
 nificent carriage of his head and chest, his ex 
 traordinary pallor, and the strange eyes, reflect 
 ing the light from without rather than reveal 
 ing anything within. 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 In London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, the tide 
 of gossip overflowed with his name and carried 
 in its current tales of his greatness, his cruelty, 
 his lawless loves and his quick forgettings. It 
 was libeled against him that he had magnetic 
 power over all with whom he came in contact, 
 bending them to his will by the sheer dominance 
 of his presence. There was, I recall, a story 
 rife that upon my Lord Thurlow s opposition 
 to the bill for the restoration of the forfeited 
 estates becoming known, it was the Duke of 
 Borthwicke who was sent to treat with him con 
 cerning it, and immediately after this visit the 
 bill passed the House of Lords with small op 
 position. 
 
 It was whispered as well that Pitt himself 
 was afraid of his Grace of Borthwicke, and was 
 no match for the man, who had a peculiar power 
 by reason of being unhampered either by truth 
 or precedent. Blake, who was the duke s sec 
 retary in 84, told me at the club one night, that 
 on one occasion his grace had needed some 
 statistics to clinch an argument. After investi 
 gation the statistics were found to disprove his 
 point. Upon this being presented to him, he 
 remarked dryly, " Alter the statistics." 
 [135] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 Ugly tales were abroad in all classes of so 
 ciety concerning his life in India, his conduct 
 in the Highlands, and his moral idiocy, but he 
 held them under with a strong hand, and more 
 than one hinted that he had eyes for the pre 
 miership. 
 
 Dressed for the evening, the duke was alone 
 in his sitting-room, attending to his private cor 
 respondence, when he heard a rap at the door. 
 
 " Enter," he called, in a careless voice, think 
 ing it one of his men. 
 
 Nancy lifted the latch and came forward 
 into the room. 
 
 " The Duke of Borthwicke will pardon my 
 intrusion, will he not? " she asked, " as well as 
 my lack of courtesy? I was afraid his grace 
 might refuse to see me if I were announced to 
 him in the ordinary manner." 
 
 Montrose had been writing at an oaken 
 table, on either side of which was a bracket of 
 lights. At the sound of the voice he turned, 
 and, at the sight of Nancy, he rose and stood 
 looking at her as though she were an appar 
 ition. 
 
 Many times since, in her description of this 
 interview, she told me that she received from 
 [136] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 him an impression as though he stretched forth 
 his hand and touched her. She said, as well, 
 that the erectness of his body and the fulness of 
 his chest gave him the air of a conqueror who 
 was invincible, while the pallor of his face and 
 the glitter of his eye set him still further apart 
 from anything usual. 
 
 It seemed a full minute that they stood thus 
 taking notes openly of each other before she 
 spoke again. 
 
 " I am Nancy Stair," she said quietly. 
 
 "Ah," the duke returned, coming forward 
 with a smile, "the verse-maker?" 
 
 " I make verses," Nancy answered. 
 
 " Which have given me more pleasure than 
 I have the power to tell," the duke responded 
 with a bow. 
 
 "It is praise indeed, coming from John 
 Montrose, who is no mean poet himself," Nancy 
 said with a smile. 
 
 " I," the duke returned, " am no poet, Mis 
 tress Stair ; but I have a spunk enough of glee 
 to enjoy the gift of others." 
 
 "One might think who overheard us, my 
 lord duke," Nancy broke in with a laugh and 
 the light of humor in her eyes by which she 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 could make another smile at any time, " that we 
 were collegians having a critical discussion. It 
 was not concerning poetry that I came to you 
 to-night, your grace. It was to ask a favor." 
 
 " Pitcairn said you would come," the duke 
 answered her blandly, taking out his watch and 
 looking at it with a smile. " He said you would 
 come before you went to the Duchess of Gor 
 don s rout. He even named the exact time 
 within a quarter of an hour." 
 
 " Mr. Pitcairn is a very wonderful man," 
 Nancy returned. 
 
 " He s a poor hand at description," re 
 sponded the duke, with a heat of admiration for 
 her in his tone. 
 
 " It depends somewhat," said Nancy, " upon 
 what he has the describing of." And in this 
 speech the way women know how to belittle an 
 enemy is clearly to be seen. " He can describe 
 a barn to a farmer, a road to a surveyor, or a 
 church to an architect, so that they fall into an 
 ecstasy of admiration of his parts. When it 
 comes to a woman it s a different matter. Mr. 
 Pitcairn doesn t know a woman. He s not, 
 rightly speaking, a man. As Mr. Carmichael 
 says, He s just a head. " 
 [128] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 " It s a curious head," the duke answers, " a 
 curious head and a very clear one." 
 
 " A clear head to prosecute ; never to de 
 fend," Nancy responded ; " which leads ine to 
 the cause of my visit. I have come to ask for 
 the pardon of Timothy Lapraik." 
 
 The duke dropped his eyelids, and a strange 
 light shone from under them. 
 
 "You compliment me, Mistress Stair, in 
 thinking I have the power to undo that which 
 was settled by the law of your country and a 
 jury tried and true. I took no part in the 
 affair ; the prosecution was not mine ; in a word, 
 the thing is perhaps beyond my power, had I 
 the desire to get him a pardon, which, however, 
 I have not." 
 
 All this time neither had made any motion 
 toward sitting down, but stood regarding each 
 other, alert and watchful. It was Nancy Stair 
 who took the first move. Coming over to the 
 duke she put one of her hands on his breast and 
 stood looking up at him out of those gray eyes 
 of whose power she was not unconscious. 
 
 " My lord," she said, " I, who have had the 
 handling of people much of my life, have 
 learned to recognize power when I see it, and 
 [129] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 I see it in you. There s just naught you can t 
 do that you set your mind to." 
 
 None ever claimed that in his relation with 
 women the duke was afflicted with Pitcairn s 
 trouble, and a blue heat came in his eye at her 
 touch of him. 
 
 " You re not afraid of me, Nancy Stair? " 
 
 She looked up at him from under her eye 
 lids and laughed. 
 
 " Not the least bit in the world, your grace." 
 
 "And ye think, mayhap, that just because 
 ye re a beautiful woman aye, the most beauti 
 ful woman I have ever seen that ye can come 
 to me and ask favors, thinking that I shall ex 
 pect nothing in return? " 
 
 "What I have heard of you would lead me 
 far from such conclusion," Nancy answered, 
 with a smile. 
 
 He looked at her in silence, with an amused 
 expression in his face. 
 
 " I like you," he said at length, and a dare 
 devil look came into his eyes, a look which 
 showed at once his strength and his weakness. 
 " I like your fearlessness as well as your hon 
 esty. I can mate your frankness by my own. I 
 have long desired to know what is said of me, 
 [130] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 and have a mind to make a compact with you, 
 if you will. I hear lies on every side. They are 
 the stuff of which my daily bread is baked. 
 Come," he cried, " a bargain between us. The 
 naked truth which ye have heard concerning me 
 in return for the pardon of Timothy Lapraik." 
 
 " It s a bargain between us, your grace." 
 
 " There will be no slurring over, no soft 
 adjustments 1 " 
 
 " You need have no fear. If you knew me 
 better you would not ask that," Nancy answered 
 with a smile. " You shall have the unsoftened 
 truth, so far as it is mine to speak." 
 
 The duke motioned her to a seat by the fire 
 and stood opposite to her, changing the candles 
 on the shelf above to throw the light full upon 
 her face as she sat before the fire. 
 
 " Tis an awkward position you put me in," 
 Nancy laughed. 
 
 " Tis grace itself compared to the awkward 
 ness of mine," the duke returned with a dry 
 smile. 
 
 " The first thing I ever heard of you," she 
 began, " was that you were known by common 
 repute as the Lying Duke of the Highlands. " 
 
 The duke bowed. 
 
 10 [ 131 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 " I have heard from high and low that you 
 have neither the code of a gentleman nor the 
 common honesty of business affairs. It is even 
 argued that you have not the moral perception 
 to see your own lack in such matters." 
 
 The duke looked at her steadily for a mo 
 ment again and his lips curled back into a 
 smile. 
 
 " You are openly accused of thefts in India 
 of defrauding the ignorant natives of their 
 lands." 
 
 The duke made a little outward motion with 
 his hand, as though to intimate that these 
 charges were already known to him. 
 
 " It is said and this seems -to me one of the 
 worst charges that you assail the names of 
 those whose places you desire for yourself or 
 your friends, under cover, and in ways impos 
 sible for them to circumvent." 
 
 The duke shrugged his shoulders as if this 
 charge were one of small moment. 
 
 " But tis of your treatment of women that 
 the worst stories of you are abroad, and tis said 
 that your conduct toward them is that of a 
 brute rather than of a man. There is a tale of 
 one woman, the wife of a baronet, who left her 
 [133] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 husband for you, and whom ye after deserted 
 to poverty and disgrace." 
 
 She paused a moment and turned to reca 
 pitulate. 
 
 " Liar," she said. 
 
 The duke bowed slightly. 
 
 " Thief." 
 
 The duke bent his head a bit lower. 
 
 " Def rauder, blackmailer, and betrayer of 
 women." 
 
 The duke rose and made a profound salu 
 tation, and Nancy regarded him with a smile. 
 
 " I do not think of any other thing," she 
 concluded; and then, as though there was still 
 hope for him, " I have never heard your grace 
 accused of open murder." 
 
 " Tis strange," the duke answered her with 
 a queer look. " I have enough of the artist in 
 me to see that the open murder would have 
 been finely climactic. There is but one of these 
 charges that I desire to deny to you," looking 
 at the fire through his eyeglass as he spoke; " I 
 don t lie," he said, adding, with the shadow of 
 a smile, " I don t have to. And may I ask, Mis 
 tress Stair, do you believe these things of me? " 
 
 Nancy rose and looked into the fire. 
 [133] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 " I like you," she answered. 
 
 " In spite of my crimes? " 
 
 " Because of your power," she responded. 
 
 They stood for a moment regarding each 
 other steadily before another word was spoken. 
 
 " Ah, my lord," she said, " I must be going/ 
 and there was a shade of regret in her voice, 
 which Borthwicke was not the man to let pass 
 unnoticed, " I have kept my word." 
 
 " True," the duke answered, " you have 
 kept your word." 
 
 "You will keep yours to me?" she asked, 
 extending her hand. 
 
 " By this time to-morrow Lapraik shall be 
 a free man," the duke answered, holding the 
 extended hand in his. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, and another silence 
 fell between them as they stood thus, nearer to 
 gether, dominated by magnetic attraction so 
 strong that a full minute passed unnoted by 
 either. 
 
 " It is my turn to ask favors," the duke said 
 headily. " The rose in your breast." 
 
 " Shall I fasten it on your coat! " she asked. 
 
 So for a moment more they stood almost 
 touching each other, his breath moving the curls 
 of her hair as she reached toward him. 
 [ 134 ] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Good night," he said, extending his hand 
 again. 
 
 " Good night," she said, putting hers into it. 
 
 " You have your people with you? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " It is better then I should not come down? " 
 
 "Much better," she answered, after a sec 
 ond ; and then, turning to him : " You are com 
 ing to the Duchess of Gordon s? " 
 
 "I had intended to remain away till I saw 
 you. What do you think I shall do now ? " his 
 grace asked. 
 
 "How should I know, my lord duke?" 
 Nancy inquired, with a smile. 
 
 " What do you think I am going to do 
 now?" he repeated with insistence. 
 
 "I think you will come to the Gordons ," 
 Nancy answered in a low voice. 
 
 "I may kiss your hand!" the duke asked; 
 and, as he did so, the act having in it more of 
 a caress than a salutation, "Believe me," he 
 said, " I could not stay away." 
 
 After Nancy and Dandy had left us, Car- 
 michael and I sat smoking, and by reason of 
 the talk falling along some interesting lines we 
 [135] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 arrived at the Gordons long past the time set 
 for our party to meet. Nearing the house we 
 heard the music of the fiddles filling the air with 
 glee and sadness, and saw the caddies darting 
 hither and thither, the link-boys with their 
 torches, and the flare of lights on the dazzling 
 toilets of the ladies descending from their chairs 
 and coaches. My own position in Edinburgh 
 society was stated to me quite by accident, as I 
 entered, by a group of young dandies at the ball 
 room door, who made way for me with a pro 
 nounced salute and whispered: 
 
 " Tis her father." 
 
 Jane Gordon welcomed me with a gay and 
 genuine friendship, and as Sandy and I made 
 our salutations to her I saw Nancy at some lit 
 tle distance from us, literally surrounded by 
 fatuous, cipher-faced youths, who stood in some 
 awe before her misty beauty and reputed power. 
 There was pride in me that the girl was mine, 
 a pride which Sandy Carmichael shared with 
 me, and as Hugh Pitcairn crossed the long 
 room to salute her gravely but with marked re 
 spect, I saw that there was at least one emotion 
 which they held in common. 
 
 Standing by the great window soon after 
 [136] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 my arrival, a bit removed from a group of talk 
 ing persons to whom I was giving but scant 
 attention, I became conscious that some one was 
 addressing me, and turned to find the Duke of 
 Borthwicke, his hand laid lightly on my shoul 
 der, his countenance of baffling serenity, and his 
 voice mellow and of a conciliating quality. He 
 wore gray satin of an elegant finish, but neither 
 embroidery nor jewels, and, notwithstanding 
 his position and power, conveyed the impression 
 in some adroit way, subtler than I can set forth, 
 that he deprecated his temerity in addressing so 
 austere a person as myself. I had seen women 
 use this essence of flattery, but it was the first 
 time I ever found it employed by a man. 
 
 " Will my Lord Stair allow me to introduce 
 myself to him ? " he inquired, with a smile, ex 
 tending his hand. " I am John Montrose, and 
 there are many reasons why we should deter 
 mine to be good friends." 
 
 " We are both Highland folk," I answered. 
 
 "Which is one excellent reason," he inter 
 rupted; "yet there are several more moving 
 than that. Your father, Lord Stair, and mine 
 were out together in the forty-fives, on which 
 side I need scarcely mention; and again, your 
 [137] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. X 
 
 grandfather and mine both loved and fought 
 for the beautiful Nancy Hamilton, and, but for 
 the preference of the lady herself, she might 
 have been my own grandmother. These things 
 call for a friendly feeling between us, Lord 
 Stair, but that which drives me forward most 
 to your acquaintancy is the admiration I have 
 for the writings of your daughter, Mistress 
 Nancy, whose lines ring through my head moro 
 often than I care to tell, and whose poems have 
 been upon my writing-table ever since they 
 were published." 
 
 In this pleasant way we fell to talk of Nancy, 
 of her gifts, her beauty, her loving tenderness 
 for all things, her strange up-bringing, her 
 people on the Burnside; and to a doting father 
 such as I was the time flew quickly by. 
 
 I noted at length that there was some stir in 
 the circle around her, and watched her cross the 
 room with her Grace of Gordon and Danvers 
 Carmichael in attendance, to the musicians 
 place in the great window. 
 
 I have wondered at times if folk who dwell 
 
 on the temptations male creatures have think 
 
 ever of those which come to women of great 
 
 attractiveness to men. The thought came to 
 
 [138] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIR 
 
 me as Nancy took her place beside the harp 
 and violins, which were to accompany her sing 
 ing, and I sent a prayer to Heaven to keep my 
 child unspotted from the world, uttering it none 
 the less fervently because his Grace of Borth- 
 wicke, with lids veiling the fire of his eyes, was 
 looking at her. 
 
 Twice she sang, her songs being of her own 
 land, one of the highlands, with the perfume of 
 the gorse and the heather in the lilt of it, and 
 the second, by demand of Sandy, the gipsy 
 song which had been handed down from wood 
 land mother to woodland child for hundreds of 
 years ; a song which sent Nancy s lawless blood 
 to her cheeks and set her heart beating with an 
 inherited remembrance of raids and sea-fights, 
 and lawless loves; which made her eyes misty 
 with tears and unawakened passion; the song 
 which I had learned to dread, Marian s song : 
 
 " Love that is Life, 
 Love that is Death, 
 Love that is mine " 
 
 And as she finished, carried off her feet by her 
 own feelings, she looked toward us for a mo 
 ment; but it was neither upon me nor Danvers 
 Carmichael that the look fell; for, as one who 
 [139] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. X 
 
 knows she will be understood, her glance turned 
 to his Grace of Borthwicke, whose eyes told a 
 tale so openly that he who ran might read. I 
 was more disturbed by this occurrence than I 
 cared to admit, and after the supper, when Nan 
 cy, attended still by Danvers Carmichael, came 
 back to us, I was glad to hear her say that she 
 wished to go home. His Grace of Borthwicke 
 being still near us, it fell upon me to present 
 Danvers Carmichael to him, an introduction 
 which Dandy acknowledged by a perfunctory 
 bow and scant courtesy, and the duke by turn 
 ing his eyes for one second in Dandy s direction 
 and repeating his name as " McMichael " in the 
 exasperating manner of one who neither knows 
 nor cares who the person is who has been pre 
 sented to him; and although at the time of the 
 murder the lawyers tried to have it that the 
 acquaintance between these two men was of 
 London breeding, I can vouch for it, from my 
 own knowledge and the testimony of Danvers 
 Carmichael to me on our way home, that this 
 was the first time he and the duke ever set eyes 
 on each other. 
 
 In just the manner in which I have set it 
 forth, in the compass of a few days, the three 
 [140] 
 
CHAP. X NANCY STAIE 
 
 most important factors in Nancy s life came to 
 the working out of it, Robert Burns, though 
 but by book ; Danvers Carmichael, a gentleman ; 
 and that splendid devil, John Montrose, Duke 
 of Borthwicke, Ardvilarchan and Drumblaine in 
 the Muirs. 
 
 [141] 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 DANVEES CARMICHAEL MAKES A PROPOSAL, 
 
 WHETHER the conduct of the Duke of Borth- 
 wicke brought a climax to the affairs between 
 Danvers and Nancy I can not state for a surety, 
 but the next morning as I sat alone on the south 
 porch the boy came upon me with some sud 
 denness. 
 
 " Lord Stair," he said, " it is with my fath 
 er s knowledge and pleasurable consent that I 
 come to ask your permission to have Nancy for 
 my wife, if she can fancy me as a husband." 
 
 He turned very white as he spoke, but his 
 bearing was manly and brave as that of his 
 father s son should be, and my heart went out 
 to him. 
 
 " Sit ye down, laddie," I said, " sit ye down. 
 We ll have a smoke together and talk it over. 
 I m not denying that I like you for the two 
 best reasons in the world. The first, for your 
 self; and the second, that ye re your father s 
 [142] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 son. And to pretend that a wedding between 
 you two children would not give me the great 
 est pleasure in life would be idiot foolishness. 
 I feel it my duty to you, however, as well as to 
 my girl, to talk the thing over plainly. Have 
 you any notion now," I asked, " as to Nancy s 
 feeling toward you 1 " 
 
 " None whatever," he answers, gloomily 
 enough. 
 
 " You ve not questioned her in any 
 way " 
 
 " I m a man of honor, Lord Stair," he re 
 sponded, a bit in the air. 
 
 "Well, then," said I, "it will do no harm 
 to set some of the obstacles before you that you 
 may be allowed to deal with the situation bare 
 handed. 
 
 " Ye must see, Dandy, that Nancy Stair is 
 different from other women and has been raised 
 in a strange way. I m no saying it s either a 
 good way or a bad. I am saying that it s far 
 from the accepted way women are bred up gen 
 erally. It s no mere talent she has for in a 
 woman that s not harmful and frequently helps 
 to entertain the children, as they come along; 
 but with a girl, raised by men, whose name is 
 [143] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 ringing throughout the kingdom, who baffles 
 every one by unfailing love and kindness, who 
 has only the religion of making things better 
 for others; a bit of a coquette, with such mag 
 netism that one wants to touch her as one does 
 a flower I tell ye frankly, Danvers, as Pitcairn 
 says, she s a dangerous contrivance of the Al 
 mighty s, and a man had best think many 
 times before he takes her to his bosom as a 
 wife." 
 
 "It s a singular state of affairs," Danvers 
 answers, with a short laugh, " and one for 
 which, I venture, even Nancy could find no 
 bookish parallel. You tell me that you d like 
 me for a son-in-law, but warn me against your 
 own daughter as a wife; while my father takes 
 the other view of it: that he would like Nancy 
 for his daughter, but thinks I m far from being 
 the one suited to her as a husband. Parents are 
 not usually so dispassionate," he added, some 
 what bitterly. I felt for the lad, and took a 
 step along a side path. 
 
 " Ye re both over young as yet," I said, 
 
 " and it s been less than a month since ye ve 
 
 known each other." And it was here that I had 
 
 a taste of his fine temper, for he turned upon 
 
 [144] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 me in a sudden heat that made him splendid and 
 natural to the eye. 
 
 " I have not heard that my Lord Stair was 
 over-deliberate in his own wooing," he said. 
 
 I laughed aloud as he glowered at me, and 
 put my hand on his shoulder, for I liked his 
 impetuous ways and his deil s temper. 
 
 " There, there," I said, " gang your own 
 gate. I but wanted ye to know what ye might 
 expect in a wife. She ll contradict ye 
 
 " I don t want a wife who is an echo of my 
 self," he retorted. 
 
 " She s jealous " 
 
 " I wouldn t give a groat for a woman who 
 wasn t," he responded. 
 
 " She is so extravagant," I went on, " that 
 I never let even Sandy know her bills." 
 
 He made no answer to this whatever, as 
 though it were a matter beneath discussion. 
 
 " She will forget you for days at a time 
 while she s rhyme-making," I went on. " She 
 will be interested in other men until the day 
 she dies " his eye darkened at this " and to 
 sum it up, I don t know any woman more un- 
 suited to you; but if she will have you, you ve 
 my consent," and I reached out my hand to him* 
 [145] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 " God bless you," I cried, and before our hands 
 had parted Sandy came around the turn of the 
 path. 
 
 " You ve done just what I knew you d do, 
 Jock Stair," he said, glowering first at his son 
 and then at me, " and ye know as well as I the 
 foolishness of it. Take a man like this lad, who 
 has been spoiled by an overfond mother, and a 
 woman like Nancy, who has had her own way 
 since birth, marry them to each other, and 
 you ve a magnificent basis for trouble. Why 
 don t you marry your cousin Isabel? You d 
 thoughts of it before you left London ! " he 
 ended, in a futile way. 
 
 " I m going to marry Nancy Stair, if she ll 
 have me," Danvers replied, doggedly. 
 
 "Well, well, she may not have you," Sandy 
 replied, soothingly. " And as she s under the 
 lilacs you may care to join her." 
 
 Nothing passed between Danvers and Nancy 
 on the subject of marriage that morning, and 
 I found at luncheon a probable explanation of 
 the fact by reason of her absorption in the 
 labor training idea and the building of an ex 
 tension on the Burnside. 
 
 Between this scheme, her talk of Robert 
 [146] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 Burns, her interest in his Grace of Borthwicke, 
 and an absolute and unnatural silence concern 
 ing Danvers, I was in some anxiety, and could 
 come to no conclusion whatever concerning the 
 state of her feelings. I mentioned Danvers 
 good looks, and she quoted me back " The Cot 
 ter s Saturday Night." I praised his conduct, 
 and she answered with " The Epistle to Davie." 
 It was the name of Burns that was constantly 
 upon her lips; she set his verses to the music 
 of eld songs, singing them softly to herself in 
 the gloaming, and I could see had made a god 
 of him by her own imaginings. 
 
 "That Burns book was a bad investment 
 for you," I said to Danvers one evening. 
 
 " Why," says he, " it s naught but a book! " 
 
 " True," I answered, " but the maker of it 
 is a man and she s idealized him into a god. 
 Ye just brought trouble for yourself when you 
 brought that volume among us," I cried. 
 
 To the best of my recollection it was about 
 a week after my talk with Danvers concerning 
 a marriage between them that the three of us 
 sat at the dinner together, and there never was 
 a more bewitching or dangerous Nancy than we 
 had with us that night. A tender, brilliant, 
 11 f 147 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 saucy, flattering Nancy, who moved us male 
 creatures about as though we were chessmen. 
 
 " Jock, tell about the old minister and the 
 goose," she said. " There s no one can tell that 
 story like you." 
 
 Or, 
 
 " Danvers, do you recall the anecdote of 
 Billy Deuceace and the opera-singer? It s one 
 of the best jokes I ever heard." And it was 
 after the laugh that followed this narration that 
 Danvers said, with some abruptness, I thought: 
 
 " We had bad news to-day. The Honorable 
 Mrs. Erskine and her daughter are coming to 
 Arran. My father invited them over a year 
 ago, and had forgotten all about it when their 
 letter of acceptance came." 
 
 " Is it Isabel Erskine whom your father ad 
 vises you to marry ? " Nancy asked. 
 
 " It is the very same," Dandy answered 
 with a careless laugh ; " and I m warning you 
 you are to have a rival in the same house with 
 me!" 
 
 "Is she pretty!" 
 
 " She s well enough," he replied indiffer 
 ently. 
 
 " I believe," said Nancy, looking through 
 [148] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 her wine-glass far off. somewhere, " that she ll 
 suit you better than I." 
 
 " She treats me better." 
 
 "She doesn t write verses?" this with a 
 glance from under her eyelids. 
 
 " She does not." 
 
 " Nor think her own way always the best f " 
 
 " She s very sweet and yielding, as becomes 
 a woman," Danvers answered teasingly. 
 
 " She s just without sin at all," Nancy con 
 tinued with apparent dejection. 
 
 " Entirely," Danvers returned solemnly, but 
 with a laugh shining through his long black 
 lashes. 
 
 " Then I d better not meet with her I, who 
 have so many failings." 
 
 " Have you failings! " Dandy asked, and the 
 teasing tone left him. " I ve yet to find them." 
 
 And at this Nancy broke into a laugh so 
 funny and contagious that the two of us joined 
 with her. 
 
 " Have I failings? " she repeated. " That I 
 have ! And so many twould be a day s work to 
 name them. 
 
 " Sometimes," she began, " I make light of 
 other folks religion when I disagree with it 
 [149] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 and that s little short of scandalous. And I 
 belittle the people whom I don t like and 
 there s no breeding in that; and where a friend 
 is concerned I m like the Stewarts, Back to 
 back, and a claymore in each hand, and " 
 
 " Ye re right in that," Danvers and I broke 
 in like a chorus. 
 
 " And sometimes," she went on, and the hu 
 mor she found in these revelations concerning 
 herself was a droll thing to see, " sometimes I 
 use bad language 
 
 We men broke into a roar of laughter at this. 
 
 " Once, I remember," she said, with the 
 gleam in her eye, " I danced till three in the 
 morning at Peggy MacBride s wedding, and 
 getting out of the coach twisted my arm till I 
 thought I d broken it. About four of the same 
 morning I rose with a raging tooth, and cross 
 ing the room for laudanum, I struck the elbow 
 of the injured arm against a chest of drawers, 
 and before I thought I said 
 
 " What? " Danvers cried, his face lit up with 
 merriment. 
 
 " Nothing will ever make me tell," she said 
 firmly, "nothing!" 
 
 "Whatever it was, it was moderate. You 
 [1501 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 haven t a vocabulary sufficient for that situa 
 tion, Nancy Stair," I laughed. 
 
 " Then, too, Pm no respecter of family," she 
 went on, as though set for complete absolution. 
 " It s mayhap because my own mother was an 
 Irish gipsy " 
 
 " Nancy ! " Dandy cried with amazement. 
 
 " She was so," Nancy insisted, " and the pres 
 ent lord s grandfather was a strange old cummer 
 who ran away with another man s wife " 
 
 "Nancy!" I expostulated, "Nancy, you 
 mustn t talk in that way of your forbears " 
 
 " Why not? " she inquired. 
 
 "It s a thing ye can t explain, my dear ; but 
 it just isn t done," Dandy said. 
 
 " Is it not! " she asked, and there was a look 
 in her eyes of amused amazement. " Is it not? 
 You see, I, in my poor blind way, can not un 
 derstand why the naming of a thing is worse 
 than the being of it but if ye say it is, I m 
 amiable. I ll give out that my forbears were 
 all kings and queens of the Egyptians, and that 
 I ate my haggis when I was a child from the 
 seat of the throne. It makes no difference to 
 me, for I m something more than the Laird of 
 Stair s daughter." 
 
 [151] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 " Meaning the future Countess of Glen- 
 more, mayhap ! " I suggested. 
 
 " I m not meaning any such thing, and it s 
 perhaps not becoming for me to explain what I 
 do mean; but whether I say it of myself or tis 
 said of me in the Glasgow Sentinel, it makes 
 little differ, for I have the verse-making, and 
 tis more to me than lands or titles. 
 
 " Aye," she said, after a pause, with a laugh 
 as though making fun of her conceit of herself, 
 " I have the genius 
 
 At the end of the meal, before she left us, 
 bewildered by her vivacity and charm, she 
 stopped at the door. 
 
 " Am I nice? " she asked. 
 
 "Very," said Danvers and I. 
 
 " And will ye give me," she asked, as a child 
 might have done, "the thousand pounds for 
 Father Michel?" 
 
 " I will not," I answered, the yielding in me 
 showing through the words. 
 
 Danvers saw his chance and took it with the 
 spur. 
 
 " I will," he said, going toward her to open 
 the door, but it looked more as though he meant 
 to take her in his arms, " I will, Nancy." 
 [152] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 She looked at him with a softness in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Thank you, Danvers," she said, and the 
 glance made me think that, even did I allow such 
 a manifest impossibility, he could never have 
 invested money in any way to bring him a 
 richer return. 
 
 It was a task beyond me to get sensible talk 
 from him with Nancy waiting in the moonlight, 
 a moonlight fragrant with honeysuckle and 
 climbing roses ; and I bade him to be off to her ; 
 and I opened the papers which had come by a 
 late post. 
 
 I heard a merry talk between them as Huey 
 came in to say that the white night-flowers were 
 in bloom by the fountain, and I went off with 
 him to have a look at them. As I came back I 
 turned into the path which led to the porch, 
 intending to tell them of these wonderful 
 blooms, when I saw the two of them on the 
 steps, standing near together, and Danvers s 
 arms were around the girl he loved, and he was 
 looking down into her eyes with rapture in 
 his fond, handsome face, and I heard him 
 say: 
 
 " When, when, when? " 
 [153] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. Xl 
 
 "When do you want it? " she asked. 
 " When do I want it ! Now, to-night," and 
 he drew her lips to his. 
 "Wife!" he said. 
 
 When I reentered the library I found it 
 occupied by Sandy, who had walked across 
 country from his own place with some news 
 concerning the whisky tax. As we sat in dis 
 pute over it, upward of an hour later, I heard 
 Nancy go to her room without coming in to 
 wish us a good night, and a second later Dan- 
 vers Carmichael stood in the doorway. It was 
 good for us older men to see the lad, and at 
 the sight of him I was out under the stars of 
 Landgore; the sound of gipsy singing, the salt 
 from the sea, and the odor of blown hawthorn 
 were in the room, and I was young again with 
 Marian Ingarrach folded in my arms. The 
 brooding look was gone from his eyes and his 
 face bore a strange illumination. He had added 
 something to, rather than lost any of the cock- 
 sureness of his manner; but the happiness of 
 him, combined with the love and passion of his 
 ardent nature, made him a singularly handsome 
 creature as he came toward us. 
 [154] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 "Will you not congratulate me?" he said, 
 looking from one to the other of us. 
 
 "Is she willing to marry you!" his father 
 asked, with exaggerated amazement. 
 
 " If she finds none whom she fancies more, 
 she said she would marry me within the 
 year 
 
 "Well, well, there s some hope for you," 
 Sandy went on. " She may meet in with some 
 one else." 
 
 " You ve my pity," I laughed, but I took his 
 hand in mine with the words. 
 
 His joy radiated itself to us, and his talk 
 was just as it should be for his years. He 
 patronized us a bit for being older and out of 
 the way of it all, spoke of Nancy as though she 
 were the only woman since Eve, and discussed 
 a betrothal ring as though it were a thing for 
 empires to rise and fall by. 
 
 " She fancies rubies ; she cares for gems, 
 you know," he said, as though the information 
 was new to us instead of having been anciently 
 and expensively bought. 
 
 He must have the best ruby in Scotland, he 
 went on. He wished he could attend to the 
 matter himself. "But," he stood with his 
 [155] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 thumbs in the arms of his waistcoat as he spoke, 
 with a conscious smile " but no fellow would 
 be such a bally ass as to dash to London for a 
 ring under present conditions." There were 
 the four thousand pounds his grandmother had 
 given him. They might all be spent for this. 
 There was a fellow named Billy Deuceace, an 
 Oxford man, with taste in such matters. He 
 would write him concerning it to-night, he said. 
 
 "Faith," said Sandy, drolly, "you talk as 
 if married life were all a ring. Ye ll find it 
 different when your wife has the genius and is 
 taken up wi y other men." 
 
 And Danvers faced the two of us here by 
 a statement which has never left me from the 
 night he uttered it till the minute of my setting 
 it down. 
 
 " I am far from believing," he said, " that 
 genius is a thing which rightly belongs to 
 women. Tis to me but an issue on one side. 
 And the woman who has enough of her hus 
 band s kisses and his babies at her breast has 
 little time to write verses or think of other men." 
 
 With these words still ringing in my ears I 
 rapped at Nancy s door on my way to bed, 
 to find her sitting by a glaring light with the 
 [156] 
 
CHAP. XI NANCY STAIR 
 
 everlasting Burns book in her hand. I was a 
 bit dashed in spirit by her occupation, for it 
 seemed unnatural that a girl should be spend 
 ing the time immediately after her betrothal in 
 such an employ, and I affected a gaiety I was 
 far from feeling. 
 
 " Is it to Nancy Stair or the possible Coun 
 tess of Glenmore that I speak? " 
 
 She stood by the table, her finger still mark 
 ing her place in the book. 
 
 " Dandy told you, then? " she asked. 
 
 " Told us ! " I echoed. " It s my opinion 
 he ll tell the town-crier to-night and have it in 
 all the prints of the realm within the week." 
 
 " He told you just what the understanding 
 was?" 
 
 I repeated what he had said, and she nodded 
 at the end in acquiescence. 
 
 " You see," she said, coming toward me and 
 putting her head on my shoulder, " I m not 
 sure of myself. My mind s ill redd up for 
 marriage with any one. I ve had too much 
 freedom, perhaps; and while one side of my 
 nature, probably the strongest one, loves Dan- 
 Vers Carmichael, I am drawn to the writer of 
 these lines, this Burns man, in a way I can not 
 [157] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XI 
 
 tell; and at the very foot of the matter I am 
 mightily taken up with the power of John Mon- 
 trose. It s no highly moral, is it?" she asked, 
 with an amused smile, " to feel ye could be in 
 love with two three men at once? But my 
 nature s many sided, and on one of these sides 
 I find a most treacherous inclination f toward 
 his Grace of Borthwieke." 
 
 [158] 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 I MEET A GKEAT MAN 
 
 M With knowledge so vast and with judgment so strong 
 No man with the half of them e er could go wrong; 
 With passion so potent, and fancies so bright, 
 No man with the half of them e er could go right. " 
 
 I PASSED as miserable a niglit as my worst 
 enemy could have wished and was up at the 
 dawning for a jaunt in the open. The go wans 
 so white and bonny were swinging their dewy 
 heads in the morning wind; the sea-fog was 
 lifting skyward, and whether the message came 
 from them I can not say, but a mystical white 
 word floated between me and my troubled 
 thoughts of Nancy a word which means the 
 changing of baser metal into pure gold, the re 
 turning of the balance to nature, the fine adjust 
 ment of spirit to mind and body the great 
 word Motherhood. Nancy as a mother. My 
 Little Flower with a floweret of her own might 
 be the solution of a happy marriage for her 
 [1591 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XII 
 
 more than compensating for the independence 
 and adulation which she had always had. 
 
 As I tramped along I came to a definite 
 thought concerning the Burns poems as well, 
 which was that I would set fire to them, as if 
 by accident, that very day, and have them by 
 and done with. And as for the man himself, it 
 would, I thought, be no hard matter to keep 
 him out of our lives ; in which conclusions I left 
 out just two things the throw of Fate, which 
 none of us can reckon upon, and my own rhyme- 
 loving nature and fondness for being enter 
 tained. 
 
 It was Fate s throw with which I had to 
 reckon first. I had come in my musings to a 
 side-path which led from the old Abbey to the 
 foot-bridge, when I heard the sound of a man s 
 singing : 
 
 " As I cam in by Glenap, 
 
 I met wi an ancient woman, 
 Who told me to cheer my heart up 
 For the best of my days were cominV 
 
 The singer was sitting upon a fallen tree, 
 
 beside a smoking fire, with the women, children, 
 
 aye, and the very dogs, gathered about him as 
 
 though he carried a charm. He was a thick-set 
 
 [160] 
 
CHAP. XH NANCY STAIR 
 
 man, dark and swarthy, with a pair of eyes 
 literally glowing. His hat was cocked upon the 
 back of his head, and he had his plaid thrown 
 around him in a certain manner known to him 
 self alone. He was eating and drinking with 
 these gipsy-folk, for he d a bannock in one hand 
 and a mug of hot drink in the other, but at 
 sight of me he set them down and came for 
 ward to greet me; and my amazed eyes rested 
 on Robert Burns himself, as though raised up 
 by some of his own witches to fit into my 
 thoughts Eobert Burns whom I had met at 
 Mauchline before he was famous, the year 
 before. 
 
 He inquired if I were stepping townward, 
 and on the instant I asked him to breakfast with 
 me at the Star and Garter, and this, you will re 
 member, within five short minutes of my resolve 
 to burn his book and keep him out of our lives. 
 
 It was charged against me later that I was 
 lax in this Burns affair and, because of my own 
 infatuation for men of parts, took too little 
 thought for the temptation to which I exposed 
 my daughter. I answer the accusation by tell 
 ing the circumstances exactly as they fell, and 
 he who reads may judge the truth of these 
 [161] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XII 
 
 charges for himself. As we came to the door 
 of the inn, I asked Creech and Dundas, who 
 happened to be passing, to join us at the break 
 fast, and a merry feast it was, and one for the 
 three of us to hold as a lifelong memory, for 
 only those who had the honor to know Burns 
 could understand that the " best of him was in 
 his talk." In the year of which I write all the 
 eyes of Edinburgh were fixed upon him, and 
 his toasts, his epigrams, his love affairs were 
 the scandal of the town and his own country 
 side. There was some flouting of him at this 
 very meal, I recall, by Creech, who was deep in 
 his affairs, concerning a Mauchline lassie who 
 had thrown his love back at him with some vio 
 lence and scandal; but he was not in the least 
 dashed either by the event or the naming of it, 
 and, seizing a glass, he called out, with the 
 j oiliest laugh in the world: 
 
 " Their tricks and crafts hae put me daft, 
 
 They ve ta en me in and a that, 
 But clear your decks! and here s The Sex, 
 I like the jades for a that," 
 
 the applause which greeted this sally bringing 
 the servants to the window, though, in fact, 
 
 [1631 
 
CHAP. XII NANCY STAIE 
 
 when it was known that Burns was in the house 
 there was no keeping them out of the room. 
 
 I do not feel, even at this late day, that I 
 need an excuse for the admiration I have of 
 Burns, the greatest poet, in my judgment, who 
 ever lived. I knew his faults, if faults they 
 were, but, before God, I knew his temptations 
 as well, and can speak with greatest thankful 
 ness of one he put behind him. 
 
 Pastor Muirkirk, of the New Light, in one 
 of his more relaxed moments, said to me : 
 
 " The Lord cast seven devils out of the man 
 in the scriptures because his nature was big 
 enough to hold seven devils. Most of us, lad 
 die," he went on, " are not big enough to hold 
 half a devil," which explains the thought I have 
 of Burns to a nicety, for it was surely the very 
 bigness of his nature, the instant sympathy 
 with all who lived, which brought many of the 
 troubles to him for which he has been greatly 
 blamed. But this can be said of him: that no 
 man I ever knew, from the highest lord in the 
 land down, presented himself to the world in a 
 saner or more balanced manner. I have known 
 him to breakfast with tramps at an ale-house 
 in the morning, walk arm in arm with a duke 
 12 [ 163 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XII 
 
 down High Street in the afternoon, and leave 
 him perchance to dine with some poor country 
 acquaintance up from Ayr for a day s buying. 
 
 It was after Creech and his friend had left 
 us that Burns turned toward me. 
 
 " There is a matter upon which I am unde 
 cided whether it is good taste for me to speak 
 to you, Lord Stair," he said, " but there is such 
 sincerity of admiration at the root of it that 
 ye ll can just be forgiving me if I trespass on 
 your sense of the proprieties. Tis of your 
 daughter, Mistress Stair. I was carried off my 
 feet by her singing at the charity ball, and the 
 verses she writes are as unstudied as the song 
 of a lark. But she will never write a poem that 
 is so great as herself. All her accomplishments 
 seem to me but a set of warbles or trills to the 
 true song of her great womanhood. Where 
 she is, " he quoted prettily, " man will be more 
 than his wont, because of her belief. " 
 
 And at these words my resolutions were 
 clean forgotten in my pride in his praises of 
 her. 
 
 " She wants to know you, Mr. Burns. Your 
 book is by her day and night," I cried, at which 
 he looked flattered, but said he was for Ayr that 
 [164] 
 
CHAP. XII NANCY STAIR 
 
 afternoon, and the pleasure of an acquaintance 
 with her must be put by until some later date. 
 
 I told him at this that a friend had invited 
 us down to his part of the country for the fair, 
 where we might meet again, on which he took 
 a slip from his pocket, putting his Edinburgh 
 address on one side of it, like this : 
 
 "It is in the house of Mrs. Carfrae, Baxter Close, Town 
 market : first scale-stair on the left hand going down ; first 
 door on the stair," 
 
 and on the other: 
 
 " To Mistress Nancy, Mistress Stair, 
 At Mauchline race or Mauchline fair, 
 I shall be glad to meet you there. 
 We ll give one night s discharge to care, 
 
 If we forgither, 
 And have * a-swap-of -rhyming- ware, 
 
 With ane anither." 
 
 And it was this " swap o rhyming ware " which 
 brought about the tragedy toward which I draw. 
 
 [165] 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE DUKE VISITS STAIR FOE THE FIRST TIME 
 
 ON my return to Stair I found Nancy on 
 the south steps with a letter in her hand. In 
 her white frock, with her hair bobbing in a 
 bunch of curls on the top of her head, she 
 looked scarce older than the day I had found 
 her there " making verses " years agone. 
 
 " You went away," she said, with reproach 
 in her tone. 
 
 " Guess whom I fell in with," I answered. 
 
 She hesitated a minute. 
 
 " Robin," said I. 
 
 " Robin who I " she inquired. 
 
 "Who but Robin Burns!" 
 
 " Oh, did ye? " she cried, her face aglow on 
 the instant; "did ye, Jock! Why didn t ye 
 bring him back with ye? " 
 
 " He s for Ayr this afternoon," I answered ; 
 " but he sent a word to ye," and I gave her the 
 card in Burns own hand. 
 [166] 
 
CHAP. XIII NANCY STATE 
 
 " That s funny," she said, putting it in the 
 bosom of her gown, and she went on after a bit 
 of musing, " if he swap his rhyming ware for 
 mine it will be a losing bargain for him." 
 
 Before I had time to answer, Dandy Car- 
 michael came in view with a troop of dogs at 
 his heels, and at sight of him I recalled an ar 
 rangement made the evening before to have a 
 tea drinking on the lawn, and that he was bid 
 den to luncheon to help with the cards of 
 invitation. 
 
 The rest of the day was spent with pen and 
 ink and address books, and this jostle of cir 
 cumstance put the Burns meeting out of my 
 mind entirely, nor did I mention it to Danvers 
 one way or another, which turned out to be a 
 more unfortunate occurrence than I can tell. 
 
 On the day set for the festivity Danvers 
 came early, with the Arran grooms behind him 
 carrying flowers from the conservatories for 
 the decoration of the great hall, and all of the 
 morning the house was filled with gay young 
 voices and merry preparations for the enter 
 tainment of friends. Stands of scarlet droop- 
 ers were set on the porch, the hot-house flowers 
 being placed against the tapestry and the old 
 [167] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIII 
 
 armor; bowls of drink were brewed and set to 
 cool, and two o clock found Dame Dickenson in 
 sober black silk, with a canny eye for the re 
 freshments, and myself in black as well, and a 
 state of what might be described as pleasurable 
 anxiety. 
 
 Dandy s last words to Nancy before leaving 
 to bring the Erskines back with him were these : 
 "You are to look your very best; I desire the 
 Hon. Mrs. Erskine struck mute with admira 
 tion," and when she came down the stairs I 
 could but think that she had taken his counsel 
 to heart, whether because she was to meet " her 
 rival," as she laughingly called Isabel Erskine, 
 or by reason of the expected presence of his 
 Grace of Borthwicke, I was far from deciding. 
 
 She wore a huge black hat and a black lace 
 gown, with a kerchief tied in front and falling 
 near to the ground. Her gloves were black as 
 well, coming almost to the shoulder, her only 
 touch of color being a cluster of roses in the 
 knot of lace upon her bosom. 
 
 " How handsome you are, Jock Stair," she 
 said, coming toward me. " How handsome you 
 are! I did well when I selected you for a 
 father," she finished with a laugh. 
 [168] 
 
CHAP. XIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 The Arran party were among the first to 
 arrive, and in spite of the restless character of 
 the entertainment I found time for a short talk 
 with Isabel Erskine, a modishly attired, fair 
 girl, with round blue eyes and many meaning 
 less phrases, for which I saw no necessity. She 
 had one sincere emotion in her life, however; 
 one which she took small pains to conceal, and 
 this was an infatuation for Danvers Carmi- 
 chael. 
 
 It was he who presented the two young 
 women to each other, and I noted with pride 
 the bearing of my daughter at this meeting, for 
 she was genuinely glad to meet Miss Erskine, 
 and with much gentleness and gravity explained 
 the reasons which had prevented her from com 
 ing over the day before to pay her respects. 
 Isabel, who was not at her ease, responded that 
 Danvers had told them how busy every one was 
 at Stair, and that the omission of a visit on 
 Nancy s part was, under the circumstances, but 
 natural. 
 
 That Isabel Erskine did not like Nancy I 
 
 knew on the instant I saw them together, and 
 
 that Nancy was unaware of it, and would have 
 
 cared nothing about her dislike had she known 
 
 [169] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIII 
 
 of it, was a thing of which I was equally 
 certain. 
 
 The pretty picture of the gaily gowned 
 ladies with their furbelows and parasols in 
 shifting groups under the beeches, the sunlight 
 falling through the leaves in broken golden 
 shapes upon the shining silks and satins of the 
 dresses, the merry chatter of the younger folk 
 and the more demure coquetry of the older 
 ones, are still a pleasant picture in my memory 
 of that far-by day. 
 
 Upon a demand from some of the guests to 
 see the " lace school," and the labor teaching as 
 well, Danvers took it on himself to act as con 
 ductor of these merry inquisitive parties, and 
 the wonder and interest of the ladies in the 
 school was remarkable to see; and I recall now 
 that Mrs. Opie made her first visit to the burn 
 that afternoon, and within a month had planned 
 her written work concerning it. 
 
 It was nearly four before the Duke of 
 Borthwicke arrived, Hugh Pitcairn and Sir Pat 
 rick Sullivan coming with him, unannounced, 
 through the west entrance. 
 
 His grace looked younger than he did at the 
 time of our last meeting ; but his eyes were the 
 [170] 
 
CHAP. XIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 same; misty, unholy, and bland. He wore gray 
 cloth of the same accented plainness,, and from 
 the time of his entrance stood with his head un 
 covered in an attitude of great deference to the 
 women-folk; a bearing which accorded poorly 
 with the tales afloat concerning the manner of 
 his private life. 
 
 To us, who for the most part knew London 
 but by name, the bearing of this celebrated per 
 sonage was a matter for interest and study, 
 and if it were in my power to set him forth 
 as he showed himself to us that day there 
 would be none of fair judgment who could 
 blame Nancy for her conduct toward him after 
 word. I can affirm that never from the moment 
 that his eyes fell on her did he remove them 
 from her face. He was accosted by several 
 gentlemen in his progress toward us, but it 
 was with a fixed glance of absorbed admira 
 tion of her that he answered them, curtly, as 
 I thought, and as one who brooks no interrup 
 tion. 
 
 Crossing the space toward us he came alone, 
 the forward poise of the body, and more than 
 all the power of his head and chest, fixing the 
 idea I already had of a splendid kind of devil 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIII 
 
 who would make ill-fortune for any who 
 crossed him. 
 
 "It is a great pleasure to see you again," 
 he said, bowing low before Nancy. 
 
 " You have been away a long time," she an 
 swered. 
 
 " The longest month that I have ever spent," 
 he returned. 
 
 " The Highlands were not merry? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " I had no heart for them." 
 
 " No? " she said. " I am sorry." 
 
 " I should rather, were it mine to choose, 
 that you were glad to have me find them dull," 
 he answered. 
 
 "Would that be quite friendly?" she in 
 quired, with a smile of intentional misunder 
 standing. 
 
 " I am scarce asking for friendship," he re 
 turned, and there was no mistaking the intent 
 of either word or eye. 
 
 "By the way," he continued, "I have rid 
 den half over Scotland and laid by four horses 
 to be here this afternoon ; for which," he added, 
 with the little outward wave of his hand which 
 became him so well, " I am claiming no merit ; 
 [172] 
 
CHAP. XIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 for is there a man who knows you who would 
 have done otherwise? " 
 
 A look passed between them, a look which 
 I was at a complete loss to understand, as she 
 answered, with a laugh: 
 
 "I think Mr. Pitcairn might successfully 
 have struggled with the temptation of laming 
 horses to see me." 
 
 " But," the duke retorted, " as you told me 
 yourself on that memorable night we first met, 
 Pitcairn s not rightly a man ; he s just a 
 head. " 
 
 " In many ways," responded Nancy, and her 
 eyelids drooped at her own audacity, " in many 
 ways he reminds me of you, your grace ! " 
 
 The duke smiled back at her with a little 
 drawing together of the eyelids, which I had 
 learned to know so well. 
 
 "I have," he said, "nearly a fortnight to 
 spend in Edinburgh, in which I shall make it 
 the effort of my life to show you the difference 
 between us." 
 
 [173] 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 NANCY MEETS HER RIVAL 
 
 IT was the morning after the outdoor party 
 that Danvers came into the breakfast-room with 
 a pleasant excitement showing in his face. 
 
 " IVe a present for you," he said, going over 
 to Nancy, who had not left the table, 
 
 " For me? " she asked. 
 
 "For you though I m far from sure that 
 you deserve it, for if there s a man in Edin 
 burgh this morning whom ye haven t in love 
 with ye, he s blind. However," he laughed, 
 " we ll waive that," and he took a box from his 
 pocket and held it above his head. 
 
 " Will ye kiss me for it? " he cried. 
 
 " I will not," said she decisively. 
 
 " Then you sha n t have it," he said with 
 great determination, moving as though to put 
 it in his pocket. 
 
 "I ll go and write some letters, then," she 
 remarked calmly, starting toward the door. 
 [174] 
 
CHAP. XIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 Afraid of losing her society for the morn 
 ing, mayhap, he put the box on the table and 
 pushed it toward her. 
 
 It was a small silver case, strong and firm, 
 with a smaller box of white velvet inside, in 
 which lay a ruby ring a gem for which men 
 commit crimes and women sin; a gorgeous, 
 sparkling, rosy stone, sending rainbow spots 
 upon the wall, and rendering Nancy radiant and 
 speechless as she slipped it on her finger. 
 
 "Is it for me, Dand? " she asked, almost in 
 a whisper. 
 
 "For whom else would it be, Little Girl?" 
 he answered, and the delight he had in her 
 pleasure was a beautiful and husband-like thing 
 to see. 
 
 "But why!" she asked. "Can I take it 
 from him, Jock Stair 1 " she said, turning to me 
 suddenly. 
 
 " A woman can surely take a gift from her 
 future husband with no impropriety," I an 
 swered. 
 
 " That s true," she said ; " but you see there 
 
 is no betrothal between us, and at the year s 
 
 end I might have to send it back for some other 
 
 woman to wear, which would go far toward 
 
 F 175] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XlV 
 
 bringing me to my grave. I am afraid I can t 
 take it yet, Danvers." 
 
 " Wear it," he answers. " If ye can t wear 
 it as my betrothed wife, wear it in sign that I 
 love you. Lord Stair hears that I hold it as 
 token of nothing save my own love for you. 
 If it gives you pleasure, Nancy, it s all I ask." 
 At which she did the thing least expected of 
 her by putting her head suddenly down on her 
 hands and bursting into a flood of tears. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, " these things are just 
 putting me out of my mind. I wish I was in 
 Heaven, where there is no marrying or giving 
 in marriage ! " 
 
 There was one point gained, however, for 
 she wore the ring; and with it upon her finger 
 Danvers could never be kept long from her 
 thoughts. 
 
 At luncheon of this same day, old Janet 
 McGillavorich, from Mauchline, whom Nancy 
 ranked the chiefest of all her female friends, 
 surprised us by a visit. She was a far-removed 
 cousin of Sandy s, who was constantly back and 
 forth between her own home and Edinburgh by 
 reason of her everlasting lawing. 
 
 It seems that her father had left her some 
 [176] 
 
CHAP. XIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 property, and by the advices of Hugh Pitcairn 
 she had turned this to great advantage, owning 
 bits of land all over Scotland, from Solway side 
 to John o Groats. 
 
 She was a masculine-looking female, with 
 hair of no particular shade parted over a face 
 very red in color, and with high cheekbones and 
 small gray eyes set at an angle like the Chinese 
 folks. She was above sixty years of age at this 
 time, with a terrible honesty of conduct, great 
 violence of language, and carried things with a 
 high hand wherever she went. 
 
 Having heard of Nancy from Hugh Pit- 
 cairn four or five years before this, she had de 
 manded to make her acquaintance, upon which 
 Hugh fetched her over to tea one afternoon, 
 and from that time forth she bore an unending 
 grudge against me, that Nancy was not her own. 
 
 " And so ye write," she had asked at this 
 first interview ; "I never read anything ye 
 wrote, but I m glad to meet in with any woman 
 who has an aim beyond suckling fools and 
 chronicling small-beer. But ye must be careful 
 what ye write, my dear," she went on, " or ye ll 
 have the whole female population of Scotland 
 clattering after ye. Be orthodox, and never 
 [177] 
 
NANCY STAIK CHAP. XIV 
 
 trifle with tales concerning the seventh com 
 mand. Stick to rhymes like fountain and moun 
 tain and airy and fairy/ and such like things ; 
 for ye ll find that the women who tell tales that 
 would make ye blush, who lead dissolute, un 
 thinking lives, who deceive their husbands, and 
 smell themselves up with Lily-of-the- Valley-wa 
 ter when they go to the kirk, will be the hardest 
 upon ye if ye stray from any accepted thought. 
 They require the correctest thinking in print 
 ye know ! " 
 
 I never saw Nancy more pleased with ary 
 human being than with this fire-eating old lady ; 
 and when Janet finished her discourse by the 
 statement, " God be praised ! I never read 
 poetry. Shakespeare sickened me of that. 
 This thing of not saying right out what you 
 mean turns my stomach. Padding out some 
 lines to make them a bit longer, and chopping 
 off ends of words to make others shorter, ought 
 to be beneath any reasoning creature." Nancy 
 put her head on the table and laughed until I 
 was afraid she would make herself ill. 
 
 It was after the luncheon, while Janet was 
 still with us, that the Hon. Mrs. Erskine and 
 her daughter came to pay us a visit of congrat- 
 [178] 
 
CHAP. XIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 illation on the success of our entertainment. 
 Danvers had gone off to walk, and so it fell 
 upon the three of us to receive these visitors 
 in the music-room, where we were having 
 tea. 
 
 The elder lady, whom Sandy insisted had 
 come to Edinburgh to marry me, was an inten 
 tional female, with much hair, much rouge, and 
 a pallor heightened by rice-powder, which gave 
 her a very floury and unclean appearance. Her 
 eyes were an indescribable color, resembling the 
 pulp of a grape, and near-set, a thing which I 
 have never been able to abide in man, woman, 
 or child. Her nose was long and peaked, and 
 her mouth dropped at the corners. But it was 
 the strange set of her whole figure which struck 
 my notice again and again. For she was, to 
 use a lumbering expression, all in front of her 
 spine, with neither backward curve to her head, 
 nor her shoulders nor hips, which gave her a 
 peculiarly unpliable appearance. Her voice 
 was high and of a singular penetrating quality, 
 and she had an over-civil manner to us, as of 
 one who has something to gain. Her gown, of 
 blue, had many strange kinds of trimming 
 which seemed both needless and inexpressive, 
 13 [179] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. llV 
 
 and what with the rouge and the chains and 
 hangings around her neck, she reminded me of 
 nothing so much as a grotesque figure for a 
 Christmas-tree decoration. 
 
 When it be added to all of this that she had 
 a fearful habit of emphasizing certain words in 
 a senseless and flippant style, and of waving a 
 lace kerchief constantly, after the manner of a 
 flag, it may be imagined with what joy I rel 
 ished her society. 
 
 " Ah ! " she said, " you are alone after the 
 party. What a success it was ! A positive tri 
 umph, positive! Isabel and I had been told 
 how delightful Edinburgh society was, but we 
 were not prepared for the gaiety we found. It 
 was charming! Positively charming! And 
 how beautiful you looked, my dear," she went 
 on, turning to Nancy. " Of course we d heard 
 of you every one in any society at all has 
 heard of you, you know; but youVe such style, 
 my dear positively the belle-air, positively! 
 
 " I know you re pleased to hear how your 
 daughter is adored, aren t you, Lord Stair? 
 It s what I say to the dear duchess (the Duchess 
 of Mont Flathers, you know we re just like 
 sisters!). Maria, I say to her, of course I 
 [180] 
 
CHAP. XIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 am pleased to have Isabel the rage, as she is 
 it s only natural, she being my daughter, that 
 I should feel so. I am enchanted at all the 
 attention she receives, and at the way men rave 
 over her. It s a mother s feeling. One night, 
 I recall, when Danvers Carmichael had posi 
 tively compromised Isabel by his attentions, for 
 he s always after her, the dear duchess said 
 to me: 
 
 " l Anne, this is going too far ! And I said : 
 
 " Dearest, it may be ; but I have no heart 
 to stop them. They both look so happy. And 
 the duchess replied: 
 
 " Anne, your feelings do you credit ; and I 
 think it s so sweet and womanly to be so honest 
 about it. 
 
 " We naturally like to have our children 
 beloved, I answered, stiffly. 
 
 "That s just what I say all of the time!" 
 she went on, as though some one might stop her 
 by a speech of his own. " Just what I say, Lord 
 Stair; both to Alexander Carmichael and his 
 son. How beautiful, how very beautiful the 
 friendship between you is. And between your 
 children as well! Danvers is quite like a 
 brother to your daughter, isn t he? 
 [181] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. 
 
 " I really believe now don t contradict me," 
 she said, waving her handkerchief at her daugh 
 ter. "I really believe that Isabel was inclined 
 to be jealous yesterday. Danvers has always 
 been so devoted to her always, since she was 
 quite a little, little girl; and I am afraid just 
 a tiny morsel afraid that it was hard for her 
 to share him. 
 
 " Not that you were to blame, dearest," she 
 said, turning to Nancy, " not the very least bit 
 in the world. It was quite plain who claimed 
 your time! Quite plain! His Grace of Borth- 
 wicke is positively the most fascinating creature 
 I ever saw positively. We never can get him 
 in London at all; so I never took my eyes from 
 him; and all the town bowing before him and 
 he absolutely on his knees before you, my dear ! 
 Absolutely ! 
 
 " Pardon me for mentioning it forgive me, 
 won t you? but what a beautiful, exquisite 
 ring! Look, Isabel! Quite like an engage 
 ment ring. Now could it I wonder could it," 
 peering at it and then at Nancy through her 
 glasses Nancy, whose eyes had the significant 
 darkness in them which I have mentioned so 
 often. 
 
 [182] 
 
CHAP. XIV NANCY STAIE 
 
 "It is not an engagement ring," she an 
 swered quietly. 
 
 And here Janet, who had watched the Hon. 
 Mrs. Erskine in much the same manner as she 
 would have regarded a foolish old cat, came 
 into the talk. 
 
 " Since you think so highly of Danvers, 
 Mrs. Erskine, ye must say a good word for him 
 to Nancy Stair. He s my choice for her to 
 marry," she said, looking around with a bland 
 smile. 
 
 "And does he want to marry her?" Mrs. 
 Erskine asked, abashed by this directness. 
 
 " He told me that he had asked her three 
 times a day ever since they met, and I, for one, 
 hope that she ll think twenty times of him to 
 once she thinks of that devilish John Montrose." 
 
 I cared nothing for the silly old Mrs. Ers 
 kine, but my heart bled for her daughter, who 
 became a piteous white at the turn the talk had 
 taken, and put her handkerchief to her face, 
 affecting a cough. Nancy saw this and her 
 heart spoke. 
 
 "Dandy Carmichael," she says, "talks to 
 you, Mrs. MacGillavorich, to please ye you 
 lay too much stress by what he says." 
 [183] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIV 
 
 But the italicizing lady was routed, and as 
 Janet watched her departure from the window 
 she said: 
 
 " Mark my words, John Stair ! she s fetched 
 that girl here to marry her to Danvers Car- 
 michael. I ve not known Anne Erskine all 
 these years for nothing. The old cat ! " she 
 cried. 
 
 [1843 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 CONCERNING DANVERS CARMICHAEL AND HIS 
 GRACE OF BORTHWICKE 
 
 IT was from the time of the garden party 
 on that Danvers Carmichael and his Grace of 
 Borthwicke were, to speak mdely, walking into 
 each other at every turn of Stair, and it is a 
 task beyond me to tell the strain which came 
 into our affairs with the entrance of Mon- 
 trose. 
 
 Subtle, subtle, subtle! It was the word 
 which followed him everywhere, and it was as 
 difficult to manage him as to handle quicksilver. 
 He flattered with a contradiction; saw nothing 
 unmeant for him to see; bent to the judgment 
 of him with whom he talked; was supple in 
 speech; modest, even to the point of regarding 
 himself as a somewhat humorous failure; told 
 long stories with something of a stagelike jaun- 
 tiness, of fights in his boyhood, in India, in the 
 [185] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 House of Lords and by his own telling was 
 ever the one worsted, the one upon whom the 
 laugh had turned. 
 
 For myself, I confessed openly then, as I 
 do now, that I found him the most diverting 
 person I have ever met, and took such pleasure 
 in his company that upon me should rest much 
 of the dirdum of having him at Stair. 
 
 There were two things, however, which an 
 noyed me no little concerning his frequent visits 
 to my home. The first of these was the attitude 
 toward him of Father Michel. I was coming out 
 of the new chapel with his grace one morning 
 when we encountered the good father, and I 
 was struck with amazement to see the duke 
 grow suddenly white and give a start backward, 
 with a quick indrawing of the breath which 
 made a choking sound in his throat, and that 
 Father Michel on the instant seemed as a stone 
 man, save for the eyes, which, if I were any 
 thing of an interpreter, showed a live hate and 
 an old-time grudge. During this meeting, 
 which was brief to abruptness, Father Michel 
 spoke no word, but bowed low at the first silence 
 which fell between us, taking his way down the 
 braeside upon such business as he had in hand, 
 [186] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STATE 
 
 and no questions were asked after his departure 
 concerning either his origin or his labors, for 
 the duke was ever one who knew the protective 
 power of silence. 
 
 After this encounter between them I played 
 a clumsy detective in proving that the two 
 avoided each other and that there had been 
 some interwovenness of interests in the past. 
 Several times when I asked Father Michel to 
 join us at table he gave me flimsy excuses, and 
 once the duke pleaded indisposition when I 
 proposed that he should accompany Father 
 Michel on an inspection of some stained glass 
 which Nancy was having put in the altar win 
 dows of the new chapel. 
 
 In many ways, therefore, I became fixed in 
 a belief that there was hatred in Father Michel 
 for John Montrose, and a distaste for the good 
 father in the Duke of Borthwicke, such as a 
 man might cherish against one whom he has 
 greatly wronged. 
 
 The second trouble, however, was more 
 acute, for it involved the duke s treatment of 
 Dandy Carmichael. While we were of a party 
 Montrose was civil enough, but when the two 
 of them were thrown together the duke would 
 [187] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 relapse into an insulting silence, such as one 
 carries in the presence of servants; would re 
 quire to be spoken to twice before answering a 
 question, as though his thoughts were far away ; 
 would even hum to himself as though entirely 
 alone; or put the cap to his insolence by taking 
 a book from his pocket and reading, sometimes 
 even marking the rhythm of a verse aloud. So 
 from day to day there was growing a hatred for 
 the duke in Danvers by reason of his jealousy 
 and the accumulative discourtesy which he was 
 obliged to endure. 
 
 As for Nancy s conduct to the two of them, 
 if it seemed strange to me, who was her father, 
 it was but natural that it should require some 
 explanation to those less partial to her, and she 
 had the whole town talking over which was the 
 favored suitor. She rode with his grace in the 
 morning, played at billiards with Danvers in 
 the afternoon, perhaps to be off in the evening 
 with McMurtree of Ainswere, who was maudlin 
 in his infatuation for her and whom she pro 
 nounced the best dancer out of France. 
 
 There were seasons when I could have 
 sworn that she had no thought save for Dan 
 vers. I have known her to watch for his com- 
 [188] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 ing, to grow restless if his visits were a bit later 
 than expected, to regard him with happy and 
 glowing eyes, and to rest in his presence in a 
 way that flattered him and drew him to her with 
 such a passion of love showing in his fine face 
 that I had joy in the mere sight of him. But 
 these times would pass, and mayhap in a week 
 or less she would be at the Latinity with the 
 duke, heated in her enthusiasm for him, encour 
 aging him in his tale-telling, with gleaming eyes 
 and audacious rejoinders. At these times Dandy 
 fell back for company upon his cousin Isabel, 
 and I have met them frequently riding or 
 driving together, she with a happy, radiant 
 face, and he with the brooding devil in his eye 
 and a sullen look in the smile with which he 
 greeted me. 
 
 In his frequent absences from Edinburgh 
 the duke never allowed Nancy s thoughts to 
 wander from him long. A book by special 
 post, an exquisite volume of Fergusson, hand 
 printed, some foreign posies in a pot, an invi 
 tation to come with a party of his English 
 friends to the Highlands, and he added: 
 
 " I am sending the list of the guests to your 
 Royal Highness, and if there be some who are 
 [189] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 not to your liking, I pray you cross them 
 off. Following here," he went on, " the cus 
 tom usual when one invites Royalty to one s 
 home," playing all the moves which a man 
 knows who has wooed and won many times, but, 
 as it seemed to me, with a real feeling in the 
 game. 
 
 At this sort of thing Dandy was a poor 
 rival by reason of his pride, and matters were 
 at something like a gloomy standstill between 
 him and Nancy when I called Sandy into con 
 sultation. 
 
 " Tragedy will come of it," I cried at 
 length ; " but by my hope of Heaven I know no 
 way to handle the affair. Deny the duke the 
 house, and what have ye done to a girl of 
 spirit? Urged her into his arms, and nothing 
 else " 
 
 Sandy s talk was all on Nancy s side, how 
 ever, which made the situation a bit easier 
 for me. 
 
 " You see, it s thiswise with most women," 
 said he. " Give them a husband to dandle them, 
 and some children for them to dandle them 
 selves, and a house to potter round, with some 
 baubles to wear when they re young, and some 
 [190] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 money in the bank when they re old, and they 
 go along with small agitation of mind until the 
 grave. Not that I m discounting their value. 
 They re a good conservative element to society, 
 and God intended them for the reproduction of 
 the race, and perhaps they re kept stupid in 
 their minds so that they will not rebel against 
 their manifest destiny. 
 
 " It s not like this with Mistress Stair! For 
 she has a grasp of things, and the fearlessness 
 of an unbroken colt, and a mind for the big 
 thoughts of life, and you and I have led her 
 forward in her conduct. 
 
 " In the matter of Danvers she is following 
 out the strongest law that we know. Tis the 
 natural attraction of the sexes of the young 
 for the young ; but her mind calls for something 
 besides. And tis here the duke appeals to her 
 more. Aye ! it s all a difficult business," he con 
 cluded, " and fate will have to settle it after all, 
 as I ve said many a time." 
 
 One day when the Little Flower was by me 
 with her sewing I put the matter to her with 
 what deftness I could. Her answers were brief, 
 but directly aimed at the text. She said in 
 effect that marriage was a serious affair, and 
 [ 191 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 that she had been bred up with so much liberty 
 that it made the embarking on such an expedi 
 tion more perilous to her than to most women. 
 She also set forth that in nearly every other 
 enterprise in life one might take a preliminary 
 jaunt, and finding the business little to one s 
 liking, might give it over and start without 
 prejudice in some other. 
 
 " In this one affair alone," she ended, " the 
 one of most moment in all of our existence, 
 there is no retracing one s steps with honor if 
 it be found that one has taken the wrong road." 
 
 For these reasons she averred it her privi 
 lege to look around her with all the intelligence 
 she had in order to make no mistake, both for 
 herself and her future husband. 
 
 " For I m thinking, 5 she said, " there would 
 be trouble afoot if I found, after marriage, the 
 love of which I am capable given over to a man 
 who was not my husband. 
 
 " Besides which," she laughed, " I m not 
 certain whom I am going to marry. There s 
 Robert Burns, now," she cried. " How would 
 you like to have a plowman for a son-in-law, 
 Jock Stair, my daddy Of" and she started off 
 to the Burnside, singing as she went; which was 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 all I could get from her on the subject, one way 
 or another. 
 
 It was near the end of September that there 
 began the serious trouble between the duke and 
 Danvers. I was come around from Zachary 
 Twombly s mill, where I had been to pay the hop- 
 pickers, riding alone through the Dead Man s 
 Holm, intending to enter the garden by the 
 break in the south wall. Doubts of the wisdom 
 of the way this child of mine had been reared 
 were going over and over in my mind. I had 
 indeed aimed to make her the finely elemental 
 thing which I conceived a real woman to be; 
 but I found with some perturbation of spirit 
 that the plan would have served better for the 
 general happiness if the men with whom she 
 had to deal had been less accustomed to the 
 conventional woman. They were forever draw 
 ing conclusions from her actions which would 
 have held with sound logic had they been ap 
 plied to any other woman, but with Nancy they 
 were frequently as little to the point as if they 
 had been drawn from the conduct of a Chinese 
 lady. 
 
 Thinking these things over, I came by the 
 group of pear-trees, at which point I heard 
 [193] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 voices on the other side of the wall, and raising 
 myself in the stirrups looked over into the 
 garden. 
 
 It was a sunny, warm corner, and a low 
 table, with some chairs, had been placed there, 
 together with a basket of lace-work which 
 Nancy had evidently been overlooking. She 
 was not to be seen, however, although her flow 
 ered hat hung on the back of a chair near by. 
 
 Sitting before the table was Danvers Car- 
 michael, the cards spread before him, making 
 a solitaire, and at a little distance, holding the 
 bridle of his gray horse, stood the Duke of 
 Borthwicke, who, I judge, had interrupted by 
 his entrance a morning talk between Danvers 
 and Nancy. There was a peculiar gleam in the 
 eyes of Montrose, and a jaunty self-possession 
 which became him well, as he stood and looked 
 down at the man whose temper he had surely 
 tried to the breaking point. 
 
 " Tis a lonesome game you play, Mr. Car- 
 michael," he said, with a significance in his 
 tone which the printed words can not convey. 
 
 " There are times when I prefer lonesome- 
 ness to the only company available," Danvers 
 returned, and he raised his eyes from the 
 [194] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 cards and looked Montrose full in the eye as 
 he said it. 
 
 "Ah," the duke murmured, and there was 
 a shadow of a smile around his lips, " tis for 
 tunate to be so pliahle. For myself I prefer to 
 play a game with a partner. In fact, the soli 
 tariness of my life has been such that I have 
 thought to change it. To be frank with you, I 
 am thinking of marriage." 
 
 " The Three Kingdoms will be interested," 
 Danvers returned suavely. 
 
 Again the duke smiled. "You compliment 
 me," he said, with a bow. " It all depends on 
 the lady now. There is for me no longer any 
 power of choice; for I think none could see her 
 but to love her," and here he raised his hat 
 with something of a theater s gallantry. " It is 
 Mistress Stair, of course, of whom I speak." 
 
 Dandy Carmichael was on his feet in a 
 minute. 
 
 " It is but fair to you, your Grace of Borth- 
 wicke, to tell you that Mistress Nancy Stair is 
 already bespoken." 
 
 " Indeed? " said the duke. " And whom shall 
 I believe? The lady herself denies it." 
 
 " She has promised that if she sees none 
 
 !* 195 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 within the year whom she likes better she will 
 be my wife." 
 
 " Ah," returned the duke, and again there 
 was a smile. " Am I to gather, then, that Mr. 
 Carmichael considers himself so attractive that 
 he believes it impossible the lady should find, 
 in a whole year, one whom she could prefer? " 
 
 There was in the tone that which no man of 
 spirit could have borne, least of all Danvers 
 Carmichael, who knew that for two months the 
 path of the duke had been leading up to this, 
 and there was no hesitation in him. He held 
 several of the unplayed cards in his hand 
 and he struck the duke across the mouth with 
 them. 
 
 " Since you are wanting a quarrel, I ll give 
 you cause for one," he said, and I joyed to hear 
 him say it. 
 
 Borthwicke took his kerchief from his pocket 
 and drew it across his lips. 
 
 " My friends will wait upon you," he said. 
 
 " They will be welcomed," Danvers an 
 swered, and as the words were spoken I saw 
 Nancy come from the porch door holding a 
 book in her hand, and I rode hastily to the 
 main entrance rather than to place further pres- 
 [196] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 ent embarrassment upon them by having them 
 fear that I had overheard the quarrel between 
 them. 
 
 If the duke showed any change whatever in 
 his manner of greeting me it was to appear a 
 bit more frank and careless than ordinary, his 
 voice a trifle smoother, and his countenance 
 more open than I had ever noted it before. He 
 asked me to ride to town with him to look at 
 some old prints which he was for purchasing, 
 and, as we rode off together, turned toward me 
 as a schoolboy might have done, inquiring : 
 
 "Did you ever have an old song go over 
 and over in your head, without rhyme or reason, 
 Lord Stair? " 
 
 " Many s the time," I answered. 
 
 "This morning," he continued, "I woke 
 with one of these attacks, which are o er fre 
 quent with me, and a bit of a rhyme of one 
 of my father s serving-men has been ranting 
 through my brain all the day," and here he 
 broke forth and sang: 
 
 " I hae been a devil the most of life, 
 
 O, but the rue grows bonny wi thyme, 
 But I ne er was in hell till I met wi my wife, 
 And the thyme it is withered and rue is in prime." 
 
 [197] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. 
 
 " Tis an up-country tune," I answered in 
 words, but my thought was one of wonderment 
 that a man who had just planned and set on 
 foot the taking of another s life should be so 
 gay and could talk so interestedly on trivial 
 affairs. 
 
 Whatever other faults may be mine, indi 
 rectness of speech nor a slothful gait when 
 something has to be done were never accredited 
 to me, and I determined to let the duke know 
 exactly what I had heard, as well as my opinion 
 of him in the business which he had stirred up. 
 Turning toward him, with no introduction to 
 the matter whatever, I said : 
 
 " Your grace, I am a man old enough to be 
 your father; something of a philosopher and a 
 dreamer, who has let the current of this world s 
 affairs swim by him unnoted for many years 
 another, more dependent on present issues, 
 might hesitate to speak to a man of such power 
 as yourself in the manner which I have planned 
 to do; but I would forever lose my own self- 
 respect, which I state honestly is of far greater 
 value to me than any opinion which you or an 
 other may have of me, if at this time I failed 
 to be open with you. I was an unintentional 
 [198] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 observer of the scene which just occurred be 
 tween you and Mr. Carmichael one in which, 
 to my thinking, you showed to monstrous poor 
 advantage." 
 
 If he had denied, or stormed, or affected a 
 hurt honor at the words, they would have but 
 fallen in with the idea I had of him. He did 
 none of these; but, turning, said to me openly 
 and as one in no wise affronted: 
 
 " I hate the man for the best reason on earth, 
 Lord Stair." 
 
 " And is it your way to try to kill all you 
 hate?" 
 
 " Oh, no," he answered, " it is not often 
 necessary." 
 
 I can not set down the ease with which he 
 spoke, for it seemed to me that I was listen 
 ing to some theatric person behind the foot 
 lights making a speech to the pit rather than 
 to a man who was as earnest as a man could 
 well be. 
 
 " The truth at the root of the whole trouble 
 is that Mr. Carmichael and I have the misfor 
 tune to love the same woman. 
 
 " I have wanted for some time to have a 
 private talk with you, Lord Stair," he con- 
 [199] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 tinned. " If your time is at your command, will 
 you do me the honor to have a bottle of wine 
 with me at the Red Cock, where we can talk 
 with something more of ease? " 
 
 Ten minutes from that we were seated by a 
 window of the inn, the duke on one side of a 
 table with a bottle of his own, I on the other 
 with a bottle of mine, while he, with a frankness 
 impossible to a less gifted person, was dazzling 
 me by his wisdom and his wickedness. 
 
 I wish it were possible for me to put down 
 the gesture, the grace of language, the lightness 
 of touch, the deliberate choice of one word over 
 another, with which this talk was flowered; but 
 I can, at least, state that it had to me a living 
 kind of deviltry in it that raised me out of my 
 surroundings, as a play or great music might 
 have done, or the clash of some great event. 
 
 " I was a poor boy," the duke began, " at 
 fourteen, a poor Highland body with estates in 
 a begging condition, and a sickly frame a stoop 
 and haggled lungs, but something, something 
 within me that would not down, that would 
 accept no defeat. I made this body of mine 
 over. I trained myself until I could endure 
 hardship like the Indians and bear pain like a 
 [2OO] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIE 
 
 stoic. It took four years of my life for this, 
 and it was upon its completion that I began to 
 mend the fortunes of the family. I looked out 
 into the world with more cynical eyes than 
 generally do the observing boys of my age, and 
 found self-interest to be the lever which moves 
 the human thing we call man. Man! " he cried, 
 with a laugh. " Lord ! there aren t ten men in 
 England to-day, or do you think I would be 
 where I am? There was shamelessness, even a 
 touch of villainy in my creed; but it was, after 
 all, admirably adapted to the folk with whom 
 I had to deal. But with my fortune and my in 
 crease of power my ambition rose higher and 
 higher. I could handle men at my will; but I 
 began to ask myself questions as to the use of 
 doing it at all. I was honest with myself, and 
 I saw, I think, clearly that I got my power by 
 using the worst in men. 
 
 "Well, my lord, I met your daughter, and 
 it seemed to me I found she had a better power 
 than my own. As I have said, my ambition is 
 boundless. I desire always the best. I believe 
 she is a fine philosopher, she can win at my own 
 game. Oh," he interrupted himself, " I would 
 not be setting it out to you that it s my head 
 [201] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XV 
 
 alone she s touched, for I am as daft in my love 
 for her as any schoolboy could be, but I m just 
 telling you that, both from my ambition and my 
 love, I want her for my wife. 
 
 "The first thing," he went on, "which I 
 have to face beside yourself is this Carmichael 
 man. If I had met him in any other relation 
 in life I should have forgotten him within a 
 fortnight; but he has been forced upon my 
 notice there are things about him I can not 
 understand." 
 
 " They are his principles, perhaps," I sug 
 gested dryly. 
 
 The duke laughed aloud. 
 
 " That was worthy of Mistress Stair her 
 self," he said, his eyes filled with laughter. 
 
 " It all comes to this in the end, John Mon- 
 trose if you know anything of women. If ye 
 kill Dandy Carmichael you need never expect 
 to see Nancy s face again. The boy is one of 
 her first remembrances, and his father is almost 
 as dear to her as I am myself. What kind of 
 place are you making with her to kill one who, 
 by all old ties, has become dear? " 
 
 " I ve no intention of killing him," he said. 
 " I intend to let him have a thrust at me with 
 [202] 
 
CHAP. XV NANCY STAIR 
 
 his sword, and then get him sent from the 
 country for it." 
 
 I saw his plan in a minute. 
 
 " And suppose I tell Nancy what yeVe just 
 told me? " I cried. 
 
 He leaned across the table and touched me 
 lightly on the shoulder. 
 
 " That is my power," he said, " my knowl 
 edge of people. I know your code, Lord Stair, 
 and though I were the greatest scoundrel on 
 earth, tis not in you to betray the confidence 
 which I have reposed in you, even to help a 
 friend." 
 
 [203] 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NANCY STAIR ARRANGES MATTERS 
 
 I RODE back to Stair, having accomplished 
 nothing whatever with the duke, sick at heart 
 and baffled completely by the shameless honesty 
 of the man. Whiles I made up my mind to ride 
 on to Arran and tell Sandy of the whole mat 
 ter, and next to find Dand and see what common 
 sense might do with him, though his deiPs tem 
 per argued against any satisfaction being ob 
 tained by this move. 
 
 As I turned into the policy I was met by one 
 of the grooms, who rode in some haste with a 
 letter in the band of his hat. Instinct told me 
 that his errand was relative to the trouble 
 brewing, and I immediately jumped at a con 
 clusion, which was that Nancy had heard of the 
 quarrel and had sent for one or other of her 
 fire-eating friends to come to her. 
 
 With no small interest, therefore, I watched 
 the man close the Holm gate and set off at a 
 1204,] 
 
CHAP. XVI NANCY STAIR 
 
 breakneck speed toward Edinburgh, where the 
 duke lay. 
 
 At the dinner I asked Nancy what she had 
 been doing in my absence. 
 
 " I read some Fergusson and some of the 
 rhymes of that idiot King James VI, and then 
 I went over Mr. Pitcairn s indictment of Mungo 
 Armstrong. Jock, it is written with the fair 
 ness of the judge himself. It is great work! 
 He s a wonderful man, Pitcairn ! " which occu 
 pations surely showed no great perturbation of 
 mind. 
 
 After the meal she told me that she had sent 
 for the duke " concerning some matters," and 
 I lay on the leather couch in the hall, the very 
 same bit of furniture, by the way, which we 
 called Pitcairn s sofa, which made a bitter time 
 for us all later, and fell asleep. 
 
 I was recalled to consciousness by singing 
 in the grounds, and although the whole town 
 knew the song, it was the first time I had ever 
 heard it" The Duke s Tune," it was called far 
 and wide: 
 
 m 
 
 [205] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVI 
 
 at the last note of which, Borthwicke himself, 
 jaunty, bareheaded, and smiling, stood before 
 Nancy in the window- way. 
 
 "How is your Royal Highness to-night?" 
 he cried gaily. 
 
 "My Royal Highness," she replied, with a 
 little laugh, " is not in a happy frame of 
 mind. Things have gone very wrong with me 
 to-day." 
 
 "Indeed?" returned his grace. "Things 
 may be changed by human endeavor. I my 
 self," very lightly, " have been able to change 
 a few. It is perhaps superfluous for me to men 
 tion that my time and abilities are at your 
 service always." 
 
 "If that be true, my troubles have disap 
 peared entirely," Nancy returned. " They were 
 all of your breeding. I have been thinking of 
 your grace the day long." 
 
 "I am honored," he said. 
 
 " Perhaps you should know my thoughts 
 before you say that. They were not compli 
 mentary in the extreme," she said, looking di 
 rectly at him with very honest eyes. 
 
 " You might," and there was the caressing 
 tone in his voice of which I have already spoken, 
 [206] 
 
CHAP. XVI NANCY STAIR 
 
 " tell me wherein I displease you. It would be 
 the effort of my life to change." 
 
 He came directly toward her at this, o er 
 close, it seemed to me, and stood looking down 
 into her eyes, which were fixed upon his. 
 
 " You mean it 1 " she asked. 
 
 " By the love I bear you, the best thing my 
 life has ever known I mean it to the last letter. 
 In fact, I spoke of it this afternoon to your 
 father, Lord Stair. YouVe made a change in 
 me. I m not promising too much, but I am in 
 tending a reform of myself. Let me put it to 
 you, not too earnestly, lest nothing come of it, 
 but so you can get the drift of my thoughts. 
 
 " I have come to believe that your creed of 
 love and helpfulness to every one is a stronger 
 one than mine. It is not a proven thing to me 
 yet, but I think one gets more in a subtler way 
 than I can name from living by it. My head 
 has got me so far in the working out of it. My 
 heart " 
 
 " Your heart will help you the most," said 
 Nancy. " And it is there I am hoping for help 
 from you." And here, perhaps to avoid the 
 avowal which she felt might be coming, she took 
 a tangent: 
 
 [207] 
 
NANCY STAIK CHAP. 
 
 " Will your new wisdom carry you so far 
 as to write a letter for me, one with your signa 
 ture at the bottom? " 
 
 " It will," his grace answered, without a sec 
 ond s hesitation seating himself at the writing^ 
 table. 
 
 " It is for you to dictate it," he went on, 
 with the paper spread before him, pen in 
 hand. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Carmichael," Nancy began. 
 
 His grace started to his feet this was far 
 from anything for which he was prepared. So 
 for a space they regarded each other steadily, 
 and then I saw Nancy put her soft little hand 
 over the one of the duke s which rested on the 
 table ; and his smile and movement of the shoul 
 ders, as though he surrendered everything at 
 her touch, was one of the bravest bits of love- 
 making I have ever seen. 
 
 He seated himself again, and Nancy, stand 
 ing at his side, went on: 
 
 " I am writing to you to-night to ask your 
 pardon for the entirely unworthy course which 
 I have pursued toward you during the past six 
 weeks." 
 
 Again the duke paused, and I could see his 
 [208] 
 
CHAP. XVI NANCY STAIR 
 
 jaw set as he regarded the words, which were 
 bitter enough to his palate. 
 
 " The matters which led to the quarrel be 
 tween us were of my own breeding, and I wish 
 to apologize to you for them. Sign it," said 
 Nancy. 
 
 " I am willing," the duke answered, with an 
 odd smile ; " but, little girl, a man doesn t insult 
 another man and then crawl out of the conse 
 quences of his act by letter. Have I your per 
 mission to effect this thing in a bit more mascu 
 line way ? I promise a retraction of my conduct, 
 and that I shall be humble enough " 
 
 " And there will be no duel f " 
 
 " There will be no duel," Borthwicke an 
 swered, and, subtle creature that he was, he saw 
 by the look in Nancy s face how much his yield 
 ing had gained for him with her, and seized the 
 occasion. 
 
 " I have done this for you, as I might 
 do any other thing for you which you might 
 ask me, for there s one thing I want more 
 than my life itself. "Oh," he cried, and he 
 reached out his arms toward her, " can you 
 love me, Nancy Stair? Do you think you ca 
 love me? " 
 
 [209] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVI 
 
 There was a pause, during which I could 
 hear the duke s deep breathing, before she an 
 swered him. 
 
 " And that s just the thing I can t tell," she 
 said, " for I don t know myself. You know the 
 understanding that I have with Danvers Car- 
 michael. I am fond of him, perhaps fonder of 
 him than any other; but there is no disguising 
 the fact from myself that at times you attract 
 me more." 
 
 The duke laughed aloud in spite of the strain 
 of the moment. 
 
 " You are an honest little soul," he cried, 
 with genuine appreciation. 
 
 " I try to be," she answered. 
 
 " Well, well," he went on, temporizing, " a 
 year is a year. We shall see. But in the mean 
 time, my sins are forgiven me ? " 
 
 " Entirely," she answered. 
 
 " There is usually some token of forgive 
 ness, is there not? " he went on, as he stood, 
 erect, hypnotic, and compelling, looking down 
 at her. 
 
 She did the thing for which he was least 
 prepared, by putting her hand lightly on his 
 forehead for an instant. 
 
 [210] 
 
CHAP. XVI NANCY STATE 
 
 " Te absolve," she said, after the manner of 
 the church. 
 
 And although one could see that he was dis 
 appointed, he smiled at her, and the smile had 
 something in it of pleasure, too, for he of all 
 men was surely the one to believe that " the 
 fruit which could fall without shaking was ever 
 too mellow " for him, and enjoyed, to mix a 
 metaphor, the pleasures of the chase. 
 
 Although the trouble seemed to pass by in 
 this happy fashion, I had so little faith in his 
 Grace of Borthwicke that, the morning for 
 which I knew the duel had been set, I rose early 
 and rode by the Old Bridge Road to see if any 
 thing concerning it were on foot. 
 
 Finding nothing but the silence of the morn 
 ing and a few country folk on the way to mar 
 ket, I rode on to the town, where to my aston 
 ishment I came into the midst of a party just 
 leaving the Star and Garter with evidences of 
 conviviality plain upon them. The first I saw 
 were Billy Deuceace and Sir Patrick Sullivan, 
 and behind them Danvers, Dr. McMurtrie, 
 Stewart of MacB rides, and his Grace of Borth 
 wicke, all of them seemingly upon the best of 
 terms with each other and themselves, leaving 
 is [ 211 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVI 
 
 me to ride back to breakfast at Stair with the 
 first appetite I had had for hard upon a week. 
 
 In the afternoon of that same day I met 
 Billy Deuceace, and after some questioning, 
 which showed the knowledge I had of the matter, 
 he said: 
 
 " It was a compact between us that the affair 
 should die in silence, but I think I can say to 
 you, Lord Stair, in honor, that his grace be 
 haved most handsomely in the matter mcwt 
 handsomely," he repeated. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 " THE SWAP O RHYMING WARE " 
 
 THE day following this event I was called 
 into the Mearns to look after some property 
 which by reason of an entail had been thrust 
 into my hands. Nancy had planned to accom 
 pany me, but the post brought her news that a 
 German cousin of royalty, who was making a 
 tour of the country, was intending a visit to the 
 lace-making place on the Burnside, and Father 
 Michel s word being for her presence at Stair, 
 she gave over the trip, and watched me set off 
 with Hugh Pitcairn, a bit saddened, I thought, 
 at the pleasure of the jaunt being taken from 
 her. 
 
 "A fine lassie!" Hugh said, looking back 
 at her from the coach window, " who will do 
 what s right, as she sees it, whether she gains or 
 loses by it herself. A woman whose word can 
 be believed as another s oath ; who has a thought 
 [313] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 for the general good, apart from her own emo 
 tions; with something of the old Roman in her 
 sense of justice. Ah," he went on in his ego 
 tism, " she shows training. All women should 
 be taught the law something might be made 
 of them then." 
 
 I was employed in looking over some un 
 read mail which I had with me while Hugh was 
 laying these flattering unctions to his soul, and 
 came at this point upon a letter from one Hast 
 ings, an American from the village of Boston in 
 South America, offering in a kind sure way to 
 marry my daughter Nancy if he could have my 
 consent. He was a flat-faced, bigoted Anglo- 
 Saxon, and a creature seemingly designed to 
 drive a woman of any wideness of judgment 
 into a frenzy, and I grinned with delight as I 
 handed the letter to Hugh for his perusal. 
 
 He read it stolidly and returned it to me, 
 uncommented upon, but further down the road 
 I could see he was turning Nancy s affairs over 
 in his mind, for he broke out, with some dis- 
 jointedness : 
 
 "I have always held it a wise arrangement 
 of nature to make women of notable mentality 
 [214] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 of a dry and unseductive nature, and pretty 
 women fools ; for if one person held beauty and 
 charm as well as power and grasp, there is 
 no telling but she could overthrow govern 
 ments and work a wide and general mischief. 
 We ve much to thank God for," he continued, 
 " that Nancy Stair is as she is." 
 
 The third day of my stay at Alton I received 
 a special post which put me into some fret of 
 mind. The letter was from Nancy, and is set 
 below entire: 
 
 VEKY DEAKEST: 
 "I miss you and am lonesome; for the lady 
 is not coming about the lace-making, although 
 she sent a command for many pounds worth of 
 work, and Father Michel is much pleasured by 
 that. 
 
 "I have just had a letter from Janet Mc- 
 Gillavorich. i Seeing that ye write, she says, 
 ye may be interested in a plowman-poet that 
 we have down here, whose name has made some 
 noise in this part of the country. His name is 
 Burns, an Ayr man, and the gentry are a 
 makin much of him. Well, any time ye ve the 
 [315] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVll 
 
 fancy, ye can look out of the spence window 
 and see heedless Rab Burns, his eyes a-shine 
 like twa stars, coming over the braeside, drunk 
 as a laird, roaring out, t How are thy servants, 
 blessed, Lord, having spent the night Gude 
 alane kens wheer. God kens and most of the 
 neighbors, too, when you come to think about 
 it, for the lad has a Biblical shamelessness for 
 his misdeeds, and what he forgets to tell him 
 self (and that s little enough) he goes home and 
 writes out for all the parish to read. So if 
 ye d like a crack wi him, just come right down, 
 now your father s left ye, and I ll have him till 
 dinner with you, and you can bob at each ither 
 to your heart s content. 
 
 "Isn t it strange, Jock, that a thing I 
 have wanted so long should just happen by, 
 as it were! And so I m off for Mauchline 
 to-morrow, with Dickenson, whose silence be 
 speaks a shrewish disapproval, and will write 
 how Mr. Burns and I get on at some soon 
 date. 
 
 " Give my love to Mr. Pitcairn, and tell him 
 the prints are full of his new book. 
 
 " Danvers Carmichael has not been here 
 since the time you know of, and the Duke of 
 [216] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 Borthwicke is on some sudden business to the 
 Highlands. 
 
 " With my heart held in my hands toward 
 
 you, 
 
 "Your own child, 
 
 In a green tabby velvet, laced with silver, 
 and a huge feathered hat, Nancy set out from 
 Stair about eight in the morning with Dame 
 Dickenson in the Stair coach, driven by Patsy 
 MacColl. By a change of horse at Balregal, 
 she arrived at Mauchline just as the lamp 
 lighter was going his rounds, and the coach 
 was turning by the manse when a serving-man, 
 evidently heavy with the business, came toward 
 the vehicle, signalling. 
 
 "Are ye for Mrs. McGillavorich? " cries he 
 
 " Ay," Patsy answered. 
 
 " Well, I m put here to tell ye that her house 
 fell into the cellar of itself the morn, and she s 
 at the King s Arms, where tis her wish your 
 young lady should be fetched at once." 
 [217] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 Amazed at this sudden announcement, 
 Patsy drove a short distance farther, where, as 
 directed by the stranger, he stopped before a 
 small two-story dwelling, unpretentious, but ex 
 ceedingly clean and respectable in appearance, 
 where Mrs. Todd, the landlady, showed Nancy 
 into the living room. 
 
 It was a quaint old chamber, with wooden 
 walls, beamed ceiling and a great stone fire 
 place, the lugs coming out on each side to 
 form a seat, with candles lighted in a row upon 
 the mantel-shelf. There was a spinet in one 
 corner; a set of shelves filled with shining cups 
 and saucers between the low white-curtained 
 windows ; while a fire from huge logs filled the 
 chimney place and threw a dancing light over 
 the polished floor, half hidden by a thick home 
 spun carpet, and as was the custom of the time, 
 lighted candles had been set between the drawn 
 white curtains to guide any uncertain traveller to 
 his destination. 
 
 When Nancy entered, blinded by the sudden 
 light, it was her thought that the apartment 
 was empty, but here the devil had taken his 
 throw in the game, for sitting in the far cor 
 ner at a small table, with a jug and writing 
 [218] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 materials between them, were two men, the 
 darker of whom would every little while scrib 
 ble something off, handing that which he had 
 written to the other, who would roar aloud 
 and clap him on the shoulder, and both would 
 drink again. 
 
 Nancy stood irresolute before the fire, not 
 knowing what to do, when the darker man 
 came forward from his place, as though to 
 offer assistance, but at sight of her he drew 
 back in amazement, and as Mrs. Todd bustled 
 into the room at the moment, with many 
 courtesies, to escort her up to Mrs. McGillavo- 
 rich, no word passed between the two ; but the 
 man stood watching after her as she ascended 
 the winding stairs. 
 
 " We re in a frightful state, my dear," Mrs. 
 McGillavorich cried to her from the landing. 
 "A frightful state. But the house went down 
 too late to let ye know that for your own com 
 fort ye d best stay at home. We ll make our 
 selves comfortable here; and I ve ordered a 
 chicken pie for you, which is browned to a turn, 
 and a jelly stir-about; and this evening we ll 
 have a merry time, for they say Burns is in 
 the house this instant." 
 
 [219] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 " Ah," she went on, peering from the win 
 dow, " ye got here just in the nick of time ; for 
 the wind s roaring from the west, and when a 
 storm comes from that direction it s like to set 
 by us for a long time." 
 
 After the supper, served in her own apart 
 ment, was by with, the strange old lady 
 went on: 
 
 "And now we ll go down to the spence, 
 where ye can meet Mr. Burns. And because 
 your father s a kent man in these parts and 
 your own name sounding through the country 
 as well, I ll give out that ye re my niece, and 
 it s in that way ye can be known." 
 
 So, attended by Dickenson, carrying her 
 many wraps and comforters, with Nancy fol 
 lowing, Mrs. McGillavorich entered upon 
 Burns and his companion, whom they found 
 drinking and writing exactly as Nancy had left 
 them. 
 
 "I d like to make you known to my niece, 
 Miss Gillavorich," said Mrs. Janet, advancing 
 toward him. "From Edinburgh," she added. 
 
 He threw a hasty unconvinced glance at 
 Nancy, but bowed low as one used to gentle 
 ways. 
 
 [220] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 " I am new come from Edinburgh myself," 
 he said, after presenting his friend, whom he 
 named Mr. Hamilton. " It s a braw town. 
 Have ye lived there long?" he asked. 
 
 " Some years," Nancy answered ; " although 
 I was not born there." 
 
 " There are fine country places all about it, 
 too," he continued, " out the Pentland way." 
 
 " Yes," she answered ; " Pve seen them." 
 
 " And do you know many people in the city ? 
 I ve met in with some notable folk on my so 
 journ there. The Monboddos, the Glencairns, 
 and the Gordons are grand people." 
 
 "I ve heard their names," Nancy returned, 
 in a non-commital way. 
 
 " They ve been kind to me," he went on, with 
 a bit of conceit in his manner, " most kind. 
 The ladies especially," he added. 
 
 "So?" said Nancy. "That must be very 
 comforting to you," she added, with a twinkle 
 in her eye. 
 
 "It is," was the unexpected answer, given 
 with a droll look. " And I like to hear them 
 sing my songs. Have ye heard Bonnie Dundee? 
 It s not printed yet." 
 
 " No," she answered, " but I could catch it. 
 [321] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 I sing a little. Could ye sooth it to me, Mr. 
 Burns?" 
 
 " Nay, nay," said Janet, " no music or sing 
 ing yet; not till Mr. Burns has given us some 
 thing of his own. We ll have Dickenson brew 
 us a bowl of lemon punch, and we ll draw the 
 curtains and gather the fire, and Mr. Burns will 
 line us the Cotter s Saturday Night, the sensi- 
 blest thing writ for a long time, before ye sing 
 us a song, my dear." 
 
 And the old lady being set, there was noth 
 ing to do but to abide her way of it; and thus 
 by the fire, with the elements raising a din out 
 side, the five of them listened to the great man, 
 who was not too great, however, to turn the 
 whole battery of his compelling personality 
 upon Nancy Stair, nor to look at her from the 
 uplifted region in which he dwelt during the 
 recital to see what effect he had upon her, for 
 he had already learned " his power over ladies 
 of quality." 
 
 God knows if any of those, even Burns him 
 self, who were gathered about the fire that 
 night dreamed that, as I believe now, those lines 
 would echo down the ages, nor that the time 
 was coming when that evening might be a thing 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 to boast upon and hand the memory of to children 
 and to children s children as a precious heir 
 loom: 
 
 " November chill blaws loud wi angry sugh: 
 
 The shortening winter- day is at its close; 
 
 The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh, 
 
 The black ning trains o craws to their repose: * 
 
 And at the end, fed perhaps by the adula 
 tion of their faces, as well as their spoken 
 words, he laid some open flattery to himself 
 upon the way he d been received in town and 
 at the noise his name was making there at the 
 time, and stirred Nancy s sense of humor, 
 which, Heaven is a witness, needed little to 
 move it at any time. 
 
 "A weel, a weel," she said at length, "I 
 make verses myself, Mr. Burns." 
 
 " Say you so? " he cried; " and that s a sur 
 prise to me! Would you word us one of your 
 poems ! " he asked, laughingly. 
 
 " I sing mine," she says, going over to the 
 spinet. 
 
 "And that s finer still! " he cried. 
 
 " They re not like yours," an apology in her 
 voice ; " just off-hand rhymes like, that come to 
 my head on the moment. If you could sooth 
 
 r. 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 me Bonnie Dundee now, I might rhyme some 
 thing to it," and the minute he began, she said : 
 " Oh ! I know that tis an old tune, like 
 this " and striking a chord or two, she was off 
 before the rest had any guess of her intention, 
 with a merry devil in her eye and her f ace glow 
 ing like a flower in the firelight : 
 
 " At The King s Arms in Mauchline, Rab Burns said to me, 
 * I m just back from Edinbro as you may see, 
 Where all the gay world has been bowin to me, 
 For I am the lad who wrote Bonnie Dundee I 
 And just for a smile or a glance of my eye 
 The lassies are ready to lie down and die; 
 So don t give yourself airs, but just bow before me, 
 For I am the lad who wrote Bonnie Dundee ! 
 
 * Now a weel, Mr. Burns, I have somewhat to say 
 I ve sweethearts as many as you any day; 
 And I ve eyes of my own, as you ve noticed, maybe, 
 If you ve glanced from the author of Bonnie Dundee t 
 And Duncan of Monteith my suitor has been, 
 And Stewart of MacBride s, who has served to the Queen, 
 And if any one bows, it will sure not be me, 
 For I don t give a groat who wrote Bonnie Dundee I " 
 
 The laugh which followed this found Burns 
 at her side, every passion in his inflammable 
 nature alight. 
 
 " Aye," he cried, " ye have the verse makin * 
 [224] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 But the e s are easy. Why didn t ye try the 
 Do on. "Tis as celebrate." <f: 
 
 " Sure," she answered. " there are rhymes 
 begging for that. Tune, soon, rune, June 
 
 "And loon," Burns threw in, daffing with 
 her. " Ye wouldn t be forgetting that." 
 
 "It was not my intention to be leaving the 
 author of the piece out of it," she threw back 
 at him, laughing, at which Burns gave her a 
 look. 
 
 "You d better mend your manners," he 
 cried, gaily, " or some day I ll take my pen in 
 hand to you, and then, may the Lord have 
 mercy on your soul!" adding low, "Mistress 
 Nancy Stair! " 
 
 Some consternation followed upon this, for 
 it was unknown by any of them that he had 
 seen Nancy in Edinbro , and after the talk was 
 readjusted a bit to the news, the five of them, 
 with Mrs. Todd listening on the other side of 
 the door, sat till hard upon one o clock, with 
 uplifted minds, insensible to time or weather. 
 
 The extreme disorder caused by the wind, 
 for the storm had risen, at length recalled them 
 to themselves, and Mrs. Todd, who worshiped 
 the great poet, came in. 
 
 16 [ 235 i 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 " You must lie here to-night, Mr. Burns," 
 she said hospitably; and as the poet lighted 
 Nancy up the stair: 
 
 " Good night," he cried, " good night! " and 
 then, because there was a devil in the man 
 whenever he looked at a pretty woman, "I ll 
 have no sleep to-night. Pm in some far-up 
 region where poems are made and where all the 
 women are like you ! " 
 
 For three days the horrid weather kept them 
 housebound; three days in which Nancy and 
 Robert Burns lived in dangerous nearness to 
 each other, considering her youth, her tempera 
 ment, and the passion of admiration which she 
 held for him; three days of poetry and folk 
 tales and ballad-singing, with the man s dan 
 gerous magnetism at work between them. 
 
 It was on the afternoon of this third day 
 that a girl passed the window near which Burns 
 sat, and beckoning to him, he slammed out into 
 the storm, with no prefacing word to his act 
 whatever, leaving Nancy staring after him in 
 amazement, as she said to Mr. Hamilton: 
 
 " Do you not think his manners are strange? " 
 
 "The Edinburgh people say that he had 
 them straight from his Maker," Mr. Ham- 
 [ 226 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 ilton answered, evading an opinion of his 
 own. 
 
 " It s no saying much for the breeding of 
 the Almighty," she answered, off-hand, with a 
 smile, and she held silence concerning the mat 
 ter, although it was near upon four days before 
 Burns entered the inn door again, his face pale 
 and haggard, his eyes sunken, and lines of dis 
 sipation upon his handsome face, which every 
 one by courtesy passed over uncommented. He 
 brought a volume of Shenstone with him, which 
 he laid before Nancy as a gift. 
 
 " I am bringing you one of the great of the 
 earth," he said, gloomily regarding the book, 
 and Nancy, who read his thoughts and wanted 
 from the heart to cheer him, said : 
 
 "I whiles wonder at you, Mr. Burns, and 
 the way you go about admiring every tinker- 
 peddler who tosses a rhyme together. YeVe no 
 sense of your own value at times. Do you 
 know," she went on, fair glorious to see in her 
 enthusiasm glowering down at him " Do you 
 know that when this man Shenstone s grave is 
 as flat to the earth as my hand, and his name 
 forgot, people will be building monuments to 
 you and raising schools for your memory. 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVll 
 
 Why," she cried, in an ecstasy, " tis you that 
 have made our old mother Scotland able to hold 
 up her head and look the whole world in the 
 face when the word Poetry is called." 
 
 " Ye think so ? " he asked, the tears hig in his 
 eyes, his gloom put behind him. " It s music 
 to hear ye praise me so," and he rose and leaned 
 against the mantel-shelf, his face irradiated by 
 its usual expression. 
 
 " Perhaps," he began with some hope, " when 
 I say farewell to rakery once and for all, I may 
 make something fine yet. Most men, Mistress 
 Stair, shake hands with that irresponsible wench 
 called Pleasure, but I have dallied too long, I 
 fear, in her intoxicating society. Aye ! " he 
 finished, " Wisdom s late upon the road ! " * 
 
 "Let s make a poem of it! It sounds like 
 one ! " she cried, moving toward the spinet. 
 
 " Take your own gate," says Burns, laugh 
 ing; "I ll follow!" 
 
 "I ll take the first lines," she said gayly. 
 " Twill throw the brunt of the rhyming on you." 
 
 " You re o er thoughtful," Burns laughed 
 
 * It is strange to note that there is scarce a word spoken by Burns 
 in all of Lord Stair s manuscript which can not be found directly 
 or indirectly in the poet s prose or verse. EDITOR. 
 
 [228] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 back at her, and Nancy began rhyming to an old, 
 tune the thought they had passed between them, 
 with Burns ready with his rhymes before hei 
 lines were entirely spoken: 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " At break o day, one morn o May, 
 While dew lay silverin all the lea"; 
 
 Burns 
 
 " A lassie fair, wi gowden hair 
 Came laughing up the glen to me." 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " Her face was like the hawthorn bloom, 
 Her eyes twa violets in a mist," 
 
 Burns 
 
 " Her lips were roses of the June, 
 The sweetest lips that e er were kissed." 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " O, what s your name and where s your hame? 
 My sweetest lassie, tell me true. " 
 
 Burns 
 
 " My name is Pleasure, sir, she said, 
 And I hae come to live with you. " 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " She took my face between her hands, 
 And sat her down upon my knee." 
 
 Burns 
 
 " She put her glowing lips to mine, 
 And oh, but life was sweet to me." 
 
 1229] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVII 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " Wi mony a song we roved along 
 My arm all warm about her waist." 
 
 Burns 
 
 " The hours drunk wi love s golden wine 
 Unheeded ane anither chased." 
 
 " All ! " Nancy cried here, " That s the Burns 
 touch ! I could never have done that ! " 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " Her hair s gay gold, in many a fold, 
 Unheeded on my shoulder lay." 
 
 Burns 
 
 " Her heart beat on my very own, 
 And life and love were one that day. " 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " When noon was highest up in air, 
 An ancient man came on the road." 
 
 Burns 
 
 " And when he saw my loving fair, 
 His eyes wi fiercest anger glowed." 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " And who is this, he cried to me, 
 That you have ta en wi you to dwell ? " 
 
 Burns 
 
 " Her name is Pleasure, sir, said I, 
 And oh, I m sure she loves me well. 
 
 Nancy 
 
 et Rise up, he cried, no more defer 
 To leave a wench not over nice. " 
 
 [230] 
 
CHAP. XVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 Burns 
 
 " She s Pleasure till ye wed wi her, 
 Her name she changes then to Vice. " 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " I got me up from where I lay, 
 And turned me toward the darkened land. 1 
 
 Burns 
 
 " Adieu, she said, wi no dismay, 
 And waved toward me her lily hand." 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " The time was set, and then we met, 
 Old Wisdom came, and now we part." 
 
 Burns 
 " Ye gang your gate, ye 11 soon forget, 
 
 Nor think, said she, twill break my heart. " 
 
 Nancy 
 
 " There s something strong within ye both, 
 That s makes ye tire of such as me." 
 
 Burns 
 
 " l But I m as I was made, she quoth, 
 And how much better, sirs, are ye ? " 
 
 " There s a deal of philosophy in that," 
 cried Hamilton. " I must have a copy." 
 
 And it was from his paper that I got the 
 lines as I set them above. 
 
 [231] 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 I GO DOWN TO MAUCHLINE 
 
 Or all this rhyming gaiety, it will be remem 
 bered, I had no knowledge at the time, being 
 still at Alton, chafing under the business in 
 hand, and awaiting each post, as the days went 
 by, with a beating heart and the expectancy of 
 some unworded trouble. 
 
 The twelfth day passing without news, I cut 
 the end of my business off altogether, and 
 started for Stair, it being my thought that 
 Nancy s visiting would be ended and that I 
 should find her there awaiting my return. The 
 home-coming was a dreary one, the house dark 
 ened and unsociably redd up, and I sat alone to 
 a dinner, served me by Huey, in a depth of 
 gloom and melancholy which he had never 
 reached before, debating whether to write to 
 Mauchline or to go down myself the following 
 morning. 
 
 While turning the matter over in my mind, 
 
CHAP. XVIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 Mr. Francis Hastings^ name was brought in to 
 me, and the humor of the situation struck me 
 with some force, for here was a girl partially 
 engaged to two men, off visiting a third, with a 
 fourth clamoring at the door to be her husband. 
 
 " Come in," I cried heartily to the large- 
 faced young man when he appeared at the door 
 way. " I m glad to see ye, Mr. Hastings. Wil] 
 ye have a glass with me? " and I pushed the 
 decanter toward him. 
 
 "You doubtless know my errand, Lord 
 Stair," he said, refusing the brandy by a shake 
 of the head. " You had my letter? " 
 
 " Some time since, but I put off answering 
 it, thinking " I hesitated; the truth being that 
 the matter had passed clean from my mind after 
 reading the epistle " thinking a talk would be 
 better." 
 
 " Have you any objections to me? " he asked> 
 coming straight to the point. 
 
 I had a great many, but it was scarce pos 
 sible to name them under the circumstances, and 
 I shuffled a bit. 
 
 " To be frank," said I, " there are obstacles." 
 
 " What are they? " he asked, and the conceit 
 in his tone conveyed the thought that for the 
 [233] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVIII 
 
 honor of an alliance with him obstacles should 
 be overcome. 
 
 " Well," said I, " there s Mr. Danvers Car- 
 michael, who is perhaps the chief one; and his 
 Grace of Borthwicke, another; and Duncan of 
 Monteith, and McMurtree of Ainswere and 
 others whose names I could set before you." 
 
 " And does she love any of these? " he asked. 
 " She has not taken me into her confidence," I 
 answered ; " but my honest advice to you is to 
 forget all about her." 
 
 " I think," he said, testily, " with your per 
 mission, I shall ask her myself." 
 
 f< Yes, yes ! Do ! " And as I thought of all 
 that would probably come to him for his au 
 dacity I urged it still further : "Do, by all 
 means ! " I cried. 
 
 He had scarce gone from the house, and I 
 was still laughing a bit over the affair, when 
 Huey, with a changed face and an excited voice, 
 came back to me from the kitchen. 
 
 " There s a man, hard ridden, in the door 
 way with a letter which he will give to none but 
 your lordship," said he, adding the thing which 
 told the reason for his pale face and hurried 
 voice : " He s from Mauchline." 
 [234] 
 
CHAP. XVIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 A premonition of evil came over me, and as 
 the fellow handed me the billet a sudden chill 
 and shaking seized my body, so that I was 
 forced to put the letter upon the table to keep the 
 writing steady enough for me to see. It was from 
 Janet McGillavorich, short to exasperation, and, 
 with no set beginning, read as follows : 
 
 " Nancy is taken ill and lies delirious at the 
 King s Arms in Mauchline. We have a doctor 
 here, but I have become alarmed, for it is now 
 the fourth day that she has been unconscious. 
 I think it better to let you know just how matters 
 stand, and to ask that ye come down yourself 
 immediately upon receipt of this and bring Dr. 
 McMurtrie with you. 
 
 " In haste, 
 
 " JANET McGiLLAvoKiCH." 
 
 If it be recalled that I had at this time no 
 knowledge of the accident to Janet s old house, 
 could surmise no reason for Nancy s lying at a 
 public inn, and was in an agony of fear for her 
 life, the wretched state of my mind can well be 
 understood; but I was still capable of quick 
 action, and within an hour Dr. McMurtrie, the 
 end of his dinner carried in a bag, and myself 
 were upon the Mauchline road. 
 
 The crawling of the coach through the dark- 
 [235] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVIII 
 
 ness, the insane waits for horses, the many 
 necessary but time-consuming details told upon 
 my distraught mind to such an extent that when 
 I descended at the door of the inn I felt 
 an old and broken man. The memory of an 
 other ride which I had taken was heavy upon 
 me, my teeth chattered, the horror showing in 
 my face so plainly that Dame Dickens on read 
 my thought on the instant, and coming forward, 
 plucked me by the sleeve. 
 
 " She s better," she said, and at the sound 
 of the words I put my head on the table and 
 wept like a child. 
 
 Our presence being made known to Mrs. 
 McGillavorich, she came down immediately, 
 with a white face and tired, sleepless eyes. 
 
 " She s having the first sleep in three days," 
 she said, " and the old doctor thinks the worst is 
 by. But ye d best not disturb her. Let her bide 
 quiet now." 
 
 Dr. McMurtrie and I took turns by the bed 
 side that day and night, but she knew neither of 
 us, lying, in her waking moments, with scarlet 
 cheeks and wide, delirious eyes, singing snatches 
 of songs, weaving meaningless words together, 
 and crying over and over again, " It s of no 
 [236] 
 
CHAP. XVIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 use no use no use," in a kind of eldritch 
 sing-song which wrung my heart. 
 
 " She s had some kind of a shock," Dr. Mc- 
 Murtrie said, " one that she ll be some time get 
 ting over, I fear." 
 
 As to the cause of the trouble the whole 
 house was as mystified as myself. 
 
 " I know as little of the reason of her illness 
 as you do yourselves." Janet said, after she 
 had narrated the doings at the inn. " On Tues 
 day, a little after noon, she came to me saying 
 that she d been in such an excited state, she 
 was off alone to collect herself by a walk, and 
 while she was out she passed a girl who was 
 putting some linen on the bleach-green; Nancy 
 spoke to her concerning some lace with which 
 the garments were trimmed, and as they talked 
 Rab Burns passed them, with four or five of 
 his cronies, and the girl broke into a passion at 
 sight of him, shaking her fist after him and 
 calling him foul names as he went down the 
 lane. 
 
 " At this, another girl, who was soon to be 
 a mother, came weeping from the house, and 
 Nancy emptied her purse to them before they 
 parted. 
 
 [237] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVIII 
 
 "When she came in," Janet went on, "her 
 face was white and set, her eyes seeing nothing, 
 and when Rab Burns sent up his name to her 
 that night she said to the maid, i Tell Mr. Burns 
 that Miss Stair will not see him ! and sat by 
 the window, staring into the starlight, where I 
 found her at five the next morning with the 
 fever upon her and her wits gone gyte." 
 
 I have had much sorrow in my time, but the 
 agony of suspense and suspicion with which the 
 next few days were filled pales every grief of 
 my life that went before this time. Was it pos 
 sible, I asked God, that my wee bit, wonderful 
 lassie, my Little Flower, had bloomed to be 
 trodden under foot by a plowman of Ayr! 
 
 McMurtrie drove me from the house at times 
 for rest of mind as well as exercise, and one 
 night, at the week s end, having walked farther 
 than usual, I entered an ale-house in the Cow- 
 gate for something to quench my thirst. There 
 was a man standing by the window, and at sight 
 of him, for it was Robert Burns, and the time 
 was not yet come for me to say to him what 
 might have to be said, I drew back, thinking 
 myself unseen, and closed the door. I had gone 
 but a few steps in the darkness when I felt a 
 F 23S ] 
 
CHAP. XVIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 hand clapped on my shoulder, and turning, 
 found Burns himself beside me. 
 
 " Come back," he cried, " come back ; I want 
 a word with ye, Lord Stair. YouVe come 
 down," he cried, "to take your daughter from 
 the company of those unfit for her to know. 
 And you re right in it. But the thought that ye 
 showed toward me when you went out to avoid 
 my company is wrong; wrong, as I must face 
 my Maker in the great last day! IVe had my 
 way with women ; but in this one case I ve taken 
 such care of her as ye might hae done your 
 self! 
 
 " She s found the truth of me, and our 
 friendship is by with forever! I know that 
 well. 
 
 " But tell her from me, will ye not, that such 
 righting of a^ wrong as can be done I am deter 
 mined to do, and that the lassie she kens of is 
 to be my wife as soon as she chooses. Tell 
 her," and here the tears stood big in his eyes, 
 " that I am sorrier than I can ever say that her 
 mind has been ass oiled by my wicked affairs " 
 and here he broke forth into a sudden heat 
 " God Almighty ! " he cried, " if a woman like 
 that had loved me, Shakespeare would have had 
 [239] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XVIII 
 
 to look to his laurels. Aye! and Fergusson, 
 too. The Lord himself made me a poet, but she 
 might have made me a man ! " * 
 
 * Lord Stair mentions here that he afterward had from this same 
 girl (Mrs. Nellie Brown), the following description of the poet s first 
 meeting with the sister, Jean Armour : 
 
 "D ye see Sam McClellan s spout over the gate there? Weel, it 
 was just whaur Rab and Jean first foregathered. Her and me had 
 gaen there for a gang o water, an I had fill t my cans first an come 
 ower here juist whaur you an me s stan in. When Jean was fillin 
 her stoups, Rab Burns cam up an began some nonsense or ither 
 wi her, an they talked an leuch sae lang that it juist made me 
 mad; to think, tae, that she should ha e a word to say wi sic a 
 lowse character as Rab Burns. When she at last cam ower, I gied 
 her a guid hecklin. Trowth, said I, ; Jean, ye ocht to think black- 
 burnin shame o yersel. Before bein seen daffin wi Rab Burns, 
 woman, I would far raither been seen speakin to a sodger. 
 That was the beginnin o the unfortunate acquaintance." 
 
 The marriage between the two was acknowledged to the world in 
 1787 EDITOR. 
 
 [240 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE QUARREL BETWEEN DANVERS AND NANCY 
 
 WE were back at Stair for nearly a fort 
 night, with Nancy quite herself again, before 
 she took me into her confidence regarding the 
 Burns experience. Leaning against the wall by 
 the stair-foot with her hands behind her, a way 
 she d had ever since she was a wee bit, the talk 
 began, with no leading up to it on either side. 
 
 " Jock," she said, suddenly, and a quaint 
 look came over her face, " I ve never told you 
 what made me ill at Mauchline." 
 
 " I ve been waiting," I answered. 
 
 " It was a bad time for me," she continued. 
 
 " I know that, Lady-bird," said I. 
 
 " Part of me died," she said, and on this a 
 thought flashed by me which, I have often held, 
 that in some way her language expressed more 
 than she knew. 
 
 " I ve been filled up with conceit of myself," 
 she went on, " and I got punished for it." 
 " [ 241 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 " There was never a woman living with 
 less ! " I cried, so sodden in my affection for 
 her that I could not stand to hear her blamed, 
 even by herself. 
 
 " Maybe I didn t show it," she said with a 
 smile, " but I ve always held, in to myseiy 
 that the gifted folk were God s aristocrats, and 
 the day I told Danvers Carmichael and you my 
 esteem of lords and titles and forbears I said 
 just what I thought, though both of you laughed 
 at me, for I reasoned that any one whom the 
 Almighty took such special pains with must 
 have the grand character as well. And so I 
 made of all the people who write and paint and 
 sing a great assembly, like Arthur s knights, 
 who were over the earth righting wrongs and 
 helping the weak. Then came the Burns book; 
 and there are no words to tell the glory of it to 
 me. All the great thoughts I had dreamed were 
 written there, and before the power of this man, 
 who took the commonest things of life and 
 wrote them out in letters of gold, I felt as one 
 might before the gods. It was of Burns I 
 thought in my waking hours, and twas of him 
 I dreamed by night; and I thanked God to be 
 born in his country and his time, so that I 
 [24,2] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 might see one, from the people, who had, in its 
 highest essence, the thing we call genius. 
 
 " But always, always," she interrupted, smil 
 ing, "with the conceit of myself which I men 
 tioned before. Because God had given me a 
 little gift, I believed that I was in some degree 
 a chosen creature, a bit like the Burns man 
 himself. 
 
 " The first time I talked with him at the inn 
 I felt his power, his charm ; but there was some 
 thing in his ways to which I had never been 
 accustomed in men a certain freedom, which 
 I put by, however, as one of the peculiarities 
 of his gift. 
 
 " Well," she said, coming over and burying 
 her face in my breast, " it took me but two weeks 
 to discover that the thing we call genius has no 
 more to do with a person s character than the 
 chair he sits in ; that a man can write like a god 
 and live like the beasts in the fields. Can speak 
 of Christian charity like the disciples of old, 
 and hold the next person who offends him up 
 to the ridicule of the whole parish! That he 
 can write lines surpassing aye ! " she cried, 
 " surpassing Polonius s advice to his son, and 
 leave them uncopied on an ale-house table to 
 [243] 
 
NANCY STAIE CHAP. XIX 
 
 go off with the first loose woman who comes by, 
 and be carried home, too drunk to walk, the 
 next morning, roaring out hymns about eternal 
 salvation. 
 
 " And after I met the Armour girl, and 
 found the harm that Burns had brought to her, 
 my idol fell from its clay feet, and I was alone 
 in a strange country, with my gods gone, and 
 my beliefs in shreds around me. 
 
 " But I have made my readjustments. I am 
 humbled. I see how little value verse-making 
 holds to the real task of living, and I am a bet 
 ter woman for what I have been through. I 
 have learned almost losing my mind over the 
 lesson," she interjected, with her own bright 
 smile "the value of the solid virtues of life; 
 and I ve come to the conclusion that it is harder 
 to be a gentleman than a genius. God makes 
 one, but a man has the handling of the other 
 upon himself. Danvers Carmichael," she con 
 tinued, looking up at me, " is a gentleman. His 
 word is his bond. He considers others, respects 
 woman and honors her ; controls his nature, and 
 has a code of conduct which he would rather 
 die than break. Ah ! " she said, " I have had 
 a bitter time; but it s taught me to appreciate 
 [ 244 1 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 that in the real things of life the things for 
 which we are here, love, home, and the rearing 
 of children genius has about as much part as 
 the royal Bengal tiger. It s beautiful to look at, 
 but dangerous to trifle with, and," here she 
 smiled at her own earnestness for a second as she 
 started up the stairs " and here endeth the first 
 lesson, my Lord of Stair ! " 
 
 I was in no way sorry as to her conclusions 
 about the value of verse-making, for I had seen 
 that her continual mental excitement was sap 
 ping her vitality ; and I closed my eyes to sleep 
 that night with a feeling of gratitude to my 
 Heavenly Father that the Burns business was 
 by with forever. 
 
 Toward noon of the next day I discovered 
 my mistake. Smoking by the fire in the chim 
 ney corner of the hall, I heard a clattering of 
 horses hoofs on the gravel outside, and from 
 the window saw Danvers Carmichael throw the 
 reins to his groom, run up the steps of the main 
 entrance, and ask for Miss Stair in a voice 
 strangely unlike his usual one. I knew that 
 Nancy was sitting with some la.ce-work in her 
 own writing-room, and hoped much from their 
 [345] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 meeting, and that her recent experience, which 
 made her set a new value on Danvers, would 
 bring about a more complete understanding be 
 tween them. 
 
 " Ah, Dandy ! " said Nancy, her voice hav 
 ing a ring of pleasure in it. " When did you 
 return from Glasgow ? " 
 
 "Late yesterday," he answered. "I dined 
 at the club in town and rode home about ten. 
 I m thinking of leaving Arran for a time," he 
 said, coldly. 
 
 " Why didn t you stop 1 " she asked, with 
 some surprise. 
 
 " I was in no mood for visiting last night." 
 
 " You were ill, or worried ? " Nancy inquired 
 anxiously. 
 
 " Worried, ill," he answered. " 111, and 
 ashamed, and miserable, in a way, please God, 
 most men may never know." 
 
 " What is it, Dandy? " and I saw that at his 
 vehemence she put her work on the table and 
 moved toward him. 
 
 " Oh ! " he cried out, " it s you ! It s you ! 
 In the month before I went away I had to en 
 dure God only knows what bitterness because 
 of you ! And on my return last night I hear at 
 C246] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 the club that ye ve been off in Ayrshire visiting 
 Eobert Burns! Did ye have a pleasant time? " 
 he asked, glowering down at her from his great 
 height, handsome and angrier than I had ever 
 seen him before. 
 
 The tone rather than the words struck fire 
 immediately, and Nancy s eyes took a peculiar 
 significance, boding little good to the one with 
 whom she was having dealings. 
 
 "Very pleasant," she answered, in a voice 
 of ice, picking up her work and reseating her 
 self. 
 
 " Before I went away," Danvers continued, 
 "there was little in the way of humiliation 
 which I had not endured at your hands! I ve 
 seen ye play fast and loose with half the men 
 in Edinbro aye, in the whole of Scotland, it 
 seems to me ! I have heard your name coupled 
 more often than I can tell with that of the 
 greatest scoundrel in Scotland, and have held 
 silence concerning it; and when things came to 
 that pass that none could endure it and I struck 
 him ; how was the affair settled. By your sending 
 for him ! for him ! " he fairly screamed, " while 
 I, your betrothed husband almost, was left in 
 ignorance that ye knew of the matter at all. 
 [247] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 "And at the time of the meeting in the 
 Holm, what does the damned scoundrel do but 
 come forth with his friends and apologize for 
 his conduct with seeming generosity, naming 
 the whole husiness the result of a crusty temper 
 of his own, apologizing handsomely, and in a 
 devilish open way, ending by saying: 
 
 " i One who is dear to me has shown me my 
 faults, and I am doing her bidding, as well as 
 fulfilling my own sense of justice, in asking 
 your pardon ! And at the mention of you he 
 took off his hat and spoke as one who performs 
 an obligation to another who has a right to 
 demand it. 
 
 " You can perhaps see the light in which I 
 was placed! Even my own friends went over 
 to the duke s side, and I was forced to shake 
 his damned hand and join him at the Ked Cock 
 for breakfast or show a surly front by my re 
 fusal. I was made a laughing stock for the 
 whole party. Put in the wrong in every way; 
 and even Billy Deuceace, a man of penetration, 
 was so deceived by this, that afterward he bade 
 me, with a laugh, * fight about women who were 
 in love with me and not with other men. " 
 
 During this rehearsal of his wrongs Nancy 
 [248] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 sat quietly embroidering, not looking at the 
 speaker nor seeming to note the voice at all. 
 
 "I said nothing of the affair to you," he 
 continued; "I thought to let the thing go by, 
 and went off to Glasgow, hoping to forget it 
 before we met again. And what do I come back 
 to? To learn that half the town has it that 
 you ve visited an inn in another county and 
 spent your days, aye, and I suppose they say 
 your nights, too, with Rab Burns, whom decent 
 folk will not let their daughters know. At tales 
 like this the affair takes on another complexion. 
 I do not want a wife for myself, nor a mother 
 for my children, whose name has been bandied 
 about like that!" 
 
 He was so beside himself with rage and 
 jealousy and the further present annoyance of 
 Nancy s inattention, that he raised his voice at 
 the end to a tone of harshness, such as none had 
 ever used to Nancy Stair, and which she was 
 the last woman to stand patient under. She did 
 the thing by instinct which would enrage him 
 most, putting a thread to her needle, squinting 
 up one eye as she did so, in a composed and 
 usual manner, and letting a silence fall before 
 she said, in a level and unemotional voice: 
 [349] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 " Sit down, Dandy, and stop shouting. 
 There s no use getting the town-guard out be 
 cause you chance not to want me any longer 
 for a wife. You don t have to have me, you 
 know!" 
 
 He seemed somewhat dashed by this, and 
 there was a pause, during which he took a 
 paper from his pocket and cast it on the table 
 before her. 
 
 "No," he says, "and that s very true; but 
 for your own sake as the Lord of Stair s 
 daughter, I d write no more verses like these. 
 God!" he cried, "to think of that white-faced 
 American having a thing like that from 
 you!" 
 
 "What s the matter with the writing?" she 
 said, looking down at it as though its literary 
 merit were the thing he questioned. "Mr. 
 Hastings," she explained, "had an old song 
 called the Trail of the Gipsies, and he rather 
 flouted me because I set such store by it, but 
 had it lined and sent me with some flowers. On 
 the minute of their coming, and with the thought 
 of how little the Anglo-Saxon comprehends any 
 race save his own, I wrote these lines. I see no 
 harm in them ! " 
 
 [250] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 As Nancy read the poem* over she looked up 
 with the same curious look. 
 
 "What s the matter with it?" she asked 
 again. 
 
 " The matter with it? " he repeated after 
 her. "It s a thing no lady should ever have 
 thought, and no woman should ever have writ 
 ten." 
 
 " Ye think so ? " she said, and there was an 
 amused tolerance in her voice as of discussing 
 a mature subject with a child, adding in a tone 
 as remote as if speaking of the Tenant Act, 
 " Your opinions are always interesting, Dand." 
 
 "Interesting to you they may or may not 
 
 * A thousand thanks for the verses, 
 
 And the thoughts that they bring from you, 
 But it s only a gipsy woman 
 Who can feel how the trail holds true. 
 
 You of the Pilgrim fathers, 
 
 With your face so proud and pale, 
 And the birth born pain of a fettered brain, 
 
 What can ye know of the trail ? 
 
 By the lawless folk who bore me, 
 
 By their passion and pain, and loss, 
 By their swords which strove and their Lights o Love, 
 
 I ve a right to the gipsy cross. 
 
 Poems by Nancy Stair. Edinburgh Edition, 1796. 
 
 [351] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 be, but it s just come to this: A young woman 
 who continues the relations you do with the 
 greatest scoundrel on earth; who writes verses 
 immoral in tone to one man and visits another 
 for weeks in an ale-house but," and here he 
 broke off suddenly, " you may know no better 
 with your rearing. " 
 
 " Miss Erskine will perhaps have been tell 
 ing you what it is customary for young ladies 
 to do," Nancy suggested, in a dangerous, level 
 voice. 
 
 "I do not need telling. It s a thing about 
 which right-thinking people will agree without 
 words," he answered; and it was here that 
 Nancy spoke in her own voice, though heated 
 by anger, and with the words coming faster 
 than ordinary. 
 
 "And that s maybe true," she said; "but 
 there are other things to be considered. It has 
 always been in my mind that most marriages 
 are very badly made up," she said. " That in 
 this greatest of all affairs between a man and 
 a woman people lose their wits and trust to a 
 blind kind of attraction for each other. I have 
 thought to use my head a bit more in the matter. 
 The very fact that you are misunderstanding 
 [252] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 me now as you do goes far to prove how foolish 
 a marriage between us would have been." 
 
 " Heavens ! " he cried, " you talk of mar 
 riage as though it were a contract between two 
 shop-keepers to be argle-bargled over. It s an 
 affair of the heart, not of the head. Ye ve never 
 loved ine," he said bitterly, " or ye d know 
 that." 
 
 " That may be true," Nancy answered, mu 
 tinously. " I have tried to be fair to you, how 
 ever, and not to let you have a wife who didn t 
 know her own mind. I am, as you reminded 
 me, different from other women in many ways. 
 I like many 
 
 " Pve noted that," he interrupted with scant 
 courtesy. 
 
 "And Pm afraid I shall continue to like 
 them for one thing or another till the end ; and 
 you re of a jealous turn, Danvers," she said, 
 coldly. 
 
 " I have been," he said. " Where you were 
 concerned I haven t a generous thought. I take 
 shares in my wife with no man. I have been 
 jealous of the sound of your voice, the glance 
 of your eye. What I have had to endure be 
 cause of this ye must surely have seen ! When 
 [253-] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 a woman loves a man she has no thought for 
 another 
 
 " It s maybe so," Nancy broke in, " but it s 
 as entirely beyond me as flying. If I loved you 
 with all there is of me, and another came by 
 with a bit of a rhyme, or a new tale, or a plan 
 quite of his own thinking, the chances are many 
 that you d be clear out of my mind while he 
 stayed." 
 
 " Tis fortunate, as you say," he interrupted, 
 " that we discover this before tis too late. I 
 think it s a peculiarity that will go far to mak 
 ing the husband you take for yourself a very 
 unhappy man." 
 
 " He will perhaps understand me better than 
 you do," Nancy answered gently. 
 
 " Oh," he cried at this, " can t you see that 
 a woman surrenders herself when she loves? 
 She gives as gladly as a man takes, and is happy 
 to have him for her lord and master. Not that 
 he wishes to rule her, for twould be the thought 
 of his life that her every desire should be filled, 
 but she must be willing to yield." 
 
 " Ye d have made a grand Turk," Nancy 
 broke in, and there was a glint of humor in her 
 tone as she spoke the words. 
 [354] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STAIR 
 
 " I think/ Danvers answered, " you ll find me 
 asking only what most men expect to get." 
 
 " If that be true, the chances are heavy that 
 I shall live and die unwed," she said with a 
 laugh. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " he cried, in a cutting voice. " I 
 dare say your mind s made up as to what you 
 intend to do ! Perhaps when you re the Duchess 
 of Borthwicke his grace will enjoy your visit 
 ing other men and writing lines like these," and 
 he dashed his fist on the paper again. 
 
 Nancy had by this time come to the far end 
 of her patience, and she was on her feet in a 
 minute. 
 
 " Listen to me," she said. " I went to Ayr 
 shire at the written asking of Janet McGilla- 
 vorich to come to her own home. The morning 
 I started for Mauchline the rear of her house 
 fell into the cellar, making it extremely dan 
 gerous to remain in any part of the dwelling. 
 I went to the inn only because she was there, 
 and she stayed with me until my father came 
 and took me away. I saw Robert Burns alone 
 but once, entirely by accident, in the broad light 
 of day. 
 
 " As for the rhyme," and she looked down at 
 [255 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 the paper for a moment, regarding it as a thing 
 of no importance whatever, " it was not I who 
 spoke in the lines, but a gipsy girl of my imag 
 inings. Ye ve had little personal experience 
 with the thing called gift- 
 He must have thought there was some flout 
 ing of him in this, for he broke in heatedly : 
 
 " And I thank God for it," he cried, " for it 
 seems to be a thing which makes people betray 
 trusts, lose all thought for others, raise hopes 
 which they never intend to fulfil, unbridle their 
 passions, forget their sex, and ride away to the 
 deil at their own gate." 
 
 None could have foreseen the effect this 
 speech had upon Nancy; the thought it con 
 tained falling so parallel to her own talk of the 
 night before; but it s one matter to say a thing 
 of one s self and an entirely different affair to 
 have it said concerning one, and in a minute her 
 anger fairly matched his own. 
 
 " Ye ve insulted me, Danvers," she said, 
 " many times in this talk, both in word and 
 look; insulted me in my father s house, where 
 you ve been welcome, boy and man, ever since 
 ye were born; insulted me, too, in a way I m 
 not like to forget." 
 
 [256] 
 
CHAP. XIX NANCY STATE 
 
 She stood very tall and straight, her cheeks 
 aflame, the lace on her bosom trembling with 
 the quickness of her breathing, and her work 
 dropped on the table before her as she slipped 
 from her finger the ruby ring and pushed it 
 toward him. 
 
 " Go away or stay at Arran, as you please ! 
 Eide or tie as best suits your mind, for in the 
 way of love everything is gone between us for 
 all time. And where ye go," she went on, " ye 
 who pride yereself so on your birth and breed 
 ing, just recall the fact that of all the men of 
 gift whom I have known, and they have been 
 many, not one has ever forgotten himself before 
 me as you haVe done to-day, nor insulted the 
 daughter of a friend in her own house ! " 
 
 He made no move to take the ring, and it lay 
 twinkling on the table between them as Nancy 
 turned to leave the room. 
 
 " Good-by," he said, turning white, and then 
 (and I thought a heart of stone might be 
 touched by the compliment under such circum 
 stances) " Oh," he cried, as though the words 
 were forced from him, " you are so beautiful ! " 
 
 " The country s full of pretty women, any 
 one of whom will be likely to marry you, when 
 18 [ 257 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XIX 
 
 you order her to ! " Nancy returned with an 
 exasperating smile. 
 
 " I ll try it and see. I think I will not go 
 away from Arran. I may do something that 
 will surprise you," he added. 
 
 " There s nothing ye could do that would 
 surprise me, unless it were something sensible, 
 and ye re not like to do that," she retorted, and 
 without another word she left him standing 
 alone, and he flung himself out of the house, 
 disappearing across the lawn, in the direction 
 of Arran, with a white face and a brooding 
 devil in his eyes that showed his mind obstinate 
 and unrelenting, and in a mood to do any fool 
 ish thing that came by. 
 
 [258] 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 DANVERS GIVES US A GREAT SURPRISE 
 
 A FORTNIGHT passed with no news of the 
 Arran folks whatever, when one morning Sandy 
 appeared at the door of the small dining-room 
 where we were breakfasting, his sudden appear 
 ance recalling that memorable day when he 
 asked me on the cruise which brought my girl 
 to me. In the first glance I had of him I saw 
 trouble; twice before he had worn such a look, 
 once at his mother s death, and again when 
 his wife had left him, taking the boy to Lon 
 don, and he knew the separation to be final. 
 His face was very pale, the pallor showing 
 strangely through his tanned skin, and his 
 mouth was set, and twitching at the corners a,s 
 beyond his control. 
 
 " Are ye ill, Sandy? " I cried, going toward 
 him hurriedly. 
 
 " No," he answered, sitting down at the 
 table and hiding his face in his hands ; " but 
 [259] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XX 
 
 I ve had a blow ! I ve had a blow ! " he re 
 peated. " It s Danvers," he went on, when he 
 could speak. " He went off to Lanure yester 
 day and married Isabel Erskine ! " 
 
 "Married Isabel Erskine!" I cried, like a 
 parrot. 
 
 " Married Isabel Erskine ! " repeated Nancy, 
 who stood staring at him as if she doubted his 
 saneness. 
 
 " Married Isa " I was beginning again, in 
 a highly intelligent manner, when Huey Mac* 
 Grath suddenly dropped the tray of dishes he 
 was bringing in and carried his hands to 
 his face, beginning to moan and cry like a 
 woman, for it had been the wish of his heart 
 to have these two children, who in some way he 
 believed to be his own, married to each other. 
 
 The disturbance was a good thing for all, 
 for it broke the unnatural tension between us, 
 and after MacColl had assisted Huey into the 
 pantry, where I could see him standing, listen 
 ing at the doorway, Sandy continued: 
 
 " It was all that talking, grape-eyed woman! 
 
 It was for that she fetched her daughter to 
 
 Arran. It s been going on right under my eyes, 
 
 and I too blind and taken up with my own affairs 
 
 [ 260 1 
 
CHAP. XX NANCY STAIR 
 
 to see it. The poor laddie," he cried. " The 
 poor fool laddie ! " 
 
 Understanding that a discussion of the mar 
 riage in her presence was an impossibility, 
 Nancy left us, with a white face, on some pre 
 tense of business at the Burnside, and Sandy 
 and I talked it out between us. Midnight found 
 us going back and forth over the matter and 
 arriving at the same point, that the chances of 
 happiness for a man wedded to one woman and 
 in love with another are just nothing at all. I 
 could feel that there was one question in 
 Sandy s mind which he could scarce bring him 
 self to ask, and I took the suggestion of it upon 
 myself. 
 
 " It will bring many changes to us," I said, 
 " and to none more than Nancy." 
 
 "Do you think she cares for him?" Sandy 
 asked, putting his thought plainly. 
 
 " To be frank with ye, Sandy," said I, " it s 
 a matter IVe been far from deciding. I believe 
 that the visit to Mauchline changed her more 
 than any other event in her life. Before it she d 
 idealized gift and the possession of it. When 
 she came back she was changed in a way. It s 
 a great thing to be a gentleman; I think it s 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XX 
 
 more in the end than being a genius, Jock/ she 
 said, and by this, as well as other speeches of 
 hers, I am convinced that her mind had turned 
 toward Danvers, and if he had come to her 
 with any kindness at all, things would have been 
 settled between them; but he burst in storming, 
 poor fellow, like a crazy loon, and a fine quar 
 rel they had of it, with this marriage as a 
 resulting." 
 
 " There s one small good comes out of it all, 
 which is that the paste-covered woman gets out 
 of Arran to-day," Sandy ended. "It s a thing 
 she had not counted upon, but Danvers wrote 
 that they were off to the Continent, and it s not 
 respectable for her to stay alone with me, and 
 she packs for Carlisle to-morrow." 
 
 Of the next five months there is little to tell 
 which bears directly upon my tale, except to 
 make some mention of the " intellectual reform " 
 of the Duke of Borthwicke, a name he put him 
 self upon his altered conduct. News we had of 
 him in plenty, and if rumor could be relied 
 upon, he was a changed man. The first note of 
 his new behavior was struck by his relieving 
 the poor tenant-bodies on his Killanarchie es 
 tates from their rentals for three years because 
 
CHAP. XX NANCY STAIR 
 
 of the losses from a cattle blight. And before 
 the sound of this had died away another bit 
 was added to the tune of his reformation by his 
 coming out strong against the crown for the 
 repeal of the tax on Scotch whisky. And the 
 full song of his praises began to be sung in 
 public when he, being one of the Scotch Sixteen 
 in the English House of Peers, declared for the 
 inadequacy of representation which Scotland 
 had in the House of Commons, and moved for 
 an election of fifty-four, after the English 
 manner.* 
 
 His letters to Nancy and myself at this time 
 were of a piece with him, for he spoke with 
 quaint sarcasm of that which he termed his 
 " change of heart," and of the curious pleasure 
 he obtained from marking his life out along an 
 other line. He wrote with detail as well of a 
 new Paisley industry which he had started on 
 one of his estates, asking Nancy s advice con 
 cerning a teacher for the lace-work, it being his 
 purpose to have the young women round Borth- 
 wicke Castle turned toward making a livelihood 
 after this manner. During all of this time his 
 
 * Scotland had but 16 Peers and 48 Representatives in 
 ment at this time. 
 
 [263] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XX 
 
 letters came frequently, and Nancy read them 
 with much pleasure and many comments, but 
 her private feelings toward the writer of them 
 she confided to none. 
 
 There was a talk which set Nancy s state of 
 mind with some clearness, however, which fell 
 between us directly after the offer of marriage 
 made to her by McMurtrie of Ainswere. 
 
 " Dearest," she said, " I am beginning to see 
 with my mind that every woman flies in the 
 face of the Almighty not to take into her life s 
 reckoning the instinct of her sex for love 
 and motherhood. It seems to me that a 
 great love must be the best thing of all; but 
 I m just here, I don t dare to marry because I m 
 afraid of myself; and I don t dare to stay un 
 married for fear of that great and unrelenting 
 thing called Nature." 
 
 "Nancy," said I, with an earnestness that 
 came straight from the heart, "if ye feel like 
 that, your hour has not yet struck. For when 
 the great love comes, it s not a question of what 
 you want, but what ye can t help ; and I wouldn t 
 think anything more about it, for ye ll know 
 when it comes, my dear," I cried; "ye ll know 
 when it comes ! " 
 
 [264] 
 
CHAP. XX NANCY STAIR 
 
 There was an odd scrap of business, trifling 
 in itself, and yet leading to great trouble, which 
 fell about this time, and I set it down as of 
 interest to those who note the way fate uses all 
 as instruments. 
 
 Nancy, Sandy, and I had planned a jaunt 
 to Ireland. There had been no intention what 
 ever of taking Huey with us, for he was the 
 last person on earth to take upon a pleasure 
 outing, as he regarded all strangers as rogues 
 and villains, and the Irish people as heathen 
 papists, worshiping idols in the few moments 
 unoccupied in breaking each other s heads with 
 shillalahs. He had for me and mine a devotion 
 at once touching and uncomfortable; but as he 
 grew older he interfered in all manner of mat 
 ters beyond his province, offered advices absurd 
 and impertinent, and never once in the whole 
 sixty years of our acquaintance can I recall his 
 agreeing entirely with a statement made by any 
 body except Nancy. If he couldn t contradict 
 one flatly, and the uncongenial part of acquies 
 cence was forced upon him by his love of truth, 
 he held a grudging silence or affected an 
 absent mind, or no interest in the matter what 
 ever. 
 
 [265] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XX 
 
 As the years went by and his health became 
 feebler he followed me about until he was like 
 to drive me to Bedlam, and I used to discharge 
 him from my service about once a fortnight. 
 I had never realized how highly absurd our 
 relations were until Nancy drew them to my 
 attention. 
 
 " Ye can t go to Alton on Thursday, Jock," 
 she said. 
 
 "Why!" I inquired. 
 
 " Tis your day for discharging Huey," she 
 answered with a laugh, making up a funny face 
 at me. 
 
 I would not set any one to thinking that I 
 had a lack of affection for my old serving-man, 
 for I had seen his old age provided against in 
 a manner to prove my care; but I knew that he 
 loved me in spite of my conduct rather than 
 because of it, and with no hope whatever of my 
 eternal salvation. 
 
 The plans for our Irish trip were being 
 discussed one day when Nancy found him weep 
 ing bitterly over the silver he -was counting, 
 when he told her that his grief came from fear 
 lest we should get murdered or kidnapped in 
 that strange country without him ,to look after 
 [266] 
 
CHAP. XX NANCY STAIR 
 
 us, and that the whole matter was taking he 
 very life out of him. 
 
 The little one s heart was so touched by his 
 sorrow and his age that she came back to Sandy 
 and me with tears in her eyes, saying that if 
 Huey couldn t go she would stay at home 
 herself. 
 
 As he was too old and broken to travel with 
 safety to himself, and as Nancy remained fixed 
 as death, the Irish trip was not taken ; by which, 
 but for the whim of this old serving-man, we 
 might have been from Scotland and avoided 
 the bitter trouble which began at the Allisons 
 rout given in honor of the home-coming of 
 Danvers and his bride. 
 
 [867] 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE ALLISONS BALL AND THAT WHICH 
 FOLLOWED IT 
 
 As I have written, save for Huey MacGrath, 
 we should have been away from Scotland at the 
 time of the Allisons ball, and by this absence 
 should have missed the visit of the Duke of 
 Borthwicke concerning the Light-House Com 
 mission, which fell at the same tune. 
 
 His grace s letter to Nancy just previous to 
 this return was filled with a droll cataloguing 
 of all the good deeds which he was doing, ii 
 the manner of an exact invoice. 
 
 "I hope you will not be forgetting any of 
 these, not even the smallest," he concluded this 
 epistle, " for it is because of these I am going 
 to ask you a favor, a great favor the greatest 
 favor on earth." 
 
 For the two or three days before this merry 
 making Nancy was in a strange mood, of which 
 [268] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 I could make nothing, her gaiety being more 
 pronouncedly gay, and her silences continuing 
 longer than I had ever noted them. She spent 
 much of her time in her own room, trying on 
 and having refitted a wonderful gown which 
 Lunardi had sent up from London by special 
 carrier the week before. I knew women well 
 enough to understand that she wished to out 
 shine even herself in this first meeting with 
 Danvers since his marriage, perhaps to show 
 him that she wore no willows on his account, or 
 perchance to make him a bit regretful of what 
 he had missed. 
 
 On the evening of the rout the duke dined 
 at Stair, purposing to go with us to the ball and 
 to be set down at his tavern on our way home. 
 Nancy, in a short-waisted black frock, sat with 
 us at the meal, merry as a child, chattering of 
 the coming party and her " braw new claes," as 
 she called them, as if there were no trouble in 
 the world, or as if she were exempted from it, 
 if it existed. She spent an hour or more upon 
 her dressing, returning to us a lovelier, fairer, 
 more radiant Nancy than she had ever seemed 
 before, even to my infatuated fatherly eyes. 
 Nor was this thought mine alone, for I saw the 
 F269] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 start of surprise which Montrose gave at sight 
 of her, and heard the sudden breath he drew as 
 she came toward us from the hall. 
 
 Her skin, always noticeably white and trans 
 parent, seemed this night to have a certain 
 luminous quality. Her cheeks were flushed, her 
 gray eyes shone mistily under the black lashes 
 and blacker brows, and the scarlet outline of 
 her lips was marked as in a drawing. She wore 
 a gown of palest rose, covered with yellow cob 
 webby lace, which was her grandmother s, the 
 satin of the gown showing through the film which 
 covered it like " morning light through mist," as 
 I told her, to be poetical. The frock was low 
 and sleeveless, the bodice of it ablaze with gems, 
 and there was another thing I noticed with sur 
 prise and admiration. She wore her hair high, 
 though loose and soft about the brows, and in 
 the coil of it a large comb set with many pre 
 cious stones. This jewel, originally designed 
 to wear at the back of the head, she had turned 
 forward, making a coronet over her brows, 
 beautiful in itself, becoming in the extreme, and 
 I noted that his Grace of Borthwicke let his eyes 
 rest upon it with a peculiar pleasure. 
 
 He rose at her entrance and bowed very low, 
 I 270 ] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 with pretended servility, resuming his usual 
 manner before he said, with significance: 
 
 " The coronet becomes you, Nancy Stair." 
 
 And she looked back at him, with a low 
 laugh, with no self-consciousness in it, however, 
 as she answered: 
 
 " There is none more competent to judge of 
 that than yourself, your grace." 
 
 We arrived late at the ball, to find the rooms 
 already crowded, and the Arran party, with 
 Sir Patrick Sullivan, gathered in a group by 
 the large window of the music-room. 
 
 Jane Gordon held me in talk a minute as I 
 passed her, and for this reason his grace offered 
 his arm to Nancy, and as the two of them 
 passed together a hush fell on the people at the 
 sight of them, and I could see by significant 
 glances and the jogging of elbows that Edin 
 burgh folks would take the news of a betrothal 
 between them with small surprise. Gordon told 
 me later that some one suggested this in a veiled 
 fashion to his Grace of Borthwicke, who might 
 easily have turned the matter aside or noted it 
 not at all, but that he laughed openly, say 
 ing: 
 
 " If it had lain with me, my engagement to 
 [271] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 Mistress Stair would have been announced the 
 evening I saw her first. Tis the lady herself 
 who refuses me," an attitude which, from one 
 of his rank, was surely gentlemanly in the 
 extreme. 
 
 As soon as I was disengaged from the Gor 
 dons I made my way toward the Carmichael 
 family with joy in my heart to see my lad once 
 more. He greeted me with affection, folding 
 my hand in his as a loving son might do, rally 
 ing me on my good looks, patting me on the 
 shoulder, and showing by every sign an honest 
 fondness for me which touched me deeply. I 
 could have wished that he looked better himself. 
 He had lost no flesh; he carried himself with a 
 jauntiness and elasticity which comes from 
 strength, but the expression of his mouth was 
 changed and his eyes had a restless, uninter 
 ested expression which showed him unsettled 
 and unhappy. 
 
 Isabel looked ill at ease. She had lost her 
 color, had taken on much flesh, and it seemed, 
 as I observed her more, that it was from 
 the father rather than the son that she ob 
 tained what comfort she had, for it was to 
 Sandy she turned in all of the talk, and it was 
 [2721 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIE 
 
 his arm upon which she leaned. Her manner 
 to me was constrained, but not lacking in cor 
 diality, and when I proposed that they should 
 join our party she assented willingly enough. 
 Because of this suggestion it fell that we met 
 Nancy walking toward us on the duke s arm, 
 and at the sudden sight of her Danvers Car- 
 michael turned white and set his jaw as one who 
 endures a physical hurt in silence. 
 
 And the rest of the evening was of a piece 
 with life, wherein none can tell what latent 
 qualities of our neighbor may be brought sud 
 denly to the fore, upsetting every plan which 
 we have made for years. 
 
 Whether Danvers lost every thought of be- 
 navior through his present unhappiness, or for 
 the first time recognized what he had missed; 
 whether the presence of his Grace of Borth- 
 wicke in such devoted attendance upon Nancy 
 roused his jealousy, none could know, but he 
 seemed to throw obligations to the wind, and 
 bore himself as one who has a mind to drink his 
 fill of present pleasure, no matter how extor 
 tionate the reckoning may be. 
 
 So it fell that from the first word spoken 
 between Nancy and Danvers it was he who, by 
 19 [ 273 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 sheer recklessness, took the upper hand with her, 
 the duke being pushed back, as it were, upon Sir 
 Patrick or myself for company. 
 
 " I did not think to forget any of your love 
 liness, Miss Stair," Danvers said as Nancy s 
 hand met his, "but I find I had; or mayhap 
 you ve added to it during my absence. A thing 
 which I had held to be impossible." 
 
 " Tis in France we learn such speeches," 
 Nancy answered, lifting her brows. 
 
 " Wherever you are such speeches would be 
 the natural talk," Danvers replied, and though he 
 used a jesting tone in the words, his passion 
 for her was so inflamed that the impression of 
 the words was of great earnestness, and we 
 at least I speak for myself were given a feel 
 ing of looking at love-making not intended for 
 our eyes. 
 
 The entire evening was a most uncomfort 
 able time, filled for me with fear of coming 
 trouble as I noted Sandy s knit brows and his 
 efforts to keep Isabel from the dancing-room 
 where Nancy and Danvers were walking to 
 gether through one quadrille after another, 
 until the gossip of the town was like to take 
 hold of the matter. It was a curious thing that 
 [274] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 in my anxiety I should turn for help against 
 Danvers to the duke himself. 
 
 " Your grace," I said, trying to keep the tone 
 a merry one, " you are neglecting the lady you 
 escorted here to-night, are you not! " and he 
 laughed in a dry way before he answered: 
 
 " In faith I think that it is the lady who is 
 neglecting me. I ll stop it," he added. There 
 was no " perhaps " or " if possible " in his 
 tone. 
 
 "It would be best, I think, for all con 
 cerned," I answered at a sight of Isabel s pale 
 face and Sandy s anxious eyes. 
 
 Upon the instant Montrose started toward 
 the place where Nancy stood, a little apart from 
 a group of gay people, so that her talk with 
 Danvers could be in the nature of a private one, 
 if desired. As the duke made his way toward 
 her I followed a little in the rear. He was, as 
 always, smiling, calm, master of himself and of 
 others, and as he came toward her he asked, in 
 a low tone of penetrating quality, which by in 
 tention conveyed both affection and the rights 
 of ownership: 
 
 "You are not tiring yourself?" and turn 
 ing to Danvers, he added, "You must help 
 F275] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 Lord Stair and myself to take care of her, Mr. 
 Carmichael. She has not been well of late." 
 
 I can set the words out, but the solicitation, 
 such as a lover, nay, a husband might have 
 shown, are impossible to convey with any 
 nicety ; and at his coming, Nancy, who had had 
 one experience of the clash of tempers between 
 these two men, temporized the affair by saying : 
 
 " My father and his grace are surely right. 
 I have not been well of late, and find it indeed 
 time for me to say Good night. " 
 
 Toward morning I was awakened by the 
 noise of a loosened blind, and slipping into a 
 dressing-gown went through the passage to fas 
 ten the latch. Passing Nancy s room I heard 
 a moan, and, startled out of myself, listened to 
 hear another, and still another, as though a 
 heart were breaking. There was a light in the 
 room, and through a small window in the door, 
 the curtain of which was drawn a bit aside, I 
 saw the little one whom I would gladly die to 
 save from any pain, lying face down upon the 
 floor, her arms stretched out, the hands clutched 
 tightly together, and her whole body shaking as 
 in mortal illness. 
 
 [ 276 ] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIE 
 
 " Nancy, Nancy, let me in ! Open the door 
 to me," I cried. 
 
 She started to a sitting position, tried to 
 arrange her disordered hair and gown, and I 
 saw her cast a look in the mirror as she came 
 toward the door, to see how far she could make 
 me believe that nothing unusual was the matter 
 with her. 
 
 "What is it!" I asked, my heart bursting 
 with love and sympathy as I drew her to my 
 breast 
 
 She turned her eyes toward me, eyes which 
 held the despair in them which only women 
 know. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, clutching me to keep from 
 falling, " didn t you see? " 
 
 "I saw nothing," I answered. 
 
 " I can t speak it," she says ; " but another 
 of life s lessons has come to me to-night. Do 
 you remember the time I told you that I had 
 learned something with my head? I learned it 
 with my heart to-night, and it s like to kill me. 
 Oh, what have I done? " she cried, "what have 
 I ever done to deserve such punishment as 
 this?" 
 
 " Tell me, Nancy," I said. " There is noth- 
 [277 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 ing in God s world that can t be helped by 
 sympathy." 
 
 " I can t tell you. I can t put words to it. 
 See ! " she said, standing a bit apart from me. 
 " Look at me ! Do you know a girl more to be 
 envied! Handsomer? Bicher? More gifted? 
 Think, too, of the advantages that I ve had with 
 Father Michel and Hugh Pitcairn to teach me ! 
 Think of the stir my songs have made! And at 
 the end what am I? 
 
 " Ah ! " she went on, " take any woman, any 
 woman, educate her in the highest knowledges 
 known, keep her with men, and far from her 
 own sex, and at the end of it, what is she? A 
 creature who wants the man she loves and 
 babies of her own," and at these last words she 
 broke into another storm of weeping which 
 drove me wild with dread. 
 
 " Nancy," I cried, " think of your recent ill 
 ness. For iny sake try to control yourself more. 
 There is the poor head to be thought of always." 
 
 " It s been this head of mine that s been my 
 undoing, Jock," she answered, between her sobs. 
 " All the trouble has come from that." 
 
 MacColl was off for Dr. McMurtrie before 
 daybreak, and I sat holding Nancy s hand wait- 
 [278] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 ing for his coming, with Pitcairn s ancient 
 statement going round and round clatter-mill 
 in my brain : 
 
 " Ye can t educate a woman as ye can a man. 
 With six thousand years of heredity, the physi 
 ology of the female sex, and the Lord himself 
 against you, I m thinking it wise for you to have 
 your daughter reared like other women, to 
 fulfil woman s great end," and pondering over 
 the fact that the great lawyer and Nancy herself 
 seemed to have come to exactly the same con 
 clusion. 
 
 I was alarmed by her pallor and exhaustion, 
 but McMurtrie assured me that a sleeping po 
 tion would set her far along the road to recov 
 ery; and at breakfast, after Nancy had fallen 
 into an induced sleep, unknown to himself 
 he gave me what I felt to be the key to the 
 whole bitter suffering she was enduring, suf 
 fering, I feared, which came from a love learned 
 too late. 
 
 " Your friend Sandy will be a grandfather 
 soon, I see," said the old doctor, beaming at me 
 over his glasses as he drank his tea. 
 
 This was the beginning of a troubled time 
 for all of us, and one which a partial biogra- 
 [279] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 pher of Danvers Carmichael would like to slur 
 over or leave untold entirely, for it seemed that 
 neither reason nor self-respect could do any 
 thing with him in his thirst for Nancy s society. 
 As soon as she was about again he was over at 
 Stair, the excuse being some presents which he 
 had brought us from the strange lands he had 
 been visiting; his constant thought of her, even 
 upon his bridal tour, being plainly shown by 
 these: a ring from Venice, of wrought gold 
 with aquamarines, some Spanish embroideries, 
 quaint carvings ; and finally he put the cap upon 
 his extravagance by producing from an inner 
 pocket a girdle of Egyptian workmanship, too 
 valuable by far for her to accept from him. 
 
 "Surely, Dandy," I broke in at this, "ye 
 must see that Nancy, no matter what the old- 
 time affection between us may be, can not take 
 such gifts from you? " 
 
 "Why not?" he answered, looking straight 
 at me. 
 
 "It might be misinterpreted," I began, 
 lamely. 
 
 "By whom? " he inquired. 
 
 " Not by us," I replied, " but by others." 
 
 " And what others are to know ? " he de- 
 [28O] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 manded. " I am not going to make the matter 
 of a gift public business." 
 
 There was something in me which made it 
 impossible to mention his wife to him, but 
 Nancy said, with gentleness and great wisdom, 
 as it seemed to me : 
 
 " They are beautiful, and I would love to 
 have them from you, Danvers; and some time, 
 when Isabel and I become great friends, I ll ask 
 them of you, maybe; but I can not take them 
 now." 
 
 The next morning brought him back, with 
 some strange translations and stranger foreign 
 prints, where he knew my weakness; and I sat 
 with the two of them, laughing and criticising 
 the pictures or the writings until the luncheon 
 time came, when it was impossible to turn a 
 friend out of one s house, and I urged him my 
 self to stay with us, by which it was near three 
 when he set back to Arran Towers. 
 
 On the following morning he came again, 
 with a flimsy excuse concerning a mare he was 
 thinking of purchasing ; and so, by this and by 
 that, he managed to spend most of his time at 
 Stair, and in Nancy s society, seemingly uncon 
 scious of a wife he left at Arran for Sandy to 
 
 console. 
 
 [281] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 I grew so anxious that I lost sleep, my appe 
 tite went from me; I would waken in the 
 morning with a load on my breast as of guilt, 
 and the thought before me of having a situa 
 tion to handle which by a mistake of mine might 
 be turned to a tragedy. 
 
 Walking from the burn with Father Michel 
 one day we saw Danvers Carmichael striding 
 through the Holm gate toward Stair House, and 
 the glance that passed between us told me with 
 out words that the holy father s thought 
 was mine, which was that two people near 
 Edinbro Town were playing very close to the 
 fire. 
 
 " I ve had some thought to speak to him of 
 his conduct," Father Michel said, " but it would 
 have more effect coming from you, my lord." 
 
 As I entered the house, with a purpose half 
 formed, I found Danvers in the hall talking to 
 Dickenson, by whom Nancy had sent word that 
 one of her headaches was upon her, and that she 
 was, by reason of it, unable to see any one. 
 
 The concern in Danvers s manner, the un 
 conscious exhibition of tenderness in his voice, 
 stiffened my half-formed resolution, and I did 
 just what the impulse bade me. 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Step into the library here, Danvers," said 
 I. " I want a word with ye." 
 
 He gave me a questioning look, following 
 me with no words and stood waiting for me to 
 speak after I had cautiously closed the door. 
 
 "It s just come to this, Dandie," I said, 
 " you must stop coming to this house as ye do ! 
 Until ye had a wife there was never one who 
 entered the door more welcome, hut as long as 
 I have Nancy Stair to think about, ye ll just 
 have to end these visits entirely. With the mat 
 ter of an old love between you, an affair known 
 to the whole town as well, your conduct is fair 
 impossible, and, what is more, misunderstood ! " 
 
 And here again a difficult thing in him to 
 handle appeared; never in his life had he 
 known fear and a lie was a stranger to his lips, 
 for his birth, gear, and rearing had given him 
 a secured position in which he did as he chose, 
 with excuses to none, and a be-damned-to-you 
 attitude to all who found fault with him, and 
 it was with the candor and shamelessness re 
 sulting from these that my dealings lay. 
 
 " Misunderstood how ! " he repeated after 
 me like an echo. 
 
 " Well," said I, " the gossips will be hav- 
 [283] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXI 
 
 ing it that ye re in love with my daughter 
 still." 
 
 "Lord Stair, * says he, "whether the gos 
 sips speak it or not is of little moment to me, 
 but it s the truth before God ! There was never 
 another woman in the world like her, and from 
 the moment I set eyes upon her I ve loved her 
 and wanted her for my wife. I love her more 
 now since I have known what I missed; what 
 I missed ! " he repeated, his face working in a 
 kind of agony and his eyes swimming with 
 tears. " Oh," he continued, " what a wreck I 
 have made of my life !" 
 
 " There s no need, by the same token," I 
 cried, " to make a wreck of another s as well. 
 Ye ve a wife at home, a wife who loves you and 
 whom you swore to love and honor. I have my 
 daughter s reputation to think of, and the end 
 of the whole matter is you ll just have to make 
 your visits less frequent." 
 
 He had never come to me for sympathy be 
 fore when he had not found it, and the sorrow 
 in his face melted me more than was wise. 
 
 " Say once a fortnight, or such like," I said 
 weakly. " Considering the relations between 
 your father and me, visits so spaced might pass 
 [384] 
 
CHAP. XXI NANCY STAIR 
 
 unnoticed. But I tell you honestly, Danvers 
 Carmichael, when a man loves a woman whom 
 he can t have, there is nothing for it but a good 
 run and a far one. You d better stay away 
 altogether, laddie. It s the wisest course." 
 
 He left me with no further word, and I 
 hoped that he had come to my way of thinking, 
 when Satan himself took a hand in the affairs 
 between Nancy and himself. 
 
 I 285] 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A STRANGE MEETING 
 
 UPON the day following that on which 1 
 denied Danvers the house, a letter came to us 
 from a hamlet on the west coast, near Allen- 
 lough, saying that Janet McGillavorich was 
 sick unto death and desired that Nancy should 
 come to her immediately. 
 
 It was a tedious journey, and while I sor 
 rowed for the cause of it, I was glad to have 
 her away from Stair for a while, and hastened 
 her departure with Dickenson on the afternoon 
 coach of the same day upon which the letter 
 arrived. Even with this speed it was far into 
 the second day before she came to the house in 
 which Janet was lying ; a house which seemed to 
 have straggled back from the sea and stood lone- 
 somely by itself in a small fenced garden hav 
 ing a gate-and-chain opening to the graveled 
 path. It was a double-storied dwelling of pink 
 brick, with small-paned windows and ivy creep- 
 [286] 
 
CHAP. XXII NANCY STAIR 
 
 ing over it everywhere, even upon the wooden 
 cap of the doorway, which hung over. the two 
 broad stone steps of the entrance. 
 
 There was no time to knock before the door 
 was opened to Nancy by the old woman who 
 had been for many years Janet s maid, com 
 panion, and housekeeper, whose eyes were red 
 with weeping and whose whole bearing denoted 
 the greatest anxiety. 
 
 " She s took worse," she said. " It s thought 
 she will not last the night." 
 
 " "Will she know me ! " Nancy asked. 
 
 " Oh, aye ! She s her wits about her still. 
 She knew Mr. Danvers," the old wife replied. 
 
 " Mr. Danvers," Nancy repeated after her. 
 " Is Mr. Danvers here ! " And at the words 
 Danvers himself came forward to greet her. 
 
 "Are you cold?" he inquired, in the whis 
 pering tone used when sickness is near. " This 
 has been a dreadful trip for you to take. You 
 must have some hot tea at once." And, as the 
 old woman bustled away to prepare it: 
 
 " Were you sent for, Danvers ? " asked 
 Nancy. 
 
 He nodded acquiescence, answering: 
 
 " The two of us are named in the will," the 
 [287] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXII 
 
 tears coming to his eyes as he spoke of Janet s 
 kindness. 
 
 Tea had scarce been brewed when the old 
 doctor came from above to say that Mrs. Mc- 
 Gillavorich had heard of Nancy s arrival and 
 wanted to see her immediately, adding, with 
 some philosophy: 
 
 "It excites her so not to get her own way, 
 that it couldn t excite her more to have it; so 
 just go up, my dear, go right up ! " 
 
 In this way, at the time of their lives when 
 each was least prepared for trial and bitterly 
 unhappy, it fell that Danvers and Nancy were 
 thrown together in an intimacy impossible un 
 der other circumstances; relieving each other 
 in the watching, sitting together by the bedside 
 through the long hours of the night, or walking 
 back and forth in each other s company to the 
 little village on needful errands for the small 
 household. In the tiny dining-room Nancy 
 served at one side of the table while Danvers 
 carved at the other, the suggestiveness of such 
 an arrangement sending disordered longings to 
 the hearts of both. 
 
 One dreadful night when Janet, who was 
 barely conscious, clung to Nancy s hand, al- 
 [2SS1 
 
CHAP. XXII NANCY STAIR 
 
 though the girl s head ached miserably and she 
 had had no sleep for forty-eight hours, she 
 showed by a sign to Danvers her intention to 
 remain by the bedside in the great arm-chair. 
 Her weariness and suffering made his heart 
 yearn over her, and he leaned forward from 
 the place he sat to put his hand upon her aching 
 brow. His soothing touch, or perhaps a cause 
 more subtle still, comforted her, and she fell 
 asleep, to find the gray light of morn and Dan 
 vers, motionless beside her, having sat all those 
 weary hours with his arm in a position which 
 it must have tortured him to maintain. On the 
 instant of her awakening she said, in a whisper : 
 
 "Your poor arm, Danvers! Your poor 
 arm!" 
 
 And the strain of his mind showed in the 
 answer : 
 
 " I would lose an arm altogether for what 
 I have had to-night." 
 
 At the end of the fifth day Janet was so 
 far recovered that she was able to sit up for 
 a while against the pillows, and from this on 
 her convalescence was a rapid one, although 
 the tenth day had gone by when she told Dan 
 vers, with her customary frankness, to be off 
 20 [ 289 1 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXII 
 
 about his business. The evening before his de 
 parture, Nancy and he sat in Janet s room, 
 fearful of being alone together for even a min 
 ute, and past eleven they parted for the night, 
 in the old lady s presence, speaking their fare 
 wells in gay voices, with many assurances of 
 meeting again in Edinburgh at some near time. 
 
 "I went to my room, Jock," Nancy said, 
 when she told me this tale, " locked and bolted 
 the door, and built a great fire in the chimney, 
 for I was shivering from head to foot. And I 
 thought of you! Only of you! Your love for 
 me! The touch of your kind hands! Your 
 dear gray head! and before every other thing 
 in life was the thought to do nothing to shame 
 you, nor to cause a pain to that true heart of 
 yours. And then I got down on my knees at 
 the bedside like a little child and prayed to God. 
 
 " * God, I cried, take this pain from my 
 heart, for I can no longer endure it. It s kill 
 ing me. It s killing me, here, all alone! away 
 from Jock Stair! And if You will do this 
 thing I will never ask another of You in all my 
 days ! Trying to make a compact with my 
 Maker," she finished, " like a foolish child " 
 
 She heard the clock strike four, and know- 
 [290] 
 
CHAP. XXII NANCY STAIR 
 
 ing the hour near whoa he must leave, crept to 
 the window to see if enough light had come for 
 her to have a sight of him as he went down the 
 path. While she stood peering out into the 
 darkness, she heard a rap at the bedroom door. 
 
 "Who is it?" she cried. 
 
 " It s I Danvers Carmichael ! " came a 
 voice, low hut very distinct; at sound of which 
 she unbarred the door and slipped into the 
 hallway. 
 
 He had made himself ready for his depart 
 ure; his great coat, with the cape drawn up, 
 already on, his cap upon his head, and a lighted 
 lantern beside him, casting an eerie gleam along 
 the black passage. He was white to the lips, 
 his eyes sunken and reckless, and at sight of 
 him Nancy cried in alarm: 
 
 " What is it, Danvers ! What is it? " 
 
 "Oh, my girl!" said he. "It s just this! 
 I can t go away and leave you here! I can 
 never go and leave you any more ! The thought 
 of it chokes me! I love you, love you, love 
 you!" he went on, "with all there is of me. 
 Last year I offered you love and honor. This 
 year it s love and dishonor, maybe, but love 
 still, love that is greater than shame or death. 
 [ 291 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXII 
 
 Will ye come away with me? There are other 
 lands than ours and other laws. Bigbie s lugger 
 is lying at the foot of the hill with sail up for 
 Glasgow, and from there the world lies open 
 for us. 
 
 " Oh, best beloved," he went on, " think of 
 it ! Does it mean anything to you ? to be alone 
 together, forever more? Do you know what it 
 is to waken with outstretched arms, longing for 
 another, to 
 
 " I have suffered, Danvers," Nancy inter 
 rupted him. " I made mistakes, bitter mis 
 takes, my head being so engaged with other 
 matters that I lost the chart of woman s nature. 
 And when I saw she paused at this, for it 
 was something she could not bring herself to 
 speak out; but words were unneeded between 
 them, for his eyes sought hers hungrily, and 
 they stood at gaze with each other for a space 
 before Danvers cried: 
 
 " And to think it s not you to think it s not 
 you ! " he repeated, with a moan like an animal 
 in pain. " God ! " he went on in his raving, " I 
 can not and will not stand it longer! Why is 
 a love like this given to a man? Do we choose? 
 Have I had any choice in the matter? Whoever 
 [ 292 } 
 
CHAP. XXII NANCY STAIR 
 
 it was who designed the peculiar hell of my own 
 nature can take the consequences of it Speak 
 to me, Nancy ! " he cried ; " speak to me ! Do 
 not stand there looking at me like a statue! 
 For God s sake, speak for it seems as though 
 I should kill you and myself, and so make an 
 end." 
 
 His grief had so worked upon him by this 
 time that Nancy was beside herself with fear 
 for him, although she spoke quietly and in as 
 natural a voice as she could summon. 
 
 "I ll go with you, Dandie," she said; "Til 
 go with you. Wait for me," reentering her 
 room ; " just wait for me ! " 
 
 It took her but a moment to get some stout 
 walking-boots, a dark skirt, and the scarlet 
 Connemara cloak which she had worn on many 
 of their walks together, and pulling the hood 
 of it over her head, she stepped softly back 
 into the hallway. 
 
 "I am ready," she said, slipping her hand 
 into his ; " I am ready. Let us go." 
 
 There was no further word spoken between 
 them. In silence they walked, hand in hand, 
 along the frozen passage and down the twist 
 ing stairs, closing the house door noiselessly 
 [ 293 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXII 
 
 behind them. Outside it was very dark, save 
 in the far east, where there was a rim of white 
 showing in the sky like a line on a slate. The 
 cold was biting, and a wind which had not 
 reached the ground blew through the tree-tops 
 with a rushing sound and sent a scurry of 
 leaves before them on their path. Danvers had 
 prepared himself by a lantern, and there seemed 
 something significant of the business in hand 
 in his determination to leave it behind; it 
 was in the blackness of midnight, with a silent 
 country stretching away from them in every 
 direction and the stillness of the dead, that the 
 two walked the narrow path and turned into 
 the lane which led by a cut over the rise toward 
 the Dumfries road. At the coming out of the 
 close-way a chill wind struck them, and Nancy, 
 taken suddenly from the warmth of bed, drew 
 back and shivered, at which Danvers put his 
 arm around her, throwing part of his cape over 
 her. Still in silence, they walked until they 
 came to the brow of the hill, at which place the 
 path divides, one part of it winding across the 
 bridge to the stage road, and the other dropping 
 down by a clump of sailors homes, west, to the 
 sea. Enough light had come by this time to see 
 [294,] 
 
CHAP. XXII NANCY STAIR 
 
 the boats lying at anchor in the cove and to dis 
 tinguish Bigbie s lugger from the rest, as she 
 bobbed up and down, her sails spread and ready 
 to be off. At the sight of this boat Danvers 
 turned suddenly, as if recalled to his senses, 
 and faced Nancy, as they stood at the parting 
 of the ways. 
 
 "God forgive me!" he cried. "Oh, God 
 forgive me, but I can t do it! I can t take ye. 
 Not though you begged me on your knees ; not 
 though I knew you d die without me. Oh, can 
 you ever forgive the words I ve said to you this 
 morning? Will ye think rather that I d choose 
 to see ye dead than gone with me in the way 
 I ve asked? That I d rather die myself than 
 take ye; and that I love you, love you enough 
 to give you up! And it s I," he went on in a 
 bitter self-scorn, "who have prated of honor, 
 and the conduct of gentlemen, who have made a 
 beast of myself before the best woman who ever 
 lived! Who through selfishness have tried to 
 make her life a blacker ruin than I ve made my 
 own ! Can you forget it, Nancy? Can you ever 
 forgive me for it? " 
 
 "Dandie," she said softly, "ye needn t 
 worry about that. I knew you wouldn t take 
 [295] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXII 
 
 me! I knew twas just that you were carried 
 beyond yourself by your sorrows that made you 
 talk as you did at the bedroom door. Look ! " 
 she said, opening the throat of the Connemara 
 cloak and showing him the neck of her thin 
 white dressing blouse, " one doesn t start to the 
 Americas in clothes like that. I knew what you 
 were and understood; knew that, given your 
 way, you would choose the best, as you have 
 done ! " she cried, with the tears in her eyes. 
 " Ye ve stood before temptation ! You ve done 
 the thing that s right when it was hard to do! 
 and I m proud to have seen you as I have this 
 morning." 
 
 They were both crying by this time as they 
 stood with hands clasped, on one side the calls of 
 the sailors coming up the slope, on the other the 
 echoes of a horn rolling along the frozen ground 
 from the coach which came to carry Danvers 
 away. 
 
 "I may kiss you before I go?" he asked, 
 with a longing in his tone pitiable to hear. 
 
 " If ye think it s right," she answered. " If 
 ye think that when ye look back to this time in 
 the years to come you will be happier to re 
 member that ye kissed me, than to think you 
 [2961 
 
CHAP. XXII NANCY STAIR 
 
 kept the vows you swore before God, ye may 
 kiss me if ye choose ! " 
 
 The choice was made in silence, and he 
 dropped her hands, picked up the valise which 
 had fallen by his feet, and turned to go. At 
 sight of this resolution Nancy burst into tears. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, " God bless you! God bless 
 you, dear ! And give you peace ! " as, without 
 touching even her hand, Danvers Carmichael 
 fared forth alone, along the stage road which 
 lay lonesome and frozen in the shadow of the 
 night. 
 
 [297] 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 A FALSE BUMOB CAUSES TBOUBLE 
 
 WHILE these events were going forward at 
 Allan-lough I sat in an ignorant complacency at 
 Stair, pleased with the advices of Janet s con 
 valescence, and with no knowledge whatever of 
 Danvers CarmichaePs whereabouts save that 
 he was from Arran Towers. My lack of knowl 
 edge concerning his movements occurred by 
 reason of a new trouble which broke out at this 
 time between his father and Hugh Pitcairn 
 concerning a watercourse which crossed the ad 
 joining lands of both, somewhere back in the 
 country. The water was of no use to Sandy, 
 and equally valueless to Hugh ; but the fact that 
 one of them wanted it heightened its value to 
 the other, and talk went back and forth, with 
 Sandy deaving my ears concerning his rights 
 on Monday, and Hugh going over the same 
 ground, looking the other way, on Tuesday, 
 [298] 
 
CHAP. XXIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 until I was driven from Stair and avoided both, 
 spending my time at the clubs, the coffee-houses, 
 or with Creech and his queer old books. 
 
 Coming down the steps of his shop on the 
 morning of the twelfth of February I recall 
 the date because it was the beginning of all the 
 troublous times at Stair I encountered James 
 Gordon, looking both worried and perplexed. 
 
 " John," said he, " you are the very man to 
 help me from an embarrassing position. My 
 wife and daughter have been taken with a 
 fever; our town-house is small, and I have in 
 vited Borthwicke to stay with us during the 
 meeting of the Lighthouse Commission " 
 
 " Let me have him at Stair," I cried. " Nan 
 cy is from home, I am leading a bachelor life, 
 and you will be showing a kindness to send me 
 such good company as John Montrose." 
 
 In this entirely unplanned manner the duke 
 became my visitor, and I found him a merry 
 companion, easy, accessible, agreeable; prais 
 ing my wines, naming my house the most attrac 
 tive place in Scotland, and my daughter the 
 most wonderful woman in the world; and I 
 wandered abroad no more, but stayed at home, 
 like a cream-fed cat by the fireside, his 
 [299] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXITI 
 
 grace making the time gay with his tales, his 
 wit, and his worldly wisdom. He urged me 
 to accompany the commission to the northern 
 coasts, and one day, when I was debating 
 whether to join in this expedition or to go down 
 to the West and visit Nancy, the girl settled the 
 question for me herself hy appearing at Stair, 
 and at the first sight of her my heart sank within 
 me. She had become much thinner, there was 
 the pallor of sickness in her face, and a weak 
 ness both in voice and body as she clung to me, 
 telling me her joy at seeing me again and that 
 she would never leave me more. The news of 
 Borthwicke s presence in the house she received 
 with some surprise, which showed neither pleas 
 ure nor regret, going immediately to her rooms, 
 however, making her long journey an excuse 
 for dining alone. 
 
 It was after luncheon on the following day 
 that old Dr. McMurtrie came into the library 
 and addressed me, with some heat and scant 
 apology. 
 
 " John," said he, looking at me over his 
 glasses, " I am going to make myself disagree 
 able. I am going to be that damned nuisance, 
 a candid friend; but somebody s got to speak 
 [300] 
 
CHAP. XXIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 to you, for you re just letting that girl of yours 
 kill herself." 
 
 I stared at him in speechless wonderment. 
 
 " She s killing herself," he went on, relent 
 lessly. " And when it s too late you ll see the 
 truth of it. No girl s body is equal to the ex 
 citement she s had for years, ever since she was 
 a baby, in fact, with her charities and her Burn- 
 folking and her verse-writing. It s all damned 
 nonsense," he summed up, succinctly, " and it s 
 for you to stop it. 
 
 " Instead of helping her get out a second 
 edition of poems," he went on, " ye d show more 
 sense if you put your mind to considering the 
 problem of how much work a woman can do in 
 justice to the race. Every female creature is 
 in all probability the repository of unborn gen 
 erations, and should be trained to think of that 
 solemn fact as a man is taught to think of his 
 country." 
 
 " Some women," I answered, testily, " are 
 forced to work daily at laborious tasks to sup 
 port families " 
 
 " And others," he interrupted, " squeeze their 
 feet and give each other poison; but they are 
 not my patients, and Nancy Stair is. And I 
 [ 301 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIII 
 
 think you ll find that the women who work, as 
 ye say, do most of it with their bodies, not 
 with their heads or their nerves, and it s in 
 work of this kind the trouble of female labor 
 lies. Nancy should save her vitality. She 
 should store it up for wifehood and mother 
 hood. She ll be a spent woman before she has 
 a husband, and your grandchildren puny young 
 sters as a resulting. Think it over, John," he 
 concluded ; " think it over." 
 
 He was scarce out of the house when Nancy 
 appeared from the garden, coming over to the 
 place I sat to put her hand on my shoulder. 
 
 " I m thinking of marrying John Montrose, 
 Jock," she said, with no introduction whatever. 
 
 "Ye have my own gentle way of breaking 
 news to people, Little Flower," I said ; and then , 
 "Do you love him, Nancy? Or, what is more 
 to the point, are you in love with him? " 
 
 " Neither," she responded ; " but I have 
 grown to believe in him, in spite of his past, 
 and love may come," and here she clasped her 
 hands together and her eyes widened with pain 
 as she said : " I have had a great temptation, 
 Daddy. A great temptation, and I want to put 
 away any chance of it ever coming to me again. 
 [3O2] 
 
CHAP. XXIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 I could be true to another always when I might 
 not " 
 
 " Nancy," I interrupted, drawing her down 
 on my knee, " there is no greater mistake a 
 woman can make than to think that marrying 
 one man will help her to forget another; for 
 there is just one thing worse than not having 
 the man you want, and that is having the man 
 you don t want. And if you re not in love with 
 Montrose, you ll never get my consent to the 
 wedding, not if he were the Prince himself." 
 
 On the morning following these talks the 
 duke, who was still with us, sent excuses to the 
 breakfast-room that he had passed an uneasy 
 night and would rest until noon; and his valet, 
 who brought this message, ended by saying: 
 
 "His grace is not well. His grace should 
 have a doctor, for he had the bleeding from the 
 lungs again last night, although it would be 
 worth my place if he knew I mentioned it to 
 your lordship." 
 
 In our foggy country a little throat trouble 
 is no great matter, but I ordered my horse for 
 town, meaning to get McMurtrie out,, as if by 
 accident, to see what attentions the duke might 
 require ; and riding in some haste by the Bridge 
 [303] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIII 
 
 end, found a group of men, with papers in their 
 hands, discussing some bit of news with much 
 interest. As I drew near them, Dundas waved 
 the journal at me and called out: 
 
 " Our congratulations, John." 
 
 I reined in my horse, asking the very natural 
 question, upon what I was to be congratulated, 
 when Blake handed me a copy of The Lounger, 
 indicating a certain paragraph for me to read. 
 The notice began: 
 
 " We understand that the long-expected be 
 trothal between his Grace of Borthwicke and 
 Mistress Nancy Stair, only daughter of Lord 
 Stair, is announced," the penny-a-liner going 
 on with much wordiness to state the time and 
 place fixed for the coming marriage, and even 
 the shops in London from which the trousseau 
 was to come. 
 
 " Gentlemen," I cried, " upon my honor there 
 is not a word of truth in all of this," and, secur 
 ing a copy of the miserable sheet, turned back 
 to Stair to discover from Nancy whether to 
 deny the announcement by direct statement or 
 let the rumor die in silence. 
 
 I entered the house by the side door which 
 leads to the music-room, outside of which I 
 [3041 
 
CHAP. XXIII NANCY STAIR 
 
 paused, astonished at the sound of angry and 
 excited voices within the apartment. As I lis 
 tened, wondering if some new trouble was upon 
 us, I recognized Danvers CarmichaePs tone, 
 and almost upon the instant of this recognition, 
 heard him cry out: 
 
 " I will save you the promising, for I swear 
 he shall never live to marry you ! " 
 
 His Grace of Borthwicke being within pos 
 sible earshot of this altercation, I decided to 
 leave Danvers to Nancy s management, and hur 
 ried up the winding stairs to hold the duke s 
 attention until Danvers had left the house. 
 
 Looking down into the main hall as I as 
 cended the stair I saw Hugh Pitcairn rise from 
 a couch upon which he had been lying and cross 
 to the far window with some suddenness of 
 manner, and knew by instinct that he had realized 
 the talk was not intended for his ears, and had 
 hastily changed his position, like the man of 
 honor that he was. 
 
 Finding that the duke had not left his apart 
 ment in my absence I crossed to my own room, 
 where I was not alone above five minutes before 
 Nancy joined me. 
 
 " Mr. Pitcairn is below, waiting for the 
 21 [ 305 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIII 
 
 duke to affix some signatures," she said; and 
 then: 
 
 "Danvers Carmichael has been here, too. 
 He saw an announcement in The Lounger that 
 I was betrothed to his Grace of Borthwicke, and 
 came by to tell me as you did yourself," she 
 ended, with a smile, " that the wedding would 
 have to take place without his approval." 
 
 [ 306 ] 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE MUKDER 
 
 UP to this point there are many events 
 which I have drawn with blurred edges by rea 
 son of the distance of time; but from this to 
 the end of my story I have the pettiest details 
 of it in mind, many of them with a horrid 
 distinctness. 
 
 On the evening of the twenty-third the Arm 
 strongs held a dance in honor of the marriage 
 of their daughter Jean with one of John Gra 
 ham s lads, and a number of young folks were 
 bid to dinner before this festivity should begin, 
 Nancy being one of the number. His Grace of 
 Borthwicke and I were asked for the dancing, 
 a courtesy which he declined by reason of his 
 indisposition, as well as from the fact that he 
 was to start for the Highlands in the morning. 
 Almost immediately after our dinner he ex 
 cused himself to me, saying that an important 
 letter must be got off on the early post. And 
 [307] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIV 
 
 his breeding was shown in the fact that he 
 allowed no doubt to remain with me that this 
 was any invented excuse to avoid my society, 
 for he stated to whom the epistle was destined, 
 and the need for its immediate sending, a point 
 of conduct which seemed to me gentlemanly in 
 the extreme. 
 
 " It s a letter to Pitt," he said. 
 
 "Ye are great friends now, are ye not? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " He is the nearest friend I have in all the 
 world," he answered. " "We are both rhymesters," 
 he added with a smile. "But this letter is a 
 business one, for I have advices from France 
 for which he is waiting, and they must be sent 
 in cipher because of the trouble brewing in that 
 country. If I do not get the letter off to-night he 
 may not receive it for a fortnight, as he accom 
 panies his Majesty to the country on Friday." 
 
 "Why not send it by special carrier?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "It s not important enough for that," he 
 answered lightly, as he crossed to Nancy s writ 
 ing-room, which had been given to his use as 
 an office during her absence at Allan-lough. 
 
 Left with the evening on my hands, I set 
 [3O8] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 out for Creech s with no weightier purpose than 
 to divert myself and have some merry talk over 
 a bowl of punch; but, as I entered, Blake, who 
 was throwing dice with Dundas at the other end 
 of the room, called to me to ask if I had heard 
 whether Mr. Pitcairn was better. 
 
 "Is he ill?" I asked in surprise, as it was 
 but the morning before he was at Stair. 
 
 " He was carried from the court this after 
 noon," he answered, and at the words I took 
 up my coat and started for Pitcairn s house to 
 see if there was some help that I could offer. 
 I found him wrapped in flannels in front of a 
 great fire in his own chamber, in as vile a frame 
 of mind as I have ever seen any human being, 
 bearing his indisposition as unphilosophically 
 as I might have done myself, and I spent a highly 
 uncomfortable, dry, and sober evening with 
 him, escaping from his society somewhere at 
 the back of the midnight with a feeling of relief 
 and the intention of getting something to drink. 
 Going down, unattended, I pulled the house- 
 door hard after me to close it for the night, 
 when Pitcairn called me from the window above 
 to ask that I stop by the chemist s and hurry 
 along a draught for which he was waiting. 
 [309] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIV 
 
 A light and tricksey snow had begun to fall 
 while I was in the house; snow which blew in 
 gusts, now from one side, now from another; 
 snow which came crosswise, to be caught by the 
 high wind and carried up to the tops of the 
 houses ; and over all and around all the fog of 
 the sea and beaten bells sounding far away, as 
 of ships in trouble or as warnings from the 
 shore. 
 
 I pulled my hat over my eyes, turned the 
 collar of my great-coat around my ears, and 
 took to the middle of the road, looking round 
 warily from side to side to make sure that I 
 was followed by none, for the town had been 
 greatly excited during this winter by statements 
 in the public prints of mysterious disappear 
 ances. Folks had been suddenly missed from 
 their own doorways, of whom no subsequent 
 traces could be found; visitors entering the 
 city were lost sight of; Irish haymakers on 
 their road to the agricultural districts of the 
 lowlands had disappeared from their compan 
 ions as if by magic, and suspicions of a dreadful 
 nature were abroad.* 
 
 It was a uncanny night, black as chaos; 
 
 * Benson s Noted Trials. 
 
 [310] 
 
CHAP, XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 and with my mind excited by these horrid tales, 
 I hurried along to the chemist s, whose man was 
 outside putting up the shutters. I stated my 
 errand to the doctor, who said he would carry 
 the medicine himself, as Mr. Pitcairn s house 
 lay on the road to another patient with whom 
 he had promised to pass the night. This occur 
 rence seems of small moment, and I but set it 
 down to show how slight a thing may turn many 
 lives, for it was this very dose of rhubarb and 
 jalap which brought about much of the trouble 
 toward which we were drawing. 
 
 Starting again toward Stair I came directly 
 upon some of the town-guard, who, with flam 
 ing torches held aloft, were carrying a couple 
 of drunken wretches to the gaol. Turning to 
 look after them I became aware that a man had 
 stepped from the shadow and was walking be 
 side me, going in the same direction, but at a 
 much quicker gait than my own. By the uncer 
 tain flare of the torches I saw that he was tall, 
 carried himself with distinction, and, what 
 seemed markedly strange on such a night, wore 
 no covering whatever upon his head. I felt 
 that he noted me not at all, and as the gloom 
 swallowed him up, saw him throw out his hand 
 [311] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIV 
 
 with a significant gesture, as of one who has 
 neither hope nor courage. 
 
 It was this motion which made my heart 
 give a sudden leap and set it throbbing light 
 and quick in my throat, for the belief came to 
 me that the stranger was none other than Dan- 
 vers Carmichael, though any reasonable expla 
 nation for his being abroad alone at such an 
 hour and going toward Stair was far from 
 clear to me. My first thought was to call out 
 to him, but a bit of caution held me back, and 
 upon thinking it over I made sure that my eyes 
 and the fog had combined to deceive me, and I 
 put the thing out of my mind altogether and 
 hurried on toward home. Nearing the house I 
 kept close to the high stone wall for protection 
 against the wind, thinking to enter the grounds 
 from the lower carriage-way, but the gates were 
 closed, and I was forced to the main gate, the 
 irons of which were swung far back. 
 
 As I turned into the path my eye was caught 
 by a wide cone of light which came from the 
 window of the room in which I had left his 
 Grace of Borthwicke. Looking more atten 
 tively, I saw to my amazement that the window 
 nearest the writing-table was wide open, and I 
 [313] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIK 
 
 thought to go directly to this place, for there 
 was a low porch outside from which an entrance 
 to the house could be effected. I had started 
 across the lawn when I heard a pistol shot, fol 
 lowed by a pause, and then another, quick upon 
 the heels of the first, which had seemed to come 
 from the house. But the second, whether be 
 cause of my confusion of mind or the blowing 
 of the wind, appeared to have been somewhere 
 behind me, and with a thought for my own 
 safety I stepped under some frozen vines which 
 hung above the gateway. As I did so, a small 
 figure, coming from I know not what direction, 
 passed through the cone of light. It ran low 
 to the ground and light, and with incredible 
 swiftness disappeared somewhere in the rose- 
 garden by the south wall. Then a silence fell, 
 and for a few seconds I stood waiting to hear 
 a disturbance in the house, but finding naught 
 happening I ran up the path in a preternatural 
 hurry of spirits, and set the knocker of the 
 main door clanging so that it might disturb 
 the dead. 
 
 Even with all this racketing it was full five 
 minutes before Huey MacGrath stuck his head, 
 with a white nightcap upon it, from the attic 
 [313] 
 
NANCY STAIE CHAP. XXIV 
 
 window, holding a lighted candle high in his 
 hand as he peered into the dark. 
 
 " I ll have ye arrestit ! " he called down. 
 
 " Whist, Huey ! " I cried. " It s I, the laird 
 himself. There re burglars in the house ! " 
 
 " Ye ve no been drinkin ? " he shouted back, 
 questioningly. 
 
 " Didn t ye hear the shots 1 " I asked. 
 
 "I heard nothing," he answered in an un 
 convinced manner. 
 
 "Do you want to be murdered in your 
 bed?" I called up to him, "rather than come 
 down to see what s going about? " 
 
 "There s just naething the matter at all," 
 he returned. " Ye ve been drinkin . Is Rab 
 Burns with ye? " he asked, resting his elbows 
 imperturbably on the window-ledge. 
 
 His conduct, in my excited state, enraged 
 me to the extent of using language which ac 
 quainted him with my wishes if not with my 
 sobriety, and I noted him withdraw his head 
 hastily, and the light grow bright and dim, and 
 bright again, in his turning of the stairs, before 
 the bars were let down and the door opened 
 to me. 
 
 " There s just naething the matter at all," 
 [314] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 was his greeting. " Aye, ye will have been 
 drinkin ! " 
 
 Although he carried such a brave front I 
 saw that he had taken the precaution to bring 
 an old blunderbuss with him, and two of the 
 serving-men, who appeared from a rear stair 
 way in a sleep-befuddled condition. 
 
 As we stood in the silence of the great dark 
 hall a fear came over me that I had up-turned 
 the house to no purpose, but underneath it lay 
 the premonition of a great trouble, a feeling 
 so strong that I was unable to put it by. The 
 doors on both sides of the hall were closed, and 
 there was no light save one small gleam which 
 trickled from the keyhole of Nancy s writing- 
 room. Advancing to the door I rapped boldly 
 upon it, and waited for the duke to bid me 
 enter; no voice answered, nor was any sound 
 to be heard save the tick, tick, tick of a great 
 clock that stood near. Again I beat upon the 
 door, and called Montrose loudly by name, and 
 with baited breath listened to the tick-ticking of 
 the clock, and nothing else. 
 
 "He s fell asleep," Huey suggested, and 
 upon this, thinking the door locked, I threw my 
 weight against it, precipitating myself into the 
 [315] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIV 
 
 room with unnecessary violence, to find the 
 duke sitting at the desk, his head thrown hack 
 upon the cushions, and one hand on the arm of 
 the great chair in an attitude of peaceful slum 
 ber. But there came to me a dread of the sleep 
 which could keep a man of his temperament un 
 conscious while the house was being pulled 
 ahout his ears. As I drew nearer to him the 
 wind from the opened casement hlew the cur 
 tains far into the room and rustled the papers 
 on the tahle, the light of which was pushed back 
 and the papers redd up, as if the business of 
 the evening were by with. 
 
 I stepped softly to the sitting man and 
 touched him on the shoulder, and, as I did so, 
 fell back with a loud cry, while a voice with 
 which I seemed to have nothing to do cried out : 
 
 "He s been murdered! He s shot! He s 
 dead!" 
 
 I can not recall what other words this per- 
 sonless voice cried out, but I know that 7 stood 
 staring at this man who but a few hours before 
 had been so hated, feared, aye, and admired; 
 staring at his dreadful pallor, his inhuman re 
 pose, and his inscrutable smile, as he sat be 
 fore me with the blood trickling down the sic^e 
 [316] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 of his face from a bullet-hole just over the 
 temple. 
 
 In the first sight I had of him I knew that 
 he was dead; the feeling of death was around 
 him; there was death in the air, in the awful 
 serenity of the pale face, in the hands which lay 
 motionless and relaxed, as if surrendering all; 
 in the faint smile, as though Death himself had 
 come before the great man s vision and had 
 been regarded calmly before his work was 
 done; and while the four of us were standing, 
 drunk with fear at this awful sight, there came 
 to us the sound of carriage- wheels and gay 
 voices, and before the power of action was with 
 any of us, Nancy stood in the doorway, her eyes 
 filled with laughter, her scarlet lips curved 
 backward in a smile as she came forward to 
 the place where I stood. 
 
 " Are ye giving a ball while the mistress of 
 the house is from home ! " she inquired, gayly ; 
 and, as the queerness of our actions struck her : 
 "What is it?" she cried; and again, "What 
 is it?" 
 
 To save her, some power of thought came 
 back to my disordered mind. 
 
 " Come away, Nancy ! Come away with 
 [317] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIV 
 
 me ! " I cried ; but before I could reach her she 
 had moved forward toward the dead, her head 
 lowered, her eyes widened with terror, and at 
 sight of the blood clapped her hands over her 
 eyes to shut out the horrid sight, and went 
 white, and but for me would have fallen. 
 
 The telling of this takes longer than the 
 acting of it, for it was less than a minute 
 before she called, with some authority in her 
 tone : 
 
 " Send them away, Jock. Send them all 
 away ! Leave me alone with him." 
 
 I motioned the men from the room. It 
 was the common belief that his grace was 
 Nancy s accepted lover, and there seemed noth 
 ing strange in her request to be alone with him. 
 As I came back she held me by the sleeve. 
 
 " Have you found anything " she began. 
 " Do you know of anybody? " 
 
 " Nothing has been found," I answered, and 
 a look passed between us which told me that 
 my dread was her own. 
 
 " Jock, darling," she went on, " stay here ! 
 but don t see anything you may have to tell of 
 afterward," and a vision of the hatless man in 
 the snow came back to me at her words. 
 [318] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 " Fetch me some water," she went on, " and 
 let none come in but you." 
 
 I stood holding the door ajar while the water 
 for which she asked was being brought; but 
 though my back was toward her I knew she 
 made a hasty move between the open window 
 and the desk, and as I drew near again she 
 pointed out a pistol lying directly under the 
 duke s left hand, at sight of which I fell back with 
 a cry of dismay, for it was one of a brace which I 
 had given Danvers Carmichael on his birthday 
 two years before. 
 
 How this could have escaped my sight at 
 the first look I had of the dead was a thing I 
 could not understand, for it lay well in the 
 light, and by its reflections would naturally be 
 an object to hold the eye, and even in my con 
 fusion of mind I felt certain that it had been 
 placed there since my first entrance to the room. 
 
 Turning to Nancy for some explanation, I 
 found her conduct of a piece with the rest of 
 her life, for every power of her mind was 
 focused on present action, and there was some 
 thing unnatural, beyond belief, and not like a 
 feminine creature, in the manner with which 
 she stood regarding each object in the room, 
 [319] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXIV 
 
 and at sight of this self-control McMurtrie s 
 talk came back to me. 
 
 " I will not have you here," I cried, putting 
 my arm around her to lead her away. " It s 
 horrible horrible to think of such a trial for 
 you," to which she paid no heed whatever, 
 drawing herself from me in silence, to cross to 
 the open window and peer out into the night. 
 
 "Thank God!" she cried, "it s snowing in 
 clouds. It will be a foot deep by morning! 
 But we must make an effort to search the 
 grounds. We must seem to leave nothing un 
 done," and the thought being conceived, it was 
 executed on the instant. 
 
 "Why do you stand doing nothing?" she 
 cried, throwing the door back and confronting 
 the huddled servants. " Get your lanterns out, 
 and the coach-lamps as well ; the murderer may 
 not be far gone. Search the carriage-way to 
 ward the town," she called twice, and even in 
 the confusion I knew she was sending them as 
 far from the road to Arran as she could. 
 
 Father Michel, Jamie Henderlin, and some 
 
 other of the burn people had arrived by this 
 
 time, but it was Nancy who thought for all of 
 
 us, refusing to go to her rooms, and insisting 
 
 [320] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 upon taking a part in the search with us. Aside 
 from the strain upon her, I was grateful in my 
 soul for this determination, for laws and courts 
 and country notwithstanding, my mind was 
 fixed to do everything possible to prevent sus 
 picion falling on the son of Alexander Car- 
 michael, who, I began to fear, would be accused 
 of a hand in the affair. 
 
 During the rest of the night, through all the 
 talk and the searching of the grounds, there 
 were two lines of thought in my mind, the one 
 planning, explaining, and excusing Danvers, 
 the other seeming to assist in present conduct 
 and to suggest immediate courses of action. 
 
 It was Nancy herself who was first upon the 
 little balcony of the window by which the dead 
 man was still sitting. Father Michel, Huey 
 MacGrath, and I followed, and going down the 
 steps I struck my foot against some light object, 
 kicking it far ahead of me, and on the instant 
 Nancy sprang forward, leaned over and picked 
 up something in the snow. 
 
 "What is it?" I cried. 
 
 She held out to me the piece of lace she had 
 worn as a head covering to the dance held it 
 far out, so that all could see what it was, but 
 22 [ 331 ] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. XXfV 
 
 made no response in words and after the fruit 
 less search was finished consented to go to 
 her room. As I stood by her door, undecided 
 whether or not to tell her of the hatless man I 
 had met in the snow, she suddenly threw her 
 arms wide apart and dropped unconscious at 
 my feet. I lifted her up, wild with this new 
 anxiety, and as I did so the lace unrolled, and 
 from it fell a cap, with snow upon it, a man s 
 cap with a strangely embroidered band which 
 Nancy had worked for Danvers Carmichael the 
 summer before. At sight of it I could have 
 cried out as a woman does, for I knew it to be 
 the object I had struck with my foot under the 
 window, and the last hope for Danvers Car 
 michael seemed to vanish from my mind at 
 sight of it. 
 
 Her consciousness was not long in return 
 ing, and before it came back I had wrapped the 
 cap in the lace again, trusting her woman s wit 
 to do the wise thing concerning it. 
 
 "Leave me alone, Jock," she said suddenly, 
 as to my amazement she went to the wash- 
 hand-stand, filled the basin with cold water, and 
 dipped the whole top of her curly head into it. 
 
 " There must be no trifling with headaches 
 [322] 
 
CHAP. XXIV NANCY STAIR 
 
 to-night ! " she explained. " I ve others to think 
 of than myself. Pray for me, dearest ! " she 
 cried, putting her hands on my breast and look 
 ing up pleadingly in my eyes. " Pray for your 
 little girl, as she sits here all alone. Pray that 
 I may have presence of mind ! " and God knows 
 the awe I felt as I saw the courage and spirit 
 in that slim girlish body. 
 
 "Nancy," said I, for I felt that without 
 words, we were banded together for the pro 
 tection of a life dear to both of us, " with your 
 knowledge of the law " but before I could fin 
 ish she interrupted me: 
 
 " Yesterday in my presence Danvers Car- 
 michael threatened the duke s life not once but 
 many times, with Pitcairn lying just outside 
 the door. The law! " she cried. " It s not the 
 law I m afraid of it s Hugh Pitcairn 1 " 
 
 [323] 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE TBIAL, 
 
 THE great duke lay in state in St. Giles, and 
 the Highlands emptied themselves into Edin 
 burgh demanding justice. The lady-mother of 
 the dead was there, broken-hearted, and Per- 
 cival Montrose, to whom the title fell; and I 
 had a fine taste of the fealty of Gaelic-folk, for 
 kinsfolk and clansfolk took the duke s undoing 
 as a personal affront, and put their own matters 
 by to get some one hanged for it. 
 
 The streets, especially those around the 
 courts, were thronged with the late duke s fol 
 lowing; unkempt, hot-eyed, bare-legged gillies 
 were grouped at every corner, glowering under 
 their tartan bonnets ; I found a huddle of them 
 squatted behind some alders on the Burnside, 
 and came upon another set by the carriage-way, 
 who glared at me as I passed them as if I had 
 had some part in the undoing of their clans 
 man. 
 
 During this time Nancy lay ill, for which, 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 strange as it seems, I praised God, for the sick 
 ness saved her from the horrors of the coroner s 
 inquest, McMurtrie coming to my aid in the 
 matter by declaring it worth her life to be 
 dragged into the affair. There was nothing 
 more definite elicited from this tribunal, consti 
 tuted largely of men under heavy obligations 
 either to Sandy or myself, than " Death at the 
 hands of a person or persons unknown," but 
 the relief which came with the verdict was of 
 short duration. 
 
 How rumor is bred none can tell, but on the 
 day following the coroner s findings there was 
 a waif-word wandering about that Danvers 
 Carmichael knew more than he had told of the 
 duke s taking off; and whether bred by serv 
 ants gossip or the talk of the fool chemist- 
 doctor who had taken the medicine to Pitcairn 
 on the night of the murder and encountered 
 Danvers hatless in the snow, I can not say ; but 
 by the evening there rose a strong demand for 
 his arrest, and two officers appeared at Arran 
 and took the lad into custody. 
 
 Nancy, who had not left her room from that 
 dreadful night, but who had recovered herself 
 enough to sit up a little at a time, received the 
 [335] 
 
NANCY STATE CHAP. XXV 
 
 news in silence, asking if it were possible for 
 me to get the exact testimony given before the 
 coroner for her to see; and going through it. 
 sitting in the bed, with flushed face and fever- 
 ish eyes. 
 
 "It s not so bad," she said, as she put it 
 aside ; " not so bad. Will ye ride out and ask 
 Mr. Pitcairn to come to me ? " she asked. 
 
 "Pitcairn? Ye ll not be wanting Pitcairn," 
 I answered. " It s Magendie we are having up 
 from London for the defense." 
 
 "I want to see Mr. Pitcairn," 
 she said slowly. 
 
 " 1 don t understand at all," I answered. 
 "When you refuse to see Sandy, who, in his 
 own great distress, has never forgot you for a 
 moment, I don t see why you should be sending 
 for Pitcairn." 
 
 " I want to see neither Sandy nor any of 
 the Arran people," she answered. 
 
 " And you ve no word of comfort for Dan- 
 vers ? " I asked. 
 
 " None," she returned. " I have not one 
 word of comfort or anything else to send to 
 Danvers Carmichael, and I d like to have it 
 generally known." 
 
 [3261 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 Although I saw him not, I knew that Pit- 
 cairn came to Stair that afternoon; but, before 
 God, by no message carried by me; and the 
 following morning I visited him in his offices, 
 finding him at a desk in the inner room looking 
 frozenly out under his dome-like forehead in a 
 way to suggest that his natural greeting would 
 be : " What are you prepared to swear to? " 
 
 " Hugh," said I, " ye ve doubtless heard of 
 the trouble young Mr. Carmichael is in " here 
 I waited. 
 
 He nodded, as one might who had but a 
 certain number of words given him at birth and 
 was fearful that the supply might run out. 
 
 " It has occurred to me," I went on, " that 
 your old friendship for me and my old friend 
 ship for Sandy being common knowledge, ye 
 might show a fine courtesy by standing aside 
 in the case and letting Mr. Inge take it alto 
 gether. Such a thing can be done, I know, for 
 when the Lord-President himself had Fer- 
 rars to try, who was a known man to him, he 
 asked to be relieved from presiding." 
 
 "I attended to the duke s affairs when he 
 was living. I shall attend to them now that he 
 is dead," he replied stolidly. "There is an 
 [337] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 ethical side to the matter as well, for I believe 
 him to have been killed by the young he 
 caught himself at this, with a correction. " I 
 have my beliefs in the case," he amended. " But 
 ye can rest by this, if a man is innocent of a 
 crime in this country he can prove it. It is a 
 prosecution, not a persecution, that will be con 
 ducted by the government." 
 
 And here a lighter vein seemed to take him, 
 for he added: 
 
 " And so, Jock Stair, you would come to me 
 to use an old friendship to buy the laddie off! 
 Ye re a nice citizen; a fine, public-spirited 
 body!" 
 
 " Hugh Pitcairn," I answered, " if you were 
 in trouble, and it needed the last shilling I 
 had in the world to help ye, you d find me be 
 side ye, with it held out in my hand; and it 
 seems a little thing I am asking of you, and 
 not for myself either 
 
 " Your daughter s a better man than you," 
 he broke in on me. " It was a fine thing she 
 did a fine, public- spirited thing ! " 
 
 "Ye ve trained her well in the lawing," I 
 said, leading him on a bit, for Nancy had held 
 the silence of the dead concerning the murder 
 [ 328 ] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 since the day of his visit, and I had no knowl 
 edge of what he meant. 
 
 " Mark you," he said, and there was almost 
 a glow upon his face, " the first day that she 
 was able to sit up after her illness Nancy Stair 
 sent for me. Mr. Pitcairn, said she, a most 
 unwelcome task has come to me, and I am need 
 ing your advice. And on this she went over 
 the talk, part of which I had overheard, between 
 herself and the young Carmichael, with neither 
 heat nor fallacy of emphasis, as accurately as 
 I might have done myself," he ended, as though 
 higher praise were inconceivable. 
 
 "There s a girl for ye!" he cried. "I ve 
 set but little store by her verse-making; or her 
 charity work, which is sentiment; but by the 
 lawing the very female quality of her mind has 
 been changed, for she is able to put a duty to 
 her country before her own feelings. Ye might 
 take a lesson from your daughter in that, Jock 
 Stair!" he finished. 
 
 I rode back to Stair on a gallop and went 
 straight to Nancy s room. 
 
 " What is this ye ve done? " I cried. " What 
 is this thing that ye ve done against the man 
 who has loved ye ever since his eyes lighted 
 [329] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 upon you, and whom your own indecision has 
 helped to the place he now stands ? " 
 
 There was a look of reproach in her eyes 
 as she sat looking up at me, but her words were 
 quiet enough. 
 
 " What do you mean f " she asked. 
 
 "I ve been having a talk with Pitcairn " 
 I began. 
 
 "For Heaven s sake!" she cried, springing 
 to her feet. " It was the thing I wanted least. 
 What did you tell him? Oh, what did ye tell 
 him? " she asked excitedly. 
 
 " I told him nothing," I answered. 
 
 "You think you didn t, dearest," she an 
 swered ; " but it s not in your nature to keep a 
 secret. Tis because you re a fine gentleman, 
 with never a thought in your life that needs 
 hiding; but it s bad in law! Stay away from 
 Hugh Pitcairn, dearest. Stay away from him ! " 
 
 "Nancy," said I, and my flattered vanity 
 softened my tone, "I don t understand your 
 conduct at all; for, as far as I can see, you 
 seem to have done all ye could to get Danvers 
 Carmichael hanged " 
 
 " Seemed, Jock," she said, " only seemed ! 
 
 Ye might trust me a bit more " 
 
 [330] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 " And you re called for the prosecution " 
 
 " Naturally," she returned, unmoved. 
 
 And here I just stared at her for a minute, 
 and turned with a bit of temper showing in my 
 conduct and left the room. 
 
 The same evening I was further blindfolded 
 by a visit from Mr. Magendie, the London law 
 yer, who by Nancy s thought (although I did 
 not recognize her suggestion in the matter at 
 the time, so deftly was it made) had been 
 brought up to Edinburgh for Danvers s de 
 fense. I found this renowned gentleman of a 
 slight, wiry build, below the medium height, 
 with a distinguished head, covered with thick 
 silver hair, hawk eyes, and a nose which turned 
 downward like a beak. There was a Sabbath 
 calm in his manner; his voice was gentle and 
 suave, and his most pertinent statements came 
 as mere suggestions. He had, I noticed, the 
 very rare quality of fixing his whole attention 
 on the one to whom he listened, and of putting 
 his own personality somewhere aside as he held 
 up the speaker to the strong light of a mind 
 trained for inspection. I found after the inter 
 view that I had told him almost everything that 
 I had said, done, or imagined since my birth, 
 [331] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 and at remembrance of it, recalled Nancy s in 
 quiries concerning my talk with Hugh, and 
 prayed Heaven I had not been equally indis 
 creet before that block of steel. 
 
 It was as the London man was leaving the 
 house that the blindfolding of me was begun 
 anew by Huey MacGrath entering with a note, 
 saying that Nancy would like to have Mr. 
 Magendie come to her sitting-room on the sec 
 ond floor. I paced up and down the lower hall, 
 perplexed in mind and sick with dread of the 
 horror hanging over us, yet with something in 
 my heart which told me that, in spite of Hugh s 
 statements, Nancy Stair was with us with 
 Sandy, and Danvers, and myself. 
 
 Near one o clock of the morning I heard 
 Nancy s voice, at the turn of the stair, saying 
 good night to the London man. 
 
 "People think he s ice," she cried, and I 
 knew it was Pitcairn of whom she spoke ; " but 
 try a bit of flattery with him. Not on his looks, 
 for he cares less for them than for the wind that 
 blows, but on his abilities. Tell him that all 
 knowledge of the Scots law will end at his death, 
 and that you re flattered to be on the same case 
 with him; tell him that Moses but anticipated 
 1332] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 him in the Ten Commandments, and that, be 
 fore the time of Leviticus, he was. He will rest 
 calm under it. He will show naught ; but in his 
 soul he will agree with you, and think that a 
 man who has such penetration concerning him 
 self must have a judgment worth consideration 
 about others." 
 
 I heard Magendie laugh aloud, and when I 
 joined him saw that his eyes had brightened 
 during the interview, as though he had been 
 drinking, and that he carried himself with some 
 excitement. 
 
 " It will be a great case, my lord ! a great 
 case ! " he said, with enthusiasm. " And it s a 
 fine daughter ye have! A great woman! 
 God ! " he cried, seizing my hand, " if she d go 
 on the case with me, I d undertake the defense 
 of Judas! and I d get a verdict, too!" he 
 added, with a laugh, as he went out into the 
 night. 
 
 On the morning set for the trial, to add to 
 our distressed state of mind, a tempest arose. 
 There was rain driven into the town from the 
 hills, and rain driven into the town from the 
 sea, and banks of leaden clouds were blown 
 back and forth over the trees, which were bent 
 [333] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 double by the Bedlamite wind. The grounds of 
 Stair lay like a pond, the road ran like a river, 
 and the broken bits of trees hurled everywhere 
 made going abroad a dangerous business. As 
 I entered the breakfast-room Huey threw a look 
 at my attire. 
 
 "You ll not be thinking of going out?" he 
 demanded, rather than asked. 
 
 " I m thinking of nothing else," said I. 
 
 " Ye ll get killt," he cried, and at the words 
 my eyes lighted with some amazement upon 
 his own odd costume, for he was prepared to 
 serve my breakfast in corduroys and thigh- 
 boots. 
 
 " Why are you dressed like that? " I in 
 quired. 
 
 "You wouldn t be wanting me to stay at 
 home when there s trouble to Mr. Danvers, 
 would you f he demanded fiercely. " I, who have 
 known him since he was a week old, and have 
 had favors from him thousands of times ! And 
 now," he went on as though I had done him 
 some personal injury, " when there s sorrow by 
 him, ye d have me keeping the chimney-lug, wi 
 a glass and a story-book, mayhap, and him 
 needing friends as he sits wi that deevil Pit- 
 [334] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIB 
 
 cairn glowerin at him. Nay ! Nay ! " lie con 
 tinued, "Huey MacGrath s not like that! I ll 
 be there ! " he cried, his conceit and loyalty car 
 rying a singular comfort to me. " I ll be there, 
 early and late, and they ll see they have me to 
 contend wi ! " 
 
 " Ye can t stay in the court You ll be se 
 questered until after you ve testified. Ye know 
 the law for that, Huey." 
 
 " They ll sequester me none " ; he returned, 
 grimly ; " and if Dunsappie the macer tries it 
 I ll have him read out of the church, for I know 
 of him that which makes me able to do it ! " 
 
 " There s Mr. Pitcairn, who knows ye well," 
 said I. 
 
 " I m not counting to see him," he returned 
 with a squinting of his eye. " I ll stay where 
 he is nae looking ; but I ll get a glyff of the lad 
 die himsel , and he ll know I m there, and will 
 feel better for it, though I m only an old serv 
 ing man ! " 
 
 " I m sure he will, Huey," I said, touched 
 to the heart ; " I m sure he will ; and I ll tell him 
 of your coming if he misses a sight of you," 
 I added, as I saw the poor fellow s face work 
 ing with sorrow and anxiety; but his spirit and 
 [335] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 loyalty undaunted by all the courts of judiciary 
 that ever sat. 
 
 We were preparing to be off together when 
 Nancy came down to us, pale and heavy-eyed. 
 
 " Jock," said she, " if Mr. Magendie had the 
 word he hoped for from Father Michel, it would 
 be wise for him to have as many Romanists in 
 the jury as he can get. They have reason to 
 know the priest s goodness." And then : " Jock, 
 darling ! " she cried, throwing her arms around 
 my neck and weeping as though her heart would 
 break, " there s a trial coming between us ; and 
 ye ll see me misjudged by the world, and by 
 Sandy as well, who has been like an own father 
 to me ! And by him ! him, too ! You ll all be 
 ashamed of me; but when I m called, mayhap 
 to-morrow or the next day," and the little hands 
 fastened themselves around my bare throat, 
 " don t distrust me. Beloved, don t distrust 
 me ! Don t believe I m bad, or wanting in loy 
 alty to the dear ones of my life. Don t believe 
 it, though ye hear me say it myself. I can abide 
 all that s come to me, but to have something 
 between us ! " and she buried her face in my 
 bosom, moaning like a hurt child. 
 
 " Nancy," said I, for the sight of any suffering 
 [336] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 of hers made me like a crazy man, " you ve held 
 yourself aloof from me, and have given out by 
 your conduct that your sympathies are all for 
 the prosecution; but in spite of it, if an angel 
 from Heaven were to call you guilty of disloy 
 alty to a friend I d give him the lie, though I 
 were damned for it ! " I cried. 
 
 " Mine Jock," she said, " mine Jock ! " and, 
 comforted by the very violence of my language, 
 she stood quietly by the window watching Huey 
 as he waded through the river of water under 
 neath which the road toward Edinburgh lay. 
 
 Sandy had remained in town over night to 
 be with his boy at the earliest possible moment, 
 and we sought him at the coffee-house where 
 he had slept. He had his friends with him, but 
 there were none to whom he paid attention 
 save to me, holding my hand in his, and breath 
 ing deep in a kind of relief as I stood by him. 
 
 I asked him how Danvers bore himself, and 
 he answered, with a courage and fortitude be 
 yond belief, and that Magendie gave him com 
 forting assurances. Of Nancy no word was 
 spoken between us, for the hurt he had received 
 from her conduct put an edge upon his suffer 
 ing keener than he could bring himself to name, 
 23 [ 337 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 and there came upon me, at the sight of this 
 pain, the impulse to tell him my own suspicions 
 in the matter, but caution for the cause held me 
 back. 
 
 Fierce as the morning was, the court-room 
 wau packed when we entered. I had asked and 
 received permission to sit beside Sandy until 
 such time as the empaneling should begin; and 
 as we took our seats in that dread place I had 
 a taste of the terror of the law which daunts my 
 spirit to this day. It s one thing to read of mur 
 ders by one s fireside, speculating over the evi 
 dence like a tale, and another to sit face to face 
 with the charges and the life of one most dear 
 dependent on the issue. And such was the awe 
 inspired by the dreadful surroundings that 
 when Carew, the Lord-President, in the wig 
 and scarlet robes of criminal jurisdiction, pre 
 ceded by the macers, took the bench, my body 
 shook as though in mortal illness, from fear of 
 the august power he i3presented, and this de 
 spite the fact that I d drunken deeper than was 
 wise with him many times in my early days and 
 knew him to be sodden in his affection for 
 Nancy from the time she had taken the case out 
 of his hands for Jeanie Henderlin. When Dan- 
 [338] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIE 
 
 vers, who was by far the most composed of any 
 of us, was brought in, I arose, laying my hand 
 on his shoulder as we talked, determined that 
 the whole town should know where my beliefs 
 and sympathies lay. 
 
 There was little difficulty in getting the fif 
 teen jurymen, and, as I was taken away to be 
 sequestered, a thing happened which I tell for 
 the love I have of human nature. There was a 
 commotion at the door of the court-room, and 
 I heard the macer s tones threatening some one, 
 and then a clear voice crying: 
 
 " If you don t let me in I ll break every bone 
 in your body," and Billy Deuceace, hard-ridden 
 and disheveled, elbowed his way to the railing 
 itself and held out both hands to Danvers. 
 
 " Couldn t get here any sooner, old man," 
 he cried. "Have ridden all night! Just came 
 up to say it s all damned nonsense, you know ! " 
 he finished, and I felt that a happier beginning 
 could scarce have occurred for us. 
 
 I was not in the court-room when the case 
 opened, and by this reason am forced for in 
 formation to the papers recording the case, 
 which forms one of the causes celeb res of Scot 
 tish legal history. Even at this distance of 
 [339] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 time, at sight of these old files I feel again the 
 helplessness and miserable sinking of heart 
 which I felt the first time I read the indictment 
 of Pitcairn against the boy whom I loved, no 
 matter what he had done; and I write it again, 
 no matter what he had done. 
 
 " The trial of Danvers Carmichael for the 
 murder of John Stewart Aglionby Montrose, 
 Duke of Borthwicke, Ardvilarchan, and Drum- 
 blaine in the Muirs, Lord of, etc., before the 
 Lord-President Carew, beginning Tuesday, 
 March tenth, 1788. 
 
 Counsel for the Crown For the Prisoner 
 
 Mr. Pitcairn Mr. Magendie 
 
 Mr. Inge Mr. Elliott 
 
 Solicitor Solicitor 
 
 Mr. Caldicott Mr. Witmer 
 
 taken in shorthand by John Gurney of London. 
 
 " After addressing the bench, the case was 
 opened for the prosecution by Mr. Pitcairn, as 
 follows : 
 
 " GENTLEMEN OF THE JUKY : 
 
 " The crime imputed to the prisoner at the 
 bar is that of wilful murder, effected by means 
 and in a manner most abhorred. Such an ao 
 [340] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 eusation naturally excites the indignation of 
 honest minds against the criminal. I will not 
 endeavor to increase it, and it is your duty to 
 resist it and to investigate and determine the 
 case wholly upon the evidence which will be 
 placed before you. 
 
 " On the night of the twenty-third of Febru 
 ary, 1788, John Stewart Aglionby Montrose, 
 Duke of Borthwicke, wa found, between the 
 hours of midnight and^ne of the morning, dead 
 in a desk-chair, in jL chamber on the ground 
 floor of Stair House, near Edinburgh, by Lord 
 Stair and .his serving-men, Huey MacGrath, 
 John Elliott, and James MacColl. The window 
 by the late duke it will be proven was wide open, 
 forming an easy entrance from outside; a pis 
 tol, the property of the accused, was found 
 lying by the chair upon which the duke sat, and 
 a wound above the temple of the deceased was 
 discovered, made by a bullet similar to those 
 used in the pistol before mentioned. 
 
 " It will be proven by testimony of such a 
 character and from such a source as to render 
 it singularly forcible, that on the morning of the 
 day previous to the night of the murder the 
 accused had threatened the duke s life, apply- 
 [341] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 ing vile and scurrilous names to the deceased; 
 repeating these threats several times and in 
 various forms. 
 
 " It will be proven that there had existed 
 for the accused one of the most powerful incen 
 tives to murder known, in the fact that the late 
 duke and he loved, and had loved for some time 
 past, the same lady, Nancy, daughter to Lord 
 Stair ; that both had addressed her in marriage, 
 and that in September last the quarrel between 
 them rode so high that a meeting was arranged 
 between the late duke and the accused ; and there 
 will be testimony to show that the duel was 
 averted by the late duke s apologizing to Mr. 
 Carmichael, a course urged upon him by the 
 lady herself. 
 
 " It will be proven that in October past, after 
 a bitter quarrel with Miss Stair, the accused 
 espoused in a hasty (and in a person of his 
 rank and station), unseemly manner, his moth 
 er s cousin, Miss Isabel Erskine ; that since that 
 time he has been little in her presence, leaving 
 her alone at the time when a woman most needs 
 the comfort and support of a husband s pres 
 ence, and paying marked attentions, both in 
 public and private, to the first lady of his choice, 
 [342] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 " It will be proven that on the day preceding 
 the murder there was published in an Edin 
 burgh paper called The Lounger the news that 
 an engagement of marriage had been contracted 
 between the late John Stewart Aglionby Mon- 
 trose, Duke of Borthwicke, Muir, etc., and Mis 
 tress Nancy Stair, only daughter of John Stair, 
 Lord of Stair and Alton in the Mearns. 
 
 "It will be proven that immediately upon 
 reading this the accused came directly to Stair, 
 and after entering unannounced into the room 
 where the lady was sitting, asked her if the tale 
 were true, calling the late duke a thiever from 
 the poor, a seducer of women, a man drenched 
 in all manner of villainy, and one whom he 
 would rather see her dead than married to. 
 That he had declared that he still loved and had 
 always loved her, that his marriage was but the 
 result of a crazy jealousy, and besought her to 
 promise him that she would never marry the 
 duke. It will be proven by two competent wit 
 nesses that upon her refusing to do this, the 
 accused had cried out, *I will save you the 
 promising, for I swear he shall never live to 
 rnarry you. 
 
 " It will be proven by a physician of repute 
 [343] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 that within ten minutes of the time of the mur 
 der the accused was seen, hatless, walking 
 very fast or running away from Stair House 
 toward his own home of Arran, and this along 
 a very secluded and unusual path. 
 
 "In conclusion, testimony will be brought 
 to show that the day before the murder the 
 accused made an agreement with a boatman of 
 Leith to keep a boat ready for him at an hour s 
 notice, either for Ireland or France. 
 
 " It may be urged that this testimony, even 
 if fully established, is purely circumstantial, 
 for that none saw the accused commit the fatal 
 deed. To this I would answer: 
 
 " The true question is, not what is the kind 
 of evidence in this cause, but what is the result 
 of it in your minds. 
 
 " If it fail to satisfy you of the guilt of the 
 prisoner, if your minds are not convinced, if 
 you remain in doubt, you must acquit him, be 
 the evidence positive or presumptive, because 
 the law regards a man as innocent so long as 
 any reasonable doubt of his guilt exists. But 
 if, on the contrary, you are convinced of the 
 fact, if there is no chance for a reasonable 
 doubt to exist, it is imperatively your duty to 
 [344] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 yourselves, to your country, and to your God 
 to convict, even if the evidence be wholly pre 
 sumptive." 
 
 I set this extremely dry document down ex 
 actly as it is recorded in the files for two rea 
 sons: first, that it contains all of the charges 
 against Danvers, and to show how black the 
 case stood against him when I say that all Pit- 
 cairn said he would prove he proved to the last 
 letter. 
 
 After my own testimony was taken, the na 
 ture of which is already known, I was granted 
 the privilege of sitting beside Sandy and his 
 boy, the three of us being joined daily by Billy 
 Deuceace, whom I love to the minute of this 
 writing for his devotion to my lad. 
 
 Nancy s appearance in court was naturally 
 looked upon as the most exciting point of the 
 trial, and the morning she was to be called 
 the crowd was dense to suffocation, the 
 court-officers busy, dashing to and fro, try 
 ing to keep some orderliness among the women, 
 who jostled each other and gave vent to loud 
 exclamations of annoyance in their efforts to 
 get places from which the best view might b 
 [345] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 obtained. It is curious to note the way some 
 trivial vexation will linger in the mind, for in 
 recalling this scene it is the annoyance I had 
 from Mrs. MacLeod, mine landlady of the Star 
 and Garter, that stands out clearest in my 
 memory of that dreadful waiting time. 
 
 She sat well to the front, giving herself im 
 portant airs, and I could hear her going back 
 and forth in whispers over the story of Nancy s 
 visiting the duke at her house to obtain the 
 pardon of Timothy Lapraik. Wagging her 
 head to and fro, applying her smelling-salts 
 vigorously, and assuming the manner of an in 
 timate sufferer in the cause, she exasperated us 
 to such an extent that Billy Deuceace was for 
 throwing her out of a window. 
 
 When Nancy entered every eye in that im 
 mense throng was fixed upon her, and as she 
 stood, so fair to see, in her black hat and gown, 
 waiting to take the oath, Mrs. MacLeod s feel 
 ings overcame her entirely, and she cried out, 
 in a loud voice: "Ah, the beauty! Tis her that 
 should hae been a duchess ! " immediately fall 
 ing into strong hysterics, upon which the macers 
 summarily ejected her, to our great satisfaction, 
 and Billy Deuceace all but cheered. 
 [346] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 Danvers s bearing changed at the mere 
 sound of Nancy s name, and the look of 
 adoration that he cast upon her as she came 
 near him was as unwise a piece of conduct as 
 could well he imagined, and one which would 
 have gone far toward convincing an onlooker 
 of his willingness to die or to murder for her 
 protection, if necessary. The look had no 
 weight with the one for whom it was intended, 
 however, for she let her eyes pass over rather 
 than encounter his, turning from him, with what 
 might easily seem a bit of disdain, to the busi 
 ness in hand. 
 
 As I gazed at her I noted with astonishment 
 that the little creature s face seemed to have 
 taken on something of Pitcairn s expression, 
 and from the first moment to the clear end it 
 was toward Pitcairn she gazed, her eyes tutored 
 by his, her passionless, unheated manner his 
 own, her adjustments and discrimination in 
 words showing her legal training, while he sat 
 as a maiden schoolmistress might who listened 
 to the reciting of a favorite pupil. As she went 
 on with her tale; omitting nothing of the duel; 
 dragging in details of the quarrel which seemed 
 unnecessary; stating that for some time past 
 [347] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 Mr. CarmichaePs attentions to her had been 
 pronounced to such an extent that she had 
 shunned all company for fear of meeting him; 
 damaging him in every way, as it appeared, while 
 the poor fellow turned a piteous color, putting 
 his hand over his eyes, and, for the first time in 
 his great trouble, I saw his lips tremble and 
 his body quiver with emotion. I could scarce 
 endure the sight of this, and to show my feel 
 ings threw my arm across his shoulder, at which 
 movement a murmur went through the crowd, 
 no doubt at the oddity of the situation, that I 
 should be so strongly marked on the one side 
 and Nancy as strongly set on the other. 
 
 Danvers s conduct changed, however, before 
 her testimony was finished, a thing which 
 I was glad to see, for he brought himself 
 together with fine bravery and courage, but 
 with a bitterness showing in his face as of one 
 who has been betrayed. 
 
 There were two things in Nancy s testimony 
 
 
 
 to which I looked forward with dread. The 
 first was the story of the cap, and the second 
 the finding of the pistol which I was morally 
 certain she had moved. The first of these was 
 not mentioned at all, by which I knew that Pit- 
 [348] 
 
CHAP. XXV NANCY STAIR 
 
 cairn had had that incident concealed from him, 
 and the pistol episode, about which I had been 
 questioned at length, swearing that the first 
 sight I had of the weapon was when it lay 
 within a foot of the duke s hand, was answered 
 like this : 
 
 Question. " In what position was the pistol 
 when you first saw it! " 
 
 Answer. " I can not swear to that. My 
 impression is that it lay with the barrel toward 
 the window. As I pointed it out to my father, 
 Lord Stair, I made a movement to go toward 
 it, but he held me back, going himself to inspect 
 it. From the distance at which I then stood 
 it seemed to be directly under the duke s right 
 hand, with the barrel toward the window." 
 
 It was after a full morning s hearing, dur 
 ing which it seemed there was nothing more she 
 could have said for Danvers s undoing, that she 
 was excused, to be followed by the villainous 
 boatman, whose testimony showed all too 
 clearly that Danvers had made ready a means 
 of escape. 
 
 The prosecution rested with the testimony 
 of this man, without one ray of hope for Dan 
 vers Carmichael that I could see, unless some 
 [349] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXV 
 
 of the jurymen were enlightened enough to 
 refuse a conviction in a capital case on any evi 
 dence which was circumstantial or conjectural, 
 Motive, abundant motive, had been proven; 
 nearness to the crime at the time of the murder ; 
 the ownership of the weapon, a black spot for 
 the defense to wipe out; and last, the means 
 planned for an escape in case of discovery, as 
 testified to by the boatman of Leith. 
 
 [350] 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE DEFENSE 
 
 ON the day that Magendie took the case I 
 had a taste of another kind of lawing than Pit- 
 cairn s, for the London man, to speak in a com 
 mon phrase, oiled everybody. He poured oil 
 over Carew; he drenched Hugh Pitcairn in it; 
 smoothed the jury with it, and I learned to the 
 full the legal value of the unantagonistic mind. 
 After this he turned a light on the case from 
 the other side, giving it an entirely different 
 appearance, holding up the slateful of charges 
 against Danvers, and sponging them carefully 
 off one by one, until I was amazed at his 
 abilities. 
 
 There were three important gentlemen, con 
 versant with the duke s habits, to prove that the 
 duke s lung trouble had accustomed him to fresh 
 air, that he slept with all of his windows 
 raised, and that it was his custom to have the 
 [351] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVI 
 
 window open near him, no matter what the 
 weather. And following came Huey, with the 
 statements that both of the pistols had been 
 at Stair House since before Mr. Danvers s 
 marriage, and that he had put one of them, with 
 a new hagged flint, in the desk at which his 
 grace was writing, within a few days of the 
 murder. Father Michel followed, saying that 
 Danvers had spent the evening of the murder 
 with him, trying to persuade him to go on a 
 sail for a few days, leaving his house about 
 midnight in a composed and quiet frame of 
 mind, with his cap in his hand, it being his 
 custom to go about in all kinds of weather in 
 that manner, a habit contracted at the English 
 school where he was educated. And before any 
 one could stop him, Father Michel, who I knew 
 was tutored to the illegal conduct by Magendie, 
 said earnestly: 
 
 " I consider it my duty to state, with no be 
 trayal of my sacred offices, that I know, by the 
 confessional Mr. Carmichael to be innocent of 
 this foul deed." 
 
 Pitcairn was roaring objections in a minute, 
 with Carew sustaining him, as was but legally 
 decent; but it mattered little, for the jurors had 
 [352] 
 
CHAP. XXVI NANCY STAIR 
 
 heard, and I knew that the holy man s words 
 would stick in their minds at verdict time. 
 
 Following Father Michel came two respect 
 able serving-men from Arran, declaring that 
 early the morning after the murder Mr. Dan- 
 vers had sent them to Leith to say that he no 
 longer wanted the boat, and that they had found 
 its owner, the one who had testified for the 
 prosecution, in such a state of intoxication that 
 they could not make their errand clear, and left 
 the message with his errand-boy, who was pro 
 duced to verify the truth of their statements. 
 And after him came Nancy Stair again, recalled 
 for the defense, to swear to a letter sent to the 
 duke by her the mourning of the day of his de 
 mise, which read as follows: 
 
 " MY DEAR, DEAR FRIEND : 
 
 " That I love you, you know; but that I can 
 love you with that fondness which a wife should 
 have for a husband is forever an impossibility 
 to me. Perhaps after a time we may be friends 
 again. I have always admired your power. 
 Of late I have admired your goodness as well. 
 
 " You say you will have no courage to go on 
 without me, and I wish with all my heart I could 
 love you as you desire, but my heart s all gone 
 from me, and to one who never will know. 
 84 [ 353 ] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVI 
 
 " Courage to go on ! If I have it, can not 
 you who are so much stronger have it as well? 
 " Affectionately your Friend, 
 
 " NANCY STAIK." 
 
 And after, Jamie Henderlin swore that it 
 was he who ran across the grounds, on his way 
 home from a wedding, and that he had heard 
 the shots and mentioned them to his mother on 
 his arrival at the Burnside, thus identifying 
 the small figure I had seen running through the 
 shaft of light, and wiping away the last black 
 mark on the slate against Danvers. 
 
 Mr. Magendie asked permission at this point 
 to address the court, saying that the defense 
 had been reserved by Mr. CarmichaePs wish, 
 and that the manner of the duke s taking off 
 had been a known thing to both of them for 
 more than a week, but that Mr. Carmichael 
 had stood his trial in order that every charge 
 against him might be cleared away. And after 
 raising public expectation to its highest, and 
 ridiculing the idea that a man of intelligence 
 should murder another and leave a weapon 
 heavily marked with his own name by the side 
 of the dead ; or that because a man had uttered 
 some threats of again challenging one whom 
 [354] 
 
CHAP. XXVI NANCY STAIE 
 
 lie had already met upon the field of honor, he 
 should be accused of being a midnight assassin, 
 there was called the last witness for the defense : 
 
 "Lord Kothermel!" 
 
 The entrance of this distinguished states 
 man, whose friendship for the great Pitt kept 
 him constantly in the public eye, caused little 
 less than a sensation. As he took the oath, I 
 had a near view of him; his dignified bearing, 
 his age, and his notable integrity showing at 
 every turn, the tones of his voice filling the 
 court with a peculiar resonance while he de 
 poned as follows: 
 
 " I come," he said, " as a messenger from 
 Mr. Pitt, who regrets that his Majesty s affairs, 
 connected with the troublous times in France, 
 prevent his leaving London. I have his depo 
 sition, however, and the case has been fully set 
 before me by him, so that I feel I am in a posi 
 tion to tell the whole truth of this disastrous 
 affair and to set Mr. Carmichael before the 
 world as a free man. 
 
 " There existed between Mr. Pitt and the 
 
 late Duke of Borthwicke, as the world knows, 
 
 a peculiar friendship. On the third morning 
 
 after the duke s death there came to Mr. Pitt a 
 
 [355] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVI 
 
 packet, taken from Stair House and mailed 
 about five of the morning upon which the duke 
 died, directed in the duke s hand, containing 
 three things : 
 
 "First. The findings of the Lighthouse 
 Commission. 
 
 " Second. Some information from the 
 French, a document of twenty-two pages, writ 
 in a cipher known to but five persons in the 
 United Kingdom, which paper alone convinced 
 Mr. Pitt of the authenticity of the docu 
 ment; and last, a personal letter, the orig 
 inal of which Lord Rothermel begged to 
 read before it be given to the jury : 
 
 " MY EVEK DEAR PlTT I 
 
 " When you receive these papers the last 
 intelligences I shall ever send you I, the writer 
 of them, shall be no more. 
 
 " A great disappointment, one which I have 
 not the heart to endure, together with a return 
 of my old trouble, for I have had three bleed 
 ings from the lungs within a month, have cured 
 me of the taste of living, and, by a mere move 
 ment of the trigger, I end the game to-night. 
 
 " It is a fancy of mine to take my leave of 
 this earthly stay surrounded by the little dear 
 belongings of the one I love. 
 [356] 
 
CHAP. XXVI NANCY STAIR 
 
 " There will be much talk back and forth 
 concerning me. I pray you bespeak me, if you 
 will, a brave, insolent, selfish, and unscrupulous 
 man of many villainies, some wit and foresight, 
 a disrespecter of humanity, athirst for power, 
 and a hater of fools ; but one who, at the end, 
 was capable of a great love for a great woman. 
 
 " I send some verses, which are of my own 
 making to-day. As Shakespeare says, 111 
 favored, but mine own, and so good night -a 
 long good night. 
 
 "TO NANCY STAIR 
 
 " I stand upon the threshold going out 
 
 Into the night. 
 
 The mists of old misdeeds crowd all about 
 And blind my sight. 
 
 " But thro the many worlds to come, my feet 
 
 No more shall roam. 
 
 The light from thy dear face at last my sweet 
 Will bring me home. 
 
 " To you always, my dear Pitt, 
 
 " BoETHWICKE W 
 
 I was dimly conscious of the uproar which 
 arose in the court-room, for I was away in a 
 by-gone time, a vision before me, clear as a 
 picture, of a sunny room, myself at a writing- 
 desk overlooking accounts, and a small curly 
 [3571 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVI 
 
 haired child poring over a book on the rug at 
 my feet 
 
 " Nancy made it just like Jock s! 11 
 "Nancy made it just like Jock s I n 
 
 I can recall the fear that seized me as the 
 duke s letter was being examined by those fa 
 miliar with his writings; the chill I felt as 
 Blake, who knew his hand the best, was sum 
 moned to inspect it; my terror as he hesitated, 
 with all the time that sing-song refrain going 
 over and over in my head, so loud that I was 
 afraid that everyone in the court would hear 
 it; and then, far away and little, like a wood- 
 call, " Nancy made it " And when Blake and 
 Dundas identified the writing, and Sullivan, 
 the duke s own secretary, declared that not only 
 would he be Trilling to swear to his belief of 
 the duke s hand, but to the spirit of the docu 
 ment as well, I put my head on the back of 
 Danvers s chair to hide the tears which rolled 
 down my cheeks, tears of relief, but springing 
 from a very different cause than the one at 
 tributed for them. 
 
 There was more summing up and going 
 back and forth, but the tension of the trial was 
 over for all except me and one other one wide- 
 [358] 
 
CHAP. XXVI NANCY STAIR 
 
 eyed little creature, sitting in her black gown, 
 with Dickenson beside her, on the other side of 
 the court-room; a slender girlish figure before 
 whom my soul was on its knees. 
 
 I imagined her work, after she asked me to 
 pray for her, upon that awful night. I thought 
 of fifty things on the second, as it seemed. 
 Visions came to me of Nancy dipping her head 
 in the basin of water, Nancy by the mail-bag 
 in the early dawning before the officers had 
 come, and to that " Nancy made it just like 
 Jock s," there came, with terror to my soul, 
 another jumble of words "Accessory after 
 the fact." 
 
 I knew that the jury consulted but a few 
 minutes before the whole of Edinburgh was 
 shaking hands with Danvers, assuring him of 
 their never-shaken trust in his innocence, saw 
 Pitcairn putting his papers into the black- 
 leather case, was conscious that Billy Deuceace 
 was laughing as he talked to some women, with 
 his hand on Danvers s shoulder. I say that I 
 was aware of these things, but so remotely that 
 they seemed part of a dream, for my real 
 thought was to get to Nancy, to take her away, 
 to shield her from I know not what; and leav- 
 [359] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVI 
 
 ing the Carmichael party, I made my way to 
 the place where she was awaiting the carriage. 
 As we stood together near the doorway, 
 Sandy and Danvers, with their friends, passed 
 us on their way from the court-room, and my 
 heart bled as I saw the look Nancy gave them, 
 the look of pleading and affection, which 
 Sandy avoided by talking to the one beside 
 him; but Danvers, and none could blame him, 
 considering his belief that she had done her 
 utmost to get him hanged, looked full at her, 
 his eyes showing scorn of her. I felt the slight 
 body quiver, saw her sway back and forth for 
 a little, and then, with a sob like a wounded 
 child, she lost consciousness entirely. Hugh 
 Pitcairn stayed by her until she was enough re 
 covered for me to put her in the coach, and 
 rode back to Stair with us, watching her all the 
 time with an expression of alarm and tender 
 ness, which drew him very near to me. 
 
 [36O] 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE MISTS ALL CLEAEED AWAY 
 
 ON toward midnight I was awakened by 
 Dickenson clamoring at my door, telling me 
 that Nancy lay delirious, with a high fever, 
 calling for me. Making what haste I could, I 
 reached the poor child, to find her tossing from 
 one side of the bed to the other, uttering hoarse 
 cries, with neither intelligence in her glance nor 
 recognition of either my presence or my voice. 
 McMurtrie s attitude, after his examination, 
 drove me wild with fear. "It s like to be a 
 long case," he said. " I want ye to get Dr. 
 Cameron from Glasgow. I ll stay by ye," he 
 added ; " I ll just move into the house, for, 
 under God, it s not my intention to let Nancy 
 Stair leave us yet." 
 
 Weeks and weeks went by, during which it 
 seemed as though I neither slept nor ate, listen 
 ing to the moaning, or, what was far worse, 
 broken talk of her work, of her cares, scraps of 
 [361] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 forgotten rhymes, bits of Latin verse, law refer 
 ences cited letter for letter, until I needed the 
 doctor myself, who threatened to put me from 
 the house unless I showed a more reasonable 
 behavior. 
 
 On in the third week of Nancy s fever I 
 heard that Danvers s wife was ill, but this was 
 nature, and I gave no more thought to the 
 matter. On the afternoon of the day on which 
 the news was brought me the Arran folks 
 sent again to know if Dr. McMurtrie could be 
 spared them, and we sent him over immediately. 
 On his return I asked him, in a perfunctory 
 way, how he had found things, and he returned 
 an evasive answer; but upon my insisting for 
 the truth, he told me that Isabel had given birth 
 to a child the night before, but that it had died 
 before morning, and that she herself was in a 
 most desperate state. 
 
 My heart went out to all this suffering, but 
 death so near increased my anxiety for my own 
 child, and when the news was brought me on 
 the following morning that Isabel had passed 
 away during the night, the fear for Nancy rose 
 high in me, and I became like a crazed creature, 
 wandering from one room to another, with half- 
 [363] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIE 
 
 begun prayers to God upon my lips and a feel 
 ing of utter helplessness heavy on my soul. 
 
 Nine weeks of this I endured, nine weeks of 
 such dread that I should choose death in pref 
 erence to living the time again, when one morn 
 ing in early spring Dr. Cameron, who had been 
 watching by the bedside all night, came to me. 
 " I think, my lord," he said, " that the worst is 
 by with. Ye need worry no more," and at the 
 words I buried my face in my hands, as I sat at 
 the table, and wept like a child. 
 
 On the day following this announcement, 
 Sandy, who had refused to leave me in my 
 great anxiety, took his boy off to visit the New 
 Eepublic founded across seas, and Dr. McMur- 
 trie, who kept his residence at Stair, for I would 
 listen to no word of his leaving us yet, watched 
 the dear one on her journey back from the val 
 ley of the shadow. It was late summer before 
 she was able to be about at all, and Hallowe en 
 was celebrated by her first riding out. 
 
 As she grew stronger there were two changes 
 I noted in her conduct, the first of these being 
 her unwillingness to see Hugh Pitcairn, whose 
 solicitude for her during her illness had knit 
 us together by cords never to be broken. If 
 [363] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 she knew he was in the house she would retire 
 to her own room, or if advised of his coming 
 would go abroad to visit or drive, in every way 
 showing a clear avoidance of his society. And 
 the second matter was in connection with the 
 Burn School. This work had been the chief 
 thought of her life before her illness, but upon 
 her recovery she refused to visit the place, 
 would walk or ride far around by the Dead 
 Man s Holm to avoid meeting in with either 
 teachers or pupils; and when Father Michel 
 brought work to her to have it examined she 
 would overlook it listlessly, and put it by im 
 mediately on his departure, to be referred to 
 no more. I knew more of the reasons for this 
 conduct than she suspected, her talk in the fever 
 being all of one thing, and the intuition of my 
 love helping me far in discovering the truth. 
 I believed that McMurtrie had learned some 
 matters as well as myself, for twice, when he 
 was telling me something concerning her, he 
 broke off with entire irrelevancy to say : " The 
 little deevil ; the plucky little deevil ! " with tears 
 in his eyes, and ending with, " God ! I d like to 
 tell Pitcairn," and a roar of laughter. 
 
 More than a year had gone by before her 
 [364] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 color and brightness came back to her, and one 
 gay spring morning, when the " Nanciness " of 
 her had shown itself by some audacious re 
 joinder, I ventured on a remark, which I hoped 
 would lead to an open talk with me, concerning 
 the affair of the trial. 
 
 " Nancy," said I, with nothing but the impulse 
 of the moment to guide me, " would a child of 
 mine commit a forgery? " 
 
 She looked up at me quickly, as though to 
 judge my intention, before she answered, " A 
 child of yours did." 
 
 " But you were too little to know the force 
 of your conduct then," I continued. " Would a 
 child of mine do such a thing now? " 
 
 A curious gleam passed over her face before 
 she answered, looking straight into my eyes as 
 she did so, "Don t worry about that, Jock," 
 she said ; " she didn t have to ! " 
 
 " We will suppose," she went on, with an 
 exact imitation of Pitcairn, " only suppose, you 
 understand, that a bit of evidence was needed 
 in a certain trial to clear one who was very 
 dear; and we will suppose, only suppose, you 
 remember, that there was a girl who had skill 
 enough to seem to obtain it. We will suppose, 
 [365] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 still, that the girl said to herself, If I am on 
 the other side from the great Pitcairn, I shall 
 have no chance against his cross-examination, 
 but if I seem to be on his own side he may be 
 thrown from his guard, and I may suggest the 
 questioning I want followed.* Take the testi 
 mony ! " she cried, in her natural voice, rising 
 and standing by the chimney-place. " Take the 
 testimony which I gave and go through it word 
 by word, and you can find neither forgery nor 
 perjury. I had been well taught in the letter 
 of the law. I was Pitcairn s own pupil, Jock ! " 
 It was less than a week from this time that 
 I came in from a ride, happier than I had 
 thought to be again in this life, when a sight 
 met my eyes which threw me clear from my 
 reckoning. Going past the door of Nancy s 
 sitting-room, I looked in, and at first sight 
 thought my eyes had deceived me, for standing 
 in the middle of the room was Hugh Pitcairn, 
 and Nancy s head was on his shoulder. I saw 
 that she was crying, and that the great lawyer 
 himself, who was far from unmoved, patted her 
 shoulder every once in a while, saying, " There, 
 there ! " staring out of the window and blinking 
 hard to keep the tears back. 
 [366] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 I went on to my own chamber and sat down 
 in a heap on the side of the bed, as I used to 
 do at college, repeating, " Good Heavens ! " over 
 and over to myself, until interrupted in the per 
 formance by Huey, who came in to gather the 
 fire. "Where is Mr. Pitcairn, Huey?" said I. 
 < He s went," he replied, and on the words a 
 fear seized me lest Nancy should retire into one 
 of her silences, and I should be left in a state 
 of raging curiosity through the night. Upon 
 inquiry I found that she was sleeping, and went 
 down to the library, where I had but just set 
 tled myself when Hugh Pitcairn appeared be 
 fore me, a legal document in his hand, having 
 been for a walk to recover himself, I supposed. 
 He looked more wooden than I had ever seen 
 him, and, in the language of the country, I knew 
 he would make me pay for the emotion he had 
 shown before Nancy. 
 
 " Pve news for you," he said. 
 
 "Hugh," I answered, "if they re pleasant, 
 ye re welcome; but if they are not, I tell ye 
 frankly, I ve been stretched to breaking in the 
 past year, and can not stand much more." 
 
 "It s not ill," he answered. "It concerns 
 the death of the Duke of Borthwicke." 
 [367] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 Here was dangerous walking for me, and I 
 waited. 
 
 " Do you recall," lie inquired, " the French 
 woman at the Burnside who taught the Mar 
 seilles work! " 
 
 " A poor distraught body who ran from her 
 own shadow 1 " said I. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "Although she spoke the French tongue, it 
 seems she was Irish by birth. Her name" he 
 coughed a little behind his hand as though to 
 give me time "her name was Barnet." 
 
 I had heard the name before, but where? I 
 saw that Hugh was waiting for me to place it, 
 but any significant connection it might have I 
 found myself unable to recall. 
 
 " It was heard of, ten or twelve years past, 
 in connection with that of the late Duke of 
 Borthwicke," he threw in for my assistance, and 
 the tale of an old-time scandal came back to 
 me at his words. 
 
 "She left her husband for him. They 
 went to France together, did they not?" 1 
 asked. 
 
 "It was so stated at the time," Pitcairn 
 answered. 
 
 [368] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 "And she knows something of the duke s 
 death? " 
 
 " Knew," Pitcairn corrected. " She died at 
 noon to-day. It is her confession that I have 
 in this paper, John. It was she herself who 
 shot the duke, and the interwovenness of affairs 
 is marked in this. She was an early love of 
 Father Michel s, before he entered the priest 
 hood, and came to him for work after her chil 
 dren died." 
 
 " Poor woman," said I, " she was half 
 crazed, and, God forgive me for saying so, had 
 many excuses for her act." 
 
 " Father Michel sent for me at ten. McMur- 
 trie was there, and she told us the tale, after 
 signing the paper, which I bring to you to use 
 as you think best. You will be glad to have 
 Carmichael see it, perhaps." 
 
 " Hugh," said I, for a shadow had lain be 
 tween us ever since the trial, despite his devo 
 tion to Nancy, " I didn t think ye acted well by 
 me at the time of the trial." 
 
 I got no further in this speech, for upon the 
 instant he flew into a sudden heat, which made 
 any temper, Sandy s or mine, or both of them 
 put together, seem but a child s displeasure be 
 side it. ^ (- 369 j 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 " Acted well to ye ! " he cried. " Acted well 
 to ye ! Do you know what I did for you at that 
 time, Jock Stair, or rather for that bit lassie 
 of yours, who has so wound herself about my 
 heart that her illness has made me a broken 
 man! I didn t give over the case when ye asked 
 me, for I believed Danvers Carmichael a guilty 
 man; but I meant to be as lenient to him as 
 consistent with exact duty. Ye ll learn perhaps 
 that in law, a friend prosecuting is better than 
 a friend defending! Do you think I did not 
 know what was done at that trial! Oh! not at 
 the first, for she tricked and befooled me to the 
 clear end of the prosecution; but when the let 
 ter was read I knew it had been changed, and 
 did for that bit of a girl what the rest of the 
 world might have tried to get me to do in vain. 
 I was afraid for her for her! do you under 
 stand? for, on my soul, I thought him guilty 
 in the way she did, a sudden duel perhaps, for 
 the young man has a look of honesty not com 
 patible with murder. But when I thought of 
 what might come to her as accessory after the 
 fact accessory after the fact do you un 
 derstand? I shivered before a Scotch justice 
 for the first time in my life. 
 [370] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIE 
 
 "But the thing that galls me," lie went on, 
 and his pride spoke, " is that yon London-man, 
 Magendie, may never know I had the truth con 
 cerning the affair. With Ferrars vs. Lorrimer, 
 Annesly vs. Ingraham, and Cobham, Greenly, 
 and Spencer vs. the Crown* at my tongue s end, 
 did he think I d let a case of resting on letter- 
 evidence like his pass as I did without some 
 weighty reason for my silence? 
 
 " But the queer thing of it is that I feel a 
 better man somehow for having done my duty 
 loosely; for, John, I had at home, when that 
 letter was produced in court, one sent by mes 
 senger, dated a half -hour later by the duke him 
 self, asking me to meet him the following morn 
 ing to overlook some papers before he signed 
 them, which, had I produced, would have ended 
 the whole defense. 
 
 " She s just upset all my creeds and conduct. 
 I could no more have hurt her as she sat look 
 ing at me with those big soft eyes of hers than 
 I could have murdered a baby. What did I tell 
 you years agone? " he cried, turning upon me 
 with some fierceness " That ye can t do any- 
 
 * "Famous Forgeries," Benson. 
 
 [371] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 thing with women folks. Inherited mother in 
 stincts make them protect anything, and when 
 it comes to one they love, they ll falsify, not 
 knowing that they re doing it, and justify the 
 lies by Scripture, if need be. 
 
 " But when a man comes to die it s his 
 mother he calls for; tis the touch of her hand 
 he wants, and her breast to lean against as 
 when he was a wee bit bairn, for he knows the 
 worth of a heart that is all for him, right or 
 wrong, through sickness, disgrace, and death. 
 And in the long nights I watched by the child s 
 bedside I learned more, Jock Stair, than any 
 intellectual work could ever bring me, for 
 the love I had for her, and the thought of wom 
 an s love as mother, wife, and daughter, raised 
 me more, made me a finer man, a more uplifted 
 one than I have ever been, even when it made 
 me soft about my duty. It seems a bit muddled, 
 but it s a solemn truth." 
 
 "I knew you d find it out, Hugh Pitcairn, 
 and you d have known what ye ve been trying 
 to tell me years ago if you d had a wife and 
 children of your own. You re such a splendid 
 fellow," I cried, "it s a pity you, haven t." 
 
 " I ve been wishing I had," he said simply. 
 [373] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIE 
 
 "And why not? " I cried; "you re a young 
 man yet." 
 
 He shook his head at this, but made no an 
 swer in words, and left me with some abrupt 
 ness and no further speech. 
 
 Now that the confession was in my hands I 
 knew not what course to pursue, and fell to 
 wondering how much reviewing it might cause 
 of the testimony which had cleared Danvers 
 Carmichael, and what possible trouble from that 
 might come home to Nancy s door. It was but 
 nine o clock; a thought seized me before I 
 reached the house, and I sent MacColl to Arran 
 Towers with a request that Mr. Danvers come 
 to me immediately. It had been over a year 
 since he had crossed my threshold, and al 
 though he was back in the country above three 
 months, with Nancy s conduct still unexplained, 
 friendly intercourse between the houses was 
 impossible. 
 
 " There s a welcome been waiting for you 
 o er long," I said to him as he entered the room, 
 and here the fine directness of him answered 
 me: 
 
 " I ve never had for you a thought not of 
 the kindest; but your daughter s conduct to me, 
 [373] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 Lord Stair, has rendered " and before he fin 
 ished I put out my hand to stay him. 
 
 " I wouldn t go on if I were you, Danvers ! 
 I wouldn t say that which I might come to re 
 gret. Ye haven t known all, and ye may have 
 misjudged," and here I began at the other end. 
 
 " The one who killed the Duke of Borthwicke 
 has confessed the deed. I have the confession 
 here ! " I said, touching the paper I had from 
 Hugh Pitcairn as it lay on the table. 
 
 " The one who killed the duke ! " Danvers 
 cried, in amazement. " The man confessed him 
 self a suicide." 
 
 " Danvers," I went on, " I am afraid that 
 letter was not written by the duke, not all writ 
 ten by the duke. It was on separate sheets, if 
 you remember, the first one naturally without 
 signature. It is this part which I believe to 
 have been partly written by another." 
 
 If ever there was a mystified face it was 
 Danvers s as he stood trying to make something 
 of my words. 
 
 " Let me tell you the whole story," I went 
 on, " a bit at a time, and when I bungle it in the 
 telling stop me till ye get it clear, for the future 
 between us is just hanging on the tale I tell. 
 [374] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 " The night of the murder I saw ye, Dan- 
 vers, going back to Stair, bareheaded, in the 
 snow, upon what errand I knew not; and when 
 Nancy and I went down the steps of the little 
 porch, she picked up something and hid it in 
 the lace of her cloak; but in her room that 
 night, when she fainted, I saw it was your cap, 
 all of which she held silence concerning. And 
 the next morning I was sent off to Pitcairn to 
 worm it from him if he had heard you threat 
 ening the duke the day before, and discovered 
 that not only did he hear that, but knew as well, 
 from the fool chemist, that you were seen run 
 ning away from Stair on the very heels of the 
 murder, and if a blacker case was ever set for 
 a woman to clear away I have yet to hear of it." 
 
 " I came up from Father Michel s through 
 your grounds, hoping to catch a sight of her by 
 the light in the writing-room. When I was far 
 toward home I discovered that I had lost the 
 cap she gave me, and turned back for it, but 
 the snow was so deep I thought it useless," 
 Danvers explained. 
 
 Upon this I told the story, a piece at a time, 
 going backward and forward over all that has 
 been set down, and the effect of it upon the lad 
 [375] 
 
XAXCY STAIR CHAP. XXVH 
 
 is impossible to describe. When I told of 
 Nancy s finding his cap he put his hands over 
 his eyes, and sat with his face covered until the 
 clear end of the telling, when he looked up at 
 me with a great sadness, which had joy in it 
 as well. 
 
 Where is she, Lord Stair; may I see her! " 
 he asked. 
 
 "Til go up with you and see," I answered, 
 as I held him by the arm for a minute. " Will 
 you be good to her? " I asked. 
 
 "Good to her!" he cried. "If she ll have 
 me! if the rest of my life s service can atone 
 in any way for all the misery I ve caused her 
 it s hers for the taking." 
 
 "God bless you," I said; "God bless and 
 keep you both." 
 
 The door of the sitting-room stood a bit 
 open, and I entered to find Xancy in a loose 
 white wrapper in a great-chair by the fire. 
 
 " I ve some company for you. Little Flow 
 er!" I began, and my voice choked me so that 
 she looked at me in surprise. 
 
 "Who is itT" she asked. 
 
 " It s one who has been too long gone," I 
 answered her, but by this time reason and con- 
 [376] 
 
CHAP. XXVH NANCY STAIR 
 
 vention were blown to the four winds of heaven, 
 for at sound of that beloved voice the door was 
 thrown open and Danvers was on his knees be 
 fore her, his face buried in her hands. 
 
 "My girl!" he cried, "my girl! Can ye 
 forgive me for all the misjudgments I made of 
 you? Can you forget all the sorrow and misery 
 I have brought into your life? Can you just let 
 the past be by with and take me to your heart, 
 for tis the only place I ve ever known happi 
 ness or peace in all my life? I m not worthy 
 of you," he went on, " no man ever born was 
 that; but say you care enough that you think 
 you " 
 
 And here the woman spoke : 
 
 " Good or bad and I think you the finest 
 man I ever knew worthy of me or not, I d 
 rather be your wife than anything this world 
 could bring. Oh, ye ve been so long away. Dan 
 vers," she said, with a sob, " so long away " 
 
 " God ! " he cried, the word sounding like a 
 prayer, as he gathered her in his arms, kissing 
 her lips, her eyes, her hair ; and, the time being 
 made for them, I went quietly from the room. 
 
 An hour passed, two; and when midnight 
 was tolled, I knew that Nancy s health must be 
 [377] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 thought of, and crossed the hall to pack Dan- 
 vers off home. I found him, glorified, at one 
 side of the chimney-shelf, and Nancy, like a 
 beautiful crumpled rose, at the other; Nancy, 
 with eyes showing the memory of Danvers s 
 kisses; conscious to the finger-tips, all woman, 
 who had been learning for the past two hours 
 from her lover s passionate caresses the Mean 
 ing of Life. 
 
 " Be off home with you, Danvers Carmi- 
 chael," I cried. " Ye ll have this child of mine 
 ill again ! " 
 
 "I am not going home," he said deter 
 minedly. " She is not well, and she needs some 
 one to sit up with her." 
 
 I laughed in his face. " With Dickenson in 
 the next room, Joan Landy sleeping at the foot 
 of the bed, and McMurtrie and myself across 
 the hall, she scarce suffers from lack of atten 
 tion," I answered, and here he took another 
 course. 
 
 " Oh," he cried, " think of what I have been 
 through think of all the bitter days and nights 
 of separation from her! Think how near I 
 came to losing her altogether. Think of the 
 hell of the last two years, and let me stay," he 
 [378] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 cried, pleadingly ; and here the young rascal put 
 his hand on my shoulder. 
 
 " Father, " he cried. 
 
 The word made me wax in his hand, and I 
 compromised. " Ye can have the rooms next to 
 mine and stay with us to-night," I gave in. 
 
 " I shall stay till the wedding. I m going to 
 live here," he returned with a laugh, at which 
 I carried him off to my own rooms, though he 
 went back twice to Nancy s door to say some 
 thing he d forgotten. 
 
 I knew that " forgotten thing." I had gone 
 back often to say it myself. What lover has 
 not? But at the third announcement of his for- 
 gettings I lost patience with him. 
 
 " Danvers Carmichael ! Many s the time in 
 our college days that I have thrown your father 
 down and sat on him to keep him from some 
 piece of deviltry, and despite my years, I fear 
 I ll have to treat ye the same way," I cried, 
 upon which we ordered the pipes and some 
 brandy, and sat till the clear day was come, 
 talking the past over, going back and forth 
 over our many mistakes, and making happy 
 plans for the future, with Nancy the centre of 
 every plan. 
 
 [379] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 A month later the marriage took place in 
 the little chapel on the Burnside, on a morning 
 so fair and bright and joyous that it seemed 
 made for such a happening. All the old friends 
 were there Janet and Hugh, Dame Dicken- 
 son and Uncle Ben, the girls from the lace- 
 school, Jeanie Henderlin with the Lapraiks, 
 and Huey MacGrath, who cried without inter 
 mission from the time he arose in the morning 
 until late in the day, when, overcome by the 
 punch, he was found asleep with his head on the 
 Hall Bible. 
 
 Jamie played the violin, and as Nancy and 
 I entered the church, Danvers and Billy Deuce- 
 ace were waiting for us at the railing. It was 
 such a misty, glorified, radiant Nancy I had 
 upon my arm, that Danvers waited no longer 
 after the first look, his impatience being such 
 that he left Billy Deuceace, and, coming down 
 the aisle, took her from me before we were half 
 way to the altar. Somewhat set back by the 
 suddenness of this, I turned to Sandy, who was 
 near Sandy, with a face as glad, as overjoyed 
 as my own who, seeing the position I was left 
 in, joined me, and we walked together to the 
 altar-rail and stood shoulder to shoulder as our 
 [ 380 ] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 two children were united until God do them 
 part. 
 
 Looking down the years to come we saw 
 other Sandy Carmichaels and other Jock Stairs 
 together in the bare old playground we had 
 known; saw splendid men and women, born of 
 our son and daughter, making the world better 
 and stronger for our having lived, and the joy 
 within me was so strong that the tears stood in 
 my eyes and trembled down my face. Turning 
 suddenly, I found Sandy as moist-eyed as my 
 self, and while the service was being read I 
 reached toward him, and we stood, hands 
 gripped, until the end, in memory of our dead 
 youth and of our friendship that could never 
 die. 
 
 And like an old man who tells a tale limp- 
 ingly, and covers the ground again to make its 
 points clear to the listener, I set down a scene 
 some five years later in the grounds of Stair. 
 We were all there, Nancy and Danvers, Sandy, 
 Pitcairn, and myself and two Newcomers, the 
 most spoiled and petted children, it is my be 
 lief, upon the entire earth. 
 
 " I had a letter from Pailey to-day, Nancy," 
 [381] 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXYII 
 
 said I, " proposing a third edition of your 
 poems." * 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " That s by with forever, Jock ; I shall never 
 write again," she answered. 
 
 " No more verse-making? " I inquired. 
 
 " Never any more unless it be to say to 
 women this." 
 
 She stood, with her hands folded before her, 
 a beautiful fulfilled Nancy, looking down at us 
 with sweetest earnestness, her children leaning 
 against her as she spoke. 
 
 " I should write : I, Nancy Stair-Carmichael, 
 have learned that verse-making and verse-sing 
 ing and the publicity that goes with them do not 
 make me a finer woman; I have learned that 
 my woman s body is not strong enough for the 
 mental excitement of that existence, and to be 
 a daughter, a wife and a mother, as well, and 
 that God in his goodness sent a certain great 
 
 * The last published poems written by Nancy Stair Carmichael 
 (afterward Countess of Glenmore) were: 
 
 "And will ye go Love s Way with me " written directly after 
 the visit to Allan-Lough and 
 
 "Here awa! There awa! Daffy-Down-Dilly O!" one of the 
 quaintest bits of loving child rhyme in all the Scots tongue, 
 composed soon after the birth of her first child, Danvers Car* 
 miciiael, Jr. 
 
 [382] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 poet into my life to show me that gift is nothing 
 beside womanhood. 
 
 " And I would reason with all these dear 
 other women like this : 
 
 " Suppose I write certain verses ! Where 
 will my lines be two hundred years from now? 
 Forgotten words of unimmediate things. But 
 suppose my heart spoke to me, and knowing I 
 could do but one work well, I put all childish 
 ambition aside to become the mother of men, 
 that centuries from now thousands of my chil 
 dren may be fighting for the right of present 
 issues and hastening that Divine Outcome for 
 which God made us all. 
 
 "And I would say to them: the night I 
 knew another woman was to be the mother " 
 she paused abruptly, for she had been so car 
 ried away by her own thought as to forget 
 where this might lead. She was a great woman, 
 but to the end of her life could never bring her 
 self to name the fact that Danvers had had an 
 other wife. 
 
 " That night," she continued, slurring the 
 statement over, " I learned more about life than 
 the classics ever taught me. 
 
 " And I would write, as well, something 
 
NANCY STAIR CHAP. XXVII 
 
 about the trial, to say to them that when Dan- 
 vers s life was at stake I had no thought but to 
 save him. Right or wrong, innocent or guilty, 
 the only thing I wanted was that he might be 
 free. 
 
 " And by this thing I found the unfitness of 
 women to handle public affairs, for the tender 
 hearts, which make good wives and mothers and 
 daughters, unfit us for the judicial conduct need 
 ed in public matters and I m glad they do," she 
 finished, with a smile. 
 
 "It s not," Danvers amended, as he stood 
 with his arm about her, " that women have not 
 the ability to do anything they want," for he 
 was ever chivalrous, " but that God in his wis 
 dom gave them a great and special work, and 
 they should be kept strong and safe and holy 
 for its fulfilment." 
 
 " But it is not given to all women to choose 
 what they shall do," said Sandy. 
 
 " And few of them are gifted creatures, any 
 how," said Hugh. 
 
 " And one life can never be as another," 
 said I; but the older baby, who looked up just 
 then, said, "Mother." 
 
 [384] 
 
CHAP. XXVII NANCY STAIR 
 
 " And that one word tells the whole story," 
 cried Nancy, with a passion of tenderness in 
 her voice, laying the child s head against her 
 bosom. 
 
 THE END 
 
 [385] 
 
Daring in conception and fulfilment," 
 
 Boston Herald. 
 
 Mills of God. 
 
 By ELINOR MACARTNEY LANE. Illustrated. i2mo. 
 Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 " It is a good novel in comparison to even the best in current Amer 
 ican fiction." The New York Herald. 
 
 "The reader will not willingly lay aside the book till the end is 
 reached. The story is exceedingly well written and thoroughly well 
 told." The Washington Post 
 
 " The story shows maturity, resource, and distinction. It combines 
 the dash and valor of the favorite school of fiction with the poise, acute- 
 ness, and refinement of the reflective type. It is compact of fresh, 
 generous character creation, appealing and exquisite." Boston Times. 
 
 "Her theme is daring and delicate. Notwithstanding, the final 
 product more than justifies the choice, the story is strong and fearlessly 
 told, the novel exceptional in finish and the careful balance of its parts." 
 
 The Washington Star. 
 
 " Mills of God is said to be a woman s first novel, and if this be 
 true the writer, Elinor Macartney Lane, has much to be proud of. She 
 has studied her art and has a serious view of it. It is a well-written, 
 interesting, and readable novel." New York Times Saturday Review. 
 
 "She certainly will be heard from again and more insistently. Not 
 only for the pleasure it gives, but still more for the intellectual delight 
 of watching from the first the development of a new writer, Mills of 
 God* deserves wide attention. Its writer is a coming author." 
 
 New York Mail and Express. 
 
 " A romance of extraordinary charm and carries its absorbing story 
 along with triumphant decision. The ideals of the book are high, and 
 the romance is too gallant to leave the mind of the reader in a depressed 
 condition." Chicago Tribune. 
 
 " A brilliant romance of Virginia ; a deftly woven tale, with passion s 
 power for good and evil as its theme. Mrs. Lane has a vivacious, spir 
 ited, graphic way of telling a story and portraying character. Her 
 dialogue has an air of life, and is even-pointed and piquant. She has 
 pictured with power, yet with delicacy and reserve, the dawn of a great 
 passion, the futile struggle against it, and the surrender." 
 
 Chicago Record-Herald, 
 
 U A mighty good romance. The characters are complex human 
 beings, instead of lay-figures for the display of ready-made chivalry, 
 and one remembers both them and their history after laying down the 
 book." Life. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 
 
WIT, SPARKLING, SCINTILLATING WIT, 
 IS THE ESSENCE OF 
 
 Kate of Kate Hall, 
 
 By ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER, 
 
 whose reputation was made by her first book, 
 " Concerning Isabel Carnaby," and enhanced by her 
 last success, " Place and Power." 
 
 "In Kate of Kate Hall, by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, the ques 
 tion of imminent concern is the marriage of super-dainty, peppery- 
 tempered Lady Katherine Clare, whose wealthy godmother, erstwhile 
 deceased, has left her a vast fortune, on condition that she shall be 
 wedded within six calendar months from date of the testator s death. 
 
 "An easy matter, it would seem, for bonny Kate, notwithstanding 
 her aptness at sharp repartee, is a morsel fit for the gods. 
 
 " The accepted suitor appears in due time ; but comes to grief at the 
 last moment in a quarrel with Lady Kate over a kiss bestowed by her 
 upon her godmother s fonner man of affairs and secretary. This inci 
 dent she haughtily refuses to explain. Moreover, she shatters the bond 
 of engagement, although but three weeks remain of the fatal six months. 
 She would rather break stones on the road all day and sleep in a 
 pauper s grave all night, than marry a man who, while professing to love 
 her, would listen to mean and malicious gossips picked up by tell-tales 
 in the servants hall. 
 
 " So the great estate is likely to be lost to Kate and her debt-ridden 
 father, Lord Claverley. How it is conserved at last, and gloomy appre 
 hension chased away by dazzling visions of material splendor that is 
 the author s well-kept secret, not to be shared here with a careless and 
 indolent public." Philadelphia North American. 
 
 " The long-standing reproach that women are seldom jhumorists 
 seems in a fair way of passing out of existence. Several contemporary 
 feminine writers have at least sufficient sense of humor to produce char 
 acters as deliciously humorous as delightful. Of such order is the 
 Countess Claverley, made whimsically real and lovable in the recent 
 book by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and A. L. Felkin, * Kate of Kate 
 Hall. " Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 " Kate of Kate Hall is a novel in which Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler 
 displays her brilliant abilities at their best. The story is well constructed, 
 the plot develops beautifully, the incidents are varied and brisk, and the 
 dialogue is deliciously clever." Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 
 
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