Alec Forbes of Howglen Part 77

CHAPTER LXXIX.

One night she heard a rustling amongst the bushes in the garden; and the next moment a subdued voice began to sing:

I waited for the Lord my G.o.d and patiently did bear; At length to me he did incline, my voice and cry to hear.

He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay, And on a rock he set my feet, establis.h.i.+ng my way.

The tune was that wildest of trustful wailings?-_Martyrs_'.

"I didna ken that ye cared aboot psalm-tunes, Mr Cupples," murmured Alec.

The singing went on and he grew restless.

It was an _eerie_ thing to go out, but she must stop the singing. If it was Mr Cupples, she could have nothing to fear. Besides, a bad man would not sing that song.?-As she opened the door, a soft spring wind blew upon her full of genial strength, as if it came straight from those dark blue clefts between the heavy clouds of the cast. Away in the clear west, the half-moon was going down in dreaming stillness. The dark figure of a little man stood leaning against the house, singing gently.

"Are you Mr Cupples?" she said.

The man started, and answered,

"Yes, my la.s.s. And wha are ye?"

"I'm Annie Anderson. Alec's some disturbit wi' your singin'. Ye'll wauk him up, and he'll be a hantle the waur o' 't."

"I winna sing anither stave. It was lanesome stan'in' upo' the ootside here, as gin I war ane o' the foolish virgins."

"Eh! wadna that be dreidfu'?" responded Annie simply. Her words awoke an echo in Mr Cupples's conscience, but he returned no reply.

"Hoo's Alec?" he asked.

"Some better. He's growin' better, though it's langsome like."

"And do they lippen you to luik efter him, no?"

"Ay. What for no? His mither wad be worn to deith gin she sat up ilka nicht. He canna bide ouybody but her or me."

"Weel, ye're a young crater to hae sic a chairge.?-I wrote to Mrs Forbes twa or three times, but I got but ae scrimpit answer. Sae as sune's I cud win awa', I cam' to speir efter him mysel'."

"Whan did ye come, Mr Cupples?"

"This nicht. Or I reckon it's last nicht noo. But or I wan ower this len'th, ye war a' i' yer beds, and I daurna disturb ye. Sae I sat doon in a summer-seat that I cam' upo', and smokit my pipe and luikit at the stars and the cluds. And I tried to sing a sang, but naething but psalms wad come, for the nicht's sae awfu' solemn, whan ye win richt intil the mids o' 't! It jist distresses me that there's naebody up to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d a' nicht in sic a nicht's this."

"Nae doobt there's mony praisin' him that we canna see."

"Ow, ay; nae doobt. But aneath this lift, and breathin' the houpfu' air o' this divine darkness."

Annie did not quite understand him.

"I maun gang back to Alec," she said. "Ye'll come ower the morn, Mr Cupples, and hear a' aboot him?"

"I will do that, my bairn. Hoo do they ca' ye?-for I forget names dreidfu'?"

"Annie Anderson."

"Ay, ay; Annie Anderson?-I hae surely heard that name afore.?-Weel, I winna forget _you_, whether I forget yer name or no."

"But hae ye a bed?" said the thoughtful girl, to whom the comfort of every one who came near her was an instinctive anxiety.

"Ow, ay. I hae a bed at the hoose o' a sma', jabberin', bitter-barkit crater they ca' King Robert the Bruce."

Annie knew that he must be occupying her room; and was on the point of expressing a hope that he "wadna be disturbit wi' the rottans," when she saw that it would lead to new explanations and delays.

"Good night, Mr Cupples," she said, holding out her hand.

Mr Cupples took it kindly, saying:

"Are ye a niece, or a gran'-dochter o' the hoose, or a hired servan', or what are ye??-for ye're a wice-spoken la.s.s and a bonnie."

"I'm a servan' o' the hoose," said Annie. Then after a moment's hesitation, she added, "but no a hired ane."

"Ye're worth hirin' onyhoo, hinnie (honey); and they're weel aff that has ye i' the hoose in ony capawcity. An auld man like me may say that to yer face. Sae I'll awa' to my bed, and sing the lave o' my psalm as I gang."

Mr Cupples had a proclivity to garrets. He could not be comfortable if any person was over his head. He could breathe, he said, when he got next to the stars. For the rats he cared nothing, and slept as if the garret were a cellar in heaven.

It had been a sore trial of his manhood to keep his vow after he knew that Alec was safe in the haven of a sick-bed. He knew that for him, if he were once happy again, there was little danger of a relapse; for his physical nature had not been greatly corrupted: there had not been time for that. He would rise from his sickness newborn. Hence it was the harder for Mr Cupples, in his loneliness, to do battle with his deep-rooted desires. He would never drink as he had done, but might he not have just one tumbler??-That one tumbler he did not take. And--rich reward!?-after two months the well of song within him began to gurgle and heave as if its waters would break forth once more in the desert; the roseate hue returned to the sunsets; and the spring came in with a very childhood of greenness.?-The obfuscations of self-indulgence will soon vanish where they have not been sealed by crime and systematic selfishness.

Another though inferior reward was, that he had money in his pocket: with this money he would go and see Alec Forbes. The amount being small, however, he would save it by walking. Hence it came that he arrived late and weary. Entering the first shop he came to, he inquired after a cheap lodging. For he said to himself that the humblest inn was beyond his means; though probably his reason for avoiding such a shelter was the same as made him ask Alec to throw the bottle out of the garret. Robert Bruce heard his question, and, regarding him keenly from under his eyebrows, debated with himself whether the applicant was respectable?-that is, whether he could pay, and would bring upon the house no discredit by the harbourage. The signs of such a man as Cupples were inscrutable to Bruce; therefore his answer hung fire.

"Are ye deif, man?" said Cupples; "or are ye feared to tyne a chance by giein' a fair answer to a fair queston?"

The arrow went too near the mark not to irritate Bruce.

"Gang yer wa's," said he. "We dinna want tramps i' this toon."

"Weel, I am a tramp, nae doobt," returned Cupples; "for I hae come ilka bit o' the road upo' my ain fit; but I hae read in history o' twa or three tramps that war respectable fowk for a' that. Ye winna _gie_ onything i' this chop, I doobt?-nae even information.?-Will ye _sell_ me an unce o' pigtail?"

"Ow, ay. I'll sell't gin ye'll buy't."

"There's the bawbees," said Cupples, laying the orthodox pence on the counter. "And noo will ye tell me whaur I can get a respectable, dacent place to lie doon in? I'll want it for a week, at ony rate."

Before he had finished the question, the door behind the counter had opened, and young Bruce had entered. Mr Cupples knew him well enough by sight as a last year's bejan.

"How are you?" he said. "I know you, though I don't know your name."

"My name's Robert Bruce, Mr Cupples."

"A fine name?-Robert Bruce," he replied.