The Twa Miss Dawsons Part 43

"Mrs Calderwood, my father gave me G.o.d speed, and bade me bring her home."

"Oh! your father," cried Mrs Calderwood with sudden anger. "Your father has ay gotten his ain will for good or for ill, all his life long. And now to think--"

"His last words were--'She shall be to me as my own daughter.'"

Mrs Calderwood turned her face away.

"He loves her dearly," said George softly.

Still she did not speak.

"And, mother,--turn your face to me,--I love her dearly."

She turned then, and at the sight of his moved face her eyes overflowed with tears.

"Oh! George! you are very dear to me, but my Marion is all I have--"

What more she might have said, he never knew, for the door opened, and Marion came softly in with a letter in her hand. Her mother rose, but she did not move away from George, as was her first impulse, nor did she try to hide her tears. It would have been no use, for they were falling like rain over her face. Marion stood still at the door, looking at them with wonder and a little fear.

George went to her, and taking her hand led her to her mother. He was very pale and his lips trembled as he said,--

"Mother, will you let me speak to her now?"

What she might have answered she could not tell. She dropped into her seat with a little cry, and in a moment Marion was kneeling before her, and then so was George; and, of course, there was only one way in which it could end.

Mrs Calderwood said afterwards that Marion had let herself be too easily won. Marion laughed when she said this.

"I think, mother, I was won long before that day," said she.

But at the moment the mother could only give her consent. In a little, when George had taken his wife, that was to be, to the other end of the room, Mrs Calderwood picked up the letter which Marion had let fall, and opened it mechanically, letting her eye fall on the written words while her thoughts were elsewhere. But before she had read many words she uttered an exclamation and hastily went out of the room.

_Her_ pride was to be spared at any rate. n.o.body had supposed that _she_ would be too easily won. The letter was from Mr Dawson; and by rights she ought to have had it before George came, for it was to bespeak her good word for him that he had written.

It was just, "Let by-ganes be by-ganes. Give your daughter to my son, and she shall be welcomed among us with all the love and honour of which she is worthy--and more cannot be said than that."

Mrs Calderwood read it and read it again, and her wonder grew.

Changed! Surely if ever a man was changed, George Dawson must be to write to her such a letter as that. But when she showed it to her daughter, Marion was only surprised at her amazement. All these kind words did not seem strange to her. She had never heard any but kind words from him.

"I began to think he liked me when I was staying with Mrs Manners, and I was sure of it at Saughleas--only afterwards--and even then--" said Marion not very coherently. But she did not explain her meaning more clearly.

"The sooner the better," Mr Dawson had said, and George said the same, and so did Jean in a few sweet words that came in a day or two, and so did her aunt. Mrs Manners reminded her husband that she had told him of Marion's conquest of her father on that first day of her visit to them last year, and also that she had foreseen this happy ending. So with all belonging to George so ready to welcome her child among them, and George himself so dear, what could Mrs Calderwood do but be glad also, and give her up with a good grace?

It was not so difficult a matter after all, she found when she had thus determined. And by and by she forgave her daughter for having been too easily won. And the visionary jealousy which had risen within her at the memory of her lost child vanished, though in her heart she doubted whether her poor dead Elsie had ever won such love as George had now to give her sister.

So the marriage day was set. It was not very soon, George thought, but the time was not unreasonably long, and it was hastened a little at the last. Captain Calderwood came home from his second voyage in his own s.h.i.+p sooner than was expected, and his stay was to be shorter than usual. The wedding was to be a very quiet one, and it could be hastened without interfering seriously with preparations. Marion had set her heart on her brother's being with her, and it was so arranged, and all things went well.

All things but one. At the very last there came from Jean a letter with many good reasons why she could not come with her father and brother, and with many sweet words of love to the girl "whom she would have chosen from all the world to be her sister." But Mr Dawson was there, intent on doing honour to the occasion, and Mr and Mrs Manners and Captain Saugster of the "John Seaton," and of all people in the world, Sir Percy Harefield! who did not, it is to be supposed, come without an invitation, but who possibly suggested to Mr Dawson that he would like to receive one.

And all went well. There was no large party and no regular speech-making. The bridegroom said nothing, Captain Calderwood said only, "If he could have chosen a brother out of all the world, he would have chosen no other;" and Mr Dawson remembered the words of Jean's letter to Marion, which she had shown him before she sent it away. Mr Dawson said a few words, but he was not so happy, because he could not help again expressing a wish that "by-ganes might be by-ganes," which Mrs Calderwood thought he might have omitted on that day at least.

It came to an end, and the bride and bridegroom went away, and Mr Dawson and Sir Percy Harefield went with Captain Calderwood to see his s.h.i.+p, and they were all very friendly together; so friendly that Sir Percy had thoughts of turning his back on London and the prospective delights of the moors, and taking the voyage with Captain Calderwood to see what the other side of the world was like.

"And what thought ye o' Willie himself?" asked Miss Jean, when Mr Dawson was telling her all this, after he had been at home a day or two.

"Is he likely to be such a man as his father was?"

"There's mair o' him than ever there would ha'e been o' his father, if he had been spared, poor man. He is much thought of by his employers.

I thought him stiff at first. But he thawed out and was cordial and kindly after a little. He would have made the Englishman very welcome to go with him, if he had keepit in the same mind till he sailed. But I doubt, as Jean once said o' him, he would have found him a heavy handfu'

ere a' was done. I ken no greater misfortune that can befall a man than to have nothing to do in the world."

"He has his soldiering?"

"No, he hasna even that now, and he is unfortunate in caring little for the occupations that seem to pa.s.s the time for folk o' his cla.s.s. He is coming north again, he says, and I dare say we'll get a sight o' him."

"He was ay an idle man, even when he was a poor man."

"Yes. But I ay think he might have been made something of, if the right woman would have taken him in hand."

Miss Jean could not agree with him.

"And whether or no', he needna come north to find her," said she.

"No, I suppose not, but it is a pity."

"George, man! I canna but wonder to hear you," said his sister gravely.

"Weel, he has a kind heart, and I canna but be sorry for him. And he is a perfect gentleman."

"Being sorry for him is one thing, and being willing to give him our best is another," said Miss Jean, with a sharpness that made her brother smile. "But I'm no' feared--"

Miss Jean paused. She was not quite sure that she had nothing to fear.

To her it seemed that the Englishman had been wonderfully constant--"for the like o' him"--and she was not quite so sure of Jean as she used to be.

One day while her father was away, they had been speaking of Mr Dawson's wish that George should take his bride to Saughleas. Jean had said the best way to settle it would be for her to go away to a house of her own and then George could not refuse to take Marion to Saughleas.

"Weel," said her aunt, "I dare say that might be brought about, if you could bring your mind to it."

"I'll bide a wee," said Jean laughing, but her face grew grave enough in a minute or two.

"I have ay thought myself of some use to my father and George, but now George is away, and even my father would be content with Marion in my place."

"That is scarcely the most cheerful way to look at it, or the wisest.

And it's no' like you, Jean, my dear."

"Are you thinking that I am jealous of Marion, Aunt Jean? No, it is not that I love her dearly, and I am glad for George, and for my father, since he is pleased. But are you sure that it gave _you_ no pang to give up your brother to Mary Keith?"

Miss Jean smiled, and shook her head.

"I was growing an old woman even at that time. No, though she was almost a stranger to me, I was only glad for George. They loved one another."