Part 23 (1/2)

”Thanks for your polite way of putting it,” said I. ”'Witch' is a nicer epithet than 'beast.' I wish--I almost wish--I'd never seen any of you!”

”I don't,” said he. ”And I don't believe Somerled does. To go back to the time when we didn't know that the witch-child existed would be going back from electricity to candles.”

”You have a pretty way of poking fun at me,” I laughed. ”But I suppose you mean I've given you all a shock. Well, you'll soon be rid of me.

Three days more, and the end! But I do wish I knew how to mend matters and make you and your sister happy again, at once.”

”I could tell you how,” he said quickly.

”Do, then! You've just time, if you hurry up before the others come.”

He looked round, and there were Mrs. James and Mrs. West walking toward us with Sir S. They were very near.

He hesitated, and his face grew red. ”Will you promise not to be angry?”

he almost whispered.

”I promise! Tell me.”

”If you want to make everything come right for everybody in a minute, you must turn your attention entirely to me.”

”What good would that do?” I asked stupidly.

”It would do me all the good in the world, because, as I told you, you've bewitched me. It would do my sister good because--well, because she's particularly anxious for you to like me. And it would do Somerled good because--it might teach him his own mind--bring him to his senses.”

”I don't understand one word you're talking about!” I broke out.

”It doesn't so much matter what you understand as what you do. Dear little Miss MacDonald, will you try and be very, very kind to me, for--everybody's sake?”

”Of course,” said I. ”But you must call me Barrie.”

”Thank you! That's one step. Will you call me Basil?”

”If you like,” I answered. ”Basil and Barrie! Don't they sound nice together?”

Just then the others came up and heard what I said, which made me feel foolish, as they'd missed the first part. But Mrs. West beamed at me. I had been thinking that Basil Norman was the sort of man I should love to have for a brother, but Mrs. West as a sister I could _not_ stand!

”Basil and Barrie _look_ nice together too, don't they, Mr. Somerled?”

she remarked.

”Very,” said he dryly. And the next thing I knew was that she was sitting beside him on the front seat, and I was tucked in beside Mrs.

James, with Basil Norman opposite. Their motor, it seemed, was not behaving well, and Aline was nervous, so Sir S. had suggested, as we were all going on to Ayr, that they should come with us for the rest of the day.

I felt rather dazed about everything, and I'm afraid made a hash of the scenery in my mind, until I had calmed down. I remember that we swept through Kirkcudbright, which was named for St. Cuthbert because his bones were once in the church. They were taking them on somewhere else, but I don't know why. Basil told us all about it; but it sounded so odd to hear him talking instructively of saints and Covenanters and martyrs, and ”the torch of religion being first lighted in Galloway,” after he had been begging me in a very different voice to ”be nice to him,” that it muddled up my intelligence. I liked the town because it was pretty, with graceful spires and lovely, ivied ruins; but I didn't care much about the saints, or even about the last Lord Selkirk, for whom they put up a Celtic cross in the Kirkcudbright market place; and I couldn't be bothered p.r.o.nouncing Kirkcudbright correctly. Of course it's done in the last way you think it possibly could be, like all other Scottish names!

I brightened up a little at the story of Paul Jones at St. Mary's Isle, because pirates are always nice, and he was cla.s.sic. Besides, it was amusing of him to fail to kidnap Lord Selkirk and steal a silver teapot instead. To please Benjamin Franklin he gave the teapot back, so he didn't get much out of that adventure!

I remember too that there were hills on the way to Gatehouse of Fleet, hills which turned their backs and reared on their hind legs as we saw them in the distance; but always they knelt meekly in front of the Gray Dragon, as if he beat them to their knees. They were not so accommodating to the hired car which followed. Something was the matter with its internal economy. It grunted and groaned and emitted evil-smelling fumes because it couldn't digest its petrol. Basil named the creature Old Blunderbore, but said he would not dare to call it so before its chauffeur-owner, who glared behind his goggles when it was blamed for anything.

Gatehouse of Fleet looked, according to Basil, like places in Holland, because sailing s.h.i.+ps were apparently moving through fields, and masts mixing themselves up with tree branches. Suddenly we had plunged into Scott country, sandwiched in with Crockett, for Gatehouse is the ”Kippletingan” of ”Guy Mannering.” There was a sweet, sad smell of the sea; and I heard Mrs. West ask Sir S. if it didn't remind him of ”that last night on the s.h.i.+p, when we told each other things?”

About this time, I think it must have been, we began to see so many old castles dotted about the landscape that at last we almost ceased to notice them. It must have been nice living in one of those box-like fortress castles in old days, when all your friends had them too; so jolly and self-contained. And, as a matter of course, when you built one you had a few dungeons put in, just as one has plenty of bathrooms now in a big house. If you were of a dramatic turn of mind, you placed your dungeons mostly under your dining-hall, so you could hear the starving prisoners groan while you feasted comfortably. We pa.s.sed several dear little towns, too, which I should like to have for toys, to keep in boxes when not playing with them. On most of the houses were charming chimney-pots of different colours, exactly like immense chessmen, set out ready for a game. All the men in these towns looked almost ill with intelligence. Most of the girls were very pretty, with little coquettish features contradicted by saintly expressions, and even the dogs appeared well educated and intellectual.

At Newton-Stewart a change came over the houses, but not the people or animals. I felt that the smallest child would know more about books than I did; and there was hardly a nondescript face to be seen. All could be cla.s.sified in historic Scottish types. But the whitewashed, thatched cottages in the suburbs would have looked Irish if they had not been too preternaturally clean. In the streets of Newton-Stewart there was not so much as a stray stick or bit of paper. It looked to me a deeply religious place, and Basil said perhaps it was trying to be worthy of St. Ninian, who first brought Christianity to Scotland. He was a native of the Solway sh.o.r.e, but went to Rome, where they liked him very much and made him a bishop. Then he felt impelled to convert his own people, so he sailed from France and landed at the island of Whithorn, which is now an excursion place from Newton-Stewart. That sounds irreverent, but, after all, an excursion is only a kind of pilgrimage; and even if people are catching fish or eating them, they can be pleased to be at the one place in Scotland where Christianity has gone on without interruption by Vikings or others for fifteen hundred years.