Part 13 (2/2)

”In a day or two you'll be shooting up and down it like a bird. I used to do so myself. I got into the way of keeping a shoulder foremost, and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up as if I was a blob of air! Old age does make fools of us!”

”You don't like it then?”

”No, I do not: who does?”

”It's only that you get spent as you go up. The fresh air at the top of the stair will soon revive you,” said Donal.

But his conductor did not understand him.

”That's all very well so long as you're young; but when it has got you, you'll pant and grumble like the rest of us.”

In the distance Donal saw Age coming slowly after him, to claw him in his clutch, as the old song says. ”Please G.o.d,” he thought, ”by the time he comes up, I'll be ready to try a fall with him! O Thou eternally young, the years have no hold on thee; let them have none on thy child. I too shall have life eternal.”

Ere they reached the top of the stair, the man halted and opened a door. Donal entering saw a small room, nearly round, a portion of the circle taken off by the stair. On the opposite side was a window projecting from the wall, whence he could look in three different directions. The wide country lay at his feet. He saw the winding road by which he had ascended, the gate by which he had entered, the meadow with its white stripes through which he had come, and the river flowing down. He followed it with his eyes:--lo, there was the sea, s.h.i.+ning in the sun like a diamond s.h.i.+eld! It was but the little German Ocean, yet one with the great world-ocean. He turned to his conductor.

”Yes,” said the old man, answering his look, ”it's a glorious sight!

When first I looked out there I thought I was in eternity.”

The walls were bare even of plaster; he could have counted the stones in them; but they were dry as a bone.

”You are wondering,” said the old man, ”how you are to keep warm in the winter! Look here: you shut this door over the window! See how thick and strong it is! There is your fireplace; and for fuel, there's plenty below! It is a labour to carry it up, I grant; but if I was you, I would set to o' nights when n.o.body was about, and carry till I had a stock laid in!”

”But,” said Donal, ”I should fill up my room. I like to be able to move about a little!”

”Ah,” replied the old man, ”you don't know what a s.p.a.ce you have up here all to yourself! Come this way.”

Two turns more up the stair, and they came to another door. It opened into wide s.p.a.ce: from it Donal stepped on a ledge or bartizan, without any parapet, that ran round the tower, pa.s.sing above the window of his room. It was well he had a steady brain, for he found the height affect him more than that of a precipice on Glashgar: doubtless he would get used to it, for the old man had stepped out without the smallest hesitation! Round the tower he followed him.

On the other side a few steps rose to a watch-tower--a sort of ornate sentry-box in stone, where one might sit and regard with wide vision the whole country. Avoiding this, another step or two led them to the roof of the castle--of great stone slabs. A broad pa.s.sage ran between the rise of the roof and a battlemented parapet. By this time they came to a flat roof, on to which they descended by a few steps. Here stood two rough sheds, with nothing in them.

”There's stowage!” said the old man.

”Yes, indeed!” answered Donal, to whom the idea of his aerie was growing more and more agreeable. ”But would there be no objection to my using the place for such a purpose?”

”What objection?” returned his guide. ”I doubt if a single person but myself knows it.”

”And shall I be allowed to carry up as much as I please?”

”I allow you,” said the butler, with importance. ”Of course you will not waste--I am dead against waste! But as to what is needful, use your freedom.--Dinner will be ready for you in the schoolroom at seven.”

At the door of his room the old man left him, and after listening for a moment to his descending steps, Donal re-entered his chamber.

Why they put him so apart, Donal never asked himself; that he should have such command of his leisure as this isolation promised him was a consequence very satisfactory. He proceeded at once to settle himself in his new quarters. Finding some shelves in a recess of the wall, he arranged his books upon them, and laid his few clothes in the chest of drawers beneath. He then got out his writing material, and sat down.

Though his window was so high, the warm pure air came in full of the aromatic odours rising in the hot suns.h.i.+ne from the young pine trees far below, and from a lark far above descended news of heaven-gate. The scent came up and the song came down all the time he was writing to his mother--a long letter. When he had closed and addressed it, he fell into a reverie. Apparently he was to have his meals by himself: he was glad of it: he would be able to read all the time! But how was he to find the schoolroom! Some one would surely fetch him! They would remember he did not know his way about the place! It wanted yet an hour to dinner-time when, finding himself drowsy, he threw himself on his bed, where presently he fell fast asleep.

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