Part 39 (1/2)
”And Mercedes?”
”Perhaps not so much. She was a wonderfully jealous little woman. She did not like Donald or the children or her father to be long in my company. She did her best to conquer the feeling, but how could she with centuries of Castilian blood in her veins? It was my own fault if I was not happy, but the longing for Scotland was above all other desires. I had too little to do. I wanted some work that was _my_ work. No one can be content without it.”
”The children are fine boys.”
”Yes--do you remember the morning you would not hear of their father going either to the army or navy? You said he was the only Macrae to keep up the name of the family, and forthwith sent him to a desk in Reid's s.h.i.+pping office. You have four grandsons now, three of them Macraes. You see G.o.d knew, if you could only have trusted Him. What is the Major's worry now?”
”He has a hankering after a pulpit. I do not want one.”
”But will your creed be respectable without a pulpit?”
”I have no creed.”
”Ian!”
”Except the commandment that we love G.o.d and do unto others as we would like them to do unto us. Love is the fulfilling of the whole law. If this creed does not satisfy you, Jessy----”
”Oh, you know, Ian, I can abandon my creed at any time, but I shall carry my prejudices into eternity.”
Thus discussing, in Jessy's various moods, their old religious differences, they came finally to the end of their journey, and found the Major waiting to receive them at the Buchanan Street railway station. He had ordered a feast to honor their arrival, and the men who prepared it--not knowing for whom it was prepared--cooked it badly and served it in slovenly fas.h.i.+on. The next morning they all went away forever, and three clever, active girls reigned in their stead. Then Jessy, the happy-tempered bringer of the best out of the worst, was satisfied; and the Major knew he would have a home to live in, and Ian, always fastidiously fond of order and quiet, was sure his domestic life would fill every necessity of his public work.