Part 2 (1/2)
”And how do you like the rooms I got for you?”
”There is not much fresh air about them, nor in this narrow street,”
Macleod said, frankly; ”but that is no matter for I have been out all day--all over London.”
”I thought the price was as high as you would care to go,” Ogilvie said; ”but I forgot you had come fresh up, with your pocket full of money. If you would like something a trifle more princely, I'll put you up to it.”
”And where have I got the money? There are no gold mines in the west of Mull. It is you who are Fortunatus.”
”By Jove, if you knew how hard a fellow is run at Aldershot,” Mr.
Ogilvie remarked, confidentially, ”you would scarcely believe it. Every new batch of fellows who come in have to be dined all round; and the mess bills are simply awful. It's getting worse and worse; and then these big drinks put one off one's work so.”
”You are studying hard, I suppose,” Macleod said, quite gravely.
”Pretty well,” said he, stretching out his legs, and petting his pretty mustache with his beautiful white hand. Then he added, suddenly, surveying the brown-faced and stalwart young fellow before him, ”By Jove, Macleod, I'm glad to see you in London. It's like a breath of mountain air. Don't I remember the awful mornings we've had together--the rain and the mist and the creeping through the bogs? I believe you did your best to kill me. If I hadn't had the const.i.tution of a horse, I should have been killed.”
”I should say your big drinks at Aldershot were more likely to kill you than going after the deer,” said Macleod, ”And will you come up with me this autumn, Ogilvie? The mother will be glad to see you, and Janet, too; though we haven't got any fine young ladies for you to make love to, unless you go up to Fort William, or Fort George, or Inverness. And I was all over the moors before I came away; and if there is anything like good weather, we shall have plenty of birds this year, for I never saw before such a big average of eggs in the nests.”
”I wonder you don't let part of that shooting,” said young Ogilvie, who knew well of the straitened circ.u.mstances of the Macleods of Dare.
”The mother won't have it done,” said Macleod, quite simply, ”for she thinks it keeps me at home. But a young man cannot always stay at home.
It is very good for you, Ogilvie, that you have brothers.”
”Yes, if I had been the eldest of them,” said Mr. Ogilvie. ”It is a capital thing to have younger brothers; it isn't half so pleasant when you are the younger brother.”
”And will you come up, then, and bury yourself alive at Dare?”
”It is awfully good of you to ask me, Macleod; and if I can manage it, I will; but I am afraid there isn't much chance this year. In the meantime, let me give you a hint. In London we talk of going _down_ to the Highlands.”
”Oh, do you? I did not think you were so stupid,” Macleod remarked.
”Why, of course we do. You speak of going up to the capital of a country, and of going down to the provinces.”
”Perhaps you are right--no doubt you are right; but it sounds stupid,”
the unconvinced Highlander observed again. ”It sounds stupid to say going up to the south, and going down to the north. And how can you go down to the Highlands? You might go down to the Lowlands. But no doubt you are right; and I will be more particular. And will you have another cigarette? And then we will go out for a walk, and Oscar will get drier in the street than indoors.”
”Don't imagine I am going out to have that dog plunging about among my feet,” said Ogilvie. ”But I have something else for you to do. You know Colonel Ross of Duntorme.”
”I have heard of him.”
”His wife is an awfully nice woman, and would like to meet you, I fancy they think of buying some property--I am not sure it isn't an island--in your part of the country; and she has never been to the Highlands at all. I was to take you down with me to lunch with her at two, if you care to go. There is her card.”
Macleod looked at the card.
”How far is Prince's Gate from here?” he asked.
”A mile and a half, I should say.”
”And it is now twenty minutes to two,” said he, rising. ”It will be a nice smart walk.”
”Thank you,” said Mr. Ogilvie; ”if it is all the same to you, we will perform the journey in a hansom. I am not in training just at present for your tramps to Ben-an-Sloich.”