United States or Angola ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Thus chatting, we entered the great hall of Ardlaugh Castle a tall, but narrow and ill-proportioned apartment, having an open timber roof, a stone-paved floor, and walls sparsely decorated with antlers and round targes where a very small man stood warming his back at an immense fireplace.
Well, it might not please folks accustomed to city feasts; but Ardlaugh was not yet without a joint of venison in the larder and a bottle of wine, maybe two, maybe three, for any guest its master chose to make welcome. It was 'an ill bird that 'filed his own nest'" with more to this effect, which our host tried in vain to interrupt.
This honest man had, as we shook hands in the great hall, broken into a flood of small talk. On our way to the dining-room he took me, so to speak, by the button-hole, and within the minute so drenched me with gossip about Ardlaugh, its climate, its scenery, its crops, and the dimensions of the parish, that I feared a whole evening of boredom lay before us.
But you will no longer think it strange when I tell you that there under my nose were a dozen apples of a sort which grows nowhere within twenty miles of Ardlaugh but in my own Manse garden. The tree was a new one, obtained from Herefordshire, and planted three seasons before as an experiment.
A woman's voice cried, "That will be be you, Ardlaugh, and none too early! The minister " She broke off, catching sight of us. Our host stepped hastily to the door and began a whispered conversation. We could hear that she was protesting, and began to feel awkward enough. But whatever her objections were, her master cut them short.
I addressed Mr. Saul. "Ardlaugh never knew," put in the woman quickly. "He may have guessed we were helping him; but the lad knew nothing, and may the saints in heaven love him as they ought! He trusted me with his purse, and slight it was to maintain him. But until too late, he never knew no, never, sir!" I thought again of that voice behind the door of the entresol.
This was the Reverend Samuel Saul, whose acquaintance we had scarce time to make before a cracked gong summoned us to dinner in the adjoining room. The young Laird of Ardlaugh took his seat in a roughly carved chair of state at the head of the table; but before doing so treated me to another surprise by muttering a Latin grace and crossing himself.
He was clearly bursting to disclose his business, and our salutations were scarce over when he ran to the door and called to some one in the passage outside. "Elspeth! Step inside, woman. The housekeeper, sir, to the late Mr. Mackenzie of Ardlaugh," he explained, as he held the door to admit her. She was dressed in ragged mourning, and wore a grotesque and fearful bonnet.
After a minute our new acquaintance turned to us with a slightly constrained laugh. "Mr. Gillespie omitted some of the formalities," said he. "My name is Mackenzie David Mackenzie; and I live at Ardlaugh Castle, scarcely half a mile up the glen behind us. I warn you that its hospitality is rude, but to what it affords you are heartily welcome." "Oh!" he interrupted, "I am sole master there.
"Then I will lead you to your rooms," he said, turning to us as soon as she paused to draw breath. "Indeed, Ardlaugh, you will do nothing of the kind." She ran into the kitchen, and returned holding high a lighted torch a grey-haired woman with traces of past comeliness, overlaid now by an air of worry, almost of fear.
Word Of The Day