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"You of Portlossie shall have your harbor cleared without delay." In justice to the fishers I here interrupt my report to state that the very next day they set about clearing the harbor themselves. It was their business in part, at least, they said and they were ashamed of having left it so long. This did much toward starting well for a new order of things.
Those who knew that Miss Campbell, as Portlossie regarded her, had been in reality Lady Lossie, and was the mother of Malcolm, knew as well that Florimel had no legal title even to the family cognomen; but if his mother, and therefore the time of his mother's death, remained unknown, the legitimacy of his sister would remain unsuspected even upon his appearance as the heir.
One evening, Malcolm, as he left the grounds of Mr Morrison, on whom he had been calling, saw a travelling carriage pass towards Portlossie; and something liker fear laid hold of his heart than he had ever felt except when Florimel and he on the night of the storm took her father for Lord Gernon the wizard.
And while the Seaton swarmed with "the goings on of life," the town of Portlossie lay above it still as a country hamlet, with more odours than people about: of people it was seldom indeed that three were to be spied at once in the wide street, while of odours you would always encounter a smell of leather from the saddler's shop, and a mingled message of bacon and cheese from the very general dealer's in whose window hung what seemed three hams, and only he who looked twice would discover that the middle object was no ham, but a violin while at every corner lurked a scent of gillyflowers and southernwood.
"What shall I do?" he murmured. "If once I look in her eyes, I shall be damned. Malcolm!" "Yes, my lord!" "Is there a lawyer in Portlossie?" "Yes, my lord; there 's auld Maister Carmichael." "He won't do! He was my brother's rascal. Is there no one besides?" "No in Portlossie, my lord. There can be nane nearer than Duff Harbour, I doobt." "Take the chariot and bring him here directly.
For nothing would content Clementina, troubled at the experience of her first voyage, but she must get herself accustomed to the sea, as became the wife of a fisherman: therefore in no way would she journey but on board the Psyche; and as it was the desire of each to begin their married life at home, they sailed direct for Portlossie.
Portlossie was in a ferment of wonder, satisfaction, and pleasure. There were few in it who were not glad at the accession of Malcolm, and with every one of those few the cause lay in himself.
"It's hard to get at their insides, my lady, but I suspect it must be so. I'll ask Mr Graham." "What Mr Graham?" "The schoolmaster of Portlossie." "Is he in London, then?" "Yes, my lady. He believed too much to please the presbytery, and they turned him out." "I should like to see him. He was very attentive to my father on his death bed."
"I hadna the presumption, my leddy, to coont the Hoose in Portlossie Ye'll hae a sicht o' buiks up there, no?" "Have you never been in the library?" "I never set fut i' the hoose 'cep' i' the kitchie, an' ance or twise steppin' across the ha' frae the ae door to the tither. I wad fain see what kin' o' a place great fowk like you bides in, an' what kin' o' things, buiks an' a', ye hae aboot ye.
He asserted himself perfectly able to provide for both for ten years to come at least, in proof of which he roused the inhabitants of Portlossie, during the space of a whole month, a full hour earlier than usual, with the most terrific blasts of the bagpipes, and this notwithstanding complaint and expostulation on all sides, so that at length the provost had to interfere; after which outburst of defiance to time, however, his energy had begun to decay so visibly that Malcolm gave himself to the pipes in secret, that he might be ready, in case of sudden emergency, to take his grandfather's place; for Duncan lived in constant dread of the hour when his office might be taken from him and conferred on a mere drummer, or, still worse, on a certain ne'er do weel cousin of the provost, so devoid of music as to be capable only of ringing a bell.
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