CHRISTIE'S situation requires to be explained.
On leaving Gatty and his mother, she went to her own house. Flucker--who after looking upon her for years as an inconvenient appendage, except at dinnertime, had fallen in love with her in a manner that was half pathetic, half laughable, all things considered--saw by her face she had received a blow, and raising himself in the bed, inquired anxiously, "What ailed her?"
At these kind words, Christie Johnstone laid her cheek upon the pillow beside Flucker's and said:
"Oh, my laamb, be kind to your puir sister fra' this hoor, for she has naething i' the warld noo but yoursel'."
Flucker began to sob at this.
Christie could not cry; her heart was like a lump of lead in her bosom; but she put her arm round his neck, and at the sight of his sympathy she panted heavily, but could not shed a tear--she was sore stricken.
Presently Jean came in, and, as the poor girl's head ached as well as her heart, they forced her to go and sit in the air. She took her creepie and sat, and looked on the sea; but, whether she looked seaward or landward, all seemed unreal; not things, but hard pictures of things, some moving, some still. Life seemed ended--she had lost her love.
An hour she sat in this miserable trance; she was diverted into a better, because a somewhat less dangerous form of grief, by one of those trifling circumstances that often penetrate to the human heart when inaccessible to greater things.
Willy the fiddler and his brother came through the town, playing as they went, according to custom; their music floated past Christie's ears like some drowsy chime, until, all of a sudden, they struck up the old English air, "Speed the Plow."
Now it was to this tune Charles Gatty had danced with her their first dance the night they made acquaintance.
Christie listened, lifted up her hands, and crying:
"Oh, what will I do? what will I do?" burst into a passion of grief.
She put her apron over her head, and rocked herself, and sobbed bitterly.
She was in this situation when Lord Ipsden, who was prowling about, examining the proportions of the boats, discovered her.
"Some one in distress--that was all in his way."
"Madam!" said he.
She lifted up her head.
"It is Christie Johnstone. I'm so glad; that is, I'm sorry you are crying, but I'm glad I shall have the pleasure of relieving you;" and his lordship began to feel for a check-book.
"And div ye really think siller's a cure for every grief!" said Christie, bitterly.
"I don't know," said his lordship; "it has cured them all as yet."
"It will na cure me, then!" and she covered her head with her apron again.
"I am very sorry," said he; "tell me" _(whispering),_ "what is it? poor little Christie!"
"Dinna speak to me; I think shame; ask Jean. Oh, Richard, I'll no be lang in this warld!!!"
"Ah!" said he, "I know too well what it is now; I know, by sad experience. But, Christie, money will cure it in your case, and it shall, too; only, instead of five pounds, we must put a thousand pounds or two to your banker's account, and then they will all see your beauty, and run after you."
"How daur ye even to me that I'm seekin a lad?" cried she, rising from her stool; "I would na care suppose there was na a lad in Britain." And off she flounced.
"Offended her by my gross want of tact," thought the viscount.
She crept back, and two velvet lips touched his hand. That was because she had spoken harshly to a friend.
"Oh, Richard," said she, despairingly, "I'll no be lang in this warld."
He was touched; and it was then he took her head and kissed her brow, and said: "This will never do. My child, go home and have a nice cry, and I will speak to Jean; and, rely upon me, I will not leave the neighborhood till I have arranged it all to your satisfaction."
And so she went--a little, a very little, comforted by his tone and words.
Now this was all very pretty; but then seen at a distance of fifty yards it looked very ugly; and Gatty, who had never before known jealousy, the strongest and worst of human passions, was ripe for anything.
He met Lord Ipsden, and said at once, in his wise, temperate way:
"Sir, you are a villain!"
_Ipsden. "Plait-il?"_
_Gatty._ "You are a villain!"
_Ipsden._ "How do you make that out?"
_Gatty._ "But, of course, you are not a coward, too."
_Ipsden (ironically)._ "You surprise me with your moderation, sir."
_Gatty._ "Then you will waive your rank--you are a lord, I believe-and give me satisfaction."
_Ipsden._ "My rank, sir, such as it is, engages me to give a proper answer to proposals of this sort; I am at your orders."
_Gatty._ "A man of your character must often have been called to an account by your victims, so--so--" (hesitating) "perhaps you will tell me the proper course."
_Ipsden. "I_ shall send a note to the castle, and the colonel will send me down somebody with a mustache; I shall pretend to remember mustache, mustache will pretend he remembers me; he will then communicate with your friend, and they will arrange it all for us."
_Gatty._ "And, perhaps, through your licentiousness, one or both of us will be killed."
_Ipsden._ "Yes! but we need not trouble our heads about that--the seconds undertake everything."
_Gatty._ "I have no pistols."
_Ipsden._ "If you will do me the honor to use one of mine, it shall be at your service."
_Gatty._ "Thank you."
_Ipsden._ "To-morrow morning?"
_Gatty._ "No. I have four days' painting to do on my picture, I can't die till it is finished; Friday morning."
_Ipsden._ "(He is mad.) I wish to ask you a question, you will excuse my curiosity. Have you any idea what we are agreeing to differ about?"
_Gatty._ "The question does you little credit, my lord; that is to add insult to wrong."
He went off hurriedly, leaving Lord Ipsden mystified.
He thought Christie Johnstone was somehow connected with it; but, conscious of no wrong, he felt little disposed to put up with any insult, especially from this boy, to whom he had been kind, he thought.
