"The Voice o' the Doom no sounds in words such as mortals can hear. Itis spoken in sounds that are heard of the inner ear. What matter thewords, when the ear that hearkens can understan'!"
"But," said Marjory, "could I not be told the words, or if there were noactual words, could you not give me in your own words what the soundsuttered seemed to you to mean?" To anyone but a Seer such a requestwould seem reasonable enough; but visionaries who have a receptive powerof their own, and who learn by means whose methods are unconscious tothem, can hardly undertake to translate the dim, wide-stretching purposeof the powers of the Unknown into bald, narrow, human speech. Gormala'sbrows wrinkled up in thought; then a scowl of disappointment swept overher face. In an angry tone she turned to me and said:
"Wha be yon lassie that questions so blithely the truth o' the Voicethat is kent by ye an' me? Why dinna ye tak her awa' before she mocksme, an' in me the Doom; an' I speak oot to her?" Marjory spoke up forherself.
"Please do not think it a liberty to ask you; but I should like so muchto know exactly what was said. It is so easy for people to confuse ideaswhen words are loosely used. Don't you find it so?" I do not thinkGormala MacNiel had any humour at all; if she had, I had certainly neverseen any trace of it. Had it been there it would have surely saved herfrom anger; for there was something delicious in the way in whichMarjory put her question, as though to one of her own kind and holdingthe same views as herself on general matters. Gormala did not like it.Though there was a blank in her mind as to the existence of humour, shemust have felt conscious of the blank. She could not understand theother woman; and for a little while sought refuge in a silence composedof about equal parts of sulk and dignity. But Marjory was not contentwith silence; she pressed home her question in the most polite but mostmatter of fact way, till I could see the Witch-woman mentally writhe. Ishould have interfered, for I did not want any unpleasant scene in whichMarjory must have a part; but I felt that the girl had some purposefulmeaning in her persistence. Had Gormala had a pause in the attackshe would, I felt, have gone away and bided her time: but in such apushing of the matter as Marjory braced herself to, there could be nowithdrawal, unless under defeat. Gormala looked round now and again,as one, man or animal, does when hunted; but each time she restrainedherself by an effort. At last her temper began to rise; her faceflushed, and the veins, of passion stood out on her forehead. Her eyesflashed, and white marks began to come and go about the face, especiallyround the nose. I could see from the leap of fire in Marjory's eyes thatthis was what she was waiting for. She lowered her voice, and the toneof her speaking, till both matter and manner were icily chill; but allthe time she persisted in her matter-of-fact questioning.
At last Gormala's temper broke, and she turned on the girl in sucha fury that for a few seconds I thought she was going to attack herphysically. I stood ready to hold her off if necessary. At the firstmoment the passion in her was so great that she spoke in Gaelic; blind,white-hot fury will not allow a choice of tongues. The savage in her wasspeaking, and it spoke in the tongue it knew best. Of course neitherof us could understand it, and we only stood smiling. Marjory smileddeliberately as though to exasperate her; I smiled because Marjory wassmiling. Presently, through the tumult of her passion, Gormala began torealise that we did not understand her; and, with an effort which shookher, began to speak in English. With the English which she had, cameintention and the restraint which it implies. Her phrases were notcommon curses, but rather a picturesque half prophecy with a basis ofhate. The gravamen of her charge was that Marjory had scoffed againstthe Doom and Fate and the Voices. To me, who had suffered the knowledgeto which she appealed, the attack was painful. What was charged was asort of natural sacrilege; and it wounded me and angered me to seeMarjory made the subject of any attack. I was about to interfere, whenwith a gesture, which the Witch-woman did not see, she warned me tosilence. She struck into the furious woman's harangue with quiet,incisive, cultured voice which made the other pause:
"Indeed you do me a wrong; I scoffed at nothing. I should not scoff atyour religion any more than I should at my own. I only asked you a fewquestions as to facts which seemed to touch a friend of mine." Thepoint of this speech which, strange to say, affected the woman most wasregarding her religion:
"Wha be ye, ye hizzie, that wad daur to misca' me that is a Christianwoman all my days.
What be your releegion, that ye try to shame me wi'mine." Marjory said deliberately, but with all the outward appearance ofcourtesy:
"But I did not know that in the scheme of the Christian belief therewere such things as the Doom and the Voice and Fate!" The old womantowered up; for a moment she was all Seer and Prophet. Her wordsthrilled through me; and I could see through Marjory also. Though sheheld herself proudly, her lips grew pale:
"Then learn while ye may that there be lesser powers as well as greaterin the scheme o' God's warld, and o' His working o' the wonders therein.Ye may scoff at me wha' am after all but an aud wife; though one to whomare Visions given, and in whose ears the Voice has spoken. Ye may prideyersel' that yer ignorance is mair than the knowledge o' ithers. Yemay doot the truths that hae been garnered oot o' centuries o' dourexperience, an' tak' the cloak o' yer ignorance as an answer to a' themysteries that be. But mark me weel! the day will come--it is no far affthe noo--when ye will wring yer honds, and pray wi' all the power an'bitter grief o' yer soul for some licht to guide ye that ye no hae hadyet!" She paused and stood in a sort of trance, stiffening all over likea pointer at mark. Then she raised one hand high over her head, so thatthe long arm seemed to extend her gaunt form to an indefinite length.With a far-away solemn voice she spoke:
"I see ye too, though no by yer lanes, in the wild tide-race amang therocks in the dark nicht, mid leaping waves. An' lo! o'er the waste o'foam is a floatin' shrood!" Then she stopped, and in a few seconds cameback to herself. In the meantime Marjory, whose lips had grown white asdeath, though she never lost her proud bearing, groped blindly for myhand and held it hard. She never for a moment took her eyes off theother.
When Gormala was quite her own woman again, she turned without a wordand walked away in her gaunt, stately manner, feeling I am sure, as wedid, that she did not go without the honours of war. Marjory continuedto watch her until she had passed up the track, and had disappearedbehind the curve of the hill.
Then, all at once, she seemed to collapse in a faint; and had I not heldher hand, and so was able to draw her into my arms, she must have fallento the ground.
In a wonderfully short time she recovered her senses, and then with agreat effort stood up; though she still had to steady herself by myhand. When she was all right again she said to me:
"I suppose you wonder why I attacked her like that. Oh! yes, I didattack her; I meant to," for she saw the question in my eyes. "It wasbecause she was so hostile to you. What right had she to force you to doanything? She is harmful to you, Archie. I know it! I know it! I knowit! and I determined not to let her have her way. And besides,"--thiswith a shy loving look at me, "as she is hostile to you she must be tome also. I want to be with you, even in the range of the hate and thelove of others. That is to be one; and as we are to fight together Imust share your lot in all!" I took her in my arms, and for some divinemoments, our hearts beat together.
In those moments my mind was made up as to the wishes of Adams. Howcould I refuse in any way to fight the battle, as she might wish itfought, of a girl who so loyally shared my lot!
Then we arranged that I should go home for my bicycle, and meet Marjoryat the bridge by the Parish Church.
CHAPTER XXII
CROM CASTLE
When I rejoined Marjory, we went up the high road and then turned offby a by-way which took us round innumerable slopes and mounds, socharacteristic of this part of Aberdeen. The entire county, seen fromhigh places, looks bare and open; but it has its hills and hollows inendless variety. From the cross road we turned up another and stillanother, till I lost my bearings entirely.
The part of the country where we now were was a sort of desolation ofcultivation; endless low hills clad with fields of wheat and barley withnever a house to be seen, except some far off cottage or the homesteadof a laird perched on the top of a hill. At last we entered through anopen gateway with broken pillars, still bearing the remains of somearmorial device in statuary. There was an avenue, fringed with talltrees on either side, and beyond a broad belt of undergrowth. The avenuewound round and round in an endless series of curves. From the gatewhere we entered was a thick, close wood nearly a quarter of a mile inwidth. Here the trees stood so close, and their locking branches madesuch a screen, that it was quite gloomy within. Here too the road wasmade in perpetual curves, so that it was not possible to see far ahead.Indeed I remarked to Marjory as we rode along:
"No wonder you chose this as a place to hide in; it looks as if it wasmade for concealment. It is a regular Rosamund's Bower!"
When we had passed through the wood, we came out on a great piece oflevel ground with a wide mound some twenty feet high, in the midst ofit. On this was built of granite, a crenelated castle. It was not veryhigh, but extended wide in a square, with a low arched doorway in frontof us through which it might be possible to drive with care. The doorwaywas closed by two gates; first a massive network of interlocking steelbars of seemingly foreign workmanship, and secondly great gates of oakfortified with steel bands and massive bosses of hammered iron. Beforegoing in, Marjory took me right round the castle and I saw that it wasthe same on all four sides. It was built by the points of the compass;but there was no gateway except on one side. The ordinary way ofentering was by a more modern door on the south side. From inside thecastle it was not possible to see anywhere beyond the wood. Even fromthe stone roof, made for defence, where Marjory took me, it was onlypossible to get a glimpse through the tree tops here and there ofround-topped hills yellow with ripening grain or crowned with groves ofscanty wind-swept pine trees. Altogether it was as gloomy a place as Ihad ever seen. It was cut off altogether from the outer world; one mightremain in it for a life-time unknown.
Inside it was, if possible, more gloomy. Small rooms almost everywhere,except the great hall, and one room at the top facing the south sidewhich lay just under the roof and which was lined with old oak. Herethere were quite a number of windows such as Marjory had described, allof them, though wide on the inner side, narrowed to mere slits on theouter. In castles and houses built, like this, for defence, it didnot do to allow opportunities to an attacking force to send missileswithin.
Mrs. Jack and Marjory had made this their living room, and here were allthe pretty treasures and knick-knacks which they had gathered on theirtravels. The old lady welcomed me warmly. Then Marjory took her asideand told her something in whispers. I could guess what it was; but anydoubts I might have had were dispelled when she came over and kissed meand said:
"Indeed, I congratulate you with all my heart. You have won the best,and sweetest, and dearest girl that ever drew breath. I have been withher all my life; and I have not found a flaw in her yet. And I am gladthat it is you whom she has chosen. Somehow, I wished it from the firstmoment I saw you. That you may both be happy, I pray the good Lord God!And I know you will; for you are true, and Marjory has a heart of gold."
"A heart of gold!" Her words had given me more than pleasure; but thelast phrase pulled my joy up short. A cold shiver ran through me. Agolden man had been a part of the prophecy of the Mystery of the Sea;and only a little while ago Gormala had in her vision seen Marjorystruggling in the tide-race with a shroud in the air.
I think Marjory felt something of the same kind, for she looked at meanxiously and grew a little pale. She said nothing, however, and Ithought it better to pass the matter by. Although Marjory had heard theexpression of the Witch-woman's vision, and though I had told her ofmy first experience of the old rhyming prophecy, the former was at atime when neither I myself nor the whole mystery was of any specialimportance to her. She might not have remembered it; I trusted that thiswas so.
However, we could not either of us be sad for long to-day. Our joy wastoo fresh to be dimmed by any thought of gloom, except momentarily as amirror is by a passing breath.
Tea in the old oak room was a delight, with the afternoon sun comingin slantwise through the narrow windows and falling in lines of lightacross the floor. Marjory made the tea and served me; and each time Itook anything from her hand our fingers met, she no more than myselfavoiding the touch. Then, leaving the old lady upstairs, she took methrough the various rooms; and in her pretty, impulsive way she told meall the romances which she had already woven about them in her brain.She came and saw me off; with her kiss of good-bye on my lips I rodeback through the gloomy wood, feeling as proud and valiant as a knightof old.