“Yes, I know. She made a great mistake.”
“Weel, young Angus Ballister made a mistake, too. His wife wouldn’t live anywhere but in Paris, until the estate was like a moth-eaten garment. They had to come home, and she fretted then for California, but there wasn’t money for anywhere but just Ballister. Mebbe there was some double work about the affair, for I ne’er heard tell of any scrimping in Ballister Mansion, and when he came to Culraine he was free as ever with his siller and his promises—and he kept his promises, though some of them were the vera height of foolishness. He was thick as thack with the Macphersons, and the Captain and himsel’ spent long days in Macpherson’s boat, laying out, and pretending to fish.”
“Why ‘pretending’?”
“They never caught anything, if it wasn’t a haddock or a flounder, when the water was crowded with them, and when, as little Bruce Brodie said, ‘the feesh were jumping into the boat, out o’ each other’s way.’”
“Did you ever hear anything of Neil Ruleson, who was a lawyer and went to America?”
“Never until I was a full-grown lassie. Then they came to pay a visit to Mrs. Macpherson. They are very rich. They have money, and houses, and land 368 beyond all likelihood, and just one sickly son to heir it all.”
“Neil Ruleson’s wife was the sister of a Mr. Reginald Rath. Do you remember anything of the Raths?”
“Very little. Rath and Ballister married sisters. Rath’s wife died in Rome, of fever. They had no children, and Rath went to Africa with General Gordon. I do not think he ever came back, for I heard my brother reading in the Glasgow Herald, that the two claimants to the Rath estate were likely to come to an agreement.”
We were silent for a few moments, and then I said, “There is one more person I would like to hear of. He was only a lad, when I knew him, but a very promising one, a grandson of old James Ruleson, and called after him, though adopted by the Domine.”
“I know who you mean, though he is now called Trenabie. There was something in the way of the law, that made it right and best for him to take his adopted father’s name, if he was to heir his property without trouble. The Rulesons thought it fair, and made no opposition, and the lad loved the Domine, and liked to be called after him. So he was ordained under the name of Trenabie, and is known all over England and Scotland as Doctor James Trenabie.”