After Tibbie's bold stroke of invasion, there was nothing left for him but to succumb. Resistance would have raised such a scandal as must have lost him his beadleship, and would probably have driven him from the parish, so he had felt compelled to admit his marriage as the lesser evil, even although it involved a severe private rebuke before the assembled kirk-session for the matrimonial irregularity.
The bitterest day of his life was probably the Sunday on which he 'kirket' his wife. Shambling down the village street in front of his mother-in-law, who stepped out behind with the briskness and precision of a corporal's guard, he seemed 'going,' as Mrs. Ebenezer Prittie, who surveyed them out of her window, observed to her spouse, 'like a fool to the correction of the stocks,' and Mrs. P. was not sorry for him. There was a twinkle of scornful pity in the eye of the onlookers at seeing this notorious lady-killer thus taken in charge, which stung Joseph's self-love like the cut of a whip; but his discomfiture was not complete till they met Jean Macaulay. Jean surveyed their procession with open eyes, and then looking her old sweetheart full in the face, she threw back her head and uttered an echoing laugh. There was a ring of vexation in the sound which might have brought consolation for the affront, but Joseph was already too miserable to be nicely observant. His eyes fell before her, and his head hung forward in abject confusion; and he crept about his duties that day around the tent more like a whipped cur than the brisk and consequential beadle of other days.
As Kenneth drove his friend home to Inchbracken, his kind heart was rejoicing to note the improvement in his condition. The happy discovery had acted on him like a cordial given to a fainting man. His very bearing was altered. He sat squarely in his seat looking about him with clear and animated eyes, a different person from the limp and nerveless invalid, seeing nothing left to him in earth or sky worth a moment's regard, whom he had driven out a few hours before. Finding there was still something left in his own life to interest him, Steele began also to interest himself in the life of his fellows. He talked to Kenneth about the Browns who had so tenderly cared for his child, and the Browns with Kenneth was an inexhaustible subject. Now that he had found a friendly listener, he talked about them freely enough, and by the time they had reached Inchbracken, Steele knew all about his engagement.
Understanding in what direction the morning drive had been made, the sympathetic Julia had arranged herself for dinner in a species of half mourning, and her voice and mien were more subduedly sorrowful than ever. As the disconsolate entered the drawing room, she lifted her head from a book over which she had been drooping in willowy fashion, all mournful sympathy for the haggard desolation she expected to see depicted on his face; but for once she found herself completely out of tune.
Major Steele sat down beside Lady Caroline and began to recount the discovery he had made--what a miracle had occurred on his behalf, and what a paragon among infants was his new found daughter.
'Mary Brown's baby! your daughter?' cried Lady Caroline. 'That is perfectly delightful! Would you like me to send over for it, that you may have it here under your own eye?'
She was probably not very sorry, however, that Major Steele thought it would be better for him to make a daily visit to his offspring, until he could arrange to remove it to Edinburgh.
The two elder men were agreeably surprised by the brightened manner of their guest. He seemed transformed since morning from a dismal hypochondriac, into a person cheerful and companionable; or, as Captain John put it, 'he seemed to have completely picked himself up.' He in particular was well pleased to meet some one who could talk to him of India, and enable him to live over again the years he spent there in his youth. It followed that they sat longer than usual in the dining room, drank their coffee there, and adjourned straight to the smoking room, so that the ladies saw no more of them that evening.
This was just as well for Julia, whose artistic soul had been sadly jarred by finding herself pitched in a wrong key. It took her hours to modulate down into a more everyday state of feeling,--for there must be a kind of feeling at the back even of make-believe emotion, if it is to be a successful representation. But that was only part of what she would have to do. The spectator must be led down by easy gradation, or her revulsion from pensive melancholy to a chastened cheerfulness might seem abrupt, intentional, and ridiculous. Artificial feeling has this advantage in displaying itself, that it is single, and free from the complexities and contradictions which confuse and distract the real, in its manifestation; and hence grief on the stage is often beautiful, while in private life it is generally revolting and grotesque. But this very singleness and clear definition makes it more difficult for the artificial to change front; while the real, having been always blurred and muddy and indistinct, can readily transfer itself to a new category. The floating cloud passes readily enough from the form of an eagle to a ship, a horse or a whale; but clay once trimmed and modelled into a given shape must be broken down and worked up afresh in order to take a new form. Julia therefore kept in the background for a day or two, before coming forward prominently in a new rôle. Prominence, however, was by no means so very easy now. Since Major Steele's mind had recovered a healthier tone, the men in the house were all eager for his company. The General had Blue-Books and Reports of the Board of Control on which he desired information, and Captain John talked pig-sticking and tigerhunts by the hour.
If Julia would only have taken some personal interest in the baby, she might have succeeded, but she was much too clever and artistic to try any course so obvious as that. Besides, she abominated babies. 'Damp, sticky little abominations, which always squalled when you did anything to them! and scrabbled their little wet fingers over your face, which was always unpleasant, and sometimes inconvenient.' If she would have talked about bringing up young children, infant health and disease, baths, powders, pap and teething, she might have kept the Major at her side by the hour; for the new responsibilities of a parent weighed heavily upon him, and he had no one to advise with, Lady Caroline having forgotten all she ever knew on such matters, if she ever knew anything. He rode over to Eppie every day and had long talks with her on the engrossing subject; but when he returned, the billiard room or smoking room were his usual haunts.