Johnny had had a good deal of knocking about the Western Highlands, and was familiar with the frank and ready hospitality which the local lairds—more particularly in the remote islands; where a stranger brought recent newspapers and a breath of the outer world with him—granted to all comers who bore with them the credentials of owning a yacht. But never before had he gone up to a strange house with such perturbation of spirit. He had been so anxious, too, that he had left no time for preparation. When he started up the hill he could see, in the gathering dusk, that the tall keeper had just entered the house, and when he arrived there he found absolutely nobody about the place.
In ordinary circumstances he would simply have walked in and called some one from the kitchen. But he now felt himself somewhat of a spy, and was not a little afraid of meeting the handsome Mrs. Lavender, of whom he had heard so much. There was no light in the passage, but there was a bright red gloom in one of the windows, and almost inadvertently he glanced in there. What was this strange picture he saw? The red flame of the fire showed him the grand, figures on the walls of Sheila’s dining-room, and lit up the white table-cover and the crystal in the middle of the apartment. A beautiful young girl, clad in a tight blue dress, had just arisen from beside the fire to light two candles that were on the table; and then she went back to her seat and took up her sewing, but not to sew, for Johnny saw her gently kneel down beside a little bassinet that was a mass of wonderful pink and white, and he supposed the door in the passage was open, for he could hear a low voice humming some lullaby-song sung by the young mother to her child. He went back a step bewildered by what he had seen. Could he fly down to the shore, and bring Lavender up to look at this picture through the window, and beg of him to go in and throw himself on her forgiveness and mercy? He had not time to think twice. At this moment Mairi appeared in the dusky passage, looking a little scared, although she did not drop the plates she carried: “Oh, sir, and are you the gentleman that has come in the yacht? And Mr. Mackenzie, he is upstairs just now, but he will be down ferry soon; and will you come in and speak to Miss Sheila?”
“Miss Sheila!” he repeated to himself with amazement; and the next moment he found himself before this beautiful young girl, apologizing to her, stammering, and wishing that he had never undertaken such a task, while he knew that all the time she was calmly regarding him with her large, calm and gentle eyes, and that there was no trace of embarrassment in her manner.
“Will you take a seat by the fire until papa comes down?” she said. “We are very glad to have any one come to see us; we do not have many visitors in the winter.”
“But I am afraid,” he stammered, “I am putting you to trouble;” and he glanced at the swinging pink and white couch.
“Oh, no,” Sheila said with a smile; “I was just about to send my little boy to bed.”
She lifted the sleeping child and rolled it in some enormous covering of white and silken-haired fur, and gave the small bundle to Mairi to carry to Scarlett.
“Stop a bit!” Johnny called out to Mairi; and the girl started and looked around, whereupon he said to Sheila, with much blushing, “Isn’t there a superstition about an infant waking to find silver in its hands? I am sure you wouldn’t mind my—”
“He cannot hold anything yet,” Sheila said, with a smile.
“Then, Mairi, you must put this below his pillow. Is not that the same thing for luck?” he said, addressing the young Highland girl as if he had known her all his life; and Mairi went away proud and pleased to have this precious bundle to carry, and talking to it with a thousand soft and endearing phrases in her native tongue.