FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138  
139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>   >|  
have read, I have pondered----" "Just so," whispered M'Iver, not a bit abashed that a sneer was in his interjection and his master could behold it. "--And I have my doubts about the righteousness of much of our warfare, either before my day or now. I have brought the matter to my closet I have prayed----" "Pshaw!" exclaimed M'Iver, but at once he asked pardon. "--I am a man come--or wellnigh come--to the conclusion that his life was never designed by the Creator to be spent in the turmoil of faction and field. There is, I allow, a kind of man whom strife sets off, a middling good man in his way, perhaps, with a call to the sword whose justice he has never questioned. I have studied the philosophies; I have reflected on life--this unfathomable problem--and 'fore God I begin to doubt my very right to wear a breastplate against the poignard of fate. Dubiety plays on me like a flute." To all this I listened soberly, at the time comprehending that this was a gentleman suffering from the disease of being unable to make up his mind. I would have let him go on in that key while he pleasured it, for it's a vein there's no remedy for at the time being; but M'Iver was not of such tolerant stuff as I. He sat with an amazed face till his passion simmered over into a torrent of words. "MacCailein!" said he, "I'll never call you coward, but I'll call you mad, book mad, closet mad! Was this strong fabric your house of Argile (John M'Iver the humblest of its members) built up on doubt and whim and shillyshally hither and yond? Was't that made notable the name of your ancestor Cailein Mor na Sringe, now in the clods of Kilchrenan, or Cailein Iongataich who cooled his iron hide in Linne-na-luraich; or your father himself (peace with him!), who did so gallantly at Glenlivet?" "----And taught me a little of the trade of slaughter at the Western Isles thirty years ago come Candlemas," said the Marquis. "How a man ages! Then--then I had a heart like the bird of spring." "He could have taught you worse! I'm your cousin, and I'll say it to your beard, sir! Your glens and howes are ruined, your cattle are houghed and herried, your clan's name is a bye-word this wae day in all Albainn, and you sit there like a chemist weighing the wind on your stomach." "You see no farther than your nose, John," said the Marquis, petulantly, the candle-light turning his eyes blood-red. "Thank God for that same!" said Mlver, "if it gives me t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138  
139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Marquis
 

taught

 

Cailein

 

closet

 

luraich

 
father
 
humblest
 

coward

 
members
 

Glenlivet


gallantly

 

fabric

 
notable
 

Argile

 
Kilchrenan
 

Sringe

 
shillyshally
 
Iongataich
 

ancestor

 

cooled


strong

 

weighing

 

stomach

 

farther

 

chemist

 

Albainn

 

candle

 

petulantly

 

turning

 

herried


houghed

 
Candlemas
 

slaughter

 

Western

 

thirty

 
ruined
 

cattle

 
spring
 

cousin

 
turmoil

faction
 

Creator

 
wellnigh
 
conclusion
 

designed

 

justice

 
middling
 

strife

 
pardon
 

interjection