|
|
|
Prev
| Next
| Contents
CHAPTER XVII: A DIFFERENCE
Notwithstanding his keenness of judgment and sobriety in action,
Malcolm had yet a certain love for effect, a delight, that is,
in the show of concentrated results, which, as I believe I have
elsewhere remarked, belongs especially to the Celtic nature, and
is one form in which the poetic element vaguely embodies itself.
Hence arose the temptation to try on Blue Peter the effect of a
literally theatrical surprise. He knew well the prejudices of the
greater portion of the Scots people against every possible form of
artistic, most of all, dramatic representation. He knew, therefore,
also, that Peter would never be persuaded to go with him to
the theatre: to invite him would be like asking him to call upon
Beelzebub; but as this feeling was cherished in utter ignorance
of its object, he judged he would be doing him no wrong if he made
experiment how the thing itself would affect the heart and judgment
of the unsophisticated fisherman.
Finding that The Tempest was still the play represented, he
contrived, as they walked together, so to direct their course that
they should be near Drury Lane towards the hour of commencement.
He did not want to take him in much before the time: he would not
give him scope for thought, doubt, suspicion, discovery.
When they came in front of the theatre, people were crowding in,
and carriages setting down their occupants. Blue Peter gave a glance
at the building.
"This'll be ane o' the Lon'on kirks, I'm thinkin'?" he said. "It's
a muckle place; an' there maun be a heap o' guid fowk in Lon'on,
for as ill's it's ca'd, to see sae mony, an' i' their cairritches,
comin' to the kirk--on a Setterday nicht tu. It maun be some kin'
o' a prayer meetin', I'm thinkin'."
Malcolm said nothing, but led the way to the pit entrance.
"That's no an ill w'y o' getherin' the baubees," said Peter, seeing
how the incomers paid their money. "I hae h'ard o' the plate bein'
robbit in a muckle toon afore noo."
When at length they were seated, and he had time to glance reverently
around him, he was a little staggered at sight of the decorations;
and the thought crossed his mind of the pictures and statues he
had heard of in catholic churches; but he remembered Westminster
Abbey, its windows and monuments, and returned to his belief that
he was, if in an episcopal, yet in a protestant church. But he could
not help the thought that the galleries were a little too gaudily
painted, while the high pews in them astonished him. Peter's nature,
however, was one of those calm, slow ones which, when occupied by
an idea or a belief, are by no means ready to doubt its correctness,
and are even ingenious in reducing all apparent contradictions to
theoretic harmony with it--whence it came that to him all this
was only part of the church furniture according to the taste and
magnificence of London. He sat quite tranquil, therefore, until the
curtain rose, revealing the ship's company in all the confusion of
the wildest of sea storms.
Malcolm watched him narrowly. But Peter was first so taken by surprise,
and then so carried away with the interest of what he saw, that
thinking had ceased in him utterly, and imagination lay passive
as a mirror to the representation. Nor did the sudden change from
the first to the second scene rouse him, for before his thinking
machinery could be set in motion, the delight of the new show
had again caught him in its meshes. For to him, as it had been to
Malcolm, it was the shore at Portlossie, while the cave that opened
behind was the Bailie's Barn, where his friends the fishers might
at that moment, if it were a fine night, be holding one of their
prayer meetings. The mood lasted all through the talk of Prospero
and Miranda; but when Ariel entered there came a snap, and the spell
was broken. With a look in which doubt wrestled with horror, Blue
Peter turned to Malcolm, and whispered with bated breath--"I'm
jaloosin'--it canna be--it's no a playhoose, this?"
Malcolm merely nodded, but from the nod Peter understood that he
had had no discovery to make as to the character of the place they
were in.
"Eh!" he groaned, overcome with dismay. Then rising suddenly--
"Guid nicht to ye, my lord," he said, with indignation, and rudely
forced his way from the crowded house.
Malcolm followed in his wake, but said nothing till they were in
the street. Then, forgetting utterly his resolves concerning English
in the distress of having given his friend ground to complain of
his conduct towards him, he laid his hand on Blue Peter's arm, and
stopped him in the middle of the narrow street.
"I but thoucht, Peter," he said, "to get ye to see wi' yer ain een,
an' hear wi' yer ain ears, afore ye passed jeedgment; but ye're
jist like the lave."
"An' what for sudna I be jist like the lave?" returned Peter,
fiercely.
"'Cause it's no fair to set doon a' thing for wrang 'at ye ha'e
been i' the w'y o' hearing aboot by them 'at kens as little aboot
them as yersel'. I cam here mysel', ohn kent whaur I was gaein',
the ither nicht, for the first time i' my life; but I wasna fleyt
like you, 'cause I kent frae the buik a' 'at was comin'. I hae
h'ard in a kirk in ae ten meenutes jist a sicht o' what maun ha'e
been sair displeasin' to the hert a' the maister a' 's a'; but
that nicht I saw nae ill an' h'ard nae ill, but was weel peyed back
upo' them 'at did it an' said it afore the business was ower, an'
that's mair nor ye'll see i' the streets o' Portlossie ilka day.
The playhoose is whaur ye gang to see what comes o' things 'at ye
canna follow oot in ordinar' life."
Whether Malcolm, after a year's theatre going, would have said
precisely the same is hardly doubtful. He spoke of the ideal theatre
to which Shakspere is true, and in regard to that he spoke rightly.
"Ye decoy't me intill the hoose o' ineequity!" was Peter's indignant
reply; "an' it 's no what ye ever ga'e me cause to expec' o' ye,
sae 'at I micht ha'e ta'en tent o' ye."
"I thoucht nae ill o' 't," returned Malcolm.
"Weel, I div," retorted Peter.
"Then perhaps you are wrong," said Malcolm, "for charity thinketh
no evil. You wouldn't stay to see the thing out."
"There ye are at yer English again! an' misgugglin' Scriptur'
wi' 't an' a' this upo' Setterday nicht--maist the Sawbath day!
Weel, I ha'e aye h'ard 'at Lon'on was an awfu' place, but I little
thoucht the verra air o' 't wad sae sune turn an honest laad like
Ma'colm MacPhail intill a scoffer. But maybe it's the markis o'
'im, an' no the muckle toon 'at's made the differ. Ony gait, I'm
thinkin' it'll be aboot time for me to be gauin' hame."
Malcolm was vexed with himself, and both disappointed and troubled
at the change which had come over his friend, and threatened to
destroy the lifelong relation between them; his feelings therefore
held him silent. Peter concluded that the marquis was displeased,
and it clenched his resolve to go.
"What w'y am I to win hame, my lord?" he said, when they had walked
some distance without word spoken.
"By the Aberdeen smack," returned Malcolm. "She sails on Tuesday.
I will see you on board. You must take young Davy with you, for I
wouldn't have him here after you are gone. There will be nothing
for him to do."
"Ye're unco ready to pairt wi' 's noo 'at ye ha'e nae mair use for
's," said Peter.
"No sae ready as ye seem to pairt wi' yer chairity," said Malcolm,
now angry too.
"Ye see Annie 'ill be thinkin' lang," said Peter, softening a
little.
No more angry words passed between them, but neither did any
thoroughly cordial ones, and they parted at the stairs in mutual,
though, with such men, it could not be more than superficial
estrangement.
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|
|
|