Gilian The Dreamer

nd placed it with scrupulous care in the very centre of the table; his brother lifted two tumblers from the corner cupboard and put them on each side of the bottle, fastidious to a hair's breadth a

o forget his presence, turning upon him a flat, vacant eye. Gilian leaned upon his other foot and was on the verge of crying at his situation. The day had been far too cr

k the toddy ladles in the cupboa

eneral, who came back from his musings with a conv

of instinct, and hurriedly repeating it in

ng hard. "You are not very bulky

moment's pause as if he were recalling all the boys he knew

ing over with a show of intimacy and even friendlin

ian confessed in a low tone. "I can be a

an be anything he likes. Is not that a good one? Anything he likes!" And he laughed with a choked and heavy effort till the scar u

to the boy he must be in a dream, looking at the creations of his brain. The step of a fly could have been heard in the room almost, so sunk was it

preceded the Lords Justiciary on their circuit twice a year; but the words came distinctly to him in by the open window where the

ir Miss Mary had so sparely filled an hour ago. Then he withdrew the stopper of the bottle, poured a tiny drop of the spirits i

be thinking about to be troubling with these little affairs. Listen to me. I fought in Corunna, in Salamanc

of victory. And then he bent a lustreless eye upon his own portrait, so sombre and

l. All other trades have their limits, when a man may tell himself, 'That's the best I can do,' and shut his book or set down the tool with no disgrace in the relinquishment. But a soger's is a different ploy; he must stand stark against all encountering, nor cry a parley even with the lance at his throat. Oh, man! man!

tryside, and the heather would be like a pillow so soft and springy under the arm. Round about, the soldiers would be standing, looking at the glow,

d the General, who stood to their feet facing his tense and thrilled

ing in the distance as they turned the

or prisoners,

risoners, if they

against the grassy hillock, full of charm, instinct with dream, and the

l, turning almost piteously to his brother. "It beats all! Where did you lear

e that, with the cork-trees behind and old Sir George ramping and cursing in his tent because the picke

the chair again,

myself in a wine-shop or change-house, drinking as I should never have been doing if I had as muckle sense as a clabbie-doo, with a dragoon major old enough to be my father. He was a pock-pudding Englishman, a great hash of a man with the chest of him slipped down below his belt, and what was he but bragging about the rich people he came of, and the rich soil they flourished on, its apple-orchards and honey-flowers and its

home-sick when you said

t a minute before, had been singing Donacha Ban's song of 'Ben Dorain,' and no pros

I think I could tell just the way you felt when

r-old warlock," said the Cornal

d the General, drawing his c

bits of the words here and there, but when he was singing it I saw the sun rise on the hill, not a slow grey, but suddenl

ckoo before breakfast," said the Co

f the braes and stripes of black fir on them; the crying of cattle, the sound of burn and eas and the voices of people I knew would be dragging my heart home. I would be saying

others turned and looked as if it was something quite new and s

nt at the one picture ever I saw that gave me the day-dreaming. I never see th

own. There was at the very front of the picture, in a corner, among the flying Frenchmen pursued by the horses, the presentment of a Scottish soldier, wounded, lying upon

d and put a finger as high as he could to point out the particular thing he referred to. "That's a man," said he, "and he's afraid. He does not h

e myself, and the thud of horses was a sound that filled the world. Sit down, sit down!" he went on sharply, as if he had of a sudde

lips now, awake to the enormity of his

the Cornal hotly; "you're

ld with difficulty be concealed. Very restlessly he moved about in his chair, and turned his look from th

is. A soldier indeed! You're not fit for it, lad; you have only the makings of a dominie. Sit you there, and we'll see what

flew away; the carts did not rumble any more in the street; the children's chorus was altogether lost. A feeling came over the boy that he had been here or somewhere like it before, and he was fascinated, wondering what next would happen. A tall old clock in the lobby, whose pendulum swung so slowly that at first he had never realised its presence, at last took advantage of the silence and swung itself into his n

mystery. The brothers did not observe it; all this was too faint for their old ears, though plainly heard by a child of the fields whose ear against the grass could detect the marching of insects and the tunnelling of worms. But for that he would have screamed-but for the magic air of friendship and sympathy that flowed to him through chink and keyhole from the good heart loud-beating outside; in that kind air of fond companionship (even with a door between) there was comfort. In a little the slippers sped back along the lobby, the stai

" said the Cornal, wi

quickly, putting his cane softly into a corner. "I had a lit

t-Ja

Cha

n his utterance and a tightening of the corner of his lips. "I

and as he spoke the purple of the Cornal's face turned to livid and the

ors, are we, and the name's dead with the last of us? And you argued with

e pleaded. "I am not so young as I was, and a bonny-like

Coll hit your character when he made his song; you were a

ald," said he, "I'll leave it to you if Colin's acting fairly

said too much; I'm hot-tempered, I know; never mind my taunt, John. But you'll allow it's galling to have a beggarly upstart like Turner throwing our bachelorhood in our t

reat heap of dust into his nostrils, and feverishly rubbing do

en; seeing him gaze thus and pause, the Cornal turned too and looked at the youth, and the General shrugged himself i

ing in Gilian's direction. "I've seen some real diverts in my time, but he beats all. And you h

portrait of himself when he was thirty-five, and to

aster humbly. "The nature for sogering is the gift of God, a

g by-ordinar in him all the same. It's your affair, John, but-" He stopped short and looked again at Gilian and

d that's what I said. I'll make him a soger if I can, a

in the most vague trifles. That they should lay out his future for warfare and for hate, without any regard for his own wishes, was a little alarming. Soldiering-with the man before him in the picture, sitting

standing at the kitchen door, eager for his company, with a flush on her

erhaps that does not much matter, so long as people are honest and well-doing; we are all equals before God except in head and heart, but there's something too in our old Hielan' notion that the closest kith of the King are aye most kindly, because the habit is born in them to be freehanded and una

said Gilian, and he wondered if she was angry at his

exclaimed, but never a