Jan Vedder's Wife, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr [ebook reader with built in dictionary .txt] 📗

long and dreary winter. It is amazing how long time can be when Sorrow counts the hours. Sameness, too, adds to grief; there was nothing to vary the days. Margaret went to bed every night full of that despairing oppression which hopes nothing from the morrow. Even when the spring came again her life had the same uniform gray tinge. Peter had his fisheries to look forward to, and by the end of May he had apparently quite recovered himself. Then he began to be a little more pleasant and talkative to his daughter. He asked himself why he should any longer let the wraith of Jan Vedder trouble his life? At the last he had gone to help him; if he were not there to be helped, that was not his fault. As for Margaret, he knew nothing positively against her. Her grief and amazement had seemed genuine at the time; very likely it was; at any rate, it was better to bury forever the memory of a man so inimical to the peace and happiness of the Faes.

The fishing season helped him to carry out this resolution. His hands were full. His store was crowded. There were a hundred things that only Peter could do for the fishers. Jan was quite forgotten in the press and hurry of a busier season than Lerwick had ever seen. Peter was again the old bustling, consequential potentate, the most popular man in the town, and the most necessary. He cared little that Tulloch still refused to meet him; he only smiled when Suneva Glumm refused to let him weigh her tea and sugar, and waited for Michael Snorro.

Perhaps Suneva's disdain did annoy him a little. No man likes to be scorned by a good and a pretty woman. It certainly recurred to Peter's mind more often than seemed necessary, and made him for a moment shrug his shoulders impatiently, and mutter a word or two to himself.

One lovely moonlight night, when the boats were all at sea, and the town nearly deserted, Peter took his pipe and rambled out for a walk. He was longing for some womanly sympathy, and had gone home with several little matters on his heart to talk over with Margaret. But unfortunately the child had a feverish cold, and how could she patiently listen to fishermen's squabbles, and calculations of the various "takes," when her boy was fretful and suffering? So Peter put on his bonnet, and with his pipe in his mouth, rambled over the moor. He had not gone far before he met Suneva Glumm. Under ordinary circumstances he would have let her pass him, but to-night he wanted to talk, and even Suneva was welcome. He suddenly determined "to have it out with her," and without ceremony he called to her.

"Let me speak to thee, Suneva; I have something to say."

She turned and faced him: "Well then, say it."

"What have I done to get so much of thy ill-will? I, that have been friends with thee since I used to lift thee over the counter and give thee a sweet lozenger?"

"Thou did treat poor Jan Vedder so badly."

"And what is Jan Vedder to thee, that thou must lift his quarrel?"

"He was my friend, then."

"And thy lover, perhaps. I have heard that he loved thee before he ever saw my Margaret when she was at school in Edinburgh."

"Thou hast heard lies then; but if he had loved me and if I had been his wife, Jan had been a good man this day; good and loving. Yes, indeed!"

"Art thou sure he is dead?"

"Peter Fae, if any one can answer that question, thou can; thou and thy daughter Margaret."

"I have heard thou hast said this before now."

"Ay, I have said it often, and I think it."

"Now, then, listen to me, and see how thou hast done me wrong."

Then Peter pleaded his own cause, and he pleaded it with such cleverness and eloquence that Suneva quite acquitted him.

"I believe now thou art innocent," she answered calmly. "The minister told me so long ago. I see now that he was right." Then she offered Peter her hand, and he felt so pleased and grateful that he walked with her all the way to the town. For Suneva had a great deal of influence over the men who visited Torr's, and most of them did visit Torr's. They believed all she said. They knew her warm, straightforward nature, and her great beauty gave a kind of royal assurance to her words.

Peter was therefore well pleased that he had secured her good will, and especially that he had convinced her of his entire innocence regarding Jan's life. If the subject ever came up over the fishers' glasses, she was a partisan worth having. He went home well satisfied with himself for the politic stroke he had made, and with the success which had attended it.

Margaret had seen her father talking and walking with Suneva, and she was very much offended at the circumstance. In her anger she made a most imprudent remark--"My mother not a year dead yet! Suneva is a bold, bad woman!"

"What art thou thinking of? Let me tell thee it was of Jan Vedder, and Jan Vedder only, that we spoke."

Not until that moment had it struck Peter that Suneva was a widow, and he a widower. But the thought once entertained was one he was not disposed to banish. He sat still half an hour and recalled her bright eyes, and good, cheerful face, and the pleasant confidential chat they had had together. He felt comforted even in the memory of the warm grip of her hand, and her sensible, honorable opinions. Why should he not marry again? He was in the prime of life, and he was growing richer every year. The more he thought of Suneva the warmer his heart grew toward her.

He was not displeased when next day one of his old comrades told him in a pawkie, meaning way, that he had "seen him walking with Glumm's handsome widow." A man nearly sixty is just as ready to suppose himself fascinating as a man of twenty. Peter had his courtiers, and they soon found out that he liked to be twitted about Suneva; in a little while a marriage between the handsome widow and the rich merchant was regarded as a very probable event.

When once the thought of love and marriage has taken root in a man's heart it grows rapidly. The sight of Suneva became daily more pleasant to Peter. Every time she came to the store he liked her better. He took care to let her see this, and he was satisfied to observe that his attentions did not prevent her visits.

In a few weeks he had quite made up his mind; he was only watching for a favorable opportunity to influence Suneva. In August, at the Fisherman's Foy, it came. Peter was walking home one night, a little later than usual, and he met Suneva upon the moor. His face showed his satisfaction. "Long have I watched for this hour," he said; "now thou must walk with me a little, for I have again some thing to say to thee. Where hast thou been, Suneva?"

"Well, then, I took charge of Widow Thorkel's knitting to sell it for her. She is bedridden, thou knows. I got a good price for her, and have been to carry her the money."

"Thou art a kind woman. Now, then, be kind to me also. I want to have thee for my wife."

"What will thy daughter say to that? She never liked me--nor have I much liked her."

"It will be long ere I ask my daughter if I shall do this or that. It is thee I ask. Wilt thou be my wife, Suneva?"

"It would not be a bad thing."

"It would be a very good thing for me, and for thee also. I should have thy pleasant face, and thy good heart, and thy cheerful company at my fireside. I will be to thee a loving husband. I will give thee the house I live in, with all its plenishing, and I will settle L70 a year on thee."

"That is but a little thing for thee to do."

"Then I will make it a L100 a year. Now what dost thou say?"

"I will marry thee, Peter, and I will do my duty to thee, and make thee happy." Then she put her hand in his, and he walked home with her.

Next day all Lerwick knew that Peter was going to marry Glumm's handsome widow.


CHAPTER IX.


JAN AT HIS POST.

"Then like an embryo bird
One day, he knew not how, but God that morn
Had pricked his soul--he cracked his shelly case, and
Claimed his due portion in a larger life.
Into new life he starts, surveys the world
With bolder scope, and breathes more ample breath."

With a great sigh of content Jan resigned himself to rest when the parting was over; and "The Lapwing," with wind and tide in her favor, went almost flying down the black North Sea. The motion of the vessel and the scent of the salt breeze were like his mother's lap and his native air. He had cast off his old life like an old garment. Michael Snorro and Dr. Balloch were the only memories of it he desired to carry into his new one. But at the first hour he could not even think of them. He only wanted to sleep.

Very soon sleep came to him, steeped him from head to feet in forgetfulness, lulled him fathoms deep below the tide of life and feeling. It was after twelve the next noon when he opened his eyes. Lord Lynne was sitting at the cabin table just opposite his berth. It took Jan two or three moments to remember where he was, and during them Lord Lynne looked up and smiled at him. Jan smiled back a smile frank and trustful as a child's. It established his position at once. Lord Lynne had been wondering what that position was to be, and he had decided to let Jan's unconscious behavior settle it. Even an animal, or a bird, that trusts us, wins us. The face that Jan turned to Lord Lynne was just such a face as he would have turned to Snorro--it trusted every thing, it claimed every thing, and every thing was given it.

"You have had your health-sleep, Vedder; I dare say you are hungry now?"

"Very hungry," answered Jan. "Is it breakfast time?"

"You mean is it lunch time? You will have to put two meals into one. Shall I order you some fresh fish, and eggs, and a broiled bird?"

"The thought of them is good."

"And some roast mutton and potatoes?"

"Yes, and plenty of tea if thou pleases."

My lord had his lunch while Jan ate his breakfast, and a very pleasant meal they made of it. The yacht was tossing and pitching a good deal, but they were leaving the islands behind and sailing fast toward smoother waters and brighter skies. Jan improved with every hour's flight, and he would gladly have left his berth had Lord Lynne permitted it.

"At Aberdeen," he said, "you shall go on shore, and see a physician. Dr. Balloch