The Works of "Fiona Macleod", Volume IV. Sharp Elizabeth Amelia

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СКАЧАТЬ of the solemn dusk of the pines; of the mauve shadows which slanted across the scanty corn that lay in green patches beyond lonely crofts; of the travelling purple phantoms of phantom clouds, to us invisible, over against the mountain-breasts; of a solitary seamew, echoing the wave in that inland stillness.

      All these things gave us keen pleasure. The Body often laughed joyously, and talked of chasing the shadow till it should turn and leap into him, and he be a wild creature of the woods again, and be happy, knowing nothing but the incalculable hour. It is an old belief of the Gaelic hill-people.

      "If one yet older be true," said the Will, speaking to the Soul, "you and Shadow are one and the same. Nay, the mystery of the Trinity is symbolised here again – as in us three; for there is an ancient forgotten word of an ancient forgotten people, which means alike the Breath, the Shadow, and the Soul."1

      As we walked onward we became more silent. It was about the sixth hour from noon that we saw a little coast-town lying amid green pastures, overhung, as it seemed, by the tremulous blue band of the sea-line. The Body was glad, for here were friends, and he wearied for his kind. The Will and the Soul, too, were pleased, for now they shared the common lot of mortality, and knew weariness as well as hunger and thirst. So we moved towards the blue smoke of the homes.

      "The home of a wild dove, a branch swaying in the wind, is sweet to it; and the green bracken under a granite rock is home to a tired hind; and so we, who are wayfarers idler than these, which blindly obey the law, may well look to yonder village as our home for to-night."

      So spoke the Soul.

      The Body laughed blithely. "Yes," he added, "it is a cheerier home than the green bracken. Tell me, have you ever heard of The Three Companions of Night?"

      "The Three Companions of Night? I would take them to be Prayer, and Hope, and Peace."

      "So says the Soul – but what do you say, O Will?"

      "I would take them to be Dream, and Rest, and Longing."

      "We are ever different," replied the Body, with a sigh, "for the Three Companions of whom I speak are Laughter, and Wine, and Love."

      "Perhaps we mean the same thing," muttered the Will, with a smile of bitter irony.

      We thought much of these words as we passed down a sandy lane hung with honeysuckles, which were full of little birds who made a sweet chittering.

      Prayer, and Hope, and Peace; Dream, and Rest, and Longing; Laughter, and Wine, and Love: were these analogues of the Heart's Desire?

      When we left the lane, where we saw a glow-worm emitting a pale fire as he moved through the green dusk in the shadow of the hedge, we came upon a white devious road. A young man stood by a pile of stones. He stopped his labour and looked at us. One of us spoke to him.

      "Why is it that a man like yourself, young and strong, should be doing this work, which is for broken men?"

      "Why are you breathing?" he asked abruptly.

      "We breathe to live," answered the Body, smiling blithely.

      "Well, I break stones to live."

      "Is it worth it?"

      "It's better than death."

      "Yes," said the Body slowly, "it is better than death."

      "Tell me," asked the Soul, "why is it better than death?"

      "Who wants not to want?"

      "Ah – it is the need to want, then, that is strongest!"

      The stone-breaker looked sullenly at the speaker.

      "If you're not anxious to live," he said, "will you give me what money you have? It is a pity good money should be wasted. I know well where I would be spending it this night of the nights," he added abruptly in Gaelic.

      The Body looked at him with curious eyes.

      "And where would you be spending it?" he asked, in the same language.

      "This is the night of the marriage of John Macdonald, the rich man from America, who has come back to his own town, and is giving a big night of it to all his friends, and his friends' friends."

      "Is that the John Macdonald who is marrying Elsie Cameron?" demanded the Body eagerly.

      "Ay, the same; though it may be the other daughter of Alastair Rua, the girl Morag."

      A flush rose to the face of the Body. His eyes sparkled.

      "It is Elsie," he said to the man.

      "Belike," the stone-breaker muttered indifferently.

      "Do you know where Alastair Rua and his daughters are?"

      "Yes, at Beann Marsanta Macdonald's big house of the One-Ash Farm."

      "Can you show me the way?"

      "I'm going that way."

      Thereat the Body turned to his comrades:

      "I love her," he said simply; "I love Morag Cameron."

      "She is not for your loving," answered the Will sharply; "for she has given troth to old Archibald Sinclair."

      The Body laughed.

      "Love is love," he said lightly.

      "Come," interrupted the Soul wearily; "we have loitered long enough. Let us go."

      We stood looking at the stone-breaker, who was gazing curiously at us. Suddenly he laughed.

      "Why do you laugh?" asked the Soul.

      "Well, I'm not for knowing that. But I'll tell you this: if you two wish to go into the town, you have only to follow this road. And if you want to come to One-Ash Farm, then you must come this other way with me."

      "Do not go," whispered the Soul.

      But the Body, with an impatient gesture, drew aside. "Leave me," he added: "I wish to go with this man. I will meet you to-morrow morning at the first bridge to the westward of the little town yonder, just where the stream slackens over the pebbles."

      With reluctant eyes the two companions saw their comrade leave. For a long time the Will watched him with a bitter smile. Redeeming love was in the longing eyes of the Soul.

      When the Body and the stone-breaker were alone, as they walked towards the distant farm-steading, where already were lights, and whence came a lowing of kye in the byres, for it was the milking hour, they spoke at intervals.

      "Who were those with you?" asked the man.

      "Friends. We have come away together."

      "What for?"

      "Well, as you would say, to see the world."

      "To see the world?" The man laughed. "To see the world! Have you money?"

      "Enough for our needs."

      "Then you will see nothing. The world gives to them that already have, an' more than have."

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