Puck — April 23, 1879 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

observer would be likely to detect the few straggling hairs of gray that streak the other- wise pure and glossy black. ‘The face, without being handsome, is prepossessing and frank, and stamped with an unmistakable air of good- ness, straightforwardness and common sense. Having lived all his days in the open air, amid cornfields and heather, cattle and new-mown hay, Gleninver has carried with him into mid- dle life the elasticity and vigor of youth, with a freshness and buoyancy of heart and spirit which even youth, if vexed by sorrow or mar- red by vice, seldom boasts. A gentleman farmer and Highland laird, he is, of course, fa- miliar with every department of agricultural science and art, and his judgment in the mat- ter of horseflesh and cattle will be taken as soon as that of almost any man in Skye, His wool never fails to fetch a good price at the Muir of Ord, and his reputation as a breeder of Short-horns has spread suuthward as far as Sussex and westward as far as Canada. Of an old family—he is a not very distant relation of Lord Macdonald whose estates are not many miles off, and through his wife claims kin with MacLeod of MacLeod and McPherson of Cluny; of an old family, as we have said, and blessed with good connections and a fairly lib- eral education, MacDonald unites in his own person the best qualities and characteristics of the old Highland laird with those of the modern scientific farmer, His grandfather had been the first man on the Island to use wheel-carts, and he himself had led the way in introducing steam ploughs and other mechanical aids of a like advanced character, Although a liberal in politics, he clings to many of the fashions, not to say superstitions, of his ancestors, and each evening, winter or sumer, hail or shine, his piper chants the war-slogans and songs of the clan in front of the house, A keen sup- porter of the “Auld Kirk” of Scotland, and bitterly opposed to disestablishment, he yet re- veres Gladstone, and swears by the Scotsman. In questions purely political, indeed, he has strong opinions—what nowadays we call pro- nounced—and these he never omits to impress upon all with whom he comes in contact. If he Aas a hobby, it is this,and he has been known to enliven the arithmetical and purely bucolic details of a keen bargaining as to the sale or purchase of cattle, with a dissertation on the Eastern Questicn. Conservatism and Dizzy he regards as synonyms for bad trade, and in the course of his evening devotions— though for this we have only the playful malice of his political opponents—he never fails to pray God speedily to return William Ewart to power, that so the glory of His kingdom may be advanced—and the income tax be propor- tionately lightened. In his dealings with his family he is loving toa fault; with his neigh- bors friendly and kind; with his dependants liberal and frank: and indeed no gentleman in the shire is more widely respected and es- teemed. How much of Gleninver’s success in life and goodness of character have been the result of his own personal exertions and native dis- position it is impossible to say, but he himself would be the last to deny that a very con- siderable share of both is due to his wife. Mrs, Macdonald is indeed a model of a woman; Interally, so far at least as outsiders can judge, a perfect lady, movher and wife. In the days of her maidenhood she must have been super- latively beautiful, and even now that the sum- mers of some forty odd years have passed over her, the comely face retains much of its pris- tine beauty, and the small, ripe, faultlessly moulded mouth, and the frank, clear blue eyes all their girlish sweetness and purity of ex- Pression. Stout she has grown certainly, as is meet for the mother of so many bairns to grow, and mellow like a ripe peach in autumn; but the embonpoint is not too marked, and many an English dame who would scorn to be called anything like old might be proud to call her daughter. ‘To her husband she has been all that an ideal wife should be; his comforter in sor- row, his best adviser in difficulty, his bosom companion in every walk of life. Intellec- tually, her friends say, she is in some respects his superior, and whether this be so or not, Gleninver accepts it as an acknowledged fact, for which he ought to be, and really is pro- foundly thankful. Her mind is certainly the finer and more acute of the two; her judgment, if less robust, is less impulsive and more cau- tious; and although she is too wise and too good a woman ever to obtrude her own opin- ions as against those of her husband, or at- tempt to force him to a line of action from which he is strongly averse, she yet makes her influence felt in other and such ways that her husband gets the larger share of the credit, and is himself not unfrequently all unconscious of the overturning of his purposes and plans. Finally, between the two there has always been the most perfect confidence, and they love one another as passionately in the autumn of their lives as when, in the flush and glow of spring, they first plighted their young troth beneath the moonlit skies of Gleninver. And _ now, while the heads of the household are still engaged, let us turn our attention for some little time to the rest of the family, of whom, indeed, there are so many that we des- pair of being able to remember their respective names and ages. It is sufficient to say that at the time we write of there were a great many; so many that when they were all at home the neighborhood was alive with them, as if they had been sprinkled all over the place out of some huge pepper-castor. The eldest of all was Kenneth, who, after an unusually distin- guished career at the Universities of St. An- drews and Glasgow, had been appointed Pro- fessor of Natural Philosophy in the latter insti- tution; but as we shall have occasion shortly to make his acquaintance in his own study, no more need be said about him here except that he was some twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Miss Macdonald, who comes next in or- der, was tall—as were all the family—dark, reserved, highly educated and very religious. At present she was on a visit to a friend in St. Andrews, and was not expected home for some months, She was inclined to be delicate, and it was thought that the fresh sea air of the quaint old University town and the quiet exer- cise of golfing would brace her system and give it tone and strength. But the flower of the family, at any rate in the writer's eyes, was Maggie—surely the maddest, lightest-hearted, most generous and impulsive young Highland divinity that ever ‘trod with springy step the heather,” Tall, slim, and straight as a rush; with glo- rious dark eyes, full of humor and soul and bewildering suggestions of infinite capabilities for sweetness and love; a magnificent head of luxuriant dark brown hair with a tinge of golden, worn somewhat low down upon’ the broad white forehead; an exquisitely chiselled nose and mouth, the latter neither large nor small, and so sensitive as ever to seem on the verge of laughter or tears; hands and feet not very small, but beautifully proportioned and shaped; and a walk and gait absolutely perfect in their easy freedom, and indescribably grace- ful suppleness and flexibility. ‘Two other per- sons only have we ever met whose movements were expressive of the samesort of indescribable and soul-satisfying grace, to wit, Helen Faucit when in her prime, and Emmet, the actor, bet- ter known as “ Fritz.” Beauty of face had no- 107 thing to do with it. Had Helen Macdonald been plain featured instead of bewitchingly beautiful, she was a woman whose walk one could sit for hours watching—simply her walk, Itwasthe very ideal ofsinewy, flexible, rounded grace. It was impossible to imagine her doing anything in an angular, abrupt way. It was all so utterly devoid of effort or consciousness; so buoyant and full of freshness and sponta- neity; of elasticity and life—that it suggested thoughts of slender reeds or yellow corn sway- ing and heaving with every pulsation of the wind, or the rhythmic flow of music, or a can- tata sung by Tietjens, or the very highest form of lyrical poetry, or any other thing rare and beautiful and perfect of its kind, suggestive of faultlessly rounded grace and finish. And while her slim, tall, ithe and_ splendidly pro- portioned figure compelled admiration, it was impossible not to be prepossessed by the ex- pression of her face. Not that the contour could not have been improved, though we doubt it, nor that each feature taken individu- ally was perfect. Indeed, in looking on that face one never thought to criticise it in detail, and in trying to describe it afterwards one would be puzzled exceedingly —even as we are now—to say whether the nose was Grecian, or the eyes dull brown, or dark blue, or gray, or any other color, It was the impression con- veyed by the whole face that absorbed one’s thoughts; its mingled sweetness and beauty, its trustfulness and humor, its unselfishness and purity, all dashed by a sprightliness and auda- city of spirit which was rather suggested than actually expressed. As to her mental qualifi- cations, these had not yet been allowed time or opportunity for development. She was fairly, though not accurately read in English litera- ture; could talk French and Italian passably well; and was passionately fond of poetry— particularly old Scotch ballads and songs. As to history, she could tell you the dates of the first invasion of England by Cxsar; or the Norman conquest; or the battle of Bannock- burn; or the birth and marriage, etc., of the Queen and other members of the Royal family; and of the death and burial of her favorite pet dog Rover—but beyond these elementary facts she could hardly be said to know much histori- cally. She could play on the piano and harp indifferently well, and if she had only taken the trouble to practice would have made a pril- liant performer. She could also sing fairly well and waltz divinely. In matters relating to the household, the cost of provisions and dress, &c., &c., she was as nearly as possible absolutely ignorant, Her mother and sisters relieved her of the household duties, and her father of the anxie- ties of paying for what she chose to purchase, by giving her carte blanche to buy what she liked. The bills were sent to him, and sheneither saw nor asked to see them, Finally, to sum up her accomplishments and shortcomings, she was a capital sailor, an expert fly-fisher, and a most daring and accomplished horsewoman. Withal, in spite of her artless gaiety, her occasionally audacious mirth, and her delight in field-sports, she possessed a very deep and loving and in- tensely passionate nature; united to fearless in- dependence and strength of character, and unswerving rectitude of principle. She was now but a girl some twenty years of age, though looking less, and in every way unformed and uneducated, and as such we leave her to the kindly consideration of our readers. The rest of the family may, for the time at least, be dis- missed in a word or two. Flora, the sister next in age to Maggie, was a qui-t black-haired, dark-eyed girl, who affected philosophy, though her temperament was less philosophically equa- ble than that of her sisters. She was great in political economy; an ardent supporter of the comicbooks.com