Properly handled, the incident would make a very
agreeable first chapter, with the aid of scenery, botany, climate, and
remarks on the manners and customs of the red deer stolen from St. John,
or the Stuarts d'Albanie. Then, probably, one would reflect on the
characters of Mary and of Richard; Mary must have parents, of course, and
one would make them talk in Scottish. Probably she already had a lover;
how should she behave to that lover? There is plenty of room for
speculation in that problem. As to Dick, is he to be a Lothario, or a
lover _pour le bon motif_? What are his distinguished family to think of
the love affair, which would certainly ensue in fiction, though in real
life nobody thought of it at all? Are we to end happily, with a marriage
or marriages, or are we to wind all up in the pleasant, pessimistic,
realistic, fashionable modern way? Is Mary to drown the baby in the
Muckle Pool? Is she to suffer the penalty of her crime at Inverness? Or,
happy thought, shall we not make her discarded rival lover meet Dick in
the hills on a sunny day and then--are they not (taking a hint from
facts) to fight a duel with rifles? I see Dick lying, with a bullet in
his brow, on the side of a corrie; his blood crimsons the snow, an eagle
stoops from the sky. That makes a pretty picturesque conclusion to the
unwritten romance of the strath.
Another anecdote occurs to me; good, I think, for a short story, but
capable, also, of being dumped down in the middle of a long novel.
Pages:
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258