49
Chapter Nine
When the apple trees shed their leaves on the lawn of Ravara Manse,
the house could he seen from the road with its pouting doorway and tall
blue-black windows, the alabaster lion in the fanlight and chairs at
every window, broad splatbacks and the cupid bows of country heppleWhite.
By tho time the road had ceased to ring under the heel the thin branches
bristled with splitting buds. In May the blossom frothed to the eaves of
the house. In August the green globes of fruit nodded in the warm air.
Every year The Herriot sent his pupils to gather then in for the
minister. By October the leaves lay tattered at the feet of the trees
and the house gleamed again through the thin arms of the branches,
The manse itself was a commodious and well-planned house. It held
a remarkable collection of chairs clustered in hall, landings and odd
corners. Brought there by succeeding young matrons of the manse, they
had their day and as prosperity increased, or an urban flock called,
wire discarded by the departing shepherd.
Mrs Sorleyson, the present mistress, had been the daughter of a
prosperous Belfast merchant and had gathered round her husband and
herself household goods unusual in a country manse. this affluence
had even added a lustre to the books in her husband’s library. She
was a slight pretty woman, the hue of whose eyes, hair and skin was
a little too light, trembling on the edge of faded love. She had
brought to her marriage an unquestioning admiration and respect for
her husband. If any doubts had arisen in her mind during those six
years of married life, she had attributed then to her own unworthiness
rather than to any flaws in her husband’s character. Unfortunately for
