Part 7 (1/2)
I told her that you werena going to Portie, except on Sundays, for a month yet, and she must come here and let you see it.”
”Weel, she'll maybe come. It was me that set her to s.h.i.+rt making.
There is naething like white seam, and a good long stretch of it to steady a la.s.sie like Marion. And if she learn to do it weel, it may stand her instead when other things fail.”
”White seam!” exclaimed May. ”Not she! May Calderwood is going to educate herself, and keep a fine school--in London maybe--she has heard o' such things. She's learning German and Latin, no less! And I just wish you could hear her sing.”
”She markets for her mother, and does up her mother's caps,” said Jean, ”and she only learns Latin for the sake of helping Sandy Petrie, who is a dunce, and ay at the foot of the form.”
”She's nae an ill la.s.sie,” said Miss Jean softly, and the subject was dropped.
Phemie came in and the breakfast things were removed, and the girls went their several ways. Miss Jean, who was still lame from a fall she had got in the winter, went slowly to her chair near a sunny window and sat looking out upon the lawn. Mr Dawson went here and there, gathering together some papers, in preparation for his departure to the town. He had something to say, his sister knew as well as if he had told her, and she would gladly have helped him to say it, as it did not seem to be easy for him to begin. But she did not know what he wished to speak about, or why he should hesitate to begin. At last, standing a little behind her, he said,--
”It's no' like John Petrie and his wife to do a foolish thing, but they are doing it now. And their son Jamie just the age to make a fool o'
himself, for the sake o' a bonny face. 'A rose among the other flowers,' no less, said May.”
”But Jean said better. 'A violet in the wood.' She is a modest little creature--though she has a strong, brave nature, and will hold her own with any Petrie o' them a'. And as good as the best o' them to my thinking.”
”Well, that mayna be the father's thought, though it may be the son's.”
”Dinna fash yoursel' about Jamie Petrie. He'll fall into no such trouble. It's no' in him?” added Miss Jean with a touch of scorn.
”I never saw the lad yet that hadna it in him to ken a bonny la.s.s when she came in his way; and for the la.s.sie's ain sake, ye should take thought for her.”
”She has her mother,” said Miss Jean, more hastily than was her way.
”And any interference would come ill from you or me where this one is concerned. And my bonny Mavis is but a bairn,” she added more gently, ”and she's in no danger from James Petrie, who is a well intentioned lad, and who has been ower weel brought up, and who is ower fond of siller and gentility, to have either roses or violets in his plan o'
life, unless they're growing in a fine flowerpot, in somebody's fine house. Marion Calderwood is no' for the like of him.”
Her brother regarded her with anger so evidently struggling with astonishment in his face, that she expected hot words to follow. But he kept silence for a moment, and then he said quietly enough,--
”It seldom answers for ane to put his finger into another's pie. There are few men so wise as to profit by a lesson from another man's experience, and I doubt John Petrie is no' ane o' them.”
”And there's few men, it's to be feared, wise enough to take the best lesson from their ain experience,” said Miss Jean gravely. ”And that is a sadder thing to say.”
It was quite true, as Captain Harefield had said, that it was his sister who ”put him up” to going on James Petrie's invitation to the garden party that afternoon. The natural desire to get him off her hands, for the rest of the day was her only motive in urging it, and a sufficient one, for it was true that he was bored by the quiet of Blackford House, and that he did not suffer alone. But it was the unwonted energy of his admiring exclamations as soon as they had pa.s.sed out of the gate of Saughleas, that had suggested the idea.
By ”this and by that,” were they not beauties, these two girls? Who would have thought of coming upon two such without warning? Even his sister must acknowledge that they were beautiful.
She did acknowledge it, but there was something far more wonderful to her than their good looks. That two country girls--and Scotch country girls--should be found at home dressed as these two were, astonished her more than their beauty.
”They might have pa.s.sed at any garden party of the season,” said she.
”Pa.s.sed! I should think so. I don't know about their gowns, but _they_ would pa.s.s, I fancy.”
”She couldn't have fallen on any thing to suit her style of face and figure better if she had made a study of it.”
”Perhaps she did,” said her brother, laughing. ”Or perhaps they get their gowns from London.”
”No, they would probably have been dressed alike, in that case, and in the height of the fas.h.i.+on. The white one was very much like the dresses of other girls, but the other was unique. And they seemed nice, lady-like girls.”