L I B R.AFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN IVLRSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 823 
 P19M 
 
 m 
 
 Y. I
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/misselvestersgir01elve
 
 / 
 MISS ELVESTER'S GIRLS. 
 
 A NO VE L. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF < BY-WAYS.' 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : TINSLEY BROTHERS, 
 8 CATHERINE STREET, STRAND, W.C. 
 
 1883. 
 [All Rights reserved.]
 
 COLSTON AND SON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
 
 8£^ 
 
 v. 1 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PROLOGUE, .... 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Ursula's mistake, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 christian's crotchet, 
 
 c* 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ULRICA'S AMBITION, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 . A PAIR OF NETHERLAW NOTABILITIES, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A FRIEND IN NEED, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 3 A GRACIOUS WOMAN, . 
 
 26 
 
 40 
 
 52 
 
 65 
 
 77 
 
 92 
 
 107
 
 IV 
 
 Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MR MUNGO MAUCHLINE, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LAIGHBIELD, .... 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A ROUND PEG IN A SQUARE HOLE, 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 MONCRIEFF, .... 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MARRING HER FORTUNE, 
 
 CHAP TER XIII. 
 
 AN ATALANTA RACE, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AUNT EUPHEMIA, 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 VEXATIOUS ! 
 
 HAGE 
 
 112 
 
 132 
 
 I38 
 
 l6l 
 
 174 
 
 195 
 
 206 
 
 '34
 
 f 
 
 MISS ELVESTER'S GIRLS, 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 IHERE is a world of difference 
 between Shetland, when her skies 
 are lovely, her waters are flash- 
 ing in the sunlight, her hillocks 
 and hollows are aglow with vivid flowers ; 
 and Shetland, when the mantle she wears 
 is dun, and the heavens lour gloomily, and 
 every loch and creek and voe gives back 
 the frown. She is in this latter condition 
 the day when I ask you to take your stand 
 with me for a moment on a certain mossy 
 height, unknown to geographers, but called 
 
 VOL. I. A
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 by the dwellers beside it, Vostaberg 
 Knowe. 
 
 From our observatory we look over to 
 the village of Bresta, two or three score 
 cottages and cots of primitive design, scat- 
 tered in semi-circular fashion about the head 
 of a miniature bay. Yonder, marked out 
 by their respective sign-boards, are the estab- 
 lishments of merchants (by ' merchant ' is to 
 be understood, in strict literalness, a dealer 
 in everything, ' from a needle to an anchor '), 
 baker — no butcher, alas ! — grocer, ( Licensed 
 in Spirits and Ales,' and post-mistress, with 
 whom lodges the doctor, when doctor there 
 chances to be. Those houses, larger and 
 of a different class from the rest, we guess 
 to bawrianses ; and small as the village is, 
 there^are no fewer than four churches 
 within its borders. We judge, therefore, 
 thaftMts people nfcst have theology enough, 
 whatever else they lack. 
 
 It is mail-day, and the letter-carrier, hours 
 too late in arriving (that is nothing in Shet- 
 land), now rests in glory after his thirty
 
 Prologue. 
 
 miles' walk from the capital. He is the 
 most important person in the village, for 
 the nonce ; he is the weekly newspaper. 
 
 The various groups gathered round the 
 post-office form a picturesque whole ; storm- 
 tanned fishermen who know Greenland 
 waters well ; lads who have not yet been 
 farther than ' The Haaf ' ; old crones pro- 
 fuse of pious speech, which daily life as 
 often as not belies ; younger matrons, nearly 
 as weather - worn as the men ; and girls, 
 with fine free carriage, and blue or scarlet 
 kerchief shading faces as bonny — many of 
 them — as faces need to be. Besides these, 
 there are the parish clergyman, handsome, 
 bronzed, and bearded, towering Saul-like 
 above the people ; the doctor, a jovial fyoung 
 fellow, who came to Shetland in a sort of 
 frolic some months ago, and freely owns 
 himself more than a trifle tired of his diver- 
 sion now ; the Independent pastor's son, 
 riding a saddleless sheltie and grasping the 
 mane for reins ; the Free Kirk school- 
 master's maid-of-all-works, diligently applying
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 herself to newsmonging ; and, to finish the 
 list pleasingly, the Methodist minister's 
 young wife, lately transplanted from amidst 
 Kentish hop-gardens, but wonderfully happy, 
 if appearances are to be trusted, despite 
 the change. 
 
 Many letters fell to this lady's share, and 
 she gaily remarked to the parish clergy- 
 man, as together they left the post-office, — 
 
 1 You see I've got my basket quite full, 
 Mr Berwick. There is this advantage about 
 receiving letters only once a-week, that we 
 get such a number at a time.' 
 
 Mr Berwick was not so fond of letters 
 as Mrs Rich, and could not be very en- 
 thusiastic on the subject. However, he did 
 his best, and said, — 
 
 ' And but one disappointment in the week 
 should an expected letter fail to come/ 
 
 'Indeed, yes; that is a mercy too. The 
 only thing to grumble over, is the being 
 kept waiting for one's budget so very, very 
 long after it has reached the island.' 
 
 ' The remedy for which,' said Mr Berwick,
 
 Prologue. 
 
 ' is a mail-bag of your own and a special 
 messenger.' 
 
 1 I daresay, but unless you are the master 
 of Eastravoe, for instance, you can't afford 
 such luxuries. The girls at Eastravoe — 
 favoured of fortune that they are ! — will 
 have read all their love-letters hours ago.' 
 
 ' Hours aofo ! ' echoed Mr Berwick. And 
 then he bade his companion notice how 
 creamy Bresta Sound was, and how yon 
 inky clouds had blotted out the distant 
 Fitful Head. 
 
 1 You're weatherwise,' said she, smiling 
 to herself, however, at his abrupt change 
 of theme ; ' shall we have it rough to- 
 night?' 
 
 ' Won't we ! ' he rejoined. ' This even- 
 ing's steamer will enjoy a rare toss in 
 Sumburgh Roost. Be glad you are not 
 to be on board, Mrs Rich.' 
 
 1 It isn't to be another of your great 
 storms, I hope ? ' 
 
 ' But you don't know anything about our 
 great storms, as yet.'
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 1 No ? What is it that you call a great 
 storm, please ? ' 
 
 ' It is when my stable roof is lifted clean 
 off, and when going out to see what's likely 
 to happen next, I am forced to lie flat on 
 the ground to escape being blown over the 
 hills like thistledown.' 
 
 ' You blown over the hills like thistle- 
 down ! ' she laughed ; ' a very odd kind of 
 thistledown, indeed.' 
 
 So they went on talking till the Methodist 
 manse was reached. Here Mr Berwick 
 shook hands with a gentleman who came 
 to the front garden gate. 
 
 ' You have learnt Shetland manners to 
 some purpose,' he observed ; ' Mrs Rich 
 bears the burden ; you look on.' 
 
 ' Mrs Rich is very willing to be burdened 
 so,' said Mrs Rich's husband. 
 
 ' Sorry is the plight of him who has no 
 excuse ready!' exclaimed the other, laughing. 
 1 On first coming to Bresta, I was full of 
 schemes for the reformation of the island. 
 Well, one day a woman toiled from Scullo-
 
 Prologue. 
 
 way with a box of books for me, her lord 
 following her to the manse for the payment. 
 I told him rather hotly what I thought about 
 setting women to men's work, though I know 
 I might quite as well have held my peace. 
 They defend the usage, these Shetland hus- 
 bands ; they have " Scripture fort,' and refer 
 you to chapter and verse in Nehemiah, 
 where it is written : — " And next unto him 
 repaired Shallum the son of Halokesh, the 
 ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and 
 his daughters." But I must not keep you 
 longer from your letters, Mrs Rich ; and I 
 expect both your husband and I will find 
 among ours several of those interesting 
 communications which demand an immediate 
 answer.' 
 
 ' Oh, I know the kind ; they are addressed 
 in that ugly scrawl which students cultivate. 
 Talk of a lady's hand being hard to read ! 
 It is print compared to a minister's. I — ex- 
 cuse me, Mr Berwick, and you, Arthur — I 
 don't like ministerial communications at all' 
 
 ' Candidly speaking, I don't either, Mrs
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 Rich ; for if they be not claiming your 
 fulfilment of some hazy half promise to 
 give an address at the writer's forthcoming 
 congregational soiree, they are to excuse the 
 writer for breaking his word about your 
 congregational soiree ; he has caught a 
 cold, and must shun night air. P.S. — He 
 reminds you of his Fast-day, and, in the 
 present state of the roads, would advise 
 you not to risk the short-cut, but to take the 
 extra ten miles and the ferry.' 
 
 And having thus outdone Mrs Rich in 
 disparagement of clerical correspondence, 
 the Rev. Donald Berwick, Bachelor of Di- 
 vinity, set his face homewards. He went 
 so far along the margin of the sound, then 
 struck off to the right, and ascended Vosta- 
 berg Knowe, from the top of which, across 
 an undulating grassy stretch of scattald or 
 common, strewn with stones, studded with 
 rough, grey boulders, and pastured on by 
 shaggy ponies, the parish manse could be 
 seen. It was a big, plain, substantial house, 
 just like any other Scotch parsonage. It
 
 Prologue. 
 
 had an extensive glebe attached ; a little 
 fresh-water loch lay behind, and to the front 
 spread a grand panorama of the open sea. 
 From village to manse measured about a 
 mile ; but the way lay over the pathless 
 scattald, therefore if you, a stranger, should 
 attempt that distance alone and afoot on 
 any misty day, all the chances were, that 
 you would hopelessly wander, though, before 
 setting out, you had laughed to scorn the 
 very notion of losing yourself there, were 
 the day ever so misty. 
 
 Near his own house, Mr Berwick was 
 overtaken by one who had been shouting 
 after him in vain, while he, never turning 
 his head, had continued his quick march 
 across the scattald. 
 
 ' What, you, Gledcairny ! ' he exclaimed, 
 on looking about and seeing that he who 
 had laid hold of him with so ungentle a 
 grip was the young doctor, whom he had 
 left in the post-office. 
 
 : Yes, I, Gledcairny,' said his captor. 
 ' Didst not hear my cry ? '
 
 io Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 f No; or if I did, took it for a sea-mew's.' 
 
 ' Some fellows have no sense of the musi- 
 cal ; but I forgive you, and will be at your 
 place to-night to see if any of the master 
 of Eastravoe's cigars are left.' 
 
 'All right.' 
 
 ' I don't know about its being all right ; 
 for, fine specimen as I am, never a box of 
 cigars is sent to me. Is it any fault of 
 mine that I'm not a Cornrigshire man, or 
 any merit of yours that you are ? ' 
 
 ' Who says it is ? ' 
 
 ' Whether they say so or not, that's what 
 our autocrat of Eastravoe and his daughters 
 think. The master's first wife, as everybody 
 knows, was one of the Cornrigshire Mearns- 
 muirs.' 
 
 'And I come of a stock of Cornrigshire 
 farmers. Yes, the connection is striking 
 and clear.' 
 
 ' They are nice girls, those Elvesters (you 
 swear to the fact, and you should know),' 
 pursued the doctor argumentatively ; ' but 
 it would do them a high mountain of good,
 
 Prologue. 1 1 
 
 just to be shaken out of this corner where 
 every soul is subject to them, and set down 
 in a part of the world where somebody else 
 is supreme, and where they would be made 
 to see their own real importance. They 
 want to have it demonstrated to them that 
 they've fallen into a little mistake in thinking 
 themselves princesses.' 
 
 ' So they are princesses in Shetland.' 
 
 1 Ay, that is it — in Shetland ; but what 
 would they be anywhere else ? ' 
 
 'Still Shetland princesses,' said Mr Ber- 
 wick, and being now at the manse gate, he 
 invited his friend to enter. 
 
 But Mr Gledcairny was on his way to 
 vaccinate a batch of babies. 
 
 'And the thrice unblessed post,' said he, 
 'has detained me too long already. It will 
 be good luck if I'm not belated in the wilds 
 this night, and swallowed by a peat bog, or 
 blown over a cliff, to have my elegy chanted 
 by the sea-fowls.' 
 
 ' Carry the Shetlander's torch, a blazing 
 peat ! I'll send you a pair of tongs,' said Mr
 
 1 2 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 Berwick. ' No ? Well, then, accept some 
 patient's hospitality for the night.' 
 
 ' I don't call myself fastidious — not very ; 
 only there is a limit to all things. But whom 
 in the region of Giersness would you recom- 
 mend as a hostess, say you ? ' 
 
 ' Cheyne Ollason ; she will bring the tea- 
 pot from among her bedclothes to refresh 
 you withal.' 
 
 Dr Gledcairny grinned. 
 
 ' I know all about that,' he replied ; 
 1 Mother Ollason is a fast friend of mine. 
 Poor soul, she nearly yielded up the ghost 
 when she heard that you had been seen 
 skating on your loch down there ; and she 
 has been quaking ever since, through fear 
 that " a skating minister canna, canna be 
 a fitting guide to heaven." ' 
 
 1 1 wish skating were the worst of me,' 
 was the response. 
 
 Then these two professional men parted 
 as unceremoniously as they had met, and 
 the one went up to his door, the other on 
 to his business.
 
 Prologue. 1 3 
 
 The study into which Mr Berwick took 
 his way was lined round and round with 
 books ; packed with pamphlets and maga- 
 zines, and rich in manuscripts ; indeed, if 
 the truth must be spoken, it was a place 
 to make any methodical woman's fingers 
 fairly tingle. However, its owner saw 
 nothing amiss with his room. It suited 
 him ; everything lay just where he could 
 put his hand on it ; there were no nonsensi- 
 calities about to stumble over and make you 
 ' Curse that stool ! ' What then would man 
 want more ? And it was all right, to be 
 sure, seeing the man in question had only 
 himself to please. As he was in the act of 
 taking a seat to look at what he had brought 
 from the post-office, something in the letter- 
 rack over the mantelpiece caught his eye. 
 He drew it out, and standing before the fire 
 (the great heat of which probably accounted 
 for the sudden access of colour to his face), 
 broke the seal, and read : — 
 
 1 Dear Mr Berwick, — Kindly oblige me
 
 14 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 by coming to Eastravoe as soon as you con- 
 veniently can. My father is in great trouble, 
 and there is no one within reach except 
 yourself to whom he will speak of his 
 affairs. — I am, very sincerely yours, 
 
 ' Janet Mearnsmuir Elvester.' 
 
 Other letters, demanded they immediate 
 answer or not, got none of Mr Berwick's 
 attention that day. He rang the bell. Im- 
 mediately stood a red-cheeked, bright-eyed 
 little elderly woman in the doorway, with a — 
 
 ' Please, sir, an' what wanted you ? ' 
 
 ' Bid Magnus catch and saddle the Howlet,' 
 said Mr Berwick. 
 
 ' And a storm coming on so surely ! ' she 
 ejaculated. ' It canna be.' 
 
 That meant nothing, however. To say 
 things could not be, was merely a habit the 
 housekeeper had got. 
 
 ' Peery (little) Peter O'Haavra is at the 
 back-door even now,' she went on to inform 
 her master. ' Would you be pleased to see 
 him, Mr Berwick ?'
 
 Prologue. 1 5 
 
 She pronounced the name as Shetlanders 
 pronounce that of their principal town, 
 sounding the w. Nor did the minister 
 object : on the contrary, used to hear him- 
 self called so by certain pretty lips secretly 
 dear to him, he had come to think that 
 ■ Berrick ' was disagreeably harsh. 
 
 ' What should I see the laddie for ? ' he 
 asked. ' What's wanted to-day ? ' 
 
 ' He has fetched a gran' ling fish, — a 
 present, sir.' 
 
 Mr Berwick abominated ling fish, and 
 presents no less. He knew what a Shetland 
 present meant, so — 
 
 ' How much, Barbara ? ' he inquired. 
 
 ' I donna ken, I'm sure,' returned Bar- 
 bara demurely ; 'just what you please, sir.' 
 
 ' There,' said this unthankful recipient of 
 ling fish, taking a florin from his purse, 
 1 give that to peery Peter, and tell him that 
 he needn't mind to bring any more presents 
 for a while to come.' 
 
 As she stepped forward to take the coin, 
 Barbara inquired, —
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 * Please, got you yon letter Olaf brocht, 
 
 sir ? 
 
 ' Yes, yes ; I have seen it' 
 
 ' That is affa bad news for the master, 
 and—' 
 
 1 My good Barbara, let news alone, and 
 attend to your proper business — which is, 
 just now, the H owlet.' 
 
 • I canna help the news, sir ; there is 
 always a good deal o' people comes this 
 airt. And Lily o' Runigarth was saying — ' 
 
 ' No matter what. Spare me Lily of 
 Runigarth's gossip.' 
 
 ' Vera weel, sir. She was only asking 
 would the minister be for Hilyascord to-day. 
 That's great ongauns at Hilyascord, Mr 
 Berwick.' 
 
 ' The minister will not be for Hilyascord 
 to-day. I am going to Eastravoe — and im- 
 mediately, if it were possible to get away.' 
 
 ' And ging you to Eastravoe fasting, Mr 
 Berwick ? It canna be. Shall I fetch — ' 
 
 ' Nothing whatever. Am I to see the 
 Howlet this afternoon?'
 
 Prologue. 1 7 
 
 ' 7 a -> j a > that'll you ; he is none so far off 
 — just roun' by the raddle, sir. But yon i< 
 the langsome ride, it is, and the blawy ! Anc 
 the verra last minister o' Bresta, he was 
 sic' like's yoursel', Mr Berwick ; no thocht 
 o' refreshments would he take, nor no muffler 
 would he put on. Weel, sir, mony came 
 the Sabbath days when he couldna, couldna 
 preach, poor gentleman, coughing he was so 
 bitterly. Never was a wearier cough as his, 
 neither in Shetland nor Great Britain, sir.' 
 
 Impatient as he was, Mr Berwick could 
 not forbear laughing. 
 
 ' Shetland or Great Britain ! ' he echoed. 
 ■ And what may your notion of Great Britain 
 be, Barbara ? ' 
 
 ' I donna like yon place, sir ; it is a' hooses 
 — hooses, an' where it isna hooses it is trees. 
 I couldna bide that, Mr Berwick; I would pine 
 an' think lang for the free Shetland hills.' 
 
 Then, her own time being come, Barbara 
 went to send Magnus to catch the H owlet ; 
 and soon after, her master, mounted on a 
 handsome black fetlar, set out for Eastravoe. 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 1 8 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 In this direction there was a road, and, 
 with stray exceptions, a pretty passable one 
 — something to be thankful for in Shetland. 
 On the right hand lay a plain, bounded by 
 a multitude of little hills, with peat mosses 
 below, and many a tarn between, lighted into 
 momentary ruby by the setting sun ; for the 
 sun had half withdrawn the curtains of his 
 cloud-tent, and was flushing with an angry 
 crimson all the western heavens. On the 
 left the sward grew smoothly unbroken, save 
 where the headland had been scalped by 
 the peasantry for fuel, to the very lip of the 
 precipice which overhung the German Ocean. 
 It was spring-tide, and a strong swell stirred 
 the sea. Here was a very magnificence of 
 breakers ! Deep was calling unto deep, — 
 reverberating within mysterious rock caverns, 
 — swinging bewilderingly round fantastic cliff- 
 columns, that stood up out of all the foam 
 and fury like grim sentinels on guard, — and 
 filling the whole space between earth and 
 sky with a great and mighty roar. It was 
 an impressive sight ; one to make you shrink,
 
 Prologue. i c 
 
 perhaps, and pray for the speedy shelter of 
 comfortable curtained rooms ; or else, if you 
 had in you anything responsive to nature's 
 wilder moods, to set your pulses throbbing, 
 to blind your eyes with tears, you could not 
 tell for what, to steep you in an overpower- 
 ing sense of your own littleness. 
 
 Shortly after sundown was reached the 
 half-way point between the manse of Bresta 
 and the house of Eastravoe, — a hamlet called 
 Stappensting, Mr Berwick dismounted before 
 one of the dwellings (one was a facsimile of 
 all), a rudely constructed stone hut, enclosed 
 within a low fence formed of ' divots ' of turf. 
 Having vainly knocked, he lifted the latch 
 and looked in. The German tenant was not 
 at home, but tenants of other species were ; 
 to wit, a sheep, a pig, and an assortment of 
 fowls, perched wherever they could find a 
 roosting-place. A turf fire smouldered near 
 the middle of the floor, and an opening 
 overhead served the double purpose of chim- 
 ney and window. A heap of peat and ' feal ' 
 (dried turf) was piled up in one corner ; an
 
 20 Miss E Iv ester s Girls. 
 
 arrangement which you dimly descried to be 
 a bed, occupied another, and a heterogeneous 
 jumble impossible to describe lay littered round 
 your feet. The clergyman of Bresta had 
 sometime since got over such sentimentalism 
 as shuddering dismay in viewing interiors 
 like this (only, on Sundays when dazzled by 
 the gay garden of bonnets clustered about 
 his pulpit in full choir, he would once in a 
 way think of these miserable cabins dense 
 with peat-reek, and would wonder), so he 
 wasted no time in moralising, but put the 
 letter, which he had volunteered to deliver, 
 where it would be found by the hut-holder 
 on her return, and resumed his solitary way. 
 As the darkness gathered the storm came 
 on in earnest ; and when rain began to fall, 
 the rider, to save several miles, forsook the 
 road and plunged boldly into a marshy track- 
 less waste. He did not know his way 
 through, nor would he so much as attempt 
 to find it ; that was the pony's business, 
 not the man's. The Howlet took her 
 own course, accordingly ; and, thanks to her
 
 Prologue. 2 1 
 
 sure-footedness and instinctive perception of 
 locality, she and her master in due season 
 stood safely within the great arched gate- 
 way of Eastravoe. 
 
 The house of Eastravoe was a triumph of 
 solid masonry, as standing where it stood 
 (on a plateau above the voe from which it 
 took its name), and looking where it looked 
 (through the giant rock portals of that voe 
 — the stacks of Eastravoe — on the Northern 
 Ocean), it had pressing need to be. All 
 the powers of the air seemed to have broken 
 loose about it when the minister of Bresta 
 arrived. The rain was lashing it ; the wind 
 was howling frantically round the turrets of 
 it ; the voe was boiling like a witch's caul- 
 dron underneath. But what did that matter ? 
 No harm would come to it ; for it was 
 founded upon a rock. 
 
 The servant who admitted Mr Berwick 
 ushered him at once into Miss Elvester's 
 parlour, where there was no light but that 
 of the flickering fire. A lady came through 
 the shadows and held out her hand.
 
 22 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 ' This is a wild evening,' she said, and her 
 voice was a singularly pleasant contralto ; 
 ' but I am speaking to no carpet-knight, so 
 I don't apologise for having made you face 
 the storm. You know the distress ? You 
 have read the newspaper accounts ? ' 
 
 ' I saw your note before I had looked at 
 the newspapers,' he replied, ' and I was not 
 likely to stop to examine them then. Is 
 anything seriously wrong ? ' 
 
 ' It is only that we are ruined, Mr Ber- 
 wick,' was the perfectly quiet response. 
 
 ' Miss Elvester ! ' he cried. 
 
 ' Yes ; it is strange to think of,' she said, 
 ' but none the less true for that. The Great 
 Western Iron Company has failed, and my 
 father is one of the largest shareholders — 
 unlimited liability, unfortunately — read this, 
 and this, and I think you will see that 
 in calling it ruin I don't overstate the case.' 
 
 He read as requested, and soon became 
 convinced that there had been no overstate- 
 ment ; that the case was in very deed as 
 bad as it could be. He turned from letters
 
 Prologue. 2 
 
 and papers with a face full of the deepest 
 concern, and, — 
 
 ' You will have legal advice at once,' he 
 said, oblivious of circumstances. 
 
 Miss Elvester recalled him to facts. 
 
 1 You forget where we are,' she rejoined ; 
 ' our one steamer in the week, our present 
 want of telegraphic communication with the 
 south. Nor have we of Eastravoe any 
 Leander to swim so far for love of us — and 
 to lose his life in the venture, rash man.' 
 
 Though Donald Berwick was quite aware 
 that this lady differed in some respects from 
 the other women of his acquaintance, it jarred 
 upon him when she made such a speech. If 
 she were utterly distracted, it would be only 
 natural. But to jest thus ! As if devising 
 the thought, Miss Elvester said, — 
 
 ' I am perfectly calm, you perceive ; I 
 leave the hysteria to my sisters ; there will 
 be enough and to spare of that on their re- 
 turn. They are at Hilyascord this week, in 
 happy ignorance of what awaits them. My 
 poor girls ! '
 
 24 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 As she uttered the last three words her 
 voice shook ; and during the ensuing silence, 
 Mr Berwick felt — he could not see — that she 
 was having a struggle to retain the calmness 
 of which she had just boasted. But he dared 
 not say a syllable. He had not here the 
 kind of person upon whom could be lavished 
 any of the usual sympathetic ' chaff well 
 meant for grain.' Frank as Miss Elvester 
 was, a man might not come quite near to 
 her ; never near enough, certainly, to venture 
 upon the common-places of condolence. Mr 
 Berwick held his peace, therefore, and waited 
 till she again should speak. Very soon she 
 recovered herself. 
 
 ' You are a favourite with my father,' she 
 said; 'when he will see no other stranger he 
 will see you. He is in the library now, and I 
 am hoping it may do him good to have a talk 
 with you. Will you see him at once, Mr 
 Berwick ? or would you rather wait until 
 you shall have rested a while and dined ? ' 
 
 Till he should have rested and dined ! 
 Most certainly not. He would go to her
 
 Prologue. 2 5 
 
 father at once. So she led the way to the 
 library. 
 
 Light enough was in that room. Soft 
 radiance, streaming from antique candelabra 
 upon a white-haired man, who sat bent and 
 motionless among his books. His face was 
 hidden on his crossed arms, and these rested 
 on the writing-table in front of him. The 
 door opened and closed again, but the 
 master did not raise his head. 
 
 ' Father,' cried Miss Elvester cheerfully, 
 * here is Mr Berwick at last ; you've been 
 a little impatient for his coming, have you 
 not?' 
 
 There being no answer, she went up to 
 him and leant over his shoulder, at the 
 same time laying her hand upon one of his. 
 Suddenly she started back, uttered some- 
 thing between a sob and a cry for help, and 
 staggered against the wall for support. 
 
 The master of Eastravoe's silence was 
 the silence of death.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY. 
 
 Daughter of Jove, relentless power, 
 Thou tamer of the human breast, 
 Whose iron scourge and torturing power 
 The bad affrights afflicts the best. 
 
 N a certain midsummer evening 
 early in the seventies, there was 
 great commotion within Royal 
 Street Railway Station, Royal Square. 
 Netherlaw. The Fair week had come 
 — that annual opportunity for the work- 
 ing-man to go at large and enjoy himself ; 
 so here the working-man was, swarming the 
 platform, he. with his womankind. 
 
 What a medley ! what jostling and 
 laughing and declaiming ! what gallantly
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 27 
 
 plumed hats and flower-garlanded rainbow- 
 ribboned bonnets ! what bugle - spangled 
 jackets and costumes of the period ! 
 
 In the crowd of holiday-makers, but not 
 of it, one stood patiently — or impatiently 
 perhaps — awaiting the train from the north. 
 She was quite past youth, but straight as a 
 dart, and light of motion as a girl. Having 
 once looked at her pale, resolute face, you 
 were sure to wander back to it again and 
 again ; sure, also, to make up your mind 
 that it was too sarcastic in expression to 
 be altogether pleasing. This woman owed 
 nothing of her dignity to the dress she wore ; 
 and it must have been this austerity of attire 
 which gave licence to a heavily-freighted 
 porter, whose course she happened to be un- 
 consciously obstructing, to bawl, — 
 
 ' Watch yoursel', there ! Get out of the 
 way, my dear.' Instead of getting out of 
 the way, the obstructionist turned full on 
 the speaker's face a pair of large grey 
 eyes, keenly bright as those of a falcon. The 
 man saw his mistake ; this was a person
 
 28 Miss Elvesters Girls, 
 
 accustomed not to be commanded, but to 
 command ; so he muttered something sup- 
 posed to be an apology, and made a circuit 
 to avoid displacing her whom he had the 
 moment before so unceremoniously ordered 
 to give way to him. In doing this, he came 
 into collision with a pair of by-standing 
 matrons ; and these took him sharply to task 
 for his clumsiness. He retorted in kind. 
 One of the women thereupon gave him 
 to understand that neither for him nor his 
 betters would she listen to ' the language Q f 
 Ashdod ; ' counter-checks quarrelsome were 
 bandied ; and finally the porter proceeded on 
 his way, with hard thoughts of all Eve's 
 daughters in his heart. 
 
 The objector to ' the language of Ashdod' 
 was a woman of a comely countenance ; but 
 her voice, eyes, and tongue vied each with 
 the other in sharpness. And her temper 
 was much ruffled to-day, for she had in 
 custody there bundles of inconvenient bulk 
 and unhandy shape, which were in constant 
 peril of falling away from her and being
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 29 
 
 trodden under foot by a mob, alike regard- 
 less and unmannerly. Her companion in 
 travel was a heavy-faced sallow slip of a 
 creature ; and she too was hard bestead — 
 though not with bundles : a quartette of 
 boys of tender years hung about her skirts, 
 and in turn gnawed unripe apples, strove 
 every one with his brother, and whimpered 
 up and down unmusical chromatic scales of 
 inquiry, whether they would be ' sune aff 
 to the saut watter noo ? ' 
 
 Presently the father of these pretty ones 
 came along. He was a small, wisp-like 
 mortal, hazy and irresolute ; and his un- 
 dulating gait betrayed a heart merry with 
 — wine, let us say. Onward he moved, 
 with what was meant for a beam of dis- 
 arming fascination in his eye, but what — 
 so will men's best intentions fail of their 
 mark ! — appeared to the public only a foolish 
 leer. Hard by his liege lady's side he 
 swerved from his equilibrium, and to regain 
 the same, clutched at the most convenient 
 object, which chanced to be the black-
 
 30 
 
 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 draped figure already made mention of. 
 But he was doomed to woe. The hoped- 
 for prop eluded him, and behold! he buffetec 
 the air — he bit the dust. The children, 
 shrieking, spurned him from their path ; 
 the mother crossly bade them, ' Wheesht, 
 ye sorrows, wheesht ! ' and bent a grue- 
 some visage on the sire ; the man stumbled 
 up again, raising his testimony the while 
 against ' thae rough, unchancy roads, ye 
 see, that winna let folk keep their feet the 
 day ava.' 
 
 The train from the north being now in 
 sight, she who waited for it did not stay 
 to hear what sympathy the victim of un- 
 chancy roads should receive from his spouse, 
 but advanced to meet the passengers as 
 they descended. After a moment her face 
 became tinged with colour, and a dawning 
 smile brought to view a pair of unsuspected 
 dimples. You were obliged to reconsider 
 your former decision now, and at the very 
 least to admit that the lady looked far more 
 attractive than you could have imagined,
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 
 
 while you had only beheld her features in 
 repose. 
 
 Two girls had alighted, and were gazing 
 inquiringly this way and that. Pale and 
 weary they were, and not a little bewildered 
 by this great and noisy crowd. But in 
 half a minute their sister was holding a 
 hand of each, and saying, — 
 
 ' Let me know the worst. How many 
 of their properties have my clever girls 
 contrived to lose by the way ? ' 
 
 ' We have lost nothing, Jenny — except our 
 patience,' replied the younger, whose sweet, 
 pure voice had that faintest, prettiest suspicion 
 of a foreign accent that Shetland voices have. 
 
 ' And this is Netherlaw ! ' exclaimed the 
 other, precisely as she might, had she been 
 a Russian exile, have exclaimed, ' This is 
 Siberia ! ' 
 
 ' This is Netherlaw,' was the reply. ' It 
 is a gala time here, I must tell you, and 
 the people are dressed up to the occasion. 
 Just make a study of the fashions, will you, 
 while I see to the luggage.'
 
 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 The spot selected by the girls from which 
 to make their study chanced to be as nearly 
 as possible that on which Miss Elvester 
 had stood watching for the train. And 
 the owner of the erring husband was now, 
 heedless who might hear, putting the pointed 
 question, — 
 
 ' Is there ony ane haet i' the worF you're 
 fit for, Geordie Choppin ?' 
 
 As George Choppin seemed to have no 
 idea on the subject, his wife's friend an- 
 swered in his stead, saying, — 
 
 ' Geordie's a thocht like oor ane, gey an' 
 guid at haudin' up the door-cheeks.' 
 
 And from the tone in which she made 
 the parallel, one felt fully sure that the 
 man whom she claimed as hers, would 
 not be permitted to uphold his door-posts 
 unreproved. 
 
 ' Na, but isna this gran' weather for the 
 craps ? ' observed the culprit, thinking per- 
 haps to give conversation a less personal 
 turn. 
 
 But Mrs Choppin was not interested in
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 33 
 
 the crops, and the levity of Mr Choppin's 
 mind, as evidenced by his remark, had the 
 effect of provoking an even wintrier frown 
 than before, and the peevish exclamation, — 
 
 * Haud your tongue, ye angersome, drouthy, 
 feckless little loon that ye are ! Was there 
 ever the like o' ye ken't ?' 
 
 ' Ay, Betty,' said the neighbour ; ' I trow 
 there's a hantle mair o' the same crabs whaur 
 he comes frae.' 
 
 But Mr Choppin muttered, — 
 
 ' I weel ken I was founded for a muckle 
 chiel, but I sticket in the grouth,' for he 
 tipsily resented the allusion to his outer man, 
 though he cared nothing for the slur cast on 
 his character. 
 
 ' Sticket in the grouth, quo' he ! ' sneered 
 his consort. ' Aweel, aweel ; it's no been 
 for stint o' guid leevin' ; for scrimp wha 
 may, I ken ane maun aye pick an' pree 
 the best.' 
 
 '/ wad gar him ken the odds between 
 fou an' fare weel,' said the other matron. 
 ' My troth ! there's a haill squad o' men 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 in Laighbield wadna be so keen o' idleset, 
 gin they cam hame at e'en to get a toom 
 coggie glowerin' in the face o' them.' 
 
 At mention of Laighbield the Shetland 
 girls exchanged glances, and the elder of 
 them for the first time surveyed the speakers. 
 In so doing, she attracted Mr Choppin's 
 roving eye. Mr Choppin himself was now 
 gently oscillating on the edge of a wheel- 
 barrow, and he took the young lady's notice 
 in such good part, that he responded with 
 a fixed smile, a nod which nearly over- 
 balanced him, and an invitation to come and 
 share his resting-place. To be hailed fami- 
 liarly by a working-man, and asked to sit 
 beside him in a wheelbarrow, was something 
 quite novel in the experience of Miss Ursula 
 Elvester. It required a little time to grasp 
 the reality of the thing ; and during that 
 time Mr Choppin, who really imagined he 
 was being very obliging and kind, took the 
 additional liberty of informing the young lady 
 that she was ' a desperate braw lass,' and 
 that he ' would like gran' to hear her sing.'
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 35 
 
 Thus far he ventured, but no farther : the 
 proud face turned upon him, with ineffable 
 surprise and expression, such as a goddess 
 might have worn if so she had been accosted 
 by the meanest of earth's sons, and had due 
 effect ; Mr George Choppin was abased and 
 quenched. But now Miss Elvester re- 
 appeared and piloted her girls to a cab. 
 And so ended scene first of their experiences 
 in Netherlaw. 
 
 On and away they rattled ; out of Royal 
 Square, with its rival hotels, its centre-piece 
 of ornamental gardening, its weather-beaten 
 statues of majesty and others ; past the 
 parish church of St Barnabas, big and bald, 
 across one and another street, where din, like 
 that which once arose in the plain of Shinar, 
 smote the afflicted ear ; and a great variety 
 of public buildings — new and old — florid as 
 a bridecake, or reornamented as a barn — 
 crowded upon the eye. When Miss Elvester 
 was at leisure to study the faces beside her, 
 she said to herself, — 
 
 ' Ah, just so ; I expected no less.'
 
 36 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 For Ursula's expression told plainly that 
 life at this moment was very bitter, and tears 
 were glistening under Christian's lashes. 
 
 1 Come, let us try to be a little cheerful if 
 we can,' said the eldest sister blithely. 
 
 ' But how can we ? ' returned the younger, 
 faltering as she spoke. ' Things are so — so 
 — sad, Jenny.' 
 
 1 And you want to make them sadder 
 still, by looking at them through tears ? 
 No, Christian, that is not the way to face 
 trouble.' 
 
 1 Have you no sensibility that you can 
 expect cheerfulness from us, placed as we 
 are ? ' said Ursula mournfully. ' Are you 
 made of stone ? ' 
 
 ' Of the nether-millstone,' replied Miss 
 Elvester. ' Sensibility is an ornament I can't 
 afford to wear. Sense is enough for me 
 just now ; the other I have locked away 
 against better times.' 
 
 ' Perhaps it is as well,' murmured Ursula 
 gloomily, ' considering the people amongst 
 whom we are to live.'
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 37 
 
 ' Some persons who spoke of Laighbield 
 were just beside us on the platform,' ex- 
 plained Christian. ' One was a very im- 
 pertinent man. Think of it, Jenny ! — he 
 asked Ursula to sit by him, and wished to 
 hear her sing.' 
 
 ' Oh, it is hard to bear ! ' groaned Ursula, 
 alluding to her lot in general rather than 
 to Mr George Choppin's politeness in par- 
 ticular. ' What have we ever done that 
 we should be tried so ? ' 
 
 ' That is a question of cause and effect, 
 into the subtleties of which I can't enter,' 
 said Miss Elvester. ' You must go to the 
 Rev. Donald Berwick, I imagine, for light ; 
 problems of the kind lie more in his way 
 than in mine.' 
 
 They were now out of the business part of 
 the town, and driving up a narrow street of 
 plain, three-storey houses, with enclosures 
 before each, where grew grass and flowers, 
 and shrubs baked rather brown, to make 
 glad the heart of the dwellers and the 
 passer-by.
 
 38 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 ' This is Chapel Street,' said Miss Elvester. 
 ' How do you like it ?' 
 
 Ursula having taken her sister's allusion 
 to the Rev. Donald Berwick seriously amiss, 
 said nothing. Christian therefore must speak. 
 
 ' It is — ' very pleasant, she would have 
 added, but could not, even to please Jenny, 
 tell an untruth ; so after considerable search- 
 ing of heart, she substituted, ' not so bad.' 
 
 ' Truly, my dear, it is not so bad as some 
 of the purlieus where poor tired Ulrica and 
 I went lodging hunting when we arrived,' 
 said Miss Elvester. ' Here is No. 50, then' 
 (for they had stopped before a close about 
 half-way along the street). ' We are reduced 
 to what some people might consider the 
 ignominy of a " flat." But never mind, the 
 disgrace will not be indelible. Now, go 
 upstairs at once. The driver will try to 
 overreach me — it is cab-driver nature — and I 
 won't be overreached, so a contest impends, 
 which I would spare your feelings.' 
 
 1 Do you mean to wrangle with the man 
 about a paltry sixpence ? — -you ! ' and both
 
 The Sweet Uses of Adversity. 39 
 
 voice and features showed that Ursula felt 
 she was now indeed sounding the deeper 
 depths. 
 
 ' I must do it/ replied Miss Elvester ; 
 ' such be the sweet uses of adversity. But 
 away with you before we have our char- 
 ioteer sarcastically inquiring, " What coin is 
 this ? " — three stairs up — right-hand door — 
 name, Mrs Fairbairn.' 
 
 So instructed, the girls left their sister 
 and the cabman to come to terms about the 
 fare, and with languid steps commenced 
 the toilsome ascent of the long, dimly- 
 lighted, spiral staircase which led to Mrs 
 Fairbairn's furnished apartments.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ursula's mistake. 
 
 Proud abroad and proud at home, 
 Proud wherever she chanced to come ; 
 When she was glad and when she was glum.' 
 
 HE entrance of Ursula and Chris- 
 tian Elvester roused a small 
 person who had been prone 
 upon the sofa of Mrs Fairbairn's tidy but 
 threadbare sitting-room. This sister, as 
 much younger than these two as their other 
 sister was older, received them with an air 
 of much and dignified importance. She 
 sleeping ? No, and indeed, no ! She had 
 but lain down to think, and having closed 
 her eyes — she could think more consecutively 
 with shut eyes — had forgotten to open them
 
 Ur sulci s Mistake. 4 1 
 
 again. As for daylight slumbering, that was 
 a thing — But Miss Elvester, victorious 
 from the battle of opinion with the cabman, 
 appeared, and cut Ulrica's explanation short. 
 
 As she attended to the wants of her tra- 
 vellers the manner of their eldest sister was 
 steadfastly cheerful ; and Christian, by the 
 time tea was over, had caught the infection 
 to the extent of being able to laugh now 
 and then. Ursula fared differently. Is life 
 worth livine ? would have evoked from 
 her an unhesitating no. She ate mechani- 
 cally what was set before her, but she 
 neither joined in the comparing of notes 
 which went on, nor yet took the slightest 
 interest in listening. Miss Elvester did 
 not approve of this brooding apart and 
 self-absorption, so after a while she re- 
 marked, — 
 
 ' As I travelled through the wilderness of 
 this world, I lighted on a certain place where 
 was a den ? Isn't that how you feel about 
 it, Ursula ? ' 
 
 ' Well, I don't say you have come to a
 
 42 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 bower of bliss exactly ! I know that the wall- 
 paper is unspeakable, and that the haircloth 
 covered chairs and sofa are not just the kind 
 of seats to be described as the lap of luxury ; 
 also, I agree with you that one's idea of 
 young Lochinvar is not altogether realised 
 in yon work of art, where the hero is re- 
 presented at the moment when — 
 
 " So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall, 
 'Mong brides' men, and kinsmen, and brothers and all." 
 
 Still the room might have been worse. It 
 zvas worse, before I suppressed a variety of 
 lively-coloured wool-work, and sent a collec- 
 tion of wonderful artificial flowers to bloom 
 unseen, instead of above the gay, tinsel-filled 
 fireplace.' 
 
 ' I am not complaining of the room,' said 
 Ursula, with martyr-like meekness. 
 
 Ulrica, who, having been her father's 
 spoilt favourite, took far too much upon her, 
 hereupon observed, — 
 
 ' You ought to be so very grateful that 
 you have a house to come to. Jenny and I
 
 Ursulas Mistake. 
 
 hadn't. While you were comfortable at Hily- 
 ascord, we came to Netherlaw and sought 
 out rooms for all of us. Such seeking ! 
 I never was so tired — never in all my life, 
 tireder I know than you who are so cross.' 
 
 1 And when you were tired, weren't you 
 too ever so slightly cross ? ' urged Christian. 
 
 ' I am not a grown-up person,' replied 
 Ulrica. ' Jenny was never cross.' 
 
 'Jenny could not be cross, I think,' said 
 Christian, admiringly. ' She would not know 
 how.' 
 
 Miss Elvester affirmed that Jenny could 
 very easily be cross, if she were only able 
 to discover the advantage of it ; and then 
 she bade the girls go and sleep off their 
 crossness and fatigue together. Christian 
 contumaciously refused to obey. Ursula, 
 on the other hand, seemed glad to seize 
 the earliest opportunity of shutting her eyes 
 on the world ; so she followed Miss Elvester 
 to a small, dull back room overlooking a 
 dingy bleaching green, where two charwomen 
 were beating carpets and an organ-grinder
 
 44 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 was drearily droning selections from Norma 
 and Masaniello. The chamber was precisely 
 like a prison-cell, thought Ursula — who had 
 never seen a prison-cell ; and so thinking, 
 she sat down by the shabby little bed in the 
 corner, and, hiding her face on the coverlet, 
 broke into passionate weeping. 
 
 Ulrica had come after her sisters unbidden ; 
 and being so wise a woman in her own 
 conceit, she undertook to bring silly Ursula 
 to reason. 
 
 ' Why should you cry ? T she remonstrated. 
 ' You make yourself too conspicuous.' (She 
 did not quite convey her meaning here, but 
 she loved long words, and so, like all who 
 will be fine above measure, fell into confusion 
 now and again.) ' I've not cried one single 
 time since leaving Shetland, a whole week 
 ago ; nor has Jenny ; and it is we who have 
 had everything to do, and to think of.' 
 
 ' We are strong persons,' said Miss El- 
 vester ; ' and we must bear with our weaker 
 brethren.' 
 
 1 But no one ought to be weaker brethren,'
 
 Ursulas Mistake. 45 
 
 objected Ulrica. ' Isn't it foolish of 
 them ?' 
 
 ' Go, get you gone, you small untimely 
 moralist ! Vanish ! ' cried Miss Elvester ; 
 and with good-humoured force the intruder 
 was ejected and the door secured. 
 
 Miss Elvester had in a general way scant 
 sympathy with anything lachrymose. She 
 could, however, make allowances on occasion. 
 For a time, therefore, she did not speak, 
 but employed herself in unpacking Ursula's 
 dressing-case. The sobs having at length 
 ceased, she approached her afflicted sister, 
 saying, — 
 
 e You will feel better now ; a hearty cry 
 is the cheapest medicine in the world — and 
 the best sometimes, I am told.' 
 
 ' Is there any need for ridiculing me because 
 I am miserable ? ' returned Ursula coldly (for 
 she was in the mood to see everything awry). 
 
 ' My dear, I am not ridiculing you ; on 
 the contrary, I am extremely sorry for you. 
 Indeed, Ursula, I would willingly make your 
 path smoother and brighter if I could. But
 
 46 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 hear me : that things have gone badly enough 
 with us, nobody will deny ; you, however, 
 take a too gloomy view — you think we have 
 come to a pass than which there could not 
 possibly be a worse.' 
 
 ' I do not merely think it, I am sure 
 enough of it. Everything — everything gone 
 from us ; our home, our own Eastravoe, sold 
 to strangers. Oh, it is too cruel ! ' 
 
 ' And if no other home had been in 
 readiness — if, with the loss of our father's 
 possession, all had been lost — how then ? ' 
 
 1 It would have been little worse than it 
 is ; for I don't see how we shall be able 
 to subsist on that pittance of yours ; and 
 as for the house, is it not the merest hut 
 in an odious country town ? ' 
 
 Miss Elvester might have resented this 
 contemptuous reference to the annuity and 
 the morsel of property in Cornrigshire, her 
 inheritance from her mother, which her 
 father's daughters were henceforth to share 
 with herself ; but she only smiled, and 
 said, —
 
 Ursula! s Mistake. 47 
 
 1 1 am full of the spirit of enterprise when 
 I think of that hut. Glorious possibilities 
 unfold themselves before my prophetic soul. 
 Mark my words, Ursula ; you shall one day 
 beg my pardon for the scorn you now cast 
 upon the Brae. I hope to bring the garden 
 to grand perfection. Now, my garden, like 
 Mr M'Dow's, has a great many " berry 
 bushes in't " (but I forgot ; you young people 
 don't read Miss Ferrier) ; and as a certain 
 clerical friend of yours is an authority on the 
 subject of fruit trees, I must ask you to 
 use your influence with him to — ' 
 
 She was suddenly interrupted. Her sister 
 rose up and stood before her, erect, flushed, 
 and with flashing eyes. Cold, haughty 
 Ursula could show fire enough, when put 
 to it, one well saw. 
 
 ' You are not to dare to jest to me about 
 Mr Berwick,' she said in a low, repressed 
 tone. ' Do you know what he has done ? 
 he has — asked me to marry him ! ' 
 
 Miss Elvester betrayed no surprise. 
 'At Hilyascord ?' she inquired.
 
 48 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 ' No ; but before we left Eastravoe, just 
 after you were gone. But I have spoken 
 of it to no one, not even to Christian ; 
 and I only tell you, so that you may leave 
 off making reference to him. You had 
 better.' 
 
 ' Am I to understand that you and he 
 have said good-bye ? ' 
 
 1 Would you have had anything else ? ' 
 
 ' I would have had you consult your own 
 feelings in the matter, as I trust you have 
 done.' 
 
 ' I have done exactly as I would if my 
 father had been alive, and this desolation 
 had not fallen upon us — only he would 
 not have ventured to ask me then. Even 
 as it is, he ought not to have forgotten 
 the difference that there is between him 
 and me.' 
 
 ' The difference ? Yes ; it is past meas- 
 urement. But did you remind the infatu- 
 ated man himself of this difference between 
 you ? ' 
 
 1 Excuse me, I have said all that I care
 
 Ursula's Mistake. 49 
 
 to say on the subject ; so, if you please, 
 don't ask questions ; do just let the matter 
 drop.' 
 
 ' There needs no questioning indeed. I 
 know as well as if I had been told how 
 Mr Berwick entreated you to honour him 
 (save the mark ! ), by giving him a husband's 
 right to shield you from the poverty you 
 so much dread. That fine fellow meta- 
 phorically — not literally, I hope — knelt at 
 your feet ; and you could not stoop to him.' 
 
 ' I could not stoop to him.' 
 
 1 1 am sorry, Ursula, and sorrier for you 
 than for Mr Berwick. My dear, you have 
 made a mistake.' 
 
 4 Is it a mistake to remember that, if 
 nothing else remains to us, there is still 
 our name ? I am an Elvester, and though 
 I have always liked and esteemed Mr 
 Berwick, to marry him would be out of 
 the question.' 
 
 1 You fancy there would be degradation 
 in an alliance with a farmer's son ; but I 
 don't quite see it somehow.' 
 
 vol. I. d
 
 50 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 ' You would be content that we should 
 marry, not farmers' sons, but farmers them- 
 selves, it seems to me ! ' 
 
 ' Truly, if they were men such as Mr 
 Berwick, I really don't know that I should 
 mourn loudly over your declension ; for, 
 my dear Lady Lofty, I am apprehensive — 
 I am very apprehensive — that if you ever 
 do marry, it will not be to take your place 
 amid the noble of the land.' 
 
 ' You are to be envied, that you can make 
 a jest — even of our misery,' said Ursula with 
 a pitiful attempt at indifference. 
 
 ' Yes ; that is one of my pleasant little 
 peculiarities. But do you not know that 
 people must sometimes jest if they would 
 not groan ? ' 
 
 What she had now heard had both vexed 
 and disappointed Miss Elvester. She had 
 the highest possible opinion of Mr Berwick ; 
 he and Ursula were exactly suited to each 
 other ; and, more than that, she very much 
 inclined to the belief that Ursula herself felt 
 the suitability — that the so-called liking and
 
 Ursulas Mistake. 5 1 
 
 esteem — but what was the use of dwelling 
 on the subject ? The mistake had been 
 committed, and no words of hers would 
 undo it ; so, bridling her tongue, she pro- 
 ceeded to needful action. 
 
 Unwinding a tangled skein is held the 
 standing test of a woman's patience and 
 temper ; but some of us, who might come 
 triumphantly through the ordeal of the skein, 
 would break down utterly under the ordeal 
 of ministering to an unthankful, unreasonable 
 sister. Yet even here Miss Elvester did 
 not fail ; never was a woman more slow 
 to wrath than she ; indeed, it seemed as if, 
 in spite of her own assertion to the contrary, 
 she could not lose her temper, even if she 
 tried.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHRISTIAN S CROTCHET. 
 
 1 A little, tiny, pretty, witty, charming darling she. 
 
 URING the rest of that evening 
 Miss Elvester was busy at her 
 desk. Christian sat at the win- 
 dow counting the chimney-stalks — which, 
 for this one holiday week, had ceased to 
 waft their clouds of sooty incense to the 
 skies — and much pitying the thousands of 
 Netherlaw. Ulrica, lost in a volume of 
 wonder-lore, was unconscious of outer things, 
 and so continued till the voice of authority 
 called her from fairyland r and ordered her 
 to dreamland instead. Christian saw her 
 safely off, and then, the gas being lit, and
 
 Christians Crotchet. 
 
 the chimney-stalks no longer practicable, laid 
 hands on a piece of knitting for lack of 
 other resource. 
 
 ' Had I the wings of a dove, I would fly 
 
 ' Far, far away ; far away.' 
 
 As Miss Elvester presently paused in her 
 writing to hum — 
 
 ' Where not a cloud ever darkens the sky, 
 
 1 Far, far away ; far away.' 
 
 Christian looked up smiling, and caught 
 her sister's eyes. 
 
 ' Is that your own sentiment or mine ? ' 
 she inquired. 
 
 ' Yours, yours,' said Miss Elvester. ' There 
 is a certain hardness of fibre about me — as 
 I daresay you are aware — which renders me 
 for ever incapable of such pretty sentiment 
 as wishing to be a bird, or a daisy, or a 
 butterfly born in a bower. My practical 
 mind is exercised practically ; as, for in- 
 stance, about that knitting of mine. What is 
 amiss with it, Christian ? The pattern is at 
 a crisis, and I am anxious about it, you see.'
 
 54 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 ' Ulrica's kitten has been making a foot- 
 ball of it, I think. But I am putting it right 
 again ; and while I've been busy with it, I 
 have forgotten to envy the dove her wings.' 
 
 ' I daresay. Being busy is the best cure 
 I know of for vain wishings,' and Miss El- 
 vester resumed work. 
 
 The dropped stitches having been taken 
 up, Christian sat still for a time, busy no 
 longer, thoughtfully gazing at her sister. 
 Poor Jenny ! nobody ever heard a murmur- 
 ing word from her lips ; but there were lines 
 on her brow, and dark circles about her 
 eyes, and there was nothing left of her face's 
 former softness of contour. Indeed, this 
 scarcely looked like the Janet Elvester of 
 a year ago, so terribly had the past month's 
 anxiety told upon her. It became necessary, 
 ere long, to find means of giving expression 
 to the feelings which a contemplation of the 
 change awakened ; so Christian went quietly 
 round to the back of her sister's chair, and 
 began to trifle caressingly with the circlet 
 of jet beads about the sitter's neck — with
 
 Christian s Crotchet. 55 
 
 the fringe on her dress — with the plaits of 
 her hair. The mute attentions were neither 
 disallowed nor taken any notice of; and for 
 a good many minutes Christian stood thus, 
 watching the progress of the rapid, unresting 
 pen. At last the work was done. 
 
 ' Here is a pile of business off my con- 
 science,' said Miss Elvester, the final letter 
 having been addressed. ' It is rather a 
 troublesome thing, this being an executrix ; 
 pray, Christian, that you may never be called 
 upon to undertake the like. Why ' (looking 
 at her watch) ' I have even been longer than 
 I thought ; and you are not going to have 
 any beauty-sleep, that is certain.' 
 
 ■ I am such a beautiful, beautiful creature 
 that I need none,' said Christian, who, by 
 the way, thought wonderfully little about 
 her looks. ' And I wanted to wait for you, 
 at anyrate ; for, oh, Jenny, you can't fancy 
 what a comfort it is to be with you again.' 
 
 ' Do you feel it so ? Then I have not 
 lived in vain.' 
 
 ' Of course you are laughing ; you will
 
 56 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 never let one have the satisfaction of pay- 
 ing you even the tiniest, most innocent of 
 compliments.' 
 
 ' Certainly not. Compliments don't suit 
 matter-of-fact elderly women.' 
 
 ' Elderly, Jenny ! Why, you are — ' 
 
 ' Never mind the age, then ; sensible, let 
 us say.' 
 
 Christian was kneeling before her sister 
 now, earnestly regarding the white, shapely 
 fingers by which her own pretty hands were 
 clasped.' 
 
 ' Do I look like a person with something 
 on her mind ? ' she asked suddenly. 
 
 ' I'm not certain how persons with some- 
 thing on the mind may be supposed to look,' 
 replied Miss Elvester, laughing. ' Not be- 
 ing versed in fiction, I don't know how a 
 heroine bears herself when she is mentally 
 distressed.' 
 
 ' She has — let me consider — she has a 
 shadow on her fair young brow, her lake- 
 like eyes grow dim and hollow, her airy 
 tread becomes languid, and — and — '
 
 Christian 's Crotchet. 57 
 
 ' And does she keep her sister up through 
 
 the early morning hours hearing her chatter ? ' 
 
 1 She chatter ! A heroine has a voice like 
 
 flowing water, or silver bells — a " dulcet " 
 
 voice, that is the word for it.' 
 
 ' Delightful creature that she must be to 
 have about one ! But tell me now, what 
 is this load of yours ? Something very un- 
 heroic, I venture to surmise.' 
 
 ' As unheroic as myself, Jenny. One 
 more question, please. What, upon your 
 conscience, do you think I am fit for ? ' 
 
 ' I don't know that you are fit for any- 
 thing at all, my poor child.' 
 
 1 Do you not believe me good for any- 
 thing ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, if you insist upon the whole truth, 
 I do believe you are good enough for — I 
 will show you what,' and Miss Elvester 
 took the face of the querist between her 
 hands, and laughingly kissed it once and 
 again ; an unusual proceeding, for she was 
 sparing of such demonstrations, reserving 
 them for high days and holidays, as she
 
 58 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 herself would say. ' That is what you are 
 good for,' she continued, ' to be petted and 
 spoilt by people who are foolish enough to 
 spoil and pet you.' 
 
 'It is so you always treat me, when I 
 would make myself of use,' said Christian 
 gravely. ' But I am now old enough to 
 judge for myself, I think ; and this is what 
 is on my mind. I — don't be astonished at 
 me, Jenny — I intend — oh, it is nothing 
 dreadful — to earn my own living.' 
 
 1 You are a free and enlightened little 
 person, to be sure ! ' exclaimed Miss El- 
 vester, an expression of amusement, well 
 mixed with satire, shining in her eyes. 
 1 You intend to earn your own living, do 
 you ? And since when have you been 
 pleased to cherish this magnificent resolve, 
 may one make bold to inquire ? ' 
 
 Christian raised appealing eyes to the pale, 
 sarcastic face which was bent towards her. 
 
 ' Scold me if you must, but don't laugh at 
 me,' she said. 
 
 c Your pardon ! I ask for information.
 
 Christian s Crotchet. 59 
 
 How long is it since you began to think of 
 working for yourself ? ' 
 
 ' Ever since rightly grasping all that our 
 changed circumstances means, though I 
 have never spoken of it till now.' 
 
 • No one, then — there are officious 
 meddlers enough, I know — put the idea 
 into your head ? ' 
 
 1 No one. The idea is all my own. I 
 mean to be a governess, Jenny.' 
 
 ' I see ; in order to escape the limitations 
 of your present lot, you, like the sensible 
 little girl you are, must find an entirely 
 new sphere for yourself. But do you feel 
 that you have a vocation for the position 
 you aspire to ? ' 
 
 ' I am fairly well educated, am I not ? ' 
 
 ' Granted ; but let me hazard the mild 
 suggestion, that being fairly well educated 
 oneself, and being even fairly well able to 
 educate others, are things totally distinct. 
 To imagine that, without a special training, 
 or at any rate a special talent, you can be 
 a successful teacher in the proper sense of
 
 60 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 the word, is as great a delusion as to fancy, 
 like some men, that all required of him who 
 would preach to his fellow-sinners, is un- 
 bounded confidence, added to a pair of 
 strong - lungs. You may have chanced to 
 hear such self-elected prophets ; were they 
 likely to advance the planet's evangelisation, 
 think you ? ' 
 
 ' But, indeed, the comparison is not a fair 
 one. I am as humble as can be. I want 
 to teach the alphabet ; couldn't I do that ? ' 
 
 ' Why, yes, you might. And so to teach 
 the alphabet is the sum of your ambition ? ' 
 
 1 Not quite. I'm presumptuous enough 
 to hope that I might even dare a slightly 
 higher flight. And if I be without either 
 training or talent, I have one thing to re- 
 commend me. I dearly love children.' 
 
 1 No doubt. It happens to be an un- 
 pleasant fact, however, that, while in theory 
 children are dearly lovable, in practice they are 
 sometimes exactly the reverse. I shouldn't 
 care about any of my girls being a nursery 
 governess, Christian, and I beg you to get
 
 Christians Crotchet. 61 
 
 rid of this crotchet of yours. For the 
 present, at all events, content yourself with 
 such a home as I can offer you.' 
 
 ' I can't get rid of my — crotchet ; it has 
 taken too firm hold upon me. I must be 
 independent.' 
 
 ' Independent ! So it is a question of 
 woman's rights we have to deal with ? ' 
 
 1 Yes, Jenny ; of her right to work for 
 herself.' 
 
 1 Very well put, my witty one. And it 
 seems so glorious a thing, this indepen- 
 dence ! quite worth paying any price for ! 
 But have you ever really counted the cost, 
 Christian ? ' 
 
 'Again and again and again, Jenny.' 
 
 1 So often ? Well, it is hardly to be ex- 
 pected, I suppose, that, having set your 
 heart on the assertion of your rights, you 
 should let a half-sister's objections have 
 any weight with you.' 
 
 1 It is unkind to say so. My half-sister 
 ought to know that she is more to me than 
 any one in the world, and that there is no-
 
 62 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 thing I will do, so long as she objects to 
 it.' 
 
 Miss Elvesters cheeks took the colour of 
 roses ; so they always did when anything 
 touched the lady's heart. 
 
 ' Do you not understand,' went on Chris- 
 tian, ' how it is just because I love you, that 
 I am anxious to leave you now. I can't 
 longer stand idly by, while you bear all the 
 burden. I can only be miserable while it is so. 
 Call my wish to work a crotchet, if you like ; 
 I shall not mind, if you will but humour it.' 
 
 This, and a great deal more than this, 
 Christian said for herself. Having thought 
 much about the matter beforehand she 
 argued her case well ; and when she had 
 done, her sister, who had listened with the 
 utmost patience, observed,' — 
 
 ' Perhaps, who knows, a taste of the 
 sweets of governesshood might send you 
 back to me, effectually cured of your pas- 
 sion for independence.' 
 
 ' You consent to let me have my way ? 
 said Christian eagerly.
 
 Christians Crotchet. 63 
 
 ' Not so hasty. I consent to nothing 
 yet. You have taken me by surprise, and I 
 can't say either one thing or another. I 
 must consider before I decide anything 
 so important. I move, therefore, that 
 the question be adjourned to a new 
 day.' 
 
 Adjourned it was accordingly. In the 
 meantime, Miss Elvester freed herself from 
 her sister's girdling arms, and proceeded to 
 put away her writing materials. Christian 
 drew up the blind and looked forth. In 
 Shetland it was tenderly light all through 
 these summer nights. The sun merely 
 dipped into the sea and was out again. 
 But here twilight did not so melt into 
 dawn. Netherlaw lay closely muffled in 
 gloom — gloom that might be felt ; and a 
 painful sense of pent-upness oppressed the 
 stranger, as her eyes wandered over the 
 shadowy streets which stretched away — away 
 — away in every direction. One could not 
 breathe freely in this heavy atmosphere — this 
 forest of chimney-stalks. Oh, for a waft of
 
 64 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 the northern breezes ! — or the familiar sea- 
 sound ! — or, — 
 
 c By your good leave,' said Miss Elves- 
 ter, turning out the gas. It does not suit 
 me to burn the candle at both ends ; and 
 as you are to share my room, it must not 
 suit you either. Hie you to bed ! '
 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ULRICAS AMBITION. 
 
 Large streams from little fountains flow ; 
 Tall oaks from little acorns grow : 
 And though I now am small and young, 
 Of judgment weak and feeble tongue, 
 Yet all great learned men, like me, 
 Once learned to read their ABC. 
 
 FIND,' said Miss Elvester, after 
 due consideration of the project 
 which Christian's heart was set 
 upon, ' that I dare not be the one to bar 
 the way of an eager young soul afire with 
 the spirit of independence. Do your will, 
 then, and prosperity attend you.' 
 
 But Ursula! — pen cannot picture the 
 dismay of Ursula when she heard of such 
 a thing. Of course Christian tried, and 
 VOL. i. E
 
 66 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 tried again, to make her motives intelli- 
 gible. It was useless; Ursula could, or 
 would, see only that her sister meant to 
 descend to the ranks of the paid labourers ; 
 that an Elvester of Eastravoe intended to 
 work for hire. But Jenny would not surely 
 consent to such dishonour. To her, there- 
 fore, Ursula appealed. 
 
 ' Have we Elvesters ever yet lowered our- 
 selves in the world's eyes ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' I daresay we have, a thousand times — 
 as you count lowering,' was the unpromising 
 reply ; ' you thought it a lowering of myself, 
 when I disputed the fare with a cabman the 
 other day.' 
 
 ' You choose to misunderstand, but I am 
 sure you know what I mean.' 
 
 ' About the honour of our sires, is it ? 
 Why are you disquieted on that head ? 
 Have you a dream of trying to make 
 atonement for the slips from honour of 
 your ancestors ? — because I wouldn't my- 
 self advise you to attempt anything so 
 impossibly grand. Won't you rather be
 
 Ulrica s Ambition. 6 J 
 
 satisfied with the humbler achievement of 
 keeping your own conduct as flawless as 
 may be ? ' 
 
 ' I am not thinking either of myself or 
 my ancestors, but of Christian. You can 
 never intend to let her do what she is 
 talking of?* 
 
 ' I intend to let her do as she pleases/ 
 
 This assurance seemed to stupify Ursula ; 
 for fully a minute she did not utter a sound; 
 then, with tragic intonation, came the words, 
 1 Evidently you don't care how low we sink 
 now ! ' and she turned to seek the solitude 
 of her dreary back room, there to brood 
 over this new root of bitterness. 
 
 Miss Elvester put down the Shetland 
 newspaper she had been scanning. 
 
 ' You go just a little too far/ she said. 
 ' I haven't the slightest intention that we 
 shall sink, so long as we can keep above 
 water. No, don't go. Come here, and let 
 me talk a little common sense to you.' 
 
 Ursula did not want to have common 
 sense talked to her. At this trying moment
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 she heartily disliked its very name. Still, 
 as she could not exactly refuse to listen, 
 she sat down ; but with a patience-on-a- 
 monument air about her, calculated to 
 excite ridicule or sympathy, as the be- 
 holder chanced to be in a satirical or a 
 sentimental mood. 
 
 * I suppose you remember the story of 
 Rosamond and the purple jar?' said Miss 
 Elvester. 
 
 Ursula supposed she did, but failed to 
 see its connection with the present question 
 at issue. 
 
 1 Why, don't you observe I have given 
 way about this purple jar on which Chris- 
 tian's fancy is fixed ? I act as Rosamond's 
 mother acted — only up to a certain point, 
 however : I daresay I am wrong, but I 
 never could keep a mistaken one to her 
 bargain, after she had found it to be no 
 bargain at all, but a blunder. So Christian 
 shall try her luck; and then, so soon as 
 she discovers that she has overrated her 
 own strength and courage, she shall be
 
 Ulrica's Ambition. 69 
 
 welcome to return to us again. But if — 
 which may be the case — this scheme of 
 hers should prove to be more than a piece 
 of mere romance ; if she should be brave 
 enough to persevere in her work, and 
 should make it plain that she is in the 
 sphere Providence had meant her to fill, — 
 why, I will never bid her leave it.' 
 
 ' What has happened to us already we 
 could not help,' observed Ursula bitterly; 
 ' now, we are voluntarily losing caste, and 
 descending from our position.' 
 
 ' My dear, I am weary of this harping 
 on caste. Live nobly, Ursula, and never 
 mind the rest.' 
 
 'Is rank nothing, then?' said Ursula, 
 still more bitterly than before. 
 
 ' It is something, certainly ; but it is less 
 than the man. And in any case it has 
 never been proved, so far as I know, that 
 a gentlewoman cannot work for wages and 
 be a gentlewoman still. Show me wherein 
 the degradation of receiving payment for 
 honest work consists.'
 
 jo Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 But there was no response. Miss Elves- 
 ter's common sense had fallen on ears that 
 would not receive it. She could not bring 
 her ideas to the level of her lot, — this proud, 
 foolish Ursula. It appeared to her that 
 things had gone wrong beyond power of 
 mortal to better them ; and now they might 
 take their own course ; she for her part 
 was done with protesting. 
 
 Since their father's death Ursula had 
 taken the place of governess to Ulrica (it 
 was only the post of a paid governess 
 that she objected to), giving herself great 
 trouble for small thanks ; or rather, for quite 
 the reverse of thanks, since Ulrica was 
 heard frequently to complain that the yoke 
 of her instructress was heavier than girl 
 could bear. 
 
 ' Ursula thinks of nothing — nothing — 
 nothing, — but how to keep me writing tire- 
 some exercises and learning strange French 
 conjugations,' grumbled the rebel. ' I al- 
 most believe she invents irregular verbs as 
 she goes along.'
 
 Ulricas Ambition. 7 1 
 
 1 That is very clever of her,' replied Chris- 
 tian, to whom this appeal for sympathy was 
 addressed. 
 
 Ulrica considered the remark flippant, and 
 passed it by. 
 
 1 There is no piano here,' she resumed, 
 ' but oh ! there will be practising and prac- 
 tising when we get to Laighbield. I wish 
 Jenny would attend to my education then !' 
 
 ' I wouldn't wish that if I were you,' said 
 Christian ; ' Jenny would say far more than 
 Ursula ever says, if lessons were unprepared.' 
 
 ' But I shouldn't so much mind that. 
 Ursula doesn't say, she only looks ; and I 
 am sensitive. I don't like being looked 
 at by her solemn eyes, as if I were making 
 her very unhappy, and she were wondering 
 at me.' 
 
 The feeling was perfectly understood by 
 Christian ; she too knew what it was to 
 endure the speechless reproach of solemn- 
 eyed Ursula. 
 
 ' Ursula concerns herself with more than 
 my education,' said Ulrica, passing to an-
 
 J 2 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 other source of discontent. ' She won't let 
 me read any books but fairy-tales, and child- 
 ish stories about good prim little girls with 
 such lecturing mammas. And you get so 
 tired of these at last/ 
 
 'Tired of Hans Andersen? Then I'm 
 sorry for you. But patience, Ulrica ; you'll 
 come to the other kinds in time.' 
 
 • Oh, it is all very well for you to say 
 ''patience;" but suppose you found in the 
 cupboard of your room a delightful tale 
 called The Bravo s Bride; or, Doomed by 
 Destiny, and suppose you had got to the 
 middle of the third chapter, when Ursula 
 came upon you, and chose to say that you 
 mustn't read " that trash," and when you 
 wouldn't give it up, called Jenny, who then 
 came and took it away ; how should you 
 like that?' 
 
 ' Poor little victim ! ' laughed Christian, 
 patting the child's cheek. ' What a very 
 bad time she has with her hard - hearted 
 sisters.' 
 
 ' I don't think people should call a book
 
 Ulrica 's Ambition. 73 
 
 " that trash," till they can write a better 
 themselves,' continued Ulrica, giving her 
 flowing fair hair an indignant shake. ' And 
 Ursula can't write at all ; not anything 
 original, I mean, only exercises and rules of 
 grammar, and Latin roots (I'm sure I can't 
 guess why the Latins should have been so 
 fond of roots). But let me tell you, Chris- 
 tian, / am going to do something for the 
 honour of our family. I have determined 
 I will be an authoress.' 
 
 1 That will be delightful,' said Christian ; 
 but she was not much impressed ap- 
 parently. 
 
 ' When I told our old Jeromina at home, 
 she took much more interest than you do,' 
 said Ulrica, in an injured tone. 
 
 'It is so far off, you see,' apologised 
 Christian. 
 
 ' Not so far off as you may fancy. I grow 
 up rapidly, and I have already multitudes of 
 ideas in my mind. But, Christian, one thing 
 puzzles me. Jeromina says grown-up stories 
 were always about love ; I was sorry to hear
 
 74 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 that, because I don't know anything about 
 love.' 
 
 ' Nor do I. But suppose, just for a 
 change, you were to write a story, a grown- 
 up story, without love.' 
 
 ' 1 did speak of that to Jeromina, but she 
 didn't think it would do ; it would be " affa 
 dry," she said. If I could have gone on 
 with The Bravo s Bride, I should have 
 learnt something, don't you think ? Oh, 
 Jenny' (for Miss Elvester had that moment 
 entered), ' have you overheard our con- 
 versation ? ' 
 
 ' A few words of it only,' was the reply. 
 ' The Bravo s Bride forsooth. The gram- 
 mar and the dictionary would better suit 
 you.' 
 
 ' Think, Jenny ; our youngest is going to 
 be an authoress,' said Christian. 
 
 Miss Elvester raised her eyebrows. 
 
 ' Have I under my charge a woman of 
 intellect in embryo ? ' she exclaimed. ' The 
 sense of responsibility appals me, I confess. 
 But, my little girl, may I ask you kindly to
 
 Ulricas Ambition. 75 
 
 suppress your talent for the time, and to put 
 your room to rights. Books and papers are 
 in dire confusion yonder ; and if you are a 
 genius, that is no reason why you should be 
 untidy in your habits.' 
 
 The future authoress rose to obey. In 
 passing, she stopped and put her arms about 
 the mentor's waist. 
 
 * I'll be as tidy as ever you like,' she 
 whispered, ' if you will only let me have 
 back The Bravo s Bride! 
 
 ' Let you have back what ? ' cried her 
 sister. 
 
 ' The Bravo s Bride', she said coaxingly ; 
 * please, please, Jenny, give it to me back.' 
 
 Her wiles were wasted. 
 
 ' The Bravo s Bride is out of the question,' 
 replied Miss Elvester ; 'you shall have 
 Little Goody Two -Shoes, rather.' 
 
 ' Papa would not have been so hard to 
 me,' murmured Ulrica, and her lips quivered 
 and her arms were withdrawn. ' He would 
 not be pleased if he were to know. He 
 would wish you to be less unkind to me.'
 
 j 6 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 The colour sprang into the guardian's 
 face. But Miss Elvester did not generally 
 speak before thinking. She held her peace 
 for a moment, therefore, considering whether 
 she should condescend to justify her con- 
 duct. Then she sat down and drew Ulrica 
 back to her side, saying kindly but with 
 authority, — 
 
 ' I hope I shall not hear anything of this 
 sort again ; and I believe I shall not, when 
 I have once shown you how mistaken you 
 are. Our father would certainly approve of 
 what you call my hardness to you. Let me 
 try to make you understand.' 
 
 But what she said need not be repeated 
 here ; it suffices that she did not let the 
 hungerer for forbidden fruit depart, till she 
 had brought her round to reason and sub- 
 missiveness.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A PAIR OF NETHERLAW NOTABILITIES. 
 
 He that has ill-luck gets ill-usage. 
 
 T occasionally happens in this strange 
 world, that the public passes with 
 regardless eye some picture by 
 some young artist who fondly fancies him- 
 self a greater than Turner ; that it will not 
 read the book whose author felt certain he 
 had written a thing which would take its 
 breath away with wrapt delight ; that it is 
 perversely determined to have no cognisance 
 of the ' eager young soul, afire with the 
 spirit of independence.' 
 
 So Christian, who had in her ignorance 
 imagined that one needed but to cry, ' I
 
 78 Miss E Iv ester s Girls. 
 
 have an ambition to teach ; bring me your 
 children, pray you,' and the children would 
 be brought, soon became painfully aware 
 that it was not at all thus, but that in the 
 commodity of governesses, the supply was 
 greatly in excess of the demand. 
 
 She advertised ; she replied to advertise- 
 ments ; she made application at various 
 scholastic agencies, but nothing came of it 
 ■ — nobody answered her. She was almost 
 in despair, when one auspicious morning, 
 glancing down the column in the Reflector 
 that she always turned to first, her eyes 
 were arrested by the cheering lines, — 
 
 'Governess wanted for a gentleman's family 
 in the West End; must be thoroughly quali- 
 fied to instruct in elementary English, and 
 to ground in the rudiments of French, Latin, 
 German, Music (vocal and instrumental) and 
 Drawing. Good accent indispensable. Un- 
 exceptional references required. Apply per- 
 sonally, between the hours of twelve and 
 three, at Miss Colquhoun's Register Office, 
 Lockerbie Street/
 
 A Pair of ' Nether law Notabilities. 79 
 
 Hope at last ! in a personal application 
 assuredly there was hope ; and she could 
 eat no breakfast in view of it; though Miss 
 Elvester warned her that she would never 
 attain to a green old age if she allowed 
 every stray contingency so greatly to excite 
 her. Not much matter, Christian thought ; 
 she was not troubled about anything so 
 remote as a green old age ; her immediate 
 concern was about her accent. References 
 the most unexceptionable were not want- 
 ing; but her accent? Miss Elvester dared 
 to say it would pass muster ; Ursula said 
 not a word ; but you may be sure her good 
 wishes did not attend her sister to Miss 
 Colquhoun's Register Office. 
 
 Lockerbie Street was the promenade upon 
 which fashionable Netherlaw daily aired 
 itself; but as Miss Elvester's girls had 
 hitherto walked abroad but little, and in 
 Lockerbie Street not at all, Christian wended 
 her way now for the first time through that 
 gay thoroughfare. Preoccupied as she was, 
 however, passing her qualifications in review,
 
 So Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 speculating as to the children whose gover- 
 ness was to c ground ' them in so many 
 rudiments, and hoping that Christian Elvester 
 might be the person selected to do the 
 grounding required, it seemed to her that 
 she had hardly quitted Mrs Fairbairn's 
 apartments before she arrived at the re- 
 gister office. 
 
 Here she paused to summon up courage, 
 because — there was no concealing it from 
 herself, now that the much prayed-for mo- 
 ment was come, it found her unmistakably 
 frightened. But the longer she lingered 
 outside the more afraid she grew, and when 
 at length she did cross the threshold, it was 
 with the feeling strong upon her, that she 
 was making a very desperate venture indeed. 
 
 Within was a good-natured looking, middle- 
 aged person, who immediately turned from 
 the huge ledger in which she was writing 
 entries, to inform Christian that the adver- 
 tiser for a governess, Mrs Baillie Geddes, 
 waited in the back room to give audience 
 to candidates, and that one such was at
 
 A Pair of Nether law Notabilities. 81 
 
 present under examination. Even as it was 
 being told, there issued from the regions 
 behind a smartly dressed, rather pertly 
 mannered girl. 
 
 ' I've met a good many patterns of horrid 
 pretension since coming to your town, Miss 
 Colquhoun,' she said, ' but that woman beats 
 them all. Guess what her first words were ? ' 
 
 Miss Colquhoun declined the riddle. 
 
 ' Then I must tell you. I had the pre- 
 sumption to sit down, and her ladyship 
 desired me to " stand, please," and the rest 
 of her was to match. It was rather too 
 much of a good thing. Stand, indeed ! Did 
 she take me for a housemaid, I wonder ? ' 
 
 Having thus delivered herself, this indig- 
 nant young person snatched at the parasol 
 which had been awaiting her in a corner, 
 tossed to Miss Colquhoun a by no means 
 amiable adieu, and swept from the register 
 office. 
 
 Such a prelude could not be called re- 
 assuring, and it was with increased nervous- 
 ness that Christian passed into the audience 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 Miss E Iv ester s Girls. 
 
 chamber where Mrs Baillie Geddes sate, 
 queenlike, to receive her. Then broke upon 
 her a confused consciousness of tawny surg- 
 ing silk, and crest of white ostrich plumes, 
 and hard black eyes, and awe-inspiring nose ; 
 then a supercilious nod was vouchsafed her, 
 and then Mrs Baillie Geddes entered upon 
 the process of ' eyeing her over,' an opera- 
 tion which, to give the lady due credit, she 
 performed in a style worthy of Mr Simon 
 Tapertit himself. The result of the survey 
 was not altogether satisfactory. 
 
 ' H'm — ha — ' said Mrs Baillie Geddes, 
 elevating her aquiline nose and outstanding 
 chin. * You look very young — too young 
 for me. Your age, if you please ? ' 
 
 ' I shall be twenty in December,' answered 
 Christian, wishing that she could have said 
 thirty instead. And she was still more 
 ashamed of her youth when Mrs Baillie 
 Geddes rejoined. — 
 
 ' As I thought. Too young. Absurdly 
 so for a governess. But what experience 
 have you had ? '
 
 A Pair of Nether law Notabilities. 8$ 
 
 Alas ! for Christian, she had to confess to 
 no experience at all. 
 
 ' No experience ! ' echoed Mrs Baillie 
 Geddes, and her hooked nose seemed to 
 become more hooked than ever. ' Why, 
 then, do you answer advertisements ? ' 
 
 ' One must make a beginning,' ventured 
 Christian, in excuse. 
 
 ' The beginning ought to be made as an 
 articled pupil,' returned Mrs Baillie Geddes 
 with, if that were possible, an increase of 
 sternness. ' What I require is a person who 
 thoroughly understands her business, Miss 
 Axminster ' (Christian had on entering given 
 her name with perfect distinctness, and Mrs 
 Baillie Geddes was not hard of hearing), 
 ' and who has method. My present gover- 
 ness has no method ; and besides that, she 
 is in failing health. A person in poor health 
 has no right to offer herself as a governess ■ 
 to do so is, I maintain, a species of fraud 
 which ought to be punishable by law. Are 
 you perfectly sound, Miss Exeter ? ' 
 
 Though much struck by this view of ill-
 
 84 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 health in a governess, Christian veiled her 
 surprise, and answered that her physical 
 condition was all that could be desired. 
 
 ' H'm ! You do not seem to me to have 
 much stamina,' said Mrs Baillie Geddes. 
 ' In my family a person with stamina is 
 required — with stamina] and, pausing, she 
 pierced Christian through with those re- 
 lentless eyes, as if in quest of hidden signs 
 of stamina. 
 
 ' How many pupils should I have ? ' in- 
 quired Christian, when she had, with some 
 difficulty, screwed up her courage to the 
 point of asking the question. 
 
 Mrs Baillie Geddes did not approve of 
 the liberty, and she stared, as much as to 
 say, ' What are things coming to ? ' 
 
 ( The governess has nothing whatever to 
 do with the elder Misses Baillie Geddes/ 
 she replied majestically, ' but only with 
 Masters Ferdinand and Leopold James, and 
 Miss Millicent Louise. And now, pray, 
 what references can you produce ? That 
 is a point upon which I am most particular
 
 A Pair of Nether law Notabilities. 85 
 
 — references. I must have first-class re- 
 ferences.' 
 
 Particular as she was, Christian could 
 satisfy her here ; so fully, indeed, that it 
 seemed as if inexperience, and deficiency in 
 stamina even, might be got over. Mrs 
 Baillie Geddes did not commit herself, of 
 course — that would have been rash ; but, 
 having sifted the educational qualifications 
 of the present aspirant, she rehearsed at 
 long length the duties which would devolve 
 upon the person selected to discharge the 
 office of governess to the younger mem- 
 bers of the Baillie Geddes household, and 
 mentioned, by the way, that as for emolu- 
 ment, provided the person were thoroughly 
 suitable, that would be on a liberal scale — 
 a handsome and a liberal scale. 
 
 ' But you are only one in a crowd,' she 
 wound up, ' so I can come to no conclusion 
 to-day, Miss — Westminster — Isbister — what 
 do you say your name is ? ' 
 
 ' Elvester,' replied Christian, trying to 
 pronounce even more distinctly than before.
 
 86 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 1 Ha — well, as I say, I can settle nothing 
 to-day. You, on the whole, have pleased 
 me best so far. I am pleased with your 
 references. You may call to-morrow fore- 
 noon, at Mr Baillie Geddes's place of busi- 
 ness, Seven, Alexander Buildings, and you 
 will be informed whether I have decided to 
 engage you. Seven, Alexander Buildings, 
 Miss Elster, about twelve o'clock.' 
 
 And a second nod, no less supercilious 
 than the first, gave Christian to understand 
 that for the present, at all events, Mrs 
 Baillie Geddes had done with her. 
 
 Miss Colquhoun was now parleying with 
 a domestic in search of a ' place,' and four 
 disengaged governesses were exercising their 
 patience till Mrs Baillie Geddes should find 
 it convenient to inspect them. Christian 
 would have left the office without speaking, 
 but when she bowed, Miss Colquhoun came 
 to open the door for her. 
 
 1 There is a chance of your not getting 
 this situation,' said the proprietress of the 
 register office, with a little shake of the head, 

 
 A Pair of Nether law Notabilities. Sy 
 
 ' so, in case of that, here' (presenting a slip 
 of paper) ' is the address of another lady 
 who is looking out for a governess.' 
 
 ' You are very good,' murmured Christian, 
 with a rather forced smile. 
 
 1 Not in the least,' said Miss Colquhoun 
 briskly. 'All in the way of business, Miss 
 Elvester ; if I get you a situation you owe 
 me half-a-crown. I hope you will soon be 
 suited. Good-day.' 
 
 There was no doubt about it ; the prospect 
 of coming under the jurisdiction of such a 
 stickler for stamina as Mrs Baillie Geddes, 
 was the reverse of exhilarating. But 
 Christian dared not flinch already and draw 
 back. That would be disgraceful indeed I 
 So all the way to Chapel Street she kept 
 telling herself that it was very wrong to 
 judge from first impressions, and trying to 
 get up the persuasion that, Medusa stare and 
 magisterial manner notwithstanding, Mrs 
 Baillie Geddes might really possess even 
 more than the ordinary modicum of human 
 kindness.
 
 88 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 Full of this charity, she slurred details, 
 when questioned in family committee as to 
 how she had fared ; whereupon Ulrica, 
 athirst for particulars (probably she was 
 thinking of material for volumes which were 
 to delight a future public), became very 
 pointed in her remarks about people who 
 would only draw their sketches in outline. 
 What was the good of living in this world at 
 all if one were to be so absolutely unobser- 
 vant of the niceties of colour and shading in 
 the characters whom one encountered ? 
 
 Next forenoon, as Christian was making 
 ready for Alexander Buildings, Miss Elvester 
 gave notice of an intention on her part to 
 play propriety on the occasion ; she did not 
 approve, she said, of girls running about un- 
 attended among the offices of business men. 
 A protecting presence would not come amiss, 
 Christian admitted ; but, on the other hand, 
 who would engage a governess who needed 
 a sister to see her safely through the streets ? 
 The sister was willing to be invisible, if re- 
 quired, and expressed herself ready to re-
 
 A Pair of Net her law Notabilities. 89 
 
 main outside during the interview with Mr 
 Baillie Geddes ; and under this condition her 
 guardianship was gladly enough accepted. 
 
 Alexander Buildings was a dingy quad- 
 rangle in the centre of the town, so entirely 
 uninteresting, that this pen, even if it 
 delighted in descriptive passages much more 
 exceedingly than it does, would not be 
 tempted to portray it. 
 
 ' Do you still wish single handed to con- 
 front your fate?' inquired Miss Elvester at 
 the entrance to No. 7. 
 
 ' I must learn to rely upon myself now, 
 must I not ? ' said Christian; 'and Mrs Baillie 
 Geddes will only engage a governess who has 
 " stamina." ' 
 
 ' Go, then, and may all that is good go with 
 you. Amen.' 
 
 Thus blessed, Christian took her way 
 upstairs. On the first landing were several 
 doors. One swung apart, and let out a 
 message boy, who opened his eyes wide on 
 the young lady, and then skipped away down, 
 three steps at a time. On the white panels
 
 90 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 of another was inscribed the address : 
 ' Baillie Geddes & Co., Stockbrokers and 
 Commission Agents.' 
 
 ' This looks worse even than the register 
 office,' thought Christian, but she would not 
 give herself time to hesitate, so went forward 
 at once and knocked. It was a timid little 
 tap, and it got no notice taken of it. She 
 knocked again, and more boldly this time. 
 
 ' Push it open/ cried a voice within. 
 
 She pushed it open accordingly, and enter- 
 ing, found herself in the presence of she could 
 not tell how many clerks, who simultaneously 
 raised their heads, and with one accord stayed 
 their pens to take note of her. She turned 
 to the youth who was nearest, and gave him 
 her card to hand to his principal. He looked 
 at it on both sides, then conveyed it to a room 
 in the distance, marked ' Private,' and there 
 delivered it. During the following few 
 minutes a good deal of whispering and sup- 
 pressed laughter went on. The funning 
 had nothing to do with Christian ; but as she 
 could not know that it had not, it made her
 
 A Pair of Nether law Notabilities. g i 
 
 uncomfortable enough. After what seemed 
 an hour (fancy had magnified seconds into 
 minutes) there issued from the private room 
 a tall, stout, flowing whiskered gentleman, 
 wearing a small fortune in shape of a 
 diamond ring on one of his short fat hands. 
 Dead silence fell ; there was instant hurrying 
 on of every pen ; the visitor concluded that 
 she now beheld Mr Baillie Geddes. Mr 
 Baillie Geddes indeed it was ; and, without 
 wasting ceremony on Christian ; in fact 
 scarcely taking the trouble of looking at her, 
 he lifted up his voice aloud, and proclaimed, — 
 
 ' She said I was for to inform you that 
 she has engaged one that she saw before 
 that she went to the registry.' 
 
 And, his whole duty done, the flowing 
 whiskered gentleman retired into privacy 
 again. 
 
 mm
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A FRIEND IN NEED. 
 
 ' If ye hae friends enow, 
 Though real friends, I believe, are few, 
 
 I'se no insist, 
 But gif ye want a friend that's true, 
 I'm on your list.' 
 
 jT had been very dreadful altogether. 
 Christian would never want to see 
 the obnoxious quadrangle, called 
 Alexander Buildings, again. Yet, deter- 
 mined to let nothing daunt her, she, that 
 very afternoon, set out to try her luck with 
 Mrs Smellie, Elysium Villa, Glovelands, 
 whose address she had got from Miss 
 Colquhoun of the register office. Here, 
 
 A governess had 
 
 also, failure awaited her.
 
 A Friend in Need. 93 
 
 been fixed upon, Mrs Smellie told her, 
 only an hour before. 
 
 This Mrs Smellie, a jolly, kindly soul, 
 was much ' taken,' so she phrased it, with 
 the pretty Shetland girl, and Christian found 
 herself obliged, whether she would or not, 
 to rest and have refreshments in a draw- 
 ing-room so gaudy, so parti-coloured, as to 
 set her thinking of a kaleidoscope, and so 
 full of ornamental incongruities of every 
 description, that one felt all - overish only 
 to look at it. 
 
 A day or two after this, another adver- 
 tisement appeared in the Reflector. A 
 young lady was wanted as governess to 
 three little girls. She must have no ob- 
 jections to travel, but that was the only 
 must in the matter ; and applicants were 
 invited to present themselves at No. 5 
 Chapel Street. 
 
 Without loss of time, Christian repaired 
 to No. 5. It was a main -door flat, 
 and a card, upon which was written in 
 flourishing letters, and with an extra p,
 
 94 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 the word ' Appartments,' decorated one of 
 the windows. A small servant-maid, in the 
 last stage of slatternliness, opened the door 
 and consigned the ladies — for Miss Elvester 
 once more accompanied her sister, and there 
 was no talk this time of her remaining out- 
 side — to the nearest ' appartment,' a dark, 
 unwholesome room, redolent of the fumes 
 of vile cigars. Scattered about the floor 
 lay a pack or two of very dirty cards ; on 
 the table were refreshments for body and 
 mind ; plenty of soda water and brandy, 
 and a copy of that most edifying publication, 
 The Police News. 
 
 1 We must have come to the wrong place,' 
 concluded Miss Elvester, as she observed 
 these various details. ■ The retainer seemed 
 too stupid to understand a word I said to 
 her ; but our business can't certainly be 
 with any one here,' and she took hold of 
 the bell-pull to recall the smutty little maid, 
 but, as might have been anticipated, the 
 wire was broken. 
 
 Just then was heard a shuffling sound
 
 A Friend in Need. 95 
 
 without, and next moment there slid for- 
 ward into sight a dishevelled young man, 
 in a stained and tattered dressing-gown, 
 and with feet more out of than in a pair 
 of what had been slippers once, but could 
 hardly, even by courtesy, be called slippers 
 now. 
 
 ' Your most obedient,' said this figure, 
 laying hand on heart, and executing an 
 exaggerated salaam. 
 
 1 There is some mistake, I believe,' said 
 Miss Elvester. 
 
 1 Oh, it's all serene,' returned the grimy 
 one ; ' you call in reference to advertise- 
 ment in to-day's Reflector. Pray, do be 
 seated, ladies. There's a pair of boots in 
 the easy-chair, miss, but you can pitch 'em 
 down, and welcome.' 
 
 But perhaps Christian, to whom this 
 liberty was accorded, thought it would be 
 a pity to displease the boots ; at all events, 
 she continued standing. 
 
 ' What will fit the party to appear for,' 
 the young man, still addressing himself to
 
 96 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 Christian, ' is the girl who'll undertake to 
 do the teacher and friend and helpful com- 
 panion all in one. But you ain't very 
 particular now ; are you, miss ? For there 
 is a many parts we visit where we haven't 
 any more accommodation than only just 
 the travelling van.' 
 
 Christian again left her sister to speak 
 for her ; and, — 
 
 'I beg your pardon?' said Miss Elvester 
 inquiringly. 
 
 1 The caravan, don't you know,' explained 
 he of the dressing-gown. ' Sister and self, 
 ladies, are joint-proprietors of a travelling 
 menagerie — widowed sister, ladies, with 
 three small children.' 
 
 ' The situation will not suit this young 
 lady,' said Miss Elvester, with a manner 
 well calculated to check further jauntiness. 
 ' When next you advertise, you will per- 
 haps be good enough to mention the cir- 
 cumstance of the caravan ; considerable 
 waste of time — both your own and others' 
 — will so be prevented. Good morning.'
 
 A Friend in Need. 97 
 
 And thus, with a suddenness which the 
 travelling showman, judging from his looks, 
 had been by no means prepared for, the 
 conference came to an end. 
 
 Anew disappointed, Christian repeated the 
 experiment of advertising in The Reflector. 
 And she actually got an answer, too — but 
 then such an answer ! — an execrably written 
 note, in which ' a pearsonal interview ' was 
 ' kindly requisted ; ' this pleasure, it need 
 scarcely be said, her weakness in favour of 
 authorised forms of orthography led her 
 cruelly to decline. 
 
 What next ? she wondered. But it 
 seemed as if there was to be no next ; 
 nobody in all wide Netherlaw needed her 
 services ; no Samaritan appeared to supply 
 her with the means of self-support. The 
 house at Laighbield, tenantless since Whit- 
 sunday term, and now under repair, would 
 be ready for occupancy in October ; and 
 September was nearly run, and hope almost 
 gone out, when one forenoon a shiny-faced 
 visitor, elaborately trimmed and lavishly 
 vol. 1. G
 
 98 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 bejewelled, made her appearance in Mrs 
 Fairbairn's threadbare little parlour. 
 
 1 1 never was invited/ said Mrs Smillie, 
 grasping with painful heartiness the hand 
 held out to welcome her ; * but I've come, 
 you see — I've come ! ' 
 
 Christian acknowledged the kindness, and 
 introduced the stranger. Miss Elvester 
 chanced to have gone out, which was un- 
 fortunate, as she would at least have been 
 courteous. But so would not Ursula. She 
 encourage the familiarities of that absurdly 
 over-dressed person ! If Christian must 
 cultivate such a sort of friends, she need 
 not also look for her family to share in the 
 intercourse ; so not a hair's-breadth would 
 Ursula move beyond the most distant 
 civility. 
 
 But Ulrica, ready to be affable, stepped 
 forward, and, after Christian, submitted her 
 hand to the visitor's pleasure. 
 
 A kitten was perched on the child's 
 shoulder as Mrs Smillie said, — 
 
 'Would you not like a little doggie better?'
 
 A Friend in Need. 99 
 
 1 I haven't any dogs — not now,' replied 
 Ulrica. ' But this is not a common-place 
 kitten — he is my own ; our landlady has 
 given him to me, and I am training him ; 
 his name is Slyboots.' 
 
 'What a droll name for a beast/ 
 
 ' I wanted it to be droll. I wouldn't 
 have him called Spotty, or Flossy, or Jetty 
 — any of those stupid things people call 
 their pets. Very well, Ursula' (as she 
 caught a glance from across the room), 
 1 I won't say any more, if you think I 
 ought not.' 
 
 Then she withdrew to a corner, and 
 confided to Slyboots her belief that Ursula 
 would want a suite of apartments all to 
 herself when she should get to heaven, 
 so as to be quite select. 
 
 It was not mere idle curiosity that had 
 brought Mrs Smillie to Chapel Street. It 
 was that she had heard from one Mr Fyfe 
 Armstrong, a young artist to whom she and 
 * Pa ' were sitting for full-length portraits, of 
 an opening which might suit Christian. In-
 
 ioo Miss Elv ester s Gti'ls. 
 
 deed, from all accounts, the situation would 
 be ' exactly the thing,' she thought. 
 
 Christian thought so too, when she had 
 heard details ; but she could not feel san- 
 guine. She had been disappointed so often 
 that it appeared to her almost impossible 
 she should ever succeed. 
 
 ' They want an Englishwoman,' said Mrs 
 Smillie, suddenly recollecting that fact. ' But 
 what about it ? ' she added reassuringly. 
 ' You speak as nice as any English lady, 
 though you're Scotch.' 
 
 ' Oh, we are not Scotch, indeed/ cried 
 Ulrica, who disdained the connection. ' We 
 are Shetlanders.' She had forgotten her 
 promise to keep silent under the provo- 
 cation of being called Scotch. 
 
 ' Just that,' acquiesced Mrs Smillie, in 
 the ready, careless way one agrees with 
 the very young or the very old. 
 
 Again the small maiden's sense of dignity 
 was wounded, and in spite of Christian's 
 very evident disapproval, she was about to 
 assert her nationality ; had got so far as —
 
 A Friend in Need. i o i 
 
 1 We are descended from the Scandinavian 
 sea-kings, we Elvesters,' when her eldest sister 
 came in, and she was once more suppressed. 
 
 Nothing beyond an interchange of civili- 
 ties passed between Miss Elvester and 
 Christian's new friend, for it was nearly 
 two now, and Mrs Smillie had promised 
 to lunch with 'Pa' at Price and Platter- 
 fill's exactly at two o'clock. 
 
 ' And the gentlemen never like to be kept 
 waiting,' she said, ' especially when there's a 
 knife and fork in the question.' 
 
 The door having closed upon the visitor, 
 Miss Elvester observed, — 
 
 ' An unlooked-for pleasure ; though you 
 don't seem to have found it a pleasure, 
 Ursula. You don't appreciate the attention?' 
 
 ' Am I likely to appreciate the attention 
 of that dreadful woman ? ' cried Ursula the 
 disdainful, tossing up her chin. 
 
 1 Don't be vexed about her having called,' 
 said Christian, ' for indeed it was good of 
 her. I am really obliged. Don't you think 
 I have reason to be ? '
 
 102 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 ' I can't quite acknowledge that the Elves- 
 ters of Eastravoe stand in need of the good 
 offices of any Netherlaw shopkeepers wife,' 
 returned Ursula loftily. 
 
 ' If we were the Elvesters of Eastravoe,' 
 Christian put her in mind ; ' but we are the 
 Elvesters of nowhere now.' 
 
 ' We are the Elvesters of the Brae, Laigh- 
 bield, Cornrigshire, now,' amended Ulrica ; 
 ' aren't we, Jenny ? ' 
 
 'We are the Elvesters who will only get 
 ourselves laughed at, if we go about pro- 
 claiming our descent from the Scandinavian 
 sea-kings,' was the reply. 
 
 ' I wish you wouldn't always snub me,' 
 murmured Ulrica ; ' it spoils my disposition.' 
 
 1 1 like the kind Mrs Smillie,' said Christian, 
 returning to the defence. ' What does it so 
 greatly matter that she isn't dressed to please 
 you, Ursula, and that her manner isn't ex- 
 actly what you've been accustomed to ? 
 Have you only one standard to judge by ? 
 Do dress and manner count for everything 
 with you ? '
 
 A Friend in Need. 
 
 1 Social distinctions count for something 
 with me too.' 
 
 'Well, I suppose birth is something to 
 glory in ; but, for all that, I don't know what 
 good ours is to us now, or will ever be.' 
 
 * Jenny ! O Jenny ! can you patiently listen 
 to her ? ' ejaculated the sorely - scandalised 
 Ursula. 
 
 'That can I,' said Miss Elvester calmly; 
 1 for if I should fret my soul about every 
 foolish speech I hear of from the triad, life's 
 burden would be too heavy for me. Not 
 that I consider Christian in the wrong just 
 now, but you rather. I wish you could rid 
 yourself of that fear of losing caste, my dear. 
 Have you no independence of character ? 
 Can you not be content to " do weel, and let 
 them say ? " ' 
 
 There was no answer, but a moment or 
 two afterwards Ursula left the room. 
 
 Christian then told Miss Elvester about the 
 newly-arisen hope. 
 
 'And don't you think I should suit as 
 exactly as if I had been made for the pur-
 
 104 Miss Elvester' s Girls. 
 
 pose ? ' she asked, all having been de- 
 scribed. 
 
 ' Let me see if I have mastered the sum- 
 mary/ said Miss Elvester. ' Mrs Cassillis, 
 of 1 1 Argyll Gardens (uncle's widow, of 
 Cassillis of Laighbield), orphan, grandson ; 
 liberal salary ; duties light. That is all, 
 isn't it ? ' 
 
 ' Englishwoman preferred,' appended Chris- 
 tian dolefully. ' Why am I not an English- 
 woman, Jenny ?' 
 
 1 1 have not time now to seek a key to that 
 dark providence,' said Miss Elvester; 'for I 
 have a piece of business that will take me out 
 again immediately. By the way, there are 
 some letters here which I must have copies 
 of. Will you do the work for me while I'm 
 gone ? ' 
 
 ' Of course I will do it ; — but while you're 
 gone ? Would not evening serve ? ' 
 
 1 The letters must be posted before even- 
 ing,' Miss Elvester replied. 
 
 Christian said not another word, though it 
 was by no means with a willing heart that,
 
 A Friend in Need. 105 
 
 relinquishing her purpose of an immediate 
 visit to Argyll Gardens, she prepared to 
 devote the afternoon to the copying of 
 business letters. But she sought refuge in 
 fatalism, consoling herself with the reflection 
 that, what must be, must be ; and thus philo- 
 sophically minded, carried the appointed task 
 to her own room, and worked steadily on, till 
 the door opened, and the question, — 
 
 ' Well, my little copying machine, how 
 prosper you ? ' announced that her sister was 
 returned. 
 
 ' I never prosper,' she answered, rather 
 wearily. ' Look here, though, I have nearly 
 got to an end.' 
 
 ' Good girl ! ' said Miss Elvester, with 
 approval, and she came and glanced rapidly 
 over what had been written. ' Do you think 
 now,' she inquired when all was done, — ' do 
 you privately think that I have caused you 
 to lose a glorious opportunity of achieving 
 independence ? ' 
 
 ' If you have, how shall I ever forgive 
 you ? ' replied Christian, looking up smilingly
 
 io6 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 into her questioner's face. She could not be 
 angry with Jenny — not although she tried. 
 
 1 I have been to Argyll Gardens,' said 
 Miss Elvester. 
 
 ' You have been — ' 
 
 * To Argyll Gardens. Did I not speak it 
 distinctly enough ? ' 
 
 All eagerness, Christian sprang up and 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 ' How very good of you ! And have I 
 any hope ? Will Mrs Cassillis take me, do 
 you think ? ' 
 
 1 Miss Christian Elvester, you will find it 
 expedient to put a little starch of propriety 
 into your deportment : repose of manner is 
 desirable in a governess.' 
 
 ' Jenny, tell me — tell me first ; and put my 
 deportment to rights afterwards.' 
 
 Then Jenny told her : 4 Mrs Cassillis, a 
 lady in whose hands one would not fear to 
 leave one's sister — since leave her one must 
 at all — wished Christian to call at 1 1 Argyll 
 Gardens early on the following day.'
 
 CHAPTER VI I, 
 
 A GRACIOUS WOMAN. 
 
 Madam !' (quod I) ' with all mine whole servise 
 I thank you now in my most humble wise.' 
 
 HE houses in Argyll Gardens were 
 large and handsome. The 'gar- 
 dens' were so fresh of hue — thanks 
 to the perpetual care bestowed upon them — 
 that only a critic predetermined to find fault, 
 could describe them as smoked or sunburnt ; 
 in short, there was nothing here distinctly 
 characteristic of Netherlaw. 
 
 A carriage and pair waited at the door of 
 No. ii, and it was a man-servant who con- 
 ducted Christian through the lofty, marble- 
 pillared hall, up the stained - glass lighted 
 staircase, to the spacious front drawing-room.
 
 108 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 Not an Elysium villa drawing-room this. 
 You had not to pick your steps gingerly, 
 and gather in your skirts with care, lest you 
 should displace or overthrow some wonderful 
 and useless piece of crockery or upholstery. 
 You had room here, and liberty. There was 
 no glare, no glitter. The tints were rich, 
 soft, harmonious ; ornaments did not run riot, 
 yet there was no deficiency of things graceful 
 and pretty, curious and quaint. There were 
 valuable pictures too ; and for the rest, as 
 many lovely flowers and ferns as heart could 
 wish. 
 
 Near the door stood Mrs Cassillis, a stately 
 woman robed in black. Her widow's head- 
 dress became her like a crown. There was 
 a grand air of repose about her, and she 
 turned a pair of such serene brown eyes 
 upon Christian, while, with gracious bow 
 and smile, she begged to be excused for just 
 one minute. Her plea was beside her, in 
 female form — a very beautiful brunette, 
 habited according to the latest Parisian 
 fantasy.
 
 A Gracious Woman. 109 
 
 ' How exceedingly tiresome of cousin Glen,' 
 this young lady was saying. ' Isrit he pro- 
 voking, Aunt Marjorie ? ' 
 
 ' But you must recollect,' answered Mrs 
 Cassillis, ' that an officer has not affairs so 
 entirely at his own ordering that he can take 
 leave of absence at any time he chooses, even 
 if it should be to attend a cousin's birthday 
 party.' 
 
 ' Why, then, if he can't, he might as well 
 be a common soldier at once, and stand in 
 a sentry-box,' cried the beauty, tossing her 
 head. 
 
 Christian could not but wonder what sort 
 of girl this was — a wonder to be satisfied to 
 the very utmost by-and-by. As yet, how- 
 ever, the fair creature remained a mystery ; 
 for immediately after her remark about the 
 sentry-box, she airily threw a flying kiss to 
 her kinswoman and departed, leaving Mrs 
 Cassillis and ■ that musty little governess ' (so 
 the beautiful brunette thought of Christian) 
 to get to business. 
 
 Mrs Cassillis heard the history of the
 
 1 10 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 Elvester family, and she more than doubted 
 that a daughter of the house of Eastravoe 
 would not soon feel at home in the position 
 of a governess. 
 
 ' Before you charge yourself with the care 
 of my little grandson/ she said to Christian, 
 by way of friendly caution, ' you must allow 
 me to make quite clear to you what it is you 
 would undertake. The child is delicate and 
 must not have his energies in any way taxed. 
 Indeed, I want a governess less for educa- 
 tional purposes as yet, than because it appears 
 to me advisable that the boy should have 
 some one about him, younger than his grand- 
 mother and different from his nurse. You 
 see what I offer. Do you think you could 
 patiently devote hours every day to the 
 amusement and instruction, by the way, of 
 a child who is not only far from strong, but 
 — yes, I must confess it, sadly spoilt as well ? ' 
 
 Looking at the lady who was this spoilt 
 child's grandmother, Christian felt quite 
 hopeful that she could, and she said so. 
 
 * But would you not — I speak very frankly,
 
 A Gracious Woman. 1 1 t 
 
 you see — find it terribly irksome to be con- 
 fined for the most part to the company of an 
 old woman and a little boy? You are a 
 young creature ; you have been accustomed 
 to be waited on all your life. Could you, 
 with anything like cheerfulness, endure such 
 an existence as I have pictured ? ' 
 
 * I should like to have leave to try/ was 
 the response ; and a pair of very alluring blue 
 eyes eloquently seconded the appeal of the 
 pretty pleading lips. 
 
 So after a little more talk the thing was 
 settled, and a week later, her sisters having 
 left Netherlaw for Laighbield, Christian en- 
 tered upon her duties at Argyll Gardens. 
 
 mmm
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MR MUNGO MAUCHLINE. 
 
 J 
 
 1 Your critic folk may cock their nose, 
 And say, " How can you e'er propose, 
 You, wha' ken hardly verse frae prose. 
 To mak' a sang?" 
 But, by your leaves, my learned foes, 
 
 Ye're may be wrang.* 
 
 URNITURE and luggage had been 
 
 sent on before, under charge of a 
 
 highly-recommended general ser- 
 
 nt, named Mysie ; and now Miss Elvester 
 
 her two remaining girls took their places 
 
 the Cornrigshire train, Ulrica carrying 
 
 Slyboots in a basket. m 
 
 From Netherlaw to Braidmoss by rail ; 
 from Braidmoss to Laighbield by stage-
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 113 
 
 coach ; such was the mode of the journey. 
 At its appointed hour the train crossed that 
 treacle-like current, styled by Netherlaw 
 platform orators ' Our noble river,' pursued 
 its course high among the chimney-pots, 
 gave passengers a grand chance of refreshing 
 themselves with a view of the slums, entered 
 a mile-long tunnel, and at last emerged in 
 the open country. 
 
 The country, indeed ; but even the most 
 creative mind must have looked about in 
 vain for anything to feed fancy with in the 
 acres of flat monotony which constituted the 
 entire landscape between Netherlaw and 
 Braidmoss. There were several small towns 
 on the way — modified Netherlaws — and 
 Braidmoss itself was a confusion of iron- 
 works, factories, model houses for working-^ 
 men ; and gimcrack cottages. 
 
 In front of the Braidmoss station the 
 Laighbield coach stood waiting. Its name 
 was the ' Defiance.' It was high- wheeled, 
 low-roofed, ill-ventilated, and narrow ; faded 
 green cushions covered the seats, and straw 
 vol. 1. H
 
 H4 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 covered the bottom. The top was freighted 
 with farmers, cattle dealers and cadgers. 
 Inside sat three women — our royal street 
 acquaintance, Mrs Gillespie, and two others 
 of like standing in the social scale. 
 
 Ursula shuddered. It was dreadful to be 
 obliged to travel by such a vehicle and in 
 such company — dreadful ! But she had done 
 with fighting against her evil lot ; so in 
 bitter silence she accepted this final indignity 
 put by fate upon the Elvester. 
 
 Till the last moment it seemed as if the 
 nobler sex were to have no representative 
 within, but just as the driver was cracking 
 his whip, a man came past the station-house 
 in hot haste, and made for the ' Defiance/ 
 There was laughter from above, mingled 
 with shouts of, ' Tak' your braw leisure, 
 Mungo ! ' ' Weel dune you, Mungo ! ' ' Ye'll 
 be an unco heap the waur of this, Mungo!' 
 and so on. But, heedless of these amenities, 
 the late comer pressed forward, scrambled 
 into the coach, and sat down on the same side 
 as the country women, opposite the Elvesters.
 
 Mr Mungo Manchline. 1 1 5 
 
 He was of uncertain age, and of medium 
 stature and of chubby form ; he had big wild 
 eyes, of the shade known to milliners as 
 French-white ; he had a pink smooth face, 
 and a thin crop of lank straw-coloured hair, 
 carefully arranged on each side of his full 
 flossy brow. He was clad from neck to heel 
 in a snuff-tinted overcoat ; he was crowned 
 with a Glengarry bonnet ; he wore black 
 woollen gloves. He was ignored by Mrs 
 Gillespie ; but the other two hailed him in a 
 friendly manner. Then he greeted respec- 
 tively, as Mrs Hairshaw and Jeannie Gebbie, 
 and proceeded to remark that it had been a 
 very hard morning ; then, though nobody had 
 dissented, he added by way of confirmation, — 
 
 1 Yes, yes, yes ; it was rather icily ; yes, it 
 was.' 
 
 Hereupon Slyboots, peering through a loop- 
 hole left for his convenience, caught the eye 
 of Mr Mungo Mauchline resting on him, and 
 not liking it, executed a remonstrative trill 
 with variations. In the middle of this per- 
 formance, Mr Mungo Mauchline blandly
 
 1 1 6 Miss Elv ester ' s Girls. 
 
 remarked that cats always made him ' re- 
 member upon the ark-enemy of mankynd,' 
 and respectfully solicited Ulrica to ' topple 
 the veechus little four-foot out over the 
 windy ;' a suggestion, however, which fell 
 to the ground unnoticed. Slyboots having 
 presently ceased his lay, Mr Mungo Mauch- 
 line indulged the ladies with a specimen of 
 his vocal talents, by lilting a few staves of 
 ' I'm ower young to marry yet ;' but having 
 soon to collapse, he attributed his breakdown 
 to ' horseness occasioned by the condeetion 
 of the atmosphere.' 
 
 ' Ye'll thole to pu' that window close up to 
 the tap, Mungo,' said Mrs Gillespie abruptly. 
 ' I am fair foment the draught o't, d'ye see ; 
 an' I hae gotten a wild hoast,' and in testi- 
 mony of her assertion she coughed violently. 
 
 Luckily the hinge of the window was out 
 of repair, and would not do its office ; other- 
 wise the whole party must have been nearly 
 stifled before reaching Laighbield. Mr Mungo 
 Mauchline, after vainly attempting to close 
 the window, fell into a fit of abstraction
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 
 
 Some weighty matter was evidently before 
 his mind. Suddenly he seemed to see light. 
 With an air of great good fellowship, he 
 exclaimed, — 
 
 ' As sure as my name is Mr Mungo Mauch- 
 line, and if I am anny joodge of the weather, 
 .this is a shuperfine day.' 
 
 There was really nothing special about the 
 day; but Mr Mungo Mauchline objected to 
 undue familiarity ; and this was his way of 
 making known how he chose to be called. 
 
 'It's a geyan coorse day,' returned Mrs 
 Gillespie, in an injured tone ; thinking of the 
 effects of that draught upon her ' hoast.' 
 
 ' Yes, there is a wind into it, I own,' granted 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline, as if the day were his, 
 and he responsible for the quality of it ; ' there 
 is a little wind into it too — nut a rantin', 
 tantin', tearin' wind ; but a nookin', soughin', 
 wurnin' wind, as the minister in the story says.' 
 
 ' Jist a wheen claivers, a' thae stories aboot 
 ministers,' cried Mrs Gillespie tartly ; ' min- 
 isters is nane dafter nor ither folk, an' no sae 
 daft as some, Mungo.'
 
 1 1 8 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 ' I yield to no man in my respec' for the 
 cloth,' rejoined Mr Mungo Mauchline. ' I 
 am at all times ripe and ready for a confab 
 with our most worthy cleric, I assure you. 
 Last time I forgathered with him, says he to 
 me, as friendly and confidential as you like — ■ 
 " Mr Mungo Mauchline, I see you are joost 
 oot for your evening walk." 
 
 1 Gin that was a' he had to say, he micht 
 as weel ha'e keepit it till himsel',' opened Mrs 
 Gillespie snappishly. 
 
 ' His most honoured lady was alongside,' 
 continued Mr Mungo Mauchline, turning his 
 conversation from Mrs Gillespie to her who 
 sat next him ; ' she was in full rank and uni- 
 corn, as the saying is — they would be for 
 Baronshaugh, I joodge.' 
 
 ' She's a gleg wee wifie yon,' rejoined 
 Jeannie Gebbie, a rosy young matron, whose 
 proper title was Mrs Andrew Hairshaw ; but 
 Laighbield had a fancy for continuing to call 
 married women by the maiden name. 
 
 ' She has the fine majestic swagger,' said 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline admiringly.
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 1 1 9 
 
 1 She's naething but an upsettin' cratur/ 
 put in Mrs Gillespie, deeply scornful. ' But 
 we're a John Tamson's bairns ; an' I haud 
 mysel' as guid as her, I can tell ye — an' 
 maybe a wee grain less ill-faured.' 
 
 1 Ye ken,' said old Mrs Hairshaw, Jeannie 
 Gebbie's mother-in-law, ' when the minister 
 brocht hame his bride, the folk tell't that she 
 wasna' to ca' bonnie, but that he maun ha'e 
 been pleased wi' the airy gait o' her, an' the 
 takin' turn.' 
 
 ' Takin' turn,' echoed Mrs Gillespie ; 
 ' she has a tongue wad clip clouts. An' for 
 complexion — she's black enough to mairch 
 through the haill land o' Egypt, an' no a 
 cur yelp the mair o't.' 
 
 1 Hoot, she'll dae fine, ye'll see,' returned 
 Mrs Hairshaw; 'the minister himsel' is by 
 ordinar set on her.' 
 
 ' Ou ay, ou ay ! wise man's he is, he canna 
 see the cat wink on Matilda, though she 
 should skirl an' lauch in the verra kirk.' 
 
 1 It's no true,' said Jeannie Gebbie warmly • 
 ' she ne'er lauch in the kirk yet.'
 
 1 20 Mis"s Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 1 Weel, maybe no — clashes ay gets buttons 
 an' tapes put to them as they gang — but sae 
 they tell't me.' 
 
 ' There's ay twa sets o' a tale, onyway,' 
 replied Jeannie Gebbie, still warmly ; an as 
 weel ha'e the richt's the wrang o't : on Saw- 
 bath was a-week the minister swoopet wi' a 
 preacher frae abune Auchterbrechan. He 
 wasna nae bricht staur — ' 
 
 ' Wheesht, lassie!' interposed Mrs Hair- 
 shaw ; ' he was a wee hue blate in oor muckle 
 kirk, the bit chiel.' 
 
 ' I doot he wadna been a sparkler nae gate, 
 granny. I dinna like them 'ats fit to loup out 
 ower the poopit — that's too muckle spunk ; 
 but yon ane had nane ava ; nor I am no for 
 them 'at dings an' bangs the guid Book a' to 
 bits ; but I wadna ha'e them staun like a 
 stooky image, haudin' a grip o' the place on 
 the paper a' the time. That was the way o' 
 him ; an', quo' he — ' 
 
 ' Hoot, toot, woman ! ' again interrupted 
 the mother-in-law. 
 
 *' Na, granny ; ye maun let me speak up
 
 Mr Mungo Mattctiline. 1 2 1 
 
 for oor wee leddy,' persisted Jeannie. ' Quo 
 he, " Who can imagine or describe the 
 thoughts and feelings of a parent hen?" 
 an' wi' that, a young lassie the ministers wife 
 had aside her in the manse-pew, gied a kin' 
 o' chocket squeal o' a giggle. The minister's 
 wife hersel' didna say cheep, sae did she 
 na.' 
 
 Not being in a position to call this account 
 in question, Mrs Gillespie passed it over 
 without notice; but she waspishly remarked, — 
 
 ' I wad be nane sweer to gi'e a screech 
 noo and than aboot hens mysel', and sae be 
 I was to mak' five or sax hunner a-year 
 by't' 
 
 ' It wasna a' ta'en up wi' hens,' said Jeannie 
 Gebbie ; ' deed, no ! it was unco wersh ; an' 
 dreich, dreich, an' stappet fu' o' scriptur texts 
 forby.' 
 
 ' Some thinks,' quoth cheery Mrs Hair- 
 shaw — 'an' I'll no presume to say they're 
 wrang — that a sermon wantin' texts is nae 
 better than brose would be wantin' 
 lumps/
 
 122 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 "Weel I wat then, granny, yon was the 
 lumpy anes, an' sae frichtfu' lang. Our ain 
 doctor's is like midges ; but baith o' yon 
 man's was like bum-bees.' 
 
 ' You are correc' in your statements,' broke 
 in Mr Mungo Mauchline, with an air of 
 " it's my turn now." ' You are perfec'ly 
 correc' in your statements. The cleric you 
 allude to is not by anny means a startlesome 
 preacher. I myself am in favour of a carnal 
 discorse ' (practical, he meant, likely) ' though 
 at the same time I do not tottaly proheebit 
 something wheech may jumble the joodgment 
 and confound the understanding. But the 
 fac' is this, — the clergy is too pharisetical, 
 keeping their rostrum strictly from the laity, 
 when, if they would only invite the intellec- 
 tual members of their own congregation to 
 deliver an address or so, from time to time, 
 it would be a fine rest to themself, nut to 
 mention a recreation to the people. The 
 humble indiveedual you now behold, for in- 
 stant, might not objec' occasionally to throw 
 out a word.'
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 123 
 
 1 L wadna' be keen to expawtiate,' said 
 Mrs Hairshaw dissuasively. ' I wad haud 
 to the poetry, an' I was you, Mungo.' 
 
 ' I could do something in the poytry line 
 over and above, mistress. My aim is to 
 projooce what is called an epic ; but I have 
 never yet exac'ly taken hold of my subjec', 
 so to speak. Of course, I turn off a trifle 
 now and again — for diversion, not for lucre ; 
 one I forwarded to the manse the other day, 
 with which I have every grounds for hopping 
 our worthy cleric's lady was highly gratified. 
 It was to this effec', — 
 
 " Your kyindness, most respec'ed sir, 
 Forget it shall I never ; 
 How you sent my assistant James some bottles 
 
 of wine, 
 When he lay sick of fever." 
 
 But being of a private natture, I shupress the 
 remains. Nut long since I enclosed a lyric 
 to the Cornrigshire Ghronicler. The editor 
 was kynd enough to decline it with thanks — 
 with thanks, you notice ; that was flattering, 
 I think. The sonnet was entitled, —
 
 i 2 4 Miss Elveste7 ; s Girls. 
 
 Lines suggested by beholding a Steam-Engine. 
 
 " Saw you the steam-engine, that great iron-horse ? 
 Like a puffing Leviathan he purshues his corse. 
 If into his way you ventured for to go, 
 Oh friend ! you would soon be laid very low. 
 Just as when you go along in the morning, 
 You may see a gay, gorgeous flower the side of the road 
 
 adorning, 
 But next day, when you pass in your early walk, 
 There is nothing left but the bare stalk. 
 A byke of bees would—"' 
 
 ' Ne'er heed the hin'erend,' interrupted 
 impatient Mrs Gillespie ; ' we hinna nae skill 
 o' poetry here ava ; we gar the psaulms o' 
 David ser' oor turn.' 
 
 ' The loss is yours,' responded the bard ; 
 and he retired within himself, and gazed 
 with rapt attention at the roof. 
 
 ' You're unco quate noo, Mungo,' said 
 Jeannie Gebbie, after a while. 
 
 ' I may be cawing all the harder at the 
 thinking,' he stiffly answered, and continued 
 his roof-gazing. 
 
 ' Some folk's sair saddlet wi' an ill temper,' 
 observed Mrs Gillespie.
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 1 2 5 
 
 'Ne'er fash,' said pacific Mrs Hairshaw ; 
 ' it's nae suner on than it's aff.' 
 
 1 An' it's nae suner aff than it's on/ retorted 
 Mrs Gillespie. 
 
 On the other side, meanwhile, there had 
 been silence. Miss Elvester had been study- 
 ing Punch, with amused interludes between 
 the pages, to give ear now to the ' poytry ' 
 of Mr Mungo Mauchline, and now to his 
 no less singular prose. And, in point of 
 fact, these were being displayed at present 
 not for the sole edification of the country- 
 women to whom they were addressed, but 
 chiefly for the sake of the distinguished- 
 looking strangers opposite. Mr Mungo 
 Mauchline, well up in Laighbield gossip, had 
 made a correct guess at the identity of the 
 sisters ; and he was particularly anxious that 
 the ladies of the Brae should now understand 
 that they were travelling in company with 
 one who was no common man indeed, al- 
 though his state were mean. And he did 
 succeed in impressing both Miss Elvester 
 and Ulrica with his out-of the-wayness, —
 
 
 126 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 though whether in the way he intended, is 
 another question. 
 
 But Ursula never noticed him ; Ursula 
 sat with her eyes down, thinking her own 
 thoughts, and so would have remained till 
 the end of the journry, had not in process 
 of time the name ' Berwick ' suddenly pene- 
 trated her self-absorption, and against her 
 will compelled her to attention. 
 
 ' Ay, Donal' Berwick's to be settled in 
 the Auchterbrechan Laigh Kirk syne,' Mrs 
 Hairshaw was saying. ' Keep me ! I mind 
 Donal' a wee, sonsie, curly-heided callant, 
 speerin the won'erfu'est questions that ever 
 could be, and ettlen' to ken the oots and 
 ins o' ilka mortal thing. I had my ain fricht 
 aboot the laddie when he was awa amang 
 a' thae throughither college chaps ; for he 
 was a gey speerity ane himsel', an he was 
 jist at the pairtin' o' the ways — between the 
 tinin' an' the winnin', as ye may speak. 
 But I hear he has turned oot extraordinary ; 
 an' a gran' preacher, tae, they tell me that 
 should ken.'
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 127 
 
 Mrs Gillespie hurried in as usual with her 
 wet-blanket. 
 
 1 I see nae gran' preachin' in't,' she said 
 contemptuously ; ' he leuks on ! ' 
 
 ' But he's nane o' your slavish readers/ 
 observed Jeannie Gebbie. ' He hasna to 
 kep the place wi' his finger, like that hanker- 
 in' ane wi' " the parent hen " ; as his Auntie 
 Jean says, he comes awa wi't just beautiful' 
 
 ' Beautiful, beautiful ! ' sneered Mrs Gil- 
 lespie ; ' trust his Auntie Jean for turning 
 the best side o' Donal' to the sun.' 
 
 'Jean Berwick is a fine, canty body. 
 Auld Scroggiehillock is unco fain to get her 
 for his second ; but you'll no be for believin' 
 that.' 
 
 'I'll believe't weel enough; gin ye ha'e 
 grippet thegether a wheen bawbees, it's no 
 ill to buy yoursel' a bit man,' carped the 
 female cynic. 
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline having at length 
 sufficiently acquainted himself with the roof 
 decorations, came out of his pet with the 
 remark, —
 
 1 2 8 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 1 I have the best grounds for stating that 
 Miss Jean Berwick has no present intention 
 of altering her condeetion of life.' 
 
 ' I wadna lippen her wi' the chance,' said 
 Mrs Gillespie pointedly. 
 
 ' I joodge Miss Jean to be a speciment of 
 firm tenicity of opeenion,' was the rejoinder. 
 Forby that, if she was to lay her mind to 
 matrimony, she would certainly look for a 
 shuitable partner, nut a patriarch hovering 
 on the brink of the sepulchre.' 
 
 ' Sepulchre or nae sepulchre, there's braw 
 need o' some haimert-like body at Scroggie- 
 hillock,' said Mrs Gillespie, who always 
 shifted her position when likely to be foiled 
 in argument ; ' for o' a' the hooses I ha'e 
 ever seen, yon is the likest a Marymass 
 Saturday.' (Marymass Saturday was the 
 yearly fair at Leighbield, and Mrs Gillespie's 
 simile meant to imply that the house spoken 
 of presented an aspect of disorder sickening 
 to contemplate.) ' The donnert auld fule 
 has put yon youngest dochter o' his to a 
 boardin'-schule — to learn manners, nae less,'
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline. 129 
 
 she continued, with a satirical laugh. ' But, 
 losh ! he needna fash his heid ; sen' a cauf 
 to Lunnon, it'll come hame a coo.' 
 
 ' You make me recollec' upon a good 
 stony,' said Mr Mungo Mauchline. ' There 
 was once a worthy minister in the north, 
 and one Sabbath day, says he, in his dis- 
 corse, " I warn all here, wheech make free 
 with mince-oaths — Losh, gosh, and — " ' 
 
 ' You mind me o' something tae,' inter- 
 posed Mrs Gillespie, in accents of asperity. 
 * You mind me o' the college fallow whase 
 heid was swelled wi' knowledge, for yours is 
 swelled wi' weanly stones, Mungo.' 
 
 The unappreciated story-teller once more 
 subsided, and thoughtfully fumbled for a 
 while in his great-coat pockets. By-and-by 
 he produced a rumpled envelope, carefully 
 smoothed it out, spread it on his knee, and 
 read, with particular emphasis on the first 
 word, — 
 
 ' Mr Mungo Mauchline, postmaster, Laigh- 
 bield, Cornrigshire.' 
 
 This instructive ceremony over, he re- 
 vol. 1. 1
 
 1 30 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 turned the envelope to his pocket, and after 
 another search, brought to light a blue paper 
 bag, which, when with grave deliberateness it 
 had been opened up, he held towards Ulrica, 
 with the ' hop ' that he might use the free- 
 dom of proffering her ' a few cocoa-nut 
 chips.' 
 
 But Ulrica declined the kindness. 
 
 ' A most innocent little condiment,' urged 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline ; ' no plaister of Paris, 
 I assure you. Do not be feared to deprive 
 me of the goodies, little lady ; I have plenty 
 more at home.' 
 
 Nevertheless Ulrica would not be tempted; 
 so the possessor of the cocoa-nut chips had to 
 bestow these innocent little condiments upon 
 tart Mrs Gillespie and blythe Jeannie Gebbie. 
 
 The girls were not sorry when they at last 
 received the intelligence that an end was 
 near. The coach was passing under an 
 archway of nearly leafless trees, before a 
 pair of high wide gates, which admitted to 
 an avenue, which led through the policies 
 which surrounded the mansion of the Laird
 
 Mr Mungo Mauchline, 131 
 
 of Laighbield. When Miss Elvester told 
 her sisters that this was Baronshaugh, they, 
 on account of the connection between Cas- 
 sillis the laird and Christian's Netherlaw 
 protectress, turned their eyes with consider- 
 able interest towards the grey, dignified old 
 house seen far away, and continued their 
 scrutiny till an abrupt turn in the road hid it 
 from view. Baronshaugh left behind, they 
 went over a low, broad bridge, by kirk and 
 manse, down a narrow lane, into a broad r 
 winding, and very irregularly-constructed 
 street, up to ' The Cassillis Arms,' the 
 terminus.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LAIGHBIELD. 
 
 ' Having through all the village past, 
 To a small cottage came at last.' 
 
 HE little country town (its own 
 people called it a town, other 
 people called it a village) lay 
 snugly sheltered as in the bottom of a cup ; 
 and the land forming the sides of this cup 
 was richly agricultural, as it is the specialty 
 of Cornrigshire land to be. Baronshaugh 
 had an imposing aspect ; the parish manse 
 also was dignified in its degree ; but there 
 was nothing else imposing or dignified about 
 Laighbield. Not the Established Church, 
 though it certainly held its head pretty high ;
 
 Laighbield. 13, 
 
 not the Free Church, though it prided itself 
 upon the fact that the laird and his mother 
 were members of it ; not their United Pres- 
 byterian rival, though that was flourishing as 
 any green bay tree ; and still less the showy 
 new bank and the far from showy old Masons' 
 Hall. These were the only public buildings 
 in the place, excepting Mr Langbiggin's 
 bonnet factory at the mouth of the Wynd, 
 that lane through which the stage-coach had 
 to pass on entering the town. 
 
 The Laighbield housewife was thought of 
 small account indeed who did not, in addition 
 to her ordinary domestic duties, earn a con- 
 siderable sum weekly ; and machinery not 
 having then, as it has since, taken the place 
 of hand-work in this branch of industry, all 
 through the little town were to be seen women 
 knitting Prince Charlies, deer-stalkers, Glen- 
 garries, and so on, with perfectly magical 
 rapidity ; and this over and above what was 
 done in the aforesaid factory, which employed 
 most of the girls of the district, and many of 
 the men as well.
 
 134 Miss E Iv ester s Girls. 
 
 At the ringing of the six o'clock bell, the 
 workers began to appear about the street. 
 The girls wore dark drugget skirts and 
 aprons, light calico ' short-gowns,' and long 
 scarf-like plaids, arranged about the head 
 and shoulders by way of a wimple, both 
 ends falling loosely over one arm ; and 
 had they but believed it, they looked 
 out of comparison nicer so, than in the 
 Sunday finery in which their hearts de- 
 lighted. 
 
 ' Dressers ' and knitters, and every strag- 
 gler and idler, ' glowered ' with undisguised 
 curiosity at the three strangers walking up 
 their town. Miss Elvester was calmly im- 
 pervious, and Ursula haughtily so. But 
 poor Ulrica grew more and more seriously 
 discomposed. And matters reached a cli- 
 max, when she heard her golden locks 
 described by one loud-voiced critic as ' a 
 pickle tow,' and her undulating gait com- 
 pared by another to the rocking of a 
 ' craddle.' But school board education was 
 in the future then ; it is therefore quite
 
 Laighbield. 135 
 
 open to us to believe, that any stranger 
 visiting Laighbield in the present day, 
 would have a greatly improved state of 
 manners to report. 
 
 Opposite the complaisant little U. P. 
 church, between a weavers shop and the 
 town pump, a broad road known as the 
 Brigend, struck away from the main street 
 to the right. Turning down here, Miss 
 Elvester and her girls came once more 
 upon the river, which they had crossed 
 near the gates of Baronshaugh, and had 
 lost sight of since. A second bridge 
 brought them to a road bordered with 
 lime-trees, banked and hedged on the one 
 hand, on the other looking down to the 
 stream, and across that to stretches of gar- 
 den, and a meadow, and a meal mill. At 
 the end of the lime-tree road they had 
 again to part company with the river ; and 
 this time it was to turn into a grassy lane, 
 which led between clover parks, right up 
 one side of the cup whose hollow contained 
 Laighbield.
 
 136 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 A tiny house on the height above them 
 was their future home. It looked as un- 
 pretentious as could be ; but there was a 
 pleasing effect about it, scarcely to be 
 described. It seemed so in harmony with 
 its surroundings, that it might have grown 
 up amidst them as the trees had grown. 
 Honeysuckle climbed the walls ; willows 
 shaded the gables ; a few late flowers still 
 bloomed in front, protected by a thick 
 laurel hedge ; a rowan tree stood at each 
 side of the rustic gate — to ward off witch- 
 craft. 
 
 Ursula said not a word ; but her face 
 assumed an expression of relief. It was 
 not for nothing that she had lived so many 
 weeks in a flat in Chapel Street : this was 
 certainly a very great improvement upon 
 that. So also thought Ulrica. 
 
 ' Oh, the gem ! the little nest ! ' she cried, 
 mixing her metaphors. 
 
 ' But the rooms are few and small,' said 
 Miss Elvester ; ' and a state of woeful up- 
 sidedownness they must be in to-day. Be
 
 Laighbield. 
 
 *37 
 
 prepared to find the house piled roof-high 
 with packing boxes.' 
 
 This warning had no sooner been pro- 
 nounced than the door was opened, and 
 the Elvesters — once of Eastravoe — entered 
 the Brae. 

 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A ROUND PEG IN A SQUARE HOLE. 
 
 She is too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair 
 praise, and too little for a great praise. 
 
 ID WAY between the bonnet fac- 
 tory at the mouth of the Wynd 
 and the east gates of Barons- 
 haugh, were the ivy-grown walls which 
 surrounded the parish manse. Within 
 these walls, looking forth from the bay 
 window of a bright and pleasant breakfast- 
 parlour, on the fine variety of flowering 
 shrubs which beautified the grounds, waited, 
 about eight o'clock on an early November 
 day, a dark little — girl, was she ? in a 
 white and crimson morning-gown. Girl 
 she was none ; girlish as she seemed, she
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 139 
 
 was a wife of several years' standing. She 
 was no beauty (had not the tawniness of 
 her complexion passed into a proverb in 
 the town ?) ; but she possessed a peculiarly 
 piquant face, shaded by a profusion of the 
 softest, waviest, brownest hair, and lit up 
 by a pair of saucy dark eyes, in which 
 ever lurked a laugh ; yet behind the laugh 
 were great possibilities in the way of 
 pathos too. 
 
 The pen hesitates, unwilling to record it ; 
 only it may as well be confessed at once, 
 this lady was far from being the ideal of 
 a pastor's wife. Nobody would for one 
 moment have thought of holding her up 
 as ' an ensample to the flock ; ' nor was 
 she that sort of person upon whose tomb- 
 stone would one day be carved the en- 
 comium, ■ Beloved by all who knew her.' 
 Alas, no ! not even the large charity of 
 grave-yard literature would dare so great 
 a deflection from fact as that. But nega- 
 tive criticism is unsatisfactory ; you want 
 to know what she was rather than what
 
 140 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 she was not. Assume as lenient a frame 
 of feeling as is possible to you, then, and 
 you shall judge. 
 
 The man who was being waited for pre- 
 sently came in. He was a grave, scholarly 
 personage, about the prime of life ; and 
 he was singularly unlike the husband any- 
 body would have imagined for that elf in 
 the gay morning gown. At his entrance, 
 the lady turned from the window. 
 
 1 At last ! ' she exclaimed. ' Does Dr 
 Brackenburn realise that he has kept his 
 household waiting fully ten minutes ? Was 
 there a paragraph to finish when the bell 
 rang ?' 
 
 • Something of the sort,' he said. ' I beg 
 your pardon, Matilda.' 
 
 ' Which I grant,' she replied, ' because 
 I have found you to be in the main a 
 punctual man, even in spite of paragraphs. 
 Isn't it Byron who says that a woman should 
 never be seen eating ? — she should never 
 confess either, that she wants to eat, I 
 suppose ; but I am as hungry as a hunter
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 1 4 1 
 
 Alan ; so let prayers be short this morning, 
 please/ 
 
 Yet, when the couple did sit down to 
 breakfast, the lady was a vast deal more 
 interested in her husband's plate than in 
 her own. She marked with growing dis- 
 satisfaction how the morning's letters were 
 usurping that attention properly due to the 
 morning's meal ; and when she could contain 
 herself no longer, she stole silently round 
 the table and blindfolded Dr Brackenburn, 
 by clasping her hands over his eyes. 
 
 ' Now, then,' she said, ' tell me what you 
 have before you — apples of Sodom or saw- 
 dust?' 
 
 1 Game pie, is it not ? ' 
 
 ' Actually! ' said she, returning to her place. 
 ' Well, do try to look a little as if you ap- 
 preciated your mercies. It outrages one's 
 feelings, as a housekeeper, to see you so 
 indifferent to creature comforts. Alan, did 
 my eyes deceive me, or is the letter in your 
 hand from our dear but erring brother of 
 Braidmoss ? '
 
 142 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 The glance that she received in reply- 
 caused her to inquire with a wicked smile, — 
 
 'Is it venial or mortal sin that I've com- 
 mitted this time ? ' 
 
 As there was no answer, she went on, — 
 
 ' Dear, you must forgive me, that ever 
 since hearing him call somebody who wasn't 
 orthodox about the sun and moon standing 
 still that day over the. valley of Ajalon, " Our 
 dear but erring brother," I can't leave off 
 so nicknaming your co-presbyter of Braid- 
 moss. But is the letter from the Rev. Daniel 
 Carnegy, M.A. ?' 
 
 ' The note is from Carnegy,' her husband 
 answered ; 'it is merely about pulpit supply, 
 my dear.' 
 
 'And where is Mr Carnegy now? — still 
 pretty near Paradise, of course — but geo- 
 graphically-speaking, I mean ? ' 
 ' He writes from Belfast.' 
 
 ' Then he must be visiting the bride's 
 uncles, those descendants of the Irish kings 
 that we have heard so much about. Poor 
 bride ! — I beg your pardon — happy, happy
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 143 
 
 bride, I should have said. I wish I could 
 know how Mr Carnegy proposed to her. 
 I can fancy him droning in tones like the 
 concentrated essence of the tune Coleshill, — 
 " Oh woman greatly beloved, be my fond 
 partner through this vale of tears." ' 
 
 ' Nonsense, my dear.' 
 
 ' I have strong premonitions of unpleasant- 
 ness, Alan. Mrs Carnegy will be fore- 
 warned by her husband that I am an earthen 
 vessel ; for though Mr Carnegy is what 
 people of his school call " a consecrated 
 man ; " he isn't incapable of a fine, full- 
 flavoured aversion.' 
 
 1 1 suspect the aversion is on the other 
 side, Matilda.' 
 
 ' Not the monopoly. Do you think I 
 can't tell when people don't like me ? ' 
 
 ' What I think is, that you take no trouble 
 at all to make people like you, but the con- 
 trary. It still seems to be with you as of 
 old, — " Love me, if you dare ! " 
 
 At that she coloured a little. Then, with 
 a laugh, she asked, —
 
 144 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 'Should you be greatly glad to see your 
 wife a world's favourite, Alan ? ' 
 
 'To see her much less than that would 
 greatly gladden me.' 
 
 ' Then I must try what can be done. 
 When we call at Braidmoss manse, I'll 
 astonish you.' 
 
 'If you intend any mischief, I refuse to 
 go with you to Braidmoss manse at all.' 
 
 ' What do you mean by " mischief" ? ' 
 
 ' Anything like a repetition of what we 
 had yesterday, for instance.' 
 
 'When the delicious Mr Langbiggin was 
 here ? Oh, Alan, you know the man hadn't 
 the dawn of an idea that I was quizzing 
 him. And I had to find some escape for 
 my feelings, when I heard the rich bonnet 
 manufacturer accusing the poor minister of 
 unreasonableness. Mr M'Spur has peti- 
 tioned the session for an addition to his 
 manse ; but Mr Langbiggin says that there 
 are seven apartments in the Free Church 
 manse, and wants to know what a minister 
 (not like a mercantile gentleman at all !)
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 145 
 
 would do with more. So the mercantile 
 gentleman must build a house nearly as big 
 as Baronshaugh for himself and niece ; but 
 Mr M'Spur, who has a wife and ten chil- 
 dren, ought to be humble and thankful in 
 seven apartments ! ' 
 
 ' I can only say, my dear, that you took 
 a most extraordinary way of advancing Mr 
 M 'Spur's interests.' 
 
 ' But, Alan, we've rather wandered from 
 the point, haven't we? It was the call at 
 Braidmoss manse we were at. This is how 
 I'll make myself appreciated there : I will be 
 as artless as the cat when she has designs 
 on the cream-pot ; I will bring out my entire 
 stock of moralities thus, calling Braidmoss 
 " this corner of the vineyard," and the Es- 
 tablished Church " our Zion ; " assuring the 
 bride that I consider her husband's preaching 
 to be "very refreshing" (which, indeed, I 
 don't) ; remarking that the flock at Braidmoss 
 is not only fed, but feasted on the finest of 
 the wheat, and that no other labourer divides 
 the word with such great acceptance as does 
 vol. 1. K
 
 146 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 Mr Carnegy ; and winding up with the hope 
 that Mr Carnegy and myself may have many 
 sweet and precious hours of edifying com- 
 munion in times to come. I think all that 
 has the right "sough" about it. Mr Car- 
 negy will hail me as a prodigal returned — 
 what did you say, Alan ? ' 
 
 He had not said anything; but he now 
 observed quietly, — 
 
 1 You are in what, I presume, you call a witty 
 vein this morning ; but I have prejudices, you 
 know ; don't you think it would be only kind 
 on your part to respect these a little ?' 
 
 ' Forgive me, forgive me, dear ; and I 
 won't be witty any more to-day. But I 
 wasn't mocking at anything sacred, only at 
 pious slang and maudle. Why must some 
 good people fly to metaphor whenever re- 
 ligion is the theme ? ' 
 
 'Why, I might echo, must some other 
 people fly to metaphor, no matter what the 
 theme is ? ' 
 
 ' Tu quoque does not settle an argument, 
 Dr Bracken burn.'
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 147 
 
 ' But it sometimes silences an arguer,' was 
 the reply. 
 
 And that, apparently, was what Dr Brack- 
 enburn wished to do ; for immediately after- 
 wards, breakfast being over, he would have 
 left the room. His wife, however, interposed 
 her tiny person between the door and him, 
 saying,— 
 
 ' Pray, oh pray, not yet. Is it fair that 
 all the parish should have more of you than 
 I, whose right is the greatest here ?' 
 
 At that reproach, he turned back and sat 
 down again. 
 
 ' I am to blame,' he said. ' I too often 
 forget what a young thing you are still, and 
 how dull your present life is as contrasted 
 with your girlhood.' 
 
 * I don't complain of my present life,' she 
 answered. ' I know how to amuse myself 
 (though you don't always approve) ; and 
 there is only one small blessing I some- 
 times fret for — a little more of your society.' 
 
 1 If that be all, you need not remain un- 
 satisfied ; my study is not far to seek.'
 
 148 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 ' But when I seek your study, I know that 
 I am disturbing you, and putting to flight 
 fine trains of beautifully-linked ideas. And 
 I am ashamed to call you away from among 
 the isms and ologies to listen to my small- 
 beer chronicles. I wish I were a learned 
 woman, dear, who could follow and appre- 
 ciate the abstruse articles you write for those 
 reviews, and who could discuss metaphysics 
 with you, and Comte and Schossenhauer, 
 and the higher criticism.' 
 
 * I think I on the whole prefer you as you 
 are,' replied the husband, smiling. 
 
 Thus encouraged, the lady went and seated 
 herself on the grave doctor's knee, and put 
 her arms about his neck. And then she 
 laughed, and said, — 
 
 ' A learned woman would never be cap- 
 able of fooling like this ; would she, Alan ? ' 
 
 1 I cannot tell. You know one of the 
 species — ask her.' 
 
 'What! Mrs Inverarity ? Oh no ; I am 
 holding aloof from her just now. She is 
 writing a book on the Ten Lost Tribes, and
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 149 
 
 if I were to venture near she would inflict 
 every word of her tediousness upon me.' 
 
 1 I am afraid you hold very much aloof 
 from all your friends, Matilda, and that 
 without their being any writing of books 
 in the question.' 
 
 ' My friends — who are they ?' 
 
 ' Your acquaintances, if you prefer it.' 
 
 ' We have nothing in common ; no fellow- 
 feelings to make us wondrous kind. I don't 
 care a straw for any of them.' 
 
 ' I must have been mistaken, then ; but I 
 was under the impression that, much as you 
 object to Langbiggin himself, you did like 
 that quiet little niece of his.' 
 
 ' But I don't dislike her, is as much as 
 can be said. There is no peg in her to hang 
 up a liking on ; she is neutral, conventional, 
 commonplace.' 
 
 ' She is a young lady who, I am very sure, 
 will never say an unkind thing.' 
 
 ' Nor ever do a kind one,' retorted Mrs 
 Brackenburn. ' But, thank you, Alan ; I 
 stand reproved. Let me tell you, however,
 
 150 Miss Elv ester } s Girls. 
 
 that Katie Langbiggin never criticises, only 
 because she never observes. She is colour- 
 blind where shades of character are con- 
 cerned. There is an exasperating absence 
 of spontaniety about her, too. I believe, 
 when she was a little child, some fairy god- 
 mother gave her a casket filled with neat 
 cut-and-dry remarks, and bade her through 
 life use no other ; so always, when she needs 
 to speak, she brings out the appropriate sen- 
 tences as they are wanted, then folds them 
 nicely up, and puts them back till they shall 
 be required again/ 
 
 ' Well, there is Mrs M'Spur ; her conver- 
 sation has colour enough and spontaneity 
 enough to please, I should imagine/ 
 
 1 Her colour is used only to blacken every- 
 body in Laighbield except Mr M'Spur and 
 the ten children. But to go on with my 
 friends, there is Grizzel Cochrane — a good 
 girl, I know, only so obtrusively beamingly 
 complacent always, that I can't help wanting 
 to see her in a little distress, just as a healthy 
 variety. And last on the list, ecclesiastical
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 1 5 1 
 
 Mrs Cassillis, whose weekly drawing-room 
 prayer-meeting is a fortuitous concourse of 
 atoms, for the assembly is confused, and the 
 more part knows it is come together. The 
 last time I attended it, a demure maiden 
 lady prayed that " we here present might so 
 walk, as that all men seeing, should follow 
 after us." That wasn't quite so proper, 
 was it ? ' 
 
 1 My dear,' said her husband seriously, ' it 
 is always painful to listen to a woman's dis- 
 paragement of women. Cannot you leave it 
 to men to point out your weaknesses ? It is 
 a task in which they need no help from any 
 of yourselves.' 
 
 1 Don't I know it well ! From Adam on- 
 ward, the great creatures have never let slip 
 a chance of casting in our teeth what poor 
 things we are. But I will not own myself a 
 traitress. I have not been bringing any 
 really damaging charges against the sister- 
 hood ; and, indeed, if you want my opinion, 
 it is that, with all our spite and littleness — 
 which we hear so much and so often about —
 
 1 5 2 Miss Elveste^s Girls. 
 
 we rank in heaven's sight quite as high at 
 least as you. Our faults are certainly more 
 irritating to each other than your faults are 
 to us ; yet we can admire each other too. 
 The feeling one of us bears to another who 
 is high above her is a feeling not under- 
 standed of men. For my own part, 
 whenever I come in contact with a really 
 noble woman, I almost want to worship 
 her.' 
 
 ' Why not be a really noble woman your- 
 self ? ' it was very gently put to her. 
 
 1 If you but realised what it costs me to be 
 even such as I am, you would spare the ques- 
 tion/ she replied. ' Yes ; I take fits of try- 
 ing to be nice — or estimable, at any rate — 
 and I get on wonderfully for a while. But 
 then, just as I begin to imagine that there is 
 only a pasteboard partition between me and 
 perfection, I stumble, and fall headlong from 
 my pedestal ; and so being once more 
 " among the pots," as the psalm says, I 
 have it out for all my former self-denial, 
 and perfectly revel in the blackness. Oh,
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 153 
 
 it is ever the old story — but I've told you 
 it all before, Alan.' 
 
 1 Never mind that ; tell it to me again, if 
 it seems to do you good.' 
 
 ' Long ago I used to make periodical re- 
 solutions to get up early to study. I would 
 do grandly for a time. Then must come a 
 morning when, instead of springing as soon 
 as called, I would choose to have five 
 minutes more of luxury. That meant fall- 
 ing asleep again, of course. But do you 
 imagine that I, who had meant to be up 
 with the sun, would rise when I was 
 again wakened — this time by the break- 
 fast bell — not I ! At such times I gener- 
 ally spent the most of the forenoon in 
 bed.' 
 
 ' Those in authority over you should not 
 have suffered it. But, tell me, are you in 
 one of those better moods to-day ? I ask 
 with a purpose.' 
 
 ' That's alarming ! What is expected of 
 me, pray ? ' 
 
 ' Some poor people stand in need of you.
 
 154 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 You have heard of them before, you may 
 remember.' 
 
 ' Yes ; and I have kept sending whatever 
 has been required.' 
 
 ' I want you to go now, not to send.' 
 
 1 Oh, what misery ! I would rather hear 
 the MS. of "The Ten Lost Tribes" from 
 beginning to end, or the longest sermon of 
 the most confirmed platitudinarian in your 
 presbytery ! I should not like parish 
 visiting.' 
 
 ' But are we in this world to do only what 
 we like ? ' 
 
 ' I don't believe we can be intended to 
 do what we emphatically feel we have no 
 vocation for.' 
 
 1 Until you have given a thing of this sort 
 a fair trial, you cannot say you have no voca- 
 tion for it. You once believed you had no 
 vocation for teaching, yet now you get on 
 famously with your class.' 
 
 ' That is because my boys have come to 
 like me somehow.' 
 
 ' Doubtless ; and your boys' mothers would
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 1 5 5 
 
 also come to like you, if you cared about the 
 matter.' 
 
 ' Would they ? Ah, I must tell you an 
 anecdote illustrative of a boy's mother. One 
 of my dearest disciples was repeating the first 
 Psalm, and he persisted in having it, " Nor 
 sitteth in the corner chair." I tried to get 
 him to see that there could be no harm in a 
 corner chair, — that when a boy was sent to 
 the corner in disgrace, the evil was all in 
 himself, none of it in the corner. Then I 
 went on, — " It is a scorner s chair that is 
 spoken of here. Who can tell us what a 
 scorner is ? " Immediately Tommy Gillespie's 
 hand went out. "Well," said I, "what is he ?" 
 Tommy's answer was rather startling, — " It's 
 no' a he, it's a she : yourseVs the scorner, 
 mem ! " I nearly laughed, though I looked 
 as stern as I could, and asked Tommy what 
 he meant ? But " My mither tell't us," was 
 all the satisfaction I could gain. Such is my 
 character in Laighbield. They make out a 
 sad case against me, Alan.' 
 
 1 They don't know you ; and you are pre-
 
 156 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 cisely the person who, seen only on the sur- 
 face, is sure to be misjudged. That is partly 
 why I am anxious that you should go among 
 the people a little ; partly also because there 
 is crying need for some kindly, active woman 
 to make her influence felt in Laighbield.' 
 
 1 But if the kindly active woman have not 
 tact ? I feel no aptitude for being a Sister of 
 Mercy.' 
 
 1 The aptitude may come with the occasion 
 for it.' 
 
 1 Very well ; — please the Fates, you shall 
 have your way. And is there anything else 
 disagreeable that you can think of for me 
 to do ? I may as well be thorough. Might 
 I not take a missionary tour through the 
 Netherlaw Reformatory, for example?' 
 
 ' You had better, I think, confine your 
 energies to the parish.' 
 
 1 I have promised to energise in the parish, 
 then, but not to-day. To-day I must call at 
 the Brae, and make myself as charming as I 
 can to those Elvesters, — and after, I am 
 promised at Auchterbrechan. Miss Berwick
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 1 5 7 
 
 has got the manse in order, but she wants 
 me to do the finishing touches. By the way, 
 Alan, I've been thinking that I must find a 
 wife for Mr Berwick.' 
 
 ' That is a finding most men prefer to 
 undertake for themselves.' 
 
 * Which is a pity ; they so often choose 
 unwisely, and rue ever after.' 
 
 Saying which, Mrs Brackenburn looked 
 up with an indescribable half-comic, half- 
 pathetic expression, as if asking, between 
 jest and earnest, 'Is it not so with you?' 
 but the eyes that met hers must have per- 
 fectly satisfied her that her husband was far 
 enough from rueing the unwisdom of his 
 choice. 
 
 1 I have fixed on Katie Langbiggin for 
 the minister-elect of Auchterbrechan/ she 
 announced, after a pause. 
 
 1 What ! the young lady who is so neutral 
 — so uninteresting ? ' 
 
 'And why not? Men and women judge 
 differently ; and I don't know that a man 
 likes a woman any the less that her mind
 
 158 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 resembles a sheet of unused blotting-paper, 
 and is all ready to become a fainter copy of 
 his own/ 
 
 ' And if Donald Berwick and you are 
 satisfied, nothing else is wanted, I suppose, 
 — not such an unimportant item as the lady's 
 concurrence, for example.' 
 
 ' If she should not concur, I shall have to 
 turn elsewhere. But don't take alarm ; I 
 meditate nothing which you could not per- 
 fectly approve of. I simply intend to give 
 the pair every opportunity of finding out for 
 themselves that they were made for each 
 other. Ah, but I should like to see Mr 
 Berwick in love ; it would amuse me more 
 than anything I can think of to see the 
 handsome giant blushing and stammering 
 under a girl's glance ! But I've set my 
 heart upon this thing, chiefly because of my 
 fellow-feeling with the licentiate who a few 
 Sundays ago interested us in the anxieties 
 of a parent hen. On every subject I tried 
 that young man, but found him blank. In 
 sheer despair I stumbled haphazard on the
 
 A Round Peg in a Square Hole. 159 
 
 question, — " Mr Mucklewham, are you senti- 
 mental ? " That roused him. He grasped 
 at the idea as if it were the elixir of life, or 
 perpetual motion, or any of the other things 
 men have gone mad trying to discover, and 
 with a fervency I couldn't a moment before 
 have conceived him capable of, ejaculated, 
 " Real sentimental I " So I, too, am real 
 sentimental, though not one in Laighbield, 
 I know, would credit it, — or if any did, they 
 would put it down to me for a crime; for what 
 I do is a fault, and what I don't do is a fault, 
 and if I have no fault they manufacture one. 
 I am a much-to-be-commiserated woman, 
 Alan ; I am a round peg in a square hole.' 
 
 This was true enough, unfortunately ; and 
 the result of Mrs Brackenburn's first attempt 
 at parish work — for she did go out and 
 energise, though not that day — was an 
 anonymous billet, addressed to ' Dr Bracken- 
 burn's Meddlesome Matty,' and containing 
 the following pointed satire : — 
 
 1 Sometimes she'd lift the teapot-lid, to peep at what was 
 in it, 
 Or tilt the kettle, if you did but turn your back a minute.'
 
 i6o 
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 1 Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house, lest he 
 become weary of thee, and so hate thee.' 
 
 The minister's wife showed this production 
 to all her friends, and made much fun of it ; 
 but if in public she laughed, in secret, I 
 think, she cried a little too.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MONCRIEFF. 
 
 1 1 know a maiden fair to see, 
 Take care ! 
 She can both false and friendly be, 
 Beware ! beware ! ' 
 
 HE first acquaintances Christian 
 made after she had gone to seek 
 her fortunes as a governess were 
 Dugald and Moncrieff Urquhart, nephew 
 and niece by marriage of Mrs Cassillis of 
 Argyll Gardens. Mr Urquhart's place, 
 Craigie Urquhart, was in the neighbour- 
 hood of Braidmoss ; and as Dugald had no 
 town-house of his own, he and his sister 
 made themselves very much at home in 
 their Aunt Marjorie's, and both stayed 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 1 62 Miss Elvesters Gins. 
 
 there days and weeks at a stretch, as 
 often as it suited them. 
 
 The brother was rather over thirty — em- 
 phatically fine-looking, in the hairdresser's- 
 model style of perfection, a landed pro- 
 prietor, and a marrying man. Conscious of 
 so much greatness, he set high value upon 
 his person ; indeed, Sir Roland de Vane was 
 carelessness itself on the bridal question 
 compared to Mr Urquhart. 
 
 The sister was one-and-twenty, and an 
 acknowledged belle. But if Nature had 
 generously given to Moncrieff a fair face, 
 Fortune had stingily withheld from her a 
 full purse ; her entire income, she would 
 many a time complain, was barely sufficient 
 to keep her in gloves alone. 
 
 This young lady soon grew very friendly 
 with Willie Ruthven's governess ; and Chris- 
 tian had the privilege of becoming acquainted 
 with Miss Urquhart's whole history — with 
 the long list of her adorers — with the 
 flowery catalogue of compliments paid to 
 her by these. No confidence was expected 

 
 Moncrieff. 163 
 
 in return. That would have bored Mon- 
 crieff. She had no interest in her neigh- 
 bours' concerns, as such ; her fellow-creatures 
 and their affairs she took cognisance of only 
 in so far as they stood in relation to her own 
 personality ; and she was absolutely devoid 
 of the imagination, or gift, or grace, which 
 might have enabled her to put herself, though 
 but for one moment, in anybody else's place. 
 But if the one girl were pleased to be auto- 
 biographical, and if the others were content 
 to listen to autobiography, that was their 
 own business. 
 
 In close connection with her master theme 
 — self, Moncrieff had a great deal to say 
 about her two cousins, Quentin Cassillis of 
 Baronshaugh, and Captain Glen Cassillis, of 
 Her Majesty's — th foot ; but from all 
 her multiplication of words, the only defi- 
 nite notion to be extracted came to this — 
 both one and the other were steadfast 
 admirers of Miss Urquhart. 
 
 Early in December Captain Cassillis was 
 expected home, and for his better enter-
 
 164 Miss Elvesters Gir/s. 
 
 tainment during the visit his cousin came 
 to spend a fortnight at Argyll Gardens. 
 Mrs Cassillis was laid up with some slight 
 temporary illness ; but no matter, Moncrieff 
 would receive Glen, and do the honours to 
 his fullest satisfaction. 
 
 On the evening preceding the day on 
 which Captain Cassillis was to arrive, there 
 was a grand orchestral concert in the Town 
 Hall. Moncrieff went, of course ; not for the 
 music's sake certainly — who cared for orches- 
 tral music ? — but, as she went to church, for 
 instance, because it formed part of the re- 
 cognised programme. 
 
 And while Moncrieff was thus sacrificing 
 inclination on the altar of conventionality, 
 Christian was suffering from a sharp attack 
 of home-sickness. She had no cause to be 
 unhappy in Netherlaw, but the reverse. 
 Her pupil was her pet and her plaything; 
 everybody was civil to her. and she re- 
 ceived even more than ordinary kindness 
 from Mrs Cassillis. Yet there were times, 
 as now, when she longed to be with her own
 
 Moncrieff. 165 
 
 people, and felt as if she could not live 
 another day apart from Jenny. Driving 
 through the town one afternoon, she had 
 caught a passing glimpse of Mr and Mrs 
 Rich of Bresta, and this fit of home-sickness 
 was the result. She had bravely striven 
 against it, and, so far, had been successful 
 in at least keeping appearances up. But 
 now, being left to herself, she became worse 
 and worse, until it seemed that nothing short 
 of a hearty cry would do her any good. That 
 weakness, however, she would not indulge in, 
 so went to the piano instead, that she might, 
 if it were possible, sing melancholy away. 
 But, no ! the sound of her own voice brought 
 tears to her eyes at once, and she had to give 
 up the experiment. Light literature might 
 serve the purpose better. She would try that. 
 And ready to hand lay a novel, on the couch 
 where Moncrieff had lately been reclining. 
 
 Miss Urquhart was a great reader, after 
 her sort ; that is, she would rush through the 
 realms of fiction at the rate of three volumes 
 an afternoon, and with about the same
 
 1 66 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 measure of appreciation as travellers by- 
 night express have of the country through 
 which they pass. What Moncrieff had last 
 been running over was a work which Chris- 
 tian knew by name, and remembered, be- 
 cause reviewers had unanimously condemned 
 it ; had even, some of them, entreated 
 British women not to look at it. Well, here 
 it was, open in her hand, and so, in spite 
 of reviewers' warnings, this British woman 
 did look at it. One half-page she scanned ; 
 no more — that was enough. The very hot 
 love-scene, in the thick of which she had 
 lighted, did not attract — it repelled her — and 
 vexed with herself for having so much as 
 opened the book, she let it drop from her 
 fingers as if it had been a loathly thing, and 
 lifted her face to encounter a pair of keen, 
 dark eyes, whose owner had just drawn aside 
 the curtains which hung in the pillared arch- 
 way between the front and back drawing- 
 rooms. 
 
 ' Miss Elvester, I believe,' said the 
 stranger, bowing.
 
 Moncrieff. 167 
 
 Thus taken by surprise, and caught 
 in the very act of reading that banned 
 volume, Christian fell into some confusion, 
 and answered to her name after a fashior 
 highly annoying to herself. 
 
 ' And I am Glen Cassillis/ said the in 
 truder. And he begged the young lady's 
 pardon for having startled her, and explained 
 that some sudden alteration of arrangements 
 had occasioned his cominor on to Netherlaw 
 a nieht earlier than he had intended. While 
 
 o 
 
 a few generalities were being exchanged, 
 Captain Cassillis, without thinking what he 
 was about, lifted the book which he had 
 seen fall from Christian's hand. Had it 
 been any collection of moral tales, or manual 
 of instructive reading, the man would never 
 have touched it ; but being what it was, it 
 could not, of course, be let alone. 
 
 Christian's face grew hot, when Captain 
 Cassillis turned his glance to it from the title- 
 page. She was angry, both with him and 
 with herself — for what right had he to look 
 at her like that ? — and she who had done no
 
 1 68 Miss Elvesters Girls, 
 
 wrong, whose conscience was perfectly clear. 
 Why, why must she so foolishly colour under 
 his satirical eyes ? As for him, he confined 
 the satire to those eyes. 
 
 1 An interesting story, isn't it ? ' he said, 
 in the most matter-of-fact tone. 
 
 ' I don't think so — I mean I haven't read 
 it, and can't say,' she replied, with as much 
 dignity as she was mistress of. 
 
 But the previous flush, and the amended 
 sentence were against her, and then she 
 immediately afterwards excused herself, and 
 went away, Captain Cassillis was left think- 
 ing— 
 
 ' So much, then, for my mother's paragon ; 
 but what a pity that falsehood should be 
 spoken in so singularly sweet a tone.' 
 
 On coming into the breakfast-room next 
 morning, Christian found Miss Urquhart and 
 Captain Cassillis there before her. She was 
 about to take the place which the present 
 indisposition of Mrs Cassillis left vacant at 
 table, when, — 
 
 ' I'll save you the trouble, Miss Elvester,'
 
 Moncrieff. 1 69 
 
 said Moncrieff, stepping in before her, and 
 sitting down. 
 
 1 Thank you very much,' replied Christian, 
 quietly moving round to the side seat. 
 
 Upon which Captain Cassillis, thinking of 
 Thackeray's women, who scratch each other's 
 face in private, but are all affection to each 
 other in the sight of men, came to his own 
 conclusions ; and these were again unfavour- 
 able to his mother's paragon. 
 
 The beautiful Moncrieff was in great force, 
 and, not being one to waste her table-talk on 
 a woman, if a man were by, spoke right on 
 with her soldier-cousin, to the almost total 
 exclusion of the unfortunate third. Captain 
 Cassillis more than once attempted to bring 
 Christian in ; ineffectually, however, since she 
 made no effort to take the ball so thrown to 
 her, but always allowed Moncrieff to catch it 
 up again, and bear it away. This morning 
 Christian neither cared to be spoken to, nor 
 to speak. She knew that she had made a 
 bad impression, that she was disapproved of ; 
 and the consciousness vexed her to an absurd
 
 1 70 Miss E Iv ester s Girls. 
 
 degree, reducing her to the uncomfortable 
 state in which one is constantly obliged to 
 pause in one's employments to inquire — 
 ' What is amiss with me ? ' 
 
 Such a thing as this had never happened 
 to her before ; and it fretted her the more, to 
 think that the opinion of an entire stranger 
 should have the power of fretting her at 
 all. 
 
 In the course of the forenoon she was in 
 the back drawing-room, guiding Willie Ruth- 
 ven's fingers over the scales, when the cousins 
 passed through. 
 
 ' You don't instruct yourself in that kind, 
 do you ? ' said a voice, not meant for Chris- 
 tian's ears. 
 
 Christian heard, nevertheless, and knew 
 quite well what ' kind ' was alluded to. 
 
 1 Not I, indeed,' responded Moncrieff, 
 lightly. ' It isn't my book, you know ; it is 
 Miss Elvester's.' 
 
 ' Well, don't read it, or any other like 
 it,' said Glen ; and the pair passed out of 
 hearing.
 
 Moncrieff. i 7 1 
 
 In a short while Moncrieff reappeared alone. 
 
 1 Did you hear how nearly I got into dis- 
 grace with cousin Glen ? ' she asked, coming 
 up behind Christian. 
 
 ' I heard/ said Christian, speaking coldly — 
 how could she help it ? ' and heard you tell 
 your cousin that the book was mine.' 
 
 Moncrieff laughed. 
 
 1 Wasn't it a bright thought ?' she inquired, 
 with great glee. 
 
 1 Oh ! I must be excused, if I don't quite 
 appreciate the brightness of it.' 
 
 ' It isn't a bit nice of Glen to go poking 
 into things,' said Moncrieff. ' Do you think 
 it is, Miss Elvester ?' 
 
 ' It is no business of mine to think any- 
 thing about it (B flat, Willie, and third 
 finger) ; only, if it is such a dreadful fault 
 to read the book, it seems a little hard that 
 I should be supposed to have done so.' 
 
 ' Oh, it isn't dreadful at all ! And I had to 
 say something, hadn't I ? Cousin Glen is so 
 absurdly particular about me — you've no 
 notion.'
 
 172 Miss E Iv ester s Girls. 
 
 ' That must be very flattering,' said 
 Christian. 
 
 ' Do you think so ? I call it tiresome and 
 inconvenient. (Go on, Willie Ruthven ; don't 
 stare at me.) Of course, Miss Elvester, you 
 won't make mischief ; nobody would be so 
 ill-natured as to make mischief between 
 cousin Glen and me.' 
 
 ' I am no mischief-maker, Miss Urquhart. 
 But don't, please, do anything else that you 
 mean to be ashamed of; because I'm afraid 
 I shall not want to take any more upon my 
 shoulders for some time.' 
 
 ' Nothing — nothing more,' replied Mon- 
 crieff; and away she went, satisfied. 
 
 It is perhaps putting it too strongly to 
 affirm that ugliness is the fault the most 
 rigorously treated by men ; but it certainly 
 is not going too far to say that falsehood, 
 when uttered by lips that are lovely, seems 
 robbed of a measure of its shame. And 
 Moncrieff possessed this great advantage of 
 beauty. Their was an airy frankness about 
 her besides, and an unshaken confidence in
 
 Moncrieff. 173 
 
 the obligation of everybody around her to do 
 just exactly as she desired they should. So 
 beauty, frankness, and confidence together, 
 attained the gratifying result, that whoever 
 else's projects might be thwarted, Miss 
 Urquhart's were always triumphantly carried 
 through.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MARRING HER FORTUNE. 
 
 Where're you find ' the cooling western breeze,' 
 In the next line it ' whispers through the trees.' 
 If crystal streams 'with pleasing murmurs creep/ 
 The reader's threatened (not in vain) with ' sleep.' 
 
 HAT most delighted in by ladies, 
 and least appreciated by men, of 
 all forms of active benevolence, a 
 grand bazaar in aid of some local charity was 
 to be held at Netherlaw, consequently the 
 hands of every woman in the district were 
 full. MoncriefFs hands were full — by proxy : 
 she undertook all manner of fancy work, 
 passed it over to Christian, and to herself 
 appropriated the credit. When her friends 
 congratulated her upon the tastefulness of
 
 Marring- Her Fortune. 1 75 
 
 productions which she had not produced, she 
 equably — yes, and in Christian's very pre- 
 sence too ! — accepted the praise. Nothing 
 of that sort surprised Christian now ; nor did 
 she even think it worth while to remonstrate. 
 
 * Wasn't it funny!' Moncrieff said; 'for 
 instance, Maryanne Kirkpatrick would insist 
 upon knowing how I contrived the glove 
 sachets. I said I had forgotten how ; then 
 she wanted to see the copy, so I told her 
 it was lost. She is always hunting after 
 patterns and stitches. Such a bore of a 
 girl ! and isn't she plain ? ' 
 
 Whether, on account of Moncrieff's ab- 
 sence or not, Dugald found the country very 
 dull about this time ; and for some part of 
 nearly every day they were sure of the 
 pleasure of his company at Argyll Gardens. 
 On Christian he had at first cast an unfavour- 
 able eye ; for, as he once observed to his 
 sister, ' Pretty governesses and companions 
 are fatal man-traps.' 
 
 'Is she pretty?' Moncrieff had carelessly 
 inquired.
 
 1 76 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 ' Pretty enough to put a man on guard,' 
 he had rejoined, and had since been on 
 guard accordingly. 
 
 Whenever he chanced to find himself in 
 a room alone with Christian, he assumed 
 the defensive. But the shield he selected 
 was not taciturnity, it was reading. He 
 would fetch a book and offer to entertain 
 the young lady by reading aloud. Taci- 
 turnity would have served his purpose 
 equally well, but reading suited his taste 
 better, for he loved to read aloud ; he be- 
 lieved he had a special gift that way : there 
 Christian and he differed. 
 
 He had a gruff voice, which he himself 
 believed to be organ- toned. When reading, 
 he would draw out every stop, and fill the 
 air with vibrations, which, by some absurd 
 conjunction of ideas, invariably brought to 
 Christian's mind the phrase, 'swellings of 
 Jordan.' Mr Urquhart did not affect prose, 
 but poetry only — poetry was much more 
 soulful, he would say. It was no use for 
 Christian to declare that she did not ap-
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 1 7 7 
 
 predate poetry. Such an assertion Mr 
 Urquhart would not credit. Miss Elves- 
 ter's taste might indeed be dormant ; his, 
 then, be the task of awakening it. But 
 perhaps what they were at (he was on the 
 threshold of Milton's Pandemonium when it 
 came to this) might be too high-class for 
 a commencement. Should they turn to the 
 ' Idylls of the King ? ' But Christian looked 
 fairly frightened at the idea of having to 
 sit by while Mr Urquhart boomed through 
 any of these. 
 
 ' Not the Laureate either!' he exclaimed. 
 ' Shall it be Pollock's "Course of Time," 
 then ? — But no, I think not ; that is but 
 a crude production, and lacks the magnifi- 
 cent roll of Milton's music. Ah, yes ; 
 here is something, Miss Elvester, which you 
 ought to enjoy : " The Raven," by Edgar 
 Allan Poe, a gifted young American. It 
 is a fine effort of genius, — dirge-like, 
 melodious.' 
 
 Christian informed Mr Urquhart that she 
 already knew ' The Raven ' by heart. 
 vol. 1. M
 
 i yS Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 1 Ay,' said he ; ' but you may never have 
 heard it read.' 
 
 She was obliged to admit that she never 
 had, and as politeness would not allow her 
 to say further, that she did not want to 
 hear it read by him, she resigned herself, 
 and during the following most sepulchral 
 declamation, tried to think of something 
 else. But 'The Raven' was not enough 
 for Mr Urquhart that day. Attuning his 
 voice to adagio cantabile, he now bore his 
 unwilling listener on waves of resonance, 
 
 ' Where Alph the sacred river ran, 
 Through caverns measureless to man, 
 Down to a sunless sea.' 
 
 How he revelled in — 
 
 * . . . . that deep romantic chasm which slanted 
 Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover ! 
 A savage place ! as holy and enchanted 
 As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 
 By woman wailing for her demon lover ! ' 
 
 Then how trippingly came — 
 
 ' A damsel with a dulcimer 
 In a vision once I saw; '
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 1 79 
 
 (In the fulness of his heart Mr Urquhart 
 pronounced it " saw'r " !) 
 
 ' It was an Abyssinian maid, 
 And on her dulcimer she played, 
 Singing of Mount Abora . . .' 
 
 ' Now that is what I call mellifluous,' said 
 the reader when he had done ; ' exquisitely 
 cadenced and mellifluous.' 
 
 Christian did not say what she called it ; 
 but one of the loveliest fragments in the 
 language was spoiled to her from that hour. 
 
 Though Christian had been pronounced 
 1 pretty enough to put a man on guard,' she 
 was one of those girls whose charm does 
 not strike beholders all at once, but gradu- 
 ally steals over them ; so it was some time 
 before Mr Urquhart fully realised how greatly 
 her golden brown hair became her — how 
 beautiful was the curve of her milk-white 
 throat — how beautifully sweet were the long- 
 fringed, sea-blue eyes. Simultaneously with 
 the full perception of such details was reached 
 also the conviction that this pretty young 
 governess was no man-trap after all, and 
 that — well, in short, that she deserved to
 
 1 80 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 be married ! She was fair, her ways were 
 all pleasantly feminine — above everything, 
 she would be easily moulded. This last 
 consideration was of quite paramount im- 
 portance ; for, in Dugald Urquhart's esti- 
 mate, a wife primarily consisted of so much 
 material for a husband to mould. No sus- 
 picion crossed Christian's mind of there 
 being these thoughts concerning her ; only 
 she more and more regarded Mr Urquhart 
 as a weariness, and wished more and more 
 fervently that he would try to make sure 
 at what hour his relatives were to be found 
 at home, instead of perpetually coming in 
 just after they had gone out. But matters 
 could not remain this way for ever ; some- 
 thing must come of it. And something" did 
 come of it, which it now falls to relate. 
 
 One forenoon, Dugald having, for the 
 twentieth time, arrived to find that his 
 sisters, aunt, and cousin were off, did not 
 send his name to Christian as in general, 
 but unceremoniously proceeded to the back 
 parlour where she sat.
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 1 8 1 
 
 'Ah, Miss Elvester, you are here!' he 
 exclaimed, just as if it were a surprise to 
 come upon her there. ' The rest are away 
 to Mucklestanes, it seems. I have missed 
 them again. Life runs in similitudes/ 
 
 Christian clearly remembered to have 
 heard Mrs Cassillis mention the intended 
 hour of departure to Mr Urquhart ; she 
 could but think, therefore, that the gentleman 
 had a most leaky memory. 
 
 • Since I am here, I suppose I may as well 
 remain,' said Mr Urquhart. 
 
 Willie Ruthven, who was forming a pro- 
 cession across the floor, of the tenants of 
 a Noah's ark, and who found his kinsman 
 of Craigie Urquhart an obstacle in the path, 
 made bold to observe, — 
 
 1 This is my Miss Elvester's room, and 
 she doesn't want you here, cousin Dugald ; 
 get out, please.' 
 
 Cousin Dugald lavished no wealth of 
 affection upon Willie : he held little boys 
 and girls to be, on the whole, a mis- 
 take.
 
 1 82 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 1 You spoil that monkey among you, Miss 
 Elvester,' he remarked. 
 
 1 Forgive us it,' she answered, smiling ; 
 1 it is a way we have.' 
 
 'A child should be kept in his own place,' 
 said Mr Urquhart, rather testily, and forget- 
 ful that in the present instance it was he and 
 not the child who happened to be out of 
 place. 
 
 Christian bade Willie ask his cousin's par- 
 don for having spoken so rudely; and Willie, 
 after considerable demur, yielded to say, — 
 
 ' If you please, cousin Dugald, I apologise.' 
 
 Upon which Mr Urquhart seemed ap- 
 peased, and, sitting down, watched Christian 
 at her needle-work. 
 
 'What do you call that, Miss Elvester?' 
 he would like to know after a while. 
 
 ' I call it an apron,' she replied, holding 
 up for better inspection the piece of green 
 satin, round which she was sewing in 
 coloured silks a wreath of variegated flowers. 
 
 ' Very tasteful indeed,' pronounced Mr 
 Urquhart.
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 183 
 
 ' A little too gorgeous, perhaps,' she said, 
 1 but it is for the bazaar, and Mrs Cassillis 
 tells me that over-colouring never comes 
 amiss in Netherlaw.' 
 
 'And what Mrs Cassillis tells her, Miss 
 Elvester swears to. Well, my aunt is rather 
 a superior woman.' 
 
 ' Mrs Cassillis is as near as possible to 
 perfection,' said Christian warmly. 
 
 But Mr Urquhart did not care to hear 
 what Christian thought about Mrs Cassillis. 
 He always found it to be more blessed to 
 give than to receive information. 
 
 ' Do you know what my ideal of woman- 
 hood is ? ' he asked. 
 
 1 An Aurora Leigh, I should imagine,' 
 guessed Christian. 
 
 ' No, Miss Elvester, no ; there you mistake 
 me ; nothing so horribly clever could I en- 
 dure. A quiet, loving, domestic woman — 
 as feminine as she is fair : that is my ideal.' 
 
 1 Must she be very quiet ? ' said Christian. 
 
 ' Sufficiently so,' was the rather ambiguous 
 reply. ' We men exceedingly dislike any-
 
 184 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 thing loud, or aggressive, or self-important, 
 in your sex. It is a mistake to suppose that 
 we want women to be intellectual, or even 
 clever. There is enough of intellect, of 
 cleverness, among ourselves. What we seek 
 and must find when we come to you is, a 
 rest — a change.' 
 
 1 This gets rather interesting,' said Chris- 
 tian to herself. Then she continued aloud, — 
 
 1 Even though we be clever, our cleverness 
 is so different from yours that, if the rest 
 be in change, you have it still.' 
 
 ' Excuse me, but we want none of that 
 sort of thing at all. What end does it 
 serve ? Some young ladies court notoriety 
 by writing novels and the like, as if they 
 were competent to deal with the problems 
 of life ! But they waste their pains ; for 
 who reads such poor stuff ? ' 
 
 ' Do not you, Mr Urquhart ?' 
 
 '// Never, Miss Elvester.' 
 
 ' How, then, can you tell that it is poor 
 stuff?' 
 
 Mr Urquhart passed over this question
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 1 85 
 
 as irrevelant, and did so with an air as if 
 Christian had said something excessively 
 silly ; but he, out of the benevolence of 
 his nature, would try to excuse her for this 
 time. 
 
 ' Speaking of writing happens to remind 
 me,' he observed, in a careless, off-hand 
 style, that did not sit upon him well at all, 
 ' that I have with me a short poem, which 
 you might like to hear.' (Christian shud- 
 dered.) 'It is by a friend of my own, 
 who would, I am sure, be glad to have 
 an unbiased opinion as to its merits.' 
 
 This seemed odd ; for Dugald bore a 
 sufficiently strong family likeness to Mon- 
 crieff, to make it matter of surprise that 
 he should feel so much interested in the 
 performance of any friend. 
 
 1 No poet could care for such an opinion 
 as mine,' represented Christian, most anxious 
 to get off ; 'it isn't in the least worth 
 having.' 
 
 ' You are a unit, and an aggregate of 
 units constitutes the great public,' replied
 
 ] 86 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 Mr Urquhart, speaking as if he were 
 divulging a new discovery to mankind. 
 1 The opinion of the public/ he added, 
 1 must be of a certain importance to every 
 writer.' 
 
 Then he got up, took a sheet of paper 
 from his pocket-book, and began to pace 
 the room. There was no help for Christian. 
 With as good a grace as possible she might 
 submit herself to circumstances. 
 
 ' You will be perfectly candid, I hope,' 
 said Mr Urquhart ; ' you will express 
 precisely what you feel.' 
 
 ' But that might be awkward/ she ob- 
 jected. ' How can I say so, if my opinion 
 of the poem should be as low as yours is 
 of ladies' writings ? ' 
 
 The young person was really showing 
 herself painfully flippant. But Mr Urquhart 
 would forgive her this time also. 
 
 1 Say whatever you think/ he returned. 
 'It is a short thing ; it will not weary 
 you. Its title is, " Beneath the Trysting 
 Tree."'
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 1 8 7 
 
 And having thus premised, he unfolded 
 his scroll, prepared his voice, and began 
 sonorously : — 
 
 ' We lingered 'neath the trysting tree, — 
 She youthful, I in manhood's prime ; 
 Before us heaved the gurgling sea, 
 Unwrinkled by the touch of time.' 
 
 And so forth in like manner. The produc- 
 tion was rather under than over the average 
 merit of efforts fated to remain in manu- 
 script ; and it was meant to be pathetic, 
 but not having - come from the writer's own 
 
 o 
 
 heart, it was little likely to touch the heart of 
 any other body. About midway through, 
 the lover was telling his beloved the sorrow- 
 ful news, that it would now be necessary 
 that they two should wrench themselves 
 asunder for all time, since, alas ! — 
 
 ' The forceful Fates have frowned on us, 
 Our high hopes they have trampled on,' — 
 
 when — 
 
 ' Oh, cousin, you've been and broken the 
 neck of my best giraffe ! ' interrupted Willie 
 Ruthven, in shrill distress.
 
 1 88 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 And sure enough cousin had, in suiting his 
 action to that of ' the forceful Fates,' unwit- 
 tingly planted his heel full on the head of 
 the ill-starred giraffe with disastrous results. 
 Still, it was altogether insufferable to be cut 
 short after such a fashion, and Mr Urquhart 
 frowned (without meaning to imitate 'the force- 
 ful Fates ' this time), and angrily muttered, — 
 
 ' Contemptible ! ' 
 
 Whoever or whatever aggravated him 
 always was contemptible. 
 
 1 And he w r as my nicest giraffe,' lamented 
 poor Willie, with trembling lip, ' and I liked 
 him better than them all ; but now he's 
 gone ! ' 
 
 Christian took the child on her lap, saying 
 soothingly, — 
 
 ' He isn't gone, my pet ; we'll have him 
 mended so that you could never know his 
 head had been off, — just as we had your cart- 
 horse mended, you remember.' 
 
 This assurance comforted Willie, and he 
 hastened to the floor again to gather to- 
 gether his scattered flock, and put them out
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 
 
 of further harm's way. Cousin Dugald the 
 while looked on in a state of extreme irrita- 
 tion, which nothing would so effectually have 
 relieved as just to take a tramp of destruc- 
 tion over the entire herd. But before we 
 condemn, we ought to consider how trying 
 it must have been for him to be wrested from 
 the very heights of Parnassus and confronted 
 with such a desperately prosaic fact as a child 
 whimpering over a broken toy. 
 
 But patience mends all. So, by-and-by, 
 the reading was resumed and carried on 
 without hindrance, till the parting lovers 
 were left with the consolatory hope that, 
 though sundered now, they should yet be 
 reunited, — 
 
 ' Amid the viewless winds to dwell, — 
 Ne'er, ne'er again, while ages roll, 
 To sigh that saddest sound, Farewell ! ' 
 
 A pause. Mr Urquhart expected Chris- 
 tian to be complimentary, and complimentary 
 Christian could not conscientiously be. 
 
 'Well, Miss Elvester ? ' he said sugges- 
 tively, when he was tired waiting, —
 
 1 90 Miss Elvester' s Girls. 
 
 1 It — it — it goes quite smoothly,' was all 
 that she could muster in reply. 
 
 ' Of course — of course ; every line has the 
 proper number of feet. But the sentiment — 
 what of the sentiment ? ' 
 
 Again silence. How could one speak so 
 as at the same time to be truthful, and to 
 avoid giving offence ? 
 
 ' Do you ' — it evidently cost Mr Urquhart 
 an effort to conceive the possibility — ' do you 
 not like it, Miss Elvester ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, I haven't said that.' 
 
 ' You have said nothing. Do you like it ? ' 
 
 1 I don't dislike it.' 
 
 ' There is no getting at your opinion ! 
 What faults have you to find ? ' 
 
 1 Faults ? I don't wish. — what right have 
 I to find any faults ? ' 
 
 1 My dear Miss Elvester, is this your way 
 of giving a candid opinion ? ' 
 
 ' Is it fair, Mr Urquhart, is it fair to cross- 
 question me so ? ' 
 
 ' Perfectly ; the object being but to obtain 
 an unambiguous reply.'
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 1 9 1 
 
 Driven into a corner, Christian saw nothing 
 for it but to tell her mind. First, — 
 
 ' Are your friend's verses founded on fact ? ' 
 she asked ; ' because if they are, I won't say 
 one word.' 
 
 ' The poem is drawn from fancy entirely/ 
 responded Mr Urquhart. 
 
 ' Then, if I must criticise, will you show it 
 to me, please ? ' 
 
 Instead of showing it to her he re-read it, 
 as resoundingly as at first, but more slowly, 
 that she might mark and consider every 
 separate cadence ; which done, he once again 
 requested to know what fault she could 
 find. 
 
 ' The " gurgling " sea — " gurgling " doesn't 
 seem to be a very happy expression, does 
 it ? ' she ventured. 
 
 ' I consider it an exceedingly apt expression,' 
 said Mr Urquhart, quickly, 'fresh and unhack- 
 neyed. Have you never heard the sea gurgle ?' 
 
 ' No ; but perhaps our Northern Ocean 
 isn't civilised enough to gurgle, — it roars 
 generally.'
 
 192 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 ' Ah,' rejoined Mr Urquhart, becoming very- 
 stiff; ' and what other amendments have you 
 to suggest ? ' 
 
 1 Have I not said enough ?' 
 ' Not so ; say all you think — say all.' 
 Goaded on at this rate, Christian would 
 say all. 
 
 ' The line below "the gurgling sea" re- 
 minds one too much of a line in Byron's 
 address to the ocean/ she proceeded. ' Then 
 in the first line of the next stanza, your friend 
 has " a sea of tears," which is surely a sea too 
 many. Besides, I can't think that the lady's 
 eyes, " raining a sea of tears," could at the 
 same moment be fixed on his, as he says 
 they were ; one would hardly be able to 
 " fix " one's eyes while tears flowed like 
 that.' 
 
 ' I beg your pardon,' said Mr Urquhart, 
 coldly desperate ; ' but this is the merest 
 verbal criticism, and I flat — my friend flatters 
 himself, that he quite understands what he is 
 about. Kindly leave these quibbles, and be 
 good enough to state how the poem strikes
 
 Marring Her Fortune. 193 
 
 you, viewed as a whole. Make your remarks 
 without reservation.' 
 
 ' Very well, if you will hear all, it is that 
 your friend's verses strike me as amateurish. 
 They want the ring of poetry written by one 
 who writes because the thing is in him and 
 he must. They are much like what I have 
 sometimes seen in the " Poet's Corner" of the 
 Cornrigshire Chronicler? 
 
 ' Thank you — thank you ! ' exclaimed Mr 
 Urquhart, mortified past the power of con- 
 cealing his mortification. ' You do assuredly 
 pronounce with great authority for a young 
 lady who lately professed to believe that her 
 opinion was of no value.' 
 
 ' I believe so still,' said Christian, rather 
 taken aback ; ' and but that you insisted, I 
 would not have given it.' 
 
 But black was the cloud that darkened 
 Dugald's brow as a second time he ironi- 
 cally thanked Christian for her obliging re- 
 marks upon his ' friend's poor lines ; ' and 
 bitter his smile as he quitted Argyll Gar- 
 dens. That was the girl whom he had 
 vol. 1. N
 
 194 Miss Elv ester's Girls. 
 
 fancied ready to be as clay in the hands of 
 the potter — that ! Amateurish ! The poet's 
 corner of The Cornrigshire Chronicler. One 
 thing, at any rate, was now a certainty — 
 Christian Elvester should never be wife 
 of his. 

 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 AN ATALANTA RACE. 
 
 I see, I see thee near ; 
 I know thy hurried step, thy haggard eye, 
 Like thee I start, like thee distracted fly.' 
 
 BOUT the end of December, Chris- 
 tian, who had hitherto declined 
 all public amusements, got her 
 first sight of fashionable Netherlaw in the 
 mass. A singer of European fame was to 
 appear at a concert in the Town Hall. 
 
 * It is but once in a while we provincials 
 have so great an opportunity,' Mrs Cassillis 
 said. ■ I will accept no excuse. You ought 
 to come with us, and you shall/
 
 196 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 So Christian went. 
 
 The Town Hall was in the heart of 
 Netherlaw — shoved into an out-of-the-way 
 corner, and jostled by the Vegetable Market 
 on this hand, by the police-office on that ; 
 and, in order probably not to put these its 
 neighbours out of countenance, it was the 
 dingiest, ugliest Town Hall ever tolerated 
 by wealthy townspeople. 
 
 On entering, Christian thought that the 
 concert-room, with its various decorations, 
 including printed notices hanging round, to 
 inform the public that no smoking or stand- 
 ing upon seats would be allowed, was one 
 huge sin against good taste. But very soon 
 she lost sight of her surroundings. Listen- 
 ing to the famous singer, she felt as if she 
 would be well content to continue there and 
 thus for ever. That could not be, of course ; 
 at the end of two hours or so she had to 
 rise and accompany the multitude from the 
 concert-room. Dreamily and mechanically 
 she went, for the music had powerfully 
 affected her. It does not do, however, to
 
 An Atalanta Race. 197 
 
 be dreaming in a crowd ; and that Christian 
 proved, when she let go her companions, and 
 mistook the turning, and descended the 
 wrong stair, and only after considerable diffi- 
 culty succeeded in making her way to the 
 cloak-room. 
 
 On arriving there, whom should she find 
 in waiting but Moncrieff, who had gone 
 home to Craigie Urquha^t a week ago, 
 and had not been heard of since. 
 
 ' How do you do ? Hasn't it been such 
 a slow affair ? I hate those ridiculous en- 
 cores. What an age that absurd creature 
 has kept you/ said Moncrieff, all in a 
 breath. 
 
 ' I stupidly lost my way ; no absurd 
 creature kept me,' replied Christian. 
 
 ' Didn't she ? Aunt Marjorie noticed a 
 Mrs Smilingly or something nodding and 
 waving her handkerchief to you ; and she 
 thought you must have stayed behind to 
 speak to her.' 
 
 1 Mrs Smillie ? I never saw her, nor you 
 either.'
 
 198 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 ' We were behind you, and she was waving 
 from the front of the balcony. Aunt Mar- 
 jorie has gone down ; but she sent Glen to 
 hunt you up, and left me to wait here till you 
 should come, to tell you that you can't have 
 a place in the carriage. Dugald and I are to 
 go to Argyll Gardens to-night, of course, and 
 there isn't room in the carriage for everybody, 
 as Aunt Marjorie had offered a seat to Mr 
 Fyfe Armstrong before she knew of Dugald 
 and me. So Dugald has gone to bring a cab 
 for you, and I am to go now with Aunt Mar- 
 jorie. You must wait at the hall door, so 
 that he can't miss you.' 
 
 This seemed to Christian a very singular 
 arrangement, particularly the waiting at the 
 hall door part of it. Why could not Mr 
 Urquhart come to the cloak-room for her ? 
 That would surely be the more natural way. 
 Hers not to reason why, however, so she 
 merely said, — 
 
 ' Very well,' and prepared to obey. 
 
 ' How I shiver,' complained Moncrieff. 
 ' I've not wrapped myself up half enough ;
 
 An Atalanta Race. 199 
 
 and some one must have run away with 
 my hood. I can't find it anywhere. What 
 a delightfully comfortable wrap yours seems 
 to be, Miss Elvester.' 
 
 ' I shouldn't w r onder if she would take 
 it, and my hood, too,' thought Christian. 
 1 I must try.' 
 
 * It is comfortable,' she answered. ' Won't 
 you have it, since you feel so cold ? ' 
 
 ' Thanks very much. You are lucky in 
 never knowing what to feel cold is,' said 
 Moncrieff, drawing near as she spoke, that 
 the covering might be thrown over her. 
 
 ' And my hood,' suggested Christian ; 
 1 won't you take that as well ? I don't want 
 it myself any more than I want the wrap.' 
 
 ' Don't you, indeed? Then, if you will be 
 so kind, I shall be glad of it, since my own 
 has been carried off by some stupid.' 
 
 So the hood was given to her also, and 
 she, in her borrowed gear, ran down to the 
 carriage with Captain Cassillis, whom she 
 encountered in one of the passages, and 
 satisfied as to the object of his quest.
 
 200 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 Moncrieff's selfishness was so thoroughly 
 ingenuous that it frequently, as in the present 
 instance, provoked Christian into trying how 
 far it would go. But Christian had better 
 have refrained from the experiment to-night, 
 for she felt need enough for her own cover- 
 ings, when she took her stand at the hall 
 door, and began to weary for the cab which 
 Mr Urquhart was to bring. Minute after 
 minute passed, each seeming longer than 
 the one before, but still it did not come ; 
 all the people went away, and the hall was 
 closed, and Christian was left alone — but 
 still it did not come ; the steeple-clock at 
 the cross struck eleven — but still it did not 
 come. 
 
 It was no time for a girl to be lingering 
 here. So bitterly cold as it was too ; and 
 she bareheaded, and with nothing warmer 
 over her evening dress than the lightest 
 of opera cloaks. How she trembled, as 
 she shrank closer to the hall door, under 
 the awning ; and even if she had not 
 trembled with cold, she would have trembled
 
 An Atalanta Race. 201 
 
 before long with fear. Gradually the wonder 
 why Mr Urquhart was so tardy about fetch- 
 ing the cab, gave way to the conviction that 
 he did not intend fetching it at all. What 
 could be the meaning of it ? Was ever 
 any girl in such a dismal plight ? 
 
 And now were heard the shouting and 
 laughter of a too hilarious crew, turned 
 into the streets from the tavern by the 
 Forbes Mackenzie Act, but jubilantly re- 
 solved not to go home till morning, till 
 daylight did appear. The sound came 
 nearer — nearer ; the tramp of unsteady feet 
 advanced. 
 
 Christian would wait here no longer ; 
 she dared not brave a gang of tipsy rev- 
 ellers ; she must at all hazards do the best 
 she could to get to Argyll Gardens. She 
 had not the faintest notion of the way ; only 
 she might be fortunate enough to guess 
 aright. Forth she came, then, and passed 
 fleetly along this narrow street into the wider 
 one beyond. 
 
 What a nieht it was ! The skies would
 
 202 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 have been black, but that they were aglare 
 with the reflection of many furnaces, and 
 the rain was falling in the way Netherlaw 
 rain does fall, as if it would never leave off 
 again. Not weather, assuredly, for a bare 
 head, gauzy dress, and satin shoes. Still, 
 the deluge, if in one respect it incommoded 
 Christian, in another was of service to her ; 
 since because of it the public ways were 
 deserted, and, excepting the boon com- 
 panions she had fled from before, no living 
 thing was abroad either to wonder at or to 
 molest the girl ; so at least for a time. But 
 when she reached Arcade Street, the show 
 street of Netherlaw — through which she 
 must have driven ere now with Mrs Cas- 
 sillis, though she certainly did not recognise 
 it again, — and while she hesitated, not know- 
 ing whether to go up that would bring 
 her right, or put her altogether wrong, a man 
 appeared from an opening opposite and, 
 catching sight of her, suddenly halted. She 
 at once hurried on, and — and — she was sure 
 of it ! the man crossed in pursuit. To the
 
 An Atalanta Race. 203 
 
 other side she ran. The man increased his 
 speed and followed, Her heart gave great 
 wild throbs of terror ; — she sped on — up — 
 across ; no matter whether right or wrong 
 now. Yet, though she almost flew, she 
 could still hear the pursuer's footsteps keep- 
 ing fast behind. All the buildings here 
 were business premises, therefore empty 
 at this hour ; so there was no refuge. 
 What would she do ? What must become 
 of her ? 
 
 Still rushing on, as if for dear life, she 
 at the last extremity descried help afar off 
 in the shape of a policeman turning a cor- 
 ner, and, thank Providence ! he came in her 
 direction. He advanced with measured tread, 
 looking, as a matter of form, to the security 
 of each door he passed. At sight of the 
 flying girl's figure, he stopped short and 
 waited. He was witness of too many sen- 
 sational night-scenes to be easily stirred 
 from his stolidity. He did not even specu- 
 late ; not he ! unmoved, unwondering, he 
 was ready for anything that could betide.
 
 204 Miss Elvestcrs Girls. 
 
 When Christian got near enough for 
 speech, she gasped out, — 
 
 1 I've lost my way. Tell me how I shall 
 reach Cassillis Gardens.' 
 
 ' No such a place hereaway/ said the 
 policeman, and he turned the light of his 
 lantern full on the questioner's face — a very 
 frightened face, all wet with rain, and sur- 
 rounded with dripping love-locks. The 
 garments of this unlucky one were dripping 
 too, and her white satin shoes were no 
 longer white, and altogether she was in a 
 pitiable case. 
 
 ' I am a stranger in Netherlaw,' explained 
 Christian, speaking as well as she could for 
 panting — she saw that she was looked upon 
 as a suspicious character, nor could she 
 marvel at that. ' I got separated from my 
 party at the Town Hall to-night, and now I 
 can't find my way to Argyll Gardens/ 
 
 1 That's a different tale,' responded the 
 policeman ; ' you said Cassillis Gardens last 
 last time, miss.' 
 
 Then he gave the required directions ;
 
 An Atalanta Race. 
 
 205 
 
 through by Saint Barnabas, straight up 
 River Street as far as Lockerbie Street, 
 along Lockerbie Street to the Western 
 Cross — ' 
 
 ' I should know my way if I were at the 
 Western Cross,' said Christian, ' but I — ' 
 
 She stopped, and scarcely knowing what 
 she did, grasped the policeman's arm for 
 protection. 
 
 1 Don't you be feared,' said the giant re- 
 assuringly ; 'I'll soon settle him;' and he 
 wheeled about to face the cause of this 
 pretty girl's alarm. 
 
 * What's the meaning of this, sir ? ' he 
 demanded in tones of thunder. 
 
 ' The young lady has made a mistake ; 
 that is all, my man,' replied the pursuer, 
 quite unabashed. 
 
 And then Christian knew that she had 
 this whole time been measuring her speed 
 with that of Captain Glen Cassillis.
 
 mm 
 
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 tmZM®^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AUNT EUPHEMIA. 
 
 The Dowager, in ancient flounces, 
 With snuff and spectacles she folly trounces, 
 And, moralising, thus the age denounces. 
 
 N her return from the concert, Mrs 
 Cassillis found visitors : Quentin 
 of Baronshaugh. namely, and the 
 dowager lady his mother. The Laird of 
 Laighbield, though in his twenty-first year, 
 looked the merest boy ; and he was a vague, 
 limp lad, who would by no means have 
 answered the requirements of a Mrs Baillie 
 Cxeddes in respect of stamina. 
 
 What the poor Quentin lacked in indi- 
 vidual colouring, his mother more than made 
 up for. Behold her, — A tall, angular form,
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 207 
 
 with sharp features, small, dark, piercing 
 eyes, no lips to mention, and high cheek- 
 bones, abutted on by grey, stern, stiff comb- 
 curls. This was a woman who wore dresses 
 of a proper walking length, and who never 
 allowed her back and the back of chair, 
 church-pew or carriage even for one half- 
 minute to remain in contact, so upright she 
 was. She held gloomy views in regard to 
 the rising generation, — gloomier than all, 
 regarding her niece Moncrieff; Moncrieff 
 lounged ; Moncrieff trailed yards of useless 
 material behind her when she walked ; Mon- 
 crieff was wholly given up to vanity. The 
 dowager's salutation to this sad, young re- 
 lative of hers when they met in the drawing- 
 room at Argyll Gardens was, — 
 
 ' From home again, Moncrieff! You do 
 not obey the apostolic injunction laid upon 
 women, to be keepers at home.' 
 
 1 I have just been at home for a whole 
 week,' said Moncrieff righteously ; ' and one 
 stagnates when one is more than a week 
 without seeing anybody, Aunt Euphemia.'
 
 208 Afzss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 Being of the class who are constantly say- 
 ing censorious things, and then taking credit 
 for their quite unnecessary candour, calling 
 it straightforward honesty, Aunt Euphemia 
 hereupon added to the apostolic injunction 
 her own opinion anent the subject of idle 
 gadders about, ranking them with tattlers 
 also, and busy-bodies, who speak things that 
 they ought not. 
 
 Moncrieff, it is to be feared, did not lay 
 the homily to heart as could have been 
 desired ; her attention wavered a good deal, 
 and on the first possible opportunity she 
 hastened to exchange the dowager's dreary 
 didactics for the more congenial attentions 
 of Quentin and Glen. 
 
 In process of time Dugald came in. But, 
 strange to say, he came alone ; so the ques- 
 tion at once arose, what of Miss Elvester ? 
 Mr Urquhart really could not say ; he had 
 never spoken to, never even thought about, 
 Miss Elvester to-night. 
 
 ' You were to bring her up in a cab,' said 
 his sister ; ■ I told you so.'
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 209 
 
 * Ah, so you did ; it occurs to me now,' he 
 rejoined, with a supreme air ; ' but I told you 
 in return that I would do nothing of the 
 sort ; that it was no affair of mine to look 
 after my aunt's governess.' 
 
 ' Well, Dugald, it was a very nasty thing 
 to say ; but, anyhow, I never heard you say 
 it.' 
 
 ' That must have been because you were 
 listening to somebody else.' 
 
 ' It must have been because you have such 
 a hoarse voice. It was very disagreeable 
 not to repeat, especially when I told Miss 
 Elvester to wait for you at the hall door.' 
 
 Glen, who had been looking more and 
 more surprised, threw down the shawl — ■ 
 Christian's shawl — which he had just taken 
 from his cousin's shoulders, and broke in, — 
 
 ' Told Miss Elvester to wait at the hall 
 door ? You said to me, when you left 
 her in the cloak-room, that she would not 
 come with us, preferring to wait and drive 
 up with Dugald. Mother' (as that lady 
 entered), ' there has been a misunderstand- 
 vol. 1. o
 
 210 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 ing, it seems ; Miss Elvester has been left 
 behind.' 
 
 ' Left behind ! ' echoed Mrs Cassillis. 
 'How has it happened?' 
 
 1 Moncrieff here will tell you how.' 
 
 ' You know yourself there wasn't room 
 for everybody in the carriage, Aunt Mar- 
 jorie,' said Moncrieff, thinking it too bad 
 that any responsibility should be thrown 
 upon her. 
 
 ' Miss Elvester, at any rate, would have 
 found room. But when I questioned you, 
 Moncrieff, you distinctly gave me to under- 
 stand that she had arranged to follow us 
 immediatelv with Du^ald.' 
 
 ' I couldn't have said " arranged," ' Aunt 
 Marjorie.' 
 
 'My dear child, you did say "arranged." 
 I particularly remember it, because I did 
 wonder a little that Miss Elvester should do 
 anything so unlike herself as to make such 
 an arrangement, without any reference to me.' 
 
 1 It is all your doing,' said Moncrieff, 
 shifting the blame to her brother ; ' and I'm
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 211 
 
 sure if Maryanne Kirkpatrick knew how 
 really unamiable you are at heart, she would 
 stop saying that the girl will be very for- 
 tunate who marries you. But there can't 
 be any fear about Miss Elvester, can there ? 
 Lost children are always taken to the police- 
 office ; so if she didn't know where to find 
 a cab-stand, she would only have to turn in 
 there and stop all night. I daresay they 
 would give her their most comfortable cell, 
 especially if she mentioned whose governess 
 she is.' 
 
 Not sharing his cousin's ease of mind 
 respecting Christian, Glen forestalled his 
 mother's charge by saying that he would 
 go to the Town Hall at once. 
 
 ' Dugald also, surely,' said Mrs Cassillis. 
 ' Miss Elvester may be trying to make her 
 way home, and in that case, by taking 
 separate routes, one or other of you will 
 find her most likely, in some intermediate 
 street.' 
 
 Whatever Mr Urquhart's private feelings 
 were, he could not decently refuse com-
 
 2 1 2 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 pliance. At the same time, it required no 
 extraordinary discrimination to perceive that 
 he did not glow with any fiery ardour to 
 sally forth to the succour of this damsel in 
 distress. Chivalry was very well in romance ; 
 in real life Mr Urquhart loved above all 
 things to make and to keep himself com- 
 fortable. 
 
 Till Glen and Dugald were gone, Aunt 
 Euphemia sat silent, taking notes. And 
 the result of her observations when ex- 
 pressed was, — 
 
 1 Yes, yes, Marjorie ; this is a very pretty 
 story indeed.' 
 
 'It is,' replied her sister-in-law. 'Alone, 
 and at midnight, outside the Town Hall — 
 unfortunate child that she is ! ' 
 
 'Humph!' said Mrs Cassillis of Barons- 
 haugh dryly ; ' my own idea is that she's 
 not so much of a child as you suppose. 
 Miss Elvester must be a very foolish young 
 lady, indeed, if she could imagine that you 
 intended her to stay behind you, waiting for 
 Dugald. No, no, Marjorie ; she knew what
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 
 
 would happen, trust me, and decided that it 
 would be pleasanter to return with your son 
 than in general company.' 
 
 The best way of answering many of this 
 acute woman's theories was not to answer 
 them at all. So the other lady looked about, 
 with the intention of saying something more 
 on the subject of the recent misunderstand- 
 ing to Moncrieff. But Moncrieff had very 
 wisely vanished. 
 
 Quentin still remained, though conversa- 
 tionally he was null, having fallen asleep. 
 And he slept peacefully on, till the re- 
 verberating tones of his cousin Dugald 
 first made him dream of an army com- 
 posed of drummers, and then wakened 
 him. 
 
 Mr Urquhart had been unsuccessful in 
 the quest. He had been to the Town 
 Hall, all round about it, up and down 
 every adjacent street and alley — yet here 
 they saw him, with nothing but damp clothes 
 to show for his infinite pains. He could do 
 no more. He gave the business up.
 
 214 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 But even though he had felt eager to 
 carry it on, it would have been all one, since 
 the need for exertion had happily ceased : 
 while he was yet speaking, his cousin 
 brought Christian home. And Christian 
 came to light wrapped in Glen's overcoat, 
 which caused Quentin to observe, in a 
 drowsy aside to Dugald, — 
 
 ' You couldn't tell whether she's a boy 
 or a girl, you know.' 
 
 And caused Quentin's mother to cough 
 ominously : a young woman who could, 
 under any circumstances, parade the streets 
 in male attire, was a young woman about 
 whose principles there was grave reason 
 to stand in doubt. 
 
 ' We had an Atalanta race of it,' said 
 Glen, laughing at the recollection. ' Miss 
 Elvester took me for a midnight assassin ; 
 and she is as fleet of foot as a young roe — 
 she would not let me come within speaking 
 distance of her.' 
 
 ' Atalanta's race was a somewhat different 
 affair from yours, I take it,' said Mr Urquhart.
 
 Aunt Euphernia. 215 
 
 ' Who is Atalanta ? ' inquired the young 
 laird. 
 
 He fancied she might be, or have been, 
 a race-horse. 
 
 ' The less we say, or think, or know, about 
 these foolish Pagan myths the better,' cried 
 his mother, with decision. 
 
 Then she fixed her eyes upon Christian, 
 who was being disencumbered of the great- 
 coat by Glen, and sympathised with by the 
 other Mrs Cassillis. 
 
 1 You have got yourself very wet, Miss 
 Elvester,' said the lady of Baronshaugh ; 
 1 and I have no doubt you feel extremely 
 uncomfortable. But do you mean to tell 
 us that you actually believed it to be 
 the intention of Mrs Cassillis that you 
 should stay behind the party, and that 
 outside the Town Hall, waiting for Mr 
 Urquhart ? At the hour of midnight, 
 too!' 
 
 Put in this way, the thing did seem an 
 incredibility. Yet Christian had believed 
 it, and had acted up to her belief. Before
 
 2 1 6 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 she could answer for herself, however, Glen 
 interposed, saying, — 
 
 ' My aunt is joking, Miss Elvester ; she 
 has a great fund of Scotch humour.' 
 
 And his mother hurried Christian away, 
 for Aunt Euphemia was looking dangerous, 
 and one never knew to what strange 
 lengths she might carry her straightforward 
 honesty. 
 
 As she passed Mr Urquhart, who was 
 posed statuesquely beside a well-filled flower- 
 stand, and who looked down as from some 
 higher world upon the present proceedings, 
 Christian wanted to thank him for his ex- 
 ertions on her behalf, but nothing of the 
 sort would he allow. 
 
 ' No thanks, Miss — ah — Elvester; no 
 thanks to me ' (he said it languidly, at 
 least as languidly as such a voice was 
 capable of saying it) ; 'I would have 
 taken the same trouble for anybody. There 
 is no obligation, I assure you.' 
 
 This disclaimer, while it caused Christian 
 to understand how very little she bulked
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 217 
 
 in Mr Urquhart's estimation, was so 
 highly relished by Aunt Euphemia that 
 the good lady several times over nodded 
 her approval, exactly as she was used 
 to nod in her Church's General Assembly 
 when a favourite divine made a telling 
 point. 
 
 No thanks fell to Captain Cassillis for his 
 share of the trouble : when he opened the door 
 for his mother and Christian, he and the latter 
 silently shook hands. That very silence was 
 fraught with meaning in the eyes of Aunt 
 Euphemia. Words could be weighed and 
 measured, but these significant silences, what 
 might they not cover ? If this soft-voiced, 
 blue - eyed Shetlander was to remain long 
 under the same roof as Glen Cassillis, why, 
 let Marjorie look to it. Did young ladies of 
 fallen fortune enter households such as this 
 with no other end in view than merely the 
 winning of their bread ? Mrs Cassillis of 
 Baronshaugh trowed not ; — Mrs Cassillis of 
 Baronshaugh knew better. 
 
 Of course she did. It had always been
 
 2 1 8 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 her specialty to know better and see farther 
 than any one else, and when she could not 
 possibly either see or know, she did the next 
 wisest thing, and suspected ; for, well-versed 
 in Scripture as she was, her biblical studies 
 had certainly not included the 13th chapter 
 of St Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians. 
 Yet one cannot doubt her righteousness ; she 
 never doubted it herself. She frequently 
 drew a parallel between her own case and 
 that of just Lot, who vexed his righteous 
 soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds 
 of the wicked ; and was not her present 
 object in town to countenance a public 
 meeting called to protest against the run- 
 ning of a proposed Sunday train between 
 Netherlaw and the capital ? 
 
 On the day after Christian's midnight ad- 
 venture, the doctor who was called in (for 
 a doctor had to be called) said something 
 ominous about fever. This caused a disper- 
 sion. Dugald and Moncrieff were scared 
 out of the house at once — the latter still 
 -ranking it very ridiculous that everybody
 
 Aunt Eup hernia. 219 
 
 should seem to blame her because Aunt 
 Marjorie's governess had happened to get 
 a drenching ! Willie Ruthven was dis- 
 patched to a place of safety, and Quentin 
 of Baronshaugh was sent by his mother 
 afar. As for herself, the dowager would 
 stay where she was till her purpose of pro- 
 testing against Sabbath desecration were 
 accomplished, braving danger in the path of 
 duty as a sound-principled, rightly-regulated 
 Free Churchwoman should. 
 
 Notwithstanding medical prognostications, 
 Christian did not come to any harm ; nothing 
 befel her more serious than an influenza cold, 
 and in a day or two she was able to leave her 
 room. 
 
 ' There is no chance of your running away 
 from me this time,' said Glen, when he saw 
 her on a couch by the parlour fire. 
 
 And then, in spite of her rather constrained 
 reply (she always was a little constrained with 
 Captain Cassillis, somehow), he sat down and 
 showed every intention of making himself 
 agreeable. He, like his cousin Dugald, had
 
 220 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 taken some time fully to realise Christian's 
 peculiar charm ; but now-a-days, he thought, 
 what a very pretty creature she was, — not 
 like Moncrieff, of course, flashing before 
 men's eyes with an almost blinding beauty, 
 but a flower-like little thing who, though 
 she would never dazzle, must surely always 
 please. 
 
 ' It's a hard case,' he said to her, smiling, 
 
 * that you should have to spend Christmas in 
 this nunnery fashion. Have you anything 
 to read ? — anything interesting, like — ' and 
 he named the book she had had in her hand 
 when he saw her for the first time. 
 
 4 Thank you,' she replied, ' I have more to 
 read than I can manage. But I did not read 
 that, though I opened it,' she added proudly ; 
 
 * only I see no reason why I might not, if I 
 had chosen.' 
 
 ' Nor do I. Yet I am rather glad that you 
 did not choose/ 
 
 ' I don't know why you should be glad ; I 
 don't know why a man should think badly of 
 a girl for having only done something which
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 221 
 
 he isn't one bit ashamed of having done 
 himself! ' 
 
 ' I will tell you why. It is because men 
 want to be able to think very much better 
 of girls than they can think of themselves. 
 We are sorry whenever you condescend to 
 meet us on our own level.' 
 
 This brought to Christian's mind the 
 speech, — 
 
 * What we seek and must find when we 
 come to you is, a rest — a change.' 
 
 And a smile flickered in her eyes for a 
 moment, then was gone. 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs Cassillis of Baronshau^h 
 had heard the call of duty bidding her 
 hither ; so at this juncture she marched 
 solemnly into the parlour. She ignored the 
 chair which her nephew offered her, and 
 looked about for one sufficiently uncomfort- 
 able to find pleasure in ; but, looking in vain, 
 she had to accept Glen's in the end. She 
 did so under protest, observing that this was 
 an age of self-indulgence indeed ; our very 
 seats were constructed in such a fashion as
 
 222 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 to foster habits of lounging and sloth. Her 
 glance was upon the couch as she spoke, 
 and Christian, feeling the reproof, raised 
 herself into a position as erect as anybody 
 could desire. 
 
 ' That is right/ said Mrs Cassillis. ' There 
 is nothing like keeping up. Illness may 
 often be warded off by just refusing to 
 recognise it. Half of the disease we hear 
 about is really nothing else than indolence 
 and self-indulgence.' 
 
 ' So you see, Miss Elvester, if you have 
 a sufficiently strong will, you needn't be 
 ill at all ; and if you're only determined 
 enough about it you may live for ever, I 
 suppose,' said Glen. 
 
 But Aunt Euphemia indicated that this 
 was ' foolish talking and jesting, which are 
 not convenient/ 
 
 ' Had you a satisfactory meeting last 
 night ? ' inquired Glen, a little while after, 
 not that he cared about the meeting, but 
 only to divert attention from the couch, for 
 his mother had come in and was making
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 223 
 
 Christian once more resume the posture of 
 indolent self-indulgence. 
 
 ' A capital meeting/ said his aunt em- 
 phatically. ' Did you not read the report 
 of it?' 
 
 ' No ; I contented myself with the Re- 
 flectors remarks.' 
 
 ' And scurrilously low remarks they are, 
 Glen. The Reflector s position must indeed 
 be weak, when it stoops to make use of such 
 sorry weapons.' 
 
 ' Yes ; it is a mean advantage to take of 
 your protestors, to ask them why, in their zeal 
 for the Fourth Commandment, they trample 
 under foot such more excellent precepts as 
 " Let brotherly love continue." Though 
 there was a squabble on the platform, it 
 was cruel to mention it ; we others have 
 no business to take notice when doctors 
 disagree.' 
 
 ' Oh, fie ! there was no disagreement worth 
 the name. Reporters have a way of garb- 
 ling accounts, which says little for the 
 integrity either of themselves or of the
 
 224 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 newspapers that employ them. Here are 
 the facts of the case : That able man, Dr 
 Doeg Sledgehammer, in lamenting Sabbath 
 desecration in England, went on to remark 
 that it had before now justly been observed 
 of Episcopalians, that their response after 
 the reading of the Fourth Commandment in 
 their churches would be, if they were con- 
 sistent, " Lord, have mercy upon us, for we 
 are resolved to break this law. " Upon 
 this Mr Harpiscord, the incumbent of St 
 Timothy's, got up in a most unseemly spirit, 
 declaring " that he was an Englishman, and 
 was proud of it ; he was an Episcopalian to 
 the back-bone, and gloried in it," and so forth 
 — and so forth. It was ill-judged in the 
 extreme, and it has given the enemy occasion 
 to rejoice. But from such a quarter what 
 could we expect ? Yet, why speak of prelacy, 
 when there is in our very midst a church in 
 which Erastianism is rampant ; where the 
 flocks are starved, or, worse still, poisoned ; 
 where, as a rule, the ministry are slothful 
 and lifeless ; dumb dogs, as the Scriptures
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 225 
 
 calls such hirelings — the loaves and fishes all 
 that they desire.' 
 
 'Is Dr Brackenburn according to rule ? ' 
 asked Glen, his aunt having paused to draw 
 breath. 
 
 ' Dr Brackenburn is latitudinarian,' replied 
 the lady, with disdain. 
 
 ' Does that mean that he allows people 
 to have hot dinners on Sunday ? ' 
 
 1 It means that his views are danger- 
 ous, unsound, and unscriptural, Glen. But, 
 even putting errors in doctrine aside, 
 what can be said for a man who, hold- 
 ing Dr Brackenburn's position, makes a 
 giddy, spoilt, and pampered worldling his 
 wife ? ' 
 
 1 Well, what can be said but that he was 
 very much in love with her ? ' 
 
 ' Stuff and nonsense, young man ! Matilda 
 Cannisbay has two thousand a-year, and 
 there lies her attraction. And naturally, 
 she is aware of her own power. Never did 
 a minister's wife act so arrogantly ; but in 
 fact Dr Brackenburn himself is little better 
 vol. 1. p
 
 226 Miss Elvester's Girls. 
 
 at times. One day lately, for example, 
 when I met him out-of-doors, and was 
 laying before him my conscientious reasons 
 for refusing to subscribe to his wife's soup 
 kitchen, or in any other way encourage her 
 so-called charities, also putting it to him, 
 as a preacher of the Word, whether a day 
 of fasting and humiliation throughout the 
 parish were not a likelier means of re- 
 lieving the Laighbield poor than any 
 number of humanly - devised soup kit- 
 chens ; when I was urging this upon him, 
 I say, he unceremoniously cut me short, 
 and for what purpose, do you suppose ? 
 Only that he might pass on to an old pauper 
 whom he saw waiting for him. Now, I 
 maintain that a minister ought ever to bear 
 in mind the scriptural precept, " Honour to 
 whom honour is due." ' 
 
 1 For even in heaven it is quite plain, 
 As stars with different glory shine, 
 There shall be people poor and fine, 
 For perfect order there shall reign, 
 And one wouldn't like to go over the line/ 

 
 Aunt Euphemia. 227 
 
 quoted Glen, from a poem just then on every 
 drawing-room table in Netherlaw. 
 
 And Glen's mother now turned from petting 
 Christian, to say a word for the accused. 
 
 ' I have always particularly admired Dr 
 Brackenburn just for his freedom from re- 
 spect of person,' she observed. ' To me it is 
 beautiful to see him in his parish, calling 
 the little children by name, and asking the 
 mothers all about sons and daughters who 
 have left the home. My present sewing 
 maid is a Laighbield girl, and that young 
 woman is a staunch believer in the infalli- 
 bility of Dr Brackenburn.' 
 
 ' Do you hold yourself justified m the 
 encouragement of such an exalting of the 
 instrument ? ' demanded the lady of Barons- 
 haugh. 
 
 ' I would rather have young people hero- 
 worshippers than not,' said the other, 
 ' granted they choose their hero wisely.' 
 
 ' The fear of man worketh a snare, 
 Marjorie.' 
 
 ' Pardon me, by hero-worship I only
 
 228 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 mean that reverent admiration of the higher 
 than himself, which is what one of our 
 moralists calls the perfect human faculty in 
 man.' 
 
 ' Perfect ! ' echoed Mrs Cassillis of Barons- 
 haugh, wilfully twisting the sense to suit her 
 own purpose, ' perfect human faculty ! I open 
 a certain old-fashioned book, Marjorie, and 
 there I read, " The heart is deceitful above 
 all things, and desperately wicked." ' Then 
 without suffering a reply, she went back to 
 finish the sum of Dr Brackenburn's trans- 
 gressions. 
 
 ' They had lately in Laighbield parish 
 church a sermon — or what they name 
 sermon ; / name it otherwise — on gossip- 
 ing : they go to get the gospel, and they 
 get gossiping.' 
 
 ' They needed such a sermon, I'll be 
 bound,' cried Glen. ' Dare one hope any- 
 body laid it to heart ? ' 
 
 1 That is what Dr Brackenburn is pleased 
 to call practical preaching,' proceeded this 
 would-be tuner of the national pulpit. What
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 229 
 
 I term it is a secularising of the sacred calling 
 — a degrading of the preacher's office. But I 
 thoroughly fathomed the meaning of the said 
 discourse. Dr Brackenburn is aware how 
 his wife is spoken about, and his idea is, 
 to shut people's mouths by convincing his 
 hearers that gossip is sinful. Had he been 
 a man of genuine stuff, he would have 
 scorned the pitiful subterfuge. But if he 
 wants texts of that description, I can supply 
 a text to him ; even this : " So must their 
 wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faith- 
 ful in all things."' 
 
 Mrs Cassillis of Argyll Gardens never 
 argued with her sister of Baronshaugh ; so 
 she let this interpretation pass unchallenged. 
 Glen spoke. 
 
 ' How about your own parson's wife ?' he 
 asked. ' She's all right, I suppose — up to 
 the mark in gravity — sober enough to 
 please ? ' 
 
 ' She is an estimable person enough in her 
 own way, I have no doubt,' replied Aunt 
 Euphemia, speaking as if this were a sore
 
 230 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 subject with her. 'Mr M'Spur, when a 
 student, got entangled with a girl in his 
 then position ; and afterwards, though he 
 might have done much better, very much 
 better, he married her.' 
 
 1 I fail to see how he could do better than 
 marry the woman he had engaged himself 
 to,' said Glen. 
 
 ' A clergyman's wife ought always to be 
 a gentlewoman.' 
 
 ' That is an interpolation ; it is not in the 
 original canon. My dear aunt, I am shocked 
 at such morality ; even I, latitudinarian as I 
 am, have stricter notions about the nature of 
 a promise than your creed, so ultra-orthodox, 
 seems to require.' 
 
 ' Most ridiculous, Glen ; the boy's promise 
 is often wisely broken by the man.' 
 
 ' Hardly, I should think, when the break- 
 ing of it may be breaking a heart as well.' 
 
 Sentimental refinement of their order Aunt 
 Euphemia did not understand ; and she de- 
 manded with cold scorn, if Glen himself 
 would be prepared to throw distinctions of
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 231 
 
 class to the four winds, and marry some 
 village maid. 
 
 ' Yes ; if I had pledged my word to it,' 
 he answered, laughing ; ' and though you 
 might refuse to acknowledge the bride, my 
 mother would be gracious to her, I think.' 
 
 With that Captain Cassillis withdrew, and 
 went to spend the evening at his club ; he 
 could never manage more than half-an-hour 
 at a measure of Aunt Euphemia. Mrs Cas- 
 sillis of Baronshaugh thought it a bad sign 
 in a young man, that he could not sit quietly 
 with his female relatives at home ; so she 
 shook her head after the retreating form. 
 
 ' I fear, Marjorie,' she said, ' that your son 
 has not been improved by a military life ; 
 and I know he imbibed reckless, unsettled 
 notions while he lived about the Continent. 
 Germany is a very hotbed of Socialism and 
 its accompaniments. As to the universities, 
 they are nationalistic to the core ; no student 
 who enters them escapes the taint. There 
 is that young man they have got in Auch- 
 terbrechan now, for example. He, not con-
 
 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 tent with the ordinary curriculum, must, in 
 his pride of intellect, have a course of Ger- 
 man theology, forsooth ! So to Germany he 
 went. Well ; what is the consequence ? 
 Simply this : his laxity of doctrine is such, 
 that had he belonged to the Free Church, 
 he would have been arraigned before our 
 higher court, and effectually silenced. But 
 in the State Church, where such as he fitly 
 take shelter, heresy may come in like a flood, 
 yet none seeks to stem the torrent. I am 
 told that the said individual has the pre- 
 sumption to treat the inspired narratives as 
 if they were mere ordinary human composi- 
 tion, calling the story of Isaac and Rebecca 
 a quaint pastoral, if you please ! and deny- 
 ing that Solomon was the author of Eccle- 
 siastes, and more of such profanity than I 
 can bring myself even to repeat. By the 
 way, Miss Elvester, you must know the man 
 I mean. I suppose you have heard that 
 he is a fortune-hunter like the rest of his 
 class. No ? Well, now I tell you of it. 
 He is engaged to the niece and presumptive
 
 Aunt Euphemia. 233 
 
 heiress of Greatfellow, the rich bonnet manu- 
 facturer. I hope the match may not yet 
 be rued by all the parties concerned,' added 
 Aunt Euphemia — with ' but I know it will 
 be,' understood. 

 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 VEXATIOUS ! 
 
 Oh, why should fate sic pleasure have 
 
 Life's dearest bands untwining ? 
 Or why sae sweet a flower as love 
 
 Depend on Fortune's shining? 
 
 :HE bazaar for which Christian had 
 i worked as Moncrieff's proxy was 
 ; opened with demonstration, and 
 carried on with energy ; and those engaged 
 in the gay fancy fair had all the satisfaction 
 of at the same time enjoying themselves and 
 advancing a good cause. It must be con- 
 fessed that the former consideration only 
 had any weight with Moncrieff. It was a 
 pleasant thought, that of figuring among a 
 garden of girls, herself conspicuously the
 
 Vexatious! 235 
 
 belle. And for a very little while the actual 
 fact was rather pleasant too. But as any- 
 body who knew Miss Urquhart might have 
 expected, the edge of the enjoyment soon 
 wore off. The sale was to last five days : 
 by the end of the first the pleasure had 
 begun to pall ; by the end of the second 
 Moncrieff had thrown the business up. The 
 heat and confinement had been ' too disgust- 
 ingly tiresome ' to her. Worse even than 
 that, her colleagues had behaved in the most 
 atrocious manner ; had actually objected to 
 her general method of procedure. For it 
 had not commended itself to them that Miss 
 Urquhart should systematically attend to 
 gentlemen customers only, and leave lady 
 customers to chance ; or that she should 
 carry matters as though there was nobody 
 so much as to be thought of except herself: 
 her characteristic ignoring of all claims but 
 her own did not amuse these young ladies, 
 as it sometimes amused Christian. They 
 were, with one exception, justly indignant, 
 and made no scruple of letting Moncrieff
 
 236 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 see that they were so. This exception was 
 the fancy-pattern loving Miss Kirkpatrick ; 
 and she, whatever her secret thoughts might 
 be, spoke only words as smooth as butter to 
 Miss Urquhart. The other stall -holders 
 believed that they had the key to this ; and 
 they smiled among themselves when Miss 
 Kirkpatrick entreated Miss Urquhart not to 
 forsake the flowers — for it was the flower-stall 
 at which these young ladies officiated — they 
 would wither and die if she did. But Moncrieff 
 was not to be won back by this pathetic remon- 
 strance ; she washed her hands of the whole 
 affair, and drove off in a pet to Argyll Gardens. 
 
 They had told her that if she did persist 
 in leaving them, she must find a substitute — 
 so she at once got hold of Christian, and 
 unfolded all her woes. 
 
 ' Of course, Miss Elvester,' she concluded, 
 ' you will be the substitute.' 
 
 ' I don't see that it is of course at all,' was 
 the reply. ' My sisters expect me at Laigh- 
 bield this week ; besides, I shouldn't know 
 how to be a saleswoman.'
 
 Vexatiotis ! 
 
 237 
 
 Of the first objection Moncrieff took not 
 the slightest notice. The expectations of 
 Miss Elvester's sisters could be disappointed, 
 and no harm done. One week was as good 
 as another for Laighbield. 
 
 ' You'll have no trouble/ she answered ; 
 ' you needn't give any change back. And 
 you can ask what price you like for the 
 flowers. Cousin Glen offered me ten guineas 
 for a rose that I wore in my dress ; but he 
 wouldn't have given any one else so much, 
 of course.' 
 
 ' I suppose not.' 
 
 ' You can have some cigars by you,' pro- 
 ceeded Moncrieff; ' men will pay anything 
 you choose, if you've bitten off the ends. I 
 wouldn't do such a sickening thing myself; 
 but you can, if you care.' 
 
 ' I don't think I shall care.' 
 
 ' Oh ! I daresay you will, if you can get 
 enough money. But I wish I had never 
 gone to these bazaars ; I wish there was no 
 such thing as a bazaar ; as Dugald says, you 
 get mingled up with such offensive people.
 
 238 Miss Elvester s Girls. 
 
 Now, Miss Elvester, hasrit it been vexatious 
 to me ? ' 
 
 Vexatious to her as it had been, — a vexa- 
 tion of a much more serious character followed 
 close in its wake. Christian agreed, out of 
 pure good nature, to be the substitute ; so 
 that was settled. But Moncrieff could not 
 be at ease till she had told the whole story to 
 everybody whom she came near, and asked 
 them separately and individually if they did 
 not think it had been vexatious to her. 
 
 When Glen, in his turn, was appealed to, 
 he did not show quite so much sympathy as 
 might have been looked for. 
 
 ' If it has been so vexatious to you, what 
 is it to be to Miss Elvester ? ' he would like 
 to know. 
 
 Willie Ruthven, playing about the room, 
 ran forward when this was asked. 
 
 ' My Miss Elvester has gone to keep a 
 bazaar,' he said, full of the subject. ' And 
 grandmamma has gone with her too. And 
 I'm to be allowed to stay here for a while 
 beside cousin Moncrieff, — I am.'
 
 Vexatious ! 239 
 
 4 Well, see that you don't make yourself 
 troublesome, that's all/ said Glen. ' Cousin 
 Moncrieff won't stand any nonsense, I can 
 tell you.' 
 
 Something caught Willie's attention, — the 
 child gazed at the man with round innocent 
 eyes for a moment, then he asked,— 
 
 ' Is the flower you've got in your coat the one 
 you gave cousin Moncrieff ten guineas for ? ' 
 
 His uncle stared at him. 
 
 ' Cousin Moncrieff said that you asked her 
 to give you her flower from her neck for ten 
 guineas, Uncle Glen.' 
 
 Moncrieff, with unwonted energy, sprang 
 up, and herself rang for the nurse. 
 
 1 I was doing a long, long sum on my new 
 slate,' pursued Willie ; ' and it was then that 
 cousin Moncrieff came in. And I've eot a 
 
 o 
 
 whole guinea of my own, and ten fingers, so 
 that is how I could keep so good mind about 
 the ten guineas. And do you know what they 
 do at bazaars too, Uncle Glen ? they have 
 cigars — cousin Moncrieff took a box of cigars 
 from your room, nurse says so, and — '
 
 240 Miss Elv esters Girls. 
 
 Here fate in the form of 'nurse' seized 
 upon Willie, and he was borne off struggling, 
 and declaring that he would tell his Miss 
 Elvester as soon as she came home ; he 
 would — he would — he would. 
 
 ' That horrid little thing is quite idiotic,' 
 observed Moncrieff, peace having once more 
 settled down ; ' you can't believe a word he 
 says — so sinful ? What is the use of Miss 
 Elvester, if she can't teach him anything but 
 story-telling ?' 
 
 1 The use of Miss Elvester,' rejoined Glen, 
 satirically, ' is to go on with work that Miss 
 Urquhart has undertaken, and got tired of.' 
 
 ' Indeed, she was only too glad to have an 
 excuse given her for staying on here, as 
 long 2^ you remain in Netherlaw : of course 
 she was, cousin Glen.' 
 
 1 For heaven's sake, Moncrieff, don't get 
 into the way of saying such things. You 
 can't know how they sound.' 
 
 1 Oh, well, you can scold Dugald, for it 
 was he who put it into my head. He 
 says — '
 
 Vexatious! 241 
 
 1 1 won't hear what he says, not one word 
 of it, Moncrieff; but if it was anything of 
 that sort, he never in his life talked more 
 absolute nonsense. But what about that 
 ten-guinea offer of mine, that Willie tells 
 us of? When did I offer you ten guineas 
 for a flower ? ' 
 
 1 You would have done it, if you had 
 thought, cousin Glen.' 
 
 ' But as I didn't think, why did you say I 
 did do it ? ' 
 
 ' I'm sure it's anything but nice to show 
 yourself so inquisitive ; indeed, it is quite old- 
 maidish to be so prying and sly and curious.' 
 
 ' Old-maidish let it be ; but answer my 
 question, please.' 
 
 ' I quite detest to be questioned. It's 
 very unkind of you. But if you must 
 know, I said it just to keep up your credit.' 
 
 ' How very considerate of you ! ' 
 
 1 How very quarrelsome you have grown, 
 cousin Glen. And men who are nice 
 always do those things at bazaars.' 
 
 * More's the pity, I think.' 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 242 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 'It is all for the poor,' said charitable 
 MoncriefT ; so I don't think you need grudge 
 it so much. And at any rate, you didrit 
 give it ; you didn't even buy a pair of gloves 
 or a flask of scent.' 
 
 ' I am a mean beggar ; but it can't be 
 helped.' 
 
 ' It was a horrible bazaar, of course ; still, 
 there were quantities of very useful things — 
 the sweetest fans and hair ornaments and 
 girdles. I daresay you couldn't afford it, 
 cousin Glen. But you could have borrowed 
 money, couldn't you ? ' 
 
 ' From Dugald, for instance.' 
 
 ■ No ; Dugald is parsimonious ; he never 
 lends. But there are money-lending offices, 
 aren't there — Three Golden Balls, or Bells, 
 or something. At any rate, you might have 
 bought something, so that you mightn't have 
 been called penurious.' 
 
 ' Penurious, did you say ? Well, it was 
 chill penury that repressed my natural desire 
 to stand high in your opinion and froze the 
 genial current of my soul. Yet, I did buy
 
 Vexatious ! 
 
 a trifle or two which I hope you will deign to 
 wear for my sake.' 
 
 The attention was accepted quite as a 
 matter of course, with a cool. — 
 
 ' Thanks so much, cousin Glen/ 
 
 Moncrieff then went back to the borrow- 
 ing idea. 
 
 ' Why, if you are hard up, don't you raise 
 money on your prospects ? ' she inquired. 
 ' You will be so outrageously rich, you know, 
 when your old bachelor uncle dies.' 
 
 1 I have no bachelor uncle,' replied Glen. 
 ' I have learnt to-day that my uncle con- 
 tracted a private marriage years ago with 
 a woman in a different station of life, and 
 that he has now acknowledged his wife and 
 family. Quite right of him, too ; only, there 
 is an end to my prospects.' 
 
 Moncrieff was confounded ; she had always 
 looked upon Glen as the undoubted heir to 
 untold wealth. 
 
 1 Oh, wasn't it low of him ! ' she ejaculated. 
 ' And he nearly two hundred, the disagreeable 
 old mummy ! '
 
 244 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 4 He wasn't more than one hundred when 
 he married,' said Glen ; ' and my mother's 
 brother is a far finer-looking man than I am ; 
 he cannot exactly be called a mummy.' 
 
 1 I wish old men weren't allowed to marry,' 
 cried Moncrieff. ' It puts one out so. There 
 is a farce called " The Wicked World," but 
 it isn't a farce, it is true, when old men 
 are allowed to marry. Aren't you very 
 furious, cousin Glen ? ' 
 
 ' Don't I look furious ? But never mind. 
 I haven't lost all that makes life beautiful ; 
 I have still my cousin Moncrieff.' 
 
 And so Glen turned off the thing with a 
 jest. Nobody ever heard him adopt any 
 other tone. If he did take the disappoint- 
 ment to heart, he certainly managed to cover 
 his chagrin most effectually. 
 
 It was Moncrieff who harped on the pity 
 of it, and wished that private marriages did 
 not count ; and made out her cousin's uncle 
 to be a hoary monster of iniquity. Yet, let 
 it not be supposed that Moncrieff was for 
 once making an attempt to forget self, and
 
 Vexatious ! 245 
 
 bear another's burden. As a matter of fact, 
 nothing was farther from her mind. Among 
 the multitude of her admirers — or supposed 
 admirers, for on this subject the beauty 
 imagined a good deal — there was not one 
 whom she liked so well as Glen Cassillis. 
 It would be a mistake to say that she was 
 in love with him ; Moncrieff was incapable 
 of a passion ; yet she came as near to lov- 
 ing Glen as it was possible for her to come. 
 She had always intended to share Glen's 
 fortune. Nothing had been spoken between 
 them about marriage, it is true, nor did she 
 desire that there should be any verbal 
 agreement about the matter just yet. Once 
 engaged to Glen, he would insist upon re- 
 taining all one's favours to himself; and 
 how particularly poky one would have to be. 
 So, freedom from the present, and flirtation 
 to one's heart's content ; then, at the proper 
 time, Glen would speak out, — Moncrieff had 
 not a doubt of it, — and everything would 
 come round exactly as one had planned. 
 And now to be suddenly informed that there
 
 246 Miss Elvesters Girls. 
 
 would never be any fortune for Glen at all. 
 How cruelly disappointing ! This was a 
 vexation before which every other paled. 
 Yes ; it was a wicked world in which such 
 misdemeanours as private marriages could 
 be permitted — a wicked world, indeed. 
 
 Of course a marriage with Glen was now 
 out of the question. Trying as it was to 
 abandon that hope, it must be done. Glen 
 was deposed accordingly, and Quentin set 
 up in his stead. 
 
 Quentin's readiness to marry her was, 
 Moncrieff believed, quite equal to Glen's ; 
 and Quentin seemed, on the whole, more 
 eligible than any of the other men who were 
 dying for her ; his social standing was un- 
 exceptionable, and his estate brought him 
 many thousands a-year. The one draw- 
 back — Aunt Euphemia — could be got over, 
 by being disposed of in the distant dower- 
 house, and never invited to Baronshaugh at 
 all to worry one. (If Aunt Euphemia 
 could have divined the imaginations of Mon- 
 crieff's heart !)
 
 Vexatious ! 247 
 
 In the meantime, Glen must know nothing 
 of this to make him unkind and sulky. No 
 more presents from him, if he should dis- 
 cover how he had been forsaken. And that 
 would be a loss ; for Glen was not really 
 stingy, though one might call him so, just to 
 tease him a little. Poor cousin Glen ! one 
 could not marry him, as bad fortune would 
 have it ; no, but one must as long as possible 
 keep on good terms with him. 
 
 So during the remainder of Glen's stay at 
 Netherlaw, MoncriefPs manner to him was 
 more affectionate than it had ever been 
 before. 
 
 END of vol. 1. 
 
 COLSTON AND SON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.