ation
and embezzlement into the bargain. Artist-like, she remembered her
triumphs only: she could earn two shillings by her braced of songs, and
for a minute, as she revelled in this proud consciousness, her face lost
its demure, watchful expression, and the old independent, confident
bearing reappeared. Baubie forgot also in her present well-nourished
condition the never-failing sensation of hunger that had gone hand in
hand with these departed glories. But even if she had remembered every
circumstance of her former life, and the privations and sufferings, she
would still have pined for its freedom.

The consequence of her being well fed was simply that her mind was freed
from what is, after all, the besetting occupation of creatures like her,
and was therefore at liberty to bestow its undivided attention upon the
restraints and irksomeness of this new order of things. Her gypsy blood
began to stir in her: the charm of her old vagabond habits asserted
itself under the wincey frock and clean apron. To be commended for
knitting and sewing was no distinction worth talking about. What was it
compared with standing where the full glare of the blazing windows of
some public-house fell upon the Rob Roy tartan, with an admiring
audience gathered round and bawbees and commendations flying thick? She
never thought then, any more than now, of the cold wind or the day-long
hunger. It was no wonder that under the influence of these cherished
recollections "white seam" did not progress and the knitting never
attained to the finished evenness of the lassie Grant's performance.

None the less, although she made no honest effort to equal this model
proposed for her example, did Baubie feel jealous and aggrieved. Her
nature recognized other possibilities of expression and other fields of
excellence beyond those afforded by the above-mentioned useful arts, and
she brooded over her arbitrary and forcedly inferior position with all
the intensity of a naturally masterful and passionate nature. It was all
the more unbearable because she had no real cause of complaint: had she
been oppressed or ill-treated in the slightest degree, or had anybody
else been unduly favored, there would have been a pretext for an
outbreak or a shadow of a reason for her discontent. But it was not so.
The matron dispensed even-handed justice and motherly kindness
impartially all round. And if the lassie Grant's excellences were
somewhat obtrusively contrasted wit