CHAPTER XVII

"THE SWAP O' RHYMING WARE"

The day following this event I was called into the Mearns to look after
some property which by reason of an entail had been thrust into my
hands. Nancy had planned to accompany me, but the post brought her news
that a German cousin of royalty, who was making a tour of the country,
was intending a visit to the lace-making place on the Burnside, and
Father Michel's word being for her presence at Stair, she gave over the
trip, and watched me set off with Hugh Pitcairn, a bit saddened, I
thought, at the pleasure of the jaunt being taken from her.

"A fine lassie!" Hugh said, looking back at her from the coach window,
"who will do what's right, as she sees it, whether she gains or loses
by it herself. A woman whose word can be believed as another's oath;
who has a thought for the general good, apart from her own emotions;
with something of the old Roman in her sense of justice. Ah," he went
on in his egotism, "she shows training. All women should be taught the
law--something might be made of them then."

I was employed in looking over some unread mail which I had with me
while Hugh was laying these flattering unctions to his soul, and came
at this point upon a letter from one Hastings, an American from the
village of Boston in North America, offering in a kind sure way to
marry my daughter Nancy if he could have my consent. He was a
flat-faced, bigoted Anglo-Saxon, and a creature seemingly designed to
drive a woman of any wideness of judgment into a frenzy, and I grinned
with delight as I handed the letter to Hugh for his perusal.

He read it stolidly and returned it to me, uncommented upon, but
further down the road I could see he was turning Nancy's affairs over
in his mind, for he broke out, with some disjointedness:

"I have always held it a wise arrangement of nature to make women of
notable mentality of a dry and unseductive nature, and pretty women
fools; for if one person held beauty and charm as well as power and
grasp, there is no telling but she could overthrow governments and work
a wide and general mischief. We've much to thank God for," he
continued, "that Nancy Stair is as she is."

The third day of my stay at Alton I received a special post which put
me into some fret of mind. The letter was from Nancy, and is set below
entire:

"MY VERY DEAREST:

"I miss you and am lonesome; for the lady is not coming about the
lace-making, although she sent