loured prints,
chaffing Jock and Mhor, who fawned round him like two puppy dogs. Peter
had at once made friends with him, and Mrs. M'Cosh, coming into the room
on some errand, edged her way out backwards, her eyes fixed on the
newcomer with an approving stare. As she told Jean later: "For a' Andra
pit me against lords, I canna see muckle wrang wi' this yin. A rale
pleasant fellow I tak' him to be, lord or no lord. If they were a' like
him, we wudna need to be Socialists. It's queer I've aye hed a hankerin'
after thae high-born kinna folk. It's that interestin' to watch them. Ye
niver ken whit they'll dae next, or whit they'll say--they're that
audacious. We wud mak' an awfu' dull warld o' it if we pit them a' awa
to Ameriky or somewhere. I often tell't Andra that, but he said it wud
be a guid riddance ... I'm wonderin' what Bella Bathgate thinks o' him.
It'll be great to hear her breath on't. She's quite comin' roond to Miss
Reston. She was tellin' me she disna think there's onything veecious
about her, and she's gettin' quite used to her manners."

* * * * *

When Pamela departed with her brother to partake of a dinner cooked by
Miss Bathgate (a somewhat doubtful pleasure), Mhor went off to bed, and
Jock curled himself up on the sofa with Peter, for his Friday night's
extra hour with a story-book, while Jean resumed her darning of
stockings.

Her thoughts were full of the sister and brother who had just left.
"Queer they are!" she thought to herself. "If Davie came back to me
after a year in India, I wouldn't have liked to meet him in somebody
else's house. But they seemed quite happy to look at books, and talk
about just anything and play with Jock and Mhor and tease Peter. Now I
expect they'll be talking about their own affairs, but I would have
rushed at the pleasure of hearing all about everything--I couldn't have
waited. Pamela has such a leisured air about everything she does. It's
nice and sort of aloof and quiet--but I could never attain to it. I'm
little and bustling and Martha-like."

Here Jean sighed, and put her fingers through a large hole in the toe of
a stocking.

"I'm only fit to keep house and darn and worry the boys about washing
their ears.... Anyway, I'm glad I had on my Chinese coat."

CHAPTER XV

"Her gown should be of goodliness
Well ribboned with renown,
Purfilled with pleasure in ilk place,
Furred with fine fashion.

Her hat should