ARRANGEMENT AND PREPARATION.
The next morning, the first thing after breakfast, Mr.Sclater, having reflected that Ginevra was under age and they must be careful, resumed for the nonce, with considerable satisfaction, his office of guardian, and holding no previous consultation with Gibbie, walked to the cottage, and sought an interview with Mr.
Galbraith, which the latter accorded with a formality suitable to his idea of his own inborn grandeur.But his assumption had no effect on nut-headed Mr.Sclater, who, in this matter at all events, was at peace with his conscience.
"I have to inform you, Mr.Galbraith," he began, "that Miss Galbraith--""Oh!" said the laird, "I beg your pardon; I was not aware it was my daughter you wished to see."He rose and rang the bell.Mr.Sclater, annoyed at his manner, held his peace.
"Tell your mistress," said the laird, "that the Rev.Mr.Sclater wishes to see her."The girl returned with a scared face, and the news that her mistress was not in her room.The laird's loose mouth dropped looser.
"Miss Galbraith did us the honour to sleep at our house last night,"said Mr.Sclater deliberately.
"The devil!" cried the laird, relieved."Why!--What!--Are you aware of what you are saying, sir?""Perfectly; and of what I saw too.A blow looks bad on a lady's face.""Good heavens! the little hussey dared to say I struck her?""She did not say so; but no one could fail to see some one had.If you do not know who did it, I do.""Send her home instantly, or I will come and fetch her," cried the laird.
"Come and dine with us if you want to see her.For the present she remains where she is.You want her to marry Fergus Duff; she prefers my ward, Gilbert Galbraith, and I shall do my best for them.""She is under age," said the laird.
"That fault will rectify itself as fast in my house as in yours,"returned the minister."If you invite the publicity of a legal action, I will employ counsel, and wait the result."Mr.Sclater was not at all anxious to hasten the marriage; he would much rather, in fact, have it put off, at least until Gibbie should have taken his degree.The laird started up in a rage, but the room was so small that he sat down again.The minister leaned back in his chair.He was too much displeased with the laird's behaviour to lighten the matter for him by setting forth the advantages of having Sir Gibbie for a son-in-law.
"Mr.Sclater," said the laird at length, "I am shocked, unspeakably shocked, at my daughter's conduct.To leave the shelter of her father's roof, in the middle of the night, and--""About seven o'clock in the evening," interjected Mr.Sclater.
"--and take refuge with strangers!" continued the laird.
"By no means strangers, Mr.Galbraith!" said the minister."You drive your daughter from your house, and are then shocked to find she has taken refuge with friends!""She is an unnatural child.She knows well enough what I think of her, and what reason she has given me so to think.""When a man happens to be alone in any opinion," remarked the minister, "even if the opinion should be of his own daughter, the probabilities are he is wrong.Every one but yourself has the deepest regard for Miss Galbraith.""She has always cultivated strangely objectionable friendships,"said the laird.
"For my own part," said the minister, as if heedless of the laird's last remark, "although I believe she has no dowry, and there are reasons besides why the connection should not be desirable, I do not know a lady I should prefer for a wife to my ward."The minister's plain speaking was not without effect upon the laird.
It made him uncomfortable.It is only when the conscience is wide awake and regnant that it can be appealed to without giving a cry for response.Again he sat silent a while.Then gathering all the pomp and stiffness at his command, "Oblige me by informing my daughter," he said, "that I request her, for the sake of avoiding scandal, to return to her father's house until she is of age.""And in the mean time you undertake--"
"I undertake nothing," shouted the laird, in his feeble, woolly, yet harsh voice.