In forty-five minutes exactly, he appeared in the drawing-room. Jepson was serving tea, and Christina's cup stood on the piano, for as Robert and Sir Thomas entered the room she was playing with lively, racy spirit, the prelude to the inimitably humorous song of "The Laird o' Cockpen." Sir Thomas went at once to her side, and when he spoke to her, she answered him with the musical, mocking words:
"The laird of Cockpen he's proud, and he's great,
His mind is taen up wi' the things o' the State," etc.
Sir Thomas listened with peals of laughter, and Robert and Mrs. Campbell joined in the merriment. Even Isabel was unable to preserve the usual stillness of her face, though she was far more interested in the singer than the song. Where had all these charming coquetries, this mirth and melody been hidden in the old Christina? This was not the Christina she had known all her life. "It is Theodora's doing," she thought, "and not one of us have given her one word of thanks. It is too bad! And I am sure she stayed in her own room to-night, to give Christina a fair field, and no rival. She is a good woman. I wish mother could like her."
The whole evening was a triumph for Christina. She sang "Sir John Cope" with irresistible raillery, and roused every Scotch feeling in her audience with "Bannocks o' Barley Meal," and "The Kail Brose of Auld Scotland." She told her most amusing stories, and finally induced Sir Thomas Wynton and her brother, mother, and sister to join her in the parting song of "Auld Lang Syne." Then, with evident reluctance, Sir Thomas went away, "thoroughly bewitched in a' his five senses," as he confessed later. Christina knew it, for ere she bid her brother good-night, she found an opportunity to whisper:
"You will owe me five hundred pounds very soon."
"I will pay it," he answered, and she looked backward at him with a laugh. Then he turned to his mother and said: "Who would have believed that Christina had all this fun and mischief in her?"
"Ah, well, Robert," answered Mrs. Campbell, "Scotch girls don't put all their goods in the window. They hold a deal in reserve and there's none but the one man can ever bring it out o' them. I'm thinking Sir Thomas is the one man, in Christina's mind."
"I hope so."
"I have not such a thing as a doubt left."
"Do you tell me that, mother?"