“I have a good idea,” said Mistress Brodie. “I will give a dance on Friday night for the enlisting 97 officers, and we will invite all the presentable young men, and all the prettiest girls, to meet them.”
“But you will be too late on Friday. The cutter and her crew will leave Thursday morning early,” said Ian.
“Then say Wednesday night.”
“That might do. I could tell the men freshly enlisted to wear a white ribbon in their coats–––”
“No, no, no!” cried Rahal. “What are you saying, Ian? A white favour is a Stuart favour. You would set the men fighting in the very dance room. There is no excuse in the Orkneys for a Stuart memory.”
“I was not thinking of the Stuarts. Have they not done bothering yet?”
“In the Scotch heart the Stuart lives forever,” said Rahal, with a sigh.
But the dance was decided on and some preparations made for it as soon as breakfast was over. Ian was enthusiastic on the matter and Thora caught his enthusiasm very readily, and before night, all Kirkwall was preparing to feast and rejoice because England was going to make the great Northern Bear––“the Bear that walks like a man”––stay in the North where he belonged.