"Well, I am a good wife, I know that. That also is what Batavius says. Just before I got to the gate, I met Madam Semple and Gertrude Van Gaasbeeck; they had been shopping together."
"Did they speak of Katherine?"
"Indeed they did."
"Or did you speak first, Joanna? It is an evil bird that pulls to pieces its own nest."
"O mother, scolded I cannot be for Katherine's folly! My Batavius always said, 'The favourite is Katherine.' Always he thought that of me too much was expected. And Madam Semple said—and always she liked Katherine—that very badly had she behaved for a whole year, and that the end was what everybody had looked for. It is on me very hard,—I who have always been modest, and taken care of my good name. Nobody in the whole city will have one kind word to say for Katherine. You will see that it is so, mother."
"You will see something very different, Joanna. Many will praise Katherine, for she to herself has done well. And, when back she comes, at the governor's she will visit, and with all the great ladies; and not one among them will be so lovely as Katherine Hyde."
And, if Joanna had been in Madam Semple's parlour a few hours later, she would have had a most decided illustration of Lysbet's faith in the popular verdict. Madam was sitting at her tea-table talking to the elder, who had brought home with him the full supplement to Joanna's story. Both were really sorry for their old friends, although there is something in the best kind of human nature that indorses the punishment of those things in which old friends differ from us.
Neil had heard nothing. He had been shut up in his office all day over an important suit; and, when he took the street again, he was weary, and far from being inclined to join any acquaintances in conversation. In fact, the absorbing topic was one which no one cared to introduce in Neil's presence; and he himself was too full of professional matters to notice that he attracted more than usual attention from the young men standing around the store-doors, and the officers lounging in front of the 'King's Arms' tavern.
He was irritable, too, with exhaustion, though he was doing his best to keep himself in control and when madam his mother said pointedly, "I'm fearing, Neil, that the bad news has made you ill; you arena at a' like yoursel'," he asked without much interest, "What bad news?"
"The news anent Katherine Van Heemskirk."