"He is a very possible person indeed, Miss Mackinnon, quite the best type of educated American--and the type is very good."
"Is it?" asked Isla with a little shiver. "I have never encountered it. The few specimens that come to the glen are not--are not what one would call the best type. And the people who had Edinard for two seasons running!--shall one ever forget them? Their flying motors with screaming hooters, their impossible costumes, their disregard for our quiet Sabbaths, their noise--all were indescribable. I should not like such people as they at Achree. But, indeed, I don't suppose such people would so much as look at it. Lady Eden told me that the first year it cost her half the rent to put into the house what her tenants wanted. They were so mean in regard to trifles that they would not buy the simplest thing."
Cattanach smiled understandingly. He also had some acquaintance with that type.
"I don't think you would find the Rosmeads like that. I should say myself that they are simple gentlefolks and that, this summer at least, they would be certain to live quietly. They wish the place for retirement on account of Mrs. Rosmead, who is recovering from a long illness, and for their elder daughter, who has just had an unpleasant experience in the Divorce Court--one of those curious matrimonial entanglements of which America seems to be full. She was here on Tuesday with her brother. She is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen."
"Poor thing--and had she a bad husband?"
"I understand so, but, of course, the subject was not mentioned. There is a younger daughter called Sadie, and there is also a boy at Yale or Harvard, who would spend only his summer here. I think you would like the family, and they would be willing to pay three hundred for the house, and five with the shooting."
"Five hundred!" murmured Isla, and her eyes had a sort of hungry look.
Money for its own sake did not exist for her. She was naturally of a generous, even of a prodigal mind, and she was certainly made for the gracious dispensation of great wealth. But she had had to count the pence so long that she had arrived, by many painful processes, at full appreciation of their market value.
"We could certainly live at Creagh on three hundred; then two could be laid by, couldn't they, Mr. Cattanach?"
He turned swiftly away, for there was something in the eager question, almost childishly put, which gripped him by the throat.