“Shall we be very poor, Jock?” asked Barbara.
“I don’t know what we were called before,” he said; “but from what I remember, I fancy we had about what I have been using for my private delectation. Just enough for my mother and you to be jolly upon.”
“That’s all you think of!” said Armine.
“All that a man need think of,” said Jock; “as long as mother and Babie are comfortable, we can do for ourselves very well.”
“Ourselves!” said Armine, bitterly. “And how about this wretched place that we have neglected shamefully all these years!”
“Armine!” cried Jock, indignantly. “Why, you are talking of mother!”
“Mother says so herself.”
“You went on raging about it; and, just like her, she did not defend herself. I am sure she has given away loads of money.”
“But see what is wanting! The curate, and the school chapel, and the cottages; and if the school is not enlarged, they will have a school board. And what am I to say to Miss Parsons? I promised to bring mother’s answer about the curate this afternoon at latest.”
“If she has the sense of a wren, she must know that a cataclysm like Janet’s may account for a few trifling omissions.”