“The Colonel?”
“Yes,” then to Ermine, “Every one turns to him with reliance and confidence. I believe no one in the army received so many last charges as he has done, or executes them more fully.”
“And,” said Ermine, feeling pleasure colour her cheek more deeply than was convenient, “you are relations.”
“So far away that only a Scotsman would acknowledge the cousinship.”
“But do not you call yourself Scotch?” said Ermine, who had for years thought it glorious to do so.
“My great grandfather came from Gowan-brae,” said Alick, “but our branch of the family has lived and died in the —th Highlanders for so many generations that we don’t know what a home is out of it. Our birthplaces—yes, and our graves—are in all parts of the world.”
“Were you ever in Scotland?”
“Never; and I dread nothing so much as being quartered there. Just imagine the trouble it would be to go over the pedigree of every Keith I met, and to dine with them all upon haggis and sheeps’ head!”
“There’s no place I want to sea as much as Scotland,” said Rachel.
“Oh, yes! young ladies always do.”