Adam Johnstone's Son

by F. Marion Crawford

“Let’s assume that you do—for the sake of argument,” said Clare, with a short laugh, as she glanced at his face, dimly visible in the falling darkness.

“Thanks awfully,” he answered, but he did not laugh with her. “It isn’t exactly an easy thing to say, is it? Only—I couldn’t help noticing—I hope you’ll forgive me, if you think I’m rude, won’t you? I couldn’t help noticing that your mother was most awfully afraid of leaving us alone for a minute, you know—as though she thought I were a suspicious character, don’t you know? Something of that sort. So, of course, I thought she didn’t like me. Do you see? Tremendously cheeky of me to talk in this way, isn’t it? ”

“Do you know? It is, rather.” Clare was more inclined to laugh than before, but she only smiled in the dark.

“Well, it would be, of course, if I didn’t happen to be so painfully respectable.”

“Painfully respectable! What an expression!” This time, Clare laughed aloud.

“Yes. That’s just it. Well, I couldn’t exactly tell Mrs. Bowring that, could I? Besides, one isn’t vain of being respectable. I couldn’t say, Please, Mrs. Bowring, my father is Mr. Smith, and my mother was a Miss Brown, of very good family, and we’ve got five hundred a year in Consols, and we’re not in trade, and I’ve been to a good school, and am not at all dangerous. It would have sounded so—so uncalled for, don’t you know? Wouldn’t it?”

“Very. But now that you’ve explained it to me, I suppose I may tell my mother, mayn’t I? Let me see. Your father is Mr. Smith, and your mother was a Miss Brown—”

“Oh, please—no!” interrupted Johnstone. “I didn’t mean it so very literally. But it is just about that sort of thing—just like anybody else. Only about our not being in trade, I’m not so sure of that. My father is a brewer. Brewing is not a profession, so I suppose it must be a trade, isn’t it? ”

“You might call it a manufacture,” suggested Clare.

“Yes. It sounds better. But that isn’t the question, you know. You’ll see my people when they come, and then you’ll understand what I mean—they really are tremendously respectable.”