"Did he?" said Mona rather absently.
"Yes. At first I was that put out at you being away, and I had the awfullest hurry getting on my best dress; but just as I was showing him out, who should pass but Mrs Robertson. My word, didn't she stare! The Browns would never think of calling on her. I told him you were away visiting friends. I didn't say in London, for fear he might find out about your meaning to be a doctor."
"That would be dreadful, would not it?"
"Yes, but you needn't be afraid. He said something about its being a nice change for you to come here after teaching, and I never let on you weren't a teacher, though it was on the tip of my tongue to tell him what a nice bit of a tocher you had of your own."
"Pray don't say that to any one," said Mona rather sharply. "I have no wish to be buzzed round by a lot of raw Lubins in search of Phyllis with a tocher."
"Well, my dear, you know you're getting on. It's best to make hay while the sun shines."
"True," said Mona cynically; "but when a woman has even four hundred a year of her own, she has a good long day before her."
Early in the evening Bill arrived with Mona's boxes, and the two cousins entered with equal zest upon the work of unpacking them. "My word!" and "Well, I never!" fell alternately from Rachel's lips as treasure after treasure came to view. Ten pounds was a great sum of money, to be sure; but who would have thought that even ten pounds could buy all this? "You are a born shopkeeper, Mona!" she said, with genuine admiration.
Mona laughed. "Shall we advertise in the Gazette that 'Our Miss Maclean has just returned from a visit to London, and has brought with her a choice selection of all the novelties of the season'?" she said; but she withdrew the suggestion hastily, when she saw that Rachel was disposed to take it seriously.
"And now," she went on, "there is one thing more, not for the shop but for you;" and from shrouding sheets of tissue-paper, she unfolded a quiet, handsome fur-lined cloak.