At another moment they felt the reverse—feared they were being patronised, and thought they should decline the invitation.
Yet why?
To do so would be, perhaps, to adopt the position of an inferior; and the invitation might be the result of real kindness of heart, after all.
They knew not that they were indebted for the whole affair chiefly to a few friendly remarks made by Lord Dunkeld, and more especially by Leslie Colville, though those of the latter caused some afterthoughts.
'Men are very weak,' surmised Lady Dunkeld; 'but, of course, a man in Captain Colville's position can mean nothing more than simplest kindness, but the girls are pretty—unfortunately for themselves, I think, more than pretty.'
The pride, admiration, and half-alarm of Elspat Gordon and other old servitors on the subject of the visit, which proved their nine days' wonder, amused while it annoyed Mary. She had her own ideas—it might be fears for the future—and, though she said little, she thought a good deal.
The acceptances were written and despatched; and costumes were the next thing to be considered for the entertainment, of which Robert Wodrow heard the tidings with a very dark expression in his face indeed.
'Of what are you thinking, Ellinor?' asked Mary, softly, seeing the dark eyes of her sister fixed apparently on vacancy.
'Only of how differently the lives of some of us are allotted, and how pleasantly some people are circumstanced, compared with others.'
'Meaning ourselves and such as Blanche Galloway?'