'How queer of you! You seem devoted to your home.'
'I'm Scots,' replied Jasmine; 'and to the Scots there are no people like the Scots.'
'Oh, do, do watch her!' suddenly exclaimed Lady Leucha. 'Barbara, do you see—Dorothy, do you see?—she's walking up and down on the terrace with that ugly Mary Barton and that nobody, Agnes Featherstonhaugh. Why, Nancy Greenfield and Jane Calvert are hopping round her just as though they were magpies on one leg.'
'Why should she not talk to those girls? They are very nice,' said Jasmine. 'But, Leucha, Barbara, and Dorothy, do you not think you had better prepare your French lessons? At least I must and will.'
Jasmine skipped away and was soon lost to view, but the Ladies Barbara, Dorothy, and Leucha found themselves alone—alone and somewhat slighted. Slighted, too, by those commonplace Scots girls! They, who were the daughters of a marquis and an earl! The thing was not to be endured!
Leucha whispered to her companions, and soon they got up and went out in a little group into the grounds. They saw black-eyed Hollyhock, surrounded by her adorers. She was talking in quite a gentle, subdued voice, and did not take the least notice of the marquis's and the earl's daughters. Never had Nancy Greenfield, Jane Calvert, Mary Barton, Agnes Featherstonhaugh, and last, but not least, Margaret Drummond felt so elated. Holly was talking in a very low, seductive voice. Her rich curls were tumbling about her face and far down her back. Her cheeks were like bright, soft fire, and the flash in her glorious black eyes it would be difficult to surpass.
'I say, Jack,' exclaimed Leucha.
——'And, girls, as I was telling you, that poor cat, wee Jean, she came and nestled on my bed'——
'I'm talking to you, Miss Lennox,' said Lady Leucha.
'Are you? I did not listen. You spoke to some one called Jack. That's a boy. I happen to be a girl.—Well, girls, let's proceed. I've such a jolly plan in my head. I 'm thinking—whisper—that young person must not hear.'