In accordance with Mrs Maclure's promise, a great many fresh girls had arrived, and the full number of seventy was now nearly made up. It would be quite made up by the end of the following week.
Leucha liked the boy element in the school, and was exceedingly sorry to part with it; but she perceived, to her intense satisfaction, that the English contingent of girls at Ardshiel was very strong, and that, notwithstanding all her audacity and daring, Jacko—of course she was Jacko—could be kept in a minority. She felt there was no time to lose, for Hollyhock looked at her with such flashing eyes, with such saucy dimples round her lips, with such a very rare and personal beauty, that Leucha felt she must get hold of her own girls at once, in order to sustain the school against the wicked machinations of Jacko.
Accordingly she got Lady Barbara Fraser and her sister Dorothy, also the Honourable Daisy Watson, to meet her in what was called the Summer Parlour, a very pretty arbour in the grounds, where materials for a fire were laid, and where a fire could be lit in cold weather.
Winter was approaching. It was now nearly October, and October in the North is often accompanied by frosts and fallen leaves, and by bitter, cold, easterly winds. Lady Leucha had, she considered, a very charming manner. Having collected her friends round her, she went off with them to seek for Mrs Macintyre. They found this good woman, as usual, very busy, and very gentle and full of tact.
'We have come with a request,' said Lady Leucha.
'And what is that, my child?' asked Mrs Macintyre.
'Mrs Macintyre,' said Lady Leucha, 'you have in your school far more English than Scotch girls.'
'That is true, my dear—at least, it is true up to the present. But I have heard to-day from my dear friend Mrs Maclure that fifteen new Edinburgh lassies will arrive on Saturday. You'll welcome them; won't you, Leucha?'
'I like English girls best,' said Lady Leucha.
'That's natural enough, dear child. Well, you have a goodly number of friends and relatives at the school.'