Dismay fell upon the unfortunates who remained, but their confusion was soon ended, for Rose, with a look which they had never seen upon her face before, dismissed them with the brief command, “Break ranks the review is over,” and walked away to Phebe.
“Confound that boy! You ought to shut him up or gag him!” fumed Charlie irritably.
“He shall be attended to,” answered poor Archie, who was trying to bring up the little marplot with the success of most parents and guardians.
“The whole thing was deuced disagreeable,” growled Steve, who felt that he had not distinguished himself in the late engagement.
“Truth generally is,” observed Mac dryly as he strolled away with his odd smile.
As if he suspected discord somewhere, Dr. Alec proposed music at this crisis, and the young people felt that it was a happy thought.
“I want you to hear both my birds, for they have improved immensely, and I am very proud of them,” said the doctor, twirling up the stool and pulling out the old music books.
“I had better come first, for after you have heard the nightingale you won't care for the canary,” added Rose, wishing to put Phebe at her ease, for she sat among them looking like a picture, but rather shy and silent, remembering the days when her place was in the kitchen.
“I'll give you some of the dear old songs you used to like so much. This was a favorite, I think,” and sitting down she sang the first familiar air that came, and sang it well in a pleasant, but by no means finished, manner.
It chanced to be “The Birks of Aberfeldie,” and vividly recalled the time when Mac was ill and she took care of him. The memory was sweet to her, and involuntarily her eye wandered in search of him. He was not far away, sitting just as he used to sit when she soothed his most despondent moods astride of a chair with his head down on his arms, as if the song suggested the attitude. Her heart quite softened to him as she looked, and she decided to forgive him if no one else, for she was sure that he had no mercenary plans about her tiresome money.