“No,” said Lilias. “Archie liked better to bide out here. This is a bonny place.”
“Oh, ay, it’s a bonny place enow,” said Mrs Stirling. Then, turning to Archie, she said, “And so you liked better to bide out here than to go in to your dinner at the manse? Well, it’s a good bairn that likes to do what it’s bidden. I dare say Mrs Blair would have felt some delicacy in taking you both into the manse parlour; though why she should, is more than the like of me knows.”
To this there was no reply to be made; and in a minute, turning again to Lilias, she asked:
“And when are you going to the manse as nurse, my dear?”
Lilias said she was not going at all.
“No! Where then? To Pentlands? I told your aunt that Mrs Jones, the housekeeper, wanted a lassie to help in the kitchen; but it’s a place full of temptations for a young thing like you. I wonder at Mrs Blair.”
Lilias replied, rather hastily, that she was not going anywhere just now; she was going to bide at home with her aunt.
“Well, well, my dear, you needn’t be angry at my asking; though there’s little wonder that the daughter of Alexander Elder shouldn’t like to have it said that she ought to go and gain her bread as a servant. We can’t always part with our pride when we part with our money. Nobody knows that better than I do.”
“It’s not pride that keeps me at home,” said Lilias, in a low voice. “I would go gladly if my aunt thought it needful; but she says it is not.”
“Oh, well, my dear, I dare say your aunt knows best. She may have money that I didn’t know of. Maybe you wasn’t so ill off as is said.”