“Can I speak a word to you, papa?”
“As many as you please,” said Rowland. “Sit down, May; but if you are coming to ask explanations——”
“Explanations?” she said with some surprise. “Oh, you will perhaps be meaning about Archie? There is no occasion. I was always very clear about that; and it was me that gave mamma the first hint, as she will perhaps mind. I was coming to speak to you, papa, about what may perhaps be my own affairs.”
“Shall I go away, Marion, and leave you alone with your father?”
“Oh, no, there is no need. You will be better here: for sometimes there are times when a woman has more sense—I will not beat about the bush. Why is it, papa, that Mr. Saumarez has to go away?”
“Oh, he has been telling you, has he? And do you mean to wait for him, Marion?” said her father.
“That is a different question,” said Marion, with a toss of her head, which was perhaps intended to toss away a little heat that had come to her cheeks. “I would like to know, in the first place just as his friend, papa, what end is going to be served by sending him away?”
“And what would your wisdom suggest instead?” said Mr. Rowland. “The end to be served is to take him away from ill friends and connections, and make him work—which is the best thing I know——”
“Work!” said Marion with a certain contempt; “and how would Eddy work that does not know the way? Work is maybe very grand, and I am not sure but I could do it myself if there was any need. And Archie might maybe do it. And perhaps it would do him good. But not Eddy; I’ve read in books about that: if the half of the men out there work, the other half just go all wrong. Boys are not all alike,” said Marion, with a little wave of her hand, as if delivering a lecture on the subject; “the boys at the Burn have that in them that they can just never be quiet—they’re on the hill or out in the boat, or wrestling and throwing things at each other, if there’s nothing else to do. But Eddy is not of that kind. He would no more work out there than he would work here. He will go if you make him, though I can not tell why he should do what you say. But he will go just helpless, with no use of his hands, and he will fall into the first net that’s spread for him. Oh, he’s clever enough!” cried the girl, some angry moisture springing to her eyes; “he will see it is a net: but he will go into it all the same: for what is he to do? He has just about as much work in him as Roy and Dhu.”
“Then he’d better disappear off the face of the earth!” cried Rowland angrily, “with other cumberers of the soil. A man like that has no right to live.”