“That was my opinion,” said Marion firmly. Archie was not to be reckoned upon in company as a steady backer up, and she thought it wisest not to give him the opportunity of betraying her. “The rooms are very pretty, and there’s a beautiful view; but you cannot be always looking at the view. And it’s very rainy down here. It rains mostly every day. And then there are so many trees. In the winter-time it will be terrible dark, and not a shop on this side, or a place to go to.”
“You will have to lay in all your stores, my dear, before the winter comes.”
“No, not that,” said Marion; “but the shops are always a diversion; it is not for buying things. And there will be no parties to go to.”
“Have you many parties,” said Rowland with a laugh, “where you are?”
Marion gave a glance round, feeling it necessary to keep up her dignity before the solemn servants. “Oh, yes,” she said, “plenty! We go out a great deal. There was a ball last week at the MacColls. I was all in white; at my age, just new out, that’s aye the proper thing.”
“So you are out, are you,” said Rowland somewhat grimly; “the MacColls are——”
“Oh, papa, they are people of great consideration,” said Marion stopping him; “it is a real good name, well-known everywhere.” Marion was making very rapid progress. She was proud at their first interview of knowing the MacColls, who had the great shop in Buchanan Street. Now she had cut adrift the shop and sheltered her friends under the ægis of a well-known name, with all the skill of a leader of society. “But there’s nobody here,” she said, spreading out her hands and shaking her head.
“How do you know there is nobody here? There seem a number of houses as far as I can see.”
“Not of people like us, papa,” said Marion; “not of houses that mamma could visit at.” She had her eye upon the butler, who was visibly impressed, and to whom she was consciously playing. “There are only Glasgow people coming for the salt water—I mean for the sea-bathing; and the Manse, and the like of that; no gentlemen’s houses. Of course it was only that I was looking for,” she added with the air of a princess. Archie sat opposite and regarded his sister with wide-open eyes. He did not know her in this new development. As a person of rank standing on her dignity, Marion was to him a new revelation. He admired yet wondered at her.
As for her father, he burst into a laugh which was louder and more boisterous than became his usual character. “You might perhaps,” he said, “recommend the place to your friends, the MacColls, for the salt water.”