“Yes; it was Kate's letter, and she—and we—and I said there was a rumor you wanted a captain, and he should apply, saying if you wanted to know just what a clean, good, brave sailor he was you should ask Kate MacNeill or Miss Dyce, and I'm the Miss Dyce this time, and you're—why, you're really visiting me!”
Lady Anne laughed. “Really, Miss Lennox,” she said, “you're a wonderful diplomatist. I must get the Earl to put you in the service. I believe there's a pretty decent salary goes to our representative in the United States.”
“But don't laugh at me, Lady Anne,” pleaded Bud, earnestly. “I'm dre'ffle set on having Charles off the cargo-boats, where he's thrown away. You don't know how Kate loves him, and she hasn't seen him—not for years and years. You know yourself what it is to be so far away from anybody you love. He'd just fit your yacht like a glove—he's so educated, having been on the yachts and with the gentry round the world. He's got everything nice about him you'd look for in a sailor—big, brown eyes, so beautiful there's only Gaelic words I don't know, but that sound like somebody breaking glass, to describe how sweet they are. And the whitest teeth! When he walks, he walks so straight and hits the ground so hard you'd think he owned the land.”
“It seems to me,” said Lady Anne, “that you couldn't be more enthusiastic about your protégé if you loved him yourself.”
“So I do,” said Bud, with the utmost frankness.
“But there's really nothing between us. He's meant for Kate. She's got heaps of beaux, but he's her steady. I gave him up to her for good on Hallowe'en, and she's so happy.”
Bell had thrown off her cooking-apron and cleaned her hands, and ran up the stairs to see that her hair was trim, for, though she loved a lady for the sake of Scotland's history, she someway felt in the presence of Lady Anne the awe she had as a child for Barbara Mushet. That Ailie in such company should be, on the other hand, so composed, and sometimes even comical, was a marvel she never could get over. “I never feared the face of earl or man,” she would say, “but I'm scared for a titled lady.”
When she came down to the parlor the visitor was rising to go.
“Oh, Miss Dyce,” said she, “I'm so glad to see you, though my visit this time's really to Miss Lennox. I wished to consult her about a captain for my little yacht.”
“Miss Lennox!” exclaimed Miss Bell, shaking hands, and with a look of apprehension at her amazing niece.