'Yes, Lady Caroline. Miss Brown, who was living with the Sangsters says he is very rich; and it would be too absurd in a penniless girl like me to be critical and fastidious in judging a man of his substantial fortune.'
'Fastidious! my dear? Then there is a chance of his being submitted to your approval?'
Julia coloured. 'Indeed Lady Caroline, it is so hard for a girl to say. But if you will not think me absurd, I almost fancy there might perhaps be a possibility of something like that.'
'Ah, then, my dear, that alters the question altogether. I have no daughter of my own, and there is no one whose settlement in life I have more nearly at heart than yours. Confide in me, child! I have every wish to be a mother to you.'
Julia kissed her hand very sweetly. 'I shall find out all about him,' continued the old lady, through old MacSiccar, and you may trust me not to compromise you in any way. If his circumstances are satisfactory, it might probably be a very judicious step on your part; One cannot have everything you know; but enough to live upon is a thing it is impossible to do without. And as to the rest, under your guidance, I see no reason why he should not make a perfectly presentable figure in society. I am sure you will make an admirable and attached wife, whoever you marry; but marrying for love, instead of with it, as every good girl of course will, often turns out to be a mistake. You know, my dear, I was not very young myself when I married, and a few years earlier I was very nearly doing something foolish of that kind. The gentleman had high rank and was really very charming; but my dear papa discovered the unsuitableness of the connection in time, and though I was really infatuated, he carried us all down to Pitthevlis, and kept us there for two years. In the meantime, what papa expected occurred, the gentleman ruined himself. His property was put under trustees, and he himself has been living at Boulogne and such places ever since, on the few hundreds a year allowed by his creditors. I shudder sometimes when I think how narrowly I escaped----. Shortly after that my dear General came forward, and I need not say how thankful I am that I was saved from my earlier folly. Rank and position are most desirable things, but a solid income is indispensable. There are so many girls now, too, and the men have grown so mercenary, that a girl without fortune or a title cannot look for more than a younger son, which is merely a sort of decent dependence on the family, and often a most painful position. So my dear,' added the old lady, who had been gradually warming under her own eloquence, 'I wish you every success, always provided the parti should prove worthy your acceptance,' and thereupon she rose, and bending over Julia, kissed her on the forehead, like a fairy godmother, or some other superior spirit, animated by the most beneficent intentions. She was thinking that if Kenneth should marry and settle down at Inchbracken, as his father desired, a third lady in the household would be one too many.
CHAPTER XXII.
[IN SESSION].
The joint meeting of elders and deacons broke up as described, and left the minister alone. They did not separate, however, for Ebenezer Prittie stood without the cottage door, and begged them so urgently to come round to the Post Office that they consented.
The Post Office proved a meeting place still more restricted than the one they had left, but it was private. The shop having been closed, they seated themselves on the counter and sundry kegs of nails, and waited the opening of the proceedings.
Ebenezer moved that Mr. Sangster should take the chair (a tall slender-legged stool), and that the proceedings should be minuted in the Session books, as a continuance after adjournment of the meeting which had just broken up. Mr. Sangster objected to so irregular a course, and declined to mount the chair. He would be happy to hold an informal conversation with his friends there assembled, but he would take no part in a hole-and-corner meeting not duly called, and held without the knowledge of their minister, who of right should preside.