“They say they are all beautiful,” said she.
“They think the same of you, Miss Drummond,” I replied, “and were all crowding to the window to observe you.”
“It is a pity about my being so blind,” said she, “or I might have seen them too.—And you were in the house? You must have been having the fine time with the fine music and the pretty ladies.”
“There is just where you are wrong,” said I; “for I was as uncouth as a sea-fish upon the brae of a mountain. The truth is that I am better fitted to go about with rudas men than pretty ladies.”
“Well, I would think so too, at all events!” said she, at which we both of us laughed.
“It is a strange thing, now,” said I. “I am not the least afraid with you, yet I could have run from the Miss Grants. And I was afraid of your cousin too.”
“O, I think any man will be afraid of her,” she cried. “My father is afraid of her himself.”
The name of her father brought me to a stop, I looked at her as she walked by my side; I recalled the man, and the little I knew and the much I guessed of him; and, comparing the one with the other, felt like a traitor to be silent.
“Speaking of which,” said I, “I met your father no later than this morning.”