Mackenzie came in and found the two talking together. “How do you do, sir?” he said, with a grave courtesy. “You are ferry welcome to the island, and if there is anything you want for the boat you will hef it from us. She is a little thing to hef come so far.”
“She’s not very big,” Johnny said, “but she’s a thorough good sailer; and then we watch our time, you know. But I don’t think we shall go farther North than Lewis.”
“Hef you no friends on board with you?” Mackenzie asked.
“Oh, yes,” Johnny answered, “two. But we did not wish to invade your house in a body. To-morrow—”
“To-morrow!” said Mackenzie, impatiently; “no, but to-night! Duncan, come here! Duncan, go down to the boat that has just come in and tell the gentlemen—”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” Johnny cried, “but my two friends are regularly done up—tired; they were just going to turn in when I left the yacht. To-morrow, now, you will see them.”
“Oh, ferry well, ferry well,” said Mackenzie, who had hoped to have a big dinner party for Sheila’s amusement. “In any way, you will stop and hef some dinner? It is just ready—oh, yes—and it is not a ferry fine dinner, but it will be different from your cabin for you to sit ashore.”
“Well, if you will excuse me—” Johnny was about to say, for he was so full of the news he had to tell that he would have sacrificed twenty dinners to get off at this moment. But Mr. Mackenzie would take no denial. An additional cover was laid, for the stranger, and Johnny sat down to stare at Sheila in a furtive way, and to talk to her father about everything that was happening in the great world.
“And what now is this,” said Mackenzie, with a lofty and careless air—“what is this I see in the papers about pictures painted by a gentleman called Lavender? I hef a great interest in these exhibitions. Perhaps you hef seen the pictures?”
Johnny blushed very red, but he hid his face over his plate, and presently he answered, without daring to look at Sheila: “I should think I have seen them! Why, if you care for coast landscapes, I can tell you you never saw such thorough good work in all your life! Why, everybody’s talking of them. You never heard of a man making such a name for himself in so short a time.”