“But you see, this is how it stands, Mr. Mackenzie,” Lavender put in humbly. “We should have to go to London from time to time, and we should then get quite enough of city life, and you might find an occasional trip with us not a bad thing. But up here I should have to look on my house as a sort of workshop. Now, with all respect to Stornoway, you must admit that the coast about here is a little more picturesque. Besides, there’s another thing. It would be rather more difficult at Stornoway to take a rod or a gun out of a morning. Then there would be callers bothering you at your work. Then Sheila would have far less liberty in going about by herself.”
“Eighthly and tenthly, you’ve made up your mind to have a house here,” cried Johnny Eyre, with a loud laugh.
“Sheila says she would like to have a billiard-room,” her husband continued. “Where could you get that in Stornoway?”
“And you must have a large room for a piano, to sing in and play in,” the young Jew boy said, looking at Sheila.
“I should think a one-storied house, with a large verandah, would be the best sort of thing,” Lavender said, “both for the sun and the rain; and then one could have one’s easel outside, you know. Suppose we all go for a walk around the shore by-and-by. There is too much of a breeze to take the Phœbe down the loch.”
So the King of Borva was quietly overruled, and his dominions invaded in spite of himself. Sheila could not go out with the gentlemen just then; she was to follow in about an hour’s time. Meanwhile they buttoned their coats, pulled down their caps tight, and set out to face the grey skies and the Wintry wind. Just as they were passing away from the house, Mackenzie, who was walking in front with Lavender, said in a cautious sort of way, “You will want a deal of money to build this house you wass speaking about, for it will hef to be all stone and iron, and very strong whatever, or else it will be a plague to you from the one year to the next with the rain getting in.”
“Oh, yes,” Lavender said, “it will have to be done well once for all; and what with rooms big enough to paint in and play billiards in, and also a bedroom or two for friends who may come to stay with us, it will be an expensive business. But I have been very lucky, Mr. Mackenzie. It isn’t the money I have, but the commissions I am offered, that warrant my going in for this house. I’ll tell you about all these things afterward. In the meantime I shall have twenty-four hundred pounds, or thereabouts, in a couple of months.”
“But you hef more than that now,” Mackenzie said, gravely. “This is what I wass going to tell you. The money that your aunt left, that is yours, every penny of it—oh, yes, every penny and every farthing of it is yours, sure enough. For it wass Mr. Ingram hass told me all about it; and the old lady, she wanted him to take care of the money for Sheila; but what wass the good of the money to Sheila? My lass, she will hef plenty of money of her own; and I, wanted her to hef nothing to do with what Mr. Ingram said; but it wass all no use, and there iss the money now for you and for Sheila, every penny and every farthing of it.”
Mackenzie ended by talking in an injured way, as if this business had seriously increased his troubles.
“But you know,” Lavender said, with amazement—you know as well as I do that this money was definitely left to Ingram, and—you may believe me or not—I was precious glad of it when I heard it. Of course it would have been of more use to him if he had not been about to marry this American lady.”