en so strangely brought up; and
having no mother or female relative to exert any influence, their uncle
had brought them up like boys, which everybody thought very improper.
Emilia Chalmers, who was musical, could not get on with them at all;
the three Miss Jardines, who were very amiable girls, with nothing in
them, could not tell whether to call them blues or hoydens; their Latin
and algebra on the one hand, and their swimming-bath, and their riding
about the country without a groom on the other, made them altogether so
unfeminine. Their uncle thought they were quite able to take care of
themselves and of each other, and fancied more mischief might arise
from the attendance of a groom than could result from his absence; and
the girls cared for no company in their rides till William Dalzell had
offered his escort and made himself so agreeable.

Miss Maxwell and the Crichtons had failed to make either Jane or Elsie
take any interest in a theological dispute on a point of doctrine
between some neighbouring ministers which was agitating all Swinton at
the time; and when at last Jane was forced to give an opinion on one
side or the other, she gave it quite on the contrary side from the
right one, so that they were sure the girls were quite as bad as their
uncle. Both girls had been educated to express themselves very clearly
and decidedly; whereas, as Emilia Chalmers says, whenever a young lady
gives an opinion it should always be delivered SOTTO VOCE, that is,
under the powers of the performer's voice, to borrow an image from her
musical vocabulary. Even if she does know a thing very well, she should
keep her knowledge in the background; there is a graceful timidity that
is far more attractive than such unladylike confidence.

"Depend upon it, gentlemen do not like it," Miss Jardine would say. "If
Jane Melville were not an heiress, do you think William Dalzell would
submit to her airs? I know him better than that."

But, yet, when the girls were shown to be no heiresses, every one was
very sorry for them. If a subscription had been got up to assist them
in their difficulties, there was no one who would not have given
something. Even the Misses Crichton and Miss Maxwell would have
subscribed as much as they did to the Foreign Missions, and that was no
inconsiderable sum; and if Jane and Elsie had thrown themselves on the
compassion of the neighbourhood, there were many who would have offered
them a temporary home. But th