After tea they took it in turns to work and to read. Mrs Forbes had
never sought to satisfy the religious public as to the state of her
mind, and so had never been led astray into making frantic efforts to
rouse her own feelings; which is, in fact, to apply to them the hottest
searing iron of all, next to that of sin. Hence her emotional touch
remained delicate, and what she could understand she could feel. The
good books she liked best were stories of the Scotch Covenanters and
Worthies, whose example, however much of stiff-neckedness may have
mingled with their devotion, was yet the best that Annie could have,
inasmuch as they were simply martyrs--men who would not say _yes_ when
they ought to say _no_. Nor was Mrs Forbes too religious to enjoy the
representation given of these Covenanters in _Old Mortality_. Her
feelings found nothing repulsive in the book, although she never
discovered the reason in the fact that Sir Walter's feelings were the
same as her own, whatever his opinions might be, and had given the
chief colour and tone to the representation of his characters. There
were more books in the house than was usual even in that of a
_gentleman farmer_; and several of Sir Walter's novels, besides some
travels, and a little Scotch history, were read between them that
winter. In poetry, Annie had to forage for herself. Mrs Forbes could
lend her no guiding hand in that direction.

The bond between them grew stronger every day. Annie was to Mrs Forbes
an outlet for her maternity, which could never have outlet enough
without a girl as well as a boy to love; and Annie, in consequence, was
surrounded by numberless holy influences, which, operating in a time
when she was growing fast, had their full effect upon mind and body
both. In a condition of rapid change, the mass is more yielding and
responsive. One result in her was, that a certain sober grace, like
that of the lovely dull-feathered hen-birds, began to manifest itself
in her carriage and her ways. And this leads me to remark that her
outward and visible feathers would have been dull enough had not Mrs
Forbes come to her aid with dresses of her own, which they remade
between them; for it will easily be believed that no avoidable outlay
remained unavoided by the Bruces. Indeed, but for the feeling that she
must be decent on Sundays, they would have let her go yet shabbier than
she was when Mrs Forbes thus partially adopted her. Now that she was
warmly and neatly