d in rustling black silk, sat bolt upright on
the edge of chairs for the sake of her figure, took the greatest care of
her hands and complexion, and was a great age. She had, Jean said, 'come
out at the Disruption.' Jean was so impressive over it that I didn't
like to ask what it meant. Do you suppose she made her debut then?

"Perhaps 'the Disruption' is a sort of religious _tamasha_. Anyway, she
was frightfully religious--a strict Calvinist--and taught Jean to regard
everything from the point of view of her own death-bed. I mean to say,
the child had to ask herself, 'How will this action look when I am on my
death-bed?' Every cross word, every small disobedience, she was told,
would be a 'thorn in her dying pillow.' I said, perhaps rather rudely,
that Great-aunt Alison must have been a horrible old ghoul, but Jean
defended her hotly. She seems to have had a great admiration for her
aged relative, though she owned that her death was something of a
relief. Unfortunately most of her income died with her.

"I think perhaps it was largely this training that has given Jean her
particular flavour. She is the most happy change from the ordinary
modern girl. Her manners are delightful--not noisy, but frank and gay
like a nice boy's. She neither falls into the Scylla of affectation nor
the Charybdis of off-handness. She has been nowhere and seen very
little; books are her world, and she talks of book-people as if they
were everyday acquaintances. She adores Dr. Johnson and quotes him
continually.

"She has no slightest trace of accent, but she has that lilt in her
voice--I have noticed it once or twice before in Scots people--that
makes one think of winds over heathery moorlands, and running water. In
appearance she is like a wood elf, rather small and brown, very light
and graceful. She is so beautifully made that there is great
satisfaction in looking at her. (If she had all the virtues in the world
I could never take any interest in a girl who had a large head, or short
legs, or thick ankles!) She knows how to dress, too. The little brown
frock was just right, and the ribbon that was tied round her hair. I'll
tell you what she reminded me of a good deal--Romney's 'Parson's
Daughter.'

"What a find for my first day at Priorsford!

"I went to tea with the Jardines and I never was at a nicer tea-party.
We said poems to each other most of the time. Mhor's rendering of
Chesterton's 'The Pleasant Town of Roundabout' was very