was a proof that he had found the way to her favour; and she was evidently asking him a hundred questions. Snatches of their talk about his travels, about his plans, something which she could not make out about the Lindores, caught the ear of Nora. They saw her seated near the window, so there could be no reason why she should stop her ears. And Nora thought him “very nice”—that all-useful adjective. She could scarcely help letting her imagination stray to the familiar place which she had known all her life—her “dear Dalrulzian,” which she had lamented so openly, which now she felt it would no longer be decorous to lament. He looked very like it, she thought. She could see him in imagination standing in the kindly open door, on the Walk, looking the very master the place wanted. Papa had been too old for it. It wanted a young man, a young—Well—she laughed and coloured involuntarily—of course a young wife too. In all likelihood
that was all settled, the young wife ready, so that there was no reason to feel any embarrassment about it. And so he knew the Lindores! She would ask Edith all about him. There was no doubt he was a very interesting figure in the countryside, “something for the misses to think about,” as Agnes said, though it was somewhat humiliating to think that “that dreadful man at Tinto” had roused a similar excitement. But the oftener John Erskine passed the window, the more he pleased Nora Barrington. He was “very nice,” she was sure. How kind and careful he was of Miss Barbara! How frank and open his countenance! his voice and his laugh so natural and cheerful! Up to this time, though Nora’s imagination had not been utterly untouched, she was still free of any serious inclination, almost if not entirely fancy-free. It could not be denied that when the new Rintoul became known in the countryside, he, too, had been the object of many prognostications. And he had been, she felt, “very nice” to Nora. Though he had pretensions far above hers, and was not in the least likely to ally himself to a family without fortune, his advances had been such as a girl cannot easily overlook. He was the first who had paid Nora “attention,” and awakened her to a consciousness of power. And she had been flattered and pleased, being very young. But Nora now felt herself at that junction of the two roads, which, as has been said, is inevitable in the experience of every young soul. She was standing in suspense, saying to herself, with a partial sense of treachery and guilt, that
Mr. Erskine was still more nice than Lord Rintoul. John Erskine of Dalrulzian; there was something delightful in the very name. All this, it is true, was entirely visionary, without solid foundation of any kind; for they had exchanged nothing but two shy bows, not a word as yet—and whether he would be as “nice” when he talked, Nora did not know.
Her decision afterwards, made with some mortification, was, that he was not nearly so nice when he talked. He showed no wish to talk to her at all, which was an experience quite out of Nora’s way. She sat and listened, for the most part, at this simple banquet, growing angry in spite of herself, and altogether changing her opinion about Lord Rintoul. If she had been a little girl out of the nursery, John Erskine could scarcely have taken less notice of her. Miss Barbara and he continued their talk as if Nora had no existence at all.
“I always thought it a great pity that you were brought up so far from home,” the old lady said. “You know nothing about your own place, or the ways of the countryside. It will take you a long time to make that up. But the neighbours are all very kind, and Lindores, no doubt, will be a great resource, now there’s a young family in it. Fortunately for you, John, you’re not grand enough nor rich enough to come into my lord’s plans.”
“Has my lord plans? For county hospitals and lunatic asylums. So he told me; and he wants my help. To hear even so much as that astonished me. When I knew him he was an elegant hypochondriac, doing nothing at all—”
“He does plenty now, and cares much, for the world and the things of the world,” said Miss Barbara. “I think I have divined his meaning; but we’ll wait and see. You need not sit and make those faces at me, Nora. I know well enough they are not to blame. A woman should know how to stand up for her own child better than that; but she was just struck helpless with surprise, I say nothing different. Speak of manoeuvring mothers! manoeuvring fathers are a great deal worse. I cannot away with a man that will sacrifice his own flesh and blood. Fiegh! I would not do it for a kingdom. And the son, you’ll see, will do the same. Hold you your tongue, Nora. I know better—the son will do the very same. He will be sold to some grocer’s daughter for her hogsheads. Perhaps they’re wanted; two jointures to pay is hard upon any estate, and a title will always bring in money when it’s put up for sale in a judicious way. But you must have your wits about you now, if you have any dealings with your elegant hypochondriac, John, my man. You’re too small—too small for him; but if you had fifty thousand a-year, you would soon—soon be helpless in his hands—”
“Oh, Miss Barbara,” cried Nora, “you are unjust to Lord Lindores. Remember how kind he has been to us, and we have not fifty thousand, nor fifty hundred a-year.”
“You’re not a young man,” said Miss Barbara; “but John, take you care of dangling about Lindores. I am not naming any names; but there
