"Kindred! It is a far cry to call kindred with that Crawford and Laird crowd. I will not have them here! Take notice of that." "They will come here when they come to Glasgow." "Then I shall turn them out." "Then I shall go out with them." "My rooms----" "Preserve us! No harm has been done to your rooms." "They have been defiled in every way--old curl papers, dirty hairpins, stains on the carpets and covers. I burn with shame when I think of my wife seeing their vulgar remains." "Your wife? Your wife, indeed! She is----" "I don't want your opinion of my wife." "You born idiot! What do you want?" "I want you to write to the women who opened my wife's trunks, and ruined her clothing, and stole her jewelry, or I----" "Don't you dare to throw '_or_' at me. I can say '_or_' as big as you. What before earth and heaven are you saying!" "That my rooms have been entered, my wife's trunks broken open----" "You have said that once already! I had the Dalkeiths in my spare rooms. Was I to turn the Crawfords and the Lairds on to the sidewalk because your rooms had been refurnished for Dora Newton?" "Campbell is my wife's name." "I thank God your kindred had the first use of your rooms! You ought to be glad of the circumstance. And pray, what harm is there in opening a bride's trunks?" "Only burglary." "Don't be a tenfold fool. A bride's costumes are always examined by her women kin and friends. My trunks were all opened by the Campbells before your father brought me home. Every Scotch bride expects it, and if you have married a poor, silly English girl, who knows nothing of the ways and manners of your native country, I am not to blame." "Let me tell you----" "Let me finish, sir. I wish to say there was nothing in Dora Newton's trunks worth looking at--home-made gowns, and the like." "Yet two of them have been worn and ruined." "Jean Crawford and Bell Greenhill wore them a few times. They wanted to go to the theatre or somewhere, and had not brought evening gowns with them. I told them to wear some of Dora's things. Why not? She is in the family now, more's the pity." "They had no right to touch them." "I'm sure I wish they had not worn them. Jean and Bell are stylish-looking girls in their own gowns. Dora's made them look dowdy and common. I was fairly sorry for them." "Which of them wore Theodora's ring? That ring must come back--_must_, I say. Understand me, mother, it must come back." "If it is lost----" "It will be a case for the police--sure as death!" The oath frightened her. "You have lost your senses, Robert," she cried; "you are fairly bewitched. And oh, what a miserable woman I am! Both my lads!" and she covered her face with her handkerchief, and began to sigh and sob bitterly. Then Isabel went to her mother's side, and as she did so said with scornful anger: