Duncan Polite, the Watchman of GlenoroMacGregor, Mary Esther Miller
Philosophy
Duncan Polite, the Watchman of Glenoro
MacGregor, Mary Esther Miller
Presbyterian Church in Canada -- Fiction
Then Wee Andra's deep voice, "Jimminy! It was a better show than all
the monkeys at the circus!"
"Was he scared?" It was Donald Neil who dared to ask that question.
"Looked mighty skittish for a minit, but I was weepin' that hard I
couldn't see very good. Catchach swore like a trooper. I could tell
that by the way he was grinnin', but the fearful pity was neither me
nor his Reverence could understand it!"
They went off again with such utter abandon that Duncan feared the
minister might be shocked by such uproarious behaviour on the public
road. He did not at all comprehend the meaning of their conversation
himself, in fact he scarcely listened to it, so eagerly was he watching
for Donald.
The noisy crowd passed the house, and one tall figure detached itself
from the group and, swinging open the gate, came up the path. Donald
never forgot to give his uncle a call, as he passed on his way to the
Glen. Duncan rose in a tremor of joy. He did not notice that his
nephew gave a start at the sight of the minister. Mr. Egerton rose
also and for an instant the two young men looked into each other's eyes
with an expression of anything but amity.
"Oh and it will be you, Donal'," cried the old man in a voice which
trembled with pleasure. "Here is the minister come to call."
Donald came forward, clinging desperately to the forlorn hope that the
conversation had not been overheard.
"Good evening, Mr. Egerton," he said in a rather constrained voice,
holding out his hand; but the other young man did not seem to notice;
perhaps the dusk accounted for his mistake.
"Good evening, Mr. McDonald," he said stiffly. "I have remained rather
long," he continued, speaking to Duncan Polite and incidentally turning
his back upon Donald. He shook hands with his host and without so much
as a nod towards the younger man, started for the gate. Duncan
followed him, protesting, but the minister could not stay. He did not
seem to hear the old man's timid suggestion that Donald would be going
down to the village, too, and would be glad to accompany him, but
strode off alone, indignation displayed in every line of his fine,
straight figure.
VI
THE FULFILMENT OF PROMISE
There was not one dissenting voice in the chorus of admiration sung by
the young people of Glenoro after their new pastor's social triumph at
the Hamiltons'. Everybody liked him and there went through the older
folk a thrill of joy that their pastor should be the leader of the
young and unsteady set, to bring them to a higher and nobler plane of
life.
Even Mrs. Fraser, the hypochondriac, was pleased with him in a mournful
sort of way. Of course, she was somewhat alarmed when Miss Cotton
declared that the minister was "jist a terror to cut up and could play
'Dan Tucker' better than Sandy Neil himself." But Annie Fraser
explained that Mr. Egerton had done it just to show that he wasn't
stiff or "stuck up."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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