Christian life -- Fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Here is your treasure! I make no apology for having purloined her from
your side for a bit. Have you discovered any faults in her yet General?"
"Yes," said General Macdonald promptly. "She has too big a heart."
"You mean that you can't keep every hole and corner in it for yourself!
Isn't that a man all over? And you've brought her away into your lonely
stronghold, where you mean to keep her under lock and key. Oh, you
are all alike! A woman's heart must be satisfied with her house, and
man, he can roam the whole world over, and open his heart to all the
treasures in it."
General Macdonald was about to reply when Di said:
"Rowena and I have been talking ourselves dry. I want to see your
stables; may I?"
He led the way without a word, and when she saw a beautiful brown cob
which had been a noted hunter, and was offered the use of him for the
time of her stay, she was quite elated.
"I'm going to make hay while the sun shines," she said to Rowena, when
they were wishing each other good night, later on, "so you'll get no
more grave talks out of me for the present."
She took George out with her for a ride over the moor the next morning,
and they were away for most of the day. George, of course, was very
flattered at being chosen as her cavalier. He was not so critical as
his sister Bertha, and thought this new acquaintance most amusing and
entertaining.
Two days later, General Macdonald went to Inverness on business. He
had to stay away the night, and when he returned home the following
afternoon, Rowena saw at once that he had something on his mind.
He called her into his study.
"Have I ever mentioned my cousin Hector Ross to you?" he asked.
"Never," said Rowena.
"He and I were brought up together as boys, and went to the same
school, but he went abroad when he was quite a young man, and we have
drifted apart. He was rather wild, and got through a lot of money.
Then settled down on a South American ranch. I tumbled across him in
Inverness yesterday. He has come home, and is thinking of buying back
his father's old place in Fifeshire. I told you I have an old cousin
living in Inverness. He is her nephew, and I met him at her house."
A smile flitted across his face. "It was like seeing a bull in a
china shop! His aunt lives in a tiny terrace house, and everything
as orderly and neat as an old maid could have it. He's a big, broad,
happy-go-lucky fellow still, but he's made his money, and seems to have
steadied down. He came across to the war; I never knew it, and he never
told any of his people. I think his experience at the Front altered
him, and made him determine to come home and look up his relatives. He
wants to come to us."
"Of course he must."
Rowena laughed; she was standing by the open window as her husband
talked. Now she turned and gave him a swift little kiss on his forehead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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