Out in the Forty-Five: Duncan Keith's Vow — John Shaqi
Out in the Forty-Five: Duncan Keith's VowHolt, Emily Sarah
General
Out in the Forty-Five: Duncan Keith's Vow
Holt, Emily Sarah
Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Juvenile fiction
Here they all are at last, and the house is as full as it will hold.
The Bracewells came first in their great family coach and four--
Charlotte and Amelia and a young friend whom they had with them. Her
name is Cecilia Osborne, and she is such a genteel-looking girl! She
moves about, not languidly like Amelia, but in such a graceful, airy way
as I never saw. She has dark hair, nearly black, and brown eyes with a
sort of tawny light in them,--large eyes which gleam out on you just
when you are not expecting it, for she generally looks down. Amelia
appears more listless and affected than ever by the side of her, and
Charlotte's hoydenish romping seems worse and more vulgar.
The Drummonds did not come for nearly a week afterwards. I was rather
afraid what Cecilia would think of them for I expected they would talk
Scotch--I know Angus used to do--and Cecilia is from the South, and I
thought she would be quite shocked. But I find they talk just as we do,
only with a little Scots accent, as if they were walking over sandhills
in their throats--as least that is how it sounds to me. Flora has
rather more of it than Angus, but then her voice is so clear and soft
that it sounds almost pretty. A young gentleman came with them, named
Duncan Keith, who was going with Angus about that business he has to do.
They only stayed one night, didn't [Note 4.] Mr Keith and Angus, and
then went on about their business; but Father was so pleased with Mr
Keith, that he invited him to come back when Angus does, which will be
in about three weeks or a month. So here we are, eight girls instead of
four, with never a young man among us. Father says, when Angus and Mr
Keith come back, we will have Ephraim Hebblethwaite and Ambrose
Catterall to spend the evening, and perhaps Esther Langridge too. I
don't feel quite sure that I should like Esther to come. She is not
only as bad as Sophy with her "buts" and her "comes" but she does not
behave quite genteelly in some other ways: and I don't want Cecilia
Osborne to fancy that we are a set of vulgar creatures who do not know
how to behave. I don't care half so much what Flora thinks.
Cecilia has not been here a fortnight, and yet I keep catching myself
wondering what she will think about everything. It is not that I have
made a friend of her: in fact, I am not sure that I quite like her. She
seems to throw a sort of spell over me, does Cecilia, as if I were
afraid of her and must obey her. I don't half like it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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