The Primrose Path: A Chapter in the Annals of the Kingdom of FifeOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
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The Primrose Path: A Chapter in the Annals of the Kingdom of Fife
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Fife (Scotland) -- Fiction
Margaret came in, however, late in the afternoon, all aglow with
enthusiasm and delight. “Oh, papa!” she cried, “it will make the most
beautiful picture; he has taken it from the east, where you can see
the house best, how it is built. I never knew it was so fine before.
The tower all round, with that great ivy-tree, and then the side of
the house all in shade with the big windows that are shut up, the
windows there, you know, papa, that would look out upon the court if
you could see through them; and then the gable, and the round turret
with the stair in it, and all the little openings. But the sun would
not stay in one place,” said Margaret, laughing; “first it sent the
shadows one way and then another, and gave Mr. Glen a great deal of
trouble. I understand now about shadows,” she added, with a serious air
of importance. Sir Ludovic had been getting drowsy again. Her coming
woke him entirely, with a little pleased sensation of liveliness which
roused his spirits.
“Have you been about your picture all this time?” he said.
“Yes, papa, out there among the potatoes. You could have seen us from
the east window if you had liked to look. And Bell gave us ‘a piece’ at
one o’clock, just as she used to do when I was little. Often she would
give Rob a piece too-- I mean Mr. Glen,” said Margaret, blushing wildly;
“I forgot he was not a boy now.”
“My little Peggy,” said Sir Ludovic, looking grave, “there are some
things which you ought to be very careful not to forget.”
“I did not mean to be rude, papa,” said Margaret, half alarmed; “indeed
it was not that: I don’t think I ever could be rude and hurt people’s
feelings; indeed he said it himself; he said to Bell, ‘You often gave
me my lunch when I was a boy,’ and she said, ‘Ay, Rob Glen, many’s the
piece I’ve given you.’ I was rather shocked to hear her,” Margaret
acknowledged, “but he only laughed, he was not offended; and so--”
“And so you did the same? that was not like my little girl,” said
Sir Ludovic; “whatever happens, you must always be civil. So it is a
beautiful picture, is it--as good a picture of the old house as of the
old man it belongs to? Two old things, my Peggy, that you will miss,
that you will like to have pictures of when you go away.”
“Papa!”--Margaret looked at him with suddenly dilated eyes--“I am not
going away.”
“Not till I go first,” he said, with a sigh and a smile. “But that
will not be long, that will come sometime; and then, my little Peggy,
then--why, you must go too.”
Margaret came behind his chair and put her arm round him, and laid down
her head on his shoulder. The old man could have cried too. He too was
sorry for what was going to happen--very sorry; but he could not help
it. He patted the arm that had been thrown round him. “Poor little
Peggy, you will miss the old man and the old house. It is well you
should have pictures of them,” he said.
“I want no pictures now,” cried Margaret, weeping. “Oh, are you
ill--are you ill, papa?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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