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
“But it will never be your trade--nor mine,” said Rob Glen, with a
sigh. “I wish I knew what mine was. You are rich and a lady; but I am
a poor man, that must work for my living, and I don’t know what I must
do.”
“If I were you--” said Margaret. As she spoke she blushed, but only
because she always did, not with any special signification in it. Rob,
however, did not understand this. He saw the glow of color, the sudden
brightness, the droop and sensitive fall of the soft eyelids: all
things telling of emotion, he thought, as though the supposition, “if
I were you,” had thrilled the girl’s being; and his own heart gave a
leap. Did she--was it possible--feel like this for him already? “If I
were you,” said Margaret, musingly, “I would be a farmer; but no, not,
perhaps, if I were you. You could do other things; you could go into
the world, you could do something great--”
“No, no,” he said, shaking his head. “I? No, there is nothing great,
nothing grand about me.”
“How can you judge yourself?” said Margaret, with fine and flattering
scorn; “it is other people that can judge best. No; if I were you, I
would go away and paint and write, and be a great man; and then you
could come home and visit the place where you used to live, and see
your old friends; but just now I would go away. I would go to London,
into the world. I would let people see what I could do--only first I
would learn Margaret Leslie to draw,” she said, with a little laugh;
“that would be kind--for she never could find any one else to learn her
about here.”
“That would be the finest office of all,” said Rob, inspired. “To go to
London, every adventurer can do that; but to teach Miss Leslie is for
few. I would rather have that privilege than--”
“Oh,” cried Margaret, careless of the compliment, “and will you paint
a picture, a great picture of Earl’s-hall? I know we are poor. We are
not great people, like the Bruces, or the Lindsays, or Sir Claude. We
have not grand horses and carriages, and men in livery. That is just
why I should like poor old mossy Earl’s-hall to be in a bonnie picture,
to make folks ask where is that? what beautiful old house is that? You
see,” she added, laughing, “it is not just a beautiful house. It is
not what you would call comfortable, perhaps. Jean and Grace, that is,
my old sisters, Miss Leslie and Mrs. Bellingham, are never tired of
abusing it. It is quite true that we have not got a thing that can be
called a drawing-room--not a real drawing-room,” she said, shaking her
head. “You will wonder, but it is true. There is the long room, and
there is the high room; the one papa sits in; and we dine in it, and
he lives in it; and the other is empty, and full of--oh, everything
you can think of! But there is no drawing-room, only the little West
Chamber, such a little place. They say it was Lady Jean’s room, and
Lady Jean--is the only ghost we have.”
“Is she the lady with the silk gown?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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