'What's wrangle, Miss Kent, dear?' asked Hollyhock in her sweetest tones. 'I like well to hear your pure English words. We Scots talk very differently, no doubt, but we are always willing to learn. So, please, what's wrangle? And will you pass me a fresh scone, Miss Kent, dear, for my appetite is far more than ordinary?'
'Vulgar little glutton,' muttered Leucha to Dorothy Fraser.
'She really _is_ attractive, all the same,' answered Dorothy.
'Oh Dolly, you are not going round to her? That _would_ be the final straw.'
'No, I 'm not, of course; but I can't help admiring her funny ways and her beautiful, noble sort of face.'
'Yes, it is noble, although it is full of mischief too. You could have had her as a _great_ friend, Leucha, and that girl is worth making a friend of. I never saw her like before. She really haunts me.'
'What haunts you, lassie?' cried Hollyhock. 'Is it my eyes so black, or my cheeks so rosy-red, or my hair so curly, and black as the blackest night? I 'm at your service. I'm willing to forgive and forget this blessed minute if you'll all hold out the paws of forgiveness.'
Both Dorothy and Barbara longed to do so, but Lady Leucha put the final extinguisher on their hopes by saying, 'No, never! Why, you are not even a lady!'
'Let's eat,' said Hollyhock. 'I waved the flag of peace, as the great Ardshiel did once; but never again--don't you fear, lassies. No lady, indeed! We 'll see who's the lady!'
In vain Miss Kent tried to stop the angry torrent of words, but this was the hour when the girls were allowed to talk freely. Mrs Macintyre was not present, and all eyes in the room were fixed with admiration on Hollyhock.
'First, we 'd like to know--just for a diversion--what _makes_ a lady,' continued the obstreperous lass. ''Tisn't birth--my certie! no. It must be a sort of civilisation. It must be, to my way of thinking, a give and a take. It must belong to the sort of person who has the courage of her race, and will even wipe the hair of a ghost when he comes to you in his trouble. That's what _I_ call a lady. Others may differ from me.'
'They do,' said Leucha. 'Liars are not ladies!'
'But I do. You never wiped the hair of a ghost.'
'Let's drop the subject,' said Hollyhock. 'My sisters and I, and Mrs Constable, and my father, and my five cousins, the Precious Stones, have views that differ from yours entirely. I know your sort of lady. I have read of her in books, but I never came across her till I met you, Leucha.'