'I do not quite see how I can do that, Leucha. The Summer Parlour is for the use of all, and why should my Scots lassies be excluded? I am sure, notwithstanding your remarks, Leucha, the children you speak of are both good and well-bred.'
'That horrid creature they call Hollyhock isn't well-bred,' said Leucha.
'She is a magnificent child,' said Mrs Macintyre. 'You don't know her story or you wouldn't speak of her like that.'
'_I_ don't want to hear her story,' said Barbara Fraser. 'I dislike her appearance too much.'
'Barbara, my dear, I am the last to encourage vanity, but Hollyhock is quite the handsomest girl in the school.'
'Oh, Mrs Macintyre, I do wish we had never come here!' said Leucha, who looked extremely mournful and inclined to cry. 'Of course, I suppose, mother must give you a term's notice, but there are really _refined_ schools in England without wild Scotch girls in their midst.'
'You must not speak against Scotland to me,' said Mrs Macintyre. 'Remember it is my native land--the land of the heather, and the lochs, and the glorious mountains. It is the land of brave men and brave women, and I will not have it run down by _any_ impudent English girl. I've got so many other English girls coming to the school that the loss of you four won't affect me much, Leucha Villiers.'
This was taking matters with a very high hand, and Leucha, who had no great moral strength, was thoroughly subdued.
'I didn't mean to be rude to you, of course, dear Mrs Macintyre,' she said, nudging her cousins as she spoke. 'I only said I did not like that black-eyed girl. She's frightfully wild and rude, and I'm accustomed to girls of a different type. Naturally indeed, being born as I am. However, I ask now for permission to use the Summer Parlour. Do you refuse it?'
'If you don't want it for hatching plots or anything of that kind,' said Mrs Macintyre, 'you English girls can have it till Saturday--no longer, remember; and as the weather is turning very cold, you must pay for your own fire, and, what's more, light it. For all my maids have plenty of work to do in the house. Now, then, are you satisfied? The Summer Parlour will be yours, beginning from to-day.'
'Thank you, Mrs Macintyre; we are quite satisfied,' said Leucha, who knew well how furious her mother would be were she removed from Ardshiel, which, as the former home of _kings_, was considered most distinguished.