Jane Helen Findlater > Green graves of Balgowrie

THE GREEN GRAVES OF BALGOWRIE
“You had best marry, Lucie, and try your own
theories on your own daughters, as I have done,”
she said, as she took up her pen.
Perhaps she did not intend this speech to be
unkind, but to Lucie’s ears it had all the effect of
the most coldly premeditated cruelty. She turned
and ran from the room with an expression of per¬
fect horror on her face.
“ How could she ? how could she ? ” she cried
when Henrietta came upstairs and sat down by
her.
“She did not know, dearest,” said Henrietta
soothingly.
“ Did not know! ” echoed Lucie scornfully. Her
whole gentle nature seemed to have been suddenly
embittered, and Henrietta looked at her in wonder
as she heard the cold and scornful sound of her
voice.
“ No, no, Lucie,” she said, taking her hand. “ She
cannot know—she notices nothing that befalls us—
she is wrapped up in her own theories, and scarcely
cares if we live or die: it was quite unintentional.”
“The whole of her system with us has not
been unintentional, at least—she has wilfully made
oddities of us. Oh, Harrie, you do not know yet,
for you have never been out of this place or seen
other people—you cannot realise how peculiar we
are; not only our dress, but all our habits and
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