Page:Authors daughter v1.djvu/227

Rh Perhaps if your sister had taken pity on him instead of on Copeland, the garden might have been kept in order, but it is now a wilderness of weeds. It is a ﬁne place, however; don't you think so, Miss Isabel? and he's greatly in need of a housekeeper. I hear McCallum has not given up visiting at Branxholm."

"It's not me he comes to see I can tell you, Mr. Lufton. He always preaches to me" that I'll never fill Jessie's shoes, and I certainly have no wish to take up with old ones that she has rejected. Mr. McCallum wearies me to death, but I'll say that for him, that he wears the willow for a decent length of time, and Jessie may feel complimented."

"Then is it Miss Staunton," said Lufton, "that is the object?"

"Can a man not come to have a chat with my father or mother but Amy or me are to have the credit of it?" said Isabel. "Mc Callum comes to have the pleasure of missing Jessie, and he likes to take toddy with my father besides, and that is a thing I cannot bear in him."

"Where do you mean to put up to-morrow night?" asked Mr. Lufton.

"Jessie and George went on to Gordon's the first night, but we have lost some ground coming by Bulletin, so we will likely take three days