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"Matters went smoothly enough smoothly enough till one afternoon that foolish creature Advena Murchison" Finlay started "came here to pay a call on Miss Cameron and Mrs Kilbannon. It was well and kindly meant, but it was not a wise-like thing to do.
We see it in immigrants of all degrees, and we may perceive it in Miss Cameron and Mrs Kilbannon. They come in couples and in companies from those little imperial islands, bringing the crusted qualities of the old blood bottled there so long, and sink with grateful absorption into the wide bountiful stretches of the further countries.
They both Mrs Kilbannon and Dr Drummond looked out of the corners of their eyes, so to speak, at Christie, the only one who might be expected to show any sensitiveness; but Miss Cameron accepted the explanation with readiness.
"Has he informed all his acquaintances?" asked Mrs Kilbannon. "We thought maybe his elders would be expecting to hear, or his Board of Management. Or he might have just dropped a word to his Sessions Clerk. But " Advena shook her head. "I think it unlikely," she said. "Then why would he be telling you?" inquired the elder lady, bluntly.
So far as Miss Cameron and Mrs Kilbannon were aware, the matter had not been "spoken of" elsewhere at all. Dr Drummond, remembering Advena Murchison's acquaintance with it, had felt the weight of a complication, and had discreetly held his tongue. Mrs Kilbannon approved her nephew in this connection. "Hugh," she said, "was never one to let on more than necessary."
In that case we'll disappoint it." Whatever they expected, therefore, it was not Advena. It was not a tall young woman with expressive eyes, a manner which was at once abrupt and easy, and rather a lounging way of occupying the corner of a sofa. "When she sat down," as Mrs Kilbannon said afterward, "she seemed to untie and fling herself as you might a parcel."
She paused and looked at their still half-hostile faces. "I hope," she faltered, "you don't mind my having come?" "Not at all," said Christie, and Mrs Kilbannon added, "I'm sure you mean it very kindly." A flash of the comedy of it shot up in Advena's eyes. "Yes," she said, "I do. Good-bye."
"I insisted on it," he assured them, frankly. "I told him I would take the responsibility." He seemed very capable of taking it, both the ladies must have thought, with his quick orders about the luggage and his waiting cab. Mrs Kilbannon said so. "I'm sure," she told him, "we are better off with you than with Hugh. He was always a daft dependence at a railway station."
Neither Mrs Kilbannon nor Christie Cameron could possibly be untied or flung, so perhaps they gave this capacity in Advena more importance than it had.
Mr Finlay has told me a great deal about you, Mrs Kilbannon, and about his life at Bross," Advena replied. "And he has told me about you, too," she went on, turning to Christie Cameron. "Indeed?" said she. "Oh, a long time ago. He has been looking forward to your arrival for some months, hasn't he?" "We took our passages in December," said Miss Cameron.
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