'I won't, then. You are only Leucha to me in this school. I have described what I call a lady. She's bountiful to the poor, and kindness sits in her bonnie eyes, and love shimmers round her lips, and her heart--why, it's pure gold; and she's all-forgiving, and all for making up. There 's never a quarrel that a real lady would nurse; but mayhap there's a different sort in England. They walk what you might call _mincingly_, and they drop their words slow, and there's no flash in their eyes, and no courage in them, and no daring in them. No doubt they are very respectable, and they are very proud of their family. Then they make their little curtsy, when their education is quite finished, to the Sovereign on the throne; and they go to many a party, and they dress like all the other girls--no individuality anywhere. That would not be thought right for such an English lady. She marries when she can get a man to have her. Many a time he's as old as her father; but that doesn't count with _her_, she being what she is, looking out for _respectability_. Ah, well! I 'm all for the Scots lady. I don't care for grand parties or grand dresses; but I want my bit of adventure, and I'll have it, too. Good-bye, Leuchy. I think I have explained myself.--Come along, girls; we have our work cut out for us. It would not do for that poor Leuchy to be cold this night. She must have a living, warming thing to comfort her, poor Leuchy! Come along; there's no time to spare.'
The girls, headed by Hollyhock, left the room in a group, but for some reason Jasmine remained behind. She was very much distressed by her sister's manner of going on, and what followed would not have taken place had she gone to the ghost's hut and joined in the 'conspiracy;' but the other girls were now fairly mad with excitement, and Margaret Drummond, a Scots girl, was so much in love with Hollyhock that she would have done anything on earth for her.
The fire was quite out in the Summer Parlour, but it glowed warmly in the ghost's hut.
'It's here I dry his hair, poor fellow,' said Hollyhock, who was now nearly beside herself with delight. 'Listen to me, girls. You are a goodly group, and true to the heart's core, true to the soul of the thing; but I 'm not going to be ruled over by Leuchy, though I don't mind Barbara, or Dorothy, or that weak little Daisy looking on. It's Leuchy who 'll get a fright this very night. Now, then, we haven't long to lose, for the hours for pure enjoyment are few in number. I am much deceived if we don't find many impediments in our path. Now, lassies, I 'll show you on the spot what we have got to do. One of us must go to The Garden, my home, to fetch wee Jean, the kitchen cat; and another has to beg, borrow, or steal a saucer of cream for the little beastie. That's about all. I 'll start off at once for the cat; and you, Gentian, had best get the cream. I have been looking round the house--don't I know every stone of it?--and you have got to get into the larder. You know your way to the larder, don't you, Gentian?'