Geordies Tryst | Page 6

afterwards, and we would not
like to have your jewel in these circumstances."
"Oh, thank you, sir," Margery was beginning to say, in a grateful tone,
when Grace interrupted her.

"No, please don't, sir, I will not take it back. It was my very own, and I
have given it to God, to use for these poor, sad boys and girls," Grace
added, in a tremulous tone.
Then the old elder looked at Margery, and said, "My friend, I cannot
help you further. Neither you nor I have anything to do with this gift; it
is between the giver and the Receiver."
There was something solemn in his tone which kept the still indignant
Margery from saying more, and she prepared to move away with her
charge. But, as she turned to go, she caught a glimpse of her
acquaintance the tinsmith, who was in the act of dropping into the plate
a crumpled Scotch bank-note, which he held in his broad palm.
"Bless me, they're all going daft together," muttered Margery, with
uplifted hands, as she hurried away. "It was a very good discourse, no
doubt, but to think of folk strippin' themselves like that--a pun'-note,
forsooth, near the half of the week's work; the man's gone clean
demented."
But the tinsmith's serene, smiling face showed no sign of any aberration
of intellect, and Margery took Grace's hand, and hurried her through
the crowd, resolved that she should not, for another instant, stand by
and countenance such reckless expenditure.
Grace was conscious that her old nurse was still possessed by a strong
feeling of disapproval regarding her donation, so she rather avoided
conversation; besides, she had a great deal to think about as she walked
along the crowded lamp-lit streets by Margery's side.
At last they reached the quiet square where Miss Hume lived, and as
they crossed the grass-grown pavement and went up the steps to the
house, Grace glanced up to the curtained window of her aunt's
sitting-room, and suddenly remembered, with a feeling of discomfort,
that Miss Hume must presently be told of the destination of her locket;
if not by herself, certainly by Margery, who had just heaved a heavy
sigh, and was evidently girding herself up for the painful duty of
narrating the strange behaviour of her charge.

"Now, Margery, I'm going to auntie, to tell her about the locket, this
very minute, so you need not trouble about it," said Grace, as she ran
quickly upstairs to her aunt's room and closed the door.
Margery never knew exactly what passed, nor how Miss Hume's
well-regulated mind was ever reconciled to such an impulsive act on
the part of her niece. But, as she sat at her usual post by the old lady
next day, while she took her afternoon's rest, Miss Hume said rather
unexpectedly, when Margery concluded she was asleep, "Margery, you
remember my sister? Does it not strike you that Miss Campbell is
getting very like her mother? These children are a great responsibility
to me; I wish their mother had been spared," she added, rather
irrelevantly, it seemed to Margery, and then presently she fell asleep
without any reference to the locket question.
But that night, when Grace was going to bed, she told her old nurse that
her aunt had promised that when they went back to Kirklands again she
might try to find some little boys and girls to teach, and that she would
allow her to have one of the old rooms for her class. She did not tell
how eagerly she had asked that, in the meantime, she might be allowed
to try and help the neglected city children, to whose necessities she had
been awakened by such thrilling words that day, though Miss Hume
had thought it wise to restrain her impatience. But out of that evening's
events had grown the cherished plan which sent Grace on such a chilly
afternoon among the woods and braes of Kirklands to seek any boy or
girl who might need her help and friendship.
CHAPTER II.
THE SEARCH
Miss Hume, Grace's aunt, left the management of Kirklands entirely in
the hands of her business agent. Mr. Graham met the tenants, gathered
the rents, arranged the leases, and directed the improvements without
even a nominal interference on her part. And certainly he
conscientiously performed these duties with a view to his client's
interests. It may be wondered that Miss Hume did not take a more

personal interest in her tenants, but various things had contributed to
this state of matters. Indeed, she was now so infirm that it would have
been difficult for her to take any active interest in things around her,
especially as it had not been the habit of her earlier years to do so.
It was her younger