I propose to say a few words
in season, if ye will have the kindness to call in the servants."
Lady Adela glanced towards her husband with some apprehension on her
face (for she knew the importance attached to the morning of the
Twelfth); but whatever Sir Hugh may have thought, he made no sign.
Accordingly there was nothing for it but that she should ring the bell
and summon the whole household; and in a few minutes the door of the
room was surrounded by a group of Highland women-servants and gillies,
the English servants rather hanging back in the hall. The
breakfast-party had resumed their seats; but the minister remained
standing; and presently, when perfect silence had been secured, he
lifted up his voice in prayer.
Well, it was a sufficiently earnest prayer, and it was listened to with
profound attention by the smart-looking lasses and tall and swarthy
gillies clustering about the door; but to the English part of his
audience its chief features were its curiously exhortatory and
argumentative character and also its interminable length. As the
minister went on and on, the frown of impatience on Lord Fareborough's
face deepened and deepened; he fretted and fumed and fidgeted; but, of
course, he could not bring disgrace on his son-in-law's house by rising
and leaving the room.
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