JANET MACKELPIE’S NOTES.

August 9, 1907.

To me it seems very providential that Rupert was not at home when that dreadful young man Ernest Melton arrived, though it is possible that if Rupert had been present he would not have dared to conduct himself so badly.  Of course, I heard all about it from the maids; Teuta never opened her lips to me on the subject.  It was bad enough and stupid enough for him to try to kiss a decent young woman like Julia, who is really as good as gold and as modest as one of our own Highland lassies; but to think of him insulting Teuta!  The little beast!  One would think that a champion idiot out of an Equatorial asylum would know better!  If Michael, the Wine Master, wanted to kill him, I wonder what my Rupert and hers would have done?  I am truly thankful that he was not present.  And I am thankful, too, that I was not present either, for I should have made an exhibition of myself, and Rupert would not have liked that.  He—the little beast! might have seen from the very dress that the dear girl wore that there was something exceptional about her.  But on one account I should have liked to see her.  They tell me that she was, in her true dignity, like a Queen, and that her humility in receiving her husband’s kinsman was a lesson to every woman in the Land.  I must be careful not to let Rupert know that I have heard of the incident.  Later on, when it is all blown over and the young man has been got safely away, I shall tell him of it.  Mr. Rooke—Lord High Admiral Rooke, I should say—must be a really wonderful man to have so held himself in check; for, from what I have heard of him, he must in his younger days have been worse than Old Morgan of Panama.  Mr. Ernest Roger Halbard Melton, of Humcroft, Salop, little knows how near he was to being “cleft to the chine” also.

Fortunately, I had heard of his meeting with Teuta before he came to see me, for I did not get back from my walk till after he had arrived.  Teuta’s noble example was before me, and I determined that I, too, would show good manners under any circumstances.  But I didn’t know how mean he is.  Think of his saying to me that Rupert’s position here must be a great source of pride to me, who had been his nursery governess.  He said “nursemaid” first, but then stumbled in his words, seeming to remember something.  I did not turn a hair, I am glad to say.  It is a mercy Uncle Colin was not here, for I honestly believe that, if he had been, he would have done the “cleaving to the chine” himself.  It has been a narrow escape for Master Ernest, for only this morning Rupert had a message, sent on from Gibraltar, saying that he was arriving with his clansmen, and that they would not be far behind his letter.  He would call at Otranto in case someone should come across to pilot him to Vissarion.  Uncle told me all about that young cad having offered him one finger in Mr. Trent’s office, though, of course, he didn’t let the cad see that he noticed it.  I have no doubt that, when he does arrive, that young man, if he is here still, will find that he will have to behave himself, if it be only on Sir Colin’s account alone.