So the years flew on--and the wheel of fortune gave some strange turns
for Duncan. By a series of wonderfully successful speculations he
rapidly amassed a huge fortune.
They left Glasgow then, and built a colossal white brick mansion not far
from London.
When Janet was eighteen and Paul twenty-one, I paid them a visit there.
Except that Janet was now grown up, she was just the same--with her
thriftless, thoughtless ways, and her laughing baby face, and her yellow
head--a silly little head enough, perhaps, but a dear, dear little head
to me.
She had the same admiration, almost awe, of the splendours of this world
in any form; the same love of fine clothes--with the same carelessness
as to how she used them. It gave me a good laugh, the first afternoon I
was there, to see her come in with a new dress all soiled and torn by a
holly-bush she had pushed her way through on the lawn. It made me think
of the time when she had gone popping in and out to the little back
garden at Glasgow, and singing and swinging about the stairs--a bonnie
wee lassie with a dirty pink cotton gown, and, as often as not, dirtier
face.
Paul seemed to me, in looks at least, to have more than fulfilled the
promise of his boyhood. A handsomer, more self-reliant-looking young
fellow I had never seen; and I was not long in the house before I
observed--with secret tears of amusement--that it was not only in looks
he remained unchanged.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155