To Maggie also, they went wisely and quickly, although life at Drumloch
was far from being monotonous. Mary had the quick, nervous temperament
which is eager for change and movement. She went frequently into Glasgow
to give and to attend entertainments, for Drumloch was yet in the hands of
painters and upholsterers. But she always went alone. She had fully made
up her mind that it would not be well to let John Campbell see Maggie. If
he liked her, he would be sure to write to Allan, and curtail his
probation, and Mary felt that such a course would be an injustice to her
plans for the gradual preparation of the girl for the position she might
have to fill.
So Maggie was left in charge at Drumloch. Almost imperceptibly she rose to
this duty. First one thing, then another, was fully grasped by her, until
the steward and the housekeeper took her directions as readily as they did
those of Miss Campbell. Maggie had a natural aptitude for comprehending
small pecuniary and household details, "accounts" did not confuse her, and
they did seriously confuse Mary. She could make nothing of the "books"
which her head servants rendered weekly, and which were clear to Maggie.
So, while Mary was entertaining in Blytheswood Square, and going to dinner
parties, and dances, Maggie was equally happy looking after the hundred
things which from the village, the farm, the gardens and the house
demanded her supervision and direction.
During this winter John Campbell did not often visit Drumloch, and when he
did Mary had always a long list of shopping for Maggie to attend to in
Glasgow. The change was pleasant to Maggie and it was also pleasant to
Mary; for it cannot be denied, that she sometimes, at this period, chafed
under her self-imposed duty. Every one has peculiarities; they may be
admirable ones, and yet be irritating to those whose peculiarities run in
a different direction. There were occasional days in which Mary felt that
it was the first necessity of life to get rid of Maggie Promoter for a
little while. But she never suffered Maggie to suspect this feeling; she
was even at such times effusively kind to her, and generally compromised
with her conscience by giving her protégé some rich or pretty present.
Thus the winter passed, and in May Mary went to London. John Campbell
accompanied her; he had not been well for some months and he hoped the
change of scene would benefit him. Also, he had a great pride in his
niece, and he was no little pleased when she was presented at Court, and
for some months reigned a belle in the very best Scottish society in the
metropolis. At this time she had not much interest in Drumloch, though
Maggie wrote to her daily, and Maggie's letters were wonderfully clever
and amusing. And yet she had not received any special lessons; she had
simply passed in a silent sort of way out of a region of ignorance, into
one penetrated by the thought of educated men and women. There had been in
her mentally a happy unconscious growth upward, like that of a
well-watered plant. But no system of education could have been so
excellently fitted for her development. The charge taught her
self-reliance; the undisputed authority she wielded imparted to her manner
ease and dignity, and that nameless something which is the result of
assured position. There was also the advantage of a conscious, persistent
effort on Maggie's own part; she tried to make every letter she wrote more
neat, and clear, and interesting. She took pride in the arrangement of her
hair, was anxious about the fit of her dresses, and did not regard the
right mixture of colors in her costumes as a thing beneath her
consideration. Early in July Mary returned to Drumloch. She had come as
far as Glasgow with a party who were going to Oban. Oban was then little
known. During the summer tourists of the wealthy and cultivated classes,
who had read Scott's "Lord of Isles," came on short pilgrimages to the
pretty clachan; but it was not, as now, the Charing Cross of the
Highlands, where all the world you see.