A Daughter of Fife

"He will come back in a year, uncle," she said, "and he will bring with

him one of those bright-looking New York women, brains to the finger tips,

nerves all over, with the most miraculously small feet, and costumes just

as wonderful. Or it will be some large-eyed, slow-moving, long, lithe

Southern girl who will look like a great white lily turned into a woman. I

do not think seriously that Theodora has the slenderest chance of becoming

Allan's wife, and, would you believe it, uncle, I am honestly sorry for

her?"

"I believe it, dear, if you say so; but I would not have expected it."

"I cannot help thinking about her. I wish I could. I have wondered a dozen

times to-day if she knows that she is shut up alone in that nearly empty

house. How the storm will beat upon Allan's windows all the winter! How

the wind will howl around the big, desolate place! And think of the real

Theodora waiting among all kinds of rude surroundings on that bleak Fife

coast. There must have been a mistake with that girl, uncle. She was meant

for lofty rooms and splendid clothing, and to be waited upon hand and

foot. Don't you think souls must often wonder at the habitations they find

themselves in?"

"There is One above who orders all things. He makes no mistakes of that

kind, dearie. I dare say the girl is very happy. She will be a kind of

heroine among her own class of women, and they will envy her her rich

handsome lover."

"And you think she will be happy under those circumstances? Not unless

Fife girls are a higher creation of women. If they envy her they will hate

her also; and I doubt if she will have many more friends among the

fisher-lads. They will look upon her as a renegade to her order. The old

women will suspect her, and the old men look askance at her with

disapproving eyes. The girl will be a white blackbird; the properly

colored birds will drive her out of the colony or pick her to death. It is

only natural they should."

"But they are a very religious people; and grace is beyond nature.

"I do not deny that, uncle; but did you ever find grace with a mantle

large enough to cover a defenceless woman who was under the ban of the

majority? Now did you?"

"I know what you are after, Mary. You want to go and see her. This talk is

a roundabout way to enlist my sympathy."