"It's a credit to you, Mistress Caird, to hae feelings like them, and
you'll be supported dootless."
Jean Futtrit's pretty Baubie had not always behaved well; and Jean was
suspicious of all other young girls. She had thought the worst of Maggie
at once, and she made Janet Caird feel herself to be a very meritorious
domestic martyr in accepting the charge of her. This idea satisfied
Janet's craving for praise and sympathy; she fully endorsed it; she began
to take credit for her prudence and propriety before she even entered upon
her new life.
And circumstances in Pittenloch favored Janet; in a few days she had
received so much condolence, and had committed herself so completely
regarding her niece, that nothing could have induced her to reconsider her
conduct. Every trifle also in Maggie's attitude testified against herself.
She resented the constant conclaves of tea-drinking, gossiping women in
her house, and she was too honest-hearted to hide her disapproval from
them. The result was, that backed by Janet Caird, they came still more
frequently, and were more and more offensive. If she determined to make
the best of the matter, and remained with them, she was subjected to
advices, and innuendoes, and rude jokes, almost intolerable; and if she
went away she was accused of bad temper, of a greedy, grudging
disposition, and of contempt for her own people and class.
If Maggie had been wise enough to attend faithfully the weekly meeting in
Elder Mackelvine's cottage, she would have silenced many of her enemies.
But this one evening Maggie looked forward to, on different grounds;
Janet Caird never missed the meeting, and her absence gave Maggie two
sweet hours alone in her home. She locked her door, visited Allan's room,
changed her book, and afterward sat still, and let the time slip away in
thoughts sacred to her own heart.
As the end of the year approached Dr. Balmuto was expected. He made a
visit to Pittenloch every three months. Then he consoled the sick,
baptized weakly infants, reproved those who had been negligent in
attending kirk, and catechised and examined the young people previous to
their admission to The Tables. Maggie had not been very faithful about
the ordinances. The weather had been bad, the landward road was dangerous
when snow had fallen, and she did not like going in the boats among so
many who gave her only looks of grave disapproval. So she had made many
excuses, and in this matter Janet Caird had let her take her own way
without opposition. Absence from kirk was a proof of a falling away from
grace, which in the eyes of these people was beyond explanation; provided
the delinquent was not unmistakably sick.