Hard times
shut down the mills and brought her back again; but
periods of prosperity were very apt to find the ladies
of Elgin where I am compelled to introduce Mrs Murchison
--in the kitchen. "You'd better get up--the girl's gone,"
Lorne had stuck his head into his sister's room to
announce, while yet the bells were ringing and the rifles
of the local volunteers were spitting out the feu de
joie. "I've lit the fire an' swep' out the dining-room.
You tell mother. Queen's Birthday, too--I guess Lobelia's
about as mean as they're made!" And the Murchisons had
descended to face the situation. Lorne had by then done
his part, and gone out into the chromatic possibilities
of the day; but the sense of injury he had communicated
to Advena in her bed remained and expanded. Lobelia, it
was felt. had scurvily manipulated the situation--her
situation, it might have been put, if any Murchison had
been in the temper for jesting. She had taken unjustifiable
means to do a more unjustifiable thing, to secure for
herself an improper and unlawful share of the day's
excitements, transferring her work, by the force of
circumstances, to the shoulders of other people since,
as Mrs Murchison remarked, somebody had to do it. Nor
had she her mistress testified the excuse of fearing
unreasonable confinement.
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