"When she sat
down," as Mrs Kilbannon said afterward, "she seemed to
untie and fling herself as you might a parcel." Neither
Mrs Kilbannon nor Christie Cameron could possibly be
untied or flung, so perhaps they gave this capacity in
Advena more importance than it had. But it was only a
part of what was to them a new human demonstration,
something to inspect very carefully and accept very
cautiously--the product, like themselves, yet so
suspiciously different, of these free airs and these
astonishingly large ideas. In some ways, as she sat there
in her graceful dress and careless attitude, asking them
direct smiling questions about their voyage, she imposed
herself as of the class whom both these ladies of Bross
would acknowledge unquestioningly to be "above" them; in
others she seemed to be of no class at all; so far she
came short of small standards of speech and behaviour.
The ladies from Bross, more and more confused, grew more
and more reticent, when suddenly, out of a simple remark
of Miss Cameron's about missing in the train the hot-water
cans they gave you "to your feet" in Scotland, reticence
descended upon Miss Murchison also. She sat in an odd
silence, looking at Miss Cameron, absorbed apparently in
the need of looking at her, finding nothing to say, her
flow of pleasant inquiry dried up, and all her soul at
work, instead, to perceive the woman.
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