"
With a resigned sigh at the folly of mankind, his wife asked, "How
about the others? That woman with the hair? and that man with the
velvet coat? Jessie says Jock told her that he was a mere play-
actor!"
"Jock told Jessie! Nonsense, my dear! The man is going out to China
in the tea trade, and is come to take leave. I believe he did sing
in public at one time; but Joe attended him in an illness which
damaged his voice, and then he put him in the way of other work. You
need not be afraid. Joe was one of the most particular men in the
world in his own way."
Mrs. Brownlow could do no more. She had found that her little
sister-in-law could be saucy, and personal squabbles, as she justly
thought, had better be avoided. She could only keep Jessie from the
contamination by taking her out in the carriage and to garden
parties, which the young lady infinitely preferred to long walks that
tired her and spoilt her dress; to talk and laughter that she could
not understand, and games that seemed to her stupid, though everybody
else seemed to find them full of fun. True, Allen and Bobus were
always ready to push and pull her through, and to snub Janet for
quizzing her; but Jessie was pretty enough to have plenty of such
homage at her command, and not specially to prefer that of her
cousins, so that it cost her little to turn a deaf ear to all their
invitations.
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