He followed Babie with unusual alacrity, and found Mrs. Brownlow
shaking hands with a youth whom Jock upheld as a genius, but who
laboured under the double misfortune of always coming too soon, and
never knowing what to do with his arms and legs. He at once
perceived Captain Evelyn to be an "awful swell," and became trebly
wretched—-in contrast to Jock's open-hearted, genial young dalesman,
who stood towering over every one with his broad shoulders and hearty
face, perfectly at his ease (as he would have been in Buckingham
Palace), and only wondering a little that Brownlow could stand an
empty-headed military fop like that; while Cecil himself, after
gazing about vaguely, muttered to Babie something about her cousin.
"She is gone to see whether Lina is asleep, and will be too shy to
come down again if I don't drag her."
So away flew Babie, and more eyes than Cecil Evelyn's were struck
when in ten minutes' time she again led in her cousin.
Mr. Acton, who was talking to Mrs. Brownlow, said in an undertone—-
"Your model? Another niece?"
"Yes; you remember Jessie?"
"This is a more ideal face."
It was true. Esther had lived much less than her elder sister in the
Coffinkey atmosphere, and there was nothing to mar the peculiar
dignified innocence and perfect unconsciousness of her sweet maidenly
bloom.
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