Читать книгу The Wonder of All the Gay World - James William Barke - Страница 8

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James Dalrymple, the Ayrshire Squire of Orangefield, was a man of his word. He took the Bard out to Coates House (it was but a short walk) and introduced him to his kinsman James Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn.

The Earl was good-hearted, good-looking and he wasn’t over-clever. He liked the Bard. He insisted that he stay for a meal, meet his mother the Dowager-Duchess and his sister Lady Elizabeth.

The Dowager had a hard unemotional face and a hard unemotional voice. She was somewhat given to religion. But she spoke sparingly.

“Tak’ your meat, Mr. Burns: it’ll stick to your ribs when words winna.”

Lady Betty, on the other hand, was soft and coy. She was young and life had treated her gently.

“I thocht your verses on the Mountain Daisy so filled with sensibility, Mr. Burns...”

The Dowager clattered her spoon unceremoniously on the table and rifted with loud but evident satisfaction.

When the Bard took his leave, the Earl said: “I’ll tak’ you to Willie Creech’s myself. I’ll send word to you. We’ll fix you up somehow, Burns. We canna let the Bard o’ Ayrshire down. Na, na...”

Robert took an immediate instinctive liking to James Cunningham. It was difficult for him to believe that a man of such rank and wealth could be so unaffectedly modest and warm-heartedly interested in his welfare. After all, he had nothing to give him; and the Earl had nothing to gain by taking him by the hand.