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Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894

"Weir of Hermiston"

Archie would never be eating sweeties
in kirk; and, with a palpable effort, she swallowed it whole, and her
colour flamed high. At this signal of distress Archie awoke to a sense
of his ill-behaviour. What had he been doing? He had been exquisitely
rude in church to the niece of his housekeeper; he had stared like a
lackey and a libertine at a beautiful and modest girl. It was possible,
it was even likely, he would be presented to her after service in the
kirk-yard, and then how was he to look? And there was no excuse. He
had marked the tokens of her shame, of her increasing indignation, and
he was such a fool that he had not understood them. Shame bowed him
down, and he looked resolutely at Mr. Torrance; who little supposed,
good, worthy man, as he continued to expound justification by faith,
what was his true business: to play the part of derivative to a pair of
children at the old game of falling in love.
Christina was greatly relieved at first. It seemed to her that she was
clothed again.


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