Rainbow Cottage by Grace Livingston Hill Read Free Book Online Page B

own father, on the rare recent occasions when he had been at home, had assumed rough ways and unmannerly speech. Sheila remembered remonstrances and even tears on her mother’s part, but her father had only laughed, and there had been no change in his demeanor. So perhaps the look of the stranger made more impression on Sheila than if she had been accustomed to men of gentler breeding.
    Janet showed the caller into the living room and came back to Grandmother just as they were rising from the table.
    “It’s a Mr. Galbraith,” she said. “He’s brought a message from your son, Mr. Max, in New York.”
    “Oh,” said Grandmother, looking pleased. “Come on in with me, Sheila. He’s an old friend. I want you to know him. They have a beautiful place up on the cliffs, a little above us near the beach.”
    So Sheila, suddenly shy and frightened, went in with the old lady to meet the stranger, who was standing by the fireplace, his hat in his hand, looking interestedly at a picture over the mantel.
    He turned quickly as he heard them enter, and Grandmother seemed suddenly startled.
    “Oh, why—I thought it was my friend Mr. Hugh Galbraith,” said Grandmother, looking at the stranger questioningly.
    The younger man smiled pleasantly.
    “I am his nephew,” he said. “My name is Angus Galbraith. My home is in London. I met Mr. Ainslee in New York today, and when he found I was flying up here for dinner and returning tonight, he asked me if I would bring you this note and some papers to sign. He said they had been mislaid and should have been sent you last week.”
    Grandmother smiled affably.
    “That’s like Max,” she said. “He always was scatterbrained. But I thought he had a good secretary. I was wondering where those papers were. I almost telephoned him about them. It was most kind of you to bring them. And now, let me present my granddaughter, Sheila Ainslee. If you’ll sit down just a minute I’ll get my pen and sign these right away.”
    So Grandmother went her way into the library and left Sheila alone with the first really educated, cultured young man to whom she had ever spoken. Sheila was suddenly overcome with embarrassment.

Chapter 4
    B ut the young man was not in the least embarrassed. He looked at the sweet girl in her childish little butterfly dress, with the glow of the firelight flickering over her delicate features, making purple shadows in the black waves of her hair that banded around her head so symmetrically, and he was filled with delight. Did they have girls like this over here? She seemed the kind one read about in old, old books of days long since gone by.
    She had none of the assurance, the sophistication, the poise, the impertinence of the girls he had been meeting since he came over this time. She seemed not to be ashamed to be a woman, nor to keep in the background.
    “You live here with your grandmother?” he asked eagerly as he pushed forward a chair for her to be seated.
    She lifted shy eyes of uncertainty under those wonderful dark curled lashes.
    “I—why—you see, I have just come today,” she answered, settling down in the chair, crossing her small feet in their laced blue shoes and letting her hands lie quietly in her lap with a shy stiffness he could not quite understand. “Grandmother has asked me to stay—” She finished with a sweeping glance that yet held not the least bit of coquetry.
    “It seems a delightful place to stay,” he said with a quick look around that included the whole room with its vistas to dining room, stairway, and moonlit porch. He sat down beside the fireplace and looked at her again with clear eyes full of admiration.
    “Oh, it is wonderful!” she said eagerly, her face flushing with pleasure, just like a child’s, her eyes starry. “Have you seen the garden? There are lilies and a hummingbird—a green and gold hummingbird!”
    “I only caught a glimpse of the garden in the moonlight as I came in,” he answered. “The lilies were