J. J. Bell

“ Christina was disgusted. She was quite sure that Mr. Baldwin had blushed on his last visit, and her hopes had run high. She returned to the easy-chair, and sat there, gloomily contemplating an incipient hole in the toe of her stocking, while now and then Mr. Baldwin's voice reached her ears in such phrases as "ninepence a dozen," "two and eleven the gross," "quite a novelty," and "I assure you, Miss Purvis, that the paint cannot be licked off."
"He loves her not!" ”

“ She admired Mr. Baldwin as a man—he had given her a new sixpence on his last Christmas visit—and she felt she could love him as an uncle. Moreover, she fancied that he regarded her aunt with rather more than the eyes of stern business. How did her aunt regard him?
Christina's idea in going to the pier that forenoon had been this. She would wait until she saw Mr. Baldwin actually ashore; then she would speed along to the shop and inform Miss Purvis that Mr. Baldwin was not coming; and when Mr. Baldwin did appear unexpectedly she would be watching her aunt's countenance. ”

“ Christina sighed as she turned away from the window, and after a little hesitation entered the shop.
"Fine day for the jucks," she remarked sarcastically. "The boat——"
"Christina, where have you been?" cried Miss Purvis, sitting up and removing her glasses. "You had only the one paper to deliver at the doctor's, and——"
"I was on the pier, auntie. The boat didna ca'. It was ower stormy. Rotten weather—eh?"
"Christina! I have asked you frequently not to use that word. Rotten means decayed. You should say that the weather is most disagreeable. ”