7
DINNER that night was a gloomy affair—until Rory's appearance, that is. There were no cocktails, only sherry served on a table before the fire in the great hall where they dined, and the fare was indifferent—a thin barley broth, some boiled fish and a leg of stringy mountain mutton. The factor and his wife, a thin woman overcome with shyness, were invited and little Jamieson tried valiantly to keep the conversation going.
He did not receive much help from the laird and Flora. In honour of his guests Toray had donned Highland full dress and a magnificent figure he presented in the short Highland jacket of black velvet with jabot and ruffles of old lace and a kilt which, mainly scarlet and white, was much more showy than the kilt he had worn that afternoon—it was the McReay dress-tartan,
