He also took
occasion to say many complimentary things about Garry, extolling
him for the wonderful manner in which that brilliant young
architect had kept within the sum set apart by the trustees for
its construction, and for the skill with which the work was being
done, adding that as a slight reward for such devotion the church
trustees had made Mr. Minott treasurer of the building fund,
believing that in this way all disputes could the better be
avoided,--one of some importance having already arisen (here the
reverend gentleman lowered his voice) in which Mr. McGowan, he was
sorry to say, who was building the masonry, had attempted an
overcharge which only Mr. Minott's watchful eye could have
detected, adding, with a glance over his shoulder, that the
collapse of the embankment had undermined the contractor's
reputation quite as much as the freshet had his culvert, at which
MacFarlane smiled but made no reply.
Corinne also came to express her regrets, bringing with her a
scrap of an infant in a teetering baby carriage, the whole
presided over by a nurse in a blue dress, white cap, and white
apron, the ends reaching to her feet: not the Corinne, the Scribe
is pained to say, who, in the old days would twist her head and
stamp her little feet and have her way in everything.
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