hereas a gude offcome, prudently and creditably
handled, may serve a nobleman and his family, Lord kens how lang!"

Ravenswood was too well acquainted with his butler's pertinacity and
self-opinion to dispute the point with him any farther. Leaving Caleb,
therefore, to the enjoyment of his own successful ingenuity, he returned
to the hamlet, where he found the Marquis and the good women of the
mansion under some anxiety--the former on account of his absence, the
others for the discredit their cookery might sustain by the delay of the
supper. All were now at ease, and heard with pleasure that the fire at
the castle had burned out of itself without reaching the vaults, which
was the only information that Ravenswood thought it proper to give in
public concerning the event of his butler's strategem.

They sat down to an excellent supper. No invitation could prevail on
Mr. and Mrs. Girder, even in their own house, to sit down at table with
guests of such high quality. They remained standing in the apartment,
and acted the part of respectful and careful attendants on the company.
Such were the manners of the time. The elder dame, confident through
her age and connexion with the Ravenswood family, was less scrupulously
ceremonious. She played a mixed part betwixt that of the hostess of an
inn and the mistress of a private house, who receives guests above her
own degree. She recommended, and even pressed, what she thought best,
and was herself easily entreated to take a moderate share of the good
cheer, in order to encourage her guests by her own example. Often she
interrupted herself, to express her regret that "my lord did not eat;
that the Master was pyking a bare bane; that, to be sure, there was
naething there fit to set before their honours; that Lord Allan, rest
his saul, used to like a pouthered guse, and said it was Latin for a
tass o' brandy; that the brandy came frae France direct; for, for a' the
English laws and gaugers, the Wolf's Hope brigs hadna forgotten the gate
to Dunkirk."

Here the cooper admonished his mother-in-law with his elbow, which
procured him the following special notice in the progress of her speech:

"Ye needna be dunshin that gate, John [Gibbie]," continued the old lady;
"naebody says that YE ken whar the brandy comes frae; and it wadna be
fitting ye should, and you the Queen's cooper; and what signifies't,"
continued she, addressing Lord Ravenswood, "to king, queen, or kaiser
whar an auld wi