ort
her home from church. When Scott's father learned of it he deemed it his
duty to warn the young lady's father of the interest the young pair were
taking in each other, but the gentleman did not think it necessary to
interfere. This affection was nourished through several years, and Scott
had no thought but that marriage would be its final result, as the young
lady warmly reciprocated his attachment, and the parents apparently
threw no obstacles in the way. But the little romance, like so many
other youthful dreams, was destined to be rudely broken, and the lady
was married in due time, by her friends, to a gentleman of high rank and
character, who later in life acted the part of a generous patron to his
early rival. His hopes of marriage with this lady had rendered him very
industrious and devoted to business, and kept him from all youthful
follies. These things were certainly clear gains to the young man from
the connection, if we say nothing of the pleasant store of memories with
which it furnished his whole after-life. But the blow was a severe one
when the parting came, and Scott could not refer to it without emotion
even after many years. But he was still quite young--not over
twenty-five years of age--and he soon saw a lady in whom he grew much
interested. Riding, Lockhart tells us, "one day with Ferguson, they met,
some miles from Gilsland, a young lady taking the air on horseback, whom
neither of them had previously remarked, and whose appearance instantly
struck them both so much they kept her in view until they had satisfied
themselves that she also was one of the party at Gilsland. The same
evening there was a ball, at which Captain Scott appeared in
regimentals, and Ferguson also thought proper to be equipped in the
uniform of the Edinburgh Volunteers. There was no little rivalry among
the young travellers as to who should first get presented to the unknown
beauty of the morning's ride; but though both the gentlemen in scarlet
had the advantage of being her dancing-partners, young Walter succeeded
in handing the fair stranger to supper; and such was his first
introduction to Charlotte Margaret Carpenter." She was very
beautiful,--a complexion of clearest and lightest olive, eyes large,
deep-set, and dazzling, of the finest Italian brown, and a profusion of
black hair. Her manners had the well-bred reserve of an Englishwoman,
and something of the coquetry of the French from whom she was descended.
She spok