the suit he had made to his sister, the
Chevalier plainly told him that he had himself observed Miss Mac-Ivor's
behaviour to Waverley, and that he was convinced Fergus was under the
influence of a mistake in judging of Waverley's conduct, who, he had
every reason to believe, was engaged to Miss Bradwardine. The quarrel
which ensued between Edward and the Chieftain is, I hope, still in the
remembrance of the reader. These circumstances will serve to explain such
points of our narrative as, according to the custom of story-tellers, we
deemed it fit to leave unexplained, for the purpose of exciting the
reader's curiosity.

When Janet had once finished the leading facts of this narrative,
Waverley was easily enabled to apply the clue which they afforded to
other mazes of the labyrinth in which he had been engaged. To Rose
Bradwardine, then, he owed the life which he now thought he could
willingly have laid down to serve her. A little reflection convinced him,
however, that to live for her sake was more convenient and agreeable, and
that, being possessed of independence, she might share it with him either
in foreign countries or in his own. The pleasure of being allied to a man
of the Baron's high worth, and who was so much valued by his uncle Sir
Everard, was also an agreeable consideration, had anything been wanting
to recommend the match. His absurdities, which had appeared grotesquely
ludicrous during his prosperity, seemed, in the sunset of his fortune, to
be harmonised and assimilated with the noble features of his character,
so as to add peculiarity without exciting ridicule. His mind occupied
with such projects of future happiness, Edward sought Little Veolan, the
habitation of Mr. Duncan Macwheeble.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Now is Cupid a child of conscience--he makes restitution.--SHAKSPEARE

Mr. Duncan MacWheeble, no longer Commissary or Bailie, though still
enjoying the empty name of the latter dignity, had escaped proscription
by an early secession from the insurgent party and by his insignificance.

Edward found him in his office, immersed among papers and accounts.
Before him was a large bicker of oatmeal porridge, and at the side
thereof a horn spoon and a bottle of two-penny. Eagerly running his eye
over a voluminous law-paper, he from time to time shovelled an immense
spoonful of these nutritive viands into his capacious mouth. A
pot-bellied Dutch bottle of brandy which stood by intimated either that
t