g the compliments of Waverley, or stop to inquire whether
she had any curiosity respecting the particular cause of his journey to
Scotland at that period. We shall not even trouble the reader with the
humdrum details of a courtship Sixty Years Since. It is enough to say
that, under so strict a martinet as the Baron, all things were conducted
in due form. He took upon himself, the morning after their arrival, the
task of announcing the proposal of Waverley to Rose, which she heard with
a proper degree of maiden timidity. Fame does, however, say that Waverley
had the evening before found five minutes to apprise her of what was
coming, while the rest of the company were looking at three twisted
serpents which formed a jet d'eau in the garden.
My fair readers will judge for themselves; but, for my part, I cannot
conceive how so important an affair could be communicated in so short a
space of time; at least, it certainly took a full hour in the Baron's
mode of conveying it.
Waverley was now considered as a received lover in all the forms. He was
made, by dint of smirking and nodding on the part of the lady of the
house, to sit next Miss Bradwardine at dinner, to be Miss Bradwardine's
partner at cards. If he came into the room, she of the four Miss Rubricks
who chanced to be next Rose was sure to recollect that her thimble or her
scissors were at the other end of the room, in order to leave the seat
nearest to Miss Bradwardine vacant for his occupation. And sometimes, if
papa and mamma were not in the way to keep them on their good behaviour,
the misses would titter a little. The old Laird of Duchran would also
have his occasional jest, and the old lady her remark. Even the Baron
could not refrain; but here Rose escaped every embarrassment but that of
conjecture, for his wit was usually couched in a Latin quotation. The
very footmen sometimes grinned too broadly, the maidservants giggled
mayhap too loud, and a provoking air of intelligence seemed to pervade
the whole family. Alice Bean, the pretty maid of the cavern, who, after
her father's misfortune, as she called it, had attended Rose as
fille-de-chambre, smiled and smirked with the best of them. Rose and
Edward, however, endured all these little vexatious circumstances as
other folks have done before and since, and probably contrived to obtain
some indemnification, since they are not supposed, on the whole, to have
been particularly unhappy during Waverley's six days' s
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