of her
disposition had made her submit with complacency, and even pleasure, to
the course of reading prescribed by her father, although it not only
comprehended several heavy folios of history, but certain gigantic tomes
in high-church polemics. In heraldry he was fortunately contented to give
her only such a slight tincture as might be acquired by perusal of the
two folio volumes of Nisbet. Rose was indeed the very apple of her
father's eye. Her constant liveliness, her attention to all those little
observances most gratifying to those who would never think of exacting
them, her beauty, in which he recalled the features of his beloved wife,
her unfeigned piety, and the noble generosity of her disposition, would
have justified the affection of the most doting father.

His anxiety on her behalf did not, however, seem to extend itself in that
quarter where, according to the general opinion, it is most efficiently
displayed, in labouring, namely, to establish her in life, either by a
large dowry or a wealthy marriage. By an old settlement, almost all the
landed estates of the Baron went, after his death, to a distant relation;
and it was supposed that Miss Bradwardine would remain but slenderly
provided for, as the good gentleman's cash matters had been too long
under the exclusive charge of Bailie Macwheeble to admit of any great
expectations from his personal succession. It is true, the said Bailie
loved his patron and his patron's daughter next (though at an
incomparable distance) to himself. He thought it was possible to set
aside the settlement on the male line, and had actually procured an
opinion to that effect (and, as he boasted, without a fee) from an
eminent Scottish counsel, under whose notice he contrived to bring the
point while consulting him regularly on some other business. But the
Baron would not listen to such a proposal for an instant. On the
contrary, he used to have a perverse pleasure in boasting that the barony
of Bradwardine was a male fief, the first charter having been given at
that early period when women were not deemed capable to hold a feudal
grant; because, according to Les coustusmes de Normandie, c'est l'homme
ki se bast et ki conseille; or, as is yet more ungallantly expressed by
other authorities, all of whose barbarous names he delighted to quote at
full length, because a woman could not serve the superior, or feudal
lord, in war, on account of the decorum of her sex, nor assist