n,' he said, 'of boasting
of my own discretion as a lady's confidant. You see, Mr. Waverley, that I
know all, and I assure you I am deeply interested in the affair. But, my
good young friend, you must put a more severe restraint upon your
feelings. There are many here whose eyes can see as clearly as mine, but
the prudence of whose tongues may not be equally trusted,'

So saying, he turned easily away and joined a circle of officers at a few
paces' distance, leaving Waverley to meditate upon his parting
expression, which, though not intelligible to him in its whole purport,
was sufficiently so in the caution which the last word recommended.
Making, therefore, an effort to show himself worthy of the interest which
his new master had expressed, by instant obedience to his recommendation,
he walked up to the spot where Flora and Miss Bradwardine were still
seated, and having made his compliments to the latter, he succeeded, even
beyond his own expectation, in entering into conversation upon general
topics.

If, my dear reader, thou hast ever happened to take post-horses at----or
at----(one at least of which blanks, or more probably both, you will be
able to fill up from an inn near your own residence), you must have
observed, and doubtless with sympathetic pain, the reluctant agony with
which the poor jades at first apply their galled necks to the collars of
the harness. But when the irresistible arguments of the post-boy have
prevailed upon them to proceed a mile or two, they will become callous to
the first sensation; and being warm in the harness, as the said post-boy
may term it, proceed as if their withers were altogether unwrung. This
simile so much corresponds with the state of Waverley's feelings in the
course of this memorable evening, that I prefer it (especially as being,
I trust, wholly original) to any more splendid illustration with which
Byshe's 'Art of Poetry' might supply me.

Exertion, like virtue, is its own reward; and our hero had, moreover,
other stimulating motives for persevering in a display of affected
composure and indifference to Flora's obvious unkindness. Pride, which
supplies its caustic as an useful, though severe, remedy for the wounds
of affection, came rapidly to his aid. Distinguished by the favour of a
prince; destined, he had room to hope, to play a conspicuous part in the
revolution which awaited a mighty kingdom; excelling, probably, in mental
acquirements, and equalling at least i