ore upon his journey, but he
excused himself under pretence of feeling cold, and, to divert the time
till Cuddie's return, he entered into some chat with the children,
carefully avoiding, during the interval, the inquisitive glances of his
landlady.

CHAPTER XVII.

What tragic tears bedim the eye!
What deaths we suffer ere we die!
Our broken friendships we deplore,
And loves of youth that are no more.
LOGAN.

Cuddie soon returned, assuring the stranger, with a cheerful voice, "that
the horse was properly suppered up, and that the gudewife should make a
bed up for him at the house, mair purpose-like and comfortable than the
like o' them could gie him."

"Are the family at the house?" said the stranger, with an interrupted and
broken voice.

"No, stir, they're awa wi' a' the servants,--they keep only twa nowadays,
and my gudewife there has the keys and the charge, though she's no a
fee'd servant. She has been born and bred in the family, and has a' trust
and management. If they were there, we behovedna to take sic freedom
without their order; but when they are awa, they will be weel pleased we
serve a stranger gentleman. Miss Bellenden wad help a' the haill warld,
an her power were as gude as her will; and her grandmother, Leddy
Margaret, has an unto respect for the gentry, and she's no ill to the
poor bodies neither.--And now, wife, what for are ye no getting forrit
wi' the sowens?"

"Never mind, lad," rejoined Jenny, "ye sall hae them in gude time; I ken
weel that ye like your brose het."

Cuddie fidgeted and laughed with a peculiar expression of intelligence at
this repartee, which was followed by a dialogue of little consequence
betwixt his wife and him, in which the stranger took no share. At length
he suddenly interrupted them by the question: "Can you tell me when Lord
Evandale's marriage takes place?"

"Very soon, we expect," answered Jenny, before it was possible for her
husband to reply; "it wad hae been ower afore now, but for the death o'
auld Major Bellenden."

"The excellent old man!" said the stranger; "I heard at Edinburgh he was
no more. Was he long ill?"

"He couldna be said to haud up his head after his brother's wife and his
niece were turned out o' their ain house; and he had himsell sair
borrowing siller to stand the law,--but it was in the latter end o' King