great degree, removed.] However, this Saturnalian
court has done our business; and a glorious batch of claret we had
afterwards at Walker's. Mac-Morlan will stare when he sees the bill.'

'Never fear,' said the Colonel, 'we'll face the shock, and entertain the
county at my friend Mrs. Mac-Candlish's to boot.'

'And choose Jock Jabos for your master of horse?' replied the lawyer.

'Perhaps I may.'

'And where is Dandie, the redoubted Lord of Liddesdale?' demanded the
advocate.

'Returned to his mountains; but he has promised Julia to make a descent
in summer, with the goodwife, as he calls her, and I don't know how many
children.'

'O, the curly-headed varlets! I must come to play at Blind Harry and Hy
Spy with them. But what is all this?' added Pleydell, taking up the
plans. 'Tower in the centre to be an imitation of the Eagle Tower at
Caernarvon--corps de logis--the devil! Wings--wings! Why, the house will
take the estate of Ellangowan on its back and fly away with it!'

'Why, then, we must ballast it with a few bags of sicca rupees,' replied
the Colonel.

'Aha! sits the wind there? Then I suppose the young dog carries off my
mistress Julia?'

'Even so, Counsellor.'

'These rascals, the post-nati, get the better of us of the old school at
every turn,' said Mr. Pleydell. 'But she must convey and make over her
interest in me to Lucy.'

'To tell you the truth, I am afraid your flank will be turned there too,'
replied the Colonel.

'Indeed?'

'Here has been Sir Robert Hazlewood,' said Mannering, 'upon a visit to
Bertram, thinking and deeming and opining--'

'O Lord! pray spare me the worthy Baronet's triads!'

'Well, sir,' continued Mannering, 'to make short, he conceived that, as
the property of Singleside lay like a wedge between two farms of his, and
was four or five miles separated from Ellangowan, something like a sale
or exchange or arrangement might take place, to the mutual convenience of
both parties.'

'Well, and Bertram--'

'Why, Bertram replied, that he considered the original settlement of Mrs.
Margaret Bertram as the arrangement most proper in the circumstances of
the family, and that therefore the estate of Singleside was the property
of his sister.'

'The rascal!' said Pleydell, wiping his spectacles. 'He'll steal my heart
as well as my mistress. Et puis?'

'And then Sir Robert retired, after many gracious speeches; but last week
he again took the field in force, with his coach and