and gave her a hearty
kiss on each side of the face, to which Lucy submitted in blushing
resignation.

'On n'arrete pas dans un si beau chemin,' continued the gay old
gentleman, and, as the Colonel presented him to Julia, took the same
liberty with that fair lady's cheek. Julia laughed, coloured, and
disengaged herself. 'I beg a thousand pardons,' said the lawyer, with a
bow which was not at all professionally awkward; 'age and old fashions
give privileges, and I can hardly say whether I am most sorry just now at
being too well entitled to claim them at all, or happy in having such an
opportunity to exercise them so agreeably.'

'Upon my word, sir,' said Miss Mannering, laughing, 'if you make such
flattering apologies we shall begin to doubt whether we can admit you to
shelter yourself under your alleged qualifications.'

'I can assure you, Julia,' said the Colonel, 'you are perfectly right. My
friend the Counsellor is a dangerous person; the last time I had the
pleasure of seeing him he was closeted with a fair lady who had granted
him a tete-a-tete at eight in the morning.'

'Ay, but, Colonel,' said the Counsellor, 'you should add, I was more
indebted to my chocolate than my charms for so distinguished a favour
from a person of such propriety of demeanour as Mrs. Rebecca.'

'And that should remind me, Mr. Pleydell,' said Julia, 'to offer you tea;
that is, supposing you have dined.'

'Anything, Miss Mannering, from your hands,' answered the gallant
jurisconsult; 'yes, I have dined; that is to say, as people dine at a
Scotch inn.'

'And that is indifferently enough,' said the Colonel, with his hand upon
the bell-handle; 'give me leave to order something.'

'Why, to say truth, 'replied Mr. Pleydell, 'I had rather not. I have been
inquiring into that matter, for you must know I stopped an instant below
to pull off my boot-hose, "a world too wide for my shrunk shanks,"'
glancing down with some complacency upon limbs which looked very well for
his time of life, 'and I had some conversation with your Barnes and a
very intelligent person whom I presume to be the housekeeper; and it was
settled among us, tota re perspecta,--I beg Miss Mannering's pardon for
my Latin,--that the old lady should add to your light family supper the
more substantial refreshment of a brace of wild ducks. I told her (always
under deep submission) my poor thoughts about the sauce, which concurred
exactly with her own; and, if you please, I wo