wl of catching a butterfly.

But it was in vain that I have knitted my brows till I had the headache,
in order to acquire the reputation of a grave, solid, and well-judging
youth. Your father always has discovered, or thought that he discovered,
a hare-brained eccentricity lying folded among the wrinkles of my
forehead, which rendered me a perilous associate for the future
counsellor and ultimate judge. Well, Corporal Nym's philosophy must
be my comfort--'Things must be as they may.'--I cannot come to your
father's house, where he wishes not to see me; and as to your coming
hither,--by all that is dear to me, I vow that if you are guilty of such
a piece of reckless folly--not to say undutiful cruelty, considering
your father's thoughts and wishes--I will never speak to you again as
long as I live! I am perfectly serious. And besides, your father, while
he in a manner prohibits me from returning to Edinburgh, gives me the
strongest reasons for continuing a little while longer in this country,
by holding out the hope that I may receive from your old friend, Mr.
Herries of Birrenswork, some particulars concerning my origin, with
which that ancient recusant seems to be acquainted.

That gentleman mentioned the name of a family in Westmoreland, with
which he supposes me connected. My inquiries here after such a family
have been ineffectual, for the borderers, on either side, know little
of each other. But I shall doubtless find some English person of whom to
make inquiries, since the confounded fetterlock clapped on my movements
by old Griffiths, prevents me repairing to England in person. At
least, the prospect of obtaining some information is greater here than
elsewhere; it will be an apology for my making a longer stay in this
neighbourhood, a line of conduct which seems to have your father's
sanction, whose opinion must be sounder than that of your wandering
damoselle.

If the road were paved with dangers which leads to such a discovery, I
cannot for a moment hesitate to tread it. But in fact there is no peril
in the case. If the Tritons of the Solway shall proceed to pull down
honest Joshua's tide-nets, I am neither Quixote enough in disposition,
nor Goliath enough in person, to attempt their protection. I have no
idea of attempting to prop a falling house by putting my shoulders
against it. And indeed, Joshua gave me a hint that the company which he
belongs to, injured in the way threatened (some of them being men wh