incarnate.

Weel, my gudesire was nae manager--no that he was a very great
misguider--but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms' rent in
arrear. He got the first brash at Whitsunday put ower wi' fair word
and piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a summons from the
grund-officer to come wi' the rent on a day preceese, or else Steenie
behoved to flit. Sair wark he had to get the siller; but he was
weel-freended, and at last he got the haill scraped thegether--a
thousand merks--the maist of it was from a neighbour they ca'd Laurie
Lapraik--a sly tod. Laurie had walth o' gear--could hunt wi' the hound
and rin wi' the hare--and be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind
stood. He was a professor in this Revolution warld, but he liked an orra
sough of this warld, and a tune on the pipes weel aneugh at a bytime;
and abune a', he thought he had gude security for the siller he lent my
gudesire ower the stocking at Primrose Knowe.

Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle wi' a heavy purse and a
light heart, glad to be out of the laird's danger. Weel, the first thing
he learned at the castle was, that Sir Robert had fretted himsell into
a fit of the gout, because he did not appear before twelve' o'clock. It
wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he
didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see
Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat
the laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great,
ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast
it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played--ill to please it was,
and easily angered--ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling,
and pinching, and biting folk, specially before ill weather, or
disturbances in the state. Sir Robert caa'd it Major Weir, after the
warlock that was burnt; [A celebrated wizard, executed at Edinburgh for
sorcery and other crimes.] and few folk liked either the name or the
conditions of the creature--they thought there was something in it by
ordinar--and my gudesire was not just easy in mind when the door shut
on him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the laird, Dougal
MacCallum, and the major, a thing that hadna chanced to him before.

Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armed chair, wi' his
grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had baith gout and
gravel, and his face looked