f your friends?' said Cristal.

'Three, and have letters from many more. They are unanimous on the
subject you wot of--and the point must be conceded to them, or, far as
the matter has gone, it will go no further.'

'You will hardly bring the father to stoop to his flock,' said Cristal,
with a sneer.

'He must and shall!' answered Redgauntlet, briefly. 'Go to the front,
Cristal--I would speak with my nephew. I trust, Sir Arthur Redgauntlet,
you are satisfied with the manner in which I have discharged my duty to
your sister?'

'There can be no fault found to her manners or sentiments,' answered
Darsie; 'I am happy in knowing a relative so amiable.'

'I am glad of it,' answered Mr. Redgauntlet. 'I am no nice judge of
women's qualifications, and my life has been dedicated to one great
object; so that since she left France she has had but little opportunity
of improvement. I have subjected her, however, as little as possible to
the inconveniences and privations of my wandering and dangerous life.
From time to time she has resided for weeks and months with families of
honour and respectability, and I am glad that she has, in, your opinion,
the manners and behaviour which become her birth.'

Darsie expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and there was a little
pause, which Redgauntlet broke by solemnly addressing his nephew.

'For you, my nephew, I also hoped to have done much. The weakness and
timidity of your mother sequestered you from my care, or it would have
been my pride and happiness to have trained up the son of my unhappy
brother in those paths of honour in which our ancestors have always
trod.'

'Now comes the storm,' thought Darsie to himself, and began to collect
his thoughts, as the cautious master of a vessel furls his sails and
makes his ship snug when he discerns the approaching squall.

'My mother's conduct in respect to me might be misjudged,' he said, 'but
it was founded on the most anxious affection.'

'Assuredly,' said his uncle, 'and I have no wish to reflect on her
memory, though her mistrust has done so much injury, I will not say to
me, but to the cause of my unhappy country. Her scheme was, I think,
to have made you that wretched pettifogging being, which they still
continue to call in derision by the once respectable name of a Scottish
Advocate; one of those mongrel things that must creep to learn the
ultimate decision of his causes to the bar of a foreign court, instead
of pleading befo