ate of my house! to make my very chairs and tables
tremble at his brawls. No, no--I'll none of Hector M'Intyre. But hark ye,
Lovel;--you are a quiet, gentle-tempered lad; had not you better set up
your staff at Monkbarns for a month or two, since I conclude you do not
immediately intend to leave this country?--I will have a door opened out
to the garden--it will cost but a trifle--there is the space for an old
one which was condemned long ago--by which said door you may pass and
repass into the Green Chamber at pleasure, so you will not interfere
with the old man, nor he with you. As for your fare, Mrs. Hadoway tells
me you are, as she terms it, very moderate of your mouth, so you will
not quarrel with my humble table. Your washing"--

"Hold, my dear Mr. Oldbuck," interposed Lovel, unable to repress a
smile; "and before your hospitality settles all my accommodations, let
me thank you most sincerely for so kind an offer--it is not at present
in my power to accept of it; but very likely, before I bid adieu
to Scotland, I shall find an opportunity to pay you a visit of some
length."

Mr. Oldbuck's countenance fell. "Why, I thought I had hit on the very
arrangement that would suit us both,--and who knows what might happen
in the long run, and whether we might ever part? Why, I am master of my
acres, man--there is the advantage of being descended from a man of more
sense than pride--they cannot oblige me to transmit my goods chattels,
and heritages, any way but as I please. No string of substitute heirs of
entail, as empty and unsubstantial as the morsels of paper strung to
the train of a boy's kite, to cumber my flights of inclination, and my
humours of predilection. Well,--I see you won't be tempted at present--but
Caledonia goes on I hope?"

"O certainly," said Lovel; "I cannot think of relinquishing a plan so
hopeful."

"It is indeed," said the Antiquary, looking gravely upward,--for, though
shrewd and acute enough in estimating the variety of plans formed
by others, he had a very natural, though rather disproportioned good
opinion of the importance of those which originated with himself--"it is
indeed one of those undertakings which, if achieved with spirit equal
to that which dictates its conception, may redeem from the charge of
frivolity the literature of the present generation."

Here he was interrupted by a knock at the room door, which introduced
a letter for Mr. Lovel. The servant waited, Mrs. Hadoway said,