omination.

This expectoration of spleen was suddenly interrupted by the noise of a
carriage without, when, shaking off all sullenness at the sound, Oldbuck
ran nimbly up stairs and down stairs, for both operations were necessary
ere he could receive Miss Wardour and her father at the door of his
mansion.

A cordial greeting passed on both sides. And Sir Arthur, referring
to his previous inquiries by letter and message, requested to be
particularly informed of Captain M'Intyre's health.

"Better than he deserves," was the answer--"better than he deserves, for
disturbing us with his vixen brawls, and breaking God's peace and the
King's."

"The young gentleman," Sir Arthur said, "had been imprudent; but he
understood they were indebted to him for the detection of a suspicious
character in the young man Lovel."

"No more suspicious than his own," answered the Antiquary, eager in
his favourites defence;--"the young gentleman was a little foolish and
headstrong, and refused to answer Hector's impertinent interrogatories--
that is all. Lovel, Sir Arthur, knows how to choose his confidants
better--Ay, Miss Wardour, you may look at me--but it is very true;--it
was in my bosom that he deposited the secret cause of his residence
at Fairport; and no stone should have been left unturned on my part to
assist him in the pursuit to which he had dedicated himself."

On hearing this magnanimous declaration on the part of the old
Antiquary, Miss Wardour changed colour more than once, and could
hardly trust her own ears. For of all confidants to be selected as the
depositary of love affairs,--and such she naturally supposed must have
been the subject of communication,--next to Edie Ochiltree, Oldbuck
seemed the most uncouth and extraordinary; nor could she sufficiently
admire or fret at the extraordinary combination of circumstances which
thus threw a secret of such a delicate nature into the possession of
persons so unfitted to be entrusted with it. She had next to fear the
mode of Oldbuck's entering upon the affair with her father, for such,
she doubted not, was his intention. She well knew that the honest
gentleman, however vehement in his prejudices, had no great sympathy
with those of others, and she had to fear a most unpleasant explosion
upon an e'claircissement taking place between them. It was therefore
with great anxiety that she heard her father request a private
interview, and observed Oldbuck readily arise and show the