rmally made and preserved. It suited
well the character of the little glen, which was overhung with thickets
and underwood, chiefly of larch and hazel, intermixed with the usual
varieties of the thorn and brier. In this walk had passed that scene of
explanation between Miss Wardour and Lovel which was overheard by old
Edie Ochiltree. With a heart softened by the distress which approached
her family, Miss Wardour now recalled every word and argument which
Lovel had urged in support of his suit, and could not help confessing to
herself, it was no small subject of pride to have inspired a young
man of his talents with a passion so strong and disinterested. That he
should have left the pursuit of a profession in which he was said to be
rapidly rising, to bury himself in a disagreeable place like Fairport,
and brood over an unrequited passion, might be ridiculed by others as
romantic, but was naturally forgiven as an excess of affection by
the person who was the object of his attachment. Had he possessed an
independence, however moderate, or ascertained a clear and undisputed
claim to the rank in society he was well qualified to adorn, she
might now have had it in her power to offer her father, during his
misfortunes, an asylum in an establishment of her own. These thoughts,
so favourable to the absent lover, crowded in, one after the other,
with such a minute recapitulation of his words, looks, and actions, as
plainly intimated that his former repulse had been dictated rather
by duty than inclination. Isabella was musing alternately upon this
subject, and upon that of her father's misfortunes, when, as the path
winded round a little hillock covered with brushwood, the old Blue-Gown
suddenly met her.

With an air as if he had something important and mysterious to
communicate, he doffed his bonnet, and assumed the cautious step and
voice of one who would not willingly be overheard. "I hae been wishing
muckle to meet wi' your leddyship--for ye ken I darena come to the house
for Dousterswivel."

"I heard indeed," said Miss Wardour, dropping an alms into the bonnet--"I
heard that you had done a very foolish, if not a very bad thing, Edie--
and I was sorry to hear it."

"Hout, my bonny leddy--fulish? A' the world's fules--and how should auld
Edie Ochiltree be aye wise?--And for the evil--let them wha deal wi'
Dousterswivel tell whether he gat a grain mair than his deserts."

"That may be true, Edie, and yet," said Miss Wardou