madam, if you will have the
goodness to allow me to occupy the parlour----"

"Certainly, sir," said Mrs. MacCandlish, and hastened to light the way.

"And wha' may your master be, friend?"

"What! That's the famous Colonel Mannering, sir, from the East Indies."

"What, him we read of in the papers?"

"Lord safe us!" said the landlady. "I must go and see what he would have
for supper--that I should set him down here."

When the landlady re-entered, Colonel Mannering asked her if Mr. Bertram
lost his son in his fifth year.

"O ay, sir, there's nae doubt of that; though there are many idle
clashes about the way and manner. And the news being rashly told to the
leddy cost her her life that saym night; and the laird never throve from
that day, was just careless of everything. Though when Miss Lucy grew up
she tried to keep order. But what could she do, poor thing? So now
they're out of house and hauld."

_II.--Vanbeest Brown's Reappearance_

Early next morning, Mannering took the road to Ellangowan. He had no
need to inquire the way; people of all descriptions streamed to the sale
from all quarters.

When the old towers of the ruin rose upon his view, thoughts thronged
upon the mind of the traveller. How changed his feelings since he lost
sight of them so many years before! Then life and love were new, and all
the prospect was gilded by their rays. And now, disappointed in
affection, sated with fame, goaded by bitter and repentant
recollections, his best hope was to find a retirement in which to nurse
the melancholy which was to accompany him to his grave. About a year
before, in India, he had returned from a distant expedition to find a
young cadet named Brown established as the habitual attendant on his
wife and daughter, an arrangement which displeased him greatly, owing to
the suggestions of another cadet, though no objection could be made to
the youth's character or manners. Brown made some efforts to overcome
his colonel's prejudice, but feeling himself repulsed, and with scorn,
desisted, and continued his attentions in defiance. At last some trifle
occurred which occasioned high words and a challenge. They met on the
frontiers of the settlement, and Brown fell at the first shot. A horde
of Looties, a species of banditti, poured in upon them, and Colonel
Mannering and his second escaped with some difficulty. His wife's death
shortly after, and his daughter's severe illness, made him throw up his
comman