e of the constant attention which she paid to him. Her father
was too abstractedly immersed in learned and military discussions
to observe her partiality, and Flora Mac-Ivor did not alarm her by
remonstrance, because she saw in this line of conduct the most probable
chance of her friend securing at length a return of affection.

The truth is, that, in her first conversation after their meeting,
Rose had discovered the state of her mind to that acute and intelligent
friend, although she was not herself aware of it. From that time,
Flora was not only determined upon the final rejection of Waverley's
addresses, but became anxious that they should, if possible, be
transferred to her friend. Nor was she less interested in this plan,
though her brother had from time to time talked, as between jest and
earnest, of paying his suit to Miss Bradwardine. She knew that Fergus
had the true continental latitude of opinion respecting the institution
of marriage, and would not have given his hand to an angel, unless for
the purpose of strengthening his alliances, and increasing his influence
and wealth. The Baron's whim of transferring his estate to the distant
heir-male instead of his own daughter, was therefore likely to be an
insurmountable obstacle to his entertaining any serious thoughts of Rose
Bradwardine. Indeed, Fergus's brain was a perpetual workshop of scheme
and intrigue of every possible kind and description; while, like many a
mechanic of more ingenuity than steadiness, he would often unexpectedly
and without any apparent motive, abandon one plan, and go earnestly
to work upon another, which was either fresh from the forge of his
imagination, or had at some former period been flung aside half
finished. It was therefore often difficult to guess what line of conduct
he might finally adopt upon any given occasion.

Although Flora was sincerely attached to her brother, whose high
energies might indeed have commanded her admiration even without the
ties which bound them together, she was by no means blind to his faults,
which she considered as dangerous to the hopes of any woman who should
found her ideas of a happy marriage in the peaceful enjoyment of
domestic society, and the exchange of mutual and engrossing affection.
The real disposition of Waverley, on the other hand, notwithstanding
his dreams of tented fields and military honour, seemed exclusively
domestic. He asked and received no share in the busy scenes which were