stay with me--I
command you!"

But the signal being given to hoist away, the chair mounted, intently
watched by Lovel, who stood holding the guide rope, to the last flutter
of the lady's white dress. Miss Wardour was duly and safely landed. Sir
Arthur and Edie followed, and it remained for Lovel to make the more
hazardous final ascent. For now there was no one left below to help him
by holding the "guy" rope. Nevertheless, being young and accustomed to
danger, he managed, though much banged and buffeted about by the wind,
to fend himself off the rocks with the long pike-staff belonging to the
beggar, which Edie had left him for that purpose.

It was only when Lovel reached the safety of the cliff that he felt
himself for a moment a little faint. When he came to himself Sir Arthur
had already been removed to his carriage, and all that Lovel saw of the
girl he had rescued from death was the last flutter of her dress
vanishing through the storm.

"She did not even think it worth while waiting to see whether I was dead
or alive--much less to thank me for anything I had done!"

And he resolved to leave Fairport on the morrow, without visiting
Knockwinnock, or again seeing Miss Wardour. But what he did not know was
that Miss Wardour had waited till she had been assured that Lovel was
safe and sound, having sent Sir Arthur on before her to the carriage.

But as the young man was not aware that she had shown him even this
limited sympathy, his heart continued to be bitter within him.

It was arranged that he was to sleep that night at Monkbarns. Indeed Mr.
Oldbuck would hear of no other way of it. The Antiquary had looked
forward to the chicken pie and the bottle of port which Sir Arthur had
left untasted when he bounced off in a fume. What then was his wrath
when his sister, Miss Grizel, told him how that the minister of
Trotcosey, Mr. Blattergowl, having come down to Monkbarns to sympathise
with the peril of all concerned, had so much affected Miss Oldbuck by
his show of anxiety that she had set the pie and the wine before
him--which he had accordingly consumed to show his good-will.

But after some very characteristic grumbling, cold beef and hard-boiled
eggs did just as well for the two friends, and while Lovel partook of
them, Miss Grizel entertained him with tales of the Green Room in which
he was to sleep. This apartment was haunted, it seemed, by the spirit of
the first Oldenbuck, the celebrated printer of the A