--a grave, dry Presbyterian, rigid in all his notions as
the buckle of his wig. This precise worthy having ascertained John's
address, went to call on him, a day or two afterwards, with the news
of some richly illuminated missal, which he might possibly be glad to
make prize of. On asking for his friend, a smiling _laquais de place_
informed him that _Monsieur_ had gone out, but that _Madame_ was at
home. Not doubting that Mrs. Ballantyne had accompanied her husband on
his trip, he desired to pay his respects to _Madame_, and was ushered
in accordingly. "But oh, Mr. Scott!" said, or rather groaned, the
austere elder, on his return from this modern Babylon, "oh, Mr. Scott,
there was nae Mrs. John yonder, but a painted Jezebel sittin' up in
her bed, wi' a wheen impudent French limmers like hersel', and twa or
three whiskered blackguards, takin' their collation o' knickknacks and
champagne wine! I ran out o' the house as if I had been shot. What
judgment will this wicked warld come to! The Lord pity us!" Scott was
a severe enough censor in the general of such levities, but somehow,
in the case of Rigdumfunnidos, he seemed to regard them with much the
same toleration as the naughty tricks of a monkey in the "Jardin des
Plantes."

Why did Scott persist in mixing up all his most important {p.265}
concerns with such people as I have been describing? I asked himself
that question too unceremoniously at a long subsequent period, and in
due time the reader shall see the answer I received; but it left the
main question, to my apprehension, as much in the dark as ever. I
shall return to the sad subject hereafter more seriously; but in the
mean time let it suffice to say, that he was the most patient,
long-suffering, affectionate, and charitable of mankind; that in the
case of both the Ballantynes he could count, after all, on a
sincerely, nay, a passionately devoted attachment to his person; that,
with the greatest of human beings, use is in all but unconquerable
power; and that he who so loftily tossed aside the seemingly most
dangerous assaults of flattery, the blandishment of dames, the
condescension of princes, the enthusiasm of crowds--had still his weak
point, upon which two or three humble besiegers, and one unwearied,
though most frivolous underminer, well knew how to direct their
approaches. It was a favorite saw of his own, that the wisest of our
race often reserve the average stock of folly to be all expended upon
some