e in his disposition, resolved, under
such pressing circumstances, to do them the kind office of binding
them together, although the consequence might be a charge of
irregularity against himself. Old Mowbray was much confined to his
room, his daughter less watched since Frank had removed from the
neighbourhood--the brother (which, by the by, I should have said
before) not then in the country--and it was settled that the lovers
should meet at the Old Kirk of Saint Ronan's when the twilight
became deep, and go off in a chaise for England so soon as the
ceremony was performed.

"When all this was arranged save the actual appointment of the day,
you cannot conceive the happiness and the gratitude of my sage
brother. He looked upon himself as approaching to the seventh
heaven, instead of losing his chance of a good fortune, and
encumbering himself at nineteen with a wife, and all the
probabilities of narrow circumstances, and an increasing family.
Though so much younger myself, I could not help wondering at his
extreme want of knowledge of the world, and feeling ashamed that I
had ever allowed him to take the airs of a tutor with me; and this
conscious superiority supported me against the thrill of jealousy
which always seized me when I thought of his carrying off the
beautiful prize, which, without my address, he could never have
made his own.--But at this important crisis, I had a letter from my
father, which, by some accident, had long lain at our lodgings in
Edinburgh; and then visited our former quarters in the Highlands;
again returned to Edinburgh, and at length reached me at Marchthorn
in a most critical time.

"It was in reply to a letter of mine, in which, among other matters,
such as good boys send to their papas, descriptions of the country,
accounts of studies, exercises, and so forth, I had, to fill up the
sheet to a dutiful length, thrown in something about the family of
St. Ronan's, in the neighbourhood of which I was writing. I had no
idea what an effect the name would produce on the mind of my right
honourable father, but his letter sufficiently expressed it. He
charged me to cultivate the acquaintance of Mr. Mowbray as fast and
as intimately as possible; and, if need were, to inform him candidly
of our real character and situation in life. Wisely considering, at