第53章

``Well, Miss Wardour, your wishes shall be obeyed;--have patience with me one little month, and if, in the course of that space, I cannot show you such reasons for continuing my residence at Fairport, as even you shall approve of, I will bid adieu to its vicinity, and, with the same breath, to all my hopes of happiness.''

``Not so, Mr.Lovel; many years of deserved happiness, founded on a more rational basis than your present wishes, are, I trust, before, you.But it is full time, to finish this conversation.

I cannot force you to adopt my advice--I cannot shut the door of my father's house against the preserver of his life and mine; but the sooner Mr.Lovel can teach his mind to submit to the inevitable disappointment of wishes which have been so rashly formed, the more highly be will rise in my esteem --and, in the meanwhile, for his sake as well as mine, he must excuse my putting an interdict upon conversation on a subject so painful.''

A servant at this moment announced that Sir Arthur desired to speak to Mr.Oldbuck in his dressing-room.

``Let me show you the way,'' said Miss Wardour, who apparently dreaded a continuation of her tte-

-tte with Lovel, and she conducted the Antiquary accordingly to her father's apartment.

Sir Arthur, his legs swathed in flannel, was stretched on the couch.``Welcome, Mr.Oldbuck,'' he said; ``I trust you have come better off than I have done from the inclemency of yesterday evening?''

``Truly, Sir Arthur, I was not so much exposed to it--I kept _terra firma_--you fairly committed yourself to the cold night-air in the most literal of all senses.But such adventures become a gallant knight better than a humble esquire,--to rise on the wings of the night-wind--to dive into the bowels of the earth.

What news from our subterranean Good Hope!--the _terra incognita_ of Glen-Withershins?''

``Nothing good as yet,'' said the Baronet, turning himself hastily, as if stung by a pang of the gout; ``but Dousterswivel does not despair.''

``Does he not?'' quoth Oldbuck; ``I do though, under his favour.Why, old Dr.H--n told me, when I was in * Probably Dr.Hutton, the celebrated geologist.

Edinburgh, that we should never find copper enough, judging from the specimens I showed him, to make a pair of sixpenny knee-buckles--and I cannot see that those samples on the table below differ much in quality.''

``The learned doctor is not infallible, I presume?''

``No; but he is one of our first chemists; and this tramping philosopher of yours--this Dousterswivel--is, I have a notion, one, of those learned adventurers described by Kirchner, _Artem habent sine arte, partem sine parte, quorum medium est mentiri, vita eorum mendicatum ire;_ that is to say, Miss Wardour''--``It is unnecessary to translate,'' said Miss Wardour--``Icomprehend your general meaning; but I hope Mr.Dousterswivel will turn out a more trustworthy character.''

``I doubt it not a little,'' said the Antiquary,--``and we are a foul way out if we cannot discover this infernal vein that he has prophesied about these two years.''

``_You_ have no great interest in the matter, Mr.Oldbuck,''

said the Baronet.

``Too much, too much, Sir Arthur; and yet, for the sake of my fair foe here, I would consent to lose it all so you had no more on the venture.''

There was a painful silence of a few moments, for Sir Arthur was too proud to acknowledge the downfall of his golden dreams, though he could no longer disguise to himself that such was likely to be the termination of the adventure.``I understand,''

he at length said, ``that the young gentleman, to whose gallantry and presence of mind we were so much indebted last night, has favoured me with a visit--I am distressed that I am unable to see him, or indeed any one, but an old friend like you, Mr.Oldbuck.''

A declination of the Antiquary's stiff backbone acknowledged the preference.

``You made acquaintance with this young gentleman in Edinburgh, I suppose?''

Oldbuck told the circumstances of their becoming known to each other.

``Why, then, my daughter is an older acquaintance, of Mr.

Lovel than you are,'' said the Baronet.

``Indeed! I was not aware of that,'' answered Oldbuck somewhat surprised.

``I met Mr.Lovel,'' said Isabella, slightly colouring, ``when I resided this last spring with my aunt, Mrs.Wilmot.''

``In Yorkshire?--and what character did he bear then, or how was he engaged?'' said Oldbuck,--``and why did not you recognise him when I introduced you?''

Isabella answered the least difficult question, and passed over the other--``He had a commission in the army, and had, Ibelieve, served with reputation; he was much respected, as an amiable and promising young man.''

``And pray, such being the case,'' replied the Antiquary, not disposed to take one reply in answer to two distinct questions, ``why did you not speak to the lad at once when you met him at my house? I thought you had less of the paltry pride of womankind about you, Miss Wardour.''

``There was a reason for it,'' said Sir Arthur with dignity;``you know the opinions--prejudices, perhaps you will call them --of our house concerning purity of birth.This young gentleman is, it seems, the illegitimate son of a man of fortune; my daughter did not choose to renew their acquaintance till she should know whether I approved of her holding any intercourse with him.''

``If it had been with his mother instead of himself,'' answered Oldbuck, with his usual dry causticity of humour, ``I could see an excellent reason for it.Ah, poor lad! that was the cause, then, that he seemed so absent and confused while I explained to him the reason of the bend of bastardy upon the shield yonder under the corner turret!''