The remaining part of the company would have formed no bad group
for a skilful painter. Each was too much embarrassed with his own
sensations to observe those of the others. Bertram most
unexpectedly found himself in the house of one, whom he was
alternately disposed to dislike as his personal enemy, and to
respect as the father of Julia; Mannering was struggling between
his high sense of courtesy and hospitality, his joy at finding
himself relieved from the guilt of having shed life in a private
quarrel, and the former feelings of dislike and prejudice, which
revived in his haughty mind at the sight of the object against whom
he had entertained them; Sampson, supporting his shaking limbs by
leaning on the back of a chair, fixed his eyes upon Bertram, with a
staring expression of nervous anxiety which convulsed his whole
visage; Dinmont, enveloped in his loose shaggy greatcoat, and
resembling a huge bear erect upon his hinder legs, stared on the
whole scene with great round eyes that witnessed his amazement.
The counsellor alone was in his element, shrewd, prompt, and
active; he already calculated the prospect of brilliant success in
a strange, eventful, and mysterious lawsuit, and no young monarch,
flushed with hopes, and at the head of a gallant army, could
experience more glee when taking the field on his first campaign.
He bustled about with great energy, and took the arrangement of the
whole explanation upon himself.
"Come, come, gentlemen, sit down; this is all in my province: you
must let me arrange it for you. Sit down, my dear Colonel, and let
me manage; sit down, Mr. Brown, aut quocunque alio nomine
vocaris--Dominie, take your seat--draw in your chair, honest
Liddesdale."
"I dinna ken, Mr. Pleydell," said Dinmont, looking at his
dreadnought-coat, then at the handsome furniture of the room, "I
had maybe better gang some gate else, [*Somewhere else.] and leave
ye till your cracks--I'm no just that weel put on."
The Colonel, who by this time recognised Dandie, immediately went
up and bid him heartily welcome; assuring him, that from what he
had seen of him in Edinburgh, he was sure his rough coat and
thick--soled boots would honour a royal drawing-room.
"Na, na, Colonel, we're just plain up-the-country folk; but nae
doubt I would fain hear o' ony pleasure that was gaun to happen the
Captain, and I'm sure a' will gae right if Mr. Pleydell will take
his bit job in hand."
"You're right, Dandie--spoke like a Hieland oracle [*It may not he
unnecessary to tell southern readers, that the mountainous country
in the south-western borders of Scotland, is called Hieland, though
totally different from the much more mountainous and more extensive
districts of the north, usually accented Hielands.]--and now be
silent. --Well, you are all seated at last; take a glass of wine
till I begin my catechism methodically. And now," turning to
Bertram, "my dear boy, do you know who or what you are?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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