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 great-coat, 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, 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 [Footnote: It may not be
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 called Hielands.] oracle; 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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