'Never fear,' said the Colonel, 'we'll face the shock, and entertain the county at my friend Mrs. Mac-Candlish's to boot.' 'And choose Jock Jabos for your master of horse?' replied the lawyer. 'Perhaps I may.' 'And where is Dandie, the redoubted Lord of Liddesdale?' demanded the advocate. 'Returned to his mountains; but he has promised Julia to make a descent in summer, with the goodwife, as he calls her, and I don't know how many children.' 'O, the curly-headed varlets! I must come to play at Blind Harry and Hy Spy with them. But what is all this?' added Pleydell, taking up the plans. 'Tower in the centre to be an imitation of the Eagle Tower at Caernarvon--corps de logis--the devil! Wings--wings! Why, the house will take the estate of Ellangowan on its back and fly away with it!' 'Why, then, we must ballast it with a few bags of sicca rupees,' replied the Colonel. 'Aha! sits the wind there? Then I suppose the young dog carries off my mistress Julia?' 'Even so, Counsellor.' 'These rascals, the post-nati, get the better of us of the old school at every turn,' said Mr. Pleydell. 'But she must convey and make over her interest in me to Lucy.' 'To tell you the truth, I am afraid your flank will be turned there too,' replied the Colonel. 'Indeed?' 'Here has been Sir Robert Hazlewood,' said Mannering, 'upon a visit to Bertram, thinking and deeming and opining--' 'O Lord! pray spare me the worthy Baronet's triads!' 'Well, sir,' continued Mannering, 'to make short, he conceived that, as the property of Singleside lay like a wedge between two farms of his, and was four or five miles separated from Ellangowan, something like a sale or exchange or arrangement might take place, to the mutual convenience of both parties.' 'Well, and Bertram--' 'Why, Bertram replied, that he considered the original settlement of Mrs. Margaret Bertram as the arrangement most proper in the circumstances of the family, and that therefore the estate of Singleside was the property of his sister.' 'The rascal!' said Pleydell, wiping his spectacles. 'He'll steal my heart as well as my mistress. Et puis?' 'And then Sir Robert retired, after many gracious speeches; but last week he again took the field in force, with his coach and six horses, his laced scarlet waistcoat, and best bob-wig--all very grand, as the good-boy books say.' 'Ay! and what was his overture?' 'Why, he talked with great form of an attachment on the part of Charles Hazlewood to Miss Bertram.' 'Ay, ay; he respected the little god Cupid when he saw him perched on the Dun of Singleside. And is poor Lucy to keep house with that old fool and his wife, who is just the knight himself in petticoats?' 'No; we parried that. Singleside House is to be repaired for the young people, and to be called hereafter Mount Hazlewood.' 'And do you yourself, Colonel, propose to continue at Woodbourne?'