As affairs now appeared to grow serious, the Noah's Ark disembogued the whole of its living contents, and a minute inspection of the stables was commenced by the whole party. The ladies, in the mean time, who had some confused idea that all was not right, were looking anxiously from the windows; and if the elder lady had been an attentive observer of her companion's looks, she would have seen a flush of surprise suffuse her whole countenance as her eyes for an instant rested on one of the gentlemen, who stood apparently an uninterested spectator of the proceedings of his friends. A similar feeling of amazement seemed to take possession of the champion of the ladies, as he recognised the same individual. He left his antagonist in the very middle of a philippic that ought to have sunk that gentleman in his own estimation for ever, and walking hurriedly up to the gentleman, who was still in what is called a reverie, said-- "Mr Harry!--hope ye're quite well, sir?" "What?--Copus?" replied the gentleman. "I'm delighted to see you again. Who are you with just now?" "Family, sir--great family--equal to a duke, master says;--lady's-maid uncommon pleasant, and all things quite agreeable." "Do you mean you are with a duke, Copus?" "Bless ye! no, sir, only equal to it. Master has bought a Scotch chiefship, and we're all a-going down to take possession. Master made all the tartans himself afore we left off trade." "I don't understand you--what is he?" "Smith, Hobbins, and Huxtable, they called us at Manchester,--great way of business--but master, old Smith, has retired, and bought this here Scotch estate, and makes us all call him Ben-na-Groich." "And his family, Copus?" "Only his old sister, and our young lady." "Well,--her name?" "Miss Jane. She's a niece, they say, of old Smith--Ben-na-Groich, I means; but I don't b'lieve it. She's a real lady, and no mistake; and, they say, will have a prodigious fortin. By dad, our old 'ooman takes prodigious care of her, and is always a snubbing." "My dear Copus, say not a word of having seen me; you can be the greatest friend I ever had in my life--you'll help me?" "Won't I?--that's all;--'clect all about Oriel, Mr Harry, and Brussels? Ah! them was glorious days!" "We shall have better days yet, Copus, never fear." After a few minutes' conversation, the face of affairs entirely changed. An apology was made by his lordship in person for the mistake of his servant; that individual was severely reprimanded, greatly to the satisfaction of Mr Copus; the two greys were peaceably yoked to the plain chariot, and Jock Brown cracked his whip and trotted off at a pace that set loose the tongues of all the dogs in the village. "What a barbarous set of people these Lowlanders are!" exclaimed the senior lady--"so different from the brave and noble mountaineers. My brother, the chieftain, is lucky in having such a splendid set of retainers, and the tartan he invented is very becoming."