Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — CompleteScott, Walter
History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Complete
Scott, Walter
Historical fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
Her form, though rather large for her years, was very well
proportioned, and her demeanour had a natural and rustic grace, with
nothing of the sheepishness of an ordinary peasant. The smiles,
displaying a row of teeth of exquisite whiteness, and the laughing
eyes, with which, in dumb show, she gave Waverley that morning greeting
which she wanted English words to express, might have been interpreted
by a coxcomb, or perhaps by a young soldier who, without being such,
was conscious of a handsome person, as meant to convey more than the
courtesy of an hostess. Nor do I take it upon me to say that the little
wild mountaineer would have welcomed any staid old gentleman advanced
in life, the Baron of Bradwardine, for example, with the cheerful pains
which she bestowed upon Edward's accommodation. She seemed eager to
place him by the meal which she had so sedulously arranged, and to
which she now added a few bunches of cranberries, gathered in an
adjacent morass. Having had the satisfaction of seeing him seated at
his breakfast, she placed herself demurely upon a stone at a few yards'
distance, and appeared to watch with great complacency for some
opportunity of serving him.
Evan and his attendant now returned slowly along the beach, the latter
bearing a large salmon-trout, the produce of the morning's sport,
together with the angling-rod, while Evan strolled forward, with an
easy, self-satisfied, and important gait, towards the spot where
Waverley was so agreeably employed at the breakfast-table. After
morning greetings had passed on both sides, and Evan, looking at
Waverley, had said something in Gaelic to Alice, which made her laugh,
yet colour up to her eyes, through a complexion well en-browned by sun
and wind, Evan intimated his commands that the fish should be prepared
for breakfast. A spark from the lock of his pistol produced a light,
and a few withered fir branches were quickly in flame, and as speedily
reduced to hot embers, on which the trout was broiled in large slices.
To crown the repast, Evan produced from the pocket of his short jerkin
a large scallop shell, and from under the folds of his plaid a ram's
horn full of whisky. Of this he took a copious dram, observing he had
already taken his MORNING with Donald Bean Lean before his departure;
he offered the same cordial to Alice and to Edward, which they both
declined. With the bounteous air of a lord, Evan then proffered the
scallop to Dugald Mahony, his attendant, who, without waiting to be
asked a second time, drank it off with great gusto. Evan then prepared
to move towards the boat, inviting Waverley to attend him. Meanwhile,
Alice had made up in a small basket what she thought worth removing,
and flinging her plaid around her, she advanced up to Edward, and with
the utmost simplicity, taking hold of his hand, offered her cheek to
his salute, dropping at the same time her little curtsy. Evan, who was
esteemed a wag among the mountain fair, advanced as if to secure a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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