Guy Mannering.

GUY nMANNERING. 171
feeling, that, in this case, they indicated the total ruin of
an ancient and honourable family, gave them treble weight
and poignancy.
It was some time before Colonel Mlannering could find
any one disposed to answer his reiterated questions concerning Ellangowan himself. At length, an old maid —
servant, who held her apron to her eyes as she spoke,
told him, "the Laird was something better, and they
hoped he would be able to leave the house that day.
Miss Lucy expected the chaise every moment, and, as
the day was fine for the time o' year, they had carried
him in his easy chair up to the green before the auld
castle, to be out of the way of this unco spectacle."
Thither Colonel AIannering went in quest of him, and
soon came in sight of the little group, which consisted of
four persons. The ascent was steep, so that he had time
to reconnoitre them as he advanced, and to consider in
what mode he should make his address.
IMr. Bertram, paralytic, and almost incapable of
moving, occupied his easy chair, attired in his nightcap, and a loose camlet coat, his feet wrapped in blankets. Behind him, with his hands crossed on the cane
upon which he rested, stood Dominie Sampson, whom
Mannering recognised at once. Time had made no
change upon him, unless that his black coat seemed more
brown, and his gaunt cheeks more lank, than when Mannering last saw him. On one side of the old man was a
sylph-like form-a young woman of about seventeen,
whom the Colonel accounted to be his daughter. She
was looking, from time to time, anxiously towards the
avenue, as if expecting a post-chaise; and between whiles
busied herself in adjusting the blankets, so as to protect
her father friom the cold, and in answering inquiries,