The monastery; The abbot.

104 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
Tibb Tacket's presence of mind, than by the care of their owner, who was
at that sad period too much sunk in grief to pay any attention to such cir
cumstances. They struck Mysie with a deep impression of veneration; for,
excepting what the Lord Abbot and the convent might possess, she did not
believe there was so much real gold in the world as was exhibited in these
few trinkets, and Mary, however sage and serious, was not above being
pleased with the admiration of her rustic companion.
Nothing, indeed, could exhibit a stronger contrast than the appearance
of the two girls; -the good-humoured laughter-loving countenance of the.
Maid of the Mill, who stood gazing with unrepressed astonishment on whatever was in her inexperienced eye rare and costly, and with an humble, and
at the same time cheerful acquiescence in her inferiority, asking all the
little queries about the use and value of the ornaments, while Mary Avenel,
with her quiet composed dignity and placidity of manner, produced them
one after another for the amusement of her companion.
As they became gradually more familiar, Mysie of the Mill was just venturing to ask, why Mary Avenel never appeared at the May-pole, and to
express her wonder when the young lady said she disliked dancing, when
a trampling of horses at the gate of the tower interrupted their conversation.
Mysie flew to the shot-window in the full ardour of unrestrained female
curiosity. "Saint Mary! sweet lady! here come two well-mounted gallants;
will you step this way to look at them?"
"No," said Mary Avenel, "you shall tell me who they are."
"Well, if you like it better," said Mysie-" but how shall I know them?
-Stay, I do know one of them, and so do you, lady; he is a blithe man,
somewhat light of hand, they say, but the gallants of these days think no
great harm of that. lie is your uncle's henchman, that they call Christie
of the Clinthill; and he has not his old green jerkin and the rusty blackjack over it, but a scarlet cloak, laid down with silver lace three inches
broad, and a breast-plate you might see to dress your hair in, as well as in
that keeking-glass in the ivory frame that you showed me even now. Come,
dear lady, come to the shot-window and see him."
"If it be the man you mean, Mysie," replied the orphan of Avenel, "I
shall see him soon enough, considering either the pleasure or comfort the
sight will give me."
"Nay, but if you will not come to see gay Christie," replied the Maid of
the Mill, her face flushed with eager curiosity, "come and tell me who the
gallant is that is with him, the handsomest, the very lovesomest young man
I ever saw with sight."
"It is my foster-brother, Halbert Glendinning," said Mary, with apparent indifference; for she had been accustomed to call the sons of Elspeth
her foster-brethren, and to live with them as if they had been brothers in
earnest.
" Nay, by Our Lady, that it is not," said Mysie; " I know'the favour of
both the Glendinnings well, and I think this rider be not of our country.
IIe has a crimson velvet bonnet, and long brown hair falling down under
it, and a beard on his upper lip, and his chin clean and close shaved, save a
small patch on the point of the chin, and a sky-blue jerkin slashed and lined
with white satin, and trunk-hose to suit, and no weapon but a rapier and
dagger-Well, if I was a man, I would never wear -weapon but the rapier!
it is so slender and becoming, instead of having a cartload of iron at my
back, like my father's broad-sword with its great rusty basket-hilt. Do you
not delight in the rapier and poniard, lady?"
"The best sword," answered Mary, " if I must needs answer a question
of the sort, is that which is drawn in the best cause, and which is best used
when it is out of the scabbard."
"But can you not guess who this stranger should be?" said Mysie.