The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

296 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
Frederick Langley, that is so great a favourite with your father, and sc
little a favourite of yours. I protest I shall be obliged to the Wizard am
long as I live, if it were only for the half hour's relief from that man's comnpany which we have gained by deviating from the party to visit Elshie."
" What would you say, then," said Miss Vere, in a low tone, so as not
to be heard by the younger sister, who rode before them, the narrow path
not admitting of their nmoving all three abreast, - " What would you
say, my dearest Lucy, if it were proposed to you to endure his company
for life?"
"Say? I would say, Nlo, no, no, three times, each louder than another,
till they should hear me at Carlisle."
"And Sir Frederick would say then, nineteen nay-says are half a. grant."
" That," replied Miss Lucy, " depends entirely on the manner in which
the nay-says are said. Mine should have not one grain of concession in
them., I promise you."
"But if your father," said Miss Vere, "were to say, —Thus do, or "
" I would stand to the consequences of his or, were he the most cxuel
father that ever was recorded in romance, to fill up the alternative."
"And what if he threatened you with a Catholic aunt, an abbess, and a
cloister?"
"Then," said Miss Ilderton, "I would threaten him with a protestant
son-in-law, and be glad of an opportunity to disobey him for conscience
sake. And now that Nancy is out of hearing, let me really say, I think
you would be excusable before God and man for resisting this preposterous
match by every means in your power. A proud, dark, ambitious man; a
caballer against the state; infamous for his avarice and severity; a bad
son, a bad brother, unkind and ungenerous to all his relatives —Isabel, I
would die rather than have him."
"Don't let my father hear you give me such advice," said Miss Yere,
4' or adieu, my dear Lucy, to Ellieslaw-Castle."
"And adieu to Ellieslaw-Castle, with all my heart," said her friend, " if
I once saw you fairly out of it, and settled under some kinder protector
than he whom nature has given you. 0, if my poor father had been in his
former health, how gladly would he have received and sheltered you, till
this ridiculous and cruel persecution were blown over!"
"Would to God it had been so, my dear Lucy!" answered Isabella;
"but I fear, that, in your father's weak state of health, he would be altogether unable to protect me against the means which would be immediately
used for reclaiming the poor fugitive."
"I fear so, indeed," replied Miss Ilderton; "but we will consider and
devise something. Now that your father and his guests seem so deeply
engaged in some mysterious plot, to judge from the passing and returning
of messages, from the strange faces which appear and disappear without
being announced by their names, from the collecting and cleaning of arms,
and the anxious gloom and bustle which seem to agitate every male in the
castle, it may not be impossible for us (always in case matters be driven to
extremity) to shape out some little supplemental conspiracy of our own. I
hope the gentlemen have not kept all the policy to themselves; and there
is one associate that I would gladly admit to our counsel."
"Not Nancy?"
"O, no!" said Miss Ilderton; "Nancy, though an excellent good girl,
and fondly attached to you, would make a dull conspirator - as dull as
Renault and all the other subordinate plotters in Venice Preserved. No;
this is a Jaffier, or Pierre, if you like the character better; and yet, though
I know I shall please you, I am afraid to mention his name to you, lest I
vex you at the same time. Can you not guess? Something about an eagle
and a rock —it does not begin with eagle in English, but something very
like it in Scotch."