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.

ROB ROY. 173
ken'd ane anither mony a lang day. I'se take care your counting-room is
no cleaned out when the Gillon-a-naillie * come to redd up the Glasgow
buiths, and clear them o' their auld shop-wares. And, unless it just fa' in
the preceese way o' your duty, ye maunna see me oftener, Nicol, than I
am disposed to be seen."
"Ye are a dauring villain, Rob," answered the Bailie; " and ye will be
hanged, that will be seen and heard tell o'; but I'se ne'er be the ill bird and
foul my nest, set apart strong necessity and the skreigh of duty, which no
man should hear and be inobedient. And.wha the deevil's this?" he continued, turning to me-" Some gillravager that ye hae listed, I daur say.
He looks as if he had a' bauld heart to the highway; and a lang craig for the
gibbet."
"This, good Mr. Jarvie," said Owen, who, like myself, had been struck
dumb during this strange recognition, and no less strange dialogue, which
took place betwixt these extraordinary kinsmen-" This, good Mr. Jarvie,
is young Mr. Frank Osbaldistone, only child of the head of our house, who
should have been taken into our firm at the time Mr. Rashleigh Osbaldistone, his cousin, had the luck to be taken into it"-(Here Owen could not
suppress a groan)-" But, howsoever"
" O, I have heard of that smaik," said the Scotch merchant, interrupting
him; "it is he whom your principal, like an obstinate auld fule, wad make
a merchant o', wad he or wad he no,-and the lad turned a strolling' stageplayer, in pure dislike to the labour an honest man should live by. Weel
sir, what say you to your handiwark? Will Hamlet the Dane, or Hamlet's
ghost, be good security for Mr. Owen, sir?"
" I don't deserve your taunt," I replied, "though I respect your motive,
and am too grateful for the assistance you have afforded Mr. Owen, to resent
it. My only business here was to do what I could (it is perhaps very little)
to aid Mr. Owen in the management of my father's affairs. My dislike of
the commercial profession is a feeling of which I am the best and sole
judge."
"I protest,"' said the Highlander, "I had some respect for this callant
even before I ken'd what was in him; but now I honour him for his contebmpt of weavers and spinners, and sic-like mechanical persons and their
pursuits."
" Ye're mad, Rob," said the Bailie-" mad as a March hare- though
wherefore a hare suld be mad at March mair than at Martinmas, is mair
than I can weel say. Weavers! iDeil shake ye out o' the web the weaver
craft made. Spinners! ye'll spin and wind yourself a bonny pirn. And
this young birkie here, that ye're hoying and hounding on the shortest road
to the gallows and the-:deevil, will his stage-plays and his poetries help him
here, d'ye think, on"y:!mair than your deep oaths and drawn dirks, ye reprobate that ye are?-:W.:T:Tityre tu patulce, as they ca' it, tell him where
Rashleigh Osbaldistone is? or Macbeth, and all his kernes and galla-glasses,
and your awn to boot, Rob, procure him five thousand pounds to answer
the bills which fall due ten days hence, were they a' rouped at the
Cross, basket hilts, Andra-Ferraras, leather targets, brogues, brochan, and
sporrans?"'
"Ten days?" I answered, and instinctively drew out Diana Vernon's.packet; and the time being elapsed during which I was to keep the seal
sacred, I hastily broke it open. A. sealed letter fell from a blank enclosure,
owing to the trepidation with which I opened the parcel. A slight current
of wind, which found its way through a broken pane of the window, wafted
the letter to Mr. Jarvie's feet, who lifted it, examined the address with
unceremonious curiosity, and, to my astonishment, handed it to his
IIighland kinsman, saying, "Here's a wind has blown a letter to its
* The lads with the kilts or petticoats.
P2