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.

458 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
After casting an anxious look at the grated windows and blackened walls
of the old Tolbooth, and another scarce less anxious at the hospitable lodging
of Mrs. Saddletree, Jeanie turned her back on that quarter, and soon after
on the city itself. She reached Saint Leonard's Crags without meeting any
one whom she knew, which, in the state of her mind, she considered as a great
blessing. "I must do naething," she thought, as she went along, "that can
soften or weaken my heart-it's ower weak already for what I hae to do. I
will think and act as firmly as I can, and speak as little."
There was an ancient servant, or rather cottar, of her father's, who had
lived under him for many years, and whose fidelity was worthy of full confidence. She sent for this woman, and explaining to her that the circumstances of her family required that she should undertake a journey, which
would detain her for some weeks from home, she gave her full instructions
concerning the management of the domestic concerns in her absence. With
a precision, which, upon reflection, she herself could not help wondering
at, she described and detailed the most minute steps which were to be taken,
and especially such as were necessary for her father's comfort. "It was
probable," she said, " that he would return to St. Leonard's to-morrow; certain that he would return very soon-all must be in order for him. He had
eneugh to distress him, without being fashed about warldly matters."
In the meanwhile she toiled busily, along with May Hettly, to leave
nothing unarranged.
It was deep in the night when all these matters were settled; and when
they had partaken of some food, the first which Jeanie had tasted on that
eventful day, May Hettly, whose usual residence was a cottage at a little
distance from Deans's house,' asked her young mistress, whether she would
not permit her to remain in the house all night? " Ye hae had an awfu'
day," she said, " and sorrow and fear are but bad companions in the watches
of the night, as I hae heard the gudeman say himsell."
" They are ill companions indeed," said Jeanie; "but I maun learn to
abide their presence, and better begin in the house than in the field."
She dismissed her aged assistant accordingly, - for so light was the gradation in their rank of life, that we can hardly term May a servant, - and
proceeded to make a few preparations for her journey.
The simplicity of her education and country made these preparations
very' rief and easy. Her tartan screen served all the purposes of a ridinghabit and of an umbrella; a small bundle contained such changes of linen
as were absolutely necessary. Barefooted, as Sancho says, she had come
into the world, and barefooted she proposed to perform her pilgrimage; and
her clean shoes and change of snow-white thread stockings were to be reserved for special occasions of ceremony. She was not aware, that the
English habits of comfort attach an idea of abject misery to the idea of a
barefooted traveller; and if the objection-of cleanliness had been made to
the practice, she would have been apt to vindicate herself upon the very frequent ablutions to which, with Mahometan scrupulosity, a Scottish damsel
of some condition usually subjects herself. Thus far, therefore, all was
well.
From an oaken press, or cabinet, in which her father kept a few old books,
and two or three bundles of papers, besides his ordinary accounts and
receipts, she sought out and extracted from a parcel of notes of sermons,
calculations of interest, records of dying speeches of the martyrs, and the
like, one or two documents which she thought might be of some use to her
upon her mission. But the most important difficulty remained behind, and it
had not occurred to her until that very evening. It was the want of money;
without which it was impossible she could undertake so distant a journey
as she now meditated.
David Deans, as we have said, was easy, and even opulent in his circumstances. But his wealth, like that of the patriarchs of old, consisted in his