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.

474 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
stances exposed her to sarcasm and taunts, which she might otherwise have
escaped; and although in her heart she thought it unkind, and inhospitable,
to sneer at a passing stranger on account of the fashion of her attire, yet
she had the good sense to alter those parts of her dress which attracted illnatured observation. Her checked screen was deposited carefully in her
bundle, and she conformed to the national extravagance of wearing shoes
and stockings for the whole day. She confessed afterwards, that, "besides
the wastrife, it was lang or she could walk sae comfortably with the shoes
as without them; but there was often a bit saft heather by the road-side,
and that helped her weel on." The want of the screen, which was drawn
over the head like a veil, she supplied by a bon-grace, as she called it; a
large straw bonnet, like those worn by the English maidens when labouring
in the fields. "But I thought unco shame o' mysell," she said, "the first
tinme I put on a married woman's bon-grace, and me a single maiden."
With these changes she had little, as she said, to make "her henspeckle
when she didna speak," but her accent and language drew down on her so
many jests and gibes,. couched in a worse patois by far than her own, that
she soon found it was her interest to talk as little and as seldom as possible.
She answered, therefore, civil salutations of chance passengers with a civil
curtsey, and chose, with anxious circumspection, such places of repose as
looked at once most decent and sequestered. She foeund the common people
of England, although inferior in courtesy to strangers, such as was then
practised in her own more unfrequented country, yet, upon the whole, by no
means deficient in the real duties of hospitality. She readily obtained food,
and shelter, and protection, at a very moderate rate, which sometimes the
generosity of mine host altogether declined, with a blunt apology, -" Thee
hast a long way afore thee, lass; and I'se ne'er take penny out o' a single
woman's purse; it's the best friend thou can have on the road." It often
happened, too, that mine hostess was struck with "the tidy, nice Scotch
body," and procured her an escort, or a cast in a wagon, for some part of
the way, or gave her a useful advice and recommendation respecting her
resting-places.
At York our pilgrim stopped for the best part of a day, partly to recruit
her strength, - partly because she had the good luck to obtain a lodging in
an inn kept by a countrywoman,- partly to indite two letters to her father
and Reuben Butler; an operation of some little difficulty, her habits being
by no means those of literary composition. That to her father was in the
following words:
"DEAREST FATHIER,-I make my present pilgrimage more heavy and burdensome, through the sad occasion to reflect that it is without your knowledge, which, God knows, was far contrary to my heart; for Scripture says,
that'the vow of the daughter should not be binding without the consent of
the father,' wherein it may be I have been guilty to tak this wearie journey
without your consent. Nevertheless, it was borne in upon my mind that I
should be an instrument to help my poor sister in this extremity of needcessity, otherwise I wad not, for wealth or for world's gear, or for the haill
lands of Da'keith and Lugton, have done the like o' this, without your free
will and knowledge. 0, dear father, as ye wad desire a blessing on my
journey, and upon your household, speak a word or write a line of comfort
to yon poor prisoner. If she has sinned, she has sorrowed and suffered,
and ye ken better than me, that we maun forgie others, as we pray to be
forgien. Dear father, forgive my saying this muckle, for it doth not become
a young head to instruct grey hairs; but I am sae far frae ye, that my heart
yearns to ye a', and fain wad I hear that ye had forgien her trespass, and
sae I nae doubt say mair than may become me. The folk here'are civil,
and, like the barbarians unto the holy apostle, hae shown me much kindness; and there are a sort of chosen people in the land, for they hae some