Guy Mannering.

182 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
such arrived. Mr. -Mac-Morlan waked early in the
morning,-walked over to the Post-office,-there were no
letters for him. He endeavoured to persuade himself
that he should see Colonel Mannering to breakfast, and
ordered his wife to place her best china, and prepare
herself accordingly. But the preparations were in vain.
" Could I have foreseen this," he said, "I would have
travelled Scotland over, but I would have found some
one to bid against Glossin."-Alas! such reflections were
all too late. The appointed hour arrived; and the parties
met in the Mason's Lodge at Kippletringan, being the
place fixed for the adjourned sale. Mac-Morlan spent as
much time in preliminaries as decency would permit, and
read over the articles of sale as slowly as if he had been
reading his own death-warrant. He turned his eye every
time the door of the room opened, with hopes which grew
fainter' and fainter. He listened to every noise in the
street of the village, and endeavoured to distinguish in it
the sound of hoofs or wheels. It was all in vain. A
bright idea then occurred, that Colonel MAannering might
have employed some other person in the transaction: he
would not have wasted a moment's thought upon the
want of confidence in himself which such a manceuvre
would have evinced. But this hope also was groundless.
After a solemn pause, Mr. Glossin offered the upset price
for the lands and barony of Ellangowan. No reply was
made, and no competitor appeared; so, after a lapse of
the usual interval by the running of a sand-glass, upon
the intended purchaser entering the proper sureties, Mr.
Mac-Morlan was obliged, in technical terms, to " find and
declare the sale lawfully completed, and to prefer the said
Gilbert Glossin as the purchaser of the said lands and
estate. The honest writer refused to partake of a