Guy Mannering.

314 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
determinate character. Now Lucy Bertram has nothing
of this kindly sympathy-nothing at all, my dearest
3Iatilda. Were I sick of a fever, she would sit up night
after night to nurse me with the most unrepining patience;
but with the fever of the heart, which my Matilda has
soothed so often, she has no more sympathy than her old
tutor. And yet what provokes me is, that the demure
monkey actually has a lover of her own, and that their
mutual affection (for mutual I take it to be) has a great
deal of complicated and romantic interest. She was
once, you must know, a great heiress, but was ruined by
the prodigality of her father, and the villany of' a horrid
man in whom he confided. And one of the handsomest
young gentlemen in the country is attached to her; but
as he is heir to a great estate, she discourages his addresses on account of the disproportion of their fortune.
"But with all this moderation, and self-denial, and
modesty, and so forth, Lucy is a sly girl-I am sure she
loves young Hazlewood, and I am sure he has some guess
of that, and would probably bring her to acknowledge it
too, if my father or she would allow him an opportunity.
But you must know the Colonel is always himself in the
way to pay ]Miss Bertram those attentions which afford
the best indirect opportunities for a young gentleman in
H-iazlewood's situation. I would have my good papa take
-are that he does not himself pay the usual penalty of
meddling folks. I assure you, if I were Hazlewood, I
should look on his compliments, his bowings, his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings, with some little
suspicion-and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at
some odd times. Then imagine what a silly figure your
poor Julia makes on such occasions! Here is my fathel
making the agreeable to my friend; there is young