Guy Mannering.

GUY MANNERING. 53
posed,-as " Ye'll hae been at the auld abbey o' Halycross,
sir? there's mony English gentlemen gang to see that;"
-or, " Your honour will be come frae the house o' Pouderloupat?" But when the voice of the querist alone
was distinguishable, the response usually was, "Where
are ye coming frae at sic a time o' night as the like o'
this? "-or, " Ye'll no be o' this country, freend?" The
answers, when obtained, were neither very reconcilable
to each other, nor accurate in the information which they
afforded. Kippletringan was distant at first " a gey bit;"
then the "gey bit" was more accurately described, as
"ablins three mile;" then the "three mile" diminished
into "like a mile and a bittock;" then extended themselves into "four mile or thereawa; " and, lastly, a female
voice, having hushed a wailing infant which the spokeswoman carried in her arms, assured GuQy Mannering, " It
was a weary lang gate yet to Kippletringan, and unco
heavy road for foot passengers." The poor hack upon
which Mlannering was mounted, was probably of opinion
that it suited him as ill as the female respondent; for he
began to flag very much, answered each application of
the spur with a groan, and stumbled at every stone (and
they were not few) which lay in his road.
Mannering now grew impatient. He was occasionally
betrayed into a deceitful hope that the end of his journey
was near, by the apparition of a twinkling light or two;
but, as he came up, he was disappointed to find that the
gleams proceeded from some of those farm-houses which
occasionally ornamented the surface of the extensive bog.
At length, to complete his perplexity, he arrived at a
place where the road divided into two. If there had
been light to consult the relies of a finger-post which
stood there, it would have been of little avail, as, accord