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.

66 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
taste, and while he was engaged in partaking of it, he was assailed by indirect inquiries concerning the manner in which he had passed the night.
"We canna complilment Mr. Lovel on his looks this morning, brother —
but he winna condescend on any ground of disturbance he has had in the
night time. I am certain he looks very pale, and when he came here, he
was as fresh as a rose."
"' Why, sister, consider this rose of yours has been knocked about by sea
and wind all yesterday evening, as if he had been a bunch of kelp or tangle,
and how the devil would you have him retain his colour?"
"I certainly do still feel somewhat fatigued," said Lovel, "notwithstandng the excellent accommodations with which your hospitality so amply
uppliecd me."
"Ah, sir!" said Miss Oldbuck, looking at him with a knowing smile, or
what was meant to be one, " ye'll not allow of ony inconvenience, out of
civility to us."
"Really, madam," replied Lovel, " I had no disturbance; for I cannot
term such the music with which some kind fairy favoured me."
" I doubted Mary wad waken you wi' her skreighing; she didna ken I had
left open a chink of your window, for, forbye the ghaist, the Green Room
disna vent weel in a high wind-But I am judging ye heard mair than Mary's
lilts yestreen. Weel, men are hardy creatures-they can gae through wi' a'
thing. I am sure, had I been to undergo ony thing of that nature, —that's
to say that's beyond nature-I would hae skreigh'd out at once, and raised
the house, be the consequence what liket-and, I dare say, the minister wad
hae done as mickle, and sae I hae tauld him, —I ken naebody but my brother, Monkbarns himsell, wad gae through the like o't, if, indeed, it binna
you, Mr. Lovell."
"A man of Mr. Oldbuck's learning, madam," answered the questioned
party, "would not be exposed to the inconvenience sustained by the Highland gentleman you mentioned last night."
"Ay, ay-ye understand now where the difficulty lies. Language? he
has ways o' his ain wad banish a' thae sort o' worricows as far as the
hindermost parts of Gideon" (meaning possibly Midian), "as Mr. Blattergowl says —only ane wadna be uncivil to ane's forbear, though he be a
ghaist. I am sure I will try that receipt of yours, brother, that ye showed
me in a book, if onybody is to sleep in that room again, though I think,
in Christian charity, ye should rather fit up the matted-room -it's a wee
damp and dark, to be sure, but then we hae sac seldom occasion for a spare
bed."
" No, no, sister; — dampness and darkness are worse than spectres —ours
are spirits of light, and I would rather have you try the spell."
"I will do that blythely, Monkbarns, an I had the ingredients, as my
cookery book ca's them —There was vervain and dill-I mind that-Davie
Dibble will ken about them, though, may be, he'll gie them Latin names —
and peppercorn, we hae walth o' them, for""Hypericon, thou foolish woman!" thundered Oldbuck; "d'ye suppose
you're making a haggis-or do you think that a spirit, though he be formed
of air, can be expelled by a receipt against wind?-This wise Grizel of mine,
Mr. Lovel, recollects (with what accuracy you may judge) a charm which
I once mentioned to her, and which, happening to hit her superstitious
noddle, she remembers better than anything tending to a useful purpose I
may chance to have said for this ten years. But many an old woman besides
herself" —
"Auld woman, Monkbarns!" said Miss Oldbuck, roused something above
her usual submissive tone; " ye really are less than civil to me."
" Not less than just, Grizel: however, I include in the same class many
a sounding name, from Jamblichus down to Aubrey, who have wasted their
time in devising imaginary remedies for non-existing diseases.-But I hope,