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.

48 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
am not a friend to doing business hastily; we will talk this matter over
after dinner. - Owen!"
Owen appeared, not with the silver locks which you were used to venerate,
for he was then little more than fifty; but he had the same, or an exactly
similar uniform suit of light brown clothes,-the same pearl-grey silk stockings, — the same stock, with its silver buckle, the same plaited cambric
ruffles, drawn down over his knuckles in the parlour, but in the countinghouse carefully folded back under the sleeves, that they might remain
unstained by the ink which he daily consumed; —in a word, the same
grave, formal, yet benevolent cast of features, which continued to his
death -to distinguish the head-clerk of the great house of Osbaldistone and
Tresham.
"Owen," said my father, as the kind old man shook me affectionately by
the hand, "you must dine with us to-day, and hear the news Frank has
brought us from our friends in Bordeaux."
Owen made one of his stiff bows of respectful gratitude; for in those days,
when the distance between superiors and inferiors was enforced in a manner
to which the present times are strangers, such an invitation was a favour of
some little consequence.
I shall long remember that dinner-party. Deeply affected by feelings of
anxiety, not unmingled with displeasure, I was unable to take that, active
share in the conversation which my father seemed to expect from. me; and
I too frequently gave unsatisfactory answers to the questions with which he
assailed me. Owen, hovering betwixt his respect for his patron, and his
love for the youth he had dandled on his knee in childhood, like the timorous, yet anxious ally of an invaded nation, endeavoured at every blunder I
made to explain my no-meaning, and to cover my retreat; manceuvres
which added to my father's pettish displeasure, and brought a share of it
upon my kind advocate, instead of protecting me. I had not, while residing
in the house of Dubourg, absolutely conducted myself like
A clerk condemned his father's soul to cross,
Who penned a stanza when he should engross;but, to say truth, I had frequented the counting-house no more than I had
thought absolutely necessary to secure the good report of the Frenchman,
long a correspondent of our firm, to whom my father had trusted for initiating me into the mysteries of commerce. In fact, my principal attention
had been dedicated to literature and manly exercises. My father did not
altogether discourage such acquirements, whether mental or personal. He
had too much good sense not to perceive, that they sate gracefully upon
every man, and he was sensible that they relieved and dignified the character
to which he wished me to aspire. But his chief ambition was, that I should
suc'ceed not merely to his fortune, but to the views and plans by which he
imagined he could extend and perpetuate the wealthy inheritance which he
designed for me..
Love of his profession was the motive which he chose should be most
ostensible, when he urged me to tread the same path; but he had others
with which I only became acquainted at a later period. Impetuous in his
schemes, as well as skilful and daring, each new adventure, when successful,
became at once the incentive, and furnished the means, for further speculation. It seemed to be necessary to him, as to an ambitious conqueror, to'
push on from achievement to achievement, without stopping to secure, far
less to enjoy, the acquisitions which he made. Accustomed to see his whole
fortune trembling in the scales of chance, and dexterous at adopting expedients for casting the balance in his favour, his health and spirits and activity
seemed evv to increase with the animating hazards on which he stalked his
wealth; and he resembled a sailor, accustomed to brave the -billows an-d the
foe; whose confidence rises on the eve of tempest or of battle. He was; not,
however, insensible to the changes which incretising age or supervening