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.

502 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
or two of the elder guests, whose hair had been thinned by time, had their
heads covered with a skull-cap of black silk or velvet, which, being drawn
down betwixt the ears and the skull, and permitting no hair to escape, occasioned the former to project in the ungraceful manner which may be
remarked in old pictures, and which procured for the Puritans the term of
"prickeared Roundheads," so unceremoniously applied to them by their
contemporaries.
These worthies were ranged against the wall, each in his ancient highbacked, long-legged chair; neither looking towards, nor apparently discoursing with each other; but plunged in their own reflections, or awaiting
like an assembly of Quakers, the quickening power of divine inspiration.
Major Bridgenorth glided along this formal society with noiseless step,
and a composed severity of manner, resembling their own. He paused
before each in succession, and apparently communicated, as he passed, the
transactions of the evening, and the circumstances under which the heir of
Martindale Castle was now a guest at Moultrassie-Hall. Each seemed to
stir at his brief detail, like a range of statues in an enchanted hall, starting
into something like life, as a talisman is applied to them successively. Most
of them, as they heard the narrative of their host, cast upon Julian a look
of curiosity, blended with haughty scorn and the consciousness of spiritual
superiority; though, in one or two instances, the milder influences of compassion were sufficiently visible. - Peveril would have undergone this
gauntlet of eyes with more impatience, had not his own been for the time
engaged in following the motions of Alice, who glided through the apartment; and only speaking very briefly, and in whispers, to one or two of
the company who addressed her, took her place beside a treble-hooded old
lady, the only female of the party, and addressed herself to her in such
earnest conversation, as might dispense with her raising her head, or looking at any others in the company.
Her father put a question, to which she was obliged to return an answer
— "'Where was Mistress Debbitch?"
"She had gone out," Alice replied, "early after sunset, to visit some old
acquaintances in the neighbourhood, and she was not yet returned."
Major Bridgenorth made a gesture indicative of displeasure; and, not
content with that, expressed his determined resolution that Dame Deborah
should no longer remain a-member of his family. " I will have those," he
said aloud, and without regarding the presence of his guests, " and those
only, around me, who know to keep within the sober and modest bounds of
a Christian family. Who pretends to more freedom, must go out from
among us, as not being of us."
A deep and emphatic humming noise, which was at that time the mode
in which the Puritans signified their applause, as well of the doctrines expressed by a favourite divine in the pulpit, as of those delivered in private
society, ratified the approbation of the assessors, and seemed to secure the
dismission of the unfortunate governante, who stood thus detected of having
strayed out of bounds. Even Peveril, although he had reaped considerable
advantages, in his early acquaintance with Alice, from the mercenary and
gossiping disposition of her governess, could not hear of her dismissal without approbation, so much was he desirous, that, in the hour of difficulty,
which might soon approach, Alice might have the benefit of countenance
and advice from one of her own sex, of better manners, and less suspicious
probity, than Mistress Debbitch.
Almost immediately after this communication had taken place, a servant
in mourning showed his thin, pinched, and wrinkled visage in the apartment, announcing, with a voice more like a passing bell than the herald of
a banquet, that refreshments were provided in an adjoining apartment.
Gravely leading the way, with his daughter on one side, and the puritanical
femalae whom we have distinguished on the other, Bridgenorth himself