Guy Mannering [144]
infant, with scarce any one to attend it, coming wawling and crying into this miserable world at such a moment of unutterable misery. We lawyers are not of iron, sir, or of brass, any more than you soldiers are of steel. We are conversant with the crimes and distresses of civil society, as you are with those that occur in a state of war, and to do our duty in either case a little apathy is perhaps necessary--But the devil take a soldier whose heart can be as hard as his sword, and his dam catch the lawyer who bronzes his bosom instead of his forehead!--But come, I am losing my Saturday at e'en--will you have the kindness to trust me with these papers which relate to Miss Bertram's business? -- and stay--to-morrow you'll take a bachelor's dinner with an old lawyer,--I insist upon it, at three precisely--and come an hour sooner.--The old lady is to be buried on Monday; it is the orphan's cause, and we'll borrow an hour from the Sunday to talk over this business--although I fear nothing can be done if she has altered her settlement--unless perhaps it occurs within the sixty days, and then if Miss Bertram can show that she possesses the character of heir-at-law, why--
"But, hark! my lieges are impatient of their inter-regnum--I do not invite you to rejoin us, Colonel; it would be a trespass on your complaisance, unless you had begun the day with us, and gradually glided on front wisdom to mirth, and from mirth to--to--to--extravagance.--Good-night-Harry, go home with Mr. Mannering to his lodging-Colonel, I expect you at a little past two to-morrow."
The Colonel returned to his inn, equally surprised at the childish frolics in which he had found his learned counsellor engaged, at the candour and sound sense which he had in a moment summoned up to meet the exigencies of his profession, and at the tone of feeling which he displayed when he spoke of the friendless orphan.
In the morning, while the Colonel and his most quiet and silent of all retainers, Dominie Sampson, were finishing the breakfast which Barnes had made and poured out, after the Dominie had scalded himself in the attempt, Mr. Pleydell was suddenly ushered in. A nicely dressed bob-wig, upon every hair of which a zealous and careful barber had bestowed its proper allowance of powder; a well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes and gold buckles and stock-buckle; a manner rather reserved and formal than intrusive, but, withal, showing only the formality of manner, by no means that of awkwardness; a countenance, the expressive and somewhat comic features of which were in complete repose,--all showed a being perfectly different from the choice spirit of the evening before. A glance of shrewd and piercing fire in his eye was the only marked expression which recalled the man of "Saturday at e'en."
"I am come," said he, with a very polite address, "to use my regal authority in your behalf in spirituals as well as temporals--can I accompany you to the Presbyterian kirk, or Episcopal meeting-house?--Tros Tyriusve" a lawyer, you know, is of both religions, or rather I should say of both forms--or can I assist in passing the forenoon otherwise? You'll excuse my old-fashioned importunity--I was born in a time when a Scotchman was thought inhospitable if he left a guest alone a moment, except when he slept--but I trust you will tell me at once if I intrude."
"Not at all, my dear sir," answered Colonel Mannering--"I am delighted to put myself under your pilotage. I should wish much to hear some of your Scottish preachers whose talents have done such honour to your country--your Blair, your Robertson, or your Henry; and I embrace--your kind offer with all my heart.--Only," drawing the lawyer a little aside, and turning his eye towards Sampson, "my worthy friend there in the reverie is a little helpless and abstracted, and my servant, Barnes, who is his pilot in ordinary, cannot well assist him here, especially as he has expressed his determination of going to some of your darker and more remote places of worship."
The lawyer's eye glanced at Dominie Sampson.
"But, hark! my lieges are impatient of their inter-regnum--I do not invite you to rejoin us, Colonel; it would be a trespass on your complaisance, unless you had begun the day with us, and gradually glided on front wisdom to mirth, and from mirth to--to--to--extravagance.--Good-night-Harry, go home with Mr. Mannering to his lodging-Colonel, I expect you at a little past two to-morrow."
The Colonel returned to his inn, equally surprised at the childish frolics in which he had found his learned counsellor engaged, at the candour and sound sense which he had in a moment summoned up to meet the exigencies of his profession, and at the tone of feeling which he displayed when he spoke of the friendless orphan.
In the morning, while the Colonel and his most quiet and silent of all retainers, Dominie Sampson, were finishing the breakfast which Barnes had made and poured out, after the Dominie had scalded himself in the attempt, Mr. Pleydell was suddenly ushered in. A nicely dressed bob-wig, upon every hair of which a zealous and careful barber had bestowed its proper allowance of powder; a well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes and gold buckles and stock-buckle; a manner rather reserved and formal than intrusive, but, withal, showing only the formality of manner, by no means that of awkwardness; a countenance, the expressive and somewhat comic features of which were in complete repose,--all showed a being perfectly different from the choice spirit of the evening before. A glance of shrewd and piercing fire in his eye was the only marked expression which recalled the man of "Saturday at e'en."
"I am come," said he, with a very polite address, "to use my regal authority in your behalf in spirituals as well as temporals--can I accompany you to the Presbyterian kirk, or Episcopal meeting-house?--Tros Tyriusve" a lawyer, you know, is of both religions, or rather I should say of both forms--or can I assist in passing the forenoon otherwise? You'll excuse my old-fashioned importunity--I was born in a time when a Scotchman was thought inhospitable if he left a guest alone a moment, except when he slept--but I trust you will tell me at once if I intrude."
"Not at all, my dear sir," answered Colonel Mannering--"I am delighted to put myself under your pilotage. I should wish much to hear some of your Scottish preachers whose talents have done such honour to your country--your Blair, your Robertson, or your Henry; and I embrace--your kind offer with all my heart.--Only," drawing the lawyer a little aside, and turning his eye towards Sampson, "my worthy friend there in the reverie is a little helpless and abstracted, and my servant, Barnes, who is his pilot in ordinary, cannot well assist him here, especially as he has expressed his determination of going to some of your darker and more remote places of worship."
The lawyer's eye glanced at Dominie Sampson.