Guy Mannering [152]
for an auld gipsy witch wife at Gilsland had possessed her with a notion, that the callant--Harry Bertram ca's she him?--would come alive again some day after a'--ye'll no deny that, Mrs. Rebecca?--though I dare to say ye forgot to put your mistress in mind of what ye promised to say when I gied ye mony a half-crown--But ye'll no deny what I am saying now, lass?"
"I ken naething at a' about it," answered Rebecca doggedly, and looking straight forward with the firm countenance of one not disposed to be compelled to remember more than was agreeable to her.
"Weel said, Rebecca! ye're satisfied wi' your ain share ony way," rejoined the tobacconist.
The buck of the second-head, for a buck of the first-head he was not, had hitherto been slapping his boots with his switch-whip, and looking like a spoiled child that has lost its supper. His murmurs, however, were all vented inwardly, or at most in a soliloquy such as this--"I am sorry, by G-d, I ever plagued myself about her--I came here, by G-d, one night to drink tea, and I left King, and the Duke's rider, Will Hack. They were toasting a round of running horses; by G-d, I might have got leave to wear the jacket as well as other folk, if I had carried it on with them-- and she has not so much as left me that hundred!"
"We'll make the payment of the note quite agreeable," said Mr. Protocol, who had no wish to increase at that moment the odium attached to his office--"and now, gentlemen, I fancy we have no more to wait for here, and--I shall put the settlement of my excellent and worthy friend on record to-morrow, that every gentleman may examine the contents, and have free access to take an extract; and"--he proceeded to lock up the repositories of the deceased with more speed than he had opened them--"Mrs. Rebecca, ye'll be so kind as to keep all right here until we can let the house--I had an offer from a tenant this morning, if such a thing should be, and if I was to have any management."
Our friend Dinmont, having had his hopes as well as another, had hitherto sat sulky enough in the armchair formerly appropriated to the deceased, and in which she would have been not a little scandalised to have seen this colossal specimen of the masculine gender lolling at length. His employment had been rolling up, into the form of a coiled snake, the long lash of his horsewhip, and then by a jerk causing it to unroll itself into the middle of the floor. The first words he said when he had digested the shock, contained a magnanimous declaration, which he probably was not conscious of having uttered aloud--"Weel-blude's thicker than water--she's welcome to the cheeses and the hams just the same." But when the trustee had made the above-mentioned motion for the mourners to depart, and talked of the house being immediately let, honest Dinmont got upon his feet, and stunned the company with this blunt question, "And what's to come o' this poor lassie then, Jenny Gibson? Sae mony o' us as thought oursells sib to the family when the gear was parting, we may do something for her amang us surely."
This proposal seemed to dispose most of the assembly instantly to evacuate the premises, although upon Mr. Protcol's motion they had lingered as if around the grave of their disappointed hopes. Drumquag said, or rather muttered, something of having a family of his own, and took precedence, in virtue of his gentle blood, to depart as fast as possible. The tobacconist sturdily stood forward, and scouted the motion--"A little huzzie, like that, was weel eneugh provided for already; and Mr. Protocol at ony rate was the proper person to take direction of her, as he had charge of her legacy;" and after uttering such his opinion in a steady and decisive tone of voice, he also left the place. The buck made a stupid and brutal attempt at a jest upon Mrs. Bertram's recommendation that the poor girl should be taught some honest trade; but encountered a scowl from Colonel Mannering's darkening eye (to whom, in his ignorance of the tone of good society, he had looked for applause) that made him ache
"I ken naething at a' about it," answered Rebecca doggedly, and looking straight forward with the firm countenance of one not disposed to be compelled to remember more than was agreeable to her.
"Weel said, Rebecca! ye're satisfied wi' your ain share ony way," rejoined the tobacconist.
The buck of the second-head, for a buck of the first-head he was not, had hitherto been slapping his boots with his switch-whip, and looking like a spoiled child that has lost its supper. His murmurs, however, were all vented inwardly, or at most in a soliloquy such as this--"I am sorry, by G-d, I ever plagued myself about her--I came here, by G-d, one night to drink tea, and I left King, and the Duke's rider, Will Hack. They were toasting a round of running horses; by G-d, I might have got leave to wear the jacket as well as other folk, if I had carried it on with them-- and she has not so much as left me that hundred!"
"We'll make the payment of the note quite agreeable," said Mr. Protocol, who had no wish to increase at that moment the odium attached to his office--"and now, gentlemen, I fancy we have no more to wait for here, and--I shall put the settlement of my excellent and worthy friend on record to-morrow, that every gentleman may examine the contents, and have free access to take an extract; and"--he proceeded to lock up the repositories of the deceased with more speed than he had opened them--"Mrs. Rebecca, ye'll be so kind as to keep all right here until we can let the house--I had an offer from a tenant this morning, if such a thing should be, and if I was to have any management."
Our friend Dinmont, having had his hopes as well as another, had hitherto sat sulky enough in the armchair formerly appropriated to the deceased, and in which she would have been not a little scandalised to have seen this colossal specimen of the masculine gender lolling at length. His employment had been rolling up, into the form of a coiled snake, the long lash of his horsewhip, and then by a jerk causing it to unroll itself into the middle of the floor. The first words he said when he had digested the shock, contained a magnanimous declaration, which he probably was not conscious of having uttered aloud--"Weel-blude's thicker than water--she's welcome to the cheeses and the hams just the same." But when the trustee had made the above-mentioned motion for the mourners to depart, and talked of the house being immediately let, honest Dinmont got upon his feet, and stunned the company with this blunt question, "And what's to come o' this poor lassie then, Jenny Gibson? Sae mony o' us as thought oursells sib to the family when the gear was parting, we may do something for her amang us surely."
This proposal seemed to dispose most of the assembly instantly to evacuate the premises, although upon Mr. Protcol's motion they had lingered as if around the grave of their disappointed hopes. Drumquag said, or rather muttered, something of having a family of his own, and took precedence, in virtue of his gentle blood, to depart as fast as possible. The tobacconist sturdily stood forward, and scouted the motion--"A little huzzie, like that, was weel eneugh provided for already; and Mr. Protocol at ony rate was the proper person to take direction of her, as he had charge of her legacy;" and after uttering such his opinion in a steady and decisive tone of voice, he also left the place. The buck made a stupid and brutal attempt at a jest upon Mrs. Bertram's recommendation that the poor girl should be taught some honest trade; but encountered a scowl from Colonel Mannering's darkening eye (to whom, in his ignorance of the tone of good society, he had looked for applause) that made him ache