OFFICE OF IMPETUOUS PROTOCOL |
| DIRECTOR OK Pangelian |
ABOUT
Protocol, who was really a good sort of man, next expressed his intention to take a temporary charge of the young lady, under protest always, that his so doing should be considered as merely eleemosynary; when Dinmont at length got up, and, having shaken his huge dreadnought great-coat, as a Newfoundland dog does his shaggy hide when he comes out of the water, ejaculated, "Week deil hae me then, if ye hae ony fash wi' her, Mr Protocol; if she likes to gang hame wi' me that is. Ye see, Ailie and me we're weel to pass, and we would like the lassies to hae a wee bit mair lair than oursells, and to be neighbour-like—that wad we.—And ye see she canna miss but to ken manners, and the like o' reading books, and sewing seams, having lived sae lang wi' a grand lady like Lady Singleside; or if she does na ken ony thing about it, I'm jealous that our bairns will like her a' the better. And I'll take care o' the bits o' claes, and what spending siller she maun hae, and the hundred pound may rin on in your hands, Mr Protocol, and I'll be adding something till't, till she'll may be get a Liddesdale joe that wants something to help to buy the hirsel— What d'ye say to that, hinny ? I'll take out a ticket for 'ye in the fly to Jeddart—odd, but ye maun take a poney after that o'er the Limestane-rig— deil a wheeled carriage ever gaed into Liddesdale:—and I'll be very glad if Mrs
Rebecca comes wi'you, hinny, and stays a month or twa while you're stranger like."
While Mrs Rebecca was curtseying, and endeavouring to make the poor orphan girl curtsey instead of crying, and while Dandie, in his rough way, was encouraging them both, old Pleydell had recourse to his snuff-box. " It's meat and drink to me, now, Colonel," he said, as he recovered himself, " to see a clown like this— I must gratify him in his own way, must assist him to ruin himself—there's no help for it.—Here, you Liddesdale—Dandie— Charlies-hope—what do they call you ?"
The farmer turned, infinitely gratified even by this sort of notice, for in his heart, next to his own landlord, he honoured a lawyer in high practice.
" So you will not be advised against trying that question about your marches ?"
" N—no, sir—naebody likes to lose their right, and to be laughed at down the hail water. But since your honour's no agreeable, and is may be a friend to the other side like, we maun try some other advocate."
" There—I told you so, Colonel Mannering!—Well, sir, if you must needs be a fool, the business is to give you the luxury of a law-suit at the least possible expence, and to bring you off conqueror if possible. Let Mr Protocol send me your papers, and I will advise him how to conduct your cause. I don't see, after all, why you should not have your law-suits too, and your feuds in the court of Session, as well as your forefathers had their manslaughters and fire-raisings."