But
there is a sorrow which knows neither hunger nor thirst; and poor
Flora--' He paused, and the whole company sympathised in his emotion.
The Baron's thoughts naturally reverted to the unprotected state of his
daughter, and the big tear came to the veteran's eye. 'If I fall,
Macwheeble, you have all my papers and know all my affairs; be just to
Rose.'
The Bailie was a man of earthly mould, after all; a good deal of dirt and
dross about him, undoubtedly, but some kindly and just feelings he had,
especially where the Baron or his young mistress were concerned. He set
up a lamentable howl. 'If that doleful day should come, while Duncan
Macwheeble had a boddle it should be Miss Rose's. He wald scroll for a
plack the sheet or she kenn'd what it was to want; if indeed a' the
bonnie baronie o' Bradwardine and Tully-Veolan, with the fortalice and
manor-place thereof (he kept sobbing and whining at every pause), tofts,
crofts, mosses, muirs--outfield, infield--buildings--orchards--dove-
cots--with the right of net and coble in the water and loch of Veolan--
teinds, parsonage and vicarage--annexis, connexis--rights of pasturage--
feul, feal and divot--parts, pendicles, and pertinents whatsoever--(here
he had recourse to the end of his long cravat to wipe his eyes, which
overflowed, in spite of him, at the ideas which this technical jargon
conjured up)--all as more fully described in the proper evidents and
titles thereof--and lying within the parish of Bradwardine and the shire
of Perth--if, as aforesaid, they must a' pass from my master's child to
Inch-Grabbit, wha's a Whig and a Hanoverian, and be managed by his doer,
Jamie Howie, wha's no fit to be a birlieman, let be a bailie--'
The beginning of this lamentation really had something affecting, but the
conclusion rendered laughter irresistible.
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