But it were,
if possible, worse than parricide to suffer any danger to hang over my
noble and generous uncle, who has ever been more to me than a father, if
such evil can be averted by any sacrifice on my part!'
While these reflections passed like the stings of scorpions through
Waverley's sensorium, the worthy divine was startled in a long
disquisition on the battle of Falkirk by the ghastliness which they
communicated to his looks, and asked him if he was ill? Fortunately the
bride, all smirk and blush, had just entered the room. Mrs. Williams was
none of the brightest of women, but she was good-natured, and readily
concluding that Edward had been shocked by disagreeable news in the
papers, interfered so judiciously, that, without exciting suspicion, she
drew off Mr. Twigtythe's attention, and engaged it until he soon after
took his leave. Waverley then explained to his friends that he was under
the necessity of going to London with as little delay as possible.
One cause of delay, however, did occur, to which Waverley had been very
little accustomed. His purse, though well stocked when he first went to
Tully-Veolan, had not been reinforced since that period; and although his
life since had not been of a nature to exhaust it hastily, for he had
lived chiefly with his friends or with the army, yet he found that, after
settling with his kind landlord, he should be too poor to encounter the
expense of travelling post.
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