These circumstances will serve to explain such
points of our narrative as, according to the custom of story-tellers, we
deemed it fit to leave unexplained, for the purpose of exciting the
reader's curiosity.
When Janet had once finished the leading facts of this narrative,
Waverley was easily enabled to apply the clue which they afforded to
other mazes of the labyrinth in which he had been engaged. To Rose
Bradwardine, then, he owed the life which he now thought he could
willingly have laid down to serve her. A little reflection convinced him,
however, that to live for her sake was more convenient and agreeable, and
that, being possessed of independence, she might share it with him either
in foreign countries or in his own. The pleasure of being allied to a man
of the Baron's high worth, and who was so much valued by his uncle Sir
Everard, was also an agreeable consideration, had anything been wanting
to recommend the match. His absurdities, which had appeared grotesquely
ludicrous during his prosperity, seemed, in the sunset of his fortune, to
be harmonised and assimilated with the noble features of his character,
so as to add peculiarity without exciting ridicule.
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