Lovel, Sir Arthur, knows how to choose his confidants better--Ay, Miss Wardour, you may look at me--but it is very true;--it was in my bosom that he deposited the secret cause of his residence at Fairport; and no stone should have been left unturned on my part to assist him in the pursuit to which he had dedicated himself." On hearing this magnanimous declaration on the part of the old Antiquary, Miss Wardour changed colour more than once, and could hardly trust her own ears.

For of all confidants to be selected as the depositary of love affairs,--and such she naturally supposed must have been the subject of communication,--next to Edie Ochiltree, Oldbuck seemed the most uncouth and extraordinary; nor could she sufficiently admire or fret at the extraordinary combination of circumstances which thus threw a secret of such a delicate nature into the possession of persons so unfitted to be entrusted with it.

She had next to fear the mode of Oldbuck's entering upon the affair with her father, for such, she doubted not, was his intention.

She well knew that the honest gentleman, however vehement in his prejudices, had no great sympathy with those of others, and she had to fear a most unpleasant explosion upon an e'claircissement taking place between them.

It was therefore with great anxiety that she heard her father request a private interview, and observed Oldbuck readily arise and show the way to his library.