Their intercourse sometimes consisted in long walks, which they took in company, traversing, however, as limited a space of ground, as if it had been actually roped in for their pedestrian exercise.

Their parade was, according to circumstances, a low haugh at the nether end of the ruinous hamlet, or the esplanade in the front of the old castle; and, in either case, the direct longitude of their promenade never exceeded a hundred yards.

Sometimes, but rarely, the divine took share of Mr.Touchwood's meal, though less splendidly set forth than when he was first invited to partake of it; for, like the owner of the gold cup in Parnell's Hermit, when cured of his ostentation, -- --"Still he welcomed, but with less of cost." On these occasions, the conversation was not of the regular and compacted nature, which passes betwixt men, as they are ordinarily termed, of this world.

On the contrary, the one party was often thinking of Saladin and Coeur de Lion, when the other was haranguing on Hyder Ali and Sir Eyre Coote.

Still, however, the one spoke, and the other seemed to listen; and, perhaps, the lighter intercourse of society, where amusement is the sole object, can scarcely rest on a safer and more secure basis.
It was on one of the evenings when the learned divine had taken his place at Mr.Touchwood's social board, or rather at Mrs.Dods's,--for a cup of excellent tea, the only luxury which Mr.Cargill continued to partake of with some complacence, was the regale before them,--that a card was delivered to the Nabob.
"Mr.and Miss Mowbray see company at Shaws-Castle on the twentieth current, at two o'clock--a _dejeuner_--dresses in character admitted--A dramatic picture." "See company?
the more fools they," he continued by way of comment.