you you are mistaken; and it is extremely wrong of you, either to think
of, or to utter, such an idea; I have no idea of permitting freedoms to
be carried so far as to connect my name with that of any young lady."

"Why, there now--there now!" retorted Elliot; "did I not say it was nae
want o' spunk that made ye sae mim?--Weel, weel, I meant nae offence;
but there's just ae thing ye may notice frae a friend. The auld Laird
of Ellieslaw has the auld riding blood far hetter at his heart than ye
hae--troth, he kens naething about thae newfangled notions o' peace and
quietness--he's a' for the auld-warld doings o' lifting and laying on,
and he has a wheen stout lads at his back too, and keeps them weel up in
heart, and as fu' o' mischief as young colts. Where he gets the gear to
do't nane can say; he lives high, and far abune his rents here; however,
he pays his way--Sae, if there's ony out-break in the country, he's
likely to break out wi' the first--and weel does he mind the auld
quarrels between ye, I'm surmizing he'll be for a touch at the auld
tower at Earnscliff."

"Well, Hobbie," answered the young gentleman, "if he should be so ill
advised, I shall try to make the old tower good against him, as it has
been made good by my betters against his betters many a day ago."

"Very right--very right--that's speaking like a man now," said the stout
yeoman; "and, if sae should be that this be sae, if ye'll just gar your
servant jow out the great bell in the tower, there's me, and my twa
brothers, and little Davie of the Stenhouse, will be wi' you, wi' a' the
power we can make, in the snapping of a flint."

"Many thanks, Hobbie," answered Earnscliff; "but I hope we shall have no
war of so unnatural and unchristian a kind in our time."