inferior worldly circumstances, was beloved and respected both by
rich and poor, and was slowly but securely laying the foundation
of a moderate fortune, with the general good-will and esteem of
all who knew him.

Glossin, while he repined internally at what he would fain have
called the prejudices and prepossessions of the country, was too
wise to make any open complaint. He was sensible his elevation was
too recent to be immediately forgotten, and the means by which he
had attained it too odious to be soon forgiven. But time, thought
he, diminishes wonder and palliates misconduct. With the
dexterity, therefore, of one who made his fortune by studying the
weak points of human nature, he determined to lie by for
opportunities to make himself useful even to those who most
disliked him; trusting that his own abilities, the disposition of
country gentlemen to get into quarrels, when a lawyer's advice
becomes precious, and a thousand other contingencies, of which,
with patience and address, he doubted not to be able to avail
himself, would soon place him in a more important and respectable
light to his neighbours, and perhaps raise him to the eminence
sometimes attained by a shrewd, worldly, bustling man of business,
when, settled among a generation of country gentlemen, he becomes,
in Burns's language,

The tongue of the trump to them a'.

The attack on Colonel Mannering's house, followed by the accident
of Hazlewood's wound, appeared to Glossin a proper opportunity to
impress upon the country at large the service which could be
rendered by an active magistrate (for he had been in the