'Well, sir,' continued Mannering, 'to make short, he conceived
that, as the property of Singleside lay like a wedge between two
farms of his, and was four or five miles separated from
Ellangowan, something like a sale or exchange or arrangement might
take place, to the mutual convenience of both parties.'

'Well, and Bertram--'

'Why, Bertram replied, that he considered the original settlement
of Mrs. Margaret Bertram as the arrangement most proper in the
circumstances of the family, and that therefore the estate of
Singleside was the property of his sister.'

'The rascal!' said Pleydell, wiping his spectacles. 'He'll steal
my heart as well as my mistress. Et puis?'

'And then Sir Robert retired, after many gracious speeches; but
last week he again took the field in force, with his coach and six
horses, his laced scarlet waistcoat, and best bob-wig--all very
grand, as the good-boy books say.'

'Ay! and what was his overture?'

'Why, he talked with great form of an attachment on the part of
Charles Hazlewood to Miss Bertram.'

'Ay, ay; he respected the little god Cupid when he saw him perched
on the Dun of Singleside. And is poor Lucy to keep house with that
old fool and his wife, who is just the knight himself in