Mackenzie, hourly increased. Archibald and his mother, Lady Catherine
Mackenzie, were relations to Mrs. Campbell, and they were now upon a
visit at her house. Lady Catherine, a shrewd woman, fond of precedence,
and fully sensible of the importance that wealth can bestow, had
sedulously inculcated into the mind of her son all the maxims of worldly
wisdom which she had collected in her intercourse with society; she had
inspired him with family pride, but at the same time had taught him to
pay obsequious court to his superiors in rank or fortune: the art of
rising in the world, she knew, did not entirely depend upon virtue or
ability; she was consequently more solicitous about her son's manners
than his morals, and was more anxious that he should form high
connexions, than that he should apply to the severe studies of a
profession. Archibald was nearly what might be expected from his
education, alternately supple to his superiors, and insolent to his
inferiors: to insinuate himself into the favour of young men of rank and
fortune, he affected to admire extravagance; but his secret maxims of
parsimony operated even in the midst of dissipation. Meanness and pride
usually go together. It is not to be supposed that young Forester had
such quick penetration, that he could discover the whole of the artful
Archibald's character in the course of a few days' acquaintance; but he
disliked him for good reasons, because he was a laird, because he had
laughed at his first entree, and because he was learning to dance.



THE SKELETON.


About a week after our hero's arrival at Dr. Campbell's, the doctor was
exhibiting some chemical experiments, with which Henry hoped that his