"Nor I," said Dr. Campbell, quietly; and in spite of her ladyship's
astonishment, remonstrances, and conjectures, he maintained his resolute
composure.



THE GARDENER.


The gardener who had struck Forester's fancy, was a square, thick,
obstinate-eyed, hard-working, ignorant, elderly man, whose soul was
intent upon his petty daily gains, and whose honesty was of that
"coarse-spun, vulgar sort[6]," which alone can be expected from men of
uncultivated minds. Mr. M'Evoy, for that was the gardener's name, was
both good-natured and selfish; his views and ideas all centered in his
own family; and his affection was accumulated and reserved for two
individuals, his son and his daughter. The son was not so industrious as
the father; he was ambitious of seeing something of the world, and he
consorted with all the young 'prentices in Edinburgh, who would
condescend to forget that he was a country boy, and to remember that he
expected, when his father should die, _to be rich_. Mr. M'Evoy's daughter
was an ugly, cross-looking girl, who spent all the money that she could
either earn or save upon ribands and fine gowns, with which she fancied
she could supply all the defects of her person.

[Footnote 6: Mrs. Barbauld'a Essay on the Inconsistency of Human
Expectations.]

This powerful motive for her economy operated incessantly upon her mind,