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mark, a sort of believer) let me into a good deal of his real character. Ah! were I caliph for a day, as honest Abon Hassan wished to be, I would scourge me these jugglers out of the commonwealth with rods of scorpions - They debauch the spirit of the ignorant and credulous with mystical trash as effectually as if they had besotted their brains with gin, and then pick their pockets with the same facility. And now has this strolling blackguard and mountebank put the finishing blow to the ruin of an ancient and honourable family!»

« But how could he impose upon Sir Arthur to any ruinous extent?»>

« Why, I don't know - Sir Arthur is a good honourable man---but, as you may see from his loose ideas concerning the Pikish language, he is by no means very strong in the understanding. His estate is strictly entailed, and he has been always an embarrassed man. This rapparee promised mountains of wealth, and an English company was found to advance large sums of money--I fear on Sir Arthur's guarantee. Some gentlemen-I was ass enough to be one-took small shares in the concern, and Sir Arthur himself made great outlay; we were trained on by specious appearances, and more specious lies, and now, like John Bunyan, we awake, and behold it is a dream.»

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<< I am surprised that you, Mr Oldbuck, should have encouraged Sir Arthur by your example.» Why," said Oldbuck, dropping his large griz

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zled eye-brows, « I am something surprised and ashamed at it myself; it was not the lucre of gain -nobody cares less for money (to be a prudent man) than I do—but I thought I might risk this small sum. It will be expected (though I am sure I cannot see why) that I should give something to any one who will be kind enough to rid me of that slip of womankind, my niece, Mary McIntyre; and perhaps it may be thought I should do something to get that jackanapes, her brother, on in the army. In either case, to treble my venture would have helped me out. And, besides, I had some idea that the Phoenicians had in former times wrought copper in that very spot. That cunning scoundrel, Dousterswivel, found out my blunt side, and brought strange tales (d-n him) of appearances of old shafts, and vestiges of mining operations, conducted in a manner quite different from those of modern times; and I-in short, I was a fool, and there is an end. My loss is not much worth speaking about; but Sir Arthur's engagements are, I understand, very deep, and my heart aches for him, and the poor young lady who must share his distress."

Here the conversation paused, until renewed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XIV.

If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne,
And all this day, an unaccustom'd spirit

Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
Romeo and Juliet.

THE account of Sir Arthur's unhappy adventure had led Oldbuck somewhat aside from his purpose of catechising Lovel concerning the cause of his residence at Fairport. He was now, however, resolved to open the subject. « Miss Wardour was formerly known to you, she tells me, Mr Lovel?"

<< He had had the pleasure,» Lovel answered, « to see her at Mrs Wilmot's, in Yorkshire.»>

«< Indeed! you never mentioned that to me before, and you did not accost her as an old acquaintance.>>

« I—I did not know it was the same lady till we met, and then it was my duty to wait till she recognised me.»

« I am aware of your delicacy; the knight's a punctilious old fool, but I promise you his daugh

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ter is above all nonsensical ceremony and prejudice. And now, since you have found a new set of friends here, may I ask if you intend to leave Fairport as soon as you proposed?»

« What if I should answer your question by another,” replied Lovel, « and ask you what is your opinion of dreams?»

« Of dreams, you foolish lad!-why, what should I think of them but as the deceptions of imagination when Reason drops the reins?—I know no difference betwixt them and the hallucinations of madness-the unguided horses run away with the carriage in both cases, only in the one the coachman is drunk, and in the other he slumbers. What says our Marcus Tully—Si insanorum visis, fides non est habenda, cur credatur somnientium visis, quæ multo etiam perturbatiora sunt, non intelligo.»

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Yes, sir, but Cicero also tells us, that as he who passes the whole day in darting the javelin must sometimes hit the mark, so, amid the crowd of nightly dreams, some may occur consonant to future events. >>

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have hit the mark Lord! Lord! how Well, I will allow

Aye-that is to say, you in your own sage opinion? this world is given to folly! for once the Oneirocritical science--I will give faith to the exposition of dreams, and say a Daniel hath arisen to interpret them, if you can prove to me that that dream of yours has pointed out to a prudent line of conduct.>>

«Tell me then,» answered Lovel, « why, when

I was hesitating whether to abandon an enterprize, which I have perhaps rashly undertaken, I should last night dream I saw your ancestor pointing to a motto which encouraged me to perseverance? — Why should I have thought of those words which I cannot remember to have heard before, which are in a language unknown to me, and which yet conveyed, when translated, a lesson which I could so plainly apply to my own circumstances?»

The Antiquary burst into a fit of laughing. « Excuse me, my young friend, but it is thus we silly mortals deceive ourselves, and look out of doors for motives which originate in our own wilful will. I think I can help out the cause of your vision. You were so abstracted in your contemplations yesterday after dinner, as to pay little attention to the discourse between Sir Arthur and me, until we fell upon the controversy concerning the Piks, which terminated so abruptly; but I remember producing to Sir Arthur a book printed by my ancestor, and making him observe the motto; your mind was bent elsewhere, but your ear had mechanically received and retained the sounds, and your busy fancy, stirred by Grizel's legend, I presume, had introduced this scrap of German into your dream. As for the waking wisdom which seized on so frivolous a circumstance as an apology for persevering in some course which it could find no better reason to justify, it is exactly one of those juggling tricks which the sagest of us play off

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