I am to request you will not use the word 'jilt' and Miss Ashton's name
together," said Bucklaw, gravely.

"Jilt, did I say? Discard, my lad of acres--by Jove, I meant to
discard," replied Craigengelt; "and I hope she'll discard him like
a small card at piquet, and take in the king of hearts, my boy! But
yet----"

"But what?" said his patron.

"But yet I know for certain they are hours together alone, and in the
woods and the fields."

"That's her foolish father's dotage; that will be soon put out of the
lass's head, if it ever gets into it," answered Bucklaw. "And now fill
your glass again, Captain; I am going to make you happy; I am going to
let you into a secret--a plot--a noosing plot--only the noose is but
typical."

"A marrying matter?" said Craigengelt, and his jaw fell as he asked the
question, for he suspected that matrimony would render his situation
at Girnington much more precarious than during the jolly days of his
patron's bachelorhood.

"Ay, a marriage, man," said Bucklaw; "but wherefore droops they might
spirit, and why grow the rubies on they cheek so pale? The board will
have a corner, and the corner will have a trencher, and the trencher
will have a glass beside it; and the board-end shall be filled, and
the trencher and the glass shall be replenished for thee, if all the
petticoats in Lothian had sworn the contrary. What, man! I am not the
boy to put myself into leading-strings."

"So says many an honest fellow," said Craigengelt, "and some of my
special friends; but, curse me if I know the reason, the women could
never bear me, and always contrived to trundle me out of favour before
the honeymoon was over."

"If you could have kept your ground till that was over, you might have
made a good year's pension," said Bucklaw.

"But I never could," answered the dejected parasite. "There was my Lord
Castle-Cuddy--we were hand and glove: I rode his horses, borrowed money
both for him and from him, trained his hawks, and taught him how to lay
his bets; and when he took a fancy of marrying, I married him to Katie
Glegg, whom I thought myself as sure of as man could be of woman. Egad,
she had me out of the house, as if I had run on wheels, within the first
fortnight!"

"Well!" replied Bucklaw, "I think I have nothing of Castle-Cuddy about
me, or Lucy of Katie Glegg. But you see the thing will go on whether you
like it or no; the only question is, will you be useful?"

"Useful!" exclaimed the Capt